JP2006237878A - Cm attached information supply method, apparatus, and system, and cm attached information receiving apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable a user to inquire about information associated with a CM on the basis of the feature of the CM itself. <P>SOLUTION: A CM attached information supply method is used for a CM server 103 for supplying commercial message attached information to a user 102 via a network, the CM server 103 detects a commercial message from a television broadcast, calculates the feature quantity of the detected commercial message, receives entry of the attached information of the commercial message, generates a database 105 where the calculated feature quantity of the commercial message is made to correspond to the attached information of the commercial message, searches in the database 105 by using the feature quantity of the commercial message for a key in response to a transmission request of the attached information of the commercial message transmitted from the user 102 via the network, reads the attached information of the commercial message with the feature quantity searched from the database 105 and transmits the information to the user 102 via the network. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a CM additional information supply method, a CM additional information supply apparatus, a CM additional information receiving apparatus, and a CM additional information for supplying additional information of a commercial message from the CM additional information supply apparatus to the CM additional information receiving apparatus via the network. Regarding the supply system.

  Conventionally, in television broadcasting, as an effective advertising means for consumers, a commercial message (hereinafter referred to as CM) is broadcast together with the main program. However, CMs generally have time constraints, and it is difficult to say that they can sufficiently provide information on goods and services to consumers. To make up for this, products are displayed at stores and catalogs are distributed. In addition, since the Internet is generally popular nowadays, many companies have their own websites and provide information there. On the other hand, as a consumer, there is a desire to get information about commercials that have been broadcast, such as commercial products, appearing actors, and used music. Internet is used.

  However, in order to obtain information related to the CM, a consumer who has watched a CM broadcast on a television broadcast currently writes down the company name and product name of the CM, and again at the store, the Internet, etc. It is necessary to investigate. Now that the Internet is widespread, there is an environment in which various information can be easily searched. However, the task of searching again is a complicated task. In the first place, information such as keywords necessary for searching in a short CM is obtained. There is also the question of whether or not it can be obtained.

  In order to eliminate such complications, for example, a history of broadcasted CMs is sequentially created on a server, and the user acquires information about the CM by transmitting the CM broadcast time and broadcast channel to the server. A possible method has been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  In addition, a candidate section of the first signal is detected based on a characteristic pattern of the signal generated at a predetermined time interval from the input signal, and the first signal likelihood is expressed from the input signal in or around the candidate section. A method has been proposed in which, for example, a commercial message portion included in a TV broadcast signal can be detected or searched with high accuracy by extracting a feature amount and detecting a first signal section based on the feature amount. (For example, refer to Patent Document 2).

  Further, as a method for searching and reproducing a user's desired reproduction position from the recorded video signal and / or audio signal, the feature vector is also recorded when the video signal and / or audio signal is recorded. In addition, when reproducing the recorded video signal and / or audio signal, for example, a feature vector corresponding to the signal position designated by the user is registered, and registered from the feature vector recorded in the recording means. Detecting a feature vector having a correlation value with at least one of the detected feature vectors exceeding a predetermined threshold, setting a playback point based on the detected feature vector, and outputting a video signal and / or an audio signal from the playback point A method of reproducing has been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 3).

JP 2002-10237 A JP 2002-16873 A JP 2003-339010 A

  However, in the conventional method as shown in Patent Document 1, since the inquiry of the CM depends on the time and the broadcast channel when the CM is broadcast, the time and the broadcast channel when the CM is broadcast is not known. The case is not applicable. For example, when a recorded program is reproduced and viewed, there is a problem that the time when the user views the CM is different from the time when the CM is actually broadcast. In addition, there is a problem that it is difficult as a real problem to grasp the history of all broadcasting stations with a server.

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to make it possible to inquire information about a CM with the characteristics of the CM itself in view of the conventional problems as described above.

  Other objects of the present invention and specific advantages obtained by the present invention will become more apparent from the description of embodiments described below.

  The present invention relates to a CM additional information supply method for supplying additional information of a commercial message from a CM additional information supply apparatus to a CM additional information receiving apparatus via a network, and the CM additional information supply apparatus receives a commercial from a television broadcast. Detect the message, calculate the feature quantity of the detected commercial message, accept input of additional information of the commercial message, and create a database associating the calculated feature quantity of the commercial message with the additional information of the commercial message In addition, in response to a request for transmission of additional information of a commercial message sent from the CM additional information receiving apparatus via the network, the database is searched using the feature amount of the commercial message as a key, and the feature amount searched from the database Commercial messages It reads additional information over di and transmits the CM additional information receiving apparatus via the network.

