JP2000067082A - Information notice equipment and method therefor and machine-readable recording medium recorded with program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain information related with an event or the like and the related information from among information opened to the public through a WWW or the like at the proper timing. SOLUTION: An information acquiring means 8 acquires information from the designated information acquiring destination, and an event information extracting part 9 extracts event and date information related with an event and a date from the information, and a related information retrieving device 12 retrieves a document preserving device 4, and retrieves the related information related with the event and date information. A notice information selecting part 17 reports notice information obtained by combining the event and date information with the related information to a user at the timing when the condition preliminarily decided by the user is fulfilled. The notice information whose condition is not instructed by the user is reported to the user according to the condition obtd. so as to match with a timing to report based on the related information in the notice information.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a WWW (World).
d Wide Web), collecting information from e-mails and information published on personal computer communication services, etc.
Regarding information notification technology for notifying users, in particular, information related to collected information is automatically searched from existing document data and user operation history, etc. Notification technology.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Various kinds of information are disclosed in WWW and personal computer communication services.
Information about the date and time of events such as exhibitions and conferences,
Information on the deadline of the application is not valuable unless it is obtained before the date and time or the deadline has passed.
In such information, the date and time of holding a new event and the like are added, and the information is usually updated every certain indefinite period. For this reason, in order to use the information on the date and time and the time limit published on the WWW and the personal computer communication service, the user must frequently access the place where the information is published and acquire the information. is there.

Conventionally, in order to monitor this type of information, a device that automatically accesses information that is made public at regular time intervals, always obtains the information, and notifies the user of the information (hereinafter referred to as Conventional Example 1). And an apparatus that notifies the user of the update if the information has been updated or the updated information (hereinafter referred to as Conventional Example 2). For example, A
ISoft's WebWhats'sNew software can periodically access a WWW site specified by a user to acquire information and display the information on a screen. Also, Microsoft's Internet
With software called etExplorer, it is possible to periodically access a WWW site designated by a user, check whether information is updated, and display the result.

[0004] On the other hand, information on the date and time of an event or a deadline may be distributed by e-mail. In many cases, a notice of a conference or a work instruction with a deadline is notified to a specific person by e-mail. In such a case, since the user can know the arrival of new information, there is no problem in obtaining the information before the date and time or time limit specified in the information. However, an e-mail that describes the date and time and the deadline arrives mixed with many other e-mails, so that the e-mail is overlooked. There is a problem that it is difficult to find next.

A device for extracting date and time disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-269940 extracts information such as date and time and place written in an e-mail and determines whether or not the date and time is approaching. The importance of the e-mail is determined based on the judgment criteria, and when the user displays the e-mail, the information such as the extracted date and time and location, and the importance of the e-mail are understood. (Hereinafter referred to as Conventional Example 3).

Further, in this apparatus, a user can search an electronic mail on condition of date and time. These functions make it difficult for a user to overlook an e-mail in which a date and time and a deadline are written, and also makes it easy to find the e-mail.

[0007] In addition, the user does not simply need to confirm the schedule for such event information, but also needs some kind of work in advance, such as applying for participation in the event or preparing a manuscript for presentation at the event. Often do. At this time, it is a great effort to obtain relevant information such as what type of application and manuscript should be written, what procedures should be done before applying, where to contact for inquiries, etc. Is reduced.

The related information presentation device disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-134720 extracts an appropriate related element from a character string already input by a user at the time of document creation, and uses the extracted related element as a search key. Related information is automatically retrieved from the document data and presented to the user (hereinafter referred to as Conventional Example 4). With this function, once a user has written a text such as an application form to an extent sufficient to extract the linkage elements, the user and the group members to which the user belongs will associate the document data created so far with relevant information. It is easy to use as.

[0009]

However, the above-mentioned prior art has the following problems.

For example, information such as the date and time of an event published on the WWW or a personal computer communication service and the deadline for application are not necessarily posted when the date and time or the deadline are approaching. Or is often posted before. For example, there is a case where schedule information up to six months ahead is posted at a time. However, users usually do not want to have information on the schedule at a time. Even if such information is notified at the date and time of the event or many months before the application deadline, the information may be buried when necessary. Desirably, you will be notified just in time for the work required prior to the date and time of the event or deadline.

[0011] In the first conventional example, information such as WWW and personal computer communication services can be monitored, and information can be acquired and displayed at regular intervals. In this case, you can always display the latest information, but not only the schedule information that is approaching nearby, but also all the information posted at that time, including the past schedule information that has passed the date and time Is displayed. If the amount of information posted is large, it is difficult to find necessary information from the displayed information. Further, when the information is not updated, the same information is repeatedly displayed, so that the user's attention is distracted, and there is a high possibility that necessary information is overlooked when necessary.

In Conventional Example 2, information such as WWW and personal computer communication services is monitored, and new information is added.
When information is updated, new information can be displayed. For this reason, the user can easily know the date and time of the newly posted event, the deadline of application, etc., but nothing is displayed when the information is not updated, so the schedule up to When posted together, there is a problem that it is not possible to know the date and time of an event to be held in the near future, the deadline of an application that is due soon, and the like.

[0013] In Conventional Example 3, for e-mail,
When the date and time written therein is approaching, the mail is stored as important, and when the user lists the mail, the important mail can be marked. However, there is a problem that the user cannot know whether or not there is an imminent due date without looking at the list of e-mails. Since the schedule information is not displayed unless the user voluntarily performs the operation, the user cannot notice or remind the user of the information that the user has overlooked or has forgotten.

Further, even if the information can be obtained without any trouble before the date and time of the event or before the deadline, it is difficult to appropriately judge what kind of work should be actually performed for the event. is there.

In the conventional example 4, if a user writes a work sentence to the event to a certain extent after the information about the event is notified, an appropriate related element is extracted from the work sentence as a search key, and the existing document data is extracted. The text searched by the search key from among them is automatically presented as related information. If the event is a completely new type of event for the user or the group member to which the user belongs, there is no relevant information in the existing document data, and humans need to determine what work is necessary. If you have no choice but to have a similar event in the past,
Documents and inquiries at that time can be obtained as related information. However, the search for the related information is performed only after the user has sufficiently written the work text for the event. For this reason, the user needs to know in advance the general format of the required working text, and even if the relevant text related to the event exists in the past document data, the Is meaningless if you don't know in advance.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the problems of the above-mentioned conventional example, and has as its object to determine the type of event and the type of event based on information published on the WWW or a personal computer communication service, e-mail, or the like. Extract information such as date and time, search for related information from existing document data and operation history,
An object of the present invention is to enable a user to be notified of related information together with event information.

Further, another object of the present invention is to provide a method in which the relevant information is not found at an appropriate time before the date and time or the time limit of the event based on the relevant information retrieved from the existing document data and the operation history. However, an object of the present invention is to allow the user to be notified of event information and related information when the date and time of the event are approaching.

[0018]

The information notification apparatus of the present invention periodically extracts events and event date and time information relating to the dates and times from information published on the WWW or personal computer communication services, e-mails, and the like. Then, the related information related to each extracted event date and time information is searched from the existing document data and stored in association with the information related to the event and the like. Then, at a timing set by the user in advance of the date and time of the extracted event, or at an appropriate timing determined from the existing relevant information, the user is notified of the information on the event and the relevant information together with the user.

