JP2001052014A - Natural sentence searchable device and storage medium storing program for realizing the same - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Problem] To obtain a desired search result under natural sentence search conditions using a conventional Internet keyword search server. SOLUTION: Given a natural sentence search condition, a search server is provided with a divided keyword (step S).
3, 5). Given metadata as search results,
The similarity with the given natural sentence is calculated (step S1).
3). Then, the images are rearranged in descending order of similarity (step S18). The sorted search results are displayed (step S19). A site can be displayed according to the operator's intention without increasing the burden on the server side.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a natural sentence search apparatus, and more particularly to an apparatus connected to a keyword search apparatus and performing a natural sentence search.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Today, a huge amount of information is stored in a computer connected to the Internet. As a search server for searching for a site requested by a user in order to obtain information desired by an operator from such a vast amount of information, Ya
hoo (trademark), Infoseek (trademark) and the like are known.

A search using the search server will be described. In the search server, metadata (title, summary, etc.) of each site is stored in advance. The user
Access the search server and enter the desired keyword. The search server presents the user with the metadata and URL of the site including the keyword in the metadata. The user reads the displayed metadata and determines whether the site matches the search intention. In this way, a site desired by the user can be searched from a huge number of sites.

[0004]

However, the search server has the following problems. The search server determines whether the input keyword exists in the metadata. Therefore, for example, a search could not be performed under natural sentence search conditions such as "I want to know about the damage of computer viruses". Also, even if the natural sentence is divided into terms and given as keywords, if the number of hits is large, the user refers to the metadata of each site and determines whether or not the site matches the search condition. Need to be considered.

[0005] In order to solve such a problem, it is conceivable to enable a search by interpreting the meaning of a natural sentence given to the search server as a search condition. However, the index for such a natural sentence search increases, and the load on the search server increases.

[0006] The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems, and provides a natural sentence as a search condition using an existing search server, and obtains a search result that matches the meaning of the natural sentence or a method thereof. The purpose is to provide.

[0007]

Means for Solving the Problems and Effects of the Invention 1) In a recording medium storing a program according to the present invention, metadata about a plurality of documents specified by a URL is stored in advance, and a search keyword is stored. When given, a program for realizing a computer connected via the Internet as a natural sentence searchable device to a search server connected to the Internet which specifies URLs of documents including the search keyword in the metadata in order of matching degree. When a natural sentence search condition composed of a natural sentence is given in a stored storage medium, a search keyword is extracted from the given natural sentence search condition and given to the search server, and a search result is sent from the search server device. If the document metadata is given along with the match level as Calculating a similarity of the natural sentence search conditions data, the program for executing a process of changing the degree of match of the document to the computer on the basis of the similarity are stored. As described above, once a search is performed with the keyword extracted based on the natural sentence, the search result is rearranged based on the similarity between the metadata of the search result and the natural sentence, so that the keyword is connected to the Internet. A natural sentence search can be performed using an existing search server that performs a search.

[0008] 2) In a recording medium storing a program according to the present invention, metadata about a plurality of documents specified by a URL is stored in advance, and when a search keyword is given, the search is performed in the metadata. A storage medium storing a program for realizing a computer connected via the Internet as a natural sentence searchable device in a search server connected to the Internet for specifying URLs of documents including keywords in order of matching degree, Is given, a search keyword is extracted from the given natural sentence search condition and provided to the search server, and the search server apparatus sends a U of a document that matches the search keyword.
Given a RL, a program for calculating the similarity between the document specified by the URL and the natural sentence search condition, and causing the computer to execute a process of changing the matching degree of the document based on the similarity Is stored. As described above, once a search is performed using the keyword extracted based on the natural sentence, the search result is rearranged based on the similarity between the document specified by the URL of the search result and the natural sentence. Even when metadata is not provided from the search server, natural sentence search can be performed. Furthermore, since the similarity is calculated using the document, it is possible to obtain a search result that more matches the natural sentence search condition.

