JPH06169448A - Data transmitter - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Object] An object of the present invention is to provide a data transmission device capable of transmitting predetermined data in a short time without affecting a conventional program display channel. According to the data transmission device of the present invention, a reducing means for reducing information constituting a screen corresponding to a small screen having a predetermined size and a plurality of small screens obtained by the reducing means are provided with a gap therebetween. And a data transmitting apparatus having a constitution means for arranging a television signal so as to be arranged on one screen and an inserting means for inserting a predetermined signal in a gap provided by the constitution means, and a television signal to be inputted. Extracting means for extracting a predetermined signal inserted between the signals relating to the small screen,
Storage means for storing the signal extracted by the extraction means,
The data receiving device includes an output unit that selectively outputs the signal stored in the storage unit to a display medium.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a data transmission apparatus for transmitting predetermined information to a television signal.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a plurality of channels are set in television broadcasting, and a program is broadcast for each channel. Therefore, in order to know what kind of program each channel is currently broadcasting, the viewer of the television broadcast must confirm the contents of each channel by switching the channel, or the newspaper, program information. Either method of recognizing by the program guide published in a magazine or the like is used.

On the other hand, in recent years, there are signs that the number of channels has been promoted as seen in cable television (CATV). As a result, the number of channels is further increased, and it is expected that the above-mentioned channel switching or program content confirmation by the program guide becomes more troublesome. Therefore, as a simpler program search method, a format of displaying a program guide on the screen of a television receiver has been proposed. As an example, a method of transmitting program information using teletext, specifically, US47
06121 "TV SCHEDULE SYSTEM
AND PROCESS ", US4977155" Sy
system and process for VTR
There is "scheduling".

In the United States, the data format shown in FIG. 6 (EIA R-4.3 A Propo) is used.
sed Specification For Ext
Ended Data Services on Li
ne 21 Field 2), the program information for 2 weeks is 480 in the second field 21 line of the caption broadcast.
A method of performing multiplex transmission at a transmission rate of (bps) (for example,
A closed captioning subtitle service for the hearing impaired) is being put to practical use.

The program information includes a channel (hereinafter simply referred to as CH), a date (hereinafter simply referred to as DT), a start time (hereinafter simply referred to as TM), and a program title (hereinafter simply referred to as P).
There is a category of T). Each information amount is CH = 16
(Ch), DT = 31 (day), TM = 24 (hour) × 6
0 (minutes) / 5 (minutes) = 288, PT = 20 (characters)
Assuming that x1 (byte) = 20 (byte) and the average number of programs per channel per day is 30 (programs), the amount of information per program other than the program title is 16 (ch) x 31 (day). ) × [24 (hours) × 60
(Minutes) / 5 (minutes)] = 142848 (ways), which can be represented by binary data represented by the number of digits of 18 (bit).

In addition, 1 (byte), 1 per character
When (byte) = 8 (bit), the information amount of the program title per program is [20 (characters) × 1 (Byte) × 8 (bit)] = 1
60 (bit) Therefore, the amount of information per day is [18 (bit) +160 (bit)] × 30 (program)
X16 (ch) = 85440 (bit).

Here, VBI (Vertical Bl)
anking Interval; vertical blanking period)
Assuming that closed caption broadcasting in the United States is assumed as an example of a method of transmitting the program information by being multiplexed in the above, the transmission rate is 480 (bps) in this case, and therefore, it is 85440 (bit) / 480 (bps) = 178.
(Second) (= 2 minutes 58 seconds) Therefore, the program information transmission time for one month requires a long time of 178 (seconds) × 31 (days) = 5518 (seconds) (= 91 minutes 58 seconds). Become. In addition, in reality, since an error correction signal is added in addition to the above information, it takes more transmission time.

[0008]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION As described above,
Conventionally, when transmitting program information, there is a method of setting a dedicated channel or multiplexing and transmitting to VBI. However, since the transmission method of multiplexing in VBI has a low transmission rate, a long time of several tens of minutes to several hours is required to transmit program information for several weeks, and improvement has been desired.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide a data transmission device capable of transmitting predetermined data in a short time without affecting a conventional program display channel. And

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, the first invention of the present application provides a reducing means for reducing information constituting a screen in correspondence with a small screen having a predetermined size, and a reducing means for obtaining the same. A plurality of small screens are arranged so that a television signal is arranged such that they are arranged in one screen with a gap therebetween, and an inserting means for inserting a predetermined signal into the gap provided by the constituting means. That is the summary.

