JP2005328402A - Information providing device and method, recording medium, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain an information providing device in which a user can acquire desired information easily. <P>SOLUTION: A top screen 301-1 is created from a degree of genre relevancy table 121-1. When an item of "3. music" displayed on the top screen 301-1 is selected by a user, the relevancy of genre ID "J3" corresponding to the "3. music" is updated. Consequently, the relevancy of genre ID "J3" on the genre relevancy table 121-1 is updated to "2" as shown on a genre relevancy table 121-2. A top screen 301-2 is created by the genre relevancy table 121-2. More specifically, the screen is updated such that the third item "music" is displayed as a first item. The invention is applicable to a server providing information. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an information providing apparatus and method, a recording medium, and a program, and in particular, an information providing apparatus suitable for use when presenting appropriate information to individual users by reflecting the preferences of a plurality of users. The present invention relates to a method, a recording medium, and a program.

  In recent years, hard disk recorders, DVD recorders, and the like are becoming popular, and electronic program guides called EPG (Electric Program Guide) are also becoming popular. Some hard disk recorders and the like have a function that makes it easy to make a recording reservation using an EPG.

The EPG can also be viewed on a personal computer or the like via the Internet, etc., and the user can check what programs will be broadcast in addition to recording reservations, and details of programs of interest. You can browse information. With such use, the use of EPG is becoming common, and various services using EPG are being proposed. (See Patent Document 1)
JP-A-11-164276

  Even if the program information can be easily acquired using EPG or the like, if the amount of information is large, the user must take a predetermined number of steps before acquiring the desired information. When it increased, there was a problem that usability deteriorated. For example, as information about program A, various information may be referred to as information about program A such as information about program A itself, information about performers appearing in program A, and information on books and websites related to the performers. Information is considered.

  From the viewpoint of the user, for example, it is convenient to easily reach the performer's home page from the information of the program A itself. However, there is a problem that it is difficult to easily obtain information desired by the user from among a large amount of information (so that the user's processing is reduced).

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and generates a screen to be provided to the user using a table in which information for organizing information and information is associated, and the numerical values described in the table are An object of the present invention is to reflect the user's preference by being determined from the history of user operations. It is another object of the present invention to generate a screen that reflects user preferences so that the user can easily obtain desired information even when the number of operations is small.

  The information providing apparatus according to the present invention firstly manages the first information, the second information, and a table that associates the degree of association indicating the degree of association between the first information and the second information. And an generating unit that generates a screen in which items indicating the second information are displayed in the order of the relevance associated with the second information, and among items displayed on the screen generated by the generating unit, The gist of the present invention is to provide update means for updating the degree of association corresponding to the selected item.

  Secondly, in addition to the first aspect, the management unit manages a plurality of tables, and the generation unit refers to the plurality of tables and generates one screen.

  Thirdly, in addition to the second gist, the generation means includes a degree of association described in a second table related to one information of the second information of the first table, The gist is that an item indicating the second information in the second table associated with a degree of relevance greater than a predetermined value generates a screen included in a screen created based on the first table. .

  The information providing method of the present invention is an information providing method for an information providing apparatus comprising at least means for storing a table and means for executing a process using the table stored in the storage means. A management step for managing the second information, and a table that associates the degree of association between the first information and the second information, and the item indicating the second information includes the second information, A generation step for generating a screen that is displayed in the order of associated relevance, and an update step for updating the relevance corresponding to the selected item among the items displayed on the screen generated by the processing of the generation step Including the above.

  The recording medium program of the present invention is a computer program for controlling an information providing apparatus including at least means for storing a table and means for executing processing using the table stored in the storage means. A management step for managing a table associating the degree of association between the first information, the second information, and the degree of association between the first information and the second information, and an item indicating the second information The generation step that generates the screen displayed in the order of the relevance associated with the information of the information, and update the relevance corresponding to the selected item among the items displayed on the screen generated by the processing of the generation step Including an update step to be performed.

  A program according to the present invention is a computer program for controlling an information providing apparatus including at least means for storing a table and means for executing processing using the table stored in the storage means, wherein the first information A management step for managing the second information, and a table that associates the degree of association between the first information and the second information, and the item indicating the second information includes the second information, A generation step for generating a screen that is displayed in the order of associated relevance, and an update step for updating the relevance corresponding to the selected item among the items displayed on the screen generated by the processing of the generation step Including the above.

  In the information providing apparatus, method, and program of the present invention, a table associated with information indicated by an ID is managed, and the managed table is a value indicating the degree of association between the information indicated by each ID. Are further associated. Then, the items in the screen provided to the user are rearranged based on the value indicating the degree of association.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to update a numerical value described in a predetermined table in which information and a numerical value are associated with each other by reflecting a user operation. A screen on which information to be provided to the user is described can be generated using the updated table.

  BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The best mode of the present invention will be described below. The correspondence relationship between the disclosed invention and the embodiments is exemplified as follows. Although there is an embodiment which is described in the specification but is not described here as corresponding to the invention, it means that the embodiment corresponds to the invention. It doesn't mean not. Conversely, even if an embodiment is described herein as corresponding to an invention, that means that the embodiment does not correspond to an invention other than the invention. Absent.

  Further, this description does not mean all the inventions described in the specification. In other words, this description is an invention described in the specification and is not claimed in this application, that is, an invention that will be filed in division in the future, appearing by amendment, and added. The existence of is not denied.

