JPH04217073A - Document retrieving device in document accumulating system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To execute the delicate and efficient retrieval by retrieving a structured multi-media document for satisfying a retrieval condition consisting of one of the contents of a parentage relationship and documents part contained in the parentage relationship, and its attribute. CONSTITUTION:The device is provided with a character contents retrieving part 3 for retrieving the contents of document parts, a graphic contents retrieving part 4 and an image contents retrieving part 5, and an attribute retrieving part 6 for retrieving an attribute given in advance to the document parts. Also, a parentage relationship retrieving part 7 for retrieving a parentage relationship of a document is provided, and the retrieval is executed by integrating these retrieving parts by a retrieval integrating part 8. That is, when a retrieval condition is instructed by an input means 9, this retrieval integrating part 9 retrieves a structured multi-media document corresponding to this retrieval condition. In such a way, the delicate and efficient retrieval can be executed and a desired document can be found out surely.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

[Industrial Application Field] The present invention searches for structured multimedia documents in which a plurality of document parts made up of various media are structured with mutual parent-child relationships. The present invention relates to a document retrieval device in a document storage system that stores multimedia documents.

0002

[Prior Art] This type of structured multimedia document is
It is constructed by giving a parent-child relationship to a plurality of document parts made up of various media, ie, characters, figures, images, etc. A parent document component has at least one child document component, and by regarding the child document component as a parent, the document component can be given a child document component. Therefore, if the parent document component is the root, and the child document components and grandchild document components of the parent are the branches, a structured multimedia document is constructed by creating a tree-structured relationship among multiple document components. It can be said that

[0003] By the way, when attempting to search for a desired document in a document storage system that has accumulated a large number of structured multimedia documents or particularly unstructured ordinary documents, the following two search methods are available. there were.

[0004] One search method is to input the attributes given in advance for each document, such as the document's title, creation date, owner name, etc., as desired, and search for documents that correspond to the input attributes. be.

The other search method involves inputting desired content, such as words, graphic parts, image parts, etc., and searching for documents containing the input content.

[0006]

However, of the two conventional search methods described above, the search method that searches based on document attributes does not involve the content of the document at all, and therefore cannot perform a detailed search. Furthermore, the method of searching based on the contents of the other document has the disadvantage that it takes time to search because the entire document is thoroughly examined. Furthermore, it is also possible to perform a search that combines the above two methods, that is, select a relevant document based on document attributes and then check whether this document contains the desired content, but ultimately Even when a media document is the search target, the search is performed without considering the parent-child relationship of each document component, which is the structure of this document, and there is no more effective search method for structured multimedia documents. .

Therefore, the present invention focuses on the parent-child relationship of structured multimedia documents, and provides a document retrieval device in a document storage system that enables detailed and efficient searches and reliably finds a desired document. The purpose is to provide

[0008]

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention provides parent-child relationship search means for searching parent-child relationships of a plurality of document parts; content search means for searching the contents of the document parts according to the media of the document parts; an attribute search means for searching for a predetermined attribute of a document component; and an input means for specifying at least one of the parent-child relationship, the content of the document component included in the parent-child relationship, and the attribute of the document component as a search condition. and a search integration means that performs a search by integrating the parent-child relationship search means, the content search means, and the attribute search means, and the search integration means performs the search when a search condition is specified by the input means. Search for structured multimedia documents that meet the conditions.

[0009]

[Operation] According to the present invention, when at least one of the parent-child relationship, the content of the document component included in the parent-child relationship, and the attribute of the document component is specified by the input means as a search condition, the search integration means performs the search. A structured multimedia document that meets the conditions is searched through a parent-child relationship search means, a content search means, and an attribute search means. Therefore, the searched structured multimedia document is based on the search conditions, that is, the parent-child relationship.
and at least one of the content of the document component included in the parent-child relationship and the attribute of the document component.

0010

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a document retrieval device in a document storage system according to the present invention. In the figure, a text database 1 is a large-capacity memory comprising, for example, a magnetic disk, and stores a large number of structured multimedia documents. As mentioned earlier, this structured multimedia document has a tree structure with parent-child relationships such as parent document parts, child document parts, and grandchild document parts, and each document part has multiple types of It is composed of at least one of media, that is, characters, graphics, and images.

