JPH09305615A - Electronic information access system and its method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To realize information access structure where information access structure in human storage/thought is imitated in a computer. SOLUTION: The image 301 of a two-dimensional or three-dimensional information space is displayed in a monitor. In the information space image 301, objects 303 respectively corresponding to plural pieces of information are arranged at a position interval in accordance with mutual semantic distance. When the object 303 in the information space image 301 is indicated by a pointer by a mouse operation, etc., the image 307 of information corresponding to the object is displayed in the monitor. The image of an information element such as a headline, a main article and a diagram, etc., constituting the information is displayed in three-dimensional arrangement. When the desired information element image is indicated by the pointer 305, the information element image is arranged on the frontest screen. When scanning is executed in the information space image 301 by the pointer 305, the information images corresponding to the objects which are successively touched by the pointer 305 are successively displayed in the monitor.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a technique for accessing electronic information on a computer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the rapid development of computer networks, it has become easy to transmit and acquire information, and individuals can acquire various information. Especially the image,
Various multimedia systems have been proposed which handle sounds, characters, etc. in various forms. Utilizing such a technology, for example, a magazine or a book can be digitized into a CD-
Services provided to users through media such as ROM and networks have been put into practical use. Furthermore, a system such as a "digital library" that can provide various and large amounts of information to various users is being developed.

In such an electronic information access system, various kinds of information are expressed on a computer monitor in the form of images, characters, etc. together with sound. Regarding the method of expression on the monitor, most conventional systems display the pages of magazines and books electronically as they are on the monitor. In this case, the resolution of the monitor is much lower than the resolution of the paper, so book 1
In many cases, information for one page cannot fit on one screen of the monitor, and therefore methods such as scrolling and screen switching by operating a mouse are also used. Regarding access to different information and search for specific information, sequential access according to page order, jump to specific information by specifying page number, keyword search, etc. are performed.

[0004]

In the conventional system,
It is difficult to quickly find the information desired by the user from a large amount of various information. For example, you can sequentially read articles in magazines and books in page order or jump to a specified page, but you can flip through pages and search for your favorite articles, as you can with paper-based magazines and books. , It is difficult to do the most efficient reading that the user is most familiar with, such as reading in detail when the favorite article is found. In addition, although there are search methods such as keyword search, there are many cases where the user's request is ambiguous like "information that looks something like this", so keyword search cannot reach the desired information quickly. There are many. Even when reading a one-page article, it is necessary to read the part displayed on the screen, change the display area of the screen by operating the mouse, and read the other parts. It is difficult to perform an efficient browsing method that users are familiar with, such as roughly reading the whole to find a necessary portion and then reading only that portion in detail, or picking up only a photograph and looking at it in detail.

In short, the information access structure on the computer of the conventional system does not match the information access structure in human memory / thinking. for that reason,
An operation at the time of accessing information, such as switching pages or switching screen display areas, may interfere with human thinking. That is, the conventional information access structure can provide only an access process having a seam that interferes with human thinking, and is difficult for the user to use.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to realize on a computer an information access structure that imitates the information access structure in human memory / thinking. In particular, it is to enable seamless access to information so that the operation for access does not interfere with human thinking.

[0007]

According to the present invention, an information space is modeled by imitating a human memory structure model and the information space is visualized on a monitor of a computer.
By applying the human memory structure to the computer,
It becomes as if the medium called the computer expands the function of human brain memory. As a result, the thinking process of the user when accessing information on the computer is
This is similar to the case of accessing information stored in one's own brain, thus realizing seamless information access in which the user's thinking is not disturbed by the operation during information access.

The present invention is based on the understanding of human memory structure as the following model. When humans store new information, they store it in association with other information that has already been accumulated. Also, in the search process, information is indirectly searched using associative words. Thus, in the human memory structure, each information is stored in relation to each other's meaning. In addition, the method of linking information and the state of recognized information change according to the level of human consciousness.

FIG. 1 shows this human memory structure model. In this model, the state of information that humans are conscious of is divided into three states according to the consciousness level. First state 1
Indicates a natural state in which humans have no specific purpose for information. In this state 1, various information I that has already been stored is randomly arranged in the n-dimensional information space. However, in the unconscious world, the stored information I are considered to be linked in relation to each other. State 2 indicates a state in which the user is conscious of certain information Ia and the information Ib related thereto is also conscious. In this state 2, the conscious information Ia is arranged in the forefront of the conscious information space, and the other information Ib is rearranged according to the related strength. Such rearrangement is considered to be due to the unconscious action of managing the information link. The state 3 shows a state in which the specific information Ic is completely focused on the consciousness and the detailed information Id is dug up from the memory according to the information link. In this state 3,
The detailed information Id about the specific information Ic occupies the whole surface of consciousness.

