JP3154992B2 - Information search device and storage medium storing information search program - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information retrieval apparatus and a storage medium storing an information retrieval program.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a large amount of various types of information are stored in a storage device or the like as a database, and necessary information is retrieved from the stored database when necessary according to the purpose of information retrieval by a user. Information search devices (computers) represented by document search devices have become widespread.

When a document is searched using a document search device, a document search condition such as a query term or a document name based on a certain search purpose is entered at a predetermined location on a search screen using a keyboard as follows. , The user must make the settings manually.

[0004] For example, a user may want to look at economic articles related to the previous stock price rise in a stock chart to find out the cause of the previous rise. I want to find the cause of the problem. "

[0005] In such a case, when performing a document search using a conventional document search apparatus, the user separately prepares and refers to information related to the object for which the document is to be searched, such as a stock price chart and a questionnaire. On the other hand, the user has to look at the screen of the computer, set search conditions by manual input using a keyboard, and then execute the search processing of the document search apparatus.

[0006]

However, such a search condition setting operation causes frequent movements of the user's hand and eyes, so that the efficiency of the document search operation is low and the user is burdened. .

Further, even if the search conditions are set on the same screen while referring to the information related to the search target on the screen to reduce such a burden, it is difficult to set the search conditions on the same screen. In order to find out the cause, I would like to see economic articles related to it. "When performing a document search, the search period is limited by associating it with the stock price fluctuation pattern, and the search results are associated with the stock price fluctuation pattern ( If it is not displayed, the frequent movement of the user's hand is eliminated, but the need for frequent movement of the eyes still exists.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, according to the present invention, there is stored an information search apparatus and an information search program capable of improving the work efficiency of information search such as document search. It is intended to provide a storage medium.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, search target storage means for storing a plurality of pieces of information to be searched, acquisition means for acquiring a database designated by a user, and database acquired by the acquisition means Image display means for visualizing and displaying a predetermined format image such as a graph, a table, and a diagram;
Condition extraction means for extracting a search condition for searching for predetermined information from the search target storage means from a database visualized by the image display means, and information matching the search condition extracted by the condition extraction means The above object is attained by providing an information search device characterized by comprising: an information search means for searching for the information from the search target storage means.

[0010] In the invention according to the second aspect, there is provided a condition specifying means for specifying a predetermined search condition from the visualized database, and the information search means includes a search condition specified by the condition specifying means and the search condition. The object is achieved by providing an information retrieval apparatus according to claim 1, wherein information is retrieved from the retrieval condition extracted by the condition extracting means.

The information search means may search information by giving priority to the search condition specified by the condition specifying means.

[0012] In the third aspect of the present invention, the image display means displays at least a part of information retrieved from the retrieval condition by the information retrieval means in the visualized predetermined format image of the database. The above object is achieved by providing the information search device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the information is displayed in association with the information retrieval device.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a feature information extracting means for extracting feature information indicating a feature of the information from the information searched by the information searching means, and the image display means is provided with the feature extracting means. The feature information extracted by the means is displayed in association with the visualized predetermined format image of the database.
The above object is achieved by providing the information search device according to any one of the above. In the invention according to claim 5,
When the image display means displays a search condition in the visualized predetermined format image of the database, at least a part of the searched information or the feature information is displayed by the displayed search condition. The above object is achieved by providing the information search device according to claim 4 or 5, wherein the information is displayed in association with the information retrieval device. In the invention according to claim 6, further comprising a database storage means for storing a plurality of databases composed of numerical data, wherein the search target storage means stores document information as information to be searched, and the acquisition means Acquiring the database specified by the user from among a plurality of databases stored in the database storage means, thereby providing the information search device according to claim 1 or 2, thereby achieving the object. To achieve. The invention according to claim 7, further comprising: an information storage unit that stores information retrieved by the information retrieval unit; and an additional condition designation unit that designates an additional search condition from the visualized database. 2. The search unit according to claim 1, wherein, when specified by the additional condition search designating unit, information matching the additional search condition is narrowed down from information stored in the information storage unit and searched. 3. The above object is attained by providing the information search device according to any one of the above items 7. In the invention according to claim 8, an acquisition function for acquiring a database specified by a user, and an image display function for visualizing and displaying the database acquired by the acquisition function in a predetermined format image such as a graph, a table, or a figure A condition extraction function of extracting a search condition for searching for predetermined information from a search target storage unit in which a plurality of pieces of information to be searched are stored from a database visualized by the image display function; To provide a storage medium storing a computer-readable information search program for causing a computer to realize an information search function for searching information matching a search condition extracted by an extraction function from the search target storage means. Thereby, the above object is achieved.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a document retrieval apparatus will be described as an example.
A preferred embodiment of the information search device will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. (1) Overview of Embodiment In this embodiment, when a plurality of documents are searched, for example, information related to a document search target such as numerical data of stock price data for a certain period is acquired as a database specified in advance. It is graphed, displayed on a search screen, and referred to the user.

