JPH04196823A - Program reserving device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a program reservation device applied to audio/visual equipment such as a video tape recorder.

[Prior Art] In recent years, especially with the spread of video tape recorders, various improvements have been made to program reservation devices to improve the operability of reservation operations.

Below, a description will be given of a program reservation device for a video tape recorder that improves the operability of reservation operations by making it possible to perform reservation operations using a remote control device in the video tape recorder.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of the above remote control device. 50
1 is an operation section. In order to make a program reservation, program reservation information such as the program channel, start time, end time, etc. must be set. The operation section 501 is for inputting these program reservation information, and is generally composed of buttons, dials, or the like. 502 is a display section. It displays set program reservation information or displays instructions to the user when making a program reservation, and generally a liquid crystal display device is used. 5
03 is a transmitter. It is used to transmit program reservation information to the main body of the audio tape recorder, and is generally an infrared transmitter. 504 is a remote control control circuit that controls the operation section 501, the display section 502, and the transmission section 503. When making a program reservation, for example, the remote control control circuit 504 instructs the user by displaying the program reservation procedure or information to be input from the operation section 501 on the display section 502, and also displays information to be input from the operation section 501. The content of the program reservation entered by the user is displayed on the display unit 50.
Display on 2. Furthermore, the remote control control circuit 504 sends program reservation information input by the user through the operation unit 501 to the transmitting unit 504.
Program reservation is performed by transmitting the data to the main body of the video tape recorder by controlling the video tape recorder 03.

JP-A No. 63-27129 discloses a configuration in which a remote control device is equipped with a barcode reading device, and program reservation information such as the channel, start time, and end time of the program to be reserved is input by reading the barcode. something is disclosed. This uses a barcode reading device in place of the buttons and dials described above as the operation section 501 in FIG. Since the program reservation information is entered by reading the barcode recorded on the barcode recording body, it is easier to input the program reservation information than the above-mentioned configuration in which the program reservation information is input using the buttons and dials. Input errors are also reduced.

In addition, as a method to improve the operability when inputting program reservation information, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-54830,
42734, Utility Model Application Publication No. 63-49618, etc.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] According to the above-mentioned conventional technology, it is possible to improve the operability when inputting program reservation information in a program reservation operation on a video tape recorder or the like.

However, when making a program reservation, the user reads the program reservation information such as the channel, start time, and end time of the program to be reserved from the program guide published in a newspaper, magazine, etc. In terms of the two-step operation of inputting by operating the operation unit such as a barcode reader installed on the remote control device,
The same applies regardless of the configuration in which program reservation information is input using a button or dial, or the configuration in which the program reservation information is input using a barcode reading device. Therefore, there remains a possibility that the program reservation will be made incorrectly. There is a possibility of errors occurring at each operation stage, such as reading errors when reading the channel, start time, and end time of the program you want to reserve from the program guide of newspapers, magazines, etc., and input errors when entering program reservation information. There is.

In other words, in conventional program reservation devices, program reservations are performed in two steps: reading program reservation information from a program guide and inputting the program reservation information, which has the disadvantage that program reservations can be made incorrectly.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, an object of the present invention is to provide a program reservation device that allows program reservations to be made in one step in a device such as a video tape recorder, thereby preventing mistakes in program reservations. Our goal is to provide the following.

[Means for solving the problem 1 The above purpose is to provide a means for receiving a program guide and program reservation information in a program reservation device, a means for storing the program guide and program reservation information, and a means for displaying the program guide. and a means for specifying a program to be reserved from the displayed program guide, the program reservation device receives and stores the program guide and program reservation information for a certain period, and when making a program reservation, the program reservation device receives and stores the program guide and program reservation information for a certain period. This is achieved by displaying a program guide, allowing the user to directly specify the program to be reserved on the displayed program guide, and making a program reservation using program reservation information corresponding to the specified program.

