JPH10200879A - Television individual control system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make it possible to individually select a viewer who provides a bidirectional program on a program provider side by individually controlling bidirectional television. SOLUTION: For the bidirectional television 2 which enables a bidirecitonal program advanced according to a viewer's answer by addressing the viewer from the program side, indication data regarding the program filtering of the bidirectional program is set and the bidirectional program which is so constituted that the program is executed only when the specific indication data is read in is transmitted from a broadcasting station 1 with a broadcasting wave; when the bidirectional program is selected by the bidirectional television 2, the indication data set to the bidirectional television 2 is read in from the bidirectional program side to control the operation of the bidirectional program.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an interactive television receiver (hereinafter referred to as "interactive television") installed in a home or a business office, and a server connected to a communication line such as a telephone line. From the viewer to the response, the viewer responds to the program's response by remote control operation,
The present invention relates to an interactive television system in which a response is transferred from an interactive television to a server through a communication line, and more particularly to an individual television control system for individually controlling each interactive television.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an interactive television system, a program calls for a response to a viewer on an interactive television, and when the viewer inputs a response to the request by operating a remote controller,
This is a television system that transmits a viewer's response to a response server to which an interactive television is connected via a communication line.

[0003] In such an interactive television system, a broadcasting station transmits program data of a program having bidirectionality between a program side and a viewer (hereinafter, referred to as an "interactive program") in a gap between television waves. A two-way television receiving and transmitting a television wave, extracts the program data of the two-way program from the television wave and displays the two-way program.

One of the features of television broadcasting using television waves is that television waves transmitted from a broadcasting station can be received simultaneously by all television receivers, and each television receiver has the same This means that programs can be provided.

From another point of view, when providing an interactive program by receiving television waves on each interactive television, the program provider individually selects viewers who provide the interactive program. Means you can't. Also, from the viewer's point of view, it is not possible to reject all or a part of the information of a two-way program unilaterally sent from a broadcasting station. Must.

[0006]

As described above, in the conventional television broadcasting using the television wave, different control is performed for the interactive program transmitted by the television wave for each interactive television. Therefore, the program provider cannot individually select a viewer who provides the interactive program, or the viewer cannot reject information on all or a part of the interactive program.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and uses a preset information for an interactive program transmitted to an interactive television by a broadcast wave to control differently for each television. A TV individual control system in which a program provider can individually select viewers who provide an interactive program and the viewer can reject information on all or a part of the interactive program. The purpose is to:

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention takes the following measures. The present invention sets an instruction data relating to program filtering of an interactive program in an interactive television capable of executing an interactive program in which a program is called for a response from a viewer and the program is advanced according to the viewer's response, and specifies the program. A bidirectional program set to execute the program only when the instruction data is read is transmitted by a broadcast wave from a broadcasting station, and the bidirectional program is selected when the bidirectional program is selected on the bidirectional television. This is a television individual control method for reading instruction data set in the interactive television from the side and controlling the operation of the interactive program.

According to the present invention, the corresponding interactive program does not operate unless specific instruction data is registered in the interactive television, so that the program creator selects a viewer to whom the instruction data of the interactive program is given. This allows the program creator to individually select viewers who provide interactive programs.

According to the present invention, there is provided an interactive television capable of executing an interactive program in which a program is called for a response from a viewer and the program is advanced according to the response of the viewer. Set instruction data for filtering, transmit an interactive program set to display only information filtered based on the read instruction data from a broadcast station by broadcast waves, and the interactive program Is an individual television control system for reading instruction data set in the interactive television from the interactive program side when the is selected and filtering information provided in the interactive program.

According to the present invention, only the information specified by the instruction data registered in the interactive television is filtered and displayed. Therefore, only the necessary information is specified by the viewer with the instruction data. The information that is not needed for will be cut off.

According to the present invention, the program side calls a response to the viewer, and stores the program execution result of the interactive program on an interactive television capable of executing an interactive program in which the program is advanced according to the viewer's response. In a system configuration including the device, an interactive program configured to reflect the current program execution result in the previous program execution result of the same program is transmitted from a broadcast station by broadcast waves, and the interactive television transmits the interactive program. When the interactive program is selected, the program execution result up to the previous time stored in the interactive television is extracted from the interactive program side, and the current program execution result is reflected.

