JP2007028438A - Information output method, information output system and image output device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information output method, an information output system and an image output device, capable of outputting the character information of contents in a wide range relating to images to be outputted when outputting the character information such as news together with the images. <P>SOLUTION: An RSS server device (storage device) 2 acquires the metadata of a web page described by the format of RSS from a plurality of web server devices 3 connected to a communication network N, and the image output device 1 receives the metadata from the RSS server device 2 and stores them in a storage part 110. The image output device 1 acquires the attribute information of a program included in the broadcasting signals of digital broadcasting, extracts words and phrases relating to the attribute information from the metadata including the words and phrases indicating the contents of the web page such as a title or a summary, and outputs the extracted words and phrases by characters together with the image of the program based on the broadcasting signals. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an information output method, an information output system, and an image output apparatus that output text information such as news together with an image using an image display apparatus such as a television receiver.

  An image display apparatus such as a television receiver has a function of displaying an image such as a broadcasted image and displaying character information on a portion different from the portion displaying the image on the screen or superimposed on the image. Many have. For example, some home television receivers display character information indicating the contents of the temporary news in addition to the image being displayed when the temporary news is announced. For example, some image display devices installed in facilities such as inns or hospitals display character information indicating guidance in the facility. Also, in conventional digital broadcasting in which an image signal or audio signal is digitized and broadcast, data other than the image signal or audio signal is included in the broadcast data, and the electronic data is based on the data included in the broadcast data. Data broadcasting in which character information such as a program guide is displayed by an image display device has been put into practical use. In data broadcasting, attribute information related to the content of the broadcast image, such as the program name of the program being broadcast, the performer, or the category of the program content, may be included in the broadcast data. An example of a technique for displaying various types of information including image and character information on an image display device is disclosed in Patent Document 1, and an example of a digital broadcasting technique is disclosed in Patent Document 2.

In addition, as a method of acquiring text information such as news by a method other than broadcasting, the text information is obtained via a communication network using an information device such as a personal computer (PC) or a mobile phone connected to a communication network such as the Internet. There is a way to get. These information devices can access various websites via a communication network, and can acquire and output information published on each website as web pages mainly composed of character information. As one of techniques for acquiring information via a communication network in this way, a technique using RSS (Rich Site Summary, Really Simple Syndicates or Resource Description Framework Site Summary) is known. RSS is a format for describing web page metadata in a data description language. In the technology using RSS, metadata such as the title or summary of the web page is described in the RSS format on the website, and the information device acquires the RSS metadata from the website to obtain the title or summary of the web page. Etc. can be obtained. An example of a technique using RSS is disclosed in Patent Document 3.
JP 2005-45605 A JP 2000-251402 A JP 2004-334866 A

  By the way, when displaying text information such as news on the image display device, it is difficult for the viewer to recognize the image and the text information individually if the displayed image and the contents of the text information are irrelevant. On the contrary, when the image being displayed and the content of the character information are related, it may be easier for the viewer to recognize the image and the character information. However, in a conventional image display device that displays character information in addition to an image, the content of the displayed character information is basically irrelevant to the image being displayed. It may be difficult to recognize. In the conventional technology for displaying character information on an image display device, the content of displayed character information is limited to the content broadcast by a broadcasting station, including the case of using data broadcasting. There is a problem that character information of such a wide range cannot be displayed.

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and the object of the present invention is to provide a wide range of contents related to images to be output so that viewers can easily recognize by using RSS technology. It is an object to provide an information output method, an information output system, and an image output apparatus capable of outputting the character information.

  An information output method according to the present invention is a method of outputting information acquired from outside in characters in an image output device that receives a broadcast signal and outputs an image based on the broadcast signal, wherein the image output device includes: The metadata of the web page including a word representing the content of the web page is acquired via a communication network, the attribute information related to the content of the program represented by the received broadcast signal is acquired, and the acquired metadata Then, the phrase related to the acquired attribute information is extracted, and the extracted phrase information is output as characters together with the image based on the broadcast signal.

