Content distribution device and method

Abstract

To provide a content distribution apparatus, a video reproducing apparatus, method and program for presenting an advertisement corresponding to the theme or topic of a scene that a user is viewing, without any discomfort.SOLUTION: In a video distribution server 100, a video distribution subsystem 110 streams a main video file or an advertisement video file to a user terminal 200. A scene meta information storage unit 180 stores scene-specific meta information. An advertisement meta information storage unit stores meta information of advertisements. An emotion theme determination unit 170 determines at least scene-specific emotion meta word from meta information thereof. An advertisement determination unit 160 acquires emotion theme of one or more scenes preceding an advertisement timing, from the scene meta information storage unit 180, acquires emotion theme of each advertisement from the advertisement meta information storage unit 190, determines an advertisement that best matches the emotion theme of the one or more scenes, and distributes the advertisement to the user terminal at the advertisement timing.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a technique for providing related information in units of progress when viewing story-based content such as video content such as animation, movies, dramas, and documentaries, and still image content such as comics and novels. [Background technology]

[0002] When watching video content such as animation, movies, dramas, and documentaries, or still image content such as comics and novels, it is desirable to provide related information for each progress unit (for example, each scene; hereinafter, each progress unit may be referred to as a scene). Related information is video, books, comics, articles, advertisements, etc. related to each progress unit. Conventionally, methods for providing advertisements (or other content information) related to the content while watching video content such as animation include: (1) Providing advertisements related to the overall content description and information (2) Providing advertisements for objects (e.g., products) that appear in images within the content However, these methods are unable to interpret the themes or topics of individual scenes in the content and provide relevant advertisements.

[0003] For example, some video content services allow users to watch content for free, but earn advertising revenue by inserting advertising videos into the content. YouTube (registered trademark) is one example. Forcing users to watch other content while watching content can be bothersome and unpleasant. Furthermore, if the advertisements displayed are unrelated to the content the user was watching immediately before, such as card application information, insurance solicitation, or sports club advertisements, the user may feel a strong sense of discomfort. These negative experiences can also negatively impact the impression of the advertisements displayed.

[0004] Therefore, in order to reduce the negative factors in this series of events, a method is sometimes used in which advertisements for products related to the object that appears in the image immediately before the content being viewed are provided (for example, advertisements for bread stores and bread-related foods).However, even with this method, there is a risk that advertisements unrelated to the theme or story of the content being viewed may be provided, and so it is not necessarily sufficient to provide advertisements that will convince or resonate with the viewer.

[0005] Furthermore, in services that provide video content, one method of providing advertising videos or related information is to have them viewed simultaneously with the content display frame, but even in this case, the issues inherently remain the same.

[0006] In addition, a patent document related to this invention discloses a technology that extracts products that appear in movie content and provides advertisements for the most suitable products by referring to the viewer's personalization data (Patent Document 1). [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0007] [Patent Document 1] Special Publication No. 2005-522718 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0008] It is desirable to provide advertisements that correspond to the theme or topic of the scene the user is viewing, so as not to give the user a sense of incongruity.

[0009] It should be noted that the present invention should not be understood as being limited by the above-mentioned problems, and the contents thereof are defined in the claims and will be described in detail below using examples. [Means for solving the problem]

[0010] Here, before describing the invention in detail, a supplementary explanation will be given regarding the claims.

[0011] According to one aspect of the present invention, in order to achieve the above object, a content distribution device includes: a progress unit characteristic description phrase determination means for comparing meta information assigned to each progress unit of content with story and meta information assigned to each of a predetermined plurality of characteristic description phrases to determine characteristic description phrases highly relevant to the progress unit; and a presentation device for storing characteristic description phrases assigned to each of a plurality of presentation information candidates. information a candidate characteristic description phrase storage means; a characteristic description phrase having a high relevance to the progress unit determined by the progress unit characteristic description phrase determination means; information Present the above to the candidate information a presentation information candidate determining means for determining a presentation information candidate for a progress unit by comparing the characteristic description phrase stored in the candidate characteristic description phrase storing means; of In relation to the presentation, the progress unit and a presentation means for presenting the presentation information candidates determined by the presentation information candidate determination means to the user.

[0012] Content with a story includes, but is not limited to, video content such as animation, movies, dramas, and documentaries, still image content such as comics and novels, and audio content such as audiobooks.

[0013] A progress unit is a part of a work that continues for a certain period of time, such as a cut or scene of the work.

