wolfram alpha - an answer engine

8/2/2019 Wolfram Alpha - An Answer Engine

1/25

Wolfram Alpha[an Answer Engine]


2/25

Contents Introduction to Wolfram Alpha What is an Answer Engine? Answer Engine v/s Search Engine Features of Wolfram Alpha Knowledge areas covered Technology behind Wolfram Alpha

Its Components Mathematica How Mathematica made Wolfram Alpha possible How it Works? One Coherent Architecture Smart Selection Method How is Wolfram Alpha better than Google Present uses Future of Wolfram Alpha References

1


3/25

Introduction

Wolfram Alpha is an answer-enginedeveloped by

Wolfram Research, and was released in May 2009.

Wolfram Alpha doesn't search the web, it uses data frommassive databases and an engine powered byMathematica to obtain the results.

It is an online service that answers factual queriesdirectly by computing the answer.

Users can enter queries in text or various other fileformats. E.g. Binary, JPEG, PDF, WAV, XML, etc.

It is also capable of responding to particularly phrasednatural-language fact-based questions.

2


4/25

What is an Answer Engine?

An Answer Engine / Computational Knowledge Engine isa web application that finds out specific answers toqueries posted in natural language.

In information retrieval and natural languageprocessing (NLP), question answering (QA) is the taskof automatically answering a question posed in naturallanguage.

To find the answer to a question, a QA computerprogram may use either a pre-structured database or acollection of natural language documents.

3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_retrievalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_language_processinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_language_processinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Databasehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Databasehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_language_processinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_language_processinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_retrieval


5/25

Answer Engine v/s Search Engine

Answer Engine

The result is an answer.

It answers factual queriesdirectly by computing theanswer from structured data.

Users submit queries and

computation requests via atext field or via variousfiles(audio/ image/ pdf/ etc.)

E.g. Wolfram Alpha, TrueKnowledge

Search Engine

The result is a list ofdocuments/ web pages.

It searches for the matchingkeywords as posted in thequery.

Users submit queries and

computation requests via atext field, voice query or viaaudio/ image files.

E.g. Google, Bing

4


6/25

Features

Covers 30+ knowledge areas and disciplines.

Accepts completely free-form input.

Large no. of file types accepted as input.

Generates powerful results and presents them withmaximum clarity.

Acts as a knowledge repository as well as a searchengine.

Visual clarity

Easy interface

It is supported by a huge and powerful database,therefore the accuracy.

Supported by Mathematica, which takes care of all thecalculations.

5


7/25

Knowledge Areas Covered

Chemistry

Engineering

Astronomy

Earth Sciences

Socio-Economic Data

Weather

Places & Geography

Units & Measures

6


8/25

Technology behind WolframAlpha

Wolfram|Alpha is written in 15 million linesofMathematica code and runs on 10,000 x86 CPUs(though the number was upgraded soon after the

launch).

Two major components:1. Massive Database(which is continually being

populated and will be continued to be populated)2. Mathematica(first product by Wolfram Research)

7


9/25

Contd.

Linguistic Analysis: New kinds of algorithms for1000+ domains.

Curated Data: 10+ trillion pieces of data from primarysources with continuous updating

Dynamic computation: 50,000+ types of algorithmsand equations.

Computed presentation: 5,000+ types of visual and

tabular output.

Feedback:Users can submit suggestions/feedbackthrough Community Forum and through feedback,which is used to enhance the Database.

8


10/25

Components

Wolfram Alpha has access to many trillion elements of data coveringtopics from maths to nutrition, physics to music, weather to anagrams.

It deals with proprietary databases.

Most data is input through a more complex, part automated, part

manual system.

There's no general automatic input from the web here.

Instead Wolfram Alpha staff work with experts in different domains todecide which sources are the best.

Some of this data arrives in real time.

The data then goes through an automated procedure to clean andcheck it.

Then it's verified by real-life experts to confirm that it all seems reliable.

Massive database

9


11/25

Components

It is a computational software program used in scientific,engineering, and mathematical fields and other areas oftechnical computing.

