JP2007020056A - Device and method for storing information - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information storage means of MM content constituted so that deletion of content expected to have high priority is avoided by being matched to priority expected by a user and convenience of the transmitting side in a data broadcast browsing function of a terrestrial digital broadcast receiver terminal for a cellular phone. <P>SOLUTION: According to the present invention, "individual priority" of the content to be newly acquired, "subordinate priority" according to the "priority" of content acquired before it are determined and the "priority" of the content is determined based on the "individual priority" and the "subordinate priority". When capacity of a storage means of the content overflows, content is sequentially deleted from the content with the lowest "priority" and it is avoided that the content expected to have high "priority" by the user is deleted against the user's intention when a "return" function is executed. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an information storage device and an information storage method for accumulating and managing data acquired from broadcast waves, mainly used in multimedia services among services provided by broadcasting.

  In the browsing function of data broadcasting, which is a multimedia (hereinafter referred to as MM) service in terrestrial digital broadcasting for mobile terminals, the receiving terminal returns to “return” in order to be able to sequentially refer to the content pages that have been browsed until the previous time. "Button is required. Broadcast content is different from content on the Internet, and there is a restriction that the content presented should not fail.

  Patent Literature 1 proposes a method for determining a screen transition for realizing a “return” function while maintaining content consistency.

  Due to the interactivity of the MM service, it is easy for the user to frequently use the “return” function in the data broadcast browsing function on the receiving portable terminal. However, every time the user instructs to “return” to a certain content, information related to the content is newly acquired from the broadcasting side. It takes a long time to present the content because it is not possible to return to the desired content and present the content until the information related to the content is acquired.

  In order to solve this problem, in the browsing function of the MM service in the Internet such as a Web browser, a method of avoiding re-acquisition by keeping the content acquired once in the storage means is generally used.

  When all contents are stored equally in the storage means, the storage means may overflow. In that case, it is one of simple methods to avoid overflow of the storage means by automatically deleting the contents in the oldest order. However, in that case, it is often the case that content that is highly likely to be referenced is also deleted from the storage means. In order to avoid this, it is generally considered to manage the content by adding priority.

As one of the methods, Patent Document 2 proposes a technique for storing and managing content in a storage unit based on a priority index using a user's preference tendency in a broadcast service as a priority index. .
JP 2004-304308 A JP 11-196389 A

  However, in the digital terrestrial broadcasting, unlike the Internet represented by WWW (World Wide Web), content update processing is performed according to instructions from the broadcast sending side, and the latest content must be presented after the update. Is required. Therefore, it is not allowed to present old content. When all the contents acquired by the receiving portable terminal are held as they are, an updating process of the contents is requested from the receiving portable terminal in accordance with an instruction to update the program contents from the sending side.

  In response to this request, when the receiving portable terminal performs the updating process of the storage means, the content that is old but has a high possibility of being referred to by the user may be deleted. In other words, there is no consistency in content management between content management expected by the user and content management for convenience on the transmission side.

  In this way, when content that is old but highly likely to be referenced by the user is deleted by the update process of the storage means accompanying the content update instruction on the sending side, the user uses the “return” function to delete the old content. It may happen that it becomes impossible to “return” to other content that is still held in the storage means.

Further, unlike the Web browser, the user cannot directly specify the URL of the content in the MM service browsing function by the broadcast service. Therefore, Patent Document 1 shows that, in the MBL browser, the history function makes a transition to the previously presented document and the history function is invalidated by a specific process. However, in this case, there is a problem that the user cannot return to the content expected by the user using the “return” function.
Also, Cited Document 2 shows a data broadcasting system in which information that meets user preferences is automatically stored.

  However, after referring to the content that is likely to be referred to, in other words, the content that is expected to have a high priority, the content that is unlikely to be referenced, that is, the content that has a low priority, is referred to After transitioning to content, it is highly likely that it will be referred to using the “return” function. In other words, even if you try to refer to content that has been saved before and has a high priority, the priority is in the middle of the transition. If content with a low degree is deleted, it will not be possible to return to the previously saved content with a high priority.

  In short, even if content is deleted in the order of lower priority, even if the content is deleted in the oldest order according to the instruction on the sending side, for example, the priority is included in the content that the user has followed. If there is content that is low, or content that has been deleted by a user's instruction is included in the content that the user has traced, There is a problem that it becomes impossible to reach and refer to the original content.

  Therefore, the present invention solves the above-mentioned problems, and conforms to the priority expected by the user and the convenience of the transmission side, and prevents the content that is expected to have a high priority from being deleted. It is an object to provide information storage means for contents.

  According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided content acquisition means for acquiring content, storage means for storing a plurality of the acquired contents, and presentation means for presenting one of the plurality of stored contents in an active state Receiving means for receiving an instruction from the user for acquiring new content by the acquiring means based on the presented content, and setting the priority of the content to be newly acquired based on the instruction from the user to the content Priority determining means for determining based on the user's preference tendency and / or the priority of the content currently presented to the presenting means, and the priority determining means for each of the plurality of stored contents Priority management means for managing the stored priorities, and the plurality of stored contents The transition history management means for managing the transition history sequentially presented to the presenting means, and the lowest priority among the plurality of contents stored in the storage means and the contents newly acquired by the acquisition means An information storage device comprising: deletion means for deleting content from the storage means.

