Document processing apparatus and method for inputting the requirements of a reader or writer and for processing documents according to the requirements

• US 5,835,922 A
• Filed: 09/29/1997
• Issued: 11/10/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/1992
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Uehara, Tetsuzo, Koga, Masashi, Shima, Yoshihiro, Marukawa, Katsumi, Nakashima, Kazuki
• Primary Examiner(s): Burwell, Joseph R.
• Application Number:
  US08/939,333
• Time in Patent Office: 407 Days
• Field of Search: 707/522, 707/517, 707/526, 707/528, 707/500
• US Class Current: 715/209
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/10 Text processing natural language analysis G06F40/20; semantic analysis G06F40/30; processing or translation of natural language G06F40/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting

Abstract

In an apparatus for and a method of processing document information, according to a requirement of a writer of document information, the document information is generated, referenced, and re-constructed. Further, according to a requirement of a reader of the document information, the information is referenced and re-constructed. The apparatus includes a reader terminal including means for inputting a requirement of a reader of document information and means for outputting document information referenced and re-constructed according to the requirement, and a writer terminal for inputting therefrom a requirement of a writer of document information and creating document information. The apparatus further includes a document processing unit connected to the reader terminal and the writer terminal. The unit includes means for storing therein the document information produced by the writer terminal and processing means for referencing and re-constructing the stored document information according to the requirement of the user inputted from the reader terminal, thereby outputting therefrom the resultant document information.

Claims

1. A document information processing apparatus in which document information is generated, referenced, and re-constructed according to the intentions of a writer of the original document information, said intentions including at least one of validity, future characteristic, interest, relationship, analogy, rarity value, synonymy, and concept level, and in which the original document information is referenced and re-constructed according to the intentions of a reader of the original document information, comprising:

a reader terminal including means for inputting the intentions of the reader of the original document information, and means for outputting, for display, document information referenced and re-constructed according to the intentions of the reader, wherein the reader terminal includes first means for inputting an attribute state of the reader, said attribute state including at least one of the following items;

official title, age, language used, and output device; and

second means for determining a configuration of a document to be referenced or to be re-constructed according to the attribute state of the reader by identifying each item constituting said attribute state;

a writer terminal for inputting the intentions of the writer of the original document information and thereby generating document information; and

a document processing unit connected to the reader terminal and to the writer terminal, including means for storing document information representing an original document created by the writer, said document information being generated by the writer terminal, means for storing an attribute table uniquely identified with a reader, the attribute table being consulted by said second means to determine the document configuration to be referenced or re-constructed according to the attribute state of the reader, and processing means for automatically processing, in response to a document information request from the reader terminal and according to the configuration of the document determined by the reader terminal, the stored document information representing the original document information created by the writer, thereby converting the original document according to the document configuration matching the attribute state of the reader.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the reader terminal includes means for inputting an amount of a document text desired by the reader, and the document processing unit summarization processes an original document text to be referenced or to be reconstructed, thereby summarizing the document text in the amount of document text input by the reader;

and

wherein the reader terminal includes means for inputting a range of abstract of the original document information desired by the reader, and the document processing unit includes means for storing the range of abstract of the original document information and selects elements included in the document according to the range, thereby outputting only the selected elements.

3. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the writer terminal includes means for inputting the original document information in the form of image data; and

the document processing unit includes means for automatically classifying partial areas of the image data into images, text, and drawings in response to an input of said image data, and means for recognizing a character pattern of the partial areas and translating the character pattern into character codes, thereby re-constructing the partial areas of the original document according to the inputted document image in accordance with the intentions or an attribute state of the reader.

4. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the reader terminal includes means for setting a document information reading sequence for assigning a sequence of constituent elements in the original document information desired by the reader; and

the document processing unit includes means for storing the reading sequence set from the reader terminal, thereby changing, according to the reading sequence, an array of constituent elements of original document information to be referenced or to be re-constructed.

5. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

said attribute state includes at least one of age and language used; and

the document processing unit includes means for setting a representation format of document information from a plurality of representation forms prepared beforehand according to the attribute state of the reader inputted from the reader terminal, and converting, according to the representation format thus set, objective document information to be referenced or to be re-constructed, thereby outputting the converted document information.

6. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the document processing unit includes means for storing a reader'"'"'s intentions for reference or re-construction inputted from the reader terminal beforehand, said intentions including at least one of validity, future characteristic, interest, and analogy, and means for assisting, according to the reader'"'"'s intentions, creation of a document on the side of the writer by inputting the intentions of the reader, interpreting the intentions of the reader, and regenerating the document while creating document information at the writer terminal.

7. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the writer terminal includes means for inputting validity and a future characteristic for a document to be created;

the reader terminal includes means for inputting an intention or a state for a document to be created; and

the document processing unit includes means for storing the validity and future characteristic supplied respectively from the writer terminal and the reader terminal, and means for assisting creation of a document by the writer terminal according to the intentions or the states with reference to the intentions inputted from the writer terminal so as to meet all the intentions while creating the document.

8. An apparatus according to claim 7,

wherein the validity and future characteristic are predeterminedly stored as attributes in said attribute table, and wherein said means for assisting creation of a document automatically assists creation of a document by retrieving said validity and future characteristic from said table.

9. An apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the attribute state is the official title, which is predeterminedly stored as an attribute in said attribute table, and wherein the document processing unit automatically converts the original document information by retrieving the official title from said attribute table.