JPH09288678A - Information retrieval system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To perform retrieval in a wide range for character string data inputted so as to specify a color by a user. SOLUTION: This information retrieval system receives the input of the character string data for specifying the color, obtains the numerical data of the color provided wih the character string data matched with the inputted character string data from a numerical data table 2, judges whether or not the numerical data of the color, with which the character string data stored in an image data table 1 and the character string data stored in the numerical data table 2 match match with the obtained numerical data and turns the image data of the matching color to a retrieved result.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information retrieval system using color as a key in a commodity transaction system for conducting transactions in electronic form.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A product trading system in which a product catalog is made into an electronic form such as a CD-ROM or data communication, and the product is taken in by a personal computer owned by a user, the catalog is displayed on a display, and products are selected or ordered. Is becoming popular. In such a merchandise trading system, when one product has several colors such as clothes, the user inputs data of a desired color, and the information search for displaying a product of a desired color using the color as a key. The system is installed.

An information retrieval system using a color as a key stores the color that an image of a product or the like mainly has as character data, and a user inputs a desired color as character data from a keyboard or the like. Is to display an image with a matching color on the display.

[0004]

In the conventional information retrieval system using color as a key, when the electronic catalog side specifies the color of green products by the character string data "green", the user side reads "green". Even if I typed "," this green product could not be searched. Also, it was not possible to search for similar colors.

For example, in the case of a relationship such as "green" and "emerald green", it is possible to search by providing a partial comparison function of character strings, but names such as "green" and "moss" are available. When it was totally different, I couldn't search even with similar colors.

[0006]

In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention represents a color by a numerical value, and a numerical data table in which the numerical data and the character string data indicating the name of the color are stored in association with each other. And an image data table in which the image of a colored product and the character string data indicating the name of this color are stored in association with each other, and the input of the character string data specifying the color is performed. Means for obtaining numerical value data of a color having character string data matching the specified character string data from the numerical data table, and storing the character string data and the numerical data table stored in the image data table. A means for determining whether or not the numerical value data of a color that matches a certain character string data matches the acquired numerical value data, and Data is to the search results.

[0007]

1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of a color-based information retrieval system of the present invention mounted in a commodity trading system. In the figure, 1 is an image data table, and this image data table 1
Stores an image of a product, such as clothing, in association with character string data indicating the color name of the product. The image of the product has a color specified by the character string data.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing an example of this image data table. For example, green, moss, warbler,
An image of clothes having a color such as emerald green is stored in association with the character string data indicating the name of this color. Returning to FIG. 1, reference numeral 2 denotes a numerical data table. In the numerical data table 2, character string data indicating a color name is stored in association with numerical data indicating the hue, brightness, and saturation of the color. .

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of this numerical data table. The numerical data is "JIS Z
8721: Color display method based on three attributes ", and as many color names as possible are stored in association with numerical data. Here, as shown in FIG. 3, even if the color names are different, there is the same numerical data.

Returning to FIG. 1, reference numeral 3 is a search information input means, which receives character data for specifying the color of the product to be searched from the user. Reference numeral 4 is a matching character string search means, which searches the numerical data table 2 for character string data that matches the character string data input from the information input means 3. Reference numeral 5 is an input numerical data acquisition means, which acquires numerical data corresponding to the character string data in the numerical data table 2 determined by the matched character string search means 4 when it matches the character string data input from the information input means 3. To do.

Reference numeral 6 is an image data table search means,
The character string data is searched in order from the image data table 1. A matching character string search means 7 searches the numerical data table 2 for character string data that matches the character string data searched by the image data table search means 6.

Reference numeral 8 denotes an image numerical data acquisition means, which corresponds to the character string data in the numerical data table 2 judged by the matched character string searching means 7 when it matches the character string data searched by the image data table searching means 6. Get numerical data. Numerical data comparison means 9 compares the numerical data acquired by the input numerical data acquisition means 5 with the numerical data acquired by the image numerical data acquisition means 8.

Reference numeral 10 is a search means, and when the numerical data comparison means 9 determines that the numerical values match, the image data table 1 is searched for the image corresponding to the character string data searched by the image data table search means 6. Search more. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of a commodity trading system equipped with a color information retrieval system. The commodity trading apparatus includes a CPU 11, a keyboard 12, and
Display 13, memory 14, hard disk 15,
It is composed of a CD-ROM reading device 16 and the like, and a bus 17 and the like for exchanging data between these components.

