JP2005340877A - Information display apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an "information display apparatus" capable of easily grasping whole program guides and contents of a selected program in the whole program guides. <P>SOLUTION: When a digital broadcast receiver 100 receives an electronic program guide EPG, a control section 20 displays the contents on a display apparatus 200. Further, the control section 20 selects one program included in the electronic program guide EPG in response to an operation of an operation section 28 by a user, extracts program information of the selected program and transmits the information to an audio apparatus. Upon the receipt of the program information, the audio apparatus magnifies the program information and displays the magnified information on a display section provided to the same housing as that of the audio apparatus. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an information display device that receives and displays electronic program guide information.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been known an information display device that sets display contents in stages according to the resolution of a display device when electronic program guide (EPG) information is received by a receiver (see, for example, Patent Document 1). ). For example, in this information display device, when the resolution is low, the display item is “program name only” in a small font, and when the resolution is high, the display item is “program name” and “program content description” in a small font. Is further increased, the display item is set to a large font for “program name” and “program content description”. Therefore, an appropriate display of the electronic program guide is performed regardless of the resolution of the display device.

As another conventional technique, the display screen is divided into two areas, the electronic program guide itself is displayed in one area, and the characters of the program selected by the user in the electronic program guide are displayed in the other area. An information display device that displays an enlarged image is known (for example, see Patent Document 2). In this information display device, even if the display device is small, the characters of the selected program are enlarged and displayed on a part of the information display device.
JP 2002-247474 A (page 4-12, FIG. 1-18) JP2000-101947A (page 2-3, FIG. 1-3)

  By the way, in the information display device disclosed in Patent Document 1, it is possible to set appropriate display contents due to the difference in resolution of the display device, but when the resolution of the display device is high but the display device itself is small, There is a problem that it is not easy to grasp the contents of the program. When the resolution is high, the font is set to be large. However, when the display device itself is small, it is not easy to grasp the contents even if such a large font is used.

  In addition, the information display device disclosed in Patent Document 2 has an advantage that it is easy to grasp the contents of the selected program even when the display device is small, but the area where the electronic program guide is displayed is small. Therefore, there is a problem that it is not easy to grasp the entire electronic program guide.

  The present invention was created in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide an information display device that can easily grasp the entire program guide and the contents of a program selected therein. There is.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, an information display apparatus according to the present invention includes a program guide information receiving unit that receives program guide information, and a first program display unit that displays the contents of the program guide information received by the program guide information receiving unit. A display device, program selection means for selecting any one of a plurality of programs included in the program guide information displayed on the first display device, and enlarged information of the program selected by the program selection means are displayed. And a second display device. As a result, both the contents of the program guide information and the contents of the selected program can be grasped by using two display devices.

  In addition, each of the first and second display devices described above is desirably housed in separate housings mounted on the vehicle. In addition to the receiver that receives the program guide information, the vehicle is equipped with a large number of in-vehicle devices such as a navigation device and an audio device, each of which has a separate housing. Therefore, two display devices are stored in these separate housings. This eliminates the need for a special installation space.

  The second display device described above is preferably used that is housed in a casing of another in-vehicle device that is not related to reception of program guide information or a program corresponding to this information. As a result, it becomes possible to display the enlarged information of the program on a display device provided in another in-vehicle device not related to the program reception, and it is not necessary to add a special configuration. You can suppress the up.

  Moreover, it is desirable to further include a first operation means for receiving an instruction from a user who selects one of the program guide information displayed on the first display device described above. Thus, the user can select an arbitrary program by grasping the whole using the program guide information displayed on the first display device.

  In addition, a program processing unit that performs a predetermined process for the program selected by the program selection unit described above, and an instruction to execute the process by the program processing unit for the program corresponding to the enlarged information displayed on the second display device It is desirable to further include a second operation means for accepting. As a result, it is possible to grasp the contents using the enlarged information about the selected program and perform a specific operation on the program.

  Further, it is desirable that the process performed by the program processing means described above is a reservation process for the program selected by the program selection means. Alternatively, it is desirable that the process performed by the program processing unit described above is a reproduction process or a recording process of the program selected by the program selection unit. As a result, it is possible to make a reservation for reproduction or recording while viewing the enlarged information of the program, or to directly instruct reproduction or recording.

  Further, it is desirable that the second display device and the second operation means described above are provided in the same housing. Thereby, the viewpoint movement at the time of performing various operation instructions while viewing the enlarged information of the program can be reduced, so that the operability can be improved.

