JP2003157273A - Method and device for aiding preparation of profile, recording medium and software - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a profile preparation aiding method and a device therefor, a recording medium and software capable of easily preparing a suitable profile. SOLUTION: In the profile preparation aiding method for aiding the preparation of a profile expressing user's interest, filtering for selecting a specific document matching with the user's interest from a plurality of documents is performed by using an initial profiling, the filtering result is outputted to the user, an input corresponding to the result is inputted from the user as evaluation result information expressing a correct answer or incorrect answer, and the contents of a document of the correct answer or the contents of a document of the incorrect answer are analyzed on the basis of the evaluation result. Then the analyzed result is compared with the information of the initial profile, an adding candidate keyword and a deleting candidate keyword are extracted and outputted to the user and the profile is corrected in accordance with a user's selection input of these candidate keywords.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a user profile used in an information filter for selecting a document that matches a user's interest from a large number of documents using a computer, that is, a keyword list showing the user's interest. The present invention relates to a profile creation support method and apparatus, a recording medium, and software used to support the creation of such information.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Due to the recent development of the Internet,
Easy access to a large number of electronic documents.
On the other hand, it is difficult to find a specific document that matches one's interest in a large amount of documents. Therefore, in order to efficiently find a specific document that matches an interest, various search techniques and information filtering techniques using keywords are used.

When performing information filtering, a profile indicating the person's interest is required. As the profile, for example, a manual arrangement of keywords is used. In some cases, a sample set of documents of interest is analyzed by a computer, the statistical information of the appearing words is used to calculate words and their weights, and the results are arranged.

[0004]

However, when the profile as described above is created, there are the following problems.

First, when manually arranging keywords, it is difficult to assume appropriate keywords. If you can not assume the appropriate keyword, there is a problem that the document of interest does not get caught in the filter well, or conversely, the expected keyword appears in the document that is not of interest, resulting in increased noise. .

When a profile is automatically created by a computer based on a sample document, it is necessary to carry out an appropriate statistical process. Also, a large amount of sample documents are required for statistical processing to work well, and it is difficult to collect sample documents. In addition, the created profile depends on the content of the sample document, and thus is often not an appropriate profile. Furthermore, since it is automatically created based on the statistical information, it is difficult to manually correct the contents of the created profile.

An object of the present invention is to provide a profile creation support method and apparatus, a recording medium and software that can facilitate the creation of an appropriate profile.

[0008]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a profile creation support method for supporting the creation of a profile including a set of keywords indicating a user's interest, which matches the user's interest from a plurality of documents. Filtering for selecting a specific document is performed by using information of an initial profile prepared in advance, the result of the filtering is output to the user, and the input from the user for the result of the filtering is used as an evaluation result indicating a correct answer and an incorrect answer. The information is received and stored as information, and the profile is corrected based on the evaluation result.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the result of filtering using the initial profile is presented to the user, so that the user does not need to search for a sample document used for creating the profile. That is, the profile is modified based on the input from the user indicating the correct answer and the incorrect answer to the filtering result, and a new profile is created.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the profile creation support method of the first aspect, the contents of the correct answer document and the incorrect answer document are analyzed based on the evaluation result, and the result of the analysis is used as the initial profile information. By comparison, at least one of the addition candidate keyword and the deletion candidate keyword is extracted as a candidate list, the extracted candidate list is output to the user, and the profile is corrected according to the user's input to the candidate list. It is characterized by

In claim 2, since the addition candidate keywords and / or the deletion candidate keywords are automatically created and presented to the user, the user only has to make a judgment regarding the selection of the keywords to be added and the keywords to be deleted. You can easily create good and accurate profiles. Also,
The user can know the keyword that picks up a document that is not of interest when actually filtering. In this way, it is possible to support the creation of a more accurate profile.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a profile creation support device for supporting the creation of a profile including a set of keywords indicating a user's interest, and an initial profile storage means for holding information of an initial profile prepared in advance. , Filtering means for selecting a specific document that matches a user's interest from a plurality of documents by using the information of the initial profile, and outputting the filtering result to the user, and inputting the result to the user from the user. It is characterized in that input / output control means for receiving and storing as evaluation result information representing a correct answer and an incorrect answer and profile correction means for correcting a profile based on the evaluation result are provided.

