Patent Application
20130227606
This application claims priority to Japanese Patent Application No. 2012-041645 filed on Feb. 28, 2012, the disclosure of which including the specification, the drawings, and the claims is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
The present disclosure relates to server apparatuses sending emergency information to clients.
Japanese Patent Publication No. 2004-72439 teaches displaying a caption to be superimposed on a reproduced image during time-free reproduction upon receipt of a closed-captioned broadcast so that a user can see the caption in real time.
The present disclosure provides a server apparatus advantageous in delivering input emergency information to a client of a user, who wishes to receive the information.
The server apparatus according to an aspect of the present disclosure, which delivers emergency information to a client, includes a delivery settings management section configured to manage delivery settings of the emergency information for each of registered clients; an input configured to receive an emergency information item; a client identifying section configured to refer to the delivery settings managed by the delivery settings management section, and to identify, among the registered clients, the client to which the emergency information item received by the input is to be delivered; and a transmitter configured to send the emergency information item to the client identified by the client identifying section.
A server apparatus according to another aspect of the present disclosure includes a broadcast receiver configured to receive a digital broadcast signal; a separator configured to separate a stream of a predetermined type from the digital broadcast signal; a multiplexer configured to multiplex the stream of the predetermined type separated by the separator with another stream different from the digital broadcast signal; and a network transmitter configured to send the stream multiplexed by the multiplexer over a wired or wireless network.
A terminal apparatus according to an aspect of the present disclosure receives a multiplexed stream from the server apparatus and reproduces the multiplexed stream. The terminal apparatus includes a network receiver configured to receive the multiplexed stream from a wired or wireless network; and a superimposer configured to superimpose a stream of a predetermined type on a display image of the multiplexed stream received by the network receiver.
The server apparatus according to the present disclosure is advantageous in delivering input emergency information to a client, or a user, who wishes to receive the information.
Embodiments are described in detail below with reference to the attached drawings. However, unnecessarily detailed description may be omitted. For example, detailed description of well known techniques or description of the substantially same elements may be omitted. Such omission is intended to prevent the following description from being unnecessarily redundant and to help those skilled in the art easily understand it.
Inventors provide the following description and the attached drawings to enable those skilled in the art to fully understand the present disclosure. Thus, the description and the drawings are not intended to limit the scope of the subject matter defined in the claims.
Conventionally, superimposition has been used, which displays character information (a caption) such as urgent breaking news on a natural disaster to be superimposed on a background image in a digital television broadcast.
Japanese Patent Publication No. 2004-72439 teaches superimposing a caption, which has been detected from a digital broadcast signal, on an image displayed after decoding the digital broadcast signal. This enables a user of equipment having the function of receiving digital broadcasts to receive urgent breaking news on a natural disaster even in time-free reproduction. However, the urgent breaking news on the natural disaster are not delivered to equipment not having the function of receiving digital broadcasts, and thus the user of such equipment cannot receive the emergency information.
The broadcast receiver 101 is a tuner for receiving digital broadcasts. The broadcast receiver 101 receives a digital broadcast signal, demodulates and descrambles the signal to decode it to transport stream data (hereinafter referred to as TS data), and outputs the data to the TS demultiplexer 102.
In addition to video data, audio data, a subtitle, a data broadcast, and closed-caption data; TS data used in a digital broadcast includes program specific information (PSI), a program association table (PAT), a program map table (PMT), a network information table (NIT), a conditional access table (CAT), service information (SI), etc., which associate various information items attached to TS data.
Referring back to
The storage medium 103 is, for example, an HDD, which stores video TS data captured in a digital broadcast or by a video camera. The storage medium 103 is not limited to an HDD, but may be an SSD or a removable storage medium such as an SD card, which can be used by inserting to a drive, an USB memory, an USB-HDD, and a Blu-ray media, as long as data can be stored. The data stored in the storage medium 103 is not limited to TS data captured in a digital broadcast or by a video camera, but may be multimedia contents in other formats, which may be, for example, photograph data, music data, contents downloaded from the network, etc.
