Automatic broadcast program recorder

• US 7,003,213 B1
• Filed: 12/08/1999
• Issued: 02/21/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Maxell, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Hasegawa, Takashi
• Primary Examiner(s): Groody, James J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): ONUAKU, CHRISTOPHER O
• Application Number:
  US09/456,300
• Time in Patent Office: 2,267 Days
• Field of Search: 386 5- 7, 386/46, 386 69- 70, 386/83, 386/95, 386125-126, 725/58, 725133-134, 725141-142, 725/153
• US Class Current: 386/291
• 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 21/47 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 21/4755 for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre retrieval personalisation and generation of user profiles for the retrieval of video data G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4828 for searching program descriptors retrieval of video data G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8405 represented by keywords
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/782 on tape

Abstract

A recorder capable of automatically recording a broadcast program without presetting recording of each program is disclosed. According to the automatic broadcast program recorder, keywords characterizing a program to be recorded are preliminarily designated, a reservation table of programs as candidates to be recorded is created by checking program information with the keywords each time the program information is updated, and video data of the program as a recording candidate is automatically recorded at the start time of the program stored in the reservation table.

Claims

1. An automatic broadcast program recorder for automatically selecting and recording desired video data from a plurality of broadcast programs, comprising:

means for storing keywords preliminarily designated by a user;

means for collecting broadcasted program information related to the broadcast programs; and

control means for automatically selecting programs to be recorded by checking the broadcasted program information with the keywords and storing video data of the programs to be recorded into a video recording file by controlling a receiver,

wherein the keyword storing means stores the keywords so as to be associated with a reservation identifier which is different from information of the broadcasted program information and which is used to identify a set of at least one program that satisfies a condition related to the keywords, and

wherein said control means store the broadcasted program information of the selected programs to be recorded in association with the reservation identifier, controls the video data stored in the video recording file of the selected programs in association with the reservation identifier and displays the programs in the video recording file associated with the reservation identifier on a display in response to the users'"'"' input of the reservation identifier.

2. An automatic broadcast program recorder according to claim 1, wherein the broadcasted program information includes channel identifying information and program time information of the program to be recorded, and the control means controls an output of the receiver on the basis of the channel identifier information and the program time information, and stores the received video data into the video recording file.

3. An automatic broadcast program recorder according to claim 1, wherein the reservation identifier is a user-defined identifier selected by a user.

4. An automatic broadcast program recorder according to claim 1, wherein the reservation identifier is a sequential number.

5. An automatic broadcast program recorder comprising:

a receiver for receiving video information of a plurality of channels and broadcasted program information, and selectively outputting the broadcasted program information and a video signal of a specific channel;

storing means for storing the video information outputted from the receiver;

display means;

data entry means operated by the user; and

a recording control processor connected to the receiver and each of the storing means, display means and data entry means,

wherein the recording control processor has a memory for storing keywords entered from the data entry means, selects video data of programs to be automatically recorded by checking the broadcasted program information output from the receiver with the keywords, automatically stores the video data of programs into the storing means by controlling the receiver and the storing means based on the broadcasted program information of the selected video data, and displays the stored programs associated with a reservation identifier on a display in response to the users'"'"' input of the reservation identifier,

wherein keywords entered from the data entry means are stored so as to be associated with the reservation identifier into the memory and the video data stored in the storing means in association with the reservation identifier, and

wherein the reservation identifier is different from information of the broadcasted program information and which is used to identify a set of at least one program that satisfies a condition related to the keywords.

6. An automatic broadcast program recorder according to claim 5, wherein the recording control processor has a memory for storing broadcasted program information of the selected video data and controls the receiver and the storing means on the basis of channel identification information and program time information included in the program information.

7. An automatic broadcast program recorder according to claim 5, wherein the recording control processor displays the status of video data stored in the storing means in association with the reservation identifier.

8. An automatic broadcast program recorder according to claim 5, wherein the recording control processor displays the status of video data stored in the storing means in a figure corresponding to the reservation identifier in a graphical form on the display means.

9. An automatic broadcast program recorder according to claim 5, wherein the reservation identifier is a user-defined identifier selected by a user.

10. An automatic broadcast program recorder according to claim 5, wherein the reservation identifier is a sequential number.

11. An automatic broadcast program recorder comprising:

video data receiving means of receiving video information of a plurality of channels broadcasted and outputting video information of a selected specific channel;

means for collecting broadcasted program information of each channel;

storing means for storing the video information output from the receiving means;

a control processor connected to each of the video data receiving means, means for collecting and storing means; and

data entry means connected to the control processor,

wherein the control processor comprises;

a first program for storing a keywords entered from the data entry means into a first table formed on a memory so as to be associated with a reservation identifier, where the reservation identifier is different from information of the broadcasted program information and which is used to identify a set of at least one program that satisfies a condition related to the keywords,

a second program for storing the broadcasted program information supplied from the collecting means into a second table formed on the memory,

a third program for selecting programs to be recorded by checking the first table with the second table and storing broadcasted program information of the selected programs so as to be associated with the reservation identifier into a third table formed on the memory,

a fourth program for controlling the receiver based on the broadcasted program information stored in the third table to store the selected programs,

a fifth program for displaying the stored programs associated with the reservation identifier on a display in response to an input of the data entry means of the reservation identifier,

wherein the control processor executes the programs, thereby automatically storing video information related to the keyword into the storing means, and

wherein the fourth program has the function of controlling the video information stored into the storing means, in association with the reservation identifier.

12. An automatic broadcast program recorder according to claim 11, wherein the receiving means receives multiplexed signals including video information and broadcasted program information of a plurality of channels and the collecting means receives broadcasted program information from the receiving means.

13. An automatic broadcast program recorder according to claim 11, wherein the control processor displays the status of the video information stored in the storing means so as to be associated with the reservation identifier in a graphical form in the fifth program.

14. An automatic broadcast program recorder according to claim 11, wherein the reservation identifier is a user-defined identifier selected by a user.

15. An automatic broadcast program recorder according to claim 11, wherein the reservation identifier is a sequential number.

16. An automatic broadcast program recorder according to claim 11, wherein the fifth program displays a present data storage amount in the file capacity of a file corresponding to the reservation identifier.

17. An automatic broadcast program recorder according to claim 16, wherein the fourth program stores the selected program, which is selected based on the keywords each of which corresponds to the different reservation identifier, in each of the storage corresponding to each of the reservation identifier.

18. An automatic broadcast program recorder according to claim 16, wherein the file capacity of the file is inputted by the user.