JP2006215681A - Document detail determination support system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a document detail determination support system that allows a user to easily and quickly determine the content of a document. <P>SOLUTION: From data about a document, the system extracts a plurality of words contained in the document. The system searches a table that associates words with images for images that match the plurality of words extracted. Data about the images searched for are obtained from an image database that stores image data. Using the image data obtained, an illustration of the document is created and outputted. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a document content grasping support system for supporting grasping of document contents.

  For example, Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 disclose techniques for supporting grasp of document contents. Patent Document 1 discloses a device that displays information on documents such as newspapers, magazines, papers, and books on a display. This apparatus lays out text and graphic data included in a document within a display area of a display. Due to the layout, document data such as text and graphics is distributed to a plurality of blocks. Sentence data can be divided and distributed to a plurality of blocks. These blocks are arranged in a given row of rectangular areas according to the importance of information corresponding to each block. Blocks with high importance are placed preferentially, and the blocks with low importance are filled. By displaying the document information on the display in the layout determined in this way, this apparatus makes it easy for the user to grasp the document information.

Patent Document 2 describes an information search processing method. In this method, information is searched for data including a character code and an image, such as data of a published patent publication. The character code and image of the retrieved information are displayed on the same screen, and when the user designates the character on the screen corresponding to the character code, the image specified by the character is switched and displayed on the same screen. This saves the trouble of comparing the characters included in the searched information with the figure, and makes it easy to grasp the text content.
JP-A-8-255255 JP-A-8-339380

  As described above, according to the conventional technique, the contents of a sentence can be easily estimated based on the position and image of the important part of the sentence in the entire document. However, the user himself / herself has to understand the matter that is described in the important part of the sentence and the matter that is not illustrated by reading the sentence. If a sentence that is difficult to read is included or a sentence is long, it becomes difficult to read, and it takes time to grasp the contents of the document.

  This problem becomes more serious as the amount of documents whose contents need to be understood increases. For example, when searching for document information in a computer system, if appropriate search conditions cannot be specified, a large amount of documents will be included in the search results. In order to select necessary documents from the list, it is necessary to grasp the contents of a large number of documents. If it takes time to grasp the contents of one document, a huge amount of time is required to finish the sorting operation. If the content of the document is not fully understood in order to finish the sorting operation in a short time, there is a high risk of missing important information.

  The present invention has been made in view of such problems in the conventional technology, and is a document content grasping support system, a search system, a file management system, and a document content grasping that can easily and quickly grasp the contents of a document. The object is to provide a support method and a document content grasp support program.

  In order to achieve this object, the document content grasping support system of the present invention extracts a plurality of words contained in the document from the document data. The image database stores image data. The table associates words with images. The image search unit searches the table for images corresponding to the extracted words. The image data acquisition unit acquires the searched image data from the image database. The illustration creation unit creates an illustration of the document using the acquired image data. The illustration output unit creates the created illustration.

  In this document content grasp support system, words may be extracted according to the appearance frequency in the document.

  The system may further include a layout determining unit. The layout determining unit determines the layout of the acquired image data. The illustration creation unit lays out the acquired image data according to the determination.

  The table may associate a word with a group to which the word belongs. The illustration creation unit creates an illustration for each group of extracted words.

  Furthermore, the illustration creation unit may determine the size relationship between illustrations according to the appearance frequency of each extracted word group.

  In the document content grasping support system, the target part may be set for a part or all of the document. In this case, the system extracts a plurality of words included in the target part from the set data of the target part.

  Further, the document display area may be specified, and the target portion may be set in the specified display area.

  Furthermore, when the data of the displayed document includes data indicating a page, a change in the page to be displayed may be detected, and the display area may be specified based on the result.

  According to another aspect, the present invention provides a search system. In this search system, the document database stores document data. The document search unit searches the stored document data according to the specified conditions. A plurality of words included in the document are extracted based on the retrieved document data. The image search unit searches the table for images corresponding to the extracted words. The image data acquisition unit acquires the searched image data from the image database. The illustration creation unit creates an illustration of the document using the acquired image data. The document list output unit outputs a list of searched documents using illustrations created for each searched document.

  In this search system, when a search condition for a document specifies a word included in the document data, the word to be extracted may be selected based on the specified word.

  According to yet another aspect, the present invention provides a file management system. The file management unit hierarchically manages file storage locations. The file specifying unit specifies a file including document data from the files stored in the selected location. Based on the document data of the specified file, a plurality of words included in the document are extracted. The image search unit searches the table for images corresponding to the extracted words. The image data acquisition unit acquires the searched image data from the image database. The illustration creation unit creates an illustration of the document using the acquired image data. The file list output unit outputs a list of files stored in the selected location using an illustration created for each identified file.

  According to still another aspect, the present invention provides a method for supporting grasping of the contents of a document using a computer. In this method, the computer extracts a plurality of words included in the document from the document data. The computer retrieves images corresponding to the extracted plurality of words from a table associating words and images, and acquires retrieved image data from an image database that stores image data. The computer creates an illustration of the document using the acquired image data, and outputs the created illustration.

  According to still another aspect, the present invention provides a program for causing a computer to execute the procedure of the document content grasping support method, and a computer-readable recording medium recording the program.

  By adopting the above-described configuration, the present invention can easily and quickly grasp the contents of a document.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In this embodiment, the present invention is embodied as an electronic book browsing system using a computer. FIG. 1 shows a hardware configuration of a computer used in this browsing system.

  A general-purpose computer can be used for this browsing system. The computer 101 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 102 and a bus 103. The CPU 102 is connected to a ROM (Read Only Memory) 104 and a RAM (Random Access Memory) 105 through a bus 103. When the computer 101 is started in accordance with a program instruction stored in the ROM 104, the CPU 102 operates a part or all of an OS (Operating System) 106 on the RAM 105.

  A video interface 107 and a USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface 108 are also connected to the bus 103. The video interface 107 displays an image on the display 109 according to the control of the CPU 102. A CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) or LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) can be used as the display 109. The USB interface 108 can be used to connect a peripheral device to the computer 101 main body. Here, the input device 110 is connected to the computer 101. As the input device 110, in addition to a keyboard, a pointing device such as a mouse or a trackball can be used.

