JPH08163538A - Two-way broadcast system and receiver for two-way broadcast - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To attain audience rate with high accuracy quickly by receiving multiple broadcast including return destination information and sending a channel selection history to a reply destination in response to a transmission trigger. CONSTITUTION: A receiver system 20 of a TV system receiving multiple broadcast including reply information destination from a system 10 of a broadcast station and having an adaptor 22 and a TV receiver 21 or the like separates and decodes reply destination information and a telephone set 24 is connected to the system 10 via a telephone line 31 via a telephone set system 30. Then a channel selection history collected by the reply of each system 20 is sent via a line 31 to the system 10 in response to the transmission trigger of a channel selection history transmission request from the system 10. Thus, an audience rate is made by the broadcast station with high accuracy quickly.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a two-way broadcast system and a two-way broadcast receiver suitable for, for example, investigating audience ratings.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in broadcast programs such as quiz programs, TV shopping, and questionnaire surveys, a response to a viewer is expected, and a response to the response request is transmitted from the viewer to the broadcast side by telephone or facsimile. There are many viewer-participating interactive programs.

In the case of such a viewer participation type broadcast program, information such as a telephone number of a response destination is provided by the broadcast program. For example, in the case of television broadcasting, the telephone number of the reply destination is displayed on the screen for a certain period of time by using superimpose, or provided as voice by announcing the cast of the program. Similar programs are also provided in radio broadcasting.

In this case, the viewer who wants to make a response needs to make a memo or memorize the telephone number of the response destination displayed on the screen or provided by voice.
Alternatively, if the television receiver has a so-called still function that freezes the display image, the screen on which the telephone number of the response destination is displayed is frozen, and the telephone number of the response destination is recorded while still. Or, dial directly. Using the information such as the telephone number of the response destination thus obtained, the viewer returns a response by operating the telephone or the facsimile device.

However, in the viewer participation type program as described above, the telephone line is congested because a large number of viewers simultaneously make a call to the telephone number of the response destination, or
Because of the verbal response, there was a problem that it took time to apply and the burden on the line fee of the respondents increased.

In order to solve such a problem, a telephone company has recently provided a response method using a telephone voting service called telegon.

In this telephone voting service, for example, in a questionnaire survey in a television or radio program or a quiz, a response destination telephone number for reception is assigned to each of a plurality of answers to one question. The number of incoming calls to the response destination telephone number, that is, the number of responses from the viewer is counted and aggregated by each telephone station side of the calling side, and the result is notified to the broadcasting station side. To explain this telephone voting service in a concrete example, for example, in a TV program, for example, when broadcasting a questionnaire survey of a favorite baseball team,
As shown on the television screen 1 of FIG. 9, a different answer telephone number is set and broadcasted for each baseball team that is an answer option.

Each viewer 2 refers to the television screen 1 and dials the telephone number of the baseball team he / she prefers.

Then, on the telephone station 3 side, an incoming call for each answering telephone number is received at the subscriber exchange station in the area of the viewer, a reception completion notice is sent to the answering party, and at the same time, an answering number for each answering telephone number is received. Performs a primary count of the number of incoming calls. On the telephone station 3 side, the service network control station collects data on the number of incoming calls primarily collected by the subscriber exchange stations all over the country, and further the collected data is totaled by the management station. The management station informs the call notification computer 4a of the television station 4 of the total number of incoming calls for each answering telephone number through the call number notification line 3a.

The television station 4 broadcasts a screen such as a graph of the aggregation result as shown in the television screen 5 of FIG. 9 in order to reflect the aggregation result notified from the telephone station in the broadcast program.

In the telegon service,
Request from service contractor (broadcast station 4 in this example), customer control computer 4b in the example of FIG.
In response to a request from the service provider, the call from any responder can be directly received by the service contractor (in this example, the operator 4c of the broadcasting station). This service is called cut-through, and the telephone station 3 sends a connection notice to the responder who becomes the cut-through. In this cut-through state, the responder is sent through the cut-through reception line 3c. Can directly call and exchange data with the service contractor. However, the number of lines for accepting this cut-through is limited in advance.

In the telephone voting service as described above, the response from the responder is substantially completed when the call arrives at the central office, and the line can be disconnected, so that the load on the telephone line is reduced. At the same time, the viewer side can go on-hook immediately after receiving an incoming call, which reduces the burden of the line usage fee.

[0013] Further, since the incoming call is received at the subscriber switching center and the total of the telephone votes is distributed for each region, congestion of the relay line can be avoided, and a relatively large number of calls are broadcast as the number of votes in a short time. You can notify the station side. Current systems have the ability to handle up to 500,000 calls in 5 minutes, for example.