Mathematicaapplies intelligent automationin every part of the

system, from algorithm selection to plot layout and userinterface design.

You get reliable, high-quality resultswithout needing algorithmexpertiseand even if you're an expert, you get results faster.

Mathematica is used in Wolfram|Alpha for Computation,Visualization and Development.

Mathematica can display items of data, graphs and more, all injust one line of code.

Mathematica

10


12/25

Mathematica

11


13/25

How Mathematica made WolframAlpha possible

Development environment Computational knowledge and intelligence Highly scalable grid computing

High-performance enterprise deployment Built-in, computable data One coherent architecture Smart method selection Dynamic report generation

Database connectivity High-level programming language Efficient text processing and linguistic analysis Wide-ranging, automated visualization capabilities Automated importing

12


14/25

How it Works?

Developing an

algorithm for specificcontext.

Add it to the enterprisedatabase.

When user entersquery it contacts theDB and computes theresult.

Answer with details

shows up on thebrowser.

13


15/25

One Coherent Architecture

Wolfram Alpha needs-One systematic way to load, hold and workwith every imaginable type of informationwith above which includes - algorithms,data, etc.

Mathematica provides-A unique symbolic architecture that holdseverything- data, graphics, programs,math- in a unified structure, yet is flexibleenough to keep the original form of almostanything.This allows Wolfram Alpha's programmersto always work from one structure.

14


16/25

Smart Selection Method

Wolfram Alpha needs the highest-level base ofexpertise from which to build linguistic understanding.

Mathematica delivers- A separation of the task fromthe method so users don't need detailed algorithmicknowledge.

Uses natural language processing.

Converts all tasks to methods for natural languageprocessing.

15


17/25

How is Wolfram Alpha betterthan Google?

Complex queries

Any number of arguments can beentered at a time.

Thats why concatenating manyarguments in a query often worksextremely well.

It gives a comparison of all theentities youve fed it.

16


18/25


Localization

Googles result depends on

various sites and as such itcannot force every site out there

to practice localization.

Wolfram Alpha, for the most part,does not depend on other sites forthe data its giving you, and

therefore its localization worksbetter.

17


19/25


Precision

With Wolfram Alpha you donthave to worry about getting the

wrong information.

It gives you the right answer(depending, of course, on theaccuracy of its own index), or no

answer at all.

18


20/25


Comparison

With Wolfram Alpha you caneasily compare several data

samples and get not only results,but also handy graphs, ratios,tables and historical datacomparisons.

Google, on the other hand only,indexes websites that can dosuch work for you.

19


21/25


Calculation

Wolfram Alpha acts as a SuperCalculator, incorporates all

kinds of calculators into one.

Google has been dabbling withthis, adding currencyconversion and other simplecalculations to its searchservice.

20


22/25

Present Uses of Wolfram Alpha

Wolfram Alpha is used to power some searches inthe Microsoft Bing and DuckDuckGo searchengines.

Wolfram Alpha is queried by Apple's Siriforfactualquestion answeringas well as theDexetra's clone of it for Andriod Iris.

The application is a hit among students, teachersand anyone who surfs the net for answers ratherthan answer options(read: web pages).

21


23/25

Future of Wolfram Alpha

Search Engines like Google, Bing only index web pageswith matching keywords in the query.

Also WA incorporates a large no. of information and acceptsdata in free-form. These have made WA a very sought after

application in many devices since its release in May 2009.

Its fast and accurate.

Database is huge and is being continuously populated, evenin real time.

Wolfram Alpha is the product of automation and machinelearning.

The scope and market of Wolfram Alpha is thus huge.22


24/25

References

www.wolframalpha.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfram_Alpha

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20040816.html

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/17-06/ts_levy

http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/how-the-hell-does-wolfram-alpha-work--599561

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2347018,00.asp

http://mashable.com/2009/05/19/wolfram-alpha-better-than-google/

http://techcrunch.com/2009/03/08/wolfram-alpha-computes-answers-to-factual-questions-this-is-going-to-be-big/

23


25/25

Thank You !

24

wolfram alpha - an answer engine

Documents