JP2009015365A - Recording reproduction device and content reproduction method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a recording reproduction device and a content reproduction method which is high in convenience for easily performing access to stored video content matched with the interest of a user from among those. <P>SOLUTION: An HDD recorder 1 is provided with a recording program storage part 3; and a meta data storage part 5, and connected to a computer 11 for use. The computer 11 compares Web information with words included in meta data, displays matched words, and transmits the words selected from the displayed words to the HDD recorder 1 as a video retrieval keyword. The HDD recorder 1 returns the meta data of video content related with the keyword for video retrieval to an information processing part, receives the selection information of the video content selected by an information processing part 15 based on the meta data from the information processor, and reproduces the video content corresponding to the selection information. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a recording / playback apparatus and a content playback method.

  With the increase in capacity of HDD recorders in recent years, it has become increasingly important to quickly find and efficiently watch programs and scenes you want to watch from among the programs stored on HDD recorders, and there is a need for simpler search functions. Is expected to become higher in the future. For example, in a certain HDD recorder product, in a list display of recorded titles, a function of displaying thumbnail images (still images or moving images) together with program titles, and a method of rearranging the title list by genre, in order of recording date, etc. It has a function that makes it easy to find stored programs.

Also known is a broadcast receiving apparatus that uses metadata that describes a pair of time information on the start / end of the topic and text information that the topic means for each topic constituting the program (for example, (See Patent Document 1 below.) By using such metadata, it is possible to input a search keyword, extract a program including a topic that matches the keyword, and search for a topic scene related to one's interest. .
JP-A-2005-72826

  However, in order to appropriately search for a program that matches the user's interest using metadata, it takes time and effort to consider various search keywords. Moreover, unless the search keyword can be selected appropriately, it is difficult to sufficiently use such a function.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a highly convenient recording / playback apparatus and content playback method that allow easy access to a user's interest from among stored video content.

  The recording / playback apparatus of the present invention includes a video content storage unit that stores video content, and a meta information storage unit that stores meta information including information related to the content of the video content, in order to browse Web information. In a recording / playback apparatus used by being connected to an information processing apparatus having a Web browser and an information processing unit, a word included in the meta information is extracted from the meta information stored in the meta information storage unit, and extracted Extracted word transmitting means for transmitting a word to the information processing unit in response to a request from the information processing unit, receiving a video search keyword from the information processing unit, searching for video content related to the video search keyword, Based on the meta information from the search meta information return means for returning the meta information of the searched video content to the information processing unit and the meta information from the search meta information return means. And a reproduction means for receiving selection information indicating the video content selected by the information processing unit from the information processing unit and reproducing the video content corresponding to the selection information. The word included in the acquired Web information and the extracted word from the extracted word transmitting means are compared to display a matched word, and the word selected from the displayed words is used as a video search keyword as a search meta. It transmits to an information reply means, It is characterized by the above-mentioned.

  In addition, the meta information returned from the search meta information return unit includes URL information for acquiring Web information related to the video content, and the information processing unit performs the playback of the video content by the playback unit. In addition, information in which a link is set in the URL may be displayed, and Web information corresponding to the URL may be acquired by the Web browser in response to a user operation.

  In addition, the content playback method of the present invention is stored in a recording / playback apparatus including a video content storage unit that stores video content and a meta information storage unit that stores meta information including information related to the content of the video content. In a content playback method for selecting and playing back video content, Web information is acquired by a Web browser, and extracted words extracted from meta information stored in a meta information storage unit are received from a recording / playback device, and Web information is acquired. The extracted word display step for comparing the extracted word with the extracted word and displaying the matched word, and selecting the video search keyword from the words displayed in the extracted word display step, and the video search keyword A keyword transmission step for transmitting the image to the recording / playback device, and a video container related to the video search keyword. The content selection step for receiving and displaying the meta information of the video from the recording / playback apparatus and selecting the video content to be played back based on the displayed meta information, and the selection information indicating the video content selected in the content selection step And a selection information transmitting step for transmitting to the recording / reproducing apparatus.

