JP4778285B2 - Map center point suitability information generation system and map center point suitability information generation method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a map center point correspondence information generation system and a map center point correspondence information generation method that can be applied to a local search system or the like for searching for information on facilities or the like existing in a designated area.

  For services on the Internet such as “YAHOO! MAPS” (Yahoo! is a registered trademark) provided by the applicant, there is one input frame for keyword search, and the names of major facilities, places, and addresses The desired facility can be searched from the postal code or the like.

  In recent years, a service called local search (region information search) for searching for information on facilities and the like existing in a designated region is expected. In such a local search, a method is adopted in which a center point (coordinate information such as latitude and longitude) of a specified region is determined, and candidates narrowed down by other facility names etc. in order from the center point are output as search results. It is done.

On the other hand, Patent Document 1 discloses a system for searching for a desired store from the store name, address, and the like. Patent Document 2 discloses a system for searching for a desired home page by inputting an area code for designating a region and a category code for designating a region other than the region.
Japanese Patent No. 2874647 Japanese Patent No. 3247360

  As mentioned above, it is considered that local search will become widespread as a search service for facilities, etc., but in that case, how to determine the center point of the designated area will greatly affect the search accuracy. .

  Conventionally, the latitude and longitude of the registered data that has a high degree of coincidence with the area specified by the place name, station name, etc. was used as the center point, so the center point is intended by the user in the case of a relatively wide area. There is a problem that a satisfactory search result cannot be obtained. For example, when “Roppongi” is designated as the region, the user has a high degree of matching as a text even though the user intends around “Roppongi XXX” (a building name that is a famous place) (one character more) Only) When a search is performed with “Roppongi Station” as the central point, satisfactory results cannot be obtained. In addition, it is assumed that the search result is displayed together with the map image. However, the display of the map image with the center point deviated from the intended one makes it easy to see the poor search accuracy and promotes distrust of the service. There are also aspects.

  Similar problems also exist in services that directly display a map from a place name or the like in rough notation, and are not limited to the above-described local search.

  The present invention has been proposed in view of the above-described conventional problems, and the object of the present invention is to provide a map center as a material for determining whether or not the center point of a designated area is appropriate. To provide a map center point correspondence information generation system and a map center point correspondence information generation method capable of generating point correspondence information.

In order to solve the above problems, according to the present invention, as described in claim 1, the name of the place is associated with the coordinate information on the map, and whether or not the place is suitable as the center point of the map. A location database that stores map center point correspondence information indicating the degree of location, a facility database that stores facility names and coordinate information on the map in association with each other, and searches the location database based on user-specified regional information And a search result indicating the highest degree of the map center point correspondence information associated with the place name from the search result of the position database search unit. A map center determining unit that determines the coordinate information associated with the map center point, and a map image centered on the map center point determined by the map center determining unit. Map A system comprising an image display unit, and the facility data acquisition storage unit for storing the said location database obtains the facility data for the facility database, map center point corresponding level information for each location of the location database to A map center point correspondence information generation system further comprising a map center point correspondence information analysis storage unit that generates and stores the information in the position database.

  Moreover, as described in claim 2, in the map center point correspondence information generation system according to claim 1, the map center point correspondence information analysis storage unit is a search target in the vicinity of the corresponding place. A density score analysis storage unit that generates and stores a density score indicating the degree of congestion of the facility can be provided.

Further, as described in claim 3, in the map center point correspondence information generation system according to claim 1 or 2, the map center point correspondence information analysis storage unit includes a corresponding location. It is possible to provide a click score analysis storage unit that generates and stores a click score indicating the degree of clicking.

Further, as described in claim 4, in the map center point corresponding degree information generation system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, the map center point corresponding degree information analysis storage unit includes a corresponding location. It is possible to provide an attribute score analysis storage unit that generates and stores an attribute score indicating the degree to which many people gather.

In addition, as described in claim 5, the location name and the coordinate information on the map are associated with each other, and map center point correspondence information indicating whether or not the location is suitable as the center point of the map is stored. A location database, a facility database that stores facility names and coordinate information on the map in association with each other, a location database search unit that searches the location database based on user-specified regional information, and a location database search unit The map center point correspondence information associated with the place name is determined from the search result, and the coordinate information associated with one search result representing the highest degree of the map center point correspondence information is determined as the map center point. And a map image display unit for displaying a map image centered on the map center point determined by the map center determination unit. A control method, facility data acquisition storage unit, and the facility data acquisition storage step of storing in the location database obtains the facility data from the facility database, the map center point corresponding level information analyzing storage unit, the location database The map center point corresponding degree information generating method includes the map center point corresponding degree information analyzing and storing step of generating map center point corresponding degree information and storing it in the position database.

  In the map center point suitability information generation system and map center point suitability information generation method of the present invention, the map center as a material for determining whether or not the map center point suitability information is suitable for determining the center point of the designated area. Point matching degree information can be generated, search accuracy in a local search system or the like can be improved, and user satisfaction can be increased.

  Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a map center point suitability information generation system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, the map center point suitability information generation system reads facility data from a facility database D2 that stores facility data, and adds or updates data to the location database D1 that stores location data. 9 is provided.

  In addition, the location database maintenance unit 9 acquires facility data of the facility database D2 and stores it in the location database D1, and a congestion data score storage unit 91 that generates a congestion score (described later) and stores it in the location database D1. Degree score analysis storage unit 92, click score analysis storage unit 93 that generates a click score (described later) and stores it in the position database D1, and attribute score analysis storage that generates an attribute score (described later) and stores it in the position database D1 Part 94. The congestion score, click score, and attribute score constitute map center point suitability information indicating the degree to which the corresponding location is suitable as the map center point.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a logical configuration example of the location database D1, and a “location name” field, a “latitude / longitude” field as coordinate information, and a cluster of facilities to be searched around corresponding locations. It has a field of “Density score” indicating the degree, a field of “Click score” indicating the degree of click on the corresponding place, and a field of “Attribute score” indicating the degree of crowding of the corresponding place. is doing.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a logical configuration example of the facility database D2, which includes a “facility name” field and a “latitude / longitude” field as coordinate information.

The location database maintenance unit 9 of the map center point suitability information generation system shown in FIG. 1 is periodically executed to read the facility data in the facility database D2 and add / update the location data in the location database D1. Become. Here, in the generation of the density score, for example, when the total number of data in the facility database D2 is M, and the number of data within a range having a predetermined distance (for example, 300 m) as a radius around the location is N, It can be generated by normalizing with the following formula. Here, Log _(M) is a logarithm with M as the base.

Congestion score = Log _(M) N x 100
The click score can be generated using, for example, the frequency of access to the location data during the most recent predetermined number of days. The attribute score can be generated according to a predetermined criterion so as to increase the point of a spot-like place such as a station, for example.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a local search system to which the present invention is applied. In FIG. 4, a local search system is accessed from a client 1 such as a personal computer operated by a user via a network 2 such as the Internet, and a front end server 3 having a Web server function and a comprehensive management function, and the front search server 3. A location search server 4 that searches the location database D1 in response to a request from the end server 3 and a facility search server 5 that searches the facility database D2 in response to a request from the front-end server 3 are provided.

  The local search system also includes a map image server 6 that provides a map image from the map image database D3 to the client 1 in response to a request from the front end server 3, and an address database in response to a request from the front end server 3. An address search server 7 that searches for D4 and a content server 8 that provides content such as facility information from the content database D5 to the client 1 are provided. The map image server 6 may provide a map image to the client 1 via the front end server 3, or may provide a map image to the client 1 directly from the map image server 6. May be. The same applies to the content provided from the content server 8.

  FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram related to the search function, and mainly shows functions realized by the front-end server 3, the position search server 4, and the facility search server 5. In FIG. 5, as a function unit, a WWW server unit 101 that provides a Web server function to the client 1 and a region analysis specified by a user (text information input in a region input frame described later) are parsed. A search front unit 102 that performs unification of notations using MA, N-gram, etc., which is a process, a position database search unit 103 that searches a location database D1 based on regional information specified by the user, and a location database search unit The density determination unit 104 for determining the density score (described later) stored in the position database D1 with respect to the higher search result by the position 103, and similarly for the higher search result by the position database search unit 103 The other score determination unit 105 that determines other scores (described later) stored in the position database D1, and these And a map center determination unit 106 that determines the map center point from the determination results.

  In addition, a facility that searches the facility database D2 based on facility information specified by the user (text information input in a facility input frame described later) in consideration of the distance from the map center point determined by the map center determination unit 106 A map image centered on the map center point determined by the database search unit 107 and the map center determination unit 106 is displayed on the screen of the client 1, and when there are a plurality of search results of the position database search unit 103, candidates thereof Map / region candidate display unit 108 that displays the search results in the list format, the result list display unit 109 that displays the search results of the facility database search unit 107 on the screen of the client 1 in list format in order from the map center point, Detects selection of a candidate area by the user, and re-searches considering the distance from the map center point of the selected candidate area And a regional candidate selection detecting section 110 to be executed by the facility database search unit 107.

  The operation of the above local search system will be described below.

  In FIG. 5, a user who uses the system accesses the WWW server unit 101 from the client 1 and inputs search conditions. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen in the client 1, and shows a state where “Roppongi” is input in the area input frame a and “Restaurant” is input in the facility input frame b.

  Returning to FIG. 5, the search front unit 102 unifies the notation of the region information designated by the user (text information input in the region input frame) using MA, N-gram, etc., which are syntax analysis processing. For example, when “Kyoto” is input as the area information, “Kyoto Prefecture” is used so that “Tokyo” including “Kyoto” as a part thereof is not hit. In addition, in the case of a detailed address such as “◯ × 3-2-1” or a zip code, the address is retrieved by the address search server 7 (FIG. 4).

