JP2009124246A - Television broadcast receiver, and control method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a television broadcast receiver which acquires information that a viewer wishes from an appropriate acquisition source and displays that information, and to provide a control method thereof. <P>SOLUTION: A tuner section 101 receives a broadcast wave and a separation section 102 takes out program information from the broadcast wave. An SI processing section 105 extracts program genre information of a program under viewing from the program information. A display information control section 110 is holding a plurality of program genres, display items corresponding to respective program genres and information of acquisition sources, and reads out display items corresponding to the program genre of a program under viewing and the information of acquisition source thereof from the information thus held. The display information control section 110 performs control such that information corresponding to a display item is acquired from an acquisition source indicated by the acquisition information and displayed at a video display section 113. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a television broadcast receiving apparatus that selects an information acquisition destination according to the content of a program and acquires information from the selected information acquisition destination, and a control method thereof.

  The broadcast wave includes program information in which information such as the program name and program contents is described, and information on the drama performers, the previous synopsis, and the like is disclosed on the Internet. This information is useful for deepening the viewer's understanding and recognition of the program, and it is useful for the viewer to know this information when viewing the program.

  For this reason, in addition to receiving broadcast waves and displaying TV programs on the screen, a TV broadcast receiving apparatus that acquires information from broadcast waves or the Internet and displays the information on the screen acquires information useful for program viewing. Need to be displayed to the viewer.

Conventionally, as a technique for acquiring information from a broadcast wave or the Internet and displaying it on a television screen, Patent Document 1 describes a technique for displaying information acquired from a data broadcast or an Internet website. In this method, the latest information is acquired from a pre-registered data broadcast or a pre-registered website, combined with the program video being viewed, and displayed on the screen.
JP 2004-179949 A

  Generally, the viewer is less interested in the performers of the program when watching the news, and is more interested in the performers of the program when watching the drama or the like. Thus, the information desired by the viewer varies depending on the program being viewed. Also, in general, provided information may be different if the information acquisition source is different. Here, the information acquisition source means a broadcast wave, the Internet, or the like.

  Therefore, it is important to appropriately select an information acquisition destination depending on the program being viewed.

  However, in the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1, the latest information is acquired from an information acquisition destination registered in advance, but means for selecting the information acquisition destination in association with the contents of the program being viewed. There is no. Here, the content of the program means, for example, a drama or a sport. For this reason, there is a problem that information desired by the viewer may not be acquired and displayed.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and provides a television broadcast receiving apparatus that acquires and displays information desired by a viewer from an appropriate information acquisition source and a control method thereof. The purpose is to improve convenience.

  In order to achieve the above object, a television broadcast receiving apparatus of the present invention holds receiving means for receiving program information from broadcast waves, a plurality of program genres, display items corresponding to each of the program genres, and acquisition source information. Holding means, program genre extracting means for extracting program genre information of the program being viewed from the program information received by the receiving means, and the display item and the acquisition corresponding to the program genre indicated by the program genre information Reads the destination information from the holding unit, displays information corresponding to the display item from the acquisition destination indicated by the acquisition destination information, and displays information corresponding to the display item acquired by the information acquisition unit Control means for controlling the display to be displayed on the unit.

  In order to achieve the above object, a control method for a television broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present invention includes a plurality of program genres, display items corresponding to each of the program genres, and a holding unit that retains acquisition destination information. A control method for a receiving apparatus, the receiving step for receiving program information from a broadcast wave, the program genre extracting means for extracting the program genre information of the program being viewed from the program information received by the receiving step, and the program An information acquisition step of reading the display item and the acquisition destination information corresponding to the program genre indicated by genre information from the holding unit, and acquiring information corresponding to the display item from an acquisition destination indicated by the acquisition destination information; A control step of controlling the display unit to display information corresponding to the display item acquired by the information acquisition step.

  As described above, the present invention makes it possible to acquire and display information desired by the viewer from an appropriate information acquisition source and improve the convenience of the viewer.

Example 1
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a digital television broadcast receiving apparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

  In this digital television broadcast receiving apparatus, a signal received by the antenna is input to the tuner unit 101. The tuner unit 101 performs processing such as demodulation and error correction on the input signal to generate digital data in a format called a transport stream (TS).