[0009] 3) In the recording medium storing the program according to the present invention, a computer connected to a keyword search device for specifying a file containing the search keyword based on a given search keyword can be used as a natural sentence searchable device. When a natural sentence search condition composed of natural sentences is given, a search keyword is extracted from the natural sentence and given to the keyword search device. For the specified file, calculate the similarity between the file content information that directly or indirectly represents the content of the file and the natural sentence search condition, and calculate the matching degree of the specified file based on the similarity. A program for causing the computer to execute the process of determining is stored. As described above, once a search is performed using the keyword extracted based on the natural sentence, the search result is rearranged based on the similarity between the file content information and the natural sentence. A natural sentence search can be performed using the search device.

4) A natural sentence searchable device according to the present invention is connected to a keyword search device for specifying a file containing the search keyword based on a given search keyword, and 1) a natural sentence composed of natural sentences When a search condition is given, storage means for storing the natural sentence, 2) keyword output means for extracting a search keyword from the natural sentence and giving it to the keyword search device, and 3) search results from the keyword search device Calculating means for calculating the similarity between the natural sentence and the file content information directly or indirectly representing the content of the specified file for the specified file; 4) calculating the similarity of the specified file based on the similarity; An evaluation means for determining an evaluation is provided. As described above, once a search is performed using the keyword extracted based on the natural sentence, the search result is rearranged based on the similarity between the file content information and the natural sentence. Using a search device,
Natural sentence search becomes possible.

5) A natural sentence search method using a computer according to the present invention includes connecting the computer to a keyword search device that specifies a file including the search keyword based on a given search keyword, and ) When a natural sentence search condition composed of natural sentences is given, a search keyword is extracted from the natural sentence and given to the keyword search device. 2) When a search result is given from the keyword search device, the search result is given. For the file specified based on the similarity, calculate the similarity between the file contents information that directly or indirectly represents the content of the file and the natural sentence, and 3) evaluate the specified file based on the similarity. To determine. In this way, by once searching for the keyword extracted based on the natural sentence, the search results are rearranged for each file based on the similarity between the file content information and the natural sentence,
A natural sentence search can be performed using an existing keyword search device that performs a keyword search.

The "file content information" is data that directly or indirectly represents the content of the file.
In the embodiment, this corresponds to metadata. Note that the metadata is a characteristic term or a set of the terms in the document, and further includes a title of the file content, a summary of the file content, and the like.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Description of Functional Block Diagram One embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The natural sentence searchable device 1 shown in FIG.
It is used by being connected to. The keyword search device 19
A file containing the search keyword is specified based on the given search keyword.

The natural sentence searchable device 1 includes a storage unit 3, a keyword output unit 5, a calculation unit 7, an evaluation unit 9, and an output unit 11.

The storage means 3 stores a natural sentence given a natural sentence search condition composed of natural sentences. The keyword output unit 5 extracts a search keyword from the natural sentence stored in the storage unit 3 and provides the keyword to the keyword search device 19. When the search result is given from the keyword search device 19, the calculation means 7
The similarity between the natural sentence and the file content information that directly or indirectly represents the content of the file is calculated. The evaluation means 8 determines the evaluation of the specified file based on the similarity. The output unit 9 reports the evaluation of each file determined by the evaluation unit.

In the present embodiment, the keyword search device 19 and the natural sentence searchable device 1 are TCP /
The case where the Internet connection is established by IP has been described, but the case where the connection is established by LAN or the like can be similarly applied. Further, the same applies to a case where the connection is made using a communication protocol other than TCP / IP.

Although the display means is used as the notification means, other notification means, such as a sound generation means, may be used.

2. Example of Connection Using the Internet A case will be described in which the natural sentence searchable device 1 shown in FIG. 1 is connected to a keyword search server, which is a keyword search device, via the Internet. Natural sentence searchable device 1
Are connected to the keyword search server 20 via the Internet, as shown in FIG. The URL and metadata of each site are stored in the keyword search server 20 in advance. When a natural sentence search condition is input, the natural sentence searchable device 1 extracts a search keyword from the natural sentence and gives it to the keyword search server 20 as a search keyword. The keyword search server 20 specifies a document including the keyword based on metadata of each document stored in advance. The specified document URL and metadata are provided to the natural sentence searchable device 1. The natural sentence searchable device 1 sorts the given search results based on the similarity with the natural sentence.

3. Hardware Configuration of Natural Sentence Retrieval Apparatus 1 Referring to FIG. 3, the natural sentence retrievable apparatus 1 shown in FIG.
1 shows an example of a hardware configuration realized using U.

