Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
1998-04-09
2001-01-09
Amsbury, Wayne (Department: 2771)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06173279
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The invention relates to a method for using a natural language query for retrieving information from one or more data resources and, more particularly, a method for using a natural language query for automatically retrieving and configuring a destination telephone number from existing data resources and using the destination telephone number to place a telephone call.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Files or other resources on computers around the world may be publicly available to users of other computers through the collection of networks known as the Internet. The collection of all such publicly available resources, linked together using files written in Hypertext Mark-up Language (“HTML”) is known as the World Wide Web (“web”).
A user of a computer that is connected to the Internet may cause a program known as a client to request resources that are part of the web. Server programs then process the requests to return the specified resources. A standard naming convention has been adopted, known as a Uniform Resource Locator (“URL”). This convention encompasses several types of location names, presently including subclasses such as Hypertext Transport Protocol (“http”), File Transport Protocol (“ftp”), gopher and Wide Area Information Service (“WAIS”).
The various resources accessible via the web are created and maintained by many different people on servers located all around the world, and may be created for many different purposes. Many individuals and businesses now have their own web sites that can be visited by people “surfing” the web. These web sites typically provide information on a myriad of subjects such as sports, business, news and even community events. For example, many web sites exist which provide useful information about a particular business establishment such as office locations, customer service telephone numbers and information about the products and/or services that the business offers to the consumer.
In many cases, an individual accessing such a web site is looking for particular information such as information about a particular product. However, the individual might desire additional information about the particular product, which is not available from the web site. Typically, the individual will place a telephone call to the customer service department of the business entity to obtain the additional information. For example, the individual may want to know if an electronics store carries a particular product, such as a particular brand name television and the price of the television. Such information may not be contained in the web site and the individual may have to call the electronics store to receive the desired information. This multiple step process of searching and retrieving information from the Internet and then using a conventional phone line to call the business establishment for still more information or conducting business is cumbersome and time consuming.
In other cases, the individual may generally know the location of a particular establishment, but may not know the exact address or the name of the establishment. For example, an individual may know that there is an electronics store in their town on Route 4, but may not know the name of the electronics store. The individual may access a web site that contains information about the particular town to try to identify the exact name and location of the electronics store. Conventional searching techniques require a hierarchical step by step query approach to locate the desired information. For example, the individual may enter the address of the store, if known, or the type of store to get a listing of relevant information. However, such searching may require many steps and, in many instances, the available search queries may not be compatible with the known information. As such, the searching many require additional unnecessary search queries in order to obtain the desired information.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the present invention, a method of using at least one natural language query to retrieve information from one or more data resources and further performing a requested action using the retrieved information is disclosed. At least one natural language query directed to retrieving particular information is received. At least one object from the natural language query is extracted. The relationship between each of the at least one extracted objects is determined. A semantic representation is created from the at least one extracted objects. A database query is generated based on the semantic representation using a pre-defined knowledge structure. The query is applied to one or more of the data resources and information is retrieved. The requested action is then performed using the retrieved information.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the information retrieved is a telephone number for a particular destination and the requested action is the placement of a telephone call using the retrieved telephone number.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the requested information is retrieved by querying multiple data resources in which each data resource contains a different type of information. Objects are extracted from the natural language query which correspond to different types of information. Each information type is associated with a particular data resource. A query is generated for each object and applied to the corresponding data resource. The retrieved information may be integrated into a query to a different data resource to retrieve additional information. The retrieved information may be used to perform a requested action such as the placement of a telephone call.
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Levin Esther
Narayanan Shrikanth Sambasivan
Pieraccini Roberto
Zeljkovic Ilija
Amsbury Wayne
AT&T Corp.
Trinh William
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