JP4461377B2 - Video equipment and control method thereof - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a video device and a control method therefor, and is suitably applied to a video server that can store video content in a recording unit, for example.

In recent years, mobile phones with a camera function equipped with video photographing means such as a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) camera have been widely used. Such a mobile phone with a camera function can transmit a photographed image attached to an e-mail, so that a user of the mobile phone with a camera function can transmit an image to any destination user. (For example, see Patent Document 1.)
JP 2001-167010 A

  The above-described mobile phone with a camera function transmits an e-mail attached with an image (hereinafter referred to as an image-attached mail) to another mobile phone or a mail server on the Internet. The destination user accesses the mail server using a mobile phone or a personal computer, receives the image-attached mail, and browses the attached image. For this reason, there is a problem that a user who does not have a mobile phone or a personal computer cannot view the attached image.

  The present invention has been made in consideration of the above points, and intends to propose a video device capable of browsing an image attached to an e-mail and a control method thereof with a simple operation.

In order to solve such a problem, in the present invention, in a video device capable of storing video content in a recording means, a connection means for connecting to a mail server via a network, and a mail server via the connection means. Inquiry means for inquiring at a predetermined interval whether an e-mail addressed to the video device has arrived, and an e-mail that obtains the e-mail via the connection means when an e-mail addressed to the video device has arrived at the mail server A mail acquisition means, a notification means for notifying the user of the acquisition of the e-mail when a new e-mail is acquired, and prompting the user to view the attached image of the e-mail, an attached image of the e-mail, and recording The video content stored in the means is matched with the video and the video content having the video related to the attached image is recorded from the recording means. An extraction means for reproducing out provided in the video apparatus.

  Thereby, it is possible to browse the attached image of the e-mail with a simple operation without forcing the user to perform a complicated operation.

According to the present invention, in a video device capable of storing video content in a recording unit, a connection unit connected to a mail server via a network, and a mail server addressed to the video device via the connection unit Inquiry means for inquiring whether an e-mail has arrived at a predetermined interval, and when an e-mail addressed to the video device has arrived at the mail server, an e-mail acquisition means for acquiring the e-mail via the connection means, When a new e-mail is acquired, notification means for notifying the user of the acquisition of the e-mail and prompting the user to view the attached image of the e-mail, the attached image of the e-mail, and video stored in the recording means it matches the video content, an extraction means for reproducing by extracting video content having a picture associated with the attached image from the recording means By providing a video device, without imposing a complicated operation for the user, it is possible to realize a video device capable of viewing the attached image of the electronic mail by a simple operation.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

(1) Overall Configuration of Video Server In FIG. 1, 1 indicates a video server according to an embodiment of the present invention as a whole. The video server 1 is a so-called home video server, and a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 2 executes various control programs such as a recording control program and an e-mail program described later on a RAM (Random Access Memory) 10. The entire video server 1 is controlled in an integrated manner. Then, the CPU 2 sets the remote control operation signal received from the remote controller 22 via the infrared light receiver 18, the operation input via the operation unit 12, various settings stored in the NVRAM (Non Volatile RAM). Accordingly, the received broadcast program and the video content input from the external device are recorded, and the recorded video content is reproduced and supplied to the monitor 20 and the external device.

  That is, the video server 1 demodulates a broadcast wave received via an antenna (not shown) by the tuner 3 to generate an analog video signal and an audio signal, and inputs them to the input selector 4. The input selector 4 also receives analog video signals and audio signals supplied from an external device (not shown). The input selector 4 selects either the tuner 3 or the external device, and outputs the video signal and the audio signal to the subsequent circuit.

  The analog-digital converter 5 digitally converts the audio signal supplied from the input selector 4 and supplies it to an MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) encoder 6. The MPEG encoder 6 encodes a video signal and an audio signal by the MPEG2 system to generate encoded data, and stores this in the hard disk drive 7 as video content.

  The CPU 2 reads the encoded data from the hard disk drive 7 and supplies it to the MPEG decoder 8. The MPEG decoder 8 decodes the encoded data, outputs the video signal to an external monitor for display, and supplies the audio signal to the digital / analog converter 9. The digital-analog converter 9 converts the audio signal into analog and reproduces it via the external speaker 21.

