JP2006309364A - Information processor, information processing method and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To allow a user to select a desired program by easy operation. <P>SOLUTION: A display part 57, for selection of desired content from among a plurality of contents, displays a plurality of predetermined search conditions. A main control part 101, on the basis of an instruction from a user, selects a search condition from among the plurality of search conditions displayed on the display part 57, and a content refining part 112 uses a selected search condition to refine contents from among the plurality of contents. When the user issues a command for deciding a search condition being selected by the user, a search condition setting processing part 111, for selecting desired content from among the plurality of refined contents, newly sets a plurality of search conditions. The display part 57 displays the plurality of refined contents and the plurality of set search conditions. This invention is applicable to a reproducing apparatus for reproducing contents. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing device, an information processing method, and a program, and more particularly, to an information processing device, an information processing method, and a program that enable a user to select content desired by an easy operation.

  In recent years, with the development of digital broadcasting and music Web (World Wide Web) and recording / playback apparatuses such as hard disk recorders and personal computers, it has become possible to record a large amount of content in the recording / playback apparatus.

  However, there is a problem that it is difficult for a user to search for desired content from a recording / playback apparatus that has recorded a large amount of content.

  Thus, for example, as a method for allowing a user to select desired content from a large amount of content, a method for searching for content by allowing a user to input a keyword as a search condition and performing a search based on the keyword is proposed. ing.

On the other hand, Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for efficiently displaying an AV option desired by a user.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-190992

  However, in order to search using a keyword in a recording system for recording a program broadcast on television, the user needs to input a keyword as a search condition by operating a remote controller or the like, which is complicated. There was a problem of being.

  Furthermore, as the number of recorded contents increases, one search condition (keyword) cannot narrow down the contents desired by the user. In some cases, it may not be possible to narrow down the content desired by the user. Therefore, in addition to inputting a plurality of keywords, the user has to input a product set search, and there is a problem that the search for content becomes complicated.

  The present invention has been made in view of such a situation, and makes it possible to select content desired by a user with an easy operation.

  The information processing apparatus according to the present invention can be used for a plurality of first content groups to be searched from among a plurality of predetermined search conditions in order to narrow down a desired content from a plurality of contents. Search condition setting processing means for setting one or more first search condition groups, and one first search condition is selected from one or more first search condition groups based on a command from the user And a display control processing unit that performs control to display one or more first search condition groups and displays the selected first search condition so as to be identifiable. Determination processing means for determining the first search condition based on a command from the user, and at least one of a plurality of first content groups to be searched using the determined first search condition Narrow down the second content group And a search condition setting processing means, when the selected first search condition is determined, the one or more second search conditions that are narrowed down from a plurality of preset search conditions. One or more second search condition groups that can be used for the content group are set, and when the selected first search condition is determined, the display control means determines one or more narrowed first search conditions. Control is performed to display a second search condition group that can be used for the two content groups.

  The narrowing-down processing means narrows down one or more second content groups from among a plurality of first content groups to be searched using the first search condition when the first search condition is selected, The display control processing means may perform control to display each thumbnail corresponding to the second content group together with the first search condition group when the first search condition is selected.

  The display control processing means may perform control to display each thumbnail corresponding to the second content group together with the second search condition group when the selected first search condition is determined. .

  The selection processing means selects one second search condition from one or more second search condition groups based on a command from the user, and the narrowing processing means selects the second search condition. When the second search condition is selected, one or more third content groups are narrowed down from the second content group using the second search condition, and when the second search condition is selected, the display control processing means The content group may be controlled to be displayed together with the second search condition group.

The selection processing means selects one second search condition from one or more second search condition groups based on a command from the user, and the narrowing processing means selects the selected second search condition. Is determined, one or more third content groups are narrowed down from the second content group using the second search condition, and the search condition setting processing means determines whether the selected second search condition is If determined, set one or more third search condition groups available for the third content group,
The display control means may perform control to display the third search condition group when the selected second search condition is determined.

  When the second search condition is selected, the narrowing-down processing means narrows down one or more third content groups from the plurality of first content groups to be searched using the second search condition, The display control processing means may perform control to display each thumbnail corresponding to the third content group together with the second search condition group when the second search condition is selected.

  The display control processing means may perform control to display each thumbnail corresponding to the third content group together with the third search condition group when the selected second search condition is determined. .

  The selection processing means selects one third search condition from one or more third search condition groups based on a command from the user, and the narrowing processing means selects the third search condition. When the third search condition is selected, one or more fourth content groups are narrowed down from the third content group using the third search condition, and when the third search condition is selected, the display control processing means The content group may be controlled to be displayed together with the third search condition group.

  The selection processing means selects one thumbnail based on the user's command, and the determination processing means determines the selected thumbnail based on the command from the user, and reproduces the content corresponding to the determined thumbnail. Reproduction processing means can be provided.

  The selection processing means selects one thumbnail based on the user's command, and the determination processing means determines the selected thumbnail based on the command from the user, and reproduces the content corresponding to the determined thumbnail. Reproduction processing means, for example, the main control unit 101, the display unit 57, and the speaker 58 of FIG. 3 for executing the process of step S19 of FIG. 9 may be provided.

  The search condition setting processing means may add a new search condition for performing a logical product of the first search condition and the second search condition as a recently used search condition.

  The search condition setting processing means counts the number of times the search condition determined by the determination processing means, and rearranges the order in the set of search conditions according to the counted number of search conditions. .

  The information processing method of the present invention can be used for a plurality of first content groups to be searched from a plurality of predetermined search conditions in order to narrow down a desired content from a plurality of contents. Based on a search condition setting processing step for setting one or more first search condition groups and a command from the user, one first search condition is selected from one or more first search condition groups And a display control processing step for performing control to display one or more first search condition groups so that the selected first search condition can be identified. A determination processing step for determining the first search condition based on an instruction from the user, and at least one of a plurality of first content groups to be searched using the determined first search condition Narrow down the second content group A search condition setting process step, wherein when the selected first search condition is determined, the search condition setting process step includes one or more second search conditions narrowed down from a plurality of preset search conditions. One or more second search condition groups that can be used for the content group are set, and when the selected first search condition is determined, the display control step determines one or more selected second search condition groups. Control is performed to display a second search condition group that can be used for the two content groups.

  The program of the present invention is one that can be used for a plurality of first content groups to be searched from a plurality of predetermined search conditions for narrowing down a desired content from a plurality of contents. Selection of selecting one first search condition from one or more first search condition groups based on the search condition setting processing step for setting the first search condition group and the instruction from the user. A display control processing step for performing a control to display the processing step, one or more first search condition groups so that the selected first search condition can be identified, and a selected first A determination processing step for determining one search condition based on a command from the user, and one or more second contents from among a plurality of first content groups to be searched using the determined first search condition Narrow content group And a search condition setting process step, when the selected first search condition is determined, the one or more second search conditions narrowed down from a plurality of preset search conditions. One or more second search condition groups that can be used for the content group are set, and when the selected first search condition is determined, the display control step determines one or more second search condition items that have been narrowed down. A program that allows an information processing apparatus to execute a process characterized by performing control for displaying a second search condition group that can be used for the content group.

  In the present invention, one or more that can be used for a plurality of first content groups to be searched from among a plurality of predetermined search conditions for narrowing down a desired content from a plurality of contents. The first search condition group is set, the first search condition is selected based on an instruction from the user, one or more first search condition groups are displayed, and the selected first search condition group is displayed. The search condition is displayed so as to be identifiable, and the selected first search condition is determined based on a command from the user, and a plurality of first content groups to be searched using the first search condition One or more second content groups are narrowed down from the inside. The search condition group is set for one or more second content groups narrowed down from a plurality of preset search conditions when the selected first search condition is determined. When one or more second search condition groups that can be used are set and the selected first search condition is determined, the available first search condition group can be used for the one or more second content groups that are narrowed down. The display is controlled to display the two search condition groups.

  According to the present invention, desired content can be selected. In particular, according to the present invention, the user can select desired content with an easy operation. In addition, the content can be searched more efficiently.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. The correspondence relationship between the invention described in this specification and the embodiments of the invention is exemplified as follows. This description is intended to confirm that the embodiments supporting the invention described in this specification are described in this specification. Therefore, even if there is an embodiment that is described in the embodiment of the invention but is not described here as corresponding to the invention, the fact that the embodiment is not It does not mean that it does not correspond to the invention. Conversely, even if an embodiment is described herein as corresponding to an invention, that means that the embodiment does not correspond to an invention other than the invention. Absent.

  Further, this description does not mean all the inventions described in this specification. In other words, this description is for the invention described in the present specification, which is not claimed in this application, that is, for the invention that will be applied for in the future or that will appear and be added by amendment. It does not deny existence.

The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 (for example, the personal computer 11 in FIG. 3)
One or more first searches that can be used for a plurality of first content groups to be searched from a plurality of predetermined search conditions for narrowing down a desired content from a plurality of contents. Search condition setting processing means (for example, search condition setting processing unit 111 in FIG. 3) for setting a condition group (for example, search conditions displayed in the search condition display area 351 in FIG. 8);
A selection processing means (for example, a search condition for selecting one drama search condition in FIG. 8, for example) from one or more first search condition groups based on a command from the user (for example, 3 for executing the process determined as YES in step S11 of FIG. 9, and
It is possible to control the display of one or more of the first search condition groups (for example, the search conditions displayed in the search condition display area 351 in FIG. 8) and identify the selected first search condition. Display control processing means (for example, the processing in step S13 in FIG. 9) is performed (for example, the search condition of the focused “drama” in FIG. Main controller 101) of FIG.
Determination processing means for determining the selected first search condition based on a command from the user (for example, the main control unit 101 in FIG. 3 that executes the process determined as YES in step S14 in FIG. 9);
Using the determined first search condition, one or more second content groups (for example, displayed in the thumbnail image display area 352 of FIG. 12) from among the plurality of first content groups to be searched. And a narrowing processing means (for example, the content narrowing unit 112 in FIG. 3) for narrowing down the content corresponding to the thumbnail image 371 being
When the selected first search condition (for example, “drama” search condition in FIG. 8) is determined, the search condition setting processing means narrows down the plurality of preset search conditions. One or more second search condition groups (for example, search conditions displayed in the search condition display area 351 in FIG. 12) that can be used for the one or more second content groups are set ( For example, step S15 in FIG.
When the selected first search condition is determined, the display control means displays one or more second content groups (for example, the thumbnail image display area 352 in FIG. 12). Control is performed to display the second search condition group (for example, the search condition displayed in the search condition display area 351 in FIG. 12) that can be used for the content corresponding to the plurality of thumbnail images 371 (for example, the content corresponding to the plurality of thumbnail images 371). , Step S16 of FIG. 9).

The narrowing-down processing unit of the information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the first search condition is selected when the first search condition (for example, the search condition for “drama” in FIG. 8 or 20) is selected. To narrow down one or more second content groups (for example, content corresponding to the thumbnail image display area 371 in FIG. 8) from among the plurality of first content groups to be searched (for example, FIG. 9 step S12),
When the first search condition is selected, the display control processing unit displays each thumbnail corresponding to the second content group (for example, the thumbnail image 371 in FIG. 8 or the thumbnail image 471 in FIG. 20). Control is performed to display the first search condition group (for example, the search condition displayed in the search condition display area 351 in FIG. 8).

  The display control processing unit of the information processing apparatus according to claim 3, when the selected first search condition (for example, the search condition for “drama” in FIG. 8) is determined, the second content. Control is performed to display each thumbnail corresponding to the group (for example, the thumbnail image 371 in FIG. 12) together with the second search condition group (for example, the search condition displayed in the search condition display area 351 in FIG. 12). It is characterized by that.

The selection processing means of the information processing apparatus according to claim 4, based on a command from a user, one second search condition (for example, FIG. 11) from one or more second search condition groups. Or select “1ch” search condition in FIG.
The narrowing-down processing means narrows down one or more third content groups from the second content group using the second search condition when the second search condition is selected,
When the second search condition is selected, the display control processing means converts the third content group (for example, the thumbnail image 371 in FIG. 11 or FIG. 12) into the second search condition group (for example, FIG. 11 or the search condition displayed in the search condition display area 351 of FIG. 12).

The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the selection processing unit is configured to select one second search condition (for example, FIG. 12) from one or more second search condition groups based on an instruction from a user. (For example, “YES” is determined in step S11 in the second time in FIG. 9).
When the selected second search condition is determined, the narrowing-down processing unit selects one or more third content groups from the second content group using the second search condition. Refinement (for example, the second step S12 in FIG. 9),
When the selected second search condition is determined (for example, when the process determined as YES in the second step S14 in FIG. 9 is executed), the search condition setting processing means One or more third search condition groups that can be used for the content group (for example, the second step S15 in FIG. 9),
The display control means controls to display the third search condition group (for example, the search condition displayed in the search condition display area 351 in FIG. 13) when the selected second search condition is determined. It is characterized by performing.

