JP2010092300A - Information processing apparatus and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information processing apparatus and program for efficiently collecting information to be searched for. <P>SOLUTION: When there is an address book for storing information to be searched for in association with the kind and when a plurality of the address books different in format are searched for, the kind of information may differ even when the information to be searched for which belongs to the same meaning kind is managed respectively. A control unit generates a search condition on the basis of correlation of a correlation table 132 so that the information to be searched for of the same meaning kind may be searched for across a plurality of the address books. The control unit obtains information to be searched for by search according to the search condition from the respective address books, integrates obtained information by correlation defined by the correlation table 132, and outputs it. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and a program.

Using the “address book” attached to e-mail software, mobile phones, etc., the user can set the e-mail address of the destination simply by selecting the desired destination from the list of search results according to the search conditions. This is convenient compared to direct input using a keyboard. Patent Document 1 discloses that an address book is shared by a plurality of computers.
JP 2007-58457 A

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to efficiently collect information to be searched.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, an information processing apparatus according to claim 1 of the present invention includes a type stored in a first information storage unit that stores search target information and its type in association with each other, and a search target. A correspondence relationship acquisition means for acquiring a correspondence relationship with the type stored in a second information storage means different from the first information storage means, storing the information and its type in association with each other; And in the second information storage means, search condition generation means for generating a search condition that uses the search target information associated with each of the types in the correspondence acquired by the correspondence acquisition means as a search target; And an output means for acquiring and outputting the search object information searched from the first and second information storage means according to the search condition generated by the search condition generating means.

  An information processing apparatus according to a second aspect of the present invention is the information processing apparatus according to the first aspect, wherein the output means uses the search target information acquired from the first and second information storage means as the correspondence relationship. It is characterized by being integrated and output every time.

  An information processing apparatus according to claim 3 of the present invention communicates with the first information storage means and an external device provided with the second information storage means in the information processing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2. The communication means transmits the search condition generated by the search condition generation means to the external device, and searches the external device for search target information searched from the second information storage means according to the search condition. A communication means for receiving, wherein the output means acquires and outputs search target information received from the external device by the communication means.

  An information processing apparatus according to a fourth aspect of the present invention is the information processing apparatus according to any one of the first to third aspects, further comprising a transmission unit configured to transmit information to an external apparatus according to a certain communication protocol. The first and second information storage units store destination information indicating destinations to which the transmission unit transmits information as search target information, and the search condition generation unit includes destination information corresponding to a communication protocol followed by the transmission unit. A search condition for searching is generated.

  The program according to claim 5 of the present invention associates a computer with the type stored in the first information storage means for storing the search target information in association with the type, and the search target information with the type. Correspondence relationship acquisition means for acquiring a correspondence relationship with the type stored in the second information storage means different from the first information storage means, and the first and second information storage means The search condition generating means for generating search conditions for searching for the search target information associated with each of the types in the correspondence acquired by the correspondence acquisition means, and the search condition generating means According to the generated search condition, the search target information searched from the first and second information storage means is acquired and functioned as an output means.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, information to be searched can be efficiently collected as compared with the case where the present configuration is not provided.
According to the invention which concerns on Claim 2, the acquired search object information can be integrated and output for every correspondence.
According to the third aspect of the invention, it is possible to communicate with an external device including the second information storage unit and collect information to be searched from the external device.
According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to generate a search condition for searching for destination information corresponding to a communication protocol to be followed when information is transmitted.
According to the invention which concerns on Claim 5, compared with the case where it does not have this structure, the information of search object can be collected efficiently.

DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments of the invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
(1) Configuration of Search System 1 FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of the search system 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention.
The search system 1 includes image forming apparatuses 10 and 20 and server apparatuses 30, 40 and 50. The image forming apparatus 10 is an information processing apparatus having a plurality of functions such as a “scanner function”, an “e-mail function”, a “copy function”, and a “facsimile function”. The image forming apparatus 20 is an information processing apparatus having a function equivalent to that of the image forming apparatus 10 and having a function of forming an image on a recording sheet. Each of the server devices 30, 40, and 50 is an information processing device having a configuration equivalent to that of a general personal computer. In the search system 1, each device is connected via a LAN (Local Area Network) as a communication network. Each of the image forming apparatuses 10 and 20 and the server apparatuses 30, 40, and 50 includes a storage device, and an address book (to be described later) is stored in the storage device. Details of the configuration of the address book will be described later.