According to the present invention, there is provided a broadcasting station which includes a condition for transmitting a program execution result to an external device, and which is configured so that the current program execution result is reflected on a previous program execution result of the same program. When the interactive program is transmitted from the interactive television, and when the interactive program is selected on the interactive television, the interactive program side retrieves the previous program execution result stored in the interactive television and retrieves the current program execution result. If the transmission conditions are satisfied by reflecting on the previous program execution result,
The reflection result is transmitted to an external device that processes response data of the interactive television. If the transmission condition is not satisfied, the reflection result is stored in the interactive television.

[0014] Further, the result of reflecting the current program execution result on the previous program execution result is transmitted to an external device in response to an instruction input from a viewer. Also, the present invention sets a specific instruction data for program filtering in an interactive television that executes an interactive program in which a program is called for a response from a viewer and a program is advanced according to the viewer's response, and the specific instruction data is set. The broadcast program transmits an interactive program set to be executed on the interactive television set as a broadcast wave, and the result of executing the interactive program on the interactive television set with the specific instruction data is a program. A two-way program whose contents are individually changed according to the previous program execution result sent to the program production side and sent to the program production side is transmitted as a broadcast wave from a broadcasting station at the next broadcast of the two-way program. This makes it possible to provide a program based on the previous program execution result.

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. FIG. 1 shows the entire configuration of the interactive television system according to the embodiment. In the interactive television system, a broadcast wave is transmitted from a broadcast station 1 in which program data including a program execution program of an interactive program, a screen form, and the like is inserted in a gap. A program execution program of an interactive program extracted from a television wave received by the interactive television 2 installed in each home or the like is executed to receive a viewer's response in the interactive program. Each interactive television 2 connects to the response server 3 via a communication line 4 such as a telephone line, and transmits a viewer's response to the response server 3. The response server 3 processes the response of the viewer according to the content of the program and passes the result to the program creator.

In the broadcasting station 1, program data (programs other than interactive programs) created by the program creator is input to the television transmitter 6 using the television program transmission device 5, and the television transmitter 6
A television wave of the program data is transmitted from the transmission antenna 7 connected to the. When transmitting a two-way program, program data of the two-way program is inserted into this television wave by a kind of intertext method. The program data of the interactive program is created by the interactive program production device 8, and a program identifier uniquely assigned to each interactive program is added. The program data of the interactive program is input to the multiplexer 10 using the interactive program transmitting device 9. The multiplexing device 10 synchronizes the program data of the interactive program with the synchronization signal of the original program and multiplexes the data in the gap.

The interactive television 2 passes the television wave received by the antenna 11 to the receiving circuit 12, inputs the video signal of the program selected by the receiving circuit 12 to the video processing circuit 13, and causes the CRT 14 to display the video signal. In FIG. 1, the audio circuit is omitted. The receiving circuit 12 extracts the program data of the interactive program inserted in the television wave and inputs the program data to the script decoding circuit 15. The script decoding circuit 15 is a part that provides a bidirectional program by executing a program execution program (script) of the bidirectional program included in the program data.

For a particular interactive program registered in advance, additional information for controlling the program execution program can be stored in the storage device 16. Storage device 16
As shown in FIG. 2, instruction data serving as additional information for controlling the program of the interactive program is registered using the program identifier of the registered interactive program as a key. When the interactive program production device 8 produces a program, the storage device 1
Programming is performed so that the processing can be selected according to the instruction data obtained from Step 6.

For example, if a specific instruction data (key code) is not registered, programming is performed so that the interactive program does not operate. Or, in interactive programs such as stock information programs and weather information programs, register instruction data that filters to extract only information on specific brands or regions required by viewers, and program so that unnecessary information is cut. can do.

A remote controller 17 and a bar code reader 18 can be used as input means for inputting instruction data stored in the storage device 16. The instruction data input from the remote controller 17 is transmitted from the remote controller control circuit 19 to the instruction data processing circuit 2.
0 to the storage device 1 from the instruction data processing circuit 20.
6 is written. The instruction data read from the barcode provided by the program provider is input from the barcode control circuit 21 to the instruction data processing circuit 20, and is written from the instruction data processing circuit 20 to the storage device 16.