More specifically, information acquisition means (8 in FIG. 1) for acquiring information from a designated information acquisition source, and event information for extracting event date and time information relating to an event and its date and time from the acquired document An extraction unit (9 in FIG. 1);
An event information storage unit (10 in FIG. 1) that stores the extracted event date and time information, and a related element extraction unit (11 in FIG. 1) that extracts a search key for searching for related information therefrom.
A related information search device (12 in FIG. 1) for searching for related information from existing document data, a related information storage unit (13 in FIG. 1) for storing the searched related information, and a date and time to be notified to the user Date and time condition designating means (FIG. 1)
15), a date / time condition determination unit (14 in FIG. 1) for determining a condition regarding notification timing of information on each event, and a date / time condition storage unit (16 in FIG. 1) for storing the determined condition. A notification information selecting unit (17 in FIG. 1) for selecting a set of event information and related information that satisfies a condition at that time, and an information notifying unit (17 in FIG. Of 1
8).

The information acquisition means periodically acquires information from a designated information acquisition source, and from the acquired information, an event information extraction unit extracts and stores event date and time information relating to an event and its date and time. The related information search device searches for related information of event date and time information from past document data stored in the document storage device and stores the same. The date and time condition designating means receives a condition relating to the notification timing input by the user, and the date and time condition determination unit determines the condition of the timing of notification from the related information for the notification information for which the user has not specified the condition. Do.

The notification information selection unit periodically selects information (notification information) that satisfies the notification timing condition at that time from a set of the stored event date and time information and the related information. The notified information is notified to the user by the information notifying means.

[0022]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

Hereinafter, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
An embodiment will be described.

Referring to FIG. 1, according to a first embodiment of the present invention, an input device 1 such as a keyboard, a processing device 2 operated under program control, and a communication device 3 for exchanging information via a network. A document storage device 4 such as a hard disk for storing information such as existing document data created by a user or a group member to which the user belongs, an output device 5 such as a display device,
And a recording medium K.

The processing device 2 includes an information acquisition destination designation unit 6,
Information acquisition destination storage unit 7, information acquisition means 8, event information extraction unit 9, event information storage unit 10, related element extraction unit 11, related information search device 12, related information storage unit 13, date and time Condition determining unit 14 and date and time condition specifying means 15
, A date / time condition storage unit 16, a notification information selection unit 17, and an information notification unit 18.

The information acquisition destination designating means 6 allows the user to input information of an event or the like to be acquired.
, The URL of the WWW, the forum name in the personal computer communication service, the folder name of the e-mail, and the like, which are input by using, are stored in the information acquisition destination storage unit 7 as the information acquisition destination. In addition to a single URL, a forum name, a folder name, and a URL having a WWW,
U that can be reached by following a specific number of links from L
The specification by a range such as RL, all the forums under the forum hierarchy with the personal computer communication service, and all the subfolders under the folder with the e-mail may be received.

The information acquiring means 8 connects to a WWW server, a personal computer communication host, a mail server, or the like via the communication device 3 at a predetermined time interval.
Gets information from the source of information stored in. If the e-mail is stored not on the network but on the same device as the device implementing the present invention, the information is obtained from the storage destination.

The event information extracting unit 9 includes an information acquiring unit 8
From the information obtained by the above, the information on the event etc. described therein and the information on the date and time of the event etc. are extracted, and the event date and time information combining the extracted information and the source of the information is extracted. , In the event information storage unit 10. However, here, the event information storage unit 1
The acquisition destination stored in 0 is the location where the information is acquired among the locations stored in the information acquisition destination storage unit 7. If the acquisition destination is an e-mail folder, the sender of each e-mail is also It will be extracted and handled as part of the source of information about the event. If information on the same event has already been stored in the event information storage unit 10, a check is made so that the information is not stored twice.

The date and time of an event or the like described in each information is extracted by searching a specific pattern from the information. For example, when ~ is a numeric string, "~ year ~ month ~
The part described in the pattern "day" or the pattern "~ / ~ / ~" can be extracted as the date and time. As the information relating to the event or the like, the entire text of the original information may be applied, or only a portion related to the date and time may be extracted. As the portion related to the extracted date and time, for example, a chapter or a paragraph including the extracted date and time, a line including the date and time, or several lines before and after that can be extracted.

Further, by performing a morphological analysis on the entire sentence of the original information and extracting words and phrases that have been determined to be nouns or noun phrases, those with a high frequency of appearance in the information are removed. It can also be extracted as a keyword.
When the information acquisition destination is a URL, "
In the case where a word or phrase marked as "<TITLE>" and the information acquisition destination is an e-mail folder, the subject of the e-mail may be extracted as a keyword. You can also extract from: "Place:""Participant:"
By searching for a bulleted pattern such as the above, it is also possible to extract information such as a place or a participant in a notice of holding a conference. With the above method, etc., how much quantity to extract from the original information as information about events etc.
The user may set it as needed.

The related element extracting unit 11 extracts a keyword representing the type and content of an event from the event date and time information stored in the event information storage unit 10 as a search key for searching for related information. The extracting method is the same as the method described in the description of the event information extracting unit 9 described above. The extraction is performed in two parts, that is, the event information extraction unit 9 and the related element extraction unit 11, regardless of how much the event information extraction unit 9 extracts from the original information. This is for narrowing down the amount and content of the keyword suitable for the search. As a result, the amount and content of information notified to the user can be set flexibly. Further, the source of each information is also extracted as a search key for searching for related information.

The related information search device 12 searches the document storage device 4 for a document determined to be related information using a search key for each piece of information extracted by the related element extraction unit 11 at a certain time interval. I do. The searched documents are ordered according to how much the search key extracted by the related element extraction unit 11 is included, and are stored in the related information storage unit 13 in association with information on the extracted event. Further, when past notification information previously notified to the user using the present invention is stored in the document storage device 4, the past notification information and the information acquisition destination of the current information are searched. Sometimes compare. Past notification information with the same information acquisition destination is handled as related information with a high order. Further, when a document created by the user himself and a document created by another member of the group to which the user belongs both exist, the document created by the user himself in the past can be ordered higher. . Here, the search is repeated at regular intervals because information on a certain event is stored in the event information storage unit 10 and the related information on the event is searched once and before the user is notified. This is because there is a case where new related information is newly added to the document storage device 4. At the time of the second and subsequent searches, the documents that have already been searched before are not stored twice in the related information storage unit 13.

The date and time condition specifying means 15 obtains conditions for notifying the user of the information such as the event and the date and time extracted by the event information extraction unit 9 from the user through the input device 1. This condition may be specified in combination with the information acquisition source, such as “If the information is extracted from the e-mail of the sender xx, at least three days before the date and time of extraction,” It can be specified in combination with. However, it is not necessary for the user to specify conditions for all information acquisition destinations and keywords, and for unspecified information acquisition destinations and the like, notification may be performed according to preset default conditions. Good.

The date / time condition determining unit 14 is notified of the information for which there is no condition explicitly specified by the date / time condition specifying unit 15 from the related information stored in the related information storage unit 13. The condition of the date and time to be determined is determined.
Specifically, it is checked whether or not the notification information about the information acquired in the past from the same acquisition source as the information for determining the date and time condition exists in the information searched as the related information. If such past notification information exists, it is determined to be notification information for the same kind of past event, and the date and time included in the information notified to the user by the past notification information and the past The difference between the notification information and the date and time when the notification information was actually notified to the user is taken out, and the condition is determined so that the user is notified in advance of the date and time included in the current event information by the difference this time. When a plurality of pieces of past notification information are searched as the related information, the highest-ordered notification information is used as a reference. However, if the difference between the date and time is less than the default condition specified by the date and time condition specifying means 15, the default condition is prioritized. The default condition is also used for information for which past notification information has not been retrieved as related information.