  An information output system according to the present invention is connected to a communication network, and stores a storage device that acquires and stores metadata of the web page including words representing the contents of the web page from the outside via the communication network, and broadcast An information output system including an image output device that receives a signal and outputs an image based on the broadcast signal, wherein the image output device captures the metadata stored in the storage device from the storage device And means for acquiring attribute information relating to the content of the program represented by the received broadcast signal; and extraction means for extracting the word / phrase related to the attribute information acquired by the means from the metadata captured from the storage device; And an output means for outputting information on the phrase extracted by the extraction means as characters together with an image based on the broadcast signal. To.

  An image output apparatus according to the present invention receives a broadcast signal, and outputs an image based on the received broadcast signal. In the image output apparatus, the web page metadata including a phrase representing the content of the web page is transmitted to an external communication device. The acquisition means acquires the acquisition means acquired from the outside via the network, the means for acquiring attribute information relating to the content of the program represented by the received broadcast signal, and the phrase related to the attribute information acquired by the means It is characterized by comprising: extraction means for extracting from the metadata; and output means for outputting the information on the phrase extracted by the extraction means as characters together with an image based on the broadcast signal.

  In the present invention, the image output device acquires metadata of a web page published on a communication network via the communication network, and includes metadata including a phrase representing the content of the web page such as a title or a summary. Then, the phrase related to the attribute information of the broadcast program is extracted, and the phrase information is output as characters together with the program image based on the broadcast signal.

  The image output apparatus according to the present invention is characterized in that the metadata is data described in an RSS format.

  In the present invention, the web page metadata described in the RSS format stored in the web server device connected to the communication network is acquired.

  In the image output apparatus according to the present invention, the attribute information includes genre information indicating a genre of a program, and the extraction unit includes information corresponding to the genre information included in the attribute information in the metadata. It is characterized by having means for selecting metadata and means for extracting the word / phrase included in the metadata selected by the means.

  In the present invention, the attribute information includes genre information indicating the genre of the program to be broadcast, and the image output apparatus extracts the phrase from the metadata including information corresponding to the genre information, thereby converting the attribute information into the attribute information. Extract related words.

  In the image output apparatus according to the present invention, the attribute information includes a keyword related to a content of a program, and the extracting unit extracts the phrase including the keyword included in the attribute information from the metadata. It is characterized by having.

  In the present invention, the attribute information includes a keyword related to the contents of the program, and the image output apparatus extracts a word / phrase related to the attribute information by extracting a word / phrase including the keyword included in the attribute information from the metadata. Extract.

  The image output apparatus according to the present invention is characterized in that the output means includes means for outputting the keyword included in the phrase with characters emphasized over other parts of the phrase.

  Furthermore, in the present invention, when outputting a phrase including a keyword, the keyword character is emphasized and output.

  In the present invention, the phrase information related to the attribute information of the program is extracted and output by outputting the information of the phrase related to the attribute information of the program broadcast together with the image. It is possible to output character information of contents related to the image. Accordingly, the viewer who views the image and the character information output from the image output apparatus 1 can easily recognize the content of the character information because the image and the character information are related to each other.

  In the present invention, the phrase information to be output together with the image is extracted from the metadata of the web page described in the RSS format acquired via the communication network. It is possible to output character information with a wide range of contents.

  Further, in the present invention, by extracting a word from metadata corresponding to genre information indicating the genre of a program and outputting it as characters, character information having contents related to the image of the program being broadcast is output. Is possible.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to output character information having contents in accordance with the contents of the program being broadcast by outputting the phrase information including the keywords related to the contents of the program.

  Furthermore, in the present invention, when outputting information on a phrase including a keyword, by emphasizing the character of the keyword, it becomes possible to output character information so that the viewer can easily recognize, The present invention has an excellent effect.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be specifically described with reference to the drawings showing embodiments thereof.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the information output system of the present invention and the internal configuration of the image output apparatus of the present invention. The image output device 1 is a television receiver that receives a broadcast signal of a digital broadcast and displays an image based on the broadcast signal. The image output device 1 is configured to be connected to a communication network N such as the Internet, and a plurality of web server devices 3, 3,. Each web server device 3 publishes a news web page through the communication network N, and stores data necessary to publish the web page. In addition, the web server device 3 stores a metadata file in which metadata such as the title, address, article headline, article summary, update date and time of the published web page is described in the RSS format. Yes.