  The separation unit 102 extracts audio data, video data, SI (Service Information), and data broadcast data from the TS input from the tuner unit 101. Note that the SI is composed of an SDT (Service Description Table), an EIT (Event Information Table), and the like. In the SDT, information related to the organization channel such as information indicating the name of the organization channel, the name of the broadcaster, and the like is written. The EIT includes information indicating a program name, a program genre, performers, and the like as shown in FIG. The audio data is output to the audio decoding unit 103, the video data is output to the video decoding unit 104, the SI is output to the SI processing unit 105, and the data broadcast data is output to the data broadcast processing unit 106.

  The audio decoding unit 103 decodes the audio data input from the separation unit 102 and outputs the decoded audio data to the audio output unit 112.

  The video decoding unit 104 decodes the video data input from the separation unit 102 and outputs the decoded video data to the synthesis unit 111.

  The SI processing unit 105 decodes SI configured by SDT, EIT, etc. input from the separation unit 102, and outputs the decoded SI to the data storage unit 109 for storage. When instructed by the display information control unit 110, the SI processing unit 105 acquires appropriate information regarding the program being viewed from the EIT stored in the data storage unit 109 and outputs it to the display information control unit 110. Specifically, the SI processing unit 105 has a program genre extraction function, extracts program genre information of a program being viewed from the EIT as program information, and outputs the program genre information to the display information control unit 110. In addition to the program genre information, the SI processing unit 105 acquires information indicating performers and the like from the EIT and outputs the information to the display information control unit 110. Further, when instructed by the Internet processing unit 108, the SI processing unit 105 acquires information indicating the name of the program being viewed from the EIT stored in the data storage unit 109 and outputs the information to the Internet processing unit 108. In addition, when instructed by the Internet processing unit 108, the SI processing unit 105 acquires information indicating the name of the broadcaster of the program being viewed from the SDT stored in the data storage unit 109, and performs Internet processing. Output to the unit 108.

  The data broadcast processing unit 106 decodes the data broadcast data input by the separation unit 102, outputs it to the data storage unit 109, and stores it. Further, in response to an instruction from the display information control unit 110, the data broadcast processing unit 106 acquires appropriate information regarding the program being viewed from the data broadcast data stored in the data storage unit 109 and outputs it to the display information control unit 110. To do.

  The Internet communication unit 107 controls communication with the Internet. The Internet communication unit 107 downloads information related to the program being viewed based on information indicating the program name of the program being viewed and an IP (Internet Protocol) address notified by the Internet processing unit 108 described later. Then, the internet processing unit 108 outputs the downloaded information to the internet processing unit 108.

  When the display information control unit 110 is instructed to acquire information, the Internet processing unit 108 instructs the Internet communication unit 107 to acquire appropriate information regarding the program being viewed from a server on the Internet, and displays it. The information is output to the information control unit 110. There are multiple servers on the Internet that provide information about programs. These servers are operated by each broadcaster, and information provided by each server includes information not included in the EIT. The Internet processing unit 108 holds a table as shown in FIG. 3 in which information for specifying a broadcaster is associated with the IP address of a server provided by the corresponding broadcaster. Here, the information for specifying the broadcaster in the present embodiment is information indicating the name of the broadcaster, and the table shown in FIG. 3 is predetermined. Note that the information specifying the broadcaster is not limited to information indicating the name of the broadcaster. Other information may be used as long as the information can identify the broadcaster. The Internet processing unit 108 obtains information indicating the name of the broadcaster of the program being viewed by making an inquiry to the SI processing unit 105. Then, the Internet processing unit 108 selects an IP address corresponding to information indicating the name of the broadcaster of the program being viewed from the table shown in FIG. 3, and notifies the Internet communication unit 107 of the IP address. At this time, the Internet processing unit 108 also notifies the Internet communication unit 107 of information indicating the program name of the program being viewed, which is acquired by making an inquiry to the SI processing unit 105.

