Content search device and its method

• US 20060248075A1
• Filed: 09/23/2005
• Published: 11/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Momosaki, Kohei, Masai, Yasuyuki, Uehara, Tatsuya, Shimomori, Taishi
• Application Number:
  US11/232,973
• Publication Number:
  US 20060248075A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73

Abstract

A content search device includes a content obtaining unit which obtains a content; an attribute information obtaining unit which obtains attribute information about the content; a search key storing unit which stores a search key and the attribute information about the content associated with the search key; a search key deciding unit which collates the obtained attribute information with the attribute information stored associated with the stored search key and decides a search key for use in search; and a search unit which searches the content by using the decided search key.

Claims

1. A content search device comprising:

a content processor which obtains a content;

an attribute processor which obtains attribute information about the content;

a search key memory which stores a search key for searching for a predetermined position within the content and the attribute information about the content associated with the search key;

a search key processor which collates the obtained attribute information with the stored attribute information and extracts a search key about the attribute information satisfying a predetermined collation condition; and

a search processor which searches the obtained content by using the search key.

2. The content search device according to claim 1, comprising:

a content memory which stores the content and the attribute information associated with each other; and

a search result memory which stores a search result obtained in the search processor, associated with the stored content.

3. The content search device according to claim 1, comprising:

a content holding processor which holds the content and the attribute information about the content associated with each other; and

a search result memory which stores the search result obtained in the search processor, associated with the stored content, in which the content processor obtains the content from the content holding processor, and

the attribute processor obtains the attribute information about the content from the content holding processor.

4. The content search device according to claim 1, in which

the attribute information is at least one of program title, program category, a day of the week, time, date, program channel, program corner, and cut scene, or one portion of a program title.

5. The content search device according to claim 1, in which

a user specifies a plurality of attribute information from the attribute information stored into the search key storing memory, and

the collation condition is satisfied when the several obtained attribute information agrees with the several attribute information stored and specified.

6. The content search device according to claim 1, in which

the several attribute information stored into the search key storing memory is grouped and stored, and

the several obtained attribute information is compared with the several attribute information stored and grouped, and as a result of the comparison, when the several obtained attribute information agrees with a group having the largest number of the agreed attribute information, the collation condition is satisfied.

7. The content search device according to claim 1, in which

the attribute processor obtains the attribute information about the content from EPG.

8. The content search device according to claim 1, in which

the attribute processor obtains the attribute information specified by a user.

9. The content search device according to claim 1, in which

the search key memory registers a search key with the attribute information specified by a user.

10. The content search device according to claim 1, in which

the search key is an audio search key composed of an audio characteristic amount, and

the search processor searches for a portion where the search key is similar to an audio signal of the content.

11. The content search device according to claim 1, in which

the search key is a character text, and

after recognizing the sound of the content, the search processor searches the content from the sound recognized portion by using the search key.

12. The content search device according to claim 1, in which

the search key is a video search key composed of a video characteristic amount, and

the search processor searches for a portion similar to the video signal of the content.

13. The content search device according to claim 1, in which

the search processor determines the upper limit of the number of registered search keys.

14. A content search method comprising:

obtaining a content;

obtaining attribute information about the content;

storing a search key for searching for a predetermined position within the content as well as the attribute information about the content associated with the search key;

collating the obtained attribute information with the stored attribute information and extracting a search key about the attribute information satisfying a predetermined collation condition; and

searching the obtained content by using the search key.

15. A program product for a content search method, the program product comprising instructions of;

a content obtaining function of obtaining a content;

an attribute information obtaining function of obtaining attribute information about the content;

a search key storing function of storing a search key for searching for a predetermined position within the content as well as the attribute information about the content associated with the search key;

a search key deciding function of collating the obtained attribute information with the stored attribute information and extracting a search key about the attribute information satisfying a predetermined collation condition; and

a search function of searching the obtained content by using the decided search key.