JP2000163436A - System and method for information retrieval - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information retrieval system which can effectively retrieve information on the circumference of a destination of business, a trip, etc. SOLUTION: A retrieving process part 20 makes a location decision part 60 decide the current geographical location of a user or the geographical location of information that the user notices and also makes a geographical distance calculation part 70 calculates the geographical location decided by the location decision part 60 and the geographical location of information gathered through the Internet. Then the retrieving process part 20 makes a geographical relativity decision part 80 decides the geographical relativity of information gathered from the geographical distance calculated by the geographical distance calculation part 70 and displays the gathered information at an input display part 10 in the order based upon the decision result of the geographical relativity decision part 80.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information retrieval system for retrieving and presenting information published on a computer network such as the Internet and an information retrieval method of the system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art WWW provided on the Internet
2. Description of the Related Art An information server (network database) such as a (World Wide Web) system provides information by combining multimedia information such as images and sounds as necessary, mainly text information. On the other hand, in an information display device such as a car navigation system, information is provided based on a current position of a user by combining related information mainly on map drawings around the user.

[0003] In the WWW system described above, in order to enable users to easily search for information on shops, public institutions, transportation, and the like that they want to use in their daily lives,
Various search systems called WW search robots are provided. This WWW search robot performs an information collection process in which link information of the WWW is automatically processed in order, at regular intervals, and classifies collected individual information hierarchically by keywords included in the information.
By creating a database (list) of keywords corresponding to headings for search, it is possible to specify desired information (shops, public institutions, transportation facilities, etc.) as keywords, and to obtain desired information. A heading of information and a pointer to the information (for example, URL: Unifo
rm Resource Locator). On the other hand, in the car navigation system described above, a road map and related information such as shops, public institutions, and transportation which can be expressed on the road map are stored on a storage medium such as a CD-ROM, and the road map of the user is stored. At the time of reference, the presence of the relevant information is displayed as a mark on the road map, so that the user can refer to the relevant information as necessary.

[0004] However, when a user attempts to search for information such as shops, public institutions, and transportation facilities near a residential area or a destination, the WWW system requires:
It is not always easy to obtain desired information from the Internet, where a vast amount of information is provided. For example,
If the WWW search robot holds the collected information as shown in FIG. 21, for a user who is planning to travel to “XX Corporation Factory” as a destination, “ht
tp: // www. marumaru. … / Kakuk
aku / "link information is provided.
"Http: //www.marumaru..../ka
It is possible to know that the location is “Suehirocho, Ome City” and that the nearest station is “Osamu Station on the JR Ome Line” through “kukaku /”. On the other hand, when information is not directly transmitted on the Internet, such as in a private residence, it is not easy to search for the nearest station from the address of "Suehirocho, Ome City". Even if an AND search is performed using “Suehiro-cho, Ome-shi” and “station” as keywords, for example, desired information cannot often be obtained as shown in FIG. 22, and “Ome-shi” and “station” are keywords. Even if the search is performed, it is often the case that a result larger than desired is obtained as shown in FIG. actually,
“Ozaku Station” in “Osamucho, Hamura City” adjacent to “Suehirocho, Ome City” may be the nearest station, but such a result is not easily obtained. Similarly, a similar situation occurs when searching for a store or a public institution. As described above, in the conventional WWW search system centered on text information, in many cases, the regional information is classified hierarchically by administrative districts such as prefectures and municipalities, and the geographical position information related to the collected information is obtained. Was not enough to search for nearby shops, public institutions, and transportation.

[0005] In the case of using the car navigation system described above, if the destination is entered as "Suehirocho, Ome City", a map of the corresponding area is displayed. Similarly to the above, it is easy to see from the wide area map of the area that the nearest station is "Ozaku Station" located in "Ozakudai, Hamura City". However, in the case of a car navigation system, it is a certain fixed database such as a CD-ROM, and is not suitable for accessing information in which sequential information such as WWW is updated. It is more convenient to search for information on nearby shops and the like based on the WWW system.

[0006] These problems are caused by the fact that in a WWW search service using a WWW search robot, information is classified by keywords such as "Ome-shi", "Suehiro-cho" and "Hamura-shi" expressed in text. Even if it can be done, it cannot be processed well due to the lack of information on the proximity relationship due to the geographical positional relationship between individual place names and institutions. When a person who lives in Tokyo searches for the keyword "Chuo-ku government office", information on several Chuo-ku government offices from Sapporo to Fukuoka is often presented as a search result. W
Many WW search robots determine the relevancy of information based on the degree of matching and appearance frequency of keywords. In other words, the conventional system is not necessarily an effective means for searching for information such as shops, public institutions, and transportation facilities near the user's residence or destination.