  Further, it is desirable that the expanded information to be displayed by the second display means has more detailed contents than the program guide information to be displayed by the first display means described above. Thereby, detailed information of each program can be obtained while maintaining the ease of grasping the entire program guide information.

  Hereinafter, an in-vehicle system according to an embodiment to which an information display device of the present invention is applied will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an in-vehicle system according to an embodiment, and only a configuration directly related to the present invention is shown. As shown in FIG. 1, the in-vehicle system of the present embodiment includes a digital broadcast receiver 100, a display device 200, and an audio device 300. Each of these devices is housed in a separate housing. The digital broadcast receiver 100 is for receiving video and audio distributed in a digital broadcast format, and the received video is displayed on an externally connected display device 200. The audio apparatus 300 is integrated with, for example, a tuner unit and a CD player, and outputs an audio sound signal output from them. In addition, the audio device 300 includes a display unit 350 having a resolution capable of displaying Japanese. The digital broadcast receiver 100 and the audio device 300 described above are connected via a communication line, and program information is transmitted from the digital broadcast receiver 100 to the audio device 300 via this communication line. Various processing requests relating to the program are transmitted from 300 to the digital broadcast receiver 100.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of the digital broadcast receiver 100. As shown in FIG. 2, the digital broadcast receiver 100 includes a front end unit (F / E) 10, a baseband processing unit 12, a data separation unit 14, an audio / video decoding unit 16, an amplifier 18, a control unit 20, an image. The composition unit 22 includes a program recording / playback processing unit 24, a hard disk device 26, an operation unit 28, and a communication processing unit 30.

The front end unit 10 extracts a desired reception frequency component from the broadcast signal received via the antenna 32, and outputs an intermediate frequency signal obtained by performing frequency conversion on the extracted signal. The baseband processing unit 12 performs QPSK demodulation, analog-digital conversion, error correction (FEC: Forwar) on the intermediate frequency signal output from the front end unit 10.
d Error Correction) and the like to generate an MPEG2 format transport stream.

  The data separation unit 14 separates the corresponding video data, audio data, and additional information from the Video transport packet, the Audio transport packet, and the system transport packet included in the transport stream. The additional information includes an event information table (EIT: Event Information Table) necessary for creating the electronic program guide EPG. This table includes program information for each program including program name, time information (program start time, program length (broadcast time length, etc.)), program detailed information, etc. for each program of each broadcast channel. Yes.

  The audio / video decoding unit 16 decodes the input video data into a video signal and the audio data into an audio signal, and outputs these audio signals to the amplifier 18 and the video signal to the image synthesis unit 22.

  The control unit 20 controls the entirety of the digital broadcast receiver 100. The control unit 20 sets the reception frequency by the front end unit 10 and instructs the baseband processing unit 12 and the audio / video decoding unit 16 about the channel to be viewed. Various controls such as generation of an electronic program guide EPG based on the additional information and search for a program using the electronic program guide EPG are performed. The electronic program guide EPG is generated as an image of a predetermined display format and is output toward the image composition unit 22.

  In addition, the control unit 20 instructs program reservation (recording reservation) for each received broadcast program, and recording control of the broadcast program based on the contents of the program reservation (recording is performed when the broadcast time zone when the program reservation is made is reached). Control), the playback control of the recorded broadcast program is performed.

  The image composition unit 22 includes a video signal input from the audio / video decoding unit 16 and an image input from the control unit 20 (an image such as character data generated by the control unit 20 in addition to an EPG image). And the video is displayed on the externally connected display device 200.

  The program recording / playback processing unit 24 compresses the content of a broadcast program being received or reserved for a program according to a recording control by the control unit 20 according to a predetermined method (for example, MPEG2 method) and records it on the hard disk device 26. The broadcast program recorded on the hard disk device 26 is reproduced according to the reproduction control by 20. For example, the program recording / playback processing unit 24 has the same function as the audio / video decoding unit 16 described above for performing playback processing, and the video signal is sent to the image synthesis unit 22 and the audio signal is amplified during playback processing. 18 in FIG. 1 (each input path is omitted in FIG. 1).

