NODE DEVICE, INFORMATION COMMUNICATION SYSTEM, METHOD FOR RETRIEVING CONTENT DATA, AND COMPUTER READABLE MEDIUM

• US 20100250594A1
• Filed: 03/26/2010
• Published: 09/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
• Original Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
• Inventors: NAKAMURA, Kazuhiro, MATSUO, Hideki
• Granted Patent: US 8,315,979 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/770
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2471 Distributed queries
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1065 Discovery involving distributed pre-established resource-based relationships among peers, e.g. based on distributed hash tables [DHT] pre-configuration of logical or physical connections H04L67/1053
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4828 for searching program descriptors retrieval of video data G06F16/739

Abstract

A node device connected to other node devices has a particular obtaining unit that obtains search information including, a first determination unit that applies a predetermined rule to determine whether the search information obtained by the particular obtaining unit is required to be stored in the node device. The node device has a first storage unit that stores search information when required, and a second determination unit that determines whether the search information obtained by the particular obtaining unit is newly published in the network. A second storage unit stores the search information when the second determination unit determines that the storage information is newly published. A search unit searches the content data, based on the search information stored in at least one of the first storage unit and the second storage unit.

Claims

1. A node device configured to communicate with a plurality of node devices, wherein content data is stored in at least one node device and the content data is accessible from the plurality of node devices, wherein the node devices are connected via a network as part of an information communication system, the node device comprising:

a particular obtaining unit configured to obtain search information for searching the content data stored in the node device, the search information comprising publication time information corresponding to a time the content data was published in the network;

a first determination unit configured to apply a predetermined rule to determine whether the search information obtained by the particular obtaining unit is required to be stored in the node device;

a first storage unit configured to store the search information when the first determination unit determines that the search information is required to be stored;

a second determination unit configured to determine whether the search information obtained by the particular obtaining unit is newly published in the network, based on the publication time information retrieved from the obtained search information;

a second storage unit configured to store the search information when the second determination unit determines that the storage information is newly published; and

a search unit configured to search the content data, based on the search information stored in at least one of the first storage unit and the second storage unit.

2. The node device according to claim 1, wherein the second storage unit stores the search information when the first determination unit determines that the search information is not required to be stored.

3. The node device according to claim 1, further comprising a further obtaining unit configured to obtain present time information corresponding to a present time, wherein the second determination unit determines whether a difference between the publication time information obtained by the particular obtaining unit and the present time information is smaller than a predetermined value, and when the difference is smaller than the predetermined value, the second storage unit is configured to store the search information, including the obtained publication time information.

4. The node devices according to claim 1, further comprising:

a third determination unit configured to determine whether the second storage unit has a sufficient storage area for storing the search information; and

a particular delete unit configured to delete the search information in the second storage unit based on a predetermined rule, when the third determination unit determines the second storage unit does not have the sufficient storage area.

5. The node device according to claim 4, further comprising:

a further obtaining unit configured to obtain present time information corresponding to the present time; and

a fourth determination unit configured to determine a difference between the publication time information in the search information and the present time information, wherein the particular delete unit deletes the search information stored in the second storage unit in order from search information having a larger difference to search information having a smaller difference.

6. The node device according to claim 5, wherein the first delete unit deletes the search information stored in the second storage unit whose publication time information is prior to the present time information, in order from the search information having the larger difference to the search information having the smaller difference.

7. The node device according to claim 5, wherein the first delete unit deletes the search information stored in the second storage unit whose publication time information is later than the present time information, in order from the search information having the larger difference to the search information having the smaller difference.

8. The node device according to claim 1, wherein a storage capacity of the second storage unit is larger than that of the first storage unit.

9. The node device according to claim 1, further comprising a third storage unit configured to store identification information, the identification information comprising information that identifies the node device on which the identification information is stored among the plurality of node devices, wherein

the particular obtaining unit is configured to obtain search information which identify each content data;

and

for each search information corresponding to the content data, the predetermined rule applied by the first determination unit to determine whether the obtained search information is required to be stored is based on a comparison result between the identification information and the search information.

10. The node device according to claim 9, wherein

the identification information stored by the third storage unit comprises at least one number;

the search information obtained by the particular obtaining unit comprises at least one number; and

for each obtained search information, the predetermined rule applied by the first determination unit to determine whether the obtained search information is required to be stored is also based on the comparison result of whether the number of the identification information corresponds with the number of the search information obtained by the particular obtaining unit.

11. The node device according to claim 10, wherein the predetermined rule applied by the first determination unit to determine whether the obtained search information is required to be stored is based on a comparison result of whether the high rank digit of the number of the identification information corresponds with the high rank digit of the number of the search information as the predetermined rule.

12. A computer program product comprising a computer readable medium having computer readable instructions stored thereon, the computer readable instructions configured to be exected as a computer program for causing a computer to function as a node device that communicates with a plurality of node devices connected via a network as part of an information communication system, and the computer functioning as the node device comprises:

a particular obtaining unit configured to obtain search information for searching the content data stored in the node device, the search information comprising publication time information corresponding to a time the content data was published in the network;

a first determination unit configured to apply a predetermined rule to determine whether the search information obtained by the particular obtaining unit is required to be stored in the node device;

a first storage unit configured to store the search information when the first determination unit determines that the search information is required to be stored;

a second determination unit configured to determine whether the search information obtained by the particular obtaining unit is newly published in the network, based on the publication time information retrieved from the obtained search information;

a second storage unit configured to store the search information when the second determination unit determines that the storage information is newly published; and

a search unit configured to search the content data, based on the search information stored in at least one of the first storage unit and the second storage unit.

13. A computer program product comprising a computer readable medium having computer readable instructions stored thereon, the computer readable instructions configured to be exected by the computer equipped in at least one node device of a plurality of node devices connected via a network in an information communication system in which content data is stored in at least one node device and is accessible from the other of the plurality of node devices, the computer program causing the computer to perform steps comprising:

a first obtaining step of obtaining search information for searching the content data stored in at least one node device, the search information comprising publication time information corresponding to a time the content data was published;

a first determining step of applying a predetermined rule to determine whether the obtained search information is required to be stored in the node device;

a first storing step of storing the search information in a first storage unit when the first determination step determines that the obtained search information is required to be stored;

a second determining step of determining whether the obtained search information by the particular obtaining step is newly published, based on the publication time information retrieved from the obtained search information;

a second storing step of storing the search information in a second storage unit, when the storage information is determined to be newly published at the second determination step; and

a searching step of searching the content data, based on the search information stored in at least one of the first storage unit and the second storage unit.

14. A method for retrieving content data in an information communication system in which a plurality of node devices are connected via a network and communicate with each other, content data being stored in at least one node device and being accessible from the other node devices, the method comprising:

a first obtaining step of obtaining search information for searching the content data stored in at least one node device, the search information comprising publication time information corresponding to a time the content data was published;

a first determining step of applying a predetermined rule to determine whether the obtained search information is required to be stored in the node device;

a first storing step of storing the search information in a first storage unit when the first determination step determines that the obtained search information is required to be stored;

a second determining step of determining whether the obtained search information by the particular obtaining step is newly published, based on the publication time information retrieved from the obtained search information;

a second storing step of storing the search information in a second storage unit, when the storage information is determined to be newly published at the second determination step; and

a searching step of searching the content data, based on the search information stored in at least one of the first storage unit and the second storage unit.