The method of claim 1 can be implemented by using the profile creation support device of claim 3. According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the profile creation support apparatus according to the third aspect, the document analysis means for analyzing the contents of the correct answer document and the incorrect answer document based on the evaluation result, and the analysis result of the document analysis means are used as the initial stage. Further provided is a candidate list extracting means for extracting at least one of an addition candidate keyword and a deletion candidate keyword as a candidate list in comparison with profile information.
The candidate list extracted by the candidate list extracting means is output to the user, and the profile is corrected according to the input from the user to the candidate list.

The method of claim 2 can be implemented by using the profile creation support device of claim 4. A fifth aspect of the present invention is a recording medium recording computer-executable software for supporting the creation of a profile including a set of keywords indicating a user's interest, wherein the software indicates the user's interest from a plurality of documents. A procedure for performing filtering for selecting a matching specific document using information of an initial profile prepared in advance,
A procedure of outputting the filtering result to a user, a procedure of accepting an input from the user for the filtering result as information of an evaluation result indicating a correct answer and an incorrect answer, and modifying a profile based on the evaluation result And a procedure are provided.

The method of claim 1 can be implemented by using the software recorded on the recording medium of claim 5. A sixth aspect of the present invention is a recording medium in which computer-executable software for supporting the creation of a profile including a set of keywords indicating a user's interest is recorded. A procedure of performing filtering for selecting a matching specific document using information of an initial profile prepared in advance, a procedure of outputting the filtering result to a user, and an input of correct and incorrect answers from the user for the filtering result. A procedure of receiving and storing as information of an evaluation result showing a correct answer, a procedure of analyzing the contents of a correct answer document and an incorrect answer document based on the evaluation result, and comparing the result of the analysis with the information of the initial profile. At least one of the addition candidate keyword and the deletion candidate keyword A step of extracting, the procedure for outputting the extracted the candidate list to the user, in accordance with an input from the user with respect to the candidate list, characterized by providing a procedure for correcting the profile.

By using the software recorded on the recording medium of claim 6, the methods of claims 1 and 2 can be implemented. A seventh aspect of the present invention is computer-executable software for supporting the creation of a profile including a set of keywords indicating a user's interest, and filtering in advance selecting a specific document that matches the user's interest from a plurality of documents. The procedure performed using the information of the prepared initial profile, the procedure of outputting the filtering result to the user, and the input from the user for the filtering result are accepted as the information of the evaluation result indicating the correct answer and the incorrect answer. A procedure and a procedure for modifying the profile based on the evaluation result are provided.

By using the software of claim 7, the method of claim 1 can be implemented. Claim 8
Is computer-executable software for supporting the creation of a profile including a set of keywords indicating a user's interest, and is prepared in advance with filtering for selecting a specific document that matches the user's interest from a plurality of documents. The procedure to use the information of the initial profile,
Based on the evaluation result, a procedure of outputting the filtering result to the user, a procedure of receiving and storing an input from the user for the filtering result as information of an evaluation result indicating a correct answer and an incorrect answer, and a correct answer based on the evaluation result. A procedure for analyzing the contents of the document and the incorrect document, a procedure for comparing the analysis result with the information of the initial profile, and a procedure for extracting at least one of an addition candidate keyword and a deletion candidate keyword as a candidate list. Further, a procedure for outputting the candidate list to the user and a procedure for correcting the profile in accordance with the user's input to the candidate list are provided.

By using the software of claim 8, the methods of claims 1 and 2 can be implemented.

[0019]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION One embodiment of a profile creation support method and apparatus, a recording medium and software according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. This form corresponds to all the claims.

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing the operation of the profile creation support device of this embodiment. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the profile creation support device of this embodiment. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a specific example of the initial profile. FIG. 4 is a front view showing a display example of the filter result evaluation screen. FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing a specific example of the evaluation result in the evaluation result storage unit. FIG. 6 is a front view showing a display example of the addition / deletion keyword selection screen.