  The data storage unit 109 stores the SI input by the SI processing unit 105 and the data broadcast data input by the data broadcast processing unit 106.

  The display information control unit 110 extracts program genre information of the program being viewed from the SI processing unit 105. The display information control unit 110 has a function as a holding unit, and holds a table shown in FIG. 4 in which a program genre is associated with information indicating corresponding acquisition destination information and display items. This table is predetermined. Here, the acquisition destination information is information indicating an acquisition destination of information, and the display information control unit 110 selects an acquisition destination of information corresponding to the display item according to the acquisition destination information. In the table shown in FIG. 4, either EIT or information indicating the Internet is described as acquisition destination information. The display information control unit 110 reads out the acquisition destination information corresponding to the program genre of the program being viewed and information indicating the display items from the table shown in FIG. And the display information control part 110 selects an acquisition destination according to acquisition destination information, and acquires the information applicable to a display item from the selected acquisition destination. Here, “information corresponding to a display item” is information to which an identifier associated with the display item is added. When acquiring information corresponding to a display item, the information to which the identifier is added is acquired. To do. In this embodiment, a tag associated with a display item is added to information corresponding to the display item. Further, the display information control unit 110 outputs information corresponding to the display item to the synthesis unit 111. Such display information control processing will be described later with reference to FIG. The information desired by the viewer varies depending on the program genre. However, information desired by the viewer is not always included in the EIT, and may be included in information on the Internet. Therefore, as described above, the display information control unit 110 selects an information acquisition source according to the program genre.

  The synthesizer 111 outputs a video obtained by synthesizing the video data input from the video decoder 104 and the information input from the display information controller 110 to the video display unit 113. The video display unit 113 displays the input video.

  A display example of the television screen of the digital television broadcast receiving apparatus configured as described above is shown in FIG. FIG. 5 is an example in which drama performer information is displayed superimposed on the lower part of the screen during the drama program display.

  Next, the display information control process in the display information control unit 110 will be described. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing display information control processing in the display information control unit 110.

  In step S201, the display information control unit 110 determines whether it is time to display information. Specific examples of the timing to be displayed include when the power is turned on, at the time of channel selection, when a new program is started, and when a display instruction is given from the viewer. At these timings, the viewer is in a state of just starting to watch the program, and the understanding and recognition of the program is insufficient. Therefore, it is considered that information on the program is required. By displaying information about the program at such timing, the viewer's understanding of the program content and lack of recognition can be quickly resolved. If it is determined that it is time to display information, the process proceeds to step S202.

  In step S202, the program genre information of the program currently displayed on the video display unit 113, that is, the program being viewed is extracted from the SI processing unit 105.

  In step S203, the display information control unit 110 reads out acquisition destination information corresponding to the program genre being viewed from the table shown in FIG. The display information control unit 110 selects the SI processing unit 105 when the acquisition destination information is “EIT”. The display information control unit 110 selects the Internet processing unit 108 when the acquisition destination information is “Internet”.

  In step S204, the display information control unit 110 reads the display items corresponding to the program genre from the table shown in FIG. Then, the display information control unit 110 notifies the processing unit selected in step S203 of the read display item, thereby acquiring information corresponding to the display item from the processing unit selected in step S203.

  Finally, in step S205, the display information control unit 110 outputs the acquired information corresponding to the display item to the synthesis unit 111, and returns to the beginning (S201) again.

  Generally, the viewer is less interested in the performers of the program when watching the news, and is more interested in the performers of the program when watching the drama or the like. For this reason, information desired by the viewer varies depending on the program being viewed. Also, in general, provided information may be different if the information acquisition source is different. Therefore, it is necessary to appropriately select an acquisition source for acquiring the information according to information desired by the viewer. Therefore, as described above, by selecting the information acquisition destination according to the program genre of the program being viewed, it becomes possible to reliably acquire and display the information desired by the viewer, Convenience can be improved.

