Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
1996-03-14
2003-04-22
Jung, David (Department: 2771)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06553382
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a data management method and a data management system and, more particularly, to a data management method and a data management system using hierarchical keywords. The present invention also relates to a recording medium such as a floppy disk for storing data or programs which realize this data management method.
Conventionally, to provide an efficient data manipulation work environment in data management systems such as databases, a method has been proposed in which a keyword which distinctively represents the contents of data, such as document data, image data, or voice data, is added to the data and the user retrieves the data by using the keyword.
For example, a keyword “Kawasaki City” is added to an image taken in Kawasaki City and a keyword “Yokohama City” is added to an image taken in Yokohama City, and the correspondence (attribute information) between the keywords “Kawasaki City” and “Yokohama City” and the image data to which these keywords are added is held. This enables retrieval of images based on the locations where these images were taken. Furthermore, when the name of a theme or the like information is added as a keyword to document data, documents relating to a certain theme can be retrieved.
Another method has been proposed which allows a system to perform flexible retrieval by giving the system a hierarchy of keywords. As an example, assume a data management system has a keyword hierarchy as shown in FIG.
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. The use of this keyword hierarchy allows a user to retrieve the image given the keyword “Kawasaki City” or “Yokohama City” described above by using a keyword “Kanagawa Prefecture”, which is not explicitly given. This is an effective retrieval method when the user cannot remember which of Kawasaki City or Yokohama City is the location where a desired image was taken.
Unfortunately, when the hierarchical keywords, the attribute information, and the data managed by these keywords and information are distributed or onerously supplied in the form of a removal medium (e.g., a floppy disk or a CD-ROM), a means for merging them in the hierarchical keywords and the attribute information of the system main body is not provided. Consequently, to retrieve data in the medium the user must connect the medium to the main body and selectively use them or manually perform the merging operation.
In conventional data management systems using keywords, to add a plurality of keywords to one data it is necessary to add the keywords one by one to the data. Accordingly, even if there is a group of keywords which have a close relationship to each other and hence are not separately added in most cases, these keywords must be added one by one to data. This results in a cumbersome and inconvenient operation.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a data management method and a data management system capable of automatically merging hierarchical keywords and attribute information in other hierarchical keywords and attribute information.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a data management method and a data management system capable of reducing the work of adding keywords to data.
To achieve the above objects, a data management method of the present invention is a data management method of managing data on the basis of a plurality of keywords hierarchized in accordance with classes of objects to be managed, comprising the steps of extracting, when first and second hierarchized keyword groups are given, keywords having the same keyword name or keywords equal in keyword names of all parents from the first and second keyword groups, performing a logical operation for the extracted keywords, by using the keyword names, between a set of keywords immediately below a parent keyword in the first keyword group and a set of keywords immediately below a parent keyword in the second keyword group, and forming one hierarchized keyword group consisting of the keywords of the first keyword group and the keywords of the second keyword group on the basis of the logical operation.
The method further comprises the step of specifying a keyword in the first or second keyword groups, wherein the logical operation is performed for keywords in lower levels than the specified keyword and for a group of keywords not containing the specified keyword, and in the formation of the keyword group unique numbers are assigned as keyword IDs even to keywords which are not objects of the logical operation. The logical operation includes OR and AND. The method comprises a first data group corresponding to the first keyword group and a second data group corresponding to the second keyword group, and further comprises the step of retrieving data corresponding to keywords from a set consisting of the first and second data groups on the basis of the hierarchized keyword group formed. The method further comprises the steps of forming a keyword group consisting of a plurality of keywords, and adding a plurality of keywords in the keyword group to data and storing the data, when the keyword group is designated.
Another data management method of the present invention is a data management method of managing data on the basis of a plurality of keywords hierarchized in accordance with classes of objects to be managed, comprising the steps of forming a keyword group consisting of a plurality of keywords, and adding a plurality of keywords in the keyword group to data and storing the data, when the keyword group is designated. When retrieval using a predetermined keyword is designated, data of one of the keywords, which is added to the stored data and agrees with the predetermined keyword, is retrieved.
A data management system of the present invention is a data management system for managing data on the basis of a plurality of keywords hierarchized in accordance with classes of objects to be managed, comprising keyword extracting means for extracting, when first and second hierarchized keyword groups are given, keywords having the same keyword name or keywords equal in keyword names of all parents from the first and second keyword groups, and keyword group forming means for performing a logical operation for the extracted keywords, by using the keyword names, between a set of keywords immediately below a parent keyword in the first keyword group and a set of keywords immediately below a parent keyword in the second keyword group, and forming one hierarchized keyword group consisting of the keywords of the first keyword group and the keywords of the second keyword group.
The system further comprises keyword specifying means for specifying a keyword in the first or second keyword groups, wherein the keyword specifying means performs the logical operation for keywords in lower levels than the specified keyword and for a group of keywords not containing the specified keyword, and assigns unique numbers as keyword IDs even to keywords which are not objects of the logical operation. The logical operation includes OR and AND. The system further comprises first data storage means for storing a first data group corresponding to the first keyword group, second data storage means for storing a second data group corresponding to the second keyword group, and data retrieving means for retrieving data corresponding to keywords from a set consisting of the first and second data groups on the basis of the hierarchized keyword group formed. The system further comprises keyword group forming means for forming a keyword group consisting of a plurality of keywords, and data storage means for adding a plurality of keywords in the keyword group to data and storing the data, when the keyword group is designated.
Another data management system of the present invention is a data management system for managing data on the basis of a plurality of keywords hierarchized in accordance with classes of objects to be managed, comprising keyword group forming means for forming a keyword group consisting of a plurality of keywords, and data st
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