| Search technology facilitates text search and does not handle non-alphanumeric symbols. The development of math search capabilities is a new area of research with many technical challenges due to the nature of the mathematical writing system. Some of the challenges are addressed through the use of current XML-based technologies. For example, the basic set of non-alphabetic mathematical symbols and mathematical expression's tree structures are captured directly through the use of Content MathML encoding. This resolves some ambiguities and inconsistencies inherent in the use of mathematical notation. Furthermore, mathematical expressions' rich structures, which proved to be a challenge to text search technology, can now be recognized by the emerging XML-based search engines. Consequently, the development of a math search system that fully captures math content is now possible. This research focuses on developing novel techniques that allow the general users to describe a mathematical expression using a simple math query language executed against a data repository of files containing mathematical content. |
