JP2002354365A - Information processor and processing method, recording medium and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To select the channel of a desired program quickly. SOLUTION: When the genre of a program is set by a user, a main control section 11 extracts a program corresponding to that genre with reference to EPG(Electronic Program Guide) data stored in an EPG data storing section 18. The main control section 11 makes a program list of extracted programs and stores it in a list information storing section 19. When a short cut icon displayed at a display section 17 is operated, the main control section 11 selects the programs registered on the program list sequentially starting from one registered at the head of the list with reference to a specified position, selects the channel of the selected program and displays its video at the display section 17.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and method, a recording medium, and a program, and more particularly, to an information processing apparatus and method, a recording medium, and a program capable of promptly selecting a desired program.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the field of digital broadcasting, program guide data for selecting a program is multiplexed with program data such as video and audio and transmitted, and displayed on a display device on the receiving side. So-called EPG (Elec
tronic Program Guide) is known.

In this EPG, a genre of a program is designated, a keyword of the program is input, and the like.
The user can easily search for a favorite program. For example, when sports are specified as the genre of a program, a list of sports programs that can be viewed at that time is displayed, so that the user can select a sports program that the user wants to view from the list.

[0004]

However, even when a program is selected from such a list, the user may not like the selected program and may want to select a program again. In this case, there is a problem that the user needs to display the list again by using a remote controller or the like and select a program again from the displayed list.

That is, when the video of the selected program is displayed, the user displays the EPG again,
It is necessary to specify the genre and display the list. Further, even when the list once set is stored in a predetermined memory or the like, it is necessary to display the stored list.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and is intended to allow a desired program to be quickly selected.

[0007]

An information processing apparatus according to the present invention comprises: acquiring means for acquiring electronic program guide information; setting means for setting predetermined information relating to a program; and electronic program guide information acquired by the acquiring means. Extracting means for extracting a program corresponding to the information set by the setting means, and a tuning button for displaying a tuning button operated when selecting a program corresponding to the information extracted by the extracting means. It is characterized by comprising a button display means and a program display means for sequentially displaying a program corresponding to the information in response to an operation of a tuning button displayed by the tuning button display means.

[0008] The setting means may set a genre of the program as information on the program.

[0009] The setting means may set a keyword of the program as information on the program.

[0010] The information processing method of the information processing apparatus of the present invention comprises:
An acquisition step of acquiring electronic program guide information, a setting step of setting predetermined information relating to the program, and corresponding to the information set by the processing of the setting step based on the electronic program guide information acquired by the processing of the acquisition step. An extracting step of extracting a program to be selected, a tuning button display step of displaying a tuning button operated when selecting a program corresponding to the information extracted by the processing of the extracting step, and a tuning button displaying step. A program display step of sequentially displaying a program corresponding to the information in response to an operation of a channel selection button displayed by the processing.

[0011] The program recorded on the recording medium of the present invention includes an acquisition control step for controlling acquisition of electronic program guide information, a setting step for setting predetermined information relating to the program, and an acquisition control step. An extracting step of extracting a program corresponding to the information set by the processing of the setting step based on the acquired electronic program guide information; and selecting a program corresponding to the information extracted by the processing of the extracting step. A tuning button display control step for controlling display of the operated tuning button and a tuning button displayed by the processing of the tuning button display control step are operated in accordance with the information. And a program display control step of controlling the sequential display of programs.

[0012] A program according to the present invention includes an acquisition control step for controlling acquisition of electronic program guide information, a setting step for setting predetermined information relating to a program, and electronic program guide information acquired by the processing of the acquisition control step. An extracting step of extracting a program corresponding to the information set by the processing of the setting step, and a tuning button operated when selecting a program corresponding to the information extracted by the processing of the extracting step. A channel selection button display control step of controlling the display, and sequentially displaying a program corresponding to the information in response to an operation of a channel selection button displayed by the processing of the channel selection button display control step. And controlling the program display control step to be executed by a computer.

In the information processing apparatus and method of the present invention, in the program of the recording medium, electronic program guide information is obtained, predetermined information on the program is set, and the program information is set based on the obtained electronic program guide information. A program corresponding to the information is extracted. In addition, a tuning button operated when selecting a program corresponding to the extracted information is displayed, and a program corresponding to the information is sequentially displayed according to an operation of the displayed tuning button. Is done.