  The information providing apparatus of the present invention is, for example, the program information server 2 shown in FIG. 3, and includes first information (for example, program ID in the genre relation degree table 121 in FIG. 8), second information (for example, FIG. Management means for managing a table (for example, the genre relevance table 121 in FIG. 8) in which the relevance level indicating the degree of relevance between the first information and the second information is associated. (For example, the program association database 81 in FIG. 3) and generation means (for example, in FIG. 11) that generates a screen in which items indicating the second information are displayed in the order of the degree of association associated with the second information. The top screen generation unit 71) of FIG. 3 that executes the process of step S32, and updates the relevance corresponding to the selected item among the items displayed on the screen generated by the generation unit. Means (e.g., a user transition history Kaiseki unit 75 of FIG. 3 for executing the process of step S35 in FIG. 11) and a.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

[overall structure]
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of a system to which the present invention is applied. A program information server 2, an EPG (Electric Program Guide) server 3, and a content recording / reproducing apparatus 4 are connected to a network 1 constituted by the Internet, a LAN (Local Area Network), or the like.

  The program information server 2 accumulates information related to programs and provides the accumulated information. The EPG server 3 manages the EPG as program information relating to the future.

  The content recording / playback apparatus 4 is a user-side apparatus. The content recording / playback apparatus 4 receives content via an antenna (not shown) or receives content distributed via the network 1 and records the received content. The content recording / playback apparatus 4 also has a function of playing back recorded content. Further, the content recording / playback apparatus 4 is configured to be able to exchange data with the program information server 2 or the EPG server 3 via the network 1.

  For convenience of explanation, FIG. 1 shows only one program information server 2, EPG server 3, and content recording / reproducing apparatus 4, but it is needless to say that a plurality of each may exist. In particular, the content recording / playback apparatus 4 is a terminal of a viewer, and a plurality of content recording / playback apparatuses 4 are connected to the network 1.

[Configuration of program information server]
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an internal configuration example of the program information server 2. As the program information server 2, a device called a personal computer or the like can be used. A CPU (Central Processing Unit) 21 of the program information server 2 executes various processes according to a program stored in a ROM (Read Only Memory) 22. A RAM (Random Access Memory) 23 appropriately stores data and programs necessary for the CPU 21 to execute various processes. The input / output interface 25 is connected to an input unit 26 including a keyboard and a mouse, and outputs a signal input to the input unit 26 to the CPU 21. The input / output interface 25 is also connected with an output unit 27 including a display and a speaker.

  Further, a storage unit 28 constituted by a hard disk or the like, and a communication unit 29 for exchanging data with other devices (for example, the EPG server 3) via the network 1 are also connected to the input / output interface 25. . The drive 30 is used when reading data from or writing data to a recording medium such as the magnetic disk 41, the optical disk 42, the magneto-optical disk 43, and the semiconductor memory 44.

  The EPG server 3 can also be configured by a personal computer or the like, similar to the program information server 2, and the configuration can be basically configured similarly to the program information server 2. Here, the description is continued assuming that the program information server 2 and the EPG server 3 have the same configuration, and a description of an internal configuration example of the EPG server 3 is omitted.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining functions of the program information server 2 and a database managed by the program information server 2. In FIG. 3, the functions of the program information server 2 are shown in the application unit 61, and the database managed by the program information server 2 is shown in the database unit 62.

  A predetermined application is stored in the storage unit 28 (FIG. 2), the stored application is expanded in the RAM 23, and the CPU 21 controls each unit based on the expanded application, whereby the program information server Each function of 2 is realized.

  Each function of the program information server 2 will be described. Since details of data handled in each unit will be described later, the description here will be simplified. The top screen generation unit 71 is a function for creating a top screen to be provided to the content recording / playback apparatus 4 (user).

  The genre-specific program candidate screen generation unit 72 classifies programs by genre, for example, genres such as song programs and dramas, and creates, for example, a list screen of program titles belonging to a predetermined genre based on the classification. It is a function.

  The performer candidate screen generation unit 73 is a function for creating a list screen of performers who appeared in a predetermined program. For example, when a certain performer is selected by the user, the content screen generation unit 74 is a function that generates a screen composed of information related to the performer. The user transition history analysis unit 75 is a function for executing processing (details will be described later) for efficiently providing information constituting the screen to be provided to the user to the user.

[About database]
Next, a database managed by the program information server 2 will be described. The program information server 2 manages two databases roughly divided in the database unit 62. The program association database 81 is a database that manages information about programs, for example, information such as genres and performers. The content database 82 manages information used by the content screen generation unit 74, and manages information such as performers and program homepage addresses and CDs (Compact Discs), for example.

  Information managed in the program association database 81 will be described. The program association database 81 first manages the program table 101 in which information as shown in FIG. 4 is described. The program table 101 includes items such as a program ID, a channel number, a broadcast date, a broadcast start time, and a broadcast end time, and corresponding information is recorded in association with each other.

  “Program ID” is an ID assigned to a predetermined program so that the predetermined program can be uniquely identified. “Channel number” is a number indicating a broadcasting station that broadcasts the program indicated by the program ID. “Broadcast date” is information indicating the date on which the program indicated by the program ID is broadcast. “Broadcast start time” is information indicating the time when the broadcast of the program indicated by the program ID is started. “Broadcast end time” is information indicating the time when the broadcast of the program indicated by the program ID ends.

  The program association database 81 also manages a performer table 102 in which information as shown in FIG. 5 is described. The performer table 102 includes performer IDs and performer items, and corresponding information is recorded in association with each other. As the performer table 102, a table created based on existing data such as a talent yearbook can be used.

  The program association database 81 also manages a genre table 103 in which information as shown in FIG. 6 is described. The genre table 103 is provided with items of genre ID and genre, and corresponding information is recorded in association with each other.

  The program association database 81 also manages a genre-specific program table 104 in which information as shown in FIG. 7 is described. The genre program table 104 includes items of genre program ID and program name, and corresponding information is recorded in association with each other.

