JP4619915B2 - PROGRAM DATA PROCESSING DEVICE, PROGRAM DATA PROCESSING METHOD, CONTROL PROGRAM, RECORDING MEDIUM, RECORDING DEVICE, REPRODUCTION DEVICE, AND INFORMATION DISPLAY DEVICE EQUIPPED WITH PROGRAM DATA PROCESSING DEVICE - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention includes, for example, a program data processing device, a program data processing method, a control program, a recording medium, and a program data processing device for matching a program title included in program information of an EPG (Electronic Program Guide). The present invention relates to a recording device, a playback device, and an information display device.

  In recent years, digital broadcasting in the field of broadcasting, such as digital television broadcasting, has progressed, and television broadcast receivers and recording / playback devices that can receive and view video and audio via a communication network as digital data Audiovisual equipment such as For example, as a device for recording (recording) a television broadcast program, a hard disk recording / reproducing apparatus using a hard disk as a recording medium has been put into practical use. In the case of this hard disk recording / reproducing apparatus, it is possible to record a television broadcast signal of several hundred hours with a storage capacity of, for example, several hundred Gbytes. The recordable time is expected to increase with the improvement of the storage density of a recording medium such as a hard disk and the improvement of the broadcast data compression technique.

  Some of these audiovisual devices receive electronic program guide information called EPG (Electronic Program Guide) and process it so that television programs can be viewed and recorded easily. Some have the function to do.

  The EPG is created based on program-related information transmitted from each broadcast station. This program-related information can be acquired by selecting each broadcasting / audio device to the broadcasting station that transmits it, as in the case of video information and audio information. For example, EPG is added to broadcast data transmitted by each broadcast station in the case of a broadcasting system such as digital broadcasting, and blanking of a video signal of a specific channel in the case of analog broadcasting. A specific time slot is added to a period or the like. Alternatively, there is a mode in which the information is distributed not only from the broadcasting station but also from other information processing apparatuses having EPG data to the viewer's audiovisual apparatus via transmission means such as the Internet.

  Information necessary for creating an EPG transmitted from each broadcasting station is stipulated in, for example, operational regulations created for each broadcasting medium such as CS, BS, and terrestrial digital television broadcasting. Program information having common items can be obtained. The items of program information include various items such as program title, program content, broadcast date, program start time, program end time, copy control information, genre, viewing age limit, pay program information, and the like.

  The audiovisual device displays the program information including the above-mentioned contents in an electronic list like the TV broadcast program column currently available in newspapers based on the acquired EPG data. By using this EPG, the user can easily browse program information like a TV broadcast program column currently available in newspapers, etc., and can select a program to watch, reserve viewing or recording reservation Can be done.

  As an example of an audiovisual apparatus that performs various processes using EPG data as described above, Patent Document 1 discloses a recording reservation that automatically follows a change in a broadcast time zone using a program title when a recording reservation is made for a program. A program reservation recording device having a function is disclosed. More specifically, at the time of recording reservation, based on the program name (program title) in the electronic program guide (EPG), information necessary for recording such as broadcast date and time and channel is acquired from the EPG, and based on the program name, The recording target program is detected, the start time and end time of the detected program are obtained, and the recording reservation is executed.

At this time, the program title included in the EPG is often omitted and stored, and in order to cope with such omission, Patent Document 1 employs an ambiguous search technique for matching program titles. ing.
JP 2003-46921 A (released on February 14, 2003) JP-A-8-106474 (released on April 23, 1996)

  However, the matching method using the fuzzy search method of Patent Document 1 causes the following problems. Specifically, in the fuzzy search, if there is a program title in which at least a part of the character string and a certain character string constituting the program title are the same, it is determined that they are the same program. However, in the method of determining the identity of a program only by matching a character string, if the number of matched character strings is reduced, the oversight of the same program is reduced, but there is a probability that a program that is not the same is erroneously determined to be the same. Get higher. On the other hand, if the number of character strings is increased, the number of matching character strings is not reached even in the same program, and the probability that it is erroneously determined that they are not the same increases.

  For example, if it is a condition for determining that the number of matching character strings is 4 or more as the same program, the relationship between the official program name “Attend! Miniskirt Police” and the abbreviated program name “Miniska” The abbreviated program name “Miniska” includes the four characters “Miniska” completely in the official program name, so that both program names are determined to be the same program. However, when the program with the official name “Winter Sonata” is omitted as “Winter Sona”, it does not satisfy the condition that “the number of matching character strings is 4 characters or more” and is not determined to be the same program. . However, if the condition is relaxed to “the number of matching character strings is two characters”, there is a problem that the accuracy of determining the identity is remarkably lowered.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to determine the identity of a program using a program title included in a program information database such as an EPG and perform various processes. In a data processing apparatus, a program data processing apparatus, a program data processing method, a control program, a recording medium, and a program data processing apparatus that cope with fluctuations in program title notation (especially abbreviated notation, etc.) It is to realize a recording device, a reproducing device, and an information display device provided with a program data processing device.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, the program data processing apparatus according to the present invention includes a title extraction unit that extracts a program title of a program from program information indicating information about the program, and a user extracted by the title extraction unit. The selected program title of the selected program is compared with the recorded program title of the program extracted by the title extraction means and recorded in advance in the program information database composed of a plurality of program information for each character, and the selected program An evaluation value calculating means for calculating an evaluation value indicating similarity between both program titles by evaluating a portion where characters match between the title and the recorded program title, and an array of matching characters; When the evaluation value satisfies a predetermined condition, the selected program title and the recorded program title are the same program title. It is characterized by comprising a certain and determining means.

  According to the above configuration, the title extracting means sets the program title of the program input by the user as the “selected program title”, and the program program recorded in advance from the program information database storing a plurality of program information. The title is extracted as “recorded program title”.

  Next, the evaluation value calculation means compares the two program titles for each character, and evaluates that there is a portion with matching characters and an array of matching characters, so that both programs have high similarity. An evaluation value indicating similarity between titles is calculated.

  Finally, the judging means verifies the evaluation value calculated by the evaluation value calculating means, and when the evaluation value satisfies a predetermined condition, the selected program title and the recorded program title are the same. It is determined that the title is a program title.

  Since the evaluation value in the evaluation value calculation means is calculated based on both the match / mismatch for each character and the match / mismatch of the character string sequence, there is no limitation on the number of character strings that match continuously. , Identity can be determined. Accordingly, it is possible to cope with fluctuations in the notation of program titles (particularly, abbreviated notation) and to improve the accuracy in determining the identity of programs.

  If the evaluation value is calculated as the similarity distance using, for example, the DP matching method, the similarity distance means that the similarity is higher as the distance is shorter. Therefore, as a specific example of the determination method performed by the determination unit, for example, it is possible to determine that both program titles are the same when a threshold value is set in advance and the calculated similarity distance is equal to or less than the threshold value. It becomes.

  The program data processing device detects an abbreviation pattern applied to one program title from a character string that matches between the selected program title and the recorded program title, and a typical abbreviation pattern of a predetermined program title A pattern matching unit that compares the selected program title with the recorded program title when the detected omitted pattern does not match the typical omitted pattern. May be determined.

  According to the above configuration, the pattern matching means detects the omitted pattern in both program titles and compares it with a predetermined typical omitted pattern. If collation with the typical omission pattern is not successful, omission is performed in an unnatural manner as an abbreviation notation, and the possibility of the same program being low. For example, specifically, an abbreviated pattern that is omitted every other character is conceivable. Therefore, if the collation fails, even if an evaluation value that satisfies the condition is calculated for both program titles, it can be determined that they are not the titles of the same program.

  Thereby, the accuracy of determination of program identity can be improved.

  The title extraction unit of the program data processing apparatus may further include an unnecessary word removal unit that removes a character string that does not represent the program title included in the program title.

  As a result, an extra character string that does not mean the program title included in the program title can be removed, so that the accuracy of the above-described evaluation value calculation is improved, and as a result, the accuracy of the program identity determination is improved. Can be improved.

  The title extraction means of the program data processing apparatus may further comprise full-width conversion means for converting half-width characters included in the program title into full-width characters.

  Thereby, it is possible to prevent the evaluation value calculation means from determining that the character string is different only by the difference between half-width and full-width, and the accuracy of evaluation value calculation is improved. As a result, the accuracy of program identity determination can be improved.

  The title extraction means of the program data processing device converts a character string constituting the program title into kana characters and records conversion history information indicating which character type is converted into kana characters for each character. Means may be further provided.

  According to the above configuration, kana character conversion unifies program titles into kana character strings. Since the evaluation value calculation means calculates the evaluation value using a character string that is unified with kana characters, the difference in character type is absorbed in determining the identity with the program title recorded in the program information database. In addition, it becomes possible to determine the identity of programs with higher accuracy.

  Furthermore, since Kana character conversion records the character type before conversion when converting a character string into hiragana, the evaluation value calculation means takes the evaluation value into consideration by matching / non-matching of the character type before conversion. Can be calculated. Accordingly, it is possible to further improve the accuracy in determining the identity of a program in response to fluctuations in notation (particularly notation of different character types such as kanji / katakana and hiragana).

  The title extraction unit of the program data processing device performs morphological analysis of a character string constituting a program title and divides it into a string of morphemes (the smallest unit having meaning in language), and a part of speech assigned to the divided morphemes Further, morpheme analysis means for recording a morpheme analysis result indicating a boundary position between morphemes may be further provided.

  Thereby, the evaluation value calculation means can calculate the evaluation value in consideration of the match / mismatch of the morpheme parts of speech and / or the boundary position between the morphemes in addition to the comparison for each character. As a result, it is possible to further improve the accuracy in determining the identity of programs.

  The evaluation value calculation means of the program data processing apparatus further includes an inter-part-of-speech evaluation value calculation means for calculating an evaluation value by referring to the morpheme analysis result and evaluating a part where the morpheme parts of speech match. Also good.

  According to the above configuration, since the evaluation value calculation means takes into account the morpheme part of speech match / mismatch, it is possible to calculate a more accurate evaluation value. As a result, the accuracy in determining the identity of programs can be further improved.

  The evaluation value calculation means of the program data processing apparatus calculates an evaluation value by referring to the morpheme analysis result and evaluating the coincidence of boundary positions between morphemes in the selected program title and the recorded program title. Further, a boundary position evaluation value calculating means may be provided.

