JP2000004427A - Index information service presenting method used for digital broadcast, digital broadcast transmitter, digital broadcast receiver and data structure of digital broadcast - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an index information service which adds index information used to locate each of plural units in a program to the program and transmits the resulting program. SOLUTION: A program transmitter side applies invalidation to limit use of index information to each unit being an addition object of the index information and adds a validation signal that is used to validate, that is, to release the limited use of the index information to the invalidated unit to an extractable area attended with decoding a specific part in the program and transmits the resulting program. On the other hand, a program receiver side sequentially extracts the validated signal from the extractable area attended with decoding the specific part in the program and uses the extracted validated signal to apply validation to the unit that is invalidated thereby acquiring the index information.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a digital broadcast for encoding and broadcasting a program, and more particularly, to adding index information used for specifying each unit to a plurality of units in a program. The index information service to be transmitted by the broadcaster restricts the use of the index information by viewers who do not follow the intention of the program provider, and selectively selects, for example, a unit part including a commercial message of a program providing sponsor, a so-called CM. The present invention relates to a method for providing an index information service used for digital broadcasting, a digital broadcasting transmitting device, a digital broadcasting receiving device, and a data structure of digital broadcasting that can be provided in a form that can meet a viewer's desire to cut out and view.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, social infrastructure related to digital broadcasting has been rapidly improved in addition to existing terrestrial broadcasting.

The digital broadcasting system currently operated in Japan employs a system for encoding and broadcasting a program including a plurality of time-series signals such as video, audio, and various data streams. The encoding and decoding are performed in accordance with the MPEG-2 Systems standard, which is an international standard suitable for broadcasting and communication media. In addition, MPEG-2 Syst
ems is defined by the international standard ISO / IEC 13818-1.

By the way, the above-mentioned digital broadcasting system is
For example, a method in which a program is divided into a plurality of unit parts, and so-called index information including time information used for specifying each unit part is added to the plurality of unit parts constituting the program and transmitted. Is not specified.

[0005] However, if index information is added to a plurality of unit parts in a program and transmitted, the index information can be used, for example, to reconstruct the program on the viewer side. Thus, the effective use of digital broadcast content, such as selectively cutting out a partial video that matches the user's preference, can be drastically promoted.

[0006]

Considering the framework of the current technology, an example of trial for adding index information to a plurality of unit parts in a program is given below. EIT (Event Information) standardized as program sequence information in B10)
(Table: event information table) An operation method that divides an event into a plurality of unit parts using event information including a program, that is, event start time and duration, or an index for a plurality of unit parts in a program A method of newly providing a description table in which information is described and conforms to the EIT can be proposed.

[0007] However, in the above-described form of adding two pieces of index information, if index information is added to a unit portion including a CM (hereinafter, abbreviated as a “CM portion”), for example, Since it is easy for the viewer to determine from the index information that the CM is included in the unit, the viewer can play back the program once accumulated by skipping the CM, or There is a possibility that the viewer side may use index information that does not match the intention of the program provider, such as skipping and storing.

Therefore, in order to avoid the above situation, a method of not adding index information to the CM part, or a method of making it impossible to distinguish the CM part from the main part including the substantial contents of the program. An operation method such as a method of dividing a program into a plurality of unit parts can be considered.

However, according to the former method, there is a risk that the viewer may determine that a CM is inserted in a unit portion to which no index information is added, so that the above situation is avoided beforehand. Challenges cannot be completely eliminated.

According to the latter method, the problem of avoiding the above-mentioned situation can be solved, but conversely, it is necessary to selectively cut out the CM portion and view the viewer's request. Causes a new problem to be solved.

[0011] Therefore, an index information service for adding index information used for specifying each unit to a plurality of unit parts in a program and transmitting the index information is provided by an index by a viewer who does not follow the intention of the program provider. While restricting the use of information, and for example, CM
Development of a new technology that can be provided in a form that can respond to a viewer's desire to selectively cut out and view portions has long been awaited among the parties concerned.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides an index information service for transmitting, to a plurality of unit parts in a program, index information used for specifying each unit part. A digital format that can restrict the use of index information by viewers who do not follow the program provider's intention and can also respond to the viewer's desire to selectively cut out and view the CM portion, for example. Index information service providing method used for broadcasting, digital broadcast transmitting apparatus,
It is an object to provide a digital broadcast receiving apparatus and a data structure of digital broadcast.

[0013]

In order to solve the above problems, the invention of claim 1 is used for digital broadcasting for encoding and broadcasting a program. An index information service providing method for adding and transmitting index information used for specifying each unit portion, wherein the program sending side includes:
For each unit part to which the index information is added,
The invalidation that is performed to restrict the use of the corresponding index information is performed, and the validity that is used when the use restriction of the index information corresponding to the unit part that is invalidated is released is performed. The transmission signal is added to an area that can be extracted along with the decoding of a specific portion in the program, and the receiving side of the program activates from the area that can be extracted along with the decoding of the specific portion in the program. The gist of the present invention is to sequentially extract signals, and to use the extracted validation signal to perform the validation on the invalidated unit part to obtain corresponding index information.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, first, the program sending side invalidates, for each unit such as an event to which index information is to be added, the use restriction of the corresponding index information. In advance, an enable signal used to perform an enable to release the restriction on use of the index information corresponding to the unit part to which the disable is applied is extracted along with decoding of a specific part in the program. It is added to the area to be obtained and transmitted.

On the other hand, the receiving side of the program sequentially extracts the enabling signal from an area that can be extracted with decoding of a specific portion in the program, and uses the extracted enabling signal to
The corresponding index information is obtained by performing the validation on the invalidated unit part.

In other words, the program receiving side validates the index information corresponding to the unit corresponding to the validation signal until the specific portion in the program transmitted with the validation signal added is decoded. Since this cannot be done, this index information cannot be obtained.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, for example, on the program sending side, a unit including a CM and unit units before and after the unit are invalidated, and each unit is invalidated. Is added to an area that can be extracted along with CM decoding and transmitted.
The receiving side of the program cannot acquire the index information used to specify each unit portion until the program unit actually decodes the unit portion including the CM, and therefore, skips the CM referring to the index information. For example, the use of index information that does not meet the intention of the program provider is limited.

However, if, for example, the entire program including the CM portion is decoded and viewed and then all index information is validated so that the use restriction is released, the above release condition is satisfied. When satisfied, C
As a result that the M part can be easily specified,
It becomes possible to select and view the CM portion.

Therefore, according to the first aspect of the present invention, an index information service for adding index information to a plurality of unit parts in a program and transmitting the index information is provided by a viewer who does not follow the intention of the program provider. , While providing a form that can meet the viewer's desire to selectively cut out and view a unit portion including a CM of a program providing sponsor, for example.

Further, according to the invention of claim 2, the program is a time-series program constituted by a time-series signal, and the index information includes a start time, a continuation time, The gist of the present invention is to include a time or an end time, or a description that describes the corresponding unit.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the program is a time-series program composed of time-series signals, and the index information includes a start time, a continuation time, or a start time for specifying a corresponding unit part. Since the end time or the description describing the corresponding unit part is included, therefore, for example, when the start time and duration of the corresponding unit part are defined as index information, the corresponding unit part In addition to this, if a description of the corresponding unit is defined as index information, the description of the corresponding unit, for example, whether the unit is CM or main part, is identified. can do.

Further, according to a third aspect of the present invention, the transmitting side of the program selectively invalidates, for each unit portion to which the index information is to be added, a restriction to use the corresponding index information. In addition, an enable signal used when performing an enable to cancel the use restriction of the index information corresponding to the unit part which is selectively applied is decoded by decoding a specific part in the program. In addition, the receiving side of the program sequentially extracts an enabling signal from an area that can be extracted along with decoding of a specific part in the program, and transmits the extracted enabling signal. The gist of the present invention is to acquire the corresponding index information by performing the validation on the unit part that has been selectively rendered invalid by using.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the program transmitting side first selects, for each unit such as an event to which index information is to be added, invalidation for restricting use of the corresponding index information. The activation signal used to perform the activation to release the restriction on the use of the index information corresponding to the unit part that has been selectively invalidated is transmitted to a specific part in the program. Is added to an area that can be extracted with the decoding of the data and transmitted.

On the other hand, the receiving side of the program sequentially extracts an enabling signal from an area that can be extracted along with decoding of a specific portion in the program, and uses the extracted enabling signal to
The corresponding index information is acquired by performing the validation on the unit part that has been selectively invalidated.

As described above, the transmitting side of the program, for each unit such as an event to which index information is to be added,
Since the invalidation of restricting the use of the corresponding index information can be selectively performed, therefore, for example, while the unit of the program which the program provider wants to restrict the use of the index information is invalidated, It is possible to carry out selective invalidation according to the program provider's intention, such as not invalidating unit parts that the program provider does not consider necessary to restrict the use of index information. As a result, an index information service that faithfully reflects the intention of the program provider can be provided.

Still further, in the invention according to claim 4, the invalidation is executed by encrypting a part or all of the index information, while the validation is performed by using the encryption signal as the validation signal. The gist of the present invention is to execute by decrypting the encrypted index information using a decryption key.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the invalidation is performed by encrypting a part or all of the index information, while the validation is performed by using a decryption key of the encryption as the validation signal. Since this is performed by decrypting the encrypted index information, the index information service can be provided while maintaining the confidentiality of the index information.

Further, in the invention according to claim 5, the invalidation is performed by disabling useless information or index information that does not meet the intention of the program provider as the index information. On the other hand, the validation is performed by using incomplete information including the index information, and the validation signal is used as the validation signal using information that is more complete than the incomplete information including the index information itself. Is performed by overwriting or supplementing the incomplete information so as to fill in the difference.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the invalidation is performed by using, as the index information, meaningless information or information which disturbs the use of the index information which is not intended by the program provider. Activation is performed by using incomplete information, including
By using information that is more complete than incomplete information including the index information itself, the validation signal is executed by overwriting the incomplete information or supplementing the incomplete information to fill in the difference.

According to a fifth embodiment of the present invention, for example, in the case of invalidation, general information including a large amount of errors is used as index information while invalidation is performed. As a signal, using detailed information that does not include an error, an enabling signal containing detailed information is overwritten on the outline information, or, at the time of invalidation, index information is used as the index information, and low-level outline information is used. On the other hand, at the time of activation, detailed information with a high degree of fulfillment is used as the activation signal, and the activation signal including the detailed information is executed in such a form as to supplement the outline information so as to fill the difference. ,
Therefore, it is possible to provide an index information service with a high degree of freedom that can freely reflect the intention of the program provider.

Further, according to the invention of claim 6, the invalidation includes:
For each unit part to which the index information is added,
It is assumed that the use restriction is performed in a state where the information richness indicating the degree of completeness of the corresponding index information is set in a plurality of stages, and in this case, the enabling signal is accompanied by decoding of a specific part in the program. The gist is that transmission is performed by being added to a plurality of areas corresponding to the plurality of stages among the areas that can be extracted.

According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, the invalidation is performed in a state where the information enrichment indicating the degree of completeness of the corresponding index information is set in a plurality of stages for each unit part to which the index information is added. In this case, the use restriction is performed. In this case, the enabling signal is transmitted by being added to a plurality of areas corresponding to a plurality of stages, among the areas that can be extracted along with the decoding of the specific portion in the program.

That is, for example, as a form of invalidation,
For each unit to which the index information is added, the degree of information enrichment of the corresponding index information is set to “low”,
Assuming that the use restriction is performed in a state set in three levels of “medium” and “high”, in this case, the enable signal is one of the above-mentioned regions that can be extracted along with decoding of a specific part in the program. The transmission is performed by being added to three areas corresponding to the three stages. Therefore, it is possible to perform an operation of updating the index information to information of higher quality gradually through multiple updates. As a result, compared to the invention of claim 5, it is possible to provide an index information service having a very high degree of freedom, which can more freely reflect the intention of the program provider.

Further, according to the present invention, the enabling signal transmitted in addition to the plurality of areas corresponding to the plurality of steps includes a priority relationship between the plurality of steps corresponding to each of the plurality of steps. It is the gist that is to be taken.

According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, the enabling signal transmitted by being added to the plurality of areas corresponding to the plurality of stages includes a priority relationship between the corresponding stages corresponding to each of the plurality of stages. Therefore, for example, when performing the validation on the receiving side, the priority of the validation signal acquired this time,
If the priority is higher than the priority of the previously obtained enable signal, the corresponding index information is obtained using the enable signal obtained this time, while the priority of the enable signal obtained this time is
If the priority is lower than the priority of the previously obtained enable signal, it is possible to perform an operation such as not to obtain index information using the enable signal obtained this time. As compared with the above, it is possible to provide an index information service having a very high degree of freedom that can reflect the intention of the program provider more freely.

Still further, according to the invention of claim 8, the receiving side of the program extracts an enabling signal transmitted by being added to a plurality of areas corresponding to the plurality of stages, and the extracted enabling signal is extracted. When the index information of the corresponding unit portion is validated by using, the information for determining whether or not the information enrichment of the validated index information has final completeness is not added. Make a summary.

