JP2008271196A - Television receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the time and effort for a user in placing a purchase application for an article introduced in a TV program, using a low-cost configuration in a television receiver. <P>SOLUTION: The television receiver is operated by a remote controller having a purchase button, connected to the Internet and provided with a display for displaying a TV program, a memory and a microcomputer for control. The memory stores information, such as the name of the user, an address and a paying method for an article. When the user depresses the purchase button down (S1), the microcomputer for control fetches a video image of a TV program as a static image (S2), recognizes character information included in the static image (S3) and retrieves a website on the Internet, on the basis of the recognized character information (S6 and S7). The microcomputer for control analyzes the website (S9), detects the purchase application page of the article (S10) and uses the user information stored in the memory, to perform article purchase application procedures (S14). <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a television receiver connected to the Internet, and more particularly to a technique for reducing the trouble of purchasing a product.

  In recent years, television receivers (hereinafter referred to as televisions) that can be connected to the Internet have become widespread. When a user is watching a television program (hereinafter referred to as a TV program) and wants to purchase goods such as clothes worn by talents or actors introduced in the TV program, The website of the store where the product displayed in the TV program is displayed is displayed on the display (see, for example, Patent Documents 1 to 3). Then, the user manually applies for purchase of a product from the purchase application page of the website.

  The television only displays a website about the product on the display, and does not apply for purchase of the product. Therefore, there is a problem that the user has to make a purchase application for the product, and it takes time for the user to apply for the purchase of the product.

On the other hand, in Patent Document 4, product identification data is assigned to a coordinate position where a product is displayed in a still image in a TV program constituted by continuous display of a large number of still images. In addition, a television is disclosed in which when a user selects a product in a TV program, the user can easily apply for purchase of the product from the Internet using the given identification data. However, this television has the problem that enormous costs are required since identification data must be assigned to all products in a still image in a TV program.
JP 2001-20211 A JP 2000-181596 A JP 2002-333340 A JP 2002-109259 A

  The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and provides a television receiver that can reduce the time and effort of a user to make a purchase application for a product introduced in a TV program with an inexpensive configuration. The purpose is to do.

  To achieve the above object, the invention of claim 1 is a tuner for receiving a television broadcast signal (hereinafter referred to as a TV broadcast signal) of a television program (hereinafter referred to as a TV program), and a TV broadcast received by the tuner. Display means for displaying video of a TV program based on a video signal included in the signal, operating means operated by a user to give instructions to the apparatus, a network interface for connecting to the Internet, and controlling each part of the apparatus And a storage means for storing a program for operating the control means, and a television receiver connected to the Internet via the network interface displays a video at a certain point of the TV program. A still image acquisition means for acquiring a still image, and the still image acquisition means. Character information recognition means for recognizing character information contained in the acquired still image, website search means for searching a website including character information recognized by the character information recognition means on the Internet, and the website search A purchase application page detecting means for analyzing the information of the website searched by the means and detecting a purchase application page capable of applying for purchase of the product, wherein the operation means is introduced in the TV program. A purchase button for instructing the apparatus to purchase the purchased product, and the storage means includes at least one information of a user's name, address, and payment method of the purchased product. The control means uses the still image acquisition means when the user presses the purchase button while receiving a TV program. Then, the video of the TV program at the time when the purchase button is pressed is acquired as a still image, the character information included in the still image is recognized using the character information recognition means, and the website search means is used. Then, a website including the recognized character information is searched from the Internet, and the purchase application page detection means is used to analyze the information of the searched website and to purchase a product included in the video of the TV program. When a purchase application page capable of making a purchase application page is detected as a result of this detection, the name, address, and purchase stored in the storage means are detected. The purchase application procedure is performed using information on at least one of the payment methods for the merchandise to be purchased.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the television receiver according to the first aspect, the website search means includes a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) in the character information recognized by the character information recognition means. The website corresponding to this URL is searched from the Internet.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the television receiver according to the second aspect, the control means detects the purchase application page by analyzing website information using the purchase application page detection means. As a result, when the purchase application page cannot be detected, the character information recognized by the character information recognition means is stored in the storage means.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, when the purchase button is pressed by the user, the control means detects a purchase application page that can be applied for purchase of a product included in the video of the TV program, and the result of this detection When a purchase application page for detecting the purchase of a product is detected, the purchase application procedure is performed using at least one of the name, address, and payment method of the purchased product stored in the storage means. I do. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the time and effort for the user to make a purchase application for the product introduced in the TV program.

  In addition, unlike the conventional invention of Patent Document 4, since it is not necessary to assign identification data to all products in a still image in a TV program, it is possible to reduce the trouble of applying for a product purchase with an inexpensive configuration. Can be made. Further, since it is not necessary to install a browser on the television receiver, a product purchase application can be made with an inexpensive configuration.

  According to the invention of claim 2, since the website search means searches the website corresponding to the URL from the Internet, the website related to the product can be searched efficiently.

