JP2006323544A - Image processing device and image processing method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To facilitate intuitive recognition of the form of a screen to be displayed next before operating a button. <P>SOLUTION: Icons I1-I3 indicating forms of a screen to be displayed when performing a selection/determination operation are displayed on a predetermined position to each button in a recommended menu display screen. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a screen processing apparatus and a screen processing method for performing multi-layer menu display.

  As the number of broadcast programs has increased, the number of broadcast programs has also increased. For this reason, it has become difficult for the user to search for a program that suits the user's preference from a program guide such as a paper medium. Broadcast recording apparatuses that automatically record a favorite by setting a keyword by a user have been commercialized.

However, keywords alone cannot handle the user's orientation. Therefore, a service has been proposed in which a reservation history or the like is supplied to a server, and the server provides recommended program information to the user (Patent Document 1).
JP 2002-262265 A

  By the way, it is considered to provide a plurality of recommended program information other than the recommended program providing service based on the above-mentioned literature. It is also conceivable that information is provided by genre so that the user can easily access information of a favorite genre.

  In order for a user to access such information, it is preferable to provide a single top screen so that the user can access various information. However, depending on the information, it may be classified into genres, so if you select and confirm a button on the top screen, a genre-specific menu may be displayed or a recommended program may be displayed directly depending on the button. . There is a problem that the form of the screen displayed next in accordance with the button is unknown.

  Further, in the above-described service, it has not been understood how much the server recommends the displayed program.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a screen processing apparatus and a screen processing method capable of intuitively understanding the form of a screen to be displayed next before selecting and determining a button.

  Another object of the present invention is to provide a screen processing apparatus and a screen processing method in which the recommendation level of a recommended program provided based on a user's reservation history or the like can be intuitively understood.

  A screen processing apparatus according to an example of the present invention receives button information including a name for displaying a button on the screen, identification information for reading the next screen, and form information corresponding to the display form of the next screen. And a screen processing control unit for displaying the name and the icon based on the form information in a predetermined order in the button area on the screen based on the received button information. And

  Before selecting and determining a button, you can intuitively understand the form of the next screen to be displayed.

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

  FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a network system according to an embodiment of the present invention. This network system is composed of, for example, a plurality of screen processing devices and communication control devices. The screen processing apparatus is realized as a video recorder 10 capable of digitally recording and reproducing video and audio signals (AV signals) of TV broadcast programs, for example. The communication control device is realized as a server computer S that performs communication with the video recorder 10 and a plurality of video recorders 10 connected to a network such as the Internet via the Internet.

  As shown in the figure, the video recorder 10 includes a communication unit 11, a BS / CS (Broadcasting Satellite / Communication Satellite) tuner unit 12, a terrestrial tuner unit 13, an input side selector unit 16 and an output side selector unit 17, and an optical disk drive unit 19. , Hard disk drive unit 18, encoder unit 21, decoder unit 23, interface (I / F) unit 27, control unit 30, operation unit 32, display unit 33, timer microcomputer unit 34, memory 42, display control unit 43 and the like. ing.

  The communication unit 11 is a device for connecting the video recorder 10 to a network such as the Internet via the modem M, and executes communication with the server S via the Internet, for example.

  The BS / CS tuner unit 12 is a broadcast receiving unit that performs reception of broadcast program data corresponding to the BS and CS and channel selection processing for channel selection, and is connected to a BS / CS-compatible antenna. The terrestrial tuner unit 13 is a device that performs reception of terrestrial analog broadcast program data and channel selection processing for channel selection, and is connected to an external TV antenna.

  The input-side selector unit 16 transmits the signal input from the communication unit 11 to the broadcast wave input from the BS / CS tuner unit 12 and the terrestrial tuner unit 13 and the encoder unit 21, which are written in the memory 42. Has a control function.

  The input-side selector unit 16 receives a plurality of electronic program guides received from the BS / CS tuner unit 12 and the terrestrial tuner unit 13 in a superimposed manner. This electronic program guide is an electronic program guide such as EPG (Electric Program Guide). This electronic program guide includes a plurality of broadcast program information for each TV program.

  The input-side selector unit 16 transmits the signal input from the communication unit 11 to the broadcast wave input from the BS / CS tuner unit 12 and the terrestrial tuner unit 13 and the encoder unit 21, which are written in the memory 42. Has a control function.

  The input-side selector unit 16 receives a plurality of electronic program guides received from the BS / CS tuner unit 12 and the terrestrial tuner unit 13 in a superimposed manner.

