Glasgow FERMI - General Information
FERMI - General Information
Abstract
We propose in project FERMI to develop a Retrieval Model for a new
generation of IR systems handling every kind of data in any medium in
an integrated manner through interaction with a user. The research
will be conducted within a framework based on formal logics with
associated theories of uncertainty. Retrieval will be viewed as a form
of informative reasoning based on a notion of entailment subject to a
measure of uncertainty, thus capturing quantitatively the probability
of relevance of a stored object. The results of our research using
suitable multimedia data will be tested within an experimental
setting. The tests will use prototype implementations of algorithms
whose computational complexity will have been investigated. An
experimental design appropriate for large scale testing will be
specified so that our results will be reported with statistical
validity. See also the Project
Proposal and Technical Annex.
Participants
- CNR IEI Pisa, Italy.
- LGI IMAG Grenoble, France.
- Informatik VI, University of Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany.
- Computing Science Department, University of Glasgow, Scotland.
Objectives
The project will develop a logico-probabilistic retrieval model. Four
orthogonal research dimensions will be explored: the logical, the
probabilistic, the computational and the multimedia dimensions. At the
logical level, the project will indentify a suitable logic, or family
of logics, for reasoning on the structure and the content of
multimedia documents. The implication relation of the logic would
capture the notion of relevance of documents to requests. At the
probabilistic level, the project will apply the theory of probability
to endow the logic with the treatment of uncertainty. At the
computational level, the project will study the computational
properties of the logic(s) and uncertainty treatment(s) that are
derived at the two other levels, developing, when possible, parallel
and probabilistic algorithms to improve the performance of
retrieval. At the multimedia level, the nature of different types of
multimedia data will be investigated in order to understand the
representational and inference mechanisms necessary to perform an
effective retrieval on this data. These mechanisms will be then
incorporated into the logic. A prototypical implementation of a
system representing and retrieving multimedia documents according to
the principles of the logic will be developed and used in an
experiment aiming at evaluating the adequacy of the logic as a
multimedia information retrieval model.
The University of Glasgow FERMI group:
Fabio Crestani