JP2002099565A - Information retrieval device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [PROBLEMS] To prevent metadata from becoming obsolete and maintain high search accuracy in an information search device using metadata as a sub search key. SOLUTION: An information search interface 103 using metadata having a variable configuration as a sub search key, a plurality of document management devices 105A and 105B for managing a group of documents constituting a search target database, and an information search interface. An information intermediary device 104 that receives a search request and searches for a document group managed by a plurality of document management devices 105A and 105B, an ontology creating device 203 that creates an ontology related to metadata and sends it to the information intermediary device 104, A metadata configuration recommendation device 202 that recommends updating of the metadata configuration periodically or in response to a request, an information search interface 103, a document management device 105A, and a document management device 105 that display the updated metadata configuration.
B, information mediating device 104 and ontology creating device 203
And a metadata distribution device 201 for distributing the metadata to the user.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] The present invention relates to an information retrieval apparatus used on a network. In particular, the present invention relates to an information search device that can maintain high search accuracy by using configurable metadata.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Metadata is data related to data and includes, for example, information such as a data storage location, a creator, and a creation date. By utilizing such metadata for document search, high-speed search can be performed and a search result with high accuracy can be obtained as compared with a case where a search is performed using only keywords. Paying attention to this point, there is an information search device that uses fixed metadata as a sub search key.

[0003] However, the metadata becomes obsolete with the passage of time and cannot often cope with a change on the searched side. For example, the data storage location may change or the creator's affiliation may change with a change in company organization. Alternatively, the classification may be subdivided as the number of document data increases. In such a case, if the metadata is fixed, a correct search cannot be performed using the metadata as a sub-search key.

On the other hand, in fields other than information retrieval, OL
Advances in AP (Online Analysis Process) technology have enabled high-speed mining of accumulated data. Data mining here means finding and utilizing the regularity, specificity, etc., of the data. For example, a computer at the head office and a computer at each sales office are connected via a network, and the head office analyzes the sales performance database of each sales office online or on a daily or regular basis, and responds promptly according to the results. Has been done.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to improve the conventional information retrieval apparatus using fixed metadata as a sub-retrieval key by applying the OLAP technique to maintain high retrieval accuracy. It is an object of the present invention to provide an information retrieval device capable of performing the following.

[0006]

According to the information retrieval apparatus of the present invention, the configuration information of the metadata suitable for the information retrieval is periodically updated based on the data to be retrieved and the judgment of the knowledge manager. Search and provide information using information.
With such a configuration, metadata for performing a search with high accuracy is unlikely to become obsolete, and an optimal search environment can be maintained.

An information search apparatus according to a first aspect of the present invention includes an information search interface that uses metadata having a variable structure as a sub search key, a document management apparatus that manages a group of documents constituting a search target database, A metadata configuration recommendation device that recommends updating the configuration of the metadata in response to a request, and a metadata distribution device that distributes the updated configuration of the metadata to the information search interface and the document management device. It is characterized by having. According to such a configuration, obsolescence can be prevented by regularly updating the configuration of the metadata, and high search accuracy can be maintained.

[0008] According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information search apparatus using an information search interface that uses variable-structured metadata as a sub search key, a plurality of document management apparatuses that manage a group of documents constituting a search target database, An information intermediary device that receives a search request from the information search interface and searches for a document group managed by the plurality of document management devices, and an ontology creating device that creates an ontology related to metadata and sends it to the information intermediary device And a metadata configuration recommendation device that recommends updating the configuration of the metadata periodically or in response to a request, and the information search interface, the document management device, the information mediation device, and the configuration of the updated metadata. A metadata distribution device that distributes the metadata to the ontology creating device.

[0009] According to such a configuration, the metadata configuration is periodically updated to prevent obsolescence and maintain high search accuracy, and is used by the information mediating device in a so-called agent search system. Ontologies can also be updated on a regular basis. “Ontology” means a thesaurus (synonym / synonym dictionary) including hierarchical information. In other words, a similar thesaurus having synonym / synonym information at the same level is added with similarity / relationship information at different levels.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a metadata configuration recommendation device for an information search device, which is configured to provide a metadata configuration provided by a document management device for managing a group of documents constituting a database to be searched and information on the content thereof. It is characterized in that the validity of the attribute value distribution information and the configuration is evaluated, and the update of the metadata configuration is recommended according to the evaluation result. By using this metadata configuration recommendation device, it is possible to generate (update) a metadata configuration for a high-precision search using a technique such as AI (artificial intelligence).

