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<Paper uid="P98-1055">
  <Title>A Text Input Front-end Processor as an Information Access Platform</Title>
  <Section position="2" start_page="0" end_page="337" type="intro">
    <SectionTitle>
1. Introduction
</SectionTitle>
    <Paragraph position="0"> When creating text using word processing software on a personal computer, it is common to refer to books or documents relevant to the text, including various kinds of dictionaries and reference works. The tools used for accessing relevant information, such as CD-ROM dictionaries, text databases, and text retrieval software, however, often require user actions that may seriously interrupt the writing process itself. These may include executing retrieval software, inputting key words, or copying retrieved information into texts.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="1"> The foreign language writing support tool we propose here automatically access information relevant to input texts. Like a Kana-Kanji conversion front-end processor used to input Japanese language text, this tool is also implemented as a front-end processor (FEP) and can be combined with a wide variety of applications. The extent to which the retrieval and display of information proceeds automatically depends on the type of information being referenced; this element of the design adds to system efficiency.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="2"> In Section 2, we consider the requirements for efficient writing support tools and discuss the characteristics of our front-end processor and its automatic information access function. In Section 3, we introduce our English writing support tool, which has been developed to help Japanese people write in English on a PC. This. tool combines a front-end processor with the stepped-level interactive machine translation method we first proposed in Yamabana (1997). In Section 4, we describe the automatic information access function of the English writing support tool.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="3">  To allow users to concentrate better on their work, writing support tools with reference information access functions should: 1) provide for automatic access of reference information, i.e. access without explicit user commands, 2) enable users to utilize retrieved information with simple operations, and 3) be compatible with a wide variety of word processing applications.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="4"> In developing our FEP-type support tool, we started with the text retrieval application proposed in Muraki (1997), which provides a morphological analyzer that automatically analyzes users' input and extracts key words to retrieve relevant text from a database. This application fulfills the first of the requirement listed above. We converted such a morphological analyzer into an FEP for use in our tool, which is placed between the keyboard and an application. When a user inputs texts into this tool, the morphological analyzer identifies each word and extracts key words automatically before the text is entered into the application. The key words are used to retrieve information relevant to the input texts. This information is displayed for easy editing and utilization. Because all of this can be achieved with standard hooks and the IME API of the Microsoft Windows 95 operating system, this tool can be combined with any Windowscompatible text-input application. In addition, it can be combined with any other front-end processor, including Kana-Kanji conversion FEPs, through the use of a technique we have recently developed. Figure 1 shows the tool architecture.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="5"> 2.2. Controlling the extent of the automation of information retrieval and display The automatic retrieval and display function introduced in the previous subsection allows users to concentrate better on their writing</Paragraph>
    <Section position="1" start_page="336" end_page="337" type="sub_section">
      <SectionTitle>
Information Access Platform
</SectionTitle>
      <Paragraph position="0"> because much less interruption of their work is required for the consulting of dictionaries or for the retrieval of reference sentences. This function, however, might prevent users from concentrating on their writing if all the retrieved information were displayed in a new window, especially when the quantity of the retrieved information were large and the majority of it were not relevant from the users' point of view.</Paragraph>
      <Paragraph position="1"> To compensate for this disadvantage, we divided the information access function into three steps: 1) extracting key words from the input text, 2) using the key words to retrieve reference information, and 3) displaying the retrieved information, and we developed a function to control whether the each step is executed automatically or manually. We prepare three methods for retrieval and display as follows.</Paragraph>
      <Paragraph position="2"> A) Relevant information is retrieved and displayed automatically, without user command.</Paragraph>
      <Paragraph position="3"> B) Information is retrieved automatically but displayed only on user command. After automatic retrieval, only the quantity of information is displayed, and users can decide whether to display it.</Paragraph>
      <Paragraph position="4"> C) Information is both retrieved and displayed only on user command. Even in this case, because key words are automatically  extracted before retrieval, our tool requires much less user action than other information accessing tools.</Paragraph>
      <Paragraph position="5"> The extent to which the retrieval and display of information proceeds automatically depends on the type of information being referenced; this element of the design adds to system efficiency.</Paragraph>
    </Section>
  </Section>
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