JP2011071795A - Broadcast receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To recommend programs according to the preference of each viewer. <P>SOLUTION: The broadcast receiver is provided with: a program information acquisition means 250 for acquiring program information from a received broadcast signal; an imaging means 110 for capturing video images of viewers; an identifying means 120 for detecting faces of the viewers from the captured video image, determining and managing the detected faces; a preference degree calculation means 130 for calculating a gaze level showing the degree of interest in a program, for each identified face (viewer), to calculate a degree of preference showing the degree of interest in the program from the gaze level; a preference information management means 140 for extracting preferences for each viewer from the program information and the degree of preference, to generate and manage individual preference information showing the preferences; and a recommended program information generation means 160 for generating an individual recommended program list including a recommended program from the program information and the individual preference information for each viewer. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a broadcast receiving apparatus.

  As a method of recommending a program that matches the viewer's preference, it is determined whether the viewer is watching the program based on an operation input by the viewer, and a program that more accurately matches the viewer's preference is recommended. A method is described in Patent Document 1.

JP 2002-369090 A

  However, it has not been considered to recommend a program that suits the taste for each viewer. For this reason, there has been a problem of recommending a program that does not match the viewer's personal preference.

  The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a broadcast receiving apparatus that realizes means for recommending a program that more closely matches the individual preference of the viewer than before.

  In order to realize this object, the broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present invention includes a program information acquisition unit 250 that acquires program information from a received broadcast signal, an imaging unit 110 that captures a viewer's video, and a viewer from the captured video information. Personal discriminating means 120 that detects and manages the detected face, calculates a gaze degree that is information regarding the size of the gaze on the viewing program for each face (viewer) that has been discriminated, and based on the gaze degree A preference level calculating unit 130 that calculates a preference level that is information about the intensity of interest in a viewing program, calculates a preference for each viewer from the program information and the preference level, and generates and manages individual preference information that is information about the preference. Preference information management means 140, and recommended program information generation means 150 for generating an individual recommended program list including recommended programs from program information and individual preference information for each viewer.

  According to the present invention, the preference degree is calculated from the degree of gazing at the viewing program for each viewer, and the individual preference information is generated based on the preference degree. This makes it possible to generate individual preference information corresponding to the preference for each viewer, and to recommend a program corresponding to the preference for each viewer.

1 is a configuration diagram of a broadcast receiving apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. Block diagram of individual distinction means The figure which shows the individual discrimination result by the individual discrimination means 120 Personal template Block diagram of preference calculation means The figure which shows the instantaneous gaze degree and the section gaze degree which the gaze degree calculation means 131 calculates The figure which shows the program preference degree which the program gaze degree calculation means 132 calculates An example of program preference information managed by preference information management means 140 An example of program preference data An example of program information Example of program recommendation calculation results Example of individual recommended program list

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a broadcast receiving apparatus (hereinafter referred to as a television) according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

  110 imaging means, 120 personal identification means, 130 preference calculation means, 140 preference information management means, 150 recommended program information generation means, 160 screen generation means, 170 operator detection means, 190 control means , 200 is tuner means, 210 is separation means, 220 is decoding means, 230 is display control means, 240 is display means, and 250 is program information acquisition means.

  The tuner means 200 is means for receiving a broadcast signal received from an antenna not described here. Separating means 210 is means for separating the broadcast signal into video / audio streams of selected channels and program information of all channels. The decoding means is means for generating a video / audio signal by combining the video / audio streams. The display control unit 230 is a unit that generates an on-screen display (OSD) such as an electronic program guide generated by the screen generation unit 160 on the video stream and generates a display signal, and displays the display signal on the display unit 240.

  The program information acquisition unit 250 stores the program information separated by the separation unit 210 for a predetermined period, and displays the broadcast channel, program title, broadcast date, program start time, program end time, performer name, program genre, program content keyword, and the like. It is a means to provide.

  The imaging unit 110 is a unit that captures an image of a viewer who is watching the television. The video signal picked up by the image pickup means 110 is input to the individual determination means 120 and the operator detection means 170. The individual discriminating means 120 is a means for detecting a face from the video signal photographed by the imaging means and discriminating each viewer by discriminating the detected face. Individual viewers are discriminated by comparing the detected face area video signal and the personal template, and discrimination information is added to each face area video signal. Hereinafter, each face area video signal added with discrimination information is described as “viewer with ID”.

  The preference level calculation means 130 is a means for calculating the preference level of the viewing program for each viewer. From the face area video information with discrimination information generated by the individual discrimination means 120, for each viewer, the degree of attention to the program is calculated for each viewing program, and information on the degree of interest in the viewing program is obtained from the degree of attention. A certain degree of preference is calculated.

