JP2012191571A - Portable information terminal, program guide display method, computer program and program guide providing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent deterioration of visibility of a program guide when a portable information terminal displays the program guide.SOLUTION: The portable information terminal 10 includes: a page acquiring section 48 acquiring data of the program guide in which information on respective programs of a plurality of broadcast stations are inserted and different insertion regions are allocated to the respective broadcast stations; a program guide dividing section 52 setting a plurality of divided program guides obtained by dividing the program guide with the insertion regions of the prescribed number of broadcast stations, which are to be displayed at a time in display of the program guide in a display 12, as a unit; and a program guide display control section 54 allowing the display 12, when a swipe operation to the display 12 is detected during display of a divided program guide, to display the different divided program guide instead of the divided program guide.

Description

  The present invention relates to a data processing technique, and more particularly to a technique for displaying a program guide on a portable information terminal.

  A web page on which a program guide is posted may be provided to a user's portable information terminal from a web server on the Internet. A typical program table is a two-dimensional table, in which a plurality of broadcasting stations are arranged in the horizontal direction, and the vertical direction indicates the time axis.

JP 2003-169316 A

  A portable information terminal generally has a small display size, and it may be difficult to display an entire web page on the display at a time. Therefore, in the portable information terminal, a part of the web page is displayed on the touch panel display, and the display area of the web page may be changed according to the user's swipe operation on the touch panel display. In conventional portable information terminals, when the display area of the program guide is changed according to the user's swipe operation, the visibility of the program guide may be reduced.

  The present invention has been made in view of these problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a technique for preventing a reduction in visibility when a program guide is displayed on a portable information terminal.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, a portable information terminal according to an aspect of the present invention includes a display, an operation detection unit that detects a user's swipe operation on the display, and display control that changes display content in accordance with the swipe operation. A program guide on which information on programs of each of a plurality of broadcast stations is posted, and a program guide acquisition unit that acquires data of a program guide in which different publication areas are assigned to each broadcast station, and a display A program guide dividing unit for setting a plurality of divided program guides obtained by dividing the program guide in units of a predetermined number of broadcast station posting areas to be displayed at a time in displaying the program guide. When a swipe operation is detected during display of a certain divided program guide, the display control unit causes the display to display another divided program guide instead of the divided program guide.

  Another aspect of the present invention is a program guide display method. This method is a method executed by a portable information terminal, which is a program guide in which information of programs of a plurality of broadcast stations is posted, and data of a program guide in which different posting areas are assigned to the respective broadcast stations. A plurality of divided program guides obtained by dividing the program guide in units of a predetermined number of broadcast station posting areas to be displayed at a time in the display of the program guide on the display, and a plurality of divided programs A step of displaying one of the tables on the display; a step of detecting a user's swipe operation on the display; and if a swipe operation is detected during display of a certain divided program table, another division is performed instead of the divided program table And displaying a program guide on a display.

  Yet another embodiment of the present invention is a program guide providing apparatus. The apparatus includes a request receiving unit that receives a program guide provision request from a user's portable information terminal, and a program guide provision that provides the portable information terminal with a computer program related to display of the program guide together with program guide data in response to the provision request. A section. The computer program has a function of setting a plurality of divided program guides obtained by dividing the program guide in units of posting areas of a predetermined number of broadcasting stations to be displayed at a time in the display of the program guide on the display of the portable information terminal, A function for displaying one of the divided program guides on the display and when a display content change instruction is received while the divided program guide is displayed on the display, another divided program guide is displayed on the display instead of the divided program guide. And a function for causing the portable information terminal to realize the function.

  It should be noted that any combination of the above-described constituent elements and a representation of the present invention converted between an apparatus, a method, a system, a program, a recording medium storing the program, etc. are also effective as an aspect of the present invention.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the fall of the visibility can be prevented when displaying a program schedule with a portable information terminal.

It is a figure which shows the display mode of a program schedule typically. It is a figure which shows the display mode of a program schedule typically. It is a figure which shows a division | segmentation program schedule typically. It is a figure which shows the structure of the program schedule delivery system of embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the function structure of the program schedule provision apparatus of FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the function structure of the portable information terminal of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the portable information terminal of FIG.

