Automatic hidden-web table interpretation by sibling page comparison

Cui Tao, David W. Embley

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

The longstanding problem of automatic table interpretation still illudes us. Its solution would not only be an aid to table processing applications such as large volume table conversion, but would also be an aid in solving related problems such as information extraction and semi-structured data management. In this paper, we offer a conceptual modeling solution for the common special case in which so-called sibling pages are available. The sibling pages we consider are pages on the hidden web, commonly generated from underlying databases. We compare them to identify and connect nonvarying components (category labels) and varying components (data values). We tested our solution using more than 2,000 tables in source pages from three different domains-car advertisements, molecular biology, and geopolitical information. Experimental results show that the system can successfully identify sibling tables, generate structure patterns, interpret tables using the generated patterns, and automatically adjust the structure patterns, if necessary, as it processes a sequence of hidden-web pages. For these activities, the system was able to achieve an overall F-measure of 94.5%.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationConceptual Modeling - ER 2007 - 26th International Conference on Conceptual Modeling, Proceedings
PublisherSpringer Verlag
Pages566-581
Number of pages16
ISBN (Print)9783540755623
DOIs
StatePublished - 2007
Event26th International Conference on Conceptual Modeling, ER 2007 - Auckland, New Zealand
Duration: Nov 5 2007Nov 9 2007

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume4801 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Other

Other26th International Conference on Conceptual Modeling, ER 2007
Country/TerritoryNew Zealand
CityAuckland
Period11/5/0711/9/07

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Theoretical Computer Science
  • General Computer Science

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Automatic hidden-web table interpretation by sibling page comparison'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this