  The preference information management unit 140 is a unit that generates and manages program preference information (individual preference information) for each viewer using the preference level for each viewer and each program calculated by the preference level calculation unit 130. .

  The recommended program information generation means 150 is a means for selecting a recommended program recommended for viewing from a program being broadcast or a program scheduled to be broadcast using the individual preference information. The recommended program information generation means 150 generates an individual recommended program list for each viewer and a general recommended program list that combines the preferences of all the viewers currently viewing.

  The screen generation unit 160 is a unit that generates an OSD screen that presents the recommended program selected by the recommended program information generation unit 150 to the viewer in the form of an electronic program guide or a recommended program list.

  The operator detection means 170 is means for detecting an operator of the television. An operator is detected from the face area video information with a discriminator generated by the individual discriminating means 120 and the positional relationship of the remote control in the video imaged by the imaging means 110.

  The control means 190 is means for controlling each means of the broadcast receiving apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. The control means 190 determines a recommended program to be presented to the viewer according to the viewing situation. For example, when display of the electronic program guide is selected by remote control operation, the operator detection unit 170 detects the operator and presents the recommended program for the operator.

  Next, processing of the individual determination unit 120, the preference level calculation unit 130, the preference information management unit 140, the recommended program information generation unit 150, and the screen generation unit 160 will be described.

  First, the processing of the individual discrimination means 120 will be described.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the individual discrimination unit 120 includes a face detection unit 121, a face tracking unit 122, a face discrimination unit 123, a template creation unit 124, and a storage unit 125.

  The face detection unit 121 is a unit that detects a face region from the video imaged by the imaging unit and outputs the coordinates and size of the face region for each face detected as a detection result. Here, the face area detection method is not particularly limited. An existing technique such as a detection method using a face model template may be employed.

  The face tracking unit 122 determines to which of the ID-added viewers the face included in the face detection result detected by the face detection unit 121 is determined by the face determination unit 123 in the previous frame (processing time unit). Means. The face tracking unit 122 determines the correspondence of the face for all the faces detected by the face detection unit 121. The method for determining the correspondence of the face is not particularly limited, but an existing technique such as a representative point matching method using the luminance signal of the face area image or a method for detecting and tracking a motion vector may be used. .

The face tracking unit 122 determines the enrollment state of which of the following three states the face to be tracked corresponds to, and stores the determination result in the storage unit 125.
(1) “Attendance”: The face to be tracked is compatible with the viewer with ID.
(2) “New”: The face to be tracked cannot be matched with the viewer with ID.
(3) “Leave”: There was a viewer with ID that could not cope with any face to be tracked.

  Here, “enrolled” indicates that a viewer continues to exist in front of the television, and “new” indicates that a new viewer has appeared in front of the television. “Leave” indicates that the viewer has left the front of the television.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a result of individual determination by the individual determination unit 120. The personal discrimination result is stored in the storage means 125. In FIG. 3, 300 is an individual discrimination result by the individual discrimination means 120, 310 is an individual discrimination result updated by a face tracking result by the face tracking means 122 of the individual discrimination means 120, and 320 is a face discrimination means 123 of the individual discrimination means 120. It is an individual discrimination result in which an ID is distributed to a face determined to be “new”. 301 is an ID added to the face, 302 is an enrollment status, and 303 is feature information used for determining the correspondence of the face. As the feature information, information that is most suitable for a face correspondence determination method to be used, such as facial motion vector information or facial feature point model data, is used.

  Reference numeral 300 denotes a face (viewer) to which IDs “01”, “02”, and “03” are added, that is, three viewers are “enrolled”.

  The enrollment state 302 is updated by the face tracking result of the face tracking unit 122.

  310 indicates that the viewers with IDs “01” and “03” continue to be “enrolled” with respect to the individual discrimination result of 300. Reference numeral 311 indicates that the ID “02” is “absent”. Reference numeral 312 indicates that the enrollment status is “new” and a new viewer has appeared. The face discriminating unit 123 adds an ID to the face determined to be “new”.

  The face discriminating unit 123 is a unit for adding an ID, which is discrimination information for discriminating a face (viewer) determined to be “new”. The face area image of the target face is compared with the personal template, and if there is a match, an ID added to the template is assigned. If they do not match, a new ID is generated and distributed. Then, as shown by 322 in FIG. 3, the ID 301 of the face determined to be “new” is updated. Reference numeral 322 indicates that ID “04” is distributed to a new face. When the newly generated ID is distributed, the template creation unit 124 creates a personal template.

