System and method for retrieving building structure data and computer program therefor

Abstract

A system for retrieving building structure data. The system includes a building structure data base which stores building structure data and a retrieval unit for retrieving the data base. The building structure data includes a plurality of house plan data and a plurality of attribution information, each of which corresponds to each of the plurality of house plan data. The retrieval unit further includes an extraction unit for referring the plurality of attribution information to a house plan information entered externally, and extracting at least one house plan data which has an attribution information which is identical or similar to the house plan information.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention

[0002] The present invention relates to a system and a method for retrieving building structure data, and a computer program to be executed for implementing the method and the system, and more particularly to a system for retrieving building structure data, which is suitable for a presumption of a wave-propagating property.

[0003] All of patents, patent applications, patent publications, scientific articles and the like, which will hereinafter be cited or identified in the present application, will, hereby, be incorporated by references in their entirety in order to describe more fully the state of the art, to which the present invention pertains.

[0004] 2. Description of the Related Art

[0005] Furnitures such as desks and shelves may be placed in a house in accordance with user's favor. Such furnitures serve as obstacles or barriers to a radio communication system which includes a base station and a terminal station. For this reason, an expert knowledge is needed for design in placement of the base station. The obstacles may reflect and diffract the wave. Influences of such reflection and diffraction by the obstacles may depend upon the placement of the base station. A dead region, in which the communication is unavailable, may also depend on the placement of the base station.

[0006] FIG. 1 is a schematic view of one typical example of layout and dead region in a house A single room is defined by walls 1000-1, 1000-2, 1000-3 and 1000-4. The room has partitions 1001-1, 1001-2 and 1001-3 and desks 1003-1, 1003-2 and 1003-3, a shelve 1002 and a sofa 1004. In such in-house environment, a placement of a base station 1010 on the desk 1003-1 causes a dead region, in which the communication to the base station is unavailable, wherein the dead region is represented by a hatched-region The dead region is distanced from the base station.

[0007] FIG. 2 is a schematic view of another typical example of layout and dead region in a house. A single room is defined by walls 1000-1, 1000-2, 1000-3 and 1000-4. The room has partitions 1001-1, 1001-2 and 1001-3 and desks 1003-1, 1003-2 and 1003-3, a shelve 1002 and a sofa 1004. In such in-house environment, another placement of a base station 1010 on the other desk 1003-2 causes other dead regions, in which the communication to the base station is unavailable, wherein the dead regions are represented by a hatched-region. The dead regions are distanced from the base station. The dead regions depend on materials, placement and layout of the walls 1000-1, 1000-2, 1000-3 and 1000-4, the partitions 1001-1, 1001-2 and 1001-3, and the furnitures 1003-1, 1003-2, 1003-3, 1002 and 1004. The presumption of the dead-region may be made by a person having skill in this technical field, but may be difficult for the general user.

[0008] In order to solve the above problem with the placement of the station in connection with the radio communication system, the following conventional systems have been proposed. Japanese laid-open patent publication No. 7-87557 discloses that a plurality of such base station placement points have previously been set, and then such one of the plural points as enabling the base station to cover the entirety of the service area is selected so as to notify the selected point. Japanese laid-open patent publication No. 8-214363 discloses that a base station placement point is sequentially found to reduce the dead region, in which the radio communication is unavailable, in order to efficiently find a desired base station placement point, at which the base station covers the entirety of the service area.

[0009] The above-mentioned conventional systems may be considered to be the techniques for minimizing the dead regions based on a received power.

[0010] In general, the general user may often construct the radio communication system in a house, although the general user does not have any sufficient knowledge about wave-propagation, and thus the general user is hard to presume the dead region. Even if any stable radio communication could be realized, any substantive change in layout in the house causes an undesired change in the radio-propagation, which may provide any possibility that any dead-region be generated after changing the layout.

