JP2009111777A - Digital broadcast receiving device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a digital broadcast receiving device for performing sound operation in response to a state of an application for digital broadcast. <P>SOLUTION: The digital broadcast receiving device 100 comprises a receiving part 120 for receiving the digital broadcast including first sound and second sound, a multitask control part 111 for controlling execution of a plurality of applications, an application state determination part 113 for determining whether a digital broadcast viewing/listening application of which execution is controlled by a multitask control part is a main application or not, sound reproducing parts 190, SP for reproducing sound, and a sound output control part 112 for controlling the sound reproducing parts so as to reproduce the first sound or second sound in response to a determination result of the application state determination part. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a digital broadcast receiving apparatus, and more particularly to a digital broadcast receiving apparatus that outputs a sound in a state among a plurality of sounds according to the state of a digital broadcast application.

  As mobile phone terminals become more sophisticated, terminals equipped with a multitask processing function for simultaneously executing a plurality of application softwares have been developed. Multitask processing is a function that makes it appear that multiple processes are performed simultaneously by dividing the processing time of the CPU into very short units and assigning them to multiple application software in order or according to priority. It is. By using the multitask processing function, when a user performs another task while performing one task, a new application can be started and another task can be performed without exiting the previously started application software. It is possible to perform, that is, to process a plurality of applications in parallel. This multitask processing function further improves the convenience of mobile phone terminals. For example, the multitask processing function allows users to make calls while reading websites with browser software, and to read / write / send / receive emails while listening to music with audio software .

  On the other hand, as a service for recent mobile phone terminals equipped with a large-screen display and a high-performance CPU, not only a moving image data distribution service by a download service or a streaming service but also a digital television broadcasting service has been started. Corresponding to such services, mobile phone terminals equipped with a digital broadcast receiving function have been developed.

  FIG. 8 shows a configuration diagram of a multitasking mobile phone terminal with a digital broadcast receiving function according to the prior art. As shown in the figure, in addition to the components of a normal cellular phone terminal, this conventional terminal includes an antenna, a tuner, a demodulator, and a demultiplexer for receiving and processing digital broadcast waves. The conventional terminal further includes a multitask control unit. When viewing a digital broadcast using this conventional terminal, a user invokes a digital broadcast receiving function from a menu by key operation, and starts a digital broadcast viewing application. When viewing digital broadcasts using a mobile phone terminal equipped with such a digital broadcast receiving function, there is no restriction on the installation location unlike a stationary digital broadcast receiving device, so users can easily perform digital broadcasts regardless of time and place. It is possible to watch.

  Even if the multitask processing function is implemented as in the conventional terminal described above, the mobile terminal with a small display area often does not support multiwindow. Therefore, while viewing a digital broadcast, the screen is occupied by another application due to the start of various other applications other than the digital broadcast viewing application or user operation, or the digital broadcast viewing application is not drawn on the screen, or drawing Even if it is done, the situation that it becomes very small window size occurs.

  For example, when another task (typically, a mail reception task) interrupts during viewing of a digital broadcast, a situation may occur in which an image of the digital broadcast is not displayed. FIG. 9 is a screen transition diagram when another task interrupts the digital broadcast reception task in the conventional multitasking mobile phone terminal. As shown in FIG. 9 (a), an image D1 of a certain digital broadcast is displayed on the display unit of a terminal in which the digital broadcast is operating as a main application (task). BGM is output. At this time, when the terminal receives the mail, the digital broadcast viewing task becomes a sub-application, and the image display of the broadcast is stopped. Then, as shown in FIG. 9C, the mail reception task image D3 is displayed on the display unit. At this time, as shown in the balloon S3, BGM of the main sound of the digital broadcast is output. In such a case, even if a user who is concerned about the digital broadcast being watched listens to only the main audio, the contents of the program may not be grasped. In other words, if the digital broadcast that is originally intended to transmit the program to the user in a state in which the “video information” and the “audio information” are combined becomes only the audio information, the amount of information will be significantly reduced. There was a problem that it was difficult to grasp.