The date and time condition storage unit 16 stores the conditions determined by the date and time condition determination unit 14 in association with the extracted information. This condition is re-determined by the date and time condition determination unit 14 at regular intervals, and is updated. This is because the user may change the date and time condition through the date and time condition designating unit 15 after the date and time condition has been determined and before the user is actually notified.
This is because it may be necessary to change the determination of the previous date and time condition in addition to the above.

The notification information selection unit 17 checks the information on the date and time included in each information stored in the event information storage unit 10 and satisfies the condition stored in the date and time condition storage unit 16. Is selected from the related information storage unit 13 and sent to the information notifying unit 18. However, if there is no corresponding information, only the information stored in the event information storage unit 10 is sent to the information notifying unit 18.

The information notifying means 18 includes a notification information selecting unit 17
The user is notified of a set of information on the event selected by the user and related information as notification information. As a method of notifying, a method of outputting to the output device 5 such as a display device may be adopted, or a method of sending as an e-mail to the user via the communication device 3 may be adopted. When outputting to a display device or the like, it may be displayed on the display screen as a pop-up window or may be displayed on the display screen as a screen saver. The method of presenting the related information included in the notification information is also such that only the highest-ordered related information is output first, and the other related information is selected by the user from the ordered list of related information. It is possible to take a method of outputting as appropriate. In addition, this notification information,
Information such as the date and time contained therein and the date and time when it was notified to the user is also recorded in the document storage device 4 for use as related information in the future.

In this embodiment, the information acquisition destination specifying means 6, the information acquisition destination storage section 7, the information acquisition means 8, the event information extraction section 9, the event information storage section 10, the related element extraction section 11, the related information Search device 12, related information storage unit 1
3, date / time condition determination unit 14, date / time condition designation unit 15, date / time condition storage unit 16, notification information selection unit 17, information notification unit 1
Reference numeral 8 denotes a program for controlling the processing device 2 which is not necessarily provided in the processing device 2, and is a program for controlling the processing device 2.
It may be provided by being stored in a recording medium K such as an OM or a floppy disk, and may be read and executed by the processing device 2.

The operation of the information notification device according to the present embodiment will be described below. This information notification device allows the user to specify the information acquisition destination, the date and time condition, and the default date and time condition by using the information acquisition destination designation means 6 and the date and time condition designation means 15 so that the operation in accordance with the designation is performed. Do. In addition, the event information extraction unit 9 and the related element extraction unit 11 can set conditions such as the quantity and nature of keywords to be extracted, but these need not necessarily be specified and set by the user. However, by storing an appropriate initial value in advance, it is possible to operate even when the user does not specify these conditions.

The operation of the present information notifying apparatus is as follows. Information is obtained from a WWW server, a personal computer communication host, a mail server, etc., and information on events and the like and information on dates and times of events and the like are extracted and stored in the event information storage unit 10. A related information search operation of searching the document storage device 4 for related information of each piece of information stored in the event information storage unit 10 and storing the related information in the related information storage unit 13;
A date and time condition specified by the user through the date and time condition specifying means 15 and a condition for notifying information from the related information are determined, and stored in the date and time condition storage unit 16. Information that satisfies the date and time condition, together with related information, and notifies the user of the information. Each operation is started periodically at a certain time interval. However, these four operations all operate independently, and there is no need to synchronize among them.

First, referring to the flowchart of FIG.
An information collection operation in the information notification device according to the present embodiment will be described.

In the information collecting operation, first, the information obtaining means 8
Reads out one information acquisition destination stored in the information acquisition destination storage unit 7 (step A1). Subsequently, the information acquisition unit 8 connects to the information acquisition destination read in step A1 via the communication device 3, and acquires information existing there (step A2). Next, the information acquisition unit 8 determines whether or not the processing of steps A1 and A2 has been performed for all the acquisition destinations stored in the information acquisition destination storage unit 7 (step A3). If there is an unprocessed information acquisition destination, the processes of steps A1 to A3 are repeated for that.

All the information obtained by the information obtaining means 9 is sent to the event information extracting section 9. First, the event information extraction unit 9 extracts information on the event and information on the date and time of the event from one of the obtained information (step A4).

Subsequently, the event information extracting unit 8 sets the extracted information and the source of the information as a set and stores them in the event information storage unit 10 (step A5). Thereafter, the event information extraction unit 9 determines whether there is any other information on the event that can be extracted from the same information and the information on the date and time (step A6). If there is still information that can be extracted, the process of steps A4 to A6 is repeated, and if there is no more information, the process proceeds to the next process. In the next process,
The event information extraction unit 9 determines whether the processing of steps A4 to A6 has been completed for all pieces of acquired information (step A7). If not completed, the processing of steps A4 to A7 is repeated, and if completed, the information collecting operation ends.

Next, referring to the flowchart of FIG.
A related information search operation according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described.

In the related information search operation, first, the related element extracting unit 11 reads one set of information related to the stored event from the event information storage unit 10 (step B1). Next, a keyword and an acquisition source relating to the event are extracted as search keys from the read information (step B2). Next, using the search key, the related information search device 12 searches the document storage device 4 for a document (including notification information) that becomes relevant information (step B).
3). The found documents are ordered, the information is labeled as related information, and stored in the related information storage unit 13 (step B4). It is determined whether or not this search has been performed for all the documents stored in the document storage device 4 (step B5). If there are still documents that can be searched, the processes of steps B3 and B4 are repeated. If not, the process proceeds to the next process. In the next process, the related information search device 12 determines whether or not the processes of steps B1 to B4 have been completed for the set of information on all events stored in the event information storage unit 10 (step B6). ). If not completed, the processing of steps B1 to B4 is repeated, and if completed, the related information search operation ends.

Next, referring to the flowchart of FIG.
The date and time condition determination operation according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described.

In the date / time condition determination operation, first, the date / time condition determination unit 14 reads one set of information relating to the event whose condition is to be determined from the related information storage unit 13 (step C1). The related information storage unit 13 stores what related information exists or does not exist for the information about each event. Therefore, what kind of event information exists is It can be determined from the related information storage unit 13. Next, it is determined whether or not a date and time condition specified by the user to be applied to the information on the read event exists in the date and time condition specifying means 15 (step C2).
If a date and time condition specified by the user exists, the condition is determined (step C6), and a step C described later is performed.
Move to 5. On the other hand, when the date and time condition specified by the user does not exist, the related information of the information on the event read in step C1 includes the existing information obtained from the same acquisition source as that from which the information was extracted. It is determined whether the notification information exists (step C3).

If there is existing notification information from the same acquisition source, the difference between the date and time when the existing notification information was notified to the user and the date and time included in the notification information is determined. The current date and time condition is set (step C7). However, the date and time condition is less relaxed than the default date and time condition, that is, the period from the notification date and time to the date and time such as the expiration date of the event is shorter than the minimum period specified in the default date and time condition in case of,
A default date and time condition is applied (step C4). Also, when there is no existing notification information from the same acquisition source, the process shifts to step C4.

In any case, the date and time condition to be applied to the information on the event read in step C1 is determined and stored in the date and time condition storage unit 16 (step C5). Next, for information about all events,
It is determined whether the date and time condition has been determined (step C8). If there is information that has not been determined yet, the operations of steps C1 to C7 are repeated. When the date and time conditions have been determined for all the information, the date and time condition determination operation ends.

Next, referring to the flowchart of FIG.
An information notification operation according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described.

In the information notification operation, first, the notification information selection unit 17 reads out the date and time condition stored in the date and time condition storage unit 16 (step D1). Next, the notification information selection unit 1
7 selects, from the information stored in the event information storage unit 10, information that satisfies the condition among the information on the event, and further selects the related information of the selected information from the related information storage unit 13 (step S <b> 7). D2).

