Picture image selecting and display device

• US 6,351,599 B1
• Filed: 02/02/1998
• Issued: 02/26/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/04/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Komeno, Junichi
• Primary Examiner(s): TRAN, THAI Q
• Application Number:
  US08/945,991
• Time in Patent Office: 1,485 Days
• Field of Search: 386/1, 386/46, 386/83, 386/69-70, 345/327-328, 345/719-723, 348/906, 348/563, 348/564, 348/569, 725/39-56
• US Class Current: 386/292
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 19/022 Control panels
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2525 Magneto-optical [MO] discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2562 DVDs [digital versatile discs]; Digital video discs; MMCDs; HDCDs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/002 Programmed access in sequence to a plurality of record carriers or indexed parts, e.g. tracks, thereof, e.g. for editing; transfer of record carriers from magazine G11B15/68, G11B17/10; G11B17/22
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/329 on a disc [VTOC]
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/34 Indicating arrangements indicating means incorporated in magazine or cassette G11B23/046 and G11B23/0875; indicating measured values in general G01D
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42646 for reading from or writing on a non-volatile solid state storage medium, e.g. DVD, CD-ROM
• 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 21/47 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 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/765 Interface circuits between an apparatus for recording and another apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/775 between a recording apparatus and a television receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/781 on disks or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/85 on discs or drums

Abstract

When a user selects a program from a list or chart, the program is treated as a determined program desired by the user. Therefore, an inconvenience such as a duplicate operation or the like has been generated. Thus, a display device having first and second display areas, a menu display part for displaying a menu including a plurality of button keys corresponding to a plurality of television programs stored in a picture image storage device 14 on the first display area, a selection receiving part for receiving a selection by an operator relative to the plurality of button keys on the menu displayed on the first display area and a selected picture image display part for displaying picture or video images corresponding to the selection which are fed successively in a sequence of frames on the second display area based on a selecting code received by the selection receiving part, so that a desired television program can be selected from a plurality of television programs stored in the picture image storage device without unnecessary repeated operations.

Claims

1. In an image selection and display device, including a disk storage facility, a first display area for displaying a menu and a second display area for displaying an image, a method for displaying the menu and the image comprising the steps of:

(a) recording for storage in the disk storage facility a plurality of television programs over a predetermined span of time;

(b) recording for storage in the disk storage facility channel numbers, program start times, program finish times and program genre corresponding to respective programs in the plurality of television programs;

(c) determining a number for the different channel numbers stored in the disk storage facility;

(d) determining the oldest program start time and the newest program finish time stored in the disk storage facility;

(e) selecting a template from a plurality of templates of different sizes for the menu based on steps (c) and (d) and based on fitting the menu to a size of the first display area so that there is a vertical section for each stored channel number and a horizontal section for time spanning from the earliest stored program to the latest stored program;

(f) displaying the menu on the first display area after performing steps (a) through (e); and

(g) selecting a television program from the displayed menu for display on the second display area.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein step (e) includes allocating a width in a vertical section proportional to the recording time of the television program.