Rule-Based Querying of Distributed, Heterogeneous Data

Tom Lansdale,Peter Bloodsworth,Ashiq Anjum,Irfan Habib,Yasir Mehmood,Richard Mcclatchey

doi:10.4103/0256-4602.55274

Abstract

When searching for data, users tend to think in terms of the information they need to retrieve and not where and how it is stored. This is especially true in the highly complex domain of neurological research. The generic medical querying service described herein, aims to close the gap between users and data resources that are intricate, distributed and heterogeneous in nature. A theme that is common to both this domain and the emerging Internet of things is that users often need to query more than a single resource. This has come about with the large-scale fragmentation and distribution of data. Our work thus far has produced a prototype architecture for the querying of heterogeneous distributed data in the medical domain. A flexible querying mechanism that has the potential to support agent-based personalization has been developed to provide users with accurate and relevant results and some initial results are presented.

Highlights

The Future Internet is likely to be much larger and more complex than the Internet as we currently know it [1]
In addition to effective storage and database technologies, this will likely require efficient querying mechanisms to be put in place
Simple interfaces have been proven successful by Google even as the data becomes increasingly complex and multi-modal. We propose that this may be achieved by building some intelligence into the underlying querying mechanism and keeping interfaces as static as possible

Summary

Introduction

The Future Internet is likely to be much larger and more complex than the Internet as we currently know it [1]. With ever increasing data and more devices to interact with, information overload [2] could become an even greater problem than it is today. Data is distributed in nature and growing in mobility. In addition to effective storage and database technologies, this will likely require efficient querying mechanisms to be put in place. These will need to assist users in accessing and making sense of all the information that will become available to them. It seems reasonable to assume that users will wish to query this “Internet of Things” using simple, perhaps even “Google-like” interfaces together with information, which is of value to them personally

Objectives

Results

Conclusion