JPH10308921A - Information collection device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently make access to obtained information in accordance with the need of a user by extracting a caption information in a received television picture with an extraction condition registered in a registration table, and storing the result obtained by recognizing caption information. SOLUTION: An extension device for received signal processing 2 receives information at a designated time in a reception schedule registered in a registration table 12 of a personal computer main body 1, and it is recognized what kind of caption information exists in a processing area that is taken in from the video screen for extracting caption information. Then, it is judged whether the area applies to the extraction condition registered in the registration table 12 and non-applicable processed area is abolished. When it reaches a termination time registered in the registration table, extraction is terminated. Then, a classification keyword registered in the registration table 12 is used and an analysis processing is executed. When analysis terminates, extracted caption information is stored in a RAM 8 or a secondary storage area of an external auxiliary storage device 10 according to individual category.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information collecting apparatus, and more particularly to a desktop personal computer and a notebook personal computer. In the recent years of the advanced information age, it is needless to say how to quickly and accurately obtain information on the rapidly changing social and economic conditions.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There is a television as one means for providing information, and it is possible to obtain various kinds of necessary information by watching in real time according to the broadcasting time of a target program in each device. it can. The means of watching in real time using a television is inefficient because there is a possibility that a program is missed, and unnecessary information or commercials (corporate advertising) need to be viewed in real time. . In addition, the arrangement of the obtained information may require manual work such as taking notes, and it is hard to say that the arrangement is easy.

As a means for efficiently organizing information, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 8-
No. 249343. This technology converts audio data to text based on a specific word (phrase) frequently used in news or the like from real-time audio data and outputs information. As another technology,
Published Japanese Patent Application No. 7-7, filed March 20, 2016
No. 9206 is known. This technology detects a commercial sound of a TV broadcast, identifies the commercial by comparing it with a sound for comparison, and sets a broadcast time for a commercial that has been broadcasted conventionally (already exists in a database).
The broadcast station records the commercial code, comment, etc., which have been added to the comparison sound in advance. For commercials of completely new materials that do not match the comparison sound, V
The video and audio are recorded in the TR device.

[0004]

Problems to be Solved by the Invention
The technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 3 records all information that is not originally necessary, such as the personal opinion of the commentator during the news report, the conversation with the accompanying announcer, etc. Therefore, the amount of recorded information becomes enormous, and there is a concern that the ratio of information that the user really needs to obtain is low, that is, the focus may be blurred.

The technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-79206 is intended only to collect statistical information about commercials, and also takes into account the unique characteristics of commercials that frequently broadcast the same video and the same audio. It is hard to say that this is an information collecting means that is suitable as an information collecting means for news program contents such as news that always deals with the rapidly changing social situation and economic situation.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an information processing apparatus capable of efficiently extracting acquired information as needed by a user.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, there is provided a receiving means for receiving a television image, and extracting subtitle information displayed in a specific area in the received television image in accordance with an extraction condition registered in a registration table. An information collection device, comprising: an extraction unit that performs the extraction and a storage unit that recognizes the extracted subtitle information and stores the recognition result, and collects information from the subtitle information displayed on the television image. .

[0008] That is, the present invention obtains information from a television developed as an information transmitting means. When a topic of a news is changed in a received television image, the information is first superimposed on the television image and displayed. Paying attention to the fact that the subtitle information displayed indicates the headline (gist) of the news item, it is possible to collect the information by extracting the displayed subtitle information, recognizing and storing the subtitle information. it can.

[0009] The present invention is the information collecting apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an output device for outputting caption information read from said storage means. That is, by outputting the collected result to an output device such as a display device or a printing device, the user can confirm the collected content. The information collection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the specific area is an area displayed near a screen edge superimposed on a television image.

That is, the subtitle information currently displayed on the video screen is displayed in a portion that does not affect the progress of the program, that is, a portion that does not particularly overlap with an image desired to be transmitted as a video. Since most of the display portion is near the edge of the screen, this region is extracted as a specific region. The information collection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the extraction condition is registered in the registration table under different conditions for each reception channel or reception program.