[0014]

By the way, in order to reflect the result in the program at the broadcasting station, there is an audience rating survey of each program. And, conventionally, the audience rating of television programs is surveyed by specialized audience rating survey companies such as Video Research and Nielsen, for example, targeting 300 sample households per survey area. The rating of any broadcast program is
The day after the broadcast, the survey company notified the broadcast station.

For the sample household, a survey company installed a machine for surveying audience ratings, and
The research company pays the price. Then, the broadcasting station pays the consideration to the research company and obtains the data of the audience rating research.

However, as described above, for example, in the conventional survey of audience ratings based on the number of samples of 300 per region, it is difficult to obtain sufficient accuracy because the audience ratings are slightly different depending on each research company. was there.

There is also a problem that it is delayed to correct the program by reflecting the result of the audience rating survey because the audience rating cannot be known until the day after the broadcast.

In view of the above point, an object of the present invention is to provide a two-way broadcasting system and a two-way broadcasting receiving apparatus capable of promptly and highly accurately performing an audience rating survey.

[0019]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the interactive broadcasting system according to the present invention broadcasts an interactive program from the broadcast side, which expects a response from the receiver, and transmits information on the response from the receiver. , In the two-way broadcasting system in which it is transmitted to a predetermined reply destination through the telephone line, from the broadcasting side,
The reply destination information of the response is multiplexed with the main broadcast signal to be broadcast, and at the same time, a request is sent for the tuning history of the receiving side in a predetermined request format, and the receiving side separates and saves the reply destination information from the received signal At the same time, the channel selection history is transmitted to the reply destination according to the request format.

[0020]

With such a configuration, the broadcasting station can target an appropriate population according to the request format,
Based on the tuning history sent from each receiver, promptly
Moreover, the audience rating can be calculated with high accuracy.

[0021]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a bidirectional broadcasting system and a receiving apparatus thereof according to the present invention will be described below.

This example is an example of a two-way broadcasting system in the case of television broadcasting, and a telegon service, which is an example of the above-mentioned telephone voting service, is used for the response to the two-way program.

As described above, in the telegon service, in response to a request from the service contractor (broadcasting station side),
A cut-through service is also provided in which the call of any responder can be directly received by (the operator of) the service contractor. With this cut-through service, 1
For example, a maximum of 400 reception lines and a maximum of 8000 connections can be connected per region.

The present invention is based on the above-mentioned cut-through
By paying attention to the multiplicity and immediacy of services and applying it to a survey of audience ratings, it is possible to conduct a survey of audience ratings promptly and with high accuracy.

In this example, the bidirectional program-related information is multiplexed (mixed) with the main broadcast audio signal and broadcast as a signal structure of the DTMF (Dual Tone Multi Frequency) signal format. On the other hand, on the receiving side, D from the received broadcast audio
The TMF signal is separated / decoded, the program-related information is reproduced, stored in the memory, and used when responding to the interactive program.

[DTMF Signal] First, the DTMF signal will be described with reference to FIGS. The DTMF signaling system is an audio band signaling system in which two tones of a low frequency group (low group) and another high frequency group (high group) are simultaneously sent. Each of these low and high frequency groups consists of tones of four audio band frequencies, no two of which are in articulatory relation.

In the DTMF signal, the four frequencies in the low group are, for example, 697 Hz, 770 Hz, 852 Hz and 941H.
z, and the four frequencies of the high group are, for example, 1209 Hz,
It is set to 1336 Hz, 1477 Hz, and 1633 Hz. Then, each of the low group and the high group is combined with one frequency, and each DTMF composed of the combination is combined.
Signals (each of these DTMF signals are hereinafter referred to as function signals) are assigned to push buttons "0" to "D" arranged in 4 rows and 4 columns, as shown in FIG.

In telephone communication, only 12 out of 16 functional signals of DTMF signals are generally used for subscriber address (telephone number) signals. That is,
"0" used as a so-called numeric keypad on the telephone
The function signals of the above 12 combinations correspond to the numbers "9" and the symbols "*" and "#". Figure 2
The function signals corresponding to the letters “A”, “B”, “C”, and “D” indicated by broken lines in are not generally used in Japan, but data using the push button (PB) dial. It is only used for transmission.

When line selection is performed by telephone number using such a DTMF signal, the signal transmission conditions are as shown in FIG.
It is prescribed as shown in.

Due to the combination of the two frequencies and the transmission conditions as described above, the DTMF signal rarely occurs in the natural world and can be clearly distinguished from natural sound such as a human voice. It is possible to multiplex (mix) the broadcast audio signal and broadcast it, and separation on the receiving side is relatively easy.

