JP2001167026A - Broadcasting receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a broadcasting receiver capable of easily obtaining character information such as URL or electronic mail address broadcasted by a television on a viewer side without performing any special service on a broadcasting station side and easily accessing an Internet. SOLUTION: This broadcasting receiver is provided with means 1, 2, 3 and 4 to be operated for acquiring an image containing desired character information from a display picture, means 9 for holding the acquired image in a short time, means 10 and 11 for extracting and storing the character information from the image held in a short time and means 1, 2, 3, 4 and 12 to be operated for accessing the internet designated by the stored character information.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a broadcast receiving apparatus, and more particularly, to a broadcast receiving apparatus capable of obtaining character information and accessing the Internet.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, U broadcasted on television
RL (Uniform Resource Locat
When accessing the website indicated by (or), the viewer has to write down the URL once and input it into an information processing apparatus having a web browser function such as a home personal computer or an Internet TV.
The same applies to the address of an electronic mail broadcast by television broadcasting.

Conventionally, in order to improve such inconvenience,
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 10-177532 discloses that in advance, TV program table data incorporating URL information relating to individual television programs is obtained, and URL information incorporated in the program table data relating to the specified program is obtained. JP-A-11-110319 discloses an audio URL that transmits a URL as an audio signal.
A transmission / reception system that includes a signal transmission device, extracts a URL from an audio signal received by an audio URL signal reception device, and accesses a website indicated by the URL is disclosed.

[0004]

However, in the case of the former publication, it is necessary to transmit television program guide data incorporating URL information, and in the case of the latter publication, an audio URL signal transmission in which the URL is transmitted as an audio signal. Need equipment,
In any case, there is a problem that a response from the broadcasting station is required, and it takes time to take root as a new service.

[0005] The object of the present invention, in view of the above problems,
The viewer can easily obtain text information such as a URL or an e-mail address broadcast on a television and access a connection point on the Internet without providing a special service on the broadcasting station side. An object of the present invention is to provide a broadcast receiving device.

[0006]

The present invention employs the following means in order to solve the above-mentioned problems.

The first means is a means for acquiring an image including desired character information from a display screen by operating the broadcast receiving apparatus; a means for holding the acquired image for a short time; Means for extracting and storing the character information from the input image, and means for operating and accessing the Internet specified by the stored character information.

In the broadcast receiving apparatus, the second means is means for obtaining an image including desired character information from the display screen by operating the broadcast receiving apparatus; Means for holding an image area for a short time, means for extracting and storing the character information from the image area held for a short time, and means for operating and accessing the Internet specified by the stored character information It is characterized by having.

A third means for automatically acquiring an image including desired character information from a display screen; a means for holding the acquired image for a short time; It is characterized by comprising means for extracting and storing character information, and means for operating and accessing the Internet specified by the stored character information.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present embodiment.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a remote controller for transmitting an operation signal, 2 a light receiving unit for receiving an operation signal, 3 an operation panel, 4 an operation control unit for receiving a signal of an operation instruction and transmitting a control signal, and 5. Is a tuner or decoder unit for receiving a video signal by a control signal, 6 is a video display unit, 7 is a display control unit for controlling the video display unit 6, 8 is a central control unit for controlling each unit of the apparatus, 9 is a still image , An image analysis unit for extracting character information from the held still image, 11 a long-term storage unit for storing extracted character information, and 12 connected to the Internet Modem to do.

Next, a processing procedure for obtaining character information and accessing on the Internet in the broadcast receiving apparatus of the present embodiment will be described with reference to a flowchart shown in FIG.

In step 1, while a viewer is watching a program on the present apparatus, character information to be obtained, such as a URL and an e-mail address, is found in a video on the video display unit 6. In step 2, the viewer uses the remote controller 1 or the operation panel 3 to instruct the acquisition of the character information. In step 3, the central control unit 8, which has received the command through the operation control unit 4,
A control signal is issued so that the video signal (display image 13) sent from the tuner or the decoder unit 5 is stored in the still image holding short-term storage unit 9 for one frame. In step 4, the image analysis unit 10 performs image analysis processing such as character recognition on the still image obtained from the short-time storage unit 9 for holding a still image, and extracts character information 14. The extracted character information 14 is stored in the extracted information holding long-term storage unit 11. Step 5
When the viewer tries to access the Internet, he operates the remote controller 1 or the operation panel, and the central control unit 8 connects to the Internet via the modem 12 and the characters stored in the long-term storage unit 11 for storing extracted information. Call the information and use it in a browser or mailer.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present embodiment.

In the figure, the configuration shown by each symbol corresponds to the configuration of the same symbol shown in FIG.

The broadcast receiving apparatus of the present embodiment is different from that of the first embodiment in the following points.

