JP2958390B2 - Information retrieval apparatus and method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for retrieving, displaying, editing, and reregistering stored information, such as an editable electronic dictionary or database.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, there has been developed an information retrieval apparatus which converts linguistic information into electronic information, stores the information, and retrieves information through various interfaces.
For example, as a typical example, there is an English-Japanese dictionary, a Japanese-English dictionary, and an electronic dictionary capable of electronically searching information such as an encyclopedia. These electronic dictionaries can search for desired information by various methods such as word search and compound search, and display the search results in a predetermined area on a display screen.

[0003]

However, these electronic dictionaries can search for desired information, but the display area for displaying the searched information is fixed.
For this reason, if you search for one piece of information and then search for another piece of information, the previously displayed information will disappear, and you will be able to see multiple pieces of information at once or compare multiple pieces of information. There was a disadvantage that it could not be done. Further, even when a part of the character string in the previously searched information is used as a new search key, the character string has to be re-entered, so that the operation is complicated.

Further, the conventional electronic dictionary has only a function of presenting searched information,
It has been difficult to create a new information source based on a plurality of pieces of search information.

[0005] It is an object of the present invention to provide an information retrieval apparatus and method capable of simultaneously referring to a plurality of pieces of information and easily inputting a retrieval key related to the retrieved information. In addition, it is another object of the present invention to provide an information search device capable of easily creating a new information source based on selected information.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, an input means for inputting a search instruction and a plurality of data in accordance with the input of the search instruction by the input means. A search means for searching for an information group; and a first display control means for displaying a search result by the search means in a first display area, wherein the first display control means performs a search by the search means. In the information search device for displaying the search result in the first display area each time the information is displayed, an instruction means for instructing another display, and the first display area in response to an instruction for another display by the instruction means, A second display control means for generating another independent second display area and displaying the search result displayed in the first display area on the generated second display area; The second display control means , Upon display update of the first display region by the first display control means, and maintains the display of the second display region. According to the second aspect of the present invention, a storage unit for storing an information group composed of a plurality of data, a first search unit for searching the information group stored in the storage unit, and a first search unit First display control means for displaying a search result in a first display area, wherein the first display control means displays the search result in the first display area every time a search is performed by the search means. In the information search device for displaying, in response to an instruction for another display by the instruction means, an independent second display area different from the first display area is generated, and the generated second display area is generated. Second display control means for displaying the search result displayed in the first display area, wherein the second display control means is configured to display the first display by the first display control means. When updating the display of the area, the second And maintains the display of the display region.
Further, in the invention of claim 3, in the invention of claim 2,
Display area management means for managing a second display area generated by the second display control means, and new information based on information displayed in the second display area managed by the display area management means A new information group registration unit for registering a group in the storage unit. According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the third aspect of the present invention, there is further provided a second search means for searching for a new information group registered by the new information registration means. According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided information comprising: storage means for storing digitized dictionary information; and search means for searching the dictionary information stored in the storage means based on an input search key. In the search device, a key input area for inputting a search key, at least one of which is a search key candidate
First display control means for displaying a candidate word display area for displaying two words, a search key input from the key input area, or a search result based on a search key selected from the words displayed in the candidate word display area And a second display control means for generating a display area in response to a user instruction, and displaying a search result displayed in the search result display area when the generated display area is instructed. It is characterized by having.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information retrieval method for retrieving an information group including a plurality of data in response to a retrieval instruction, and displaying the retrieval result in a first display area each time the retrieval is performed. , A second display area independent of the first display area is generated in accordance with an instruction for another display, and the generated second display area is displayed in the first display area. A search result is displayed, and the display of the second display area is maintained when the display of the first display area is updated. According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the information search method for searching electronic dictionary information based on an input search key, a key input area for inputting a search key and at least one word serving as a search key candidate are input. A candidate word display area to be displayed, a search key input from the key input area or a search result based on a search key selected from the words displayed in the candidate word display area is displayed in the first display area, A second display area is generated in response to the instruction, and the search result displayed in the search result display area when the instruction is provided in the generated second display area is displayed.

