JP2006325011A - Support method of selecting program to be video recorded and video recording and reproducing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a user friendly video recording and reproducing apparatus whereby a viewer can select a truly (actually) viewing-desirable program from a plurality of recommended programs in the case of providing programs recommended and recorded according to an analyzed preference tendency to the viewer. <P>SOLUTION: In the video recording and reproducing apparatus provided with: a preference analysis processing means for analyzing preference information denoting programs congenial to a user; a recommended program extract means for searching a program with program information coincident with the preference information analyzed by the preference analysis processing means; a recommended program recording means for reserving and recording the program extracted by the recommended program extract means; and a recorded program providing means for providing the programs recorded by the recommended program recording means as a list, the recommended program recording means records the coincident preference information in cross-reference with the extracted program in the case of recording the extracted program, and the recorded program providing means exhibits the preference information recorded in cross-reference with the extracted program in the case of providing the recorded programs in a form of a list. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a technology for supporting selection, recording, and reproduction of a program from a large number of broadcast programs, and in particular, a method and a method suitable for selecting, recording, and reproduction of a program by grasping a viewer's preference tendency. Relates to the device.

  In recent years, multi-channel broadcasting has become widespread due to the digitization of broadcasting. In addition to the conventional method of selecting and viewing programs from TV program guides such as newspapers, EPG (Electronic Program Guide) information multiplexed on the broadcast is used. A method of displaying a program table (hereinafter referred to as EPG) on a television screen by OSD (On Screen Display) display and selecting from the EPG is often used. As a result, it is possible to select a program only on the television and register a reserved recording without using other media such as newspapers and magazines. However, conversely, since there are a limited number of program displays that can be recognized by EPG, it is difficult to find a favorite program.

  As a technique for solving this, the viewer's viewing tendency is analyzed based on the EPG information of the viewed program, and a program of a genre determined to have a high viewing tendency or a program in which a specific performer appears. An apparatus for searching for and presenting a program from a broadcast-scheduled program in EPG information or recording a program is described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-13708.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-355429 discloses an apparatus that can display a radar chart based on the analyzed viewing tendency according to a category such as a genre and search for a program different from the displayed viewing tendency in the case of mood change. Are listed.
JP 2000-13708 A JP 2004-355429 A

  The methods as described in Patent Documents 1 and 2 can search for EPG information and display a list of programs that match the viewer's preference, and can perform scheduled recording using this. It is useful because it can grasp the analyzed tendency of preference.

  However, in these methods, a program searched or recorded by a search key having a high degree of preference (for example, a favorite genre, a favorite performer, etc.) derived from the analyzed preference tendency is used as any search key in the first place. There is no consideration given to the viewer as to whether the program matches or should be viewed or played back. If the viewer does not try to watch or play the recommended program, it is true. There is a problem of not knowing whether the program is what you want. In particular, when the preference tendency changes, or when a plurality of people such as family members use the program at the same time, it is difficult to know what search key is used to recommend the program.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a viewer with a list of recorded programs recommended and recorded based on the analyzed preference tendency, and to actually (actually) view a program desired by the viewer from the plurality of recorded programs recommended by the viewer. It is an object of the present invention to provide a user-friendly method and apparatus capable of selecting an item.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a preference analysis processing means for analyzing preference information indicating a user's favorite program from a user's viewing operation instruction and program information added to the program being viewed, and the preference Recommended program extracting means for searching for a program having program information that matches the preference information analyzed by the analysis processing means, recommended program recording means for reserving and recording the program extracted by the recommended program extracting means, and the recommended program recording In a recording / playback apparatus comprising a recorded program presenting means for presenting a list of programs recorded by the means,
The recommended program recording means records the associated preference information in association with each other when the extracted program is recorded, and the recorded program presentation means records the associated preference information when presenting a list of recorded programs. Is also presented.

