KR20010080587A - Television system for suggesting programs based on content and viewer profile - Google Patents

Abstract

The television system according to the invention has an associated database 15 comprising data relating to a program for a plurality of television program sources 14-i to 14-n and an electronic program guide (EPG) to be transmitted to the receiving device 3. It includes. In addition, a reviewer database 16 is provided that includes ratings by individual reviewers, for example, forming a review panel that reviews program types such as sports, music, drama, news, and the like. Are sent together. The ratings of each reviewer are kept separate and used at the receiving device to predict the program of interest to the viewer.

Description

TELEVISION SYSTEM FOR SUGGESTING PROGRAMS BASED ON CONTENT AND VIEWER PROFILE}

As the number of television channels increases, the difficulty of finding and selecting the television programs that viewers want to watch increases. When using analog terrestrial broadcasting in the UK, only five channels are available to most viewers, so viewers can find the program of interest in a list printed in a daily or weekly magazine. Even with the addition of analog satellite channels, dozens of channels still make program selection more difficult, but still possible. However, in the case of digital transmission, the number of available channels exceeds 100, so finding the desired program (or the most interesting program) is too time consuming.

In order to facilitate the work of the viewer, the concept of humanized TV has been proposed which requires only a regular one-channel from the network to the receiver.

In short, humanized TV may be considered an improved form of the Electronic Program Guide (EPG). High-performance EPG systems are very good at finding specific objects, for example 'all movies tonight' or 'next news time'. However, some effort is required for the viewer to program the system according to his specific needs.

This type of effort may be made using a PC in a 'work' environment, but since TV is usually a home entertainment medium, a more 'passive' approach in the user interface would be advantageous. Many systems already exist that help users find TV programs for viewing or recording. In these systems, the network provides some data about the program being decoded at the receiver. The viewer can interact with the receiver in some way via the user interface to perform some selection function for a particular program or type of program.

In selecting a TV program, both 'real-time' or 'direct' and 'pre-selection' or 'indirect' content data may be used. These two methods are complementary. For example, in the PDC (Programme Delivery Control) disclosed in EP-A-0300562 for programming a video cassette recorder (VCR), an item to be recorded is selected from a list using a cursor (indirect). When a program is broadcast, the real time switching signal ensures accurate recording timing (directly).

Another example of direct content data is the 'V', which categorizes the current broadcast program by age rating, violent content, etc., and can respond quickly to program content, even if the channel is selected to watch TV content. There are various parental control systems such as 'chip'.

An example of indirect content data is an EPG whose primary purpose is to select to search and watch TV programs in advance. There is always direct access to the data for accurate timing, pay-per-view billing, and more.

Another example of indirect content data is program schedule data obtained from the Internet. Of course, this requires a modem connection to the receiver, which adds cost in most cases. Other features include the development of Internet technologies and possible format changes, the acquisition of companies that collect information, the possibility of changes to websites that contain content data by mergers and transfers. TV equipment users expect the TV to last about 10 years, so Internet access may be too dangerous for them. It may also be difficult to ensure that the data covers all the programs that can be received by a particular device at a given geographical location. For that reason, the improved EPG method is advantageous for humanized TVs because it does not require a return channel.

Conventional EPG systems use a database containing information about all the programs available on a channel or group of channels. The database may be generated by a broadcaster or network provider or a third party. The database includes broadcast time, network, title, genre, description and the like. The information from the database is transmitted to the receiver in a number of ways, including on an independent broadcast channel or in addition to the TV transmission itself in a manner similar to teletext transmission.

At the receiver, the EPG decoder receives and decodes the content information and collects a local version of the program database. In a full performance EPG receiver, the entire database may be played, and in a more basic receiver, only a small subset of the transmitted information may be available, such as 'what's on now and next'. The viewer interacts with the EPG decoder through a user interface that searches the local database for the specific items (or category of items) requested. Thus, conventional EPG systems have one user (viewer) that interacts with actual information about the available programs. As more programs are sent, more specific user requests must narrow the required items. Clearly selecting a program from a list of possible choices by network, genre, time, etc. is the only way to obtain the program.

