JPH07210562A - Information retrieval device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide an information retrieving device with which information related to the information on a specified attribute can be easily acquired, out of a series of text information. CONSTITUTION: A series of text information are stored in a text information storage area 4b of a ROM 4, these series of text information are displayed on a display 6 for the unit of a page by operating a next page key, and the information of the specified attribute such as the name of a person in the displayed text information and the related information concerning the information of the relevant specified attributes are automatically stored in a specified data storage area 3e of a RAM 3, under the control of a CPU 2. When the information of the specified attribute, such as the name of a person is designated by a designated key and a cursor moves key, the related information concerning that designated information is retrieved on the special data storage area 3e and displayed in the window on a display 6.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information retrieval apparatus for retrieving desired information from text information stored in electronic books and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in an information search device such as an electronic dictionary, headline information (keywords or headwords) and corresponding information (notation, meaning, parallel translation, examples, etc.) are stored in advance in a storage device. It is known that headline information is searched by a predetermined method and the searched headline information and corresponding information corresponding to the searched headline information are output by a display device or the like. Further, some electronic dictionaries are also provided with a function of searching for information such as reading and meaning by specifying a displayed character string.

Recently, an electronic book has been realized in which all the contents (a series of text information) of a book are electronically stored and sequentially displayed by a liquid crystal display device or the like. In this electronic book, scroll operation or By performing a page break operation, different parts of a series of text information are sequentially displayed on a display screen with a limited display capacity, and the contents are read.

[0004]

However, in an electronic book or the like that simply displays a series of stored text information, the text information should not be huge when reading through a huge series of text information such as a novel. The more it takes, or the more days it takes to read through, the more the reader's memory fades over time as to the names of the characters that appear in the beginning of the text information, especially the relationships and blood relations. In order to compensate for this, it is necessary to turn back and search an appropriate number of pages based on the first page of the text information or the reader's memory each time by a page break operation, etc. It took a lot of effort and time to find out.

The present invention has been made under such a background, and an object thereof is to provide an information retrieving apparatus capable of easily knowing related information relating to information of a specific attribute from a series of text information. Especially.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, an information retrieval apparatus according to the present invention comprises a text storage means for storing a series of text information and a predetermined amount of text information stored in the text storage means. First display control means for displaying, extraction means for extracting information of a specific attribute and related information relating to the information of the specific attribute from the text information displayed by the display control means, and the extraction means extracted by the extraction means. Specific attribute information is read out from the text storage unit and related information relating to the specific attribute information is stored in the specific information storage unit, and text information displayed by the display control unit is arbitrarily designated. And a related information related to the information of the specific attribute specified by the specifying means is searched and displayed on the specific information storage means. And a second display control means.

[0007]

A series of text information is stored in the text storage means, and the text information is displayed by the first display control means by a predetermined amount, and the information of the specific attribute in the displayed text information and the identification information. The related information regarding the attribute information is extracted by the extracting means. Then, the extracted information on the specific attribute and the related information on the information on the specific attribute are read from the text storage means and stored in the specific information storage means.

In this state, when the information of the specific attribute is arbitrarily specified from the text information related to the display by the specifying means, the second display control means specifies the related information regarding the information of the specified specific attribute. Search and display on the information storage means.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic structure of an information retrieval apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. Reference numeral 2 is a CPU including a microprocessor, etc., which is preset in a ROM 4 in accordance with an input from a key input unit 1. Each processing of the control program 4a is executed. Here, the key input unit 1
Are connected to the CPU 2 via interface means.

The ROM 4 is formed with a text information storage area 4b for storing a series of text information such as book contents, and this text information is displayed on the display 6. R
In the AM 3, a special data storage area 3e for storing information on specific attributes such as characters within the range of the text information already displayed on the display 6 and related information about the information,
An input buffer 3a for temporarily storing input data from the key input unit 1, a display buffer 3b for expanding data to be displayed on the display unit 6, a work area 3c for storing other variables necessary for information retrieval processing, and a stack. 3d etc. are formed.

The display 6 is an LCD panel or a CRT.
The display driver 5 is driven by the display driver 5.

FIG. 2 is an external view of the information retrieval apparatus,
The key input unit 1 and the display 6 are arranged on the front surface of the information retrieval apparatus. As shown in FIG. 2, the key input unit 1 includes a power key 1a for turning on / off the power, a cursor movement key 1b for moving the cursor up / down and left / right, a clear key 1c, and information on specific attributes (appearance in this embodiment. A designation key 1d for instructing the start of designation of a character string indicating a person's name, etc.,
It has a next page key 1e for changing the display content of the display 6 to the next page and a previous page key 1f for changing the display content of the display 6 to the previous page.

The previous page key 1f is a double function key, and when a character string is specified, it functions as a search key for executing a search using the specified character string. Further, the designation key 1d is used to designate the beginning and end of the designated character string when the character string is designated,
The clear key 1c is used for canceling the designated character string and erasing the information that is searched and displayed.

In FIG. 2, the content of the novel is displayed on the display 6 as text information. As indicated by reference numeral 10, the name of the first appearing character in the series of text information is emphasized. It is configured to be displayed. Then, the names of the highlighted characters and the like (the related information) describing the characters are automatically extracted and stored in the special data storage area 3e of the RAM 3.

FIG. 3 shows a display example when the designation start of the character string is executed by operating the designation key 1d.
The cursor 7 is located on the upper right corner of the display screen. The cursor 7 is moved to the position of the desired character string with the cursor movement key 1b.

In FIG. 4, the novel is read further on the display screen, and "Manager Yoshida" is displayed again. However, since he forgot what this "Manager Yoshida" was, this "Manager Yoshida""ManagerYoshida" to search for related information
The cursor 7 is moved to the position of "Kichi" in order to specify. When the designation key 1d is operated in this state, the character string designation (range designation) is started, and the display flag "in range designation" indicated by reference numeral 8 is turned on.