  According to the present invention, when a list of recommended and recorded programs is presented, what kind of preference information is recommended is presented at the same time, so that the user determines from the list display whether the program is to be reproduced. Therefore, it is possible to view only a desired program from the recommended recorded program group without actually reproducing each recorded program.

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

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of a recording / playback apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 101 denotes a user operation acquisition unit that acquires and processes user operation information from a remote controller or the like. Reference numeral 102 denotes an EPG information acquisition unit, which is, for example, program information for one week that is multiplexed and transmitted in digital broadcasting, and acquires program information such as program name, genre, and performer included therein. The EPG information may be acquired using the Internet. Reference numeral 103 denotes a viewing history processing unit. Based on the program viewing operation acquired by the user operation acquisition unit 101 and the program information acquired by the EPG information acquisition unit 102, the program name and channel of the viewing program are displayed along with the actual viewing time data. The program feature information representing the features of the program such as keywords such as genre, performer name and noun is extracted.

  A preference analysis processing unit 104 uses the actual viewing time and program feature information extracted by the viewing history processing unit 103 and the preference information extracted from the previous preference trends held in the preference information holding unit 105. Determine and extract program feature information with a high preference tendency to watch frequently, analyze the degree of preference (degree of user preference) of the extracted program feature information about genres and keywords, etc. Preference information including the corresponding preference level is generated. In the preference analysis processing by the preference analysis processing unit 104, for example, using a fuzzy theory (fuzzy reasoning), whether a certain program was viewed from the beginning to the end, or how much a certain program was viewed during the entire time In addition, if there is program feature information of the program and past preference information including this program feature information in consideration of information such as whether or not the program has been switched in the middle of viewing a program, the past New preference information is generated based on the preference information. Note that any input factor other than the above can be used for the preference analysis processing unit 104 for the preference analysis processing, and the method used by the preference analysis processing unit 104 for processing is other than fuzzy theory. Also, neural network theory, genetic algorithm, chaos theory, learning theory, etc. can be used. A preference information holding unit 105 updates or holds the preference information analyzed and generated by the preference analysis processing unit 104.

  A recommended program extraction unit 106 uses the preference information from the preference analysis processing unit 104, and selects an EPG information acquisition unit 102 for a program in which high preference information (information such as a genre or keyword) matches the program feature information. The extracted program information is extracted from the program information and passed to the recommended program recording unit 107 as a recommended program. Reference numeral 107 denotes a recommended program recording unit, which automatically records all corresponding programs automatically from the program information passed from the recommended program extraction unit 106. However, when the broadcast time zone of the program reserved and recorded by the user overlaps with the broadcast time zone of the recommended program, priority is given to execution of the reserved video recording by a user reserved program recording unit (not shown).

  Reference numeral 108 denotes a recorded program presentation unit that presents recorded programs in a list and the like, and simultaneously presents a recording date and time, a channel, a program name, and the like, and simultaneously presents a genre, a keyword, and the like as preference information as a recommendation reason. A system control unit 110 controls each unit of the recording / playback apparatus including other digital broadcast reception processing systems (not shown).

  Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. The user operation acquisition unit 101 acquires operation information such as channel selection or EPG display performed by the user with a remote controller or the like. When the acquired operation information relates to program viewing such as channel selection, the user operation acquisition unit 101 notifies the viewing history processing unit 103 of the operation information. For example, in the case of digital broadcasting, the EPG information acquisition unit 102 acquires EPG information broadcast simultaneously with a program. EPG information includes start time, program length, program name, program description, performer name, genre, etc. for each program, and information for up to eight days ahead including the current day for each channel.

  The viewing history processing unit 103 receives operation information related to program viewing from the user operation acquisition unit 101, and acquires program information of the program being viewed from the EPG information acquisition unit 102. The viewing history processing unit 103 includes viewing history information including a program name, a genre, a keyword such as a name of a performer or a noun included in the program name or the program content description, and an actual viewing time of the program. This is notified to the preference analysis processing unit 104.

