JPH06215045A - System for retrieving technical book by utilizing public telephone line - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily and speedily provide required tecnical book data by requesting the retrieval of prescribed data from stored technical book data to a host computer. CONSTITUTION:A retrieval code is read from a retrieval code manual 3 of a user station A by a scanner 1 and a host computer HC, to which a decoded retrieval logic expression is sent by a communication processing interface CI/F, can extract the technical book data satisfying the conditions of the retrieval logic expression from the technical book data stored in an external storage device 4 or the like. This communication interface CI/F is provided with the communication processing interface IC/F to discriminate the registration of a user ID code transmitted from a communication terminal 2 on the side of the user station A, to receive an electric signal containing the retrieval logic expression and to decode it and the host computer HC for extracting the technical book data coincident with the retrieval logic expression from the external storage device 4 based on this retrieval request.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a public system in which anyone can easily and quickly search for a particular item from the enormous amount of technical literature data stored in a database, and to know the search result quickly. The present invention relates to a technical document search system using a telephone line.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, many technical documents have been accumulated in a computer searchable database,
Various kinds of software have been developed to search for necessary technical documents. However, when searching for technical documents using these search systems, a specific communication terminal such as a computer is used, and a predetermined key is operated according to a predetermined procedure according to the search system (software program). These operating procedures are different for each search system and must be mastered.
In particular, it was troublesome to remember the operation and procedure.

For example, as a database of technical information that is well known today, there is JIST and the like, and Patrice is provided by the Japan Patent Information Organization as a patent search system. Even if you do, you will not be able to do well unless you take the prescribed course.

[0004]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION The present invention was developed in view of the above circumstances in a conventional technical document search system, and its purpose is to provide a specific manual describing a search procedure. With a specific scanner and communication terminal unit on hand, anyone can access the database and retrieve the necessary technical literature data easily and quickly, even without a personal computer or search software. It is an object of the present invention to provide a new technical document search system that can be used.

[0005]

The present invention proposed to achieve the above object has the following constitution.
That is, the first invention constitutes a search kit in which a search code manual is combined with a scanner and a communication terminal unit connected to a public telephone line, and the search code manual includes technical terms, technical categories, and bibliographical information. The search code obtained by encoding the classification information such as items is created by listing the search codes corresponding to the classification information.

One of the communication terminal units reads an electric signal read by a scanner and converted into an electric signal,
It is sent to the communication processing interface on the accessed database side via a public telephone line, and this host computer is requested to search for technical document data containing specified classification information from the technical document data stored in advance as a database. It is configured to (Claim 1).

The second invention has a structure in which a data output device for outputting the retrieved data is provided on the database side (claim 2). The third to sixth aspects further embody individual means constituting the system of the present invention. In the third aspect, since the retrieval code is a barcode, the scanner is a barcode scanner.

Further, in the present invention, the communication control unit sends the electric signal read by the scanner,
A tone signal (DTMF signal), which is widely used for calling an ordinary analog telephone or controlling a teleconverter, is converted and transmitted. According to claim 5, the data output device is received by a normal facsimile device. I am trying to send back possible image data.

Further, in the present invention, the data output device is a PC server that sends back image data that can be received by a personal computer.

[0010]

Operation: According to the first invention system, the database can be accessed and the search command can be issued easily and quickly in the following procedure. That is, on the user station side, open the search code manual and use the scanner to sequentially read the technical fields you want to search, technical terms such as free words, search items such as bibliographic items together with commands,
At this stage, the logical expression required for the search is created.

Thus, when a logical expression for obtaining the technical literature to be searched is created, the database is accessed by the communication terminal unit, and the created logical expression is sent to the communication processing interface on the database side through an ordinary public telephone line. Send. In the second invention system,
Open the search code manual, scan and scan the search code with a scanner, access the database side with the communication terminal unit, and search for the technical literature data using the data output distribution device provided on the database side for normal analog public telephone lines. Will be replied through. The reply of the technical document data by the search data output / distributing device is carried out by so-called online processing within the time when the communication terminal unit provided on the user station side and the communication processing interface on the database side are connected by the public telephone line. However, after the communication terminal unit on the user station side accesses the communication processing interface to issue a search request, the public telephone line is disconnected once, the search on the database side is terminated, and then the user station side It is also possible to perform a so-called off-line process in which the retrieved technical document data is returned after calling the communication terminal unit such as a facsimile provided in the above.

[0012]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of the system of the present invention. The system of the present invention includes a handy type scanner 1, a user station A having a communication terminal unit 2 to which the scanner 1 is connected, and a database station B storing technical literature data, which is a normal analog public telephone line network L.
It is configured by connecting with.

The user station A is provided with a search code manual 3 as will be described later, and the scanner 1 reads the search code necessary for searching the technical documents from the code manual 3. B is provided with a communication processing interface CI / F for receiving and decoding the electric signal transmitted from the user station A through the public telephone line network L, and the retrieval logical expression decoded by this communication processing interface CI / F is used. When sent to the host computer HC, the host computer HC can extract the technical document data satisfying the search logical expression from the technical document data stored in the external storage device 4 such as a magnetic disk.