  The present invention also provides a CM additional information supply device that supplies additional information of a commercial message to a CM additional information receiving device via a network, the television broadcast receiving means for receiving a television broadcast, and the television broadcast described above. A commercial message is detected from the television broadcast received by the receiving means, a feature amount of the detected commercial message is calculated, input of additional information of the commercial message is accepted, and the calculated feature amount of the commercial message and the commercial message The database is stored in the database in association with the additional information, and in accordance with a transmission request for the additional information of the commercial message sent from the CM additional information receiving apparatus via the network, the feature amount of the commercial message is used as a key. Inside And search, characterized in that the additional information of the retrieved feature quantity of the commercial message through the network is read from the database and a control means for performing control of transmitting to the CM additional information receiving device.

  In addition, the present invention is a CM additional information receiving apparatus that receives additional information of a commercial message via a network from a CM additional information supply apparatus that includes a database in which a feature amount of the commercial message is associated with additional information of the commercial message. A television broadcast receiving means for receiving the television broadcast; a commercial message is detected from the television broadcast received by the television broadcast receiving means; a feature amount of the detected commercial message is calculated; and the commercial message is calculated. And a control means for performing control to transmit the additional information of the commercial message from the CM additional information supply apparatus via the network to the CM additional information supply apparatus as a database search key. thing And it features.

  Furthermore, the present invention is a CM additional information supply system for supplying CM additional information from the CM additional information supply apparatus to the CM additional information receiving apparatus via the network, and the CM additional information supply apparatus receives a television broadcast. Detecting a commercial message from the television broadcast received by the television broadcast receiving means, calculating a feature amount of the detected commercial message, accepting input of additional information of the commercial message, The calculated feature value of the commercial message and the additional information of the commercial message are stored in the database in association with each other, and in response to a transmission request for the additional information of the commercial message sent from the CM additional information receiving apparatus via the network. Special features of commercial messages Control means for searching the database using the quantity as a key, reading out the additional information of the commercial message of the searched feature quantity from the database, and transmitting it to the CM additional information receiving apparatus via the network. The CM additional information supply device detects a television message from the television broadcast receiving means for receiving the television broadcast and the television broadcast received by the television broadcast receiving means, and calculates the feature amount of the detected commercial message. Then, the feature amount of the commercial message is transmitted to the CM additional information supply apparatus via the network as a database search key, and control for receiving the additional information of the commercial message from the CM additional information supply apparatus via the network is performed. Control means And wherein the door.

  In the present invention, when acquiring additional information of a CM from a server on the network, the amount of data transmitted from the user to the server can be determined by using the feature amount instead of the CM video as information for specifying the CM. At the same time, it is possible to greatly reduce the database search processing within the server.

  In addition, in the present invention, when the CM additional information is acquired from a server on the network, the CM video itself is transmitted by using the feature amount instead of the CM video as information for specifying the CM. Since it is no longer necessary, there is no need to duplicate the CM that is a copyrighted work, and there is an effect that it is difficult for a problem in rights to occur.

  Further, in the present invention, when the CM additional information is acquired from the server on the network, the acquired additional information is registered in the database in the recording / playback apparatus used by the user, so that the next additional information of the same CM is obtained. When it becomes necessary, there is no need to make an inquiry to the server again, so that additional information can be presented to the user immediately. Further, the additional information can be used even when not connected to the network.

  Further, according to the present invention, various information can be quickly collected by adopting a configuration in which an information input person on the network inputs CM additional information.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Needless to say, the present invention is not limited to the following examples, and can be arbitrarily changed without departing from the gist of the present invention.

  The present invention is applied to an information providing system 100 configured as shown in FIG. 1, for example.

  FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing a connection state of the information providing system 100 as a whole.

The information providing system 100 includes a plurality of users 102 ₁ ,... 102 _n connected to the Internet 101, a CM information server 103, and a broadcasting station 106 that transmits a television broadcast.

The CM information server 103 includes a server 104 and a database 105, receives a television broadcast broadcast from the broadcast station 106 by the server 104, detects a CM from the received television broadcast, and receives a new CM. The CM is registered in the database 105. The administrator of the server 104 collects additional information (hereinafter referred to as “CM additional information”) such as a newly registered CM company name, product name, song, and actor, and registers them in the database 105. The users 102 ₁ ,... 102 _n receive a television broadcast broadcast from the broadcast station 106, detect a CM from the received television broadcast simultaneously with recording, and when a new CM is broadcast, The CM information server 103 is inquired about additional information. The server 104 searches the inquired CM in the database 105 and notifies the user of the search result.

