JPH06282589A - Visualization display system for information retrieving device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To efficiently attain retrieval by displaying an entire retrieving process including a retrieval condition and a retrieved result so as to be easily understood, and displaying the retrieving time at the time of information retrieval. CONSTITUTION:A retrieving process managed part 13 prepares a series of retrieving process data based on the retrieving process. A visualization display part 14 receives the retrieving process data, and operates visualization display by selecting a graphic pattern(a rectangle for input data, an ellipse for processing data, and a rectangle with shadow according to the number for output data) by each classification of the process. The display content is stored in a data storage part 15, and reused at the time of the next retrieval.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information retrieval apparatus for retrieving information such as a document or an image, and more particularly, a visualization of a retrieval process and a visualization of an information retrieval process capable of displaying retrieval processing time. Display system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in an information retrieval apparatus for retrieving information such as a document or an image, it is important what kind of retrieval sentence (conditional expression) the user gives, which greatly affects the retrieval efficiency. Also, it is rare that the desired information is obtained in just one search, and you can check the title list carefully and add or change the search conditions, request more detailed information for the search results, etc. A series of processes is required.

As a conventional technique for making it easier to visually grasp the meaning of a search sentence, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-1598.
There is a technique as seen in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. This technology displays each concept of the search sentence as a node and displays the search sentence by a graphic display method that shows the relationship between each concept as a link connecting the concepts, and also relates the same concept to multiple concepts. It is realized by the display method. This makes it possible to clearly confirm how the concepts in the search sentence are related to each other.

[0004]

The above-mentioned prior art is to visually display the conceptual structure of a search sentence in a graphic form so that the user can give an accurate search sentence.
It makes it easier to change the relationships between concepts, remove unwanted concepts, and edit the search text, but there is no consideration for visualizing the entire search process of the search, and therefore the search There is a problem that it is difficult to predict the outline of intermediate results and final results or the processing time of each process and the number of output cases.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and to display the search process in an easy-to-understand manner in the information search apparatus, and also to display the search time so that the search can be performed efficiently. The object of the present invention is to provide a visualization display system of an information retrieval process that can be performed in a physical manner.

[0006]

To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a database in which search target data is stored, a search command input section for inputting a search command,
In an information search device including a search processing unit that executes a search process in response to the search command, data is received in units of a series of processes from the data received from the search command input unit and the search processing unit. And a graphic pattern corresponding to the data received from the process management unit, and the data received from the process management unit and the selected graphic pattern. And a visualization display unit for visually displaying a series of search processes by synthesizing.

Further, the data synthesized by the visualization display unit is stored, and the stored data is used in the next search.

Further, the process management unit includes means for calculating a search processing time in units constituting the series of search processes, and means for visually displaying the search processing time on the visualization display unit. It is equipped with.

[0009]

The operation based on the above configuration will be described.

According to the present invention, at the time of information retrieval, the retrieval process management unit uses the retrieval command or retrieval condition, which is the data input by the user, and the list display data or the number of data, which is the information retrieval result. , Configure (create) a series of search process data. In addition, while storing this search process data in the search process data storage unit,
This is sent to the visualization display unit, and the visualization display unit graphically displays this search process. This makes it easier for the user to understand the flow of a series of search processes, and improves the efficiency of search.

It is also possible to store the data displayed on the visualization display unit and use it in the next search.

Further, the process management section is provided with a means for calculating a search processing time in units constituting a series of search processes, and a means for visually displaying the search processing time is also provided on the visualization display section. Since it is provided, it is also possible to predict the individual search processing time, the total processing time, etc. together with the intermediate results and final processing results of the search.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a system for visualizing display storage and reuse of an information retrieval process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 11 denotes a search command input unit that receives a user input of a search command or a search condition and issues an instruction to the search processing unit 12. Reference numeral 12 denotes a search based on an instruction from the search command input unit 11. A search processing unit that executes processing. Reference numeral 13 is a search process management unit that receives user input data and search result data, and configures and stores and manages it as a search process. Reference numeral 14 is a visualization display unit that graphically displays the search process. Reference numeral 15 denotes a search process data storage unit that stores search process data created by the search process management unit 13. Reference numeral 16 is a search target database in which data to be searched is stored, 17 is a process data pattern storage unit, and 18 is a process figure correspondence table storage unit.

FIG. 2 is an example of the screen output of the visualization display unit 14. Each process is indicated by an ellipse like the retrieval processing 21, 21a and the document content extraction 26, and its input data (retrieval condition etc.) is retrieved. The output data (search results, etc.) is indicated by a rectangle (box) like the keys 20 and 25 and the condition designation 23, and the title list 22 and the narrowed-down title list 24 are shown.
, It is indicated by a shaded rectangle. Then, the data contents are shown in the rectangles, such as the search target data number 27 and the extracted data number 28. Further, like the title list window 29, those having a large amount of data can be scroll-displayed, and in the case of output data such as the title list 22 and the narrowed down title list 24, the larger the amount of data, the larger the shadow. . In FIG. 2, title list 2
In the case of 2, the extracted data is 100, which is larger than the extracted data of 30 in the narrowed-down title list 24, so that the shadow is large.