In this way, the host computer HC
The technical document data retrieved in step S1 is returned to the user station A through the public telephone line network L by the data output distribution device FS or the like installed in the database station B, and the user station A is a facsimile connected to the public telephone line network L. The technical document data is printed out on a recording sheet by a communication terminal device such as the device F or displayed on the display screen of the personal computer PC.

Next, various devices used in the system of the present invention will be described. [Communication Equipment of User Station] In the system of the present invention, the user station side encodes each search item such as a technical field, a technical term, and a bibliographic item as a search code 3a such as a barcode, and searches this search code 3a. A search code manual 3 is prepared, which is listed in a one-to-one correspondence with the items.

It is desirable that the search code manual 3 is also pre-coded with commands for creating a logical expression for search. In such a manual, a predetermined page is simply traced by the scanner 1. , You can create the required search formula. When applied as a patent information search system, the system of the present invention can use an existing database such as Patrice and can search for the following search items.

1) Search by applicant / inventor (applicant / inventor / right holder / agent etc.) 2) Search by various classifications (IPC / facet symbol / J
PC / Design classification / Product classification, etc.) 3) Wide area classification / Search by fixed keyword (wide area classification /
(Fixed keyword) 4) Search by technical terms (free word, abstract, title of invention, etc.) 5) F-term search, FI search 6) Number search (application number, various numbers such as publication number) 7) Related application search (application) Related applications such as division, modification, domestic priority based on the number) 8) Corresponding patent search (corresponding search by country / number such as application data, priority data) 9) Search by date / period designation Shows an example of a search code manual in which patent publications are used as technical document data. This manual only describes the procedure of the IPC classification search to simplify the description, but it goes without saying that it can be implemented with various modifications.

As shown in this example, the search code manual describes various search methods capable of accessing the database in detail together with the procedure, and is "0".
~ All the search items including the data that can be input by the numeric keypad that can be converted into tone signals by ordinary telephones such as numbers from "9", "#", "*", etc. are all in one-to-one correspondence with the barcode 3a. It is listed in correspondence with each other. Note that in FIG. 2, the data that can be input with the ten-key pad is instructed to be input with the ten-key pad, but a barcode for the ten-key pad may be described separately.

In the search code manual 3 as described above,
Applicant, filing date, application number,
In addition to search items such as IPC classification, publication number, and publication number,
The technical terms such as free words and F-terms described in the specification and abstract, technical fields, and commands necessary for logical expressions for search are also represented by the barcode 3a.

FIG. 3 shows an example in which technical classification by F-term is shown as a bar code. One of the scanner 1 and the communication terminal unit 2 is used by being directly connected to a normal analog public telephone line network L in the same manner as a telephone or a facsimile. Such a communication terminal unit 2 is shown in FIG.
As shown in, the handset 21 may be provided on its own, and may be provided with the function of a telephone capable of making a call, or may be connected to the public telephone line L separately from the telephone.

The scanner 1 is only required to be capable of converting the read and scanned bar code 3a into an electric signal and transmitting it to the communication terminal unit 3 when the search item is bar coded. In this case, if the tone signal is used as the electric signal converted by the communication terminal unit 2,
You can use the existing telephone tone generator as is. The scanner 1 and the communication terminal unit 2 may be provided with a memory function, and in such a case, search items are preliminarily read and scanned from the search code manual 3 according to a predetermined search procedure and stored. After that, the communication processing unit CI / F can be called and accessed by the communication terminal unit 2, so that the search operation can be performed more easily.

Further, the scanner 1 and the communication terminal unit 2
In addition to direct connection with a signal line, cordless connection may be made using infrared rays or weak radio waves. In the case of the cordless connection, the scanner 1 can be used at a place distant from the communication terminal unit 2, so that the place for scanning the barcode for searching is not fixed, which is convenient. Further, the same effect can be expected even if the connection is removable with respect to the communication terminal unit 2 instead of the cordless connection.

FIG. 4 shows a method of reading and scanning the search code manual with a scanner. [Communication Equipment of Database Station] In the system of the present invention, the communication processing interface C provided on the database station B side
The I / F discriminates the registration of the user ID code transmitted from the communication terminal unit 2 on the side of the user station A, and when the registration is confirmed, includes the search logical formula transmitted from the user station A together with the command. Based on the communication processing interface CI / F that receives and decodes the electrical signal and the search request that is decoded by this communication processing interface CI / F, the technical document data that matches the search ethics formula is output from the external recording device 4 or the like. And a host computer HC for extracting. The PBX is a private branch exchange,
The FAX OCR inputs a facsimile image to the host computer HC through the analog public telephone line L, and the FAX outputs the image data transmitted from the analog public telephone line L.

Here, the communication processing interface CI /
F determines the registration of the user ID code transmitted from the user station A and the match of the passcodes, confirms the registration of the user ID code, and further determines the match of the passcodes. After the search command signal sent in the form of a tone signal is decoded, it is converted into a binary signal and a search command is issued to the host computer HC. Therefore, at the database station B side, registration of the user ID code and By matching the passwords, the user station A can be charged. As such a communication processing interface CI / F, in addition to having a function of decoding a tone signal transmitted from the user station A, it is desirable to have a function of responding or guiding by a voice message.

