JP2009009202A - Provision method for electronic document, and computer program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method allowing an electronic document browsing person to easily acquire necessary information, and minutely chasing his interest. <P>SOLUTION: An identifier dictionary, the kind and a definition of characteristic information of each identifier, the kind and a definition of movement to operation of the browsing person to the characteristic information, a user interface making the document browsing person perform selection or the like of various kinds of information, and a definition of control are embedded inside an electronic document, a selectable interface is provided to the document browsing person, a selection situation by the document browsing person is notified to a provider, notification is made to the provider when the definition of the operation and a definition of the movement are not desired by the browsing person, and the electronic document is provided in a form allowing to take statistics of the definitions of the operation and the movement by the browsing person based on the notified information. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

The present invention relates to a type of a term group (identifier dictionary) to which an electronic document viewer wants to give information in the document, a type of information (feature information) about each term (identifier), and a viewer's operation on the feature information. Is selected from the candidates embedded in the electronic document, the term (identifier) included in the selected term group (identifier dictionary) and each term ( A method of providing an electronic document, characterized by displaying feature information of an identifier),
The electronic document viewer, the type of identifier dictionary, the type of feature information of the identifier, the selection status of the type of operation corresponding to the viewer's operation on the feature information, the provider of the electronic document, the provider of the identifier dictionary, Based on the method of providing the electronic document characterized by notifying the provider of the feature information of the identifier, the provider of the operation mechanism corresponding to the operation of the viewer on the feature information, and the statistical information of the notified information The present invention relates to an electronic document providing method and a computer program characterized by changing contents of the electronic document to be provided.

  With the spread of the Internet and electronic mail, the volume of electronic documents used by ordinary people has increased dramatically. For example, information that companies provide to individual consumers, such as direct mail, is less expensive to send by e-mail than to use print media. It has been broken. Such electronic information may contain various types of information related to goods and services required by the document viewer (consumer), and various methods for effectively transmitting the information have been proposed and implemented. Yes.

  For example, for information that the document provider wants to emphasize, create a text that makes it easy to convey the intent of the provider to the document viewer by using a prominent color scheme, large font size, paragraphs, indents, illustrations, etc. (electronic document) Is a general technique. In addition, a mechanism (a method using a hyperlink) in which a hyperlink is prepared for a product name or service name in an electronic document and the detailed information on the product or service is described is guided.

  In addition, as disclosed in the following Patent Documents 1 to 4, a mechanism (incentive method) that applies a point, a campaign, and the like to electronic direct mail and allows a reader of the document to read the document with interest, A mechanism (tracking method) etc. that investigates the interest trend of the viewer for the provided information by tracking the opening status of direct mail and reflects it in the provided information has been studied and implemented.

Patent Publication 2003-288308 (Method by Incentive) Patent Publication 2006-72875 (Method by decoration of electronic document) Patent Publication 2006-323797 (Method by Tracking) Patent Publication 2002-63480 (method by hyperlink, method by tracking)

  However, each of the above conventional methods has problems to be solved, and information that is really necessary is buried in information that is not necessarily required by the viewer, or information that is really necessary is provided. Often not.

  For example, the method of decorating an electronic document is a mechanism that unilaterally provides information that the provider of the electronic document wants to convey, and is not a method that displays information that the viewer of the document wants to refer to in an easy-to-understand manner.

  In the hyperlink method, the viewer of the electronic document can use only the hyperlink prepared by the provider of the electronic document, and thus the information that the viewer of the electronic document wants to refer to is not necessarily obtained. Also, when a page transition occurs, the viewer must interrupt the operation of reading the electronic document.

  The method based on the incentive is intended to urge the document viewer to be interested in the electronic document, and is not a method capable of directly investigating the interest of the document viewer. In addition, since the tracking method is not subject to investigation other than the mechanism prepared by the document provider, it is not useful when the target of the document viewer's interest is outside the assumption of the document provider.

  As described above, the methods that have been studied and implemented in the past are methods for providing a document viewer with static documents and information created by an electronic document provider. The information accessibility of the document viewer is outlined. In addition, it is a method of tracking the opened state of texts, static documents, and the presence / absence of access to the Internet from information, and it is difficult to track the interests of viewers in detail.