[Operation 1 The program reservation device receives a program guide and program reservation information. The receiving means may be, for example, a modem if the program guide or program reservation information is provided through a telephone line, or a compact disc reader if the information is provided recorded on a compact disc, for example. The program guide is a matrix-like table of times and channels, similar to a program guide published in a newspaper, for example, and is composed of character code data. Program reservation information includes the broadcast date and time, channel, start time, and
It is composed of the end time, etc., and is expressed, for example, as binary data. The program reservation device stores the received program guide and program reservation information. As the storage means, for example, a semiconductor memory with power backup is used. When making a program reservation, the program reservation device displays the stored program guide on the display means. For example, a liquid crystal display device is used as the display means. When a user who wants to reserve a program finds a program to reserve from the program guide displayed on the display section, he or she directly specifies the program.

As a means for specifying, for example, a transparent touch panel attached to the display section is used. The program reservation device recognizes which program in the program guide is specified and retrieves program reservation information such as broadcast date and time, channel, start time, and end time of the program stored in the storage means. The program reservation device makes a program reservation by sending this program reservation information to the main body of the device, for example, a video tape recorder.

Transmission to the main body of the apparatus is performed, for example, by an infrared signal from the program reservation apparatus.

According to the above configuration, as in the case of using a conventional program reservation device, the user reads the program reservation information of the program to be reserved from the program guide of a newspaper, magazine, etc., and the user also reads the program reservation information. Unlike the configuration in which input is made using a program reservation device, program reservations can be made simply by directly specifying the program to be reserved in the program guide displayed by the display means of the program reservation device. There is no possibility of making an incorrect program reservation due to a reading error or an input error in the program reservation information.

[Embodiment 1] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the program reservation device of the present invention. The program reservation device I is composed of a receiving section 2, a control circuit 3, a storage section 4, a display section 5, an operation section 6, and a transmitting section 7. The flow of program reservation processing using the program reservation device shown in FIG. 1 will be explained with reference to FIG. A receiving unit 2 receives a program guide for a certain period of time, for example, one week or two weeks, and program reservation information for individual programs listed in the program guide. (Step 101) An example of the structure of program reservation information is shown in FIG. Program reservation information] 07 includes broadcast date data 108 indicating the day the program will be broadcast, channel data 109 indicating the channel of the program, start time data 110 indicating the broadcast start time of the program, and end indicating the broadcast end time of the program. It is composed of a time monitor 111. The control circuit 3 stores the program list and program reservation information received by the receiving section 2 in the storage section 4. (Step 102) When making a program reservation, the control circuit 3 displays the program guide stored in the storage section 4 on the display section 5. (Step 103) A person who wishes to make a program reservation (hereinafter referred to as a user) looks at the program guide displayed on the display unit 5 and selects the program he or she wishes to reserve. (Step 104) This operation is performed by the user operating the operating section 6. The control circuit 3 detects which program in the program guide displayed on the display section 5 is specified by the operation section 6. (Step 1o5
) Next, the control circuit 3 retrieves the program reservation information of the specified program from the storage section 4 and sends it to the main body 8 of the device through the transmission section 7.
Send to. (Step 106) In the device main body 8, a program reservation is made based on the received program reservation information.

FIG. 4 shows the receiving section 2 in the program reservation device 1 shown in FIG.
is composed of a modem 9 and a modem connection device 1.0, a storage section 4 is composed of a memory 11 and a backup circuit 12, and a display section 5 is composed of a liquid crystal display device 14 and a liquid crystal control circuit 13.
The operating section 6 is composed of a transparent touch panel 16, a touch panel control circuit 15, and a button 17, and the transmitting section 7 is composed of a pulsing circuit 18 and an infrared transmitter 1.
This is a program reservation device configured by 9. In this embodiment, the program reservation device 1 is composed of a receiving unit 21 and a remote control unit 22. The receiving unit 21 is the modem 9
The remote control unit 22 includes a control circuit 3 and a memory 1.
1, backup circuit 12, liquid crystal control circuit 13, liquid crystal display device 14, touch panel control circuit 15, transparent touch panel 16, button 17, pulsing circuit 18, infrared transmitter 1
Consisting of 9. The receiving unit 21 and the remote control unit 22 are connected by a modem connection device 10.

