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Description  |
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a television (TV) receiver, and particularly to a
TV receiver in which information based on a user's life style can be
obtained
2. Description of Conventional Technique
A present TV receiver has been frequently used in such a manner that a
channel selecting operation of selecting a desired one of many
broadcasting channels such as VHF broadcasting stations. UHF broadcasting
stations, BS broadcasts from a broadcasting satellite, etc. is carried out
so as to be matched with a user's life style.
That is a viewer's favorite broadcast channels (channels which are more
frequently used by a viewer) tend to be fixed according to time and
circumstances in accordance with an individual life style. For example
some viewers provide a high audience rating to an A station which
frequently broadcasts baseball games of their favorite team when a
professional baseball pennant race is started, and some viewers watch,
without missing a single day, a sumo wrestling program of a B station
which broadcasts the program everyday.
Here, the following situation is considered. After switching a TV receiver
on, a viewer having such a life style watches a gardening program of
another broadcasting station (i.e., a station which is not his favorite
station), and a time for a sumo wrestling program which he watches
everyday has come. If he does not beforehand preset a broadcast channel of
the sumo wrestling program in the TV receiver or if a preset operation
itself is impossible because the number of preset broadcast channels is
already equal to the permissible number, he can not watch the sumo
wrestling program unless a current channel is switched over through a
position tuning, a direct tuning or a skip tuning operation.
In such a situation, if he searches a desired channel through a channel UP
key or a channel DOWN key, the search operation is very cumbersome when
the target channel is far from the current channel, and if he searches a
desired channel through ten keys, the search operation is very
inconvenient because the number of the target channel is unknown.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention is implemented to overcome the above problem, and a TV
receiver of this invention is equipped in a controller thereof with a
calculation unit for constantly calculating a tuning frequency of a
broadcast channel using as a parameter a time for which the channel is
selected, and tuning frequency arrangement storing means for arranging and
setting channels in order from higher tuning frequency to lower tuning
frequency, and further equipped with a "my station" or preferred-station
key, that is, a Favorite-key (hereinafter referred to as "F key") so that
a channel can be automatically switched over by pushing the F key in
tuning-frequency order.
Since the broadcast channels which would be habitually frequently used by a
viewer are arranged and stored in tuning frequency order into the memory
in the controller, it is not necessary to preset a frequently-used
channel, and the number of rankings in tuning frequency can be increased
by increasing memory capacity, so that broadcast channels from first to
tenth ranking of tuning frequency or more can be successively displayed
and selected.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of this invention.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a part of the controller 5 of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a flowchart for a memory process of tuning frequency in the
embodiment of this invention;
FIG. 4 is a flowchart for channel selection by the F key in the embodiment
of this invention; and
FIG. 5 is a schematic view of a screen on which channel rankings are
displayed.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
A first embodiment of this invention will be described with reference to
FIGS. 1 and 2.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a television receiver
according to this invention. In FIG. 1, a reference numeral 1 represents
an antenna terminal, a reference numeral 2 represents an external input
terminal, a reference numeral 3 represents a TV tuner for selecting a
received radio wave, a reference numeral 4 represents an intermediate
frequency amplifier, a reference numeral 5 represents an image processing
unit, a reference numeral 10 represents a character generator for
outputting a character signal, a reference numeral 9 represents a
controller for controlling the operation of each of the units as described
above, and a reference numeral 6 represents an operating unit which is
provided on a panel of the television receiver to enable a viewer to
adjust a channel sound volume, etc. An F key is provided in the operation
unit 6 or an operation button of a remote commander to select a program
which is frequently watched by the viewer (hereinafter referred to as
"viewer's favorite program"). A reference numeral 7 represents an
infrared-rays detector which is provided in correspondence to the remote
commander at the external side, a reference numeral 8 represents a
demodulating unit, a reference numeral 11 represents a synthesizing
circuit for synthesizing a video signal and a character signal, and a
reference numeral 12 represents a Braun tube. A scanning circuit, an audio
circuit, etc. are omitted.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of functions related to the F key in the control
unit 9 of the TV receiver according to this invention. In FIG. 2, a
reference numeral 9a represents a time counting circuit for counting a
time interval of the operation of the channel key, a reference numeral 9b
represents a grade circuit for calculating the grade of a selected channel
on the basis of the time counted by the time counting circuit 9a, a
reference numeral 9c represents a sort circuit for sorting the channels
ranked by the grade circuit 9b in ascending order, a reference numeral 9d
represents a rank memory circuit for storing ranks sorted by the sort
circuit 9c, and a reference numeral 9e represents an FK (F key) time
counting circuit for counting a time interval of tile operation of the F
key.
The TV receiver according to this invention is equipped with the circuit
blocks as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, so that like an ordinary TV receiver a
power on/off operation, a selecting operation of a broadcasting station,
sound volume adjustment can be also performed by, for example, a remote
commander.
