JP2007188469A - Information space processing device, program, and method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information management device and the like, in which management and retrieval of information are facilitated by systematically treating a meaning of information each person has in a form close to the original meaning. <P>SOLUTION: There are provided a device, a method, a program, and a computer-readable recording medium for managing information by using a node realized in a space expressing a concept and in "a computer-readable recording medium" or "a network" existing in the space. The method includes a data acquisition step for acquiring information from the space, a calculation processing step for performing superposition calculation for calculating relationship of information in one or a plurality of spaces according to the acquired information, and a data output step for outputting the superposition calculation result obtained by a superposition calculation processing unit. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

The present invention relates to an information space processing apparatus that performs management, search, analysis, and sharing of an information space composed of knowledge information in a computer program.
The present invention relates to an information space processing apparatus that manages, searches, analyzes, and shares knowledge information in a computer program using the principle of space superposition.

The development of information technology today is remarkable. Everybody around the world uses computers, which are indispensable in daily life and business. However, on the other hand, as computers are used more, information managed by computers is increasing day by day. In addition to the Internet, companies and the like are becoming increasingly large in size, and the information that they really need is buried in a vast amount of other information, making it difficult to obtain efficiently. If these problems can be solved and vast information management can be facilitated, it can be said that daily life becomes richer and business becomes more efficient.

In order to solve the above problem, the present invention deals with the meaning of information. As a result, convenience beyond simple Word search can be obtained.

Currently, technologies that handle the meaning of information include information that can be used to perform semantic search, inference processing, and agent-type search processing by adding information (meta information) that represents the meaning of information to information. is there.

The semantic management system based on meta information and the semantic systematization method are described in Non-Patent Document 1, Non-Patent Document 2, Non-Patent Document 3, Non-Patent Document 4, Non-Patent Document 5, and Non-Patent Document 9. Such as Semantic Network, Topic Map, Resource Description Framework (RDF), and Web Ontology Language (OWL). In particular, topic maps, RDF, and OWL are called the Semantics Web and are currently being actively studied.

In addition, Microsoft's next-generation file system (code name) WinFS described in Non-Patent Document 6, Non-Patent Document 7, and Non-Patent Document 8 is also being researched and developed as a next-generation information management method for information. Progressing. This approach is to make the file system accessible like the Web. This is because meta information about a file is stored in a relational database, and advanced query search, cross search, search speed improvement, search by classification, search result narrowing search, and the like become possible. However, this is also a method of managing and searching meta information of information.

By Jack Park, edited by Sam Hunting, translated by Takeshi Goto, "XMLTopic Maps-Semantic Web in the Era" Members of the TopicMaps.Org Authoring Group, XML Topic Maps (XTM) 1.0, [online], [Search May 20, 2004], Internet <http://www.topicmaps.org/xtm/1.0/> ISO 13250 W3C, Resource Description Framework (RDF), [online], [May 2004 search], Internet <URL: http://www.w3.org/RDF/> W3C, OWL Web Ontology Language XML Presentation Syntax, [online], [searched May 20, 2004], Internet <http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-xmlsyntax/> By Microsoft Corporation, WinFS, [online], [searched May 2004], Internet <URL: http://msdn.microsoft.com/Longhorn/understanding/pillars/WinFS/default.aspx> By Microsoft Corporation, WinFS in the Longhorn SDK, [online], [May 2004 search], Internet <URL: http://longhorn.msdn.microsoft.com/?//longhorn.msdn.microsoft.com/lhsdk /winfs/daovrWelcomeToWinFS.aspx> By Microsoft Corporation, TheWindows File System, [online], [May 2004 Search], Internet <URL: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnaero /html/wux_topic_storage.asp> “Computational Intelligence Part 4 Knowledge Engineering Ontology Encourages Sharing of Knowledge”, Nikkei Bytes February 2004, Nikkei Business Publications, 2004, p. 42-45

In a system that uses meta information, it is necessary to clearly define the meaning of the information. However, the “meaning for certain information” in the human head is very vague. Even if the information is the same, the meaning varies depending on the person handling it. It also changes depending on the situation and the viewpoint of information. If you say the extreme argument, if you want to handle the semantic information that an individual has correctly, you will have to make a molecular copy of the brain and simulate it on a computer at the molecular level. But this is not possible with modern science.

Therefore, the present invention does not use only meta information, but expresses meanings in different approaches and uses them for information management.

In order to achieve the above object, an information space evaluation apparatus according to the present invention is information that evaluates one or a plurality of spaces formed by a set of nodes (a group of information) that is a group of information. A space evaluation device, a data acquisition unit for acquiring information from the space, and an overlay calculation processing unit for performing overlay calculation, which is a process for calculating the relationship between different spaces based on the acquired information; And a data output unit for outputting a result of the overlay calculation by the overlay calculation processing unit.
In the present invention, meaning is treated as a space. In other words, the meaning is treated as position information existing in the space and state information of the presence, not as meta information defined in any way. In the present invention, this space is particularly called a semantic space. Also, handling this status information plays a major role in handling the ambiguity of meaning.

Spatial overlapping processing is a very important concept in the present invention. This is a calculation that compares the existence of one or a plurality of spaces. Of particular importance is the use of equivalence evaluation to compare whether this comparison is the same. Each space expresses some concept. The existence of the same thing in each different space means that the same thing exists in a different concept. In the present invention, it is understood as meaning. Since this existence does not depend on the structure of the space itself or the relationship between information and information, it can give a great degree of freedom to the description of the space. By using the superimposition processing, it is possible to highlight what exists across a plurality of spaces.

In short, the superposition process can be said to be a process in which information emerges by comparing data biases and features in the space.

Depending on how the space is designed, it can be said that in general, the presence of a node in a space that is a set of nodes represents an important meaning. Normally, a space is designed using a certain design concept. In other words, the existence of a certain node means that the node satisfies a certain design concept. Moreover, it can be said that it does not satisfy a certain design philosophy that it does not exist. By comparing these existences, it is possible to obtain really necessary information from a plurality of spaces by calculation.

Projection of space is a useful mechanism for expressing different things while maintaining a uniform structure. In other words, a plurality of versions of space can be handled as one concept. Space projection makes it easy to handle uniform data. The application is powerful, such as the Japanese version, the English version, and the Spanish version. By projecting, it is possible to clearly create a coherent space for each aspect while maintaining a specific structure.

The layer can provide additional information or processing using the additional information to the space. For example, information related to security is usually different from the concept to be expressed in space. More specifically, suppose there is a space that expresses a certain test result. Information such as access permission and disapproval, which is information related to the security of this space, should not be related to the test result such as the test score. In this way, by clearly separating information that is not directly related to the concept of space, each can be handled easily.

Spatial expansion is facilitated by automatic space classification. If this process is used, there is no need for humans to consider where to add nodes in the space, where to place them, and to greatly increase the time and effort of grasping the entire space and adding nodes. It becomes possible to decrease.
The present invention can be realized not only as the information space evaluation apparatus as described above but also as an information space evaluation method, a program expressing the method as steps, and a recording medium such as a computer-readable CD-ROM storing the program. Can also be realized.

By utilizing the present invention, more flexible information search and management can be performed. In particular, if the space can be designed appropriately, it is possible to search for abstract information (considering the contents of text, images, moving images, and audio).

The table of contents of the embodiment is shown below.
Item 1. Description of Invention Configuration (Embodiment 1)
Item 2. Device that can perform overlay processing 2.1. Device that can perform overlay processing using equivalence evaluation 2.1.1. Device that can perform logical operations using equivalence evaluation 2.1. 2. Device items that can be weighted using equivalence evaluation 2.1.2.1. Weighting processing items using priority 2.1.2.2. Weighting processing items using merge processing 2.1.2.2.1. Weighted processing items used 2.1.3. Implementation items of equivalence evaluation unit 2.1.4. Calculation algorithm items for overlay processing by merge processing 2.2. Device items that can perform overlay processing using comparative study 2.2.1 Weighting process item using comparative study 2.2.1.1. Weighting process item using comparison study that is all comparison type 2.2.1.2. Weighting process item using comparison study that is external comparison type 2.2.1.3. Inner comparison type Is a comparative study Weighted processing items used 2.2.1.4. Comparison items for all comparison types, external comparison types, and internal comparison types 2.2.1.5. Weighting processing items using a comparative study that can reduce the number of comparisons by equivalent evaluation 2.2.2. Logical operation items using comparative studies 2.3. Device items that can perform integrated calculation 2.3.1. Items that integrate weighting results 2.3.2. Items that integrate results obtained from the spatial data section 2.3. 3. Integrated calculation items that calculate weights as operands 2.3.3.1. Integrated calculation items that calculate weights as operands of four arithmetic operations 2.3.4. Equivalent evaluation items used in integrated calculations 2.4. Devices that can perform filtering Item 2.5. Device that can process weights 2.6. Search device using superposition processing 2.7. Superposition processing using independent space nodes 3. Projection item 3.1. Link projection item 3 .2. Node projection item 3.3. Projection item linking data 3.4.
Projection item using independent space node 4. Layer item 4.1. Spatial item with layer 4.2. Structure layer item 4.3. Entity layer item 4.4. Entity layer item 4.5. Security layer item 4.6. Event layer item 4.7. Use layer Software system item 5. Automatic classification processing item 5.1. Device item to add individually 5.2. Device item to add synchronization 5.3. Device item to add link 5.4. Additional item of presence / absence conditional expression in circulation 5.5. Conditional expression item 5.6. About the form of the expression Item 6. Implementation of the invention as a book search system (second embodiment)
Item 6.1. System functional configuration item 6.2. Information flow in processing item 6.3. Execution of superposition processing item 6.3.1. Book search item by weighting processing using equivalence evaluation 6.3.2. Logical operation using equivalence evaluation Book Search Item that Uses 6.3.3. Book Search Item by Weighting Processing Using Comparative Study 6.3.4. Item that Manages Print Versions by Using Projection 6.3.5. Use Layers Item 6.3.6 that implements services for members 6. Item that facilitates information registration by using automatic classification process 7. Example as general-purpose information management software (Embodiment 3)
Item 8. Supplementary explanation item of the elements of the invention 8.1. Environment item that can use the invention 8.2. Node item 8.3. Link item 8.4. Space item 8.5. Operation item to space 8.6. Synchronization item 8.7. Equivalent evaluation item 8.8. Comparative evaluation

Item 1.
Explanation of Configuration of Invention (Embodiment 1)

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration example of the information space processing device 4000 according to the first embodiment. This information space processing device 4000 is a device that performs evaluation (analysis, management, search, sharing, etc.) on a plurality of spaces formed by a set of nodes, which are a group of information, and the meaning of human beings in the space. It is characterized by the fact that it can be handled as ambiguous by treating it as status information, and includes a data acquisition unit 4210, a processing start unit 4212, a projection unit 4411, an overlay calculation processing unit 4211, a data output unit 4213, and an automatic It comprises a classification processing unit 4809. The data acquisition unit 4210 further includes a space selection unit 4250 including a link selection unit 4251 and a hierarchy selection unit 4252, and a spatial filtering unit 4253. The overlay calculation processing unit 4211 further includes an arithmetic processing unit 4216 including a logical operation calculating unit 4220, a weighting calculating unit 4221, an integrated calculation calculating unit 4222, a filtering unit 4223, and a processing processing unit 4224, and an equivalence evaluation unit 4215. And a comparative study unit 4217.

In this figure, a spatial data section 4201 and the like existing outside the information space processing apparatus 4000 are also shown. Each component is implemented by one or a plurality of programs and / or hardware. The program may be processed by a plurality of computers. The overall processing flow uses the processing start unit 4212 and the data acquisition unit 4210 from the spatial data unit 4201 to determine the processing to be performed and the target space. Further, using the determination of the processing start unit 4212 and the data acquisition unit 4210, the overlay calculation processing unit 4211 performs overlay processing, and the data output unit 4213 outputs the result to the output destination 4214.

The space data portion 4201 is a portion where information about space exists, and means a computer-readable recording medium such as a memory or a magnetic disk, or a network itself. In order to access such information, a method of reading information from a space realized on a memory or a magnetic disk, a method of acquiring spatial information from another computer on a network, and the like are common.

The processing start unit 4212 determines what processing is to be performed. This may be a command from an external or internal program or a case where a human has commanded processing. In this part, it is determined which space is the processing target and how the overlay processing is performed. In performing the process, the spatial data unit 4201 is accessed, and information is collected using the data acquisition unit 4210 or the like. For example, such processing is often performed when a human determines a search target interactively through a program.

The data acquisition unit 4210 is a processing unit that acquires information from the spatial data unit 4201. The data acquisition unit 4210 acquires information to be used by the processing start unit 4212 and uses it by the overlay calculation processing unit 4211. The data acquisition unit 4210 acquires data to be used for the overlay process using a link selection unit 4251 and a hierarchy selection unit 4252 that are a kind of the space selection unit 4250. Furthermore, if necessary, the data to be used is selected by executing a spatial filtering unit 4253 or the like on the result of the data acquisition unit 4210.

The overlay calculation processing unit 4211 is a processing unit that performs overlay calculation, which is a process of calculating the relevance between different spaces, based on the information acquired by the data acquisition unit 4210, and uses the information of the data acquisition unit 4210. Originally, using the arithmetic processing unit 4216 and the equivalence evaluation unit 4215, various arithmetic operations are performed to obtain the truth value of the logical operation, the weighting processing, and the weight (score) of the weighted integration calculation. The calculation of the truth value by the logical operation is implemented by the logical operation calculation unit 4220. The weighting calculation unit 4221 obtains a weighting weight (score). In the integrated calculation calculation unit 4222, it is preferable to use the result of the weighting calculation unit 4221 to perform processing for weighted integration calculation. It is also effective to apply the filtering unit 4223 or the processing unit 4224 to the results of the logical operation calculation unit 4220, the weighting calculation unit 4221, and the integrated calculation calculation unit 4222.

The equivalence evaluation unit 4215 will be described. The equivalence evaluation unit 4215 is a processing unit that evaluates whether nodes can be regarded as equivalent. None of the equivalence evaluations used in the overlay calculation process can be basically used, and any equivalence evaluation such as synchronization point equivalence evaluation, equivalence evaluation using node properties, and node type can be used. These can be defined in the script program language 4240, or the function of equivalence evaluation can be delegated to the external program 4241.

The comparison review unit 4217 will be described. The comparison examination unit 4217 performs a comparison examination process in which nodes are compared and evaluated. Usually, numerical information is obtained by comparison. The comparison examination process can be defined in the script program language 4240, or the function of the comparison examination process can be delegated to the external program 4241.

The arithmetic processing unit 4216 is a processing unit that performs comparison calculation on different spaces based on the evaluation by the equivalence evaluation unit 4215 and the comparison study unit 4217 and calculates the result as the relevance. The logical operation calculation unit 4221 calculates a true / false value of the logical operation. The calculation is performed using the equivalence evaluation unit 4215 or the comparison study unit 4217. For example, for the evaluation by the equivalence evaluation unit 4215, true / false is determined by determining whether or not a certain condition is satisfied, and the true / false of different spaces is logically calculated. This result is passed to the data output unit 4213, or a true / false value is selected by the filtering unit 4223, or used for calculation by the filtering unit 4223 and the processing unit 4224.

The weight calculation unit 4221 calculates the weight (score) of the weighting process. The calculation is performed using the equivalence evaluation unit 4215. For example, the number of nodes determined to be equivalent by the equivalence evaluation unit 4215 is counted, and a weighting process is performed using a value depending on the counted number as a weight for the space or the node. Normally, this part is used for unique processing, priority adjustment, and various calculations.

The integrated calculation calculation unit 4222 calculates a weight (score) for weighted integrated calculation. The calculation is performed using the equivalence evaluation unit 4215. Normally, this calculation is performed using the result of the weight calculation unit 4221. For example, by using the weight obtained by the weight calculation unit 4221, a comparison calculation for different spaces is performed.

The calculation results of the weight calculation unit 4221 and the integrated calculation calculation unit 4222 may be output to the data output unit 4213 as they are, but only a specific one is selected by the filtering unit 4223 or the processing unit 4224 is used. It is also effective to output an adjusted score.

The filtering unit 4223 performs a filtering process that is a mechanism for narrowing down results such as a logical operation, a weighting process, or a weighted integration calculation. Information can be narrowed down by applying to the results of the logical operation calculation unit 4220, the weighting calculation unit 4221, and the integrated calculation operation unit 4222. For narrowing down, the result of the logical operation calculation unit 4220 is used, or a node determination formula is used. It is also effective to further process the result by the processing unit 4224. These results are output to the output destination 4214 by the data output unit 4213.

The processing unit 4224 calculates a weight processing for performing processing on the weights of weighting processing and weighted integration calculation. The processing is generally performed using the result of the logical operation calculation unit 4220 or performing processing using a node determination formula. It is also effective to further sort the results by the filtering unit 4223. These results are output to the output destination 4214 by the data output unit 4213.

The data output unit 4213 receives the result of the overlay calculation process 4211 and outputs it to the output destination 4214. The output destination is a computer-readable recording medium or a network. Usually, the result is stored in a memory or a magnetic disk, transferred to another computer or program using a network, or output using a display or a speaker. The output result can be further arranged using the filtering unit 4223 and the processing unit 4224.

The projecting unit 4411 is a process for making it possible to handle a plurality of versions of space as one concept, that is, a processing unit for projecting a space. By using this function, it is possible to prevent information from being distributed. Projection is effective for multilingual design of space and management of complex programs and documents by version.
The automatic classification processing unit 4809 is a control unit that performs control to automatically and sequentially execute each component included in the information space processing device 4000.