[0014] The meta information is the information body, that is, information that characterizes the expression of the work in progress.

[0015] Characteristic phrases are prepared in advance to describe the substance, topic, or theme of a work such as content, and are hereinafter also referred to as affective themes. For content that involves a story, a characteristic phrase suitable for each progress unit is selected from a group of characteristic phrases and registered as part of the overall attributes of the progress unit.

[0016] According to this configuration, it is possible to provide advertisements suited to each progress unit or progress unit group.

[0017] In this configuration, the meta information may include one or more meta words. The meta words may be selected in advance and stored in a table, and may be selected by searching characteristic words extracted from related documents, etc., in the table, but are not limited to this.

[0018] In this configuration, the meta information may include word vectors extracted from the description, or may include both meta words and vectors. In addition to the meta information obtained from the text, other meta information may be included, such as film attributes (genre, director, cast, voice actors, filming location, etc.).

[0019] In this configuration, the content is a video, and the progress unit may be a fixed-length or variable-length section.

[0020] In this configuration, the division of the progress unit may be selected from predetermined division candidate positions.

[0021] In this configuration, the division of the progress unit may be determined based on the viewing history.

[0022] In this configuration, the progress unit characteristic description phrase determining means may determine the presentation information candidates taking into consideration the overall characteristics of the content, the characteristics of the user, or the viewing environment.

[0023] According to another aspect of the present invention, a content distribution device includes: a progress unit characteristic description phrase determination means for comparing meta information assigned to each progress unit of content with meta information assigned to each of a predetermined plurality of characteristic description phrases, and determining characteristic description phrases highly relevant to the progress unit; and a progress unit characteristic description phrase determination means for comparing meta information assigned to each of a plurality of presentation information candidates with meta information assigned to each of the predetermined plurality of characteristic description phrases, and determining characteristic description phrases highly relevant to the presentation unit. information Suggestion to determine relevant characterization phrases for candidates information a candidate characteristic description phrase determining means; a characteristic description phrase having a high relevance to the progress unit determined by the progress unit characteristic description phrase determining means; and information the presented feature descriptive phrase determined by the candidate feature descriptive phrase determining means; information a presentation information candidate determination means for determining a presentation information candidate for a progress unit by matching the candidate with a characteristic description phrase highly related to the candidate; of In relation to the presentation, the progress unit and a presentation means for presenting the presentation information candidates determined by the presentation information candidate determination means to the user.

[0024] In this configuration as well, advertisements suitable for each progress unit or progress unit group can be provided.

[0025] According to another aspect of the present invention, a content distribution device includes: progress unit meta information holding means for holding meta information assigned to each progress unit of content including a story; characteristic description phrase meta information holding means for holding meta information assigned to each of a predetermined plurality of characteristic description phrases; presentation information candidate meta information holding means for holding meta information assigned to each of a plurality of presentation information candidates; progress unit characteristic description phrase determination means for comparing the meta information assigned to each progress unit held in the progress unit meta information holding means with the meta information assigned to the characteristic description phrase held in the characteristic description phrase meta information holding means, and determining characteristic description phrases highly relevant to the progress unit; and the presentation information candidate meta information held in the presentation information candidate meta information holding means. information The meta information assigned to each candidate is compared with the meta information assigned to the characteristic descriptive phrase stored in the meta information storage means for the characteristic descriptive phrase, and the candidate is presented. information Suggestion to determine relevant characterization phrases for candidates information a candidate characteristic description phrase determining means; a characteristic description phrase having a high relevance to the progress unit determined by the progress unit characteristic description phrase determining means; and information the presented feature descriptive phrase determined by the candidate feature descriptive phrase determining means; information a presentation information candidate determination means for determining a presentation information candidate for a progress unit by matching the candidate with a characteristic description phrase highly related to the candidate; of In relation to the presentation, the progress unit and a presentation means for presenting the presentation information candidates determined by the presentation information candidate determination means to the user.

[0026] In this configuration as well, advertisements suitable for each progress unit or progress unit group can be provided.

[0027] This invention can be realized not only as an apparatus or system, but also as a method. It goes without saying that a part of such an invention can be configured as software. Furthermore, software products (computer programs) used to cause a computer to execute such software are naturally included within the technical scope of this invention.

