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AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsAlan Ronald Bays, Laura Myers Haas, Hans Werner Horn, Julia Elizabeth Rice, Peter Martin Schwarz, William Clarence Swope
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A method and apparatus for capturing annotations about database material in a way that allows queries with conditions or predicates on both the database material and the annotations. Database material may be text, computer programs, graphics, audio, spreadsheets, or any other material which may be stored and indexed. Database material may be in one or multiple sources, and annotations may be stored together with the original material or in a separate store. Annotations can be used to capture information such as additional facts about the database material, the opinions and judgments of experts about the database material, and/or links to other related material. Annotations may be captured in a structured form to enhance queryability and semantic interpretation.
A computer program product implemented on a computer, for managing information containing data, comprising:
The computer program product according to claim 10, wherein the annotations are inputted by selecting the data item to be annotated and entering the annotation content corresponding to the annotation structure.
A computer program product implemented on a computer, for managing information containing data, comprising:
A computer program product implemented on a computer, for managing information containing data, comprising:
A computer program product implemented on a computer, for managing information containing data, comprising:
A computer program product implemented on a computer, for managing information containing data, comprising:
The computer program product according to claim 43, further including a data integration engine for selecting a plurality of annotatable data items originating from at least two sources.
A computer program product implemented on a computer, for managing information containing data, comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
The present invention relates to the field of data entry and retrieval. Specifically, the present invention relates to a method and system having the capability to organize an annotation structure and to query both data and annotations in computer systems. More particularly, the present invention enables the annotation of stored information, and permits the capture, sharing, and querying of data and annotations.
Successful planning and decision making in many technical and other industries depends on the expeditious and correct interpretation of complex information. For example, in the drug industry the data may have origins as diverse as high throughput screening experiments, clinical trials, patent information and research journals. In the petroleum industry the data may span seismic measurements, aerial surveys, laboratory data and economic forecasts. A system capable of providing unified access to disparate data sources and applications reduces the time spent finding, accessing, preparing, transforming and reformatting data, and allows professionals to focus on the interpretation and extraction of knowledge for planning and decision making.
However, one complication with providing this type of unified access is that the data inevitably spans several disciplines, with an attendant probability of misinterpretation. Extensive knowledge of multiple domains is required if misuse is to be avoided.
The various features of the present invention and the manner of attaining them will be described in greater detail with reference to the following description, claims, and drawings, wherein reference numerals are reused, where appropriate, to indicate a correspondence between the referenced items.
FIG. 1 is a high level architecture of an information management system according to the present invention.
FIG. 1A is a diagram of an exemplary embodiment of the information management system of FIG. 1;
FIG. 1 illustrates a system 1 that might be utilized to practice the teachings of the present invention. The system 1 includes a plurality of computers or processors 2, 3, 4. While for purposes of illustration the computers 2, 3, 4 are described as possessing specialized functions, it should be clear that any one, or a combination of the computers 2, 3, 4 can be used to generate the annotations, and to search the data and annotations sources (e.g. databases) as described herein.
As further illustrated in FIG. 1A, computer 2 hosts an information management system 10 of the present invention, and includes, or is connected to one or multiple databases 14, 16 to be searched. Computer 2 is interconnected to computer 3 via an annotation input link 5 for allowing annotations to be inputted from computer 3 to computer 2. The annotation input can be from a user of, for example, a graphical user interface (GUI) application, or from a software application, running for example on computer 3. One or more input devices 7 can be used to provide information to computer 3. These input devices may include, but are not limited to, keyboard devices, pointing devices, monitors, scanners, modems, inputs from other systems, microphones and voice recognition applications, and like devices.
Computer 2 is interconnected to computer 4 via an annotation output link 8 for allowing annotations to be outputted from computer 2 to computer 4. The annotations and/or other data can be retrieved on the request of a user of, for example, a GUI application, or on the request of a software application running for example on computer 4. The annotations and/or other data that are retrieved from the system 1 may be utilized of displayed by means of one or more of output devices 9. These output devices 9 may include, but are not limited to, monitors, printers, modems, outputs to other systems, speakers and audio synthesizers, robots, storage systems, and like devices.
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Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting: annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor: of unstructured textual data
Details of database functions independent of the retrieved data types: retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from…
Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually: using metadata automatically…
Term ended 13 Jun 2021 (estimated)