Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-05
2003-04-15
Homere, Jean R. (Department: 2177)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000, C707S793000, C709S219000, C709S217000, C709S218000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06549905
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for automatically searching information based on inputted searching conditions, and more particularly to an apparatus for automatically searching information which is capable of searching information desired by a user based on pre-set searching conditions, and storing desired information out of various information of an Internet site or additional data on a television channel in a memory according to the searching result, and to its method.
2. Description of the Conventional Art
Nowadays, in the so-called ‘Information Age’, desire and demands for information are rapidly increasing, and thus, access to the Internet compared to an information ocean’ to acquire necessary information or to enjoy it for amusement is becoming an indispensable part of daily life. In particular, connections to the world wide web supporting informative data of music, motion pictures, besides still images or text data are being deluged.
In addition, a teletext broadcasting that provides simultaneously and repeatedly a variety of programs by multiplexing text data and other information onto a single TV broadcasting channel provides information which includes news, weather forecasts, TV program guides, leisure-related things, sports, culture, and stock exchange information to viewers, and is expected to extend to various other fields more and more.
Acquiring information by using the Internet is done via personal computers or Internet TV, and most users use “bookmarks” or “favorites” settings that includes the addresses of Internet sites which are their frequently visited sites in using Internet, functions of which are provided by web browser software programs like Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer, as is known. Thus, users can use bookmarks to sequentially input addresses of the bookmarked sites as stored when they get access to the Internet, by which the time and effort required for searching desired information can be much reduced.
Nevertheless, since the Internet providing such a massive amount of information is opened to all the people around the world, searching for desired data requires considerable time and effort, and also in view that the Internet has a characteristic that information is frequently and readily updated and modified on a continual basis, so that even though an Internet site including a desired information is searched, if it is the same information as previously accessed, yet to be updated, not only is an unnecessary communication expense incurred but it results in a waste of time and energy for the efforts.
This could be a serious problem to be considered in case that there are many Internet sites to be searched or the content of each desired Internet site is voluminous.
In addition, since the users have no idea as to when the content of the Internet sites is newly updated, they need to log on the Internet to check the corresponding sites often, i.e., several times per day, causing waste of time and effort.
And, in case of using additional data on a television channel, since its information has a property of a spontaneity, immediacy and changeability, such as news information that is not predictable when and where it may happen, traffic information, stock information required based on a real-time data, sports results as desired, the users must search for such information repeatedly on a display screen like in the case of using the Internet.
In other words, since the users must watch the searching process to get the desired information, they are not able to do any other things during the searching process even if that requires a considerably long time, making it impossible for the information searching to be done in the users' absence.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a method for automatically searching information and its apparatus which is capable of reducing undesirable waste of time and energy in searching information using the Internet.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for automatically searching information and its apparatus which is suitable for using additional data on a television channel for users' convenience.
To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, there is provided an apparatus for automatically searching information including: an extraction unit extracting a packet data from a broadcasting signal; an input unit for inputting searching conditions from a user; a receiving unit receiving the searching conditions; a server connection unit connecting a computer to an Internet server under the searching conditions and receiving and transmitting data of an Internet site; an interpreter judging whether the data received and extracted by the server connection unit and the extraction unit meets the searching conditions; a memory storing a content of the Internet site, its address, and time point information of when the site was previously searched by the user in a file form; an output unit transmitting the time point information and the data of the Internet site to the memory; and a microprocessor controlling operations of each element.
There is also provided a method for automatically searching information including the steps of: receiving searching conditions for an Internet site from a user; connecting to a desired Internet site on the basis of the searching conditions; judging whether the data of the connected Internet site has been updated; and receiving and storing the data of the connected Internet site in case that the data is newly updated.
In addition, there is provided a method for automatically searching additional data such as teletext data carried on a television channel broadcasting signal including the steps of: receiving searching conditions for an additional data carried on a television channel broadcasting signal; detecting whether a received additional data meets the searching conditions; and storing the additional data when the additional data as received meets the searching conditions.
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Kim Hyun A
Kim Ki Won
Fleshner & Kim LLP
Homere Jean R.
LG Electronics Inc.
Wong Leslie
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