Figure 5 shows the remote control unit 2 of the program reservation device l shown in Figure 4.
2 is a diagram showing the configuration of No. 2. FIG. A liquid crystal display device 14 is provided in front of a remote control unit 22 of a program reservation device, and a transparent touch panel 16 is provided on the surface thereof. In this example, button 17
is composed of a program reservation start/end button 17a, program guide movement buttons 17b, 17C117d, and 17e. 2
3 is a cover for the infrared transmitter 19, and the infrared transmitter 19 is provided inside. 10a is the receiving side of the modem connecting device 10, and is connected to the sending side of the modem connecting device IO, which will be described later. FIG. 6 shows the receiving unit 21 and a method of connecting the receiving unit 21 and the remote control unit 22.

10b is the sending side of the modem connection device 10, as shown in FIG.
As shown in b), when the remote control unit 22 is attached to the receiving unit 21, the receiver of the modem connection device 10 is connected to side 1.
Connected to 0a. As shown in FIG. 6(a), the receiving unit 21 is provided with a modular jack 24 for connecting a telephone line. Modular jack 24 is connected to modem 9.

The flow of processing when making a program reservation using the program reservation apparatus shown in FIGS. 4, 5, and 6 will be explained with reference to FIG.

If the remote control unit 22 is not attached to the receiving unit 21, the remote control unit 22 is attached to the receiving unit 21.

(Step 121) As a result, the sending side 10b and the receiving side 10a of the modem connection device 10 are connected. The control circuit 3 controls the modem 9 and receives program schedules and program reservation information from the telephone line 20. (Step 122) In this case,
For example, the program list is written as text data, and the program reservation information is written as 2
Uke is taken as decimal data. Program reservation information includes the broadcast date, channel, start time, end time, and attributes of each program listed in the program guide, such as "drama", "
It consists of information such as ``sports'' and ``movies.'' The control circuit 3 stores the received program list and program reservation information data in the memory 11. When using a program reservation device,
First, the remote control unit 22 is removed from the receiving unit 21. (Step 123) Then, one of the buttons 17, the program reservation start/end button 17a, is pressed. (Step 124) The control circuit 3 is the program reservation start/end button 1.
When it is detected that 7a is pressed, the liquid crystal control circuit 13
The program guide stored in the memory 11 is sent out, and the liquid crystal control circuit 13 controls the liquid crystal display device 14 to display the program guide on the liquid crystal display device 14.

(Step 125) The person making the program reservation displays any part of the program guide on the liquid crystal display device 14 by operating the program guide movement buttons 17b, 17c, 17d, and 17e. For example, when the control circuit 3 detects that the program guide move button 17b has been pressed, the control circuit 3 moves the program guide located on the right side of the program guide displayed on the liquid crystal display device 14 at that time and the program guide move button 17b. If it detects that 'c has been pressed, move the program guide located at the bottom using the program move button 1.
When it is detected that 7d has been pressed, the program guide located on the left side is displayed on the liquid crystal display device 14, and when it is detected that the program guide movement button 17e has been pressed, the program guide located on the upper side is sequentially displayed on the liquid crystal display device 14. . (Step 126) Liquid crystal display device 14
If there is a program you want to reserve in the program guide displayed on the screen, press your finger on the program. (Step 1
27) The control circuit 3 detects which position on the transparent touch panel 16 is pressed by the touch panel control circuit 15, and also detects the position of the pressed position on the program guide displayed on the liquid crystal display device 14. , or in other words, which program is selected. The user performs steps 126 and 12 above.
Repeat step 7 to reserve as many programs as necessary. When the control circuit 3 detects that the program reservation start/end button 17a has been pressed (step 128), the control circuit 3 retrieves the program reservation information of the programs reserved up to that point from the memory 11, and
The signal is sent to the pulsing circuit 18. A pulse signal is sent from the pulse generation circuit 18 to an infrared transmitter 19, and program reservation information is sent to the main body 8 of the apparatus as an infrared signal. (Step 129) As explained above, according to this embodiment, the program guide received through the telephone line is displayed on the liquid crystal display of the remote control device, and the user presses the position of the program in the program guide. The transparent touch panel detects this and sends the program reservation information for that program to the main unit of the device.Therefore, since the program to be reserved is directly selected in the program guide, errors in reading the program guide or inputting program reservation information can be avoided. You can't make a mistake when booking a program.