In general, users may find ways to be easy to handle and fun to use, but many people will want to find the program they want with little effort. One conclusion is that the viewer adopts the 'brand loyalty' method for a particular station or network so that the available multiple channels are simply ignored. Another conclusion may be to continue 'zapping', simply browsing the channels randomly to find what is of interest. Still images or moving pictures containing representative frames from the associated program may aid in recognition. Speech recognition is another possible way to improve the user interface. These techniques may greatly increase the attractiveness of the product, but by themselves will not be enough to satisfy viewers who want to find their favorite or interesting program from the thousands of programs available with little effort. It may be.

Several new elements may be included in a humanized TV to improve performance over conventional EPG systems. In addition to making clear choices, it is possible to obtain information about user preferences by observing the user's behavior over time. The actual program you are watching can be secretly monitored to gain clues about the type of program you prefer and other habits such as how many times you watch TV during the day or week. It is also possible to assess the degree of preference in a program by checking how long it has been watched, for example whether it is watched to the end of the program or only arbitrarily chosen for a few minutes. This is useful information that is automatically obtained without requiring any effort on the viewer side. Even when there is no EPG transmission, there is a method of obtaining the data (eg, teletext). An example of obtaining such statistics is disclosed in US patent application US-A-5,757,414. The application provides an apparatus for at least program title information for a program to be transmitted in the future to form a channel guide listing, and to search for a particular television program that satisfies certain criteria related to viewers' viewing preferences. Upon reaching this successful conclusion, we propose a television system that generates a list of such programs so that the device presents the viewer with any programs that may be of interest to the viewer. The device may store information about which particular television the viewer watches as a search criterion. The search criteria may be adapted by the viewer to improve the search.

A problem associated with all these conventional proposals is that it tends to focus on the user's viewing of a limited range of programs, making it difficult for the viewer to find new interest. In other words, the setting provides a more concentrated list of programs that the viewer is primarily interested in, thus preventing the provision of material that may be around the viewer's interest or events outside the current interest that the viewer may recognize.

The present invention relates to a television system and a television transmission device and a television reception device for use in such a system.

1 is a schematic block diagram of a television system of the present invention.

2 is a schematic block diagram of a television receiving device according to the present invention suitable for use in the system shown in FIG.

An object of the present invention is to provide a program information including both the content clearly collected from the viewer's viewing habits or the information directly input by the viewer, and the contents that may be of interest to the viewer but inferred outside the normal viewing habits. It is to provide a method for providing to the viewer.

A television system comprising a television transmission device, a television transmission medium, and at least one television reception device, the television transmission device comprising means for transmitting video, audio and data signals, the data signal being a program to be transmitted. And data indicative of television program information associated therewith, wherein the television receiver (s) comprises a data decoder for decoding the transmitted data, a memory for storing at least a portion of the data received by the receiver device (s); And a processor configured to inspect the stored data to determine a program that may be of interest to the viewer based on information input by the viewer and / or information derived by examining the viewer's viewing habits. The signals to be transmitted And data indicative of respective ratings provided by a plurality of reviewers for the program, wherein the processor is configured to select or suggest a viewing program in view of the ratings of one or more of the reviewers.

The rating of the panel as one of the factors by which program selection and / or proposal is made, by forming a program rating by one or more review committees, ie groups of reviewers convened to provide input on a particular scope or ranges of the program. Programs that are highly rated by one or more reviewers who make up may be offered to the viewer even if they do not meet other selection criteria. By setting up a review panel, critics' opinions will not become dominant unless they may interact with viewers. However, by encoding and sending the ratings of critics individually, if a viewer's opinion tends to be consistent with that of a particular critic, the ratings of the particular critic are given different weights, although the opinions of other critics may be considered. The processor can be configured to give greater weight to the. Of course, the review committees are not necessarily exclusive. That is, a particular critic may participate in one or more commissions, for example, a panel of music and a panel of drama.

