JPH08287088A - Information retrieval method and device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] It is an object of the present invention to provide an information retrieval method and an apparatus therefor capable of automatically obtaining incidental information such as explanations and explanations of retrieval terms. [Configuration] When a search word is input and stored in a character string buffer, the search processing unit 3 searches the document database 2 based on the search word, and extracts document data including the search word. The format information relating to the expression method of the associated information attached to the search word stored in the term accompanying information expression base 5 is read out, the document corresponding to the format information is extracted from the document data, and the searched search word is extracted. The included document data and the document corresponding to the format information are displayed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information retrieval method and apparatus for retrieving a data file and extracting data desired by a user.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in an information retrieval apparatus for retrieving desired data by retrieving a database, a word designated by a user (or a related word thereof) is retrieved, and a document name containing the designated word ( Alternatively, the file name, article name, text name), position information in the document (or file, article, text), or the document data itself is presented.

[0003]

However, in the conventional apparatus of this type, basically, it is determined whether or not the searched word is included in the document data, or when the word is included,
Only data indicating the position information is displayed. And
If the user wants to obtain some additional information about the search term (for example, explanation, explanation, definition, etc. of the term), there is no choice but to extract by reading the retrieved document data by the user himself. It was

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional example, and an object of the present invention is to provide an information retrieval method and an apparatus therefor capable of automatically obtaining incidental information such as explanation and explanation of a retrieval word.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an information retrieval method and an apparatus therefor which can easily understand the meaning of a retrieval word used for retrieval.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the information retrieval apparatus of the present invention has the following configuration.
That is, an information retrieval device for retrieving a database based on an instructed retrieval word, a storage means for storing format information regarding an expression method of incidental information accompanying the retrieval word, and retrieving the database based on the retrieval word. The search means for extracting the document data containing the search word, the additional information extracting means for extracting the document corresponding to the format information stored in the storage means from the document data containing the search word, and the search means. It has the extracted document data and display means for displaying the document extracted by the incidental information extraction means.

In order to achieve the above object, the information retrieval method of the present invention comprises the following steps. That is, an information search method for searching a database based on a designated search word, the step of inputting a search word, searching the database based on the search word, and extracting document data including the search word. A step of retrieving, from the document data, a document corresponding to format information related to a stored expression of accompanying information associated with the search term, document data including the search term, and a document corresponding to the format information And a display step of displaying.

[0008]

In the above structure, when a search word is input, the database is searched based on the search word and the document data including the search word is extracted. From the retrieved document data, a document corresponding to the format information relating to the expression method of the incidental information attached to the stored search word is extracted, and the document data including the search word and the document corresponding to the format information are extracted. Works to display.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing the functional structure of an information search apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, a character string buffer 1 stores a character string indicating a search word (search target word). Two
Is a document database (document DB) in which a plurality of document data to be searched are stored. 3 is the document DB 2 with the character string held in the character string buffer 1 as a search word.
Is a search processing unit for searching for. 4 is a search result holding unit,
The search processing unit 3 holds the result of the search processing on the document database 2. Reference numeral 5 is a term incidental information expression base, which stores various information regarding a method of expressing the incidental information of a term. Reference numeral 6 is a term incidental information extraction unit that extracts term incidental information related to the search word based on the information stored in the search result holding unit 4. Reference numeral 7 is a term incidental information presenting unit that presents the term incidental information extracted by the term incidental information extracting unit 6. The search processing unit 3, the term accompanying information extracting unit 6, and the term accompanying information presenting unit 7 are, for example, the CPU 1 of FIG.
01 and the program stored in the program memory 102.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the basic configuration of the information retrieval apparatus of this embodiment.

Reference numeral 101 is a CPU, which is a program memory 10
The operation of the entire apparatus is controlled according to the control program (see the flowchart of FIG. 3) stored in No. 2. 103
Is a keyboard used by the user to input a character string such as a search term or a command for a search instruction.
Reference numeral 104 is a pointing device such as a mouse. Even when the mouse 104 is used, commands and data similar to those of the keyboard 103 can be input. 105 is RAM
Then, while temporarily holding various data, the CPU 1
When the control by 01 is executed, it is used as a work area, and stores a search word to be described later, searched document data, and additional information after the search. 106 is a CRT
A display unit such as a liquid crystal display, 107 is a video memory (VRAM) that holds data to be displayed on the display unit 106, and 108 is a controller (CRT) that controls the display on the display unit 106.
C). 109 is a hard disk (HDD) 110
Controller (HDC) that controls read / write to / from
Is. The hard disk 110 includes the above-mentioned document database (document DB) 2 and term-related information representation base 5
Is remembered. A system bus 111 connects the above-mentioned units.