The interactive television 2 controls the modem 23 with the modem control circuit 22 and connects to the response server 3. The program execution program executed by the script decoding circuit 15 issues a connection request to the response server 3 to the modem control circuit 22. After the line is established, response data obtained by adding a program identifier and a television identifier to the response from the viewer is transmitted. Send. The television identifier is a number uniquely assigned to each interactive television.

The response server 3 is provided with a program information database in which processing contents of response data are registered for each interactive program, and the processing contents of the response data received from each interactive television 2 are used as program identifiers. It is obtained from the program information database based on the program information. In the response server 3, the name, address, telephone number, and other attribute information of the viewer who receives the interactive program provided by the system are registered in correspondence with the television identifier of the interactive television 2 of the viewer. Authentication database.

The individual television control in the interactive television system configured as described above will be described.
When paying for a two-way program transmitted by broadcast waves, information (instruction data) for receiving provision of the two-way program
The program maker sells the bar code information obtained by converting the bar code into bar code information to the program viewers, thereby making an overpayment.
The viewer who has purchased the instruction data for receiving the provision of the interactive program causes the interactive television 2 to read the instruction data. Here, the barcode information of the purchased interactive program is read by the barcode reader 18 and stored in the storage device 16 together with the program identifier. FIG. 2 shows the program identifier = 1.
“1048” is stored as instruction data of the 00 interactive program. The program execution program for the interactive program with the program identifier = 100 acquires instruction data from the storage device 16 at the beginning of the program, and sets the program to execute the program when the instruction data = 1048.

When bar code information is sold in order to pay a viewer who uses the interactive program, the bar code information is passed to another viewer and read by an interactive television of a non-purchaser. In such a case, there will be unfairness between those who have made a legitimate purchase and those who have not. Therefore, when purchasing the barcode information, the purchaser is required to declare the television identifier of his or her interactive television 2, and the number obtained by encrypting the television identifier in accordance with a predetermined rule is converted into a barcode to purchase the barcode information. Hand over to others.

A case where the program provider individually selects viewers who provide the interactive program according to the flowchart shown in FIG. 3 will be described. When the interactive program is executed on the interactive television 2, the viewer inputs a program request for the interactive program to the interactive television 2 by operating the remote controller 17.
When a program request is input, the script decode circuit 15 executes a program execution program for an interactive program and performs the following processing.

First, the program identifier of the interactive program is acquired from the program data, and the registered instruction data is acquired from the storage device 16 using the program identifier as a key. Here, since the instruction data is encrypted by the television identifier, a decryption process is required. At the time of program creation, a decryption process corresponding to the above-described encryption rule is incorporated in the program execution program, and the instruction data obtained from the storage device 16 is decrypted. If the television identifier decoded from the instruction data and the television identifier of the interactive television 2 match, the interactive program requested by the viewer is executed, and if not, the execution of the interactive program ends. . In other words, at this stage, only the interactive program is selected for the viewer, so that the interactive program is not displayed at all.

As described above, the instruction code of the interactive program acquired by the viewer for a fee is stored in the storage device 1 of the interactive television 2.
6 and transmit the program execution program to the interactive television 2 on a television wave so that the interactive program 2 which is not registered with the instruction code of the interactive program is programmed so that the interactive program does not operate. Thus, the program creator can select the viewers who provide the interactive program, and can provide the interactive program only to the viewer who paid the fee.

Next, a case where the viewer selects only necessary information in the interactive program will be described. For example, it is assumed that information on thousands of brands is provided in a stock information program that periodically sends stock information. For some viewers, not all brands are required and only some (for example, 10 brands) of information may be desired. In this case, the instruction data specifying the brand to be displayed is stored in the storage device 16 together with the program identifier of the stock information program. On the other hand, at the time of program production of the stock information program, the program execution program is programmed so that brands other than those specified by the instruction data are not displayed.

A case where only the information necessary for the viewer is displayed in the interactive program will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. In the interactive television 2, when a viewer inputs a program request for the stock information program by remote control, a program execution program for the stock information program is executed, and the following processing is performed.

