JP3606764B2 - A system for performing recording reservation or playing a recorded program from a TV program guide presented in association with file object browsing - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method for searching a TV program guide related to a home page and creating a program guide in cooperation with browsing a home page on the Internet, and recording a TV program by a user pointing to the created program guide with a mouse pointer or the like. The present invention relates to a system capable of making reservations and reproducing already recorded television programs.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-177532 proposes a method for automatically displaying an Internet homepage on a television screen in cooperation with a television program. In this method, a home page is displayed based on URL (Uniform Resource Locator) information included in a television program.
This is an architecture that tries to obtain information from the network based on TV program information. In Japan, services such as Bit Cast developed by InfoCity provide URL information linked to terrestrial TV broadcasting. Has been done.
[0003]
In recent years, with the spread of digital multi-channel broadcasting, the number of TV broadcast programs is increasing, and home appliances that have a function that allows users to search for keywords or genres by electronic program guide (EPG) are sold. Has been.
Electronic program guides are regularly broadcast together with terrestrial TV broadcasts using a method such as ADAMS-EPG of Asahi Data Broadcasting Co., Ltd., which is stored in a personal computer equipped with a TV or TV tuner and viewed as a program guide. It is possible to do and search.
[0004]
However, traditionally, when browsing file objects on the Internet, the features of the page are extracted and the TV program close to the page content is presented to the user, or the TV program is scheduled to be recorded on the spot, or reserved. There has been no system that presents the recorded video as a search result and prompts the user to view the recorded program.
[0005]
A system for searching a document based on a document is similar to the technique of the present invention. However, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-085103, which is a document belonging to this field, selects a keyword when searching for a document. Instead of selecting a document, a method for finding another related document from the document set has been proposed. This method is to search how many times a keyword included in a document is given and display the keywords in the descending order. However, this method is a document search system and functions like an electronic program guide. It does not create a document.
[0006]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
As described above, as an enjoyment that combines browsing the Internet and watching TV, you can view the Internet homepage related to the TV program in conjunction with the TV program. In conjunction with this, I could not know the TV program guide related to the homepage.
Also, when searching for TV programs using EPG, etc., you can narrow down the programs you want to see by selecting keyword input operation or genre search. In addition, there has been no method for presenting searched programs as a TV program guide in the order according to the user's preference.
[0007]
The present invention provides a system capable of searching an electronic program guide by browsing a file object on the Internet and controlling recording and reproduction, and collecting information obtained from a television broadcast in addition to information collected from browsing a file object on a network. The purpose is that.
[0008]
Furthermore, when browsing a file object on the network, the present invention automatically selects a TV program already recorded as TV program information related to the currently viewed file object or a TV program to be broadcast in the future. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method capable of presenting a program and a system capable of recording and playing back a designated television program.
[0009]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a file object on a network in a system for presenting a television program guide in association with file object browsing and performing recording reservation or playing a recorded program. Words between tags Extract Extract Means of exiting, The lottery Extracted by the means phrase The program search means for searching the TV program table by means of the above, the TV program reservation recording means for reserving a desired program from the result searched by the program search means, and the TV program recorded by the TV program recording reservation means are reproduced. TV program playback means are provided.
[0011]
Claim 2 The invention of claim 1 is described in claim 1. Lottery The output means of the file object phrase And a feature is extracted from the degree of similarity between the electronic program explanation word and phrase.
[0012]
Claim 3 The invention of claim 1 Or 2 The program search means in the system described in (1) sequentially executes electronic program guide search, recorded program search, and recorded program search.
[0013]
Claim 4 The invention of claim 3 The electronic program guide search in the system described in (1) searches only programs broadcast after the current time.
[0014]
Claim 5 The present invention has a plurality of display priority order calculation methods, and changes the calculation method according to the user's preference. 4 The search result shaping means for rearranging the order of the search results searched by the program search means described in any one of the above and creating a program table is provided.
[0015]
Claim 6 The invention of claim 5 The program table created by the search result shaping means in the system described in (1) is displayed on the client computer.
[0016]
Claim 7 The invention of claim 6 Recording and playback designation can be made from the program guide displayed on the client computer in the system described in.
