JP2003250139A - Program table information distribution server, program distribution server, and program table information distribution method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a program table information distribution server capable of distributing program table information that can select a program with an access value. <P>SOLUTION: A monitor means 9 of a program distribution server 3 monitors a reproduction tendency (whether or not a program is reproduced to its end) of each user for the program. An arithmetic means 13 of a program table information distribution server 1 calculates the reproduction tendency information (e.g. a percentage of users viewing the program to its end among users selecting viewing of the program). A generating means 15 generates program table information including the reproduction tendency information. The program table information is distributed to a terminal 5 of a user in response to an access request of the program guide from the user. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a program guide information distribution server for distributing program guide information on which, for example, Internet broadcast programs are placed, a program distribution server for distributing the program, and the program guide information for distributing the program guide information. The present invention relates to a program guide information distribution method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The distribution of video contents has become popular due to the broadband access environment to the Internet. BACKGROUND ART Conventionally, there are websites of Internet broadcasting stations whose business is to distribute video contents as programs, and websites which perform video distribution as an additional business other than the original business. Video distribution sites such as Internet broadcasting stations require much less capital investment than ordinary broadcasting stations and are therefore easier to set up. For this reason, many video broadcasting sites such as Internet broadcasting stations have been established to provide a wide variety of programs.

[0003]

When viewing a program of the Internet broadcast, a user often looks at a program guide provided from a predetermined Web site to decide a program to watch.

A video distribution site such as an Internet broadcasting station can be easily opened, and provides a wide variety of video contents. Therefore, it may not be clear whether or not the program is a user's desired program only with text information such as a general program table. Also, an Internet broadcast program cannot be viewed immediately by pressing a remote control switch like a television, and operations such as connection to the Internet, preparation of playback software, and buffering are relatively complicated.
In addition, some programs are charged depending on the content and viewing style. Therefore, we do not want to access programs that are not worth watching as user psychology.

The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and a program guide information distribution server for distributing program guide information capable of selecting a program having an access value, and a program distribution server for distributing the program. And a program guide information distribution method for distributing the program guide information.

[0006]

A program table information distribution server according to the present invention is at least one of playing a program, fast-forwarding a program, rewinding a program, playing a still image by pausing the program, and playing the program repeatedly. So that the playback trend information of the program obtained based on the playback trend including
It is characterized in that it is provided with a generation means for generating the program guide information on which the program is placed, and a transmission means for transmitting the program guide information generated by the generation means to the user.

According to the program guide information distribution server of the present invention, the program guide information including the reproduction tendency information of the program obtained based on the reproduction tendency is generated and transmitted to the user. Therefore, it is possible to provide the user with reproduction trend information that serves as a reference when determining the access value of a program.

The program guide information distribution server according to the present invention may further include a receiving means for receiving the data of the reproduction trend obtained by monitoring the program distribution server that distributes the program. According to this, it is possible to obtain the reproduction trend data more accurately and surely as compared with the case where the reproduction trend of the user is investigated by a questionnaire or the like.

A program distribution server according to the present invention distributes a program to a user and, with respect to the program distributed by the distribution means, reproduces the program, fast-forwards the program, rewinds the program, and stops the program by stopping the program temporarily. Monitoring means for monitoring a reproduction trend including at least one of image reproduction and repetitive reproduction of a program.

According to the program distribution server of the present invention, since the reproduction trend of the user for the distributed program is monitored, the reproduction trend of the user for the program can be known.

A program guide information distribution method according to the present invention includes a distribution step of distributing a program to a user, and with respect to the program distributed by the distribution step, the program is reproduced, the program is fast forwarded, the program is rewound, and the program is temporarily stopped. A monitoring step for monitoring a playback trend including at least one of still image playback and repeated playback of the program, and playback trend information of the program obtained based on the playback trend obtained by the monitoring step, It is characterized by comprising a generation step of generating program guide information on which a program is placed, and a transmission step of transmitting the program guide information generated in the generation step to a user.

According to the program guide information distribution method of the present invention, the reproduction trend of the program of the user is monitored, the program guide information including the reproduction trend information obtained based on this reproduction trend is generated, and this is generated. Sending to user. Therefore, it is possible to provide the user with the program guide information including the reproduction trend information that serves as a reference when determining the access value of the program.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention (hereinafter referred to as the present embodiments) will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining the configurations of the program guide information distribution server 1 and the program distribution server 3 according to this embodiment.

