Method, apparatus and computer program for information retrieval

An information retrieval device for retrieving information by a query built based on a plurality of preferences of a user regarding retrieval target, including:

• means for generating a query vector representing a feature of each piece of input preference information;
• means for calculating a similarity of each query vector;
• and
• integrating means for integrating a plurality of query vectors similar to each other into one query vector, wherein
• an aggregation of the query vectors not similar to each other is made the query.

An information retrieval method for retrieving target matching a user preference from an aggregation of pieces of retrieval target, including:

• a procedure for generating a feature vector of each piece of retrieval target;
• a procedure for clustering each piece of retrieval target into a plurality of clusters based on the feature vector thereof;
• a procedure for generating a representative vector of each of said clusters;
• a procedure for urging a user to input a preference regarding the retrieval target and importing input preference information;
• a procedure for building the query based on said input preference information;
• a procedure for comparing the representative vector of each of said clusters and the query, thereby narrowing the clusters to be retrieved into at least one cluster of which similarity is high;
• a procedure for comparing the feature vector of the retrieval target belonging to said retrieval target cluster and said query, thereby extracting the retrieval target of which similarity is high;
• and
• a procedure for presenting a result of said retrieval to the user.

An information retrieval method for retrieving targets by a query built based on a plurality of preferences of a user regarding retrieval target, including:

• a procedure for generating a query vector representing a feature of each piece of input preference information;
• a procedure for calculating a similarity of each query vector;
• and
• a procedure for integrating a plurality of query vectors similar to each other into one query vector, wherein
• an aggregation of the query vectors not similar to each other is made the query.

An information retrieval program for retrieving a piece of target matching a user preference from an aggregation of retrieval target, allowing a computer to execute:

• a procedure for generating a feature vector of each piece of retrieval target;
• a procedure for clustering each piece of retrieval target into a plurality of clusters based on the feature vector thereof;
• a procedure for generating a representative vector of each of said clusters;
• a procedure for urging a user to input a preference regarding the retrieval target and importing input preference information;
• a procedure for building a query based on said input preference information;
• a procedure for comparing the representative vector of each of said clusters and the query, thereby narrowing the clusters to be retrieved into at least one cluster of which similarity is high;
• a procedure of comparing the representative vector of retrieval target belonging to said retrieval target cluster and said query, thereby extracting the retrieval target of which similarity is high;
• and
• a procedure for presenting a result of said retrieval to the user.

An information retrieval program for retrieving information by a query built based on a plurality of preferences of a user regarding retrieval target, allowing a computer to execute:

• a procedure for generating a query vector representing a feature of each piece of input preference information;
• a procedure for calculating a similarity of each query vector;
• and
• a procedure for integrating a plurality of query vectors similar to each other into one query vector, wherein
• an aggregation of the query vectors not similar to each other is made the query.