Information processing method and apparatus

• US 6,993,718 B2
• Filed: 08/22/2002
• Issued: 01/31/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/24/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Fujihara, Masahiro
• Primary Examiner(s): HUTTON JR, WILLIAM D
• Application Number:
  US10/225,852
• Publication Number:
  US 20030056175A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,258 Days
• Field of Search: 715/530
• US Class Current: 715/234
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

Such a system is provided in which a map can be supplied to a user to permit the user to grasp the geography easily, if the address or the telephone number of an installation of destination, such as a restaurant, is stated, even though the scheme of displaying a map picture is not stated by an information provider in a text document of a preset format. An HTML analyzer 211 initiates an analysis loop of an HTML document being browsed to extract a location information letter/character string, which is seemingly an address or a telephone number, from the HTML document. A location searcher 212 calculates the latitude/longitude of a site from the location information letter/character string received through controller 217, using a site information database 213, and sends the so calculated latitude/longitude through controller 217 to a map picture generating unit 214. The map picture generating unit 214 references the map information database 215 connected to it to generate a map picture of an area around the site of destination, e.g., a restaurant.

Claims

1. An information processing method in which a text document of a preset form, arranged in a descriptive language, capable of burying at least picture information in the document, is displayed on a screen to permit a user to take out desired information therefrom, said method comprising:

a location information letter/character string extracting step of automatically extracting a location information letter/character string in the text document of the preset form as displayed on said screen;

a site search step of searching a site indicated by said location information letter/character string extracted at said location information letter/character string extracting step for generating latitude/longitude information of said site;

a map picture generating step of generating a map picture around the latitude/longitude information generated at said site search step;

a text document correcting step of correcting the text document of the preset form for synthetically displaying the map picture generated at said map picture generating step in said text document of the preset form displayed on said screen; and

a step of newly displaying the text document of the preset form as corrected at said text document correcting step on said screen.

4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the text document of the preset form, written in said descriptive language, is sent from an information supplying apparatus over a network.

5. The information processing apparatus according lo claim 4 wherein a browser for downloading said text document of the preset form from said information supplying apparatus over said network to meet the operator'"'"'s intention is booted.

6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 4 wherein said descriptive language is the HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and wherein said text document of the preset form is an HTML document.

2. A program tangibly embodied on a computer-readable medium in which a text document of a preset form, arranged in a descriptive language, capable of burying at least the picture information in the document, is displayed on a screen of an information processing apparatus to permit a user to take out desired information therefrom, said program comprising:

a location information letter/character string extracting step of automatically extracting a location information letter/character string in the text document of the preset form as displayed on said screen;

a site search step of searching a site indicated by said location information letter/character string extracted at said location information letter/character string extracting step for generating the latitude/longitude information of said site;

a map picture generating step of generating a map picture around the latitude/longitude information generated at said site search step;

a text document correcting step of correcting the text document of the preset form for synthetically displaying the map picture generated at said map picture generating step in said text document of the preset form displayed on said screen; and

a step of newly displaying the text document of the preset form as corrected at said text document correcting step on said screen.

3. An information processing method in which a text document of a preset form, arranged in a descriptive language, capable of burying at least picture information in the document, is demonstrated on screen to permit a user to take out desired information therefrom, said apparatus comprising:

a location information letter/character string extracting means for automatically extracting a location information letter/character string in the text document of the preset form as displayed on said screen;

a site search step of searching a site indicated by said location information letter/character string extracted by said location information letter/character string extracting means for generating latitude/longitude information of said site;

a map picture generating step of generating a map picture around the latitude/longitude information generated by said site search means; and

a text document correcting step of correcting the text document of the preset form for synthetically displaying the map picture generated at said map picture generating step in said text document of the preset form displayed on said screen;

wherein the text document of the preset form as corrected by said text document correcting means is newly displayed on said screen.

7. An information processing method in which a text document of a preset form, arranged in a descriptive language, capable of burying at least picture information in the document, is demonstrated on a screen to permit a user to take out desired information, said method comprising:

a location information letter/character string extracting step of automatically extracting a location information letter/character string in the text document of the preset form as displayed on said screen;

a site searching step of searching a site indicated by said location information letter/character string extracted by said location information letter/character string extracting step for generating latitude/longitude information for said site;

a route searching step of searching a route reaching the latitude/longitude information of the site generated by said site searching step from a current site;

a map picture generating step of generating a map picture including a totality of routes output by said route searching step;

a text document correcting step of correcting the text document of the preset form for synthetically displaying the map picture generated at said map picture generating step in said text document of the preset form displayed on said screen; and

a display step of newly displaying the text document of the preset form as corrected by said text document correcting step on said screen.

8. A program tangibly embodied on a computer-readable medium in which a text document of a preset form, arranged in a descriptive language, capable of burying at least picture information in the document, is demonstrated on a screen to permit a user to take out desired information, said method comprising:

a location information letter/character string extracting step of automatically extracting a location information letter/character string in the text document of the preset form as displayed on said screen;

a site searching step of searching a site indicated by said location information letter/character string extracted by said location information letter/character string extracting step for generating latitude/longitude information for said site;

a route searching step of searching a route reaching the latitude/longitude information of the site generated by said site searching step from a current site;

a map picture generating step of generating a map picture including a totality of routes output by said route searching step;

a text document correcting step of correcting the text document of the preset form for synthetically displaying the map picture generated at said map picture generating step in said text document of the preset form displayed on said screen; and

a display step of newly displaying the text document of the preset form as corrected by said text document correcting step on said screen.

9. An information processing apparatus in which a text document of a preset form, arranged in a descriptive language, capable of burying at least picture information in the document, is demonstrated on a screen to permit a user to take out desired information therefrom, said apparatus comprising:

location information letter/character string extracting means for automatically extracting a location information letter/character string in the text document of the preset form as displayed on said screen;

site searching means for searching a site indicated by said location information letter/character string extracted by said location information letter/character string extracting means for generating latitude/longitude information for said site;

route searching means for searching a route reaching the latitude/longitude information of the site generated by said site searching means from a current site;

map picture generating means for generating a map picture including a totality of routes output by said route searching means; and

text document correcting means for correcting the text document of the preset form for synthetically displaying the map picture generated by said map picture generating means in said text document of the preset form displayed on said screen;

wherein the text document of the preset form as corrected by said text document correcting means is newly displayed on said screen.

10. The information processing apparatus according to claim 9 wherein the text document of the preset form, written in said descriptive language, is sent from an information supplying apparatus over a network.

11. The information processing apparatus according to claim 10 wherein a browser for downloading said text document of the preset form from said information supplying apparatus over said network to meet the operator'"'"'s intension is booted.

12. The information processing apparatus according to claim 10 wherein said descriptive language is the HTML (Hypertext markup language) and wherein said text document of the preset form is an HTML document.