The structured multimedia document retrieval device 2 is for retrieving documents in the text database 1, and includes a character content retrieval unit 3, a graphic content retrieval unit 4, and an image content retrieval unit for retrieving the contents of document parts. 5, an attribute search unit 6 that searches for attributes given in advance to document parts, a parent-child relationship search unit 7 that searches for parent-child relationships in documents, and a search integration unit that integrates these search units and executes a search. 8.

The character content search unit 3 searches for character content consisting of characters in a document component, and the graphic content search unit 4 searches for graphic content (for example, a function indicating a figure) consisting of figures in a document component. It searches for
Furthermore, the image content search unit 5 searches for image content composed of images in document parts (for example, images formed on bitmaps).

The keyboard 9 and mouse 10 are operated to input various data, commands, etc., and a display corresponding to the input by these operations is made on the display screen of the display device 11.

The input/output control device 12 controls input/output between the structured multimedia document retrieval device 2, the keyboard 9, the mouse 10, and the display device 11. The structured multimedia document thus created is transmitted to the search integration section 8 through the input/output control device 12, and is stored in the text database 1 from the search integration section 8. In addition, the search integration section 8
The structured multimedia document read from the text database 1 is transmitted to the display device 11 through the input/output control device 12 and displayed on the display screen.

Now, in such a configuration, when attempting to search for a desired multimedia document from among a large number of structured multimedia documents in the document database 1, search conditions must be set, and this search condition must be set. The procedure for setting conditions will be described below.

First, by operating the keyboard 9 and mouse 10, a parent-child relationship search formula for indicating the parent-child relationship of a multimedia document as shown in FIG. 2 is formed on the display screen of the display device 11.

Here, this parent-child relationship search formula is a multimedia document comprising a parent document component 101 and two child document components 102 and 103 placed under this parent document component 101, or This indicates a multimedia document that includes a document component 101 , and one child document component 104 placed under this parent document component 101 . That is, a multimedia document having a parent-child relationship as shown in FIG. 3 or a multimedia document having a parent-child relationship as shown in FIG. 4 is specified.

Subsequently, by operating the keyboard 9 and mouse 10, the parent document component 101 shown in FIG.
, and the respective attribute values of the child document parts 102 to 103 on the display screen of the display device 11. For example, the attribute value of the parent document component 101 is
1, and is indicated as a part name called "Introduction" as shown in FIG. Also, at this time, the name of a content search formula (described later) that indicates the content of the parent document component 101, that is, the content search formula name A, is specified along with the attribute value. Similarly, attribute values and content search formula names are specified for each child document component 102 to 104, respectively. For example, the attribute values of a child document component include "Main Theory", "Chapter 1", "Chapter 2", etc.

[0020] Note that the attribute value is
This is given to the document component so that the document component can be identified, and the document component is stored in the document database 11 along with its attribute value. Also, the attribute value is "
In addition to part names such as "Introduction" and "Main Theory," it may also include creation date, owner's name, etc.

Subsequently, by operating the keyboard 9 and the mouse 10, the content search formula with the content search formula name previously set for each of the parent document component 101 and child document components 102 to 104 is displayed on the display device. 1
Instruct on the display screen of 1. For example, the content search formula name A of the parent document component 101 shown in FIG.
It is as shown in the figure, and consists of a content system, display font, and content. Here, "character" is designated as the content system, "Gothic" is designated as the display font, and "50 or more characters including the word 'invention'" is designated as the content. In other words, the parent document part 1
The content search expression set for 01 includes characters as the media of the document part, the font of the characters is Gothic, the document part consists of 50 or more characters, and the word "invention" is included. It tells you to be.

Further, other examples different from the content retrieval formula shown in FIG. 6 include those shown in FIGS. 7 and 8.

The search expression in FIG. 7 is given the name content search expression name B, and the content system is specified as ``figure'', the number of figures is specified as ``10 or less'', and the content is ``yen,'' etc. Contains triangles” is specified. That is,
This content retrieval formula specifies that the media of the document component include graphics, the number of graphics is 10 or less, and includes circles and triangles.

