JP2009069407A - Information output device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a technique which distributes an advertisement without giving stress to a listener. <P>SOLUTION: A control part 11 of an information providing device 1 refers to an advertisement content corresponding to user information of a user in a distribution destination to specify correspondence relations stored in a correspondence relation storage area 122 and synthesizes the specified advertisement content with an advertisement area of a main content to generate a synthesized content. The control part 11 distributes the generated synthesized content to a user terminal 3. The user terminal 3 receives the synthesized content from he information providing device 1 and reproduce the received synthesized content. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for outputting information.

In recent years, there has been a service for distributing contents such as moving image information and music information such as movies and sports programs from information providers to information users' terminals using communication networks, wired cables, and broadcast radio waves. Yes. In such an information providing service, an information user refers to a table of contents composed of summary information such as titles of a plurality of types of content presented by the information provider, and selects desired content information from these. System is used. Further, Patent Document 1 proposes a stream information transfer network service that realizes multi-functionality of the network and enables diversification of broadcast services and improvement of convenience.
Japanese Patent No. 3627631

By the way, in a conventional information providing service, an advertisement is generally played in the middle of a program. In such a conventional information providing service, the listener may feel stress due to the program being interrupted by the advertisement.
The present invention has been made in view of the above-described circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a technique capable of running an advertisement for sales promotion or the like without giving stress to a listener.

  In order to solve the above problems, an information output apparatus according to a preferred aspect of the present invention includes first image data stored in first image data storage means representing the contents of a first image and user attributes. A correspondence relationship storage means for storing a correspondence relationship with user information to be indicated, a user information acquisition means for obtaining user information indicating a user attribute, a content of the second image, and a part of the second image Acquired by the second image data reading means for reading the second image data from the second image data storage means for storing the second image data including the area designating data indicating the area, and the user information acquisition means. Selection means for selecting the first image data corresponding to the user information based on the correspondence stored in the correspondence storage, and the first data selected by the selection means is the first data Area designation included in the second image data out of the images indicated by the second image data read by the first data reading means and the second image data reading means read from the data storage means Composite data generating means for generating composite data by combining the first image data read by the first image data reading means in the area indicated by the data, and composite data generated by the composite data generating means Output means for outputting.

In the above aspect, the first image data is a moving image stream, and the region designation data is data indicating a predetermined region in the moving image displayed by the moving image stream corresponding to the passage of time, The synthesized data generation means may synthesize the first image data in an area indicated by area designation data in an image indicated by the second image data in accordance with the passage of time.
In the above-described aspect, the second image data may be a moving image stream.

  In the above-described aspect, the second image data storage unit stores a plurality of the second image data representing an image, and the second image data storage unit stores the second image data stored in the second image data storage unit. Storing request data input receiving means for storing area designation data corresponding to each, and receiving input of request data indicating any output request of the second image data stored in the second image data storage means; The second image data reading unit may read second image data corresponding to the request data input to the request data input receiving unit from the second image data storage unit.

In the above-described aspect, the synthesizing unit may include the size of the region indicated by the region designation data read by the first image data reading unit and the second size read by the second image data reading unit. When the size of the image data is different, the second image data is transformed into the size of the area indicated by the area designation data, and the transformed second image data is converted into the area designation data of the first data. You may synthesize | combine to the area | region which shows.
In the above-described aspect, the output unit may distribute the first image data obtained by combining the second image data by the combining unit to a terminal device via a communication network.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the advertisement for sales promotion etc. can be circulated, without giving a stress to a listener.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
<A: Configuration>
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a content distribution system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the present embodiment, a case will be described in which the present invention is applied to an information providing system that provides program information (hereinafter referred to as “main content”) such as movies and sports programs to each information user. As shown in FIG. 1, the information providing system includes a network 4 composed of a fixed telephone network, a mobile communication network, a dedicated line, or the like, an information providing device 1 connected to the network 4, a large number of main contents and advertisement contents. Are stored in the server device 2 and user terminals 3a, 3b, 3c. In FIG. 1, three user terminals 3a, 3b, and 3c are illustrated. However, the number of user terminals connected to the network 4 is not limited to three, and the number may be larger than this. It may be less. In the following description, when it is not necessary to distinguish the user terminals 3a, 3b, and 3c, these will be referred to as “user terminals 3”.