Further, the second invention of the present application stores extracting means for extracting a predetermined signal inserted between signals relating to a small screen of the input television signal, and the signal extracted by the extracting means. It is a gist to have a storage means and an output means for selectively outputting a signal stored in the storage means to a display medium.

[0012]

In the data transmitting apparatus of the first invention of the present application, the programs of the respective channels are time-compressed, and the respective programs are reduced so as to be contained in one channel, and the plurality of program channels are simultaneously displayed by the reduced small screen. By displaying data on the same screen and adding data such as program information between the small screens of each program and transmitting it, the data transmission rate is several to several tens of times that of the transmission method in which only VBI is multiplexed. And can be transmitted in a short time.

A data receiving apparatus of the second invention of the present application extracts a predetermined signal inserted between signals relating to a small screen, temporarily stores the extracted signal, and then selects the stored signal. Output to a display medium.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings by taking as an example the case of displaying program information on 16 channels and transmitting program information.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a data transmitting apparatus which constitutes a data transmitting apparatus according to the present invention, and FIGS. 2 and 3 show an example of a transmission format in FIG.
FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a transmitted screen form. Also,
FIG. 5 shows a receiving side device corresponding to the data transmitting device shown in FIG. 1, and is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a data receiving device constituting a data transmitting device according to the present invention.

In FIG. 1, an antenna 1 is composed of a satellite communication (hereinafter abbreviated as CS) antenna 1A, a satellite broadcasting (hereinafter simply referred to as BS) antenna 1B, and a terrestrial broadcasting reception antenna 1C. . The television signals received by the CS antenna 1A and the BS antenna 1B are selected and received by the tuner 3 (3A, 3B), respectively, and are supplied to the input terminals TA, TB as baseband television signals. The television signal received by the terrestrial broadcast receiving antenna 1C is the tuner 3C.
Is selected and received by the input terminal T as a television signal.
Supplied to C.

On the other hand, a VTR containing original programs and the like
(Video Tape Recorder) 5D,
, 5P are output via input terminals TD, ..., TP, respectively, and modulators 11D, ..., 11P and a luminance / color difference signal separation (hereinafter simply referred to as Y / C separation) circuit 13D ,.
..., 13P. , 5P generate a synchronization reference phase on the station side, and a highly stable synchronization signal (hereinafter simply abbreviated as H, V) from a reference synchronization timing generation circuit 7 and a subcarrier (hereinafter simply abbreviated as fsc). Do)
Is supplied, and GENLOCK is applied to synchronize with the synchronization reference phase on the station side.

On the other hand, each television signal having each program content is input to a time base collector (hereinafter, simply abbreviated as TBC) 9 (9A, 9B, 9C) via input terminals TA, TB, TC. To be done. This TBC
At 9, the timing is adjusted to synchronize the input signal with the synchronization reference phase on the station side, and the signals are input to the modulators 11A, 11B and 11C and the luminance / color difference signal separation circuits 13A, 13B and 13C.

The reference synchronization timing generation circuit 7 generates highly stable H, V, fsc and various timing signals, and among these generated timing signals, H, V, fsc is TB.
By giving it as the synchronization reference phase of C9, the phases of H, V, and fsc of each input signal match the synchronization reference phase of the station side.

By the above operation, the input terminals TA, T
The signals given to B, TC, TD, ..., TP are all phase-synchronized with the H, V, and fsc timing signals of the reference synchronization timing generation circuit 7, and basic timing adjustment for multi-screen display is performed.

Further, the Y / C separation circuit 13 (13A, 13
B, 13C, 13D ..., 13P), the signals of the respective input program channels are separated into the luminance signal and the baseband color difference signals (C1, C2), and the multiplexer 15 (15A, 15B, 15C, 15D, …, 1
5P), based on the multiplexed signal MPX provided from the reference synchronization timing generation circuit 7, Y
The signals and the color-difference C signals are time-division multiplexed in the order of (Y, C1, Yd, C2) at a 4fsc cycle.

The respective outputs of the multiplexer 15 are connected to analog / digital (hereinafter simply referred to as A /
Abbreviated as D) converter 17 (17A, 17B, 17C,
17D, ...
C, 19D ..., 19P). Here, the signal Yd is a dummy signal of the Y signal and is not read out from the memory even if it is multiplexed.

At this point, the number of pixels of the image of each program channel is decimated to 1/4 of the number of samples both vertically and horizontally, and an image area for reduced display is formed.