The search formula shown in FIG. 8 is given a name of content search formula name C, and "image" is designated as the content system, and "black and white ratio of 50% or less" is designated as the content. That is, this content search formula includes an image as the media of the document component, and specifies that the black occupancy rate of each black and white pixel constituting this image is 50% or less.

In this way, the parent-child relationship consisting of each document component is indicated by the parent-child relationship expression, the attributes of each document component are indicated by the respective attribute values, and the contents of each document component are indicated by the respective content relationship expression. By instructing, search conditions for multimedia documents are set.

According to this search condition, a multimedia document has a parent-child relationship between a parent document component 101 and two child document components 102 and 103 as shown in FIG. A parent-child relationship between a parent document component 101 and one child document component 104 as shown in the figure must be established. The parent document component 101 has a component name called "Introduction" as an attribute value as shown in FIG. 5, and also includes characters as media as shown in FIG. The document component must consist of 50 characters or more and must include the word "invention."

It is assumed that each of the child document parts 102 to 103 has attribute values and content search expressions set similarly to the parent document part 101, and here, each child document part 1
Assume that a part name called "main theory" is set as the attribute value of 02 and 103, respectively, and a content search formula related to the figure shown in FIG. 7 is set. Similarly, for the child document component 104, "main theory" is set as the attribute value.
It is assumed that a component name called `` is set, and a content search formula related to the image shown in FIG. 8 is set.

Once the search conditions are thus set on the display screen of the display device 11, the search conditions are notified to the search integration section 8 via the input/output control device 12.

When the search integration unit 8 is notified of the search conditions, it first notifies the parent-child relationship expression shown in FIG. 2 to the parent-child relationship search unit 7. When notified of the parent-child relationship expression, the parent-child relationship search unit 7 sequentially searches each multimedia document in the document database to find a multimedia document having a parent-child relationship corresponding to this parent-child relationship expression. As a result, a multimedia document having the parent-child relationship shown in FIG. 3 or 4 is found. Every time the parent-child relationship search unit 7 finds a corresponding multimedia document, it instructs the search integration unit 8 with a pointer to the multimedia document along with its parent-child relationship.

When the search integration unit 8 receives a pointer to a multimedia document along with its parent-child relationship from the parent-child relationship search unit 7, it retrieves the attribute values of each document component according to the parent-child relationship in this multimedia document, and the A pointer to the multimedia document is instructed to the attribute search unit 6. For example, if a multimedia document has the parent-child relationship shown in FIG. The attribute search unit 6 is also instructed to do so. For example, if a multimedia document has the parent-child relationship shown in FIG. 4, the attribute value "Introduction" of the parent document component 101,
The attribute value "Main Theory" of the child document component 104 is specified to the attribute search unit 6 along with the multimedia document.

When the attribute search unit 6 is instructed to specify the attribute value of each document component according to the parent-child relationship and a pointer to the multimedia document, the attribute search unit 6 accesses the multimedia document in the document database 11 based on the pointer. The attribute value of each document component in this multimedia document is investigated, and it is determined whether the attribute value of each document component obtained by the investigation matches each specified attribute value. Then, the attribute search unit 6 notifies the search integration unit 8 of this determination result.

If the search integration unit 8 obtains a judgment result that the attribute values of each document component obtained by the search do not match the specified attribute values, the search integration unit 8 determines that the multimedia document that is the object of the search is It is determined that the multimedia document does not meet the search conditions, and the search for this multimedia document is canceled. Furthermore, if a determination result is obtained that the respective attribute values of both match each other, the search integration section 8 searches the content search expressions of each document component in the multimedia document for the text content search section 3, graphic content search section 4, and The images are distributed and given to the image content search section 5. At this time, the content retrieval formula for each document component is sequentially given from the content retrieval formula of the parent document component to the content retrieval formula of the child document component, that is, from the top to the bottom.