[0017]
Claim 8 The file object on the network according to claim 1 Words between tags Extract Extract Means of exiting, The lottery Extracted by the means phrase The program search means for searching the TV program table by means of the above, the TV program reservation recording means for reserving a program from the result searched by the program search means, and the TV program for reproducing the TV program recorded by the TV program recording reservation means A recording medium that records a program for causing a computer to execute a system for presenting a television program guide in association with file object browsing provided with a reproducing means and performing recording reservation or reproducing a recorded program.
[0018]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the entirety of an embodiment of the system of the present invention.
The system of the present invention includes a control center 103 that controls the entire system, an Internet 115 that represents a Web server on which a file object exists, a feature extraction unit 102 for WWW file object contents, and a Web server that is accessed by a client. Document inside Successor Proxy server 101 that is a gateway to perform, program search means 104 for searching for TV program information, EPG DB (database) 105 that stores a TV program guide, and a recording reservation list that stores TV recording reservation information DB 106, recorded list DB 107 for storing already recorded TV program information, presentation list 110 for presenting a program guide, search result shaping means 111 for rearranging and organizing search results, and start time A gateway computer 200 comprising a recording means 108 for recording a designated channel up to the end time, an MPEG data DB 109 for accumulating recording data, and a reproducing means 112 for reproducing a television program recorded by the recording means 108 as a video signal; , Receive TV signal 113 and recorded program A television device 114 for display and a client computer 300 for operating the gateway computer 200 are configured.
[0019]
As described above, the gateway computer 200 and the client computer 300 are roughly divided into two so that one main gateway computer 200 can be placed in a home and connected to a plurality of client machines via a network. It becomes possible. Further, the gateway computer 200 and the client computer 300 can be integrated into a product.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the gateway computer 200.
The gateway computer 200 includes a CPU 201, a hard disk 202, a memory 203, an MPEG2 encoder device 204, an A / D conversion device 205, a television tuner device 206 (connected to an antenna 207), an MPEG2 decoder device 208, and a D / A conversion device 209. It is assumed that a communication control device 210 (connected to the client computer 300 via a LAN) and a communication modem device 211 (connected to the Internet 115) are connected (connected to the television device 114).
The hard disk 202 is accessed from each of the recording means 108, the reproduction means 112, the feature extraction means 102, the search result shaping means 111, and the program search means 104. The EPG DB 105, the recording reservation list DB 106, the recorded list DB 107, and the presentation list 110, a medium for storing database information of the MPEG data DB 109.
[0020]
The recording means 108 is composed of an MPEG2 encoder device 204, an A / D conversion device 205, and a television tuner 206. The reproduction means 112 is composed of an MPEG2 decoder device 208 and a D / A conversion device 209. .
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of the client computer.
The client computer 300 includes a memory 301, a CPU 302, a nonvolatile memory 303, an input device 304, a display device 305, and a network I / O 306. This corresponds to a device generally called a personal computer.
Since the WWW browser of the client computer 300 relays the proxy server 101 in the gateway computer 200 and accesses the Internet, the gateway computer 200 can extract the contents of the WWW file object. For details, the method of relaying is described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-021134.
[0021]
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation procedure of the system of the present invention.
The operation procedure will be described below with reference to the block diagrams of FIGS. 1 to 3 according to the flowchart of FIG.
First, the client computer 300 accesses a file object on the network 115 from a built-in WWW browser (relaying the proxy server 101) (step S1).
[0022]
Since the feature extraction unit 102 constantly monitors the data transfer of the proxy server 101, the feature extraction unit 102 detects an access request from the client computer 300 and extracts a feature keyword from the response file object (step S2).
A file object is a description language devised for transmitting WWW information called HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language), and can be freely set on a browser by inserting specific characters between symbols called tags. It has a hyperlink function that can display layouts and jump from a hot spot (hot link) to another file.
[0023]
FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of HTML of a file object.
In this embodiment, the word / phrase enclosed by “</ TITLE>” to “</ TITLE>”, which is the title tag of the file object in the tag, and the tag “<AHERF = ◯ × Δ>” for performing hyperlinks. To “</A>” are all features of the file object.
The word / phrase sandwiched between these tags is extracted by the feature extraction unit 102 as a keyword.
To extract it as a keyword, the phrase is subjected to morphological analysis and only the noun is extracted. The maximum number of nouns is 10.
[0024]
FIG. 6 shows keywords extracted as features of the file object in the example shown in FIG.