First, a program identifier of the stock information program is acquired from the program data, and registered instruction data is acquired from the storage device 16 using the program identifier as a key. The program execution program selects and displays only the information of the brand specified by the instruction data from the program data including the information of all brands.

As described above, the instruction code specifying the brand required by the viewer is registered in the storage device 16 of the interactive television 2 in advance, and programming is performed so that only the information of the brand specified by the instruction code is displayed. By transmitting the executed program to the interactive television 2 on a television wave, only the information required by the viewer can be filtered and displayed on the screen, and the viewer can select the information. .

It should be noted that the same method as the information selection of the stock information program can be applied to the weather information program. That is, instruction data specifying a specific area in a weather information program that provides a detailed weather forecast for the whole country is stored in the storage device 16 of the interactive television 2 together with the program identifier of the weather information program, and A program execution program programmed to display only the weather forecast of the area specified by the instruction data from the weather forecast information is transmitted by television waves.

As described above, by registering instruction data in the storage device 16 of the interactive television 2 and using the instruction data as additional information for controlling the program execution program, the program provider can provide the interactive program. Viewers can be individually selected, or the viewers can reject information on all or part of the interactive program.

In the above description, the bar code reader 18 is used to store the instruction data in the storage device 16 of the interactive television 2. However, the instruction data may be input using the remote controller 17 and the input screen displayed on the CRT 14. it can. The instruction data input program is stored in the television, and when there is a display request, the instruction data input screen is displayed on the CRT 14 to receive the instruction data. The instruction data is passed from the remote control circuit 19 to the instruction data processing circuit 20 and stored in the storage device 16.

The storage device 1 provided in the interactive television 2
6, the response inputted by the viewer in response to the call from the interactive program is not transmitted to the response server 3 at the end of the program but is stored in the storage device 16 of the television itself, and the next program is executed until the end of the previous program. Is read from the television and used.

For example, in a quiz program broadcasted once a week, the total number of correct answers (the total number over a plurality of weeks)
If the program reaches 100 questions, a program that wins a prize will be described as an example. In the interactive program that supports the quiz program, the answer from the viewer is accepted to determine the correct answer.

An example in which the result of a program is stored in the storage device 16 of the interactive television 2 according to the flowchart shown in FIG. 5 and the response result until the end of the previous program is used when the next program is executed will be described. When the interactive program that supports the quiz program is selected on the interactive television 2, the program execution program of the selected interactive program acquires the program identifier from the program data. Instruction data indicating the number of correct answers up to the previous time is extracted from the storage device 16 using the program identifier as a key. Since this instruction data is encrypted to prevent falsification on the viewer side, the number of correct answers is decrypted according to the encryption rule.

When the above preparations are completed, the screen of the interactive program for receiving an answer (response) from the viewer is displayed. Switch the screen that accepts answers one after another in synchronization with the progress of the quiz program. When a viewer's answer is input, the correctness is determined, and if correct, the number of correct answers is counted up.

When the quiz program ends, it is determined whether or not the current number of correct answers has reached a predetermined condition, that is, 100 questions. If the number of correct answers has not reached 100,
The instruction data obtained by encrypting the current number of correct answers is stored in the storage device 16 based on the program identifier. Therefore, the response input by the viewer during the program is not transmitted to the response server 3.
On the other hand, if the number of correct answers reaches 100, a connection request is issued to the response server 3, and after the line probability, a response is given by adding a program identifier and a television identifier to information indicating that the viewer has satisfied the condition. Send to server 3.

The response server 3 acquires a method of processing the response data from the program information database using the program identifier set in the data received from the interactive television 2 as a key. In this case, creation of a list of qualified persons to participate in the prize lottery is registered as a processing method in the program information database. Based on the processing method acquired from the program information database, the name and address of the viewer who sent the response data from the authentication information database are added to the list using the television identifier as a key.

As described above, when the program ends, the response server 3
The execution result of the program to be saved in the interactive television 2 is stored in the storage device 16 and the result up to the previous time is called and used at the next program execution, and transmitted to the response server 3 when the conditions are satisfied. As a result, it is possible to prevent the concentration of calls from a large number of interactive televisions 2 to the response server 3 at the end of the program, and to prevent the line from being connected to a program whose response data reception time is determined. Response data can be prevented from being lost.

