JP2001285830A - Digital television system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an interactive service utilizing the characteristics of digital television. SOLUTION: In the case of displaying received digital broadcast on a display screen, a viewer is enabled to input information by referring to the display screen, and after this input, auxiliary information such as commercial (advertising information) is displayed so that the relevant information can be transmitted only after viewing the auxiliary information. Thus, it is possible to make a viewer surely view the auxiliary information (advertising information). As for this auxiliary information (advertising information), what kind of the auxiliary information (advertising information) to provide to the viewer in what time zone can be controlled, thereby a viewing effect depending on the viewing time zone of the viewer is improved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a technology effective when applied to an interactive service of a digital television system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In television broadcasting, digitalization via terrestrial broadcasting and satellite broadcasting is advancing, and the spread of digital television is expected.

[0003] A feature of the digital television system is that it is interactive, and that a viewer can interact with a broadcast program using a remote controller or the like.

[0004]

However, a service method focusing on the interactive nature of digital television has not been proposed so far.

The present inventor has made the present invention in view of the above points, and provides a technique for specifically realizing the participation of a viewer in digital television broadcasting.

[0006]

According to the present invention, when displaying a received digital broadcast on a display screen, a viewer can input information by referring to the display screen, and after this input, a commercial (advertisement information) is input. Such auxiliary information is displayed so that the information can be transmitted only after viewing the auxiliary information.

[0007] Thereby, the viewer can surely view the auxiliary information (advertisement information). This auxiliary information (advertising information) can control what kind of auxiliary information (advertising information) is provided to the viewer at what time of day,
The viewing effect according to the viewing time zone of the viewer can be enhanced.

Further, points may be given to a viewer when viewing the auxiliary information. In this case, the points may be stored in an IC card mounted on a set-top box or the like constituting the home server. Further, the points may be transmitted to a predetermined server via the Internet network.

[0009] The information input by the viewer may be options for a quiz or the like. In addition, lottery (hit /
It may be a lottery for an outlier or the like.

[0010]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

[0011]

Embodiment 1 Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a system configuration of a digital television which is an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of this embodiment.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a terrestrial wave, a satellite, and a CAT.
V is a base station, and 2 is a digital television tuner that receives radio waves from these base stations. This system is controlled by a control device (CPU) 4, and various operations can be performed by a remote controller 3 as an input device.

A display device 5 can use a CRT or a liquid crystal display. The display device 5 displays television broadcasts and information. Reference numeral 6 denotes a storage device, which is constituted by a hard disk device or a memory. This storage device 6 includes FIGS.
Various tables shown in FIG. In addition, viewer point data, advertisement information, and the like are stored. The advertisement information is stored as a reproducible still image or moving image, for example.

The CM storage table 701 stores time information (Ti
me1) and advertisement information (CM1: commercial). That is, the advertisement information output to the screen for each time zone is controlled.

The point storage table 801 is for associating time zones with points that can be obtained. The total point storage table 901 is a table for storing the points acquired by the viewer, and the contents are copied to the IC card 13.

The domain storage table 1001 stores a URL (Uniform Resource), which is an address on the Internet.
Locater) is registered. The URL defines the transmission destination of the information input by the viewer, and the input data of the viewer can be directly transmitted to a specific server (for example, the server 11) by CGI or the like.

Reference numeral 7 denotes a modem, which is connected to the provider 9 by a communication line. The provider 9 is an Internet provider, and is connected to various servers 11 via an Internet network 10.

Reference numeral 12 denotes a home server, which has a function of managing a home network. An IC card 13 can be attached to the home server 12, and the IC card 13 records information such as a user's address and name, as well as acquired points and the like.

In FIG. 1, when a digital broadcast signal is distributed to each home through a terrestrial station, a satellite communication, and a cable television station, the digital television tuner 2 sorts the data for each channel.

The viewer selects a channel using the input device 3, that is, a remote controller. The control device (CPU) 4 that has received the data broadcast display signal from the remote controller displays the data broadcast multiplexed on the designated channel on the display device (monitor) 5. At this time, the control device (CPU) 4 writes into the storage device (memory) 6 the page information (advertisement information, points, domain addresses, etc.) of the data broadcast on which the display processing has been performed.

FIG. 2 shows a display screen of the display device (monitor) 5 at this time. As shown in the figure, the display screen includes a broadcast program display area 201 and an input display area 20 for confirming data to be input using the remote controller 3.
2, an advertisement area 203 for displaying advertisement information, and an input confirmation area 204.