The natural sentence searchable device 1 comprises a CPU 23, a memory 27, a hard disk 26, a CRT 30, a FDD 2
5, a keyboard 28, a mouse 31, a communication board 32, and a bus line 29. The CPU 23 controls each unit via a bus line 29 according to a control program stored in the hard disk 26.

The control program is transmitted via the FDD 25 to a flexible disk (F) storing the program.
D) It is read from 25a and installed on the hard disk 26. In addition to the flexible disk, a computer-readable recording medium in which a program such as a CD-ROM or an IC card is substantially integrated is used.
You may make it install on a hard disk. Furthermore, you may make it download using a communication line.

In the present embodiment, the program is installed on the hard disk 26 from the flexible disk, so that the computer indirectly executes the program stored on the flexible disk. However, without being limited to this, the program stored in the flexible disk is stored in the FDD25.
Alternatively, it may be executed directly from. Note that, as a program executable by a computer, not only a program that can be directly executed by simply installing it as it is, but also a program that needs to be once converted into another form or the like (for example,
Decompression of data that has been compressed, etc.), and also includes those that can be executed in combination with other module parts.

The hard disk 26 has a program storage section 26a. The program storage unit 26a stores a program described later.

The communication board 32 transmits and receives data to and from another computer connected to the Internet based on a command from the CPU 23.

4. Flow chart Next, the program storage unit 26a of the hard disk 26
Will be described with reference to FIG. The following describes a case where a natural sentence search condition of “I want to know about countermeasures against computer viruses that have recently become a topic in Japan” is input. In FIG.
The processes on the client side and the server side are displayed together.

The operator inputs the natural sentence "I want to know about countermeasures against computer viruses that have recently become a hot topic in Japan" (step S1). The CPU 23 stores the input natural sentence in the RAM 27 (step S2).
At the same time, a keyword is extracted from the natural sentence (step S3). In this case, the keyword "Recent"
"Japan", "topics", "computer viruses" and "vaccines" are extracted.

The CPU 23 transmits the keyword to the search server via the communication board 32 (step S).
5).

The server determines whether there is a search request from the client (step S21). If there is a search request, the server extracts the URL and metadata of the corresponding file and arranges them in the order of the search hit rate. (Step S21), and transmits to the client side (Step S25). FIG. 5 shows the transmitted search results.

On the client side, after transmitting the step S5, the CPU 23 determines whether or not to receive the search result (step S7).
7 is stored in the download data storage unit 27a (step S9).

In the present embodiment, in order to calculate the degree of coincidence with a natural sentence, as will be described later, related word extension processing is performed from the received metadata, and the metadata is converted into a multidimensional vector. Memorized. This processing will be briefly described.

The related word expansion process is performed as follows. Using morphological analysis in natural language processing, all terms (mainly noun phrases) included in all metadata are extracted. Next, the degree of correlation (numerical value of 0 to 1) between the terms is calculated from the appearance frequency and the positional relationship (including the dependency relationship) of all the terms included in the metadata, and related words are extracted.
For example, if the term “bicycle” is often used simultaneously with the term “Olympic” and the term “Koichi Nakano”, it is extracted as a related word. As described above, the related term refers to a term that is frequently used (appears) with a specific term. As described above, by performing the expansion process on the related words statistically based on the appearance frequency and the positional relationship of the terms, it is possible to accurately search for new terms and technical terms.

The multidimensional vectorization will be described. First, each term is weighted using the tfidf method.
The tfidf method is a method of determining a keyword in information retrieval, and is a term frequency (tf) indicating the frequency of occurrence of a term in a certain document, and the rarity of how few terms appear in all documents. Is a method of weighting terms using an idf (inverse document frequency) that indicates Then, each metadata is represented by a multi-dimensional space vector of each term while considering the related words.

Similarly, the natural sentence given in step S1 is converted into a multidimensional vector.

Next, the CPU 23 initializes the process item number i (step S11), calculates the similarity between the i-th item and the natural sentence stored in step S2, and stores it (step S13). . In this case,
The first item shown in Fig. 5 "Company profile ★ Japan branch office ...
, A similarity to the natural sentence “I want to know about countermeasures against computer viruses that have recently become a hot topic in Japan” is calculated.