By the way, the DTMF signal is also used in a multi-functional telephone, and by operating a push button type telephone from outside, a message recorded on the telephone at home can be played back or an answering machine can be recorded. You can record, play back, and delete the message.

[Outline of Interactive Broadcasting System] FIG. 4 shows an outline of the interactive broadcasting system of this embodiment. The interactive broadcasting system of this example is the system 10 of the broadcasting station.
And a receiver system 20 and a telephone station system 30.

In the system 10 of the broadcasting station, 11 is a studio of the broadcasting station, and the interactive program created here is transmitted from the broadcasting antenna 12 to the receiving device system 20 by a terrestrial wave or via an artificial satellite 13. To be done.
For example, in an interactive program such as a quiz program or a questionnaire survey, a question and a plurality of options for each question are broadcast on the screen of the television receiver 21 or by an announcement by the moderator of the program. The question is
Usually one or more are broadcast. At this time, the interactive program related information is, in this example, D
It is multiplexed with the broadcast audio signal in the form of a TMF signal.

The receiver system 20 comprises an existing television receiver 21, an adapter device 22 for responding to interactive program information, an infrared remote commander 23, and an external telephone 24. In this embodiment, the adapter device 22 is built in the television receiver 21. The remote commander 23 is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 6-
No. 55300 (March 1, 1994, reference number S930
As proposed in 85379), it is provided with both functions for responding to interactive program information and controlling the television receiver, and operability has been improved.

As will be described later, the adapter device 22 has an NCU (network control unit) as an interface with the telephone line. As shown in FIG. 4, the adapter device 22 has a telephone line 31. And the external telephone 24 is connected. In this example, the external telephone 24 can access the telephone line 31 through the adapter device 22 and can perform a normal telephone function.

In this embodiment, the adapter device 22 is also used.
The built-in television receiver 21 and the remote commander 23 also realize a so-called hands-free telephone function. That is, as shown in FIG. 5, the remote commander 23 is provided with an on-hook button 23a, an off-hook button 23b, and a so-called ten-key (numerals etc.) button 23K. on the other hand,
The adapter device 22 is provided with a microphone 22MC, and the television receiver 21 is a speaker 21SP.
It has.

When making a call as a hands-free telephone, the off-hook button 23b is pressed and the telephone number is dialed by the ten-key button 23K. Further, it is only necessary to press the off-hook button 23b for an incoming call from the other party. When talking to the other party, the transmitted voice from this is the microphone 22M.
The received voice from the other party is heard through the speaker 21SP of the television receiver 21. Then, when the talk with the other party is finished, the line can be opened by pressing the on-hook button 23a.

Of the decoded interactive program information, the adapter device 22 also uses the information necessary for response, in this example, the telephone voting service. Therefore, at least the response destination telephone number (telegon It also has a function of reproducing the information of the telephone number of the service and storing it in the memory built in the adapter device 22.

The response operation to the question in this example is
It is an option number selected by the user (responder) from a plurality of options preset and broadcasted for the question, which is input by operating the ten-key button 23K of the remote commander 23. In this example, when the option number is selected as the answer to the question from the ten-key button 23K of the remote commander 23, the adapter device 22 receives the remote control signal and becomes the target of the response operation. The question number and the selected option number are stored in the memory, the response destination telephone number associated with the selected option number is read from the memory, and the telephone number is automatically dialed.

As shown in FIG. 4, the subscriber exchange 32 of the telephone station accepts this incoming call and counts the number of incoming calls for each incoming call to the same telephone number. And each subscriber exchange 3
2 informs the telegon system 33 of the number of incoming calls to each telephone number counted by the exchange. The telegon system 33 is shown as one that performs the data collection and totalization function of the service network control station and management station described above.

In this way, the number of incoming calls for each option collected in the telegon system 33 is notified to the computer of the studio 11 of the system 10 of the broadcasting station via the telephone line 31 as the number of responders who have selected the option. The broadcasting station broadcasts the tabulation result in the interactive broadcast program as described in FIG. 9 above.

After that, the system 10 of the broadcasting station multiplexes the evaluation data for the question into the broadcast sound in the form of the DTMF signal and broadcasts it. Upon receiving this evaluation data, the adapter device 22 compares the question number and the selected option number stored in the response history memory with the evaluation data, and determines whether or not the evaluation was made by the broadcast side, that is, If it is a quiz program, it is evaluated whether or not the correct answer is given.

