JP2009075757A - Information processing apparatus and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem that existing information processing systems cannot search only through event information. <P>SOLUTION: An information processing apparatus comprises: an event information storage part storing one or more pieces of event information about events collected from webpages on the Web which includes date information and keywords; a keyword reception part for receiving external keywords; an event information acquisition part for searching the event information storage part on the keywords to acquire matching event information; and an event information output part for outputting the event information. Search can thus be made only through event information. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus that outputs event information that is information related to an event.

In a conventional information processing system, when a keyword is input, it is possible to comprehensively search pages and sites that include the keyword and are related to the keyword (for example, see Non-Patent Document 1 and Non-Patent Document 2).
YAHOO JAPAN homepage, Internet <URL: http://www.yahoo.co.jp/> Google homepage, Internet <URL: http://www.google.co.jp/>

  However, in the conventional information processing system, it has not been possible to search only event information that is information about events that occur on a so-called specific date or period, such as campaigns, release dates, and screening schedules.

  If the user wants to obtain event information, the user has to search for the event information from the obtained miscellaneous search results.

  Further, since the search results in the prior art include information other than event information, the search results cannot be used as they are from a schedule management application such as a mobile phone or a PC for the purpose of carrying around or taking notes. .

  The information processing apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention is event information that is information about an event collected from a homepage on the Web, and an event information storage unit that stores one or more event information including date information and keywords, Information processing comprising a keyword receiving unit for receiving a keyword from the outside, an event information acquiring unit for searching the event information storage unit using the keyword and acquiring event information, and an event information output unit for outputting the event information Device.

  With this configuration, it is possible to perform a keyword search on event information extracted from a homepage on the Web and output matching event information. That is, a search engine specialized in event information can be provided.

  Further, in the information processing apparatus according to the second invention, in contrast to the first invention, the keyword received by the keyword receiving unit includes a location word that is a keyword indicating a location, and the event information acquisition unit includes the keyword The information processing apparatus searches for the event information storage unit using a location word received by a reception unit and acquires event information including the location word.

  With this configuration, when a term indicating a place is input, it is possible to output information on an event that is held at the place or a place related to the place.

  Further, in the information processing apparatus according to the third aspect of the present invention, in contrast to the first aspect, the keyword received by the keyword receiving unit includes a target word that is information indicating a target, and the event information acquisition unit includes the keyword An information processing apparatus that searches the event information storage unit using a target word received by a reception unit and acquires event information including the target word.

  With this configuration, when a term indicating an object (for example, a fireworks display) is input, event information about the object can be output.

  The information processing apparatus according to the fourth aspect of the invention provides a homepage acquisition unit that acquires one or more homepages stored in one or more server devices, and event information, according to any of the first to third aspects of the invention. Event information that is information for determining whether or not the event information is retrieved from the homepage and event information corresponding to the event information is acquired, and the event information acquired by the event information extractor Is an information processing apparatus further comprising an event information storage unit for storing the event information in the event information storage unit.

  With this configuration, event information can be automatically acquired from one or more home pages stored in one or more server devices. Therefore, event information corresponding to the home page updated every moment can be acquired.

  Further, in the information processing device according to the fifth aspect of the present invention, in contrast to the second aspect, the event information extraction unit searches the homepage for event determination information, and whether the homepage includes the event determination information. Event information determining means for determining whether or not the event information determining means acquires event information corresponding to the event determination information when the event information determination means determines that the home page includes the event determination information. Information processing apparatus.

  With this configuration, event information can be automatically acquired from one or more home pages stored in one or more server devices. Therefore, event information corresponding to the home page updated every moment can be acquired.

  In addition, in the information processing apparatus according to the sixth aspect of the present invention, the event determination information includes date determination information that is information for determining that the information is date information. Information processing apparatus.

  With this configuration, event information including date information can be acquired with high accuracy.

  The information processing apparatus according to the seventh aspect of the present invention is the information processing apparatus according to the sixth aspect, wherein the event determination information further includes a specific term.

  With this configuration, event information can be acquired with high accuracy.

  The information processing apparatus according to the eighth aspect of the present invention is the information processing apparatus according to the seventh aspect, wherein the event information determination means determines whether or not the specific term is included in a homepage title. is there.

  With this configuration, event information can be acquired with high accuracy.

  The information processing apparatus according to the ninth aspect of the present invention is the information processing apparatus according to the ninth aspect, wherein the event determination information further includes a specific tag, and the event information determination means uses the date determination information, This is an information processing apparatus that determines whether date information is included in a character string surrounded by tags.

  With this configuration, event information can be acquired with high accuracy.

  The information processing apparatus according to the tenth aspect of the invention is an information processing apparatus that outputs the event information in a mode in which the event information output unit displays the event information in a calendar, relative to the first invention. .

  With this configuration, the event information can be displayed in an easy-to-read form.

  Further, the information processing apparatus according to the eleventh aspect of the present invention is an aspect in which the event information output unit displays event information in the calendar in addition to the schedule information of the user who has input the keyword. The information processing apparatus outputs the event information.

  With this configuration, the user's schedule that was originally input and the retrieved event information can be combined and output, and the user can seamlessly view his / her schedule and event information.

  The information processing apparatus according to the twelfth aspect of the present invention is the information processing apparatus according to the first aspect, wherein the event information output unit delivers the event information to other application software.

  With this configuration, the searched event information can be used as it is from an application such as a schedule management application.

  According to the information processing system of the present invention, event information corresponding to a keyword can be acquired.

Hereinafter, embodiments of an information processing system and the like will be described with reference to the drawings. In addition, since the component which attached | subjected the same code | symbol in embodiment performs the same operation | movement, description may be abbreviate | omitted again.
(Embodiment 1)

  In the present embodiment, an information processing system capable of performing a keyword search on an event information DB (event information storage unit described later) extracted from the Web and outputting matching event information will be described. An event is an event that has a temporal element, such as exhibitions, campaigns, movie screenings, program broadcasts, product / service releases, store openings, historical matters, travel, etc. .

  In the present embodiment, the accepted keywords include, for example, a location word that is a term related to a location, a target word that is a term related to a target, a date word that is a term related to a date, and the like. In the present embodiment, the event information is also extracted from the Web and stored in the event information DB. Also, a technique for extracting event information with high accuracy in the present embodiment will be described. Furthermore, in the present embodiment, the retrieved event information is output in the form of a calendar, is output including its own schedule, or is passed to another application (for example, a schedule management application). The case will also be described.

  FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of an information processing system in the present embodiment. The information processing system includes a terminal device 1, an information processing device 2, and a server device 3. The terminal device 1 is a terminal of a user who wants event information, and any terminal can be used as long as it can search information, such as a so-called personal computer, a portable terminal (PDA), a cellular phone, a television, and a navigation terminal. The information processing device 2 is a server device on which a so-called search engine is mounted. The server device 3 is a device that stores a homepage on which event information is posted. Usually, there are two or more terminal devices 1 and server devices 3. A homepage is usually a file written in a description language such as HTML or XML, but it can be considered to include files written in other formats, information stored in a database, etc. good.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the information processing system in the present embodiment.