Here, the configuration described with reference to FIG. 1 is stored in a CD-ROM as software, and is set in the CD-ROM reading device 16 having the hardware configuration described with reference to FIG. Each means and table described in 1 are loaded into the memory 14 or the hard disk 15,
The CPU 11 executes processing. In the configuration described in FIG. 1, the image data table 1 may be stored in the CD-ROM as an electronic catalog, and other means and tables may be stored in the hard disk 15 in advance. The configuration shown may be stored in another computer and acquired via a communication line as needed.

Next, the operation of the color information retrieval system of the first embodiment will be described. First, the user inputs the data for specifying the color from the keyboard 12 in order to specify the color of the product that the user wants to see. Here, for example, "green" is input.

The search information input means 3 notifies the matching character string search means 4 of the data for specifying the color input from the keyboard 12, here the data "green" as character string data. The matching character string search means 4 searches the numerical data table 2 for character string data that matches the character string data specifying the color notified from the search information input means 3. In Figure 3, the name of the color is "green", so
Here, “green” is the matching character string data.

The input numerical data acquisition means 5 acquires the numerical data corresponding to the character string data determined by the matching character string search means 4 from the numerical data table 2 and stores it. Here, since the matched character string data is “green”, “4G6 / 8” is acquired. Next, the image data table search means 6 sequentially searches the image data table 1 and acquires character string data indicating the color name. In FIG. 2, “green” is first acquired.

The matching character string searching means 7 searches the numerical data table 2 for a color having character string data which matches the character string data acquired from the image data table 1 by the image data table searching means 6. here,
"Green" is a match. The image numerical data acquisition means 8 acquires the numerical data corresponding to the character string data determined by the matched character string search means 7 from the numerical data table 2 and stores it. Here, since the matched character string data is “green”, “4G6
/ 8 ”is acquired.

Then, the numerical data comparison means 9 compares the numerical data acquired by the input numerical data acquisition means 5 with the numerical data acquired by the image numerical data acquisition means 8. When the numerical data comparing means 9 determines that the numerical values match, the searching means 10 searches the image data table 1 for an image corresponding to the character string data searched by the image data table searching means 6. Here, the image with the color "green" is searched.

Then, the image data table retrieval means 6 retrieves the image data table 1 to obtain the character string data indicating the next stored color name. Also, when the numerical data comparison means 9 does not determine that the numerical values match, the image data table search means 6 searches the image data table 1 and finds the name of the next stored color. Gets the character string data shown. Hereinafter, the character string data that matches the character string data stored in the image data table 1 is searched from the numerical data table 2, and the numerical data corresponding to the matched character string data corresponds to the color input by the user. The image data table 1 is a process for comparing whether or not it matches the numerical data
Repeat until all are searched.

When the image data table 1 has the contents shown in FIG. 2 and the numerical data table 2 has the contents shown in FIG. 3, by performing the above processing, the input of "green" causes "emerald green". "And" green "are the search results, and the search means 10 acquires image data from the image data table 1 using this character string data as a key and outputs it from the display 13.

As described above, according to the first embodiment of the present invention, the color name input by the user to retrieve the product from the image data table 1 is the image of the product in the image data table 1. Even if the name of the color is different from the one stored in the image data table 1, a numerical data table 2 that represents the color with numerical data is provided, and the numerical value representing the color input by the user and the image data table 1 are stored. If the numerical value that represents a color with a color name that matches the name of a given color matches, this color can be searched as the color entered by the user, and there are various names with different names. Even if there is, the correct name can be searched using the color name entered by the user.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of the color information retrieval system of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes an image data table. In the image data table 1, character images representing the names of colors attached to the products are stored in association with the images of the products, for example, clothing. As the image table data 1, the one described in FIG. 2 is used.

Reference numeral 21 is a numerical data table. This numerical data table 21 is a character string data indicating a color name.
Color specific numerical data showing the hue, brightness, and saturation of that color,
Color range numerical data indicating a color range is stored in association with each other. FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of this numerical data table. Among the numerical data, the color specific numerical data indicating the hue, lightness, and saturation of the color is “JIS Z 872”.
1: Display method of color by three attributes ”, and as many color names as possible are stored in association with numerical data. Here, as shown in FIG. 6, even if the color names are different, there is the same color-specific numerical data.

