JPH09321719A - Video and audio data transmitter - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a video and audio data transmitter dynamically and flexibly setting a viewing inhibited program on a user's side. SOLUTION: Video and audio data requested from a display 107 is transmitted from a video server device 101 to a household 100. At this time, a feature code adding device 110 adds a feature code 110 to video and audio data. An access controller 102 at the household 100 compares the feature code 110 and an access propriety corresponding table 105 with each other and when this program can be viewed in a room A, this video and audio data is outputted to the display 107 through a program controller 104. When the program can not be viewed, a message that viewing is impossible is outputted.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to video / audio data for automatically restricting access to programs of a type that viewers do not want to view and programs of a type that family members (especially children) do not want to view. The present invention relates to a transmission device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When a subscriber accesses a video server of a provider by utilizing a two-way communication function of a digital communication network, a requested program is transmitted only to the subscriber. Has been done. According to the video-on-demand device, the subscriber can watch a favorite program at a desired time without recording on the VTR at home. In such a video-on-demand device, for example, there is no setting for prohibiting the selection of programs such as viewing prohibited under the age of 18, or even if there is such a setting, it is preliminarily set for each home at the time of contract with the provider. Settings are made uniformly.

[0003]

However, in the conventional video-on-demand apparatus, for example, the setting that disables the viewing prohibited programs under the age of 18 is made uniformly at the time of the contract, so that the user can respond to various situations. Therefore, such settings cannot be changed dynamically and flexibly. Also, usually
Since the contract with the provider is made for each home, for example, it is not possible to make unique settings for each of a plurality of terminal devices and a plurality of viewers in the home.

The present invention has been made in view of the background of the prior art described above, and an object of the present invention is to provide a video / audio data transmission apparatus which allows a user to dynamically and flexibly set a viewing prohibited program.

[0005]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art and to achieve the above-mentioned object, the video / audio data transmitting apparatus of the present invention is configured so that the video / audio server and the terminal device perform digital communication. A video / audio data transmission device connected via a network, wherein video / audio data is transmitted from the video / audio server to the terminal device in response to a request from the terminal device. Outputs the video / audio data to which the characteristic information indicating the characteristic of the data is added to the digital communication network, the terminal device compares the characteristic information with preset access permission data, and the comparison result Based on the above, it is determined whether the video / audio data output by the video / audio server can be selected.

In the video / audio data transmission apparatus of the present invention,
A request is output from the terminal device to the video / audio server via the digital communication network according to the user's operation.
The video / audio server responds to the video
Characteristic information is added to the acoustic data, and the acoustic data is transmitted to the terminal device through the digital communication network. When the terminal device inputs the video / audio data in response to the request, it compares the characteristic information included in the data with preset access permission data and determines whether the input video / audio data can be selected. to decide. Then, if selectable, the terminal device displays and outputs the input video / audio data.
In this video / audio data transmission device, the user can easily change the access permission data by operating the terminal device.

[0007]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION A video-on-demand apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a video-on-demand device 1 of this embodiment.
In the video-on-demand apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 1, the home 100 and the provider 109 are connected via the network 103. The network 103 is, for example, ISDN (I
ntegrated Services Digital Network: Integrated Services
Digital network). The provider 109 includes a video server device 101 and a feature code addition device 10
6 is equipped.

The video server device 101 has a built-in disk storing video / audio data of various programs. When a request for a program is received from the home 100, the video / audio data of the requested program is networked. It is output to the home 100 to which the request is issued via 103.

The characteristic code addition device 106 adds the characteristic code 110 to the video / audio data of each program output from the video server device 101. This feature code 1
As shown in FIG. 2, reference numeral 10 is an 8-bit code indicating the proportion of four kinds of scenes including a violent scene and a bloodshed scene in the content of each program.
The feature code 110 is created in advance by the provider by looking at the contents of each program. At this time, the ratio of each scene is indicated by "00" when there is no such scene, "01" when it is small, "10" when it is slightly large, and "11" when it is large. . For example, the feature code 1 shown in FIG.
10 indicates that there are many violent scenes and a few bloodshed scenes.

At home 100, access control device 10
2. Program control device 104 and display 107, 1
08 is equipped. The access control device 102 is, for example, a display 107, 1 provided in each room A, B.
Access availability correspondence table 10 corresponding to each 08
5, 106 are provided. Here, the access permission / prohibition correspondence tables 105 and 106 are table data as shown in FIG. 3, and indicate whether all patterns that the feature code 110 can represent are viewable or not viewable. ing. For example, in the example shown in FIG.
If 0 is "00000001", it is viewable,
In the case of "11111111", it means that viewing is not possible.

The access permission / prohibition correspondence tables 105 and 106 can be created, for example, by a user of each home (for example, a user who has privilege in the home) according to the situation of the home. For example, when the room A is a child's room, the access permission / prohibition correspondence table 105 corresponding to the display 107 provided in the room A is set so that a program in which the bloodshed scene or the violent scene is slightly large cannot be viewed. . Further, when the room B is an adult room, the accessibility table 106 corresponding to the display 107 provided in the room A
Is set so that it can be viewed even on programs with many bloodsheds and violence.

