Search system
An in-vehicle terminal sends a speech input from a voice input unit as a voice signal to a relay server using a short-range wireless communication unit. The relay server converts the voice data received from the in-vehicle terminal into a string with a voice recognition unit, and makes an inquiry, via a communication unit, to an address database of a database server as to whether the string is a geographical condition. If the string converted by the voice recognition unit is a geographical condition based on the inquiry result of the communication unit, a POI data base is searched based on the geographical condition and a stored non-geographical condition, and the geographical condition is stored in a search history. If the string is a non-geographical condition, the POI database is searched based on the non-geographical condition and the geographical condition stored in the search history, and the non-geographical condition is stored in the search history.
1. A search system comprising:
a database server comprising an address database and a POI database;
an in-vehicle terminal comprising a voice input unit; and
a relay server which sends and receives various data by performing communication between the database server and the in-vehicle terminal, wherein the relay server comprises:
a voice recognition unit which converts a voice of a speech input to the voice input unit of the in-vehicle terminal into a data string;
a storage unit which stores a geographical keyword and a non-geographical keyword; and
a control unit which searches the POI database by using a combination of the geographical keyword and the non-geographical keyword stored in the storage unit, and sends a search result to the in-vehicle terminal,
wherein, in a state where the geographical keyword and the non-geographical keyword are stored in the storage unit, the control unit of the relay server first searches the address database and determines whether or not the data string converted by the voice recognition unit includes a geographical keyword and, upon determining that the data string includes the geographical keyword, updates the geographical keyword stored in the storage unit with the data string, searches the POI database based on the updated geographical keyword and the already stored non-geographical keyword in the storage unit, and, upon determining that the data string does not include a geographical keyword, updates the non-geographical keyword stored in the storage unit with the data string and the POI database based on the updated non-geographical keyword and the already stored geographical keyword.
2. The search system according to claim 1 , wherein the in-vehicle terminal further comprises a location detection unit which calculates a current location, and
wherein, upon storing the geographical keyword and the non-geographical keyword in the storage unit, the control unit of the relay server stores a time of storage as a last recording time in the storage unit, and when the last recording time is earlier than the current time by a predetermined time,_ or longer than the predetermined time in cases of using the geographical condition stored in the storage unit for searching the POI database, uses the current location received from the in-vehicle terminal as the geographical keyword instead of the geographical keyword stored in the storage unit.
3. The search system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the non-geographical keyword is configured from a classification keyword and an attribute keyword,
wherein, when the control unit of the relay server determines that the data string is not a geographical condition based on the search result of the address database, the control unit searches the POI database and determines whether the data string corresponds to a facility classification or a facility attribute, and
wherein, in a state where the geographical keyword, the classification keyword and the attribute keyword are stored in the storage unit:
a) when the control unit determines that the data string is the facility classification, the control unit updates the classification keyword stored in the storage unit with the data string and searches the POI database based on the updated classification keyword, the stored geographical keyword and the stored attribute keyword, and
b) when the control unit determines that the data string is the facility attribute, the control unit updates the classification keyword stored in the storage unit with the data string and searches the POI database based on the updated attribute keyword, the stored geographical keyword and the stored classification keyword.
4. The search system according to claim 1 , wherein, when the control unit of the relay server determines that the data string includes a plurality of geographical keywords, the control unit sends the plurality of geographical keywords to the in-vehicle terminal and receives one of the plurality of geographical keywords from the in-vehicle terminal, stores the received geographical keyword in the storage unit.
5. The search system according to claim 1 , wherein, upon storing the geographical keyword stored in the storage unit, the already stored geographical keyword in the storage unit is deleted, and upon storing the non-geographical keyword in the storage unit, the non-geographical keyword previously stored in the storage unit is deleted.
6. The search system according to claim 3 , wherein, upon storing the geographical keyword in the storage unit, the already stored geographical keyword in the storage unit is deleted, and upon storing the classification keyword in the storage unit, the classification keyword previously stored in the storage unit is deleted, and upon storing the attribute keyword in the storage unit, the attribute keyword previously stored in the storage unit is deleted.