JP2006238473A - Information display device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information display device that makes program content easily understandable visually when displaying an electronic program guide, and achieves an expected propaganda effect. <P>SOLUTION: When a cell is selected by a cursor, the shape of the cursor is changed by using data, such as logotypes contained in the information of a program being displayed on the cell, thus achieving an expected propaganda effect corresponding to the program content, and improving the degree of attention. The shape of the cursor is changed to a mark for indicating view limitation information, or the like, thus making the program information easily understandable visually. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an information display apparatus, and more particularly, to an information display apparatus that improves the display format of an electronic program guide (EPG) that displays television program information on a monitor.

  Conventionally, in an analog television receiver broadcasted at home, a program that a viewer wants to watch is referred to from those described in newspapers or magazines, and the channel is selected by selecting the channel. Has been done.

  On the other hand, digital broadcasting, which has been put into practical use in recent years, can provide tens to hundreds of channels as a program, transmits TV program information, analyzes it on the receiver side, and monitors it. An EPG service that displays a TV program guide on top is important.

For example, as shown in Japanese Patent Publication No. 6-504165, the viewer can divide the screen on the screen by receiving a service in which a time axis is provided on the horizontal axis and programs are displayed in association with the vertical direction. Select the desired program by operating the cursor displayed on the screen using an input device such as a remote controller, and view or record the selected program. Reservations can be made easily.
JP-T 6-504165

  The conventional information display apparatus is configured as described above and can conveniently refer to the program contents of each channel on the monitor. However, there are the following problems.

  As shown in FIG. 20, the cell size for each program content displayed on the screen corresponds to the broadcast time of the program, and the size is fixed. If the title is long, it cannot be displayed in the cell, and the latter half of the character is omitted, making it difficult to understand.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the information provided includes not only the title but also information on the program summary, performers, etc. If you want to refer to them, as shown in FIG. Usually, it is displayed in the picture-in-picture format etc. at the bottom of the screen by placing the cursor on the cell of the corresponding program and selecting and determining the enlarged display button on the remote control etc. with the selection button. For this reason, there is a problem that it is difficult to understand the program title that is referred to by itself because the relation with the original program title that is currently referred to is weak.

  In addition, the cells displayed on the screen can be easily referred to mainly on information related to billing information and viewing limitation information (such as age limitation) that the user is interested in mainly to display program contents. There was a problem that it was not possible.

  In addition, when a cell is selected, the display color of the cell on which the cursor is placed is reversed, so there is no special color according to the program content, it is not noticeable, and the degree of attention is low. there were.

  In addition, the moving distance of the cursor on the screen is a predetermined size, and when the cursor is moved from a program with a long broadcast time to a program with a short broadcast time, multiple cells are selected at the same time. There is a problem that it is necessary to separately perform an operation for specifying and selecting one cell, and the operation is troublesome.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an information display device in which the cell length is variable in accordance with the amount of program information to be displayed.

  It is another object of the present invention to provide an information display device that can easily recognize which program is a reference source when displaying detailed information of the program other than the program title. .

  It is another object of the present invention to provide an information display device capable of making reference mainly to information related to billing information that is anxious to the user and information related to viewing limitation (such as age limitation).

  It is another object of the present invention to provide an information display device in which, when a cell is selected with a cursor, the shape of the cursor changes according to the contents of the program.

  In addition, even when a cell with a long broadcast time and a cell with a short program are mixed and displayed on the screen, the amount of movement (width) of the cursor is optimal depending on the width of the cell selected on the screen. An object of the present invention is to provide an information display device that is a moving amount.

