Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
1997-08-21
2001-05-15
Herndon, Heather R. (Department: 2176)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000, C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06233581
ABSTRACT:
DESCRIPTION
The present invention relates to a method for processing and accessing information objects, especially documents. It also envisages a system for implementing this method.
The considerable growth in information exchange in all fields of human activity, especially in the economic field, has been made possible by the development of methods and systems for processing and communicating information. Mention may be made here of the development of databases which may be easily accessible on-line via telecommunications networks. Another, off-line, database consultation mode which is currently being widely developed consists in using permanent information media, especially CD-ROM (Compact-Disc Read-Only Memory) or CD-I (Interactive Compact Disc) discs, which are consulted by persons using appropriate disc drives associated with microcomputers. This consultation mode is meeting with increasing success due to the very high storage capacities of the CD-ROM discs and the possibility of locally processing and storing the information consulted. The CD-ROM discs produced and distributed by the operator or the manager of the database generally include software consultation modules, in addition to the consultable data, while the microcomputer to which the CD-ROM drive is connected is equipped with resident search and processing software.
The objects now stored on CD-ROM discs are very diverse, since, in the multimedia applications, these objects include not only computer data, graphics objects, sound elements or even video or animation sequences. The consultation software associated with the CD-ROM drives currently already offers very extensive facilities for searching and accessing information, and for processing and displaying this information. Hence a user can navigate from one information object to another, depending on his objectives and on his routing within a structured object database. Although the very high storage capacity of a medium of CD-ROM type allows problem-free storage of a large number of document pages, it nevertheless becomes difficult, even for a practised user, to gain access in a reasonable time to an information object being searched for, when the database includes several thousand documents.
An information object is understood to be a set of codes and signs constituting a coherent whole representing data, information of all kinds, text, graphics, image or sound.
A document is understood to be a set of coherent information or data items, organised into pages and relating to a particular topic or subject.
Methods are therefore already known for processing and accessing information objects, especially documents, comprising:
on at least one central site:
stages of collecting objects previously produced and input,
stages of classifying the objects thus collected, and
at least one stage of generating a structured database containing the objects thus classified,
on at least one production site,
stages of writing the structured database thus generated onto permanent information media,
and, on several local consultation sites,
stages of accessing one or more objects searched for within the structured database, these accessing stages comprising stages of searching for the objects and stages of reading these objects from a permanent information medium.
On this subject, mention may be made of methods for processing and for accessing the information contained in encyclopaedias or dictionaries, which employ massive prior information input, classifying of this information, for example in alphabetical order or by topic, writing of this processed and classified information onto CD-ROM discs, distribution of these discs and consultation thereof by users on stations equipped with appropriate disc drive means. Mention may also be made of the case of methods for consulting patent databases on CD-ROM disc.
However, a simple adaptation of these known methods for processing and making available complex information, such as information relating to regulations having to be constantly updated and exhibiting several levels of complexity, is difficult to envisage. It would lead to methods which, in the end, would be difficult to handle and which would be cumbersome to manage, especially for updating, when there was a requirement for processing a large number of objects such as documents relating to the international regulations on pharmaceuticals. The processing of such documents, collected from a very large number of sources, subject to frequent updates and exhibiting a geographical, time-based and topic-based dimension, would therefore prove to be expensive and difficult to access with current methods.
The object of the invention is to remedy these drawbacks by proposing a method for processing and accessing information objects which allows, on the one hand, easy updating of the document database intended to be written onto the permanent information media, and, on the other hand, easy access to objects searched for within the database.
According to the invention, the method for processing and accessing information objects, especially documents, comprising:
on at least one central site:
stages of collecting objects,
stages of classifying the objects thus collected, and
stages of generating a structured database containing the objects thus classified,
on at least one production site,
stages of writing the structured database thus generated onto permanent information media,
and, on several local consultation sites,
stages of accessing one or more objects within the structured database, these accessing stages comprising stages of searching for the objects on a permanent information medium,
is characterised in that each classification stage comprises:
a grouping of the collected objects together into groups of objects associated respectively with given geographical areas,
a categorisation of each object into several types of objects,
a first classification of the objects belonging to at least one of the types of objects, according to a table of contents including a set of topics and common to all the groups of objects, this table of contents being associated with a first classification scheme known as topic-based classification scheme,
a second classification, in each group of objects, of some of the collected objects constituting a particular group of objects, according to a second classification scheme, called hierarchical scheme, common to all the groups of objects,
and in that each stage of accessing an object further comprises a stage of selecting at least one geographical area followed by a stage of navigating within the selected geographical areas, this navigation stage being capable of covering either of the first and second classification schemes.
The technical effects obtained with the method according to the invention are especially the relevance of the texts with regard to the field dealt with, the freshness and comprehensiveness of the information, whether it relates to regulatory texts or practical information, and the ease of searching for a document of the database.
With the method according to the invention, it becomes possible to adapt to the behaviour of a large number of users, to the various frequencies of their requirements and to their variable knowledge of the field.
According to one preferred implementation of the method according to the invention, the method further comprises, within the central site, a stage of selecting key elements within each collected object, these key elements being grouped together within a thesaurus, and the accessing stages comprising stages of selection according to several criteria including a criterion of selection by key element.
The method according to the invention is preferably implemented for processing and accessing documents, and the collected documents are categorised by type into basic documents, reference documents and notes.
According to another aspect of the invention, a system is proposed for processing and accessing objects, for implementing the method according to the invention, comprising:
on at least one central site:
Baroghel Thierry
Charré Patrick
Rambaud Patrick
Greer Burns & Crain Ltd.
Herndon Heather R.
Huynh Cong-Lae
IMS Health
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