Item 2.
Device that can perform superposition processing

A flow of processing in the apparatus when performing superimposition processing will be described. In the superimposition process started by the process start unit 4212, the data acquisition unit 4210 acquires information on the space used in the superimposition process from the spatial data unit 4201. The acquired space information is subjected to a process of calculating the relevance between the spaces in the overlap calculation unit 4211, and the overlap processing result is acquired. The overlap processing result is output to the output destination 4214 by the data output unit 4213.

The “superimposition processing” of the space by the overlay calculation processing unit 4211 is to extract information from a space composed of one or a plurality of nodes using comparative evaluation for comparing nodes. . Any node can be used as long as it can be compared by a computer. In other words, the node may be information, a program module, a device, or the like. In short, any node that can be compared by a computer can be used. In other words, what is calculated as a node depends on the program.

The most effective method of using the superposition process is to extract information by comparing a plurality of spaces. As shown in the image diagram of FIG. 5, the two spaces, 113, are related up by overlapping the two spaces. Extraction of information from space can be said to make information emerge as shown by 113 by using superposition processing. The superposition process is used for information retrieval and analysis.

Item 2.1.
A device that can perform overlay processing using equivalence evaluation

The flow of processing in the apparatus when performing superimposition processing using equivalence evaluation will be described in association with the function of the first embodiment. In the superimposition process started by the process start unit 4212, the data acquisition unit 4210 acquires information on the space used in the superimposition process from the spatial data unit 4201. The acquired space information is subjected to processing for calculating the relevance between the spaces in the overlap calculation unit 4211. In the overlap calculation unit 4211, the arithmetic processing unit 4216 uses the equivalence evaluation unit 4215 to calculate the relationship between the spaces based on the result of the equivalence evaluation that determines whether the acquired nodes in the space are equivalent. To do. The calculated overlay processing result is output to the output destination 4214 by the data output unit 4213.

Information can be extracted from the space by calculating the comparison evaluation used in the superimposition processing using the equivalent evaluation for determining whether or not the nodes are the same.

By using the equivalence evaluation, in which the comparison evaluation used in the overlay processing of the space by the overlay calculation processing unit 4211 can be regarded as the same node by the equivalence evaluation unit 4215, various information can be obtained from the space. Can be acquired. The reason why the overlay processing using the equivalence evaluation is effective is that information included in a plurality of spaces is highly likely to be important. Although the space depends on the design, it is created based on some design philosophy. That is, what can be regarded as the same in a plurality of spaces can be regarded as meaningful information existing in the plurality of spaces.

Item 2.1.1.
Device capable of performing logical operations using equivalence evaluation

A flow of processing in the apparatus when performing a logical operation using equivalence evaluation will be described in association with the function of the first embodiment. In the superimposition process started by the process start unit 4212, the data acquisition unit 4210 acquires information on the space used in the superimposition process from the spatial data unit 4201. The acquired space information is subjected to processing for calculating the relevance between the spaces in the overlap calculation unit 4211. In the overlap calculation unit 4211, the arithmetic processing unit 4216 uses the equivalence evaluation unit 4215 to calculate the information of the truth value based on the result of the equivalence evaluation that determines whether or not the acquired nodes in the space are equivalent. To do. The calculated overlay processing result is output to the output destination 4214 by the data output unit 4213.

The logical operation of the superimposition process using the equivalence evaluation unit 4215 performs logical operation using the space node as a true / false value by using equivalence evaluation for determining whether the node is the same in the space information. Values indicated by logical operations are expressed as true and false and are very easy to handle. Logical operations are AND (logical product), OR (logical sum), XOR (exclusive logical sum), NOT (negative logical product), NAND (negative logical product), NOR (negative logical product), XNOR (exclusive logical sum) Negative logic) and all logical operations are possible.

In the calculation logic of the logical operation using the equivalence evaluation, a method for making the equivalent node more than a certain value in the space true will be described. This is true for some situations where there is more overlap. It can be considered that there are many duplicates, that is, what is likely to be important is true, and the others are false. When the condition that “the equivalent number is 2 or more is true and the other is false” is temporarily set for the space 1800 and replaced with a truth table, the result shown in FIG. 44 is obtained. Depending on the situation, the condition may be set according to the situation, such as “true if the equivalent number is 3 or more, false otherwise”.

Alternatively, a method in which an equivalent number of 1 or more is true and the others are false can be used. If this method is used, a logical operation can be performed based on whether information is present or not, and as a result, it can also be used to check whether information is included. However, an implementation that can be specified by the user according to the situation is good. It is also possible to calculate by changing the number specified by the space. Thus, various true / false calculations are possible depending on the number of equivalent nodes.

An example of a space logical operation by the logical operation calculation unit 4220 will be described as an example of calculation in a Web search device. The space data unit 4201 (in this case, the space created to manage the website shown in FIG. 34) and the data acquisition unit 4210 (generally a web browser or web terminal) obtain information necessary for overlaying. Then, it is transferred to the overlay calculation processing unit 4211 (generally a remote server device). Based on the passed data, a logical operation is calculated by the logical operation unit 4220 using the equivalence evaluation unit 4215, and finally the result of the logical operation (FIGS. 38, 39, 40, 41, and 42). , (True / false data as shown in FIG. 43) is output to the output destination 4214 (generally a Web browser or Web terminal).

The calculation logic of the logical operation in the web search device will be described below. FIG. 34 shows a part of the space created for managing the Web site. The circles in FIG. 34 are nodes that are assigned numbers inside, and are subject to logical operation. The meaning of the numbers is equivalent numbers that represent equivalents with the same numbers. In this case, nodes storing the same Web page are equivalent to each other. FIG. 35 and FIG. 36 represent this space with true / false values. FIG. 35 shows the space 1800 replaced with a true / false value, and FIG. 36 shows the space 1801 replaced with a true / false value. In this example, as a criterion for determining a true or false value, that is, 0 or 1, an equivalent number of 1 or more is converted as true. In other words, the existing condition uses the condition that all space units are true. FIG. 37 shows the details of the logical operation method using the AND operation. As shown in FIG. 37, in this implementation, anything that does not exist in each space (none) is calculated as false. The result of the final AND operation is shown in FIG. Similarly, FIG. 39 shows an OR operation, FIG. 40 shows an XOR operation, FIG. 41 shows a NAND operation, FIG. 42 shows a NOR operation, and FIG. 43 shows an XNOR operation. .

The effect of the logical operation will be described. The result of FIG. 37 is true if both exist in two spaces. In other words, a Web site that exists in both of the two categories of spaces can be acquired by the AND operation. In this case, it is a favorite site, and an inquiry to acquire a Web site accessed today and yesterday can be made. These calculations grow as the information becomes larger. In this case, since it is a dozen or so spaces, it is possible for a human to directly recognize it. However, if the information has a scale of several thousand or tens of thousands, it can be said that it is difficult to extract it without using logical operations.

Item 2.1.2.
Device capable of performing weighting process using equivalence evaluation

The flow of processing in the apparatus when performing weighting processing using equivalence evaluation will be described in association with the function of the first embodiment. In the superimposition process started by the process start unit 4212, the data acquisition unit 4210 acquires information on the space used in the superimposition process from the spatial data unit 4201. The acquired space information is subjected to processing for calculating the relevance between the spaces in the overlap calculation unit 4211. In the overlap calculation unit 4211, the weight calculation unit 4221 uses the equivalence evaluation unit 4215 to calculate the weight information for each space based on the result of the equivalence evaluation that determines whether the acquired nodes in the space are equivalent. calculate. Further, when the weight information for each space is a calculation by a plurality of spaces, the weights are integrated in the integrated calculation calculation unit 4222, and a final weighting processing result is calculated. The calculated weighting processing result is output to the output destination 4214 by the data output unit 4213.

The reason why the overlay processing using the equivalence evaluation is effective is that information contained in a large amount of space is likely to be important. Although the space depends on the design, it is created based on some design philosophy. What can be regarded as the same in a plurality of spaces can be regarded as meaningful information existing in a plurality of spaces. Information obtained by superposition can be used for information retrieval and analysis.

The calculation logic of the weighting process using equivalence evaluation is shown as an example in the space where the information on the website is managed. In the first embodiment, the weight calculation unit 4221 uses the equivalence evaluation unit 4215 to determine the weight for each space based on the result of the equivalence evaluation that determines whether the acquired nodes in the space are equivalent. Calculate information. Further, when the weight information for each space is an operation by a plurality of spaces, the weights are integrated in the integrated calculation calculation unit 4222, and the final weighting processing result is calculated. The node of FIG. 45 stores the address of the Web page. Nodes used for the equivalent weighting process are assigned alphabets such as a and b, and the same alphabet indicates the same Web address. Here, when performing weighting processing using equivalence evaluation, those showing the same Web address are regarded as equivalent. When weighting processing is performed under these conditions, the results of weighting processing of the spaces 1910, 1911, and 1912 are shown in FIG. FIG. 46 shows an “equivalent node” that lists equivalent nodes and a weighting result as a weight “score”. The processing will be described with reference to the first embodiment. The weighting calculation unit 4221 causes the space 1910 to have an a-node score of 1, the space 1911 has an a-node score of 1, a b-node score of 1, and the space 1912 has b The node score is calculated as 3. Furthermore, the integrated calculation operation unit 4222 sets the score of the superposition by adding the three spaces to 2 for the a node and 4 for the b node.

Item 2.1.2.1.
Weighting using priority

In the space weighting process by the information space processing apparatus 4000, the weighting value can be changed according to the situation. This is particularly called priority adjustment. This function makes it possible to adjust the meaning when using the weighting process. For example, an adjustment for changing the dependency in determining the weight from the number of counted nodes according to the space or the node.

The timing at which the priority adjustment is executed is generally a method performed when the weighting calculation unit 4221 executes the weighting process. Further, a method in which a user using the information space processing device 4000 designates an explicit priority through the processing start unit 4212 and performs processing by the weight calculation unit 4221 may be used.

By using the priority adjustment, the weight calculation unit 4221 can freely make an original change instead of using the obtained information as it is. For example, consider a search for books using the Web. At this time, if the weighting calculation unit 4221 is not satisfied with the calculation, it is possible to obtain a result closer to the result obtained by changing the result using priority adjustment.

The calculation logic for priority adjustment will be described below with reference to the drawings. The node of FIG. 45 stores the address of the Web page. Nodes used for the equivalent weighting process are assigned alphabets such as a and b, and the same alphabet indicates the same Web address. Since the space 1912 is important in the equivalent weighting processing of the spaces 1910, 1911, and 1912 in FIG. 45, if the priority of the space 1912 is doubled as an example, the score of 1912 at the time of calculation is b The node becomes 6. As a result, finally, the calculation result of the equivalent weighting process by addition is as shown in FIG. 48, the score of the a node is 2, and the score of the b node is 7. As described above, the weighting process can be given flexibility by giving the priority to the node or the space according to the situation.

It is effective to add priority information to nodes and spaces, and to use priority addition that can preferentially emerge during weighting processing without using priority adjustment at the time of search.

When performing the weighting process, a “distance priority method” that adjusts the priority according to the distance from a specific node and calculates the weight may be effective. Depending on the design of the space, information that is close to the space may be important information. For example, in a link space or the like, the closer the link distance, the closer the relationship may be.

Two examples of calculation by the distance priority method will be described below using the drawings. It is assumed that a portion indicated by a broken line in FIG. 49 is a space to be subjected to weighting processing. The distance priority method shown below is realized by applying a calculation that becomes a value smaller than the value originally used in the superimposition process according to the distance from the reference node. In this case, the expression “1 / link distance + 1” is applied as the weight of each space with the node 1991 as a reference. FIG. 50 shows a method in which 0.25 is subtracted until the link distance becomes 0 each time the link distance increases. In this way, the weight is adjusted by various methods according to the link distance. By using the distance priority method, it is possible to perform overlay processing with higher reliability by changing the weight based on spatial positional information. It can be said that what kind of calculation is specifically applied depends on the occasion, so it can be said that it is desirable that the calculation method can be extended by a program language or a script language.

Item 2.1.2.2.
Weighting process using merge process

In an apparatus capable of performing weighting processing using equivalence evaluation, by applying the merging processing to the space by the overlap calculation processing unit 4211, a greater degree of freedom can be given to the design of the space. Merging refers to the process of merging equivalents that exist in space, that is, collecting them together. When creating some kind of information, it is common for the information to contain unnecessary duplication. Similarly, when designing a space using nodes, the same information may be created. In some cases, such unnecessary duplication sometimes makes it difficult to find information that is really sought because it is obstructed by unnecessary duplication information. However, unnecessary duplication of information can be eliminated by using merging. As a result, even if the space calculated by the overlap calculation processing unit 4211 includes information duplication or redundancy, it can be excluded from the result calculated by the overlap calculation processing unit 4211.

The calculation logic of the weighting process using the merging process will be described taking the case of a space for managing personal information as an example. In the first embodiment, the weight calculation unit 4221 uses the equivalence evaluation unit 4215 to determine the weight for each space based on the result of the equivalence evaluation that determines whether the acquired nodes in the space are equivalent. It is executed when the information is calculated.
FIG. 153 stores information about a plurality of individuals. For example, in order to reduce the duplication of information in the space 6101 in FIG. A table 6102 in FIG. 153 is obtained by counting the nodes of the space 6101. The “normal calculation” item is the result of the existing counting, and the “two or less merged” items are calculated as a maximum of two. Is the result of the case. Here, the merger is actually applied to the node a and the node e. For node a, the result of “ordinary calculation” is “4”, but the result of the calculation is that the number of two or more is forcibly set by the merging process and the result of calculation is set. There are two. The result of this processing is as shown in Table 6102 of FIG. In other words, merging can be said to be a process of estimating and calculating less than actual values by calculating overlapping items together.

Item 2.1.2.2.1.
Weighting process using uniqueness

In the apparatus capable of performing weighting processing using equivalence evaluation, the unique processing by the overlap calculation processing unit 4211 is a kind of merging processing, and when there are a plurality of equivalents in each space, this is overlapped. This process is regarded as 1. For example, for the node evaluated as equivalent by the equivalence evaluation unit 4215, processing such as counting up as one node in each space is performed. Similar to the merging process, it is possible to exclude duplication such as useless information from the result of the weighting calculation process.

The calculation logic of the weighting process using uniqueness is shown as an example in the space where the information of the Web site is managed. In the first embodiment, the weight calculation unit 4221 uses the equivalence evaluation unit 4215 to determine the weight for each space based on the result of the equivalence evaluation that determines whether the acquired nodes in the space are equivalent. It is executed when the information is calculated.
46 shows the counting of overlapping numbers in the three spaces shown in FIG. Three spaces are collections of address information of favorite websites, and each node represents a website. In the three node diagrams, it is assumed that nodes with alphabets a and b are selected for retrieval in the weighted search, and those assigned the same number indicate the same Web address. In addition, it is assumed that nodes indicating the same Web address are equivalent. That is, it is assumed that the a nodes 1901 and 1902 in each space are equivalent to each other, and the b nodes 1903, 1904, 1905 and 1906 are also equivalent to each other.

The specific example of the weighting process using the unique process by the weight calculation part 4221 is shown. The results of the weighted search of the spaces 1910, 1911, and 1912 are shown in FIG. 47 as enumeration of equivalent nodes and weights (scores). As shown in FIG. 45, space 1910 has an a-node score of 1, space 1911 has an a-node score of 1, b-node score of 1, and space 1912 has 3 b-nodes. It is calculated as one with no overlap. That is, the score of the b node in the space 1912 is calculated as 1. Therefore, the score of the equivalent weighting process based on the addition of the three spaces is 2 for the a node and 2 for the b node. In this way, the score of the b node is merged with 1 in the space 1912.

The weighting calculation unit 4221 can naturally use a combination of the normal weighting process and the weighting process using the unique process. For example, in the case of FIG. 45, in the case of weighting processing of the space 1910, the space 1911, and the space 1912, the spaces 1910 and 1911 can be calculated by weighting, and the space 1912 can be calculated by weighting by applying a unique processing. .

Item 2.1.3.
Equivalence evaluation unit implementation

Various implementations can be used for the equivalent evaluation used in the overlay process. Rather, using a variety of implementations can be very effective. Typical implementations are implementations in programming languages and script languages. Implementation by an external program.

The data flow in the implementation of equivalence evaluation is described below. When the equivalence evaluation is performed, the equivalence evaluation unit 4215 can be realized by using the script and the program language 4240 or the external program 4241 to determine whether or not they are equivalent.

Equivalence evaluation can be easily controlled by using an implementation using a programming language or script language. For example, when a certain user is not satisfied with the determination function based on the Web address (URL) of the equivalent determination function of the Web search system, it is possible to perform an action such as switching to a function that performs text matching of the Web page. .

A case where the equivalence evaluation is performed using an external program will be described. In this case, the result of equivalence evaluation can be highly expanded by a third party who does not create or manage the overlay calculation processing unit. For example, it is possible to perform equivalence evaluation, such as simple text matching, using large-scale data mining, etc., which can dramatically improve the accuracy of equivalence evaluation. It becomes.

Item 2.1.4.
Calculation algorithm for overlay processing by merge processing

A case where a calculation algorithm of superposition processing by merge processing is applied will be described in correspondence with the function of the first embodiment. The data created by the sorted container creation unit 4226 is used for calculation of the overlay process using the merge calculation unit 4227. Sorted container creation unit 4226 is used in logical operation calculation unit 4220 and weighting calculation unit 4221. The merge calculation unit 4227 is used by the logical calculation calculation unit 4220 and the integrated calculation calculation unit 4222.

