Information processing apparatus and method utilizing useful additional information packet

• US 6,035,282 A
• Filed: 08/12/1998
• Issued: 03/07/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/1992
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Endo, Hirofumi, Takeuchi, Mitsuaki, Ebata, Jun, Itoh, Reiko, Tamai, Ryo
• Primary Examiner(s): Poinvil, Frantzy
• Application Number:
  US09/133,515
• Time in Patent Office: 573 Days
• Field of Search: 705/23, 382/175, 382/306, 382/6, 382/48, 382/61, 382/100, 382/112, 382/133, 382/163, 382/190, 382/312, 382/318, 395/161, 395/162, 358/434, 358/438, 358/444, 707/500, 707/540, 707/104
• US Class Current: 705/23
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/208 Input by product or record sensing, e.g. weighing or scanner processing

Abstract

An attaching unit attaches an additional-information packet to a collection of main information, wherein the additional-information packet comprises sensory information corresponding to sensory impressions of a human being that has processed the collection of main information, the sensory impressions being with respect to circumstances under which the collection of main information has been processed.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented information processing method comprising:

(a) inputting without operator assistance sensory information data into the computer;

(b) detecting said sensory information data representing a human being'"'"'s sensory impressions of circumstances relating to a processing of a collection of main information;

(c) producing, within the computer, an additional-information item including the sensory information data which was input in the inputting step; and

(d) attaching, using the computer, said additional-information item to the collection of main information.

2. The information processing method according to claim 1, wherein said attaching step includes:

producing a file of information having said collection of main information and said additional-information item.

3. The information processing method of claim 1, further comprising:

sorting a plurality of collections of main information, each of the plurality of collections of main information having a respective additional-information item attached thereto,

wherein each of the additional-information items has sensory information data corresponding to a sensory impression of a human being with respect to respective circumstances relating to processing of the respective collections of main information.

4. The information processing method of claim 1, further comprising:

sorting a collection of main information, the sorting being based on sorting information provided in an additional-information item attached to the collection of main information, the additional-information item having sorting information indicating a manner in which the corresponding collection of main information has been previously sorted.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the human being'"'"'s sensory impressions of circumstances are the human being'"'"'s sensory impressions of intrinsic circumstances.

6. A computer-implemented information processing apparatus comprising:

input means for inputting into the computer without operator assistance, sensory information data representing a human being'"'"'s sensory impressions of circumstances relating to a processing of a collection of main information;

forming means for forming, within the computer, an additional-information item which includes the sensory information data; and

attaching means for attaching the additional-information item to the collection of main information within the computer;

wherein the additional-information item includes, in addition to the sensory information data, processed manner information which indicates a manner in which the corresponding collection of main information has been processed.

7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the processed-manner information comprises apparatus information concerning said information processing apparatus having processed the corresponding collection of main information.

8. The information processing apparatus of claim 6, further comprising:

searching means for searching for a collection of main information from among a plurality of collections of main information, wherein

each collection of said plurality of collections of main information has a respective additional-information item,

each of the additional information items has position information regarding a position corresponding to a respective collection of main information, in a respective corresponding reference coordinate plane, and

said searching means includes means for searching for the collection of main information with reference to the corresponding coordinate information of the respectively corresponding additional-information item.

9. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the human being'"'"'s sensory impressions of circumstances are the human being'"'"'s sensory impressions of intrinsic circumstances.

10. A computer-implemented information processing method comprising:

(a) inputting into the computer without operator assistance, sensory information data, representing a human being'"'"'s sensory impressions of circumstances relating to a processing of a collection of main information;

(b) producing within the computer an additional-information item having processed-manner information that indicates a manner in which the corresponding collection of main information has been processed; and

(c) using the computer, attaching said additional-information item to said collection of main information.

11. The information processing method according to claim 10, wherein the processed-manner information comprises sorting information indicating a manner in which the corresponding collection of main information has been previously sorted.

12. The information processing method according to claim 10, wherein the processed-manner information comprises history information indicating how the corresponding collection of main information has been revised.

13. The information processing method according to claim 10, wherein the processed-manner information comprises application-software specifying information for specifying an application-software by which the corresponding collection of main information has been processed.

