JP2000357121A - Device and method for information acquisition and storage medium used for the method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent information which is obtained once from being obtained and stored repeatedly and to shorten the time needed to acquire and store information by allowing an information acquisition part to acquire information from a database such as an acquired information providing device according to a confirmation result. SOLUTION: A control part 1 functions as an address specification part 11 which specifies the address of object information to be acquired, an information acquisition part 12 which acquires information corresponding to the specified address from a database on an information providing device through a communication part 5, etc. Then, the information acquisition part 12 when acquiring information according to the URL of link information decides an acquisition indication code set for the URL to obtain relative information from the database on the information providing device irrelevantly to the confirmation result of an information confirmation part 13. Further, the information acquisition part 12 actuates automatic patrol software at specified time to access the URL stored in an unobtained address storage part 41b and obtains necessary information from the database on the information provision device connected to a network.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information acquiring apparatus and method for acquiring and presenting necessary information from a plurality of information providing apparatuses connected to a network, and a storage medium used for the method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, W constructed on the Internet
With the spread of the WW (World Wide Web) browser, users can use a WWW browser from an information processing terminal to use a URL.
(Uniform Resource Locator) address, access the homepage of the information providing device connected to the network, read various page information, and read HTML (Hy
per Text Markup Language) sentences and other necessary information.

However, when page information is acquired using a WWW browser and stored in the storage device of the information processing terminal, a plurality of page information is stored because the page information viewed on the screen is to be acquired. When trying to store it in the device, it is necessary to repeat the storage operation for each page, so the waiting time for acquiring the information, the connection fee for connecting to the network, the usage fee of the network, etc. have become problems. In order to improve this problem, various communication technologies have been proposed.

For example, according to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-231119, location information extracting means for extracting location information of another information file in an information file obtained from an information providing apparatus, and using the extracted location information. Means for acquiring an information file prior to the user's selection of an information file, minimizing the occurrence of waiting time when acquiring the information file from the information providing apparatus, and providing a fast response to the user. There has been proposed an information communication system that realizes the above.

[0005]

The problem to be solved by the present invention is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-231.
According to the information communication system described in JP-A-119, the obtained information file and the location information of another information file linked to the obtained information file are stored in the storage device. When the user operates the section, another information file can be obtained at high speed using the location information.

However, when the user obtains the link destination information file without operating the address portion, a large number of unintended different information files included in the link destination are stored in the storage device. There is a problem that the storage area is wasted.

[0007] Further, since the already stored information file (page information) is duplicated and stored again, especially when a plurality of page information is stored collectively or a lot of link destination information exists in the acquired page. In such a case, there is a problem that the time required for storage becomes longer than necessary.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances. For example, when acquiring information from an information providing apparatus, it is possible to prevent duplicate acquisition and duplicate storage of information once acquired,
It is an object of the present invention to provide an information acquiring apparatus and method capable of reducing the time required for acquiring and storing information and reducing the storage area of a memory for storing the acquired information, and a storage medium used for the method.

[0009]

According to the present invention, there is provided a communication unit for performing data communication with an information providing apparatus connected to a network,
An address specification part for specifying the address of the acquisition target information;
An information acquisition unit that acquires information corresponding to the specified address from a database of the information providing device via the communication unit;
An acquisition information storage unit that stores the acquired information; and an information confirmation unit that confirms whether the acquisition target information is stored in the acquisition information storage unit based on the address of the acquisition target information. Is an information acquisition device characterized by acquiring information from an acquired information storage unit or a database of an information providing device based on the confirmation result.

[0010] According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a storage medium storing a computer program for controlling an information acquisition device, the communication medium performing data communication with an information providing device connected to a network via a communication unit. A function for specifying an address of information to be obtained, an information obtaining function for obtaining information corresponding to the specified address from a database of the information providing apparatus via a communication unit, and an obtained information storage unit for storing the obtained information Has an information confirmation function to confirm whether or not the acquisition target information is stored in the acquisition information storage unit based on the address of the acquisition target information, and the information acquisition function includes: Stored a computer program that is a function of acquiring information from an acquired information storage unit or a database of an information providing device based on a confirmed result.憶媒 body is provided.

