JP2001333346A - Multi-screen display device, medium and information aggregate - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem of a viewer not being able to satisfactorily check the channels other than his/her watching one when the viewer checks other channels while the watching channel is interrupted by a commercial message, etc., or the viewer being overlooking partly his/her watching program when the commercial message is over during the channel checking with the conventional image receiver. SOLUTION: This multi-screen display device 100 is provided at least with an appreciation screen generation means 103 which generates an appreciation screen where a single or plural channels are gathered together into a single or plural screens, a reference screen generation means 104 which generates a reference screen where the hole or some of plural rear channels are gathered together into plural screens, a display control means 105 which displays the appreciation screen and/or reference screen and a 1st contents change detection means 102 which detects the first change showing the change from the contents displayed on the appreciation screen to the 2nd contents which are previously set when the former contents are changed to the latter 2nd contents.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a multi-screen display device for performing multi-screen display.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, with the spread of CS broadcasting and the preparation for broadcasting of terrestrial digital broadcasting, the number of television channels has been increased, and programs desired by viewers and programs that can be viewed. The options are expanding.

[0003] When a television viewer is watching a program, for example, in the case of commercial broadcasting, a phenomenon that the content of the program shifts to a commercial period periodically occurs in a specific channel being viewed.

In such a case, while the commercial is being broadcast, the above-mentioned viewer is worried about a program of another station being broadcast on another channel, and performs a channel switching operation unspecified. It is not unusual to try to check the content of a program being broadcast on another channel. As mentioned above, as multi-channel broadcasting becomes a reality,
It is considered that the frequency of such a channel switching operation is still high.

[0005]

However, the broadcast period of a commercial inserted between programs is as short as an average of 1 to 2 minutes, and if a channel switching operation is manually performed, the commercial period is reduced within this short commercial period. You will have to check many channels.

[0006] Therefore, if the number of channels increases, as in the case of recent television broadcasting, viewers will not be able to sufficiently check other channels, or commercials will end during the channel check, and the viewers will not be able to view the content. There is a problem that a situation occurs in which a part of a desired program is overlooked.

[0007] The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and enables a user to easily confirm the contents of another channel even when there is an interruption such as a commercial period while watching a program. It is an object to obtain a screen display device.

[0008]

To achieve the above object, a first aspect of the present invention (corresponding to claim 1) is a viewing screen in which a single or a plurality of channels are combined into a single or a plurality of screens. And a reference screen generating unit that generates a reference screen that is not displayed on the viewing screen and that collects all or some of the plurality of channels on the back into a plurality of screens. And / or display control means for displaying the reference screen, and when the content of the single channel or the plurality of channels displayed on the viewing screen changes to a preset second content, the content is changed from the content to the second content. And at least a first content change detecting means for detecting a first change which is a change to two contents, wherein the display control means performs the first change in response to the first change. Is detected, the screen of the viewing screen, a multi-screen display device, characterized in that for displaying at least the reference screen.

Further, the second invention (corresponding to claim 2)
The display control means according to the present invention is characterized in that, when displaying the reference screen, the display control means also displays simultaneously the channel on which the change is detected, which is displayed on the viewing screen.

Further, the third invention (corresponding to claim 3)
The present invention is characterized in that the display control means does not simultaneously display the channel in which the content change is detected when displaying the reference screen.

A fourth aspect of the present invention (corresponding to claim 4)
Further includes instruction means for receiving an external input, and based on control of the instruction means, the display control means resets a single or a plurality of channels displayed on the reference screen as the viewing screen. The present invention is characterized in that:

Further, the fifth invention (corresponding to claim 5)
While the display control means is displaying the reference screen, the content of the single or multiple channels to be viewed on the viewing screen is different from the second content from the second content. When the second content change detecting means detects the second change, the display control means sets the reference screen to the reference screen. The present invention is characterized in that the viewing screen is displayed on the screen on which was displayed.

A sixth aspect of the present invention (corresponding to claim 6)
The present invention is characterized in that the second content is a commercial or a news program.

A seventh aspect of the present invention (corresponding to claim 7)
Is a medium that carries a program and / or data for causing a computer to execute all or a part of the functions of all or part of the first invention,
A medium that can be processed by a computer.