  For example, in the case of FIG. 9B, it is difficult to grasp the contents of digital broadcasting because the user cannot view the video only by listening to BGM (main audio) output as audio. It is. By the way, when the mail receiving task is in operation, the scene changes to a video (another scene such as the image D2) as shown in FIG. The video should have been displayed.

  As described above, when another task such as mail reception is activated / operated while viewing a program, it may be difficult for the user to grasp the content of the program being viewed. In addition to receiving e-mails, it is difficult to grasp the contents of a program even when information is acquired by another application or the like while viewing a digital broadcast. Therefore, it is convenient if there is a terminal that performs an operation that is optimal for the user according to the state of the terminal that is receiving the digital broadcast, but such a user-friendly terminal has not been developed.

As a conventional technique for switching the display depending on the state of the terminal receiving the digital broadcast, in the foldable mobile phone terminal, when the casing is closed while viewing the digital broadcast, the video decoder and the display means are controlled, There is a technique for reproducing only sound (refer to Patent Document 1).
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-312597

  As described above, a technology corresponding to a change in the mechanical configuration of a terminal equipped with a digital broadcast receiving function has been developed. However, as described above, software and applications (hereinafter referred to as applications) in a terminal equipped with a digital broadcast receiving function are developed. No terminal has been developed that performs digital broadcast sound reproduction operations that are optimal for the user in response to a change in the state of

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a digital broadcast receiving apparatus that performs an audio operation according to the state of an application for digital broadcasting.

In order to solve the above-described problems, the digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to the first invention provides:
A receiver (such as a tuner) that receives a digital broadcast including at least the first sound and the second sound;
A multitask control unit (scheduler / dispatcher) that controls the execution of multiple applications;
An application state determination unit that determines whether or not the application for digital broadcasting whose execution is controlled by the multitask control unit is a main application;
An audio reproduction unit (such as an audio processing unit or a speaker) for reproducing the audio of the digital broadcast;
An audio output control unit that controls the audio reproduction unit to reproduce the first audio or the second audio according to a determination result of the application state determination unit;
With

The digital broadcast receiver according to the second invention is
Further comprising a display,
The application state determination unit
When an image generated from the digital broadcast is not displayed on the display unit, it is determined that the application for the digital broadcast is not a main application.
It is characterized by that.
As described above, when the application for digital broadcasting is not the main application, the audio output control unit reproduces / outputs the second audio (typically commentary audio) instead of the first audio (main audio). Thus, it is preferable to control the sound reproducing unit.

The digital broadcast receiver according to the third invention is
The digital broadcast received by the receiving unit further comprises an audio signal analyzing unit that determines whether or not the program broadcast audio includes
The audio output control unit
When the digital broadcast includes program commentary audio, it is determined by the audio signal analysis unit, and
When the application state determination unit determines that the application for the digital broadcast is not a main application, the audio reproduction unit is controlled to reproduce the program commentary sound included in the digital broadcast.
It is characterized by that.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a digital broadcast receiver.
A communication unit (such as a wireless unit that can be connected to the Internet) that acquires digital broadcast program information received by the receiving unit;
The audio signal analyzer is
Based on the program information acquired by the wireless unit, it is determined whether the digital broadcast received by the receiving unit includes program commentary audio,
It is characterized by that.
The program information is preferably EPG.

