Welcome to the MIT InfoLab Group Homepage!

The MIT InfoLab Group develops intelligent interactive software systems that help people access information and solve problems on human terms. We conduct research in natural language processing and multimedia information access.

A key component of this effort is the START Natural Language System developed by Boris Katz. START provides access to text, diagrams, images, video and audio clips, data sets, Web pages and other types of information in response to questions posed to it in English. START works by using a technique called "natural language annotation," in which retrievable information segments are associated with natural language sentences and phrases -- annotations -- that describe their contents. Information segments are then retrieved when their annotations semantically match particular user-submitted questions.

Another component of the group's effort involves the development of IMPACT, an interactive planning and monitoring system grounded in simple, stylized English accounts of circumstances and events.

For more information about the group's activities, please contact us, or sign our Guest Book.