JPH10145314A - Television receiver provided with two-way program function utilizing public line such as telephone line - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent concentration of phone calls from a 2-way program decoder. SOLUTION: Two-way program data included in a video signal of a base-band are stored in a buffer RAM 6, by using a synchronizing separator circuit 10, an A/D converter circuit 12, a waveform equalization circuit 11, and a data fetch/error correction circuit 1. A CPU 17 receives data from the RAM 6 and font data from a program ROM 2 and allows a display controller 3 or the like to display the data on a display means of the television receiver. When a button of a menu displayed on the display means is selected, the CPU 17 reads a telephone number from a telephone number storage device 18, adds each digit of the telephone number and obtains a lower one digit to obtain a delay time from a delay time from a delay time table 19, by using the one digit for an address. The television receiver awaits its processing by the delay time, and data of the selected button are sent by using a modem 7.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Analog telephone lines and ISDN
The present invention relates to a television receiver having an interactive program service function using a public line such as a television receiver.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A new service using a television (hereinafter referred to as a TV) receiver has been sought and proposed.

[0003] Intertext and Intel's intercast, which are scheduled to be launched in 1996 in Japan, transmit characters / still images / software using the VBI (vertical blanking period) of a TV signal. It is a proposal to realize various services. Since the data is multiplexed on the TV signal, a new service linked to the contents of the TV program can be provided. For example, it is possible to configure a two-way program using a telephone as an up line.

[0004] An example of a broadcasting system that enables an interactive program service will be described below with reference to FIG.

FIG. 6 shows a configuration of a broadcasting system which enables an interactive program service using a TV broadcast and a public line. In the figure, 100 is a broadcasting station equipment for transmitting a broadcast, 107
Is a two-way program TV receiver, and 113 is a connection server that processes the upstream telephone line of the two-way program service.

The program created by the interactive program production device 102 is once stored in the storage device 103. afterwards,
It is read out at a predetermined timing by the interactive program transmission device 104.

[0007] The television program transmitting apparatus 101 generates a baseband video signal by imaging, inverse gamma correction, and adding a synchronization signal, and supplies this video signal to the television transmitter 106 and the multiplexing apparatus 105. In the multiplexing device 105, the data read by the interactive program transmitting device 104 is multiplexed to the VBI of the video signal and supplied to the television transmitter.

[0008] The television transmitter 106 modulates the input, converts it into a broadcast wave, and transmits it to the television receiver 107.

The receiving circuit 108 of the TV set 107 selects a broadcast wave, amplifies a video intermediate frequency, detects a video,
The video signal is amplified, converted into a baseband video signal, and supplied to the video processing circuit 109 and the interactive program decoder 111.

A video processing circuit 109 performs synchronization signal separation, separation of a chrominance signal and a luminance signal, and reproduction of a chrominance signal for a video signal.

The bidirectional program decoder 111 decodes the multiplexed bidirectional program into a video signal, supplies the video signal to the video processing circuit 109, and multiplexes the chrominance signal and the luminance signal. The multiplexed video signal is displayed on the display device 110.

[0012] When an up-link is used, the bidirectional program decoder 111 uses the telephone line 112 to connect to the connection server 1.
13 and transmits necessary information. Further, necessary information is transmitted from the connection server 113 to the broadcasting station 100.

FIG. 10 shows an example of a service using the above configuration. In the figure, reference numeral 200 denotes a TV receiver 107.
2 shows a screen displayed on the display device 110 of FIG. 201 is
The portion produced by the interactive program production device 102 and the other portions are conventional program portions transmitted by the television program transmission device 101. 201 has buttons 202 and 20
3 is included.

For example, assume that two people A and B are voting for popularity in 200. The viewer can vote by selecting one of buttons 202 and 203 using an input device such as a remote controller. The result of the selection is telephone line 1
12 to the connection server 113, and this server 1
13 and the result of the calculation is transmitted to the network 114.
(May be a telephone line) to the broadcast station 100.

The totaling result is transmitted from the television program transmitting apparatus 101 or the interactive program producing apparatus 102 as a TV program, and is displayed as a screen 204 on the TV receiver.
The result of the voting of the viewers on the screen 200 is reflected on the program as shown on the screen 204 only by the processing delay of the server, the broadcasting station, and the line.

The programs initially produced by the interactive program production apparatus 102 are not limited to those shown on the screen 200 of FIG. Is also included.

FIG. 7 shows the configuration of a conventional interactive program decoder 111. 8 and FIG.
3 shows a processing flowchart. Note that ST801 to ST801
Reference numeral 810 indicates an operation step.

