JP2016149002A - Device and method for viewing content, and computer program for causing computer to control content viewing operation - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To perform zapping by remote control operation by a head operation with a HMD in an application broadcasting a television program in a virtual space.SOLUTION: There is provided a device for viewing contents comprising: a display part that displays a plurality of virtual displays arranged in a virtual space on a head-mounted display; a selection part that selects one of the virtual displays according to a movement detected by a detector included in the head-mounted display; and a reproduction part that reproduces a content associated with the selected virtual display.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 8

Description

  The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for viewing content, and a computer program that controls a content viewing operation by a computer. More specifically, the user can view the contents of the virtual display in the field of view through a simple user operation by moving the head using a head mounted display (HMD) mounted on the user's head. The present invention relates to an apparatus, a method, and a computer program.

  There is known an HMD that is mounted on a user's head and can present an image in a virtual space to the user by a display or the like disposed in front of the user. In particular, an HMD as disclosed in Patent Document 1 can display a 360-degree panoramic image in a virtual space. Such an HMD typically includes various sensors (for example, an acceleration sensor and an angular velocity sensor) and measures posture data of the HMD main body. In particular, it is possible to change the line-of-sight direction of a panoramic image based on information on the rotation angle of the head. More specifically, when the user wearing the HMD rotates his / her head, the viewing direction of the 360-degree panoramic image is changed accordingly, thereby enhancing the user's sense of immersion in the video world and providing entertainment properties. (See paragraphs [0003], [0033], [0034] and [Summary] of Patent Document 1).

  In addition, in Patent Document 1, user gestures based on head movements and screen operations (for example, display screen switching) in the HMD are associated in advance, and user gestures are based on head tilt and acceleration. When identified, performing a screen operation associated with the gesture is disclosed. This eliminates the inconvenience of the controller operation due to the fact that the user cannot see the hand when wearing the HMD (see paragraphs [0080] to [0083] of the same document).

JP, 2013-258614, A However, the above-mentioned indication of patent documents 1 is only for specifying the line-of-sight direction of a panoramic image, or specifying a user gesture about information on head movement acquired by a sensor. , Just use. In the future, various applications using HMD will be developed, and it is expected that HMD will become more widespread. At that time, information on head movements is not limited to the above, and is applied in various situations during application startup. Is expected to be.

  As an example thereof, an application that displays a multi-virtual display arranged in a virtual space on the HMD is assumed. In particular, an application is assumed in which the virtual display is a virtual television, a television program is broadcast in a virtual space, and a user wearing the HMD views the device. Here, it is expected that the operation of the head of the HMD main body is replaced by the operation of the controller (remote controller) such as a real-world television program change in general.

  In particular, in the real world, when a user views a TV program, the user often performs so-called zapping for switching channels by operating a remote controller, while the user is immersed in a virtual space with an HMD. In this case, the user cannot observe his / her hand, resulting in an erroneous remote control button operation. Even more so, by using a non-transparent HMD, if the user covers the entire field of view, the user cannot observe the outside world at all.

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to apply head movement by the HMD as an alternative to the conventional remote control operation in an application that displays a multi-virtual display arranged in a virtual space on the HMD. In particular, in an application that broadcasts a TV program in a multi-virtual TV environment in a virtual space, an object is to perform zapping by a conventional remote control operation by the head operation of the HMD.

(1) An apparatus for viewing content according to the present invention is a display unit that displays a plurality of virtual displays arranged in a virtual space on a head-mounted display, and a motion detected by a detector included in the head-mounted display. Accordingly, a selection unit that selects one of the virtual displays and a playback unit that plays back the content associated with the selected virtual display are provided.

  In addition, the apparatus of the present invention is further characterized by further comprising a restricted playback unit that simultaneously plays back the content associated with each of the plurality of virtual displays displayed on the head mounted display.

  Furthermore, the apparatus of the present invention includes that the playback of the content with restriction includes invalidating the audio output and playing the moving image content, and playing the content is an audio of the invalidated moving image content. It is characterized by enabling the output. The moving image content is a television program content received through a television receiver.