  The terminal device 1 includes an input reception unit 11, a transmission unit 12, a reception unit 13, and an output unit 14.

  The information processing apparatus 2 includes an event information storage unit 21, a homepage acquisition unit 22, an event information extraction unit 23, an event information storage unit 24, a keyword reception unit 25, an event information acquisition unit 26, and an event information output unit 27.

  The event information extraction unit 23 includes an event information determination unit 231 and an event information extraction unit 232.

  The server device 3 includes a homepage storage unit 31, a request reception unit 32, and a homepage transmission unit 33. The server device 3 is a server device that stores a so-called homepage.

  The input receiving unit 11 receives a keyword from the user. The keyword may be included in the sentence. That is, the user inputs a sentence, and the input receiving unit 11 may perform a process of receiving the sentence and extracting a keyword from the sentence. Since the process of extracting a keyword from a sentence is a known technique, detailed description thereof is omitted. The process of extracting a keyword from a sentence is, for example, a process of performing morphological analysis and extracting a noun. Further, the input receiving unit 11 may perform processing for receiving a sentence and obtaining a keyword from the sentence by the information processing apparatus 2 or another apparatus. In addition, the input receiving unit 11 normally receives an input of information (for example, a URI or a URL) that identifies the information processing apparatus 2. However, the information specifying the information processing device 2 may be held in advance by the terminal device 1. The keyword (may be a sentence including a keyword) may be input by any means such as a keyboard, mouse, or menu screen. The input receiving unit 11 can be realized by a device driver for input means such as a numeric keypad and a keyboard, control software for a menu screen, and the like.

  The transmission unit 12 transmits the keyword received by the input reception unit 11 to the information processing apparatus 2. Note that the transmission unit 12 may transmit a sentence including the keyword to the information processing apparatus 2. The transmission unit 12 is usually realized by wireless or wired communication means, but may be realized by broadcasting means.

  The receiving unit 13 receives search results in the information processing apparatus 2. The search result is event information to be output. The data structure of the event information to be received does not matter. The received event information may be a data structure (for example, HTML) that can be displayed by a so-called browser, may be in the form of a bitmap that can be displayed as it is, a format of schedule information (such as iCalendar), or the like. The receiving unit 13 is usually realized by a wireless or wired communication means, but may be realized by a means for receiving a broadcast.

  The output unit 14 outputs the search result received by the receiving unit 13. Here, output refers to display on a display, projection using a projector, printing on a printer, sound output, transmission to an external device, storage in a recording medium, other processing device or other program, etc. It is a concept including delivery of processing results. In addition, it is suitable for the user that the event information that is the search result is output in a form that is displayed in a calendar. The output unit 14 preferably outputs the event information in such a manner that the event information is displayed in the calendar in addition to the schedule information of the user who has input the keyword. The schedule information is information indicating a user's schedule and includes, for example, information such as work schedule (character string), start time, end time, and the like. The location of the schedule information does not matter. When the schedule information exists in the terminal device 1, the output unit 14 reads the schedule information from a schedule information storage unit (not shown) in which the schedule information exists, and the schedule information is the same as the event information that is the search result. And output it in the calendar. When the schedule information exists in the information processing apparatus 2, the output unit 14 outputs the received schedule information and event information in one calendar. When the schedule information exists in another device on the network (not shown), the terminal device 1 or the information processing device 2 acquires the schedule information, and the output unit 14 determines the schedule information and the event information as one Output in the calendar. The output unit 14 may be considered as including or not including an output device such as a display or a speaker. The output unit 14 can be realized by output device driver software, or output device driver software and an output device.

  The event information storage unit 21 stores one or more event information. The event information is information related to events collected from a homepage on the Web. The event information includes date information and keywords. The date information has various structures such as date, date and time, period, day of the week, month and day, and date. The homepage on the Web is usually two or more homepages existing in two or more server devices. Keywords include keywords in sentences. That is, the event information may include a sentence related to the event on the home page. Further, the event information may include information (URL, URI, etc.) indicating the location of the home page. The event information storage unit 21 is preferably a non-volatile recording medium, but can also be realized by a volatile recording medium.

  The homepage acquisition unit 22 acquires one or more homepages stored in one or more server devices 3. The homepage acquisition unit 22 usually acquires homepages from two or more server devices 3. The homepage acquisition unit 22 may acquire homepages from two or more server devices 3 by so-called crawling. The homepage acquisition unit 22 can be usually realized by an MPU, a memory, or the like. The processing procedure of the homepage acquisition unit 22 is usually realized by software, and the software is recorded on a recording medium such as a ROM. However, it may be realized by hardware (dedicated circuit).

  The event information extraction unit 23 acquires event information from the home page acquired by the home page acquisition unit 22. More specifically, for example, the event information extraction unit 23 searches for event determination information from the homepage, and acquires event information corresponding to the event determination information. The event determination information is information for determining that it is event information. The event determination information includes date determination information for determining at least the presence or absence of date information. Examples of date judgment information are “?????? year ??? month ??? day", "??? year ??? month ??? day", "??? month ??? day", "??? month", "? "???", "??? / ??????", "??? / ???", "??? Month ??? Day ~ ??? Month ??? Day", "??? Month ??? Day ???? This is a date specification expression that specifies a date such as “Monday?”. Here, “?” Is a number (full-width or half-width) from “0” to “9”. The event determination information may further include a specific term in addition to the date determination information. The “specific term” includes, for example, a character string “holding period”, a character string “holding date”, a character string “period”, a character string “release date”, and the like. In general, it is preferable that the “specific term” has a distance from the date information within a predetermined range (for example, before and after, within 10 bytes). That is, the event information extraction unit 23 determines whether or not the distance between the specific term such as “the holding period” and the date determination information is within 10 bytes, and if it exists, corresponds to the event determination information. Get event information. It is preferable that the event information extraction unit 23 determines that the specific term is included in the title of the home page. The specific term in such a case is, for example, “present”, “campaign” or the like. Further, the event determination information may further include a specific tag in addition to the date determination information. Specific tags include “<table>”, “<div>”, and the like.

  The event information corresponding to the event determination information is, for example, two blocks before and after having date information, and if the date information is in a table (table), all the information in the table, two lines before and after having date information, etc. is there. The event information corresponding to the event determination information may be the entire home page or may include a URL specifying the home page. The event information corresponding to the event determination information includes, for example, information between a specific tag “<table>” and its end tag “</ table>”, and specific tag “<div>” to its end tag “<table>”. / div> ”may be used. In other words, the event information extraction unit 23 uses the date determination information, in a character string surrounded by specific tags “<table>”, “</ table>”, “<div>”, “</ div>”, and the like. Whether date information is included, and if date information is included, event information surrounded by a start tag and an end tag is acquired.

  The event information determination unit 231 determines whether or not event information is included in the homepage acquired by the homepage acquisition unit 22. More specifically, for example, the event information determination unit 231 searches the event determination information from the homepage acquired by the homepage acquisition unit 22 and determines whether the homepage includes event determination information. For example, when the homepage includes a flag or tag indicating an event, the event information determination unit 231 may determine that the homepage includes event information. In addition, two or more event information may be included in one home page.