  The template creation unit 124 is a unit that creates a personal template using the image data of the face area detected by the face detection unit 121. As shown in FIG. 4, the discrimination information and the personal template are stored so as to be associated with each other. In addition, a plurality of personal templates can be stored for one piece of discrimination information. There is no particular restriction on the method of creating a personal template. Existing techniques such as a method of detecting facial organs such as eyes, mouth, and nose and comparing feature points may be adopted.

  The storage unit 125 stores the individual discrimination result and the personal template. Physically, a storage means common to other storage means may be used.

Next, processing of the preference level calculation unit 130 will be described.
As shown in FIG. 5, the preference level calculation unit 130 includes a gaze degree calculation unit 131, a program preference level calculation unit 132, and a storage unit 133.

  The gaze degree calculating means 131 is a means for calculating a gaze degree representing the strength of how much the TV is being viewed. The face orientation detection means 31, the instantaneous gaze degree calculation means 32, and the section gaze degree calculation means 33 are configured (FIG. 5).

  The face direction detecting means 31 calculates the face direction composed of the magnitude of rotation, the vertical tilt, and the horizontal tilt, and determines whether the face is facing the TV or not based on the face direction information. Do. As a method for calculating the magnitude of rotation, the vertical tilt, and the horizontal tilt, existing techniques such as a method of determining by fitting a three-dimensional face model to a face image may be used. For example, the front determination is a face image that includes all facial feature organs (both eyes, nose, mouth), the absolute value of the rotation magnitude is 95 degrees or less, the absolute value of the vertical inclination is 5 degrees or less, and the horizontal inclination Is determined to be front if it satisfies a condition such as 5 degrees or less. The reason why the range of the rotation size is wide is to detect a state where the cheek cane is attached and a state where the user is lying down and watching. Note that this method is not necessarily required, and any method can be used as long as it can determine whether or not the viewer's face is facing the front of the TV.

  The instantaneous gaze degree calculating means 32 is a means for calculating the instantaneous gaze degree for each viewer at a predetermined time interval. The instantaneous gaze degree is calculated from the result of the face direction detecting means 31 for each viewer at predetermined time intervals (t). Watching when the face is in front is viewed, that is, it is determined to be a gaze state, the instantaneous gaze degree is 1, otherwise it is not gazing, the non-gaze state is determined and the instantaneous gaze degree is 0 To do. The instantaneous gaze degree calculating means 32 holds an instantaneous gaze degree for a predetermined time interval T in an instantaneous gaze degree sequence (t0, t1,..., T (T−1) t (T)).

  The section gaze degree calculation means 33 is a means for calculating the latest section gaze degree Δt from the instantaneous gaze degree of the measurement section. The calculation method is a ratio calculated in the time interval T as instantaneous gaze degree 1 (gaze state). However, the present invention is not limited to this method, and it may be a ratio at which the state of instantaneous gaze degree 1 appears twice or more continuously. The section gaze degree is updated in synchronization with a predetermined time interval (t) for calculating the instantaneous gaze degree, so that the latest section gaze degree Δt is always maintained.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating the instantaneous gaze degree and the section gaze degree calculated by the gaze degree calculation unit 131.

  In the figure, reference numeral 600 denotes an ID for identifying a viewer. The ID added by the personal identification means is used. Reference numeral 601 denotes an instantaneous gaze degree calculated at a predetermined time interval (t). As shown at 602, for each viewer, an instantaneous gaze degree sequence (t0... T9) for a predetermined time interval T is held. The instantaneous gaze degree sequence (t0... T9) is a snapshot obtained by calculating the instantaneous gaze degree at the same time for all viewers. The instantaneous gaze degree 601 is recorded in the memory area of the ring buffer structure, and the latest instantaneous gaze degree sequence (t0... T9) of the section section T is always held. 603Δt is a section gaze degree for the time section T. The calculated gaze degree information is stored in the storage unit 133 and is used for calculating the program preference level by the program preference level calculation unit 132.