That is, from the file object, three words “golf”, “Ozaki brothers”, and “driver” are extracted as feature keywords. The TV program guide is searched by logical sum of these words. As a result, a TV program including any of the above keywords in the program title (program description) is searched.
In addition, as a search method other than this, a search method such as a semantic vector method, which converts the meaning of the whole document into a vector, calculates an inner product with the semantic vector of the program description sentence of the electronic program guide, and presents it in descending order of numerical values is used. (Reference "The mystery of Sherlock natural sentence search", Takaki Yamamoto: Mac Fan Internet, Mainichi Communications Inc. March 1999 issue).
[0025]
The program search means 104 is intended to search for a desired program and create a presentation list 110 by sequentially performing three searches of electronic program guide search, reserved program search, and recorded program search.
[0026]
Next, an electronic program guide for searching for a TV program to be broadcast from now on, based on the keywords extracted in step S2, from the EPG DB 105 without targeting the past program from the current time. The search is performed, the corresponding television program is extracted, and the presentation list 110 is created (step S3).
The current time is not particularly shown because it is obtained from the OS timer built in the gateway computer.
[0027]
Here, the EPG DB 105, which is an electronic program database, is a collection of EPG data broadcasted on the television such as the ADAMS-EPG system from the television signal 113 and converted into a searchable database. Are stored in the storage medium of the hard disk 202, which is a non-volatile storage area. The EPG data itself can be received using the character data broadcast reception function of the TV tuner device 206, and can also be collected via the Internet.
FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of data stored in the EPG DB.
As for the data structure of the TV program guide, a program ID, broadcast date, start time, end time, CH number, broadcast station, title, and a text sentence of about 200 bytes describing the contents are stored in one program.
[0028]
Then, a reserved program search for searching the recording reservation list DB 106 for whether there is a program already reserved for recording in the presentation list 110 created in step S3 is performed. If there is a program already recorded, Then, information indicating that the recording is reserved is given to the presentation list, and the presentation list 110 is corrected (step S4).
FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of data stored in the recording reservation list DB.
As shown in the figure, since the recording reservation list DB stores the program ID, broadcast date, start time, end time, and CH number for one program, the program ID of the presentation list 110 is the recording reserved list DB. Searching for a reserved program can be realized by searching for the presence of the program ID.
[0029]
Next, a registered program search for searching for a recorded TV program from the recorded list DB 107 is executed using the keyword extracted in step S2, and if there is a corresponding TV program, the recorded information is added to the presentation list 110. (Step S5).
FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of a presentation list generated after steps S3 to S5.
Note that “not yet”, “reserved”, and “done” in the information column of the list are information indicating “recording reserved not”, “recorded reserved”, and “recorded”, respectively.
[0030]
The search result shaping means 111 includes means for arranging the presentation list 110 created through the steps S3 to S5 in the order from the closest to the current time by sorting the broadcast date and time of each program in the order closest to the current time. A specified time range except for a program that includes keywords extracted by the extraction means 102 and sorted by the number of keywords in order of search fitness, for example, a program between 18:00 and 23:00. , Limited to the date and time, such as today's minute or one week's date, or pre-recorded, recorded, or prioritized sorting, There are means for removing any of the scheduled recording, the recorded, and the program to be broadcast. The user selects any one or a plurality of these search result shaping means 111 so that the client computer 300 presents a television program guide that suits the user's preference (step S6).
FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of the presentation list of the search result shaping unit.
As an example of the presentation list 110 of the search result shaping unit 111, an example in which the presentation list 110 is arranged in order from the current time, and an example in which the search list is arranged based on the fitness of the search are shown.
[0031]
FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a screen display example of the client computer.
In the presentation list 110, the latest data is always displayed on the screen of the client computer and the presentation list 110 is displayed on the right side of the screen at a timing of about once per second. This is because the software on the client computer side is regularly updated automatically.
[0032]
Therefore, when the client browses the file object on the network, immediately after that, the TV program guide and the electronic program guide listing the recorded recording data and the recorded data are created based on the corresponding page. Will be presented.
[0033]
In step S6, it is determined whether or not there is a television program to be recorded in the presentation list output to the display device 305 of the client computer 300 (step S7). The television program is specified by moving the cursor with the mouse of the input device 304 and clicking the mouse button on the check box of the recording confirmation column in FIG.
This event is transmitted to the recording reservation unit of the gateway computer 200 via the network together with the program ID, and the recording reservation is performed.
