JP5449005B2 - Program guide providing system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a program guide providing system that provides a user with a program guide.

  In general, a television receiver or a recording device can display a television broadcast program guide. When displaying the program guide, channels are displayed side by side in either the vertical or horizontal direction on the television display screen of the television receiver or the display screen connected to the recording device. Furthermore, the program contents broadcast by the channel are displayed side by side in the order of broadcast time in the direction perpendicular to the channel display direction. There is also a service called a program guide that displays only pre-registered user favorite channels or a program guide by genre. This genre-based program table displays a specific genre program such as “drama” or “movie” by filtering.

  In addition, there is an individual program guide generation device that generates and displays a program guide customized for an individual (see, for example, Patent Document 1). The individual program guide generation device described in Patent Literature 1 displays electronic program guides provided from a plurality of broadcast services in an integrated manner. The individual program guide generation device described in Patent Document 1 determines an integrated program guide to be rearranged in units of channels based on audience rating or user settings, and an arrangement priority based on the usage status of users, And an individual program table to be rearranged in units of programs. Since the method described in Patent Document 1 generates a program table customized for each individual, the user can easily find a program that the user wants to view.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-23118

  A program guide that displays only pre-registered channels can display only the channels that suit individual preferences. Further, the user can easily find a program that the user wants to view from programs broadcast on the channel. However, in order to use this method, it is necessary to set a channel for each user in advance. Therefore, since channels other than those not set are not displayed as a program guide, the user may miss a program broadcast on a channel not set.

  Moreover, since the integrated program guide described in Patent Document 1 is rearranged in units of channels based on audience ratings or user settings, programs that the user really wants to watch are not always displayed preferentially. In addition, the individual program table is rearranged in units of programs using a priority order based on an individual usage history or a priority order based on a preset genre, so that the user's own preferences can be reflected. , It is not possible to give a new awareness to the user.

  Further, in a general genre program guide, programs of a specified genre are displayed in a time series list regardless of the channel. Therefore, such a genre-specific program guide is not appropriate when the user himself / herself wants to find the program that the user himself / herself wants to watch the most from among programs broadcast at a certain time.

  Therefore, development of a program guide providing system that can provide a program guide on which a program that the user wants to view is displayed in an easy-to-view manner is expected.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a program guide providing system that can provide a program guide on which a program that a user wants to view is displayed in an easy-to-view manner.

In order to solve the above problems, a feature of the present invention relates to a program guide providing system that provides a user with a program guide. A program guide providing system according to a feature of the present invention includes a user terminal and a program guide providing apparatus. The user terminal includes a profile information edit requesting unit that transmits user profile information to the program guide providing device, a broadcast data requesting unit that transmits a broadcast data request input by a user operation to the program guide providing device, and a program guide providing A program guide generating unit that generates a program guide based on program information and sequence data transmitted from the apparatus, and a video output unit that displays the program guide generated by the program guide generating unit on a display device. The program guide providing apparatus stores a program information table storage unit that stores program information including a broadcast time of a program, profile information received from a user terminal, and profile table storage that stores profile information of a user other than the user of the user terminal. A viewing history table generated based on a broadcast data request received from a user terminal, a viewing history table storage unit storing a viewing history of a user other than the user of the user terminal, and a program information table storage unit, The program information acquisition unit that acquires information, and the data stored in the program information table storage unit, the profile table storage unit, and the viewing history table storage unit are read and viewed by other users having a profile similar to the profile input by the user from the history, to calculate the priority of the channel, the channel of the program, Sequentially displayed side by side in a predetermined direction from the higher priority channel Yan'neru, the program information of each channel, and a predetermined direction and in the vertical direction, sequence generator for generating a sequence data for displaying side by side on the broadcast time order of the program, A transmission unit configured to transmit the program information acquired by the program information acquisition unit and the array data generated by the array generation unit to the user terminal;

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the program schedule provision system which can provide the program schedule on which the program which a user wants to view and displayed easily is provided can be provided.

