A measure of “efficiency factor”— Communication theory applied to document selection systems

摘要

An imperfect document selection system is represented as the analogy of a system in which symbols are selected and transmitted through a noisy channel. Provided that transmission reception uncertainties and not meaning are considered, it is suggested that one of Shannon's equations is applicable, and a single figure measure of system efficiency, Ht, is proposed.Values obtained using this new yardstick are compared with Recall/Precision values obtained for a typical system. Further research is required to test whether system “improvements” resulting in higher values of Ht are perceived as such by users.