JPH1028244A - Information display device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To display even a program having a long title with no break in the title and to easily confirm the contents of the program by changing the size of every cell shown in a program list, according to the program information value to be displayed. SOLUTION: A program information storage means 11 receives the program information and stores the data on contents of the information. A cell-size decision means 12 calculates the cell-size of the relevant program from the number of items and the character length which are shown on the cell. Such processing is carried out for every program. Then the means 12 decides each size of cells based on every calculated cell size, when these cells are shown on a screen as a program list and then outputs the cell size information. A program list offer means 13 receives the program information and the cell size information from the means 11 and 12 respectively and produces the cells of necessary sizes to display the contents of each program information and offers these cells to a monitor 14 as a program list.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information display device, and more particularly to an information display device which improves the display format of an electronic program guide (EPG) for displaying television program information on a monitor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in an analog television receiver broadcasted in ordinary households, a program which a viewer wants to watch is referred to from a newspaper, a magazine or the like, and a channel is selected. Tuning is performed by that.

[0003] On the other hand, digital broadcasting, which is being put into practical use in recent years, can provide tens to hundreds of channels as programs, and transmits television program information.
An EPG service that analyzes this on the receiver side and displays a television program guide on a monitor becomes important.

[0004] For example, as shown in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 6-504165, a viewer receives a service of a format in which a horizontal axis is provided with a time axis and a program is displayed in association with a program in the vertical direction. By operating the cursor displayed on the screen using the input device such as a remote controller, a desired program is selected, and a cell indicating the content of each program displayed in a divided manner is selected, and the selected program is viewed. It is possible to easily make a recording reservation or the like.

[0005]

The conventional information display device is constructed as described above, and it is convenient to refer to the program contents of each channel on a monitor. However, the following problems are encountered. Is mentioned.

As shown in FIG. 20, the size of the cell for each program content displayed on the screen corresponds to the broadcast time of the program, and the size is fixed. For this reason, if the title is long, it cannot be displayed in the cell, and the latter half of the character is omitted.

As shown in FIG. 3, the information to be provided includes not only the title but also information such as a summary of the program and performers.
As shown in FIG. 21, the cursor is placed on the cell of the corresponding program, and the cell is selected and determined by the selection button on the enlarged display button of the remote controller or the like, so that it is displayed in a picture-in-picture format or the like at the bottom of the screen Usually, the program title is not so closely related to the original program title currently being referred to by the user, and the program title referred to by the user is difficult to understand.

[0008] The cells displayed on the screen are mainly used to display the contents of the program, so that the user can easily refer to the billing information and the viewing-only information (eg, age restrictions) that the user is worried about. There was a problem that it could not be performed.

[0009] When a cell is selected, the display color of the cell where the cursor is placed is inverted, and so on.
There is a problem in that there is no feature or the like according to the program content, the feature is inconspicuous, and the degree of attention is low.

The moving distance of the cursor on the screen is a predetermined size. When the cursor is moved from a program having a long broadcast time to a program having a short broadcast time, a plurality of cells are simultaneously selected. In such a case, it is necessary to separately perform an operation for specifying and selecting one cell, and there is a problem that the operation is troublesome.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has as its object to provide an information display device in which the length of a cell can be changed in accordance with the amount of program information to be displayed. And

It is another object of the present invention to provide an information display device capable of easily recognizing which program is a reference source when displaying detailed information of the program other than the program title. Aim.

[0013] It is another object of the present invention to provide an information display device capable of making reference mainly to information relating to billing information and viewing-only information (eg, age restrictions) that a user is worried about.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an information display device in which, when a cell is selected with a cursor, the shape of the cursor changes according to the content of the program.

[0015] Further, even when cells of a program having a long broadcast time and cells of a program having a short broadcast time are mixedly displayed on the screen, the amount of movement (width) of the cursor is adjusted according to the width of the cell selected on the screen. It is another object of the present invention to provide an information display device having an optimal movement amount.