According to the present invention, when acquiring information from an information providing apparatus, it is possible to prevent duplicate acquisition and duplicate storage of information once acquired, reduce the time required for acquiring and storing information, and store acquired information. The storage area of the memory to be used can be reduced.

According to the present invention, an unacquired address storage unit that stores addresses of information stored in databases of a plurality of information providing apparatuses in an identifiable manner, and an address of information stored in an acquired information storage unit can be updated. The information confirmation unit confirms whether the address of the acquisition target information is stored in the acquired address storage unit and determines whether the address is stored in the unacquired address storage unit. You may be comprised so that it may be confirmed.

According to this configuration, by confirming the storage unit of the address that matches the address of the acquisition target information, the acquisition target information is stored in the information storage unit of the information acquisition device or stored in the database of any information providing device. Since it is possible to surely confirm whether or not there is, it is possible to further reduce the time required for acquiring necessary information.

The information providing apparatus further includes a link information extracting unit for extracting link information from information obtained from a database of the information providing apparatus, wherein the information obtaining unit transmits information corresponding to the URL of the extracted link information to a communication unit. May be configured to be obtained from the database of the information providing apparatus via the Internet.

According to this configuration, when the address of the information to be acquired cannot be retrieved from the address storage unit, the link information (related information) is obtained from the database of the information providing apparatus by the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of the link information.
Can be obtained, so that the time required to obtain the related information can be further reduced.

An acquisition instruction code setting section for setting an acquisition instruction code for instructing the information acquiring section to acquire information based on the result confirmed by the information confirming section in the URL of each link information. It may have a further configuration.

According to this configuration, it is possible to control whether or not to cause the information acquisition unit to unconditionally acquire information corresponding to the URL of the link information from the database of the information providing apparatus. Can be further reduced.

[0018]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on an embodiment shown in the drawings. Note that the present invention is not limited by this.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of the information acquiring apparatus according to the present embodiment. In FIG. 1, the information acquisition device includes, for example, a control unit 1, an input unit 2, a display unit 3,
It comprises a storage unit 4, a communication unit 5, a network cache memory 6, a storage medium reading unit 7, and a storage medium 8.

The control unit 1 includes, for example, a CPU, a ROM, an R
It consists of a computer consisting of AM and I / O ports,
Each unit is controlled by a control program stored in the program storage unit 42 of the main storage unit 4. The input unit 2 is, for example,
It is composed of input devices such as a keyboard, a mouse, a pen and a tablet, and inputs documents including characters and symbols and various operation instructions. The display unit 3 includes, for example, a CRT display, a liquid crystal display (LCD), a plasma display, an EL
It is composed of a display device such as a display, and displays various data.

The storage unit 4 includes, for example, a mask ROM, an EP
A semiconductor memory such as a ROM, an EEPROM, a flash ROM, or the like, a tape system such as a magnetic tape or a cassette tape, a magnetic disk such as a floppy disk or a hard disk, a disk system of an optical disk such as a CD-ROM / MO / MD / DVD, an IC card ( It includes a storage medium including a card system such as a memory card / optical card.

The storage unit 4 includes a data storage unit 41 for storing various data including HTML data, address data, history data, setting data, etc., and a program storage unit for storing program data for controlling each unit and automatic patrol software. 42, an area that functions as a work storage unit 43 that stores data being processed.

The communication unit 5 includes, for example, a modem connected to a network such as the Internet, a network control device, and the like, and transmits and receives electronic mail and various page information to and from an information providing device and an external information processing terminal. The network cache memory 6 is, for example, a RAM, an EEPROM,
The e-mail and various page information received by the communication unit 5 are temporarily stored.

