KR100741211B1 - Apparatus and method for forming image of record list utilizing EPG data - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for forming an image of a recording list using EPG data, and utilizes representative image information of a broadcast program included in the EPG data to form an image of a recording list.

According to the present invention, an apparatus for forming a recording list using EPG data decodes EPG data on a carrier wave of a digital multimedia broadcasting received by a communication unit, decodes representative image information of a broadcast program included in the EPG data, . The representative image extracting unit extracts a representative image of the broadcast program using the representative image information of the broadcast program read by the representative image information reading unit. The representative image of the broadcast program to be recorded in the representative image of the extracted broadcast program is converted into a specific format and size and utilized to form an image of the recording list.

Therefore, it is possible to intuitively understand the broadcast program recorded by the image displayed in the recording list, thereby enabling more convenient viewing.

Representative image, recording list, EPG

Description

[0001] Apparatus and method for forming an image on a recording list using EPG data [0002]

1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an apparatus for forming a recording list using EPG data of the present invention.

2 is a diagram showing a document in XML format including representative image information of a broadcast program.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a recording list formed by using representative image information of a broadcast program. FIG.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a method of forming an image of a recording list using the EPG data of the present invention.

Description of the Related Art [0002]

100: communication unit 110: decoder unit

120: Database 130: Representative image information reading unit

140: representative image extracting unit 150: network connection unit

160: Channel manager section 170: PVR manager section

180: system manager unit 200: graphic user interface unit

The present invention relates to a recording list display apparatus and method using EPG (Electronic Program Guide) data, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for recording EPG data for forming an image of a recording list by utilizing representative image information of a broadcast program, And more particularly, to an apparatus and method for forming an image of a recording list.

Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) service is a new concept of mobile multimedia broadcasting service combining broadcasting and communication. Digital multimedia broadcasting has a technical basis for Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB), which is a technology for digital radio broadcasting. The concept of multimedia broadcasting is added to this, and a service capable of additionally transmitting video, weather, news, to be. Digital multimedia broadcasting is capable of providing CD-quality sound quality and data service, and it is possible to view multi-channel multimedia broadcasting while moving through a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), or a vehicle receiver. Digital multimedia broadcasting is attracting attention as a next generation broadcasting service, and the number of users is increasing.

A digital multimedia broadcasting receiver equipped with a personal video recorder (PVR) capable of recording a digital multimedia broadcasting in conjunction with the increase of the digital multimedia broadcasting has been widely used. PVR is a device that records and plays back information on a storage medium such as a hard disk or a flash memory. It is built in a set-top box or a television receiver body, Record the broadcast program. In order to display a list of the recorded broadcast programs, that is, a recording list, a thumbnail image is displayed together with a program title, a running time, and a recording time.

A thumbnail image which is an image of the recording list is related to a broadcast program to be recorded. Conventionally, in forming an image of a recording list, an arbitrary image is extracted from a video stream of a broadcast program to be recorded, thereby forming an image of a recording list.

That is, a video decoder extracts an arbitrary image from a broadcast program on which a video decoder is recorded. The extracted image is input to the PVR manager unit. A graphical user interface (GUI) receives an arbitrary image from the PVR manager and converts the image into a specific size and format to form an image of a recording list. The image converted into the specific size and format is displayed as a thumbnail on the screen together with the title of the program, the running time and the recording time.

However, when a method of forming an image of a conventional recording list is used, there is a problem that an image having low relevance to a broadcast program to be recorded can be extracted in extracting an arbitrary image. That is, although the image of the recording list should be an image intuitive to the program to be recorded, if the conventional method is used, there is a problem that the broadcast program recorded with the image of the recording list can not be intuitively detected.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for reading out representative image information of a broadcast program from EPG data transmitted from a broadcasting station and using the same to form an image of a recording list, The present invention provides an apparatus and method for forming an image of a recording list using EPG data that enables convenient viewing.