That is, the display area of the subtitle information superimposed on the screen is different for each receiving channel unit, and the area where the subtitle information is displayed for the same channel is also different for each program unit. It is. For this reason, if the conditions to be extracted as caption information from the screen, particularly the area conditions, are individually registered in advance in the registration table, the subtitle information can be reliably extracted.

Further, the present invention is the information collecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the subtitle information stored in said storage means is classified and stored according to a specified category. That is, news items to be broadcast usually cover a wide variety of fields, and subtitle information can be easily identified by classifying each category when displaying the news items on a display device later.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the present embodiment,
The information collection device described in the claims refers to a personal computer such as a desktop personal computer or a notebook personal computer, and is abbreviated to a personal computer. Also, a personal computer provided with a portion for performing substantial internal processing and a portion including various storage devices will be referred to as a personal computer body.

FIG. 1 shows a hardware configuration diagram of the present invention. In the drawing, reference numeral 1 denotes a personal computer main body, and reference numeral 2 denotes a reception signal processing expansion device, which is a TV tuner card for receiving television images. The TV tuner card is added by inserting it into an empty expansion slot provided in the personal computer. Reference numeral 3 denotes a radio wave receiving antenna, and a television image is taken into the personal computer body 1 from the antenna 3 via the reception signal processing add-on device 2.

Reference numeral 4 denotes a central processing unit,
U and MPU. Under the control of the central processing unit 4, a series of various processes from extracting and recognizing, storing, and displaying the subtitle information from the television image are performed. Code 5
Is a video signal output expansion device, which is a video card for displaying caption information stored in the output device 6. This video card is also expanded by inserting it into an empty expansion slot provided in the personal computer 1. Reference numeral 6 denotes an output device, which is a display or a printing device.
In this embodiment, a display device is described as an output device as an example.

Reference numeral 7 denotes an input device, which is a pointing device such as a keyboard and a mouse. In the present embodiment, a keyboard will be described as an input device as an example. Reference numeral 8 denotes a RAM, which is a secondary storage device that stores recognized caption information. Reference numeral 9 denotes a built-in clock, which is used when receiving a desired program. Sign 1
Reference numeral 0 denotes an external auxiliary storage device, which indicates, for example, a medium such as a floppy disk or an external hard disk device, and may be the above-mentioned secondary storage device as needed. Reference numeral 11 denotes a ROM in which various application programs and the like are stored. The central processing unit 4 reads various programs from the ROM 11 and performs processing.

Reference numeral 12 denotes a registration table, which includes a reception schedule of a program to be received and extraction conditions for extracting subtitle information and the RAM 8 (or the external auxiliary storage device 1).
In 0), a classification keyword or the like for storing subtitle information classified by category and stored is registered. Details of the registration table 12 will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing details of the reception schedule registered in the registration table. In the reception schedule, management numbers (-1 to -n) and program information (reception date, reception channel, reception start time and reception end time) are registered. For the program information, the user inputs desired program reception conditions from the keyboard 7, for example. The procedure is as follows: "every day" indicating the reception date and "TV broadcast 1c" indicating the reception channel.
h ", and" 21:00 "indicating the reception start time and" 22: "indicating the reception end time.
00 ”from the keyboard 7. The input set of program information is provided with management information -1 and has a registration table 1
2 is registered in the area of the reception schedule.

If there is another program desired to be received, the user inputs the reception date, the reception channel, the reception start time and the reception end time from the keyboard 7, and the management information is added and registered for each set of the input program information. Is done. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing details of the extraction conditions. As the extraction conditions, a management number and extraction conditions (title information, timing information, subtitle information extraction information) assigned when registering the program information of the reception schedule are registered. The title information includes the name of the title and position information indicating the display area, and the subtitle information extraction information includes position information indicating the display area.

This management number must be linked with the management number given in the above-mentioned reception schedule. This is because the position where the subtitle information is displayed on the television image is different for each broadcast channel or each received program. This state will be supplementarily described with reference to FIG. FIG. 9 shows a state where subtitle information is displayed on a television image.
It is a figure showing an example. In the example of a certain program shown in FIG. 9A, the subtitle information 1 is displayed near the bottom of the screen and almost in the center. Title information is displayed adjacent to the upper left corner of the subtitle information 1. In another example of the program shown in FIG. 9B, the subtitle information 2 is displayed near the lower center of the screen and almost in the center, and the title information is displayed adjacent to the lower right side of the subtitle information 2. I have. In another example of the program shown in FIG. 9C, the title information is displayed adjacent to almost the center of the uppermost side of the caption information group displayed in the order of the caption information 3 to 5. The numbers displayed at the upper left corner of each video screen in FIGS. 9A to 9C are time information at the time of reception.