  Next, the position database search unit 103 searches the “location name” field of the position database D1, and for the higher ones hit here, the congestion determination unit 104 determines the “congestion score” field, The other score determination unit 105 determines the “click score” field and the “attribute score” field. Then, the map center determination unit 106 comprehensively determines them and determines the map center point. For example, when searching for “Roppongi” in the location database D1 shown in FIG. If “Roppongi 6-chome” is “50”, “Roppongi Station” is the top in terms of the degree of matching of the text. "XX" is the top, and the latitude and longitude are the map center point.

  Returning to FIG. 5, the facility database search unit 107 considers the distance from the map center point determined by the map center determination unit 106 and is based on the facility information specified by the user (text information input in the facility input frame). The facility database D2 is searched. The map / region candidate display unit 108 displays a map image centered on the determined map center point on the screen of the client 1, and lists candidates when there are a plurality of search results in the position database search unit 103. Display in format. Further, the result list display unit 109 displays the search results on the screen of the client 1 in a list format in order from the closest to the map center point. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen in the client 1, and shows a state where the area candidate c, the map d, and the search result list e are displayed.

  Returning to FIG. 5, when the user selects a region candidate that is different from the current region, the region candidate selection / detection unit 110 detects the selection, and the distance from the map center point of the selected region candidate. The facility database search unit 107 executes a re-search considering the above. The map / region candidate display unit 108 and the result list display unit 109 display the result of the re-search in the same manner as described above.

  As described above, according to the present invention, map center point correspondence information can be generated as a material for determining whether or not a center point of a designated area is suitable as a center point. The search accuracy in the system or the like can be increased, and the user satisfaction can be increased.

  The present invention has been described above by the preferred embodiments of the present invention. While the invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments, various modifications and changes may be made to the embodiments without departing from the broad spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the claims. Obviously you can. In other words, the present invention should not be construed as being limited by the details of the specific examples and the accompanying drawings.

It is a figure which shows the structural example of the map center point corresponding degree information generation system concerning one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the logical structural example of a position database. It is a figure which shows the logical structural example of a facility database. It is a figure which shows the structural example of the local search system to which this invention is applied. It is a functional block diagram concerning a search function. FIG. 6 is a diagram (part 1) illustrating an example of a display screen in a client. It is FIG. (2) which shows the example of the display screen in a client.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Client 2 Network 3 Front-end server 4 Location search server 5 Facility search server 6 Map image server 7 Address search server 8 Content server 9 Location database maintenance part 91 Facility data acquisition storage part 92 Congestion score analysis storage part 93 Click score analysis storage Unit 94 Attribute score analysis storage unit D1 Location database D2 Facility database D3 Map image database D4 Address database D5 Content database 101 WWW server unit 102 Search front unit 103 Location database search unit 104 Congestion level determination unit 105 Other score determination unit 106 Map center determination Unit 107 Facility database search unit 108 Map / region candidate display unit 109 Result list display unit 110 Region candidate selection detection unit

Claims (5)

A location database that associates location names with coordinate information on the map, and stores map center point suitability information indicating whether the location is suitable as a map center point;
A facility database that stores facility names and coordinate information on the map in association with each other;
A location database search unit that searches the location database based on regional information specified by the user;
Coordinate information associated with one search result indicating the degree to which the map center point correspondence information is the highest by determining the map center point correspondence information associated with the place name from the search result of the position database search unit. A map center determination unit for determining the map center point as
A map image display unit that displays a map image centered on the map center point determined by the map center determination unit,
A facility data acquisition and storage unit for acquiring facility data of the facility database and storing it in the location database;
A map center point correspondence information generation system further comprising a map center point correspondence information analysis storage unit that generates map center point correspondence information for each location in the position database and stores the map center point correspondence information in the position database. . In the map center point corresponding degree information generation system according to claim 1,
The map center point corresponding degree information analysis storage unit includes a density score analysis storage unit that generates and stores a density score indicating a degree of density of a facility to be searched around a corresponding place. Map center point suitability information generation system. In the map center point corresponding degree information generation system according to any one of claims 1 and 2,
The map center point suitability information analysis storage unit includes a click score analysis storage unit that generates and stores a click score indicating the degree to which a corresponding place has been clicked. system. In the map center point corresponding degree information generation system according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
The map center point appropriateness information analysis storage unit includes an attribute score analysis storage unit that generates and stores an attribute score indicating the degree of gathering of many corresponding places. Generation system. A location database that associates location names with coordinate information on the map, and stores map center point suitability information indicating whether the location is suitable as a map center point;
A facility database that stores facility names and coordinate information on the map in association with each other;
A location database search unit that searches the location database based on regional information specified by the user;
Coordinate information associated with one search result indicating the degree to which the map center point correspondence information is the highest by determining the map center point correspondence information associated with the place name from the search result of the position database search unit. A map center determination unit for determining the map center point as
A system control method comprising a map image display unit for displaying a map image centered on a map center point determined by the map center determination unit,
Facility data acquisition storage unit, and the facility data acquisition storage step of storing in the location database obtains the facility data from the facility database,
A map center point correspondence information analysis storage unit includes a map center point correspondence information analysis storage step for generating map center point correspondence information for each location in the position database and storing the map center point correspondence information in the position database. A map center point suitability information generation method.

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