JP2001157133A - Device for displaying program information - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a program information display device, capable of giving retrieval conditions needed to detect program information simply by selecting only one piece of program information among program information displayed on the screen of a display device and quickly and easily notifying program information related to a program of interest. SOLUTION: A retrieval condition generating means generates a retrieval condition from a plurality of pieces of received program information, on the basis of program information selected by a display selecting means, a program information retrieving means retrieves the plurality of pieces of program information received by using the generated retrieval condition, and retrieval results are displayed on the display device.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is based on a plurality of pieces of program information input together with a plurality of video and audio programs as a reception signal received by an antenna or a transmission signal transmitted by a cable. The present invention relates to a program information display device for searching for and displaying program information of a program in which a user is interested.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art CS (Communications Satellite) whose broadcasting has begun one after another in the late 1990s.
In digital broadcasting using, the program information of the current and future programs is transmitted together with the program composed of video, audio, etc., but the number of channels that can be viewed is 100 or more, and the program transmitted together with the program is transmitted. The amount of information is enormous. Current CS digital broadcast receiving devices that receive such CS digital broadcasts include:
In order to make it convenient for the user to select a program, the user is asked to enter a channel for broadcasting the program of interest or a field of interest as a search condition, and the user is selected from a plurality of received program information. Has a function of searching for program information that matches the search condition input by the user and displaying a list of search results. In addition, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H10-56600, in addition to an explicit search condition input by a user, a viewing history of viewing a broadcast program is used as an implicit search condition. There are also proposals related to program information search that improve the accuracy of program information search narrowing.

[0003]

A program information retrieval apparatus according to the prior art sets a complex retrieval condition in order to accurately extract program information of interest from a huge amount of received program information. For example, in a program information search apparatus that manually sets a plurality of search conditions as used in current CS digital broadcast receiving apparatuses, much trouble is required for remote control operation and the like. Also, in a program information search that automatically sets search conditions using the viewing history of broadcast programs that have been viewed so far, when an unspecified number of users use one receiving terminal device, Since the viewing history differs for each user, it is difficult to construct the viewing history, and it is difficult to apply the viewing history. The present invention solves the problem that it takes time to search for the program information or it is difficult to apply the viewing history, and only one program among the program information displayed on the screen of the television receiver is solved. It is an object of the present invention to provide a program information display device capable of giving a search condition necessary for searching program information only by selecting information, and quickly and easily finding program information related to a program of interest. And

[0004]

In order to achieve the above object, a program information display device according to the present invention uses a display selection means to display program information output from the program information display device and displayed on the display device. Of the program information of interest from the list of the program information, a search condition is generated from the selected program information by using the search condition generating means, and the search condition is determined from the program information received by the program information search means. Is extracted and displayed on the display device as information related to the selected program information.

[0005]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a program information display device according to the present invention, and FIG.
5 is a flowchart showing an outline of an operation of the program information display device according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a program information display device, and 2 denotes a plurality of digitally modulated signals transmitted through a wireless transmission system using artificial satellites or the like or transmitted through a cable transmission system such as a cable television network. Receiving means for selecting a required digital modulation signal from among them and demodulating a stream of the MPEG system standard in which data such as video and audio constituting a program and data of current and future program information are code-division multiplexed; Is a demultiplexer that separates data of current and future program information and required data such as video and audio from a stream of the MPEG system standard output from the receiving means 2, and a demultiplexer 4 output from the demultiplexer 3 The program information management means 5 for storing and reading out the program information data of the current and future programs in the storage means is, for example, shown in FIG. A remote control for remotely controlling power of the program information display device, display of program information list, reproduction of broadcast program, history of selected program information, on / off control of search of program information, cursor movement control, etc .; A search condition generating means for generating a search condition candidate based on the selected program information; a search history storing means for storing program information used for the search as a search history; and a search condition storage means for storing a search condition selected from the search condition candidates. The program information search means 10 searches for the program information stored in the storage means managed by the program information management means 4 by the program information management means 4. The output signal synthesizing means 6 which decodes the decoded information and synthesizes it with the program information output from the display selecting means, and outputs the synthesized signal when the instruction signal is input from the remote controller 5 Moni, a demultiplexer 3, a program information management means 4,
Input of various kinds of information with the search history storage means 8, the program information search means 9, the search history storage means 7, and the output signal synthesizing means 10;
A display selection means 11 for performing storage and output is a display device for displaying a video signal and program information of an input program on a screen, for example, a television receiver (output of an audio signal is omitted). Is shown.