An eighth aspect of the present invention (corresponding to claim 8)
Is an information aggregate which is a program and / or data for causing a computer to execute all or a part of the functions of all or part of the first invention.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a multi-screen display device according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. As shown in the figure, in the multi-screen display device 100, the receiving means 10
1 means for receiving an external input signal and selecting a channel;
The first content change detecting means 102 detects a change in the content from the output of the receiving means 101, the viewing screen generating means 103 generates a viewing screen from the output of the receiving means 101, and the reference screen generating means 104 receives the receiving means 101
For generating a reference screen from the output of the display, display control means 10
5 is an appreciation screen generation means 103, a reference screen generation means 10
4 and a means for receiving an output from the first content change detecting means 102 and outputting an AV signal to a monitor (not shown).

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the internal configuration of the reference screen generating means 104. As shown in FIG.
1 is a unit that controls the receiving unit 101 to acquire data of a plurality of channels from the receiving unit 101. The screen creating unit 202 combines the data obtained from the data acquiring unit 202 to combine a plurality of screens into one sheet. A means for creating an image combined into a frame, and a screen storage means 203,
02 is a means for storing the created image data. The internal configuration of the viewing screen generating unit 105 is the same as that of the reference screen generating unit 105.

FIG. 3 is a diagram schematically showing an example of the viewing screen 301 and the reference screen 302.

The operation of the multi-screen display device according to the first embodiment of the present invention having the above configuration will be described below.

First, in the following description, it is assumed that the receiving means 101 is in a state where it can receive six channels A, B, C, D, E and F at present, and the display control means 1
In the initial state 05, it is assumed that the image of channel A is displayed on a single screen as the viewing screen 301 shown in FIG. That is, in the initial state of the operation of the multi-screen display device according to the present embodiment, the user is viewing only the program being broadcast on channel A as the screen of the television.

At this time, the receiving means 101 adjusts the tuning to the A channel under the control of the viewing screen generating means 103 and outputs the corresponding AV signal to the viewing screen generating means 103. Appreciation screen generation means 10
No. 3 currently only displays a single screen, so the input signal is passed through and output to the display control means 105 as it is.

On the other hand, the A-channel AV signal output from the receiving means 101 is transmitted to the first content change detecting means 1.
02 is also output. First content change detecting means 10
2 examines the content of the received AV signal to determine whether it is a program of the program itself or a commercial.

When the signal of the A channel output from the receiving means 101 changes from the program itself to a commercial, the first content change detecting means 102
This change is detected as a first change, and a detection signal indicating the first change is output to the display control means 105, the viewing screen generating means 103, and the reference screen generating means 104.

Upon receiving the detection signal from the first content change detecting means 102, the viewing screen generating means 103 stops the input from the receiving means 101 based on this.

Upon obtaining the detection signal from the first content change detecting means 102, the reference screen generating means 104 controls the receiving means 101 based on the detection signal, and
One B, C, D, E, and F channels are scanned for each frame of image data (1/30 second), and an AV signal is output in frame units.

The AV signal output for each frame is first stored in the reference screen generation means 104 for each channel in the data acquisition means 201. Next, the data acquisition unit 201 sequentially outputs the AV data scanned for each channel to the screen creation unit 202.

The screen creation means 202 is a data acquisition means 2
When AV data corresponding to one frame for a total of five channels from 01 to BF is sequentially obtained, these are combined to form one frame of data for multi-screen display. Screen creation means 2
The data for multi-screen display created in 02 is temporarily stored in the screen storage means 203 and then output to the display control means 105.

On the other hand, when the display control means 105 acquires the detection signal from the first content change detection means 102,
Based on this, the input from the viewing screen generation unit 103 is stopped, the input from the reference screen generation unit 104 is accepted, and this is output to a monitor (not shown). On the monitor,
As shown in FIG. 3, the display screen is switched from the viewing screen 301 displaying the A channel alone to the reference screen 302 displaying the multi-screen by dividing the B, C, D, E and F channels.

Thus, the user watching the monitor can view the other BF channels on a multi-screen display from the moment when the A channel starts broadcasting a commercial instead of a program, and broadcast on another channel. You can check the contents of the program being played.

In the above operation, the reference screen generating means 104 controls the receiving means, which is one tuner, to acquire data while scanning channels B to F, thereby forming the reference screen. Since the B channel image is generated, a time lag for scanning occurs from the generation of the B channel image to the generation of the F channel image. However, the scanning time is one frame (1/30 second) for each channel. Thus, the time required to create one entire frame is 1/6 second in total. For this reason, the generated moving image is displayed like a dropped frame, but does not significantly affect viewing for the purpose of channel check.