Of the image signals written in the RAM 19,
The Y signal is continuously read by the clock RCK having a 4fsc cycle, and the color difference C signals C1 and C2 are simultaneously read by the clock having a 4fsc cycle. At this point, the images of the respective program channels are both vertically and horizontally. The area ratio is reduced to 1/16 with respect to the original image, and the fsc carriers fsc [a] and fsc that have a phase difference of 90 degrees and are orthogonal to each other
It is re-modulated by the modulator 21 by [b]. The re-modulated color difference C signal is combined with the Y signal read from the RAM 19 in the mixing circuit 23 to form a continuous digital television signal, which is a digital / analog converter (hereinafter simply referred to as D / A). It is converted into an analog signal by 25 and the 16-screen display shown in FIG. 4 is reproduced on the display medium.

In FIG. 4, the area indicated by the AREA signal, that is, the frame F area provided between each small screen is usually replaced and displayed with a specific image level or color.

The image signal X converted into an analog signal by the D / A converter 25 is input to the modulator 31 via the multiplexer 27.

In the modulators 11 and 31, the channels chA, chB, chC, chD, chE, ..., C respectively.
modulated to hP and chX, mixers 33A, 33B,
33 (P-1) and the mixer 35 are connected to the main line 37.

FIG. 4 shows a display form of a signal in chX, in which data is inserted and transmitted at least in a section of m lines (m = 4 / field) indicated by the vertical AREA signal. The signal on the line POS in the image area outside the m line is shown in FIG. 2, and the data transmission carrier CL and the transmission data DA in the m line section are shown.
An example of the signal waveform of TA is shown in FIG.

Referring to FIG. 4, small screens chA, chB, chC, c which are reduced and displayed on a television signal.
hD, ..., chP, and A given by the reference synchronization timing generation circuit 7 between the image signals ch.
The REA signal indicates a section in which an image is not inserted, that is, a frame F area.

During this AREA signal period, in the multiplexer 27, the program information data given from the data generator 29 is transmitted as shown in FIG. 3 in synchronization with the data transmission carrier and the data transmission carrier.
(16 bit) data is inserted at a position between the blanking level BL and the synchronization tip. for that reason,
The frame area is reproduced as "black" on the display screen of the television receiver without any special processing, and the data is not reproduced on the display screen.

When the television receiver or the decoding terminal has a function of replacing the frame F area with a specific color or image level, the data to be transmitted may be inserted above the blanking level LB. .

The amount of program information data to be transmitted is CH = 16 (ch), DT = 31 (day), T as in the conventional example.
M = 5 minutes, PT = 20 (characters) x 1 (Byte),
If the average number of programs per day is 30 (programs), the amount of information other than the program title per program is 14
2848 (streets), which can be expressed by a binary number indicated by the number of digits of 18 (bit), and the information amount of a program title per program is 160 (bit), so 1
The amount of information per day is 85440 (bit).

If the frame area is 4 lines in the vertical direction on the television image, 5 areas can be set in the horizontal direction in 16-channel display. Therefore, 4 (lines) × 5 (areas) × 2 (Field) = 40
(Line), and 40 lines of program information data can be inserted.
Therefore, as in the conventional example, in the transmission method of the transmission rate of 480 (bps) for transmitting the program information by multiplexing the VBI,
The program transmission time for one day is 85440 (bit) / [480 (bps) × 40 (line)] = 4.45 (seconds).

Therefore, the program information transmission time for one month is 4.45 (seconds) × 31 (days) = 137.95 (seconds) (=
It is possible to transmit in a short time of 2 minutes 17.95 seconds). Of course, it is also possible to use a horizontal frame area together, and in this case, the transmission time can be further shortened.

In addition, by expanding the frame area (for example, from 4 lines to 8 lines) as compared with the above-mentioned presentation condition, higher speed transmission becomes possible.

Further, the priority of the program information repeatedly transmitted is normally ranked and transmitted in the order of the current day, the current week, and the next week, and the emergency and the program time change on the day are given the highest priority or by interruption. Is transmitted.

In addition, a program attribute code (indicating an attribute of sports, music, news, etc.) for one character is included in the number of characters of the program title PT to facilitate the search by the receiver.

The contents of data to be transmitted are program information,
Although it is viewing information, billing information, and the like in CATV and pay broadcasting, all data transmission provided in at least one direction is possible.

