OBJECT DATA RETRIEVING DEVICE, OBJECT DATA RETRIEVING METHOD, AND COMPUTER-READABLE RECORDING MEDIUM CONTAINING RECORDER DATA

• US 20020174084A1
• Filed: 11/29/1999
• Published: 11/21/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 08/18/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Inventors: MITSUGI, TATSUYA
• Granted Patent: US 6,912,523 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3608 using speech input, e.g. using speech recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/243 Natural language query formulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3344 using natural language analysis
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

Object data is stored in association with a plurality of attribute words categorized according to sentence elements of a natural language, and an object data search is efficiently narrowed using a simple search criterion input.

Claims

1. An object data search apparatus comprising:

a database for storing object data in association with a plurality of attribute words categorized according to sentence elements of a natural language;

an input unit for receiving an input of a search criterion in the form of a sentence of the natural language;

a criterion retrieval unit for analyzing the search criterion in the form of the sentence and retrieving one of a plurality of search words respectively corresponding to sentence element categories of the natural language;

an object retrieval unit for searching the database using each of the search words respectively associated with the sentence element categories, and retrieving the object data associated with the attribute words that match a single search word or a plurality of search words; and

an output apparatus for outputting the object data thus retrieved.

2. The object data search apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said database stores destination data at least associated with an attribute word having an agent of action category, an attribute word having an action category and an attribute word having an object of action category.

3. An object data search method comprising the steps of:

retrieving one or a plurality of search words from a search criterion input in the form of a sentence of a natural language by analyzing the search criterion in accordance with a grammar of the natural language;

conducting a search relative to a plurality of sentence element categories associated with a plurality of object data items, based on a single search word or a plurality of search words; and

retrieving the object data associated with the attribute word that matches a single search word or a plurality of search words and outputting the object data thus retrieved.

4. The object data search method according to claim 3, wherein the search is conducted using at least a search word having an agent of action category, a search word having an action category and a search word having an object of action category.

5. A computer-readable recording medium storing data according to a relational database structure, wherein tuples each comprising an object data item and a plurality of attribute words categorized according to sentence elements of a natural language are stored.