The narrowing-down processing means of the information processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the second search condition is selected when the second search condition (for example, the “recently recorded video” search condition in FIG. 12) is selected. Narrow down one or more third content groups from among the plurality of first content groups to be searched using
When the second search condition (for example, the “recently recorded video” search condition in FIG. 12) is selected, the display control processing unit selects each thumbnail (for example, the third content group) (for example, The thumbnail images 371-2 ′ to 371-4 ′ in FIG. 13 are controlled to be displayed together with the second search condition group (for example, the search conditions displayed in the search condition display area 351 in FIG. 13). Features.

  The display control processing unit of the information processing apparatus according to claim 7, when the selected second search condition (for example, a search condition for “recently recorded video” in FIG. 12) is determined. Each of the thumbnails corresponding to the three content groups (for example, the thumbnail images 371-2 ′ to 371-4 ′ displayed in the search condition display area 351 of FIG. 13) is converted into the third search condition group (for example, FIG. And 13 search condition display areas 351).

The selection processing means of the information processing apparatus according to claim 8 selects one third search condition from one or more third search condition groups based on an instruction from a user (for example, , YES is determined in the third step S11 of FIG. 9),
When the third search condition is selected, the narrowing-down processing means narrows down one or more fourth content groups from the third content group using the third search condition (for example, , The third step S12 in FIG. 9),
The display control processing means performs control so that the fourth content group is displayed together with the third search condition group when the third search condition is selected (for example, the third time in FIG. 9). Step S13).

The selection processing means of the information processing apparatus according to claim 9 selects one of the thumbnails (for example, the thumbnail image 471-1 displayed in the reproduction content selection area 431 in FIG. 21) based on a user instruction. And
The determination processing means determines the selected thumbnail based on a command from a user,
Reproduction processing means for reproducing the content corresponding to the determined thumbnail (for example, the main control unit 101, the display unit 57, and the speaker 58 in FIG. 3 that executes the process of step S19 in FIG. 9) is provided. And

The selection processing means of the information processing apparatus according to claim 10 selects one of the thumbnails (for example, the thumbnail image 371-1 ′ displayed in the search condition display area 351 in FIG. 12) based on a user instruction. Selected,
The determination processing means determines the selected thumbnail based on a command from a user,
Reproduction processing means for reproducing the content corresponding to the determined thumbnail (for example, the main control unit 101, the display unit 57, and the speaker 58 in FIG. 3 that executes the process of step S19 in FIG. 9) is provided. And

  The search condition setting processing means of the information processing apparatus according to claim 11 adds a new search condition for performing a logical product of the first search condition and the second search condition as a recently used search condition. (For example, step S61 in FIG. 17).

  The search condition setting processing means of the information processing apparatus according to claim 12 counts the number of times the search condition is determined determined by the determination processing means, and sets the search condition group to be set according to the counted number of search conditions. The order is rearranged (for example, step S21 in FIG. 10).

The information processing method according to claim 13 is:
One or more first searches that can be used for a plurality of first content groups to be searched from a plurality of predetermined search conditions for narrowing down a desired content from a plurality of contents. A search condition setting process step (for example, the search condition setting processing unit 111 in FIG. 3 executes) for setting a condition group (for example, the search condition displayed in the search condition display area 351 in FIG. 8), step S15 in FIG. )When,
A selection processing step (for example, selecting one first search condition (for example, a search condition for “drama” in FIG. 8) from one or more first search condition groups based on a command from the user) , Processing determined as YES in step S11 of FIG. 9),
It is possible to control the display of one or more of the first search condition groups (for example, the search conditions displayed in the search condition display area 351 in FIG. 8) and identify the selected first search condition. Display control processing step (for example, step S13 or step S16 in FIG. 9) is performed (for example, the search condition of the focused “drama” in FIG. 8 is displayed with emphasis, such as changing the color). )When,
A determination process step of determining the selected first search condition based on a command from the user (for example, a process determined as YES in step S14 in FIG. 9);
Using the determined first search condition, one or more second content groups (for example, displayed in the thumbnail image display area 352 of FIG. 12) from among the plurality of first content groups to be searched. A narrowing-down process step (for example, a process executed by the content narrowing unit 112 in FIG. 3) for narrowing down the content corresponding to the thumbnail image 371)
In the search condition setting processing step, when the selected first search condition (for example, the search condition for “drama” in FIG. 8) is determined, the search condition setting process step narrows down from the plurality of preset search conditions. One or more second search condition groups (for example, search conditions displayed in the search condition display area 351 in FIG. 12) that can be used for the one or more second content groups are set ( For example, step S15 in FIG.
In the display control step, when the selected first search condition is determined, the one or more second content groups (for example, displayed in the thumbnail image display area 352 in FIG. 12) are selected. Control is performed to display the second search condition group (for example, the search condition displayed in the search condition display area 351 in FIG. 12) that can be used for the content corresponding to the plurality of thumbnail images 371 (for example, the content corresponding to the plurality of thumbnail images 371). , Step S16 of FIG. 9).

The program according to claim 14 is:
One or more first searches that can be used for a plurality of first content groups to be searched from a plurality of predetermined search conditions for narrowing down a desired content from a plurality of contents. A search condition setting process step (for example, the search condition setting processing unit 111 in FIG. 3 executes) for setting a condition group (for example, the search condition displayed in the search condition display area 351 in FIG. 8), step S15 in FIG. )When,
A selection processing step (for example, selecting one first search condition (for example, a search condition for “drama” in FIG. 8) from one or more first search condition groups based on a command from the user) , Processing determined as YES in step S11 of FIG. 9),
It is possible to control the display of one or more of the first search condition groups (for example, the search conditions displayed in the search condition display area 351 in FIG. 8) and identify the selected first search condition. Display control processing step (for example, step S13 or step S16 in FIG. 9) is performed (for example, the search condition of the focused “drama” in FIG. 8 is displayed with emphasis, such as changing the color). )When,
A determination process step of determining the selected first search condition based on a command from the user (for example, a process determined as YES in step S14 in FIG. 9);
Using the determined first search condition, one or more second content groups (for example, displayed in the thumbnail image display area 352 of FIG. 12) from among the plurality of first content groups to be searched. A narrowing-down process step (for example, a process executed by the content narrowing unit 112 in FIG. 3) for narrowing down the content corresponding to the thumbnail image 371)
In the search condition setting processing step, when the selected first search condition (for example, the search condition for “drama” in FIG. 8) is determined, the search condition setting process step narrows down from the plurality of preset search conditions. One or more second search condition groups (for example, search conditions displayed in the search condition display area 351 in FIG. 12) that can be used for the one or more second content groups are set ( For example, step S15 in FIG.
In the display control step, when the selected first search condition is determined, the one or more second content groups (for example, displayed in the thumbnail image display area 352 in FIG. 12) are selected. Control is performed to display the second search condition group (for example, the search condition displayed in the search condition display area 351 in FIG. 12) that can be used for the content corresponding to the plurality of thumbnail images 371 (for example, the content corresponding to the plurality of thumbnail images 371). FIG. 9 is a program that can be executed by the information processing apparatus.

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

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration example of a personal computer 11 to which the present invention is applied.

  A CPU (Central Processing Unit) 51, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 52, and a RAM (Random Access Memory) 53 are connected to each other via an internal bus 54. An input / output interface 55 is also connected to the internal bus 54.

  The CPU 51 executes various processes according to a program stored in the ROM 52 or a program loaded from the storage unit 59 to the RAM 53. The RAM 53 also stores data necessary for the CPU 51 to execute various processes as appropriate.

  The input / output interface 55 includes an input unit 56 including a keyboard and a mouse, a display unit 57 including an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) and a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube), a speaker 58, a storage unit 59 including a hard disk, A communication unit 60 including a modem, a terminal adapter, and the like, a broadcast receiving unit 61, and a light receiving unit 62 that receives an infrared signal from the remote controller 90 shown in FIG. The communication unit 60 performs communication processing via various networks including a telephone line or CATV. The broadcast receiving unit 61 receives radio waves broadcast by a broadcast station (not shown) and executes predetermined processing to extract program (content) data, which is input via the input / output interface 55 and the internal bus 54. To the CPU 51. The light receiving unit 62 receives an infrared signal (remote control signal) emitted from the remote controller 90 when the user inputs an operation to the remote controller 90 in FIG. 2, and transmits it to the input / output interface 55 and the internal bus 54. To the CPU 51.

  A drive 71 is connected to the input / output interface 55 as necessary, and a removable medium 81 made of a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, a semiconductor memory, or the like is appropriately attached, and a computer program read therefrom is Installed in the storage unit 59 as necessary.

  In the storage unit 59 of the personal computer 11, content (program) received from a broadcasting station (not shown) via the broadcast receiving unit 61 and content received from a Web server (not shown) via the communication unit 60 are stored. A plurality are stored. Hereinafter, processing executed for searching (selecting) content desired by the user from a large amount (a plurality of) content stored in the storage unit 59 will be described.

  In the content search in the present embodiment, the user inputs operations such as up / down / left / right and determination to the input unit 56 or the remote controller 90 (FIG. 2) by looking at the search conditions displayed on the display unit 57. Then, the desired content is selected (searched) and reproduced. For example, the user presses up / down / left / right arrow buttons (so-called cross keys) provided on a keyboard which is the input unit 56 to input an up / down / left / right operation, and an Enter (Enter) provided on the keyboard. ) Enter the decision operation by pressing the button. Depending on the example of the screen displayed on the display unit 57, pressing the right arrow button and the left arrow button of the keyboard, which is the input unit 56, may correspond to the input of the determination operation. The operation input to the remote controller 90 will be described below with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of the remote controller 90.

  The remote controller 90 has a button 91-1 for instructing an upward movement, a button 91-2 for instructing a rightward movement, and a downward movement in order for the user to input an instruction. A button 91-3 for instructing the movement, a button 91-4 for instructing a movement in the left direction, and a button 92 for instructing the determination are provided. Further, the remote controller 90 is provided with a light emitting unit 93 that emits an infrared signal (remote control signal) corresponding to a command (operation) input by the user. In the present embodiment, the infrared signal emitted from the light emitting unit 93 is received by the light receiving unit 62 of the personal computer 11 in FIG.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration example of the personal computer 11 of FIG.

  In FIG. 3, the personal computer 11 is provided with a display unit 57, a speaker 58, and a broadcast receiving unit 61 in addition to a main control unit 101, an operation input unit 102, and a DB (database) 103. For example, the main control unit 101 is realized by the CPU 51 in FIG. 1 executing a predetermined program, and the operation input unit 102 is realized by the input unit 56 and the light receiving unit 62 in FIG. The DB 103 is realized by the storage unit 59. Since the functions of the display 57, the speaker 58, and the broadcast receiver 61 are all the same as those in FIG. 1, the description thereof is omitted.

  The main control unit 101 controls each unit. For example, the main control unit 101 acquires the content received by the broadcast receiving unit 61 and stores it in the DB 103. In addition, for example, the main control unit 101 executes various processes based on a user command input to the operation input unit 102. Further, the main control unit 101 causes the display unit 57 to display an image corresponding to the program for which display is instructed, and causes the speaker 58 to output sound. In addition, the main control unit 101 controls writing and reading (recording and playback) to the DB 103.

  The main control unit 101 is also provided with a search condition setting processing unit 111 and a content narrowing unit 112. The search condition setting processing unit 111 appropriately sets search conditions for providing to the user. For example, when selection of a predetermined search condition is determined by the user, a search condition for further narrowing down the search condition for which selection has been determined is set. The content narrowing unit 112 narrows down the content. For example, the content narrowing unit 112 performs a process of narrowing down content from a plurality of contents when a predetermined search condition is selected by the user.

  The operation input unit 102 receives an operation input from a user and supplies a control signal corresponding to the received operation input to the main control unit 101. Specifically, since an infrared signal corresponding to the operation input is supplied from the remote controller 90 in response to an operation input from the user to the remote controller 90 (FIG. 2), an operation input unit realized by the light receiving unit 62 102 receives an operation input from the user and supplies a control signal for the received operation input (infrared signal corresponding to the operation input) to the main control unit 101. Further, the operation input unit 102 realized by the input unit 56 supplies a control signal to the main control unit 101 in response to an operation input from the user to the input unit 56 as a keyboard. In the following description, it is assumed that the operation input unit 102 receives operation inputs for up, down, left, right, and determination from the user.

