Abstract:
A non-transitory computer readable medium stores a program causing a computer to execute a process including receiving input of a character for searching search-target information, searching, on a basis of the received character, an attribute value associated with the search-target information, and outputting, as a result of a search, a content of a matching attribute value and a degree of relevance between the received character and the content of the matching attribute value, as a list for each attribute value corresponding to the received character.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This application is based on and claims priority under 35 USC 119 from PCT International Application No. PCT/JP2013/065807 filed Jun. 7, 2013. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND 
     Technical Field 
       [0002]    The present invention relates to a non-transitory computer readable medium, an information retrieving apparatus, and an information retrieving method. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0003]    According to an aspect of the invention, there is provided a non-transitory computer readable medium storing a program causing a computer to execute a process including receiving input of a character for searching search-target information, searching, on a basis of the received character, an attribute value associated with the search-target information, and outputting, as a result of a search, a content of a matching attribute value and a degree of relevance between the received character and the content of the matching attribute value, as a list for each attribute value corresponding to the received character. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0004]    Exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail based on the following figures, wherein: 
           [0005]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of an information retrieving apparatus; 
           [0006]      FIG. 2  is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of attribute information; 
           [0007]      FIG. 3  is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of a search screen displayed on a display; 
           [0008]      FIG. 4  is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of a search screen displayed on the display after a search string is input; 
           [0009]      FIG. 5  is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of a search screen displayed on the display after an additional search string is input; and 
           [0010]      FIG. 6  is a flowchart for explaining an example of operation of the information retrieving apparatus. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Configuration of Information Retrieving Apparatus 
       [0011]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of an information retrieving apparatus  1 . 
         [0012]    The information retrieving apparatus  1  includes a controller  10 , a memory  11 , an operation unit  12 , and a display  13  such as a liquid crystal display. The controller  10  includes a central processing unit (CPU) and the like, controls components, and executes various programs. The memory  11  includes a recording medium such as a hard disk drive (HDD) or a flash memory, exemplifying a storage device in which information is stored. The operation unit  12  includes a keyboard, a touch panel, and the like for an inputting operation. 
         [0013]    The controller  10  executes an information retrieving program  110  (described later) to thereby function as a search-string-input receiving unit  100 , a search-string parsing unit  101 , a search-formula generating unit  102 , an attribute-information searching unit  103 , a listed-information output unit  104 , a search-target-information searching unit  105 , a search-result output unit  106 , and the like. 
         [0014]    The search-string-input receiving unit  100  receives a search string that is input via operation unit  12 . Although the search string may be a word, a case where a natural sentence is input will be described in the present exemplary embodiment. 
         [0015]    The search-string parsing unit  101  performs morphological analysis on the search string received by the search-string-input receiving unit  100  and extracts a keyword, a date-and-time designation expression, a logical operation expression, and the like. 
         [0016]    The search-formula generating unit  102  generates a search formula on the basis of a result of the parsing performed by the search-string parsing unit  101 . How to generate the search formula will be described later. 
         [0017]    The attribute-information searching unit  103  searches attribute information  112  for a category and a keyword by using the search formula generated by the search-formula generating unit  102 , the attribute information  112  being attribute values of search-target information  111 . 
         [0018]    The listed-information output unit  104  outputs to the display  13  a result of a search performed by the attribute-information searching unit  103 , as listed information including the category, the keyword, the number of retrieved information pieces, and the like. 
         [0019]    The search-target-information searching unit  105  searches the search-target information  111  by using the search formula generated by the search-formula generating unit  102 . 
         [0020]    The search-result output unit  106  outputs to the display  13  documents and the like retrieved from the search-target information  111 , as a result of a search performed by the search-target-information searching unit  105 . 
         [0021]    The information retrieving program  110 , the search-target information  111 , the attribute information  112 , and the like are stored in the memory  11 . 
         [0022]    The information retrieving program  110  is a program causing the controller  10  to operate as the aforementioned units  100  to  106 . 
         [0023]    The search-target information  111  is information to be searched by the search-target-information searching unit  105  and is document information including text information, image information, audio information, moving image information, and the like. The type of information is not particularly limited. 
         [0024]    The attribute information  112  includes attribute values each associated with a piece of search-target information  111 . One or multiple keywords are registered in advance in each of the categories. 
         [0025]    Note that the information retrieving apparatus  1  is, for example, a personal computer. A mobile phone, a tablet terminal, or the like may also be used. 
         [0026]    In addition, the controller  10  and the memory  11  may form a server apparatus in which the operation unit  12  and the display  13  are not included, the server apparatus operating in response to a request from an external terminal. 
         [0027]    In addition, multiple server apparatuses may be used to form the controller  10  and the memory  11 , the server apparatuses operating in response to a request from an external terminal. 
         [0028]      FIG. 2  is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of the attribute information  112 . 
         [0029]    Attribute information  112   a  has multiple categories  1120 , and keywords  1121  are registered in the categories  1120 . Note that one or multiple keywords  1121  are registered in each category  1120 . 
