KR100644575B1 - Method controlling digital apparatus not having web server in home network system - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a control method between a server device in a home network and a device not equipped with a web server. A first digital device having a web server and a web browser function; a second digital device connected to the first digital device through a digital interface and having at least one second digital A method of controlling the digital device in a browser-based home network composed of devices includes the steps of: checking the self-expression information and the control command homepage stored in the digital device by a device discovery method according to a user's selection, And a control unit for controlling the second digital device by transmitting the command selected in the control command homepage and the hot linked control data to the FCP frame, thereby providing a function to easily control a low-cost digital device which is difficult to implement the web server.

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to a method of controlling a digital device that does not include a web server in a home network system,

FIG. 1 shows a protocol stack provided in general IEEE 1394 devices.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a home network using an IEEE 1394 bus to which the present invention is applied.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of controlling a digital device not equipped with a web server in the home network shown in FIG.

The present invention relates to a control method between digital devices, and more particularly, to a control method between a server device in a home network and a device in which a web server is not mounted.

Generally, the IEEE 1394 approved by the IEEE committee has been spotlighted as an interface of various digital devices such as DTV, DVC, DVDP, and digital set-top box. FIG. 1 shows a protocol stack provided in general IEEE 1394 devices. The physical layer 100, which is the lowest layer, receives a bit string from a link layer 110, which is an upper layer at the time of transmission, and obtains a usage right of a serial bus. Then, the bit string is encoded and converted into an electrical signal to transmit data on the bus. Upon receipt, the reverse procedure of the transmission is followed. The link layer 110 handles data on a packet basis, and plays a role of constituting and decomposing packets, detecting errors, managing bus cycles, and the like. The transaction layer 120 provides a transaction such as Read / Write / Lock and performs asynchronous communication with another node on the 1394 bus using a service provided in the lower layer.

When a plurality of devices are connected using IEEE 1394, only the IEEE 1394 specification is somewhat insufficient for real data transmission between devices. That is, a promise of a process of establishing a connection between devices to which A / V data is transmitted and received and an isochronous channel to transmit A / V data must be performed between the devices, and what exists for this is the IEEE 61883 standard.

In IEEE 61883, a function control protocol (FCP) 130 and a connection management protocol (CMP) 130 are defined. The CMP defines a software structure for managing isochronous connection between devices, and the FCP provides a framework for transmitting commands such as AV / C CTS (A / V Control Command and Transaction Set). Another feature of IEC 61883 is the definition of a CIP (Common Isochronous Packet) header structure. The CIP header contains information about the source stream contained in the isochronous packet.

In the conventional standards that comply with the IEEE 1394 standard and the IEC 61883 standard, a control command is used for control between devices. The most typical control command is AV / C CTS. This method defines a hexadecimal code for each function of the device. For example, the Play command for the VCR is defined as "0xC8" in hexadecimal.

In a digitized consumer electronics environment, it will happen that one device will be used as a control center to control other devices. At this time, when a device that is the subject of the control action is referred to as a controller device for convenience of explanation and a device to be controlled as a target device, the following problems arise. First, the controller device must have all the command sets for each target device. This places considerable software and hardware burdens on the target device. Second, the target device does not have a control method for a newly appearing client device because it does not know commands other than the commands provided at the time of product release. This has the problem that it can not easily adapt to the rapidly changing digital consumer electronics market today. Third, it is not easy to provide a user graphical interface (GUI). The unified GUI form that can be applied to all kinds of devices is inherently difficult to define and it is also limited to define by product group. These problems are basically due to the irrationality of the architecture. This problem can be easily solved if the client / server approach is adopted as the TCP / IP architecture of the Internet, which is widely applied at present.

Each device that uses this protocol stack acts like a web server on the Internet, where IEEE 1394 is used like a network interface. Above IEEE 1394 is the TCP / IP layer. And all devices operate as HTTP servers, or web servers, and have HTML Document Hiearchy, which describes their functions. A device having a display device such as a DTV or a PC has a built-in web server and operates as a web client. The user can use the web browser built in the client device to fetch the respective homepages from the web server devices and control the corresponding device.

However, the conventional A / VC CTS is simple, but all control commands must be predefined, and GUI (Graphic User Interface) is not provided. In addition, if a web browser is installed in DTV or other display devices with Internet function, HWW (Home Wide-Web) that controls digital devices using web technology based on these devices is used as GUI and flexibility to provide. However, since the conventional control method of the digital device must be implemented in a web server requiring a large capacity memory and a high performance CPU and a digital device controlled by TCP / IP, it is applicable to control of a relatively simple digital device having a small capacity .

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a control method between a digital device in which a Web server is implemented and which controls the operation of a relatively simple low-cost digital device that does not have a built-in web server.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a digital device comprising: a first digital device having a web server and a web browser function according to the present invention; a second digital device connected to the first digital device through a digital interface, A method of controlling the digital device in a browser-based home network including at least one second digital device having a homepage, the method comprising: selecting a digital device to be controlled by a display unit of the first digital device; Checking the selected second digital device by a device discovery method and uploading a control command homepage stored in the second digital device; Displaying the uploaded control command homepage on a screen of the first digital device through a web browser; Converting the control data and the control data into the FCP (Function Control Protocol) frame and transmitting the control data to the second digital device when the control function is selected at the control command homepage; And performing the control command by the second digital device in accordance with the control data included in the received FCP frame.