  Information regarding the content is registered in the DB 103. For example, contents 121-1 to 121-n (n is an arbitrary natural number) and a search condition 122 are registered in the DB 103. The contents 121-1 to 121-n are contents (programs) acquired from a broadcasting station (not shown) or a Web (World Wide Web) server. The search condition 122 is a condition for searching for contents from these contents 121-1 to 121-n. Hereinafter, the contents 121-1 to 121-n are referred to as the contents 121 when it is not necessary to individually distinguish them.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the content 121 includes video data 161 composed of image data and audio data, and metadata 162 for describing the content. The metadata 162 includes, for example, data indicating the title 171, the recording date and time 172, the genre 173, the number of views 174, the number of channels 175, and the like.

  The title 171 indicates the title (title) of the content 121, the recording date and time 172 indicates the date and time when the content 121 was recorded, and the genre 173 indicates the genre (program type) to which the content 121 belongs. Show. For example, the genre 173 includes sports, news, dramas, and movies. The number of times of viewing 174 is the number of times the user has viewed (reproduced) the content 121, and the number of channels (channel name) 175 indicates the channel of a broadcast station (not shown) that broadcasts the content. For example, the number of channels 175 includes 1ch, 2ch, 3ch,... Mch (m is an arbitrary natural number).

  In the example of FIG. 4, the video data 161 and the metadata 162 are stored together. However, the video data 161 and the metadata 162 may be stored in association with each other. For example, the video data 161 and the metadata 162 may be associated with the same identification information (ID), or a table for associating the video data 161 and the metadata 162 may be further provided. Good.

  Next, an example of the search condition 122 registered in the DB 103 of FIG. 3 will be described with reference to FIG.

  In the case of the example of FIG. 5, the search conditions 122 include “recently recorded videos”, “all videos”, “videos that have not been seen yet”, “5 recently used search conditions”, “sports”, “News”, “drama”, “movie”, “1ch”, “3ch”, “4ch”, and “6ch” are provided.

  In the search condition of “recently recorded video”, for example, the content 121 whose recording date and time is within one week is searched (in this embodiment, video data recording a television program corresponds to the content 121). be able to. With the search condition of “all videos”, all contents 121 registered in the DB 103 can be searched. With the search condition “video that has never been viewed”, it is possible to search for content that has never been played from the content registered in the DB 103. In “Recently used five search conditions”, up to five recent search histories performed by the user are automatically stored as search conditions. Search conditions for “sports”, “news”, “drama”, and “movie” are genre-specific search conditions. The search conditions for “1ch”, “3ch”, “4ch”, and “6ch” are channel-specific search conditions.

  Since these search conditions are displayed only when there is content that satisfies the conditions, not all search conditions (items) are always displayed when searching for content for the first time. Also, the definition of the recording date and time of “recently recorded video” is not limited to within one week. Furthermore, the “recently used five search conditions” are not limited to five, and may be other numbers.

  Although illustration is omitted, additional data is associated with each search condition and stored in the DB 103. The additional data is, for example, data such as the number of times each search condition is selected by the user.

  Next, the media selection process executed by the personal computer 11 of FIG. 3 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. This process is started when the personal computer 11 is turned on.

  In step S1, the main control unit 101 determines whether activation of an application program for multimedia playback has been instructed, and waits until the activation is instructed. For example, a user inputs an operation to the operation input unit 102 to start an application program for multimedia playback (the keyboard is the input unit 56 in FIG. 1 or the remote controller 90 in FIG. 2). If so, the main control unit 101 determines that activation of an application program for multimedia playback has been instructed.

  If it is determined in step S1 that an application program for multimedia playback has been commanded, in step S2, the main control unit 101 causes the display unit 57 to display a media selection menu. For example, the main control unit 101 causes the display unit 57 to display a window 301 as shown in FIG.

  In the window 301 of FIG. 7, a media selection menu of an application program for multimedia playback is displayed. As the media selection menu, video 311-1, music 311-2, photo 311-3, personal video 311-4, and CD / DVD 311-5 are provided as menu items. In the window 301, a cursor 320 for selecting each menu item of the media selection menu is displayed.

  The video 311-1 is a menu item for selecting content that is a television broadcast program (for example, content classified as “video”). In the video 311-1 (area), the characters “video” are displayed together with an image reminiscent of the user. The music 311-2 is a menu item for selecting content (for example, content classified as “music”) that is music (audio data). In the music 311-2 (area), the text “music” is displayed together with an image reminiscent of the user. The photo 311-3 is a menu item for selecting content that is a still image (for example, content classified as “photo”). In the photo 311-3 (area), a character “photo” is displayed together with an image reminiscent of the user. The personal video 311-4 is a menu item for selecting content that is a moving image captured by the personal video (for example, content classified as “personal video”). In the personal video 311-4 (area), characters of “personal video” are displayed together with an image reminiscent of the user. The CD / DVD 311-5 is a menu item for selecting contents that are music or video recorded on a CD (Compact Disc) or a DVD (Digital Versatile Disk). In the CD / DVD 311-5 (area), a character “CD / DVD” is displayed together with an image reminiscent of the user of a CD or DVD.

  The cursor 320 moves in the vertical direction in response to a signal from the operation input unit 102. Actually, the cursor 320 moves in accordance with an operation performed on the keyboard (input unit 56 in FIG. 1) or the remote controller 90. The menu item that overlaps the cursor 320 is displayed with emphasis such as changing the color so that it can be distinguished from other menu items. Hereinafter, a menu item (area) overlapping the cursor 320 is referred to as a focused menu item. When the menu item is focused, the selection of the menu item is not yet determined, and the menu item is simply selected. Then, after the menu item is focused, when an operation for instructing determination is input to the operation input unit 102, selection of the focused menu item is determined.

  Arrows 321-1 to 321-3 displayed in the vicinity of the cursor 320 indicate a direction in which the cursor 320 can move or that a predetermined process is associated. The predetermined process includes a selection determination process and a reproduction start process which will be described later. In the example of FIG. 7, an upward arrow 321-1, a right arrow 321-2, and a downward arrow 321-3 are displayed on the window 301, and a left arrow (see FIG. 8 described later). The arrow 321-4) is not displayed. In other words, FIG. 7 shows that there is no processing corresponding to the operation in the left direction (or that it cannot move in the left direction). In the window 301 of FIG. 7, the user commands the operation input unit 102 to change the menu item to be focused by inputting an up / down operation, and inputs the right operation to the operation input unit 102. To command the selection of the focused menu item.

  Returning to FIG. 6, in step S <b> 3, the main control unit 101 determines whether or not the movement of the cursor 320 (movement of the cursor 320 up and down) has been commanded. The main control unit 101 determines that the movement of the cursor 320 is instructed when an operation for instructing up or down is input to the operation input unit 102 by the user, and the operation for instructing the right (decision) is performed by the user. When input to the input unit 102, it is determined that the movement of the cursor 320 is not instructed. Here, the operation for instructing the determination is, for example, when the user presses the right button on the keyboard which is the input unit 56 or presses the right button 91-2 on the remote controller 90. is there.

  If it is determined in step S3 that the movement of the cursor 320 has been commanded, in step S4, the main control unit 101 moves the cursor 320 in the commanded movement direction. That is, the menu item located in the commanded movement direction is newly focused. For example, in FIG. 7, when the user inputs an operation for instructing the operation input unit 102 to move downward in a state where the menu item of the video 311-1 is focused (step S3), step In S4, the cursor 320 is moved to the menu item of music 311-2. As a result, the menu item of music 311-2 is focused. After the process of step S4, the process returns to step S3, and the subsequent processes are repeated. That is, the cursor movement process corresponding to the movement instruction of the cursor 320 is repeated until the user is instructed to determine the focused menu item.

  As described above, the user inputs the up / down movement of the cursor 320 to the operation input unit 102 to thereby select each menu item of the media selection menu (video 311-1, music 311-2, photo 311-3, personal video). 311-4 and CD / DVD 311-5 menu item) can be changed in focus (selection).

  If it is determined in step S3 that the movement of the cursor 320 has not been commanded, that is, if it has been determined that the selection of the currently focused menu item has been commanded, the process proceeds to step S5. That is, when the user inputs an operation for commanding the right (decision) to the operation input unit 102, the process proceeds to step S5.

  In step S <b> 5, the main control unit 101 determines whether or not an instruction to select a menu item of the video 311-1 is instructed. Specifically, the main control unit 101 determines whether or not the menu item for which selection decision is instructed by the user is the menu item of the video 311-1. That is, when the menu item of the video 311-1 in FIG. 7 is focused (in the state where the cursor 320 is overlapped with the menu item of the video 311-1), the user decides on the operation input unit 102 (right ) Is input, the main control unit 101 determines that the determination to select the menu item of the video 311-1 is instructed. Conversely, the menu item for music 311-2, the menu item for photo 311-3, the menu item for personal video 311-4, or the menu item for CD / DVD 311-5 is operated by the user. When a determination (right) command is input to the input unit 102, the main control unit 101 determines that determination of selection of the menu item of the video 311-1 has not been commanded.

  If it is determined in step S5 that the selection of the menu item selection of the video 311-1 has not been commanded, that is, the menu of the music 311-2, the photo 311-3, the personal video 311-4, and the CD / DVD 311-5. If it is determined that the item selection decision has been instructed, the process proceeds to step S6, and the main control unit 101 displays an initial screen corresponding to the menu item for which selection has been decided, and then ends the process.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S5 that selection of the menu item of the video 311-1 is instructed, the process proceeds to step S7, and the main control unit 101 displays an initial screen corresponding to the menu item of the video 311-1. This is displayed on the unit 57. In response to the control from the control unit 101, the display unit 57 displays, for example, an initial screen as shown in FIG. FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of an initial screen corresponding to the menu item of the video 311-1. FIG. 8 shows a plurality of search conditions set in advance for searching for a desired content from a plurality of contents (video data in which a television program is recorded, that is, video). In the figure, portions corresponding to those in FIG. 7 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof will be omitted because it will be repeated.

  Hereinafter, in the description of this application, unless otherwise specified, “select search condition (select)”, “focus search condition (focus)”, “select thumbnail image ( Selected ”,“ focus thumbnail image (focused) ”,“ search condition is selected (selected) ”,“ search condition is focused (focused) ” , “Thumbnail image is selected (selected)” or “Thumbnail image is focused (focused)” means that the cursor 320 is moved to a position overlapping the search condition or the display of the thumbnail image It is used as a word that expresses the state actively or passively.

  The “search condition for which selection has been determined” is used as a term indicating a search condition for which a selection determination operation described later has been performed. Similarly, the “selected thumbnail image” is used as a word indicating a thumbnail image on which a selection decision operation described later is performed.

  In the window 301 of FIG. 8, a search condition display area 351 and a thumbnail display area 352 are provided. The search condition display area 351 is an area in which search conditions that can be searched are displayed. The thumbnail display area 352 on the right side of the search condition display area 351 is an area in which thumbnail images corresponding to content that matches the currently focused search condition are displayed. In addition, “video” is displayed at the top of the window 301. This indicates an initial screen of an application program for searching for moving image content (that is, video content) stored in the storage unit 59 and registered (recorded) in the DB 103. With this display, the user can recognize that the content has not been narrowed down yet.

  In the search condition display area 351 in FIG. 8, “recently recorded videos”, “all videos”, “videos that have never been viewed”, “sports”, “news”, “ “Movie”, “Drama”, “1ch”, “3ch”, “4ch”, and “6ch” are displayed. As described above with reference to FIG. 7, the cursor 320 moves in the vertical direction in response to a signal to the operation input unit 102 (an input from the user to the input unit 56 that is the remote controller 90 or the keyboard). Similarly to the menu item of FIG. 7 described above, the area (search condition) overlapping the cursor 320 is displayed with emphasis such as by changing the color so that it can be distinguished from other areas (search conditions). Similar to FIG. 7, hereinafter, the search condition (area) overlapping the cursor 320 is referred to as a focused search condition. At the time when the search condition is focused, the selection of the search condition is not yet determined, and the search condition is simply selected. Then, after the search condition is focused, when an operation for commanding determination is further input to the operation input unit 102, selection of the focused search condition is determined.

  The arrows 321-1 to 321-4 indicate the direction in which the cursor 320 can move or that a predetermined process is associated, as in FIG. 7. The predetermined process is a selection determination process, a reproduction start process, or the like, which will be described later. In the example of FIG. 8, in addition to the upward arrow 321-1, the right arrow 321-2, and the downward arrow 321-3, a left arrow 321-4 is also displayed. In FIG. 8, the corresponding processing is executed even when an operation for instructing a leftward movement is input to the operation input unit 102 in addition to the upward, downward, and rightward directions. It has been shown.