(2) Configuration of Image Forming Apparatus 10 Next, the configuration of the image forming apparatus 10 will be described.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the image forming apparatus 10. As shown in FIG. 1, the image forming apparatus 10 includes a control unit 11, an image reading unit 12, a storage unit 13, a communication unit 14, a UI (User Interface) unit 15, and an image forming unit 16. .
The control unit 11 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) that controls the entire apparatus, a RAM (Random Access Memory) that provides a work area, and a ROM (Read Only Memory) that stores various control programs, and is described in the control program. The calculation process is performed according to the procedure. The image reading unit 12 is, for example, a scanner device. The image reading unit 12 irradiates light on a document placed on a platen glass (not shown), reads the reflected light, generates image information, and supplies the image information to the control unit 11. The control unit 11 stores the image information supplied from the image reading unit 12 and the image information received from the external device by the communication unit 14 in the storage unit 13.

  The storage unit 13 is, for example, an HDD (Hard Disk Drive), and stores an address book 131 and a correspondence table 132. The communication unit 14 is, for example, various modems for performing communication, and is an example of a communication unit. The communication unit 14 transmits information to the search system 1 or an external device (not shown) according to a communication protocol such as SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), FTP (File Transfer Protocol), or POP (Post Office Protocol). It is an example of a transmission means. The UI unit 15 includes a touch panel and various buttons, accepts an operation from the user, and notifies information by an image or sound. The image forming unit 16 is, for example, an electrophotographic printer, and forms an image on a recording sheet based on image information stored in the storage unit 13 under the control of the control unit 11.

Next, the configuration of the address book 131 and the correspondence table 132 stored in the storage unit 13 will be described.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the configuration of the address book 131. As shown in the figure, in the address book 131, information is described in each of the “destination name”, “Mail”, and “phone” fields. Specifically, in the “destination name” field of the address book 131, a name representing the destination such as the name of the user is described. In the “Mail” field, an e-mail address, which is destination information for transmitting an e-mail according to SMTP as a communication protocol, is described. In the “telephone” field, a telephone number is described. As shown in FIG. 3, the first line is associated with the destination name “Ichiro XX”, Mail “ichiro@sample.com”, and telephone “03-1111-aaaa”. Is associated with the mail name “jiro@sample.com” and the telephone “03-2222-bbbb” to the destination name “xx Jiro”. In this way, the address book 131 describes the character strings that mean the search target information.
In addition to this, other types of information such as FAX numbers used for facsimile transmission are described in the address book 131, but the description thereof is omitted here.

  The information managed for each type in the address book 131 as described above is searched in response to a request from the user, and information indicating the search result is output to the user. This is hereinafter referred to as “search target information”. Further, “destination name”, “Mail”, and “telephone” described in the address book 131 are type information indicating the type of information to be searched. That is, the storage unit 13 that stores the address book 131 is an example of an information storage unit that stores search target information and its type in association with each other.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the configuration of the correspondence relationship table 132.
As shown in the figure, the correspondence table 132 describes the correspondence between the type information described in the address book 131 and the type information described in the address book in each device in the search system 1. .
For example, as shown in the first row of FIG. 4, the type information “destination name” of the address book 131 includes the type information “ID” of the address book of the image forming apparatus 20, and the type information “employee” of the address book of the server apparatus 30. The “number”, the address book type information “UserName” of the server device 40, and the address book type information “name” of the server device 50 are associated with each other. Further, as shown in the second row, the type information “Mail” of the address book 131 includes the type information “Mail” of the address book of the image forming apparatus 20, the type information “Mail” of the address book of the server apparatus 30, and the server apparatus. 40 address book type information “e-mail” and server device 50 address book type information “mail address” are associated with each other. Further, as shown in the third row, the type information “telephone” of the address book 131 includes the type information “Tel” of the address book of the image forming apparatus 20 and the type information “phone number” of the address book of the server device 50. Are associated. In the address book of the server device 30 and the server device 40, the field associated with “telephone” is “− (Null)”, which corresponds to the type information “telephone” in the address book 131. This means that the related type information is not described in the address book.