[0014]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of an information processing apparatus 1 to which the present invention is applied.

The information processing apparatus 1 basically has a BS (Broadca
Sting Satellite) A so-called STB (Set Top Box) capable of extracting predetermined program data from digital broadcast waves or terrestrial digital broadcast waves, and a display section (display section 17) on which the video of the program is displayed. It is composed of

The main control unit 11 includes a CPU (not shown).
(Central Processing Unit), ROM (Read Only Memor)
y), and a random access memory (RAM), and controls the overall operation of the information processing apparatus 1 based on a notification from the input control unit 12.

For example, based on the output from the channel selection unit 14, the main control unit 11 performs a process of reproducing a program desired by the user and a screen corresponding to electronic program guide information (hereinafter, appropriately referred to as EPG data). It is displayed on the display unit 17.

In the information processing apparatus 1, the user sets, for example, a predetermined genre and displays a button (shortcut button 32 (see FIG. 5B)) in which only programs of the genre are sequentially displayed. The user can select a program by operating the button. Therefore, the main control unit 11 also performs a process of extracting a program associated with the shortcut button 32 based on the supplied EPG data. Details of the processing will be described later with reference to a flowchart.

The input control unit 12 is provided with a predetermined operation button operated when selecting a channel or adjusting a volume, and an input unit 13 including a light receiving unit for receiving a signal from a remote controller. The corresponding signal is output to the main control unit 11 in response to the input of the instruction from.

The tuning section 14 acquires a digital broadcast wave reception signal received by the antenna 15, and selects (extracts) a signal of a predetermined channel from the received signal based on an instruction of the main control section 11. Then, the data is output to the main control unit 11. Specifically, the tuning unit 14 acquires a transport stream from a television broadcast wave received by the antenna 15 based on an instruction from the main control unit 11, and transport packets constituting the acquired transport stream. A necessary packet is extracted based on the identification information described in the header of (1), and the extracted packet is output to the main control unit 11.

The display control section 16 performs a CRT (Cathode Ray Tub) based on the image signal generated by the main control section 11.
e) A video of the program is displayed on a display unit 17 such as an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display). The audio signal is subjected to a reproduction process in the main control unit 11 in the same manner as the video signal, and is output from a speaker (not shown).

The EPG data storage unit 18 stores the EPG data supplied from the main control unit 11 and, for example, displays a program to be set when displaying the EPG on the display unit 17 or in association with the shortcut button 32. When extracting
If necessary, the stored EPG data is transferred to the main control unit 1
1 to provide.

The list information storage unit 19 sets, for example, a program list corresponding to a genre designated by the user (hereinafter, referred to as a list) set in association with the shortcut button 32.
(Referred to as a program list as appropriate). The list information storage unit 19 stores the channel number of each program, the operation history of the shortcut icon 32 (information specifying the program currently displayed on the display unit 17), and the like.

The main control unit 11 has a shortcut button 3
2 is operated, the program stored in the list information storage unit 19 is referred to and the program to be displayed next is selected.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a program list stored in the list information storage unit 19.

The program list shown in the figure is an example of a case where "sports" is set as the genre (predetermined information) by the user. In response to this, a program corresponding to "sports" is extracted. It is stored together with information such as the channel number.

In FIG. 2, a soccer relay on channel 101, a golf relay on channel 105,
A professional baseball broadcast of 200 channels and a golf lesson program of 300 channels are registered.

It should be noted that the soccer broadcast of channel 101 is designated by the predetermined information as the currently displayed program.

Hereinafter, the processing of the information processing apparatus 1 of FIG. 1 will be described.

First, the processing of the information processing apparatus for storing the EPG data will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

In step S1, the main control unit 11
For example, the control unit 14 controls the tuning unit 14 to acquire the EPG data at a timing when the power is turned on or at a timing when a predetermined period has elapsed since the last time the EPG data was stored. That is, the tuning unit 14 obtains EPG data from the received signal supplied from the antenna 15 in response to an instruction from the main control unit 11 and outputs it to the main control unit 11.

