JPH08314972A - Electronic catalog device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide an electronic catalog device capable of speedily and easily extracting catalog information of a desired commodity from many commodities with many kinds of categories. CONSTITUTION: The electronic catalog device is equipped with commodity data base 4 and a picture data base 5 and these data bases store category information of each commodity, one or plural retrieving terms and catalog information including picture data for every commodity. Besides, at the time of retrieval, a mouse 2 an user should operate is connected to an information processing circuit 1. Based on category information inputted by the operation of the mouse 2, the circuit 1 retrieves the commodity data base 4 to extract the retrieving term concerning the pertinent commodity and then extracts catalog information of the pertinent commodity based on the retrieving term selected by the operation of the mouse 2. Pertinent catalog information is displayed on a display 3.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic catalog device for extracting catalog information of a desired product from catalog information of a large number of different products and displaying the information on a screen.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Due to the recent development of information processing technology, large-capacity multimedia data including images and sounds can be stored in CD-
It is possible to package in a compact and lightweight medium such as a ROM at low cost. As a result, it becomes possible to digitize various publications that were conventionally created in the form of a booklet, and it is attempted to be put to practical use not only in the publishing world but also in various fields (for example, JP-A-7-56784). (G06F1
2/00]).

For example, in the mail-order industry, attempts have been made to digitize a catalog of many different types of products,
This not only reduces the cost of creating the catalog and the transportation cost, but also incorporates audio and video as catalog information, which enables a product sales form that was not possible with conventional booklet catalogs. And in the future, not only packaged publications such as CD-ROMs, but also large-scale electronic catalog devices that can search and place orders for products online by using interactive CA-TV and the like. It is expected to evolve.

By the way, in the electronic catalog device,
It is considered that a home television receiver is used to display the image of the product, and the purchaser searches for the desired product by using the input means such as the joypad or the mouse while looking at the image display, It becomes an ordering system (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-247567 [G06F15 / 21]).

[0005]

However, since the number of products that can be displayed on the television screen at one time is limited, if the types of products increase, it is necessary to search for a desired product by sequentially switching the screens. In addition, there is a problem that the searchability is worse than that of the booklet catalog.

Therefore, it is conceivable to classify a large number of products into categories and add a hierarchical structure to them to improve the searchability. For example, when searching for "VTR" in an electronic catalog of electrical products, the hierarchical structure is sequentially descended from "home appliances" to "audiovisual devices" to "VTR". As a result, the "VTR" can be searched with less operations than the method of browsing the entire catalog from the first page.

However, in the recent era of high-mix low-volume production, for example, the "VTR" has various functions such as "time-reducing playback function", "BS tuner built-in", and "voice multiplex function". Furthermore, "a model that has a built-in BS tuner but does not have a voice multiplexing function", "a model that does not have a built-in BS tuner but has a voice multiplexing function", and "has a built-in BS tuner and also has a voice multiplexing function" Model, etc.,
There are many varieties depending on the combination of functions. Therefore, it may be difficult to simply classify by function, and even if it is possible to classify, even if it is possible to classify such fine classification, the hierarchical structure becomes large and searchability is rather conspicuous. There is a problem that the improvement effect is lost.

An object of the present invention is to provide an electronic catalog device capable of quickly and easily extracting catalog information of a desired product from a large number of products having various categories.

[0009]

An electronic catalog device according to the present invention is characterized by having the following configuration. (a) For each product, database means that stores category information related to the classification of the product, one or more search terms indicating the function, characteristics, etc. of the product, and catalog information of the product, (b) ) Inputting means for inputting desired category information and search term, (c) searching database means based on the inputted category information, and extracting a search term for the corresponding product
Search means, (d) second search means for searching for products to which the search terms extracted by the first search means are added based on the input search terms and extracting catalog information of the corresponding products And (e) display means for displaying the search term extracted by the first search means and displaying the catalog information extracted by the second search means.

As the catalog information, in addition to the image data of the product, character data or voice data containing various information about the product such as price can be adopted.

In a concrete configuration, the category information of each product is stored in the database means as a hierarchical structure or a relational structure, and the first searching means determines the product classification based on the category information sequentially input by the input means. The search is advanced until at least one category information representing the lowest classification is reached, and 1 to be assigned to one or a plurality of products specified by the category information.
Alternatively, a plurality of search terms are extracted.

More specifically, the input means inputs the search term by selecting one or a plurality of search terms from the one or a plurality of search terms displayed on the display means. It has a function.