It is a figure explaining the system configuration | structure of the program schedule provision system which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining the functional block of the user terminal which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining the functional block of the program guide provision apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining the registration / update / deletion process of the profile information in the program guide provision system which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart explaining the program schedule production | generation process in the program schedule provision system which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart explaining the channel switching process in the program guide provision system which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining an example of the program schedule which a user terminal displays in the program schedule provision system concerning an embodiment of the invention.

  Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following description of the drawings, the same or similar parts are denoted by the same or similar reference numerals.

(Program guide providing system)
A program guide providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The program guide providing system according to the embodiment of the present invention includes a user terminal 1, a remote controller 2, a television monitor (display device) 3, a program guide providing device 4, and an IP broadcast device 5. The user terminal 1, the program guide providing device 4 and the IP broadcasting device 5 are connected by a network 6 and can communicate with each other.

  The user terminal 1, the remote controller 2, and the television monitor 3 are installed in each user's home.

  The user terminal 1 receives broadcast data from the IP broadcast device 5 and displays it on the television monitor 3, and also receives program information and sequence data from the program guide providing device 4 to form a program guide and displays it on the television monitor 3. To do. In the embodiment of the present invention, the program guide displayed by the user terminal 1 is, for example, electronic program guide data in the IPTV service. In the program guide, the channels are displayed vertically or horizontally in order from the channel with the highest priority according to the user's profile and the like, and the program contents are arranged in the order of broadcast time in the direction perpendicular to the channel display direction. Is displayed.

  In the embodiment of the present invention, the program table is a program table scheduled to broadcast video contents such as IP multi-channel broadcast, terrestrial digital broadcast retransmission, BS digital broadcast retransmission. Specifically, the program table includes information such as a broadcast channel of video content, a program name, a broadcast start time, a broadcast end time, and broadcast contents.

  The remote controller 2 is a device that transmits a user instruction to the user terminal 1. The remote controller 2 can give a user instruction to the user terminal 1 by wireless communication such as wireless radio wave, Bluetooth, infrared communication, or the like. The television monitor 3 is a so-called display device, displays the program guide and broadcast data input from the user terminal 1 and allows the user to view the program guide.

  The IP broadcast device 5 sends broadcast data to the user terminal 1 via the network 6. The IP broadcast device 5 may be provided for each channel, or one IP broadcast device 5 may transmit broadcast data of a plurality of channels. The IP broadcast device 5 provides the program guide providing device 4 with information such as the program name, broadcast start time, broadcast end time, and broadcast content of the video content scheduled to be broadcast.

  The program guide providing device 4 stores the information of the video content scheduled to be broadcast provided from the IP broadcast device 5 as program information in association with the broadcast channel. Further, the program guide providing device 1 generates program information and sequence data in response to a request from the user terminal 1 and transmits the program information and sequence data to the user terminal 1 via the network 6.

(User terminal)
Next, the user terminal 1 will be described with reference to FIG. The user terminal 1 includes a remote control receiver 101, a profile information edit request unit 102, a program guide request unit 103, a broadcast data request unit 104, a transmission unit 105, a reception unit 106, a program information acquisition unit 107, a program sequence acquisition unit 108, a program A table generation unit 109, a broadcast data reception unit 110, a video generation unit 111, a video switching unit 112, a video output unit 113, a profile editing screen operation unit 114, and a profile editing screen generation unit 115 are provided.

  The remote control receiving unit 101 receives a user instruction input from the remote control 2 from the remote control 2. The remote control receiving unit 101 is one or more of a profile editing screen operation unit 114, a profile information editing requesting unit 102, a program guide requesting unit 103, a broadcast data requesting unit 104, and a video switching unit 112 in accordance with an input user instruction. Enter the instructions.

  The profile editing screen operation unit 114 inputs the editing result to the profile information editing request unit 102 or the profile screen generation unit 115 according to the profile editing operation.

