Patent ID: 8407208

Claim:
A method for finding a best match for an incoming query (IQ) entered in the form of natural language sentences, with stored and indexed answer items, said method comprising: maintaining a language storehouse of weighted words for any specific natural language and compiling a private storehouse of weighted words for a search index related to a specific field of knowledge; receiving said query; applying a pre-processing procedure for at least assigning a private storehouse of weighted words to an IQ; fragmenting said IQ and forming a list natural language words (NWLs); submitting each one of said NLWs to a contesting routine, wherein said contesting routine assigns a significance level score to each NLW based upon reference to both said private storehouse of weighted words and to said language storehouse of weighted words; reordering said NLWs in an ordered query word succession (OQWS) according to their respective significance level score; submitting said word succession to a procedure for finding a best match with stored indexed answers, said procedure comprising: conducting a search for at least one word in said OQWS, starting with the NLW having a highest score, beginning by associating each of the at least one word with an equivalent word in the private storehouse of weighted words, wherein said equivalent word points at a list of reference keywords, each such reference keyword pointing at a stored indexed answer, accumulating indexed answer items (IAIs) of potential match with said OQWS; calculating a match level score (MLS) in two steps, first calculating two types of similar word scores (SWSs) one type of which is a SWS resulting from a comparison between each of said elected IAIs and the IQ, and the second type of which is achieved by computing said elected IAIs with respect to their own components and by computing said OQWS with respect to its own components, respectively and then, in the second step, combining the difference between the SWS of the first type and of the second type, the combination being addressed as Match Level Score (MLS) selecting the lower MLS obtained to match an indexed answer to an IQ; and ordering words of said IQ in a sequence reflecting the significance level score of each word of said query, wherein said significance level score was obtained by contesting said each word of said Query with a list of ordered words, each having a significance level relating to their respective usage frequency; forming a list of stored candidates of answers to said IQ, based upon a minimal number of common significant words, and selecting out of said list a matching answer based at least partially on the accumulated score resulting from the summation of significance level score of the significant words as compared with the equivalent of said stored candidates.