JP4820855B2 - Content viewing system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an interactive broadcast viewing technique, and more particularly to a technique that is effective when applied to a broadcast technique for a viewer-participation broadcast program in a television broadcast or the like.

  For example, conventionally, television shopping, questionnaire surveys, viewer-participation quiz programs, and the like are known as viewer-participation-type broadcast programs in television broadcasting and the like. As a means of communication in any direction, only notifications such as orders, questionnaire responses, quiz responses, etc. are made by voice calls to broadcasting station staff or automatic voice response systems using the telephone network by viewers. there were.

  In the above prior art, it is difficult to speed up the response of the broadcast content to the viewer's reaction because it requires a lot of manpower to reflect the response from a large number of viewers in the broadcast content itself. As a result, there was a technical problem that the presence of viewer participation programs was poor.

  In addition, the viewer can only watch the broadcast content sent from the broadcasting station as it is, the display state of images and the like cannot be changed according to his / her preference, and the degree of freedom of viewing is low There are also some challenges.

  An object of the present invention is to provide an interactive broadcast viewing technology capable of realizing a viewer-participation program rich in presence.

  Another object of the present invention is to provide an interactive broadcast viewing technique capable of configuring various broadcast screens according to individual viewer preferences.

  The present invention provides a plurality of content viewing terminals, at least one content transmission device, first communication means for transmitting content from the content transmission device to the content viewing terminal, the content transmission device, and the content viewing terminal, And a second communication means for exchanging information between them, generating layout information for the content transmitted by the first communication means, and instructing from the content viewing terminal To output the layout information for transmission to the content viewing terminal via at least one of the first communication means and the second communication means.

  The present invention also provides a plurality of content viewing terminals, at least one content transmission device, first communication means for transmitting content from the content transmission device to the content viewing terminal, the content transmission device, and the content viewing device. In a bi-directional content viewing system including a second communication unit that exchanges information with a terminal, a receiving unit that receives the content and the layout information of the content, and a viewer transmits the content to the content transmission device Display for controlling the display of the content using at least one of the layout information and the selection information, input means for inputting selection information of the layout information, a display device for displaying the content, and the display information And a content viewing terminal comprising a control means

  According to the present invention, there is an effect that it is possible to realize an interactive broadcast viewing technique capable of realizing a viewer participation program that is rich in realism.

  According to the present invention, there is an effect that it is possible to provide an interactive broadcast viewing technique capable of configuring various broadcast screens according to individual viewers' preferences.

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

(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of the overall configuration of an interactive broadcast viewing system according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 illustrates an example of the operation of the interactive broadcast viewing system according to the present embodiment. FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of a system configuration on the broadcast station side constituting the interactive broadcast viewing system of the present embodiment, and FIG. 4 is an interactive broadcast viewing system of the present embodiment. It is a conceptual diagram which shows the structural example of the viewer terminal which comprises.

  As illustrated in FIG. 1, the interactive broadcast viewing system according to the present embodiment includes a broadcast station 100, a viewer terminal 200, a relay satellite 301, and the like, from the broadcast station 100 to a plurality of viewer terminals 200. A wireless broadcast network 300 that broadcasts to the Internet, and the Internet 400 that exchanges information between the broadcast station 100 and the plurality of viewer terminals 200.

  As illustrated in FIG. 3, the broadcasting station 100 in the present embodiment includes a video source such as a TV camera 104 and a video playback device 105 via a transmission device 101 that transmits broadcast radio waves to the relay satellite 301 and a video switcher 103. A video encoding unit 102 that encodes a video signal input to the transmission device 101 into a format such as MPEG-2, a transmission video control device 106 that controls the video encoding unit 102, a video layout or the like to the transmission video control device 106 The WWW server 109 and WWW server 109 connected to the transmission video control apparatus 106 via the intranet 108 and connected to the individual viewer terminals 200 via the Internet 400. A user input information totaling table 110 to be connected is included.