[0011] In order to enable the general user to construct the radio communication system in a house, it is necessary that the general user can set the layout of the in-house structures such as walls, the floor, the roof and the other furnitures as well as the base station placement point and also grasp the in-house radio-wave propagation, so that the general user may adjust the base station placement point for allowing the communication over the desired region.

[0012] It is of course preferable that the entry for layout of the in-house structures is easier. The radio-wave-propagation property is sensitive to the layout, the data of properties of the in-house structures. For this reason, it is necessary to do an accurate entry of the layout of the in-house structures for the purpose of accurately grasping the radio-wave-propagation property. The data of properties may be physical constants which decide reflecting coefficient and transmission coefficient of the radio-wave to the in-house structures. The data of properties may be defined by dielectric constant and conductivity.

[0013] The desired highly accurate entry procedures need a large load to the user. The grasp of the property data is actually difficult for the general user unless the user has a sufficient knowledge about properties of various materials.

[0014] The above-described Japanese publications do not disclose nor teach any measures for entry of the building structure data.

[0015] In the above circumstances, the development of a novel system and method for retrieving building structure data free from the above problems is desirable.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0016] Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel system for retrieving building structure data free from the above problems.

[0017] It is a further object of the present invention to provide a novel system for retrieving building structure data, wherein the system enables the general user to enter layout of the in-house structures and also to set the accurate property data for each of the in-house structures, even if the general user has no sufficient knowledge of the property data.

[0018] It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a novel method for retrieving building structure data free from the above problems.

[0019] It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a novel method for retrieving building structure data, wherein the system enables the general user to enter layout of the in-house structures and also to set the accurate property data for each of the in-house structures, even if the general user has no sufficient knowledge of the property data.

[0020] It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a novel computer program to be executed for implementing a method for retrieving building structure data free from the above problems.

[0021] It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a novel computer program to be executed for implementing a method for retrieving building structure data, wherein the system enables the general user to enter layout of the in-house structures and also to set the accurate property data for each of the in-house structures, even if the general user has no sufficient knowledge of the property data.

[0022] A first aspect of the present invention is a system for retrieving building structure data. The system includes a building structure data base which stores building structure data and a retrieval unit for retrieving the data base. The building structure data includes a plurality of house plan data and a plurality of attribution information, each of which corresponds to each of the plurality of house plan data. The retrieval unit further includes an extraction unit for referring the plurality of attribution information to a house plan information entered externally, and extracting at least one house plan data which has an attribution information which is identical or similar to the house plan information.

[0023] A second aspect of the present invention is a method of retrieving building structure data. The method includes the steps of referring a plurality of attribution information, each of which corresponds to each of a plurality of house plan data which are included in building structure data stored in a building structure data base, to a house plan information entered externally, and extracting at least one house plan data which has an attribution information which is identical or similar to the house plan information.

[0024] A third aspect of the present invention is a computer program to be executed for implementing a method of retrieving building structure data. The program includes the steps of referring a plurality of attribution information, each of which corresponds to each of a plurality of house plan data which are included in building structure data stored in a building structure data base, to a house plan information entered externally, and extracting at least one house plan data which has an attribution information which is identical or similar to the house plan information.

[0025] The present invention is to provide a house plan retrieval engine for retrieving a closest house plan data to a user's desired house plan from a data base which stores a large number of possible house plans. The house plan retrieval engine is connected to a network, so as to enable the user to have an access through the network to the house plan retrieval engine. The data base is thus connected to the network and uniformly managed, whereby a maintenance and a management of the house plan data such as addition and correction of the house plan data may be easy. A mechanism of requesting the house plan retrieval by the user may comprise an interactive user interface so that the user, who has no sufficient knowledge, can retrieve the desired house plan.

[0026] The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following descriptions.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0027] Preferred embodiments according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0028] FIG. 1 is a schematic view of one typical example of layout and dead region in a house.

[0029] FIG. 2 is a schematic view of another typical example of layout and dead region in a house.

[0030] FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a structure of a system for retrieving a house plan in a first embodiment in accordance with the present invention.

