Methods and apparatus for flexible indexing of text for use in similarity searches
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsCharu C. Aggarwal, Philip Shi-Lung Yu
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Abstract
A method of performing a flexible similarity search is provided. In one embodiment, the method comprises the steps of: (i) constructing an indexed representation of one or more documents to be used in the similarity search; (ii) specifying a target document and a similarity function to be used for the search of the one or more documents for which the indexed representation is constructed; and (iii) finding a document among the one or more documents for which the indexed representation is constructed which is similar to the target document, based on the specified similarity function. Thus, the invention creates a universal index for text similarity searches so that a user can specify a function at the time of query.
Claims45
A method of performing a flexible similarity search, the method comprising the steps of:
- constructing an indexed representation of one or more documents to be used in the similarity search;
- specifying, by a user, a target document and a similarity function to be used for the search of the one or more documents for which the indexed representation is constructed;
- and
- finding a document among the one or more documents for which the indexed representation is constructed which is similar to the target document, based on the specified similarity function.
Apparatus for performing a flexible similarity search, the apparatus comprising:
- at least one processor operative to:
- (i) construct an indexed representation of one or more documents to be used in the similarity search;
- (ii) finding a document among the one or more documents for which the indexed representation is constructed which is similar to a user specified target document, based on a user specified similarity function;
- and
- memory, coupled to the at least one processor, for storing the indexed representation.
An article of manufacture for performing a flexible similarity search, comprising a machine readable medium containing one or more programs which when executed implement the steps of:
- constructing an indexed representation of one or more documents to be used in the similarity search;
- and
- finding a document among the one or more documents for which the indexed representation is constructed which is similar to a user specified target document, based on a user specified similarity function.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.