An apparatus for forming a recording list using the EPG data of the present invention has a decoder unit for decoding EPG (Electronic Program Guide) data included in a carrier wave of a DMB received by a communication unit, An EPG database for storing channel information and representative image information of a broadcast program included in the EPG data additionally decoded, a representative image information reading unit for reading representative image information of the broadcast program in the EPG database, A representative image extracting unit for extracting a representative image of the broadcast program from the MOT object of the EPG data decoded by the decoder unit using the representative image information of the broadcast program read by the information reading unit; And the representative image extracting unit A channel manager unit for matching the representative image, a representative image of the channel information matched by the channel manager unit and a representative image of the broadcast program, and a broadcast program matched with the channel information corresponding to the program to be recorded when a recording command is input And a graphic user interface unit for receiving a representative image of the broadcast program output by the PVR manager and converting the representative image into a specific size and format for forming an image of a recording list .

The apparatus for recording list using the EPG data of the present invention further includes a network connection unit for connecting to a network, and the representative image extraction unit is connected to the network through the network connection unit to extract a representative image of the broadcast program .

And the recording command is a reserved recording command.

The representative image information of the broadcast program includes information on a location where a representative image of the broadcast program exists.

The information on the location where the representative image of the broadcast program exists is represented by URL (Uniform Resource Information).

In addition, the method of forming an image of a recording list using the EPG data of the present invention includes decoding EPG (Electronic Program Guide) data of a DMB received from an external source, A step of storing representative image information of the information and the broadcasting program, a step of reading the representative image information of the stored broadcasting program, a step of extracting a representative image of the broadcasting program using the representative image information of the read broadcasting program A representative image of a broadcast program matched with channel information corresponding to a broadcast program to be recorded, when a recording command is input, A step of receiving a representative image of the output broadcast program, And converting the image into a specific size and format in order to form an image of the image.

And extracting the representative image of the broadcast program from the MOT object of the decoded EPG data.

And extracting a representative image of the broadcast program by connecting to a network.

And the recording command is a reserved recording command.

The representative image information of the broadcast program includes information on a location where a representative image of the broadcast program exists.

The information on the location where the representative image of the broadcast program exists is represented by URL (Uniform Resource Information).

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an apparatus and method for forming a recording list using EPG data according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an apparatus for forming a recording list using EPG data of the present invention. As shown in the figure, an apparatus for forming a recording list using EPG data includes a communication unit 100, a decoder unit 110, a database 120, a representative image information reading unit 130, A network connection unit 150, a channel manager unit 160, a PVR manager unit 170 and a graphic user interface unit (GUI).

The communication unit 100 receives the EPG data of the digital multimedia broadcasting. The communication unit 100 receives a carrier wave of a digital multimedia broadcasting transmitted from the outside through an antenna. The carrier of the digital multimedia broadcasting includes EPG data.

The decoder unit 110 decodes the EPG data of the digital multimedia broadcasting received by the communication unit 100. The decoder unit 110 demodulates the digital multimedia carrier received by the communication unit 100 into an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) scheme and outputs the deinterleaved OFDM symbols. The frequency-interleaved OFDM symbols are classified into Fast Information Channel (FIC) and Main Service Channel (MSC) according to their characteristics.

The decoder unit 110 decodes the OFDM demodulated data. That is, the FIC symbol and the MSC symbol output from the OFDM demodulation unit are received and decoded to derive an EPG-related MOT (Multimedia Object Transform) object and the like.

In digital multimedia broadcasting, EPG data is expressed in the form of an XML (Extensible Markup Language) document, and is encoded into binary EPG data for transmission. The MOT object is then OFDM demodulated and transmitted to the MOT carousel by reading predetermined necessary information from the binary encoded EPG data. Therefore, the EPG-related MOT object can be derived by decoding the OFDM-demodulated data in the decoder unit 110. [

After deriving the MOT object, the decoder unit 110 decodes the MOT object. When the decoder unit 110 decodes the MOT object, the binary EPG data is derived, and the derived binary EPG data is parsed using an XML parser.

