JP5134350B2 - Remote control device and system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a remote control device and a system, and more particularly to a remote control device for remotely operating a digital television broadcast receiving device by bidirectional communication and a remote control system including the device.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, with the development of digital technology, digital broadcasting services that handle broadcasting video, audio, data signals, and the like as digital signals and perform broadcasting in various systems such as BS, CS, and terrestrial have been put into practical use. In such a digital broadcasting service, a moving image compression technique such as MPEG is used, and a program of several hundred channels is provided.

  As described above, an electronic program guide service is known to easily select a desired program from among a large number of programs. According to this electronic program guide service, program titles, program names such as broadcast station names, synopsis, and program information such as performers are provided, and the user can set recording reservations on the electronic program guide. it can.

  Normally, when a user selects a digital broadcast program, a television or the like is remotely controlled using a remote control device at hand. For example, the user selects a channel by operating direct keys 1 to 12 on the remote control. , Select the station by displaying the electronic program guide on the TV and operating the direction key on the remote control, select the channel by operating the channel up / down key on the remote control, enter the channel number by entering the 3-digit channel number, Such a method can be considered.

  In a system composed of a remote controller and a television, it is desired to be able to quickly select a program that the user wants to watch corresponding to the increase in the number of channels. However, as described above, the channel selection method using the direct key is not suitable for multi-channel use, and the channel selection method using the electronic program guide requires the operation keys to be operated many times to select the target program. . In addition, the channel selection method using the channel up / down key takes time to display the video, and the channel selection method using the three-digit channel number input is unclear what the target program is broadcasting. There is.

  On the other hand, a liquid crystal screen and a touch panel are adopted as a remote controller to display a list of buttons of each broadcasting station and enable operations equivalent to direct keys. For example, in Patent Document 1, a remote controller that performs input for selecting a channel corresponding to a broadcast program acquires program title data of the broadcast program extracted by the broadcast receiver, and the remote controller is based on the program title data. In addition, it is described that a channel key for displaying a program title is displayed on an operation panel of a remote controller. Thus, the user can recognize the contents of the broadcast program corresponding to the channel key by visually recognizing the channel key on which the program title is displayed.

Patent Document 2 discloses a receiving unit that receives content information via a controlled device, a display unit that displays the content based on the received content information, and an operation based on the content displayed on the display unit. There is described a bidirectional remote control device including an input unit for a person to make a selection instruction and a transmission unit for transmitting operation information for operating the controlled device based on the input selection instruction.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-6407 JP 2004-266799 A

However, in the case of the invention described in Patent Document 1, since program information is acquired on the remote controller side and program titles are displayed in a list, the number of program titles that can be displayed at one time is limited in a limited display area of the remote controller. End up. Therefore, when the number of programs is large, the user needs to operate the cursor key to switch the screen in order to select the target program.
Further, in the case of the invention described in Patent Document 2, it is necessary to switch program information on the screen while sequentially sending with the cursor keys, and it is not possible to tune directly from the touch panel as in the invention described in Patent Document 1. . For this reason, in the prior arts including Patent Documents 1 and 2, the user needs to perform the cursor key operation and the touch panel operation, respectively, and the operation steps are increased, and a desired program can be quickly selected. could not.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and allows program information to be continuously switched and displayed on a touch panel without using a cursor key or the like to select a target program easily and quickly. It is an object of the present invention to provide a remote control device that can be used and a remote control system including the device.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a first technical means of the present invention is a remote control device for remotely operating a digital television broadcast receiving device by two-way communication, wherein program information is received from the digital television broadcast receiving device. Program information receiving means, storage means for storing the received program information, and contents of the program information display based on the stored program information, and a channel selection slider for selecting a program of the program information Display means for displaying, coordinate position detection means for detecting a coordinate position of a user operation with respect to the tuning slider, and program tuning means for selecting a program based on the detected coordinate position, The position detection means detects the touched coordinate position when an arbitrary coordinate position of the tuning slider is touched by a user's finger, and the display means置検exits the program information corresponding to the coordinate position detected and displayed is extracted from the storage means by means, said program selection means, corresponding to the coordinate position when the remote user's finger from the for tuning slider When a program information program is targeted for channel selection and the display area of the program information is touched with a user's finger, a channel selection signal for selecting the channel selection target program is sent to the digital television broadcast receiver. It is characterized by transmitting .

