TOWARDS A NATURAL-LANGUAGE USER-INTERFACE - AN APPROACH OF FUZZY QUERY

A fuzzy query approach is presented which is aimed at introducing more natural language expressions into GIS user interfaces. In this approa ch 'vague' natural language expressions are represented as fuzzy formu lae and are processed in a systematic manner. This approach enables mo dification-type, composition-type and quantification-type fuzzy formul ae to be used for data retrieval. This approach can be easily implemen ted, including on most of the existing nonfuzzy systems. The ease of i mplementation makes this approach attractive for developing new system s and for enhancing existing GIS. In this paper, the concepts underlyi ng the approach and the methods for processing fuzzy formulae are desc ribed in detail. A prototype for implementing this approach and a grou p of sample queries are described.