  According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information display device comprising: program information storage means for storing program information composed of data indicating the contents of a plurality of programs; and program information stored in the program information storage means. Program information providing means for assigning program information of each program to cells having a predetermined length, and providing a program guide comprising a plurality of cells arranged in a matrix, and arranged in the matrix Cursor providing means for providing a movably displayed cursor on the program guide for selecting one of the cells, and cursor position detecting means for detecting the position of the cursor on the program guide From the program information stored in the program information storage means, the shape information of the cursor assigned to the cell at the cursor position detected by the cursor position detection means is obtained. Out, in which a cursor appearance changing means for controlling the cursor providing means to change the shape of the cursor.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information display device comprising: program information storage means for storing program information composed of data indicating the contents of a plurality of programs; and program information stored in the program information storage means. Program information providing means for assigning program information of each program to cells having a predetermined length, and providing a program guide comprising a plurality of cells arranged in a matrix, and arranged in the matrix Cursor providing means for providing a movably displayed cursor on the program guide for selecting one of the cells, and cursor position detecting means for detecting the position of the cursor on the program guide Information about the cell width at the cursor position detected by the cursor position detection means is extracted from the program information stored in the program information storage means, and the cursor is extracted. The movement width is obtained and a movement information determining means for controlling the cursor providing means to change the width of the cell.

  An information display device according to claim 3 of the present invention is the information display device according to claim 2, wherein the initial value of the movement width of the cursor is set using program information stored in the program information storage means. An initial value determining means for calculating and determining, and a movement information storing means for providing the calculated initial value of the cursor movement width to the moving information determining means.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information display apparatus comprising: program information storage means for storing program information composed of data indicating the contents of a plurality of programs; and program information stored in the program information storage means. Program information providing means for assigning program information of each program to cells having a predetermined length, and providing a program guide comprising a plurality of cells arranged in a matrix, and arranged in the matrix Cursor providing means for providing a movably displayed cursor on the program guide for selecting one of the cells, and cursor position detecting means for detecting the position of the cursor on the program guide And extracting information related to the cell width of each program from the program information stored in the program information storage means and calculating and determining an initial value of the cursor movement width. Determining means, in which the initial value of the calculated movement width of the cursor and a mobile information storage means for providing to said cursor providing means.

  As described above, according to the information display device of the present invention, when a cell is selected with the cursor, the shape of the cursor changes according to the program content so that viewing-limited information, a sponsor logo, and the like are displayed. As a result, the program contents can be easily understood visually, and an advertising effect can be expected.

  In addition, even when a program cell with a long broadcast time and a cell with a short program are mixedly displayed on the screen, the amount of movement of the cursor matches the width of the cell selected on the screen, Or the initial value of the amount of cursor movement is set to the optimum value according to the width of the program cell displayed in the program table, so that a long program time cell and a short program cell are mixed. Even when displayed on the screen, there is an effect that the cursor can be smoothly moved on the screen.

(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram showing an information display apparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. In FIG. 1, for example, the program information transmitted by a method such as teletext includes a lot of information such as channel numbers, program names, broadcast times, and billing information of a plurality of programs as shown in FIG. It is included in a predetermined format. 11 is a program information storage means for receiving and recording the program information, and 12 is a cell size determination for determining the cell size for each program based on the program information output from the program information recording means 11. Means 13 is a program guide providing means for allocating each program information to one of a plurality of divided cells and displaying it on the monitor 14.

Next, the operation of the first embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.
First, the program information storage means 11 receives the program information and stores the data having the contents shown in FIG. 3. In step S1, the cell size determination means 12 selects, for example, the number of items and characters to be displayed in the cell of the program. The cell size is calculated from the length. Such processing is performed for each program.

  Next, in step S2, the cell size determination means 12 determines the size of each cell when displayed on the screen as a program guide based on the calculated cell size, and uses this as cell size information. Output.

  Next, in step S3, the program guide providing means 13 receives the program information output from the program information storage means 11 and the cell size information output from the cell size determining means 12, and receives the contents of each program information. A cell having a size necessary for displaying the image is created and provided to the monitor 14 as a program guide.

