Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation

Hiroki Machihara

Gengo Suzuki

Yuichi Iizuka

Takashi Hoshino

Toshihiro Nagasue

Eiji Okada

Mitsuaki Tsunakawa

Naoya Kanou

Integrated retrieval scheme for retrieving semi-structured documents

The method and system for retrieving information allow the user to retrieve desired information from database systems by simply specifying retrieval content and retrieval conditions using languages familiar to the user, without having to know the names for the relevant database systems or their structures or without having to interact with the platform of the meta-information, i.e., information concerning the use of database systems and accessing method. The present method allows retrieval of information from different database systems connected to a communication network, by using reference information stored beforehand to access different database systems; consulting the reference information to determine database systems which contains data to satisfy the information retrieval request by converting requested items to equivalent related words that the system can recognize. The storage locations of the data and instructions on how to acquire the data are determined using relational items to link various tables so that an information retrieval statement can be prepared by the system program on user's behalf. The databases are searched according to the acquiring method and the information retrieval content described in the system prepared statement, and the retrieved information is presented for viewing in a format that is used by the information searcher.

Method and system for information retrieval

Growing community of inventors

Kawasaki, Japan

Hiroki Machihara