  As described above, the solution of the present invention has been described as an apparatus. However, the present invention can be realized as a method, a program, and a storage medium storing the program, which are substantially equivalent to these. It should be understood that these are also included. Each step of the method or program uses an arithmetic processing unit such as a CPU or DSP as necessary in the data processing, and the input data and processed / generated data are transferred to magnetic tape, HDD, etc. And stored in a storage device such as a memory.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the audio | voice suitable for the said state can be output among several audio | voices according to the state of the broadcast viewing application of a digital broadcast.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. The present invention can be widely applied to devices equipped with a digital broadcast receiving function, but an embodiment applied to a mobile phone terminal will be described as a typical example of such a receiving device.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing main components of a mobile phone terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention. The cellular phone terminal 100 includes a control unit 110 that controls the entire terminal, a tuner 120, a demodulation unit 130, a demultiplexing unit 140, a radio unit (communication unit) 150, a memory 160, an image processing unit 170, a data processing unit 180, and An audio processing unit 190 is provided. The mobile phone terminal 100 further includes a key operation unit (input unit) KEY, a display unit DIS, a microphone MIC, a speaker SP, and antennas ANT1 and ANT2. The signal received by the tuner 120 is OFDM demodulated by the demodulator 130 to extract an MPEG-2 transport stream signal (hereinafter, TS signal). The received TS signal is separated into broadcast control information, video data and audio data by the demultiplexing unit 140. The control information and the video data are decoded by the data processing unit 180 and the image processing unit 170, respectively, and displayed on the display unit DIS. The audio data is decoded by the audio processing unit 190 and output from the speaker SP. The control unit 110 includes a multitask control unit 111 for controlling a plurality of applications and an audio output control unit 112 for controlling output audio.

  In order to perform radio communication using radio waves, the radio unit 150 modulates various data such as voice information and electronic mail processed by the control unit 110 and transmits the data to a base station (not shown) from the antenna ANT2. The radio unit 150 receives various data such as e-mail and voice information transmitted by radio signals from the base station via the antenna ANT2, demodulates them, and sends them to the control unit 110. The memory 160 stores various data possessed by the mobile phone terminal 100, such as application programs such as calls, mails, and Internet browsers, mail data, and various address book data in which names and telephone numbers are registered.

  For example, in order to start a digital broadcast receiving application, the control unit 110 loads a program (for example, applications A, B, and C) of the application stored in the memory 160 into the RAM area. The key operation unit KEY includes a plurality of operation keys (numerals, alphabets, symbol keys, etc.), recognizes pressing of these operation keys, and supplies the input information to the control unit 110. The antenna ANT1 constantly receives digital broadcast waves continuously, and the tuner 120 selects a channel (that is, a program) commanded by the control unit 110 according to an operation on the key operation unit KEY, and selects the selected program. The broadcast content, that is, the transport stream (TS) is output to the demodulator 130. The demodulator 130 demodulates the transport stream (TS) of the selected program.

  The application state determination unit 113 determines whether or not the digital broadcast reception (viewing) application is the main application. Although details will be described later, in the present embodiment, when the digital broadcast video data is displayed on the display unit DIS, the digital broadcast reception application is the main application, and when it is not displayed, it is not the main application. judge. Alternatively, it may be determined whether the main application is based on the ratio of the area on the display panel occupied by the digital broadcast video data. For example, if the ratio of the area on the display panel occupied by the video data of the digital broadcast is less than 20%, it may be determined that it is not the main application. Further, for example, various flags and fields indicating the task status on a control block (not shown) managed by the multitask control unit 110 may be used as the determination element.

  FIG. 3 is a screen transition diagram when another task interrupts while the digital broadcast receiving task is operating as the main task in the mobile phone terminal according to one embodiment of the present invention. The screens shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B are the same as those shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 3C, when the terminal receives a mail, the digital broadcast viewing task becomes a sub-app, the broadcast image display is stopped, and the mail reception image D3 is displayed on the display unit. . At this time, as shown in the balloon S3 ′, the main voice that is the first voice is automatically switched to the “explanatory voice including BGM” that is the second voice, and the state (scene) of the screen D2 is changed together with the BGM. The commentary is output. In such a case, the user can listen to the “explanatory sound” even if only the mail reception screen is displayed, so that the contents of the program (the scene) can be easily understood. In other words, even if the task of receiving mail is operating, the “explanatory audio” can be transmitted to the user instead of the video information. ) Can be grasped. Therefore, since the user can listen to the commentary sound that is heard while performing the operation related to the mail reception, the mail reception operation is interrupted depending on the content of the commentary sound, and It is also possible to switch to display. Therefore, user convenience is significantly improved. In this way, when the “scene change” of a digital broadcast program that would have been originally displayed is important in understanding or enjoying this program, the automatic audio switching operation according to the present invention is performed. It will be a very friendly user interface for the user.