The invention also provides means for inputting respective ratings from a plurality of reviewers into a database for at least a portion of a program transmitted by the television transmitting device or other television transmitting device and receivable by one or more receiving device (s); Means for encoding said transmission class together with other data associated with said program, and means for transmitting said data.

The television transmission apparatus includes means for inputting respective ratings from the review panel. The ratings of each reviewer are kept separate from the ratings of other reviewers in the panel and transmitted separately. This may allow each opinion to be individually considered within receivers of the transmitted data.

The data may be multiplexed with one or more television programs transmitted by the transmitting device.

This allows the data to be collected at the receiver while the user is watching and / or recording the program. This is essentially the same as the current teletext and EPG transmissions with analog television transmissions where data is transmitted during the vertical blanking interval, in this way conventional television data encoders and data inserters can be used in the transmitting device, A conventional data decoder can be used for the receiving device. In digital television transmission, it is also possible to multiplex the data with a data stream representing video and audio for a given program.

Meanwhile, the data may be transmitted on a separate channel dedicated to separate data transmission.

If the separate channel is a data only analog television channel, a larger amount of data may be transmitted more quickly because the entire television field is available for data transmission, not just during the vertical blanking interval. Thus, depending on the memory capacity in the receiving device, data grades for multiple channels may be transmitted or a deeper description of the program to be transmitted may be transmitted. In addition, a program schedule can be transmitted that further studies the future without excessively extending the transmission cycle. In this case, it is of course necessary to provide a separate selection circuit which can be configured to capture data when the program is not watched or recorded or that can receive data at the same time as when the program is watched on another channel.

The separate channels dedicated to data transmission may take many different forms, such as analog channels, which are not in TV format and dedicated to data with higher or lower bandwidth than standard TV channels. If such a channel has a lower bandwidth, then the transmission cycle for the given quality of data will of course increase. Another possibility in digitally transmitting television programs and related data is to assign a multiplex to the data, which generally increases the amount of data to be transmitted or provides shorter transmission cycles. In addition, entirely different transmission media such as, for example, the Internet or satellite channels may be used for the data transmission.

From the above, in particular, the receiving device may have a large memory capacity and remain idle when not watching, so that data in the data channel is captured for use when the viewer accesses the database or selects (or selects) a program to watch. It is obvious that it is not necessary for the dedicated data channel to have a high bandwidth if it can be stored.

The invention also provides a television receiver for receiving television program and data signals transmitted by a television transmitter, comprising: a data decoder for decoding the transmitted data and at least a portion of the data decoded by the data decoder; A memory, and a processor configured to select and / or suggest programs for a receiver to receive, wherein the selection and / or suggestion is based on information input by the user or derived from examining the user's viewing habits, The data signals include data indicative of each class of a particular program by a plurality of reviewers, the selection also providing a television receiving device based on the class allowed by one or more reviewers.

In the television receiving device according to the present invention, a memory stores data related to a program to be transmitted later, and the data includes a rating of a program by a review panel. The ratings of each reviewer are stored separately (with respect to the associated program) so that the processor in the receiving device accesses the individual ratings of each reviewer for each program. The processor uses the data received and stored with the user profile, and the user's interests and habits, as long as the user profile relates to viewing or recording the program, to determine which of the programs to be transmitted is the user's preference. Contains data defining the. Presentations to the user may be made in a number of different ways. For example, when the receiving device is switched on, a program list of interest may be generated and displayed. Meanwhile, the list may be displayed when the user calls the remote control device. Another possibility is to have a message displayed when a program of interest is about to start, or when the preferred program is about to start, and when it tries to switch the receiver from the wait state to a fully on state.

The remote control apparatus is provided with a remote control apparatus to allow a user to select a program and other functions of the receiver, the remote control apparatus configured to transmit an identification signal to a receiving apparatus specific to the user, and the receiving apparatus is It may be provided to include means for receiving the identification signal to determine the identity of the user.

