JP2003259243A - Program retrieving method, digital television, digital broadcast reception system and digital broadcasting tuner - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily retrieve a needed program in mass program information in an EPG (electronic program guide) retrieval of a digital broadcast reception system. <P>SOLUTION: New keywords are automatically generated from retrieval results of programs, and the keywords are presented to a user together with check boxes. The designation of keywords judged to be unnecessary by the user is received to perform retrieval again, eliminating program information including the designated keywords. Thus, it is possible to surely eliminate unrelated program information from the retrieval results and easily extract needed information in a large amount of program information. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a program search method, and more particularly to an EPG (Electronic) based on a keyword.
The present invention relates to a program search method for searching for a television program from (c Program Guide).

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a method for efficiently searching digital data and presenting it to a user, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-16 is available.
There are inventions disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 1682, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-143647, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-85069, and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-189680. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 11-161682 discloses an information search device mainly used for dictionary search software, document creation software, and document browsing software. In this information retrieval device, the meaning of a word or an idiom is searched from a database, and the meaning of the word or idiom is presented to the user in a predetermined priority order based on the part of speech of the word or idiom or the meaning of the preceding and following words.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 5-143647 discloses a search processing method for narrowing down search results in a database. In this search processing method, for example, as shown in FIG. 1A, a search is performed based on the keyword “A and B”, and the number of times each of the keywords A to G included in the searched articles 1 to 6 appears. To the user. If F and G match the user's target keyword, the search results are narrowed down by using "FOR G" as a new keyword, and the keywords included in the searched articles 3, 4, and 6 are searched. Is presented to the user.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 7-85069 discloses a search support device for a telephone directory database.
In this search support device, a search is performed based on a keyword input by a user to determine search candidates, two candidates are selected so that there is no duplication, and the attributes of the selected candidates (surname, first name, city, district, town, village, Evaluate the error size (distance) between keywords for each address and telephone number. Then, the variation of the distance is evaluated for each attribute, the candidate having the attribute value with the large variation is presented to the user, and the correction of the attribute value is prompted.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2-189680 describes a search method for performing a stepwise search using past search results. Further, in this search method, when there is no search result, a search is performed using a keyword belonging to a superordinate concept of the keyword, thereby reducing the failure of the search.

[0006]

However, in any of the inventions described in the above publications, even if the search results are narrowed down based on a predetermined condition or the user narrows down the condition, the keyword This is to narrow down the search results by adding appropriate keywords from the inside. EPG in PC and digital receiving system
(Electronic Program Guid
e) When searching for programs by searching, BS broadcasting, CS
Since many programs are provided by broadcasting, the search method described in the above publication may require a large amount of time for the user to search for the programs. Furthermore, when digital terrestrial broadcasting is started in the future, the number of channels will increase and the number of programs will also increase rapidly. Therefore, there is a need for a method that allows ordinary household users to easily search for the desired program. I think it will be.

An object of the present invention is to enable a required program to be easily searched from a vast amount of program information in EPG search.

[0008]

A program search method according to a first invention is an EPG (Ele) of a digital broadcast receiving system.
In ctronic Program Guide), a program is searched by using a keyword, a new keyword is generated based on the search result and presented to the user, and some of the generated keywords are further added and the re-search is repeated. Accordingly, the program search method for narrowing down the search results is characterized as follows. That is, a new keyword is generated based on the search result and presented to the user, and the designation of the keyword to be deleted among the generated keywords is accepted from the user,
The feature is that the process of deleting the program including the specified keyword from the search result is repeated to narrow down the search result.

In this program search method, when a digital broadcast receiving system searches for a program from an EPG signal included in a broadcast wave, among the keywords generated based on the search result, a keyword judged to be unnecessary by the user is included. Delete search results. As a result, unnecessary items can be easily deleted from the enormous search results, and the search results can be efficiently narrowed down.

A program search method according to a second aspect of the present invention is a program search method for searching a program by EPG search, which includes a keyword receiving step, a program search step, a keyword generating step, a keyword presenting step, and a keyword designating step. And a re-search step. The keyword receiving step receives input of a keyword from the user. The program search step searches a program from the EPG based on the input keyword and presents it to the user. The keyword generation step generates a new keyword based on the search result. The keyword presenting step presents the generated keyword to the user. The keyword designation step receives designation of a keyword to be deleted from the presented keywords from the user. The re-search step deletes the program including the specified keyword from the search result.