In addition, the digital interface is interfaced with IEEE 1394 and IEC61883 communication protocols.

In addition, the control command homepage, which is combined with the expression information and the expression information, is written in HTML (HyperText Markup Language).

In addition, the control command homepage, which is combined with the expression information and the expression information, is written in XML (Extensible Markup Language) or Script language.

Also, the combination information of the control function and the hot linked control data is realized by a CGI, a plug-in, and a helper program.

The method may further include transmitting an acknowledgment signal to the first digital device in response to the control data in the process of the second digital device performing the control command.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of connection between digital devices to which the present invention is applied. The digital device 200 is controlled by a DTV (Digital TV) 200 and a DTV (Digital TV) 200 through an IEEE 1394 bus. And a network system to which a music player 210, a second music player 220, a music recorder 230, a mixer 240, and a digital still camera (DSC) 250 are connected.

Here, the DTV 200 may be a digital device having a web browser and a web server, a display device such as a PC, and a digital device having a web browser and a web server. In the digital devices 210 to 250 controlled by the DTV 200, a digital device such as a digital still camera 250 that does not have a web server and a web that can be controlled as a conventional HWW (Home Wide-Web) Digital devices incorporating a server can be connected together.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of controlling a digital device not equipped with a web server in the home network shown in FIG.

3, when the user selects a digital device (e.g., a digital still camera) 250 to be controlled through the screen of the DTV 200 having the web server and the web browser (step 300), the DTV 200 transmits the HWW -Web), and uploads the control command homepage to the memory of the digital still camera 250 in a device discovery manner provided by the protocol of IEEE1394 (step 302). Here, simple digital devices without a web server compress and store information representing itself in the unshown memory, that is, the unit directory on the configuration ROM, and the control command homepage combined therewith, and the device discovery method is stored in the memory If the device description information of the specific unit directory of the DTV 200 matches the digital device selected by the DTV 200, the control instruction homepage represented by the control panel of the corresponding digital device is uploaded. In addition, the expression information and the control command homepage can be expressed in languages such as HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language), XML (Extensible Markup Language), and Script.

The DTV 200 extracts the compressed data of the control command homepage of the uploaded corresponding device and displays it on the DTV screen through the browser (operation 304). At this time, when the user selects a shutter button of the digital still camera 250 displayed on the screen (step 306), a CGI program is executed and a shutter button and a hot link (not shown) displayed on the control command homepage of the selected digital still camera 250 (Hot Link) control data into an FCP (Functional Control Protocol) frame provided in IEC 61883, and transmits the frame to the digital still camera 250 (Step 308). At this time, it is also possible to execute the hot link by using the plug-in or helper program instead of the CGI program. The digital still camera 250 performs a shutter operation in accordance with the control data in the received FCP frame (step 310). In addition, the digital still camera 250 may transmit an acknowledge signal to the DTV 200 indicating that the control data has been received.

The digital device includes all digital devices used in the home. For example, it can be any digital device such as a TV, a VCR, an audio device, a digital satellite service, a sprinkler system, a lighting system, a stove, and the like.

In addition, the above-described embodiment of the present invention can be made into a program that can be executed in a computer. And a general-purpose digital computer operating the program from a medium used in the computer. The medium includes storage media such as magnetic storage media (e.g., ROMs, floppy disks, hard disks, etc.), optical reading media (e.g. CD-ROMs, DVDs, etc.) and carrier waves .

According to the present invention, a computer having a web server in a browser-based home network or a digital device not equipped with a web server is connected to a DTV, and the self-presentation information and the control command homepage stored in the corresponding digital device are accessed by a device discovery method And transmits the selected command and the hot linked control data to the FCP frame provided in the IEC 61883 to control the corresponding digital device so that a low cost digital device which is difficult to implement the web server can be easily controlled Provides the ability to

Claims (6)

A first digital device having a web server and a web browser function; a second digital device connected to the first digital device through a digital interface and having at least one second digital A method for controlling a digital device in a browser-based home network comprising:  Selecting a digital device to be controlled by the display unit of the first digital device; Confirming a selected second digital device on the home network by a device discovery method as a communication protocol and uploading a control command homepage stored in the second digital device; Displaying the uploaded control command homepage on a screen of the first digital device through a web browser; Converting the control data and the control data into the FCP (Function Control Protocol) frame and transmitting the control data to the second digital device when the control function is selected at the control command homepage; And And the second digital device executes a corresponding control command according to the control data included in the received FCP frame. The method of claim 1, wherein the digital interface is interfaced with an IEEE 1394 and an IEC61883 communication protocol. The method of claim 1, wherein the control command homepage, which is combined with the presentation information and the presentation information, is written in HyperText Markup Language (HTML). 2. The home network system according to claim 1, wherein the control command homepage, which is combined with the presentation information and the presentation information, is created in XML (Extensible Markup Language) or Script language. Control method. The method of claim 1, wherein the combination of the control function and the hot linked control data is implemented by a CGI, a plug-in, and a helper program. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising transmitting an acknowledge signal for the control data received by the second digital device in response to the control data to the first digital device A method of controlling a digital device without a web server in a home network system.

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