Associative search method with navigation for heterogeneous databases ...

United States Patent [w]

Palmon et al.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIH

US005819264A [ii] Patent Number: [45] Date of Patent:

5,819,264 *Oct. 6, 1998

[54] ASSOCIATIVE SEARCH METHOD WITH NAVIGATION FOR HETEROGENEOUS DATABASES INCLUDING AN INTEGRATION MECHANISM CONFIGURED TO COMBINE SCHEMA-FREE DATA MODELS SUCH AS A HYPERBASE

[75] Inventors: Eran Palmon; Shai Geva, both of Tel Aviv, Israel

[73] Assignee: DTL Data Technologies Ltd., Tel-Aviv, Israel

[ * ] Notice: The term of this patent shall not extend beyond the expiration date of Pat. No. 5,740,421.

[21] Appl. No.: 541,688

[22] Filed: Oct. 10, 1995

Related U.S. Application Data

[63] Continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 415,601, Apr. 3, 1995, Pat. No. 5,740,421.

[51] Int. CI. G06F 17/30

[52] U.S. CI 707/4; 707/3; 707/100;

707/102

[58] Field of Search 395/603, 604,

395/605; 707/4, 3, 100, 102

[56] References Cited

U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS

5,416,917 5/1995 Adair et al 395/500

5,481,703 1/1996 Kato 707/101

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Uffe Kock Wiil, "Issues in the Design of EHTS: A Multiuser Hypertext System for Collaboration", IEEE Publications, pp. 629-639, Jan. 1992.

J.L. Cybulski et al., "A Hypertext Based Software-Engineering Environment", IEEE Publications, pp. 62-68, Mar. 1992.

A method of performing a navigated associative search on a set of heterogeneous databases is described, the method implemented on a general purpose computer. The method comprises converting each database of the set of databases into a schema-free structure called a hyperbase. The hyperbases corresponding to each database of the set of databases are combined into a single combined hyperbase, and that single hyperbase is normalized into a single normalized hyperbase. An associative search on the single hyperbase includes providing a set of input words and a set of locations. The method of the present invention determines an answer, which is that sub-hyperbase of the hyperbase to be searched which has minimum "cost" according to a criterion. The location representing the object of the query answer also is determined. Once an answer is determined, the answer is displayed to the user. New queries may be navigated starting at a location or locations chosen by the user.

51 Claims, 6 Drawing Sheets

Microfiche Appendix Included
(1 Microfiche, 68 Pages)

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

H. Garcia-Molina, J. Hammer, K. Ireland, Y. Papakonstantinou, J. Ullman, and J. Widom: "Integrating and Accessing Heterogeneous Information Sources in TSIMMIS," in Proceedings of AAAI Spring Symposium on Information Gathering, Spring 1995. Available via anonymous ftp from db.stanford.edu as /pub/ullman/1995/tsimmis-abstract-aaai.ps.

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Chawathe et al, "The TSIMMIS Project: Intgration of Heterogeneous Information Sources", in Proceedings of IPSJ Conference, Tokyo, Japan (cited on PTO form 1449) Oct. 1994.

Uffe Knock Wiil, "Issues in the Design of EHTS: A Multiuser Hypertext System for Colaboration", IEEE on CD ROM, pp. 629-639, Jan. 1992.