The decoder unit 110 decodes the EPG data due to the series of operations.

The database 120 stores channel information included in the EPG data decoded by the decoder unit 110 and representative image information of the broadcast program. The channel information is information on a channel corresponding to all broadcasting programs running for a specific range of time. The channel information includes an identifier capable of distinguishing a specific channel from another channel.

The representative image information of the broadcast program is information on an image that can represent one specific program. The representative image information is included in the EPG data and is transmitted from the broadcasting station. The representative image information of the broadcast program stored in the database 120 includes information on the location of the representative image of the broadcast program.

2 is a diagram showing a document in XML format including representative image information of a broadcast program. The XML format document is encoded into binary EPG data, and the MOT object is composed of binary encoded EPG data and transmitted by the broadcasting station. As shown, the document in XML format includes information on the description type of the media, information on the elements of the multimedia, information on the mimeValue, and information on attributes of the URL .

The complexType name is entered as "mediaDescriptionType" to define the type of the media description. In the element field, "multimedia" is inputted and the multimedia resource is connected. "MimeValue" is input in the first attribute field to indicate the mime type of the resource. In the second attribute name, "url" is entered to indicate the multimedia resource. That is, "url" is entered in the second attribute field to define the position where the representative image exists.

The URL to be input to the second attribute is input to a parameter value of a WWW (World Wide Web), a WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), or a MOT content name. The representative image for the specific broadcast program is included in the location of the URL input in the second attribute field.

As described above, the representative image information of the broadcast program stored in the database 120 stores information about the representative image, not the image itself representing the specific broadcast program.

The representative image information reading unit 130 reads the representative image information of the broadcast program stored in the database 120. As described above, the representative image information of the broadcast program stored in the database 120 may be information on the location of the representative image of the broadcast program in the URL format. Therefore, the representative image information reading unit 130 reads information on the position where the representative image of the broadcast program exists.

The representative image extracting unit 140 extracts a representative image of the broadcast program using the representative image information of the broadcast program read by the representative image information reading unit 130. [ When the representative image information of the broadcast program is in the form of a value of an MOT content parameter, the representative image extracting unit 140 extracts a representative image of the broadcast program from the MOT object decoded by the decoder unit 110. [ The MOT object includes a file related to the representative image of the broadcast program. The included file has content parameter values that can be distinguished from other files. That is, the representative image extracting unit 140 extracts an image corresponding to the value of the MOT contents parameter from the MOT object.

When the representative image information of the broadcast program is in the WWW or WAP format, the representative image extraction unit 140 extracts representative images of the broadcast program through the network connection unit 150 described later.

The network connection unit 150 accesses the network using the representative image information of the broadcast program received by the representative image extracting unit 140. [ When the representative image information of the broadcast program is in the WWW or WAP format, the network connection unit 150 accesses the representative image of the broadcast program using the representative image information to receive the representative image of the broadcast program . The representative image of the broadcast program received by the network connection unit 150 is input to the representative image extracting unit 140.

The channel manager unit 160 processes an operation related to the channel. The channel manager 160 receives the channel information stored in the database 120 and the representative image of the broadcast program extracted by the representative image extractor 140. The channel manager unit 160 matches the channel information with the representative image of the broadcast program. In matching the channel information with the representative image of the broadcast program, the channel information on which the specific broadcast program runs is matched with the representative image of the corresponding broadcast program.

The PVR manager unit 170 receives the channel information matched by the channel manager unit 160 and the representative image of the broadcast program. When a recording command is inputted through the user interface means 190, the PVR manager unit 170 receives a channel number corresponding to a program to be recorded through the system manager unit 180. The PVR manager 170 outputs a representative image of the broadcast program matched with the channel information received from the system manager 180. [ The PVR manager unit 170 sets an operation for recording when a recording command is input, and controls the PVR (not shown).