  The server device 2 includes a storage unit, for example, a hard disk, which stores a plurality of main contents (second image data) and stores a plurality of advertisement contents (first image data). The advertisement content is image data representing a moving image stream or a still image representing the contents of advertisement for product sales promotion or the like. The main content is a moving image stream such as a movie or a sports program, and is configured so that a partial area of the image can be replaced. 2A, 2B, and 2C are diagrams showing examples of the main content. In the example shown in FIG. 2, the image changes in the order of (a), (b), and (c) with the passage of time. In addition, in the image illustrated in FIG. 2, the area r1 has a replaceable data structure, and another image can be combined with the area r1. In the following description, for convenience of description, a replaceable area of the main content will be referred to as an “advertisement area”. As illustrated in FIG. 2, the position and shape of the advertising region r1 change with time. As this advertising area, for example, in the case of a movie or a TV drama, an area such as a standing billboard in the background, a train hanging advertisement, an indoor TV screen, etc. may be used. In the case of a sports program such as soccer or baseball, an area such as a fence in the stadium may be used. In the example shown in FIG. 2, the case where only one advertisement area r1 is included in the screen is illustrated, but the number of advertisement areas included in the screen is not limited to 1, and a plurality of advertisement areas are included. It may be included in the screen.

  The main content includes area designation data indicating an advertisement area in the image represented by the main content corresponding to the passage of time. As the area designation data, for example, a color signal representing blue (or green) used in the conventional chroma key composition technique may be used. When the chroma key composition technique is used, when the main content is created, a movie or the like may be taken using a blue (or green) signboard or hanging advertisement as a signboard or hanging advertisement in the city serving as an advertising area. In this way, in the image signal representing the photographed image, the advertisement area portion becomes a key signal representing blue or green, and the advertisement area is indicated by this key signal.

  The information providing apparatus 1 is an apparatus that distributes main content selected by a user of this information providing service such as the user terminal 3 to each user terminal 3. Here, as a delivery method, a broadcast radio wave may be used, a delivery via the network 4 may be used, and any method may be used. In addition, the information providing apparatus 1 distributes advertisement information (hereinafter “advertisement content”) for sales promotion of various products between main content distribution. At this time, the information providing apparatus 1 switches the advertisement content to be distributed according to the user's preference.

  The user terminal 3 is a terminal of a user who receives this information providing service, receives main content and advertising content distributed from the information providing device 1, reproduces and displays information based on the received main content and advertising content, etc. It has the function of A user of the content distribution system can listen to movies, sports programs, and the like using the user terminal 3.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the information providing apparatus 1. In the figure, the control unit 11 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a ROM (Read Only Memory), and a RAM (Random Access Memory), and reads and executes a computer program stored in the ROM or the storage unit 12. The units of the information providing device 1 are controlled via the bus. The storage unit 12 is a storage unit for storing a program executed by the control unit 11 and data used at the time of execution, and is, for example, a hard disk device. The display unit 13 includes a liquid crystal display panel and the like, and displays various images under the control of the control unit 11. The operation unit 14 outputs a signal corresponding to the operation by the user to the control unit 11. The communication unit 15 is a communication unit for performing communication with the user terminal 3 via the network 4. The communication unit 15 transmits data delivered from the control unit 11 to the network 4, while receiving data transmitted from the network 4 and delivers it to the control unit 11. The communication unit 15 may be wired to the network 4 or may be wirelessly connected.

  The storage unit 12 of the information providing apparatus 1 includes a schedule information storage area 121, a correspondence relation storage area 122, and a user information storage area 123 as shown in the figure. The schedule information storage area 121 stores schedule information indicating a distribution schedule of main content distributed to the user terminal 3. The control unit 11 of the information providing device 1 distributes the main content stored in the server device 2 to each user terminal 3 according to the schedule information stored in the schedule information storage area 121.

  The correspondence relationship storage area 122 stores a table indicating correspondence relationships between user requests, preferences, and the like (hereinafter referred to as “user attributes”) and advertisement content. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the contents of the table stored in the correspondence relationship storage area 122. As shown in the figure, each item of “content ID” and “attribute information” is stored in association with each other in this table. Among these items, the “content ID” item stores identification information for identifying the advertising content. In the example shown in FIG. 4, “C01” and “C02” are stored as “content ID”. In the “attribute information” item, attribute information indicating user attributes such as “golf” and “soccer” is stored. Based on the user information received from the user terminal 3 and the table stored in the correspondence storage area 122, the control unit 11 of the information providing apparatus 1 distributes advertisement content that matches the user's request and preference. In this way, the advertisement content to be distributed is selected.

