JP2003258982A - Method for retrieving data - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve operability by permitting data retrieval by only the button operation of a button to which the data desired to be retrieved belongs under a state in which data are displayed in a list. <P>SOLUTION: Data of interest is retrieved by successively retrieving the group of characters allocated to the button out of lined up data. Where, the presence or absence of the data belonging to the character group to be retrieved is retained for screen display when retrieval is made by using the character as a retrieval key. The data is retrieved by a corresponding leading letter by the button operation based on the above data. The data are successively displayed by moving a cursor. The category of the character group being the retrieval key of the presently displayed data is displayed. In addition, a current object character and a relative character position in the character group are found. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a data retrieval method suitable for use in a data retrieval device for retrieving data stored in a database using a limited number of buttons.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, the following search methods (1) and (2) have been used for searching a telephone directory of a mobile phone. (1) Search while moving elements one by one by moving the cursor while displaying a list of data. (2) Input a character string that is one or more characters as a search key, and search for an element that matches the character string.

[0003]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, (1)
With the search method of, since you can only search the data linearly, you cannot reach the target element unless you pass all the data even if you know that the data is in the final stage, and the target element There was a problem that I did not know how much to move up to. In the search method of (2), since the character string to be the search key is input,
It takes time and effort to select the character type according to the character type of the search target, and if it is not clear from the existence of the target data, the search may fail due to an input error or the like.

Further, when there are a plurality of database search methods such as a group search and a phonetic kana search, the user tends to use only his or her favorite search method, but conventionally, every time. It was necessary to take steps for the selection and specify the search method.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and a data search provided with a user interface that enables a data search only by operating a button of a button to which the data to be searched belongs while displaying a list of data. The purpose is to provide a method. In addition, by providing the user with the search method that is used most frequently among the multiple allowed search methods or the search method that was used immediately before,
It is also an object to provide a data retrieval method with improved operability.

[0006]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention is a data search method used in a data search device for searching data stored in a database, wherein the data is a search key. It is characterized in that it is sorted and held in advance by the element that becomes, and the target data is searched by the first one or more characters in the search key.

Further, in the present invention, one or more character groups to be a search key are assigned to one or more buttons used for the search, and the button is pressed to correspond to the character group assigned to the button. Retrieving the data.

Further, the present invention is characterized by displaying whether or not an element corresponding to a character to be searched assigned to the button exists in the database.

Further, in the present invention, in addition to displaying the retrieved data, the relative character position of the character group to which the data belongs is displayed.

Further, it is characterized in that the search target data is narrowed down first, and the target data is searched for by the first one or more characters in the search key in the narrowed-down data set.

According to the present invention, it is possible to retrieve the target data by sequentially retrieving the group of characters assigned to one button from the aligned data, and belonging to the retrieved character group. The presence / absence of data can be held and displayed on the screen when the character is searched as a search key. Further, based on the above-mentioned data, the data is sequentially displayed by searching the data with the corresponding first character by button operation and moving the cursor. Then, in addition to displaying the category of the character group that serves as a search key for the data currently being displayed, the current target character and the relative character position within the character group can be known. This improves the operability.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides
A data search method used in a data search apparatus having a plurality of database search methods, which holds the frequency of use of the search method, and provides the user with the search method with the highest frequency of use as an initial screen. Is characterized by.

The present invention is also characterized in that the search method used by the user in the immediately preceding data search is provided to the user as the initial screen.

According to the present invention, by controlling the frequency of use and providing a learning function, an initial screen by a frequently used search method is provided to prompt data search, or
By providing an initial screen by the search method used immediately before and urging the user to search for data, the operability can be further improved.

[0015]

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment in which the data search method of the present invention is applied to a telephone with a telephone directory function. Further, FIG. 6 shows an example of a button arrangement of a telephone in which a character group is assigned to a button (dial key) in order to realize the data search method of the present invention. According to the data search method of the present invention, it is possible to provide a user interface for searching data by using a list display arranged in the order of "aiueo" of kana. Hereinafter, it is assumed that the data is provided to the user in a state of being arranged in the order of “kana”, “symbol”, “alphabet”, and “number”. The outline will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 and 6.