  The image forming apparatus 10 treats the type information for which the correspondence relationship is defined in the correspondence relationship table 132 as representing the same meaning type. In other words, the correspondence relationship between the type information having the same type meaning in each address book is defined in the correspondence table 132. That is, the storage unit 13 that stores the correspondence table 132 associates the type stored in the first information storage unit that stores the search target information and the type thereof in association with each other, and the search target information and the type. A correspondence relationship with the type stored in the second information storage unit different from the first information storage unit is stored. In this case, the first information storage means is any storage device that stores the address book in the image forming apparatuses 10 and 20 and the server apparatuses 30, 40, and 50, and the second information storage means is the other information storage means. A storage device for storing an address book in the device.

(3) Configuration of Image Forming Device 20 and Server Devices 30, 40, and 50 Image forming device 20, server devices 30, 40, and 50 are each a computing device such as a CPU, a memory, and a modem for communication within search system 1 In addition, a storage device such as an HDD is provided, and an address book is stored in each storage device as described above. The address book stored in the image forming apparatus 20 and the server apparatuses 30, 40, 50 has a configuration equivalent to that of the address book 131, and search target information and its type are described in association with each other.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the configuration of the address book stored in the image forming apparatus 20 and the server apparatuses 30, 40, 50 of the search system 1. 2A shows the configuration of the address book of the image forming apparatus 20, FIG. 2B shows the configuration of the address book of the server apparatus 30, and FIG. 2C shows the configuration of the address book of the server apparatus 40. FIG. 4D shows the configuration of the address book of the server device 50. The “type information” described in the address book of each device matches the type information for which the correspondence relationship is defined in the correspondence table 132.

  As shown in FIG. 5A, in the address book of the image forming apparatus 20, as shown in the first line, Mail “yamada@sample.com” and TEL “03-3333-cccc” are added to the ID “yamada”. ”And a mail address“ tanaka@sample.com ”and a telephone number“ 03-4444-dddd ”are associated with the ID“ tanaka ”as shown in the second row. Further, as shown in FIG. 5B, in the address book of the server device 30, as shown in the first line, the employee number “001” has Mail “001@sample.com” and the extension “123”. As shown in the second row, the employee number “002” is associated with the mail address “002@sample.com” and the extension “456”. Further, as shown in FIG. 5C, in the address book of the server device 40, as shown in the first line, UserName “Fujitaro”, e-Mail “fuji@sample.com”, and FAX number “ 03-5555-eeee "is associated, and as shown in the second line, the UserName" 11 group ", the mail address" Cpf-11G@prsample.com ", and the fax number" 03-6666-ffff " Are associated. Further, as shown in FIG. 5D, in the address book of the server device 50, as shown in the first line, the name “sys development department”, the mail address “systemG@sample.com”, and the telephone number “ 03-7777-gggg "is associated, and as shown in the second line, the name" HR "is associated with the email address" jinjiG@sample.com "and the phone number" 03-8888-hhhh " It is attached.

  As described above, in the address book provided in each device, although search target information of the same type is managed, such as a name indicating an address and an e-mail address, “Mail” and “ The type information indicating the type is different, such as “e-mail” and “mail address”. In the search system 1, a cross-sectional search is performed on the search target information of a plurality of address books having different formats.