[0015] This makes it possible to automatically set the document search condition from the information related to the search target displayed on the search screen in the form of a graph. Further, the document search result is displayed in association with (associated with) the information related to the search target graphed. As a result, the user can easily interpret the search result, and can encourage the user to acquire new knowledge and discover information.

Furthermore, by performing a document search by focusing on a characteristic point of information related to a graphed search target, information relating to the characteristic point can be obtained.

Thus, the user can grasp the cause of the characteristic, estimate the result caused by the characteristic, or predict the future change. (2) Details of Embodiment FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a document retrieval device 1 and a computer from which a document retrieval program is read according to an embodiment of a storage medium storing the program. As shown in FIG. 1, the document search device 1 includes a control unit 11 for controlling the entire device.

The control unit 11 has a keyboard 1 as an input device via a bus line 22 such as a data bus.
2, mouse 13, voice microphone 14, and scanner 15,
Display device 16, printing device 17, storage device 18, storage medium drive device 19, communication control device 20, input / output I / F 21,
And a character recognition device 22 are connected. Control unit 11
Includes a CPU 111, a ROM 112, and a RAM 113.

The ROM 112 is a read-only memory in which various programs and data for the CPU 111 to perform various controls and calculations are stored in advance.

The RAM 113 is a random access memory used as a working memory (working memory) for the CPU 111. Incidentally, VRAM (video random access memory) for that stores graphs, images, etc. to be described later is also provided. In the RAM 113, various work areas for searching for documents according to the present embodiment are secured.

These are a related information storage area 1131 for storing information related to the search target, and a visualization or audio conversion of the information related to the search target into an image in a predetermined format such as a graph, a table, or a diagram. Related information realization area 1
132, a search condition setting area 1133 for setting search conditions, a sentence search area 1134 for searching for and storing documents from the search conditions, a sentence vector storage area 1135 for storing a sentence vector of the search sentence after calculation,
Other various areas.

The above-mentioned individual areas are collectively referred to as a work area 113. Unless otherwise specified, the work area 113 refers to any of the above-mentioned areas. The keyboard 12 has various keys such as keys and numeric keys for inputting kana characters and English characters, function keys for executing various functions, cursor keys, and the like. This is an input device for sending commands and the like. Note that such input of characters and the like from the keyboard 12 by the user is hereinafter referred to as “keyboard input”.

The mouse 13 is a pointing device, and is an input device for designating a corresponding function by a user clicking a key, an icon, or the like displayed on the display device 14. The designation of a certain function by the user using the mouse 12 is hereinafter referred to as “mouse click”. The microphone 14 is an input device for digitally inputting voice information as information related to a search target and storing the information in the related information storage unit 182.

The scanner 15 is an input device for digitally inputting image information as information related to a search target by a photoelectric conversion element and storing the information in a related information storage unit 182. When inputting image information, a digital camera may be used instead of the scanner. Display device 1
For example, a CRT, a liquid crystal display, or the like is used for 6. The display device 16 displays numerical data, graphs or tables, acquired search document names, query terms, text of searched documents, and the like, which are information related to the search target. Further, the display device 16 is also provided with an amplifier and a speaker for outputting sound when the information related to the search target is sound.

