JPH0159778B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] The present invention provides for
For example, regarding a method of monitoring and confirming on the receiving side whether a commercial, etc. has actually been broadcast at a set time, the broadcast confirmation process can be performed efficiently at low cost, and there is no risk of false detection. This method realizes a confirmation method.

In television and radio broadcasting, a method has been proposed in which it is confirmed whether or not commercial broadcasts, etc., have actually been broadcast in accordance with the contract with the sponsor and in the contracted number of broadcasts during the specified time slot. This is a method in which a special identification signal is recorded in advance on a medium such as a commercial film or commercial tape used for commercial broadcasting so that it does not interfere with viewing by general viewers. This is done by receiving and detecting the identification signal with a special receiving device when broadcasting is performed.

The inventors of the present invention installed a receiving device in the service area of each broadcasting station and connected it to a calculation center via a line, thereby transmitting information about the identification signal received and detected by each receiving device to the central calculation center. We are experimenting with a system that processes and processes at a center. In this case, each receiving device and the calculation center are always connected,
The identification signal is detected and sent to the calculation center at the same time. However, since TV and radio broadcasts are not broadcast continuously 24 hours a day, it is not efficient to keep the receiving device connected to the calculation center at all times, considering the processing power of the computer. do not have. Also, if you stay connected all the time,
There is a risk of false detection, that is, even though information including the identification signal is not being broadcast, a signal identical to the identification signal may be mistakenly detected and sent to the calculation center. In order to solve this problem, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 129318/1982, information such as the name of the sponsor of commercial broadcasting and the type of commercial film is collected and stored, and the line is A system has been proposed in which information is transferred to an information processing device via an information processing device and processed by the information processing device. However, since this system constantly collects information regarding commercial broadcasts during broadcast hours, it also collects information during times when necessary commercial broadcasts are not being broadcast. As a result, the same signal as information related to commercial broadcasting may be mixed in as noise, leading to false detections.
Information gathering operations are performed even during times when commercial broadcasting is not being performed, which is not efficient.

The purpose of the present invention is to solve such problems in the conventional broadcast confirmation system, and for this purpose, the present invention allows the receiving device to preset the identification signal reception time to a desired time by a calculation center. The system employs a system in which reception of the identification signal is detected only during this set time, and it is stored in a memory, and at times other than the set time, the memory is read out and sent to the central calculation center.

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 shows an example in which the present invention is applied to television broadcasting, where 1 is a receiving antenna and 2 is a television tuner. This tuner selects a specific channel that requires broadcast confirmation and inputs it to the identification signal detection section 3. The identification signal detection section 3 detects an identification signal from the received channel information, and the detected information is input to the memory 4 and stored. Reference numeral 5 denotes a CPU (central processing unit), which is connected to each section via a bus 6 and controls each section. 7 is a clock section, and when the identification signal is detected by the detection section 3, information representing the current time is inputted from the clock section 7 to the memory 4 and stored therein. 8
is a set time storage unit, and the above-described operations of collecting identification signals and writing them into the memory 4 are performed only within the time set and stored in the set time storage unit 8. 9 is a line control unit, and a receiving device 10
is connected to a central calculation center 12 via a line 11 via this line control unit 9. Writing of the set time into the set time storage section 8 is performed in response to a command from the calculation center 12. In the receiving device 10, only the time period set in the set time storage section 8,
An operation of collecting identification signals is performed, and an operation of reading out the contents of the memory 4 and transmitting them to the calculation center 12 via the line 11 is performed during a time period other than the set time.

A summary of all operations is as follows.
First, in response to a command from the calculation center 12, the time at which the identification signal collection operation should be performed is stored and set in the set time storage section 8. Since the receiving device 10 has a clock section 7, when the time set in the set time storage section 8 comes, the receiving operation is started. If an identification signal is included in the broadcast information of a specific channel selected by Channel 2,
This is detected by the detection section 3 and written into the memory 4 together with the time information from the clock section 7 at that time. Such an operation of collecting identification signals is performed continuously during the time period set in the set time storage section 8. When the set time has elapsed and the identification signal collection operation is completed, the contents of the memory 4 are read out in response to a request from the calculation center 12 and sent to the calculation center 12 via the line 11. The calculation center 12 aggregates and organizes the information sent from each receiving device, and creates a confirmation table for each broadcasting station as to whether or not commercial broadcasting is being broadcast at a predetermined time. The identification signal can also include information that distinguishes commercial broadcasts for each sponsor, and in this case, information is aggregated for each sponsor.

FIG. 2 is a time chart showing television broadcast times, and as shown by diagonal lines, it is an example of a channel that is broadcast from 6:00 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. the next morning. There are various ways to set the time in the set time storage unit, but the simplest method is to start the detection operation of the identification signal at 6 a.m. in accordance with the start and end of the broadcast, in the case of the illustrated example. It is set to end at 1:30 the next morning. Therefore, the transmission of the contents collected by the receiving device to the computer center is as follows.
It will be held between 1:30 a.m. and 6:00 a.m., when there are no broadcasts.

As mentioned above, since the time is set in the set time storage section 8 from the calculation center 12, the set time can be arbitrarily selected. Broadcast times are subject to change for purposes such as energy conservation, and are often changed during the year-end and New Year holidays, election news, and other special programs. When the broadcast time is changed in this manner, the set time in the set time storage section 8 is also changed according to the change based on a command from the calculation center. It is also possible to set the time precisely within the broadcast time from 6:00 a.m. to 1:30 the next morning. For example, set it between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m., when viewer ratings are high, and between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.
At other times, even during broadcasting, the identification signals are not collected and the collected results are transmitted to the calculation center. Furthermore, since the time when the identification signal will be broadcast is known in advance, it is possible to receive it only at that time.
It is also possible to set it in small increments.

As described above, according to the present invention, in the receiving device, the identification signal reception time is set in advance, reception of the identification signal is detected only within this set time, and is stored in the memory together with information regarding the detection time. At other times, the memory is read out and sent to a central calculation center. As a result, the time is divided into the time to detect the identification signal and the time to send the detection result to the calculation center, so unlike the method where the identification signal is detected and sent to the calculation center at the same time, even a CPU with a small processing capacity can process it. can. In addition, since the reception detection operation of the identification signal is performed only during the broadcast time when the identification signal is likely to be broadcast, if the same signal as the identification signal mixes in as noise during the time when the identification signal is not broadcast, as in the past. The number of erroneous detections is also significantly reduced, and the reliability of the detection operation is improved. In particular, if reception and detection are performed only in a very narrow time period during which the identification signal is broadcast, the possibility of false detection is further reduced.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a device implementing the broadcast confirmation method according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a time chart showing broadcast times. In the figure, 3 is an (identification signal) detection unit, 4 is a memory, 5 is a CPU, 6 is a bus, 7 is a clock unit, 8 is a set time storage unit, 9 is a line control unit, 10 is a receiving device, and 11 is a line , 12 is a calculation center.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 A receiving device receives and detects a special identification signal superimposed on a broadcast signal, sends the identification signal from the receiving device to a calculation center, and processes the identification signal in the calculation center to determine the broadcast fact. In this method, the receiving device is provided with a set time storage section, a clock section, and a memory for storing detection results, and a desired identification signal reception time is set from the calculation center in the set time storage section, and the reception time is set at the set time. The identification signal is detected within the computer, and is stored in the memory along with information regarding the time at that time, and at a time other than the set time, the memory is read out and the detection result is sent to the calculation center. Broadcast confirmation method.