[0028] The above and other aspects of the present invention are set forth in the claims and will be described in detail below using examples and the like. [Effects of the Invention]

[0029] According to this invention, advertisements that correspond to the theme or topic of the scene that the user is viewing can be provided so as not to give the user a sense of incongruity. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0030] [Figure 1] 1 is a diagram illustrating a usage environment of a video distribution server 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 2] 1 is a block diagram showing an example of computer resources of a video distribution server 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 3] 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a video distribution server 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 4] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of an affective theme. [Figure 5] 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of acquiring configuration information of an affective theme. [Figure 6] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a metaword table. [Figure 7] 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an affective theme determination operation for each scene. [Figure 8] 10A and 10B are schematic diagrams illustrating an example of an affective theme determination operation for each scene. [Figure 9A] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of an affective theme and an affective theme factor for each scene. [Figure 9B]FIG. 9B is a diagram showing an example of a story in units of scenes shown in FIG. 9A. [Figure 10] 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an affective theme determination operation for each advertisement. [Figure 11] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of adding meta information to each advertisement. [Figure 12] 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an advertisement determination operation. [Figure 13] FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of an advertisement determination operation. [Figure 14] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of inserting an advertisement into video content. [Figure 15] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of inserting an advertisement into still image content. [Figure 16] 10A and 10B are diagrams illustrating an example of displaying related information in a related information display frame. [Figure 17] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a related information display frame. [Figure 18] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of matching scene information and advertisement information using an emotional theme. [Figure 19] 10A and 10B are diagrams illustrating an example of calculation of similarity between an emotional theme and scene information and advertising information. [Figure 20] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a detailed example of calculation of similarity between an emotional theme and scene information and advertisement information. [Figure 21] FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of the structure of an animation work. [Figure 22] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a production process for generating meta information for an animation work. [Figure 23] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a description of an animation work. [Figure 24] This is a diagram explaining the relationships between characters in an anime work. [Figure 25] This is a diagram illustrating an example of how the relationships between characters in an anime work are described using the Resource Description Framework. [Figure 26] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of a user terminal. [Figure 27] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a block configuration of a user terminal. [Figure 28] FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating another embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0031] An embodiment of the present invention will be described below. In this embodiment, when providing a viewing service for story-based content (video content: animation, movies, dramas, documentaries; still image content: comics, novels; audio content: audiobooks), information is extracted from detailed information (such as production materials and analysis results for individual images) about the constituent elements of each scene (or chapter of the story structure) included in the content, and tagged meta information is stored. Based on the meta information assigned to each scene (including multiple scenes), an interpretation (emotional theme) such as the main subject of the scene or the theme desired to be expressed in the work is made, and information (videos, books, comics, articles, advertisements, etc.) highly relevant to the emotional theme is presented. The following two methods are conceivable as methods for assigning detailed information to each scene, but these are not limited to these. (1) Extract information from the content of the products obtained during the production process of the work. (2) An image analysis tool using a large-scale language model is used to obtain information by analyzing representative frame images within a scene.

[0032] Here, a "scene" may be typically defined as follows, but is not limited to this: (i) A scene in video content is defined as a continuous image (image, frame) of a certain duration. For example, a portion of the video segmented every few minutes is defined as a scene. Here, a scene refers to a continuous video portion of a content image of a certain duration, ranging from a few minutes to several tens of minutes. When production information is available, the smallest unit of visual element that constitutes a film or video work is a "cut," and a group of multiple cuts constitutes a "scene," which often has a meaningful theme as a paragraph within the overall storyline. However, the section of a scene is not necessarily strictly limited. For example, in the absence of production information, a scene section may be defined as a cut section when a cut section, such as the setting location, season, or time of day, is detected using frame-by-frame image analysis technology. In this embodiment, when a user meets viewing conditions set by the service provider (e.g., a free service user has viewed a certain amount of content for a certain period of time, and information such as an emotional theme is assigned to the previous scene), an advertisement may be displayed based on the scene information of the viewed section, and the video being viewed may be resumed after the advertisement ends. (ii) In the case of comics in still image content, it can be defined as a certain number of frames or pages in a continuous comic. (iii) In the case of a book such as a novel in still image content, it can be defined as a certain number of consecutive paragraphs or pages.

[0033] A "scene" can be defined mechanically as above, but a break in a scene can also be defined as a point where the content of the story changes, or where a passage of time occurs, such as the setting of a location, the time of day, the season, or the era.

