Information processing apparatus, information processing method and computer program

• US 8,306,400 B2
• Filed: 06/25/2009
• Issued: 11/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Yoshimura, Shunji, Miyahara, Hideaki
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, HUY THANH
• Application Number:
  US12/456,972
• Publication Number:
  US 20100008637A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,230 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 386/296
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/466 Learning process for intelligent management, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies services using the results of monitoring in broadcast systems H04H60/61
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4668 for recommending content, e.g. movies
• 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 5/765 Interface circuits between an apparatus for recording and another apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/775 between a recording apparatus and a television receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/782 on tape

Abstract

An information processing apparatus in the present invention includes a receiving part that receives contents, an input part into which designation information to select desired contents is input from a user, a recording setting information generation part that generates recording setting information of contents to be recorded based on the designation information, an analysis part that analyzes relevance of content of the contents being recorded to be recorded based on the recording setting information to the designation information, and an acquisition part that acquires the desired contents of the user from the recorded contents based on an analysis result by the analysis part.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus, comprising:

a receiving part that receives contents;

an input part into which designation information to select desired contents is input from a user;

a recording setting information generation part that generates recording setting information of contents to be recorded based on the designation information;

an analysis part that analyzes relevance of content of the contents being recorded to be recorded based on the recording setting information to the designation information; and

an acquisition part that acquires the desired contents of the user from the recorded contents based on an analysis result by the analysis part,

wherein the information processing apparatus determines whether or not the designation information designates a genre, and when the designation information designates a genre, the analysis comprises analyzing image/sound feature qualities of the contents being recorded, and wherein the information processing apparatus determines whether or not the designation information is a keyword, and when the designation information is a keyword, the analysis comprises detecting the frequency with which the keyword appears in the subtitle of the contents being recorded.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the recording setting information generation part, comprises:

a condition generation part that generates search conditions for extracting the contents to be recorded; and

a search part that searches for the contents matching the search conditions.

3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

the condition generation part generates a first search condition based on the designation information and a second search condition by relaxing the first search condition and

the search part searches for the contents matching the first search condition and the contents matching the second search condition.

4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising

a setting information storage part that associates and stores classification information for classifying the contents into predetermined categories and related terms related to the classification information, wherein

the condition generation part acquires related terms associated with classification information of the contents set as the first search condition from the setting information storage part to set the related terms as the second search condition.

5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the setting information storage part further associates and stores a keyword and related terms related to the keyword and

the condition generation part acquires related terms associated with the keyword set as the first search condition from the setting information storage part to set the related terms as the second search condition.

6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the condition generation part automatically generates the second search condition.

7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the analysis part, comprises:

a feature extraction part that extracts feature quantities representing feature portions based on content of the contents being recorded;

a feature analysis part that analyzes features of the contents being recorded based on the feature quantities; and

a relevance determination part that determines relevance of features of the contents analyzed by the feature analysis part to the designation information.

8. The information processing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein

the feature extraction part extracts at least one of images, sound, and subtitle information in the contents being recorded as the feature quantities.

9. The information processing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein

the feature analysis part analyzes only the contents that match the second search condition.

10. The information processing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein

the feature analysis part terminates an analysis if relevance of features of the contents to the designation information is not found by the relevance determination part within a predetermined time.

11. The information processing apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising

a content storage part that stores the contents;

and

a recording part that records the contents in the content storage part, wherein

the recording part

records the contents in the content storage part based on the recording setting information and

deletes the contents from the content storage part if the relevance determination part determines that features of the contents are not relevant to the designation information.

12. An information processing method, comprising the steps of:

receiving contents;

inputting designation information to select desired contents from a user;

generating recording setting information of contents to be recorded based on the designation information;

analyzing relevance of content of the contents being recorded to be recorded based on the recording setting information to the designation information; and

acquiring the desired contents of the user from the recorded contents based on an analysis result,

wherein a determination is made as to whether or not the designation information designates a genre, and when the designation information designates a genre, the analyzing step comprises analyzing image/sound feature qualities of the contents being recorded, and wherein a determination is made as to whether or not the designation information is a keyword, and when the designation information is a keyword, the analyzing step comprises detecting the frequency with which the keyword appears in the subtitle of the contents being recorded.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon a computer-readable program, the program causing a computer to function, comprising:

means for receiving contents;

means for inputting designation information to select desired contents from a user;

means for generating recording setting information of contents to be recorded based on the designation information;

means for analyzing relevance of content of the contents being recorded to be recorded based on the recording setting information to the designation information; and

means for acquiring the desired contents of the user from the recorded contents based on an analysis result by the analysis means,

wherein a determination is made as to whether or not the designation information designates a genre, and when the designation information designates a genre, analyzing comprises analyzing image/sound feature qualities of the contents being recorded, and wherein a determination is made as to whether or not the designation information is a keyword, and when the designation information is a keyword, analyzing comprises detecting the frequency with which the keyword appears in the subtitle of the contents being recorded.