  The preference analysis processing unit 104 stores the viewing history information (program feature information such as genres and keywords and actual viewing time) notified from the viewing history processing unit 103 and the past information held in the preference information holding unit 105. Using preference information extracted from preference trends, analyze the degree of preference (degree of user preference) of genres, keywords, etc. in the extracted program feature information, and often watch programs of any genre or keyword Analyzing the user's preference for viewing. In this way, while reflecting the past preference level, the preference level for the genre, keyword, etc. is analyzed from the new viewing history, and the new preference level for the genre, keyword, etc. is calculated from the analysis result, and the genre is calculated. New preference information is generated, which includes a keyword and a keyword, and a preference level associated with the keyword.

  This new preference information is notified to the preference information holding unit 105, and the preference information holding unit 105 updates or holds the preference information notified from the preference analysis processing unit 104. In addition, the preference analysis processing unit 104 notifies the recommended program extraction unit 106 of information such as the genre and keyword of the preference information having a high preference level.

  The recommended program extraction unit 106 has high preference information that the user likes from the program information acquired by the EPG information acquisition unit 102 based on the preference information that the user has received notified from the preference analysis processing unit 104. A program that matches (information such as genre and keyword) is searched, and the recommended program recording unit 107 is notified as a recommended program.

  The recommended program recording unit 107 reserves and records the notified program, and also records preference information (information such as a genre and a keyword) as recommended information in association with the program.

  The recorded program presentation unit 108 displays a list of programs recorded by the recommended program recording unit 107 as text information on a monitor (not shown), or displays a list of combinations of text information and thumbnail images. At this time, when the recorded program presentation unit 108 presents a list of the recorded programs, not only the recording date and time, the channel and the program name but also the associated information recorded as the recommended information when the program is reserved, Presents preference information such as genres and keywords at the same time. As a result, the user can recognize what the recommended information is and can easily determine whether the program is a program that the user wants to watch.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a list display of recorded programs simultaneously presenting preference information as recommended information. In FIG. 2, 201 indicates a monitor screen that displays a list of recorded programs based only on character information, and 202 to 205 indicate display examples of the contents of recorded programs. For each of the recorded programs 202, 203, and 205 recorded as a recommended program, preference information (recommended information) that is the reason for pre-recording the program is displayed together with the recording date and time, the channel, and the program name. That is, the recorded program 202 is displayed together with the keyword, the recorded program 203 is displayed together with the keyword and the genre, and the recorded program 205 is displayed together with the genre. Note that the recorded program 204 indicates a recorded program recorded by the user performing a reservation recording operation. In this case, preference information is not displayed. Therefore, the user can determine whether or not the program is recommended based on whether or not preference information (recommended information) is displayed. In addition, when there is a display of preference information (recommended information), the user can recognize the recommended recorded program and the reason for recommendation that recorded the program. Can be a helpful help for choosing.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating another example of a list display of recorded programs simultaneously presenting preference information as recommended information. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 301 denotes a monitor screen displaying a list of recorded programs using character information and thumbnail images. Reference numerals 302 to 305 denote display examples of the contents of recorded programs. For each of the recorded programs 302, 303, and 305 recorded as a recommended program, preference information (recommended information) that is a reason for pre-recording the program is displayed together with the thumbnail image, recording date and time, channel, and program name. That is, the recorded program 302 is displayed together with the keyword, the recorded program 303 is displayed together with the keyword and the genre, and the recorded program 305 is displayed together with the genre. Note that the recorded program 304 indicates a recorded program recorded by the user performing a reservation recording operation. In this case, the preference information is not displayed as in the previous case. Therefore, the user can determine whether or not the program is recommended based on whether or not preference information (recommended information) is displayed. Although the thumbnail image is useful as one of clues for knowing the contents of the program, the thumbnail image is not necessarily an image from which the contents of the program can be determined before the user designates the thumbnail image. For this reason, as in the example shown in FIG. 3, in addition to displaying thumbnail images, by displaying preference information (recommended information), the user can recognize what the recommendation reason for recording the program was. Because it can, it can be a helpful aid for selecting a program to play.