  In the content playback method of the present invention, the meta information received from the recording / playback apparatus includes URL information for acquiring Web information related to the video content in the meta information. A URL display step for displaying information in which a link is set to the URL related to the selected video content; and a Web information acquisition step for causing the Web browser to acquire Web information corresponding to the URL in response to a user operation. It is good as well.

  According to the recording / playback apparatus and the content playback method of the present invention, it is possible to easily access the stored video content that matches the user's interest, and the convenience can be improved.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of a recording / playback apparatus and a content playback method according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, an HDD recorder 1 which is an embodiment of a recording / playback apparatus of the present invention is connected to a personal computer 11. A home network N1 is constructed by two devices, the HDD recorder 1 and the computer 11. Further, the HDD recorder 1 and the computer 11 are respectively connected to the Internet N2, so that the home network N1 is connected to the Internet N2 as a whole. The HDD recorder 1 is connected to a television 9 via an AV cable.

  In the HDD recorder 1, a program (video content) received by broadcast waves is recorded on the HDD 33 (see FIG. 3), and a recorded program storage unit (video content storage unit) 3 is formed. Further, the HDD 33 of the HDD recorder 1 stores metadata including various information for each chapter (video content) included in the recorded program, and a metadata storage unit 5 is formed. Further, the HDD recorder 1 includes a control unit 7 that performs various information processing.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the metadata includes character information indicating a program title name and a topic description. In the following description, it is assumed that one “chapter” is assigned to each “topic” in the program, and one metadata corresponds to each chapter. In the “Related Information” item of the metadata, information related to the product (product name, price, etc.), store name, address, phone number, Information such as a related URL is described.

  In order to obtain such metadata, the HDD recorder 1 periodically receives metadata in chapter units for each program of all receivable broadcast stations from the metadata providing server 51 on the Internet N2. Note that the computer 11 may acquire the metadata from the metadata providing server 51 and transmit it to the HDD recorder 1. Further, since the metadata obtained from the metadata providing server 51 does not include the data of the “extracted word” item (see FIG. 3), the data of the “chapter content” item of the obtained metadata is not included. The control unit 7 performs a word extraction process to extract an appropriate word, and stores the extracted word in the “extracted word” item. For this extraction process, for example, morphological analysis and semantic class analysis are used.

  The computer 11 includes, as functional components, a Web browser 13 for browsing Web information and an information processing unit 15 that performs various information processing. The information processing unit 15 includes a proxy unit 15a that mediates transmission / reception of information to / from the WWW server 52 on the Internet N2, and a cooperation processing unit 15b for cooperation with the HDD recorder 1.

  Here, a specific hardware configuration of the HDD recorder 1 will be described with reference to FIG. The HDD recorder 1 includes a front end unit 21, a digital TV system LSI 22, a digital input unit 23, A / D converters 24 and 25, a ghost reduction unit 26, a three-dimensional YC separation unit 27, a LAN processing LSI 28, a controller LSI 29, and a flash memory. 30, SDRAM 31 and HDD (Hard Disk Drive) 33.

  The front end unit 21 includes digital tuner modules 21a and 21b, an OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex) demodulator 21c, and a QPSK (Quadrature Phase Shift Keying) demodulator 21d. The system LSI 22 includes a transmission / reception circuit 22a, an MPEG2 decoder 22b, a graphic engine 22c, a digital format converter 22d, and a CPU 22f.

  In the above configuration, the terrestrial digital broadcast wave, BS digital broadcast wave, and 110 ° CS digital broadcast wave are demodulated by the front end unit 21. The terrestrial analog broadcast wave and the DVD / VTR signal are decoded by the three-dimensional YC separation unit 27 and the like. These signals are input to the system LSI 22 and separated into video / audio / data by the transmission / reception circuit 22a. As for the video, video information is input to the graphic engine 22c via the MPEG2 decoder 22b and output to the television 9 connected to the outside via the digital format converter 22d.

