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Asking Data in a Controlled Way with Ask Data Anything NQL

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Book cover Controlled Natural Language (CNL 2016)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 9767))

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Abstract

While to collect data, it is necessary to store it, to understand its structure it is necessary to do data-mining. Business Intelligence (BI) enables us to make intelligent, data-driven decisions by the mean of a set of tools that allows the creation of a potentially unlimited number of machine-generated, data-driven reports, which are calculated by a machine as a response to queries specified by humans. Natural Query Languages (NQLs) allow one to dig into data with an intuitive human-machine dialogue. The current NQL-based systems main problems are the required prior learning phase for writing correct queries, understanding the linguistic coverage of the NQL and asking precise questions.

Results: We have developed an NQL as well as an entire Natural Language Interface Database (NLIDB) that supports the user with BI queries with minimized disadvantages, namely Ask Data Anything. The core part - NQL parser - is a hybrid of CNL and the pattern matching approach with a prior error repair phase. Equipped with reasoning capabilities due to the intensive use of semantic technologies, our hybrid approach allows one to use very simple, keyword-based (even erroneous) queries as well as complex CNL ones with the support of a predictive editor.

Supplementary Information: Supplementary materials are available at Cognitum website: http://cognitum.eu/SmartBI.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cognitum, Wał Miedzierzynski 631, Warsaw, Poland

    Alessandro Seganti, Paweł Kapłański, Jesus David Nuñez Campo, Krzysztof Cieśliński, Jerzy Koziołkiewicz & Paweł Zarzycki

  2. Gdansk University of Technology, Gabriela Narutowicza 11/12, 80-233, Gdansk, Poland

    Paweł Kapłański

Authors
  1. Alessandro Seganti
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  2. Paweł Kapłański
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  3. Jesus David Nuñez Campo
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  4. Krzysztof Cieśliński
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  5. Jerzy Koziołkiewicz
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  6. Paweł Zarzycki
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alessandro Seganti .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. National University of Ireland , Galway, Ireland

    Brian Davis

  2. University of Malta , Msida, Malta

    Gordon J. Pace

  3. University of Aberdeen , Aberdeen, United Kingdom

    Adam Wyner

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Seganti, A., Kapłański, P., Campo, J.D.N., Cieśliński, K., Koziołkiewicz, J., Zarzycki, P. (2016). Asking Data in a Controlled Way with Ask Data Anything NQL. In: Davis, B., Pace, G., Wyner, A. (eds) Controlled Natural Language. CNL 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9767. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41498-0_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41498-0_6

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-41497-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-41498-0

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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