Information filtering apparatus for selecting predetermined article from plural articles to present selected article to user, and method therefore

An information filtering apparatus comprising:

• means for receiving articles from information sources;
• means for storing retrieval conditions previously specified for a user;
• article retrieving means for retrieving supplied articles to select articles which match the retrieval conditions for the user so as to present the articles to the user;
• and
• means for generating a summary having a length corresponding to similarities among retrieval conditions and a type of the article selected by said article retrieving means to present the summary to the user.

An information filtering apparatus, comprising:

• means for receiving articles from information sources;
• means for storing a retrieval condition;
• first calculating means for calculating first similarities between the retrieval condition stored in said storing means and the articles received by said receiving means;
• output means for sorting the articles received by said receiving means based on the first similarities and for extracting at least one of 1) a predetermined number of articles selected from articles having a highest first similarity and 2) articles which have the first similarities greater than a predetermined threshold;
• second calculating means for calculating second similarities between the articles extracted by said output means based on a field of the articles including at least one of a first sentence, a first paragraph, and a caption;
• and
• means for grouping the articles extracted by said output means based on the second similarities.

An information filtering apparatus, comprising:

• means for receiving articles from information sources;
• means for storing a retrieval condition;
• means for calculating first similarities between the retrieval condition stored in said storing means and the articles received by said receiving means;
• output means for sorting the articles received by said receiving means based on the first similarities and for extracting at least one of 1) a predetermined number of the articles selected from articles having a highest first similarity and 2) articles which have the first similarities greater than a predetermined threshold;
• output article storage means for storing the articles extracted by said output means;
• means for calculating second similarities between the articles stored by said output article storage means and the articles which are extracted by said output means;
• and
• means for grouping the articles stored by said output article storage means and the articles which are extracted by said output means based on the second similarities, the articles grouped having information when the article is received by said receiving means.

An information filtering apparatus comprising:

• means for receiving articles from information sources;
• means for storing retrieval conditions;
• means for calculating similarities among retrieval conditions and supplied articles to retrieve articles by a specified number or articles having similarities greater than a predetermined threshold in accordance with the calculated similarities;
• means for outputting the retrieved documents to a user;
• and
• means for receiving articles written in a different language, replacing retrieval conditions specified in a single language by another language to calculate similarities with the articles to output the article written in the different language to the user while being mixed with the documents to be output by said outputting means.

An information filtering apparatus, comprising:

• means for receiving articles from information sources;
• means for storing a retrieval condition;
• means for calculating similarities between the retrieval condition stored in said storing means and the articles received by said receiving means;
• output means for sorting the articles received by said receiving means based on the similarities and for extracting at least one of 1) a predetermined number of the articles selected from articles having a highest similarity and 2) articles which have the similarities greater than a predetermined threshold;
• and
• means for changing at least one of 1) the predetermined threshold and 2) the retrieval conditions based on a total number of the articles extracted by said output means.

An information filtering apparatus, comprising:

• means for receiving articles from information sources;
• means for storing a retrieval condition;
• and
• filtering means for calculating similarities between the retrieval condition stored in said storing means and the articles received by said receiving means using a combination of a character string matching scheme and a word matching scheme;
• and
• means for extracting the articles received by said receiving means based on the similarities calculated by said filtering means.

An information filtering method comprising:

• a step for receiving articles from information sources;
• a step for storing retrieval conditions previously specified for a user;
• an article retrieving step for retrieving the supplied articles to select articles which satisfy the retrieval conditions for the user;
• a determining step for determining relevant articles for each article in accordance with the similarities by calculating similarities among the articles selected in said article retrieving step or similarities among the selected articles;
• and
• an output step for outputting the articles with information of the determined relevant articles.

An information filtering method comprising:

• a step for periodically receiving articles from information sources;
• a step for calculating similarities among retrieval conditions previously specified by a user and supplied articles;
• a step for sorting the articles in a descending order of the similarities calculated in said step and selecting articles by a predetermined number or only articles having similarities greater than a predetermined threshold;
• an output article storage step for storing articles output to the user as a result of filtering;
• a step for collecting articles stored in said output article storage step and articles supplied this day to calculate similarities among the articles so as to form the articles into groups or making the articles to be related to one another so as to output the articles to the user;
• and
• a step for adding, to each article to be output, information whether the articles are in a group consisting of only articles supplied this day or a group including previous articles.

An information filtering method comprising:

• a step for receiving articles from information sources;
• a step for calculating similarities among retrieving conditions previously specified by a user and supplied articles to retrieve articles by a specified number or articles having similarities greater than a predetermined threshold in accordance with the calculated similarities;
• and
• a step for receiving articles written in a different language, replacing retrieving conditions specified in a single language by another language to calculate similarities with the articles to present the article written in the different language to the user while being mixed with the articles to be presented.

An information filtering apparatus, comprising:

• means for receiving first articles from information sources;
• means for storing retrieval conditions previously specified for a user;
• article retrieving means for retrieving the first articles received by said means for receiving in order to select second articles which match the retrieved conditions stored in said means for storing;
• and
• means for outputting the second articles written in a different language by replacing the retrieval condition specified in a first language with the different language and by calculating similarities among the retrieval conditions replaced into the different language and the second articles to select third articles using the similarities among the retrieval conditions.