KR20050010105A - Voice menu guide system for video display device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A voice menu control method and apparatus are provided to guide menu titles, menu items and an adjustment method through a voice in an image display device such as TV to prevent an OSD(On Screen Display) screen from disturbing a viewer watching images display on the screen of the image display device. CONSTITUTION: A voice menu control method stores menu data used for operating and setting an image display device and outputs the menu data when a user inputs a remote control key. When the user inputs a menu key(S503), menu items included in the corresponding menu are output through a voice(S504). The user recognizes a menu item selected by inputting a key and carries out adjustment corresponding to the menu item(S506). The voice menu control method sets setting/cancellation of the voice menu and/or setting/cancellation of a character-based OSD menu as initial values in advance(S501).

Description

VOICE MENU GUIDE SYSTEM FOR VIDEO DISPLAY DEVICE}

The present invention outputs a menu for the use, operation, function setting, etc. of the apparatus in a video display device as a voice, and receives a response of the user who listened to the voice menu through a remote control key input, and recognizes the device. The present invention relates to a voice menu control method and an apparatus for performing control.

In a video display device such as a TV, menus for device use, operation, and function setting are performed through text-based OSD processing. For example, when looking at the video adjustment items that are adjusted and set on the TV, there are Brightness, Contrast, Sharpness, Color, and so on. If you want to use the remote control key, select the menu you want to display on the screen of the display device (CRT, LCD, PDP, etc.) based on the text on the menu OSD, and use the remote control key input. When selected, the user can adjust the brightness, contrast, sharpness and color to the desired level. The menus for using the device, operating and setting the function are made through the OSD screen based on characters.

Figure 1 shows an example of a conventional text OSD-based menu screen. When the user selects the device control using the remote control, the main menu screen 101 is displayed in the form of characters on the screen based on the OSD. Here, the adjustable items are illustrated as video, audio, channel, and time. If the image adjustment item 101a is selected from the menu items, the image adjustment menu screen 102 is displayed. The adjustable items in the image adjustment menu include items such as brightness, contrast, sharpness, and color. If the brightness adjustment item 102a is selected among the image adjustment items, the corresponding adjustment menu screen 103 is displayed. The brightness adjustment menu screen 103 indicates that the image brightness can be increased or decreased by using the channel up / down keys, and the current brightness adjustment state can be displayed in the form of a graphic screen.

However, the text OSD-based menu control has to bear the following inconvenience.

First, the character of the menu item should be able to be sufficiently identified and recognized at a distance, so users with low vision, especially those who have difficulty seeing OSD characters at a distance, such as the elderly, or those who are illiterate can use the Text OSD menu. It is difficult to control the device using.

Second, the menu items based on the normal text OSD are prepared with various menu items to perform very sophisticated settings and adjustments for the device. It is difficult to accurately recognize whether or not the setting corresponds to the setting and adjustment, and therefore, the operation that is not familiar with the adjustment is inevitably combined. This is because the possibility of unnecessary item adjustments cannot be ruled out, so the condition of the device adjustment may be unsatisfactory for the user. For example, in the adjustment of the image, in adjusting the contrast, brightness, color, sharpness, etc., among the items that are frequently used by the user in watching TV, and which can easily recognize the meaning of the item, Brightness can be, but traditional text OSD-based menus have relatively low frequency of adjustments and selections, and color or sharpness is difficult to adjust. Rather, it is only a source of confusion when presented with multiple text OSD menu items.

Third, while the text-based OSD menu item is being displayed, the screen viewing is disturbed. That is, when the text OSD is displayed for device adjustment, the corresponding OSD screen is displayed on the original video so that the video is being hidden, which hinders the recognition of the video being viewed.

An object of the present invention is to solve the inconvenience and disadvantages of the conventional text-based OSD menu, to output a menu for the use and operation of the device, the function setting, etc. in the video display device as a voice, the user response to the voice menu The present invention provides a method and apparatus for controlling a voice menu to receive a menu control.

Still another object of the present invention is to output a menu for using, operating, and setting a device in a video display device using only voice, together with audio and video, or only video according to a user's setting. The present invention provides a voice menu control method and apparatus for performing a menu control of a type suitable for a user according to a preference or characteristic of a.