[0010] In a paper magazine or the like, the process of flipping through the pages to find a desired article and accessing its details, or a quick scan of a page to find only the parts of interest in more detail The process of reading is very similar to the process of accessing stored information in the human memory structure described above. Therefore, this is a natural access process that is comfortable for humans.

Similarly, on a computer, the electronic information access system according to the first aspect of the present invention is provided with a plurality of electronic information access systems in order to visually provide an information space similar to a human memory structure to a user. Information space display means for visually displaying an image of a two-dimensional or three-dimensional information space in which objects corresponding to respective pieces of information are arranged with a positional interval according to a semantic distance between the information pieces, and an information space display means A pointing means for designating an object and an information display means for visually displaying an image of information corresponding to the object designated by the pointing means.

In this system, the user can look down at the entire information space by referring to the image of the information space that is visually displayed, and from there, freely specify an object to access any information. be able to. In the information space image, the objects are arranged at position intervals according to the semantic distance between the information pieces. That is, objects of information related to semantically similar subjects are arranged close to each other, and objects of information related to semantically different subjects are arranged far from each other. Therefore, the user can easily access a plurality of pieces of information related to a similar subject by sequentially designating a plurality of nearby objects in the information space image.

In this system, it is preferable that the information space image and the image of each information are displayed on the same monitor screen. Thereby, the operation of designating an arbitrary object on the information space image and accessing the designated information can be performed at the same time. As a result, an information access method similar to the above-mentioned “para-para reading” in the magazine of the paper medium is realized.

Further, in this system, when the pointing means sequentially points a plurality of objects while scanning the information space image, a plurality of images of information corresponding to those objects are sequentially visually displayed. It is desirable to do. As a result, the user can easily perform "fluttering reading" while freely scanning the information space image with the pointing means.

The system according to the second aspect of the present invention is for visualizing the above-mentioned information space as an image, and is a quantification method for quantifying a plurality of information into a quantity reflecting the semantic distance between the information pieces. Information space creation for creating an image of information space relating to a plurality of information by arranging an object representing each information in a two-dimensional or three-dimensional position corresponding to the quantity of each information from the digitizing means and the quantifying means And means.

According to this system, the visualized information space imitating the human memory structure as described above, that is, the objects corresponding to each of the plurality of pieces of information have a position interval corresponding to the semantic distance between the pieces of information. Placed 2
Images of three-dimensional or three-dimensional information spaces can be created. The image of the information space thus created can be used in the system according to the first aspect of the present invention.

The electronic information access system according to the third aspect of the present invention has a size that can be accommodated on a monitor screen in which images of a plurality of information elements constituting information on one subject are three-dimensionally arranged. A three-dimensional image forming unit for creating a three-dimensional image, an image display unit for displaying the three-dimensional image on a monitor screen, and a unit for changing the image arrangement in the three-dimensional image in response to a request from the user. .

According to this system, the entire information of one subject is displayed as a three-dimensional image on the monitor screen at once, so that the user can have a bird's eye view of the entire information. Since the arrangement of the information element image in the three-dimensional image is changed according to the user's request, the user can change the image of the desired information element to the front to access more detailed contents. This allows
It is possible to realize an information access method similar to a reading method in which one page is roughly read in a paper magazine or the like and then only a desired portion is read in detail.

The system preferably further comprises selection means for selecting one subject from a plurality of subjects,
According to this selection means, 3 of information related to the selected subject
The three-dimensional images can be displayed one after another. This makes it possible to easily carry out an access method in which information on a plurality of subjects is overlooked one after another, and desired detailed information is found and accessed from the information.

[0020]

FIG. 2 shows the overall configuration of an electronic magazine system according to an embodiment of the information access system of the present invention.

By the programmed computer,
Information access processing 101, information acquisition processing 103, and information reconstruction processing 104 are executed. The information access processing 101 provides the user with a list of information (articles) stored in the database 102, and displays a graphic interface on the monitor 105 for allowing the user to select which article the user wants to know more about.
Here, the graphic interface imitates the information space in the memory structure of the user, particularly the information space in the state 1 shown in FIG. 1, and will be described in detail later.