When the user 102 ₁ ,... 102 _n (hereinafter collectively referred to as the user 102) inquires CM additional information to the CM information server 103 via the Internet 101, data transmitted from the user 102 side to the server 104 side is: It is not the CM video (image and sound) itself, but the feature quantity of the CM video. In recent years, video compression technology has advanced, and it is possible to express video with a smaller amount of data than in the case of non-compression. However, video data still has a large amount of data, and it is unrealistic to transmit the video data itself for search. Also, the CM video has a right such as copyright, and sending a CM may cause a problem in the right. Therefore, a feature amount expressing the feature of the CM is extracted from the CM image, and the feature amount is used instead of the image. In other words, the feature amount has an extremely small data size than the original video, and is independent enough to distinguish the original video. Examples of such feature amounts include a time series of vectorized pixel values of an average image of at least one frame within a predetermined time interval of the video signal disclosed in Patent Document 3, or the average There is a time series of dividing an image into small images of a predetermined block unit and vectorizing pixel values of the small image.

  Here, the conceptual configuration of the CM server 103 that provides CM additional information is shown in the block diagram of FIG.

  That is, the CM server 103 corresponds to a combination of the server 104 and the database 105 in FIG. 1, and includes a broadcast receiving unit 201 that receives television broadcasts, video signals such as television broadcasts, channel information, and broadcast mode information. Is composed of a control unit 202 to which information attached to the broadcast receiving unit 201 is supplied, a storage unit 203 connected to the control unit 202, a database 204, a network control unit 205, an output control unit 206, an input control unit 207, and the like. .

  The broadcast receiving unit 201 receives a television broadcast and sends information accompanying the video signal such as a video signal, channel information, and broadcast mode information to the control unit 202.

  The control unit 202 reads a program for detecting CM from the video signal obtained from the broadcast receiving unit 201 from the storage unit 203 and starts CM detection. As a method for performing the CM detection, for example, a method described in detail in Patent Document 2 can be applied. For example, from the audio and / or video signal of the TV broadcast signal consisting of the main signal and the commercial message signal (first signal), such as the main and commercial message parts of the TV broadcast signal, the signal is characterized based on a predetermined essential condition. CM candidate sections showing a target pattern are extracted, and additional conditions, which are indices representing the likelihood of CM, are detected from some features in the CM candidate sections, and CMs are determined by combining the extracted additional conditions. As a result, individual CMs are detected with high accuracy. Further, a part or all of the additional condition to be detected is recorded and compared with a TV broadcast signal or other recorded CM candidates, thereby searching for a desired CM from the TV broadcast signal or a database in which it is recorded. You can also. However, this method is not necessarily limited as long as it can detect each CM accurately.

  When the control unit 202 detects a CM, a program for searching whether the detected CM has already been registered in the database 204 is read from the storage unit 203 and the database 204 is searched. When the same CM as the detected CM is not found in the database, the control unit 202 registers the detected CM video and its feature amount in the database 204. The CM registered in the database 204 may be, for example, an additional information registration waiting CM list and an additional information registered CM list as shown in FIG. The control unit 202 first registers the CM to be newly registered in the additional information registration waiting CM list, and notifies the server administrator to that effect. For example, the output control unit 206 displays the message to that effect on an external output unit such as a monitor (not shown). For example, as shown in FIG. 13, the display screen has a format in which a list of CMs registered in the additional information registration waiting CM list is displayed on the screen. The server administrator can check the CMs in the additional information registration waiting CM list one after another by operating the “previous candidate” button and the “next candidate” button at the bottom of the screen. An administrator who knows that a new CM has been registered in the additional information registration waiting CM list confirms the video of the CM stored in the database 204, and adds the CM, such as the company name, product name, and actor. Information to be information is collected by means (not shown) and input to the CM server 103 using an external input unit such as a keyboard (not shown). For example, as shown in FIG. 14, the display screen when the administrator inputs additional information has a format in which items of additional information and input fields 1402 to 1405 are displayed side by side on the screen. The server administrator inputs information in the input fields 1402 to 1405 for each item. The control unit 202 acquires the input additional information via the input control unit 207 and registers it in the database 204. For example, a CM for which additional information is input as a CM in the additional information registration waiting CM list as shown in FIG. 3 is moved from the additional information registration waiting CM list to the additional information registered CM list.

  An inquiry about CM additional information from the user 102 is received by the control unit 202 via the network control unit 205. Information for specifying a CM transmitted from the user 102 is a feature amount of the CM. The control unit 202 reads from the storage unit 203 a program for searching whether or not the inquired CM is registered in the database 204 and searches the database 204. When the inquired CM is found in the additional information registered CM list, the fact that the additional information of the CM is not found is transmitted to the user 102 via the network control unit 205.

  Here, a new CM registration process by the control unit 202 in the CM server 103 will be described with reference to a flowchart shown in FIG.

  That is, in the new CM registration process, first, in step S401, a television broadcast is received. If the broadcast is analog, digitize it.

  In step S402, CM is detected from the received video signal of the television broadcast.

  In step S403, it is determined whether or not a CM is detected in step S402. If the determination result in step S403 is Yes, that is, if a CM is detected, the process proceeds to step S404. If the determination result is No, that is, no CM is detected, the process returns to step S401.