It is important to use efficient overlay processing calculations. Hereinafter, an efficient calculation method of the overlay processing by the overlay calculation processing unit 4211 will be considered. A rough procedure for efficient search processing is shown in the step diagram of FIG. In step S101, the nodes in the space and the node information necessary for the overlay process are expanded into a data container to be in a sorted state. The data container is a container called a container in the C ++ language and a collection in the Java (registered trademark) language. Usually, a data container includes a memory resource area, a list structure, a tree structure, a hash structure, and the like. The data container is preferably sorted after storage by sorting. A container having a data storage area of a tree structure or a hash structure inside may be used so that information can be extracted in a sorted state at the time of storage. This is generally called an associative container in the C ++ language. In step S102, the sorted data container is subjected to calculation and merging processing while scanning, and the final result is output. Here, by using the sorted data containers, it is possible to perform the calculation in step S102 with a single scanning process for each data container. Therefore, the processing cost is processed in linear time. It becomes possible.

As a sort reference in the case of performing the sort process on the data container, any sort that is determined to be equivalent in the equivalence evaluation used in the overlay process may be adjacent.

Details of effective implementation will be described below with reference to FIG. FIG. 60 shows the implementation of an algorithm in the case of performing superposition processing of three spaces. First, by processing 1950, a node in the space or node information is stored in the data container. Sort processing 1951 is performed in the data container. The processes 1950 and 1951 can be combined into one if an associative container is used. In processing 1953, the data container is scanned, and the results are combined by merge processing while calculating the weighting in units of space and calculating the priority and unique weighting processing.

Hereinafter, the merge portion will be described in more detail. FIG. 61 shows a part for deriving a calculation result from two sorted data containers. The numbers in the data container in FIG. 61 mean nodes or node information, and those with the same number are determined to be equivalent in the equivalence evaluation. In this case, calculation processing is performed while alternately scanning the data container 1 and the data container 2, and the result is output. In the calculation by scanning, since the equivalent nodes or node information are arranged next to each other, the calculation is performed while scanning, and when the non-equivalent part is reached in the container, the scan of the merge process may be switched. .

When performing a logical operation based on equivalence evaluation using an algorithm based on merge processing, the acquired spatial information is expanded, and the logical operation unit 4220 uses the sorted container creation unit 4226 to create sorted data container information. To do. Further, the logical operation unit 4220 calculates true / false while scanning the sorted data container information using the merge calculation unit 4227. FIG. 62 shows a state where the data container is being scanned. In FIG. 62, the same alphabet means an equivalent node or node information. If two or more equivalents are calculated as true and the others are calculated as false, a table as shown in FIG. 63 is obtained.

When performing weighting processing by equivalence evaluation using an algorithm based on merge processing, the acquired spatial information is expanded, and the weighted calculation unit 4221 uses the sorted container creation unit 4226 to create sorted data container information. To do. Further, the integrated calculation operation unit 4222 uses the merge calculation unit 4227 to calculate the weight while scanning the sorted data container information. FIG. 62 shows a state where the data container is being scanned.

When the weighting process by the weighting calculation unit 4221 is executed, it is necessary to perform counting, unique processing, and priority adjustment calculation while scanning. These processes are calculated while performing linear scanning with one or a plurality of data containers, and the calculation results are combined by application of merge processing. FIG. 64 shows the calculation result when the weighting process using the unique process is performed and the priority of the node c is doubled.

Item 2.2.
Device that can perform overlay processing using comparative study

The flow of processing in the apparatus when performing superimposition processing using equivalence evaluation will be described in association with the function of the first embodiment. In the superimposition process started by the process start unit 4212, the data acquisition unit 4210 acquires information on the space used in the superimposition process from the spatial data unit 4201. The acquired space information is subjected to a process of calculating the relevance between the spaces in the overlap calculation unit 4211, and the overlap processing result is acquired. In the process of calculating the relevance, the comparison examination unit 4217 is used to obtain a weight for the node (uses all comparison type, outer comparison type, or inner comparison type), and the result is the overlap processing result. The overlap processing result is output to the output destination 4214 by the data output unit 4213.

The comparison evaluation used in the overlay processing of the space by the overlay calculation processing unit 4211 can obtain various information from the space by using the comparison similarity unit 4217 to obtain the similarity of the nodes and using the value. it can. The case where the overlay process using the comparative study is effective is a case where the overlay is performed on a plurality of spaces. This is because it can be said that there is a high possibility that information contained in a large number of spaces is important. Although the space depends on the design, it is created based on some design philosophy. That is, what can be regarded as the same in a plurality of spaces can be regarded as meaningful information existing in the plurality of spaces.

The following is an example of equivalence evaluation that considers abstract content.
1. Today, Yankees Matsui was active in 3 hits and 5 RBIs.
2. Dodger's Nomo managed to hit his third victory with seven hits but no penalty.
3. Can the Hanshin Tigers win this year?
4). This year's high school baseball players are Tohoku High School Darvish pitchers.
5). How far can the Japanese national football team go in the World Cup?
The above text lists the equivalence of various criteria.
1A. All of these are related to sports, so consider them all the same 2A. Since anything other than 5 is related to baseball, the documents 1, 2, 3, 4 are regarded as equivalent.
3A. 1, 2, and 3 are equivalent because they relate to professional baseball.
4A. 1 and 2 are equivalent to major leagues.
5A. Since 3 and 4 are related to Japanese baseball, they are equivalent.
Various equivalent criteria are conceivable, such as 1A to 5A, and it is difficult and troublesome to select a specific equivalent evaluation. Furthermore, since the result of the overlay process changes greatly depending on the selected equivalent evaluation, if the equivalent evaluation is selected incorrectly, it may be different from what the user of the overlay process requires.

The case where the superimposition process using the comparative study is particularly effective is a case where the abstraction level of the information associated with the node is high. For example, the contents of document data and image data. In such data, it is difficult to determine and judge based on the same criteria. For example, it is difficult to determine a clear standard even if it is determined that “image A means the same as image B”.

Item 2.2.1.
Weighting process using comparative study

A flow of processing in an apparatus capable of performing weighting processing using comparative study will be described in association with the function of the first embodiment. In the superimposition process started by the process start unit 4212, the data acquisition unit 4210 acquires information on the space used in the superimposition process from the spatial data unit 4201. The acquired space information is subjected to a process of calculating the relevance between the spaces in the overlap calculation unit 4211, and the overlap processing result is acquired. In the process of calculating the relevance, the weight calculation unit 4221 uses the comparison study unit 4217 to obtain a weight for the node (uses all comparison type, outer comparison type, or inner comparison type), and superimposes. Let it be a processing result. The overlap processing result is output to the output destination 4214 by the data output unit 4213.

In the weighting process using the comparative study, the similarity is obtained by comparing the nodes, and the weight of the node is obtained based on the similarity. By using the weight information, it can be used for information retrieval. The weighting process using the comparative study includes “all comparison type”, “outside comparison type”, and “internal comparison type” depending on the type of comparison.
Item 2.2.1.1.
Weighting process using comparative study which is all comparison type

All comparison types are performed using the entire space utilized in the weighting process. In other words, all the nodes included in the space are subject to calculation.

The calculation logic of all comparison types will be explained by taking the case of a space for managing website information as an example. In the first embodiment, the processing is performed when the weight calculation unit 4221 obtains the weight for the node using the comparison study unit 4217. Each node in FIG. 138 records a Web page and the contents of the document. A link connecting nodes indicates a link of a Web page. Assume that all comparison type comparison weighting processing is performed in the two spaces 5001 and 5002 in FIG. FIG. 139 shows a correspondence table of scores when the respective nodes are compared. For example, the score obtained by comparison between the node d and the node f is “9”. For the calculation of the comparison score, it is conceivable to compare the sentences included in the nodes and obtain the similarity numerically. The result of the calculation is shown as “score of all comparison types” in FIG. The all comparison type compares all the nodes in the space. For example, when considering node a, comparison is made with all nodes other than a, and the scores are collected. Since the specific calculation uses a score by comparison with the nodes b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, and l, the calculation is performed by adding simple scores. In this case, “3 + 2 + 2 + 4 + 1 + 3 + 9 + 3 + 2 + 1 + 1” and the score is 31.

Item 2.2.1.2.
Weighting processing using comparative study, which is an external comparison type

The outer comparison type performs comparison with an external space in the space used in the weighting process. That is, nodes included in the same space are not subject to calculation.

The calculation logic of all comparison types will be explained by taking the case of a space for managing website information as an example. In the first embodiment, the processing is performed when the weight calculation unit 4221 obtains the weight for the node using the comparison study unit 4217. Assume that an external comparison type comparative examination weighting process is performed in the two spaces 5001 and 5002 in FIG. The outer comparison type performs comparison operations only with the external space. That is, the nodes included in the space 5001 are not compared with other nodes in the space 5001, but are compared only with the nodes in the space 5002. Conversely, a node in the space 5002 does not compare with other nodes in the space 5002, but compares only with a node in the space 5001. The calculation result is shown in “Outside comparison type score” in FIG. For example, when considering node a, comparison is made with nodes h, i, j, k, and l in space 5002. The specific calculation is “9 + 3 + 2 + 1 + 1” in the case of simple score addition, and the score is 16.

Item 2.2.1.3.
Weighting using a comparative study that is an internal comparison type

The inner comparison type compares with the internal space in the space used in the weighting process. That is, an operation is performed between nodes included in the same space.

The calculation logic of all comparison types will be explained by taking the case of a space for managing website information as an example. In the first embodiment, the processing is performed when the weight calculation unit 4221 obtains the weight for the node using the comparison study unit 4217. Assume that an internal comparison type comparative examination weighting process is performed in the two spaces 5001 and 5002 in FIG. The inner comparison type does not compare spaces, but compares between nodes in the space. That is, the nodes included in the space 5001 are compared only with the nodes in the space 5001, and the nodes included in the space 5002 are compared only with the nodes in the space 5002. Considering, for example, the node a whose result calculated in this way is shown in the “inner comparison type score” in FIG. 140, a is the nodes a, b, c, d, e, f in the same space 5001. , G. The specific calculation is “3 + 2 + 2 + 4 + 1 + 3” in the case of simple score addition, and the score is 15.

Item 2.2.1.4.
Comparison of all comparison type, external comparison type, and internal comparison type

The characteristics of the all comparison type, the outer comparison type, and the inner comparison type will be compared. In the all comparison type, the weight calculation unit 4221 performs comparison using the entire space. Therefore, characteristic information as a whole is derived as processing. In the external comparison type, the weight calculation unit 4221 compares only with an external space. For this reason, the outer comparison type has a meaning of taking out an important one in relation to a plurality of spaces. For example, as shown in FIG. 138, when the comparative examination weighting process is performed in a huge space 5012 and a small space 5011, the difference in characteristics between the all comparison type and the external comparison type becomes clear. Since all comparison types tend to acquire important information as a whole, the characteristics of a small space can be buried in a huge space. However, if it is an external comparison type, characteristic portions of both spaces can be extracted as features. Since the inner comparison type performs comparison only in the internal space, it is not affected by other spaces. This can extract a characteristic part of each space. It can be said that this is a normal usage method for use in a comparative study logical operation rather than as a single unit of comparative study weighting processing.

Item 2.2.1.5.
Weighting process using comparative study that can reduce the number of comparisons by equivalent evaluation

A flow of processing in an apparatus capable of performing weighting processing using comparative examination that can reduce the number of comparisons by equivalent evaluation will be described in association with the function of the first embodiment. In the superimposition process started by the process start unit 4212, the data acquisition unit 4210 acquires information on the space used in the superimposition process from the spatial data unit 4201. The acquired space information is subjected to processing for calculating the relevance between the spaces in the overlap calculation unit 4211 to obtain the relevance. In the process of calculating relevance, those that can be determined as equivalent by the equivalence evaluation unit 4215 are grouped together. The weight calculation unit 4221 obtains a weight for the node using the comparison review unit 4217 in a grouped unit (uses all comparison type, outer comparison type, or inner comparison type), and overlap processing As a result. The overlap processing result is output to the output destination 4214 by the data output unit 4213.

The purpose of the weighting process using a comparative study that can reduce the number of comparisons by equivalence will be described. The comparative examination weighting process by the weight calculation unit 4221 takes a long time to calculate as the space size increases. Assuming that the number of nodes existing in one space is “n”, the comparison weighting process based on the total comparison of the two spaces performs “O (n × n)” comparisons. That is, the order is the square of n. Furthermore, if the number of spaces is large or the cost of the comparison process itself is high, a higher calculation cost is required. For this reason, the weight calculation unit 4221 may perform a comparative examination weighting process between nodes determined to be equivalent by dividing the nodes on the basis of the equivalence evaluation, although there is a possibility that the accuracy is slightly lowered. It can be said that it is meaningful to increase the calculation speed by using the “weighting process”.

In the equivalent refinement comparison examination weighting process, it is preferable to use an equivalence evaluation in which a combination having a large score at the time of comparison is equivalent. This is because it is difficult to greatly influence the result even if the one that has a small score at the time of comparison is excluded.

The flow of the weighting process using a comparative study that can reduce the number of comparisons by equivalent evaluation will be described. In the first embodiment, when the weight calculation unit 4221 obtains the weight for the node using the comparison study unit 4217, the weight calculation unit 4221 uses the equivalence evaluation unit 4215 to classify the nodes in units determined to be equivalent. For each classified node, the weighting calculation unit 4221 performs weighting using a comparative study.

The calculation logic of the weighting process using the comparative study that can reduce the number of comparisons by equivalent evaluation will be described. In the case of performing the all comparison type comparison study process using the spaces 5401a and 5402a of FIG. 144, the total number of nodes used is “9 + 8”, which is 17. For this reason, the number of comparisons that must normally be made is “17 × 16 ÷ 2” times. That is, it is necessary to perform 136 times. However, the number of comparisons can be reduced by performing equivalent narrowing down. FIG. 145 shows the space shown in FIG. 144 in the equivalent evaluation of a specific standard. Nodes with the same alphabet of the nodes are determined to be equivalent. FIG. 146 shows a distribution based on these equivalents only. When the comparison calculation is performed using only equivalent nodes as shown in FIG. 146, the space 5405 is “6 × 5 ÷ 2” times, the space 5406 is “5 × 4 ÷ 2” times, and the space 5407 is “ 6 × 5 ÷ 2 ”times. These total 40 times. In other words, in this case, although the cost due to classification based on equivalence evaluation is incurred, the number of comparisons is one-third or less of the simple comparison examination process.

Item 2.2.2.
Logical operation using comparative study

A flow of processing in an apparatus capable of performing weighting processing using comparative study will be described in association with the function of the first embodiment. Information on the space used in the overlay process is acquired from the space data unit 4201 by the data acquisition unit 4210. The acquired space information is subjected to a process of calculating the relevance between the spaces in the overlap calculation unit 4211, and the overlap processing result is acquired. In the processing for calculating the relevance, the weighting calculation unit 4221 uses the comparison study unit 4217 to calculate the weight for the node (uses all comparison type, outer comparison type, or inner comparison type), and weighting processing As a result. Based on the result of the weighting process, the logical operation calculation unit 4220 performs a process of converting to true / false value information, and the true / false value information is output to the output destination 4214 by the data output unit 4213.

The comparison study logical operation by the comparison study unit 4217, the weight calculation unit 4221, and the logic operation unit 4220 will be described. The true / false value used in the comparison logical operation means that the score of the comparison weighting process is used. For example, on the condition that the score of the comparative examination weighting process is 20 or more and the text data is stored in the node is true, and the other is false, a true / false value is obtained in space units, and logical operations are performed. is there. If the calculation of the logical operation is a true / false value, the calculation method is equivalent to the logical operation using the equivalence evaluation.

Item 2.3.
Equipment that can perform integrated calculations

As an application of the weighting process, there is an integrated calculation by the integrated calculation calculation unit 4222. By using this function, the results of a plurality of weighting processes can be integrated and recalculated. The integrated calculation is often used in the weighting process using the equivalent evaluation, but there are various other usage methods. In the integrated calculation, new results can be derived by calculating the weights associated with the space.

The weights to be integrated can be performed between various types of weighting processes. For example, there are a weighting process using equivalence evaluation and a weighting process using comparative examination. Further, the integrated weight may be the result of the integration calculation. In short, integrated calculation is possible if weight information is associated with a node.

A flow of processing in an apparatus capable of performing integrated calculation will be described in association with the function of the first embodiment. First, the weight information associated with the space is acquired. Typical examples of acquisition methods are listed below.
1. 1. Spatial information and weight information associated with a node in the space are acquired from the spatial data unit 4201 by the data acquisition unit 4210. 2. Obtain the result of weighting processing using equivalent evaluation by the overlay calculation processing unit 4211 3. Obtain the result of the weighting process using the comparison study by the overlay calculation processor 4211. Whether or not the nodes in the acquired space are equivalent by the integrated calculation calculation unit 4222 using the equivalence evaluation unit 4215 based on the weight information associated with the space from which the result of the integrated calculation calculation by the integrated calculation calculation unit 4222 is acquired. The weight information of the space is classified based on the result of the equivalence evaluation determined by. Further, the classified weights are integrated by the integrated calculation calculation unit 4222 to calculate the final weight. The calculated overlay processing result is output to the output destination 4214 by the data output unit 4213.

The purpose of the weighted integration calculation is that the advantage of performing the weighted integration calculation can be derived from data that could not be understood by a simple weighting process, so that data for deeper analysis can be generated. The score of the weighting process can be regarded as a measure representing importance. By adding scores, it can also be estimated whether a particular node is important for multiple equivalence evaluations and comparative studies. Furthermore, by performing subtraction with a specific equivalent evaluation score, it is possible to give meaning to exclude the equivalent evaluation or comparative study. Furthermore, by combining complex calculations, it is possible to perform integrated calculations with subtle meanings.

Item 2.3.1.
Integration of weighted results

By integrating the results of weighting processing, weighting processing with more complicated and subtle meaning becomes possible. Both the result of the weighting process using the equivalence evaluation and the result of the weighting process using the comparative study are used.