  Further, an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) 111 is also connected to the bus 103. The HDD 111 stores a file of the application program 112 and other files. Here, the application program 112 is a program for browsing electronic books. When the user instructs to use the application program 112 with the input device 110, the CPU 102 reads the file of the application program 112 from the HDD 111 in accordance with a command from the OS 106 and operates the application program 112 on the RAM 105.

  When the computer 101 operates in accordance with an instruction of the application program 112, the computer 101 includes a user interface unit 201, a document data acquisition unit 202, and a data analysis unit 203 as shown in FIG.

  The user interface unit 201 provides a GUI (Graphical User Interface) for a user to give an instruction using the input device 110 or to browse an electronic book on the display 109.

  The document data acquisition unit 202 acquires a file of the electronic book data 113 stored in the HDD 111, for example, in accordance with an instruction from the user received through the user interface unit 201. Here, the electronic book data 113 includes data representing a book page and text data described on the page.

  The data analysis unit 203 analyzes the acquired electronic book data 113 and creates display data according to the result. The user interface unit 201 uses the display data to display an electronic book browsing screen designated by the user on the display 109. FIG. 3 shows an example of the browsing screen.

  On the browsing screen 301, the data of the two continuous pages 302L and 302R of the electronic book are displayed side by side as in an open book. The user operates the button 303 with the input device 110 when displaying the next two pages of data, and operates the button 304 when displaying the previous two pages of data. By performing the operation, the user can read or read back the text of the electronic book as when turning a page of a book.

  In addition to the application program 112 and the electronic book data 113 file, the HDD 111 also stores a text content grasp support program 114 file.

  In this embodiment, the text content grasp support program 114 cooperates with the application program 112 to assist the user in grasping the contents of the electronic book. In accordance with the instructions of the program 114, the computer 101 executes procedures 401 to 405 as shown in FIG. Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the computer 101 operates according to the instructions of the program 114 so that the keyword extraction unit 204, the image database 205, the image management table 206, the image search unit 207, the image data acquisition unit 208, and the illustration creation unit 209. And an illustration output unit 210.

  The keyword extraction unit 204 extracts a plurality of words included in the document from the document data. Here, the document data is the text data 113 of the electronic book displayed on the browsing screen 301. In accordance with an instruction from the program 114, the CPU 102 extracts a plurality of keywords for the document. For example, keywords are extracted from nouns included in the sentence (procedure 401). In order to extract nouns contained in the sentence, a known natural language processing algorithm can be used. In the case of a Japanese sentence, it is possible to decompose the sentence into words by morphological analysis and to identify the dependency structure and the like by syntactic analysis. Using the result, nouns included in the sentence are extracted, and from these, nouns estimated to be important are used as keywords. FIG. 5 shows an example of a procedure for extracting a keyword.

  When the CPU 102 extracts noun data contained in the sentence from the sentence data of the electronic book (procedure 501), the CPU 102 calculates the appearance frequency of the noun in the sentence for each extracted all or part of the nouns (procedure 502). ). Then, keywords are extracted according to the appearance frequency (procedure 503). For example, nouns having the highest appearance frequency from the top to the tenth are extracted as keywords. The number of keywords to be extracted may be constant or may be changed according to the length of the sentence.

  FIG. 6 shows an example of sentence data. In this example, the data of the sentence 601 includes text data such as “the car has an engine. The car runs on the engine. The engine has an ignition device. The engine runs on the ignition device.” . In the case of this sentence 601, words such as “engine”, “car”, and “ignition device” are extracted as keywords.

  The image database 205 stores image data. Here, the image database 205 is constructed on the HDD 111. The image database 205 stores image data corresponding to general names of objects such as cars, engines, ignition devices, and the earth. As shown in FIG. 7, the image data includes data 701 to 704 of the image itself and data for identifying the image. The data name of the image can be used as data for identifying the image.

  The image management table 206 is a table that associates images stored in the image database 205 with words, and this table 206 can also be stored in the HDD 111. As shown in FIG. 8, the table 206 associates keywords with image data names in this embodiment. In this example, the keyword “car” is associated with the data name “Car.bmp”, and the keyword “engine” is associated with the data name “Engine.bmp”. “Fire.bmp” is associated with “Ignition device”, and “Earth.bmp” is associated with “Earth”.

  The image search unit 207 searches the table 206 for images corresponding to the extracted keywords. Here, the CPU 102 accesses the HDD 111 in accordance with a command from the program 114, and searches the table 206 for the name of the image data corresponding to each keyword (step 402 in FIG. 4). If the extracted keywords are “car”, “engine”, and “ignition device”, “Car.bmp”, “Engine.bmp”, and “Fire.bmp” are respectively acquired as name data in the search.

  The image data acquisition unit 208 acquires the searched image data from the image database 205. For this purpose, the CPU 102 accesses the HDD 111 through the bus 103 and acquires data of the image itself from the image database 205 using the name data. For example, if “Car.bmp”, “Engine.bmp”, and “Fire.bmp” are acquired as the name data, the image data 701 to 703 are acquired from the image data 701 to 704 shown in FIG. (Procedure 403 in FIG. 4).

  The illustration creation unit 209 uses the image data acquired from the image database 205 to create an image that explains the contents of the electronic book. Here, the CPU 102 creates an illustration by combining the image data acquired from the image database 205 (step 404 in FIG. 4). For example, the CPU 102 combines the image data 701 to 703 to create an illustration 901 as shown in FIG.

  The illustration output unit 210 outputs the created illustration 901. In accordance with the instruction of the program 114, the CPU 102 displays the created illustration output screen 1001 on the display 109 as shown in FIG. 10 (step 405 in FIG. 4). In order to display the output screen 1001 corresponding to the browsing screen 301, the CPU 102 calculates the display position of the output screen 1001 based on the display position of the browsing screen 301. In FIG. 10, the output screen 1001 is displayed at a position that partially overlaps the page 302R of the browsing screen 301. Further, as in this example, the CPU 102 may arrange the extracted keyword at the top of the output screen 1001.

  By outputting the illustration of the electronic book in this way, the user can easily and quickly grasp the contents of the electronic book. In addition, because illustrations can be made from text, it is easy for children to enjoy documents. You can enjoy text-only documents like a picture book.

  In the computer system as described above, in order to arrange the image data used for the illustration, the computer 101 can further include a layout determination unit 211 and an arrangement management table 212 as shown in FIG.

