RELATED WORD PRESENTATION DEVICE

• US 20100042405A1
• Filed: 07/30/2008
• Published: 02/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/03/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Takata, Kazutoyo, Tsuzuki, Takashi, Matsuura, Satoshi
• Granted Patent: US 8,504,357 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3322 using system suggestions G06F16/3325 takes precedence

Abstract

A related word presentation device (100) for appropriately performing omission prevention search includes: a program information storage unit (101) which stores program information (101a) of each program; an information dividing unit (103a) which generates, for each of the attributes of the words included in the program information (101a), at least one group which includes, as a unit, a reference word which is a word belonging to the attribute and a set of words which co-occur with the reference word in a program; a degree-of-relevance calculating unit (103b) which stores, in an association dictionary storage unit (102), attribute-based association dictionaries (102a, 102b, 102c) each of which indicates, for the corresponding attribute of words, (i) the words and (ii) the degrees of relevance between the words calculated based on the frequency of co-occurrence in each of groups; a search condition obtaining unit (104) which obtains the search word and the attribute; a substitute word obtaining unit (105) which selects substitute words from the attribute-based association dictionary for the obtained attribute; and an output unit (106) which presents the selected substitute word.

Claims

1. A related word presentation device which makes association dictionaries each including words and degrees of relevance between the words, said related word presentation device comprising:

a program information storage unit in which program information is stored, the program information being information indicating, for each of programs, contents of the program using words;

a classifying unit configured to make, for each of attributes of reference words each of which is a word included in the program information, at least one group as a unit including (i) a corresponding one of the reference words and (ii) a set of words which co-occur with the corresponding one of the reference words in a program including the corresponding one of the reference words;

a first degree-of-relevance calculating unit configured to store the association dictionaries for the respective attributes, the association dictionaries each including (i) a possible pair of words in a corresponding one of the attributes of the words and (ii) the degree of relevance between the words in the possible pair calculated based on the number of groups included in the corresponding one of the attributes of the words, the groups in the attributes of the words being classified based on presence or absence of the possible pair of words;

an obtaining unit configured to obtain a search word and an attribute of the search word;

a first related word selecting unit configured to select, as a first related word, a word related to the search word obtained by said obtaining unit from a corresponding association dictionary for the attribute obtained by said obtaining unit from among the association dictionaries for the respective attributes; and

a presenting unit configured to present the first related word selected by said first related word selecting unit.

2. The related word presentation device according to claim 1,

wherein each of the association dictionaries for the respective attributes stored in said first degree-of-relevance calculating unit indicates a unique association of the possible pair of words and a degree of relevance between the words in the possible pair.

3. The related word presentation device according to claim 1,

wherein said classifying unit configured to remove the corresponding one of the reference words in the group from among words in the group which co-occur in the program.

4. The related word presentation device according to claim 1,

wherein said degree-of-relevance calculating unit is configured to calculate the degree of relevance between the words in the possible pair according to the frequency of co-occurrence of the words in the possible pair in each of the groups generated by said classifying unit, and make the association dictionary which indicates the possible pair of words and the degree of relevance between the words in the possible pair in an associated manner.

5. The related word presentation device according to claim 4,

wherein said first related word selecting unit is configured to preferentially select a word having a greatest degree of relevance with the search word obtained by said obtaining unit as the first related word from the association dictionary for the attribute obtained by said obtaining unit.

6. The related word presentation device according to claim 5, further comprising:

a degree-of-relevance calculating unit configured to calculate a degree of relevance between the possible pair of words according to frequency of co-occurrence of the possible pair of words in each program indicated in the program information, make the program association dictionary which indicates the possible pair of words and the degree of relevance between the words in the possible pair in an associated manner, and store the association dictionary in a dictionary storage unit; and

a second related word selecting unit configured to preferentially select a word having a greatest degree of relevance with the search word obtained by said obtaining unit as a second related word from the corresponding one of the program association dictionaries stored in said dictionary storage unit,

wherein said presenting unit is configured to further present the second related word selected by said second related word selecting unit.