For example, when the condition read from the date and time condition storage unit 16 is a condition that "information extracted from a certain URL should be notified when the time from the current time to the extracted date and time is within three days" , Event information storage unit 10
In the information about the event extracted from the URL stored in the above, only the information within three days before the date and time included in the information is selected in step D2 together with the related information.

The information on the event selected by the notification information selecting section 17 and the related information, if any, are notified to the user by the information notifying means 18 and candidates for the related information in the future. Is stored in the document storage device 4 (step D3). This ends the information notification operation.

In the following, the operation of the information notification device of the present embodiment will be described using a specific example.

In the following description, the information acquisition destination storage unit 7
It is assumed that the information acquisition destination designation means 6 lists acquisition sources as shown in FIG. Further, using the date and time condition designating means 15, the user enters "http: // cc
c. ddd. co. jp / calendar. html
The information on the event, which is the acquisition destination, is notified when the time from the current time to the extracted date and time is 5 days or less. ”Further, as the default condition,“ the time from the current time to the extracted date and time is 2 Notifications will be made on or after the day ".

First, the information collecting operation will be described.

In the information collecting operation, first, the information obtaining means 8
Reads out the acquisition destinations stored in the information acquisition destination storage unit 7 one by one, connects to them, and acquires information (steps A1 to A3). Referring to FIG. 6, in this example, http: // a is stored in the information acquisition destination storage unit 7 as an acquisition destination.
aa. bbb. or. jp / news. html and http: // ccc. ddd. co. jp
/ Calendar. html and / wo
The mail folder rk / kaigi is specified. Here, when the acquisition destination is a URL, only the document indicated by the URL is acquired, and when the acquisition destination is a mail folder, all the mails in the mail folder are acquired. At this time, the information acquisition means 8 sends the information to the WWW server aaa. bbb. or. jp, pass / news.
html document, and the WWW server ccc. dd
d. co. jp / path / calendar. htm
1) Get the document and send it to the folder / wo from the mail server.
Get all mails in rk / kaigi.

It is assumed that four documents shown in FIG. 7 have been obtained by this processing. In the following description, these four documents are referred to by numbers, such as document # 1 and document # 2, for convenience. However, the acquisition source of the document # 1 is http: // aa
a. bbb. or. jp / news. html, document #
2 can be obtained from http: // ccc. ddd. co. j
p / calendar. html and documents # 3 and # 4 are obtained from the mail folder / work / kaigi.

The event information extracting unit 9 firstly outputs the document # 1
Then, information about the event and information about the date and time of the event are extracted (step A4). However, here, as information about the event, one before and after the line containing the date and time expression
It is assumed that the setting is made to extract the line and the item of the bullet point such as “date and time:” and “place:” together with the closest date and time expression. Even if there is a bullet in one line before and after the line containing the date and time expression, it is extracted only once.

Referring to FIG. 7, document # 1 includes “June 30, 1998” in the fourth line and “March 20, 1998” in the seventh line as the date and time. Therefore, in step A4, first, the date and time “June 3, 1998
Day 0 is extracted. Further, three lines from the third line to the fifth line are extracted as information on the event.
Therefore, the date and time “June 30, 1998”, the portion from the third line to the fifth line of the document # 1, and the acquisition source are stored as a set in the event information storage unit 10 (step A5). In the next step A6, it is determined whether there is any date and time or an item that can be extracted. In the document # 1, since the date and time are also included in the seventh line, the processes in steps A4 to A6 are also performed. Repeated date and time "March 20, 1998"
And the portion from the sixth line to the eighth line of the document # 1 are extracted and stored in the event information storage unit 10 together with the acquisition source, and the process proceeds to step A7. In step A7, it is determined whether the processing has been completed for all the acquired information. However, since documents # 2 to # 4 have not been processed yet,
4 to A7 are repeated. When the processing has been completed for all the documents # 1 to # 4, the information collecting operation ends.

Here, assuming that only the date is handled as the date and time, seven sets as shown in FIG. 8 are stored in the event information storage unit 10 in the information collecting operation of this example.

Next, the related information search operation will be described.

In the related information retrieval operation, first, the related element extracting unit 11 reads out information on the event, information on the date and time, and the source of the information from the information stored in the event information storage unit 10 as a set (step S1). B
1). Next, a keyword serving as a search key for searching for related information is extracted from the read information (step B2). In this example, nouns in general sentences, phrases in bullets,
Then, it is assumed that the information acquisition source is set to be extracted as a keyword. Then, for example, N in FIG.
o. In the example of No. 1, the keywords extracted as “66th”, “National convention”, “June 30, 1998”, “BB”
B University "and" http: //aaa.bbb.o
r. jp / news. html ”, and No. In the example of No. 6, “LLL Project”, “progress meeting”, “March 24, 1998”, “13:00”, “first meeting room”, and “/ work / kaigi” “sss@tttt.k”
kk. co. jp ".

Next, the related information search device 12 uses the search key extracted in step B2 to store the document in the document storage device 4.
(Step B3). When a plurality of pieces of document data are searched, ordering is performed by a method such as how much a search key is included, and labeling is performed on what kind of information is related information and stored in the related information storage unit 13. (Step B4). For example, it is assumed that a document such as the existing document # 1 or the existing document # 2 in FIG. Existing document # 1 is a result of using the present invention,
This is a record of a notification document automatically notified to the user on May 31, 997, and the existing document # 2 belongs to the same group as the user and hh @ jjj. kkk. co. This is an e-mail written to jp. Then, the existing document # 1 in FIG.
Is the No. of FIG. The search key "nationwide tournament" is included in the sentence, and the acquisition source is "http: //aaa.bbb.or.j".
p / news. html ”is the same,
o. 1 is searched as related information. Similarly, the existing document # 2 in FIG. 6 search key "LLL"
Project ”in the text, and“ ss ”as the acquisition source
s @ tttt. kkk. co. jp "
In FIG. 6 is searched as related information. In this way, it is confirmed whether the search has been completed for all the documents stored in the document storage device 4 (step B5).
If an existing document remains, the operations of steps B3 and B4 are repeated. Further, it is determined whether or not the operations in steps B1 to B5 have been performed on the information on all events (step B6). In this example, in FIG.
No. 1 to No. When the related information is retrieved from the document storage device 4 for each of the information up to 7, the related information retrieval operation ends.

Next, the operation for determining the date and time condition will be described.

In the date / time condition determination operation, first, the date / time condition determination unit 14 reads out a set of information related to an event and its related information from the related information storage unit 13 (step C1).
Next, it is determined whether or not the date and time condition specified by the user exists for the information (step C2).

In FIG. In the first example, since there is no applicable date and time condition specified by the user, it is further determined whether or not existing notification information from the same acquisition source can be used (step C3). Then, the existing document # 1 has existing notification information from the same acquisition source as related information.
It can be seen that the user was notified on May 31, 997, that is, 20 days before the date and time. Therefore, FIG.
No. The first information is notified to the user 20 days before June 30, 1998 and 10 June 1998.
It is determined that the day is appropriate (step C7).

Also, in FIG. In the example of FIG. 3, "http
p /// ccc. ddd. co. jp / calenda
r. html, the user specifies the event information when the time from the current time to the date and time extracted is less than or equal to 5 days. " It is determined that the user should be notified on March 5, 1998, five days before March 10. In FIG. In the example of No. 6, since the date and time condition specified by the user does not exist and the existing notification information does not exist as the related information, the processing in step C4 indicates that the time from the current time to the date and time extracted is less than 2 days. Notification when it comes
Is applied, and it is determined that the user should be notified on March 22, 1998, two days before the date and time of this event, March 24, 1998. When the determination of the date and time condition is completed for all information in this way,
The date and time condition determination operation ends.

