ConRef Technology: Description of intro-image 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 [1]CONREF Further Reading Key document: M. Winter, D. Sleeman and T. Parsons (1998), [2]Inventory Management using constraint satisfaction and knowledge refinement techniques. Knowledge-Based systems,11, pp 293-300. References 1. http://www.csd.abdn.ac.uk/~sajit/conref8mov.avi 2. http://www.csd.abdn.ac.uk/~sleeman/Abstracts98.html