JP2002269119A - System and method for providing information - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information retrieval system that is very convenient and flexible for a user by creating new classification on the basis of not only a fixed classification retrieval but also retrieval results information and providing a client with the results. SOLUTION: An information retrieving device 102 collects information from various information storage devices, automatically calculates the degree of association of the collected information from the similarity, use frequency, etc., of the collected information by using a degree of association data collecting part 252, and stores the degree of association of the collected information as secondary information in a secondary information storing part 204. An inter-information relation constructing part 211 constructs an inter-information network diagram and a division tree diagram by using the inter-information degree of association and creates a new classification obtained by combining close pieces of information with each other. A classification extracting part 304 extracts a needed classification by using this inter-information relation data and a degree of association of classification boundaries. It is possible to flexibly correspond to information change and user convenience because a new classification corresponding to the degree of association of each piece of information can be created in this invention.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention
o (http://www.goo.ne.jp) and yahoo (http: //www.yaho
o.co.jp/), a part of information is extracted from information storage devices typified by Web servers scattered in various places, and the extracted information is stored, so that information retrieval is performed for a user client. Related to the system that provides the function, in particular, it performs a new classification based on search result information and provides the result to the client instead of the fixed classification that is set initially,
Further, the present invention relates to an information providing system and an information providing method capable of changing this classification by specifying a classification boundary by a user.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when an information search is performed by a classification search device, each information is classified according to a predetermined classification, so that a fixed classification has to be performed. FIG. 2 shows a system block diagram. Reference numeral 101 denotes an information storage device, reference numeral 102 denotes an information search device, and reference numeral 103.
Are user clients, which are arranged on the computer network 104. Here, the information storage device 101 means Web servers that provide various information. The information retrieval device 102 retrieves information based on a request from the user client 103 and transmits the retrieved information to the user client 103. The user client 103 is a request source that requests the information search device 102 to search for information.

FIG. 3 shows a detailed view of the information stored in the information storage device 101. The information storage device 101 stores a plurality of pieces of information 10, and the information 10 is primary information 11 which is a main body of the information.
And secondary information 12 which is attribute information such as the creator of the primary information 11, the date and time of creation, and the location of the information. FIG. 4 shows a detailed block diagram of the information search device 102 and the user client 103. The user client 103 includes a Web browser 301 and an operating system unit 305. The information search device 102 includes an information classification unit 201, an information search unit 202, a Web server 203, and a secondary information storage unit 20.
4, a secondary information collecting unit 205, an operating system unit 206, the information classifying unit 201 is a fixed classifying unit 210, and the secondary information collecting unit 205 is a basic data collecting unit 2
51 respectively.

FIG. 5 shows the details of the secondary information storage unit 204 in the information search device 102, and FIG. 6 shows the details of the secondary information. FIG. 6 shows two types of basic information 13 and relevance data 14 as the secondary information 12, but the secondary information 12 in the conventional system is only the basic data 13, and the relevance data 14 will be described later. Used in the embodiment of the present invention. The secondary information collection unit 205 is used for the information storage device 1
The secondary information 12 is collected by directly acquiring the secondary information 12 from the information storage device 01 or automatically generating the secondary information 12 from the primary information 11 of the information storage device 101. Secondary information collection unit 2
The basic data collection unit 251 in 05 adds the fixed classification section input by the attendant as the fixed classification section data of the basic data 13 of the secondary information 12. The collected secondary information 12 is stored in the secondary information storage unit 204.

FIG. 7 shows a sequence diagram when the information retrieval apparatus 102 independently collects secondary information (when collecting secondary information). As shown in the figure, the secondary information collecting unit 205 requests the information storage device 101 for the information 10 from time to time, and extracts the secondary information included in the information 10. Alternatively, the secondary information 12 is automatically generated from the information 10. Here, the basic data collection unit 251 of the secondary information collection unit 205 determines a fixed classification for performing a fixed classification, and
Is added as fixed classification division data of the basic data 13 of FIG. Next, the obtained secondary information 12 is stored in the secondary information storage unit 20.
4 When there is a request for a category search from the user client 103 (at the time of a category search), the secondary information 12 searched by the information search unit 202 is stored in the fixed category unit 210.
Classify according to the fixed classification of the basic data 13 at
b. Transfer to the browser 301 and display the classification search result.