[0008]

The other display area creating means creates a display area different from the information display means for displaying the searched information, and displays the same information as the information displayed on the information display means. Since the separate display area can be created as needed, information desired to be referred to later can be created and displayed. Therefore, a plurality of pieces of information can be viewed at a time, or a plurality of pieces of information can be compared. In addition, since the character strings can be freely selected for the information in the separate display area, by creating the separate display area, it is possible to select a part of the character strings in the previously searched information. It can be used as a new search key.

The display area selected by the user among the different display areas displayed on the screen is stored in the plural display area selection means and displayed separately from the display areas not selected. The new information retrieval device creating means 7 integrates one or more pieces of information displayed in one or more different display areas managed by the plural display area selecting means 6 and creates a new information source. Therefore, it is possible to easily create a new information source such as a database, for example, based on information extracted from a certain information search device.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of an information retrieval apparatus and method according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an information retrieval apparatus according to the present invention. This information search device includes an input unit 1, an information storage unit 2, an information search unit 3,
It comprises information display means 4 and separate display area creating means 5.

The input means 1 is for inputting a character string relating to information to be searched, and is composed of, for example, an input means such as a keyboard. Alternatively, a character string displayed in another display area may be input by selecting the character string using a pointing device such as a mouse.

The information storage means 2 is a storage device for storing a lot of information. The information storage means may have any configuration as long as it can store information such as a magnetic disk. Further, the stored information may be any information that can be displayed on the display screen, such as texts, pictures, figures, and the like in Japanese and English.

The information retrieval means 3 is for retrieving desired information from the information storage means 2. As a search method, any method such as a search by a keyword or a search by character string matching may be used. These can be easily realized by using a conventional database search technique.

The information display means 4 comprises a display device for displaying the information retrieved by the information retrieval means 3. In this embodiment, the display is divided into a candidate display area and a result display area.

The separate display area creating means 5 creates a display area different from the display area provided by the information display means 4 according to a user's instruction, and displays the display area in the display area provided by the information display means 4. The same information as the displayed information is displayed. In this embodiment, an example in which the same information as the information displayed in the result display area is displayed will be described.

The user interface on the display of the information retrieval device is displayed as an icon (not shown) when not in use. When the icon is opened by pointing to this icon with a mouse, the information retrieval device is opened. It can be used.

FIG. 2 shows a user interface on the display of the English-Japanese dictionary information retrieval device when the icon is opened. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 11 denotes an information search device name indicating the content of information to be searched, 12 denotes an input area for inputting a character string of a search key, 13 denotes a candidate display area for displaying the title of the searched information, and 14 denotes A result display area in which the title and contents of the searched information are displayed, 15 is a search button for instructing the start of the search, 16 is an end button, and when the end button 16 is instructed with a mouse or the like, the information search device is Is completed, and the state changes to the icon state. Reference numeral 17 denotes an edit button for switching to an edit mode, and reference numeral 18 denotes another display button for creating another display area and displaying the same information as that displayed in the result display area. Next, a processing procedure of the information search apparatus when performing information search and creation of another display area will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 3 and FIGS.

When the "search" button is pressed (step 102) while the "close" button is not pressed (step 101), the information search means 3 starts searching for information. If there is a character string selected by the pointing device such as a mouse when the "search" button is pressed (step 103), information on the character string is stored in the information storage means 2.
(Step 104). If there is no selected character string and there is a character string in the input area (step 105), information on the character string is stored in the information storage unit 2.
(Step 106). If there is no character string in the input area, error processing is performed (step 10).
7).

FIG. 4 shows an example of the contents of the information stored in the information storage means 2. In this embodiment, the contents of the English-Japanese dictionary are stored. The information search means 3 is, for example, hash
The desired information is retrieved from the information storage means 2 by a method such as ng (hashing).

