JP3465615B2 - Search method and apparatus and recording medium on which the method is programmed and recorded - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for retrieving information exchanged by an unspecified number of users using a communication network such as electronic mail, net news, electronic bulletin boards, etc. Recording medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an information exchange system such as electronic mail, netnews, electronic bulletin boards, etc. exchanged via a communication network, information such as mails and articles (hereinafter collectively referred to as articles) by an unspecified number of users. Are sent to and received from each other, and replies are made in the form of follow referring to the sent information. Since useful information exchanged is reused later, many methods have been devised and put into practical use by devising retrieval methods, automatic classification of information, and display methods.

For example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 9-106331, the reference relations of articles are analyzed and expressed in a tree structure, and a tree that has become a large lump is calculated by a feature function of the articles, so that nodes with large changes are The automatic classification of disconnecting links makes it easy to search by topic.

[0004]

By the way, in the conventional retrieval of articles by keywords, a question and follow-up are combined to form one useful information, as in the case where the article is omitted according to the flow of the story. If it is, the requested information cannot be searched. In addition, if the topic does not change in the middle of the article thread, but if there are some topics such as multiple questions in one article, it is disclosed in JP-A-9-106331. However, there is a problem that the automatic classifier that breaks the link between the nodes that change greatly cannot be used.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above problem. By performing a search in units of threads, it is possible to perform a complete search even when omitted according to the flow of the story. By structuring by combining the reference part and the reply part of an article, even when one article contains a plurality of topics, a search method, device, and method for facilitating retrieval of target information are programmed. It is intended to provide a recording medium for recording and recording.

[0006]

The search method of the present invention refers to an appropriate article from a database in which articles exchanged via a communication medium are stored, and the article referred to becomes a parent. A tree structure is created from the reference relations or the article header and displayed, and when a certain article is specified, the subtree of the article tree structure is extracted with that article as the root, and the reference part and reply part included in that subtree It is characterized in that a citation tree structure is created so that each of them has a parent-child relationship, the reference relationship of articles is displayed as a tree structure, and when a certain article is designated, the citation tree is displayed with the article text as a root. .

The search device of the present invention retrieves an article database in which articles exchanged via a communication medium are stored and an article recorded in the article database, and retrieves the article tree from the reference relation of the article or the header information of the article. The structure is created, the article specified via the article specification input section is retrieved from the article database, and the article tree structure creation section for displaying the article text on the display section and the article specified via the article specification input section are rooted. By specifying that the quotation tree is displayed as, the subtree having the specified article as a root and the articles included in the subtree are extracted from the article tree structure creation unit, and the articles are included in the articles included in the subtree. The quotation tree creation unit that extracts the quotation part and the response part as a pair, generates the quotation tree in which the quotation part is the parent and the response part is the child, and displays it through the display unit. , An article designation input section for designating a desired article to the article tree structure creation section or the citation tree creation section, and the reference relationship of articles are displayed as a tree structure, and when a certain article is designated, And a display unit for displaying a quote tree with the text as a root.

Further, in place of the quotation tree creation unit, there is a quotation tree with sender information for adding information indicating who is the originator when the quotation tree is created, and the quotation tree with sender information is created. When a designation is made to display a citation tree with an article as a root via the article designation input unit, the article tree structure creation unit selects a subtree having the designated article as a root and articles contained in the subtree. From the articles included in the subtree,
The quoted part of the article, the reply part to it, and the speaker name are extracted as a set, the quoted part becomes the parent, the sender and the reply part become the children, and the citation tree with sender information is generated, and it is displayed via the display part. It is also characterized by displaying.

Further, a search condition input unit for inputting search conditions and a thread search unit for searching a subtree satisfying the search conditions from the article tree structure are provided, and the search condition input unit inputs the search conditions. The search condition is transmitted to the thread search unit, and the thread search unit acquires the article tree structure and the article body from the article tree structure creation unit, and corresponds to the root from each article corresponding to the leaf of the article tree structure. The article is extracted as a subtree, a thread file that combines the contents of the article is created, a search is performed for the created thread file, and a subtree corresponding to the searched thread file is searched through the display unit. It is also characterized by displaying as a result. Further, it further comprises a citation tree search unit for searching a subtree that satisfies the search condition from the citation tree, and the citation tree search unit conveys the articles included in the search result to the citation tree creation unit,
For the quotation tree creation part, take out from the leaf part to the root part as a thread of the quotation tree,
Instructing the creation of a citation tree thread file that combines the parts included in the citation tree thread, performs a search for the created citation tree thread file, and from the citation tree thread corresponding to the searched citation tree thread file , It is also characterized by generating a tree structure in which parts of the same article from roots to leaves are shared for the same root, and displaying the same through the display unit.