7. The related word presentation device according to claim 6,

wherein said second related word selecting unit is configured to select, as the second related word, only the word having an attribute different from the attribute of the search word obtained by said obtaining unit.

8. The related word presentation device according to claim 6, further comprising

a search unit configured to search out, from the program information, a program whose contents are shown using the search word obtained by said obtaining unit,

wherein the first and second related word selecting units select first related words and second related words, respectively, and

said presenting unit is configured to present a greater number of the second related words than the first related words when a greater number of programs is searched out by said search unit, and present a greater number of the first related words than the second related words when a smaller number of programs is searched out by said search unit.

9. The related word presentation device according to claim 5,

wherein said obtaining unit is configured to obtain the search word and the attribute of the search word in response to an input operation by the user.

10. The related word presentation device according to claim 5, further comprising

a program selecting unit configured to identify programs selected by the user from among the programs indicated in the program information,

wherein said obtaining unit is configured to obtain a single word as the search word from among the words according to the frequency of appearance of the words used in the program information to show the contents of the programs identified by said program selecting unit.

11. The related word presentation device according to claim 5,

wherein said first related word selecting unit is configured to select, as the first related word, only a word having an attribute identical to an attribute of the search word obtained by said obtaining unit.

12. The related word presentation device according to claim 5,

wherein said first related word selecting unit is configured to further select a word having a greater degree of relevance with the other search word as a third related word from the association dictionary for the attribute of an other search word in the case where the other search word and the attribute of the other search word have been obtained in a predetermined period prior to the obtainment of the search word by said obtaining unit, and

said presentation unit further presents the third related word obtained by said first related word selecting unit.

13. A related word presentation method for making association dictionaries each including words and degrees of relevance between the words, and presenting a related word related to a search word using a corresponding one of the association dictionaries, said related word presentation method comprising:

making, for each of attributes of reference words each of which is a word included in program information, at least one group as a unit including (i) a corresponding one of the reference words and (ii) a set of words which co-occur with the corresponding one of the reference words in a program including the corresponding one of the reference words, using a program information storage unit in which the program information is stored, the program information being information indicating, for each of programs, contents of the program using words;

storing the association dictionaries for the respective attributes, the association dictionaries each including (i) a possible pair of words in a corresponding one of the attributes of the words and (ii) the degree of relevance between the words in the possible pair calculated based on the number of groups included in the corresponding one of the attributes of the words, the groups in the attributes of the words being classified based on presence or absence of the possible pair of words;

obtaining a search word and an attribute of the search word;

selecting, as a related word, a word related to the search word obtained in said obtaining from a corresponding association dictionary for the attribute obtained in said obtaining from among the association dictionaries for the respective attributes; and

presenting the related word selected in said selecting.

14. A program for making association dictionaries each including words and degrees of relevance between the words, and presenting a related word related to a search word using a corresponding one of the association dictionaries, said program causing a computer to execute:

making, for each of attributes of reference words each of which is a word included in program information, at least one group as a unit including (i) a corresponding one of the reference words and (ii) a set of words which co-occur with the corresponding one of the reference words in a program including the corresponding one of the reference words, using a program information storage unit in which the program information is stored, the program information being information indicating, for each of programs, contents of the program using words;

storing the association dictionaries for the respective attributes, the association dictionaries each including (i) a possible pair of words in a corresponding one of the attributes of the words and (ii) the degree of relevance between the words in the possible pair calculated based on the number of groups included in the corresponding one of the attributes of the words, the groups in the attributes of the words being classified based on presence or absence of the possible pair of words;

obtaining a search word and an attribute of the search word;

selecting, as a related word, a word related to the search word obtained in the obtaining from a corresponding association dictionary for the attribute obtained in the obtaining from among the association dictionaries for the respective attributes; and

presenting the related word selected in the selecting.