[0034] An example story is as follows: [Scene 1] Once upon a time, there lived an elderly couple. Every day, the grandfather went to the mountains to cut firewood, and the grandmother went to the river to do her laundry. One day, while the grandmother was doing her laundry in the river, a large peach floated down the river. Wanting to take the peach as a souvenir, the grandmother put it in a tub along with her laundry to take home. When she split the peach open to eat it, a lively baby boy jumped out. The grandfather and grandmother, who had no children, were overjoyed and named the boy born from the peach Momotaro. [Scene 2] Raised with great care by the two boys, Momotaro grew into a brave and strong young man. [Scene 3] Momotaro was now fifteen years old. He wanted to travel somewhere overseas and test his strength. At the time, a terrifying group of demons had taken up residence on Onigashima Island, where they repeatedly committed cruel acts of plunder, attacking passing ships and seaside towns. Momotaro, who had a strong sense of justice, decided to go to Onigashima Island to slay the demons. He set off for Onigashima with millet dumplings made by his grandmother hanging from his waist. [Scene 4] On Momotaro's way to Onigashima, a dog, a monkey, and a pheasant appear in turn and ask for millet dumplings. Momotaro gives them some on the condition that they accompany him to Onigashima. The dog, monkey, and pheasant become Momotaro's servants and set off for Onigashima by boat. [Scene 5] On Onigashima, the demons were in the middle of a drinking party when a dog yelled from outside the gate, a pheasant pecked the gatekeeper's eyes, and a monkey opened the castle gate from the back, causing the demon army to collapse. The demon leader finally surrendered, and Momotaro achieved a great victory. The demons loaded their carts with the treasures they had collected through their evil deeds and left the island. [Scene 6] When Momotaro returned to the village with his three noble servants carrying the treasures they had stolen from the ogre, looking very proud, the old man and woman were very happy.

[0035] In this embodiment, information is extracted from detailed information (such as the production materials and analysis results for individual images) on the component units of each scene (or chapter in the story structure) included in the content, and the tagged meta information is aggregated into meta information on a scene unit (including multiple scenes) using the meta information of the elements that make up the scene, and based on the results, an interpretation (emotional theme) is made of the main theme of the scene or the theme that the work wants to express.

[0036] When a user interrupts a video stream to display a related advertisement, presenting information (videos, books, comics, articles, advertisements, etc.) that is highly relevant to the emotional theme of the content being viewed can reduce the sense of abruptness from the content being viewed and increase the user's interest in the advertisement content. Figures 14 and 15 show examples of inserting advertisements between scenes in video content and still image content, respectively. Figures 16 and 17 also show examples of presenting advertisements and non-advertising information in the related information display frame.

[0037] The images, elements, situations, characters, objects, lines, stories, etc. that make up the content being viewed are interpreted not only from factual information but also from an abstract perspective (emotional themes, empathetic themes, idiomatic meta) on a scene-by-scene basis, and advertisements, content, and information that are highly relevant to the emotional themes for that scene or group of multiple scenes are provided, making it easier for viewers to understand and empathize with the advertisements and information provided, reducing the viewer's sense of discomfort and improving their impression of and interest in the advertisements provided, thereby improving the effectiveness of the advertising service.

[0038] Here, an "emotional theme" has a description and constituent meta information, and multiple emotional themes are defined in the system. Information associated with an advertisement or content provided to a user is assumed to be information from the scene (or multiple scenes) immediately before the timing at which the user's viewing is interrupted and an advertisement is provided, but the present invention is not limited to this. Information from multiple scenes before and after the interruption may be used, or information on the entire content may be combined with information on a scene. Information comprising the content being viewed may be extracted from the results of information extracted for each image constituting a scene, and an emotional theme may be extracted for each scene. Information extraction methods from images may include image analysis technology, audio analysis technology, text extraction technology, or the results of image interpretation by generative AI.

[0039] In this embodiment, rather than simply presenting information about products or people that appear in images (frames) within the work, an interpretation (emotional theme) such as the subject or theme of the cut is obtained based on meta-information etc. assigned to each intermediate product on a cut-by-cut basis (including multiple cuts), and information (articles, books, products, advertisements, etc.) that is highly relevant to the matching emotional theme is presented.

[0040] 1 shows the usage environment of a video distribution server 100 in this embodiment, which is connected to a user terminal 200 via a communication network 300. The video distribution server 100 distributes videos to the user terminal 200 using a streaming method that complies with the HTTP1 protocol, such as HLS (HTTP Live Streaming, Apple Inc., USA), but is not limited to this.

