Dual-Index Information Retrieval System for Transparent Search
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional search tools return intransparent results, irritating and mistrusting expert users due to their lack of semantic understanding, as they primarily rely on syntactic queries that do not account for context or semantic relationships within the data corpus.
Innovation Solution
An information retrieval system that combines syntactic and semantic search indices to process both syntactic and semantic queries, allowing for the intersection of results based on syntactic and semantic relevance, and includes features like user feedback for improving search accuracy and transparency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If conventional search tools use only syntactic queries to search the data corpus, then the search process is simple and fast, but the search results are intransparent and lack semantic understanding, causing irritation and mistrust among expert users
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines syntactic search and semantic search into a single integrated search system. The processing unit executes both syntactic queries (for structural matching) and semantic queries (for meaning-based matching) simultaneously, merging their results to provide both simplicity and transparency. This resolves the contradiction by maintaining operational ease while significantly improving result reliability through dual-search methodology.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the search process into two distinct components: syntactic search handling structural/keyword matching and semantic search handling meaning/context understanding. Each component operates independently with its own query processing logic, then results are integrated. This segmentation allows each part to excel at its specific function while the combination provides both simplicity and transparency.
2Productivity
If search results are ranked only by syntactic relevance, then the ranking process is computationally efficient, but expert users with domain knowledge cannot leverage semantic relationships to improve result accuracy
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges syntactic relevance scoring and semantic relevance scoring into a combined ranking mechanism. The processing unit calculates both syntactic matches (for speed) and semantic matches (for precision), then integrates these scores to rank results. This allows the system to maintain computational efficiency through syntactic processing while significantly improving ranking accuracy through semantic understanding.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces semantic annotations as an intermediary layer between the raw data corpus and the search results. These annotations provide domain-specific knowledge and semantic relationships that mediate between simple syntactic matching and complex semantic understanding, enabling accurate ranking without sacrificing processing efficiency.
3Device complexity
If the system implements only syntactic search indexing, then the system complexity is low and implementation is straightforward, but the system cannot provide semantic understanding or context-aware search results
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the indexing system into two parallel structures: a syntactic index for structural/keyword-based search and a semantic index for meaning-based search. Each index is built and maintained independently with its own data structures and processing logic. This segmentation keeps individual components relatively simple while the combination provides comprehensive adaptability and semantic understanding.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a multi-functional search system where the same search interface and processing unit can handle both syntactic queries and semantic queries. The system is designed to be universal, accepting different query types and routing them to appropriate indexing structures, thereby achieving high adaptability without proportionally increasing overall system complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
In order to facilitate a search and identification of documents, an information retrieval system is provided for performing a search on a corpus of data objects. The information retrieval system comprises a device and a database. The database is configured to store at least one syntactic search index data structure and at least one semantic search index data structure. The syntactic search index data structure is configured to index and store in the database a plurality of terms from the corpus of data objects along with syntactic annotations indicating syntactic information. The at least one semantic search index data structure is configured to index and store in the database the plurality of terms from the corpus of data objects along with semantic annotations indicating semantic information. The device comprises an input unit, a processing unit, and an output unit. The input unit is configured to receive a syntactic query and a semantic query. The processing unit is configured to match the syntactic query against the syntactic search index data structure to obtain a first set of data objects, each of which has a set of terms that are syntactically related to the syntactic query. The processing is configured to match the semantic query against The at least one semantic search index data structure to obtain second set of the data objects, each of which has a set of terms that are semantically related to the semantic query, wherein the second set of data objects is a sub-set of the first set of the data objects. The output unit is configured to output information of the second set of data objects.