In this state, when the viewer inputs various information to the remote controller 3, for example, an answer to the quiz program broadcasted in the broadcast program display area 201 (step 60).
1) The input data (for example, a choice of answer to the quiz) is displayed in the input display area 202. Next, FIG.
As shown in FIG.
When the K button is pressed (602), the control device (CPU) 4
Reads out the advertisement information stored in the memory 6 in units of time with reference to the CM storage table 701 and reads out the advertisement area 2
03 is displayed (603).

FIG. 3 shows the state of the screen on which the advertisement information is displayed. Next, the control device (CPU) 4
Refers to the point storage table 801, and refers to the memory 6
Is read out and displayed (step 604 and FIG. 4). This point display is a point given when the viewer views the advertisement information, and is read out from the memory in units of time in the same manner as the above-described advertisement information.

Next, the control device (CPU) 4 displays the "point" button on the screen after displaying the points for a predetermined time, as shown in FIG. The viewer instructs the “transmit” button displayed on the screen with the remote controller 3 to transmit (605, 604), and this point (100 points in FIG. 4) is added as the point of the viewer. This added point is registered in the total point storage table 901 as the current total point.

Next, the control device (CPU) 4 refers to the domain name storage table 1001 and
The information input by the viewer at 1 is transmitted to a predetermined server 11 via the communication line 8 and the provider 9 via the modem 7 and further via the Internet network 10. The server 11 is, for example, a server of a broadcasting station or a server of the advertiser.

When the viewer wants to refer to the acquired points up to the present, the remote controller 3 designates the button area indicated as "Acquired points so far" on the screen of FIG. Point storage table 901
The "current total points" point value is displayed. When the user wants to write the total points on the IC card 13, the user designates the button area “recorded on the IC card” with the remote controller 3 so that the total points are transferred from the control device (CPU) 4 to the home server 12. Is also written to the IC card 13 via the interface (607).

As described above, in this embodiment, the transmission of the input information is permitted on the condition that the viewer has viewed the advertisement information (CM: commercial), so that the advertisement information can be surely viewed.

In the step 607 of the embodiment, the acquired points are temporarily stored in the memory 6 or the IC card 1 on the viewer side.
3 was described, but this processing is omitted and
You may make it transmit directly to the target server 11 via a communication line.

In such a case, the server 11 manages the acquired points for each category (for example, TV station / advertiser / provider, etc.). The own points obtained for each may be read out from the server 11 via the communication line 8 and displayed on the screen.

When points are managed by the IC card 13, the points managed by the memory 6 or the server 11 are transferred to the IC card 13 and then transferred to the memory 6.
Preferably, the management point of the server 11 is reset (returned to zero).

FIG. 11 shows a modification of the CM storage table, FIG.
2 shows a modification of the point storage table. The stored individual advertisement information (CM1, CM2) and the corresponding distribution time (t1, t2) may be equally distributed (t1 = t2 = t3 = t4) as shown in FIG. .

The points are P1>P2>P3> P4
And the distribution time is t1 <t2 <t3 <t4.
Thus, as shown in FIG. 14, the higher the point, the shorter the time distribution.

[0033]

[Embodiment 2] Fig. 15 is a processing flowchart of another embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 16 shows an alternative question item storage table, and Figs. 17 and 18 show a selection screen. Since the system configuration and the table configuration are the same as those in the first embodiment, the description of the components having the same functions is omitted.

Alternative question item storage table 16 of this embodiment
01 is stored in the memory 6. In the present embodiment, a question such as a quiz is presented on the screen. The viewer selects an answer item for the alternative question using the remote controller 3 (1501). This selection may be made from a plurality of options (characters and the like) displayed on the screen as shown in FIG. When a character is selected as shown in FIG. 18, the remote controller 3 instructs a "send" button displayed on the screen (1502).

As a result, the control device (CPU) 4 displays the point values stored in the memory 6 on the screen as shown in FIG. 18 (1503). After the display of the screen is continued for a certain period of time, the information of the selected item and the acquired points are transmitted to the server 11 via the communication line 8.

On the other hand, immediately after the viewer selects the answer item to the alternative question using the remote controller 3 (1501), a screen for inputting the viewer information stored in the memory 6 as shown in FIG. Gender, age, etc.).
FIG. 24 shows an example of a screen in this case.