Then, the cursor movement key 1b is used to move the cursor 7 to the "long" position and the designation key 1d is operated to complete the range designation. In this case, as shown by hatching in FIG. 5, the character string "Yoshida section chief" having the specified range is highlighted, and the display flag "specified range" is turned off.

Next, when the search key 1f is operated, the related information of the character string "Manager Yoshida" whose range is specified is searched in the special data storage area 3e, and the searched related information is
A window is displayed as indicated by reference numeral 9 in FIG.

Next, the processing procedure for the above information retrieval will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, a key operation is waited for (step S1), and when the key operation is performed, it is determined whether or not the operation is the cursor movement key 1b (step S1).
2). As a result, if the cursor movement key 1b is operated, the cursor is moved in the direction according to the type of the operated cursor movement key 1b (step S3), and the process returns to step S1 to wait for the next key operation.

On the other hand, if it is not the operation of the cursor movement key 1b, it is determined whether it is the operation of the designated key 1d (step S4). As a result, if the designated key 1d is operated, it is determined whether or not the FS flag is "1" (step S5). As a result, if the FS flag is "0", it is determined that the start of the character string designation is instructed, the FS flag is set to "1" (step S6), the process returns to step S1 and the next key operation is performed. wait.

On the other hand, if the FS flag is "1", it is determined that the end of the character string designation is instructed, and the character string in the range designated by the cursor between the start instruction and the end instruction is designated as the special data. The data is saved in the work area 3c of the RAM 3 (step S7). Then, set the FS flag to "0".
(Step S8), the FN flag is set to "1" to indicate that the character string designation is completed (step S9), and the process returns to step S1 to wait for the next key operation.

When it is determined in step S4 that the designated key 1d is not operated, it is determined whether or not the clear key 1c is operated (step S10). As a result, if the clear key 1c is operated, it is determined whether or not the search character string is being displayed by determining whether or not the FD flag is "1" (step S11). as a result,
If the FD flag is "1" and the search character string is being displayed, the window displaying the search character string is closed (step S14), the FD flag is reset to "0" (step S15), It returns to step S1 and waits for the next key operation.

On the other hand, if the FD flag is "0" and the search character string is not displayed, the FS flag is reset to "0" (step S12) and the FN flag is reset to "0" (step S12). S13) and returns to step S1 to wait for the next key operation.

When it is determined in step S10 that the clear key 1c is not operated, it is determined whether or not the search key 1f is operated (step S16). as a result,
If it is the operation of the search key 1f, it is determined whether the character string designation is completed by determining whether the FN flag is "1" (step S17). as a result,
If the FN flag is "1" and the character string designation is completed, the special data storage area 3e is searched based on the designated character string saved in the work area 3c, and the related information and the designated character string are read. Window is displayed (step S
18), set the FD flag to "1" (step S
19) and returns to step S1 to wait for the next key operation.

On the other hand, if the FN flag is "0" and the designation of the character string is not completed, the process proceeds to step S12 and F
The S flag is reset to "0", and further step S13
Then, the FN flag is reset to "0" and the process returns to step S1 to wait for the next key operation. If it is determined in step S16 that the search key 1f is not operated,
A process corresponding to the operation key is performed (step S20), the process returns to step S1 to wait for the next key operation.

As described above, by extracting the information of the specific attribute such as the name of the character and the related information related to the information of the specific attribute from the displayed text information and automatically storing them, If you want to check the information of the person who is appearing again, you can promptly change the relationship, blood relationship, etc. by instructing the name of the person, without having to return to the previous page. You can search the related information of, and the sentences will be easy to understand.

[Application Modifications] The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments. For example, the designated character string is highlighted by underlining (see FIG. 8), shading, etc. in addition to reverse display. It is also possible to display. In addition, the information of the specific attribute is not limited to the name, title, title, etc. of the character, and may be arbitrarily set by the user. Further, without automatically storing the information of the specific attribute from the text information displayed by the page operation, the information of the specific attribute is irrelevant regardless of the reading speed of the user by using the timer built in the CPU. It is also possible to automatically store.

[0030]

As described above, according to the information retrieval apparatus of the present invention, information of a specific attribute such as the name of a character and related information regarding the information of the specific attribute are extracted from the text information. By automatically storing it, it becomes possible to easily obtain the related information regarding the information of the specific attribute from the series of text information.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an information search device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an external view of the information search device.

FIG. 3 is a functional explanatory diagram of the information search device.

FIG. 4 is a functional explanatory diagram of the information retrieval device.

FIG. 5 is a functional explanatory diagram of the information search device.

FIG. 6 is a functional explanatory diagram of the information retrieval device.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a search process of the information search device.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing another display mode of a designated character string.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... Key input unit 2 ... CPU 3 ... RAM 4 ... ROM 5 ... Display driver 6 ... Display 3c ... Work area 3e ... Special data storage area 4a ... Control program 4b ... Text information storage area

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A text storage means for storing a series of text information, a first display control means for displaying a predetermined amount of text information stored in the text storage means, and a text displayed by the display control means. Extracting means for extracting the information of the specific attribute and the related information relating to the information of the specific attribute from the information, and the information of the specific attribute extracted by the extracting means and the related information relating to the information of the specific attribute, from the text storage means. Specific information storage means for reading and storing, designating means for arbitrarily designating specific attribute information from the text information displayed by the display control means, and related information relating to specific attribute information designated by the designating means And a second display control means for searching and displaying the specific information storage means on the specific information storage means. 2. The information retrieving apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising setting means for arbitrarily setting the specific attribute.