A self-organizing pattern retrieval system and its applications
Robert Levinson · International Journal of Intelligent Systems · 1991
This article is an overview of research on the design and application of a Self-Organizing Pattern Retrieval System. This system is a nontraditional form of database for several reasons: (1) the objects (patterns) stored in the database are complex data structures such as graphs, or matrices as opposed to relations, sets, lists or frames; (2) the system attempts to optimize its internal structure for retrieval efficiency by taking advantage of classificatory information (common patterns) it discovers about the patterns in the database; and (3) the system is representation-independent, allowing the user to use whatever representation scheme he desires as long as he provides a small set of I/O routines and comparison functions for the representation. This system has been applied to the organization of molecules and reactions in organic chemistry. the system is able to select valid precursors to molecules based on its knowledge of real-world reactions. It is also able to suggest new chemical reactions based on generalizations from its knowledge base. the system has also been applied to the retrieval, generalization, and classification of chess positions. Its ability to recognize the tactical similarity of positions is compared with that of a chess master. the design objectives of a system for classifying Radio Frequency Interference required by NASA's SETI (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence) project is also discussed.