First, the outline of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. Video content, which is an example of a program, is distributed from the program distribution server 3 of the content provider to the terminal 5 of the user. The monitoring means 9 of the program distribution server 3 indicates the reproduction trend of the user's program (whether the program has been reproduced to the end, etc.).
To monitor. The reproduction trend data is sent to the program guide information distribution server 1, and based on the data, reproduction trend information of the program (for example, the percentage of users who have selected to watch the program, who has watched the program to the end) is calculated. It Then, the program guide information including the reproduction trend information is generated by the generation means 15. The program guide information is distributed to the user's terminal 5 through the transmission means 23 in response to a program guide access request from the user. Therefore, according to the present embodiment, the program guide information including the reproduction trend information of the program (percentage of users who have watched the program until the end) is distributed to the user. You can determine the value of access. Therefore, the user can select a program having access value.

A modified example of the outline of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. The user connects to the program guide information distribution server 1 from the user terminal 5 via the transmission means 23 (or the reception means 11 and the transmission means 23). At that time, the user and the terminal are authenticated. User authentication may be performed by using an authentication method such as a user ID or cookie that is performed by an Internet service. The user registers preference information such as a genre of the user's preference and reproduction environment information such as a video format and size reproducible by the terminal.

A program to be viewed is selected by selecting a program from the program list displayed by the login of the user or directly designating the program site, and the video content is transferred from the program distribution server 3 of the content provider to the user's terminal 5. It will be delivered. At this time, the program guide includes reproduction trend information of the same program in advance.

The monitoring means 9 of the program distribution server 3 monitors the reproduction trend of the user's program. The reproduction trend data is sent to the program guide information distribution server 1, and based on the data, reproduction trend information of the program (for example, the percentage of users who have selected to watch the program, who has watched the program to the end) is calculated. It Then, the program guide information including the reproduction trend information is generated by the generation means 15. The program guide information is distributed to the user's terminal 5 through the transmission means 23 in response to a program guide access request from the user. As a result, the reproduction trend information of the program is updated. According to this embodiment,
Since the program guide information including the reproduction trend information of the program is distributed to the user, the value of accessing the program can be determined by referring to this percentage. Therefore, the user can select a program having access value.

Next, the configuration of this embodiment will be described in order of the program distribution server 3 and the program guide information distribution server 1 with reference to FIG. Each content provider distributes its own program to the user's terminal 5 by each program distribution server 3. A program distributed by the program distribution server 3 to a user is also called a content, and in the present embodiment, a video (moving image) is distributed. The present invention can also be applied to a program distribution server that distributes sounds such as music and talk. Also,
The program distribution server 3 provides Internet broadcasting, but the present invention is not limited to cable TV broadcasting, CS broadcasting and BS broadcasting.
It can be applied if bidirectional communication such as digital broadcasting is possible.

The program distribution server 3 has a content database (content DB) 6 storing programs, a program distribution means 7 for distributing the programs to the user's terminal 5 by streaming, and a program distributed by the program distribution means 7. Reproduction trend monitoring means (hereinafter referred to as monitoring means) 9 for monitoring the reproduction trend of the user. The respective elements constituting the program distribution server 3 may be physically integrated as shown in FIG. 1, or may be logically configured via a network (not shown).

Streaming distribution means that the user uses the terminal 5
It is a distribution that plays while downloading the program file. For the streaming distribution provided by the program distribution server 3, a method of discarding the data that has been reproduced while reproducing the data of the file received by the terminal 5 or buffering the data of the file received by the terminal 5 in the hard disk or memory There is a method to play. The streaming distribution of the program distribution server 3 is a VOD (video on demand) type in which a program file is uploaded to the program distribution server 3 in advance and distributed according to a user's request.

The reproduction trend of the user with respect to the program monitored by the monitoring means 9 indicates whether the program has been viewed (reproduced) to the end, the program has been fast forwarded, or the program has been rewound.
It includes at least one of whether the still image is played back after being paused, and whether the program is repeatedly viewed (played). The program can be monitored by installing predetermined software or predetermined hardware in the program distribution server 3 or the terminal 5.

