JP2002305481A - Caption-generating system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a caption-generating system, by which character inputting operators can text-input at remote places respectively. SOLUTION: The operators convert the contents of television broadcasting into text data to transmit the data to a transmission/reception center (1) via the Internet (7), and the center (1) side transmits the received text data to viewers (16) (16), etc., as the character information.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a subtitle creation system for providing a viewer of a monitor displaying a television broadcast or the like with text information on the contents of the broadcast or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a monitor for displaying the contents of a television broadcast or a conference or a lecture has displayed character information relating to the contents. In recent years, the contents and the character information have been displayed on a monitor at substantially the same timing. These pieces of character information are created by a caption creation system or the like.

In a caption creation system, text displayed on a monitor is input by a text input operator as text information. In the case of providing character information in real time, a text input operation is shared by a plurality of character input operators, and the text is edited to be character information.

[0004]

However, in the above-described subtitle creation system, in order to create character information in real time, character input operators must gather at one place and input text, and unexpected and unexpected events occur. It was difficult to respond. For example, if the contents of an emergency terrestrial broadcast that is broadcast when an emergency occurs are converted to character information, a plurality of character input operators must be on standby in case of an emergency in which it is not known when the emergency will occur. However, in terms of labor costs and the like, this was wasteful and inefficient.

Therefore, the present invention solves the above-mentioned problems, and allows a plurality of character input operators to input texts from distant places without gathering at one place.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a caption creation system that can easily secure a character input operator and can efficiently create character information.

[0006]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a subtitle creation system according to the present invention is directed to a viewer of a monitor that displays the contents of an event such as a television broadcast or a conference or a lecture. A system in which the contents are converted into textual information and transmitted by the operator, wherein the contents are converted into texts and received via a monitor or other means of the same type as described above and transmitted to the transmission / reception center via the Internet. On the side, the transmitted text is transmitted as character information to the viewer.

Further, the character information is displayed on the monitor, and the display timing of the content is delayed so that the display timing of the content is displayed in synchronization with the display timing of the character information. Features. The communication protocol of the Internet is HTTP.

[0008] Specifically, the contents of the television broadcast inform an emergency situation. Further, an emergency signal is transmitted from the transmission / reception center to the viewer, and the viewer receives the emergency signal and alerts the emergency by an alarm means other than by voice.

Further, transmission from the transmission / reception center to the viewer is performed by satellite broadcasting such as CS broadcasting. In addition, the viewer is blocked for each area, and receives the transmission from the transmission / reception center in units of those blocks.

In addition, a sign language image creating means for creating a sign language image by replacing the contents with a sign language is provided. The sign language image creating means transmits the sign language image to the transmitting / receiving center, and the transmitting / receiving center side converts the received sign language image into Send to viewers. In addition, character information and / or sign language images are displayed on a screen of a monitor that displays the contents.

In addition, the alarm means comprises a flash light emitting light and / or a vibrator emitting vibration, and the occurrence of an emergency is notified by light and / or vibration.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. The caption creation system according to the first embodiment of the present invention provides
In addition to alerting that an emergency has occurred by means other than sound, the content of emergency terrestrial broadcasting is converted to text information,
It is intended to provide the viewer of the emergency terrestrial broadcast.

[0013] (1) is a server computer located at the transmission / reception center, and includes a plurality of subtitle information creating means (2) (2)
.., Are connected to the sign language image creating means (3) and the alarm input means (4). .. Are not necessarily required, but may be one.

The server computer (1) includes character information transmitted from caption information generating means (2), (2), sign language video transmitted from sign language video generating means (3), and alarm input means (4). ) To receive emergency information such as an emergency signal. When an emergency occurs, an instruction to input character information is transmitted to the caption information creating means (2), (2), and an instruction to input a sign language image is sent to the sign language image creating means (3). You.

Each of the subtitle information creating means (2) (2)... Comprises a television receiver (5) (5) as a monitor for displaying the contents of a television broadcast, and a terminal computer used for text input work. (6) (6) ... Note that terrestrial broadcasting, satellite broadcasting, cable broadcasting, and the like can be considered as television broadcasting.