In this embodiment, the initial profile storage means, the filtering means, the input / output control means and the profile correction means of claim 3 are respectively the initial profile storage section 12, the information filtering processing section 13, the filter result evaluation section 14 and the profile construction. It corresponds to the support unit 16. The document analysis means and candidate list extraction means of claim 4 correspond to step S16.

As shown in FIG. 2, the profile creation support device of this embodiment has a document base storage unit 11, an initial profile storage unit 12, an information filtering processing unit 13, a filter result evaluation unit 14, an evaluation result storage unit 15, and a profile. A construction support unit 16, a new profile storage unit 17, an input device 18, and an output device 19 are provided.

The information filtering processing unit 13 and the profile construction support unit 16 are provided with function tables 20 and 21, respectively. Document-based storage unit 11
Holds a large amount of information of various documents that are mainly character strings. An online database may be used instead of the document-based storage unit 11.

The initial profile storage unit 12 holds the information of the initial profile regarding the target of interest of a particular user. This initial profile is manually created in advance and stored in the initial profile storage unit 12, for example. This initial profile is, for example, a keyword list in which a large number of keywords are arranged as shown in FIG. Each keyword is a character string of words related to the target of interest of a particular user.

The information filtering processing unit 13 retrieves document information one by one from the document base storage unit 11, counts the appearance frequency of each keyword in the initial profile,
Find the conformance of each document. Information filtering processing unit 1
After obtaining the goodnesses of fit for all the documents, 3 passes the identifier (for example, the file name) of each document having a goodness of fit of a predetermined threshold value or more to the filter result evaluation unit 14 together with the goodness of fit.

The filter result evaluation unit 14 extracts the document information from the document base storage unit 11 based on the identifier passed from the information filtering processing unit 13, and outputs it to the output device 19 as a filter result evaluation screen. On this filter result evaluation screen, as shown in FIG. 4, a selection box for selecting a correct answer or an incorrect answer for each document is also displayed.

Further, the filter result evaluation unit 14 stores the evaluation result corresponding to the correct answer / incorrect answer selection information input by the user on the filter result evaluation screen.
Output to 5. The evaluation result storage unit 15 stores the information of the evaluation result input from the filter result evaluation unit 14.

The profile construction support unit 16 is based on the evaluation result held in the filter result evaluation unit 14.
The correct answer document and the incorrect answer document are retrieved from the document base storage unit 11 and the contents of each document are analyzed. That is, the appearance frequency of a word is obtained, a recommendation degree is given to each word based on the appearance frequency, and additional keyword candidates and deletion keyword candidates are automatically extracted. Then, the information of the extracted additional keyword candidates and deleted keyword candidates is
The added / deleted keyword selection screen is output to the output device 19.

On this addition / deletion keyword selection screen, as shown in FIG. 6, a selection box for designating whether or not each keyword is selected is displayed for each keyword. In addition, the profile construction support unit 16 creates new profile information based on the selection information input by the user with the input device 18 on the addition / deletion keyword selection screen.

The new profile is the result of adding the additional keyword candidates selected by the user to the initial profile and deleting the deletion keyword candidates. This new profile is output and stored in the new profile storage unit 17. The input device 18 is used when the user selects and inputs a correct answer and an incorrect answer for a filter result, and when selecting and inputting an additional keyword candidate and a deletion keyword candidate on the additional / deleted keyword selection screen.

The output device 19 is used to display a filter result evaluation screen and an addition / deletion keyword selection screen to the user. A specific example of the initial profile is as shown in FIG. That is, a large number of keywords for identifying a document in which the user is interested are arranged. In this example, one keyword is described in one line. In addition,
The new profile is also described in the same format.

Note that most of the elements shown in FIG. 2 can be configured by dedicated hardware or can be realized by executing a program on a personal computer or the like. When the present invention is implemented as a program, the program and data can be recorded and distributed in a recording medium such as a CD-ROM, or can be distributed as information transferred online.

