JPH09204286A - Contents specifying device, contents specifying method and recording medium storing the method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To simultaneously display a category menu and an item menu on a display screen and to easily and quickly perform the retrieval operation of both menus. SOLUTION: A category menu column is vertically displayed on a left end side on the display screen and simultaneously, an item menu column is horizontally displayed on an upper end side on the display screen. The categories of movies are displayed in the category menu column and the titles of the movies belonging to the respective categories are displayed in the item menu column. For the selection of the category menu column, that is for the selection of the categories, a key for moving a cursor in a vertical direction is used. On the other hand, for the selection of the item menu column, that is for the selection of the movie titles, the key for moving the cursor in a horizontal direction is used. By operating the keys, the respective menu columns are scrolled in the vertical direction or the horizontal direction.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a content designating apparatus, a content designating method, and a recording medium storing the method.

More specifically, the present invention is based on a category (category: movie genre, etc.) menu and an item (item: movie title, etc.) menu that are simultaneously displayed on a display screen. The present invention relates to a content designating device for selecting and designating an item, a content designating method, and a recording medium storing the method.

[0003]

2. Description of the Related Art When a desired item is selected from a large number of selection items using this type of known content specifying device, for example, a desired movie title is selected from hundreds of movie titles. In the case of selection, genres are divided into some items in advance, and a movie title is displayed as a menu item for each genre.

At this time, in order to select a desired item (for example, a movie title) with a small number of operations, conventionally, the following processing (conventional example 1) or (conventional example 2) has been used.

(Prior art example 1) When one category (genre) is selected, the screen is switched to a screen displaying items (movie titles) in the lower hierarchy of the selected category (genre), and a desired item is selected from the screen. .

(Conventional Example 2) As shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of categories (genres) and items (movie titles).
Are displayed in parallel, and a desired item is selected by each combination.

An example of this (conventional example 2) control procedure is shown in FIG.
Shown in In the figure, in step A, the cursor is moved to the menu field displaying the category (genre).

In step B, a desired genre is selected using the up / down movement buttons.

As a result, the item (movie title) belonging to the selected category (genre) is displayed in the right menu column, so in step C, the cursor is moved to this item menu column.

In step D, the movie title is searched from the items displayed in the item menu. However, if the desired movie title is not found, steps E and F
After that, the process returns to step A.

[0011]

In the method described in the above (Prior art example 1), the upper layer category display screen (genre display screen) and the lower layer item display screen (movie title display screen) are displayed. However, there is a drawback that it is difficult to grasp the mutual combinations at a glance because they are different. In particular, when the designation of the selection item (movie title) is changed, it may be necessary to switch the display screen to change the category (genre).

Further, according to the method described in (Conventional example 2), unlike the case of (Conventional example 1), it is possible to grasp the relationship between the category (genre) display and the item (movie title) display. .

However, since the category and the item are displayed in the same direction (in parallel) (see FIG. 1), the same key (the up and down move keys in the example of FIG. 1) is used to specify the category and the item. Therefore, it is necessary to perform an operation in advance to specify which menu field to search.

In particular, in the case of designating the menu contents presented in a state where the operator does not have a clear target item, such as a movie search in a video-on-demand service or a product search in an online shopping service. In this case, the number of processes for referencing the menus of categories and items to each other is increased, and the operability is significantly reduced.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide
A content designating apparatus, a content designating method, and a recording medium storing the method, in which a category (category) menu and an item (item) menu are simultaneously displayed on a display screen, and a search operation for both menus can be performed easily and quickly To provide.

