MULTI-MODAL QUERY REFINEMENT
A multi-modal search query refinement system (and corresponding methodology) is provided. In accordance with the innovation, query suggestion results represent a word palette which can be used to select strings for inclusion or exclusion from a refined set of results. The system employs text, speech, touch and gesture input to refine a set of search query results. Wildcards can be employed in the search either prompted by the user or inferred by the system. Additionally, partial knowledge supplemented by speech can be employed to refine search results.
1 . A system that facilitates multi-modal search query refinement, comprising:
a query administration component that employs a plurality of modalities to refine a list of query suggestion results into a regular expression query; and
a search query suggestion engine component that evaluates the regular expression query and renders a list of refined query suggestion results as a function of the evaluation.
2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the regular expression query includes at least one wildcard.
3 . The system of claim 1 wherein the list of query suggestion results includes a list of best candidate matches that represent a word palette that enables individual string selection, where the string can be a word or part of a word.
4 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
an analysis component that evaluates the regular expression query; and
a query generation component that renders a list of refined query suggestion results.
5 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising a selection component that enables a user to choose at least one word from the list of query suggestion results, wherein the selection facilitates refinement of the regular expression query where refinement can include any deletion, substitution, or addition of characters to the original query, and wherein the refinement is maintained in a separate area as a “scratchpad.”
6 . The system of claim 5 , wherein the selection is accomplished by way of a drag/drop procedure.
7 . The system of claim 5 , wherein at least a portion of the selection identifies an exclusion used as a parameter to establish the list of refined query suggestion results.
8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein a k-best suffix-array with exclusion constraints is used to generate the list of refined query suggestion results.
9 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of modalities includes at least two of text, touch, speech and gesture.
10 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the list of refined query suggestion results includes an n-best list or alternates list from a speech recognizer as well as a list of supplementary results that includes at least one of an ‘exact’ match via a wildcard expression or an ‘approximate’ match via information retrieval algorithms.
11 . The system of claim 10 , wherein at least part of the n-best list obtained from the speech recognizer is submitted as a query to an information retrieval algorithm that is indifferent to the order of words in the regular expression query.
12 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the query administration component employs user generated text to constrain speech recognition upon generating the regular expression query.
13 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising an artificial intelligence (AI) component that employs at least one of a probabilistic and a statistical-based analysis that infers an action that a user desires to be automatically performed.
14 . A computer-implemented method of search refinement, comprising:
receiving a selection related to a plurality of words in a set of query suggestion results, wherein the selection defines a refinement of an original query;
establishing a regular expression query based upon a subset of the selection; and
rendering a plurality of refined query suggestion results based upon the regular expression query.
15 . The computer-implemented method of claim 14 , wherein the selection is effectuated by at least one of text, speech, touch or gesture and wherein the refinement is maintained upon a “scratchpad.”
16 . The computer-implemented method of claim 14 , further comprising excluding a subset of words in the set of results, wherein the excluded words define a parameter for the plurality of results.
17 . The computer-implemented method of claim 14 , further comprising:
receiving an input that supplements the selection;
converting a portion of the input into a wildcard; and
retrieving a subset of the plurality of refined query suggestion results based upon the wildcard.
18 . A computer-executable system of refining search queries, comprising:
means for rendering query suggestion results as a plurality of selectable words;
means for choosing a subset of the plurality of selectable words;
means for refining the query suggestion results based at least in part upon the chosen subset of selectable words.
19 . The computer-executable system of claim 18 , further comprising:
means for designating at least a portion of the chosen subset of selectable words as exclusions, wherein the exclusions are employed to retrieve the refined query suggestion results.
20 . The computer-executable system of claim 19 , wherein the means for selecting is a drag/drop procedure of selecting each of the subset of the plurality of selectable words.