FIG. 9 shows a second embodiment. In this embodiment, the modem 9
A receiving section 2 composed of the following is provided in the VTR main body 32.

As shown in FIG. 11, a modular jack 24 is provided on the VTR body 32 and connected to the modem 9. Further, a remote control connection device 31 is provided as the transmitter 7, with its sending side provided in the remote control device (31a) and its receiving side provided in the VTR body (31b). As shown in FIG. 12, in this embodiment, unlike the previous embodiment, the button 17 is not provided, and the remote control unit 22 is provided with only a liquid crystal display device 14 and a transparent touch panel 16 mounted on its surface.

Therefore, the operation section is composed of a touch panel control circuit 15 and a transparent touch panel 16. The flow of processing in this embodiment will be explained with reference to FIG. First, the remote control unit 22 is attached to the VTR main body 32. (Step 131) As a result, modem connection devices 10a and 10b
However, the remote control connection devices 31a and 31b are also connected. In this state, the liquid crystal display device 14 of the remote control unit 22 displays a display as shown in FIG. 13(a).

These are for operating the VTR body, and include, for example, a playback instruction display 51, a fast forward instruction display 53, a stop instruction display 52, a rewind instruction display 54, a recording instruction display 56,
- Time stop instruction display 55, channel mode instruction display 57
, program reservation mode instruction display 58. In this state, for example, if the transparent touch panel 16 detects that the playback instruction display 51 has been pressed, the same operation as when a normal playback button is pressed is performed. In this state, the modem 9 receives and receives program schedules and program reservation information from the telephone line 20. (Step 132) The control circuit 3 stores the received program list and program reservation information in the memory 11. These operations are the same as in the previous embodiment. When making a program reservation, the user removes the remote control unit 22 from the VTR main body 32 (step 133). When the control circuit 3 detects that the remote control unit 22 has been removed from the VTR main body 32, the liquid crystal display of the remote control unit 22 is The displayed white butterfly of the device 14 is changed, for example, as shown in FIG. 13(b). This screen is a display screen for making program reservations. 63 is a program guide display area, in which the control circuit 3 is connected to the memory 1.
This is an area for displaying the program guide stored in 1. 59, 60, 61, 62 are program guide movement instruction displays, which correspond to the program guide movement buttons 17b and 17c in the above embodiment.
, 17d, and 17e. That is, by holding down the position of the program guide movement instruction display 60, the display of the program guide above the program guide displayed in the program guide display area 63 can be changed, and by holding the position of the program guide movement instruction display 59, the program guide can be displayed. Instructs to display the program guide on the right side of the program guide displayed in the display area 63. Similarly, pressing the program guide movement instruction display 62 instructs to display the left side program guide, and pressing the program guide movement instruction display 61 instructs to display the lower program guide. By the above method, the control circuit 3 displays the program guide stored in the memory 11 on the liquid crystal display device 14. (
Step 134) While viewing the displayed program guide, the user displays the program he or she wishes to reserve on the liquid crystal display device 14 by pressing the position of the program guide movement instruction display 59, 60, 61, or 62. (Step 135) With the program desired to be reserved being displayed, the program is reserved by pressing the transparent touch panel 16. (Step 13.6
The button control circuit 3 detects which program has been reserved by detecting the position where the transparent touch panel 16 is pressed. By repeating these operations in steps 135 and 136, the user selects all the programs he or she wishes to reserve. When the user has finished selecting all programs, he attaches the remote control unit 22 to the VTR main body 32. (Step 137) When the control circuit 3 detects that the remote control unit 22 is attached to the VTR main body 32, step 135
, the program reservation information of the selected program is read out from the memory 11 in step 136 and transmitted to the terminal 33 of the program reservation circuit of the VTR body through the remote control connection device 31. Note that a detailed explanation of the configuration of the program reservation circuit will be omitted.