Then, the system 10 of the broadcasting station multiplexes the selection data for the evaluation result with the broadcast sound in the form of the DTMF signal and broadcasts it. The adapter device 22 evaluates the evaluation result based on this selection data. For example, when the selection data requires that the number of correct answers for a question is a predetermined number or more, the selection is performed depending on whether or not the condition is met. If the selection fails, the adapter device 22 restricts the response so as to prohibit the response to the question to be broadcast thereafter. Therefore, the adapter device 2 in the response limited state
Even if the second user responds to a question that is subsequently broadcast, it will not be called.

In this way, since the originator of the response self-limits the origination of the response, even in a system that responds to an interactive program using a telephone voting service such as telegon, a so-called win-win quiz program or a premium type program is used. It becomes possible to provide the two-way broadcasting program of.

[Broadcasting of interactive program from broadcasting station] As described above, in this example, the television broadcasting station broadcasts the question and the choices of the response to the question.
The contents of the question and the contents of a plurality of options for the question are notified to the viewer (responder) by the screen of the television receiver or the announcement of the program host. At the same time, the numbers [0] to [9] are multiplexed on the broadcast signal,
The interactive program related information in which the combination of the symbols “#” and “*” and the characters “A”, “B”, “C”, and “D” is expressed by the DTMF signal is broadcast.

In the case of this example, the above-mentioned telephone voting service (telegon service) is used for the response, and since it is the response destination telephone number for the broadcast program, the response destination telephone number assigned to each option is , [0180
-0xxxxxxx] (x is an arbitrary number between 0 and 9).

[Request for Sending Reception History] Also, in this embodiment, as described above, in view of the multiplicity and immediacy of the cut-through service in the telegon service, the cut-through state is used for cut-through acceptance. The service contractor (the operator 4c of the broadcasting station) requests the responder to send the reception history data stored in the memory of the television receiver 21 through the line 3c.

Then, on the broadcast station side, the cut-through service calculates the audience rating of the interactive program currently being broadcast based on the reception history directly sent from the responder.
In this case, on the broadcast station side, the audience rating is calculated using the registered number of adapters in the target area notified by the telephone company as a population.

[Structure of Receiving Device] Next, FIG. 6 and FIG.
With reference to, an embodiment of a case where the interactive broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present invention is applied to a television receiver compatible with interactive broadcast programs will be described. FIG. 6 shows the overall configuration of an embodiment of the multiplex broadcast receiving apparatus of this example, and FIG. 7 shows the configuration of the main part thereof.

In FIG. 6, 110 is a signal system of the television receiver, and 120 is a control system thereof. Also,
Reference numeral 22 denotes the adapter device as described above, which is configured as shown in FIG.

Broadcast radio waves received by the antenna 25 are supplied to the tuner 111 of the signal system 110. Tuner 11
A channel selection signal is supplied from the control system 120 to 1, and a broadcast signal of a desired channel is selected by the tuner 111 and converted into an intermediate frequency signal. This intermediate frequency signal is supplied to the intermediate frequency circuit 112. The intermediate frequency circuit 112 includes a video demodulator 113 and an audio demodulator 114, and demodulates a video signal and an audio signal.

The video signal Sv from the video demodulator 113 is
It is supplied to the picture tube 116 via the video signal processing circuit 115. The audio signal Sa from the voice demodulator 114 is
The audio signal processing circuit 117 is supplied to decode the bilingual signals or the stereo signals SL and SR. Then, these signals SL and SR are respectively transmitted to the amplifier 118.
Left and right speakers 21SL, 21S through L, 118R
Supplied to R.

Audio signal S from the voice demodulator 114
Also, a is supplied to the DTMF decoder 132 via the preprocessing circuit 131. This DTMF decoder 132
Always searches the DTMF signal in the input signal,
When the TMF signal is detected, it is decoded which function signal the DTMF signal is. That is, "0" ~
The numbers "9", "#", "*", and "A" to "D" are decoded. Then, the decoded data is supplied to the control system 120.

In the case of this example, as the DTMF decoder 132, a commercially available DTMF decoder which is widely used is used. The pre-processing circuit 131 is
Even when a commercially available DTMF decoder is used as the F decoder 132, the F decoder 132 is provided for performing preprocessing so that the DTMF signal can be decoded with higher accuracy. That is, the preprocessing circuit 131 removes frequency components other than the DTMF signal from the audio signal Sa, and the input signal of the DTMF decoder 132 is a commercially available D signal.
It is a signal that the TMF decoder allows, and is composed of a filter circuit.

As a result, as a DTMF decoder, I
It is possible to use an inexpensive circuit such as a DTMF receiver chip that has been converted to C and is mass-produced, and it is possible to provide an inexpensive receiver.