The filter result evaluation screen displayed on the output device 19 under the control of the filter result evaluation unit 14 is constructed as shown in FIG. 4, for example. In this example, a list of identifiers exists on the left side of the filter result evaluation screen, and a correct answer box and an incorrect answer selection box exist on the right side of each identifier. Further, when any one of the identifiers is clicked on the filter result evaluation screen, the content of the document corresponding to the identifier is displayed on the right side of the filter result evaluation screen. In the example of FIG. 4, the content of the document corresponding to the identifier “10002” is displayed on the right side of the filter result evaluation screen.

The user looks at the contents of the document corresponding to each identifier on the filter result evaluation screen, determines whether the answer is correct or incorrect, and operates the input device 18 according to the result to select each selection box. It can be performed. Evaluation result storage unit 1
5 holds the evaluation result as shown in FIG. 5, for example. In this example, the identifiers of the corresponding documents are arranged in association with each of the correct answer and the incorrect answer.

The addition / deletion keyword selection screen displayed on the output device 19 under the control of the profile construction support unit 16 is configured as shown in FIG. 6, for example. In this example, the addition candidate keywords are displayed side by side on the left side of the addition / deletion keyword selection screen, and the deletion candidate keywords are side by side displayed on the right side. A selection box is displayed near each keyword.

The user can select each selection box using the input device 18 on the addition / deletion keyword selection screen. The operation of the profile creation support device shown in FIG. 2 is as shown in FIG. The processing of each step shown in FIG. 1 will be described below. In step S11,
The information filtering processing unit 13 uses the document-based storage unit 11
Extract information of one document from.

In step S12, the information filtering processing unit 13 executes morphological analysis on the extracted document to extract words. In addition, the initial profile storage unit 12
The appearance frequency of the keyword in the initial profile is counted with reference to the initial profile stored in the document, and the conformance F of the document is obtained. For example, the fitness F can be calculated using the following formula.

[Equation 1] Since the profile is a keyword that the user is interested in, it is considered that a document containing a lot of it matches the user's interest. Note that the value of the function wgt (w _i ) is determined so as to be small for keywords that appear in many documents. Common words that appear in many documents are not very characteristic and are highly likely to appear in documents that the user is not interested in, so it is important to reduce the importance of such words. I am about to do it.

Therefore, the goodness of fit F expressed by the above equation (1)
Is large in a document that includes many more characteristic keywords that the user is interested in, and is considered to be more in line with the user's interest. Actually, the result of counting the frequency information by analyzing a large number of text documents beforehand is used as a function.
It is stored in the function table 20 as a table of the values of wgt (w _i ). Therefore, the information filtering processing unit 13 refers to the function table 20 and acquires the value of the function wgt (w _i ).

In step S13 of FIG. 1, it is determined whether or not an unprocessed document exists in the document base storage unit 11. If there is an unprocessed document, step S13.
To S11, the process is repeated. When the processing has been completed for all the documents, the information filtering processing unit 13 determines in step S13 that the degree of conformance F equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold value.
For each document having, the document identifier and the matching degree F are passed to the filter result evaluation unit 14, and the process proceeds to the next step S14.

At this point, the filtering using the initial profile is completed for the document in the document-based storage unit 11. In step S14, the filter result evaluation unit 14 rearranges the document identifiers in descending order of the matching degree F received from the information filtering processing unit 13 and creates and outputs a filter result evaluation screen as shown in FIG. Output to the device 19 and wait for the input of the evaluation result button.

Since the user can display the contents of each document by clicking the document identifier on the filter result evaluation screen using the input device 18, the contents of each displayed document can be grasped, You can judge whether the answer is correct or incorrect. Further, the user can use the input device 18 to put the corresponding selection box into the selected state so that the result of the determination is reflected. When the user finishes the selection and presses the "end evaluation" button on the screen, the process proceeds from step S14 to step S15 in FIG.

In step S15, the filter result evaluation unit 14 operates. The evaluation result obtained in step S14 is stored in the evaluation result storage unit 15 in a format as shown in FIG. 5, for example.
In step S16, the profile construction support unit 16 refers to the evaluation result, which is the content of the evaluation result storage unit 15, and grasps the identifiers of the document determined to be correct and the document determined to be incorrect by the user.