[0007]

As described above, the conventional information retrieval system is not always sufficient for retrieving information such as shops, public institutions, and transportation facilities near the user's residence area or destination. Was not.

[0008] The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and information related to daily life, such as shops, public institutions, and transportation near the user's residence area, or
It is an object of the present invention to provide an information search system and an information search method capable of effectively searching for information around a destination related to business, travel, and the like.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a method for searching an information database which is distributed in a network such as WWW and searches for a current geographical location of a user performing the search. Search results are presented in an order based on the degree of relevance of information based on geographical distance, based on position information or the geographical position information of information of current interest.

[0010] For this purpose, the present invention provides a method of inputting a search condition, searching for information satisfying the input search condition, and determining a current geographical location of the user or a geographical location of information of interest to the user. And calculates the geographical distance between the geographical location of the detected information and the geographical location determined by the location determination position means, and the detected geographical distance is calculated by the calculated geographical distance. The geographic relevance of the information is determined, and the detected information is presented in an order based on the determined geographic relevance.

Thus, in the present invention, information related to daily life, such as shops, public institutions, transportation, etc., near the residence area of the user, or information around the destination relating to business, travel, etc., can be effectively obtained. Can be searched.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the information retrieval system of this embodiment.

The input display unit 10 includes, for example, a keyboard, a mouse, and a display, and performs input of information to be searched by a user, display of search results, and the like. When there are a plurality of search results, the user performs an operation of selecting desired information. In addition, if a display-integrated tablet or the like is used, the operation of the user becomes even easier.

The location analysis dictionary 30 is a database having location information of a search target referred to by a location determination unit 60 described later. The dictionary may be configured by an operator of the information search system according to the type of information targeted by the information search system, or may refer to an existing geographic information database through the Internet. Here, it is assumed that the information shown in FIG. 2 is provided by the WWW. The geographic information on the station is composed of information on “station name”, “yomi”, “route”, and “location”. These data are shown in FIG.
Since it is provided in the TML format, it can be referred to as table format data. FIG. 4 shows administrative districts, stations, railways,
This is an example in which positional information on a road or the like is held.
It is composed of "type" of information, "entry word" as a search keyword, and "geographic information" described by latitude and longitude. For example, (E139.18.33, N3
5.4.20) indicates a position at 139 ° 18: 33 'E and latitude 35 ° 46'20'N, and “Suehirocho, Ome City, Tokyo” is (E139.18.33, N35.46.20).
And (E139.19.19, N35.46.45) in the rectangle shown in FIG. In this case, since a single rectangle describes the geographic information of the area, an extra area is often included. Therefore, the position can be described more accurately by a plurality of sections as shown in FIG. In this case, the description of the geographic information is as shown in FIG. Similarly, the position of “Ome City, Tokyo” can be defined as shown in FIG. 8 or FIG. 9 and described as shown in FIG. The description method of the geographic information shown here is an example, and other than this, a representation method using a polygon along the outer periphery surrounding the area, or a first mesh code used in a topographic map issued by the Geographical Survey Institute of Japan. (About 80 km square, "5339" for "Tokyo"), a secondary mesh code (about 10 km square, "52" for "Ome") and a tertiary mesh code (about 1 km square, for example, "2
3)), an extended mesh code (for example, "45") obtained by further dividing the mesh into small areas is introduced, and a corresponding mesh code, for example, "5339-52-23" is obtained.
It is also conceivable to use a method of expressing the list by listing “−45”. When a WWW homepage of a store exists, a database including “URL”, “store name” and “location”, or “URL” is used. "And" geographic information "are automatically or artificially created as shown in FIG.
Store search in a certain area range becomes possible.

The transmission information collection unit 40 analyzes information transmitted from, for example, a WWW site from its source file (for example, HTML text), extracts keywords, and creates a URL list. For example, FIG.
As shown in FIG. 2, a part that can be a keyword is extracted from the source text (see FIG. 13) of the information about “XX Corporation □ Factory” transmitted. FIG. 14 shows an example of the extracted keywords. For example, the extracted keywords are stored in a search information database 52 of a transmission information storage unit 50 described later as data associating URLs and keywords as shown in FIG.