  The layout determination unit 211 determines the layout of the image data acquired by the image data acquisition unit 208. In accordance with the determined layout, the illustration creating unit 209 combines the acquired image data. Here, the CPU 102 calculates the arrangement of the acquired image data using the data of the arrangement management table 212.

  The arrangement management table 212 is a table for managing the size and position of the image data in the illustration, and can be stored in the HDD 111. FIG. 12 shows an example of the configuration of the arrangement management table.

  The arrangement management table 212 gives data on the size and position of each image in the illustration for each arrangement level. The size data is used to specifically determine the size of each image in the illustration. When the size of the image data stored in the image database 205 is unified, the size of each image in the illustration can be given by the ratio between the size of the image and the unified size. For example, if the size data represents a value of 100%, the image data stored in the image database 205 is used as it is. If the size data represents a value less than 100%, the stored image data is reduced and used. If the size data represents a value larger than 100%, the stored image data is enlarged and used.

  The position data gives a relative positional relationship between images used for the illustration. The relative positional relationship can be expressed by the coordinates of each image with respect to the reference position. When the image data represents a rectangular image, the position of the image can be determined by the center or corner position of the rectangle. For example, if the position data represents (0, 0), the position of the image becomes the reference position. If the position data represents (+20, +20), it indicates that the image is arranged with a shift of +20 in the x direction and a shift of +20 in the y direction from the reference position.

  The placement level is used to associate such size and position data with image data. As shown in FIG. 8, each record of the image management table 206 includes arrangement level data. When the CPU 102 extracts the keyword, it accesses the HDD 111 through the bus 103 and acquires the image data name and arrangement level data corresponding to each keyword from the table 206. When the arrangement level data is acquired for each image, the size and position data corresponding to the arrangement level is acquired from the arrangement management table 212 on the HDD 111. Then, the CPU 102 calculates the size and position of each image in the illustration using the acquired size and position data, and creates an illustration according to the result.

  By determining the layout of the image data in this way, the relationship between the images constituting the document illustration can be appropriately represented. Thereby, the user can grasp the contents of the sentence more accurately.

  In the computer system as described above, a plurality of illustrations may be output from one sentence. When one sentence includes a plurality of subjects, if there is an illustration for each subject, the user can easily grasp the detailed contents of the sentence. For example, the data of the sentence 1301 as shown in FIG. 13 includes text data related to “car” and text data related to “Earth”. In such a sentence 1301, not only an illustration related to “car” but also an illustration related to “earth” can be output.

  Here, the illustration creation unit 209 creates a summary image for each group of extracted keywords. Therefore, data that associates a word with a group to which the word belongs can be stored in the image management table 206. In the example of FIG. 8, data of a group to which the keyword belongs is given for each keyword. For “car”, “engine”, and “ignition device”, a value of “A” is given as group data. For “Earth”, another value of “B” is given as group data.

  The image search unit 207 can use the group data. The image search unit 207 uses the group data to divide the extracted keywords into groups. When the image search unit 207 divides the extracted keywords into groups, the image search unit 207 searches for images for each group. Such a function is also realized by the CPU 102 in accordance with a command from the document content grasp support program 114. An example of the procedure executed by the computer 101 at that time is shown in FIG.

  When the CPU 102 extracts keywords (procedure 401), it accesses the HDD 111 through the bus 103, and acquires group data corresponding to each keyword from the table 206 (procedure 1401). The CPU 102 selects a keyword belonging to one of the groups from which data has been acquired in accordance with a command from the program 114 (procedure 1402). When the keyword is selected, the CPU 102 acquires data of the name of the image data corresponding to the selected keyword from the table 206 on the HDD 111 (procedure 402). In the case of the sentence 1301, words such as “engine”, “car”, “ignition device”, and “earth” are extracted as keywords. The group to which these keywords belong is “A” or “B”. When the data of the two groups is acquired, the CPU 102 selects, for example, a keyword belonging to the group “A”. Thus, “car”, “engine”, and “ignition device” are selected from the four extracted keywords. When these keywords are selected, “Car.bmp”, “Engine.bmp”, and “Fire.bmp” are acquired as data of the name of the image data.

  When grouping the extracted keywords, the image data acquisition unit 208 acquires image data corresponding to the selected keyword from the image database 205, and the illustration creation unit 209 creates an illustration for the group to which the selected keyword belongs. To do. Therefore, when the CPU 102 acquires the name data of the selected keyword image data, the CPU 102 accesses the HDD 111 and acquires the image data itself from the image database 205 using the name data (procedure 403). The acquired image data is combined, and an illustration is created for the group to which the selected keyword belongs (step 404). For example, if “Car.bmp”, “Engine.bmp”, and “Fire.bmp” are acquired as name data, the CPU 102 acquires the image data 701 to 703 from the image database 205 on the HDD 111. The image data 701 to 703 are combined to create an illustration 901.

  When illustrations are created for any of the groups in this way, illustrations are created for the remaining groups in the same manner (step 1403). If an illustration is created for the group “A” in the groups “A” and “B”, the CPU 102 creates an illustration for the group “B” in accordance with the instruction of the program 114. In this example, “Earth” is selected as a keyword belonging to the group “B”. When the keyword is selected, “Earth.bmp” is acquired as the data of the name of the image data. The CPU 102 accesses the HDD 111 and acquires image data 704 from the image database 205 using the data of the name. Then, an illustration for the group “B” is created using the image data 704.

  When illustrations are created for all groups, the illustration output unit 210 outputs the illustrations created for each group. For example, as shown in FIG. 15, the CPU 102 displays an output screen 1501 of an illustration 901 for the group “A” and an output screen 1502 of an illustration for the group “B” on the display 109 (step 405). In this example, the image data 704 is used as it is as an illustration for the group “B”.

  In this example, the output screen 1502 is arranged below the output screen 1501. This arrangement can be determined by the illustration output unit 210 according to the order in which the keywords appear in the text. Therefore, the keyword extraction unit 204 may extract words from the beginning to the end of the document and record the extraction order for each word. The illustration output unit 210 determines the appearance order of keywords based on the recording, and determines the display positions of a plurality of output screens according to the application order.