[0006]

As described above, in the prior art, the classification search of the information is fixed to the classification determined at the time of collecting the information, and the classification granularity is determined based on the convenience of each user. There was a problem that it was not possible to flexibly respond to changes in tastes and meanings of information, and it was not possible to efficiently search for information. The present invention has been made in view of the above-described circumstances, and its purpose is to
It is an object of the present invention to provide an information providing system and an information providing method that enable information retrieval that can flexibly cope with a change in user's preference or information and a change in classification accompanying the change.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems.
An information providing system comprising: an information storage device that stores a plurality of pieces of information; an information search device; a user client; and a network that connects the information storage device, the information search device, and the user client. A secondary information collection unit that collects secondary information accompanying the main information from the information storage device, the Web server, and the like in advance and stores the secondary information in the secondary information storage unit, and an information search request issued from the user client. Information search means for performing a search on the secondary information stored in the secondary information storage means, and information indicating a relationship between information based on a search result searched by the information search means. Information relationship constructing means for constructing relationship data and transmitting the information relationship data to the user client, wherein the user client provides the user with Based on the classification boundary change data specified in accordance with the above, classification extraction means for extracting classification set data from the inter-information relationship data received from the information search device, and display means for specifying the classification set data to a user, An information providing system comprising:

[0008] The invention described in claim 2 is the first invention.
In the information providing system described in the above, the secondary information,
It is characterized by comprising basic data indicating the attribute of the main information and relevance data indicating the relevance of the main information to other information. According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the information providing system according to the second aspect, the classification extracting unit includes a classification boundary relevance data included in the classification boundary change data among the information relation data. It is characterized in that a plurality of sets of a class extracted based on a value and a plurality of information included in the class are generated.

The invention described in claim 4 is the first invention.
4. The information providing system according to claim 3, wherein the inter-information relationship data is generated from initial classification data indicating which classification each information belongs to, and from which two classifications each classification belongs. 5. And classification combination data representing the degree of association between the two classifications. According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the information providing system according to any one of the first to fourth aspects,
The classification set data includes a classification extracted from the information relation data based on a value of a classification boundary relevance included in the classification boundary change data, and a set of a plurality of information included in the classification. .

[0010] The invention according to claim 6 is a first process in which secondary information accompanying main information is collected in advance from an information storage device, a Web server, or the like, and stored in the secondary information storage means. A second process of performing a search on the secondary information stored in the secondary information storage unit when an information search request is issued from a user, and a search process based on the search result searched by the information search unit. A third process of constructing inter-information relationship data representing a relationship between information, and a fourth process of extracting classification set data from the inter-information relationship data based on classification boundary change data specified by a user. And a fifth process for specifying the classification set data to a user.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a system block diagram of the present embodiment. This system includes an information retrieval device 102, a user client 103, an information storage device 101 (not shown) (see FIG. 2), and a computer network 104 connecting these devices. Note that the configuration of the information storage device 101 is the same as the conventional one (FIG. 3). The information search device 102 includes an information relation building unit 211
Information Classification Unit 201, Information Search Unit 202, Web
The server 203 includes a secondary information storage unit 204, a secondary information collection unit 205 including a basic data collection unit 251 and a relevance data collection unit 252, and an operating system unit 206.

An information search unit 202 in the information search device 102
Searches and collects the information 10 from the external information storage device 101 independently or based on a request from the user client 103. The secondary information collection unit 205 includes a basic data collection unit 251 and a relevance data collection unit 252, and extracts or generates secondary information from the information collected by the information search unit 202 and stores the secondary information in the secondary information storage unit 204. . FIG. 6 shows a detailed view of the secondary information 12. Secondary information 12 is basic data 13
And a plurality of relevance data 14.