For example, a communication processing interface called VPS (manufactured by Perifonic Co., USA) has such a function, and in addition to a system control processor for controlling basic operations, a telephone line control processor and a voice control processor. Since it is configured by combining the processor and the host control processor that performs signal processing between the processor and the host computer, it can be easily incorporated as a communication processing interface of the system of the present invention.

The technical literature data retrieved by the host computer HC is converted into an electric signal according to the type of the communication terminal device installed on the side of the user station A that requested the retrieval and is returned. As the data output distribution device FS used in this case, for example, when the user station A side has a facsimile F, a facsimile server is used,
The facsimile server converts the image data into facsimile receivable image data and sends it back.
When the side is equipped with the personal computer PC, the technical document data retrieved by the host computer HC is returned to the user station A side converted into the receivable data of the personal computer PC.

If the user station A does not have a retrieval data receiving device, the technical literature data retrieved by the host computer HC may be returned by a method such as mailing. Further, in such a system of the present invention, the technical document data to be searched requested by the user station A side is the database station B.
Online processing (accessing the database station B from the user station and returning the technical literature data retrieved from the database station B within the time when the public telephone line L is connected) or offline processing (user station A to database station B) , The public telephone line L is temporarily disconnected after transmitting the search command signal, the database station B decodes the search command signal, searches the designated technical document data, and then the database station B searches the user station A. Access and reply), and the latter offline processing can reduce the call time by telephone.

[0028]

According to the system of the present invention, the following effects, which are not found in the conventional technology retrieval system, are obtained. 1) A search command signal can be sent to the database side by a simple operation of reading and scanning a search code manual with a scanner. Therefore, a person who wants to search a specific technical document only has to open the search code text and trace the corresponding classification information with the scanner, and the troublesome operation of the conventional search system is not necessary.

2) The technical literature data retrieved by the system of the present invention is sent from the database side to a personal computer or FA through an ordinary analog public telephone line.
Since it is transmitted to X or the like, it is not necessary to open a special communication line on the user station side, and if there is an existing analog public telephone line, the host computer of the database station can be easily accessed.

3) In the system of the present invention, a communication command and a logical expression for a search can be automatically created by sequentially reading and scanning the search code written in the search code text with a scanner. A communication terminal device such as a personal computer, which is expensive and cumbersome to operate, and communication software are unnecessary. Therefore, even from home, the large computer of the database station can be directly accessed, and the personal computer can be used for personal use. For this reason, it is possible to use even those who do not have computer operation knowledge.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system diagram showing a schematic configuration of a system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a search code manual (IPC classification search procedure).

FIG. 3 shows an example of a search code manual (F term coding classification).

FIG. 4 is an operation explanatory diagram of the scanner.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... Scanner 2 ... Communication terminal unit 3 ... Search code manual 3a ... Search code (bar code) A ... User station B ... Database station CI / F ... Communication processing interface F: Facsimile FS: Search data output distribution device PC: Personal computer L: Public telephone line

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued Front Page (72) Yuuji Maruyama 5-27-8 Ogikubo, Suginami-ku, Tokyo Inventor Hiroyuki Tech Co., Ltd. 4F, Ogikubo Building (72) Hiroyuki Nakai 1-3-2 Yayogaoka, Mita-shi No. 1209

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A search code manual created by coding search items such as at least technical terms, technical categories, and bibliographic items as a search code, and listing the search codes corresponding to the search items. Scan Code Scans the search code written in the manual and converts it to an electrical signal corresponding to the search item, and sends the electrical signal read by this scanner to the communication processing interface accessed through the public telephone line, For this communication processing interface,
A technical literature search system using a public telephone line, comprising: a communication terminal unit that requests a search for technical literature data including a designated search item from technical literature stored in advance as a database. 2. A search code manual created by encoding search items such as at least technical terms, technical classifications, bibliographic items, and the like, and listing the search codes corresponding to the search items. Search code Scans the search code written in the manual and converts it to an electric signal corresponding to the search item, and sends the electric signal read by this scanner to the accessed host computer through the public telephone line, A communication terminal unit that requests the host computer to search for technical documents containing specified classification information from among technical documents stored in advance as a database, and a database in response to the search request from the communication terminal unit. Search documents that output the technical literature searched from the public telephone line. Technical literature retrieval system using a public telephone line, characterized in that a motor output distributor. 3. The technical literature search system using a public telephone line according to claim 1, wherein the search code is a bar code. 4. The technical literature search system using a public telephone line according to claim 1, wherein the communication terminal unit is configured to transmit an electric signal read by the scanner as a tone signal to the communication processing interface. . 5. The technical document search system using a public telephone line according to claim 1, wherein the data output distribution device is a facsimile server that returns image data that can be received by a normal facsimile device. 6. The technical literature search system using a public telephone line according to claim 1, wherein the data output distribution device is a PC server that returns image data that can be received by a personal computer.