As described above, if the interactive data can be individually controlled by setting the instruction data in the interactive television and controlling the interactive program based on the instruction data, various services other than the above-described services can be used. Is possible.

For example, it is possible to provide a program according to the result of the previous program execution. When creating the next interactive program, create a program with different program contents (such as the difficulty of a quiz program) according to the previous program execution result for each viewer, and instruct each corresponding interactive TV After setting the data, it is broadcast by broadcast waves. The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

[0044]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, it is possible to perform different control for each television by using preset information for an interactive program transmitted by broadcast waves to the interactive television. The program provider can individually select a viewer who provides the interactive program, and the viewer can reject information on all or a part of the interactive program.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of an interactive television system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing storage contents of a storage device of the interactive television in the interactive television system of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of program filtering in the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of information filtering in a program in the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of transmission control of response data of a continuation program in the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Broadcasting station 2 ... Interactive television 3 ... Response server 4 ... Communication network 5 ... TV program transmitting device 6 ... TV transmitter 7 ... Transmission antenna 8 ... Interactive program producing device 9 ... Interactive program transmitting device 10 ... Multiplex Device 12 ... receiving circuit 13 ... video processing circuit 14 ... CRT 15 ... script decoding circuit 16 ... storage device 17 ... remote control 18 ... bar code reader

Claims (6)

[Claims] An instruction data relating to program filtering of an interactive program is set in an interactive television capable of executing an interactive program in which a program is called out from a program side and a program is advanced according to the viewer's response, A two-way program arranged to execute the program only when specific instruction data is read is transmitted from a broadcasting station by broadcast waves, and when the two-way program is selected on the two-way television, A television individual control method characterized by reading instruction data set in the interactive television from a program side and controlling the operation of the interactive program. 2. A program which calls for a response from a viewer to a viewer and filters information provided in the interactive program on an interactive television capable of executing an interactive program in which the program is advanced according to the viewer's response. An instruction data to be set is set, and an interactive program set to display only information filtered based on the instruction data to be read is transmitted from a broadcasting station by broadcast waves, and the interactive program is selected by the interactive television. An individual television control system characterized by reading instruction data set in the interactive television from the interactive program side and filtering information provided in the interactive program when the instruction is set. 3. A storage device for storing a program execution result of an interactive program on an interactive television capable of executing an interactive program in which a program is called for a response from a program to a viewer and the program is advanced according to the response of the viewer. An interactive program configured to reflect the current program execution result to the previous program execution result of the same program is transmitted from a broadcasting station by broadcast waves, and the interactive program is selected by the interactive television. A television individual control system characterized in that when the interactive program is executed, the program execution result up to the previous time stored in the interactive television is retrieved from the interactive program and the current program execution result is reflected. 4. A storage device for storing a program execution result of an interactive program on an interactive television capable of executing an interactive program in which a program calls for a response to a viewer and the program is advanced according to the response of the viewer. A two-way program that includes the conditions for transmitting the program execution results to external devices and that is configured to reflect the current program execution results in the previous program execution results for the same program from the broadcasting station is transmitted by broadcast waves. When the interactive program is selected on the interactive television, the interactive program side retrieves the previous program execution result stored in the interactive television and extracts the current program execution result as the previous program execution result. If the transmission condition is satisfied by the reflection, the reflection result is transmitted to an external device that processes response data of the interactive television. If the transmission condition is not satisfied, the reflection result is transmitted. Television Individually controlled, characterized in that to save on. 5. The television individual control system according to claim 3, wherein a result of reflecting a current program execution result in a previous program execution result is transmitted to an external device in response to an instruction input from a viewer. Characteristic TV individual control system. 6. The program side calls a response to the viewer, sets specific instruction data for program filtering in an interactive television that executes an interactive program in which a program is advanced according to the response of the viewer, and specifies the instruction data. The interactive program set to be executed on the interactive television set is transmitted from a broadcasting station as broadcast waves, and the result of executing the interactive program on the interactive television set with the specific instruction data is a program. A two-way program whose contents are individually changed according to the previous program execution result sent to the program producer and sent to the program producer is transmitted from the broadcasting station as broadcast waves at the next broadcast of the two-way program. A television individual control system characterized in that a program can be provided based on the result of the previous program execution.