Patent ID: 8402487

Claim:
A program selection support device comprising: a program information acquisition unit operable to acquire program information for a plurality of programs, the program information comprising constituent elements used for a predetermined similarity judgment; a display unit operable to display a program guide, such that parts of the program guide showing the plurality of programs are arranged in a matrix on one screen, the program guide being displayed based on the program information of the plurality of programs acquired by the program information acquisition unit; a program designation unit operable to designate a program from the plurality of programs in the program guide displayed by the display unit; a category acquisition unit operable to acquire a category, which is determined based on the program information acquired by the program information acquisition unit, and to which the designated program belongs; a determination unit operable to determine an algorithm used for the predetermined similarity judgment, based on the category acquired by the category acquisition unit; a search unit operable to search the plurality of programs for programs similar to the program designated by the program designation unit, using the algorithm determined by the determination unit, with reference to the program information acquired by the program information acquisition unit; and a criterion storage unit operable to store, for each respective category, criterion information that indicates (i) constituent elements in the program information that are used for the predetermined similarity judgment of a program in the respective category and (ii) an importance of each of the constituent elements, wherein the determination unit determines the algorithm used for the predetermined similarity judgment that is based on the category acquired by the category acquisition unit, based on the criterion information of the category acquired by the category acquisition unit, the display unit changes how the display unit displays first parts and second parts of the program guide, such that the first parts are displayed differently from the second parts while relative portions, on the displayed program guide, of the parts showing the plurality of programs are maintained, the first parts being parts of the program guide that show the programs found by the search unit, and the second parts being remaining parts of the program guide that show other programs, and the criterion storage unit stores, for each respective category, a different combination of constituent elements used for the predetermined similarity judgment, such that the importance of each of the constituent elements is different for each respective category.