The printing device 17 is for printing graphs and the like displayed on the screen of the display device 16 and documents and the like stored in the related information storage section 182 of the storage device 18. As the printing device 17, various printing devices such as a laser printer, a dot printer, an ink jet printer, a page printer, a thermal printer, and a thermal transfer printer are used. The storage device 18 includes a readable and writable storage medium, and a drive device for reading and writing various information such as programs and data on the storage medium. As a storage medium used for the storage device 18,
Although a hard disk is mainly used, a readable / writable storage medium of various storage media used in the storage medium driving device 18 described later may be used. Further, the storage device 18 includes a program storage unit 181, a related information storage unit 182, a search condition storage unit 183, a document data storage unit 183, a document vector database 185, a kana-kanji conversion dictionary 186, and other storage units (not shown) (for example, And a storage unit for backing up programs, data, and the like stored in the storage device 18. The program storage unit 181 stores a main program for controlling document search in the present embodiment, a program for creating graphs and tables from numerical data, a program for creating images from image data, and an amplifier and a speaker from audio data. The program uses a kana-kanji conversion dictionary 186 in addition to various programs such as a program for generating voice via the Internet, a program for displaying a document name and a query term in an appropriate place on a screen in a created graph or table. Various programs required for document retrieval, such as a kana-kanji conversion program for converting a kana character string input to a mixed-kanji sentence, are stored. The related information storage unit 182 includes a numerical data storage unit, an image information storage unit, and a voice information storage unit (not shown).

The numerical data storage section stores, for example, numerical data such as the sales amount of each product of a certain product group and the stock price value for a certain period, together with the file names, item names and item attributes in a tabular format. It is organized and stored as a database. However, the numerical data stored in the numerical data storage must be related to the document to be searched for the purpose and motive of the search.

Based on the numerical data, a pie chart or the like of the market share of a certain product group with the database file name as the graph title name and the database item name as the parameter name is displayed on the screen of the display device 16. Will be displayed.

The above file names and item names are used as query terms at the time of document search described later. Further, the numerical data is stored in advance in a hard disk provided in the storage device 18 or in a CD-ROM or the like driven by the storage medium drive device 19 as a part of the database together with the search target document data. Use something.

This database is stored in the work area 11 from the storage medium in the storage medium drive 19 as necessary.
3 and used.

Further, the user further obtains the numerical data by, for example, surveying and collecting from the communication control device 20 via the Internet or the like, further converts it into a database, stores it in the related information storage unit 182, and uses it. Is also good. Further, in the image information storage unit, statistical data or the like and graphic data in the form of graphs and tables are digitally acquired by the scanner 15 and stored. Also, the voice acquired by the microphone 14 is digitized and stored in the voice information storage unit. In the document data storage unit 183,
Document information to be searched by the user is stored as a document database.

The type of the document information is not limited, such as newspaper articles, encyclopedias, academic journals, and the like. These documents are documents created by the Kana-Kanji conversion program,
The document data is created by another device, read from the CD-ROM by the storage medium driving device 17 or read from the communication control device 18 via the Internet or the like, and stored in the document data storage unit 183.

The input / storage format of each document is not particularly limited, but may be text format, HTML (Hyper
A database of various formats such as a Text Markup Language (JIS) format and a JIS format can be stored. The document vector database storage unit 185 stores the document stored in the document data storage unit 183 as a vector in order to determine the similarity of the document by a method as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-45278. Is stored as a database. The determination of the similarity of a document based on the document vector will be described later. When the user inputs the kana from the keyboard 12 and presses the return key of the keyboard 12, the kana-kanji conversion dictionary 186 stores a dictionary for converting the kana into kanji on the screen of the display device 16 and displaying the converted kana. Is done.

The storage medium driving device 19 is a driving device for the CPU 111 to read data including computer programs and documents from an external storage medium. The computer programs stored in the storage medium include programs for various processes executed by the document search device 1, dictionaries used therein, document data, numerical data, and the like. Here, the storage medium refers to a storage medium in which a computer program, data, and the like are stored, and specifically, a magnetic storage medium such as a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape, a memory chip or an IC.
Semiconductor storage media such as cards, CD-ROM, MO, PD
(A phase change rewritable optical disk) or other storage medium from which information can be read optically, paper such as a paper card or paper tape (and
Storage medium using a medium having a function equivalent to paper)
In addition, a storage medium that stores a computer program or the like by various methods is included. The storage medium used in the document search device of the present embodiment is mainly a CD-R
OM or floppy disk is used. The storage medium drive 19 can read data stored in the RAM 113 or the storage device 18 into a writable storage medium such as a floppy disk, in addition to reading a computer program from these various storage media. It is. In the document search device according to the present embodiment, the CPU 111 of the control unit 11 reads a computer program from an external storage medium set in the storage medium driving device 18 and stores (installs) the program in each unit of the storage device 18. . When executing the document search according to the present embodiment, the corresponding program is
M113 is read and executed.

