General-purpose abductive algorithm for interpretation

Richard K. Fox; Julie Hartigan

doi:10.1117/12.258124

11 November 1996 General-purpose abductive algorithm for interpretation

Richard K. Fox, Julie Hartigan

Proceedings Volume 2824, Adaptive Computing: Mathematical and Physical Methods for Complex Environments; (1996) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.258124
Event: SPIE's 1996 International Symposium on Optical Science, Engineering, and Instrumentation, 1996, Denver, CO, United States

Abstract

Abduction, inference to the best explanation, is an information-processing task that is useful for solving interpretation problems such as diagnosis, medical test analysis, legal reasoning, theory evaluation, and perception. The task is a generative one in which an explanation comprising of domain hypotheses is assembled and used to account for given findings. The explanation is taken to be an interpretation as to why the findings have arisen within the given situation. Research in abduction has led to the development of a general-purpose computational strategy which has been demonstrated on all of the above types of problems. This abduction strategy can be performed in layers so that different types of knowledge can come together in deriving an explanation at different levels of description. Further, the abduction strategy is tractable and offers a very useful tradeoff between confidence in the explanation and completeness of the explanation. This paper will describe this computational strategy for abduction and demonstrate its usefulness towards perceptual problems by examining problem-solving systems in speech recognition and natural language understanding.

Citation Download Citation

Richard K. Fox and Julie Hartigan "General-purpose abductive algorithm for interpretation", Proc. SPIE 2824, Adaptive Computing: Mathematical and Physical Methods for Complex Environments, (11 November 1996); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.258124

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available