In this program search method, when a program is searched for from EPGs stored on the network or when a program is searched for from an EPG signal included in broadcast radio waves in a digital broadcast receiving system, based on the search result. Among the generated keywords, the search result including the keyword judged to be unnecessary by the user is deleted. With this, you can easily delete unnecessary ones from huge search results,
Search results can be narrowed down efficiently.

A program search method according to a third invention is the program search method according to the second invention, which is performed in a digital broadcast receiving system. A digital television according to a fourth aspect of the present invention is a digital television that searches for a program by EPG search, and a keyword input unit that receives a keyword input from a user, and a program is searched from the EPG based on the input keyword and presented to the user. A program search unit, a keyword generation unit that generates a new keyword based on the search result, a keyword presentation unit that presents the generated keyword to the user, and a designation of the keyword among the presented keywords from the user It is provided with a keyword designating unit and a re-searching unit that deletes a program including the designated keyword from the search result.

According to the digital television of the fourth aspect of the invention, the same operational effects as those described in the program search method of the third aspect of the invention can be obtained. A digital broadcast receiving system according to a fifth aspect of the present invention is a digital broadcast receiving system for searching a program by an EPG search, the digital broadcast tuner receiving a digital broadcast signal, performing a predetermined process, and outputting the signal, and a signal from the digital broadcast tuner. And a television for displaying an image based on. Then, the digital broadcasting tuner receives a keyword input from the user, a keyword input unit, a program search unit that searches the EPG for a program based on the input keyword and presents the program to the user, and a new search unit based on the search result. A keyword generation unit that generates a keyword, a keyword presentation unit that presents the generated keyword to the user, a keyword designation unit that receives the designation of the keyword from the user among the presented keywords, and a program that includes the designated keyword. It has a re-search unit for deleting from the search result.

According to the digital broadcast receiving system of the fifth aspect of the present invention, the same operational effects as those described in the third aspect of the invention can be obtained even if an analog television is used. A digital broadcasting tuner according to a sixth aspect of the present invention is a digital broadcasting tuner for searching a program by EPG search, and a keyword input unit that receives a keyword input from a user, and a program is searched from the EPG based on the input keyword to search the program by the user. A program search unit that presents the keyword, a keyword generation unit that generates a new keyword based on the search result, and a keyword presentation unit that presents the generated keyword to the user,
A keyword specification section that receives from the user the specification of keywords to be deleted among the presented keywords,
And a re-search unit that deletes a program including the designated keyword from the search result.

According to the digital broadcasting tuner of the sixth aspect of the present invention, the same operational effects as those described in the third aspect of the invention can be obtained even if an analog television is used.

[0016]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION (1) First Embodiment Example (1-1) Overall Configuration FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a digital broadcast receiving system 1 according to the first embodiment example. This digital broadcast receiving system includes a television 1, an antenna 2, a cable 3 and a remote controller 1.
Including 1 and. The television 1 is a digital television having a tuner circuit that processes a satellite broadcast signal to generate a television signal, and includes an EPG (El) included in the satellite broadcast signal.
Program information can be extracted from the electronic program guide) signal and displayed on the screen. The antenna 2 is a parabolic antenna for receiving satellite broadcast radio waves. The television 1 and the antenna 2 are connected to each other by a coaxial cable 3. The remote controller 11 is a device for remotely operating the television 1 by infrared communication.

(1-2) Digital Television FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of the television 1. The television 1 includes a signal separation unit 101, a tuner unit 102, a demodulation unit 103, an error correction unit 104, and a descramble unit 1.
05, the demultiplexing unit 106, and the MPEG decoder 10
7, a D / A converter 108, an adder 109, and a monitor 115. The television 1 also includes a database 110, a search control unit 111, a keyword selection receiving unit 112, a display processing unit 113, and a D / A conversion unit 114.
And are further equipped.

The signal separation unit 101 separates a video signal and an EPG signal from the satellite broadcast signal input from the antenna 2. The tuner unit 102 selects a video signal of a desired channel from the video signals separated by the signal separation unit 101. The demodulation unit 103 extracts a digital signal sequence from the video signal. The error correction unit 104 performs error correction on the digital signal sequence. The descrambler 105 descrambles scrambled broadcasts based on the user information. The demultiplexing unit 106 extracts a digital signal sequence of a desired program. The MPEG decoder 107
Decompress the digital signal sequence. The D / A conversion unit 108
The decompressed digital signal sequence is converted into an analog video signal and audio signal and output.

