JP2007028076A - Device and method for generating electronic program table, electronic program table generation control program, and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electronic program table generating device where the operation of an electronic program table is not disturbed by processing for updating the electronic program table. <P>SOLUTION: The electronic program table generating device 100 comprises: a second operation part 103b for performing the operation on the electronic program table; an operation time holding part 106 for holding a time when the operation is performed by the second operation part 103b; a present time holding part 105 for holding a present time; an EPG control part 101a for performing different kinds of control to generate the electronic program table and display it; and an EPG updating control part 101b for updating the electronic program table. The EPG updating control part 101b compares the present time with the time stored in the operation time holding part 106 when the content of the electronic program table has to be updated, and then, updates the content of the electronic program table when a fixed time elapses after the preceding operation time of the electronic program table. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an electronic program guide creation device, an electronic program guide creation method, an electronic program guide creation control program, and a recording medium for creating an electronic program guide for providing program information to a user in a television broadcast receiver. It is.

  The remarkable progress of information and communication technology in recent years has greatly affected not only the industrial world but also the familiar living environment. Television broadcasting, which can be said to be most closely related to our lives as an information source in the field of broadcasting, not to mention rapid digitization in the communication field such as the Internet, is about to change drastically. .

  There are various benefits and services brought about by digital broadcasting. Among them, the electronic program guide (EPG) is one of the services most closely related to user convenience. The electronic program guide, like a television broadcast program column currently available in newspapers, displays a list of program information of each station electronically and is displayed on the television broadcast receiver. Generally, an electronic program guide is created based on program-related information transmitted together with video information and audio information from a broadcast station in a television broadcast receiver. By using this electronic program guide, the user can easily select a program that he / she wants to watch, or can make a viewing reservation or a recording reservation.

  Compared to conventional analog television broadcasting, digital broadcasting has a huge amount of information about programs, so anyone can obtain the necessary information with a simple operation. It is desired to provide a program guide that can be operated comfortably for the user, such as fast.

For example, when the program information is changed in Patent Document 1, when the program information is received, the program information update unit for displaying the changed content on the screen based on the latest program information and the difference information An electronic program guide display method for displaying a program guide on a screen is disclosed.
JP 2001-230982 A

  However, in the display method of Patent Document 1, when the electronic program guide is updated when a user operation is performed, for example, by moving a cursor on the electronic program guide, the electronic program guide is updated. Until the screen update process is completed, there is a problem that operations by the user, such as continuous cursor movement, are temporarily stopped. Specifically, in the display method of Patent Document 1, the user can set whether or not to update the electronic program guide, but the timing of the operation by the user determines whether or not to update the electronic program guide. It is not used for judgment.

  For this reason, even when the user's operation is being performed, the display of the electronic program guide may be updated. In this case, if the display update processing of the electronic program guide occurs when the user continuously moves the cursor on the electronic program guide using the remote controller or the like, the user will continue until the drawing processing on the screen is completed. It seems that the cursor movement by is temporarily stopped. In particular, when the performance of the image processor used for the display processing of the program guide is not so high, it takes a long time to update the display of the electronic program guide, so that in the above example, the cursor movement seems to stop. Therefore, there is a high possibility that the user feels that the operation is hindered.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an electronic program that can be operated comfortably by controlling the update process of the electronic program guide that occurs regardless of the operation timing of the user. It is to provide a table creation device.

  An electronic program guide creation device according to the present invention is an electronic program guide creation device for creating an electronic program guide in a television broadcast receiver, and program information in which program information necessary for creating the electronic program guide is stored. Storage means, program information update detection means for detecting that the program information stored in the program information storage means has been updated, program guide content update means for updating display contents of the electronic program guide, A program guide operation time storage means for storing the time when the operation was performed, and a current time acquisition means for acquiring the current time, and when the contents of the electronic program guide need to be updated, the current time acquisition means The electronic program guide is compared only when a certain time has passed since the most recent time when the electronic program guide was operated by comparing the current time acquired by the above and the time stored in the program guide operation time storage means. Contents of Characterized in that the update.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing an apparatus configuration necessary for implementing the electronic program guide creation apparatus. According to this configuration, the time when the electronic program guide is operated by the user is stored, and when the display update processing of the electronic program guide is necessary, the current time is compared with the time when the electronic program guide is operated. Thus, the time difference between these times can be calculated. Whether or not a sufficient time has elapsed since the time when the user performed the operation can be determined by whether or not the difference time is equal to or longer than a certain time.