  On the other hand, the viewer terminal 200 according to the present embodiment can use any information device such as a tisivision receiver, a personal computer, a portable information terminal, and a mobile phone capable of receiving video.

  As an example, as illustrated in FIG. 4, the viewer terminal 200 according to the present embodiment includes a microprocessor 202, a main memory 203, a network interface 204 that realizes a connection interface to the Internet 400, and a wireless communication via a bus 201. A TV tuner 205 that realizes a reception interface for the broadcast network 300, a decoding device 205a that constitutes a part of the TV tuner 205 and decodes broadcast information received in an encoded state, an external storage, and the like A device 206, a frame memory 207 and a display 208 for visualizing and presenting a video to a viewer, a keyboard and a remote controller, and a user input device 209 used for inputting information by the viewer; a speaker for outputting voice and sound 210, etc.

  The microprocessor 202 performs overall control of the viewer terminal 200 with software described later installed in the main memory 203.

  Broadcast radio waves from the wireless broadcast network 300 are input to the TV tuner 205 via the antenna 205b.

  In the case of the present embodiment, the main memory 203 includes an operating system 501, an XML parser 502 running on the operating system 501, a browsing engine 503, an XML filtering program 504, a layout generation / update program 505, and a GUI processing program 506. Software such as a capture program 507 and an interactive broadcast viewing system display program 508 are installed.

  An example of the processing function of each software (module) described above in the present embodiment will be described.

(1) Interactive broadcast viewing system display program 508
The interactive broadcast viewing system display program 508 includes control information described in a page description language such as XML (Extensible Markup Language) input from a viewer via the user input device 209 or XML input from the outside. The XML filtering program 504, the layout generation / update program 505, and the GUI processing program 506, which will be described later, are distributed to the modules.

  Further, the user detects an operation on the program output to the display 208, passes the operation content to the GUI processing program 506, and executes the GUI processing corresponding to the operation of the program.

  It also specifies the start and end of video playback and capture processing.

(2) XML filtering program 504
The XML filtering program 504 performs information filtering according to customization information from XML data representing the contents of the program.

  Further, as an example of the filtering process, there is a process for extracting only necessary information from XML information flowing in time series. The filtered information is input to the layout generation / update program 505 and the GUI processing program 506.

  For example, a person name keyword added to a scene in a program is monitored, and only a person name specified in advance is reproduced.

  As an example of the filtering process, there is a process of searching only information according to a certain condition from a lot of XML information accumulated in the system.

  For example, it is used for processing to extract only XML information of a certain time range from XML information of a lot of scenes.

  This processing may be called from the layout generation / update program 505 or the GUI processing program 506.

  As an implementation method, it is conceivable to use an XML parser function provided by the XML parser 502 or the browsing engine 503.

(3) Layout generation / update program 505
Based on the data extracted from the XML by the XML filtering program 504 and the customization information received from the interactive broadcast viewing system display program 508, a screen display method on the display 208 is generated, or the current display layout is changed. To do.

  The layout here may include not only the display position of media such as video, images, and text on the screen, but also display timing information indicating when to display / hide the media.

  Further, it may include information on a processing method to be performed when a viewer selects a certain part of the screen of the display 208. As a method for realizing the description of the processing method, there is a script language such as Java Script used in a Web browser or the like.

(4) GUI processing Screen based on data extracted from XML by XML filtering program 504, layout information generated by layout generation / update program 505, and customization information received from interactive broadcast viewing system display program 508 The GUI (Graphical User Interface) is changed. Also, based on the same information, it is determined how information input by the user should be distributed to each module of the interactive broadcast viewing system display program 508, the XML filtering program 504, and the layout generation / update program 505.

(5) XML parser 502, browsing engine 503
The XML parser 502 is a module that reads XML data, refers to the document structure, and document contents. The implementation includes, for example, the Document Object defined by the World Wide Web Consorium.
A general-purpose XML library that employs an operation interface called Model can be used.

