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US006768990B2
(12) United States Patent ao) Patent No.: us 6,768,990 B2
Wakai et al. (45) Date of Patent: Jul. 27,2004
(54) INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS AND METHOD USING A CONCEPTUAL DATABASE
(75) Inventors: Masanori Wakai, Kanagawa (JP);
Satomi Kayano, Kanagawa (JP);
Suresh Jeyachandran, Kanagawa (JP)
(73) Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo (JP)
( * ) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term ol this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 225 days.
(21) Appl. No.: 09/912,336
(22) Filed: Jul. 26, 2001
(65) Prior Publication Data
US 2002/0059249 Al May 16, 2002 (30) Foreign Application Priority Data
Jul. 31, 2000 (JP) 2000-231325
(51) Int. CI.7 G06F 17/30
(52) U.S. CI 707/3; 707/4; 707/5; 707/10;
707/100
(58) Field of Search 707/3, 4, 5, 100,
707/10
(56) References Cited
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
5,123,103 A * 6/1992 Ohtaki et al 707/5
In an information processing apparatus, a SurlaceRule table having surface-layer information, a ConceptRule table having conceptual information, a connection table for correlating the two tables, and a retrieval table storing an ID ol a connection table corresponding to a character string are provided in a conceptual database. A conceptual instance corresponding to an input character string is formed by retrieving a retrieval table using the input character string, relerring to a connection table using an obtained ID ol the connection table, and acquiring information, such as a concept, a part ol speech, a tense, a slot and the like, from fields ol corresponding SurlaceRule table and ConceptRule table.
57 Claims, 42 Drawing Sheets