In addition, the apparatus of the present invention is configured to determine whether the played content has been continuously played for a given time, and when it is determined that the content has been played continuously for a given time, It is further characterized by further comprising a content replacement unit that replaces the content being reproduced with content associated with a virtual display disposed at a predetermined position. The detector is an angular velocity sensor, and the detected movement includes an inclination.
(2) According to the content viewing method of the present invention, the step of reproducing the content associated with each of the plurality of virtual displays arranged in the virtual space with restriction, the content included in the field of view of the virtual space, and reproduction of the content with restriction Displaying the plurality of virtual displays displayed on the head mounted display, detecting the movement of the head mounted display, selecting one of the virtual displays according to the movement, and the selected Playing back the content associated with the virtual display.

In the content viewing method of the present invention, the step of determining whether the content has been continuously played for a given time in the step of playing back the content, and determining that the content has been continuously played for the given time are determined. The content being reproduced is replaced with content associated with a virtual display arranged at a predetermined position, and in particular, the predetermined virtual space position is the center of the field of view. To do.
(3) A computer program for causing a computer to control a content viewing operation according to the present invention is a limited playback unit that plays back content associated with each of a plurality of virtual displays arranged in a virtual space, A display unit that displays a plurality of virtual displays that are included in the field of view and content is played back with restrictions, and a virtual display unit that displays the virtual display according to movement detected by a detector included in the head mounted display. The computer is caused to function as a selection unit for selecting one of them and a playback unit for playing back the content associated with the selected virtual display.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to perform a predetermined operation of an application in the virtual space by a simple operation of the head of the user wearing the HMD. In particular, it is possible to provide a user with a zapping operation mode that has not been considered in the past for multi-virtual displays. In more detail, the user's zapping operation can be realized on the multi-virtual display arranged in the virtual space without requiring any remote control operation by the operation by the movement of the user's head. It is possible to provide a user with a screen operability different from that of the screen.

  The above and other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following more specific description of the embodiments of the invention, the accompanying drawings, and the appended claims.

FIG. 1A is a schematic diagram of an HMD system according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1B is a schematic diagram of an HMD system according to another embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a plurality of detection points virtually provided on the HMD, which are detected by the infrared sensor used in FIG. 1B. FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a functional configuration for implementing content viewing processing of the HMD system according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 shows an orthogonal coordinate system in a three-dimensional space defined around the head of the user wearing the HMD according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5A is a three-dimensional schematic diagram illustrating an arrangement example of a user and a virtual display in a virtual space according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5B is a three-dimensional schematic diagram illustrating another arrangement example of the user and the virtual display in the virtual space according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a schematic plan view of an example showing a content display example of a virtual display in a virtual space according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 7 is a schematic plan view of another example showing a content display example of the virtual display in the virtual space according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a functional configuration in the content viewing unit according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing related to content viewing according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 10 is an example screen image implemented in a content viewing application according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 11 is a screen image of another example implemented in a content viewing application according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  Hereinafter, an apparatus and method for viewing content and a computer program that causes a computer to control content viewing operations according to embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the figure, the same components are denoted by the same reference numerals.

  FIG. 1A is a schematic diagram of an HMD system 100 using a head mounted display (hereinafter referred to as “HMD”) according to a first embodiment of the present invention. As illustrated, the HMD system 100 includes an HMD 110 on which a display 112 and a sensor 114 are mounted, and a control circuit unit 120. The display 112 included in the HMD 110 is a non-transmissive display device configured to completely cover the user's field of view, and the user can observe only the screen displayed on the display 112. Since the user wearing the non-transmissive HMD 110 loses all of the external field of view, the user is completely immersed in the virtual space displayed by the application executed in the control circuit unit 120.

  The control circuit unit 120 may be installed inside the HMD 110 as a content viewing device, or may be configured as another hardware (for example, a known personal computer or a server computer via a network) without being installed in the HMD 110. Also good. Furthermore, the control circuit unit 120 can implement all or part of the functions of the content viewing apparatus. When only a part is mounted, the remaining functions may be mounted on the HMD 110 side or the server computer (not shown) side through the network.

  The sensor 114 included in the HMD 110 is fixed near the display 112. The sensor 114 includes a geomagnetic sensor, an acceleration sensor, and / or an angular velocity (gyro) sensor, and can detect various movements of the HMD 110 (display 112) attached to the user's head through one or more of them. . In particular, in the case of an angular velocity sensor, the angular velocity around the three axes of the HMD 110 can be detected over time according to the movement of the HMD 110, and the time change of the angle (tilt) around each axis can be determined (in FIG. 4). Later).