  Further, instead of displaying the illustrations for each group on separate output screens as in the above example, those illustrations may be displayed on one output screen. In this case, when creating illustrations for each group, the illustration creation unit 209 can create a single illustration by connecting the illustrations. The illustration output unit 210 displays the illustration on one output screen.

  Thus, by creating an illustration for each group, the user can obtain more information from the illustration, and the contents of the sentence can be grasped in more detail.

  Also in the example of creating an illustration for each group, the layout determining unit 211 may determine the layout of the image data constituting each illustration.

  The illustration creation unit 209 can determine the size relationship between the illustrations according to the appearance frequency of each group to which the extracted word belongs. For example, the appearance frequency for each group is obtained as the sum of the appearance frequencies of the keywords belonging to the group. The illustration creation unit 209 compares the totals for each group, and determines the illustration size for each group based on the comparison result. In order to realize this function, the CPU 102 calculates a total for each group in accordance with a command from the program 114. When the total is calculated for each group, the CPU 102 performs an operation for normalizing the total value of each group with the maximum total. Then, the illustration size of each group is adjusted by the normalized value. If all the illustrations are represented by rectangular images and the sizes of the rectangles are the same, for example, the length of one side of the rectangle is multiplied by a normalized value to adjust the size of each illustration.

  By determining the size relationship between illustrations in this way, the user can estimate the importance of information obtained from each illustration from the relationship, and can easily select necessary information. This is particularly useful when the text contains various information and contexts.

  The range for extracting keywords may be the whole document or a part of the document. In the computer system as described above, the computer 101 can further include a target setting unit 213 as shown in FIG.

  The target setting unit 213 sets a target part for extracting a word in a part or all of a document. When the system includes a display unit for displaying a document, such as the computer system according to this embodiment includes the user interface unit 201, the target setting unit 213 includes a display area specifying unit 214. May be.

  The display area specifying unit 214 specifies the display area of the document. The target setting unit 213 sets the target part in the specified display area. The display area can be specified when an instruction is received from the user. Here, in order to receive an instruction for specifying the display area from the user, an “illustration” button 305 is arranged on the browsing screen 301 as shown in FIG.

  In order to realize such a function, the CPU 102 monitors a user operation on the application program 112 using the input device 110 in accordance with an instruction of the program 114. When detecting an operation of pressing the button 305, the CPU 102 specifies the area of the document displayed at that time. When data of a document to be displayed includes data indicating a page like the electronic book data 113, data indicating the page can be used for specifying a display area of the document. If data indicating the currently displayed page is temporarily recorded in the RAM 105, the CPU 102 acquires the data from the RAM 105. And the page currently displayed is specified using the data. In the example of FIG. 3, as shown in page number display sections 306 and 307, the third and fourth pages of the six pages are displayed. When the user performs an operation of pressing the button 305 in this state, the CPU 102 specifies the third and fourth pages as display areas, and sets the display areas as target portions for extracting words. In this case, the CPU 102 extracts keywords from the data of the third and fourth pages, not the entire document. Then, using the keyword, illustrations for the third and fourth pages are created and displayed on the display 109. If an illustration has already been displayed for another page, the display on the output screen for that illustration may be updated to display the newly created illustration, or the newly created illustration may be displayed on another output screen. You may make it display with.

  The display area can be specified not only when an instruction is explicitly received from the user, but also when the system determines it. Here, when the displayed document data includes data indicating a page, the display area specifying unit 214 detects a change in the page to be displayed, and automatically specifies the display area based on the detection result. In order to realize such a function, the CPU 102 monitors a user operation on the application program 112 using the input device 110 in accordance with a command from the document content grasp support program 114. For example, when the user performs an operation of changing the display page, such as an operation of pressing the buttons 303 and 304, the CPU 102 detects the operation. When data representing the page being displayed is temporarily recorded in the RAM 105, when the operation is performed, the CPU 102 accesses the RAM 105 through the bus 103 and acquires the data from the RAM 105. When data representing the page that has been displayed is acquired from the RAM 105, the CPU 102 calculates a numerical value representing the page to be displayed next based on the data. When the user presses the button 303, the CPU 102 calculates a numerical value representing the next page to be displayed by adding the number of pages to be displayed at one time, here “2”, from the value indicating the display page. If the user presses the button 304, the CPU 102 calculates a numerical value representing the page to be displayed next by subtracting “2” from the value indicating the display page. If the operation of pressing the button 303 is performed in the state where the third and fourth pages are displayed as in the example of FIG. 3, the numerical values representing the pages to be displayed next are 5 and 6. If the button 304 is pressed, the numerical values are 1 and 2. By specifying the page to be displayed in this way, the CPU 102 can specify the display area. The CPU 102 sets the display area as a target part from which words are extracted. In this case, the CPU 102 extracts a keyword from the data of the first page and the second page, not from the entire document, or extracts the keyword from the data of the fifth page and the sixth page. Then, using the keyword, an illustration for the first page and the second page or an illustration for the fifth page and the sixth page is created, and the illustration is displayed on the display 109. For this reason, if there is a change in the page to be displayed, the illustration is automatically updated, or an illustration for the changed page is added.

  The target portion described above can be set even when the document data does not include data indicating a page. For example, data described in HTML (HyperText Markup Language) or XML (extensible Markup Language) does not include data indicating page breaks. FIG. 17 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a web page browsing system described in HTML.

  In the example illustrated in FIG. 17, the computer 101 further includes a communication interface 115. The communication interface 115 is connected to another computer 117 through the network 116. The computer 117 is a web server computer that publishes a web page. In the computer 101, the communication interface 115 is connected to the bus 103. The computer 101 can communicate with the computer 117 by using the communication interface 115. When browsing a web page published by the computer 117, a web client program such as a web browser is used as the application program 112. In that case, the CPU 102 communicates with the computer 117 in accordance with a command from the application program 112 and downloads web page data from the computer 117. When the communication interface 115 receives the web page data, the CPU 102 accesses the HDD 111 through the bus 103 and temporarily stores the downloaded web page data 118 in the HDD 111. The CPU 102 interprets the data 118 in accordance with a command from the application program 112 and displays the web page on the display 109. FIG. 18 shows an example of a web browser screen.