  According to the above configuration, since the evaluation value calculation means takes into account the coincidence / mismatch of the boundary positions between morphemes, it is possible to calculate a more accurate evaluation value. As a result, the accuracy in determining the identity of programs can be further improved.

  The evaluation value calculating means of the program data processing apparatus may further comprise an inter-character-type evaluation value calculating means for calculating an evaluation value by referring to the conversion history information and evaluating a portion where the character types match. .

  According to the above configuration, the evaluation value calculation means can calculate the evaluation value in consideration of the match / mismatch of the character type before conversion. Accordingly, it is possible to further improve the accuracy in determining the identity of a program in response to fluctuations in notation (particularly notation of different character types such as kanji / katakana and hiragana).

  The evaluation value calculation means of the program data processing device may select the recorded program title to be compared with the selected program title from a program information database based on a predetermined condition.

  If the predetermined condition is, for example, that the broadcast station information, genre information, or broadcast date / time information included in the program information is the same, only the recorded program titles that have the same program information from the program information database are obtained. It can narrow down as a comparison object.

  For example, continuous programs and series programs are broadcast on the same broadcasting station and the same program genre every day or almost every week, so these information can be used as candidates to be determined to be the same. If the program titles to be compared are narrowed down, the evaluation value calculation process described above can be performed more efficiently.

  In order to solve the above problems, a recording apparatus according to the present invention includes the above-described program data processing apparatus, receives a program title of a program desired by a user via an operation unit, and selects the program title as a selected program title. Operation receiving means for supplying to the program data processing device and data acquisition for acquiring from the program information database program information associated with the recorded program title determined to be the same as the selected program title by the program data processing device And recording processing means for recording the program based on broadcast date and time information included in the acquired program information.

  This makes it possible to realize a recording apparatus that can accept a recording reservation using the program title of the program information.

  In order to solve the above problems, a playback apparatus according to the present invention includes the above-described program data processing apparatus, a recorded program recording unit that records a recorded program and a recorded program title of the recorded program in association with each other, and a user Receives the program title of the desired program via the operation unit, and supplies the program title as the selected program title to the program data processing device, and the program data processing device is identical to the selected program title. A data acquisition unit that acquires the data of the recorded program of the recorded program title determined from the recorded program recording unit, and an output unit that outputs the data of the recorded program acquired by the data acquisition unit. It is a feature.

  Accordingly, it is possible to realize a playback device that uses a program title of program information to specify and play back a recorded program specified by the user.

  Furthermore, the playback apparatus may further include recorded program management means for managing a plurality of recorded programs having a recorded program title determined to be the same as the selected program title by a single folder by the program data processing apparatus. Good.

  This makes it possible to realize a playback device that can organize recorded programs for each program title.

  In order to solve the above problems, an information display device according to the present invention includes the above-described program data processing device, and receives a viewing start instruction from a user together with a program title of a program desired by the user via an operation unit. An operation receiving means for supplying the desired program title as the selected program title to the program data processing apparatus, and an output control means for controlling the output unit to output the desired program data in response to the viewing start instruction. And a data acquisition means for acquiring program information of a program having a program title determined to be the same as the selected program title from a program information database, wherein the output control means includes the desired program. When outputting the data, the output unit may be controlled to output the program information acquired by the data acquisition means. There.

  As a result, it is possible to realize an information display device capable of presenting subsequent information (for example, a future broadcast schedule) of the same program as the program being viewed to the user.

  In order to solve the above problems, a program data processing method according to the present invention includes an extraction step of extracting a program title of a program from program information indicating information related to the program, and a user's selection extracted by the extraction step. The selected program title of the selected program is compared with the recorded program title of the program, which is extracted by the extracting step and recorded in advance in the program information database including a plurality of program information, for each character. An evaluation value calculating step for calculating an evaluation value indicating similarity between both program titles by evaluating a portion where characters match with a recorded program title and an arrangement of matching characters, and the evaluation value When the predetermined condition is satisfied, the selected program title and the recorded program title are the same program title. It is characterized by comprising a determination step of constant to.

  According to the above method, the evaluation value between the two program titles is calculated in the evaluation value calculating step, and the identity between the two program titles is determined based on the calculated distance in the determining step. Since the evaluation value in the evaluation value calculation step is calculated based on both the match / mismatch for each character and the match / mismatch of the character string sequence, there is no limitation on the number of character strings that are continuously matched. , Identity can be determined. Accordingly, it is possible to cope with fluctuations in the notation of program titles (particularly, abbreviated notation) and to improve the accuracy in determining the identity of programs.

  The program data processing device, the recording device, the playback device, or the information display device may be realized by a computer. In this case, the program data processing device, The program data processing device, the recording device, the playback device, or the control program for the information display device for realizing the recording device, the playback device, or the information display device by a computer, and a computer-readable recording medium on which the control program is recorded Falls within the scope of the present invention.

  The program data processing apparatus according to the present invention includes a title extraction unit that extracts a program title of a program from program information indicating information related to the program, and a selected program title of the program selected by the user extracted by the title extraction unit. And the recorded program title of the program, which is extracted by the title extracting means and recorded in advance in the program information database including a plurality of program information, for each character, the selected program title and the recorded program title Evaluation value calculating means for calculating an evaluation value indicating the similarity between both program titles by evaluating a portion where the characters match between each other and an arrangement of the matching characters, and the evaluation value satisfies a predetermined condition A determination means for determining that the selected program title and the recorded program title are the titles of the same program when they are satisfied; It is provided. Therefore, it is possible to cope with fluctuations in the notation of program titles (particularly, abbreviated notation) and to improve the accuracy in determining the identity of programs.

  An embodiment of the present invention is described below with reference to the drawings. In the present embodiment, the case where the program data processing apparatus of the present invention is applied to a digital television broadcast receiving apparatus (hereinafter simply referred to as digital television) having a recording function will be described.

[Configuration of digital TV]
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of the digital television 100 according to the present embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the digital television 100 according to this embodiment includes an operation unit 8, a control unit 10, a digital broadcasting tuner and demodulation unit 11, a TS (transport stream) decoder 12, and an AV (audio visual) decoder. 13, a recording processing unit 14, a graphics generation unit 15, an image superposition unit 16, an interface 17, an audio output unit 18, a video output unit 19, and a recording unit 20.

  The audio output unit 18 and the video output unit 19 constitute an output unit 9. Hereinafter, the audio output unit 18 and the video output unit 19 are referred to as the output unit 9 when it is not necessary to distinguish between them.

  The control unit 10 performs overall control of the digital television 100. The control unit 10 includes an EPG processing unit 1, a recording control unit 2, an operation receiving unit 3, a broadcast data acquisition unit 4, an EPG acquisition unit 5, an output control unit 6, and a recorded program management unit 7.

  The EPG processing unit 1 performs various processes using the EPG data acquired by the digital television 100. The EPG processing unit 1 and the recording unit 20 realize a program data processing apparatus according to the present invention. Details of the EPG processing unit 1 and the recording unit 20 will be described later.

  The operation reception unit 3 receives an instruction signal sent from the user to the digital television 100 via the operation unit 8 and supplies the instruction signal to each unit of the control unit 10. For example, an instruction signal for recording a specific program or an instruction signal for selecting a specific broadcast station for viewing by a user is received. The recording control unit 2 performs recording processing for the received program in response to the instruction signal supplied from the operation receiving unit 3. The broadcast data acquisition unit 4 acquires broadcast data of a program composed of video and audio from each program broadcast station 200 that broadcasts a television broadcast program. The EPG acquisition unit 5 acquires program information indicating detailed information about each program broadcast by each program broadcast station 200 from each program broadcast station 200 and records it as an EPG (electronic program guide) (program information database). Part 20 is recorded. The output control unit 6 controls the output unit 9 to present the acquired broadcast data and program information recorded as EPG to the user. The recorded program management unit 7 manages the data of the recorded program recorded in the recording unit 20 under the control of the recording control unit 2, and reads out the data in the recording unit 20 in accordance with a user instruction from the operation unit 8. Then, processing such as organizing the recorded program data recorded or presenting a list of recorded program data to the user is performed.

  In addition to the program broadcast station 200, the EPG acquisition unit 5 can also acquire program information from the EPG providing apparatus 300 that provides the program information and record the EPG in the recording unit 20. In the present embodiment, as the EPG providing apparatus 300, for example, a server apparatus that distributes EPG data to client terminals via the Internet or a LAN (Local Area Network), an external recording apparatus that records EPG data, and the like are conceivable. In this case, the EPG acquisition unit 5 performs communication processing with the outside via the interface 17 and acquires program information.

  In addition, each said member (1-7) inside the control part 10 performs the program stored in the memory | storage device by arithmetic means (computer), such as CPU or MPU, and controls peripheral circuits, such as an input / output circuit which is not shown in figure. It is a functional block realized by doing.

  The audio output unit 18 constituting the output unit 9 outputs an audio signal of the digital television 100 as audio, and is realized by, for example, a speaker. The video output unit 19 is display means for displaying video and / or image signals of the digital television 100 as video and / or images. For example, an LCD (liquid crystal display), a PDP (plasma display panel), or This is realized by a display device such as a CRT (cathode-ray tube) display.

  The operation unit 8 is a signal input unit that inputs a signal for operating the digital television 100. In the present embodiment, for example, a first operation unit 8 a provided in the digital TV 100 itself and a second operation unit 8 b using a remote controller (remote controller) for remote operation outside the digital TV 100 are included. Yes.

  An example of a front view of the second operation unit 8b as a remote controller is shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 3, for example, on the transmission side (remote control side), the cross key 81 for moving the cursor, the enter key 82 for confirming the instruction, and the channel number are input to the second operation unit 8b. There are provided buttons for receiving various instructions such as a numeric keypad 83, an up / down button 84 for instructing increase / decrease in channel and volume, and a power button 85 for inputting a power ON / OFF instruction. The receiving side (light receiving unit side) has a light receiving means (not shown) that receives an instruction signal (for example, an infrared signal) by each key operation on the remote control side, and the instruction signal received by the light receiving means is: It is sent to the operation reception unit 3 of the control unit 10.