The TS multiplexer 104 multiplexes the closed-caption TS data sent from the TS demultiplexer 102 with the TS data output from the storage medium 103 on a TS packet-by-TS packet basis, and outputs the multiplexed data to the network transmitter 105.
The network transmitter 105 converts remultiplexed TS data, which has been multiplexed by the TS multiplexer 104, into a format in which data can be sent over the network. The network transmitter 105 sends the converted data to a wired or wireless network using a transmission protocol such as digital living network alliance (DLNA). The storage medium 103 may store broadcast data received by the broadcast receiver 101.
The inner configuration of the server apparatus 100 can be modified. For example, the broadcast receiver 101 is not limited to a tuner for receiving digital broadcasts. The server apparatus 100 may be connected to a set top box (STB) via Ethernet (registered trademark), iLINK, etc., and may receive broadcast TS data from such a connecting terminal.
The TS data extracted by the TS demultiplexer 102 is not limited to a caption, but may be any type of data such as video data, audio data, a subtitle, a data broadcast, etc., which delivers urgent breaking news, as long as it is included in the TS data. In this case, for example, a unique PID is assigned to TS data on emergency information, thereby separating the TS data from the other pieces of TS data. For example, the TS demultiplexer 102 may separate a TS packet assigned with a PID indicating emergency information from other TS packets which are captions. In this case, the emergency information includes, for example, a flash report on or a warning about a natural disaster.
While the broadcast receiver 101 obtains TS data of a plurality of digital broadcast channels, a user may select, from which channel the TS data is received.
Where TS data is sent to a plurality of terminal apparatuses at the same time, the terminal apparatuses may receive the TS data from different channels, or the TS data may be sent to all the terminal apparatuses from the same channel. The terminal apparatuses and the channels may be in any combination.
The network receiver 301 receives data sent over a wired or wireless network, decodes the received data to TS data, and outputs the TS data to the TS demultiplexer 302.
Similar to the TS demultiplexer 102 of the server apparatus 100, the TS demultiplexer 302 checks the PIDs of TS packets included in the TS data, separates the TS data based on the PIDs, and outputs the TS data to the TS decoder 303. At this time, the TS data having a PID indicating audio data is output to the audio data decoder 311. The TS data having a PID indicating video data is output to the video data decoder 312. The TS data having a PID indicating closed-caption data is output to the closed-caption data decoder 313. The types of the TS data input to the TS demultiplexer 302 are not limited to audio data, video data, and closed-caption data, but other types of data may be included.
The TS decoder 303 performs decoding of the TS data having the PIDs, which has been separated by the TS demultiplexer 302. The audio data decoder 311 decodes audio TS data to generate baseband audio data, and outputs the generated data to the audio output 304. The video data decoder 312 decodes video TS data to generate baseband video data, and outputs the generated data to the character superimposer 305. The closed-caption data decoder 313 decodes closed-caption TS data to generate baseband character data, and outputs the generated data to the character superimposer 305.
The audio output 304 is, for example, an audio output terminal, and is connected to headphones etc. to hear a sound. The character superimposer 305 superimposes the character data on the baseband video data, and outputs, to the video output 306, the video data on which the characters are superimposed. The video output 306 is, for example, a display of a terminal. Video data is displayed on the display.
In this embodiment, if there is a caption, the caption is necessarily superimposed on an image. However, whether or not to superimpose a caption may be selected by user operation.
As described above, in this embodiment, the server apparatus 100 includes the broadcast receiver 101, the TS demultiplexer 102, the TS multiplexer 104, and the network transmitter 105. The broadcast receiver 101 receives a digital broadcast signal. The TS demultiplexer 102 separates a stream of a predetermined type, for example, closed-caption TS data, from the digital broadcast signal. The TS multiplexer 104 multiplexes the separated closed-caption TS data with another TS data different from the digital broadcast signal. The network transmitter 105 sends the multiplexed TS stream over a wired or wireless network. As a result, the terminal apparatus 300 obtains the stream of the predetermined type, for example, closed-caption TS data, included in a digital broadcast even without receiving the digital broadcast. Therefore, for example, the terminal apparatus 300 displays a caption indicating emergency information including a flash report on or a warning about a natural disaster.
