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ConRef from University of Aberdeen


ConRef fact-file

Owner  :  University of Aberdeen
Description  :  http://www.csd.abdn.ac.uk/~sajit/
Screencam  :  http://www.csd.abdn.ac.uk/~sajit/conref8mov.avi
Builds on  :  Resource Description Framework, Java
Addresses challenges  :  Knowledge Maintenance

What's the Problem?

Users who wish to acquire objects or services may express them in a different language to what the service directory/inventory is specified. Hence the need to map from one vocabulary/ontology to another arises. Secondly, a particular user may wish to refine the object/entities recommended for future use and for these fine tunings to be recorded.

Towards a Solution

The main features of the system are:

  • User specifies an object/entity sought in user's vocabulary/ontology.
  • Specification is mapped into the vocabulary/ontology of the Inventory.
  • Revised Specification is used to search for suitable objects/entities in the Inventory.
  • Provides ability for user to indicate:
    • removal of an unwanted object from the list returned.
    • addition of a wanted entity to the set of retrieved objects.

In the process, the mapping rules/constraints are updated automatically.

Current Status: Implemented in LISP; inventory of British Aero Space fasteners and cars.

Plans: Rework in JAVA, web-based & Inventories in RDF.

Take a Guided Tour

CONREF

Further Reading

Key document:

M. Winter, D. Sleeman and T. Parsons (1998), Inventory Management using constraint satisfaction and knowledge refinement techniques. Knowledge-Based systems,11, pp 293-300.

Semantic representation

View in the AKT Triplestore Browser or as RDF.

Also available in DOAP RDF (Description Of A Project)