  In step S404, a feature amount is obtained from the detected CM, the database 204 is searched based on the feature amount, and it is determined whether or not the detected CM is already registered in the database 204. If the determination result in step S404 is No, that is, if the same CM as the detected CM is not registered in the database 204, the process proceeds to step S405, and the determination result is Yes, that is, if it has already been registered. Returns to step S401.

  In step S405, the detected CM video and its feature amount are registered in the additional information registration waiting CM list in the database 204. After registration, the process returns to step S401 and continues processing.

  Next, processing for the additional information registration waiting CM list in the database 204 in the CM server 103 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

  That is, in the process for the additional information registration waiting CM list, first, in step S501, it is determined whether or not a new CM is registered in the additional information registration waiting CM list in the database 204. If the determination result in step S501 is Yes, that is, if a new CM is registered, the process proceeds to step S502. If the determination result is No, that is, if not registered, the process ends.

  In step S502, the CM registered in the additional information registration waiting CM list is presented to the server administrator. The presentation process is performed, for example, by the control unit 202 displaying the additional information registration waiting CM list in the database 204 on an external output unit such as a monitor (not shown) via the output control unit 206. The screen displayed on the external output unit is configured to display a list of CMs in the additional information registration waiting CM list as shown in FIG. 13, for example.

  In the next step S503, additional information collected by a manager who has confirmed the additional information registration waiting CM list by a method not shown is input by an external input unit such as a keyboard. In the input process, for example, the control unit 202 receives additional information input from an external input unit such as a keyboard (not shown) via the input control unit 207, and the control unit 202 corresponds to the corresponding CM in the additional information registration waiting CM list in the database 204. By associating with. In the input process, the screen displayed on the external output unit such as a monitor to support the input is configured to display the additional information items and their input fields 1402 to 1405 side by side as shown in FIG. 14, for example.

  In step S504, the CM to which additional information is input is moved from the additional information registration waiting CM list to the additional information registered CM list, and the process ends.

  Note that the series of processes shown in FIG. 5 may be set to start each time a new CM is registered in the database, or may be set to start at a predetermined time, for example, every hour, or It may be set so that the administrator instructs the start.

  Next, processing for a CM additional information inquiry from the user 102 in the CM server 104 will be described with reference to a flowchart shown in FIG.

  That is, in the process for the CM additional information inquiry from the user 102, it is first determined in step S601 whether there is a CM additional information inquiry from the user 102. If the determination result in step S601 is Yes, that is, if there is an inquiry, the process proceeds to step S602. If the determination result is No, that is, if there is no inquiry, the process returns to step S601.

  In step S602, the additional information registered CM list in the database 204 is searched with the feature amount of the CM transmitted from the user 102. The search process is performed, for example, when the control unit 202 receives the feature amount of the inquiry CM via the network control unit 205 and searches the additional information registered CM list in the database 204 using the feature amount.

  In the next step S603, it is determined whether or not a CM having a feature amount that matches the feature amount of the inquiry CM is found in the database. If the determination result in S603 is Yes, that is, if it is found, the process proceeds to step S604. If the determination result is No, that is, if it is not found, the process proceeds to step S605.

  In step S604, the additional information of the found CM is transmitted to the user 102 as the CM additional information inquiry source, and the process returns to step S601.

  In step S605, information notifying that the CM additional information is not found is transmitted to the CM additional information inquiry source user 102, and the process returns to step S601. For example, the control unit 202 transmits the information to the CM additional information inquiry source user 102 by transmitting to the user 102 via the network control unit 205.

  Next, a conceptual configuration of a recording / playback apparatus 700 that uses CM additional information is shown in a block diagram of FIG.

  The recording / playback apparatus 700 includes a broadcast receiving unit 701 that receives a television broadcast, a control unit 702 to which a video signal is supplied from the broadcast receiving unit 701, a storage unit 703 connected to the control unit 702, a database 704, a network A control unit 705, an output control unit 706, an input control unit 707, a video storage unit 708, and the like are included.

  The broadcast receiving unit 701 receives a television broadcast and outputs the video received via the output control unit 706 to an external output unit such as a monitor (not shown). The user views the broadcast program received by the external output unit.

  When recording a television broadcast, a user inputs an instruction using an external input unit (not shown) such as a keyboard, a mouse, or a remote controller, and the control unit 702 receives the input via the input control unit 707.

  The control unit 702 obtains a broadcast program of a broadcast channel designated by the user from the broadcast receiving unit 701 and stores it in the video storage unit 708. At the same time, the control unit 702 reads a program for detecting CM from the video signal obtained from the broadcast receiving unit 701 from the storage unit 703 and starts CM detection.

