INFORMATION SEARCH SUPPORT METHOD AND INFORMATION SEARCH SUPPORT DEVICE

• US 20100281036A1
• Filed: 05/14/2008
• Published: 11/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Inoue, Tsuyoshi, Matsuura, Satoshi
• Granted Patent: US 8,099,418 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/749
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90335 Query processing

Abstract

An information search support device includes: a cluster selection history information accumulation unit which accumulates content information of each cluster and cluster selection history information indicating a cluster selected by a user; a degree of certainty calculation unit which calculates a degree of certainty indicating a degree to which a vague search target of the user has been identified, based the cluster selection history information accumulated; a search target estimation unit which obtains a condition for estimating the search target; a search-omitted information extraction unit which extracts search-omitted information that is included in the cluster that is not selected and is estimated from the obtained condition; and a search-omitted information addition unit which adds, to the cluster selected by the user, the extracted search-omitted information, in the case where the degree of certainty is equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold.

Claims

1. An information search support device which performs clustering on search-target information, displays information indicating a feature of each of clusters, narrows down information to be selected by performing further clustering on information included in a cluster selected by a user from among the displayed clusters, and supports information search by a user, said information search support device comprising:

a cluster selection history information accumulation unit configured to accumulate content information of each cluster and cluster selection history information indicating a cluster selected by the user;

a degree of certainty calculation unit configured to calculate a degree of certainty indicating a degree to which a vague search target of the user has been identified, based on the content information of the cluster and the cluster selection history information accumulated in said cluster selection history information accumulation unit;

a search target estimation unit configured to obtain, from content information of the cluster selected by the user, a condition for estimating the search target of the user;

a search-omitted information extraction unit configured to extract, from a cluster that is not selected by the user, search-omitted information that is information included in the cluster which is not selected by the user among the displayed clusters and that is information belonging to a set of information estimated from the condition obtained by said search target estimation unit; and

a search-omitted information addition unit configured to add, to the cluster selected by the user, the search-omitted information extracted by said search-omitted information extraction unit, in the case where the degree of certainty calculated by said degree of certainty calculation unit is equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold.

2. The information search support device according to claim 1,

wherein said search target estimation unit is configured to obtain, as the condition, a representative word representing the selected cluster, and

said search-omitted information extraction unit is configured to generate an extraction vector for extracting the search-omitted information from the information included in the cluster that is not selected by the user, using a vector obtained from the representative word obtained by said search target estimation unit.

3. The information search support device according to claim 1,

wherein said cluster selection history information accumulation unit is configured to accumulate, as the content information of each cluster, one of the following:

the number of pieces of information included in the selected cluster;

the number of clusters selected from among the displayed clusters; and

the number of documents including a representative word representing the selected cluster among documents indicating contents of the search-target information, and

said degree of certainty calculation unit is configured to calculate, for certain content information of the cluster accumulated in said cluster selection history information accumulation unit, the degree of certainty, according to a rule that the degree of certainty becomes higher as the number of pieces of content information becomes smaller.

4. The information search support device according to claim 1,

wherein said degree of certainty calculation unit is configured to calculate a degree of semantic similarity between a representative word representing a previously selected cluster and a representative word representing a currently selected cluster, and to calculate the degree of certainty according to a mathematical expression that the degree of certainty becomes higher as the calculated degree of semantic similarity becomes higher.

5. The information search support device according to claim 1,

wherein said search-omitted information extraction unit is configured to determine a degree of importance for a representative word to be used for extracting the search-omitted information, to determine, with the degree of importance, that the representative word becomes more important as the number of documents in which the representative word appears becomes smaller, and to generate an extraction vector from the representative word that is weighted according to the determined degree of importance, the documents indicating contents of the search-target information.

6. The information search support device according to claim 1,

wherein said search-omitted information extraction unit is configured to calculate a degree of semantic similarity between a representative word representing a previously selected cluster and a representative word representing a currently selected cluster, to determine that consistency of the representative words of the selected clusters becomes stronger as the calculated degree of semantic similarity becomes higher, to determine, for a representative word to be used for extracting the search-omitted information, a degree of importance so that the degree of importance of the representative word becomes higher as the consistency of the representative words becomes stronger, and to generate an extraction vector from the representative word that is weighted according to the determined degree of importance.

7. An information search support method for performing clustering on search-target information, displaying information indicating a feature of each of clusters, narrowing down information to be selected by performing further clustering on information included in a cluster selected by a user from among the displayed clusters, and supporting information search by the user, said information search support method comprising:

accumulating content information of each cluster and cluster selection history information indicating a cluster selected by the user;

calculating a degree of certainty indicating a degree to which a vague search target of the user has been identified, based on the content information of the cluster and the cluster selection history information accumulated in said accumulating;

obtaining, from content information of the cluster selected by the user, a condition for estimating the search target of the user;

extracting, from a cluster that is not selected by the user, search-omitted information that is information included in the cluster which is not selected by the user among the displayed clusters and that is information belonging to a set of information estimated from the condition obtained in said obtaining; and

adding, to the cluster selected by the user, the search-omitted information extracted in said extracting, in the case where the degree of certainty calculated in said calculating is equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold.

8. An information search support program which is a program for performing clustering on search-target information, displaying information indicating a feature of each of clusters, narrowing down information to be selected by performing further clustering on information included in a cluster selected by a user from among the displayed clusters, and supporting information search by the user, said information search support program causing a computer to execute:

accumulating content information of each cluster and cluster selection history information indicating a cluster selected by the user;

calculating a degree of certainty indicating a degree to which a vague search target of the user has been identified, based on the content information of the cluster and the cluster selection history information accumulated in said accumulating;

obtaining, from content information of the cluster selected by the user, a condition for estimating the search target of the user;

extracting, from a cluster that is not selected by the user, search-omitted information that is information included in the cluster which is not selected by the user among the displayed clusters and that is information belonging to a set of information estimated from the condition obtained in said obtaining; and

adding, to the cluster selected by the user, the search-omitted information extracted in said extracting, in the case where the degree of certainty calculated in said calculating is equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold.

9. An information search support device which performs clustering on search-target information, displays information indicating a feature of each of clusters, narrows down information to be selected by performing further clustering on information included in a cluster selected by a user from among the displayed clusters, and supports information search by a user, said information search support device comprising:

a cluster selection history information accumulation unit configured to accumulate content information of each cluster and cluster selection history information indicating a cluster selected by the user;

a degree of certainty calculation unit configured to calculate a degree of certainty indicating a degree to which a vague search target of the user has been identified, based on the content information of the cluster and the cluster selection history information accumulated in said cluster selection history information accumulation unit;

a search target estimation unit configured to obtain, from content information of the cluster selected by the user, a condition for estimating the search target of the user; and

a search-omitted information extraction unit configured to extract, from a cluster that is not selected by the user, search-omitted information that is information included in the cluster that is not selected by the user among the displayed clusters and is information belonging to a set of information estimated from the condition obtained by said search target estimation unit.