JP2000101947A - Information display device and information display method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily read characters of an EPG by providing an area on which information of a selected program is displayed through magnification to a displayed program list, so as to display the EPG through magnification, even when the characters of the EPG are difficult to read because they are displayed on a small screen of a display device. SOLUTION: A display control circuit decides a display form of a display device for an EPG configured in accordance with instructions from a microprocessor and a video signal decoded by an AV decoder. That is, only the video signal, or only the EPG or the video signal and EPG superimposed with each other is displayed. The user selects a desired program by a cursor 12 in the display of the EPG. The user instructs the movement of the cursor 12 through an entry operation section. In this case, when the size of the display device is small, since the characters displayed on a cell 11 selected by the cursor 12 are to be distinguished, the characters displayed on the cell 11 selected by the cursor 12 are displayed on an area 13 through magnification. The contents of the cell 11 selected by the cursor 12 attended with its movement are displayed sequentially through magnification.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information display device, and more particularly to an information display device and an information display method for improving a display state of an electronic program guide for displaying television program information on a monitor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Digital broadcasting, which has been put into practical use in recent years, can provide tens to hundreds of channels as programs.

In such multi-channel television broadcasting, the transmitting side transmits television program information together with a general program, and the receiver analyzes the transmitted television program information and displays the television program information on a monitor. An electronic program guide (hereinafter referred to as EPG (Electronic P
program guide). The viewer may, for example, select the E-channel in the form of a matrix in which the vertical axis represents the channel and the horizontal axis represents the broadcast time.
A desired program or broadcast service is selected from the program information indicated in the PG and is viewed.

[0004]

The display form of the conventional EPG on the display device is constant without depending on the size of the display screen.

[0005] For this reason, when the large display device, that is, the display screen is large, the EPG is also displayed large, but when the small display device, that is, the display screen is small, the EPG becomes small, and fine characters and the like can be read. There is a problem that it becomes difficult.

FIG. 4 shows this state. In FIG.
Compared to when displayed on the large display device of (A),
When the image is displayed on the small display device of (B), the display of the EPG is also reduced with the screen size, and the characters displayed thereon are difficult to read.

Further, when the display device performs screen display by performing interlaced scanning, there is a problem that characters flicker, which is not only difficult to see but also is not good for eye health.

An object of the present invention is to provide an information display device and an information display method which solve the above-mentioned problem and solve the problem.

[0009]

The present invention employs the following configuration to solve the above-mentioned problems.

That is, according to the present invention, at least an information display device in a television system for transmitting and receiving a signal including program information includes: a selecting means for selecting the program information from a received signal; A display control means for configuring a program table; and an operation unit for selecting a desired program in the program table, wherein the program table has an area for enlarging and displaying information on the selected program. The invention according to claim 2 is an information display method in a television system for transmitting and receiving a signal including program information, wherein a program table is formed from the program information. This is an information display method whose main purpose is to enlarge and display the information of the program selected in the table, and the invention of claim 3 further comprises the step of: The information display method according to claim 2, wherein the rate can be set arbitrarily. The invention according to claim 4 is characterized in that when the enlarged and displayed program information cannot be displayed all at once, a display character is displayed. The information display method according to claim 2 or 3, wherein scrolling is performed sequentially in a horizontal direction or a vertical direction, and the scrolling speed is arbitrary. 5. The information display method according to claim 4, wherein the information display method can be set to:

[0011]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an information display device according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, 1 is an antenna for receiving a transmitted television wave, 2 is a tuner for demodulating the received television wave, 3 is a demultiplexer for selecting various information from a transmitted signal,
Reference numeral 4 denotes an AV decoder for decoding the video and audio signals extracted by the demultiplexer 3, 5 a display control circuit for multiplexing or switching between the video signal and the EPG decoded by the AV decoder, and 6 a signal for the display control circuit 5. The encoder 7 for converting the information to a form that can be displayed on the display device 10 controls the operation of the information display device in accordance with a user's instruction.
An input operation unit for processing control instruction information from a user, 9 is an operation program of the information display device, and a memory that functions as a working memory when processing various types of information, and 10 is a process performed by the information display device. A display device that displays the displayed video and outputs audio.

Reference numeral 8 denotes a microprocessor which controls the operation of the entire information display device, and sends an instruction for creating an EPG screen to the display control circuit 5 based on the received information.