  Further, an RSS server device 2 that is a storage device according to the present invention is connected to the communication network N, and the image processing device 1 and the RSS server device 2 constitute an information output system of the present invention. The RSS server device 2 periodically accesses preset web server devices 3, 3,... Via the communication network N, and the web page metadata described in the RSS format from the accessed web server device 3. Is read and the read metadata is stored.

  The image output apparatus 1 includes a broadcast receiving unit 101 that receives a broadcast signal of a digital broadcast by satellite broadcast, terrestrial broadcast, or cable broadcast and demodulates it into MPEG2 (Moving Picture Experts Group 2) TS (Transport Stream) format data. ing. The broadcast receiver 101 is connected to a TS decoder 102 that selects TS packets included in the data demodulated by the broadcast receiver 101. The TS decoder 102 is connected to an AV decoder 103 that decodes a TS packet obtained by compressing an audio signal or an image signal. Connected to the AV decoder 103 are an audio processing unit 104 connected to a speaker 105 and an image processing unit 106 connected to a display 107 such as a CRT display or a liquid crystal display. The audio processing unit 104 performs processing for causing the speaker 105 to generate sound based on the audio signal decoded by the AV decoder 103, and the image processing unit 106 displays an image based on the image signal decoded by the AV decoder 103 on the display 107. It is the composition which makes it.

  Further, the image output apparatus 1 includes a network communication unit 112. An RSS reader 111 is connected to the network communication unit 112, and the RSS reader 111 causes the network communication unit 112 to access a preset RSS server device 2 to store each web stored in the RSS server device 2. A process of receiving page metadata from the RSS server device 2 is performed. A storage unit 110 such as a hard disk or a semiconductor memory is connected to the RSS reader 111. The storage unit 110 is configured to store metadata received from the RSS server device 2 by the network communication unit 112. The metadata of the web page stored in the storage unit 110 includes a phrase describing the content of the web page such as a headline or a summary in a natural language.

  A data processing unit 108 using a microcomputer or the like is connected to the storage unit 110 and the TS decoder 102. The data processing unit 108 reads out attribute information related to the contents of the program being broadcast included in the TS packet selected by the TS decoder 102, and converts the attribute information read out from the metadata of the web page stored in the storage unit 110. It is the structure which performs the process which extracts a related phrase. Furthermore, an OSD processing unit 109 that creates an OSD (On Screen Display) image indicating information such as the current time in characters is connected to the data processing unit 108, and the OSD processing unit 109 is connected to the image processing unit 106. The OSD processing unit 109 is configured to perform processing for superimposing the characters of the phrase extracted by the data processing unit 108 on the image that the image processing unit 106 displays on the display 107.

  Next, processing executed by the information output system of the present invention having the above configuration will be described. Each time the web server device 3 that publishes a web page for news updates the content of the web page, the web server device 3 stores a metadata file in which metadata corresponding to the content of the web page is described in the RSS format. The RSS server device 2 is set with addresses of specific web server devices 3, 3,..., And periodically accesses the specific web server devices 3, 3,. Tries to acquire metadata from the web server devices 3, 3,. The RSS server device 2 may perform processing for acquiring metadata every time the web server device 3 is accessed, or may perform processing for acquiring metadata when the metadata is updated. Further, the RSS server device 2 may perform processing for obtaining metadata by reading a metadata file stored in the web server device 3, and obtain metadata by reading a part of the metadata file. Processing may be performed.

  FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of metadata acquired by the RSS server device 2. FIG. 2A shows an example in which a phrase indicating a title and an outline in a web page is included as a phrase representing the content of the web page. A description sandwiched between tags <item> and </ item> defined by RSS is metadata corresponding to one article included in a web page. The description of the phrase sandwiched between the tags <title> and </ title> indicates the title of the article. A description sandwiched between tags <link> and </ link> indicates an address of an article on a web page. Furthermore, a description of a phrase sandwiched between tags <description> and </ description> indicates an article summary. In the example of FIG. 2A, the title and summary of the article correspond to the words representing the contents of the web page. FIG. 2B shows an example in which the article summary is omitted from the metadata. The metadata in this case is composed of the title and address of an article included in the web page, and the title of the article corresponds to a word representing the content of the web page.