According to the eighth aspect of the present invention, the receiving side of the program extracts an enabling signal transmitted by being added to a plurality of areas corresponding to a plurality of stages, and using the extracted enabling signal, When the index information of the corresponding unit part is validated, information for determining whether the information richness of the validated index information has final completeness is not added, and therefore, For example, on the receiving side, when a certain unit part is skipped and viewed, when the index information of the corresponding unit part is activated, the information enrichment of the activated index information indicates the final completeness. It is impossible to determine whether or not it is provided. Specifically, first, for example, in the EIT, the priority “1” is set.
The index information with a certain degree of information enrichment is set in advance, and in the CM part, priority “3”, “5”,
Index information such as "7" that gradually increases the information quality is added and transmitted, and the subsequent main part is designed to disturb unauthorized users of the index information. Assuming that random index information is added with a priority of "6" and transmitted, if correct reception is performed in sequence on the receiving side, index information with a high degree of information enrichment of the priority "7" will eventually be obtained. Remains,
In the case of skipping the CM portion and viewing the content, the randomness of the index information with low priority "6" remains low.
As a result, an index information service with a remarkably high degree of freedom that can reflect the intention of the program provider more freely than the inventions of claims 5 to 7 can be achieved. Can be provided.

Further, according to the ninth aspect of the present invention, the encoding is performed in conformity with the MPEG-2 Systems standard, and the area which can be extracted along with decoding of a specific portion in the program is an element. The gist is that a region inserted into a signal of a specific portion in the program on the mental stream, the packetized elementary stream, or the transport stream is adopted.

According to the ninth aspect of the present invention, the encoding is
This is performed in accordance with the MPEG-2 Systems standard, and the area that can be extracted with decoding of a specific part in a program is an elementary stream, a packetized elementary stream, or a transport stream. Above, the area inserted in the signal of the specific part in the program is adopted,
Therefore, in view of the positional relationship between the respective areas in the data structure of the MPEG-2 Systems, the elementary stream packetized from the transport stream, the elementary stream from the packetized elementary stream, and the upper layer As the number of insertions increases, it becomes more difficult to illegally use the enable signal and, consequently, the index information. As a result, the index information having a high degree of freedom can freely reflect the intention of the program provider with respect to the level of confidentiality of the index information. Service can be provided.

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, the encoding is performed in conformity with the MPEG-2 Systems standard, and the area which can be extracted along with the decoding of a specific portion in the program includes: The gist is that the description area of the pay-broadcast-related information is adopted.

According to the tenth aspect of the present invention, the encoding is performed in accordance with the MPEG-2 Systems standard. Information, for example, ECM (Entitlement Control Message), or a description area such as EMM (Entitlement Management Message) is adopted, therefore, instead of a form of indiscriminately transmitting the enable signal to the receiving side, for example,
The activation signal can be transmitted only to a specific pay broadcast receiver.

An eleventh aspect of the present invention is a digital broadcast transmitting apparatus for encoding and broadcasting a program, wherein for each of a plurality of unit parts constituting the program, an index used for specifying the unit part is used. An invalidating means for invalidating the use restriction of the information, and an enabling signal used when releasing the use restriction of the index information corresponding to the unit part which is invalidated by the invalidating means. And an enabling signal transmitting means for transmitting the signal by adding it to an area which can be taken out along with decoding of a specific portion in the program.

According to the eleventh aspect of the present invention, first, the invalidating means invalidates, for each of a plurality of unit parts constituting a program, a restriction on the use of index information used for specifying this unit part. On the other hand, the enabling signal transmitting means transmits an enabling signal used for releasing the restriction on use of the index information corresponding to the unit part which has been invalidated by the invalidating means to a specific part in the program. Therefore, an index information service that adds index information to a plurality of unit parts in a program and transmits the same is transmitted in a manner not intended by the program provider. While restricting the use of index information by
It is possible to obtain a digital broadcast transmission device that can be provided in a form that can meet a viewer's desire to selectively cut out and view a unit part including a CM of a program providing sponsor.

In a twelfth aspect of the present invention, the invalidating means invalidates, for each of a plurality of unit parts constituting the program, a restriction on use of index information used for specifying the unit part. And the validating signal transmitting means is used when releasing the use restriction of the index information corresponding to the unit part selectively invalidated by the invalidating means. Enable signal
The gist is that transmission is performed by adding to a region that can be taken out along with decoding of a specific portion in the program.

According to the twelfth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to selectively invalidate the use restriction of the corresponding index information for each of a plurality of unit parts such as events constituting a program. For example, a unit portion that the program provider wants to restrict the use of index information is invalidated, while a unit portion that the program provider does not need to restrict the use of index information is invalidated. Digital broadcasting transmitting apparatus capable of providing an index information service that faithfully reflects the intention of the program provider as a result of the selective invalidation according to the intention of the program provider. Can be obtained.

A thirteenth aspect of the present invention is a digital broadcast receiving apparatus for receiving and decoding a program, wherein the digital broadcast receiving apparatus is provided for each of a plurality of unit parts constituting the program, An enabling signal extracting means for extracting an enabling signal used when releasing the invalidation of restricting the use of the index information used in the program along with decoding of a specific portion in the program, and the enabling signal Index information obtaining means for obtaining the index information by releasing the restriction on the use of the index information corresponding to the unit part on which the invalidation has been performed, using the validation signal extracted by the extraction means. The gist is to be composed.

According to the thirteenth aspect of the present invention, first, the enabling signal extracting means uses index information, which is applied to each of a plurality of unit parts constituting a program and is used for specifying this unit part. While the validity signal used for releasing the invalidation for performing the restriction is extracted along with the decoding of the specific part in the program, the index information acquiring means is the validity signal extracted by the validity signal extracting means. , The index information is obtained by releasing the restriction on the use of the index information corresponding to the invalidated unit part. Therefore, the index information is added to a plurality of unit parts in the program. In addition to restricting the use of index information by viewers who do not follow the program provider's intention, If, it is possible to obtain a digital broadcast receiver capable of providing a form capable of meeting also the needs of the viewer side wants to view unit portion including the CM program providing sponsor selectively cut out.

According to a fourteenth aspect of the present invention, the validity signal extracting means is an index which is selectively applied to each of a plurality of unit parts constituting the program and is used when specifying the unit part. An enable signal used for canceling the invalidation of restricting the use of information is extracted along with decoding of a specific part in the program, and the index information obtaining means includes the enable signal. By using the validation signal extracted by the extraction means, the use of the index information corresponding to the unit part that has been selectively invalidated is released and the use of the index information is released to acquire the index information. Make a summary.

According to the fourteenth aspect, the index information can be obtained by releasing the restriction on the use of the index information corresponding to the unit part that has been selectively invalidated. A digital broadcast receiving apparatus capable of providing an index information service that faithfully reflects the intention of the provider can be obtained.

According to a fifteenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a data structure of a digital broadcast for encoding and broadcasting a program, wherein a restriction on use of index information used when specifying a plurality of unit parts constituting the program is set. The gist is that an enabling signal used for canceling is added to an area which can be taken out with decoding of a specific portion in the program.

According to the fifteenth aspect of the present invention, the enabling signal used for releasing the restriction on the use of the index information used for specifying a plurality of unit parts constituting the program is replaced with the enable signal of the specific part in the program. Since it is added to an area that can be taken out along with decoding, an index information service for transmitting index information by adding index information to a plurality of unit parts in a program is provided by a viewer who does not follow the intention of the program provider. A digital broadcast data structure that can be provided in a form that restricts the use of index information and that can meet the needs of viewers who want to selectively cut out and view a unit part including a CM of a program providing sponsor, for example. Can be obtained.

[0052]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a method for providing an index information service used for digital broadcasting according to the present invention will be described.
For each embodiment of the digital broadcast sending device, digital broadcast receiving device, and digital broadcast data structure,
This will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a digital broadcast transmitting / receiving system including a digital broadcast transmitting apparatus and a digital broadcast receiving apparatus to which the index information service providing method according to the present invention is applied.
3 to 3 are diagrams for explaining an index information service providing method according to the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a data structure of a first EIT according to the present invention in consideration of compatibility with a conventional EIT. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a data structure of a second EIT according to the present invention obtained by adding validation control to the conventional EIT, and FIG.
FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a data structure of a third EIT according to the present invention in which index information is converted into a descriptor based on the EIT in order to generalize the range of invalidation when invalidating index information.

First, prior to the description of the present invention, terms used in the present invention will be defined.

In a current digital broadcast, as a method of providing an index information service for transmitting a plurality of unit parts constituting a program, that is, an event, by adding index information used to specify and describe the event to the event, For example, EIT (Event Information T
able, ARIB STD B-10) may be used.

The EIT includes a plurality of pieces of information such as an event identifier, an event start time, an event time identification including an event continuation time or an event end time, and an event description including whether the event is a CM part or a main part. A table is created in association with each of a plurality of events. These pieces of information are transmitted as program arrangement information using an event information section, a short event descriptor, or an extended event descriptor, for example, as shown in FIG. An outline of this EIT is shown in FIG. 2 or FIG.

At present, what is called a program is operated as an event which is a unit of EIT. But,
It is also possible to operate a unit portion obtained by subdividing a program into a plurality of events as an event. Therefore, in the description of the embodiment according to the present invention, unless otherwise specified, a plurality of unit parts constituting a program will be treated as events.

Unless otherwise specified, the program includes at least one of a plurality of time-series signals such as video and audio streams and non-time-series signals such as character data. And a commercial message of a program providing sponsor, a so-called CM, which is appropriately interwoven. However, it should be added that the program targeted by the present invention includes a program that does not include a CM and includes one or more main programs.

Next, an outline of the present index information service providing method will be described below. The present index information service providing method is used for digital broadcasting in which a program including a time-series signal is encoded and broadcast, and for a plurality of unit parts constituting the program, index information used for specifying each unit part is provided. An index information service providing method for transmitting by adding, wherein a transmitting side of a program, for each unit portion to which index information is added,
The invalidation that the use restriction of the applicable index information is performed is performed, and the activation used when the use restriction of the index information corresponding to the invalidated unit part is released is performed. The signal is added to an area that can be extracted along with the decoding of a specific part in the program and transmitted. On the other hand, the receiving side of the program sequentially extracts the enable signal from the area that can be extracted along with the decoding of the specific part in the program. Then, by using the extracted validating signal, the corresponding index information is obtained by performing the validating on the unit part that has been invalidated.

According to the present index information service providing method, first, the transmitting side of the program invalidates the effect of restricting the use of the corresponding index information for each unit such as an event to which the index information is added. The activation signal used in performing the activation to release the use restriction of the index information corresponding to the unit part to which the invalidation has been performed is accompanied by the decoding of the specific part in the program. It is added to the area that can be extracted and transmitted.

On the other hand, the receiving side of the program sequentially extracts an enabling signal from an area that can be extracted along with decoding of a specific portion in the program, and uses the extracted enabling signal to
The corresponding index information is obtained by performing the validation on the invalidated unit part.

That is, the receiving side of the program validates the index information corresponding to the unit corresponding to the validation signal until decoding the specific portion in the transmitted program with the validation signal added. Since this cannot be done, this index information cannot be obtained.

For example, on a program sending side, a unit including a CM and unit units before and after the unit are invalidated, and an enable signal of each unit is decoded. When the program is transmitted after being added to an area that can be extracted with
Until the unit part including M is decoded, the index information used for specifying each unit part cannot be obtained. Therefore, the program provider may not be able to obtain the CM information by referring to the index information. It is possible to restrict the use of index information that is not intended.

However, if, for example, the entire program including the CM portion is decoded and viewed and then all index information is validated so that the use restriction is released, the above release condition is satisfied. When satisfied, C
As a result that the M part can be easily specified,
It becomes possible to select and view the CM portion.

Therefore, according to the present index information service providing method, an index information service for transmitting index information to a plurality of unit parts in a program by adding index information to a plurality of unit parts is provided by a viewer who does not follow the intention of the program provider. While restricting the use of information,
Thus, the present invention can be provided in a form that can respond to a viewer's request to selectively cut out and view a unit portion including a CM of a program providing sponsor.

Next, the details of the present index information service providing method will be described below by exemplifying a case using the EIT of the current digital broadcast.

In the present invention, when a program is transmitted with an EIT added thereto, it is selected to invalidate index information used for specifying an event from a program signal, that is, for example, an event start time and an event duration. It can be so. Whether to invalidate and transmit is selected for each event, and this selection information is transmitted together with the EIT as activation control information. The validation control information can be omitted when performing an operation of invalidating all events, or performing an operation of inserting a meaningless value or a provisional value as invalidation, or the like. .

Here, the invalidation means that the use of the corresponding index information is restricted, although the specific method will be described later, and the state where the index information cannot be used unless the enable signal is applied. That means. The EIT shown in FIG. 2 is a state at the time of transmission, that is, an initial state on the receiving side. The invalidated index information is indicated by hatching.

Further, according to the present invention, the transmitting side of the program sends out the enabling signal together with the sending out of the program signal. The receiving side of the program sequentially activates the index information described in the EIT by using the received activation signal. For example, FIG.
Now, the current time point is a point in the middle of CM2 and CM1
The index information of the main part “KI” and the main part “OK” is validated and usable, but the index information after CM2 is still invalidated and cannot be used. The viewer knows that the CM has started, but cannot view the CM by skipping the CM part using the index information.