  When the event information determination unit 231 determines that the home page includes event determination information, the event information extraction unit 232 acquires event information corresponding to the event determination information. The event information extraction unit 232 acquires, for example, character strings such as two blocks before and after having date information and all the information in the table and two lines before and after having date information when the date information is in the table. In addition, when acquiring event information, the event information extraction unit 232 is preferably acquired without the tag.

  The event information determination unit 231 and the event information extraction unit 232 can be usually realized by an MPU, a memory, or the like. The processing procedure of the event information determination unit 231 and the like is usually realized by software, and the software is recorded on a recording medium such as a ROM. However, it may be realized by hardware (dedicated circuit).

  The event information storage unit 24 stores the event information acquired by the event information extraction unit 23 in the event information storage unit 21. The event information storage unit 24 can usually be realized by an MPU, a memory, or the like. The processing procedure of the event information storage unit 24 is usually realized by software, and the software is recorded in a recording medium such as a ROM. However, it may be realized by hardware (dedicated circuit).

  The keyword receiving unit 25 receives keywords from the outside. The term “external” refers to the external terminal device 1 and a storage medium. Moreover, you may catch with the user of the information processing apparatus 2, and the user of the terminal device 1 with the exterior. The keyword may include a target word, a location word, a period word, and the like. The target word is information indicating a target, such as “fireworks display” or “present”. The location word is information indicating a location, such as “Shibuya” “Sapporo” “Sea” “Mountain”. The term word is information indicating a period, for example, information indicating a date such as “8/25” or “August 25”, “8/25 from 17:00” “8/25 from 18:00 to 21:00”, “8 / 25 evening, “8/25 night”, etc., date information such as “August” “Aug.”, information such as “Autumn”, season information such as “autumn”, day of the week such as “Saturday” “Saturday” Information indicating That is, the user can acquire event information by designating one or more keywords from the target (What), the place (Where), and the time (When). Here, the reception is usually reception from an external device, but may be reading from a storage medium, manual input from a user, or the like. The keyword receiving unit 25 is usually realized by a wireless or wired communication means, but may be realized by a means for receiving a broadcast.

  The event information acquisition unit 26 searches the event information storage unit 21 using the keyword received by the keyword reception unit 25 and acquires event information. The event information acquisition unit 26 searches the event information storage unit 21 using the location word received by the keyword reception unit 25, and acquires event information including the location word. The event information acquisition unit 26 searches the event information storage unit 21 using the target word received by the keyword reception unit 25, and acquires event information including the target word. “Acquiring event information using a keyword” is usually a process of acquiring event information including a keyword, but may be a process of acquiring event information including a synonym or a related word of the keyword. In such a case, the event information acquisition unit 26 refers to a synonym dictionary or a related word dictionary. Note that the related words are, for example, words having an inclusive relationship such as “Tokyo” and “Shinjuku”. If the keyword received by the keyword receiving unit 25 includes “Tokyo”, the event information acquiring unit 26 acquires event information including “Shinjuku”. The related word dictionary is a map database, and holds information such as place name inclusion relations, latitude / longitude, and addresses, and the event information acquisition unit 26 refers to the related word dictionary so as to relate keywords. It is preferable to acquire event information including words.

  The event information acquisition unit 26 can usually be realized by an MPU, a memory, or the like. The processing procedure of the event information acquisition unit 26 is usually realized by software, and the software is recorded in a recording medium such as a ROM. However, it may be realized by hardware (dedicated circuit).

  The event information output unit 27 outputs the event information acquired by the event information acquisition unit 26. It is preferable that the event information output unit 27 outputs the event information in such a manner that the event information is displayed in the calendar. However, the event information output unit 27 may simply output the event information in a form of enumerating the event information. In that case, it is preferable that the event information output unit 27 outputs the event information arranged in order of date. It is preferable that the event information output unit 27 outputs the event information in such a manner that the event information acquired by the event information acquisition unit 26 is displayed in the calendar in addition to the schedule information of the user who has input the keyword. Further, the event information output unit 27 may deliver the event information to other application software. Here, output refers to display on a display, projection using a projector, printing on a printer, sound output, transmission to an external device, storage in a recording medium, other processing device or other program, etc. It is a concept including delivery of processing results. Here, the output is generally transmission to the terminal device 1. In addition, outputting in the form of displaying in the calendar may be configured in the information processing device 2 to form the event information in a calendar format, or in a data structure that can be displayed by the calendar software in the user terminal device 1, The event information may be transmitted to the terminal device 1.

  In addition, the event information output unit 27 displays the event information acquired by the event information acquisition unit 26 in the calendar in addition to the schedule information of the user who has input the keyword. The location of the schedule information does not matter. The schedule information may exist in the information processing device 2, may exist in another device on the network, or may exist in the user terminal device 1. That is, the event information output unit 27 transmits the acquired event information and the stored schedule information (the user who has input the keyword) to the same data structure (for example, iCalendar or vCalendar structure) to the terminal device 1. You may do it. Further, the event information output unit 27 acquires schedule information (a user who has input a keyword) that exists in another device on the network, and the schedule information and the acquired event information have the same data structure (for example, iCalendar, vCalendar structure) may be transmitted to the terminal device 1. If the event information and the schedule information have the same data structure from the beginning, the data structure conversion process is unnecessary. The data structure conversion process is a known technique.

  The event information output unit 27 is usually realized by wireless or wired communication means, but may be realized by broadcasting means or the like.

  The homepage storage unit 31 stores one or more homepages. The homepage storage unit 31 is preferably a non-volatile recording medium, but can also be realized by a volatile recording medium.

  The request receiving unit 32 receives a homepage access request from the information processing apparatus 2. The request receiving unit 32 is usually realized by a wireless or wired communication means.

  The homepage transmission unit 33 acquires a homepage corresponding to the request received by the request reception unit 32 from the homepage storage unit 31 and transmits it to the information processing apparatus 2. The request usually includes information specifying a home page such as a URL. The homepage transmission unit 33 is usually realized by a wireless or wired communication means, but may be realized by a broadcasting means.

  Next, the operation of the information processing system will be described. First, the operation of the terminal device 1 will be described. The input receiving unit 11 of the terminal device 1 receives, for example, one or more keywords and an event information output command (including a URL specifying the event information output service of the information processing device 2) from the user. The event information output command is input by pressing a button, for example. Then, the transmission unit 12 transmits at least one or more keywords to the information processing apparatus 2. Next, in response to transmission of one or more keywords, the receiving unit 13 receives event information searched by the information processing apparatus 2. Next, the output unit 14 outputs the received event information. The output of event information is preferably in a calendar format.

  Next, the operation of the information processing apparatus 2 will be described. First, a process in which the information processing apparatus 2 receives a home page from one or more server apparatuses 3 and extracts and stores event information will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  (Step S301) The homepage acquisition unit 22 substitutes 1 for a counter i.

  (Step S302) The homepage acquisition unit 22 determines whether there is an i-th server device 3 from which a homepage should be acquired. It is assumed that the homepage acquisition unit 22 holds, for example, a URL indicating the location of the server device 3 to be crawled in advance. If the i-th server device 3 exists, the process goes to step S303, and if it does not exist, the process ends.

  (Step S303) The homepage acquisition unit 22 requests the i-th server device 3 to transmit a homepage.