[0016]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a plurality of item information in a content designating device for designating one item information from a menu including a plurality of item information. Is an item menu display means for continuously displaying in the first direction on the display screen, and a content common to a plurality of items included in the same category is one category information, Category menu display means for continuously displaying a plurality of category information in a second direction different from the first direction on the display screen, and the plurality of category menus displayed on the display screen. To select one item information from the plurality of item information displayed on the display screen, the first manual operation means for selecting one category information from among the category information The first And manual operating means, in response to a selection process by the first manual operating means, in which and a control means for changing the item information displayed by the item menu display means. Here, it is preferable that the first manual operation means is a vertical cursor movement key and the second manual operation means is a horizontal cursor movement key. In addition, when the item information is designated, a unit may be provided which displays predetermined outline information corresponding to the item in an empty display area on the display screen. In addition, according to the selection operation by the first manual operation means or the second manual operation means,
It is preferable to have a configuration including means for scrolling the category information or the item information displayed on the display screen.

Further, the content designating method according to the present invention includes an item menu display area including a plurality of item information, and a category menu display area including a plurality of category information common to some items. When is simultaneously displayed orthogonally on the display screen, by operating a predetermined manual member from a plurality of category information continuously displayed in one direction on the display screen. When desired category information is selected and an item menu corresponding to the selected desired category information is displayed in the display area of the item menu, another manual member different from the predetermined manual member is operated. By doing so, desired item information is selected. Here, it is preferable that the predetermined manual member is a vertical cursor movement key and the other manual member is a horizontal cursor movement key.

Further, it is possible to provide a recording medium storing a control program for executing the above-mentioned content designating method. Here, the control program is downloaded from an external service center via a communication line.

In addition to the control program, the recording medium may store a table showing the correspondence between the category information and the item information. This table can be downloaded from an external service center via a communication line.

[0020]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION In the embodiment of the present invention, category (category) menu columns are vertically displayed on the left side of the display screen, and at the same time, item (menu) menu columns are displayed on the upper side of the display screen. Are displayed in rows. Specifically, the category menu column displays movie genres, and the item menu column displays movie titles belonging to each genre.

Further, a key for moving the cursor in the vertical direction (vertical direction selection instructing section) is used for selecting the category menu field, that is, selecting the genre. On the other hand, to select the item menu field, that is, to select the movie title, a key for moving the cursor in the horizontal direction (horizontal direction selection instruction section) is used. Then, by operating these keys, each menu field is scrolled vertically or horizontally.

In this way, separate operation keys can be assigned to the scroll operation of the category menu columns displayed in the vertical column on the left end side of the display screen and the scroll operation of the item menu column displayed in the horizontal column. Therefore, the switching instruction at the time of the scroll operation for the two types of menu fields is not required. Furthermore, by arranging the category menu fields and item menu fields in columns and rows on the display screen, a summary display area of the selected items can be obtained, so image information such as still images and videos can be displayed on the screen at the same time. It can be effective information for determining a desired item.

The category menu column and the item menu column do not necessarily have to be orthogonal to each other, and the angle between the two menus can be set to an angle other than 90 degrees. In addition, the up / down / left / right cursor movement keys are used for the vertical selection instruction section and the horizontal selection instruction section, and other keys (for example, alphanumeric keys, push buttons) or operation keys such as a joystick are used. It is also possible to use.

[0024]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 3 shows the configuration of a system for receiving a video-on-demand service or an online shopping service using the content designation device 100 to which the present invention is applied.

In the figure, 300 is a service center for providing video-on-demand services and online shopping services, and 200 is a communication network.

The content designating apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment
Is a control device 1 described later, a communication control device 4 for communicating with the service center 300 via the communication network 200,
The display device 2 displays the service information downloaded from the service center 300, and the pointing device 3 used to select a desired service from the service information.

When receiving a service, as shown in FIG. 4, first, a desired service is selected by the pointing device 3 from the service list information displayed on the display device 2.

The content designating apparatus 100 sends a content request designating the selected service information to the communication network 200.
To the service center 300.

The service center 300 retrieves the content information corresponding to the received content request from the database, and the content designating apparatus 10 via the communication network 200.
Send to 0.

The content designation device 100 displays the received content information on the display device 2 to provide a predetermined service. It should be noted that the display device 2 may include not only a screen display but also a speaker that outputs music and the like, a recording device that outputs program data to a predetermined recording medium, and the like.

