A NATURAL LANGUAGE INTERFACE TO A GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEM

NETROLOGIC'S PHASE I WILL DEVELOP A PRELIMINARY DESIGN OF A NATURAL LANGUAGE INTERFACE TO A GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEM (GIS). NETROLOGIC'S DESIGN WILL BE BASED ON STATE-OF-THE-ART ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE NATURAL LANGUAGE AND DIALOG MODELING RESEARCH. PHASE I WILL INCLUDE A CLOSE STUDY OF A NUMBER OF DIFFERENT GIS'S AND THEIR USERS; FOCUSING ON (1) THE DEPENDENCY AND RELATION, IF ANY, BETWEENA REQUISITE NATURAL LANGUAGE INTERFACE AND THE UNDERLYING ARCHITECTURE OF A GIS, AND (2) SURVEYING THE FUNCTIONALITIESOF THE DIFFERENT SYSTEMS TO BEST DETERMINE AN APPROPRIATE DOMAIN (I.E., KNOWLEDGE BASE) WHICH THE NATURAL LANGUAGE INTERFACE WILL SPAN. THE NATURAL LANGUAGE INTERFACE WORK WILL ALSO FOCUS ON ESTABLISHING CLEAR DELINEATIONS BETWEEN THE INFERENCING WORK THAT THE LANGUAGE MODULE WILL HANDLE AND THE INFERENCING WORK THAT SHOULD BE LEFT IN THE HANDS OF AN UNDERLYING GIS. ARCHITECTURAL DECISIONS FOR THE NATURAL LANGUAGE MODULE AND ITS INTERFACE TO THE GIS WILL BEINCLUDED IN THE DESIGN. THE LANGUAGE MODULE WILL ALSO INCLUDE A DIALOG SYSTEM FOR EXTENDED HUMAN-MACHINE PROBLEM SOLVING USING A GIS. MOST OF THE DETAILS OF THE DIALOG SYSTEM WILL BE LEFT FOR PHASE II, AS WILL BE ANY IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SYSTEM.