  As shown in FIG. 18, a field 1802 for designating a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is arranged on the screen 1801 of the web browser. In this example, by specifying the URL “http: www.hhh.com/aaa.html”, a web page including the above-described sentence 601 is displayed in an area 1803 of the screen 1801. This web page is a page for explaining a mechanism of an automobile or a motorcycle. In the web page, images 1804 and 1805 indicating whether there is an explanation are arranged between the texts 601 and the texts corresponding to other texts.

  A scroll bar 1806 is prepared on the screen 1801. The scroll bar 1806 can be used by the user to specify a portion to be displayed in the area 1803 when the display size of the web page is larger than the size of the area 1803. When the user performs an operation of moving the scroll bar 1806 using the input device 110, the CPU 102 performs a calculation based on the position of the scroll bar 1806 after the movement. A portion of the web page displayed by the user is displayed in area 1803 according to the calculation result.

  The CPU 102 uses the calculation result according to the command of the sentence content grasp support program 114 to specify the display area of the document even when the document data does not include the data indicating the page like the data of the web page. . In the state shown in FIG. 18, the text displayed in area 1803 is only the text of sentence 601. In this case, the CPU 102 creates an illustration for the sentence 601 in accordance with a command from the document content grasp support program 114. Here, according to the above-described procedure, an illustration 901 is created as an illustration for the sentence 601, and the illustration 901 is displayed on the output screen 1001.

  Illustration creation and document display can be done on separate computers. In the example of FIG. 18, illustration creation can be performed by the server computer 117, and the document and illustrations for the document can be displayed by the client computer 101. In this case, when there is a web page transfer request from the computer 101, for example, the computer 117 writes a script in the data of the web page to be transferred. When the web browser on the computer 101 interprets the web page including the script, the computer 101 transmits a request to transfer illustration data for the web page to the computer 117 in accordance with an instruction from the web browser. Upon receiving this request, the computer 117 creates the illustration data in accordance with the procedure described above, and outputs the created data to the computer 101. When the illustration data is received, the computer 101 displays the illustration on a pop-up screen or other output screen.

  The illustration to be displayed may be automatically changed when the display area of the document is changed, as in the case where the data to be displayed includes data indicating a page. When the data to be displayed does not include data indicating a page, a change in the display area of the document can be detected based on a change in the position of the scroll bar 1806. For example, the CPU 102 compares the length of the area 1803 in the moving direction of the scroll bar 1806 with the amount of change in the position of the scroll bar 1806. When the CPU 102 detects that the fluctuation amount exceeds the length, the display area of the document is specified again based on the position of the scroll bar 1806 at that time. When the display area of the document is specified again, the CPU 102 creates a new illustration for the display area, and automatically updates the display on the output screen using the newly created illustration.

  In such a system, the target part from which the word is extracted can be set without specifying the display area. For example, a portion selected by the user using the input device 110 can be set as the target portion.

  The present invention can be applied not only to the system described above but also to a search system. FIG. 19 is a diagram illustrating the hardware configuration of the search system.

  In this search system, computers 1901 and 1902 are connected through a network 1903. Here, a computer 1901 is a computer used to provide a document search service, and a computer 1902 is a computer used by a user to receive the service. A general-purpose computer can be used as the computers 1901 and 1902.

  As illustrated in FIG. 19, the computer 1901 includes a CPU 1904 and a bus 1905. The CPU 1904 is connected to the ROM 1906 and the RAM 1907 through the bus 1905. When the computer 1901 is activated in accordance with a program instruction stored in the ROM 1906, the CPU 1904 operates a part or all of the OS 1908 on the RAM 1907.

  A communication interface 1909 is also connected to the bus 1905. A communication interface 1909 connects the computer 1901 to the network 1903.

  Further, an HDD 1910 is also connected to the bus 1905. The HDD 1910 stores a document search program 1911 file and other files. The document search program 1911 is a program used for managing documents and searching for documents. The document search program 1911 can be used to support grasping of the document contents, like the document content grasping support program 114 described above. It is also used here to communicate with other computers, such as a web server. When starting a service such as when the computer 1901 is started up, the CPU 1904 reads the file of the document search program 1911 from the HDD 1910 in accordance with a command from the OS 1908 and operates the document search program 1911 on the RAM 1907.

  As the computer 1901 operates in accordance with the command of the document search program 1911, the computer 1901 can be connected to a communication processing unit 2001, a document management unit 2002, an index table 2003, a document database 2004, a keyword extraction unit 2005, an image, as shown in FIG. The database 2006 includes an image management table 2007, an image search unit 2008, an image data acquisition unit 2009, an illustration creation unit 2010, and a document list output unit 2011.

  A communication processing unit 2001 performs processing related to communication with another computer in order to provide a document search service. Here, a search request from the computer 1902 is accepted, or a response to the request is transmitted to the computer 1902. In order to realize such a function, the CPU 1904 executes processing in accordance with a command from the document search program 1911 and communicates with the computer 1902 using the communication interface 1909.

  A document management unit 2002 manages and retrieves documents. The document search may be performed on attribute data such as bibliographic items, or may be performed on text data of the document. The document data includes text data or binary character data. As long as it includes character data such as electronic data of newspapers, magazines, papers, books, laws and regulations, business documents, and data of web pages, graphic data and other data may be included. In the case of binary data, it is necessary to extract text data. If the full text search is performed on the text data, a known search method such as the N character index method can be used. Therefore, the document management unit 2002 may create the index table 2003.

  The index table 2003 stores an index including an index key and ID data that identifies a file of a document to which the index key is assigned. The document database 2004 accumulates document data files to which index keys are assigned. Here, an index table 2003 and a document database 2004 are built on the HDD 1910.

  The document management unit 2002 searches the document data stored in the document database 2004 according to the specified condition. Here, when the communication interface 1909 receives a search request from the computer 1902, the CPU 1904 extracts conditions specified by the user of the computer 1902 from the search request in accordance with an instruction of the program 1911. When the search condition for the text data of the document specifies a word included in the text data, the CPU 1904 accesses the HDD 1910 through the bus 1905 and acquires ID data corresponding to the search word from the index table 2003. A list is created from the acquired ID data, and the list is temporarily stored in the HDD 1910.