  By extracting and processing information from these tables, a relevance degree table 111 including a numerical value of relevance degree as shown in FIG. 8 is also created and managed in the program association database 81. This association degree table 111 is composed of three tables. In the genre relevance table 121, items of program ID, genre ID, and relevance are provided, and corresponding information is recorded in association with each other.

  The genre relevance level table 121 is a table provided for determining which genre the program indicated by the program ID belongs to. As shown in FIG. 8, a plurality of genre IDs (“J1”, “J2”, “J3” in FIG. 8) are associated with one program ID (“134” in FIG. 8). The degree of association with the genre indicated by the genre ID is indicated as the degree of association.

  For example, the genre indicated by the genre ID having a high relevance value can be determined as the genre to which the program indicated by the program ID (a program broadcast on a predetermined channel at a certain date and time) belongs.

  The genre relevance table 121 is information for paying attention to one program and determining the genre to which the program belongs. The genre-related program relevance table 122 pays attention to one genre and belongs to the genre. It is provided as information for judging. This genre-specific program relevance level table 122 is provided with items of genre ID, genre-specific program ID, and relevance level, and corresponding information is recorded in association with each other.

  The performer relevance level table 123 includes items such as genre-specific program ID, performer ID, and relevance level, and corresponding information is recorded in association with each other. The performer relevance table 123 is information used to determine what performers are likely to appear when paying attention to one genre-specific program ID.

  The numerical value of the degree of association of each table managed in the degree of association table 111 is updated based on the operation history by the user of the content recording / playback apparatus 4. Therefore, the information reflecting the user's preferences and the like can be obtained. The content recording / reproducing apparatus 4 whose user side is a terminal apparatus will be described below.

[Configuration of content recording / playback apparatus]
FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an internal configuration example of the content recording / playback apparatus 4. A program broadcast as a television broadcast and content provided via the network 1 are received by the transmission / reception unit 141. The program (content) received by the transmission / reception unit 141 is supplied to the recording / playback unit 143 under the control of the control unit 142. The recording / playback unit 143 causes the content recording unit 144 to record the supplied content. The content recording unit 144 includes a hard disk drive (HDD) built in the content recording / playback apparatus 4 and a detachable recording medium (for example, a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc)).

  The recording / playback unit 143 not only performs control when recording content in the content recording unit 144 but also performs control when playing back content recorded in the content recording unit 144.

  The operation unit 145 receives an instruction from the user and supplies the instruction to the control unit 142. The control unit 142 controls each unit in the content recording / playback apparatus 4 based on an instruction from the operation unit 145. The operation unit 145 includes a plurality of buttons provided on the main body of the content recording / playback apparatus 4 and a remote controller (all not shown) configured separately.

  When receiving a content playback instruction from the operation unit 145, the control unit 142 instructs the recording / playback unit 143 to read the instructed content from the content recording unit 144. As a result, the content read from the content recording unit 144 is supplied to the control unit 142 via the recording / playback unit 143. The control unit 142 supplies the supplied content to the display control unit 146.

  The display control unit 146 supplies an image or video based on the supplied content to the external display 161.

  The control unit 142 causes the viewing history storage unit 144 to store a viewing history such as whether or not the content recorded (recorded) in the content recording unit 144 has been reproduced. In addition, the control unit 142 reads information regarding the viewing history stored in the viewing history storage unit 144 as necessary, and transmits the information to the past EPG server 2 via the transmission / reception unit 141.

  Note that the content recording / playback apparatus 4 is not limited to being configured with only the units illustrated in FIG. 9.

[Viewing history table]
The viewing history storage unit 147 manages a viewing history table 181 as shown in FIG. The viewing history table 181 includes items such as a user ID, a channel number, a broadcast start date and time, a broadcast end date and time, and corresponding information is described in association with each other.

  Since the “user ID” is an ID assigned to each user (content recording / playback apparatus 4), the ID described in the viewing history table 181 is basically the same ID as shown in FIG. The However, for example, when user registration can be performed in the content recording / playback apparatus 4 and a plurality of users are configured to control recording and playback for each user, a user ID is assigned to each user. As a result, it is conceivable to perform recording and reproduction for each user. In such a case, even in the viewing history table 181 managed by one content recording / reproducing apparatus 4, a plurality of user IDs are written. May be. Therefore, the viewing history table 181 is provided with a column for describing a user ID so that a plurality of IDs can be described.

  A program can be uniquely identified from “channel number”, “broadcast start date / time”, and “broadcast end date / time”.

[System operation]
Next, operations related to the program information server 2 and the content recording / playback apparatus 4 in the system shown in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The operations described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 11 are schematic, and detailed operations related to generation of information provided by the program information server 2 will be described later with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  In step S11, the content recording / reproducing apparatus 4 requests the program information server 2 to provide information. When the content recording / reproducing apparatus 4 issues a request for information, the content recording / reproducing apparatus 4 transmits information regarding the program being viewed to the program information server 2 at that time. When the content recording / reproducing apparatus 4 requests the program information server 2 to provide information, when the user is watching a program broadcast in real time at that time, information on the time at that time; Information on the channel that broadcasts the program being viewed is transmitted to the program information server 2.

  When the content recording / playback apparatus 4 requests the program information server 2 to provide information, when the user is viewing the content (program) recorded in the content recording / playback apparatus 4, the content recording / playback apparatus 4 relates to the content. As information, from the viewing history table 181 (FIG. 10), information on the channel on which the program being viewed was broadcasted, the broadcast start date and time when the program started broadcasting, and the broadcast of the program ended. The broadcast end date and time is read out and transmitted to the program information server 2.

  The program information server 2 that has received such information as the process of step S31 generates a screen based on the received information and transmits the data to the content recording / playback apparatus 4 in step S32.