[0016]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information display apparatus, comprising: a program information storage unit for storing program information composed of data indicating the contents of a plurality of programs; Program table providing means for allocating program information of each program to cells having a predetermined length using the program information stored in the program table, and providing a program table in which the plurality of cells are arranged in a matrix. Extracting the amount of data indicating the content of each program from the program information stored in the program information storage unit, and controlling the program table providing unit to change the cell size according to the data amount And a cell size determining means.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information display apparatus, wherein program information storage means for storing program information composed of data indicating the contents of a plurality of programs, and program information stored in the program information storage means. Program table providing means for allocating program information of each program to cells having a predetermined length using the program information and providing a program table in which the plurality of cells are arranged in a matrix; Cell selecting means for selecting one of the cells arranged in
Extracting the amount of data indicating the contents of the program displayed in the cell selected by the cell selecting means, and changing the size of the cell in which the program is displayed according to the data amount; Cell size determining means for controlling the providing means.

In the information display device according to a third aspect of the present invention, in the information display device according to the second aspect, the cell selecting means may be configured to replace one of the cells arranged in the matrix with one cell. In order to make a selection, a cell in which a cursor movably displayed on the program table is located is selected.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information display apparatus, wherein program information storage means for storing program information composed of data indicating the contents of a plurality of programs, and program information stored in the program information storage means. Program table providing means for allocating program information of each program to cells having a predetermined length using the program information and providing a program table in which the plurality of cells are arranged in a matrix; A display condition setting means for setting a display condition for the program information stored in the storage means; and comparing the program information stored in the program information storage means with the display condition set in the display condition setting means. Display content determining means for controlling the program guide providing means so as to create the program guide using only matching programs.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information display device, wherein program information storage means for storing program information comprising data indicating the contents of a plurality of programs, and program information stored in the program information storage means. Program table providing means for allocating program information of each program to cells having a predetermined length using the program information and providing a program table in which the plurality of cells are arranged in a matrix; Cursor providing means for providing a cursor movably displayed on the program guide to select one of the cells arranged in the program guide, and a cursor for detecting a position of the cursor on the program guide. A position detection unit, and a cursor assigned to a cell at a cursor position detected by the cursor position detection unit from the program information stored in the program information storage unit. Extracting shape information is obtained by a cursor appearance changing means for controlling the cursor providing means to change the shape of the cursor.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information display apparatus, wherein program information storage means for storing program information constituted by data indicating the contents of a plurality of programs, and program information stored in the program information storage means. Program table providing means for allocating program information of each program to cells having a predetermined length using the program information and providing a program table in which the plurality of cells are arranged in a matrix; Cursor providing means for providing a cursor movably displayed on the program guide to select one of the cells arranged in the program guide, and a cursor for detecting a position of the cursor on the program guide. Position detecting means, and extracting information on a cell width at a cursor position detected by the cursor position detecting means from the program information stored in the program information storing means. The movement width of the cursor is obtained by a movement information determining means for controlling the cursor providing means to change the width of the cell.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the information display device according to the sixth aspect, the program information stored in the program information storage means is used to determine the movement width of the cursor. An initial value determining means for calculating and determining an initial value, and movement information storage means for providing the calculated initial value of the movement width of the cursor to the movement information determining means.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information display device, wherein program information storage means for storing program information comprising data indicating the contents of a plurality of programs, and program information stored in the program information storage means. Program table providing means for allocating program information of each program to cells having a predetermined length using the program information and providing a program table in which the plurality of cells are arranged in a matrix; Cursor providing means for providing a cursor movably displayed on the program guide to select one of the cells arranged in the program guide, and a cursor for detecting a position of the cursor on the program guide. From the program information of the program table stored in the program information storage means, information on the cell width of each program is extracted, and the initial value of the cursor movement width is calculated. An initial value determining means for constant, in which the initial value of the calculated movement width of the cursor and a mobile information storage means for providing to said cursor providing means.