FIG. 5 shows a detailed block configuration of the control device 1 included in the content designation device 100 according to this embodiment. FIG. 6 shows a display screen of the display device 2 included in the content designation device.

First, when the power of the content designation apparatus 100 is turned on, the service center 300 (see FIG. 3) is connected and the programs necessary for selecting the content (category and item) are associated with the category menu and the item menu. A table showing the relationship is downloaded to the memory 5 of the control device 1.

The central control unit 19 in the control device 1 of the content designation device 100 reads the above program from the memory 5 and performs an initial display process. This initial display process will be described below.

First, the display device 2 is based on the above table.
The category menu 61 and the item menu 62 are displayed on the screen (see FIG. 6), and the upper end of the category menu 61 and the left end of the item menu 62 are highlighted (indicating a fixed cursor position). In addition, the central control unit 19
In order to obtain the service information of the content corresponding to the left end of the item menu 62 (the left end of the item menu 62 is "aiueo") from the service center 300, the service designation information (item "aiueo"
Information for specifying) is transmitted to the service center 300.

The service center 300 receives the service designation information, retrieves it from a database (not shown), and sends the service information to the content designation device 100.

Central control unit 1 of content designation device 100
9 receives service information via the communication control device 4,
Content summary display area 63 of the display device 2 (see FIG. 6)
To be displayed.

Next, the operation when the user operates the pointing device 3 will be described.

When the vertical direction selection instructing section 31 of the pointing device 3 is operated, the vertical direction instruction detecting section 12 detects that there is a selection operation, and notifies the category display section 11 and the category detecting section 13. .

The category display unit 11 updates the category information displayed in the display area 61 of the category menu and sends it to the display device 2. The display device 2 displays the received category menu information in the display area 61.

The category detection unit 13 detects the highlighted category and notifies the item display unit 14 of the category information.

The item display unit 14 updates the item menu information corresponding to the selected category based on the table downloaded to the memory 5 and sends it to the display device 2. The display device 2 displays the received item menu in the display area 62.

FIG. 7 shows the mutual relationship among the category menu, the item menu, and the outline (content) of the content. A plurality of items correspond to one or a plurality of categories, and an item belongs to one or a plurality of categories.

The item display section 14 also sends this item menu information to the item specifying section 16. The item specifying unit 16 specifies the item designated by the operator from the item menu information notified from the item display unit 14 and the position information notified from the lateral direction detection unit 15, and a content summary of the item (for example, , VOD, show time, poster image, preview content, etc.) are sent to the display device 2. The content outline may be any of text, voice, still image, and moving image, or may be a mixture of these.

When the user operates the lateral direction selection instruction section 32 of the pointing device 3, the lateral direction instruction detection section 15 detects that the selection operation has been performed, and the item display section 14 and the item specification section 16 are detected. To notify.

In the present embodiment, the menus on the display screen are scrolled vertically and horizontally by the operation of the pointing device 3, and the highlighted categories and items are detected. It is also possible that the cursor itself moves vertically and horizontally. In this case, a cursor display unit may be provided instead of the scroll control units 17 and 18.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing the control procedure of this embodiment. First, scroll the category menu up and down with the up and down movement buttons to position the desired category at the top (highlighted) (S1),
Immediately, by scrolling the item menu with the left and right moving buttons and placing the item menu at the highlight position on the left end (S2 to S4), the outline can be displayed together.

Compared with the operation flow according to the prior art (FIG. 2), there is no need to move the cursor from the category menu section to the item menu section or move the cursor from the item menu section to the category menu section.

As described above, in this embodiment, one category (genre) is first specified from the category menu showing the movie genre by scrolling the vertical menu, and then the horizontal menu is displayed. Since a desired item (movie title) is selected from the item menu included in this category by scrolling, the point is that the operation of sequentially designating each menu is unnecessary.