[0031] FIG. 4 is a flow chart of operations of house plan retrieval request by user as previous process prior to the house plan retrieval process.

[0032] FIG. 5 is a view of one typical example of the Web-page which enables the user to enter the basic informations about user's desired house plan.

[0033] FIG. 6 is a view of one typical example of the Web-page which enables the user to select detailed structures for each floor in accordance with the house plan.

[0034] FIG. 7 is a view of one typical example of the Web-page which enables the user to select directions and positions of the selected rooms.

[0035] FIG. 8 is a plan view of one example of the layout on one floor.

[0036] FIG. 9 is a table showing layout data in connection with the example shown in FIG. 8.

[0037] FIG. 10 is a flow chart of sequential operations of the house plan retrieval engine included in the system of FIG. 3.

[0038] FIG. 11 is a view of an example of the group of respective rooms of the same attribute type.

[0039] FIG. 12 is a view of an example of a possible range in direction with reference to the user's designated direction.

[0040] FIG. 13 is a view of one typical example of the Web-page as an user's interface to a final house plan extraction mechanism.

[0041] FIG. 14 is a view of another example of definition of the rooms based on predetermined partitions.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0042] A first aspect of the present invention is a system for retrieving building structure data. The system includes: a building structure data base storing a plurality of house plan data and a plurality of attribution information, each corresponding to each of the plurality of house plan data; and a retrieval unit for retrieving the data base. The retrieval unit further includes: an extraction unit for referring the plurality of attribution information to a desired house plan information entered externally, and extracting at least one house plan data which has an attribution information identical or similar to the desired house plan information.

[0043] It is preferable that the retrieval unit furthermore include a presenting unit functionally coupled to the extraction unit for receiving the extracted at least one house plan data and presenting the extracted at least one house plan data.

[0044] It is also preferable that the plurality of attribution information include a positional information of each room and the desired house plan information includes the positional information of each room.

[0045] It is further preferable that the positional information of each room is represented based on a direction with reference to a center of each floor.

[0046] It is further preferable that the positional information of each room is represented based on one of partitions divided from an entirety of each floor.

[0047] It is further preferable that the extraction unit extracts at least one house plan data which has an attribution information identical or similar to at least a part of the positional information of each room included in the desired house plan information.

[0048] It is also preferable that the extraction unit extracts at least one house plan data which has an attribution information belonging to one of predetermined groups for the desired house plan information.

[0049] It is also preferable that the extraction unit extracts at least one house plan data which has an attribution information identical to not only a room just designated based on the desired house plan information but also at least one adjacent room to the room just designated.

[0050] It is also preferable that the extraction unit is functionally coupled through a network to at least a terminal which is operable by a user.

[0051] It is further preferable that the extraction unit comprises a retrieval engine which provides a Web-page which enables the user to make an interactive entry procedure for entering the desired house plan information.

[0052] It is further preferable that the building structure data base and the retrieval unit are placed over a network so that the building structure data base is uniformly maintained and managed through the network.

[0053] A second aspect of the present invention is a method of retrieving building structure data. The method includes the steps of: referring a plurality of attribution information, each of which corresponds to each of a plurality of house plan data which are included in building structure data stored in a building structure data base, to a desired house plan information entered externally; and extracting at least one house plan data which has an attribution information which is identical or similar to the desired house plan information.

[0054] It is preferable to further include the step of: receiving the extracted at least one house plan data and presenting the extracted at least one house plan data.

[0055] It is preferable that the plurality of attribution information include a positional information of each room and the desired house plan information includes the positional information of each room.

[0056] It is further preferable that the positional information of each room is represented based on a direction with reference to a center of each floor.

[0057] It is further preferable that the positional information of each room is represented based on one of partitions divided from an entirety of each floor.

[0058] It is further preferable that the extraction step extracts at least one house plan data which has an attribution information identical or similar to at least a part of the positional information of each room included in the desired house plan information.

[0059] It is further preferable that the extraction step extracts at least one house plan data which has an attribution information belonging to one of predetermined groups for the desired house plan information.