[0024]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Embodiment 1 FIG. FIG. 1 shows Embodiment 1 of the present invention. 1 is a block diagram showing an information display device according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, for example, as shown in FIG. 3, many pieces of information such as channel numbers of a plurality of programs, program names, broadcast time, and billing information are included in program information transmitted by a method such as teletext. It is included in a predetermined format. 11 is program information storage means for receiving and recording the program information, 12
Is a cell size determining means for determining a cell size for each program based on the program information output from the program information recording means 11, and 13 is a cell size determining means for dividing each program information into a plurality of divided cells. This is a program guide providing means for allocating the program list to one monitor and displaying it on the monitor 14.

Next, the first embodiment. Will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, the program information storage means 11 receives the program information and stores the data having the contents shown in FIG. 3, and in step S1, the cell size determining means 12 determines, for example, the number of items to be displayed in the cell of the program and the text. From the length, calculate the size of the cell. Such processing is performed for each program.

Next, in step S2, the cell size determining means 12 determines the size of each cell to be displayed on the screen as a program guide based on the calculated cell size, and Output as size information.

Next, in step S3, the program guide providing means 13 receives the program information output from the program information storage means 11 and the cell size information output from the cell size determination means 12, A cell having a size necessary to display the content of the information is created and provided to the monitor 14 as a program table.

Here, for example, the resolution of the monitor 14 is set to 64
When 0 × 460 dots, the width of the program guide is 400 pixels, the time axis unit is 30 minutes, and the channel axis is 3 channels, as shown in FIG.
Assuming that characters are displayed in 20 × 20 pixels, the cell 40a having information such as the longest title as viewed in the area 40 indicating the time axis unit is forced to have a line width of, for example, 10 characters, and the corresponding line is replaced. It is displayed with a width (200 pixels) and is displayed larger than the width (100 pixels) of the other cells, and accordingly, the width of the area 40a indicating the time zone is also expanded and displayed. At this time, the height of the cell 40a is expanded (100 pixels) by the number of columns (5 columns) generated by the forced line feed in units of 10 characters, and the size of other cells (20 pixels) Will be displayed larger than.

If a long title has a long broadcast time and characters fit in the area 40 indicating the broadcast time zone, as shown in a cell 41b, the height of one row (20 pixels) is 400 pixels wide. Will be displayed in the area.

As described above, in the first embodiment. According to the above, the transmitted program information is analyzed, and the size of the cell for each program is calculated and obtained based on the information amount such as the character length and the number of items to be displayed in the cell of each program. Thus, program information such as a long title can be displayed without omitting it.

Embodiment 2 Next, the second embodiment. Will be described. FIG. FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an information display device according to the present invention. In FIG. A program information storage means 57 for receiving and recording the information, a cell size determining means 57 for determining a cell size for each program based on the program information output from the program information recording means 51, 5
2 represents each program information as one of a plurality of divided cells.
This is a program guide providing means for allocating the program guide to one and displaying it on the monitor 58. 53 is a cursor providing means for providing a cursor to the program table, 54 is movement information storage means for storing an initial value of a cursor movement amount on a monitor screen, and 55 is recorded in the movement information storage means 54. Cursor moving means 56 for moving the cursor on the monitor screen according to the moving amount information, and cell selecting means 56 for selecting the cell where the cursor provided by the cursor providing means 53 is located with respect to the program guide providing means 52. .

Next, Embodiment 2 of the present invention will be described. Will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, in step S4, of the program information stored in the program information storage means 51, only display items (here, only titles) predetermined as initial values are set as standard program guides as shown in FIG. provide.

Then, in step S5, the cell selection means 56 inputs a signal from an input device such as a remote controller from the cells of the program guide displayed in FIG. Select the cell 71.

