JP2000013539A - Interactive television system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To connect/disconnect a line for make the communication cost least expensive. SOLUTION: When a viewer selects interactive program data, a control part 11 obtains communication time per fixed cost with a response server 2 from a data base 12 and sets the communication time to a timer part. A line connection part 14 connects the line with the response server 2, obtains the program data from the response server 2, and displays the obtained program data on a monitor screen. When the program data are already obtained after the lapse of the communication time, the timer part 13 automatically disconnects the line.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an interactive television system comprising an interactive television receiver and a response server to which these receivers are connected via a telephone line.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, television receivers such as those disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-70035, "Interactive Teletext Receiver" and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-98402, "Interactive Television System" have been developed. Interactive television systems that connect to a public line network such as a telephone and allow these receivers to transmit and receive data to and from a response server through a public line have been put into practical use. The television receiver and the response server make a line connection using the telephone network, and when data communication becomes possible, the interactive television receiver sends a data acquisition request to the response server, and the response server responds to the data acquisition request. The data transmitted to the interactive television receiver is transmitted to the interactive television receiver. And interpretation, and displays the screen of the interactive program including a graphical user interface such as a button.

[0003] A user can interactively watch a program by selecting a button displayed on the screen using a remote controller to acquire another data or to send response data to a response server.

[0004] The user connects the line with the interactive television receiver every data request and disconnects the line immediately after acquiring the data, or once the line is connected, the connection is maintained until the user instructs disconnection. Can be selected.

[0005]

However, each time a two-way television receiver requests data, a line is connected and the line is cut off immediately after acquiring data, and another case where the line is once connected and then maintained. Which of the two can reduce the communication cost depends on the distance from the response server and the frequency of data acquisition. Therefore, in order to keep the communication cost low in the conventional interactive television system, the user must carefully connect and disconnect the line. Work had to be done.

The relationship between the line connection / disconnection timing and the communication cost will be specifically described below.

As shown in the dial call charge table of FIG. 13, the dial call charge of the telephone network can be used at the same charge as long as one line connection time is within a predetermined time, but the connection is made every time a data acquisition request is issued. If the user disconnects each time data acquisition is completed, a fee is charged for each line connection.

[0008] As shown in the measurement result of the connection / disconnection time between the interactive television receiver and the response server shown in FIG. 14, the modem of the response server and the interactive television receiver is V.34 (33.
6Kbps), without data compression, it takes about 13 seconds from the time of calling to the detection of the carrier, and about 5 seconds from the end of data transmission to the line disconnection.

[0009] Therefore, it takes about 18 seconds in addition to data transmission and reception between the call and the line disconnection. This time depends on the combination of the mode in which the modem of the answering server stands by and the mode in which the modem of the interactive television receiver makes a call.

[0010] It is assumed that the average amount of data that the interactive television receiver acquires from the response server in response to one data acquisition request is about 20 kilobytes.

(The amount of data per screen varies depending on the contents constituting the screen, but still image data often occupies a large portion compared to character data and program data in the data. Screen resolution is 5 vertical
When 00 pixels, 400 horizontal pixels, and 8 bits per pixel, the pixel data of the entire screen is 200 kilobytes,
When a still image is transmitted, it is compressed to about 1/10 by the JPEG method or the like, so that if it is 20 kilobytes, still image data for one screen can be transmitted. In the case of displaying character data or the like, the ratio of still image data is reduced, so that the total amount of data per screen is generally about 20 kilobytes. Using a modem capable of communicating at 33,600 bits per second, it takes about 6 seconds to transfer 20 kilobytes of data in a start-stop synchronization system in which the start bit and the stop bit are each 1 bit, as shown in the following equation 1. 20000 × (8 + 1 + 1) /33600=6.0 (seconds) (Equation 1) In order for the interactive television receiver to acquire 20 kilobytes of data, as described above, other than data transmission and reception from calling to line connection. Approximately 18 seconds are required, so that a total of one data acquisition requires approximately 24 seconds. However, the data amount of the data transmission request is omitted because it is very small.

