INFORMATION DISPLAYING APPARATUS WITH WORD SEARCHING FUNCTION AND RECORDING MEDIUM

• US 20090228787A1
• Filed: 04/28/2009
• Published: 09/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Inventors: Kojo, Takashi, ABE, Takatoshi
• Granted Patent: US 8,332,753 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/259
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes

Abstract

Plural headwords corresponding to a search character string are searched for through a dictionary-content data memory and displayed in a list form in a left area of a display screen, and heading data included in explanation contents concerning the headwords are read out from a headword table to be displayed in a right area of the display screen. When a headword is designated from among the plural headwords displayed in list form in the left area of the display screen, heading data contained in plural explanation contents concerning the designated headword are read out from an explanation data table and are displayed in list form over the heading data displayed in the right area.

Claims

1. An information displaying apparatus comprising:

a display device having a first display area and a second display area adjacent to the first display area;

a dictionary storage which stores a plurality of headwords, each having plural pieces of word-meaning information;

a headword heading data storage which stores the first predetermined number of characters in headword information in association with each headword;

a word-meaning heading data storage which stores the first predetermined number of characters in each piece of word-meaning information in association with each word meaning of the headword;

a headword searching unit for searching for a headword among the headwords stored in the dictionary storage;

a headword heading data reading unit for reading the first predetermined number of characters in headword information of the headword found by the headword searching unit from the headword heading data storage;

a first list displaying unit for displaying plural headwords found by the headword searching unit in list form within the first display area of the display device and displaying the first predetermined number of characters in headword information of the headword read by the headword heading data reading unit next to said headword within the second display area of the display device;

a headword designating unit for designating one of the plural headwords that are displayed in the first displaying area of the display device by the first list displaying unit;

a word-meaning heading data reading unit for reading from the word-meaning heading data storage the first predetermined number of characters in each piece of word-meaning information of the headword designated by the headword designating unit; and

a second list displaying unit for displaying in the second displaying area of the display device the first predetermined number of characters of plural pieces of word-meaning information read by the word-meaning heading data reading unit in list form next to the corresponding headword in an overlapping manner with the displayed first predetermined number of characters of the headword information.

2. The information displaying apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a frame displaying unit for displaying a frame including the first predetermined number of characters in plural pieces of word-meaning information of the designated headword in association with the designated headword.

3. The information displaying apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a designated-headword changing unit for changing the headword designated by the headword designating unit to other headword.

4. The information displaying apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a word-meaning information selecting unit for selecting either one of the plural pieces of word-meaning information of the headword displayed in list form; and

a word-meaning information displaying unit for reading from the dictionary storage and displaying whole word-meaning information selected by the word-meaning information selecting unit.

5. The information displaying apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a search-character input unit for entering search characters;

wherein, when the search characters entered through the search-character input unit comprise a series of words, the headword searching unit searches for at least one of a headword that coincides with and a headword that includes a predetermined one of said series of words, among the headwords stored in the dictionary storage,

wherein the information displaying apparatus further comprising;

a word-series judging unit for judging whether or not whole series of words included in the search characters entered through the search-character input unit are included in each piece of word-meaning information of the headwords that are displayed in list form by the first list display unit; and

a headword highlight control unit for, when the word-series judging unit determines that word-meaning information of at least one of the headwords includes the whole series of words entered through the search-character input unit, displaying the one of the headwords in a different way from other headwords.

6. The information displaying apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a search-character input unit for entering search characters;

wherein, when search characters entered through the search-character input unit comprise a series of words, the headword searching unit searches for at least one of a headword that coincides with and a headword includes a predetermined one of the series of words, among the headwords stored in the dictionary storage,

wherein the information displaying apparatus further comprising;

a word-series judging unit for judging whether or not whole series of words included in the search characters entered through the search-character input unit are included in each of plural pieces of word-meaning information of the headwords that are displayed in list form by the first list display unit; and

a first word-meaning highlight control unit for, when the word-series judging unit determines that word-meaning information of at least one of the headwords includes the whole series of words entered through the search-character input unit, displaying the word-meaning information including the whole series of words in a different way from other word-meaning information.

7. The information displaying apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising:

a word-meaning information selecting unit for selecting either one of the plural pieces of word-meaning information of the headwords displayed in list form; and

a second word-meaning highlight control unit for displaying the whole word-meaning information selected by the word-meaning information selecting unit, and for, when the word-series judging unit determines that word-meaning information of at least one of the headwords includes the whole series of words entered through the search-character input unit, displaying the whole series of words included the word-meaning information in a different way from other information.