Thus, in step S6, the program guide providing means 52 outputs a signal indicating the selected cell to the cell size determining means 57. Then, the cell size determining means 57 checks the program information corresponding to the selected cell 71, and if there is other information to be displayed, calculates the cell size required to display all the information.

In step S7, the cell size determining means 5
7, a signal indicating the size of the cell 71 recalculated is output to the program guide providing means 52, and as shown in FIG. 8, the selected program 81b and each of the programs existing on the same channel 101 as the program 81b are output. The size of the cells of the programs 81a and 81c is changed so as to increase in the vertical direction, and a program guide according to the changed cell size is provided to the monitor 58. At this time, detailed information is displayed in FIG. 8 only on the cell 71 selected by the cursor 70 in FIG. 7, and similarly, the program cells 81a,
81c does not change in the display state of FIG. In addition, as the program cell 81b is enlarged, the size of the cursor 81b selecting the cell is automatically changed and displayed.

The second embodiment as described above. According to the method, the cell selecting means 56 selects a cell from which the viewer wants to view detailed information among the cells displayed in the program table, and sets the information amount of the program information corresponding to the program of the selected cell. Since the size of the cell for displaying all the information to be displayed is recalculated and the cell size is enlarged and displayed, the viewer can display the detailed information of the program other than the program title. In addition, the user can easily recognize which program is the reference source, and has excellent visibility.

Embodiment 3 Next, the third embodiment. Will be described. FIG. FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an information display apparatus according to the present invention. In FIG. A program information storage means 93 for receiving and recording information is a personal information storage means 93 for storing information inputted by a personal information setting means 92 such as a remote controller, and includes a program of a format desired by a viewer. Various setting information for obtaining a program guide is recorded. A program 94 selects only the matching program information from the program information stored in the program information storage means 91 based on the setting information stored in the personal information storage means 93 and outputs the selection result to the program table providing means. 95 is a display content determining means provided to the user 95. The personal information setting means 92 and the personal information storage means 93 constitute a display condition setting means.

Next, the third embodiment. Will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, in step S9, as shown in FIG. 11, personal information including a viewer's name, age, gender, viewing-only information, program billing information (payment limit per program), and the like is sent to a plurality of viewers. For example, when the personal information corresponding to a specific viewer identified by inputting a password or the like when the power of the television is turned on is selected from the information recording means 93 recorded in the state where the personal information is selected, The program charging information of the personal information is compared with each of the program charging information of all the programs stored in the program information recording means 91. Then, in step S10, the program having a value smaller than the program charging information of the personal information A program having charging information is searched, and a program guide is provided to the monitor 96 by the program guide providing means 95 using the searched result.

FIG. 12 shows a program table created based on the personal information set as described above. In the program information shown in FIG. 3, for example, in the channel 101, the program set in FIG. Only programs having a value smaller than the value of the charging information "500 yen" are displayed in the cell 120b,
Cell 120 corresponding to a place where other programs should be displayed
Nothing is displayed on a and 120c. Similarly, for the other channels 102 and 103, only the program having a value smaller than the set value of the program billing information “500 yen” is displayed in the cell.

As described above, in the third embodiment. According to this, the personal information preset in the personal information setting means 92 is compared with the program information stored in the program information storage means 91 by the display content deciding means 94, and only the program information having the same comparison result is used. Since the program guide is created by using the program guide, it is possible to create a program guide including only programs having desired contents by the viewer, and the program selection becomes easy.

The third embodiment. In the above, among the information stored as personal information, the program displayed in the program table is selected based on the program charging information. However, the program displayed in the program table using other items such as age is selected. May be selected.

When the program table is created, as a result of the comparison by the display content determining means 94, nothing is displayed in the cell displaying the program content of a non-applicable program. You may make it display a character, a picture which shows that it is out of a target, etc.