  In the HDD recorder 1 described above, the above-described control unit 7 (see FIG. 2) is functionally realized by the CPU 22f executing a predetermined program and operating the units 21 to 33 under the control of the CPU 22f. It is a component. The recorded program storage unit 3 and the metadata storage unit 5 are functional components realized as electronic information stored in the HDD 33.

  Next, a specific hardware configuration of the computer 11 will be described with reference to FIG. The computer 11 includes a CPU 41, a RAM 42 and a ROM 43 as main storage devices, an auxiliary storage device 45 such as a hard disk, an input device 46 such as a keyboard and mouse as input devices, an output device 47 such as a display, and a data transmission / reception device such as a network card. The communication module 48 is provided.

  Functional components such as the web browser 13, the proxy unit 15a, and the cooperation processing unit 15b described above are respectively a web browser program, a proxy program, and a cooperation processing program on hardware such as the CPU 41 and the RAM 42 of the computer 11. By reading the computer software, the communication module 48, the input device 46, and the output device 47 are operated under the control of the CPU 41, and data is read and written in the RAM 42 and the auxiliary storage device 45. .

  Next, processing performed by the HDD recorder 1 and the computer 11 in cooperation will be described.

  As shown in FIG. 6, when the user operates the computer 11 to activate the web browser 13 and tries to access a web site of interest, the web browser 13 sends a web page request to the proxy unit 15a (S302). ). Then, the proxy unit 15a transmits a Web page request as a proxy to the WWW server 52 (S202). At this time, the cooperation processing unit 15b transmits a metadata request to the control unit 7 of the HDD recorder 1 (S402). As described above, in the HDD recorder 1, words are extracted in advance from the “chapter contents” of the metadata (S502) and stored as “extracted word” items.

  Then, the control unit 7 of the HDD recorder 1 refers to the metadata storage unit 5 in response to the metadata request, and sends the metadata including the extracted word registered in the “extracted word” item to the cooperation processing unit 15b. A reply is made (S504). In this way, the control unit 7 functions as an “extracted word transmitting unit” that returns the extracted word in response to a request from the cooperation processing unit 15b. Thereafter, the cooperation processing unit 15b temporarily stores the received extracted word in the storage unit (cache) 15c (S404).

  In response to the Web page request from the proxy unit 15a, the WWW server 52 returns an HTML document of the Web page related to the request (S102). The proxy unit 15a delivers the received HTML document to the Web browser 13 and the cooperation processing unit 15b (S204). The web browser 13 interprets the received HTML document and displays it as a web page screen on the display (S304). On the other hand, the cooperation processing unit 15b collates the received HTML document with the extracted words stored in the storage unit 15c (S406). Then, the cooperation processing unit 15b finds the extracted words that match the character string included in the HTML document, and displays a list of the matched words on a window different from the Web page (S408; extraction). Word display step). With such a display, the user can select a word to be used as a “search keyword” from the list of words displayed on the screen and designate it by a mouse click operation.

  When the “search keyword” is selected / designated by the user's click, the cooperation processing unit 15b transmits the designated “search keyword” to the control unit 7 of the HDD recorder 1 (S410; keyword transmission step). ). Then, the control unit 7 collates the received “search keyword” with the words included in the “extracted word” item of the metadata of the metadata storage unit 5 and matches all the meta data that match the “search keyword”. The data is returned to the cooperation processing unit 15b (S506). In this way, the control unit 7 functions as a “search meta information return unit” that searches for video content related to the search keyword from the cooperation processing unit 15b and returns metadata of the searched video content. Then, as illustrated in FIG. 8, the cooperation processing unit 15b displays a list of “chapter contents” of the received metadata on the display (S412). The user can specify the content to be reproduced by a mouse click operation by looking at the chapter contents listed in the “search result” column of the screen (content selection step). Furthermore, the user can also specify the playback method by clicking the operation buttons 14a to 14d on the screen with the mouse.

