A Hybrid Model for Document Retrieval Systems.

A methodology for the design of document retrieval systems is presented. First, a composite index term weighting model is developed based on term frequency statistics, including document frequency, relative frequency within document and relative frequency within collection, which can be adjusted by selecting various coefficients to fit into different indexing environments. Then, a composite retrieval model is proposed to process a user\u27s information request in a weighted Phrase-Oriented Fixed-Level Expression (POFLE), which may apply more than Boolean operators, through two phases. That is, we have a search for documents which are topically relevant to the information request by means of a descriptor matching mechanism, which incorporate a partial matching facility based on a structurally-restricted relationship imposed by indexing model, and is more general than matching functions of the traditional Boolean model and vector space model, and then we have a ranking of these topically relevant documents, by means of two types of heuristic-based selection rules and a knowledge-based evaluation function, in descending order of a preference score which predicts the combined effect of user preference for quality, recency, fitness and reachability of documents

Modélisation des métadonnées multi sources et hétérogènes pour le filtrage négatif et l'interrogation intelligente de grands volumes de données : application à la vidéosurveillance

En raison du déploiement massif et progressif des systèmes de vidéosurveillance dans les grandes métropoles, l'analyse a posteriori des vidéos issues de ces systèmes est confrontée à de nombreux problèmes parmi lesquels: (i) l'interopérabilité, due aux différents formats de données (vidéos) et aux spécifications des caméras propres à chaque système ; (ii) le grand temps d'analyse lié à l'énorme quantité de données et métadonnées générées ; et (iii) la difficulté à interpréter les vidéos qui sont parfois à caractère incomplet. Face à ces problèmes, la nécessité de proposer un format commun d'échange des données et métadonnées de vidéosurveillance, de rendre le filtrage et l'interrogation des contenus vidéo plus efficaces, et de faciliter l'interprétation des contenus grâce aux informations exogènes (contextuelles) est une préoccupation incontournable. De ce fait, cette thèse se focalise sur la modélisation des métadonnées multi sources et hétérogènes afin de proposer un filtrage négatif et une interrogation intelligente des données, applicables aux systèmes de vidéosurveillance en particulier et adaptables aux systèmes traitant de grands volumes de données en général. L'objectif dans le cadre applicatif de cette thèse est de fournir aux opérateurs humains de vidéosurveillance des outils pour les aider à réduire le grand volume de vidéo à traiter ou à visionner et implicitement le temps de recherche. Nous proposons donc dans un premier temps une méthode de filtrage dit "négatif", qui permet d'éliminer parmi la masse de vidéos disponibles celles dont on sait au préalable en se basant sur un ensemble de critères, que le traitement n'aboutira à aucun résultat. Les critères utilisés pour l'approche de filtrage négatif proposé sont basés sur une modélisation des métadonnées décrivant la qualité et l'utilisabilité/utilité des vidéos. Ensuite, nous proposons un processus d'enrichissement contextuel basé sur les métadonnées issues du contexte, et permettant une interrogation intelligente des vidéos. Le processus d'enrichissement contextuel proposé est soutenu par un modèle de métadonnées extensible qui intègre des informations contextuelles de sources variées, et un mécanisme de requêtage multiniveaux avec une capacité de raisonnement spatio-temporel robuste aux requêtes floues. Enfin, nous proposons une modélisation générique des métadonnées de vidéosurveillance intégrant les métadonnées décrivant le mouvement et le champ de vue des caméras, les métadonnées issues des algorithmes d'analyse des contenus, et les métadonnées issues des informations contextuelles, afin de compléter le dictionnaire des métadonnées de la norme ISO 22311/IEC 79 qui vise à fournir un format commun d'export des données extraites des systèmes de vidéosurveillance. Les expérimentations menées à partir du framework développé dans cette thèse ont permis de démontrer la faisabilité de notre approche dans un cas réel et de valider nos propositions.Due to the massive and progressive deployment of video surveillance systems in major cities, a posteriori analysis of videos coming from these systems is facing many problems, including the following: (i) interoperability, due to the different data (video) formats and camera specifications associated to each system; (ii) time-consuming nature of analysis due to the huge amount of data and metadata generated; and (iii) difficulty to interpret videos which are sometimes incomplete. To address these issues, the need to propose a common format to exchange video surveillance data and metadata, to make video content filtering and querying more efficient, and to facilitate the interpretation of content using external (contextual) information is an unavoidable concern. Therefore, this thesis focuses on heterogeneous and multi-source metadata modeling in order to propose negative filtering and intelligent data querying, which are applicable to video surveillance systems in particular and adaptable to systems dealing with large volumes of data in general. In the applicative context of this thesis, the goal is to provide human CCTV operators with tools that help them to reduce the large volume of video to be processed or viewed and implicitly reduce search time. We therefore initially propose a so-called "negative" filtering method, which enables the elimination from the mass of available videos those that it is know in advance, based on a set of criteria, that the processing will not lead to any result. The criteria used for the proposed negative filtering approach are based on metadata modeling describing video quality and usability/usefulness. Then, we propose a contextual enrichment process based on metadata from the context, enabling intelligent querying of the videos. The proposed contextual enrichment process is supported by a scalable metadata model that integrates contextual information from a variety of sources, and a multi-level query mechanism with a spatio-temporal reasoning ability that is robust to fuzzy queries. Finally, we propose a generic metadata modeling of video surveillance metadata integrating metadata describing the movement and field of view of cameras, metadata from content analysis algorithms, and metadata from contextual information, in order to complete the metadata dictionary of the ISO 22311/IEC 79 standard, which aims to provide a common format to export data extracted from video surveillance systems. The experiments performed using the framework developed in this thesis showed the reliability of our approach in a real case and enabled the validation of our proposals

The extension and application of Swet's theory of information retrieval

Phd ThesisThe thesis comprises (1) 8 critical interpretation of Swets's contribution to information retrieval, (2) development (i.e. "extension") of the formalism, as so interpreted, and (3) a description of an experiment that identifies hypotheses consistent with the extended formalism. The early sections of the thesis place the original contribution by Swets in the contexts of both signal-detection theory and information retrieval theory. It is then argued that as the original theoretical contribution is ambiguous in key respects, an interpretation of it is necessary. The interpretation given constitutes an initial development of Swets's work but other developments, not simply a consequence of the interpretation of the original description by Swets, are also put forward. The major one of these is the explicit incorporation in the formalism of logical search expressions. Elementary logical conjuncts of search terms are seen as (1) being weakly ordered by "document ordering expressions", and (2) having probability-pairs attached to disjunctions of them defined by the ordering. A major part of the thesis is the identification of novel hypotheses, expressed within the extension of the original formalism, which relate to triples of: (1) instances of information need in medicine, represented by prespecified partitionings of a medical-literature data base (MEDLARS), (2) an analytical document ordering expression, and (3) an algorithmically-derived set of terms characterising the information need. An enhancement is suggested to data base management programs that at present employ only user-specified logical search expressions by way of search input, this enhancement stemming directly from the extension of the original formalism. The broad conclusion of the thesis is that when the original contribution of Swets is suitably interpreted and extended, a robust, hospitable conceptual framework for describing information retrieval at the macroscopic level is provided