The recording medium of the present invention is used in an article exchange system in which articles exchanged via a communication medium are transmitted / received to / from each other and a reply is made in the form of a follow referring to the transmitted article. The steps to take out the articles stored in the database at a timing and check the article reference relations or the article header to create a tree structure that makes the referenced article a child of the referenced article, and the created article Receiving the tree structure as information as information and displaying it, receiving an article specified from the displayed tree structure, extracting the specified article from the database, and displaying the article text,
When it is specified to display a citation tree rooted at an article, the step of retrieving the subtree rooted at that article and the articles contained in that subtree, and the symbol indicating the citation included in the text of the article or Using the character string as a clue, extract the citation part of the article and the response part to it from the article included in the subtree, and create a citation tree in which the citation part is the parent and the response part is the child. Receiving and displaying the citation tree structure of the created article is programmed and recorded.

When a quotation tree having an article as a root is designated to be displayed, a step of extracting a subtree having the article as a root and an article included in the subtree and included in the text of the article are included. Using the symbol or character string indicating the quotation and the article header as clues, the quoted part of the article, the reply part to it, and the sender name are extracted as a set from the article included in the subtree, and the quoted part is the parent and sender name. It is also characterized in that the step of creating a citation tree in which the reply portion is a child and the step of receiving and displaying the citation tree structure of the created article are further programmed and recorded.

Further, the step of fetching the input search conditions, the tree structure of the created articles and the contents of the articles are acquired, and the contents from the articles corresponding to the leaves of the tree structure to the articles corresponding to the roots are integrated. Generating a thread file, searching the generated thread file according to the search condition, and receiving a search result to obtain a subtree composed of articles searched from the tree structure of the entire article. The step of displaying is further programmed and recorded.

Further, a step of extracting a subtree including an article which is a search result from the entire article tree structure and creating a citation tree from the subtree including the article, and a citation tree generated based on the retrieval result, A step of creating a quote tree thread file in which the parts corresponding to the leaves of the quote tree to the part corresponding to the root are taken out as threads of the quote tree and the parts included in the thread of the quote tree are combined, and the created quote tree thread file Generate a tree structure that shares the part of the same article from root to leaf regarding the same root from the thread of the cited tree corresponding to the retrieved cited tree thread file. The step of performing and the step of displaying the generated tree structure are further programmed and recorded.

According to the present invention, by performing a search in units of threads, it is possible to search even when omitted according to the flow of the story, and structured by combining the reference part and the reply part of the article. As a result, even when one article includes a plurality of topics, it is possible to easily search for the target information.

[0015]

1 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of a first embodiment of the present invention. Each of the blocks 2 to 5 constituting the search device of the present invention functions in cooperation with hardware whose main control unit is a CPU including a main record and software programmed and recorded in the program recording medium 1, and which will be described later. To execute.

Referring to FIG. 1, the search device of the present invention is
Create a tree structure from the article database (DB2) that stores emails and articles exchanged using communication systems such as email, netnews, and electronic bulletin boards, and the reference relationship of articles so that the referenced articles become parents The article tree structure creation unit 3 and when a certain article is specified, the subtree of the article tree structure is taken out with the article as the root and quoted so that the reference part and the reply part included in the subtree have a parent-child relationship. A citation tree creation unit 6 that creates a tree structure called a tree, an article specification input unit 4 that allows the user to specify an article to the article tree structure creation unit 3 and the citation tree creation unit 6, and a reference structure of articles in a tree structure. The display unit 5 displays a quote tree with the text of the article as a root when a certain article is designated, and the program recording medium 1 in which software is stored. As described above, the program read from the program recording medium 1 controls the entire system by each block such as article tree structure creation, article designation input, and citation tree creation.