The information acquisition processing 103 acquires detailed information on the article selected by the user from the database 102. This detailed information is the detailed description content of one grouped article described on one page or several pages in a magazine, and for example, as shown in FIG. 3, the headline 111 of the article, the main article described by letters. 113, Photo 11
5, electronic information composed of a plurality of types of information elements such as charts 117 such as tables, graphs and pictures, and voices (not shown).

The information reconstruction processing 104 is the information acquisition processing 1
Images of a plurality of types of information elements included in the detailed information acquired by 03 are displayed on the monitor 105 in a three-dimensionally arranged form. This three-dimensional arrangement corresponds to the state 2 shown in FIG.
Is similar to the information space of. Further, the information reconstructing process 104 changes the image arrangement so that the image desired by the user is arranged in the foreground in response to the request from the user. The image thus arranged on the front side is similar to the information space in the state 3 shown in FIG. These will be described later in detail.

FIG. 4 shows a processing flow for creating the graphic interface displayed by the information access processing 101. This processing may be performed by the computer of the present system when updating the database 102, or
This processing may be performed outside the system, and the data of the graphic interface created there may be loaded into the present system so that it can be used by the information access processing 101.

This processing quantifies information (extraction of multidimensional feature vector) suitable for human memory structure, and compresses it to a dimension (two or three dimensions) that the user can see on the monitor. To do. In this embodiment,
Of the information (characters, photographs, charts, voices, etc.) stored in the database 102, character information for which feature extraction is relatively easy, that is, the main article 113 shown in FIG. 3 is used as a target for quantification. This process is based on the idea that documents contained in a field are characterized by the nouns that appear in them.

First, the main article 113 stored in the database 102 is input to this process. Here, this main article 113 has been converted into text data in advance,
A unique article number is given to each article 113. Morphological analysis is performed from the text data of all articles 113 to extract all nouns (step 201). The morphological analysis is a method of decomposing a Japanese sentence for each part of speech.

Next, for each of all the extracted nouns,
Each feature vector is calculated (step 20)
2). The feature vector of each noun is an n-dimensional meaning vector having the meaning distance value between the noun and each of the predetermined n (plural) important words as an element. The calculation of the semantic distance is performed by calculating the distance according to the number of layers up to the common concept of two words in the thesaurus dictionary prepared in advance. Therefore, the distance between semantically similar words is small, and the distance between semantically different words is large.

Next, the article feature vector of each article 113 is calculated as a weighted sum of the feature vectors of all nouns included in the article 113 (step 203). The weight of each noun includes a weight depending on the appearance distribution of the noun in all articles and a weight depending on the appearance frequency of the noun in the article. One article rj (j = 1,
2, ..., N) An example of the calculation formula of the article feature vector RSVrj is shown below.

[0029]

[Equation 1] As the weight ωj of all articles of the word j, for example, the reciprocal of the appearance probability of all articles of the word j can be used, and an example of its calculation formula is shown below.

[0030]

[Equation 2] Further, the weight Pij of the article rj of the word j is calculated by the following formula, for example.

[0031]

(Equation 3) When the n-dimensional article feature vector RSVrj is obtained for each article, next, the article feature vector R is displayed so that the user can see this article feature vector RSVrj on the monitor.
SVrj is reduced from n dimensions to 2 dimensions or 3 dimensions (step 204). In dimension compression, principal component analysis is performed on the n-dimensional feature vector, and the obtained first principal component is set to the x coordinate,
The second principal component is the y-coordinate (in the case of three dimensions, the third
The main component is the z coordinate). This allows
The article feature vectors of all articles are two-dimensional information space (x-
It is arranged in the y coordinate system) or the three-dimensional information space (xyz coordinate system), and this information space is displayed on the monitor 105. Principal component analysis summarizes the information contained in multivariate data so that the correlations of the principal components are all zero, and the principal components are sequentially minimized in the information loss of the original multivariate data. For details, refer to Tadashi Okuno et al. “Multivariate analysis method” (Nippon Giken) and Tamaro Suga “Practice of multivariate analysis” (Modern Mathematics). Hereinafter, the n-dimensional “article feature vector” compressed by two-dimensional or three-dimensional by principal component analysis is referred to as “article information vector”.

FIG. 5 shows an example of the two-dimensional information space displayed on the screen of the monitor 105.

As shown in FIG. 5, the two-dimensional information space 301
In, an individual article is displayed as an object 303. The coordinates of each object 303 are the article information vector of the corresponding article, and this article information vector is determined by the meaning vector of the noun included in the article, as can be seen from the above description. Therefore, since articles related to subjects having similar contents have similar meanings of the nouns included therein (the semantic distances between the nouns are close to each other), the distances of the article information vectors are also close to each other. The information spaces 301 are arranged close to each other. On the contrary, the objects of articles having different themes are arranged at positions distant from each other. Such information space is
It is similar to the state 1 information space of the human memory structure model shown in FIG. That is, a link between similar information in the unconscious world in the human memory structure is visualized as a close distance between objects in the information space 301.