  The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-described problems, and the purpose of the present invention is to display the feature information corresponding to the identifier dictionary provided together with the document by the viewer of the electronic document. It is to provide documents that can increase the accessibility to information that individual viewers need. Another object is to change the selection status of “type of identifier dictionary, type of feature information, type of operation corresponding to operation on feature information” (hereinafter referred to as “type of various provided information”) to “electronic document”. , An identifier dictionary, feature information, and a mechanism for notifying the provider of the operation mechanism corresponding to the operation on the feature information (hereinafter referred to as “various provision information”), together with an electronic document. It is to provide a document capable of collecting an object of interest of a viewer immediately and specifically. Still another purpose is a mechanism that accepts information from the viewer and notifies the provider of the "various provision information" if the items required by the document viewer do not exist in the "various provision information types" Is provided in an electronic document, and a document that is not provided and can be easily fed back to the information desired by the viewer is provided.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention realizes an electronic document providing system having the following features. In other words, it is a system that is embedded in an electronic document and distributed along with the electronic document. The document viewer selects “various types of provided information” and sets options, and is found in the electronic document. The feature information is displayed in the vicinity of the identifier, and a user interface for executing an operation corresponding to the operation on the feature information is provided. In addition, the document provider and / or the provider of “various provision information” is notified of the selection status by the document viewer of “various provision information types” embedded in the electronic document. In addition, when there is nothing desired by the viewer in the “various types of provided information” embedded in the electronic document, the “various provided information types” desired by the viewer are changed to “various provided information”. To the provider. Furthermore, the “various provision information” is modified based on the information accumulated from the notified information.

The “identifier dictionary” corresponds to, for example, a product name, a book name, a patent number, a person name, a service name, and the like.
As the “each identifier”, for example, if the “identifier dictionary” is a product name, a product name, abbreviation, product number, and the like are applicable. The description of the identifier can also be performed by a character string pattern notation such as a regular expression.
“Type of identifier feature information” means, for example, if “identifier dictionary” is a product name, product photo, date of manufacture, country of manufacture, component, variation, product price, product performance, product evaluation, etc. Is applicable.
The “operation for identifier feature information” includes, for example, mouse click, click while pressing the shift button, click while pressing the control button, operation of various buttons of the mouse, drag and drop, mouse over, and the like.
The “operation corresponding to the operation for the feature information of the identifier” corresponds to, for example, enlargement / reduction display of feature information, display of detailed information of feature information, movement of feature information, display of related web pages, and the like.

  According to the configuration described above, by selecting “various types of provided information” that the viewer is interested in regarding the electronic document, the viewer can efficiently access necessary information. Further, by notifying the providers of “various provision information” about the selection status, each provider can quickly know the information that the viewer needs. At the same time, when there is no “various types of information to be provided” that the viewer desires, the desired information is accepted and notified to each provider, so that the information desired by the viewer can be quickly sent to the provider. Notification can be made.

  According to the present invention, an identifier dictionary provided together with an electronic document, the type of feature information of each identifier, and the type of operation and action for the feature information are selected by the document viewer so that information desired to be referred to is displayed in the text. By notifying the provider of the electronic document, identifier dictionary, feature information, and the definition of operation and action for the feature information, the provider can select the information required by the viewer. If there is no identifier dictionary, feature information, and type of operation and action for the feature information that the viewer needs, the provider accepts the desired information and notifies the provider so that the provider can browse The information desired by the person can be obtained quickly.

Hereinafter, the best embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is an example of a schematic system configuration for carrying out the present invention. In this configuration, a document provider server 101, an identifier dictionary provider server 102, a feature information provider server 103, a provider server 104 for defining operations and actions for feature information, a document viewer terminal A 105, a document viewer terminal B 106, a document viewer terminal C 107 is connected via a communication network such as WWW.

  Various servers and document viewer terminals are general personal computers with a hardware configuration in which a storage device such as RAM and HDD, a display device as an input / output interface, a mouse, a keyboard and the like are connected to a CPU as a control means. Can be used. The software according to the present invention is stored in a storage device. By executing existing software such as a browser, mailer, word processor, spreadsheet software and the software according to the present invention on these computers, a document viewer uses the electronic document provided by the present invention. .

  FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a data structure included in the electronic document according to the present invention. The electronic document includes a document 201 that is data of the document itself browsed by a viewer of the electronic document, control information 203 related to various controls such as an interface and an operation, various definition information 207 related to an identifier dictionary, various definition information 213 related to feature information, Information such as various definition information 218 related to operations on feature information and various definition information 222 related to operations corresponding to operations on feature information is included. In addition, for each data and information, only location information such as a URL can be described in an electronic document, and information can be acquired from those designated locations as necessary. With regard to operations and operations for identifier dictionaries, feature information, and feature information, by defining in the various definition information whether or not it is selected as a standard at the time of document display, information that the information provider wants to show preferentially is displayed. It is also possible to specify.

  Document 201 includes document data 202.

  The control information 203 includes an interface definition 204, an operation / action definition 205, and a provider notification URL 206. The interface definition 204 describes a user interface definition for accepting operations and various settings for a user's document. The operation / action definition 205 describes the definition of the action for the user's operation. The provider notification URL 206 describes the URL for each provider of various types of information to be notified of the user's identifier dictionary, selection operation such as the type of feature information, and the like. Structured text such as HTML and XML is suitable for the definition of the user interface. The operation / action definition is preferably described in a script language having an API group that allows easy operation of text data such as JavaScript. Examples of operations include an act of a user pressing a button, an act of selecting an item from a list, and an example of an operation includes execution of analysis, reflection of item selection by the viewer, and the like.

  The identifier dictionary definition information 207 includes a name 208, an identifier ID series ID 209, an identifier 210, an identifier ID 211, and a provider notification URL. The name 208 describes name information indicating the type of the identifier dictionary. The identifier ID series ID 209 describes the ID given to the series of identifier IDs held by the identifier dictionary, and is associated with feature information that can be selected by the document viewer when the identifier dictionary is selected. Used for The identifier 210 and the identifier ID 211 are paired, and one or more sets are included in one identifier dictionary. The identifier 210 is a character string or a character string pattern representing a specific thing. For example, when the type of the identifier dictionary is an animal, examples of things included include people, dogs, and cats. Here, when a specific thing is a person, examples of the identifier include “person”, “human”, “human”, “carrot”, “ningen”, “Human”, and the like. On the other hand, the identifier ID211 paired with the identifier 210 describes an ID for uniquely identifying a specific thing as a character string or a character string pattern.

  For example, when the specific thing is “person”, the same ID is assigned to any one of “person”, “human”, “human”, “carrot”, “ningen”, and “Human”. On the other hand, if there is an identifier “Hashi”, there is a possibility that a plurality of things “bridge” and “chopsticks” may be pointed out, so a plurality of IDs will be described. Structured text such as XML or JSON is suitable for describing the identifier dictionary. The provider notification URL describes a URL that is a reception destination when the viewer makes some notification regarding the identifier dictionary. One or more identifier dictionary definition information 207 is included in one document, and the viewer can select a necessary dictionary from the user through the user interface provided by the interface definition 204.

  The feature information definition information 213 includes a name 214, an identifier ID series ID 215, a feature information URL 216, and a provider notification URL 217. The name 214 describes name information indicating the type of feature information. The identifier ID sequence ID 215 describes the ID assigned to the identifier ID sequence to which the feature information corresponds, and is used for associating the identifier dictionary with the feature information as described above. The feature information URL 216 describes a location (URL) where the feature information is acquired in combination with the identifier ID. For example, if the feature information URL is `` http://www.bits.cc/cgi-bin/sample.cgi?ID= '' and the identifier ID is `` BITS0001 '', `` http: //www.bits. The URL “cc / cgi-bin / sample.cgi? ID = BITS0001” is generated, and the feature information to be embedded in the document is acquired from this site. The provider notification URL 217 describes a URL that is a reception destination when the viewer makes some notification regarding the feature information. One or more pieces of feature information definition information 213 are included in one document, and the viewer can select a necessary type of feature information through the user interface provided by the interface definition 204. Structured text such as XML and JSON is suitable for describing feature information.