  Here, for example, when the resolution of the monitor 14 is 640 × 460 dots, the width of the program guide is 400 pixels, the time axis unit is 30 minutes, and the channel axis is 3 channels, as shown in FIG. When one character is displayed with 20 × 20 pixels, the cell 40a having the information such as the longest title as seen in the region 40 indicating the time axis unit has its width forcibly broken by 10 characters, for example. It is displayed with a width of 200 minutes (200 pixels), which is larger than the width of other cells (100 pixels), and accordingly, the area 40a indicating the time zone is also displayed with its width expanded. Become. At this time, the height of the cell 40a becomes the size (100 pixels) expanded by the number of steps (5 steps) generated by the forced line feed in units of 10 characters, and the size of other cells (20 pixels). Will be displayed larger than.

  Further, even if a long title has a long broadcast time and characters fit in the area 40 indicating the broadcast time zone, as shown in the cell 41b, the height of one stage (20 pixels) is set to an area of 400 pixels wide. It will be displayed.

  As described above, according to the first embodiment, the transmitted program information is analyzed, and based on the information amount such as the character length and the number of items of information to be displayed in each program cell, the cell for each program is displayed. Since it is calculated and obtained, program information such as a long title can be displayed without being omitted.

(Embodiment 2)
Next, an information display apparatus according to the second embodiment will be described.
FIG. 5 is a block configuration diagram showing the configuration of the information display device according to the second embodiment. In FIG. 5, reference numeral 51 denotes a lot of information such as channel numbers, program names, broadcast times, and billing information of a plurality of programs. Program information storage means for receiving program information included in a predetermined format and recording the program information, 57 determines the cell size for each program based on the program information output from the program information recording means 51 The cell size determining means 52 is a program guide providing means for assigning each program information to one of the divided cells and displaying it on the monitor 58. 53 is a cursor providing means for providing a cursor to the program guide, 54 is a movement information storage means for storing an initial value of the cursor movement amount on the monitor screen, and 55 is recorded in the movement information storage means 54. Cursor moving means for moving the cursor on the monitor screen in accordance with the moving amount information, and 56 is a cell selecting means for selecting the cell where the cursor provided by the cursor providing means 53 is located with respect to the program guide providing means 52. .

Next, the operation of the second embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.
First, in step S4, among the program information stored in the program information storage means 51, only the display items (here, only titles) determined in advance as initial values are used as standard program guides as shown in FIG. provide.

  Next, in step S5, the cell selection means 56 inputs a signal from the program table cell displayed in FIG. 71 is selected.

  Accordingly, in step S6, the program guide providing unit 52 outputs a signal for indicating the selected cell to the cell size determining unit 57. Then, the cell size determining means 57 examines the program information corresponding to the selected cell 71 and, if there is other information to be displayed, calculates the cell size necessary to display all the information.

  In step S7, a signal indicating the size of the cell 71 recalculated by the cell size determining means 57 is output to the program guide providing means 52. As shown in FIG. 8, the selected program 81b and the program 81b are selected. Is changed so that the cell size of each program 81a, 81c existing in the same channel 101 is increased in the vertical direction, and a program table according to the changed cell size is provided to the monitor 58. At this time, only the cell 71 selected by the cursor 70 in FIG. 7 is displayed with detailed information in FIG. 8, and similarly, the program cells 81a and 81c in which the cells are enlarged vertically are displayed in the display state of FIG. No change. As the program cell 81b is enlarged, the size of the cursor 81b that selects the cell is also automatically changed and displayed.

  According to the second embodiment as described above, a cell in which the viewer wants to see detailed information is selected by the cell selection means 56 from the cells displayed in the program guide, and the program of the selected cell is selected. Since the cell size for displaying all the information to be displayed is recalculated from the information amount of the program information corresponding to, and the cell size is enlarged and displayed, the viewer can display the information other than the program title. When displaying the detailed information of the program, it is possible to easily recognize which program is the reference source, and the visibility is excellent.

