JP2000227851A - Two-way communication system and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable a user to set and preserve his/her peculiar environment information even when utilizing a set-top box(STB), which does not have any storage device excepting a primary storage device, as a terminal for domestic use. SOLUTION: This two-way communication system is provided with a data base 2 for storing the environment information corresponding to each of more than one STB 4 and the STB is provided with an environment authoring means 14 for setting the initial environment of the STB on the basis of the environment information and capable of transmitting new environment information to a server 1 when the environment of the STB is changed. The server is provided with an environment information retrieving and preserving means 25 writing/ reading the environment information to the data base, reading the environment information out of the data base, transmitting it to the STB and, when new environment information is received, updating corresponding environment information in the data base.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a two-way communication system and a recording medium, and more particularly, to a two-way communication system including a server for distributing a program and a set-top box (hereinafter referred to as STB) to which the program is to be received. The present invention relates to a communication system for communication and a recording medium storing a program for realizing each function of the system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, two-way communication systems, such as video-on-demand, cable television, and provision of television from a satellite, in which a fixed number of companies provide a large number of videos for a fee, have become widespread. In these systems, a system such as a server or a video server is provided on the trader side for receiving service requests from users, providing images, and the like. Further, the user displays the provided image or the like on a television monitor (TV) via the STB.

[0003] Recently, various services have been added to a two-way communication system, such as not only providing a simple image such as a TV or a video but also allowing the STB to function as a browser to enable access to the Internet. ing.

[0004] For this reason, in many cases, the STB downloads a client application from a server on the trader side at the time of activation and displays a service that can be received. The user selects T from the menu screen.
When the user selects V channel selection, video watching, Internet access, various environment settings, etc., a corresponding client application is downloaded from the server as needed, and a corresponding service is received.

[0005] When an environment setting is selected, necessary environment settings are made. That is, as the functions of the two-way communication system have become diversified, the STB also has:
Menu screen design (wallpaper, screen saver, etc.)
The same environment settings as those of a personal computer, such as browser settings and browser settings, are usually made.

[0006]

The STB, which is a home terminal, has no storage device other than the primary storage device for security management and the like. That is, only temporary information recording while functioning as a terminal can be performed, and service information cannot be stored in a secondary storage device such as a hard disk.

As described above, the application is downloaded and executed at the time of use, and all data on the primary storage device including the execution file is deleted at the time of termination, so that the environment such as the screen design of the user is set and saved. The means are not provided, or are provided solely within a special client application.
In this case, the setting of the environment information depends on the type of the client application.

Therefore, first, if the client application does not have an environment authoring function and an environment data storage function, it is impossible to set the environment of his / her preference.

Next, even if a client application used once has an environment authoring function and an environment data storage function, it is difficult to reproduce the previously saved environment when another client application is used next time. It is.

The present invention has been made in consideration of such circumstances, and has no storage device other than the primary storage device.
An object of the present invention is to provide a two-way communication system and a recording medium in which a user can set and save unique environment information even when using a TB as a home terminal.

[0011]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a server for providing a service and one or more set-top boxes receiving the service are provided via a communication unit. This is for a connected two-way communication system.

In this system, a database for storing environmental information is provided for each set-top box.

Further, the environment information retrieval and storage means in the server is configured so that the environment information can be written to and read from the database. First, the environment information is read from the database by the environment information retrieval and storage means, Sent to the set-top box.

On the other hand, the set-top box is provided with environment authoring means, and the environment authoring means sets an initial environment of the set-top box based on the environment information received from the server.

When the environment of the set-top box is changed, the new environment information can be transmitted to the server by the environment authoring means.
For example, when the user desires to save the changed environment information, new environment information is transmitted to the server.

When the server receives the changed environment information from the environment authoring means, the environment information retrieval and storage means updates the corresponding environment information in the database with the received information.

Therefore, even when the set-top box has no storage device other than the temporary storage device, the user can set and save unique environment information, and the stored environment information can be set. , The initial environment of the set-top box is set.

The invention corresponding to claim 2 or 3 is:
It is a recording medium recording a program for realizing the set-top box or the server in the invention corresponding to claim 1 on a computer.

With the system controlled by these programs, the same effects as in the first embodiment can be obtained.

[0020]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below.

(First Embodiment of the Invention) FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram illustrating an entire system to which a two-way communication system according to a first embodiment of the present invention is applied.