  The user information storage area 123 stores a user information table for managing user information. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of the contents of the user information table. In this table, as shown in the figure, items of “user ID” and “attribute information” are stored in association with each other. Among these items, the “user ID” item stores identification information for identifying the user, for example, a user account. In the item “attribute information”, attribute information indicating a user's request or preference such as “golf” or “Japanese” is stored. When this user ID and attribute information are transmitted in association with each other from the user terminal 3, the control unit 11 of the information providing apparatus 1 receives the user ID and attribute information from the user terminal 3, and receives the received user ID. And attribute information are stored in this table in association with each other. In the following description, for convenience of explanation, “user ID” and “attribute information” corresponding to the user ID are collectively referred to as “user information”.

  The server device 2 includes a control unit, a storage unit, a communication unit, and the like, and supplies main content and advertisement content stored in the storage unit to the information providing device 1 in response to a request from the information providing device 1.

  Next, the configuration of the user terminal 3 will be described. FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of the user terminal 3. In the figure, a control unit 31 includes a CPU, a ROM, and a RAM, and controls each unit of the user terminal 3 through a bus by reading and executing a computer program stored in the ROM or the storage unit 32. The storage unit 32 is a storage unit for storing a program executed by the control unit 31 and data used at the time of execution, and is, for example, a hard disk device. The display unit 33 includes a liquid crystal display panel and the like, and displays various images under the control of the control unit 31. The operation unit 34 outputs a signal corresponding to the operation by the user to the control unit 31. The communication unit 35 is a communication unit that performs data communication and the like with other communication devices connected to the network 4. In addition, although this embodiment demonstrates the case where the display part 33 and the operation part 34 are included in the user terminal 3, it is the structure by which the display part 33 and the operation part 34 are externally attached to the user terminal 3. Also good.

<B: Operation>
Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. Hereinafter, a case where a series of information providing services in which main content and advertisement content are distributed from the information providing apparatus 1 to the user terminal 3 will be described as an example.
The user of the information providing system first performs an operation for registering user information indicating the user's attributes, preferences, and the like using the operation unit 34 of the user terminal 3. The operation unit 34 of the user terminal 3 outputs a signal corresponding to the operated content to the control unit 31. The control unit 31 generates user information indicating user attributes, preferences, and the like according to the signal supplied from the operation unit 34, and transmits the generated user information to the information providing apparatus 1.

  The control unit 11 of the information providing apparatus 1 receives user information from the user terminal 3 via the communication unit 15. The control unit 11 registers the received user information in a table stored in the user information storage area 123.

  Next, the user of the information providing system performs an operation for requesting distribution of the main content using the operation unit 34 of the user terminal 3. The operation unit 34 outputs an operation signal corresponding to the operated content, and the control unit 31 transmits distribution request data indicating a distribution request for main content to the information providing apparatus 1 according to the signal supplied from the operation unit 34. To do.

  The control unit 11 of the information providing apparatus 1 distributes the main content according to the distribution schedule indicated by the schedule information stored in the schedule information storage area 121 according to the distribution request data received from the user terminal 3. At this time, prior to distributing the main content, the control unit 11 selects the advertisement content to be distributed based on the user information stored in the user information storage area 123, and synthesizes the selected advertisement content into the advertisement area of the main content. . Specifically, first, the control unit 11 acquires main content from the server device 2 in accordance with the distribution schedule stored in the schedule information storage area 121. In addition, the control unit 11 selects the advertisement content corresponding to the user information of the distribution destination with reference to the correspondence relationship stored in the correspondence relationship storage area 122, and acquires the selected advertisement content from the server device 2. Next, the control unit 11 synthesizes the advertisement content acquired from the server device 2 with the advertisement area indicated by the area designation data in the image represented by the main content. This combining process is the same as the combining process using the conventional chroma key combining technique, and detailed description thereof is omitted here. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of the content of image data (hereinafter referred to as “composite content”) generated by combining the advertisement content with the advertisement area of the main content. In the example shown in FIG. 7, the selected advertisement content is inserted into the advertisement area r1 and synthesized.

  The control unit 11 distributes the generated composite content to the user terminal 3 by streaming. The user terminal 3 receives the composite content from the information providing apparatus 1 and reproduces the received composite content. At this time, since the advertising content included in the composite content distributed to the user terminal 3 is advertising content according to the user's preference, an advertisement that matches the user's preference can be circulated.

  By the way, those who listen to the program have various tastes, but in the conventional information providing service, the same advertisement is circulated uniformly. For this reason, an advertisement that does not meet the user's preference may be played, and the sales promotion effect by the distributed advertisement may be weak. On the other hand, in this embodiment, since the advertising content according to the user's preference is played, the effect of the delivered advertisement can be made higher than that of the conventional information providing service.

  Moreover, in this embodiment, since the advertising content is inserted into a part of the main content and distributed, the listener does not feel the stress because the main content is interrupted, and the conventional apparatus is more natural. You can run advertisements.