If the index information is available, if the program is to be watched in real time, the program may flirt until the time of the next main program, or after storing the program once, If it is a storage-type viewing that you play and watch, you can fast forward to the next main story,
There is a possibility that such commercials will be skipped and viewed. Therefore, in the present invention, use of the index information of the CM 2 is restricted unless the CM 2 is properly viewed.

Next, in the present index information service providing method, FIGS. 3A to 3C show three modes (1) to (3) which are used when an enabling signal of each event is added to a program and transmitted. It will be described with reference to FIG.

(1) A mode in which the enable signal of each event is added to any one or more portions in the time of the event and transmitted (example of CM1 in FIG. 3). In this case, the use restriction of the index information of the event is released only after decoding each event. That is, C
If the user does not watch M, the index information of the corresponding CM cannot be used.

(2) A mode in which the enable signal of each event is added to any one or more portions in the time after the event and transmitted (example of CM2 in FIG. 3).
In this case, the use restriction on the index information of the event is released only after each event has been decoded.
That is, the index information of the corresponding CM cannot be used until after the CM ends. In (1), when the enable signal is obtained in the middle of the CM, the end of the CM may be known at that time and skipped, but in (2), this can be avoided.

(3) A mode in which the enable signal of each event is added to any one or two or more points in the CM time and transmitted (FIG. 3, example of the CM3 part). Only after decoding the CM, the use restriction of the index information of each event is released. Anyway, other index information cannot be used unless the CM is viewed.
In (2), it is conceivable that even if the end point of the CM is not known, the index information of the CM may be known by trying to skip to the next event (main part) once. Then you can avoid this.

Next, a digital broadcast transmitting apparatus and a digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

As shown in FIG. 1, the digital broadcast transmitting / receiving system 1 to which the index information service providing method according to the present invention is applied includes a digital broadcast transmitting device 3 and a digital broadcast receiving device 5. .

The digital broadcast transmitting apparatus 3 is, for example, a program reproducing unit 7 such as a VTR (Video Tape Recroder) for reproducing a program stored in advance and transmitting a program signal.
And an activation signal transmission unit 9 for generating and transmitting an activation signal used for performing an activation to release the use restriction of the index information corresponding to each event, and a transmission from the activation signal transmission unit 9. A program signal encoder 11 that adds the encoded enable signal to a region of the program signal transmitted from the program reproducing unit 7 that can be extracted along with decoding of a specific portion and encodes the signal. EIT that sends the EIT with the description added in the form of
A transmission unit 13, an encoded output transmitted from the program signal encoder 11, and an E output transmitted from the EIT transmission unit 13.
And a multiplexing unit 15 for multiplexing and transmitting IT. The correspondence between each component in the claims and each component of the digital broadcast transmitting apparatus 3 is as follows. The invalidating means corresponds to the EIT transmitting unit 13, and the enabling signal transmitting means corresponds to the program signal encoder. 11 and the multiplexing unit 15.

On the other hand, the digital broadcast receiving apparatus 5 includes a multiplexing / demultiplexing section 17 for separating and extracting a program including a multiplexed time-series signal transmitted from the transmitting side into a program signal and an EIT, A program signal decoder 19 for decoding the program signal extracted by
9, a program display unit 21 for displaying a program according to the decoded output sent from the program output unit 9, and an enable signal added to an area which can be taken out of the decoded output sent from the program signal decoder 19 along with decoding of a specific portion. The validating signal extracting unit 23 to be extracted, the EIT validating unit 25 for validating the corresponding index information included in the EIT using the validating signal extracted by the validating signal extracting unit 23, and the demultiplexing unit 17 The EIT extraction unit 27 for extracting the EIT extracted in the above, and the EIT extracted by the EIT extraction unit 27,
An EIT reconfiguration unit 29 that reconfigures based on the index information validated by the EIT validation unit 25, and an EIT use unit that uses the EIT reconfigured by the EIT reconfiguration unit 29 for a purpose such as identification of an event. 31. In addition, the correspondence between each component in the claims and each component of the digital broadcast receiving apparatus 5 is described. The enabling signal extracting means corresponds to the program signal decoder 19 and the enabling signal extracting unit 23. The index information obtaining means is:
This corresponds to the EIT validating unit 25 and the EIT reconfiguring unit 29.

Next, the operation of the digital broadcast transmitting apparatus 3 will be described. First, the EIT transmitting section 13 restricts the use of the corresponding index information for each unit such as an event to which index information is to be added. Is invalidated for all unit parts or selectively as necessary, and an EIT including the invalidated index information is transmitted. On the other hand, the program signal encoder 11 and the multiplexing unit 15 convert the enable signal used for canceling the restriction on the use of the index information corresponding to the unit part which has been invalidated, into the program, Is added to an area that can be extracted along with the decoding of the specific part in the above and transmitted.

Therefore, according to the digital broadcast transmitting apparatus 3, an index information service for transmitting index information to a plurality of unit parts in a program by adding the index information to a plurality of unit parts is provided by a viewer who does not follow the program provider's intention. , While providing a form that can meet the viewer's desire to selectively cut out and view a unit portion including a CM of a program providing sponsor, for example.

When invalidation for restricting use of the corresponding index information is selectively performed for each of a plurality of unit parts such as events constituting a program, for example,
The unit that the program provider wants to restrict the use of index information is invalidated, while the unit that the program provider does not need to restrict the use of index information is not invalidated. Such invalidation can be selectively performed according to the intention of the program provider, and as a result, an index information service that faithfully reflects the intention of the program provider can be provided.

Next, the operation of the digital broadcast receiving apparatus 5 will be described. First, the program signal decoder 19 and the enabling signal extracting unit 23 are used for enabling a plurality of unit parts such as each event. A signal is extracted along with decoding of a specific part in a program. On the other hand, E
The IT validating unit 25 and the EIT reconfiguring unit 29 release the restriction on the use of the index information corresponding to the invalidated unit by using the validity signal extracted as described above, thereby converting the index information. get.

Therefore, according to the digital broadcast receiving apparatus 5, an index information service for transmitting index information to a plurality of unit parts in a program by adding the index information to a plurality of unit parts is provided by a viewer who does not follow the program provider's intention. , While providing a form that can meet the viewer's desire to selectively cut out and view a unit portion including a CM of a program providing sponsor, for example.

In the case where index information is obtained by releasing the use restriction of the index information corresponding to the unit part which has been selectively invalidated, the intention of the program provider is faithfully reflected. An index information service can be provided.

Next, a plurality of application examples of the index information service providing method according to the present invention will be described below.

(1) In the present embodiment, the case where the EIT is used as an index information addition target has been described as an example. However, instead of the EIT, index information is described for a plurality of unit parts constituting a program. When a new table for setting is set, the same method can be applied.

(2) The form in which the start time and the duration of the unit (event) obtained by subdividing the program are invalidated has been described as an example. However, the start time and the duration are invalidated / validated in conjunction with each other. And an independent invalidation / validation method.

(3) Further, there is an application for invalidating an event description. Also in this case, a method of invalidating / enabling in conjunction with the start time and the duration and a method of invalidating / enabling independently can be considered.

Next, among the index information service providing methods according to the present invention, a plurality of application examples relating to invalidation / validation will be described below.

(1) Method by encryption. The decryption key is transmitted by an activation signal.

(2) A method of inserting a meaningless value without information or a temporary value as invalidation. Significant information is transmitted by the enable signal. Further, as the operation method of the above (2), the following method can be exemplified.

(A) An operation method in which a value containing a large amount of error (schematic information) is sent at the time of invalidation, and updated to an accurate value without error (detailed information) at the time of validation.

(B) An operation method in which a time including a CM is designated at the time of invalidation, and the time is updated to a net time designation excluding the CM at the time of validation.

(C) An operation method in which a value that disturbs the use of index information for an unintended purpose at the time of invalidation is transmitted and updated to a more true value at the time of invalidation.

(D) An operation method in which a value indicating undecided is sent at the time of invalidation, and updated to a more true value at the time of validation. (E.g., when indicating a CM) (e) An operation method in which the above operation methods (including combinations) are updated a plurality of times and gradually updated to final values. Next, among the index information service providing methods according to the present invention, a plurality of application examples relating to the transmission method of the enabling signal will be described below. When transmitting the enable signal, information identifying the event concerned,
In the case of independently invalidating / enabling each of the start time, the duration, and the description of the event, their identification information is transmitted together with the validation signal.

(1) A method of multiplexing and transmitting the extended stream of the video or audio elementary stream ES.

(2) A method of multiplexing and transmitting the video and audio in the extended area of the packetized elementary stream PES.

(3) A method of multiplexing and transmitting a transport stream TS using a section format or the like.

From (3) (2) and (2) from (1),
Since it is located in a deep hierarchy in the digital broadcast data structure, it is difficult to use index information illegally.

In addition, pay broadcast related information (ECM, EM
M) may be used (Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications Notice 8 No. 7)
No. 8). According to this method, in addition to the method of transmitting the activation signal to all the receivers, it becomes possible to transmit the activation signal only to a specific pay broadcast contract receiver.

Next, among the index information service providing method according to the present invention, a plurality of application examples relating to the format of the EIT when the EIT is used will be described below.

(1) Format ensuring compatibility with the conventional EIT (first EIT shown in FIG. 4). The method of invalidation is to set the start time and duration value to 0xffff (ARIB
(Undefined in the standard). As an activation method in this case, meaningful index information is transmitted by an activation signal.

(2) A format in which activation control is added to the conventional EIT (second EIT shown in FIG. 5).

(3) When invalidating index information, in order to generalize the range of invalidation, a format in which index information is converted into a descriptor based on the EIT (third EIT shown in FIG. 6).

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, but can be embodied in other forms by appropriately changing it within the scope of the claims.

That is, for example, the program referred to in the present invention is:
A time-series program composed of time-series signals,
Further, the index information according to the present invention may include a start time, a duration or an end time for specifying the corresponding unit, or a description for explaining the corresponding unit.

In this way, for example, when the start time and duration of the corresponding unit part are defined as the index information, the corresponding unit part can be specified. In the case where the description of the corresponding unit is defined, it is possible to identify the description of the corresponding unit, for example, whether the unit is a CM or a main part.

The invalidation in the present invention is performed by encrypting a part or all of the index information, while the validation is performed by using the decryption key of the encryption as the validation signal. The decoding may be executed by decoding the index information.

Thus, the index information service can be provided while maintaining the confidentiality of the index information.

Further, the invalidation referred to in the present invention means that the index information contains insignificant information or incomplete information including information that disturbs the use of index information that is not intended by the program provider. On the other hand, the validation is performed by using information that is more complete than the incomplete information including the index information itself, and the validation signal is used for the incomplete information.
It may be performed by overwriting or supplementing to fill in the differences. As a difference method for supplementing the difference so as to fill the difference, a method of sending an arithmetic difference, a method of sending an exclusive OR for each bit, and the like can be specifically mentioned. However, the overwriting method is more practical and more resistant to transmission errors than the difference method.

In this way, for example, at the time of invalidation, general information containing a large amount of error is used as index information, while at the time of activation, detailed information containing no error is used as an activation signal. , An enable signal including detailed information is overwritten on the summary information, or, at the time of the invalidation, the index information is used as the index information, while the low-level summary information is used. As an example, using the detailed information with a high degree of fulfillment, the enabling signal containing the detailed information is
Since the outline information is executed in such a manner as to fill in the difference so as to fill in the difference, therefore, it is possible to provide an index information service with a high degree of freedom that can freely reflect the intention of the program provider.

Further, the invalidation according to the present invention is performed in such a manner that, for each unit part to which index information is added, the information enrichment indicating the degree of completeness of the corresponding index information is set in a plurality of stages. In this case, a form is employed in which the enabling signal is transmitted by being added to a plurality of areas corresponding to a plurality of stages, among the areas that can be extracted along with decoding of a specific portion in the program. You can also.

In this way, for example, as a form of invalidation, for each unit part to which index information is to be added, the information enrichment possessed by the corresponding index information is expressed as:
Assuming that the use restriction is performed in a state set in three levels of “low”, “medium”, and “high”, in this case, the enabling signal is an area that can be extracted along with decoding of a specific portion in the program. Of these, the data is transmitted after being added to the three areas corresponding to the above three stages. Therefore, an operation of updating the index information to information with a higher information quality gradually through a plurality of updates is performed. Can do
As a result, it is possible to provide an index information service having a very high degree of freedom that can more freely reflect the intention of the program provider.

Further, the enabling signal transmitted by being added to the plurality of areas corresponding to the plurality of stages described above can include the priority relationship between the respective stages corresponding to the plurality of stages.

In this way, for example, when the receiving side performs the validation, if the priority of the currently acquired enabling signal is higher than the priority of the previously acquired enabling signal, the currently acquired While obtaining the corresponding index information using the activation signal, if the priority of the currently acquired activation signal is lower than the priority of the previously acquired activation signal, the index information using the currently acquired activation signal In such a case, it is possible to provide an index information service having a very high degree of freedom that can reflect the intention of the program provider more freely.