The database 110 is a signal separation unit 101.
The program information is accumulated based on the EPG signal output from. The search control unit 111 includes a keyword selection receiving unit 112.
The program information including the keyword is read from the database 110 based on the search logical expression received from the database 110, and the search result of the program information is output to the display processing unit 113. In addition, when the keyword to be deleted is specified by the keyword selection receiving unit 112, the search control unit 111 deletes the program information including the specified keyword from the program information read from the database 110, and deletes some programs. The search result with the information deleted is output to the display processing unit 113. further,
The search control unit 111 creates a new keyword based on the search result and outputs this data to the display control unit 113. The keyword selection receiving unit 112 receives input of a keyword from the remote controller 11. Further, the keyword selection receiving unit 112 receives the designation of the keyword to be deleted from the remote controller 11. The display processing unit 113 converts the program information received from the search processing unit 111 into a digital display signal and outputs the digital display signal to the D / A conversion unit 114. Also,
The display processing unit 113 converts the keyword received from the search processing unit 111 into a digital display signal, and D / A
Output to the conversion unit 114. The D / A converter 114 converts a digital display signal into an analog display signal.

The adder 109 includes an analog video signal and audio signal from the D / A converter 108 and the D / A converter 1.
The display signal from 14 is added and the television signal is monitored 1
Output to 15. The monitor 115 displays a screen based on the television signal. (1-2) Program Search Screen Example FIGS. 4 to 7 are screen examples at each stage when a program search is performed on the television 1.

FIG. 4 is an example of a keyword input screen. In this example, three boxes for entering keywords are displayed, and the keywords entered in each box are connected by "or". That is, it shows that when the keywords are input to a plurality of boxes, the program information including the keywords of any of the boxes is searched. Further, in the case of searching for program information including all of a plurality of keywords, that is, in order to search by connecting a plurality of keywords with and, a plurality of keywords are input in the same box via a space. In this example, "Matsui" an to search for program information related to Giants Matsui
d You have entered the keyword "baseball". When the "search button" is pressed after inputting the necessary keyword, the search control unit 111 reads program information including both the keywords "Matsui" and "baseball" from the database 110 and outputs the search result to the display processing unit 113. Then, as described above, the processing is performed by the display processing unit 113, the D / A conversion unit 114, and the addition unit 109, and the search result screen as shown in FIG. 5 is displayed.

FIG. 5 shows an example of the first search result screen. Here, there are 77 pieces of program information including the keywords “Matsui” and “baseball”, and the first to tenth of them are displayed on the screen. When the "NEXT" button is pressed, the search results on the next page are displayed in the order of 11 to 20, 11 to 31, and 10 search results in order.
Also, when the "BACK" button is pressed, the previous page can be displayed.

In this example, although the program information about the Giants Matsui player is to be searched, even the program information for Seibu Matsui player is searched, and the search results are as large as 77. Then, when the "keyword designation screen button" is pressed in order to narrow down the search results to program information relating to Giants Matsui, a keyword designation screen as shown in FIG. 6 is displayed.

FIG. 6 shows an example of a keyword designation screen. Here, the search control unit 1 is based on the search result shown in FIG.
A new keyword is created by 11, and each keyword is displayed with a check box. The new keyword is created by selecting a word having a high degree of duplication among words included in each program information of the search result. For example, "Matsui,""Hideki,""earninghusband,""baseball,""giant,""Seibu,""sports,""professional," and "news." Further, the new keyword is created based on the combination having a high degree of duplication among the words and phrases included in each program information of the search result. For example, the combination of “baseball” and “professional”, which both have a high degree of overlap, is “professional baseball”, “Matsui” and “Hideki”, which have a high degree of overlap, “Matsui Hideki”, and “Matsui”, which have a high degree of overlap. Create it as "Matsui earnest husband" with "earning husband". Further, the new keyword is created based on the update date and time of each program information of the search result having a high degree of overlap. For example, if most of the program information is updated at 6:00 am on August 1, "8
It is created like "1" or "816". Further, it is created based on the information having a high degree of duplication among the information added by the producer of the program information. For example, "sports", "baseball", and "professional baseball" are created.

The keyword to be deleted is specified by checking the check box. In this example, keywords related to Seibu Matsui players "earning husband", "Seibu",
Check the check box of each keyword to delete the program information including "Matsui Kazuo". As a result, all the program information including these keywords is deleted from the search result of FIG.

A keyword input screen similar to that shown in FIG. 4 is displayed at the bottom of the screen, and if a keyword other than the newly generated keyword is desired to be added, it is input here. When one of the check boxes is checked or a keyword is added and the “search button” is pressed, the search result screen shown in FIG. 7 is displayed. Figure 7
It is a second search result screen example. Here, from the search results shown in FIG. 5, three pieces of program information in which the program information including “earning husband”, “Seibu”, and “earning husband Matsui” are deleted are displayed.