[0060] It is further preferable that the extraction step extracts at least one house plan data which has an attribution information identical to not only a room just designated based on the desired house plan information but also at least one adjacent room to the room just designated.

[0061] The present invention is to provide a house plan retrieval engine for retrieving a closest house plan data to a user's desired house plan from a data base which stores a large number of possible house plans. The house plan retrieval engine is connected to a network, so as to enable the user to have an access through the network to the house plan retrieval engine. The data base is thus connected to the network and uniformly managed, whereby a maintenance and a management of the house plan data such as addition and correction of the house plan data may be easy. A mechanism of requesting the house plan retrieval by the user may comprise an interactive user interface so that the user, who has no sufficient knowledge, can retrieve the desired house plan.

[0062] The following embodiments are typical examples for practicing the foregoing aspects of the present invention. Although the subject matters of the present invention have been described in details, the following additional descriptions in one or more typical preferred embodiments or examples will be made with reference to the drawings for making it easy to understand the typical modes for practicing the foregoing aspects of the present invention.

[0063] First Embodiment:

[0064] A first embodiment according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a structure of a system for retrieving a house plan in a first embodiment in accordance with the present invention. The system includes a house plan data base 101 and a house plan retrieval engine 102. A user 104 operates a terminal 103 to send a house plan retrieval request to the house plan retrieval engine 102. The house plan retrieval engine 102 receives the house plan retrieval request and retrieves a house plan data, which is matched to the house plan retrieval request, from the house plan data base 101. The house plan retrieval engine 102 sends the retrieved house plan data to the terminal 103. The user 104 can confirm the retrieved house plan through the terminal 103.

[0065] The house plan data may include, but not limited to, any layout informations of walls, floors, roofs and in-house structures such as furnitures as well as any property informations about the in-house structures. A plurality of house plan data may be retrieved for representation to the user.

[0066] The terminal 103 for the user 104 may be coupled through any available communication network to the house plan retrieval engine 102 for enabling the user to do a desired remote control to the house plan retrieval engine 102.

[0067] The system may allow a plurality of user 104 to have plural and concurrent accesses to the house plan retrieval engine 102.

[0068] The house plan retrieval engine 102 and the house plan data base 101 are commonly placed over the network, so that the uniform maintenance and management of the house plan data base 101 may be possible.

[0069] Acceptance of the house plan retrieval request by the house plan retrieval engine 102 may be accomplished by a Web-page provided by the house plan retrieval engine 102. Acquisition of the desired and retrieved house plan data by the user 104 may be implemented by a down-load function provided with the Web-page.

[0070] FIG. 4 is a flow chart of operations of house plan retrieval request by user as previous process prior to the house plan retrieval process. FIG. 5 is a view of one typical example of the Web-page which enables the user to enter the basic informations about user's desired house plan.

[0071] In a step 201, the user 104 operates the terminal 103 for access to a Web-page provided by the house plan retrieval engine 102 and for performing an interactive data entry of basic informations about user's desired house plan through the Web-page. As shown in FIG. 5, the basic informations may include, but not limited to, various categories, for example, “the number of family”, “room arrangement”, “floor number”, and “area”.

[0072] The category “the number of family” provides three selectable options “single family type house”, “two families type house” and “three or more families type house”. The user may select desired one of those options.

[0073] The category “room arrangement” provides thirteen selectable options “1K”, “1DK”, “1LDK”, “2K”, “2DK”, “2LDK”, “3K”, “3DK”, “3LDK”, “4K”, “4DK”, “4LDK”, and “others”. The user may select desired one of those options. The numeral means the number of rooms. “K” means kitchen. “D” means dining room. “L” means living room.

[0074] The category “floor number” provides four selectable options “apartment type”, “single floor building”, “two floors building” and “three floors building”. The user may select desired one of those options.