  When the selection from the list display is performed, the cooperation processing unit 15b transmits the “program ID” and “chapter ID” (selection information) of the metadata related to the selection to the control unit 7 (S414; selection information transmission). Step). Then, the control unit 7 specifies the chapter of the program to be reproduced based on the received “program ID” and “chapter ID” (S508), reads the corresponding chapter from the recorded program storage unit 3, and reads this chapter. Is cued and reproduced on the television 9 (see FIGS. 1 and 2) (S510). In this manner, the control unit 7 functions as a “reproducing unit” that reproduces the video content corresponding to the ID of the video content selected by the cooperation processing unit 15b.

  Next, as illustrated in FIG. 7, the cooperation processing unit 15 b displays the “related information” of the metadata relating to the chapter being played on the screen of the computer 11 (S 416). An example of the screen displaying this “related information” is shown in FIG. As described above, since the “related information” of the metadata includes “related URL” related to the topic of the chapter, the related URL 16a is also displayed on the screen (URL display). Step). A link is set in the display of the related URL 16a. When the related URL 16a is clicked on the screen with the mouse, the cooperation processing unit 15b activates the Web browser 13 (S418). Then, the Web browser 13 sends a Web page request related to the related URL 16a to the proxy unit 15a (S312; Web information acquisition step). Thereafter, the HDD recorder 1 and the computer 11 repeat the above-described processing from S202 onward, and a Web page screen corresponding to the related URL is displayed.

  According to the series of processes of the HDD recorder 1 and the computer 11 as described above, a part of the words appearing on the website is automatically converted by the user simply browsing the website of interest. Thus, the search keyword candidates are listed on the screen (S408). Therefore, the user can select an appropriate search keyword from the words listed on the screen and specify it by a simple operation (S410), so that the user can think or input the search keyword. The trouble of doing can be omitted.

  When a search keyword is specified (S410), the chapter contents of chapters including the search keyword are displayed in a list on the screen (S412; see FIG. 8), and the user is interested in the list display. Since a certain item can be selected and reproduced (S510), the user can easily access the video content of interest stored in the HDD recorder 1. That is, if the user has not only the information on the Web page but also a related recorded program in the HDD recorder 1, the user can view the related video at the same time, and more complete information collection is possible.

  In addition, the user can easily find and view a video of interest without having to search for a video scene that matches his / her interest by using a function such as “fast forward” or inputting a keyword. Even when a large number of recorded programs exist in the HDD recorder 1, it is almost impossible to overlook a video scene that matches interests as in the conventional case.

  Further, during the cue playback, a related URL 16a related to the video content being played is displayed on the display of the computer 11 (S418; see FIG. 9), and a link to the related URL is provided. Therefore, the user can display a new Web page related to the video content being reproduced simply by clicking the display of the related URL 16a.

  As shown in FIG. 10, Web information is acquired by repeating the above-described series of flows (S902), and a search keyword (for example, “ABC”) linked to the Web information screen 13a being browsed is obtained. When “CDF” or the like is clicked (S904), video content related to the search keyword is reproduced on the television 9 (S906). At the same time, the related URL of the video content is sent to the computer 11 (S908) and displayed in a linked state, and the next Web information 13b is acquired by clicking the related URL (S910). When the Web information 13b is displayed, it can be repeated from the procedure of clicking on a search keyword (for example, “GHI” etc.) linked again.

  That is, in the HDD recorder 1 and the computer 11, Web information acquisition → Video content playback related to Web information → Web information acquisition related to video content → Video content playback related to Web information →... A chain of information related to video content can be created. As a result, the conventional Web surfing function for collecting related information by tracing information links is combined with the video scene search / playback function stored in the HDD recorder 1 to collect information with high added value by using the Web information and related video. Functions can be provided to the user.

