Conceptual representation of waveforms for temporal reasoning

Addresses the problem of comparing and unifying temporal relationships between activities expressed in timing diagrams and natural language narrative (English). This problem often occurs in specifications expressing behavioral requirements and constraints. The approach followed is to translate both diagrams and text into a common knowledge representation (conceptual graphs) employing temporal relations developed for temporal interval logic. In this knowledge representation, the requirements may be integrated, checked for inconsistencies, and subjected to additional temporal reasoning. An algorithm of polynomial complexity for generating a compact representation of temporal relationships from timing diagrams is presented. Generation of comparable conceptual graphs from English statements is described by using examples. Integrating conceptual graphs from timing diagrams and sentences while checking for inconsistencies is also of polynomial complexity.>