       Operation of Information Retrieving Apparatus 
       [0030]    Next, effects of the present exemplary embodiment will be described separately for (1) a basic operation, (2) a search preparation operation, and (3) a search operation. 
       (1) Basic Operation 
       [0031]    A user of the information retrieving apparatus  1  first registers multiple pieces of search-target information  111  in the memory  11  by using the information retrieving apparatus  1  or an external information processing apparatus and registers pieces of attribute information  112  in association with the respective pieces of search-target information  111 . 
       (2) Search Preparation Operation 
       [0032]    Next, the user of the information retrieving apparatus  1  operates the information retrieving apparatus  1  via operation unit  12  to search the search-target information  111  registered in advance for a desired information piece. 
         [0033]    In response to the user operation, the information retrieving apparatus  1  displays a search screen  130   a  for searching the search-target information  111  (described below). 
         [0034]      FIG. 3  is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of the search screen  130   a  displayed on the display  13 . 
         [0035]    The search screen  130   a  has a search-formula input field  1300  for inputting a search formula, a search-string input field  1301  for inputting a search string, a search button  1302  for executing searching of the search-target information  111 , category displaying regions  1303   a  to  1303   c  in which category names in the attribute information  112  are listed and displayed, and search-result displaying regions  1304   a  to  1304   d  in which the attribute information  112  corresponding to the search-target information  111  retrieved as a result of a search is partially displayed in a simplified manner. 
         [0036]    The user operates the operation unit  12  to input a search string in a search-string input field  1301  on the search screen  130   a.    
         [0037]      FIG. 6  is a flowchart for explaining an example of operation of the information retrieving apparatus  1 . 
         [0038]    The search-string-input receiving unit  100  of the information retrieving apparatus  1  receives input of a search string in response to a user operation (S 1 ). 
         [0039]      FIG. 4  is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of a search screen  130   b  displayed on the display  13  after the search string is input. 
         [0040]    As illustrated in  FIG. 4 , upon inputting “sengetsu no project” (last month&#39;s project) into the search-string input field  1301 , the search-string-input receiving unit  100  receives the text. 
         [0041]    Next, if a predetermined time of, for example, one second elapses after input of the search string (S 2 ; YES), the search-string parsing unit  101  performs a morphological analysis on the search string “sengetsu no project” (S 3 ), extracts “project” as a category (S 4 ), and extracts “sengetsu” (last month) as a date-and-time designation expression (S 5 ). Note that when the morphological analysis is performed, the search-string parsing unit  101  extracts in advance as words categories and keywords included in the attribute information  112 . If any matching word exists, the word is utilized and assigned a part of speech. 
         [0042]    Note that inputting a further search string into the search-string input field  1301  leads to another search screen as described below. 
         [0043]      FIG. 5  is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of a search screen  130   c  displayed on the display  13  after an additional search string is input. 
         [0044]    As illustrated in  FIG. 5 , upon inputting “sengetsu no project ABCD ni kansuru kaigi no sankasha ga Suzuki-san” (an attendee of a meeting regarding last month&#39;s project ABCD is Suzuki-san) into the search-string input field  1301 , the search-string-input receiving unit  100  receives the text. 
         [0045]    From the search string, the search-string parsing unit  101  extracts “project”, “kaigi” (meeting), and “sankasha” (attendee) as categories and “ABCD” and “Suzuki-san” as keywords (S 4 ). 
         [0046]    The search-string parsing unit  101  also extracts “no”, “ni kansuru” and “ga” as logical operation expressions (S 6 ). 
         [0047]    In addition, for example, in a case where the search string is incompletely input as “sengetsu no pro”, the search-string-input receiving unit  100  infers as a candidate a category or a keyword that matches the last word “pro” by right truncation (S 7 ). In this case, “project” exists in category names, and thus the search-string-input receiving unit  100  infers “project” from “pro”. The inferred word is processed in steps S 3  to S 6 . 
         [0048]    Next, the search-formula generating unit  102  generates a search formula by using the keywords, the categories, the date-and-time designation expression, and the logical operation expressions that are extracted in steps S 4  to S 7  described above and outputs the search formula (S 8 ). 
         [0049]    In the example described above, the search formula is generated in the following manner. In a case where the current month is October 2012, ‘kaishi nichiji: [“2012-09-01T00:00:00Z” TO “2012-09-30T23:59:59Z”]’ (kaishi nichiji means start date and time) is generated from the date-and-time designation expression “sengetsu”. In addition, ‘project: “ABCD”’ is generated from the category “project” and the keyword “ABCD”, ‘sankashamei: “Suzuki”’ (sankashamei means the name of an attendee) is generated from a category “sankashamei” and the keyword “Suzuki-san”, and “AND” serving as the logical operation expression is used for “no”, “ni kansuru”, and “ga” to connect the words. 