  Here, “Recently Recorded Videos”, “All Videos”, “Never Watched Videos”, “Sports”, “News”, “Movies”, “Drama”, “1ch”, “3ch” Each search condition such as “4ch” and “6ch” can be selected by moving the cursor 320 by an operation for instructing a vertical movement from the user. The “by genre” item 360-1 and the “by channel” item 360-2 are items expressing the types of search conditions, and cannot be selected by an operation from the user.

  A description explaining which broadcast station the channel corresponds to is displayed beside each channel. Specifically, “1ch” corresponds to aa TV, “3ch” corresponds to bb TV, “4ch” corresponds to cc TV, and “6ch” corresponds to dd TV. ing.

  In the case of the example in FIG. 8, the cursor 320 overlaps with a search condition for “drama” (an area where “drama” is displayed). That is, the search condition for “drama” is focused. Also, thumbnail images 371-1 to 371-9 corresponding to nine contents that match the search condition of “drama” (filtered by the search condition of “drama”) are adjacent to the right side of the search condition display area 351. It is displayed in the thumbnail display area 352. Hereinafter, the thumbnail images 371-1 to 371-9 displayed in the thumbnail display area 352 are referred to as thumbnail images 371 when it is not necessary to distinguish them individually. The number of thumbnail images displayed in the thumbnail display area 352 varies depending on the content narrowing result.

  Specifically, this application program automatically displays in the thumbnail display area 352 a thumbnail image 371 of content that satisfies the search condition that overlaps the cursor 320 and the intersection of the search conditions that have been performed so far. Has been made. Therefore, the user can easily confirm which search condition can be selected to narrow down to a desired content or content group. 8 is an example of the initial screen displayed in the process of step S7 in FIG. 6 after the selection of the menu item of the video 311-1 in FIG. 7 is determined. The condition does not exist. Therefore, a thumbnail image 371 of content that applies only to “drama”, which is a preset search condition, is displayed in the thumbnail display area 352.

  Further, by moving the cursor 320 in the vertical direction, the search condition display area 351 can be scrolled to display search conditions that cannot be displayed on one screen.

  Returning to the description of FIG. 6, in step S7, the main control unit 101 displays an initial screen corresponding to the menu item of the video 311-1 as shown in FIG. .

  With the processing in FIG. 6, the user can activate a media playback application program and select a media to be played back. In addition, when it is instructed to select a video menu item, an initial screen as shown in FIG. 8 can be displayed on the display unit 57.

  Next, content reproduction processing executed by the personal computer 11 of FIG. 3 will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 9 and 10. This process is started in a state where an initial screen corresponding to the menu item of the video 311-1 in FIG. 8 is displayed, for example. That is, it is started after the process of step S7 in FIG.

  In step S11, the main control unit 101 determines whether or not the cursor 320 has been commanded to move up and down. Specifically, the main control unit 101 determines whether a command for moving the cursor 320 up and down is input to the operation input unit 102 by the user. Since the window 301 shown in FIG. 8 is displayed in the first processing of step S11, the main control unit 101 instructs the operation input unit to move the cursor 320 displayed in the window 301 up and down. It is determined whether or not it is input to 102. As shown in FIG. 8, in the vicinity of the cursor 320, in addition to the arrows 321-1 and 321-3 indicating that it can move up and down, a predetermined process is associated. A right arrow 321-2 and a left arrow 321-4 are displayed. For this reason, the operation input unit 102 does not receive a command to move the cursor 320 up and down, but operates in the right direction (in the example of FIG. 8, the operation for determining a focused search condition) or the operation in the left direction. (In the case of the example in FIG. 8), an operation for instructing a process for returning to the window 301 in FIG. 7 may be input. If it is determined in step S11 that an operation in the right direction or an operation in the left direction has been input (that is, it is determined that the cursor 320 has not been commanded to move up and down), the process is performed. Proceed to step S14.

  If it is determined in step S11 that the cursor 320 has been commanded to move up and down, the process proceeds to step S12, and the content narrowing unit 112 of the main control unit 101 searches for the search condition focused by the cursor 320 movement command. The product set search with the search condition (selected search condition) for which selection has been determined previously is performed, and the content 121 is narrowed down with reference to the metadata 161 associated with the content 121. Note that the processing in step S12 only changes the search condition to be focused, and the selection decision is executed in the processing in step S14 described later. In the first processing of step S12, there is no search condition for which selection has been determined before, so the content narrowing unit 112 of the main control unit 101 is based on the search condition focused by the instruction to move the cursor 320. The content 121 is narrowed down with reference to the metadata 161 associated with the content 121. For example, in FIG. 8, when the search condition of “drama” is focused by the cursor 320 and the movement below the cursor 320 is commanded, the search condition to be focused next is “1ch”. The content narrowing unit 112 of the main control unit 101 uses the metadata associated with each content 121 based on the search condition “1ch” (the search condition focused by the instruction to move the cursor 320 in step S11). 161, the content 121 is narrowed down.

  In step S <b> 13, the main control unit 101 causes the display unit 57 to display an image based on the result of the content narrowing unit 112 being mixed. Specifically, the main control unit 101 controls the display unit 57 to display the thumbnail image 371 corresponding to the content narrowed down by the content narrowing unit 112 in the process of step S12 in the thumbnail display area 352 of the window 301. To do. In the content 121, a thumbnail image 371 for describing the content 121 (representing the content 121) is stored in the content 121 or in the metadata 161 corresponding to the content 121. The unit 101 controls the display unit 57 to read a thumbnail image corresponding to the content narrowed down by the content narrowing unit 112 and display the thumbnail image in the thumbnail display area 352 of the window 301. For example, in FIG. 8, when the search condition for “drama” is focused by the cursor 320, the movement below the cursor 320 is commanded, so that the search condition for “1ch” is newly focused, step In the process of S12, when the content 121 is narrowed down under the newly focused “1ch” search condition, in step S13, the main control unit 101 displays the display unit 57 on the basis of the narrowed result. For example, a window 301 as shown in FIG. 11 is displayed.

  In the window 301 of FIG. 11, the cursor 320 is superimposed on an area overlapping the area (search condition) displayed as “1ch” in the search condition display area 351. That is, the search condition “1ch” is focused. In the thumbnail display area 352, thumbnail images 371 (thumbnail image 371-1, thumbnail image 371-2, and thumbnail image 371-9) corresponding to the three contents searched under the search condition “1ch” are displayed. Has been. At this time, the thumbnail image 371 displayed in the thumbnail image display area 352 is a thumbnail image corresponding to the content narrowed down in the process of step S12 described above.

  Returning to FIG. 9, when it is determined in step S11 that the up / down movement of the cursor 320 is not commanded (that is, it is determined that an operation in the left direction or the right direction is input), or in step S13. After the above process, the process proceeds to step S14, and the main control unit 101 determines whether or not a decision to select a focused search condition has been issued. Specifically, the main control unit 101 performs an operation for instructing the operation input unit 102 to perform a determination (an operation for instructing a rightward movement) by the user in a state where any one of the search conditions is focused. It is determined whether or not it has been input. If it is instructed to determine the selection of the search condition that is focused, the process proceeds to step S15, and if the determination to select the search condition that is in focus is not instructed (for example, if playback of content is instructed). If the movement of the cursor 320 to the left is instructed), the process proceeds to step S17. In the examples of FIGS. 8 and 11, since the determination of the selection of the search condition has not been instructed yet, a thumbnail image for instructing the search condition display area 351 to reproduce the content (described later). The thumbnail image 371-1 ′) of FIG. 12 is not displayed, and the operation for determining the selection of the thumbnail image cannot be performed.

  Here, the operation for determining the selection is an operation to move the cursor 320 in the direction of the arrow 321-2 pointing to the right. Specifically, for example, in FIG. 8, by performing an operation of moving the cursor 320 to the right, processing for determining selection of “drama” as a search condition is executed. If it is determined in step S14 that the determination of selection of the focused search condition has been instructed, in step S15, the search condition setting processing unit 111 of the main control unit 101 determines that the search condition for which selection has been determined previously. A search condition that can be used for further narrowing down the content narrowed down by the intersection search with the search condition for which selection has been determined is selected and set as a usable search condition. That is, the search condition setting processing unit 111 of the main control unit 101 executes a search condition setting process that is a process for setting a search condition. In the first process of step S15, since there is no search condition selected before, the search condition setting processing unit 111 can be used to further narrow down the contents narrowed down only by the search condition determined to be selected. Search conditions are set as usable search conditions. For example, in FIG. 8, when the search condition selection is instructed while the search condition of “drama” is focused, the search condition setting process of the main control unit 101 is performed in the first process of step S15. The unit 111 selects search conditions that can be used to further narrow down the content narrowed down by “drama”, which is the search condition for which selection has been determined, as “recently recorded video” and “video that has never been viewed. ”,“ 1ch ”,“ 3ch ”,“ 4ch ”, and“ 6ch ”. Details of this processing will be described later with reference to FIG.

  In step S16, the main control unit 101 sets the thumbnail image of the content narrowed down by the intersection search of the search condition for which selection has been determined and the search condition for which selection has been previously determined, and the processing set in step S15. The search condition is controlled to be displayed on the display unit 57. Specifically, the main control unit 101 determines a part of the thumbnail image of the content that has been narrowed down by the intersection search of the search condition for which the selection has been determined and the search condition for which the selection has been previously determined (the content of the narrowed-down content). All the thumbnail images fit in the window 301) and the search conditions set in the process of step S15 are displayed in the search condition display area 351 of the window 301 and focused in the search condition display area 351. A thumbnail image of the content narrowed down by the search condition is displayed in the thumbnail display area 352.

  In the first process of step S16, since there is no search condition previously determined to be selected, the search condition display area 351 includes a thumbnail image of content narrowed down by the search condition determined to be selected, and a step The search conditions set in the process of S15 are displayed. The display unit 57 displays, for example, a screen as shown in FIG.

  “Drama” is displayed at the top of the screen in FIG. 12, indicating that the search condition is currently limited to “drama”. In the case of the example of FIG. 12, the search condition display area 351 includes “recently recorded video”, “video that has not been watched”, “1ch”, “3ch”, “4ch”, as content search conditions. And “6ch” are displayed. In addition, in the lower part of the search condition display area 351 in FIG. 12, the content narrowed down in the process of step S12 (the search condition for which the selection accepted in the process of step S14 is determined and the search condition for which the selection has been previously determined) A part of the thumbnail images (thumbnail image 371-1 ′) of the contents narrowed down by the product set search is displayed, and further, the thumbnail display area 352 of FIG. Among the selected contents, thumbnail images 371-1, 371-2, and 371-9 of contents that are narrowed down by the currently focused search condition “1ch” are displayed. 2, 371-9 are search conditions for the selected “drama” and search for the currently focused “1ch”. This is a thumbnail image of the content narrowed down by the product set search with the condition, so that the user can easily narrow down the content when the content is further narrowed down by the search condition of “drama” and the search condition of “1ch”. Can be confirmed.

  Here, “recently recorded video”, “video that has never been viewed”, “1ch”, “3ch”, “4ch”, and “6ch” displayed in the search condition display area 351 are displayed by the user. The selection and selection can be determined by an operation on the operation input unit 102 (operation for instructing movement of the cursor 320). The thumbnail image 371-1 ′ displayed in the search condition display area 351 can also be selected and determined by an operation on the operation input unit 102 from the user.

  In the search condition display area 351, information for explaining the corresponding content (information based on the metadata 161 associated with the content 121) is displayed on the right side of the thumbnail image 371-1 ′. The thumbnail image 371-1 ′ displayed in the search condition display area 351 is a display for instructing reproduction of the corresponding content. That is, the thumbnail image 371-1 ′ displayed in the search condition display area 351 can be selected and determined by the cursor 320, and the reproduction of the content corresponding to the thumbnail image 371-1 ′ is instructed. However, the thumbnail image 371-1 displayed in the thumbnail display area 352 cannot be selected (cannot be focused) by the cursor 320, and playback of content corresponding to the thumbnail image 371 cannot be commanded. .

  Here, the thumbnail image 371-1 ′ displayed in the search condition display area 351 appears to be the same thumbnail image as the thumbnail image 371-1 displayed in the thumbnail display area 352. That is, the content 121 corresponding to the thumbnail image 371-1 ′ and the content 121 corresponding to the thumbnail image 371-1 are the same content. In the following description, when the sign of the thumbnail image displayed in the thumbnail display area 352 is appended with “′” and the sign of the thumbnail image displayed in the search condition display area 351 match, the same thumbnail image is displayed. Is displayed, and it corresponds to the same content.