(Embodiment 3)
Next, an information display apparatus according to the third embodiment will be described.
FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing the structure of the information display apparatus according to the third embodiment. In FIG. 9, reference numeral 91 denotes a lot of information such as channel numbers, program names, broadcast times, billing information, etc. Program information storage means for receiving and recording program information included in a predetermined format, and 93 is personal information storage means for storing information inputted by personal information setting means 92 such as a remote controller. Various setting information for obtaining a program guide in a format desired by the viewer is recorded. 94 selects from the program information stored in the program information storage means 91 only the matching information based on the setting information stored in the personal information storage means 93, and the selection result is shown in the program table providing means. 95 is a display content determination means provided to 95.

  The personal information setting means 92 and the personal information storage means 93 constitute display condition setting means.

Next, the operation of the third embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.
First, in step S9, as shown in FIG. 11, personal information including the viewer's name, age, gender, viewing-limited information, program billing information (payment limit per program), etc. is provided to a plurality of viewers. The personal information corresponding to a specific viewer identified by, for example, inputting a password when the TV is turned on is selected from the recorded information recording means 93. The program billing information of the personal information is compared with each of the program billing information of all the programs stored in the program information recording means 91. Next, in step S10, the program having a value smaller than the program billing information of the personal information A program having billing information is searched, and a program guide is provided by the program guide providing means 95 to the monitor 96 using the searched result.

  FIG. 12 is a program table created based on the personal information set as described above. In the program information shown in FIG. 3, for example, in the channel 101, the program billing information set in FIG. Only programs having a value smaller than the value “500 yen” are displayed in the cell 120b, and nothing is displayed in the cells 120a and 120c corresponding to the places where other programs are to be displayed. Similarly, for the other channels 102 and 103, only programs having a value smaller than the set program billing information value “500 yen” are displayed in the cell.

  As described above, according to the third embodiment, the personal information preset in the personal information setting unit 92 and the program information stored in the program information storage unit 91 are compared by the display content determination unit 94 and the comparison result is obtained. Since the program guide is created using only the program information with the same, the program guide comprising only the program having the content desired by the viewer can be created, and the program selection becomes easy.

  In the third embodiment, among the information stored as the personal information, the program displayed on the program guide is selected based on the program billing information. However, other items such as age are used. A program displayed in the program guide may be selected.

  Further, as a result of comparison by the display content determination means 94 when creating the program table, nothing is displayed in the cell that displays the program content of the program that does not correspond, but characters such as “not applicable”, You may make it display the picture etc. which show that it is out of object.

(Embodiment 4)
Next, an information display apparatus according to the fourth embodiment will be described.
FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing the structure of the information display device according to the fourth embodiment. In FIG. 13, reference numeral 131 denotes a lot of information such as channel numbers, program names, broadcast times, and billing information of a plurality of programs. Program information storage means for receiving and recording program information included in a predetermined format, 133 selects a specific cell from among a plurality of cells for the program guide created by program guide providing means 132 Cursor providing means for providing a cursor for the program, 135 is a cursor position detecting means for detecting in which cell in the program guide provided by the program guide providing means 132, and 134 is the cursor position. In response to the outputs of the detection means 135 and the program information storage means 131, the cursor position detection means 135 detects the cell where the cursor is located. For the program information (see FIG. 3), a channel sponsor logo or the like is extracted, and an instruction for changing the cursor shape is displayed on the cursor providing means 133 so that a cursor using the extracted logo or the like is displayed on the monitor 136. This is a cursor appearance changing means for outputting.

Next, the operation of the fourth embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.
First, in step S11, a program guide is created by the program guide providing means 132 based on the program information stored in the program information storage means 131. Next, in step S12, the cursor position detecting means 135 generates a program guide. It is detected in which displayed cell the cursor is located.

  Next, in step S13, the cursor appearance changing means 134 changes the appearance shape of the cursor using data such as a logo included in the program information displayed in the cell corresponding to the cursor position detected in step S12. The

  Then, an instruction is output to the cursor providing means 133 so that the cursor whose appearance has been changed is displayed. FIG. 15 shows a state where the movie channel 504 is selected with the cursor 151, and shows a state where a logo area 151 a formed by deforming a part of the cursor 151 is displayed together with the normal title display area 152.