Next, the information notification operation will be described.

In the information notification operation, first, the notification information selecting unit 17 reads out information such as date and time from the date and time condition storage unit 16 (step D1), and selects information satisfying the condition at the current date and time (step D2). . Here, assuming that the date on which this information notification operation is performed is March 22, 1998, No. 2 in FIG. A combination of the information No. 6 and the existing text # 2 in FIG. 9 which is the related information is selected.

The selected No. The set of 6 and the related information is notified to the user by the information notifying means 18 and is simultaneously stored in the document storage device 4 (step B3), and the information notification operation ends. The form of information notified to users is as follows:
In FIG. 9 and the related sentence # 2 in FIG. 9 which is the related information may be written together. If there are a plurality of related sentences, a list thereof is presented to the user, and each time the user performs a selection operation, It may be displayed. This information may be notified in the form of a pop-up window, or may be transmitted to the user as an e-mail.

Although not used in this example, the condition given by the user to the date / time condition specifying means 15 in advance may be a condition based on a combination of date / time and a keyword, as shown in FIG. Further, a condition based on a combination of a date, an acquisition source, and a keyword is also possible.

In the present embodiment, information on an event and its date and time is periodically extracted from a source of information specified in advance, and information related to the event is searched for from existing document data. At the same time as the one set, or at the same time as a similar case in the past,
Both can notify the user. For this reason, the user can immediately perform necessary work for the event by referring to past cases immediately after the information about the event is notified. Also, even if the user does not previously set detailed notification date and time conditions, notification is performed at the same timing as in the past similar case processed by the user himself or another member of the group to which the user belongs. Therefore, there is little possibility that the notification is too early or too late and missed.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

Referring to FIG. 11, according to the second embodiment of the present invention, in addition to the first embodiment of the present invention, a user operation monitoring device 19, an operation history storage device 20, and a document The difference is that a relevance calculator 21 and a document editing unit 22 are provided. Furthermore, the difference is that a related information search device 12a and a date and time condition determination unit 14a are provided instead of the related information search device 12 and the date and time condition determination unit 14.

The user operation monitoring device 19 is conscious of all operations performed by the user using the input device 1 such as a keyboard and a mouse by a method such as monitoring the state of the operating system of the computer. The operation history storage device 20 monitors in the background without causing the operation history to be paired with the date and time of each operation performed by the user.
To save.

The inter-document relevance calculating device 21 calculates the relevancy between any existing documents stored in the document storage device 4. Here, the relationship between documents refers to a citation relationship, a reference relationship, and a keyword sharing relationship. The citation relationship can be detected by checking an operation history stored in the operation history storage device 20 for an operation in which a character string copied from another document is inserted while a certain document is being edited. Similarly, the reference relation can be detected by examining an operation in which another document is opened by an editor or the like when a certain document is edited. The keyword sharing relationship is obtained by simply calculating how many keywords are shared between two documents.

Furthermore, the degree of the strength of these relationships can be quantified. In the citation relation, a method of calculating how long a character string is quoted with respect to the entire character string length can be used. Also in the reference relation, the degree can be quantified by a method such as calculating the ratio of the time when the two documents are simultaneously opened to the total time when the two documents are opened. The keyword sharing relationship can also be quantified by the keyword sharing rate and the like. Therefore, by adding the degrees of these three relationships with appropriate weights and adding them, it becomes possible to calculate and order the degree of relevance between documents by one scale. The degree of relevance between the documents determined in this way is stored in the inter-document relevance calculating apparatus 21 itself, and the document determined to have a higher degree of relevance to an existing document is related information of the original document. Is determined.

In particular, in the case of the notification information notified to the user in the past by using the present invention, the date and time when the notification was notified to the user and the date and time of the event included in the notification are checked. Among the documents having a high degree of relevance to the notification information, it is determined that the document created during the above period is a work document created for the event.

The document editing means 22 is a document editing means such as an ordinary editor. However, all operations performed by the user are of a type that can be monitored by the user operation monitoring device 19. The document editing means 22
All the documents created and edited by the user are stored in the document storage device 4. As a result, a document newly created by the user of the present invention can be referred to as related information of the next opportunity.

Further, among the blocks included in the processing device 2, except for the related information retrieval device 12a and the date / time condition determination unit 14a, which are basically the same as those of the first embodiment of the present invention, their description is omitted. The operations of the related information search device 12a and the date / time condition determination unit 14a are slightly different, and each will be described.

The related information search device 12a refers to not only the document storage device 4 but also the inter-document relevance calculation device 21 when searching for related information. That is, the related element extraction unit 1
Using the search key extracted in step 1, the document storage device 4 not only retrieves a document determined to be relevant information directly, but also retrieves a document highly related to the retrieved document. It is obtained from the degree calculating device 21 and stored in the related information storage unit 13 as further related information.

The date and time condition determination unit 14a determines the event information for which there is no condition explicitly specified by the date and time condition specification means 15 from the related information stored in the related information storage unit 13. Specifically, it depends on what kind of document is searched as the related information of the event. If an event of the same type as this event was performed in the past and only the notification information at that time was searched as the related information of this event, the date and time included in the past notification information and the past notification The difference between the information and the date and time when the information was actually notified to the user is extracted, and the date and time condition is determined so that the user is notified of the difference before the date and time included in the current event information by the difference.

As the related information of the current event, past notification information of the same type of event is searched, and further, as the related information of the past notification information, a document determined to be created for the event at that time is included. If so, the difference between the date and time included in the past notification information and the date and time when the event document created at that time was first created is extracted this time. Only the date and time condition is set so that the user is notified in advance of the date and time included in the current event information.

In both cases, when a plurality of documents are retrieved as related information, the document with the highest order is used as a reference. However, if the difference between the date and time is less than the default condition specified by the date and time condition specifying means 15, the default condition is prioritized. The default condition is also used for information for which past notification information has not been retrieved as related information.

In this embodiment, the information acquisition destination designating unit 6, the information acquisition destination storage unit 7, the information acquisition unit 8, the event information extraction unit 9, the event information storage unit 10, the related element extraction unit 11, the related information Search device 12a, related information storage unit 1
3. The date and time condition determination unit 14a, the date and time condition designation unit 15, the date and time condition storage unit 16, the notification information selection unit 17, and the information notification unit 18 do not need to be provided in the processing device 2,
As a program for controlling the processing device 2, a CD-
It may be provided by being stored in a recording medium K such as a ROM or a floppy disk, and may be read and executed by the processing device 2.

Further, the user operation monitoring device 19, the operation history storage device 20, the inter-document relevance calculation device 21, and the document editing means 22 are drawn as separate blocks in FIG. 11 due to their functions. However, it may also be realized by hardware such as a computer for realizing the processing device 2. Further, the user operation monitoring device 19
, Operation history storage device 20, and inter-document relevance calculation device 2
1 and the document editing means 22 do not need to be provided in the hardware for realizing the same, and as a program for controlling the hardware, a CD-ROM as well as a program for controlling the processing device 2 are used. Provided by being stored in a recording medium K such as a ROM or a floppy disk,
It may be read by hardware and executed as the second embodiment of the present invention.

The operation of the information notification device according to the present embodiment will be described below.

