Patent ID: 7899809

Claim:
Multimodal method for querying a multimedia database from a telecommunication terminal, wherein the database is queried using an iterative step in which, at the current iteration, a portion, retrieved from the database and which is a subset of the portion retrieved at the previous iteration, is determined using an ordered set of query criteria worked out at the previous iteration if the current iteration is subsequent to the first iteration and at a previous initialization step if the current iteration is the first iteration, and using a criteria vector comprising characteristic values of a predetermined set of query criteria for the portion retrieved from the database, the said criteria vector being initialized at the initialization step if the current iteration is the first iteration, and determined during the previous iteration if the current iteration is subsequent to the first iteration; wherein said ordered set of query criteria being selected from the components of the criteria vector and being determined so as to reduce the number of responses supplied at successive iterations respectively, and wherein the components of the criteria vector have the following structure: (Priority; Lif; Usable; Alw_Usable; Hv; N_app) where: “Priority” is an integer that determines the order of priority for proposing the criterion; “Lif” is a list of identifiers of fields of the database forming the query criterion; “Usable” is a Boolean number that determines, during the iterations, whether the criterion can still be used; “Alw_Usable” is a Boolean number that determines whether the criterion can always used, at each iteration, if it is desired that a criterion remains usable all the time; “Hv” is a hash table in which each unique value of the criterion from the records is associated with the number of occurrences of this value; and “N_app” is the total number of appearances of values of the criterion appearing several times in the portion retrieved from the database.