  In FIG. 12, the thumbnail image 371 ′ (thumbnail images 371-2 ′ to 371-9 ′) corresponding to the remaining content to be displayed in the search condition display area 351 is displayed in the search condition display area 351. The window 301 may be scrolled. That is, search conditions or thumbnail images that are not displayed in the search condition display area 351 are displayed by scrolling the display in the search condition display area 351 by operating the cursor 320 up and down. It becomes possible.

  Here, unlike FIG. 8 and FIG. 11, “sports”, “news”, and “movie” are not displayed as the search conditions for each genre in FIG. This is because the search conditions for “news” and “movie” were not set. Specifically, a plurality of metadata 162 corresponding to “sports”, “news”, “movie”, and “drama” exemplified as search conditions for each genre are not given to one content. Since “drama” and “sports”, “news”, and “movie”, the selection of which is determined as a search condition in the process of S14, cannot be further narrowed down by performing a product set search. It is not selected as a search condition.

  In this way, the search condition setting processing unit 111 performs “recently recorded video”, “video that has not been viewed”, “1ch”, “3ch”, “4ch”, and “6ch” in the process of step S15. "Is set. That is, the search condition setting processing unit 111 sets “drama” and product set search conditions as “recently recorded video”, “video not seen yet”, “1ch”, “3ch”, “4ch”. "And" 6ch "search conditions are set.

  Returning to FIG. 9, after the process of step S16, the process returns to step S11, and the subsequent processes are repeated. For example, when the window 301 of FIG. 12 is displayed and the cursor 320 is moved to a position overlapping with “3ch bb TV” in the second step S11, “3ch bb” is performed in the second step S12. The intersection search of “drama”, which is the search condition “3ch” for “TV” and the search condition for which selection was previously determined (the search condition instructed to be selected in the first step S14), is executed. Then, the thumbnail image 371 (for example, thumbnail image 371-3) of the corresponding content is displayed in the thumbnail image display area 352 of the window 301 in the second process of step S 13.

  Further, as described above, after the cursor 320 is overlaid on the desired search condition displayed in the search condition display area 351 (after focusing the desired search condition), an operation of moving to the right (decision operation) is performed. By doing so, a process for determining selection of a focused search condition is executed (a process when YES is determined in step S14). Similarly, after the cursor 320 is overlaid on a thumbnail image (for example, the thumbnail image 371-1 ′ in FIG. 12) displayed below the search condition display area 351, an operation (determination) is performed. By performing (operation), processing for determining selection of content corresponding to the thumbnail image 371-1 ′ (instructing reproduction of content) is executed (that is, NO is determined in the processing of step S14, which will be described later). The process after the determination of YES in step S17 is executed).

  Also, for example, after the second processing in step S13, if a decision to select a search condition for “recently recorded video” is accepted on the screen of FIG. 12, the second determination in step S14 is YES. The search condition is set in step S15, and the screen shown in FIG. 13 is displayed on the display unit 57 in the second step S16.

  In the example of FIG. 13, “Recently Recorded Drama” is displayed at the top of the screen based on the product set search of the search conditions of “Drama” and “Recently Recorded Video”. From this display, the user can recognize that a product set search of “drama” and “recently recorded video” has been performed so far. In addition, the history of performing a product set search of “drama” and “recently recorded video” is stored as a recently used search condition, and is displayed as “recently recorded drama” and can be used as a search condition. This notation rule will be described later with reference to FIG.

  In the search condition display area 351 of FIG. 13, “videos that have never been viewed”, “1ch”, and “4ch” are displayed as search conditions. Here, each search condition of “video that has never been viewed”, “1ch”, and “4ch” can be selected by an operation from the user. These search conditions indicate that it can be used to further narrow down the content narrowed down by the intersection search of “drama” and “recently recorded video”.

  Further, in the lower part of the search condition display area 351 in FIG. 13, three thumbnail images 371-2 ′ and 371-3 ′ corresponding to the contents narrowed down by the intersection search of “drama” and “recently recorded video” are displayed. , And 371-4 ′ are displayed. In FIG. 13, thumbnail images, titles, subtitles, recording date and time, and channels of the contents are displayed as explanations of the respective contents. The main control unit 101 acquires information for explaining these contents from the metadata 162 of the content 121 and controls the display so that the information is displayed on the display unit 57. In the example of FIG. 13, the search condition displayed in the search condition display area 351 is not focused (the cursor 320 is not superimposed on the search condition), and the thumbnail image 371-2 ′ is displayed. Since it is focused, the thumbnail image is not displayed in the thumbnail display area 352.

  The display in FIG. 13 shows a condition that allows further product set search for the product set search result of “drama” and “recently recorded video” in the second processing of step S15 by the search condition setting processing unit 111 ( This is because the search conditions of “video that has never been viewed”, “1ch”, and “4ch” are set as the search conditions that are satisfied. That is, according to the search condition setting processing unit 111, there is no corresponding content even if a product set search of “3ch” is performed in the product set search conditions of “drama” and “recently recorded video”. 13 is not displayed.

  Note that the processing in steps S11 to S16 is performed by whether the user is instructed to select content to be reproduced (that is, whether the cursor 320 is instructed to move to the right) or the cursor 320 is moved to the left. Is repeated until is commanded.

  Here, the notation rules described above will be described with reference to FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 14, the notation rules are in the order of “1. Other search conditions”, “2. Channel type”, and “3. Genre type”. In the case of the example in FIG. 13, “Recently recorded drama” is “1. Other search conditions” and “Drama” is “3. Genre type”. It is said.

  As another specific example, when the process of steps S11 to S16 is repeated and “recently recorded video”, “1ch”, and “sports” are selected and the intersection search is executed, “recently recorded 1ch” “Sport”. Similarly, when “video that has never been viewed” and “drama” are selected and a product set is executed, it is described as “drama that has never been viewed”. Similarly, when “Video that has not been viewed yet” and “Recently recorded video” are selected and intersection search is executed, “Recently recorded video that has never been viewed” is displayed. The

  In this way, by setting the notation by rules, it is possible to express the product set search condition in a form that is easy to understand in terms of language, and the user can easily understand the product set search condition.

  In addition, by repeating the process of step S15, the search condition can be set dynamically based on the selection of the search condition from the user.

  Returning to FIG. 9, when it is determined in step S <b> 14 that determination of selection of the focused search condition is not instructed, for example, a thumbnail image displayed below the search condition display area 351 in FIG. 13. When a command for moving the cursor 320 to the right is input in a state where 371-2 ′ is focused (that is, playback of content corresponding to the focused thumbnail image 371-2 ′ is commanded). Alternatively, if a command for moving the cursor 320 to the left is input, the process proceeds to step S17.

  In step S <b> 17, the main control unit 101 determines whether or not the user has instructed playback of the content. For example, the main control unit 101 receives an operation (decision operation) for moving in the right direction after the thumbnail image 371-2 ′ displayed below the search condition display area 351 in FIG. 13 is focused. In this case, it is determined that the user has instructed to reproduce the content. When an operation for moving the cursor 320 to the left in FIG. 13 is input, it is determined that the user has not instructed to reproduce the content.

  If it is determined in step S17 that the user has not instructed reproduction of the content, the process proceeds to step S18, and the main control unit 101 executes a process corresponding to the instruction. For example, in FIG. 13, when an operation for moving the cursor 320 to the left is input to the operation input unit 102 in a state where the search condition “1ch” is focused, the main control unit 101 performs the search. Redo processing (processing to return to the previous screen) is executed. For example, the main control unit 101 controls the display unit 57 to switch the display on the display unit 57 from the window 301 in FIG. 13 to the window 301 in FIG. Thereafter, the process is terminated.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S17 that the user has instructed playback of the content, the process proceeds to step S19, and the main control unit 101 starts playback of the content determined to be played back. For example, in a state where the thumbnail image 371-2 ′ displayed in the search condition display area 351 in FIG. 13 is focused, a command for a determination operation (operation in the right direction) is issued to the operation input unit 102. When input, the main control unit 101 starts reproduction of the content corresponding to the thumbnail image 371-2 ′. Specifically, the main control unit 101 reads out the video data 161 (FIG. 4) included in the content 121 corresponding to the selected thumbnail image 371-2 ′ from the DB 103, and outputs the images and sound that constitute the video data 161. Reproduction is started by causing the display unit 57 and the speaker 58 to output.

  In step S20, the search condition setting processing unit 111 of the main control unit 101 executes a search condition editing process. For example, the search condition setting processing unit 111 executes a search condition editing process that is a process such as adding recently used search conditions (also referred to as narrowing conditions) for narrowing down contents. As a specific example, the search condition used when content reproduction is instructed in the process of step S17 is added as a search condition for narrowing down recently used content. For example, when reproduction of content corresponding to the thumbnail image 371-2 ′ in the search condition display area 351 of the window 301 is instructed in the process of step S17 while the window 301 of FIG. 13 is displayed, the main control unit The search condition setting processing unit 101 of 101 adds the search condition of “recently recorded dramas” shown in the upper part of the screen of FIG. 13 as a search condition for narrowing down recently used contents. Details of this processing will be described later with reference to FIG.

  In step S21, the search condition setting processing unit 111 of the main control unit 101 executes a search condition rearrangement process. For example, the search condition setting processing unit 111 executes a search condition rearrangement process that is a process of rearranging the display order of the search conditions based on the search condition selected by the user to narrow down the content. As a specific example, the selection of the search condition for “drama” in FIG. 8 is performed in the first step S14 and the window 301 in FIG. 12 is displayed, and the second processing in step S14 is performed. The selection of search conditions for 12 “recently recorded videos” is performed and the window 301 in FIG. 13 is displayed. Thereafter, in the window 301 in FIG. 13, the content corresponding to the thumbnail image 371-2 ′ is reproduced. When instructed in step S17, “drama”, which is the search condition selected by the user to narrow down the content to be played back, is placed at the top of the item (in the item of “genre 360-1”). The display order of the search conditions is rearranged so that they are arranged and displayed, details of which will be described later with reference to FIG.

  In step S22, the main control unit 101 determines whether or not the reproduction of the content started to be reproduced in the process of step S19 is finished, and waits for the process until the reproduction of the content is finished.

  If it is determined in step S22 that the content reproduction has ended, the process proceeds to step S23, and the main control unit 101 determines whether to end the process. For example, the main control unit 101 determines whether or not the end of the application program is instructed by the user via the operation input unit 102.

  If it is determined in step S23 that the process is not ended, in step S24, the main control unit 101 controls the display unit 57 to display a screen for search. For example, the display unit 57 displays a search screen as shown in FIG. Thereafter, the processing returns to step S11, and the subsequent processing is repeated.

  FIG. 15 shows a plurality of search conditions for searching for desired contents from a plurality of contents (video). In the figure, portions corresponding to those in FIG. 8 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof will be omitted because it will be repeated.

  In the case of the example of FIG. 15, “video” is displayed at the top of the window 301. This is a search screen for an application program that searches for video content stored in the storage unit 59 (FIG. 1) and registered (recorded) in the DB 103 (FIG. 3), that is, video content. Is shown. With this display, the user can recognize that the content has not been narrowed down yet.

  In FIG. 15, the search condition display area 351 includes “recently recorded videos”, “all videos”, “videos that have never been viewed”, “recently recorded dramas”, “drama” as content search conditions. ”,“ Sports ”,“ News ”,“ Movie ”,“ 1ch ”,“ 3ch ”,“ 4ch ”, and“ 6ch ”are displayed. In FIG. 15, the cursor 320 is overlaid on the search condition “sports”. That is, in FIG. 15, the search condition of “sports” is focused.

  Here, “Recently Recorded Videos”, “All Videos”, “Never Watched Videos”, “Recently Recorded Dramas”, “Dramas”, “Sports”, “News”, “Movies”, “ Each search condition of “1ch”, “3ch”, “4ch”, and “6ch” can be selected by moving the cursor 320 by an operation for instructing a vertical movement from the user. "Search condition" item 360-3, "By genre" item 360-1, and "By channel" item 360-2 are items expressing the types of search conditions. Cannot be selected.