The access control device 102 is, for example, in response to a request from a user in the room A, the network 10
When the video / audio data S109 is input via 3, the feature code 11 included in the video / audio data S109 is input.
0 and the access permission / prohibition correspondence table 105 are compared, and from the result of the comparison, it is determined whether or not this program is prohibited for the viewer of the room A, and the determination result S102 is sent to the program control device 104. Output.

The program control device 104 inputs the determination result S102 and the video / audio data S109 from the access control device 102, and when the determination result S102 does not indicate that viewing is prohibited, the display 107 of the user who has issued the request, The video / audio data S109 is output to 109. On the other hand, the program control device 104 determines the determination result S102.
Indicates that the viewing is prohibited, a message indicating the viewing prohibition is output instead of the video / audio data S109 on the displays 107 and 109 of the user who issued the request.

Next, the operation of the video-on-demand device 1 will be described. For example, when the room A is a child's room and the room B is an adult room, the adult controls the access control device 10
2 is operated to create an access permission / prohibition correspondence table 105 so that a program having a slightly large number of violent scenes and bloodsheds cannot be viewed, and also has a permission / prohibition so that even a large number of violent scenes and bloodsheds can be viewed. The correspondence table 106 is created.

Next, for example, a child in the room A requests the provider 109 for a program with many violent scenes.
And the video / audio data of such a program is transmitted to the access control device 102. Next, in the access control device 102, the feature code 110 of the program is compared with the access permission / prohibition correspondence table 105, the determination result S102 indicating the prohibition of viewing is output to the program control device 104, and such a program is displayed on the display 107. A message indicating that you cannot watch is displayed.

On the other hand, when the adult in the room B outputs a request for a program with many violent scenes to the provider 109, similarly, the video / audio data of such a program is transmitted to the access control device 102. . Then, in the access control device 102, the feature code 110 of the program is compared with the access permission / prohibition correspondence table 106, and it is determined that the program is viewable. Then, the video / audio data S109 of the program is output to the program control device 104, and the program is displayed on the display 107.

As described above, according to the video-on-demand apparatus 1, the user of each home can access the access control apparatus 1.
By operating 02, the display 107,
It is possible to individually set programs that can be viewed and programs that cannot be viewed for 108. Therefore, depending on the situation at home,
The contents of the program that can be displayed on each display can be dynamically and flexibly set.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, according to the present invention, when a menu of programs that can be provided is transmitted from the video server device 101 to the home 100, the access control device 102 determines that the programs that cannot be viewed depend on the contents of the access permission / prohibition correspondence tables 105 and 106. Processing that is not included in the menu may be performed. Thus, for example, the menu displayed on the display 107 does not include programs with many bloodstream scenes, but the menu displayed on the display 108 includes programs with many bloodstream scenes. it can.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the case where the access permission / prohibition correspondence table is created for each display has been described as an example. However, the present invention may be such that the access permission / prohibition correspondence table is created for each individual unit. In this case, the user inputs the personal identification number on the display when viewing the program. Then, the access control device selects the access permission / prohibition correspondence table to be used based on this personal identification number.

In the above-described embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, the access control device 102 and the program control device 104.
The case where the terminal device 107 and the terminal device 107 are independently provided has been exemplified, but the access control device 102 and the program control device 1
04 may be built in the terminal device 107.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the case where the present invention is applied to the video-on-demand apparatus is illustrated, but the present invention can be applied to the near video-on-demand apparatus and the like.

[0022]

As described above, according to the video / audio data transmitting apparatus of the present invention, the user can dynamically and flexibly set the viewing prohibited program according to the situation of the home. For example, the user of each household can individually set the viewer of each room as to whether or not the program can be viewed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a video-on-demand device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the meaning of a feature code.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining an access permission / prohibition correspondence table used in the access control device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Video-on-demand device, 100 ... Home, 101 ...
Video server device, 102 ... Access control device, 10
3 ... Network, 104 ... Program control device, 105, 1
06 ... Access permission / prohibition correspondence table, 107, 108 ... Display, 109 ... Provider, 110 ... Feature code

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A video / audio server and a terminal device are connected via a digital communication network, and video / audio data is transmitted from the video / audio server to the terminal device in response to a request from the terminal device. In the video / audio data transmission device, the video / audio server outputs video / audio data to which characteristic information indicating characteristics of data is added to the digital communication network, and the terminal device sets the characteristic information and preset information. A video / audio data transmission device that compares the access permission data with the selected access permission data and determines whether or not the video / audio data output by the video / audio server can be selected based on the comparison result. 2. The access request data and the input video / audio data when the terminal device requests a program to the video / audio server and inputs video / audio data in accordance with the request. The video / audio data transmission device according to claim 1, wherein the video / audio data transmission device determines whether to display and output the input video / audio data based on a result of the comparison with the characteristic information included in. 3. The video / audio data transmission device according to claim 1, wherein the terminal device can update the access permission data. 4. A plurality of the terminal devices are provided, and each terminal device has unique access permission data.
Video / audio data transmission device described in. 5. The video / audio data transmission device according to claim 1, wherein the terminal device has unique access permission data for each of a plurality of users who use the terminal device, and selectively uses the access permission data. .