The data storage unit 41 includes an acquired information storage unit 41a for storing acquired information (HTML information), and an unacquired address for identifiably storing addresses of information stored in databases of a plurality of information providing apparatuses. Storage unit 41
b, and an area that functions as an acquired address storage unit 41c that stores an address of information stored in the acquired information storage unit 41a in an updatable manner. The addresses stored in the unacquired address storage unit 41b and the acquired address storage unit 41c are stored in the form of URLs.

The control unit 1 includes an address specifying unit 11 for specifying an address of information to be obtained, an information obtaining unit 12 for obtaining information corresponding to the specified address from a database of the information providing apparatus via the communication unit 5, An information checking unit 13 for checking whether or not the target information is stored in the obtained information storage unit 41a based on an address of the obtained target information; a link information extracting unit 14 for extracting link information (related information) from the obtained information , The information confirmation unit 13 for the information acquisition unit 12
An acquisition instruction code for instructing whether to acquire information based on the result confirmed by the URL of each link information
Function as an acquisition instruction code setting unit 15 for setting the information.

The information confirmation unit 13 is configured to confirm whether the address of the acquisition target information is stored in the acquired address storage unit 41c and to confirm whether the address of the acquisition target information is stored in the unacquired address storage unit 41b. ing.

Therefore, it is possible to reliably check whether the information to be obtained is in the information storage unit of the information obtaining device or in the database of which information providing device. It is configured to acquire information from the acquired information storage unit 41a or the database of the information providing device based on the result confirmed by the above.

Further, when acquiring information based on the URL of the link information, the information acquisition unit 12 determines the acquisition instruction code set in the URL, and determines the information providing device regardless of the confirmation result of the information confirmation unit 13. Related information can also be obtained from the database. When the designated time comes, the information acquisition unit 12 starts the automatic patrol software, accesses the URL stored in the unacquired address storage unit 41b, and reads from the database of the information providing device connected to the network. Necessary information can also be obtained.

The storage medium 8 has a communication function of performing data communication with an information providing apparatus connected to a network via the communication unit 5, a designation function of designating an address of information to be acquired,
The information acquisition function for acquiring information corresponding to the specified address from the database of the information providing apparatus via the communication unit 5, the acquisition information storage function for storing the acquired information in the acquisition information storage unit 41a, and the acquisition target information Acquisition information storage unit 41
and a program for executing an information confirmation function for confirming whether or not the information is stored in a based on the address of the acquisition target information. This information acquisition function has a function of acquiring information from the acquired information storage unit 41a or the database of the information providing device based on the confirmed result.

Therefore, the storage medium reading unit 7 reads the computer program from the storage medium 8 and downloads the computer program to the program storage unit 42 to obtain information from the database of the information providing apparatus connected to the network. Prevent duplicate acquisition and duplicate storage of information once obtained, shorten the time required to acquire and store information,
An information acquisition device that can reduce the storage area of a storage unit that stores acquired information can be realized.

In the information acquiring apparatus of the present invention, since the processing is performed by the CPU of the control unit 1 shown in FIG. 1 as the storage medium (program medium), for example, the ROM itself may be the program medium. Alternatively, a program medium that can be read by inserting the storage medium 8 into the storage medium reading unit 7 may be used. In any case, the stored program may be configured to be accessed and executed by the CPU, or the program may be read by the CPU, and the read program may be downloaded to the program storage unit 42, and the program May be executed.

The storage medium 8 is configured to be separable from the main body, and may be a tape system such as a magnetic tape or a cassette tape, a magnetic disk such as a floppy disk, or a CD-ROM / M.
Optical disk systems such as O / MD / DVD, card systems such as IC cards (including memory cards) / optical cards, or mask ROMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, flash ROMs, etc., which fixedly carry programs in the process of manufacturing semiconductor memories Storage medium.

