Information processing apparatus, information processing method, and program for extracting information from an electronic program guide

An information processing method for an information processing apparatus having a computational device that specifies a cast member field, in which cast member names are listed, from a plurality of fields included in program information in electronic program guide information, comprising the steps of:

• successively specifying fields to be processed out of a plurality of fields included in the program information in the electronic program guide information and acquiring a character string included it each specified field;
• analyzing the acquired character string and outputting an analysis result for dividing the character string into a plurality of units;
• generating, for each field, a sequence corresponding to character string lengths of the units based on the outputted analysis result;
• calculating, for each field, a variance value showing a degree of variance of magnitudes of values of items in the sequence;
• and
• specifying, for each program, a cast member field, in which cast member names are listed, out of the plurality of fields based on the variance values.

A program embedded on a non-transitory computer-readable medium for causing a computer to carry out:

• a process successively specifying fields to be processed out of a plurality of fields included in the program information in the electronic program guide information and acquiring a character string included in each specified field;
• a process analyzing the acquired character string and outputting an analysis result for dividing the character string into a plurality of units;
• a process generating, for each field, a sequence corresponding to character string lengths of the units based on the outputted analysis result;
• a process calculating, for each field, a variance value showing a degree of variance of magnitudes of values of items in the sequence;
• and
• a process specifying, for each program, a cast member field, in which cast member names are listed, out of the plurality of fields based on the variance values.