JP2006191254A - Program display device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a program display device that displays a broadcast program table and an individual program table together as one EPG and capable of selecting and viewing individual contents by the same operation as operation for the broadcast program table. <P>SOLUTION: The program display device includes an EPG generation section which generates the broadcast program table based upon information regarding broadcast programs received from a broadcast network and generates a correspondence table of button frames and broadcast program information, a composition section which allocates individual program tables to button frames according to information regarding individual contents to generate a correspondence table of the button frames of the individual program tables and content information, and a display section which lists and displays EPGs generated by the composition section on a screen; and the broadcast program table and an individual program table are displayed together as one EPG, so that individual contents can be selected and viewed by the same operation as the operation for the broadcast program table. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a program display device that displays a content to be viewed as a program guide in a broadcast receiving device that receives a broadcast.

  In recent years, a system called an EPG (Electronic Program Guide) that displays a program table on a television screen has become common. The user can search for a desired broadcast program from the EPG and start viewing.

  Also, with the development of broadband communication lines and streaming technology, personal content on the Internet can be viewed using a personal computer terminal.

  However, in order to access personal contents (such as moving images) on the Internet using a personal computer terminal, a certain degree of personal computer skills are required on the user side. For example, it is necessary to operate a Web browser to search for personal content and to set and operate a player to view personal content. For this reason, accessing personal content using a personal computer terminal is not an operation that anyone can easily perform, and it is difficult for those who are not familiar with personal computer operations.

In order to solve the above-described problems, conventionally, a method of accessing content on a communication network via a program guide using a highly public terminal device such as a television has been considered. Patent Document 1 is a technology for accessing content using a video-on-demand program guide, and can switch between a broadcast program guide and a video-on-demand program guide to access personal content. Therefore, the user interface for the video-on-demand program guide is provided to the user.
JP 2002-300567 A

  However, since the conventional technology provides the user with two user interfaces, a broadcast program guide and a video-on-demand program guide, work such as switching of the program guide is required. The necessity to use the user interface properly has a problem that the convenience and operability of the user are impaired.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention solves the above-described conventional problems, and an object thereof is to provide a program display device that enables easy access to personal contents using a highly public terminal device such as a television.

  In order to solve the above-described conventional problems, a program display device of the present invention is a program display device that displays a list of broadcast programs that can be viewed on a screen, and a broadcast program receiving unit that receives information about the broadcast program; A receiving unit that receives information related to personal content, and a broadcast program guide based on the received information related to the broadcast program, and a blank program area for the personal program guide based on the information related to the received personal content A program guide generating unit for generating information, a composition unit for generating a composite program guide by arranging information indicating the contents of personal content in a blank program area for the generated personal program guide, and a composition generated by the composition unit A display unit for displaying the program guide on the screen, and by combining and displaying the broadcast program guide and the individual program guide as one EPG, personal content can be obtained by the same operation as the operation of the broadcast program guide. It is possible to select and watch.

  According to the program display device of the present invention, the personal content can be selected and viewed by the same operation as the EPG operation by combining and displaying the access GUI to the personal content on the EPG.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a program display apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 14 is a system configuration diagram, a broadcasting system (broadcasting station) that provides a broadcast program via a broadcasting network, and a content server (content provider) that provides content via a communication network such as the Internet. And a terminal device (for example, a television) for viewing the received broadcast program or content. The terminal device is connected to both the broadcast network and the communication network, and includes the program display device according to the present invention.

  In FIG. 1, a program display apparatus 101 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a broadcast program receiving unit 102, an authentication unit 103, an authentication information database storage unit 104 (hereinafter referred to as an authentication information DB), and a content information receiving unit. 105, a content information database storage unit 106 (hereinafter referred to as a content information DB), an EPG generation unit 107, a broadcast program information database storage unit 108 (hereinafter referred to as a broadcast program DB), and a bitmap image generation unit 109. A composition unit 110, a display unit 111, an operation management unit 112, a correspondence table database storage unit 113 (hereinafter referred to as correspondence table DB), a tuner unit 114, an IP reception unit 115, and an output unit 116. It has.

  The broadcast program receiving unit 102 receives information related to a broadcast program for generating an EPG via a broadcast network, and stores the received information related to the broadcast program in the broadcast program information DB 108.