  The Internet processing unit 108 acquires information about the program being viewed from a server that provides information about the program on the Internet. Then, the internet processing unit 108 outputs information corresponding to the display item instructed from the display information control unit 110 to the display information control unit 110 from the information acquired from the server. Such display information acquisition processing will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  In step S301, the Internet processing unit 108 refers to the table shown in FIG. 3 and selects an IP address corresponding to the name of the broadcaster of the program being viewed. The Internet processing unit 108 makes an inquiry to the SI processing unit 105 to acquire the name of the broadcaster of the program being viewed.

  In step S302, the Internet processing unit 108 notifies the Internet communication unit 107 of the IP address selected in step S301 and the program name of the program being viewed acquired from the SI processing unit 105, so that information relating to the program being viewed is displayed. The acquisition of is instructed. The Internet communication unit 107 accesses a server provided by the broadcaster based on the notified IP address, and downloads information on the program being viewed based on the notified program name. The above-described server on the Internet that provides information about a program stores information about the program (the venue, players, performance information, music CD information, etc.) for each program as shown in FIG. Holding. When the server is notified of the program name from the Internet communication unit 107, the server notifies the Internet communication unit 107 of the location information on the server of the file storing the information related to the program. The Internet communication unit 107 downloads a file from the server based on the notified position information and outputs the file to the Internet processing unit 108. The tags described in the file shown in FIG. 8 are associated with display items and are predetermined. For example, the tag “<place>” corresponds to the display item “venue”, and the tag “<player>” corresponds to the display item “participating player”. In this embodiment, a broadcaster operates a server that provides information related to a program, but the server is not limited to a broadcaster. For example, it may be a publisher of a TV information magazine. In this case, the Internet processing unit 108 holds a preset IP address of the server operated by the publisher, and notifies the Internet communication unit 107 of the IP address. In the present embodiment, information related to a program is stored in a file, but the present invention is not limited to a file. For example, a database management system (DBMS) may be used. The internet communication unit 107 obtains information about the program by making an inquiry to the DBMS running on the server operated by the publisher, and outputs the information to the internet processing unit 108.

  In step S <b> 303, the Internet processing unit 108 refers to the file input by the Internet communication unit 107 and acquires information corresponding to the display item instructed to the display information control unit 110. For example, in the file shown in FIG. 8, when the display item is “participating player”, the information “△△ Ichiro, □□ Jiro” described between the start tag <player> and the end tag </ player> is changed. get.

  In step S304, the information acquired in step 303 is output to the display information control unit 110.

  In this embodiment, information corresponding to the display item is acquired, but the information to be acquired is not limited to this. For example, when the display item instructed from the display information control unit 110 is “news topic”, the RSS (RDF Site Summary) data that the newspaper company etc. distributes the headline information to the display information control unit 110 as it is. It may be output. In this embodiment, the information acquisition destination is EIT and the Internet, but the information acquisition destination is not limited to these. For example, data broadcasting may be used. In this case, the broadcaster uses a tag associated with the display item to describe information related to the program in BML (Broadcast Markup Language) included in the data broadcast. Then, the data broadcast processing unit 106 refers to the BML according to an instruction from the display information control unit 110, and is described between the start tag and the end tag corresponding to the display item instructed from the display information control unit 110. Information is acquired and output to the display information control unit 110.

  In this embodiment, the program genre may be classified in more detail when it is classified. For example, in the drama, the information acquisition source may be changed depending on domestic drama, overseas drama, historical drama and the like.

(Example 2)
The second embodiment of the present invention has a different feature from the display information control unit 110 according to the first embodiment. Further, in the present embodiment, not only EIT and the Internet but also data broadcasting is assumed as an information acquisition destination.

  Hereinafter, the description of the second embodiment will be made only with respect to the differences from the first embodiment.

  In the second embodiment, a plurality of pieces of acquisition destination information held by the display information control unit 110 are associated with a priority order for each program genre. Specifically, the display information control unit 110 includes a plurality of program genres, information indicating display items corresponding to the program genres, first acquisition destination information, second acquisition destination information, and third acquisition destination information. And a table as shown in FIG. Here, “first acquisition destination information” is information indicating the acquisition destination with the first priority, and “second information acquisition destination” is information indicating the acquisition destination with the second priority. , “Third information acquisition destination” indicates the third acquisition destination. The display information control unit 110 refers to the table shown in FIG. 9 and selects an information acquisition destination according to the priority order.