  The browsing engine 503 has a basic function as a Web browser for browsing Internet documents described in HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) or the like.

  That is, it includes a basic function for inputting layout information such as HTML and displaying it as a screen, and a function for recognizing a user operation event when the user operates the screen.

  Next, an example of the operation of the present embodiment will be described. In the following description, as an example of a competition broadcast, a case where a red and white song battle is broadcast will be described as an example.

  As illustrated in the flowchart of FIG. 2, the broadcasting station 100 distributes video and voting screen layout information to individual viewer terminals 200 via the wireless broadcasting network 300 (step 1001, step 1002), Waiting for input from a plurality of viewers (viewer terminal 200) (step 1003), receiving input from a plurality of viewers (step 1004), summing up inputs received from a plurality of viewers (step 1005), and summing results The video screen or voting screen reflecting the above and the distribution to the viewer terminal 200 (step 1006) are repeatedly executed during the broadcast.

  An example of detailed processing of the above-described steps 1004 to 1006 in the broadcasting station 100 is shown in the flowcharts of FIGS.

  That is, as illustrated in the flowchart of FIG. 5, the WWW server 109 connected to the Internet 400 receives user input information coming from the viewer terminal 200 and stores it in the user input information totaling table 110 (step 1021). ) When a predetermined counting timing arrives (step 1022), the user input information is totaled (step 1023), and the totaling result is notified to the transmission video control apparatus 106 via the intranet 108 (step 1024). Then, this series of operations is repeated.

  As illustrated in the flowchart of FIG. 6, the video encoding unit 102 and the transmission video control apparatus 106 encode the video information selected by the video switcher 103 (step 1031), and the WWW server 109 side. The presence / absence of notification of the counting result from is monitored (step 1032). If there is a notification of the total result, the video layout information table 107 is updated with the notification content (step 1033).

  Further, the timing for embedding layout information is determined (step 1034), the layout information read from the video layout information table 107 is embedded between encoded video information and the like (step 1035), and output to the transmission apparatus 101. Then, this series of operations is repeated.

  On the other hand, in response to the operation of the broadcast station 100 described above, the viewer terminal 200 receives broadcast video and voting screen layout information (steps 1011 and 1012). In the viewer terminal 200, for example, the screen is displayed on the display 208 in a screen format as illustrated in FIG. 7 (step 1013), and input from the viewer (user) via the user input device 209 is awaited (step 1014). When the input from the viewer is detected (step 1015), the input content is transmitted to the WWW server 109 of the broadcasting station 100 via the Internet 400 (step 1016). Then, the updated content of the step 1006 in the operation of the broadcasting station 100 is reflected and displayed on the screen (step 1017).

  That is, in the screen example of the display 208 in the viewer terminal 200 of FIG. 7, a red group video 601 and a white group video 602, a red group vote button 603 and a white group vote button 604 are displayed in the voting screen 600. Yes. Each of the red group vote button 603 and the white group vote button 604 is toggled by a predetermined selection operation by the user, and the support information of the selected side is transmitted to the WWW server 109.

  At first, the red group image 601 and the white group image 602 have the same size. However, depending on the variation in the size relationship of the support information of the red group and the white group in the WWW server 109, the broadcasting station In the transmission video control device 106 of 100, video layout information embedded in broadcast information is sequentially (for example, such that the output volume of each set may be proportional) so that a video with more support information is displayed larger. Update every few seconds).

  Thereby, on the voting screen 600 on the display 208 of each viewer terminal 200, the video on the side that has acquired more support information (red set image 601 in the example of FIG. 7) is displayed larger, and the support information The magnitude relationship of the video changes according to the temporal change of the totaling result. As a result, each viewer can view and support the broadcast content full of a sense of reality reflecting the result of his / her own support.