However, instead of the storage device 18, the storage medium driving device 19 directly outputs the RAM 1 from an external storage medium.
13 and can be executed. Further, depending on the document search apparatus 1, various programs for the processing of the present embodiment may be stored in the ROM 112 in advance, and may be executed by the CPU 111. The communication control device 20 is capable of transmitting and receiving various types of documents such as text format and HTML format and various data such as bitmap data to and from other personal computers and word processors.

The input / output I / F 21 is an interface for connecting various devices such as a speaker for outputting sound.

The character recognition device 22 is a device for recognizing characters written on paper or the like in various formats such as a text format or HTML, and is composed of an image scanner, a character recognition program, and the like. In the present embodiment, a document database (RAM 11
3), a document created externally and stored in a predetermined storage medium, a document read from the storage medium driving device 19, a document stored in a document database in advance, a communication control device 20 Downloaded documents,
In addition, various documents such as a document whose characters are recognized by the character recognition device 20 can be acquired as a target document. The operation of the document search performed by the document search apparatus 1 configured as described above will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 to 8, taking as an example the case where the information related to the search target is numerical data.

FIG. 2 (steps 101 to 110) and FIG.
(Steps 111 to 119) are flowcharts showing the basic operation of the document search device 1. When the power of the document search apparatus 1 is turned on and the document search process based on the graph is started, the CPU 111 lists the file names of numerical information stored in the related information storage unit 182 as a database, for example, “ Stock price fluctuation "," Heisei 10
Office Products Market Share for Fiscal Year "or" Showa 6
For example, "change of gasoline price for three years" is extracted and displayed on the screen of the display device 16.

At this time, the user's purpose of document search is “19”.
In the case of "stock price fluctuation in 1998", the user clicks the mouse on the term "stock price fluctuation in 1998" on the screen, and a database table of "stock price fluctuation in 1998" is displayed on the screen of the display device 16. (Step 101). Next, among the item attributes of the database, graph attributes such as a line graph and a pie graph are selected by a user's mouse click. Then, after calling the numerical data stored in the related information storage unit 182 into the work area 113, the CPU 111 graphs the numerical data together with the item names and file names and displays the graph on the screen of the display device 16, When setting the document search condition, the user can refer to this graph (step 102). Further, the CPU 111 automatically extracts, as a document search condition (query term), a title of the graph, a parameter name or numerical data displayed near the vertical or horizontal axis of the graph, and stores the extracted data in the search condition setting area. It is temporarily stored (step 103).

Then, the icon of the document search condition such as the query term or the document name displayed on the display device 1 changes the automatically extracted search condition by the selection instruction of the mouse click.
The user's determination that a search condition should be added in accordance with the purpose of the document search is obtained (step 104; Y).

The CPU 111 adds and stores the selected document search condition in the search condition setting area 1134 (step 105). Next, when searching for a document related to a feature point from the graphed information related to the search target, the user selects the feature point as a reference for the document search (step 106; Y). The CPU 111 receives the user's selection instruction by clicking the mouse, and stores the search condition focusing on the feature point in the search condition storage unit 183 (step 107; Y). Before the document search, the CPU 111
Further, it is determined whether a document search condition has been obtained from the user (step 108).

When the CPU 111 acquires the document search condition by the user's keyboard input (step 10
8; Y), this document search condition is set in the search condition setting area 18
3 (step 109). Then, after storing the document search conditions (step 109) or after the user has not determined a particularly necessary document search condition at this time (step 108; N), all the search conditions stored in the search condition setting area are set. A document search is performed in the document search area 1136 based on the conditions (step 110).

Then, the document search result and the information related to the search target are displayed on the screen of the display device 16 in association with each other. Next, the CPU 111 inquires of the user whether or not to display the contents of the search document on the screen of the display device 16 (step 112).

