The goal of the InfoSleuth project at MCC is to exploit and synthesize new technologies into a unified system that retrieves and processes information in an ever-changing network of information sources. InfoSleuth has its roots in the Carnot project at MCC, which specialized in integrating heterogeneous information bases. However, recent emerging technologies such as internetworking and the World Wide Web have significantly expanded the types, availability, and volume of data available to an information management system. Furthermore, in these new environments, there is no formal control over the registration of new information sources, and applications tend to be developed without complete knowledge of the resources that will be available when they are run. Federated database projects such as Carnot that do static data integration do not scale up and do not cope well with this ever-changing environment. On the other hand, recent Web technologies, based on keyword search engines, are scalable but, unlike federated databases, are incapable of accessing information based on concepts. In this experience paper, we describe the architecture, design, and implementation of a working version of InfoSleuth. We show how InfoSleuth integrates new technological developments such as agent technology, domain ontologies, brokerage, and internet computing, in support of mediated interoperation of data and services in a dynamic and open environment. We demonstrate the use of information brokering and domain ontologies as key elements for scalability.

Article Free Access Share on The InfoSleuth Project Authors: R. J. Bayardo Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), 3500 West Balcones Center Drive, Austin, Texas Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), 3500 West Balcones Center Drive, Austin, TexasView Profile , W. Bohrer Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), 3500 West Balcones Center Drive, Austin, Texas Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), 3500 West Balcones Center Drive, Austin, TexasView Profile , R. Brice Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), 3500 West Balcones Center Drive, Austin, Texas Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), 3500 West Balcones Center Drive, Austin, TexasView Profile , A. Cichocki Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), 3500 West Balcones Center Drive, Austin, Texas Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), 3500 West Balcones Center Drive, Austin, TexasView Profile , J. Fowler Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), 3500 West Balcones Center Drive, Austin, Texas Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), 3500 West Balcones Center Drive, Austin, TexasView Profile , A. Halal Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), 3500 West Balcones Center Drive, Austin, Texas Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), 3500 West Balcones Center Drive, Austin, TexasView Profile , V. Kashyap Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), 3500 West Balcones Center Drive, Austin, Texas Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), 3500 West Balcones Center Drive, Austin, TexasView Profile , T. Ksiezyk Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), 3500 West Balcones Center Drive, Austin, Texas Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), 3500 West Balcones Center Drive, Austin, TexasView Profile , G. Martin Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), 3500 West Balcones Center Drive, Austin, Texas Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), 3500 West Balcones Center Drive, Austin, TexasView Profile , M. Nodine Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), 3500 West Balcones Center Drive, Austin, Texas Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), 3500 West Balcones Center Drive, Austin, TexasView Profile , M. Rashid Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), 3500 West Balcones Center Drive, Austin, Texas Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), 3500 West Balcones Center Drive, Austin, TexasView Profile , M. Rusinkiewicz Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), 3500 West Balcones Center Drive, Austin, Texas Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), 3500 West Balcones Center Drive, Austin, TexasView Profile , R. Shea Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), 3500 West Balcones Center Drive, Austin, Texas Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), 3500 West Balcones Center Drive, Austin, TexasView Profile , C. Unnikrishnan Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), 3500 West Balcones Center Drive, Austin, Texas Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), 3500 West Balcones Center Drive, Austin, TexasView Profile , A. Unruh Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), 3500 West Balcones Center Drive, Austin, Texas Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), 3500 West Balcones Center Drive, Austin, TexasView Profile , D. Woelk Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), 3500 West Balcones Center Drive, Austin, Texas Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC), 3500 West Balcones Center Drive, Austin, TexasView Profile Authors Info & Claims SIGMOD '97: Proceedings of the 1997 ACM SIGMOD international conference on Management of dataJune 1997 Pages 543–545https://doi.org/10.1145/253260.253401Online:01 June 1997Publication History 7citation339DownloadsMetricsTotal Citations7Total Downloads339Last 12 Months2Last 6 weeks0 Get Citation AlertsNew Citation Alert added!This alert has been successfully added and will be sent to:You will be notified whenever a record that you have chosen has been cited.To manage your alert preferences, click on the button below.Manage my AlertsNew Citation Alert!Please log in to your account Save to BinderSave to BinderCreate a New BinderNameCancelCreateExport CitationPublisher SiteeReaderPDF

This paper advances two approaches to integrating handwritten character segmentation and recognition within one system, where the underlying function is learned by a backpropagation neural network. Integrated segmentation and recognition is necessary when characters overlap or touch, or when an individual character is broken up. The first approach exhaustively scans a field of characters, effectively creating a possible segmentation at each scan point. A neural net is trained to both identify when its input window is centered over a character, and if it is, to classify the character. This approach is similar to most recently advanced approaches to integrating segmentation and recognition, and has the common flaw of generating too many possible segmentations to be truly efficient. The second approach overcomes this weakness without reducing accuracy by training a neural network to mimic the ballistic and corrective saccades (eye movements) of human vision. A single neural net learns to jump from character to character, making corrective jumps when necessary, and to classify the centered character when properly fixated. The significant aspect of this system is that the neural net learns to both control what is in its input window as well as to recognize what is in the window. High accuracy results are reported for a standard database of handprinted digits for both approaches.