Next, FIG. 5 shows a structural example of a data receiving apparatus corresponding to the data transmitting apparatus of the present embodiment described above.

The television signal branched from the trunk line 37 by the branching device 51 is selected and received by the tuner 53, the IF amplification circuit 55, the video detection circuit 57, and the video amplification circuit 59 as chX, and the sync separation circuit 61 and transmission. CK reproduction circuit 6
5, the data extraction circuit 69, the band amplification circuit 71, and the multiplexer 89.

The chX television signal supplied to the sync separation circuit 61 is separated into H and V sync signals by the sync separation circuit 61, and further the sync stabilization circuit 63.
At, the period is stabilized. The outputs Hs and Vs from the synchronization stabilizing circuit 63 are given to the burst amplification circuit 73 as color synchronization reproduction gate pulses BG for extracting the reproduction color reference signal burst (PCB) in FIG.

For color synchronous reproduction, a band amplification circuit 71, a burst amplification circuit 73 connected to the video amplification circuit 59,
And a PLL (Phase Locked Lo) including an automatic phase control circuit (APC) 75 and an fsc generation circuit 77.
(op) circuit 70 operates so that the output of fsc generation circuit 77 is synchronized with color reference signal PCB.

A part of the data signal inserted and transmitted in the frame area of chX is input to the transmission CK reproducing circuit 65. In the transmission CK reproduction circuit 65, the transmission clock extraction gate signal CG generated to extract the data transmission clock CL in FIG. 3 from the synchronization stabilization circuit 63 is input, and the data reproduction clock CL (see FIG. 3). Play
The reproduced clock CL is output to the timing generation circuit 67 and the data extraction circuit 69.

The timing generation circuit 67 outputs the data extraction timing signal DM to the data extraction circuit 69 based on the reproduced data clock CL to perform data extraction, and also based on the clock synchronized with the reproduced clock CL. According to the timing, the operation of selectively writing the transmitted data into the RAM 81 for each of CH, DT, TM, and PT is performed.

As described above, the transmission data is written in the RAM 81 based on the reproduced data clock CL,
When reading, chX synchronization information is used. That is, the display start position is determined by the H and V syncs separated by the sync separation circuit 61 and stabilized by the sync stabilization circuit 63.
And fsc which is a component of the color reproduction PLL circuit 70
Nfsc (n = 1, 2, 3, obtained from the generation circuit 77
The program information stored in the RAM 81 is read based on 4). As an example, a user who is watching a screen on a display medium, such as a television receiver, which receives a program called chX and displays the output of the multiplexer 89 shown in FIG. RC
U) A program display instruction and a display start instruction are given to the search instruction section 87 via 90. The RCU 90 is provided with 10 keys or keys having a function of performing operations such as display start / selection / end or determination, and the user gives an instruction by operating these keys.

The program display instruction and search instruction section 87 is RC
In response to an instruction from U90, the timing generation circuit 67 is instructed to start display. Timing generation circuit 67
In response to this instruction, the RAM 81 is stored in the RAM 81 based on nfsc obtained from the fsc generation circuit 77 so as to start the display from a predetermined position on the display screen based on the H and V synchronizations supplied from the synchronization stabilization circuit 63. An instruction to read the stored program information is given. Receiving this read instruction, each information CH, DT, TM, PT is read from the RAM 81, becomes character information through the character conversion ROM 83, and outputs each information to the display medium through the multiplexers 85 and 89. To be done.

The multiplexer 85 is controlled by the output of the ROM 83, and the output of the ROM 83 is "H", that is, the character display color is selected and output only when there is character information, and the background color is selected and output during other periods. The multiplexer 89 is
The program table is displayed on the screen of the display medium by receiving the output of the multiplexer 85 and selectively outputting the output of the multiplexer 85 only while the program information display area signal supplied from the timing generation circuit 67 is valid.

Here, the storage capacity of the RAM 81 is small,
When all the program information cannot be stored, the information for the current day is stored with the highest priority based on the received DT information, and the following is stored in order of tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Also, if the user is RC
By setting the priority of storage via U90, the stored information is limited and only the necessary information is stored in the RAM 81.
Can be stored in. As an example, date order (today, tomorrow, tomorrow), priority channel order (4, 8, 6,)
10, 12, 1ch), by program attribute (sports, music,
News, drama, etc., designation of display time range (PM5
More effective program information can be displayed on the screen by the user performing at least one setting such as (hour to AM2) or reducing the number of display title characters.