  Thereby, when the difference time is equal to or longer than a predetermined time, the electronic program guide display update process is performed. On the other hand, when the difference time is smaller than the predetermined time, the electronic program guide display update process is not performed. It can be performed. In other words, when it is necessary to update the electronic program guide, if sufficient time has passed since the time when the user performed the operation, it is considered that the user has not performed a continuous operation on the electronic program guide. When the electronic program guide is updated and a sufficient time has not elapsed since the time when the user performed the operation, the electronic program guide can be updated.

  As a result, the display update process of the electronic program guide is not executed while the user performs a continuous operation. That is, it is possible to prevent the operation of the user from being hindered by the display update process of the electronic program guide, and it is possible to realize an operation comfortable for the user. As described above, according to the electronic program guide creation device having the above-described configuration, it is possible to provide a comfortable operation in which the user's operation is not hindered by the update process of the electronic program guide in the operation of the electronic program guide. it can.

  In addition, the said fixed time used for the determination for updating the content of an electronic program guide can be set by user operation. Here, the length of the time to be compared with the time difference between the user operation time and the current time for determining whether or not to update the electronic program guide may be a fixed value, but the GUI screen For example, the user may be able to make settings. Specifically, in the former case, a numerical value is stored in advance in an area for designating a certain length of time on the memory. In the latter case, a menu screen for selecting the length of time is displayed as a GUI screen, and remote control operators (numerical keys, cross keys, enter button, etc.) that are installed in the television broadcast receiver as standard. The display mode information displayed on the menu screen is selected. The selected result is stored in the memory. In either case, when the electronic program guide update process is performed, the value stored in the memory is used for comparison with the elapsed time from the user operation time.

  An electronic program guide creation method according to the present invention is an electronic program guide creation method for displaying an electronic program guide in a television broadcast receiver, and the time when the electronic program guide is operated is stored in a program guide operation time storage means. A step of storing, a step of detecting that the program information has been updated by the program information update detecting means, and a current time acquiring means for acquiring the current time when the program information has been updated, and the program table operation time storage Comparing the latest time stored in the means to determine whether or not a predetermined time has elapsed from the time when the electronic program guide was operated; and a predetermined time from the time when the electronic program guide was operated The display content of the electronic program guide is updated only when the electronic program guide is displayed.

  In this case, the update process of the electronic program guide is executed only when a predetermined time has elapsed since the time when the electronic program guide was operated by the user. When an operation is being performed, the user's operation is not temporarily hindered by the update process of the electronic program guide. That is, the stress at the time of operation of the electronic program guide by the user is eliminated, and the operability can be improved.

  The above electronic program guide creation method may be realized by a computer. That is, an electronic program guide creation control program for displaying an electronic program guide in a television broadcast receiver, the procedure for storing the operation time of the electronic program guide in the stored program guide operation time storage means, and program information A procedure for detecting that the program information has been updated by the update detection means, and a time when the program information is updated, the current time is acquired by the current time acquisition means, and the time stored in the program guide operation time storage means The procedure for determining whether or not a certain period of time has elapsed since the most recent time when the electronic program guide was operated and the electronic program guide only when a certain period of time has elapsed since the operation of the electronic program guide And a procedure for updating the display contents of the program guide.

  In this case, it is possible to easily control the creation of the electronic program guide of the television broadcast receiver using a general-purpose computer.

  If the electronic program guide creation control program is recorded on a computer-readable recording medium, the television broadcast receiver is simply equipped with a computer and can be easily operated. It is possible to realize a program guide creation device.