Before describing the configuration of the embodiment of the present invention, its technical idea will be outlined.
FIG. 1 schematically shows a display mode of the program guide 14. The figure shows a state in which the program guide 14 is displayed on the display 12 of the portable information terminal 10. The portable information terminal 10 of the embodiment can also be referred to as a mobile communication terminal, and may be, for example, a mobile phone, a smartphone, or a tablet PC. The display 12 is a touch panel display on which a user's touch operation is performed. The setting change button 16 is a button image for changing the display mode of the program guide, and is operated when changing the number of broadcast stations to be displayed at a time when the program guide is displayed on the display 12.

  In FIG. 1, the area of the program table 14 that is not displayed on the display 12 is indicated by a broken line. FIG. 2 also schematically shows the display mode of the program guide 14. This figure shows a case where the user performs a swipe operation from right to left while the program guide is displayed in the form of FIG. As shown in the figure, in response to a swipe operation from right to left, the display area of the program guide also changes from right to left. Typically, the left portion of the program guide that has been displayed slides out of the display area of the display 12, while the right portion of the program guide that has not been displayed slides into the display area of the display 12. In.

  In conventional portable information terminals, only a part of the program table of each broadcast station is displayed, and the other part is not displayed. Typically, this is a case where the boundary of the broadcasting station in the program guide is shifted from the end of the display 12, and for example, the slide of the program guide may stop in the state of FIG. As a result, the visibility of the program guide may be reduced, and the convenience for the user may be impaired. That is, in the state of FIG. 2, the program information of “TV Δ × □” can be presented in the same manner as in FIG. 1, but the program information of “XX television” and “AA television” is displayed halfway and can be presented to the user. The amount of effective information is reduced.

  Therefore, in the present embodiment, the data of the program table 14 is divided in advance with the number of broadcasting stations to be displayed on the display 12 as a unit. Then, in accordance with the swipe operation, the program table data that has been divided in advance (hereinafter also referred to as “divided program table”) is switched from the currently displayed one to the one that should be displayed. . The “number of broadcast stations to be displayed at a time” can be said to be the number of broadcast stations to be displayed at the same time, or the number of broadcast stations to be displayed at once.

  FIG. 3 schematically shows a divided program guide. Here, it is assumed that the number of broadcasting stations to be displayed on the display 12 at a time is “2”. As shown in the figure, a program table 14 including program information of six broadcasting stations is divided into a divided program table 18a, a divided program table 18b, and a divided program table 18c for each of the two broadcasting stations. Is also called.). For example, when a right-to-left swipe operation is detected while the divided program guide 18b is displayed on the display 12, the divided program guide 18c is switched to be displayed. When a swipe operation from the left to the right is detected, the divided program guide 18a is switched to be displayed.

  As a result, the program information of one broadcasting station is displayed halfway, specifically, only a part of a column in which program information of a certain broadcasting station is posted is prevented from being displayed. To avoid degradation of visibility and convenience.

The configuration of the embodiment embodying the above technical idea will be described below.
FIG. 4 shows a configuration of the program guide distribution system 100 according to the embodiment. The program guide distribution system 100 includes a portable information terminal 10 and a program guide providing apparatus 20, which are connected via a communication network 22 including a LAN, a WAN, the Internet, and the like. As described above, the mobile information terminal 10 is, for example, a smartphone in which a web browser is installed. The program guide providing device 20 is a web server that provides a web page of the program guide to the portable information terminal 10.

  FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of the program guide providing apparatus 20 of FIG. The program guide providing apparatus 20 includes a request receiving unit 30 and a program guide providing unit 32. Each block shown in the block diagram of the present specification can be realized in terms of hardware by an element such as a CPU of a computer or a mechanical device, and in terms of software, it can be realized by a computer program or the like. The functional block realized by those cooperation is drawn. Therefore, those skilled in the art will understand that these functional blocks can be realized in various forms by a combination of hardware and software. For example, each functional block in FIG. 5 may be installed in the recording device of the program guide providing device 20 as software, appropriately read into the main memory of the program guide providing device 20, and executed by the CPU. The same applies to FIG. 6 described later.

  The request accepting unit 30 accepts a program guide acquisition request from the portable information terminal 10. For example, an HTTP-GET request specifying the URL of the program guide is accepted from the portable information terminal 10. When the request receiving unit 30 receives a program guide acquisition request, the program guide providing unit 32 transmits HTML data describing information on the program guide to the portable information terminal 10. The HTML data includes a JavaScript (registered trademark) program (hereinafter also referred to as “program guide display control program”) for controlling the display of the program guide in addition to the program information of each of the plurality of broadcasting stations. The function of the program guide display control program will be described later.

  FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of the portable information terminal 10 of FIG. The portable information terminal 10 includes a display 12, an operation detection unit 40, a display data output unit 42, and a browser processing unit 44. As described above, the display 12 is a touch panel display, and when the user performs a swipe operation on the display 12, an image as feedback is displayed on the display 12. The operation detection unit 40 detects a user swipe operation on the display 12. The display data output unit 42 outputs the image (moving image or still image) data output from the browser processing unit 44 to the display 12 for display.

  The browser processing unit 44 provides a function as a web browser. The browser processing unit 44 includes a storage unit 46, a page acquisition unit 48, and a program guide processing unit 50. The storage unit 46 is a storage area that holds various types of information referred to in web browser processing. In the present embodiment, the data of the program table 14, the data of the number of broadcast stations as a division unit of the program table 14, and the data of a plurality of divided program tables 18 obtained by dividing the program table 14 in units of the number of broadcast stations are held. To do. It is assumed that the initial value of the data of the number of broadcast stations that is a division unit of the program guide 14 is “2”.

  The page acquisition unit 48 transmits an acquisition request for a web page designated by the user to an external web server, and acquires data of the web page. In the present embodiment, an HTTP-GET request designating the URL of the web page of the program guide is transmitted to the program guide providing apparatus 20, and the HTML data of the program guide is acquired from the program guide providing apparatus 20. Then, the HTML data is stored in the storage unit 46.

  The program guide processing unit 50 is a function provided by the program guide display control program included in the HTML data of the program guide. The program guide processing unit 50 includes a program guide dividing unit 52, a program guide display control unit 54, and a change receiving unit 56. These functions are realized by executing the program guide display control program in the JavaScript execution engine of the web browser.

  The program table dividing unit 52 divides the program table 14 into a plurality of divided program tables 18 in accordance with the number of broadcast stations as a division unit held in the storage unit 46. In other words, a plurality of divided program tables 18 are generated by dividing one program table 14 for each publication area corresponding to the number of broadcasting stations in division units. In the example of FIG. 3, three divided programs including two columns of program guide tables corresponding to two broadcast stations from HTML data of one program guide 14 including six columns of program guide tables corresponding to six broadcast stations. The HTML data in Table 18 may be generated.

  The program guide dividing unit 52 associates each piece of data of the plurality of divided program guides 18 with information indicating the positional relationship with the other divided program guides 18 (hereinafter also simply referred to as “position information”) and stores the data. 46 is stored. The position information is information indicating the position of the specific divided program guide 18 in the program guide 14. For example, the display position of the divided program guide 18a in FIG. 3 may be set to “1”, the display position of the divided program guide 18b may be set to “2”, and the display position of the divided program guide 18c may be set to “3”. In the present embodiment, when the position information of a specific divided program table 18 is determined as “X”, the position information of the divided program table 18 on the left one is “X−1”, and the position information on the right is one on the right. The position information of the divided program guide 18 is determined as “X + 1”.

  When a plurality of divided program tables 18 are set in the program table dividing unit 52, the program guide display control unit 54 outputs any data of the plurality of divided program tables 18 to the display data output unit 42. Then, any one of the plurality of divided program tables 18 is displayed on the display 12 via the display data output unit 42. The program guide display control unit 54 displays the divided program guide 18 to present a so-called latte column as shown in FIG. 1 to the user.

  When the operation detection unit 40 detects a user's swipe operation on the display 12 displaying the divided program guide 18, the program guide display control unit 54 displays another divided program guide 18 on the display 12 according to the swipe operation. The display switching process is executed so that it is displayed on the screen. Specifically, when the position information of the divided program table 18 being displayed is “X”, when a swipe operation from the left to the right is detected, the divided program table associated with the position information “X-1” is detected. 18 is displayed on the display 12. On the other hand, when a swipe operation from right to left is detected, the divided program table 18 associated with the position information “X + 1” is displayed on the display 12.

  In the display switching process of the divided program guide 18, the program guide display control unit 54 gradually slides out the original display image on the display 12 to the outside of the display area, and gradually slides in the new display image into the display area. Call the function. This library executes a process of stopping the slide process of a new image slid in the display area at the end of the display area of the display 12. This library may be a known library that provides a user interface of a so-called carousel panel.