The receiving side of the program referred to in the present invention extracts an enabling signal transmitted by being added to a plurality of areas corresponding to the above-described plurality of stages, and uses the extracted enabling signal to generate a corresponding signal. When the index information of the unit part to be validated is validated, information for determining whether the information fulfillment of the validated index information has the final completeness can be configured not to be added.

In this way, for example, when a receiving side views and skips a certain unit,
When the index information of the corresponding unit is activated, the information enrichment of the activated index information is
It is impossible to determine whether or not it has the final completeness. Specifically, for example, first, for example, in the EIT, index information having a priority "1" and moderate information quality is set, and the CM part is set in the CM part. And index information such as priority "3", "5", and "7", which gradually increases the information quality, is transmitted, and the subsequent main part disturbs unauthorized users of the index information. If random information with a low information quality is added with a priority of "6" and transmitted with the intention of causing the information to be transmitted, if the correct viewing is performed in order on the receiving side, the priority is set to "7". The index information with a high degree of information enrichment will remain in the end, but if the CM part is skipped and viewed, random index information with a low degree of information enrichment with a priority of "6" will remain, so it is possible to perform a mean operation. Ri, as a result, it is possible to provide a highly dramatically degrees of freedom can further be more freely reflecting the intention of the program provider index information service.

Further, the encoding referred to in the present invention is MP
The EG-2 is performed in accordance with the standards of the Systems, and the area that can be extracted along with decoding of a specific portion in a program includes an elementary stream, a packetized elementary stream, or a transport stream. The above-mentioned region inserted in the signal of the specific portion in the program can be adopted.

In this way, MPEG-2 Sys
In view of the positional relationship of each area in the data structure of the tems, an elementary stream packetized from the transport stream, an elementary stream from the packetized elementary stream,
The more information is inserted into the upper layer, the more difficult it becomes to make unauthorized use of the enable signal and thus the index information difficult. As a result, the degree of confidentiality of the index information can be freely reflected in the intention of the program provider. High index information service can be provided.

The encoding referred to in the present invention is MP
This is performed in accordance with the EG-2 Systems standard, and the area that can be extracted along with decoding of a specific part in a program includes pay-broadcast-related information, for example, ECM (Entitlement Control Message) or EM.
A description area such as M (Entitlement Management Message) can be adopted.

In this way, instead of transmitting the activation signal indiscriminately to the receiving side, for example, the activation signal can be transmitted only to a specific pay broadcast receiver. Needless to say.

[0122]

As described above in detail, according to the first aspect of the present invention, a plurality of unit parts in a program are
An index information service that transmits index information by adding the index information can be used while restricting the use of index information by viewers who do not meet the program provider's intention, and selectively selecting, for example, a unit portion including a CM of a program providing sponsor. It can be provided in a form that can respond to the viewer's request to cut out and view.

In other words, conversely, the index information for each CM can be described in detail without worrying about skipping CM viewing. This makes it possible to use the index information in which the viewer designates the CM once viewed and repeatedly views the CM, or intentionally selects and views only the CM.

For example, if invalidation is used in partial viewing of a program, unless the reproduction is performed in the specified order, the portion to be reproduced next cannot be specified. Thus, there is also an effect of restricting the use of the index information for purposes other than the broadcast station's intention or the permitted viewing method.

Since the program itself is not scrambled, it has no effect on the viewing of the conventional receiver, and the receiver using the index information follows the conventional time series. It has no effect on viewing. In short, it can be said that the present invention restricts this action when an attempt is made to skip a program that does not meet the program provider's intention using the index information.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, for example,
When the start time and duration of the corresponding unit part are defined as the index information, the corresponding unit part can be specified. In addition to this, a description of the corresponding unit part is defined as the index information. In this case, it is possible to identify the content of the description of the corresponding unit, for example, whether the unit is a CM or a main part.

Further, according to the invention of claim 3, for example, a program provider invalidates a unit portion that the user wants to restrict the use of index information, while the program provider restricts the use of index information. Selective invalidation can be implemented according to the program provider's intention, such as not invalidating unit parts that are deemed unnecessary, and as a result, the program provider's intention is faithfully reflected The provided index information service can be provided.

Further, according to the invention of claim 4, it is possible to provide an index information service while maintaining the confidentiality of the index information.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, for example, in the case of invalidation, general information including a large amount of error is used as index information, while in the case of invalidation, an error is included as an enable signal. When no detailed information is used, the activation signal containing the detailed information is overwritten on the outline information, or when the invalidation is performed, the outline information with low fulfillment is used as the index information, In addition, it is possible to use the detailed information having a high degree of fulfillment as the enabling signal, and to execute the enabling signal including the detailed information in such a manner that the difference is filled in the outline information so as to fill the difference. It is possible to provide an index information service having a high degree of freedom that can freely reflect the intention of the user.

Further, according to the invention of claim 6, it is possible to perform an operation of updating the index information to information of higher quality gradually after updating a plurality of times. Compared with the present invention, it is possible to provide an index information service with a very high degree of freedom that can reflect the intention of the program provider more freely.

Further, according to the invention of claim 7, for example, when performing the validation on the receiving side, if the priority of the currently obtained enable signal is higher than the priority of the previously obtained enable signal, Obtains the corresponding index information using the currently obtained enable signal, but if the priority of the currently obtained enable signal is lower than the priority of the previously obtained enable signal, the currently obtained enable signal is obtained. In such a case, it is possible to perform operations such as not acquiring the index information using the program, and as a result, the intention of the program provider can be more freely reflected as compared with the inventions of claims 5 and 6. A very flexible index information service can be provided.

Further, according to the eighth aspect of the present invention, for example, in consideration of a case in which a receiving side skips a certain unit part and views it, when the index information of the corresponding unit part is activated, it is activated. It is impossible to determine whether or not the information fulfillment of the index information has the final completeness. Specifically, for example, first, for example, in the EIT, the index information having the priority "1" and the moderate information fulfillment is used. Set the priority, "3" in the CM part,
Index information such as "5" or "7" that gradually increases the information quality is added and transmitted, and the subsequent main part is intended to disturb unauthorized users of the index information. Assuming that random index information of low quality is added with priority “6” and transmitted,
If the receiving side performs correct viewing in order, index information having a high degree of information enrichment of priority “7” will ultimately remain. However, if viewing is performed skipping the CM portion, the priority level is “6”. It is also possible to perform a mean operation such that random index information remains with a low degree of information enrichment, and as a result, the intention of the program provider can be more freely reflected as compared with the inventions of claims 5 to 7. Can provide an index information service with a remarkably high degree of freedom.

Further, according to the ninth aspect of the present invention, the MPE
In view of the positional relationship between the areas in the data structure of G-2 Systems, the elementary stream is packetized from the transport stream, and the elementary stream is inserted from the packetized elementary stream into the upper layer. As a result, it becomes more difficult to illegally use the enable signal, and thus the index information. As a result, a highly flexible index information service that can freely reflect the intention of the program provider on the level of confidentiality of the index information is provided. Can be provided.

According to the tenth aspect of the present invention, instead of transmitting the activation signal indiscriminately to the receiving side, for example, the activation signal is limited to a specific pay broadcast contract receiver. Can also be transmitted.

On the other hand, according to the invention of claim 11, an index information service for adding index information to a plurality of unit parts in a program and transmitting the index information is provided by a viewer who does not follow the program provider's intention. To provide a digital broadcast transmitting apparatus capable of providing a format capable of responding to a viewer's desire to selectively cut out and view a unit portion including a CM of a program providing sponsor while restricting the use of the program. Can be.

According to the twelfth aspect of the present invention, for example, a unit which the program provider wants to restrict the use of index information is invalidated, while the program provider restricts the use of index information. Selective invalidation can be implemented according to the program provider's intention, such as not invalidating unit parts that are deemed unnecessary, and as a result, the program provider's intention is faithfully reflected It is possible to obtain a digital broadcast transmitting apparatus capable of providing the index information service.

According to the thirteenth aspect of the present invention, an index information service for transmitting index information by adding index information to a plurality of unit parts in a program is provided by a viewer who does not follow the intention of the program provider. To provide a digital broadcast receiving apparatus capable of providing a format capable of responding to a viewer's desire to selectively cut out and view a unit portion including a CM of a program providing sponsor while restricting the use of the program. Can be.

According to the fourteenth aspect of the present invention, the index information can be obtained by removing the restriction on the use of the index information corresponding to the unit part that has been selectively invalidated. And a digital broadcast receiving apparatus capable of providing an index information service in which the intention of the program provider is faithfully reflected.

According to the fifteenth aspect of the present invention, an index information service that transmits index information to a plurality of unit parts in a program by adding the index information is provided by a viewer who does not follow the intention of the program provider. To obtain a digital broadcast data structure that can be provided in a form that can respond to a viewer's desire to selectively cut out and view a unit portion including a CM of a program providing sponsor while restricting the use of the program. It has a very good effect that it can be done.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a digital broadcast transmitting / receiving system including a digital broadcast transmitting device and a digital broadcast receiving device to which an index information service providing method according to the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining an index information service providing method according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram provided for describing an index information service providing method according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a data structure of a first EIT according to the present invention in consideration of compatibility with a conventional EIT.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a data structure of a second EIT according to the present invention in which activation control is added to a conventional EIT.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of invalidating index information;
FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating a data structure of a third EIT according to the present invention in which index information is converted into a descriptor based on the EIT in order to generalize a range to be invalidated.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 digital broadcast transmission / reception system 3 digital broadcast transmitting apparatus 5 digital broadcast receiving apparatus 7 program reproducing section 9 enabling signal transmitting section 11 program signal encoder (validating signal transmitting means) 13 EIT transmitting section (invalidating means) 15 multiplexing section ( Enabling signal transmitting means) 17 demultiplexing section 19 program signal decoder (effective signal extracting means) 21 program display section 23 enabling signal extracting section (effective signal extracting means) 25 EIT enabling section (index information acquiring means) 27 EIT extraction unit 29 EIT reconstruction unit (index information acquisition unit) 31 EIT utilization unit

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[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] September 20, 1999 (1999.9.2)
0)

[Procedure amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] Full text

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

[Document Name] Statement

Patent application title: Method for Providing Index Information Service Used for Digital Broadcasting, Digital Broadcasting Transmission Apparatus,
Digital broadcast receiving apparatus and data structure of digital broadcast

[Claims]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a digital broadcast for encoding and broadcasting a program, and more particularly, to adding index information used for specifying each unit to a plurality of units in a program. The index information service to be transmitted by the broadcaster restricts the use of the index information by viewers who do not follow the intention of the program provider, and selectively selects, for example, a unit part including a commercial message of a program providing sponsor, a so-called CM. The present invention relates to a method for providing an index information service used for digital broadcasting, a digital broadcasting transmitting device, a digital broadcasting receiving device, and a data structure of digital broadcasting that can be provided in a form that can meet a viewer's desire to cut out and view.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, social infrastructure related to digital broadcasting has been rapidly improved in addition to existing terrestrial broadcasting.

The digital broadcasting system currently operated in Japan employs a system for encoding and broadcasting a program including a plurality of time-series signals such as video, audio, and various data streams. The encoding and decoding are performed in accordance with the MPEG-2 standard, which is an international standard suitable for broadcasting and communication media. MPEG-2 is an international standard, ISO / IEC 1
Specified by 3818.

By the way, the above-mentioned digital broadcasting system is
For example, a method in which a program is divided into a plurality of unit parts, and so-called index information including time information used for specifying each unit part is added to the plurality of unit parts constituting the program and transmitted. Is not specified.

[0005] However, if index information is added to a plurality of unit parts in a program and transmitted, the index information can be used, for example, to reconstruct the program on the viewer side. Thus, the effective use of digital broadcast content, such as selectively cutting out a partial video that matches the user's preference, can be drastically promoted.

[0006]

Considering the framework of the current technology, an example of trial for adding index information to a plurality of unit parts in a program is given below. EIT (Event Information) standardized as program sequence information in B10)
Table: Event Information Table) and called program, i.e. by directly using event information including events such as start time and duration, methods operate I separated programs into a plurality of unit portions plurality of units or in the program, EI describing index information for the part
A method of newly providing a description table according to T can be proposed.

[0007] However, in the above-described form of adding two pieces of index information, if index information is added to a unit portion including a CM (hereinafter, abbreviated as a “CM portion”), for example, Since it is easy for the viewer to determine from the index information that the CM is included in the unit, the viewer can play back the program once accumulated by skipping the CM, or There is a possibility that the viewer side may use index information that does not match the intention of the program provider, such as skipping and storing.

Therefore, in order to avoid the above situation, a method of not adding index information to a CM portion, or a CM portion and a main part including a substantial content portion of a program are not clearly defined. An operation method such as a method of dividing a program into a plurality of unit parts can be considered.

However, according to the former method, there is a risk that the viewer may determine that a CM is inserted in a unit portion to which no index information is added, so that the above situation is avoided beforehand. Challenges cannot be completely eliminated.

According to the latter method, the problem of avoiding the above-mentioned situation can be solved, but conversely, it is necessary to selectively cut out the CM portion and view the viewer's request. Causes a new problem to be solved.