According to a second technical means, in the first technical means, the program information receiving means is capable of identifying favorite program information registered by the user when receiving program information from the digital television broadcast receiver. The display means, when displaying the favorite program information in conjunction with the coordinate position of the tuning slider, makes the display time of the favorite program information longer than the display time of the other program information. It is characterized by that.

The third technical means notifies the user by vibration that the favorite program information is displayed when the favorite program information is displayed in conjunction with the coordinate position of the tuning slider in the second technical means. It is characterized by doing.

The fourth technical means notifies the user by sound that the favorite program information is displayed when the favorite program information is displayed in conjunction with the coordinate position of the tuning slider in the second technical means. It is characterized by doing.

A fifth technical means is the second technical means, in conjunction with the coordinate position of the slider for the tuning, when displaying the favorite program information, to change the background color to be a the favorite program information In this way, the user is notified.

A sixth technical means is the remote control device according to any one of the first to fifth aspects, wherein the digital television broadcast receiving device includes a plurality of tuners, and the program channel selection unit includes the channel selection slider. A channel selection signal for selecting a program with program information corresponding to the coordinate position when the user's finger is stopped is transmitted to the digital television broadcast receiver, and the digital television broadcast receiver includes a plurality of channels. Among the other tuners, an unused tuner selects the program, receives a thumbnail image of the program from the digital television broadcast receiver, and the display means receives the program received from the digital television broadcast receiver. The thumbnail image is displayed.

A seventh technical means is any one of the first to sixth technical means, wherein the coordinate position detecting means is a touch panel provided integrally with the display means.

According to an eighth technical means, in any one of the first to seventh technical means, the tuning slider has a bar shape.

A ninth technical means is the eighth technical means, wherein the tuning slider is composed of a plurality of bar-shaped sliders, and the number of programs that can be selected per line is different. It is a thing.

According to a tenth technical means, in the ninth technical means, the plurality of bar-shaped sliders include the same selectable program.

An eleventh technical means according to any one of the first to seventh technical means is characterized in that the tuning slider has a spiral shape.

A twelfth technical means is a remote control system comprising the remote control device according to any one of the first to eleventh technical means, and a digital television broadcast receiver remotely operated by the remote control device, wherein the remote control The apparatus transmits a channel selection signal for selecting a program of program information corresponding to the coordinate position when the user's finger stops on the channel selection slider to the digital television broadcast receiver, and The television broadcast receiver includes a plurality of tuners, selects a program using an unused tuner among the plurality of tuners according to the channel selection signal from the remote controller, and displays a thumbnail image of the program. The generated thumbnail image is transmitted to the remote control device.

  According to the present invention, since program information can be continuously switched and displayed on the touch panel without using a cursor key or the like, a complicated operation is not required for program selection, and a target program can be easily selected. And you can tune in quickly.

  DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of a remote control device of the present invention and a remote control system including the device will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a remote control device and a digital television broadcast receiving device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1A is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a remote control device, in which 10 denotes a remote control device (hereinafter referred to as a remote control). FIG. 1B is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a digital television broadcast receiving apparatus. In FIG. 1, 20 denotes a digital television broadcast receiving apparatus (hereinafter referred to as a television). The digital television broadcast receiving apparatus 20 may have a tuner function, and may be an HDD recorder, a DVD recorder, or the like in addition to the television.

  In FIG. 1A, a remote controller 10 includes a CPU 11 that controls the operation of the remote controller 10, a memory 12 that stores a control program, data, and the like, and an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) or the like that is integrally provided with a touch panel 131. A display unit 13 configured, an operation unit 14 configured by a power button, various operation buttons, and the like; a remote control signal transmission / reception unit 15 for performing bidirectional communication with the television 20; And a notification unit 16 for performing various notifications by vibration.

  In FIG. 1B, a television 20 is a remote controller for performing bidirectional communication between a CPU 21 that controls the operation of the television 20, a memory 22 that stores a control program and data, and the remote controller 10. The signal transmission / reception unit 23, the main tuner 24 and the sub tuner 25 that receive the digital broadcast signal, and the DEMUX 26 that separates the digital broadcast signal received by the main tuner 24 or the sub tuner 25 into the AV stream and the program information, and the DEMUX 26 An AV stream decoding unit 27 that decodes the decoded AV stream into a video signal and an audio signal, and an OSD synthesis that combines the video signal decoded by the AV stream decoding unit 27 with an OSD (on-screen display) signal and outputs the video. Part 28. Note that the audio signal decoded by the AV stream decoding unit 27 is output as audio from a speaker (not shown).