The articles recorded in the article DB2 are electronic mails, articles posted on the net news or electronic bulletin boards. It is not limited to electronic mail, net news, and electronic bulletin boards as long as they have a reference relationship or the header information included in an article includes information indicating a parent-child relationship. Here, it is assumed that an article is composed of a header portion and a text body portion, and the identification name of the article and the identification name of the article to be referred to are recorded in the header portion.

The article tree structure creating unit 3 takes out an article recorded in the article DB2 (203) by an instruction from the user or whenever the content of the article DB2 is updated, and creates an article tree structure. Article reference relationships are examined, and an article tree structure is created such that the referencing article is a child of the referenced article. Alternatively, an article tree structure is created by checking the header information of the article. The display unit 5 receives the article tree structure information from the article tree structure creation unit 3 (305), and displays the information using an output device such as a display. The user looks at the tree structure displayed on the display unit 5 and designates an article through the article designation input unit 4. For example, an input device such as a mouse or a keyboard is used, and the article is specified from the tree structure displayed on the display by the display unit 5.

When the user specifies an article via the article specification input section 4, the specified article is transmitted to the article tree structure creating section 3 (403), and the article tree structure creating section 3 reports the specified article to the article. It is taken out from DB2 (203) and transmitted to the display unit 5 (305), and the text of the article is displayed, for example, using the display.

2 to 4 are diagrams quoted for explaining the operation of the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG.
An example of the reference relation of the articles recorded in the above, an example of the articles recorded in the article DB2, and an example of the citation tree are shown. Here, it is assumed that articles 1 to 6 are recorded in the article DB2, and the reference relationship is represented by a tree structure as shown in FIG. The contents of articles 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 are shown in Figure 3.
It looks like this.

In the article given as an example in FIG. 3, the reference part is added with ">" at the beginning of the line. In free format e-mail and netnews, in order to indicate quotations of other mails and articles, for example, a sign indicating a citation is often added to the beginning of a line such as ">" or "|". Quoting may also be indicated by including a line such as "quote from here" before starting the citation. When quoting other articles, information indicating some citation is often added in this way. The article tree structure creation unit 3 uses the header information of the article when it is available, and when it is not available, searches the citation relationship based on the information indicating that the article is cited and creates the article tree structure.

Articles 1 to 6 are retrieved from the article DB2 (20
3), the tree structure created by the article tree structure creating unit 3 is transmitted to the display unit 5 (305) and is displayed as shown in FIG. The operation when the user designates to display the quotation tree with the article 1 as the root from the article designation input unit 4 will be described. The user specifies from the article specification input unit 4 to display the citation tree with the article 1 as the root, for example, as follows.

In the article tree structure displayed on the display by the display unit 5, the user designates the article 1 using an input device such as a mouse, a pen, or a keyboard, and the "quote tree" displayed on the screen is displayed. Select "Display".
The text of the article and the citation tree may be displayed at the same time only by the user designating the article. Also, using a two-button mouse, if the article is specified using the left mouse button, the text of the article is displayed, and if the article is specified using the right button, the quote tree is displayed. May be.

When the user specifies from the article specification input unit 4 to display a citation tree with the article 1 as a root, the citation tree creation unit 6 is informed that the designated article is the article 1 (40
6). The citation tree creation unit 6 extracts from the article tree structure creation unit 3 the subtree rooted at article 1 and the articles contained in that subtree.
(306). The subtree extracted when article 1 is specified consists of articles 1, 3, 4, and 5.

The citation tree creation unit 6 extracts a citation portion of an article and a response portion to the citation portion from an article included in a subtree by using a symbol or a character string representing a citation included in the text of the article as a clue. To do. A quoting tree is generated with the quoted part as the parent and the reply part as the child. Since article 1 is the root, the entire body of article 1 is the root of the citation tree. From article 3, the quoted part "> I can't recognize the video card connected to AGP", ">What'swrong?" And the reply part "AGP card is prone to poor contact." , The quoted part "> Is the motherboard and video card incompatible?" And the reply part "It seems to be few these days." Are extracted.

[0026] From article 4, a set of quoted parts "> AGP connection video card is not recognized""> What is wrong?" And its reply part "Is the clock up?" To be extracted. From article 5, the quoted part "> AG
P cards are prone to poor contact. "And the reply part" This was the cause. It was recognized to resend. "The pair is extracted.