  As described above, conventionally, when another task such as mail reception is activated / operated while viewing a digital broadcast program, the display unit DIS is occupied on the screen of the other task, and the user is viewing It was difficult to understand the contents of the program. However, according to the embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to perform an audio output operation that is optimal for the user in accordance with the state of the terminal that is receiving the digital broadcast.

  FIG. 4 shows a packet configuration example of the transport stream (TS). As shown in FIG. 4, in the transport stream, an audio signal, a video signal, and a data signal are multiplexed on a packet basis. For example, an audio signal and a video signal are compressed and encoded by the MPEG method.

  The transport stream (TS) signal is separated into a video signal, an audio signal, and a data signal for each packet by the demultiplexing unit 140. The separated video signal is decoded by the image processing unit 170 and then displayed on the display unit DIS. The audio signal is decoded by the audio processing unit 190 in accordance with an instruction from the audio output control unit 112, and then is output as audio from the speaker SP. Is output. The contents of the data signal are analyzed by the data processing unit 180, and EIT information and the like are supplied to the control unit 110.

  A multitask control unit 111 provided in the control unit 110 simultaneously activates and controls a plurality of application programs stored in the memory 160 in response to an operation on the key operation unit KEY. The application state determination unit 113 provided in the control unit 110 periodically monitors the multitask control unit 111 while the digital broadcast reception application is running, and the digital broadcast reception application is operating as the main application. Or not (or whether it is operating as a sub-app). In accordance with the determination result by the application state determination unit 113 and the analysis result of the audio signal analysis unit 114, the audio processing unit 190 performs predetermined processing according to both results.

  The audio signal analysis unit 114 provided in the control unit 110 determines whether or not sub audio (particularly program commentary audio) is included in the audio signal of the digital broadcast. The audio output control unit 112 controls the audio processing unit 190 to reproduce / output the secondary audio (particularly program commentary audio) according to the determination result by the application state determination unit 113 and the analysis result by the audio signal analysis unit 114. Control.

  When the digital broadcast receiving application is activated by a user operation on the key operation unit KEY, the control unit 110 instructs the tuner 120 on a channel to be selected. The tuner 120 tunes to the designated channel and passes the received signal to the demodulator 130. Demodulation section 130 performs OFDM demodulation on the received signal and outputs it as TS data. The TS data is separated into a video signal and an audio signal by the demultiplexing unit 140, and other data signals such as program information and control data, and passed to the image processing unit 170, the audio processing unit 190, and the data processing unit 180, respectively. Processing is then performed. The image processing unit 170 decodes the video signal, and the decoded video signal is output to the display unit DIS. The audio processing unit 190 decodes the audio signal and outputs the decoded audio signal to the speaker SP.

  Information relating to the program being received is stored and transmitted in PSI information and SI information, separated from the image data and audio data by the demultiplexing unit 140, and passed to the control unit 110. The control unit 110 performs control of reception, selection of a data stream to be received, display of program information, and the like according to the received program information.

  The audio signal analysis unit 114 provided in the control unit 110 can determine the type of audio data included in the program being received, based on EIT (Event Information Table) information in the SI information. The audio signal analysis unit 114 determines whether or not the broadcast with explanation audio is based on the EIT information, and the control unit 110 that receives the determination result determines whether or not the current audio mode is selected, and plays back in the audio mode. The audio output control unit 112 is controlled to perform. In the audio mode, in addition to the explanation broadcast, a stereo broadcast, a bilingual broadcast, a surround broadcast, and the like may be provided.

  FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing processing of the mobile phone terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the application state determination unit 113 periodically monitors the multitask control unit 111 to detect whether the digital broadcast reception application is activated (step S11). It is determined whether the digital broadcast receiving application is operating as the main application (step S12). If the digital broadcast receiving application is not activated in step S11, the process ends. If it is determined in step S12 that the digital broadcast receiving application is operating as the main application, it is determined in step S13 whether sound is output in the sound mode set by the user. If a voice different from the voice mode set by the user has been output, in step S14, the voice output control unit 112 controls the voice processing unit 190 to switch to the voice output of the voice mode set by the user. .

  If it is determined in step S12 that the digital broadcast receiving application is not the main application (that is, operating as a sub application), the process proceeds to step S15, and the audio signal analysis unit 114 adds commentary audio to the currently viewed program. Determine if it exists. If it is determined that the commentary sound exists, it is determined in step S16 whether the currently output sound is the commentary sound. If it is not the commentary sound, the sound output control unit 112 causes the sound to be switched to the commentary sound. The processing unit 190 is controlled.

<Determination method of presence / absence of sub audio (commentary audio)>
For example, in MPEG2, the data signal is configured by SI as a part of PSI, and SI includes an event information table (EIT) in which a program name, broadcast date and time, program contents, and the like are described. In this EIT, each parameter of the audio elementary stream is shown, and an audio component descriptor that is also used to represent the elementary stream in character format exists as a component, and all the audio components included in the event One is always sent for each. The audio component descriptor is composed of, for example, elements as shown in FIG. 5, and defines the type of audio in various programs, for example, whether or not it is audio multiplex broadcasting. For example, the type of whether or not the broadcasting is bilingual, or the type of what the second voice is in the case of the bilingual broadcasting is designated.

  The component type defines the type of the audio component as shown in FIG. Therefore, by referring to the component type in this audio component descriptor, for example, it is possible to identify whether or not the program selected by the user is a broadcast with explanation audio (audio explanation for the visually impaired). Can do.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of an electronic program guide (EPG). The electronic program guide (EPG) can be obtained from a digital broadcast wave or from a server on the Internet via the wireless unit 150 via wireless. From such an electronic program guide (EPG) and a clock function unit (not shown) provided in the mobile phone terminal, it is possible to identify whether the program currently being viewed is a broadcast with commentary audio. It is. ARIB (Radio Industry Association) defines external characters to indicate the type of program. For example, “2” is a bilingual broadcast program, “character” is a subtitle broadcast program, and “solution” is a program with commentary broadcast. That is, if the program field has “solution”, it can be understood that the broadcast is a digital broadcast including sub-audio called commentary broadcast. Therefore, EPG information may be acquired separately from broadcast data via the Internet, etc., and determination may be made based on the presence or absence of an external character code assigned to “solution” for the currently viewed program from the acquired EPG information. . That is, when the audio signal analysis unit 114 refers to the EPG information stored in the memory 160 and there is an external character code of “solution” in the program field at the corresponding time of the channel number being viewed, the audio signal analysis unit 114 It is determined that it is broadcast.

  In addition, there are cases where the electronic program guide (EPG) includes only a code with the audio type “many”. The code “many” means that secondary audio is present, but it is unknown whether it is a commentary broadcast or a foreign language broadcast. In such a case, when the viewing application becomes a sub-application while viewing a program including the code “many” by the user's prior setting, the sub-audio may be switched. Depending on the program, there may be sub audio that cannot be classified as “commentary broadcast”, so that the user can fully understand the program and enjoy it, and switching to “sub audio other than commentary broadcast” may be useful for the user. Because. For example, if the voice alone is sufficiently entertaining, such as the second voice of a baseball night game, and is established as a commentary program, the user can enjoy the program sufficiently with only the voice.