The color range numerical data is determined in advance by a human visual experiment, for example, by showing several kinds of colors and judging whether the colors are green or not. The larger the value of the color range numerical data, the larger the color range. For example, “green” has a width of 14 (1 GY to 8 BG) as a hue, a width of 3 (3 to 9) as a lightness, and a width of 7 (1 as a saturation) centering on color specific numerical data (4G6 / 8). ~ 16), which is a fairly wide range. On the contrary, "emerald green" has the same center value as "green", but shows a narrow range of colors.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory view showing the concept of the range of colors included in the numerical data table described in FIG. 6, and each frame shows the range of colors. It can be seen that "green" and "green" are in the same range, and "emerald green", "guisuisu", and "moss" are included in the range. In addition, "emerald green" does not include "guisuisu" or "moss".

Returning to FIG. 5, reference numeral 3 denotes a search information input means which, when the user inputs data for specifying the color of the product to be searched, inputs the data as character string data. Reference numeral 4 is a matching character string search means, which searches the numerical data table 21 for character string data that matches the character string data input from the information input means 3. Reference numeral 22 is an input numerical data acquisition means, which is a color specific numerical value corresponding to the character string data in the numerical data table 21 determined by the matching character string searching means 4 to match the character string data input from the search information inputting means 3. Get data and numerical data for color range.

Reference numeral 6 is an image data table search means,
The character string data is searched in order from the image data table 1. A matching character string search means 7 searches the numerical data table 21 for character string data that matches the character string data searched by the image data table searching means 6.

Reference numeral 8 denotes an image numerical data acquisition means, which corresponds to the character string data in the numerical data table 21 determined by the matched character string search means 7 when it matches the character string data searched by the image data table search means 6. Get color specific numerical data. Reference numeral 23 is a numerical data comparing means for comparing whether the color range numerical data acquired by the input numerical data acquiring means 22 includes the color specific numerical data acquired by the image numerical data acquiring means 8.

Reference numeral 10 is a searching means, and when the numerical data comparing means 23 determines that a numerical value is included, the image data table 1 is searched for an image corresponding to the character string data searched by the image data table searching means 6. To do. The hardware configuration is the same as that described with reference to FIG. Next, the operation of the color-based information retrieval system according to the second embodiment will be described.

First, the user inputs the data for specifying the color from the keyboard 12 in order to specify the color of the product that the user wants to see. Here, for example, "green" is input. The search information input means 3 notifies the matching character string search means 4 of the data for specifying the color input from the keyboard 12, that is, the data "green" here as the character string data.

The matching character string searching means 4 searches the numerical data table 21 for character string data that matches the character string data for specifying the color notified from the search information inputting means 3. In FIG. 6, since there is “green” as the color name, “green” is the matching character string data here. The input numerical data acquisition means 22 acquires from the numerical data table 21 the color specific numerical data and the color range numerical data corresponding to the character string data which the matching character string searching means 4 has determined to match, and stores them. Here, since the matched character string data is "green", "4G6 / 8"
And "14, 3, 7" are acquired.

Next, the image data table search means 6
Searches the image data table 1 in order and acquires the character string data indicating the color name. In FIG. 2, “green” is first acquired. The matching character string searching means 7 searches the numerical data table 2 for a color having character string data that matches the character string data acquired from the image data table 1 by the image data table searching means 6. Here, "green" matches.

The image numerical data acquisition means 8 acquires from the numerical data table 2 the color specific numerical data corresponding to the character string data determined by the matching character string search means 7 and stores it. Here, since the matched character string data is “green”, “4G6 / 8” is acquired. Then, the numerical data comparison means 23 compares whether or not the color range numerical data acquired by the image numerical data acquisition means 8 is included in the color range numerical data acquired by the input numerical data acquisition means 22.

When the numerical data comparison means 23 determines that the color range numerical data acquired by the input numerical data acquisition means 22 includes the color specification numerical data acquired by the image numerical data acquisition means 8, the retrieval means 10 Searches the image data table 1 for an image corresponding to the character string data searched by the image data table search means 6. Here, the image with the color "green" is searched.

Then, the image data table search means 6 searches the image data table 1 to obtain the character string data indicating the next stored color name. In addition, when the numerical data comparison unit 23 determines that the color range numerical data acquired by the input numerical data acquisition unit 22 does not include the color-specific numerical data acquired by the image numerical data acquisition unit 8, the image The data table search means 6 searches the image data table 1 to acquire the character string data indicating the next stored color name. Hereinafter, the character string data that matches the character string data stored in the image data table 1 is searched from the numerical value data table 21, and the color-specific numerical value data corresponding to the matched character string data is the color input by the user. The process of comparing whether or not it is included in the color range numerical data corresponding to, and outputting it as a search result if it is included is repeated until the entire image data table 1 is searched.