  The profile information edit request unit 102 records the user's profile information and, when an edit request instruction is input from the profile edit screen operation unit 114, edits the profile information and inputs it to the profile edit screen generation unit 115. .

  The profile editing screen generation unit 115 generates a screen indicating the editing status of the profile based on the input profile information and the editing operation result, and inputs the screen to the video switching unit 112. The profile information is, for example, information such as the user's age, sex, and preference. Profile information is input by the user. When a plurality of users are sharing such as using one user terminal 1 with a family, profile information may be set for each user. Further, the profile information editing request unit 102 transmits the user's profile information to the program guide providing apparatus 4 via the network 6 when the remote controller 2 requests display of the program guide.

  When requested by the remote controller 2 to display the program guide, the program guide requesting unit 103 transmits the request to the program guide providing apparatus 4 via the transmission unit 105.

  When the broadcast data request unit 104 is requested to view broadcast data from the remote controller 2 by a user operation, the broadcast data request unit 104 sends the request to the IP through the transmission unit 105 and the program guide providing device 4 together with the data of the channel requested to be viewed. Transmit to the broadcasting device 5. The IP broadcast device 5 sends broadcast data of the requested channel to the user terminal 4 via the network 6.

  The transmission unit 105 transmits the data transmitted from the profile information editing request unit 102, the program guide request unit 103, and the broadcast data request unit 104 to the program guide providing apparatus 104 or the IP broadcast apparatus 5 via the network 6.

  The receiving unit 106 receives program information from the program guide providing device 4 and inputs it to the program information acquiring unit 107, and also receives sequence data from the program guide providing device 4 and inputs it to the program sequence acquiring unit 108.

  The program information acquisition unit 107 inputs the program information input from the reception unit 106 to the program guide generation unit 109. The program sequence acquisition unit 108 inputs the sequence data input from the receiving unit 106 to the program guide generation unit 109.

  The program guide generation unit 109 generates a program guide based on the program information and sequence data transmitted from the program guide providing device 4. For example, the program guide generation unit 109 displays channels in the vertical direction in order from the channel with the highest priority, and displays a program guide in which the program contents are arranged in order of broadcast time in the horizontal direction perpendicular to the channel display direction. Program guide data to be displayed on the television monitor 3 is generated. The display position of the channel and the program may be changed, and the program guide generation unit 109 may generate a program guide that displays the channel in the horizontal direction and the program content in the vertical direction based on the arrangement data. The program guide generation unit 109 inputs the generated program guide data to the video switching unit 112.

  The broadcast data receiving unit 110 receives broadcast data transmitted from the IP broadcast device 5 via the network 6. The received broadcast data is input to the video generation unit 111. The video generation unit 111 generates video data for displaying the received broadcast data on the television monitor 3. The generated video data is input to the video switching unit 112.

  In accordance with an instruction from the remote control receiver 101, the video switching unit 112 edits the editing screen generated by the profile editing screen generation unit 115, the program guide generated by the program guide generation unit 109, and the video generated by the video generation unit 111. Any one of the data is selected and input to the video output unit 113. The video output unit 113 displays the data input from the video switching unit 112 on the television monitor 3.

  In this way, the user terminal 1 requests the program guide and broadcast data from the head end in accordance with an instruction from the remote controller 2, receives the program guide data and broadcast data from the head end, and displays them on the television monitor 3.

(Program guide providing device)
With reference to FIG. 3, the program guide provision apparatus 4 which concerns on embodiment of this invention is demonstrated. The program guide providing apparatus 4 includes a receiving unit 401, a profile information registration change deleting unit 402, a viewing history registering unit 403, a program guide requesting unit 404, a program information acquiring unit 405, an array generating unit 406, and a transmitting unit 407. Further, the program guide providing device 4 is connected to the storage device 450 and can read and write various data stored in the storage device 450. The storage device 450 stores data of a profile table 451, a viewing history table 452, and a program information table 453.