FIG. 1 shows L in a telephone with a telephone directory function.
A CD display example is shown. As shown in FIG.
The telephone directory data is displayed on the first to third lines of the CD, and the first character string is index-displayed on the fourth line. Figure 1 (a)
Indicates that the first kana in the reading kana of the telephone directory data "Kanagawa Sales Office" at which the cursor is currently located is "Ka" with an "*" mark in the fourth line. Also, in other phonebook data, there is phonebook data with the first letters “ki” and “ku” of reading kana, but the phonebook data of “ke” and “ko” does not exist with “-” display. Shows.

FIG. 1 (b) shows that the first character of the reading kana of the telephone directory data where the cursor is located has moved to "ki".
The index is displayed with "*" on the line. Also, FIG.
In (c), the index display indicates that the first character of the phonetic alphabet data kana has been moved to "sa" by pressing the button "3". In addition, the phonebook data of the first letters of the phonetic alphabets "Si", "Se", and "So" exists in other phonebook data, but the phonebook data of "Su" is displayed as an index with "-". Indicates that it does not exist.

The "*" mark in the index display can indicate which character of the character set assigned to the search key the data selected by the cursor belongs to. It is possible to provide the user with the location of the selected and displayed data among all the data. Also, the kana part of the index display indicates whether or not there is data that can be searched by pressing the button. This index is displayed to the user (“*” mark and kana leading character display)
By pressing the button several times depending on the cursor display on the selected data, it becomes possible to know whether it is possible to move to the beginning of the data belonging to that category. It is also possible to recognize how many times the button should be pressed once it is pressed.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing, in a tabular form, search characters and search orders defined for each button. Here, a group of characters is assigned to the button and used for the search. As shown in FIG. 2, each button of the telephone shown in FIG.
It is assumed that the character groups shown in FIG. 2 are assigned and used for data retrieval. That is, the button "1" arranged in the button area has (A, I, U, E, O, 1), and the button "2" has (K, K, K, K, K, A, B, C, 2)
Is assigned.

If the element having the first character among the characters assigned to the button is not registered in the telephone directory, the character of the next element to which the button is assigned is searched as a search key, while the button If the corresponding data is not registered for all the assigned characters, the data display on the LCD is left as it is. Then, by pressing the same button again after the search, the character of the next element is searched from the characters of the displayed data using the character of the next element as a key. ). If the same button is pressed while the last character is displayed, a toggle operation is performed, and the search is performed from the first character (in the example shown in FIG. 1B, next to "so",
Return to "Sa" as if there were no D, E, F, and 3).

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the leading character search information, in which (a) shows the searched character and (b) shows the number of telephone directory data items corresponding to each character. That is, when the value of the corresponding position is "0", it means that there is no telephone directory data of the first character corresponding to the position. The number of corresponding phonebook data items is managed by counting +1 when one phonebook is registered and -1 when one phonebook is deleted.

FIG. 4 shows the flow of the search process when the screen transitions from FIG. 1 (a) to FIG. 1 (c), and FIG. 5 shows the flow of the process by cursor movement (a) and its leading character search display. A detailed flow (b) of (index display) is shown in each flowchart.

In FIG. 4, the telephone first detects whether or not the same button as the previous time has been pressed by detecting the button press (S41). Here, if the same button is pressed, the search order is incremented by 1 (S42), and if not, the search order is set to 0 and the search key is set (S4).
3). Then, the search is started, and if the corresponding first character is hit, the telephone directory data is displayed on the LCD (S45) and the first character search display is also performed (S46). The first character search display will be described later. If the corresponding first character is not hit, the search order is incremented by 1 (S47),
Until it is confirmed that there is no phonebook data with the search key, S4
4, the process of S47 is repeated.

