Program preselecting/recording apparatus for searching an electronic program guide for programs according to predetermined search criteria

• US 20040210932A1
• Filed: 04/20/2004
• Published: 10/21/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/1998
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hirotsugu Kawata, Noboru Katta, Toshiaki Mori, Toshihiko Kurosaki, Yoshiaki Kushiki
• Original Assignee: Hirotsugu Kawata, Noboru Katta, Toshiaki Mori, Toshihiko Kurosaki, Yoshiaki Kushiki
• Inventors: Kawata, Hirotsugu, Kushiki, Yoshiaki, Katta, Noboru, Mori, Toshiaki, Kurosaki, Toshihiko
• Application Number:
  US10/827,781
• Publication Number:
  US 20040210932A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/39
• 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 21/4335 Housekeeping operations, e.g. prioritizing content for deletion because of storage space restrictions storage management, e.g. defragmentation G06F3/0604; unloading stored programs G06F9/445; storage management in file systems G06F16/10; buffering arrangements in a network node or in an end terminal in packet networks H04L49/90
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44204 Monitoring of content usage, e.g. the number of times a movie has been viewed, copied or the amount which has been watched monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; protecting generic digital content where the protection is independent of the precise nature of the content G06F21/10; arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services in broadcast systems H04H60/31
• 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 21/4583 Automatically resolving scheduling conflicts, e.g. when a recording by reservation has been programmed for two programs in the same time slot
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4668 for recommending content, e.g. movies
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• 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 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/782 on tape

Abstract

A program preselecting apparatus is provided. An electronic program guide storing unit stores an electronic program guide made up of a plurality of sets of program information of a plurality of programs, each of the plurality of sets of program information including a time slot, channel number, and content information of a respective program. A preselection criteria storing unit stores a plurality of preselection criteria used for specifying programs to be preselected, each of the plurality of preselection criteria including at least one criterion item which specifies at least the content information. A searching unit searches, according to each of the plurality of preselection criteria, the electronic program guide for a program corresponding to each set of program information that satisfies the criterion items of the preselection criterion. An overlap judging unit judges whether there are programs whose time slots overlap among programs found as a result of the search by the searching unit. A choosing unit chooses, when there are the programs whose time slots overlap, one of the programs with the overlapping time slots. A preselecting unit preselects the chosen program by storing a time slot and channel number of the chosen program.

Claims

1-12. -12. (Cancel)

13. A broadcast program recording apparatus for receiving programs to be recorded and recording the received programs into a fixed storing unit, the broadcast program recording apparatus comprising:

time assigning means for assigning, to a received program, a delete-protect time before which the program cannot be automatically deleted;

recording means for recording the program to which the delete-protect time has been assigned, into the fixed storing unit; and

automatic deleting means for automatically deleting the recorded program whose delete-protect time has been reached.

14. The broadcast program recording apparatus of claim 13, wherein the time assigning means includes:

retention period information storing means for storing a set of retention period information about a retention period during which the program cannot be automatically deleted; and

time generating means for generating the delete-protect time by adding the retention period shown by the set of retention period information to a time when the program is recorded.

15. The broadcast program recording apparatus of claim 14, further comprising

content information storing means for prestoring a plurality of sets of content information which each relate to a content of a program,

wherein the retention period information storing means stores a plurality of sets of retention period information corresponding to the plurality of sets of content information, and

wherein the time generating means searches the retention period information storing means for the set of retention period information corresponding to a set of content information relating to a content of the received program, to generate the delete-protect time.

16. The broadcast program recording apparatus of claim 15,

wherein the plurality of sets of contention information each show any of a genre, a celebrity, and a keyword of the program.

17. The broadcast program recording apparatus of claim 15,

wherein the plurality of sets of retention period information in the retention period information storing means each show a coefficient which is to be multiplied with a base retention period,

wherein the time assigning means further includes:

base retention period storing means for storing the base retention period; and

base retention period changing means for changing the base retention period depending on an available space in the fixed storing unit, and

wherein the time generating means generates the delete-protect time using the retention period obtained by multiplying the base retention period by a coefficient shown by the set of retention period information.