  (Step S304) The homepage acquisition unit 22 determines whether a homepage has been acquired from the i-th server device 3. If the home page is acquired, the process goes to step S305, and if the home page is not acquired, the process returns to step S304. Note that it is preferable to go to step S308 if a homepage cannot be acquired after a certain time has elapsed since the request was transmitted.

  (Step S305) The event information extraction unit 23 acquires event information from the home page acquired by the home page acquisition unit 22. The process for acquiring the event information will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  (Step S306) The event information storage unit 24 determines whether or not event information has been acquired in step S305. If event information can be acquired, go to step S307, and if event information cannot be acquired, go to step S308.

  (Step S307) The event information storage unit 24 stores the one or more event information acquired in step S305 in the event information storage unit 21.

  (Step S308) The homepage acquisition unit 22 increments the counter i by one. The process returns to step S302.

  In the flowchart of FIG. 3, the processing performed by the homepage acquisition unit 22 is usually so-called crawling of a homepage. However, the homepage acquisition unit 22 may sequentially read homepages from the storage medium. That is, there is no limitation on the method of acquiring the home page from which the event information is based.

  Next, the event information acquisition processing in step S305 will be described using the flowchart in FIG.

  (Step S401) The event information determination unit 231 converts the HTML-format homepage into text-format data, and places the converted data on the memory. Since a technique such as converting an HTML file into a text file is a known technique, detailed description thereof is omitted. Also, when converting an HTML home page into text data, it is preferable to convert it into text data that maintains the layout obtained when the HTML data is interpreted and displayed. Since such processing is also possible by a known technique, detailed description is omitted. Also, when converting an HTML home page into text format data, each character, character string, paragraph, etc. in the text format data corresponds to each character, character string, paragraph, etc. in the HTML home page. It is preferable to keep them.

  (Step S402) The event information determination unit 231 reads the date determination information stored in advance, searches the text format data (a set of character strings) obtained in step S401 using the date determination information, and sets the date Determine whether information exists. Then, the event information determination unit 231 acquires date information. The event information determination unit 231 searches the text format data for a character string that matches the date determination information. A specific operation example will be described later. The event information determination unit 231 may acquire two or more date information.

  (Step S403) The event information judging means 231 assigns 1 to the counter i.

  (Step S404) The event information determination unit 231 determines whether or not the i-th date information acquired in step S402 exists. If the i-th date information exists, the process goes to step S405, and if the i-th date information does not exist, the process returns to the upper process.

  (Step S405) The event information determination unit 231 determines a specific term (for example, a holding period, a period, etc.) within a predetermined distance (for example, before and after, 10 characters or less) from a place where the i-th date information exists. Search for.

  (Step S406) The event information determination unit 231 has a specific term (for example, holding period, period, etc.) within a predetermined distance (for example, front and back, within 10 characters) from the location where the i-th date information exists. Determine if it exists. If it exists, go to step S407, and if not, go to step S411.

  (Step S407) The event information determination unit 231 obtains a location of HTML-format data corresponding to a location (a location in text data) where the i-th date information and a specific term exist, and an HTML tag corresponding to the location. To get. Here, the “HTML tag corresponding to the location” refers to a start tag, an end tag, or the like that surrounds the location.

  (Step S408) The event information determination means 231 includes a predetermined tag (for example, <tab>, <div>, <h1>, <h2>, <p>, etc.) in the tag acquired in step S407. Determine whether or not. If the predetermined tag exists, the process goes to step S409, and if the predetermined tag does not exist, the process goes to step S411.

  (Step S409) The event information extraction unit 232 includes the i-th date information and specific terms, and the character strings (for example, <tab> and </ tab Get information).

  (Step S410) The event information extraction unit 232 converts the character string acquired in step S409 into a data structure of event information to be accumulated. A specific example of such processing will be described later.

  (Step S411) The event information extraction means 232 increments the counter i by 1. The process returns to step S404.

  Note that the processing of one home page has been described in the flowchart of FIG. However, two or more home pages may be acquired from one server device 3. In such a case, the process from step S401 to step S411 only loops so as to process two or more home pages in the event information acquisition process, and thus detailed description thereof is omitted.

  Moreover, the algorithm of the event information extraction process in the flowchart of FIG. 4 is an example. For example, in step S401, the HTML format data is converted into the text format. However, the event information may be extracted without changing the HTML format data. Also, data in HTML format may be converted into a table format such as a block unit (for example, CVS format). The data format of the home page is not limited to the HTML format, but may be an XML format or other formats. Also, event information is extracted using specific terms in step S405, or event information is extracted using the original HTML tag in step S407, but such processing is performed to increase the extraction accuracy of event information. Processing, not required. That is, for example, in the flowchart of FIG. 4, it is possible to detect only the presence of date information and extract event information.

  Next, in response to a user request, the information processing apparatus 2 will explain event information search processing with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  (Step S <b> 501) The keyword receiving unit 25 determines whether one or more keywords are received from the terminal device 1. Here, the keyword means a character string. If a keyword is received, the process goes to step S502. If no keyword is received, the process returns to step S501.

  (Step S502) The event information acquisition unit 26 determines whether or not information indicating a date exists in the keyword received in step S501. For example, “8/26” “August 26” “this month” “today” “this week” “next month” “this year” “8 / 26-9 / 12” “8/26” 9/12 "or the like is information for specifying a date including a period. If the information indicating the date exists, the process goes to step S503, and if the information indicating the date does not exist, the process goes to step S504.

  (Step S503) The event information acquisition unit 26 acquires a keyword excluding the date keyword from the keywords received in step S501, and places the keyword on the memory. Here, the keyword acquired by the event information acquisition unit 26 may be NULL (0). Go to step S505.

  (Step S504) The event information acquisition unit 26 acquires all the keywords received in step S501 and arranges them on the memory.

  (Step S505) The event information acquisition unit 26 reads event information including all the keywords from the event information storage unit 21 using all the keywords arranged on the memory.

  (Step S506) The event information acquisition unit 26 sequentially checks the period information included in the event information read from the event information storage unit 21 using the keyword indicating the date in the keyword, and the keyword indicating the date in the keyword. Determines whether the event information matches the period information. The event information acquisition unit 26 acquires the event information only when the keyword indicating the date matches the period information included in the event information. That is, filtering processing is performed by removing event information that does not match the date and period indicated by the keyword indicating the date in the keyword from the event information arranged in the memory.

  Note that whether the keyword indicating the date matches the period information included in the event information is determined as follows, for example. That is, for example, when the keyword indicating the date is “8/26” and the period information included in the event information is “August”, the event information acquisition unit 26 sets the keyword “8/26” indicating “date” to “ The period information “August” is converted to “20070801-20070831”. Then, the event information acquisition unit 26 detects that “20070826” is “20070801” or more and “20070831” or less, and determines that “8/26” matches “August”. In such a case, for example, the event information acquisition unit 26 holds calendar information and a clock. In addition, the event information acquisition unit 26, for example, has a keyword indicating the date “current month”, the period information included in the event information “August 25”, and the current time “August 18, 2007 21:18. ”, The event information acquisition unit 26 acquires the time“ August 18, 2007, 21:18 ”from the clock, and uses the time to convert“ this month ”to“ August ”. Next, the event information acquisition unit 26 converts “August” into “20070801-20070831” using the calendar information. Then, the event information acquisition unit 26 converts the period information “August 25” to “20070825” using the current time. Then, the event information acquisition unit 26 determines that “20070825” is “20070801” or more and “20070831” or less, and the period information “August 25” included in the event information is the keyword “current month” indicating the date. It is judged that it matches. As described above, even when the keyword indicating the date does not match the expression mode of the period information included in the event information, the event information acquisition unit 26 uses the calendar information and the clock (current time) to indicate the keyword indicating the date. And whether or not the period information included in the event information matches.