[0033] Here, for example, the multimedia document is
Assuming that it consists of a parent document component 101 and two child document components 102 and 103 as shown in the figure, the parent document component 101 is given a content search expression related to characters as shown in FIG. and each child document component 102, 103
has been given the content search formula for figures shown in FIG. 7, so the search integration unit 8 first uses the content search formula for characters shown in FIG. 6 together with the pointer to the document component 101 in the multimedia document. Instruct the character content search section 3. Upon receiving the instruction, the character content search unit 3 determines whether the document component 101 in the multimedia document in the document database 11 satisfies the character content search formula shown in FIG. That is, the document component 101 includes characters, and the font of the characters is Gothic,
It is determined whether it is composed of 50 characters or more and includes the word "invention." Then, the character content search unit 3 notifies the search integration unit 8 of the determination result.

When the search integration unit 8 receives a determination result that the document component 101 in the multimedia document does not satisfy the content search formula shown in FIG. 6, it stops searching for this multimedia document. Further, if it is determined that the content search expression is satisfied, the search integration unit 8 applies the content search expression related to the figure shown in FIG. Instruct the graphic content search unit 4 along with the pointer. The graphic content search unit 4 uses the content search expression and, for example, the child document component 102.
When the pointer to the document component 102 in the multimedia document in the document database 11 is specified, the document component 102 in the multimedia document in the document database 11 is
It is determined whether the content search formula for the figure shown in the figure is satisfied. That is, it is determined whether the document component 102 includes a figure, the number of figures is 10 or less, and a circle or a triangle, and the result of this determination is notified from the figure content search unit 4 to the search integration unit 8. Ru.

When the search integration unit 8 receives a determination result that the document component 102 in the multimedia document does not satisfy the content search formula shown in FIG. 7, it stops searching for this multimedia document. Further, if it is determined that the content search expression is satisfied, the search integration unit 8 applies the content search expression related to the figure shown in FIG. 7 to another child document component 10.
3 along with a pointer to the figure content search unit 4. The graphic content search unit 4 uses the content search expression and the child document component 10.
3, the same determination as the child document component 102 is made. That is, it is determined whether the document component 103 in the multimedia document in the document database 11 satisfies the graphic content search formula shown in FIG. will be notified.

When the search integration unit 8 receives a determination result that the document component 103 in the multimedia document does not satisfy the content search formula shown in FIG. 7, it stops searching for this multimedia document. Further, if it is determined that the content search formula is satisfied, the integration determination unit 8 considers that each of the document components 101 to 103 in the multimedia document satisfies the respective content search formula.

Note that even if the multimedia document to be searched consists of a parent document component 101 and a child document component 104 as shown in FIG. Similar judgments are repeated. That is, each time the parent-child relationship search unit 7 searches the document database 11 for a multimedia document having a parent-child relationship as shown in FIG. It is determined whether or not the content of each document component satisfies the search condition. If it is determined that the search condition is satisfied, each content search unit determines whether or not the content of each document component satisfies the search condition.

In the multimedia document search process, after a multimedia document having a parent-child relationship, which is one of the search conditions, is found, it is determined whether the attribute value of the document component in this multimedia document satisfies the search condition. If the content of the document component does not meet the search conditions, the search for the multimedia document is immediately stopped, and each document component in the next found multimedia document with the above parent-child relationship is searched. The attribute values and contents of are respectively searched.

Furthermore, if a multimedia document is found that has a parent-child relationship, which is one of the search conditions, and it is determined that the attribute values and contents of each document component in this multimedia document satisfy the search condition, the search After determining that the multimedia document satisfies all the search conditions, the integrating unit 8 subsequently searches for another multimedia document.

[0040] If the search for all multimedia documents in the document database 11 is thus completed, and there is at least one multimedia document that satisfies all the search conditions, the search integration unit 8 searches for multimedia documents that satisfy all the search conditions. A list of documents is created and this list is transmitted to the display device 11 through the input/output control device 12. As a result, a list of multimedia documents that satisfy all the search conditions is displayed on the display screen of the display device 11.