On the other hand, the program guide information distribution server 1 receives the information from the program distribution server 3 and the terminal 5 by a receiving means 11.
A reproduction trend information calculating means (hereinafter referred to as a calculating means) 13 for calculating the reproduction trend information of the program, and a program guide information generating means (hereinafter referred to as a generating means) 15 for generating the program guide information,
A program guide information database (hereinafter referred to as program guide information DB) 17 in which program guide information is stored, a search data creating means 19 for creating search data for searching a program of Internet broadcasting, and a search data creating means 19 based on this search data. A built-in program search information database (hereinafter referred to as search information DB) 21 and a transmission means 23 for transmitting program guide information and search information to the terminal 5 are provided.

The receiving means 11 has a function of receiving data obtained by the program distribution server 3 which distributes a program monitoring the reproduction trend of the user, a function of receiving a program table access request from the terminal 5, and the like. .

The calculation means 13 calculates the reproduction trend information of the program based on the reproduction trend of each user for the program sent from the reception means 11. The reproduction trend information of this embodiment uses the percentage of the users who have selected to view the program, who have viewed (reproduced) the program to the end. Because it is troublesome to watch an Internet broadcast program and most of them are charged, it is a serious concern for the user whether another user has watched (played) the program to the end, and the user selects the program. This is because it serves as a reference for the time. It should be noted that the program was normally played and watched to the end, the program was fast-forwarded and watched, what percentage of the total time was fast-forwarded and watched, whether the program was rewound and watched, or rewound. What percentage of the total time you watched, what percentage of the total time you paused to play the still image, and paused to view the still image? Whether or not a part of the image is enlarged or reduced, and the viewing mode coefficient quantified by a function with at least one or more of the number and time of other possible special playbacks as an argument. A value calculated based on the above may be used as the reproduction trend information.

The generation means 15 is for generating the program guide information which is the program guide of the Internet broadcast displayed on the terminal 5. The reproduction trend information calculated by the calculation means 13 is sent to the generation means 15, where the reproduction trend information of the program is processed together with the program so as to appear in the program guide.

The program guide information that has been subjected to this processing is stored in the program guide information DB 17. The program guide information DB 17 transmits the program guide information to the user's terminal 5 through the transmitting means 23 based on the program guide access request from the user's terminal 5 received by the receiving means 11.

The search data creating means 19 includes a user information processing means 25 for processing the user information input to the terminal 5 by each user, a video analysis means 27 for analyzing the video of the program distributed by the program distribution server 3, and Equipped with.

The user information processing means 25 is supplied with the user information transmitted from the terminal 5 and received by the receiving means 11. The user information is, for example, the user's preference (genre of favorite program, etc.), the reproduction environment of the user's terminal 5 (video resolution required for reproduction, transfer rate at the time of distributing the program, application for reproducing the program). Type, etc.), opinion of the user who viewed the program,
It is an impression. The user information processing means 25 executes a process for acquiring this user information. Based on the acquired user information, the search data creating means 19 creates search data using the user information as a search key (that is, search data for searching a program of Internet broadcasting).

A video-on-demand type program is sent from the program distribution server 3 to the video analysis means 27 through the receiving means 11. The video analysis unit 27 classifies the program by genre, and calculates data characterizing video and audio (time, resolution, video change rate, average luminance, average frequency, etc.) in advance. The search data creating means 19 creates search data using these as search keys.

The search data creating means 19 is sent from the program distribution server 3 through the receiving means 11 with information on the reproduction time (a program within a few minutes) and the reproduction start time (a program starting from what time) of the program to be distributed. . The search data creating means 19 creates search data using these as search keys.

The search data of the Internet broadcast program created by the search data creating means 19 is the search information D.
It is sent to B21. A program search information DB 21 is constructed based on this search data.

Program distribution means 7, monitoring means 9, reception means 1
1, the function of the calculation unit 13, the generation unit 15, the search data creation unit 19 (user information processing unit 25, video analysis unit 27) and the transmission unit 23, for example, various processors (C
PU, MPU) or ASIC and a predetermined program. Further, the functions of the program guide information DB 17 and the search information DB 21 can be realized by a device that can store information, for example, a semiconductor memory such as a hard disk or an EEPROM.

The terminal 5 includes a stationary terminal such as a desktop personal computer and a mobile terminal such as a mobile phone. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the terminal 5 that is reproducing the distributed program. The terminal 5 has a video display unit 29 for displaying the video of the program being played, a play button 31 for starting the playback of the program, a pause button 33 for temporarily stopping the playback of the program, and a stop of the playback of the program. A stop button 35 to
A rewind button 37 for rewinding the program, a fast-forward button 39 for fast-forwarding the program, and a position display section 41 for displaying the current playback position of the program are provided.

