Broadcast receiving device

• US 8,069,458 B2
• Filed: 11/29/2007
• Issued: 11/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Funai Electric Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Funai Electric Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Inui, Yasuhiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Hirl; Joseph P
• Assistant Examiner(s): PENG, FRED H
• Application Number:
  US11/947,273
• Publication Number:
  US 20080134238A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,461 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 725/25
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4345 Extraction or processing of SI, e.g. extracting service information from an MPEG stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4349 by extracting from data carousels, e.g. extraction of software modules from a DVB carousel
• 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 21/454 Content or additional data filtering, e.g. blocking advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• 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 21/84 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 7/163 by receiver means only

Abstract

A broadcast receiving device includes a table storage component, a viewing control acquisition component, a first determination component and a table production component. The viewing control acquisition component acquires program viewing control information including a column number and a row number. The first determination component determines whether or not to satisfy one of a column determination condition that the column number is greater than a first specific number of a first viewing control table and a row determination condition that the row number is greater than a second specific number of the first viewing control table. The table production component produces a second viewing control table having a number of columns corresponding to the column number and a number of rows corresponding to the row number when the first determination component determines that one of the column determination condition and the row determination condition is satisfied.

Claims

1. A broadcast receiving device for receiving a television broadcast, comprising:

a table storage component configured to store a first viewing control table having a first specific number of columns and a second specific number of rows, the first viewing control table including viewing control conditions for viewing control;

a viewing control acquisition component configured to acquire program viewing control information including a column number and a row number and specifying the viewing control conditions for a program using the column number and the row number;

a first determination component configured to determine whether or not to satisfy one of a column determination condition that the column number of the program viewing control information is greater than the first specific number of the first viewing control table and a row determination condition that the row number of the program viewing control information is greater than the second specific number of the first viewing control table; and

a table production component configured to produce a second viewing control table having a number of columns corresponding to the column number of the program viewing control information and a number of rows corresponding to the row number of the program viewing control information based on the program viewing control information in response to the first determination component determining that one of the column determination condition and the row determination condition is satisfied.

2. The broadcast receiving device according to claim 1, wherein

the table production component is further configured to store the second viewing control table in the table storage component.

3. The broadcast receiving device according to claim 1, further comprising

a table acquisition component configured to acquire the first viewing control table via the television broadcast.

4. The broadcast receiving device according to claim 1, wherein

the first viewing control table has two or more columns and two or more rows, and stores each of the viewing control conditions according to a column number of the first viewing control table and a row number of the first viewing control table.

5. The broadcast receiving device according to claim 1, wherein

a column of the second viewing control table is set to either an order type, which indicates that the column includes the viewing control conditions ranked in an order of rating levels from a lowest rating to a highest rating as a row number of the second viewing control table increases, or a category type, which indicates that the column includes the viewing control conditions varying with the row number, and

the table production component sets a type of the column of the second viewing control table having a column number corresponding to the column number of the program viewing control information to the order type.

6. The broadcast receiving device according to claim 1, further comprising

a table acquisition component configured to acquire a third viewing control table via the television broadcast;

a third determination component configured to determine whether or not the third viewing control table matches the first viewing control table stored in the table storage component; and

a table update component configured to replace the first viewing control table stored in the table storage component with the third viewing control table when the third determination component determines that the third viewing control table does not match the first viewing control table.

7. The broadcast receiving device according to claim 6, wherein

the table update component is further configured to delete the second viewing control table when the third determination component determines that the third viewing control table does not match the first viewing control table.

8. The broadcast receiving device according to claim 5, further comprising

a table acquisition component configured to acquire a third viewing control table via the television broadcast;

a third determination component configured to determine whether or not the third viewing control table matches the first viewing control table stored in the table storage component; and

a table update component configured to replace the first viewing control table stored in the table storage component with the third viewing control table when the third determination component determines that the third viewing control table does not match the first viewing control table.

9. The broadcast receiving device according to claim 1, further comprising

a table display component configured to receive operation input and display the second viewing control table based on the operation input, and

a viewing control setting component configured to receive the operation input and set whether or not to execute the viewing control corresponding to the program viewing control information based on the operation input.

10. A viewing control method for a broadcast receiving device for receiving a television broadcast, comprising:

acquiring program viewing control information including a column number and a row number and specifying viewing control conditions for viewing control for a program using the column number and the row number;

determining whether or not to satisfy one of a column determination condition that the column number of the program viewing control information is greater than a first specific number of columns of a first viewing control table and a row determination condition that the row number of the program viewing control information is greater than a second specific number of rows of the first viewing control table, the first viewing control table including the viewing control conditions for the viewing control; and

producing a second viewing control table having a number of columns corresponding to the column number of the program viewing control information and a number of rows corresponding to the row number of the program viewing control information based on the program viewing control information in response to determining that one of the column determination condition and the row determination condition is satisfied.

11. A broadcast receiving device for receiving a television broadcast, comprising:

a table storage component configured to store a first viewing control table having a first specific number of columns and a second specific number of rows, the first viewing control table including viewing control conditions for viewing control;

a viewing control acquisition component configured to acquire program viewing control information including a column number and a row number and specifying the viewing control conditions for a program using the column number and the row number;

a first determination component configured to determine whether or not to satisfy one of a column determination condition that the column number of the program viewing control information is greater than the first specific number of the first viewing control table and a row determination condition that the row number of the program viewing control information is greater than the second specific number of the first viewing control table;

a table production component configured to produce a second viewing control table having a number of columns corresponding to the column number of the program viewing control information and a number of rows corresponding to the row number of the program viewing control information in response to the first determination component determining that one of the column determination condition and the row determination condition is satisfied, a column of the second viewing control table being set to either an order type, which indicates that the column includes the viewing control conditions ranked in an order of rating levels from a lowest rating to a highest rating as a row number of the second viewing control table increases, or a category type, which indicates that the column includes the viewing control conditions varying with the row number, the table production component setting a type of the column of the second viewing control table having a column number corresponding to the column number of the program viewing control information to the order type;

a second determination component configured to determine whether or not to satisfy a determination condition that a plurality of sets of program viewing control information for the program corresponding to the program viewing control information, which the first determination component determines to satisfy one of the column determination condition and the row determination condition, have a same column number and adjacent row numbers; and

a type changing component configured to change the type of the column of the second viewing control table having the column number corresponding to the column number of the program viewing control information from the order type to the category type in response to the second determination component determining that the determination condition is not satisfied.

12. The broadcast receiving device according to claim 11, further comprising

a table acquisition component configured to acquire a third viewing control table via the television broadcast;

a third determination component configured to determine whether or not the third viewing control table matches the first viewing control table stored in the table storage component; and

a table update component configured to replace the first viewing control table stored in the table storage component with the third viewing control table when the third determination component determines that the third viewing control table does not match the first viewing control table.