JP5278379B2 - Information processing device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus for remotely controlling a television receiver and for viewing a television broadcast and browsing content on the Internet.

  Recently, broadband, which is a network means for accessing the Internet at high speed, is rapidly emerging. Specific examples of broadband include cable Internet using CATV (cable television), ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line), FTTH (Fiber To The Home), and the like. In addition, MPEG4 (Moving Picture Experts Group Phase 4), Windows (registered trademark) Media Player, RealVideo, and the like have been proposed as encoding methods for streaming video, and their development is progressing. As a result, it is desired that a receiving device at home can view streaming content provided via broadband in addition to programs provided via broadcast radio waves.

  Conventionally, there is a product that combines television broadcasting and an Internet terminal, but it is not compatible with broadband and streaming content cannot be viewed. In the case where both a television broadcast program and streaming content can be viewed, the present invention uses a secondary display in addition to the primary display for the purpose of improving the operability for viewing.

  Conventionally, as a digital broadcast receiver, an auxiliary input / output device having a small display is provided separately from a display main body having a large screen, and the structure in which the display main body and the auxiliary input / output device are connected wirelessly is described in Patent Document 1 below. It is described in. The apparatus described in Patent Document 1 has a configuration in which an auxiliary input / output device is provided with a touch panel on a screen, displays an electronic program guide separated from a received television broadcast on the auxiliary input / output device, and displays a desired program. An operation for selecting a program or making a reservation for recording a desired program is performed through the touch panel of the auxiliary input / output device.

JP 2001-203908 A

  A problem to be solved is to provide an information processing apparatus in which a portable secondary display itself can view both a television broadcast program and streaming content, and can remotely control a television receiver. It is in.

In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention includes a display,
A touch panel provided in connection with the display;
A wireless communication unit;
A signal processing unit having a video signal decoding process, a browser function, and a data decoding process acquired via the Internet ;
A first display mode in which a list of television broadcast channels that can be viewed and a list of contents that can be viewed and obtained from the Internet via a wireless communication unit are displayed on the display, and remote control of a separate television receiver unit The second display mode for displaying the screen for performing on the display can be switched,
In the first display mode, a desired channel and content in the list are selected by a touch panel, and a television broadcast reception signal of the selected channel and streaming data of the selected content are signal processed. Part, decrypts and displays on the display,
In the second display mode, the information processing apparatus is configured to select desired control by a touch panel and transmit a remote control signal corresponding to the selected control to the television receiver.

  In the present invention, a list of television broadcast channels that can be viewed on the display and content that can be acquired from the Internet via the wireless communication unit is displayed, so that broadcast and content on the Internet can be selected without distinction. Become. Since the selection screen for content to be viewed and the screen for remote control are switched, each screen operation becomes easy.

It is a block diagram which shows the system configuration | structure of one Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the more detailed structure of one Embodiment of this invention. It is an approximate line figure used for explanation of a display example of a screen of one embodiment of this invention. It is a basic diagram which shows the example of a display corresponding to the menu selected by menu display. It is a basic diagram which shows the example of a display corresponding to the menu selected by menu display. It is a basic diagram which shows the example of a display corresponding to the menu selected by menu display.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 indicates the entire display system to which the present invention is applied. Reference numeral 2 is PDP (Plasma
1 shows a first display unit (hereinafter referred to as a primary display as appropriate) having a large display panel such as a display panel (LCD) and a liquid crystal display (LCD), and reference numeral 3 denotes a small second display (hereinafter referred to as 2). The following display is referred to as appropriate). The secondary display 3 has a structure in which a touch panel is stacked on a small, for example, 7-inch LCD, and is placed on a stand 4 (hereinafter referred to as a cradle as appropriate) so that the user can carry it as necessary. . In the following description, the secondary display 3 is used as a term including not only an LCD and a touch panel but also a configuration for communication with the primary display side, compression / expansion processing, system control, and the like. Further, a camera unit 12 is provided in the periphery of the display screen of the secondary display 3. The camera unit 12 uses a solid-state imaging device such as a CCD (Charge Coupled Device). The face of the user facing the display screen is photographed. The secondary display 3 also includes an imaging signal processing unit of the camera unit 12.