When a tree structure is created so that the quoted part is the parent and the reply part is the child, "AGP-connected video card is not recognized.""What'swrong?""AGP cards are prone to poor contact." And "Isn't the clock up?" Are the children, and "Are the motherboards and video cards incompatible?" There seems to be few. "Becomes a child. In addition, "AGP card is prone to poor contact" is the parent, and "This was the cause. It was recognized that I should replace it." Becomes the child, and the quotation tree as a whole is shown in Fig. 4. Like

When the citation tree is created by the citation tree creation unit 6, it is transmitted to the display unit 5 (605), and the citation tree is displayed on the display unit 5. By designating an article and displaying the quote tree corresponding to that article, the user can see the dialogues ahead of the designated article in a list and display the article text one after another to follow the flow of the dialogue. No need to switch. Further, even when one article includes a plurality of topics, since it is displayed as a branch of a citation tree, it is easy to search for the target information.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the functional arrangement of the second embodiment of the present invention. In the second embodiment, sender information, in which information indicating who is the sender is added when the quotation tree is created, instead of the quotation tree creation unit 6 that is a component of the first embodiment shown in FIG. It has an attached quotation tree creation unit 7.
The operation of the second embodiment centered on the sender information-attached quotation tree creating unit 7 will be described below.

Similar to the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, articles 1 to 6
It is assumed that the above are recorded in the article DB2, and the reference relationship is expressed in a tree structure as shown in FIG. The contents of articles 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 are as shown in FIG.

If the user designates from the article designation input unit 4 to display a citation tree with the article 1 as a root, the citation tree with sender information indicates that the designated article is article 1.
(407). The citation tree with sender information creating unit 7 extracts from the article tree structure creating unit 3 a subtree whose root is article 1 and articles contained in the subtree (307).

The subtree extracted when article 1 is specified is composed of articles 1, 3, 4, and 5. The citation tree with sender information creation unit 7 extracts, from the articles included in the subtree, a citation portion of the article, a response portion to the article, and a sender name as a set, and the citation portion is a parent, and the sender name and the response portion are children. And generate a citation tree. The sender name of the article is acquired from the header information of the article. Alternatively, in an electronic bulletin board or the like used only in the company, it may be arranged such that the sender name of the article is written in the first line of the article, and the sender name of the article is acquired. For example, assume that there is an agreement that the first line of the article ends with ".." and before ".." is the sender name.

Since article 1 is the root, the sender name "Suzuki" and the text of article 1 are all roots of the quote tree. From article 3, the quoted part "> The video card connected to AGP is not recognized.""> What is wrong?" And the sender name "Sato" and the reply part "The AGP card has poor contact. It's easy. ”And the quoted part“> Is the motherboard and video card not compatible? ”And the sender name“ Sato ”and the reply part“ It seems to be few these days. ”Are extracted. . From article 4, the quoted part "> I can't recognize the video card connected to AGP", ">What'swrong?" And the sender name "Yamamoto" and the reply part "Is the clock up? , ”Are extracted. Article 5
From the above, a pair of the quoted portion "> AGP card is apt to have poor contact", the sender name "Suzuki" and the reply portion "This was the cause. Recognized to resend." Was extracted. It

If a tree structure is created so that the quoted part is the parent and the speaker name and the reply part are the children, the "AGP connection video card is not recognized" and "What is wrong" part As parents, the group of "Sato""AGP cards are apt to have poor contact." And "Yamamoto""Is the clock up?" Became a child, and "the compatibility of the motherboard and the video card is bad.""?" And "Sato" and "It seems to be few these days." Become children. Also, "AGP cards are prone to poor contact" is the parent, and "Suzuki""This was the cause. It was recognized to resend." Became the child, and the quotation tree as a whole It becomes like FIG. FIG. 6 shows an example of a citation tree with sender information according to the present invention.

When a quote tree is created in the quote tree with sender information, the display section 5 is notified (705) and the display section is displayed.
In 5, the quotation tree with sender information is displayed. Further, instead of displaying the sender name, an icon corresponding to the speaker may be displayed, or the content of the comment may be displayed in different colors for each sender.

By displaying the quotation tree with the sender's information added, it becomes easier to follow the flow of the dialogue, and it can be used as information for the user to judge the reliability of the utterance content.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing the functional arrangement of the third embodiment of the present invention. As is apparent from the figure, in the third embodiment, in addition to the constituent elements of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, a search condition input unit 8 for inputting a search condition and a subtree satisfying the search condition from the article tree structure are provided. A thread search unit 9 for searching is added.