The position display section 41 has a laterally elongated shape, one end of which indicates a reproduction start position 43 of the program, and the other end of which indicates an end position 45 of the reproduction of the program.
When the program reproduction starts, the cursor 47 moves from the start position 43 toward the end position 45. This makes it possible to know the relative reproduction amount of the program, that is, the percentage of the program that has been reproduced.

The program guide information distribution server 1, the program distribution server 3 and the terminal 5 are connected to each other via the Internet or a dedicated line. Communication between these is broadband (ADSL, CATV Internet, optical fiber, etc.) and narrowband (analog modem, ISD).
N).

Next, an example of the operation of this embodiment will be described. FIG. 3 is a flow chart for explaining this. Note that this description also serves as an example of the program guide information distribution method according to the present embodiment.

The program distribution server 3 distributes the program requested by the user to the terminal 5 in response to the access request of the program from each user (step 1). Then, the reproduction trend of the user during the reproduction of the program is monitored by the monitoring means 9 of the program distribution server 3 (step S3).

The method for detecting the reproduction trend of the video content will be described below. VO currently being conducted on the Internet, etc.
Video file formats used for D-type video distribution include AVI, MPEG, and QuickTime. Generally, the content time length is recorded as additional information in the video content created by these formats. Further, since the application for reproducing the video contents of each format can detect the reproduction time, it is possible to detect at which reproduction time the special reproduction such as fast forward or rewind is performed by utilizing this function.

A specific example will be described with reference to FIG. When the reproduction button 31 is pressed, the reproduction of the video content starts. The reproduction time and the cursor 47 are linked, and the cursor 47 moves from the left end 43 to the right end 45 as the reproduction progresses. When the cursor 47 reaches the end position 45 without operating the buttons (31, 33, 35, 37, 39) during the reproduction, that is, the reproduction time reaches the content time length without the special reproduction operation. In this case, the user has watched the program through normal reproduction until the end.

While the content is being reproduced, it is monitored whether or not each button such as the fast forward button 39 and the rewind button 37 has been clicked. If the button is clicked, the set of the contents of each special reproduction operation and the reproduction time indicates the reproduction operation. It is once recorded in the terminal 5 together with the date and time information of the visit, and sent to the reproduction trend monitoring means 9 in viewing units. The viewing unit refers to a unit of playback viewing until either the playback of the video content is completed to the end or the viewing is stopped by the operation of stopping the playback. It does not depend on special playback operations such as fast forward, rewind, and pause. The transmission of the data set to the reproduction trend monitoring means 9 may be performed at a predetermined timing other than the above.

Next, the reproduction trend data of each user for the program is sent from the monitoring means 9 to the program table information distribution server 1. Based on the playback trend, the playback trend information of the program (here, the percentage of the users who have selected to view the program, who watched the program to the end) is calculated by the calculation means 13 (step S5).

Next, the calculated reproduction trend information is sent to the generation means 15. The generating means 15 generates program guide information on which the program name and its reproduction trend information are placed (step S).
7). The generated program guide information is stored in the program guide information DB 1
Stored in 7. Then, based on the access request of the program guide of each user, the program guide information stored in the program guide information DB 17 is transmitted to the terminal 5 of the user (step S).
9). As a result, the program guide shown in FIG. 4 is displayed on the terminal 5 of the user who has requested the program guide. The program name is displayed in the program column, and until the end the reproduction column shows an example of playback trend information.
“Percentage of users who watched (played) the program until the end” and the like are displayed.

If the video content to be provided is provided with a scene index in advance and the reproduction trend information for each scene is calculated by the above method, the reproduction trend information is presented to the user not for each program but for each scene in the program. it can. The scene of the video content is automatically determined by the video producer or the video provider by subjectively judging the scene division and indexing it, or by using a scene detection program or the like.

When the terminal 5 is not connected to the network after the video content is downloaded, that is, when the video content is played back in an offline state, the contents of each special playback operation detected during the content playback. And a reproduction time data set are stored in the terminal 5 for each viewing unit together with the date and time information of the reproduction operation. When the user accesses the system for viewing different programs, the stored data is sent to the reproduction trend monitoring means 9. At that time, the reproduction trend information is calculated in the same procedure as above.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the reproduction trend information is displayed in the program table. From now on, it becomes possible to judge the viewing value of the program. In other words, as an example, if the above percentage is high, the percentage of users who watched the program to the end is high, so it can be estimated as an interesting program, and the viewing value is high. Low. Viewing and listening to internet broadcasting requires time and effort such as connecting to the internet.
Also, there are many paid programs. Thus, compared to television broadcasting, users are more concerned about whether it is worth accessing the programs they watch. According to the present embodiment, it is possible to select a program having an access value by referring to the percentage of users who have watched the program until the end, which is very convenient for the user.