Further, in this embodiment, the adapter unit (NCU) 22 described above is built in in order to respond to the interactive broadcast program such as the response to the viewer participation type program, and the telephone line is connected to the line connection terminal Line. 31 is connected, and the telephone 24 is connected to the telephone terminal Tel.

Then, the adapter device 22 controls the control system 12
0 is connected to the system bus 260, and the data from the adapter device 22 is supplied to the DTMF decoder 132. In this DTMF decoder 132, the DTMF signal sent via the telephone line 31 is decoded, It is adapted to be incorporated in the control system 120.

The control system 120 includes a CPU 121 and a ROM.
122, DRAM 123, SRAM 124, and video RAM (VRAM) 125, each of which is connected to the system bus 260. The ROM 122 has a DT
In addition to the MF data receiving and receiving processing program, various control programs are stored, and font and graphic data used for display are also stored. DRAM
123 is mainly used as a work area for calculation, and S
The RAM 124 stores setting information and ID information of the receiving device itself.

The video RAM 125 is used for display. Display control circuit 1 for the video RAM 125
25C is provided. This display control circuit 125C
Controls the reading and writing of the video data to and from the video RAM 125, and converts the read video data into an analog video signal. Then, the analog video signal obtained from the display control circuit 125C is supplied to the video signal processing unit 115 and coupled with the control of the video signal processing unit 115 from the control unit 120, the intermediate frequency circuit 11
It is superimposed on the video signal from 2 or is switched and combined.

The control system 120 also includes an I / O port 26.
1, 262, 263, 264, 265 and the control port 266 of the VTR. A control signal is supplied to the video signal processing circuit 115 and the audio signal processing circuit 117 through the I / O port 261. Further, the infrared remote control signal from the remote commander 23 is received by the remote control receiver 135, and the received remote control signal is decoded circuit 13
6 is decoded, and the decoded remote control signal is taken into the control system 120 from the I / O port 261.

The CPU 121 controls the remote commander 23 according to the user's operation according to the program in the ROM 122. For example, in the case of remote control operation such as tuning or volume control, tuner tuning or volume control is executed, and at the same time, font data for displaying necessary characters and symbols is read from the ROM 122 and stored in the video RAM 125. Transferred. The data of the video RAM 125 is the video signal processing circuit 11
5 and is combined with the video signal Sv (for example, superimposed) to be displayed on the screen of the picture tube 116 for an appropriate time.

Data for tuning and volume control are
When each operation is written in the nonvolatile SRAM 124, when the power is once turned off and then turned on again, a so-called last memory function is realized in which the same channel is watched at the same volume as immediately before the power is turned off. .

A tuning signal is supplied to the tuner 111 through the I / O port 263. Further, in this embodiment, the time data from the timer circuit 137 for notifying the real time or generating an interrupt at a predetermined time is sent to the I / O port 26.
4 to the control system 120.

Further, the control port 266 of the VTR is configured to be able to control three VTR1, VTR2 and VTR3 in this example. The control system 120 can supply a control signal to each VTR through the control port 266, take in a status signal from each VTR, and perform desired control on each VTR.

Each VTR has a built-in tuner and an intermediate frequency circuit, is connected to the antenna 25 via, for example, a distributor (not shown), and has a control system 120.
Scheduled recording can be performed under the control of.

In this embodiment, the switch 138 for setting whether or not to send the reception history as described above is provided and connected to the I / O port 265. The switch 138 is set to a predetermined connection state in advance depending on whether or not the viewer responds to a transmission request of the reception history from the broadcasting station side.

The setting state of this switch 138 is I / O.
When it is taken into the control system 120 through the port 265 and a request for sending the reception history is made from the broadcasting station side, it is checked whether the sending is possible, as described later.

When the viewer responds to the request for sending the reception history from the broadcasting station side, the broadcasting station side bears the line usage fee for the interactive broadcasting program of the viewer, and the appropriate economic consideration is considered. To be

[Structure of Adapter Device] FIG. 7 shows a specific structure example of the adapter device 22 and the remote commander 23 of the receiving device system 20 shown in FIG.
In this example, the adapter device 22 is incorporated in the television receiver 21 as described above, and the telephone line 31
It has a function of sending a response to the interactive program through the telephone (in this example, calling to a telephone number corresponding to the choice for the question).