[0041] 2 is a schematic diagram showing the implementation configuration of video distribution server 100, in which computer 1000 is implemented and is configured to include CPU 1001, main memory 1002, input / output interface (input / output bus) 1003, external control device 1004, etc. Video distribution server 100 is constructed by installing application 1005 on computer 1000. Video distribution server 100 may be equipped with functions such as a web server in addition to video distribution functions.

[0042] FIG. 3 shows an example configuration of a video distribution server 100. In FIG. 3, the video distribution server 100 includes a video distribution subsystem 110, an advertisement timing determination unit 120, a main feature / advertising video switching unit 130, a main feature video file storage unit 140, an advertising video file storage unit 150, an advertisement determination unit 160, an emotional theme determination unit 170, a scene meta information storage unit 180, and an advertising meta information storage unit 190. The video distribution subsystem 110 streams main feature video files or advertising video files to a user terminal 200. The main feature video file storage unit 140 and the advertising video file storage unit 150 store and hold main feature video files and advertising video files, respectively. These may be configured as a single storage unit. The main feature / advertising video switching unit 130 seamlessly supplies main feature videos and advertising videos to the video distribution subsystem 110. The scene meta information storage unit 180 stores meta information for each scene, including meta words, descriptive text vectors, and other meta information, as well as information for generating meta information. The advertisement meta information storage unit 190 stores meta information for advertisements, including meta words, descriptive text vectors, and other meta information, as well as information for generating meta information. The affective theme determination unit 170 determines an affective theme based on the meta words. In this example, the affective theme determination unit 170 determines both the affective theme for each scene and the affective theme for the advertisement from the meta information, but the affective theme for the advertisement may also be determined arbitrarily by an advertisement provider or the like, independently of the meta information. Meta words are stored in the scene meta information storage unit 180 and the advertisement meta information storage unit 190 as part of the meta information.

[0043] The advertisement timing determination unit 120 may determine the advertisement insertion timing based on predetermined conditions or conditions for each video content, or may determine the advertisement timing when viewing conditions set by the service provider (for example, when a free service user meets viewing conditions after a certain time has passed and information such as an emotional theme has been assigned to the immediately preceding scene) are satisfied. The advertisement determination unit 160 acquires meta information for one or more scenes preceding the advertisement timing from the scene meta information storage unit 180, and also acquires meta information for each advertisement from the advertisement meta information storage unit 190, and determines advertisements that optimally match the meta information for the one or more scenes. The video distribution subsystem 110 distributes the video file of the determined advertisement to the user terminal 200 at the advertisement timing. After distribution of the video file of the advertisement is completed, the video distribution subsystem 110 seamlessly distributes the main video of the next scene.

[0044] The scene meta information and advertisement meta information may typically be metawords, descriptive sentence vectors, or a combination thereof.

[0045] The affective theme is prepared in advance to describe the substance, topic, or theme of a work such as content, and is also called a characteristic description phrase, empathetic theme, or idiom meta.

[0046] FIG. 4 shows an example of an affective theme. Component meta (metawords) and explanatory text are assigned to each affective theme, and explanatory text vectors may be generated from the explanatory text. FIG. 5 shows an example of acquiring affective theme configuration information. For each affective theme, documents related to the theme are collected, characteristic words (characteristic words) in the text content are extracted, and these are looked up in the metaword table 110B. The constituent metawords and their weights are stored in the affective theme configuration information storage unit 110A (S10, S11). An example of the metaword table is shown in FIG. 6.

[0047] FIG. 7 shows an example of an operation for determining an affective theme for each scene. In FIG. 7, first, scene-by-scene information is acquired, and the acquired information is searched in a metaword table to extract metawords (S20). Next, scene-by-scene metawords are matched with affective theme metawords and scored (S21). Based on the scores, affective themes are selected and added to the scene meta information storage unit 180 (S22). While this example describes only metawords as meta information, a description vector may be formed from a description and used as meta information instead or in addition to the meta information. FIG. 8 schematically shows an example of an operation for determining an affective theme for each scene. In this manner, an affective theme list (one or more affective themes) related to the scene is acquired. FIG. 9A shows examples of affective themes, metawords, etc. for each scene. FIG. 9B shows an example story for Scenes 1 to 3 shown in FIG. 9A. A description may be prepared and a description vector may be generated from the example story or its summary.