  As described above, according to each embodiment of the present invention, using program information attached to a program that the user is viewing, a genre attached to a program that the user likes (high user preference) from the viewing history, Alternatively, when a program that automatically matches a keyword such as the name of a performer or a noun contained in the program name or description of the program is automatically reserved and recorded, and the list of the reserved programs is displayed, the recommendation that the program was recorded Because the reason can be known in the list display, the user can determine from the list display whether or not the program is to be played back, and only the desired program from the recommended recorded program group, without actually playing it. Can be watched.

  Although not shown, it goes without saying that when a list of recorded programs is presented, the program reserved and recorded by the user and the recommended recorded program may be presented separately.

  In addition, if the information is presented separately for each preference information (recommended information), for example, when viewing with a family, when a recommended program is recorded with a plurality of preference information due to differences in preferences. However, it is possible to quickly find a favorite program using the preference information (recommended information) as a clue.

  In addition, in the above-described embodiment, the user's reserved recording is not reflected in the preference analysis process in the preference analysis processing unit 104, but the program that the user intentionally performs the reservation recording operation is recorded. Since the preference level is considered to be high, the preference analysis processing unit is configured so that the genre, the keyword, and the like extracted from the program information of the reserved recording program by the user are generated with high preference level. It goes without saying that the user's reserved recording may be reflected in the preference analysis processing in 104.

It is a block diagram which shows the function structure of the video recording / reproducing apparatus concerning one Embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows an example of the list display of the recorded program which showed the preference information as recommendation information simultaneously in the recording / reproducing apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows another example of the list display of the recording program which simultaneously shown the preference information as recommendation information in the recording / reproducing apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 User operation acquisition part 102 EPG information acquisition part 103 Viewing history process part 104 Preference analysis process part 105 Preference information holding part 106 Recommended program extraction part 107 Recommended program recording part 108 Recorded program presentation part 110 System control part

Claims (5)

Preference analysis processing means for analyzing preference information indicating a user's favorite program from the user's viewing operation instruction and program information added to the program being viewed, and a program that matches the preference information analyzed by the preference analysis processing means Recommended program extracting means for searching for a program having information, recommended program recording means for reserving and recording a program extracted by the recommended program extracting means, and a recorded program for presenting a list of programs recorded by the recommended program recording means A recording program selection support method in a recording / playback apparatus comprising:
The recommended program recording means records the associated preference information in association with each other when recording the extracted program,
The recorded program selection supporting method, wherein the recorded program presenting means presents the associated preference information recorded together when presenting a list of recorded programs. The recorded program selection support method according to claim 1,
The recorded program selection support method, wherein the recorded program presentation means presents a combination of character information and thumbnail images as a list of recorded programs. The recorded program selection support method according to claim 1,
The recorded program selection support method, wherein the preference information presented together with a list of recorded programs is at least a program genre or a keyword extracted from acquired EPG (Electronic Program Guide) information. In the recorded program selection support method according to claim 2 or 3,
The recorded program selection supporting method, wherein the recorded program presenting means can separately present a list of programs recorded by a reserved recording operation by a user and recorded programs recorded by the recommended program recording means. Preference analysis processing means for analyzing preference information indicating a user's favorite program from the user's viewing operation instruction and program information added to the program being viewed, and a program that matches the preference information analyzed by the preference analysis processing means Recommended program extracting means for searching for a program having information, recommended program recording means for reserving and recording a program extracted by the recommended program extracting means, and recorded program for presenting a list of programs recorded by the recommended program recording means A recording / playback apparatus comprising a presentation unit,
The recommended program recording means records the associated preference information in association with each other when recording the extracted program,
The recording / playback apparatus, wherein the recorded program presenting means presents the associated and recorded preference information together when presenting a list of recorded programs.

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