Image Apparatus and Television Set

• US 20120023537A1
• Filed: 07/22/2011
• Published: 01/26/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/23/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Funai Electric Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Funai Electric Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: TAKENAKA, Yusuke
• Application Number:
  US13/188,843
• Publication Number:
  US 20120023537A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/110
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/254 Management at additional data server, e.g. shopping server, rights management server arrangements for maintenance or administration in data networks H04L41/00; network services using third party service providers H04L67/53
• 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 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104

Abstract

This image apparatus includes a communication portion connected to a comment information server through a network and a control portion acquiring a plurality of comment data from the comment information server at a time interval of at least a first time and controlling a display portion to display the acquired plurality of comment data while switching the comment data at a second time interval shorter than the first time.

Claims

1. An image apparatus comprising:

a communication portion connected to a comment information server storing comment data contributed by a plurality of users through a network; and

a control portion acquiring a plurality of comment data, including comment information exhibiting the newest contribution time, contributed to said comment information server from said comment information server through said communication portion at a time interval of at least a first time and controlling a display portion to display acquired said plurality of comment data while switching said plurality of comment data at a second time interval shorter than said first time.

2. The image apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

said control portion is formed to control said display portion to display all of said plurality of comment data while switching said plurality of comment data, to reacquire said plurality of comment data from said comment information server when said first time has elapsed after the acquisition of said plurality of comment data from said comment information server and to control said display portion to display updated comment information included in said plurality of comment data while switching said updated comment information at said second time interval.

3. The image apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

said comment information displayed on said display portion includes a comment text and a differential time between the current time and the contribution time of said comment information, and

said control portion is formed to update said differential time included in said comment information displayed on said display portion not only in a case where said comment information has been updated but also in a case where said comment information has not been updated.

4. The image apparatus according to claim 3, wherein

said control portion is formed to update said differential time displayed on said display portion in said case where said comment information has not been updated at said second time interval identical to an updating interval for said comment information displayed on said display portion in said case where said comment information has been updated.

5. The image apparatus according to claim 3, wherein

said display portion is provided with a comment information display region displaying said comment information, and

said control portion is formed to temporarily hide said comment information display region before switching said comment information displayed on said comment information display region.

6. The image apparatus according to claim 5, wherein

said control portion is formed to temporarily hide said comment information display region before switching said comment text included in said comment information displayed on said comment information display region.

7. The image apparatus according to claim 6, wherein

said control portion is formed to control said display portion to display said comment text on said comment information display region in a typewriter display method of successively displaying the characters of said comment text one by one from the head when switching said comment text included in said comment information displayed on said comment information display region.

8. The image apparatus according to claim 5, wherein

said display portion is provided with an image display region displaying an image in addition to said comment information display region, and

said control portion is formed to control said display portion to display said comment information display region in a display mode not obstructing said image displayed on said image display region.

9. The image apparatus according to claim 8, wherein

said control portion is formed to control said display portion to display said comment information display region while performing see-through processing on a region of said comment information display region other than regions displaying said comment text and said differential time so that said image displayed on said image display region can be seen through when controlling said display portion to display said comment information display region on said image display region in an overlapping manner.

10. The image apparatus according to claim 5, wherein

said control portion is formed to control said display portion to display said comment information display region in a manner horizontally extending on the upper side or the lower side of said display portion.

11. The image apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

said comment data stored in said comment information server include first comment information belonging to a first category and second comment information belonging to a second category, and

said control portion is formed to control said display portion to display said first comment information belonging to said first category and said second comment information belonging to said second category in line with each other and to repeat processing of updatingly displaying said second comment information upon a lapse of said second time interval after updatingly displaying said first comment information.

12. The image apparatus according to claim 11, wherein

said control portion is formed to perform acquisition of said first comment information belonging to said first category from said comment information server and acquisition of said second comment information belonging to said second category from said comment information server at least at a time interval of at least said first time.

13. The image apparatus according to claim 11, wherein

said control portion is formed to control said display portion to display not only said first comment information and said second comment information but also said first category and said second category to which said first comment information and said second comment information belong respectively.

14. The image apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

said control portion is formed to control said display portion to display said comment data acquired from said comment information server in the order of the contribution times (oldest first).

15. The image apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

said control portion is formed to switch whether to control said display portion to display said plurality of comment data acquired from said comment information server while switching said plurality of comment data one by one or to control said display portion to display said plurality of comment data while switching said plurality of comment data by at least two at a time on the basis of an operation of the user.

16. A television set comprising:

a display portion for displaying a television image;

a communication portion connected to a comment information server storing comment data contributed by a plurality of users through a network; and

a control portion acquiring a plurality of comment data, including comment information exhibiting the newest contribution time, contributed to said comment information server from said comment information server through said communication portion at a time interval of at least a first time and controlling said display portion to display acquired said plurality of comment data while switching said plurality of comment data at a second time interval shorter than said first time.

17. The television set according to claim 16, wherein

said control portion is formed to control said display portion to display all of said plurality of comment data while switching said plurality of comment data, to reacquire said plurality of comment data from said comment information server when said first time has elapsed after the acquisition of said plurality of comment data from said comment information server and to control said display portion to display updated comment information included in said plurality of comment data while switching said updated comment information at said second time interval.

18. The television set according to claim 17, wherein

said comment information displayed on said display portion includes a comment text and a differential time between the current time and the contribution time of said comment information, and

said control portion is formed to update said differential time included in said comment information displayed on said display portion at said second time interval not only in a case where said comment information has been updated but also in a case where said comment information has not been updated.

19. The television set according to claim 18, wherein

said display portion is provided with a comment information display region displaying said comment information, and

said control portion is formed to temporarily hide said comment information display region before switching said comment text included in said comment information displayed on said comment information display region.

20. The television set according to claim 19, wherein

said control portion is formed to control said display portion to display said comment text on said comment information display region in a typewriter display method of successively displaying the characters of said comment text one by one from the head when switching said comment text included in said comment information displayed on said comment information display region.