By said means, the processor can confirm that the user is a person whose user profile is included in the receiving device.

The remote control device may comprise means for transmitting one of a plurality of identification signals, the specific identification signal being transmitted depending on the person currently using the remote control device.

If the receiving device can store different user profiles for a plurality of different people, for example different members of a family residing at the same address, the user profile of the person currently using the receiving device can be used. If a family includes different generations, such as male and female members and parents and children, the viewing profiles of the different members of the family may be completely different. It is very likely that the remote control device will send different identification signals for different users. One possibility is to provide an identification signal with multiple user identification keys that are labeled according to the user so that different identification signals are generated. One of these keys is operated by the user to announce his or her identity and other function keys can then be used. The receiving device then uses the user's profile until another user identification key is activated. Another possibility is to use automatic recognition means, for example a fingerprint sensing device, on the remote control device. The fingerprint sensing device identifies the user and allows an appropriate identification signal to be transmitted. These are just two examples of the many possibilities for identifying a user's identity to a television receiving device.

On the other hand, if a plurality of remote control devices are provided, each of these remote control devices is configured to transmit different identification signals and is identifiable to the users so that each user can use a particular one of the remote control devices. .

This allows each remote control device to take a simpler form since only one identification signal needs to be generated at each remote control device. Since the number of users of television receiving devices in a family is limited, it is evident that only a small number of different identification signals, typically up to eight, are required and the identification signals can be reused in other homes. The identification signal may just be a number assigned to each remote control device. The identification of each remote control device to the user can be made, for example, by taking any convenient form, such as a different color or label on the device, or by forming a remote control device of a different shape, such as an imitation of a cartoon character or other object. have.

The television receiving device may be configured to receive a data signal transmitted on a different channel from the television program, and includes first first channel selecting means for selecting a program channel and second channel selecting means for selecting a data channel.

Full channel transmission of data in an analog television environment allows a large amount of data to be transmitted while maintaining cycle time within a reasonable range because the data may occupy a complete field, not just a vertical blanking interval. The data is transmitted continuously, and once the data is transmitted the transmission cycle is repeated. The length of the cycle depends on the amount of data to be transmitted and the speed at which the data is transmitted. The transmitted data can be stored indefinitely in the receiving device, but if the receiving device does not have a standby mode in which data is captured and stored when the other receiver is switched off, the receiving device is switched on so that all data can be stored. The complete cycle needs to be completed. In addition, the data is frequently updated and the updated data is preferably transmitted without actual delay. By providing two selection means, the receiver can keep the data up-to-date by checking the data channel while the user is watching a program, thus eliminating the need to periodically tune to the data channel. It does not disturb the viewing of the program.

Thus, the television receiving device may comprise not only a standard television receiver but also any device capable of receiving a television signal, for example a set top box or a video recorder, even if it does not include a display device and / or audio reproduction means. As another example, the television receiving device may be a personal computer having a TV card, in which case the data channel may be downloaded into memory for a large amount of data relating to an available television program, and a very complex operation may be performed on the personal computer. It can also be the Internet, which allows for greater processing power to be involved. Similarly, it has been proposed to connect set-top boxes to the Internet and to include such facilities in conventional television receivers.

If the television receiving device is a video recorder, the video recorder can record a user's favorite program for later viewing, which is transmitted when the viewer does not watch television or when watching another program.

The present invention provides a method for selecting a television program for viewing and / or recording, comprising the steps of: 1) receiving data indicative of a program to be transmitted, the data indicating at least a program transmission date and time and program type;

2) receiving data indicative of a rating for a given program by a member of the review panel;

3) storing at least a portion of the data;

4) inputting and / or creating and storing a user profile indicating the type of program the user prefers to watch;

And 5) selecting a program to watch and / or record using the stored data and user profile.