  In the second operation unit 8b according to the present embodiment, a button for inputting a number is also used as a button for inputting characters, as in the case of a mobile phone or the like. The user can input a desired hiragana or symbol by pressing the number button a predetermined number of times while the mode is switched to the mode for inputting characters using the second operation unit 8b. In addition, the input hiragana and symbols can be converted by pressing the cross key 81 and the enter key 82 to input kanji.

  Next, in the digital television 100 according to the present embodiment, along with the flow from reception to output of a digital broadcast signal including broadcast data and program information transmitted from the program broadcast station 200, the digital television 100 The remaining components will be described. The digital television 100 according to the present invention is not limited to the following components.

  When a digital broadcast signal is supplied through an antenna (not shown), the digital broadcast tuner and demodulator 11 selects a received signal and then performs demodulation and error correction according to the signal form. Then, multiplexed digital data is formed, and this multiplexed digital data is output to the TS decoder 12.

  The TS decoder 12 decodes the multiplexed digital data output from the tuner and demodulator 11 to extract a TS, separates the TS into purpose-specific TS packets, and outputs them to the AV decoder 13 and the controller 10 at the subsequent stage. Here, TS is a signal sequence of continuous fixed-length TS packets, and each TS packet may include data signals such as program information and information necessary for channel selection in addition to video / audio signals. . Here, the extracted TS includes TS packets (broadcast data) including video / audio signals for output to the AV decoder 13 and TS packets including data signals related to program information for output to the control unit 10. (Program information).

  The AV decoder 13 decodes the TS packet (broadcast data) from the TS decoder 12 to form an audio signal and a video signal.

  In the present embodiment, the digital television 100 has a recording function for a television broadcast program, and thus further includes a recording processing unit 14. When the recording processing unit 14 receives an instruction to record a program from the recording control unit 2, the recording channel unit 14 supplies the program of the designated channel supplied from the AV decoder 13 for the specified period, for example, through the recording unit 20 or the interface 17. To an external storage device 400 that can be connected via the recording medium. The recording medium may be any recording medium as long as it can record a program, for example, a tape-shaped recording medium such as a video tape, such as a DVD (Digital Video Disc), or A disk-shaped recording medium such as a hard disk, for example, a semiconductor memory such as a flash memory is preferably used. Further, the recording processing unit 14 may record on a recording medium provided in another device via a communication path such as a network.

  When the recording processing unit 14 is in an inactive state, the AV decoder 13 directly outputs the audio signal to the audio output unit 18 and the video signal to the image superimposing unit 16 respectively.

  The graphics generating unit 15 forms OSD (On Screen Display) information to be output to the image superimposing unit 16. This OSD information is various information stored in the recording unit 20, for example, an EPG (electronic program guide) created from a plurality of program information, a menu screen (GUI) for the user to operate the digital television 100, and the like. . The OSD information includes an operation screen for the user to instruct recording, a search result from the recorded program list, and the like.

  More specifically, for example, when displaying an EPG on the video output unit 19, a TS packet (program information) including a data signal related to program information extracted by the tuner and demodulator 11 and the TS decoder 12 is: Acquired by the EPG acquisition unit 5 and recorded in the recording unit 20 as an EPG. The EPG processing unit 1 processes the EPG recorded in the recording unit 20 in accordance with a user instruction from the operation unit 8, and the output control unit 6 controls the graphics generation unit 15 to convert the EPG. An OSD image to be superimposed is generated.

  The image superimposing unit 16 sends the video signal decoded by the AV decoder 13 and the OSD image such as EPG to the superimposed video output unit 19. As a result, the video signal based on the broadcast data and OSD information such as EPG can be displayed on one display screen.

  In the present embodiment, the program is broadcast on one of a plurality of channels, and the tuner and demodulator 11 can receive a program on a desired channel among the plurality of channels. The broadcast data acquisition unit 4 controls the tuner and demodulation unit 11, the TS decoder 12, and the AV decoder 13, thereby realizing a function of acquiring broadcast data of a program that the user wants to view and a recording control unit. 2 controls the recording processing unit 14 to record a program desired by the user.

  From the above, when the operation reception unit 3 receives a channel selection (program viewing) instruction via the operation unit 8, the digital television 100 outputs the video signal and audio signal of the program of the designated channel. It is possible to cause the user to view the program of the channel by outputting to the unit 9. When a recording instruction is received from the user, the video signal and audio signal of the program of the designated channel can be recorded (recorded) in the recording unit 20 or the like.

  When the digital television 100 of the present invention executes the above-described channel selection instruction and various processes based on the recording instruction, the program name of the broadcast program (hereinafter referred to as “program name”) included in the EPG program information recorded in the recording unit 20 is described below. Called program title). The program data processing apparatus applied to the digital television 100 can specify a program designated by the user using the program title and execute various processes on the specified program. More specifically, by comparing the program information of a specific program with the program information of another program, it is determined whether or not they are the same program. Thereby, for example, the digital television 100 can automatically and continuously record other programs determined to be the same as the program designated by the user as a continuous program or a series program by one designation. It is also possible to automatically classify and organize recorded programs using program information of programs already recorded.

  Details of the EPG processing unit 1 and the recording unit 20 that implement the program data processing apparatus according to the present invention will be described below.

[Configuration of program data processing apparatus]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a main configuration of an EPG processing apparatus 101 applied to the digital television 100 according to the present embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the EPG processing apparatus 101 includes an EPG processing unit 1 and a recording unit 20 that the EPG processing unit 1 reads and writes. The EPG processing unit 1 further includes a title. It has an extraction unit 30, a similarity distance calculation unit 40, an abbreviated pattern matching unit 50, an identical program determination unit 60, and a data acquisition unit 70. The recording unit 20 further includes an EPG recording unit 21, a dictionary recording unit 22, an extracted title temporary storage unit 23, a distance table recording unit 24, and a recorded program recording unit 25.

  First, each recording unit recorded in the recording unit 20 will be described in detail.

  The EPG recording unit 21 records an EPG composed of a plurality of program information acquired by the EPG acquisition unit 5 from the program broadcast station 200 or the EPG providing device 300. 4A is a diagram showing program information of one program acquired by the EPG acquisition unit 5, and FIG. 4B is an EPG in which a plurality of program information is converted into a database with one program information as one record. It is a figure which shows a table (program information database). Program information is added (or updated) to the EPG table shown in FIG. 4B for each program.

  When the user transmits an instruction to display the program column to the video output unit 19 (FIG. 2) to the digital television 100, an OSD image of the program column is generated based on the data of the EPG table of FIG. Is done.

  In the present embodiment, the items of the program information acquired by the EPG acquisition unit 5 are “broadcast station (name)”, “broadcast start time”, “broadcast end time”, “genre”, “program title”, and “Program contents” is not limited to the above. The EPG acquisition unit 5 may acquire any other item related to the program provided by the program broadcast station 200 or the EPG providing apparatus 300 and store it in the EPG table.

  Further, in the present embodiment, in addition to the above items, in the EPG table, the title extraction unit 30 extracts only the portion indicating the title of the program from the information stored in the item “program title”. The item “conversion title” is stored. The program title recorded here is handled as a “recorded program title” as a comparison target when determining the same program. A method in which the title extraction unit 30 extracts the item “converted title” from the item “program title” will be described later.

  The dictionary recording unit 22 records a dictionary that the title extraction unit 30 refers to when performing kanji-kana conversion. Using the dictionary recording unit 22, the title extraction unit 30 can convert kanji included in the extracted character string into hiragana or perform morphological analysis of the character string.

  The extracted title temporary storage unit 23 is a program specified by a user's channel selection instruction or recording instruction received by the operation reception unit 3 (FIG. 2) via the operation unit 8 (that is, a program selected by the user). ) Is temporarily stored. Note that the “selected program title” extracted from the program title of the program selected by the user included in the channel selection instruction, the recording instruction, etc., is stored here and used when determining the same program. It is done.

  The distance table recording unit 24 records various distance tables that the similarity distance calculating unit 40 refers to when calculating the similarity distance (evaluation value) between program titles. The similarity distance between program titles is obtained by quantifying the similarity between both program titles to be compared in the matching process executed by the EPG processing unit 1. It is determined that the smaller the distance is, the higher the similarity between the two is. In this embodiment, if the distance is below a certain threshold (here, 0.5), both are regarded as the titles of the same program.

  Therefore, the distance table indicates whether or not the various attributes (character code, character type, part of speech, etc.) of the characters of the program title match when each unit of the similarity distance calculation unit 40 compares both program titles. This is a table showing how much distance is added. 5A to 5D are diagrams illustrating examples of distance tables referred to by the similarity distance calculation unit 40. FIG. For example, in FIG. 5A, each horizontal item 51 is an attribute of a character forming the “recorded program title”, and each vertical item 52 is an attribute of a character forming the “selected program title”. And As a result of comparison of certain characters in both program titles, if it is determined that both characters indicate “A”, they are evaluated as matching and the distance is not added. On the other hand, if it is determined that one character indicates “yes”, the character is evaluated as a mismatch and “1” is derived as the distance to be added. The distance table recording unit 24 records the number of character attributes to be compared in consideration of the distance calculation.

  In this embodiment, (1) character codes (characters do not match), (2) character types (kanji, hiragana, katakana, numbers, symbols, etc.), (3) parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adjective verbs, etc.) (4) Since the distance between the two program titles is calculated taking into account the presence / absence of a boundary line between the morphemes when the character string is divided for each morpheme, and matching / mismatching of the four attributes, the distance table is 4 Types are prepared and recorded in the distance table recording unit 24.

  The recorded program recording unit 25 records the recorded program data recorded by the recording processing unit 14 (FIG. 2) in association with the program title of the recorded program (hereinafter referred to as a recorded program title). . The recorded program title is extracted from the original program name of the recorded program by the title extraction unit 30. The user can play back a desired recorded program by selecting a program title of the recorded program using the operation unit 8.

  If the broadcast date and time (recording date and time) are recorded in association with the recorded program title, the convenience when the user searches for the recorded program is improved.

  The omitted pattern recording unit 26 records a typical omitted pattern of the program title referred to by the omitted pattern matching unit 50. In two program titles, if one program title is an abbreviation notation for the other program title, both program titles are checked by comparing the omitted pattern with the typical omitted pattern. However, it is possible to determine whether or not the same program is in a formal notation or abbreviated notation. Details of the typical omission pattern will be described later.