Since the adapter device 22 of this example needs to have a function of sending a response to a two-way program via a telephone line, this is used more actively to handle the handset. It has a function as a so-called hands-free telephone that allows you to talk without having it. First, NC for this telephone function
The U (network control unit) system will be described. 201 is a modular jack on the telephone line side, and 202 is a modular jack on the external telephone side. Between the modular jacks 201 and 202,
The off-hook detection circuit 203 of the external telephone is connected.
This off-hook detection circuit 203 detects the off-hook when the external telephone (24: see FIG. 4) connected to the modular jack 202 detects the off-hook, and the detection output is a microcomputer (hereinafter referred to as a microcomputer).
Notify 200.

Modular jack 201 on the telephone line side
In addition, the surge protection circuit 204 and the ring detection circuit 20
5, polarity reversal detection circuit 206, dial switch 20
7. Connected to the transformer 209 via the hook switch 208. Here, the line side and the microcomputer 200 side are insulated.

When the ring detection circuit 205 detects a ringing signal in which a voltage of 16 Hz and 75 V is intermittent when an incoming call is received via the telephone line, the detection output is detected by the microcomputer 200.
To notify.

When the polarity reversal detection circuit 206 detects that the polarity of the telephone line has been reversed, it notifies the detection output to the microcomputer 200. Accordingly, the microcomputer 200 recognizes that the line is connected, that is, the incoming call is received.

The dial switch 207 dials according to the line type and dial data sent from the microcomputer 200 through the dialer 210 at the time of calling. The line type is set by the user with respect to a line type setting DIP switch (not shown). If the setting is a dial line, the microcomputer 200 controls the dial switch 207 via the dialer 210,
Dial with a pulse of 10pps / 20pps, P
If it is B line (push line), dialer 21
The PB signal (DTMF signal) is used to dial the sending amplifier 211 via 0.

When the adapter device 22 and the remote commander 23 are used as a hands-free telephone, the dial data is sent from the microcomputer 200 when the microcomputer 200 receives a key operation for inputting a telephone number by the user. In addition, the adapter device 22 and the remote commander 2
When 3 is used as a response operation device for interactive programs, the response destination telephone number (the telephone number for each option sent from the broadcasting station as interactive program information) stored in the memory of the microcomputer 200 is read out. The microcomputer 20
It is sent out from 0 and dialed automatically.

The hook switch 208 is the microcomputer 200
The control from switches between the on-hook (line open) state and the off-hook (DC loop closed) state. In the case of this example, the hook switch 208 is switched according to the operation of the on-hook button 23b and the off-hook button 23a of the remote commander 23.

The speakerphone circuit 212 is a communication path circuit for performing 2-line to 4-line conversion, and the other party's voice (received voice) sent from the telephone line 31 through the transformer 209.
As indicated by the broken line in FIG.
Is supplied to the speaker 21SP via the audio amplifier 118 of the above, and the sound (sending voice) that is picked up by the microphone 22MC and passed through the microphone amplifier 214 is transmitted to the transformer 209.
To send to the telephone line via.

The voice received from the transformer 209 is
It is supplied to the tone detection circuit 215. The tone detection circuit 215 detects various call progress tones such as busy tone, ringback tone, and dial tone, and notifies the microcomputer 200 of them.

The microcomputer 200 has a so-called one-chip microcomputer configuration, and has a built-in CPU, a ROM storing programs and fixed data, and a nonvolatile RAM and a volatile RAM. In the case of this example, the ID memory 218 is connected to the outside of the microcomputer 200. The ID memory 218 is composed of an electrically erasable and writable ROM, and at the time of factory shipment, identification information (identification information is hereinafter referred to as ID) peculiar to each adapter device is set. The user ID is registered by the input setting of. User I
As D, for example, the user's telephone number or the like is registered.

In this embodiment, the power of the adapter unit 22 is turned on / off, the telegon cut-through state,
The telephone number or the like of the response destination is displayed on a part of the screen of the television receiver 21 under the control of the microcomputer 200.

The remote commander 23 comprises a one-chip microcomputer 231, a button group 232 including buttons such as numbers 23K, on-hook buttons 23a and off-hook buttons 23b, and a transmission section 233 having a light emitting section. The microcomputer 231 scans the button group 232 at regular intervals to detect button press. Then, the microcomputer 231
When the button press is detected, sends a remote control signal corresponding to the pressed button to the transmitter 233. Transmission unit 23
3 designates the remote control signal from the light emitting section 23SD as infrared rays, and the remote control receiver 1 of the television receiver 21.
The light is transmitted to the light receiving unit 135PD of 35.

Reference numeral 219 indicates that the response is restricted or when the user performs a response operation outside the time limit.
It is an alarm buzzer used for informing that it is an inappropriate response operation, and is controlled by the microcomputer 200.

