JP2008182287A - Electronic program guide display device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electronic program guide display device capable of displaying the whole of focused information while intuitively grasping which part of a program guide is viewed when performing scrolling operation for channel switching in the program guide. <P>SOLUTION: The electronic program guide display device according to the present invention displays the program guide in the form of program cells representing program information on start times, titles, etc., of programs scheduled to be broadcast, as a table comprising broadcast channels and the time base. It is decided whether a program cell display position to be selected which is calculated on the basis of update information on a broadcast channel direction and a time direction which are input meets a predetermined display visibility condition, and when not, drawing update of the program table having been corrected to a position where the selected program can be viewed is performed a predetermined time after channel change input to display the program guide on a display. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an electronic program guide display device, and more particularly to an electronic program guide display device that displays a program table with a program cell representing program information such as a start time and a title of a program scheduled to be broadcast as a table composed of a broadcast channel and a time axis. Is.

  In recent years, with the spread of digital broadcasting, a large number of information can be transmitted, and the number of programs has been increased. Thus, there is an increasing need for an electronic program guide (EPG), which is a system for displaying a program guide on a screen. Program information of a general electronic program guide is sent together with a broadcast program from a cable television broadcasting station by a line or by a radio wave from a broadcasting satellite. The receiver that receives the program information stores the received program information in a storage device, and creates a program guide and displays it on the display device when all information related to the program broadcast for a certain period is received. The program information can be obtained from a network such as the Internet, or from a storage medium such as a CD-ROM, in addition to the above-described broadcast signal. Furthermore, such an electronic program guide searches for only programs belonging to a category desired by the user by assigning in advance a category (eg, movie program, variety program, sports program, etc.) to which the program belongs for each program. It is also possible to display. In this way, the electronic program guide is the most effective means for improving the operability of the receiver as the number of programs increases due to the increase in the number of channels. As the electronic program guide display device described above, for example, there is a device disclosed in Patent Document 1.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a display example of a conventional electronic program guide. From FIG. 11, the vertical axis is time, the horizontal axis is a channel number indicating a broadcasting station that broadcasts each program, and a rectangular range (hereinafter referred to as a program cell) corresponding to one program is provided on the two-dimensional screen, Each program cell describes a program title. The viewer can use the operation switch (not shown) provided on the remote controller or the like to scroll and view the program guide in the desired direction. In order to select a program to be viewed, a cursor indicating the input position of each program cell is provided, and the cursor position is moved by an operation switch to select a program cell. It is also possible to make a reservation to record the selected program. In the program table shown in FIG. 11, time is displayed on the vertical axis and channel number is displayed on the horizontal axis, but the channel number may be displayed on the vertical axis and time may be displayed on the horizontal axis. In FIG. 11, when the time and channel number constituting the program guide are displayed on the two-dimensional screen, the position of the program cell to be selected in the time axis direction when the channel is changed does not change.
JP-A-1-209399

  However, as shown in FIG. 11, the selected program (program 1) before the channel change is a program from 6:00 to 7:00, and the program in the adjacent cell (program 2) after the channel change is from 4:00 to 7:00. In this case, after the channel change, program 2 can only be seen from 6 o'clock, and the start time cannot be determined only from the displayed two-dimensional program table. Therefore, it has been necessary to confirm the display of the detailed program information separately, and there has been a problem in terms of visibility. On the other hand, in the spreadsheet software used in the personal computer (PC), when the focus is moved in the adjacent column direction in the two-dimensional table joined in the row direction as shown in FIG. When moving to cell 2 and cell 3, it moves up and down to the sixth, third and sixth rows so that the smallest row of the focused cell is displayed. However, even when this method is applied to the program guide, every time a channel change operation is performed, the entire program guide displayed moves up and down, losing the target program, and is practical in terms of operability. Not something.

  The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and the focused information is displayed as a whole while intuitively grasping where the user is looking at when the channel switching scroll operation is performed in the program guide. It is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic program guide display device that can be used.