(4) Operation of Image Forming Apparatus 10 Next, the operation when the control unit 11 of the image forming apparatus 10 performs a search will be described according to the flowchart shown in FIG. Hereinafter, an operation when the image forming apparatus 10 transmits image information representing an image obtained by reading a document to an external apparatus using electronic mail will be described.
First, the control unit 11 displays a screen (menu screen P1) as shown in FIG. 7 on the UI unit 15 in order to allow the user to select a function to be executed by the own device (step S1). As shown in FIG. 7, on the menu screen P1, messages explaining the functions of “copy”, “scanner (box save)”, “scanner (mail transmission)”, and “scanner (PC save)” are displayed to the user. Soft buttons B1 to B4 for selection are displayed. Here, when the soft button B3 is selected by the user and an operation signal indicating that is supplied from the UI unit 15, the control unit 11 uses e-mail to display image information representing an image read from the document. “Scanner (mail transmission)” which is a function to transmit is executed (step S2).

  Next, when the user places a document on the platen glass of the image reading unit 12 and operates the UI unit 15 to instruct reading, the control unit 11 reads and reads the document with the image reading unit 12. Image information representing an image is generated (step S3). Subsequently, the control unit 11 refers to each address book stored in each device in the search system 1 and starts a search for collecting destinations for transmitting image information using electronic mail.

  By the way, in order to execute “scanner (mail transmission)”, an e-mail address is required as destination information. Therefore, the control unit 11 searches for the search target information associated with the type information “Mail” in the address book 131 and the type corresponding to the type information “Mail” in the correspondence table 132 in the other address books. The target information is set as a search target. Note that the type of search target information to be searched by the control unit 11 is predetermined for each function.

  Therefore, when executing step S3, the control unit 11 generates a search condition for each address book stored in the device in the search system 1 based on the correspondence table 132 (step S4). “Search condition” is a condition to be followed when searching for search target information managed in the address book. For example, what type of search target information is to be searched, or a character string constituting the search target information. Conditions such as what characters (character strings) are included and what types of search target information are to be acquired are included.

More specifically, in step S4, the control unit 11 generates a search condition “filter: (Mail = * @ *) attribute: destination name Mail” for the address book 131 of the own device. Here, “filter: (Mail = * @ *)” means that the field “Mail” includes the character “@”, and “attribute: destination name Mail”. Means that the search target information of the type information “destination name” and “Mail” is acquired. For the address book of the image forming apparatus 20, the control unit 11 corresponds to the search condition “filter: (Mail = * @ *) attribute: destination name Mail” stored in the storage unit 13. Based on the relationship table 132, it is converted into a search condition “filter: (Mail = * @ *) attribute: ID Mail”, and a search condition for the address book of the image forming apparatus 20 is generated. Here, “(filter: Mail = * @ *)” means that the field “Mail” contains the character “@”, and “attribute: ID Mail”. Means that the search target information of the type information “ID” and “Mail” in the address book is acquired. In the same manner, the control unit 11 converts “filter: (Mail = * @ *) attribute: employee number Mail” for the address book of the server device 30 based on the correspondence table 132, and For the address book, “filter: (e-mail = * @ *) attribute: UserName e-mail” is converted, and for the address book of the server device 50, “filter: (e-mail address = * @ *) attribute: name email address "and converted search conditions. That is, the control unit 11 sets the search condition for each address book based on the correspondence table 132 so that the search target information associated with the type information representing the same type in each address book is the search target. Generate. In other words, the control unit 11 is an example of a correspondence acquisition unit that acquires the correspondence table 132, and sets search conditions for searching the search target information associated with each type of the acquired correspondence. It is an example of the search condition production | generation means to produce | generate.
Note that an algorithm for generating a search condition for each address book is described in a control program stored in the storage unit 13.

And the control part 11 transmits the search conditions produced | generated for every address book of the image forming apparatus 20 and the server apparatuses 30, 40, and 50 to each apparatus by the communication part 14 (step S5).
Next, the control unit 11 searches the e-mail address described as “@” in the field of the type information “Mail” according to the search condition generated for the address book 131. Then, if there is search target information described as “@” in the field of the type information “Mail”, the control unit 11 searches the search target information described in the “Mail” field, and “ The search target information described in the “destination name” field is acquired (step S6). Note that the condition that the character “@” is included here is that the e-mail address transmitted according to SMTP always includes “@”, so that the e-mail address is not accurately described. This is because information is excluded from search targets.