[0075] The category “area” provides nine selectable options “not more than 40 m2”, “41-60 m2”, “61-80 m2”, “81-100 m2”, “101-120 m2”, “121-140 m2”, “141-160 m2”, “161-180 m2”, and “181 m2 or more”. The user may select desired one of those options.

[0076] After the entry of the basic information through the Web-page has been completed, then in step 202, selection of detailed structures for each floor is made. FIG. 6 is a view of one typical example of the Web-page which enables the user to select detailed structures for each floor in accordance with the house plan. For each floor, the user may select various options, for example, the number of entrance, one of “single living, single dining and single kitchen (LDK1)”, “two livings, two dinings and two kitchens (LDK2)”, “single living and single dining (LD1)”, “two livings and two dinings (LD2)”, “single dining (D1)”, “two dinings (D2)”, “single living (L1)”, “two livings (L2)”, “single kitchen (K1)”, “two kitchens (K2)”, “one bathroom”, “one washroom”, “one toilet”, “one stairs”, “single Japanese style room”, “two Japanese style rooms”, “three Japanese style rooms”, “four Japanese style rooms”, “five Japanese style rooms”, “six Japanese style rooms”, “single Western style room”, “two Western style rooms”, “three Western style rooms”, “four Western style rooms”, “five Western style rooms”, “six Western style rooms”, “single closet” “two closets” and “single garage”.

[0077] After the selection of the detailed structures in step 202 has been completed, then in step 205, further selections of directions and positions of the selected rooms are made through the Web-page. FIG. 7 is a view of one typical example of the Web-page which enables the user to select directions and positions of the selected rooms. For each room, the user may select one of eight directions and positions options, for example, “north”, “north west”, “west”, “south west”, “south”, “south east”, “east” and “north east”. The category “north” means that the room is positioned at “north” side of the center of the floor. The category “north west” means that the room is positioned at “north west” side of the center of the floor The category “west” means that the room is positioned at “west” side of the center of the floor. The category “south west” means that the room is positioned at “south west” side of the center of the floor. The category “south” means that the room is positioned at “south” side of the center of the floor. The category “south east” means that the room is positioned at “south east” side of the center of the floor. The category “east” means that the room is positioned at “east” side of the center of the floor The category “north east” means that the room is positioned at “north east” side of the center of the floor.

[0078] A single set of the above steps 202 and 205 is to enter the necessary informations about the house plan for one floor. If in the step 201, the apartment type or the single floor building is selected, then the entry process has been completed.

[0079] If in the step 201, however, the two floors building is selected, then further step 203 and subsequent step 206 will be carried out for the second floor, wherein the step 203 is substantially identical with the above step 202, while the step 206 is substantially identical with the above step 205. Duplicate descriptions will thus be avoided.

[0080] If in the step 201, however, the three floors building is selected, then furthermore step 204 and subsequent step 207 will be carried out for the third floor, wherein the step 204 is substantially identical with the above step 202, while the step 207 is substantially identical with the above step 205. Duplicate descriptions will thus be avoided.

[0081] After the entry of the information about the house plan for all floors has been completed, then in step S208, the retrieval process starts. The house plan retrieval is carried out by the house plan retrieval engine 102 as follows.

[0082] FIG. 8 is a pan view of one example of the layout on one floor. FIG. 9 is a table showing layout data in connection with the example shown in FIG. 8. The house plan data base 101 shown in FIG. 3 stores a large number of house plan data, each of which includes attribute informations as shown in FIG. 9. The attribute informations correspond to the user's entered layout information for each floor. In accordance with the example shown in FIG. 9, the attribute informations corresponding to the user's entered layout information for each floor are represented by binary digits “0” and “1”. The digit “1” means the designation, while another digit “0” means non-designation. For example, the “entrance 1” is assigned with a direction “east” to place the “entrance 1” in the “east” side from the center of the floor. The “entrance 2” is assigned with no direction, whereby the “entrance 2” is not placed in this floor. The “LDK1”, “LDK2”, “LD1”, “LD2”, “D1”, “D2”, “L1” and “L2” are assigned with no directions for non-placement thereof. The “K1” is assigned with directions “south” and “southeast” to place the kitchen “K1” in the “south-southeast” from the center of the floor.