  By using the above information storage device, in order to maintain the consistency of the content, even when only one history can be traced using the “return” function, the priority of the content is always set by setting the subordinate priority. Since the priority is higher than the priority of the content of the return destination, the intermediate content is not discarded from the cache and cannot be referred to.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, the priority determination unit acquires an individual priority based on a user's preference tendency with respect to the content being presented to the presentation unit, and stores the transition history managed by the transition history management unit. The priority of the content previously presented by the presenting means is acquired as the subordinate priority of the content being presented, and the larger one of the individual priority and the subordinate priority is being presented. The information storage device according to claim 1, wherein the information storage device determines the priority of the content.

By using the information storage device described above, the individual priority reflecting the user's preference tendency and the subordinate priority are compared, and the higher one is set as the priority so that the high priority content is not deleted. Can be.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, when returning from the content being presented to the presenting means to the content previously presented based on the transition history managed by the transition history managing means, the priority determining means Comparing the individual priority with respect to the content being displayed and the subordinate priority with respect to the content being presented, and if the value of the subordinate priority is greater than the value of the individual priority, the individual priority is 3. The information storage device according to claim 1, wherein the priority is determined as content priority and the priority management unit is reset.
As a result, when new content is acquired and drunk, the storage means for storing the content is already full and the data size of the new content can no longer be saved. If the individual priority of the content for which the individual priority has been reset is low, if the priority is low during the “return” transition, it can be discarded from the storage means, and the content with the high priority expected by the user is new. An environment is established to prevent the content from being discarded.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, when the priority of any content stored in the storage means is updated, the priority determination means determines the updated priority of the content whose priority has been updated. It is determined as the dependency priority of the content presented after transition from the content, the dependency priority of the transition destination content is compared with the individual priority of the transition destination content, and the dependency priority of the transition destination content And the individual priority of the content of the transition destination is determined as the priority of the content of the transition destination and set in the priority management means. The information storage device described in 1.
Accordingly, every time the priority of any stored content is updated, the priority of the related content is set based on the updated priority. For example, the user expects in the “return” transition An environment in which high-priority content is prevented from being discarded due to acquisition of new content, and can be “returned” to the high-priority content expected by the user.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, when the content acquisition unit receives a content update instruction sent from the transmission side, the content acquisition unit acquires new content associated with the content update instruction, and determines the priority. The means determines the subordinate priority of the content that is present in the storage means and is the target of the update instruction as the subordinate priority of the new content, and is based on the user's preference tendency for the new content The information storage device according to claim 1, wherein the information storage device is determined as an individual priority for the content.

  As a result, the individual priority based on the user's preference is determined each time new content is acquired, so that new content is re-stored instead of old content according to the priority, and the consistency of the content is Thus, it becomes possible to browse this content and browse to other content still held in the storage means.

  According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, when the content acquisition means tries to acquire new content, and it is found that the storage means is insufficient and the new content cannot be stored, the deletion means The priority managed by the priority management unit is sequentially traced based on the transition history managed by the transition history management unit, and the content having the lowest priority among the traced back is deleted from the storage unit. An information storage device according to claim 1.

As a result, since contents with lower priority are deleted in order, new contents are re-stored instead of old contents, consistency of contents is maintained, and the contents are still traced and stored in the storage means. Browse to other content.
The seventh aspect of the present invention is an acquisition step of acquiring content, a storage step of storing a plurality of the acquired contents, a presentation step of presenting one of the stored plurality of contents in an active state, An accepting step for receiving an instruction from a user to acquire the new content based on the content, a priority of the content newly acquired based on the instruction from the user, a user's preference tendency for the content, and / or the current A priority determination step for determining based on the priority of the presented content, a priority management step for managing the determined priority for each of the plurality of stored contents, and the plurality of stored Manage the transition history of the contents Transfer history management step, one of the stored plurality of content and the newly obtained content is an information storage method comprising: a deleting step of deleting the lower content the least priority from the storage, the.

  By using the above information storage method, the individual priority reflecting the user's preference tendency and the subordinate priority are compared, and the higher one is set as the priority so that the high priority content is not deleted. Can be.

  In the eighth aspect of the present invention, the step of determining the priority is managed by an individual priority acquisition step of acquiring an individual priority based on a user's preference tendency with respect to the content being presented in the presentation step, and the transition history management step. A subordinate priority acquisition step of acquiring, as a subordinate priority of the content being presented, the priority of the content previously presented in the presenting step based on the transition history, the individual priority and the subordinate priority 8. The information storage method according to claim 7, further comprising a priority determination step of determining a larger value as a priority of the content being presented.

  By using the information storage device described above, the individual priority reflecting the user's preference tendency and the subordinate priority are compared, and the higher one is set as the priority so that the high priority content is not deleted. Can be.

  According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, when returning from the content being presented to the content presented previously based on the managed transition history, the priority determination step includes the individual priority for the content being presented, A comparison step of comparing the dependent priority with respect to the content being presented; if the value of the dependent priority is greater than the value of the individual priority, the individual priority is determined as the priority of the content being presented 9. The information storage method according to claim 7, comprising the priority management step for resetting.