[0011] Therefore, an index information service for adding index information used for specifying each unit to a plurality of unit parts in a program and transmitting the index information is provided by an index by a viewer who does not follow the intention of the program provider. While restricting the use of information, and for example, CM
Development of a new technology that can be provided in a form that can respond to a viewer's desire to selectively cut out and view portions has long been awaited among the parties concerned.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides an index information service for transmitting, to a plurality of unit parts in a program, index information used for specifying each unit part. A digital format that can restrict the use of index information by viewers who do not follow the program provider's intention and can also respond to the viewer's desire to selectively cut out and view the CM portion, for example. Index information service providing method used for broadcasting, digital broadcast transmitting apparatus,
It is an object to provide a digital broadcast receiving apparatus and a data structure of digital broadcast.

[0013]

In order to solve the above problems, the invention of claim 1 is used for digital broadcasting for encoding and broadcasting a program. An index information service providing method for adding and transmitting index information used for specifying each unit portion, wherein the program sending side includes:
For each unit part to which the index information is added,
The invalidation that is performed to restrict the use of the corresponding index information is performed, and the validity that is used when the use restriction of the index information corresponding to the unit part that is invalidated is released is performed. The transmission signal is added to an area that can be extracted along with the decoding of a specific portion in the program, and the receiving side of the program activates from the area that can be extracted along with the decoding of the specific portion in the program. The gist of the present invention is to sequentially extract signals, and to use the extracted validation signal to perform the validation on the invalidated unit part to obtain corresponding index information.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, first, the program sending side invalidates, for each unit such as an event to which index information is to be added, the use restriction of the corresponding index information. In advance, an enable signal used to perform an enable to release the restriction on use of the index information corresponding to the unit part to which the disable is applied is extracted along with decoding of a specific part in the program. It is added to the area to be obtained and transmitted.

On the other hand, the receiving side of the program sequentially extracts the enabling signal from an area that can be extracted with decoding of a specific portion in the program, and uses the extracted enabling signal to
The corresponding index information is obtained by performing the validation on the invalidated unit part.

In other words, the program receiving side validates the index information corresponding to the unit corresponding to the validation signal until the specific portion in the program transmitted with the validation signal added is decoded. Since this cannot be done, this index information cannot be obtained.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, for example, on the program sending side, a unit including a CM and unit units before and after the unit are invalidated, and each unit is invalidated. Is added to an area that can be extracted along with CM decoding and transmitted.
The receiving side of the program cannot acquire the index information used to specify each unit portion until the program unit actually decodes the unit portion including the CM, and therefore, skips the CM referring to the index information. For example, the use of index information that does not meet the intention of the program provider is limited.

However, if, for example, the entire program including the CM portion is decoded and viewed and then all index information is validated so that the use restriction is released, the above release condition is satisfied. When satisfied, C
As a result that the M part can be easily specified,
It becomes possible to select and view the CM portion.

Therefore, according to the first aspect of the present invention, an index information service for adding index information to a plurality of unit parts in a program and transmitting the index information is provided by a viewer who does not follow the intention of the program provider. , While providing a form that can meet the viewer's desire to selectively cut out and view a unit portion including a CM of a program providing sponsor, for example.

Further, according to the invention of claim 2, the program is a time-series program constituted by a time-series signal, and the index information includes a start time, a continuation time, The gist of the present invention is to include a time or an end time, or a description that describes the corresponding unit.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the program is a time-series program composed of time-series signals, and the index information includes a start time, a continuation time, or a start time for specifying a corresponding unit part. Since the end time or the description that describes the corresponding unit part is included, therefore, for example, if the start time and duration of the corresponding unit part are defined as index information, the corresponding unit part is When the description of the corresponding unit is defined for the identifiable information or as the index information, it is possible to identify the description of the corresponding unit, for example, whether the unit is CM or main part. For information
Thus, it is possible to restrict use acts contrary to the intention of the program provider .

Further, according to a third aspect of the present invention, the transmitting side of the program selectively invalidates, for each unit portion to which the index information is to be added, a restriction to use the corresponding index information. In addition, an enable signal used when performing an enable to cancel the use restriction of the index information corresponding to the unit part which is selectively applied is decoded by decoding a specific part in the program. In addition, the receiving side of the program sequentially extracts an enabling signal from an area that can be extracted along with decoding of a specific part in the program, and transmits the extracted enabling signal. The gist of the present invention is to acquire the corresponding index information by performing the validation on the unit part that has been selectively rendered invalid by using.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the program transmitting side first selects, for each unit such as an event to which index information is to be added, invalidation for restricting use of the corresponding index information. The activation signal used to perform the activation to release the restriction on the use of the index information corresponding to the unit part that has been selectively invalidated is transmitted to a specific part in the program. Is added to an area that can be extracted with the decoding of the data and transmitted.

On the other hand, the receiving side of the program sequentially extracts an enabling signal from an area that can be extracted along with decoding of a specific portion in the program, and uses the extracted enabling signal to
The corresponding index information is acquired by performing the validation on the unit part that has been selectively invalidated.

As described above, the transmitting side of the program, for each unit such as an event to which index information is to be added,
Since the invalidation of restricting the use of the corresponding index information can be selectively performed, therefore, for example, while the unit of the program which the program provider wants to restrict the use of the index information is invalidated, It is possible to carry out selective invalidation according to the program provider's intention, such as not invalidating unit parts that the program provider does not consider necessary to restrict the use of index information. As a result, an index information service that faithfully reflects the intention of the program provider can be provided.

Still further, in the invention according to claim 4, the invalidation is executed by encrypting a part or all of the index information, while the validation is performed by using the encryption signal as the validation signal. The gist of the present invention is to execute by decrypting the encrypted index information using a decryption key.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the invalidation is performed by encrypting a part or all of the index information, while the validation is performed by using a decryption key of the encryption as the validation signal. Since this is performed by decrypting the encrypted index information, the index information service can be provided while maintaining the confidentiality of the index information.

Further, in the invention according to claim 5, the invalidation is performed by disabling useless information or index information that does not meet the intention of the program provider as the index information. On the other hand, the validation is performed by using incomplete information including the index information, and the validation signal is used as the validation signal using information that is more complete than the incomplete information including the index information itself. Is performed by overwriting or supplementing the incomplete information so as to fill in the difference.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the invalidation is performed by using, as the index information, meaningless information or information which disturbs the use of the index information which is not intended by the program provider. Activation is performed by using incomplete information, including
By using information that is more complete than incomplete information including the index information itself, the validation signal is executed by overwriting the incomplete information or supplementing the incomplete information to fill in the difference.

According to a fifth embodiment of the present invention, for example, in the case of invalidation, general information including a large amount of errors is used as index information while invalidation is performed. As a signal, using detailed information that does not include an error, an enabling signal containing detailed information is overwritten on the outline information, or, at the time of invalidation, index information is used as the index information, and low-level outline information is used. On the other hand, at the time of activation, detailed information with a high degree of fulfillment is used as the activation signal, and the activation signal including the detailed information is executed in such a form as to supplement the outline information so as to fill the difference. ,
Therefore, it is possible to provide an index information service with a high degree of freedom that can freely reflect the intention of the program provider.

Further, according to the invention of claim 6, the invalidation includes:
For each unit part to which the index information is added,
It is assumed that the use restriction is performed in a state where the information richness indicating the degree of completeness of the corresponding index information is set in a plurality of stages, and in this case, the enabling signal is accompanied by decoding of a specific part in the program. The gist is that transmission is performed by being added to a plurality of areas corresponding to the plurality of stages among the areas that can be extracted.

According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, the invalidation is performed in a state where the information enrichment indicating the degree of completeness of the corresponding index information is set in a plurality of stages for each unit part to which the index information is added. In this case, the use restriction is performed. In this case, the enabling signal is transmitted by being added to a plurality of areas corresponding to a plurality of stages, among the areas that can be extracted along with the decoding of the specific portion in the program.

That is, for example, as a form of invalidation,
For each unit to which the index information is added, the degree of information enrichment of the corresponding index information is set to “low”,
Assuming that the use restriction is performed in a state set in three levels of “medium” and “high”, in this case, the enable signal is one of the above-mentioned regions that can be extracted along with decoding of a specific part in the program. The transmission is performed by being added to three areas corresponding to the three stages. Therefore, it is possible to perform an operation of updating the index information to information of higher quality gradually through multiple updates. As a result, compared to the invention of claim 5, it is possible to provide an index information service having a very high degree of freedom, which can more freely reflect the intention of the program provider.

Further, according to the present invention, the enabling signal transmitted in addition to the plurality of areas corresponding to the plurality of steps includes a priority relationship between the plurality of steps corresponding to each of the plurality of steps. It is the gist that is to be taken.

According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, the enabling signal transmitted by being added to the plurality of areas corresponding to the plurality of stages includes a priority relationship between the corresponding stages corresponding to each of the plurality of stages. Therefore, for example, when performing the validation on the receiving side, the priority of the validation signal acquired this time,
If the priority is higher than the priority of the previously obtained enable signal, the corresponding index information is obtained using the enable signal obtained this time, while the priority of the enable signal obtained this time is
If the priority is lower than the priority of the previously obtained enable signal, it is possible to perform an operation such as not to obtain index information using the enable signal obtained this time. As compared with the above, it is possible to provide an index information service having a very high degree of freedom that can reflect the intention of the program provider more freely.

Still further, according to the invention of claim 8, the receiving side of the program extracts an enabling signal transmitted by being added to a plurality of areas corresponding to the plurality of stages, and the extracted enabling signal is extracted. When the index information of the corresponding unit portion is validated by using, the information for determining whether or not the information enrichment of the validated index information has final completeness is not added. Make a summary.

According to the eighth aspect of the present invention, the receiving side of the program extracts an enabling signal transmitted by being added to a plurality of areas corresponding to a plurality of stages, and using the extracted enabling signal, When the index information of the corresponding unit part is validated, information for determining whether the information richness of the validated index information has final completeness is not added, and therefore, For example, on the receiving side, when a certain unit part is skipped and viewed, when the index information of the corresponding unit part is activated, the information enrichment of the activated index information indicates the final completeness. It is impossible to determine whether or not it is provided. Specifically, first, for example, in the EIT, the priority “1” is set.
The index information with a certain degree of information enrichment is set in advance, and in the CM part, priority “3”, “5”,
Index information such as "7" that gradually increases the information quality is added and transmitted, and the subsequent main part is designed to disturb unauthorized users of the index information. Assuming that random index information is added with a priority of "6" and transmitted, if correct reception is performed in sequence on the receiving side, index information with a high degree of information enrichment of the priority "7" will eventually be obtained. Remains,
If the CM part is skipped and viewed illegally, it is also possible to operate such that disadvantageous information is provided to the unauthorized viewer such that random index information with a low information quality of priority "6" is low. Compared with the inventions of the items 5 to 7, it is possible to provide an index information service with a remarkably high degree of freedom that can reflect the intention of the program provider more freely.

Further, according to a ninth aspect of the present invention, the encoding is performed in accordance with the MPEG-2 standard, and the area which can be taken out with decoding of a specific portion in the program is elementary. The gist is that a region inserted in a signal of a specific portion in the program, which is a stream, a packetized elementary stream, or a transport stream, is adopted.

According to the ninth aspect of the present invention, the encoding is
This is performed in accordance with the MPEG-2 standard, and the area that can be extracted with decoding of a specific part in a program includes an elementary stream, a packetized elementary stream, or a transport stream. , The region inserted in the signal of the specific part in the program is adopted, therefore, the MPE
In view of the positional relationship of each area in the data structure of G-2,
As the elementary stream packetized from the transport stream, and the elementary stream from the packetized elementary stream, and inserted into the upper layer, as a result, it becomes difficult to illegally use the enable signal and thus the index information, It is possible to provide a highly flexible index information service that can freely reflect the intention of the program provider with respect to the confidentiality level of the index information.

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, the encoding is performed in conformity with the MPEG-2 standard, and the area which can be taken out with decoding of a specific portion in the program includes a fee. The gist is that the description area of the broadcast-related information is adopted.

According to the tenth aspect of the present invention, the encoding is performed in conformity with the MPEG-2 standard. , For example, EC
M (Entitlement Control Message) or EMM (Entit
Therefore, instead of transmitting the activation signal indiscriminately to the receiving side, for example, the activation is limited to a specific pay broadcast receiver. Signals can also be transmitted.

An eleventh aspect of the present invention is a digital broadcast transmitting apparatus for encoding and broadcasting a program, wherein for each of a plurality of unit parts constituting the program, an index used for specifying the unit part is used. An invalidating means for invalidating the use restriction of the information, and an enabling signal used when releasing the use restriction of the index information corresponding to the unit part which is invalidated by the invalidating means. And an enabling signal transmitting means for transmitting the signal by adding it to an area which can be taken out along with decoding of a specific portion in the program.

According to the eleventh aspect of the present invention, first, the invalidating means invalidates, for each of a plurality of unit parts constituting a program, a restriction on the use of index information used for specifying this unit part. On the other hand, the enabling signal transmitting means transmits an enabling signal used for releasing the restriction on use of the index information corresponding to the unit part which has been invalidated by the invalidating means to a specific part in the program. Therefore, an index information service that adds index information to a plurality of unit parts in a program and transmits the same is transmitted in a manner not intended by the program provider. While restricting the use of index information by
It is possible to obtain a digital broadcast transmission device that can be provided in a form that can meet a viewer's desire to selectively cut out and view a unit part including a CM of a program providing sponsor.

