JP2001175675A - Information retrieving method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily actualize retrieval which is flexible between retrieval filters constituted by key words and a retrieval condition obtained by combining them. SOLUTION: Pieces of data are taken out of a database in order, plural retrieval filters having at least plural key words and retrieval conditions composed of logical operators connecting the key words are inputted, and pieces of data which are taken out are given scores by retrieving the data according to the retrieval conditions of the retrieval filters; and the scores are corrected according to the logical operators connecting the retrieval filters and filter retrieval conditions showing the importance of the retrieval filters and according to the corrected scores, it is decided whether or not the data are outputted.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic program guide used in television broadcasting and the like.
Guide), an information search method for efficiently selecting and receiving a program of interest to a viewer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, digital broadcasting such as CS broadcasting has been started. In such digital broadcasting, the number of channels is enormous, and it is necessary for the viewer himself to select a broadcast program of interest from many channels. for that reason,
EPG data, which is data of an electronic program guide (hereinafter referred to as EPG), including program name, program content, program start time, program end time, performers of the program, program genre and other information, is added to the broadcast program as additional information. It is being broadcast.

Conventionally, the contents of the EPG have been displayed on a display screen, and a broadcast program has been selected and received from the display screen.
When recording a broadcast program on a recording device such as a VTR, a recording start time and a recording end time are set for each broadcast program. Therefore, select and receive the desired program,
There has been a problem that the operation for recording and the like becomes complicated.

[0004] In addition, the huge WE on the Internet
When a user searches for a desired WEB page from the B page, there is a method of searching from a link of a related WEB page.

As a method of extracting desired data from a huge amount of data (hereinafter referred to as data to be searched) such as a program in the EPG and a web page on the Internet, an information search method using a keyword is known. Used. By performing a keyword search on the information provided by the EPG data described above,
A viewer can view a desired program. In addition, on the Internet described above, a user can browse a desired WEB page by performing a keyword search.

[0006] In such a search method, a plurality of keywords are input, and AND /
OR / NOT conditions and importance levels are set, and those that match those conditions can be assigned a score and output. It should be noted that this score is constructed so that the more relevant one has a higher score.

[0007]

In the conventional information retrieval method using keywords, it is necessary to generate a keyword required for information retrieval by some method and associate it with the data to be retrieved. The following methods are available. Was. (1) The information provider sets a keyword for each search target data. (2) The user sets a keyword for each search target data. (3) The history of the search, browsing, viewing, and the like of the user with respect to the searched data is accumulated and a keyword is automatically generated. (4) The information provider sets a keyword for each search target data, and the user customizes the keyword in consideration of the importance and the like.

However, in the case of performing an information search by combining and inputting the keywords generated by such a method, for example, as the search conditions become more diverse, for example,
When information is narrowed down by searching using the keyword generated by the method (3) among the information searched using the keyword generated by the method (1), the keyword input by a certain user is When searching by combining keywords entered by other users, as described above, when changing the importance of a certain user's keyword when searching by combining keywords entered by multiple users, all keywords must be re- There is a problem that the method of inputting or changing the importance of each individual keyword is inefficient.

Therefore, according to the information search method of the present invention, the above-described keywords can be treated as a kind of set, and a set of a plurality of keywords can be input to the search device. Every time,
It is another object of the present invention to provide an information search method in which search conditions (AND / OR / NOT) can be added and information can be easily searched even in the case of a complicated search as described above.

[0010]

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an information search method for searching for data based on specified search conditions and assigning a score is provided. Step 201 to take out
Inputting a plurality of search filters having a search condition comprising at least a plurality of keywords and a logical operator connecting the plurality of keywords; and a step of inputting the plurality of search filters for the plurality of extracted data. Searching the data on the basis of the search condition and scoring the data; and correcting the score by a logical operator connecting the plurality of search filters and a filter search condition indicating the importance of the plurality of search filters. An information search method is provided, comprising: steps 204 to 206; and step 211 of determining whether to output data according to the corrected score of the plurality of data.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An information retrieval method according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an information search system to which an information search method according to the present invention is applied. In the figure, 101 is a search filter group including L search filters, 102 is a search filter input unit, 103 is a search processing unit, 104 is a database, and 105 is a display device.

A plurality of keyword search conditions are written in the L search filters in the search filter group 101. The keyword search condition includes at least a plurality of keywords, an AND / OR / NOT condition connecting the keywords,
An importance condition indicating the importance of each keyword as necessary.