When the image data table 1 has the contents shown in FIG. 2 and the numerical data table 21 has the contents shown in FIG. 6, by performing the above processing, the "emerald green" is input to the "green" input. , “Moss”, “Uguisu” and “Green” are the search results, and the search means 10 acquires the image data from the image data table 1 using this character string data as a key and outputs it from the display 13.

As described above, according to the second embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to use the color range numerical data in which the range of colors that has been previously determined based on visual experiments of human beings is numerically expressed and used. Since a color included in the range of colors input by a person trying to search for a product from the image data table 1 can be used as the search result, a search result that matches the human sense can be obtained.

For example, if the user inputs "green", "emerald green", "moss", "guisui"
And "green" is the search result, and the whole green color is searched, but if you enter "emerald green", "moss" and "guisuisu" are not selected. This is in agreement with the person's feeling that "moss" and "uguisu" are generally greenish colors, but not "emerald green".

In the first and second embodiments described above, the center and range of the color are indicated by the hue, lightness, and saturation, but other color expression methods such as RGB may be used. It is also possible to create a numerical value that specifies a color or a numerical value within a range of colors. In addition, the first embodiment and the second embodiment
In the above embodiment, a computer having a keyboard is taken as an example of the hardware configuration, but it is also applicable to a home game machine having a control pad having some buttons. In the case of the control pad of a home-use game machine, it is not possible to directly input the color as character string data, so display some basic colors on the display, select the desired color from these, and select this. If the acquired color is to be obtained as character string data,
It is possible to implement the embodiment and the second embodiment.

[0041]

As described above, according to the present invention, a color is represented by a numerical value, and a numerical data table in which the numerical data and the character string data indicating the name of the color are stored in association with each other,
It is equipped with an image data table that stores the image of a colored product and the character string data indicating the name of this color in association with each other. The numerical value data of the color having the character string data that matches the column data is obtained from the numerical value data table, and the character string data stored in the image data table and the character string stored in the numerical data table are acquired. Numerical data of colors that match the data,
Since it is determined whether or not the acquired numerical data matches the image data of the matching color, the character string data different from the character string data stored in the image data table is used as the search result. Even if it is, if the numerical data in the numerical data table is the same color, it will be possible to search, and it will be possible to search for colors with multiple names and similar colors using the data entered by the user as a key. .

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of a color-based information retrieval system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of an image data table.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a numerical data table.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an example of a hardware configuration of a commodity trading system.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of the color information retrieval system of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a numerical data table.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a concept of a color range included in a numerical data table.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Image Data Table 2 Numerical Data Table 3 Information Input Means 4 Matching Character String Searching Means 5 Input Numerical Data Obtaining Means 6 Image Data Table Searching Means 7 Matching Character String Searching Means 8 Image Numerical Data Obtaining Means 9 Numerical Data Comparing Means 10 Searching Means

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A numerical data table in which a color is represented by a numerical value, and the numerical data and character string data indicating the name of the color are stored in association with each other, an image of a colored product, and the name of the color. It has an image data table that stores character string data in association with each other, receives character string data that specifies a color, and stores the color of the character string data that matches this input character string data. A unit for acquiring numerical data from the numerical data table, and numerical data of a color in which the character string data stored in the image data table and the character string data stored in the numerical data table match, The information retrieval system is provided with a means for determining whether or not it matches the numerical value data, and the image data of the matching color is used as the search result. Tem. 2. A color is represented by a numerical value, a range included in the color is represented by a numerical value, and the color-specific numerical data, the color range numerical data, and the character string data indicating the name of the color are stored in association with each other. It has a numerical data table, an image data table that stores the image of a colored product and the character string data indicating the name of this color in association with each other, and also receives the character string data for specifying the color. Means for obtaining color-specific numerical data and color range numerical data of a color having character string data matching the input character string data from the numerical data table, and stored in the image data table. Whether the numerical data of the color that the character string data and the character string data stored in the numerical data table match are included in the acquired color range numerical data An information retrieval system comprising means for determining whether or not the image data of colors included in the acquired color range numerical data is used as a retrieval result.