  When the content recording / reproducing apparatus 4 receives data regarding the screen from the program information server 2 in step S12, the content recording / reproducing apparatus 4 displays a screen based on the data on the display 161 in step S13. As a result of the user viewing the displayed screen, if the user selects any operation, for example, one item among a plurality of items provided in the displayed screen, information regarding the operation is In S14, it is transmitted to the program information server 2.

  When the program information server 2 receives the operation information from the content recording / reproducing apparatus 4 in step S33, the program information server 2 analyzes the operation information and determines what item the user has selected. Then, a screen based on the determination is generated as processing in step S34 and transmitted to the content recording / playback apparatus 4. The transmitted screen data is received by the content recording / reproducing apparatus 4 in step S15, and a screen based on the data is displayed on the display 161 in step S16.

  When the user performs some operation such as selecting an item on the screen, the operation information is transmitted to the program information server 2. Such exchange of information (data) is repeatedly performed between the information server 2 and the content recording / playback apparatus 4.

  When the program information server 2 receives the operation information (information relating to the selected item) in this way, the program information server 2 updates the degree of association relating to the item in step S35. Here, the update means that a predetermined value is added. Further, the process in step S35 is performed by the user transition history analysis unit 75.

  Thus, the program information server 2 updates the relevance degree when information from the content recording / reproducing apparatus 4 is received. Based on this degree of association, a screen provided to the user is generated. That is, in step S32 and step S34, a screen provided to the user is generated, but each table of the relevance table 111 is referred to when generating the screen. Next, processing related to screen generation will be described.

[Processes related to the display screen in the information server]
With reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 12 to 14, processing related to creation of screen data provided to the content recording / playback apparatus 4 among the processing executed in the information server 2 will be described.

  In step S51, it is determined whether there is a request for information provision. Information from the content recording / reproducing apparatus 4 is received by the communication unit 29 (FIG. 2) and supplied to the CPU 21. The CPU 21 has a function as shown in the application unit 61 of FIG. 3 (executes), but the received information is passed to the top screen generation unit 71.

  As described above, when the content recording / playback apparatus 4 requests provision of information, at least channel information and information regarding broadcast time are transmitted. The top screen generation unit 71 executes the process in step S51 by determining whether or not the supplied information includes information on channel information and broadcast time.

  If it is determined in step S51 that the content recording / playback apparatus 4 has requested information provision, the process proceeds to step S52. In step S <b> 52, the top screen generation unit 71 determines a program ID corresponding to the received channel information and information regarding the broadcast time with reference to the program table 101 (FIG. 4).

  When the program ID is determined (here, it is determined that the program ID is “134”), the process proceeds to step S53. In step S53, the top screen generation unit 71 generates a top screen and performs transmission processing. With reference to the flowchart of FIG. 13, processing related to generation and transmission of the top screen performed in step S <b> 53 will be described.

[Top screen generation and transmission processing]
In step S71, the top screen generation unit 71 refers to the genre association degree table 121 (FIG. 8) and extracts information associated with the determined program ID (in this case, “134”). Of the extracted information, attention is paid to the relevance level, and the genre ID having the highest relevance value is determined.

  Referring to the genre relevance table 121 shown in FIG. 8, the relevance “5” is the highest value, and the genre ID associated with the relevance “5” is “J3”. . When the genre ID is determined in this way, in step S72, the genre-specific program relevance level table 122 is referred to, and among the relevance levels associated with the determined genre ID (in this case, “J3”). Determine the relevance of the highest value.

  Then, based on the determination, whether or not the relevance of the highest numerical value is greater than or equal to a predetermined value is executed as the process of step S73. If it is determined in step S73 that the degree of relevance is greater than the predetermined value, the process proceeds to step S74. If it is determined that the predetermined value is greater than the relevance level, steps S74 and S75 are performed. Is skipped, and the process proceeds to step S76.

  In step S74, the genre-specific program ID related to the relevance determined to be the highest in the process of step S72 is determined. Referring to FIG. 8, in the genre program relevance level table 122 related to the genre program ID “J3”, the relevance level having the highest numerical value is the relevance level “5”, and is associated with the relevance level “5”. The genre-specific program ID is “S2”.

  The program name indicated by the genre-specific program ID determined in this way is set as the item displayed at the top of the plurality of items in the screen provided as the top screen (step S75). For example, if the determined genre-specific ID is “S2”, the top screen generation unit 71 refers to the genre-specific program table 104 (FIG. 7), and the program name “ Read out the information called “kaido”. Then, the read program name “songdo” is set as the top item.

  When such setting is completed, the process proceeds to step S76. In step S76, the top screen generation unit 71 refers to the genre-related relevance table 121 and generates a top screen on which the genres indicated by the genre IDs are displayed in descending order of relevance. At this time, when the process comes from step S75, the program name set in step S75 is displayed at the top, and the genre is displayed below the associativity in the genre relation degree table 121 in descending order. A top screen like this is generated.

  The generated top screen is transmitted to the content recording / playback apparatus 4 in step S77. When the process of step S77 is completed, the process proceeds to step S54 (FIG. 12).

[About the top screen]
Here, with reference to FIG. 15, the top screen generated without performing the process of step S75 and the top screen generated by performing the process of step S75 will be described. The upper part of FIG. 15 shows the top screen 201 generated without performing the process of step S75. The items displayed on the top screen 201 correspond to the genre IDs described in the genre relevance table 121 (FIG. 8) and are generated from the genre table 103 (FIG. 6). Only genres to be read.

  The lower part of FIG. 15 shows the top screen 202 generated by performing the process of step S75. The items displayed on the top screen 202 correspond to the genre IDs described in the genre relevance table 121 (FIG. 8) and are generated from the genre table 103 (FIG. 6). The genre ID associated with the relevance determined to be larger than the predetermined value in the genre program relevance table 122 above the genre to be read (that is, the position indexed “1”). The program name read from the genre-specific program table 104 (FIG. 7) is displayed.