The display of the point value (1503) may be a lottery lottery such as a win / loss shown in the third embodiment. The system configuration and table configuration of the lottery lottery will be described in a third embodiment described later.

In addition, the "send" button may be omitted. That is, when a character is selected by the remote controller 3 as shown in FIG. 18, the control device (CPU) 4
The point values stored in the memory 6 are displayed on the screen as shown in FIG. 18 (1503). Then, after the display of the screen is continued for a certain period of time, the information of the selected item and the acquired points may be transmitted to the server 11 via the communication line 8.

Furthermore, in this embodiment, in order to maintain the consistency of the viewer's answer to the alternative question, the viewer's answer to the same question may be limited to one time. In this case, the alternative question stored in the memory 6 is displayed on the screen, and when the viewer selects an answer item to the alternative question using the remote controller 3 (1501), the control device (CPU) 4 Is sent to the alternative question item storage table 1601 stored in the table, so that the selection operation cannot be performed thereafter.

[0040]

[Embodiment 3] FIG. 19 is a processing flowchart of still another embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 20 is an explanatory diagram showing a hit / losing lottery storage table 2001.

In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 20, "winning" and "losing" of lottery are applied by time distribution. Here, the ratio of out-of-hits can be controlled by time distribution. For example, as shown in FIG. 21, t1 = t2 = t3 = t4, and
, The winning probability is 1/4. FIG. 22 shows the flow of this time.

Next, the processing flow of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. First, the viewer inputs information to be transmitted using the remote controller 3 (1901), and instructs an “OK” button on the screen with the remote controller 3 (1902). Control device (C
After displaying the advertisement information stored in the memory 6 on the screen (1903), the control device (CPU) 4
The lottery lottery is displayed on the screen with reference to the winning / losing lottery storage table 2001 stored in the memory 6 (1).
904). For this display screen, for example, FIGS. 17 and 18 described in the second embodiment can be applied.

Next, as a result of the viewer selecting a lottery using the remote controller 3, when a hit is determined based on the hit / losing lot storage table 2001, the control device (CPU) 4
The domain corresponding to the hit information is read from the domain name storage table (1001 in FIG. 10) stored in the memory 6 (1906).

Next, the control device (CPU) 4
A "Send" button is displayed above (1907), and when the viewer selects this "Send" button with the remote controller 3 (190)
8) The information input by the viewer and the hit information are transmitted to the server 11 specified by the address of the domain via the communication line 8 (1909).

In this embodiment, the example in which the hit information is immediately transmitted to the server 11 has been described. However, in the case of a hit, the hit information and a predetermined point are written to the IC card 13 via the home server 12. It may be.

The lottery lottery shown in this embodiment may be displayed without looking at the CM. For example, when a lottery that wins an overseas trip or the like as a privilege for purchasing goods when shopping online on a digital TV program can be used,
M is not displayed, and only the lottery is displayed immediately after transmission of the purchase intention information of the viewer. That is, when the viewer inputs information to be transmitted using the remote controller 3 (1901) and instructs an “OK” button on the screen with the remote controller 3 (1902), the control device (CPU) 4 is stored in the memory 6. Hit /
The lottery lottery is displayed on the screen with reference to the lottery storage table 2001 (1904). Subsequent processing flows are the same as those in the above-described embodiment, and thus will not be described. In addition, points or a lottery ticket may be obtained in conjunction with the program without watching the CM as described above. For example, when a privilege is set for a viewer who participated in a program, such as voting for an evaluation of a new product in a digital TV program, or information selected by the viewer is displayed in a display area 201 of a broadcast program. Embodiments 1 to 3 can be applied as they are even when information input by a viewer is directly reflected in a program being broadcast. For lottery lottery,
In addition to / out, you can also set so that there is no empty lottery. In this case, the lottery lottery is displayed on the screen with reference to FIG. 26 of the lottery lottery table without empty lottery stored in the memory 6 (1904). The subsequent processing flow is the same as described above, and a description thereof will be omitted.

It is preferable to omit the "send" button after the lottery in any lottery. In other words, if the input information of the viewer is immediately transmitted after the lottery drawing is completed, there is a possibility that if the result of the lottery is incorrect, the viewer will have to re-enter the information to obtain the right to the lottery. Disappears. Therefore, the lottery of the lottery is limited to one time per one viewer information input transmission.