  The main feature of the present invention is that a remote control that remotely controls a television by two-way communication is used to receive and store program information from the television, and the program information is displayed on the touch panel without using direct keys or cursor keys. It is to switch continuously and display it, thereby making it possible to select a target program easily and quickly. That is, the user can select a desired program while continuously switching and displaying program information by an operation (sliding operation) in which a user traces a virtual slider displayed on the liquid crystal screen of the remote controller with a finger via the touch panel. To.

  As a configuration for this, the remote controller 10 stores a remote control signal transmission / reception unit 15 corresponding to program information receiving means for receiving program information from the television 20, a memory 12 corresponding to storage means for storing received program information, and Based on the program information, its contents are displayed, and a display unit 13 corresponding to a display means for displaying a tuning slider for selecting a program of the program information, and a coordinate position of a user operation with respect to the tuning slider are detected. A touch panel 131 corresponding to the coordinate position detecting means, and a CPU 11 corresponding to the program channel selecting means for selecting a program based on the detected coordinate position. The display unit 13 switches and displays the program information stored in the memory 12 in conjunction with the coordinate position detected by the touch panel 131 under the control of the CPU 11.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the external configuration of the remote controller 10 and the television 20 according to the present invention. The remote controller 10 includes a display unit 13 that is integrally provided with a touch panel 131 and an operation unit 14 that includes a power button, a volume button, a direction button, and the like. On the screen of the display unit 13, a bar-shaped channel selection slider 101 for program selection and program information 102 received from the television 20 are displayed. The tuning slider 101 has a cursor S that can be moved, and program information 102 corresponding to the position of the cursor S is displayed on the display unit 13. The coordinate position on the tuning slider 101 is managed as an absolute coordinate, and the coordinate position and program information stored in the memory 12 are associated in advance. The program information here includes, for example, a program name, channel number, genre, broadcaster information (logo data), and the like.

  In FIG. 2, when the cursor S is touched with the user's finger 30 and moved in the direction of the arrow in the figure, the cursor S also moves on the tuning slider 101 accordingly. The coordinate position of the cursor S is detected on the touch panel 131 and input to the CPU 11. The CPU 11 extracts program information 102 corresponding to the coordinate position of the cursor S from the memory 12 and continuously displays it on the display unit 13. The display switching speed of the program information 102 may be changed according to the moving speed of the user's finger 30, that is, the moving speed of the cursor S. For example, when the cursor S is moved slowly, the display switching speed of the program information 102 is decreased, while when the cursor S is moved quickly, the display switching speed of the program information 102 is increased. To do.

  The program information is continuously switched and displayed in accordance with the user operation, and when the user releases the finger 30 from the cursor S when the user-desired program information is displayed on the display unit 13, it corresponds to the coordinate position at this time. The program of the program information 102 to be determined is determined as a channel selection target. When the user touches the display area of the displayed program information 102 with the finger 30, the remote controller 10 selects a channel selection signal (that is, the remote controller) for selecting a program of the program information 102 determined as a channel selection target. Code) to the television 20. The television 20 selects a program according to the channel selection signal received from the remote controller 10 and displays it on the screen.

  As another channel selection method using the channel selection slider 101, if the user knows the approximate position of the program to be selected on the channel selection slider 101, the user can select the channel by directly touching the position with the finger 30. it can. That is, when an arbitrary coordinate position of the tuning slider 101 is touched with the finger 30 of the user, the display unit 13 extracts program information corresponding to the touched coordinate position from the memory 12 and displays the program information. In this case, since the cursor S moves following the position touched with the finger 30, the range is narrowed down to some extent by moving the cursor S left and right with the finger 30 after roughly determining the position. And a desired program can be quickly selected.

  In the above, since the user can empirically grasp the position corresponding to the desired program each time the remote controller is operated, the cursor S is not necessarily moved sequentially from the left to the right in the figure. There is no need to check the program information.

According to the present invention, program information is displayed on the screen by an analog operation in which a user traces a virtual widget (tuning slider) displayed on a liquid crystal screen with a finger via a touch panel without using a cursor key or the like. While displaying, the target program can be quickly selected.
In addition, since data can be transmitted and received bidirectionally between the television and the remote controller, program information can be presented to the user on the remote controller screen for channel selection, and operability can be improved. .

  FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed on the display unit 13 provided in the remote controller 10 of the present invention. 3A shows an example of an initial screen of the remote controller 10, and FIG. 3B shows an example of a screen when the tuning slider 101 is displayed.

  In FIG. 3A, the remote controller 10 receives and stores program information through two-way communication with the television 20. On the display unit 13 of the remote controller 10, a network type selection key 103 is displayed as an initial screen, and the user selects a desired network from BS, CS, terrestrial D, and Net included in the network type selection key 103. To do. Here, terrestrial D indicates terrestrial digital broadcasting, and Net indicates the Internet. Here, it is assumed that “BS” is selected.

  When the remote controller 10 detects that “BS” has been selected by the user in FIG. 3A, the remote controller 10 lists the program information of “BS” stored in the memory 12 of the remote controller 10 and is shown in FIG. Display the screen as follows. In FIG. 3B, the remote controller 10 displays a channel selection slider 101 below the network type selection key 103, and further executes channel selection of the program information 102 in the program information 102 display area. The channel selection execution key 104 is displayed.

  In FIG. 3B, the user extracts the program information 102 corresponding to the touch position from the memory 12 by performing a slide operation in either direction of the arrow in the figure while touching the cursor S with the finger 30. And displayed on the display unit 13. The remote controller 10 selects the program of the program information 102 corresponding to the coordinate position when the user's finger is released from the cursor S, and when the channel selection execution key 104 is touched with the user's finger 30, the remote controller 10 selects the program. A channel selection signal for selecting a target program is transmitted to the television 20. The television 20 selects a program according to the channel selection signal received from the remote controller 10 and displays it on the screen.

  Here, the remote control signal transmitting / receiving unit 15 of the remote controller 10 receives the program information that the user has registered as favorites when receiving the program information from the television 20 in a state where the program information can be identified. Specifically, for example, a favorite program registration function of the television 20 can be used. This favorite program registration function pre-registers, as a favorite program, a program that is regularly viewed by the user or a program that the user wants to watch specially, such as sports broadcasts, among the program information stored in the memory 22 by the TV 20. According to this function, the television 20 adds a flag to a program designated as a favorite by the user and registers it in the memory 22 in a state where it can be distinguished from other programs.

  The remote controller 10 receives and stores program information including the above-described flag-added program information from the television 20. Thereby, the remote controller 10 can identify the program information of the favorite registered program from all the program information stored in the memory 12.

In the above, when program information is continuously displayed using the remote controller 10, there may be a case where the user does not notice the favorite registered program.
Therefore, in the channel selection process of the remote controller 10, the user can easily recognize the program information of the favorite registered program. For example, when the display unit 13 displays favorite program information in conjunction with the coordinate position of the tuning slider 101 based on the control of the CPU 11, the display time of the favorite program information is set to the display time of other program information. Longer than. That is, when the user slides the cursor S, if it is detected that the coordinate position detected on the touch panel 131 corresponds to the program information registered as a favorite, the movement operation of the cursor S for a predetermined time is not accepted, and the coordinate position To stop the cursor S. For this reason, since the display of favorite program information does not change immediately, the user can recognize that the program information is a favorite registered program.

  In addition to the above processing, the remote controller 10 may notify the user by vibration that it is program information of a favorite registered program. In this case, the notification unit 16 is realized by including a vibrator that vibrates the remote controller 10.

  Further, the remote controller 10 may notify the user by sound that it is program information of a favorite registered program. In this case, the notification unit 16 includes a sound source for generating a warning sound or a beep sound.

  In addition, the remote controller 10 may notify the user that the program information is a program registered as a favorite by changing the background color. In this case, the background color of the program information registered as a favorite is set to a color different from the background color of the other program information. For example, it is possible to make the user easy to find by using a conspicuous color, for example, “red”, which calls the user's attention.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining an example of a program information update sequence between the remote controller 10 and the television 20 of the present invention. In this example, the CPU 21 of the television 20 is distinguished into a program information reception control unit and a remote control communication control unit, and the CPU 11 of the remote control 10 is described as a program information update control unit. First, when receiving a new EIT (Event Information Table) from the broadcasting station (S1), the program information reception control unit of the television 20 updates the program information based on the received EIT and stores it in the memory 22 (S2). . The EIT is information including information related to the program such as the program title, broadcast date and time, and broadcast content, and the electronic program guide is created based on the EIT.