  FIG. 1B is a schematic diagram of an HMD system 100 'according to a second embodiment of the present invention. Compared with FIG. 1A of the first embodiment, this embodiment is different in that an infrared sensor 130 connected to the control circuit unit 120 so as to be communicable is provided. Further, the HMD 110 may or may not include the sensor 114 of FIG. 1A. The infrared sensor 130 has a position tracking function.

  As exemplarily shown in FIG. 2, positions in a real space of a plurality of detection points that are virtually provided on the HMD 110 and detect infrared rays are detected over time corresponding to the movement of the user. Then, based on the temporal change of the position in the real space detected by the infrared sensor 130, the time change of the angle around each axis according to the movement of the HMD 110 can be determined.

  Although not shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, the HMD 110 can incorporate headphones 116. In addition, in order to receive a broadcast of a television program on a virtual television in a virtual space, the HMD system 100, 100 'can include a television receiver 115 in any element. Moreover, as a controller of the HMD 110, a portable terminal such as a known smartphone held by the user can be used. The controller can be communicably connected to the control circuit unit 120.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the main functions of the control circuit device 120 implemented to perform content viewing processing in the HMD system 100/100 'according to each embodiment of the present invention. The control circuit unit 120 includes a view field generation unit 210, a motion detection unit 220, and a content viewing unit 230, and interacts with various tables such as the spatial information storage unit 250 and the content information storage unit 260.

  The visual field generation unit 210 generates a visual field that can be seen by a user who is immersed in the three-dimensional virtual space based on the three-dimensional virtual space information stored in the spatial information storage unit 250 and the visual field direction detection information acquired from the sensor 114/130. Generate. The field of view can be part of a 360 degree panoramic image.

  The motion detection unit 220 measures motion data of the HMD 110 attached to the user's head based on input of motion information from the sensor 114/130. In the embodiment of the present invention, in particular, angle information data detected over time by an angular velocity (gyro) sensor is determined.

  Here, the angle information data will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in the figure, XYZ coordinates are defined around the head of the user wearing the HMD. The vertical direction in which the user stands upright is the Y axis, the direction orthogonal to the Y axis and connecting the center of the display 112 and the user is the Z axis, and the Y axis and the axis perpendicular to the Z axis are the X axes. In an angular velocity (gyro) sensor, an angle around each axis (that is, a yaw angle indicating rotation about the Y axis, a pitch angle indicating rotation about the X axis, and a roll angle indicating rotation about the Z axis) Is detected), and the motion detection unit 220 determines angle (tilt) information data as view information based on the change over time.

  Returning to FIG. 3, in the content viewing unit 230, among the plurality of virtual displays arranged in the three-dimensional virtual space based on the content information stored in the content information storage unit 260 and the inclination angle determined by the motion detection unit 220. One is specified, the content is reproduced and output to the display 112 and the headphones 116. Note that the content can be in any format such as a still image, a moving image, or audio. In particular, it may be a moving image content of a television program that has been examined by the television receiver 115.

  In FIG. 3, each element described as a functional block for performing various processes can be configured by a CPU, a memory, and other integrated circuits in terms of hardware, and loaded into the memory in terms of software. It is realized by various programs. Therefore, it is understood by those skilled in the art that these functional blocks can be realized by hardware, software, or a combination thereof (the same applies to FIG. 9 described later).

  The content viewing process performed by the content viewing unit 230 will now be described with reference to FIG. FIGS. 5A and 5B show examples of arrangement of the user 1 and the virtual display 2 immersed in the three-dimensional virtual space, respectively. Each virtual display 2 surrounded by a dotted line is provided on the spherical surface 3 of the omnidirectional sphere, and displays the contents A to I. As shown in FIG. 6, the field of view of the user 1 includes each display of the contents A to I, and the user 1 is currently facing the direction of the content A by rotating the head and tilting the HMD. ("X" sign).

  Here, FIGS. 5A and 5B differ in that the user is located at the center of the sphere or away from the center. 5A corresponds to the case where the HMD system 100 of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1A is adopted, and FIG. 5B corresponds to the case where the HMD system 100 'of the second embodiment shown in FIG. 1B is adopted. That is, when position tracking by the infrared sensor 130 is performed as in the second embodiment of FIG. 1B, it is not necessary to position the user at the center of the sphere, and the user is based on the positional relationship between the infrared sensor 130 and the HMD 110. It can move on a plane inside the sphere.