For example, assuming that the interactive television and the response server are in the same city area and that 20 kilobytes of data are transmitted four times at intervals of 30 seconds to five minutes,
As shown in the graph of FIG. 15, if the frequency of data access is shorter than 3 minutes, the communication cost is lower if the line is once connected and the line is kept as it is.

As another example, when the interactive television and the response server are located in an area within a range of 30 km or more and 60 km or less, as shown in FIG. It is cheaper to repeat / cut.

It is difficult for the user himself to connect / disconnect the line so that the communication cost is minimized, since the timing of connection / disconnection varies depending on the connection distance and the access interval.

[0015]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, there is provided an interactive television comprising an interactive television receiver and a response server in which each of the receivers is connected via a telephone line. A television system, wherein the interactive television receiver has a database for maintaining a relationship between a communication time and a communication cost with a response server, a timer unit, a monitor screen, and a control unit. When selecting the program data, the control unit obtains the communication time per fixed cost with the response server from the database, sets the communication time in the timer unit, the line connection unit is connected to the response server, The program data is acquired from the response server, the acquired program data is displayed on a monitor screen, and the timer unit determines whether the program data has been acquired after the communication time has elapsed. A two-way television system, characterized by automatically line disconnection.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the program data held by the response server includes connection information to another program data, and the interactive television receiver has a recording unit for holding the program data. Extracting the connection information from the program data acquired by the interactive television receiver, pre-acquiring program data corresponding to the connection information during line connection with a response server; Retained in the recording unit, when the viewer selects interactive program data, is an interactive television receiver to display on the monitor screen if there is program data corresponding to the recording unit,
An interactive television system according to claim 1.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the interactive television receiver, the program data held by the response server includes connection information to another program data and attribute information of the another program data. A recording unit for holding program data, extracting the connection information from the program data obtained by the interactive television receiver, extracting a priority corresponding to the attribute information from a database, and connecting to a response server. During the program data corresponding to the connection information, the program data having the higher priority is preferentially acquired in advance, the previously acquired program data is held in the recording unit, and the viewer selects the interactive program data. 2. The interactive television system according to claim 1, wherein the interactive television receiver displays, on the monitor screen, if there is program data corresponding to the recording unit. A.

[0018]

The first embodiment of the present invention will be described below.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an interactive television system according to a first embodiment of the present invention, wherein 1 is an interactive television receiver, and 11 to 15 are interactive television receivers, respectively. 11 is a control unit, 12 is a database, 13 is a timer unit, 14 is a line connection unit,
Reference numeral 15 denotes a monitor screen, and 16 denotes a remote controller. The signal from the remote controller 16 is sent to the control unit 11, and the database 12, the timer unit 13, and the line connection unit 14
Is connected to

A response server 2 holds interactive program data and is connected from the interactive television receiver 1 via a telephone network.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the main processing of the control unit 11. FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the timer process of the timer unit 13.

The operation of the interactive television receiver according to the first embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

When the user operates the remote controller 16 of the interactive television receiver 1 to request interactive program data (S11), it is determined whether or not a line is connected (S12). If the connection is not established, the time during which connection with the response server 2 can be established with a dial call charge of 10 yen is obtained from the database 12 (S13), and a timer interrupt is set to occur after the time obtained in S12, and the timer unit 13 is started. (S14), a call is made to the response server 2 through the line connection unit 14, and the line is connected (S1).
5) Send a data acquisition request to the response server 2 (S16), and receive data from the response server 2 (S16).
17) Notify the timer unit 13 that the data has been received, interpret the received data, and display it on the screen 15 (S18). When S18 ends, the process returns to the start of the main processing, and the main processing is repeated.

Next, the timer processing of the timer section 13 will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. When activated, the timer unit measures the time until the set time has elapsed (S21),
Check if there is a notification that data has been received (S2
2) If the data has been received, the line is disconnected and the control unit 11 is notified (S23), and the process ends. If the data has not been received, the time acquired in S12 is set again (S24), and the operation from S21 is repeated.