When a periodic program information acquisition event occurs by a timer or the like, the program information update control unit of the remote controller 10 issues a communication connection request to the television 20 (S3), and the remote control communication control unit of the television 20 performs this communication connection. A communication establishment response is returned in response to the request (S4).
Next, the program information update control unit of the remote controller 10 requests the updated program information from the remote control communication control unit of the television 20 (S5), and the remote control communication control unit of the television 20 that has received this requests the program information reception control. The program information reception control unit that receives the update information from the unit acquires the update information from the memory 22 (S7), and transmits the acquired update information to the remote control communication control unit (S8).

  Next, the remote control communication control unit of the television 20 transmits the update information received from the program information reception control unit to the remote control 10 (S9), and the program information update control unit of the remote control 10 that has received the update information is locally stored in the memory 12. Program information constructed as a database is updated and stored (S10).

  FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining an example of a channel selection operation sequence by the remote controller 10 of the present invention. In this example, the display unit 13 and the operation unit 14 of the remote controller 10 will be described as user operation units, and the CPU 11 will be described by distinguishing between an input control unit, a channel selection control unit, and a screen control unit. First, when a channel selection operation is received from the user operation unit (S11), the input control unit performs preprocessing (S12). The preprocessing here includes management of a screen control unit for channel selection operation (initialization of a drawing routine, etc.), procedure management for database access (such as database open processing), and the like.

Next, the channel selection control unit accesses the memory 12, and acquires the previous program information constructed as a local database in the memory 12 (S13). Here, the program information at the time of the channel selection operation most recently performed by the user is recorded in the memory 12, and is acquired as the previous program information when the channel selection operation is started, and is displayed on the initial selection screen 112 in S20 described later. Is displayed.
The channel selection control unit requests screen generation from the screen control unit (S14), and the screen control unit performs screen drawing processing and outputs the initial screen 111 to the display unit 13 (S15).

  Next, when receiving an operation for selecting a network type (BS, CS, ground D, Net) from the user operation unit (S16), the input control unit selects the received network type (S17). The channel selection control unit accesses the memory 12 and selects and acquires a program list group corresponding to the network type (S18). The channel selection control unit requests the screen control unit to generate a channel selection area including program information and a channel selection slider (S19), and the screen control unit performs drawing processing of the screen including the channel selection area. The initial selection screen 112 is output to the display unit 13 (S20). The initial selection screen 112 may display the previous program information acquired in S13, or may be set to default so that, for example, 103ch is displayed in the case of BS.

  Next, when the channel selection area operation by the channel selection slider is received from the user operation unit (S21), the input control unit determines the coordinate position of the channel selection slider (S22). The channel selection control unit accesses the memory 12 and acquires program information corresponding to the determined coordinate position (S23). The channel selection control unit requests the screen control unit to generate a channel selection area including program information and a channel selection slider (S24), and the screen control unit performs drawing processing of the screen including the channel selection area. The screen 113 is output to the display unit 13 (S25).

  Next, when the input control unit receives a channel selection area operation of the next candidate using the tuning slider from the user operation unit (S26), the input control unit determines the coordinate position of the next candidate of the channel selection slider (S27). The channel selection control unit accesses the memory 12 and acquires program information corresponding to the determined coordinate position of the next candidate (S28). The channel selection control unit requests the screen control unit to generate a channel selection area including the next candidate program information and the channel selection slider (S29), and the screen control unit draws the screen including the channel selection area. Processing is performed and the screen 114 is output to the display unit 13 (S30).

  Next, when the channel selection execution by the channel selection slider is received from the user operation unit (S31), the input control unit performs channel selection to the channel selection control unit (S32). As described above, this channel selection execution is performed by selecting a program having program information corresponding to the coordinate position when the user's finger is released from the channel selection slider, and using the user's finger as shown on the screen 115. When the information display area is touched, tuning is performed. The channel selection control unit performs an end process on the screen control unit (S33), and transmits a channel selection signal for the program to the television 20 to execute remote control channel selection (S34).

