Information collection retrieval system

• US 7,433,865 B2
• Filed: 07/21/2004
• Issued: 10/07/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/07/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Inventors: Hayami, Satoshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong; Don
• Assistant Examiner(s): Vy; Hung T
• Application Number:
  US10/895,126
• Publication Number:
  US 20050033737A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,539 Days
• Field of Search: 701/207, 701/202, 707/3, 707/10, 707/104.1, 705/6, 715/500.1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

An information collection retrieval system includes: a facility information database for storing individual information items about facilities; an information acquisition terminal for inputting a retrieval keyword, and for outputting results of searching the facility information database using the retrieval keyword; an information registration terminal for registering the individual information items about the facilities into the facility information database; and a control unit for controlling the information acquisition terminal, information registration terminal and facility information database. The control unit includes: a registration analyzing section for analyzing registration information transmitted from the information registration terminal, and for storing the analyzed results in the facility information database as the individual information items about the facilities; and a retrieval section for searching the entire facility information database using the retrieval keyword input from the information acquisition terminal, and for transmitting information representing retrieval results to the information acquisition terminal.

Claims

1. An information collection retrieval system comprising:

a facility information database for storing individual information items about facilities;

an information acquisition terminal for inputting a retrieval keyword, and for outputting results of searching said facility information database using the retrieval keyword;

an information registration terminal for registering the individual information items about the facilities into said facility information database; and

a control unit for controlling said information acquisition terminal, said information registration terminal and said facility information database, wherein

said control unit includes;

a registration analyzing section for analyzing registration information transmitted from said information registration terminal, and for storing analyzed results into said facility information database as one of the individual information items about the facilities; and

a retrieval section for searching said facility information database in its entirety using the retrieval keyword input from said information acquisition terminal, and for transmitting information representing retrieval results to said information acquisition terminal;

wherein said control unit comprises an external database acquiring section for acquiring information associated with the facilities from an external database connected via a network using an external database ID contained in the individual information items about the facilities registered in the facility information database by said information registration terminal, and

wherein said registration analyzing section analyzes the information associated with the facilities obtained by said external database acquiring section, and stores analyzed results into said facility information database as one of the individual information items about the facilities.

2. The information collection retrieval system according to claim 1, wherein said external database acquiring section makes accesses to said external database at regular intervals, and acquires the information associated with the facilities.

3. The information collection retrieval system according to claim 2, wherein

said information acquisition terminal is composed of a portable terminal or a car navigation terminal;

and

said retrieval section limits information items which are to be retrieved from said facility information database, according to a location of said information acquisition terminal.

4. The information collection retrieval system according to claim 1,

wherein said information acquisition terminal is composed of a portable terminal or a car navigation terminal;

and

said retrieval section limits information items which are to be retrieved from said facility information database, according to a location of said information acquisition terminal.

5. The information collection retrieval system according to claim 1, wherein

said information acquisition terminal is composed of a portable terminal or a car navigation terminal;

and

said retrieval section limits information items which are to be retrieved from said facility information database, according to a location of said information acquisition terminal.

6. The information collection retrieval system according to claim 1, wherein if an individual information item about a facility contains the input retrieval keyword, the facility containing the input retrieval keyword is transmitted to the information acquisition terminal.

7. The information collection retrieval system according to claim 1, wherein the individual information items about the facilities comprise:

a characteristic identifying information including a name of the facility, a phone number of the facility, and a location of the facility; and

a content information including a type of the facility and a type of product or service provided by the facility.

8. The information collection retrieval system according to claim 1, wherein the external database ID comprises a home page address of the facility.

9. The information collection retrieval system according to claim 1, wherein the retrieval keyword comprises a plurality of keywords and a logic operation.

10. The information collection retrieval system according to claim 1, wherein the information representing retrieval results is output in an order according to a distance from a reference position.