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1964 - Problems in Automatic Abstracting
1964 - Problems in Automatic Abstracting
1964 - Problems in Automatic Abstracting
KOLLER, Editor
1. I n t r o d u c t i o n
Since automatic abstracting is in its infancy it is felt
t h a t a paper covering the subject as a whole is apt to be
more helpful t h a n one which pleads for a single course of
research. I n m a n y ways the present situation in auto-
matic abstracting in tile United States is analogous to the
early days of automatic translation. For example, only
two or three research teams, totaling 12 people, are pres-
ently working on the problem of automatJlc abstracting,
while a dozen teams with a total staff Of some 100 re-
searchers are now studying automatic translation. More-
FIG. 3 over, various United States government agencies have
invested several millions of dollars in automatic transla-
the 1440 system is under consideration. The program can tion since 1953, while only several hundred thousand
be easily adjusted to solve a large variety of m e n u prob- dollars have been made available for research on auto-
l e m s witl~ different sets of objectives. matic abstracting since 1958.
Acknowledgments. The author acknowledges the co- I n this exposition the problems of automatic abstracting
operation of Tulane Bio-Medical Computing System and are grouped into the following major classes: (1) concep-
T o u r o Infirmary, New Orleans, on the project with special tual problems, (2) input problems, (3) computer problems,
a p p r e c i a t i o n for the support of Dr. James W. Sweeney, (4) output problems, and (5) evaluation problems.
C o - P r i n c i p a l Investigator. Present systems of automatic abstracting are capable
of producing nothing more t h a n extracts of documents,
RECEIVEr~ DECEMBEa, 1963; REVrSEDJANUARY, 1964.
i.e. a selection of certain sentences of a document. This is
REFERENCES not to say, however, t h a t future automatic ~abstracting
STIGLE~, G. J. The cost of subsistence. J. Farm Economics systems cannot be conceived in which the computer
25 (1945), 303-314. generates its own sentences b y means of a suitable genera-
SMITH,V. E. Linear programming models for the determination tive g r a m m a r program. Theoretically there is no linguis-
of palatable human diets. J. Farm Economics 41 (1961),
tic or mechanical reason why such a system could not be
272-283.
WATT, B. K., MERRILL, A. L., ORR, M. L., ET At. Composition designed and operated. The total system would then con-
of foods--raw, processed and prepared. U. S. Department sist of a program which operates on the original document
of Agriculture Handbook No. 8, 1950. so as to produce an ex~rac~ which in turn is fed into the
PERYAM, D. JR., ~OLEMIS, B. W., KAMEN, J. M., EINDHoVEN, generative g r a m m a r portion that then generates its own
J. AND PILGRIM, F. J. Food preferences of men in the U. S. sentences using certain of the original sentences as grist
Armed Forces. Dept. of the Army, Quartermaster Research
and Engineering Command, Quartermaster Food and Con- This system is depicted in Figure 1. Such a system, how-
tainer Institute for the Armed Forces, Jan. 1960. ever, is a p t to be costly both in time and money.
i. Recommended dietary allowance. Natl. Research Council, Food Since the creation of a suitable generative g r a m m a r
and Nutrition Bd., Natl. Research Council Publ. 589, Rev.
This research was supported in part by the United States Air
1958.
~!:i 6. DANTZIG (~EORGE B. Linear Programming and Extensions. Force with funds from Contract No. AF 301602)-2223, monitored
Princeton U. Press, Princeton, 1963. by the Rome Air Development Ctr.. Grifliss Air Force Base, N.Y.