  The operation definition information 218 for the feature information includes a name 219, an operation definition 220, and a provider notification URL 221. The name 219 describes name information indicating the type of operation for the feature information. For example, “enlargement by clicking feature information”. The operation definition 220 describes information defining a user operation that triggers the operation definition 224 to be executed. For example, “click of feature information”, “click while holding down the shift key of feature information”, “right click of feature information”, etc. The provider notification URL 221 describes a URL that is a reception destination when a notification is given from the viewer regarding the operation definition. One or more pieces of operation definition information 218 for feature information are included in one document, and a viewer can select a necessary operation type from among them through a user interface provided by the interface definition 204. is there.

  The feature information operation definition information 222 includes a name 223, an operation definition 224, and a provider notification URL 225. The name 223 describes name information indicating the type of action for the operation on the feature information. For example, “enlargement”, “reduction”, “alignment”, and the like. The action definition 224 describes a definition of an action that is performed when there is an operation that matches the operation definition selected by the viewer. For example, “enlargement of feature information”, “reduction of feature information”, “alignment of feature information”, and the like. The provider notification URL 225 describes a URL that is a reception destination when a notification is given from a viewer regarding the operation definition. One or more action definition information 222 of feature information is included in one document, and a viewer can select a required action type through the user interface provided by the interface definition 204. is there.

  The operation definition and operation definition can be implemented by defining the operation and operation with one item. The operation definition and the action definition can be implemented not only by the feature information but also by a method for obtaining the operation information and the operation including the action for the feature information.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a flow relating to the basic operation of the present invention. In step 301, the electronic document and the user interface are displayed, and various selections in step 302 are accepted. When the selection of the identifier dictionary is received from the document viewer (step 303), the selection status of the identifier dictionary is notified to the electronic document provider and / or the identifier dictionary provider (step 304). Next, the identifier included in the identifier dictionary is read (step 305), the selectable feature information is updated (step 306), and the identifier read from the electronic document is searched (step 307). The identifier is notified to the electronic document provider and / or the identifier dictionary provider (step 308). The search in the electronic document can be performed on an invisible character string, for example, various HTML tags. Therefore, it is also possible to set and provide an identifier dictionary so that the document creator can identify invisible character strings embedded in the document data in advance.

  When the feature information type selection is received from the document viewer (step 309), the electronic document provider and / or feature information provider is notified of the feature information type selection status (step 310). Obtain (step 311) and embed feature information based on the retrieved identifier (step 312).

  When the selection of the operation and action type for the information is received from the document viewer (step 313), the electronic document provider and / or the operation and action definition provider are notified of the selection status of the operation and action type. (Step 314) When the operation selected by the viewer is performed on the feature information (Step 315), the operation selected by the viewer is executed (Step 316).

  FIG. 4 shows the request of the document viewer when the “various types of provided information” desired by the viewer does not exist, or when there is an excess or deficiency / error in the identifier included in the identifier dictionary or an error in the feature information. 3 shows an example of a flow for notifying information providers to various information providers.

  First, in step 401, a request for notifying information desired by the viewer is received through the user interface defined in the interface definition 204 in the electronic document, and the desired information type (step 402) and the content of the desired information (step 403). After the received information transmission request (step 404), the desired information is notified to each provider (step 405). The request notification destination at this time is acquired from the provider notification URLs 206, 212, 217, 221, and 225 included in the electronic document.

  FIG. 5 is an example of a user interface in the present invention. The user interface 501 is displayed after the user interface definition 204 is interpreted by an application (mailer or browser) that displays a document. Drop-down list 502 for displaying the type of currently selected identifier dictionary and selecting a selectable identifier dictionary, displaying the type of feature information currently selected, and types of selectable feature information Drop-down list 503 for selecting, check box 504 for switching ON / OFF of the function for embedding feature information in the document at the same time as selection, and adding the previous embedding result in the document without erasing the feature Check box 505 for switching ON / OFF of the function for embedding information, button 506 for embedding feature information in the currently displayed document by combining the currently selected identifier dictionary and feature information, providing various information Button 507 for displaying an interface for notification of desired information to the user, and an interface for setting option information. There is a button 508 for When embedding the feature information without deleting the previous embedding result, the embedded information can also be used as a search target for the identifier.