  As a result, when new content is acquired and drunk, the storage means for storing the content is already full and the data size of the new content can no longer be saved. If the individual priority of the content for which the individual priority has been reset is low, if the priority is low during the “return” transition, it can be discarded from the storage means, and the content with the high priority expected by the user is new. An environment is established to prevent the content from being discarded.

  According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, when the priority of the stored content is updated, the updated priority of the stored content with the updated priority is determined as the subordinate priority of the destination content. A comparison step for comparing the subordinate priority of the transition destination content and the individual priority of the destination content, and the greater of the subordinate priority of the destination content and the individual priority of the destination content A priority determination step for determining one of the values as the priority of the content at the transition destination, and a priority management step for setting a priority based on the determined priority of the content at the transition destination An information storage method according to any one of claims 7 to 9.

  Accordingly, every time the priority of any stored content is updated, the priority of the related content is set based on the updated priority. For example, the user expects in the “return” transition An environment in which high-priority content is prevented from being discarded due to acquisition of new content, and can be “returned” to the high-priority content expected by the user.

  In an eleventh aspect of the present invention, when receiving an instruction to update the content transmitted from the transmission side in the content acquisition step, the content acquisition step includes a step of acquiring new content accompanying the content update instruction, The priority determining step includes a step of determining a subordinate priority of the content that is present in the storage unit and that is the target of the update instruction, as a subordinate priority of the new content, and for the new content The information storage method according to any one of claims 7 to 10, further comprising a step of determining as an individual priority for the content based on a user's preference tendency.

  As a result, the individual priority based on the user's preference is determined each time new content is acquired, so that new content is re-stored instead of old content according to the priority, and the consistency of the content is Thus, it becomes possible to browse this content and browse to other content still held in the storage means.

  In a twelfth aspect of the present invention, when it is determined that the new content cannot be stored due to insufficient storage capacity when trying to acquire new content in the content acquisition step, the deletion step includes the transition history A step of sequentially tracing back the priority managed in the priority management step based on the transition history managed in the management step, and a step of deleting the content having the lowest priority in the trace from the storage. 12. The information storage method according to claim 7, wherein the information storage method is any one of claims 7 to 11.

  As a result, since contents with lower priority are deleted in order, new contents are re-stored instead of old contents, consistency of contents is maintained, and the contents are still traced and stored in the storage means. Browse to other content.

  Unlike the Web service, the MM content browsing function by the broadcast service sets the individual priority of the content itself and the subordinate priority depending on the previous content, without the user directly specifying the URL of the content. It is possible to provide an information storage means that matches the expectation and the convenience of the sending side.

  In other words, the high-priority content expected by the user can be hardly erased. Further, even if information that the content to be erased to some extent is sent on the sending side, the old content can be left with the device on the receiving side according to the present invention.

  In addition, when the user uses the “return” function to trace two or more contents and “returns”, when there is content with a lower priority in the middle, the user tries to transition to a content with a higher priority. However, it is possible to provide information storage means that can be easily “returned” to the high priority content to be returned without being blocked by the low-priority content.

  Further, the capacity of the information storage device does not have to be increased.

(Embodiment)
Embodiments of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of one embodiment for carrying out the present invention. The information storage device 11 according to the present invention includes a content acquisition unit 12 for acquiring content, a storage unit 10 capable of storing a plurality of the acquired contents, and any one of the plurality of stored contents in an active state. Presenting means 15 for presenting, receiving means 13 for accepting an instruction from the user for obtaining new content by the obtaining means based on the presented content, and newly obtaining based on the instruction by the user Priority determination means 19 for determining the priority of the content based on the user's preference tendency for the content and / or the priority of the content currently presented to the presenting means; and the plurality of stored contents Priority for managing the priority determined by the priority determination means 19 for each A management unit 17; a transition history management unit 20 for managing a transition history in which the plurality of contents stored in the storage unit 10 are sequentially presented to the presentation unit 15; and a plurality of units stored in the storage unit 10 And a deletion unit 21 that deletes the content having the lowest priority from the storage unit 10 among the content and the content newly acquired by the acquisition unit 12.

  In this configuration, the information storage device 11 can store a plurality of acquired contents, and stores the contents acquired by the content acquisition unit 12 in the storage unit 10. The presenting means 15 presents one of the plurality of contents stored in the storage means 10 in an active state. The user sees and uses the content presented on the presenting means 15. The presenting means 15 can be a display device such as a liquid crystal display device, but may be another display. The content acquisition unit 12 that acquires content is, for example, a broadcast receiving device. The accepting means 13 accepts an instruction from the user about obtaining new content by the obtaining means 12 based on the content presented to the presenting means 15. The user's instruction is performed by operating keys, buttons, and the like.

  The priority determination means 19 determines the priority of content newly acquired based on an instruction from the user based on the user's preference tendency for the content or the priority of the content currently presented to the presentation means 15.

  The priority management means 17 manages the priority determined by the priority determination means 19 for each of a plurality of stored contents. The transition history management unit 20 manages a transition history in which a plurality of stored contents are sequentially presented to the presentation unit 15. The deletion unit 21 deletes the content having the lowest priority from the storage unit 10 among the plurality of contents stored in the storage unit 10 and the content newly acquired by the acquisition unit 12.

