JPH07110821A - Information terminal equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make it possible to easily access various data bases and to retrieve information by previously storing information for retrieving information and information for displaying a retrieved result in plural external storage means and exchanging the external storage means in each information to be retrieved. CONSTITUTION:This information terminal equipment is provided with a central control part 101 for controlling the whole equipment, a monitor 102 for displaying manues and various information, a mouse 103 to be used for the selection of a menu or the like, a line I/F 104 for connecting a line to a data base or the like through a public line, and an optical card l/F 105 for accessing an optical card 106. The optical card 106 stores a communication protocol for communicating with a data base or the like, necessary information such as data formats and retrieving information for manues or the like for retrieving information and is allowed to be properly exchanged through the I/F 105. Consequently required information can be read out from a remote data base or the like through a line.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information terminal device for retrieving information via communication means such as a communication line.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional information terminal device.

This information terminal device has a central control unit 201 for controlling the entire device, a monitor 202 for displaying a menu and the like, and a pointing device (hereinafter referred to as a pointing device) for inputting coordinate information for selecting the menu and the like. , A mouse) 203, and a line interface (hereinafter referred to as I / F) 204 for connecting the information terminal device to a database or the like via a communication line such as ISDN.
It has a hard disk 205 for storing information necessary for communication such as a communication protocol and a data format.

The conventional information terminal device has a line I / F 204
Based on the information for communication stored in the hard disk 205, the line is connected to the database, and the search menu sent from the database is displayed on the monitor 202.

In accordance with this search menu, the mouse 203
By selecting the menu screen with, the information you want to retrieve is retrieved from the database via the line.

[0006]

By the way, in the above-mentioned conventional example, if the information for communication communication such as the communication protocol and the data format is the same, the information can be obtained only by connecting the lines to various databases. Obtainable.

However, the line must be connected from the time of the search, and there is a problem that the line usage amount increases correspondingly when the search takes a long time.

Further, in order to obtain information from a database in which information for communication does not match, information for new communication has to be added to the storage means.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an information terminal device capable of easily accessing various databases and retrieving information.

[0010]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION The present invention is necessary for displaying information for performing various displays including menu display, coordinate designating means for selecting a menu displayed on the display means, and information retrieval. The external storage means for storing various kinds of information and the communication means for transferring the information via the communication line, and when searching the information of the remote place through the communication means, the information is stored in the external storage means. The information for searching for and the information for displaying the search results are stored,
By exchanging external storage means for each piece of information to be searched,
The information required for the search is read from the external storage means, and based on this, desired information is read from a database or the like at a remote place via a line.

[0011]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an information terminal device in an embodiment of the present invention.

This information terminal device uses a central control unit 101 for controlling the entire device, a monitor 102 for displaying menus and various information, a mouse 103 used for selecting menus and the like, and a public line. Line I / F 104 for connecting a line to a database or the like, and an optical card 10.
6 to access the optical card I / F 105.

The optical card 106 stores necessary information such as a communication protocol and a data format for communicating with a database and the like, and search information such as a menu for searching the information. / F105 can be replaced appropriately.

The operation of this embodiment will be described below step by step with reference to the flow chart of FIG.

First, when the optical card 106 for searching for necessary information is inserted into the optical card I / F 105, the central control unit 101 displays the menu stored in the optical card 106 on the monitor 102 ( S301).

The information searcher selects the menu displayed on the monitor 102 using the mouse 103, so that the central control unit 101 switches the menu displayed on the monitor 102 to perform the search. When the menu selection of is completed (S302 to S305), the central control unit 1
01 connects the line to the database via the line I / F 104 and the public line (S306), and receives the necessary information selected from the menu from the database (S30).
7) and display it on the monitor 102 (S308).

Also, by replacing the optical card 106, the displayed menu, the connection destination of the line, and the display method of the received information naturally change.

[0018]

As described above, according to the present invention,
When retrieving information at a remote location via the communication means, information for retrieving information and information for displaying retrieval results are stored in the external storage means, and the external storage means is exchanged for each retrieved information. By doing so, the search information is read from the external storage means, and based on the information, desired information is read from a database or the like at a remote place via the line, and thus the use time of the line is significantly reduced. Therefore, there is an effect that the communication cost can be suppressed.

Further, when the retrieved information includes fixed frame information and the like, the frame information and the like are stored in advance in each external storage means so that it is not necessary to communicate the frame information and the like. There is also an effect that the amount of information to be communicated can be reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a conventional configuration example.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the above embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference numeral 101 ... Central control unit, 102 ... Monitor, 103 ... Mouse, 104 ... Line I / F, 105 ... Optical card I / F, 106 ... Optical card.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Display means for performing various displays including menu display, coordinate designating means for selecting a menu displayed on the display means, and exchange for storing information necessary for retrieving information. Having a possible external storage means and a communication means for transferring information through a communication line, and when searching for information in a remote place through the communication means, information and a search for searching the information in the external storage means An information terminal device, characterized in that information for displaying a result is stored and an external storage means is exchanged for each information to be searched.