In step S2, the main control unit 11
The EPG data obtained in step S1 is stored in the EPG data storage unit 1.
8 is stored.

Thus, when the user instructs to set the genre of the program associated with the shortcut icon 32, the main control unit 11 can perform the processing.

Next, referring to the flowchart of FIG.
The processing of the information processing apparatus 1 for selecting a predetermined channel in response to the operation of the shortcut icon 32 will be described.

In step S11, the main control unit 11
Determines whether the user has instructed to display the shortcut icon 32 based on the output from the input control unit 12, and waits until it is determined that the instruction has been instructed.

If the main controller 11 determines in step S11 that the display of the shortcut icon 32 has been instructed, the process advances to step S12 to execute a program list creation process. For the program list creation process,
This will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

The main control unit 11 is provided with a display control unit 16
Is operated, and when it is operated, the shortcut icon 32 for sequentially displaying the programs registered in the program list is displayed on the display unit 17.

FIGS. 5A and 5B are diagrams showing examples of video of a program displayed on the display unit 17. FIG.

For example, a program as shown in FIG. 5A is displayed, and a shortcut icon 3
2 is displayed and associated with it, for example, when the genre of the program is set, step S12
In step S13, a program list creation process is performed.
As shown in FIG. 5B, the shortcut icon 32
Is displayed on the display unit 17. Shortcut icon 3
For example, characters corresponding to the genre (in the example of FIG. 5, characters of “sports”) and images are displayed in 2.

In FIGS. 5 (A) and 5 (B), the channel of the program being displayed is 10 channels as shown in the channel display section 31 provided at the upper right.
Channel 0.

Returning to the description of FIG. 4, in step S14, the main controller 11 determines whether or not the shortcut icon 32 has been operated, and waits until it is determined that the shortcut icon 32 has been operated. For example, the user operates the shortcut icon 32 by pressing a shortcut icon button provided on the remote controller, or moving a pointer displayed on the display unit 17 with a mouse.

When the main control unit 11 determines in step S14 that the shortcut icon 32 has been operated,
Proceeding to step S15, referring to the history information stored in the list information storage unit 19, it is determined whether or not the number of operations of the shortcut icon 32 is 0 (set to the first program in the program list). Is being displayed or not).

If the main control unit 11 determines that the number of times of operation of the shortcut icon 32 is 0, that is, it has not yet performed a channel selection operation in response to the operation of the shortcut icon 32, the process proceeds to step S16. To select the first (top) program in the program list as the program to be displayed.

Then, the main controller 11 determines in step S16
The channel number of the program selected in is notified to the channel selection unit 14 and an instruction is given to select the channel. In response to this, in step S17, channel selection is performed by the channel selection unit 14, and the program data is output to the main control unit 11.

In step S18, the main controller 11
Outputs the supplied program data to the display control unit 16 and causes the display unit 17 to display the corresponding video.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a program displayed based on the operation of the shortcut icon 32.

For example, when "sports" is designated as the genre and a program list as shown in FIG.
When the shortcut icon 32 shown in (B) is operated, the soccer relay (channel 101) registered at the beginning of the program list is selected, and the video is displayed on the display unit 1.
7 is displayed.

Then, the main controller 11 proceeds to step S19.
, The operation history (information specifying which program in the program list is currently displayed) stored in the list information storage unit 19 is updated.

For example, as shown in FIG. 6, when a soccer broadcast is displayed, the list information storage unit 19 stores
Information designating that the number of times of operation of the shortcut icon 32 is one is stored.

In step S20, the main controller 11
Determines whether or not an instruction to delete the shortcut icon 32 displayed on the display unit 17 has been issued. If it is determined that the instruction has been issued, the process proceeds to step S21, and the display is erased.

If the main control unit 11 determines in step S20 that it is not instructed to delete the shortcut icon 32, the process returns to step S14 and repeats the subsequent processing.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S15 that the number of times of operation of the shortcut icon 32 is not 0 (the currently displayed program is not the first program among the programs registered in the program list), S
Proceeding to 22, the program registered in the program list next to the currently displayed program is selected as the program to be displayed based on the operation history.