As described above, it is necessary to reconnect at the time of the next data acquisition request by maintaining the connection during the period in which the interactive television receiver of the first embodiment can communicate at a dial charge of 10 yen. In addition, the communication fee can be reduced by disconnecting the line if data communication is not being performed when the communication period of the dial call fee is exceeded.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of the second embodiment,
The response server 2 and the components 11 to 16 of the interactive television receiver 1 are the same as those in the first embodiment. Reference numeral 17 denotes a recording unit, which is connected to the main control unit 11.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of the main processing of the control unit 11. FIG. 6 is a flowchart of the data advance acquisition process of the control unit 11.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a set of data held by the response server 2, wherein D001 is data first sent from the response server 2, D011 to D014 are data that can be called from the data D001, D1
11 to D114 are data that can be called from the data D011. Other data is similarly connected in a tree structure.

FIG. 8 shows an example of one piece of data.
Are the same as the data D001 in FIG.
014 are data D011 to data D0 of FIG.
14 is connection information.

FIG. 9 shows an example of the preceding acquisition candidate list. The connection information L011 is the first preceding acquisition candidate, and the second connection information L012, and similarly, the connection information L013 is 3
And the connection information L014 is the fourth. The preceding acquisition list is stored in the recording unit 17.

The operation of the interactive television receiver according to the second embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 5 and the flowchart of FIG.

Steps S11 to S18 of the main process of FIG. 5 are the same as S11 to S18 of the main process of FIG. 2 described in the first embodiment.

If there is a data processing request in S11, the recording unit 1
7 is searched for corresponding data (S31), and if so, S18 is executed; if there is no corresponding data, S18 is executed.
The processing of step 12 is continued. Subsequent to the processing of S18, the preceding acquisition processing shown in the flowchart of FIG. 6 is performed.

In the data pre-acquisition processing of FIG. 6, after interpreting the data received in S18 and displaying it on the screen 15, the control section 11 extracts connection information from the received data (S4).
1) If the data corresponding to the extracted connection information does not exist in the recording unit, the data is added to the preceding acquisition candidate list (S42). If the data of the interactive program is requested by the operation of the remote controller 16, the processing ends (S43). If there is no data acquisition request,
If the line is disconnected, the process is terminated (S44). If the line is connected, a request to acquire data indicated by the connection information at the head of the preceding acquisition candidate list is transmitted to the response server 2 (S44).
45) When the data is received (S46), the received data is stored in the recording unit 17 (S47), and the process returns to the start of the preceding acquisition process and repeats the preceding acquisition process. When the preceding acquisition processing ends, the process returns to the start of the main processing in FIG.

The operation of the timer unit follows the flowchart of FIG. 3 as in the first embodiment.

As described above, the two-way television receiver according to the second embodiment continues to be connected during a period in which communication can be performed with a dial call fee of 10 yen, and during the connection, data is obtained in advance. If the pre-acquired data is in the recording unit, the data can be displayed on the screen without connecting to a line, and the communication fee can be reduced.

Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described. The configuration of the third embodiment is the same as the configuration of the second embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of the data advance acquisition process of the control unit 11. FIG. 11 shows an example of one piece of data, including data D001, connection information L011, and connection information L.
012, connection information L013, and connection information L014 are the same as the data example shown in FIG.

A011, A012, A013, A014
Are attribute information included in the connection information L011, connection information L012, connection information L013, and connection information L014, respectively, and include data D011, data D012, and data D0.
13, the data D014 has the attributes of the character strings "weather forecast", "sports", "life", and "quiz", respectively.

As described above, the attribute is information indicating the genre and characteristic of each data. FIG. 12 is an example of a table of attributes, display frequencies, and priorities held in the database 12.

The operation of the interactive television receiver according to the third embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

S41 to S47 of the preceding acquisition processing of FIG.
Is S4 of the pre-acquisition process of FIG. 6 described in the second embodiment.
1 to S47.

After the start of the pre-acquisition process, the attribute of the data being displayed on the monitor screen 15 is extracted (S51). If the same attribute as the extracted attribute is stored in the database 12, the priority with the higher frequency of the attribute is determined. The priority is updated to be higher (S52), and the process of S41 is continuously performed.

