JP2006139412A - Apparatus and method of browsing information - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an apparatus and a method of browsing information which can grasp the distribution of Web information about a point intuitively by displaying it two dimensionally or three dimensionally on a map reflecting the amount of information of Web information on a collected every place, etc., and makes it possible to browse the Web information on the point easily. <P>SOLUTION: The apparatus of browsing the information includes a communication means 101 for performing communication with outside, collecting means 102 for collecting point information on the point from a Web server based on a point name, a position computing means 103 for computing the positional information of a point by extracting address information from collected point information, an analysis means 104 for calculating the number of the point information, and a display control means 107 for displaying the map of predetermined peripheral region of the point on display means 105 based on the positional information of the computed point, generating the display form of the region corresponding to the function of the number of the calculating point information and displaying the formed display form based on the positional information on the point on the map. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an information browsing apparatus and an information browsing method for collecting Web information related to points such as local sightseeing spots, facilities, and stores and browsing the collected Web information.

Conventionally, apparatuses that display collected web information related to a destination on a map in association with position information of the destination and allow the browsed web information to be viewed are disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2 below. According to the devices disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2, Web information related to the destination can be easily obtained.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-103977 (paragraph 0006, FIG. 1) Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-300100 (paragraphs 0006 and 0007, FIG. 1)

  However, the inventions described in Patent Documents 1 and 2 do not disclose a visual display method for intuitively grasping the distribution of Web information, and the information amount and characteristics of each point at the collected destination are not disclosed. There is a problem that it is not possible to make a general comparison.

  The present invention is to solve the above-described problem, and the distribution of the Web information relating to the points by reflecting the collected information amount of the Web information of each point on the map in a two-dimensional or three-dimensional manner. It is an object of the present invention to provide an information browsing apparatus and an information browsing method that make it possible to intuitively grasp the web information and easily browse web information related to a point.

  In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, a point relating to a point is determined based on a communication means for communicating with the outside, and a point name stored in a predetermined storage area in advance or a point name read from the outside. A collecting unit that collects information from the Web server via the communication unit, and a position that extracts address information included in the collected point information and calculates position information of the point based on the extracted address information Calculated by the position calculation means among the calculation means, the analysis means for counting the number of the pieces of the point information for which the position information is calculated, and the map information stored in a predetermined storage area or the map information read from outside Based on the position information of the point, the display unit displays a map of a predetermined peripheral area of the point and A display form having an area corresponding to a function of the number of pieces of point information is displayed and displayed on the display means, and the generated display form is displayed on the map based on the position information of the point. There is provided an information browsing device having display control means.

  Further, in the information browsing apparatus of the present invention, the analysis means performs language analysis on the character string of the point information from which the position information is calculated, and determines whether the point information is information related to the reputation of the point. Analyzing and classifying into information related to reputation and information related to other than that, the display control means to display the ratio of the number of cases of information related to the classified reputation and information related to the other together with the display form, This is a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

  Further, in the information browsing apparatus of the present invention, the analysis means performs language analysis on the character string of the point information from which the position information is calculated, and determines whether the point information is information related to the reputation of the point. Analyzing and classifying into information related to reputation and information related to the other, and when the display control means displays the ratio of the number of the information related to the classified reputation and the information related to the other, displayed on the display means It is a preferable aspect of the present invention that the display area of the displayed display form is divided and displayed based on the ratio of the number of information related to the classified reputation and the information related to the other.

  In the information browsing apparatus of the present invention, selection accepting means for accepting selection of the display form displayed on the display means from outside, and the point information where the position information is calculated by the position calculating means are stored. Point information storage means, and the display control means causes the display means to display the contents of the point information stored in the point information storage means based on the selection received by the selection reception means. This is a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

  In the information browsing apparatus of the present invention, it is a preferable aspect of the present invention that the display form is spherical or cylindrical.

  In the information browsing apparatus of the present invention, it is a preferable aspect of the present invention to display the display form in a predetermined color.

  In addition, according to the present invention, the step of collecting the point information regarding the point from the Web server via the communication interface based on the point name stored in the predetermined storage area in advance or the point name read from the outside, Extracting the address information included in the point information, calculating the position information of the point based on the extracted address information, and counting the number of pieces of the point information from which the position information is calculated. The display means displays a map of a predetermined peripheral area of the point based on the calculated position information of the point out of the map information stored in the predetermined storage area or the map information read from outside. A display form having an area corresponding to a function of the number of cases of the collected point information, when displayed on the display means Form, the information browsing method and a step of the generated said display form displayed on the basis of the position information of the spot on the map is provided.