The transmission information storage unit 50 analyzes and stores transmission information collected from the Internet, and stores a search keyword dictionary 51 and a search information database 5.
And 2.

The search keyword dictionary 51 is a list composed of, for example, "entry words" and "alias" as shown in FIG. It is used to normalize the fluctuation of notation when performing a character string search. These can be automatically collected from the Internet, but are usually created artificially from databases on prefectures and municipalities issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the like, or data on stations provided by railway companies. Is more accurate,
Update operation is also easy and reliable.

On the other hand, the search information database 52 is a list describing URL keywords for each collected WWW page (see FIG. 15).

The location determining section 60 determines the current geographic location of the user or the geographic location of the information which the user is currently paying attention to, for example, information displayed on a WWW browser. As a method of obtaining the current geographical location of the user, GPS (Global Posi
The system may obtain latitude and longitude information from a signal from a switching system, or determine the position based on telephone area code or the like, which is setting information of a personal computer. In the case of use in a company, the setting UR of the startup page of the WWW browser
Through L, it can be determined from a correspondence table between URL and geographic information as shown in FIG.

The geographical distance determination unit 70 is used to determine the current geographical location or the current user's attention, for example, WW.
A geographical distance between the geographical location of the information displayed on the W browser and one or a plurality of pieces of transmission information obtained as a search result is calculated. Specifically, the location determination unit 60 obtains the latitude and longitude information, and calculates the distance between the two points.

The geographical relevance determining unit 80 determines the current geographical location or the geographical location of the information of which the user is currently paying attention, for each of one or a plurality of pieces of transmission information obtained as a search result. Order the degree of relevance based on the geographical distance from. Basically, the information is presented to the user in the order of the smallest geographical distance.However, since there are cases where information of multiple types is mixed, after classifying according to the type, comprehensive The display order can be determined. For example, if information on stations and bus stops is included in the list of search results, (1) stations and bus stops are broadly classified and presented in the order of geographic distance, (2)
Various presentation orders are determined according to the status of the search result list, for example, by largely classifying according to the location, for example, a municipal section or a town name, and presenting in order of geographical distance.

Here, information retrieval by the retrieval processing unit 20 will be described based on the processing in each processing unit described above.

In executing the search processing, the search processing unit 20
Is the current geographical location of the user or the current user is paying attention by the location determination unit 60, for example, WWW
Determine the geographical location of the information displayed on the browser.

For example, FIG. 17 shows that the user is currently
This is an example of an information search screen when a position information input device such as a GPS notifies that the vehicle is at a position of 35 degrees 11 minutes 22.3 seconds and 35 degrees 33 minutes 22 seconds north latitude. Assuming that the user's desired search target is “XX Corporation □ factory”, it is assumed here that “□□ factory” has been input as a search keyword in the input display unit 10.
The search processing unit 20 converts the input search keyword into the search keyword shown in FIG.
By referring to the search keyword dictionary 51 shown in FIG.
It interprets the meaning of “□□ factory” or “XX corporation □□ factory” and searches the search information database 52 shown in FIG. As a result, a desired WWW page as shown in FIG. 12 is presented to the user. That is, for example, when the input keyword is “Suehiro-cho”, the search keyword dictionary 51 is “Suehiro-cho, Ome-shi, Tokyo”. In other words, it functions to enable the search to be executed in a normalized form of the search keyword.

On the other hand, FIG. 18 shows an example in which the user tries to search for information on the surrounding transportation systems, for example, railways, while paying attention to the WWW information of the above-mentioned “XX Corporation □ factory”. It is. It instructs to search for information on "stations" within "5 km" in "transportation". The system specifies "5km" or "10k" in advance for the search range.
The user may set a selection value such as "m", or the user may directly input a numerical value. Of course, selections such as "same municipalities" and "adjacent municipalities" With the above settings, the result of searching the search information database 52 as shown in FIG. 15 while referring to the location analysis dictionary 30 having the contents illustrated in FIG. This is shown in Fig. 18. At this time, in this example, when a list of search results is displayed, the list is displayed in the order according to the geographical distance to the information of interest "XX corporation factory". When the user performs a selection operation on the input display unit 10 from the list, it is also possible to perform a grouping display for each railway line, as shown in FIG. Results like this Here, the focus information of the user "○
○ □□ Factory ”and search information“ JR Ome Line Ozaku Station ”
Is displayed on a single map in the form shown in the figure.