  Further, in this embodiment, since the advertising content to be inserted into the main content is variable, it is possible to switch the advertising content to be inserted according to the user's attributes, preferences, delivery time, and the like. For example, even when the same movie is distributed, advertisement contents of products sold in each area can be combined and distributed for each of the distribution destination areas.

<C: Modification>
As mentioned above, although embodiment of this invention was described, this invention is not limited to embodiment mentioned above, It can implement with another various form. An example is shown below. In addition, you may combine each following aspect suitably.
(1) In the above-described embodiment, the user terminal 3 is configured to receive the composite content from the information providing device 1 via the network 4, but the composite content is distributed using broadcast radio waves. Also good. In this case, instead of the communication unit 35 of the user terminal 3, a configuration including a receiving unit including an antenna and a tuner may be used.

(2) In the above-described embodiment, the information providing device 1 and the server device 2 are configured separately, but the information providing device 1 and the server device 2 may be configured as a single device. That is, the storage unit 12 of the information providing apparatus 1 may include a main content storage area that stores main content, an advertisement content storage area that stores advertisement content, and the like.
In the above-described embodiment, the storage unit 12 of the information providing device 1 is configured to store the schedule information storage area 121, the correspondence relationship storage area 122, the user information storage area 123, and the like. The storage unit of the device 2 may include a schedule information storage area, a correspondence relationship storage area, a user information storage area, and the like. In this case, the information providing apparatus 1 may receive user information and schedule information from the server apparatus 2 via the network 4.

(3) In the above-described embodiment, the information providing apparatus 1 outputs the composite content by distributing it to the user terminal 3 via the network 4, but the output mode is not limited to this, and for example, USB or the like The composite content may be output to an external storage device connected via the interface, or the composite content may be stored in the storage unit 12, for example. In short, it is sufficient if the control unit 11 of the information providing apparatus 1 outputs the composite content.
In the above-described embodiment, the user terminal 3 displays the image represented by the received composite content on the display unit 33. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the information providing apparatus 1 displays the composite content on the display unit 13. The display unit 13 may display a composite image according to the supplied composite content.

(4) In the above-described embodiment, the blue or green color signal used as the key signal in the chroma key composition technique is used as the area designation data. However, the data used as the area designation data is not limited to this. It may be coordinate data indicating the position and size of the advertisement area. In addition, for example, data used in rendering processing of three-dimensional graphics may be used. In short, data indicating a partial region of an image may be used as region designation data.

  In the above-described embodiment, when the main content is distributed, the main content and the advertising content are combined and distributed in real time, but the main content and the advertising content are combined and distributed in a predetermined storage area (for example, a server You may make it memorize | store in the memory | storage part etc. of the apparatus 2. In this case, the composite content stored in the predetermined storage area may be distributed at the timing when distribution is requested from the user terminal 3.

In the above-described embodiment, the moving image stream is used as the main content. However, the main content is not limited to the moving image stream. For example, the main content may be image data representing a still image and represents the content of the image. Any image data may be used. The “image” in the present invention includes both a still image and a moving image. The moving image includes an animated image obtained by continuous switching of still images, computer graphics, and the like in addition to a moving image shot by a shooting unit such as a video camera.
In the above-described embodiment, a moving image stream such as a movie or a sports program is used as the main content. However, the main content is not limited to this, and may be an animation image displayed in a computer game such as an online game. . In the case of an online game, a part of the background image displayed during the game is used as an advertisement area, area designation data indicating the position and size of the advertisement area is added to the contents, and the advertisement contents ( What is necessary is just to synthesize | combine and deliver a still image and a moving image to a user terminal.

  Further, in the above-described embodiment, the information providing apparatus 1 combines the main content and the advertisement content according to the area designation data. Instead, the user terminal 3 may perform a combining process. In this case, the information providing device 1 distributes the main content, region designation data (except when the main content includes region designation data) and advertisement content to the user terminal 3, and the user terminal 3 The synthesized content is generated by synthesizing the main content and the advertising content received from 1 according to the area designation data, and the generated synthesized content is output to the display unit 33.

(5) In the above-described embodiment, the control unit 11 of the information providing apparatus 1 distributes the composite content to the user terminal 3 according to the schedule information stored in the schedule information storage area 121. Instead of this, the user may specify the main content desired to be distributed, and the information providing apparatus 1 may read out the specified main content from the server apparatus 2 and distribute it. In this case, the user performs an operation for transmitting request data indicating an output request of any of the main contents stored in the server device 2 to the information providing device 1 using the operation unit 34 of the user terminal 3. Then, the user terminal 3 transmits request data corresponding to the operated content to the information providing apparatus 1. The information providing device 1 receives the request data, reads the main content corresponding to the received request data from the server device 2, and synthesizes and distributes the read main content and the advertisement content. In this case, it is not necessary to store schedule information in the storage unit 12 of the information providing apparatus 1.