[0048] FIG. 10 shows an example of an operation for determining an affective theme for each advertisement. As mentioned above, the affective theme for each advertisement may be set by the advertiser placing the advertisement in accordance with the advertiser's intentions without relying on statistical information. In FIG. 10, advertisement information is acquired and searched for in a metaword table to extract metawords (S30). Next, the metawords for the advertisement are matched with the metawords for the affective theme and scored (S21). An affective theme is selected based on the score and added to the advertisement meta information storage unit 190 (S22). Note that while this example describes only metawords as meta information, a description vector may be formed from the description and used as meta information instead of or in addition to the meta information. FIG. 11 shows an example of metawords for an advertisement (article).

[0049] Fig. 12 shows an example of the advertisement determination operation of the advertisement determination unit 160 (Fig. 3). In Fig. 12, an emotional theme for a playback scene is acquired (S40), and an emotional theme list is determined from the emotional themes of multiple scenes at the advertisement presentation timing (S41). The emotional theme list determined from multiple scenes is compared with the emotional theme of the advertisement, and an advertisement to be inserted after the main scene ends is determined (S42). Fig. 13 shows this operation in schematic form.

[0050] Figure 14 shows an example of inserting an advertisement. In this figure, the emotional theme of "surprise, joy, and happiness at having an unexpected child" is determined from the metawords "surprise, joy, and happiness" in one or more scenes of the video content before the advertisement is inserted, and an advertisement related to this is inserted.

[0051] Although this embodiment uses video distribution such as animation distribution as an example, in the case of still image content such as comic books, advertisements may be inserted between still images as shown in FIG.

[0052] Furthermore, as shown in Fig. 17, when a related display frame for viewing advertisements and articles is provided separately from the content display frame, related information may be acquired and displayed in the related display frame as shown in Fig. 16. Link destination information may also be acquired from the related display frame.

[0053] The following methods are commonly used to add meta information to content. First, morphological analysis or other techniques are used to extract words and phrases from text information such as descriptions, introductory articles, blog posts, and posts about the target content (e.g., a product), and these words and phrases are then managed as meta information that describe the product's characteristics. In the case of music content, in addition to tag information obtained from text information about the music content, other information related to the tempo of the music signal, changes in volume over time, changes in frequency spectrum components over time, lyrics, genre information, and the singer's vocal quality and singing style are also managed as meta information. In the case of video content, in addition to tag information obtained from text information such as articles and scripts about the video content, information determined from multiple elements such as color changes in video scenes, direction, impression of background music, character settings and lines of performers, voice actors, and directors is also managed as meta information.

[0054] FIG. 18 shows an example of the configuration of scene unit information, advertising information, and affective theme, and an example of matching calculation. FIG. 19 shows an example of similarity calculation between affective theme and scene information / advertising information. In this example, the calculation of metaword similarity and the calculation of descriptive sentence vector similarity are combined to determine the overall similarity. FIG. 20 explains the details of FIG. 19.

[0055] Figure 21 shows the structure of an animated work, and scene information can be generated from the information prepared when creating the work. In an example of the structure of an animated work, an animated video is typically created by displaying 24 still images (frames) per second in succession. In contrast, in filming movies and TV dramas, a single shot of a scene is often called a "cut." Similarly, in animation production, a single video stream within a work is managed as a cut. Figure 22 shows the information prepared when creating Scene 3, Scenes 4, and 5 of the "Momotaro" story. Scene information (metawords and description vectors) can be generated based on this information. Figure 23 shows the scene descriptions, and Figure 24 shows the relationships between characters, etc., described in the Resource Description Framework. Scene meta information can be generated based on this information.

