Broadcast receiving device

• US 6,928,262 B1
• Filed: 11/02/2000
• Issued: 08/09/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/19/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Kanemitsu, Hiroyuki
• Primary Examiner(s): Corsaro, Nick
• Assistant Examiner(s): Gantt, Alan T.
• Application Number:
  US09/703,678
• Time in Patent Office: 1,741 Days
• Field of Search: 455/2.01, 455/3.01, 455/3.02, 455/3.03, 455/3.04, 455/3.06, 455/414.1, 455/414.2, 455/414.3, 455/414.4, 455/427, 455/11.1, 455/12.1, 455/566, 379/101.01, 379/102.01, 379/102.02, 379/102.03, 379/93.13, 379/93.12, 379/93.15, 379/93.17, 379/92, 379/93, 348/14.02, 348/14.01, 348/14.05, 348/91, 348/211.99, 348/211.1, 348/211.5
• US Class Current: 455/3.06
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/47 for recognising genres
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/73 using meta-information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4312 involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4332 by placing content in organized collections, e.g. local EPG data repository interfaces, Database management systems or updating for information retrieval G06F16/23; details of retrieval of video data and associated meta data in video database G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4345 Extraction or processing of SI, e.g. extracting service information from an MPEG stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4348 Demultiplexing of additional data and video streams
• 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 21/4545 Input to filtering algorithms, e.g. filtering a region of the image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4667 Processing of monitored end-user data, e.g. trend analysis based on the log file of viewer selections
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47214 for content reservation or setting reminders; for requesting event notification, e.g. of sport results or stock market stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; notification of incoming messages in packet switching networks H04L51/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4828 for searching program descriptors retrieval of video data G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8113 comprising music, e.g. song in MP3 format
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8133 specifically related to the content, e.g. biography of the actors in a movie, detailed information about an article seen in a video program
• 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 broadcast receiving device which clearly indicates supplementary information transmitted along with broadcast content, and which facilitates program search. The supplementary information may be a program sequence information of a digital broadcast. Plural types of topic information related to a broadcast content description and a genre of a broadcast content are designed in the supplementary information. A memory device stores, separately for each genre, a display priority degree for each of the plural types of topic information. A control processor obtains genre information and topic information items from an acquired supplementary information. The control processor indicates the topic information items on a display according to the display priority degrees stored in the memory device corresponding to the obtained genre information. When indicating a search screen image, the topic information items are extracted from the supplementary information as search keywords and indicated to the user in the screen image.

Claims

1. A broadcast receiving device, comprising:

a supplementary information acquiring means for acquiring supplementary information transmitted together with broadcast content;

a display means for displaying said supplementary information;

a processing means for processing said supplementary information for displaying on said display means; and

a memory means for storing, separately for each genre of broadcast contents, a degree of display priority for each of plural types of topic information related to description of a broadcast content using a priority ranking table, separately provided for each genre, defining priority ranking related to display of a plurality of topics of a single program which are to be displayed on a screen;

wherein

said processing means obtains genre information and topic information from said acquired supplementary information, and displays said topic information separately for each genre on said display means according to said display priority degree defined in said priority ranking table stored in said memory means corresponding to the obtained genre information.

2. The broadcast receiving device as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

a means for a user to input a selection of a topic to be displayed; and

a selection frequency storing unit for storing a frequency of selection by the user for each topic in each genre;

wherein

a display priority degree stored in said memory means for storing the degree of display priority is changed according to said selection frequency.

3. The broadcast receiving device as defined in claim 1, wherein

when no genre information is included in said supplementary information, said processing means estimates a genre from said topic information, and displays said topic information according to said display priority degree based on the estimated genre.

4. The broadcast receiving device as defined in claim 1, wherein

said processing means includes a search processing means which displays a program search screen image on said display means, said program search screen image sequentially indicating, as search keywords used for program search, said topic information included in said supplementary information in order from the highest display priority degree.

5. The broadcast receiving device as defined in claim 1, wherein said supplementary information is a program sequence information of a digital broadcast.

6. the broadcast receiving device as defined in claim 1, wherein said supplementary information includes an extended format event descriptor.

7. The broadcast receiving device as defined in claim 1, wherein said supplementary information includes a content descriptor.

8. The broadcast receiving device as defined in claim 1, wherein said supplementary information includes a short format event descriptor.

9. A broadcast receiving device, comprising:

a supplementary information acquiring means for acquiring supplementary information transmitted together with broadcast content;

a display means for displaying said supplementary information;

a processing means for processing said supplementary information for displaying on said display means; and

a keyword storing means for storing automatically by said processing means, as a search keyword, topic information included in supplementary information corresponding to a program watched or listened to by a user;

wherein

said processing means includes a search processing means for extracting from said keyword storing means search keyword used for program search, displaying on said display means a program search screen image including the extracted search keyword, and displaying on said display means a search result screen image based on a program search using a search keyword selected by the user.

10. The broadcast receiving device as defined in claim 9, wherein

said search processing means extracts, as said search keyword, topic information included in said supplementary information and related to description of the broadcast content.

11. The broadcast receiving device as defined in claim 9, wherein

when the user instructs a search while a topic information related to description of said broadcast content is displayed, displayed image is switched to a program search screen image including said topic information as a search keyword.

12. The broadcast receiving device as defined in claim 9, wherein

said keyword storing means stores, in correlation with each corresponding topic information, a keyword priority degree according to a number of times of topic information extraction;

and

said search processing means displays the stored topic information on the program search screen image according to said keyword priority degree.

13. The broadcast receiving device as defined in claim 9, further comprising:

a keyword mode switching means for switching between a receiving program keyword indicating mode in which a topic information within a supplementary information corresponding to a program presently received for listening and/or watching is displayed as a search keyword on the program search screen image, and a registered keyword indicating mode in which a topic information stored in said keyword storing means as a search keyword is indicated on the program search screen image.

14. The broadcast receiving device as defined in claim 9, wherein said supplementary information is a program sequence information of a digital broadcast.

15. The broadcast receiving device as defined in claim 9, wherein said supplementary information includes an extended format event descriptor.

16. The broadcast receiving device as defined in claim 9, wherein said supplementary information includes a content descriptor.

17. The broadcast receiving device as defined in claim 9, wherein said supplementary information includes a short format event descriptor.

18. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for processing a received broadcast signal, said method steps comprising steps of:

acquiring supplementary information transmitted together with the broadcast content;

obtaining from said acquired supplementary information a genre information and topic information related to description of said broadcast content;

reading out from a memory means a degree of display priority for each of plural types of topic information, using a priority ranking table separately provided for each genre, defining priority ranking related to display of a plurality of topics of a single program which are to be displayed on a screen; and

displaying on a display means separately for each genre said topic information obtained from said supplementary information according to said display priority degree defined in said priority ranking table stored in said memory means corresponding to the genre information obtained from said supplementary information.

19. The storage device as defined in claim 18, wherein said storage device is readable by a computer for a receiver.

20. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for processing a received broadcast signal, said method steps comprising steps of:

acquiring from a broadcast signal supplementary information transmitted together with the broadcast content;

extracting from said supplementary information a search keyword used for program search;

automatically storing in keyword storing means, as a search keyword, topic information included in supplementary information corresponding to a program watched or listened to by the user;

searching so as to extract from said keyword storing means a search keyword used for program search;

displaying on said display means a program search screen image including the extracted search keyword; and

displaying on said display means a search result screen image based on a program search using a search keyword selected by a user.

21. The storage device as defined in claim 20, wherein said storage device is readable by a computer for a receiver.