ASIMM: A framework for automated synthesis of query interfaces for multimedia databases

Abstract

With the advent of access to digital libraries via the Internet and the addition of non-traditional data, such as imagery, the need for flexible, natural language query environments has become more urgent. This paper describes a new query interface based on the combination of natural language and visual programming techniques. The interface, entitled Drag and Drop English, or DanDE, has two components. The first component is an easy-to-use flexible interface that has the feel of a natural language interface, but has more structure and gives a user more guidance in constructing a query without sacrificing flexibility. The second component is a definition facility that allows the interface designer to specify the structure of the query language. The definition facility allows the designer to specify the syntactic structure of the language in a variation of Backus-Naur Form. The definition facility also provides the ability to specify some of the semantics of the query domain. Lastly, the definition facility allows the designer to specify the interactions between the interface and the query system.