Embodiment 4 FIG. Next, the fourth embodiment. Will be described. FIG. 13 shows the fourth embodiment. FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an information display apparatus according to the present invention. In FIG. A program information storage unit 133 for receiving and recording information provides a cursor for providing a cursor for selecting a specific cell from among a plurality of cells with respect to the program table created by the program table providing unit 132. Means 135 is program guide providing means 1
Cursor position detecting means for detecting at which cell in the program guide provided at 32 the cursor is located;
134 receives the output of the cursor position detecting means 135 and the program information storing means 131, and
5, a channel sponsor logo or the like is extracted from the program information (see FIG. 3) in the cell where the cursor is located, and the cursor using the extracted logo or the like is displayed on the monitor 136. This is a cursor appearance changing unit that outputs an instruction for changing the shape to the cursor providing unit 133.

Next, the fourth embodiment. Will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, in step S11, a program table is created by the program table providing means 132 based on the program information stored in the program information storage means 131. Then, in step S12, the program table is generated by the cursor position detecting means 135. It is detected in which cell the cursor is located.

Next, at step S13, the cursor appearance changing means 134 uses the data such as the logo included in the program information displayed in the cell corresponding to the cursor position detected at step S12 to form the appearance of the cursor. Is changed.

Then, an instruction is output to the cursor providing means 133 so that the cursor whose appearance has been changed is displayed.
FIG. 15 shows a state where the movie channel 504 is selected by the cursor 151, and the normal title display area 15 is displayed.
2 shows a state in which a logo area 151a formed by partially deforming the cursor 151 is displayed.

As described above, in the fourth embodiment. According to the method, when a cell is selected by a cursor, the shape of the cursor is changed using data such as a logo included in the program information of the program displayed in the cell. The effect can be expected and the degree of attention can be improved. Also, by changing the shape of the cursor to a mark indicating viewing-only information or the like, the program information can be visually easily understood.

The fourth embodiment. In the above, a part of the cursor is set as the logo area, but the entire cursor may be set as the logo area. Although the shape of the cursor is changed using the logo, the shape of the cell may be changed using other program information such as program charging information other than the logo.

Embodiment 5 Next, the fifth embodiment. Will be described. FIG. 16 shows the fifth embodiment. FIG. 16 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an information display apparatus according to the present invention. In FIG. A program information storage means 163 for receiving and recording information provides a cursor for providing a cursor for selecting a specific cell among a plurality of cells with respect to the program table created by the program table providing means 162. Means 166 is a cursor moving means for giving an instruction to move the cursor provided by the cursor providing means 163 in the program guide, and 165 is displayed on the program guide from the program information stored in the program information storage means 161. Extract the display width of the program information to be displayed as a cell,
When the width of the cell where the cursor is located is smaller than the cursor movement amount set as the initial value, the cursor movement amount set as the initial value is updated and the cursor movement amount is updated as the small movement amount. This is the movement information determining means for instructing the movement information to be transmitted. Reference numeral 167 denotes a cursor position detecting means for detecting in which cell of the program table the cursor is located.

Next, the fifth embodiment. Will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, in step S15, the program guide providing means 162 provides a program guide using the movement width information of the cursor set to, for example, 15 minutes as the initial value to the movement information determination means 165.

Next, in step S16, the movement information determining means 165 sets the cell size at the cursor position in the currently displayed program table detected by the cursor position detecting means 167 and the initial value. The width of the cell selected by the cursor is compared with the movement width information (size) of the cursor, and if the width of the cell selected by the cursor is larger than the width of the cell set as the initial value, the cursor in the cell selected by the cursor is changed. With the moving width information of the cursor kept constant, the width of the cursor is enlarged to the size of the cell selected by the cursor, and conversely, the width of the cell selected by the cursor is set as the initial value. If it is smaller than the cursor movement amount, the cell movement width information is updated to be smaller than the initial value, and the cursor width is changed to the cursor width. Reduced to the size of the cells of the cell selected in Sol, which is provided to the program guide at step S17. As described above, the cursor size (width)
Is changed so that the size of the cursor is the same as the size of the selected cell, and the cursor is positioned in a cell whose width is smaller than the cursor movement width information (movement amount) set as the initial value. Sometimes, the movement width information of the cursor is changed to have a size corresponding to the cell. If the cursor moves to a cell having a width larger than the changed movement width after the movement width of the cursor is changed to a smaller movement width, the movement width information of the cursor is changed to the initial value again. Is done.

