DISPLAY CONTROL APPARATUS, RECORDING MEDIA, DISPLAY CONTROL METHOD, AND DISPLAY CONTROL PROGRAM

• US 20080018625A1
• Filed: 07/19/2007
• Published: 01/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/21/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Araki, Satoshi, Mukaiyama, Ryo, Ijichi, Susumu
• Granted Patent: US 8,082,502 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/204
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/56 Arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition covered by groups H04H60/29-H04H60/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/66 for using the result on distributors' side

Abstract

A display control apparatus is provided for controlling displaying of a play list specifying a reproduction sequence of a plurality of pieces of content. The display control apparatus has a play list feature extraction block configured to extract a feature of a play list on the basis of a plurality of content belonging to the play list, a display pattern selection block configured to select a display pattern for displaying the play list on the basis of the feature of the play list, the feature being extracted by the feature extraction block, and a control block configured to execute control such that the play list is displayed on a display block on the basis of the display pattern selected by the display pattern selection block. The novel configuration provides new ways of enjoying content.

Claims

1. A display control apparatus for controlling displaying of a play list specifying a reproduction sequence of a plurality of pieces of content, comprising:

a play list feature extraction block configured to extract a feature of a play list on the basis of a plurality of pieces of content belonging to said play list;

a display pattern selection block configured to select a display pattern for displaying said play list on the basis of said feature of said play list, said feature being extracted by said play list feature extraction block; and

a control block configured to execute control such that said play list is displayed on a display block on the basis of said display pattern selected by said display pattern selection block.

2. The display control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said play list feature extraction block extracts said play list on the basis of a statistical value obtained on the basis of content belonging to said play list.

3. The display control apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said statistical value is at least one of the number of pieces of content belonging to said play list, a date on which a first piece of content was added to said play list, a date on which a last piece of content was added to said play list, a reproduction frequency of content belonging to said play list, and importance of content belonging to said play list.

4. The display control apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said display pattern is one of “

display” and

“

no-display”

of said play list.

5. The display control apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said display pattern is a display pattern having different characters corresponding to said play list.

6. The display control apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said display pattern is a display pattern that is different from another in at least one of color, density, and transparency in which said play list is displayed.

7. The display control apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said display pattern is a display pattern having a different part of a screen in which said play list is displayed.

8. The display control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said play list extraction block extracts said feature of said play list on the basis of content additional information included in content belonging to said play list.

9. The display control apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said play list extraction block extracts said feature of said play list on the basis of a statistical value of each specific item of said content additional information.

10. The display control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

said play list holds attribute information beforehand; and

said display pattern selection block compares said attribute information of said play list with said feature of said play list extracted by said play list feature extraction block to select said display pattern.

11. The display control apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising

a reproducing block configured to reproduce content belonging to said play list in accordance with said play list.

12. The display control apparatus according to claim 11, wherein, upon selection of one of said plurality of play lists, said reproducing block starts reproducing content belonging to said play list from a feature position of said content.

13. The display control apparatus according to claim 3, wherein, when the number of pieces of content belonging to said play list is no higher than a predetermined value, said control block causes said display block to display how many pieces of content must be added to said play list to reach the predetermined number of pieces of content belonging to said play list.

14. A recording media configured to record a display control program in a computer-readable form, said display control program making a computer execute the steps of:

extracting a feature of a play list on the basis of a plurality of pieces of content belonging to said play list, said play list specifying a reproduction sequence of said plurality of pieces of content;

selecting a display pattern for displaying said play list on the basis of said feature of said play list, said feature being extracted in the feature extracting step; and

executing control such that said play list is displayed on a display block on the basis of said display pattern selected in the display pattern selecting step.

15. A display control method comprising the steps of:

extracting a feature of a play list on the basis of a plurality of pieces of content belonging to said play list, said play list specifying a reproduction sequence of said plurality of pieces of content;

selecting a display pattern for displaying said play list on the basis of said feature of said play list, said feature being extracted in the feature extracting step; and

executing control such that said play list is displayed on a display block on the basis of said display pattern selected in the display pattern selecting step.

16. A display control apparatus for controlling displaying of a play list specifying a reproduction sequence of a plurality of pieces of content, comprising:

play list feature extracting means for extracting a feature of a play list on the basis of said plurality of pieces of content belonging to said play list;

display pattern selecting means for selecting a display pattern for displaying said play list on the basis of said feature of said play list, said feature being extracted by said feature extracting means; and

controlling means for executing control such that said play list is displayed on a display block on the basis of said display pattern selected by said display pattern selecting means.