  The keyword extraction unit 2005 extracts a plurality of words included in the document from the retrieved document data. Here, when ID data corresponding to a search word is acquired, the CPU 1904 accesses the HDD 1910 and acquires character data from a file of document data specified by the acquired ID data. The CPU 1904 extracts a plurality of keywords from the character data included in the document data. When a document search condition specifies a word included in document data, the specified word can also be used for keyword extraction. In that case, the CPU 1904 selects a plurality of words from the character data included in the document data, and extracts a word corresponding to the designated word from the selected words as a keyword.

  The image database 2006, the image management table 2007, the image search unit 2008, the image data acquisition unit 2009, and the illustration creation unit 2010 are the image database 205, the image management table 206, the image search unit 207, and the image data acquisition unit shown in FIG. 208 and the illustration creation unit 209 are basically the same. The CPU 1904 creates an illustration of the document from the extracted keyword according to the above-described procedure according to the command of the program 1911. If there are a plurality of retrieved documents, an illustration is created for each document. The illustration created for each document is temporarily stored in the HDD 1910. Also, ID data for specifying the file is given to the created illustration file, and is associated with the ID data of the list stored in the HDD 1910.

  The document list output unit 2011 outputs data of a list of searched documents to the communication processing unit 2001 using an illustration created for each searched document. The communication processing unit 2001 transmits the data to the search request source computer 1902. In order to realize this function, the CPU 1904 acquires a list from the HDD 1910 in accordance with an instruction of the program 1911 here. The CPU 1904 creates data for displaying a list of retrieved documents from the acquired list and the ID data included in the list. In addition to illustration data, this data includes document attribute data such as document title and type, author, publication / announcement date, and file location. The CPU 1904 creates communication data for the computer 1902 from this data, and transmits it to the computer 1902 using the communication interface 1909. When communication data is received via the network 1903, the computer 1902 displays a list of documents based on the received data. FIG. 21 shows an example of a document list display screen.

  The document list display screen 2101 includes a search condition input field 2102, a search execution button 2103, and a list display unit 2104. The search condition input field 2102 in this example is used when a user inputs or changes a search keyword on the computer 1902. A search execution button 2103 can be used when the user instructs the computer 1901 to execute a search. A list display unit 2104 displays a list of searched documents.

  The list includes attribute data 2105 and a corresponding illustration 2106 for each retrieved document. In this example, the title and author of the document are displayed in the attribute data. A link 2107 to text data is attached to the title of the document. When the user operates the link 2107 on the computer 1902, the computer 1902 requests the computer 1901 for the text data. When the text data is received from the computer 1901, the computer 1902 displays the data. As in the example of FIG. 21, illustrations may not be included in the document list, and corresponding text may be displayed together with the text data when the text data is displayed.

  By displaying the illustration in association with the document in this way, the user can easily and quickly grasp the contents of the retrieved document. Therefore, even when a large number of documents are searched, necessary documents can be efficiently selected.

  Such a search system can be used not only for information on papers, magazines, and the Internet, but also for systems that search for patents, utility models, designs, and other gazettes related to intellectual property. If it is a patent publication gazette, the attribute data of the gazette includes data of items such as the applicant, IPC, application number, application date, publication number, publication date, inventor, name of the invention. A user of the computer 1902 can specify search conditions for one or more of these items. When the user designates such item data for the attribute data as a search condition, the computer 1901 retrieves the attribute data of the publication for the designated item.

  Further, the text data may be prepared separately for each of the specification, claims, and abstract documents attached to the application. Since only some documents are designated, the document names of these documents may be included in the search condition item. Furthermore, in order to designate a part of the claims, data such as claim numbers may be included in the items of the search conditions. In addition, in order to specify a part of the description, a headline in the specification such as “background art”, “problem to be solved by the invention”, “means for solving the problem” is used as a search condition. You may make it include in an item. When the user specifies such an item for the text data as a search condition, the computer 1901 searches the text data of the publication for the specified item.

  When a gazette is searched for attribute data and text data, as described above, the computer 1901 creates an illustration for each searched gazette. The computer 1901 creates data for displaying a list of searched publications using an illustration created for each searched publication, and transmits the data to the search requesting computer 1902. When the computer 1902 receives data via the network 1903, the computer 1902 displays a list of searched publications based on the data. FIG. 22 shows an example of a publication list display screen.

  The publication list display screen 2201 includes a search condition display unit 2202 and a list display unit 2203. The search condition display unit 2202 is used to display a search condition designated by the user. A list display unit 2203 displays a list of searched publications.

  The list includes, for example, a publication number 2204, a representative drawing 2205 of the publication, and a corresponding illustration 2206 for each searched publication. The publication number 2204 has a link 2207 to the text data. When the user operates the link 2207 with the computer 1902, the computer 1902 requests the computer 1901 for the text data of the publication. When the text data of the publication is received from the computer 1901, the computer 1902 displays the data. As in the example of FIG. 22, the representative drawing 2205 and the illustration 2206 may not be included in the list of publications, and when the text data is displayed, the representative drawing and the illustration may be displayed together with the text data.

  The user can easily grasp the contents of the publication from the representative drawing 2205 and the illustration 2206. Since the illustration 2206 is created from the text data, it may be similar to the representative drawing or may be significantly different. In any case, the user can obtain information that cannot be obtained only by the representative drawing at a glance. For this reason, even when a large number of publications are searched, it becomes possible to efficiently select necessary publications.

  The present invention can also be applied to a file management system using a computer. As this computer, a general-purpose computer can be used like other systems. Here, the computer 101 shown in FIG. 1 is used as the computer.

  As shown in FIG. 23, in this example, the file of the file management module 2301 and other files are stored in the HDD 111 of the computer 101. The file management module 2301 is used to provide the OS 106 with a function for hierarchically managing file storage locations. By using this file management module 2301, the OS 106 can also obtain a function for assisting the user to grasp the document contents of a file including document data. When the computer 101 is activated, the CPU 102 reads the file of the file management module 2301 from the HDD 111 to the RAM 105 in accordance with a command from the OS 106 and realizes a function provided by the file management module 2301.

  When the computer 101 operates in accordance with an instruction from the OS 106 using the file management module 2301, the computer 101 can be configured as shown in FIG. 24 by a user interface unit 2401, a file management unit 2402, a file storage unit 2403, a file specifying unit 2404, a keyword, An extraction unit 2405, an image database 2406, an image management table 2407, an image search unit 2408, an image data acquisition unit 2409, an illustration creation unit 2410, and a file list output unit 2411 are provided.