In the event of an emergency, an emergency terrestrial broadcast is displayed on the television receivers (5). Further, the terminal computers (6) (6)... Receive an input instruction from the server computer (1). Then, the contents of the emergency terrestrial broadcast are text-input from the terminal computers (6) (6) by the character input operator who watches the emergency terrestrial broadcast. The input text is transmitted as character information to the server computer (1) through the Internet (7).

[0017] The communication protocol of the Internet (7) includes an HTT that uses requests and responses as communication units.
P (Hypertext Transfer Protocol)
Has been adopted. HTTP is a simple protocol in which requests and responses are independent communication units.
It can be sent to (1). The communication protocol is not limited to HTTP, but may be SMTP, POP, IMAP.
You may employ etc.

As described above, since the server computer (1) and the subtitle information creating means (2) (2) are connected via the Internet (7), even if the character input operators are located in different places, the character input operators are jointly operated. It is possible to create information.

The sign language image creating means (3) comprises a television receiver (8) as a monitor for displaying the contents of a television broadcast, and a photographing device (9) for photographing a sign language image. In an emergency emergency, a sign language speaker watching the emergency terrestrial broadcast displayed on the television receiver (8)
According to (10), the contents of the emergency terrestrial broadcast are played in sign language. The sign language is photographed by the photographing device (9),
The sign language image is transmitted (1) to the server computer through the dedicated line (11). The means for transmitting the sign language image is not limited to the dedicated line (11), but may be other wired communication such as the Internet or wireless communication such as television broadcasting.

In this way, by displaying the sign language image,
Even a viewer who has difficulty reading character information can grasp the details of the emergency terrestrial communication in detail.

The alarm input means (4) includes a television receiver (1) as a monitor for displaying the contents of a television broadcast.
2) and a terminal computer (13) for transmitting an emergency signal to the server computer (1). In an emergency, a person in charge of watching the emergency terrestrial broadcasting displayed on the television receiver (12) receives a dedicated line (1) from the terminal computer (13) to the server computer (1).
An emergency signal is sent through 4). The means for transmitting the emergency signal is not limited to the dedicated line (14), but may be the Internet or other wired communication or wireless communication.

The emergency information such as the character information, the sign language image and the emergency signal transmitted to the server computer (1)
As S (Communications Satellite) broadcast,
It is transmitted to each of the viewers (16), (16),... Via the CS transmission means (15). Thus, emergency information can be transmitted over a wide area by using CS broadcasting. In addition, the method of transmitting emergency information is not limited to CS broadcasting,
Wireless communication such as BS (broadcasting satellite) broadcasting and terrestrial broadcasting, wired communication, and wired communication using a line (17) such as the Internet may be used.

Viewers (16), (16) ... are blocked by region.
(18), (18)..., And the emergency information is transmitted from the server computer (1) to the viewers (16), (16). Block (18) (18)…
For example, it can be considered to be divided into Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto, Chubu, Kinki Chugoku, Shikoku, and Kyushu. In this way, by dividing the viewers (16) (16)... Into blocks (18), (18)..., Emergency information can be received only in a specific area. Viewers (16), (16) ... are not necessarily blocks
(18) It is not necessary to divide into (18) ...

As shown in FIG. 2, each of the viewers (16), (16)... Has a viewer-side receiving means (20), a television receiver (21) as a monitor, and an alarm means (22). And

The viewer-side receiving means (20) includes a CS receiving antenna (23), and receives emergency information of CS broadcasting transmitted from the server computer (1). Also, terrestrial broadcasting is received by the viewer-side receiving means (20). The received emergency information is transmitted to the television receiver (21) together with terrestrial broadcasting if it is caption information and sign language video, and is transmitted to the alarm means (22) if it is an emergency signal.