  As shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B, a plurality of virtual displays are arranged on the spherical surface 3 of the omnidirectional sphere having a radius R in the three-dimensional virtual space. More specifically, a plurality of grids 2 are provided along the spherical surface, and nine (3 × 3) virtual displays (virtual televisions) are arranged in alignment on the grid. Then, the contents (contents A to I) associated with all the virtual displays included in the user's field of view are simultaneously reproduced with restrictions.

  As an example, the limited playback is a mode in which, when the content is a video with audio, only the visual content is played and the audio content is invalidated (muted). As shown in the figure, the user wearing the HMD can simultaneously see the visual contents of the contents A to I of the nine virtual TVs.

  Next, the user can specify any of the nine virtual televisions by rotating the head, that is, tilting the HMD. As described above, in FIGS. 5A and 5B, the HMD is tilted in the direction of the virtual television arranged in the upper left lattice and oriented in a specific direction, thereby being arranged in the lattice # 1 (1) shown in FIG. Virtual TV has been identified. The “x” marks shown in FIG. 6 indicate the points on the grid to which the HMD is directed, but they may be actually displayed on the HMD or not displayed.

  As shown in FIG. 6, when a virtual television of lattice # 1 (1) is specified and the virtual television is activated and displayed with a thick frame and shading, the content A is reproduced (without restriction). That is, at present, the content A is in a state where not only visual content but also audio content is being reproduced. In the meantime, as for the contents B to I, only the visual contents are continuously reproduced with restrictions.

  In this way, the user can sequentially switch the audio content by tilting the mounted HMD and pointing to any one of the virtual televisions. That is, the user's zapping operation on the multi-virtual display arranged in the virtual space can be realized only by the operation of tilting the HMD without requiring any remote control operation.

  According to the embodiment of the present invention, when the user continues to watch the content A of FIG. 6 for a certain period of time, the state can be shifted to the state of FIG. More specifically, as shown in the figure, the content A is shifted to display on the grid # 2 (2) corresponding to the center of the user's field of view. Instead, the content is replaced by shifting the content E that has been reproduced with restriction on the virtual display of the lattice # 2 (2) to the display on the virtual display of the lattice # 1 (1). The transition processing is based on the consideration that if the viewing state continues for a certain period of time, the user can assume that the state transitions from zapping to viewing operation, and viewing content should be displayed at the center of the field of view.

  Details of the processing related to content viewing described with reference to FIGS. 5A to 7 will be described with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9. FIG. 8 is a detailed functional block diagram of the content viewing unit 230 described with reference to FIG. On the other hand, FIG. 9 is a detailed flowchart regarding content viewing processing. As shown in FIG. 8, the content viewing unit 230 includes a content playback unit 300 including a visual content (restricted content) playback unit 301 and an audio content playback unit 302, a virtual display selection unit 303, a content viewing determination unit 304, In addition, a content replacement unit 305 is provided.

  The visual content playback unit 301 performs limited playback of only the visual content at the same time for the content associated with each of the plurality of virtual displays displayed on the HMD. In particular, the audio content is invalidated (that is, muted) with respect to the moving image content of the television program received through the television receiver, and only the visual content is reproduced.

  The audio content reproduction unit 302 reproduces the entire content by enabling the audio content associated with the virtual display selected by the virtual display selection unit 303 and invalidated by the visual content reproduction unit 301. That is, the content playback unit 300 superimposes a plurality of audio contents played back by the visual content playback unit 301 and one audio content played back by the audio content playback unit 302, and outputs the output unit 306. And let the user watch.

  The virtual display selection unit 303 selects one of the virtual displays according to the movement detected by the sensor (114/130) included in the HMD. More specifically, as described above, the sensor can be an angular velocity sensor, and the detected movement of the HMD includes a tilt. Then, as shown in FIGS. 5A to 6, on the spherical surface 3 of the omnidirectional sphere, one lattice is selected from the plurality of lattices 2 (# 1 (1) to # 3 (3)) according to the inclination and position of the HMD. By specifying the virtual display on the grid is selected.