Further, in the present invention, since the communication unit 5 is provided which can be connected to a network including the Internet, the medium may be a medium that carries the program in a fluid manner so as to download the program from the network. When the program is downloaded from the network, the download program may be stored in the apparatus main body in advance, or may be installed from another storage medium 8. The contents stored in the storage medium 8 are not limited to programs, but may be data.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of information obtained from the information providing device using the information obtaining device of the present embodiment. In FIG. 2, for example, an example showing the contents of the homepage of the OO information service will be described. Ad A, Ad B, Ad C
The three items of advertisement information, “Message from the President”, two items, and “Information on March 10, 1999 Update”
As two items, and as "the featured article of the week", 2
It shows that each item is listed.

The advertisement information and the underlined portion shown in FIG. 2 indicate that the actual contents are described on another page using the <a> tag, and are linked to the page. I have. Also, "Message from the President",
The information of “Update on March 10th, 1999”, “This week's featured article”, etc. are generally HTML list blocks (<U
L> tag) and list items (represented by <L1> tag).

By referring to the HTML source language,
Tag information corresponding to these displays can be extracted. For example, the part described as "This Week's Noted Article" is referred to the HTML source language, and it is confirmed whether the information of this part is unacquired information or acquired information.

For example, when acquiring information of a part corresponding to “the article of interest this week”, it is checked whether the information is unacquired information or already acquired information, and the other parts are unconditionally checked. Will be described below with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the procedure of the information acquisition process of the information acquisition device of this embodiment. In FIG. 3, step S1: when the user attempts to acquire information from the database of the information providing device connected to the network via the communication unit 5, the user has not acquired the address (URL) in which the acquisition target information is posted. The information is stored in the information access storage unit 41b. For example, the URL of the homepage of the OO information service (http://www.OO.co.jp/)
Etc. are stored.

Step S2: When a user's acquisition operation is received or when a designated time for information access by the automatic tour software is reached, the information acquisition unit 12 accesses the URL stored in the unacquired address storage unit 41b. I do. Step S3: The information acquisition unit 12 analyzes the HTML source language of the acquired homepage.

Step S4: The link information extraction unit 14
An anchor tag (<a> tag) is extracted, and link information is extracted. If the link information can be extracted, step S5
When the link information cannot be extracted, there is no more information to be obtained, and the process is terminated.

Step S5: The information confirming unit 13 confirms whether or not there is an acquisition instruction code set in the URL of the link destination at the position where the link information is extracted (the position where the <a> tag is extracted). If there is an acquisition instruction code, step S
Proceeding to step S6, if there is no acquisition instruction code, step S7
Proceed to. The acquisition instruction code here indicates an instruction to unconditionally acquire the information of the link destination from the database of the information providing apparatus.

Step S6: The information confirmation section 13 confirms whether or not the URL of the link destination is stored in the acquired address storage section 41c. As a result of the confirmation, when the URL of the link destination is not stored in the acquired address storage unit 41c, the process proceeds to step S7. When the URL of the link destination is stored in the acquired address storage unit 41c, the process returns to step S3. . In step S6, it may be determined whether the URL of the link destination is stored in the unacquired address storage unit 41b.

Step S7: The information acquisition unit 12 acquires related information linked based on the URL of the link destination from the database of the information providing apparatus, and acquires the information.
1a. Here, the URL of the link destination is treated as an unacquired address. Step S8: The URL of the acquired related information is deleted from the unacquired address storage unit 41b and stored in the acquired address storage unit 41c, and the process returns to step S3.

As described above, the information acquisition unit acquires only the URL information stored in the unacquired address storage unit,
It is controlled not to acquire the URL information stored in the acquired address storage unit 41c from the database of the information providing device. The URL information stored in the acquired address storage unit 41c is read from the acquisition information storage unit of the apparatus.

In the present embodiment, information is unconditionally acquired for a portion where the confirmation result by the information confirmation unit 13 is not performed. For example, information acquisition is not basically performed for advertisement information. For other information, it is also possible to perform detailed control such as acquiring information or not acquiring information.