  According to the present invention, when the user is continuously operating the electronic program guide, the electronic program guide update process is not executed, so that the user's operation is temporarily performed by the electronic program guide update process. There is no hindrance. Therefore, stress during operation of the electronic program guide by the user is eliminated, and operability can be improved.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
In this embodiment, an example in which the electronic program guide (EPG) creation device of the present invention is applied to a digital television broadcast receiver (hereinafter simply referred to as a television broadcast receiver) will be described.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of the television broadcast receiver according to the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 2, the television broadcast receiver 1 according to the present embodiment includes a digital broadcast tuner / demodulator 2, a TS (transport stream) decoder 3, an AV (audio visual) decoder 4, The audio output unit 5, the image superimposing unit 6, the video output unit 7, the external interface 8, the CPU 101, the memory 102, the operation unit 103, and the graphics generation unit 104 are provided. . In FIG. 2, the CPU 101 performs overall control of the television broadcast receiver 1. The CPU 101, the memory 102, the operation unit 103, and the graphics generation unit 104 constitute an electronic program guide creation device 100, and the image superimposition unit 6 and the video output unit 7 constitute a display unit 200. Details of the electronic program guide creation device 100 will be described later.

  Here, first, each component of the television broadcast receiver 1 will be described together with the flow of the digital broadcast signal. When a digital broadcast signal is supplied through an antenna (not shown), the digital broadcast tuner / demodulator 2 selects a received signal, performs demodulation and error correction according to the signal form, Multiplexed digital data is generated, and this multiplexed digital data is output to the TS decoder 3.

  The TS decoder 3 decodes the multiplexed digital data output from the digital broadcast tuner / demodulator 2 to extract a TS, separates the TS into purpose-specific TS packets, and outputs them to the AV decoder 4 and the CPU 101 at the subsequent stage. Here, TS is a signal sequence of continuous fixed-length TS packets, and each TS packet may include data signals such as program information and information necessary for channel selection in addition to video / audio signals. . Here, the extracted TS is separated into a TS packet containing a video / audio signal for output to the AV decoder 4 and a TS packet containing a data signal related to broadcast information for output to the CPU 101.

  The AV decoder 4 decodes the TS packet from the TS decoder 3 to generate an audio signal and a video signal. If the audio signal is an audio signal, the AV decoder 4 outputs the audio signal to the audio output unit 5. Output to 6 respectively.

  On the other hand, the CPU 101 stores the TS packet received from the TS decoder 3 in the memory 102. At this time, information about the program displayed in the electronic program guide is stored in the memory 102 as program information 102a. The stored program information 102a is generated as information to be displayed on the OSD (On Screen Display) by the graphics generation unit 104 in the subsequent stage.

  The graphics generation unit 104 generates OSD information to be output to the image superimposing unit 6. The OSD information includes an electronic program guide (EPG) and a menu screen (GUI) for the user to operate the television broadcast receiver 1.

  The image superimposing unit 6 superimposes the video signal decoded by the AV decoder 4 and an image composed of OSD information such as an electronic program guide and a GUI image, and sends them to the video output unit 7 constituting the display unit 200. As the video output unit 7, a display device such as an LCD (liquid crystal display), a PDP (plasma display panel), or a CRT (cathode-ray tube) display is used.

  Further, the CPU 101 processes a signal from the operation unit 103 and instructs each unit to perform the operation. The operation unit 103 is an input means for inputting a signal for operating the television broadcast receiver 1, and is used for remote operation with the first operation unit 103a provided in the television broadcast receiver 1 itself and outside the apparatus. And a second operation unit 103b using a remote controller (remote controller) or the like. The second operation unit 103b may be other wired input devices (such as a keyboard and a mouse) in addition to the above-described remote controller.

  Further, the CPU 101 performs communication processing with the outside via the external interface 8. For example, the program information 102a stored in the memory 102 can be acquired through an external storage device or the Internet.

