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EP0619550A2 Expired / Lapsed EP ⏱️ 0.0 years remaining

Apparatus and method for searching data

Assignee: International Business Machines Corp
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Filing: 1994-04-05
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2014-04-05
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Abstract

Abstract The present invention provides a data search apparatus having a processing device, a storage device, an input device responsive to user input, and a display device, the apparatus being characterised by: data extracting means within the processing device for dividing a sequence of data to be searched and for establishing a plurality of representative samples of data from said sequence of data; display means for sending said plurality of representative samples of data to the display device for display; the input device being responsive to user input to select two representative samples from among those displayed; and the processing device having a data search region determining and changing means responsive to the input device to determine, as a new sequence of data to be searched, a sequence of data whose start and end positions are specified by said two selected representative samples. This technique simplifies the data search area setting operation. Representative samples among a group of data to be searched are displayed, and two representative samples in the display are selected to specify a new area of data to be searched.

Inventors

  • 👤 Shinji Misono
  • 👤 Kazuo Iwano
  • 👤 Jung-Kook Hong

Bibliographic Details

Application Number —
Jurisdiction EP
Data Source google_patents
Last Synchronized 2026-10-27 08:52
CPC Classifications
G; G06; G06F; G06F16/00; G06F16/40; G06F16/48; G06F16/483; G06F16/70; G06F16/73; G06F16/732; G06F16/7335; G06F16/74; G06F16/745; Y; Y10; Y10S; Y10S707/00; Y10S707/99931

Claims Analysis

Total Claims: 10
Claim 1
Independent Claim 144 words
A data search apparatus having a processing device (10A), a storage device (30), an input device (40) responsive to user input, and a display device (20), the apparatus being characterised by: data extracting means within the processing device (10A) for dividing a sequence of data to be searched and for establishing a plurality of representative samples of data from said sequence of data; display means for sending said plurality of representative samples of data to the display device (20) for display; the input device being responsive to user input to select two representative samples from among those displayed; and the processing device having a data search region determining and changing means responsive to the input device to determine, as a new sequence of data to be searched, a sequence of data whose start and end positions are specified by said two selected representative samples.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim 23 words
An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein each representative sample established by the data extracting means is located at the dividing position;
Claim 3
Dependent Claim 45 words
An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2 further comprising initial data search region determining means for determining an initial region of data to be searched according to a position on a scroll bar specified by a user via the input device (40).
Claim 4
Independent Claim 133 words
A method of operating an apparatus to search data, the apparatus having a processing device (10A), a storage device (30), an input device (40) responsive to user input, and a display device (20), the method being characterised by the steps of: employing the processing device to divide a sequence of data to be searched and to establish a plurality of representative samples of data from said sequence of data; displaying said plurality of representative samples of data on said display device (20); selecting two representative samples from among those displayed based on user input entered via said input device (40); and employing the processing device to determine, as a new sequence of data to be searched, a sequence of data whose start and end positions are specified by said two selected representative samples.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim 73 words
A method as claimed in claim 4, further comprising a step for convertibly displaying a plurality of second representative samples, which are established from the sequence of data searched before changing, instead of a plurality of first representative samples established by the processing device, this replacement taking place based on an external instruction received upon display of said plurality of first representative samples obtained from said new sequence of data to be searched.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim 90 words
A method as claimed in claim 4 or claim 5 further comprising the step of determining whether or not there are representative samples coinciding with each other between a plurality of second representative samples obtained from said sequence of data to be searched before changing and a plurality of first representative samples when said plurality of first representative samples obtained from said new sequence of data to be searched are displayed and, in the case of an affirmative determination, changing the coinciding first representative samples to display the changed samples.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim 83 words
A method as claimed in any of claim 4 to 6 wherein a start icon and an end icon individually indicating said start and end positions of said sequence of data to be searched are displayed in said representative sample displaying step, the start or end position for said new sequence of data to be searched being determined according to a selection of said start icon or said end icon during the step of determining the new sequence of data to be searched.
Claim 8
Independent Claim 37 words
A method as claimed in any of claims 4 to 7, further comprising the step of displaying a region specified by said selected two representative samples in connection with a display of said plurality of representative samples.
Claim 9
Independent Claim 31 words
A method as claimed in any of claims 4 to 8, wherein said sequence of data represents moving pictures data, and each representative sample is the image data of one frame.
Claim 10
Independent Claim 34 words
A method as claimed in any of claims 4 to 8, wherein said sequence of data is text data, and said representative sample is a predetermined amount of data from within said text data.

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