JPH07177437A - Program guiding system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To immediately judge programs during broadcasting, to easily search the program and to improve the selectability of a desired program by automatically reading the entire program data of the day from an electronic recording medium only by turning on a power source switch and displaying them matched with the time. CONSTITUTION:When the power source of this system is turned on, whether or not the electronic recording medium composed of a CD-ROM is mounted is judged and when it is mounted, the program of program guidance is read to a RAM constituting a system control part 4 and the program is activated. Then, the present month and date are read from a calendar information storage part 9 by the activated program and program information for one clay coincident to the date is read from the CD-ROM to a data recording part 7. Thereafter, the program information is taken out one by one from the recording part 7, broadcasting starting time and ending time are compared with the present time of the storage part 9 and the programs after the present time are displayed on the screen of a display/input part 5 by constituting a program column with the programs during the broadcasting at the present of respective stations at a head.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a program guide system for inquiring a program such as a television using an electronic publication medium such as a CD-ROM.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional TV program guide method,
Open a TV / radio program side of a newspaper that you make a contract with a newspaper company and that is delivered daily from the newspaper company or purchased at a station shop, and what kind of program is currently being broadcast at each station The general method was to check the program to see if it was broadcast, and then tune the channel to the desired program.

Further, in order to obtain more detailed information about the program contents, obtain the program guide broadcast on the television itself or purchase a book-type TV guide to be released weekly or biweekly at a bookstore, etc. In the same way as newspapers, you can select the desired program on the program side every two weeks, tune in to the TV channel, and search the page in the table of contents for more detailed information such as notice of the desired program, highlights, shooting and production story behind the scenes. It was obtained by turning the pages one by one and examining them.

However, in the conventional program guide method, when it is desired to know what kind of program is currently being broadcast at each station in a newspaper or a program information magazine, the page of the program or the target page is opened, I had to look up the current time column. Also, if you want to know the contents of the program after the current time, you have to search for the target page in the table of contents or turning page by page in the same way. There was a problem of this.

[0005]

In the above-mentioned conventional program guide method, when it is desired to know what program is currently being broadcast at each station in a newspaper or TV guide, the program page or the target page is displayed. It had the drawback that you had to open and look up the current time column. Also, if you want to know the contents of the program after the current time, you also have to find the target page in the table of contents or page by page, and it is not possible to make an immediate judgment, so it takes time to obtain the information. There was a drawback that it cost.

In view of the above, the present invention eliminates the above-mentioned drawbacks, and by simply turning on the power switch, all program data of the day is automatically read from the electronic recording medium, a program list is formed on the liquid crystal display, and the program list currently being broadcasted. Since the program of each station is specified, the user can judge the entire program being broadcast at a glance,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a program guide system in which a desired program can be easily selected.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, at least program time information indicating a start time and an end time or a program net time of each program, identification of a program providing station, and a program title are provided. Electronic recording medium storing the program information shown, reading means for reading the contents of the electronic recording medium, an arbitrary time setting unit with which the user can arbitrarily set the time, and a backup power supply for managing absolute time Of the calendar information storage unit, a collating unit for collating the time obtained from the arbitrary time setting unit and the calendar information storage unit with the program time information obtained from the electronic recording medium, and the program information based on the result of the collation. And program information display means for reading and displaying.

[0008]

With the above-mentioned structure, all the program data of the day is automatically read from the electronic recording medium and displayed at the time just by turning on the power switch, so that the program being broadcast can be immediately displayed. Therefore, it becomes easy to search for a program, and the selectivity of a desired program can be increased.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a program guide system showing an embodiment of the present invention. Reference numeral 1 denotes a program guide system main body, which includes a wireless output unit 2 and controls an external device 3 such as a television or a VTR by wireless output. System body 1
Is a wireless output unit 2, a system control unit 4 for controlling the entire system, a display / input unit 5 for displaying a program guide and receiving an input, and an electronic recording medium reproducing unit 6 for reproducing a CD-ROM or the like. A data storage unit 7 for recording reproduction data, a voice output unit 8 for outputting voice, a calendar information recording unit 9 for recording date information, and an arbitrary time setting unit 10 for setting an arbitrary time.