In the present embodiment, the operation of the information notification device is the four operations in the first embodiment, namely,
Information collection operation, related information search operation, date and time condition judgment operation,
In addition to the information notifying operation, the user operation is constantly monitored, and the history is recorded in the operation history storage device 20. The user operation monitoring operation, and the degree of association between arbitrary documents stored in the document storage device 4 is checked. The operation is divided into seven operations: an operation for calculating the degree of relevance between documents to be calculated, and a document editing operation when a document is created and edited. The four operations of the information collection operation, the related information search operation, the date and time condition determination operation, and the information notification operation are periodically started at predetermined intervals. User operation monitoring operation
It is always started without making the user aware. The operation of calculating the degree of inter-document relevance is started periodically at a certain time interval. The document editing operation is started at any time by a user operation when the user needs to create and edit a document. Also, these seven operations operate completely independently and there is no need to synchronize between them.

The information collecting operation of the present embodiment is the same as the operation of the first embodiment, and the description is omitted.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the related information search operation in this embodiment.

In the related information search operation, first, the related element extracting unit 11 reads one set of information related to the stored event from the event information storage unit 10 (step E1). Next, a keyword and an acquisition source relating to the event are extracted as search keys from the read information (step E2). Next, using the search key, the related information search device 12a searches the document storage device 4 for a document that becomes relevant information (step E3). Further, a document having a high relevance to the document found in step E3 is searched from the document storage device 4 with reference to the inter-document relevance calculating device 21 (step E4). The documents found in steps E3 and E4 are ordered and stored in the related information storage unit 13 as related information (step E5). It is determined whether or not this search has been performed for all documents stored in the document storage device 4 (step E6). If there are still documents that can be searched, step E3 is performed.
The processing from E5 to E5 is repeated, and if there is no more, the processing proceeds to the next processing. In the next process, the related information search device 12a
Steps E1 to E6 are performed on the set of information on all events stored in the event information storage unit 10.
(Step E)
7). If not, steps E1 through E1
6 is repeated, and if it has been completed, the related information search operation is completed.

Next, the date and time condition determination operation in the second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

In the date / time condition determination operation, first, the date / time condition determination unit 14a reads one set of information relating to the event whose condition is to be determined from the related information storage unit 13 (step F1). Next, it is determined whether or not the date and time condition specified by the user to be applied to the information on the read event exists in the date and time condition specifying means 15 (step F2).

If the date and time condition specified by the user exists, the condition is determined (step F7), and the process proceeds to step F6 to be described later. On the other hand, when the date and time condition specified by the user does not exist, the existing notification information from the same acquisition source and the notification information created at that time are included in the related information of the information regarding the event read in step F1. It is determined whether or not a set with the work document exists (step F3).

When there is such a set of cases of the same kind of event in the past (Yes in step F3)
Contains the date and time that the previous working document was first created,
The difference from the date and time included in the past notification information is determined, and the difference is set as the current date and time condition (step F8). However,
If the date and time condition has less latitude than the default date and time condition, that is, if the period from the notification date and time to the date and time such as the expiration date of the event is shorter than the minimum period specified in the default date and time condition Proceeds to step F4. On the other hand, in the case where such a set of cases in the same kind of past event does not exist, only existing notification information from the same acquisition source exists (step F).
When No. 3 is No and Step F4 is Yes, the difference between the date and time when the existing notification information is notified to the user and the date and time included in the notification information is determined, and the difference is set as the current date and time condition (Step F9). ). However, when the date and time condition is less than the default date and time condition, the default date and time condition is applied (step F5). Also,
If there is no existing notification information from the same source,
A default date and time condition is applied (step F5).

In any case, the date and time condition to be applied to the event information read out in step F1 is determined and stored in the date and time condition storage unit 16 (step F6). Next, for information about all events,
It is determined whether the date and time condition has been determined (step F7). If there is any information that has not been determined, the operations of steps F1 to F9 are repeated. When the date and time conditions have been determined for all the information, the date and time condition determination operation ends.

The information notification operation according to the second embodiment of the present invention is the same as the operation according to the first embodiment, and the description is omitted. However, when notifying the user of information about the event and its related information (step D3 in FIG. 5),
Whether each piece of related information was directly searched or whether it was indirectly determined as related information because of the high degree of relevance to the document once searched as related information.
It may be presented to the user.

Next, the user operation monitoring operation will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

In the user operation monitoring operation, the user operation monitoring device 19 monitors an operation input to the input device 1 without being conscious of the user (step G1). The contents and the date and time are stored in the operation history storage device 20 (step G2). The operation of steps G1 and G2 is always repeated while the user uses the present invention in the second embodiment.
When the use of the present invention ends (step G3), the user operation monitoring operation also ends.

Next, the operation of calculating the degree of association between documents will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

In the inter-document relevance calculation operation, the inter-document relevance calculator 21 reads one set of documents for which the relevance has not yet been calculated from the document storage device 4 (step H).
1). Next, the degree of association is calculated based on the citation relation, reference relation, and keyword sharing relation of the read set of documents (step H2). Further, it is determined whether the calculated relevance is equal to or more than the threshold (step H3), and if so, the obtained relevance and the type of relation are recorded (step H3).
4). Then, it is determined whether the relevance has been calculated for all the document sets stored in the document storage device 4 (step H5), and there is a document set for which the relevance has not been calculated yet. In this case, the operations of steps H1 to H4 are repeated. When the relevance has been calculated for all the sets of documents stored in the document storage device 4 at that time, the inter-document relevance calculation operation ends.

The document editing operation according to the second embodiment of the present invention is exactly the same as the operation generally performed when a user creates and edits a document, and is not special to the present invention. Therefore, description of this operation is omitted.

Next, the operation of the information notification apparatus according to the present embodiment will be described using a specific example. First,
Although the information collecting operation of the present embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment, the description is omitted. Here, as in the specific example in the first embodiment, it is assumed that information as shown in FIG. 8 is extracted from the document shown in FIG. 7 and stored in the event information storage unit 10. .

The existing documents # 1 and # 2 in FIG. 9 and FIG.
It is assumed that the existing documents # 3 and # 4 are included in the documents stored in the document storage device. Here, the existing document # 3 is an e-mail created by the user for the notified event after the notification information indicated by the existing document # 1 is notified to the user, and the existing document # 4 is This is an e-mail in which a part of the writer of the existing document # 2 is quoted when writing a summary of the existing document # 2. Information such as when and by whom these existing documents # 1 to # 4 were created, from when to who read them, and which character strings of which documents were cited in another document are always active. It is recorded in the operation history storage device 20 by the user operation monitoring operation (step G2).

When the inter-document relevance calculation operation is started asynchronously with other operations in the present invention, the inter-document relevance calculation device 21 associates an arbitrary set of documents contained in the document storage device 4. The degree is calculated only once per set. Existing document #
When a document having a high degree of relevance with No. 1 is requested, first, when the existing document # 1, which is a document previously notified to the user using the present invention, is notified to the user, and is included therein. The date and time can be checked. This existing document #
In the example of 1, the user was notified on May 3, 1997
One day, the date and time included in the notification information is June 2, 1997
Day 0. Then, the inter-document relevance calculation device 21 refers to the record of the operation history storage device 20 to find out which of the documents stored in the document storage device 4 from May 31, 1997 to June 20, 1997. By this time, it is checked whether the document has been created by the user who has received the existing document # 1. Usually, there are a plurality of documents that satisfy this condition. It is assumed that a document that satisfies the condition is a candidate for a document created for the event notified by the existing document # 1. Next, from those candidates, existing document # 1
Is there a document that directly quotes
By examining how many common words and phrases appear, the relevance with the existing document # 1 is calculated. In this way, a document whose relevance exceeds a threshold value is determined to be a document created for the event notified by the existing document # 1.

