The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 27, 2009
Filed:
May. 17, 2006
Takashi Tsuzuki, Osaka, JP;
Hiroshi Kutsumi, Osaka, JP;
Eiichi Naito, Kyoto, JP;
Panasonic Corporation, Osaka, JP;
Abstract
An apparatus including: a preference word obtainment unit that, when a search condition is input, obtains related words associated with keywords included in the search condition by a predetermined threshold or greater. Further, the preference word obtainment unit decreases the predetermined threshold to obtain related words, from a preference association dictionary when an expansion command is received. Moreover, the apparatus includes (i) a judgment unit which judges whether the related word obtained by the preference word obtainment unit is stored when the expansion command is received, (ii) a general word obtainment unit which obtains a related word from a general dictionary when it is judged that the related word obtained by the preference word obtainment unit is stored, and (iii) a retrieval unit which generates a search condition from the related word, obtains information meeting the generated search condition, and outputs the obtained information as a search result.