データベースの言語表現を用いた情報検索インタフェース

抄録

This paper proposes an information retrieval interface that provides the user not only with the requested data but also with other helpful information in linguistic forms. When there is no data that satisfies the user's request, the system shows what kinds of data are stored in the database and provides the closest one to the request as an alternative. It also shows possible compromises that the user must make if he is not satisfied with it. When too many data to examine are retrieved, it suggests a hint to reduce the retrieved data set. With these characteristics of the system, the user can easily constuct successive requests and get the best data for him. The paper starts with construction of a “macro database”, which is knowledge about distribution of the data and is expressed in fuzzy clusters with linguistic labels. Then, it discusses how to generate the helpful information described above. Finally, an application to an actual realestate database shows the effectiveness of the proposed approach.