  In the example of FIG. 15, unlike FIG. 8, the display order of the search conditions is changed and the search conditions are edited. This is because the search conditions are edited and the search conditions are rearranged in the above-described steps S20 and S21. Specifically, in FIG. 15, the “recently used drama” item 360-3 displays the “recently recorded drama” search condition. In the item 360-1 “by genre”, the search condition “drama” is arranged at the top. This is because the search condition for “drama” is selected by the user in the first step S14, and “recently recorded video” is selected by the user in the second step S14. In FIG. 15, the search condition display area 351 is not displayed because the area for displaying the thumbnail image 371 ′ does not remain, but the thumbnail image 371 ′ is displayed by scrolling the window 301 downward. It is possible.

  A specific example will be described with reference to the drawings. When the search condition instructed to be selected is “drama” in the first step S14 with the window 301 of FIG. 8 being displayed, the processing in the next step S15 (first step S15) ), The search condition setting processing unit 111 of the main control unit 101 uses “recently recorded video” which is a search condition that can be used to further narrow down the content narrowed down by the selected “drama” search condition. ”,“ Video that has not been seen yet ”,“ 1ch ”,“ 3ch ”,“ 4ch ”, and“ 6ch ”. Then, in the first process of step S16, the main control unit 101, as shown in FIG. 12, a part of the thumbnail image of the content narrowed down by the search condition of “drama” (thumbnail image 371-1 ′). And the search condition set in the first (immediately previous) step S15 are displayed in the search condition display area 351 of the window 301, the search condition of “drama” for which selection has been determined, and the current focus The thumbnail images 371 (thumbnail images 371-1, 371-2, and 371-9) of the content narrowed down under the “1ch” search condition are displayed in the thumbnail display area 352 of the window 301.

  Then, when the search condition instructed to be selected is “recently recorded video” in the second step S14 with the window 301 shown in FIG. 12 being displayed, the processing in the next step S15 ( In the second processing in step S15), the search condition setting processing unit 111 of the main control unit 101 multiplies the search condition of the selected “recently recorded video” and the previously selected search condition “drama”. A search condition that can be used to further narrow down the content narrowed down by the collective search is set. In the second processing of step S15, a search condition for “recently recorded drama” is newly set. Then, in the second step S16, the main control unit 101, as shown in FIG. 13, sets the search condition (that is, “not yet watched” set in the second (immediately) step S15. Video ”,“ 1ch ”, and“ 4ch ”), and a thumbnail image 371 ′ (thumbnail images 371-2 ′, 371- 1) of content narrowed down by the intersection search of“ recently recorded video ”and“ drama ” 3 ′, 371-4 ′) are displayed in the search condition display area 351 of the window 301.

  After that, when the reproduction of the content corresponding to the thumbnail image 371-2 ′ is instructed while the window 301 of FIG. 13 is displayed, it is determined NO in the third process of step S14, and the process of step S17. Is determined as YES, and the reproduction of the content corresponding to the thumbnail image 371-2 ′ is started in the process of step S19. At this time, the content is narrowed down (that is, the content has been searched) by the search condition of “recently recorded dramas” shown in the window 301 of FIG. 13, so the search condition editing process in step S20 Then, a search condition of “recently recorded dramas” is added as a recently used search condition. In the search condition rearrangement process in step S21, the search conditions for “drama” are rearranged so that they are arranged at the top.

  Then, when the reproduction of the content is finished (in the case of YES in step S22) and not yet finished (in the case of NO in step S23), the main control unit 101 displays a screen for performing a search again in step S24. As shown in FIG. 15, a window 301 as shown in FIG. In the process of step S20, the search condition “recently used drama” in the search condition display area 351 in FIG. 3, a search condition for “recently recorded dramas” is displayed. Further, in the process of step S21, the “drama” search condition has been rearranged so as to be arranged at the top, so that the search condition display area 351 in FIG. 1, the search condition for “drama” is displayed at the top.

  Thus, the search condition (search condition for “recently recorded drama” in the example of FIG. 15) added by the search is added in the process of step S20. Therefore, in the process of step S24, “recently used The item “Search condition” 360-3 is newly displayed in the window 301 of the display unit 57. In the item 360-3 of “Recently used search conditions”, for example, a maximum of five items are displayed so that the menu does not become too long. In the example of FIG. 15, the order is changed so that “drama” is displayed at the top of the genre-specific item 360-1, but among the search conditions in the genre-specific item 360-1. The number of selections of each genre may be stored in a cache (not shown) of the main control unit 101, and the order of each genre may be changed based on the stored number of selections of each genre.

  As described above, the menu configuration of the screen displayed on the display unit 57, that is, the search condition is changed by the condition setting processing unit 111, so that the user can easily narrow down the contents. In other words, the search screen displayed after the content is narrowed down and played (displayed in step S24) is edited as shown in FIG. 15 or the search conditions are rearranged. ing. In other words, the search condition is changed by the condition setting processing unit 111 based on an operation for determining selection by the user or an operation for instructing reproduction of content. Therefore, the user can easily focus on the search conditions that are familiar to him / her and can narrow down the contents easily. That is, the user can easily select desired content. For example, when the user wants to narrow down the contents by the search condition of “Recently Recorded Drama”, after selecting the search condition of “Drama” in FIG. 8, usually, the “Recently Recorded Video” in FIG. The search condition selection of “is necessary (although it is necessary to perform a two-stage search), according to the processing of FIG. 9 and FIG. 10, after performing the search once, As shown in FIG. 15, the search condition for “recently recorded dramas” is displayed, so that the user can easily select and determine the search condition for “recently recorded dramas” in one operation. be able to. That is, a two-stage search can be performed with a single selection decision command.

  Returning to FIG. 10, if it is determined in step S23 that the process is to be terminated, the process proceeds to step S25, and the main control unit 101 executes a termination process for the application program, and the process is terminated.

  9 and 10, the search condition is dynamically set based on the determination of the selection of the search condition from the user, so that the user can easily search (select) the desired content. Can do. In addition, after setting the search condition once, the search condition only for searching the narrowed content is displayed (that is, the search condition that does not correspond to the narrowed content is not displayed), so the content is more efficient. Can be searched.

  Next, a detailed example of the search condition setting process in step S15 in FIG. 9 will be described with reference to the flowchart in FIG. This process is a process executed by the search condition setting processing unit 111 in FIG.

  In step S41, the search condition setting processing unit 111 sets the selected search condition as “search condition Y” and any other search condition as “search condition X”. For example, the search condition setting processing unit 111 sets “drama” as “search condition Y” when the search condition instructed to be selected in the process of step S14 in FIG. Any one of the conditions is referred to as “search condition X”. This process is executed by applying each search condition to “search condition X”. That is, the processing of FIG. 16 is executed for “search condition Y” and “search condition X that is a search condition other than search condition Y”. In other words, search conditions other than “search condition Y” among the search conditions shown in FIG. 5 are sequentially applied to “search condition X”, and the process of FIG. 16 is executed.

  In step S42, the search condition setting processing unit 111 determines whether or not the product set of “search condition Y” and “search condition X” is an empty set. That is, the search condition setting processing unit 111 determines whether “search condition Y” and “search condition X” do not include any overlapping elements. For example, the search conditions for “drama” and “sports” for each genre do not include any overlapping elements. Also, for example, if there is content belonging to “Recently Recorded Content” in the content narrowed down by “Drama”, these two search conditions include overlapping elements, so it is not an empty set. It is determined. If it is determined in step S42 that the set is not an empty set, the process proceeds to step S43.

  In step S43, the search condition setting processing unit 111 determines whether or not “search condition Y” is included in the product set of “search condition Y” and “search condition X”. That is, the search condition setting processing unit 111 determines whether or not the product set of “search condition Y” and “search condition X” includes “search condition X” as a subset. If it is determined in step S43 that “search condition Y” is not included in the product set of “search condition Y” and “search condition X” (ie, YES), the process proceeds to step S46, and “search” If it is determined that “search condition Y” is included in the product set of “condition Y” and “search condition X” (ie, NO), the process proceeds to step S44. In other words, if the AND set of “search condition Y” and “search condition X” includes “search condition X” as a subset, the process proceeds to step S44.

  In step S44, the search condition setting processing unit 111 additionally sets “search condition X” as a product set search condition usable for narrowing down in the menu. That is, since the content narrowed down by “search condition Y” can be further narrowed down by “search condition X”, the search condition setting processing unit 111 can perform the intersection search condition that can narrow down “search condition X”. As an additional setting in the menu.

  If it is determined in step S42 that the product set of “search condition Y” and “search condition X” is an empty set, that is, “search condition Y” and “search condition X” completely overlap. If it is determined that the element does not include the element, the process proceeds to step S45, and the search condition setting processing unit 111 sets the search condition so that “search condition X” is not added to the menu. As described above, when “search condition Y” and “search condition X” are the same type of search condition (for example, search condition in each genre), the “search condition X” is not added to the menu. .

  If it is determined in step S43 that “search condition Y” is not included in the product set of “search condition Y” and “search condition X”, the process proceeds to step S46, and the search condition setting processing unit 111 sets a search condition so that “search condition X” is not added to the menu. For example, the search conditions for “all contents” and “drama” will not be added to the menu because the search conditions such as “contents you have not seen” have not been narrowed down if you have not seen all the dramas yet. .

  After the processes in steps S44 to S46, the process is terminated.

  The process of FIG. 16 is repeated with all search conditions other than “search condition Y” applied to “search condition X”. When this setting is completed for all search conditions, the process returns to step S15 in FIG.

  With the processing in FIG. 16, the search condition is dynamically set based on the search condition determined to be selected by the user, so that it is possible to provide a user-friendly search condition. In addition, the user can easily narrow down the search condition, and thus can easily narrow down the desired content.

  When the processing of FIG. 16 is summarized, as a result, the condition for further narrowing down the content to be narrowed down by the search condition determined to be selected in the process of step S14 of FIG. 9 is set as the search condition. That is, the search condition setting processing unit 111 of the main control unit 101 selects the content narrowed down by the intersection search of the selected search condition (search condition for which selection decision is instructed) and the previously selected search condition. The search conditions that can be used for further narrowing down are set as usable search conditions.

  Note that the process is not limited to the process of FIG. 16 as long as the search condition for further narrowing down the content narrowed down by the search condition determined to be selected is set. For example, instead of the process of FIG. 16, each metadata 162 (FIG. 4) of the content 121 narrowed down by the search condition determined to be selected in the process of step S14 of FIG. A process for newly setting a search condition may be executed using the item.

  As described above, in the process of FIG. 16, the search condition for further narrowing down the narrowed content is dynamically set. In other words, a search condition for setting a search for the narrowed content is set.

  Next, a detailed example of the search condition editing process in step S20 in FIG. 10 will be described with reference to the flowchart in FIG. This process is a process executed by the search condition setting processing unit 111 in FIG.

  In step S61, the search condition setting processing unit 111 adds the search condition used for selection to the recently used search condition. For example, the search condition setting processing unit 111 adds the search condition “recently recorded drama” generated in step S15 of FIG. 9 to the recently used search condition (see FIG. 13). In the example described above, the search condition for “recently recorded dramas” is obtained by the process of step S15 for the second time (by the process of step S15 when the selection of the search condition for “recently recorded video” in FIG. 12 is determined). Has been added.

  In step S <b> 62, the search condition setting processing unit 111 determines whether the recently used search condition has exceeded a specified number. In the present embodiment, since the prescribed number is five, the search condition setting processing unit 111 determines whether the recently used search condition has exceeded five. If it is determined in step S62 that the recently used search condition has exceeded a specified number (for example, 5), the process proceeds to step S63, and the search condition setting processing unit 111 deletes one of the oldest search conditions. . For example, the search condition setting processing unit 111 deletes one search condition that has been added to the most recently used search condition the oldest.

  If it is determined in step S62 that the recently used search condition does not exceed the specified number, or after the process of step S63, the process is terminated. And it returns to step S20 of FIG.

  With the processing in FIG. 17, the display of recently used search conditions can always be kept below a specified number. That is, the number of search conditions does not increase beyond a certain number, and the menu can be prevented from becoming unnecessarily long.

  Next, a detailed example of the search condition rearranging process in step S21 of FIG. 10 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. This process is a process executed by the search condition setting processing unit 111 in FIG.

  In step S81, the search condition setting processing unit 111 adds 1 to the number of times the selected search condition is selected. 9 and FIG. 10, that is, the selection of the search condition for “drama” is determined in the window 301 of FIG. 8, the window 301 of FIG. 12 is displayed, and “recently recorded video” in FIG. 13 is displayed and the window 301 of FIG. 13 is displayed and when the reproduction of the content corresponding to the thumbnail image 371-2 ′ is instructed, the search condition setting processing unit 111 selects “drama” and “ The number of selections for each search condition for “recently recorded video” is incremented by one. As described above, since each search condition in FIG. 5 includes the number of times each search condition is selected as additional data, the search condition setting processing unit 111 refers to the search condition 122 in the DB 103, Add 1 to the number of times the target search condition is selected. The number of times of selection of each search condition may not be added to each search condition. For example, a table for associating each search condition with the number of times of selection for each selection condition may be separately provided and stored. Good.