As described above, in the fifth embodiment. According to the present invention, the size of the cursor is changed so as to be the size of the cell currently selected by the cursor, and a cell having a width smaller than the cursor movement width information (movement amount) set as an initial value is set to the cell. When the cursor is positioned, the moving width information of the cursor is changed so that the size of the cell corresponds to the cell, so that cells of long and short broadcast programs are mixed and displayed on the screen. Also in this case, a program of a small cell displayed on the screen can be easily selected, so that the cursor can be smoothly moved on the screen.

Embodiment 6 FIG. Next, the sixth embodiment. Will be described. FIG. 18 shows the fifth embodiment. FIG. 18 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an information display apparatus according to the present invention. In FIG. A program information storage means 183 for receiving and recording information provides a cursor for providing a cursor for selecting a specific cell among a plurality of cells with respect to the program table created by the program table providing means 182. Means 186 is a cursor moving means for giving an instruction to move the cursor provided by the cursor providing means 183 in the program guide, and 188 is displayed on the program guide from the program information stored in the program information storage means 181. Extract the display width of the program information to be displayed as a cell,
Initial value determining means 189 for calculating an initial value of the movement width of the cursor using the extracted information is the initial value determining means 1.
Movement information storage means for storing the movement amount of the cursor calculated at 88 as movement information, 187 a cursor position detection means for detecting at which cell in the program table the cursor is located, 185 a cursor position detection means Detecting means 187
And the output of the movement information storage unit 189, the movement information of the cursor set as the initial value in the movement information storage unit 189 is used as the information of the cursor in which the width of the cell where the cursor is located is set as the initial value. When the movement amount is smaller than the movement amount, the movement information determination unit updates the movement amount of the cursor and instructs the movement amount to be smaller.

Next, the sixth embodiment. Will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, in step S18, the program guide providing means 182 provides a program guide. Next, in step S19, the initial value determination means 188 reads the width (broadcast time) of a cell displaying each program from the program information storage means 181, and calculates, for example, the average of the cell width as the initial value of the movement information, The initial value is output to the movement information storage unit 189.

The movement information determining means 185 determines in step S2
0, the width of the cell at the cursor position in the currently displayed program table detected by the cursor position detecting means 187 is compared with the cursor movement width information set as the initial value. If the width of the selected cell is larger than the width of the cell set as the initial value, the width of the cursor is changed to the width of the cursor while the moving width information of the cursor in the cell selected by the cursor remains constant. In the case where the width of the cell selected by the cursor is smaller than the cursor movement amount set as the initial value, the cell movement width information is displayed. Updating is performed so as to be smaller than the initial value, and the width of the cursor is reduced to the width of the cell selected by the cursor.
It is provided to the program guide at 21. As described above, the initial value of the movement amount at the time of moving the cursor on the program guide is calculated from the program guide so as to have an optimum size, and the cursor movement width is set later as the initial value. When the cursor is moved to a cell whose width is smaller than the information (movement amount), the movement width information of the cursor is changed to have a width corresponding to the width of the cell.

As described above, the sixth embodiment. According to the above, the initial value setting means 188 is provided to calculate the optimal cursor movement amount from the width of the cell displayed in the program, and to use this as the initial value of the cursor movement amount when providing the program guide. Therefore, the initial value of the movement amount for moving the cursor is always changed according to the displayed program table, and the cursor in the case where cells of a long broadcast program and a short broadcast program are mixedly displayed on the screen is displayed. Can be performed more smoothly.