[0056] 26 illustrates an example configuration of user terminal 200, which is a mobile terminal including processing system 210, memory 220, input / output subsystem 230, radio frequency circuitry 240, and audio circuitry 250. Each of these components may be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination thereof, including signal processing integrated circuits and application specific integrated circuits, as appropriate. Radio frequency circuitry 240 is used to transmit and receive information to and from other devices over a wireless link or network, and may include, but is not limited to, antenna systems, RF transceivers, amplifiers, tuners, oscillators, digital signal processors, CODEC chipsets, memory, and other well-known circuitry to perform this function. The radio frequency circuitry 240 may use communication protocols such as, but not limited to, mobile communications protocols such as time division multiple access (TDMA) and code division multiple access (CDMA), wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11g, and / or IEEE 802.11N), Bluetooth (registered trademark, IEEE 802.15.1), and Wi-MAX (IEEE 802.16). The audio circuitry 250 is coupled to an audio speaker 251 and a microphone 252. The processing system 210 includes a processor 211, a memory controller 212, and a peripheral device interface 213. The memory 220 stores code and data executed by the processor 211. The memory 220 may include any storage device, such as RAM, ROM, FLASH, a disk drive, or a magnetic tape. The processor 211 executes various software components stored in the memory 220. For example, the software components include an operating system 221, a communications module 222, a contact / motion module 223, a graphics module 224, applications 225, a timer module 226, and a web browser module 227. The applications 225 include a browser, an address book, email, encryption, location functions such as a Global Positioning System (GPS), and a two-dimensional barcode decoder.In this embodiment, Internet-distributed video playback application 225A (FIG. 27) is typically realized as one of applications 225. Input / output subsystem 230 controls touch panel 231 and the like. In user terminal 200, the function of playing back and viewing distributed video content is implemented as an application. By installing the corresponding application in memory 220, user terminal 200 is realized as an Internet-distributed television broadcast viewing terminal.

[0057] FIG. 27 shows a schematic diagram of the functions realized by Internet streaming television video playback application 225A, and in the figure, user terminal 200 may include video playback 260, web browser 270, and the like as functions.

[0058] Fig. 28 shows a schematic diagram of another embodiment of the present invention. In this configuration example, instead of determining an affective theme for an advertisement based on metawords, for example, an advertiser or the like is presented with a list of affective themes from which the advertiser or the like can select a desired affective theme.

[0059] 28, for information about the content of a scene, first, characteristic words (characteristic words) in the content are extracted (X1), meta information is assigned to the scene, and the scene is registered in a scene attribute information management unit (X2). The registered meta information (meta words) is matched with constituent meta information (meta words) of the affective theme held in an affective theme component information management unit to determine related affective themes (X3), and the determined affective themes are registered in the scene attribute information management unit (X4).

[0060] Regarding the information about the content of the advertising target, characteristic words in the content (characteristic words) are extracted (X11), the publication information of the advertising target is determined (X12), an emotional theme to be associated with the advertising target is selected (X13), and this is registered in the advertising target setting information management unit (X14). Furthermore, scene information related to the selected emotional theme is obtained (X15), and this is registered in the advertising target setting information management unit (X16).

[0061] The advertisement to be inserted is determined by comparing the emotional themes of the scene unit attribute information management unit and the advertisement target setting information management unit (FIG. 13).

[0062] This completes the description of the embodiment.

[0063] It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications are possible without departing from the spirit of the present invention. It should also be noted that various features of the embodiments can be used in combination unless such combination is clearly inappropriate or unless such combination is explicitly or implicitly excluded. [Explanation of symbols]

[0064] 100 Video distribution servers 110 Video Distribution Subsystem 110A Sensitivity theme composition information storage unit 110B Metaword Table 120 Advertising timing determination unit 130 Main video / advertising video switching section 140 Main video file storage section 150 Advertising video file storage unit 160 Advertising Decision Department 170 Sensitivity Theme Decision Department 180 Scene meta information storage unit 190 Advertising meta information storage unit 200 user terminals 300 Communication Network

Claims

1. a progress unit characteristic description phrase determining means for determining characteristic description phrases highly related to the progress unit by comparing meta information assigned to each progress unit of the content with a story with meta information assigned to each of a plurality of predetermined characteristic description phrases; a storage means for storing characteristic description phrases for presentation information candidates, the storage means storing characteristic description phrases assigned to each of the plurality of presentation information candidates; a presentation information candidate determination means for determining a presentation information candidate for the progress unit by comparing characteristic descriptive phrases highly relevant to the progress unit determined by the progress unit characteristic descriptive phrase determination means with characteristic descriptive phrases stored in the presentation information candidate characteristic descriptive phrase storage means for the presentation information candidate; a presentation means for presenting the presentation information candidates determined by the presentation information candidate determination means for the progress unit in relation to the presentation of the progress unit of content with a story;

2. 2. The content distribution device according to claim 1, wherein the meta information includes one or more meta words.

3. 2. The content distribution device according to claim 1, wherein the meta information includes a description vector extracted from each description of the progress unit of the content accompanied by the story.

4. 2. The content distribution device according to claim 1, wherein the content is a moving image, and the progress unit is a section of a fixed length or a variable length.

