SBIR Phase I: Semi-Automatically Constructing Wrappers to Access Internet-Based Information Sources

这个来自动态域的小企业创新研究第一阶段项目将使计算机用户能够创建包装器，以便网站可以像数据库一样被查询。 该提案的主要创新是一种从示例中半自动生成包装器的方法。 该方法结合了监督和无监督学习方法，以最大限度地减少用户生成包装器所需的信息量。 因此，不熟练的用户可以快速创建自己的包装器。 这项研究有可能使访问和集成数据以创建大规模的虚拟数据库变得更加容易，因为它使信息用户可以创建虚拟数据库，而不是依赖于信息提供商来执行此任务。 虽然这种技术的现有商业上可行的应用包括开发购物代理和专门搜索引擎的工具，但互联网自动化的新可能性比比皆是。 例如，考虑一个制造商，他希望在一个非常流动的市场中将他的生产计划与他的商业伙伴整合在一起，他的合作伙伴经常变化。 他可以轻松地以自己选择的任何格式导入他们通过网络提供的数据，而不是要求他的合作伙伴使用他使用的相同的企业资源规划软件或要求他们开发专门的界面。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project from Dynamic Domain will enable computer users to create wrappers so that web sites can be queried as if they were databases. The key innovation of this proposal is a method for semi-automatically generating wrappers from examples. The approach combines supervised and unsupervised learning methods to minimize the amount of information required from users to generate wrappers. As a result, unsophisticated users can rapidly create their own wrappers. The research has the potential to make it vastly easier to access and integrate data to create large scale, virtual databases because it makes it possible for information users to create virtual databases, rather than relying on information providers to carry out this task.Dynamic Domain proffers technology with the potential to transform the economics of information integration by giving ordinary users the power to integrate and query information sources. While existing, commercially viable applications of this technology include tools for developing shopping agents and specialized search engines, new possibilities abound for Internet automations. For example, consider a manufacturer who wants to integrate his production schedules with his business partners in a very fluid market where his partners frequently change. Rather than requiring his partners to employ the same enterprise resource planning software that he uses or asking them to develop specialized interfaces, he can easily import data they make available via the web in whatever format they choose.