That is, in the conventional selection display method, since the menus of categories and items are displayed in the same direction (see FIG. 1), pointing operation (for example, operation of the up / down movement keys of the cursor movement keys) is performed. ) It is unknown whether it is only a category selection or an item selection. Therefore, it is necessary to perform a key operation to move from the category menu to the item menu. Even when controlling to automatically move from the menu of categories to the menu of items, it is not possible to automatically move to the menu of items unless an operation input for fixing the category in the menu of categories is performed.

On the other hand, in the present embodiment, the operation of selecting a category from the category menu is only the operation of the vertical movement instruction section, and the operation of selecting an item from the item menu is only the operation of the horizontal movement instruction section. Therefore, there is an advantage that each menu can be selected independently.

[0052]

According to the present invention, it is possible to select two hierarchical menus displayed orthogonally to each other with respective keys, so that a procedure for starting selection designation of each menu can be performed. Is unnecessary, and the special effect that the operation of selecting a desired item becomes quick and easy is obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a conventionally known content menu display.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a selection procedure of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a system configuration diagram of a content designation device to which the present invention is applied.

4 is a diagram showing a sequence control procedure of the system shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a main part of a content specifying device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a display screen of the present embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a relationship between a category (category) menu, an item (item) menu, and a content outline in the present embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an operation procedure of the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Control Device 2 Display Device 3 Pointing Device 4 Communication Control Device 5 Memory 100 Content Designation Device 200 Communication Network 300 Service Center

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued Front Page (71) Applicant 596016535 2011 North Shoreline Boulevard Mountain View, California 94039 U.S.A. S. A. (72) Hirofumi Miyama, Inventor Hirofumi Miyama 3-19-2 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Within Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (72) Inventor Glencovel Chute USA 94086 Sunnyvale Alpine Terrace, CA 978-5 (72) Invention Susan Lincroft United States 94110-2237 San Francisco Liberty Street, Calif. 109 Number 2 (72) Inventor Anne Woodward Sideman United States 94611-1121 Oakland, California Skyline Boulevard 7331

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A content designating device for designating one item information from a menu containing a plurality of item information, wherein the plurality of item information is continuously displayed in a first direction on a display screen. When the content common to a plurality of items included in the same category is regarded as one category information, the plurality of category information is assigned to the first direction on the display screen. Is a category menu display unit for continuously displaying in a different second direction, and a category menu display unit for selecting one category information from the plurality of category information displayed on the display screen. One manual operation means, a second manual operation means for selecting one item information from the plurality of item information displayed on the display screen, and the first manual operation means. Election Processing in response to the content specified device being characterized in that and a control means for changing the item information displayed by the item menu display means. 2. The content designating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first manual operation means is a vertical cursor movement key, and the second manual operation means is a horizontal cursor movement key. 3. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for displaying, when the item information is designated, predetermined outline information corresponding to the item in an empty display area on the display screen. A content designation device characterized by. 4. The category information or the category information displayed on the display screen according to claim 1, further according to a selection operation by the first manual operation means or the second manual operation means. A contents designation device comprising means for scrolling item information. 5. A display area of an item menu including a plurality of item information and a display area of a category menu including a plurality of category information common to some items are orthogonal to each other on a display screen at the same time. When displayed, the desired category information is selected by operating a predetermined manual member from among the plurality of category information continuously displayed in one direction on the display screen. When the item menu corresponding to the desired category information is displayed in the display area of the item menu, by operating another manual member different from the predetermined manual member, the desired item information is displayed. A content designation method characterized by selecting. 6. The content designating method according to claim 5, wherein the predetermined manual member is a vertical cursor movement key and the other manual member is a horizontal cursor movement key. 7. A recording medium storing a control program for executing the content designating method according to claim 5. 8. The recording medium according to claim 7, wherein the control program is downloaded from an external service center via a communication line. 9. The recording medium according to claim 7, wherein, in addition to the control program, a table indicating a correspondence relationship between category information and item information is stored. 10. The recording medium according to claim 9, wherein the table is downloaded from an external service center via a communication line.