  (Step S507) The event information output unit 27 transmits the event information acquired by the event information acquisition unit 26 to the terminal device 1.

  In the flowchart of FIG. 5, the received keyword is AND-searched to determine event information to be output. However, only the top 100 of the event information may be filtered. In such a case, only the top 100 acquired from the homepage with the highest ranking may be filtered based on the homepage ranking which is a known technique. Needless to say, the top 100 is an example, and the top 10 may be used. In the flowchart of FIG. 5, event information to be output may be determined by performing an OR search on the received keyword. In addition, when an AND search is performed on the received keyword and the event information to be output is less than a certain number, the search condition may be relaxed and an OR search may be performed.

  Further, in the flowchart of FIG. 5, the synonym or related word of the received keyword may be acquired, and event information to be output may be determined using the synonym or the like. Since the process of acquiring synonyms and related words of the received keyword is a known technique, detailed description thereof is omitted.

  Next, the operation of the server device 3 will be described. The request reception unit 32 of the server device 3 receives a homepage transmission request from the information processing device 2. The homepage transmission unit 33 acquires a homepage corresponding to the homepage transmission request from the homepage storage unit 31 and transmits the homepage to the information processing apparatus 2.

  Hereinafter, a specific operation of the information processing system in the present embodiment will be described. A conceptual diagram of the information processing system is shown in FIG.

  First, the concept of the processing of the information processing system in the present embodiment will be described. This information processing system realizes a so-called search engine specialized in event information by focusing on “date” and “period” described on a homepage overflowing on the Web. That is, as in the concept shown in FIG. 6, the information processing system crawls a homepage on the Internet, and event information (campaigns, movie screenings, program broadcasts, product / service releases, store openings, history, etc. The target item, travel report, etc.) are extracted and registered in the information processing apparatus 2. Further, the event information may be registered manually in the information processing apparatus 2. In addition, when searching for the keyword “campaign” using an existing search engine, about 56 million homepages were hit, and when searching for the keyword “release date, about 41.2 million homepages were hit. .

  And a user inputs a date, a genre, etc. (equivalent to a keyword) using what is called a mobile phone and PC (terminal device 1), and starts an event search engine. Then, a search command including date and genre is transmitted from the terminal device 1 to the information processing device 2, and the information processing device 2 searches for event information and transmits it to the terminal device 1. Or event information is registered as calendar information of the user who searched. That is, the searched event information is sent to a place registered by the user (My Calendar on a mobile phone, My Calendar on the Web, etc.). The event information may be sent by the information processing device 2 or the terminal device 1.

  Further, it is preferable that the toolbar of the event-specific search engine is pasted on a so-called Web browser.

  Next, the operation of the information processing system will be described using specific data. Now, the event information extraction unit 23 stores the date determination information shown in FIG. Further, the homepage storage unit 31 of a certain server device 3 stores the homepage shown in FIG. The homepage shown in FIG. 8 is a homepage for notification of “event X”. Note that the description method of the date determination information shown in FIG. 7 is an example.

  Then, the information processing device 2 preferably automatically crawls two or more server devices 3 and acquires a home page stored in the server device 3 automatically at a user instruction or at a predetermined timing. Specifically, the information processing apparatus 2 holds URLs or IP addresses for accessing two or more server apparatuses 3, and the homepage acquisition unit 22 stores the held URLs or IP addresses. Read and sequentially access the server device 3 and issue a homepage transmission request. Then, the request reception unit 32 of the server device 3 receives the request, and the homepage transmission unit 33 reads the homepage from the homepage storage unit 31 and transmits it to the information processing device 2 in response to the request.

  Next, the homepage acquisition unit 22 of the information processing device 2 sequentially receives homepages from two or more server devices 3.

  Next, the event information extraction unit 23 of the information processing apparatus 2 extracts event information from the homepage as shown below. Then, the event information accumulation unit 24 accumulates the extracted event information in the event information storage unit 21. In other words, for example, assume that the homepage acquisition unit 22 receives the homepage shown in FIG. 8 from a certain server device 3 that has accessed. Next, the event information determination unit 231 of the event information extraction unit 23 converts the HTML home page into text data. Then, the text data shown in FIG. 9 is obtained from the home page shown in FIG. An example of the text data is shown in FIG. In this case, the event information determination unit 231 associates the character string in the home page of FIG. 8 with the character string in the text data extracted from the character string (manual offset is managed in association with each other). And A technique for converting HTML data into text data is a known technique.

  Next, the event information determination unit 231 reads the date determination information in FIG. 7 and searches the text format data (a set of character strings) in FIG. 9 using the date determination information. Then, the event information determination means 231 includes “?????? year ??? month ??? day from ????????????????????????}] of the date determination information in FIG. In accordance with “July 25, 2007 to September 25, 2007”, “???????? ~ ?????????????” of the date judgment information in FIG. It is detected that “July 25th to August 31st” and “September 1st to September 25th” are matched.

  Then, the event information determination means 231 includes three pieces of date information (“July 25 to September 25, 2007”, “July 25 to August 31”, “September 1 to September”). 25 ”) within a predetermined distance (here, within 10 characters before and after), a specific term (for example, holding period, period, etc.) is searched and date information“ from July 25, 2007 ” It is detected that the specific term “holding period” exists immediately before “September 25, 2007”.

  Next, the event information determination unit 231 corresponds to the first date information “July 25, 2007 to September 25, 2007” and the place (the place in the text data) where the specific term “holding period” exists. Then, the HTML data portion is obtained, and HTML tags <h2> </ h2> and <p> </ p> corresponding to the relevant portion are obtained. Since the tag is a predetermined tag managed by the event information determination unit 231 (an example of the tag is described above), the event information determination unit 231 includes date information “July 25th, 2007 to 2007. “September 25”, information around the specific term “holding period” is determined to be event information.

  Next, the event information extracting means 232 includes date information “July 25, 2007 to September 25, 2007” and the specific term “holding period”, and the periphery of the location where the information exists is determined in advance. It is assumed that a character string (for example, a total of 4 block information of 2 blocks before and after surrounded by <div> and </ div>) is acquired. Then, it is assumed that the event information extraction unit 232 has obtained the data shown in FIG. 9 as it is.