  The electronic program guide input to the input side selector unit 16 is output to the receiver 41 and the interface (I / F) unit 27 via the output side selector unit 17 under the control of the control unit 30.

  The encoder unit 21 is a device that performs an encoding process for digitally compressing and encoding the AV signal input from the BS / CS tuner unit 12 and the terrestrial tuner unit 13 under the control of the control unit 30. By this encoding process, the AV signal is converted into a compression-coded digital data string corresponding to, for example, the MPEG2 or DVD video format. The compressed and encoded AV signal obtained by the encoder unit 21 is input to the decoder unit 23.

  The hard disk drive unit 18 is a disk storage device that executes processing for recording an AV signal converted into a compression-encoded digital data sequence and processing for reading the recorded AV signal under the control of the control unit 30. .

  The optical disk drive unit 19 executes read / write processing on the recording medium D such as DVD-RAM / DVD-R. The DVD drive can also execute data read processing from a recording medium D such as a DVD-ROM medium. The AV signal converted into the compression-coded digital data string is first recorded on the hard disk drive. The AV signal recorded on the hard disk drive unit 18 is recorded on a recording medium D such as a DVD-RAM / DVD-R as necessary (dubbing).

  The temporary storage unit 20 is a buffer memory for temporarily recording write data to the hard disk drive unit 18 and the optical disk drive unit 19 or read data from the hard disk drive unit 18 and the optical disk drive unit 19.

The compressed and encoded AV signal read from the hard disk drive unit 18 and the optical disk drive unit 19 is sent to the decoder unit 23 via the temporary storage unit 20. Note that either the hard disk drive unit or the optical disk drive may be provided as a disk drive.

  The decoder unit 23 is a device that executes a decoding process for decoding the compression-coded AV signal under the control of the control unit 30. The AV signal decoded by this decoding process is output to the output side selector unit 17.

  The output-side selector unit 17 receives the AV signal input from the audio / video processing unit 24 or the electronic program guide received from each tuner to the receiver 41 such as a TV or the interface (I / I) via the bus and output terminal. F) A control function for transmitting to the outside via the unit 27 is provided. The receiver 41 is a display device including a display screen that displays an electronic program guide and the like connected to the video recorder 10.

  The control unit 30 is a main CPU (Central Processing Unit) provided for controlling the operation of each component of the video recorder 10. The control unit 30 also has a function of storing the broadcast program in the electronic program guide in the memory 42 as reservation information to be recorded.

  The display control unit 43 has a display control function for displaying an electronic program guide, a recommended menu, and a recommended program guide.

  The server S includes a recommended menu information storage unit 51, a recommended program guide information storage unit 52, a communication unit 53, and the like.

  The display unit 33 is a display device for status display provided in the video recorder 10 main body. For example, the AV signal title, channel number, and progress of playback / recording that are currently viewed, played back, and recorded. Used to display status information. For example, when the user instructs recording / playback of a TV program by operating the remote control unit 301, the title name of the TV program that is the target of the recording / playback processing executed by the video recorder 1 is displayed on the display unit. 33.

  The timer microcomputer unit 34 is a microcomputer incorporating a timer for timekeeping, and functions as a sub CPU for processing signals transmitted from the operation unit 32 and the remote control unit R, respectively. The timer microcomputer unit 34 also has a function of managing the channel number, title, recording start time, recording end time, and the like for each TV program reserved for recording. The timer built in the timer microcomputer unit 34 functions as a clock module that measures the current date and time. When the recording start time or recording end time of each TV program reserved for recording has arrived, the timer microcomputer unit 34 has a remote control code processing function. This remote control code processing function is a function for executing in cooperation with the control unit 30 the operation requested by the remote control code received from the remote control unit R.

  The remote control unit R is provided with, for example, function keys and numeric keys (not shown). The user can also instruct the video recorder 10 to output the electronic program guide corresponding to the key to the display unit 33 by operating the key of the remote control unit R. For example, in addition to the power on / off button of the video recorder 10, the function keys include a button group for controlling the recording / playback operation of the AV signal (decision button, back button, quick display button, play button, stop button, A pause button, a record button, a fast-forward / fast-reverse button, etc.) and a button group for operating the above-described recording reservation function and the like. The numeric keypad is provided with a plurality of buttons for inputting numbers and symbols, and is used, for example, for inputting a channel number and editing a title name.