  A video signal to be displayed is supplied to the primary display 2 through the media receiver 5. The video signal is a broadcast signal or streaming data distributed via the Internet. The broadcast signal is received by the antenna 6, and the streaming data is branched by the switch 7 and supplied to the media receiver 5 via a LAN (Local Area Network). A personal computer 8 is connected to the other branch of the switch 7.

Streaming data distributed via the Internet 10 is ADSL (Asymmetric
A digital subscriber line (MODEM) 9 (modulator-demodulator) 9 is input to a WAN (Wide Area Network) side, and a switch 7 is connected to the LAN side of the MODEM 9. ADSL is an example of a broadband connection, and video content may be received via a broadband connection using CATV (cable television), FTTH (Fiber To The Home), or the like. Furthermore, it is also possible to obtain streaming data using IP (Internet Protocol) streaming broadcasting. Normally, audio data is attached to video content.

  The media receiver 5 has two tuners in order to be able to supply separate television broadcast programs for each of the primary display 2 and the secondary display 3. The media receiver 5 transmits a video signal to the secondary display 3 via the wireless LAN access point 11. On the other hand, control data such as a remote control signal can be transmitted from the secondary display 3 to the access point 11, and bidirectional communication is possible. For example, an IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 802.11 wireless system can be used, among which, for example, the 802.11a standard can be used. This standard uses a frequency of 5.2 GHz and can realize a maximum transmission rate of 54 Mbps.

  FIG. 2 shows the configuration of an example of a display system including the primary display 2 and the secondary display 3 in more detail. The primary display 2 includes a relatively large display panel 21 of, for example, 30 inches or more and a driving unit (not shown).

  The media receiver 5 includes a main tuner 22a and a sub tuner 22b for receiving terrestrial waves. Reference numeral 23 is a digital tuner for receiving BS (Broadcasting Satellite) and 110 ° CS (Communicaton Satellite). Although not shown, the tuners 22a and 22b are supplied with the output of the UHF / VHF antenna, and the digital tuner 23 is supplied with the output of the BS / 110 ° CS receiving parabolic antenna. In one embodiment, the main tuner 22 a is used for the primary display 2 and the sub-tuner 22 b is used for the secondary display 3.

  Video signals of the main tuner 22 a and the sub tuner 22 b are supplied to the AV switch 24. An output video signal from the AV switch 24 is input to the image processing unit 25 and the signal processing unit 32. The image processing unit 25 performs image processing for improving image quality such as higher resolution.

  An output signal of the image processing unit 25 is input to the display panel 21 of the primary display 2 via a DVI (Digital Visual Interface) 26 that is a display interface. Although not shown, an image quality adjustment circuit for the display panel 21 is provided in the preceding stage of the DVI 26. Further, when a digital video signal is supplied to the display panel 21, a copy prevention signal for preventing unauthorized copying of broadcast content is also output. For example, HDCP (High band with Digital Content Protection) can be used to prevent copying.

  An output signal of the digital tuner 23 is input to the video decoder 27. For example, the video decoder 27 decodes MPEG2 (Moving Picture Experts Group Phase 2). An HD (HIgh Definition) video signal from the video decoder 27 is supplied to the image processing unit 25 and input to the display panel 21 via the DVI 26.

  The video decoder 27 has a function of outputting an SD (Standard Definition) video signal, for example, 480I (interlaced signal having 480 effective lines) to the signal processing unit 32. Reference numeral 28 denotes a system controller that controls the operations of the primary display 2 and the media receiver 5, and is composed of a CPU (Central Processing Unit). For example, the system controller 28 controls the channel selection state of both the main tuner 22a and the sub tuner 22b, and has information on the current channel selection state of each tuner for control.