  For example, the program guide display control unit 54 uses the above-mentioned function as arguments for the data (or its pointer) of the divided program guide 18 to be newly displayed and the data specifying the slide mode (slide speed, slide direction, etc.). You may call it. As a result, when the user's swipe operation is detected on the display 12 displaying the divided program table 18, the divided program table 18 currently displayed is slid out of the display area of the display 12, while a new divided program is displayed. Slide Table 18 into the display area of the display 12. Then, the slide of the new divided program guide 18 is stopped at the end of the display 12. As a result, the program table displayed on the display 12 is replaced with the new divided program table 18 from the divided program table 18 currently displayed.

  The change receiving unit 56 receives a change in the number of broadcast stations that is a division unit of the program guide 14 from the user. Specifically, when the setting change button 16 in FIG. 1 is pressed, a screen for changing the number of broadcast stations that is a division unit of the program table 14 is displayed on the display 12. For example, on this change screen, one of 1, 2 (initial value), and 3 can be selected as a candidate for the number of broadcast stations to be a division unit of the program guide 14. The change reception unit 56 receives the number of broadcast stations selected by the user on the change screen via the operation detection unit 40, and updates the number of broadcast stations previously held in the storage unit 46 with the newly received number of broadcast stations.

  When the change reception unit 56 receives a change in the number of broadcast stations that is a division unit of the program table 14, in other words, the program table division unit 52 updates the number of broadcast stations held in the storage unit 46. In this case, the program table 14 is subdivided according to the number of broadcast stations after the change. Specifically, the data of the program table 14 held in the storage unit 46 is acquired, and a plurality of new divided program tables 18 are generated with the number of changed broadcasting stations as a unit. Data is stored in the storage unit 46. For example, in the example of FIG. 3, when the number of broadcasting stations in the changed division unit is “3”, two divided program tables 18 including program information of three broadcasting stations are newly set. The program guide display control unit 54 causes the display 12 to display one divided program guide 18 among the plurality of new divided program guides 18.

The operation of the above configuration will be described below.
FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the operation of the portable information terminal 10 of FIG. When the operation detection unit 40 detects an input of a program guide web page display request (Y of S10), the page acquisition unit 48 acquires data of the program guide web page from the program guide providing apparatus 20 (S12). The program guide division unit 52 sets a plurality of divided program guide data from the program guide data (S14). The program guide display control unit 54 displays one divided program guide among the plurality of divided program guides on the display 12 (S16). Note that the program guide display control unit 54 may select the divided program guide located at the leftmost position in the original program guide among the plurality of divided program guides as the divided program guide to be displayed first. If a display request for the web page of the program guide has not been detected (N in S10), S12 to S16 are skipped.

  When the operation detection unit 40 detects the user's swipe operation on the display 12 (Y in S18), if the divided program guide is being displayed (Y in S20), the program guide display control unit 54 responds to the swipe operation. Another divided program table is displayed on the display 12 (S22). If the divided program guide is not being displayed (N in S20), S22 is skipped, and if no swipe operation has been detected (N in S18), S20 and S22 are skipped.

  When the operation detection unit 40 detects an input of a change request for the number of broadcast stations to be displayed on the display 12 at a time (Y in S24), the change reception unit 56 receives the change request and is designated by the change request. The number of broadcast stations is stored in the storage unit 46 as a new division unit. The program guide dividing unit 52 subdivides the program guide according to the number of broadcasting stations in the new division unit, and stores a plurality of new divided program guides in the storage unit 46 (S26). The program guide display control unit 54 displays one of the new plurality of divided program guides on the display 12 (S28). If a request for changing the number of broadcast stations has not been detected (N in S24), S26 and S28 are skipped.

  According to the program guide distribution system 100 of the present embodiment, the portable information terminal 10 divides a program guide including program information of a plurality of broadcast stations in units of the number of broadcast stations to be displayed on the display at one time (in other words, The resulting divided program guide is displayed on the display. Then, in accordance with the user's swipe operation, the divided program table to be displayed is switched from what has been displayed so far to another. As a result, when the display target area in the program guide is changed, program information at a certain broadcasting station is prevented from being displayed in a low-visibility mode, and the convenience of checking the program guide by the user is reduced. Can be prevented.