  The RSS reader 111 of the image output apparatus 1 sets the address of the RSS server apparatus 2, and causes the network communication unit 112 to periodically access the RSS server apparatus 2 via the communication network N according to the setting. 2 reads out the metadata stored in the memory. In this way, the RSS reader 111 and the network communication unit 112 function as an acquisition unit according to the present invention. The RSS reader 111 stores the metadata read from the RSS server device 2 using the network communication unit 112 in the storage unit 110. In this way, the storage unit 110 of the image output apparatus 1 stores the latest metadata of each web page published on the communication network N.

  Next, processing performed when the image output apparatus 1 outputs an image will be described. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a procedure of processing performed when the image output apparatus 1 of the present invention outputs an image based on a broadcast signal. The broadcast receiving unit 101 receives a broadcast signal of digital broadcast (S1) and demodulates the broadcast signal. The TS decoder 102 selects, from the TS packets included in the data demodulated by the broadcast receiving unit 101, a TS packet including an image signal or an audio signal and a TS packet including attribute information relating to the content of the program being broadcast. The TS packet including the image signal or the audio signal is input to the AV decoder 103, and the TS packet including the attribute information is input to the data processing unit. The AV decoder 103 decodes the TS packet input from the TS decoder 102 into an image signal or an audio signal, inputs the audio signal to the audio processing unit 104, and inputs the image signal to the image processing unit 106. The sound processing unit 104 performs a process of outputting sound based on the sound signal to the speaker 105, and the image processing unit 106 performs a process of displaying an image based on the image signal on the display 107.

  In parallel with the processing of the image signal or the audio signal, the data processing unit 108 separates the attribute information included in the TS packet input from the TS decoder 102 from the TS packet (S2). The attribute information separated by the data processing unit 108 includes genre information indicating the genre of the program, and also includes keywords related to the contents of the program indicating the target or performer taken up by the program. Next, the data processing unit 108 determines whether or not the metadata stored in the storage unit 110 includes metadata that includes information corresponding to the genre information included in the separated attribute information. (S3). For example, if the program being broadcast is an economic program, the attribute information includes genre information indicating the economic genre. Since the metadata shown in FIG. 2 includes the characters / keizai / corresponding to the economic genre information in the address of the article on the web page, the metadata includes information corresponding to the genre information. Metadata.

  If there is metadata including information corresponding to the genre information in step S3 (S3: YES), the data processing unit 108 includes the attribute in the metadata including information corresponding to the genre information. It is determined whether or not there is metadata including the keyword included in the information in the phrase (S4). If there is metadata that includes the keyword in the phrase (S4: YES), the data processing unit 108 extracts the phrase that includes the keyword from the metadata that includes information corresponding to the genre information (S5). ). For example, when the keyword is “railway”, the metadata shown in FIG. 2 includes a phrase including “railway”, and the data processing unit 108 extracts this phrase. When there are a plurality of keywords, the data processing unit 108 extracts a phrase including at least one keyword. In addition, when a plurality of words / phrases are included in one metadata as in the title and summary as shown in FIG. 2 (a), processing for extracting only words / phrases including keywords may be performed. You may perform the process which extracts several words contained in. In addition, when there are multiple metadata including words that contain keywords, you may perform processing to extract words from the metadata with the latest update date and time, or perform processing to extract multiple words from multiple metadata. May be. In this way, the data processing unit 108 functions as an extraction unit according to the present invention.

  Next, the data processing unit 108 inputs the extracted phrase data to the OSD processing unit 109. The OSD processing unit 109 causes the image processing unit 106 to display the data on the display 107 based on the image signal while emphasizing the keyword. A process of superimposing the characters of the phrase on the power image is performed (S6). At this time, the OSD processing unit 109 sets the keyword character font to be more emphasized than the other characters, sets the keyword character color to be more prominent than the other characters, or sets the background color of the keyword portion. The keyword is emphasized by a method such as making it different from other characters. When the data processing unit 108 has extracted a plurality of words / phrases, the OSD processing unit 109 performs a process of sequentially superimposing characters of the plurality of words / phrases extracted by the data processing unit 108 on the image.