  The EPG recording unit 21, the dictionary recording unit 22, the distance table recording unit 24, the recorded program recording unit 25, and the omitted pattern recording unit 26 are realized by a non-volatile recording medium such as a hard disk device. The extracted title temporary storage unit 23 is realized by a work memory such as a RAM (Random Access Memory).

  Note that the data structure of the EPG table (or distance table) that records the plurality of program information is a table structure, but is not limited to this, and other program information items are read from one program title. Any data structure may be used as long as it is structured so that the distance to be added can be derived from the attribute of the character (character string).

  Next, the function of each unit included in the EPG processing unit 1 will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

(Program title extraction function)
The title extraction unit 30 designates a “recorded program title” from program titles included in each program information, such as the EPG table of FIG. 4B, and is designated by the user input via the operation unit 8. The “selected program title” is extracted from the program title of the program. The title extraction unit 30 includes an unnecessary word removal unit 31, a full-width conversion unit 32, a kana character conversion unit 33, and a morpheme analysis unit 34.

  The unnecessary word removing unit 31 removes unnecessary words included in the program title. The unnecessary word refers to a symbol attached to the program title as shown in FIG. More specifically, for example, a symbol assigned to the original program name as a broadcast attribute, a symbol or a character string representing news or weather forecasts broadcast before and after the program, and the like. The unnecessary word removing unit 31 identifies and removes such unnecessary words, and extracts only the character string indicating the program name as the program title. The “post-removal” column in FIG. 6 shows a program title made up of a character string forming the original program name from which symbols representing broadcast attributes as unnecessary words have been removed.

  The full-width conversion unit 32 converts a half-width character into a full-width character and unifies the character string into a full-width character when the program title after removing unnecessary words includes a half-width character such as an alphanumeric or a symbol. Single-byte characters are often used when the character display area (capacity) is limited. Since the program title may be represented by a single-byte character string and a full-width character string for the same program, the similarity distance calculation unit 40 does not determine that it is a different character. Absorb inconsistencies due to full-width characters.

  When the character string forming the program title includes characters other than hiragana such as kanji and katakana, the kana character conversion unit 33 converts them into a kana character string (hiragana).

  For example, Patent Document 2 described above describes a method of grouping similar sentence examples using a DP matching method (dynamic programming). However, since the method described in Patent Document 2 determines the similarity by determining the distance between sentence examples simply by matching the character codes, the following problem occurs. That is, for example, if a program with the official name “Take Gaten” is abbreviated as “going point”, if the character string included in the program title is matched as it is based on the character code, there is no matching character string. Therefore, these cannot be determined as the same program. The kana character conversion unit 33 can further improve the accuracy in determining the identity of a program in response to fluctuations in notation (particularly notation with different character types such as kanji / katakana and hiragana).

  The kana character conversion unit 33 refers to the dictionary recording unit 22 and converts kanji or katakana included in the program title into hiragana. FIG. 7 shows an example in which the program title is converted into a kana character string. If the program title converted into all hiragana is extracted from the item “program title” in the EPG table of the EPG recording unit 21, the item “converted title” in the EPG table is used as “recorded program title”. Stored in If it is extracted from the instruction signal input from the operation unit 8 by the user, it is stored in the extracted title temporary storage unit 23 as “selected program title”. At this time, the kana character conversion unit 33 also retains information on how the character type of each character has changed. For example, as shown in FIG. 7, the conversion history information indicating that the four characters “Gatten” were originally four characters of “Gatten” is recorded in the EPG recording unit 21 or the extracted title temporary storage unit 23. Keep it.

  The morphological analysis unit 34 refers to the dictionary recording unit 22, and selects both program titles (ie, “recorded program title” stored in the EPG recording unit 21 and “selected title temporary storage unit 23”). The morpheme analysis unit 34, like the kana character conversion unit 33, analyzes the result of the morpheme analysis of the character string forming the program title along with the boundary position between the morphemes. Each part of speech is associated and recorded.

  As described above, the “recorded program title” and the “selected program title” that have been converted into full-width and hiragana and subjected to morpheme analysis are similar by the similarity distance calculation unit 40 together with the conversion history information and the morpheme analysis result. It is used to calculate the similarity distance representing the sex. By using the conversion history information and the morphological analysis result, the accuracy of calculating the similarity distance is improved, and as a result, the accuracy of the program identity determination can be improved.

(Matching function)
The similarity distance calculation unit 40 calculates the similarity distance between program titles extracted by the title extraction unit 30. The similarity distance calculation unit 40 further includes a character code distance calculation unit 41, a character type distance calculation unit 42, a part-of-speech distance calculation unit 43, and a boundary position distance calculation unit 44. The same program determination unit 60 determines whether or not both program titles indicate the same program based on the similarity distance between program titles calculated by the similarity distance calculation unit 40.

  As described above, the similarity distance is a numerical value of the similarity between both program titles to be compared, and the smaller the distance, the higher the similarity between both. In this embodiment, if the same program determination part 60 is less than a fixed threshold value (0.5), it will determine with both being the title of the same program.

  The character code distance calculation unit 41 collates the “recorded program title” stored in the EPG recording unit 21 with the “selected program title” stored in the extracted title temporary storage unit 23 for each character, The similarity distance between the program titles is calculated by evaluating that the characters having the same character code and the identity of the matching character sequences are highly similar. The inter-character code distance calculation unit 41 uses the inter-character code distance table recorded in the distance table recording unit 24 shown in FIG. 5A, for example, as the distance d1 (in, jm) between the character codes. Ask.

  It should be noted that “in” and “jm” in the above d1 (in, jm) are the nth character of the “record program title” composed of i characters and the m of the “selected program title” composed of j characters, respectively. Indicates the second character.

  The character type distance calculation unit 42 compares the conversion history information between the characters forming both program titles, and evaluates that the character types before the hiragana conversion match between the two program titles as having high similarity. By doing so, the similarity distance between the program titles is calculated. The inter-character-type distance calculation unit 42 obtains the inter-character-type distance d2 (in, jm) using, for example, the inter-character-type distance table recorded in the distance table recording unit 24 shown in FIG.

  The part-of-speech distance calculation unit 43 compares the characters that form both program titles using the morpheme analysis result, and evaluates that the part-of-speech of the morpheme to which the characters belong matches is highly similar. Thus, the similarity distance between the program titles is calculated. The part-of-speech distance calculation unit 43 obtains the part-of-speech distance d3 (in, jm) using, for example, the part-of-speech distance table recorded in the distance table recording unit 24 shown in FIG.

  The boundary position distance calculation unit 44 uses the morpheme analysis result to collate the boundary positions between the morphemes of the character strings having the matched character codes, and the boundary positions (or the presence / absence of the boundary positions) match in the character strings. The similarity distance between both program titles is calculated by evaluating that the similarity is high. In the morphological analysis result, information indicating whether or not there is a boundary before (and after) the character is recorded for each character. The boundary position distance calculation unit 44 obtains the boundary position distance d4 (in, jm) using, for example, a boundary position distance table recorded in the distance table recording unit 24 shown in FIG.

  Note that the total distance table for each character attribute shown in FIGS. 5A to 5D is “0” (that is, the similarity distance is not added) if the attribute matches, and is accumulated if the attribute does not match. Although a numerical value is set so that “1” is further added to the similarity distance, the distance table of the present invention is not limited to the examples shown in FIGS. For example, if it is considered that matching part-of-speech is more important for evaluating the identity than matching character types, the similarity that is added when there is no match in the part-of-speech distance table It is also possible to set a numerical value larger than the numerical value set in the character type distance table, such as “2” or “3”, so that the sex distance becomes larger.

  In the following, “record program title” = “testing title (pre-extraction title; trial title)” (hereinafter simply referred to as title X) and “selected program title” = “gaten (pre-extraction title; combined point)” (hereinafter simply referred to as “title”). The case of calculating the similarity distance with the title Y) will be described in detail as an example.

  The similarity distance is calculated using, for example, a method called a DP matching method (Dynamic programming matching method). The similarity distance (Dt) between program titles is the sum (D (i, j)) of similarity distances (d (in, jm)) between characters forming the program title, the sum of the numbers of characters of both program titles. Is calculated by dividing (normalizing).

  That is,

It becomes.
Here, D (i, j) represents the cumulative similarity distance between the title X with the number of characters i and the title Y with the number of characters j.

  Next, how to determine the cumulative similarity distance D (i, j) will be described.

  In the DP matching method, the similarity distance calculation unit 40 creates a two-dimensional table that compares the character strings forming the two program titles one by one in order to calculate the cumulative similarity distance. FIGS. 8A and 8B are diagrams illustrating an example of a two-dimensional table created by the similarity distance calculation unit 40. FIG. 8 shows an example in which a title X is placed on the horizontal axis and a title Y is placed on the vertical axis. Here, since the number of characters of title X is 8 and the number of characters of title Y is 4, a two-dimensional table consisting of 8 (i) × 4 (j) = 32 squares is created.

  The numerical value displayed in the square of the two-dimensional table in FIG. 8A indicates the cumulative similarity distance between the characters. For example, the numerical value displayed in the grid 61 stores the accumulated similarity distance at the stage of matching up to 4 characters of “test” of title X and 3 characters of “gatte” of title Y. Yes. That is, from the numerical value of the grid 61, it can be seen that the cumulative similarity distance (D (4,3)) of “try” and “gatte” is calculated as 5.

  The arrows displayed in the squares of the two-dimensional table in FIG. 8B indicate the accumulated similarity distance when the similarity distance between the last characters is calculated and the final accumulated similarity distance is calculated. A path (shortest path) selected so that (here, D (8, 4)) takes the minimum value is shown. Therefore, the numerical value displayed in the grid 62, which reflects the comparison result between the last characters, is the cumulative similarity distance between the title X with 8 characters and the title Y with 4 characters.

  The cumulative similarity distance D (i, j), that is, the shortest path is obtained by the following equation, for example.

  That is,

It becomes.
Here, d (i, j) represents the similarity distance between the i (final) th character of the title X having the number of characters i and the j (final) th character of the title Y having the number of characters j.