  Next, the event information extraction unit 232 converts the acquired character string shown in FIG. 9 into a data structure of event information to be accumulated. Here, it is assumed that the data structure of the event information includes, for example, “event name” “organizer etc.” “period information” “location information” “content etc.” “URL”, and the like. “Event name” is a name for identifying an event. “Organizer etc.” is information regarding the organizer of the event. “Period information” is information about the event period, date, time, and the like. “Location information” is information about the place where the event is held. “URL” is information indicating the location of the home page from which the event information is based. “Contents” is other information such as the content of the event. That is, the event information extraction unit 232 reads “event name: event X, organizer, etc .:-(empty), period information: July 25, 2007 to September 25, 2007” from the acquired character string shown in FIG. , Place information: YYY venue, contents, etc .: July 25 to August 31 9:00 to 19:00 (8:30 to 18:30) September 1 to September 25 9: 00 to 18: 00 (8:30 to 17:30) ..., URL: http: // www .... ". For example, the event information extraction unit 232 acquires a noun including a specific term such as “event” as the “event name”. Further, the event information extraction unit 232 may acquire a title (a character string between a <title> tag and a </ title> tag) as an event name. In addition, the event information extraction unit 232 acquires date information as “period information”, for example. Further, the event information extraction means 232 may include, for example, specific terms “〒” and “postal code” indicating an address, a character string including the name of each prefecture, a station name, and the terms “venue” and “venue” A character string or the like corresponding to or including "is acquired as" location information ". Further, the event information extraction unit 232 acquires, for example, information that does not correspond to “event name”, “organizer, etc.”, “period information”, “location information” as “contents”. In addition, the determination method of the information of each item which comprises event information is not ask | required.

  By repeating the above processing, the event information extraction unit 23 acquires event information from the home page acquired by the home page acquisition unit 22.

  Next, the event information storage unit 24 stores the acquired one or more event information in the event information storage unit 21. Then, it is assumed that the event information storage unit 24 has obtained the event information management table shown in FIG. 10, for example. The above is the description of the event information accumulation process. The accumulated event information is preferably indexed by an index unit (not shown). That is, for example, the event information is preferably configured in an index structure such as a hash or B-Tree for each attribute such as URL, such as event name, organizer, period information, location information, contents, and the like. Since the index part is a known technique, a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

  Next, event information search processing will be described. Now, the user designates the URL “http://www.j-event.jp/” of the event search engine provided by the information processing device 2 from his / her terminal device 1, and acquires the home page of the event search engine. , And. FIG. 11 is an example of a home page of an event search engine. The URL of the event search engine is input in the field 1101 in FIG. In addition, a calendar 1102 is displayed on the home page of the event search engine, and today is August 28, 2007. In addition, an event can be registered by the user on the home page of the event search engine, and event registration is started by pressing the event registration button 1103 in FIG. The event registration process is the same as the information registration process from the terminal device 1 to the information processing apparatus 2, and since it is a known technique, description thereof is omitted. The home page of the event search engine has a tab 1104 for designating “year”, “month”, “week”, and “day”. If “Year” is selected in this tab, it is equivalent to inputting the keyword “Year”. In addition, when “month” is selected, it is equivalent to inputting the keyword “this month”. When “week” is selected, the keyword “this week” is equivalent to being input. Further, when “day” is selected, it is equivalent to the keyword “today” being input.

  In the event search engine home page, reference numeral 1105 denotes a keyword field for inputting a keyword for search.

  Now, the user of the terminal device 1 wants to search for an event to be held this year in Shinjuku, enters the keyword “Shinjuku” of the place in the keyword field (1201 in FIG. 12), and sets the “year” tag. It is assumed that selection is made (1202 in FIG. 12) and the “search” button is pressed (1203 in FIG. 12).

  Next, the transmission unit 12 of the terminal device 1 transmits, for example, the search command “ivent_search Shinjuku this year” to the information processing device 2 identified by the URL “http://www.j-event.jp/”.

  Next, the keyword receiving unit 25 of the information processing apparatus 2 receives the search command “ivent_search Shinjuku this year”.

  Then, the event information acquisition unit 26 determines that the information “year” indicating the date exists in the keyword. Then, the event information acquisition unit 26 refers to the clock and calendar information and converts “this year” to “2007/1 / 1-2007 / 12/31”.

  Next, the event information acquisition unit 26 acquires the keyword “Shinjuku” excluding the date keyword from the received keywords, and places it on the memory.

  Then, the event information acquisition unit 26 reads event information including all the keywords from the event information management table of FIG. 10 using the keyword “Shinjuku” arranged on the memory. The event information acquisition unit 26 includes, for example, event information including “Shinjuku” in “location information”, “event name”, etc. (for example, “ID = 572”, “ID = 611” in the event information management table of FIG. Information) and temporarily arrange it on the memory.

  Next, the event information acquisition unit 26 uses the “2007/1 / 1-2007 / 12/31” obtained by converting the keyword “this year” indicating the date in the keyword to place the event information on the memory. Are sequentially checked to determine whether or not the keyword indicating the date in the keyword matches the period information included in the event information.

  Then, the event information acquisition unit 26 drops event information having “period information” not included in “2007 / 1-1 / 2007/12/31”, and finally, for example, in the event information management table of FIG. Information such as “ID = 572”, “ID = 611”, and “ID = 1102” is acquired.

  Then, the event information output unit 27 transmits the event information acquired by the event information acquisition unit 26 (information such as “ID = 572”, “ID = 611”, “ID = 1102”) to the terminal device 1. The transmitted event information preferably has a standard data structure such as iCalendar.

  Next, the receiving unit 13 of the terminal device 1 receives event information from the information processing device 2. And the output part 14 of the terminal device 1 displays event information on the display of the terminal device 1, for example, as shown in FIG. The user can easily obtain information on events to be held in Shinjuku this year.

  Similarly to the terminal device 1, it is assumed that the user inputs the keyword “Shinjuku”, selects the tab “week”, and presses the search button.

  Next, the transmission unit 12 of the terminal device 1 transmits, for example, the search command “ivent_search Shinjuku this week” to the information processing device 2 identified by the URL “http://www.j-event.jp/”.

  Next, the keyword receiving unit 25 of the information processing apparatus 2 receives the search command “ivent_search Shinjuku this week”.

  Then, the event information acquisition unit 26 determines that the information “year” indicating the date exists in the keyword. Then, the event information acquisition unit 26 refers to the clock and calendar information, and converts “this week” into “2007/8 / 26-2007 / 9/1”.

  Next, the event information acquisition unit 26 acquires the keyword “Shinjuku” excluding the date keyword from the received keywords, and places it on the memory.

  Then, the event information acquisition unit 26 reads event information including all the keywords from the event information management table of FIG. 10 using the keyword “Shinjuku” arranged on the memory. The event information acquisition unit 26 includes, for example, event information including “Shinjuku” in “location information”, “event name”, etc. (for example, “ID = 572”, “ID = 611” in the event information management table of FIG. Information) and temporarily arrange it on the memory.

  Next, the event information acquisition unit 26 uses “2007/8 / 26-2007 / 9/1” obtained by converting the keyword “this week” indicating the date in the keyword, and stores the event information arranged on the memory. Are sequentially checked to determine whether or not the keyword indicating the date in the keyword matches the period information included in the event information.

  Then, the event information acquisition unit 26 drops event information having “period information” that does not fall within “2007/8 / 26-2007 / 9/1”, and finally, for example, in the event information management table of FIG. Information such as “ID = 1102” and “ID = 2518” is acquired.

