Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
1997-12-29
2001-10-02
Black, Thomas (Department: 2171)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06298343
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to methods for analyzing, categorizing, and searching information and the processing thereof, and, more particularly, relates to methods for analyzing and identifying a search inquiry in free format and in any language and retrieving information pertinent thereto.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the information society of today, a large amount of information is received and processed either on a human level or at a computer level. At the computer level, information of all types comes in various different formats and presentations which always requires certain amount of interpretation by the human reader before it is understood by the same. This is a relatively intuitive process at the human level. However, in providing information to a computer device, the information has to be a certain type and has to be provided in a certain format before it can be properly recognized and categorized by the computer device along with its software applications. Otherwise, the information will be refused by the corresponding software application. For example, in conducting a search for certain information content from an information source such as the internet or a database, information is generally searched and found by the matching of one or more keywords in a designated language where each and every reference containing the given keywords are retrieved and provided to the user. This approach is a brute force approach where the search is conducted by the simple matching of keywords with references without any additional preprocessing. Optionally, given keywords can be accompanied by flags indicating the type of keywords and the search scope. Here, a particular type of information in a specific format is provided to the computer device to limit the search scope. Thus, in one case, a search inquiry in a particular language is provided in a free format where references are retrieved indiscriminately. In the second case, a search inquiry in a particular language is provided in a specific (and required) format to narrow the search results. In either case, there is no intelligent analysis of the search inquiry by the computer device and the user is required to provide an intelligent search inquiry in a designated language and format.
It would be desirable to allow the user to input a search inquiry unrestricted as to format as well as language where the search inquiry is processed in an intelligent manner to facilitate the searching and retrieving of information most likely to be desired by the user.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method for analyzing and categorizing a search inquiry prior to the searching and retrieving of information pertinent to the search inquiry.
It is another object of the present invention to first categorize a search inquiry in a general category based upon the code representing the search inquiry.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a feature table corresponding to the categorized general category where said feature table has entries representative of the features and characteristics of said category and each entry has a corresponding address pointing to a position in a corresponding search table.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a search table corresponding to the classified general category and search said search table to retrieve information pertinent to said search inquiry.
Briefly, a presently preferred embodiment of the present invention provides a search method where a search inquiry in any language and any format is first categorized into a category or a subcategory, based upon the code representing the characters of the search inquiry. A feature table and a search table corresponding to said category or subcategory is searched to find database entries pertinent to said search inquiry. The search inquiry may be used on a wide variety of platforms and applications including searching on the internet.
An advantage of the present invention is that it provides a method for analyzing and categorizing a search inquiry prior to searching and retrieving of information pertinent to the search inquiry.
Another advantage of the present invention is that it first categorizes a search inquiry in a general category based upon the code representing the search inquiry.
Yet another advantage of the present invention is that it provides a search table corresponding to the classified general category and searching said search table to retrieve information pertinent to said search inquiry.
These and other features and advantages of the present invention will be understood upon examining the figures and reading the following detailed description of preferred embodiment of the invention.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5388196 (1995-02-01), Pajak et al.
patent: 5634051 (1997-05-01), Thomson
patent: 5878423 (1999-03-01), Anderson et al.
Chang Jackson C. S.
Ho David D. S.
Xia Leslie L. M.
Black Thomas
Chou Chien-Wei (Chris)
Diepenbrock, I Anthony B.
Inventec C'orporation
Mills John G.
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