  The user interface unit 2401 is basically the same as the user interface unit 201 shown in FIG. 2 in that it provides a GUI. The user interface unit 2401 provides a GUI for the user to specify a file storage location, select a file, or display a list of files on the display 109 using the input device 101.

  The file management unit 2402 manages file storage locations hierarchically. Here, the file management unit 2402 manages the files stored in the file storage unit 2403. A storage area of the HDD 111 can be used as the file storage unit 2403. The file storage unit 2403 normally stores a large number of files such as files necessary for the OS 106, drivers, and applications, and files created by users or acquired from other computers through a network. These files include text and binary data. In order to manage such files, a management area is provided in the storage area of the HDD 111 in addition to the file storage unit 2403. This management area stores data representing a hierarchical directory. In accordance with a command from the OS 106, the CPU 102 hierarchically manages file storage locations using data in the management area.

  The file specifying unit 2404 specifies a file including document data from the files stored in the selected location. The user can select a file storage location using a file operation screen provided by the user interface unit 2401. FIG. 25 shows an example of a file operation screen. The file operation screen 2501 has a directory area 2502 and a file area 2503. Here, the directory area 2502 displays the root directory and folders in a lower hierarchy. In this example, a root directory 2504 and a folder 2505 named “Documents” are illustrated. The user can give the computer 101 an instruction to select a folder displayed in the directory area 2502 by operating the pointer 2506 using the input device 110. Here, the file area 2503 displays icons and names of files in the selected folder. In this example, files 2507 to 2509 in the folder 2505 are illustrated. The user can give the computer 101 an instruction to select a file displayed in the file area 2503 by operating the pointer 2506 using the input device 110. When the user gives an instruction such as execution, deletion, or name change to the selected file, the CPU 102 executes processing corresponding to the user's instruction in accordance with an instruction from the OS 106. The file operation screen 2501 also has an illustration button 2510. When the user presses the button 2510, the CPU 102 changes the display format of the file area 2503. For example, when the change is made, the CPU 102 specifies the selected folder. When the selected folder is specified, a file including document data is specified from the files stored in the folder. This specification can be made according to the file type. When a file including document data is not stored in the folder, the CPU 102 may stop the processing. In the example of FIG. 25, the files 2507 and 2508 include document data, and the file 2509 does not include document data. In this case, the CPU 102 specifies the files 2507 and 2508 as files including document data.

  The keyword extraction unit 2405 extracts a plurality of words included in the document based on the document data of the specified file. Here, the data of the specified file is acquired from the file storage unit 2403, and a plurality of words included in the document are extracted based on the document data of the file. In order to realize this function, the CPU 102 reads the data of the specified file from the HDD 111 in accordance with a command from the OS 106.

  The image database 2406, the image management table 2407, the image search unit 2408, the image data acquisition unit 2409, and the illustration creation unit 2410 are the image database 205, the image management table 206, the image search unit 207, and the image data acquisition unit shown in FIG. 208 and the illustration creation unit 209 are basically the same. The CPU 102 creates an illustration of the document from the extracted keyword according to the above-described procedure according to the command of the OS 106. If there are multiple identified files, an illustration is created for each file.

  The file list output unit 2411 outputs a list of selected files using illustrations created for each identified file. Here, a list of the files is output through the file operation screen 2501 provided by the user interface unit 2401. In order to output a list of files, when the CPU 102 creates an illustration for each identified file, the CPU 102 creates an icon image of the corresponding file from the illustration. When the icon image is created, the icon of the file displayed in the file area 2503 of the file operation screen 2501 is updated using the icon image. By updating the icon display in this manner, the change of the file list display format is completed. FIG. 26 shows an example of a file operation screen whose display format has been changed.

  After the change of the display format, as shown in FIG. 26, some icons of the files displayed in the file area 2503 are updated. In this example, the file icon of the file 2509 not including document data is not changed. The file icons of the files 2507 and 2508 including the document data are updated using the corresponding illustration images.

  By changing the display format of the file list in this way, the user can easily identify the file containing the document data, and can easily and quickly grasp the contents of the document.

  In the file management system as described above, for example, when attribute data is given to a creation date and time or a selected storage location, the attribute data can be used for keyword extraction.

  The document content grasping support program 114, the document search program 1911, and the file management module 2301 in such a computer system are not limited to the computer 101 and 1901, and are operated on other computers, devices such as mobile terminals and mobile phones. Is also possible. If a vector format such as SVG (Scale Vector Graphics) is used for the data format of the illustration, the display size of the illustration can be smoothly changed according to the display area of the device. Further, even with a device having a narrow display area for displaying a long sentence, such as a mobile terminal or a mobile phone, it is possible to easily and quickly grasp the contents of the whole sentence by using an illustration. FIG. 27 shows an example of an illustration displayed on a mobile phone.

  A cellular phone 2701 has a liquid crystal display 2702 and operation buttons 2703 and 2704. The mobile phone 2701 displays an illustration on its display 2702 by operating according to the commands of the programs corresponding to the above-described programs and modules. In this example, an illustration 901 is displayed on the display 2702. For example, when the user gives an instruction to change the page using the button 2703 to the mobile phone 2701, the mobile phone 2701 creates an illustration corresponding to the page to be changed in accordance with an instruction of the program, and displays the newly created illustration. 2702 is displayed. It is easier to display an illustration in a recognizable manner than to display a sentence in a limited area so that it can be identified. The user can easily and quickly grasp the contents of the sentence even in a relatively narrow display area. In addition, if you use illustrations, you can move forward more easily than scrolling through the entire text. For example, when the user performs an operation of pressing a button 2704, the user switches between displaying text on the page and displaying an illustration. If the user wants to read the text by sequentially updating the illustrations, the user switches the display. This allows the user to read only the necessary text.

  The document content grasp support program 114, the document search program 1911, and the file management module 2301 are provided to related parties and third parties by using an electric communication line such as the Internet or by storing it on a computer-readable recording medium. can do. For example, a program command is expressed by an electric signal, an optical signal, a magnetic signal, etc., and the signal is placed on a carrier wave and transmitted, so that the program is provided on a transmission medium such as a coaxial cable, copper wire, or optical fiber. Can do. As a computer-readable recording medium, optical media such as CD-ROM and DVD-ROM, magnetic media such as a flexible disk, and semiconductor memory such as flash memory and RAM can be used.