As a specific example 1 of the extraction condition, for a program to which a management number of -1 is assigned, the title of "News" and its "News"
s ”as the position information indicating the area in which“ s
m squares ”is registered. Then, "5 seconds after News display" is used as timing information, and "News" is used as position information indicating an area where subtitle information extraction information is displayed.
s within the band 5 cm below the display area ”is registered.

As another specific example, for a program to which a management number of -n is assigned, the title of the news "News 22" and the title "News 2" are used as the title information.
As the position information indicating the area where "2" is displayed, "within a section of 10 cm above the center and 5 cm vertically" is registered. Then, “2 seconds after news 22 is displayed” as timing information, and “15 cm below the news display area” as position information indicating an area where subtitle information extraction information is displayed.
”Is registered.

In the same channel, there are some channels which have the same title display position, subtitle information display position, timing, etc., except for the title name only.
In this case, only the name of the title may be changed, and the subsequent information (position information and timing information) may be registered in the registration table 12 as the extracted extraction condition as it is.

The condition for extracting the subtitle information can be extracted by simply specifying only the position information of the area where the subtitle information is displayed, but the news item can be extracted simply by specifying the area where the subtitle information is displayed. In addition to the caption information for displaying the headline (gist) of the news item, for example, caption information different from the headline of the news item indicating the relay location of the news may be extracted. Thus, effective and efficient extraction of caption information is performed.

The registration of the extraction conditions is based on the characteristics of the program that the user desires to receive, that is, what title information is displayed in a certain program, where the title information is displayed, and subtitle information is the title information. , The timing at which the caption information is displayed, etc., is understood, and registered as an extraction condition in the registration table 12. In this example, since registration of the user is troublesome, a condition for extracting subtitle information for a specific program in the registration table is specified in advance in the registration table 12 as a condition for extracting subtitle information regardless of user registration. May be used.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing classification keywords. The classification keywords include fields and keywords, and a plurality of fields are registered for each category. A designated keyword for classifying from the caption information extracted for each field belongs. For these fields and keywords, the user can arbitrarily designate the field he / she wants to register, for example, politics, crime, sports, economy, etc., from the keyboard 7, and if the keyword is related to the field, for example, "policy field" The Diet, Cabinet, Minister, etc. are arbitrarily designated by the keyboard 7 and registered. In the field of sports, specific results and the like are often displayed in a regular array of numbers, and thus may be registered in advance as a keyword on the condition of an array of numbers such as “xx-yy”.

Next, the flow of processing according to this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 5 is an overall processing flow of the present embodiment, FIGS. 6 and 7 are diagrams showing a flow of processing between a television image and a personal computer and an output device, and FIG. 8 is a diagram showing details of an output screen. is there. After the user registers in advance the schedule, extraction conditions, classification keywords, and the like of the program desired to be received in the registration table 12,
This program is started.

The personal computer 1 monitors the built-in clock 9 until the time corresponding to the reception date and the reception start time, which are the program information in the reception schedule registered in the registration table 12, and determines whether the time is the specified time (step 1). And s
step2). For example, it is determined whether it is 21:00 every day. If it is the designated time, the designated frequency corresponding to the receiving channel in the receiving schedule, for example, one channel of TV broadcasting, is received by the receiving signal processing add-on device 2 which is a TV tuner card (step 3). The received video screen is in a state in which the caption of “△ yama ○ huo” is superimposed on the person shown in FIG. Note that an area surrounded by a broken line is a processing area captured from a video screen for extracting subtitle information.

A recognition process is performed on the fetched processing area (step 4). This recognition processing is performed by using a known technique. For example, the recognition processing is performed by a matching processing using a template in which character information and alphanumeric information are registered. Is recognized. This recognition processing has high recognition accuracy because of pattern matching using a template for type.