  As a method for performing the CM detection, for example, a method described in detail in Patent Document 2 can be applied. For example, from the audio and / or video signal of the TV broadcast signal consisting of the main signal and the commercial message signal (first signal), such as the main and commercial message parts of the TV broadcast signal, the signal is characterized based on a predetermined essential condition. CM candidate sections showing a target pattern are extracted, and additional conditions, which are indices representing the likelihood of CM, are detected from some features in the CM candidate sections, and CMs are determined by combining the extracted additional conditions. As a result, individual CMs are detected with high accuracy. Further, a part or all of the additional condition to be detected is recorded and compared with a TV broadcast signal or other recorded CM candidates, thereby searching for a desired CM from the TV broadcast signal or a database in which it is recorded. You can also. However, this method is not necessarily limited as long as it can detect each CM accurately.

  When the control unit 702 detects a CM, a program for searching whether the detected CM has already been registered in the database 704 is read from the storage unit 703 and the database 704 is searched. When the same CM as the detected CM is not found in the database, the control unit 702 registers the detected CM video (and / or CM video recording position) and its feature amount in the database 704. As the CM registered in the database 704, for example, an additional information registration waiting CM list and an additional information registered CM list as shown in FIG. 3 are adopted. The control unit 702 first registers a newly registered CM in the additional information registration waiting CM list.

  When a user views a recorded program, the user inputs an instruction through an external input unit (not shown) such as a keyboard, mouse, or remote controller, and the control unit 702 receives the input via the input control unit 707. The control unit 702 reads a recorded program instructed by the user from the video storage unit 708 and outputs the recorded program to an external output unit such as a monitor (not shown) via the output control unit 706. This allows the user to view the recorded program.

  If the user wants to acquire additional information about the CM while viewing a television broadcast program and / or viewing a recorded program, the user gives instructions via an external input unit (not shown) such as a keyboard, mouse, or remote controller. The control unit 702 receives the input via the input control unit 707. For example, there is a “CM inquiry” button in the external input unit, and when the user presses the button, it is interpreted that the output control unit 706 is instructed to inquire about the CM being output. The control unit 702 acquires from the database 704 the CM feature quantity instructed by the user, and transmits the feature quantity to the CM server 103 via the network control unit 705. A response from the CM server 103 reaches the control unit 702 via the network control unit 705. When additional information is transmitted from the CM server 103 as a response, the control unit 702 transmits the additional information to an external output unit such as a monitor (not shown) via the output control unit 706 to convey the information to the user 102. At the same time, the corresponding CM is moved from the additional information registration waiting CM list in the database 704 to the additional information registered CM list. The screen displayed on the external output unit such as a monitor for transmitting the CM additional information to the user is, for example, as shown in FIG. 15, an area 1502 for displaying the CM video and an area for displaying the additional information on the CM. 1503.

  The inquiry about the CM additional information to the CM server 103 may be made after the user gives an instruction as described above, or may be configured to automatically inquire when the control unit 702 detects a new CM.

  Here, the registration process of a new CM in the recording / playback apparatus 700 used by the user will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

  That is, in the new CM registration process, first, in step S801, a television broadcast is received. If the broadcast is analog, it is digitized, and if necessary, the received video is recorded.

  In the next step S802, a CM is detected from the received video signal of the television broadcast.

  In the next step S803, it is determined whether or not a CM is detected in step S802. If the determination result in step S803 is Yes, that is, if a CM is detected, the process proceeds to step S804. If the determination result is No, that is, no CM is detected, the process returns to step S801.

  In step S804, a feature amount is obtained from the detected CM, the database is searched based on the feature amount, and it is determined whether or not the detected CM is already registered in the database. If the determination result in step S804 is No, that is, if the same CM as the detected CM is not registered in the database, the process proceeds to step S805, and the determination result is Yes, that is, already registered. If yes, the process returns to step S801.

  In step S805, the detected CM video and its feature amount are registered in the additional information registration waiting CM list in the database. After registration, the process returns to step S801 to continue processing.

  In the flow of the new CM registration process shown in the flowchart of FIG. 8, a CM is first detected, and then the feature quantity of the detected CM is obtained. This is shown in FIG. 18A. The CM 1802 is detected from the video signal 1801 of the television broadcast, and the feature quantity 1803 of the detected CM is calculated later.

  On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 18B, the feature position 1805 is calculated from the video signal 1804 of the television broadcast regardless of the CM or the main program, and the CM position is detected. A method of cutting out information 1806 corresponding to CM from the above is also conceivable. In this case, the flow of new CM registration processing shown in the flowchart of FIG. 8 is as follows.