The radio output section 2 is a signal output section such as an infrared ray, and controls an external device 3 such as a television or a VTR. The display / input unit 5 displays a list of program guides, contents or operation guides, graphic displays, and the like, and a liquid crystal display device or the like is used, for example. Also,
By disposing, for example, a touch panel on the front surface of the liquid crystal display device, the system control unit 4 controls the display contents to correspond to the input of the touch switch.

The electronic recording medium reproducing section 6 is, for example, a CD-R.
This is a device for reproducing OM and the like. C purchased at a bookstore
In addition to the program code, data such as broadcast time is recorded in the D-ROM. The format of the program information recorded on the CD-ROM is shown in FIG. The program information format is a program code number, broadcast start time, broadcast time, program name data storage address, program data storage address, audio mode flag, text broadcast mode flag, preview data flag, preview data image storage address, preview data voice storage. It consists of an address.

The data storage unit 7 temporarily stores the data read from the CD-ROM. The voice output unit 8 is C
The audio data read from the D-ROM can be reproduced. The calendar information recording unit 9 is composed of a calendar IC whose power source is backed up. The arbitrary time setting unit 10
The current time screen is displayed on the display / input unit 5, the time data input from the display / input unit 5 is controlled, and the input data is managed and stored in the data recording unit 7.

The system control unit 4 includes a microcomputer, a ROM,
It is composed of RAM and the like. In the ROM, the CD-RO
It stores a program that first reads out necessary data from M and activates a program that performs an actual program guide. The system control unit 4 controls reading of various data and updating of display data by comparing the time information data read from the CD-ROM with the calendar information storage unit 9 by the started program guide program.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the initial operation of this embodiment. The initial operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. When the power of the system is turned on in F1, it is determined in F2 whether or not an electronic recording medium (CD-ROM) is installed, and if it is installed, the program guide program is stored in the RAM of the system control unit 4.
It is read by and the program is started (F3). According to the started program, the current date is read from the calendar information storage unit 9, and the program information for one day corresponding to this date is read from the CD-ROM and stored in the data storage unit 7 (F4).

Next, the program information stored in the data storage unit 7 is taken out one by one, and the broadcast start time and the broadcast end time,
It is compared with the current time of the calendar information storage unit 9, and if it is a program after that, as shown in FIG. 4, the display / input unit 5
On the screen of (1), a program section is displayed starting from the program currently being broadcast by each station (F5 to F9). Here, the program currently being broadcast by each station is displayed in reverse display so that it is easier to understand than other programs.

FIG. 5 shows a flow chart when the user selects the program guide. As shown in the display / input unit 5 in FIG. 4, the display screen is a touch switch, and each operation is performed according to the user's input. When the user designates the date and time within the upper left of the display screen, the arbitrary time setting unit 10 displays the arbitrary time setting screen for changing the date and time of the displayed program as shown in FIG. For example,
If you set it at 19:40 on October 12, 1992,
The corresponding program information is read from the CD-ROM, and a program list table as shown in FIG. 4 is newly constructed and displayed (F13
~ F15, F22).

When the arrow key at the lower right of the screen in FIG. 4 is designated,
Each of them scrolls left and right by one broadcast station, and the up and down arrows scroll up and down by one hour to switch the display screen (F16 to F19).

In addition, if, for example, "Hobby gardening" from 19:00 on channel 1 is selected from the programs of the stations currently being broadcast that are highlighted in FIG. 4, the infrared channel code of the selected broadcasting station is selected. Can be transmitted from the wireless output unit 2 to switch channels such as a television (F20, F21).

In this embodiment, the program information from the CD-ROM is displayed on the display / input unit 5 as a list, and the programs currently being broadcast are highlighted so that the television channel can be switched visually. it can.