The program preference level calculation unit 132 is a unit that calculates the degree of interest in each viewer's program, that is, the program preference level, from the program information obtained from the program information acquisition unit 250 and the section gaze degree Δt. The broadcast time of the program is acquired from the program information acquisition means 250, and the section gaze degree Δt calculated by the section gaze degree calculation means 33 is acquired at every time interval (pt) that divides the program broadcast time (PT) into N equal parts. Then, the cumulative value of the acquired section gazing degree Δt is calculated as the program preference degree P. That is, when N is set to 100, the program preference level P is 100 if the section gaze degrees Δt for every time interval pt are all 1, and this is the highest program preference level. If a program is viewed for half the broadcast time, and the section gazing degree Δt for each pt during that time is all 1, the program preference P is 50. The program preference P is also 50 when the program is viewed for the entire broadcast time and the section gaze degrees Δt for each pt during that time are all 0.5. The program preference is calculated in the same manner when viewing from the middle of the program, or when returning from an intermediate seat. Even when the channel is changed during the program broadcast, the section gaze degree Δt0 continues to be accumulated at the section gaze degree Δt0 within the changed time. By doing so, the calculation of the program preference P can be resumed when the channel is restored.
When it is detected from the program information of the program information acquisition means 250 that the program is extended on the way, the section gaze degree Δt0 is accumulated while maintaining the initially set time interval pt, and the accumulated value (initial scheduled time) / The actual program broadcast time) is set as a program preference P. The program preference P is calculated for each viewer and each broadcast program.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the program preference degree calculated by the program gaze degree calculating means 132.

  700 is an ID for discriminating the viewer. The ID added by the personal identification means is used. Reference numeral 701 denotes a section gaze degree Δt acquired at every time interval (pt) for dividing the program broadcast time (PT) into N equal parts. As shown at 702, a section gaze degree sequence (pt0... Pt (n)) is held for each viewer. Reference numeral 703 denotes a program preference level P. The section gaze degree string (pt0... Pt (n)) is a snapshot obtained by acquiring the section gaze degrees at the same time for all viewers. 704, 705, and 706 each represent program preference information of one program. In this way, each broadcast program is generated and held. These pieces of information are stored in the storage unit 133.

  Next, processing of the preference information management unit 140 will be described.

  The preference information management unit 140 is a unit that generates and manages program preference information (individual preference information) for each viewer using the preference level for each viewer and each program calculated by the preference level calculation unit 130. .

  FIG. 8 shows an example of program preference information managed by the preference information management means 140.

  Reference numeral 810 denotes a program preference level P which manages the program preference level P of each viewer as indicated by 811. As shown in 811, the viewer is identified using the ID added by the individual discrimination means. 820 is program information corresponding to the program preference level P. As shown in the figure, the information includes broadcast day 821, broadcast start time 822, broadcast channel 823, genre 824, program title 825, performer 826, and the like. The program information to be managed is an example, and may include a broadcast date, the number of broadcasts of a continuous program, and the like. These are acquired from the program information acquisition means 250.

  FIG. 9 is an example of program preference total data generated from the program preference information managed by the preference information management means 140. The program preference information P is totaled by program information genre 823, title 824, and performer 825 for each viewer. In response to the request, the preference information management means 140 generates and outputs program preference information P aggregated by elements of program information as shown in FIG. 9 and program preference information P filtered by day of the week and time.

  Next, the process of the recommended program information generation unit 150 will be described.

  This is means for selecting a recommended program that recommends viewing from a program being broadcast or a program scheduled to be broadcast. The recommended program information generating unit 150 is a unit that generates an individual recommended program list for each viewer and a general recommended program list that combines the preferences of all the viewers currently viewing.

  An individual recommended program list creation method will be described.

  FIG. 10 shows an example of program information in a certain time zone. As shown in the legend of the figure, it represents that information on the title, genre, and performer is acquired for each broadcast program. The recommended program information generating means 150 evaluates the recommendation degree using the program preference information P for each program. FIG. 11 shows an example in which the recommendation levels of the nine programs shown in FIG. 10 and programs 1 to 9 are evaluated for each viewer. In FIG. 11, 811 is an ID added by the individual discrimination means. In FIG. 11, a genre and performers are used as evaluation items. The recommendation level in FIG. 11 shows the result calculated for each viewer by program recommendation level = genre preference level + performer preference level. For example, with regard to the recommendation level to the viewer of the ID “01” of the program 1, the genre of the ID “01” refers to the preference level of animation, and the preference level of the performer a refers to FIG. The preference level of the performer a is 240. Therefore, the program recommendation degree of the program 1 for the ID “01” is calculated as 290. Similarly, FIG. 11 shows the degree of recommendation calculated for each program for viewers with IDs “02” and “03”.

  FIG. 12 shows the result of generating the individual recommended program list in descending order of recommendation.

  Next, processing of the screen generation unit 160 will be described.

  The screen generation unit 160 is a unit that generates an OSD screen that presents the recommended program selected by the recommended program information generation unit 150 to the viewer in the form of an electronic program guide or a recommended program list.

  When displaying in the electronic program guide, it may be presented by other methods such as bordering a program frame as a recommended program for a program (top 5 or the like) in the recommended program list.

  Next, processing of the operator detection unit 170 will be described.

