Patent ID: 7269545
Filing Date: 2007-09-11
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A method for retrieving answers to questions from an information retrieval system, the method comprising: classifying questions, based on a question phrase of the question, into a plurality of question types; generating candidate query transformations for each question type to substitute for the question phase as a search term, from a collection of question phrase-answer pairs, where the candidate query transformation for a question type is automatically derived from the answers associated with the question phases in the question phrase-answer pairs which match the question type; evaluating performance of the generated candidate query transformations by executing the information retrieval system using queries formulated by applying the candidate query transformations, and generating result subdocuments from each result from the information retrieval system, calculating a score for each result using a weighted algorithm to correlate the result subdocuments with the answers, and updating all scores based on a similarity of the results with the answers in the question phrase-answer pairs; and selecting for the information retrieval system one or more candidate query transformations for each question type based on the evaluation of the performance of the candidate query transformations.