This two-way communication system is an example constructed as a cable television. A database 2 is connected to a server 1 of a service provider, and each STB 4 of a user is further connected to the server 1 via a communication line 3. Is T
The V monitor 5 is connected and configured. Here, the communication line 3 is a CATV cable in CATV,
A public line such as ISDN or via a satellite may be used, and a cable, a node, a bubble, and the like are provided as appropriate according to the case.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a main part in the bidirectional communication system of the present embodiment.

The STB 4 has a TV monitor 5 and the ST
The input device 6 for B4 is connected and the CP
U, RAM, ROM, a communication device as the transmission / reception unit 11 and the like are provided. No secondary storage device such as a hard disk is provided. Here, a program that functions as the connection request unit 12 is stored in the ROM.
The connection request unit 12 requests the server 1 for a client application (a basic application described later) that realizes a basic function such as a menu when the STB 4 is powered on.

The RAM is configured to store various client applications, and the client application unit 13 and the environment authoring application unit 14 are configured under the control of the CPU according to the programs stored in the RAM. In the figure, in order to clearly show that each program of the client application unit 13 and the environment authoring application unit 14 is stored in the RAM, these units 13, 1
4 is provided in the temporary storage unit 15.

The client application unit 13
It is a functional unit realized by a client application downloaded from the server 1. Here, the client application includes a basic application and an application application.

The basic applications are menu display,
This is an application that performs basic services in STB operation, such as making a request for a request application to the server 1, setting an environment to the environment authoring application unit 14, and making a storage request.

On the other hand, the application application is an application for performing an actual service that applies a browser, VOD, or the like, and is called from the server 1 in response to a request to the basic application via the input device 6.

The environment authoring application section 14 automatically sets the environment in response to an input from the input device 6 and at the time of startup, and stores the set environment information in the database 2. This is a processing unit realized by the environment authoring application downloaded from the server 1.

The server 1 includes a CPU, a RAM, a ROM,
A secondary storage device, a communication device as a transmission / reception unit 21 and the like are provided, and from these, a session allocation unit 22, an application extraction unit 23, an application storage unit 24, an environment information search storage unit 25, and a page information storage unit 27 are realized. I have.

When receiving a connection request from the STB 4, the session allocating unit 22 allocates a frequency band to be used for the STB 4, and establishes a session.

When receiving the notice of the establishment of the session from the session allocating unit 22, the application extracting unit 23 extracts the basic application and the environment authoring application from the application storing unit 24, and sends them to the STB 4 via the transmitting / receiving unit 21. Also,
Thereafter, upon receiving a request for transmission of an application from the basic application downloaded to the STB 4, the requested application is retrieved from the application storage unit 24 and transmitted to the STB 4 via the transmission / reception unit 21. In addition, the application extracting unit 23 extracts necessary page information from the page information storage unit 27 in response to the operation of the application as appropriate.

The application storage unit 24 stores the environment authoring application, the basic application, and a plurality of types of application applications.

The environment information search and storage unit 25 accesses the environment information file 31 provided in the database 2 for each STB in response to a request from the STB 4. That is, if there is a request for transmission of environment information from the STB 4, the database 2 is searched, the environment information is extracted from the corresponding environment information file 31, and sent to the STB 4. If there is a request to save the environment information from the STB 4, the environment information is stored in the corresponding environment information file 31. If the environment information file 31 corresponding to the requesting STB 4 does not exist in the database 2 at the time of searching and saving, the corresponding environment information file 31 is created.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the contents of the environment information file.

In the figure, each client (each STB 4)
Environment information that specifies the character type and font size of the menu screen display characters corresponding to the
a, 31b,. . Are provided.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the contents of the page information storage section.

The page information storage section 27 stores page information displayed and output from the monitor 5, and stores the page information via the application extracting section 23 and the transmitting / receiving section 21 in the STB.
4

Next, the operation of the bidirectional communication system according to the embodiment of the present invention configured as described above will be described.

First, the user sends an STB to the STB system.
When the power of B4 is turned on, an STB system activation request is issued to the server 1 from the STB4 which is a home terminal of the system. In the server 1, the session allocating unit 22 establishes a session with the STB 4 corresponding to the request. When the session is established, the session allocating unit 22 notifies the application extracting unit 23 of the establishment.

Next, the application fetching unit 23, which has been notified of the establishment of the session, fetches two client applications (basic applications in this case) to be activated on the STB 4 and an application for environment authoring from the application storage unit 24. And downloaded from the server 1 to the STB 4.