  That is, in step S801, a television broadcast is received. If the broadcast is analog, it is digitized, and the received video is recorded if necessary. Further, the feature amount of the received video is calculated and stored together with the recorded video if necessary. In step S802, a CM is detected from the received video signal of the television broadcast. In step S803, it is determined whether a CM is detected in step S802. If the determination result in step S803 is Yes, that is, if a CM is detected, the process proceeds to step S804. If the determination result is No, that is, no CM is detected, the process returns to step S801. In step S804, the feature quantity of the detected CM is extracted from the feature quantity calculated in step S801, and the database is searched using the feature quantity to determine whether the detected CM is already registered in the database. To do. If the determination result in Step S804 is No, that is, if the same CM as the detected CM is not registered in the database, the process proceeds to Step S805, and if the determination result is Yes, that is, if it has already been registered. Return to step S801. In step S805, the detected CM video and its feature amount are registered in the additional information registration waiting CM list in the database. After registration, the process returns to step S801 to continue processing.

  Next, processing in which the recording / playback apparatus 700 used by the user inquires the CM server 103 about CM additional information will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. This process is executed when the user instructs acquisition of the CM additional information from the CM server 103 and / or when a new CM is detected.

  In this CM additional information inquiry process, first, in step S901, it is determined whether or not the same CM as the CM for which additional information is desired is already registered in the additional information registered CM list. If the determination result in step S901 is Yes, that is, if additional information has already been registered, the additional information is presented to the user and the process ends. If the determination result in step S901 is No, that is, if the additional information is not registered, the process proceeds to step S902.

  In step S <b> 902, the CM feature amount for which additional information is to be acquired is transmitted to the CM server 103. In the feature amount transmission processing, for example, the control unit 702 acquires a CM feature amount from the database 704 and transmits the feature amount to the CM server 103 via the network control unit 705.

  In the next step S903, additional information transmitted from the CM server is received. In the additional information reception process, for example, the control unit 702 receives additional information from the CM server 103 via the network control unit 705.

  In the next step S904, it is determined whether or not the return information from the CM server 103 includes additional information of the inquired CM. If the determination result in step S904 is Yes, that is, if additional information is included, the process proceeds to step S905. If the determination result is No, that is, if additional information is not included, it is added to the user. Informs that information was not obtained and ends the process.

  The CM that has just started broadcasting may not have additional information registered in the CM server 103 yet, and in this case, the user cannot obtain additional information. For example, the control unit 702 outputs the information to the user via an output control unit 706 to an external output unit such as a monitor (not shown).

  In step S905, the additional information acquired from the CM server 103 is transmitted to the user, and is associated with the corresponding CM in the additional information registration waiting CM list, and the corresponding CM is moved to the additional information registered CM list.

  Next, the exchange between the recording / playback apparatus 700 used by the user 102 and the CM server 103 will be described with reference to FIG.

  Procedure 1) In order to acquire additional information of CM in accordance with a user instruction and / or automatically, a feature amount of CM is transmitted from the recording / playback apparatus 700 of the user 102 to the CM server 103.

  Procedure 2) The CM server 103 searches the database in the CM server 103 using the received CM feature amount as a key.

  Procedure 3) When the CM server 103 finds a CM having a matching feature amount as a result of the search, the CM server 103 transmits the additional information of the CM to the recording / playback apparatus 700 of the user 102. If a CM having a matching feature amount is not found, information indicating that the additional information has not been found is transmitted to the recording / playback apparatus 700 of the user 102.

  Procedure 4) When the information received from the CM server 103 includes additional information of the inquiry CM, the user's recording / playback apparatus 700 presents the additional information to the user, and at the same time, in the user's recording / playback apparatus 700 Register in the database. If the additional information of the inquiry CM is not included, the user 102 is notified that the additional information was not obtained.

In the example described above, the configuration for constructing the database 704 for storing the additional information of the CM in the recording / playback apparatus 700 used by the user 102 is shown, but this configuration is not necessarily required, and additional information is required. It is also possible to make a configuration in which additional information is inquired to the CM server 103 each time. Further, in the CM server 103, the additional information is shown as a configuration in which additional information collected by a CM server administrator by a method not shown is input to the CM server 103. However, a configuration example different from this configuration example is also conceivable. For example, on the screen as shown in FIG. 13, a list of CMs is published on the Web, and the addition is made by a specific or unspecified person connected to the Web, for example, using the screen as shown in FIG. A configuration in which information is input via a network is also possible. The conceptual diagram of the connection state of the information providing system 1000 in this case is as shown in FIG. 11, and the information input person 1107 ₁ ,... 1107 _{m is} added to the conceptual diagram of the connection state of the information providing system 100 shown in FIG. (Hereinafter collectively referred to as an information input person 1107) is added.

  Here, processing for the additional information registration waiting CM list in the database of the CM server 103 in the information providing system 1000 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

  That is, in step S1201, it is determined whether or not a new CM is registered in the additional information registration waiting CM list in the database. If the determination result in this step S1201 is Yes, that is, if a new CM is registered, the process proceeds to step S1202, and if the determination result No, that is, if not registered, the process ends.