[0048]

Fourth Embodiment A fourth embodiment relates to a portable telephone having a data receiving function (for example, an i-mode terminal of NTT DOCOMO).
Is an example in which the present invention is applied. This mobile terminal has a TV tuner unit 2 so that it can receive digital TV data broadcasts. That is, a data broadcast dedicated to mobile phone reception is multiplexed with broadcast waves of terrestrial digital television, and the TV tuner unit 2 selectively receives only data from the multiplexed waves. This specific configuration is shown in FIG.

In the figure, description of functional units having the same functions as those described in the first to third embodiments will be omitted. In this embodiment, as described above, the digital television tuner unit 2 is provided, where the data broadcast 1 dedicated to mobile phone reception is received.

When a data broadcast linked to a program or having completely different information is displayed on the display screen 5 of the portable terminal in accordance with an instruction from the CPU 4, the terminal owner responds to the information.
The ten keys 3 of the mobile terminal are operated to enter some information.

After the input of the information, the services described in the first to third embodiments are added. These processes are performed in the first embodiment.
Since they are the same as those described in ~ 3, detailed description is omitted.

Here, the acquired points and winning right data are stored in the memory 6 of the portable terminal or transferred from the portable terminal to the home server 10 or the like at home. As this transfer method, a call is made to the home server 10 using the mobile phone function of the mobile terminal, a communication protocol is established, and the points and data are transferred to the home server 10 or the IC card 11.
To accumulate.

On the other hand, the i-mode center 7 functions as a provider server, and is connected to an external server 9 via the Internet 8. As described above, in the fourth embodiment, the viewer can interactively participate in the digital television system using the portable terminal as the information input unit.

[0054]

According to the present invention, an interactive service utilizing the characteristics of a digital television can be realized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of a digital television system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an example of a screen of a display device (1).

FIG. 3 is a screen example (2) of a display device.

FIG. 4 is a screen example (3) of a display device.

FIG. 5 is a screen example (4) of a display device.

FIG. 6 is a processing flowchart.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a configuration of a CM storage table.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a configuration of a point storage table.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a configuration of a total point storage table.

FIG. 10 Domain name storage table

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing the configuration of a correspondence table between stored advertisement information (CM) and distribution time.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a configuration of a correspondence table between storage points and distribution times.

FIG. 13 is a conceptual diagram showing a distribution time of CMs.

FIG. 14 is a conceptual diagram showing time distribution based on point values.

FIG. 15 is a processing flowchart of the second embodiment.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing an alternative question item storage table;

FIG. 17 shows an example of a selection screen (1).

FIG. 18 is an example of a selection screen (2)

FIG. 19 is a processing flowchart of the second embodiment.

FIG. 20 is a diagram showing a winning / losing lottery storage table

FIG. 21 is a configuration example of a table showing a relationship between a lottery hit and an outage distribution time.

FIG. 22 is a conceptual diagram of a time distribution outside a hit.

FIG. 23 is a diagram showing an input screen (sex, age, etc.) storage table for inputting viewer information;

FIG. 24 is an example of a viewer information input screen

FIG. 25 is a configuration diagram corresponding to a mobile terminal (mobile phone).

FIG. 26 is a drawing table of lottery lottery without empty lottery

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 base station 2 digital TV tuner 3 display device (monitor) 4 control device (CPU) 5 input device (remote control) 6 storage device (memory) 7 modem 8 communication line 9 provider 10 Internet network 11 server 12 home server 13 IC card 201 Broadcast program display area 202 Information input area 203 Advertising information display area 204 Input confirmation area

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. means for receiving a broadcast wave; means for displaying a received broadcast; means for inputting information with respect to display information displayed on a display means; A digital television system comprising: means for displaying; and means for transmitting information input as described above after displaying auxiliary information. 2. The digital television system according to claim 1, wherein said auxiliary information is advertisement information. 3. The digital television system according to claim 1, further comprising an adder for adding a predetermined point to said viewer by watching said advertisement information. 4. The digital television system according to claim 3, further comprising means for storing the points. 5. The digital television system according to claim 1, wherein the points are transmitted together with the input information. 6. The digital television system according to claim 2, wherein the distribution of the advertisement information is defined by time. 7. The digital television system according to claim 3, wherein the points are allocated such that a high point value is allocated to a short time and a low point is allocated to a long time. 8. The digital television system according to claim 1, wherein said input information is a selection selected by a viewer in response to a question. 9. The digital television system according to claim 1, wherein the input information is information on hitting or losing a lottery input by a viewer.