JPH0447435A - Information presentation device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To receive the presentation of information in the same sense as a regular television by presenting the information by using a screen and a voice by a configuration means of a television metaphor environment, and executing an access to a data base in on-line by a configuration means of a communication function. CONSTITUTION:The hardware is configured by a computer 1, an electronic voice uttering device 2, a mouse 3, a MODEM 4 and a telephone circuit 5, and the software contained therein is configured by, for instance, a script interpreter operated on an MS-DOS, and a file of a script description for giving an instruction thereto. In such a state, a virtual television set and a video controller are displayed in a display 6 and information is allowed to flow in a voice, and presentation information can be controlled and selected by such video operations as button operations for selecting a channel and controlling the sound volume, quick feeding, rewinding, a temporary stop, etc., therefore, information about which it is desired to know can be selected in a sense for operating a video.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an information presentation device that sequentially presents information consisting of a plurality of presentation units.

C. Prior Art] As a system for presenting various information such as news, weather forecasts, etc. using a computer, there is a system that opens a window on the screen and displays text information. However, with conventional systems like this, it is necessary to navigate through menus or input keywords in order to select the desired information, and the problem is that it is generally difficult for people who are not familiar with the system to use it.

Therefore, in recent years, in order to make it more familiar to the general public, a desktop metaphor method has been adopted in which the image of a desk is created on the screen and the desired information is provided.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, even with the above-mentioned desktop metaphor, selecting the desired information is still difficult for the general public to understand because it simulates desk work in an office. Further, even if all information is automatically presented, for example, it has the advantage of not requiring any operations, or it has the problem that it is only possible to view the information that you want to know in the order that you want to know. On the other hand,
Even if it is possible to select information by opening a menu or entering a keyword, there is a problem in that the operation becomes cumbersome. Furthermore, even if you are able to select the information you want to know, the information is delivered as text information, so you have to read the text information, which is still difficult for the general public to understand.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an information presentation device that can present information that a user wants to know in a desired order with a simple operation.

[Failure to solve the problem]

To this end, the present invention provides an information presentation device that accesses an online database and presents information, and provides a television metaphor environment in which information is presented using screens and audio in a television program format using a script description and script interpreter that corresponds to the metaphor. It is characterized by comprising a configuration means and a communication function configuration means in which the communication function of a script interpreter and an online communication method are written as a script, and the title part from text data is presented on the screen and the content of each information is presented by voice. do. Furthermore, the television metaphor environment is characterized by being composed of metaphors of a television set, a video controller, a news program, and a program introduction, and the presented information can be changed by layer by button input on the video controller. . Furthermore, the present invention is characterized in that presentation information is recorded by inputting a record button on the video controller.

[Effect]

In the information presentation device of the present invention, information is presented in the form of a television program using the screen and audio using the configuration means of the television metaphor environment, and the database is accessed online by the configuration means of the communication function. You can receive information in the same way as watching the news.

In addition, by changing the presented information for each layer by inputting buttons on the video controller, you can easily select the information you want to know, and you can record the information you want by inputting the record button.

〔Example〕

Examples will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of an information presentation device according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a screen presented by the information presentation device of the present invention. As shown in FIG.
9801RX)! , an electronic voice output device 2, a mouse 3, a modem 4, and a telephone line 5, and the software therein includes, for example, a script interpreter running on an MS-DO3 and a script description file that gives instructions to the script interpreter. This is what I did. Then, an environment is realized in which the user can use the electronic voice generating device 2 and the display 6 to operate the television and watch news programs. For example, NIFTY-3erve's "
Mainichi Shimbun Online News Breaking'', ``Mainichi Shimbun Online Local News'', ``National City Forecast'', and other computer networks are imported. Figure 2 shows an example of the information presentation screen.

The overall functions necessary for the information presentation device of the present invention as described above can be broadly divided into a portion constituting a television metaphor environment and a communication function.

The television metaphor consists of four metaphors: a TV set VTR controller, a news program, and a program introduction, and a script corresponding to each metaphor is written.