In the present example, the existing document # 3 is created by the same user as the user who received the existing document # 1 on June 4, 1997, and the existing document # 1 and the "society", "Fukuoka AB"
Existing document # 1 because the phrase "University C" is shared
Is determined to be a document created for the event notified by. Further, citation relationships, reference relationships, and keyword sharing relationships with any other documents are also examined.

Further, the existing document # 2 is not the notification information notified by using the present invention but a general document. Therefore, when the inter-document relevance calculating apparatus 21 obtains a document having a high relevance to this document, Examine citation relationships, reference relationships, and keyword sharing relationships. As a result, in this example, when the existing document # 2 is created, the character string is quoted from the existing document # 4, and naturally, as a result, many keywords are shared. Document # 4 is determined as the related information of existing document # 2.

When the related information search operation is started, the related information search device 12a executes the related information search device 12a for each of the information related to the events stored in the event information storage unit 10, as in the first embodiment. Search for relevant information.
However, not only documents directly searched from the search key extracted by the related element extraction unit 11 but also documents having a high degree of relevance to the searched documents by referring to the inter-document relevance search device 21. Request and treat as related information. In the example of this time, in FIG. When requesting the related information of the information on the first event, the “66th”, “National Convention”, “June 30, 1998”, “BBB University” extracted by the related element extraction unit 11, and “http: // / Aa
a. bbb. or. jp / news. The existing document # 1 is searched from the search key “html”. Existing document #
3 does not match any of these search keys and is not considered relevant at this stage. Then, existing document #
Existing document # 3 is also searched as a document having a high degree of relevance to 1,
Finally, these two documents are numbered in FIG. The related information is stored in the related information storage unit 13 as the related information of the information on the one event. Similarly, in FIG. When the related information of the information on the event No. 6 is to be obtained, first, the existing document # 2 is searched, and then the existing document # 4 is searched as a document having a high degree of relevance to the existing document # 2. It is stored in the storage unit 13.

The difference between the date and time condition determination operation in the second embodiment and the date and time condition determination operation in the first embodiment is that the related information of the event-related information is the same as in the past event of the same type. This is an operation in a case where the notification information and the work document created for the event at that time exist as a set (step F3 in FIG. 13). In FIG.
In the example of Example 1, the existing document # 1 is found as the notification information at the time of the same type of event in the past, and the existing document # 3 is found as the work document created at that time. The user was notified of this past event notification on May 31, 1997, but the user actually created existing document # 3 on June 4, 1997 after reading this notification. . Since the date and time included in the past event information is June 20, 1997, the user received the notification 20 days before this date and time, but it can be seen that the work started 16 days ago. Therefore, in the first embodiment of the present invention, No. 1 in FIG. 1
Date and time included in the event information of June 3, 1998
Although it is determined to notify on June 10 which is 20 days before 0 day, in the second embodiment, it is determined to notify on June 14 which is 16 days before June 30 (step F).
8). This condition is more relaxed than the default condition of "notify when the time from the current time to the date and time extracted is less than 2 days". The date and time condition for the example 1 is stored in the date and time condition storage unit (step F6).

The information notification operation in the second embodiment is the same as that in the first embodiment, and will not be described. However, at this time, the user looks at the notified information, determines whether or not the date and time at which the information was notified is appropriate, and can reset the date and time condition by the date and time condition specifying means 15 according to the determination.

The document editing operation is the same as the operation performed when editing a general document.
However, the document edited and created by this operation is stored in the document storage device 4.

In the present embodiment, not only documents directly retrieved from the documents stored in the document storage device 4 but also a high degree of relevance to the retrieved documents as related information of the information relating to the event. The document determined to be is also presented to the user as related information. This allows the user to know more related information at the same time as the event notification. In addition, if there is a set of notification information of the same type of past event and a work document created at that time, the user is notified of the current event by a more appropriate date and time condition from the timing of the work document creation at that time. Information can be notified. Further, when the user is notified of information about an event and creates a new work document for the event, the work document is stored in the document storage device 4 and automatically becomes relevant information from the next time. Will be used.

[0115]

The first effect is that the user can obtain information on an event or the like from information published on WWW or personal computer communication service or information written in an incoming e-mail or the like. , And its related information. Users can obtain only the information on necessary events etc. from a large amount of information,
In addition, since it is not necessary to search for related information immediately after obtaining the information, it is possible to immediately start work required for the event.

The reason is that the event information extracting unit extracts and stores event date and time information relating to an event or the like from the information acquired by the information acquiring means, and furthermore, the related information search device retrieves the related information about the event date and time information from the existing information. This is because a search is performed from the document data, and the notification information selection unit and the information notification unit notify the user of the set as a set.

The second effect is that the user needs to know at the time of information published on the WWW or the personal computer communication service, or information about an event written in an incoming e-mail or the like. The only thing that is to be automatically notified to the user. Even if the user has overlooked or forgotten information on the event schedule, it will be notified in advance of the date and time of the event from a record of similar past events or at a timing set by the user in advance. Is delivered.

The reason is that, for the notification information for which the date and time condition designating means accepts the condition input by the user, the notification information is notified to the user according to the condition, and the date and time condition designating means accepts the condition. For the notification information that has not been received, the date and time condition determination unit determines a condition regarding the timing of notifying the user of the notification information based on the related information included in the notification information, and notifies the user according to the condition. This is because notification information is notified.

The third effect is that, when there is a work document created for the same kind of event in the past, the document is also notified to the user as related information. This is to make it easier to perform the same operation.

The reason is that the operation history storage device stores the past operation history of the user, and the inter-document relevance calculation device uses the history to determine the relation between the documents. This is because, for the same kind of event or the like obtained from the same place as the source from which the was obtained, the work text created at that time can be known.

The fourth effect is that, as document data owned by the user and other members of the group to which the user belongs is accumulated, work necessary for various events such as conferences and conferences can be performed more efficiently. Is what you can do.

The reason is that the document data owned by the user and other members of the group to which the user belongs is centrally stored in the document storage device, so that not only the user but also other members' documents can be stored prior to the event. This is because data can also be used as related information. Documents newly created using the document editing means are also stored in the document storage device, so that the documents can be easily reused.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an information collecting operation according to the first embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a related information search operation according to the first embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a date and time condition determination operation according to the first embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an information notification operation according to the first embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of contents of an information acquisition destination storage unit according to a specific example of the first embodiment of this invention;

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of information acquired by an information acquisition unit in a specific example of the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a content example of an event information storage unit in a specific example of the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of notification information and a document stored in a document storage device in a specific example of the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a specific example of a condition that can be given to the date and time condition designation means in the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating a related information search operation according to the second embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating a date / time condition determination operation according to the second embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating a user operation monitoring operation according to the second embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating an inter-document relevance calculation operation according to the second embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating documents respectively associated with the documents in FIG. 9 by the inter-document relevance calculating device in the specific example of the second exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 input device 2 processing device 3 communication device 4 document storage device 5 output device 6 information acquisition destination designating means 7 information acquisition destination storage unit 8 information acquisition unit 9 event information extraction unit 10 event information Storage unit 11 ... Related element extraction unit 12, 12a ... Related information search device 13 ... Related information storage unit 14, 14a ... Date / time condition determination unit 15 ... Date / time condition designation means 16 ... Date / time condition storage unit 17 ... Notification information selection unit 18 ... Information notification means 19: User operation monitoring device 20: Operation history storage device 21: Inter-document relevance calculation device 22: Document editing means K: Recording medium

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing from the front page (72) Inventor Akitoshi Okumura 5-7-1 Shiba, Minato-ku, Tokyo F-term in NEC Corporation (Reference) 5B009 VA05 5B075 KK32 ND03 NK31 PP24 PQ02 PQ42 QS20 UU40 5B085 AA08 AC12 5B089 GA01 GB03 JA40 JB01 KA04 KC29 KC44 KC53 LB02 LB14 LB25