The viewer-side receiving means (20) receives the terrestrial broadcast before the text information and the sign language information once received via the transmission / reception center. Then, the terrestrial broadcast received earlier is temporarily put into a standby state in the viewer side receiving means (20) in order to delay the display timing on the television receiver (21), and the character information and the sign language information are watched. The television receiver is tuned to the character information and the sign language information at the time of transmission from the receiver side receiving means (20).
Sent to (21). Therefore, the text information, the sign language image, and the terrestrial broadcast are displayed on the screen (24) with almost no time difference.

In the television receiver (21), the terrestrial broadcast is displayed on the screen (24), and the viewer-side receiving means (2
The character information and the sign language image transmitted from (0) are displayed on the screen (24) displaying the terrestrial broadcast. Screen displaying terrestrial broadcasting, text information and sign language video together
(24), as shown in FIG. 3, is divided into a section (25) for displaying terrestrial broadcast video, a section (26) for displaying text information, and a section (27) for displaying sign language video. Have been. In this way, terrestrial broadcasting, text information and sign language video are displayed on the same screen (24), so just by looking at one screen (24), terrestrial broadcasting and corresponding text information and You can see sign language video. In addition, a display means for displaying character information and sign language video may be provided separately from the television receiver (21).

The alarm means (22) is for alarming an emergency by means other than voice when an emergency signal is received, and includes a flash light for emitting light and a vibrator for emitting vibration. As described above, since the warning is given by the light and the vibration, even a hearing-impaired person can detect the warning. In addition, the means for transmitting an alarm is not limited to light and vibration, but can be visually captured such as a change in color, tactilely captured such as contact with the body,
It may be one that can be sensed olfactory such as smell.

As described above, the closed caption creation system according to this embodiment can notify the occurrence of an emergency and the contents of emergency terrestrial broadcasting to a hearing-impaired person by a method other than audio, and the information is insufficient. In addition, reliable information can be promptly and reliably provided to hearing-impaired persons.

Next, a subtitle creation system according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. Figure 4 shows the venue (3
This is for displaying character information corresponding to the contents on a monitor that displays the contents of 7). Here, the event is a meeting, a lecture, a concert, and the like, and the number of participants may be singular or plural.

Reference numeral (30) denotes a server computer located at the transmission / reception center, which includes an imaging device (31) and a plurality of monitors (3).
2) and (32) are connected through dedicated lines (33) and (34), and are connected through the Internet (36) to a plurality of subtitle information input means (35) (35). The server computer (30) and the photographing device (31) are connected to the Internet (3
The connection may be made through 6). Further, the server computer (30) and each monitor (32) (32) may be connected through the Internet (36).

The photographing device (31) is arranged in the hall (37), and inputs audio information and video information of a conference or a lecture,
Send to server computer (30).

Each of the caption information creating means (35) (35) comprises a voice receiving device (38) (38) and terminal computers (39) (39). The voice receiving devices (38) (38) are for receiving voice information transmitted from the server computer (30) through the Internet (36). Terminal computer (3
9) (39)... Are for the text input operator to input text.

At the time of creating the character information, the character information input by the character input operator is input to the terminal computers (39) (39) by text. The input text is transmitted as character information to the server computer (30) through the Internet (36). Note that a monitor may be used instead of the audio receiving devices (38) to receive audio information and video information.

HTTP is adopted as a communication protocol for the Internet (36). The communication protocol is not limited to HTTP, but may be SMTP, POP, IMAP.
You may employ etc.

In the server computer (30), a photographing device
The audio information and the image information transmitted from (31) are combined with the character information transmitted from the caption information creating means, and transmitted to the monitors (32) and (32).

At this time, the server computer (30)
Audio information and image information are received first, and after that,
The character information once transmitted via the Internet (36) is received. The audio information and image information received earlier are temporarily put into a standby state in the server computer (30) in order to delay the display timing on each monitor (32) (32), and the character information is transmitted from the server computer (30). At the time of transmission, it is transmitted to each monitor (32) (32) so as to be synchronized with this character information. Therefore, character information, audio information, and image information can be displayed on each monitor (3
2) Displayed in (32).

