Lucent Technologies Inc.

Ncr Corporation

At+t Corp.

Thomas Kirk

Peter G Selfridge

Loren Gilbert Terveen

Alon Yitzchak Levy

Ronald J Brachman

Alexander Tiberiu Borgida

Divesh Srivastava

A system and method is described for providing shared access to a three dimensional virtual environment synchronously with hypertext browsing. A cospace server receives a messages indicating requests for hypertext files on a network from a client. The cospace server tracks the requests and stores components or the addresses of components of the requested hypertext files. When a threshold number of clients have requested a hypertext file, the cospace server constructs a virtual three dimensional room description and sends it to the clients that are browsing the file. The virtual three dimensional room description is rendered as a virtual three dimensional room at the client, and typically includes portals to other virtual three dimensional rooms. A user is represented in the virtual room as an avatar, and can communicate with other users at other clients. The present invention enhances an installed base of conventional hypertext files such as the World Wide Web with three dimensional and social features without having to carry out any modifications of the hypertext files where they are stored.

System and method for providing dynamic three-dimensional multi-user virtual spaces in synchrony with hypertext browsing

An information retrieval system implemented as a virtual data base management system which uses a knowledge base management system to provide a problem-oriented conceptual schema for one or more standard data base management systems. In the conceptual schema, a hierarchy of concepts is used to organize individual objects. A classifier determines which concepts an individual object is a representative of and determines the relationship of new concepts to existing concepts. The use of a knowledge base with a classifier permits conversion of queries into concepts and detection of changes in the relationships between individual objects and the concepts. A window-based user interface permits flexible and experimental access to the information. Special features of the user interface permit the user to specify conversion of a query into a concept, to establish monitors to detect such changes, and to define a query by specifying a portion of a graph.

Interactive data analysis employing a knowledge base

An improved information retrieval system user interface for retrieving information from a plurality of sources and for storing information source descriptions in a knowledge base. The user interface includes a hypertext browser and a knowledge base browser/editor. The hypertext browser allows a user to browse an unstructured information space through the use of interactive hypertext links. The knowledge base browser/editor displays a directed graph representing a generalization taxonomy of the knowledge base, with the nodes representing concepts and edges representing relationships between concepts. The system allows users to store information source descriptions in the knowledge base via graphical pointing means. By dragging an iconic representation of an information source from the hypertext browser to a node in the directed graph, the system will store an information source description object in the knowledge base. The knowledge base browser/editor is also used to browse the information source descriptions previously stored in the knowledge base. The result of such browsing is an interactive list of information source descriptions which may be used to retrieve documents into the hypertext browser. The system also allows for querying a structured information source and using query results to focus the hypertext browser on the most relevant unstructured data sources.

User interface for information retrieval system

Interactive data analysis apparatus employing a knowledge base

A query translator translates a query between a graphical user interface and a knowledge representation system. The knowledge representation system reformulates the query and generates an access plan to access data requested by the query. The access plan utilizes several different protocols to access the query information located in dissimilar databases distributed throughout a network. The knowledge representation system generates the access plan by first processing the query through a world view which defines the information in conceptual terms that a human being would understand and then processes the query through a system/network view which redefines the query into network and database access information so that the data requested by the query can be located. Placing the world view and the system network view in the knowledge representation system enables real-time intelligence to be used in the search process by providing a feedback loop between the searched databases and the knowledge representation system.

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Warren, NJ, United States of America

Thomas Kirk