If a "keyword designation screen button" is pressed to perform another search, the keyword designation screen as shown in FIG. 6 is displayed again. However, on the keyword designation screen that is displayed next time, new keywords generated from the three program information displayed on the search result screen of FIG. 7 are displayed. In this way, the search results are efficiently narrowed down by repeatedly specifying the keyword to be deleted on the keyword specifying screen and re-searching.

In this iterative process, a predetermined number of times (for example, 3 times) of the newly generated keywords
Keywords that are not continuously checked may not be displayed as keywords to be deleted on the keyword designation screen. By doing so, it is possible to prevent keywords that the user does not intend to delete from being repeatedly displayed on the keyword designation screen, making the screen easier to see and facilitating the designation of keywords.

(1-3) Flowchart FIG. 8 is a flowchart of the program search process. Step S11: A keyword input screen (FIG. 4) is displayed to prompt the user to input a keyword. Step S12: It is determined whether or not the "search button" is pressed on the keyword input screen. If pressed, the process proceeds to step S13, and if not pressed, the process of step S12 is repeated.

Step S13: The program information is searched based on the keyword input on the keyword input screen, and the process proceeds to step S14. Step S14: The search result screen (FIG. 5) is displayed. Step S15: It is determined whether or not the "keyword designation screen button" is pressed on the search result screen. If it is pressed, the process proceeds to step S16, and if it is not pressed, the process proceeds to step S21.

Step S16: The keyword designation screen (FIG. 6) is displayed to prompt the designation of the keyword to be deleted. Moreover, you may prompt the input of the keyword to add. Step S17: It is determined whether or not the "search button" is pressed on the keyword designation screen. If it is pressed, the process proceeds to step S18, and if it is not pressed, step S18 is performed.
Move to 22.

Step S18: The program information is searched again based on the information (designation of the keyword to be deleted, input of the keyword to be added) input on the keyword designation screen, and the process proceeds to step S19. Step S19: In the keyword designation screen, it is determined whether there is a keyword that has not been designated three times in a row. If there is such a keyword, the process proceeds to step S20, and if there is no such keyword, the process proceeds to step S14.

Step S20: Delete a keyword that is not designated three times in a row from the data displayed on the search result screen. Step S21: It is determined whether or not any program is selected on the search result screen. If any program is selected, the process proceeds to step S23, and if no program is selected, the process proceeds to step S15.

Step S22: On the search result screen,
It is determined whether or not any program has been selected. If any program is selected, the process proceeds to step S23, and if no program is selected, the process proceeds to step S17. Step S23: The detailed information of the program is displayed. (1-4) Summary In the digital broadcast receiving system according to the present embodiment,
When an EPG search is performed, a new keyword is generated from the search result and presented to the user, and the program information including the keyword that the user has determined to be unnecessary is deleted, so that a huge amount of program information is searched. Also, it is possible to efficiently narrow down the required program information.

Since the keywords are automatically generated, the user does not need to input many keywords. Also,
As described above, even if a program about a person with the same surname is searched for when searching for a program about a certain person, and the search results become huge, unnecessary programs are deleted from these search results. It is possible to easily know the keywords to be used and exclude the unrelated keywords. (2) Second Embodiment Example (2-1) Configuration FIG. 9 is a schematic configuration diagram of a digital broadcast receiving system according to the second embodiment example. The same components as those in FIG. 1 of the first embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals. In the present embodiment, the television 1a may be a digital television with a built-in digital broadcasting tuner or a television for analog broadcasting. The television 1 a is connected to the digital broadcasting tuner 4 via a cable 5, and the digital broadcasting tuner 4 is connected to the antenna 2 via a coaxial cable 6. The digital broadcasting tuner 4 is operated by the remote controller 41.

FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram of the digital broadcasting tuner 4. Here, the same components as those shown in FIG. 3 in the first embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals. As can be seen from the figure, this digital broadcasting tuner 4 is the digital television 1 according to the first embodiment.
It has substantially the same configuration as the functional block diagram of FIG. However, in the digital broadcasting tuner 4, the signal separation unit 101 is connected to the coaxial cable 6, and the addition unit 1
09 is connected to the cable 5.

An example of the program search screen of the second embodiment is the same as that of FIGS. 4 to 7 in the first embodiment, and the flowchart of the program search process is also the same as that of FIG. 8 in the first embodiment. (2-2) Summary According to the second embodiment, even if an analog television is used,
As in the case of the first embodiment, it is possible to generate a new keyword from the search result and delete the program information including the keyword that the user has determined to be unnecessary. As a result, even when a huge amount of program information is searched, the necessary program information can be efficiently narrowed down. (3) Other Embodiments (3-1) In the above embodiment, the program information is extracted from the EPG signal included in the satellite broadcast signal. However, the digital broadcast receiving system is connected to the Internet and is transmitted from the server on the Internet. You may make it take out program information.