In a twelfth aspect of the present invention, the invalidating means invalidates, for each of a plurality of unit parts constituting the program, a restriction on use of index information used for specifying the unit part. And the validating signal transmitting means is used when releasing the use restriction of the index information corresponding to the unit part selectively invalidated by the invalidating means. Enable signal
The gist is that transmission is performed by adding to a region that can be taken out along with decoding of a specific portion in the program.

According to the twelfth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to selectively invalidate the use restriction of the corresponding index information for each of a plurality of unit parts such as events constituting a program. For example, a unit portion that the program provider wants to restrict the use of index information is invalidated, while a unit portion that the program provider does not need to restrict the use of index information is invalidated. Digital broadcasting transmitting apparatus capable of providing an index information service that faithfully reflects the intention of the program provider as a result of the selective invalidation according to the intention of the program provider. Can be obtained.

A thirteenth aspect of the present invention is a digital broadcast receiving apparatus for receiving and decoding a program, wherein the digital broadcast receiving apparatus is provided for each of a plurality of unit parts constituting the program, An enabling signal extracting means for extracting an enabling signal used when releasing the invalidation of restricting the use of the index information used in the program along with decoding of a specific portion in the program, and the enabling signal Index information obtaining means for obtaining the index information by releasing the restriction on the use of the index information corresponding to the unit part on which the invalidation has been performed, using the validation signal extracted by the extraction means. The gist is to be composed.

According to the thirteenth aspect of the present invention, first, the enabling signal extracting means uses index information, which is applied to each of a plurality of unit parts constituting a program and is used for specifying this unit part. While the validity signal used for releasing the invalidation for performing the restriction is extracted along with the decoding of the specific part in the program, the index information acquiring means is the validity signal extracted by the validity signal extracting means. , The index information is obtained by releasing the restriction on the use of the index information corresponding to the invalidated unit part. Therefore, the index information is added to a plurality of unit parts in the program. In addition to restricting the use of index information by viewers who do not follow the program provider's intention, If, it is possible to obtain a digital broadcast receiver capable of providing a form capable of meeting also the needs of the viewer side wants to view unit portion including the CM program providing sponsor selectively cut out.

According to a fourteenth aspect of the present invention, the validity signal extracting means is an index which is selectively applied to each of a plurality of unit parts constituting the program and is used when specifying the unit part. An enable signal used for canceling the invalidation of restricting the use of information is extracted along with decoding of a specific part in the program, and the index information obtaining means includes the enable signal. By using the validation signal extracted by the extraction means, the use of the index information corresponding to the unit part that has been selectively invalidated is released and the use of the index information is released to acquire the index information. Make a summary.

According to the fourteenth aspect, the index information can be obtained by releasing the restriction on the use of the index information corresponding to the unit part that has been selectively invalidated. A digital broadcast receiving apparatus capable of providing an index information service that faithfully reflects the intention of the provider can be obtained.

According to a fifteenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a data structure of a digital broadcast for encoding and broadcasting a program, wherein a restriction on use of index information used when specifying a plurality of unit parts constituting the program is set. The gist is that an enabling signal used for canceling is added to an area which can be taken out with decoding of a specific portion in the program.

According to the fifteenth aspect of the present invention, the enabling signal used for releasing the restriction on the use of the index information used for specifying a plurality of unit parts constituting the program is replaced with the enable signal of the specific part in the program. Since it is added to an area that can be taken out along with decoding, an index information service for transmitting index information by adding index information to a plurality of unit parts in a program is provided by a viewer who does not follow the intention of the program provider. A digital broadcast data structure that can be provided in a form that restricts the use of index information and that can meet the needs of viewers who want to selectively cut out and view a unit part including a CM of a program providing sponsor, for example. Can be obtained.

[0052]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a method for providing an index information service used for digital broadcasting according to the present invention will be described.
For each embodiment of the digital broadcast sending device, digital broadcast receiving device, and digital broadcast data structure,
This will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a digital broadcast transmitting / receiving system including a digital broadcast transmitting apparatus and a digital broadcast receiving apparatus to which the index information service providing method according to the present invention is applied.
3 to 3 are diagrams for explaining an index information service providing method according to the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a data structure of a first EIT according to the present invention in consideration of compatibility with a conventional EIT. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a data structure of a second EIT according to the present invention obtained by adding validation control to the conventional EIT, and FIG.
FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a data structure of a third EIT according to the present invention in which index information is converted into a descriptor based on the EIT in order to generalize the range of invalidation when invalidating index information.

First, prior to the description of the present invention, terms used in the present invention will be defined.

In a current digital broadcast, as a method of providing an index information service for transmitting a plurality of unit parts constituting a program, that is, an event, by adding index information used to specify and describe the event to the event, For example, EIT (Event Information T
able, ARIB STD B-10) may be used.

The EIT includes a plurality of pieces of information such as an event identifier, an event start time, an event time identification including an event continuation time or an event end time, and an event description including whether the event is a CM part or a main part. A table is created in association with each of a plurality of events. These pieces of information are transmitted as program arrangement information using an event information section, a short event descriptor, or an extended event descriptor, for example, as shown in FIG. An outline of this EIT is shown in FIG. 2 or FIG.

At present, what is called a program is operated as an event which is a unit of EIT. But,
It is also possible to operate a unit portion obtained by subdividing a program into a plurality of events as an event. Therefore, in the description of the embodiment according to the present invention, unless otherwise specified, a plurality of unit parts constituting a program will be treated as events.

Unless otherwise specified, the program includes at least one of a plurality of time-series signals such as video and audio streams and non-time-series signals such as character data. And a commercial message of a program providing sponsor, a so-called CM, which is appropriately interwoven. However, it should be added that the program targeted by the present invention includes a program that does not include a CM and includes one or more main programs.

Next, an outline of the present index information service providing method will be described below.

The present index information service providing method includes:
An index information service that is used for digital broadcasting that encodes and broadcasts a program including a time-series signal, and that transmits index information used to specify each unit portion to a plurality of unit portions constituting the program and transmits the unit portion. In the providing method, the transmitting side of the program performs, for each unit part to which the index information is added, invalidation of restricting the use of the corresponding index information, and performs the invalidation unit. While adding an enabling signal used for effecting the release of the restriction on use of the index information corresponding to the part to an area that can be extracted along with decoding of a specific part in the program and transmitting it, The receiving side sequentially extracts an enabling signal from an area that can be extracted along with decoding of a specific portion in the program, and uses the extracted enabling signal to It is characterized by obtaining the index information corresponding by performing enabled for unit part invalidation is applied.

According to the present index information service providing method, first, the transmitting side of the program invalidates the effect of restricting the use of the corresponding index information for each unit such as an event to which the index information is added. The activation signal used in performing the activation to release the use restriction of the index information corresponding to the unit part to which the invalidation has been performed is accompanied by the decoding of the specific part in the program. It is added to the area that can be extracted and transmitted.

On the other hand, the receiving side of the program sequentially extracts an enabling signal from an area that can be extracted along with decoding of a specific portion in the program, and uses the extracted enabling signal to
The corresponding index information is obtained by performing the validation on the invalidated unit part.

That is, the program receiving side validates the index information corresponding to the unit corresponding to the validation signal until decoding the specific portion in the transmitted program with the validation signal added. Since this cannot be done, this index information cannot be obtained.

For example, a specific example will be described. For example, on the transmitting side of a program, a unit part including a CM and unit parts before and after the unit are invalidated, and an enable signal of each unit part is decoded. When the program is transmitted after being added to an area that can be extracted with
Until the unit part including M is decoded, the index information used for specifying each unit part cannot be obtained. Therefore, the program provider may not be able to obtain the CM information by referring to the index information. It is possible to restrict the use of index information that is not intended.

However, if, for example, the entire program including the CM portion is decoded and viewed and then the use restriction is released by activating all index information, the above release condition is satisfied. When satisfied, C
As a result that the M part can be easily specified,
It becomes possible to select and view the CM portion.

Therefore, according to the present index information service providing method, an index information service for transmitting index information to a plurality of unit parts in a program by adding index information to a plurality of unit parts is provided by a viewer who does not follow the intention of the program provider. While restricting the use of information,
Thus, the present invention can be provided in a form that can respond to a viewer's request to selectively cut out and view a unit portion including a CM of a program providing sponsor.

Next, the details of the present index information service providing method will be described below by exemplifying a case using the EIT of the current digital broadcast.

According to the present invention, when a program is transmitted with an EIT added thereto, index information used for specifying an event from a program signal, that is, for example, invalidating an event start time and an event duration is selected. It can be so. Whether to invalidate and transmit is selected for each event, and this selection information is transmitted together with the EIT as activation control information. The validation control information can be omitted when performing an operation of invalidating all events, or performing an operation of inserting a meaningless value or a provisional value as invalidation, or the like. .

Here, the invalidation means a method of restricting the use of the corresponding index information, which will be described later in detail, and a state in which the index information cannot be used unless an enable signal is applied. That means. The EIT shown in FIG. 2 is a state at the time of transmission, that is, an initial state on the receiving side. The invalidated index information is indicated by hatching.

Further, in the present invention, the transmitting side of the program sends out the enabling signal together with the sending out of the program signal. The receiving side of the program sequentially activates the index information described in the EIT by using the received activation signal. For example, FIG.
Now, the current time point is a point in the middle of CM2 and CM1
The index information of the main part “KI” and the main part “OK” is validated and usable, but the index information after CM2 is still invalidated and cannot be used. The viewer knows that the CM has started, but cannot view the CM by skipping the CM part using the index information.

If the index information is available, and if the program is viewed in real time, the program may flirt until the time of the next main program, or after storing the program once, If it is a storage-type viewing that you play and watch, you can fast forward to the next main story,
There is a possibility that such commercials will be skipped and viewed. Therefore, in the present invention, use of the index information of the CM 2 is restricted unless the CM 2 is properly viewed.

Next, in the present index information service providing method, FIG. 3 shows three modes (1) to (3) which are used when an enabling signal of each event is added to a program and transmitted. It will be described with reference to FIG.

(1) A mode in which the enable signal of each event is added to any one or more portions within the time of the event and transmitted (example of CM1 in FIG. 3). In this case, the use restriction of the index information of the event is released only after decoding each event. That is, C
If the user does not watch M, the index information of the corresponding CM cannot be used.

(2) A mode in which the enable signal of each event is added to any one or two or more points in the time after the event and transmitted (example of CM2 in FIG. 3).
In this case, the use restriction on the index information of the event is released only after each event has been decoded.
That is, the index information of the corresponding CM cannot be used until after the CM ends. In (1), when the enable signal is obtained in the middle of the CM, the end of the CM may be known at that time and skipped, but in (2), this can be avoided.

(3) A mode in which the enable signal of each event is added to any one or two or more places in the CM time and transmitted (example of CM3 in FIG. 3). Only after decoding the CM, the use restriction of the index information of each event is released. Anyway, other index information cannot be used unless the CM is viewed.
In (2), it is conceivable that even if the end point of the CM is not known, the index information of the CM may be known by trying to skip to the next event (main part) once. Then you can avoid this.

Next, a digital broadcast transmitting apparatus and a digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

As shown in FIG. 1, the digital broadcast transmitting / receiving system 1 to which the index information service providing method according to the present invention is applied includes a digital broadcast transmitting device 3 and a digital broadcast receiving device 5. .

The digital broadcast transmitting apparatus 3 is, for example, a program reproducing unit 7 such as a VTR (Video Tape Recroder) for reproducing a program stored in advance and transmitting a program signal.
And an activation signal transmission unit 9 for generating and transmitting an activation signal used for performing an activation to release the use restriction of the index information corresponding to each event, and a transmission from the activation signal transmission unit 9. A program signal encoder 11 that adds the encoded enable signal to a region of the program signal transmitted from the program reproducing unit 7 that can be extracted along with decoding of a specific portion and encodes the signal. EIT that sends the EIT with the description added in the form of
A transmission unit 13, an encoded output transmitted from the program signal encoder 11, and an E output transmitted from the EIT transmission unit 13.
And a multiplexing unit 15 for multiplexing and transmitting IT. The correspondence between each component in the claims and each component of the digital broadcast transmitting apparatus 3 is as follows. The invalidating means corresponds to the EIT transmitting unit 13, and the enabling signal transmitting means corresponds to the program signal encoder. 11 and the multiplexing unit 15.