The information retrieving means 3 judges the result of the retrieval (step 108), and performs an error process if the retrieval fails (step 109). Further, when the search is successful, it is determined whether there is a plurality of pieces of searched information (step 110).
The name of the information is displayed in the candidate display area, and the information is displayed in the result display area (step 111). If there is a plurality of pieces of searched information, the names of those pieces of information are displayed in the candidate display area (step 112), and the information selected in the candidate display area is displayed in the result display area (step 113).

FIG. 5 is a display example of a search result when a search is performed by inputting "change" in the input area. In this example, since there was only one piece of information corresponding to “change” in the information storage means 2, only one piece of information was searched, and “change” was displayed in the candidate display area, and the information was displayed in the result display area. The contents are displayed. FIG. 6 is a display example of a search result when a search is performed by inputting “shift *” in the input area. In this case, "shi" is added at the beginning of the character string.
ft "is retrieved. In this example, "shift", "shiftyly", "shift"
iness "," shiftless "," shiftle "
The five information “ssly” are searched, and these names are displayed in the candidate display area. Then, "shiftil
Since “y” has been selected (reverse display in the figure), the content of “shiftyly” is displayed in the result display area. The above search processing can be realized by a known technique.

Next, when the "separate display" button is pressed (step 114), the separate display area creating means 5 determines whether or not information is displayed in the result display area (step 115). If not, error processing is performed (step 116). If it is displayed, another display area is created (step 117), and the same information as the information displayed in the result display area is displayed there (step 118).

The size of the separate display area is created in the same size as the result display area, and the information displayed in the result display area is copied and displayed in the separate display area. FIG. 7 is a display example of a result of performing a search by inputting “change” in the input area and instructing creation of another display area. These separate display areas
It can be placed anywhere on the screen. Also, any number of different display areas for the same information can be displayed. In the separate display area, a character string can be freely selected using an instruction device such as a mouse. FIG. 8 shows a result obtained by selecting the character string “alter” of <synonymous> on the separate display area from the state shown in FIG. 7 and performing a search. In FIG. 8, a search result of "alter" is displayed on the English-Japanese dictionary information search device. After that, another display area is created for the search result of “alter”, and further, “change”
FIG. 9 shows a display example of the result of selecting and searching the remaining three words “convert”, “shift”, and “switch” shown as <synonyms> of “e” and creating another display area.

By the above processing, four words “alter” and “converter” which are synonyms of “change”
t "," shift "and" switch "information.
They can be displayed simultaneously on the same screen and compared with each other.

The separate display area creating means 5 includes the information display means 4
It is also possible to create another display area of the minimum size that can be displayed on the display. According to this, a blank portion unnecessary for displaying information can be reduced, and more different display areas can be displayed more efficiently. As a method of creating a separate display area of the minimum size, for example, the width is set to the maximum width of the result display area, and is made to match the maximum line where no new wrapping occurs, and the vertical width is set to the bottom line. There is a way to match the bottom of FIGS. 10 and 11 show examples in which another display area having the minimum size is created by this method. In the figure, “●” indicates a character, and R with a circle indicates a line feed.
FIG. 11 is a view in which the display area in FIG. 10 is minimized. As another method, there is a method in which the width is set to be the same as the width of the result display area, and the height is made equal to the lower end of the bottom row. FIG. 12 shows the display area of FIG. 10 minimized by this method. FIG. 13 shows a display example of the result of creating another display area having the minimum size in the display area of FIG. 9 by the latter method. By arranging as shown in FIG. 13, a plurality of pieces of information can be viewed at a time, and a plurality of pieces of information can be compared. These separate display areas
Once displayed, the size can be arbitrarily changed by the user, so the size and position may be changed so that only necessary parts are displayed.
When the “close” button is pressed, the separate display area is closed. When the "close" button of the information retrieval apparatus itself is pressed, all the other display areas and the information display areas created so far are closed, and the process ends.

Next, another embodiment of the information retrieval apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 14 is a functional block diagram showing a schematic configuration of the information retrieval apparatus according to the present invention. This information retrieval apparatus includes a plurality of display area selection means 6 and a new information retrieval apparatus creation means 7 in addition to an input means 1, an information storage means 2, an information search means 3, an information display means 4, and another display area creation means 5. Configuration. In FIG. 14, an input unit 1, an information storage unit 2, an information search unit 3, an information display unit 4, and another display area creating unit 5 have the same configuration as that of FIG.