First, an outline of the operation of the program information display device according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. Video and audio, which are components of a broadcast program, are MPEG
2 (Moving Picture Experts Group Phase 2) A plurality of streams compressed and encoded in accordance with the video standard and the MPEG2 audio standard and program information of current and future programs are generated by code division multiplexing in accordance with the MPEG system standard. The stream is QPSK or 8PSK
Examples of transmission systems that perform frequency division multiplexing after performing digital modulation, such as a system, include a wireless transmission system using artificial satellites and the like, and a cable transmission system such as a cable television network. The frequency division multiplexed signal transmitted through the transmission system is input to the receiving means 2. The receiving means 2 extracts and demodulates a required digital modulation signal from the input frequency division multiplexed signal, and outputs the demodulated stream of the MPEG system standard to the demultiplexer 3.

The demultiplexer 3 separates and extracts the program information data and the coded data of the video signal and the audio signal constituting the required program from the stream of the MPEG system standard input from the receiving means 2, and The coded data of the signal and the audio signal are output to the output signal synthesizing means 10, and the data of the program information are output to the program information managing means 4. The program information management means 4 accumulates program information data input from the demultiplexer 3 in an accumulation means (not shown). Here, the contents of the program information will be described. As shown in an example in FIG. 11, each piece of program information is composed of a plurality of combinations of an attribute name (for example, a main title) and an element (for example, Hitachiman). I have. Such program information is stored in the initial state after the power is turned on to the program information display device 1 or in the remote control 5 (FIG. 14).
When the "list" key K2 is pressed and a "list" instruction signal is input to the display selection means 6, predetermined program information stored in the storage means managed by the program information management means 4 is read. Then, the program information is output to the display selection means 6, and the list of program information is displayed on the screen of the television receiver 11 via the output signal synthesizing means 10 (see step F1 in FIG. 2).

FIG. 7 shows a display example of a list of program information displayed on the screen of the television receiver 11. A bold frame surrounding one piece of program information is displayed in a portion where a plurality of pieces of program information are displayed on the screen, and this bold frame corresponds to the “cursor” keys K6, K7, K8, and K9 of the remote controller 5. By pressing a required "cursor" key, it can be moved so as to surround other program information. Here, the user of the program information display device 1 operates the “cursor” key K of the remote controller 5.
6. Operate K7, K8, K9 to enclose the program information of interest in a bold frame, press the "Search" key K5 of the remote controller 5, and select the program information enclosed in the bold frame as the selected program information. (See step F2 in FIG. 2)
Then, the selected program information used for the search is output from the display selecting means 6 to the search condition generating means 8. The selected program information is also output to the search history storage means 7 at the same time, and is used as the program information used for the search.
And added to the search history.

The search condition generation means 8 generates a plurality of search condition candidates based on the selected program information input from the display selection means 6, and outputs the search condition candidates to the display selection means 6, as shown as an example in FIG. The generated search condition candidates (the lower table in FIG. 8 shows search condition candidates, and the upper table shows selected program information from which search condition candidates are generated) are listed on the screen of the television receiver 11. When the search condition candidates generated based on the selected program information are listed on the screen, the user of the program information display device 1 operates the "cursor" keys K6 and K9 of the remote controller 5 next. To move the bold frame, enclose the required search conditions you want to use in the search with a bold frame,
When a search is instructed by pressing the "search" key K5 of the remote controller 5, a search condition surrounded by a thick frame is selected (see step F3 in FIG. 2), and information of the selected search condition is displayed from the display selection means 6 to the program information. It is output to the search means 9. The program information search means 9 searches the program information stored in the storage means managed by the program information management means 4 according to search conditions selected by the user of the program information display device 1, and displays the search results. The search result is output to the selection means 6 and displayed as a list on the screen of the television receiver 11 as shown as an example in FIG. 9 (see step F4 in FIG. 2).