The command input through the user interface means 190 may be a reserved recording command. In this case, the channel number corresponding to the program to be recorded and the time to start recording are input. The PVR manager unit 170 includes a timer unit (not shown), and controls the PVR to proceed with the recording operation when the time counted by the timer reaches the time to start recording.

A graphic user interface (GUI) unit receives a representative image of a broadcast program to be recorded from the PVR manager unit 170 and processes the image to form an image of a recording list. The images in the recording list are displayed as thumbnails. Therefore, the graphic user interface unit must convert the representative image of the broadcast program, which is the target of the input recording, into an image of a specific format and size in order to display it as a thumbnail. The graphic user interface unit 200 may display a representative image of the received broadcast program in a specific format, that is, a Joint Photographic Coding Experts Group (JPEG) or a Graphics Interchange (GIF) provided by a digital multimedia broadcasting receiver in forming an image of a recording list Format) PNG (Portable Network Graphics). In addition, the graphic user interface unit 200 processes a representative image of the inputted broadcast program in a specific size, that is, a size provided by a digital multimedia broadcasting receiver in forming an image of a recording list. However, in order to display the recording list, the representative image of the broadcast program to be recorded should be displayed on the recording list, not necessarily the thumbnail display.

3 is a view showing an embodiment of a recording list formed by using representative image information of a broadcast program. As shown in the figure, an image of a recording list is formed in a thumbnail format of a representative image of a broadcast program to be recorded.

Meanwhile, FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a method of forming an image of a recording list using the EPG data of the present invention. In step S400, the EPG data included in the carrier wave of the DMB received from the outside is decoded. The communication unit 100 receives a carrier of the digital multimedia broadcasting transmitted by the broadcasting station. The carrier of the digital multimedia broadcasting received by the communication unit 100 includes EPG data. The decoder unit 110 decodes a carrier wave of the DMB received by the communication unit 100.

The channel information included in the decoded EPG data and the representative image information of the broadcast program are stored in step S402. The database 120 stores channel information included in the EPG data decoded by the decoder unit 110 and representative image information of the broadcast program. The channel information includes an identifier for identifying a channel with another channel. The representative image information of the broadcast program includes information on the location where the representative image of the broadcast program exists. This is because the EPG data transmitted by the broadcasting station includes information on the location where the representative image of the broadcasting program exists in the form of URL.

The representative image information of the broadcast program stored in step S404 is read. The representative image information reading unit 130 reads the representative image information of the broadcast program stored in the database 120. The representative image information of the broadcast program read by the representative image information reading unit 130 is information on a position where a representative image of the broadcast program exists, not the image itself.

In step S406, the representative image of the broadcast program is extracted using the representative image information of the read broadcast program. The representative image extracting unit 140 extracts a representative image of the broadcast program from the decoder unit 110 or the network connection unit 150 using the representative image information of the broadcast program read by the representative image information reading unit 130. [

When the representative image information of the broadcast program read by the representative image information reading unit 130 is in the format of the value of the MOT contents parameter, the representative image extracting unit 140 extracts the representative image information from the MOT object decoded by the decoder unit 110 The image corresponding to the value of the MOT content parameter is extracted.

When the representative image information of the broadcast program read by the representative image information reading unit 130 is in the WWW or WAP format, the representative image extracting unit 140 accesses the network through the network connection unit 150, The representative image information is extracted.

The channel information stored in step S408 is matched with the representative image of the extracted broadcast program. The channel manager 160 receives the channel information stored in the database 120 and the representative image of the broadcast program extracted by the representative image extractor 140. The channel manager unit 160 matches the received channel information with a representative image of the broadcast program. In the matching, the channel information on which the specific broadcast program is run and the representative image of the corresponding broadcast program are matched.

In step S410, it is determined whether or not a recording command is input. It is determined whether or not a recording command is input through the user interface means 190. The recording command may be a normal recording command or a reserved recording command.