  As described above, according to the fourth embodiment, when a cell is selected with a cursor, the cursor shape changes using data such as a logo included in the program information of the program displayed in the cell. Therefore, the advertising effect according to the contents of the program can be expected, and the degree of attention can be improved. Further, by changing the cursor shape to a mark indicating viewing-only information or the like, the program information can be visually easily understood.

  In the fourth embodiment, a part of the cursor is a logo area, but the entire cursor may be a logo area. Further, the shape of the cursor is changed using the logo, but the shape of the cell may be changed using other program information such as program billing information in addition to the logo.

(Embodiment 5)
Next, an information display apparatus according to the fifth embodiment will be described.
FIG. 16 is a block diagram showing the structure of the information display device according to the fifth embodiment. In FIG. 16, reference numeral 161 denotes a lot of information such as channel numbers, program names, broadcast times, and billing information of a plurality of programs. Program information storage means for receiving program information included in a predetermined format and recording it, 163 selects a specific cell from among a plurality of cells for the program guide created by program guide providing means 162 A cursor providing means for providing a cursor for 166, a cursor moving means for instructing to move the cursor provided by the cursor providing means 163 in the program guide, and 165 are stored in the program information storage means 161. From the program information, the display width as a cell of the program information displayed in the program guide is extracted, and the cursor moves the amount of cursor movement set as the initial value. When the width of a cell location is less than the amount of movement of the set cursor as the initial value, a movement information determining means for instructing such that small amount of movement by updating the amount of movement of the cursor. Reference numeral 167 denotes cursor position detecting means for detecting in which cell of the program table the cursor is positioned.

Next, the operation of the fifth embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.
First, in step S15, the program guide providing means 162 provides a program guide using the cursor movement width information set to 15 minutes, for example, as an initial value for the movement information determining means 165.

  Next, in step S16, the movement information determination unit 165 detects the size of the cell at the cursor position in the currently displayed program table detected by the cursor position detection unit 167 and the movement of the cursor set as the initial value. When the width of the cell selected by the cursor is larger than the width of the cell set as the initial value by comparing with the width information (size), the cursor movement width in the cell selected by the cursor While the information remains constant, the cursor width is expanded to the size of the cell selected by the cursor, and conversely the cursor width selected by the cursor is moved as the initial value. If it is smaller than the amount, the cell movement width information is updated to be smaller than the initial value, and the cursor width is selected by the cursor. Reduced to the size of the cells of the cell being, which is provided to the program guide at step S17. As described above, the size (width) of the cursor is changed so as to be the same as the size of the cell in which the cursor is selected, and the cursor movement width information (movement) set as the initial value is set. When the cursor is positioned in a cell having a width smaller than (amount), the movement width information of the cursor is changed to have a size corresponding to the cell. In addition, if the cursor moves to a cell that has a larger width than the changed movement width after the cursor movement width has been changed, the cursor movement width information is changed to the initial value again. Is done.

  Thus, according to the fifth embodiment, the cursor size is changed to be the size of the cell currently selected by the cursor, and the cursor movement width information (movement amount) set as the initial value is set. ) When the cursor is positioned in a cell with a width smaller than (), the movement width information of the cursor is changed so that it has a size corresponding to the cell. Even when the symbols are mixed and displayed on the screen, a program of a small cell displayed on the screen can be easily selected, and accordingly, the cursor can be smoothly moved on the screen.