Next, it is determined whether or not the extraction condition registered in the registration table 12 is satisfied (step 5). The extraction condition includes title information, timing information, and subtitle information extraction information. However, since the processing area shown in FIG. The area is discarded (step
7). Then, it is determined whether or not the extraction is completed (step 8), and it is determined whether or not the reception end time registered as the program information in the registration table 12 has been reached.
If the reception end time has not yet been reached due to the relationship with the built-in clock 9, the process returns to the previous stage of step 3.

When the image screen is switched to the one shown in FIG. 6C, the area shown in FIG. 6D is taken in as the processing area. Recognition processing is performed on the fetched processing area shown in FIG. 6D (step 4), and thereafter, it is determined whether or not the extraction condition is satisfied (step 4).
5). In the area of FIG. 6D, “Ne” is displayed as title information.
ws ”exists in the display area specified by the extraction condition registered in the registration table 12, and“ ×
× Diet XX ”is present in the display area specified by the extraction condition registered in the registration table 12, and the subtitle information“ XX Diet XX ”is displayed 5 seconds after the title information is displayed. If it matches, it is considered a condition match,
As shown in FIG. 6E, “XX Diet XX” is stored in the primary storage area in the RAM 8 (step 6). If the title information and the subtitle information are displayed simultaneously with no time difference, the timing information may be excluded from the factors of the extraction condition. This means that the user need not register the timing information in the registration table 12 as one of the extraction conditions.

Then, it is determined again whether or not the extraction has been completed (step 8), and whether or not the reception end time registered as the program information in the registration table 12 has been reached is determined. If the reception end time has not yet been reached from the relationship, the process returns to the previous stage of step 3. When the video screen is switched to the person explaining the details of the news as shown in FIG. 6 (f), it is taken in as the processing area shown in FIG. 6 (g) and recognition processing is performed (step).
4), it is determined whether or not the condition is satisfied (ste)
p5). Since there is no extraction condition in the fetched processing area shown in FIG. 6G, the processing area is discarded in step 7. Then, it is determined whether or not the extraction is completed as shown in step 8, and the process returns to the previous stage of step 3.

When the image screen is switched again to that shown in FIG. 6H, the area shown in FIG. 6I is taken in as the processing area. Recognition processing is performed on the fetched processing area shown in FIG. 6 (i) (step 4), and thereafter it is determined whether or not the extraction condition is satisfied (step 4).
p5). In the area of FIG. 6I, “N” is displayed as title information.
ews ”exists in the display area specified by the extraction condition registered in the registration table 12, and“ @arrest ”exists as subtitle information.
Since it exists in the display area specified by the extraction condition registered in 2 and the subtitle information "@arrest" exists, it is considered that the condition matches, and the primary storage area in the RAM 8 is stored in FIG. Is stored as "△△△△ arrested" (step 6).

Then, it is determined again whether or not the extraction has been completed (step 8). It is determined whether or not the reception end time registered as the program information in the registration table 12 has been reached. If the reception end time has not yet been reached from the relationship, the process returns to the previous stage of step 3. When the video screen is switched to the one shown in FIG. 6 (k), FIG. 6 (l) is fetched as a processing area, a recognition process (step 4) and a judgment process (step 5) as to whether or not the extraction condition is satisfied are performed. The processing area is discarded because there is no extraction condition (step 7).

Then, it is determined whether or not the extraction process has been completed, and whether or not the program end time registered as the program information in the registration table has been reached is determined using the built-in clock 9, and the program end time is determined. When it is determined that the number has reached, the process proceeds to a process of analyzing the stored contents (step 9). In the process of analyzing the stored contents, the classification keywords registered in the registration table 12 are used. That is, it is determined whether or not there is a keyword registered for each category among “XX Diet XX” and “@arrest” stored in the primary storage area in the RAM 8 ( step9). XX Diet X
It is analyzed that "parliament" belonging to the category of politics is included in "x", and "arrest" belonging to the category of criminal is included in "arrest".