Further, the digital broadcasting system may be connected to a cable television line and the program information may be taken out via the cable television line. Also in these cases, as in the above embodiment, it is possible to generate a new keyword from the program search result and delete the program information including the keyword that the user has determined not to be necessary. Even when is searched, the necessary program information can be efficiently narrowed down.

(3-2) In the above embodiment, the digital broadcast receiving system has been described as an example, but the program search method described above can also be applied to a PC connected to the Internet. . By doing this, when performing an EPG search using a PC, a new keyword can be generated from the search result of the program, and the program information including the keyword that the user has determined to be unnecessary can be deleted. Even when the program information is searched for, the necessary program information can be efficiently narrowed down.

[0040]

According to the present invention, in the EPG search,
A desired program can be easily searched from a vast amount of program information.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conventional database search processing method.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of a digital broadcast receiving system according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of the television according to the first embodiment example.

[Figure 4] Keyword input screen example

FIG. 5 shows a first search result screen example.

FIG. 6 is an example of a keyword designation screen.

FIG. 7 shows a second search result screen example.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of program search processing.

FIG. 9 is a schematic configuration diagram of a digital broadcast receiving system according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram of a television according to a second embodiment example.

[Explanation of symbols]

1,1a TV 11, 41 remote control 101 signal separation unit 102 Tuner section 103 demodulator 104 Error correction unit 105 descrambler 106 demultiplexing unit 107 MPEG decoder 108 D / A converter 109 adder 110 database 111 Search control unit 112 Keyword designation reception section 113 display processing unit 2 antenna 3, 6 coaxial cable 4 Digital broadcasting tuner 5 TV cable

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Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. In an EPG search of a digital broadcast receiving system, a program is searched by using a keyword, a new keyword is generated based on the search result and presented to a user, and some of the generated keywords are displayed. In the program search method for narrowing down the search result by further adding and repeating the search again, a new keyword should be generated based on the search result, presented to the user, and deleted from the presented keywords. A program search method, wherein a process of receiving a designation of a keyword from the user and deleting a program including the designated keyword from the search result is narrowed down the search result. 2. A method of searching a program by EPG search, comprising a keyword receiving step of receiving a keyword input from a user, and a program searching step of searching a program based on the input keyword and presenting it to the user. A keyword generation step of generating a new keyword based on the search result, a keyword presentation step of presenting the generated keyword to the user, and a designation of a keyword to be deleted among the presented keywords. A program search method comprising: a keyword specifying step received from a user; and a re-search step of deleting a program including the specified keyword from the search result. 3. The program search method according to claim 2, wherein the program search is performed in a digital broadcast receiving system. 4. A digital television for searching a program by EPG search, and a keyword input section for accepting input of a keyword from a user, and a program search section for searching a program based on the input keyword and presenting it to the user. A keyword generating unit that generates a new keyword based on the search result, a keyword presenting unit that presents the generated keyword to the user, and a designation of a keyword to be deleted among the presented keywords. A digital television comprising: a keyword designating unit accepted from the user; and a re-searching unit that deletes a program including the designated keyword from the search result. 5. A digital broadcast receiving system for searching a program by EPG search, a digital broadcast tuner for receiving a digital broadcast signal, subjecting it to predetermined processing, and outputting the image, based on a signal from the digital broadcast tuner. A television for displaying, the digital broadcast tuner includes a keyword input unit that receives a keyword input from a user, a program search unit that searches a program based on the input keyword and presents the program to the user, From the user, a keyword generation unit that generates a new keyword based on a search result, a keyword presentation unit that presents the generated keyword to the user, and a designation of a keyword to be deleted in the presented keywords The keyword specification section that accepts Digital broadcast receiving system programs including a keyword has a search unit to delete from the search result. 6. A digital broadcasting tuner for searching for a program by EPG search, and a keyword input section for receiving an input of a keyword from a user, and searching a program from an EPG based on the input keyword and presenting it to the user. A program search unit, a keyword generation unit that generates a new keyword based on the search result, a keyword presentation unit that presents the generated keyword to the user, and a keyword that should be deleted from the presented keywords A digital broadcast tuner comprising: a keyword designating unit that accepts the designation of from the user; and a re-searching unit that deletes a program including the designated keyword from the search result.