  Further, the CPU 2 is connected to a display unit 13 constituted by an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), an LED (Light Emitting Diode) or the like. The display unit 13 displays to the user the operating state of the video server 1 and the arrival of an image mail described later.

(2) Receiving Image Attached Mail by Video Server In addition to this configuration, in this video server 1, a network interface 14 as a connection means is connected to the CPU 2 and connected to the Internet 30 via the network interface 14. Various kinds of information such as e-mail and EPG (Electronic Program Guide) are transmitted / received via the Internet 30.

  In the mail server 31 on the Internet 30, the mail account of the user of the video server 1 is registered. In accordance with the e-mail program, the CPU 2 of the video server 1 periodically connects to the mail server 31 on the Internet 30 in the power-on state and the standby state, and whether the image attachment mail from the mobile phone 32 reaches the mail server 31. Is checked (that is, polling), and if it arrives, the image attached mail is automatically acquired and stored in the hard disk drive 7.

  When the CPU 2 acquires a new image-attached mail, the mail arrival lamp (not shown) provided on the display unit 13 blinks in accordance with the mail arrival notification regardless of whether the power is on or in the standby state. This notifies the user that a new image-attached mail has arrived.

  In this state, when an image display button (not shown) of the remote controller 22 is pressed by the user, the attached image attached to the image attached mail is displayed on the monitor 20. At this time, if the video server 1 is in the standby state, the CPU 2 displays the image after the video server 1 is shifted to the power-on state. Thus, the user of the video server 1 can acquire an image attachment mail and display an attached image with a simple operation.

(3) E-mail Program of Video Server Next, the software stack of the e-mail program executed by the video server 1 will be described with reference to FIG. The video server 1 uses a POP (Post Office Protocol) 3 as a protocol for acquiring an image attached mail. Since this protocol is used as a protocol for receiving mail via the Internet, it has high versatility and light processing, so it is considered suitable for the video server 1 of the present invention. The e-mail program executes processing using the POP library as appropriate.

  The e-mail from the mobile phone 31 has a Japanese subject encoded in MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions). For this reason, when filtering spam mail or the like based on the subject of the mail, the filtering is performed after decoding the encoding by the MIME decoder. The format checker checks whether the received mail is a normal mail and whether the attached image has an abnormal size, and improves the safety of the video server 1 by eliminating the abnormal mail. Is for.

  Next, a setting user interface for using these POP3 libraries will be described. The setting user interface is for the user of the video server 1 to specify the mail that is not received from the POP server name, the POP account, the password, the attached image mail acquisition interval, and the subject on the mail server 31 for receiving the image attached mail. Filtering settings and the like are received and written in the NVRAM 15 as image attachment mail reception settings.

  The POP3 control application of the e-mail program controls the POP3 library based on this image attached mail reception setting. The POP3 control application not only controls the POP3 library but also cooperates with the mail arrival notification application to blink the front lamp when a new attached image is acquired.

  The mail arrival notification application waits for a call from the POP3 control application, and when the call occurs, the mail arrival lamp of the display unit 13 blinks to notify the user that the mail has arrived. Thereafter, when the user views the mail attached image, the mail arrival lamp stops blinking in response to an event from the image display application indicating this. When the user of the video server 1, that is, the user blinks the front lamp, the user can recognize that the video server has taken in a new image-attached mail, and then easily start the image display application. It is possible to browse a new attached image.

  Next, an image display application for displaying images will be described. The image display application waits for a remote control operation signal from the remote controller 22 and when the remote control operation signal is received, the attached image stored in the hard disk 7 is read and displayed on the monitor 20. At this time, when a new image is displayed, a flag that has been viewed is set on the image, an event is notified to the mail arrival notification application, and a request to stop blinking of the mail arrival lamp is made.

  Next, a series of flow for obtaining an image attached mail by the electronic mail program of the video server 1 will be described in detail with reference to a flowchart.

  The user of the video server 1 uses the setting user interface function shown in FIG. 2 in advance to make a setting for acquiring the attached mail in order to receive the image attached mail from the mobile phone. Since it is assumed that the video server 1 uses the POP3 protocol, a POP3 server name, an account, a password, an image acquisition interval, and the like for receiving an image attached mail are set. Also, if you want to filter emails you want to reject, specify the domain.