[0083] FIG. 10 is a flow chart of sequential operations of the house plan retrieval engine included in the system of FIG. 3.

[0084] In step 801, the house plan retrieval engine 102 receives the user's entered layout informations for each floor, which are entered through the terminal 103 by the user 104, and refers the received layout informations to the attribute informations of the layout data stored in the house plan data base 101. In the step 802, the house plan retrieval engine 102 extracts the layout data which are identical with or similar to the attribute informations from the house plan data base 101.

[0085] It is possible that a plurality of layout data is extracted. A determination standard for the similarity is as follows. All of the user's entered layout information or position of part of the rooms are identical with the positions of the rooms described in the attribute data included in the layout data base 101, then the layout data having these attribute data are considered to be the layout data which are similar to the entered layout information.

[0086] A general definition of the living or dining is somewhat vague. The decision of the living or dining depends on the user's decision. FIG. 11 is a view of an example of the group of respective rooms of the same attribute type. In this example, living “L”, living-dining “LD”, dining-kitchen “DK”, living-dining-kitchen “LDK”, western-style-room “WR”, and Japanese-style group “JR” may be considered to be in the same attribute group. This grouping reduces an undesired possibility of excluding desired layout data. This grouping may be accomplished in accordance with the predetermined standard.

[0087] The definition on the direction of each room may depend on the user's decision. FIG. 12 is a view of an example of a possible range in direction with reference to the user's designated direction. If the user designated the direction “south” for a room, then not only the direction “south” but also adjacent directions “southwest” and “southeast” may be included for the subjects for retrieval to reduce any undesired possibility of exclusion of the desired layout data.

[0088] In consideration of the equivocation in retrieval process, it is possible to reduce the undesired possibility of excluding the desired layout data, while it is necessary to extract an optimum one of the layout data as close to the user's desire as possible from a plurality of retrieval-matched layout data. FIG. 13 is a view of one typical example of the Web-page as an user's interface to a final house plan extraction mechanism. The left-half region includes an alignment of size-reduced images 301, 302, and 305 and another alignment of down-load button switches 302, 304 and 306. The images 301, 302, and 305 show the retrieved layouts by the house plan retrieval engine 102. The right-half region includes a detailed layout image 307. This Web-page is displayed on the display of the terminal 103. The user 104 may review the size-reduced images 301, 302, and 305 comprehensively to designate the closest layout to the user's desire. The designated layout image is displayed in detail as the detailed layout image 307, so as to enable the user to review the designated layout image 307. After the user 104 confirmed the designated layout image 307, then the user 104 pushes down one down-load button switch which corresponds to the designated size-reduced image for down-loading the selected layout data.

[0089] FIG. 14 is a view of another example of definition of the rooms based on predetermined partitions. As shown in FIG. 14, the entirety of one floor is divided into 3×3 matrix of nine partitions P11, P12, P13, P21, P22, P23, P31, P32 and P33. This 3×3 matrix is one example, but other examples of division may be possible.

[0090] It is unnecessary for the user to enter the layout for wave-propagation evaluation. The user is required to only retrieve or select the desired layout data from a large number of layout data stored in the data base, for the wave-propagation evaluation to the user's retrieved layout. The above system and method are to be applied not only to the retrieval of the layout which is to be evaluated on the wave-propagation property, but also to making the house plan for building a house or reform of the house.

[0091] The above described operations or processes may be implemented by the computer program which may be stored in any available storage medium and executed by any available processor.

[0092] In accordance with the present invention, a large number of layout data are stored in a data base. The house plan retrieval engine is used to retrieve the layout data closest to the user's desired layout data from the data base without any complicated and time-consuming entry procedures.

[0093] It is preferable that the layout data stored in the data base may include the property data for the in-house structures including walls, floors, roofs and any other fixtures, in order to reduce the load to the entry procedures.