  In step S82, the search condition setting processing unit 111 sorts the search conditions in ascending order in the order of the number of selections in each search condition category (within the genre). Here, the search condition categories are, in the examples of FIGS. 8 and 11 to 15, “by genre” item 360-1, “by channel” item 360-2, and “recently used search condition”. Item 360-3 is shown. For example, the search condition setting processing unit 111 rearranges the search conditions belonging to each genre in ascending order according to the selection count. As a specific example, the search condition for “drama” among the “sports”, “news”, “drama”, and “movie” that are the search conditions belonging to the item 360-1 “by genre” in FIG. When the number of selections is only 1 and the number of selections of other search conditions is all 0, the search condition setting processing unit 111 changes the order of the search conditions to “drama”, “sports”, “news”, And sort in the order of “movie”. Thereafter, the process is terminated. And it returns to step S21 of FIG.

  By sorting the search conditions in the order of the selected number of times by the processing of FIG. 18, the search conditions frequently used by the user are positioned higher (see FIG. 15) (search condition categories, ie, each In the search condition item, the search conditions are rearranged based on the number of selections of the search conditions), so the number of operations for the user to narrow down the content (specifically, the cursor 320 is moved down) The number of operations for making it happen).

  A summary of the above processing will be described with reference to FIG. In the figure, the processes corresponding to those in FIGS. 6, 9, and 10 are denoted by the same step numbers.

  In FIG. 19, screens 401 to 403 are screen examples displayed on the display unit 57. Initially, the screen 401 is displayed on the display unit 57 (step S7 in FIG. 6). That is, the screen 401 is an example of an initial screen displayed when a video menu item is selected. Here, “search condition # 1 to search condition # 6” are displayed on the selection menu screen of the screen 401. That is, “recently recorded videos”, “all videos”, “videos that have never been seen”, “sports”, “news”, “movies”, “drama”, “1ch” in the example of FIG. “3ch”, “4ch”, and “6ch” correspond to “search condition # 1 to search condition # 6” on the screen 401 in FIG. The user inputs an operation to move up and down to the operation input unit 102 (FIG. 3), thereby focusing on a desired search condition and an operation to move to the right or to determine the operation input unit 102 Is entered to determine the selection of the focused (selected) search condition. For example, when “search condition # 2” is selected in a state where the selection menu screen of the screen 401 is displayed (when it is determined YES in the first step S14 in FIG. 9), the display unit 57 The screen 402 is displayed (in the first step S16).

  Here, on the selection menu screen of the screen 402, content # C1 to content # C3 that match the search condition # 2 (restricted by the search condition # 2) are displayed. Also, the search condition # 2 and the search condition # 21 and the search condition # 22 that can perform a product set search are displayed. That is, “drama” in the example of FIG. 12 corresponds to the search condition # 2 of the screen 402 of FIG. 19, and the thumbnail image 371-1 ′ corresponding to the content in the example of FIG. This corresponds to C1 to content # C3. In addition, “recently recorded video”, “video that has not been viewed”, “1ch”, “3ch”, “4ch”, and “6ch” in the example of FIG. This corresponds to # 21 and search condition # 22. As described above, when the search condition # 2 is selected by the user, the personal computer 11 displays the content narrowed down by the selected search condition # 2, and the search condition # 2 and the search condition that can perform the intersection search. Let Thereby, the user can perform a search more easily. For example, when “content # C1” is selected on the selection menu screen of the screen 402 (when it is determined YES in step S17 in FIG. 9), the selection of the content to be played back is completed and selected. The reproduced content is reproduced (step S19). On the other hand, for example, when “search condition # 21” is selected on the selection menu screen of the screen 402 (when YES is determined in the second step S14 in FIG. 9), the display unit 57 displays the screen 403. (Step S16 of the second time in FIG. 9).

  Here, the selection menu screen of the screen 403 displays the content # C1 and the content # C2 that match the search condition # 2 and the search condition # 21 (restricted by the search condition # 2 and the search condition # 21). Yes. In addition, search condition # 2 and search condition # 21, and search condition # 31 and search condition # 32 are displayed as search conditions that allow product set search. That is, “recently recorded video” in the example of FIG. 12 corresponds to the search condition # 21 of FIG. 19, and thumbnail images 371-2 ′, 371-3 ′, and 371-4 ′ corresponding to the contents in the example of FIG. Corresponds to content # C1 and content # C2 in FIG. In addition, “videos that have never been viewed”, “1ch”, and “4ch” in the example of FIG. 13 correspond to the search condition # 31 and the search condition # 32 on the screen 403 of FIG. As described above, when the search condition # 21 is selected by the user, the personal computer 11 displays the contents narrowed down by the selected search condition # 2 and the search condition # 21, and the search condition # 2 and the search condition #. 21 and the search condition that can perform the intersection search are displayed. Thereby, the user can perform a search more easily. For example, when “content # C1” is selected on the selection menu screen of the screen 403 (when it is determined YES in step S17 in FIG. 9), the selection of the content to be played back is completed and selected. The reproduced content is reproduced (step S19). On the other hand, for example, when “search condition # 31” is selected on the selection menu screen of the screen 403 (when it is determined YES in the third step S14 in FIG. 9), the display unit 57 displays the above-described 1, 2 As in the case of the process in step S14, the content narrowed down by the selected search condition and the search condition that can perform a product set search by the selected search condition are displayed. Such processing is repeated until the selection of the content to be reproduced is determined.

  According to the above, since the search condition is dynamically changed according to the selection of the search condition by the user, the user does not perform a complicated operation such as inputting a keyword using a keyboard or the like. The desired content can be selected by a simple operation (for example, operation of the up / down / left / right cross keys and the enter key).

  Further, the search condition and the search result (thumbnail image corresponding to the content) are displayed on the same screen (for example, selectable in the search condition display area 351 in FIGS. 8 and 11 to 15). The search condition is displayed, and the thumbnail image corresponding to the content narrowed down by the search condition selected so far and the currently focused search condition is displayed in the thumbnail display area 352). Can easily narrow down the contents without switching the search condition and the search result screen. That is, since the search results and the search results (for example, thumbnail images corresponding to the contents) corresponding to the search conditions are displayed in parallel in the menu columns (search condition display area 351 and thumbnail display area 352), the user can easily Operations for narrowing down contents can be performed.

  In addition, a thumbnail image corresponding to the content that matches the search condition for which the selection is currently determined is displayed below the search condition display area 351 (for example, the thumbnail image 371-1 ′ in FIG. 11). The user can easily and quickly reproduce the desired content even during the search.

  Further, the order of the search conditions is rearranged according to the number of times of each search condition (step S21 in FIG. 10), or a new search condition is created (set) by past search by the user (step S20 in FIG. 10). Therefore, it is possible to perform a search according to the user's preference.

  In addition, after the selection of the search condition is decided (YES in step S14 of FIG. 9), the search condition is reset (step S15 of FIG. 0), so that the user is more efficient. You can search for content.

  Furthermore, since the desired element (for example, content) can be selected only by operating the cross key, an input device as the operation input unit 102 is not selected. For example, as long as the operation input unit 102 is provided with only the cross key, any type of input device may be used. Further, for example, the button 92 for instructing the remote controller 90 of FIG. 2 to be determined may not be provided. For example, the determination command can be realized by a rightward operation in the present embodiment.

  Further, the narrowing search can be easily realized. Further, since the search can be redone by instructing to move leftward, the redo of the search is easy, and the product set search under various conditions can be easily repeated.

  Further, after the selection of the search condition is determined, the filtering result (for example, the thumbnail image 371-1 ′ in FIG. 11) based on the search condition determined to be selected, and the search condition and the intersection search can be performed. Search conditions (for example, the search conditions displayed in the search condition display area 351 in FIG. 11) are displayed, so that the user can more easily perform a narrow search.

  In addition, it is possible to perform an arbitrary number of narrowed-down searches by repeatedly displaying search conditions that can be searched for product sets so that they can be selected.

  An example of application display is shown below. 20 to 23 are display examples when the above example is applied.

  In this display example, search conditions and thumbnail images for selecting content to be reproduced are displayed in parallel. Further, the search condition and the thumbnail image for selecting the content to be reproduced are displayed independently. Furthermore, to move the list of search conditions and the list of thumbnail images for selecting the content to be played back, the left and right keys of the operation input unit 102 (for example, the button 91-for commanding the remote controller 90 to move to the right) 2 and a button 91-4 for instructing a leftward movement).

  In the case of the example of FIG. 20, the window 301 is provided with a search condition display area 351 and a reproduction content selection area 431. The search condition display area 351 is an area in which search conditions that can be searched are displayed, and the reproduction content selection area 431 on the right side of the search condition display area 351 is a thumbnail image 471-1 to select a content to be reproduced. 471-9 is an area to be displayed. That is, by selecting the thumbnail images 471-1 to 471-9 displayed in the reproduction content selection area 431, the selection of the content to be reproduced can be determined.

  In the search condition display area 351 in FIG. 20, “recently recorded videos”, “all videos”, “videos that have never been viewed”, “sports”, “news”, “ “Movie”, “Drama”, “1ch”, “3ch”, “4ch”, and “6ch” are displayed. The cursor 320 moves up and down in response to a signal to the operation input unit 102 (an input from the user to the remote controller 90 or the input unit 56 that is a keyboard). In the example of FIG. 20, the search condition for “drama”, which is an area overlapping with the cursor 320, is focused (the cursor 320 overlaps with the search condition for “drama”). Similar to the example described above, when the search condition is focused, the selection of the search condition is not yet determined, and the search condition is simply selected.

  Arrows 451-1 to 451-4 indicate the direction in which the cursor 320 can move or that a predetermined process is associated. In the case of the example of FIG. 20, unlike the example of FIG. 8, the right arrow 451-2 is arranged outside the area of the cursor 320. This indicates that movement to the reproduction content selection area 431 is performed when an operation in the right direction is performed. That is, in the embodiment of FIG. 20, the operation to the right with respect to the operation input unit 102 corresponds to the movement to the reproduction content selection area 431 located on the left side of the search condition display area 351 rather than the determination of selection. In other words, in FIG. 20, the search condition display area 351 and the reproduction content selection area 431 are moved by the input of the left and right keys (the operation of moving the operation input unit 102 in the left and right direction). As described above, in this embodiment, when the selection is determined, not the right direction operation but the determination operation (the operation of the determination button 92 of the remote controller 90 or the enter button of the input unit 56 which is a keyboard) Operation) is required. Note that arrows 451-1 and 451-3 in FIG. 20 correspond to the arrows 321-1 and 321-3 in FIGS.

  Here, “Recently Recorded Videos”, “All Videos”, “Never Watched Videos”, “Sports”, “News”, “Movies”, “Drama”, “1ch”, “3ch” Each search condition such as “4ch” and “6ch” can be selected by moving the cursor 320 by an operation for instructing a vertical movement from the user. The “by genre” item 360-1 and the “by channel” item 360-2 are items expressing the types of search conditions, and cannot be selected by an operation from the user.

  In the case of the example of FIG. 20, thumbnail images 471-1 to 471-9 corresponding to the content that matches the search condition of “drama” focused in the search condition display area 351 are displayed in the reproduction content selection area 431. Yes. In the following, the thumbnail images 471-1 to 471-9 are referred to as thumbnail images 471 when it is not necessary to distinguish them individually.

  When the user inputs an operation for selecting the right to the operation input unit 102 in the window 301 in FIG. 20, the cursor 320 moves to the reproduction content selection area 431 as shown in FIG. 21. Specifically, it corresponds to the content that matches the search condition (the search condition of “drama” in the example of FIGS. 20 and 21) focused when the operation in the right direction is input to the operation input unit 102. The cursor 320 moves to the reproduction content selection area 431 where the thumbnail image 471 is displayed. By the movement of the cursor 320, the thumbnail image 471-1 is focused as shown in FIG. In addition, a frame 491 is superimposed on the search condition of “drama” focused at the time when the operation in the right direction is input to the operation input unit 102. This frame 491 is a frame indicating a search condition corresponding to the thumbnail image 471 displayed in the reproduction content selection area 431.