Streaming data received via the Internet and HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) content data such as a home page are supplied to the signal processing unit 32 via the LAN 31. In the signal processing unit 32, two DSPs (Digital Signal Processors) 33 and 34 are connected to a bus, for example, a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) 35, and a controller 36 composed of a CPU is connected to the PCI 35 via a bridge 37. Yes.

The signal processing unit 32 performs decoding of the input streaming data (for example, decoding of MPEG4 (Moving Picture Experts Group Phase 4), Windows (registered trademark) Media Player, RealVideo, etc.)). The decoded video signal is supplied to the image processing unit 25 and displayed on the primary display 2. Therefore, the primary display 2 can display broadcast signals from the main tuner 22a and the digital tuner 23, and can display HTML content and streaming content received via broadband. The media receiver 5 can transmit video data or audio data to the Internet 31 via the LAN 31.

  The signal processing unit 32 encrypts the video signal from the sub tuner 22 b and the digital tuner 23, further converts the encrypted video signal into a format that can be transmitted wirelessly, and sends it to the secondary display 3 via the access point 11. Send it out. When the streaming content received via the broadband is displayed on the secondary display 3, the signal processing unit 32 does not perform decoding and remains compressed in the streaming compression format, that is, through the access point 11 in a through state. To the secondary display 3. On the other hand, a control signal such as a remote control signal from the secondary display 3 received by the access point 11 is processed and sent to the system controller 28 on the primary display side. In this case, the decoding process of the streaming content is performed on the secondary display 3.

  The secondary display 3 includes a transceiver 41 that performs wireless communication with the access point 11, and a signal processing unit 42 is connected to the transceiver 41. The signal processing unit 42 is configured such that a system controller 43 that controls the operation of the secondary display 3 and a DSP 44 are connected via a PCI 45.

  A camera unit 12, a display panel such as an LCD 46, a transparent touch panel 47 stacked on the screen of the LCD 46, a speaker 48, and a memory card 49 are connected to the signal processing unit 42. Furthermore, a battery 50 as a power source is provided. The battery 50 can be charged by, for example, a charging circuit housed in the cradle 4 (see FIG. 1). The signal processing unit 42 decrypts the encrypted video signal received from the access point 11, decrypts the data received via the Internet, and displays the decrypted signal on the LCD 46. Further, remote control signals, commands, etc. generated by operating the touch panel 47 are transmitted to the primary display 2 side. Further, it has a function of decoding still image data stored in the memory card 49 and displaying it on the LCD 46.

  Furthermore, image data captured by the camera unit 12 can be transmitted to a partner on the Internet via the wireless LAN and the media receiver 5. An input signal from the camera unit 12 is input to the signal processing unit 42, and is encoded by digital compression encoding such as MPEG2 and MPEG4 in the signal processing unit 42, and the compressed signal is transmitted to the media receiver 5 through the wireless LAN, and the Internet It is transmitted to the other party above. In this case, although omitted in FIG. 2, the secondary display 3 includes a microphone, and audio data input from the microphone together with the image can be communicated to the other party together with the video data. Audio data is received via the Internet, decoded, and reproduced by the LCD 46 and the speaker 48. In this way, a videophone function is provided by bidirectional communication of video data and audio data.

  The other party that transmits a still image or a moving image captured by the camera unit 12 is a person having a receiving device having two display systems having the same configuration as that of the embodiment, or other camera functions such as a camera-equipped mobile phone, a PDA, etc. A person who has a portable information terminal.

  The operation of the display system according to the embodiment of the present invention described above will be described below. The baseband analog video signal demodulated by the main tuner 22a is converted into a digital signal, and after being subjected to image quality improvement processing and interlace / progressive conversion processing by the image processing unit 25, it is displayed via the DVI 26. Output to the panel 21.

  The baseband analog signal demodulated by the sub-tuner 22b is supplied to the signal processing unit 32, converted into a digital signal, and then compressed in a digital compression format such as MPEG2 or MPEG4. The compressed video signal is transmitted to the secondary display 3 by the wireless LAN through the access point 11 after being subjected to the encryption process. The signal processing unit 42 of the secondary display 3 receives the decryption and decompression processing of the encryption, and is displayed on the LCD 46.