On the STB 4 to which both applications have been downloaded, first, the basic application is started by the client application unit 13, and the environment authoring application unit 14 is started by the basic application.

In the starting process, a menu screen of the basic application is displayed. That is, the first environment setting of the STB 4 is performed based on the environment information stored in the database 2. For this purpose, first, the basic application issues an environment information acquisition request for the STB, and in response to this, the environment authoring application unit 14 requests the server 1 to transmit environment information.
The environment information search and storage unit 25 in the server 1 receiving this request
Is retrieved from the environment information files 31a to 31z of the database 2 and transmitted to the STB 4. At this time, if the current service request is made by the user for the first time, the environment information retrieval and storage unit 25 secures the environment information file 31 for the user in the user database 2 on the server 4 side. You.

The environment information received from the server 1 is transferred from the authoring application unit 14 to the basic application, and the basic application displays a menu based on the environment information.

Each application including the environment authoring application is a process that operates in parallel, so that the user can execute the environment authoring application unit 14 at any time while the service is connected.

When the start-up process is completed, STB4
Becomes a state in which a request from a user can be accepted. At this time, STB4 has the environment previously set by the user, and the menu screen is displayed.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the processing in the STB of this embodiment.

First, immediately after the service starts, as described above,
The ST in the database 2 sent from the server 1
Environment information regarding B4 is received, and environment setting is performed by the environment authoring application unit 14 (S
T1). Thereafter, the environment authoring application unit 14 enters an event waiting loop for an operation by the STB operation remote controller (input device 6) (ST2). Steps ST1 and ST2 correspond to the processing up to the display of the menu screen described above.

Here, the display of the menu screen will be described more specifically.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of each information used for displaying the menu screen.

That is, in order to display the menu screen, screen information such as screen design (FIG. 6A), screen content information such as characters inserted into the screen (FIG. 6B), and screen content Font information (FIG. 6 (c)) and the like of the information are required, and the screen information and the screen content information are stored in the page information storage unit 27 as page information. The same page information is used for each client (each STB).

On the other hand, character type information, font information, etc.
Environment information file 3 for each client as environment information
1 is stored. The above-described menu screen display is realized by sending the page information and the environment information to the STB 4.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of a case where a menu screen is specifically displayed.

For example, consider the case where the page information is as shown in FIG. In this case, in the page information, the title is designated as font A, the menus # 1 to # 3 are designated as font B, and the comments are designated as font C.

As shown in FIG. 7B, the environment information file 31 stores font information such as a font and a font size as environment information corresponding to each client.

The menu screen shown in FIG. 7C is created based on the page information and the environment information.
Note that “VOD”, “mail”, and “news” are displayed on the menu screen (menu of the basic application) of the present embodiment, and the program that is selected and executed is an applied application.

As described above, when a request for starting an application or a video playback request is made while the menu screen is displayed, here, when a video playback request is made (FIG. 5; ST3), the basic application issues the request. A request is sent to the server 1 and video reproduction is performed (ST
4).

In this case, the operation returns to the event waiting state while continuing the video reproduction (ST2). If a request for a new application is not made (ST3),
Whether there is an authoring tool activation request (environmental authoring application unit 14) (ST
5) Whether there is a request to terminate the connection service itself (ST
6) is checked, and if these are not present, the process returns to the event waiting state (ST2). Note that in this state, the video reproduction party is continuing.

When an environment setting request is made in step ST5, the environment authoring application section 14 is started by the basic application (ST7), and the environment editing routine is entered (ST8). At this time, an environment setting pop-up window is displayed, and the environment setting is edited.

After editing the environment, the user saves the environment information in S
When a save command is issued by the TB operation remote controller (input device 6), the edited environment information is sent to the server 1 by the environment authoring application unit 14. In the server 1 that has received the environment information, the environment information search and storage unit 25 uses the environment information search file
The environment information is stored.

As described above, the two-way communication system according to the embodiment of the present invention downloads the environment authoring application at the time of starting the service, calls the corresponding environment information from the database 2 and calls up the STB.
In addition to setting the initial environment of item 4, the user authors the environment such as screen design using the environment authoring application at any time while the service is connected.
Since the server can store the environment information in the database 2 assigned to the user in advance, even when the STB 4 having no storage device other than the temporary storage device is used as a home terminal, In addition, it is not necessary to add an environment authoring function such as a screen design to the client application itself, and the user's own environment can be authored and saved. Therefore, it is possible to author an environment such as a screen design and a browser unique to the user without depending on the type of the client application for service.

