Information processing apparatus and method and program storage medium

• US 8,468,157 B2
• Filed: 02/20/2001
• Issued: 06/18/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/21/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Saito, Mari, Yamamoto, Noriyuki, Hourin, Hiroyuki, Ohmura, Kazunori
• Primary Examiner(s): REYES, MARIELA D
• Application Number:
  US09/785,204
• Publication Number:
  US 20010018685A1
• Time in Patent Office: 4,501 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/10, 707/100, 707/104, 707/501, 707/5, 707736-738, 707748-750, 707/772, 705/26, 705/27
• US Class Current: 707/737
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/245 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/30 of unstructured textual data document management systems G06F16/93
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/94 Hypermedia Hyperlinking G06F40/134
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9558 Details of hyperlinks; Management of linked annotations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/284 Lexical analysis, e.g. tokenisation or collocates
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/289 Phrasal analysis, e.g. finite state techniques or chunking

Abstract

An information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a program storage medium which can present associated information related to a document to be processed to a user by using an accumulation block that accumulates a database of associated information. A presentation block presents to the user the associated information corresponding to the document to be processed at occurrence of an event. An agent control block controls the manner of displaying an agent for example.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus, comprising:

an event occurrence detection device configured to detect an occurrence of an event;

an extraction device configured to extract attribute information and a keyword from a first document corresponding to the event, the attribute information and the keyword being extracted from different portions of the first document;

a search device configured to search a database using the extracted attribute information and the extracted keyword to retrieve a second document having matching attribute information having similarity to the attribute information extracted from the first document and the second document containing the extracted keyword;

a non-transitory, hardware-based memory configured to store the retrieved second document; and

a display control device configured to display associated information corresponding to the second document,

wherein the extraction device is configured to extract a plurality of keywords from the first document; and

the search device is configured to extract the keyword from the plurality of keywords when both a corresponding keyword weight of the keyword was less than a first predetermined threshold at any time during a first predetermined time period prior to a time of the extraction, and the corresponding keyword weight was also greater than a second predetermined threshold at any time during a second predetermined time period, longer than the first predetermined time period, prior to the time of the extraction.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said event occurrence detection device detects sending, receiving, or editing of an electronic mail as said event.

3. An information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a grouping device configured to group said existing information into a group of existing information based upon attribute information of said existing information,

wherein said acquisition device acquires the associated information related to said group of existing information made by said grouping device as said existing information,

said search device searches for said group of existing information as said existing information having similarity to information corresponding to the present event detected by the event occurrence detection device, and

the display control device controls displaying of said associated information related to said group of existing information as said existing information retrieved by said search device.

4. An information processing apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising:

a weight calculation device configured to calculate the weight of key words contained in each said group of existing information,

a selection device configured to select an important word among said key words based upon said weight of key words,

wherein said acquisition device acquires said associated information related to said group of existing information using said important word selected by said selection device.

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

a selection device for selecting an important word from among words contained in said first document; and

an acquisition device configured to acquire said associated information by using said important word selected by said selection device as said keyword.

6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said acquisition device acquires a title and a URL of a Web page containing said important word as the associated information.

7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said acquisition device acquires, in a predetermined timed relation, said associated information related to said important word selected by said selection device.

8. An information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a database construction device configured to construct the database by use of at least one of said attribute information extracted by said extraction device and said associated information.

9. The information processing apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising:

update means for updating said database constructed by said database construction device when an update condition is satisfied.

10. The information processing apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said update condition can be set by a user.

11. An information processing method for an information processing apparatus for detecting a keyword from a text file corresponding to an event that has taken place and displaying associated information corresponding to said keyword, comprising:

extracting attribute information from a plurality of existing text files;

extracting existing keywords from among words contained in said plurality of existing text files;

computing weights for said existing keywords based on use of occurrence frequency in each text file and distribution over the plurality of existing text files, sorting the plurality of existing text files based only on time, sorting, for each existing keyword, the computed weights in a time dependent manner, determining important keywords as those keywords of the extracted existing keywords having a computed weight higher than a predetermined threshold, and acquiring associated information for each important keyword in descending order of the computed weight of the important keyword, the associated information being obtained by accessing a search engine on the Internet using each important keyword as a search term;

constructing a database by associating each important word with at least one of said attribute information extracted in the extracting step and said associated information acquired in the acquiring step;

detecting an occurrence of said event;

detecting an event keyword from said text file corresponding to said event detected in the event occurrence detecting step;

searching said database constructed in the database constructing step to retrieve said associated information corresponding to said event keyword detected in the event keyword detecting step; and

controlling displaying of said associated information retrieved in the searching step.

12. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer-readable program that causes a computer to detect a keyword from a text file corresponding to an event that has taken place and displaying associated information related to said keyword, by performing the steps of:

extracting attribute information from a plurality of existing text files;

extracting existing keywords from among words contained in said plurality of existing text files;

computing weights of said existing keywords based on use of occurrence frequency in each text file and distribution over the plurality of existing text files, sorting the plurality of existing text files based only on time, sorting, for each existing keyword, the computed weights in a time dependent manner, determining important keywords as those keywords of the extracted existing keywords having a computed weight higher than a predetermined threshold, and acquiring associated information for each important keyword in descending order of the computed weight of the important keyword, the associated information being obtained by accessing a search engine on the Internet using each important keyword as a search term;

constructing a database by associating each important keyword with at least one of said attribute information extracted in the extracting step and said associated information acquired in the acquiring step;

detecting an occurrence of said event;

detecting an event keyword from said text file corresponding to said event detected in the event occurrence detecting step;

searching said database constructed in the database constructing step to retrieve said associated information corresponding to said event keyword detected in the event keyword detecting step; and

controlling displaying of said associated information retrieved in the searching step.

13. An information processing apparatus for displaying an animated agent on a display device and for displaying associated information related to a text file processed by a predetermined application program, comprising:

a processing detection device configured to detect, as an event, predetermined processing of said predetermined application program;

a keyword detection device configured to detect a plurality of keywords from said text file processed by said predetermined application program corresponding to said event detected by said processing detection device;

a processor configured to compute weights for said keywords based on use of occurrence frequency in the text file, to select an important keyword from the plurality of keywords when both a corresponding keyword weight of the keyword was less than a first predetermined threshold at any time during a first predetermined time period prior to a time of the selection, and the corresponding keyword weight was also greater than a second predetermined threshold at any time during a second predetermined time period, longer than the first predetermined time period, prior to the time of the selection, and to search for said associated information for the important keyword by searching a database for a previously processed existing file corresponding to the important keyword;

an input device configured to input a command;

a command processing device configured to execute, in response to said command inputted by said input device, processing on said associated information; and

a display control device configured to display, in response to said event detected by said processing detection device, said animated agent onto said display device and changing a manner of displaying said animated agent in response to said command inputted by said input device.

14. The information processing apparatus according to claim 13, wherein said display control device also displays text information as a script of said animated agent.

15. The information processing apparatus according to claim 14, further comprising an output device configured to output a voice signal corresponding to said text information displayed by said display control device.

16. The information processing apparatus according to claim 13, wherein said command processing device displays, on said display device, said associated information in an object form with respect to at least one of movement, storage, and deletion, in response to a display command inputted by said input device.

17. The information processing apparatus according to claim 16, wherein said command processing device stores said associated information in response to a storage command inputted by said input device and displays a list of the stored associated information onto said display device.

18. The information processing apparatus according to claim 13, wherein said associated information is a URL of a Web page and said command processing device starts a WWW browser so as to access said URL of said Web page as said associated information in response to an access command inputted by said input device.

19. An information processing method for an information processing apparatus for displaying an animated agent on a display device and for displaying associated information related to a text file processed by a predetermined application program, the method comprising:

detecting, as an event, predetermined processing of said predetermined application program;

detecting a plurality of keywords from said text file processed by said predetermined application program corresponding to said event detected in the processing detecting step;

computing weights for said keywords based on use of occurrence frequency in the text file, selecting an important keyword from the plurality of keywords when both a corresponding keyword weight of the keyword was less than a first predetermined threshold at any time during a first predetermined time period prior to a time of the selection, and the corresponding keyword weight was also greater than a second predetermined threshold at any time during a second predetermined time period, longer than the first predetermined time period, prior to the time of the selection, and searching for said associated information for the important keyword by searching for a previously processed existing file corresponding to the important key word;

inputting a command;

executing, in response to said command inputted in the inputting step, processing on said associated information retrieved in the searching step; and

displaying, in response to said event detected in the processing of said detecting step, said animated agent onto said display device and changing a manner of displaying said animated agent in response to said command inputted in the inputting step.

20. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer-readable program that causes a computer to display an animated agent on a display device and to display associated information related to a text file processed by a predetermined application program, by performing the steps of:

detecting, as an event, predetermined processing of said predetermined application program;

detecting a plurality of keywords from said text file processed by said predetermined application program corresponding to said event detected in the processing detecting step;

computing weights for said keywords based on use of occurrence frequency in the text file, selecting an important keyword from the plurality of keywords when both a corresponding keyword weight of the keyword was less than a first predetermined threshold at any time during a first predetermined time period prior to a time of the selection, and the corresponding keyword weight was also greater than a second predetermined threshold at any time during a second predetermined time period, longer than the first predetermined time period, prior to the time of the selection, and searching for said associated information for the important keyword by searching a database for a previously processed existing file corresponding to the important key word;

executing, in response to a command inputted, processing on said associated information retrieved in the searching step; and

displaying, in response to said event detected in the processing of said detecting step, said animated agent onto said display device and changing a manner of displaying said animated agent in response to said command inputted.