Information retrieval apparatus and information retrieval method

• US 6,662,152 B2
• Filed: 07/08/2002
• Issued: 12/09/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Kinoshita, Satoshi, Sako, Takayuki
• Primary Examiner(s): EDOUARD, PATRICK NESTOR
• Application Number:
  US10/189,536
• Publication Number:
  US 20020184204A1
• Time in Patent Office: 519 Days
• Field of Search: 704/9, 704/10, 707/3, 707/4-6, 707/7-10, 707/1, 707/2, 707/531, 707/532, 345/112, 345/326, 345/116, 345/141
• US Class Current: 704/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3334 Selection or weighting of terms from queries, including natural language queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/338 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/268 Morphological analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/289 Phrasal analysis, e.g. finite state techniques or chunking
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99937 Sorting
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99938 Concurrency, e.g. lock management in shared database
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99939 Privileged access

Abstract

Character data of a word or phrase in a document is designated. Desired data is retrieved from a predetermined database on the basis of the designated character data. One sentence including at least the designated character data is cut out and subjected to sentence analysis. On the basis of a sentence analysis result, specific data is selected from the retrieval result acquired from the database. In addition, character data of a word or phrase in a document is designated. One sentence including at least the designated character data is cut out and subjected to sentence analysis to extract a keyword. A retrieval condition is prepared on the basis of the extracted keyword, and desired data is retrieved from a predetermined database on the basis of the retrieved conditional expression.

Claims

1. An information retrieval apparatus, comprising:

an input device configured to specify a desired word in a document displayed on a display device;

a retrieval section configured to search a database on the basis of the specified word and for acquiring a plurality of retrieval results;

a sentence extracting section configured to extract a sentence including the specified word from the displayed document;

means for analyzing the sentence extracted by the sentence extracting section;

an evaluation section configured to evaluate each of the plurality of retrieval results obtained by the retrieval section based on the result of sentence analysis made by the analyzing means; and

a selector configured to select a predetermined one of the plurality of retrieval results on the basis of the result of evaluation made by the evaluation section,

wherein said evaluating section selects a first keyword from the sentence extracted by said sentence extraction section based on the result of the sentence analysis made by said analyzing means, and calculates the number of occurrences of the first keyword in each of the retrieval results acquired by the retrieval section,

wherein each of the number of occurrences of the first keyword and the corresponding retrieval result are stored in a keyword number table, and

wherein the selector sequentially displays the plurality of retrieval results stored in the keyword number table corresponding to a retrieval result with largest number of occurrences of the first keyword to a retrieval result with smallest number of occurrences of the first keyword, said sequentially displayed retrieval results being different from each other.

2. An information retrieval apparatus, comprising:

an input device configured to specify a desired word in a document displayed on a display device;

a sentence extraction section configured to extract a sentence including the specified word from the displayed document;

means for analyzing the sentence extracted by the sentence extraction section;

a keyword generating section configured to generate a first keyword based on a sentence analysis result analyzed by the analyzing means;

a retrieval formula generating section configured to generate a predetermined retrieval formula based on one of the first keywords generated by the keyword generating section;

a retrieval section configured to search a database on the basis of the retrieval formula;

a calculator configured to calculate the number of occurrences of the first keyword in each of the retrieval results acquired by the retrieval section;

a memory configured to store each of the number of occurrences of the keyword and the corresponding retrieval result in a keyword number table; and

a selector configured to sequentially display the plurality of retrieval results stored in the keyword number table corresponding to a retrieval result with largest number of occurrences of the first keyword to a retrieval result with smallest number of occurrences of the first keyword, said sequentially displayed retrieval results being different from each other.