  In this embodiment, the display information control unit 110 acquires information corresponding to a display item from another information acquisition source when the information corresponding to the display item cannot be acquired from the acquisition source of certain information. It is characterized by doing. Such processing will be described with reference to FIG.

  Steps S401 to S402 are the same as steps S201 to S202 shown in FIG.

  In step S403, the display information control unit 110 reads a display item corresponding to the program genre of the program being viewed from the table shown in FIG. Further, the display information control unit 110 reads “first acquisition destination information” corresponding to the program genre of the program being viewed from the table shown in FIG. 9 and selects an appropriate processing unit. When selecting the processing unit, the display information control unit 110 selects the SI processing unit 105 when the first acquisition destination information is “EIT”, and selects the Internet when the first acquisition destination information is “Internet”. The processing unit 108 is selected. Further, the display information control unit 110 selects the data broadcast processing unit 106 when the first acquisition destination information is “data broadcast”.

  In step S404, the display information control unit 110 determines whether or not the processing unit selected in step S403 is the data broadcast processing unit 106. If the display information control unit 110 is the data broadcast processing unit 106, the process proceeds to step S405. If the display information control unit 110 is not the data broadcast processing unit 106, the display information control unit 110 proceeds to step S406.

  In step S405, the display information control unit 110 inquires of the data broadcast processing unit 106 whether there is a data broadcast in the program being viewed. If there is a data broadcast, the display information control unit 110 proceeds to step S406, and if not, proceeds to step S409. As described above, before acquiring information from the data broadcast processing unit 106, by confirming the presence or absence of the data broadcast, the process of acquiring the information corresponding to the display item from the data broadcast even though the data broadcast does not exist. Can be avoided. As a result, information can be acquired efficiently.

  In step S406, the display information control unit 110 obtains information corresponding to the display item by notifying the selected processing unit of information indicating the read display item.

  In step S407, the display information control unit 110 determines whether information corresponding to the display item has been acquired in step S407. If the information can be acquired, the display information control unit 110 proceeds to step S408, and if the information cannot be acquired, the display information control unit 110 proceeds to step S409.

  In step S408, the display information control unit 110 outputs the acquired information corresponding to the display item to the synthesis unit 111, and returns to the beginning (S401) again.

  In step S409, the display information control unit 110 determines whether acquisition of information corresponding to the display item has been attempted from all the processing units. The display information control unit 110 proceeds to step S410 when attempting to acquire information from all the processing units, and proceeds to step S411 when not attempting to obtain the information.

  In step S410, the display information control unit 110 acquires a program name that can be acquired from the SI processing unit 105 as information corresponding to the display item. Note that information acquired when information corresponding to a display item cannot be acquired from all the processing units may not be a program name. Other information may be used as long as it is information that can always be acquired, such as a program name that can always be acquired from the EIT.

  In step S411, the display information control unit 110 reselects an appropriate processing unit according to the program genre of the program being viewed. When the information corresponding to the display item cannot be acquired from the acquisition destination indicated by the first acquisition destination information, the display information control unit 110 refers to the table shown in FIG. Based on the acquisition source information, an appropriate processing unit is selected again. If the information corresponding to the display item cannot be acquired from the acquisition destination indicated by the second acquisition destination information, the display information control unit 110 refers to the table shown in FIG. On the basis of the acquisition source information 3, an appropriate processing unit is reselected.

  As described above, the display information control unit 110 changes the priority of the information acquisition destination according to the program genre, and reselects the information acquisition destination according to the priority order, thereby increasing the information corresponding to the display item. Try probabilistic and efficient acquisition.

  The EIT includes information that is always described, such as a program name, but also includes arbitrary information of a broadcaster. Also, in the Internet server and BML provided by the broadcaster, the content of the information is left to the broadcaster's freedom. For this reason, even if an attempt is made to acquire information corresponding to a display item from an acquisition destination of certain information, it cannot always be acquired. Therefore, even if the information desired by the viewer cannot be obtained from a certain information acquisition destination, the information desired by the viewer can be acquired by attempting to acquire similar information from another information acquisition destination. The possibility of being able to be increased. As a result, the possibility that information desired by the viewer can be displayed increases, and the convenience of the viewer can be improved.