Then, the subsequent processing is executed, and FIG.
In the case where a live broadcast of soccer is currently displayed, a live broadcast of a golf broadcast (channel 10) registered in the program list after the live broadcast of soccer is stored.
5) is selected, and the video is displayed on the display unit 17 as shown in FIG.

Each time the program to be displayed is changed, step S
At 19, the operation history is updated, and for example, information indicating that the number of operations is two (information indicating that the golf relay is the currently displayed program) is stored in the list information storage unit 19. You.

With the above processing, the user can
Can be displayed each time, and by simply operating the shortcut icon 32 without selecting a program, it is possible to sequentially display programs of a preset genre.
That is, in the example of the program list of FIG.
By simply operating the shortcut icon 32, the video can be displayed in the order of soccer relay, golf relay, professional baseball relay, and golf lesson.

Each time the EPG data is updated, the program registered in the program list may be updated. This allows the user to enter the shortcut icon 32
It is possible to suppress that the program cannot be viewed at present even though is operated.

Next, referring to the flowchart of FIG.
The program list creation process of the information processing device 1 executed in step S12 of FIG. 7 will be described.

In step S31, the main control unit 11
Controls the display control unit 16 to display a genre selection screen of the program corresponding to the shortcut icon 32 on the display unit 17.

For example, the main controller 11 displays a list of genres, and allows the user to select a favorite genre.

In step S32, the main controller 11
Determines whether the genre of the program to be registered in association with the shortcut icon 32 is selected by the user based on the output from the input control unit 12, and waits until it is determined that the genre is selected.

On the other hand, the main controller 11 determines in step S32
When it is determined that the genre has been selected by the user, the process proceeds to step S33, the program corresponding to the selected genre is extracted by referring to the EPG data stored in the EPG data storage unit 18, and the extracted program Is stored in the list information storage unit 19.

[0062] Information for identifying a genre is added to the EPG data for each program, and the main control unit 11 extracts a program based on the identification information.

Then, by the processing in step S 33, for example, a program list as shown in FIG. 2 is stored in the list information storage unit 19.

In step S34, the main control section 11 clears the stored operation history of the program list (previously set), and when the shortcut icon 32 in which the program is set in this process is operated, the program list is cleared. So that the first registered program is displayed.

In step S35, the main controller 11
Turns off the display of the genre selection screen and ends the processing.

In the above example, the user sets the genre of the program as the category of the program.
Any information may be set as long as a program can be extracted based on the information.

For example, a user may input a predetermined keyword, and a program list may be created by a program corresponding to the keyword. Therefore, for example, when the user inputs the name of a favorite singer as a keyword, only by operating the shortcut icon 32,
The program in which the singer appears can be displayed continuously.

The series of processes described above can be executed by hardware, but can also be executed by software. In this case, for example, the information processing apparatus 1 is configured by a personal computer as shown in FIG.

In FIG. 9, a CPU 51 executes a program stored in a ROM 52 or a RAM 5 from a storage unit 58.
3 executes various processes according to the program loaded. The RAM 53 also stores data and the like necessary for the CPU 51 to execute various processes.

The CPU 51, the ROM 52, and the RAM 53 are mutually connected via a bus 54. The bus 54 is also connected to an input / output interface 55.

The input / output interface 55 includes an input unit 56 including a keyboard and a mouse, a display including a CRT and an LCD, an output unit 57 including a speaker, a storage unit 58 including a hard disk, and the like.
A communication unit 59 including a modem, a terminal adapter, and the like is connected. The communication unit 59 performs communication processing via a network.

A drive 60 is connected to the input / output interface 55 as needed, and a magnetic disk 61,
An optical disk 62, a magneto-optical disk 63, a semiconductor memory 64, or the like is appropriately mounted, and a computer program read therefrom is installed in the storage unit 58 as needed.

When a series of processing is executed by software, a program constituting the software is installed in a computer incorporated in dedicated hardware, or various programs are installed, thereby realizing various functions. Is installed from a network or a recording medium into, for example, a general-purpose personal computer capable of executing the program.

