Television system, television set and remote controller

• US 10,028,024 B2
• Filed: 03/11/2016
• Issued: 07/17/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/07/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NL Giken, Inc.
• Original Assignee: NL Giken, Inc.
• Inventors: Tanaka, Masahide, Matsui, Tohru
• Primary Examiner(s): Teitelbaum, Michael E
• Assistant Examiner(s): Haiem, Sean N
• Application Number:
  US15/067,240
• Publication Number:
  US 20160198224A1
• Time in Patent Office: 858 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/32 Arrangements for monitoring conditions of receiving stations, e.g. malfunction or breakdown of receiving stations
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/76 Arrangements characterised by transmission systems other than for broadcast, e.g. the Internet for broadcast H04H20/65
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/80 characterised by transmission among terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/251 Learning process for intelligent management, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies details of learning user preferences for the retrieval of video data in a video database G06F16/739; computer systems using learning methods G06N3/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25866 Management of end-user data customer care in data networks H04L41/5077
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42204 User interfaces specially adapted for controlling a client device through a remote control device; Remote control devices therefor constructive details of casings for the remote control device H01H9/0235; user interfaces for controlling a tuning device of a television receiver through a remote control H03J9/00; remote control of peripheral devices connected to a television receiver through the remote control device of the television receiver H04B1/205
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4223 Cameras H04N23/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4312 involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4314 for fitting data in a restricted space on the screen, e.g. EPG data in a rectangular grid
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4424 Monitoring of the internal components or processes of the client device, e.g. CPU or memory load, processing speed, timer, counter or percentage of the hard disk space used error monitoring in general G06F11/30; arrangements for monitoring conditions of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/32; diagnosis, testing or measuring for television receivers H04N17/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4667 Processing of monitored end-user data, e.g. trend analysis based on the log file of viewer selections
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4756 for rating content, e.g. scoring a recommended movie
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4786 e-mailing message switching systems, e.g. electronic mail systems H04L51/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/44 Receiver circuitry for the reception of television signals according to analogue transmission standards H04N5/14 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

In response to an operation such as power-on or power-off, channel change and sound volume change, a television set combined with a personal computer automatically makes e-mail with information in a predetermined format indicative of the operation attached. The e-mail is automatically sent to another television set to inform the other television set of operation of the own television set. On the other hand, the e-mail can be sent to a rating company for audience share survey. The television set automatically reads the received e-mail and attachment to change the indication of display. The television set has storage of the received information for analysis of an abnormality. Abnormality can be also sensed through abnormal act on the remote controller apt to be taken by a person in panic or off the truck. The television set refuses information from unknown address for blocking an attack of a stranger.

Claims

1. A television set comprising:

a television function unit;

a display arranged to display a broadcast program in accordance with the television function unit;

a communicator arranged to communicate with an outside counterpart;

a receiver arranged to automatically receive information from the outside counterpart through the communicator;

a register of a predetermined outside counterpart which is registered on own initiative of the user;

a setting detector arranged to check whether or not a setting is done to automatically give a notice of the receipt of an e-mail as the information by means of changing the display in response to an automatic receipt of the e-mail by the receiver from outside counterparts other than the predetermined outside counterpart; and

a controller arranged to automatically give a user of the television set a notice of the receipt of the information by means of changing the display in response to the automatic receipt of the information by the receiver from the predetermined outside counterpart, the information being originated by the predetermined outside counterpart and otherwise unknown by the user, wherein the controller is arranged to automatically refuse receiving the e-mail as the information other than the information from the predetermined outside counterpart not to automatically change the display with no setting checked by the setting detector, wherein no automatic change in the display is caused in response to all of the information received if any predetermined outside counterpart is not registered in the register and it is checked by the setting detector that the setting is not done, and wherein automatic changes in the display in response to the automatic receipt of the e-mail as the information by the receiver from outside counterparts other than the predetermined outside counterpart are caused in accordance with the setting which is checked by the setting detector.

2. The television set according to claim 1, wherein the information is received in accordance with a predetermined format.

3. The television set according to claim 2, wherein the receiver is arranged to receive an e-mail to which the information in the predetermined format is attached.

4. The television set according to 1, wherein the predetermined outside counterpart is another television set located at a familiar home.

5. The television set according to claim 1, wherein the information is an abnormal use of the predetermined outside counterpart.

6. The television set according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined outside counterpart is an emergency organization.

7. The television set according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined counterpart is another television set located at a familiar home, and wherein the received information includes a change in at least one of the power-on or power-off, the channel selection and sound volume of the another television set.

8. The television set according to claim 7, wherein the controller is arranged to display the channel selection of the other television set with the local channel number.

9. The television set according to claim 7, wherein the controller is arranged to change the display if the broadcast program identified by the channel selection of the other television set coincides with the broadcast program displayed in accordance with the television function unit.

10. The television set according to claim 7, wherein the controller is arranged to make it possible to replace the broadcast program displayed in accordance with the television function unit by another broadcast program identified by the channel selection of the other television set.

11. The television set according to claim 1 further comprising a storage arranged to record the received information and an analyzer arranged to detect an abnormality in the predetermined outside counterpart on the basis of an analysis of the recorded information.

12. The television set according to claim 1, wherein the received information includes a sign of abnormality in the predetermined outside counterpart.

13. The television set according to claim 1 wherein the controller is arranged to refuse receiving the information in accordance with no setting detected for a predetermined time period by the setting detector.

14. The television set according to claim 1 wherein the controller is arranged to refuse receiving the information in accordance with no setting detected by the setting detector due to no operation by the user who has no knowledge about the setting whereby undesired automatic change in the display is avoided.