  The profile table 451 stores profile data of each user in association with the user identifier. The viewing history table 452 stores the viewing history data of each user in association with the user identifier.

  The viewing history table 452 records, for example, a viewing log in which a user identifier is associated with a time when a user changes a channel and channel information after the change. From this viewing log, the program guide providing apparatus 4 may generate viewing history data that associates the user identifier, the identifier of the channel viewed by the user, and the start time and end time viewed by the user. In the embodiment of the present invention, a broadcast data request is transmitted from the user terminal 1 to the program guide providing device 4, and the program guide providing device 4 transmits the broadcast data request to the IP broadcast device 5. At this time, the program guide providing apparatus 4 acquires the user identifier, the channel identifier, and the time from the broadcast data request, generates a viewing history, and stores it in the viewing history table 452.

  The program information table 453 stores program information provided from the IP broadcast device 5. The program information table 453 stores, for example, information such as channel identifiers, broadcast start and end times, program titles, genres, and contents in association with each other.

  The receiving unit 401 inputs various data received from the user terminal 1 to one or more of the profile information update / registration / deleting unit 402, the viewing history registration unit 403, and the program guide request unit 404 depending on the type of the data.

  When the receiving unit 401 receives an editing request for registering, updating, or deleting profile information from the user terminal 1, the editing request data is input to the profile information registration update deletion unit 402. The profile information registration update deletion unit 402 edits the data in the profile table 451 based on the edit request.

  In the case of updating or deleting profile information, the edit request includes an identifier of the user, and in the case of updating, an update content. In this case, the profile information registration update deletion unit 402 updates or deletes the record on the profile table 451 by specifying the user identifier in order to identify the profile table 451 that is the table to be updated and the record to be updated. In the case of registration of profile information, the edit request includes the fact and the profile information to be registered. In this case, the profile information registration update deletion unit 402 assigns a new user identifier and registers the assigned user identifier and the received profile information in the profile table 451 in association with each other.

  When the receiving unit 401 receives a broadcast data request from the user terminal 1, the broadcast history request is input to the viewing history registration unit 403. The viewing history registration unit 403 registers the viewing history in the viewing history table 452 as a viewing history based on the broadcast data request, and transmits the broadcast data request to the IP broadcast device 5. The IP broadcast device 5 transmits broadcast data to the user terminal 1 based on the received broadcast data request.

  This broadcast data request includes user identifier and channel information. The viewing history registration unit 403 generates a user viewing history in association with the user identifier, channel information, and request time, and registers the viewing history in the viewing history table 452.

  When the receiving unit 401 receives a program guide request from the user terminal, the program guide request is input to the program guide request unit 404. The program guide request includes the program guide type. The program table type will be described with reference to FIG. The program guide request unit 404 inputs the program guide request to the program information table 453, and causes the program information acquisition unit 405 to acquire program information.

  The program information acquisition unit 405 acquires program information from the program information table 453. At this time, program information for only the period, genre, and channel specified when the user requested the program guide may be acquired. The program information acquisition unit 405 inputs the acquired program information to the transmission unit 407.

  The array generation unit 406 reads each data of the profile table 451, the viewing history table 452, and the program information table 453 from the storage device 450, combines and tabulates these table data according to the program table type specified by the user, Is generated. The channel priority is calculated from the viewing history of another user having a profile similar to the profile input by the user, and is generated as array data. Further, the array generation unit 406 generates array data for displaying the program channels side by side in a predetermined direction and displaying them in the direction perpendicular to the predetermined direction in the order of the broadcast times of the programs. For example, the arrangement data is data for controlling the user terminal 1 to arrange the channels in the horizontal direction for each priority and to display the program information of each channel in the vertical direction in the order of the broadcast time. In addition, the array data may be data for controlling the user terminal 1 so that the channels are arranged in the vertical direction for each priority, and the program information of each channel is displayed in the horizontal direction in the order of the broadcast time.