(6) The advertising content used in the above-described embodiment may be data generated by adjusting the size and position in advance according to the advertising area of the main content, and the size and position are not adjusted. It may be data. When using advertising content that has not been adjusted in size or position, specify the location or size of the advertising area indicated by the area specification data, and if the size of the specified advertising area differs from the size of the advertising content, The control unit 11 may change the size of the advertisement content to the size of the area indicated by the area designation data (including enlargement and reduction) and synthesize the deformed advertisement content at the position indicated by the area designation data of the main content. As a method for specifying the position and size of the advertisement area, for example, data indicating the position, size, display time, etc. of the advertisement area is added to the main content, and the control unit 11 of the information providing apparatus 1 refers to this data. Thus, the position and size of the advertisement area, the display time, etc. may be specified. Further, for example, the position and size of the advertisement area may be specified by detecting the key signal used as the area designation data in the above embodiment.

(7) A program executed by the control unit of the information providing apparatus 1 according to the above-described embodiment is recorded on a recording medium such as a magnetic tape, a magnetic disk, a flexible disk, an optical recording medium, a magneto-optical recording medium, a RAM, and a ROM. Can be provided in the state. It is also possible to download the information providing apparatus 1 via a network such as the Internet.

It is a block diagram which shows an example of a structure of a content delivery system. It is a figure which shows an example of the content of main content. It is a block diagram which shows an example of the hardware constitutions of the information provision apparatus. It is a figure which shows an example of the content of the table memorize | stored in the correspondence storage area. It is a figure which shows an example of the content of user information. It is a block diagram which shows an example of the hardware constitutions of a user terminal. It is a figure which shows an example of the content of synthetic | combination content.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Information provision apparatus, 2 ... Server apparatus, 3, 3a, 3b, 3c ... User terminal, 4 ... Network, 11 ... Control part, 12 ... Memory | storage part, 13 ... Display part, 14 ... Operation part, 15 ... Communication , 31 ... control unit, 32 ... storage unit, 33 ... display unit, 34 ... operation unit, 35 ... communication unit, 121 ... schedule information storage area, 122 ... correspondence storage area, 123 ... user information storage area.

Claims (6)

Correspondence storage means for storing a correspondence relation between the first image data stored in the first image data storage means representing the contents of the first image and user information indicating the attribute of the user;
User information acquisition means for acquiring user information indicating user attributes;
The second image data is stored in a second image data storage means for storing second image data that represents the contents of the second image and includes area designation data indicating a partial area of the second image. Second image data reading means for reading;
Selecting means for selecting the first image data corresponding to the user information acquired by the user information acquiring means based on the correspondence stored in the correspondence storage;
First data reading means for reading the first data selected by the selection means from the first data storage means;
Of the image indicated by the second image data read out by the second image data reading means, the first image data reading means is provided in an area indicated by the area designation data included in the second image data. Combined data generating means for generating combined data by combining the first image data read out by
And an output means for outputting the composite data generated by the composite data generation means. The information output device according to claim 1,
The first image data is a video stream;
The area designation data is data indicating a predetermined area in the moving image displayed by the moving image stream corresponding to the passage of time,
The synthesized data generating means synthesizes the first image data in an area indicated by the area designation data in an image indicated by the second image data in accordance with the passage of time. Information output device. In the information output device according to claim 1 or 2,
The information output device, wherein the second image data is a moving image stream. The information output device according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
The second image data storage means stores a plurality of the second image data representing an image, and region designation data corresponding to each of the second image data stored in the second image data storage means Remember
Request data input acceptance means for accepting input of request data indicating an output request for any of the second image data stored in the second image data storage means;
The information output apparatus characterized in that the second image data reading means reads second image data corresponding to the request data input to the request data input receiving means from the second image data storage means. In the information output device according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
The synthesizing means is different in size of the area indicated by the area designation data read by the first image data reading means and the size of the second image data read by the second image data reading means. In this case, the second image data is transformed into the size of the area indicated by the area designation data, and the deformed second image data is combined with the area indicated by the area designation data of the first data. An information output device characterized by the above. The information output device according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
The output means distributes the first image data obtained by synthesizing the second image data by the synthesizing means to a terminal device via a communication network.

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