INFORMATION SEARCH METHOD AND SYSTEM THEREFOR

• US 20020059162A1
• Filed: 02/08/1999
• Published: 05/16/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: SHINODA, TAKASHI, KIKUTA, ATSUSHI, YOUDA, AKIHIRO, KATO, TSUTOMO
• Granted Patent: US 6,611,830 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A mark management server embeds a mark ID and so on in a specified mark image in response to a mark request from a WWW server, registers information related to a Web page corresponding to this mark ID in a mark management DB, and sends the mark embedded with the information to the server. The server attaches this mark to a created Web page, and registers the Web page in a Web page DB. A client terminal acquires a Web page from the server, reads information embedded in a mark, and issues a request for a search according to the mark to the server. The server references the DB, and sends information associated with a Web page corresponding to a specified mark ID to the terminal.

Claims

1. An information search processing method for registering information related to multimedia data having code information associated therewith in a database, said method comprising the steps of:

(a) in response to a request from the outside, embedding perceptually unrecognizable code information in perceptually recognizable fixed-pattern data mounted in multimedia data including at least one of character data, still image data, moving image data and audio data, and sending the multimedia data embedded with the code information to a requester;

(b) registering information related to said multimedia data mounted with said code information in the database, in correspondence to said code information; and

(c) in response to a search request from the outside, searching said database based on specified code information to extract information on said multimedia data corresponding to the specified code information, and sending the extracted information to a requester.

2. An information search processing method according to claim 1, wherein said fixed-pattern data, embedded with said code information, is a mark image in the form of a still image.

3. An information search method for requesting to search for associated multimedia data based on perceptually unrecognizable code information embedded in perceptually recognizable fixed-pattern data mounted in multimedia data including at least one of character data, still image data, moving image data and audio data, said method comprising the steps of:

(a) decoding said code information embedded in said fixed-pattern data related to the multimedia data;

(b) issuing a search request for information related to the associated multimedia data to an external processing unit based on said code information, said external processing unit having information related to the associated multimedia data corresponding to said code information as a database; and

(c) displaying acquired information related to the associated multimedia data on a display device.

4. An information search processing method for requesting to search for associated multimedia data based on visually unrecognizable code information embedded in a visually recognizable mark image mounted in multimedia data including at least one of character data, still image data, moving image data and audio data, said method comprising the steps of:

(a) displaying said mark image on a display device;

(b) issuing to an external processing unit a search request for information related to the associated multimedia data based on said code information embedded when said mark image was specified; and

(c) displaying acquired information related to the associated multimedia data on a display device.

5. An information search system having a first server for providing multimedia data including at least one of character data, still image data, moving image data and audio data, a client terminal for receiving the multimedia data provided by said first server, and a second server for embedding perceptually unrecognizable code information in perceptually recognizable fixed-pattern data mounted in the multimedia data and for managing information related to the multimedia data mounted with said code information, wherein:

said first server includes means responsive to a request from said client terminal for sending specified multimedia data to said client terminal, means for requesting said second server to send said fixed-pattern data embedded with said code information, and means for mounting said fixed-pattern data in corresponding multimedia data;

said second server includes means responsive to a request from said first server for mounting specified code information in specified fixed-pattern data and sending the fixed-pattern data to said first server, means for registering information related to multimedia data mounted with said code information in a database, and means responsive to a search request from said client terminal for searching said database based on specified code information to extract information related to multimedia data corresponding to the specified code information and sending the extracted information to said client terminal; and

said client terminal includes means for requesting said first server to acquire the multimedia data mounted with the fixed-pattern data, means for decoding code information embedded in acquired fixed-pattern data, means for issuing to said second server a search request for information related to multimedia data associated with the code information based on the decoded code information, and means for displaying acquired information related to the associated multimedia data on a display device.

6. A computer program embodied on a computer-readable medium to perform method steps for registering in a database information related to multimedia data having code information associated therewith, said method steps comprising the steps of:

(a) in response to a request from the outside, embedding perceptually unrecognizable code information in perceptually recognizable fixed-pattern data mounted in multimedia data including at least one of character data, still image data, moving image data and audio data, and sending the multimedia data embedded with the code information to a requester;

(b) registering information related to said multimedia data mounted with said code information in the database, in correspondence to said code information; and

(c) in response to a search request from the outside, searching said database based on specified code information to extract information on said multimedia data corresponding to the specified code information, and sending the extracted information to a requester.

7. A computer program embodied on a computer-readable medium to perform method steps for requesting to search for associated multimedia data based on perceptually unrecognizable code information embedded in perceptually recognizable fixed-pattern data mounted in multimedia data including at least one of character data, still image data, moving image data and audio data, said method steps comprising the steps of:

(a) decoding said code information embedded in said fixed-pattern data related to the multimedia data;

(b) issuing a search request for information related to the associated multimedia data to an external processing unit based on said code information, said external processing unit having information related to the associated multimedia data corresponding to said code information as a database; and

(c) displaying acquired information related to the associated multimedia data on a display device.

8. A computer program embodied on a computer-readable medium to perform method steps for requesting to search for associated multimedia data based on visually unrecognizable code information embedded in a visually recognizable mark image mounted in multimedia data including at least one of character data, still image data, moving image data and audio data, said method steps comprising the steps of:

(a) displaying said mark image on a display device;

(b) issuing to an external processing unit a search request for information related to the associated multimedia data based on said code information embedded when said mark image was specified; and

(c) displaying acquired information related to the associated multimedia data on a display device.