Adam P Lally

US Patent:

7178105, Feb 13, 2007

Filed:

Feb 4, 2000

Appl. No.:

09/497800

Inventors:

David Angelo Ferrucci - Yorktown Heights NY, US
Steinar Flatland - Clifton Park NY, US
Adam Patrick Lally - Troy NY, US

Assignee:

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

International Classification:

G06F 17/24

US Classification:

715530

Abstract:

A system and method for importing and reconciling component variables with container variables in a document, includes identifying variables in a component, for each of these variables determining if there is a variable in the container that refers to a same domain concept, and, if an identification occurs, associating the variable in the component with the variable in the container.

US Patent:

8275803, Sep 25, 2012

Filed:

May 14, 2008

Appl. No.:

12/152411

Inventors:

Eric W. Brown - New Fairfield CT, US
David Ferrucci - Yorktown Heights NY, US
Adam Lally - Cold Spring NY, US
Wlodek W. Zadrozny - Tarrytown NY, US

Assignee:

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

International Classification:

G06F 17/30
G06Q 30/00

US Classification:

707802, 705 1444

Abstract:

A system, method and computer program product for providing answers to questions based on any corpus of data. The method facilitates generating a number of candidate passages from the corpus that answer an input query, and finds the correct resulting answer by collecting supporting evidence from the multiple passages. By analyzing all retrieved passages and that passage's metadata in parallel, there is generated an output plurality of data structures including candidate answers based upon the analyzing. Then, by each of a plurality of parallel operating modules, supporting passage retrieval operations are performed upon the set of candidate answers, and for each candidate answer, the data corpus is traversed to find those passages having candidate answer in addition to query terms. All candidate answers are automatically scored causing the supporting passages by a plurality of scoring modules, each producing a module score. The modules scores are processed to determine one or more query answers; and, a query response is generated for delivery to a user based on the one or more query answers.

US Patent:

8510296, Aug 13, 2013

Filed:

Sep 23, 2011

Appl. No.:

13/242290

Inventors:

James J. Fan - Hawthorne NY, US
David A. Ferrucci - Yorktown Heights NY, US
David C. Gondek - Hawthorne NY, US
Aditya A. Kalyanpur - Westwood NJ, US
Adam P. Lally - Cold Spring NY, US
James W. Murdock - Millwood NY, US
Wlodek W. Zadrozny - Tarrytown NY, US

Assignee:

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

International Classification:

G06F 17/30

US Classification:

707728, 707722, 707736, 706 12, 706 14

Abstract:

A system, method and computer program product for automatically estimating the confidence of a detected LAT to provide a more accurate overall score for an obtained candidate answer. A confidence “score” or value of each detected LAT is obtained, and the system and method performs combining the confidence score with a degree of match between a LAT and an AnswerType of the candidate answer to provide improved overall score for the candidate answer.

US Patent:

8600986, Dec 3, 2013

Filed:

Aug 29, 2012

Appl. No.:

13/597795

Inventors:

James J. Fan - Hawthorne NY, US
David A. Ferrucci - Yorktown Heights NY, US
David C. Gondek - Hawthorne NY, US
Aditya A. Kalyanpur - Westwood NJ, US
Adam P. Lally - Cold Spring NY, US
James W. Murdock - Millwood NY, US
Wlodek W. Zadrozny - Tarrytown NY, US

Assignee:

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

International Classification:

G06F 17/30

US Classification:

707728, 707722, 707736, 706 12, 706 14

Abstract:

A system, method and computer program product for automatically estimating the confidence of a detected LAT to provide a more accurate overall score for an obtained candidate answer. A confidence “score” or value of each detected LAT is obtained, and the system and method performs combining the confidence score with a degree of match between a LAT and an AnswerType of the candidate answer to provide improved overall score for the candidate answer.