A video input terminal 416 is connected to the receiving circuit 108.
, A baseband video signal is input. The multiplexed bidirectional program data is stored in the buffer RAM 406 by the synchronization separation circuit (separating the vertical synchronization signal) 410, the A / D conversion circuit 412, the waveform equalization circuit 411, and the data acquisition / error correction circuit 401. .

CPU 400 reads predetermined data from buffer RAM 406 via data fetch / error correction circuit 401 (ST801), and reads necessary font data from program ROM 402 (ST80).
2). CPU 400 generates display data by combining predetermined data and font data. Then, display data is written to the display memory 404 via the display control device 403 (ST803). In this case, screen 2 in FIG.
01 data.

The written data is input to the video processing circuit 109 via the color map memory 414 and the D / A conversion circuit 413, and is multiplexed with a color signal and a luminance signal to be displayed.

Next, the CPU when the user performs a voting operation
The operation of 400 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

As a result of the user's remote control operation, a screen 200 is displayed.
It is determined whether or not a button for displaying data other than the above has been selected (ST804). If yes, C
PU 400 displays data corresponding to the button (ST805), and ends.

In the case of NO, CPU 400 determines whether or not the selected button corresponds to the function of making a telephone call like voting (ST806). If NO, CPU
400 performs other processing such as sound output (ST
807).

In the case of YES, a telephone call is made using modem 407 (ST808). Here, the CPU 400
It waits for modem 407 to establish communication with connection server 113 (ST809). Thereafter, CPU 400 sends a voting command to connection server 113 (ST81).
0), end.

In the case of configuring the interactive program service as described above, a considerable amount of telephone calls are required to vote.
To concentrate on a specific time, the telephone line and connection server 11
3 is congested, and problems such as busy and delayed processing occur.

This problem is a peculiar phenomenon caused by using TV broadcasting which is a service for an unspecified number of recipients, and does not occur in an interactive service such as the Internet.

[0027]

In a two-way program service using ordinary TV broadcasting and a telephone line, there is a problem that, unlike ordinary telephone use, telephone calls are concentrated.

An object of the present invention is to provide a television (hereinafter, referred to as TV) receiver having a two-way program service function using a telephone line for preventing telephone concentration.

[0029]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

(First Configuration Example) In a television receiver provided with an interactive program service using a public line such as a telephone line, means for shifting the transmission timing of a public line such as a telephone line is provided.

(Second Configuration Example) In a television receiver having an interactive program service function using a public line such as a telephone line, a holding unit for holding a unique value, and the public unit based on the unique value Determining means for determining the transmission timing of the line.

(Third Configuration Example) In a television receiver having a two-way program service function using a public line such as a telephone line, a holding means for holding a unique value, and the both based on the unique value. Deciding means for deciding the display timing of the program to be directed.

(Fourth Configuration Example) In a television receiver having an interactive program service function using a public line such as a telephone line, a holding unit for holding a unique value, and the public unit based on the unique value Determining means for determining the transmission destination of the line.

[0033]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. The broadcast system that enables the interactive program service has the same configuration except for the interactive program decoder 111 (FIG. 6).

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a first embodiment of a bidirectional program decoder of a TV receiver having a bidirectional program service function using a public line such as a telephone line according to the present invention. FIGS. 2 and 3 show a processing flowchart of the CPU 17 of FIG. Note that ST201 to ST213
Indicates an operation step.

As compared with the conventional example described with reference to FIG.
The configuration is such that a telephone number storage device 18 and a delay time table 19 are added. In addition, the processing is different from the processing flow of the CPU 400 described with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9. The processing flow will be described later.

As in the conventional example shown in FIG.
, A baseband video signal from the receiving circuit 108 in FIG. 6 is input. A synchronization separation circuit (separating a vertical synchronization signal) 10, an A / D conversion circuit 12, a waveform equalization circuit 11,
The data fetch / error correction circuit 1 stores the multiplexed bidirectional program data in the buffer RAM 6.

The CPU 17 reads predetermined data from the buffer RAM 6 via the data fetch / error correction circuit 1 (ST201), and reads necessary font data from the program ROM 2 (ST202). CPU1
7 generates display data by combining predetermined data and font data. Then, via the display control device 3,
The display data is written to the display memory 4 (ST203).
In this case, it is the data of the screen 201 in FIG.

The written data is input to the video processing circuit 109 shown in FIG. 6 via the color map memory 14 and the D / A conversion circuit 13, and is multiplexed with a color signal and a luminance signal to be displayed.

Next, the CPU when the user performs a voting operation
The operation of No. 17 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

As a result of the user's remote control operation, the screen 200
It is determined whether or not a button for displaying data other than the above has been selected (ST204). If yes, C
PU 17 displays the data corresponding to the button (ST205), and ends.

