Importance

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Abstract

There is disclosed a technique for automatically creating a detailed program table for playing contents according to various conditions. According to this technique, a constraint condition generation unit 103 acquires a condition (constraint condition) related to a user and describes this constraint condition through the use of a constraint condition description function. A constraint condition solution unit 104 carries out constraint solution processing by making reference to content attribute information stored in a content attribute storage unit 124 on the basis of the constraint condition description function supplied from the constraint condition generation unit, thereby deriving an optimal program table (optimal solution) defining a temporal arrangement of a plurality of contents. Moreover, in the case of constraint excess which leads to finding no optimal solution, a constraint condition priority acquisition unit 105 narrows down an optimal program table or performs recalculation while, in the case of constraint shortage which leads to finding a plurality of optimal solutions, a score setting unit 106 narrows down an optimal program table or performs recalculation. On the basis of the optimal program table thus created, a content acquisition unit 109 carries out content acquisition processing and a program playing unit 110 performs playing processing.

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First Claim