  The operation unit 28 is used to specify a program to be viewed on the electronic program guide EPG, to reserve a program, and to instruct playback of a recorded program. The communication processing unit 30 performs processing for transmitting and receiving various types of information between the digital broadcast receiver 100 and the audio device 300.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of the audio device 300. As shown in FIG. 3, the audio device 300 includes a tuner unit 310, a CD player 320, an audio processing unit 330, an audio sound output unit 332, a control unit 340, an operation unit 342, a communication processing unit 344, and a display unit 350. It is configured.

  The tuner unit 310 receives and reproduces and outputs a broadcast program distributed by analog AM broadcast waves and FM broadcast waves. The CD player 320 reads out and reproduces audio information recorded on a CD (compact disc). The audio processing unit 330 generates an audio sound signal after performing predetermined equalizer processing or the like on the audio sound data output from the tuner unit 310 or the CD player 320. The audio sound signal is output from the audio sound output unit 332 toward an external amplifier unit (not shown).

  The control unit 340 controls the entire audio apparatus 300, and performs control for selecting an audio source (tuner unit 310, CD player 320) and adjusting volume and sound quality. The control unit 340 performs a series of controls for transmitting and receiving various types of information to and from the digital broadcast receiver 100 via the communication processing unit 344. Specifically, when receiving the program information from the digital broadcast receiver 100, the control unit 340 performs processing for displaying the program information on the display unit 350 and displays the program information. When a playback instruction or reservation for recording or the like is instructed for the program in the middle, these processing requests are transmitted to the digital broadcast receiver 100. The operation unit 342 is used by the user to select an audio source and instruct reproduction, or to instruct a reproduction state such as volume, and includes predetermined operation keys. In addition, the operation unit 342 instructs the user to reproduce or make a reservation for the program whose program information is being displayed on the display unit 350. These instructions are performed using various operation keys for instructing selection of the audio source, volume, and the like. Note that the correspondence between the content of the instruction for reproduction and the various operation keys may be fixed in advance, but the user's operation when the digital broadcast receiver 100 and the audio apparatus 300 are connected. It is desirable to set based on For example, when an inquiry about an operation key for instructing reproduction is sent from the digital broadcast receiver 100 to the audio apparatus 300 and the user presses a desired operation key at the time of this inquiry, information on this operation key is sent back. Thereafter, in this digital broadcast receiver 100, when this operation key is pressed, it is handled as an instruction to reproduce a program. The same applies to reservations.

  The above-described front end unit 10, baseband processing unit 12, data separation unit 14, and control unit 20 are operated as program guide information receiving means, the display device 200 is operated as a first display device, and the control unit 20 is operated as program selection means. The unit 28 is the first operation means, the audio / video decoding unit 16, the amplifier 18, the speaker 34, the image composition unit 22, the program recording / playback processing unit 24, the hard disk device 26, and the display device 200 are the program processing means, and the operation unit Reference numeral 342 corresponds to the second operation means.

  The digital broadcast receiver 100 and the audio apparatus 300 of this embodiment have such a configuration, and the operation will be described next.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation procedure of the digital broadcast receiver 100, and mainly shows the operation procedure related to the display of the electronic program guide EPG. When the digital broadcast receiver 100 starts the receiving operation, the control unit 20 determines whether or not the operation unit 28 is operated and the display of the electronic program guide EPG is requested by the user (step 100). If not, this determination is repeated. When the display of the electronic program guide EPG is requested, an affirmative determination is made in the determination of step 100, and then the control unit 20 includes event information included in the additional information separated by the data separation unit 14. An electronic program guide EPG is created based on the table and displayed on the display device 200 via the image composition unit 22 (step 101).

  Next, the control unit 20 extracts program information corresponding to one program selected from the electronic program guide EPG being displayed (step 102). Immediately after the electronic program guide EPG is displayed, a program at a predetermined position (for example, the upper left of the screen) is selected, and a cursor image indicating the selected position is displayed. For example, a cursor image in which the frame of the selected program is thick and highlighted with a different color is used. The cursor image may be any as long as the selected program can be distinguished from other programs. .

  Next, the control unit 20 transmits the extracted program information to the audio device 300 via the communication processing unit 30 (step 103). Thereafter, the control unit 20 determines whether or not the selected program has been changed (step 104). The selected program is changed by changing the cursor position of the electronic program guide EPG being displayed using the operation unit 28. For example, it is determined whether or not the cursor position has been changed using an arrow key or the like provided on the operation unit 28. If the selected program is changed, an affirmative determination is made, and the process returns to step 102 and the processing after the program information extraction corresponding to the newly selected program is performed.