On the other hand, the digital broadcast receiving apparatus 5 includes a multiplexing / demultiplexing unit 17 for separating and extracting a program including a multiplexed time-series signal transmitted from the transmitting side into a program signal and an EIT, A program signal decoder 19 for decoding the program signal extracted by
9, a program display unit 21 for displaying a program according to the decoded output sent from the program output unit 9, and an enable signal added to an area which can be taken out of the decoded output sent from the program signal decoder 19 along with decoding of a specific portion. The validating signal extracting unit 23 to be extracted, the EIT validating unit 25 for validating the corresponding index information included in the EIT using the validating signal extracted by the validating signal extracting unit 23, and the demultiplexing unit 17 The EIT extraction unit 27 for extracting the EIT extracted in the above, and the EIT extracted by the EIT extraction unit 27,
An EIT reconfiguration unit 29 that reconfigures based on the index information validated by the EIT validation unit 25, and an EIT use unit that uses the EIT reconfigured by the EIT reconfiguration unit 29 for a purpose such as identification of an event. 31. In addition, the correspondence between each component in the claims and each component of the digital broadcast receiving apparatus 5 is described. The enabling signal extracting means corresponds to the program signal decoder 19 and the enabling signal extracting unit 23. The index information obtaining means is:
This corresponds to the EIT validating unit 25 and the EIT reconfiguring unit 29.

Next, the operation of the digital broadcast transmitting apparatus 3 will be described. First, the EIT transmitting unit 13 restricts the use of the corresponding index information for each unit such as an event to which index information is added. Is invalidated for all unit parts or selectively as necessary, and an EIT including the invalidated index information is transmitted. On the other hand, the program signal encoder 11 and the multiplexing unit 15 convert the enable signal used for canceling the restriction on the use of the index information corresponding to the unit part which has been invalidated, into the program, Is added to an area that can be extracted along with the decoding of the specific part in the above and transmitted.

Therefore, according to the digital broadcast transmitting apparatus 3, an index information service for transmitting index information by adding index information to a plurality of unit parts in a program can be provided by a viewer who does not follow the program provider's intention. , While providing a form that can meet the viewer's desire to selectively cut out and view a unit portion including a CM of a program providing sponsor, for example.

When invalidation for restricting the use of the corresponding index information is selectively performed for each of a plurality of unit parts such as events constituting a program, for example,
The unit that the program provider wants to restrict the use of index information is invalidated, while the unit that the program provider does not need to restrict the use of index information is not invalidated. Such invalidation can be selectively performed according to the intention of the program provider, and as a result, an index information service that faithfully reflects the intention of the program provider can be provided.

Next, the operation of the digital broadcast receiving apparatus 5 will be described. First, the program signal decoder 19 and the activation signal extraction unit 23 activate the activation used when activating a plurality of unit parts such as events. A signal is extracted along with decoding of a specific part in a program. On the other hand, E
The IT validating unit 25 and the EIT reconfiguring unit 29 release the restriction on the use of the index information corresponding to the invalidated unit by using the validity signal extracted as described above, thereby converting the index information. get.

Therefore, according to the digital broadcast receiving apparatus 5, an index information service for transmitting index information by adding index information to a plurality of unit parts in a program is provided by a viewer who does not follow the program provider's intention. , While providing a form that can meet the viewer's desire to selectively cut out and view a unit portion including a CM of a program providing sponsor, for example.

In the case where index information is acquired by releasing the use restriction of the index information corresponding to the unit part which has been selectively invalidated, the intention of the program provider is faithfully reflected. An index information service can be provided.

Next, a plurality of application examples of the index information service providing method according to the present invention will be described below.

(1) In this embodiment, the case where the EIT is used as an index information addition target has been described as an example. However, instead of the EIT, the index information is described for a plurality of unit parts constituting the program. When a new table for setting is set, the same method can be applied.

(2) The form in which the start time and the duration of a unit (event) obtained by subdividing a program are invalidated has been described as an example, but the start time and the duration are invalidated / validated in conjunction with each other. And an independent invalidation / validation method.

(3) Further, there is also an application that invalidates an event description. Also in this case, a method of invalidating / enabling in conjunction with the start time and the duration and a method of invalidating / enabling independently can be considered.

Next, among the index information service providing methods according to the present invention, a plurality of application examples relating to invalidation / validation will be described below.

(1) Method by encryption. The decryption key is transmitted by an activation signal.

(2) A method of inserting a meaningless value without information or a temporary value as invalidation. Significant information is transmitted by the enable signal.

Further, as the operation method of the above (2), the following method can be exemplified.

(A) An operation method in which a value containing a large amount of error (schematic information) is sent at the time of invalidation, and updated to an accurate value without error (detailed information) at the time of validation.

(B) An operation method in which a time including a CM is designated at the time of invalidation, and the time is updated to a net time without the CM at the time of validation.

(C) An operation method in which a value for disturbing the use of index information for an unintended purpose is transmitted at the time of invalidation, and updated to a more true value at the time of invalidation.

(D) An operation method in which a value indicating undecided is sent at the time of invalidation, and updated to a more true value at the time of validation. (E.g., when indicating a CM) (e) An operation method in which the above operation methods (including combinations) are updated a plurality of times and gradually updated to final values.

Next, among the index information service providing methods according to the present invention, a plurality of application examples related to the transmission method of the enabling signal will be described below.

When transmitting the enable signal, information for identifying the corresponding event, start time, duration,
In the case of independently invalidating / enabling each of the event descriptions, their identification information is transmitted together with the enabling signal.

(1) A method of multiplexing and transmitting the extended stream of the video or audio elementary stream ES.

(2) A method of multiplexing and transmitting the packetized elementary stream of video and audio in the extended area of the PES.

(3) A method of multiplexing and transmitting a transport stream TS using a section format or the like.

(2) from (3) and (1) from (2)
Since it is located in a deep hierarchy in the digital broadcast data structure, it is difficult to use index information illegally.

In addition, pay broadcast related information (ECM, EM
M) may be used (Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications Notice 8 No. 7)
No. 8). According to this method, in addition to the method of transmitting the activation signal to all the receivers, it becomes possible to transmit the activation signal only to a specific pay broadcast contract receiver.

Next, among the index information service providing method according to the present invention, a plurality of application examples relating to the format of the EIT when the EIT is used will be described below.

(1) A format ensuring the compatibility with the conventional EIT (first EIT shown in FIG. 4). The method of invalidation is to set the start time and duration value to 0xffff (ARIB
(Undefined in the standard). As an activation method in this case, meaningful index information is transmitted by an activation signal.

(2) A format in which validation control is added to the conventional EIT (the second EIT shown in FIG. 5).

(3) When invalidating the index information, in order to generalize the range to be invalidated, a format in which the index information is converted into a descriptor based on the EIT (third EIT shown in FIG. 6).

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, but can be embodied in other modes by appropriately changing the scope of the invention.

That is, for example, the program referred to in the present invention is:
A time-series program composed of time-series signals,
Further, the index information according to the present invention may include a start time, a duration or an end time for specifying the corresponding unit, or a description for explaining the corresponding unit.

In this way, for example, when the start time and the duration of the corresponding unit are defined as the index information, the corresponding unit can be specified. In the case where the description of the corresponding unit is defined, it is possible to identify the description of the corresponding unit, for example, whether the unit is a CM or a main part.

The invalidation according to the present invention is performed by encrypting a part or all of the index information, while the validation is performed by using the decryption key of the encryption as the validation signal. The decoding may be executed by decoding the index information.

In this way, the index information service can be provided while maintaining the confidentiality of the index information.

Further, the invalidation referred to in the present invention means that the index information contains insignificant information or incomplete information including information that disturbs the use of index information that is not intended by the program provider. On the other hand, the validation is performed by using information that is more complete than the incomplete information including the index information itself, and the validation signal is used for the incomplete information.
It may be performed by overwriting or supplementing to fill in the differences. As a difference method for supplementing the difference so as to fill the difference, a method of sending an arithmetic difference, a method of sending an exclusive OR for each bit, and the like can be specifically mentioned. However, the overwriting method is more practical and more resistant to transmission errors than the difference method.

In this way, for example, at the time of invalidation, general information including a large amount of error is used as index information, and at the time of invalidation, detailed information including no error is used as an activation signal. , An enable signal including detailed information is overwritten on the summary information, or, at the time of the invalidation, the index information is used as the index information, while the low-level summary information is used. As an example, using the detailed information with a high degree of fulfillment, the enabling signal containing the detailed information is
Since the outline information is executed in such a manner as to fill in the difference so as to fill in the difference, therefore, it is possible to provide an index information service with a high degree of freedom that can freely reflect the intention of the program provider.

Further, the invalidation according to the present invention is performed by setting the information enrichment indicating the degree of completeness of the corresponding index information in a plurality of stages for each unit to which the index information is to be added. In this case, a form is employed in which the enabling signal is transmitted by being added to a plurality of areas corresponding to a plurality of stages, among the areas that can be extracted along with decoding of a specific portion in the program. You can also.

In this way, for example, as a form of invalidation, for each unit part to which index information is added, the degree of information enrichment of the corresponding index information is determined by:
Assuming that the use restriction is performed in a state set in three levels of “low”, “medium”, and “high”, in this case, the enabling signal is an area that can be extracted along with decoding of a specific portion in the program. Of these, the data is transmitted after being added to the three areas corresponding to the above three stages. Therefore, an operation of updating the index information to information with a higher information quality gradually through a plurality of updates is performed. Can do
As a result, it is possible to provide an index information service having a very high degree of freedom that can more freely reflect the intention of the program provider.

Further, the enabling signal added to and transmitted to the plurality of areas corresponding to the plurality of stages described above can include the mutual priority relationship corresponding to each of the plurality of stages.

In this way, for example, when the receiving side performs the validation, if the priority of the currently obtained enable signal is higher than the priority of the previously obtained enable signal, the currently obtained enable signal is effective. While obtaining the corresponding index information using the activation signal, if the priority of the currently acquired activation signal is lower than the priority of the previously acquired activation signal, the index information using the currently acquired activation signal In such a case, it is possible to provide an index information service having a very high degree of freedom that can reflect the intention of the program provider more freely.

Further, the receiving side of the program referred to in the present invention extracts an enabling signal which is transmitted by being added to a plurality of areas corresponding to the above-described plurality of stages, and uses the extracted enabling signal to generate a corresponding signal. When the index information of the unit part to be validated is validated, information for determining whether the information fulfillment of the validated index information has the final completeness can be configured not to be added.

With this configuration, for example, when the receiving side views and skips a certain unit,
When the index information of the corresponding unit is activated, the information enrichment of the activated index information is
It is impossible to determine whether or not it has the final completeness. Specifically, for example, first, for example, in the EIT, index information having a priority "1" and moderate information quality is set, and the CM part is set in the CM part. And index information such as priority "3", "5", and "7", which gradually increases the information quality, is transmitted, and the subsequent main part disturbs unauthorized users of the index information. If random information with a low information quality is added with a priority of "6" and transmitted with the intention of causing the information to be transmitted, if the correct viewing is performed in order on the receiving side, the priority is set to "7". Index information with a high degree of information enrichment will remain in the end, but if the CM portion is skipped and viewed illegally, random index information with a low degree of information enrichment of priority "6" will remain, and this will prevent unauthorized viewers. Unfortunate Operation that gives the benefit is also possible,
As a result, it is possible to provide an index information service with a remarkably high degree of freedom that can more freely reflect the intention of the program provider.

Further, the encoding referred to in the present invention is MP
This is performed in accordance with the EG-2 standard, and the area that can be extracted with decoding of a specific part in a program includes an elementary stream, a packetized elementary stream, or a transport stream. The region inserted in the signal of the specific portion in the program can be adopted.

In this manner, in view of the positional relationship between the respective areas in the MPEG-2 data structure, the elementary stream packetized from the transport stream and the elementary stream packetized from the packetized elementary stream. The more it is inserted into the stream and the upper layer, the more difficult it becomes to make unauthorized use of the enable signal and thus the index information. As a result, the intention of the program provider can be freely reflected on the level of confidentiality of the index information. An index information service with a high degree of freedom can be provided.

The encoding referred to in the present invention is MP
This is performed in accordance with the EG-2 standard, and as an area that can be extracted along with decoding of a specific portion in a program, pay broadcast-related information, for example, ECM (Entitle
ment Control Message) or EMM (Entitlement Man)
agement Message).

In this way, instead of transmitting the activation signal indiscriminately to the receiving side, for example, the activation signal can be transmitted only to a specific pay broadcast contract receiver. Needless to say.

[0126]

As described above in detail, according to the first aspect of the present invention, a plurality of unit parts in a program are
An index information service that transmits index information by adding the index information can be used while restricting the use of index information by viewers who do not meet the program provider's intention, and selectively selecting, for example, a unit portion including a CM of a program providing sponsor. It can be provided in a form that can respond to the viewer's request to cut out and view.

In other words, conversely, the index information of each CM can be described in detail without worrying about skipping CM viewing. This makes it possible to use the index information in which the viewer designates the CM once viewed and repeatedly views the CM, or intentionally selects and views only the CM.

For example, if invalidation is used in partial viewing of a program, unless the reproduction is performed in the specified order, it is impossible to specify a portion to be reproduced next. Thus, there is also an effect of restricting the use of the index information for purposes other than the broadcast station's intention or the permitted viewing method.

Since the program itself is not scrambled, it has no effect on the viewing of the conventional receiver, and the receiver using the index information follows the conventional time series. It has no effect on viewing. In short, it can be said that the present invention restricts this action when an attempt is made to skip a program that does not meet the program provider's intention using the index information.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, for example,
When the start time and duration of the corresponding unit part are defined as index information, if the corresponding unit part can be specified or the description of the corresponding unit part is defined as index information, Indicates the description of the corresponding unit, for example , information that can identify whether this unit is a CM or a main part.
It is possible to restrict use activities contrary to the intention of the group provider .