The L search filters and filter search conditions corresponding to the respective search filters are input to a search filter input unit 102. The filter search conditions include AND / OR / NOT conditions connecting the search filters and the importance of each search filter.

The search processing unit 103 is a block for performing main processing of the search. The search processing unit 103 retrieves the data to be searched from the database 104 to be searched. Retrieve a condition. Then, the search target data is searched according to the search filter and the filter search condition, and additional information such as a score is added to the extracted search target data.

After processing all search filters input to the search filter input unit 102, it is determined whether or not to display the processed data to be searched based on search conditions and additional information. The display device 105 determines the data to be searched together with the score.
Output to Then, the display device 105 displays the searched data determined to be displayed.

In the above description, the importance is an integer parameter required for calculating a score.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an information search method according to the present invention. This processing is performed by the search processing unit 103 shown in FIG. The database 104 has K pieces of data to be searched, and the search filter input unit 102 has L pieces of search filters and filter search conditions.

In step 201, the database 104
, The i-th data (i) in the searched data is extracted. Note that the initial value of the parameter i is 1.

In step 202, filter data (n) including a search filter and filter search conditions is extracted from the search filter input unit. Note that the initial value of n is 1.

In step 203, a plurality of keyword search conditions (keywords, ANDs connecting the keywords) described in the search filter in the filter data (n)
A keyword score, which is the score of the keyword of data (i), is calculated using the / OR condition and the importance of each keyword. If the specified keyword is included in the data (i), the importance is added to the keyword score. If the specified keyword is not included in the case where the keyword search condition is AND designation, the process goes to step 204 with the keyword score of the data (i) set to 0 at that time.

In step 204, it is determined based on the keyword score and the filter search condition whether or not the condition matches the filter search condition. Here, the filter search condition is
AND / OR conditions for calculating each search filter,
It indicates the importance of each search filter. By calculating each search filter in accordance with the above-described filter search condition, it is possible to correct the keyword score in consideration of the filter search condition. Specifically, the filter score is calculated by multiplying the keyword score by the importance of the filter search condition (step 205). Then, the process proceeds to a step 206, wherein the filter score is set to t of data (i).
Add to your total score.

If the filter search condition is AND designation and the keyword score is 0, the total score of the data (i) is set to 0, and the flow proceeds to step 210 after passing the subsequent filter search processing. Otherwise, the process proceeds to step 205, where the keyword score is multiplied by the importance of the filter search condition to calculate a filter score (step 205). Then, the process proceeds to step 206, where the filter score is added to the total score of the data (i).

In step 209, it is determined how many times the filter data (n) has been processed. If the L-th filter has been processed, the process proceeds to step 210. Otherwise, the process proceeds to step 208, where 1 is added to n, and the process of step 202 is performed again.

In step 210, it is determined how many times data (i) has been processed. If the K-th data has been processed, the process proceeds to step 211. Otherwise, proceed to step 207, add 1 to i and repeat step 2
01 is performed.

In step 211, when the total score added to each piece of data to be searched is equal to or greater than a certain threshold value, or when the total score added to each piece of data to be searched is within a predetermined number counted in ascending order. If such a condition is satisfied, each searched data is output to the display device 105 and displayed on the display device 105.

As described above, according to the information search method of the present invention, a plurality of search filters in which a plurality of keyword search conditions are written are used, and a filter search condition is specified for each search filter. Can be searched.

[0027]

As described in detail above, according to the information search method of the present invention, since a search can be performed by combining a plurality of search filters, a search filter created according to one user's preference and another user's preference can be used. An AND operation with the search filter created in step (1) is performed, so that it is possible to easily realize information that both parties prefer. In addition, when performing such a search, the importance can be changed for each search filter, so that it is possible to easily realize a flexible search in which one user's preference is given priority over another user's preference. This has the effect that it can be performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an information search system to which an information search method according to the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an information search method according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 101 search filter group 102 search filter input unit 103 search processing unit 104 database 105 display device

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An information search method for performing a data search based on a specified search condition and scoring a plurality of data in order from a database, at least a plurality of keywords and the plurality of Inputting a plurality of search filters having search conditions consisting of logical operators connecting keywords, and performing a search on the plurality of extracted data based on the search conditions of the plurality of search filters Correcting the score by a logical operator connecting the plurality of search filters and a filter search condition indicating the importance of the plurality of search filters; and the corrected score of the plurality of data. Determining whether to output data according to the following.