  If the selected program is not changed, a negative determination is made in the determination in step 104, and then the control unit 20 determines whether or not a predetermined process corresponding to the selected program is requested. (Step 105). Here, the process corresponding to the program includes a process of reproducing the contents of the program and a process of reserving recording of the program. The processing request may be performed by the user operating the operation unit 28 or the user operating the operation unit 342 of the audio device 300. In the latter case, an instruction indicating the processing request is given. Is sent from the audio device 300. If no processing request is made, a negative determination is made at step 105, and the processing after the determination of whether or not the selected program has been changed is repeated by returning to step 104.

  If a processing request is made, an affirmative determination is made in step 105, and then the control unit 20 performs the requested processing (step 106). For example, when playback is instructed, a process of playing back the program corresponding to the broadcast time is performed. At this time, if the broadcast time zone is later than the current time, a playback reservation process is performed. When recording is instructed, processing for recording the program corresponding to the broadcast time is performed. At this time, if the broadcast time zone is later than the current time, a recording reservation process is performed. After the requested processing is performed in this way, the processing returns to step 100 and the processing after the determination of the presence / absence of display request of the electronic program guide EPG is repeated.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of the audio apparatus 300. The operation procedure mainly relates to display of program information corresponding to one program selected from the electronic program guide EPG. When the audio apparatus 300 starts operating, the control unit 340 determines whether program information has been sent from the digital broadcast receiver 100 (step 200). If not sent, a negative determination is made and this determination is repeated. Further, when program information is sent from the digital broadcast receiver 100, an affirmative determination is made in the determination of step 200, and then the control unit 340 displays the content of the received program information on the display unit 350 (step 350). 201). Thereafter, the control unit 340 determines whether or not an operation for instructing execution of a predetermined process is performed on the program for which the program information is being displayed (step 202). When such an operation is not performed, this determination is repeated. Further, when the operation unit 342 is operated by the user and an instruction to perform a process of reproducing or recording a program is given, an affirmative determination is made in the determination of step 202. Next, the control unit 340 requests the digital broadcast receiver 100 to perform the instructed process via the communication processing unit 344 (step 203). Thereafter, the process returns to step 202 and the operations after the determination of the presence or absence of the execution instruction of the process are repeated.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a specific example of display of the electronic program guide EPG in the digital broadcast receiver 100 and display of program information in the audio apparatus 300. As shown in FIG. 6, a part (or all) of the electronic program guide EPG is displayed on the display device 200 connected to the digital broadcast receiver 100. The displayed electronic program guide EPG includes a time zone. Program information of a plurality of programs arranged for each broadcast channel is included. Further, in the present embodiment, since it is assumed that the display device 200 having a smaller display area than that for home use or the like is used, as program information corresponding to each program constituting the displayed electronic program guide EPG, Only the broadcast time and program name are included.

  Also, in the digital broadcast receiver 100, program information of one program whose cursor position is set in the electronic program guide EPG on which such display has been performed is extracted and transmitted to the audio apparatus 300. The transmitted program information includes detailed program information that is not displayed on the display device 200.

  In the audio apparatus 300, program information corresponding to one program selected in the electronic program guide EPG is enlarged and displayed on the display unit 350 as enlarged information. The display of the enlarged information is performed by the control unit 340 in the audio apparatus 300. For example, in this embodiment, the font is simply made larger than the program information of each program included in the electronic program guide EPG displayed using the display device 200, or the ratio of the size of one pixel is known in advance. In some cases, the font size is converted in consideration of this ratio (in this case, the number of pixels of the font constituting one character does not necessarily increase), and enlargement information is created and enlarged. Program information is displayed.

  Further, in a state where the program information of one program is displayed on the display unit 350 of the audio device 300 in this way, predetermined operation keys (for example, the operation key 342A shown in FIG. 6) provided in the operation unit 342 of the audio device 300 are displayed. , 342B, etc.) is pressed, the reproduction or recording corresponding to these operation keys is sent from the audio apparatus 300 to the digital broadcast receiver 100.

  As described above, in the in-vehicle system of the present embodiment, all or a part of the electronic program guide EPG is displayed on the display device 200 connected to the digital broadcast receiver 100, and the program of one program selected from these is displayed. Since the information is displayed using the display unit 350 of the audio apparatus 300, it is possible to both grasp the contents of the electronic program guide EPG and grasp the contents of the selected program.