  According to the invention of claim 3, when the purchase application page cannot be detected, the control means causes the storage means to store the character information recognized by the character information recognition means. Therefore, even when the purchase application page cannot be detected, it is possible to reduce the trouble of the user taking notes on information related to the product.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3. FIG. 1 shows an appearance of a television system 1 including a television receiver (hereinafter referred to as a television) 2 according to the present embodiment and a remote controller (operation unit) 4 for operating the television 2. FIG. A block diagram of the internal configuration of the television 2 is shown, and FIG. The television 2 is connected to the Internet via a LAN cable 3.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the television 2 includes a tuner 27 that receives a television broadcast signal (hereinafter referred to as a TV broadcast signal) of a television program (hereinafter referred to as a TV program), and a TV broadcast signal received by the tuner 27. The TV program audio based on the audio signal included in the TV broadcast signal received by the tuner 27 and the display (display means) 24 for displaying the video of the TV program based on the video signal included in the video signal and various messages. And a control microcomputer (control means) 21 for controlling each part of the apparatus.

  Further, the television 2 receives an infrared signal transmitted from a memory (storage means) 26 storing a program for operating the control microcomputer 21, a network interface 25 for connecting to the Internet, and the remote controller 4. The remote control signal receiving unit 22 further outputs a code signal included in the infrared signal to the control microcomputer 21.

  A LAN cable 3 is connected to the network interface 25, and the television 2 is connected to the Internet via the LAN cable 3.

  The control microcomputer 21 functions as a still image acquisition unit, a character information recognition unit, a website search unit, and a purchase application page detection unit in the claims.

  The memory 26 stores information including the user's name, address, telephone number, and payment method for the purchased product. The payment method stored in the memory 26 includes information such as a credit card number and a debit account number for payment. In addition, the memory 26 can further store stores, store addresses, store phone numbers, store URLs, and the like related to products.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the remote controller 4 includes a channel selection button 43 for selecting a TV program to be displayed on the display 24, a channel sequential selection button 49 for sequentially selecting channels, and a power-on state of the television 2. And a power button 42 for instructing an off state. The remote controller 4 also includes a cross key 44 for making various selections, a determination button 45 for determining various selections, a volume button 46 for instructing the volume output from the speaker 23 of the television 2, and a product It further includes a purchase button 47 for instructing purchase, a cancel button 48 for instructing cancellation of various operations, and a remote control signal transmission unit 41 for transmitting a code signal corresponding to each operation as an infrared signal.

  Next, the procedure of the purchase application process for the product introduced in the TV program on the television 2 will be described with reference to FIG. Here, it is assumed that the user has found a desired product in the TV program while viewing the TV program. First, when the purchase button 47 of the remote controller 4 is pressed by the user (S1), the control microcomputer 21 displays the video of the TV program that the user is viewing at the time when the purchase button 47 is pressed as a still image (steel screen). )) (S2).

  Then, the control microcomputer 21 recognizes character information included in the captured still image (S3), and determines whether or not a URL is included in the recognized character information (S4). The character information to be recognized is information such as a product name, a store name handling the product, a store address, a store phone number, a store e-mail address, a store website URL, and the like.

  If the URL is included as a result of the determination in S4 (YES in S5), the control microcomputer 21 searches the Internet for the website corresponding to this URL (S7). On the other hand, if the URL is not included as a result of the determination in S4 (NO in S5), the control microcomputer 21 searches a website related to the product on the Internet based on the recognized character information (S6).

  And the microcomputer 21 for control acquires the information of the searched website (S8), and analyzes the acquired website (S9). And the purchase application page of goods is detected from the analyzed information (S10). Specifically, the website is analyzed by analyzing the language constituting the website such as HTML and CSS constituting the website. The product purchase application page can be detected using pages with input items related to "address", "name", and "payment method", pages containing characters such as "purchase application" and "application" in titles, ”Or“ Application ”, etc., by detecting a page in which the font of the character is greatly emphasized.

  If the product purchase application page is detected as a result of the detection in S10 (YES in S11), the control microcomputer 21 displays a purchase confirmation screen on the display 24 (S12). When the user presses the enter button 45 and purchase is decided (YES in S13), the control microcomputer 21 stores information such as the user's name, address, telephone number, and payment method stored in the memory 26. The purchase application procedure for the corresponding product is performed using (S14), and the process is terminated. However, if the user presses the cancel button 48 to cancel the purchase application, the purchase application process is terminated without performing the process of S14.

  On the other hand, if the product purchase application page cannot be detected as a result of the detection in S10 (NO in S11), the control microcomputer 21 is captured in the character information recognized in the process of S3 or in the process of S2. The (converted) still image is stored in the memory 26 (S15), and the process is terminated.

  Next, the product purchase application process described above will be described with reference to the examples shown in FIGS. FIG. 5 shows an image of a TV program when the purchase button 47 is pressed by the user (corresponding to S1), and FIG. 6 shows a purchase confirmation screen (corresponding to S12) displayed on the display 24. The video of the TV program is displayed on the display 24.