  The transmission unit 407 transmits the program information acquired by the program information acquisition unit 405 and the array data generated by the array generation unit 406 to the user terminal 1. In the user terminal 1, a program guide is constructed from the program information and sequence data and displayed on the television monitor 3.

  With reference to FIG. 4, editing processes such as profile registration, update, and deletion in the program guide providing system according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described. When the user inputs a profile editing instruction and editing content to the remote controller 2, the remote control receiving unit 101 of the user terminal 1 receives profile registration / update / deletion information in step S101. The remote control receiving unit 101 inputs the received profile registration / update / deletion information to the profile information editing request unit 102.

  In step S <b> 102, the profile information editing request unit 102 transmits profile registration / update / deletion information to the program guide providing apparatus 4.

  When the reception unit 401 of the program guide providing apparatus 4 receives profile registration / update / deletion information, the reception unit 401 inputs the profile information registration / update / deletion unit 402. The profile information registration / update / deletion unit 402 analyzes the received information and registers / updates / deletes it in the profile table 451 in association with the user identifier.

  With reference to FIG. 5, the program guide generation process in the program guide providing system according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described. When the user inputs a program guide display request to the remote controller 2, the remote control receiver 101 of the user terminal 1 receives the program guide display request in step S201. In step S202, the user terminal 1 determines whether the type is the same as the previously acquired program guide and whether the unit time has elapsed since the acquisition. If the type is the same and the unit time has not elapsed, the user terminal 1 uses the previously acquired program information and sequence data in step S203, generates a program guide in step S212, and displays the program guide on the television monitor 3. Is displayed.

  On the other hand, if the type is different or the unit time has elapsed, in step S204, the user terminal 1 sends a program guide request via the program guide request unit 103 and the transmission unit 105 to generate a new program guide. To the program guide providing apparatus 4.

In step S205, the program information acquisition unit 405 of the program guide providing apparatus 4 acquires program information from the program information table 453. Further, in step S206, the user terminal 1
The processing is distributed according to the type of program guide requested from the above, and the array generation unit 406 generates array data according to the type of program guide.

  If the type of the program guide is the recommended program guide, in step S207, the array generation unit 406 combines and tabulates the profile table 451 and the viewing history table 452 from the storage device 450 to determine which others have similar profiles. A viewing tendency table is created to indicate whether the user likes a genre or program. In step S208, the viewing tendency table created in step S207 and the program information table 453 are combined to generate sequence data used for the recommended program table. At this time, the channel arrangement is determined in descending order of the priority of programs broadcast in the time zone of the program guide. Furthermore, the program information of each channel is arranged in time series according to the broadcast time.

  If the type of program table is preferred, in step S209, the profile table 451 and the program information table 453 are combined to generate array data. If the type of program guide is normal, array data is generated in the ascending order of channels in step S210.

  When the array data is generated in steps S208 to S210, it is transmitted to the user terminal 1 together with the program information acquired in step S205 in step S211. When receiving the program information and the arrangement data, the user terminal 1 generates a program guide in step S212 and displays the program guide on the television monitor 3.

  With reference to FIG. 6, processing when a channel switching instruction is given by the user will be described. First, when the user inputs a channel switching request to the remote controller 2, the remote control receiving unit 101 of the user terminal 1 receives the channel switching request in step S301. In parallel, the remote control receiving unit inputs a channel switching request to the broadcast data requesting unit 104. In step S <b> 302, the broadcast data request unit 104 transmits the switching channel information to the program guide providing device 4.

  In step S303, when receiving the switching channel information from the user terminal, the receiving unit 401 of the program guide providing apparatus 4 inputs the switching channel information to the viewing history registering unit 403. The viewing history registration unit 403 registers the switching information as a viewing history in the viewing history table 452. At this time, for each user identifier, the viewing history may be registered in the viewing history table 452 as a viewing history in which the viewed channel is associated with the viewing start time and the viewing end time. Further, the viewing history registration unit 403 transmits the switching channel information to the IP broadcast device 5. In step S304, the IP broadcast device 5 transmits the broadcast data of the channel after switching to the user terminal 1.

