Television receiver and method for counting the number of accesses from the receiver

• US 20040021793A1
• Filed: 06/04/2003
• Published: 02/05/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/23/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Takatori, Masahiro
• Granted Patent: US 7,926,082 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/461
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/93 which locates resources of other pieces of information, e.g. URL [Uniform Resource Locator]
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/31 Arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2407 Monitoring of transmitted content, e.g. distribution time, number of downloads arrangements for monitoring programmes for broadcast or for distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/258 Client or end-user data management, e.g. managing client capabilities, user preferences or demographics, processing of multiple end-users preferences to derive collaborative data arrangements for services using the result on the distributing side of broadcast systems H04H60/66; profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/433 Content storage operation, e.g. storage operation in response to a pause request, caching operations
• 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 21/47214 for content reservation or setting reminders; for requesting event notification, e.g. of sport results or stock market stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; notification of incoming messages in packet switching networks H04L51/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4722 for requesting additional data associated with the content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6175 involving transmission via Internet broadcast-related systems characterised by the transmission system being the Internet H04H60/82
• 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 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A name and a URL of a specific link destination such as an advertisement site of a sponsor are stored in a specific link destination information storing section 31. A micom 20 changes a process to be performed on a link destination depending on whether or not a link destination targeted for the process is the specific link destination. The specific link destination is highlighted when displaying link destinations as icons, and the specific link destination is displayed first when displaying a list of the link destinations. An access history about the specific link destination is stored in an access history storing section 32. An information server 42 collects the access history from a television receiver 10and counts the number of accesses to the specific link destination. When the advertisement site is selected as the specific link destination, the number of accesses to the specific link destination is used as an index for indicating an advertising effect.

Claims

1. A television receiver having a television broadcast receiving function and an information acquisition function, the receiver comprising:

television broadcast receiving means for outputting video and audio based on a received television signal;

link destination information extracting means for extracting attribute information of an accessible link destination from the television signal;

information acquisition means for acquiring information from a link destination designated by a user by using the attribute information extracted by the link destination information extracting means;

identification information storing means for storing identification information for identifying whether or not the link destination is a specific link destination; and

control means for determining whether or not the link destination targeted for a process is the specific link destination by using the attribute information extracted by the link destination information extracting means and the identification information stored in the identification information storing means and for changing the process to be performed on the link destination based on the determination.

2. The television receiver according to claim 1, further comprising presenting means for presenting the accessible link destination by using the attribute information extracted by the link destination extracting means, wherein the presenting means changes a presented form of the accessible link destination based on the determination by the control means.

3. The television receiver according to claim 2, wherein in the case of displaying the accessible link destination using an icon, the presenting means changes a displayed form of the icon based on the determination by the control means.

4. The television receiver according to claim 2, wherein in the case of displaying a list of accessible link destinations, the presenting means changes a displayed form for each link destination based on the determination by the control means.

5. The television receiver according to claim 1, further comprising communication means for communicating with an information server connected thereto via a communication line, wherein the information acquisition means acquires information from the information server using the communication means.

6. The television receiver according to claim 5, further comprising access history storing means for storing an access history about the link destination,

wherein the control means updates the access history when the information acquisition means accesses the specific link destination and transmits the access history at a prescribed time by using the communication means.

7. The television receiver according to claim 6, wherein the control means receives the identification information from the information server by using the communication means and writes the received identification information to the identification information storing means.

8. The television receiver according to claim 1, wherein the control means extracts the identification information from television receiver maintenance data, which is included in the television signal, and writes the extracted identification signal to the identification information storing means.

9. The television receiver according to claim 1, wherein:

the link destination information extracting means extracts at least address information of the link destination as the attribute information;

the identification information storing means stores at least address information of the specific link destination as the identification information; and

the control means determines whether or not the link destination is the specific link destination by determining whether or not the attribute information extracted by the link destination information extracting means is stored in the identification information storing means.

10. The television receiver according to claim 1, wherein:

the link destination information extracting means extracts at least a name and the address information of the link destination as the attribute information;

the identification information storing means stores at least a name and the address information of the specific link destination as the identification information; and

the control means determines whether or not the link destination is the specific link destination by determining whether or not the attribute information extracted by the link destination information extracting means is stored in the identification information storing means.

11. The television receiver according to claim 1, wherein:

the link destination information extracting means extracts at least the name, the address information, and manager information of the link destination as the attribute information;

the identification information storing means stores at least the name, the address information, and manager information of the specific link destination as the identification information; and

the control means determines whether or not the link destination is the specific link destination by determining whether or not the attribute information extracted by the link destination information extracting means is stored in the identification information storing means.

12. A method for counting the number of accesses when a plurality of television receivers access a specific link destination, the method being performed in the case where each of the television receivers comprises:

communication means;

television broadcast receiving means for outputting video and audio based on a received television signal;

link destination information acquisition means for extracting attribute information of an accessible link destination from the television signal;

information acquisition means for acquiring information from a link destination designated by a user by using the attribute information extracted by the link destination information extracting means;

identification information storing means for storing identification information for identifying whether or not the link destination is a specific link destination;

access history storing means for storing an access history about the link destination; and

control means for performing a process for determining whether or not a link destination targeted for the process is the specific link destination by using the attribute information extracted by the link destination information extracting means and the identification information stored in the identification information storing means, and a process for updating the access history when the information acquisition means accesses the specific link destination and transmitting the access history at a prescribed time by using the communication means, and

the method comprising the steps of;

providing the identification information to each of the television receivers;

transmitting a television signal including the attribute information of the link destination accessible from the television receivers by using a television broadcasting system;

receiving the access history transmitted by each of the television receivers; and

obtaining the number of accesses to the specific link destination based on the access history received from each of the television receivers.

13. The method for counting the number of accesses according to claim 12, further comprising the step of providing the number of accesses obtained to a specific link destination manager system.

14. The method for counting the number of accesses according to claim 12, further comprising the step of providing the number of accesses obtained to the television broadcasting system.

15. The method for counting the number of accesses according to claim 12, wherein the specific link destination is an advertisement site.