In the above operation, the description has been made on the assumption that the program of channel A set on the viewing screen is not displayed on multiple screens of the reference screen. Can be assigned to the A channel. As a result, the user can view the channel A, which was viewed as the viewing screen, as a part of the multiple screens of the reference screen. Even if the channel A returns from the commercial to the original program, the user can immediately view the channel A. By switching from the reference screen to the viewing screen, the original program is not missed.

(Embodiment 2) FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a multi-screen display device 400 according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention. In the figure, the same or corresponding parts as those in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof is omitted. Further, the second content change detection unit 401 is a unit that outputs a detection signal based on the signal received from the reception unit 101.

The multi-screen display device 400 according to the present embodiment having the above-described configuration is used when the content of the broadcast displayed on the viewing screen changes from a program to a commercial, and after the viewing screen changes to a reference screen. When the content of the broadcast displayed on the viewing screen returns from the commercial to the program again, the screen is automatically returned from the reference screen to the viewing screen.

The operation of the multi-screen display device according to the present embodiment will be described below. However, the same parts as those of the first embodiment will be omitted, and only the differences will be described. Also, the receiving means 101 is currently A, B, C, D,
It is assumed that the six channels E and F are in a receivable state, and the display control means 105 initially displays the images of the B, C, D, E, and F channels as the reference screen 301 shown in FIG. It is assumed to be displayed by. That is, in the initial state of the operation of the multi-screen display device according to the present embodiment, the user uses B,
It refers to programs broadcast on channels C, D, E, and F.

Here, the difference from the first embodiment is that the reference screen generating means 104 controls the receiving means 101 so that, in addition to the B, C, D, E, and F channels, Is also to be received at the same time as the broadcast of the A channel not displayed in. However, when the A-channel AV signal intermittently received for each frame is output from the receiving unit 101, it is input to the second content change detecting unit 401.

When the second content change detecting means 401 receives the input of the A-channel AV signal from the receiving means 101, the second content change detecting means 401 determines whether the content is a commercial or a program. At present, since the display control means 105 performs control to display the reference screen, the second content change detection means 401 determines that the content of the input A channel is a commercial.

Next, A output from the receiving means 101
When the channel signal changes from a commercial to a program, the second content change detecting unit 401 detects this change as a second change, and outputs a detection signal indicating the second change to the display control unit 105 and the viewing screen generating unit 103. And output to the reference screen generating means 104.

Upon obtaining the detection signal from the second content change detecting means 102, the reference screen generating means 104 stops the input from the receiving means 101 and cancels the control based on this. Also, upon receiving the detection signal from the second content change detecting means 102, the viewing screen generating means 103 controls the receiving means 101 immediately after the reference screen generating means 104 releases the control of the receiving means 101, and receives the A channel. And output the corresponding AV signal. In the present embodiment, since the viewing screen 301 is a single screen, the viewing screen generation unit 103 outputs the AV signal to the display control unit 105 as it is.

On the other hand, when the display control means 105 acquires the detection signal from the second content change detection means 401,
Based on this, the input from the reference screen generation unit 104 is stopped, the input from the appreciation screen generation unit 103 is accepted, and this is output to a monitor (not shown).

As a result, a user watching the monitor can view the B to F channels on a multi-screen display.
Even if you are checking the content of a program that is being broadcast on another channel and you are not watching A channel, when A channel returns to commercial broadcasting from commercial,
It is possible to immediately return to the program being broadcast on channel A and resume the original viewing.

(Embodiment 3) In a multi-screen display device according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention, the viewing screen generation means 103 displays a plurality of images instead of a single image. However, the configuration of this embodiment is the same as that of
The description is omitted.

FIG. 5 is a diagram schematically showing an example of the viewing screen 501 and the reference screen 502 in the present embodiment. As shown in the figure, it is assumed that the viewing screen 501 is displaying two screens and the reference screen 502 is displaying six screens.

The operation of the multi-screen display device according to the present embodiment as described above will be described below. The viewing screen display means 103 is, as shown in FIG.
As in the case of the receiving unit 101, the receiving unit 101 is controlled and the receiving unit 1 is controlled.
The A and B channels 01 are scanned every frame (1/30 second) of image data, and an AV signal is output in frame units.

The AV signal output for each frame is first stored in the viewing screen generation means 103 by the data acquisition means 201 for each channel. Next, the data acquisition unit 201 sequentially outputs the AV data scanned for each channel to the screen creation unit 202.