  In step S <b> 305, the broadcast data receiving unit 110 of the user terminal 1 receives the broadcast data of the channel after switching, and inputs it to the video generation unit 111. The video generation unit 111 generates video data to be displayed on the television monitor 3 from the received broadcast data, and inputs the video data to the video switching unit 112. The video switching unit 112 switches to the video data input from the video generation unit 111 and displays it on the television monitor 3 via the video output unit 113.

  With reference to FIG. 7, the layout of the program guide provided in the program guide providing system according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described. As shown in FIG. 7, channels are displayed in the horizontal direction and program contents are displayed in the vertical direction. At the top, the channel number and the broadcast station name are displayed. In the vertical direction, program contents for each channel are displayed in order of broadcast time.

  As described above, according to the program guide providing system according to the embodiment of the present invention, the program guide is created based on the user profile data and the viewing history data, and the program guide is created according to the priority channel order. Thereby, since the program which suits the user's preference is displayed with priority, a new program can be recommended to the user.

  As described above, the program guide providing system according to the embodiment of the present invention can provide a program guide on which a program that the user wants to view is displayed in an easy-to-view manner.

(Other embodiments)
As described above, the embodiments of the present invention have been described. However, it should not be understood that the descriptions and drawings constituting a part of this disclosure limit the present invention. From this disclosure, various alternative embodiments, examples, and operational techniques will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

  It goes without saying that the present invention includes various embodiments not described herein. Therefore, the technical scope of the present invention is defined only by the invention specifying matters according to the scope of claims reasonable from the above description.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 User terminal 2 Remote control 3 Television monitor 4 Program guide provision apparatus 5 IP broadcasting apparatus 6 Network 7 Headend 101 Remote control reception part 102 Profile information edit request part 103 Program guide request part 104 Broadcast data request part 105,407 Transmission part 106,401 Reception unit 107 Program information acquisition unit 108 Program sequence acquisition unit 109 Program table generation unit 110 Broadcast data reception unit 111 Video generation unit 112 Video switching unit 113 Video output unit 114 Profile editing screen operation unit 115 Profile editing screen generation unit 402 Profile information registration Update / Delete unit 403 Viewing history registration unit 404 Program guide request unit 405 Program information acquisition unit 406 Array generation unit 451 Profile table 452 Viewing history table 453 Program information table

Claims (1)

A program guide providing system for providing a program guide to a user,
A user terminal and a program guide providing device,
The user terminal is
A profile information edit request unit for transmitting the user profile information to the program guide providing device;
A broadcast data requesting unit for transmitting a broadcast data request input by the user's operation to the program guide providing device;
A program guide generator for generating a program guide based on program information and sequence data transmitted from the program guide provider;
A video output unit for displaying the program guide generated by the program guide generator on a display device,
The program guide providing device includes:
A program information table storage unit storing program information including the broadcast time of the program;
A profile table storage unit that stores the profile information received from the user terminal, and profile information of a user other than the user of the user terminal;
A viewing history table that is generated based on a broadcast data request received from the user terminal, and a viewing history table storage unit that stores a viewing history of a user other than the user of the user terminal;
A program information acquisition unit for acquiring program information from the program information table storage unit;
The data stored in the program information table storage unit, the profile table storage unit, and the viewing history table storage unit is read, and channel priority is obtained from the viewing history of other users having a profile similar to the profile input by the user. calculating a rank, a channel of a program, in order to display side by side in a predetermined direction from a higher channel priority of the channel, the program information of each channel, said in a predetermined direction and a vertical direction, are arranged in the broadcasting time sequence of the program An array generation unit for generating the array data to be displayed;
A program guide providing system comprising: a transmission unit that transmits the program information acquired by the program information acquisition unit and the array data generated by the array generation unit to the user terminal. .

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