  In the remote control unit R, a corresponding key code is assigned to each button of the operation unit 32 described above. When a certain button is operated by the user, a key code corresponding to the button is transmitted to the video recorder 10 by an infrared signal or the like. In the video recorder 10, an operation to be executed corresponding to each remote control code is defined. The user operates the remote control unit R to execute, for example, operations for recording / reproducing AV signals, recording reservation, displaying a recording reservation list, and displaying a title list of recorded AV signals on the video recorder 10. Can be directed.

  The remote control unit R and the operation unit 32 are provided with alphabet keys and numeric keys, respectively. A keyword (user information) designated by the user can be assigned to each of the alphabet keys and the numeric keys.

(Recommended menu display)
Next, the display of the recommended menu will be described. When the user operates the remote controller to select the display of “recommended menu list”, for example, the screen shown in FIG. 2 is displayed. However, a plurality of button areas are provided in the plane. Data for displaying the “recommended menu list” is obtained by downloading data from the recommended menu information storage unit 51 of the server S. The content is not always constant, and may change due to addition of items.

  Therefore, it is not known what screen is displayed even if the user selects and determines the button. Therefore, icons I1 to I3 corresponding to the type of screen displayed when each item is operated are displayed at the top of each button area.

  The icon I1 indicates that a menu display screen as shown in FIG. 3 is displayed when an item is selected. The icon I2 indicates that when an item is selected, a program list display screen as shown in FIG. 4 is displayed. The icon I3 indicates that a notification display screen as shown in FIG. 5 is displayed when an item is selected. The notification shown in FIG. 5 is a screen for selecting whether or not to use a recommended service described later. Here, the recommended service can be received by selecting and determining the registration button B2.

Table 1 shows an example of the data structure sent from the server.

  As shown in Table 1, the data structure sent from the server includes a screen type, a current screen ID, a title, and information on each button (button information). The button information includes an ID for identifying the button, a name, a description of the button, an ID (identification information) for reading the next screen, and icon data.

  In the example described above, the icon information for indicating the display form of the next screen is a character code (form information) of an external character font, and is embedded at the beginning of the name. Therefore, there is no image data. When there is no character code for indicating an icon, image data (morphological information) is sent. In order to display an icon for indicating the display form of the next screen on the screen, one of a character code for indicating the icon and image data is sent.

  Next, a method for displaying in the button area on the screen using the above-described button information will be described with reference to FIG.

  First, the control unit 30 determines whether there is image data in the button information (step S101). When there is no image data in the button information (No in step S101), information for indicating an icon is included in the name. Therefore, the control unit 30 supplies data for displaying the name of the button information in the button area to the display control unit 43 (step S102). Since the head of the name is a character code indicating the icon, the icon is displayed at the head of the button area.

  When there is image data in the button information (Yes in step S101), the control unit 30 displays an image corresponding to the image data at the head in the button area and displays the name after the image in the display control unit. An instruction is given (step S103). Image data is also displayed at the top of the button area. Therefore, even if the information indicating the icon is a character code or image data, the icon is always displayed at the head of the button area. Since the information for indicating the icon is always displayed at the head of the button regardless of the character code and the image data, the user can intuitively recognize the form of the next screen without moving the line of sight.

  This process is performed for each button information sent from the server, and the recommended menu shown in FIG. 2 is displayed (step S104).

(Recommended program guide)
Next, display of a recommended program table (recommended list table) will be described.

  By selecting / determining and registering the registration button B2 on the screen shown in FIG. 5, a recommended service can be received. When the registration button is pressed, the control unit 30 transmits the recording and reservation history set by the user to the server S.

  The server S creates recommended program information for the user based on the received data. The created recommended program information is stored in the recommended program guide information storage unit 52 in the server S.

  The video recorder 10 downloads data from the recommended program guide information storage unit 52 stored in the server S by selecting and determining the button B1 in the screen state shown in FIG. “Display the screen (FIG. 3).

  In the item C on the “Your recommendation” screen shown in FIG. 3, an icon representing the recommendation level is displayed. Since the icon indicating the recommendation level is displayed, the user can intuitively understand the recommendation level of the recommended program indicated by the server.

An example of the structure of data downloaded from the server is shown in Table 2.

  As shown in Table 2, “lt” indicating that the screen type and the program list are displayed, the screen ID, the title, and the subtitle are transmitted from the server. Then, the recommendation level, recommendation level display information, program name, broadcast station code, broadcast date / time, broadcast time, and genre code are sent as program information (program) included in the list.

  The recommendation level information represents the recommendation level of a program as a value. In accordance with a user operation, the control unit 30 can rearrange the programs included in the list in descending order or ascending order based on the value of the recommendation level information. The control unit 30 supplies data to the display control unit 43 so that programs are displayed according to the rearranged order. In addition, the recommended program table can be easily viewed by rearranging and displaying.