  In order to solve the above problems, an electronic program guide display device according to the present invention provides a program table in which program cells representing program information such as start time and title of a program scheduled to be broadcast are set as a table composed of broadcast channels and a time axis. An electronic program guide display device for displaying a program information storage unit for storing the program information, a controller unit for obtaining input from a user, and a program to be selected based on input information from the controller unit in a broadcast channel direction A program selection unit that switches in the time direction, a program cell display position calculation unit that calculates a program cell display position based on the program update information of the selection target, and a selection target calculated by the program cell display position calculation unit A visibility determination unit that determines whether a display position of a program cell satisfies a predetermined display visibility condition, and if not, generates a position correction information; A position correction drawing start determination unit for updating the program cell display position based on the input history from the selection unit and the position correction information generated by the visibility determination unit, and drawing of the program table according to the calculated program cell display position Since a drawing unit to be performed and a display for displaying an image generated by the drawing unit are provided, both operability and visibility can be achieved when a target program is selected.

  According to the electronic program guide display device of the present invention, when the program table is continuously scrolled in the channel direction, the reference time of the program cell to be displayed is fixed, and after a user stops the operation, the electronic program guide display device is focused. By scrolling in the time direction until you can see the information from the beginning of the cell, you can display the entire focused information while intuitively grasping where you are looking at the channel switching scroll operation. It is possible to achieve both operability and visibility.

(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an electronic program guide display device according to an embodiment of the present invention. The electronic program guide display device is an electronic program guide display device that displays a program table as a table composed of a broadcast channel and a time axis, which represents program information such as the start time and title of a program scheduled to be broadcast. A storage unit 101, a controller unit 102, a program selection unit 103, a program cell display position calculation unit 104, a visibility determination unit 105, a position correction drawing start determination unit 106, a drawing unit 107, and a display 108 are provided.

  The program information storage unit 101 stores program information related to programs such as television and radio. The program information includes data including supplementary information such as broadcast start time, broadcast time, broadcast station name, program title, genre, and detailed contents of each program for each date. FIG. 2 is a table showing an example of program information.

  The controller unit 102 is an input key group for obtaining input from the user, and FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of the controller unit. Reference numerals 301, 302, 303, and 304 denote up / down / left / right direction focus control buttons, which respectively send up / down / left / right direction focus control information. In addition to the case of a remote controller that directly presses the input key as shown in FIG. 3, the controller unit 102 uses an input key (joystick) that tilts the stick-like input button up / down / left / right, and the touch panel type display unit. When touching and entering the displayed virtual buttons on the top, bottom, left, and right, when recognizing the top, bottom, left, and right by pressing and holding, the camera recognizes the movement of the human hand and eyes and displays the focus control information in the top, bottom, left, and right directions. There is also a case of sending. In addition, there may be focus control information in any direction including not only up / down / left / right but also slant with tilt information.

  The program selection unit 103 retrieves the program information from the program information storage unit 101 and, based on the focus control information input from the controller unit 102, displays the current selection target program Ptarget (Target channel, Target-th (reference time Ttarget)) in the broadcast channel direction. 4 is a flowchart showing an outline of the selection target program update process, in which focus control information input from the controller unit is first converted into selection program update information according to the flowchart. The focus control information may include long-pressed state and tilt information in an arbitrary direction in addition to the up / down / left / right directions.The selected program update information is +1 channel movement in the time direction or -1 channel in the channel direction. Movement direction D, such as movement Next, if the moving direction Dir of the selected program update information is time, the program to be selected Pnext (Target channel, Target + Trans-th) is determined. If the time for updating the reference time is not the number of programs, the movement unit is the scheduled program Pnext (Target channel, reference time Ttarget + Trans). Similarly, if the movement direction Dir of the selected program update information is a channel. Then, the scheduled program Pnext (Ctarget + Trans channel, Itarget '(reference time Ttarget) -th) is determined.Lastly, in both cases, it is determined whether or not the scheduled program Pnext exists in the program information storage unit 101. Pnext is If it exists, the program update information is output as the program update information, the program information of a predetermined neighboring cell, and the number of renderings Nanim until the selection target is updated in the program to be selected Pnext. The processing is terminated with no update information, and there are cases where the selected program update information has two movement directions such as +1 program movement in the time direction and -1 channel movement in the channel direction. The program is changed with respect to both the channel direction and the program direction to determine the scheduled program Pnext, and Fig. 5 shows an example of the neighboring cell region, neighboring cell reference position, and focus method in the neighboring cell determination process for retrieving program information. 501 is a program table showing the entire program information, 502 is a neighboring cell area, and 503 is a neighboring cell. The reference position 504 is a selection target program cell. The size of the neighboring cell region 502 is determined from a predetermined number of channels and time, and is given by a size such as 3 channels for 4 hours. Further, as the neighboring cell reference position 503 (reference time, reference channel), when the selected scheduled program Pnext is determined by the center focus method so that the selected scheduled program Pnext is always displayed at a predetermined (near the center) position, In some cases, the current position is not changed in the current display area and is determined by a scroll focus method in which the reference position is scrolled to the position where the selected program Pnext enters the display area only when the area is outside the display area. Note that the initial value of the current selection target program may be a program that is currently viewed, or may be determined from the current time and predetermined initial channel information.

