Apparatus for classifying or disambiguating data

Abstract

A computing system has a data storage device ( 4, 5, 6 ) for storing a database consisting of a classified vocabulary of terms. A processor ( 1 ) of the apparatus is arranged to associate each term with one of a number of different categories of data and to associate all terms falling within the same category with a common code identifying a collocation of terms that exemplify that category so that terms in different categories are associated with different codes and can be disambiguated. The processor ( 1 ) is arranged to write, directly or indirectly, a classified vocabulary consisting of the terms together with the associated code onto a computer-readable storage medium (RDD 2 ) or to supply an electrical signal via, for example a MODEM ( 10 ) or a LAN/WAN ( 11 ). The database may be used in classification of documents, spelling checking of documents and refining of keyword search results.

1 . A computer processing apparatus for classifying a document, comprising:
 means for accessing a database structure providing a plurality of different subject matter categories, the database containing a classified vocabulary consisting of terms in all of the different subject matter categories with each term being classified in accordance with the subject matter category structure of the database;   means for receiving in computer-readable form a text documents to be classified;   processor means operable to compare terms appearing in the text document with the terms in the classified vocabulary and to determine from the comparison the category for the document; and   means for supplying a signal carrying data representing the text document and data associating the text document with the determined category.