  How the priority is determined by the priority determination unit 19, how transition history management is managed by the transition history management unit 20, and how the content with the lowest priority is deleted by the deletion unit 21 Will be described in detail later.

  The MM content analysis unit 18 includes a broadcast state management unit 16 that monitors a broadcast state, a time measurement unit 14 that measures an acquisition time and a time for each content, and a reception unit 13 that receives a user instruction. The information for each content is analyzed. The priority determination means 19 determines the priority for each content based on the information for each content.

  The time measuring unit 14 measures the time during which the acquiring unit 12 acquires each content. Further, the control information notified to the storage unit 10 and the presentation unit 15 by the content analysis unit 18 is acquired by the acquisition unit 12 for each type of content acquired by the acquisition unit 12, for example. It includes the acquisition time, the number of acquisitions acquired by the acquisition unit 12 for each type of content, information input by the user to the user instruction receiving unit 13, and the like. Based on the content type, the acquisition time for each content type, the number of acquisitions for each content type, the acquisition time zone, and the like, as described above, the priority determination means 19 determines the individual priority of each content. Calculate and manage.

  The calculation of these individual priorities may be performed based on, for example, a statistical method. Further, any method may be used for the calculation, and the calculation method is not the subject of the present invention, so the detailed description thereof is omitted here. The user can also determine the individual priority for each content to be acquired by the user instruction accepting means 13 and set it in the priority determining means 19. In addition, the user can set an instruction according to his / her preference, for example, an individual priority for each type of content, in the priority determination unit 19 in advance by the reception unit 13.

  In addition to the above, the method for calculating the individual priority according to the present invention, in addition to the above, when acquiring and using information related to the user from an external database, the state of the installed terminal, for example, the calculation load when presenting the content For example, it may be used as information. In this case, for example, the user attribute information such as the user's preference, for example, the content type, the reception time for each content type, the number of receptions for each content type, the reception time zone, is stored on the transmission side. Then, the user acquires this, and based on the acquired attribute information, the priority determination means 19 calculates and manages the individual priority of each content. Further, based on the acquired attribute information, the user can set the individual priority for each type of content in the priority determination unit 19 by the instruction receiving unit 13.

  FIG. 2 shows an example of content transition when the information storage device 11 of the present invention is used. The storage means 10 in FIG. 1 includes storage devices C51, C52, C53, C54, and C55. The storage means 10 has a total storage capacity of 1000, for example. The total storage capacity of 1000 is allocated to the storage devices C51, C52, C53, C54, and C55 according to the data sizes 300, 300, 200, 200, and 300 of the contents A, B, C, D, and E, respectively. Shall be. In this state, for example, with regard to the individual priority, initially, the individual priority of the content A is 100, the individual priority of the content B is 40, the individual priority of the content C is 50, the individual priority of the content D is 50, The following description will be made assuming that the individual priority of E is 30. In this transition example, a solid line arrow indicates a transition when the content is sequentially stored in the storage unit 10 (including the storage devices C51, C52, C53, C54, and C55). A broken arrow indicates a transition from the content D (storage device C52) to the content A (storage device C51) by the “return” function. A solid line represents a normal content transition, and a broken line represents a content transition by the “return function”. The content starts from the content A and follows the content transition numbers (1), (2), (3), (4), and (5) added to the solid and broken lines, that is, the content A and the content D. The content A, the content B, the content C, and the content E are transitioned in this order, and are to be stored in the storage devices C51, C52, C51, C53, C54, and C55, respectively.

  In FIG. 2, the content starts from the content A and follows the content transition numbers (1), (2), (3), (4), (5) added to the solid line and the broken line in the order of the content A, It is assumed that the contents D, contents A, B, C, and E are changed in the order of the storage devices C51, C52, C51, C53, C54, and C55, and are to be saved respectively.

  In this state, the capacity required for these contents A, B, C, D, and E is 1300 in total, which exceeds the capacity 1000 that can be used by the entire storage means 10. Therefore, all of the contents A, B, C, D, and E cannot be stored in the storage devices C51, C53, C54, C52, and C55, respectively.

  Therefore, in the present invention, the storage unit 10 is managed based on the priority. Therefore, based on the priority information managed by the priority management means 17 and the transition information managed by the transition history management means 20, the storage means 10 (storage devices C51, C52, C53, C54, C55 included).

  At this time, three concepts related to priority are introduced into the priority information. One of them is “individual priority” based on the attributes of the content itself and the user's preference tendency when the content is acquired. The other is a “subordinate priority” in which the priority of the content presented immediately before the transition is acquired and used as the subordinate priority. The other is a “priority” determined based on the “individual priority” and the “subordinate priority” based on the order of transition.

  That is, the priority determination means 19 acquires “individual priority” based on the user's preference tendency for the content being presented to the presentation means 15, and presents based on the transition history managed by the transition history management means 20. 15 obtains the “priority” of the content previously presented as 15 as the “subordinate priority” of the presenting content, and sets the larger one of “individual priority” and “subordinate priority” It is determined as the “priority” of the content being presented.