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a metadata distribution apparatus of an information search apparatus, wherein the updated metadata configuration is recommended by a metadata configuration recommendation apparatus that recommends updating of the metadata configuration and adjusted by a knowledge manager. Is distributed to at least the information search interface and the document management device. By using this metadata distribution device, it is possible to finally distribute the updated metadata configuration adjusted by the knowledge manager to necessary devices.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ontology creating apparatus for an information retrieval apparatus, wherein an ontology relating to updated metadata, which is recommended by a metadata configuration recommending apparatus that recommends updating of the configuration of metadata and adjusted by a knowledge manager, is stored. The ontology is created, and the ontology is sent to an information intermediary device that receives a search request from the information search interface and searches for a document group managed by a plurality of document management devices. By using this ontology creating device, the ontology used by the information mediating device in the agent search system can be periodically updated in accordance with the update of the metadata configuration.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIGS. 1 and 2 show two basic configurations of the information retrieval apparatus of the present invention. The information search device 1 shown in FIG. 1 has a configuration that does not use an information mediation device. The information search interface 101 makes a search request directly to the plurality of document management apparatuses 102A, 102B,... And directly receives the search results.

In this configuration, the metadata configuration recommendation device 2
02 is data (document group) regularly for the document management device
Of the metadata, and evaluates the validity of the attribute value distribution information and the configuration based on the obtained information, and recommends a new configuration of the metadata according to the evaluation result. Then, after adjustment by the knowledge manager, the metadata is passed to the metadata distribution apparatus 201 as the final updated metadata configuration. The metadata distribution device 201 distributes the updated metadata configuration to the information search interface 101 and each of the document management devices 102A, 102B,.

The information search device 2 shown in FIG. 2 has a configuration using an information mediating device, that is, a configuration employing a so-called agent search system. Information retrieval interface 103
Is a plurality of document management devices 1 via the information mediation device 104.
.., And receives a search result. The information mediating device 104 determines a document management device to which a search request should be sent with reference to the ontology regarding metadata sent from the ontology creating device 203.

In this configuration, the metadata configuration recommendation device 2
02 is data (document group) regularly for the document management device
Of the metadata, and evaluates the validity of the attribute value distribution information and the configuration based on the obtained information, and recommends a new configuration of the metadata according to the evaluation result. Then, after adjustment by the knowledge manager, the metadata is passed to the metadata distribution apparatus 201 as the final updated metadata configuration. The metadata distribution device 201 distributes the updated metadata configuration to the information retrieval interface 103 and the document management devices 105A, 105B,... And also distributes the updated metadata configuration to the ontology creating device 203. The ontology creating device 203 creates a new ontology based on the updated metadata configuration.

Next, the operation of the information retrieval apparatus according to the present invention will be described separately for a phase for updating the configuration of metadata and a phase for performing a search using the metadata with the updated configuration. The information search device 2 of FIG. 2 will be described, but the same applies to the information search device 1 of FIG.

In the phase of updating the metadata configuration, the knowledge manager uses the metadata configuration recommendation device 202 to statistically divide the metadata based on the information obtained from each of the document management devices 105A, 105B,. A plurality of metadata configuration candidates whose number is appropriate are acquired, and an appropriate configuration is selected from them. This metadata configuration is converted to the information retrieval interface 10 by using the metadata distribution apparatus 201.
3 and the document management devices 105A, 105B,... To update the metadata configuration information in those devices. The document management devices 105A, 105B,... Advertise (advertise) the metadata values of the managed document group to the information mediation device 104 according to the received metadata configuration information.

The ontology creating device 203 creates an ontology related to the value of the metadata having the new configuration, and sends the ontology to the information mediation device 104. As a result, the metadata and ontology information of the information mediating device 104 are updated.

In the phase of performing a search using the updated metadata, the user (searcher) inputs the metadata value to the information search interface 103 manually or automatically (default) by the system. input. Then, the search is started when the user inputs the main search key. The information search interface 103 uses the metadata in which the value regarding the searcher is input together with the main search key as the sub search key,
4 issues a search request.

The information mediating device 104 that has received the main search key and the sub search key receives the document management devices 105A and 105.
B,..., Using one or more appropriate document management devices 105A, 105
B, ..., and sends a search request for a main search key. The document management devices 105A, 105B,... Process the received search request and send a response to the information mediation device 104. The information mediating device 104 includes document management devices 105A, 105B,
.. Are collected, and the result of evaluating the similarity of the metadata is attached and transmitted to the information search interface 103. The information search interface 103 provides a searcher with a main search key and a search destination document management device 105A,
105B,... Are displayed.