When the analysis is completed, the extracted subtitle information “XX Diet XX” or “@arrest” is stored in the secondary storage area for each category. This secondary storage area is RA
It may be in the M8, or may be a medium such as a floppy or an external auxiliary storage device 10 such as an external hard disk device (step 10). In the secondary storage area shown in FIG. 6 (n), “XX Diet XX” and “XXX Minister X” are stored as caption information relating to the political field, and FIG.
In the secondary storage area indicated by, “△△ incident △△”, “△ suspension △△△”, and “△△△△ arrest” are stored as caption information on the crime field, and as shown in FIG. In the indicated secondary storage area, “☆☆ − ★★” and “XX champion” are stored as caption information related to the sports field, and FIG.
The caption information relating to the economic field is stored in the secondary storage area indicated by.

Although the present embodiment has been described on the assumption that the analysis of the subtitle information is performed after all the extraction of the subtitle information relating to the program to be received is completed,
After one subtitle information is extracted, the processing speed may be increased by extracting the subtitle information for the next video screen in parallel with the analysis of the subtitle information.

These processes are all performed on the program desired to be received registered in the reception schedule, and the result of the extracted subtitle information is stored in the secondary storage area. RAM
8 after the storage of the subtitle information extracted in step 8 is completed.
11 determines that there is an output request. This is from the user, "Today, (field), related information? Is determined in response to a question from the keyboard 7 as "." For example, in response to a question about politics-related information, the central processing unit 4
According to the program from the OM 11, subtitle information extracted from the secondary storage area of the RAM 8 in which political-related information is stored, for example, "XX Diet XX" and "XXX Minister X" are read. The read subtitle information is sent to the display device 6 via the video signal output expansion device 5 which is a video card, and is displayed on the display device 6 as an output screen as shown in FIG. 6 (r) (step 12). ).

FIG. 8 shows the details of the output screen.
(A) shows a list of three news items read from the secondary storage area as today's news (politics-related). When the user designates output in a plurality of fields, the subtitle information of the designated field is read from the secondary storage area, and the first screen (1/2) is displayed as shown in FIG. ) As today's news (crime related)
In this example, the main points of three news items are displayed as news of the day (sports-related). And today's news (... related) as the second screen (2/2)
A list of news items in another field is displayed.

[0040]

As described above, according to the present invention, once the extraction conditions for subtitle information extraction are registered in the registration table, the user can view the program in real time according to the broadcast time of the program. Since only simple and necessary information such as the main points of news items can be referred to when necessary, it greatly contributes to saving time and improving information collection efficiency.

Also, since the registration table is registered under different extraction conditions for each program or each reception channel, even if different caption information is displayed for each program or each reception channel, omission of extraction of the subtitle information is prevented. be able to. Further, by storing the extracted subtitle information for each category, only the subtitle information belonging to a certain category desired to be output can be efficiently referred to when necessary.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a hardware configuration diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing details of a reception schedule registered in a registration table.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing details of extraction conditions.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing classification keywords.

FIG. 5 is an overall processing flow of the present embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram (part 1) illustrating a flow of processing between a television image, a personal computer, and an output device.

FIG. 7 is a diagram (part 2) illustrating a flow of processing between the television image and the personal computer main body and the output device.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing details of an output screen.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating three examples of a state where subtitle information is displayed on a television image.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 PC main unit 2 Reception signal processing extension device 3 Radio wave reception antenna 4 Central processing unit 5 Video signal output extension device 6 Output device 7 Input device 8 RAM 9 Built-in clock 10 External auxiliary storage device 11 ROM 12 Registration table

Claims (5)

[Claims] A receiving means for receiving a television image; an extracting means for extracting subtitle information displayed in a specific area in the received television image in accordance with an extraction condition registered in a registration table; An information collecting apparatus, comprising: storage means for recognizing caption information and storing a result of the recognition, wherein information is collected from the caption information displayed on the television image. 2. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an output device for outputting caption information read from said storage means.
Information collection device as described. 3. The information collection device according to claim 1, wherein the specific area is an area displayed near a screen edge superimposed on a television image. 4. The information collection device according to claim 1, wherein the extraction condition is registered in the registration table under different conditions for each reception channel or reception program. 5. The subtitle information stored in the storage means,
2. The information collecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information is classified and stored according to a designated category.