In the TV receiver according to this invention, the counting of a TV
watching time is started from the time when a broadcasting station is
tuned and a TV watching state for the broadcasting station is judged to
start, tuning frequencies indicating total watching times of the
respective broadcasting stations are collected, and then those channels
which are frequently selected in everyday life are ranked on the basis of
the collection data, so that the tuning operation of the broadcasting
stations is successively carried out by a single F key.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart for a series of processings for storing a tuning
frequency when a channel key is manipulated.
First, when a channel key (hereinafter referred to as "Ch key") is input
(manipulated) during the actuation of the TV receiver, an input channel is
displayed (F10), and a count time in the time counting circuit 9a is
cleared (F11). Thereafter, the time counting operation is started to count
a watching time for the input channel until the F key or another channel
key (F12) is input. The time counting circuit 9a is cleared when powered
on, and its counting operation is started.
If the input of the F key or Ch key is judged (F13), the time counting
circuit 9a ceases its time counting operation (F14), and the grade circuit
9b calculates the grade of a channel just before the input of the F key or
Ch key on the basis of the watching time serving as a parameter which is
counted by the time counting circuit 9a (F15). The sort circuit 9b
re-sorts the renewed grade of the channel in ascending order (F16).
The renewed ranking of the channel is stored in the memory circuit 9d every
renewing operation (F17). About ten rankings may be stored in the memory,
however, the rankings of all channels may be stored in the memory.
As described above, the steps of F10 to F17 of the flowchart as shown in
FIG. 3 are repeated every manipulation of the F key or Ch key to thereby
enable the renewing operation of the ranking stored in the memory circuit
9d.
The operation flow of selecting a channel from the memory circuit 9d with
the F key will be described with reference to a flowchart of FIG. 4.
First, upon input of the F key, it is judged whether a watching time
counted by the FK counting circuit 9e exceeds a predetermined time x which
is beforehand set (F21). If the count time is judged to exceed the time x,
a first-ranking channel is selected (F23) to display the channel on a
screen (F27), the FK counting circuit 9e is cleared (F28), and then the
time counting operation is started again (F29). The FK time counting
circuit 9e starts its time counting operation at the time when power is
on.
If the watching time counted by the FK counting circuit 9e is judged not to
exceed the predetermined time x (F21), when the currently-displayed
channel ranks first, the first ranking channel is displayed with no
alteration (F27), and the FK time counting circuit 9e is cleared (F28) to
start the time counting operation again. Alternately, it may be adapted to
display the second ranking channel when the currently-displayed channel
ranks first.
If the watching time counted by the FK time counting circuit 9e does not
exceed the predetermined time x (F21) and the currently-displayed channel
is not the first ranking channel, the next ranking channel just below the
currently-displayed channel is selected (F24). In a case where the number
of the rankings of the channels which are stored in the memory circuit 9d
are about ten rankings and the ranking of the currently-displayed channel
is the tenth ranking channel which is the lowest ranking channel (F25),
the ranking is returned to the first ranking (F26), then the channel of
the first ranking is displayed on the screen (F27), and then the watching
time counted by the FK time counting circuit 9e is cleared (F28) to start
the time counting operation until the next F key input is carried out
again (F29).
As described above, the operation of the flowchart as shown in FIG. 4 is
repeated every manipulation of the F key, so that the broadcasting
stations are successively selected in the order from a higher grade of
tuning frequency to a lower grade of tuning frequency.
Accordingly, through the random input operation of a Ch key to select a
channel, the grade of the tuning frequency of the channel is extracted,
and the received channel is memorized while ranked. These memorized
channels are successively selected by the input of the F key without a
presetting operation by the viewer and without the viewer's paying
attention to the number of stations to be memorized.
Since an F channel (Favorite-Ch) is randomly selected in accordance with
its ranking, a list of the rankings may be displayed in a LIST mode in
OSD10 as shown in FIG. 5 so that the viewer can check the F-channel state
at a glance.
As described above, according to the TV receiver of this invention, in an
ordinary use mode, a trend of a viewer's audience rating is checked in
terms of his channel watching time, and his favorite watching (using)
channel is stored in the tuning frequency arrangement storing means. In
addition, the stored watching channels are successively selected in
ranking order thereof by merely pushing the F key. Therefore, a cumbersome
operation of beforehand storing viewer's favorite channels which has been
conventionally required can be omitted. Further, the number of channels to
be stored can be increased from the number of conventionally-adopted
memory channel (about two three stations) to about 15 stations by
increasing storage capacity of the memory circuit serving as the tuning
frequency arrangement storing means, so that these stations can be
successively selected through the F key by ranking many broadcast channels
containing the BS broadcast and so on.
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