In response to this question, when the document name of the document to be searched is selected on the screen of the display device 16 by the user's mouse click, the CPU 111 displays the document content corresponding to the selected document name. It is displayed on the screen of the device 16 (step 113). A window is displayed by the CPU 111 on the screen of the display device 16 so that the content of the document related to the selected document name is associated with the vicinity of the most relevant portion of the graph of the information related to the search target of the graph data. It opens and appears in that window. At this time, instead of displaying all the text contents, only the beginning of the document may be displayed. In this case, the CPU 111 allows the user to read the entire document by scrolling the screen when the user clicks the mouse anywhere on this window. Further, when a range is specified from the text displayed by the user using, for example, the cursor key of the keyboard 12 or the mouse 13, the CPU 111 extracts a keyword serving as a query term and adds it as a further document search condition. (Step 114). Then, in order to automatically extract a plurality of keywords from the search document, the CPU
Based on the database of the document vector database storage unit 185, the 111 performs a Boolean search from a plurality of keywords or a similarity search using a cosine distance to search for an appropriate document (step 115). The CPU 111 adds and stores a search result obtained by the similarity search or the like in the search condition storage unit 183 (step 116). Next, the CPU 11
1 displays on the screen of the display device 16 whether or not to select and display the document content (sentence) for which the similar search has been performed, and inquires the user (step 117).

If the user wishes to select and display the content of a document that has been subjected to a similar search in response to the inquiry (step 117; Y), the CPU 111 displays the name of the searched document displayed on the screen of the display device 16. Is clicked with a mouse to receive a document selection instruction. And C
The PU 111 matches the search condition stored in the search condition setting area 1133 on the screen of the display device 16.
The contents of the document are displayed (step 118).

If the user wishes to search for the next sentence, the CPU 111 receives an instruction from the user by clicking the "continue" icon with the mouse and performs the next sentence search (step 119; Y). If the user does not wish to search for a sentence, an instruction is received by clicking the mouse on the "stop" icon, and the sentence search ends (step 119; N). FIGS. 4 to 8 are graphs and tables for explaining a preferred embodiment of the document search by the document search apparatus 1 based on the flowcharts of FIGS. 2 and 3.

Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. As a first example, a document search based on a "stock price fluctuation graph" will be described below with reference to FIGS.

The CPU 111 displays a database of numerical data on stock prices for a certain period (step 10).
1) This numerical data is plotted as time-series data, and a line graph as shown in FIG. 4 is displayed on the screen of the display device 16 for the user to refer to (step 1).
02). In FIG. 4, the horizontal axis represents time (date),
On the vertical axis, a line graph of stock price data using the stock price as a parameter is displayed, and the text of “stock price fluctuation graph” is displayed immediately above the line graph as the title of the graph.

The CPU 111 uses the title and parameter name of a graph such as a “stock price fluctuation graph” displayed on the graph as a query term to set a search condition setting area 113.
4 is automatically stored (step 103). Next, by selecting a document search condition icon such as a query term or a document name displayed on the display device 1 with a mouse click, the automatically extracted search condition is set as a search condition in accordance with the purpose of the document search. The user's determination to add is obtained (step 104; Y).

The CPU 111 adds and stores the selected document search condition in the search condition setting area 1134 (step 105). The user can further perform the following document search by focusing on the feature points (feature information) related to search-related information such as graphs (step 10).
6).

For example, in a graph of time-series data,
The user can specify a time range by focusing on the characteristic points of the graph. That is, a document search can be performed by focusing on a feature point such as a maximum point or a minimum point in the time-series graph, an ascending portion or a descending portion of the graph. That is, for example, in order to investigate the cause why such a feature has appeared, it is also possible to start a search by designating a time and a time range that goes back from the feature point.

Specifically, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, for example, the user pays attention to the stock price rise section of the stock price fluctuation graph, and specifies the period, and sets the specified period as a search condition. be able to. At this time, the user designates a graphical range on the screen of the display device 16 by using the mouse 13 or directly inputs a start time and an end time from the keyboard 12 with the keyboard, thereby displaying the period of the stock price rising section. A range can be specified.

Alternatively, as shown in FIG.
When a certain characteristic point is designated, the characteristic point is used as a base point, and a time and a range period (time range) relative to this base point can be automatically specified. With this configuration, since the conditions of the relative time and the range time are preset in the search condition storage unit 183, only one point on the graph is designated by clicking the mouse, and the CPU 111
It is possible to call a condition stored in advance in the search condition storage unit 183 into the search condition setting area 1134 and automatically specify a document corresponding to the set time range among the search documents in the document data storage unit 183. it can.