  Then, the event information output unit 27 transmits the event information (information such as “ID = 1102” and “ID = 2518”) acquired by the event information acquisition unit 26 to the terminal device 1. The transmitted event information preferably has a standard data structure such as iCalendar.

  Next, the receiving unit 13 of the terminal device 1 receives event information from the information processing device 2. And the output part 14 of the terminal device 1 displays event information on the display of the terminal device 1, for example, as shown in FIG. The user can easily obtain information on events to be held in Shinjuku this year.

  When the user clicks an anchor on the display screens of FIGS. 12 and 13, the terminal device 1 acquires and displays the corresponding home page (the home page from which the event information is based).

  Hereinafter, a mode in which the user of the terminal device 1 searches and acquires the acquired event information and the schedule information of the user input in advance by the user will be described.

  Now, the information processing apparatus 2 holds schedule information for each user in a schedule information management unit (not shown). The schedule information management unit stores schedule information input by the user identified by the user ID in association with the user ID. FIG. 14 shows a schedule information management table managed by the schedule information management unit. FIG. 14 holds a large number of records having “user ID” and “schedule”. “Schedule” has “date and time information” and “contents”. In FIG. 14, schedule information for two or more users is usually stored. It is assumed that today is February 25, 2007.

  In such a situation, it is assumed that the user (user ID: XYZ) of the terminal device 1 inputs his / her user ID and password and logs in to the search engine provided by the information processing device 2. Note that a method for realizing login and the like is a known technique, and thus description thereof is omitted.

  The information processing apparatus 2 holds the user ID “XYZ” of the logged-in user on the memory.

  Next, it is assumed that the user inputs the keyword “present” in the keyword input field. Then, it is assumed that the user presses the “search button” (see FIG. 15).

  Then, the input reception unit 11 receives the keyword “present”, and the transmission unit 12 transmits the keyword “present” to the information processing apparatus 2.

  Next, the keyword receiving unit 25 of the information processing device 2 receives the keyword “present”. Then, the event information acquisition unit 26 acquires event information including the keyword “present” by the method described above. Then, the event information acquisition unit 26 acquires the current time from a clock (not shown), and obtains “February 25, 2007” today from the current time.

  Next, the event information acquisition unit 26 receives event information for the week “February 25, 2007-March 3, 2007” including the keyword “present” and including “February 25, 2007” today. get. Here, for example, the event information acquisition unit 26 receives the event information “event name: XX beer, period information: 2007/2 / 27-2007 / 3/31, content, etc .: March 6 from the event information storage unit 21. Nissin released! [New product QQQ] 50 people present!

  Then, the event information acquisition unit 26 receives a week “February 25, 2007-March 3, 2007” including “February 25, 2007” from the schedule information management unit (schedule management table in FIG. 14). Schedule information of the user “XYZ” is acquired.

  Then, the event information acquisition unit 26 arranges both the acquired event information and schedule information on the memory in an iCalendar structure, for example. Note that if the event information and schedule information are originally of iCalendar structure, data structure conversion processing is unnecessary.

  Next, the event information output unit 27 transmits the event information and schedule information on the memory to the terminal device 1.

  And the receiving part 13 of the terminal device 1 receives event information and schedule information, and the output part 14 displays. A display example of event information and schedule information is shown in FIG. In FIG. 15, the event information and the schedule information are displayed in separate lines, but the display mode is not limited, for example, they are displayed in the same line (same area).

  A technique for displaying data having date and time information in the calendar is a known technique, and thus detailed description thereof is omitted.

  As described above, according to this embodiment, a search engine specialized in event information can be provided. Further, according to the present embodiment, when a term indicating a place is input, information on an event to be held at the place or a place related to the place can be output. Moreover, according to this Embodiment, when the term which shows object (for example, a present, a fireworks display) is input, the information of the event about the said object can be output.

  Further, according to the present embodiment, event information is automatically crawled from one or more home pages stored in one or more server devices because the home page is crawled and event information is collected. Therefore, event information corresponding to the home page updated every moment can be acquired.

  Further, according to the present embodiment, since the date determination information that is information for determining date information is used, event information can be acquired with high accuracy.

  Further, according to the present embodiment, since the date information is specified when it includes date determination information and a specific term (for example, “holding period”), event information can be acquired with high accuracy.

  Moreover, according to this Embodiment, since event information is output in the aspect displayed in a calendar, the event information which a user wants to see can be displayed with the form which is easy to see.

  Further, according to the present embodiment, the user's schedule (schedule information) that was originally input and the retrieved event information can be synthesized and output, and the user can seamlessly view his / her schedule and event information. be able to.

  Note that according to the present embodiment, the information processing apparatus 2 includes the homepage acquisition unit 22, the event information extraction unit 23, and the event information storage unit 24. However, the event information acquisition process may be performed by an apparatus other than the information processing apparatus 2. That is, the information processing apparatus 2 does not need to include the homepage acquisition unit 22, the event information extraction unit 23, and the event information storage unit 24. Event information acquired by another device may be brought to the information processing device 2 via a communication unit, a broadcasting unit, or a storage medium. In such a case, there is an event information storage device (not shown) including a homepage acquisition unit 22, an event information extraction unit 23, and an event information storage unit 24.

  Further, the information processing apparatus 2 may acquire event information stored in another apparatus when a request is received from the user (when the keyword receiving unit 25 receives a keyword). There is no limitation on the timing at which the event information acquisition unit 26 of the information processing device 2 acquires the event information.

Further, according to the present embodiment, the information processing apparatus 2 may deliver the acquired event information to other application software (schedule management application or the like). In such a case, the retrieved event information can be used as it is from an application such as a schedule management application.
In the description of specific examples in the present embodiment (FIGS. 11 to 14), the date interface is a user interface that is designated by pressing a tab. However, even in a user interface having tabs of place words (for example, “Tokyo”, “Shinjuku”, “Hibiya Park”, etc.) and target words (“campaign”, “release date”, “seasonal goods”, “fireworks display”, etc.) good. Needless to say, the interface for inputting keywords is not limited.
Further, in the present embodiment, in the keyword field (for example, 1201 in FIG. 12) for inputting a keyword, “place” for a location word, “object” for a target word, and “date” for a date word. A keyword may be input by adding a symbol such as “attribute name”. That is, if the user inputs “Shinjuku; place” in the keyword field, it is preferable that the event information acquisition unit 26 searches only the attribute “location information” in FIG. 10 using the keyword “Shinjuku”. If the user inputs “August; date” in the keyword field, the event information acquisition unit 26 preferably searches only the attribute “institution information” in FIG. 10 using the keyword “August”. is there.

  Furthermore, the processing in the present embodiment may be realized by software. Then, this software may be distributed by software download or the like. Further, this software may be recorded and distributed on a recording medium such as a CD-ROM. This also applies to other embodiments in this specification. Note that the software that implements the information processing apparatus according to the present embodiment is the following program. In other words, this program is an event information that is information related to an event collected from a homepage on the Web using a keyword accepting unit that accepts a keyword from the outside, and the keyword, and an event including date information and a keyword. An event information acquisition unit that searches for an event information group having one or more information and acquires event information, and a program that functions as an event information output unit that outputs the event information.