The TV set script and VTR controller script describe how the state of the television receiver and program changes in response to operations on each metaphor. For example, what kind of state change will occur when the power switch, volume button, or channel is pressed?
It describes what state changes occur when each button on the R controller is pressed. The news program script includes information such as how to process and present the input data, and the progress of the news program, such as how to process and present the input data.
It describes the rules for composing and presenting data from a personal computer network such as -3erve into a news program, and the program introduction subscript describes the rules for composing a program introduction. Descriptions of these metaphors are written in files called subscripts, which are read and operated by a script interpreter.

The communication function is the communication function of the script interpreter (function to handle specified data input from R3232゛C as an event and function to send data)
This is realized by writing a communication method with a personal computer network such as NIFTY-3erve as a script.

In the information presentation apparatus of the present invention, the television receiver IL VTR controller 12 is always displayed on the display as shown in FIG. And, with some exceptions, the power switch 13 of the television receiver 11 is turned on in all situations.
, channel button 14, volume button 15, VTR:I
:/Each button (16 to 21) on the troller 12 can be operated, and operations on these are called basic operations. Furthermore, several metaphors displayed on the cathode ray tube 22 can be operated depending on the scene.

In the example of FIG. 2 that presents information, the cathode ray tube 3 of the television receiver 11 is
3 displays the anallancer 23 and the panel 24, and the panel 24
presents the structure of a news program. And automatically "
Information is presented in the order of ``national news'' → ``local news'' → ``weather forecast.'' Panel 2 shows an example of the presentation scene of “national news” in fbl of the same figure.
4, the item ``Let's stop the spread of hay fever'', ``Second Kaifu Cabinet Formation J'', etc. are presented, and in that order, the information is played aloud from the electronic sound device. Then, when the presentation of the national news is finished, "
The screen shifts to the "Local News" scene and similarly presents information on screen and audio. While information is being presented one after another, for example, if you want to skip the information being presented and search for the information you want to know, or if you want to go back and watch the information again, you can use the video controller to fast forward or scroll. Perform operations such as returning. Note that (d) in the same figure shows Analancer 2.
3 shows an example of a help message displayed when clicking 3.

Next, the information list and processing applied to the information presentation device will be explained.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of an information list applied to the information presentation device of the present invention, FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining an example of a process for determining the order in which information is presented, and FIG. 5 is a diagram showing information from input. 12 is a flowchart for explaining an example of a process of changing the presentation order of .

In the information presentation device of the present invention, as shown in FIG.
1, 2)... (+, N, ), (2, l),
It has a hierarchical structure consisting of (1, 1)
, (1,2)...(1,N, ), (2,l)
, . . . as the presentation order is used.

The order in which information is presented using this information list is as follows.

When information is automatically presented sequentially without button operations on the video controller, as shown in Figure 4 (m,
n), first set m=L n=0 (1,,0)
For example, the information in Figure 2 (bl scene and audio ``I will tell you the news from all over the country.
Increment n by 1 until it becomes (1, 1),
The information of (1, 2)... is presented in order. Furthermore, when m is incremented by 1 and information is presented in the same way until it reaches m or M. When changing the presentation order of information by button operation on the video controller, always press the button as shown in Figure 5. If there is a button input, information presentation is immediately interrupted. Press that button, pause, back, play, rewind, etc.
Check if it's fast forwarding. And in case of pose,
Wait until the button is pressed again and resume presenting information.

In the case of back, if n is not O, then n is decremented by 1, if n is 0, m is decremented by 1, and n is N.
Presentation of information (m, n) is then started. However, m or l
In this case, the information presentation that was interrupted cannot be decremented, so the interrupted information presentation is resumed. In the case of play, if n is not N1, then n
is incremented by 1, and if n is N, m is incremented by 1, n is set to O, and the presentation of information (m, n) is started. However, in the case of m or M, the information presentation that was interrupted is resumed because it cannot be incremented. m for rewinding
is decremented by 1, and in the case of fast forwarding, m is incremented by 1, n is set to 0, and the presentation of information (m, n) is started. However, similarly to the above, if m is not decremented or incremented, the interrupted information presentation is resumed.

Figure 3 (bl) shows an example of a conventional information list. In the case of a conventional list like this, even though it has a hierarchical structure, you can go back one level to display the next information. When you want to know, you need to perform the "back" operation twice, and then, for example, look at the item list, make a judgment, and enter the numerical value twice.However, in the present invention, as described above, the buttons on the video controller Since you can change the order in which information is presented, you can easily view the information you want in the order you want.