The operation of the third embodiment will be described below centering on the search condition input unit 8 and the thread search unit 9. Similar to the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, it is assumed that articles 1 to 6 are recorded in the article DB 2 and the reference relationship thereof is represented by a tree structure as shown in FIG. Also, article 1,
It is assumed that the contents of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 are as shown in FIG.

It is assumed that the search condition input unit 8 inputs as a search condition that the two keywords "AGP" and "cause" are included. The search condition may be input by combining some keywords with logical symbols such as AND and OR. Alternatively, search conditions may be input in natural language, and keywords may be extracted from the search conditions by morphological analysis or semantic analysis and logically combined.
You may convert the input keyword using a synonym or a thesaurus dictionary.

When the search condition is input, the search condition input section
The search condition is transmitted from 8 to the thread search unit 9 (809).
The thread search unit 9 acquires information on the article tree structure and the content of the article from the article tree structure creation unit 3 (309). The thread search unit 9 creates a thread file that combines the contents from each article that is the leaf of the article tree structure to the article that is the root.

In the case of the tree structure as shown in FIG. 2, article 1,
Three thread files are generated: a thread file combining the contents of 3 and 5, a thread file combining the contents of articles 1 and 4, and a thread file combining the contents of articles 2 and 6. The structure of each thread file is as shown in FIG.

The thread search unit 9 searches the generated thread file with the search condition transmitted from the search condition input unit 8. If you search the generated 3 thread files for those that include the two keywords "AGP" and "cause", only the thread files that combine the contents of articles 1, 3, and 5 will be searched. The thread search unit 9 transmits the search result to the display unit 5 (905), and the display unit 5 displays the search result as a tree structure. If the search result is a thread file that combines the contents of articles 1, 3, and 5, the subtree consisting of articles 1, 3, and 5 is displayed as the search result from the tree structure of the entire article. .

In the conventional search for individual articles, for example, in the search for an article containing two keywords “AGP” and “cause” at the same time, there is no article containing two keywords at the same time, so no articles are searched. In addition, when searching for articles that include either of the two keywords "AGP" and "cause", articles such as article 4, in addition to articles 1, 3, and 5, will be searched. I can't collapse. In the third embodiment shown in FIG. 7, articles are combined for each subtree and searched, so that a plurality of articles may be combined and have meaning, or omitted according to the flow of the story. Even if the question and the follow are combined into one useful information, as in the case, it is possible to search without exception.

When the search condition is to include the keyword “AGP”, the thread search unit 9 similarly sets
Two thread files are created, and the thread file in which the contents of articles 1, 3, and 5 are combined and the thread file in which the contents of articles 1 and 4 are combined are transmitted to the display unit 5 as search results (905). In the display unit 5, there are a plurality of thread files of search results, and those having the same root are expressed as a tree structure in which the same article part from the root to the leaf is shared. Article 1,
In the thread files of 3 and 5 and the thread files of articles 1 and 4, the portion of the same article from the root to the leaf is the portion of article 1, so the tree structure in which article 1 is shared is displayed as shown in FIG. FIG. 9 shows an example of a tree structure which is a search result according to the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing the functional arrangement of the fourth embodiment of the present invention. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 10, a citation tree search unit 10 for searching a subtree satisfying a search condition from a citation tree is added to the constituent elements of the third embodiment shown in FIG.

The operation of the fourth embodiment will be described below centering on the quotation tree search unit 10. Similar to the third embodiment, articles
Assume that articles 1 to 6 are recorded in the article DB2, and the reference relationship is represented by a tree structure as shown in FIG. The contents of articles 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 are as shown in FIG.

It is assumed that the search condition input unit 8 has entered as a search condition that the two keywords "AGP" and "cause" are included. As described in the third embodiment, the thread search unit 9 searches for a thread file in which the contents of articles 1, 3, and 5 are combined. The search result is transmitted to the display unit 5 (905), and the search result is displayed as a tree structure on the display unit 5. Also, at the same time as being transmitted to the display unit 5,
Articles included in the search condition and the search result are also transmitted to the citation tree search unit 10 (9010). In this case, the fact that the two keywords “AGP” and “cause” are included is transmitted as a search condition, and articles 1, 3, and 5 are transmitted as articles included in the search results.