US Patent:

20120078636, Mar 29, 2012

Filed:

Sep 23, 2011

Appl. No.:

13/243805

Inventors:

David A. Ferrucci - Yorktown Heights NY, US
David C. Gondek - Astoria NY, US
Aditya A. Kalyanpur - Westwood NJ, US
Adam P. Lally - Cold Spring NY, US

Assignee:

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION - Armonk NY

International Classification:

G06F 17/27

US Classification:

7042701, 704E11001

Abstract:

Diffusing evidence among candidate answers during question answering may identify a relationship between a first candidate answer and a second candidate answer, wherein the candidate answers are generated by a question-answering computer process, the candidate answers have associated supporting evidence, and the candidate answers have associated confidence scores. All or some of the evidence may be transferred from the first candidate answer to the second candidate answer based on the identified relationship. A new confidence score may be computed for the second candidate answer based on the transferred evidence.

US Patent:

20120078826, Mar 29, 2012

Filed:

Sep 28, 2011

Appl. No.:

13/247527

Inventors:

David A. Ferrucci - Yorktown Heights NY, US
David C. Gondek - Hawthrone NY, US
Aditya A. Kalyanpur - Westwood NJ, US
Adam P. Lally - Cold Spring NY, US
Siddharth Patwardham - Elmsford NY, US

Assignee:

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION - Armonk NY

International Classification:

G06F 15/18
G06N 5/00

US Classification:

706 12, 706 52

Abstract:

A system, a method and a computer program product for verifying a statement are provided. The system is configured to receive a statement. The system is configured to decompose the received statement into one or more sets of question and answer pairs. The system is configured to determine a confidence value of each answer in the one or more question and answer pair sets. The system is configured to combine the determined confidence values. The combined confidence values represent a probability that the received statement is evaluated as true.

US Patent:

20120078888, Mar 29, 2012

Filed:

Sep 22, 2011

Appl. No.:

13/240108

Inventors:

Eric W. Brown - New Fairfield CT, US
Jennifer Chu-Carroll - Hawthorne NY, US
David A. Ferrucci - Yorktown Heights NY, US
Adam P. Lally - Cold Spring NY, US
John M. Prager - Pomona NY, US

Assignee:

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION - Armonk NY

International Classification:

G06F 17/30

US Classification:

707723, 707E17014

Abstract:

A method, system and computer program product for generating answers to questions. In one embodiment, the method comprises receiving an input query, decomposing the input query into a plurality of different subqueries, and conducting a search in one or more data sources to identify at least one candidate answer to each of the subqueries. A ranking function is applied to each of the candidate answers to determine a ranking for each of these candidate answers; and for each of the subqueries, one of the candidate answers to the subquery is selected based on this ranking. A logical synthesis component is applied to synthesize a candidate answer for the input query from the selected the candidate answers to the subqueries. In one embodiment, the procedure applied by the logical synthesis component to synthesize the candidate answer for the input query is determined from the input query.

US Patent:

20120078889, Mar 29, 2012

Filed:

Sep 22, 2011

Appl. No.:

13/240140

Inventors:

Jennifer Chu-Carroll - Hawthorne NY, US
David A. Ferrucci - Yorktown Heights NY, US
David C. Gondek - Pleasantville NY, US
Adam P. Lally - Cold Spring NY, US

Assignee:

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION - Armonk NY

International Classification:

G06F 17/30

US Classification:

707723, 707E17014

Abstract:

A method, system and computer program product for generating answers to questions. In one embodiment, the method comprises receiving a query, conducting a search through one or more data sources to identify candidate answers to the query, and providing each of the candidate answers with a preliminary score. The method further comprises filtering out any of the candidate answers with a preliminary score that does not satisfy a defined condition. The candidate answers having preliminary scores that satisfy this condition form a subset of the candidate answers. Each of the candidate answers in this subset is processed to produce further scores. A ranking function is applied to these further scores to determine a ranking for each of the candidate answers in the subset; and after this ranking function is applied, one or more of the candidate answers are selected as one or more final answers to the query.