In FIG. 5A, the retrieval data is displayed on the LCD, and the leading character retrieval display is performed every time the cursor is moved (S51, S52). In FIG. 5B, the telephone checks the positions of the first character and the first character string (S521). If a match is found here,
A "*" mark is displayed in the character index area, and if a mismatch is confirmed, a "-" mark is displayed in the character index area (S522, S523). Then, it is further checked whether or not there is phonebook data in the first character string (S5
24), if present, the leading character is displayed in the character index area (S525), and if not present, the leading character is not displayed (S526). The above operation is repeated until the beginning character string is completed (S527).

Next, an embodiment in which the above-described data search method is expanded to sequentially search not only the first character but also an arbitrary number of characters from the first character will be described below. FIG. 6 shows an example of the LCD and button arrangement of the telephone used here. The telephone is composed of a telephone body 60 and a handset portion 61, and the telephone body 60 is composed of an LCD display portion 62 and a button arrangement portion 63. Further, “decision” and “return” buttons 64 and 65 are further added to the buttons used in the above-described embodiment. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure for realizing the search method. Reference numeral 66 is a call button, and 67 is a telephone directory function button. Hereinafter, the operation in another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7.

Here, it is assumed that the "telephone book" function button 67 activates the search function according to the present invention (S).
71). First, the variable N is set to "1" for initialization (S72). Then, the pointer is moved to the head of all the data (S73), and the element at the data position represented by the current pointer is displayed on the LCD display unit 62 of the telephone (S7).
4).

Next, by pressing the button, the Nth (N ≧ 1)
And the corresponding element is displayed on the LCD display unit 62 of the telephone. Further, the button is pressed to search for data including the character assigned to the button in N characters (S77). In addition, when the "OK" button 64 is pressed,
When the character confirmation operation is performed (S75, YES),
If there is registered data having a length of N + 1 characters or more in the data being searched, the variable N is updated by +1 (S80) and the process returns to S74. Further, the "return" button 65 is pressed and N-
If the intention to return to the first character is displayed (S76,
YES), the variable N is updated by -1 (S81), and the process returns to S74. However, when N-1 <1, N = 1.

When the search operation is performed by pressing the buttons one by one (S77, YES), the search results up to the (N-1) th character are fixed, and the characters assigned to the pressed button are N characters. Search from the eyes (S82). Then, as a result of the search, if the corresponding element exists, the pointer is moved to the relevant data, and if it does not exist, the pointer is moved to the next element assigned to the button, and the processing from S74 onward is repeated. As described above, the button is pressed until the first character of the data is selected. When the target data can be selected, it is determined and the transmission button is pressed (S78). here,
Transmission is performed using the data indicated by the pointer (S79).

When the number of data entries including the first character is large, the confirm button is pressed to confirm the first character, and then the button to which the second character of the target data is assigned is pressed. At this time, the first character of the LCD display is fixed, and the second character is selectively displayed while skipping to the target character.

By repeating the above operation, if the target data exists, the search can be performed, and if the target data does not exist, the LCD can be searched.
The information displayed on the display unit 62 makes it possible to know it. FIG. 8 shows an example of the LCD display at this time.
Here, the LCD display unit 62 displays the searching data display unit A.
, A confirmed / searching character display portion B and an index display portion C, and the searching data display portion A displays a set of data including up to the N-1th character that has already been fixed. It is assumed that the display section C displays the entry (S, S, S) of the character under search. Further, in the confirmed / retrieved character display section B, the already confirmed character is displayed without a cursor, and the character currently being retrieved is displayed using a cursor (here, a section cursor).