  In addition to the digital broadcast receiver 100 and the display device 200 that receive program guide information, the vehicle is equipped with a large number of various in-vehicle devices housed in separate housings such as the audio device 300. By storing the two display devices 200 and the display unit 350 in the casing, no special installation space is required. In particular, the display unit 350 on which program information is displayed is the one stored in the housing of the audio device 300 as another in-vehicle device that is not related to the reception of program guide information or a program corresponding to this information. Therefore, it is possible to display enlarged information obtained by enlarging the program information from the display unit 350, and it is not necessary to add a special configuration, so that an increase in cost due to a complicated configuration can be suppressed.

  In addition, since the operation unit 28 that receives an instruction to select one program from the electronic program guide EPG displayed on the display device 200 is provided, the user uses the electronic program guide EPG displayed on the display device 200. It is possible to select an arbitrary program by grasping the whole. In addition, the user views the enlarged information about the selected program by viewing the display unit 350 of the audio apparatus 300 and grasps the contents thereof, and also executes an execution instruction for the program (reproduction or recording reservation instruction, direct reproduction, An instruction to perform recording) can be performed by operating the operation unit 342 provided in the audio apparatus 300.

  In addition, since the display unit 350 and the operation unit 342 are provided in the housing of the audio apparatus 300, it is possible to reduce viewpoint movement when performing various operation instructions while viewing the enlarged information of the program, thereby improving operability. Can be improved.

  Further, since the expanded information (program information) to be displayed by the display unit 350 has more detailed contents than the electronic program guide EPG to be displayed by the display device 200, the electronic program guide EPG It is possible to obtain detailed information on each program while maintaining ease of understanding the entire program.

  In addition, this invention is not limited to the said embodiment, A various deformation | transformation implementation is possible within the range of the summary of this invention. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the program information is displayed on the display unit 350 provided in the audio device 300. However, the program information may be sent to another device provided with the display unit 350 and displayed. Good. In the above-described embodiment, the case where the present invention is applied to the in-vehicle system has been described. However, the present invention is also applied to the case where an electronic program guide EPG or program information is displayed on, for example, a home digital broadcast receiver and an audio device. Can be applied.

It is a figure which shows the structure of the vehicle-mounted system of one Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the structure of a digital broadcast receiver. It is a figure which shows the structure of an audio apparatus. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement procedure of a digital broadcast receiver. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of the audio device. It is a figure which shows the specific example of the display of the electronic program guide EPG in a digital broadcast receiver, and the display of the program information in an audio apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

10 Front end (F / E)
12 baseband processing unit 14 data separation unit 16 audio / video decoding unit 20, 340 control unit 22 image synthesis unit 24 program recording / playback processing unit 26 hard disk device 28, 342 operation unit 30, 344 communication processing unit 100 digital broadcast receiver 200 Display device 300 Audio device 310 Tuner unit 320 CD player 330 Audio processing unit 350 Display unit

Claims (9)

Program guide information receiving means for receiving program guide information;
A first display device for displaying the contents of the program guide information received by the program guide information receiving means;
Program selection means for selecting any one of a plurality of programs included in the program guide information displayed on the first display device;
A second display device for displaying enlarged information of the program selected by the program selection means;
An information display device comprising: In claim 1,
Each of the first and second display devices is housed in a separate housing mounted on a vehicle. In claim 2,
As the second display device, an information display device is used which is housed in a housing of another in-vehicle device that is not related to the reception of the program guide information or a program corresponding to this information. In any one of Claims 1-3,
An information display device, further comprising first operation means for receiving an instruction from a user who selects one of the program guide information displayed on the first display device. In any one of Claims 1-4,
Program processing means for performing a predetermined process for the program selected by the program selection means;
Second operating means for receiving an instruction to execute processing by the program processing means for the program corresponding to the enlarged information displayed on the second display device;
An information display device, further comprising: In claim 5,
2. The information display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the process performed by the program processing means is a reservation process for a program selected by the program selection means. In claim 5,
The information display apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the process performed by the program processing means is a reproduction process or a recording process of the program selected by the program selection means. In any one of Claims 5-7,
The information display device, wherein the second display device and the second operation means are provided in the same housing. In any one of Claims 1-8,
The expanded information to be displayed by the second display means has more detailed contents than the program guide information to be displayed by the first display means. Information display device.

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