14. The information processing method according to claim 10, further comprising:

(h) coding of the collection of main information,

wherein the processed-manner information comprises decoding information for decoding said coded collection of main information.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the human being'"'"'s sensory impressions of circumstances are the human being'"'"'s sensory impressions of intrinsic circumstances.

16. A computer-implemented processing method comprising:

(a) inputting without operator assistance into the computer sensory information data, detected by the computer, representing a human being'"'"'s sensory impressions of circumstances relating to a processing of a collection of main information;

(b) producing an additional-information item within the computer, including both (1) the sensory information data as well as (2) processing control information used for controlling a manner in which a corresponding collection of main information will be processed; and

(c) using the computer, attaching said additional-information item to said collection of main information.

17. The information processing method according to claim 16, wherein the processing-control information comprises output controlling information for controlling outputting of a collection of main information.

18. The information processing method according to claim 17, wherein the output controlling information comprises rank information for controlling each of collections of a plurality of collections of main information depending on respective ranks of the collections among the plurality of collections of main information, the respective ranks having been previously assigned to respective collections in the plurality of collections of main information.

19. The information processing method according to claim 17, wherein said output controlling information comprises a password.

20. The information processing method according to claim 16, wherein said processing-control information comprises revising control information for controlling revision of a collection of main information.

21. The information processing method according to claim 16, wherein said processing-control information comprises delete control information for controlling deletion of part or all of a collection of main information.

22. The method of claim 16, wherein the human being'"'"'s sensory impressions of circumstances are the human being'"'"'s sensory impressions of intrinsic circumstances.

23. A computer-implemented processing apparatus comprising:

input means for inputting without operator assistance into the computer sensory information data, detected by the processing apparatus, representing a human being'"'"'s sensory impressions of circumstances relating to a processing of a collection of main information;

forming means for forming within the computer, an additional-information item which includes the sensory information data;

attaching means for attaching the additional-information item to a corresponding collection of main information in the computer; and

additional-information item processing means for processing the additional-information item within the computer after it has been attached to the corresponding collection of main information.

24. The information processing apparatus according to claim 23, wherein said additional-information item processing means comprises additional-information item controlling means for controlling a sequence of elements of the additional information item and an increase and a decrease in a number of said elements of the additional-information item.

25. The information processing apparatus according to claim 23, wherein said additional-information item element-processing means executes one of:

sorting elements of the respective additional-information item, and linking elements of said respective additional-information items;

said elements of the additional information items respectively having identification codes, said identification codes indicating the respective collections of main information.

26. The information processing apparatus according to claim 23, wherein said additional-information item processing means comprises additional-information item reconstructing means for reconstructing the respective additional-information items, the reconstructing of the respective additional-information items occurring as a result of searching for elements of the additional-information items according to specified reference information and as a result of grouping the elements found by said searching, the grouping being executed by using identification codes previously attached to the elements, said identification codes indicating each collection of the plurality of collections of main information respectfully.

27. The information processing apparatus according to claim 26, further comprising ranking means for ranking reconstructed additional-information items according to the degree of similarity between elements of the specified reference information and elements of each of said reconstructed additional-information items.

28. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the human being'"'"'s sensory impressions of circumstances are the human being'"'"'s sensory impressions of intrinsic circumstances.

29. A computer-implemented information processing apparatus comprising:

input means for inputting without operator assistance into the computer, sensory information data representing a human being'"'"'s sensory impressions of circumstances relating to a processing of a collection of main information;

forming means for forming, in the computer, an additional-information item which includes the sensory information data;

attaching means for attaching additional-information items to respective collections of main information within the computer;

wherein said additional-information items further include respective coordinate information indicating coordinates, in a reference coordinate plane, corresponding to the respective collections of main information; and

searching means for conducting a search within the computer in said plurality of collections of main information with reference to the coordinate information in the additional-information items which indicates said respective coordinates.

30. The apparatus of claim 29, wherein the human being'"'"'s sensory impressions of circumstances are the human being'"'"'s sensory impressions of intrinsic circumstances.

31. An information processing method, comprising the computer-implemented steps of:

detecting without operator assistance, a physical attribute of a document, apart from intended information content recorded on the document, representing a human being'"'"'s sensory impressions of the circumstances relating to a processing of a collection of the intended information;

producing an additional-information item including the sensory information data; and

attaching said additional-information item to the collection of intended information.