  The authentication unit 103 receives information related to personal content via the communication network, and identifies the received information related to personal content. When information related to all personal contents received from the communication network is received, there is a possibility that information that the user does not need to enter. Therefore, when receiving information related to personal content, the authentication unit 103 performs authentication based on information stored in the authentication information DB 104 registered in advance, and transmits only the information related to the confirmed personal content to the content information receiving unit 105. Information related to personal content that could not be confirmed is discarded or an error is returned. As a method for identifying information related to personal content, a method is conceivable in which authentication information is included in information related to personal content, or only information related to personal content is received from a user who has already completed the authentication procedure.

  The content information receiving unit 105 receives information related to personal content permitted to be received by the authentication unit 103 from the authentication unit 103, and stores the received information related to personal content in the content information DB.

  The information related to the personal content includes the name of the provider of the personal content (for example, “Taro Yamada”), the title of the personal content (for example, “Personal Broadcast 1”, etc.), and the content of the personal content (for example, “Daughter's entrance ceremony , Etc.), thumbnail images (for example, “Daughter's Entrance Ceremony” one-scene, etc.) for making it easy to visually grasp the contents of personal content, and information (for example, “IP” Address ”and“ content video file name ”). In addition, as other information, information such as the creation date and time of the personal content and the time required for viewing the personal content can be included.

  The EPG generation unit 107 creates a broadcast program table based on information related to broadcast programs stored in the broadcast program information DB 108. As shown in FIG. 2, the broadcast program table to be created includes a broadcast station name (for example, “XX TV”), a program name (for example, “sports relay to baseball”), and a program content (for example, “team” A vs. Team B "), broadcast time (for example," from 14:00 to 16:00 ", etc.). Next, an area for the personal program guide is generated in the created broadcast program guide. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, based on the information about the personal content stored in the content information DB 106, a blank program area for the personal program table, specifically, a button frame is set to the number of personal contents (for example, In FIG. 3, it is assumed that the number of contents is 2.).

  Also, a correspondence table between broadcast program guide button frames and broadcast program information is created and stored in the correspondence table DB 113. This correspondence table is used to determine an action when a button frame is selected by the user's EPG operation. Even for a blank button frame, a button frame selection operation (for example, an operation for selecting a program) or a determination operation (for example, an operation for starting viewing a program), which is a normal EPG operation, is performed. Can do. For example, as shown in FIG. 4, when a blank button frame 401 is selected by a remote control operation or the like, the color of the button frame changes so that the selection can be identified.

  The bitmap image generation unit 109 receives a bitmap image generation request from the synthesis unit 110, and based on the information about the personal content stored in the content information DB 106, the blank of the personal program table generated by the EPG generation unit 107 Generate a bitmap image for the button frame. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, a bitmap image 501 indicating the name of the content provider, a bitmap image 502 indicating the title and content of the content, and a thumbnail image 503 for making it easy to visually grasp the content content are generated. To do.

  The synthesizing unit 110 receives the program table generated by the EPG generating unit 107, requests the bitmap image generating unit 109 to generate a bitmap image, and uses the received bitmap image as a response to a predetermined program area in the program table. To place. As a result, a composite program guide including a broadcast program guide and a personal program guide is generated. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, the bitmap image generated by the bitmap image generation unit 109 shown in FIG. 5 is attached to a blank button frame of the personal program guide. At that time, a correspondence table between the button frame of the personal program guide and the content information is created, and the correspondence table DB 113 is updated. This correspondence table is used to determine an action when a button frame is selected by the user's EPG operation. As shown in FIG. 6, unlike the broadcast program, access to personal contents often does not have the concept of broadcast time. However, there may be a case where a provider of personal contents wants to limit the access time to the contents. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 7, an individual who broadcasts “Daughter's Entrance Ceremony” of personal broadcast 1 from 14:00 to 16:00, and “Son's Sports Day” of personal broadcast 2 from 16:00 to 18:00. A program guide display method may be used.

  The display unit 111 displays a list of EPGs generated by the combining unit 110 on the screen.

