Patent ID: 7590651
Filing Date: 2009-09-15
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A search apparatus comprising: a search object database in which search objects are stored; a simultaneous use frequency memory table in which records are stored, each record including two search conditions that have been simultaneously selected, categories thereof, dates of setting thereof, and at least one of importance of a co-occurrence relationship of said two search conditions and a co-occurrence frequency of said two search conditions; display control means for causing a search condition input support screen and a search result to be displayed on a display device, wherein categories are arranged on one axis and search conditions belonging to each category are arranged along the other axis per category in a two-dimensional arrangement; input means for selecting a search condition by operating the search condition input support screen; an independent use frequency memory table in which a record of a use history of the search condition selected by the input means on the search condition input support screen is stored; calculation means by which, while referring to the independent use frequency memory table, records of search conditions of each category as rearranged according to use dates such that the latest date appears at the top, a likelihood point of each record is calculated with Equation (1) such that a greater point is allocated to a record with a newer date of setting: a sum of likelihood points of each search condition A is calculated as a recommendation level of said condition A with Equation (2): and a ranking of the other search conditions in records extracted from the simultaneous use frequency memory table with respect to the search condition that has been selected on the search condition input support screen by the input means is calculated by referring to the simultaneous use frequency memory table based on the selected search condition, the calculation being based on said at least one of the importance and the co-occurrence frequency and being carried out on a category-by-category basis; and search means for conducting a search in accordance with the search condition selected on the search condition input support screen by the input means, wherein the display control means determines the ranking of a search condition of each category on an initial screen of the search condition input support screen based on the recommendation level of said condition A, and determines a display position for a search condition of each category displayed on the search condition input support screen in accordance with the result of calculation by the calculation means.