  This example will be described with reference to transition (1) in FIG. In the initial state, the content A is stored in the storage device C51 as the content to be presented first, for example. At this time, the content A is determined to be an important content in broadcasting based on information obtained from the broadcast state management means 16. Therefore, the priority determination unit 19 determines the “individual priority” based on the user's preference tendency to 100, and sends this “individual priority” to the storage device C51 via the priority management unit 17 and the transition history management unit 20. "Is set to 100. The priority determination means 19 is the first content to be presented and there is no previous transition source content (since there is no previous priority), the storage device C51 stores the previous content. The priority is regarded as “0”, and the “subordinate priority” of the content A is set to “0”. As a result, in this state, with regard to the content A, since the “individual priority” is 100 and the “subordinate priority” is 0, the priority determination means 19 takes the higher value among these, and the content The “priority” of A is set to 100. Next, in the transition (1), when the user saves the content D in the storage device C52, when the “priority” of the content D is low, the priority determination unit 19 transitions with the priority management unit 17. This “individual priority” is set to 50 in the storage device C52 via the history management means 20. In addition, since the content A is the previous transition source content and the “priority” is 100, in this case, the priority determination unit 19 sets the “dependent priority” to the transition source in the storage device C52. The same value as “priority” 100 of the storage device C51, that is, “subordinate priority” is set to 100. As a result, in this state, regarding the content D, since the “individual priority” is 50 and the “subordinate priority” is 100, the higher one of them is taken, and the “priority” of the content D is 100. It becomes.

  Next, the transition by the “return” function to the previous content, that is, the transition (2) in FIG. 2 will be described.

  When returning from the content D being presented to the presenting means 15 to the content A previously presented based on the transition history managed by the transition history managing means 20, the priority determining means 19 selects the content D being presented. The “individual priority” 50 is compared with the “subordinate priority” 100 for the content D being presented. Since the “dependent priority” value 100 for the content D being presented is larger than the “individual priority” value 50 for the content D being presented, the “individual priority” 50 for the content D being presented is being displayed. The “priority” 50 of the content D is determined and the priority management means 17 is reset. In the opposite case, when the value of the “subordinate priority” for the content D being presented is smaller than the value of the “individual priority” for the content D being presented, the priority determination means 19 determines the “subordinate priority” of the content D. Is cleared and reset to “0”. When the “dependent priority” and “priority” of the content D are reset to “50” and “0”, respectively, the “return” transition (2) from the content D to the content A is completed.

  This case will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In step S40, a “return” transition (2) is started from the currently presented content D to the previously presented content A based on the managed transition history. In the comparison step S41, the “individual priority” 50 for the content D being presented is compared with the “subordinate priority” 100 for the content D being presented. In this case, since the “dependent priority” value 100 for the content D being presented is larger than the “individual priority” value 50 for the content D being presented, the “individual priority” for the content D being presented in step S42. "Priority" 50 for the content D being presented, and the "priority" for the content D is reset to 50. Next, in step S43, “100” of the “dependent priority” of the content D is cleared, and the “dependent priority” is reset to “0”. In step S44, the “return” transition (2) from content D to content A is completed. In the comparison step S41, the “individual priority” for the content D being presented is compared with the “subordinate priority” for the content D being presented, and conversely, the value of the “subordinate priority” for the content D being presented is If the value of the “individual priority” for the content D being presented is smaller than 50, the process directly proceeds to step S43, and the “subordinate priority” is reset to “0”. In step S44, the “return” transition (2) from content D to content A is completed.

  Next, the transition (3) from the content A to the content B will be described. FIG. 4 shows the flow of processing at the time of content transition, taking the transition (3) from content A to content B as an example in the content transition example shown in FIG.

  First, for example, a case where the user instructs the content acquisition unit 12 to acquire the content B after acquiring the content A, or the case where the transmission side switches from the content A to the content B will be described as an example. At this time, the content A is stored in the storage device C51 as the content to be presented first, for example. At this time, it is assumed that the content A is determined to be an important content in broadcasting based on information obtained from the content analysis unit 18 including the broadcast state management unit 16. Therefore, the priority determination unit 19 determines the “individual priority” based on the user's preference tendency to 100, and stores this “individual priority” in the storage device 51 via the priority management unit 17 and the transition history management unit 20. "Is set to 100. The priority determination unit 19 determines that the previous “priority” is 0 in the storage device C51 because the content A is the content to be presented first and there is no previous transition source content. Set Dependency "to 0. As a result, in this state, with regard to the content A, since the “individual priority” is 100 and the “subordinate priority” is 0, the priority determination means 19 takes the higher value among these, and the content A “priority” of A is set to 100.

  In step S21, the transition (3) from the content A to the content B is started. In step S22, the priority determination unit 19 first acquires the “priority” 100 of the transition source content A for the storage device C51. In step S23, the priority determining means 19 calculates and determines the “individual priority” of the content B for the storage device C53. In the present embodiment, for example, the “individual priority” of the content B is set to 40 by information obtained from the content analysis unit 18 including the broadcast state management unit 16 and the time measurement unit 14 shown in FIG. Next, based on the “priority” 100 of the transition source content A, the content B is determined based on the information obtained from the content analysis unit 18 including the priority determination unit 19 and the priority management unit 17. The “subordinate priority” is determined to be 100.