  The operation management unit 112 determines whether a broadcast program is selected or personal content is selected on the EPG screen being displayed on the display unit 111. When a broadcast program is selected, broadcast program information is acquired from the correspondence table DB 113 and a reception command is issued to the tuner unit 114 described later. When personal content is selected, content information is acquired from the correspondence table DB 113 and a reception command is issued to the IP receiving unit 115 described later. The reception command to the tuner unit 114 includes information on the corresponding channel. In addition, in the reception command to the IP reception unit 115, information for specifying the storage location of the personal content read from the correspondence table DB 113 (for example, “IP address (192.168.10.1)” or “content content”) is specified. Video file name (movie.mpg) etc.).

  The tuner unit 114 receives the video / audio information of the broadcast program based on the channel information received from the operation management unit 112.

  The IP receiving unit 115 accesses the personal content on the Internet based on the information for specifying the storage location of the personal content received from the operation management unit 112 and receives the video / audio information of the personal content as an IP packet. To do. Then, processing for unpacking the received IP packet and processing for decoding the compressed video / audio information are performed.

  The output unit 116 is a display screen, a speaker, or the like, receives video / audio (broadcast program or content) from the tuner unit 114 or the IP reception unit 115, and outputs video and audio.

  Next, in the embodiment of the present invention, the program display device synthesizes the broadcast program information from the broadcast network and the information (individual program guide) related to the content from the communication network and displays them on the screen as shown in FIG. This will be described with reference to FIG.

  First, the program display device receives broadcast program information from the broadcast network (see FIG. 8).

  The broadcast program receiving unit 102 receives information related to a broadcast program for generating an EPG (step ST1). Information regarding the received broadcast program is stored in the broadcast program information DB 108 (step ST2).

  Next, information about personal contents is received from the communication network (see FIG. 9).

  The authentication unit 103 receives information related to personal contents (step ST3), reads information in the authentication information DB 104 registered in advance (step ST4), performs authentication based on the read information (step ST5), and is confirmed. Only information related to personal content is transmitted to content information receiving section 105 (step ST6). The content information receiving unit 105 receives information related to the personal content permitted to be received by the authentication unit 103 (step ST7). The content information receiving unit 105 stores the received information related to personal content in the content information DB 106 (step ST8).

  Next, a broadcast program table to be displayed on the screen is created (see FIGS. 10, 11, and 12).

  The EPG generation unit 107 receives a request for EPG screen generation (step ST9), acquires information about the broadcast program stored in the broadcast program information DB 108 (step ST10), and creates a broadcast program table based on the acquired information. (Step ST11). The EPG generation unit 107 creates a correspondence table between the broadcast program guide button frame and the broadcast program information (step ST12), and stores it in the created correspondence table DB 113 (step ST13). Then, the EPG generation unit 107 reads information relating to personal content stored in the content information DB 106 (step ST14), and determines the presence or absence of personal content based on the read information (step ST15). If there is personal content (YES in step ST15), blank button frames for the personal program guide are generated for the number of personal contents (for example, FIG. 3 assumes that the number of contents is 2). The notification is sent to the synthesis unit 110 (step ST16). On the other hand, when there is no personal content (NO in step ST15), the created EPG is notified to the display unit 111, the display unit 111 displays the EPG on the screen (step ST26), and the process is terminated.

  The synthesizer 110 transmits a bitmap image generation request to the bitmap image generator 109 (step ST17). The bitmap image generation unit 109 receives a bitmap image generation request from the synthesis unit 110 (step ST18), reads information related to personal content stored in the content information DB 106 (step ST19), and based on the read information. Then, a bitmap image to be displayed on the blank button frame of the personal program table generated by the EPG generation unit 107 is generated (step ST20), and the generated bitmap image is notified to the synthesis unit (step ST21). The synthesizing unit 110 receives the bitmap image from the bitmap image generating unit 109 (step ST22), and places the bitmap image generating unit 109 at a predetermined position of the blank button frame of the personal program table generated by the EPG generating unit 107. At step ST23, the bitmap image generated in the above step is pasted. At that time, the synthesizing unit 110 creates a correspondence table between the button frame of the personal program guide and the content information (step ST24), and stores the created correspondence table in the correspondence table DB 113 (step ST25).

  Display unit 111 displays a list of EPGs generated by combining unit 110 on the screen (step ST26).

  As described above, the broadcast program guide and the personal program guide can be combined and displayed as one EPG.