Claims (14)

[Claims] 1. An information acquisition unit for periodically acquiring information from a designated information acquisition destination, and an event information extraction unit for extracting an event and event date and time information relating to the date and time from the information acquired by the information acquisition unit. A related information search device for searching for related information about the event date and time information extracted by the event information extracting unit; an event date and time information extracted by the event information extracting unit; and related information about the event date and time information. A notification information selection unit that selects notification information that has reached the timing to notify the user from the combined notification information, and an information notification unit that notifies the user of the notification information selected by the notification information selection unit. An information notification device, comprising: 2. A document storage device for storing a document,
The related information search device has a configuration in which a document serving as related information is searched by searching the document storage device using a keyword included in the event date and time information extracted by the event information extraction unit as a search key. The information notification device according to claim 1, wherein: 3. A document editing means for creating and editing a document, storing the created and edited document in the document storage device, monitoring an operation performed by the user on the document editing means, and storing an operation history. And an inter-document relevance calculation device that calculates the relevance between documents stored in the document storage device based on the operation history stored by the user operation monitoring device. In addition, the related information search device has a configuration in which a document having a high degree of relevance obtained by the inter-document relevance calculation device with respect to a document retrieved from the document storage device using the keyword as a search key is also set as related information. 3. The information notification device according to claim 2, wherein: 4. A date and time condition designating means for receiving a condition relating to a timing of notifying a user of notification information input by a user, and, for notification information for which a condition has not been received by the date and time condition designating means, the notification information And a date and time condition determining unit that determines a condition relating to a timing of notifying the user of the notification information based on the related information on the event date and time information included in the notification information selection unit. 2. The information notification apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a configuration for selecting notification information that has reached a timing to notify a user based on a condition received by a unit or a condition determined by the date and time condition determination unit. . 5. A document storage device for storing a document,
In addition, the notification information includes the notification date, the event date and time information extracted by the event information extraction unit and related information about the event date and time information, and the acquisition source of the information from which the event date and time information was extracted. The information notification means has a configuration for storing notification information notified to a user in the document storage device, and the related information search device is included in the event date and time information extracted by the event information extraction unit The document storage device is searched using a keyword as a search key, thereby searching for a document serving as related information and notification information. The date / time condition determination unit is configured to search for the relevant information corresponding to the event date / time information in the notification information. Past notification information,
The acquisition destination included in the notification information is targeted for past notification information that matches the acquisition source of the information from which the event date and time information in the notification information is extracted. The information notification device according to claim 4, further comprising a configuration for determining a condition relating to a timing of notifying a user of the notification information based on the notification information. 6. A document editing means for creating and editing a document, storing the created and edited document in the document storage device, monitoring an operation performed by the user on the document editing means, and storing an operation history A user operation monitoring device that stores a document relevance calculating device that obtains a relevance between documents stored in the document storage device based on an operation history stored by the user operation monitoring device, Further, the related information search device is configured such that a document having a high degree of relevance obtained by the inter-document relevance calculation device with respect to a document retrieved from the document storage device and notification information using the keyword as a search key is also regarded as related information. And the date and time condition determination unit is related information about the event date and time information in the notification information, and is a past notification information for an event of the same type as the event indicated by the event date and time information. And a condition relating to a timing of notifying the user of the notification information based on a difference between a notification date and time included in the notification information and a creation date of a document created by the user in response to the past notification information. The information notification device according to claim 5, further comprising a determination unit. 7. An information acquisition step of periodically acquiring information from a designated information acquisition destination, and an event information extraction step of extracting an event and event date and time information relating to the date and time from the information acquired by the information acquisition step. A related information search step of searching for related information on the event date and time information extracted by the event information extracting step; an event date and time information extracted by the event information extracting step; and a related information on the event date and time information. A notification information selection step of selecting notification information that has reached a timing to notify the user from the combined notification information, and an information notification step of notifying the user of the notification information selected in the notification information selection step. An information notification method, comprising: 8. In the related information search step, a keyword included in the event date and time information extracted in the event information extraction step is used as a search key to search for a document storage device in which a document is stored. The information notification method according to claim 7, wherein a search is made for a document that includes: 9. A user operation for creating and editing a document, monitoring operations performed by a user on document editing means for saving the created and edited document in the document storage device, and storing an operation history. A monitoring step; and an inter-document relevance calculating step of obtaining a relevance between the documents stored in the document storage device based on the operation history stored in the user operation monitoring step, and the related information 9. The search step according to claim 8, wherein a document having a high degree of relevancy obtained in the inter-document relevance calculation step with respect to the document retrieved from the document storage device using the keyword as a search key is also used as related information. Information notification method described. 10. A date and time condition designating step for receiving a condition relating to a timing of notifying a user of notification information input by a user, and for notification information for which no condition has been received in the date and time condition designating step, the notification information And a date and time condition determining step of determining a condition relating to a timing of notifying the user of the notification information based on the related information on the event date and time information included in the notification information selecting step. 8. The information notification method according to claim 7, wherein the notification information that has reached the timing to notify the user is selected based on the condition received in the step or the condition determined in the date and time condition determination step. 11. The notification information includes a notification date, the event date / time information extracted in the event information extraction step, related information on the event date / time information, and information from which the event date / time information was extracted. In the information notification step, the notification information notified to the user is stored in the document storage device, and in the related information search step, the keyword included in the event date and time information extracted in the event information extraction step The document storage device is searched using the search key as a search key to search for documents and notification information that are relevant information. In the date and time condition determination step, past notifications that are relevant information for the event date and time information in the notification information are obtained. Information, and the acquisition source included in the information is a source of the event date and time information in the notification information. And determining a condition relating to a timing of notifying a user of the notification information based on a difference between a notification date included in the past notification information and an event date and time included in the notification information. The information notification method according to claim 10, wherein 12. A user operation for creating and editing a document, monitoring an operation performed by a user on a document editing unit for saving the created and edited document in the document storage device, and saving an operation history. A monitoring step; and a document relevance calculating step of obtaining a relevance between each document stored in the document storage device based on the operation history stored in the user operation monitoring step, and the related information search. In the step, with respect to the document and notification information retrieved from the document storage device using the keyword as a search key, a document having a high relevance obtained in the inter-document relevance calculation step is also regarded as related information. The related information about the event date and time information in the notification information, and the past information for the event of the same type as the event indicated by the event date and time information Regarding the notification information, the timing of notifying the user of the notification information based on the difference between the notification date and time included in the notification information and the creation date of the document created by the user in response to the past notification information The information notification method according to claim 11, wherein a condition is determined. 13. An information acquisition step for periodically acquiring information from a designated information acquisition destination, and extracting event information relating to an event and its date and time from the information acquired by the information acquisition step. A related information search step of searching for related information about the event date and time information extracted in the event information extracting step; and an event date and time information extracted in the event information extracting step and the related information about the event date and time information. Executing a notification information selecting step of selecting notification information which is a timing to be notified to the user from the combined notification information, and an information notification step of notifying the user of the notification information selected in the notification information selecting step; Machine-readable record of the program Recording medium. 14. The computer according to claim 1, wherein said computer executes a date and time condition determining step of determining a condition relating to a timing of notifying a user of said notification information based on related information included in said notification information. 14. The program according to claim 13, wherein in the step, a program for executing a process of selecting notification information at a timing to notify a user based on the condition determined in the date and time condition determining step is recorded. A machine-readable recording medium on which the program of the above is recorded.