Item 2.3.2.
Integration of results obtained from the spatial data section

Even for information stored in the spatial data section 4201, integrated calculation can be performed. This may be information explicitly created as data, or may be information that is stored again in the spatial data unit 4201 and read again.
Item 2.3.3.
Integrated calculation that calculates weights as operands

When the classified weights are integrated by the integrated calculation calculation unit 4222, various integrations are possible by calculating and integrating the weights associated with the nodes as operands of some calculation. In particular, it is effective to calculate weights as operands of four arithmetic operations.
Item 2.3.3.1.
Integrated calculation that calculates weights as operands of four arithmetic operations

When the classified weights are integrated by the integrated calculation calculation unit 4222, a calculation having a complicated meaning can be executed by performing the integrated calculation in which the weight is calculated as an operand of the four arithmetic operations.

The calculation logic of the integrated calculation for calculating the weight by the weight calculation unit 4221 as the operand of the four arithmetic operations will be described as the process in the apparatus of the first embodiment that manages the Web site.
FIG. 52 shows a summary of the results obtained by performing equivalent weighting in the spaces 1971, 1972, and 1973 in FIG. FIG. 51 includes a space in which information sites for computer technology are classified according to categories. The space 1971 is a collection of computer technology sites, the space 1972 is a collection of development technologies and FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions), and the space 1973 is an IT technology beginner to intermediate level engineer. It is a site for. The result of superimposing these three is shown in FIG. The formulas in the table of FIG. 52 show the process of deriving values, the left side of “=” shows the formula of the calculation process, and the right side of “=” is the value to be obtained. The weight of each space is shown in “1971 score”, “1972 score”, and “1973 score”. “1971 score” is expressed as an operand “x”, “1972 score” is expressed as an operand “y”, and “1973 score” is expressed as an operand “z”.

“Score of calculation 1” in FIG. 52 is a calculation by addition using the calculation formula of “x + y + z”. Web pages that exist in many three spaces are calculated as large scores.

The “score of calculation 2” in FIG. 52 is a calculation using the calculation formula “x + y−z”, and is a calculation formula having the meaning of excluding “z” from “x + y”. In other words, it means to exclude sites for “beginners and intermediate users”.

The “score of calculation 3” in FIG. 52 is a calculation using the calculation formula of “x + y + 2 * z”. In this case, it can be said that weighting is based on addition that emphasizes the concept of “z”. In other words, it means that the site for “beginners and intermediate users” is more important.

The “score of calculation 4” in FIG. 52 is calculated as “x + y + z” for node numbers a, b, and c, and “x + y + 2 * z” for the remaining nodes. This means that a website other than a, b, and c and a site for “beginners and intermediate users” are emphasized.

The “score of calculation 5” in FIG. 52 is a calculation using the calculation formula of “x + y * y + z”. By calculating the square of “y”, it can be said that the increase in the value of “y” greatly affects the result.

As described above, it is possible to perform weighting with more precise and complicated meaning by using weights as operands of various calculations.

Hereinafter, an example of a calculation logic pattern in a case where the integrated calculation calculation unit 4222 performs weighted integrated calculation using a weighted result using a plurality of equivalent evaluations will be described. FIG. 65 shows a space used for weighting integration processing. FIG. 66, FIG. 67, FIG. 68, and FIG. 69 show the space of FIG. 65 by different equivalent evaluations. Among these spaces, those with the same symbol are equivalent. The table of FIG. 70 is obtained by performing the equivalent weighting processing of the space 2031 and the space 2032 by the equivalent evaluation 1 and FIG. 71 is the result of performing the equivalent weighting processing by the equivalent evaluation 2.

The result table of FIG. 72 is obtained by performing the integrated calculation by the integrated calculation calculation unit 4222 with respect to the results of FIGS. Here, the “completely independent equivalent evaluation” is an evaluation that treats all nodes existing in the space as different from each other. Since the “equivalent node” item uses a completely independent equivalence evaluation, the nodes in all spaces are treated as different things. As for the specific table creation method of FIG. 72, considering 2011 and 2012, in the case of weighting of equivalent evaluation 1, since 2011 is equivalent a1, the score is 3, and since 2012 is equivalent b1, the score is 2. . In the case of weighting of equivalent evaluation 2, since 2011 is equivalent b2, the score is 1, and 2012 is equivalent a2, so the score is 2. The calculation formula in the figure shows the process of deriving a value, and the right side of “=” is the value to be obtained.

In addition, consider these combinations. The “merge score” in FIG. 72 is obtained by simply adding the “equivalent evaluation 1 score” and the “equivalent evaluation 2 score” in units of nodes by the integrated calculation calculation unit 4222. That is, the details of 2011 will be described. The “equivalent evaluation 1 score” is 3, the “equivalent evaluation 2 score” is 1, the sum of these is 3 + 1, and the answer is 4. Further, the “difference score” in FIG. 72 is obtained by subtracting the “equivalent evaluation 2 score” from the “equivalent evaluation 1 score” by the integrated calculation calculation unit 4222 in node units. Further, in the “difference absolute value score”, the integrated calculation calculation unit 4222 calculates the absolute value of the “difference score”.

The result table of FIG. 73 is obtained by performing the integrated calculation by the integrated calculation calculation unit 4222 on the basis of the equivalent evaluation 3 with respect to the results of FIGS. The specific table creation method of FIG. 73 is considered as equivalent nodes a3 when considering equivalent a3. Considering the case of equivalent evaluation 1, since the score of 2013 is 3 and the score of 2021 is 2, the score of “score of equivalent evaluation 1” is 5 because “3 + 2”. Considering the case of equivalence evaluation 2, the score of 2013 is 1, and the score of 2021 is 3, so “1 + 3” is obtained, and the score of “equivalence evaluation 2” is 4. The item obtained by adding the scores of the equivalent evaluation 1 and the equivalent evaluation 2 is the “merge score” item. Further, “merge score” is divided by “equivalent node” by “score per one”.

The weighting used to derive these FIG. 72 or FIG. 73 is simply to obtain a score for existence, but the original weighting processing naturally uses the uniqueness by the weighting calculation unit 4221. It may be a weighting process or a priority added.

Item 2.3.4.
Equivalence evaluation used in integrated calculations

Various things can be used for the equivalent evaluation used in the integrated calculation calculation unit 4222. Below, typical ones are listed.
・ Equivalent evaluation that makes synchronized nodes the same ・ Completely independent equivalent evaluation that treats all nodes in the space as different from each other

Item 2.4.
Device capable of performing filtering processing

The “filtering process” of the weighting process by the filtering unit 4223 is a processing unit that narrows down the result obtained by the arithmetic processing unit 4216 (logic) under a specific condition and outputs the result as a result of the overlay calculation processing unit 4211. The values obtained by the weighting process are further narrowed down and output. This process is effective because the information can be narrowed down when the result is large and the information is too large to be handled. FIG. 53 shows an image diagram of the filtering process.

It is also effective to perform filtering by the filtering unit 4223 using the result of the logical operation. Filtering according to the true / false of a logical operation makes it possible to easily perform filtering according to the structure of the space and the processing target.

Item 2.5.
Device capable of processing weights

By using the “weight processing” by the processing unit 4224, it is also effective to change the weight on the weighting processing result. In this process, the calculation result of weighting is analyzed and a change is made. Changing the weight means adding a value to the weight or using it as an operand of a more complicated arithmetic expression to derive a new result. Specifically, processing such as using a node judgment formula to check whether a node satisfies a specific condition or not, or using a logical operation to add 5 to the weight for only those that become true By performing the above, various colors can be additionally applied to the weights.

It is also effective to specify the space to be processed from the result of the logical operation. For example, weight processing is performed only on nodes that are determined to be “true” as a result of the logical operation.

Item 2.6.
Retrieval device using overlay processing

An example of performing superimposition processing using the first embodiment is shown, and how search processing is performed is shown practically.

Examples of various overlay processes will be described when a music information management apparatus on the Web is used. Obtained by the spatial data unit 4201 (in this case, a part of the space created for managing the music information on the web in FIGS. 77 and 78), the weighting calculation unit 4221, and the integrated calculation calculation unit 422. The weight is transferred to the integrated calculation calculation unit 4222, and the integrated calculation of the weight is performed. Finally, the result of the weighting process (such as the results shown in FIGS. 80, 81, 82, 83, and 84) is output to the output destination 4214 (Web browser, Web terminal device, etc.).

Various calculation methods for superposition processing will be described from the viewpoint of a searcher using a music information management apparatus on the Web. Here, various methods for searching for the target CD of the performer who executes the overlay process will be described. FIG. 77 is a space expressing information related to a music CD, and a node means a music CD and the address of a Web site where information on the CD is described. Nodes with the same alphabet are represented by the same CD and have a synchronization relationship. That is, it is determined to be equivalent when the synchronization point equivalent evaluation is used. In FIG. 77, those pointing to the same Web site are determined to be equivalent. FIG. 79 lists the weight of each space. Here, a case where processing is performed from the viewpoint of a person who performs superimposition processing is considered. The performer trusts the evaluation of “Mr. A”, “Mr. B”, and “Mr. D” in the evaluation of the CD, but does not trust the evaluation of “Mr. C” at all. Also, performers are very interested in trendy music. Based on this, it will be shown how the overlay process is used.

In the space shown in FIG. 77, when making a query such as “Recommended by Mr. A or Mr. B and sales 1 to 10”, the logical operation calculation unit 4220 is suitable. This inquiry may be an inquiry such as “What is in the space 2051 or the space 2052 and in the space 2055”. When such an inquiry is made, it is as shown in “calculation result” in the table of FIG. When one or more of each space exists, the space is converted to a true / false value as true. The solution to be obtained is obtained as a result of “(space 2051 OR space 2052) A205D space 2055”. From the calculation result of FIG. 81, it is found that the obtained nodes are b and g.

The result of adding the weights of the spaces 2051, 2052, and 2054 is shown in “weight score 1” in FIG. This is a superposition of spaces representing CDs recommended by “Mr. A”, “Mr. B”, and “Mr. D” trusted by the performer. When this result is analyzed, the CD with the equivalent number b exists in the spaces 2051, 2052, and 2054, and it can be estimated that the score is the largest and recommended CD. Next, there is a high possibility that the equivalent numbers g and h are what the practitioner seeks.

Further, since the practitioner often dislikes the evaluation of “Mr. C”, the result obtained by subtracting the weight of the space 2053 from the addition of the weights of the spaces 2051, 2052, and 2054 is shown in FIG. “Weight score 2”. In this case, the weights are slightly different from “weight score 1”, and in this case, the weights of the equivalent numbers b and g are equal, and it can be considered that these two are recommended.

The performer is also interested in popular music. Therefore, a little ingenuity is added to the calculation. The one with the first to 10th sales multiplies the value of three times the weight of the space by the “weight score 2” in FIG. "Is multiplied. As a result, the sales order information greatly affects the weighting result. Even in this case, the equivalent numbers b and g are important, and then i is considered important.

The filtering process by the filtering unit 4223 using a logical operation will be specifically described below. When it is desired to exclude from the weighting processing of the spaces 2051, 2052, and 2054 the results of nodes included in the space 2053 that collects unreliable “Mr. C” recommendations and the space 2057 that collects low-selling items as unnecessary. This is effective. In this case, an equivalent weighting process is performed for the spaces 2051, 2052, and 2054, and an OR operation is performed with one or more of the space 2053 and the space 2057 being true, and the result of the OR operation is applied to the result of the equivalent weighting. exclude. The result of the OR operation on the space 2053 and the space 2057 is shown in FIG. Using this result, filtering from the weighting score is shown in FIG. In this case, what is evaluated as true by the logical operation is excluded from the processing result.

The weight processing by the processing unit 4224 will be specifically described below. The result of “weight score 1” in FIG. 86, which is the addition of the weights of the spaces 2051, 2052, and 2054, is processed and analyzed from different viewpoints. Here, since the “genre” property of the node wants to preferentially handle “rock” and “pop”, the weight of the value of “rock” is three times (as an example, three times), and the value is “pops”. "Is doubled (for example, doubled).

With reference to FIG. 78, the weighted integration calculation by the integration calculation calculation unit 4222 will be described using a specific example. Equivalent evaluation as a standard when using weighted integration calculation shall use synchronous point equivalent evaluation. This time, we will use the linkage with the weighting process using the equivalence evaluation by node property. The node in FIG. 78 holds a “music genre” property, and when the equivalent evaluation is used with the value of the “music genre” property, it can be represented in FIG. 79. FIG. 82 shows an equivalent grouping of FIG. From FIG. 82, it is highly possible that the genre of recommended and popular music is “pops”. The result of “score 1” in FIG. 83 that is the addition of the weights of the spaces 2051, 2052, and 2054 and the addition of the weights of the spaces 2051, 2052, 2054, and 2055 in the equivalent evaluation of the “music genre” property. "Score 2" is integrated. If the weights of “score 1” and “score 2” are added as they are, the effect of “score 2” is large, so the result of adding and halving the result is shown in “calculation result” in FIG. . Such calculation makes it possible to perform weighting in consideration of popular music genres in addition to the recommended weight of music CDs existing in the space.

Item 2.7. Overlay processing using independent space nodes

A case where an independent space node is used for the space information acquired from the space data unit 4201 in the arithmetic processing function unit 4216 will be described. In the space superimposition process, the handling of independent space nodes is somewhat ambiguous. This is because an independent space node can be regarded as a simple node including a function and a plurality of nodes. Therefore, when an independent space node is regarded as a space, when it is regarded as a node, it is preferable to realize an implementation in which both are combined.

With reference to FIG. 55, the superposition processing of the independent space node and the space by the superposition calculation processing unit 4211 will be described. In the description, it is assumed that weighting processing using equivalence evaluation is performed. In FIG. 68, 1920 is a node and 1921 is an independent space node. In this case, there are a case where the overlay processing is performed as a space as in 1921a and a case where the overlay processing is performed as a node as in 1921b. When processed as a space, nodes inside independent space nodes are also subject to calculation.

The overlay calculation processing unit 4211 performs an equivalent overlay process for a space including an independent space node. The weighting process of the space 1985 and the space 1986 in FIG. 56 is performed. Nodes with the same alphabet are synchronized with each other. The independent space nodes 1981 and 1982 are synchronized with each other. At this time, the weighting calculation unit 4221 performs the weighting process using the equivalence evaluation, in which independent space nodes are synchronized in terms of both the node and the space. This is an “addition score” item. FIG. 57 shows a result obtained by expanding the independent space nodes 1981 and 1982 as a space, and FIG. 58 shows a result of searching as a simple node. The portion with the equivalent number A is a portion processed as a node, and the other is a case where processing is performed as a node.

Item 3.
Projection

FIG. 87 illustrates the case where the projection by the projection unit 4411 is specifically used. In FIG. 87, projection is performed on the nodes 2360 and 2361 by the projection unit 4411, and a multilingual node group is formed. In this case, for the nodes 2360 and 2361, four nodes or node information is generated. In this way, projecting can be said to be three-dimensional information for a space that can be expressed in two dimensions.

The effect and necessity of projecting by the projecting unit 4411 will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 105 is a space expressing a certain document. Here, since the space 2481 relates to an important document, it is necessary to create it in multiple languages. In this case, when projection is not used, the space design is as shown in FIG. In FIG. 106, a large number of spaces for each language version are created. For example, 2481 is for Japanese, 2482 is for English, and 2483 is for French. In this way, a new space is created for each different version. This means that the space increases as the version increases. However, if projection is used, a projected space is logically created as shown in FIG. 107, and different spaces themselves do not increase. In this case, each of 2481a, 2481b, and 2481c is a language space. Creating a different space for each different version as shown in FIG. 106 causes an increase in management cost. A space is a composition that expresses or collects some concept. When changing the concept to be expressed, it is also necessary to change the configuration of the space. At this time, if there are simply multiple spaces for each version, it will be necessary to apply changes and additions to all spaces. This is a problem that arises because it is implemented as a different space only by the difference in format even though the concept to express is the same, and these become a great maintenance cost. In addition, since the concept to be expressed is distributed as different spaces only by the difference in expression format, it is difficult for a third party to understand the relationship between the concept and the space. In this way, projecting to connect concepts to be expressed into one is an important function.

FIG. 108 is a diagram for explaining the projection unit 4411 in detail, and here, a functional block diagram of a general program realizing projection is shown. These functions are implemented by one or a plurality of programs. The program may be processed by a plurality of computers. In order to realize the projection, the space corresponding to the projection and the processing are linked. Basically, the spatial data unit 4201 is controlled by the projection unit 4411. Since the spatial data unit 4201 or the projection unit 4411 can be appropriately accessed through the interface 4413 to the space, even if the inside of the spatial data unit 4201 is in a special format different from the normal space, and It can be accessed safely.

In the spatial data unit 4201, the projected space data exists as a link projection 4430, a node projection 4431, a data addition projection 4432, or an independent space projection 4433. These data may be directly accessed, but if the operation is performed through the interface 4413 to the space, it is not necessary to consider a complicated internal configuration or specification, and the risk of data destruction can be reduced.

The projection unit 4411 includes “single access of projection node”, “linkage of node generation”, “linkage of deletion of nodes”, “linkage of deformation of space”, “access of projection space unit”, “projection space of nodes” By performing “access for each”, “generation of space for each projection”, “deletion of space for each projection”, “projection synchronization”, etc., the function as projection is achieved.

The user 4412 can provide an appropriate function as projection by manipulating the space through the interface 4413 to the space. User 4412 is typically an external or internal program or a human. A human accesses the projection space via a user interface or the like.

The projected space is called “projection space”, and the projected node is called “projection node”.

The “projection function” of the projection unit 4411 will be described. The projection function is a process that handles multiple spaces as one space. For example, “single access of projection node”, “node generation linkage”, “node deletion linkage”, “space transformation linkage” ”,“ Access per projection space unit ”,“ access per node projection space ”,“ generation of space per projection ”,“ deletion of space per projection ”,“ projection synchronization ”. Projection logically has some or all of these functions.