  In a desired information notification interface 509, an interface 510 for setting desired information related to an identifier dictionary and a dictionary name are set, and a radio button for notifying desired information related to feature information and a type of characteristic information are set. An interface 511, an interface 512 for setting a radio button and a type of operation when notifying desired information regarding an operation on feature information, an interface 513 for setting a radio button and an operation type when notifying desired information regarding an operation for an operation, There are an interface 514 for entering desired information, a button 515 for notifying various information providers of desired information selected and entered by the viewer, and a button 516 for canceling the notification.

  An interface 517 for setting option information includes a check box 518 for switching ON / OFF of an operation for feature information and operation, an interface 520 for selecting an operation type 519 for feature information, and an operation for an operation on feature information. In addition, there is a button 521 for enabling the setting change and a button 522 for disabling the setting change.

  FIG. 6 shows an example in which an identifier included in an identifier dictionary is searched from a document and feature information is embedded in the document according to the present invention. The character string 601 searched as an identifier is highlighted, and the feature information 602 is directly embedded in the document and displayed.

FIG. 7 shows a processing flow when the servers 101, 102, 103, and 104 of various information providers receive the selection status of the viewer.
First, when an information notification (step 701) is received from a viewer, viewer identification information is extracted from the received information (step 702). If the viewer identification information here is an electronic document such as a direct mail, for example, a different character string or the like is included in a part of the provider notification URL 206, 212, 217, 221, or 225 for each electronic document. Therefore, it is easy to make a unique correspondence with the email address of the destination, and if it is an electronic document on a website, it can be used from a specific user on a specific client PC by using technologies such as cookies. It is possible to determine whether it is a request. In the case of an electronic document on a website, it is possible to uniquely identify each viewer even if a cookie cannot be used, for example, by allowing the viewer to register as a member in advance.

  Subsequently, the type of the notification information is extracted (step 703), and information on the selection state is extracted (step 704). Based on the information extracted in the above step, the database on the server side is updated using the viewer identification information as a key (step 705). In addition to the notified type and selection status, the information registered in the database at this time includes information such as the date and time of the information notification and the URL of the electronic document that has been viewed. Preferred for raising. Subsequently, data mining is performed on the updated database information (step 705), and information to be distributed is determined (step 707). As a data mining method, a general method such as association analysis can be applied. Subsequently, by returning the determined distribution information as a response to the notification (step 708), it is possible to distribute information that matches the viewer's interest. If no information to be distributed is found as a result of data mining, no problem occurs even if the information is not distributed. When the distributed information exists, the viewer can obtain useful information by displaying it together with the electronic document at the time of redisplaying the electronic document (step 317 in FIG. 3). The distribution information includes not only information to be displayed but also link information to a specific website, etc., thereby providing more useful information to the viewer and using it as an advertising medium.

  For example, if the type of the identifier dictionary selected by the document viewer is “book name” and the type of feature information is “sales price”, an advertisement including a link to a book sales EC site is provided, If the display is embedded in, the effect of the advertisement is much higher than when the advertisement is distributed at random. Also, if the identifier dictionary type is “IT-related term” and the feature information type is “meaning”, a link to an online dictionary site containing IT-related terms, or a link to a book sales page with similar contents Are listed as candidates for distribution information. Furthermore, even if “IT-related terms” is selected, statistical information is stored by classifying various searched terms into appropriate categories, so that IT-related terms can also be related to communication, database, and software. It is possible to grasp more detailed trends and distribute information that matches those fields. In addition, by analyzing the statistical information taking into account the change timing, time, and session of the identifier dictionary, even if the target field that the document viewer is interested in changes, the distribution information is followed and changed. It is possible. Information retrieval on the web rarely completes within a single web page, so in a series of documents viewed by the viewer, the type of identifier dictionary, the type of feature information, By comprehensively judging information and providing information, more appropriate information can be distributed.

  FIG. 8 shows an example of further searching for an identifier and adding feature information to feature information embedded in an electronic document. The electronic document 801 receives the selection of the identifier dictionary type and the feature information type from the viewer through the user interface displayed based on the interface definition 204, and the electronic document 801 is converted into the electronic document 802 in which the feature information 803 is embedded. Transition. Furthermore, the selection of the type of the identifier dictionary and the type of feature information from the viewer is accepted, and the electronic document 804 in which the feature information 805 is embedded is transitioned to the identifier included in the feature information 803.