  The program cell display position calculation unit 104 includes a current selection target program Ptarget and a selection scheduled program Pnext included in the program update information output from the program selection unit 103, a neighboring cell area (Ctotal, Ttotal) that is neighboring cell information, and Based on the neighboring cell reference position (Cbase, Tbase) and the broadcast channel C, program start time Tstart, and broadcast time Text of each program to be displayed included in the neighboring cell area, the display position (X, Y) and size (Xext, Yext) are calculated. FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining a calculation method of the display position and size of the movement target of each program cell, in which 601 is a neighboring cell region, 602 is a neighboring cell reference position, and 603 is a program cell. When the size of the display area is (W, H) in the channel direction and the time direction, respectively, the display position (X, Y) and size (Xext, Yext) of the movement target of the program cell are X = Wx (C -Cbase) / Ctotal, Y = Hx (Tstart-Tbase) / Ttotal, Xext = W / Ctotal, Yext = HxText / Ttotal. Here, the calculation is performed assuming that the size of one hour of program cells in all time zones (the length in the Y direction) is constant, but it may be variable depending on the number of programs, morning, daytime, evening, etc. In some cases, the size varies depending on the time zone. If information before the current time for making a recording reservation is not necessary, processing may be performed after correcting to Tstart = Tnow when the program start time Tstart is before the current time Tnow. Further, after the program start time Tstart and the broadcast time Text are discretized with a predetermined function, the position Y and the length Yext in the time axis direction may be obtained. For example, if the unit time is a multiple of the unit time Tunit as a predetermined function, when Tunit = 15 minutes and T = 70 minutes, the new discretized T is QUATIENT (T, Tunit) × Tunit = It can be found in 60 minutes. Here, the function QUATIENT (A, B) is a quotient obtained by dividing A by B. By discretizing in this way, when drawing character information such as a program title in a program cell, it is possible to draw only integer lines in the vertical direction with a font of a certain size.

  The visibility determination unit 105 determines whether or not the display position of the selected scheduled program Pnext calculated by the program cell display position calculation unit 104 satisfies a predetermined display visibility condition, and generates position correction information if not satisfied. In the display visibility condition determination process, assuming that the display position of the movement target of the scheduled program Pnext is (Xnext, Ynext), the correction position Ynext ′ = Ythhold is corrected when the position Ynext in the time axis direction is less than a predetermined threshold Ythhold. Or when Ynext is different from a predetermined fixed value Yfixed, Ynext ′ = Yfixed. In some cases, the correction information is generated so as to expand the size Xext in the channel direction of the scheduled program Pnext and the program cell of the same channel so that the predetermined size Xext = Xextfocus. In addition, when three-dimensional display is performed by the drawing unit 107 to be described later, in order to improve the visibility of the program Pnext to be selected, the front-facing correction information for displaying the front-facing (billboard) in the viewpoint direction, The thickness correction information may be generated such that the program cell is deformed to have a thickness in the Z direction so as to approach the viewpoint. It should be noted that the number Nim ′ of drawing until the drawing update by correction is completed may be set to a predetermined fixed value or may be determined to be proportional to the correction distance. In this case, the number of correction drawing update completions can be calculated by Nanim '= Kanimx | Ynext-Ynext' | using a predetermined proportional coefficient Kanim.

