APPARATUS, SYSTEM, AND METHOD FOR INFORMATION SEARCH

• US 20090182733A1
• Filed: 01/09/2009
• Published: 07/16/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: ITOH, Hideo
• Granted Patent: US 8,229,927 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems

Abstract

An apparatus, system, and method of searching are disclosed. When a search result is obtained, the search result is displayed in a format indicating the correspondence relationship of at least two items of information included in the search result.

Claims

1. An information search apparatus, comprising:

an interface configured to obtain a search option input by a user;

a processor; and

a storage device configured to store a plurality of instructions which causes the processor to perform search when the search option is obtained through the interface,

wherein the processor is further configure to;

determine a search term based on the search option;

search a document database to obtain a document that matches the search term;

generate a search result including document information identifying the document that matches the search term and relevancy information indicating the degree of relevancy between the search term and the document; and

cause a display device to display the search result in a format indicating the correspondence relationship of the document information, the search term, and the relevancy information.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the format indicating the correspondence relationship is expressed as a matrix including:

a row including a matrix element representing one of the search term and the document information;

a column including a matrix element representing another one of the search term and the document information; and

a cell provided at the intersection of the matrix element representing the search term and the matrix element representing the document information and configured to represent the relevancy information indicating the degree of relevancy between the search term represented by the corresponding matrix element and the document identified by the document information represented by the corresponding matrix element.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein, when the search term includes a plurality of search terms, the processor is further configured to:

generate a plurality of search results for each one of the plurality of search terms; and

cause the display device to display the plurality of search results in the format indicating the correspondence relationship of the document information, the search term, and the relevancy information for each one of the plurality of search results.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the cell representing the relevancy information includes:

a document display section configured to be activated by a user input and to cause the display device to display at least a portion of the corresponding document having the corresponding search term.

5. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein, when the document that matches the search term includes a plurality of documents, the processor is further configured to:

generate, for each one of the plurality of documents, search result correspondence relationship information indicating the correspondence relationship of at least two of the document information, the search term, and the relevancy information,

wherein the cell representing the relevancy information includes the search result correspondence relationship information.

6. The apparatus of claim 3, further comprising:

a storage device configured to store the plurality of search terms, wherein;

the processor is further configured to generate, for each one of the plurality of search terms, search term identification information for identifying each search term and to store the search term identification information that corresponds to each one of the plurality of search terms in the storage device.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein, when the plurality of search terms includes an extracted search term being extracted from the search option and a related search term corresponding to the extracted search term, the processor is further configured to:

generate correspondence relationship information indicating the correspondence relationship between the extracted search term and the related search term; and

cause the display device to display the extracted search term and the related search term in a format indicating the correspondence relationship between the extracted search term and the related search term using the correspondence relationship information.

8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein, when the plurality of search terms includes a first extracted search term and a second extracted search term being respectively extracted from the search option,

the processor is further configured to cause the display device to display the first extracted search term and the second extracted search term in a format different from each other using the search term identification information.

9. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the processor is further configured to determine an arrangement of a plurality of matrix elements included in the matrix based on the relevancy information.

10. An information search system, comprising:

an information processing apparatus configured to send a search option input by a user; and

an information search apparatus coupled to the information processing apparatus via a network and configured to;

determine a search term based on the search option received from the information processing apparatus;

search a document database to obtain a document that matches the search term; and

send a search result to the information processing apparatus, the search result including document information identifying the document that matches the search term and relevancy information indicating the degree of relevancy between the search term and the document,

wherein the information processing apparatus is further configured to display the search result in a format indicating the correspondence relationship of the document information, the search term, and the relevancy information.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the information processing apparatus is further configured to generate a matrix from the search result and display the matrix as the format indicating the correspondence relationship, the matrix including:

a row including a matrix element representing one of the search term and the document information;

a column including a matrix element representing another one of the search term and the document information; and

a cell provided at the intersection of the matrix element representing the search term and the matrix element representing the document information and configured to represent the relevancy information indicating the degree of relevancy between the search term represented by the corresponding matrix element and the document identified by the document information represented by the corresponding matrix element.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein, when the search term includes a plurality of search terms, the information search apparatus is further configured to:

generate a plurality of search results for each one of the plurality of search terms; and

cause the display device to display the plurality of search results in the format indicating the correspondence relationship of the document information, the search term, and the relevancy information for each one of the plurality of search results.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the information processing apparatus is further configured to:

display a document display section in the cell representing the relevancy information;

obtain at least a portion of the corresponding document having the corresponding search term when the document display section is activated by a user input; and

display the obtained portion of the corresponding document having the corresponding search term.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein, when the document that matches the search term includes a plurality of documents, the information search apparatus is further configured to:

generate, for each one of the plurality of documents, search result correspondence relationship information indicating the correspondence relationship of at least two of the document information, the search term, and the relevancy information,

wherein the cell representing the relevancy information includes the search result correspondence relationship information.

15. The system of claim 12, further comprising:

a storage device configured to store the plurality of search terms, wherein;

the information search apparatus is further configured to generate, for each one of the plurality of search terms, search term identification information for identifying each search term and to store the search term identification information that corresponds to each one of the plurality of search terms in the storage device.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein, when the plurality of search terms includes an extracted search term being extracted from the search option and a related search term corresponding to the extracted search term, the information search apparatus is further configured to:

generate correspondence relationship information indicating the correspondence relationship between the extracted search term and the related search term and to send the correspondence relationship information to the information processing apparatus,

wherein the information processing apparatus is further configured to display the extracted search term and the related search term in a format indicating the correspondence relationship between the extracted search term and the related search term using the correspondence relationship information.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein, when the plurality of search terms includes a first extracted search term and a second extracted search term being respectively extracted from the search option,

the information processing apparatus is further configured to display the first extracted search term and the second extracted search term in a format different from each other using the search term identification information.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the information processing apparatus is further configured to determine an arrangement of a plurality of matrix elements included in the matrix based on the relevancy information.

19. An information search method, comprising:

obtaining a search option input by a user through a user interface;

determining a search term based on the search option;

searching a document database to obtain a document that matches the search term;

generating a search result including document information identifying the document that matches the search term and relevancy information indicating the degree of relevancy between the search term and the document; and

displaying through a display device the search result in a format indicating the correspondence relationship of the document information, the search term, and the relevancy information.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein, when the search term includes a plurality of search terms, the generating a search result comprises:

generating a plurality of search results for each one of the plurality of search terms; and

causing the display device to display the plurality of search results in the format indicating the correspondence relationship of the document information, the search term, and the relevancy information for each one of the plurality of search results.