  In addition, this invention is not limited to said embodiment, A various deformation | transformation is possible in the range which does not change the summary of invention.

Example of system schematic configuration for carrying out the invention Example of data structure included in electronic document Flow of operation in the present invention Flow of notification of desired information of the viewer User interface example Example of operation results of the present invention Flow of determining distribution information from information notification from the viewer Example of adding feature information to feature information

Claims (8)

Types of identifier dictionary that can be selected in the electronic document to be provided, types of feature information that is unique to the identifier dictionary and that is visualized information corresponding to each identifier included in the identifier dictionary, and document browsing for the feature information Control to the user interface for allowing the document viewer to select the type of operation for the user's operation, and software for processing the electronic document in accordance with input from the user interface, or software for processing the electronic document Inserting any of the passing mechanisms;
Receiving a selection of any identifier dictionary and feature information type from a document viewer through the user interface;
Searching for an identifier included in the selected identifier dictionary, or a character string pattern of the identifier, from an electronic document;
In accordance with the type of the selected feature information, displaying the feature information corresponding to each identifier in the vicinity of the searched identifier or the character string pattern of the identifier;
A method for providing an electronic document, comprising causing a computer system to execute a step of executing a corresponding operation in accordance with a type of operation of a document viewer for displayed feature information. The method of claim 1, wherein
Further, at least one of the type of the selected identifier dictionary, the type of feature information of the selected identifier, or the operation of the document viewer on the displayed feature information and the type of operation selected by the document viewer The computer system executes a step of notifying at least one of a provider of an electronic document, a provider of an identifier dictionary, a provider of feature information, or a provider of an operation corresponding to an operation on the feature information. To provide electronic documents. The method of claim 2, wherein
Furthermore, when at least one of the type of identifier dictionary that the document viewer wants to select, the type of feature information, or the type of operation corresponding to the viewer's operation on the feature information does not exist, an electronic document is provided The computer system is caused to perform a process of notifying at least one of a provider, an identifier dictionary provider, an identifier feature information provider, or an operation provider corresponding to a viewer's operation on the identifier feature information. A method for providing electronic documents. In the method in any one of Claims 1-3,
A method for providing an electronic document, further comprising causing a computer system to execute a step of changing the content of the electronic document to be provided based on statistical information obtained by accumulating the notified information. In the method in any one of Claims 1-4,
The method for providing an electronic document, wherein the searching step searches for an identifier for feature information embedded in the electronic document. In the method in any one of Claims 1-4,
In the electronic document, the presence information of the identifier found by searching the identifier in advance by the electronic document provider is embedded,
The method for providing an electronic document is characterized in that the search step uses the presence information to search for an identifier. In the method in any one of Claims 1-4,
The electronic document includes an identifier dictionary defined in the electronic document by the electronic document provider, an identifier dictionary selected when the electronic document viewer first browses the document, the type of identifier feature information, or the viewer's A method for providing an electronic document, wherein at least one type of operation corresponding to an operation on feature information is embedded. In the electronic document displayed on the display device of the document viewer, the type of identifier dictionary that can be selected, the type of feature information that is specific to the identifier dictionary and is visualized information corresponding to each identifier included in the identifier dictionary , And a user interface for causing the document viewer to select the type of operation for the operation of the document viewer for the feature information, and software for processing the electronic document in response to an input from the user interface, or the electronic Inserting any of the mechanisms for passing control to the document processing software;
A procedure for accepting selection of any identifier dictionary and feature information type from a document viewer through the user interface;
A procedure for searching an identifier included in the selected identifier dictionary or a character string pattern of the identifier from an electronic document;
In accordance with the type of the selected feature information, a procedure for displaying the feature information corresponding to each identifier in the vicinity of the searched identifier or the character string pattern of the identifier;
The computer program for providing the electronic document characterized by making a computer system perform the procedure which performs corresponding operation | movement according to the kind of operation of the document viewer with respect to the displayed characteristic information.

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