Regarding the search, if the RAM 81 has a large capacity for storing all the transmitted program information, all the program information is stored and then the search is performed by date, priority channel, program attribute, or the like. However, when the capacity of the RAM 81 is not sufficient, the limited operation is performed by the user when storing the RAM as described above. Therefore, only the range in which the stored data can be displayed on the screen is read from the RAM 81 to display the screen. I do.

On the reception screen, as shown in FIG.
Screens for 16 channels from A to chP are usually displayed simultaneously. Here, the frame area is based on the H / V synchronization given to the timing generation circuit 67 by the sync separation circuit 61 and the synchronization stabilization circuit 63 and the nfsc (n = 1, 2, 3, 4) given from the fsc generation circuit 77. In order to color or replace a predetermined frame area with a predetermined brightness, the multiplexer 85 is operated through the gate 91 to select the "background color", and at the same time, the multiplexer 89 is operated during this frame area. The frame area is replaced by selecting an output.

When receiving and displaying the data sent to the above-mentioned frame area, there are two types of display contents: at least information for each channel is displayed and information for each attribute is displayed. For example, in the former case, when chA is selected, the program contents of chA after the present are displayed in time series. Alternatively, in the latter case, a program list with each attribute is displayed by an attribute search of movies, music, sports, and the like. In either case, because the transmission rate is high, only the necessary information needs to be written to the memory in a timely manner, and the receiving terminal can effectively use the memory and minimize the storage capacity of the memory itself. Therefore, there is an advantage that an expensive large-capacity memory is not required and the cost can be reduced.

Needless to say, when the area occupied by the frame increases as the number of small screens increases, the gap, that is, the image information that can be transmitted also increases.

As described above, the data transmission apparatus of the present embodiment can perform data transmission at a transmission rate several times higher than that in the case of multiplexing data in VBI, so that it is possible to display a conventional program in a short time. Data can be transmitted without affecting the channel. Moreover, since data can be transmitted in a short time, the waiting time is short for the receiving side, and when the transmitted program data is stored using the storage means, there is an advantage that the required minimum capacity is sufficient. .

[0054]

As described above, according to the present invention, a predetermined signal is inserted into a gap between a plurality of small screens forming a screen, so that the conventional program display channel is affected in a short time. It is possible to transmit the predetermined data without the need.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an embodiment of a data transmission device according to the present invention.

2 is a diagram showing a waveform example of an image display line in the transmission system of the data transmitting apparatus shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a concept of a data transmission carrier and transmission data in the transmission system of the data transmitting apparatus shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a screen form transmitted by the data transmitting apparatus shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an embodiment of a data receiving apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a conventional caption method using VBI.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Antenna 3 Tuner 5 VTR 7 Reference Sync Timing Generation Circuit 9 Time Base Collector (TBC) 11 Modulator (MOD) 13 Luminance / Color Difference Signal Separation Circuit (Y / C Separation Circuit) 15 Multiplexer (MPX) 17 Analog / Digital Converter (A / D converter) 19 RAM 21 Modulator 23 Mixing circuit 25 Digital / analog converter (D / A converter) 27 Multiplexer 29 Digital data generator 31 Modulator 33 Mixer 35 Mixer 37 Trunk line 51 Brancher 53 Tuner 55 IF amplification circuit 57 Video detection circuit 59 Video amplification circuit 61 Sync separation circuit 63 Sync stabilization circuit 65 Transmission CK reproduction circuit 67 Timing generation circuit 69 Data extraction circuit 70 PLL circuit 71 Band amplification circuit 73 Burst amplification circuit 75 Automatic phase control Circuit 77 fs c generation circuit 81 RAM 83 character conversion ROM 85, 89 multiplexer 87 program guide display instruction section, search instruction section 90 remote control unit 91 gate

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A reducing means for reducing information constituting a screen in correspondence with a small screen having a predetermined size, and a plurality of small screens obtained by the reducing means are arranged in one screen with a gap provided therebetween. A data transmitting apparatus comprising: a constituent means for configuring a television signal as described above; and an inserting means for inserting a predetermined signal in a gap provided by the constituent means. 2. A data receiving device capable of receiving a television signal, which is composed of a plurality of small screens, each of which is arranged with a gap between the screens, and is inserted between signals of the small screens of an inputted television signal. And a storage unit for storing the signal extracted by the extraction unit, and an output unit for selectively outputting the signal stored in the storage unit to the display medium. And a data receiving device.