  In other words, the cumulative similarity distance between “Tarete Gaten” (title X) and “Gaten” (title Y) displayed in the cell 62 is the cell immediately before the cell 62 (the cells 63 to 63). 65 (according to any one of 65) between the characters (similarity distance between the eighth character “n” of title X and the fourth character “n” of title Y) It is an addition.

  As shortest path candidates, when reaching the grid 62 from the grid 63 (Formula 1), when reaching the grid 62 from the grid 64 (Formula 2), and reaching the grid 62 from the grid 65 In this case, since the three equations (Equation 3) can be considered, the one that has the smallest calculated value among the above three equations is calculated as the cumulative similarity distance between the title X and the title Y. .

  Note that “2 ×” in Equation 2 shown in Equation 2 indicates the weight of the path. For example, in the present embodiment, in the two-dimensional table of FIG. 8A, the distance that is added when the cell advances directly from the cell 64 to the cell 62 and when the cell advances through the cell 63 to the cell 62. Is set to a weight of “2 ×” so that the two finally become the same. However, the value of this weight is not limited to the above.

  In the present embodiment, the cumulative similarity distance D (i, j) is obtained using the equation shown in Equation 2 in order to obtain the shortest path using a symmetric path. However, the present invention is not limited to this. Not. For example, even if the shortest path is obtained by an asymmetric path, an equation for obtaining the cumulative similarity distance D (i, j) is prepared accordingly, and the cumulative similarity distance D (i, j) is calculated as follows. Can be calculated.

D (i, j) in the above equations 1 to 3 represents the similarity distance between characters to be added to the cumulative similarity distance up to immediately before. The similarity distance between characters is obtained by the following equation.
d (in, jm) = d1 (in, jm) Equation 4
Here, d (in, jm) represents the similarity distance between the nth character of the title X having the number of characters i and the mth character of the title Y having the number of characters j.

  As described above, d1 (in, jm) shown in the above equation 4 is the character code distance calculation unit 41 obtained by referring to the character code distance table of the distance table recording unit 24 as described above. Distance.

  The method for calculating the similarity distance between characters is not limited to the above. In this embodiment, in addition to (1) the character code (matching / mismatching of the character itself), (2) character type (kanji, hiragana, katakana, numbers, symbols, etc.), (3) part of speech (noun, verb, adjective, (4) The distance between characters is calculated by taking into account the presence / absence of a boundary position between morphemes when a character string is divided for each morpheme, and matching / mismatching of four attributes.

In this case, the similarity distance between characters is obtained by the following equation.
d (in, jm) = α × d1 (in, jm) + β × d2 (in, jm) + γ × d3 (in, jm) + δ × d4 (in, jm) Equation 5
Here, d2 (in, jm) represents the distance between character types calculated by the character type distance calculation unit 42, and d3 (in, jm) represents the distance between parts of speech calculated by the inter-part of speech distance calculation unit 43. , D4 (in, jm) indicates the distance related to the presence or absence of the boundary position calculated by the boundary position distance calculation unit 44.

  It should be noted that each calculated distance may be weighted like α, β, γ, and δ in Equation 5 above. That is, for each character attribute, a weight can be set depending on how important the match / mismatch is in determining the identity of both program titles.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 5, in each distance table, when the similarity distance added in the case of mismatch is uniformly “1”, when it is desired to give a weight to the match between parts of speech, the above formula 5, the value of “γ” may be set so as to be larger than other weighting values. Thereby, it is possible to calculate the similarity distance (and the cumulative similarity distance) with higher accuracy, and to improve the accuracy of determining the identity of the program title.

  FIGS. 9A to 9C are diagrams illustrating an example in which the similarity distance Dt between the title X and the title Y is calculated based on the above-described method. In the example shown in FIG. 9, the character code distance calculation unit 41 refers to the character code distance table of the distance table recording unit 24 to simplify the description, and the distance d1 between character codes. The case where the similarity distance between both program titles is calculated only by (in, jm) will be described.

  As shown in FIG. 9A, when performing “matching gatten” and “matching point” matching, the title extraction unit 30 extracts “testing (title X)” and “gaten (title Y)”, and similar. The sex distance calculation unit 40 calculates the similarity distance (Dt) between the program titles as follows.

In this embodiment, the similarity distance (Dt) is obtained by rounding off the fourth decimal place, but the present invention is not limited to this.

  Similarly, in the example of FIG. 9B, matching between “winter sonata” and “winter sonata” is performed. The similarity distance (Dt) between “Fuyu sona (title X)” and “Fuyu sona (title Y)” is calculated as “0.2” from Dt = 2 / (6 + 4). In the example of FIG. 9C, matching is performed between “try Gatten” and “winter sona”. The similarity distance (Dt) between both program titles is calculated as “1.0” from Dt = 12 / (8 + 4).

  When the similarity distance (Dt) between program titles calculated as described above is smaller than a predetermined threshold, the same program determination unit 60 determines that programs having both program titles are the same program. As described above, when the threshold value is set to “0.5”, the same program determination unit 60 displays the case of FIG. 9A (similarity distance between “That Gatten” and “Point”: 0.417), FIG. The case of 9 (b) (similarity distance between “Winter Sonata” and “Winter Sonata”: 0.2) is determined as the same program.

  According to the above configuration, the similarity distance calculation unit 40 calculates the similarity distance between the two program titles using the DP matching method, and the same program determination unit 60 determines whether the two program titles are based on the calculated distance. Determine the identity of. Since it is possible to determine identity without being limited by the number of consecutively matched character strings, it is possible to cope with fluctuations in the notation of program titles (especially abbreviations etc.) and improve accuracy in determining the identity of programs. It becomes possible.

  Furthermore, in this embodiment, the kana character conversion unit 33 of the title extraction unit 30 unifies the program title into a kana character string and performs matching to calculate the distance, so that the same as the program title recorded in the EPG. In determining the sex, it is possible to absorb the difference in the character type and to determine the identity of the program with higher accuracy.

  Furthermore, since the kana character conversion unit 33 records the character type before conversion when converting the character string to hiragana, the inter-character type distance calculation unit 42 takes into account the match / mismatch of the character type before conversion. The similarity distance can be calculated. Accordingly, it is possible to further improve the accuracy in determining the identity of a program in response to fluctuations in notation (particularly notation of different character types such as kanji / katakana and hiragana).

  In the present embodiment, when calculating the similarity distance between program titles, program information other than the “program title” (broadcast station name, program genre, broadcast time, etc.) is not used. It is possible to determine the identity of program titles. Among the title information (items “program title” and “conversion title” (see FIG. 4)) of all programs stored in the EPG recording unit 21 in advance, “recording target” to be compared with “selected program title” You may make it narrow down "program title".

  For example, continuous programs and series programs are broadcast on the same broadcasting station and the same program genre every day or almost every week, so these information can be used as candidates to be determined to be the same. If the program titles to be compared are narrowed down, the similarity distance calculation process described above can be performed more efficiently. In this case, the similarity distance calculation unit 40 refers to the EPG recording unit 21 and extracts, for example, only the record that satisfies the condition “same broadcast station”, and only the “record program title” included in the extracted record. As a comparison target.

  Note that the threshold used when the same program determination unit 60 determines the program identity is stored in, for example, a threshold holding unit (not shown) of the recording unit 20. It is assumed that an appropriate threshold is determined in advance for determining the identity of a program. In the present embodiment, “distance 0.5” is defined as a threshold value. If the distance is 0.5 or less, it is determined that the distance is the same, and if it exceeds 0.5, the threshold value is not limited. Moreover, it is good also as a structure which can change a setting arbitrarily.

(Optional pattern matching function)
The abbreviated pattern collation unit 50 collates a typical abbreviated pattern when a program title is abbreviated with an abbreviated pattern between both program titles calculated by the similarity distance calculation unit 40. is there. When the omission pattern collation unit 50 determines that the omission pattern made between the program titles deviates from each of the typical omission patterns as a result of collation with the typical omission pattern recorded in the omission pattern recording unit 26, Both program titles are considered not identical.

  As a result, the similarity distance calculation unit 40 regards the program title pairs that are originally determined to be the same from the calculated similarity distance, although they are originally program titles of different programs, from the same program candidate. Can be eliminated. As a result, the accuracy of program identity determination can be improved.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a typical omitted pattern recorded in the omitted pattern recording unit 26. The omission of the program title can be classified into, for example, the following five as shown in FIG.
Omission pattern (1)
A pattern that substitutes the first word among the words that make up the official program title. For example, “welfare network” is abbreviated as “welfare”.
Omission pattern (2)
A pattern that substitutes the last word of the words that make up the official program title. For example, “try and gatten” is abbreviated as “gatten” and “joining point”.
Omission pattern (3)
Of the words that make up the official program title, a pattern that is substituted with a characteristic middle word. For example, “Departure! Miniskapolis” is abbreviated as “Miniska”.
Omission pattern (4)
A pattern that omits particles included in the official program title. For example, when “winter sonata” is omitted as “winter sonata”, the particle “no” is omitted.
Omission pattern (5)
A pattern in which a part of one word constituting the official program title is omitted. For example, when “winter sonata” is abbreviated as “winter sonata”, the noun “sonata” “ta” is omitted.

  Note that the omitted patterns recorded in the omitted pattern recording unit 26 are not limited to the above. Depending on what abbreviation pattern is eliminated, a typical abbreviated pattern can be arbitrarily created and recorded.

  In the present embodiment, the above omitted patterns are recorded, and the omitted pattern matching unit 50 reads them as appropriate. According to each of the typical omission patterns, the character string remaining as a part of the title when omitted is composed of at least two characters.

  Therefore, when an abbreviated pattern in which only one character is left is detected in both program titles for which the similarity distance equal to or less than the threshold is calculated, the program titles are regarded as not being the titles of the same program. Furthermore, by using the part-of-speech information and the boundary position of the morpheme at the time of morpheme analysis, it is possible to filter out an abbreviated pattern in which characters in the same word are intermittently associated with the same. More specifically, for example, even if “sona” and “sota” are determined to be the same based on the similarity distance, an abbreviated pattern that is intermittently associated with every other character in the same word is It is possible to reject the determination that “you” and “you” are the same as invalid.

