Program selecting method

• US 20050114885A1
• Filed: 11/10/2004
• Published: 05/26/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Maruyama, Kazuna, Shikata, Yasushi
• Granted Patent: US 7,831,987 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 40/18 Arrangements characterised by circuits or components specially adapted for receiving
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4221 Dedicated function buttons, e.g. for the control of an EPG, subtitles, aspect ratio, picture-in-picture or teletext
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42661 for reading from or writing on a magnetic storage medium, e.g. hard disk drive
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440236 by media transcoding, e.g. video is transformed into a slideshow of still pictures, audio is converted into text
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44222 Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programs or purchase activity monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• 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 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/4448 for frame-grabbing

Abstract

A program selecting method includes the steps of: storing still pictures or motion pictures of specific scenes of a plurality of viewed programs selected in a predetermined period; presenting the pictures of the specific scenes corresponding to a plurality of programs viewed in the past, during operation of program selection; and selecting the viewed program corresponding to the picture selected by operation of selecting the pictures presented.

Claims

1. A program selecting method comprising the steps of:

storing still pictures or motion pictures of specific scenes of a plurality of viewed programs selected in a predetermined period;

presenting the pictures of the specific scenes corresponding to a plurality of programs viewed in the past, during operation of program selection; and

selecting the viewed program corresponding to the picture selected by operation of selecting the pictures presented.

2. A program selecting method according to claim 1, wherein

a list of a plurality of programs viewed in the past is presented simultaneously with the pictures of the specific scenes each of which corresponds to each of the viewed programs, during program selecting operation.

3. A program selecting method according to claim 2, wherein

in the process of presenting the list of the plurality of programs viewed in the past simultaneously with the pictures of the specific scenes each of which corresponds to each of the viewed programs, during the program selecting operation, the pictures of the number corresponding to view time of the viewed programs are presented.

4. A program selecting method according to claim 2, wherein

in the process of presenting the list of the plurality of programs viewed in the past simultaneously with the pictures of the specific scenes each of which corresponds to each of the viewed programs, during the program selecting operation, the list is presented on the screen on which the program being viewed at present is also displayed.

5. A program selecting method according to claim 2, further comprising

a step of switching a display state where the list of the plurality of programs viewed in the past is presented simultaneously with the pictures of the specific scenes each of which corresponds to each of the viewed programs to a state where the list and a program presently viewed are simultaneously displayed on the same screen, during program selecting operation.

6. A program selecting method according to claim 2, wherein

in the process of presenting the list of the plurality of programs viewed in the past simultaneously with the pictures of the specific scenes each of which corresponds to each of the viewed programs, during the program selecting operation, cumulative elapsed time since start of the program selecting operation is presented on the screen on which the list is also presented.

7. A program selecting method according to claim 2, wherein

in the process of presenting the list of the plurality of programs viewed in the past simultaneously with the pictures of the specific scenes each of which corresponds to each of the viewed programs, during the program selecting operation, a program being viewed before start of the program selecting operation is disposed in a selectable position.

8. A program selecting method according to claim 2, further comprising

a step of generating the list of the plurality of programs viewed in the past on the basis of preference of the user.