In the present embodiment, the inner product of the multidimensional vector of the first metadata and the query sentence expressed as a natural sentence is calculated as the similarity.

The CPU 23 determines whether or not the similarity calculation has been completed for all items (step S15). In this case, since the processing has not been completed, the processing item number i is incremented (step S17), and the processing of step S13 is repeated.

When the similarity calculation with the natural sentence is completed for all the items in this way, the CPU 23 sorts the items in order of the similarity, and sorts the items in the sorted data storage unit 2 of the memory 27.
7b (step S18). FIG. 6 shows the sorting result. The CPU 23 displays the information on the CRT 30 in a predetermined format based on the search result after the sorting (step S19).

As described above, the search engine is once made to perform a search using a keyword, and the order of each document is rearranged according to the similarity between the search result and the given natural sentence. A site according to the operator's intention can be provided to the operator. As a result, a search using natural sentences can be performed using the conventional keyword search server.

When the operator looks at the search result and clicks on the item expected to store the desired document with the mouse, the URL of the item is specified and the corresponding site is specified in the same manner as in the prior art. A document transfer request is made.

As described above, in the present invention,
Search results by the keyword search server can be separately ranked (ordered).

In this way, as compared with a keyword search server that simply calculates a hit rate based on whether or not a certain term exists in metadata, it is as if the semantic analysis of each metadata is being performed. , The search results can be sorted. This makes it possible to easily and quickly search for a document that matches the search intention.

As described above, by comparing the similarity between the input natural sentence and the metadata returned from the search engine, it is possible to narrow down the search results and list the top ones closer to the results intended by the user.

In particular, the keyword search server often determines the hit ratio simply by determining whether or not a certain keyword exists, and returns each URL and its metadata in the order of the obtained hit ratio. Therefore, as a search result, a document in which all of the keywords exist is listed higher than a document in which some of the keywords are missing. On the other hand, by finally comparing the natural sentence with the metadata, it becomes possible to lower the display order of data that does not match the search intention.

In the natural sentence searchable device according to the present invention, a keyword is extracted from a natural sentence representing a search target, provided to a keyword search server, and the resulting site metadata is collated with the natural sentence. And those with the highest hit rates. Therefore, there is no need for the user to analyze the metadata each time. In particular, since search site information tends to expand year by year, search noise can be easily removed from such information.

Further, since the similarity determination is performed using the metadata, quick rearrangement is possible.

4. Second Embodiment In the first embodiment, an example using metadata included in a search result of a keyword search server has been described. However, instead of metadata, document data itself specified by the URL is used. You may. FIG. 7 shows a flowchart in this case.

In FIG. 7, the processing up to step S9 is the same as in the first embodiment. When a search result is received from the server, the URL is stored in the memory 27 (step S).
33). The CPU 23 gives an instruction to download the document for all the URLs to the computer that stores the document, downloads the document specified by the entire URL, and downloads the document specified by the URL.
a (step S35).

As in the first embodiment, the downloaded document data is subjected to related word expansion processing, and each document is represented by a multidimensional vector in consideration of such related words. The same applies to a natural sentence given by the operator.

The CPU 23 initializes the processing document number j (step S11), calculates the similarity between the j-th document and the natural sentence stored in step S2, and stores it (step S43). The similarity calculation is omitted.

The CPU 23 determines whether or not the similarity calculation has been completed for all items (step S45). In this case, since the processing has not been completed, the processing item number j is incremented (step S17), and the processing of step S43 is repeated.

When the similarity calculation with the natural sentence is completed for all items in this way, the CPU 23 sorts the documents in order of similarity and stores them in the sorted data storage unit 27b (step S48). CPU23
Displays the sorted search results on the CRT 30 (step S49). When the operator gives the designation, the CP
U23 reads the document stored in the download data storage unit 27a and displays it on the CRT 30.

As described above, the search engine is once made to perform a search using a keyword, and is rearranged according to the similarity between the search result and the given natural sentence. You can search the site along. This is particularly useful when metadata for similarity determination cannot be obtained. Also, natural sentence search with higher accuracy than sorting using metadata can be performed.