If a recording command is input as a result of the determination in step S410, a representative image of a broadcast program matched with the channel information corresponding to the program to be recorded in step S412 is output. The PVR manager 170 receives the representative image of the broadcast program matched with the channel information from the channel manager 160. When a recording command is inputted through the user interface means 190, the PVR manager unit 170 receives the channel number corresponding to the program to be recorded under the control of the system manager unit 180, And outputs a representative image of the broadcast program matched with the number.

In step S414, the representative image information of the broadcast program output to form the image of the recording list is converted into a specific size and format. The graphic user interface unit 200 receives a representative image of a broadcast program to be recorded from the PVR manager unit 170, and processes it to form an image of a recording list. The images in the recording list are in thumbnail format. Therefore, the graphic user interface unit must convert the representative image of the broadcast program, which is the target of the input recording, into an image of a specific format and size in order to form a thumbnail. Therefore, the graphic user interface unit 200 converts the representative image of the broadcast program into a specific size and format provided by the digital multimedia broadcasting receiver when the digital multimedia broadcasting receiver forms an image of a recording list.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, It will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art.

As described above, an apparatus and method for forming a recording list utilizing the EPG data of the present invention are used to form representative images of a broadcast program by reading representative image information of a broadcast program from EPG data input to a receiver.

The representative image information of the broadcast program includes information on the position where the representative image of the broadcast program exists. Therefore, the representative image of the broadcast program is extracted from the MOT object which is connected to the network or decoded by using the representative image information of the broadcast program. The representative image of the broadcast program to be recorded is graphically processed and converted into a specific size and format from among the representative images of the extracted broadcast program, thereby forming an image of the recording list.

As a result, it is possible to intuitively understand the broadcast program recorded by the image of the recording list, so that more convenient viewing is possible.

Claims (11)

A decoder unit for extracting and decoding an EPG (Electronic Program Guide) data included in a carrier wave of a DMB received by the communication unit and a MOT (Multimedia Object Transform) object of the EPG data; A data base for storing channel information included in EPG data decoded by the decoder and information about a location of a representative image of a broadcast program included in the MOT object; A representative image information reading unit for reading position information on a representative image of a broadcast program in the database; A representative image extracting unit for extracting a representative image of a broadcast program by accessing a network through a network connection unit using representative image position information of the broadcast program read by the representative image information reading unit; A channel manager for matching the channel information stored in the database and the representative image of the broadcast program extracted by the representative image extractor; A PVR manager unit receiving the channel information matched by the channel manager and the representative image of the broadcast program and outputting a representative image of the broadcast program matched with the channel information corresponding to the program to be recorded when the record command is input ; And A graphic user interface unit for receiving the representative image of the broadcast program output by the PVR manager and converting the representative image into a specific size and format for forming an image of the recording list; Wherein the EPG data comprises at least one EPG data. delete The method according to claim 1, Wherein the recording command is a reserved recording command. delete The method according to claim 1, Wherein the information about the location of the representative image of the broadcast program is represented by URL (Uniform Resource Information). Decoding EPG (Electronic Program Guide) data included in a carrier wave of a DMB received from the outside; Storing channel information included in the decoded EPG data and location information on a representative image of the broadcast program; Reading representative image position information of the stored broadcast program; Extracting a representative image of a broadcast program using representative image position information of the read broadcast program; Matching the stored channel information with a representative image of the extracted broadcast program; Outputting a representative image of a broadcast program matched with channel information corresponding to a broadcast program to be recorded when a recording command is input; And Converting the representative image of the broadcast program into a specific size and format to form an image of the recording list; A method of forming an image of a recording list using EPG data. The method according to claim 6, And extracting a representative image of the broadcast program from the MOT object of the decoded EPG data. The method according to claim 6, And extracting a representative image of the broadcast program by connecting to a network. The method according to claim 6, Wherein the recording command is a reserved recording command. delete The method according to claim 6, Wherein the information about the location of the representative image of the broadcast program is represented by URL (Uniform Resource Information).

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