A user can operate a pointing device such as a mouse to freely scan the information space 301 with a pointer (that is, a cursor) 305.
Each object 303 is the article information 30 of the corresponding article.
Linked to 7. While the pointer 305 is moving, the article information 307 corresponding to the object 303 pointed to by the pointer 305 is read from the database 102 by the information acquisition processing 103 shown in FIG. 2, and is displayed on the screen of the monitor 105 by the information reconstruction processing 104. It is displayed in an empty area. Therefore, the user can successively read various articles while scanning the information space 301 with the pointer 305. This realizes an access method similar to "fluttering" in paper magazines.
Furthermore, the information space 301 imitates a human memory structure,
Since the objects of the articles that are semantically close are arranged at positions that are close in distance, it is inevitable that a plurality of articles whose contents are related are continuously “read out”. This point is much closer to the human memory structure than paper magazines. Even if the user's request for information is ambiguous, by appropriately scanning the periphery of the article with contents close to the request,
You can reach articles that meet your requirements with relative ease.

FIG. 6 shows the information reconstruction processing 10 shown in FIG.
4 shows a detailed processing procedure.

First, in the three-dimensional processing 401, the headline 111, main article 113, photograph 115, and chart 117 shown in FIG.
A three-dimensional image in which the images of information elements such as 3D are three-dimensionally arranged according to a predetermined order of importance is created. For example, as shown in FIG. 7, the headline 111, the main article 113, the photograph 115, and the chart 117 are processed in this order from the foreground so that the image on the front side is made transparent and the image on the rear side is visible, resulting in a stereoscopic effect. Create a perfect image. Here, for transmission, a generally known blend using an alpha channel of an image can be used. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 8, the images are arranged in a virtual three-dimensional space and the
A three-dimensional image may be created by a method of reconstructing a three-dimensional image, that is, a so-called three-dimensional graphics method. Note that the three-dimensional graphics method includes, for example, ray tracing. A document introducing a general three-dimensional graphics method is Eihachiro Nakamae "Computer Graphics" (Ohmsha, 1987).

Next, in the image display processing 404, the created three-dimensional image is displayed on the monitor 105. The user can overview the entire article from the three-dimensional image on the monitor 105. This is similar to the information space of state 2 of the memory structure model shown in FIG. 1, and also enables the same access as a brief page reading of a magazine of paper media.

If the user wants to see the image on the rear surface side in the three-dimensional image in detail, he or she can input a layout change request to the computer by operating the mouse or the keyboard. This placement change request is placed in the placement change process 403.
Then, the processing is returned to the three-dimensional processing 401. In the three-dimensionalization processing 401, the image arrangement is changed so that the image for which the request is directed is arranged in the foreground, and the three-dimensional image is recreated. As a result, the user can place the desired image on top and read it in detail. In this case, the three-dimensional image or its desired image can be enlarged and displayed on the entire monitor screen by operating the mouse or the keyboard. This is similar to the information space of state 3 shown in FIG.

Furthermore, the user inputs a jump request to an article other than the currently displayed three-dimensional image by operating the mouse or the keyboard, or sets the pointer 305 on the monitor screen to the information space 301 shown in FIG. It is possible to go back inside and point to another article object 303. In this case, the routine shown in FIG. 6 is exited and the process returns to the main routine shown in FIG.

As described above, even on a monitor having a low resolution, it is possible to easily and quickly move to a column of the collected information, and thus it is possible to efficiently obtain information.

As can be seen from the above description, in this embodiment, the information space that imitates the human memory structure is visualized on the monitor screen and provided to the user, so that the access operation disturbs the user's thinking. In most cases, a seamless information access method that does not make users feel uncomfortable is realized.