The relevance data 14 is composed of "target information ID" and "relevance of the target information", and represents the relevance of the basic information and the target information. Here, the relevance in the relevance data 14 takes a smaller value as the relevance is higher, and takes a larger value as the relevance is lower. In addition, there is no relevance data 14 between information having no relevance. The basic data collection unit 251 performs 2 based on information collected in the same manner as in the related art.
The "basic data" 13 part of the next information 12 is generated, but the "fixed classification" is not set or used unlike the prior art. The degree-of-association data collection unit 252 uses the degree of relevance between pieces of information in a similar manner obtained from a sentence included in the information by the TF / IDF method or the like, the similarity of an image included in the information, or the information continuously. By using the inter-information use history data and the like, the inter-information relevance between the pieces of information is automatically calculated and generated as the relevance data 14 of the secondary information 12. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 6, the secondary information of the present embodiment has a form in which a plurality of relevance data 14 are usually attached to one basic data 13. In this example, information 2
(Information ID 2) has information 5 of the relevance 17 (target information ID 5) and the like.

In this embodiment, since the fixed classification of information is not performed as in the prior art, the information classification unit 201 differs from the conventional technology in that there is no fixed classification unit 210 that performs fixed classification. It is composed of a relation construction unit 211.
The basic role of the information relation building unit 211 is to create a new classification using the collected degree-of-association data 14 between the secondary information, generate the information relation data 20 shown in FIG. Using the data, a new classification and information contained in the classification are redefined (set) and provided to the user client.

FIG. 9 shows the details of the process of creating the information relationship data 20 in the information relationship construction unit 211. The information relationship constructing unit 211 sends the secondary information 1 from the secondary information storage unit 204 according to the search condition from the user client 103.
2 are extracted and information having a degree of relevance is connected with a link by using the “relevance data” 14 to construct an information network diagram 50 in which the degree of relevance is given to the link.
Subsequently, the connection between the classes having a low degree of association is repeated by the cluster analysis technique known from the information network diagram 50, and the classification tree diagram 51 is constructed. Further, based on the obtained classification tree diagram 51, “information relation data” 20 (FIG. 8) including the initial information data 21 and the classification combination data 22 is read. The information relation data 20 is composed of initial classification data 21 and classification combination data 22. The initial classification data 21 indicates an initial classification initially assigned to each information on a one-to-one basis in the classification tree diagram 50. It is. The classification combination data 22 describes which two classifications are generated from each of the classifications in the process of generating the classification tree diagram 50, and furthermore, the degree of association between the two classifications as the bases. Are also described. This relevance is equivalent in definition to the class boundary relevance described later (FIG. 12), and is used when a class is extracted. After the information relation data 20 is generated, it is transferred to the classification extraction unit 304 of the user client 103.

The classification and extraction unit 304 is located in the user client 103 as shown in FIG.
The classification set data 40 shown in FIG. 10 is generated based on the inter-information relation data 20 sent from the inter-information relation construction unit 211 of FIG. FIG. 11 shows details of the process of creating the classification set data 40 performed by the classification extraction unit 304. Classification set data 4
0 is generated as follows from the inter-information relationship data 20 and the classification boundary change data 30 (initial default value) shown in FIG. From the class combination data 22 managed by the information relationship data 20, classes that are linked by a relevance smaller than the value of the class boundary relevance specified by the class boundary change data 30 are extracted, and On the other hand, the original two classifications constituting the classification are repeatedly traced, and all the information included in the classification obtained by using the final classification and the initial classification information data 21 is extracted to generate the classification data 41. Classification data 41 is obtained for each obtained classification,
By collecting them, classification set data 40 is generated. This classification set data 40 is the user client 1
03 is a response to the information search request, and becomes display data of the user client 103.