[0094] It is also preferable that the house plan retrieval engine and the data base are placed over any available network such as the Internet to realize the uniform maintenance and management and to improve the efficiency in addition or revision of the house plan data or layout data.

[0095] It is also preferable that the user's desired layout information may be entered through the Web-page provided by the house plan retrieval engine to realize the interactive entry system so that the user free of sufficient and special knowledge can easily retrieve the closest layout or house plan to the user's desire, for the purpose of not only evaluation on the wave-propagation property, but also for building a new house or reform of the existent house.

[0096] Although the invention has been described above in connection with several preferred embodiments therefor, it will be appreciated that those embodiments have been provided solely for illustrating the invention, and not in a limiting sense. Numerous modifications and substitutions of equivalent materials and techniques will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art after reading the present application, and all such modifications and substitutions are expressly understood to fall within the true scope and spirit of the appended claims.

Claims

1. A system for retrieving building structure data, said system including:

a building structure data base storing a plurality of house plan data and a plurality of attribution information, each corresponding to each of said plurality of house plan data; and

a retrieval unit for retrieving said data base,

wherein said retrieval unit further includes:

an extraction unit for referring said plurality of attribution information to a desired house plan information entered externally, and extracting at least one house plan data which has an attribution information identical or similar to said desired house plan information.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said retrieval unit furthermore include a presenting unit functionally coupled to said extraction unit for receiving said extracted at least one house plan data and presenting said extracted at least one house plan data.

3. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said plurality of attribution information include a positional information of each room and said desired house plan information includes said positional information of each room.

4. The system as claimed in claim 3, wherein said positional information of each room is represented based on a direction with reference to a center of each floor.

5. The system as claimed in claim 3, wherein said positional information of each room is represented based on one of partitions divided from an entirety of each floor.

6. The system as claimed in claim 3, wherein said extraction unit extracts at least one house plan data which has an attribution information identical or similar to at least a part of said positional information of each room included in said desired house plan information.

7. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said extraction unit extracts at least one house plan data which has an attribution information belonging to one of predetermined groups for said desired house plan information.

8. The system as claimed in claim 3, wherein said extraction unit extracts at least one house plan data which has an attribution information identical to not only a room just designated based on said desired house plan information but also at least one adjacent room to said room just designated.

9. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said extraction unit is functionally coupled through a network to at least a terminal which is operable by a user.

10. The system as claimed in claim 9, wherein said extraction unit comprises a retrieval engine which provides a Web-page which enables said user to make an interactive entry procedure for entering said desired house plan information.

11. The system as claimed in claim 9, wherein said building structure data base and said retrieval unit are placed over a network so that said building structure data base is uniformly maintained and managed through said network.

12. A method of retrieving building structure data, said method including the steps of:

referring a plurality of attribution information, each of which corresponds to each of a plurality of house plan data which are included in building structure data stored in a building structure data base, to a desired house plan information entered externally; and

extracting at least one house plan data which has an attribution information which is identical or similar to said desired house plan information.

13. The method as claimed in claim 12, further including the step of:

receiving said extracted at least one house plan data and presenting said extracted at least one house plan data.

14. The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein said plurality of attribution information include a positional information of each room and said desired house plan information includes said positional information of each room.

15. The method as claimed in claim 14, wherein said positional information of each room is represented based on a direction with reference to a center of each floor.

16. The method as claimed in claim 14, wherein said positional information of each room is represented based on one of partitions divided from an entirety of each floor.

17. The method as claimed in claim 14, wherein said extraction step extracts at least one house plan data which has an attribution information identical or similar to at least a part of said positional information of each room included in said desired house plan information.

18. The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein said extraction step extracts at least one house plan data which has an attribution information belonging to one of predetermined groups for said desired house plan information.

19. The method as claimed in claim 14, wherein said extraction step extracts at least one house plan data which has an attribution information identical to not only a room just designated based on said desired house plan information but also at least one adjacent room to said room just designated.