Embodiment 6 of the present invention. In the above, the initial value of the movement amount calculated by the initial value determination means 188 is changed when the width of the cell displayed in the program guide is smaller than the initial value of the movement amount of the cursor. The initial value of the cursor movement amount may be provided to the cursor movement unit 186.

[0058]

As described above, according to the information display apparatus of the present invention, the size of each cell displayed in the program guide is changed according to the amount of program information to be displayed.
Even a program having a long title or the like can be displayed without interruption in the middle of the program, which has an effect that the contents of the program can be easily confirmed.

Also, when displaying the detailed information of the cell selected by the cursor, the cell size is recalculated so that all the detailed information is displayed, and the cell size is enlarged and displayed. When displaying detailed information of the program other than the program title, it is possible to easily recognize which program is the reference source, and to provide an interface with excellent visibility. There is an effect that can be.

In addition, information relating to billing information and viewing-only information (eg, age restrictions) that the viewer is worried about is registered in advance, and only the programs whose conditions match the registered information are selected from the received program information. Since the selected program is displayed in the cell, the program can be easily selected.

Further, when a cell is selected with the cursor, the shape of the cursor changes according to the content of the program, and viewing-only information, a sponsor logo, and the like are displayed. In addition, there is an effect that an advertising effect can be expected.

Even when cells of a program having a long broadcast time and cells of a program having a short broadcast time are mixedly displayed on the screen, the amount of movement of the cursor is adjusted to the optimum value according to the width of the cell selected on the screen. Since the initial value of the moving amount or the moving amount of the cursor is set to an optimum value according to the cell width of the program displayed in the program guide, the program having a long broadcast time and the program having a short broadcast time are set. Even when cells are mixedly displayed on the screen, there is an effect that the cursor can be smoothly moved on the screen.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a block diagram showing an information display device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows the first embodiment. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a flowchart for explaining the operation of the information display device according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 shows the first embodiment. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of the content of program information input to the information display device according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 shows the first embodiment. Is a diagram for explaining a state of a screen displayed using the information display device according to the first embodiment.

[FIG. 5] Embodiment 2 of the present invention. 1 is a block diagram showing an information display device according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 shows the second embodiment. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a flowchart for explaining the operation of the information display device according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 7 shows the second embodiment. Is a diagram for explaining a state of a screen before being displayed using the information display device according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 8 shows the second embodiment. Is a diagram for explaining a state of a screen displayed using the information display device according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 9 shows a third embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a block diagram showing an information display device according to the present invention.

FIG. 10 shows the third embodiment. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a flowchart for explaining the operation of the information display device according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 11 shows the third embodiment. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of personal information stored in personal information storage means constituting the information display device in FIG.

FIG. Is a diagram for explaining a state of a screen displayed using the information display device according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 13 shows a fourth embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a block diagram showing an information display device according to the present invention.

FIG. 14 shows the fourth embodiment. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a flowchart for explaining the operation of the information display device according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 15 shows the fourth embodiment. Is a diagram for explaining a state of a screen displayed using the information display device according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 16 shows a fifth embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a block diagram showing an information display device according to the present invention.

FIG. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a flowchart for explaining the operation of the information display device according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 18 shows a sixth embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a block diagram showing an information display device according to the present invention.

FIG. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a flowchart for explaining the operation of the information display device according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 20 is a diagram for explaining a state of a screen displayed using a conventional information display device.

FIG. 21 is a diagram for describing a state of a screen when displaying details of program information displayed in a specific cell using a conventional information display device.