In other words, in this embodiment, instead of the operation section consisting of a transparent touch panel and buttons in the first embodiment, it is composed only of a transparent touch panel, and furthermore, a modem is provided in the VTR body, and a remote control unit is connected to the VTR body. By making this possible, the program reservation information, which was previously transmitted by infrared rays, can be transmitted by wire using a connecting device.

In this embodiment as well, similarly to the previous embodiment, a program guide received through a telephone line is displayed on the liquid crystal display of the remote control device, and a transparent touch panel allows the user to press the position of a program in the program guide. The system detects the program and sends the program reservation information for that program while the remote control device is attached to the VTR body.Therefore, since the program to be reserved is directly selected in the program guide, there is no possibility of incorrect reading of the program guide or input of program reservation information. There is no chance that you will make a mistake in program reservations due to an error.

FIG. 14 shows the configuration of a program reservation device according to a third embodiment. In the previous embodiment, a program guide was displayed on a liquid crystal display device, and a program was specified using a transparent touch panel, but in this embodiment, A program guide is displayed on a television set connected to a VTR, and programs are identified by moving a pointer displayed together with the program guide. Furthermore, in the embodiment described above, the program list and program reservation information received from the telephone line are obtained from the compact disc. In FIG. 14, reference numeral 72 denotes a compact disc reading device 71 for reading information from a compact disc on which program guides and program reservation information are recorded.
is a compact disc control circuit that controls the compact disc reader 72. This part corresponds to the receiving section in FIG. Perform display.

Reference numeral 75 denotes a switching circuit for switching between the video signal outputted by the VTR from the video signal output terminal 79 and the signal outputted by the display control circuit 73 of the display circuit of the program reservation device.
is output to the television device. 77 is a remote control signal receiving circuit, which is a block corresponding to the operating section in FIG.

In this embodiment, a program guide is displayed on the screen of the television device, and a pointer is displayed thereon at the same time, and by moving the pointer, a program can be specified or the program guide can be moved. This pointer movement is performed by a remote control device.

The remote control signal receiving circuit 77 receives a signal instructing the movement of the pointer from the remote control device. Further, a signal indicating that a program has been specified is also received by the remote control signal receiving circuit 77. 78 is a program reservation information connection circuit.

In this embodiment, the program reservation device is placed inside the VTR body, so the program reservation information for the specified program is sent directly to the VT.
It is input to the program reservation circuit 80 of the R main unit.

Although details of the program reservation circuit 80 will not be explained here, it is a timer device having a calendar function, and is conventionally used in VTR devices. In this embodiment, the program guide and program reservation information recorded on the compact disc are read by the compact disc reading device 7.
2 and stored in the memory 11, however, since the access speed of the compact disk device 72 is generally high, it is also possible to realize the same function without storing in the memory 11.

That is, when a user makes a program reservation, the program guide or program reservation information is sequentially read from a compact disc set in the compact disc reader 72.