The projection function by the projection unit 4411 will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 89 shows a projection of the space of FIG. 88 into three. Reference numerals 2320, 2321, and 2322 denote projective spaces, and 2301, 2302, and 2303 denote projected nodes.

“Single access of projection node” by the projection unit 4411 is to access a plurality of projected nodes as one in space. That is, this means that a projected space as shown in FIG. 89 can be handled so as to access FIG.

The “node generation cooperation” by the projecting unit 4411 is also added to another projection space when a new node is added. For example, when a node is added to the projection space 2320, the node is also created in the corresponding projection spaces 2321 and 2322. FIG. 90C shows the cooperation of node generation by the projecting unit 4411. In this case, projection nodes 2311, 2312, and 2313 are generated simultaneously.

The “node deletion cooperation” by the projecting unit 4411 is to delete the corresponding node in another projection space when the node is deleted. For example, when the projection node 2301 is deleted, the projection nodes 2303 and 2305 are also deleted. FIG. 103D shows the projection nodes 2301, 2303, and 2305 destroyed from FIG. In this case, three projective nodes are destroyed at the same time.

The “cooperation of space deformation” by the projection unit 4411 reflects the configuration of the space in another projection space. For example, if the link between 2303 and 2304 is broken, the link between 2301 and 2302, 2305 and 2306 is also broken. FIG. 92 shows the result of cooperation of space deformation from FIG.

The single access of a projecting node, the cooperation of node generation, the cooperation of deletion of a node, and the cooperation of deformation of a space handle a plurality of nodes as one in space. That is, the projection nodes 2301, 2302, 2303 can be handled as one node in the space. This means that multiple spaces are treated as one concept.

The “access of each projection space unit” by the projection unit 4411 can be handled as one independent space instead of a group of projection spaces. That is, the projective spaces 2320, 2321, and 2322 can be handled as independent spaces.

The “access for each projection space of a node” by the projection unit 4411 is to access a node by designating a projection space. For example, referring to FIG. 89, if it is the projection space 2320, the projection node 2301 is specified, and if it is the projection space 2322, the node 2305 is specified.

Projection space unit access and node-by-project space access are functions that allow the projection space to be treated as an independent space.

“Generation of space for each projection” by the projection unit 4411 is a function of adding a new projection space. In FIG. 89, there are three projection spaces, and FIG. 93 shows the addition of a fourth projection space 2323 to this. In this way, a new projection space can be added in units of space.

The “deletion of space for each projection” by the projection unit 4411 is a function for destroying the space in units of projection space. This means that the projection space 2320 is destroyed and only the projection spaces 2321 and 2322 are processed as shown in FIG.

“Projection synchronization” by the projection unit 4411 will be described. This function is a function in which projection is applied to synchronization of nodes included in a space when the space is projected. For example, in the space of FIG. 95, the node 2371a and the node 2372a are synchronized. At this time, when projecting is applied to 2371a, the projecting is applied to the space 2372a. In FIG. 95, 2371b and 2372b are projected.

In this way, the projected space can handle a plurality of spaces as one, and can handle each as a different object.

Using projection, you can treat multiple versions of a space as if they were a single space. For example, the projection nodes 2301, 2302, and 2303 are actually three nodes, but are equivalent to treating them as one in space.

Details of the implementation of projection by the projection unit 4411 will be described. There are an infinite number of implementation methods for projection, but the internal configuration is a typical implementation method using “link projection”, “node projection”, “data addition projection”, and “independent space projection”. The internal structure is implemented by these methods, and the projection function is realized by program control. These data structures can be realized by using a pointer or an object on a memory or a tag language such as XML or HTML.

Item 3.1.
Link projection

Link projection is a method of actually creating a plurality of link structures in a link space and controlling them with a program. This can be said to actually create multiple spaces so that they can be treated as projective spaces by program functions. FIG. 97 shows a link projection of FIG. As can be seen in FIG. 97, there are two spaces for each link configuration. In this case, a space composed of 2331a and 2332a and a space composed of 2331b and 2332b are generated as projection elements.

Item 3.2.
Node projection

Node projection is a process of creating a uniform structure in units of nodes constituting a space, and is a method of creating a plurality of each node and controlling them by a program. FIG. 98 shows a node projection of FIG. This is a structure in which a plurality of nodes or node information is added to each node. In this case, the node 2332 is converted into the node 2331c and the node 2332 is converted into the node 2332c. That is, node information in which each node is projected is held. Node projection makes it easier to implement projection in a space that is not configured by links, such as an intangible space, and synchronous projection than other methods.

FIG. 101 shows a case where a node projection is created with a link list. The node 2380 has a projected node or node information 2381, 2382, 2383 and forms a list. This link may be composed of a list structure in memory or an instance of an object, or may be composed of a tag language such as XML or HTML. This link may be a technique used when linking nodes.

FIG. 102 illustrates an implementation for linking a node to a data group in node projection. The data group of the node 2391 is linked to the node 2390. When this is mounted on a memory, it is preferable to store a node or node information projected in the data container. When saving to a disk storage device or the like, it is better to save them together on a disk in a file format or binary compressed form. In short, it is only necessary to be accessible as a projected node even if it is scattered internally.

Item 3.3.
Projection that connects data

Data addition projection is a method of linking projection data to a space. FIG. 99 shows a data addition projection of FIG. This includes things that use layers to achieve projection. In this case, the projection is realized using the additional information 2333 for the projected space. Information about the space is included inside 2333. Using this information, it is handled as if there are multiple spaces.

When implementing data addition projection, it is better to use a layer or a mechanism equivalent to it.

The data addition projection will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 103 projects the space composed of nodes 2401, 2402, and 2403. The node 2401 is connected to 2404, the node 2402 is connected to 2405, and the node 2403 is connected to 2406. Here, projection information may be held in 2404, 2405, and 2406. Further, the design may be such that 2404, 2405, and 2406 refer to a common resource 2407 as a whole. In this way, the projection is performed by adding data to the space.

Item 3.4. Projection using independent space nodes

Independent space projection is a method for realizing projection by creating a kind of independent space node and holding a plurality of spatial information inside or outside. FIG. 100 shows the independent space projection of FIG. The projection data inside the independent space node 2334 may be in any form as long as it can be handled by the projection function, and a plurality of spaces may be held inside, or may be expressed as a completely different format.

The independent space projection will be described with reference to FIG. A space definition 2418 is linked to the independent space node 2411 either outside or inside. Three projection spaces are stored in 2418, including spaces 2412 and 2413, spaces 2414 and 2415, and spaces 2416 and 2417.

Item 4.
layer

Item 4.1.
Space with layers

You can apply “layers” to nodes, links, and spaces. A layer is a structure in which information is defined in parallel to a node or space, and is a structure in which additional information is given in parallel to the node, rather than adding information to the node itself. To be defined in parallel means to be defined in a form corresponding to a node or space. Various information can be added to the space by using layers. In addition, unlike the property, since the node itself is not operated, it is easy to add information and the risk of data destruction can be reduced. Furthermore, it is possible to use in various scenes by stacking multiple layers or combining them depending on the situation. Layers can separate things that are different from the concepts that nodes and spaces want to express. Furthermore, it can be said that all information that is different from the concept to be expressed should be included in the layer. A layer can be applied to either a single node or a space, is flexible, and is very convenient when adding information to a space. Implementation is particularly effective for security, events, and priorities.

A layer is usually a data format that exists in a node or space of the spatial data portion 4201.

A layer can give information to each node in the space to which the layer is added, or can give information about the entire space.

There are “structure layer” and “substance layer”. The structure layer adds a layer to the structure of the space itself, and applies the layer to the node structure. The entity layer adds a layer to the entity itself, that is, it is performed on the node itself. That is, the effect of the layer is applied to all nodes having the same synchronization point in the node to which the entity layer is added.

The structure layer and the substance layer will be described with reference to FIG. Nodes 3141 and 3142 are synchronized with each other. At this time, even if the structural layer is applied to the node in the space 3140, the layer is added to the node 3141, but the layer is not added to the node 3142. However, when an entity layer is added to a node in the space 3140, the entity layer is applied not only to the node 3141 but also to the node 3142.

Item 4.2.
Structural layer

The structural layer will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 109, one space and two structural layers are defined. 3100, 3101, 3102, 3103, and 3104 form a link space with nodes. A structure layer includes 3110, 3111, 3112, 3113, and 3114, 3115, 3116, 3117. In FIG. 109, two structural layers are connected to the space. In the structure layer, it is possible to define a layer for the link, but in this case, the structure layer is added only to the nodes in the space. 3110, 3111, 3112, and 3113 form the structural layer 1, and 3114, 3115, 3116, and 3117 form the structural layer 2, respectively. 109 shows the correspondence between the nodes and the structural layer, and the circular broken line means the structural layer. Usually, additional information is given to the structural layer, and various processes are performed inside or outside the program based on the additional information. A layer exists in parallel with a node, but even when a layer is added to a link space, it does not have to be composed of links like a node.

Item 4.3.
Entity layer

The entity layer will be described with reference to FIG. Node 3150 and node 3152 are synchronized with each other. An actual layer is added to the nodes 3150, 3151, 3152. At this time, the node 3150 and the node 3152 are connected to the layer 1 3153, and the node 3151 is connected to the node 3154. Similarly, nodes 3150 and 3152 are connected to 3155 of layer 2, and 3156 is connected to node 3151. In this way, the entity layer is connected to the node entity, not the spatial structure.

Item 4.4.
Entity layer

A specific implementation of the layer will be described. A layer can exist outside or inside a node, but since a layer logically provides information to the node from the outside, a lot of information must be held outside even in implementation. desirable. The layer can be implemented on a computer-readable recording medium or on a network. In other words, it can be implemented in any environment where a node can be realized. It may be an entity on the memory or formed with XML on the disk.

In order to associate a node with a layer, it is necessary to connect the node and the node so as to be linked. Information that links a node and a layer can be described in the node itself or externally.

In theory, a layer gives information from outside the space, so it is not good to store all information inside a node. In other words, it is ideal to store some or all of them externally.

FIG. 111 shows a method described in the node itself. Reference numeral 3150 denotes a node or reference information to the node. 3150 stores information for the layer. The layer 3151 stores information for nodes.

FIG. 112 shows a case where the relationship between nodes and layers is described outside. Reference numeral 3155 denotes a node or reference information to the node. Reference numeral 3156 denotes a layer, and 3157 holds information that links 3155 and 3156.

In the structure layer, information is usually added to the node as asynchronous information addition, and the entity layer is usually handled as synchronous information addition to the node.

An implementation for adding a layer to a space using XML will be described. FIG. 22 illustrates an implementation in the case where a layer is added to FIGS. 26 and 27, which are XML expressing the links of nodes.

An example of implementing a structural layer is shown. Assume that a structural layer is added to nodes 851 and 852 and the link between them. In this case, a simple structure layer for testing is added to the link definition as shown in FIGS. in this case,
<StructualLayer name = "layer1"
value = "100"/>
The part is the definition of the structural layer. In the actual general implementation, this tag contains more information and references to information.

An example of implementing the entity layer is shown. An entity layer added to node A and node B in FIG. 22 is shown in XML as shown in FIG. Thus, the layer is added to the node itself, not the structure. In this case, the layer is completely defined from outside the node.

The self-extending function of a layer refers to a function in which a layer is applied to a node or a portion added when a space is added to a space to which a layer is applied. Furthermore, it is also effective to implement this function by using space link selection and space filtering functions to perform space self-expansion in a more flexible manner. This function is mainly applied in the structural layer.

The self-expanding function of the layer will be explained using the figure. The nodes 3120, 3121, and 3122 in FIG. 117 form a space with the nodes. Reference numerals 3130, 3131 and 3132 form layers. As shown in FIG. 118, a node 3123 is added to 3122. Then, the layer 3133 in FIG. 119 is expanded.

Item 4.5.
Security layer

Security management can be made easier to handle by introducing a security layer in order to realize security that prevents unauthorized access to programs and execution of unauthorized programs. This can be achieved by mapping the security layer to the space. Usually, the security layer includes one or a plurality of user information and security authority information. As a result, the security for each user and the correspondence between the authority and space of a plurality of users become clearer and easier to manage. The security layer is a layer in which security information is added.

The security layer will be described with reference to FIG. Reference numeral 3215 denotes a security layer for the user 3201, and reference numeral 3216 denotes a security layer for the user 3202. Each security layer masks part of the space. The instruction 3220 of the user 3201 is excluded by the security layer 3215, but the instruction 3222 is applied to the 3211 without being affected by the security layer. Similarly, instruction 3221 applies to node 3210 and instruction 3223 is excluded.

FIG. 121 shows an example of realizing security by the security layer by using step diagrams. In step S401, an operation on the space is detected. In step S402, it is confirmed whether a security layer exists in the operation target space. The security set in step S403 is analyzed to determine whether or not to permit the operation. S404 is executed when the operation is permitted, S405 is not permitted, the operation is invalidated, and the notification process is also executed at the same time.

Item 4.6.
Event layer

By implementing an event layer that uses event information as a layer to realize an event, the event can be handled more flexibly. An event basically consists of a “reaction” and a “notification”. In other words, information such as what to react to and how to notify to the event layer may be recorded, and the event function may be realized from the program. The event layer is a layer to which event information for notifying internal or external users of a change in space, a command to the space, or a temporal change is added.

FIG. 122 shows an example of the realization of the event by the event layer by using the step diagram. Step 501 means that an event such as an operation or a change in the space occurs. In step 502, it is confirmed whether an event layer corresponding to the space to be operated or the changed space exists. In step S503, it is confirmed whether there is event information corresponding to the operation or change. In step S504, notification processing is performed based on event information. Information about the event is collected in steps S502 and S503, and actual notification is performed in S504.

Item 4.7.
Software system using layers

The manner in which layers are actually used will be specifically described below with reference to FIG. The space in FIG. 123 represents a bug report of a certain company's software. In this case, it is necessary to make security settings in order to make this space accessible from an external network. Here, a security layer is set in this space. First of all, it is desirable to set security so that information on the space cannot be changed for people outside the company or outsiders who do not need to fix bugs. Here, security information for prohibiting changes by outsiders in the entire space is added using the structure layer 3251. In addition, it is unfortunate that it is unnecessary to disclose information about the author to outsiders in the part that classifies bugs by creator. For this reason, security information is preferably set in 3252 as a structural layer that makes a portion by creator invisible to outsiders. In addition, unhandled bugs can be dangerous if misused, and should never be disclosed to outsiders. Therefore, security information may be set as a substance layer for a node in the space 3253. In this way, security is applied even when synchronization exists in other spaces. If layers are used as described above, security settings can be made without directly changing the space. The information managed in this way is clearly separated and can be easily added or deleted.

FIG. 124 shows a functional block diagram of a general program that implements the security layer. These functions are implemented by one or a plurality of programs. The program may be processed by a plurality of computers. A user 4802 accesses the spatial data unit 4201 through the security gateway 4803. The security gateway 4803 accesses the security layer information 4804 and permits an operation according to the security level.

Item 5.
Automatic classification process

Details of the automatic classification processing unit 4809 will be described. As shown in FIG. 137, the automatic classification processing unit 4809 is a processing unit that expands a space by adding nodes constituting the space, and acquires and processes the node or information associated with the node. The automatic classification process starting unit 4810 and the automatic classification unit 4811 are started. The automatic classification unit 4811 is configured to determine whether the addition is appropriate by the determination unit 4813 that determines whether or not the addition is appropriate when adding a new node to the traveling unit 4812 that follows the link of the node and the node that has been visited in the traveling unit. The node adding unit 4814 includes a node adding unit 4814. The determining unit 4813 further includes an existence availability determining unit 4820 and a cyclic availability determining unit 4821. The adding unit 4814 further includes an individual adding unit 4830 and a synchronization addition. Part 4831 and a link addition part 4832. With respect to these functions, an outline of the processing will be described using FIG. 137 of a functional block diagram of a general program in which automatic classification processing is implemented. These functions are implemented by one or a plurality of programs. The program may be processed by a plurality of computers.

The advantage of using the automatic classification process is that it can be expanded while maintaining adequate space. What is manually maintained may contain errors. Also, if the size of the defined space is huge, it may become impossible to recognize the whole. Complementing these problems is the automatic classification process. As shown in FIG. 136, when a new node is added, it is difficult to grasp which part should be added and which part should be present as the size of the space increases. However, once the automatic classification process sets the presence / absence conditional expression, it is added to an appropriate place that should be circulated when a new node is added.

The “automatic classification processing” of the space by the automatic classification processing unit 4809 facilitates expansion and addition to the link space. This function determines whether or not a newly added node can be added using a presence / absence conditional expression linked to the inside of the node or to the outside while circulating around the space. It can be said that the general implementation of the presence / absence conditional expression is generally enabled to be described in a script language or a program language by using newly added node information. One presence / absence conditional expression may correspond to a plurality of nodes.

As described above, as a large flow of processing by the automatic classification processing unit 4809, data determination from the automatic classification processing start unit 4810 is received, the automatic classification unit 4811 is executed, and the node is added to the spatial data unit 4201. The

The automatic classification process start unit 4810 acquires or generates data for starting the automatic classification process. This part may be an external or internal program, a change detected outside the program, or a human input.

The automatic classification unit 4811 includes a tour unit 4812, a determination unit 4813, and an addition unit 4814. When the traveling unit 4812 circulates the node of the spatial data unit 4201 and the determination unit 4813 determines that the node can be added, the adding unit 4814 adds the node to the spatial data unit 4201.

The circulation unit 4812 obtains information of the spatial data unit 4201 and performs a process that has the same effect as a tour of the space or a tour. While patrolling by the circulator 4812, the determination unit 4813 is used to determine whether to add a node or whether to further circulate the node.