  Next, an operation for selecting and operating a specific program when the program display device displays an EPG screen in the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

  The operation management unit 112 starts processing by a specific program selection operation on the EPG screen (step ST27). The operation management unit 112 determines whether a broadcast program is selected or personal content is selected (step ST28).

  When a broadcast program is selected (step ST28 selects a broadcast program), broadcast program information is acquired from the correspondence table DB 113 (step ST29), and a reception command is issued to the tuner unit 114 (step ST30). The tuner unit 114 receives the video / audio information of the broadcast program based on the channel information designated by the reception command received from the operation management unit 112 (step ST31).

  On the other hand, when personal content is selected (step ST28 selects personal content), content information is acquired from the correspondence table DB 113 (step ST32), and a reception command is issued to the IP receiver 115 (step ST33). The IP receiving unit 115 accesses the personal content on the Internet based on the information for specifying the storage location of the personal content specified by the reception command received from the operation management unit 112, and the video / audio information of the personal content. Is received as an IP packet (step ST34).

  Finally, the output unit 116 receives the video / audio from the tuner unit 114 and the IP reception unit 115 and outputs the video and audio (step ST35). The output unit 116 includes a screen, a speaker, and the like.

  As described above, the broadcast program guide and the personal program guide are combined and displayed as one EPG, and the personal content can be selected and viewed by the same operation as the operation of the broadcast program guide.

  The program display apparatus according to the present invention has a function of synthesizing and displaying a personal program table of personal contents on an EPG, and is useful for a broadcast receiver (television), a personal computer, and the like capable of receiving broadcast programs and personal contents. It can also be applied to applications such as information terminals such as mobile phones and PDAs, AV equipment, and car navigation equipment.

The block diagram which shows an example of a structure of the program display apparatus in embodiment of this invention The figure which shows an example of an EPG screen The figure which shows an example of the EPG screen which has the blank button frame for the broadcast program guide and personal program guide in embodiment of this invention The figure which showed an example of the EPG screen of the state in which the blank button frame for the personal program guide in embodiment of this invention was selected The figure which showed the bitmap image which shows the content of the personal content in embodiment of this invention The figure which shows an example of the EGP screen which synthesize | combined and displayed the broadcast program guide and the personal program guide in embodiment of this invention The figure which shows an example of the EGP screen which synthesize | combined and displayed the broadcast program guide and the personal program guide in embodiment of this invention The flowchart explaining operation | movement of the program display apparatus in embodiment of this invention. The flowchart explaining operation | movement of the program display apparatus in embodiment of this invention. The flowchart explaining operation | movement of the program display apparatus in embodiment of this invention. The flowchart explaining operation | movement of the program display apparatus in embodiment of this invention. The flowchart explaining operation | movement of the program display apparatus in embodiment of this invention. The flowchart explaining operation | movement of the program display apparatus in embodiment of this invention. The system block diagram which shows an example of the system provided with the program display apparatus in embodiment of this invention

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Program display apparatus 102 Broadcast program receiving part 103 Authentication part 104 Authentication information DB
105 Content Information Receiving Unit 106 Content Information DB
107 EPG generator 108 Broadcast program information DB
109 Bitmap image generation unit 110 Compositing unit 111 Display unit 112 Operation management unit 113 Correspondence table DB
114 Tuner 115 IP Receiving Unit 116 Output Unit

Claims (4)

A program display device that displays a list of broadcast programs that can be viewed on a screen,
A broadcast program receiver for receiving information on the broadcast program;
A receiver for receiving information about personal content;
A program guide generating unit that generates a broadcast program guide based on the information related to the received broadcast program, and generates a blank program area for the personal program guide based on the information related to the received personal content;
A composition unit for arranging information indicating the content of the personal content in a blank program area for the generated personal program guide, and generating a composite program guide;
A program display device comprising: a display unit configured to display a combined program table generated by the combining unit on a screen. An authentication unit for identifying information about the received personal content;
The program display device according to claim 1, wherein the authentication unit identifies whether or not to display the personal contents as a list of personal programs. 2. The program display apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an operation management unit that selects a program to be viewed based on a composite program table displayed on the screen by the display unit and receives the selected program. When the selected program is based on a broadcast program guide, the operation management unit starts viewing the broadcast program via a broadcast network. When the selected program is based on a personal program guide, the operation management unit views personal content via a communication network. 2. The program display device according to claim 1, wherein the program display device is started.

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