In this embodiment as well, the same effects as in the previous embodiment can be obtained. That is, since it is possible to make a program reservation by directly specifying the program to be reserved from the program guide displayed on the screen of the television device, there is no possibility of errors in reading the program reservation information.
There is no possibility of erroneously reserving a program due to an error in inputting program reservation information.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, it is possible to make a program reservation simply by directly specifying the program to be reserved in the program guide displayed on the display means of the program reservation device. There is no possibility of making a wrong program reservation due to an error in inputting reservation information.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of the program reservation device of the present invention, and FIG.
The figure shows the flow of program reservation processing using the program reservation device of the present invention, Figure 3 shows the structure of program reservation information used in the program reservation device of the present invention, and Figure 4 shows the modem and liquid crystal display. 5 and 6 are diagrams showing the configuration of an embodiment of the program reservation device of the present invention using a display device, and FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the configuration of the remote control unit and reception unit of the program reservation device of FIG. is a diagram showing the flow of program reservation processing in the program reservation device shown in FIG. 4, FIG. 8 is a diagram representing the prior art, and FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the program reservation device of the present invention in which a modem is provided in the VTR body. A diagram showing the configuration, Figure 10 is the 9th
Figures 11 and 12 are diagrams showing the configuration of the remote control device and VTR body of the program reservation device shown in Figure 9, and Figure 13 is the diagram shown in Figure 9. Figure 1 shows an example of the liquid crystal display of the program reservation device.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the program reservation device of the present invention that uses a compact disc reader to display a program guide on the screen of a television device. [Explanation of symbols] 1: Program reservation device, 2: Receiving unit, 3: Control circuit, 4: Storage unit, 5: Display unit, 6: Operation unit,
7... Transmission unit, 8... Device main body, 9... Modem, 1
0...Modem connection device, 11...Memory, 12...
Backup circuit, 13... Liquid crystal control circuit, 14...
-Liquid crystal display device, 15...touch panel control circuit, 16...transparent touch panel, 17...button, 18...
- Pulsing circuit, 19... Infrared transmitter, 20...
Telephone line, 21... Receiving unit, 22... Remote control unit, 31... Remote control connection device, 71... Compact disc control device, 72... Compact disc reading device, 73... Display control circuit, 74...Display memory, 75...Switching circuit, 77
. . . Remote control signal receiving circuit, 78 . . Program reservation information connection device, 107 . . . Program reservation information detection 7tZl' ---
1" tree 21 yen 3 zuren 7 Figure 8 L
J 稟 q Illustrated sound－－■－－－－１１１－－１□－□□□－－－
---Kaishizuku Koichiichi' calculation 10 Figure /7 Figure 8 No. 2 Figure 1 Oα Kudzu 13 Figure (cL) Otsu 2 Kudzu /4 Figure

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A receiving unit that receives program reservation information consisting of at least a program guide of a broadcast program, a channel, a date, a start time, and an end time of the broadcast program, and stores the program guide and program reservation information. A storage unit, a display unit that displays a program guide, an operation unit that specifies one or more programs included in the displayed program guide, and a device that transmits program reservation information for the identified program to the main body of the device having a program reservation function. a transmitter for transmitting the information, receives the program guide and program reservation information from the receiver, stores the program guide in the storage section, displays the program guide on the display section, and selects one or more program reservations from the program guide displayed on the display section. A program reservation device characterized in that a program reservation is made by specifying a program to be performed using an operation section, retrieving program reservation information of the specified program from a storage section, and transmitting the program reservation information to the main body of the device using a transmission section. 2. The receiver according to claim 1, wherein the receiving section is constituted by a modem, and is configured to receive program reservation information consisting of a program guide, a channel, a date, a start time, and an end time of a broadcast program from a telephone line. Program reservation device. 3. The program according to claim 1, characterized in that the receiving section is constituted by a compact disc reading device, and the program reservation information consisting of channel, date, start time, and end time is read from the compact disc. Reservation device. 4. The display section is composed of a liquid crystal display device, and the operation section is composed of a transparent touch switch panel attached closely to the display surface of the liquid crystal display device, and the display section is composed of a transparent touch switch panel attached closely to the display surface of the liquid crystal display device. 2. The program reservation device according to claim 1, wherein the program to be reserved is specified by touching the transparent touch switch panel of the portion. 5. The transmitter is configured with an infrared transmitter, and
2. The program reservation device according to claim 1, wherein the program reservation information of the specified program is transmitted as an infrared signal to the main body of the device having a program reservation function.