More specifically, the second search means is based on one or a plurality of search terms selected by the input means, and is a catalog of one or a plurality of products having all or at least one of the search terms. It is for extracting information.

Further, more specifically, the display means has a browsing function for sequentially displaying the catalog information extracted by the second search means for each one or a plurality of products.

[0015]

In the electronic catalog apparatus according to the present invention, first, the primary search is performed by the primary search means, and the desired products are narrowed down to a lower level of classification to some extent, and then the secondary search is further performed by the secondary search means. Then, the catalog information about the desired product is extracted by the conditional search based on the search term.

That is, in the primary search, the input means is operated to input category information (such as "home electric appliances" and "AV equipment") about a desired product (for example, "VTR"). In response to this, the first search means searches the database means based on, for example, the hierarchical structure or the relational structure of the product classification. As a result, the search is advanced to a preset lowest classification, and one or a plurality of products included in the classification (for example, "VTR") are specified. Then, one or a plurality of search terms to be given to these product groups are extracted and displayed on the display means.

In the present invention, catalog information is stored in these structures up to the lower classifications that can be searched efficiently based on the hierarchical structure or the relational structure, and the functions and characteristics are different. Detailed classification is not adopted. Therefore, the primary search is efficiently performed.

Next, in the secondary search, the input means is operated to search for a desired product from the search terms displayed on the display means (for example, "BS tuner built-in", "voice multiplex"). Select "Enter" and so on). In response to this, the second search means identifies the product to which the input search term is added. As a result, the catalog information of the product is extracted and displayed on the display means. Therefore, conditional search can be applied to various product categories that are created by combinations of product functions and features.
It is possible to reach the target product reliably and quickly.

If the input means is provided with a selection input function, for example, a mouse input function, the user can click one of the displayed search terms to select that search term. It is convenient because you can enter it.

In the secondary search by the second search means,
Either an AND search that specifies a product having all of the plurality of search terms selected by the input means or an OR search that specifies a product that has at least one search term can be adopted.

Further, in the concrete structure of the display means, the catalog information of the finally extracted products is sequentially displayed for each one or a plurality of products, so that the desired product can be easily selected from among them. .

[0022]

According to the electronic catalog device of the present invention, an efficient primary search based on a hierarchical structure, a relational structure, etc., and a detailed secondary search based on a subsequent search term.
By combining the following searches, it is possible to quickly and easily retrieve the catalog information of the target product.

[0023]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. The electronic catalog device of the present invention is an information processing circuit (1) including a microcomputer as shown in FIG.
A mouse (2) for inputting data to the information processing circuit (1), a display (3) for outputting data output from the information processing circuit (1), and various information regarding products are stored. The product database (4) and the image database (5) storing the image data of each product.

The information processing circuit (1) has a function of executing a primary search based on a hierarchical structure of merchandise classification and a function of executing a secondary search based on a search term as described later. The function for executing the secondary search is classified into a system operation part and a user operation part as shown in FIG.

That is, the system operation part is the display.
(3), product database (4) and image database (5)
A data storage memory (6) for storing search terms, image data, etc. for each product for a plurality of products narrowed down by the primary search, and a data storage memory ( Search term display means (7) for displaying a plurality of search terms stored in 6)
And image data search means (8) for searching image data and the like in the data storage memory (6) based on the search terms selected from these search terms, and images of a plurality of products obtained by the search It comprises a search image data display means (9) for displaying data and the like.

The user operation part is a functional part which should be operated in response to the operation of the mouse (2), and is a desired search term from a plurality of search terms displayed by the search term display means (7). Browsing browsing means for browsing the image data to be displayed by the search image data display means (9) and the search term selection means (10) for selecting the (1
It consists of 1) and.

FIG. 5 is a product database (4) shown in FIG.
Represents an example of the data structure of As for product categories, "home appliances" is in the top layer, "AV equipment" and "cooking equipment" are in the middle layer, and "VTR" and "TV" are in the bottom layer.
"Rice cooker" etc. are registered, and a moderately structured hierarchical structure that enables efficient search is constructed. Further, for each product, catalog information consisting of “model number”, “search term”, “image file name” and “product information” is stored. Here, the “image file name” is the file name of the image data for each product stored in the image database (5) shown in FIG. 1, and the “product information” is the price of the product, etc. It is detailed catalog information added as a character code.