  FIG. 8, FIG. 9 and FIG. 10 illustrate examples of modifications of the voting screen.

  That is, in the example of the voting screen 600A in FIG. 8, the display state changes over time reflecting the size relationship between the common video 605 common to the red group and the white group and the support information by the viewer input of the red group and the white group. An example is shown in which a changing pie chart 606, a red group vote button 603, and a white group vote button 604 are arranged.

  In the example of the voting screen 600B of FIG. 9, the bar indicator 607 whose display state changes over time reflecting the size relationship between the common video 605 and the support information input by the red and white viewers, the viewer supports A text input screen 608 for inputting a message, and a bulletin board image 609 for displaying a message selected by the broadcasting station 100 among support messages input from a plurality of viewers. Support messages input from individual viewers are transmitted from the WWW server 109 to the transmission video control apparatus 106 and reflected in broadcast information. Since the support message input by the viewer is output to the display 208 of the viewer terminal 200 of all viewers, the viewer can view with a high sense of reality.

  A voting screen 600C in FIG. 10 shows an example provided with a chat screen 610 for displaying so-called chat content by text input by a viewer. Since the number of broadcast viewers is enormous, it is difficult to incorporate all chat data into broadcast information in real time and distribute it to the viewer terminal 200 for display. Thus, for example, it is possible to reduce the load by grouping the red group, the white group, and each singer of each group that appears, so that each viewer belongs to a specific group. For this reason, a group selection button 611 is displayed.

  The viewer uses the group selection button 611 to select a favorite group and participate in the chat. In this case, it may be incorporated into the chat data broadcast information of a plurality of groups. However, in consideration of the load restrictions as described above, the display data for the chat screen 610 is transmitted from the WWW server 109 via the Internet 400 to individual viewers. You may make it deliver to the terminal 200. FIG.

  The screen configurations of FIGS. 7 to 10 described above can be arbitrarily selected by the viewer of each viewer terminal 200 by designation from a main menu (not shown).

(Embodiment 2)
Next, another embodiment of the interactive broadcast viewing system and control method thereof according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. In the second embodiment, various display control examples in the interactive broadcast viewing system will be described. The system configuration in the second embodiment is the same as that in the first embodiment.

  In the case of the second embodiment, “keyword”, “related image”, “multi-angle”, “subtitle display” are displayed at the lower end of the menu screen 700 that displays the main image 701 sent via the wireless broadcasting network 300. The menu item 702 such as “,” is displayed, and can be switched between the full screen display 703 displaying the main image 701 on the entire screen by the switching operation by the viewer via the user input device 209 or the like. . Control of the configuration of the menu screen 700 is implemented in the main memory 203 as described above, with text described in a page description language such as XML sent from the broadcast station 100 via the wireless broadcast network 300 or the Internet 400. It is realized by executing the software group.

  When the viewer selects “keyword” in the menu item 702 while the menu screen 700 is displayed, the display state transitions to the keyword display screen 710.

  As illustrated in FIG. 12, in this keyword display screen 710, a keyword group 711 is displayed around the main image 701, and a keyword search result 712 for a keyword selected by each viewer is displayed as a search result display screen. 710A. Further, when the viewer selects one of the keyword search results 712, the related site display screen 710B that displays information of information resources (homepages and sites) on the Internet 400 specified by the URL corresponding to the keyword search result 712. The display state transitions to. Further, the menu screen 700 or the full screen display 703 is returned by a predetermined return operation by the viewer.

  When the viewer selects the “related image” of the menu item 702 while the menu screen 700 is displayed, the display state transitions to the related video screen 720.

  As illustrated in FIG. 13, on the related video screen 720, a related video item 721 corresponding to the URL of the Internet 400 where the related video is located, for example, is displayed in the periphery of the main image 701, so that the viewer can select a desired video. When the related video item 721 is selected, a transition is made to a video display screen 720A displaying the related image 722 together with the main image 701. Further, the menu screen 700 or the full screen display 703 is returned by a predetermined return operation by the viewer.