Using this method, the television receiving device can select a program that the user may be interested in. By incorporating the program ratings from the review panel and converging the individual ratings of each reviewer, it is possible to give more weight to the ratings of the critics that the user most sympathizes with in the selection criteria. As the critic's personal view may be different and wider than the user's view, this gives the possibility of suggesting a program outside the general area of interest that the user may not perceive.

The selection step includes proposing to the user about current or future programs that are likely to cause interest.

Thus, it may be configured to provide a list of suggested viewings during the morning or evening when the receiver is switched on or when requested to do so by a user entering a request using the remote control device. This may simply be the most interesting program or programs you are about to start or start in the near future, for example within 15 minutes. On the other hand, it may be a list of programs for a long period of time as long as two weeks for the viewer to take a vacation, especially in the video recorder, for watching throughout the evening. To allow the viewer to choose to watch and record for later viewing, the receiving device may provide a list of programs that occur simultaneously. A user profile may be created or improved by examining programs that the user chooses to watch or record, for example, may give the program more weight as it is likely that the program selected for recording is particularly preferred. . By examining these programs being watched or recorded, an accurate user profile can be built in one cycle, and the profile can be improved continuously as the user's taste changes or evolves. However, this means that on first use the receiving device has no information about the viewer's interests so that there are no or arbitrary suggestions for viewing. To overcome this problem, the viewer may enter some initial information about his or her interests, for example by entering selections using a remote control device using menus and selection structures. The initial profile is subsequently updated by checking the watched or recorded program.

The other receiver may be preprogrammed with a user profile generated from typical viewing preferences. For example, most people watch news programs and may also watch soap operas and sports programs. Starting from such a profile, the actual selection of the viewer will improve the selection to more accurately match the viewer's interest.

The method may further include storing user profiles for the plurality of users, identifying the current user, and using the current user profile.

This enables a program that is preferred by one of some users of a particular television receiving device, such as a television set in a home parlor. In such a situation, the television set may be watched by parents and children of completely different interests, such that one person's favorite program may not be preferred to other members of the family.

These and other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description through embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a schematic block diagram of a television system according to the invention comprising a television transmission device 1, a television transmission medium 2, and a television reception device 3. The television transmitting apparatus includes a plurality of program sources 14-1 to 14-n. There is also a program content database 15 that stores data associated with a program generated by the program source. The data includes the date and time of transmission of the program and the type of program, such as film, sports, music, drama, news, and the like. The content database may also include background information about the program to be transmitted, such as a story summary if the author's detailed information, the producer, the actor or the program is transmitted as part of a soap opera. Television transmission devices comprising such a database are already known and the database content is tailored to the particular service provided. It is a relatively small and simple database for services such as teletext and a more complex and comprehensive database for more recently introduced electronic program guides. A critic database 16 is also provided in the television device according to the invention. This database contains data representing the opinion of the review panel on at least a portion of the program to be transferred. Critics' personal judgments remain separate and not combined. Thus, the ratings of the respective critics for a particular type of program are related to the data in the content database 15 representing the transmission time, program length and program classification, ie the actual data related to the program such as sports, movies, music news, etc. . There may be a review panel that provides opinions on dramas, another panel that provides opinions on classical music, and another panel that provides opinions on documentaries. As a result for each program, code in a reviewer database that identifies a particular reviewer and other additional code that provides a rating assigned to the program by the particular reviewer are stored. The data is under the control of the processor 17. And from the critic database 16 via the bus 18 to the data encoder 19. The data is selected by the processor 17 which receives input from a controller of the database 15, 16. In a typical configuration, program content data and related reviewer data may be broadcast in a periodic pattern in front of the program being transmitted so that a similar database may be established at the receiving device. The data encoder 19 may take any convenient form of encoding data in a format according to a specific standard adopted in a particular country or by different service providers or for different transmission media. The standard may be changed, but the design of such an encoder is within the skill of those skilled in the art once the standard to which the data is encoded is defined.