In the television metaphor environment of the present invention, information is presented one after another without explicit interaction, similar to real-world news programs. Moreover, by manipulating the metaphors that appear from time to time, the user can actively browse the information desired by the user.

Operations are performed by instructions using a mouse cursor, and by manipulating metaphors, scene transitions corresponding to each scene occur, and information is presented in the form of a news program.

FIG. 6 is a scene transition diagram of a news program, FIG. 7 is a state transition diagram, and FIG. 8 is a module diagram of a TV set metaphor.

First, we will explain scene transitions based on basic operations,
Next, we will explain each scene and the operations unique to the scene, and finally, we will explain how to present information in the information presentation scenes, ``national news scene,'' ``local news scene,'' and ``weather forecast scene.''

■ Basic operations We will explain the basic operations that can be performed in common in each scene.

The power switch 13 is a toggle switch. When power switch 13 is turned on, power switch 1 is finally turned on.
Transition to the first scene of the channel when 3 is turned off. In other words, the previous channel number is retained. Also,
When the power switch 12 is turned off, the scene also transitions to the power off scene.

Each time the volume button 15 is pressed, the volume value increases or decreases by 1 within the range of 1 to 10. This 1 A stiff cathode ray tube 2
The volume is displayed as a bar at the bottom of 2, and the volume of the electronic voice producing device 2 is controlled.

The VTR controller 12 moves each scene of a news program forward or backward by operating a fast forward button 20 or a rewind button 17. By operating the play button 19 and the back button 17, for example, news items can be skipped forward or backward, or explanations of the weather, probability of precipitation, and maximum and minimum temperatures in a weather forecast can be skipped forward or backward. When the stop button 18 is pressed, the progress of the program is stopped.

To cancel the stop, press the stop button 18 again, or press the play button 19 or another button. and,
When the record button 21 is pressed, the data received until the next time the record button 21 is pressed is recorded in a file.

■ Scenes and scene-specific operations We will explain each scene and the operations depending on the scene using Figure 6.

In the power off scene, only the power switch 13 is made operable, and when the power switch 13 is operated, a transition is made to the first scene (opening scene, white noise scene) of the channel when the power switch 13 was last turned off. Transition to the power-off scene can be made from all other scenes by turning off the power switch 13.

The opening scene is the first scene of a news program whose display resembles a so-called program introduction.

In this scene, in addition to the basic operations described above, if the anallancer 23 is clicked, a simple help message as shown in FIG. 2(d) is displayed. Furthermore, an operation may be introduced in which a program metaphor to be used is selected by instructing the left panel (not shown) of the anallancer 23. If there is no panel instruction or button operation on the VTR controller 12 from this scene, the scene changes over time.

The headline scene is the second scene of a news program as shown in the same figure.
Connect with rve. Once the line has been connected, in addition to the basic operations, you can also click (panel instructions) on the "National News,""LocalNews," and "Weather Forecast" areas on the panel 24 to skip to the desired news. be able to.

The national news scene is the third scene of a news program as shown in FIG. In this scene, for example, NIFT
Y-3erve's "Mainichi Shimbun Online News Breaking News"
In addition to basic operations, the order of the news can be changed by clicking on the desired news title on the panel 24.

The local news scene is the fourth scene of a news program as shown in FIG.
Presenting information from ve's [Mainichi Shimbun Online Regional News]. In this scene, in addition to basic operations, the order of the news can be changed by clicking on the desired news title on the panel 24, as in the national news scene.

The weather forecast scene is the fifth scene of a news program, and is presented in the order of weather marks, maximum temperature, minimum temperature, and probability of precipitation based on information from, for example, NIFTY-8erve's "National City Forecast." This order is changed. If so, press the play button 19 and back button 17.

The weather forecast scenes from the opening scene are assigned to the first channel.

The white noise scene exists to compensate for the fact that the channel cannot be used, and although basic operations are possible, it does not respond to operations on the VTR controller 12.

■ Information presentation method Next, the information presentation method in the above-mentioned information presentation situations such as national news, local news, and weather forecast will be explained.