The screen creating means 202 includes the data acquiring means 2
From 01, AV data corresponding to one frame of two channels A and B are sequentially obtained, and are combined to form one frame of data for two-screen display. Screen creation means 2
The two-screen display data created in 02 is temporarily stored in the screen storage means 203 or passed through as it is and output to the display control means 105.

On the other hand, the first content change detecting means 102
Obtains the same A and B channel signals from the receiving unit 101 as the viewing screen generating unit 103 obtains, but the B channel signal changes from the program itself to a commercial Then, the first content change detecting unit 102 detects this change as a first change, and outputs a detection signal indicating the first change to the display control unit 105, the viewing screen generating unit 103, and the reference screen generating unit 104.

Upon receiving the detection signal from the first content change detecting means 102, the appreciation screen generating means 103 controls the receiving means 101 based on this, stops receiving the B channel, and receives the A channel. An output is made for each frame. Further, the viewing screen generating means 103
In, the AV data intermittently received in frame units is sequentially output to the screen creation means 202.

The screen creating means 202 includes the data acquiring means 2
When the AV data corresponding to one frame of the A channel is sequentially obtained from 01, the data is combined to form one frame of data for two-screen display. That is, the image creation unit 202
Leaves the area displaying the B channel as it is, and does not develop the image of the A channel on the entire surface. The two-screen display data created by the screen creation unit 202 is temporarily stored in the screen storage unit 203, and then output to the display control unit 105.

On the other hand, upon acquiring the detection signal from the first content change detecting means 102, the reference screen generating means 104 controls the receiving means 101 based on the detection signal, and controls C, D, E, F of the receiving means 101. , G channels are scanned for each frame of image data (1/30 second), and an AV signal is output in frame units.

The AV signal output for each frame is first stored in the reference screen generation means 104 for each channel in the data acquisition means 201. Next, the data acquisition unit 201 sequentially outputs the AV data scanned for each channel to the screen creation unit 202.

The screen creation means 202 includes the data acquisition means 2
When AV data corresponding to one frame for a total of five channels from 01 to C to G is sequentially obtained, the AV data is synthesized and used as one frame data for multi-screen display. At this time, the image creating unit 202 does not expand the data to be displayed on multiple screens over the entire surface, and determines the size of the data on the viewing screen 501.
In step (3), data is created so as to be reduced or deformed so as to conform to the area displaying the B channel.

The multi-screen display data created by the screen creation means 202 is temporarily stored in the screen storage means 203 and then output to the display control means 105.

On the other hand, when the display control means 105 acquires the detection signal from the first content change detection means 102,
Based on this, it receives inputs from the viewing screen generating means 103 and the reference screen generating means 104, synthesizes both signals, and outputs this to a monitor (not shown). On the monitor, as shown in FIG. 5, from the viewing screen 501 displaying the A channel and the B channel on two screens, only the display of the A channel of the viewing screen is left, and the remaining screens are displayed as B, C, D, The E and F channels are divided and the screen shifts to the reference screen 502 which is displaying multiple screens.

Thus, even if the user watching the monitor is watching programs on a plurality of channels,
From the moment when one channel starts broadcasting a commercial instead of a program, other channels can be viewed on a multi-screen display, and the content of a program being broadcast on another channel can be confirmed.

In the above operation, the viewing screen control means 103 and the reference screen generation means 104 control the receiving means, which is one tuner, and acquire data while scanning channels A to G. By doing
In order to generate the viewing screen and the reference screen, there is a time lag for scanning between the time when the image of the A channel is generated and the time when the image of the G channel is generated, and the generated moving image is displayed like a dropped frame. Will be. At this time, in the reference screen generating means, for the same reason as in the first embodiment, the viewing for the purpose of checking the channel is not significantly affected, but the viewing screen 501 may deteriorate the moving image quality. There is. In this case, the reference screen generation unit 104 may set the channel scan cycle to be longer than one frame, or output a still image. In this configuration, the AV signal may be obtained independently for the viewing screen generating unit and for the reference screen generating unit. In particular, when the receiving unit 101 is duplexed, it is easy to instantaneously display a plurality of reference screens, which are a plurality of multi-channel screens, from the start of the commercial, in consideration of the scan time in the multi-channel.