  In order for the program name to be displayed on the top screen as in the top screen 202, the process of step S35 (FIG. 11), that is, the relevance degree update process is repeated, and the numerical value of the predetermined relevance degree is increased. It is the result.

  Returning to the description of the flowchart of FIG. 12, when the top screen is generated and transmitted in step S53, the top screen as shown in FIG. 15 is displayed on the display 161 connected to the content recording / playback apparatus 4. The When the user browses the displayed top screen and selects one item, information regarding the selected item is transmitted to the program information server 2.

  Referring to FIG. 15 again, the items displayed on the top screen 201 are all items related to the genre. Therefore, the information transmitted to the program information server 2 when the top screen 201 is displayed is information on the genre (genre information). On the other hand, the item displayed on the top screen 202 includes only one program name item in addition to the item related to the genre. Therefore, the information transmitted to the program information server 2 when the top screen 202 is displayed is genre information or information on the program name (program name information).

  Considering this, in step S54, it is determined whether or not the information transmitted from the content recording / reproducing apparatus 4 is genre information. If it is determined in step S54 that the received information is genre information, the process proceeds to step S55. If it is determined that the received information is not genre information, the process of step S55 is skipped. Then, the process proceeds to step S56.

  If it is determined that the genre information has been received and the process proceeds to step S55, the process related to generation and transmission of the program list screen is executed in step S55. With reference to the flowchart of FIG. 14, processing related to generation and transmission of the program list screen executed in step S55 will be described.

[About program list screen generation and transmission processing]
In step S91, the genre-specific program candidate screen generation unit 72 extracts information associated with the genre ID determined from the received genre information with reference to the genre-specific program relevance table 122 (FIG. 8). Of the extracted information, pay attention to the degree of association, and determine the program ID by genre with the highest degree of association.

  Referring to the genre-related program relevance level table 122 shown in FIG. 8, the relevance level “5” is the highest value, and the genre-specific program ID associated with the relevance level “5” is “ S2 ″. When the genre-specific program ID is determined in this way, in step S92, the performer association degree table 123 is referred to, and the relationship associated with the determined genre-specific program ID (in this case, “S2”). Of the degrees, the degree of relevance greater than a predetermined value is determined.

  Then, based on the determination, whether or not there is a relevance value greater than a predetermined value is executed as the process of step S93. If it is determined in step S93 that there is a relevance greater than the predetermined value, the process proceeds to step S94. If it is determined that there is no relevance greater than the predetermined value, the processes in steps S94 and S95 are performed. Is skipped, and the process proceeds to step S96.

  In step S94, the performer ID related to the relevance determined to be greater than the predetermined value in the process of step S92 is determined. When there are a plurality of relevance levels determined to be greater than the predetermined value, a plurality of performer IDs are determined.

  The performer indicated by the performer ID thus determined is the item displayed at the top of the items of the plurality of program names in the screen provided as the program list screen (in step S91, the relevance degree). Is set to be displayed as sub-information below the item corresponding to the genre-specific program ID determined to be the highest (step S95).

For example, when the determined performer ID is “T1”, the genre-specific program candidate screen generation unit 72 refers to the performer table 102 (FIG. 5) and performs in association with the performer ID “T1”. The information “Performer A” is read. The read performer “Performer A” is set to be displayed as accompanying information below the program name displayed at the top.

  When such setting is completed, the process proceeds to step S96. In step S96, the genre-specific program candidate screen generation unit 72 refers to the genre-specific program relevance level table 122 and displays a program list screen in which program names indicated by genre-specific program IDs are displayed in descending order of relevance. Generate. At this time, if the process comes from step S95, a program list screen is generated so that the performers set in step S95 are also displayed.

  The generated program list screen is transmitted to the content recording / playback apparatus 4 in step S97. When the process of step S97 is completed, the process proceeds to step S56 (FIG. 12).

[About the program list screen]
Here, with reference to FIG. 16, the program list screen generated without performing the process of step S95 and the program list screen generated by performing the process of step S95 will be described. The upper part of FIG. 16 shows a program list screen 211 generated without performing the process of step S95. Since the process is generated without performing the process of step S95, the items displayed on the program list screen 211 correspond to the genre-specific program IDs described in the genre-specific program relevance level table 122 (FIG. 8). Only the program name read from the table 104 (FIG. 7).

  The lower part of FIG. 16 shows a program list screen 212 generated by performing the process of step S95. Since the process of step S95 has been generated, the items displayed on the program list screen 212 correspond to the genre-specific program IDs described in the genre-specific program relevance table 122 (FIG. 8). The program name item read from the table 104 (FIG. 7) and the performer item read from the performer table 102 (FIG. 5) accompanying the program name.

  Returning to the description of the flowchart of FIG. 12, when a program list screen is generated and transmitted in step S55, the program list screen as shown in FIG. 16 is displayed on the display 161 connected to the content recording / playback apparatus 4. Is displayed. When the user browses the displayed program list screen and selects one item, information on the selected item is transmitted to the program information server 2.

  Referring to FIG. 16 again, all items displayed on the program list screen 211 are items related to the program name. Therefore, information transmitted to the program information server 2 when the program list screen 211 is displayed is information relating to the program name (program name information). On the other hand, the items displayed on the program list screen 212 include not only items relating to program names but also performers' items. In the program list screen 212 shown in FIG. 16, an item “related information” is also displayed. Therefore, when the program list screen 212 is displayed, the information transmitted to the program information server 2 is program name information or information on performers or related information (referred to as related information).

  In consideration of this, in step S56, it is determined whether or not the information transmitted from the content recording / reproducing apparatus 4 is program name information. If it is determined in step S56 that the received information is program name information, the process proceeds to step S57. If it is determined that the received information is not program name information (related information). Is determined), the process proceeds to step S59.