The above is the description of the program information display apparatus 1 according to the present invention.
The process flow from the selection of the program information to the display of the search result is described in the above. At any point during the operation of the program information display device 1, the "history" key K4 of the remote controller 5 is pressed to store the search history. The history of the program search so far stored in the means 7 can be displayed in a list (see step F26 in FIG. 6), and the search can be performed based on the program information that has been displayed and used in the program search so far. Can also be performed. FIG. 10 shows an example of a list display of program search histories displayed on the screen of the television receiver 11 when the "history" key K4 of the remote controller 5 is pressed. When a search is performed using the history of the program search, the processing after the history list is displayed shifts to step A in FIG.
Is the process of A shown in FIG. 2, and is the same as the search from the normal program information list. By pressing the "play" key K3 of the remote controller 5 at the time of selecting the program information, the video signal and the audio signal of the selected program can be played. These functions will be described later.

Next, in the operation of the program information display device 1 according to the present invention, which has been described in brief, a "select program information" portion of the operation outline flowchart shown in FIG. 2 (see step F2 in FIG. 2); "Generate and select search conditions" (see step F3 in FIG. 2) and "Search with selected search conditions" (see step F4 in FIG. 2)
Will be described in detail. First, the "select program information" portion (see step F2 in FIG. 2) will be described. The flowchart shown in FIG. 3 shows a flow of a process of “selecting program information”. The routine shown in this flowchart is commonly used in three list displays: a program information list display, a search result list display, and a search history list display. When displaying these lists, the program information management unit 4, the program information search unit 9, and the search history storage unit 7 output the program information to be displayed in the list to the display selection unit 6. FIG. 1 shows an example of the program information output to the display selection means 6.
It is shown in FIG.

The display selection means 6 includes a program information management means 4,
The program information input from each of the program information search means 9 and the search history storage means 7 is displayed as a list on the screen of the television receiver 11 as shown in the display examples of FIGS. 7, 9, and 10. When all the program information cannot be displayed on the same screen during the list display, a part of the program information is displayed, and the display range of the remaining program information is switched and displayed according to the operation of the remote controller 5. . When a list of the program information is displayed on the screen, after the display, one program information at the initial position set for each display is surrounded by a thick frame and displayed (see step F5 in FIG. 3). The bold frame surrounding the program information is used to indicate which program information of the plurality of pieces of program information is currently focused on, and the "cursor" keys K6, K7, K8, and K9 of the remote controller 5 are operated. By doing so, it is possible to move on the list (see steps F6 and F7 in FIG. 3). Note that a mark such as an arrow may be used instead of the thick frame surrounding the program information, or a method of changing the color or brightness of the part of the program information of interest may be adopted.

Further, during the selection of the program information, the remote controller 5
When the "play" key K3 or the "search" key K5 is pressed, the program information enclosed in the bold frame at that time is selected to be played back or searched. For example, during the selection of the program information, the "play"
When the key K3 is pressed (see step F8 in FIG. 3),
First, an instruction to delete the list display on the screen is output from the display selection means 6, and the list display is deleted (see step F9 in FIG. 3). Next, an instruction is output to the demultiplexer 3 and the output signal synthesizing means 10 so as to select the video signal and the audio signal of the program corresponding to the selected program information and start reproduction, and the video of the selected program is output. The reproduction of the signal and the audio signal is started (see step F10 in FIG. 3). When the "search" key K5 of the remote controller 5 is pressed during the reproduction of the program after the reproduction of the program selected in this manner starts (see FIG. 3).
, The program information of the program being reproduced is output from the display selection means 6 to the search condition generation means 8 (see step F13 in FIG. 3), and is also output to the search history storage means 7 for program search. (See step F14 in FIG. 3), and the selection of the program information ends.