  When the viewer selects the “multi-angle” menu item 702 while the menu screen 700 is displayed, the display state transitions to the multi-angle display screen 730.

  As illustrated in FIG. 14, on the multi-angle display screen 730, for example, a plurality of related videos 731, related videos 732, and related videos 733 having different shooting angles are displayed and selected in the periphery of the main image 701. The related video is enlarged and displayed like an angle switching screen 730A in a display format in which the main image 701 is interchanged.

  When the viewer selects “subtitle display” of the menu item 702 while the menu screen 700 is displayed, the display state transitions to a normal subtitle display screen 740 as illustrated in FIG. On the normal caption display screen 740, the normal caption 742 is displayed so as to be superimposed on the lower part of the video 741. Then, an off-screen subtitle screen 740A in a state in which the off-screen subtitle 742a is displayed outside the lower portion of the video 741 and a balloon subtitle screen 740B in which the balloon subtitle 742b is displayed in a balloon-like manner in the video 741 by the switching operation by the viewer. And the display state transits between the screen 74 740 </ b> C with only the video 741 and no caption.

  In the case of the present embodiment, in particular, in the balloon subtitle screen 740B, the balloon subtitle 742b is displayed in the vicinity of the object in conjunction with the position change of the object such as the person to be subtitled in the video 741. Thus, the subtitle display position is controlled.

  Control of subtitle display in the present embodiment as described above is realized by describing a subtitle character string in XML information associated with the video 741 to be subtitled.

  Temporal control of video display on the viewer terminal 200 is possible by XML information or the like sent from the broadcast station 100 to the viewer terminal 200. FIG. 16 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of source code described in XML. When the source code of FIG. 16 is executed, the video corresponding to the keyword specified in the source code line 803 is displayed on the display 208 for the time specified in the source code line 802, and during this display period. When the screen of the video is clicked, an operation of jumping to the URL site specified in the source code line 801 is performed.

  That is, the time information of the source code line 802 is linked to the video specified by the source code line 803, and related information and keyword search are performed only while the performer of the video specified by the source code line 803 is shown. Can be realized.

  Although the invention made by the present inventor has been specifically described based on the embodiments, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. Needless to say.