  The content viewing determination unit 304 determines whether the user has continuously viewed the audio content that has been validated and reproduced by the audio content reproduction unit 302 for a certain period of time. That is, it is determined whether or not the content has been played continuously for a given time. The fact that the content has been continuously played for a given time means that the user's operation is determined to be shifted from the zapping mode to the viewing mode.

  In that case, the content replacement unit 305 replaces the content being played back with the content associated with the virtual display arranged at a predetermined position, and outputs it to the output unit 306. In particular, it may be replaced with the content of the display on the lattice corresponding to the center of the field of view. Finally, the output unit 306 outputs the visual contents of a plurality of virtual displays arranged in the virtual space to the HMD display 112 and the audio contents to the HMD headphones 115.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 9, processing related to content viewing is performed by interaction between the HMD 110 and the content viewing device 120. First, in step S201, the content viewing mode is turned on on the application, and the field of view of the virtual space is determined. As a result, the user wearing the HMD is in the state shown in FIGS. In step S202, the visual contents of all virtual televisions (lattice # 1 (1) to # 3 (3)) arranged in the field of view are reproduced with restrictions by the visual contents reproducing unit 301, and the output unit To 306.

  In step S <b> 101, as shown in FIG. 6, the HMD 110 displays the reproduced visual content of all virtual televisions in the field of view output to the output unit 306. While the visual content is displayed, the HMD 110 also acquires HMD motion information from the sensor 114/130 in step S102 and supplies the information to the content viewing apparatus 120. In particular, head rotation (tilt) information data by the angular velocity sensor 114 and / or position information data in the virtual space by the infrared sensor 130 are acquired.

  In the content viewing apparatus 120 that acquired the motion information, in step S203, the virtual display selection unit 303 identifies and selects a target virtual display based on the motion information.

  More specifically, as an example, the HMD inclination data determined from the yaw angle, pitch angle, and roll angle included in the rotation information of the head by the angular velocity sensor shown in FIG. The position information data in the virtual space is used to calculate the absolute position coordinates of the intersection where the vector of the HMD tilt direction (arrow in FIGS. 5A and 5B) intersects the spherical surface 3 having the radius R. Then, by determining which grid area of the spherical surface the calculated absolute position coordinate is, one grid is specified, and the display on the grid is specified. The association between the grid and the display is preferably stored in the content information storage unit 260 as a table, for example.

  When the target virtual display is specified in step S <b> 203, the content viewing device 120 then plays back the content of the target virtual display in the content playback unit 300. Here, the audio content reproduction unit 302 validates and reproduces the audio content of the target virtual display that has been invalidated in step S202.

  After step S204, the HMD 110 continuously acquires HMD motion information in step S103 and supplies it to the content viewing apparatus. On the other hand, in step S205, the content viewing apparatus 120 monitors how long the content on the target virtual display has been continuously reproduced by the content viewing determination unit 304 and determines whether or not the content has been continuously reproduced for a predetermined time. If it has been played continuously for a predetermined time, it is determined in step S206 that the user's action has shifted from zapping to viewing mode, and the target virtual display content is displayed on the main virtual display in order to display the target virtual display. The contents of the display are replaced with the contents of the main virtual display of the lattice on the spherical surface 3 corresponding to the center of the field of view (see also FIG. 7).

The main virtual display is not limited to the example of FIG. For example, a plurality of grids (for example, four) including the center of the field of view may be used to configure the arrangement area of the main virtual display. Further, the migration process in step S206 is not limited to the process of replacing each content of the target virtual display and the main virtual display. For example, the contents of the grids other than the grids # 1 (1) and # 2 (2) shown in FIG. 6 may be interchanged, sequentially slid, or rotated.
Example of Screen Display Based on the above, FIGS. 10 and 11 show examples of screens displayed on the HMD implemented based on the embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 10, six virtual displays are displayed as “list mode” on the three-dimensional virtual space, and visual contents are reproduced with restrictions on each virtual display.

  In this state, the HMD is directed toward the virtual display direction centered on the descending line, and this is selected as the target virtual display. When the inclination of the HMD is maintained with respect to the target virtual display for a certain period of time, switching to the “viewing mode” screen of FIG. 11 is performed, the target virtual display is moved to the central main display portion, and the content is The audio content is played back as well as being displayed larger. In the “viewing mode” screen, content other than the main display is arranged in the sub display portion around the main portion, and the content is reproduced and displayed as a sub virtual display with restriction. If the user further tilts the HMD and points to one of the sub-displays and a certain time elapses, the content of the sub-display that has been pointed is replaced with the content of the main display.