Then, the profile construction support unit 16 retrieves each document from the document base storage unit 11 and executes morphological analysis to extract words from each document. Further, it is determined whether or not the extracted word exists in the initial profile on the initial profile storage unit 12, and if it does not exist, a recommendation degree as an additional candidate keyword is given, and if it exists, as a deletion candidate keyword. Give the recommendation level.

Recommendation degree Dadd as the addition candidate keyword of word w _j and recommendation degree Ddel as the deletion candidate keyword
Can be calculated by the following equations.

[Equation 2] Note that the value of the function wgt (w _j ) is determined so as to be small for keywords that appear in many documents.

Actually, the result of previously analyzing a large amount of text documents and counting the frequency information is stored in the function table 21 as a table of the values of the function wgt (w _j ). Therefore, the profile construction support unit 16 can acquire the value of the function wgt (w _j ) by referring to the function table 21. In step S17 of FIG. 1, the profile construction support unit 16
Arranges the addition candidate keyword and the deletion candidate keyword obtained in step S16 in descending order of recommendation degree. Then, an addition / deletion keyword selection screen as shown in FIG. 6 containing a list of addition candidate keywords and deletion candidate keywords is created and output to the output device 19. Further, the profile construction support unit 16 waits for an input to the "end selection" button on the screen.

That is, among the keywords that characterize correct documents, those that do not exist in the initial profile are presented as additional candidate keywords, and among the keywords that characterize incorrect documents, those that exist in the initial profile are presented as deletion candidate keywords. Prompt the user for selection.
By performing an input operation using the input device 18, the user performs selection / non-selection input on each addition candidate keyword and the selection box associated with the deletion candidate keyword on the addition / deletion keyword selection screen. The "end selection" button can be pressed.

The user refers to the addition / deletion keyword selection screen, performs an input operation in each selection box so as to reflect his / her judgment regarding the keywords to be added and the keywords to be deleted, and further presses the "end selection" button. To do. As a result, the process of the profile creation support device proceeds to step S18. In step S18, the profile construction support unit 16 creates a new profile, and the new profile is stored in the new profile storage unit 17.

The new profile is created by adding or deleting each keyword selected by the user from the addition candidate keywords and the deletion candidate keywords output on the screen in step S17 based on the contents of the initial profile. In this form, the result of filtering the document prepared based on the initial profile is presented to the user in step S14, so that the user does not need to search for a sample document required to create the profile.

Further, each document is analyzed on the basis of the evaluation result of the correct answer and the incorrect answer of the user with respect to the filtering result, and the words appearing deviated to the correct answer and the incorrect answer are added candidate keywords and deletion candidate keywords according to the degree of recommendation. Since it is presented to the user in step S17, the user need only determine and select the additional keyword and the deletion keyword from the candidates. This makes it possible to easily create a profile that more appropriately expresses the user's interest.

[0050]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to assist the user in constructing an appropriate profile. Further, since the result of filtering the document prepared based on the initial profile is presented to the user, the user does not need to search for a sample document necessary for creating the profile.

Further, each document is analyzed on the basis of the evaluation result of the correct answer and the incorrect answer of the user with respect to the filtering result, and the words appearing with deviation to the correct answer and the incorrect answer are added candidate keywords and deletion candidate keywords according to the degree of recommendation. Since it is presented to the user as, the user only needs to judge and select the additional keyword and the deletion keyword from the candidates. This makes it possible to easily create a profile that more appropriately expresses the user's interest.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing an operation of a profile creation support device according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a profile creation support device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a specific example of an initial profile.

FIG. 4 is a front view showing a display example of a filter result evaluation screen.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing a specific example of evaluation results in an evaluation result storage unit.

