Display control apparatus, recording media, display control method, and display control program

• US 8,082,502 B2
• Filed: 07/19/2007
• Issued: 12/20/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/21/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Ijichi, Susumu, Araki, Satoshi, Mukaiyama, Ryo
• Primary Examiner(s): Pesin, Boris
• Assistant Examiner(s): Greene, Sabrina
• Application Number:
  US11/780,276
• Publication Number:
  US 20080018625A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,615 Days
• Field of Search: 715/716, 715/704
• US Class Current: 715/716
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/56 Arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition covered by groups H04H60/29-H04H60/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/66 for using the result on distributors' side

Abstract

A display control apparatus is provided for controlling displaying of a play list specifying a reproduction sequence of a plurality of pieces of content. The display control apparatus has a play list feature extraction block configured to extract a feature of a play list on the basis of a plurality of content belonging to the play list, a display pattern selection block configured to select a display pattern for displaying the play list on the basis of the feature of the play list, the feature being extracted by the feature extraction block, and a control block configured to execute control such that the play list is displayed on a display block on the basis of the display pattern selected by the display pattern selection block. The novel configuration provides new ways of enjoying content.

Claims

1. A display control apparatus for controlling displaying of a play list, comprising:

a play list feature extraction block configured to, in conjunction with a processor, extract a numerical value from a play list based on a plurality of pieces of content belonging to said play list, said playlist specifying a reproduction sequence of the plurality of pieces of content;

a display pattern selection block configured to, in conjunction with the processor, select at least one of color and brightness for displaying said play list based on the numerical value; and

a control block configured to, in conjunction with the processor, execute control such that said play list is displayed on a display device in accordance with the at least one of color and brightness selected by said display pattern selection block.

2. The display control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said numerical value is a statistical value obtained based on content belonging to said play list.

3. The display control apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said statistical value is at least one of an amount of pieces of content belonging to said play list, a date on which a first piece of content was added to said play list, a date on which a last piece of content was added to said play list, and a reproduction frequency of content belonging to said play list.

4. The display control apparatus according to claim 3, wherein, when the amount of pieces of content belonging to said play list is no higher than a predetermined value, said control block causes said display block to display how many pieces of content must be added to said play list to reach the predetermined number of pieces of content belonging to said play list.

5. The display control apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said display pattern selection block selects the playlist as a do not display play list based on the numerical value.

6. The display control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said play list extraction block extracts said numerical value from said play list on a basis of additional information included in said play list.

7. The display control apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said play list extraction block extracts said numerical value from said play list on a basis of a statistical value of said additional information.

8. The display control apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising

a reproducing block configured to reproduce the content belonging to said play list in accordance with said play list.

9. The display control apparatus according to claim 8, wherein, upon selection of one of a plurality of play lists, said reproducing block starts reproducing content belonging to said play list from a feature position of said content.

10. The display control apparatus of claim 1, wherein the numerical value is equal to an amount of pieces of content belonging to said play list, and the display pattern selection block selects a brightness for displaying the play list based on whether the amount of pieces of content belonging to said play list is above or below a threshold value.

11. The display control apparatus of claim 1, wherein the numerical value is equal to an amount of pieces of content belonging to said play list, and the display pattern selection block selects a color for displaying the play list based on whether the amount of pieces of content belonging to said play list is above or below a threshold value.

12. The display control apparatus of claim 1, wherein the numerical value is equal to an amount of pieces of content belonging to said play list.

13. A non-transitory recording media configured to record a display control program in a computer-readable form, said display control program making a computer execute the steps of:

extracting a numerical value from a play list based on a plurality of pieces of content belonging to said play list, said play list specifying a reproduction sequence of said plurality of pieces of content;

selecting at least one of color and brightness for displaying said play list based on the numerical value; and

executing control such that said play list is displayed on a display in accordance with the at least one of color and brightness selected in the selecting step.

14. A display control method comprising the steps of:

extracting a numerical value from a play list based on a plurality of pieces of content belonging to said play list, said play list specifying a reproduction sequence of said plurality of pieces of content;

selecting at least one of color and brightness for displaying said play list based on the numerical value; and

executing control such that said play list is displayed on a display in accordance with the at least one of color and brightness selected in the selecting step.

15. A display control apparatus for controlling displaying of a play list, comprising:

means for extracting a numerical value from a play list based on a plurality of pieces of content belonging to said play list, said play list specifying a reproduction sequence of said plurality of pieces of content;

means for selecting at least one of color and brightness for displaying said play list based on the numerical value; and

means for executing control such that said play list is displayed on a display in accordance with the at least one of color and brightness selected by the means for selecting.