The data converter 506 converts TS data stored in the storage medium 103, and outputs the converted data to the TS multiplexer 504. The TS demultiplexer 511 checks the PIDs of the TS data output from the storage medium 103, and separates the TS data based on the PIDs. The TS demultiplexer 511 outputs video TS data to the converter 512, and the TS data other than the video TS data and closed-caption TS data to the TS multiplexer 504. The converter 512 converts the video TS data sent from the TS demultiplexer 511 to an elementary stream (ES), decodes the elementary stream to baseband video data, and outputs the re-encoded TS data to the TS multiplexer 504. At this time, for example, the bit rate of data is reduced in accordance with the bandwidth of the network, thereby enabling smooth, uninterrupted transmission. The TS multiplexer 504 multiplexes the closed-caption TS data sent from the TS demultiplexer 102, the re-encoded video TS data sent from the converter 512, and the TS data other than the video TS data and the closed-caption TS data, which is sent from the TS demultiplexer 511, on a packet-by-packet basis. Then, the TS multiplexer 504 outputs the multiplexed data to the network transmitter.
Other than the TS data, the data converter 506 may convert data of a radio broadcast or an FM broadcast to TS data, or may convert an image, which is obtained by combining photograph data with video data captured by a video camera like a slide show, to TS data.
In
Where the language converter 606 does not include the code of the converted characters, the characters may be expressed as an image and may be encoded as a caption.
While the language converter 606 converts the closed-caption TS data, the conversion target is not limited to a caption, but may be audio data or closed-caption data as long as the language can be converted.
As long as the server apparatus has the functions of receiving digital broadcasts and sending DLNA, the functions described in this embodiment may be implemented without adding any particular dedicated function. Similarly, as long as the terminal apparatus has the function of receiving DLNA, the functions described in this embodiment can be implemented without having communications function exclusively for receiving emergency information.
While, in this embodiment, a digital television broadcast is used as an example, the present disclosure is not limited thereto. Additional information may be widely used in a digital radio, a digital audio broadcast (DAB), etc. In accessing not only DLNA at home but also the outside, using a terminal apparatus, the additional information of multiplexed received data can be widely used not only in a digital television broadcast but also in a digital radio, a DAB, etc.
A delivery settings management section 703 manages delivery settings of emergency information for each of clients registered in the server apparatus 700. A client identifying section 704 refers to the delivery settings managed by the delivery settings management section 703, and identifies, among the registered clients, a client to which the emergency information item received by the input 701 is to be delivered. A transmitter 702 sends, as the emergency information, the emergency information item received by the input 701 to the client identified by the client identifying section 704. The receiver 705 also receives location information indicating the actual location of the client such as GPS information. The location information is used for identifying the client to which the emergency information is to be delivered.
The delivery target area is the target area for which emergency information a client wishes to receive. An emergency information item associated with the selected area is delivered to the client. For example, the area for an emergency information item wished to receive can be registered by a region-by-region basis such as Kanto region and Kinki region, or a prefecture-by-prefecture basis such as Hokkaido and Aomori. This allows each client to receive emergency information of an area other than the residence and the actual location.
The degree of urgency is the degree of urgency of the emergency information which a client wishes to receive. An emergency information item having the degree of urgency which is higher than or equal to the selected degree of urgency is delivered to the client. The degree of urgency may be set for each delivery target area. The delivery language is the language of the emergency information which the client wishes to receive. The emergency information is converted to the selected language and is then delivered.
On the contrary, if the delivery target area is not included in the area associated with the emergency information (NO in S4), the receiver 705 receives the location information of the client (S6). If the actual location of the client, which is indicated by the received location information, is included in the area associated with the emergency information (YES in S7), the server apparatus 700 identifies the client as a client to which the emergency information is to be delivered, and send the emergency information to the client (S5). If the actual location is not included in the area associated with the emergency information (NO in S7), the receiver 705 receives the location information of the close person client (S8). The close person client is identified by referring to the setting of the close person managed by the delivery settings management section 703. If the actual location of the close person client, which is indicated by the received location information, is included in the area associated with the emergency information (YES in S9), the server apparatus 700 identifies the client as a client to which the emergency information is to be delivered, and send the emergency information to the client (S5). If not, delivery is not made and the process proceeds to checking of the next client.