  The operator detection means 170 is means for detecting an operator of the television. The operator is detected from the face area video information with discrimination information generated by the individual discrimination means 120 and the positional relationship of the remote control in the video imaged by the imaging means 110. The distance between the remote control and the face is calculated from the remote control position and the face position information included in the face detection result of the individual discrimination means 120, and the one with the shortest distance is determined as the operator's face.

  Next, the process of the control means 190 is demonstrated.

  The control means 190 is means for controlling each means of the broadcast receiving apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. The control means 190 determines a recommended program to be presented to the viewer according to the viewing situation.

  For example, when it is detected that the display of the electronic program guide is selected by remote control operation, the electronic program guide is recommended using the individual recommended program list for the remote control operator obtained from the detection result of the operator detection means 170. The screen generation means 160 is instructed to present a program.

  In addition, when it is detected that the section gaze degree Δt of all viewers is smaller than a predetermined value, viewers can view other programs being broadcast using the comprehensive recommended program list calculated from the program preference levels of all viewers. If there is a program that matches the preference, the viewer's attention is alerted with a notification sound, and a recommended program is presented to the viewer with a telop or the like.

  Furthermore, when a state in which one viewer is enrolled is detected from a state in which there is no viewer, a recommended program for that viewer is presented in a telop or the like.

  Furthermore, when a state where two or more viewers are registered is detected from a state where there are no viewers, a recommended program for all the viewers is presented in a telop or the like.

  As described above, according to the embodiment of the present invention described above, each viewer is discriminated, information regarding the preference of the program is calculated individually, and a program is recommended based on the calculated information. Accordingly, it is possible to provide a television that recommends a program corresponding to the viewer's preference than before.

31: Face orientation detection means 32: Instant gaze degree calculation means 33: Section gaze degree calculation hand 110: Imaging means 120: Individual discrimination means 121: Face detection means 122: Face tracking means 123: Face discrimination means 124: Template creation means 125 : Storage means 130: gaze degree calculation means 132: program preference degree calculation means 133: storage means 140: preference information management means 150: recommended program information generation means 160: screen generation means 170: operator detection means 190: control means 200: Tuner means 210: separation means 220: decoding means 230: display control means 240: display means 250: program information acquisition means 300: individual discrimination result 301 by individual discrimination means 120: ID
302: Enrollment state 303: Feature information used for face correspondence determination 310: Personal discrimination result updated by face tracking result 320: Personal discrimination result in which ID is distributed to a face determined to be “new”

Claims (7)

A broadcast receiving apparatus having an imaging means for photographing a viewer,
Program information acquisition means for acquiring program information;
Personal discrimination means for detecting face information, which is information relating to a face, from video information photographed by the imaging means, and discriminating a viewer from the face information;
A preference degree calculating means for calculating a gaze degree that is information relating to a magnitude of gaze on a program viewed by the viewer, and calculating a preference degree that is information relating to the intensity of interest in the program to be viewed from the gaze degree;
A broadcast receiving apparatus comprising: preference information management means for generating and managing individual preference information which is information related to a viewer's preference for a program from the program information and the preference level. The broadcast receiving device according to claim 1,
A broadcast receiving apparatus comprising: a recommended program information generating unit that generates an individual recommended program list including a recommended program that is a program recommended to a viewer from the program information and the individual preference information. The broadcast receiving device according to claim 2,
Operator detecting means for detecting an operator from the viewer determined by the individual determining means;
A broadcast receiving apparatus for displaying a recommended program after referring to the individual recommended program list of the operator detected by the operator detecting means when an operation for displaying an electronic program guide is performed In the broadcast receiving device according to claim 1 or 2, when an operation for displaying an electronic program guide is performed in a state where two or more viewers exist,
After referring to the individual recommended program list of the identified viewer,
A broadcast receiving apparatus displaying a recommended program corresponding to each of the determined viewers The broadcast receiving device according to claim 1, wherein the recommended program information generating means generates a comprehensive recommended program list generated from the preference information for each viewer,
A broadcast receiving apparatus that displays a recommended program after referring to the comprehensive recommended program list when the gaze degree of all the viewers is lower than a predetermined value In the broadcast receiving device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, in the individual determination means, when it is detected that a state where no viewer exists is present and a state where one viewer exists is present,
A broadcast receiver characterized by displaying a recommended program after referring to the individual recommended program list of the detected viewer The broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 4, wherein when the individual determination unit detects that a state in which no viewer is present has changed to a state in which two or more viewers are present,
The recommended program information generating means generates a comprehensive recommended program list from the detected preference information for each viewer,
A broadcast receiving apparatus displaying a recommended program after referring to the comprehensive recommended program list

Images