The present invention is not limited to the electronic magazine system as in the above embodiment, but can be applied to various information access systems and search systems. The present invention can be typically implemented by a programmed computer, and the program can be a medium that fixedly carries the program such as a disk storage device or a semiconductor storage device or a fluid program such as a communication network. It can be supplied to the computer from a carrier medium.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a human memory structure model.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of detailed information of one article.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a process for creating a graphic user interface used in the information access process.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing an information space of articles displayed on a monitor and an image of detailed article information linked to the information space.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of information reconstruction processing.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing an image in which a plurality of images of detailed information are three-dimensionally displayed using alpha blending.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing an image in which a plurality of images of detailed information are displayed by using a three-dimensional graphics method.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101 Information Access Processing 102 Database 103 Information Acquisition Processing 104 Information Reconstruction Processing 105 Monitor 303 Visualized Information Space 305 Pointer 307 Detailed Information Image of Article

Claims (14)

[Claims] 1. An information space display means for visually displaying an image of a two-dimensional or three-dimensional information space in which objects corresponding to each of a plurality of pieces of information are arranged with a positional interval according to a semantic distance between the pieces of information. An electronic information access system comprising: pointing means for designating an object in the image of the information space; and information display means for visually displaying an image of information corresponding to the object designated by the pointing means. 2. The image of the information space and the image of information corresponding to the designated object are displayed on the same monitor screen.
Electronic information access system described. 3. When the pointing means sequentially points at a plurality of objects while scanning the image of the information space, the information display means causes a plurality of images of information corresponding to the plurality of objects to be sequentially placed. The electronic information access system according to claim 1, which is displayed visually. 4. A process of visually displaying an image of a two-dimensional or three-dimensional information space in which objects corresponding to each of a plurality of pieces of information are arranged with a positional interval according to the semantic distance between the pieces of information, and the information. An electronic information access method comprising: a step of designating an object in an image of a space; and a step of visually displaying an image of information corresponding to the designated object. 5. A quantifying means for quantifying a plurality of information into a quantity in which a semantic distance between the information is reflected, and a two-dimensional or three-dimensional position corresponding to the quantity of each information from the quantifying means. An information space visualization system for electronic information access, further comprising: an information space creating means for creating an image of the information space concerning the plurality of information by arranging an object representing each information. 6. The information includes an article in which each information is expressed in characters, and the quantification means quantifies each information based on the meaning of a word appearing in the article of each information. The information space visualization system described in 5. 7. A process of quantifying a plurality of information into a quantity in which a semantic distance between the information is reflected, and a two-dimensional or three-dimensional position corresponding to the quantity of each information from the quantifying step, An information space visualization method for electronic information access, comprising: arranging an object representing each piece of information to create an image of the information space relating to the plurality of pieces of information. 8. A three-dimensionalization means for creating a three-dimensional image of a size that can be accommodated on a monitor screen, in which images of a plurality of information elements constituting information on one subject are three-dimensionally arranged, An electronic information access system comprising: an image display unit for displaying a three-dimensional image on a monitor screen; and a unit for changing the arrangement of images in the three-dimensional image in response to a request from a user. 9. The three-dimensionalization means, when initially arranging the images of the plurality of information elements, has a front-rear positional relationship in accordance with a predetermined order with respect to the plurality of information elements. 9. The electronic information access system according to claim 8, wherein the images are arranged so as to partially overlap each other. 10. A selection means for selecting one theme from a plurality of themes is further provided, and the three-dimensionalization means responds to the selection means to create a three-dimensional image relating to the selected theme. 9. The electronic information access system according to claim 8, wherein: 11. A process of creating a three-dimensional image of a size that can be accommodated on a monitor screen, in which images of a plurality of information elements constituting information on one subject are three-dimensionally arranged, and the three-dimensional image. An electronic information access method including a step of displaying on a monitor screen and a step of changing an image arrangement in the three-dimensional image in response to a request from a user. 12. A process of visually displaying an image of a two-dimensional or three-dimensional information space in which an object corresponding to each of a plurality of information is arranged with a positional interval according to a semantic distance between the information, and the information. A computer program is stored in a computer-readable and understandable format for causing a computer to execute a process of designating an object in an image of a space and a process of visually displaying an image of information corresponding to the designated object. And a program medium for accessing electronic information. 13. A process of quantifying a plurality of information into a quantity in which a semantic distance between the information is reflected, and a two-dimensional or three-dimensional position corresponding to the quantity of each information from the quantifying step, An information space that carries a computer program for causing a computer to execute a process of creating an image of the information space relating to the plurality of information by arranging objects representing each information in a format readable and understandable by the computer. Program medium for visualization. 14. A process of creating a three-dimensional image of a size that can be accommodated on a monitor screen, in which images of a plurality of information elements constituting information on one subject are three-dimensionally arranged, and the three-dimensional image. A computer program in a computer-readable and understandable form for causing a computer to execute the process of displaying the image on a monitor screen and the process of changing the arrangement of the image in the three-dimensional image in response to a request from the user. A carried program medium for accessing electronic information.