  Further, in the information browsing method of the present invention, language analysis is performed on the character string of the point information from which the position information is calculated, whether or not the point information is information related to the reputation of the point, and It is preferable that the method includes a step of classifying information into information and information relating to the other, and a step of displaying a ratio of the number of information relating to the classified reputation and information relating to the other together with the display form. It is.

  Further, in the information browsing method of the present invention, language analysis is performed on the character string of the point information from which the position information is calculated, whether or not the point information is information related to the reputation of the point, and The display area of the display feature displayed on the display means when displaying the ratio of the number of the information regarding the information and other information and the number of cases regarding the classified reputation information and the other information It is a preferable aspect of the present invention to include the step of displaying the information by classifying the information based on the ratio of the number of the information related to the classified reputation and the information related to the other.

  The information browsing method of the present invention further includes a step of accepting a selection of the display form displayed on the display means from the outside, and the information is stored in a predetermined storage area based on the accepted selection. It is a preferable aspect of the present invention to have the step of displaying the contents of the point information on the display means.

  In the information browsing method of the present invention, it is a preferable aspect of the present invention that the display form is spherical or cylindrical.

  In the information browsing method of the present invention, it is a preferable aspect of the present invention to display the display form in a predetermined color.

  The information browsing apparatus and the information browsing method of the present invention have the above-described configuration, and reflect the information amount of the collected Web information of each point on the map in a two-dimensional or three-dimensional display, thereby providing a Web related to the point. The distribution of information can be intuitively grasped, and the Web information related to the point can be easily browsed.

  Hereinafter, an information browsing apparatus and an information browsing method according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of an information browsing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a table in which address character strings and coordinate information used in the address matching unit in the information browsing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention are associated with each other. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of display on the display device of the information browsing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing another example of the display example on the display device of the information browsing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing another example of display on the display device of the information browsing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing another example of the display example on the display device of the information browsing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 7 is a flowchart for explaining the information display processing flow in the information browsing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  First, the configuration of the information browsing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 1, the information browsing apparatus 100 includes a communication interface 101, a search engine unit 102, an address matching unit 103, a web information analysis unit 104, a display device 105, a map display unit 106, a web information display unit 107, and point information. The storage unit 108, the map information storage unit 109, and the selection receiving unit 110 are configured. The communication interface 101 is the above communication means, the search engine unit 102 is the above collection means, the address matching unit 103 is the above position calculation means, the Web information analysis unit 104 is the above analysis means, and the display device 105 is the above described means. The map display unit 106 is the above display control unit, the web information display unit 107 is the above display control unit, the point information storage unit 108 is the above point information storage unit, and the selection receiving unit 110 is the above described display control unit. Corresponds to the selection receiving means.

  The search engine unit 102 uses a search engine and a WWW (World Wide Web) server 111 (hereinafter simply referred to as a Web server) based on a spot name stored in a predetermined storage area (not shown) or a spot name read from outside. Point information regarding the points is collected via the communication interface 101. The name of the spot here is, for example, a name such as “XX Land”, but may be a city name such as “XX City in XX Prefecture”. In the case of a city name, a location such as a sightseeing spot in the city (for example, xx museum) and its address may be collected in pairs. This point name information may be stored in a predetermined storage area of the information browsing apparatus 100 in advance, or may be read from the outside (a recording medium such as a CD-ROM in which the point names are accumulated). . The point information refers to information described on a page corresponding to a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) hit by a search engine with a certain point name. The communication interface 101 is, for example, FTTH (Fiber To The Home), ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line), wireless LAN, Ethernet (registered trademark) (100Base-T, etc.), and the like.

  The address matching unit 103 extracts the address information by analyzing the HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) structure for each piece of collected information (hereinafter also referred to as point information), for example, information related to “XX Land”. Then, the location information of the point is calculated based on the extracted address information. Here, the address information is information indicating the location, for example, information such as “XX prefecture XX city XX1-2-3”. Further, the position information is a geographical position of a point obtained from the extracted address information, and means, for example, latitude and longitude information. Specifically, the address matching unit 103 determines the position of the point from the extracted address information based on, for example, a table in which an address character string and coordinate information (such as latitude and longitude) are associated as shown in FIG. Information is calculated. This table is stored in a predetermined storage area (not shown). Then, the address matching unit 103 stores the spot information for which the position information is calculated in the spot information storage unit 108. Note that the address matching unit 103 may discard point information for which address information cannot be extracted or position information cannot be calculated.

