Managing inferred questions

A system for generating a set of inferred questions for a question answering system, the system comprising:

• a collecting module configured to collect, using a set of sensors, context data including environment data and biometric data for a user;
• an establishing module configured to establish, by analyzing the context data, a user state;
• an extracting module configured to extract characterization information for an object satisfying an attention criteria, wherein the characterization information is configured to include sensory data;
• a determining module configured to determine a relationship between the object and the user state based on the characterization information for the object and a subset of the context data;
• and
• a generating module configured to generate, based on the relationship between the object and the user state, a set of inferred questions for a question answering system.

A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having a computer readable program stored therein, wherein the computer readable program, when executed on a first computing device, causes the first computing device to:

• collect, using a set of sensors, context data including environment data and biometric data for a user;
• establish, by analyzing the context data, a user state;
• extract characterization information for an object satisfying an attention criteria, wherein the characterization information is configured to include sensory data;
• determine a relationship between the object and the user state based on the characterization information for the object and a subset of the context data;
• identify, using a natural language processing technique configured to analyze metadata for both the sensory data and the context data, a query subject based on the characterization information of the physical object;
• derive, using an ontology database of structured affiliations, a set of subject modifiers for the query subject;
• and
• formulate a set of inferred questions using the context data, the query subject and the set of subject modifiers for the query subject.