As shown in FIG. 9, this recording medium is a magnetic disk 6 on which the program is recorded, which is distributed in order to provide the user with the program separately from the apparatus main body.
1 (including floppy disk), optical disk 62 (CD-R
OM (Compact Disk-Read Only Memory), DVD (Digital Vers
atile Disk), magneto-optical disk 63 (MD (Mini-D
isk) or a package medium including a semiconductor memory 64 or the like, and is provided to the user in a state where the program is incorporated in the apparatus main body in advance. It is composed of a hard disk included in.

In this specification, the steps of describing the program recorded on the recording medium are not limited to the processing performed in chronological order according to the described order, but are not necessarily performed in chronological order. Alternatively, it also includes individually executed processing.

[0076]

According to the information processing apparatus, method and recording medium program of the present invention, electronic program guide information is obtained, predetermined information relating to the program is set, and setting is performed based on the obtained electronic program guide information. The program corresponding to the extracted information is extracted. In addition, a tuning button operated when selecting a program corresponding to the extracted information is displayed, and a program corresponding to the information is sequentially displayed in response to an operation of the displayed tuning button. Thus, a desired program can be quickly selected.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of an information processing apparatus to which the present invention has been applied.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a program list.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating processing of the information processing apparatus.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating another process of the information processing apparatus.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a display example of a display unit.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating another display example of the display unit.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing still another display example of the display unit.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating still another process of the information processing apparatus.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a personal computer.

[Explanation of symbols]

Reference Signs List 1 information processing device, 11 main control unit, 14 tuning unit 16 display control unit, 17 display unit, 18 EPG data storage unit, 19 list information storage unit, 32 shortcut icon, 61 magnetic disk, 62 optical disk, 63 magneto-optical disk, 64 semiconductor memory

Continued on the front page F term (reference) 5C025 BA27 CA09 CB05 CB08 DA01 DA04 5C063 AB03 AB05 AC01 AC10 CA23 CA31 DA01 DA07 DA13 5K061 AA09 BB06 BB07 CC45 DD02 FF01 JJ06 JJ07

Claims (6)

[Claims] An electronic program guide information acquiring unit configured to set predetermined information relating to a program; and an electronic program guide information set by the setting unit based on the electronic program guide information acquired by the acquiring unit. Extracting means for extracting a program corresponding to the information, and a tuning button display means for displaying a tuning button operated when selecting a program corresponding to the information extracted by the extracting means; An information processing apparatus comprising: program display means for sequentially displaying a program corresponding to the information in response to an operation of the tuning button displayed by the tuning button display means. 2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the setting unit sets a genre of the program as the information on the program. 3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the setting unit sets a program keyword as the information on the program. 4. An acquiring step for acquiring electronic program guide information; a setting step for setting predetermined information relating to a program; and a setting step based on the electronic program guide information acquired by the processing of the acquiring step. An extracting step of extracting a program corresponding to the information set by processing; and a tuning button displaying a tuning button operated when selecting a program corresponding to the information extracted by the processing of the extracting step. A button displaying step; and a program displaying step of sequentially displaying a program corresponding to the information in response to an operation of the tuning button displayed by the processing of the tuning button displaying step. Information processing method. 5. An acquisition control step for controlling acquisition of electronic program guide information; a setting step for setting predetermined information relating to a program; and a setting step based on the electronic program guide information acquired by the processing of the acquisition control step. An extracting step of extracting a program corresponding to the information set by the processing of the setting step; and a tuning operation performed when selecting a program corresponding to the information extracted by the processing of the extracting step. Channel selection button display control step of controlling display of a button, and in response to the operation of the channel selection button displayed by the processing of the channel selection button display control step, a program corresponding to the information is displayed. And a program display control step of controlling sequential display. That it is recorded in a recording medium. 6. An acquisition control step of controlling acquisition of electronic program guide information; a setting step of setting predetermined information relating to a program; and a setting step based on the electronic program guide information acquired by the processing of the acquisition control step. An extracting step of extracting a program corresponding to the information set by the processing of the setting step; and a tuning operation performed when selecting a program corresponding to the information extracted by the processing of the extracting step. Channel selection button display control step of controlling display of a button, and in response to the operation of the channel selection button displayed by the processing of the channel selection button display control step, a program corresponding to the information is displayed. And a program display control step of controlling the sequential display.