The determination unit 4813 determines the existence permission condition expression associated with the node and determines whether to add the existence permission condition expression 4820, and the circulation permission condition determination that determines whether the circulation is determined by determining the circulation permission condition expression. Part 4821. The existence permission conditional expression and the patrol availability conditional expression used in the determination unit 4813 are normally associated with a node using a layer or a similar mechanism like 4815. The presence / absence conditional expression / circular availability conditional expression 4815 is normally defined in a script / program language 4841, but an external program 4842 or the like may be used. Actually, when the conditional expression is complicated, it seems that a method of performing processing by calling the function of the internal or external program from the script / program language 4841 is generally considered.

The adding unit 4814 performs processing for adding a new node to the spatial data unit 4201. Individual type automatic addition is realized by using the individual addition unit 4814, synchronous type automatic addition is realized by using the synchronization addition unit 4831, and link type automatic addition is realized by using the link addition unit 4832.

Item 5.1.
Device for individual addition

“Individual addition” implemented in the individual addition unit 4830 means that an added node is added as an individual entity. That is, the nodes added after the second are added as different entities.

A case where individual addition by the individual addition unit 4830 is used will be described with reference to the drawings. When the automatic classification processing of the node 3660 is performed in the space of FIG. 132, when the nodes 3661 and 3661 can exist, the nodes 3663 and 3664 are added as shown in FIG. At this time, nodes 3663 and 3664 are added as different entities.

Item 5.2.
Synchronous addition device

The “synchronization addition” implemented in the synchronization addition unit 4831 is added in a synchronized state of the previously added node when the second and subsequent nodes are the same as the previously added node. Say that. In other words, when nodes that have the property that they can be regarded as the same but differ in space and change in one is also applied to the other are called synchronized states, the node added second or later is added first. To be added in a synchronized state. If this process is not used, the same information is not synchronized, so if there is a change in information, it is not applied to the other, so this process is important because management becomes difficult.

A case where synchronization addition by the synchronization adding unit 4831 is used will be described with reference to the drawing. When the automatic classification processing of the node 3660 is performed in the space of FIG. 132, when the nodes 3661 and 3661 can exist, the nodes 3663 and 3664 are added as shown in FIG. At this time, nodes 3663 and 3664 are added while being synchronized with each other.

Item 5.3.
Device that adds links

In the automatic classification process, if the node added after the second is the same as the previously added node by using “link addition” by the link adding unit 4832, the added node is added first. It is added when the nodes are linked. The space created by using this process can clarify the relationship of information nodes by links.

The case where the link addition by the link addition part 4832 is used is demonstrated using a figure. When the automatic classification process of the node 3660 is performed in the space of FIG. 132, it is assumed that the nodes 3661 and 3662 can exist. In this case, node 3665 in FIG. 134 is added. Thus, instead of adding two nodes, 3665 links added first are added.

Item 5.4.
Addition of presence / absence conditional expression during patrol

By adding a presence / absence conditional expression when adding a node in automatic classification processing, the automatic classification processing itself can be expanded.

A case will be described in which a presence / absence conditional expression is added when a node is added by automatic classification processing, using the figure. A process of adding a node and presence / absence conditional expression in the automatic classification process is performed on FIG. Then, as shown in FIG. 127, when a new node is added, presence / absence conditional expressions 3636 and 3635 are added together with the nodes 3630 and 3631.

The case of adding a node presence / absence conditional expression at the same time as adding a node by automatic classification processing can be realized by assuming that S604 in the flowchart of FIG. 128 is shown in FIG.

Item 5.5.
Patrollability conditional expression

In the automatic classification process, it is also possible to control the node to be traced by a cyclic availability conditional expression linked to the inside or outside of the node. This is a particularly effective means in the hierarchical space. This function enables automatic classification using systematization of concepts. Further, since the number of nodes to be visited is limited, it is advantageous in terms of execution speed.

Using FIG. 130, a description will be given of a case where the cyclic availability determination unit 4821 controls a node to be traced in the automatic classification processing using a cyclic availability conditional expression. Assume that the automatic classification process starts from the root node 3640. When the cyclic processing 3650 reaches the node 3642, if the cyclic availability determination unit 4821 determines that the circulation is not possible according to the cyclic availability conditional expression set in the conditional expression 3652, the processing is performed without reaching the nodes 3643 and 3644. finish.

A description will be given of a case where a node to be traced in the automatic classification processing is controlled by a cyclic availability condition expression with reference to a flowchart of FIG. 131. The flow in FIG. 131 is obtained by adding step S5 for determining whether or not a new tour is possible between steps S601 and S602 in the flowchart in FIG.

It is also effective to add a cyclic availability condition expression at the same time as adding a node by automatic classification processing. As a result, it is possible to control the patrol route dynamically by a program or the like. That is, the calculation cost can be automatically reduced according to the situation.
Item 5.6.
About the form of the expression

The presence / absence conditional expression and the cyclic availability conditional expression can be linked to the node by either “synchronous information addition” used as synchronized information or “spatial information addition” added as individual entities. good. If "synchronous information addition" is used, conditional expressions can be shared between synchronized nodes.

The existence availability conditional expression and the cyclic availability conditional expression need not correspond to one node. That is, these expressions may be shared by a plurality of nodes.

The presence / absence conditional expression and the cyclic availability conditional expression are mechanisms for generating the concept that the space wants to express, but are not directly related to the space to be expressed. Therefore, it can be said that it is natural that these are implemented as layers.
If the conditions set in the existence availability conditional expression and the cyclic availability conditional expression become more complicated, it becomes difficult to express them in a script or a simple programming language. For example, it is a case where the sentence property of a node is determined by performing a complex parsing. Therefore, it is possible to execute processing by an external program in the determination unit 4813, and it is possible to improve the processing speed, development efficiency, and ease of maintenance of the existence availability conditional expression and the cyclic availability conditional expression.

Item 6.
Implementation of the invention as a book search system (second embodiment)

The case where it implements as a book search system as embodiment of implementation of this invention is demonstrated. This mounting is referred to as a second embodiment.

There are many books published today, but it is not easy to judge whether it really fits your purpose. In fact, it can be said that the current situation is that if you do not read the contents to some extent, you will not know. Some systems allow you to search for a book by text, but whether it matches your needs is a matter of how the book's content is, and ultimately you need to look at the contents, so this is also complete It's not a good solution. Therefore, by incorporating the present invention into a book search system, a system capable of more efficient book search is constructed.

Item 6.1.
Functional configuration of the system

FIG. 154 shows an information space device 6000 in the embodiment of the book search system.

Spatial book search system 6000 implements the present invention as a book search system. By combining book information with a semantic space, it is possible to use overlay search.

The client machine 10 is a PC (personal computer) or a portable information terminal, and one or a plurality of them exist, and acquire and transmit information to the spatial book search system 6000 via the information communication network 15. .

The HTTP client unit 6011 can acquire and transmit information by accessing the HTTP server 6032 via the information communication network 15 using the HTTP protocol. In practice, a Web browser or the like is used. As information to be acquired, information on books, contents of books, information on a space into which books are classified, and the like are acquired. The search information is transmitted to the spatial book search system 6000 using the HTTP protocol.

The firewall unit 6031 is a part that keeps security with respect to communication from the outside. It protects against unauthorized access from the information communication network 15 and viruses. When an unauthorized access is detected, the information acquired by the communication is discarded or stored as a log without being transferred to the HTTP server unit 6032.

The HTTP server unit 6032 has a function of transmitting and receiving information using the HTTP protocol. In an actual system, a web server such as Apache (R) is used.

The information registration function unit 6034 registers and updates information in the spatial data unit 4210a.

The information registration machine 6035 is a terminal for updating information, and registers and updates information using the information registration function unit 6034.

Spatial data section 4210 stores information used by the system. The entity stores information as a relational database or file storage system.

The space structure database 6036 holds node and space structure information.

The book information database 6037 holds information about books. The information to be held includes information about the book (information about the author and publisher), the contents of the book (text information about the contents of the book), and the like.

The system function unit 6021 is a part that holds the system logic of the book search system.

The external interface unit 6041 converts the communication from the HTTP server unit 6032 into information for the internal system, and retains a function of converting data into HTML for transmitting the information for the internal system. Assuming that the HTTP client unit T11 is a Web browser and the HTTP server unit 6032 is Apache (TM), this part is implemented using a Java (registered trademark) servlet or JSP (Java Server Pages). Is common.

The text comparison engine 6045 compares text information and calculates whether or not they are equivalent, and calculates the similarity as a numerical value. The entity functions as an external program and is called from the comparison unit 4218 as necessary.
Item 6.2.
Information flow in processing

In Embodiment 2, the flow of processing when acquiring books and space information from a client will be described. First, an information acquisition message is transmitted from the HTTP client unit 6011 to the spatial book search system 6000 through the information communication network 15. In the spatial book search system 6000, messages are sequentially transferred to the firewall unit 6031, the HTTP server unit 6032, the external interface unit 6041, and the system logic 6042. Furthermore, the system logic unit 6042 determines the content of the message, and acquires information to be acquired from the spatial data unit 4201. The system logic unit 6042 notifies the acquired information of the obtained information via the external interface unit 6041, the HTTP server unit 6032, the firewall unit 6031, the information communication network 15, and the HTTP client unit 6011.

In the second embodiment, the flow of processing when performing overlay processing from a client will be described. First, an overlay processing message is transmitted from the HTTP client unit 6011 to the spatial book search system 6000 through the information communication network 15. In the spatial book search system 6000, messages are sequentially transferred to the firewall unit 6031, the HTTP server unit 6032, the external interface unit 6041, and the system logic 6042. Further, the overlay processing control unit T42 of the system logic unit 6042 analyzes the content of the message and uses the data acquisition unit 4210a to acquire information necessary for the overlay process from the book information acquisition unit 6043 and the spatial data unit 4210a. To do. Information necessary for the overlay processing is passed to the overlay calculation processing unit 4211 and calculated, and the system logic unit 6042 receives the result of the overlay calculation processing, and receives an external interface unit 6041, an HTTP server unit 6032, a firewall unit 6031, The result is notified through the information communication network 15 and the HTTP client unit 6011.

The diagram used in the second embodiment shows a space in which book information is stored. For the purpose of this explanation, the spatial information is greatly simplified, but it is actually a larger amount of spatial information. In the figure, nodes assigned with alphabets a to n are nodes holding book information, and nodes assigned the same alphabet represent the same book.
Item 6.3.
Execution of overlay processing

Item 6.3.1.
Book search by weighting process using equivalence evaluation

A book is searched by a weighting process using equivalence evaluation. Suppose that the novels “with love” and “with suspense” are desirable in the new building book. In this case, information can be retrieved by using a superposition process using equivalence evaluation for the two spaces 6102 and 6103. Therefore, FIG. 156 shows a result of performing the overlay processing using the equivalence evaluation on the spaces 6102 and 6103 in FIG. From this result, it can be said that the books a and f to be obtained are closest to those to be obtained.

Item 6.3.2.
Book search using logical operations using equivalence evaluation

A book search is performed by a logical operation using equivalence evaluation. Suppose that it is desired to search for a new book in the spaces 6102, 6103, and 6104 in FIG. 155 that satisfies all the categories of “with love”, “with suspense”, and “historical”. In this case, in order to obtain a space that satisfies all the conditions of the spaces 6102, 6103, and 6104, it is preferable to perform an AND operation on the spaces 6102, 6103, and 6104. FIG. 157 shows the result obtained by processing this calculation. Here, 1 means true and 0 means false. First, the space 6102, 6103, 6104 represented by a truth value is “true / false of space 6102”, “true / false of space 6103”, “true / false of space 6104”. Further, the result of performing an AND operation in these three spaces is shown in “Result of logical operation”. In this case, since all are false, it is calculated by calculation that there is no one that satisfies all the conditions of the spaces 6102, 6103, and 6104.

Item 6.3.3.
Book search by weighting process using comparative study

The information analysis of the book is performed by the weighting process using the comparative study. The newly-published book is verified using the apparatus of the second embodiment to determine which books are accepted in the 20s. A space 6101 is a collection of books popular with people in their 20s. A space 6105 is a space in which information on newly published books is collected. Assume that weighting processing using comparative study is performed in the outer comparison type for these two spaces. Further, the result of the comparative study shall follow the comparison table in FIG. The external comparison type weighting process using comparative examination tends to have more important elements in a plurality of spaces. In this case, the result of FIG. 159 is obtained, and it can be determined that the book n is the most easily accepted among the 20s in the newly published book.

Item 6.3.4.
Manage printing plates by using projection

Using projection makes it easier to manage what is conceptually the same but actually different. For example, even a single book has a first version, a second version, and the like, and the same first version is slightly different due to correction of typographical errors depending on printing. By managing such books by projecting them by the projecting unit 4411, the processing becomes easy.

Item 6.3.5.
Implementing services for members by using layers

By using the layer, the process can be changed by the user using the spatial book search system 6000. This function implements services for members and non-members, but the processing can be clearly separated and maintenance is facilitated.

Item 6.3.6.
Use automatic classification processing to facilitate information registration

There are many books in this world, and new books are published every day. If all of this information is organized manually, a huge cost is incurred. Therefore, this new book registration process is automatically registered by using the automatic classification process mechanism.

In the second embodiment, the flow of the automatic classification process will be described. Book information to be newly registered is input from the information registration machine 6035, and the book information is transferred to the information registration function unit 6034. Further, the information registration function unit 6034 transfers the information to the automatic classification processing unit 4809.

Item 7.
Example as general-purpose information management software (third embodiment)

FIG. 160 shows an information space device 4000 according to the third embodiment using general-purpose information management software 7000. The general-purpose information management software 7000 is implemented as an application having a function of three layers that is roughly divided into a user interface layer, a logic layer, and a data layer. Since the general-purpose information management software can associate file information retention with a node, it can also be used as file management software.

A user interface layer 7011 is an area where functions for receiving drawing on a display screen, input from a user interface, and the like are arranged.

The logic layer 7012 is a part in which functions such as overlay processing are implemented, and is a function responsible for most of the processing of the general-purpose information management software 7000 and calculation logic.

The data layer 7013 performs recording and acquisition of information from the spatial data unit 4201.

The user interface unit 7041 is a functional unit that controls input processing to the screen from the user of the general-purpose information management software 7000 and output of data to the screen.

The spatial data unit 4201 in the third embodiment uses a file system. The data format recorded in the file system uses XML.

The intermediate data access unit 7031 is information used when the function of the user interface layer 7011 acquires information about the space.

The data access unit 7021 is a function for concealing actual space data and implementation. For example, the spatial data unit 4201 uses a file system, but changing the data format to something other than XML affects the function of the general-purpose information management software 7000 as a whole. It can be changed without

The data cache unit 7022 can speed up the information acquisition process by storing the information acquired from the spatial data unit 4201 implemented in the file system in a temporary memory area that is faster.

A flow of weighting processing using equivalence evaluation in the general-purpose information management software 7000 will be described. An instruction for superimposition processing is generated by an operation from the input / output device 7050. The user interface unit 7041 notifies the processing start unit 4212 according to an instruction from the input / output device 7050. Superimposition processing is started by the processing start unit 4212, and space information used in the superimposition processing is acquired from the spatial data unit 4201 through the data access unit 7021 by the data acquisition unit 4210. The acquired space information is subjected to processing for calculating the relevance between the spaces in the overlap calculation unit 4211. In the overlap calculation unit 4211, the weight calculation unit 4221 uses the equivalence evaluation unit 4215 to calculate the weight information for each space based on the result of the equivalence evaluation that determines whether the acquired nodes in the space are equivalent. calculate. Further, when the weight information for each space is a calculation by a plurality of spaces, the weights are integrated in the integrated calculation calculation unit 4222, and a final weighting processing result is calculated. The calculated weighting processing result is notified to the user interface unit 7041, and is output to the screen 7051 of the input / output device 7050 by the data output unit 4213.

As shown in FIG. 161, a space is represented by a tree view when output on the screen 7051. In addition, all the forms of space in the general-purpose information management software 7000 are implemented using a hierarchical space linked in a hierarchical manner. The space is composed of nodes storing diary information text files from January 1985 to June 2006, and is classified into various categories such as date and memory. Diary information text files are managed on a date basis, diary information text files of the same date in space are synchronized, and one change is applied to the other. Diaries store various lessons and memories of life, and it can be said that it is very meaningful to obtain various information from them.

The weighting process used in the general-purpose information management software 7000 can use a weighting process using equivalence evaluation that makes synchronized ones equivalent. In the description of the general-purpose information management software 7000, Of the weighting processes using equivalence evaluation, only those that are equivalent to synchronized ones are used.

The structure node and file node will be described. As shown in FIG. 162, a node 7101 means a structure node that can form structure information, and a node 7102 means that an arbitrary file can be stored (this time diary information text file).
In addition, the structure node is not information to be stored, but information for forming a space (forming a category on a hierarchy), and thus is excluded from the result of the overlay process.

In the general-purpose information management software 7000, the weighting process screen and the flow of screen operations will be described. FIG. 163 shows a screen when a weighting process using equivalence evaluation is performed. First, when performing a search process, a space to be searched is dropped from the “space tree view” to the “space search view” by drag and drop. Further, the “search” button is pushed in the “spatial search view”, and the result is processed and shown in the “spatial search result view”.
The space dropped to “Space Search View” is a space that can be traced to “Diary Information-By Date-1990-1994” and “Diary Information-By Event-Travel-Overseas” in “Space Tree View”. It is a space that can be traced. This can be said to mean searching for a “diary of the days of traveling abroad between 1990 and 1994”.
The weighting process is performed by pressing the “search” button in the “space search view”, and the space to be processed is a hierarchical selection of the space indicated by the “space search view”. In other words, in the case of a space that can be traced as "diary information-by date-1990-1994", also select "1990", "1991", "1992", "1993", and "1994" which are child elements of "1990-1994" Will be. Also, the child element “1990” and its child elements are selected.
The results of the weighting process shown in “Spatial Search Result View” are “1991.2.4.txt”, “1991.2.5.txt”, “1991.2.6.txt”, “1991.2.7.txt”. ”And“ 1991.2.8.txt ”scored“ 2 ”, and“ the day I traveled abroad between 1990 and 1994 ”was February 4, 1991, February 5, 1991, 1991 It can be said that it is a diary of the date which February 6, 1991 February 7, and 1991 February 8 require.