Next, the user client 103 shown in FIG.
Includes a Web browser 301, a classification boundary change data transmission unit 302, a classification boundary change data reception unit 303, a classification extraction unit 304, and an operating system unit 305. The classification boundary change data transmission unit 302 detects when the user changes the classification granularity, and generates and transmits the classification boundary change data 30 shown in FIG. Classification boundary change data 30
Is a value that specifies the extent of the classification range to be extracted when the user performs a classification search, and is initially a default value. The classification boundary change data receiving unit 303 receives the classification boundary change data 30 and notifies the classification extraction unit 304.
The classification extraction unit 304 extracts information classified based on the classification boundary change data 30, and classifies and combines the data 40 (FIG. 10).
Generate Further, the Web browser 301 displays a classification search result based on the classification combination data 40. The classification set data 40 includes a plurality of classification data 41. Each classification data 41 includes a classification ID and an information ID included in the classification. In this example, one classification data 41 includes a classification C30 and its content information I3, I6, I11, and I20. The range of the classification extracted in the classification set data 40 is determined by the classification extraction unit 304 in FIG.

FIG. 7 shows a sequence when the information retrieval device 102 collects secondary information. The basic data collection unit 251 of the secondary information collection unit 205 generates the basic data 14 of the secondary information 12 as in the related art, but does not set the fixed classification. On the other hand, the relevance data collection unit 252 automatically calculates the relevance between information, and generates the relevance data 14. still,
The information search device 102 does not collect new basic data by the basic data collection unit 251, and
There is also a case where only the association degree data collection by 52 is performed.

FIG. 13 shows an operation flowchart of the information providing system described above, FIG. 14 shows a sequence diagram at the time of executing the initial classification search, and FIG. 15 shows a sequence diagram at the time of executing the dynamic classification. As shown in FIG. 13 and FIG. 14, in response to an information search request issued from the Web browser 301 of the user client 103, the information search unit 202 in the information search device 102 includes the information storage device 101 and the secondary information storage unit. 204, and retrieves the secondary information 12 of the information 10 that matches the search condition from the information relation constructing unit 211 of the information retrieval apparatus 102.
(Step S1). Information relationship construction unit 211
Then, by using the secondary information 12 acquired from the secondary information storage unit 204 or the information storage device 101, an information network diagram 50 and a classification tree diagram 51 are constructed (steps S2 and S3), thereby obtaining information. The inter-relationship data 20 is read and transferred to the classification extraction unit 304 of the user client 103 (step S4).

The classification extraction unit 304 determines a classification to be extracted from the inter-information relation data 20 and the initially determined classification boundary relevance (default value) (step S5).
The classification is extracted to generate classification set data 40 (step 6). Next, the classified set data 40 is transferred to the Web browser, and the classified information is displayed (Step S).
7). Also, as shown in FIGS. 13 and 15, when the classification set data as shown in FIG. 10 is already displayed on the Web browser 301 of the user client 103, the user changes the degree of association as a classification boundary. Then (Step S
8, S9), the classification boundary change data transmission unit 302 detects the change operation (step S10), generates "classification boundary change data" 30, and transmits it to the classification boundary change data reception unit 303. The classification boundary change data 30 received by the classification boundary change data receiving unit 303 is transmitted to the classification extracting unit 304 (Step S5). The classification extraction unit 304 extracts a new classification from the “information relation data” 20 and the “classification boundary change data” 30 already existing in the classification extraction unit 304 (step S6), and generates the classification set data 40. Finally, the generated classification set data 40 is
b) Transfer to the browser 301 and display the updated new "classification set data" (step S7).

[0021]

As described above, according to the present invention,
A new classification is created for each search request instead of a fixed classification for information, and information belonging to the classification is determined. Therefore, information retrieval can be flexibly performed in response to a change in the meaning of information. Even if the same search condition is used, if the search time is different, the obtained classification can be changed, and the convenience of the user's information search activity is improved. In addition, since the user can freely change the classification boundary relevance for information classification, it is possible to obtain a classification granularity according to the user's preference.