  In step S1202, the CM registered in the additional information registration waiting CM list is presented to the information input person on the network. The presentation process is performed, for example, by the control unit 202 displaying the additional information registration waiting CM list in the database 204 on an output unit such as a monitor of an information input person on the network (not shown) via the network output control unit 205. . The screen displayed on the output unit of the information input person is configured to display a list of CMs in the additional information registration waiting CM list as shown in FIG. 13, for example.

  In the next step S1203, additional information collected by an information input person who has confirmed the additional information registration waiting CM list is input by an input unit such as a keyboard. In the input process, for example, the control unit 202 registers additional information input from an input unit such as a keyboard of an information input person on the network (not shown) via the network control unit 205, and the control unit 202 registers additional information in the database 204. This is performed by associating with the corresponding CM in the waiting CM list. In the input process, the screen displayed on the output unit such as the monitor of the information input person on the network to support the input includes, for example, an additional information item and its input fields 1402-1405 as shown in FIG. It is a configuration to display. In step S1204, the CM for which additional information is input is moved from the additional information registration waiting CM list to the additional information registered CM list, and the process ends.

  Note that the series of processing shown in FIG. 12 may be set to start each time a new CM is registered in the database, or may be set to start at a predetermined time, for example, or The information input person may be set to instruct the start.

  In the above-described embodiment, the description has been made assuming the feature amount of Patent Document 3 described above, but the present invention is not necessarily limited to this. For example, for an image, an amount obtained by a method as shown in FIG. 16 may be used as a feature amount.

  FIG. 16 shows an example of the feature amount of the image. In the case of the NTSC system, a video for one second consists of about 30 images. As shown in FIG. 16A, one image has 720 pixels in the horizontal direction and 480 pixels in the vertical direction, and one pixel is composed of three values of RGB. When each RGB is expressed by 1 byte, one image has a data amount of about 1 megabyte (720 × 480 × 3 = 1036800). For example, in the case of a 15-second CM, since it consists of about 450 images, the data amount is about 450 megabytes. Even when the video compression technology MPEG2 compresses at a low rate, for example, 2 Mbps, the data amount is about 4 megabytes in 15 seconds. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 16B, if an image luminance histogram is used, one image can be expressed by 11 bytes. In this example, it is assumed that the luminance of each pixel is a value from 0 to 255, the luminance value is equally divided into 16 and the histogram is taken, and each value is normalized so that it can be expressed by 1 byte. Furthermore, since the appearance frequency of black (near 0) and white (near 255) is not high, it was decided to discard the 5 bands in the vicinity. In this case, it takes about 5 kilobytes in 15 seconds. In the feature quantity as shown in FIG. 16B, the original CM cannot be imagined from this feature quantity, but the same feature quantity can be obtained from the same CM, and different feature quantities can be obtained from different CMs with high probability. .

  Whether or not a CM broadcast by television broadcasting is a new CM can be determined by whether or not the CM is already registered in the database 105. In other words, the database 105 is searched using the broadcasted CM as a key, and if the same CM is found, the keyed CM is not a new CM, and if the same CM is not found, it can be determined that the keyed CM is a new CM. . This CM search uses the CM feature value transmitted from the user 102 instead of the CM video itself. For example, in FIG. 17, when searching whether the CM 1701 is a CM registered in the database, instead of comparing the video data of the CM 1701 with the video data of the CM 1703, CM 1705, CM 1707, and CM 1709 in the database, Make a comparison. That is, the feature quantity 1702 is obtained from the video data of the CM 1701. Similarly, the feature quantities 1704, 1706, 1708, and 1710 are obtained for CMs in the database. The comparison is performed using the feature quantity 1702 of the CM 1701 and the feature quantities 1704, 1706, 1708, and 1710 in the database. In the example of FIG. 17, since the feature quantity 1702 and the feature quantity 1708 match, it can be determined that the CM 1701 and the CM 1707 are the same, and the CM 1701 is already registered in the database. The method of searching with the feature amount of the CM instead of the CM video realizes a high-speed search process because the amount of data used for the search is extremely small. A technique for searching for a feature quantity matching the feature quantity at high speed from the database 105 using the feature quantity as a key is described in detail in Patent Document 3.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the information provision system to which this invention is applied. It is a block diagram which shows the conceptual structure of CM server which provides CM additional information. It is a figure which shows typically the additional information registration waiting CM list of CM registered into a database, and the additional information registered CM list. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the registration process of new CM by the control part in the said CM server. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the process with respect to the additional information registration waiting CM list in the database in the said CM server. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the process with respect to CM additional information inquiry from the user in the said CM server. It is a block diagram which shows the conceptual structure of the recording / reproducing apparatus using CM additional information. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the registration process of new CM in the said video recording / reproducing apparatus. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the process in which the said recording / reproducing apparatus inquires CM additional information to CM server. It is a figure which shows typically the exchange between the said video recording / reproducing apparatus and CM server. It is a conceptual diagram of the other connection state of the information provision system to which this invention is applied. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the process with respect to the additional information registration waiting CM list in the database of CM server in the said information provision system. It is a figure which shows the display screen of the list of CM registered into the additional information registration waiting CM list. It is a figure which shows the display screen at the time of an administrator inputting additional information. It is a figure which shows the screen displayed on external output parts, such as a monitor, in order to tell CM additional information to a user. It is a figure which shows the feature-value regarding an image. It is a figure which shows the example of the search by a feature-value. It is a figure which shows the example which cuts out the feature-value from the video signal of television broadcasting.