The monitors (32) and (32) are respectively arranged inside and outside the venue (37), and the contents of a conference or a lecture are output as text information, audio information and video information.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and it goes without saying that many modifications and changes can be made to the above embodiment within the scope of the present invention.

[0040]

As is apparent from the above description, the subtitle creation system of the present invention transmits character information to the transmission / reception center via the Internet. You can input text from. Therefore, it is easy to secure a character input operator, and it is possible to efficiently create character information. In addition, since the text information is displayed with no time difference from the content of the terrestrial broadcast or the like, the monitor can be viewed without any discomfort and the content can be easily understood. Furthermore, since HTTP is adopted as the Internet communication protocol, the transmission speed of character information is high, and character information can be provided at a timing closer to real time.

In an emergency situation, an emergency signal is transmitted from the transmitting / receiving center to the viewer.
The viewer is alerted of the emergency by a method other than sound, so that even a hearing impaired person can know the occurrence of the emergency.

Further, since transmission to the viewer is performed by satellite broadcasting, character information can be transmitted over a wide area. In addition, the viewers are divided into blocks for each area, and the block is received in units of blocks. Therefore, the character information can be transmitted only to the viewer who needs the character information or the like.

In addition, since the sign language image is transmitted to the viewer, detailed information can be obtained even for a viewer whose character information is difficult to read. In addition, since text information and sign language video are displayed on the screen of a monitor that displays television broadcasting, text information and sign language video are displayed according to the content of the television broadcast, and they are viewed on one screen. I can do it. Therefore, the contents of the television broadcast can be more easily understood.

In addition, since the occurrence of an emergency is notified by light or vibration, even a hearing-impaired person can detect an emergency emergency alert.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of a subtitle creation system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is also a system configuration diagram of a viewer side.

FIG. 3 is also a diagram showing a monitor.

FIG. 4 is a system configuration diagram showing a caption creation system according to a second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 (3) Sign language image creation means (4) Warning means (6) (21) (32) Monitor (7) (36) Internet (16) Viewers (18) Block (24) Screen (38) Other means

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A system for transmitting the contents of a television broadcast or a monitor or the like which displays the contents of an event such as a conference or a lecture by converting the contents into textual information to a viewer of the monitor. The contents received via the same type of monitor or other means are converted to text and transmitted to the transmission / reception center via the Internet, and the transmission / reception center side transmits the transmitted text to the viewer as character information. Characterized subtitle creation system. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the character information is displayed on the monitor, and the display timing of the content is delayed so as to synchronize the display timing of the content with the display timing of the character information. The subtitle creation system according to claim 1, wherein: 3. The communication protocol of the Internet is H
The subtitle creation system according to claim 1 or 2, which is TTP. 4. The subtitle creation system according to claim 1, wherein the content of the television broadcast is for notifying an emergency situation. 5. An emergency signal is transmitted from a transmission / reception center to a viewer, and the viewer receives the emergency signal and alerts the user of an emergency by means other than voice from an alarm unit. The subtitle creation system according to claim 4. 6. The transmission from the transmission / reception center to the viewer is performed as follows:
The caption creation system according to any one of claims 1 to 5, which is performed by satellite broadcasting such as CS broadcasting. 7. The subtitle creation system according to claim 1, wherein the viewer is blocked for each area, and receives a transmission from the transmission / reception center on a block basis. 8. A sign language image creating means for creating a sign language image by replacing the contents with a sign language, wherein the sign language image creating means transmits the sign language image to a transmitting / receiving center, and the transmitting / receiving center side views the received sign language image. The caption creation system according to any one of claims 1 to 7, which transmits the caption to a user. 9. Character information and / or sign language video is displayed on a screen of a monitor for displaying the contents.
9. The subtitle creation system according to any one of claims 1 to 8. 10. The subtitle creation device according to claim 4, wherein the alarm means comprises a flash light emitting light and / or a vibrator emitting vibration, and the occurrence of an emergency is notified by light and / or vibration. system.