  Next, the electronic program guide creation device 100 will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 1, the electronic program guide creation device 100 includes a CPU 101, a memory 102, a second operation unit 103b, and a graphics generation unit 104, and displays the generated electronic program guide on the display unit 200. It is like that.

  The CPU 101 is a means for overall control of the television broadcast receiver 1, and an EPG control unit 101 a that performs various controls for creating and displaying an electronic program guide, and updating program information for displaying the electronic program guide And an EPG update control unit 101b for updating the electronic program guide.

  In addition to the program information 102a, the memory 102 further holds a current time holding unit 105 for holding the current time, and an operation time holding for holding the time when the user operated the second operation unit 103b. Part 106.

  Here, the memory 102 corresponds to program information storage means for storing program information 102a necessary for creating an electronic program guide. The current time holding unit 105 corresponds to current time acquisition means for acquiring the current time. The operation time holding unit 106 corresponds to a program guide operation time storage unit that stores a time at which an operation of the electronic program guide is performed. The EPG update control unit 101b corresponds to program information update detection means for detecting that the program information stored in the program information storage means has been updated, and program guide content update means for updating the display content of the electronic program guide. .

  As the second operation unit 103b, a remote control transmission / reception unit for operating from the outside of the television broadcast receiver 1 is assumed as described above. That is, the second operation unit 103b has at least a cross key for moving the cursor, a decision key for confirming an instruction, and a program display key for displaying an electronic program guide in one push on the transmission side (remote control side). The receiving side (light receiving unit side) includes light receiving means (not shown) for receiving signals (for example, infrared signals) generated by key operations on the remote controller.

  The signal received by the light receiving means is sent to the EPG control unit 101a of the CPU 101. For example, in the second operation unit 103b, the above-described operators (each key) are linked to the GUI image displayed on the display unit 200. Thus, the user can easily perform all operations of the television broadcast receiver 1 using the second operation unit 103b and the GUI image. A typical image as this GUI image is an electronic program guide. The GUI image is generated by the graphics generation unit 104.

  The graphics generation unit 104 generates GUI images for various operations displayed on the display unit 200 based on program information 102 a that is information related to the electronic program guide stored in the memory 102.

  In the present embodiment, for example, an electronic program guide as shown in FIG. 3 is used as the GUI image. The electronic program guide shown in FIG. 3 includes a time slot 303, a channel 302, a program 304 existing in the time slot 303 of each channel 302, and a cursor 301 indicating that the user has selected the program 304. Is done.

  The flow of the process of creating an electronic program guide by the electronic program guide creating apparatus having the above configuration will be described below with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS.

  In this embodiment, it is assumed that the display update processing of the electronic program guide is not performed for 2 seconds after an operation by the user is performed.

  In the present invention, there are roughly two processes. One is a process of storing the time when the operation by the second operation unit 103b is performed in the operation time holding unit 106, and the other is when the EPG update control unit 101b detects an update of program information. This is a process for determining whether or not to update the electronic program guide by comparing the time stored in the operation time holding unit 106 with the current time.

  First, the flow of processing for storing the time at which an operation was performed will be described below with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, when the second operation unit 103b is operated by the user, this is detected by the CPU 101 (step S41). Next, the EPG control unit 101a determines whether or not a remote control key operation is performed on the electronic program guide (step S42). If the remote control key operation is not performed on the electronic program guide, the process proceeds to step S44. If the remote control key operation is on the electronic program guide, the process proceeds to step S43. In step S43, the current time is recorded in the operation time holding unit 106. In step S44, processing is performed on the keys on the remote controller operated by the user. For example, when the right side of the cross key is pressed while the electronic program guide is being displayed, the cursor 301 is moved to the right program.

  Subsequently, when an update of the program information is detected in the EPG update control unit 101b, the time stored in the operation time holding unit 106 is compared with the current time to determine whether or not to update the electronic program guide. The processing will be described below with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

  First, the EPG update control unit 101b detects an update of the program information 102a (step S51). The program information 102a is updated when the program information is acquired for the first time and stored in the program information 102a, or when the broadcast program information is changed and stored in the program information 102a.