Incidentally, the information retrieval system of the present invention can be applied to the following system. (1) Information retrieval system for transportation such as trains and buses Compared with public institutions such as prefectures and municipalities, the jurisdiction is determined in advance by the address of the individual or the location of the company. In the case of transportation, such as trains and buses, the use of these services across administrative divisions is performed on a daily basis.
Further, for example, even if the destination name and the station name are the same, there are many cases where the station is not always the nearest station. It is very effective if the search can be performed by specifying the geographical distance to the destination together with the specification by the street name. In addition, by linking with a timetable database and transfer information database,
An easy-to-use traffic navigation system can be realized. (2) Store information search system Even with a search system based on a conventional WWW search robot,
If the desired product name is known, the store information can be easily searched. However, since geographical position information is not considered, it is necessary to narrow down the desired search result by specifying a keyword by a place name separately. there were. Therefore, if the present invention is applied, information retrieval within a certain geographical range will be performed.

[0028]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, for example, an information display device for searching and displaying electronically accessible information published on an information communication network such as the Internet, and the information search In an information search system including an information search server device for assisting
It is possible to effectively search for information related to daily life, such as shops, public institutions, and transportation facilities near the user's residence area, or information around a destination related to business, travel, and the like.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an information search system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an exemplary view exemplifying information provided by WWW of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an HTML description for providing the information shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an exemplary view showing an example in which positional information on administrative districts, stations, railways, roads, and the like according to the embodiment is held;

FIG. 5 is an exemplary view showing an example of sections of geographic information according to the embodiment;

FIG. 6 is an exemplary view showing an example of sections of geographic information according to the embodiment;

FIG. 7 is an exemplary view showing a description example of geographic information according to the embodiment;

FIG. 8 is an exemplary view showing an example of sections of geographic information according to the embodiment;

FIG. 9 is an exemplary view showing an example of sections of geographic information according to the embodiment;

FIG. 10 is an exemplary view showing a description example of geographic information according to the embodiment;

FIG. 11 is an exemplary view showing a description example of geographic information according to the embodiment;

FIG. 12 is an exemplary view showing transmission information on the Internet according to the embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an HTML description for transmitting the information shown in FIG. 12;

FIG. 14 is a view showing an example of an analysis result of the HTML description of FIG. 13;

FIG. 15 is an exemplary view showing a data example of a search information database of the embodiment.

FIG. 16 is an exemplary view showing an example of a search keyword dictionary of the embodiment.

FIG. 17 is an exemplary view illustrating a search screen (search based on a user's location) according to the embodiment;

FIG. 18 is a view exemplifying a search screen (search based on a geographical location regarding information of interest of the user) according to the embodiment;

FIG. 19 is an exemplary view showing an example of a search result list according to the embodiment;

FIG. 20 is an exemplary view showing a display example of a search result of the embodiment.

FIG. 21 is a diagram showing an example of collected information of a WWW search robot.

FIG. 22 is an example in which a desired search result cannot be obtained (not applicable)
FIG.

FIG. 23: An example in which a desired search result cannot be obtained (many applicable cases)
FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Input display part 20 ... Search processing part 30 ... Location determination dictionary 40 ... Transmission information collection part 50 ... Transmission information storage part 51 ... Search keyword dictionary 52 ... Search information database 60 ... Location determination part 70 ... Geographic distance calculation Part 80: Geographic relevance judgment part

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An information retrieval system for retrieving desired information from various types of information including texts, images and sounds obtained from an unspecified number of computers connected via a computer network. Means for searching for information that satisfies the search condition input by the input means; and location determination means for determining the current geographic location of the user or the geographic location of information of interest to the user. A geographical distance calculating unit that calculates a geographical distance between the geographical location of the information detected by the search processing unit and the geographical location determined by the location determination unit; and the geographical distance. A geographic relevance determining unit that determines a geographic relevance of the detected information based on the geographic distance calculated by the calculating unit; An information retrieval system, comprising: an information presentation unit that presents the detected information in an order based on the geographic relevance determined by the geographic relevance determination unit. 2. An information search method of an information search system for searching for desired information from various types of information including texts, images and sounds obtained from an unspecified number of computers connected via a computer network, comprising: To search for information that satisfies the input search condition, determine the current geographical location of the user or the geographical location of the information of interest to the user, and determine the geographical location of the detected information. Calculating a geographical distance between the location and the determined geographical location; determining a geographical relevance of the detected information based on the calculated geographical distance; An information retrieval method characterized by presenting the detected information in an order based on the information.