  If it is determined that the genre information has been received and the process has proceeded to step S57, processing relating to generation and transmission of the performer list screen is executed in step S57. The performer list screen is generated by the performer candidate screen generation unit 74 (FIG. 3). The performer candidate screen generation unit 74 refers to the performer relevance table 123 (FIG. 8) and generates a performer list screen in which the performer items are displayed in descending order of the relevance value. Then, the generated performer list screen is transmitted to the content recording / playback apparatus 4.

[Performer list screen]
FIG. 17 is an example of a performer list screen. The items displayed on the performer list screen 221 correspond to the performer IDs described in the performer relevance table 123 (FIG. 8) and are only performers read from the performer table 102 (FIG. 5). .

  Returning to the description of the flowchart of FIG. 12, when a performer list screen is generated and transmitted in step S <b> 57, the performer list screen as shown in FIG. 17 is displayed on the display 161 connected to the content recording / playback apparatus 4. Displayed above. When the user browses the displayed performer list screen and selects one item, information on the selected item is transmitted to the program information server 2.

  Referring to FIG. 17 again, all items displayed on the performer list screen 221 are items related to performers. Therefore, the information transmitted to the program information server 2 when the performer list screen 221 is displayed is information (performer information) regarding performers. Therefore, when the performer information is received from the content recording / playback apparatus 4 as the process of step S58, the process proceeds to step S59.

  Step S59 comes also when it is determined that the information received in step S56 is not program name information, in other words, when it is determined that the information is related information. In step S59, a content screen is generated and transmitted. The content screen is information about the program (when processing comes from step S56) and information about the performer (when processing comes from step S58).

  The content screen is generated by the content screen generation unit 74 (FIG. 3). The content screen generation unit 74 reads data based on the received related information and performer information with reference to the data recorded in the content database 82.

  The content screen is a screen as shown in FIG. 18, for example, information such that performer A releases a CD.

  In this way, the screen provided to the user is created based on the degree of association described in each table. That is, the order of displayed items is changed according to the degree of association. In addition, the displayed items themselves increase.

The operation of the program information server 2 described above will be further described while showing a specific relationship between the generated screen and the degree of association.

  As will be described with reference to FIG. 19, when the genre relevance table 121-1 for the program whose program ID is indicated by “134” is created, “1” is set as the initial value for the relevance of the table. ing. In this example, it is assumed that “1” is set as the initial value. For example, the genre of the program that the channel broadcasts in the broadcast time period is changed from the channel and the broadcast time period, based on the conventional tendency and the like. It is also possible to make a guess and determine the relevance based on the guess (set the initial value to be different for each genre).

  When the genre relevance table 121-1 is managed and the user (content recording / playback apparatus 4) requests information to be provided, the top screen 301-1 is displayed based on the genre relevance table 121-1. Created. When the item “3. music” is selected on the top screen 301-1, the degree of association in the genre association degree table 121-1 is updated as in the genre association degree table 121-2.

The item “music” is “J3” in terms of genre ID (see genre table 103 (FIG. 6)). Therefore, the relevance level associated with the genre ID “J3” is incremented by 1, and the relevance level is updated to “2”. Here, it will be described that the degree of relevance corresponding to the selected item is added by 1 when it is selected once, but it goes without saying that a numerical value other than 1 may be added.

  In other words, when the genre relevance table 121-2 is managed, in other words, when the user B requests provision of information after the operation of the user A is reflected, the genre relevance table 121 Since the top screen is generated based on -2, a screen like the top screen 301-2 is obtained as shown in FIG. That is, on the top screen 301-2, the item “music” having the highest relevance value (the genre indicated by the genre ID “J3”) is displayed at the top.

  As described above, when one item is selected from the information provided to the user, the degree of association corresponding to the item is updated. When the next user requests information provision, a screen is generated using the updated degree of association.

  Furthermore, with reference to FIG. 20 and FIG. 21, the change in the degree of association and the screen will be described.

  As shown in the upper part of FIG. 20, a screen generated from the relevance level table 111-1 in which “1” is described as the initial value of the relevance level is displayed on the lower side of the relevance level table 111-1. This is the screen shown. That is, the top screen 301-1 is generated from the genre relevance table 121-1 of the relevance level table 111-1, and the program list screen 302-1 is generated from the program relevance level table 122-1 by genre. A performer list screen 303-1 is generated from the table 123-1, and when an item "performer A" is selected from the performer list screen 303-1 for example, a content screen 304-1 is generated. Is done.

  When the item “3. music” is selected on the top screen 301-1, as shown in the genre relevance table 121-2 in FIG. In this case, the degree of association of the genre ID “J3”) is updated from “1” to “2”. Similarly, when the item “1. singing hall” is selected on the program list screen 302-1, as shown in the genre-related program relevance table 122-2 in FIG. The degree of association corresponding to the item (in this case, the degree of association of the genre-specific program ID “S2”) is updated from “1” to “2”.

  Further, when the item “1. Performer A” is selected on the performer list screen 303-1, as shown in the performer relevance table 123-2 in FIG. 20, “1. Performer A” is selected. The degree of association corresponding to the item (in this case, the degree of association of the performer ID “T1”) is updated from “1” to “2”.

  A screen created based on the relevance level table 111-2 configured from each table in which the relevance level is updated is provided to the user when the next user accesses the screen. For example, the top screen created based on the genre relation degree table 121-2 is the top screen 301-2, and the item “music” is displayed on the top screen 301-2. This is because the degree of association corresponding to the item “music” is greater than the degree of association corresponding to the other items as a result of the relevance being updated.