(Embodiment 6)
Next, an information display apparatus according to the sixth embodiment will be described.
FIG. 18 is a block diagram showing the structure of the information display device according to the sixth embodiment. In FIG. 18, reference numeral 181 denotes a lot of information such as channel numbers, program names, broadcast times, and billing information of a plurality of programs. Program information storage means for receiving program information included in a predetermined format and recording it, 183 selects a specific cell from among a plurality of cells for the program guide created by program guide providing means 182 Cursor providing means for providing a cursor for 186, cursor moving means for instructing to move the cursor provided by the cursor providing means 183 in the program guide, 188 is stored in the program information storage means 181 From the program information, the display width as a cell of the program information displayed on the program guide is extracted, and the initial value of the cursor movement width is calculated using the extracted information. Initial value determining means 189, movement information storage means for storing the movement amount of the cursor calculated by the initial value determining means 188 as movement information, and 187, in which cell of the program table the cursor is located. The cursor position detection means 185 for detecting receives the output of the cursor position detection means 187 and the output of the movement information storage means 189, and the cursor movement information set as an initial value in the movement information storage means 189 When the width of the cell where is located is smaller than the movement amount of the cursor set as the initial value, the movement information determination means instructs to update the movement amount of the cursor to become a smaller movement amount.

Next, the operation of the sixth embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.
First, in step S18, the program guide providing means 182 provides a program guide.
Next, in step S19, the initial value determining means 188 reads the cell width (broadcast time) for displaying each program from the program information storage means 181 and, for example, calculates the average thereof as the initial value of the movement information, The initial value is output to the movement information storage means 189.

  In step S20, the movement information determination unit 185 detects the width of the cell at the cursor position in the currently displayed program table detected by the cursor position detection unit 187, and the movement width of the cursor set as the initial value. If the width of the cell selected by the cursor is larger than the cell width set as the initial value, the cursor movement width information in the cell selected by the cursor remains constant. When the width of the cursor is expanded to the width of the cell selected by the cursor, and the width of the cell selected by the cursor is smaller than the cursor movement amount set as the initial value, Updates the cell movement width information so that it is smaller than the initial value, and reduces the cursor width to the width of the cell selected by the cursor. And which is provided to the program guide at step S21. As described above, the initial value of the movement amount when moving the cursor on the program guide is calculated so as to be the optimum size from the program guide, and the cursor movement width in which the cursor is set as the initial value later When moving to a cell having a width smaller than the information (movement amount), the movement width information of the cursor is changed to have a width corresponding to the width of the cell.

  As described above, according to the sixth embodiment, the initial value setting means 188 is provided, and the optimal cursor movement amount is calculated from the cell width displayed in the program, and this is calculated as the cursor movement amount when the program guide is provided. Since the initial value of the amount of movement for moving the cursor is always changed according to the displayed program guide, a screen with a long program time and a short program cell mixed is displayed. The cursor can be moved more smoothly when displayed above.

  In the sixth embodiment, the initial value of the moving amount calculated by the initial value determining means 188 is changed when the width of the cell displayed in the program guide is smaller than the initial value of the moving amount of the cursor. However, an initial value of the calculated cursor movement amount may be provided to the cursor moving means 186.

  The information display device according to the present invention makes it easy to visually understand the contents of a program and can be expected to have an advertising effect. A long broadcast time program cell and a short program cell are mixedly displayed on the screen. Even in this case, the cursor can be smoothly moved on the screen, which is useful for displaying an electronic program guide (EPG) for displaying TV program information on a monitor.