  The present invention is not limited to the embodiment described above. For example, in the processing of S408, a list of matched words is displayed on the screen in a window different from the window indicating the Web page. Instead, the Web page displayed in the window of the Web browser 13 is displayed. In the above, the color of the matched word is changed, or the character of the matched word is highlighted by dragging etc., and at the same time, the keyword is linked to the video content of the HDD recorder 1 by right-clicking the mouse. A menu for selecting a function for calling up related video content may be displayed. Further, the reproduction in the processing of S510 may be performed on the display of the computer 11 instead of the television 9. In this case, video data relating to playback is distributed from the HDD recorder 1 to the computer 11 by the DLNA via the home network N1, and is played back by the video playback application of the computer 11.

It is a figure which shows one Embodiment of the home network containing the HDD recorder which concerns on this invention. It is a functional block diagram which shows the function structure of each apparatus regarding the home network of FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of metadata. It is a block diagram which shows the hardware constitutions of the HDD recorder shown in FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the hardware constitutions of the personal computer shown in FIG. It is a sequence diagram which shows the process of each apparatus in the home network shown in FIG. It is a sequence diagram which shows the process of each apparatus in the home network shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the screen which displays a list of search results. It is a figure which shows an example of the screen which displays the relevant information of the content in reproduction | regeneration. It is a block diagram which shows the flow of the information in the home network of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... HDD recorder (recording / reproducing apparatus), 3 ... Recorded program storage part (video content storage part), 5 ... Metadata storage part, 11 ... Computer (information processing apparatus), 13 ... Web browser, 15 ... Information processing part.

Claims (4)

A web browser and an information processing unit for browsing web information, comprising: a video content storage unit for storing video content; and a meta information storage unit for storing meta information including information related to the content of the video content. In a recording / playback apparatus used by being connected to an information processing apparatus having
Extracted word transmitting means for extracting a word included in the meta information from the meta information stored in the meta information storing unit and transmitting the extracted extracted word to the information processing unit in response to a request from the information processing unit When,
Search meta information return means for receiving a video search keyword from the information processing unit, searching for video content related to the video search keyword, and returning meta information of the searched video content to the information processing unit When,
The selection information indicating the video content selected by the information processing unit based on the meta information from the search meta information return means is received from the information processing unit, and the video content corresponding to the selection information is reproduced. A reproducing means for performing,
The information processing unit
The word included in the Web information acquired by the Web browser and the extracted word from the extracted word transmitting unit are compared to display a matched word, and the word selected from the displayed words is displayed. Transmitting to the search meta information return means as the video search keyword,
A recording / playback apparatus characterized by that. The meta information returned from the search meta information return means includes URL information for acquiring Web information related to the video content,
The information processing unit
When the video content is played back by the playback means, information linked to the URL is displayed,
The recording / playback apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the Web browser is configured to acquire Web information corresponding to the URL in response to a user operation. A video content storage unit that stores video content, and a meta information storage unit that stores meta information including information about the content of the video content, and selects and plays back the video content stored in a recording / playback apparatus In the content playback method to let
Web information is acquired by a Web browser, an extracted word extracted from the meta information stored in the meta information storage unit is received from the recording / playback device, and the word included in the Web information is compared with the extracted word An extracted word display step for displaying the matched words,
A keyword transmission step of selecting a video search keyword from the words displayed in the extracted word display step, and transmitting the video search keyword to the recording / playback device;
A content selection step of receiving and displaying the meta information of the video content related to the video search keyword from the recording / playback apparatus, and selecting video content to be played back based on the displayed meta information;
A selection information transmission step of transmitting selection information indicating the video content selected in the content selection step to the recording / playback apparatus;
A content playback method comprising: The meta information received from the recording / playback apparatus includes URL information for acquiring Web information related to the video content in the meta information,
A URL display step for displaying information in which a link is set to the URL related to the video content selected in the content selection step;
Web information acquisition step for causing the Web browser to acquire Web information corresponding to the URL in response to a user operation;
The content reproduction method according to claim 3, further comprising:

Images