18. The broadcast program recording apparatus of claim 13,

wherein the automatic deleting means controls an available space in the fixed storing unit when a new program is recorded, by automatically deleting the recorded program whose delete-protect time has been reached.

19. The broadcast program recording apparatus of claim 13, further comprising:

displaying means for displaying the delete-protect time of the recorded program together with information identifying the recorded program; and

change receiving means for receiving an instruction to change the displayed delete-protect time from a user.

20. A broadcast program recording apparatus for receiving programs to be recorded and recording the received programs into a fixed storing unit, the broadcast program recording apparatus comprising:

content information acquiring means for acquiring a set of content information relating to a content of a received program;

delete condition storing means for storing delete conditions corresponding to sets of content information, each of the delete conditions showing a condition for allowing a program to be automatically deleted;

content information assigning means for assigning the set of content information acquired by the content information acquiring means to the received program;

recording means for recording the received program to which the set of content information has been assigned, into the fixed storing unit; and

automatic deleting means for retrieving, from the delete condition storing means, a delete condition corresponding to the set of content information assigned to the recorded program, and automatically deleting the recorded program when the retrieved delete condition is satisfied.

21. A broadcast program recording apparatus for receiving programs to be recorded and recording the received programs into a fixed storing unit, the broadcast program recording apparatus comprising:

time assigning means for assigning, to a received program, a delete-protect time before which the program cannot be deleted;

recording means for recording the program to which the delete-protect time has been assigned, into the fixed storing unit;

delete candidate program searching means for searching the fixed storing unit for delete candidate programs whose delete-protect times have been reached;

displaying means for displaying a list of the delete candidate programs;

delete instruction receiving means for receiving from a user a selection of a delete candidate program which should be deleted among the delete candidate programs in the displayed list; and

deleting means for deleting the delete candidate program selected by the user.

22-26. -26. (Canceled)

27. A computer-readable storing medium storing a broadcast program recording program for receiving programs to be recorded and recording the received programs into a fixed storing unit, the broadcast program recording program comprising:

a time assigning step for assigning, to a received program, a delete-protect time before which the program cannot be automatically deleted;

a recording step for recording the program to which the delete-protect time has been assigned, into the fixed storing unit; and

an automatic deleting step for automatically deleting the recorded program whose delete-protect time has been reached.

28. A computer-readable storing medium storing a broadcast program recording program for receiving programs to be recorded and recording the received programs into a fixed storing unit, in a broadcast program recording apparatus equipped with a delete condition storing unit storing delete conditions which correspond to sets of content information and which each show a condition for allowing a program to be automatically deleted, the broadcast program recording program comprising:

a content information acquiring step for acquiring a set of content information relating to a content of a received program;

a content information assigning step for assigning the set of content information acquired by the content information acquiring step to the received program;

a recording step for recording the received program to which the set of content information has been assigned, into the fixed storing unit; and

an automatic deleting step for retrieving, from the delete condition storing unit, a delete condition corresponding to the set of content information assigned to the recorded program, and automatically deleting the recorded program when the retrieved delete condition is satisfied.

29. A computer-readable storing medium storing a broadcast program recording program for receiving programs to be recorded and recording the received programs into a fixed storing unit, the broadcast program recording program comprising:

a time assigning step for assigning, to a received program, a delete-protect time before which the program cannot be deleted;

a recording step for recording the program to which the delete-protect time has been assigned, into the fixed storing unit;

a delete candidate program searching step for searching the fixed storing unit for delete candidate programs whose delete-protect times have been reached;

a displaying step for displaying a list of the delete candidate programs;

a delete instruction receiving step for receiving from a user a selection of a delete candidate program which should be deleted among the delete candidate programs in the displayed list; and

a deleting step for deleting the delete candidate program selected by the user.

30-31. -31. (Canceled)