METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PREFERENCE GUIDED DATA EXPLORATION

摘要

There is disclosed a method and apparatus for querying a database storing a plurality of items. In an embodiment, the method comprises querying the database with a query comprising a plurality of first-order user preferences indicative of a user's preferences among items in the plurality of items and a second-order user preference indicative of the user's preferences among first-order user preferences in the plurality of first-order user preferences. In another embodiment, the method further comprises calculating a ranking of the plurality of items based at least in part on a data structure encoding a preference graph representing the plurality of first-order user preference and the second-order user preference and outputting at least a subset of the plurality of items to the user, in accordance with the ranking.