  When the user presses the purchase button 47, the control microcomputer 21, as shown in FIG. 5, has a product name (Dinosaur Manju) 50, a store name (Manjudo) 51, an address (Osaka Prefecture ○○ City) ) 52, telephone number (06- ★★★★-★★★★) 53, and URL (http: //www.★★★★★/★★★) 54 are acquired. In the case of this example, since the URL 54 is included in the character information, the control microcomputer 21 searches the Internet for the website corresponding to the URL 54 (corresponding to S7 above), and performs the processing after S8.

  When a product purchase application page is detected (corresponding to YES in S11), a product purchase confirmation screen 61 is displayed on the display 24 as shown in FIG. 6 (corresponding to S12). When the user presses the enter button 45 to decide purchase (corresponding to YES in S13), the control microcomputer 21 performs a purchase application procedure (corresponding to S14).

  As described above, according to the television 2 according to the present embodiment, the control microcomputer 21 can purchase a product included in the TV program video when the user presses the purchase button 47. When an application page is detected and, as a result of this detection, a purchase application page that can be applied for purchase of a product is detected, the name, address, telephone number, and payment method of the product to be purchased stored in the memory 26 are detected. Use the information to apply for a purchase of the product. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the time and effort for the user to make a purchase application for the product introduced in the TV program.

  In addition, unlike the conventional invention of Patent Document 4, since it is not necessary to assign identification data to all products in a still image in a TV program, it is possible to reduce the trouble of applying for a product purchase with an inexpensive configuration. Can be made. Further, since it is not necessary to install a browser on the television 2, it is possible to apply for purchase of goods with an inexpensive configuration.

  Moreover, since the control microcomputer 21 searches the website corresponding to the URL from the Internet, it can efficiently search the website related to the product. Further, when the purchase application page cannot be detected, the control microcomputer 21 stores the recognized character information or the still image in the memory 26. Therefore, even when the purchase application page cannot be detected, it is possible to reduce the trouble of the user taking notes on information related to the product.

  In addition, this invention is not limited to the structure of the said embodiment, A various deformation | transformation is possible in the range which does not change the meaning of invention. For example, in the television 2 according to the above-described embodiment, the case of recognizing character information from a still image of a TV program image has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this. An image of a product may be acquired from the image, and a website may be searched from the Internet based on the image.

1 is a perspective view illustrating an appearance of a television system including a television receiver and a remote controller according to an embodiment of the present invention. The block diagram which shows the internal structure of the said television receiver. The figure which shows the external appearance of the said remote control. The flowchart which shows the procedure of the merchandise purchase application process in the said television receiver. The figure which shows the image | video of the TV program displayed on the said television receiver. The figure which shows the goods purchase confirmation screen displayed on the said television receiver.

Explanation of symbols

2 Television receiver 4 Remote control (operating means)
21 Control microcomputer (control means, still image acquisition means, character information recognition means, website search means, purchase application page detection means)
24 Display (display means)
25 Network interface 26 Memory (storage means)
27 Tuner 47 Purchase button

Claims (3)

A tuner for receiving a television broadcast signal (hereinafter referred to as a TV broadcast signal) of a television program (hereinafter referred to as a TV program);
Display means for displaying video of a TV program based on a video signal included in a TV broadcast signal received by the tuner;
Operating means operated by a user to give instructions to the device;
A network interface to connect to the Internet;
Control means for controlling each part of the device;
A television receiver connected to the Internet via the network interface, and a storage means for storing a program for operating the control means;
Still image acquisition means for acquiring a video at a certain point of time as a still image;
Character information recognition means for recognizing character information included in the still image acquired by the still image acquisition means;
Website search means for searching a website including character information recognized by the character information recognition means on the Internet;
Further comprising purchase application page detection means for analyzing the information of the website searched by the website search means and detecting a purchase application page where a product purchase application can be made,
The operation means has a purchase button for instructing the apparatus to purchase a product introduced in a TV program,
The storage means stores at least one information of a user's name, address, and payment method of the purchased product,
The control means includes
When the purchase button is pressed by the user while receiving a TV program,
Using the still image acquisition means, the video of the TV program at the time when the purchase button is pressed is acquired as a still image, and the character information recognition means is used to recognize character information included in the still image, The website search unit is used to search for a website including recognized character information on the Internet, and the purchase application page detection unit is used to analyze the searched website information, thereby displaying a TV program image. When a purchase application page that can be applied for purchase of a product included in is detected and, as a result of this detection, a purchase application page that can be applied for purchase of the product is detected, it is stored in the storage means. A television receiver characterized in that a purchase application procedure is performed using at least one information of a name, an address, and a payment method for a purchased product.   The website searching unit searches the Internet for a website corresponding to the URL when the character information recognized by the character information recognizing unit includes a URL (Uniform Resource Locator). The television receiver according to claim 1.   The control means analyzes the information on the website using the purchase application page detection means and detects the purchase application page. As a result, when the purchase application page cannot be detected, the character information is stored in the storage means. 3. The television receiver according to claim 2, wherein character information recognized by the recognition means is stored.

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