         [0050]    In addition, as the logical operation expression, “OR” is generated from “matawa” (or) and the like, and “NOT” is generated from “dewanai” (not) and the like. Moreover, in a case where a person&#39;s name such as “Sato-san” is input, the category is “sankasha”. However, in a case where “Sato-san ga tsukutta” (Sato-san made) is input, the category may be “tourokusha” (registering person) in consideration of the context “ga tsukutta”. 
         [0051]    Next, the attribute-information searching unit  103  performs a search to retrieve a piece of search-target information  111  by using each category and the keyword belonging to the category on the basis of the search formula (S 9 ). The attribute-information searching unit  103  displays, on the search screen  130   b  or  130   c , listed information  1305   b  or  1305   c  illustrated in  FIG. 4  or  FIG. 5  as well as the number of information pieces matching as a result of searching (S 10 ). 
         [0052]    In the listed information  1305   b  illustrated in  FIG. 4 , the number of information pieces matching a keyword “2012-09-10 TO 04:30:00Z” in the category “kaishi nichiji” is “2”, the number of information pieces matching a keyword “2012-09-03 TO 04:30:00Z” is “1”, the number of information pieces matching a keyword “2012-09-11 TO 06:30:00Z” is “1”, the number of information pieces matching a keyword “2012-09-19 TO 04:30:00Z” is “1”, and the number of information pieces matching a keyword “2012-09-20 TO 01:00:00Z” is “1”. 
         [0053]    In addition, the number of information pieces matching the keyword “ABCD” in the category “project” is “7”, the number of information pieces matching a keyword “EF” is “6”, and the number of information pieces matching a keyword “GHIJ” is “3”. 
         [0054]    The listed information  1305   c  illustrated in  FIG. 5  exhibits changes in comparison with the listed information  1305   b  illustrated in  FIG. 4 , because an additional string is input. The number of information pieces matching the keyword “2012-09-11 TO 06:30:00Z” in the category “kaishi nichiji” is “1”, the number of information pieces matching the keyword “2012-09-19 TO 04:30:00Z” is “1”, the number of information pieces matching the keyword “2012-09-20 TO 01:00:00Z” is “1”, the number of information pieces matching a keyword “2012-09-26 TO 04:30:00Z” is “1”, and the number of information pieces matching a keyword “2012-09-26 TO 06:00:00Z” is “1”. 
         [0055]    There are also changes in which the number of information pieces matching the keyword “ABCD” in the category “project” is “5”, in which the number of information pieces matching the keyword “GHIJ” is “2”, and in which the number of information pieces matching the keyword “EF” is “1”. 
         [0056]    Further, “sankashamei” is added as a category, the number of information pieces matching a keyword “Ao Aida” is “5”, the number of information pieces matching a keyword “Byuki Ikeda” is “5”, the number of information pieces matching a keyword “Cko Ueda” is “4”, the number of information pieces matching a keyword “Dro Endo” is “4”, and the number of information pieces matching a keyword “Ee Ogawa” is “3”. 
         [0057]    The user may also correct the input string on the basis of the attribute information displayed as the listed information  1305   c . For example, after “Suzuki-san” input into the search-string input field  1301  is corrected as “Ikeda-san”, a search may be performed to retrieve a piece of search-target information  111 . 
         [0058]    Note that steps S 1  to S 10  described above are executed every time the content of a text input into the search-string input field  1301  is updated in such a manner that a deletion, addition, or the like is made to the string. In other words, every time the user updates the text input into the search-string input field  1301 , the search formula in the search-formula input field  1300  is updated, and the content of the listed information  1305   b  or  1305   c  is updated in accordance with a result of searching the attribute information  112  by using the search formula. 
       (3) Search Operation 
       [0059]    The user checks the listed information  1305   b  or  1305   c , changes the search string as necessary, and clicks the search button  1302 . 
         [0060]    The search-target-information searching unit  105  of the information retrieving apparatus  1  searches the search-target information  111  on the basis of the search formula generated from the input final search string, and the search-result output unit  106  displays a retrieval result on the display  13 . 
       Other Exemplary Embodiments 
       [0061]    Note that an exemplary embodiment of the invention is not limited to the exemplary embodiment described above, and various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. Although the information retrieval using, for example, the Japanese language has been described, the exemplary embodiment of the invention is applicable to information retrieval using other languages. 
         [0062]    Although the functions of the units  100  to  106  in the controller  10  are implemented by the program in the exemplary embodiment described above, all or some of the units may be implemented by hardware such as an ASIC. In addition, the program used in the exemplary embodiment described above may also be provided, being stored on a recording medium such as a CD-ROM. Moreover, mutual changes, deletions, additions, and the like of steps described above in the aforementioned exemplary embodiment may be made without departing from the gist of the present invention. 
         [0063]    The foregoing description of the exemplary embodiments of the present invention has been provided for the purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Obviously, many modifications and variations will be apparent to practitioners skilled in the art. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical applications, thereby enabling others skilled in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments and with the various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. It is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by the following claims and their equivalents.