In presenting information in national and local news,
``Use data from Online National News Bulletin J and ``Online Local News'' as news sources.

[Table 1] When presenting online national news information, commands are automatically issued according to a predetermined procedure as shown in [Table 1] in order to capture the necessary information. For national news, first, rR
EA, D ZENKOKUJ Then, when you issue the rN command to view the news on the front page, you will see the number 1 from among the "online national news" data.
-10 information will be presented.

Then, from this text data, the title part of ■ is displayed on the panel 24 on the right side of the anallancer 23. Further, since the articles appear in numerical order, the article contents (2) are sent to the electronic voice output device 2 and read out aloud to present information in the form of a news program. Note that although the data to be presented in the form of numbers 1 to 10 has been selected, it is of course possible to change the number of information to be presented, and the selection of information can also be selected according to a keyword desired by the user.

Table 2 with 0 margins below] Online National Weather Forecast Even when presenting information in the weather forecast, for example, the above [Table 2]
Issue commands according to the program, such as.

Then, from among the weather forecast data for the Kanto region, Tokyo, and six prefectures in the "National City Forecast", the weather data in the part marked with ■ is read, and this is converted into weather marks on the map panel, or the probability of precipitation, maximum temperature, etc. , the weather forecast is displayed as a numerical value indicating the lowest temperature, and at the same time, the weather forecast is made by voice from the electronic voice generating device 2. This will be done for each prefecture. Note that the information presented may be changed depending on the time of day in use, such as today's weather in the morning and tomorrow's weather in the evening.

Next, state transition will be explained based on script description.

When writing a script, it does not necessarily correspond to one state or one scene, but rather creates a flow of several states or one scene.

Here, the present invention will be explained in detail starting from the internal description.

FIG. 4 is a state transition diagram.

Television metaphor environment and NI FTY-3er
We will explain step-by-step how it works based on descriptions such as "Communication with ve".

The 5tart state is the state to which the script interpreter first transitions when a script is read.

In this state, the television receiver and VTR controller are displayed and variables and flags are initialized.

Thereafter, it transitions to the power-off state.

The power-off state corresponds to a power-off situation, and when transitioning to this state, the channel lamp is cleared and then the power switch is monitored for being pressed. When the power switch is pressed, a transition is made to the tvset state.

The tvset state is a part that monitors events for the television receiver and VTR controller and determines the transition destination for each event.

When the tvset is in a state and the channel lamp is off,
If the stop flag F-STOP is not on, a variable PRES-CH indicating the next channel to be transitioned to is set, a flag to be used at the transition destination is set, and the tvset state is continued.

When the volume button is pressed, it transitions to the Vol-up/Vol-dn state corresponding to the volume increase/decrease buttons,
After displaying and controlling the volume, it returns to the tvset state.

When a click is made in the cathode ray tube area or when each button on the VTR controller is pressed, each flag used in other states is set and the tVset state continues. At this time, the clicked coordinates are assigned to the reserved variables X and Y of the script interpreter. Using each flag and the values of variables X and Y, the program script described later performs corresponding processing.

The nonoperation event in the tvset state is the entry point from the TV set metaphor to the program metaphor. If the user does not perform any of the above operations, a nonoperation event occurs, and a pointer (P-CHI, P-CHI, P-
Among CH2, P-CH3), the value of the pointer corresponding to the current channel is incremented by 1, and a transition is made to the channel indicated by the variable PRES-C)I indicating the current channel. However, if the stop flag F-STOP is set, neither the pointer increase nor the state transition occurs, and the tvse
Continue in t state. This controls the progress of the program.

The following states from chl-0 to ch2-0 and ch3-0 are similar to subroutines, and when the operation in each state is completed, the program returns to the tvset state.

The chi-0 state transitions from the tvset state when the value of the variable PRES-CI (is 1), and changes from chl-1 to chl-1 corresponding to each scene of the news program depending on the value of the pointer P-CHI.
It branches to each state of chl-5. Furthermore, when the fast forward/rewind/play/back button on the VTR controller is pressed, it also plays the role of changing the progress of the news program by adjusting the value of the pointer P-CHI.

