JP2007213431A - Information providing system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information providing system capable of providing information useful to multi-purpose map search users by providing news articles in association with a map displayed. <P>SOLUTION: The information providing system includes a map search means for searching a map upon a request from a client; a news article search means for searching for news articles related to an area displayed in the map searched; and a page creating means for creating a page including an image of the map searched and a list of links to the news articles found and for displaying the page to the client. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an information providing system that provides a news article in association with a displayed map.

Patent Document 1 discloses a map display device that can display a map corresponding to a word that expresses a point included in a document from a hypertext structure document.
Japanese Patent No. 3307843

  However, the technique described in Patent Document 1 is intended to display a map of a related area in order to facilitate understanding of the document when reading the document, and to the user who displayed the map. It does not provide useful information. Further, as described above, there has been a technique for displaying a map corresponding to a word or phrase in a document, but there has been no technique for displaying a related document from position information on the map.

  The present invention has been proposed in view of the above-described conventional problems, and its object is to provide a news article in association with a displayed map, which is useful for a multi-purpose map search user. An object is to provide an information providing system capable of providing information.

  In order to solve the above problems, according to the present invention, as described in claim 1, map search means for searching for a map in response to a request from a client, and a region displayed on the searched map Information provision comprising news article search means for searching for news articles related to, and page generation means for generating a page including a searched map image and a linked list to the searched news article and displaying the page on the client The system is the gist.

  In addition, as described in claim 2, in the information providing system according to claim 1, the news article search means includes a news article database with location information or landmark position information included in the news article, The search can be performed based on the position information of the searched map.

  Further, as described in claim 3, in the information providing system according to claim 2, the news article search means performs a search based on position information of a display range of the searched map. Can do.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the information providing system according to the second aspect, the news article search means performs a search based on position information within a predetermined range from the center of the searched map. Can be.

  In addition, as described in claim 5, in the information providing system according to claim 1, the news article search means includes a news article including a place name or a landmark existing in an area displayed on the searched map. Can be searched.

  In addition, as described in claim 6, a step of searching for a map in response to a request from a client, a step of searching for a news article related to an area displayed on the searched map, and a searched map And a step of generating a page including a linked list to the searched news article and displaying the page on a client.

  In the information providing system of the present invention, it is possible to provide useful information to a multipurpose map search user by providing a news article in association with the displayed map.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described.

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

  In FIG. 1, an information providing system includes an information providing server 1 connected to a network 2 such as the Internet, a PC (Personal Computer), a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), a mobile phone, etc. that can access the network 2 by wire or wirelessly. The plurality of clients 3 are included.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of the information providing server 1. The information providing server 1 does not need to be configured as a single server device, and may be configured in a distributed form for each function.

  In FIG. 2, when there is a map display request from the client 3 (FIG. 1) via the network 2, this request is given to the map search unit 102 via the communication control unit 101.

  When the map display request includes a place name and a landmark (such as a famous place or a famous facility name), the map search unit 102 searches the place name / landmark database 103 to obtain position information (latitude / longitude). When there are a plurality of candidates, the map search unit 102 presents the candidates to the client 3 side via the page generation unit 113 and the communication control unit 101, and selects a desired one from them.

  When the position information of the map to be displayed is specified, the map output unit 105 acquires a map image from the map database 104 based on the position information, and outputs the map image to the page generation unit 113.

  On the other hand, news articles that occur from time to time are input in the news article input unit 106 and stored in the news article database 107.

  For the accumulated news articles, the morpheme analysis unit 108 breaks the text into morphemes (words), and the position information acquisition unit 109 searches the place name / landmark database 103 for words that can specify the region, and positions them. Get information. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a news article, and shows a state in which position information (N: north latitude, E: east longitude) is acquired for “XXX Hills” and “XXX fire department” included in the text.

  Returning to FIG. 2, the additional information setting unit 110 sets the acquired position information as additional information in the news article database 107. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the structure of the news article database 107. The main body information 107a in which the article ID, headline (news article title), and body are associated with each other, the article ID, and position information (N: north latitude, E: East longitude) is associated with the additional information 107b.

  Returning to FIG. 2, in parallel with the map output unit 105 outputting the map image to the page generation unit 113, the news article search unit 111 receives position information from the map output unit 105 and searches the news article database 107. . As the position information received from the map output unit 105, there can be two patterns, that is, position information having an upper limit and a lower limit corresponding to the display range of the map and a case of position information at the center of the map.

  In the case of position information having an upper limit / lower limit corresponding to the display range of the map, the news article search unit 111 collates position information included in the additional information of the news article database 107, and position information corresponding to the display range of the map News articles included in the upper and lower limits of. In the case of position information at the center of the map, news articles included in a predetermined range are extracted from the position information.

  Next, the news article output unit 112 acquires information on the searched news article from the news article database 107 and outputs it to the page generation unit 113. When the user's preference can be grasped in advance based on the user's member ID or the like, only the news article that meets the preference can be output.