  The CPU 2 of the video server 1 enters from the start step of the e-mail reception processing procedure routine RT1 shown in FIG. 3 and moves to the next step SP1 to notify the POP3 control application of the event, and the POP3 control application sets the set mail. The server information is read and the process proceeds to the next step SP2.

  In step SP2, the CPU 2 polls the mail server 31 to check whether a new image-attached mail has arrived, and proceeds to the next step SP3.

  In step SP3, the CPU 2 determines whether a new image-attached mail has arrived at the mail server 31. If it is determined in step SP3 that a new image attached mail has not arrived at the mail server 31, the CPU 2 moves to step SP9, waits for the attached image mail acquisition interval set in the NVRAM 15, and then proceeds to step SP2. Go back and check email again.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step SP3 that a new image attachment mail has arrived at the mail server 31, the CPU 2 moves to step SP4, acquires the new image attachment mail from the mail server 31, and acquires the hard disk drive. 7, the mail arrival lamp on the display unit 13 blinks to notify the user, and the process proceeds to the next step SP5.

  In step SP5, the CPU 2 waits for a mail attachment image display operation from the user. If the display operation of the attached mail image is not detected in step SP5, the CPU 2 moves to step SP9, waits for the attached image mail acquisition interval set in the NVRAM 15, and returns to step SP2 to check the mail again. .

  On the other hand, when the display operation of the mail attached image is detected in step SP5, the CPU 2 moves to step SP6 and determines whether or not the video server 1 is in a standby state. If it is determined in step SP6 that the video server 1 is in the standby state, the CPU 2 moves to the next step SP7, starts the video server 1 in the power-on state, and moves to the next step SP8. On the other hand, if it is determined in step SP6 that the video server 1 is already in the power-on state, the CPU 2 directly proceeds to step SP8.

  In step SP8, the CPU 2 activates the image display application, displays a list of mail attached images stored in the hard disk drive 7 (so-called thumbnail display), and further displays the image selected by the user on the list display screen as a full screen. To do. Then, the CPU 2 moves to step SP9, waits for the attached image mail acquisition interval set in the NVRAM 15, and then returns to step SP2 to check the mail again.

(4) Linkage between E-mail Attachment Image and Video Content In addition to such a configuration, the video server 1 can take advantage of the characteristic that a large number of video content can be recorded, so that the received attached image can be linked with the recorded video content. Has been made.

  That is, the video server 1 executes a content search program in response to a content search operation by the user, performs matching between the recorded video content image and the received attached image, and selects video content having an image similar to the attached image. Search for. When there is video content having an image similar to the attached image, the video server 1 automatically plays back the video content. Thereby, the video server 1 can extract a video related to the attached image from a large number of video contents recorded for a long time and display it to the user with a simple operation.

  In practice, the video server 1 performs face image recognition processing on the attached image in the above-described matching processing, and recognizes the face of the person shown in the attached image. Next, the video server 1 matches whether or not the person of the specified image exists in the video content recorded on the hard disk drive 7. Output as a still image. For this face image recognition processing, for example, a face image recognition method disclosed in JP-A-7-128031 can be applied.

  By such matching processing using face image recognition, the user can extract and view video content in which an arbitrary person appears from the hard disk drive 7 with a simple operation. For example, when a photograph of a person of interest is found in a magazine article or the like, the photograph of the person is taken with a mobile phone and transmitted to the video server 1 of the present invention as an image attachment mail. The video server 1 performs the above-described matching process on the received attached image, and extracts and reproduces the video content in which the person appears from the hard disk drive 7.

  Furthermore, a famous person such as a talent or a sports player is recognized in advance as a face image, and a person recognition database is created by associating the recognition result with the person name, thereby automatically recording a TV program using the person recognition database. Reservations can also be made.

  In other words, the hard disk drive 7 of the video server 1 stores in advance the famous person recognition database described above. The user takes a picture of a person of interest with a mobile phone and sends it to the video server 1 of the present invention as an image-attached mail. The video server 1 performs face image recognition on the received attached image, recognizes the face of the person shown in the attached image, and further compares the recognition result of the attached image with the person recognition database to make the attached image. Identify the name of the person being copied. Then, the video server 1 extracts a program in which the specified person appears from the EPG and automatically schedules recording. The EPG may be supplied via television broadcasting or supplied from a server on the Internet.