FIG. 6 is a front view showing a display example of an addition / deletion keyword selection screen.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 Document-based storage 12 Initial profile storage 13 Information filtering unit 14 Filter result evaluation section 15 Evaluation result storage 16 Profile construction support department 17 New profile storage 18 Input device 19 Output device 20 Function table 21 Function table

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Hiroto Inagaki             2-3-1, Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo             Inside Telegraph and Telephone Corporation F-term (reference) 5B075 ND02 PR08

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A profile creation support method for supporting the creation of a profile including a set of keywords representing a user's interest, wherein filtering is preliminarily prepared for selecting a specific document that matches the user's interest from a plurality of documents. Performed by using the information of the initial profile, the result of the filtering is output to the user, the input from the user for the result of the filtering is accepted and stored as the information of the evaluation result indicating the correct answer and the incorrect answer, and the evaluation result is obtained. A profile creation support method characterized in that a profile is modified based on the. 2. The profile creation support method according to claim 1, wherein contents of a correct answer document and an incorrect answer document are analyzed based on the evaluation result, and the analysis result is compared with the information of the initial profile. At least one of an addition candidate keyword and a deletion candidate keyword is extracted as a candidate list, the extracted candidate list is output to a user, and a profile is corrected according to an input from the user to the candidate list. Profile creation support method. 3. A profile creation support device for supporting the creation of a profile including a set of keywords representing a user's interest, comprising: an initial profile storage means for holding information of an initial profile prepared in advance; Filtering means for selecting a specific document that matches a user's interest from documents using the information of the initial profile; and outputting the result of the filtering to the user, and inputting the correct and incorrect answers from the user to the result. A profile creation support apparatus comprising: an input / output control unit that receives and stores as evaluation result information representing a correct answer; and a profile modification unit that modifies a profile based on the evaluation result. 4. The profile creation support apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the document analysis means for analyzing the contents of the correct answer document and the incorrect answer document based on the evaluation result; A candidate list extracting means for extracting at least one of an addition candidate keyword and a deletion candidate keyword as a candidate list in comparison with profile information is further provided, and the profile modifying means uses the candidate list extracted by the candidate list extracting means. A profile creation support device, which outputs to a user and corrects a profile according to an input from the user to the candidate list. 5. A recording medium in which computer-executable software for supporting the creation of a profile including a set of keywords indicating a user's interest is recorded, wherein the software includes the user's interest from a plurality of documents. A procedure for performing filtering using a pre-prepared initial profile information for selecting a specific document that matches with, a procedure for outputting the filtering result to the user, and a correct answer for the user's input to the filtering result. A recording medium provided with a procedure of receiving as evaluation result information indicating an incorrect answer and a procedure of correcting a profile based on the evaluation result. 6. A recording medium in which computer-executable software for supporting the creation of a profile including a set of keywords representing a user's interest is recorded, wherein the software includes the user's interest from a plurality of documents. A procedure for performing filtering using a pre-prepared initial profile information for selecting a specific document that matches with, a procedure for outputting the filtering result to the user, and a correct answer for the user's input to the filtering result. A procedure of receiving and storing as an evaluation result information indicating an incorrect answer, a procedure of analyzing the contents of a correct answer document and an incorrect answer document based on the evaluation result, and comparing the analysis result with the information of the initial profile Then, at least one of the addition candidate keyword and the deletion candidate keyword is A step of extracting as a procedure for outputting the extracted the candidate list to the user, in accordance with an input from the user with respect to the candidate list, the recording medium characterized by comprising a procedure for correcting the profile. 7. Computer-executable software for supporting the creation of a profile including a set of keywords representing a user's interest, wherein filtering for selecting a specific document matching the user's interest from a plurality of documents is performed in advance. A procedure performed by using the prepared initial profile information, a procedure for outputting the filtering result to the user, and an input from the user for the filtering result as information on the evaluation result indicating the correct answer and the incorrect answer. Software, which is provided with a procedure and a procedure for modifying a profile based on the evaluation result. 8. Computer-executable software for supporting the creation of a profile including a set of keywords representing a user's interest, and filtering in advance for selecting a specific document that matches the user's interest from a plurality of documents. Procedures performed using the prepared initial profile information, procedures for outputting the filtering result to the user, and acceptance of the user's input for the filtering result as evaluation result information indicating correct and incorrect answers A procedure of storing, a procedure of analyzing the contents of a correct answer document and an incorrect answer document based on the evaluation result, and a comparison result of the analysis result with the information of the initial profile, and an addition candidate keyword and a deletion candidate keyword A procedure for extracting at least one of the above as a candidate list, and the extracted Software for providing a procedure for outputting a supplementary list to a user and a procedure for modifying a profile in accordance with an input from the user to the candidate list.