  When the portable information terminal 10 switches the divided program table to be displayed, according to the user's swipe operation, the previously displayed divided program table is slid out of the display area and a new divided program table is displayed. Slide in the display area. Then, the slide of the new divided program guide is stopped at the end of the display area of the display. Thereby, in browsing the program guide, the user can switch the display target by an intuitive operation, while the program information in a certain broadcasting station can be prevented from being displayed in a low visibility mode.

  In the portable information terminal 10, when the user changes the number of broadcast stations to be displayed at a time on the display, the divided program table is reset according to the changed number of broadcast stations. Thereby, the division | segmentation program schedule which followed the user preference can be shown, and the convenience of a user's program schedule confirmation can be improved.

  The present invention has been described based on the embodiments. This embodiment is an exemplification, and it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications can be made to combinations of the respective constituent elements and processing processes, and such modifications are also within the scope of the present invention. is there.

  It should also be understood by those skilled in the art that the functions to be fulfilled by the constituent elements recited in the claims are realized by the individual constituent elements shown in the embodiments and the modified examples or by their linkage.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Mobile information terminal, 12 Display, 14 Program guide, 18 Division | segmentation program guide, 20 Program guide provision apparatus, 30 Request reception part, 32 Program guide provision part, 40 Operation detection part, 42 Display data output part, 44 Browser processing part, 46 memory | storage part, 48 page acquisition part, 50 program schedule process part, 52 program schedule division | segmentation part, 54 program schedule display control part, 56 change reception part, 100 program schedule delivery system.

Claims (6)

Display,
An operation detection unit for detecting a user's swipe operation on the display;
A display control unit that changes the display content of the display in response to the swipe operation;
A program guide in which information of programs of a plurality of broadcast stations is posted, and a program guide acquisition unit that acquires data of a program guide in which different posting areas are assigned to each broadcast station;
A program guide dividing unit for setting a plurality of divided program guides obtained by dividing the program guide in units of posting areas of a predetermined number of broadcasting stations to be displayed at a time in displaying the program guide on the display;
With
The display control unit, when the swipe operation is detected during display of a certain divided program guide, displays another divided program guide on the display instead of the divided program guide.   When the swipe operation is detected during display of a certain divided program guide, the display control unit slides the divided program guide out of the display area of the display, and displays another divided program guide in the display area of the display. The portable information terminal according to claim 1, wherein the slide in the separate program guide is stopped at the end of the display area of the display. A change accepting unit that accepts a change in the number of broadcast stations to be displayed at a time in the display of the program guide on the display,
When the change in the number of broadcasting stations is accepted, the program guide dividing unit newly sets a plurality of divided program guides obtained by dividing the program guide in units of posting areas corresponding to the number of changed broadcasting stations. The portable information terminal according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that A method performed by a mobile information terminal,
A program guide in which information on programs of each of a plurality of broadcasting stations is posted, and obtaining data of a program guide in which different posting areas are assigned to each broadcasting station;
Setting a plurality of divided program guides obtained by dividing the program guide in units of posting areas of a predetermined number of broadcast stations to be displayed at a time in the display of the program guide on the display;
Displaying any of the plurality of divided program guides on the display;
Detecting a user swipe operation on the display;
When the swipe operation is detected during display of a certain divided program guide, displaying another divided program guide on the display instead of the divided program guide;
A program guide display method comprising: A computer program provided to a portable information terminal together with program guide data,
A function of setting a plurality of divided program guides obtained by dividing the program guide in units of posting areas of a predetermined number of broadcasting stations to be displayed at a time in the display of the program guide on the display of the portable information terminal;
A function of displaying any of the plurality of divided program guides on the display;
When a display content change instruction is received during display of the divided program guide on the display, a function of displaying another divided program guide on the display instead of the divided program guide;
A computer program for causing the portable information terminal to realize the above. A request accepting unit that accepts a program guide provision request from the user's portable information terminal;
A program guide providing unit that provides the portable information terminal with a computer program related to display of the program guide together with the data of the program guide in response to the provision request;
With
The computer program is
A function of setting a plurality of divided program guides obtained by dividing the program guide in units of posting areas of a predetermined number of broadcasting stations to be displayed at a time in the display of the program guide on the display of the portable information terminal;
A function of displaying any of the plurality of divided program guides on the display;
When a display content change instruction is received during display of the divided program guide on the display, a function of displaying another divided program guide on the display instead of the divided program guide;
Is provided for causing the portable information terminal to realize the program guide providing apparatus.

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