The output of the encoder 19 is supplied to a first input of the combiner 20 and a second input for receiving a television program from one program source. The combined television program and data are provided to the transmitter 21, which may take a convenient form and produce an output of the television transmission device. This output includes television program pulse data comprising data specifying programs to be transmitted from a plurality of program sources in the future and data provided by a plurality of reviewers of at least a portion of the program being transmitted. In addition, real-time data, such as PDC data, is combined with other data for encoding by the encoder 19. The output from the television transmitting device is transmitted to the plurality of television receiving devices through the transmission medium 2. The transmission device and transmission link may take many forms, for example terrestrial broadcast television transmission, cable television network or satellite television system, for example an electronic program guide or teletext transmitted according to the World System Teletext Specification. It may be in the form of an analog television with a digital television broadcast encoded with any standard available or available.

In FIG. 1, the data channel is supplied to the transmitter 21 through the combiner 20, but may be supplied to another transmitter and may be completely separated from the program source. It may also include data related to programs transmitted from different transmitters, such as different transmitters or cable networks. Meanwhile, the data channel may be provided through a data network such as satellite or the Internet. Thus, data may be transmitted on a separate channel, multiplexed with one or more program channels, and may be associated with programs from different transmitters.

The television receiving device 3 comprises a first channel selecting means 31 comprising tuning and / or multiplexing circuitry for selecting a particular channel to be transmitted for reception and display or for recording on a display screen. Some or each of the programs to be transmitted have data signals associated with them which are supplied from the tuning and / or demultiplexing circuit 31 to the data decoder 32. The data decoder 32 decodes the data and supplies the decoded data to the program database 33. The program database stores all or some data decoded by the data decoder 32 via a data channel associated with the program. Second channel selecting means 39 (shown in dashed lines) may be provided which is configured to select a data channel which may be a data channel associated with a program channel different from that selected by the dedicated data channel or the first channel selecting means 31. have. The second channel selecting means is connected to the data decoder 32 in place of the first channel selecting means 31 or in addition to the first channel selecting means. This allows data to be captured and stored when received on a channel different from the channel being viewed. User interface 34 is provided for the viewer to interact with the television receiving device. Thus, for example, a user interface typically has a remote control device having a plurality of keys activated by a user and transmitting a signal to a receiver in a television receiving device capable of receiving and decoding a signal generated by the remote control device. Include. Typically these signals are transmitted over an infrared transmission link. Some of these keys are used to select specific channels for viewing or recording, while others are used to select data from the program database for display. The selection is typically made using a processor circuit 35 that includes a microcontroller or microprocessor.

Processor 35 controls the tuning and / or demultiplexing circuit 31 to allow a particular channel to be selected. The selection of the channel may be the result of a user directly selecting a channel using a remote control device or may be provided to a processor that defines the program information stored in the program database and how the data is used to select a particular channel that the viewer would prefer. It may also arise from programmed rules. The output of the tuning and / or demultiplexing circuit 31 is a conventional audio / video circuit 37 which takes an input program signal and converts it to display on a conventional cathode ray and display device 38, such as a display device or a liquid crystal display. Is supplied.

Instead of selecting a program for immediate display, the program may be selected for recording. The recording device may share the same tuning and / or demultiplexing circuit 31 or have separate tuning and / or demultiplexing circuits, in which case the output from the processor 35 is directed to the recording / playback device 36. Is sent to command to record a specific program at a specific time. The recording / playback device 36 may be integrated with a receiving device or may be a separate device such as a video cassette recorder.