According to the above-mentioned designation method, the designated period is used as a constraint on the date of document search, and
Documents to be searched can be automatically extracted. Further, when the document search condition is obtained from the user (Step 108; Y), the CPU 111 stores the document search condition in the search condition setting area 1134 (Step 10).
9) A document search is performed based on all stored document search conditions (step 110).

Next, the CPU 111
In the above, the extracted documents and terms as the sentence search result are associated with a graph as information related to the search target, and the extracted documents and terms are displayed on the screen of the display device 16 as follows. It is displayed so that the correspondence with the numerical data can be understood (step 111). For example, as shown in FIG. 5, with respect to time-series data,
Based on the creation date of the extracted document, the display position of the document name can be changed according to the same time axis as the time series graph. In addition, as for the query term, when the query term is extracted at the position of B and limited to the documents included in the specified time range, the query term is displayed so as to fit within the specified time range on the time axis. can do. By displaying in this way, the correspondence between the graph and the query term becomes clear. In addition, by displaying search results in parallel by specifying several time ranges at the same time, the transition and change of documents and terms over different time ranges are clarified, and users can discover new knowledge and information. Can be encouraged.

The processing after step 122 is the same as that described above, and thus will not be described. As a second example, a document search based on a "graph of market share of office products" will be described below with reference to FIGS.

In the questionnaire data as shown in FIG. 7 in which the numerical data is converted into a pie chart, the CPU 111 determines the ratio of the numerical data stored in the related information storage unit 182 as a database in the work area 113 for each part. Is converted to an area ratio of the questionnaire, and the ratio of a certain item of the questionnaire to a pie chart is displayed on the screen of the display device 16 for reference (step 102).

For example, as shown in FIG. 7, among the office products sold, a pie chart showing the market share of “product A”, “product B”, and “other products” is displayed. The CPU 111 stores “product A” and “product B” stored as the item names of the database in the related information storage unit 182, and the file name “market share of office products”.
Is automatically extracted into the search condition setting area 113 as a query term (step 103). Next, the query terms “product A” and “product B” displayed on the display device 1
When the icon of the document search condition such as "Market share" of "Office products" is selected by mouse click,
The user's determination that the automatically extracted search conditions should be added as search conditions in line with the purpose of document search is obtained (step 104; Y).

CPU 111 adds and stores the selected document search condition in search condition setting area 1134 (step 105). The user can further perform the following document search by focusing on the feature points (feature information) related to search-related information such as graphs (step 10).
6).

For example, when a product name indicating the largest area of a pie chart as shown in FIG. 7 is selected by a mouse click as a query term (step 1).
06; Y), a search condition focusing on the feature point is added and stored (step 107). Also, the CPU 111 always
A product name indicating the largest area of the pie chart may be automatically extracted as a query term. Further, when a document search condition is obtained from the user (step 10
8; Y), the CPU 111 also stores the document search conditions in the search condition setting area 1134 (step 109), and performs a document search based on all the stored document search conditions (step 110).

Next, when the questionnaire data is displayed in the form of a pie chart, the CPU 111 displays documents and terms searched and extracted for each part item of the pie chart in association with (associated with) each part. It is displayed on the screen of the device 16 (step 111). For example, as apparent from FIG. 8, the search results for “product A” and “product B”
It is displayed in parallel just below the parts of “Product A” and “Product B”.

Then, while looking at the pie graph, the user clicks the mouse on the document name displayed in the column C or the term name displayed in the column D directly below the pie graph.
The CPU 111 opens a window on the screen of the display device 16 to display the searched document contents. In this way, the user first looks at the visualized pie chart on the screen of the display device 16 and, for example, “Why the product B has become the market share number 1?” Or “Why?
Is the market oligopolistic with product A and product B? Imagine such questions in my head. Then, the display device 16
On the same screen as the screen where the pie chart is displayed, continue to click on the document name or term name with the mouse to obtain the answer to the question, search for the required document while opening the window, and You can read.
As a result, the answer to the user's question becomes clear, and the user can be encouraged to acquire new knowledge and discover information.

Note that the processing after step 122 is the same as described above, and a description thereof will be omitted. According to the embodiment of the document search device 1, the following effects can be obtained.

By displaying numerical data as a graph and referencing or specifying a part of the numerical data, it is possible to automatically set or add a constraint condition or a query term in a document search.