Still another object of the present invention is to extract the main menu from the menu for device use, operation, function setting, etc. in the video display device to output the corresponding item only by the voice for the simplified menu, the response of the user listening to the voice menu Provides a method and apparatus for controlling a voice menu by simplifying the menu control and operation by allowing the user to perform the corresponding menu control, and for easily recognizing and adjusting the device operation menu even for a user who is not familiar with using the device. It is.

1 is a diagram showing an example of a conventional text-based menu screen;

2 is a block diagram of a voice menu control apparatus of the present invention;

Figure 3 is a flowchart of the initial setting step in the voice menu control method of the present invention

4 is a view showing an example of a summary menu in the voice menu control method of the present invention;

Figure 5 is a flowchart of the voice menu control method of the present invention

<Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

201: antenna 202: tuner

203: A / V processing unit 204: Audio processing unit

205: Speaker 206: Video Processing Unit

207: display unit 208: remote control

209: microcomputer 210: OSD processing unit

211: memory section 212: audio menu section

213: speech synthesis unit

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of controlling an audio menu, the method including storing menu data for operating and setting an image display device and outputting the menu data in response to a user's remote control key input. Outputting a title of the menu and a menu item included in the menu by voice according to a menu key input, recognizing a menu item selected by the user as a key input for the voice output, and performing a device adjustment corresponding to the menu Doing; Characterized in that comprises a.

The voice menu control method of the present invention may further include selecting and setting the voice menu on / off, and / or setting or canceling the text-based OSD menu as an initial value in advance. .

In the voice menu control method of the present invention, the voice menu outputs a voice menu for a summary menu summarizing a part of a text-based OSD menu item.

In addition, the audio menu control apparatus of the present invention for demonstrating the above object, in the video display device for demodulating and signal-processing the TV RF input or external input audio / video signal to be output through a speaker and a display element,

Voice menu storage means for storing a title of a menu related to the use and operation of a video display device and voice data for a corresponding menu item, and for outputting a corresponding voice menu signal by synthesizing the voice data output from the voice menu storage means. And a micom for controlling the generation and output of the voice menu for the title and menu item of the corresponding menu in response to the user's key input.

In the voice menu control apparatus of the present invention, the voice menu storing means stores voice data of a summary menu summarizing a part of a text-based OSD menu item.

Hereinafter, a voice menu control method and apparatus thereof according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

2 shows a circuit configuration of an embodiment of a voice menu control apparatus of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, the apparatus for controlling a voice menu according to the present invention includes an antenna 201 for receiving a TV broadcast signal, a tuner 202 for tuning a TV broadcast channel received through the antenna 201, and the tuner ( A / V processing unit 203 for separating and demodulating audio and video signals from the broadcast signal of the channel tuned by the channel 202 and the audio signal processed by the A / V processing unit 203 are amplified and voiced. An audio processor 204 for performing multi-processing, stereo / mono-processing, and D / A conversion, a speaker 205 for outputting an audio signal output from the audio processor 204, and the A / V processor ( A video processor 206 for converting the video signal output from the video signal 204 into a display signal format, a display unit 207 for displaying a TV video signal processed by the video processor 206, and a user device Operation and menu A remote controller 208 for the selection and setting operation of the control unit, a microcomputer 209 for controlling the tuning and signal processing of the TV broadcast signal and the output of the audio menu according to a user command input through the remote controller 208; The OSD processing unit 210 performs character-based OSD processing under the control of the microcomputer 209, the memory unit 211 storing data related to device control, and voice data for a menu for outputting a voice menu. Under the control of the microcomputer 209 and synthesizes the voice data output from the voice menu unit 212 and the voice data output from the voice menu unit 212 and outputs the synthesized voice data through the audio processor 204. It is configured to include a speech synthesizer 213 for.

In the voice menu control apparatus of the present invention configured as described above, the general TV viewing operation will be described first.

