DARPA Unfamiliar Metadata Project

Research Summary

Objective

• The objective of this project is to link ordinary language queries to unfamiliar indexes and classifications.

What's the problem

• Databases quite often use idiosyncratic classifications and unfamiliar terminology in their indexes.
• However, database users are often unfamiliar with terminologies and classification schemes of a database.
• Therefore, database users sometimes experience difficulty choosing search terms that are actually used to index the database.

What we are trying to do

• In this project, "Entry Vocabulary Modules" are built to respond adaptively to a searcher's query posed in ordinary language. This is accomplished by responding to the ordinary language query with a ranked list of terms that may more accurately represent what is sought as it is represented in the database of interest than the searcher's choice of terms.
• The aim of "Entry Vocabulary Modules" is to facilitate a more direct connection between ordinary language queries and unfamiliar indexing terms actually used to organize information in a variety of unfamiliar databases.