In this embodiment, the case where the basic application is downloaded from the server 1 has been described.
Such a basic application may be burned into the ROM from the beginning and started up when the STB is turned on.

(Second Embodiment of the Invention) In the first embodiment, the case where the application programs used in the STB are separated according to their functions and properties has been described. That is, the application is divided into a client application and an environment authoring application, and the client application is further divided into a basic application and an application application.

In this case, in the first embodiment, the basic application and the environment authoring application are downloaded, the environment setting is saved, and the application corresponding to the user's request is called.

On the other hand, the present embodiment is a case where these applications are integrated. In other words, when an actual two-way communication system is constructed, it may be more convenient for each application to exist as one application program than for each function.

The configuration and operation of this embodiment are the same as those of the first embodiment except that the respective applications are integrated.
This embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment, and the description of the same parts will be omitted.

The difference from the first embodiment is that only one application program is downloaded at the time of establishing a session, and each function including an application is integrated in the temporary storage unit 15 of the STB 4 into one application unit. Is configured.

Therefore, if the download is performed when the session is established, the subsequent download of the application is unnecessary. In this case, the request from the user is transferred between the functions (environment authoring function, basic application function, and application function) in one application unit.

As described above, the two-way communication system according to the embodiment of the present invention has the same effects as those of the first embodiment, and has the same configuration and functions as those of the first embodiment. It can be obtained by an application program.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, but can be variously modified without departing from the gist thereof.

The method described in the embodiment can be implemented by a computer (computer) as a program (software means) such as a magnetic disk (floppy disk, hard disk, etc.), an optical disk (CD-ROM, DVD, etc.). ), Stored in a storage medium such as a semiconductor memory, or transmitted and distributed via a communication medium. The programs stored on the medium side include
A software program (including not only an execution program but also a table and a data structure) to be executed by the computer includes a setting program for configuring the computer. A computer that realizes the present apparatus reads a program recorded in a storage medium, and in some cases, constructs software means by using a setting program, and executes the above-described processing by controlling the operation of the software means.

[0072]

As described above, according to the present invention, the server is provided with means for recording environment information corresponding to each STB, and the initial environment in the STB is set based on the stored environment information. Therefore, even when the STB having no storage device other than the primary storage device is used as the home terminal, the user can set and save the unique environment information and the interactive communication system and the recording device. A medium can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram illustrating an entire system to which a two-way communication system according to a first embodiment of the present invention is applied;

FIG. 2 is an exemplary block diagram showing a configuration example of a main part in the bidirectional communication system of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the contents of an environment information file.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of contents of a page information storage unit.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing processing in the STB of the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of each information used for displaying a menu screen.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of a case where a menu screen is specifically displayed.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Server 2 ... Database 3 ... Communication line 4 ... STB 5 ... TV monitor 6 ... Input device 11 ... Transmission / reception part 12 ... Connection request part 13 ... Client application part 14 ... Environment authoring application 15 ... Temporary storage part 21 ... Transmission / reception part Reference numeral 22: session allocation unit 23: application extraction unit 24: application storage unit 25: environment information search storage unit 27: page information storage unit 31: environment information file

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A two-way communication system in which a server that provides a service and one or more set-top boxes that receive the service are connected via communication means. A database that stores environment information is provided, and the set-top box sets an initial environment of the set-top box based on the environment information stored in the database,
When the environment of the set-top box is changed, the server further includes environment authoring means for enabling transmission of the new environment information to the server. The server is configured to be able to write and read environment information to and from the database. And, while reading the environmental information from the database and transmitting to the corresponding set-top box,
An interactive information communication system, comprising: an environment information search / storage unit that updates corresponding environment information in the database when receiving changed environment information from the environment authoring unit. 2. A program for controlling a set-top box in a two-way communication system in which a server providing a service and one or more set-top boxes receiving the service are connected via communication means, Based on the environment information stored on the server side, set the initial environment of the set-top box, if the environment of the set-top box is changed,
A computer-readable recording medium on which a program for realizing an environment authoring function capable of transmitting the new environment information to the server is recorded. 3. A program for controlling a server in a two-way communication system in which a server providing a service and one or more set-top boxes receiving the service are connected via communication means. When the environment information is read from the database storing the environment information corresponding to each of the above set-top boxes and transmitted to the corresponding set-top box, and when the changed environment information is received from any of the set-top boxes, And a computer-readable recording medium storing a program for realizing an environment information search and save function for updating corresponding environment information in the database.