Distinguo
Encyclopedia
Distinguo is a proprietary software application for Semantic search
based on description logic
that enables users to search for meaning instead of just keywords. This API permits developers to integrate into their applications a tool to parse natural language
(generating an XML summary), and then measure the semantic "distance" between a query and a target text. Guha et al. distinguish two major forms of search: Navigational and Research. In navigational search, the user is using the search engine as a navigation tool to navigate to a particular intended document. Semantic Search is not directly applicable to navigational searches. In Research Search, the user enters a phrase which is intended to denote the object of the research. The user will not know in advance which particular documents will contain the information; the task is to locate any number of documents which together will produce the sought information.
Application Programming Interface (API), in two different applications:
Distinguo Index: a tool for expanding search keywords to include inflected forms, synonyms, hypernyms, hyponyms, and other words related by meaning.
Distinguo Context: a tool for analyzing the meaning of full sentences or even of full texts; it can then match this text with other texts containing the same or similar ideas.
They are delivered for integration into other solutions. Distinguo tools are supplied as C++ libraries, and can be integrated into software solutions for its own features, or to supplement or refine statistical search methods.
The result of the syntactic analysis, as well as the format of the ontologies, is represented in XML
. The calculation of semantic similarities may be in the form of a numerical coefficient, or an ontology showing the information present in the first ontology and missing in the second. The format of the texts and of the XML is a string of characters in the programming language 'C'.
and is in constant further research and development. Other uses could be integrated into electronic dictionary or phrasebook applications.
Semantic search
Semantic search seeks to improve search accuracy by understanding searcher intent and the contextual meaning of terms as they appear in the searchable dataspace, whether on the Web or within a closed system, to generate more relevant results. Author Seth Grimes lists "11 approaches that join...
based on description logic
Description logic
Description logic is a family of formal knowledge representation languages. It is more expressive than propositional logic but has more efficient decision problems than first-order predicate logic....
that enables users to search for meaning instead of just keywords. This API permits developers to integrate into their applications a tool to parse natural language
Natural language
In the philosophy of language, a natural language is any language which arises in an unpremeditated fashion as the result of the innate facility for language possessed by the human intellect. A natural language is typically used for communication, and may be spoken, signed, or written...
(generating an XML summary), and then measure the semantic "distance" between a query and a target text. Guha et al. distinguish two major forms of search: Navigational and Research. In navigational search, the user is using the search engine as a navigation tool to navigate to a particular intended document. Semantic Search is not directly applicable to navigational searches. In Research Search, the user enters a phrase which is intended to denote the object of the research. The user will not know in advance which particular documents will contain the information; the task is to locate any number of documents which together will produce the sought information.
Features
The program is not available as a stand-alone or consumer application; it is a powerful software component for inclusion in other text analysis solutions such as any project requiring the comparison of meanings or the measurement of the difference between words and longer texts. Users can compare a simple query to a large database of texts, locating texts containing similar meanings and ranking them according to their similarity.Uses
In addition to measuring the similarity between words, sentences, or texts written in natural language, semantic searching can also distill the meanings of a set of texts and then provide comparative information about those meanings. Users enter a word or phrase which represents a subject for which similar related information is required. Possible typical applications would be for comparing reports, minutes of meetings, insurance claims, medical histories, research papers, and legal decisions from many court cases.Versions
Distinguo is a C++C++
C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...
Application Programming Interface (API), in two different applications:
Distinguo Index: a tool for expanding search keywords to include inflected forms, synonyms, hypernyms, hyponyms, and other words related by meaning.
Distinguo Context: a tool for analyzing the meaning of full sentences or even of full texts; it can then match this text with other texts containing the same or similar ideas.
They are delivered for integration into other solutions. Distinguo tools are supplied as C++ libraries, and can be integrated into software solutions for its own features, or to supplement or refine statistical search methods.
The result of the syntactic analysis, as well as the format of the ontologies, is represented in XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
. The calculation of semantic similarities may be in the form of a numerical coefficient, or an ontology showing the information present in the first ontology and missing in the second. The format of the texts and of the XML is a string of characters in the programming language 'C'.
Development
Distinguo Index and Distinguo Context are based on algorithms for the parsing of language and the matching and ranking semantic results developed by Semantica Software of Luxembourg in association with UltralinguaUltralingua
Ultralingua is a single-click and drag-and-drop multilingual translation dictionary, thesaurus, and language reference utility. The full suite of Ultralingua language tools is available free online without the need for download and installation....
and is in constant further research and development. Other uses could be integrated into electronic dictionary or phrasebook applications.
See also
- Semantic webSemantic WebThe Semantic Web is a collaborative movement led by the World Wide Web Consortium that promotes common formats for data on the World Wide Web. By encouraging the inclusion of semantic content in web pages, the Semantic Web aims at converting the current web of unstructured documents into a "web of...
- Resource Description FrameworkResource Description FrameworkThe Resource Description Framework is a family of World Wide Web Consortium specifications originally designed as a metadata data model...
- Natural language search engine
- Natural Language ProcessingNatural language processingNatural language processing is a field of computer science and linguistics concerned with the interactions between computers and human languages; it began as a branch of artificial intelligence....
- LinguaStreamLinguaStreamLinguaStream is a generic platform for Natural Language Processing , based on incremental enrichment of electronic documents. LinguaStream is developed at the computer science research group since 2001...
an integrated experimentation environment for computational linguistics
External links
Further reading
- F. Baader, et al.: The Description Logic Handbook: Theory, Implementation, Applications. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2003. ISBN 0-521-78176-0
- Introduction to Description Logics DL course by Enrico Franconi, Faculty of Computer Science, Free University of Bolzano, Italy
- Description Logics- The Marriage of Logic and Objects