The citation tree search unit 10 informs the citation tree creation unit 6 that the articles included in the search result are articles 1, 3, and 5 (1
006). The citation tree creation unit 6 queries the article tree structure creation unit 3 and extracts a subtree including articles 1, 3, and 5 from the article tree structure.
(306), create a citation tree from subtrees containing articles 1, 3, and 5. The created citation tree is transmitted to the citation tree search unit 6 (60
Ten).

The quotation tree search unit 10 extracts, from the quotation tree generated from the retrieval result, the portion from the leaf to the root of the quotation tree as a thread of the quotation tree and combines the portions included in the thread of the quotation tree. Create a tree thread file. For example, for the citation trees generated from articles 1, 3, and 5, citation tree threads are created as shown in FIG. 11, and corresponding citation tree thread files are created. FIG. 11 shows an example of a quote tree thread and a quote tree thread file.

The citation tree search unit 10 searches the citation tree thread file under the search conditions transmitted from the thread search unit 9. In the case of the search condition that includes the two keywords "AGP" and "cause", the quotation tree thread file "It is Suzuki. This was the cause. It was recognized to resend." Is searched.

When the quote tree thread file is searched,
From the thread of the searched quote tree thread file, a tree structure in which the parts of the same article from the root to the leaves are shared if the threads with the same root are shared. As shown in FIG. 11, the search condition includes two keywords “AGP” and “cause”.
In the case of the quote tree thread and the quote tree thread file as described above, since there is no search result sharing a root, a tree structure is generated as shown in FIG. FIG. 12 shows an example of a citation tree created from the search results. The tree structure shown in FIG. 12 generated by the quotation tree search unit 10 is transmitted to the display unit 5 (1005) and displayed to the user as a search result.

According to the fourth embodiment, it is possible to perform a search even when the search keyword is dispersed among a plurality of articles included in the thread, such as a question and a follow-up to it.
Further, even when the thread includes a plurality of topics, only the conversation that the user wants to search can be extracted, so that the accuracy of the search can be improved. When the search condition is to include the keyword “AGP”, the thread search unit 9 combines the contents of articles 1, 3 and 5 into a thread file and the contents of articles 1 and 4 into a thread file. Is transmitted to the display unit 5 as a search result (90
Five).

Thread files for Articles 1, 3, and 5 and Article 1,
In the thread file of 4, since the part of the same article from the root to the leaf is the part of article 1, it is displayed as a tree structure sharing article 1 as shown in FIG. Thread search section 9
At the same time that the search result is transmitted from the display unit 5 to the display unit 5, the thread search unit 9 transmits the search condition and the article included in the search result to the quotation tree search unit 10 (9010). The keyword "AGP" is included as the search condition, and articles 1, 3, 4, and 5 are transmitted as the articles included in the search result. The quotation tree search unit 10
The quotation tree creation unit 6 is notified that the articles included in the search result are articles 1, 3, 4, and 5 (1006).

The quotation tree creating unit 6 inquires of the article tree structure creating unit 3 to extract a subtree including articles 1, 3, 4, and 5 from the article tree structure (306), and includes articles 1, 3, 4, and 5. Create a citation tree from subtrees. The created citation tree is transmitted to the citation tree search unit (6010).

Depending on the search condition, the subtree may be divided into a plurality without sharing the root. In this example, the subtrees share the roots, but if the subtrees do not share the roots, the citation tree may not share the roots and may be divided into a plurality. The quotation tree search unit 10 extracts, from the quotation tree generated from the search result, from the leaf portion to the root portion of the quotation tree as a quotation tree thread, and combines the portions included in the quotation tree thread into a quotation tree thread file. To create.

When there are a plurality of roots, the thread of the quotation tree is extracted for each root. For example, for a quote tree generated from articles 1, 3, 4, and 5, a thread for a quote tree is created as shown in FIG. 13, and a quote tree thread file is created. FIG. 13 shows an example of a quote tree thread and a quote tree thread file. The citation tree search unit 10 searches the citation tree thread file under the search condition transmitted from the thread search unit 9.

