Program drawing-up apparatus, program providing system, methods to be used with the same, computer programs to be used with the same and recording medium storing such computer programs

• US 7,409,421 B2
• Filed: 07/11/2003
• Issued: 08/05/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/18/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Pioneer Corporation
• Original Assignee: Pioneer Corporation
• Inventors: Sugihara, Motooki
• Primary Examiner(s): WON, MICHAEL YOUNG
• Application Number:
  US10/617,352
• Publication Number:
  US 20040039793A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,852 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/217, 709/246, 725/32, 725/46, 725/24, 725/42, 725/56, 715/733, 715/744
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2181 comprising remotely distributed storage units, e.g. when movies are replicated over a plurality of video servers distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2408 Monitoring of the upstream path of the transmission network, e.g. client requests monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876; scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25883 being end-user demographical data, e.g. age, family status or address arrangements for identifying locations of users in broadcast systems H04H60/52
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; 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 21/4143 embedded in a Personal Computer [PC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8106 involving special audio data, e.g. different tracks for different languages
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8126 involving additional data, e.g. news, sports, stocks, weather forecasts
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/854 Content authoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8543 using a description language, e.g. Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Expert Group [MHEG], eXtensible Markup Language [XML] information retrieval of semistructured data, the underlying structure being taken into account, e.g. mark-up language structure data G06F16/80
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17336 Handling of requests in head-ends

Abstract

A program drawing-up apparatus can provide information effectively and efficiently. The program drawing-up apparatus (2) comprises a program control device (3) and a narration synthesizer device (4). The program control device (3) has a delivery request acquisition section for acquiring a delivery request from a client apparatus (6), a contents data retrieval section for retrieving contents data and a program drawing-up section for drawing up a program showing the sequence of delivery of the contents data and the auxiliary data on the basis of the delivery request. The narration synthesizer device (4) has a narration synthesizing section for synthetically generating narration data to be delivered in combination with contents data. Information can be provided effectively because contents can be delivered with one or more than one narrations added thereto.

Claims

1. A program drawing-up method comprising:

a step of registering client information on a user in advance;

a step of acquiring a delivery request from a client apparatus;

a step of acquiring the client information based on the delivery request;

a step of retrieving contents data according to the delivery request and the client information;

a step of generating auxiliary data to be delivered in combination with the retrieved contents data based on the retrieved contents data and the client information; and

a step of drawing up a program indicating the sequence of delivery of the contents data and the auxiliary data according to the delivery request, wherein;

the contents data retrieving step acquires data on the results of retrieval including information on the storage locations of the retrieved contents data,

the program drawing-up step acquires the information on the storage locations of the contents data and information on the storage locations of the auxiliary data generated by the auxiliary data generation section and draws up a program, sequentially arranging the pieces of information on the storage locations in the order of delivery,

the data on the results of retrieval include information on the storage locations of the contents data and contents profile information relating to the retrieved contents data,

the auxiliary data generating step generates auxiliary data, utilizing the contents profile information,

the auxiliary data are narration data relating to the contents data, and

the auxiliary data are narration data relating to a program prologue and a program epilogue.

2. A program providing system comprising:

a program drawing-up apparatus, comprising;

a client control data base that stores client information on a user;

a delivery request acquisition section for acquiring a delivery request from a client apparatus;

a client information acquiring section that acquires the client information based on the delivery request;

a contents data retrieval section for retrieving contents data according to the delivery request and the client information;

an auxiliary data generation section for generating auxiliary data to be delivered in combination with the contents data based on the retrieved contents data and the client information; and

a program drawing-up section for drawing up a program indicating the sequence of delivery of the contents data and the auxiliary data according to the delivery request, wherein;

the contents data retrieval section acquires data on the results of retrieval including information on the storage locations of the retrieved contents data,

the program drawing-up section acquires the information on the storage locations of the contents data and information on the storage locations of the auxiliary data generated by the auxiliary data generation section and draws up a program, sequentially arranging the pieces of information on the storage locations in the order of delivery,

the data on the results of retrieval include information on the storage locations of the contents data and contents profile information relating to the retrieved contents data,

the auxiliary data generation section generates auxiliary data, utilizing the contents profile information,

the auxiliary data are narration data relating to the contents data, and

the auxiliary data are narration data also relating to a program prologue and a program epilogue;

a contents delivery apparatus storing the contents data; and

a client apparatus adapted to transmit a delivery request to the program drawing-up apparatus and receive contents data and auxiliary.

3. The program providing system according to claim 2, wherein

the program drawing-up apparatus transmits a program drawn up by way of the program drawing-up section in response to the delivery request from the client apparatus;

and

the client apparatus receives the contents data delivered from the contents delivery apparatus and the auxiliary data delivered from the program drawing-up apparatus according to the received program.

4. The program providing system according to claim 2, wherein

the program drawing-up apparatus causes the contents data from the contents delivery apparatus and the auxiliary data from the auxiliary data generation section to be transmitted to the client apparatus according to the sequence of delivery of the program drawn up by the program drawing-up section in response to the delivery request from the client apparatus.

5. A program providing computer program embodied in a recording medium in a manner readable by a computer, the program operating the computer as a program providing system according to claim 2.

6. A recording medium embodying a computer program in a manner readable by a computer, the program operating the computer as a program providing system according to claim 2.

7. The program providing system according to claim 2, wherein

the contents profile information contains strings of words such as attributes and keywords characterizing the contents;

and

the auxiliary data generation section has templates for specifying the structures of various narrations, narration parts data including set phrases and words to be put in each template, a narration control database for controlling the narration parts data and narration material data to be used for preparing the narration parts data.

8. The program providing system according to claim 7, wherein

the auxiliary data generation section generates the narration data by selecting a template suited for the delivery request from the client and putting set phrase data and word data in the template on the basis of the contents profile information.

9. A program providing method comprising:

a step of registering client information on a user in advance;

a step of acquiring a delivery request from a client apparatus;

a step of acquiring the client information based on the delivery request;

a step of retrieving contents data according to the delivery request and the client information;

a step of generating auxiliary data to be delivered in combination with the retrieved contents data based on the retrieved contents data and the client information;

a step of drawing up a program indicating the sequence of delivery of the contents data and the auxiliary data according to the delivery request; and

a step for the client apparatus to receive the contents data delivered from the contents delivery apparatus and the auxiliary data delivered from the program drawing-up apparatus according to the sequence of delivery of the program, wherein;

the contents data retrieving step section acquires data on the results of retrieval including information on the storage locations of the retrieved contents data,

the program drawing-un step acquires the information on the storage locations of the contents data and information on the storage locations of the auxiliary data generated by the auxiliary data generation section and draws up a program, sequentially arranging the pieces of information on the storage locations in the order of delivery,

the data on the results of retrieval include information on the storage locations of the contents data and contents profile information relating to the retrieved contents data, and

the auxiliary data generating step generates auxiliary data, utilizing the contents profile information;

the auxiliary data are narration data relating to the contents data; and

the auxiliary data are narration data relating to a program prologue and a program epilogue.