  Moreover, the program list screen 302-2 is produced | generated from the program relevance degree table 122-2 classified by genre and the performer relevance degree table 123-2. In the program list screen 302-2, an item such as “Performer A” is displayed below the item “Singing hall”. The item “performer A” is an item for which the relevance value is determined to be greater than a predetermined value (in this case, “2”) in the performer relevance table 123-2.

  When the item “Performer A” is selected from such a program list screen 302-2, a content screen 304-2 is generated. This content screen 304-2 is a screen having the same content as the content screen 304-1. As apparent from FIG. 20, since the item “Performer A” is displayed on the program list screen 302-2, the content screen is displayed without displaying the screen “Performer List Screen 303-1”. 304-2 (304-1) can be displayed.

  Therefore, in this case, in order to display the content screen 304-2 on which the information of “Performer A” is displayed, the user only has to select the item twice from the state where the item had to be selected three times. It becomes a state. For a user, desired information can be acquired with a small number of steps. Moreover, it is not necessary for the program information server 2 to generate the performer list screen 303-1, and it is possible to reduce the processing for generating the screen.

  When the screen changes as shown in the lowermost row in FIG. 20, the relevance is updated as shown in the uppermost relevance table 111-3 in FIG. Screens generated based on the relevance level table 111-3 updated with the relevance levels are a top screen 301-3, a program list screen 302-3, and a performer list screen 303-3.

  When the item “1. Kaido” is selected from the items displayed in the program list screen 302-3, a performer list screen 303-3 is generated. Here, referring to the program list screen 302-3, an item “Performer A” is also displayed along with an item “1. Song Program”.

  Here, when the user selects the item “1. Kaido” without selecting the item “Performer A”, the performer (information) desired by the user is the program list screen 302-. 3 means that it is not displayed. Therefore, it is considered that the user has selected the item “1. Kaido” from the program list screen 302-3 in order to know other performers who appear in the program “Kaido”. .

  Considering this, as shown in FIG. 21, the performer list screen 303-3 does not display the item "performer A" already displayed on the previous screen. In other words, performers other than the performers displayed on the program list screen 302-3 are displayed on the performer list screen 303-3. In order to execute such a process, for example, when the performer list screen is generated in the process of step S57 (FIG. 12), the performers that are already displayed when the program list screen is generated are not displayed. A simple screen may be generated.

  That is, in the present embodiment, when the program list screen is generated in the process of step S55, the relevance level is greater than a predetermined value with reference to the performer relevance table 123 (FIG. 8). 14 is generated so that the performer associated with is displayed on the program list screen (steps S91 to S96 in FIG. 14). When the performer list screen is generated, a predetermined value is used. If only a small relevance level is set as a processing target, performers displayed in the program list screen are not displayed.

  When the user selects the item “2. Performer C” from the performer list screen 303-3 (FIG. 21), a content screen 304-3 that displays information about the performer C is generated.

  When such a transition of the screen is performed, the degree of relevance as shown in the relevance degree table 111-4 is updated. The screens generated by using this association degree table 111-4 are a top screen 301-4, a program list screen 302-4, and a performer list screen 303-4.

  On the top screen 301-4, a program name "1. Kaido" is displayed. This top screen 301-4 is a result of referring to the genre relevance table 121-4 and the genre-related program relevance table 122-4, and corresponds to the “song program” in the genre-related program relevance table 122-4. This is because the genre-specific program ID “S2” is equal to or greater than a predetermined value (in this case, “4”).

  When the user selects the item “1. Kaido” with reference to such a top screen 301-4, a performer list screen 303-4 is generated and provided to the user. As shown in FIG. 22, the performer item may be displayed along with the item “1. singing hall” on the top screen 301-4 ′. When the performer is displayed as an item, the performer relevance table 123 may be referred to when the top screen is generated.

  Further, referring to the program list screen 302-4, the program list screen 302-4 is accompanied by two items, “performer A” and “performer C”, accompanying the item “1. It is displayed. As described above, when the relevance is updated, the number of items to be displayed is increased.

  In the above-described embodiment, the use of the EPG managed by the EPG server 3 is not described in detail. For example, the items of the screen displayed on the top screen are acquired from the EPG. The information may be applied.

  Referring to FIG. 22, the top screen 301-4 'is the screen that has already been described. On the other hand, the item “1. Song Special” is displayed on the top screen 301-5. The item “1. Song Special” is a program name of a program scheduled to be broadcast on the same channel at the same time next week. This program name is acquired from the EPG managed by the EPG server 3. It is.

  In this way, information may be acquired from the EPG managed by the EPG server 3 and used.

  As described above, in this embodiment, when the user performs some processing (for example, item selection) on the presented information, the corresponding degree of association is updated. Then, a screen provided to the user is generated according to the degree of association. By doing so, the more information is presented to the user, the more the operation from the user is reflected and the relevance is updated, and the relevance is updated in a manner that reflects the user's preferences. Will be. Therefore, the screen generated based on the degree of relevance reflecting the user's preference reflects the user's preference.

  As described above, when the present invention is applied, even if the data is ambiguous, it is highly reliable by repeating the process of providing the user, the reaction from the user, and updating the predetermined data in response to the reaction. Data can be changed.

  By applying the present invention, when the program information server 2 stores data related to a program, the user can efficiently acquire information related to the program from the program information server 2.

  Further, as described above, after the relevance accuracy is increased by applying the present invention, for example, for a user who has searched for program information, compared to an initial user who has searched for program information, It is possible to guide the user to reduce the number of steps to reach the same information.

  If there are a considerable number of transition histories, the user can obtain information worthy of EPG as a result. Therefore, even if EPG information is deleted in the content recording / playback apparatus 4, equivalent information can be obtained.

  The user can obtain the related information of the program that can be uniquely specified by the combination of the channel and the broadcast time. Further, the user can obtain related information with higher accuracy.