Further, by displaying the document search result in association with numerical data or its graph, the interpretation of the search result is facilitated, and the user is encouraged to discover new knowledge and information. In addition, it is easy to change and change the search results by repeating the document search by focusing on each part of the graph, displaying the results in parallel with the graph (associating) and comparing and comparing the results. It is possible to prompt the user to discover new knowledge and information. Conventionally, a query term is input by a keyboard. For example, a maximum value (maximum value) or a minimum value (minimum value) of a graph, an ascending portion (monotonically increasing portion) or a descending portion (monotonically decreasing portion) of a graph is used. ), The search conditions such as query terms are easily determined by designating the range of these feature points by operating the mouse 13 or the keyboard 12, thereby improving the efficiency of document search. Can be achieved. In addition, it is possible to set search conditions from a visual image, and search operations are facilitated. In the description of the preferred embodiment of the document search apparatus 1, document data is assumed as a search target, and numerical data is assumed as information related to the search target.

However, in the embodiment of the information search apparatus according to the present invention, the search target is not limited to document data (text data).
The data may be image data, audio data, or the like, or a combination thereof. Also, information associated with the search target even not limited to numerical data, for example, image data, sound data, or text data or the like. For example, when the search target is a combination of document data, audio data, and image data, a case of a pie chart (FIG. 8) of the market share of the office product is as follows.

First, when the document 3 is selected by clicking the mouse, the contents of the document 3 relating to the product A and the image of the product A are displayed on the screen of the display device 16 near the part of the product A in the pie chart. At the same time, the search document is read out as a voice and output from a speaker provided on the display device 16.

As a result, the user can grasp the search target not only from the visual sense but also from the auditory sense. In addition, in this example, an actual product can be grasped by an image image. As a result, the user can be further encouraged to discover new knowledge and information. As described above, according to the embodiment of the document search device 1, even when the information related to the search target is other than the numerical data, The following effects can be similarly obtained.

First, by referring to the related data,
Since search conditions such as constraint conditions and query term selection can be automatically set, search operations are facilitated.

Further, by displaying or outputting the search result in association with information related to the search target, interpretation of the search result is facilitated, and a desired search result can be obtained quickly. Furthermore, the search is repeated by focusing on each part of the information related to the search target, and those search results are displayed or output in parallel in association with the visualized search related information, and compared and examined. By doing
Changes and changes in search results can be easily found, and the user can be encouraged to discover new knowledge and information.

Further, by performing a search by focusing on the characteristic points of the information related to the search object, the user can also estimate the cause of the characteristic, the result due to the characteristic, or predict the future. it can. As described above, the configuration of the present embodiment and the information search process have been described. However, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments, and various modifications are made within the scope of the invention described in each claim. It is possible. For example, a modified example will be described with reference to a “stock price fluctuation graph” as shown in FIG.

According to the above embodiment, the CPU 111
Is a graph that visualizes stock price fluctuations over a period of time (Fig. 9
(A) is displayed on the screen of the display device 16 together with the document names of the documents 1 to 13 and the like searched as documents related to the graph data (FIG. 9B).

These document names are displayed below the time (date) associated with the content of each document (FIG. 9B), and the user clicks the displayed document name with the mouse. By doing so, a necessary document can be searched. However, from among a large number of searched documents having the displayed document names, for example, FIG.
The CPU 111 may be able to receive an additional instruction from a further user to narrow down search documents corresponding to a feature point such as a period during which the stock price is rapidly falling as shown by the dotted line in (c). In this case, the CPU 111 stores the searched document in the work area 113. Next, as shown in FIG. 9 (c), a period during which the stock price is rapidly falling is specified by the user by operating the mouse 14 or the keyboard 12, and this range specification is used as an instruction of the additional search condition by the CPU 111. Get. Then, as shown in FIG. 9D, from the documents already displayed and stored in the work area 113, only those documents corresponding to the period during which the stock price is falling sharply are narrowed down, and the document name is changed. It is displayed just below the period. In FIG. 9C,
Only the document 8 on the day when the stock price starts to plummet, the document 10 during the stock price plummeting, and the document 13 on the day when the stock price hits the bottom are narrowed down and displayed.

According to this modification, the user can search for documents by further narrowing down the documents he or she needs, and the search speed is improved. Further, the user can clearly grasp the document name desired to be searched.