  In step S 24, the “subordinate priority” 100 of the content B is compared with the “individual priority” 40 of the content B. In this case, since the “subordinate priority” 100 of the content B is larger than the “individual priority” 40 of the content B, the “subordinate priority” 100 of the content B is set as the “priority” 100 of the content B in step S25. To do. In this way, the transition (3) from the content A to the content B is completed in step S27. On the contrary, if the “subordinate priority” of the content B is smaller than the “individual priority” of the content B, the “priority” of the content B is changed to the “individual priority” of the content B in step S26. Set. In this way, the transition (3) from the content A to the content B is completed in step S27.

  Since the transition (4) in FIG. 2 is the same as the transition (3), these will be briefly described.

In the transition (4), the priority determination means 19 first obtains the “priority” 100 of the transition source content B from the storage device C53. In the next step, the priority determining means 19 calculates and determines the “individual priority” of the content C for the storage device C54. In this embodiment, for example, the “individual priority” of the content C is set to 50 by the broadcast state management means 16 and the time measurement means 14 shown in FIG. Next, the “subordinate priority” of the content C is set to the storage device C54 based on the “priority” 100 of the transition source content B by the actions of the priority determination unit 19, the priority management unit 17, and the like. 100 is determined. In the next step, “subordinate priority” 100 of content C and “individual priority” 50 of content C are compared. In this case, since the “dependent priority” 100 of the content C is larger than the “individual priority” 50 of the content C, the “priority” of the content C is set to the “dependent priority” 100 of the content C in the next step. To do. In this way, the transition (4) from the content B to the content C is completed. On the contrary, when the “subordinate priority” of the content C is smaller than the “individual priority” of the content C, the “priority” of the content C is set to the “individual priority” of the content C. In this way, the transition (4) from the content B to the content C is completed.
However, after the transition (1), (2), (3), (4) in FIG. 2 is made in this order, the storage means 10 is already in accordance with the contents A, B, C, D when trying to proceed to the transition (5). These information sizes 300, 200, 200, 300 occupy a total of 1000 capacities. Therefore, it cannot move to the transition (5) for acquiring the content E. Therefore, it is necessary to discard any content and free up the capacity of the storage means 10 so that the content E can be accepted.

  In the information storage device 11, when the content acquisition unit 12 tries to acquire a new content E, the storage unit 10 has a total capacity of 1000 in total by the contents A, B, C, and D. It has been found that there is insufficient capacity to acquire content E having a data size of 300, and new content E cannot be stored. Therefore, the deletion unit 21 sequentially goes back the priority managed by the priority management unit 17 based on the transition history managed by the transition history management unit 20 in the order of contents C, B, A, and D. The content with the lowest priority is deleted from the storage means 10. This procedure will be described next.

  That is, when trying to make a new transition (5) to the content E, the priority management unit 17 sets the “priority” of the content E as the transition destination and the amount of data recorded in the storage device C55, that is, the capacity. 300 is calculated, and the capacities and “priorities” of the contents A, B, C, and D stored in the storage devices C51, C53, C54, and C52 are compared. Then, while the “priority” of the contents A, B, and C is all 100, the “priority” of the content D is reset to 50, so the “priority” of the content D is the lowest. It will be. Therefore, the deletion unit 21 deletes the content D from the storage unit 10 in other words, from the storage device C52, based on an instruction from the priority management unit 17. As a result, the capacity 300 corresponding to the data size occupied by the content D is released in the storage unit 10. The released capacity 300 can store the content E as the storage device C55. At this time, as described in the transitions (3) and (4), the “individual priority”, “subordinate priority”, and “priority” of the content E are the priority determination means 19 and the priority management means 29. Determined and managed by That is, in the transition (5), the priority determination means 19 first acquires the “priority” 100 of the content C as the transition source for the storage device C54. In the next step, the priority determination means 19 calculates and determines the “individual priority” of the content E for the storage device C55. In this embodiment, for example, the “individual priority” of the content E is set to 30 by the broadcast state management means 16 and the time measurement means 14 shown in FIG. Next, the priority of the content E is set to 100 based on the “priority” 100 of the transition source content C with respect to the storage device C55 by the actions of the priority determination unit 19 and the priority management unit 17. decide. In the next step, the “subordinate priority” 100 of the content E and the “individual priority” 30 of the content E are compared. In this case, since the “dependent priority” 100 of the content E is larger than the “individual priority” 30 of the content E, the “priority” of the content E is set to the “dependent priority” 100 of the content E in the next step. To do. In this way, the transition (5) from the content C to the content E is completed. On the contrary, when the “dependent priority” of the content E is smaller than the “individual priority” of the content E, the “individual priority” of the content E is set to the “priority” of the content E. In this way, the transition (5) from the content C to the content E is completed. In this way, the cache capacity becomes 1000 again, and the contents A, B, C, and E are stored.

  In this state, the content D is not on the path of the “return” transition from the content E to the content A having a higher “priority”.

  As a result, the content on the way from the content E currently being presented to the content A having a high priority that has been browsed is not discarded, and the user wants to refer again by using the “return” function. Can be quickly referred to from the contents A, B, C, and E stored in the storage means 10.