  The position correction drawing start determination unit 106 determines update start of the program cell display position based on the input history from the program selection unit 103 and the position correction information generated by the visibility determination unit 105. The selected program update information as the input history is an operation accompanied by a channel change of the selected program, and the display position of the moving target of the program cell display position based on the position correction information after the elapse of a predetermined time Tfreeze from the completion of the display update by the operation. (Xnext, Ynext ′) is set as the POTarget, and the number of rendering until the update is completed is sent to the rendering unit as Nanim = Nanim ′. As a result, assuming that the time required for the update from the current time to Tanim seconds is Tanim + Tfreeze seconds, the position correction drawing is started after Tanim + Tfreeze seconds, and the time taken for the drawing number Nanim ′ until the drawing update by correction is completed is Tanim ′. , Tanim + Tfreeze + Tanim 'seconds later, the position correction drawing is completed. Note that Tfreeze may be set to 0 seconds when scrolling in the channel direction is completed immediately after scrolling in the channel direction, or may be set to an interval (approximately several seconds) that can be regarded as not being continuously scrolled by the user. . FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of the position correction of the program cell display position and the update start determination. The selected program (program 1) before the channel change is a program from 6 o'clock to 7 o'clock, a program in an adjacent cell (program 2). Is a screen transition in the case where a channel change is input twice in succession when 4 is from 7:00 to 7:00 and the adjacent program (program 3) is from 5:00 to 7:00. In the first channel change, position correction is not performed because there is a next channel change input within a predetermined time Tfreeze, and the time axis is fixed from 6 o'clock to 8 o'clock. Immediately after the second channel change, the time axis is fixed from 6 o'clock to 8 o'clock, but since program 3 can only be seen from 6 o'clock, it is determined that the display position of the start time is below the threshold. Further, since there is no channel change operation for a predetermined time thereafter, correction information that scrolls down on the time axis is generated so that the display position of the start time (5 o'clock) of the program 3 can be seen.

  The drawing unit 107 draws the program table according to the current display position POSnow of each program cell and the calculated display position POStarget of the movement target. The drawing position POSi for drawing i (= 1, 2,..., Nanim) up to the number of drawing times Nimim until the update is completed is POSI = POSnowx using a drawing animation coefficient Ranim = RANIMFUNC (i / Nanim). It can be calculated by (1-Ranim) + POSTargetxRanim. Here, the function RANIMFUNC (A) is a continuous function whose domain is [0, 1] that satisfies RANIMFUNC (0) = 0 and RANIMFUNC (1) = 1, and is 1 such as RANIMFUNC (A) = A. In some cases, a linear function is used, or a function that gradually decreases the slope using a route or an exponent is used. The drawing image in the cell is a drawing in which character information such as a program start time, a program title, and program contents is drawn in a range that can be drawn in a program cell size with a predetermined font. Note that colors such as characters, cell backgrounds, and cell frames for drawing use predetermined colors according to the type of program that is currently selected, a program that is scheduled to be selected, and other programs. Further, as supplementary information, an image for output is generated by drawing the channel axis and the time axis. In addition to drawing a table of program cells on a two-dimensional plane such as the program table exemplified so far, program cells are mapped to a predetermined shape in a three-dimensional space, and perspective projection conversion is performed from a predetermined viewpoint position. In some cases, processing is performed for drawing. FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining a perspective projection conversion process in the case of performing a three-dimensional arrangement, in which 801 is a display, 802 is a program table mapping shape, and 803 is a viewpoint in perspective projection conversion. As a mapping shape of the program cell, there is a case of a cylinder in addition to a plane. When the correction information includes thickness correction and facing correction information, a mapping shape having a predetermined thickness and an inclination facing the line-of-sight direction is used for the program cell to be selected. FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of thickness correction drawing and facing correction drawing processing.

  The display 108 displays the output image generated by the drawing unit 107. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of an output image displayed on the display 108, which is a display example of a flat program guide, a flat bird's-eye view program guide, and a cylindrical program guide, respectively.

  As described above, according to the information selection device according to the embodiment of the present invention, when the electronic program guide display device is continuously scrolling in the channel direction in the program guide, the reference of the program cell to be displayed is displayed. By fixing the time and scrolling in the time direction until the user can see the information from the top of the focused cell after a while after stopping the operation, it is intuitive where the user is looking at the channel switching scroll operation. The focused information can be displayed as a whole while keeping track of it, and both operability and visibility can be achieved.

  The present invention displays program information of broadcast programs such as video and audio on a home AV system including a TV system, a hard disk, a semiconductor memory and a DVD, an in-vehicle AV system, a mobile phone, etc., and selects a program for playback and recording It is useful as a user interface for performing Furthermore, the present invention is useful as a PC application in which the program selection user interface is realized by a program, and as a recording medium storing the PC application. Furthermore, the present invention is also applicable to PC applications such as spreadsheet software.