  In FIG. 21, arrows 451-2, 451-3, and 451-4 are displayed. That is, the user can switch the selection of the thumbnail image 471 corresponding to the content to be reproduced by inputting a command for moving in the right direction and moving in the downward direction to the operation input unit 102. The movement to the search condition display area 351 can be instructed by inputting a movement instruction to the operation input unit 102. In the case of the example in FIG. 21, the user can focus the thumbnail image 471-2 corresponding to the content to be reproduced by inputting the rightward movement to the operation input unit 102, and move downward. Is input to the operation input unit 102, the thumbnail image 471-5 corresponding to the content to be reproduced can be focused.

  Further, for example, on the screen of FIG. 20, when the user inputs an operation for determining the search condition for “drama” to the operation input unit 102, that is, with the search condition for “drama” being focused, When the user inputs a determination operation to the operation input unit 102 (for example, when the button 92 for instructing the determination of the remote controller 90 is operated or the Enter button of the input unit 56 as a keyboard is operated) ), The content 121 is narrowed down according to the determined search condition, and the display unit 57 displays a window 301 as shown in FIG. 22 based on the control from the main control unit 101.

  In FIG. 22, a search condition display area 351 displays a search condition for “drama” and a search condition that allows a product set search. Here, in order to display the thumbnail image of the content corresponding to the currently focused search condition (the content that matches the focused search condition) on the right side of the figure, the “drama” search condition is satisfied. A search condition “all videos” for displaying thumbnail images corresponding to all contents is set by the search condition setting processing unit 111. In the case of the example of FIG. 22, since the search condition of “all videos” is focused (because the cursor 320 is overlaid on the “all videos” area), all the search conditions of “drama” are satisfied. Thumbnail images 471-1 to 471-9 of the content are displayed in the reproduction content selection area 431.

  Also in FIG. 22, when an operation for moving the cursor 320 to the right is input in a state where “all videos” is focused, the cursor 320 moves to the thumbnail image 471-1 in the reproduction content selection area 431. . Thereby, the user can select the thumbnail image 471 corresponding to the content to be reproduced. That is, the content to be played back can be selected.

  Further, for example, on the screens of FIGS. 20 and 21, after the user inputs an operation for determining selection of the search condition for “drama” to the operation input unit 102, the search condition for “recently recorded video” is focused. The main control unit 101 narrows down the content 121 by a product set search of the search condition of “drama” for which selection has been determined and the “recently recorded video” that has been selected. The display contents 57 and the search conditions for narrowing down the contents (for example, the search conditions set in step S15 of FIG. 9 described above) are displayed on the display unit 57 as shown in FIG. That is, the user performs a determination operation in a state where the search condition of “drama” is focused on the screen of FIG. 20, and the search condition of “recently recorded video” is displayed on the screen of FIG. 23 is displayed on the display unit 57 (an operation for moving the cursor 320 downward in the screen of FIG. 22 is input).

  In the reproduction content selection area 431 of FIG. 23, thumbnail images 471-2 to 471-4 of content narrowed down by the intersection search of “drama” search conditions and “recently recorded videos” are displayed. In the display area 351, “all videos”, which is a search condition for narrowing down the contents narrowed down by the search condition “drama” (for example, contents corresponding to the thumbnail images 471-1 to 471-9 in FIG. 22). , “Recently recorded video”, “Video that has not been seen yet”, “1ch”, “3ch”, and “4ch” are displayed. That is, the user performs the operation of determining the selection of the search condition for “drama”, and then performs the operation of focusing the search condition for “recently recorded video”, and sets the search condition for “recently recorded video”. Even if the determination operation is not performed, as shown in FIG. 23, thumbnail images 471 (thumbnail images 471-2 to 471-4) of content corresponding to “recently recorded video” are displayed in the reproduction content selection area 431. Therefore, it is possible to easily recognize content that further satisfies the search condition of “recently recorded video”. In other words, after the selection of the search condition for “drama” is determined, the content is narrowed down by simply placing the cursor 320 on (focused on) the “recently recorded video” in FIG. As shown in FIG. 5, the content can be displayed in the reproduction content selection area 431. Then, a thumbnail image corresponding to the content to be reproduced can be selected and determined from the thumbnail images 471 corresponding to the content displayed in the reproduction content selection area 431.

  In this way, by displaying the thumbnail image 471 corresponding to the content to be reproduced from the beginning (from the initial screen in FIG. 20) (allowing selection of the thumbnail image corresponding to the content to be reproduced from the beginning), the content to be reproduced is displayed. The speed until the corresponding thumbnail image 471 is selected (accessed) can be increased. In particular, when an input device capable of random access, such as a mouse, is applied as the operation input unit 102, the access speed can be increased.

  The search condition setting processing unit 111 learns a product set search condition at the time of target selection, extracts a high-order search condition common to the condition from metadata, etc., and automatically adds a category You may make it provide.

  In the above example, as illustrated in FIG. 4, the video data 161 including image data and audio data and the metadata 162 for describing the content have been described as examples. However, the present invention is not limited to video data. The same applies to audio data (music data). In this case, an image corresponding to the audio data is set as a thumbnail image in the metadata 162.

  Further, in the above example, the processing executed by the personal computer 11 has been described. However, the present invention can also be applied to an information processing apparatus or a playback apparatus that records or plays back content.

  The series of processes described above can be executed by hardware or can be executed by software. When a series of processing is executed by software, a program constituting the software is installed from a network or a recording medium.

  As shown in FIG. 1, this recording medium is not only composed of a package medium consisting of a removable medium 81 on which a program is recorded, which is distributed to provide a program to a user, separately from the computer. , A hard disk including a ROM 52 and a storage unit 59 in which a program is provided, which is provided to the user in a state of being pre-installed in the apparatus main body.

  In the present specification, the step of describing a computer program includes not only processing performed in time series according to the described order but also processing executed in parallel or individually even if not necessarily processed in time series. Is also included.

It is a block diagram which shows the structural example of the hardware of the personal computer to which this invention is applied. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a remote controller 90. FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the functional structural example of the personal computer of FIG. It is a figure explaining the example of a content. It is a figure explaining the example of search conditions. It is a flowchart explaining a media selection process. It is a figure explaining the example of the media selection menu screen displayed on the display part of FIG. It is a figure explaining the example of the initial screen corresponding to the menu item of the video displayed on the display part of FIG. It is a flowchart explaining a content reproduction process. It is a flowchart explaining a content reproduction process. It is a figure explaining the example of the screen displayed on the display part of FIG. It is a figure explaining the example of the screen displayed on the display part of FIG. It is a figure explaining the example of the screen displayed on the display part of FIG. It is a figure explaining the example of the notation rule of intersection set search conditions. It is a figure explaining the example of the screen displayed on the display part of FIG. It is a flowchart explaining search condition setting processing. It is a flowchart explaining search condition edit processing. It is a flowchart explaining the sorting process of search conditions. It is a figure explaining the flow of a search process. It is a figure explaining the example of the screen displayed on the display part of FIG. It is a figure explaining the example of the screen displayed on the display part of FIG. It is a figure explaining the example of the screen displayed on the display part of FIG. It is a figure explaining the example of the screen displayed on the display part of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

  11 personal computer, 56 input unit, 57 display unit, 59 storage unit, 62 light receiving unit, 90 remote controller, 91-1 to 91-4 button, 92 button, 93 light emitting unit, 101 main control unit, 102 operation input unit, 111 Search Condition Setting Processing Unit, 112 Content Filtering Unit, 121 Content, 122 Search Condition, 301 Window, 320 Cursor, 321-1 to 321-4 Arrow, 351 Search Condition Display Area, 352 Thumbnail Display Area, 371 Thumbnail Image, 431 Playback content selection area, 451-1 to 451-4 arrow, 471 thumbnail image

Claims (14)

One or more first searches that can be used for a plurality of first content groups to be searched from a plurality of predetermined search conditions for narrowing down a desired content from a plurality of contents. Search condition setting processing means for setting a condition group;
Selection processing means for selecting one first search condition from one or more of the first search condition groups based on a command from a user;
Display control processing means for performing control to display one or more of the first search condition groups, and performing control to display the selected first search conditions so as to be identifiable;
Determination processing means for determining the selected first search condition based on a command from a user;
Narrowing processing means for narrowing down one or more second content groups from among the plurality of first content groups to be searched using the determined first search condition;
When the selected first search condition is determined, the search condition setting processing means applies one or more second content groups narrowed down from the plurality of preset search conditions. To set one or more second search condition groups that can be used,
When the selected first search condition is determined, the display control means displays the second search condition group that can be used for the one or more second content groups that have been narrowed down. An information processing apparatus characterized by performing control. When the first search condition is selected, the narrowing-down processing means uses the first search condition to select one or more of the second content groups from among the plurality of first content groups to be searched. Narrow down the content group,
The display control processing unit performs control to display each thumbnail corresponding to the second content group together with the first search condition group when the first search condition is selected. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1. The display control processing means performs control to display each thumbnail corresponding to the second content group together with the second search condition group when the selected first search condition is determined. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1. The selection processing means selects one second search condition from one or more second search condition groups based on a command from a user,
The narrowing-down processing means narrows down one or more third content groups from the second content group using the second search condition when the second search condition is selected,
The display control processing unit performs control to display the third content group together with the second search condition group when the second search condition is selected. The information processing apparatus described. The selection processing means selects one second search condition from one or more second search condition groups based on a command from a user,
When the selected second search condition is determined, the narrowing-down processing unit selects one or more third content groups from the second content group using the second search condition. Refine,
The search condition setting processing means sets one or more third search condition groups that can be used for the third content group when the selected second search condition is determined,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display control unit performs control to display the third search condition group when the selected second search condition is determined. When the second search condition is selected, the narrowing-down processing means uses the second search condition to select one or more of the third content groups from among the plurality of first content groups to be searched. Narrow down the content group,
The display control processing unit performs control to display each thumbnail corresponding to the third content group together with the second search condition group when the second search condition is selected. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5. The display control processing unit performs control to display each thumbnail corresponding to the third content group together with the third search condition group when the selected second search condition is determined. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, characterized in that: The selection processing means selects one third search condition from one or more third search condition groups based on an instruction from a user,
The narrowing-down processing means narrows down one or more fourth content groups from the third content group using the third search condition when the third search condition is selected,
The display control processing unit performs control to display the fourth content group together with the third search condition group when the third search condition is selected. The information processing apparatus described. The selection processing means selects one of the thumbnails based on a user instruction,
The determination processing means determines the selected thumbnail based on a command from a user,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising: a reproduction processing unit that reproduces content corresponding to the determined thumbnail. The selection processing means selects one of the thumbnails based on a user instruction,
The determination processing means determines the selected thumbnail based on a command from a user,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising: a reproduction processing unit that reproduces content corresponding to the determined thumbnail. The search condition setting processing means adds a new search condition for performing a logical product of the first search condition and the second search condition as a recently used search condition. The information processing apparatus described. The search condition setting processing means counts the number of search condition determinations determined by the determination processing means, and rearranges the order in the set search condition group according to the counted number of search conditions. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1. One or more first searches that can be used for a plurality of first content groups to be searched from a plurality of predetermined search conditions for narrowing down a desired content from a plurality of contents. A search condition setting process for setting a condition group;
A selection processing step of selecting one first search condition from one or more of the first search condition groups based on a command from a user;
A display control processing step of performing control to display one or more of the first search condition groups, and performing control to display the selected first search conditions so that they can be identified;
A determination processing step of determining the selected first search condition based on a command from a user;
A narrowing process step of narrowing down one or more second content groups from among the plurality of first content groups to be searched using the determined first search condition,
In the search condition setting processing step, when the selected first search condition is determined, one or more second content groups narrowed down from the plurality of preset search conditions are selected. To set one or more second search condition groups that can be used,
In the display control step, when the selected first search condition is determined, the second search condition group that can be used for one or more selected second content groups is displayed. An information processing method characterized by performing control. One or more first searches that can be used for a plurality of first content groups to be searched from a plurality of predetermined search conditions for narrowing down a desired content from a plurality of contents. A search condition setting process for setting a condition group;
A selection processing step of selecting one first search condition from one or more of the first search condition groups based on a command from a user;
A display control processing step of performing control to display one or more of the first search condition groups, and performing control to display the selected first search conditions so that they can be identified;
A determination processing step of determining the selected first search condition based on a command from a user;
A narrowing process step of narrowing down one or more second content groups from among the plurality of first content groups to be searched using the determined first search condition,
In the search condition setting processing step, when the selected first search condition is determined, one or more second content groups narrowed down from the plurality of preset search conditions are selected. To set one or more second search condition groups that can be used,
In the display control step, when the selected first search condition is determined, the second search condition group that can be used for one or more selected second content groups is displayed. A program that allows an information processing device to execute processing characterized by performing control.

Images