  As the recommendation level display information, the character code of the external character font or the image data is sent from the server S as in the form information of the “recommended menu list”.

  Instead of sending recommendation level display information for each program, recommendation level information may be sent for each rank of recommendation level information, and icons may be displayed based on the recommendation level information of each program.

  Each recommended button field can be selected and determined by operating the remote controller R. By selecting / determining one of the programs from the program list shown in FIG. 3 using the remote controller R, the reservation screen shown in FIG. 7 is displayed. A program can be reserved from the buttons on this screen.

  By changing the character code or image data for displaying the icon indicating the recommendation level, the expression method of the program recommendation level can be freely changed according to the recommended content (eg, recommended by a famous artist) , The number of notes).

  Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment as it is, and can be embodied by modifying the constituent elements without departing from the scope of the invention in the implementation stage. Further, various inventions can be formed by appropriately combining a plurality of constituent elements disclosed in the embodiment. For example, some components may be deleted from all the components shown in the embodiment. Furthermore, you may combine suitably the component covering different embodiment.

The block diagram which shows the example of a structure of the network system of the signal processing apparatus and communication processing apparatus which concern on one Embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows an example of the list of the recommendation menu concerning one Embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows an example of the menu display screen concerning one Embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows an example of the program list display screen concerning one Embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows an example of the notification display screen concerning one Embodiment of this invention. The figure for demonstrating the display method of the list of recommended menus. The figure for demonstrating the example of a display for performing recording reservation of the broadcast program designated by the user on the display screen of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Video recorder, 11 ... Communication part, 12 ... BS / CS tuner part, 13 ... Terrestrial tuner part, 16 ... Input side selector part, 17 ... Output side selector part, 18 ... Hard disk drive part, 19 ... Optical disk drive part , 20 ... Temporary storage unit, 21 ... Encoder unit, 23 ... Decoder unit, 24 ... Audio-video processing unit, 27 ... Interface unit, 30 ... Control unit, 32 ... Operation unit, 33 ... Display unit, 34 ... Timer microcomputer unit, 41 ... Receiver, 42 ... Memory, 43 ... Display control unit, 51 ... Recommended menu information storage unit, 52 ... Recommended program guide information storage unit, 53 ... Communication unit

Claims (16)

A receiver for receiving button information including a name for displaying a button on the screen, identification information for reading the next screen, and form information corresponding to a display form of the next screen;
A screen processing apparatus comprising: a screen processing control unit configured to display icons based on the name and the form information in a predetermined order in a button area on the screen based on the received button information. .   2. The screen processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the next screen is selected from a group including a menu display, an information display, and a program list display.   The screen processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the form information is a character code.   The screen processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the form information is image data. A receiving unit for receiving program information including recommendation level display information for displaying a recommendation level on the screen for displaying a recommendation list on the screen;
A screen processing apparatus, comprising: a screen processing control unit that displays an icon corresponding to the recommendation level display information in order to display the recommendation list on the screen.   6. The screen processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the recommendation degree display information is a character code.   6. The screen processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the recommendation level display information is image data. The recommendation information includes recommendation level information corresponding to the recommendation level,
The screen processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the screen processing control unit can rearrange the recommendation list based on the recommendation degree information. Receiving button information including a name for displaying the button on the screen, identification information for reading the next screen, and form information corresponding to the display form of the next screen;
A screen processing method comprising: displaying the icons based on the name and the form information in a predetermined order in a button area on the screen based on the received button information.   10. The screen processing method according to claim 9, wherein the form of the next screen is selected from a group including menu display, notification display, and program list display. The form information is a character code,
The screen processing method according to claim 9, wherein a font corresponding to the character code is displayed on the screen.   The screen processing method according to claim 9, wherein the form information is image data, and an image corresponding to the image data is displayed on the screen. Receiving program information including recommendation level display information for displaying a recommendation level on the screen to display a recommendation list on the screen;
And a step of displaying an icon corresponding to the recommendation level display information in order to display the recommendation list on the screen. The form information is a character code,
The screen processing method according to claim 13, wherein a font corresponding to the character code is displayed on the screen.   14. The screen processing method according to claim 13, wherein the form information is image data, and an image corresponding to the image data is displayed on the screen. The recommendation information includes recommendation level information corresponding to the recommendation level,
The screen processing method according to claim 13, further comprising rearranging the recommendation list based on the recommendation degree information.

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