  When the input source is a digital broadcast signal, the digital broadcast signal is input to the digital tuner 23, demodulated by the digital front end block of the digital tuner 23, and then decoded by the video decoder 27. The digital video signal is displayed on the display panel 21 via the image processing unit 25 and the DVI 26.

  An SD signal, for example, a 480I video signal output from the video decoder 27 is sent to the signal processing unit 32, and is compressed and encrypted in the digital compression format by the signal processing unit 32. Then, it is transmitted from the wireless LAN access point 11 to the secondary display 3. When the input source is an HD signal, it is down-converted to an SD signal, for example, a 480I video signal, and then sent to the signal processing unit 32. Down-conversion is a process performed for copyright protection of digital broadcast content.

When the input source is streaming content from the Internet, the signal input from the LAN 31 is subjected to streaming decoding processing in the signal processing unit 32 according to the streaming compression format (MPEG4, Windows (registered trademark) Media Player, RealVideo, etc.). The image data is sent to the display panel 21 via the image processing unit 25 and the DVI 26.

  Further, when displaying streaming content on the secondary display 3, the signal processing unit 32 does not receive the decoding process and remains compressed in the streaming compression format, with respect to the secondary display 3 by the wireless LAN. Sent out. Then, decoding processing of streaming compression is performed by the signal processing unit 42 of the secondary display 3, the decoded video is displayed on the LCD 46, and the decoded audio is reproduced by the speaker 48. By this process, it is possible to prevent the content from being deteriorated due to the decoding and re-encoding process of the streaming content.

  In the receiving system according to the embodiment of the present invention, copyright protection is performed as described below. First, regarding the content of an analog broadcast signal, if the content restricts analog copying, the signal processing unit 32 digitally compresses the content before sending it to the secondary display 3, and as a content protection measure, Encryption is performed by an encryption method such as 3DES (Data Encryption Standard) or AES (Advanced Encryption Standard). For example, when a macrovision copy restriction signal is added to an analog video signal, analog copy is restricted.

  Further, as a protection measure for the transmission system, encryption on the transmission path is performed by an encryption method used in wireless LAN transmission. For example, RC4 ((Rivest Cipher) 4 Stream Cipher) is used in a wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11), and WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy protocol) is used as an encryption key generation algorithm. In WEP, an encryption key is generated from an IV (Initial Vector) and a common key, and network packets are encrypted. In this way, the first encryption for the content protection measure and the second encryption for the protection measure for the transmission system are applied to the content of the analog broadcast signal.

  On the secondary display 3 side, authentication is performed through communication with the primary side, and then the encryption on the transmission path is decrypted by the wireless LAN transceiver 41, and further, the signal processing unit 42 performs content protection. The encryption is decrypted. When the secondary display 3 has an analog recording function, it is possible to limit recording before recording by detecting a macrovision signal. Further, when the secondary display 3 has an external output interface, copy restriction can be similarly applied to an external recording device by outputting an analog video signal with a macrovision signal added.

  Next, copyright protection for digital broadcast signal contents will be described. One embodiment is an example in which one digital tuner 23 is provided. In this example, there is one conditional access mechanism having a copyright protection function (specifically, one IC card), and the data decrypted by the digital tuner 23 is sent to the video decoder 27. And output to the primary display 2. The conditional access mechanism depends on the number of digital tuners. In order to simultaneously view different digital broadcast contents on the primary display 2 and the secondary display 3, two digital tuners each having a conditional access mechanism may be provided.

