Patent ID: 8983977
Filing Date: 2015-03-17
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A question-answering device comprising: a question-answer pair storing unit that stores a plurality of question-answer pairs composed of reference queries and their answers; an analysis result storing unit that stores groups of a style representing the type of a question of each reference query of said reference queries and a topic representing an object of a question of each reference query; an input unit that receives a query; an analysis pattern storing unit that stores a rule used to decide groups of a style and a topic of the query received in the input unit; an analysis unit that obtains the style and the topic from the query by analyzing the query received in the input unit on a basis of the rule stored in the analysis pattern storing unit, and decides the groups of the style and the topic of the query; a calculation unit that determines a matching degree between each group of the style and the topic of each reference query stored in the analysis result storing unit and each group of the style and the topic of the query received in the input unit decided by the analysis unit, and calculates a search score based on the matching degree and information about a frequency of appearance of a keyword in the query received in the input unit in each reference query and each reference query's answer; and a narrowing unit that narrows search results of the query received in the input unit from the plurality of question-answer pairs stored in the question-answer pair storing unit into only question-answer pairs, of which the question contents match the query received in the input unit, on a basis of the search score calculated by the calculation unit, wherein the calculation unit calculates the search score by an operation including multiplying the matching degree by information about the frequency of appearance of the key word in the query received in the input unit in each reference query and each reference query's answer.