[0041] Here, by operating the keyboard 9 and mouse 10, a desired multimedia document is selected from the displayed list of multimedia documents and an instruction is given to read the document. Device 1
2 to the search integration unit 8. In response to this,
The search integration unit 8 reads the selected multimedia document from the document database 11 and transmits the multimedia document to the display device 11 through the input/output control device 12 . As a result, the selected multimedia document will be displayed on the display screen of the display device 11.

As described above, in this embodiment, if the parent-child relationship of a multimedia document, the attribute value of each document component that makes up this parent-child relationship, and the content of each document component are specified as search conditions, a multimedia document that satisfies all of the search conditions can be searched. Since media documents are searched, you can perform fine-grained searches.
This makes it possible to reliably find the desired multimedia document. In addition, during this search, multimedia documents with the specified parent-child relationship are found,
Next, it is determined whether the attribute value of each document component in the multimedia document satisfies the search condition, and then it is sequentially determined whether the content of each document component satisfies the search condition. If the search condition is not satisfied, the search for the multimedia document is immediately stopped and the next search for another multimedia document is started, so the search process can be performed quickly. .

[0043] In the above embodiment, the attribute values and contents are searched for all of the document parts in the multimedia document having the specified parent-child relationship, but the attribute values and contents are searched for only some of the document parts. , and the attribute values and contents of only some of the document parts may be searched.

[0044] Alternatively, only one of the attribute value and the content of the document component may be used as a search condition, and the other may be excluded from the search condition. For example, if you want to exclude the content of a document component from the search conditions, do not specify the name of the content search formula shown in Figure 5 when specifying the attribute value of the document component, and of course also specify the content search formula. do not have. In addition, if the attribute value of a document component is to be excluded from the search conditions, when specifying the attribute value of the document component, specify that there is no limitation on the attribute value shown in Figure 5, and also specify the name of the content search formula. After that, the content search expression for the name is specified.

Furthermore, it is possible to specify not only a parent-child relationship consisting of a parent document component and a child document component, but also a complex parent-child relationship consisting of many hierarchies such as a parent document component, child document component, and grandchild document component. You may also do so.

Furthermore, in a tree structure of parent-child relationships, any document component can be regarded as a parent document component, and lower-level document components can be regarded as child document components. When doing so, it is specified that the parent document component does not have to be the document component that corresponds to the root of the multimedia document, so that any document component is considered to be the parent and the parent-child relationship is searched. Good too.

Furthermore, although characters, figures, and images are exemplified as media, they are not limited to these, and if there are other media, a content search section corresponding to the other media can be added. Needless to say, it can respond to the diversification of media.

[0048]

As explained above, according to the document retrieval device in the document storage system according to the present invention, at least one of the parent-child relationship, the content of the document component included in the parent-child relationship, and the attribute of the document component. Since it is possible to search for structured multimedia documents that satisfy the search conditions consisting of the following, it is possible to perform a detailed and efficient search and thereby reliably find a desired document.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing an embodiment of a document search device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a parent-child relational expression.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a parent-child relationship corresponding to the relational expression shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a parent-child relationship corresponding to the relational expression shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a display mode when specifying an attribute value.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a content search formula regarding characters.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a content search formula regarding graphics.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a content search formula regarding images.

[Explanation of symbols]

1...Document database 2...Structured multimedia document search device 3...Text content search unit 4...Graphic content search unit 5...Image content search unit 6...Attribute search unit 7...Parent-child relationship search unit 8...Search integration unit 9...Keyboard 10... Mouse 11... Display device 12... Input/output control device

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A parent-child relationship for searching for parent-child relationships in a document storage system that stores a large number of structured multimedia documents in which a plurality of document parts made of various media are structured with mutual parent-child relationships. a search means, a content search means for searching the content of the document component according to the medium of the document component, an attribute search means for searching for a predetermined attribute of the document component, the parent-child relationship, and the parent-child relationship. input means for specifying at least one of the contents of a document component included in the document component and the attributes of the document component as a search condition; and the parent-child relationship search for structured multimedia documents that correspond to the search condition specified by the input means. means,
A document retrieval device in a document storage system, comprising a retrieval integration means for searching through each of the content retrieval means and the attribute retrieval means.