  Based on the above example, the similarity distance calculation unit 40 and the same program determination unit 60 determine that the program is the same, but an example in which the omitted pattern matching unit 50 rejects it is based on FIG. I will explain it.

  11A and 11B show two-dimensional tables (and similarity distances for each character) created by the similarity distance calculation unit 40 when DP matching is applied to the title X and the title Y. 11 (c) and 11 (d) are diagrams showing examples of character matching by DP matching.

  After the similarity distance calculation unit 40 calculates the similarity distance between the program titles, the abbreviated pattern matching unit 50 calculates the matching path (that is, the shortest path indicated by the arrow in FIGS. 11A and 11B). Based on the above, the character association (FIGS. 11C and 11D) is verified, and an estimated omission pattern performed between the title X and the title Y is detected.

  The abbreviated pattern collation unit 50 determines that the front part “trial” of “official” is omitted for “gaten” based on the character association shown in FIG. Therefore, the abbreviated pattern collation unit 50 collates the abbreviated pattern with each typical abbreviated pattern in the abbreviated pattern recording unit 26 and detects that it corresponds to the abbreviated pattern (1). Similar to the determination result based on the distance, it is determined that they are the same.

  On the other hand, the abbreviated pattern collation unit 50 determines that the first, third, fourth, and sixth characters of the official name “Tarete-ten” are “Gameten” based on the abbreviated pattern shown in FIG. It is determined that it is omitted. Therefore, the abbreviated pattern collation unit 50 collates the abbreviated pattern with each typical abbreviated pattern in the abbreviated pattern recording unit 26 to detect that it does not correspond to any typical abbreviated pattern, and both program titles are similar. Contrary to the determination result based on the sex distance, it is determined that they are not the same.

  In addition, the collation process of the omission pattern collation part 50 may be performed before the determination of the same program determination part 60, or may be performed after it. When executed before the identity determination process of the same program determination unit 60, the program title pair output from the similarity distance calculation unit 40 is collated with an abbreviated pattern, and the collation with the typical abbreviated pattern is successful. Only the similarity distance of the program title pair may be supplied to the same program determination unit 60.

  When executed after the identity determination process of the same program determination unit 60, only the program title pair determined to be the same by the same program determination unit 60 is compared with the omitted pattern, and the comparison with the typical omitted pattern is performed. Only successful program title pairs need be supplied to the data acquisition unit 70.

  According to the above-described configuration, even when the titles of different programs, “Tarete-ten” and “Gameten”, are determined to be the same program from the similarity distance calculation result, the omitted pattern matching unit 50 determines that it is not the same program by collating with a typical omission pattern. As a result, it is possible to further improve the accuracy of the program identity determination.

  The data acquisition unit 70 performs various data associated with the “program title” (other items of program information such as broadcast date and time, recorded data of the recorded program based on the identity determination result of the program title in the EPG processing unit 1. Or the like) from the EPG recording unit 21, the recorded program recording unit 25, or the like. The data acquired by the data acquisition unit 70 changes according to an instruction signal from the user input via the operation unit 8 (FIG. 2).

  The process flow of the EPG processing apparatus 101 shown in FIG. 1 described above will be described with reference to FIG.

  When the “selected program title” selected by the user is input to the EPG processing device 101 in response to a channel selection (recording) instruction from the user (YES in S101), it is unnecessary in the title extraction unit 30 of the EPG processing unit 1 The word removal unit 31 removes unnecessary words of the “selected program title” (S102). Next, the full-width conversion unit 32 converts the half-width characters included in the “selected program title” into full-width characters (S103). The morpheme analysis unit 34 performs morpheme analysis on the “selected program title” and records the analysis result (S104). Subsequently, the kana character conversion unit 33 unifies the characters forming the “selected program title” in hiragana (S105). In addition, about a symbol etc., you may leave as a symbol, or you may convert into the hiragana notation of the common name of the said symbol. Note that the processing from S102 to S105 in the title extraction unit 30 may be executed in any order. The “selected program title” output from the title extraction unit 30 is stored in the extracted title temporary storage unit 23.

  Next, the similarity distance calculation unit 40 acquires the “record program title” to be compared from the EPG recording unit 21 (S106). At this time, the acquired “record program titles” may be narrowed down to only those satisfying a predetermined condition.

  Here, the similarity distance between characters is determined by each part of the similarity distance calculation unit 40 (character code distance calculation unit 41, character type distance calculation unit 42, part-of-speech distance calculation unit 43, boundary position distance calculation unit 44). The cumulative similarity distance between program titles is calculated, and based on this, the similarity distance calculation unit 40 calculates the similarity distance (Dt) between program titles (S107).

  Subsequently, the same program determining unit 60 compares the similarity distance with a threshold value, and when the similarity distance (Dt) is equal to or smaller than the threshold value (YES in S108), it determines that both program titles are the same. Then, this program title pair is supplied to the omitted pattern matching unit 50. The abbreviated pattern collation unit 50 collates the abbreviated pattern of the program title pair with the typical abbreviated pattern recorded in the abbreviated pattern recording unit 26 (S109). If the abbreviated pattern matches (YES in S110), It is determined that the input “selected program title” and the acquired “recorded program title” are the same (S111). Subsequently, the “recorded program title” determined to be the same is supplied to the data acquisition unit 70 (S112). Finally, when the “recorded program title” to be compared remains unprocessed (YES in S113), the program identity determination process from S106 is repeated.

  On the other hand, if it is determined that the similarity distance (Dt) exceeds the threshold (NO in S108), or if the omitted pattern matching fails (NO in S110), the same program determining unit 60, the omitted pattern matching unit Each of 50 determines that the inputted “selected program title” and the acquired “recorded program title” are not the same (S114).

  According to the above method, the similarity distance calculation unit 40 calculates the similarity distance between the two program titles using the DP matching method, and the same program determination unit 60 determines whether the two program titles are based on the calculated distance. Determine the identity of. Since it is possible to determine identity without being limited by the number of consecutively matched character strings, it is possible to cope with fluctuations in the notation of program titles (especially abbreviations etc.) and improve accuracy in determining the identity of programs. It becomes possible.

  Furthermore, in this embodiment, the kana character conversion unit 33 of the title extraction unit 30 unifies the program title into a kana character string and performs matching to calculate the distance, so that the same as the program title recorded in the EPG. In determining the sex, it is possible to absorb the difference in the character type and to determine the identity of the program with higher accuracy.

  Furthermore, since the kana character conversion unit 33 records the character type before conversion when converting the character string to hiragana, the inter-character type distance calculation unit 42 takes into account the match / mismatch of the character type before conversion. The similarity distance can be calculated. Accordingly, it is possible to further improve the accuracy in determining the identity of a program in response to fluctuations in notation (particularly notation of different character types such as kanji / katakana and hiragana).

  Hereinafter, an example of functions realized by the digital television 100 (FIG. 2) to which the above-described EPG processing device 101 is applied according to an instruction signal from the user will be described with reference to FIGS.

(Continuous program or series program reservation processing)
Next, recording reservation processing for a continuous program or series program using the same program determination function of the EPG processing device 101 will be described with reference to FIG.

  First, in S201, in order to make a recording reservation, the user selects a desired program from a program column (an electronic program guide created based on the EPG table of the EPG recording unit 21) as shown in FIG. By selecting, the program to be recorded is designated. Thereby, the digital television 100 starts the recording reservation process after S202. Here, in FIG. 14 (a), the following description will be given assuming that the recording reservation is made for “That Gatten” from 25:35 of MHK and that the series reservation is designated.

  When the recording control unit 2 of the digital television 100 receives a recording instruction from the user via the operation unit 8, the recording title of the specified program “Try Gatten” from the EPG recording unit 21 together with the specified date and time. It adds to a recording reservation list (S202). Subsequently, the recording control unit 2 determines whether or not the series reservation is specified (S203). If the series reservation is not specified (NO in S203), it is determined that there is no other program to be recorded. The recording reservation process for the program information ends. On the other hand, when the series reservation is designated (YES in S203), in S204, the EPG processing unit 1 performs the above-described program identity determination process, and there is another program to be added to the recording reservation list. Detect whether there is no.

  Specifically, for example, the recording control unit 2 uses the same program determination function for program information in a time zone around 24:35 (for example, two hours before and after) of MHK every day or one week ahead. Thus, it is detected whether there is a program determined to have the same program title. When the EPG processing unit 1 (FIG. 1) can detect the same program from the EPG recording unit 21, the data acquisition unit 70 determines the program information (broadcast date and time) from the EPG recording unit 21 based on the program title. And the like are supplied to the recording control unit 2. The recording control unit 2 adds the data acquired by the data acquisition unit 70 to the recording reservation list (S205). If the same program cannot be detected, the recording reservation process is terminated without adding to the recording reservation list.

  As described above, by specifying reservation of a continuous program or series program at the time of recording reservation, even if the title name is omitted or the broadcast start time is deviated (FIG. 14B), the recording control unit 2 makes it possible to control the recording processing unit 14 so that a recording reservation of a continuous program or a series program can be performed correctly.

(Recorded program folder organization process)
Next, a folder arrangement process of recorded programs using the same program determination function will be described with reference to FIG.

  First, in S301, for the purpose of organizing the recorded programs, for example, as shown in FIG. 16, one of the recorded program title lists is selected and the “automatic organizing” menu is executed. The folder organization process (S303, S304) is repeated until the program title data of the recorded program runs out (until YES in S302).

  Specifically, the recorded program management unit 7 of the digital television 100 uses the same program determination function to program the program title (““ selected program title ”) that is the same as the program title designated by the user (“ selected program title ”). Recorded program title ") is detected (S303). When the EPG processing unit 1 determines that the “selected program title” and the “recorded program title” are the same program (YES in S303), the data acquisition unit 70 determines that the “recorded program title” is the same as the “selected program title”. The program information of the program having “program title” is acquired and supplied to the recorded program management unit 7. The recorded program management unit 7 adds recorded program data determined to be the same to the organizing program list (S304).

  When the comparison with the program titles of all the recorded programs is completed (YES in S302), the recorded program management unit 7 extracts a common character string from the program titles of the programs added to the organizing program list. (S305), it is set as the folder name of a folder for collecting programs included in the organizing program list.