[Hands-free telephone function of adapter device]
When the user uses the adapter device as a hands-free telephone to make a call from this, the remote commander 23
After pressing the off-hook button 23b, the numeral button 23K is operated to dial the destination telephone number. Then, the microcomputer 231 of the remote commander 23
When this is detected, the LED embedded in the off-hook button 23b is turned on to display the off-hook state, and the off-hook button 23 is transmitted via the transmitter 233.
The information of the pressing of b is notified to the microcomputer 200 of the adapter device 22, and then the information of the input telephone number is notified.

The microcomputer 200 displays the telephone number on a part of the screen of the television receiver 21, controls the NCU system described above, and dials the other party. Then, after waiting for the response of the other party, the DC loop is closed and the call is ready. In this call-enabled state, the user sends the transmitted voice from the microphone 22MC and receives the received voice from the other party on the speaker 21SP of the television receiver 21.
Hear from.

When the call ends, the on-hook button 23a is pressed. Then, the microcomputer 231 turns off the LED of the off-hook button 23b and, for example,
The LFD embedded in the on-hook button 23a is lit only while the button 23a is being pressed. Then, the remote commander 23 uses the on-hook button 23a.
The information on the pressing of is notified to the microcomputer 200 of the adapter device 22. In response to this, the microcomputer 200 opens the line.

When the incoming call from the other party is received by the adapter device as a hands-free telephone, the user presses the off-hook button 23b. When the adapter device 22 receives the remote control signal of the off-hook button 23b from the remote commander 23, the adapter device 22 closes the DC loop and makes the call possible. After that, it is almost the same as when making a call. As described above, the adapter device 22 can be used as a hands-free telephone.

When a call is received while watching a broadcast program and the above-mentioned speakerphone function is used as a response, C
The mute signal from the PU 121 is the audio signal processing circuit 11
7, the audio of the broadcast program is interrupted.

[Reception History Transmission Process] Next, the reception history transmission process of the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 will be described with reference to FIG. In this embodiment, the microcomputer 2 of the adapter device 22
At 00, a reception history sending processing routine 300 as shown in FIG. 1 is executed.

First, in step 301, an off-hook state (communication enabled state) is set, and a predetermined answer destination of the telegon service as described above is automatically dialed (step 302).

In the next step 303, whether or not the cut-through state is present is checked by checking whether or not a specific tone flowing at the time of cut-through is received, or by checking if a busy tone is not detected for a predetermined time. Is judged. If it is in the cut-through state, the routine proceeds to step 304, where it is checked whether or not the setting of the switch 138 (see FIG. 6) is set to enable the channel history transmission.

Then, if the channel history is set to be transmitted, the process proceeds to step 305 to request the channel history to the system CPU 121 of the television receiver 21.

At the next step 306, the S of the television receiver 21 is operated due to the last memory function as described above.
The tuning data written in the RAM 124 is read by the system CPU 121, and the adapter device 2
The second microcomputer 200 receives the channel history of the television receiver 21 from the system CPU 121.

This channel history is transmitted to the broadcasting station in step 307 by half-duplex communication using a specific tone of the DTMF signal. And step 30
At 8, the call goes on-hook (call disabled state), and the process ends.

If the cut-through state is not set in step 303 and if the channel history transmission is set to non-display in step 304, the process proceeds to step 309, and a normal telegong call processing is performed. After that, the process proceeds to step 308.

[Other Embodiments] For the responder in the cut-through state as described above, from the broadcasting station side, for example,
It is also possible to obtain the past transition of the audience rating by requesting the transmission of the reception history for a predetermined period such as 4 hours.

The reception history of this predetermined period is created in each television receiver, for example, as shown in FIG. This reception history creation processing routine 310
Is started by turning on the power of the television receiver 21.

First, in step 311, the last channel reception state as described above is set, and the next step 3
At 12, it is checked whether a tuning operation has been performed.
If there is a tuning operation, the process proceeds to step 313 to temporarily save the tuning data of the new channel in the memory.

In the next step 314, it is checked whether or not this new channel has been continuously received for a predetermined time, for example, 5 minutes, and channel selection data by channel search is eliminated. When the signal is continuously received for the predetermined time, the process proceeds to step 315, and the channel selection time and the new channel are registered in the reception log area set in the SRAM 124.

In the next step 316, for example, 5 am
It is checked whether or not the update time has come, such as 0:00, and the above-described processing is repeated until the update time comes. When the update time arrives, the process proceeds to the next step 317, the reception log area is initialized, and the channel currently being received is registered.

The reception history created in this way is sent to the broadcasting station in the cut-through state of the telegon service in the same manner as described above.