  On the other hand, in the broadcast MM service, it is possible to request content update from the broadcast transmission side. In FIG. 1, when the content acquisition unit 12 receives a content update instruction transmitted from the transmission side, the content acquisition unit 12 acquires new content associated with the content update. Then, the priority determination means 19 determines the “dependent priority” of the content that exists in the storage means 10 and is the target of the content update instruction, as the “dependent priority” of the new content, Based on the user's preference tendency for the new content, the “individual priority” for the content is determined.

  In the embodiment according to the present invention, in FIG. 1, first, the broadcast state management unit 16 extracts an update instruction transmitted by a broadcast wave and notifies the priority determination unit 19 of the update instruction. Upon receiving this notification via the priority determination means 19 and the transition history management means 20, the storage means 10 starts reacquisition for the corresponding content.

  At this time, when the storage means 10 is already full, as described in the above transition (5), the update instruction transmitted by the broadcast wave is accepted after the contents having the lowest priority are deleted in order. To.

  Thereby, even when content updates that frequently occur in the MM service realized by broadcasting occur, the content by the storage means 10 is retained, and as a result, exists in the middle of transition by the “return” function, and The content with high “priority” stored in the storage unit 10 is prevented from being lost by the content update process.

  When the content update from the broadcast state management unit 16 described above, the content update due to the notification from the user key input management unit 13 or the content update by the time measurement unit 14 occurs, the “individual priority” of the content is It is calculated again, and the value is changed to the calculated value.

  Even when content update is not explicitly instructed, the “individual priority” is recalculated when a change is notified from the above-described means. For example, when the time measurement means 14 is notified of the reference time and the elapsed time from the last reference time, and the elapsed time from the last reference time exceeds a certain threshold, the “individual priority” of the content is set. Can be lowered.

  According to the present invention, if the “subordinate priority” becomes higher than the “individual priority” with the change of the “individual priority”, the “subordinate priority” is used as the “priority” of the corresponding content. If the “individual priority” is higher than the “subordinate priority” and the “individual priority” is high after the change, the “individual priority” is used as the “priority” of the content.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a processing flow when the “priority” of the content A as the transition source is updated. In this embodiment, the case where the “priority” of the content A is reset from 100 to 30 and updated will be described. Content A has the highest “individual priority” at 100 in the above embodiment. However, when a user has sufficiently referred to and presented the content A for the last time, for example, when a predetermined elapsed time is exceeded, it is necessary to lower the “individual priority” of the content A. Become.

  At this time, the time measurement means 14 notifies the priority management means 17 via the priority determination means 19 that the elapsed time has exceeded a predetermined time from the last reference time. In FIG. 5, for example, when the “priority” of the content A is reset from 100 to 30 and updated in step S30, the priority management unit 17 first updates the content “A” in step S31. The priority “30” is notified to the content B. Thereafter, in step S32, the reset "priority" 30 of the content A, that is, the "subordinate priority" 30 of the content B and the "individual priority" 50 of the content B are compared. Since “priority” is higher than 50, “individual priority” 50 of content B is set as “priority” 50 of content B in step S34. In this case, when the “priority” of the content B is updated, the process proceeds from step S35 to step S36. In step S 36, the newly set “priority” of the content B is notified to the content C. Thereafter, the same processing as in steps S32 to S36 for the content B described above is performed on the content C. If the “priority” of the content B does not change, the process stops in step S37.

  By referring to the transition history management means 19, as described above, the content whose “priority” has been updated is included in the history leading to the currently presented content. The processing is repeated until the content being presented is reached according to the processing flow when the “priority” of the indicated transition source is updated.

  As a result, even if the “priority” of the content that exists in the middle of the transition history path that is transitioned by the “return” function is changed due to content update or other factors, The “priority” is always the same or higher than the “priority” of the content for which the “priority” update occurred, and in the course of transition by the “return” function due to the update of the “priority” of some content, Is discarded from the storage means 10.

  According to the information storage device of the present invention, the practical effect is high even when the transmission capacity is small, the “return” function can be realized, and the user cannot directly specify the URL of the content. Therefore, in the case of an MM service such as a terrestrial digital broadcast data broadcasting service for mobile terminals, the user uses the “return” function to assign “priority” individually assigned to each content in relation to the content. By the effect of “degree”, it is possible to prevent the content that is expected to have a high “priority” in the middle from being discarded from the storage means. As a result, it is possible to prevent the content that the user expected to have a high “priority” from becoming unreferenceable. Therefore, the user can enjoy the MM content service with peace of mind. Even when the storage capacity of the storage means is small, important contents can be preferentially stored and easily referred to later. As a result, the present invention can be applied to a portable information terminal, a portable MM information terminal, and a mobile phone capable of receiving broadcasts.