This embodiment may be combined with the second embodiment. In the above-described reference screen generation unit 104, the configuration in which the scan cycle of the channel is set to be longer than one frame or a still image is output, and the configuration in which the reception unit 101 is duplicated, are described in the embodiment. It can also be used for form 1 or 2.

In each embodiment of the present invention,
Although the switching from the viewing screen to the reference screen has been described as being based on the timing at which the program changes to a commercial, the present invention is not limited to this, and may be, for example, a news program with a short broadcast time. Also, in the case of a baseball game relay, it may be based on switching between front and back of a team attack. In short, the second setting, which is considered to be irrelevant to the previous content by the user setting
By defining content, on a particular channel,
If the switching between the content and the second content can be detected, the effect of the present invention can be obtained.

In the above description, the multi-screen display device according to the embodiment of the present invention has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to all or some of the above-described means of the present invention. A medium that carries a program and / or data for causing a computer to execute a function, and is a medium that is readable by a computer and that executes the function in cooperation with the computer. It may be realized.

The present invention also relates to a program and / or data for causing a computer to execute all or a part of the functions of all or part of the above-described means of the present invention. It may be realized as an information aggregate that performs a function.

Further, in the above, the data means
Includes data structure, data format, data type, etc. The medium includes a recording medium such as a ROM, a transmission medium such as the Internet, and a transmission medium such as light, radio waves, and sound waves. Further, the carried medium is, for example, a recording medium on which a program and / or data is recorded, or a program and / or
Or, it includes a transmission medium for transmitting data.

[0062] Further, the term "processable by a computer" means that the program can be read by a computer in the case of a recording medium such as a ROM, and the program and / or data to be transmitted in the case of a transmission medium.
Or that the data can be handled by a computer as a result of the transmission, and the information aggregate includes, for example, software such as programs and / or data.

Therefore, as described above, the configuration of the present invention may be realized by software or hardware.

[0064]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, a multi-screen display device capable of conveniently confirming the contents of another channel even when a program is interrupted during viewing. Can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a multi-screen display device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of an example of a reference screen generation unit and an appreciation screen generation unit according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a reference screen and an appreciation screen according to the first and second embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of a multi-screen display device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a reference screen and an appreciation screen according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 100, 400 Multi-screen display device 101 Reception means 102 First content change detection means 103 Appreciation screen generation means 104 Reference screen generation means 105 Display control means 201 Data acquisition means 202 Screen creation means 203 Screen storage means 301, 501 Viewing screen 302, 502 Reference screen 401 Second content change detecting means

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. An appreciation screen generating means for producing an appreciation screen in which a single or a plurality of channels are combined into a single or a plurality of screens, and a plurality of all or a part of the back which is not displayed on the appreciation screen. Reference screen generation means for generating a reference screen in which channels are grouped into a plurality of screens; display control means for displaying the viewing screen and / or the reference screen; and the single or plurality displayed on the viewing screen When the content of the channel changes to the second content set in advance, the display control further comprises: first content change detection means for detecting a first change that is a change from the content to the second content; The means is responsive to the first change to the first
A multi-screen display device, wherein at least the reference screen is displayed on a screen in the viewing screen where a change is detected. 2. The display control unit according to claim 1, wherein, when displaying the reference screen, the channel on which the change is detected is also displayed simultaneously on the viewing screen. Multi-screen display device. 3. The multi-screen display device according to claim 1, wherein, when displaying the reference screen, the display control unit does not simultaneously display the channel in which the content change is detected. 4. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an instruction unit for receiving an external input, based on a control of said instruction unit, wherein said display control unit displays a single or a plurality of channels displayed on said reference screen on said viewing screen. The multi-screen display device according to claim 1, wherein the multi-screen display device is reset. 5. While the display control means is displaying the reference screen, the content of the single or multiple channels to be viewed on the viewing screen is changed from the second content to the second content. Further comprises second content change detection means for detecting the change as a second change when the content has changed to a different content, and when the second content change detection means detects the second change, the display control means: The multi-screen display device according to claim 1, wherein the viewing screen is displayed on a screen on which the reference screen is displayed. 6. The multi-screen display device according to claim 1, wherein the second content is a commercial or a news program. 7. A medium carrying a program and / or data for causing a computer to execute all or a part of the functions of all or part of the present invention according to claim 1, wherein the medium is processed by a computer. A medium characterized by what is possible. 8. An information aggregate, which is a program and / or data for causing a computer to execute all or a part of the functions of all or part of the present invention according to claim 1.