FIG. 3 shows the first information processing circuit (1).
This shows the specific procedure for the next search. First, in step S1, the user is asked whether or not a list of all search terms for all products targeted by the catalog should be displayed.
In the case of NO, the process proceeds to step S2 and the product categories registered in the product database (4) are sequentially displayed from the upper layer. Next, in step S3, when a user performs an input operation such as clicking while one category is displayed, the category is selected and the search process is further advanced from the category. Then, in step S4, it is determined whether or not there is a lower category, and YE
In the case of S, the process returns to step S2.

If NO is determined in step S4, it is assumed that the search has proceeded to the lowest category, and in step S5, the search result, that is, a catalog of a plurality of products included in the lowest category. Information (model number,
The search term, the image data, and the product information) are stored in the data storage memory (6) of FIG. Then, step S6
Moves to the secondary search. On the other hand, in step S1, Y
If it is determined to be ES, the process proceeds to step S5, and the catalog information about all the products targeted by the catalog is stored in the data storage memory (6) of FIG.

FIG. 4 shows a specific procedure of the secondary search. First, in step S61, all the search terms are read from the data storage memory (6) of FIG. 2, and in step S62, a list of the read search terms is displayed. FIG. 6 shows an example of a list display of search terms.
Various functions of the TR are displayed as icons.

After that, when the user clicks a specific icon or icons to select a desired search term, the selected search term is fetched in step S63 of FIG. Next, in step S64, the model number, image data, and product information of all the products to which the selected search term is added are read, and in step S65, those data are sequentially displayed for each product by the browsing function. , Is displayed on the screen.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a screen display, in which the model number of a product having a desired function, the image of the product, and the product information are 1
It is displayed on the screen. It is also possible to simultaneously display a plurality of products on one screen.

According to the above-mentioned electronic catalog apparatus, first, the primary search is used to efficiently narrow down the products having a desired classification, and further, the secondary search is performed thereafter to select a plurality of products. It is possible to surely and quickly select a product having a desired function or characteristic from the products and display the catalog information on the screen.

The above description of the embodiments is for explaining the present invention, and should not be construed as limiting the invention described in the claims or limiting the scope. The configuration of each part of the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment, and it goes without saying that various modifications can be made within the technical scope described in the claims. For example, it is possible to include the price of a product as a search term, and by doing so, it is possible to add a search condition other than performance or characteristics such as further narrowing down the product by setting the purchase budget amount.

In the above embodiment, the catalog information about a plurality of products extracted by the primary search based on the hierarchical structure is stored in the data storage memory (6), but the present invention is not limited to this. ) And the image database (5) as a target, the structure which performs a secondary search is also employable.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a device configuration of an electronic catalog device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of an information processing circuit.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a procedure of a primary search.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a procedure of a secondary search.

FIG. 5 is a chart showing a data structure of a product database.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a display example of a selected search term.

FIG. 7 is a screen display example of catalog information for one product.

[Explanation of symbols]

 (1) Information processing circuit (2) Mouse type input device (3) Display (4) Product database (5) Image database

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. Catalog information of a desired product is extracted from catalog information of a large number of products of different types,
An electronic catalog device for displaying the information, which is a database in which, for each product, category information related to the classification of the product, one or more search terms related to the product, and catalog information of the product are stored. Means, input means for inputting desired category information and search term, first searching means for searching the database means based on the inputted category information, and extracting the search term for the corresponding product, Based on the retrieved search term, the second retrieval unit that retrieves the product to which the retrieval term extracted by the first retrieval unit is added and extracts the catalog information of the corresponding product, and the first retrieval unit. Display means for displaying the extracted search terms and for displaying the catalog information extracted by the second searching means. Painting and electronic catalog system. 2. The database means stores the category information of each product as a hierarchical structure or a relational structure, and the first searching means determines the highest category among the product categories based on the category information sequentially input by the input means. 2. The search according to claim 1, wherein the search is advanced until at least one category information representing a lower classification is reached, and one or more search terms to be given to one or more products specified by the category information are extracted. Electronic catalog device. 3. The input means has a selection input function of inputting one or more search terms by selecting one or more search terms from the one or more search terms displayed on the display means. The electronic catalog device according to claim 2. 4. The second search means extracts, based on the one or more search terms selected by the input means, the catalog information of all or at least one of the search terms and one or a plurality of products. The electronic catalog device according to claim 3. 5. The electronic catalog device according to claim 4, wherein the display means has a browsing function of sequentially displaying the catalog information extracted by the second search means for each one or a plurality of products.