The multiple display area selection means 6 stores the display area selected by the user and manages the selected display area by displaying the selected display area separately from the display areas not selected. Do.

The new information retrieving apparatus creating means 7 integrates one or more pieces of information displayed in one or more different display areas managed by the plural display area selecting means 6 to create a new information retrieving apparatus. create.

Next, a processing procedure of the information search apparatus when creating a new information search apparatus from information displayed in another display area will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 15 and FIGS. Note that, in FIG. 15, the part of the search processing and the part of the separate display area display processing are the same as those in FIG. 3 and are omitted (steps 201 to 203).

First, the user selects a display area by clicking an end portion of a desired display area with a pointing device such as a mouse. Here, when the "create" button is pressed (step 204), the multiple display area selecting means 6 determines whether or not one or more different display areas are selected (step 205). Error processing is performed (step 206). When another display area is selected, the display area is displayed as a new information search device creating means 7.
Notify. The new information search device creating means 7 sets the number of selected different display areas to N and i to 0 (step 20).
7). Subsequently, i + 1 is set to i (step 208), and i
The information of the second different display area is stored in the information storage means 2 as information of a new information retrieval device (step 209). Similarly, steps 208 and 20 are repeated until N = i.
9 is repeated (step 210), and when N = i, the information stored in the information storage means 2 is integrated to create an information search device (step 211).

FIG. 16 shows "change" and "alte".
r, convert, shift, switchc
This is a display example when six words “h” and “pen” are displayed in another display area. FIG. 17 is a synonym of “change” among “change” and “a”.
liter, convert, shift, swi
5 shows a display example when another display area of five words “tch” is selected. In FIG. 17, the selected five different display areas are indicated by thick lines with frames. The new information retrieval device creating means 7 extracts the displayed information from one of the display areas for the five selected words.
Here, it is assumed that “change” is selected. The new information search device creation means 7 extracts the information of “change” and stores it in the information storage means 2 as information of the new information search device. Similarly, the remaining “alter” “c”
The words “invert”, “shift”, and “switch” are also stored in the information storage unit 2 as information of a new information search device. Through these processes, the selected plurality of pieces of search information are integrated in the information storage unit 2. FIG. 18 shows an example of the content of the new information retrieval device stored in the information storage means 2 after the processing of FIG. 15 has been completed. For such an information retrieval apparatus, for example, "cha
"nge synonym" and "chang
e "" alter "" convert "" shift "
This means that an information search device named “change synonym” storing only information on the five words “switch” can be newly created. FIG. 19 shows an example in which a newly created information retrieval device named “synonym of change” is displayed.

In FIG. 19, other display areas from which an information retrieval apparatus named “synonym of change” is created are left displayed, but these other display areas are replaced by new information retrieval apparatuses. A process of closing with creation may be performed.

[0035]

As described above, in the information retrieval apparatus according to the present invention, another display area different from the display area for displaying the retrieved information is created, and the same information as the information displayed in the display area is created. Since the information is displayed in the another display area, information to be referred to later can be created and displayed in another display area. Therefore, a plurality of pieces of information can be viewed at a time, or a plurality of pieces of information can be compared. In addition, since the information in the separate display area can be freely selected with a character string, by creating the separate display area, it is possible to select a part of the character string in the previously searched information, It can be used as a new search key.

Further, one or more pieces of information displayed in one or more display areas selected by the user are stored, and the stored information is integrated to create another information source. A new information source such as an information search device can be easily created based on information extracted from a certain information search device.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an information search device according to a first invention.

FIG. 2 is a view showing a user interface on a display of the English-Japanese dictionary information retrieval apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of the information search device when performing information search and creation of another display area.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the content of information stored in an information storage unit.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a display example of a search result when a search is performed by inputting “change” in an input area.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a display example of a search result when a search is performed by inputting “shift *” in an input area.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a display example of a result of performing a search by inputting “change” in an input area and instructing creation of another display area;

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a display example of a result of a search performed by selecting a character string “alter” on another display area.