In addition, in FIG. 2, the term accompanying information expression base 5 is used.
Is stored in the same storage device as the document DB 2, but the present invention is not limited to this, and may be stored in, for example, a ROM connected to the system bus 111. It may be loaded in the RAM 105.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the processing procedure of the operation in the information retrieval apparatus of this embodiment. The control program for executing this processing is stored in the program memory 102. The operation procedure will be described below with reference to FIGS. 3 and 5.

First, in step S1, the character string buffer 1
Character string (search word) in (provided in RAM 105)
Check if is held. If the character string buffer 1
If is empty, for example, wait until a character string is input and held in the character string buffer 1 from the keyboard 103, and if a character string is input and held in the character string buffer 1, the process proceeds to step S2. In step S2, the character string buffer 1
The character string data (“syntax analysis” in the example of FIG. 5) stored in is read, and the search processing unit 3 searches the document DB 2 stored in the hard disk 110. As an algorithm for this search processing, a method using a generally used keyword index or a method such as full-text search is used.
The result is held in the search result holding unit 4 (RAM 105) and the process proceeds to step S3.

In step S3, the contents held in the search result holding unit 4 are checked to see if there is a searched document. If there is a retrieved document, the process goes to step S4 for extracting the term accompanying information, but if there is no retrieved document, the process proceeds to step S5.

In step S4, the term accompanying information extraction unit 6
At, in the searched document, the surroundings of the corresponding character string after the search are checked based on the search result information held in the search result holding unit 4. Then, with reference to the term-related information expression base 5, information on the expression method of the term-related information is extracted. More specifically describing these steps, for example, in the expression method such as the explanation or definition of a term, an example of the description method is as follows: -In the text, immediately after the term, parentheses "("")" Will be explained.

In a sentence, a typical sentence using some formulas and words will be explained.

A plurality of terms will be collectively described in a typical format by adding a symbol or the like to the beginning at a certain place in the document. and so on. Specific examples of the above are: <Term> (= <Explanation>) • <Term>(<Explanation>) • <Term> is <Explanation>.

<Terms> are <descriptions>.

* <Term>: <Explanation> • ○ <Term> = <Explanation> can be formalized into a pattern (for example, <...> means any character string in the above pattern) (Fig. 4
reference).

Therefore, for example, pattern matching of a character string using a regular expression used in the UNIX command grep and the like, and if necessary, arbitrary restrictions (for example, in the case of the regular expression as described above, the pattern It is checked whether or not there is a match with the above pattern by using an algorithm that takes into consideration the control such as finding the longest match with or finding the shortest match. In this way, the term accompanying information corresponding to the search word (character string) can be found.

For example, in the example of FIG. 5, there are two character strings "syntax analysis" in the retrieved document data. Of these, "syntax analysis (= process for extracting the dependency relation between clauses in a sentence, etc. ) ”Matches the pattern of“ <term> (= (description)> ”in the data of the term accompanying information expression base 5 described above.
The document data enclosed by parentheses "("")" of the document data can be extracted as the term accompanying information of the term (search term) "syntax analysis".

Finally, in step S5, based on the result extracted by the term accompanying information extracting section 6, the term accompanying information presenting section 7 displays the term (search word) and term accompanying information on the display section 106. Ends the process.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of the contents of the term accompanying information expression base 5, showing an example of pattern data of a rule relating to an expression method such as explanation of terms.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a specific example of processing in the information search apparatus of this embodiment when the input character string (search word) is "syntax analysis".

In FIG. 5, when the character string "syntax analysis" is input as a search word, the document DB 2 is searched based on this search word.
Search the document data of. As a result, document data including “syntax analysis” is obtained, for example, as shown in FIG. Here, the search term "syntactic analysis" is used in the searched documents.
It can be seen that is included in two places. Further, referring to the term accompanying information expression base 5 shown in FIG. 5, the surroundings of this search word (“syntax analysis”) are examined, and the term accompanying information after the search is extracted. As a result, the term explanation expression pattern stored in the term accompanying information expression base 5 (in this case,
Rule No. Document data having a data structure matching 1) is found, and the content of the term-accompanying information after the search is extracted based on the document data. This is shown in FIG. And finally, each search and accompanying information after the search are shown in FIG.
It is displayed as shown in (d).

In the above embodiment, Japanese has been described as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this, and any language such as English or German can be used as long as the term accompanying information can be applied. It also applies to documents in different languages.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the expression pattern of each term incidental information is stored in the term incidental information expression base 5 in advance, but the user may update or express the expression pattern of each term incidental information. You may be able to add.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the case where the character string input by the user is searched as a search word and the surroundings of the searched word are searched to extract the term accompanying information has been described. It is also possible to extract the relevant part of the document in which the term and the information associated with the term are present, sort the results, and create and display a so-called terminology list or index.