[0057] In the case of the search condition including the keyword "AGP", "It is Suzuki. This was the cause. It was recognized that I would send it again." And "I'm Suzuki. Is the clock up? The two quote tree thread files of "" are searched. When the quotation tree thread file is searched, a thread structure having the same root shares a part of the same article from the root to the leaf from the thread of the quotation tree corresponding to the searched quotation tree thread file. With the search condition including the keyword “AGP”, in the case of the quote tree thread and the quote tree thread file as shown in FIG. 13,
The root part of "I'm Suzuki. What's wrong?" Is shared, and a tree structure is generated as shown in FIG. 14
Shows an example of a citation tree created from the search results. The tree structure shown in FIG. 14 generated by the quotation tree search unit 10 is transmitted to the display unit 5 (1005) and displayed to the user as a search result.

The above-described embodiments of the present invention are intended to improve the ease of retrieving information at the time of reuse, such as e-mail, internet news, mails and articles exchanged via communication media such as electronic bulletin boards. It is made by the concrete, and is specifically realized as a browser.
It is supplied to the user by being recorded as a program on a recording medium such as a floppy disk or a hard disk, or by being down-line loaded via a communication line.

[0059]

As described above, according to the present invention, a search is performed in units of threads, so that even if omitted according to the flow of the story, the search can be performed without fail.
Further, by structuring the reference part and the reply part of the article as a set, the retrieval of the target information is facilitated even when one article includes a plurality of topics.

According to the present invention, by designating an article and displaying the quotation tree corresponding to the article, it is possible to view the dialogues ahead of the designated article in a list, and to follow the flow of the dialogue. There is no need to switch the display of the article text one after another. Further, even when one article includes a plurality of topics, since it is displayed as a branch of a citation tree, it is easy to search for target information. Furthermore, by displaying the quotation tree with the information of the speaker added, it becomes easier to follow the flow of the dialogue, and it can be used as information for the user to judge the reliability of the content of the statement.

By combining articles for each subtree and performing a search, a question may be asked, such as when a plurality of articles are combined and have meaning, or when the articles are omitted according to the flow of the story. Even if the following and the follow are combined into one useful information, it is possible to search without exception. By using the citation tree, you can search even if the search keyword is distributed among multiple articles included in the thread, such as a question and follow, and if multiple topics are included in the thread. However, since the user can extract only the dialogues that he / she wants to search, the accuracy of the search can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of reference relationships of articles recorded in an article DB according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of an article recorded in an article DB according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a citation tree according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a citation tree with sender information according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a thread file according to the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a fruit of a tree structure as a search result according to the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a quote tree thread and a quote tree thread file according to the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of a quotation tree created from search results according to the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a quote tree thread and a quote tree thread file according to the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an example of a quotation tree created from search results according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Program recording medium, 2 ... Article DB, 3 ... Article tree structure creating section, 4 ... Article designation input section, 5 ... Display section, 6 ... Quote tree creating section, 7 ... Quote tree creating section with sender information, 8 ... Search condition input section, 9 ... Thread search section, 10 ... Quote tree search section

Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-9-106331 (JP, A) JP-A-9-231040 (JP, A) Kusui Univ., Yoshihide Ishiguro, Toshiaki Miyashita, Visualization of dialogue structure on electronic bulletin board system , Proc. Of IPSJ 55th Annual Conference (4), September 26, 1997, pp.135-136 Satoshi Sato, Rifumi Sato, Automatic packaging of net news stories , IPSJ Transactions, June 15, 1997, Vol. 38, No. 6, pp. 1225-2134 (58) Fields surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 17/20-17/27 G06F 17/30 G06F 13/00 JISST file (JOIS)

Claims (7)