A description will be given of how the diary information is visually searched using the weighting processing using the equivalence evaluation that makes the synchronized ones equivalent, from the viewpoint of the searcher A who is the searcher of the diary information. Suppose that searcher A wants to search for diary information that is related to overseas travel between 1990 and 2003 and that is a good memory. In this case, search is performed as shown in FIG. 164 using the space storing the date and the “overseas” space that can be traced in “diary information−by event” −travel−overseas ”, and the result is obtained. Good to do.
Further, in order to further narrow down the information, a space that can be traced by “diary information-by memory, fun memory-highest” is additionally added to the “space search view”, and the search result is shown in FIG.

All the above searches can be performed using the screen 7051 and using only the mouse 7052. By using the general-purpose information management software 7000, information can be searched visually.

Item 8.
Supplementary explanation of the elements of the invention

Item 8.1.
Environment in which the invention can be used

The information space processing device 4000 is realized by a single computer or a plurality of computers. FIG. 2 shows a schematic diagram of a general computer. The present invention can be implemented in any computer and system such as a personal computer, a server computer, a mainframe computer, a network system, a personal digital assistant, and an embedded microcomputer. Since the principle of the present invention is relatively simple, it can be implemented in a computer that can be referred to as a stored program system, or in any one that uses it.

The information communication network 15 means any communication path including the Internet, an intranet, and wireless communication.

The user includes not only a person who uses the program but also a program which uses the program.

Item 8.2.
node

The node will be described. In the present invention, a node is a unit for linking and managing information, or information itself.

Node implementation will be described. The node is implemented on a computer-readable recording medium or an information communication network such as the Internet. That is, it may be a signal flowing through a network, and in the present invention, any form may be used as long as it can be identified as a node.

In the present invention, information associated with a node and all kinds of information can be used for the node. This information includes text such as name and description, numeric data such as IDs, application-specific data formats, binary data, specific memory areas, XML documents and schemas, file lists, file streams (files , Or a reference to the entity, usually on a magnetic disk such as a hard disk or on a memory), a signal flowing through a network, etc. . Any form may be used as long as the program or apparatus for executing the present invention can be determined as information associated with a node and a node.

There are countless methods for managing nodes and data associated with the nodes. Although all information may be stored in the node as it is, management by a file system or serialization of data may be used. In addition, implementation by cooperation with a relational database is also conceivable. It is also an effective implementation to make the information permanent by expanding spatial information on the memory during program execution and recording it on a non-volatile recording medium for storage.

An implementation example when the space shown in the node diagram of FIG. 22 is created in the XML format is shown. Suppose that the same alphabet is synchronized with each other. Each node is a simple node having only “name” property and “type” property (attribute information). The definition of each node itself is expressed in XML with the node A in FIG. 23, the node B in FIG. 24, and the node C in FIG. The definition of a link when these nodes are network type link spaces is the definition of FIG. When these are expressed as a hierarchical space which is a kind of link space, they can also be expressed as shown in FIG. This is a representation of a parent-child link relationship as XML parent and child elements.

An independent space node is a node that can be treated as a space or a node in a program that implements the present invention. That is, although it is a node, it can be said that the information connected to the node is a space that is a set of nodes. By using an independent space node, the space itself can be treated as a node. In FIG. 16, 500 and 501 are independent space nodes and are synchronized with each other. Although 500 and 501 are linked like nodes, spatial information exists inside. A change to the node 502 is a change to 503. This is because 500 and 501 are synchronized, so the internal space is also synchronized.

The implementation of the independent space node will be described. Various implementations are possible, but implementation is relatively easy because it is only necessary to link spatial information to nodes. As a method of linking, as information shared between synchronized ones, spatial information may be linked to a node by adding synchronous information that adds information to the node.

Item 8.3.
Link

A link is a mechanism for connecting nodes. As long as it is in a form that can be recognized by the program or the device that “nodes are connected to each other”, it may exist in any form such as information on a memory or information on a hard disk. A link exists to indicate a relationship such as structuring a node group. Speaking of typical links, HTML hyperlinks are typical. By being structured by links, space can be treated as a human being.

Information about the link between nodes may be described in the node itself or externally.

FIG. 9 is a diagram in the case where node link information is stored in the node itself. In this case, the node 300 holds link information to the node 301. 300 and 301 may be a node reference depending on the implementation.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a case where link information is described outside. It is assumed that the node 310 and the node 311 are in a link state. In this case, link information is not stored in each of the nodes 310 and 311, but the link relationship is defined by 312. 310 and 311 may be node references depending on the implementation.

When a node link is implemented on a memory, a method of expressing a pointer to a node or a reference to an object is generally used.

Item 8.4.
space

The space will be described. In the present invention, a space is a collection of one or more nodes, regardless of structure, shape, or state. The space includes a link space, a hierarchical space, an intangible space, a logical space, and the like depending on the form.

The space will be described with reference to FIG. 8 can all be referred to as spaces. 231 may be called a node.

The link space is a space formed by linking nodes. The link space can be structured and systematized, so it has excellent visibility and comprehension. Typical implementations in the link space include web page links. The Web is a space where nodes called Web pages are connected by many links. FIG. 6 shows a link space node diagram. 210 denotes a node and 211 denotes a link. A space formed by the links between nodes in this way is a link space.

A node having a parent-child relationship is particularly referred to as a “hierarchical space”. The space created by the parent-child relationship can be systematized easily, so it has better learning comprehension than the randomly linked space. The superiority of hierarchical space is that it is rich in “space predictability”. This means that only a part of the space is recognized, and it is easy to predict the space connected to it. This spatial predictability has a great effect on the spatial overlay processing.

The hierarchical space will be described below with reference to FIG. Node 812 is a child node of node 811, and node 811 is a child node of node 810. Thus, the hierarchical space is constituted by the parent-child relationship.

An intangible space is a set of nodes that are not structured like a link space. As shown in FIG. 9, unlike the link space, the nodes are stored in an unlinked state. 220 is an intangible space and 221 is a node. The intangible space is formed by such a simple set of data nodes.

A “logical space” that is a logically existing space will be described. FIG. 151 is a simple list of information. In FIG. 151, the alphabet and the order of the alphabet are simply displayed. However, for this information, “number the alphabets in alphabetical order, and set the numerical values to k, d, s, c, f, p, x, a, e, g, m, s, Applying a calculation formula of “inserting elements in the order of v and z to generate a binary search tree space” results in a space as shown in FIG. However, in this case, it can be said that the nodes and spaces do not exist as actual conditions until they are calculated. In this way, using the calculation formula, even if it does not actually exist, it can be used for computer-readable recording media or superimposition processing equivalent to the space that actually exists on the information communication network. Can do.

A method for implementing a file system using space will be described below with reference to FIGS. Associate node 730 with folder 740. Similarly, 731 is associated with file 741 and 732 is associated with file 742. In this way, a virtual file system is completed. In other words, the file system can also be said to be a space composed of nodes.

Spatial predictability will be described with reference to FIG. 800 nodes have links to information about the diary. If you want to read the diary of October 6, 2001. Will you follow the 801 date-specific node or will you follow the 802 memory-specific node? You will try to find the nodes by date. This is spatial predictability. This means that the configuration of the previous space can be predicted by recognizing a part of the space.

When an application using a hierarchical space is implemented, the user interface may be easily implemented by a tree view as shown in FIG.

Item 8.5.
Manipulating space

By selecting a space, processing using a specific space can be performed. Strictly speaking, selection is the space recognized by the program. In other words, it means that the program has acquired enough information to process the space.

Link selection is a method of selecting a space from a certain node according to a specific rule in a link space. It is convenient to use the selected space for designating a space for processing or computation, such as space superimposition processing, logical rules, and layers.

In addition, by utilizing a function for selecting the number of links, a link is traced a specified number around a certain node, and the traced space is selected.

The link number selection by the link number selection unit 4251 will be described below using FIGS. 29 and 30. FIG. When the number of links is set to 2 for the node 1500 in FIG. 29 and link number selection is performed, FIG. 30 is obtained. A portion indicated by a broken line in FIG. 30 is a selected space.

Hierarchy selection is an effective selection method in a hierarchy space. This method can be used on the assumption that the link relationship is composed of a parent-child relationship. When a parent node in the hierarchical space is selected, the child node is selected.

The hierarchy selection by the hierarchy selection unit 4252 will be described below with reference to FIG. In FIG. 43, 1520, 1521, 1522, and 1523 are nodes, and 1510, 1511, 1512, and 1513 are spaces. At this time, when the hierarchy selection is executed in the node 1520, the space 1510 is selected. Similarly, in the case of the node 1521, the space 1511 is selected, in the case of the node 1522, 1512 is selected, and in the case of the node 152, the space 1513 is selected.

Item 8.6.
Sync

The synchronization will be described. In the present invention, “synchronization” can be regarded as the same, but is different in space. For example, it is assumed that the node A1 and the node A2 are synchronized with each other. Except for the link, we say that changes to A1 are also applied to A2 as synchronized. As long as the synchronization is performed, it is only necessary that those synchronized with each other can be treated as the same. In other words, nodes that have the property that they can be regarded as the same but differ in space and change in one is also applied to the other are called synchronized nodes.

As for the handling of synchronization, it is most appropriate to manage references to instances (entities) on a computer-readable recording medium, but a method of multiplexing operations may be used.

A reference exists as a pointer to an entity (such as an address in memory) if it is in memory, and generally exists as an object or a reference to an object in an object-oriented environment. . That is, it is a method of managing through the path (route or position) to the actual state of the node that actually exists. Things such as externally defined link information can also be called references.

Multiplexing operations expresses synchronization by simultaneously applying one command to a plurality of synchronized nodes.

FIG. 12 illustrates an instance reference management type implementation. Thus, 421 and 422 are references to the entity 420. Therefore, the effects of the operations 423 and 424 are both operations on the substance, and synchronization is maintained.

FIG. 13 shows an implementation by multiplexing operations. In this case, 410 and 411 are different entities, but one operation 412 is duplicated and applied to a plurality of entities to achieve synchronization.

The method of linking information to nodes and spaces depends on the space implementation. When linking information to nodes and spaces, there are two main ways of thinking. This is whether it is “synchronous information addition” that is addition of information to the node including synchronization or “asynchronous information addition” that is addition of information that does not include synchronization. Synchronous information addition is information shared between synchronized ones, but asynchronous information addition means that information is not shared between synchronized ones. These mechanisms are important concepts that also affect projection, layers, and automatic classification. In the present invention, it can be said that the property is information of synchronous information addition.

FIG. 14 shows a method of linking information in an implementation that realizes synchronization by reference management. Reference numeral 440 denotes a node entity, and reference numerals 441 and 442 denote entity references. The additional information 443, 444, 445 is information associated with the inside or outside of 440, 441, 442. Synchronization is achieved by the operation by reference becoming an operation on the entity. The reference operation is applied to 440 except for the link. In this case, when synchronous information addition is applied, it is common to implement the association with the entity 440 like the additional information 445. It can also be realized by multiplexing operations for the additional information 443 and 444. That is, this is a method in which an operation for the additional information 443 is also applied to the additional information 444. In the case of asynchronous information addition, it is added to 441 and 442 as seen in the additional information 443 and 444. Unlike the entity, adding information to the reference gives you more flexibility in adding information. For example, when this reference is information defining a space, information can be freely added to a specific space.

FIG. 15 shows a method of linking information in an implementation that realizes synchronization by multiplexing operations. Synchronization is maintained by simultaneously applying one instruction 439 to the node entities 431 and 432 in a synchronous relationship. Additional information 433, 434, 435, 436, 437 is information linked to the inside of 431, 432 or the outside. In this case, when asynchronous information addition is performed, information may be added to the additional information 433 and 434. When applying synchronous information addition, it can be used by sharing common additional information 437 from 431 and 432. Synchronous information addition can also be realized by using additional information 433 and 434. In this case, it can also be realized by a method in which operations for the additional information 433 and 434 are multiplexed as operations for the nodes are multiplexed.

Item 8.7.
Equivalent evaluation

The “equivalence evaluation” used in the equivalence evaluation unit 4215 will be described. Equivalence means the same, and equivalence evaluation means judging whether or not they are the same. What is equivalent depends on the situation. It is common to evaluate using information related to the node. There are various methods such as a method for determining whether information related to a node is equivalent by comparing the information, and a calculation using a programming language or a script language to determine whether the information is equivalent.

Listed below are those that are considered particularly important in the equivalence evaluation.
-Equivalent nodes are synchronized with each other.
-Nodes and information that can be regarded as the same information associated with the nodes are equivalent.
In particular, the synchronization point equivalence evaluation that makes the synchronized objects equivalent is important. This is because the synchronized ones are essentially the same. It is natural to calculate what is synchronized as equivalent, and it seems that there are very many scenes used. Further, by using information associated with a node, it is possible to determine whether the information associated with the node is the same.

The equivalence evaluation using synchronization points and links will be specifically described with reference to the drawings. Nodes with the same alphabet in the nodes in FIG. 32 are synchronized with each other. That is, the nodes 1730, 1731, and 1732 are synchronized with each other, and the nodes 1735 and 1736 are also synchronized with each other. Here, FIG. 33 is a result table showing an example in the case where the equivalence evaluation is applied using the synchronization point information and the link information. For example, in the first row “1730 and 1732”, the condition is “equivalent nodes synchronized with each other”. The same alphabet is in sync with each other. Therefore, it is “Yes” if it is equivalent. In this way, it can also be performed with structural information of nodes and spaces.

The completely independent equivalent evaluation is an evaluation that treats all nodes existing in the space as different from each other.

A general method is to compare the results of the data associated with the nodes as they are or by calculating them.

It is up to the implementer of the spatial program how to implement the equivalent mechanism. Also, what is equivalent is different depending on the situation in which the space is used and the design, so it is desirable to provide a mechanism according to the situation. The equivalence evaluation by the equivalence evaluation unit 4215 is a particularly important concept in superposition processing and logic rules. When analyzing information using a spatial program, various viewpoints can be changed by changing the criteria for equivalence evaluation. Therefore, it is desirable to provide a mechanism that allows users of spatial programs to flexibly extend equivalence evaluation using script languages, program languages, external programs, and the like. In particular, when performing equivalence evaluation through complex syntax analysis and data mining, the mechanism for executing equivalence evaluation in cooperation with an external program improves the ease of implementation and provides or extends equivalence evaluation by a third party. make it easier. In the equivalence evaluation, two nodes to be compared or node information may be passed to determine whether they are the same or to pass information for calculation processing, so that it is relatively easy to describe outside.

Item 8.8.
Comparative evaluation

The “comparison study” used in the comparison study unit 4217 will be described. The comparative examination process compares nodes and indicates how much they are similar by the degree of relevance. The most common is to return numerical data in a finite range. For example, it returns 10 if they are the same, 0 if they are completely different, 3 if they are slightly similar, and 8 if they are quite similar.

It is left to the implementer of the spatial program how to implement the comparative study mechanism. In addition, how to obtain the degree of relevance of the node varies depending on the situation in which the space is used and the design. When analyzing information using a spatial program, the viewpoint can be changed in various ways by changing the criteria. Therefore, it is desirable to provide a mechanism that allows the user of the spatial program to flexibly extend the comparative study using a script language, a program language, an external program, or the like. In particular, when conducting comparative studies through complex syntax analysis and data mining, the mechanism for performing comparative studies in cooperation with external programs improves the ease of implementation and provides and expands comparative studies by third parties. make it easier. The comparative study is relatively easy to describe externally because it is sufficient to pass two nodes to be compared or node information and pass information for calculation processing.

It is desirable that the equivalence evaluation implemented by the equivalence evaluation unit 4215 and the comparison examination mechanism implemented by the comparison examination unit 4217 can be extended from inside and outside the apparatus. This is because the equivalence evaluation unit 4215 and the comparison review unit 4217 often need to perform a large amount of complicated calculations when making comparisons using node information. In addition, there is a need to switch according to the situation.

The most powerful function in using the space is a process using space superposition by the superposition calculation processing unit 4211. This makes it possible to easily convert ambiguous data into more semantically detailed information. It seems to be most effective when it is used for technical databases such as state-of-the-art technology, medical care, law, and information science, knowledge search and exchange on the Internet. Compared with other information management methods, the effect of the present invention increases as the data is more ambiguous and complicated. In addition, since human sensitive information can be used, it is also effective for art databases such as paintings, movies, and music information. In addition, since a learning search can be performed by a space overlapping process by the overlap calculation processing unit 4211, a learning search device of an educational institution or the like is also conceivable. Furthermore, it is sufficiently effective as a personal small information database and file management program. It is also different from Semantic Web technologies such as RDF and OWL and WinFS proposed by Microsoft, but it is not a contradiction, and it is more effective to use these technologies within these technologies or within the present invention. It is possible to construct a typical information management system. A case where the present invention is applied to an Internet directory type search engine will be described below. Currently, robot-type search engines used by google and the like are the mainstream Internet search engines. However, a relatively carefully selected site is registered in the directory-type search engine, and it can be said that it is an effective search engine when searching for a specific set of information.

