Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
1998-11-19
2001-11-13
Homere, Jean R. (Department: 2177)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C345S215000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06317739
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data management method and apparatus, and involves a computer-readable recording medium which stores a data management program for executing a data management method. More particularly, the present invention relates to a data management method and apparatus for handling a large volume of data, and includes a computer-readable recording medium which is applicable to a wide range of computing devices including large general-type computers to individual equipment such as personal computers or portable information terminals.
2. Description of the Background Art
The desire to handle large volumes of data on a personal computer or the like has been increasing as the performance of computer systems has improved and as computer networks of greater complexity have been created. In order to retrieve desired data from such a large volume of data, a complicated method of retrieval had to be learned. Such a complicated method imposed a great burden on users.
A method of data retrieval involving manipulation by intuition adapting a graphical user interface was developed to reduce the burden on the user.
Background Art 1
One such data retrieval method was developed at Palo Alto Research Center by the Xerox Corporation (U.S.A.). This data retrieval method by “magic lens” is disclosed in “Enhanced Dynamic Queries via Movable Filters”, CHI′ 95, pp. 415-420 by Ken Fishkin et al.
The “magic lens” is a filter to which a retrieval condition is assigned. By overlapping this filter on the data of interest, the data satisfying the retrieval condition is directly displayed (by an open circle) on the magic lens. Data that do not meet the retrieval condition is indicated with an x mark.
An example of retrieval by the magic lens is shown in
FIGS. 1 and 2
. In
FIG. 1
, each o symbol
101
represents data corresponding to an individual. An example of retrieving data satisfying the condition of “male” using the magic lens will be described with reference to FIG.
2
. The center rectangle
201
indicates the magic lens used to retrieve data that meets the condition of “male”. The data satisfying the condition of “male” in the plurality of data within the magic lens is displayed per se by an o symbol
202
. The data not satisfying the condition of “male”, i.e., the data satisfying the condition of “female” is displayed with an x sign
203
.
By shifting the magic lens all over the retrieval region, or by enlarging the magic lens to completely overlap the entire retrieval region, the data that meets the retrieval condition of “male” can be searched for from the universe of data of interest.
By using a plurality of magic lenses in an overlapping manner, an AND retrieval operation with a plurality of conditions can be performed.
An example of retrieving data satisfying the retrieval conditions of “a male who is at least 170 cm in height” using two magic lenses will be described hereinafter with reference to FIG.
3
. The newly added rectangle
301
at the center of
FIG. 3
corresponds to the magic lens used to retrieve data satisfying the condition of “a person who is at least 170 cm in height.” The data satisfying the condition of “a male who is at least 170 cm in height” is among the data in the region where the two magic lenses overlap and is displayed with an o sign
302
. The data not satisfying the above condition, i.e. data satisfying the condition of “a male who is shorter than 170 cm” or the condition of “a female” is displayed with an x sign
303
.
By shifting the two magic lenses so that the overlapping region thereof is moved around up to all the corners in the region of retrieval, or by expanding the two magic lenses so as to overlap the entire region of retrieval, data satisfying the condition of “a male who is at least 170 cm in height” can be obtained from the universe of data of interest.
Background Art 2
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-89309 discloses a database retrieval processing method according to aggregation in graphical form. A set that is the result of database retrieval is rendered into a graphical form by a rectangle for display.
The area of displayed rectangle corresponds to the number of data satisfying the retrieval condition. A plurality of procedures of retrieval are carried out beforehand and stored. A set up to three in maximum is selected from the resultant stored sets to represent the relationship of inclusion between each set in an overlapping manner of rectangles.
FIG. 4
displays three selected sets (A,B,C). Rectangle
401
corresponds to set A. Rectangle
402
corresponds to set B. Rectangle
403
corresponds to set C. The relationship of inclusion between each of the sets in indicated.
A plurality of arbitrary portions of the rectangle region in
FIG. 4
can be selected to be stored as one set. This facilitates the construction of the complicated retrieval expression to carry out retrieval of the database.
It is to be noted that the retrieval result is represented by means of the area of the rectangle. In the case where there is data satisfying (A and B), (B and C), and (C and A) and not data satisfying (A and B and C) for the three sets of (A, B, and C), the inclusion relationship among (A, B, C) is representing graphically by rotating one rectangle.
FIG. 5
shows the display in the event of no data satisfying (A and B and C). Rectangle
401
corresponding to set A is rotated in
FIG. 5
to provide the display of the inclusion relationship.
In the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-89309 that provides a display with a correspondence between the retrieval result and the area, there the case where the relationship of inclusion between four or more sets cannot be represented by the display. Therefore, the number of sets that can be selected at one time is limited to three.
Background Art 3
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-6791 discloses a method and apparatus of data retrieval as the interface for retrieving data.
The resultant data of retrieval corresponding to one retrieval condition is displayed in a closed region. By overlapping a plurality of regions, data satisfying a plurality of retrieval conditions can be displayed in the area where the plurality of regions overlap.
As shown in
FIG. 7A
, the resultant data retrieval including the keyword of “vehicle” from a database is shown in region
3201
. The resultant data retrieval including the keyword of “individual” is indicated by region
3202
. By overlapping regions
3201
and
3202
, as shown in
FIG. 7B
, data included in both regions
3201
and
3202
are displayed in the overlapping region
3203
.
Background Art 4
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-101119 discloses a database system as an interface to supervise the attribute and the attribute value of data.
A rectangle is drawn to surround the data displayed on a screen. By setting an attribute value with respect to the rectangle, the set attribute value can be assigned to the plurality of data in the drawn rectangle. By moving one or more data displayed on the screen to alter the display position thereof, the moved data can be applied with the attribute value set to the rectangle in which the moved data is newly located.
As shown in
FIG. 8A
, the plurality of data “Boston”, “New York”, “Ise tour”, and “Hiroshima” included in rectangle
3301
are assigned the attribute value of “scenery”. As shown in
FIG. 8B
, rectangle
3302
is drawn so as to encircle the data of “Ise tour”, “Hiroshima”, “kimono”, “lecture”, and “test chart” and the attribute value of “individual” has been assigned. If data “kitchen”
3303
, displayed in
FIG. 8B
, is shifted to be located at a display position within rectangle
3301
, the display of
FIG. 8C
is obtained. By this operation, data “kitchen”
3303
is assigned the attribute value of “scenery” associated with rectangle
3301
. When data is shifted to a position encircled by a plurality of rectangles, that data will be assigned all the attribute values associated with each of the plurality of rectangles in which the move
Hirata Masafumi
Minakuchi Mitsuru
Urano Naoki
Homere Jean R.
Nixon & Vanderhye P.C.
Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
Wassum Luke S
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