In addition, from the standpoint of an information provider, as for advertisement information, it is necessary to count the number of times the posted advertisement information has been accessed and to charge the advertisement provider in accordance with the number of accesses. They often run special programs or have a mechanism. Therefore, by downloading a program of the link information identification method to the information acquisition device, the information acquisition device may have a function of determining whether the information is advertising information or other information.

Further, in the present embodiment, the U
The RL is stored in the address storage unit. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a certain homepage is displayed, a URL related to the displayed homepage is extracted, and only information on the unread homepage is obtained. May be controlled as follows.

[0048]

According to the present invention, when acquiring information from an information providing apparatus, it is possible to prevent duplicate acquisition and duplicate storage of information once acquired, shorten the time required to acquire and store information, and Can be reduced in the storage area of the memory for storing.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of an information acquiring apparatus according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of information acquired from an information providing device using the information acquiring device according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of an information acquiring process of the information acquiring apparatus according to the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Control part 11 Address designation part 12 Information acquisition part 13 Information confirmation part 14 Link information extraction part 15 Acquisition instruction code setting part 2 Input part 3 Display part 4 Storage part 41 Data storage part 41a Acquisition information storage part 41b Unacquired address storage part 41c Acquired address storage unit 42 Program storage unit 43 Work storage unit 5 Communication unit 6 Network cache memory 7 Storage medium reading unit 8 Storage medium

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A communication unit for performing data communication with an information providing device connected to a network, an address designating unit for designating an address of information to be acquired, and providing information corresponding to the designated address via the communication unit. An information acquisition unit that acquires from the database of the device, an acquisition information storage unit that stores the acquired information, and information that confirms whether the acquisition target information is stored in the acquisition information storage unit based on the address of the acquisition target information An information acquisition device, comprising: a confirmation unit, wherein the information acquisition unit acquires information from the acquired information storage unit or a database of the information providing device based on a result of the confirmation. 2. An unacquired address storage unit that stores addresses of information stored in databases of a plurality of information providing apparatuses in an identifiable manner, and an information address that stores addresses of information stored in an obtained information storage unit in an updatable manner. An acquisition address storage unit, wherein the information confirmation unit confirms whether the address of the acquisition target information is stored in the acquired address storage unit and confirms whether the address of the acquisition target information is stored in the unacquired address storage unit. The information acquisition apparatus according to claim 1, wherein 3. A link information extracting unit for extracting link information from information acquired from a database of the information providing apparatus, wherein the information acquiring unit transmits information corresponding to a URL of the extracted link information to a communication unit. 2. The information acquiring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information is acquired from a database of the information providing apparatus via a network. 4. An acquisition instruction code setting unit that sets an acquisition instruction code for instructing whether or not to acquire information based on a result confirmed by an information confirmation unit to the information acquisition unit in a URL of each link information. The information acquisition device according to claim 3, further comprising: 5. Data communication with an information providing device connected to a network via a communication unit, an address of an acquisition target information is designated by using an address designation unit, and a designated address is designated by use of an information acquisition unit. Acquisition of information corresponding to from the database of the information providing device via the communication unit, storing the acquired information in the acquired information storage unit, using an information confirmation unit,
Whether the acquisition target information is stored in the acquisition information storage unit is confirmed based on the address of the acquisition target information, and the information acquisition unit is used to determine whether the acquisition information storage unit or the information providing device is based on the confirmation result. An information acquisition method for acquiring information from the database. 6. A storage medium used for an information acquisition device, comprising: a communication function for performing data communication with an information providing device connected to a network via a communication unit; and a designation function for designating an address of acquisition target information. An information acquisition function of acquiring information corresponding to a specified address from a database of an information providing device via a communication unit, an acquisition information storage function of storing acquired information in an acquisition information storage unit, and acquisition target information. An information confirmation function for confirming whether or not the information is stored in the information storage unit based on the address of the acquisition target information, wherein the information acquisition function performs the acquisition information storage unit or the information provision based on the confirmed result. A storage medium storing a computer program that is a function of acquiring information from a database of an apparatus.