  Further, as described above, when the content of the digital broadcast signal is viewed on the secondary display 3, the analog signal that is once decoded by the video decoder 27 without sending the digitally compressed signal to the secondary display 3. Is transmitted to the signal processing unit 32, and the signal processing unit 32 re-encodes the signal using a compression method suitable for home transmission, and encrypts and transmits the content in the same manner as the copyright protection of the analog broadcast signal. The data is sent to the secondary display 3 after double encryption with encryption for protection. In the case of digital broadcast HD content, since it is downconverted to 480I SD content and sent to the secondary display 3, the copyright of the HD content can be substantially protected even if the encryption is decrypted. it can. Thus, the copyright protection of the content transmitted between the media receiver 5 (primary display 2) and the secondary display 3 can be achieved with high security.

  Information related to television broadcast programs, such as synopsis about drama, performers, etc. can be viewed on a predetermined URL (Uniform Resource Locator) site on the Internet. The system controller 28 of the media receiver 5 on the primary display side has channel selection information regarding the current channel selection state of the main tuner 22a in order to control the main tuner 22a. This channel selection information is sent to the system controller 43 of the signal processing unit 42 of the secondary display 3.

  The secondary display 3 is equipped with a browser for browsing / displaying Internet information and a database indicating the correspondence between programs and URLs. Channel selection information received from the primary display 5, such as the channel selection channel and current time information, the program being viewed is known, and the URL of the related site of the program is known from the database. Then, the site is accessed via the Internet 10 and related information of the program being viewed is acquired and displayed on the secondary display 3. That is, related information of the broadcast program being viewed can be displayed on the LCD 46 of the secondary display 3 while displaying the broadcast program on the large display panel 21 of the primary display. Since the related information is not displayed on the screen of the display panel 21, there is no possibility that viewing of the program is hindered by the related information, and since the related information is viewed on the LCD 46 at hand, small characters can be easily seen.

  Note that a signal necessary for accessing related information included in a broadcast signal may be detected, and a related information site may be accessed based on the detected signal. For example, a data signal serving as a trigger when a program is transmitted from a broadcasting station may be transmitted, and the URL of the related site may be automatically detected by detecting this data signal.

  In the display system described above, selection of a broadcast program to be viewed and selection of Internet content are performed by a GUI (Graphical User Interface) using the touch panel 47. On the touch panel 47, a desired content can be selected by a touch and release operation, that is, a single operation.

  FIG. 3 shows a selected display, for example, a menu display 54 displayed when the finger 52 (or touch pen) touches the sensor unit 51 b on the right side of the touch panel 47. When the finger 52 is moved up and down while touching the sensor unit 51b, only the menu item having the same height as the finger 52 is highlighted. FIG. 5 shows a state where the channel list of the menu item is highlighted.

  Then, when the finger 52 is released at the position of the highlighted menu item, the menu item is selected. A lower-level screen corresponding to the selected menu item is displayed. Although omitted in FIG. 3, when the menu display 54 is displayed, the image on the LCD 46 of the secondary display 3 is displayed on the display / sensor unit 51 a of the touch panel 47.

  Note that if the position of the finger 52 is on the sensor unit 51b but there is no menu item on the side, the menu item is not highlighted. That is, when an area above or below the area where the six menu items are arranged is touched, no button is highlighted because there is no adjacent button. In this state, when the finger is released from the sensor unit 51b, it is determined that the selection action has been canceled, the process ends, the state does not change, and the menu display 54 continues to be displayed.

  Further, when the finger 52 is shifted to the display / sensor unit 51a having a size substantially equal to the display surface of the LCD 46, it is determined that the selection action has been canceled, the processing ends, and the menu display 54 disappears. . In this case, even if the finger 52 is subsequently released from the touch panel 47, the state does not change.

  FIG. 4 is an example of the display 55 when the menu item “TV channel list” is selected. The terrestrial, BS, CS, and input (video 1 to video 4) channels are displayed on the LCD 46, and a desired channel can be selected by the display / sensor unit 51a of the touch panel 47. The channel list of FIG. 4 is a list display indicating what is displayed on the primary display 2, for example.