  Subsequently, the output control unit 6 presents the folder name extracted by the recorded program management unit 7 and the list of recorded programs aggregated in the organizing program list to the user (S306).

  At this time, if a program that the user does not want to organize is included in the same folder, the user may specify the title of the program and delete it (S307).

  When the user instructs execution of the folder organization process (S308), the recorded program management unit 7 creates a folder with the extracted folder name, and stores the recorded program included in the organization program list in the folder (S309). . When the user cancels the execution of the folder organization process (NO in S308), the recorded program management unit 7 ends the folder organization process as it is.

  Thus, when organizing recorded programs into folders, by designating one of the programs to be organized and collected, the same program is searched from the program title and presented to the user. It is possible to organize recorded programs by a simple operation without specifying one recorded program and moving to a folder.

(Repeated broadcast program information presentation process)
Next, repetitive broadcast program information presentation processing using the same program determination function will be described with reference to FIG.

  First, when the operation receiving unit 3 of the digital television 100 receives a user's instruction for selecting a desired program (viewing a program), the output control unit 6 shown in FIG. 2 presents the designated program to the user. At this time, the output control unit 6 acquires the broadcast start time of the presented program (that is, the program that the user is currently viewing) from the EPG recording unit 21, and determines whether or not the program has started to be viewed during the broadcast. . When it is determined that the program is viewed from the middle of the program (YES in S401), the output control unit 6 performs the information presentation process from S402 onward.

  Specifically, the output control unit 6 uses the same program determination function for the same broadcast station and program information in the time zone after the current day, and there is a program that can determine that the program title is the same. To detect. When the same program can be detected (YES in S402), the output control unit 6 acquires the data acquisition unit 70 (FIG. 1) of the EPG processing unit 1 from the EPG recording unit 21 based on the program title of the same program. Program information of a program determined to be the same as the program being viewed is presented to the user. If the same program cannot be detected, the information presentation process is terminated without executing the information presentation.

  In this way, when the same program is repeatedly broadcast in digital broadcasting, etc., if the user starts watching from the middle of the program, it will notify the time from which the same program will be broadcast. In this case, it is not necessary to search for the program in order to know the next opportunity to view the program, which improves convenience for the user.

  In addition, although the case where a program was broadcast was demonstrated above, it is not restricted to this, It can apply also to the system which distributes a program only to a specific other party by communication. In addition, as long as the program can be transmitted according to the schedule, it is not limited to video, audio, or a combination thereof. For example, the program is widely applied to a system that transmits arbitrary information such as data distribution. it can.

  In addition, any device capable of instructing the digital television 100 according to the present invention to record or display information and detect an operation (instruction signal input) to the digital television 100 can be used as the EPG processing device 101 (FIG. 1). Each member may be provided in a device different from the digital television 100.

  In the above embodiment, each member constituting the EPG processing device 101 is “a functional block realized by a calculation means such as a CPU executing a program code stored in a recording medium such as a ROM or a RAM. The case has been described by way of example, but may be realized by hardware that performs the same processing. Further, it can also be realized by combining hardware that performs a part of the processing and the above-described calculation means that executes the program code for controlling the hardware and the remaining processing. Further, even among the members described above as hardware, the hardware for performing a part of the processing and the arithmetic means for executing the program code for performing the control of the hardware and the remaining processing It can also be realized by combining them. The arithmetic means may be a single unit, or a plurality of arithmetic means connected via a bus inside the apparatus or various communication paths may execute the program code jointly. The storage unit (recording unit 20) among the above members may be a storage device such as a memory.

  The program code itself that can be directly executed by the computing means, or a program as data that can be generated by a process such as decompression described later, stores the program (program code or the data) in a recording medium, Distributing the recording medium, or transmitting the program by a communication means for transmitting via a wired or wireless communication path, distributed to the digital television 100 (or EPG processing apparatus 101), The arithmetic means executes the program stored in the recording medium or the received program, thereby realizing the digital television 100 (or the EPG processing apparatus 101) of the present invention.

  When transmitting via a communication path, each transmission medium which comprises a communication path propagates the signal sequence which shows a program, and thereby the said program is transmitted via the said communication path. In this case, the program is fluidly carried in the transmission medium or the apparatus constituting the communication path. Further, when transmitting the signal sequence, the transmission device may superimpose the signal sequence on the carrier by modulating the carrier with the signal sequence indicating the program. In this case, the signal sequence is restored by the receiving apparatus demodulating the carrier wave. On the other hand, when transmitting the signal sequence, the transmission device may divide and transmit the signal sequence as a digital data sequence. In this case, the receiving apparatus concatenates the received packet groups and restores the signal sequence. Further, when the transmission apparatus transmits a signal sequence, the signal sequence may be multiplexed with another signal sequence and transmitted by a method such as time division / frequency division / code division. In this case, the receiving apparatus extracts and restores individual signal sequences from the multiplexed signal sequence. In any case, the same effect can be obtained if the program can be transmitted via the communication path.

  If the computer is equipped with a modem and can be connected to a communication network including the Internet, a download program for downloading from the communication network may be stored in advance in the digital television 100 (or the EPG processing device 101). Alternatively, it may be installed from another recording medium.

  Here, it is preferable that the recording medium for distributing the program is removable, but it does not matter whether the recording medium after distributing the program is removable. In addition, the recording medium can be rewritten (written), volatile, or the recording method and shape as long as a program is stored. As an example of the recording medium, a tape such as a magnetic tape or a cassette tape, a magnetic disk such as a floppy (registered trademark) disk or a hard disk, a CD-ROM, a CD-R, a magneto-optical disk (MO), a mini disk ( MD) and digital video disc (digital versatile disc). The recording medium is a card such as an IC (integrated circuit) card or an optical card, or a semiconductor memory such as a mask ROM, EPROM (ultraviolet erasable ROM), EEPROM (electrically erasable ROM), or flash ROM. It may be. Or the memory formed in calculating means, such as CPU, may be sufficient. The recording medium may store not only the program but also data accessed by the program and other arbitrary data.

  The program code may be a code for instructing the arithmetic means of all the procedures of the processes, or a basic program capable of executing a part or all of the processes by calling according to a predetermined procedure. If (for example, an operating system or a library) already exists, a part or all of the entire procedure may be replaced with a code or a pointer that instructs the arithmetic means to call the basic program.

  The format for storing the program in the recording medium may be a storage format that can be accessed and executed by the arithmetic means, for example, as in a state where the program is stored in the real memory, or is stored in the real memory. Installed in the local recording medium from the storage format after being installed in a local recording medium (for example, real memory or hard disk) that is always accessible by the computing means, or from a network or a transportable recording medium The previous storage format may be used. Further, the program is not limited to the compiled object code, but may be stored as source code or intermediate code generated during interpretation or compilation. In any case, the above calculation is performed by a process such as decompression of compressed information, decoding of encoded information, interpretation, compilation, linking, allocation to real memory, or a combination of processes. If the means can be converted into an executable format, the same effect can be obtained regardless of the format in which the program is stored in the recording medium.

  As an example, after the program code read from the recording medium is written in a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted in the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, the function is based on the instruction of the program code. An arithmetic unit such as a CPU provided in the expansion board or the function expansion unit may perform part or all of the actual processing, and the functions of the above-described embodiments may be realized by the processing.

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made within the scope shown in the claims. That is, embodiments obtained by combining technical means appropriately changed within the scope of the claims are also included in the technical scope of the present invention.

  Finally, each block of the EPG processing apparatus 101, in particular, the title extraction unit 30, the similarity distance calculation unit 40, the omitted pattern matching unit 50, and the same program determination unit 60 may be configured by hardware logic. Thus, it may be realized by software using a CPU.

  That is, the EPG processing device 101 includes a CPU (central processing unit) that executes instructions of a control program that realizes each function, a ROM (read only memory) that stores the program, and a RAM (random access memory) that expands the program. And a storage device (recording medium) such as a memory for storing the program and various data. An object of the present invention is to provide a recording medium on which a program code (execution format program, intermediate code program, source program) of a control program of the EPG processing apparatus 101, which is software that realizes the functions described above, is recorded so as to be readable by a computer. This can also be achieved by supplying the program to the EPG processing apparatus 101 and reading and executing the program code recorded on the recording medium by the computer (or CPU or MPU).

  Examples of the recording medium include a tape system such as a magnetic tape and a cassette tape, a magnetic disk such as a floppy (registered trademark) disk / hard disk, and an optical disk such as a CD-ROM / MO / MD / DVD / CD-R. Card system such as IC card, IC card (including memory card) / optical card, or semiconductor memory system such as mask ROM / EPROM / EEPROM / flash ROM.

  Further, the EPG processing apparatus 101 may be configured to be connectable to a communication network, and the program code may be supplied via the communication network. The communication network is not particularly limited. For example, the Internet, intranet, extranet, LAN, ISDN, VAN, CATV communication network, virtual private network, telephone line network, mobile communication network, satellite communication. A net or the like is available. Further, the transmission medium constituting the communication network is not particularly limited. For example, even in the case of wired such as IEEE 1394, USB, power line carrier, cable TV line, telephone line, ADSL line, etc., infrared rays such as IrDA and remote control, Bluetooth ( (Registered trademark), 802.11 wireless, HDR, mobile phone network, satellite line, terrestrial digital network, and the like can also be used. The present invention can also be realized in the form of a computer data signal embedded in a carrier wave in which the program code is embodied by electronic transmission.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to realize a program data processing apparatus equipped with a method for determining the same program that can cope with fluctuations in the notation of program title names (particularly, notation, different notations such as kanji and kana). The present invention can be widely used in various systems including a program viewing system and a program recording system.

  In addition, by using a program guide based on EPG data, it is possible to make a reservation for a series program such as a series drama broadcast at a fixed time every day. It is also possible to search for a program with a preset keyword and automatically reserve a program found by the search.