The operation of the block diagram will be described below. The television wave received by the antenna 1 is demodulated by the tuner 2. The demultiplexer 3 selects and outputs information such as video, audio, and EPG from the demodulated signal.

Here, the video and audio information is decoded by the AV decoder 4. The EPG information is transmitted to the microprocessor 8, and the microprocessor 8 having received the EPG information sends the EPG information to the display control circuit 5.
Send instructions to compose the screen.

The display control circuit 5 determines the display format of the EPG configured according to the instruction from the microprocessor 8 and the video signal decoded by the AV decoder 4 on the display device 10. That is, whether to display only the video signal, display only the EPG, or superimpose the video signal and the EPG on the display device 10 is displayed.

The screen information created by the display control circuit 5 is as follows:
The signal is converted into a signal format that can be displayed on the display device 10 by the encoder 6 and output.

Next, FIG. 2 shows the configuration of an EPG in an embodiment of the information display device according to the present invention.

In FIG. 2, 11 is a cell for displaying each program, 12 is a cursor for selecting a desired program, 13
Is an area where the information of the selected program is enlarged and displayed.

Hereinafter, the operation of the EPG in FIG. 2 will be described. With the cursor 12, the user selects a desired program. The user instructs the movement of the cursor through the input operation unit 7.

At this time, if the size of the display device is small, it is difficult to determine the character displayed in the cell selected by the cursor. Therefore, the character of the selected cell is enlarged and displayed in the area 13.

The display of the enlarged character in the area 13 is synchronized with the selection of the cell by the cursor. Therefore, as the cursor is moved, the contents of the cell selected there are sequentially enlarged and displayed.

Further, the enlargement ratio of the enlarged character can be arbitrarily set as required as shown in FIGS. 2 (A), 2 (B) and 2 (C).

The setting method is manually set by the user through the input operation unit 7. Further, when the characters enlarged in the area 13 cannot be displayed at one time, the characters are displayed while flowing sequentially in the horizontal direction as shown in FIG.

The speed at which characters are sequentially flowed in the horizontal direction is as follows:
It can be set arbitrarily as needed, and the setting method is manually set by the user through the input operation unit 7.

Here, the case where the characters are displayed while flowing sequentially in the horizontal direction has been described, but this is an example, and the characters may be displayed so as to scroll in the vertical direction.

[0026]

According to the present invention, even when the display device is small and the EPG displayed on the screen is difficult to read, the portion selected by the cursor is enlarged and displayed, so that the EPG characters can be easily read. Become.

Also, since the user can arbitrarily set the enlargement ratio of the enlarged character, the character size can be made optimal according to the size of the display device or the user's eyesight.

If the number of characters is too large to be enlarged and displayed at one time, the enlarged characters can be read sequentially by scrolling horizontally or vertically, and the scroll speed can be set arbitrarily by the user. By doing so, convenience is improved.

Further, by displaying the enlarged characters, the convenience for a user with low visual acuity is improved, the burden on the eyes can be reduced, and the effect of good eye health can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an information display device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an example of an EPG screen according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an example of a second screen of the EPG according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a case where a conventional EPG is displayed on a large screen monitor and a case where it is displayed on a small screen monitor.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 antenna 2 tuner 3 demultiplexer 4 AV decoder 5 display control circuit 6 encoder 7 input operation unit 8 microprocessor 9 memory 10 display device 11 cell 12 cursor 13 enlarged character display area 14 large display device 15 small display device 16 EPG

Claims (5)

[Claims] At least an information display device in a television system for transmitting and receiving a signal including program information, a selecting means for selecting the program information from a received signal, and a display control for forming a program table from the program information An information display device comprising: means; and an operation unit for selecting a desired program from the program table, wherein the program table has an area for enlarging and displaying information on the selected program. 2. An information display method in a television system for transmitting and receiving at least a signal including program information, wherein a program table is formed from the program information, and information of a program selected in the program table is enlarged and displayed. An information display method, comprising: 3. The information display method according to claim 2, wherein the enlargement ratio of the enlarged and displayed program information can be arbitrarily set. 4. The method according to claim 2, wherein when the enlarged and displayed program information cannot be displayed all at once, the display characters are sequentially scrolled horizontally or vertically to be displayed. Information display method described in. 5. The information display method according to claim 4, wherein the scroll speed can be arbitrarily set.