In the case of NO, CPU 17 determines whether or not the selected button corresponds to the function of making a telephone call like voting (ST207). If NO, CPU 1
7 performs other processing such as output of sound (ST20).
7).

In the case of YES, the CPU 17 reads the telephone number from the telephone number storage device 18 (ST208).

The telephone number of the purchaser is stored in advance in the telephone number storage device 18, for example, when the receiver is purchased. The CPU 17 obtains a delay time based on the read telephone number, for example, as follows.

Add all the numerical values of the telephone number. If the telephone number is 03-123-4567, 0 + 3 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 = 31 The lower one digit is taken out as an address input for referring to the delay time table 19. When the contents of the delay time table 19 are, for example, as shown in (Table 1), a delay time output of 1:00 minutes is obtained with 1 as an address input (ST2).
09).

[0045]

[Table 1] CPU 17 waits for this time (ST210).
Next, a telephone call is made using the modem 7 (ST21).
1). Here, the CPU 17 determines that the modem 7 is connected to the connection server 1.
Then, it waits for communication to be established with ST13 (ST212). Thereafter, CPU 17 sends a voting command to connection server 113 (ST213), and ends.

As described above, the telephone transmission time is set to 1:00.
By shifting the distance, it is possible to avoid the problem that the telephone line and the connection server 113 are congested due to the concentration of telephone calls, which is a problem in the conventional example, such as busy or delayed processing.

In the example described above, ten different address inputs are obtained by the TV receiver, and the respective addresses are set to 0: 0.
As a result, a delay time of 0 to 9:00 minutes is obtained, and accordingly, the call origination timing is dispersed.

As an example of the method of calculating the address input, all the numerical values of the telephone numbers are added and the last digit is taken, but the calculation method is not limited to this, and the number of input addresses is also reduced to ten. It doesn't have to be limited. Delay time table 1
9 outputs a delay time of 0:00 to 9:00 minutes with respect to the input, but the time is not limited to this value.

Next, the configuration of a second embodiment of the interactive program decoder of a TV receiver having an interactive program service function using a public line such as a telephone line according to the present invention will be described. The configuration of the interactive program decoder of the second embodiment is as follows.
It is the same as the interactive program decoder of the first embodiment,
Only the behavior is different. 4 and FIG.
4 shows a flowchart of the operation of U17.

As in the conventional example shown in FIG.
, A baseband video signal from the receiving circuit 108 in FIG. 6 is input. A synchronization separation circuit (separating a vertical synchronization signal) 10, an A / D conversion circuit 12, a waveform equalization circuit 11,
The data fetch / error correction circuit 1 stores the multiplexed bidirectional program data in the buffer RAM 6.

CPU 17 reads predetermined data from buffer RAM 6 via data fetch / error correction circuit 1 (ST501), and reads necessary font data from program ROM 2 (ST502).

Next, the CPU 17 sets the telephone number storage device 18
Then, the telephone number is read (ST503). Where CP
U17 adds all the numerical values of the telephone numbers 03-123-4567 in the same manner as in the first embodiment, and takes the last one digit as an address input for referring to the delay time table 19. . If the contents of the delay time table 19 are, for example, as shown in the above (Table 1), 1 is used as an address input and a delay time output of 1:00 minutes is obtained (ST
504).

The CPU 17 waits for this time (S
T505). Next, the CPU 17 generates display data by combining predetermined data and font data. Then, display data is written to the display memory 4 via the display control device 3 (ST506). In this case, screen 2 in FIG.
01 data.

The written data is transferred to the video processing circuit 10 via the color map memory 14 and the D / A conversion circuit 13.
9 is multiplexed with a color signal and a luminance signal and displayed.

Next, the CPU when the user performs a voting operation
The operation of No. 17 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

As a result of the user's remote control operation, the screen 200
It is determined whether or not a button for displaying data other than the above has been selected (ST507). If yes, C
PU 17 displays the data corresponding to the button (ST508), and ends.

[0057] In the case of NO, CPU 17 determines whether or not the selected button corresponds to a function of making a telephone call like voting (ST509). If NO, CPU 1
7 performs other processing such as output of sound (ST51).
0).

In the case of YES, a telephone call is made using the modem 7 (ST511). The CPU 17 waits for the modem 7 to establish communication with the connection server 113 (ST
512). Thereafter, CPU 17 sends a voting command to connection server 113 (ST513), and ends.

By shifting the display timing on the screen by 1:00 minutes as described above, the telephone line and the connection server 113 become congested due to the concentration of telephone calls, which is a problem in the conventional example, and a busy or The problem of processing delay can be avoided.

In the example described above, ten different address inputs are obtained by the TV receiver, and 0: 0
As a result, a delay time of 0 to 9:00 minutes is obtained, and accordingly, the call origination timing is dispersed.