As described above, the "search" key K5 of the remote controller 5 is not selected during program reproduction but during program information selection.
Is pressed (see step F12 in FIG. 3), the program information selected from the display selection means 6 is stored in the search condition generation means 8
(See step F13 in FIG. 3),
It is also output to the search history storage means 7 and added to the program search history (see step F14 in FIG. 3), ending the selection of the program information.

Next, the "generate and select search condition" portion of the program information (see step F3 in FIG. 2) will be described. The flowchart illustrated in FIG. 4 illustrates a flow of a process of “generating and selecting a search condition”. The search condition generating means 8 receives the selected program information from the display selecting means 6. The search condition generating means 8 to which the selected program information has been input, uses the attribute name included in the program information as a combination element and applies a predetermined attribute combination pattern as shown in FIG. Is generated (see step F15 in FIG. 4). The combination pattern may be a pattern in which three or more attribute names such as “channel, genre, and time” are combined as elements of the combination in addition to the example shown in FIG. Some of the elements constituting the search condition may be different from the elements included in the selected program information, such as "the main title is similar."

The search condition generating means 8 outputs the generated search conditions to the display selecting means 6. The display selection means 6 stores the generated search condition input from the search condition generation means 8 in FIG.
, A list is displayed on the screen of the television receiver 11 (see step F16 in FIG. 4). After a list of search conditions is displayed, a bold frame is displayed at a default initial position (in the example shown in FIG. 8, at the top of the search conditions in the table below) so as to surround one search condition (see FIG. 4). Step F17). The display of this bold frame is for indicating which search condition candidate is currently focused on among a plurality of search condition candidates, and the "cursor" keys K6, K
The user moves and selects in the vertical direction by the operation of No. 9 (see steps F18 and F19 in FIG. 4). When the "search" key K5 of the remote controller 5 is pressed when the search condition is selected (see step F20 in FIG. 4), the selected search condition is output from the display selection means 6 to the program information search means 9 (see FIG. 4). 4 step F21), and the selection of the search condition ends. FIG. 13 shows an example of the search condition generated by the search condition generating means 8.

Next, the "search for program information" portion (see step F4 in FIG. 2) will be described. FIG.
The flowchart shown in Fig. 7 shows the flow of processing for searching for program information and displaying search results. Program information search means 9
Is input from the display selection means 6 as a search condition. The program information search means 9 to which the search condition has been input focuses on one of the elements included in the search condition, and searches for all the program information input to the program information display device 1 stored in the program information management means 4. From among them, program information satisfying the condition of the element of interest is searched, and a list of the searched program information is created (see step F22 in FIG. 5).

Here, the elements of the combination included in the search condition are, as shown in FIG.
3 "," Main title: Hitachiman ", and two or more, such as" Genre: 'Western music' or 'Japanese music'" Or the sum of the conditions
The search may require special processing such as "less than 0 minutes" or "subtitle: including" special feature "". Thereafter, the process of paying attention to each unexamined element in the search condition in order and removing program information that does not satisfy the element condition from the list is repeated until there is no unexamined element (step in FIG. 5). See F23 and F24). When a list of program information that satisfies the search condition is obtained by such a series of processing, the program information that satisfies the search condition is output from the display selection unit 6 to the television receiver 11 via the output signal synthesis unit 10. Then, a list of the search results is displayed on the screen (see step F25 in FIG. 5), and the search for the program information and the display of the results are terminated.

Regarding the search method, program information that satisfies all the elements in the search condition may be extracted from the beginning, or an index may be created for the entire program information in advance, so that the program information at the time of searching for the program information may be extracted. A method of reducing the processing amount may be adopted. As described above, the program information display device 1 according to the present invention requires the user to select only one program information of the program information displayed on the screen of the television receiver 11 to search for the program information. Since a simple search condition can be given, it is possible to quickly and easily know program information related to a program of interest without building a viewing history or inputting search conditions for complicated program information.