If the line is being connected in S44, the priority of the attribute is acquired from the database 12, and the connection information in the preceding acquisition candidate list is rearranged in the priority order (S5).
3). After the processing of S47, the processing of S41 and thereafter is repeated.

The main processing of the control unit 11 is the same as the main processing of FIG. 5 described in the first embodiment.
The timer processing of No. 3 is the same as the timer processing of FIG. 3 described in the first embodiment.

As described above, the interactive television receiver of the third embodiment holds the priority of data attributes in a database and raises the priority of the attributes of data frequently displayed on the screen by the user. , By prioritizing the acquisition of high-priority data in priority, increasing the probability that a user's data display request will hit the data held by the recording unit, reducing the number and time of line connections and reducing communication charges. Can be suppressed.

[0047]

As described above, according to the present invention, the two-way television receiver is kept connected for a certain communication cost so that the communication cost can be reduced, so that the next data acquisition can be performed. When it is not necessary to reconnect at the time of the request and the line is disconnected unless data communication is in progress when the communication period is exceeded due to the communication cost, thereby performing line disconnection / connection every time or continuous line connection Communication charges can be further reduced.

Also, by pre-acquisition of data during connection, if the pre-acquired data is in the recording unit, there is no need to connect to a line, and the communication charge can be reduced.

Furthermore, by preferentially prefetching data having a higher attribute priority, the probability of hitting the data held by the recording unit can be further increased, the number of line connections and the time can be reduced, and communication can be reduced. Fees can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an interactive television system according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of main processing according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a timer process according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of an interactive television system according to a second embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a main process according to a second embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a timer process according to the second embodiment;

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a set of data held by the response server 2.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of interactive program data used in the second embodiment.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of a preceding acquisition candidate list.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a main process according to a third embodiment;

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of interactive program data used in the third embodiment;

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of a table of attributes, display frequencies, and priorities used in the third embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a dial call charge table of a telephone network;

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a measurement result of a connection / disconnection time between the interactive television receiver and the response server;

FIG. 15 is a graph showing the relationship between the access frequency and the communication cost when the interactive television and the response server are in the same city area.

FIG. 16 is a graph showing a relationship between access frequency and communication cost when the interactive television and the response server are located in an area of 30 km or more and 60 km or less.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Interactive television receiver 2 Response server 11 Control part 12 Database 13 Timer part 14 Line connection part 15 Monitor screen 17 Recording part

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) H04N 7/081 H04N 7/08 Z 7/173

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An interactive television system comprising an interactive television receiver and a response server each of which is connected via a telephone line. A database holding communication time per fixed cost, a control unit, a timer unit, a monitor screen, and a line connection unit. When a viewer selects interactive program data, the control unit responds from the database. Obtain the communication time that can be connected to the server at a fixed cost, set the communication time in the timer section,
The line connection unit is connected to a response server via a line, acquires the program data from the response server, displays the acquired program data on a monitor screen, and after a lapse of the communication time, the timer unit has acquired the program data. An interactive television system characterized by automatically disconnecting the line if any. 2. The program data stored in the response server includes connection information to another program data, the interactive television receiver has a recording unit, and the program data acquired by the interactive television receiver. From the connection information, pre-acquiring the program data corresponding to the connection information during the line connection with the response server, holding the pre-acquired program data in the recording unit, and selecting the interactive program data by the viewer. 2. The interactive television system according to claim 1, wherein when the corresponding program data is in the recording unit, the interactive television receiver displays the program data stored in the recording unit on a monitor screen. 3. The program data held by the response server includes connection information to another program data and attribute information corresponding to the connection information, the interactive television receiver has a recording unit, The connection information is extracted from the program data obtained by the television receiver, and the priority corresponding to the attribute information corresponding to the connection information is extracted from the database based on the attribute information. Among the corresponding program data, the higher priority program data is preferentially pre-acquired, the pre-acquired program data is held in the recording unit, and when the viewer selects the interactive program data, the recording unit 2. The interactive television system according to claim 1, wherein the interactive television system is a two-way television receiver for displaying program data corresponding to the interactive television receiver on a monitor screen.