Explanation of symbols

100, 1000 Information providing system, 101 Internet, 102, 102 ₁ ,... 102 _n user, 103 CM information server, 104 server, 105 database, 106 broadcast station, 201 broadcast receiving unit, 202 control unit, 203 storage unit, 204 database, 205 network control unit, 206 output control unit, 207 input control unit, 700 recording / playback apparatus, 701 broadcast receiving unit, 702 control unit, 703 storage unit, 704 database, 705 network control unit, 706 output control unit, 707 Input control unit, 708 Video storage unit, 1107, 1107 ₁ ,... 1107 _m Information input person

Claims (7)

A CM additional information supply method for supplying additional information of a commercial message from a CM additional information supply device to a CM additional information receiving device via a network,
The CM additional information supply device detects a commercial message from a television broadcast, calculates a feature amount of the detected commercial message, accepts input of additional information of the commercial message, and calculates the feature amount of the commercial message and the commercial message A database in which the additional information of the commercial message is created, and the feature amount of the commercial message is used as a key in response to a transmission request for the additional information of the commercial message sent from the CM additional information receiving apparatus via the network. A CM additional information supply method, comprising: searching inside, reading additional information of a commercial message of a feature amount retrieved from a database, and transmitting the additional information to a CM additional information receiving apparatus via the network.   2. The CM additional information supply method according to claim 1, wherein the CM additional information supply apparatus requests the manager of the CM additional information supply apparatus to input additional information of a commercial message.   2. The CM additional information supply method according to claim 1, wherein the CM additional information supply apparatus requests the specific information or the unspecified person connected to the network to input additional information of the commercial message.   The CM additional information supply method according to claim 1, wherein the CM additional information receiving device stores additional information of a commercial message received via a network. A CM additional information supply device that supplies additional information of a commercial message to a CM additional information receiving device via a network,
A television broadcast receiving means for receiving a television broadcast;
A commercial message is detected from the television broadcast received by the television broadcast receiving means, a feature amount of the detected commercial message is calculated, input of additional information of the commercial message is received, and the calculated feature amount of the commercial message The additional information of the commercial message is stored in the database in association with the feature amount of the commercial message in response to the transmission request of the additional information of the commercial message sent from the CM additional information receiving apparatus via the network. Control means for performing a control of searching the database as a key, reading additional information of a commercial message of the searched feature amount from the database, and transmitting the additional information to the CM additional information receiving apparatus via the network. Special CM additional information supply device. A CM additional information receiving device that receives additional information of a commercial message via a network from a CM additional information supply device that includes a database that associates the feature amount of the commercial message with the additional information of the commercial message,
A television broadcast receiving means for receiving a television broadcast;
A commercial message is detected from the television broadcast received by the television broadcast receiving means, a feature amount of the detected commercial message is calculated, and the feature amount of the commercial message is used as a database search key to the CM additional information supply device. And a control means for performing control to receive additional information of the commercial message from the CM additional information supply apparatus via the network. A CM additional information supply system for supplying CM additional information from a CM additional information supply apparatus to a CM additional information receiving apparatus via a network,
The CM additional information supply device detects a television message from the television broadcast receiving means that receives the television broadcast, and the television broadcast received by the television broadcast receiving means, and calculates a feature amount of the detected commercial message. , Receiving the input of additional information of the commercial message, storing the calculated feature value of the commercial message and the additional information of the commercial message in a database in association with each other, and sending it from the CM additional information receiving apparatus via the network In response to a request to send additional information of a commercial message, the database is searched using the feature amount of the commercial message as a key, and the additional information of the commercial message with the searched feature amount is read from the database and the network Through a control means for performing control of transmitting to the CM additional information receiving apparatus,
The CM additional information supply device detects a television message from the television broadcast receiving means that receives the television broadcast, and the television broadcast received by the television broadcast receiving means, and calculates a feature amount of the detected commercial message. , Control for transmitting the feature amount of the commercial message to the CM additional information supply apparatus via the network as a database search key and receiving the additional information of the commercial message from the CM additional information supply apparatus via the network And a CM additional information supply system.

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