The command input by the user remote controller 208 is decoded by the microcomputer 209. The microcomputer 209 selects a power on / off or input (TV / VIDEO) or controls a function such as channel up / down or volume up / down according to the result of decoding the remote control command. The TV broadcast signal is received by the antenna 201 and tuned by the tuner 202 under the control of the microcomputer 209, and the broadcast signal of the tuned channel is separated from the audio signal and the video signal by the A / V processing unit 203, Processing such as demodulation is performed, and the audio signal is supplied to the audio processing unit 204 and the video signal is supplied to the video processing unit 206, respectively. The audio processor 204 is output to the speaker 205 through appropriate audio signal processing such as amplification of an input audio signal, multi-voice processing, stereo / mono processing, D / A conversion (digital / analog conversion), and a video signal. The video processor 206 converts and processes the signal according to a suitable display format according to the characteristics of the display unit 207 (LCD, CRT, PDP, etc.), and the display unit 207 displays the corresponding video signal and displays the user. Allows you to watch TV.

Next, the voice menu control method of the present invention will be described. In the present invention, the voice menu and the existing text-based OSD menu can be selectively set and used. That is, as shown in FIG. 3, the voice menu and the OSD menu can be selectively turned on or off. According to the user's key operation, the voice menu ON / text menu ON, Or, select Voice Menu On / Text Menu Off, or Voice Menu Off / Text Menu On.

Voice menu ON / Text menu ON status is when menu output is performed using both voice and text OSD, and Voice menu ON / Text menu OFF status is voice only menu. In case of performing output, voice menu off / text menu on status is in case of menu output by text OSD only.

The setting state for each case is represented by reference numerals 301, 302, and 303. In the case where both the voice menu and the text menu are OFF, the case of the menu itself is neither visually nor auditory, so this case is not considered. The initial setting may be a method of sequentially switching to 301 => 302 => 303 => 301 according to a key operation, and the user turns on / off of the voice menu or ON of the text menu. It is also possible to select and set) / OFF directly.

The set initial value is stored in the memory unit 211 by the microcomputer 209, and according to the initial value stored in the memory unit 211, only the voice menu is output, both the voice and text menus are output, or only the text menu. Output control will be performed. The output of the text menu output corresponds to the menu output using the existing OSD processor 210, which controls the OSD processor 210 according to the key input of the remote controller 208 in the microcomputer 209 to control the text OSD menu. The operation is output to the display unit 207 through the video processor 206.

Next, the generation and output of the audio menu according to the present invention will be described.

In order to control the voice menu, voice data corresponding to the menu is stored in the voice menu unit 212 in advance, and the voice data stored therein is voice data about a menu title, a corresponding menu item, and an adjustment method. For example, the following voice data is stored when it corresponds to the menu shown in FIG.

All menu guide Voice: "Press 1 to adjust video, 2 to adjust audio, 3 to set channel, 4 to set time."

Selected Image Adjust Menu Voice: "Press 1 for Brightness, 2 for Contrast, 3 for Sharpness and 4 for Color".

Selected brightness menu guide Voice: "Press the channel up button to increase brightness and the channel down button to decrease brightness".

Alternatively, voice data corresponding to a menu summarized and summarized as described above may be stored, an example of which is illustrated in FIG. 4. As shown in Fig. 4, the voice summary menu is a case where voice guidance is performed only on two items of video and audio, for example. The audio data in this case is as follows.

All menu guidance Audio data (401): "Press 1 for video adjustment and 2 for audio adjustment".

Selected image adjustment menu guide Audio data (402): "Press 1 for brightness, 2 for contrast and 3 for sharpness."

Selected brightness menu guide Voice data (403): "Press the channel up button to increase brightness and the channel down button to decrease brightness".

In addition, the extracted and summarized voice menu can be implemented in various ways.

5 shows a voice menu control method of the present invention. In the initial setting step S501, it is determined whether the initial value is set as shown in FIG. If the initial value is set, the voice menu on / text menu on, or the voice menu on / text menu off is turned on by the microcomputer 209 according to the user's RICOHMON 208 key input. Stored in the memory unit 211, such as voice menu OFF / character menu ON.