Next, the information retrieval apparatus of the present invention will be described using a specific example. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an application example of the information search device of the present invention. As shown in this figure, an organization composed of a sales headquarters 11 and three sales sections 12 to 14 is assumed. Sales manager 11 has knowledge manager 1
1a, and three sales sections 12-14 have a searcher 12
a, 13a, and 14a, respectively. Three sales sections 12
14 are distributed regionally, and each document group 12
b, 13b, and 14b, and document management devices 12c, 13c, and 14c for managing the metadata.

In FIG. 3, the way in which the metadata configuration is passed from the document management device to the metadata recommendation device (metadata configuration recommendation device) is indicated by solid arrows. That is,
Document management devices 12c, 13c, 1 of each sales section 12-14
4c is passed to the metadata recommendation device 11b of the sales headquarters 11, and the metadata recommendation device 1
1b is used to create metadata that is convenient for document search and has an appropriate configuration.

FIG. 4 shows an example of metadata managed by the document management device of each sales section. For example, based on this content, it can be derived that it is appropriate to use the date and the type of business as the sub search key.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing how the configuration of the metadata is updated and distributed. Metadata recommendation device 11
The metadata configuration determined by the knowledge manager 11a to be appropriate from the results of b is the information retrieval interface 12 of each of the sales sections 12 to 14 via the metadata distribution device 11c.
d, 13d, 14d and the document management devices 12c, 13c, 1
4c, and the ontology creating device 11 in the sales headquarters 11
d. In the ontology creating device 11d, a new ontology is created under the supervision of the knowledge manager 11a,
The information is passed to the information mediation device 11e.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the state of the advertisement performed by the document management device to the information mediation device. The document management devices 12c, 13c, and 14c of each sales section 12 to 14
The content of the managed document is advertised to the information mediating device using the configuration of the distributed metadata. This advertisement is desirably performed when updating the metadata configuration and when updating the document content.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a state of information retrieval. After going through the above process, the information retrieval as shown in this figure becomes possible. In the example of this figure, the searcher 12a of the first sales section 12 inputs a word or a title as a main search key. Then, a search request in which the system automatically inputs or the sub search key input by the searcher 12a is added to the main search key is sent from the information search interface 12d to the information mediating device 11e of the sales headquarters 11.

The information mediation device 11e recommends an appropriate document management device (the document management device 14c of the third sales department 14 in the illustrated example) based on the data of the advertised sub search key, and its information search interface 14d. Make a search request to. The document management device 14c that has received the search request via the information search interface 14d transmits the search result via the information search interface 14d to the information mediating device 11.
e. The information mediating device 11e collects the search results and integrates the information search interface 12d of the first sales section 12
Send to

The knowledge manager 11a of the sales headquarters 11 can request or periodically (for example, once every three months) the searcher.
Review the metadata structure and update if necessary. For example, when the number of documents to be searched having the attribute “negotiation” increases and the efficiency and accuracy of the search deteriorate, the metadata configuration such as adding the attribute “negotiation size” is updated. When the metadata configuration is updated, FIG.
As shown in (1), the updated metadata configuration is distributed using the metadata distribution device 11c. Thus, the information search interfaces 12d and 13 of the sales sections 12 to 14 are provided.
d, 14d, the document management devices 12c, 13c, 14c, and the metadata information of the information mediation device 11e in the sales headquarters 11 are updated. Further, the document management devices 12c and 13
c and 14c advertise in a new metadata configuration.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments and the drawings, but can be implemented in various forms. (Supplementary Note 1) An information search interface that uses variable-structured metadata as a sub-search key, a document management device that manages a document group that constitutes a database to be searched, and the metadata that is periodically or as requested. An information search device comprising: a metadata configuration recommendation device that recommends an update of the configuration; and a metadata distribution device that distributes the updated metadata configuration to the information search interface and the document management device. . (Supplementary Note 2) An information search interface that uses metadata having a variable configuration as a sub-search key, a plurality of document management devices that manage a group of documents constituting a search target database, and a search request from the information search interface. An information intermediary device that receives and searches for a group of documents managed by the plurality of document management devices, an ontology creating device that creates an ontology related to metadata and sends the ontology to the information intermediary device, A metadata configuration recommendation device that recommends updating of the metadata configuration, and metadata that distributes the updated metadata configuration to the information search interface, the document management device, the information mediation device, and the ontology creating device. An information retrieval device comprising a distribution device. (Supplementary Note 3) Based on information on the configuration and content of metadata provided from a document management device that manages a document group constituting a database to be searched, the distribution information of attribute values and the validity of the configuration are evaluated. A metadata structure recommendation device for an information search device, which recommends updating of a metadata structure according to an evaluation result. (Supplementary Note 4) Distributing the updated metadata configuration recommended by the metadata configuration recommendation device that recommends updating of the metadata configuration and adjusted by the knowledge manager to at least the information retrieval interface and the document management device. Metadata distribution device of the information retrieval device that is the feature. (Supplementary Note 5) Create an ontology related to the updated metadata that is recommended by the metadata configuration recommendation device that recommends updating of the metadata configuration and adjusted by the knowledge manager, and accepts a search request from the information search interface. An ontology creating device for an information search device, wherein the ontology is sent to an information mediation device that searches for a document group managed by a plurality of document management devices. (Supplementary Note 6) Document management that manages a group of documents constituting a database to be searched for a search request in which variable configuration metadata manually input by a user or automatically input by the system is added to a main search key as a sub search key. An information search interface of an information search apparatus, wherein the information search interface is sent to the apparatus and receives a search result including a similarity from the document management apparatus. (Supplementary Note 7) A search request in which the configuration variable metadata input manually by the user or automatically input by the system is added to the main search key as a sub search key is sent to the information mediating apparatus, and the search result including the similarity is described above. An information search interface of an information search device, which is received from an information mediation device. (Supplementary Note 8) A search request is received from the information search interface, and a search request is sent to an appropriate document management device using the ontology of the configurable metadata created by the ontology creation device, and a response is sent from the document management device. An information mediating device of an information search device, wherein a search result including the similarity is returned to the information search interface. (Supplementary Note 9) The value of the variable metadata regarding the document group to be managed is held, and when a search request is issued, the similarity is calculated based on the matching of the metadata value, and the search result including the similarity is calculated. A document management device for an information search device, characterized by answering. (Supplementary Note 10) In addition to holding the value of the variable metadata regarding the document group to be managed, advertising the value of the metadata to an information mediating device, accepting a search request from the information mediating device, and retrieving a search result to the information A document management device for an information search device, which answers a mediation device.

