Icon based query system

Claim 1

A method of querying a data base in a computer system containing input means, processor means, graphical display means and storage means, said data base containing objects relating to a specified and limited domain of knowledge, by direct manipulation of graphical representations of said objects, said graphical representations being stored in memory, whereby each such graphical representation has a unique link to an entity in a conceptual schema, said schema containing a first set of records of data (entities) which are language independent representations of the objects in the data base, and further containing records of data representing relations between said objects characterized by the following steps: displaying on said graphical display means said graphical representations of said objects, selecting from the displayed representations those that represent those objects of the data base that are relevant to the query to be created, displaying on said graphical display means a choice of actions that can be performed on the graphical representations selecting from said displayed actions, ones that are appropriate for the query to be created, combining on the graphical display means the selected representations of objects with the selected appropriate actions in order to create a graphical representation of the desired query, whereby the combined graphical representations and actions represent a pictorial logical form of said query, and transforming said pictorial logical form into a formal query in a suitable query language.

Claim 4

The method as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein the conceptual logical form is processed to generate a paraphrase in natural language of the pictorial logical form as created on the graphical display means, before the step of of transforming into the query in the formal query language.

Claim 5

A method of querying a data base in a computer system containing input means, processor means, graphical display means and storage means, said data base containing objects relating to a specified and limited domain of knowledge, by direct manipulation of graphical epresentations of said objects, said graphical representations being stored in memory, whereby each such graphical representation has a unique link to an entity in a conceptual schema, said schema containing a first set of records of data (entities) which are language independent representations of the objects in the data base, and further containing records of data representing relations between said objects characterized by the following steps: a) display objects and/or combinations of objects in a list or graphically; b) select relevant objects or combinations of objects; c) displa a choice of relations between objects and/or a set of operators; d) select relations and/or operators; e) combine objects, and applying actions and/or operators to objects; f) add specifications to objects; g) paraphrase and display interpretation(s); h) if there is only one single paraphrase, execute the query provided it is correctly interpreted by the system; i) if there are two or more interpretations, select the correct one, and execute; and j) if there is no correct interpretation, modify the query in the screen by repeating as appropriate the above steps.