Further, since the information relation constructing means is provided separately from the information retrieval device, and the classification extracting means is provided separately from the user client, the user client receives the information from the information retrieving device constructing the information relation. As a result, if only the information relation information as information is received, the classification set data which is output to the user can be constructed independently, so that it is not necessary to send a huge amount of secondary information over the network, and the amount of information transmitted to the network Can be suppressed, and the processing can be speeded up. Further, since the classification boundary change data by the user is processed by the classification extraction means of the user client, it is not necessary to flow information on the network when changing the boundary relevance, and the processing can be speeded up.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an overall view of a system common to the conventional system and the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a detailed diagram of an information storage device.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a conventional system.

FIG. 5 is a detailed diagram of a secondary information storage unit.

FIG. 6 is a detailed diagram of secondary information.

FIG. 7 is a sequence diagram at the time of collecting secondary information.

FIG. 8 is a detailed diagram of information relation data.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a model for creating information relationship information in an information relationship construction unit.

FIG. 10 is a detailed diagram of classification set data.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a model for creating information set data in a classification and extraction unit.

FIG. 12 is a detailed diagram of classification boundary change data.

FIG. 13 is a processing flowchart of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a sequence diagram at the time of executing an initial classification search.

FIG. 15 is a sequence diagram at the time of executing a dynamic classification search.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Information storage device 102 Information search device 103 User client 104 Computer network 201 Information classification unit 202 Information search unit 203 Web server 204 Secondary information storage unit 205 Secondary information collection unit 206 Operating system unit 210 Fixed classification unit 211 Relationship between information Construction unit 251 Basic data collection unit 252 Relevance data collection unit 301 Web browser 302 Classification boundary change data transmission unit 303 Classification boundary change data reception unit 304 Classification extraction unit 305 Operating system unit 10 Information 11 Primary information 12 Secondary information 13 Basic Data 14 Relevance data 20 Information relation data 21 Initial classification data 22 Classification combined data 30 Classification boundary change data 40 Classification set data 41 Classification data 50 Information network diagram 51 Kind tree diagram

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Hirokazu Nagasawa 3-19-2 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo F-term in Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (reference) 5B075 ND36 NR12 PQ05

Claims (6)

[Claims] An information storage device for storing a plurality of pieces of information;
In an information providing system including an information search device, a user client, the information storage device, the information search device, and a network connecting the user client, the information search device is configured in advance as the information storage device, a web server, or the like. A secondary information collection unit that collects secondary information attached to the main information and stores the secondary information in the secondary information storage unit; and, when an information search request is issued from the user client, the secondary information storage unit. An information search means for searching for the accumulated secondary information; and a search result searched by the information search means,
Means for constructing inter-information relation data representing the relation between information and transmitting the inter-information relation data to the user client, wherein the user client has a classification designated by the user. Classification extracting means for extracting classification set data from the information relation data received from the information search device based on the boundary change data, and display means for specifying the classification set data to a user. Information providing system. 2. The secondary information according to claim 1, wherein the secondary information includes basic data indicating an attribute of the main information, and relevance data indicating a relevance between the main information and other information. Information providing system. 3. The classification extracting unit includes: a classification extracted from the information relational data based on a value of classification boundary relevance data included in the classification boundary change data; and a plurality of classifications included in the classification. 3. The information providing system according to claim 2, wherein a plurality of sets of information are generated. 4. The information relation information includes initial classification data indicating which classification each information belongs to, and which two classifications each classification is generated from, and the degree of association between these two classifications. The information providing system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, comprising classification combined data representing 5. The classification set data includes a classification extracted from the inter-information relation data based on a classification boundary relevance value included in the classification boundary change data, and a plurality of information sets included in the classification. The information providing system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein: 6. A first process in which secondary information accompanying main information is collected in advance from an information storage device or a Web server and stored in a secondary information storage unit, and an information search request is issued from a user. In the case, a second process of performing a search on the secondary information stored in the secondary information storage unit, and a search result searched by the information search unit,
A third process of constructing inter-information relationship data representing a relationship between information; a fourth process of extracting classification set data from the inter-information relationship data based on classification boundary change data specified by a user; And a fifth process for explicitly indicating the classification set data to a user.