Using question answering (qa) systems to identify answers and evidence of different medium types

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016110415-A1
Application number	US-201414515587-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Oct 16, 2014
Priority date	Oct 16, 2014
Publication date	Apr 21, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

First, a computer may receive an input query of a first medium type. The input query may then be analyzed. Based on the analysis, the input query may be categorized as being associated with at least a second medium type. A first-medium-type search of a set of corpora may then be performed. Based on the results of the first-medium-type search, a candidate answer of the first medium type may be generated. In response to the categorizing, a second-medium-type search of the set of corpora may also be performed.

First claim

1 - 16 . (canceled)

17 . A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a computer to cause the computer to:
receive an input query of a first medium type; analyze the input query; categorize, based on the analyzing, the input query as being associated with at least a second medium type; perform a first-medium-type search of a set of corpora; and perform, in response to the categorizing, a second-medium-type search of the set of corpora.

18 . The computer program product of claim 17 , wherein the program instructions are executable by the computer to further cause the computer to:
generate, as a result of the first-medium-type search, a candidate answer of the first medium type; calculate a confidence score for the candidate answer; and determine that the confidence score is below a threshold confidence score, wherein the performing the second-medium-type search occurs in response to both the determining and the categorizing.

19 . A system comprising one or more circuits configured to perform a method comprising:
receiving an input query of a first medium type; analyzing the input query; categorizing, based on the analyzing, the input query as being associated with at least a second medium type; performing a first-medium-type search of a set of corpora; and performing, in response to the categorizing, a second-medium-type search of the set of corpora.

20 . The system of claim 19 , wherein the one or more circuits are further configured to perform the method comprising:
generating, as a result of the first-medium-type search, a candidate answer of the first medium type; calculating a confidence score for the candidate answer; and determining that the confidence score is below a threshold confidence score, wherein the performing the second-medium-type search occurs in response to both the determining and the categorizing.

21 . The system of claim 19 , wherein the input query is created by a user, and wherein the one or more circuits are further configured to perform the method comprising:
generating, as a result of the second-medium-type search, a candidate answer; and presenting the candidate answer to the user.

22 . The system of claim 21 , wherein the candidate answer is of the first medium type.

23 . The system of claim 21 , wherein the candidate answer is of the second medium type.

24 . The system of claim 21 , wherein the first medium type is a textual type, and wherein the second medium type is one of the group consisting of an image type, an audio type, and a video type.

25 . The system of claim 24 , wherein the set of corpora includes a set of source items of the second medium type, and wherein the performing the second-medium-type search comprises:
extracting data from the set of source items; and processing the extracted data.

26 . The system of claim 25 , wherein the extracted data includes non-textual extracted data.

27 . The system of claim 26 , wherein the extracted data includes textual extracted data.

28 . The system of claim 19 , wherein the set of corpora includes a first corpus and a second corpus, wherein the performing the first-medium-type search is a search of the first corpus, and wherein the performing the second-medium-type search is a search of the second corpus.

29 . The system of claim 19 , wherein the one or more circuits are further configured to perform the method comprising:
generating, as a result of the first-medium-type search, a candidate answer of the first medium type; analyzing the candidate answer based a plurality of factors; and determining, based on the analyzing the candidate answer, that the candidate answer is unacceptable, wherein the performing the second-medium-type search occurs in response to both the determining and the categorizing.

30 . The system of claim 29 , wherein the plurality of factors include at least one of the group consisting of a level of confidence in the accuracy of the candidate answer and a cost of the performing the second-medium-type search.

31 . The system of claim 19 , wherein the at least the second medium type includes the second medium type and a third medium type, and wherein the one or more circuits are further configured to perform the method comprising:
performing a third-medium-type search of the set of corpora.

32 . The system of claim 19 , wherein the categorizing the input query as being associated with at least a second medium type occurs in response to determining that at least a portion of the input query represents a concept encompassed within an ontology of the second medium type.

33 . The system of claim 19 , wherein the first medium type is a textual type, and wherein the analyzing the input query includes:
parsing, by a natural language processing technique configured to analyze syntactic and semantic content, the input query.

34 . The system of claim 19 , wherein the first medium type is a textual type, wherein the second medium type is an image type, wherein the set of corpora include a textual source item and further include an image-type source item, wherein the performing the first-medium-type search includes extracting a first textual data from the textual source item and further includes processing the extracted first textual data, wherein the performing the second-medium-type search includes extracting second textual data from the image-type source item and further includes processing the extracted second textual data, and wherein the one or more circuits are further configured to perform the method comprising:
generating, based on the processing the extracted first textual data, a textual candidate answer;
calculating a confidence score for the textual candidate answer;
determining that the confidence score is below a threshold confidence score, wherein the performing the second-medium-type search occurs in response to both the determining and the categorizing;
generating, based on the processing the extracted second textual data, an image-type candidate answer including the image-type source item; and
presenting the image-type candidate answer to the user.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Clark Adam T
• Huebert Jeffrey K
• Payton Aspen L
• Petri John E

Classifications

• G06F17/30451 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/3053

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F16/332 Primary

  Query formulation · CPC title

• G06F16/24535 Primary

  of sub-queries or views · CPC title