  Further, the program includes a computer, a homepage acquisition unit that acquires one or more homepages stored in one or more server devices, and event determination information that is information for determining event information, An event information extraction unit that retrieves event information corresponding to the event determination information by searching from a home page, and an event information accumulation unit that accumulates event information acquired by the event information extraction unit in a storage medium. The program according to claim 13 is preferable.

  Further, the program is a program for causing the event information output unit to function to output the event information in a mode in which the event information is displayed in a calendar in addition to the schedule information of the user who has input the keyword. That is preferred.

  In the above program, in a transmission step for transmitting information, a reception step for receiving information, etc., processing performed by hardware, for example, processing performed by a modem or an interface card in the transmission step (only performed by hardware). Not included) is not included.

  Further, the computer that executes the program may be singular or plural. That is, centralized processing may be performed, or distributed processing may be performed.

  FIG. 16 shows the appearance of a computer that executes the program described in this specification to realize the terminal device, the information processing device, and the server device according to the various embodiments described above. The above-described embodiments can be realized by computer hardware and a computer program executed thereon. FIG. 16 is an overview diagram of the computer system 340, and FIG. 17 is a block diagram of the computer system 340.

  In FIG. 16, the computer system 340 includes a computer 341 including a FD (Flexible Disk) drive and a CD-ROM (Compact Disk Read Only Memory) drive, a keyboard 342, a mouse 343, and a monitor 344.

  In FIG. 17, in addition to the FD drive 3411 and the CD-ROM drive 3412, the computer 341 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 3413, a bus 3414 connected to the CPU 3413, the CD-ROM drive 3412, and the FD drive 3411, and a boot. A ROM (Read-Only Memory) 3415 for storing a program such as an up program, and a RAM (Random Access Memory) connected to the CPU 3413 for temporarily storing instructions of an application program and providing a temporary storage space 3416 and a hard disk 3417 for storing application programs, system programs, and data. Although not shown here, the computer 341 may further include a network card that provides connection to the LAN.

  A program that causes the computer system 340 to execute the functions of the information processing apparatus and the like of the above-described embodiment is stored in the CD-ROM 3501 or the FD 3502, inserted into the CD-ROM drive 3412 or the FD drive 3411, and further the hard disk 3417. May be transferred to. Alternatively, the program may be transmitted to the computer 341 via a network (not shown) and stored in the hard disk 3417. The program is loaded into the RAM 3416 at the time of execution. The program may be loaded directly from the CD-ROM 3501, the FD 3502, or the network.

  The program does not necessarily include an operating system (OS) or a third-party program that causes the computer 341 to execute the functions of the information processing apparatus according to the above-described embodiment. The program only needs to include an instruction portion that calls an appropriate function (module) in a controlled manner and obtains a desired result. How the computer system 340 operates is well known and will not be described in detail.

  In each of the above embodiments, it is needless to say that two or more communication means (terminal information transmission unit, terminal information reception unit, etc.) existing in one device may be physically realized by one medium. .

  In each of the above embodiments, each process (each function) may be realized by centralized processing by a single device (system), or by distributed processing by a plurality of devices. May be.

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications are possible, and it goes without saying that these are also included in the scope of the present invention.

  As described above, the information processing system according to the present invention has an effect that event information corresponding to a keyword can be acquired, and is useful as an event-specific search engine or the like.

Conceptual diagram of information processing system in Embodiment 1 Block diagram of the information processing system Flow chart for explaining the operation of the information processing apparatus Flowchart explaining the event information acquisition process Flowchart explaining the event information search process Conceptual diagram showing the outline of operation of the information processing system The figure which shows the example of the same date judgment information Figure showing an example of the homepage Figure showing an example of the text data Figure showing the event information management table Figure showing an example of the homepage of the event search engine The figure which shows the example output of the same event search engine The figure which shows the example output of the same event search engine Figure showing the same schedule information management table The figure which shows the example of a display of the event information and schedule information The figure which shows the external appearance of the computer which implement | achieves the information processing apparatus etc. Block diagram of the computer system

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Terminal device 2 Information processing apparatus 3 Server apparatus 11 Input reception part 12 Transmission part 13 Reception part 14 Output part 21 Event information storage part 22 Homepage acquisition part 23 Event information extraction part 24 Event information storage part 25 Keyword reception part 26 Event information acquisition Unit 27 Event information output unit 31 Homepage storage unit 32 Request reception unit 33 Homepage transmission unit 231 Event information determination unit 232 Event information extraction unit

Claims (15)

An event information storage unit that stores one or more event information including date information and keywords, which is event information that is information about events collected from a homepage on the Web;
A keyword accepting unit that accepts keywords from outside,
Searching the event information storage unit using the keyword, an event information acquisition unit for acquiring event information;
An information processing apparatus comprising an event information output unit that outputs the event information. The keyword received by the keyword receiving unit includes a location word that is a keyword indicating a location,
The event information acquisition unit
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the event information storage unit is searched using a place word received by the keyword receiving unit, and event information including the place word is acquired. The keyword received by the keyword receiving unit includes a target word that is information indicating a target,
The event information acquisition unit
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the event information storage unit is searched using the target word received by the keyword receiving unit, and event information including the target word is acquired. A homepage acquisition unit for acquiring one or more homepages stored in one or more server devices;
Event information extraction unit that retrieves event determination information that is information for determining event information from the home page and acquires event information corresponding to the event determination information;
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an event information storage unit that stores event information acquired by the event information extraction unit in the event information storage unit. The event information extraction unit
Event information determination means for searching event determination information from the home page and determining whether the home page includes the event determination information;
The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising an event information extraction unit that acquires event information corresponding to the event determination information when the event information determination unit determines that the homepage includes the event determination information. 6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the event determination information includes date determination information that is information for determining date information. The information processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the event determination information further includes a specific term. The event information determination means includes
The information processing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein it is determined whether or not the specific term is included in a title of a home page. The event determination information further includes a specific tag,
The event information determination means includes
The information processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the date determination information is used to determine whether date information is included in a character string enclosed by the tags. The event information output unit
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the event information is output in a form in which event information is displayed in a calendar. The event information output unit
The information processing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the event information is output in such a manner that event information is displayed in a calendar in addition to schedule information of a user who has input a keyword. The event information output unit
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the event information is delivered to other application software. Computer
A keyword accepting unit that accepts keywords from outside,
Using the keyword, event information that is information about an event collected from a website on the Web is searched for a storage medium that stores one or more event information including date information and a keyword, and event information is acquired. An event information acquisition unit;
A program for functioning as an event information output unit for outputting the event information. Computer
A homepage acquisition unit for acquiring one or more homepages stored in one or more server devices;
Event information extraction unit that retrieves event determination information that is information for determining event information from the home page and acquires event information corresponding to the event determination information;
14. The program according to claim 13, for further functioning as an event information storage unit for storing event information acquired by the event information extraction unit in a storage medium. The event information output unit,
14. The program according to claim 13, wherein the program is configured to output the event information in such a manner that the event information is displayed in a calendar in addition to the schedule information of the user who has input the keyword.