The recording reservation unit incorporated in the control center 103 stores the TV recording program designated in step S7 in the recording reservation list DB 106 (step S8).
[0034]
When the recording start time of each TV program in the reserved recording list DB 106 comes, a TV broadcast of a predetermined CH number is received from the TV signal 113 through the TV tuner device 206 until the end time, and the program is recorded on a recording medium such as a hard disk in the MPEG data DB 109. Record the ID as an index.
The recording method is a format called MPEG2 (Moving Picture Experts Group). A / D converter 205 converts analog signals into digital signals for easy handling by computer, and compresses a large amount of moving image data. Compressed and stored by means. Note that video recording is not limited to MPEG2.
[0035]
The TV program for which recording has been completed is deleted from the scheduled recording list DB 107, and the recorded TV program information is stored in the recorded list DB.
The contents of the scheduled recording list DB 106 are stored with a program ID, a broadcast date, a start time, an end time, and a CH number as in the example of the scheduled recording list DB in FIG.
FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of the recorded list DB.
As shown in the figure, the contents of the recorded list DB include a program ID, a broadcast date, a start time, an end time, a CH number, a broadcast station, a title, and contents for one program. As an exception process, if the specified TV program and the recording time zone of a TV program already in the recorded reservation list overlap, that is, if you try to record multiple TV programs in the same time zone, the target recording is already scheduled Means for allowing the user to select whether or not to cancel the program.
Next, the process proceeds to step S9.
If there is no program to be reserved for recording and no television program is designated, the process directly proceeds to step S9.
[0036]
Next, in step S6, it is determined whether or not there is a program to be reproduced in the presentation list output to the client computer 300 (step S9), and the program to be reproduced is a recorded television program. Is specified, the process proceeds to step S10. If nothing is specified, the process returns to step S1.
[0037]
The reproducing means 112 decompresses the MPEG2 format compressed data of the program ID designated from the storage medium such as the hard disk of the MPEG data DB 109 by the MPEG2 decoder 208 for the recorded television program designated in step S9, and performs D / A conversion. The device 209 converts the digital signal into an analog signal and outputs it to the television device 114 (step S10).
Next, the process returns to step S1.
[0038]
The system of the present invention described above can be realized by operating a computer in a predetermined procedure. The program describing the predetermined procedure is stored in a computer-readable recording medium. In the present invention, as the recording medium, a memory (not shown) such as a ROM itself may be a program medium, or a program reading device is provided as an external storage device, and the recording medium is inserted therein. It may be a readable program medium. In either case, the stored program may be configured to be accessed and executed by the microprocessor, or the program may be read out and downloaded to a program storage area (not shown) of the computer. In this case, the program may be executed. It is assumed that this download program is stored in the main device in advance.
[0039]
Here, the program medium is a recording medium configured to be separable from the main body, such as a tape system such as a magnetic tape or a cassette tape, a magnetic disk such as a floppy disk or a hard disk, or a CD-ROM / MO / MD / DVD. It may be a medium that carries a fixed program, including an optical disk system, a card system such as an IC card (including a memory card) / optical card, or a semiconductor memory such as a mask ROM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash ROM, or the like.
[0040]
In the present invention, since the system configuration is connectable to a communication network including the Internet, it may be a medium that carries the program in a fluid manner so as to download the program from the communication network. When the program is downloaded from the communication network in this way, the download program may be stored in the apparatus main body in advance or installed from another recording medium.
Needless to say, the content stored in the recording medium is not limited to a program, and includes data.
[0041]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the system of the present invention, the TV program information, the recorded information, and the recording schedule information are searched based on the keywords extracted from the file object itself only by browsing the file object on the network. The program is presented in the order according to the user's preference.
At the same time, a television program can be reserved for recording, and a recorded television program can be reproduced.
As a result, it is possible to realize a system in which browsing of file objects on the network, TV program search operation, and video device operation are linked.
[0042]
Since the TV program guide is automatically presented along with browsing the file objects on the network, the trouble of searching for the TV program is simplified, the recording reservation operation of the TV program is simplified, and the conventional operation is performed separately. This also has the effect of smoothly linking file object browsing, TV program search operations, and video device operations.
In particular, the invention according to each claim provides the following effects.