  FIG. 5 shows an example of the display 56 when the “channel list” menu item is selected. This shows a list of all contents that can be viewed on the secondary display 3. In addition to the television channel and video input for viewing the television broadcast content shown in FIG. 4, there are channels such as news received via the Internet and streaming content received via broadband. A desired channel can be selected by the display / sensor unit 51 a of the touch panel 47 displayed on the LCD 46.

  As in the example of the display 56 of FIG. 5, by displaying all the lists of receivable sources on the LCD 46 of the secondary display 3 in a centralized manner, it is possible to perform a single selection operation without distinguishing between television broadcasting and the Internet. Desired content can be selected. In other words, it is possible to seamlessly select broadcast content and network distribution content including images and sounds such as moving images and still images.

  FIG. 6 is an example of the display 57 when the menu item “TV remote control” is selected. A remote control button is displayed on the screen of the LCD 46, and the primary display 2 and the media receiver 5 can be controlled by pressing a desired button on the display / sensor unit 51a of the touch panel 47. The buttons for the remote control are buttons such as a numeric keypad, volume increase / decrease, and channel switching. Thus, since the secondary display 3 has a function as a remote control commander, it is not necessary to prepare a separate commander, and it is possible to prevent the number of commanders from increasing in the home. In addition to remote control of the primary display 2, a remote control mode for AV equipment such as recording equipment may be prepared.

  Although not shown, when the menu item “Memory Stick (product name)” is selected, the display when the menu item “Internet” is selected, and when the menu item “setup” is selected. A corresponding display is displayed on the LCD 46.

  The above-described menu screen, channel list screen, and remote control commander GUI operation screen displayed on the secondary display 3 are examples, and other configurations are possible. In one embodiment, since the system is connectable to the Internet, a user-friendly GUI operation screen can be downloaded from a system dedicated service site in accordance with the user's preference. In addition to the network, a favorite GUI operation screen may be installed in a controller that controls the secondary display 3 using a recording medium such as a CD-ROM, DVD, or memory card. Furthermore, it is possible to cope with version upgrade of GUI operation screens. In this way, by changing the GUI operation screen according to the user's preference, it is possible to provide the GUI that is most easily used by the user without replacing the device, thereby improving the operability.

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment of the present invention, and various modifications and applications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention. For example, an image signal captured by the camera unit of the secondary display 3 may be transmitted to the Internet via a wireless LAN without passing through the primary display.

2 ... primary display, 3 ... secondary display, 4 ... cradle, 5 ... media receiver, 11 ... access point, 12 ... camera unit, 22a ... main tuner, 22b ... sub tuner, 23 ... digital tuner, 28 ... system controller, 43 ... system controller, 46 ... LCD, 47 ... touch panel, 51a ... display / sensor unit, 51b ..Sensor part, 52 ... finger, 53 ... selected display, 54 ... menu display

Claims (4)

Display,
A touch panel provided in association with the display;
A wireless communication unit;
A signal processing unit having a video signal decoding process, a browser function, and a data decoding process acquired via the Internet ;
A channel of the television broadcast viewable, acquired via the wireless communication unit from the Internet, the first display mode for displaying a list of viewable content on the display, a separate television receiver remote A second display mode for displaying a screen for performing control on the display is switched;
In the first display mode, the desired channel and the content in the list are selected by the touch panel, and a television broadcast reception signal of the selected channel and streaming of the selected content are selected. Any of the data is decoded by the signal processing unit and displayed on the display,
In the second display mode, an information processing apparatus configured to select a desired control by the touch panel and transmit a remote control signal corresponding to the selected control to the television receiver.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein in the first display mode, power ON / OFF control and volume adjustment display are performed together with the list.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein display screen data in each of the first display mode and the second display mode is acquired from the Internet via the wireless communication unit. A database for associating a program with an access destination of a related site from which related information of the program can be acquired;
The television receiving unit receives information on a program being viewed, accesses the related site of the program with reference to the database, acquires the related information of the program, and displays the related information on the display Item 4. The information processing apparatus according to item 1, 2 or 3.

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