[Explanation of symbols]

11, 51, 91, 131, 161, 181 Program information storage means 12, 57 Cell size determination means 13, 52, 95, 132, 162, 182 Program guide providing means 14, 58, 96, 136, 164, 184 Monitor 53 , 133, 163, 183 Cursor providing means 54, 189 Moving information storage means 55, 166, 186 Cursor moving means 56 Cell selecting means 92 Personal information setting means 93 Personal information storing means 94 Display contents determining means 134 Cursor appearance changing means 135, 167,187 Cursor position detecting means 188 Initial value determining means

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A program information storage means for storing program information composed of data indicating the contents of a plurality of programs, and program information stored in the program information storage means.
Program table providing means for allocating program information of each program to cells having a predetermined length and providing a program table in which the plurality of cells are arranged in a matrix; and storing the program information in the program information storage means. Cell size determining means for extracting the amount of data indicating the content of each program from the program information and controlling the program guide providing means to change the cell size according to the data amount. Characteristic information display device. 2. Program information storage means for storing program information composed of data indicating the contents of a plurality of programs, and program information stored in the program information storage means,
Program table providing means for allocating program information of each program to cells having a predetermined length and providing a program table in which the plurality of cells are arranged in a matrix; A cell selecting means for selecting one of the cells; and extracting an amount of data indicating the contents of the program displayed in the cell selected by the cell selecting means, and displaying the program in accordance with the data amount. An information display device comprising: a cell size determining unit that controls the program table providing unit so as to change the size of the cell being used. 3. The information display device according to claim 2, wherein the cell selection means is movably displayed on the program table to select one of the cells arranged in the matrix. An information display device for selecting a cell where a cursor to be operated is located. 4. Program information storage means for storing program information composed of data indicating the contents of a plurality of programs, and program information stored in the program information storage means,
Program table providing means for allocating program information of each program to cells having a predetermined length, and providing a program table in which the plurality of cells are arranged in a matrix, and stored in the program information storage means Display condition setting means for setting display conditions for the program information; comparing the program information stored in the program information storage means with the display conditions set in the display condition setting means; And a display content determining means for controlling the program guide providing means to create the program guide. 5. Program information storage means for storing program information composed of data indicating the contents of a plurality of programs, and program information stored in the program information storage means,
Program table providing means for allocating program information of each program to cells having a predetermined length and providing a program table in which the plurality of cells are arranged in a matrix; A cursor providing means for providing a cursor movably displayed on the program guide to select one of the cells; a cursor position detecting means for detecting a position of the cursor on the program guide; From the program information stored in the program information storage means, extract the shape information of the cursor assigned to the cell at the cursor position detected by the cursor position detection means,
An information display device comprising: cursor appearance changing means for controlling the cursor providing means so as to change the shape of the cursor. 6. Program information storage means for storing program information composed of data indicating the contents of a plurality of programs, and program information stored in the program information storage means,
Program table providing means for allocating program information of each program to cells having a predetermined length and providing a program table in which the plurality of cells are arranged in a matrix; A cursor providing means for providing a cursor movably displayed on the program guide to select one of the cells; a cursor position detecting means for detecting a position of the cursor on the program guide; From the program information stored in the program information storage means, information on the cell width at the cursor position detected by the cursor position detection means is extracted, and the cursor is moved so that the movement width of the cursor is changed by the cell width. An information display device comprising: movement information determining means for controlling providing means. 7. The information display device according to claim 6, wherein the program information stored in the program information storage means is used for:
Initial value determination means for calculating and determining an initial value of the cursor movement width; and movement information storage means for providing the calculated initial value of the movement width of the cursor to the movement information determination means. Information display device. 8. Program information storage means for storing program information composed of data indicating the contents of a plurality of programs, and program information stored in the program information storage means,
Program table providing means for allocating program information of each program to cells having a predetermined length and providing a program table in which the plurality of cells are arranged in a matrix; A cursor providing means for providing a cursor movably displayed on the program guide to select one of the cells; a cursor position detecting means for detecting a position of the cursor on the program guide; From the program information of the program table stored in the program information storage means, information on the cell width of each program is extracted, and initial value determination means for calculating and determining the initial value of the cursor movement width; and An information display device comprising: a movement information storage unit for providing an initial value of a cursor movement width to the cursor providing unit.