[0020]

According to the present invention, it is possible to give search conditions necessary for program information search by selecting only one program information from the program information displayed on the screen of the television receiver. It is possible to provide a program information display device capable of quickly and easily finding program information related to a program of interest.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an outline of an operation of the program information display device shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing details of processing for selecting program information indicated by a symbol F2 in the operation outline shown in FIG. 2;

4 is a flowchart showing details of processing for generating and selecting a search condition indicated by a symbol F3 in the operation outline shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing details of processing for searching for program information and displaying the result indicated by a symbol F4 in the operation outline shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an operation when a “history” key of a remote controller is pressed during operation of the program information display device shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 is a display example of a program information list output from the program information display device shown in FIG. 1 to a television receiver and displayed.

FIG. 8 is a display example of a search condition list output from the program information display device shown in FIG. 1 to a television receiver and displayed.

9 is a display example of a search result list output and displayed from the program information display device shown in FIG. 1 to a television receiver.

10 is a display example of a search history list output from the program information display device shown in FIG. 1 to a television receiver and displayed.

FIG. 11 is an example of program information data used in the program information display device shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 12 is a table showing an example of a combination pattern of elements used in search condition generating means of the program information display device shown in FIG. 1;

13 is an example of a search condition generated using the program information shown in FIG. 11 and one of the element combination patterns shown in FIG. 12;

14 is an example of a remote controller used in the program information display device shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 program information display device, 2 receiving means, 3 demultiplexer, 4 program information management means, 5 remote control, 6 display selection means, 7 search history storage means, 8 search condition generation means, 9 program information search means, 10 output signal synthesis Means, 11 television receivers.

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A means for receiving and demodulating a required digital modulation signal comprising a program comprising video and audio and a plurality of program information; means for displaying the demodulated plurality of program information; A program information display device comprising: means for selecting a piece of program information from the plurality of pieces of program information; and a program based on the selected piece of program information. A program information display device comprising: means for generating a search condition for search; and search means for searching for program information using the generated search condition. 2. A means for receiving and demodulating a required digital modulation signal comprising a program comprising video and audio and a plurality of program information, and separating a program comprising demodulated video and audio from a plurality of program information. A program information display device comprising: a unit for displaying the plurality of pieces of program information separated from each other; and a unit for reproducing a program including the separated video and audio. Means for selecting one piece of program information, means for generating a plurality of search conditions based on the selected one piece of program information, and search means for selecting the plurality of generated search conditions. Program information display device. 3. A means for receiving and demodulating a required digital modulation signal comprising a program comprising video and audio and a plurality of program information; means for displaying the demodulated program information; and displaying the demodulated video. A program information display device comprising: means for selecting a piece of program information from the plurality of pieces of program information; and a program based on the selected piece of program information. Means for generating search conditions for search; and search means for searching for the plurality of pieces of program information using the generated search conditions. A program information display device characterized in that it can be selected as program information serving as a search condition. 4. A means for receiving and demodulating a required digital modulation signal comprising a program comprising video and audio and a plurality of program information, a means for displaying the demodulated program information, and the demodulated video. A program information display device comprising: means for selecting a piece of program information from the plurality of pieces of program information; and a program based on the selected piece of program information. Means for generating search conditions for a search, search means for searching for program information using the generated search conditions, and means for storing program information based on the search conditions; A program information display device characterized in that the program information stored in the program information display device can be selectively used when searching for a future program. 5. A means for selecting and demodulating a required digital modulation signal from a plurality of digital modulation signals comprising a plurality of programs composed of video signals and audio signals and a plurality of program information, and a plurality of demodulated signals demodulated by said demodulation means. Means for separating a program consisting of a video signal, an audio signal, and the like from a plurality of pieces of program information; means for selecting one piece of program information from among the plurality of pieces of program information separated by the separating means; Means for generating search conditions for program search based on the selected one piece of program information; means for searching for the plurality of pieces of program information using the search conditions generated by the search condition generating means; Program information comprising: means for reproducing a required program selected from programs consisting of video signals, audio signals, and the like; and means for displaying required program information until the search for the program is completed. Display device.