  The Web information analysis unit 104 counts the number of pieces of point information stored in the point information storage unit 108. For example, the number of cases is tabulated such as “XX land: 100 cases”. In addition, the Web information analysis unit 104 performs language analysis using, for example, natural language processing technology on the character string of the point information stored in the point information storage unit 108, and determines whether the point information is information related to reputation. Are classified into information on reputation and other information. Here, the natural language processing technology refers to a series of technologies that allow a computer to understand and process a natural language that humans use on a daily basis. Specific techniques of natural language processing techniques include morphological analysis and syntax analysis. Morphological analysis refers to dividing sentences written in natural language into morpheme (word) strings to identify parts of speech. Parsing means analyzing the grammatical relationship of a sentence.

  The display device 105 displays the map information stored in the map information storage unit 109 in advance or the map information read from the outside, the display form described later by the Web information display unit 107, etc. is there. The map display unit 106 causes the display device 105 to display the map information stored in the map information storage unit 109 or the map information read from the outside. Specifically, the map display unit 106 causes the display device 105 to display a map of a predetermined peripheral area of “XX land” based on the position information of “XX land” calculated by the address matching unit 103. . The predetermined peripheral area refers to an area within a radius of 5 km centered on position information, for example. However, the predetermined peripheral area is not limited to this. Moreover, the map information read from the outside means the map information read by the information browsing apparatus 100 from a recording medium such as a CD-ROM in which the map information is stored.

  The Web information display unit 107 generates a display form having an area having an area corresponding to a function of the number of pieces of point information counted by the Web information analysis unit 104, and the generated display form is displayed on the map as position information of the point. Display based on. The function here refers to a function in which the area of the displayed area increases as the number of pieces of point information increases, for example, a proportional function or a logarithmic function. Note that the area corresponds to a function of the number of cases, but in the case of three-dimensional display, this area corresponds to a volume or the like. Further, the display form refers to a display mode when the display device 105 displays the image, for example, a circular shape or a cylindrical shape.

  Specifically, the Web information display unit 107, when the point information is aggregated by the Web information analysis unit 104 and there are 100 pieces of point information related to “XX land”, corresponds to 100 cases, for example, a circular shape. The generated circular shape is displayed at a corresponding position on the map displayed on the display device 105 based on the position information of “XX land”, for example, the latitude x degrees and the longitude y degrees. In addition, the Web information display unit 107 causes the display device 105 to display the ratio of the number of pieces of information related to the reputation classified by the Web information analysis unit 104 and the information related to the other together with the display form. The Web information display unit 107 displays the display form display area displayed on the display device 105 when displaying the ratio of the number of information related to the reputation classified by the Web information analysis unit 104 and the other information. Can be displayed in a classified manner based on the ratio of the number of classified reputation information and other information.

  Here, the Web information display unit 107 not only displays the display form of only one point, for example, “XX land” on the display device 105 but also a plurality of points, for example, “XX land” shown in FIG. ”,“ XX Museum ”,“ ▲▲ Kannon ”,“ XXX World ”,“ Road Station XXX ”, and“ ◇◇◇ Kingdom ”may be displayed on the display device 105. Is possible. By performing the processing as described above for each point and storing each piece of information in a predetermined storage area, a plurality of display forms can be displayed. Further, the Web information display unit 107 can display only 10 points with a large number of cases (number of hits), for example. In this manner, the Web information display unit 107 can browse desired information contents by performing filtering. Note that one control unit may perform the processing of the map display unit 106 and the processing of the Web information display unit 107 described above.

  Here, display examples displayed on the display device 105 will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 3 shows an example of 3D display with a circular display form. Although not only 3D display but also 2D display is possible, FIGS. 3 to 6 to be described later will explain the case of 3D display. As shown in FIG. 3, a display screen 300 of the display device 105 displays a map 301 and a plurality of circular display features. From FIG. 3, it can be seen that “XX Land” has the largest number of cases with 100 cases, and “XX Museum” has 70 cases with the second largest number. Here, when the user selects a display form displayed on the display device 105 by touching the display form, the selection receiving unit 110 identifies which display form is selected, and which display form is selected. Or the Web information display unit 107 causes the display device 105 to display a list of point information of the selected display form. The Web information display unit 107 displays the content of the point information desired by the user by touching the display device 105 in order to view the desired point information from the displayed list. Is also possible. The same applies to FIGS. 4 to 6 described later. Thus, since the information regarding the point existing on the Web can be visually determined, it can be easily browsed. In addition, although the bar used as the standard of distance is displayed on the lower right corner of the display screen 300 of FIG. 3, it can also be set not to display this bar. The same applies to FIGS. 4 to 6 described later.