  The page generation unit 113 generates a page including a searched map image and a linked list to the searched news article, and displays the page on the client 3 via the communication control unit 101. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of the display screen 31 in the client 3, and includes a map image 32 and a news article list 33. By clicking a desired item from the news article list 33 on the client 3 side, the body of the news article can be referred to.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating another configuration example of the information providing server 1. In this example, a news article including a place name or a landmark existing in an area displayed on the searched map is searched without setting additional information including position information in the news article in advance. Since it is not necessary to perform processes such as morphological analysis and position information acquisition in advance, news articles can be provided in real time.

  In FIG. 6, when there is a map display request from the client 3 (FIG. 1) via the network 2, this request is given to the map search unit 102 via the communication control unit 101.

  When the map display request includes a place name and a landmark, the map search unit 102 searches the place name / landmark database 103 to acquire position information. When there are a plurality of candidates, the map search unit 102 presents the candidates to the client 3 side via the page generation unit 113 and the communication control unit 101, and selects a desired one from them.

  When the position information of the map to be displayed is specified, the map output unit 105 acquires a map image from the map database 104 based on the position information, and outputs the map image to the page generation unit 113.

  On the other hand, news articles that occur from time to time are input in the news article input unit 106 and stored in the news article database 107.

  In parallel with the map output unit 105 outputting the map image to the page generation unit 113, the place name / landmark search unit 114 receives position information from the map output unit 105 and searches the place name / landmark database 103. As the position information received from the map output unit 105, there can be two patterns, that is, position information having an upper limit and a lower limit corresponding to the display range of the map and a case of position information at the center of the map.

  In the case of position information having upper and lower limits corresponding to the display range of the map, the place name / landmark search unit 114 collates the position information of the place name / landmark database 103 to obtain the position information corresponding to the display range of the map. Extracts place names and landmarks included in the upper and lower limits. In the case of position information at the center of the map, a place name / landmark included in a predetermined range is extracted from the position information.

  Next, the news article search unit 111 receives the place name / landmark from the place name / landmark search unit 114 and searches the news article database 107 for a news article including the place name / landmark in the text.

  Next, the news article output unit 112 acquires information on the searched news article from the news article database 107 and outputs it to the page generation unit 113. When the user's preference can be grasped in advance based on the user's member ID or the like, only the news article that meets the preference can be output.

  The page generation unit 113 generates a page including a searched map image and a linked list to the searched news article, and displays the page on the client 3 via the communication control unit 101. By clicking a desired item from the list on the client 3 side, the text of the news article can be referred to.

  Thus, by providing a news article in association with the displayed map, useful information can be provided to a multipurpose map search user.

  For example, if there is an errand to go to a certain destination and the surrounding map is displayed by the map search service, you can grasp the accident or incident that occurred in that area in real time, so you can postpone going or change the route you go to Can be dealt with. Similarly, if you are thinking about moving to a certain area, you will know what happened in that area, and it will be an opportunity to reconsider your destination. A map search user wants to see a map for various purposes, but can provide useful information that can be used for multiple purposes in the form of a news article.

  In addition, when searching for a certain destination, the latest event at the location or an article related to the opening of the store is displayed, so that the latest information can be known without the need to separately search for a news article or the like.

  The present invention has been described above by the preferred embodiments of the present invention. While the invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments, various modifications and changes may be made to the embodiments without departing from the broad spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the claims. Obviously you can. In other words, the present invention should not be construed as being limited by the details of the specific examples and the accompanying drawings.

It is a figure which shows the structural example of the information provision system concerning one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure (the 1) which shows the structural example of an information provision server. It is a figure which shows the example of a news article. It is a figure which shows the example of a structure of a news article database. It is a figure which shows the example of a display screen. It is FIG. (2) which shows the structural example of an information provision server.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Information provision server 101 Communication control part 102 Map search part 103 Place name and landmark database 104 Map database 105 Map output part 106 News article input part 107 News article database 108 Morphological analysis part 109 Position information acquisition part 110 Additional information setting part 111 News Article search section 112 News article output section 113 Page generation section 114 Place name / landmark search section 2 Network 3 Client

Claims (6)

A map search means for searching a map in response to a request from a client;
A news article search means for searching for news articles related to the area displayed on the searched map;
An information providing system comprising: a page generation means for generating a page including a searched map image and a linked list to a searched news article and displaying the page on a client. In the information provision system of Claim 1,
An information providing system, wherein the news article search means performs a search based on position information of a searched map from a news article database accompanied by location information of landmark names or landmarks included in the news article. In the information provision system of Claim 2,
The information providing system, wherein the news article search means performs a search based on position information of a display range of the searched map. In the information provision system of Claim 2,
The information providing system, wherein the news article search means performs a search based on position information within a predetermined range from the center of the searched map. In the information provision system of Claim 1,
The information providing system, wherein the news article searching means searches for a news article including a place name or landmark existing in an area displayed on the searched map. Searching the map in response to a client request;
Searching for news articles related to the region displayed on the searched map;
And a step of generating a page including a searched map image and a linked list to a searched news article and displaying the page on a client.

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