[0031]

As described above, according to the information retrieval apparatus of the present invention, since the metadata is updated in accordance with the usage status of the user, a high-precision metadata that does not become obsolete is used as a sub-search key. Information search can be continued. Further, a knowledge management system reflecting the knowledge of the site can be configured.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 shows a basic configuration of an information retrieval apparatus according to the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a configuration that does not use an information mediating device.

FIG. 2 shows a basic configuration of an information retrieval apparatus according to the present invention;
It is a figure showing composition using an information mediating device.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an application example of the information search device of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of metadata managed by a document management device of each sales section in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing how metadata configuration is updated and distributed.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a state of an advertisement performed by the document management device to the information mediation device.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a state of an information search.

[Explanation of symbols]

1, 2 Information retrieval device 11a Knowledge manager 11b Metadata recommendation device (metadata configuration recommendation device) 11c Metadata distribution device 11d Ontology creation device 11e Information mediation device 12b, 13b, 14b Document group 12c, 13c, 14c Document management device 12d, 13d, 14d Information search interface 101, 103 Information search interface 102A, 102B, 105A, 105B Document management device 104 Information mediation device 201 Metadata distribution device 202 Metadata configuration recommendation device 203 Ontology creation device

Claims (5)

[Claims] An information search interface that uses metadata having a variable configuration as a sub-search key; a document management apparatus that manages a group of documents constituting a database to be searched; An information search system comprising: a metadata configuration recommendation device that recommends updating of a data configuration; and a metadata distribution device that distributes the updated metadata configuration to the information search interface and the document management device. apparatus. 2. An information search interface using metadata having a variable configuration as a sub-search key, a plurality of document management devices for managing a group of documents constituting a search target database, and a search request from the information search interface An information intermediary device that receives a document and retrieves a group of documents managed by the plurality of document management devices; an ontology creating device that creates an ontology for metadata and sends it to the information intermediary device; A metadata configuration recommendation device that recommends updating of the metadata configuration in response to the metadata, and a meta that distributes the updated metadata configuration to the information search interface, the document management device, the information mediation device, and the ontology creation device. An information retrieval device comprising a data distribution device. 3. A method for evaluating the validity of attribute value distribution information and the configuration based on information on the configuration and content of metadata provided from a document management apparatus which manages a document group constituting a database to be searched, A metadata configuration recommendation device for an information search device, which recommends updating of the configuration of metadata according to the evaluation result. 4. Distributing the updated metadata configuration recommended by a metadata configuration recommendation device that recommends updating of the metadata configuration and adjusted by a knowledge manager to at least an information retrieval interface and a document management device. A metadata distribution device for an information search device, characterized in that: 5. An ontology relating to the updated metadata which is recommended by a metadata configuration recommendation device which recommends updating of the metadata configuration and adjusted by a knowledge manager, and receives a search request from an information search interface. Sending the ontology to an information intermediary device that searches for a group of documents managed by a plurality of document management devices.