Further, the program distribution server 3 according to the present embodiment.
According to this, since the reproduction trend of the program of the user is monitored, the reproduction trend of the user for the program can be known. More specifically, it can be inferred that the user is interested in the program when he / she watches the program to the end, and that the user is very interested in the program when he / she watches the same program repeatedly. Further, it can be estimated that the video scene fast-forwarded by the user does not attract the user's interest, while the rewinding scene attracts the interest. Therefore, the user's type and favorite programs can be grasped by these reproduction trends, and can be used as materials for program creation.

In the present embodiment, it is also possible to search for Internet broadcast programs. An example of this search operation will be described below. When the user wants to search for a program distributed by Internet broadcasting, first, a search request is input to the terminal 5 and transmitted to the program guide information distribution server 1.

This search request is received by the receiving means 11 and sent to the search information DB 21. The search information DB 21 transmits the search information including the search key to the terminal 5 of the user who has made the search request by the transmission means 23. When the user makes a predetermined input to the search key and sends it to the program guide information distribution server 1, the search information DB 21 provides the search information including the program name to the terminal 5 of the user through the transmitting means 23.

As described above, the search key is the terminal 5 of the user.
Since it is closely related to video playback, such as the playback environment and the data that characterizes the video of the program to be distributed, the user can search for a program that is closer to his or her image than when searching simply by genre. .

[0050]

As described above, according to the program guide information distribution server and the program guide information distribution method of the present invention, it is possible to reproduce a program to the end, fast forward the program, rewind the program, and temporarily stop the program. The reproduction trend information of the program obtained based on the reproduction trend including at least one of still image reproduction and repeated reproduction of the program is added to the program guide information distributed to the user. Therefore, the user can select a program having access value by referring to the reproduction trend information when selecting a program.

Further, according to the program distribution server of the present invention, it is possible to know the reproduction trend of the user with respect to the program, which can be used as a reference for program creation.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing configurations of a program guide information distribution server and a program distribution server according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a terminal playing a program distributed by a program distribution server according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example of operations of a program guide information distribution server and a program distribution server according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a program guide distributed using this embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Program guide information distribution server 3 ... Program distribution server 5 ... Terminal 6 ... Content database 7: Program distribution means 9: Regeneration trend monitoring means 11 ... Receiving means 13: Reproduction trend information calculation means 15 ... Program guide information generating means 17 ... Program guide information DB 19: Search data creation means 21 ... Search information DB 23 ... Transmission means 25 ... User information processing means 27 ... Video analysis means 29 ... Image display section 31 ... Play button 33 ... Pause button 35 ... Stop button 37 ... Rewind button 39 ... Fast forward button 41 ... Position display section 43 ... Start position 45 ... End position 47 ... Cursor

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A playback trend including at least one of playing a program, fast-forwarding the program, rewinding the program, playing a still image by pausing the program, and playing the program repeatedly. A generation means for generating program guide information on which the program is placed so that the reproduction trend information of the program is included; and a transmission means for transmitting the program guide information generated by the generation means to a user. A program guide information distribution server characterized in that 2. The program guide information distribution server according to claim 1, further comprising a receiving means for receiving the reproduction trend data obtained by monitoring by the program distribution server that distributes the program. 3. A distribution means for distributing a program to a user, and for the program distributed by the distribution means, reproducing the program, fast-forwarding the program, rewinding the program,
A program distribution server, comprising: a monitoring unit that monitors a playback trend including at least one of still image playback by pause of the program and repeated playback of the program. 4. A distribution step of distributing a program to a user, with respect to the program distributed by the distribution step, the program is reproduced, the program is fast-forwarded, and the program is rewound.
A monitoring step of monitoring a playback trend including at least one of still image playback by pause of the program and repeated playback of the program; and a monitoring step of the program obtained based on the playback trend obtained by the monitoring step. A generation step of generating program guide information in which the program is placed so that the reproduction trend information is included; and a transmission step of transmitting the program guide information generated in the generation step to a user. A program guide information distribution method characterized by the following.