It is a conceptual diagram which shows an example of the whole structure of the interactive broadcast viewing system which is one embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows an example of an effect | action of the interactive broadcast viewing system which is one embodiment of this invention. It is a conceptual diagram which shows an example of the system configuration | structure by the side of the broadcast station which comprises the interactive broadcast viewing-and-listening system which is one embodiment of this invention. It is a conceptual diagram which shows the structural example of the viewer terminal which comprises the interactive broadcast viewing system which is one embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the effect | action by the side of the broadcasting station which comprises the interactive broadcast viewing-and-listening system which is one embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the effect | action by the side of the broadcasting station which comprises the interactive broadcast viewing-and-listening system which is one embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example of a screen displayed on the viewer terminal which comprises the interactive broadcast viewing system which is one embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example of a screen displayed on the viewer terminal which comprises the interactive broadcast viewing system which is one embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example of a screen displayed on the viewer terminal which comprises the interactive broadcast viewing system which is one embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example of a screen displayed on the viewer terminal which comprises the interactive broadcast viewing system which is one embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example of a screen displayed on the viewer terminal which comprises the interactive broadcast viewing system which is one embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example of a screen displayed on the viewer terminal which comprises the interactive broadcast viewing system which is one embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example of a screen displayed on the viewer terminal which comprises the interactive broadcast viewing system which is one embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example of a screen displayed on the viewer terminal which comprises the interactive broadcast viewing system which is one embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example of a screen displayed on the viewer terminal which comprises the interactive broadcast viewing system which is one embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows an example of the source code described in XML used in the interactive broadcast viewing system which is one embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 ... Broadcasting station, 101 ... Transmission apparatus, 102 ... Video encoding part, 103 ... Video switcher, 104 ... Television camera, 105 ... Video reproduction apparatus, 106 ... Transmission video control apparatus, 107 ... Video layout information table, 108 ... Intranet 109: WWW server, 110: User input information aggregation table, 200: Viewer terminal, 201 ... Bus, 202 ... Microprocessor, 203 ... Main memory, 204 ... Network interface, 205 ... TV tuner, 205a ... Decoding device, 205b ... Antenna, 206 ... External storage device, 207 ... Frame memory, 208 ... Display, 209 ... User input device, 210 ... Speaker, 300 ... Wireless broadcast network, 301 ... Relay satellite, 400 ... Internet, 501 ... Operating system, 502 ... XML 503 ... Browsing engine, 504 ... XML filtering program, 505 ... Layout generation / update program, 506 ... GUI processing program, 507 ... Capture program, 508 ... Interactive broadcast viewing system display program, 600 ... Voting screen, 600A ... ballot screen, 600B ... ballot screen, 600C ... ballot screen, 601 ... red group video, 602 ... white group video, 603 ... red group vote button, 604 ... white group vote button, 605 ... common video, 606 ... pie chart, 607 ... Bar indicator, 608 ... Text input screen, 609 ... Bulletin board image, 610 ... Chat screen, 611 ... Group selection button, 700 ... Menu screen, 701 ... Main image (first video information), 702 ... Menu item, 703 ... full screen display, 710 ... keyword display Screen, 710A ... search result display screen, 710B ... related site display screen, 711 ... keyword group, 712 ... keyword search result, 720 ... related video screen, 720A ... video display screen, 721 ... related video item, 722 ... related image, 730 ... Multi-angle display screen, 730A ... Angle switching screen, 731 to 733 ... Related video (first video information), 740 ... Normal subtitle display screen, 740A ... Out-of-screen subtitle screen, 740B ... Bubble subtitle screen, 740C ... Subtitle None screen, 741 ... Video, 742 ... Normal subtitle, 742a ... Out-screen subtitle, 742b ... Bubbling subtitle, 801 ... Source code line, 802 ... Source code line, 803 ... Source code line.

Claims (5)

A plurality of content viewing terminals, at least one content transmission device,
First communication means for transmitting content from the content transmission device to the content viewing terminal;
Met interactive content viewing system and a second communication means for exchanging information between the content viewing terminal and the content delivery device,
The content transmission device includes:
Layout information for the content transmitted by the first communication means is generated in conjunction with data for aggregation received from each content viewing terminal , and the layout information includes one or more keywords related to the content includes information via at least one of the first communication means or the second communication means the layout information by an instruction from the content viewing terminal, and an output for transmission to the content viewing terminal,
The content viewing terminal is:
Receiving means for receiving the content and the layout information of the content;
An input means for inputting the data for aggregation to be transmitted to the content transmission device by the viewer and selection information for the layout information;
A display device for displaying the content; and display control means for controlling the display of the content using at least one of the layout information and the selection information,
The display control means displays the keyword group related to the content included in the layout information on the display device together with the content when the viewer selects keyword display by the input means, A content viewing system , wherein a keyword search is performed based on the keyword selected by a user, and search result information is displayed on the display device . The content viewing system according to claim 1, wherein
The layout information includes a specification of a time zone in which the keyword related to the content and the related video related to the content are displayed on the display device.
A content viewing system. The content viewing system according to claim 1 , wherein
The content viewing system, wherein the selection information is chat data based on text input by a viewer. The content viewing system according to claim 1 , wherein
A content viewing system, wherein the content includes a plurality of related videos related to the content. The content viewing system according to claim 1 , wherein
Content viewing system which comprises the comprises subtitle data to the layout information, the layout information further URL information of the link destination associated with the subtitle data against the content.

Images