The block diagram which shows the structure of the electronic program guide display apparatus by embodiment of this invention The figure which shows the table which showed an example of the program information hold | maintained at the object program information storage part shown in FIG. The figure which shows an example of the controller part shown in FIG. The flowchart which shows the selection object program update process outline | summary performed in the program selection part shown in FIG. The figure which shows an example of the determination process of a neighboring cell performed by the program selection part shown in FIG. 1, and a focus system The figure explaining the calculation method of the display position and magnitude | size of the movement target of each program cell in the program cell display position calculation part shown in FIG. The figure which shows an example of the position correction and update start determination in the visibility determination part and position correction drawing start determination part shown in FIG. The figure explaining the perspective projection conversion process in the drawing part shown in FIG. The figure explaining an example of the thickness correction drawing in the drawing part shown in FIG. The figure which shows an example of the output image displayed on the display shown in FIG. The figure which shows the example of a display of the electronic program guide by a prior art The figure which shows the example of a display of the spreadsheet software currently used with the personal computer (PC) by a prior art

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Program information storage part 102 Controller part 103 Program selection part 104 Program cell display position calculation part 105 Visibility determination part 106 Position correction drawing start determination part 107 Drawing part 108 Display 301 Focus control button (upper)
302 Focus control button (down)
303 Focus control button (left)
304 Focus control button (right)
501 Program table 502 Neighbor cell area 503 Neighbor cell reference position 504 Selection target program cell 601 Neighbor cell area 602 Neighbor cell reference position 603 Program cell 801 Display 802 Mapping shape 803 Viewpoint

Claims (11)

An electronic program guide display device for displaying a program table as a table composed of a broadcast channel and a time axis for program cells representing program information such as a start time and a title of a program scheduled to be broadcast,
A program information storage unit for storing the program information;
A controller unit for obtaining input from a user;
A program selection unit that generates program update information for switching a program to be selected in a broadcast channel direction or a time direction based on input information from the controller unit;
A program cell display position calculation unit for calculating a program cell display position so that the position in the time axis direction does not change when the program update information is a channel change;
Visibility determination that determines whether the display position of the program cell to be selected calculated by the program cell display position calculation unit satisfies a predetermined display visibility condition, and generates position correction information in the time axis direction if not satisfied And
Based on the input history from the program selection unit and the position correction information generated by the visibility determination unit, a position correction drawing start determination unit that moves and updates the program cell display position in the time axis direction after a channel change operation;
A drawing unit for drawing a program guide according to the calculated program cell display position;
A display for displaying an image generated by the drawing unit;
An electronic program guide display device comprising: The program cell display position calculation unit
When the input from the program selection unit is only the channel change of the selected program, the position of the program cell in the time axis direction is not changed, and only the change of the time direction or the change of both the time and channel directions is included. The electronic program guide display device according to claim 1, wherein the position in the time axis direction is also changed. The visibility judgment unit
The electronic program guide display device according to claim 1, wherein correction information that moves in a time direction to a display position that can be visually recognized when a start time of a program cell to be selected is in a non-visible range is generated. The visibility judgment unit
The correction information that moves in the time direction to a display position that can be visually recognized when the later time of the start time of the program cell to be selected or the current time is in the invisible range is generated. 3. An electronic program guide display device according to 2. The visibility judgment unit
3. The electronic program guide according to claim 1, wherein correction information that moves in a time direction is generated so that a start time of a program cell to be selected is always a predetermined display position regardless of whether it is visible or invisible. Display device. The visibility judgment unit
6. The electronic program guide display device according to claim 1, wherein correction information that generates a longer time until the end of the correction is generated as the amount of movement of the display position in the time direction is larger. The visibility judgment unit
The electronic program according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein correction information that expands in a channel direction is generated so that a program cell to be selected and a program cell of the same channel have a predetermined display size. Guide display device. The position correction drawing start determination unit
Position correction drawing start for updating the program cell display position based on the position correction information after a predetermined time has elapsed since the last input from the program selection unit is a channel change of the selected program and display update completion by the operation is completed. The electronic program guide display device according to claim 1, wherein processing is performed. The drawing part
9. The program cell is mapped to a predetermined shape in a three-dimensional space according to the calculated program cell display position, and a program guide is drawn by performing perspective projection conversion processing from a predetermined viewpoint position. The electronic program guide display device according to any one of the above. The visibility judgment unit
The electronic program guide display device according to claim 9, wherein the correction information is generated so that the program cell to be selected is displayed facing the viewpoint direction. The visibility judgment unit
11. The electronic program guide display device according to claim 9, wherein the correction information is generated so as to be deformed into a shape having a thickness so that an information display surface of a program cell to be selected approaches a viewpoint.

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