FIG. 7 is an operation flowchart showing another embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the operation shown in FIG. 7 is performed in addition to the operation of the embodiment shown in FIG. In FIG. 7, the display start time in the program list shown in FIG. 4 and the program broadcast time (start and end time) of each station currently being broadcast are registered in the memory of the data storage unit 7 (F23 to F25). Next, the broadcast end time of each registered station is sequentially referred to and compared with the time in the calendar information storage unit 9 to determine whether or not the broadcast ends (F26 to F28). If it is determined that the broadcast has ended, the time data of the next broadcast program is registered and updated in place of the finished program (F2
9).

Similarly to the broadcast start time of each station program registered in the memory of the data storage unit 7, the display start time recorded in the memory is sequentially compared, and it is searched whether any one of them matches (F30, F31). . If there is no match, the start time data of the program having an earlier start time is updated as the display start time data from the broadcast start times of the registered programs of each station, and the display / input unit 5 is updated based on the time data. In the display of the program list of FIG. 4, the entire screen is automatically updated as shown in FIG. 8 (F32, F33). Further, each station program being broadcast is highlighted on the screen (F34).

If there is a match, the reverse display of only the broadcast changed is switched (F34).
In this embodiment, when the program ends, the program list is automatically updated in the next time zone, so that the user can always obtain the guide of the program currently being broadcast.

FIG. 9 is an operation flowchart showing another embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the operation shown in FIG. 9 is performed in addition to the operation of the embodiment shown in FIG. Figure 9
4, when a program with a notice mark on the display screen of FIG. 4 is designated, the notice data storage address of the corresponding program is referred from the memory of the data storage unit 7 to refer to the CD-RO.
Video and audio are read from M and the notice of the program is played back on the display / input unit 5 or the TV monitor (F35 to F4).
2). In this embodiment, regarding the program to which the program preview data is added, the preview data is read from the CD-ROM,
You can see the advance notice of the program contents.

[0024]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since the program of each station currently being broadcast is clearly indicated, the user can judge the entire program being broadcast at a glance, and can switch the channel of the television on the screen and feel it.
Also, as the program progresses, the screen is automatically updated, so the contents of the program selected on the screen (program preview, list of performers, etc.) are immediately played on the display to select the desired program. be able to.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a program guide system showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a data format recorded in a CD-ROM.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an initial operation of the embodiment shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example of the embodiment of FIG.

5 shows a flow chart when the program guide is selected in the embodiment of FIG.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example of the embodiment of FIG.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart of a program guide system showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example of the embodiment of FIG.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of a program guide system showing another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... System control unit, 2 ... Wireless output unit, 3 ... External device,
4 ... System control unit, 5 ... Display / input unit, 6 ... Electronic recording medium reproducing unit, 7 ... Data recording unit, 8 ... Voice input unit, 9 ...
Calendar information storage unit, 10 ... Arbitrary time setting unit.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Hideki Mimura 8 Shinsugita-cho, Isogo-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Stock company Toshiba Yokohama office

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An electronic recording medium storing at least program time information indicating a start time and an end time or a program net time of each program, and program information indicating a program providing station identification and a program title, and an electronic recording medium of the electronic recording medium. A reading means for reading the contents, an arbitrary time setting unit in which the user can arbitrarily set the time, a calendar information storage unit with a backup power source for managing absolute time, the arbitrary time setting unit and the calendar information It is provided with collating means for collating the time obtained from the storage unit with the program time information obtained from the electronic recording medium, and program information displaying means for reading and displaying the program information based on the collated result. And the program guide system. 2. The program information is compared with the program information after the power supply of the program guide system is turned on, and based on the comparison result, each program and the program currently provided by a plurality of program providing stations. The program guide system according to claim 1, wherein the program guide system distinguishes and displays subsequent programs, and displays the program information distinguished by the program distinguishing from the other program information. . 3. The program guide system according to claim 1, further comprising a display screen automatic updating means for automatically updating the display screen with the lapse of time obtained from the calendar information storage section. 4. A program selection means for selecting program information displayed by the program information display means, and an external device control means for controlling an external device according to the selected program information. The program guide system described in 1.