  Next, the EPG control unit 101a determines whether or not the electronic program guide is being displayed (step S52). If the electronic program guide is not being displayed, the process ends. If the electronic program guide is being displayed, the process proceeds to step S53. In step S53, the difference between the time recorded in the operation time holding unit 106 and the current time is calculated, and it is determined whether this is larger or smaller than 2 seconds, so that 2 seconds from the operation of the electronic program guide by the user. It is determined whether the above has elapsed.

  If two seconds or more have not elapsed since the user operated the electronic program guide, the processing is terminated as it is. If two seconds or more have elapsed since the user operated the electronic program guide, the process proceeds to step S54. In step S54, the display of the electronic program guide displayed on the display unit 200 is updated to new contents by the EPG update control unit 101b.

  In the present embodiment, the electronic program guide display update process is not performed for 2 seconds after the user's operation is performed. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the user sets an arbitrary time. You may do it.

  In this case, it may be realized by changing an existing remote controller and a menu screen. Specifically, the display screen (not shown) of the display unit 200 and the second operation unit 103b function as display form information setting means for setting information included in the display form information, and are used for determining elapsed time. The value set by the user may be stored as the time to be stored.

  An example of a menu screen on which the user sets the operability of the electronic program guide is shown in FIG. In the menu screen 400, three buttons, an “operation priority” button 401, an “update priority” button 402, and a “manual setting” button 403 are displayed in order to set the operability of the electronic program guide. These three buttons are selected by the cursor operation of the second operation unit 103b and are determined by the determination button.

  Here, if the “operation priority” button 401 is selected and determined, the time from the user operation time to the update processing of the electronic program guide is set to, for example, a predetermined value of 3 seconds or the like. It is set and stored in the memory 102.

  On the other hand, if the “update priority” button 402 is selected and determined, the time from the user's operation time until the update processing of the electronic program guide is performed is, for example, a predetermined value of 0. It is set to 5 seconds or the like and stored in the memory 102.

  In addition, when the “manual setting” button 403 is selected, an arbitrary numerical value of the user is input by operating the numeric keys of the second operation unit 103b, and this time is used to update the electronic program guide from the operation time of the user. Is stored in the memory 102 as the time until.

  As described above, according to the electronic program guide creation device having the above-described configuration, the operation of the electronic program guide is not hindered by the updating process of the electronic program guide, and a comfortable operation can be provided. .

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made within the scope shown in the claims, and embodiments obtained by appropriately combining technical means disclosed in different embodiments. Is also included in the technical scope of the present invention.

  In addition, each unit and each processing step of the electronic program guide creation apparatus according to the above embodiment is such that a calculation unit such as a CPU executes a program stored in a storage unit such as a ROM (Read Only Memory) or a RAM, and a keyboard or the like It can be realized by controlling input means, output means such as a display, or communication means such as an interface circuit. Therefore, various functions and various processes of the electronic program guide creation apparatus of the present embodiment can be realized simply by a computer having these means reading the recording medium storing the program and executing the program. In addition, by recording the program on a removable recording medium, the various functions and various processes described above can be realized on an arbitrary computer.

  As this recording medium, a program medium such as a memory (not shown) such as a ROM may be used for processing by the microcomputer, or a program reader is provided as an external storage device (not shown). It may be a program medium that can be read by inserting a recording medium therein.

  In any case, the stored program is preferably configured to be accessed and executed by the microprocessor. Furthermore, it is preferable that the program is read out, and the read program is downloaded to a program storage area of the microcomputer and the program is executed. It is assumed that this download program is stored in advance in the main unit.

  The program medium is a recording medium configured to be separable from the main body, such as a tape system such as a magnetic tape or a cassette tape, a magnetic disk such as a flexible disk or a hard disk, or a disk such as a CD / MO / MD / DVD. Fixed disk, IC card (including memory card), etc., or semiconductor ROM such as mask ROM, EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory), EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory), flash ROM, etc. In particular, there are recording media that carry programs.

