US 8,301,633 B2 · System and method for semantic search

Abstract

Systems and methods for semantic search are provided. A corpus of information grouped into passages are indexed by semantic key terms generated from packed knowledge representations that document the semantic relationships of information within those passages. When a search is conducted, a query is similarly transformed into a packed knowledge representation that documents the semantic relationships from which semantic key terms are also generated. An inverted index relating the semantic key terms associated to the passages is searched using the semantic key terms generated from the query. A set of candidate passages is selected and refined by analysis of the semantic key terms and other information. The semantic representations associated with the set of candidate passages are then matched to the semantic representation of the query to determine a search result set.

Claims13

Dependent claims

A method for information search, comprising the steps of:

generating one or more semantic index key terms each including at least one semantic index token representing a semantic relationship, comprising:
selecting a word and at least one further word that is linguistically related to the word from one or more references to information passages;
determining information regarding use of the word and the further word within at least one of the references comprising one or more of a part of speech and a grammatical role of the word or the further word;
and
concatenating each of the word and the further word with the respective information into a single string as the semantic index key terms;
associating each of the semantic index key terms with the at least one reference;
and
generating an inverted index comprising the semantic index key terms indexed against the at least one reference to each associated information passage, wherein the steps are performed on a suitably programmed computer.

5 more elements

A computer-readable media including program instructions for performing a method, comprising the steps of:

obtaining a search query;
generating one or more semantic query key terms each including at least one semantic query token representing a semantic relationship derived from the search query, comprising:
selecting a word and at least one further word that is linguistically related to the word from the search query;
determining information regarding use of the word and the further word within the search query comprising one or more of a part of speech and a grammatical role;
and
concatenating each of the word and the further word with the respective information into a single string as the semantic index key terms;
accessing an inverted index comprising at least one semantic index key term indexed against at least one of the references;
querying the inverted index with the semantic query key term;
and
receiving a set of references to information passages associated with the semantic query key term that corresponds to the semantic index key term indexed by the inverted index, wherein the steps are performed by a central processing unit.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

System and method for semantic search

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System and method for semantic search

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Abstract

Claims13