According to the first aspect of the present invention, while browsing the file object on the network, the contents of the file object currently being viewed are automatically analyzed, and the TV program information related to the file object is presented. Since it is possible to check programs to be broadcast, schedule recording of programs to be viewed, and play back already recorded programs, it is possible to collect information from television broadcasts other than on the Internet.
[0043]
Claim 2 According to the invention, the user of the client computer can search for a TV program based on the features extracted from the page only by browsing the file object without inputting a keyword or inputting a file. Can be omitted.
[0044]
Claim 3 According to the invention, in addition to searching for an EPG, it is possible to present to the user program information that has already been searched for a program that has already been reserved for recording or a program that has already been recorded. The reservation status and program information already recorded can be checked at the same time.
[0045]
Claim 4 According to the invention, only the program information necessary for recording can be provided to the user by searching only the EPG information to be broadcast from now on.
[0046]
Claim 5 According to this invention, it is possible to present the program guide according to the user's preference by sorting the presented program guide in the order of the user's preference.
[0047]
Claim 6 According to the invention, the TV program guide can be automatically presented by browsing the network file object, so that the file object browsing and the TV program guide can be confirmed at the same time without the operation of searching the TV program guide.
[0048]
Claim 7 According to the invention, since the recording / playback operation can be performed by a series of operations, the browsing of the network file object, the TV program search operation, and the video recording / playback operation, which were conventionally operated separately, are smoothly performed. be able to.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an entire system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of the gateway computer in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of the client computer in FIG. 1;
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of the system of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of HTML of a file object.
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of keywords after feature extraction.
FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an outline of an EPG DB.
FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a recording reservation list DB.
FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of a presentation list content.
FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a display example of a presentation list of search result shaping means.
FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a screen display example on a client computer.
FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of a recorded list DB.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 ... Proxy server, 102 ... Feature extraction means, 103 ... Control center, 104 ... Program search means, 105 ... EPG DB, 106 ... Recording reservation list DB, 107 ... Recorded list DB, 108 ... Recording means, 109 ... MPEG Data DB, 110 ... presentation list, 111 ... search result shaping means, 112 ... playback means, 113 ... TV signal, 114 ... TV apparatus, 115 ... Internet, 200 ... gateway computer, 201 ... CPU, 202 ... hard disk, 203 ... memory 204 ... MPEG2 encoder device, 205 ... A / D conversion device, 206 ... TV tuner device, 207 ... antenna, 208 ... MPEG2 decoder device, 209 ... D / A conversion device, 210 ... communication control device, 211 ... communication modem Device 300 client computer 3 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 01 ... Memory, 302 ... CPU, 303 ... Non-volatile memory, 304 ... Input device, 305 ... Display device, 306 ... Network I / O.

Claims (8)

And Extraction means that to extract phrases sandwiched tags from the file object on the network, a program searching means for searching the television program guide by words extracted by the extraction means, retrieved by該番set searching means TV program schedule recording means for reserving a program from the result, and a TV program guide related to file object browsing, comprising: a TV program playback means for playing back a TV program recorded by the TV program recording reservation means A system for recording and reserving recordings or playing back recorded programs. System according to claim 1, before Ki抽 detecting means, characterized in that extracts a feature from the similarity between the words and the description the phrase of the electronic program guide of the file object. 3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the program search means sequentially executes an electronic program guide search, a recording reserved program search, and a recorded program search. 4. The system according to claim 3 , wherein the electronic program guide search is for searching only programs broadcast after the current time. A search result shaping unit having a plurality of display priority order calculation methods, changing the calculation method according to user preferences, rearranging the order of the search results searched by the program search unit, and creating a program table The system according to any one of claims 1 to 4 , characterized in that: 6. The system according to claim 5 , wherein the program table created by the search result shaping means is displayed on a client computer. 7. The system according to claim 6 , wherein recording designation and reproduction designation can be made from a program guide displayed on the client computer. And Extraction means that to extract phrases sandwiched tags from the file object on the network, a program searching means for searching the television program guide by words extracted by the extraction means, retrieved by該番set searching means A TV program schedule recording means for reserving a program from the result, and a TV program guide related to file object browsing provided with a TV program playback means for playing back a TV program recorded by the TV program recording reservation means is presented and recorded. A computer-readable recording medium on which a program for causing a computer to execute a system for performing reservation or recorded program reproduction is recorded.

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