In the above embodiment, when presenting the extraction result of the term incidental information, the term and the term incidental information (the place thereof) are displayed in reverse video on the screen displaying the retrieved document. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and may be in a format that can be presented using any method that allows the user to visually identify such as underlining, color display, and font.

Further, in the above embodiment, the form in which the character string input by the user is retrieved as it is has been described. Using data etc.,
The search may be expanded into synonyms, synonyms, or similar words to enable a search using a plurality of words, and to allow a wider search so as to eliminate omission of detection as much as possible.

In the above embodiment, the case where the character string input by the user is directly used as the search word has been described. However, when the character string (search word) input by the user is, for example, a compound word, its constituent words Alternatively, the search may be performed using a plurality of words.

Further, in the present embodiment, as an example of the term accompanying information, the explanation and decoding of the term and the definition of the pattern of the expression method are explained as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the term As long as it can be formalized as associated information of a term such as an abbreviation or a translated word, a pattern of the expression method may be prepared and applied to the term accompanying information expression base 5.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the character string in the document and the term-related information expression base 5 are used as the term-related information extraction processing.
With the above rule pattern, an example of extracting by pattern matching of a character string was explained, but the surrounding character string after the search in the document is analyzed by sentence analysis using a dictionary and grammar, and the term Refer to the pattern of rules on the information representation base 5, compare these in more detail,
The term incidental information may be extracted.

The present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices or an apparatus composed of a single device. The present invention can also be applied to the case where it is achieved by supplying a program for implementing the present invention to a system or an apparatus.

As described above, according to this embodiment, it is possible to automatically obtain, together with the retrieved term, accompanying information such as the explanation and explanation of the term, so that individual users are not interested or interested. There is an effect that even certain information can be extracted.

[0039]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to automatically obtain accompanying information such as explanations and explanations of search terms.

Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to easily understand the meaning of the search word used for the search.

[0041]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of an information search device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a basic configuration of an information search device of this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a search processing procedure in the information search device according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of data stored in a term accompanying information expression base according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining a specific search process in the information search device according to the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 character string buffer 2 document DB (document database) 3 search processing unit 4 search result holding unit 5 term incidental information expression base 6 term incidental information extraction unit 7 term incidental information presentation unit 101 CPU 102 program memory 103 keyboard 105 RAM 106 display unit 110 hard disk

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Makoto Hirota 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Shogo Shibata 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Non-Incorporated (72) Inventor Yuji Ikeda 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Minoru Fujita 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc.

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. An information retrieval device for retrieving a database based on an instructed search word, comprising: storage means for storing format information relating to an expression method of incidental information accompanying the search word; and based on the search word. Search means for searching a database and extracting document data including the search word; and associated information extracting means for extracting a document corresponding to the format information stored in the storage means from the document data including the search word, An information retrieval device comprising: document data extracted by the retrieval means; and display means for displaying the document extracted by the incidental information extraction means. 2. The storage means stores format information relating to a description or definition of a term corresponding to a search word, and the accompanying information extracting means is located near the search word existing in the document data. The information retrieval apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a document corresponding to the explanation or definition of the term is extracted as the incidental information. 3. The information search according to claim 1, wherein the incidental information extracting means extracts a document corresponding to a description or definition of terms near all search words existing in the document data. apparatus. 4. The format information according to claim 1, wherein incidental information of a term is represented by parentheses or delimiters following the term. Information retrieval device. 5. The display means displays the search term and the associated information in a distinguishable manner.
The information search device according to any one of items 1 to 4. 6. An information search method for searching a database based on an instructed search word, the step of inputting a search word, and searching the database based on the search word, and document data including the search word. Extracting the document corresponding to the format information relating to the expression method of the accompanying information associated with the stored search word from the document data, and extracting the document data including the search word and the format information. And a display step of displaying the corresponding document, and an information search method. 7. The format information is information about a description or definition of a term corresponding to a search term, and is a document corresponding to an explanation or definition of a term located near the search term existing in the document data. The information search method according to claim 6, wherein the information is extracted as accompanying information. 8. The information search method according to claim 6, wherein the incidental information is extracted as a document corresponding to an explanation or definition of terms near all search words existing in the document data. . 9. The format information according to any one of claims 6 to 8, wherein incidental information of a certain term is represented by parentheses or delimiters following the term. Information retrieval method. 10. The information search method according to claim 6, wherein in the display step, the search word and the accompanying information are displayed in a distinguishable manner.