While, in the operational flow chart of
As described above, in this embodiment, the server apparatus 700, which delivers emergency information to a client, includes the input 701 receiving an emergency information item, the delivery settings management section 703, the client identifying section 704, and the transmitter 702. The delivery settings management section 703 manages delivery settings of emergency information for each of registered clients. The client identifying section 704 refers to the delivery settings managed by the delivery settings management section, and identifies, among the registered clients, a client to which the emergency information item received by the input 701 is to be delivered. The transmitter 702 sends the emergency information item received by the input 701 to the client identified by the client identifying section 704.
As such, the server apparatus sends the input emergency information item to the client identified based on the delivery settings of emergency information. As a result, the emergency information is accurately delivered to the client of the user, who wishes to receive the information.
In this embodiment, a delivery target area of emergency information, which the client wishes to receive, can be set for each of the registered clients at the delivery settings management section 703. Where the target area set at the delivery settings management section 703 is included in the area associated with the emergency information item, the client identifying section 704 identifies the client as a client to which the emergency information item is to be delivered. As a result, the emergency information for the target area is accurately delivered to the client of the user, who wishes to receive the information.
In this embodiment, the receiver 705 receives location information indicating the actual location of a client. Where the actual location of the client indicated by the location information, which has been received by the receiver 705, is included in the area associated with the emergency information item, the client identifying section 704 identifies the client as a client to which the emergency information item is to be delivered. As a result, the emergency information for the actual location of the client is accurately delivered to the client.
In this embodiment, a close person client can be set for each of the registered clients at the delivery settings management section 703. Where the actual location of the close person client indicated by the location information, which has been received by the receiver 705, is included in the area associated with the emergency information item, the client identifying section 704 identifies the client as a client to which the emergency information item is to be delivered. As a result, the emergency information for the actual location of the person close to the client is accurately delivered to the client who wishes to receive the information on the safety of the person.
As described above, the first to second embodiments have been described as example techniques disclosed in the present application. However, the techniques according to the present disclosure are not limited to these embodiments, but are also applicable to those where modifications, substitutions, additions, and omissions are made. In addition, elements described in the first to second embodiments may be combined to provide a different embodiment.
Other exemplary embodiments will be described below.
While, in the first embodiment, the TS data is separated from the digital broadcast signal to be multiplexed with the other data, the present disclosure is not limited thereto. The present disclosure is applicable to any configuration, as long as a stream of a predetermined type can be separated from a digital broadcast signal and multiplexed.
In the second embodiment, determination based on the degree of urgency may be added to the operational flow chart of
In the second embodiment, when the emergency information is sent in step S5, the delivery language may be set with reference to the delivery settings managed by the delivery settings management section 703. For example, if an emergency information item is in Japanese, and English is set as the delivery language, the emergency information item is converted to English and sent. As a result, the emergency information is delivered to the client in the desired language, thereby improving the convenience for the user.
The first embodiment and the second embodiment may be implemented in combination.
Various embodiments have been described above as example techniques of the present disclosure, in which the attached drawings and the detailed description are provided.
As such, elements illustrated in the attached drawings or the detailed description may include not only essential elements for solving the problem, but also non-essential elements for solving the problem in order to illustrate such techniques. Thus, the mere fact that those non-essential elements are shown in the attached drawings or the detailed description should not be interpreted as requiring that such elements be essential.
Since the embodiments described above are intended to illustrate the techniques in the present disclosure, it is intended by the following claims to claim any and all modifications, substitutions, additions, and omissions that fall within the proper scope of the claims appropriately interpreted in accordance with the doctrine of equivalents and other applicable judicial doctrines.
The present disclosure is applicable to a server apparatus delivering input emergency information to a client, or a user, who wishes to receive the information. Specifically, the present disclosure is applicable to a server apparatus etc. which receives a digital broadcast such as a digital television broadcast, a digital radio, and DAB, and notifies emergency information to a terminal apparatus.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012-041645 | Feb 2012 | JP | national |