  In addition, if the system configuration is capable of connecting to a communication network including the Internet, the recording medium is preferably a recording medium that fluidly carries the program so as to download the program from the communication network. Further, when the program is downloaded from the communication network as described above, it is preferable that the download program is stored in the main device in advance or installed from another recording medium.

  According to the present invention, when the user is continuously operating the electronic program guide, the electronic program guide update process is not executed, so that the user's operation is temporarily hindered by the electronic program guide update process. Therefore, there is an effect that the stress at the time of operation of the electronic program guide by the user is eliminated and the operability can be improved, and the television broadcast receiver and the television broadcast can be received. This is useful for portable terminal devices such as mobile phones and PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants).

The block diagram which shows the principal part structure of the electronic program guide preparation apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. The block diagram which shows the principal part structure of the television broadcast receiver provided with the electronic program guide preparation apparatus shown in FIG. The figure which shows an example of the electronic program guide in a present Example The figure which shows an example of the menu screen which a user sets the operativity of an electronic program guide The flowchart which shows the flow of the process which memorize | stores the time when operation was performed. The flowchart which shows the flow of a process which judges whether the update process of an electronic program guide is performed by the elapsed time from a user's operation time.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Television broadcast receiver 2 Digital broadcast tuner / demodulation unit 3 TS decoder 4 AV decoder 5 Audio output unit 6 Image superposition unit 7 Video output unit 8 External interface 100 Electronic program guide creation device 101 CPU
101a EPG control unit 101b EPG update control unit 102 memory 102a program information 103 operation unit 103a first operation unit 103b second operation unit 104 graphics generation unit 105 current time holding unit 106 operation time holding unit 200 display unit 300 electronic program guide 301 Cursor on electronic program guide 302 Channel display of electronic program guide 303 Time zone display of electronic program guide
304 Program display in electronic program guide 400 Menu screen electronic program guide 401 Operation priority button 402 Update priority button 403 Manual setting button

Claims (5)

An electronic program guide creation device for creating an electronic program guide in a television broadcast receiver,
Program information storage means for storing program information necessary to create an electronic program guide;
Program information update detection means for detecting that the program information stored in the program information storage means has been updated;
Program guide contents updating means for updating the display contents of the electronic program guide;
A program guide operation time storage means for storing the time when the electronic program guide was operated;
Current time acquisition means for acquiring the current time,
When it is necessary to update the contents of the electronic program guide, the current time acquired by the current time acquisition means is compared with the time stored in the program guide operation time storage means, and the electronic program guide is operated. An electronic program guide creation device that updates the contents of an electronic program guide only when a predetermined time has passed since the most recent time.   2. The electronic program guide creation device according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined time used for determination for updating the contents of the electronic program guide can be set by a user operation. . An electronic program guide creation method for displaying an electronic program guide in a television broadcast receiver,
Storing the time at which the operation of the electronic program guide was performed in the program guide operation time storage means;
Detecting that the program information has been updated by the program information update detecting means;
When the program information is updated, the current time is acquired by the current time acquisition means, and compared with the most recent time stored in the program guide operation time storage means, the time is constant from the time when the electronic program guide is operated. Determining whether time has elapsed,
Updating the display content of the electronic program guide only when a certain time has passed since the time when the electronic program guide was operated;
An electronic program guide creation method comprising: An electronic program guide creation control program for displaying an electronic program guide in a television broadcast receiver,
Storing the time at which the operation of the electronic program guide was performed in the program guide operation time storage means;
Detecting that the program information has been updated by the program information update detecting means;
When the program information is updated, the current time is acquired by the current time acquisition means, compared with the time stored in the program guide operation time storage means, and constant from the latest time when the electronic program guide was operated. Determining whether time has passed;
Updating a display content of the electronic program guide when a predetermined time has passed since the most recent time when the electronic program guide was operated;
Electronic program guide creation control program for executing   A computer-readable recording medium on which the electronic program guide creation control program according to claim 4 is recorded.

Images