  On the other hand, each of the image forming apparatus 20 and the server apparatuses 30, 40, and 50 changes the type information corresponding to the type information “Mail” in the address book 131 according to the search condition transmitted from the image forming apparatus 10. A search is performed using the associated search target information as a search target. Each of the image forming apparatus 20 and the server apparatuses 30, 40, 50 has the search target information described as “@” in the field corresponding to the type information “Mail” in the address book 131. And the search target information described in the field corresponding to the “destination name” is acquired and transmitted to the image forming apparatus 10.

  When the control unit 11 receives and acquires the search target information from the address book of each of the image forming apparatus 20 and the server apparatuses 30, 40, and 50 through the communication unit 14 (step S <b> 7), the control unit 11 acquires the information in steps S <b> 6 and S <b> 7. Based on the search target information, a screen including a list of destinations to which image information can be transmitted using e-mail (destination list screen P2) is displayed on the UI unit 15 (step S8). That is, the control unit 11 is an example of an output unit that acquires and outputs search target information searched from the first and second information storage units according to the generated search condition.

  FIG. 8 is a view showing the destination list screen P2 displayed on the UI unit 15 in step S8. As shown in the figure, the type of search target information corresponding to the “destination name” acquired by the control unit 11 as a search result is displayed in the area T indicated as “destination list”. “XX Ichiro” and “XX Jiro” are names described in the “destination name” field of the address book 131, and “yamada” and “tanaka” are “name” in the address book of the image forming apparatus 20. “001” is a name described in the “employee number” field of the address book of the server device 30. Further, when the user operates the UI unit 15 and operates the scroll bar SB downward, “002” described in the “employee number” field of the address book of the server device 30 and “UserName” of the server device 40 are displayed. "Taro Fuji" and "11 groups" described in the field "" and "Sys Development Department" and "HR Department" described in the "Name" field of the server device 50 are displayed in the area T.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of the search result acquired by the control unit 11.
As shown in the figure, “number”, “destination name”, and “Mail” are associated with each other in the search result. The “number” is a number assigned in ascending order in the display order of the transmission destination. “Destination name” and “Mail” are type information described in the address book 131. 9, “XX Ichiro” and “XX Jiro” describe e-mail addresses in the address book 131, and “yamada” and “tanaka” indicate e-mails in the address book of the image forming apparatus 20. Addresses are described, “001” and “002” describe e-mail addresses in the address book of the server device 30, and “Taro Fuji” and “11 group” indicate addresses of the server device 40. The e-mail address is described in the book, and the “sys development department” and the “personnel department” describe the e-mail address in the address book of the server device 50. As described above, the control unit 11 specifies the correspondence relationship of the type information in the plurality of address books based on the correspondence relationship table 132, and integrates and outputs the search target information for each correspondence relationship.

  Then, when the destination list screen P2 shown in FIG. 8 is displayed on the UI unit 15, the name of the destination desired as the transmission destination is selected by the user, and when the “determine” key K1 is selected, the control is performed. The unit 11 sets an e-mail address associated with the search target information indicating the destination name as a transmission destination. And the control part 11 transmits image information to the address addressed by the communication part 14 according to operation of the UI part 15 by a user.

  Incidentally, when the number of destinations displayed in step S8 is large and it is desired to narrow down, the user selects the “narrow down” key K2 on the destination list screen P2. In this case, the control unit 11 displays a screen (not shown) that prompts the user to set another search condition. Here, for example, the user sets a character (for example, a character string “ichiro”) included in the e-mail address via the UI unit 15. Subsequently, similarly to step S4, the control unit 11 generates a search condition for each address book based on the conditions set by the user, and performs a search by executing the same processing as steps S5 to S8. Then, the control unit 11 causes the UI unit 15 to display a destination list screen showing a list of search results.