Further, according to the third aspect of the present invention, for example, a unit which the program provider wants to restrict the use of the index information is invalidated, while the program provider restricts the use of the index information. Selective invalidation can be implemented according to the program provider's intention, such as not invalidating unit parts that are deemed unnecessary, and as a result, the program provider's intention is faithfully reflected The provided index information service can be provided.

Further, according to the invention of claim 4, it is possible to provide an index information service while maintaining the confidentiality of the index information.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, for example, at the time of invalidation, while the outline information containing a large amount of errors is used as index information, at the time of invalidation, errors are included as valid signals. When no detailed information is used, the activation signal containing the detailed information is overwritten on the outline information, or when the invalidation is performed, the outline information with low fulfillment is used as the index information, In addition, it is possible to use the detailed information having a high degree of fulfillment as the enabling signal, and to execute the enabling signal including the detailed information in such a manner that the difference is filled in the outline information so as to fill the difference. It is possible to provide an index information service having a high degree of freedom that can freely reflect the intention of the user.

Further, according to the invention of claim 6, it is possible to perform an operation of updating the index information to information with a higher degree of quality gradually after updating a plurality of times. Compared with the present invention, it is possible to provide an index information service with a very high degree of freedom that can reflect the intention of the program provider more freely.

Further, according to the invention of claim 7, for example, when performing the validation on the receiving side, if the priority of the currently obtained enable signal is higher than the priority of the previously obtained enable signal, Obtains the corresponding index information using the currently obtained enable signal, but if the priority of the currently obtained enable signal is lower than the priority of the previously obtained enable signal, the currently obtained enable signal is obtained. In such a case, it is possible to perform operations such as not acquiring the index information using the program, and as a result, the intention of the program provider can be more freely reflected as compared with the inventions of claims 5 and 6. A very flexible index information service can be provided.

Further, according to the invention of claim 8, for example, in consideration of a case where the receiving side views and skips a certain unit part, when the index information of the corresponding unit part is activated, it is activated. It is impossible to determine whether or not the information fulfillment of the index information has the final completeness. Specifically, for example, first, for example, in the EIT, the index information having the priority "1" and the moderate information fulfillment is used. Set the priority, "3" in the CM part,
Index information such as "5" or "7" that gradually increases the information quality is added and transmitted, and the subsequent main part is intended to disturb unauthorized users of the index information. Assuming that random index information of low quality is added with priority “6” and transmitted,
If the receiving side performs correct viewing step by step, index information with a high degree of information enrichment of priority “7” will ultimately remain, but if the CM part is skipped and viewed illegally ,
It is also possible to use such a method that disadvantageous viewers may be disadvantaged such that random index information having a low degree of information enrichment of the priority “6” remains, and as a result, comparison with the inventions of claims 5 to 7 is possible. As a result, it is possible to provide an index information service with a remarkably high degree of freedom that can reflect the intention of the program provider even more freely.

In addition, according to the ninth aspect of the present invention, the MPE
In view of the positional relationship of each area in the data structure of G-2,
As the elementary stream packetized from the transport stream, and the elementary stream from the packetized elementary stream, and inserted into the upper layer, as a result, it becomes difficult to illegally use the enable signal and thus the index information, It is possible to provide a highly flexible index information service that can freely reflect the intention of the program provider with respect to the confidentiality level of the index information.

According to the tenth aspect of the present invention, instead of transmitting the activation signal indiscriminately to the receiving side, for example, the activation signal is limited to a specific pay broadcast contract receiver. Can also be transmitted.

On the other hand, according to the invention of claim 11, an index information service for transmitting index information by adding index information to a plurality of unit parts in a program is provided by a viewer who does not follow the program provider's intention. To provide a digital broadcast transmitting apparatus capable of providing a format capable of responding to a viewer's desire to selectively cut out and view a unit portion including a CM of a program providing sponsor while restricting the use of the program. Can be.

Further, according to the twelfth aspect of the present invention, for example, a unit which the program provider wants to restrict the use of index information is invalidated, while the program provider restricts the use of index information. Selective invalidation can be implemented according to the program provider's intention, such as not invalidating unit parts that are deemed unnecessary, and as a result, the program provider's intention is faithfully reflected It is possible to obtain a digital broadcast transmitting apparatus capable of providing the index information service.

According to the thirteenth aspect of the present invention, an index information service for transmitting index information by adding index information to a plurality of unit parts in a program is provided by a viewer who does not follow the program provider's intention. To provide a digital broadcast receiving apparatus capable of providing a format capable of responding to a viewer's desire to selectively cut out and view a unit portion including a CM of a program providing sponsor while restricting the use of the program. Can be.

According to the fourteenth aspect of the present invention, the index information can be acquired by releasing the restriction on the use of the index information corresponding to the unit part that has been selectively invalidated. And a digital broadcast receiving apparatus capable of providing an index information service in which the intention of the program provider is faithfully reflected.

According to the fifteenth aspect of the present invention, an index information service for transmitting index information by adding index information to a plurality of unit parts in a program is provided by a viewer who does not follow the program provider's intention. To obtain a digital broadcast data structure that can be provided in a form that can respond to a viewer's desire to selectively cut out and view a unit portion including a CM of a program providing sponsor while restricting the use of the program. It has a very good effect that it can be done.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a digital broadcast transmitting / receiving system including a digital broadcast transmitting device and a digital broadcast receiving device to which an index information service providing method according to the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining an index information service providing method according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram provided for describing an index information service providing method according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a data structure of a first EIT according to the present invention in consideration of compatibility with a conventional EIT.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a data structure of a second EIT according to the present invention in which activation control is added to a conventional EIT.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of invalidating index information;
FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating a data structure of a third EIT according to the present invention in which index information is converted into a descriptor based on the EIT in order to generalize a range to be invalidated.

[Description of Signs] 1 Digital Broadcasting Transmission / Reception System 3 Digital Broadcasting Transmitter 5 Digital Broadcasting Receiver 7 Program Playback Unit 9 Enable Signal Transmitter 11 Program Signal Encoder (Enable Signal Transmitter) 13 EIT Transmitter (Disabler) Reference Signs List 15 multiplexing section (validating signal transmitting means) 17 demultiplexing section 19 program signal decoder (validating signal extracting means) 21 program display section 23 validating signal extracting section (validating signal extracting means) 25 EIT validating section (index) Information acquisition means) 27 EIT extraction unit 29 EIT reconstruction unit (index information acquisition means) 31 EIT utilization unit

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 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Kazuhiro Machida 1-1-1, Nishiasakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo Inside the Next Generation Information Broadcasting System Research Laboratories (72) Inventor Mitsuteru Kataoka 1 Nishiasakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo No. 1-1, F-term in Next Generation Information and Broadcasting System Research Laboratories Co., Ltd. 5C059 KK00 KK36 KK43 MA00 PP04 RB02 RC00 RC35 SS02 5C063 AA20 AB03 CA23 CA40 DA07 DA20 DB10

Claims (15)

[Claims] 1. An index used for digital broadcasting that encodes and broadcasts a program, and adds, to a plurality of unit parts constituting the program, index information used for specifying each unit part and transmits the index. In the information service providing method, the transmitting side of the program, for each unit portion to which the index information is added,
An invalidation has been performed to restrict the use of the corresponding index information, and the validity used for validating the release of the restriction on the use of the index information corresponding to the unit part for which the invalidation has been performed. While transmitting the encoded signal to an area that can be extracted along with the decoding of the specific portion in the program, and transmitting the program, the receiving side of the program activates the area that can be extracted along with the decoding of the specific portion in the program. Digital broadcasting, wherein signals are sequentially extracted, and by using the extracted validating signal, the corresponding index information is obtained by performing the validating on the invalidated unit portion. Index information service providing method used for 2. The program is a time-series program composed of a time-series signal, and the index information is a start time, a duration or an end time, or a time for specifying a corresponding unit part. 2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising a description describing the corresponding unit. 3. The transmitting side of the program, for each unit portion to which the index information is added,
The invalidation of restricting the use of the corresponding index information has been selectively performed, and the validity of releasing the restriction on the use of the index information corresponding to the unit part for which the invalidation has been selectively performed has been enabled. While the enabling signal used when applying is added to an area that can be taken out with the decoding of the specific part in the program and transmitted, the receiving side of the program, with the decoding of the specific part in the program, The validity signal is sequentially extracted from the retrievable area, and the corresponding index information is obtained by performing the validity on the unit part on which the invalidation is selectively performed using the extracted validity signal. The index information service providing method used for digital broadcasting according to claim 1, wherein the index information service is acquired. 4. The invalidation is performed by encrypting a part or the entirety of the index information, while the validation is performed by using a decryption key of the encryption as the validation signal. 4. The index information service providing method used for digital broadcasting according to claim 1, wherein the method is executed by decoding the converted index information. 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the invalidation is performed using, as the index information, meaningless information or incomplete information including information that disturbs the use of index information that does not meet the program provider's intention when the attempt is made. On the other hand, the validation is performed by using, as the validation signal, information that is more complete than the incomplete information including the index information itself,
4. The index information service used for digital broadcasting according to claim 1, wherein the validation signal is executed by overwriting the incomplete information or supplementing the incomplete information so as to fill in a difference. Delivery method. 6. The invalidation is performed for each unit part to which the index information is added.
It is assumed that the use restriction is performed in a state where the information fulfillment degree indicating the degree of completeness of the corresponding index information is set in a plurality of stages, and in this case, the enabling signal is accompanied by decoding of a specific part in the program. 6. The index information service providing method used in digital broadcasting according to claim 5, wherein the index information service is transmitted by being added to a plurality of areas corresponding to the plurality of stages among the areas that can be extracted. 7. The validation signal transmitted in addition to a plurality of areas corresponding to the plurality of steps includes a priority relationship between the plurality of steps corresponding to each of the plurality of steps. 7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the index information service is used for digital broadcasting. 8. The receiving side of the program extracts an enabling signal transmitted by being added to a plurality of areas corresponding to the plurality of stages, and uses the extracted enabling signal to generate a corresponding unit part. 8. When the index information is validated, information for determining whether or not the information richness of the validated index information has final completeness is not added. 2. An index information service providing method used for digital broadcasting according to item 1. 9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the encoding is MPEG-2 Sy.
Areas that can be taken out along with decoding of a specific part in the program include an elementary stream, a packetized elementary stream, or a transport stream. 9. The method of providing an index information service used in digital broadcasting according to claim 1, wherein a region inserted in a signal of a specific portion in the program is adopted. 10. The encoding method according to claim 1, wherein the encoding is MPEG-2S.
The system is performed in accordance with the standards of systems, and a description area of pay-broadcast-related information is adopted as an area that can be extracted with decoding of a specific part in the program. 9. An index information service providing method used for digital broadcasting according to item 8. 11. A digital broadcast transmitting apparatus for encoding and broadcasting a program, wherein for each of a plurality of unit parts constituting the program, use restriction of index information used for specifying the unit part is restricted. Invalidating means for performing invalidation, and an enabling signal used for releasing the use restriction of the index information corresponding to the unit part which has been invalidated by the invalidating means, a specific part in the program. And a validation signal transmitting means for transmitting the signal by adding it to an area that can be taken out along with the decoding of the digital broadcast. 12. The invalidating means selectively performs, for each of a plurality of unit parts constituting the program, invalidation for restricting use of index information used when specifying the unit part. The validation signal transmission means transmits the validation signal used when releasing the restriction on the use of the index information corresponding to the unit part which is selectively invalidated by the invalidation means. 12. The digital broadcast transmitting apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the digital broadcast transmitting apparatus is configured to transmit the data added to an area that can be taken out in accordance with decoding of a specific portion in the digital broadcast. 13. A digital broadcast receiving apparatus for receiving and decoding a program, wherein the digital broadcast receiving apparatus is provided for each of a plurality of unit parts constituting the program.
An enable signal extraction for extracting an enable signal used for canceling the invalidation of restricting the use of the index information used for specifying the unit part in accordance with decoding of the specific part in the program Means, and using the validation signal extracted by the validation signal extraction means, the index information for obtaining the index information by releasing the use restriction of the index information corresponding to the unit part that has been invalidated. A digital broadcast receiving apparatus comprising: an obtaining unit. 14. The validity signal extracting means restricts use of index information used for specifying the unit part, which is selectively performed for each of a plurality of unit parts constituting the program. The validity signal used for canceling the invalidation is extracted along with the decoding of a specific part in the program, and the index information acquiring means includes the validity signal extracted by the validity signal extracting means. 14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the use of a signal removes a restriction on use of the index information corresponding to the unit part that has been selectively invalidated, thereby acquiring the index information. The digital broadcast receiving device according to the above. 15. A data structure of a digital broadcast for encoding and broadcasting a program, wherein the data structure is effective for releasing use restriction of index information used for specifying a plurality of unit parts constituting the program. A digital broadcast data structure, characterized in that a digitized signal is added to an area that can be extracted with decoding of a specific portion in the program.