The block diagram showing the whole structure which concerns on embodiment The figure for demonstrating the content transition at the time of implementing this invention Flow chart showing the flow of priority setting processing at the time of content transition by the return function Flow chart showing the flow of priority setting processing at the time of content transition Flow chart showing the flow of priority setting processing when transition source priority is updated

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Storage means 11 Information storage device 12 Content acquisition means 13 User instruction reception means 14 Time measurement means 15 Presentation means 16 Broadcast state management means 17 Priority management means 18 MM content analysis means 19 Priority determination means 20 Transition history management means 21 Content deletion means

Claims (12)

Content acquisition means for acquiring content;
Storage means capable of storing a plurality of the acquired contents;
Presenting means for presenting one of the plurality of stored contents in an active state;
Accepting means for accepting an instruction by a user about obtaining new content by the obtaining means based on the presented content;
Priority determination means for determining a priority of content newly acquired based on an instruction by the user based on a user's preference tendency for the content and / or a priority of content currently presented to the presenting means; ,
Priority management means for managing the priority determined by the priority determination means for each of the plurality of stored contents;
A transition history managing means for managing a transition history in which the plurality of stored contents are sequentially presented to the presenting means;
A deletion unit that deletes a content having the lowest priority from the storage unit among the plurality of contents stored in the storage unit and the content newly acquired by the acquisition unit;
An information storage device comprising: The priority determination means acquires individual priority based on a user's preference tendency with respect to the content being presented to the presentation means, and one of the presentation means based on the transition history managed by the transition history management means The priority of the previously presented content is acquired as the subordinate priority of the presenting content, and the larger one of the individual priority and the subordinate priority is determined as the priority of the presenting content. ,
The information storage device according to claim 1. The priority determination unit, when returning from the content being presented to the presenting unit to the content previously presented based on the transition history managed by the transition history management unit, the individual priority with respect to the content being presented And when the value of the dependency priority is greater than the value of the individual priority, the individual priority is determined as the priority of the content being presented. Resetting the priority management means;
The information storage device according to claim 1 or 2. When the priority of any content stored in the storage means is updated, the priority determination means is presented by changing the updated priority of the content with the updated priority from the content. And the comparison priority of the transition destination content and the individual priority of the transition destination content are compared, and the dependency priority of the transition destination content and the transition destination content are compared. The larger value of the individual priorities is determined as the priority of the content at the transition destination, and set in the priority management means.
The information storage device according to claim 1. When the content acquisition unit receives a content update instruction from the transmission side, the content acquisition unit acquires new content accompanying the content update instruction, the priority determination unit exists in the storage unit, and Determining the subordinate priority of the content that is the target of the update instruction as the subordinate priority of the new content, and determining the individual priority for the content based on the user's preference for the new content.
The information storage device according to claim 1. When the content acquisition means tries to acquire new content, and it is found that the capacity of the storage means is insufficient and the new content cannot be stored, the deletion means is managed by the transition history management means. The priority managed by the priority management means is sequentially traced based on the transition history being deleted, and the content with the lowest priority in the traced history is deleted from the storage means;
The information storage device according to claim 1. An acquisition step of acquiring content;
A storage step of storing a plurality of the acquired contents;
A presenting step of presenting one of the plurality of stored contents in an active state;
An accepting step of accepting an instruction from a user to acquire the new content based on the presented content;
A priority determination step of determining a priority of content newly acquired based on an instruction from the user based on a preference tendency of the user with respect to the content and / or a priority of the currently presented content;
A priority management step for managing the determined priority for each of the plurality of stored contents;
A transition history management step for managing a transition history in which the plurality of stored contents are sequentially presented;
A deletion step of deleting the lowest-priority content from the storage among the plurality of stored content and the newly acquired content;
An information storage method comprising: The step of determining the priority comprises:
An individual priority acquisition step for acquiring an individual priority based on a user's preference tendency with respect to the content being presented in the presenting step;
A subordinate priority acquisition step of acquiring, as the subordinate priority of the content being presented, the priority of the content that was previously presented in the presentation step based on the transition history managed in the transition history management step;
A priority determination step for determining a larger value of the individual priority and the subordinate priority as the priority of the content being presented;
The information storage method according to claim 7. When returning from the content being presented to the previously presented content based on the managed transition history,
The priority determination step includes a comparison step of comparing the individual priority for the content being presented with the subordinate priority for the content being presented, and the value of the subordinate priority is greater than the value of the individual priority. If it is greater, the priority management step of determining and resetting the individual priority as the priority of the content being presented; and
The information storage method according to claim 7 or 8. When the priority of stored content is updated,
Determining the updated priority of the stored content with the updated priority as the dependency priority of the transition destination content; and the dependency priority of the transition destination content and the individual priority of the transition destination content And a priority determination step of determining a larger value of the subordinate priority of the transition destination content and the individual priority of the transition destination content as the priority of the transition destination content. A priority management step of setting a priority based on the determined priority of the content of the transition destination,
The information storage method according to claim 7. When receiving an instruction to update the content transmitted from the transmission side in the content acquisition step, the content acquisition step includes a step of acquiring new content accompanying the content update instruction;
The priority determination step includes:
Determining the subordinate priority of the content that exists in the storage means and is the target of the update instruction, as the subordinate priority of the new content;
Determining as an individual priority for the content based on a user preference for the new content;
An information storage method according to claim 7, comprising: When trying to acquire new content in the content acquisition step,
When it is found that the storage capacity is insufficient and the new content cannot be stored, the deletion step includes:
Sequentially tracking the priorities managed in the priority management step based on the transition history managed in the transition history management step;
Deleting from the memory the content having the lowest priority among the traces;
An information storage method according to any one of claims 7 to 11.

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