5. 2. The content distribution device according to claim 1, wherein the breaks in the progress units are selected from predetermined break candidate positions.

6. 5. The content distribution device according to claim 4, wherein the division of the progress unit is determined based on a viewing history.

7. 2. The content distribution device according to claim 1, wherein the presentation information candidate determining means determines the presentation information candidates taking into consideration the overall characteristics of the content, the characteristics of the user, or the viewing environment.

8. a progress unit characteristic description phrase determination step of comparing meta information assigned to each progress unit of the content with a story with meta information assigned to each of a plurality of predetermined characteristic description phrases to determine characteristic description phrases highly relevant to the progress unit; a presentation information candidate characteristic description phrase storage step for storing characteristic description phrases assigned to each of the plurality of presentation information candidates; a presentation information candidate determination step of determining a presentation information candidate for the progress unit by comparing the characteristic descriptive phrase highly relevant to the progress unit determined in the progress unit characteristic descriptive phrase determination step with the characteristic descriptive phrase stored in the presentation information candidate characteristic descriptive phrase storage step for the presentation information candidate; A content distribution method characterized by comprising a presentation step of presenting the presentation information candidates determined by the presentation information candidate determination step for the progress unit in relation to the presentation of the progress unit of content involving a story.

9. A computer program for content distribution for playing content accompanied by a story, Computer, a progress unit characteristic description phrase determining means for determining characteristic description phrases highly related to the progress unit by comparing meta information assigned to each progress unit of content with a story with information assigned to each of a plurality of predetermined characteristic description phrases; a storage means for storing characteristic description phrases for presentation information candidates, the storage means storing characteristic description phrases assigned to each of the plurality of presentation information candidates; a presentation information candidate determination means for determining a presentation information candidate for the progress unit by comparing characteristic descriptive phrases highly relevant to the progress unit determined by the progress unit characteristic descriptive phrase determination means with characteristic descriptive phrases stored in the presentation information candidate characteristic descriptive phrase storage means for the presentation information candidate; and A computer program for content distribution, characterized in that it functions as a presentation means for presenting presentation information candidates determined by the presentation information candidate determination means for the progress unit in relation to the presentation of the progress unit of content involving a story.

10. a progress unit characteristic description phrase determining means for determining characteristic description phrases highly related to the progress unit by comparing meta information assigned to each progress unit of the content with a story with meta information assigned to each of a plurality of predetermined characteristic description phrases; a presentation information candidate characteristic description phrase determination means for determining characteristic description phrases highly related to the presentation information candidate by comparing meta information assigned to each of the plurality of presentation information candidates with meta information assigned to each of the plurality of predetermined characteristic description phrases; a presentation information candidate determination means for determining a presentation information candidate for a progress unit by comparing characteristic descriptive phrases highly relevant to the progress unit determined by the progress unit characteristic descriptive phrase determination means with characteristic descriptive phrases highly relevant to the presentation information candidate determined by the presentation information candidate characteristic descriptive phrase determination means; a presentation means for presenting the presentation information candidates determined by the presentation information candidate determination means for the progress unit in relation to the presentation of the progress unit of content with a story;

11. a progress unit meta information holding means for holding meta information assigned to each progress unit of content with a story; a characteristic description phrase meta information storage means for storing meta information assigned to each of a plurality of predetermined characteristic description phrases; a presentation information candidate meta information storage means for storing meta information assigned to each of the plurality of presentation information candidates; a progress unit characteristic description phrase determining means for determining characteristic description phrases highly related to the progress unit by comparing meta information assigned to each progress unit stored in the progress unit meta information storing means with meta information assigned to the characteristic description phrases stored in the characteristic description phrase meta information storing means; a presentation information candidate characteristic description phrase determining means for determining characteristic description phrases highly related to the presentation information candidate by comparing meta information assigned to each presentation information candidate stored in the presentation information candidate meta information storing means with meta information assigned to the characteristic description phrases stored in the characteristic description phrase meta information storing means; a presentation information candidate determination means for determining a presentation information candidate for a progress unit by comparing characteristic descriptive phrases highly relevant to the progress unit determined by the progress unit characteristic descriptive phrase determination means with characteristic descriptive phrases highly relevant to the presentation information candidate determined by the presentation information candidate characteristic descriptive phrase determination means; a presentation means for presenting the presentation information candidates determined by the presentation information candidate determination means for the progress unit in relation to the presentation of the progress unit of content with a story;

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