As an example of the method of calculating the address input, all the numerical values of the telephone numbers are added to take the last digit, but the calculation method is not limited to this, and the number of input addresses is also reduced to ten. It doesn't have to be limited. Delay time table 1
9 outputs a delay time of 0:00 to 9:00 minutes with respect to the input, but the time is not limited to this value.

In the above description of the first and second embodiments, the telephone number stored in the user telephone number storage device 18 is used in order to obtain the delay time for each TV receiver. Whatever value is used, such as a postal code of a user, a number indicating a manufacturer, and a serial number of a TV receiver, as long as the value is unique to each TV receiver or every TV receiver, not limited to a telephone number. Even if it does, the same effect can be obtained.

The contents of the delay time table 19 need not always be constant, but may be multiplexed during an interactive program. In such a case, for each interactive program or connection to the connection server 113 (voting operation, etc.),
It is possible to dynamically change the contents of the delay time table 19.

Further, in the above example, the output value of the delay time table 19 is processed directly as the actual delay time. However, the calculation result of the CPU 17 may be used as the delay time.

Further, a process combining the processes of FIGS. 2 and 3 and FIGS. 4 and 5 may be performed. In the above embodiment, each TV receiver only makes a call to one connection server. However, the concentration of telephone calls may be prevented from being concentrated by distributing connection servers of the telephone calls. In this case, a telephone number is used instead of the delay time output in the above (Table 1). Then, the tallying is performed again between the connected servers.

The program produced by the interactive program producing apparatus 102 is transmitted to the TV receiver 10 via the network 114, the connection server 113, and the telephone line 112 in FIG.
7 is also conceivable.

[0067]

As described above, according to the present invention,
It is possible to avoid the problem that the telephone line and the connection server 113 are crowded due to the concentration of outgoing calls without the user of the TV receiver being particularly aware of the problem, such as busy or delayed processing.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a first and a second embodiment of an interactive program decoder of a TV receiver having an interactive program service function using a public line such as a telephone line according to the present invention. .

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a CPU 17 of the first embodiment of the interactive program decoder of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a CPU 17 of the first embodiment of the interactive program decoder of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a CPU 17 of the second embodiment of the interactive program decoder of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a CPU 17 according to a second embodiment of the interactive program decoder of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a broadcasting system that enables an interactive program service using a TV broadcast and a public line.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional bidirectional program decoder of a TV receiver having a bidirectional program service function using a public line such as a telephone line.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of CPU 400 of the interactive program decoder of FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a CPU 400 of the interactive program decoder of FIG. 7;

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a broadcast system of an interactive program service.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Data acquisition / error correction circuit, 2 ... Program ROM, 3 ... Display control device, 4 ... Display memory, 6 ... Buffer RAM, 7 ... Modem, 10
..Synchronization separation circuit, 11 ... waveform equalization circuit, 12 ...
A / D conversion circuit, 14: color map memory, 1
3 ... D / A conversion circuit, 18 ... Phone number storage device, 19 ... Delay time table.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code FI H04N 7/173

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A television receiver provided with an interactive program service using a public line such as a telephone line, comprising a means for shifting a transmission timing of a public line such as a telephone line. 2. A television receiver having an interactive program service function using a public line such as a telephone line, a holding unit for holding a unique value, and a transmission timing of the public line based on the unique value. A television receiver having an interactive program service function using a public line such as a telephone line, characterized by comprising a determining means for determining. 3. A television receiver having an interactive program service function using a public line such as a telephone line, a holding unit for holding a unique value, and a display timing of the interactive program based on the unique value. A television receiver having an interactive program service function using a public line such as a telephone line, comprising: 4. A television receiver having an interactive program service function using a public line such as a telephone line, a holding unit for holding a unique value, and a transmission destination of the public line based on the unique value. A television receiver having an interactive program service function using a public line such as a telephone line, characterized by comprising a determining means for determining. 5. The unique value includes a public line number of the user of the TV receiver, a postal code of the user of the TV receiver, a number indicating a maker of the TV receiver, and a manufacturing number of the TV receiver. 5. A television receiver having an interactive program service function using a public line such as a telephone line according to claim 2, wherein the television receiver is any one of the above. 6. A public line such as a telephone line according to claim 2, wherein said determining means comprises a table means, a calculating means, or a means combining them. A television receiver with an interactive program service function. 7. The table means comprises: acquiring means for acquiring a table multiplexed on the interactive program; and updating means for updating a current table based on the acquired table. 7. A television receiver having an interactive program service function using a public line such as a telephone line according to claim 6, wherein the television receiver is dynamically changeable.