  FIG. 6 is a diagram showing another screen example displayed on the display unit provided in the remote controller of the present invention. As described above, it is assumed that the television 20 includes the main tuner 24 and the sub tuner 25, selects a program with the main tuner 24, and the sub tuner 25 is unused. The remote controller 10 transmits a channel selection signal for selecting a program of program information corresponding to the coordinate position when the user's finger 30 is stopped on the channel selection slider 101 to the television 20. Whether or not the user's finger 30 has stopped on the tuning slider 101 can be determined based on whether or not the same coordinate position has been detected for a predetermined time. The fact that the user's finger 30 has stopped is considered to be a program that the user wants to watch the program information carefully. Therefore, the television 20 selects a program using an unused sub-tuner 25 among a plurality of tuners in accordance with a channel selection signal from the remote controller 10, captures the video of the program, and generates a thumbnail image 105. The generated thumbnail image 105 is transmitted to the remote controller 10. The display unit 13 of the remote controller 10 displays a thumbnail image 105 of a program received from the television 20.

  As a result, the user can check the thumbnail image of the program to be selected on the screen of the remote controller at hand while displaying the program currently being viewed on the television 20, so that more reliable channel selection can be performed. .

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing another example of the tuning slider 101 displayed on the display unit 13 of the remote controller 10 of the present invention.
FIG. 7A shows a state where the bar-shaped tuning slider 101 is displayed in two layers. In this case, when the cursor S on the channel selection slider 101 in the first layer is dragged downward by the user's finger 30, the channel selection slider 101 'in the second layer is displayed together with the cursor S'. For example, when 30 programs can be selected by the channel selection slider 101 in the first layer, the cursor S is moved to the user's finger 30 while the position of the fifteenth program from the beginning is touched on the channel selection slider 101. When dragging downward, the tuning slider 101 'for the second layer is displayed together with the cursor S'. With the tuning slider 101 'for the second hierarchy, for example, 10 programs can be selected in the front and back with reference to the 15th program, and the slider can be used widely with a smaller number of programs than the first hierarchy. As described above, when the number of programs increases, the channel selection is easy because the slider can be widely used because the program is hierarchized.

  Alternatively, the channel selection slider 101 in the first layer and the channel selection slider 101 ′ in the second layer may be displayed simultaneously. In this case, when the user's finger 30 touches the cursor S and slides horizontally on the first-level channel selection slider 101, the second-level channel selection slider 101 ' Based on program information corresponding to the touch position on the slider 101, the preceding and succeeding programs can be selected. For example, when the position of the fifteenth program from the beginning is touched on the tuning slider 101, the tenth program is selected by the tuning slider 101 ′ on the second layer, using the fifteenth program as a reference. The station is possible.

  In the above, the channel selection slider is not limited to two, but may be composed of a plurality of bar-shaped sliders, and the number of programs that can be selected per channel is different in each slider. Furthermore, the resolution of the slider can be improved by configuring the plurality of bar-shaped sliders to include the same selectable program.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 7B, a spiral channel selection slider 101 may be displayed. Also in this case, the coordinate position of the tuning slider 101 is managed as absolute coordinates. It goes without saying that various shapes such as a triangle and a rectangle can be applied in addition to these embodiments.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining an example of data managed by the memory 12 included in the remote controller 10 of the present invention, in which 121 indicates program management data and 122 indicates logo data. The program management data 121 is data created based on program information received from the television 20, and includes, for example, a channel number, program name, broadcast time, program content, logo ID, and the like. The logo data 122 is data managed in correspondence with the logo ID of the program management data 121.

  As described above, when the cursor S is touched with the user's finger 30 and moved in the direction of the arrow in the figure, the cursor S also moves on the tuning slider 101 accordingly. The coordinate position of the cursor S is detected on the touch panel 131 and input to the CPU 11. The CPU 11 extracts program information 102 corresponding to the coordinate position of the cursor S from the memory 12 and continuously displays it on the display unit 13. In this example, program information is displayed on the display unit 13 in the order of 101 ch, 103 ch, and 191 ch of the program management data 121.

As described above, according to the present invention, an analog operation in which a user traces a virtual widget (tuning slider) displayed on a liquid crystal screen with a finger via a touch panel without using a cursor key or the like. Thus, the target program can be quickly selected while the program information is sequentially displayed on the screen.
In addition, since data can be transmitted and received bidirectionally between the TV and the remote control, program information can be presented to the user on the remote control screen and selected, thereby improving operability. Can do.