In the display in step S49, the rearranged data may be displayed with a predetermined number of characters from the beginning of the document data, or may be displayed in a summarized form.

5. Other Embodiments In the above embodiment, a case was described in which a computer connected to the Internet was used. However, the present invention can be similarly applied as long as the computer is connected to a network.
In this case, it is sufficient to specify the file ID (including the file name) of each document instead of the URL in the WWW.

Incidentally, regarding the similarity calculation with the natural sentence,
Not limited to the method of the above embodiment, another natural sentence similarity calculation method may be used.

In this embodiment, the case of a Japanese document has been described. However, the present invention can be similarly applied to other languages such as English, German, Chinese, and Korean.

Note that natural sentences are used as search conditions. Therefore, when comparing with the metadata provided from the search engine, the meaning such as context can be used.

In this embodiment, the download data storage unit and the rearrangement data storage unit are provided in the memory 27, but either or both of them may be stored in the hard disk 26.

In the present embodiment, in order to realize the functions shown in FIG. 1, the CPU 23 is used and the functions are realized by software. However, some or all of them may be realized by hardware such as a logic circuit.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a natural sentence searchable device 1 according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a network connection example of the natural sentence searchable device 1 shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 shows a hardware configuration in which the natural sentence searchable device 1 is configured by a CPU.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a natural sentence search process.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a search result by the keyword search server.

FIG. 6 shows search results after sorting.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of another embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 23: CPU 27: Memory

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An Internet for storing metadata of a plurality of documents specified by URLs in advance, and specifying a URL of a document including the search keyword in the metadata in the order of matching degree when a search keyword is given. Is a storage medium storing a program that realizes a computer connected via the Internet as a natural sentence searchable device, and a natural sentence search condition composed of natural sentences is given to a search server connected to When a search keyword is extracted from the given natural sentence search condition and provided to the search server, and the search server device provides the metadata of the document as a search result along with the matching degree, the metadata and the natural sentence search condition Is calculated, and the degree of matching of the document is determined based on the similarity. A storage medium storing a program for causing the computer to execute a process to be changed. 2. An Internet for storing metadata of a plurality of documents specified by URLs in advance, and specifying a URL of a document including the search keyword in the metadata in the order of matching degree when a search keyword is given. Is a storage medium storing a program that realizes a computer connected via the Internet as a natural sentence searchable device, and a natural sentence search condition composed of natural sentences is given to a search server connected to A search keyword is extracted from the given natural sentence search condition and provided to the search server. When a URL of a document that matches the search keyword is provided from the search server device, the document specified by the URL and the natural sentence Calculate the similarity with the search condition, and based on this similarity, A storage medium storing a program for causing the computer to execute a process for changing the degree of matching of the program. 3. A storage medium storing a program for realizing, as a natural sentence searchable device, a computer connected to a keyword search device for specifying a file including the search keyword based on a given search keyword. Given a natural sentence search condition composed of natural sentences, a search keyword is extracted from the natural sentence and provided to the keyword search device. For a file specified by the keyword search device, the contents of the file are directly Or calculating the degree of similarity between the file content information indirectly represented and the natural sentence search condition, and determining the degree of matching of the specified file based on the degree of similarity. A storage medium that stores a program. 4. A natural sentence searchable device connected to a keyword search device for specifying a file containing the search keyword based on a given search keyword, wherein a natural sentence search condition composed of natural sentences is When given, storage means for storing the natural sentence, keyword output means for extracting a search keyword from the natural sentence and providing it to the keyword search device, when a search result is provided from the keyword search device,
Calculating means for calculating the similarity between the specified sentence and the file contents information directly or indirectly representing the contents of the file and the natural sentence; determining the evaluation of the specified file based on the similarity; A natural sentence searchable device comprising: an evaluation unit. 5. A computer is connected to a keyword search device for specifying a file containing the search keyword based on a given search keyword, wherein the computer is provided with a natural sentence search condition composed of natural sentences. When,
A search keyword is extracted from this natural sentence and provided to the keyword search device. 2) When a search result is provided from the keyword search device, the contents of the file specified based on the search result are directly or Calculating the similarity between the indirectly represented file content information and the natural sentence, and 3) determining the evaluation of the specified file based on the similarity, wherein a natural sentence search using a computer is performed. Method.