  Further, as described above, the information desired by the viewer changes according to the program genre. Generally, if the information acquisition source is different, the information provided by the acquisition source may be different, and the possibility that information desired by the viewer can be acquired may differ depending on the information acquisition source. In this way, by changing the order in which the information acquisition destination is selected according to the program genre, it is possible to try to acquire information in order from the acquisition destination where the desired information is likely to exist. As a result, it is possible to search for information efficiently and to improve the convenience of the viewer.

It is a block diagram which shows schematic structure of the digital television broadcast receiver which concerns on 1st Example of this invention. It is an example of EIT which concerns on 1st Example of this invention. It is the table which matched the information which identifies a broadcast provider, and the IP address of the server which a broadcast provider provides based on 1st Example of this invention. It is the table which matched the information which shows the program genre, corresponding acquisition destination information, and a display item based on 1st Example of this invention. It is an example of a display of the digital television broadcast receiver which concerns on 1st Example of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the display information control process which concerns on 1st Example of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the display information acquisition process which concerns on 1st Example of this invention. It is the file which stored the information regarding the program based on 1st Example of this invention. It is the table which matched the program genre, the corresponding display item, 1st acquisition destination information, 2nd acquisition destination information, and 3rd acquisition destination information based on 2nd Example of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the display information control process which concerns on 2nd Example of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Tuner part 102 Separation part 105 SI processing part 107 Internet communication part 108 Internet processing part 110 Display information control part 111 Composition part

Claims (6)

Receiving means for receiving program information from broadcast waves;
Holding means for holding a plurality of program genres and display items corresponding to each of the program genres and acquisition source information;
Program genre extracting means for extracting program genre information of the program being viewed from the program information received by the receiving means;
Information acquisition means for reading the display item and the acquisition destination information corresponding to the program genre indicated by the program genre information from the holding means, and acquiring information corresponding to the display item from the acquisition destination indicated by the acquisition destination information When,
Control means for controlling the display unit to display information corresponding to the display item acquired by the information acquisition means;
A television broadcast receiver characterized by comprising: A plurality of pieces of acquisition destination information held by the holding unit are associated with each of the program genres held by the holding unit,
When the information acquisition unit cannot acquire the information corresponding to the display item read from the holding unit from the acquisition source, the acquisition unit corresponds to the program genre indicated by the program genre information, which is different from the acquisition source. The television broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein information corresponding to the display item is acquired from an acquisition destination indicated by the destination information. The acquisition destination information held by the holding means is given priority.
3. The television broadcast receiver according to claim 2, wherein the information acquisition unit selects an acquisition destination from which information corresponding to the display item read from the holding unit is acquired according to the priority order. A control method of a television broadcast receiving apparatus having a holding unit for holding a plurality of program genres and display items corresponding to each of the program genres and acquisition source information,
A receiving process for receiving program information from broadcast waves;
A program genre extracting step of extracting program genre information of a program being viewed from the program information received by the receiving step;
An information acquisition step of reading the display item and the acquisition destination information corresponding to the program genre indicated by the program genre information from the holding unit, and acquiring information corresponding to the display item from an acquisition destination indicated by the acquisition destination information When,
A control step of controlling the display unit to display information corresponding to the display item acquired by the information acquisition step;
A control method for a television broadcast receiving apparatus, comprising: A plurality of pieces of acquisition destination information held by the holding unit are associated with each of the program genres held by the holding unit,
In the information acquisition step, when information corresponding to the display item read from the holding unit cannot be acquired from the acquisition destination, acquisition corresponding to the program genre indicated by the program genre information is different from the acquisition destination. 5. The method for controlling a television broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 4, wherein information corresponding to the display item is acquired from an acquisition destination indicated by the destination information. The acquisition destination information held by the holding unit is given priority.
6. The method of controlling a television broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the information acquiring step selects an acquisition destination for acquiring information corresponding to the display item read from the holding unit according to the priority order.

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