It is a block diagram which shows the structural example of the remote control apparatus and digital television broadcast receiver which concern on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the external appearance structure of the remote control and television which concern on this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of a screen displayed on the display part with which the remote control of this invention is provided. It is a figure for demonstrating an example of the program information update sequence between the remote control of this invention, and a television. It is a figure for demonstrating an example of the channel selection operation sequence by the remote control of this invention. It is a figure which shows the other example of a screen displayed on the display part with which the remote control of this invention is provided. It is a figure which shows the other example of the tuning slider displayed on the display part of the remote control of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating an example of the data managed with the memory with which the remote control of this invention is provided.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Remote control device (remote control), 11 ... CPU, 12 ... Memory, 13 ... Display part, 14 ... Operation part, 15, 23 ... Remote control signal transmission / reception part, 16 ... Notification part, 20 ... Digital television broadcast receiver, 21 ... CPU, 22 ... Memory, 24 ... Main tuner, 25 ... Sub-tuner, 26 ... DEMUX, 27 ... AV stream decoding unit, 28 ... OSD synthesis unit, 101 ... Operation slider, 102 ... Program information, 103 ... Network type selection Key 104 ... Channel selection execution key 105 ... Thumbnail image 131 ... Touch panel.

Claims (12)

A remote control device for remotely operating a digital television broadcast receiver by bidirectional communication,
Program information receiving means for receiving program information from the digital television broadcast receiving apparatus, storage means for storing the received program information, contents thereof based on the stored program information, and a program of the program information A channel selection slider for selecting a channel, a coordinate position detection unit for detecting a coordinate position of a user operation with respect to the channel selection slider, and a channel selection based on the detected coordinate position Program tuning means,
The coordinate position detection means detects the touched coordinate position when an arbitrary coordinate position of the tuning slider is touched with a user's finger,
The display means extracts and displays program information corresponding to the coordinate position detected by the coordinate position detection means from the storage means ,
The program channel selection means selects a program of program information corresponding to the coordinate position when the user's finger is separated from the channel selection slider, and touches the display area of the program information with the user's finger. And a remote control device for transmitting a channel selection signal for selecting the program to be selected to the digital television broadcast receiver . The remote control device according to claim 1, wherein the program information receiving means receives the favorite program information that the user has registered as a favorite when receiving the program information from the digital television broadcast receiving device in a state where it can be identified,
The display means, when displaying the favorite program information in conjunction with the coordinate position of the tuning slider, makes the display time of the favorite program information longer than the display time of other program information. Remote control device.   3. The remote control device according to claim 2, wherein when displaying the favorite program information in conjunction with the coordinate position of the tuning slider, the user is notified by vibration that the favorite program information is displayed. Remote control device.   3. The remote control device according to claim 2, wherein when displaying the favorite program information in conjunction with the coordinate position of the tuning slider, the user is notified by sound that the favorite program information is displayed. Remote control device.   3. The remote control device according to claim 2, wherein when the favorite program information is displayed in conjunction with the coordinate position of the tuning slider, the user can be notified by changing a background color that the favorite program information is displayed. A remote control device characterized by notifying. The remote control device according to any one of claims 1 to 5 , wherein the digital television broadcast receiving device includes a plurality of tuners,
The program channel selection means transmits a channel selection signal for selecting a program of program information corresponding to the coordinate position when the user's finger stops on the channel selection slider to the digital television broadcast receiver. Then, the program is selected by an unused tuner among a plurality of tuners included in the digital television broadcast receiver, and a thumbnail image of the program is received from the digital television broadcast receiver,
The remote control device, wherein the display means displays a thumbnail image of the program received from the digital television broadcast receiver. The remote control device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the coordinate position detecting means, remote controller, wherein said display means and a touch panel provided integrally. The remote control device according to any one of claims 1 to 7, a slider for the tuning is remote control device which is a bar-shaped. 9. The remote control device according to claim 8 , wherein the channel selection slider is composed of a plurality of bar-shaped sliders, and the number of programs that can be selected per channel is different. The remote controller according to claim 9 , wherein the plurality of bar-shaped sliders include the same selectable program. The remote control device according to any one of claims 1 to 7, a slider for the tuning is remote control device which is a spiral. A remote control system comprising the remote control device according to any one of claims 1 to 11 and a digital television broadcast receiver remotely operated by the remote control device,
The remote control device transmits a channel selection signal for selecting a program of program information corresponding to a coordinate position when a user's finger stops on the channel selection slider to the digital television broadcast receiving device;
The digital television broadcast receiving apparatus includes a plurality of tuners, selects a program using an unused tuner among the plurality of tuners according to the channel selection signal from the remote control device, and thumbnails of the programs A remote control system, characterized in that an image is generated and the generated thumbnail image is transmitted to the remote control device.

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