8. The information displaying apparatus according to claim 5,

wherein the word-series judging unit replaces placeholder data contained in word-meaning information to be judged with a predetermined word in a series of words included in the search characters entered through the search-character input unit, and locating a portion of the word-meaning information, which portion includes the entered search characters consisting of the series of words.

9. The information displaying apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the word-series judging unit replaces placeholder data contained in word-meaning information to be judged with a predetermined word in a series of words included in the search characters entered through the search-character input unit, and locates a portion of the word-meaning information, which portion includes the entered search characters consisting of the series of words.

10. A computer readable recording medium storing a computer program that is executable by a computer to cause the computer to perform an information displaying procedure, wherein the computer is installed in an information displaying apparatus which includes a display device having a first displaying area and a second displaying area adjacent to the first displaying area, and a dictionary storage which stores a plurality of headwords, each having plural pieces of word-meaning information, and a headword heading data storage which stores the first predetermined number of characters in headword information in association with each headword, and a word-meaning heading data storage which stores the first predetermined number of characters in each piece of word-meaning information in association with each word meaning of the headword, said computer program causing the computer to function as units, comprising:

a headword searching unit for searching for a headword among the headwords stored in the dictionary storage;

a headword heading data reading unit for reading the first predetermined number of characters in headword information of the headword found by the headword searching unit from the headword heading data storage;

a first list displaying unit for displaying plural headwords found by the headword searching unit in list form within the first display area of the display device and displaying the first predetermined number of characters in headword information of the headword read by the headword heading data reading unit next to said headword within the second display area of the display device;

a headword designating unit for designating one of the plural headwords that are displayed in the first displaying area of the display device by the first list displaying unit;

a word-meaning heading data reading unit for reading from the word-meaning heading data storage the first predetermined number of characters in each piece of word-meaning information of the headword designated by the headword designating unit; and

a second list displaying unit for displaying in the second displaying area of the display device the first predetermined number of characters of plural pieces of word-meaning information read by the word-meaning heading data reading unit in list form next to the corresponding headword in an overlapping manner with the displayed first predetermined number of characters of the headword information.

11. An information displaying apparatus comprising:

an information storage which stores a plurality of headwords, each having plural pieces of information;

a search-character input unit for entering a series of words;

a keyword determining unit for selecting one word among the series of words entered through the search-character input unit and determining the selected word as a keyword;

a headword searching unit for searching for the keyword determined by the keyword determining unit through the plural headwords stored in the information storage;

a word-series information extracting unit for extracting only information including the whole series of words entered through the search-character input unit among the plural pieces of information of the headword found by the headword searching unit; and

a word-information list display unit for displaying the information including the whole series of words, extracted by the word-series information extracting unit in list form in association with the appropriate headword.

12. The information displaying apparatus according to claim 11, further comprising:

an information selecting unit for selecting one among plural pieces of information including a series of words, which are displayed in list form by the word-information list display unit; and

a word-series highlight unit for displaying whole information including a series of words selected by the word information selecting unit and displaying a portion including the series of words in the information in a different way from other information.

13. The information displaying apparatus according to claim 12, wherein, when the word-series information extracting unit determines information includes whole series of words, the word-series highlight unit replaces placeholder data contained in the information with a word to be searched for from among a series of words in search characters entered from the search-character input unit and displays the information with the placeholder data replaced with the word.

14. The information displaying apparatus according to claim 12, wherein, when the word-series information extracting unit determines word-series information includes the series of words, the word-series highlight unit displays the information including the series of words with one of a sample mark and phrase mark added thereto, together with the corresponding headword.

15. The information displaying apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the keyword determining unit selects one of a verb, an adjective and a noun from the series of words entered through the search-character input unit and determines the selected word as a keyword.

16. The information displaying apparatus according to claim 15, further comprising:

an other-keyword selecting unit for selecting a keyword other than the keyword determined by the keyword determining unit, when no information is extracted by the word-series information extracting unit.

17. A computer readable recording medium storing a computer program that is executable by a computer to cause the computer to perform an information displaying procedure, wherein the computer is installed in an information displaying apparatus which has an information storage that stores a plurality of headwords, each having plural pieces of information, said computer program causing the computer to function as units, comprising:

a search-character input unit for entering a series of words;

a keyword determining unit for selecting one word among the series of words entered through the search-character input unit and determining the selected word as a keyword;

a headword searching unit for searching for the keyword determined by the keyword determining unit through the plural headwords stored in the information storage;

a word-series information extracting unit for extracting only information including the whole series of words entered through the search-character input unit among the plural pieces of information of the headword found by the headword searching unit; and

a word-information list display unit for displaying the information including the whole series of words, extracted by the word-series information extracting unit in list form in association with the appropriate headword.