  If the user determines that the desired destination is not on the destination list screen P2, the user selects the “create destination” key K3. In this case, the control unit 11 causes the UI unit 15 to display a destination creation screen P3 as shown in FIG. Next, the user selects “destination name” (type information; corresponding to “destination name”), “e-mail” (type information; corresponding to “Mail”), “phone number” (type information; “phone”). Corresponding), each search target information is set in areas t1 to t4 corresponding to “FAX numbers”. When the UI unit 15 is operated by the user and the search target information is set, the control unit 11 describes and updates it in the address book 131 of the own device.

  Further, here, the operation in the case of executing the function of “scanner (mail transmission)” has been described. For example, if the image information is transmitted by FAX, the control unit 11 sets a search condition for searching for the FAX number. After that, the process is executed according to the procedure described above. The other operations executed by the control unit 11 are the same except that the processing condition format differs depending on the function. For example, when the character included in the telephone number is included in the search condition, the control unit 11 includes type information corresponding to the type information “phone” in the address book 131 in the address book of the server devices 30 and 40. Therefore, the control unit 11 generates a search condition by excluding the condition for the type of search target information.

  As described above, in a plurality of address books having different formats, even if search target information having the same meaning type is managed in each address book, the type information may be different. Therefore, the control unit 11 generates a search condition based on the correspondence table 132 so that search target information having the same meaning type is searched for across a plurality of address books. And the control part 11 acquires the search object information by the search according to the search condition from each of the some address book, and unifies them for every corresponding relationship defined in the corresponding relationship table 132, and outputs them. . As a result, the accuracy of the search intended by the user is improved, and the efficiency of collecting information to be searched is improved. As in the past, if the correspondence between the type information representing the same type of meaning in a plurality of address books is unknown, the type of search target information is not specified, and the search accuracy decreases. However, even if the search target information has the same type of meaning, they must be presented separately to the user, and are difficult for the user to use.

  In addition, when sending an e-mail, “SMTP” is used as a communication protocol, and in step S4, a search condition for searching for the search target information associated with the type information indicating the e-mail address is set. It was generated. Although there are “FTP”, “POP”, and the like as communication protocols for transmitting information, even in this case, the control unit 11 can identify type information associated with destination information according to these communication protocols. Simply by designating a search condition for searching for destination information corresponding to the communication protocol that the communication unit 14 follows.

(5) Modifications The above embodiment may be modified as follows. Specifically, the following modifications are mentioned, for example. These modifications can be combined with each other.
(5-1) Modification 1
In the embodiment described above, the devices constituting the search system 1 are the image forming devices 10 and 20 and the server devices 30, 40, and 50, but the number of devices may be larger or smaller. In addition to an image forming apparatus and a server apparatus, a mobile phone, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), or the like may be used as long as it functions as an information processing apparatus and stores an address book in a storage device. .

  In the above-described embodiment, the image forming apparatus 20 and the server apparatuses 30, 40, and 50 that have acquired the search condition are mainly operated by the arithmetic device, and the search is performed according to the search condition. The main body may be the control unit 11. For example, a storage device such as an HDD that stores an address book may be provided as a device constituting the search system 1. In this case, the control unit 11 of the image forming apparatus 10 uses the communication unit 14 to perform each search. Take control. In addition, a plurality of address books managed for each application may be stored in the storage device of one device. In this case as well, the control unit generates a search condition for each address book and performs a search.

(5-2) Modification 2
The content and type of the search target information stored in the “information storage unit” that is a storage device that stores the address book may be any. For example, it may be a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) in an Internet search engine or an explanatory text of the site, or an information storage means for searching a document from a database storing a large amount of documents, such as a document title or creator. May be information storage means for storing as search target information. Further, the search target information stored in the information storage means may not be a character string that means the search target information itself. For example, identification information for identifying a file such as a document or an image is described, and the information processing apparatus When the search target information that is identification information is acquired, a file specified by the identification information may be read from the storage device in which the file is stored. In this way, even in the search conditions, the search target information attributes such as the date the file was created, the file type, etc. It is good also as conditions.