First, at the viewer's discretion, in order to select an area where character information to be subjected to image analysis processing exists, the display control unit 7 displays the still image held in the short-term storage unit 9 for holding a still image. Through the video display unit 6, and from the displayed still image, it is possible to specify an area in which character information to be subjected to image analysis processing is present. The image data is stored in the holding short-term storage unit 9, and the image analysis unit 10 performs processing for extracting character information for the specified image area.

Next, a processing procedure for obtaining character information and accessing on the Internet in the broadcast receiving apparatus of the present embodiment will be described with reference to a flowchart shown in FIG.

In step 11, while the viewer is watching the program on the present apparatus, character information to be obtained, such as a URL and an e-mail address, is found in the video on the video display unit 6. In step 12, the viewer uses the remote controller 1 or the operation panel 3 to instruct the acquisition of the character information. Step 13
Then, the central control unit 8 which has received the command through the operation control unit 4 issues a control signal to hold the video signal sent from the tuner or the decoder unit 5 for one frame in the still image holding short-term storage unit 9. Next, the held still image is displayed on the video display unit 6 via the display control unit 7. In step 14, the remote controller 1 or the operation panel 3
Is used to designate an area 15 to be subjected to image processing such as character recognition based on the judgment of the viewer. In step 15, the image analysis unit 10 performs image processing such as character recognition on the still image in the designated area based on the area information obtained from the operation control unit 4, and extracts character information. The extracted character information is stored in the extracted information holding long-term storage unit 11. Step 16
When the viewer tries to access the Internet, the remote controller 1 or the operation panel is operated, and the central control unit 8 is connected to the Internet via the modem 12 and the characters stored in the extracted information storing long-term storage unit 11 are read. The information is made available to browsers and mailers.

Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present embodiment.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 16 denotes a character image information detecting section, and the other configuration corresponds to the configuration of the same reference numeral shown in FIG.

In each of the above embodiments, when a viewer finds text information to be obtained in a video while watching a program, he or she operates a remote control or an operation panel to issue a command to obtain text information. In the embodiment, by providing a character image information detection unit, specific character information such as a URL and an e-mail address is automatically and always obtained from a video signal instead of a viewer.

Next, a description will be given of a processing procedure for obtaining character information and accessing on the Internet in the broadcast receiving apparatus of the present embodiment.

When the apparatus is selecting a certain program, the character image information detecting section 16 controls the tuner or the decoder section 5.
Out of the video signals sent from
When character information to be obtained, such as an email address or an e-mail address, which is set in advance is found, one frame from a plurality of frames including the same character information is stored in the short-term still image storage unit 9.
A control signal is issued so that The image analysis unit 10 performs image analysis processing such as character recognition on the still image from the still image holding short-term storage unit 9 to extract character information.
The extracted character information is stored in the extracted information long-term storage unit 11. When the viewer tries to access the Internet, the central control unit 8 operates the remote controller 1 or the operation panel to connect to the Internet via the modem 12 and the character information held in the long-term storage unit 11 for holding extracted information. Will be available on browsers and mailers.

[0028]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, character information such as a URL and an e-mail address of a homepage displayed on a television image can be stored and utilized without a special service provided by a broadcasting station. Therefore, it is possible to save troublesome work such as writing down conventional character information.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, in addition to the effect of the second aspect, it is possible to reduce the processing load for extracting character information.

According to the invention described in claim 3 of the present application, in addition to the effect of the invention described in claim 2, it is possible to automatically obtain character information displayed on a television image, It is possible to cope with an unexpected situation such as no remote control at hand.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a broadcast receiving device according to a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure in the broadcast receiving device according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a broadcast receiving device according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure in the broadcast receiving device according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a broadcast receiving device according to a third embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Remote control 2 Light-receiving part 3 Operation panel 4 Operation control part 5 Tuner or decoder 6 Video control part 7 Video display part 8 Central control part 9 Still image storage short-term storage part 10 Image analysis part 11 Extracted information storage long-term storage part 12 Modem 13 still image 14 character information 15 designated area 16 character image information detector

Claims (3)

[Claims] A means for operating the display screen to obtain an image containing desired character information; a means for holding the obtained image for a short time; and extracting the character information from the image held for a short time. And a means for accessing the Internet designated by the stored character information when operated. 2. An operation means for acquiring an image including desired character information from a display screen, and an operation means for holding a predetermined image area in which the character information is present from the acquired image for a short time. Broadcasting means for extracting and storing the character information from the image area held for a short time, and means for operating and accessing the Internet specified by the stored character information. Receiver. 3. A means for automatically acquiring an image containing desired character information from a display screen, a means for holding the acquired image for a short time, and extracting the character information from the image held for a short time. And a means for accessing the Internet designated by the stored character information when operated.