SBIR Phase II: Advanced Question Answering

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段项目正在开发一个使用创新的自然语言处理(NLP)的高级问答(QA)系统。该项目涉及的具体领域是：(1)真正的开放领域、针对商业部署进行了优化的高精度QA系统；(2)提供前所未有的QU系统响应时间的分布式处理；以及(3)用于实时客户反馈的系统管理和报告工具。最终产品将以简单易懂的英语对提出的问题提供准确而简短的答案。在公司、政府机构和个人中，对此功能的需求非常普遍。用户可能是提出简单事实问题的随意提问者，寻找特定产品功能和价格的消费者，收集市场、金融或商业信息的研究分析，或者寻找需要相当专业知识的非常具体的信息的专业信息分析师，如执法人员。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is developing an advanced questions answering (QA) system with the use of innovative natural language processing (NLP). The specific areas addressed by this project are: (1) a true open-domain, high precision QA system optimized for commercial deployment; (2) distributed processing that provides an unprecedented QU system response time; and (3) system management and reporting tools for real-time customer feedback.The final product will provide accurate and short answers to questions asked in plain English. The need for this capability is widespread in companies, government agencies, and among individuals. The users may be casual questioners who ask simple factual questions, consumers who look for specific product features and prices, research analysis that collect market, finance, or business information, or professional information analysts such as law enforcement officials searching for very specific information requiring considerable expertise.