Broadcast receiving apparatus and received program selection method

• US 20020120943A1
• Filed: 02/21/2002
• Published: 08/29/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Takada, Masayuki, Seto, Fumio
• Application Number:
  US10/078,467
• Publication Number:
  US 20020120943A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/135
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/62 for transportation systems, e.g. in vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41422 located in transportation means, e.g. personal vehicle arrangements specially adapted for transportation systems in broadcast systems H04H20/62
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42202 environmental sensors, e.g. for detecting temperature, luminosity, pressure, earthquakes
• 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 21/44222 Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programs or purchase activity monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4524 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; systems specially adapted for using geographical information in broadcast systems H04H60/70; protocols in which the network application is adapted for the location of the user terminal in communication control or processing H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• 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 21/4667 Processing of monitored end-user data, e.g. trend analysis based on the log file of viewer selections
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4753 for user identification, e.g. by entering a PIN or password cryptographic authentication protocols H04L9/32; networks authentication protocols H04L63/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• 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 5/445 for displaying additional information H04N5/50 takes precedence

Abstract

Past program-selection history is stored as databases in a storage unit. When selecting a new program, a program that will be requested most at this moment by the user is predicted based on the databases stored in the storage unit, program information acquired by a program information acquisition unit, and current time information and current location information acquired by a time/location information acquisition unit, and the prediction result is used as a program selection index.

Claims

1. A broadcast receiving apparatus that receives a plurality of programs broadcast by broadcasting stations and selects any one of the plurality of programs for presentation to a user, said broadcast receiving apparatus comprising:

a program information acquisition unit configured to acquire program information on programs broadcast by the broadcasting stations;

a time/location information acquisition unit configured to acquire at least one of current time information and current location information;

a storage unit configured to store information; and

a controller configured to control an operation of said broadcast receiving apparatus,

wherein said controller stores, into said storage unit as a database, contents of a program selected in the past and satisfying predetermined conditions and at least one of program selection time information and location information and, at the same time, predicts one of said plurality of received programs that will be requested by the user at this moment, based on the database stored in said storage unit, the program information acquired by said program information acquisition unit, and at least one of the current time information and the current location information acquired by said time/location information acquisition unit, for use as a program selection index.

2. The broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a program switching unit configured to switch a program to be presented to the user in response to a program selection by said controller.

3. The broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said program switching unit switches the program to be presented to the user immediately after said broadcast receiving apparatus is started or when the program is ended.

4. The broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a program recording unit configured to record a program selected by said controller onto a recording medium.

5. The broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said program switching unit switches the program to be presented to the user to the program recorded on the recording medium by said program recording unit immediately after said broadcast receiving apparatus is started or when the program is ended.

6. The broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said controller stores information on a program and circumstances when the program was selected into said storage unit as a database, said program being selected in the past, said program being a program that was not switched within a predetermined time, a program that was not switched until an end of one unit was reached, or a program that was not switched until radio reception sensitivity declined.

7. The broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said controller stores into said storage unit a total number of selection times of the program satisfying the predetermined conditions and, at the same time, judges a user'"'"'s taste based on the total number of selection times stored in said storage unit, and predicts one of the plurality of received programs that will be requested by the user at this moment while taking the user'"'"'s taste into consideration, for use as a program selection index.

8. The broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said controller stores into said storage unit a total number of selection times of a category of the program satisfying the predetermined conditions and, at the same time, judges a user'"'"'s taste according to the category based on the total number of selection times of the category stored in said storage unit, and predicts one of the plurality of received programs that will be requested by the user at this moment while taking the user'"'"'s taste according to the category into consideration, for use as a program selection index.

9. The broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said controller stores attribute information of the user into said storage unit when the program satisfying the predetermined conditions is selected and, at the same time, and predicts one of the plurality of received programs that will be requested by the user at this moment while taking the attribute information of the user into consideration for use as a program selection index.

10. The broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said controller stores, into said storage unit as circumstances when the program satisfying the predetermined conditions was selected, an elapsed time from a moment said broadcast receiving apparatus was started to a moment said program was selected and an order in which said program was selected when the program satisfying the predetermined conditions was selected and, at the same time, and predicts one of the plurality of received programs that will be requested by the user at this moment while taking the elapsed time and the order into consideration, for use as a program selection index.

11. A broadcast receiving apparatus that receives a plurality of programs broadcast by broadcasting stations and selects any one of the plurality of programs for presentation to a user, said broadcast receiving apparatus comprising:

program information acquisition means for acquiring program information on programs broadcast by the broadcasting stations;

time/location information acquisition means for acquiring at least one of current time information and current location information;

storage means for storing information; and

control means for controlling an operation of said broadcast receiving apparatus,

wherein said control means stores, into said storage means as a database, contents of a program selected in the past and satisfying predetermined conditions and at least one of program selection time information and location information and, at the same time, predicts one of said plurality of received programs that will be requested by the user at this moment, based on the database stored in said storage means, the program information acquired by said program information acquisition means, and at least one of the current time information and the current location information acquired by said time/location information acquisition means, for use as a program selection index.

12. A received program selection method, comprising:

acquiring program information on programs broadcast by broadcasting stations;

acquiring at least one of current time information and current location information;

storing, into a storage unit as a database, contents of a program selected in the past and satisfying predetermined conditions and at least one of program selection time information and location information; and

predicting one of a plurality of programs, received from broadcasting stations, that will be requested by the user at this moment, based on the database stored in said storage unit, the acquired program information, and at least one of the acquired current time information and the current location information, for use as a program selection index.