2 shows an embodiment of a television receiver 3 comprising a set top box in which the television receiver receives a digital television program signal. The input signal is applied to an input 201 connected to the channel select circuit 22. This demultiplexes the required channel from the series of multiplexed channels. Data associated with a television program is also included within the multiplex as a separate data channel that includes data associated with the selected television program or with all channels within the multiplex or even other multiplexes. The data is supplied to a data detector 203, which detects the data and makes it in a suitable format for storage in the program database 204. The processor also receives input from a receiver circuit 206 that receives an input signal from the remote control device 207, wherein the user can use the remote control device to watch the channel number of the desired program and / or the program to be viewed. Enter any other information needed. The processor 205 controls the channel selector 202 so that the desired channel can be decoded by the program decoder 208. The processor 205 is also coupled to the selector circuit 209, which allows the user to watch the selected channel or to view data stored in a program database such as teletext or electronic program guide information. The processor 205 may apply a signal to a selector circuit to be provided on the screen for setting up the receiver. The set top box has an output 211 comprising, for example, a composite video or RGB signal and an audio signal supplied to the audio video circuitry of the display device. On the other hand, they may be supplied to the input of the video recorder.

The processor also has an additional associated memory 210. The memory 210 is used to enable the processor to store the user's viewing habits and / or explicit preferences. In one embodiment, the processor examines these channels that the viewer selects using the remote control device 207. From the program database 204, the processor can determine the program to be transmitted on the selected channel at any particular time. Thus, when the user enters the channel number of the program currently transmitting the sports program to the remote control device 207, the program database contains information that the selected channel is broadcasting the sports program at that time, so that the processor You can check this. Since the information can be input into the memory 21, the viewer habitually selects an image constructed with these program types. Since this may change over time (particularly if there are multiple viewers), the transfer time of the program may be shared in the memory 210. Thus, the processor may 'learn' what the viewer's taste is for a given time, and predict from the data in the program database the time and channel at which the particular program the viewer prefers to be transmitted. Once the user profile has been established, the processor can select a program of interest to the viewer, thus alleviating the viewer's task of searching for all available programs.

In addition to examining the types of programs that viewers choose to watch, such as sports, news, drama, music, etc., the program processor is also highly rated by one of the reviewers who make up the panel. Check if you choose to watch the program. If a viewer tends to watch a program that is highly rated by a particular critic, the processor may be programmed to give a high weight to the program that the particular critic is rated high. This ensures that the program of interest to the viewer is provided to the viewer upon transmission of the program. It also ensures that programs that are not known to the viewer but highly rated by the viewer's preferred critic are provided for the viewer to choose if desired.

Another way of operating the receiving device is to generate a list of programs which the processor is likely to draw attention to, for example, during the evening hours. When the receiving device is switched on, the processor may be configured to provide a program schedule in the form of a list for the evening hours with programs that viewers are recommended to watch. These programs are selected by examining the viewer's viewing habits and by adding extra weight to the rating of the rating of the program that the viewer has learned to agree with the rating of a particular reviewer. The list of programs deemed suitable for viewing for a certain period of time may be determined by the viewer, which may be generated upon switch on, displayed immediately or may be invoked for display by the user using a remote control device.

In the above, it is assumed that the viewer's preference can be learned for a predetermined period. However, when a viewer purchases a new receiver, there remains a problem that there is no information on the viewer's preference. Thus, if the viewer has several devices for inputting his or her preferences as a starting point, i.e. on switch-on, it is advantageous for the receiving device to use the menu display to query which particular subject the viewer is interested in. Thus, for example, a viewer may be required to be ranked in the order of preference, i.e., news, drama, music, sports documentary, etc., and within each category, what they prefer, for example, music. Can require classical, pop, jazz, and dance. Thus, an initial user profile can be collected, where the processing device 205 begins to construct a user profile. The processor can examine the programs that the viewer actually watches and selects, so this will improve over time.

Another advantage of the present invention is the assignment of a different remote control device to each user in a multiuser home. The remote control device is configured to send a unique code to the viewer so that the receiver can know which viewer is actually operating the receiver. If, in viewer preferences, multiple profiles are stored, one program may be selected for each user that most interests a particular viewer. For example, program preferences vary widely, especially between men and women, and between adults and children. Thus, a composite viewer profile may create a selection in which multi-user homes have little interest in one or more users.