  Thereby, the user can automatically record a program in which the arbitrary person appears only by photographing an arbitrary person with the mobile phone and transmitting it to the video server 1.

(5) Operation and Effect In the above configuration, the video server 1 is periodically connected to the mail server 31 on the Internet 30 in the power-on state and the standby state, and the image attached mail from the mobile phone 32 is sent to the mail server. 31 is checked, and if a new image attachment mail has arrived, it is acquired and stored in the hard disk drive 7.

  When the video server 1 acquires a new image-attached mail, the video server 1 blinks the mail arrival lamp on the display unit 13 to notify the user that the new image-attached mail has arrived. Then, when the video server 1 is in the standby state in response to the pressing operation of the image display button of the remote controller 22 by the user, the attached image attached to the image attached mail is displayed on the monitor 20 after shifting to the power-on state. To do.

  As described above, the video server 1 periodically connects to the mail server 31 to acquire the image-attached mail, notifies the user of the arrival of the new mail, and further displays the attached image according to the user operation, thereby making the complicated A user who does not own a mobile phone or a personal computer can browse an attached image of an e-mail with a simple operation without forcing operation.

  Furthermore, the acquired attached image and the recorded video content are matched, and the video content having an image similar to the attached image is extracted from the hard disk drive 7 and played back. The video desired by the user can be extracted from a large number of video contents and displayed to the user.

(6) Other Embodiments In the above-described embodiment, the case where the present invention is applied to the video server 1 that can be connected to the Internet has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the Internet connection function is also described. The present invention can be applied to various video devices such as a game machine that can access the mail server 31.

  The video equipment of the present invention can be applied to, for example, a video server that can be connected to a network.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the video server by this invention. It is a basic diagram which shows the software stack of an e-mail program. It is a flowchart which shows an electronic mail reception process procedure.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Video server, 2 ... CPU, 3 ... Tuner, 4 ... Input selector, 5 ... Analog-digital converter, 6 ... MPEG encoder, 7 ... Hard disk drive, 8 ... MPEG decoder, 9 ... ... Digital-to-analog converter, 10 ... RAM, 11 ... Infrared light receiving unit, 12 ... Operating unit, 13 ... Display unit, 14 ... Network interface, 15 ... NVRAM, 20 ... Monitor, 21 ... Speaker, 22 …… Remote control, 30 …… Internet, 31 …… Mail server, 32 …… Mobile phone.

Claims (3)

In video equipment that can store video content in recording means,
A connection means for connecting to a mail server via a network;
Inquiry means for inquiring at a predetermined interval whether or not an e-mail addressed to the video equipment has arrived at the mail server via the connection means;
When an e-mail addressed to the video device has arrived at the mail server, e-mail acquisition means for acquiring the e-mail via the connection means;
A notification means for notifying a user of acquisition of the e-mail when the new e-mail is acquired and prompting the user to view an attached image of the e-mail;
Extracting means for performing matching between the attached image of the e-mail and the video content video stored in the recording means, and extracting and reproducing the video content having the video related to the attached image from the recording means
Video equipment with. Face image recognition means for recognizing a face image of an object copied in the attached image of the email;
A database comparing face image recognition results for multiple persons and their names,
Using the face image recognition result of the person imaged in the attached image by the face image recognizing means and the database, a person name identifying means for identifying the person name of the person imaged in the attached image;
Automatic recording reservation means for making a reservation for recording a television program related to the specified person using the person name specified by the person name specifying means and the electronic program guide;
Video apparatus according to claim 1 having a. In a video device control method capable of storing video content in a recording means,
An inquiry step of connecting to a mail server via a network and inquiring at a predetermined interval whether an e-mail addressed to the video device has arrived at the mail server;
If an email addressed to the video device has arrived at the mail server, an email acquisition step of acquiring the email from the mail server;
A notification step for notifying the user of acquisition of the e-mail when the new e-mail is acquired and prompting the user to view an attached image of the e-mail;
An extraction step of performing matching between the attached image of the e-mail and the video of the video content stored in the recording means, and extracting and playing the video content having the video related to the attached image from the recording means;
Control method for video equipment having

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