Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Yutaka Tomioka

Fumiyuki Kato

Kazumi Harada

Osamu Araki

Tsuyoshi Ueno

Yoshihiro Noguchi

Takao Isogawa

Hideki Yasukawa

Yoshiaki Kushiki

Masaki Hoshida

Yukio Shikatani

Nobuaki Tanaka

Kenji Soma

Hayashi Itou

To provide a system for processing program information in which the display structure of a program table can be freely changed in accordance with a requirement of or the taste of an audience, the system for processing program information is structured to include program information storage meansfor storing program information, and program table display meansfor two-dimensionally displaying a program table employing as the two axes, two attributesandselected from among all of the attributes that have been given to each piece of program information, to make the program table. For the audience, program tables of various constructions can be displayed on the display means at will and in respective program retrieval operations, a program table that is easy to use to search for a program can be obtained. An specific desired program can be found in a short time by selecting key word(s) related to each program and extracting them from the program or the like. This is useful for an audience member to make a plan of desired broadcasts for himself.

System for processing program information

An information method and system enables information, from a set of original information which is updated at regular or irregular intervals, to be provided to each information receiving apparatus of respective users via a data transmission path which can be selected in accordance with the type of data to be transferred, stated preferences of the user with regard to providing of data, current operating status of a data communication network, etc. A set of framework data are selected as data which are rarely updated, by monitoring original information that is to be provided, over a suitably long period, and are stored at the information providing apparatus and each information receiving apparatus. Thereafter until a new set of framework data are selected, any differences between newly updated original information and the framework data are obtained as variation data, and transmitted to be stored at each information receiving apparatus, which can reconstitute desired data on request from a user by combining appropriate parts of the locally stored framework and variation data, thereby minimizing the amounts of data which must be transmitted to the information receiving apparatuses.

Information providing method which enables data communication costs to be reduced, and information providing system for implementing the method

To display a broadcasting program guide table, in which a group of program guide elements of a broadcasting program guide is arranged in a cell for each broadcasting program guide, a group of particular program guide elements of one broadcasting program guide is selected in an information element selecting unit from a plurality of program guide elements of the broadcasting program guide according to a detail degree input by a user for each broadcasting program guide. The detail degree corresponds to an information volume of the group of particular program guide elements. In a display information table producing unit, a particular layout of a plurality of cells arranged along each display axis is determined according to the detail degree and particular program guide arrangement information stored in advance. The particular program guide arrangement information indicates a guide attribute along each display axis. The groups of particular program guide elements of the broadcasting program guides are set in the cells to be arranged along each display axis on the basis of the guide attribute, and an image of a broadcasting program guide table indicating the groups of particular program guide elements arranged in the cells is displayed in a display image output unit. Therefore, the user can easily compare the broadcasting program guides arranged at desired layout at the same desired detail degree.

Apparatus for displaying information arranged in cells

In a history display method, positional information and type information are extracted from nodes to be displayed on respective metaphors, thereby allowing a user to intuitively comprehend the nodes in a sense of a map of routes followed among information sources. The history holding section 101 reads a history indicating the routes followed by user from the memory unit 105 and holds the history. The history geographical analyzing section 102 analyzes geographical information contained in the history. The history managing section 103 controls the result of the analysis of the history. The history display section 104 displays the history analysis result by use of metaphor display along with a node connection relationship. The novel constitution provides the user with a new clue namely geographical information for accessing desired nodes and displays the history on a map metaphor, thereby allowing the user to intuitively comprehend the nodes in a sense of a map of routes followed among information sources.

History display apparatus

When various pieces of information relating to a particular page are received, pieces of link information (or items) respectively indicating a link relationship between the particular page and a reference page are extracted from the pieces of information, a positional relationship among the items is managed in a link managing unit, and a two-dimensional map indicating a relative positional relationship between each pair of items is prepared according to the positional relationship among the items in a two-dimensional map preparing unit. Also, an image of the pieces of information is prepared in an image preparing unit, and the image in which the items are included is displayed on an image displaying unit. Thereafter, when a user input an instruction indicating a change of a remarked item, a particular item placed on an upper, lower, right or left side of the remarked item is automatically specified according to the two-dimensional map and is selected. Therefore, a desired item can be easily selected without strictly specifying a position of the desired item.

Item selecting apparatus in a system for browsing items for information

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Yokohama, Japan

Yutaka Tomioka