  In step S4, when there is no metadata that includes a keyword in the phrase in the metadata that includes information corresponding to the genre information (S4: NO), the data processing unit 108 includes the genre information. A phrase included in the metadata including the corresponding information is extracted (S7). Next, the data processing unit 108 inputs the extracted word data to the OSD processing unit 109, and the OSD processing unit 109 displays the word characters on the image to be displayed on the display 107 by the image processing unit 106 based on the image signal. Is performed (S8).

  If there is no metadata including information corresponding to the genre information in step S3 (S3: NO), the data processing unit 108 is included in the attribute information in the metadata stored in the storage unit 110. It is determined whether or not there is metadata including the keyword in the phrase (S9). If there is no metadata including the keyword in the phrase (S9: NO), the data processing unit 108 ends the process. If there is metadata including the keyword in the phrase (S9: YES), the data processing unit 108 extracts the phrase including the keyword from the metadata stored in the storage unit 110 (S10), and the process is performed. Proceed to S6.

  After step S6 or step S8 is completed, the image processing unit 106 displays an image on which words of words / phrases are superimposed on the display 107, whereby an image based on the image signal and words / phrases having contents related to the image are displayed. Information is output in characters (S11). After step S11 ends, the image output device 1 receives the next broadcast signal and repeats the process from step S1.

  FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of character information output together with an image by the image output apparatus 1. When a program whose genre information is “economic”, such as an economic news program, is being broadcast, the phrases included in the metadata as shown in FIG. 2 including the information corresponding to the genre information are shown in FIG. As shown in (a), it is superimposed on the program image and output. When the keyword of this program is “railway”, the keyword “railway” is emphasized and output as shown in FIG. In the above example, the method of superimposing the characters of the phrase on the image and outputting them is shown, but the image and the characters may be output separately on the screen of the display 107. FIG. 4B shows an example in which images and characters are output separately. The image of the program is displayed in the portion where the image on the screen is to be displayed, and the program is displayed in the portion where the character on the screen is to be displayed. The characters of the extracted phrase are displayed.

  As described above in detail, in the present invention, metadata of a web page described in the RSS format is acquired from the web server devices 3, 3,. A phrase such as a title or summary of a web page related to the information is extracted from the metadata, and the phrase information is output as characters together with an image based on the broadcast signal. Since words related to the attribute information of the program are extracted and output, character information having contents related to the image of the program being broadcast can be output. Accordingly, the viewer who views the image and the character information output from the image output apparatus 1 can easily recognize the content of the character information because the image and the character information are related to each other. Moreover, since the words and phrases to be output together with the images are acquired from various web server devices 3 via the communication network, it is possible to output a wide range of character information that is not limited to the content broadcast by a broadcasting station or the like.

  In the present embodiment, the image output apparatus 1 of the present invention is a television receiver. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the image output apparatus of the present invention is a set top box for cable broadcasting. A device that displays an image on an external display device such as a digital broadcasting tuner device or a recording device equipped with a tuner may be used. Moreover, in this Embodiment, although the image output apparatus 1 showed the form which takes in the metadata of the web page which the RSS server apparatus 2 acquired via the communication network N, the image output apparatus of this invention is an RSS server apparatus. The web page metadata may be acquired without using 2.

  FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing another internal configuration example of the image output apparatus of the present invention. The image output device 4 is connected to a display device 5 such as a television receiver, and is a set-top box or a tuner device that outputs an image signal and displays an image on the display device 5. An audio output unit 42 that outputs an audio signal to the display device 5 and an image output unit 43 that outputs an image signal to the display device 5 are connected to the AV decoder 103. The OSD processing unit 109 performs processing for superimposing words of words on an image to be displayed on the display device 5. The RSS reader 41 sets addresses of specific web server devices 3, 3,... And periodically accesses the web server devices 3, 3, etc. via the communication network N using the network communication unit 112. The web page metadata is acquired from the accessed web server devices 3, 3,. The storage unit 110 stores the metadata acquired by the RSS reader 41. The other configuration of the image output apparatus 4 is the same as that shown in FIG. 1, and the corresponding parts are denoted by the same reference numerals and description thereof is omitted. The image output apparatus 4 having this configuration can obtain the same effects as described above by directly acquiring the metadata of the web page without requiring the RSS server apparatus 2.

  Further, in the present embodiment, the image output apparatus 1 of the present invention has shown the form in which the attribute information is acquired by separating the attribute information of the program from the TS packet of the digital broadcast. However, the present invention is not limited to this. In a form in which attribute information is acquired by other methods such as a method of receiving program attribute information on a channel different from the broadcast signal of the program, or a method of acquiring attribute information of the program via the communication network N separately from the broadcast signal. There may be.

  In this embodiment, an example of handling metadata described in the RSS format as the metadata of the web page has been shown. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention is described in a format other than RSS such as Atom. The information output method of the present invention may be realized using the metadata that has been set.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the information output system of this invention, and the internal structure of the image output device of this invention. It is a conceptual diagram which shows the example of the metadata which an RSS server apparatus acquires. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the process performed when the image output device of this invention outputs the image based on a broadcast signal. It is a schematic diagram which shows the example of the character information which the image output device output with the image. It is a block diagram which shows the other example of an internal structure of the image output device of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

1, 4 Image output device 101 Broadcast receiving unit 102 TS decoder 106 Image processing unit 107 Display 108 Data processing unit 109 OSD processing unit 110 Storage unit 111 RSS reader 112 Network communication unit 2 RSS server device (storage device)
3 Web server device 5 Display device N Communication network

Claims (7)

In an image output device that receives a broadcast signal and outputs an image based on the broadcast signal, in a method of outputting information acquired from the outside in characters,
The image output device includes:
Obtaining the metadata of the web page including words representing the content of the web page via a communication network,
Acquire attribute information related to the content of the program represented by the received broadcast signal,
Extracting the phrase related to the acquired attribute information from the acquired metadata,
The information output method characterized by outputting the extracted information of the phrase as characters together with the image based on the broadcast signal. A storage device connected to a communication network and acquiring and storing metadata of the web page including a phrase representing the content of the web page from the outside via the communication network; and receiving a broadcast signal to the broadcast signal An information output system including an image output device that outputs an image based thereon,
The image output device includes:
Means for taking in the metadata stored in the storage device from the storage device;
Means for acquiring attribute information relating to the content of the program represented by the received broadcast signal;
Extraction means for extracting the word / phrase related to the attribute information acquired by the means from the metadata fetched from the storage device;
An information output system comprising: an image based on the broadcast signal; and an output unit that outputs information of the phrase extracted by the extraction unit as characters. In an image output device that receives a broadcast signal and outputs an image based on the received broadcast signal,
Obtaining means for obtaining metadata of the web page including a word representing the content of the web page from outside via an external communication network;
Means for acquiring attribute information relating to the content of the program represented by the received broadcast signal;
An extraction unit that extracts the phrase related to the attribute information acquired by the unit from the metadata acquired by the acquisition unit;
An image output device comprising: an image based on the broadcast signal; and an output unit that outputs information on the phrase extracted by the extraction unit as characters.   The image output apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the metadata is data described in a format of RSS (Rich Site Summary, Really Simple Syndicates, or Resource Description Framework Site Summary). The attribute information includes genre information indicating a genre of a program,
The extraction means includes
Means for selecting metadata including information corresponding to the genre information included in the attribute information among the metadata;
The image output apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising: means for extracting the word / phrase included in the metadata selected by the means. The attribute information includes a keyword related to the content of the program,
The extraction means includes
The image output apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising: means for extracting the phrase including the keyword included in the attribute information from the metadata.   The image output apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the output unit includes a unit that outputs the keyword included in the phrase with characters that are more emphasized than other parts in the phrase.

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