Electronic-program-guide retrieval method and electronic-program-guide retrieval system

• US 20010048752A1
• Filed: 05/25/2001
• Published: 12/06/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Hanai, Tomoyuki, Miki, Nanami
• Granted Patent: US 8,392,949 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/100
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2007/17381 the upstream transmission being initiated by the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4332 by placing content in organized collections, e.g. local EPG data repository interfaces, Database management systems or updating for information retrieval G06F16/23; details of retrieval of video data and associated meta data in video database G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4351 involving reassembling additional data, e.g. rebuilding an executable program from recovered modules
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4828 for searching program descriptors retrieval of video data G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/816 involving special video data, e.g 3D video
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8405 represented by keywords
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

An EPG retrieval system includes a data server, a client, and a dictionary database. The data server stores program information of an EPG. The client includes an access unit for accessing the data server, and an input unit for inputting a retrieval keyword for performing retrieval on the program information. The dictionary database stores retrieval keywords and keywords relevant to the retrieval keywords. The client inputs an arbitrary keyword, and extracts keywords relevant to the input keyword. The extracted keywords and the input keyword are used to perform retrieval on the program information.

Claims

1. An electronic-program-guide retrieval method comprising the steps of:

when retrieval based on an input retrieval keyword is performed by accessing an electronic-program-guide database storing electronic-program-guide data,

extracting relevant-keyword information relevant to said input retrieval keyword from a dictionary database; and

extracting necessary electronic-program-guide data based on the extracted relevant-keyword information from the electronic-program-guide data stored in said electronic-program-guide database.

2. An electronic-program-guide retrieval method according to

claim 1

, wherein said dictionary database stores words to be used as retrieval keywords, and relevant keywords relevant to said words to be used as retrieval keywords.

3. An electronic-program-guide retrieval method according to

claim 1

, wherein when the retrieval keyword is the name of a person, the relevant-keyword information is one of or a combination of a nickname of said person, the full name of said person, the given name of said person, the name of a group relevant to said person, and another wellknown name of said person.

4. An electronic-program-guide retrieval method according to

claim 1

, wherein when the retrieval keyword is a word written in hiragana characters and/or katakana characters used in Japanese writing, the relevant-keyword information includes a word written in kanji characters used in Japanese writing or in characters relevant to said kanji characters.

5. An electronic-program-guide retrieval method according to

claim 1

, wherein when the retrieval keyword corresponds to one of misused character keywords stored in a misused keyword database which are caused by possible input mistakes, only the relevant-keyword information is used to perform retrieval.

6. An electronic-program-guide retrieval method according to

claim 1

, wherein the retrieval keyword and the relevant-keyword information are interrelated to each other.

7. An electronic-program-guide retrieval method according to

claim 1

, wherein when part of a word to be used as the retrieval keyword is input, said word to be used as the retrieval keyword and the relevant-keyword information are extracted from a retrieval-keyword database storing previously input keywords in a predetermined order.

8. An electronic-program-guide retrieval method according to

claim 1

, wherein when the retrieval keyword belongs to a particular genre, the relevant-keyword information belongs to a genre different from said particular genre.

9. An electronic-program-guide retrieval method according to

claim 8

, wherein when the particular genre is relevant to cooking, the different genre is relevant to cooks.

10. An electronic-program-guide retrieval method according to

claim 8

, wherein when the particular genre is relevant to place names, the different genre is relevant to one of or a combination of neighboring city names, country names, and regional names.

11. An electronic-program-guide retrieval system comprising:

a data server including an electronic-program-guide database storing program information of an electronic program guide;

a client comprising access means for accessing said electronic-program-guide database and input means for inputting a retrieval keyword for retrieving the program information; and

a dictionary database for storing retrieval keywords and relevant keywords relevant to said retrieval keywords;

wherein relevant-keyword information relevant to the retrieval keyword input by said client is extracted from said dictionary database, and retrieval by accessing the program information is performed based on the extracted relevant-keyword information and the input retrieval keyword.

12. An electronic-program-guide retrieval system according to

claim 11

, wherein said dictionary database is provided at the client side.

13. An electronic-program-guide retrieval system according to

claim 11

, wherein said dictionary database is provided at the data server side.

14. An electronic-program-guide retrieval system according to

claim 11

, wherein said client downloads and stores the program information.

15. An electronic-program-guide retrieval system according to

claim 11

, wherein said client accesses a necessary part of said data server via a routing server storing information on routes to the parts of said data server.

16. An electronic-program-guide retrieval system according to

claim 11

, wherein:

said dictionary database stores misused keywords caused by possible input mistakes; and

when the input keyword corresponds to one of the misused keywords, only the relevant-keyword information is used to perform retrieval.

17. An electronic-program-guide retrieval system according to

claim 11

, wherein when the retrieval keyword is a word written in hiragana characters and/or katakana characters used in Japanese writing, the relevant-keyword information includes a word written in kanji characters used in Japanese writing or in characters relevant to said kanji characters.

18. An electronic-program-guide retrieval system according to

claim 11

, wherein said dictionary database stores previously input keywords so that the input keywords are included in the relevant-keyword information, and the stored keywords are arranged in order of frequency of use.

19. An electronic-program-guide retrieval system according to

claim 11

, wherein the program information includes data relevant to movie information.

20. An electronic-program-guide retrieval system according to

claim 11

, wherein the program information includes data relevant to drama information.

21. An electronic-program-guide retrieval system according to

claim 11

, wherein the program information includes data relevant to place names.

22. An electronic-program-guide retrieval system according to

claim 11

, wherein the program information includes data relevant to the names of dishes.