FIG. 9 is a view showing a display example of a result of creating a plurality of different display areas.

FIG. 10 is a base diagram for explaining a method of creating a separate display area having a minimum size.

FIG. 11 is a view when another display area shown in FIG. 10 is minimized.

FIG. 12 is a view when the different display area shown in FIG. 10 is reduced to a minimum size by a method different from that of FIG. 11;

FIG. 13 is a view showing a display example of a result of creating another display area having a minimum size by the method of FIG. 12;

FIG. 14 is a functional block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an information search device according to a second invention.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of the information search device when a new information search device is created from information displayed in another display area.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing a state before selecting a plurality of different display areas.

FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating a display example of a result of selecting a plurality of different display areas.

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing an example of contents stored in the information storage unit after the process of creating a new information search device has been completed.

FIG. 19: Newly created “synonym of change”
The figure which shows the example at the time of displaying the information search device named.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Input means, 2 ... Information storage means, 3 ... Information search means,
4 ... information display means, 5 ... different display area creation means, 6 ... multiple display area selection means, 7 ... new information search device creation means

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G06F 17/30

Claims (7)

(57) [Claims] An input unit for inputting a search instruction; a search unit for searching an information group including a plurality of data in response to the input of the search instruction by the input unit; First display control means for displaying in a display area, wherein the first display control means displays the search result in the first display area each time a search is performed by the search means. An instruction means for instructing another display, and a second display area independent of the first display area is generated in accordance with an instruction for another display by the instruction means; And a second display control means for displaying a search result displayed in the first display area in a display area of the second display control means. Display update of display area 1 At the time, the second
An information retrieval apparatus characterized by maintaining the display of the display area. 2. A storage means for storing an information group consisting of a plurality of data; a first search means for searching the information group stored in the storage means; and a search result by the first search means for storing a search result by the first search means. First display control means for displaying in a first display area, wherein the first display control means displays the search result in the first display area each time the search is performed by the search means. In the search device, a second display area independent of the first display area is generated in response to an instruction for another display by the instruction means, and the first display area is generated in the generated second display area. Second display control means for displaying a search result displayed in the display area of the first display area, wherein the second display control means updates the display of the first display area by the first display control means. At the time, the second
An information retrieval apparatus characterized by maintaining the display of the display area. 3. A display area management means for managing a second display area generated by the second display control means, and information displayed in the second display area managed by the display area management means. 3. The information retrieval apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising: a new information group registration unit that registers a new information group based on the information in the storage unit. 4. The information retrieval apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising a second retrieval unit that retrieves a new information group registered by said new information registration unit. 5. An information retrieval apparatus comprising: storage means for storing digitized dictionary information; and search means for searching the dictionary information stored in the storage means based on an input search key. A key input area for inputting a search key, a candidate word display area for displaying at least one word serving as a search key candidate, a search key input from the key input area, or a word selected from the words displayed in the candidate word display area First display control means for displaying a search result based on the search key, and a display area generated according to a user's instruction, and displayed in the search result display area when the generated display area is instructed. And a second display control means for displaying the searched result. 6. An information retrieval method for retrieving an information group consisting of a plurality of data in response to a retrieval instruction and displaying the retrieval result in a first display area each time the retrieval is performed. Generating a second display area independent of the first display area in accordance with the first display area, displaying the search result displayed in the first display area on the generated second display area, An information search method, wherein the display of the second display area is maintained when updating the display of the first display area. 7. An information search method for searching digitized dictionary information based on an input search key, a key input area for inputting a search key, a candidate word for displaying at least one word serving as a search key candidate A search result based on a display area, a search key input from the key input area or a search key selected from words displayed in the candidate word display area is displayed in the first display area, and in response to a user instruction An information search method, comprising: generating a second display area; and displaying a search result displayed in the search result display area when the instruction is provided in the generated second display area.