  In the above-described embodiment, it has been described that information related to a program is provided to the user side. However, information provided to the user side (information handled by the program information server 2) is not only information related to the program, Of course, the present invention can be applied to other information.

  Further, in the above-described embodiment, the embodiment in which the screen is generated using a plurality of tables has been described as an example. However, the present invention is applicable even when the screen is generated from only one table. Can be applied. Even if the screen is generated from only one table, a plurality of items displayed on the screen are arranged in an order reflecting the user's preference, so that the user-friendly screen This makes it easy to search for desired information.

  Therefore, by applying the present invention, when providing a plurality of items (information) to the user, the user can easily find desired information.

  In the above-described embodiment, the program information server 2 manages a plurality of tables and generates a screen using the managed tables. However, on the content recording / playback apparatus 4 side, the same (or A simplified table may be created, and a screen may be generated based on the table.

[About recording media]
The series of processes described above can be executed by hardware having respective functions, but can also be executed by software. When a series of processing is executed by software, various functions can be executed by installing a computer in which the programs that make up the software are installed in dedicated hardware, or by installing various programs. For example, it is installed from a recording medium in a general-purpose personal computer or the like.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the recording medium is distributed to provide a program to the user separately from a personal computer (program information server 2 in FIG. 2), and a magnetic disk 41 (on which a program is recorded). Flexible disk), optical disk 42 (including CD-ROM (compact disc-read only memory), DVD (digital versatile disc)), magneto-optical disk 43 (including MD (mini-disc) (registered trademark)), Alternatively, it is configured not only by a package medium composed of a semiconductor memory 44 or the like, but also by a hard disk or the like including a ROM 22 storing a program and a storage unit 28 provided to a user in a state of being preinstalled in a computer. The

  In this specification, the steps for describing the program provided by the medium are performed in parallel or individually in accordance with the described order, as well as the processing performed in time series, not necessarily in time series. The process to be executed is also included.

  Further, in this specification, the system represents the entire apparatus constituted by a plurality of apparatuses.

It is a figure which shows the structure of one Embodiment of the system to which this invention is applied. It is a figure which shows the internal structural example of a program information server. It is a figure which shows the function of a program information server. It is a figure which shows the structural example of a program table. It is a figure which shows the structural example of a performer table. It is a figure which shows the structural example of a genre table. It is a figure which shows the structural example of the program table classified by genre. It is a figure which shows the structural example of an association degree table. It is a figure which shows the structural example of a content recording / reproducing apparatus. It is a figure which shows the structural example of a viewing history table. It is a flowchart explaining operation | movement of a system. It is a flowchart explaining the process regarding the production | generation of a display screen. It is a flowchart explaining the process in step S53. It is a flowchart explaining the process in step S55. It is a figure for demonstrating a top screen. It is a figure for demonstrating a program list screen. It is a figure for demonstrating a performer list screen. It is a figure for demonstrating a content screen. It is a figure for demonstrating the relationship between a relevance degree and a screen. It is a figure for demonstrating the relationship between a relevance degree and a screen. It is a figure for demonstrating the relationship between a relevance degree and a screen. It is a figure for demonstrating the other structure of a top screen.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Network, 2 Program information server, 3 EPG server, 4 Content recording / playback apparatus, 61 Application part, 62 Database part, 71 Top screen generation part, 72 Genre-specific program candidate screen generation part, 73 Performer candidate screen generation part, 74 Content screen generation unit, 75 user transition history analysis unit, 81 program association database, 82 content database, 101 program table, 102 performer table, 103 genre table, 104 genre program table, 111 relevance table, 121 genre relevance table 122, program association degree table by genre, 123 performer association degree table, 141 transmission / reception unit, 142 control unit, 143 recording / playback unit, 144 content recording unit, 14 5 operation unit, 146 display control unit, 147 viewing history storage unit, 161 display

Claims (6)

Management means for managing the first information, the second information, and a table associating the degree of association indicating the degree of association between the first information and the second information;
Generating means for generating a screen in which items indicating the second information are displayed in the order of the relevance levels associated with the second information;
An information providing apparatus comprising: an updating unit configured to update the degree of association corresponding to a selected item among items displayed on the screen generated by the generating unit. The management means manages a plurality of the tables,
The information providing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the generation unit generates one screen with reference to the plurality of tables. The generation means is associated with a relevance degree greater than a predetermined value among relevance degrees described in a second table related to one piece of information of the second information in the first table. The information providing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein an item indicating the second information in the second table generates a screen included in a screen created based on the first table. In an information providing method of an information providing apparatus, comprising at least means for storing a table and means for executing processing using the table stored in the storage means,
A management step for managing the first information, the second information, and the table that associates the degree of association indicating the degree of association between the first information and the second information;
A generation step of generating a screen in which items indicating the second information are displayed in order of the relevance levels associated with the second information;
An information providing method comprising: an updating step of updating the relevance level corresponding to a selected item among items displayed on the screen generated by the processing of the generating step. A recording medium for recording a computer program for controlling an information providing apparatus comprising at least means for storing a table and means for executing processing using the table stored in the storage means,
A management step for managing the first information, the second information, and the table that associates the degree of association indicating the degree of association between the first information and the second information;
A generation step of generating a screen in which items indicating the second information are displayed in order of the relevance levels associated with the second information;
An update step for updating the relevance level corresponding to the selected item among the items displayed on the screen generated by the process of the generating step. A computer program for controlling an information providing apparatus comprising at least means for storing a table and means for executing processing using the table stored in the storage means,
A management step for managing the first information, the second information, and the table that associates the degree of association indicating the degree of association between the first information and the second information;
A generation step of generating a screen in which items indicating the second information are displayed in order of the relevance levels associated with the second information;
An update step of updating the relevance level corresponding to the selected item among the items displayed on the screen generated by the processing of the generation step.

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