On the broadcast station side, the audience rating for a predetermined period such as the past 24 hours can be calculated based on the reception history from each responder. In this case, the population for the audience rating of the program before the program currently being broadcast may be only the responders in the cut-through state, or may be the number of registered adapter devices in the target area, as described above.

The embodiments in which the present invention is applied to a television broadcasting station and a television receiver have been described above, but the present invention can be applied to radio broadcasting stations and radio receivers in exactly the same manner.

In each of the above embodiments, the broadcasting station of the interactive program collects the reception history data of the responder in the cut-through state of the telegon service.
An automatic incoming call function by no ringing may be added to the telegong adapter, and the reception history may be transmitted by half-duplex communication in response to a request from the broadcasting station side.

Further, in the above embodiment, the DTMF decoder is provided outside the adapter 22, but the preprocessing circuit 131
The DTMF decoder and the DTMF decoder may be built in the adapter 22. In this way, the circuit configuration of the television receiver excluding the adapter can be generally the same as that on the market.

[0105]

As described above, according to the present invention, in a two-way broadcast program in which a telephone is used for response, from the broadcasting station side, at least the present time stored in the memory of the responder's receiver is saved. By requesting the transmission of reception history data and targeting an appropriate population according to the request format, it is possible to quickly and with high accuracy based on the channel selection history transmitted from each receiving side. , The audience rating can be calculated.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flow chart for explaining a reception history sending process in an embodiment of a bidirectional broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a DTMF signal.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a DTMF signal.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an overall outline of an embodiment of a bidirectional broadcasting system according to the present invention.

5 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a main part of the embodiment of FIG.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of an embodiment of a bidirectional broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a main part of the embodiment of FIG.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart for explaining a reception history creating process in another embodiment of the bidirectional broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a telephone voting service.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Broadcasting Station System 20 Receiver System 21 Television Receiver 22 Adapter Device 23 Remote Commander 22MC Microphone 22PD Remote Control Light Receiver 23SD Light Emitting Section 23K Operation Button 30 Telephone Station System 31 Telephone Line 121 CPU 132 DTMF Decoder 135 Remote Control Receiver 137 Timer 138 Reception history transmission enable / disable setting switch 200 Microcomputer 300 Audience rating survey routine 310 Reception history creation routine

Claims (11)

[Claims] 1. A two-way broadcasting system in which an interactive program that expects a response from a receiver is broadcast from a broadcast side, and information on the response from the receiver is transmitted to a predetermined reply destination through a telephone line. From the broadcast side, the reply destination information of the response is multiplexed and broadcasted on the main broadcast signal, and at the reception side, the reply destination information is separated from the received signal and stored, and the reception side selection is performed. A two-way broadcasting system characterized in that the tuning history is sent to the reply destination in response to a station history sending trigger. 2. The interactive broadcasting system according to claim 1, wherein the selection history is final selection data. 3. The two-way broadcasting system according to claim 1, wherein the tuning history is tuning data including the final tuning data during a predetermined period. 4. The bidirectional broadcasting system according to claim 1, wherein the transmission trigger is a direct response to the broadcasting side in a telephone voting service. 5. The two-way broadcasting system according to claim 1, wherein the transmission trigger is a silent incoming call. 6. The two-way broadcast according to claim 1, wherein the reply destination information is multiplexed with a main broadcast audio signal in a DTMF signal format, and the tuning history is sent to the reply destination in the DTMF signal format. method. 7. A selective receiving section for selectively receiving a broadcast signal and providing an interactive program to a receiver, a multiplexed information extracting section for extracting information multiplexed in the received broadcast signal, and the multiplexing. Reply destination information separating means for separating the reply destination information of the response to the question of the interactive broadcast program from the information extracted by the information extracting section, and a storage for storing the reply destination information obtained from the reply destination information separating means And a communication interface for transmitting the response through a telephone line based on the reply destination information stored in the storage unit, the selective reception during a predetermined period. 2. A receiving apparatus for bidirectional broadcasting, comprising: a reception history storage unit for storing the history of the above; and a reception history transmitting unit for transmitting the history of the selective reception in response to a predetermined transmission trigger. 8. The bidirectional broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising a transmission propriety setting means for setting propriety of transmission of the selective reception history. 9. The interactive broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said reception history sending means responds to a silent incoming call. 10. The receiving apparatus for interactive broadcasting according to claim 7, wherein said reception history transmitting means is means for detecting a direct connection to the broadcasting side in a telephone voting service. 11. A receiving apparatus for interactive broadcasting according to claim 7, wherein said reception history sending means sends the history of the selective reception in a DTMF signal format.