[0074]

According to the present invention, a user's information retrieval work can be made efficient and easy.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a basic configuration of a document search device according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the document search device according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the document search device according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a method of directly specifying a time range on a time-series data graph at the time of document search.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining a method of displaying a searched document name and a query term in association with a related portion of a line graph.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining a method of relative designation of a time range on a time-series data graph at the time of document search.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example in which questionnaire data is visualized in a pie chart.

FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining a method of displaying a searched document name and a query term in association with a related portion of a pie chart.

FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining a modified example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 11 control unit 12 keyboard 13 mouse 14 voice input device 15 image input device 16 display device 17 printing device 18 storage device 19 storage medium drive device 20 communication control device 21 input / output interface 22 character recognition device 111 CPU 112 ROM 113 RAM 181 program storage Section 182 related information storage section 183 document data storage section 184 kana-kanji conversion dictionary 1131 related information storage area 1132 related information implementation area 1133 search condition setting area 1134 text vector storage area

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Hiroyuki Mitsuya 3-46, Okihamahigashi, Tokushima City, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan Just System Co., Ltd. (56) Reference Document (JP, A) JP-A-9-305616 (JP, A) JP-A-10-11463 (JP, A) JP-A-1-231175 (JP, A) JP-A-1-191933 (JP, A) Kaihei 7-6179 (JP, A) JP-A-5-120358 (JP, A) JP-A-4-125774 (JP, A) Naohiko Uramoto, Masayuki Morohashi, "Information Outlining-Visualization of Search Information-Administration For Utilization of Information ", Information Processing Society of Japan, vol. 95, no. 106 (FI-40), pp49-56 (November 9, 1995) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 17/30 360 G06F 17/30 220 JICST file (JOIS)

Claims (7)

(57) [Claims] 1. A search target storage means for storing a plurality of pieces of information to be searched, an acquisition means for acquiring a database specified by a user, a database acquired by the acquisition means,
An image display means for visualizing and displaying the image in a predetermined format such as a table or a figure; and a search condition for searching for predetermined information from the search target storage means, from a database visualized by the image display means. Condition extracting means; and information searching means for searching information matching the search condition extracted by the condition extracting means from the search target storage means , wherein the image display means includes: Search
At least part of the information retrieved from the condition
Related to the visualized image of the specified format in the database
An information retrieval apparatus characterized in that it is attached and displayed . 2. A condition designating means for designating a predetermined search condition from the visualized database, wherein the information search means extracts the search condition designated by the condition designating means and the condition extracted by the condition extracting means. 2. The information search apparatus according to claim 1, wherein information is searched based on search conditions. 3. A method according to claim 1, further comprising: extracting feature information indicating a feature of the information from the information searched by the information search unit; wherein the image display unit includes the feature information extracted by the feature extraction unit. And displaying the image in association with the visualized image of a predetermined format in the database.
Or the information retrieval device according to claim 2 . 4. The image display means, when a search condition is displayed on the visualized predetermined format image of the database, displays at least a part of the searched information or the characteristic information on the display. And displaying the search condition in association with the search condition .
Or the information retrieval device according to claim 3 . 5. A database storage means for storing a plurality of databases composed of numerical data, wherein the search target storage means stores document information as information to be searched, and the acquisition means comprises: 2. A database according to claim 1, wherein a database specified by the user is acquired from a plurality of databases stored in the storage unit.
The information search device according to claim 4 . 6. An information storage means for storing information searched by the information search means, and an additional search condition specification means for specifying an additional search condition from the visualized database, wherein the information search means 6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein information matching the additional search condition specified by the additional search condition specifying means is narrowed down from the information stored in the information storage means and searched. The information retrieval device according to claim 1. 7. An acquisition function for acquiring a database specified by a user, and a database acquired by the acquisition function,
An image display function for visualizing and displaying images in a predetermined format such as a table or a figure; and a search condition for searching for predetermined information from a search target storage unit in which a plurality of pieces of information to be searched are stored. and condition extraction function for extracting from visualized databases by the function, the information that matches the search conditions extracted by the condition extraction function, and a data search function to search from the search target storage means, said image display The function is the information search function.
At least part of the information retrieved from the condition
Related to the visualized image of the specified format in the database
A storage medium storing a computer-readable information search program for causing a computer to attach and display the information.