From the above, those skilled in the art will be able to make other variations and modifications. Such modifications and variations are included in the known and other features as well as equivalent and other features that can be used in place of or in addition to the features disclosed herein. While the claims defined herein are presented with specific combinations of features, the scope of the present invention, whether or not it is the same invention as the invention currently claimed in any claim and whether or not it is intended to solve the same technical problem as in the present invention, Any novel feature or combination of features and any generalization thereof, expressly or implicitly disclosed herein. Thus, while the present application or other applications derived therefrom are pending, new claims may be formulated with the above features and / or combinations of such features.

Claims (16)

A television system comprising a television transmitter, a television transmission medium, and one or more television receivers, The television transmission device comprises means for transmitting video, audio and data signals, The data signal comprises data indicative of television program information associated with a program to be transmitted, The television receiver (s) may comprise a data decoder to decode the transmitted data, a memory to store at least a portion of the data received by the receiver (s), information input by a viewer and / or a viewer's A processor configured to inspect the stored data to determine a program that may interest the viewer based on the information derived by examining the viewing habits, The data signals comprise data provided by a plurality of reviewers indicative of respective classes of television programs to be transmitted, The processor is configured to select or suggest a viewing program in view of one or more ratings of the reviewer. In a television transmitter, Means for inputting respective ratings from a plurality of reviewers into a database for at least a portion of a program transmitted by the television transmission device or other television transmission device and receivable by one or more receiving device (s); Means for encoding the transmission class together with other data associated with the program; Means for transmitting the data. The method of claim 2, And said data is multiplexed with one or more television programs transmitted by said transmitting device. The method of claim 2, And the data is transmitted on a separate channel dedicated to data transmission. A television receiving apparatus for receiving television program and data signals transmitted by a television transmitting apparatus, the television receiving apparatus comprising: A data decoder for decoding the transmitted data; A memory for storing at least a portion of the data decoded by the data decoder; A processor configured to select and / or suggest programs for a receiver to receive, wherein the selection and / or suggestion is based on information input by a user or information derived by examining a user's viewing habits, the data signal And data indicative of each rating of a particular program by a plurality of reviewers, wherein the selection is also based on the rating allowed by one or more reviewers. The method of claim 5, And a separate user profile is stored for each user so that an appropriate program is selected and / or suggested when a particular user is identified. The method of claim 5 or 6, A remote control device is provided to allow a user to select a program and other functions of the receiver, the remote control device being configured to transmit an identification signal to a receiving device specific to the user, the receiving device receiving the identification signal. And means for determining the identity of the user. The method of claim 7, wherein And the remote control device comprises means for transmitting one of a plurality of identification signals, wherein the specific identification signal is transmitted depending on the person currently using the remote control device. The method according to claim 5 or 6, A plurality of remote control devices are provided, each of which is configured to transmit a different identification signal and is recognizable to the users so that each user can use a particular one of the remote control devices. Device. The method according to any one of claims 5 or 9, Receive data signals transmitted on different channels from a television program, And a first channel selecting means for selecting a program channel and a second channel selecting means for selecting a data channel. The method according to any one of claims 5 to 10, A television receiver comprising a set top box. The method according to any one of claims 5 to 10, A television receiver comprising a video recorder. A method of selecting a television program for viewing and / or recording, 1) receiving data indicative of a program to be transmitted, said data indicating at least a program transmission date and time and a program type; 2) receiving data indicative of a rating for a given program by each review panel; 3) storing at least a portion of the data; 4) inputting and / or creating and storing a user profile indicating the type of program the user prefers to watch; 5) selecting a program to watch and / or record using the stored data and user profile. The method of claim 13, Wherein the selecting step includes proposing to a user about a current or future program that is likely to cause interest. The method according to claim 13 or 14, And wherein said user profile is created or improved by examining programs for which the user selects to watch or record. The method according to claim 13 or 15, Storing a user profile for a plurality of users in step 5), identifying a current user, and using the current user profile.