  FIG. 4 shows a display example of 3D display in which the display form is cylindrical. As shown in FIG. 4, a plurality of cylindrical display features are displayed on a map 400. As can be seen from FIG. 4, as in FIG. 3, “XX Land” has the largest number of cases with 100 cases, and “XX Museum” has 70 cases with the second largest number. Here, as shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, the number of cases is not only displayed in a display form, but as described above, the collected information is converted into reputation information such as word-of-mouth information and personal impression information, and other information. It is also possible to classify and display, for example, in different colors. The classification of the reputation information and other information is performed by the Web information analysis unit 104 using natural language processing technology as described above. Then, it is displayed on the display device 105 by the Web information display unit 107.

  Here, a display example classified into reputation information and other information will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a display example using the cylindrical shape of FIG. It is also possible to display using the circular shape of FIG. As shown in FIG. 5, for example, regarding “XX land”, the cylindrical display area is color-coded into a display area 500 displayed in a certain color and a display area 501 displayed in another color. In this case, for example, the display area 500 indicates reputation information, and the display area 501 indicates other information. The same applies to other points such as “XX Museum”. In addition, you may make it display the number of cases with reputation information and other information, or display a ratio, without color-coding a display area as mentioned above. By doing in this way, it is possible to visually overview and compare how much raw voice information such as personal impressions exists on the Web.

  In addition, it is divided into categories such as entertainment / tourism (amusement parks, theme parks, etc.), accommodation facilities (hotels, inns, etc.), and dining facilities (restaurants, Chinese restaurants, soba restaurants, etc.). You may make it display. A display example in this case will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 6 is a display example using the cylindrical shape of FIG. It is also possible to display using the circular shape of FIG. As shown in FIG. 6, for example, “XX Land” belongs to the entertainment / tourism category, so that a cylindrical display area 600 is displayed in a predetermined color (for example, red) of the entertainment / tourism category, Since “■■ hotel” belongs to the accommodation facility category, a cylindrical display area 601 is displayed in a predetermined color (for example, blue) of the accommodation facility category, and “□□ restaurant” is included in the category of the eating facility. Since it belongs, the cylindrical display area 602 is displayed in a predetermined color (for example, yellow) of the category of the eating and drinking facility.

  Next, an information display processing flow in the information browsing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 7, the search engine unit 102 communicates point information about a point from the Web server 111 using the search engine based on a point name stored in a predetermined storage area or a point name read from outside. Collection is performed via the interface 101 (step S701). The address matching unit 103 analyzes the HTML structure for each piece of collected spot information, for example, information about “XX land”, extracts address information, and based on the extracted address information, the position of the spot Information is calculated (step S702). The Web information analysis unit 104 counts the number of pieces of spot information stored in the spot information storage unit 108 by the address matching unit 103 (step S703).

  The map display unit 106 causes the display device 105 to display the map information stored in the map information storage unit 109 (step S704). The web information display unit 107 generates a display form reflecting the number of pieces of point information counted by the web information analysis unit 104, and displays the generated display form on the map based on the position information of the points (step) S705). The Web information display unit 107 can also display the display device 105 as shown in FIG. 5 based on the classification of reputation information and other information by the Web information analysis unit 104. In addition, as shown in FIG. 6, it is also possible to display on the display device 105 by color classification for each category.

  As described above, according to the information browsing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to visually determine how much information exists on the Web when searching for sightseeing spots around a specific area during travel. It is possible to search while comparing. Furthermore, by selecting a display form (point) displayed on the map, it is possible to easily browse official information and reputation information regarding the point existing on the Web, and without performing a troublesome keyword search or the like. It becomes possible to plan a trip.