The chl-1 state is the central state of the opening scene. After displaying the opening screen, if the cathode ray tube operation flag F-CRT is on, it is determined from the clicked coordinates whether the operation is for an anallancer, and in that case, a help message is displayed.

chl-2 condition is the condition that is at the center of the headline scene. After the headline screen is displayed, if the cathode ray tube operation flag F-CRT is on, the value of the pointer P-CHI is adjusted so as to jump from the clicked coordinates to the news scene.

The ch l-3 state and the chi-4 state are states that are central to the national news scene and local news scene, respectively. When transitioning to this state, the action for one step of news progress, such as displaying a news title or displaying one piece of news, is executed, and the state returns to the tvset state.

In other words, the news program progresses each time it transitions to the CHI-3 state or CHI-4 state.

The ch15 state is the main state of the weather forecast scene. When transitioning to this state, a weather mark is displayed. It executes one step of weather forecasting action, such as displaying the probability of precipitation and temperature, and returns to the tvset state.

The ch2-0 state and ch3-0 state are variable PRBS-C.
When the value of H is 2 or 3, a transition is made from the tyset state. In this embodiment, white noise is assigned to describe a subscript of a metaphor that has an information presentation format different from that of a news program.

The module diagram in FIG. 5 is a rewrite of the state transition diagram shown in FIG. 4 from the viewpoint of module division.

chi-0 is the part that defines and processes the order of scenes in a news program and whether to move to a scene when each button on the VTR controller is pressed, and is equivalent to a script from the perspective of program progression. . On the other hand, the display and NI for each scene
The method/rules for displaying FTY-3erve data in the program status are described in the opening part, hentline part, national news part, local news part, and weather forecast part in the program metaphor, and it is necessary to decide which metaphor will appear. , which corresponds to the script from the perspective of defining the content of the program.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and various modifications are possible. For example, in the above embodiment, information was presented by importing data online from a personal computer network, but it can also be applied to various offline databases, and information can be displayed by switching channels or operating buttons on a video controller. Of course, it may be configured to perform a search.

Further, the information list may have more layers than the example shown in FIG. 3. Furthermore, when presenting online data, the online data may be stored in a file using a record button on the video controller.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, a virtual television receiver or video controller is displayed on the display, information is transmitted by voice, button operations for channel selection and volume adjustment, fast forwarding, By making it possible to control and select the information to be presented using video operations such as rewinding and stopping, it is possible to enjoy television news programs even for users who have little knowledge of computers, who use computers infrequently, and who are passive in their attitude toward computers. Information is presented on the screen and with audio, just like watching a video, and you can select the information you want to know by operating the video controller. Moreover, the information in the hierarchical structure can be changed by fast forwarding or rewinding, so you can select the information you want as if you were operating a video.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of an information presentation device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a screen presented by the information presentation device of the present invention, and FIG. FIG. 4 shows an example of the configuration of an information list applied to the information presentation device of
FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining an example of processing for determining the presentation order of information; FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining an example of processing for changing the presentation order of information from input;
The figure is a scene transition diagram of a news program, Figure 7 is a state transition diagram,
FIG. 8 is a module diagram of the TV set metaphor. l...computer, 2...electronic voice production device, 3
...Mouse, 4...Modem, 5...Telephone line, 6
...display. Applicant Personal Information Environment Association Agent Patent Attorney Ryukichi Abe (7 others) Figure 1, Section 2, Figure 3 (a) (b) Figure Figure

Claims (4)

[Claims] (1) In an information presentation device that accesses an online database and presents information, means for configuring a television metaphor environment that presents information using a screen and audio in a television program format using a script description and a script interpreter that correspond to the metaphor; and an information presentation characterized by comprising a communication function of a script interpreter and a communication function configuration means in which an online communication method is written as a script, and presenting a title part from text data on a screen and presenting the contents of each information by voice. Device. (2) The information presentation device according to claim 1, wherein the television metaphor environment is comprised of metaphors of a television set, a video controller, a news program, and a program introduction. (3) The information presentation device according to claim 2, wherein the presentation information is changed for each layer by button input on a video controller. (4) The information presentation device according to claim 2, wherein the presentation information is recorded by inputting a record button of the video controller.