Functional block diagram of an apparatus that can perform overlay processing Computer schematic used in the present invention Network schematic used in the present invention Diagram showing cognitive and non-cognitive parts The figure which shows the concept of the superposition processing which combines the recognition part and the non-recognition part Node diagram showing link space Node diagram representing an intangible space Node diagram representing space Diagram showing the mechanism for implementing node links inside nodes Diagram showing node links with definitions outside the nodes Node diagram in the description of sync points Diagram showing synchronization maintenance mechanism by reference management Diagram showing the mechanism of maintaining synchronization by multiplexing operations Diagram for adding data when maintaining synchronization by reference management Diagram for adding data when maintaining synchronization by multiplexing operations Node diagram representing an independent space node Node diagram for connection Diagram of file information linked to a node Illustration of hierarchical space Node diagram in the description of spatial predictability Figure showing a screenshot of the tree view Illustration for explaining node implementation in XML The figure which shows an example which expressed the substance of the node in XML The figure which shows the other example which expressed the entity of the node in XML The figure which shows the other example which expressed the entity of the node in XML The figure which shows the example which expressed the link of the space with XML The figure which shows the example which expressed the link of the hierarchical space with XML The figure showing the node information in the memory and the non-volatile recording medium Node diagram showing the space before selecting the number of links Node diagram showing the space after selecting the number of links Node diagram showing the hierarchy selection mechanism Node diagram for explaining equivalence evaluation using link and synchronization point information Result table of equivalence evaluation using link and sync point information Node diagram for logical operations in space Diagram showing an example of replacement of space A with a logical table The figure which shows the example of replacement to the logical table of the space B Detailed explanation of logical operation Figure showing an example of logical operation by AND of space Diagram showing an example of logical operation by spatial OR Diagram showing an example of logical operation by XOR of space Diagram showing an example of logical operation using NAND of space Diagram showing an example of logical operation by NOR of space Diagram showing an example of logical operation using XNOR in space The figure which shows the example of replacement to the truth value of the space A when the designated number is 2 Node diagram for weighted search of space Figure showing weighted search results Diagram showing results of uniqueness weighted search The figure which shows the result of weighted search which adjusted with priority weighting The figure which shows the example in the case of adjusting a priority by the distance of a link The figure which shows the other example in the case of adjusting a priority with the distance of a link Node diagram for more detailed explanation of weighting process Calculation diagram for more detailed explanation of the weighting process Illustration of filtering process Node diagram for explaining space replacement Diagram showing superposition of independent space nodes Node diagram for weighted computation of space including independent space nodes Result table of weighting calculation of space including independent space node Other result tables for weighting calculations for spaces containing independent space nodes Step diagram of calculation algorithm for high-speed weighting Block diagram of calculation algorithm for high-speed weighting process Illustration of node merge processing Diagram showing calculation in data scanning process The figure which shows the example of the logical operation in the scanning process of data The figure which shows the example of the weighting in the scanning process of data Spatial diagram for explanation of weighted integration calculation Node diagram for equivalence evaluation 1 Node diagram for equivalence evaluation 2 Node diagram for equivalence evaluation 3 Node diagram for equivalence evaluation 4 Weighting score table for equivalence evaluation 1 Weighted score table for equivalence evaluation 2 Diagram showing an example of integrated calculation by fully independent equivalence evaluation The figure which shows the example of the integrated calculation whose equivalence evaluation 3 is a standard Score table for unique weighted search with equivalence rating 3 The figure which shows the result of the preprocessing of the integrated calculation whose equivalence evaluation 4 is a reference | standard The figure which shows the example of the various integrated calculations whose equivalence evaluation 4 is a standard Node diagram representing music information and distinguished by sync point equivalence evaluation Node diagram that represents music information and is distinguished by genre equivalence evaluation Score table of music information space Music information overlay processing result table Result table of logical operation of music information space Score table by genre of music information Integrated calculation result table of music information space Result table of logical rules of music information space Diagram showing how to calculate filtering by logical rules The figure which shows the processing of the weight of music information space Diagram explaining projection by multilingual version Node diagram before projecting to explain the projection function Node diagram when projecting into three Node diagram explaining the linkage of node generation Node diagram explaining the coordination of node deletion A node diagram explaining the coordination of space deformation Node diagram explaining the creation of space for each projection A node diagram explaining the removal of space for each projection Node diagram explaining projective synchronization Node diagram to explain the details of the implementation of projection Node diagram for link projection Node diagram when node projection is performed Node diagram when data addition projection is performed Node diagram for independent space projection Diagram showing node projection formed by link list Figure showing a case where node projections are formed by connecting data groups Diagram showing details of data addition projection Diagram showing details of independent space projection A node diagram of the space representing the document before projection Multilingualization node diagram of document when projection is not used Multilingualization node diagram of document when projection is used Functional block diagram when implementing projection Structure diagram of structure layer Illustration of entity layer Diagram showing link relationship from inside of layer and node Diagram showing link relationship from outside of layer and node Node diagram of the difference between the structure layer and the entity layer The figure which shows the example of mounting by XML of the structure layer in link space The figure which shows the implementation example by XML of the node layer in hierarchy space Diagram showing an implementation example of the entity layer Node self-extension node diagram Node self-extension node diagram Node self-extension node diagram Illustration of security layer Step diagram for explaining the security layer Step diagram for explaining event layers Bug information system node diagram Functional block diagram when the security layer is implemented Node diagram of the space where existence existence conditional expression is set Node diagram of the space to which automatic classification processing is applied In the automatic classification process, a node diagram of the space to which the presence / absence conditional expression is added along with the addition of nodes Step diagram of automatic classification process Step diagram for replacement when applying presence / absence conditional expression along with node addition Node diagram explaining patrol availability Step diagram explaining the availability of patrol Node diagram before adding nodes in automatic classification processing Figure when node is added in automatic classification process Diagram when the second and subsequent nodes are added as links of the first node in the automatic classification process Diagram explaining the traveling simulation Diagram explaining addition to a huge space Functional block diagram when automatic classification processing is implemented Space diagram for explaining all, outside and inside comparison types Score correspondence table at the time of comparison All, outside and inside comparison results Huge space and small space Illustration for explaining space operand calculation Figure of calculation result for explanation of space operand calculation Figure of space before equivalent narrowing Relation of space after equivalent narrowing down Space diagram with equivalent refinement applied Basic calculation pattern diagram of integrated calculation Figure of calculation result of integrated calculation Basic calculation pattern 2 of integrated calculation Figure of calculation result 2 of integrated calculation Illustration of information before it is logically generated Logically generated space Illustration for merging Functional block diagram of a book search apparatus capable of performing overlay processing Illustration of space used in book search device The figure of the result of performing weighting processing using equivalence evaluation in the book search device Figure of the result of logical operation using equivalence evaluation in the book search device Figure of comparison table in case of comparative study in book search device Figure of result of weighting process using comparative study in book search device Functional block diagram of information management software that can perform overlay processing Screen shot of overview of overall space in information management software Screen shot of node element description in information management software Screen shot of weighting process explanation 1 in information management software Screen shot of weighting process explanation 2 in information management software Screen shot of weighting process explanation 3 in information management software

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Computation part 2 Control part 3 Storage part 4 Output part 5 Input part 4201 Spatial data part 4210 Data acquisition part 4211 Overlay calculation process part 4212 Process start part 4213 Data output part 4214 Output destination 4215 Equivalent evaluation part 4216 Computation process part 4220 Logic Calculation calculation unit 4221 Weight calculation unit 4221 Logical calculation calculation unit 4222 Integrated calculation calculation unit 4223 Filtering unit 4224 Processing unit 4240 Program language 4241 External program 4250 Space selection unit 4251 Link selection unit 4252 Hierarchy selection unit 4253 Spatial filtering unit 4810 Automatic classification processing Start unit 4811 Automatic classification unit 4812 Cyclic unit 4813 Judgment unit 4814 Individual addition unit 4814 Addition unit 4815 Existence availability condition / cyclic availability condition formula 4820 Existence availability condition determination unit 821 patrol propriety condition determination section 4831 synchronization adding section 4832 link addition section 4841 programming language 4842 external program

Claims (62)

An information space evaluation device for evaluating one or a plurality of spaces formed by a set of nodes as a group of information,
A data acquisition unit for acquiring information from the space;
Based on the acquired information, an overlay calculation processing unit that performs overlay calculation, which is a process of calculating the relevance of information in one or a plurality of spaces,
An information space evaluation apparatus comprising: a data output unit that outputs a result of overlay calculation by the overlay calculation processing unit. The overlay calculation processing unit
An equivalence evaluation unit for evaluating whether the nodes can be regarded as equivalent;
The information space evaluation according to claim 1, further comprising: an arithmetic processing unit that performs comparison calculation on the different spaces based on the evaluation by the equivalence evaluation unit and calculates the result as the relevance. apparatus. The arithmetic processing unit obtains true / false by determining whether or not a certain condition is satisfied with respect to the evaluation by the equivalent evaluation unit, and performs the logical operation on the true / false of the different spaces. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a logical operation unit that performs calculation. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the logical operation unit obtains the truth based on whether or not the number of nodes evaluated as equivalent by the equivalence evaluation unit is within a specified range. The arithmetic processing unit includes:
The number of nodes determined to be equivalent by the equivalence evaluation unit is counted, and the weights obtained by the weighting calculation unit and the weighting calculation unit that performs weighting processing using a value depending on the counted number as a weight for the space or the node, The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising an integrated calculation operation unit that performs the comparison calculation. 6. The weighting calculation unit performs a merging process for calculating a node that is evaluated as equivalent by the equivalence evaluation unit as an overlapping node in each of the spaces, and counting up less than actual. Information space evaluation apparatus of description. The information space evaluation according to claim 6, wherein the weighting calculation unit performs a unique process for calculating a node evaluated as equivalent by the equivalence evaluation unit as one node in each space. apparatus. The weighting calculation unit performs the weighting process using a value obtained by dividing the weight by the number of nodes evaluated as equivalent in each space as a new weight. Item 7. The information space evaluation device according to Item 7. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the weight calculation unit changes a dependency relationship when determining a weight from the number of nodes counted according to the space or the node. 6. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the integrated calculation calculation unit calculates the weight by using the weight of each node as an operand of calculation. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the integrated calculation operation unit uses four arithmetic operations in the calculation. The equivalence evaluation unit evaluates the equivalence by determining that the nodes synchronized with each other have the property that they can be regarded as the same, but are different in space, and the change in one is also applied to the other. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 2. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the equivalence evaluation unit performs the equivalence based on a determination by a program language or a script language. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the equivalence evaluation is performed by judging an external program. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the equivalence evaluation unit evaluates the equivalence by a completely independent equivalence evaluation in which all nodes existing in the space are treated as different from each other. The information space evaluation apparatus further includes
A node that exists in the space, or a sorted container creation unit that stores information of the node in the data container for each space in a sorted state;
A merge calculation unit that derives one result by calculation and merge processing for the sorted data container,
The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the overlay calculation processing unit performs the overlay calculation on the space merged by the merge calculation unit. The overlay calculation processing unit
A comparative study unit that performs a comparison calculation between the node and the node, and calculates a degree of association;
The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the relevance between the spaces is calculated by a comparison examination overlapping process for performing the overlay calculation based on the evaluation by the comparison review unit. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the overlay calculation processing unit performs a comparative study weighting process for obtaining a weight in the comparative study overlay process. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the overlay calculation processing unit calculates the relevance by performing calculation using a value obtained by the comparison as an operand of calculation. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 19, wherein the overlay calculation processing unit uses four arithmetic operations for the calculation when the comparison value is used as a calculation operand. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the overlay calculation processing unit performs an all-comparison type comparison in which comparison is performed using the entire space in the comparative study overlay process. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the overlay calculation processing unit performs an external comparison type comparison in which comparison is performed with a node in an external space in the comparative examination overlay process. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the overlay calculation processing unit performs an internal comparison type comparison in which comparison is performed with a node in an internal space in the comparative examination overlay processing. The overlay calculation processing unit calculates a weight for a space or a node by the comparative review overlay process, obtains true / false for a certain condition using the calculated weight, and performs a logical study on the obtained true / false The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 17, wherein a logical operation is performed. The arithmetic processing unit includes:
The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising: an integrated calculation operation unit that performs the comparison calculation using a weight associated with a node. The weight associated with the node is
The number of nodes determined to be equivalent by the equivalence evaluation unit is counted, and the overlap using the equivalent weighting process in which a value depending on the counted number is a weight for a space or a node, or comparison between the node and the node It was obtained by a weighting calculation unit that performs a comparative examination weighting process for performing the weighting by performing a combined calculation,
26. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 25. The weight associated with the node is read from a spatial data part that stores information about the space.
26. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 25. The integrated calculation operation unit
A classification integration unit for classifying and integrating the results obtained by the weighting process on the basis of a specific equivalent evaluation; and
26. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 25, further comprising: an integrated calculation unit that calculates using the result of the classification integration unit as an operand of calculation. The classification and integration unit can be regarded as the same, but is different in space, and the equivalence evaluation is performed by a synchronization point equivalence evaluation equivalent to nodes synchronized with each other having a property that a change in one is also applied to the other. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 28, wherein: 29. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 28, wherein the classification integration unit performs the equivalent evaluation by a completely independent equivalent evaluation that treats all nodes existing in the space as different from each other. 29. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 28, wherein the integrated calculation unit performs calculation based on four arithmetic operations on the result of the classification and integration unit. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the weight calculation unit performs weight processing for processing a weight value to be obtained with respect to the derived result. 33. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 32, wherein the weight calculation unit specifies a weight to be processed by a logical operation in the weight processing. The overlay calculation processing unit further includes a filtering unit that narrows down the results obtained by the calculation processing unit under a specific condition and outputs the result as a result of the overlay calculation processing unit. Information space evaluation apparatus of description. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 34, wherein the filtering unit performs narrowing by logical operation of the space. 36. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 35, wherein the filtering unit performs narrowing using a determination formula for determining whether the node is a specific node. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a projecting unit that performs space projection, which is a process of handling the plurality of spaces as one space. 38. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 37, wherein the projection unit performs node projection that creates a uniform structure in units of nodes constituting the space. The space is a link space connected by links, which are information indicating connection relations between nodes constituting the space,
39. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 38, wherein the projection unit performs link projection that performs the projection by creating a plurality of node link configurations themselves. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 38, wherein the projection unit performs the projection by connecting data to a space. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 38, wherein the projection unit performs the projection by using an independent space node that is a node but can also be used as a space. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the space is a link space in which nodes constituting the space are connected by a link that is information indicating a connection relationship. 44. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 43, wherein the link space is a hierarchical space formed by parent-child links. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the space is an intangible space that is simply a set of nodes. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the space is a logical space. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the space has a layer structure in which additional information is given in parallel with the node, instead of adding information to the node itself. 47. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 46, wherein the layer is a structure layer that adds the layer to a space structure itself. 47. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 46, wherein the layer is an entity layer that adds the layer to an entity itself. 47. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 46, wherein the layer is a security layer in which security information is added to the layer. 47. The information according to claim 46, wherein the layer is an event layer to which event information for notifying internal or external users of a change in space, a command to the space, or a temporal change is added to the layer. Spatial evaluation device. The information space evaluation apparatus further includes
An automatic classification processing unit for expanding the space by adding nodes constituting the space;
The automatic classification processing unit
An automated processing start unit that starts processing by acquiring information associated with the node or the node;
A traveling unit that follows the link of the node;
A presence / absence condition determining unit that determines whether or not it is appropriate using a presence / absence conditional expression that determines whether it is appropriate or not when adding a new node to the node that has been visited in the circulating unit;
The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: an addition unit that adds a node when addition is determined to be appropriate by the presence / absence condition determination unit. 52. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 51, wherein the adding unit performs individual addition in which nodes to be added after the second are added as different entities. In the case where nodes that have the property that the addition unit can be regarded as the same but are different in space and change in one is also applied to the other are called synchronized states, the nodes added after the second are 52. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 51, wherein synchronization addition is performed in a state where the first added node is synchronized. 52. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 51, wherein the adding unit adds a link that adds a link to a node to which a node that is added second or later is added first. 52. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 51, wherein the adding unit sets the existence presence / absence conditional expression together with addition of a node. The traveling unit uses a traveling availability conditional expression for determining whether to travel by following the link of the node during the traveling, and does not perform the traveling of the linked node when it is determined that the traveling is not possible. 52. The information space evaluation apparatus according to claim 51. An information space evaluation method for evaluating a plurality of spaces formed by a set of nodes as a group of information,
A data acquisition step of acquiring information from the space;
A superposition calculation processing step for performing superposition calculation, which is a process of calculating the relationship between different spaces based on the acquired information;
And a data output step of outputting a result of the overlay calculation in the overlay calculation processing step. A program for an information space evaluation apparatus that evaluates a plurality of spaces formed by a set of nodes that are a group of information,
58. A program for causing a computer to execute the steps according to claim 57. A computer-readable recording medium on which a program is recorded for an information space evaluation apparatus that evaluates a plurality of spaces formed by a set of nodes that are a group of information,
59. A recording medium on which the program according to claim 58 is recorded.   An information receiving apparatus comprising an information connecting unit capable of obtaining information output from the information space evaluation apparatus by connecting to the information space evaluation apparatus via an information communication network. 61. The information receiving apparatus according to claim 60, wherein the information connection unit can obtain information depending on a result of overlay calculation. An information space evaluation device that evaluates one or a plurality of book information spaces formed by a set of book information nodes that are information about a group of books,
A data acquisition unit for acquiring information from the book information;
Based on the acquired information, an overlay calculation processing unit that performs overlay calculation, which is a process of calculating the relevance of information in one or a plurality of book information,
A book information space evaluation apparatus comprising: a data output unit that outputs a result of overlay calculation performed by the overlay calculation processing unit.