  The information browsing apparatus and the information browsing method according to the present invention intuitively determine the distribution of Web information related to a point by reflecting the collected information amount of the Web information of each point on a map in a two-dimensional or three-dimensional manner. In order to make it possible to grasp and to easily browse Web information related to a point, Web information related to a point such as a sightseeing spot, facility, store, etc. is collected and the collected Web information is browsed This is useful for information browsing apparatuses and information browsing methods.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the information browsing apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the table with which the address character string and coordinate information used when performing an address matching in the address matching part in the information browsing apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention were linked | related. It is a figure which shows an example of the example of a display in the display device of the information browsing apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows another example of the example of a display in the display device of the information browsing apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows another example of the example of a display in the display device of the information browsing apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows another example of the example of a display in the display device of the information browsing apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the display processing flow of the information in the information browsing apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

100 Information browsing apparatus 101 Communication interface (communication means)
102 Search engine part (collection means)
103 Address matching unit (position calculation means)
104 Web information analysis unit (analysis means)
105 Display device (display means)
106 Map display section (display control means)
107 Web information display unit (display control means)
108 Point information storage unit (Point information storage means)
109 Map information storage section 110 Selection reception section (selection reception means)
111 WWW server (Web server)
300 Display screen 301, 400 Map 500, 501, 600, 601, 602 Display area

Claims (12)

A communication means for communicating with the outside;
A collecting unit that collects point information about a point from a Web server via the communication unit based on a point name stored in a predetermined storage area in advance or a point name read from the outside;
Position calculating means for extracting address information included in the collected point information and calculating position information of the point based on the extracted address information;
An analysis unit that counts the number of pieces of the point information from which the position information is calculated;
Display means for displaying a map of a predetermined peripheral area of the point based on the position information of the point calculated by the position calculation means, among map information stored in a predetermined storage area or map information read from outside And generating a display form for display on the display means, the display form having an area corresponding to a function of the number of points of the point information counted by the analysis means, and generating the display form Display control means for displaying on the map based on the location information of the point;
An information browsing device. The analysis means performs a linguistic analysis on the character string of the point information from which the position information is calculated, analyzes whether the point information is information related to the reputation of the point, and relates to information related to the reputation and others Classified into information,
The information browsing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display control unit displays a ratio of the number of information about the classified reputation and information about the other together with the display form. The analysis means performs a linguistic analysis on the character string of the point information from which the position information is calculated, analyzes whether the point information is information related to the reputation of the point, and relates to information related to the reputation and others Classified into information,
The display control unit displays the display area of the display form displayed on the display unit when the ratio of the number of information on the classified reputation and the information on the other is displayed. The information browsing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information browsing apparatus displays the information related to the information related to the other information based on the ratio of the number of information related to the related information. Selection accepting means for accepting selection of the display form displayed on the display means from outside;
Point information storage means for storing the point information for which the position information has been calculated by the position calculation means;
The display control means causes the display means to display the contents of the spot information stored in the spot information storage means based on the selection received by the selection receiving means. Information browsing device described in one.   The information browsing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display form has a spherical shape or a cylindrical shape.   The information browsing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display form is displayed in a predetermined color. Collecting point information about a point from a web server via a communication interface based on a point name stored in a predetermined storage area in advance or a point name read from outside;
Extracting address information included in the collected point information, and calculating position information of the point based on the extracted address information;
A step of counting the number of pieces of the point information from which the position information is calculated;
Among the map information stored in advance in a predetermined storage area or the map information read from the outside, based on the calculated position information of the point, the map of the predetermined peripheral area of the point is displayed on the display means, A display form for displaying on the display means, which has an area corresponding to a function of the number of points of the collected point information, is generated, and the generated display form is displayed on the map as position information of the point And displaying based on
Information browsing method to have. Language analysis is performed on the character string of the point information for which the position information has been calculated, whether or not the point information is information related to the reputation of the point, and is classified into information related to reputation and information related to the other Steps,
Displaying the ratio of the number of information about the classified reputation and the information about the other together with the display form,
The information browsing method according to claim 7. Language analysis is performed on the character string of the point information for which the position information has been calculated, whether or not the point information is information related to the reputation of the point, and is classified into information related to reputation and information related to the other Steps,
When displaying the ratio of the number of the information about the classified reputation and the information about the other, the display area of the display form displayed on the display means is related to the information about the classified reputation and the others. Dividing and displaying based on the ratio of the number of cases to information,
The information browsing method according to claim 7. A step of accepting selection of the display form displayed on the display means from the outside;
Based on the accepted selection, displaying the content of the point information stored in a predetermined storage area on the display means,
The information browsing method according to any one of claims 7 to 9.   The information browsing method according to any one of claims 7 to 10, wherein the display form has a spherical shape or a cylindrical shape. The information browsing method according to claim 7, wherein the display form is displayed in a predetermined color.

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