(57) [Claims] 1. Articles exchanged via a communication medium are stored.
Refer to the appropriate article from the database
Article reference relationships or article
A tree structure is created from the header and displayed. When an article is specified, the article tree is taken as the root of that article.
Take out a subtree of the structure and refer to it
Create a quotation tree structure so that the minutes and the reply part have a parent-child relationship
And displaying the reference relationship of articles as a tree structure
When is specified, the quoted tree with the article text as the root
Is displayed, the tree structure of the article and the article body are extracted, each article corresponding to the leaf of the article tree structure to the article corresponding to the root is extracted as a subtree, and a thread file that combines the content of the articles is generated. in search how to and displaying the subtree to satisfy the condition by searching according to the specified search condition generated threaded file. 2. A quotation tree obtained by extracting, from a quotation tree generated from a search result, a portion corresponding to a leaf of a quotation tree to a portion corresponding to a root as a thread of the quotation tree and combining portions included in the thread of the quotation tree. generating a thread file search method of claim 1, wherein the displaying the subtree to satisfy the condition by searching in accordance retrieval condition designated the reference tree thread file generated here. 3. Articles exchanged via communication media are stored.
Retrieved article database and articles recorded in the article database,
From the reference relation or the header information of the article,
Create and write the article specified via the article specification input section
Retrieved from the article database, article books via the display
An article tree structure creation unit that displays sentences and a citation tree that is rooted at an article via the article specification input unit
By specifying that the article tree structure creation unit
To the subtree rooted at the specified article and its subtree
Take out the included articles and write from the articles included in the subtree.
Extracting a quoted part of a thing and a reply part to it as a set
And the citation tree is such that the citation part is the parent and the reply part is the child.
The citation tree generation unit that generates and displays it via the display unit and the citation tree structure generation unit or the citation tree generation unit.
Article reference input section that specifies the desired article and the article reference relationship
Is displayed as a tree structure and an article is specified.
When, the display that displays the quote tree with the text of the article as the root
A Department, a search condition input unit search criteria is input, and a thread search unit that searches the subtree that satisfies the search condition from the article tree structure, which is input through the search condition input unit search The condition is transmitted to the thread search unit, and the thread search unit acquires the article tree structure and the article body from the article tree structure creation unit,
From the articles corresponding to the leaves of the article tree structure to the articles corresponding to the root are extracted as a subtree, a thread file that combines the contents of the articles is generated, and the generated thread file is searched to find search device you said corresponding subtree threaded file to be displayed as a search result through the display unit has. 4. The thread search unit, when there are a plurality of search results, those having the same root are represented as a tree structure in which parts of the same article from the root to the leaves are shared and displayed via the display unit. The search device according to claim 3, wherein: 5. A citation tree search unit for searching a citation tree for a subtree satisfying a search condition, wherein the citation tree search unit notifies an article included in a search result to a citation tree creation unit, The creation part is instructed to take out the part from the leaf of the quote tree to the part that is the root as a thread of the quote tree, create a quote tree thread file that combines the parts included in the thread of the quote tree, and create the quote tree thread. A search is performed on the file, and from the thread of the searched citation tree thread corresponding to the searched file, a tree structure is created in which the parts of the same article from the root to the leaves regarding the same root are shared and generated. The search device according to claim 3 , wherein the search device is displayed via. 6. Articles exchanged via a communication medium are mutually exclusive.
For the sent and received articles, the fo
Used in the article exchange system where replies are made in the form of law
Articles stored in the database at any time
To retrieve the article reference relationship or the article header
The child of the article referenced by the reference
And a step to create a tree structure that will become, and receive and display the created tree structure as data
And the step of receiving the article specified from the displayed tree structure.
And the specified article from the database
When the step to display a sentence and the specification to display a citation tree rooted at an article are specified
Subtree rooted at the article and included in the subtree
The step or steps to retrieve the article and a symbol or character string indicating the citation included in the body of the article
From the article included in the subtree, with the clue
Minutes and response parts are extracted as a set and quoted
Creates a quotation tree in which minutes are parents and response parts are children.
Steps to receive and display the step and the citation tree structure of the created article
When the thread file the steps of capturing a search condition, and acquires the contents of the tree structure and articles of articles created and merge them, from the article corresponding to the leaves of the tree structure in the article corresponding to the root input Generating a thread file, performing a search on the generated thread file according to the search condition, and receiving a search result and displaying a subtree composed of the searched articles from the tree structure of the entire article. and Gapu program is recorded computer-readable recording medium. 7. A step of extracting a subtree containing an article that is a search result from the entire article tree structure, creating a citation tree from the subtree containing the article, and a citation tree generated based on the search result, A step of creating a quote tree thread file in which the parts corresponding to the leaves of the quote tree to the part corresponding to the root are taken out as threads of the quote tree, and the parts included in the thread of the quote tree are combined, and the created quote tree thread file. Generate a tree structure that shares the part of the same article from root to leaf regarding the same root from the thread of the cited tree corresponding to the retrieved cited tree thread file. 7. The computer-readable product of claim 6, further comprising: a step of displaying and a step of displaying the generated tree structure. Possible recording medium.