  In this way, the user can sequentially switch the audio contents by specifying one virtual display by tilting the attached HMD so as to point to any virtual display. In other words, the user's zapping for the multi-virtual display arranged in the virtual space can be realized only by the operation of tilting the HMD without any remote control operation, providing the user with a screen operability different from the real world. can do.

  As mentioned above, although embodiment of this invention was described, this invention is not limited to the said embodiment. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications of the embodiments can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

1 Virtual space immersive user 2 Grid 3 Spherical surface 100, 100 'HMD system 110 HMD
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 112 Display 114 Sensor 115 Television receiver 116 Headphone 120 Control circuit part 130 Infrared sensor 210 View field generation part 220 Motion detection part 230 Content viewing part 250 Spatial information storage part 260 Content information storage part 300 Content reproduction part 301 Visual content reproduction part 302 Audio / Content Playback Unit 303 Virtual Display Selection Unit 304 Content Viewing Determination Unit 305 Content Replacement Unit 306 Output Unit

Claims (16)

A display unit for displaying a plurality of virtual displays arranged in a virtual space on a head-mounted display;
A selection unit for selecting one of the virtual displays according to a motion detected by a detector included in the head-mounted display;
A device for viewing content, comprising: a playback unit that plays back content associated with the selected virtual display.   The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a restricted playback unit that simultaneously plays the content associated with each of the plurality of virtual displays displayed on the head mounted display with a restriction. Playing the content with restrictions includes disabling audio output and playing video content;
The apparatus of claim 2, wherein playing the content comprises enabling the audio output of the disabled video content.   The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the moving image content is television program content received through a television receiver. A determination unit for determining whether the reproduced content is continuously reproduced for a given time;
The content replacement part which replaces the content currently reproduced | regenerated with the content linked | related with the virtual display arrange | positioned in the predetermined | prescribed position when it determines with having been reproduced | regenerated continuously for the given time. The apparatus of any one of 1-4. The plurality of virtual displays are aligned on a grid provided along a spherical surface;
The said selection part selects one virtual display on this grid | lattice by specifying one of the said grids according to the said detected motion on the spherical surface of a sphere, The any one of Claim 1 to 5 Equipment.   The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the detector is an angular velocity sensor, and the detected movement includes a tilt. Replaying content associated with each on a plurality of virtual displays arranged in a virtual space with limitations;
Displaying the plurality of virtual displays that are included in the field of view of the virtual space and the content is played with restrictions on a head-mounted display;
Detecting movement of the head mounted display;
Selecting one of the virtual displays in response to the movement;
Playing back the content associated with the selected virtual display. 9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:
Determining whether the content has been played continuously for a given time in the step of playing the content;
Replacing the content being played with content associated with a virtual display located at a predetermined location when it is determined that the content has been played continuously for a given time.   The method of claim 9, wherein the predetermined virtual space position is a center of the field of view. A method according to any one of claims 8 to 10, comprising
Playing the content with restriction comprises disabling audio output and playing the video content;
The method of playing the content comprises enabling the audio output of the disabled video content.   The method of claim 11, wherein the video content is television program content received through a television receiver. A computer program for causing a computer to control content viewing operation,
In a plurality of virtual displays arranged in a virtual space, a limited playback unit that plays back content associated with each with limited,
A display unit for displaying the plurality of virtual displays, which are included in the field of view of the virtual space and the content is reproduced with restrictions, on a head-mounted display;
A selection unit that selects one of the virtual displays according to a movement detected by a detector included in the head-mounted display;
A computer program that causes the computer to function as a playback unit that plays back content associated with the selected virtual display. 14. A computer program according to claim 13, further comprising:
A determination unit for determining whether or not the content has been reproduced continuously for a given time in the reproduction unit;
An arrangement unit that replaces the above-described content with content associated with a virtual display arranged in the center of the field of view when it is determined by the determination unit that the content has been continuously played for a given time; Including computer programs. 15. A computer program according to claim 13 or 14,
Playing the content with restrictions includes disabling audio output and playing video content;
A computer program, wherein playing the content comprises enabling the audio output of the disabled video content.   The computer program product according to claim 15, wherein the moving image content is a television program content received through a television receiver.