Patent ID: 6928428

Claim:
A method supporting distributed querying by a first computer of information residing on a second computer, the method comprising: constructing a data set on the second computer to encapsulate querying the information residing on the second computer with queries utilizing a set of query input terms, the data set encoding an answer for each of a plurality of combinations of query input term values, wherein said constructing the data set on the second computer comprises: calculating a query hash value as a one-way hashing function of the set of query input terms for each of a plurality of unique combinations of query input term values in the information residing on the second computer; for each of the plurality of unique combinations of query input term values, also calculating an answer value as a function of a set of terms in the information residing on the second computer and a logical rule; and forming the data set as a plurality of pairs of the query hash value and the answer value for respective of the unique combinations of query input term values; transmitting the data set from the second computer to the first computer; and evaluating a query having values for the set of query input terms on the first computer using the data set to yield the query's answer.