In the next step S503, the microcomputer 209 recognizes the key input of the remote controller 208 and checks whether it is a menu key input. If there is a menu key input, the microcomputer 209 performs proper menu output control according to the initial value stored in the memory unit 211. If the voice menu is ON or the text menu is ON, The OSD processing unit 210 is controlled to generate a corresponding text OSD menu, and is output to the display unit 207 through the video processing unit 206, while the voice menu unit 212 is controlled to control the title and items of the menu. Output audio data. If the default value is set to Voice Menu On / Text Menu Off, the voice menu unit 212 is controlled to output voice data for the title and item of the menu, and OSD menu processing is not performed. . If the initial setting value is set to the voice menu OFF / text menu ON, the OSD processing unit 210 is controlled to generate the corresponding text OSD menu, which is then displayed on the display unit 207 through the video processing unit 206. Do not output audio menus.

The voice menu data output from the voice menu unit 212 when the voice menu is output is synthesized by the voice synthesizer 213 and output to the speaker 205 through the audio processor 204. As a result, the voice guidance of the menu is performed (step S504).

The next step S505 is a step in which the microcomputer 209 determines whether the user has selected a lower item, that is, an item such as selection or adjustment, by using the remote controller 208 according to the guided voice menu. The voice menu unit 212 is controlled for the menu item to output the voice data as described above or control corresponding to the selected adjustment command (S506).

For example, suppose that the control using the summary voice menu extracted as shown in FIG. 4 is performed. First, in response to a user's remote control key input, press "1 for image adjustment and 2 for voice adjustment". The data is output from the voice menu unit 212 and synthesized by the voice synthesizer 213 and output through the audio processor 204 and the speaker 205. Next, when the user presses the first key on the remote control 208 to adjust the image, the microcomputer 209 recognizes it, and guides the voice for the item corresponding to the image adjustment, that is, "the brightness adjustment is 1, the contrast adjustment is 2, press the 3 button for sharpness adjustment. " Next, when the user presses the first key on the remote controller 208 to adjust the brightness, the microcomputer 209 recognizes it, and guides the voice corresponding to the brightness adjustment, that is, "increase the brightness of the channel up button, decrease the brightness." Please press the channel down button. "

Thereafter, when a user operates a channel up / down key on the remote controller 208, the microcomputer 209 recognizes this and controls the video processor 206 to increase or decrease image brightness.

After each voice menu guide, if there is no further adjustment or selection command input until a predetermined time elapses, voice menu output (and / or text menu output) is stopped and the display returns to the normal video viewing state.

The present invention guides the title of a menu, a menu item, a method of adjustment, and the like, by voice in a video display device such as a TV. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the OSD screen from interfering with viewing an image when the existing text OSD is output, and to recognize and adjust the auditory menu items to a user having difficulty in recognizing text at a long distance. In particular, the present invention can be used in parallel with the voice menu and the existing OSD menu, and can be used by operating as an initial value appropriately according to the user selection, the output of the voice menu can be made only when necessary.

Claims (5)

A method of storing menu data for operating and setting an image display device and outputting the menu data in response to a user's remote control key input, Voice outputting the title of the menu and menu items included in the menu according to a user's menu key input, recognizing a menu item selected by the user as a key input for the voice output, and adjusting a device corresponding to the menu Performing; Voice menu control method comprising a. The method of claim 1, further comprising: setting and canceling the voice menu and / or setting or canceling the text-based OSD menu as an initial value in advance. The method of claim 1, wherein the voice menu outputs a voice menu for a summary menu summarizing a part of text-based OSD menu items. A video display device for demodulating and signal-processing a TV RF input or an external input audio / video signal to be output through a speaker and a display element for viewing. Voice menu storage means for storing a title of a menu related to the use and operation of a video display device and voice data for a corresponding menu item, and for outputting a corresponding voice menu signal by synthesizing the voice data output from the voice menu storage means. And a microcomputer for controlling the generation and output of a voice menu for a title and a menu item of a corresponding menu in response to a key input of a user. 5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the voice menu storage unit stores voice data of a summary menu summarizing a part of a text-based OSD menu item.