Here, another embodiment in which the data search method of the present invention is expanded will be described. First, the search target data is narrowed down according to a known search method such as group search or phonetic kana search, and the data search method of the present invention is applied to the narrowed-down data set to improve the search efficiency. Can be considered. It is also possible to prompt the user to search for data by monitoring the frequency of use of multiple search methods with a counter etc. and retaining them, and providing the user with the search method with the highest frequency of use as the initial screen. Conceivable. Alternatively, in the immediately preceding data search, it is conceivable to provide the user with the search method used by the user as an initial screen, and the user can select and use these user interfaces as appropriate to further improve operability. Can be expected to improve.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to retrieve the target data by sequentially retrieving the group of characters assigned to one button from the sorted data, and the retrieved character can be retrieved. The presence / absence of data belonging to a group is held and can be displayed on the screen when the character is searched as a search key. In addition, the learning function prompts the data search by the frequently used search method, or by promoting the data search by the search method used immediately before, providing the data search method with further improved operability. To do. In the above-described embodiment of the present invention, only the telephone directory is exemplified as the database, but it can be applied to the search of all the elements arranged, such as the word search from the document, and the search is performed with a limited number of buttons. In this case, the optimum data search method is provided.
It is naturally applicable to web access from a telephone by i-mode (registered trademark) or L-mode (registered trademark).

[0033]

As described above, according to the present invention, a data search method provided with a user interface that enables data search only by operating the button of the button to which the data to be searched belongs while displaying a list of data. It is possible to efficiently perform the data search performed by a limited number of buttons such as a telephone directory search in a telephone efficiently and at high speed. Also, the chance of a search failure due to an input error or the like is reduced, and the burden on the user for this is reduced. Furthermore,
The operability can be improved by first providing the user with an initial screen according to a frequently used search method among a plurality of allowed search methods or an initial screen according to the search method used immediately before.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment in which a data search method of the present invention is applied to a telephone with a telephone directory function.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing, in a tabular form, search characters and search orders defined for each button.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of leading character search information,
(A) shows a search character, and (b) shows the number of telephone directory data items corresponding to each character.

FIG. 4 is an operation flowchart during search processing by pressing a key according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an operation flowchart when the cursor is moved in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 shows a method for implementing the data search method of the present invention.
It is a figure which shows the button arrangement of the telephone which assigned the character group to the button (dial key).

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a data search process according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen displayed on a telephone LCD according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

60 ... Telephone body, 61 ... Handset part, 62 ... LC
D display portion, 63 ... Button arrangement portion, 64 ... Enter button, 6
5 ... Return button, 66 ... Call button, 67 ... Phonebook function button

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Noboru Harada             3-15 Babacho, Chuo-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka             Inside Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (72) Inventor Kazuhiko Sagara             3-19-2 Nishishinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Tohnichi             Inside Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (72) Inventor, Yuzuru Hatakeyama             24-4 Sakuragaoka-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo             Kayo communication inside (72) Inventor Takayoshi Kobayashi             24-4 Sakuragaoka-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo             Kayo communication inside (72) Inventor Kohei Milki             24-4 Sakuragaoka-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo             Kayo communication inside F term (reference) 5B075 ND03 PP10 PP13 PQ02 PQ46                       PQ66 UU09                 5E501 AB03 AC33 BA05 CA04 CB03                       EA10 EB05 FA02 FA13 FA23                       FB22                 5K027 AA11 BB01                 5K036 AA07 BB01 DD15 DD16 DD18                       DD25 DD46 JJ03 JJ12

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A data search method used in a data search device for searching data stored in a database, wherein the data is presorted by a search key element and held, and the first data in the search key is stored. A method for retrieving target data by searching for one or more characters according to. 2. The data corresponding to the character group assigned to the button is searched by allocating one or more character groups to be the search key to one or more buttons used for search and pressing the button. The data search method according to claim 1, wherein: 3. The data search method according to claim 1, wherein whether or not an element corresponding to a search target character assigned to the button exists in the database is displayed. 4. Aside from displaying the retrieved data,
The relative character position of the character group to which the data belongs is displayed, The data search method according to claim 1. 5. The search target data is narrowed down first, and the target data is searched for by the first one or more characters in the search key in the narrowed-down data set. The data search method according to item 1. 6. A data search method used in a data search device having a plurality of database search methods, wherein the use frequency of the plurality of search methods is held, and the search method with the highest use frequency is used as an initial screen. A database search method characterized by providing to users. 7. The database search method according to claim 6, wherein the search method used by the user in the immediately preceding data search is provided to the user as the initial screen.