  In the terminal according to the embodiment of the present invention, the first audio (main audio) and the second audio (provided as sub audio) are provided according to the state of the digital broadcast viewing application (whether it is the main application / sub application). Commentary audio) can be automatically switched, so that when it is necessary to operate an app other than the digital broadcast viewing application, it is possible to easily grasp the broadcast contents only with the audio information by the explanation audio Become. Also, it is possible to resume the video display by determining the scene that the user wants to view based on the commentary sound and setting the digital broadcast viewing application as the main application. In this way, since the explanation audio is played back, it becomes easy to keep track of the broadcast contents only with the audio information. Therefore, even when listening to the digital broadcast while performing other operations, the broadcast contents are easier to understand. Become.

  When the digital broadcast viewing application is not the main application (that is, the sub application), it is only necessary to reproduce the audio data. Therefore, in this state, it is not necessary to operate the video decoder in order to display the video data. In addition, it is easy to make the digital broadcast viewing app the main app only when the user wants to watch while following the broadcast content with only audio information based on commentary audio, and display the video of the program on the display unit for viewing. It is possible to reduce the power consumption of the terminal and extend the viewable time.

  Although the present invention has been described based on the drawings and examples, it should be noted that those skilled in the art can easily make various modifications and corrections based on the present disclosure. Therefore, it should be noted that these variations and modifications are included in the scope of the present invention. For example, the functions included in each unit, each means, each step, etc. can be rearranged so as not to be logically contradictory, and a plurality of means, steps, etc. can be combined or divided into one. It is. The multitask handled by the multitask control unit may be a pseudo multitask.

It is a block diagram which shows the main components of the mobile telephone terminal by one embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the process of the mobile telephone terminal by one embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the packet structural example of a transport stream (TS). Shows the format of an exemplary transport stream It is a figure which shows the data structure of an audio | voice component descriptor. It is a figure which shows a component classification. It is a figure which shows the example of an electronic program guide (EPG). The block diagram of the multitasking mobile telephone terminal with a digital broadcast receiving function by a prior art is shown. FIG. 10 is a screen transition diagram when another task interrupts a digital broadcast reception task in a multitasking mobile phone terminal according to the prior art.

Explanation of symbols

100 mobile phone terminal 110 control unit 111 multitask control unit 112 audio output control unit 113 application state determination unit 114 audio signal analysis unit 120 tuner 130 demodulation unit 140 demultiplexing unit 150 radio unit 160 memory 170 image processing unit 180 data processing unit 190 Audio processing unit ANT1, ANT2 Antenna D1-D3 Image DIS Display unit KEY Key operation unit MIC Microphone SP Speaker

Claims (4)

A receiving unit for receiving a digital broadcast including at least a first sound and a second sound;
A multitasking control unit that controls execution of multiple applications;
An application state determination unit that determines whether or not the application for digital broadcasting whose execution is controlled by the multitask control unit is a main application;
An audio playback unit for playing back the audio of the digital broadcast;
An audio output control unit that controls the audio reproduction unit to reproduce the first audio or the second audio according to a determination result of the application state determination unit;
A digital broadcast receiving apparatus. The digital broadcast receiver according to claim 1,
Further comprising a display,
The application state determination unit
When an image generated from the digital broadcast is not displayed on the display unit, it is determined that the application for the digital broadcast is not a main application.
A digital broadcast receiver characterized by that. In the digital broadcast receiver according to claim 1 or 2,
The digital broadcast received by the receiving unit further comprises an audio signal analyzing unit that determines whether or not the program broadcast audio includes
The audio output control unit
When the digital broadcast includes program commentary audio, it is determined by the audio signal analysis unit, and
When the application state determination unit determines that the application for the digital broadcast is not a main application, the audio reproduction unit is controlled to reproduce the program commentary sound included in the digital broadcast.
A digital broadcast receiver characterized by that. The digital broadcast receiver according to claim 3, wherein
A communication unit for acquiring digital broadcast program information received by the receiving unit;
The audio signal analyzer is
Based on the program information acquired by the wireless unit, it is determined whether the digital broadcast received by the receiving unit includes program commentary audio,
A digital broadcast receiver characterized by that.

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