(5-3) Modification 3
In the above-described embodiment, the image forming apparatus 10 registers the contents registered via the destination creation screen P3 in the address book 131 of the own apparatus, but may register the contents in another apparatus. Further, the control unit 11 prompts the user to set search target information of a type other than that managed in the address book 131, and searches the address book that manages the type according to the type of the search target information set by the user. The target information may be registered.
In addition, the output form of the search target information in step S8 is not limited to the display output, and may be, for example, a transmission output to an external device via the communication unit 14, and the output form is not limited to the above-described one. . Moreover, the control part 11 may display an e-mail address on the destination list screen P2 shown in FIG. 8, and the type of the search target information to be output is not limited to the aspect of the embodiment.

(5-4) Modification 4
In the embodiment described above, the control unit 11 generates search conditions separately for each address book. On the other hand, the method of the embodiment is merely an example, and the control unit 11 searches the plurality of address books for search target information associated with each type having a correspondence relationship in the correspondence relationship table 132. Any configuration that generates a target search condition may be used. That is, the search condition format for each address book is not limited to that described in the embodiment.

  In the embodiment described above, part of the control executed by the control unit 11 may be performed in cooperation with other hardware, or may be performed by one or a plurality of other hardware. Good. Further, when the control unit 11 executes a program to execute each control, the program may be realized by a combination of a plurality of programs, and the program may be a magnetic recording medium (magnetic tape, magnetic disk, etc.), It can be provided in a state where it is recorded on a computer-readable recording medium such as an optical recording medium (such as an optical disk (CD, DVD)), a magneto-optical recording medium, or a semiconductor memory. It is also possible to download via a communication network such as the Internet.

It is the figure which showed the structure of the search system. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an image forming apparatus. It is a figure which shows the structure of an address book. It is a figure which shows the structure of a correspondence table. It is the figure which showed the structure of the address book which each apparatus memorize | stores. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the operation | movement which a control part performs. It is the figure which showed menu screen P1. It is the figure which showed the destination list screen P2. It is a figure explaining the data structure of a search result. It is the figure which showed the destination creation screen P3.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Search system 10, 20 ... Image forming apparatus, 11 ... Control part, 12 ... Image reading part, 13 ... Memory | storage part, 131 ... Address book, 132 ... Correspondence relation table, 14 ... Communication part, 15 ... UI part, 16: Image forming unit, 30, 40, 50: Server device.

Claims (5)

What is the first information storage unit that stores the search target information and its type in association with each other and the type stored in the first information storage unit that stores the search target information and its type in association with each other? Correspondence acquisition means for acquiring a correspondence relationship with the type stored in the different second information storage means;
In the first and second information storage means, a search condition for generating a search condition for searching for search target information associated with each of the types in the correspondence acquired by the correspondence acquisition means Generating means;
An information processing apparatus comprising: output means for acquiring and outputting search target information searched from the first and second information storage means according to the search condition generated by the search condition generating means.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the output unit integrates and outputs the search target information acquired from the first and second information storage units for each correspondence relationship. The first information storage means;
A communication unit that communicates with an external device including the second information storage unit, and transmits the search condition generated by the search condition generation unit to the external device, and the second information according to the search condition Communication means for receiving search target information searched from the storage means from the external device,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the output unit acquires and outputs search target information received from the external apparatus by the communication unit. Transmission means for transmitting information to an external device according to a certain communication protocol,
The first and second information storage means store destination information representing a destination to which the transmission means transmits information as search target information,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the search condition generation unit generates a search condition for searching for destination information corresponding to a communication protocol followed by the transmission unit. Computer
What is the first information storage unit that stores the search target information and its type in association with each other and the type stored in the first information storage unit that stores the search target information and its type in association with each other? Correspondence acquisition means for acquiring a correspondence relationship with the type stored in the different second information storage means;
In the first and second information storage means, a search condition for generating a search condition for searching for search target information associated with each of the types in the correspondence acquired by the correspondence acquisition means Generating means;
A program for functioning as output means for acquiring and outputting search target information searched from the first and second information storage means in accordance with the search condition generated by the search condition generation means.

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