  Further, the commands of the document content grasp support program 114, the document search program 1911, and the file management module 2301 may be distributed and processed by a plurality of computers.

  The embodiments described above do not limit the technical scope of the present invention, and various modifications and applications other than those already described are possible within the scope of the present invention. For example, instead of using a still image illustration, an animation image or a moving image can be used as an illustration.

  In the above description, words having a high appearance frequency are preferentially extracted as keywords. However, the present invention is not limited to this. You may make it extract the word contained in the headline, and the word highlighted as a keyword preferentially. Moreover, you may make it extract a word with low appearance frequency preferentially as a keyword. For example, in a document including a figure, if an important matter is described in the figure, an illustration that complements the figure can be created by extracting a word with a low appearance frequency as a keyword. Further, not only nouns but also words of other parts of speech such as adjectives may be extracted.

  In addition to the word extracted from the sentence, an image used for the illustration may be searched based on a word not included in the sentence. For example, a database representing the relationship between words is prepared. Then, a word related to the word extracted from the sentence is searched from the database. The associated word is also used to retrieve the image. This can increase the completeness of illustrations and increase diversity.

  The document content grasping support system, the document content grasping support method, and the document content grasping support program according to the present invention have the effect that the contents of the document including the contents of the sentences can be grasped easily and quickly. It is useful for search systems and file management systems in addition to systems.

Diagram showing the hardware configuration of the browsing system Functional block diagram of browsing system The figure which shows an example of the browsing screen of an electronic book The flowchart which shows the procedure which a document content grasping support program makes a computer perform Flow chart showing the procedure for extracting keywords Figure showing an example of sentence data Illustration for explaining the image database The figure which shows an example of an image management table Figure showing an example of the created illustration Illustration to explain the output screen of the illustration Another functional block diagram of the browsing system Diagram for explaining the location management table Figure showing another example of sentence data Flowchart showing another procedure executed by the computer for the document content grasping support program Figure showing another example of the browsing screen Yet another functional block diagram of the browsing system Diagram showing another hardware configuration of the browsing system Figure showing an example of a web browser screen Diagram showing the hardware configuration of the search system Functional block diagram of search system The figure which shows an example of the display screen of a search document list Figure showing an example of the search bulletin list display screen The figure which shows the hardware constitutions of the file management system Functional block diagram of file management system Figure showing an example of the file operation screen Figure for explaining another display format of file operation screen The figure which shows an example which displayed the illustration with the cellular phone

Explanation of symbols

114 Document content grasp support program 201, 2401 User interface unit 202 Document data acquisition unit 203 Data analysis unit 204, 2005, 2405 Keyword extraction unit 205, 2006, 2406 Image database 206, 2007, 2407 Image management table 207, 2008, 2408 Image Search unit 208, 2009, 2409 Image data acquisition unit 209, 2010, 2410 Illustration creation unit 210 Illustration output unit 211 Layout determination unit 212 Arrangement management table 213 Target setting unit 214 Display area specification unit 1911 Document search program 2001 Communication processing unit 2002 Document Management unit 2003 Index table 2004 Document database 2011 Document list output unit 2402 File management unit 2403 File storage unit 2404 File identification unit 24111 File list output unit

Claims (14)

Means for extracting a plurality of words contained in the document from the document data;
An image database that stores image data,
A table that associates words with images,
Means for retrieving an image corresponding to each of the extracted words from the table;
Means for obtaining retrieved image data from an image database;
A document content understanding support system comprising means for creating an illustration of the document using the acquired image data, and means for outputting the created illustration.   2. The document content grasping support system according to claim 1, wherein the means for extracting the word extracts the word according to the appearance frequency in the document. Means for determining the layout of the acquired image data;
2. The document content grasping support system according to claim 1, wherein the means for creating the illustration lays out the acquired image data according to the determination. The table associates a word with a group to which the word belongs,
2. The document content grasping support system according to claim 1, wherein the means for creating the illustration creates an illustration for each group of extracted words.   5. The document content grasping support system according to claim 4, wherein the means for creating the illustration determines the size relationship between the illustrations according to the appearance frequency of each extracted word group. Means for setting a target part in a part or all of a document;
2. The document content grasping support system according to claim 1, wherein the word extracting means extracts a plurality of words included in the target part from the set data of the target part. Further comprising means for displaying the document;
7. The document content grasping support system according to claim 6, wherein the means for setting the target part has means for specifying a display area of the document, and sets the target part in the specified display area.   8. The document content according to claim 7, wherein the means for specifying the display area detects a change of the page to be displayed when the data of the displayed document includes data indicating a page, and specifies the display area based on the result. Grasping support system. Document database that stores document data,
Document search means for searching stored document data according to specified conditions,
Means for extracting a plurality of words contained in the document based on the retrieved document data;
An image database that stores image data,
A table that associates words with images,
Image search means for searching the image corresponding to each of the plurality of extracted words from the table;
Means for obtaining retrieved image data from an image database;
A retrieval system comprising means for creating an illustration of the document using the acquired image data, and means for outputting a list of retrieved documents using the illustration created for each retrieved document.   10. The search system according to claim 9, wherein the means for extracting the word selects a word to be extracted based on the designated word when the document search condition designates a word included in the document data. Means for hierarchically managing file storage locations,
A means for identifying a file containing document data from files stored in a selected location;
Means for extracting a plurality of words contained in the document based on the document data of the identified file;
An image database that stores image data,
A table that associates words with images,
Means for retrieving an image corresponding to each of the extracted words from the table;
Means for obtaining retrieved image data from an image database;
A file management system comprising means for creating an illustration of the document using the acquired image data, and means for outputting a list of files stored in the selected location using the illustration created for each identified file . A method for supporting the grasp of the contents of a document using a computer,
A procedure for the computer to extract multiple words contained in the document from the document data,
A procedure for a computer to search for images corresponding to a plurality of extracted words from a table associating words with images,
Procedure for the computer to retrieve the retrieved image data from the image database that stores the image data,
A document content comprehension support method that includes a procedure for a computer to create an illustration of the document using the acquired image data, and a procedure for the computer to output the created illustration.   A program for causing a computer to execute the procedure according to claim 12. A computer-readable recording medium on which the program according to claim 13 is recorded.

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