It is a block diagram which shows the principal part structure of the program data processing apparatus applied to the digital television which concerns on this embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows schematic structure of the digital television concerning this embodiment. It is a front view of the 2nd operation part as a remote control of the digital television concerning this embodiment. (A) is a figure which shows the program information of one program, (b) is a figure which shows the EPG table (electronic program guide) which made one program information 1 record and made several program information into the database. is there. (A)-(d) is the figure which showed the example of the distance table which the similarity distance calculation part of the program data processing apparatus concerning this embodiment refers. It is a table | surface which shows the example of the unnecessary word attached to the program title which concerns on this embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example which the title extraction part of the program data processing apparatus which concerns on this embodiment extracted the program title. (A) And (b) is a figure which shows the example of the two-dimensional table which a similarity distance calculation part produces. (A)-(c) is a figure which shows the example which computed the similarity distance Dt between two program titles based on the method mentioned above. It is a figure which shows the example of the typical omission pattern recorded on the omission pattern recording part 26 shown in FIG. (A) and (b) are two-dimensional tables created by the similarity distance calculation unit (and the similarity distance for each character and the shortest path) when DP matching is applied to two program titles. (C), (d) is a figure which shows the example of character matching by DP matching. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of a process of the program data processing apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of the recording reservation process of a digital television provided with the program data processing apparatus which concerns on this invention. (A) And (b) is a figure which shows the example of the program column displayed on the video output part shown in FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of the folder rearrangement process of the digital television provided with the program data processing apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of the title list of the video recording program displayed on the video output part shown in FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of the information presentation process of the digital television provided with the program data processing apparatus which concerns on this invention.

Explanation of symbols

1 EPG processing unit 2 Recording control unit (recording processing means)
3 Operation reception part (operation reception means)
4 Broadcast data acquisition unit 5 EPG acquisition unit 6 Output control unit (output control means)
7 Recorded program management section (recorded program management means)
8 Operation unit 9 Output unit 10 Control unit 11 Tuner and demodulation unit 12 TS decoder 13 AV decoder 14 Recording processing unit 15 Graphics generation unit 16 Image superposition unit 17 Interface 18 Audio output unit 19 Video output unit 20 Recording unit 21 EPG recording unit 22 Dictionary recording unit 23 Extracted title temporary storage unit 24 Distance table recording unit 25 Recorded program recording unit 26 Omitted pattern recording unit 30 Title extraction unit (title extraction means)
31 Unnecessary word removal unit (unnecessary word removal means)
32 Full-width conversion unit (Full-width conversion means)
33 Kana character conversion part (kana character conversion means)
34 Morphological analyzer (morphological analyzer)
40 Similarity distance calculation unit (evaluation value calculation means)
41 Character code distance calculation unit 42 Character type distance calculation unit (character type evaluation value calculation means)
43 Part-of-speech distance calculation unit (inter-part-of-speech evaluation value calculation means)
44 Boundary position distance calculation unit (Boundary position evaluation value calculation means)
50 Omitted pattern matching unit (pattern matching means)
60 Same program determination unit (determination means)
70 Data acquisition unit (data acquisition means)
100 Digital TV (recording device / playback device / information display device)
101 EPG processing device (program data processing device)

Claims (19)

Title extraction means for extracting a program title of a program from program information indicating information about the program,
The selected program title of the program selected by the user extracted by the title extraction means, and the recorded program title of the program extracted by the title extraction means and recorded in advance in a program information database consisting of a plurality of program information Is divided into character units, the characters separated from both program titles are compared, and the attribute mismatch between the characters is accumulated as the distance between characters indicating the degree of non-identity between characters. Distance calculating means for calculating the distance as a distance between program titles indicating the degree of non-identity between both program titles;
Determination means for determining whether or not the selected program title and the recorded program title are the titles of the same program based on a result of comparing the distance between the program titles with a predetermined threshold ;
An abbreviation pattern applied to one program title is detected from a character string that matches between the selected program title and the recorded program title determined by the determination means to be the same, and a predetermined program title Pattern matching means for matching with the typical omitted pattern of
The pattern matching means rejects the determination by the determining means when the detected omitted pattern does not match the typical omitted pattern, and determines that the selected program title and the recorded program title are not the same program title. A program data processing apparatus.   2. The program data processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the title extracting unit further includes an unnecessary word removing unit that removes a character string that does not represent the program title included in the program title.   3. The program data processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the title extracting means further comprises full-width conversion means for converting half-width characters included in the program title into full-width characters.   4. The program data processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the distance calculation unit accumulates distances between characters by comparing a plurality of types of attributes. 5.   5. A distance table recording unit that records a distance table indicating a distance value to be added by the distance calculating means according to a mismatch of character attributes for each attribute type. The program data processing device according to any one of the above.   The title extraction means further includes kana character conversion means for converting the character string constituting the program title into kana characters and recording conversion history information indicating which character type is converted into kana characters for each character,
  The distance calculation means refers to the conversion history information recorded by the kana character conversion means, and calculates the distance between program titles by accumulating the character type mismatches between characters as the distance between characters. 6. The program data processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the program data processing apparatus is characterized in that:   2. The program data processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the distance calculating means selects the recorded program title to be compared with the selected program title from a program information database based on a predetermined condition.   8. The program data processing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the distance calculation means selects the recorded program title to be compared from a program information database based on broadcast station information.   8. The program data processing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the distance calculation means selects the recorded program title to be compared from a program information database based on genre information.   8. The program data processing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the distance calculation means selects the recorded program title to be compared from a program information database based on broadcast date and time information.   Title extraction means for extracting a program title of a program from program information indicating information about the program,
  The selected program title of the program selected by the user extracted by the title extraction means, and the recorded program title of the program extracted by the title extraction means and recorded in advance in a program information database consisting of a plurality of program information Is divided into character units, the characters separated from both program titles are compared, and the attribute mismatch between the characters is accumulated as the distance between characters indicating the degree of non-identity between characters. Distance calculating means for calculating the distance as a distance between program titles indicating the degree of non-identity between both program titles;
  Determination means for determining whether the selected program title and the recorded program title are the titles of the same program based on the result of comparing the distance between the program titles with a predetermined threshold;
  The title extraction means further includes morpheme analysis means for performing a morpheme analysis of a character string constituting a program title and dividing it into a morpheme string, and recording a morpheme analysis result including a part of speech assigned to each divided morpheme,
  The distance calculation means refers to the morpheme analysis result recorded by the morpheme analysis means, and calculates the distance between program titles by accumulating the dissimilarity of the part of speech of the morpheme to which each character belongs as the distance between characters. A program data processing apparatus.   Title extraction means for extracting a program title of a program from program information indicating information about the program,
  The selected program title of the program selected by the user extracted by the title extraction means, and the recorded program title of the program extracted by the title extraction means and recorded in advance in a program information database consisting of a plurality of program information Is divided into character units, the characters separated from both program titles are compared, and the attribute mismatch between the characters is accumulated as the distance between characters indicating the degree of non-identity between characters. Distance calculating means for calculating the distance as a distance between program titles indicating the degree of non-identity between both program titles;
  Determination means for determining whether the selected program title and the recorded program title are the titles of the same program based on the result of comparing the distance between the program titles with a predetermined threshold;
  The title extraction means further includes morpheme analysis means for performing a morpheme analysis of a character string constituting a program title and dividing it into a morpheme string, and recording a morpheme analysis result including a boundary position between each divided morpheme,
  The distance calculation means refers to the morpheme analysis result recorded by the morpheme analysis means, and accumulates the disagreement of the boundary position between the morphemes to which each character belongs as the distance between characters, thereby calculating the distance between program titles. A program data processing apparatus characterized by calculating.   The program data processing device according to any one of claims 1 to 12,
  Operation accepting means for receiving a program title of a program desired by a user via the operation unit and supplying the program title as a selected program title to the program data processing device;
  Data acquisition means for acquiring, from the program information database, program information associated with a recorded program title that is determined to be the same as the selected program title by the program data processing device;
  A recording apparatus comprising recording processing means for recording the program based on broadcast date and time information included in the acquired program information.   The program data processing device according to any one of claims 1 to 12,
  A recorded program recording unit that records a recorded program and a recorded program title of the recorded program in association with each other;
  Operation receiving means for receiving a program title of a program desired by a user via the operation unit, and supplying the program title as a selected program title to the program data processing device;
  Data acquisition means for acquiring data of a recorded program of a recorded program title determined to be the same as the selected program title by the program data processing device from the recorded program recording unit;
  A playback apparatus comprising: an output unit that outputs data of a recorded program acquired by the data acquisition means.   15. The program data processing apparatus further comprises recorded program management means for managing a plurality of recorded programs having a recorded program title determined to be the same as the selected program title in one folder. The playback device described in 1.   The program data processing device according to any one of claims 1 to 12,
  An operation receiving means for receiving a viewing start instruction from the user together with a program title of the program desired by the user via the operation unit, and supplying the desired program title as the selected program title to the program data processing device;
  Output control means for controlling an output unit to output data of the desired program in response to the viewing start instruction;
  The program data processing device comprises data acquisition means for acquiring program information of a program having a program title determined to be the same as the selected program title from a program information database,
  The output control means controls the output section to output program information acquired by the data acquisition means when outputting data of the desired program. An extraction step in which the title extraction means of the program data processing device extracts the program title of the program from the program information indicating the information about the program;
The distance calculation means of the program data processing device records the selected program title of the program selected by the user extracted by the extraction step and the program information database including a plurality of program information extracted by the extraction step. The recorded program title of the program is decomposed into character units, the decomposed characters of both program titles are compared, and the attribute mismatch between the characters is indicated between characters indicating the degree of non-identity between characters. A distance calculation step of calculating the accumulated distance as a distance between program titles indicating a degree of non-identity between both program titles;
The determination means of the program data processing apparatus determines whether the selected program title and the recorded program title are the titles of the same program based on the result of comparing the distance between the program titles with a predetermined threshold. A determination step to:
The pattern matching means of the program data processing device is applied to one program title from a character string that matches between the selected program title and the recorded program title determined to be the same in the determination step. A pattern matching step for detecting a omitted pattern and comparing with a typical omitted pattern of a predetermined program title,
In the pattern matching step, if the detected omitted pattern does not match the typical omitted pattern, the determination in the determining step is rejected, and the selected program title and the recorded program title are not the same program title. program data processing method characterized by.   The program data processing device according to any one of claims 1 to 12, the recording device according to claim 13, the playback device according to claim 14 or 15, or the information display device according to claim 16. A control program for causing the computer to function as each of the above-described means.   The computer-readable recording medium which recorded the control program of Claim 18.

Images