It is a block block diagram which shows the information display apparatus which concerns on Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a figure which shows the flowchart for demonstrating operation | movement of the information display apparatus which concerns on the said Embodiment 1. FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the content of the program information input into the information display apparatus by the said Embodiment 1. FIG. It is a figure for demonstrating the state of the screen displayed using the information display apparatus by the said Embodiment 1. FIG. It is a block block diagram which shows the information display apparatus which concerns on Embodiment 2 of this invention. It is a figure which shows the flowchart for demonstrating operation | movement of the information display apparatus which concerns on the said Embodiment 2. FIG. It is a figure for demonstrating the state of the screen before displaying using the information display apparatus by the said Embodiment 2. FIG. It is a figure for demonstrating the state of the screen displayed using the information display apparatus by the said Embodiment 2. FIG. It is a block block diagram which shows the information display apparatus which concerns on Embodiment 3 of this invention. It is a figure which shows the flowchart for demonstrating operation | movement of the information display apparatus which concerns on the said Embodiment 3. FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the personal information memorize | stored in the personal information storage means which comprises the information display apparatus in the said Embodiment 3. FIG. It is a figure for demonstrating the state of the screen displayed using the information display apparatus by the said Embodiment 3. FIG. It is a block block diagram which shows the information display apparatus which concerns on Embodiment 4 of this invention. It is a figure which shows the flowchart for demonstrating operation | movement of the information display apparatus which concerns on the said Embodiment 4. FIG. It is a figure for demonstrating the state of the screen displayed using the information display apparatus by the said Embodiment 4. FIG. It is a block block diagram which shows the information display apparatus which concerns on Embodiment 5 of this invention. It is a figure which shows the flowchart for demonstrating operation | movement of the information display apparatus which concerns on the said Embodiment 5. FIG. It is a block block diagram which shows the information display apparatus which concerns on Embodiment 6 of this invention. It is a figure which shows the flowchart for demonstrating operation | movement of the information display apparatus which concerns on the said Embodiment 6. FIG. It is a figure for demonstrating the state of the screen displayed using the conventional information display apparatus. It is a figure for demonstrating the state of the screen at the time of displaying the detail of the program information currently displayed on the specific cell using the conventional information display apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

11, 51, 91, 131, 161, 181 Program information storage means 12, 57 Cell size determining means 13, 52, 95, 132, 162, 182 Program guide providing means 14, 58, 96, 136, 164, 184 Monitor 53 133, 163, 183 Cursor providing means 54, 189 Movement information storage means 55, 166, 186 Cursor movement means 56 Cell selection means 92 Personal information setting means 93 Personal information storage means 94 Display content determination means 134 Cursor appearance changing means 135, 167, 187 Cursor position detecting means 188 Initial value determining means

Claims (4)

Program information storage means for storing program information composed of data indicating the contents of a plurality of programs;
Using the program information stored in the program information storage means, program information of each program is assigned to cells having a predetermined length, and a program table is formed by arranging the plurality of cells in a matrix. A program guide providing means;
Cursor providing means for providing a cursor movably displayed on the program guide in order to select one of the cells arranged in a matrix.
Cursor position detecting means for detecting the position of the cursor on the program guide;
The cursor information provided to the cell at the cursor position detected by the cursor position detecting means is extracted from the program information stored in the program information storage means, and the cursor is provided so as to change the cursor shape. An information display device comprising cursor appearance changing means for controlling the means. Program information storage means for storing program information composed of data indicating the contents of a plurality of programs;
Using the program information stored in the program information storage means, program information of each program is assigned to cells having a predetermined length, and a program table is formed by arranging the plurality of cells in a matrix. A program guide providing means;
Cursor providing means for providing a cursor movably displayed on the program guide in order to select one of the cells arranged in a matrix.
Cursor position detecting means for detecting the position of the cursor on the program guide;
Extracting information about the width of the cell at the cursor position detected by the cursor position detection means from the program information stored in the program information storage means, and changing the movement width of the cursor according to the width of the cell An information display device comprising: movement information determining means for controlling cursor providing means. The information display device according to claim 2,
Using the program information stored in the program information storage means, an initial value determining means for calculating and determining an initial value of the movement width of the cursor;
An information display device comprising: a movement information storage means for providing the movement information determination means with an initial value of the calculated cursor movement width. Program information storage means for storing program information composed of data indicating the contents of a plurality of programs;
Using the program information stored in the program information storage means, program information of each program is assigned to cells having a predetermined length, and a program table is formed by arranging the plurality of cells in a matrix. A program guide providing means;
Cursor providing means for providing a cursor movably displayed on the program guide in order to select one of the cells arranged in a matrix.
Cursor position detecting means for detecting the position of the cursor on the program guide;
Initial value determining means for extracting information on the cell width of each program from the program information stored in the program information storage means and calculating and determining an initial value of the movement width of the cursor;
An information display device comprising: a movement information storage means for providing the cursor providing means with an initial value of the calculated cursor movement width.

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