Next, the processing in the search process management unit 13 will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 4. FIG. 4 is a processing flow chart of the search process management unit 13. In the search process management unit 13, first, the search command input unit 1
The user input data from 1 and the data of the search processing result from the search processing unit 12 are received (step 41). Next, necessary data is extracted from the received data in units that form a series of search processes (frame units such as rectangles and ellipses in FIG. 2). At this time, as shown in FIG. 2, for example, the search key 20 is extracted from the input data, and the search target data number 27 and the extracted data number 28 are extracted from the output data (search result). Pattern collection 43 of process data representing the correspondence relationship between the data to be extracted and the process data pattern storage unit 1
(Stored in step 7), data is extracted for each type of process (step 42). Process data is created based on the extracted data (step 44) and stored in the search process data storage unit 15 (step 45). The stored process data is reused at a later search.

Next, the processing in the visualization display unit 14 will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 5.

The visualization display unit 14 first receives the search process data created by the search process management unit 13 (step 51). Then, as shown in FIG. 2, for example, a rectangle for input data and an ellipse for processing data are referred to, and a process correspondence table 53 (stored in the process correspondence table storage unit 18) is referred to. A display figure is selected (step 52), and a process flow is visualized and displayed (step 54). Then, the display data is embedded in the displayed graphic (step 55), and the process flow as shown in FIG. 2 is displayed. Further, when the series of search processes displayed on the visualization display unit 14 is edited (steps 56 and 58), the edited search process data is sent to the search process data storage unit 15 and converted into a command format. (Step 59), sent to the search command input unit 11 and reused for the next search process. For editing on the visualization display unit 14, not only input data such as the search key 20 and the condition designation 23 can be changed, but also a box of output data such as the title list 22 can be deleted, or input data can be edited together. It can also be one box. Regarding the search result display among them, the user specifies whether to record the number of data such as the number of search target data 27 and the number of extracted data 28 and the search result such as the title list of the title list window 29. can do. In FIG. 3, the search key 20 and the condition designation 23 of FIG. 2 are combined (search key 30), and 24
In this example, the search target data 27 of the box and the title list window 29 are designated not to be recorded (narrowed title list 32). Search key 20 and condition specification 2
By combining 3 together, the intermediate title list 2
2 is automatically deleted.

Next, the calculation of the search processing time will be described with reference to FIG. The process of FIG. 6 actually enters between step 41 and step 42 of FIG. First, it is determined whether or not the data received by the search process management unit 13 is a search command (step 61), and if it is a search command, the search start time at this time is recorded as search command-specific time data 64 (step 63). ). Step 6
If the received data is not a search command in step 1, it is then determined whether or not the data is a search result (step 62). If it is not a search result, it ends,
If the received data is the search result, it indicates that the search process is completed. Therefore, the search start time data corresponding to the search result is read from the search command time data 64 (step 65), and the read time is read. The processing time is calculated from the data and the time data at the end of the search (step 66). The calculated search processing time is extracted based on the pattern collection of process data.

In the above embodiment, the retrieval process data storage unit 14 is reused at the time of later retrieval.
A series of search processes before and after editing on the visualization display unit 14 may be stored together. These stored search processes are reused when the next search is performed with the same search condition, or when the search is performed with a slight modification.

[0022]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, in the information retrieval apparatus, the retrieval process data is created by the retrieval process management unit, and the retrieval process data is graphically displayed on the visualization display unit. As a result, it is possible to obtain an overview of the intermediate and final results of the search in a series of search processes, the processing time, the number of output items, etc. at a glance, and it is also useful as a reference when performing a new search.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a search process display screen which is a screen output of the visualization display unit of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a search process display screen of a result edited by a visualization display unit.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing processing of a search process management unit.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing processing of a visualization display unit.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing calculation processing of search processing time.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 Search Command Input Section 12 Search Processing Section 13 Search Process Management Section 14 Visualization Display Section 15 Search Process Data Storage Section 16 Search Target Database 17 Process Data Pattern Storage Section 18 Process and Figure Correspondence Table Storage Section 20, 25 Search Key 21 Search process 22 Title list 23 Condition specification 24 Narrowed title list 26 Extract document contents 27 Search target data 28 Extracted data 29 Title list window 30 Input data box 31 Search process 32 Narrowed title list 33 Search key 34 Extract document contents

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A database in which search target data is stored, a search command input section for inputting a search command,
In an information search device including a search processing unit that executes a search process in response to the search command, in a unit that constitutes a series of search processes from the data received from the search command input unit and the search processing unit. A search process management unit that extracts data to create required search process data, and a graphic pattern corresponding to the data received from the process management unit is selected, and the data received from the process management unit and the selected graphic A visualization display system in an information retrieval device, comprising: a visualization display unit for synthesizing patterns and visually displaying a series of retrieval processes. 2. The visualization display in the information retrieval apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the data synthesized by the visualization display unit is stored, and the stored data is used in the next search. system. 3. The process management unit includes means for calculating a search processing time in units constituting the series of search processes, and means for visually displaying the search processing time on the visualization display unit. The visualization display system in the information retrieval apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising: