KR100745722B1 - Media Adaptation Apparatus, Media Renderer and Intelligent Mutimedia Service System in Home Network Environment - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an intelligent multimedia service system for converting and providing multimedia content according to a user environment, a media converting device, and a media player.

A media conversion apparatus in a home network environment according to the present invention includes a user environment control unit, a UPI media control service unit, and an adaptation engine unit. The user environment controller interprets the user environment information transmitted from the media player by the UPI device recognition protocol. The UPP media control service unit controls transmission and reception of a multimedia server and a multimedia content during the media playback period. The adaptation engine unit converts the multimedia content transmitted from the media server according to the user environment information and provides it to the media player. In this case, the user environment information is represented by the MPEG-21 adaptation tool and is added to the home appliance information list.

The present invention provides a home network intelligent multimedia service that is most suitable for a user by converting multimedia contents according to a user's environment through a media conversion server in a situation where a plurality of different specification home network terminals are connected to each other using a home network middleware. Can be provided.

Home Network, User Experience, Media Conversion, MPEG-21, UPnP

Description

Media Adaptation Apparatus, Media Renderer and Intelligent Mutimedia Service System in Home Network Environment

1 is a block diagram of an intelligent multimedia service system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

2 is an XML document for home appliance basic information including a user environment according to an embodiment of the present invention; And

3 is a flowchart illustrating an intelligent multimedia service process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The present invention relates to an intelligent multimedia service system in a home network environment, a media converter and a media player constituting the same, and more particularly, to an intelligent multimedia service system for converting and providing multimedia content according to a user environment and a configuration thereof. It relates to a media converter and a media player.

Home network technology connects all the digital equipment in the home through the network and provides remote control, multimedia services, and information services. Home network terminals include computer-based devices such as laptops and PDAs, and white goods such as refrigerators, TVs, and towers.

These home network terminals communicate with each other using the same home network middleware to provide home network services. Such middleware types include UPnP and Sun's Jini, led by Microsoft and Intel. And Havi. Among them, UPI is the most active and has become a de facto standard in home network middleware field based on large member companies.

UF has the function to perform method call from remote places with minimal user intervention. In addition, UF has functions such as network auto-completion, service discovery, remote method invocation based on Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), and event-based status check. In addition to these basic functions, UF has defined a Device Control Protocol (DCP) for home network devices such as printers.

The UPnP A / V Architecture, meanwhile, is a standard UPI DCP defined for serving multimedia content, including a media server that contains the content, a media renderer that plays the content, and between the two. It consists of A / V controller which controls media in. The user can use the A / V controller to transfer and play the multimedia contents of the remote media server to the remote media player. The IP A / V controller determines the communication protocol and file format between the media server and the media player so that the media server uses the determined protocol and file format to transfer the content directly to the media player without going through the IP A / V controller. Send it.

However, existing UPI media architecture only considers media server, media player, and A / V controller, and does not consider various home network devices and user context.

Meanwhile, various methods have been studied for multimedia services considering the user's context. UMA (Universal Multimedia Access) is a study on the method of providing the same multimedia contents in different forms to suit various terminals and user states. Representatively, WAP is a method for using the mobile phone with limited functions to access the Internet. Protocols and the like. Other examples of these studies include CC / CP, MPEG-21, MPEG-7, Composite Capability / Preference Profile (CC / PP), User Agent Profile (UAProf), 3GPP Packet Switching Streaming Service, and Open Pluggable Edge Service (OPES). Etc.

However, the existing research mainly considers a wireless mobile environment or assumes a wireless or wired internet as an implementation environment, and thus, it is difficult to be applied to a home network environment using home network middleware based on a home network terminal. In addition, all existing researches include only limited descriptions of multimedia descriptions or profiles, multimedia contents protection, user contexts such as user profiles / preferences, or related to network environments that are actually implemented and operated. It wasn't.

For example, MPEG-21 is an open framework for providing Universal Multimedia Access (UMA), and in Part 7, in particular, defines a tool for expressing the user's environment based on XML. . MPEG-21 presents a complete framework for general-purpose multimedia services, such as the declaration, identification, adaptation, and right of multimedia content. However, MPEG-21 does not define a standard network mechanism for transmitting user environment information to a general home server for conversion.

Therefore, in the case of MPEG-21, developers usually take the means of creating their own socket programming or using open source-based agents to communicate with each other. This method is not compatible with existing networks. Since it depends on developers or services, there is a problem of compatibility in various multimedia devices, various multimedia contents, and various user environments.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problem, and in the home network environment in which various home network terminals commonly use the same home network middleware, an intelligent system considering user environment information based on standard home network middleware such as UPI The purpose is to provide a multimedia service.

The present invention extends the existing UPI media architecture by adding a media conversion device to provide a media conversion function to pass through the media conversion device in the communication process between the media server and the media player.

A media conversion apparatus in a home network environment according to the present invention includes a user environment control unit, a UPI media control service unit, and an adaptation engine unit. The user environment controller interprets the user environment information transmitted from the media player by the UPI device recognition protocol. The UPP media control service unit controls transmission and reception of a multimedia server and a multimedia content during the media playback period. The adaptation engine unit converts the multimedia content transmitted from the media server according to the user environment information and provides it to the media player.

In this case, the user environment information is represented by the MPEG-21 adaptation tool and is added to the home appliance information list.

In addition, the UF media control service unit controls the multimedia content transmission using the UF media architecture (UPnP A / V Architecture) protocol.

The media player in a home network environment according to the present invention includes a user environment collecting unit, a media playing unit, and a UPI media receiving service unit. The user environment collecting unit collects user environment information and describes it by the MPEG-21 adaptation tool. The media player plays back the multimedia content converted by the media converter according to the user environment information. The UTP media reception service unit controls reception and playback of multimedia content from the media conversion apparatus.

Here, the user environment collecting unit transmits the user environment information to the media conversion apparatus through a UPI device recognition protocol.

The user environment information may be added to the home appliance information list.

An intelligent multimedia service system in a home network environment according to the present invention includes a media server, a media converter, and a media player for storing multimedia content. The media conversion apparatus receives the multimedia content from the media server and converts the multimedia content according to user environment information. The media player plays the converted multimedia content, collects the user environment information, and transmits the collected user environment information to the media conversion apparatus by a UPI device recognition protocol.

In this case, the user environment information is represented by the MPEG-21 adaptation tool and is added to the home appliance information list.

The above objects and features will become more apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, whereby those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains may easily implement the technical idea of the present invention. . In addition, in describing the present invention, when it is determined that the detailed description of the known technology related to the present invention may unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present invention, the detailed description thereof will be omitted. Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The present invention relates to a technology for providing a multimedia service considering a user environment in a home network environment. In general, a home network environment includes a home automation service, a home multimedia service, and a home information system by connecting one or more home network devices such as TVs, white appliances, and computers to each other through home network multimedia. (information) A networked environment that provides services. The present invention deals with the matters related to the home multimedia service, and provides multimedia contents suitable for the user intelligently in consideration of the user environment rather than simply playing the multimedia data by the player.

In this case, the user environment refers to information of a terminal such as a media player that a user uses to enjoy multimedia contents, network information between the terminal and a home network server, information about the user such as the user's profile or taste, and temperature. Includes information about the surrounding environment. Those skilled in the art will recognize that in addition to the above-described information, various types of information may be considered as a user environment.

1 is a block diagram of an intelligent multimedia service system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The intelligent multimedia service system includes a media server 10 having multimedia contents, a media player 30 for reproducing multimedia contents to a user, and a media player by converting the multimedia contents of the media server 10 into a form suitable for a user environment. It is composed of a home conversion server (Home Adaptation Server) 20 that is a media conversion device provided to (30).

The media server 10 includes a media transmission unit 11 and a UPI media transmission service unit 12. The indoor conversion server 20 includes an adaptation engine unit 21, a UPI media control service unit 22, and a user environment control unit 23. The media player 30 includes a media player 31, a UMP media reception service unit 32, and a user environment collector 33 using an MPEG-21 adaptation tool.

In the view of the signal layer, the intelligent multimedia service system has a hierarchical signal processing by a media delivery and transport layer, a UF media service layer, and a user environment layer.

The media delivery and transport layer is composed of a media transmission unit 11 of the media server 10, an adaptation engine unit 21 of the in-house conversion server 20, and a media player unit 31 of the media player 30. Delivery, conversion, and playback of content are performed.

The multimedia content is transmitted to the adaptation engine unit 21 by a general media streaming protocol, for example, RTP, HTTP, or the like. The adaptation engine unit 21 converts the transmitted multimedia content according to the user environment provided by the user environment control unit 23 using the existing buffer model. For example, the adaptation engine unit 21 converts the media of MP2 @ HL class into MP4 @ SP according to the user environment.

The multimedia content converted by the adaptation engine unit 21 according to the user environment is transmitted to the media player unit 31 of the media player 30 by a general media streaming protocol, for example, RTP, HTTP, or the like.

The media player 31 receives and plays the converted multimedia content according to the user environment and displays the same on the display screen of the media player 30.

The UPI media service layer includes the UPI media transmission service unit 12 of the media server 10, the UPI media control service unit 22 of the in-house conversion server 20, and the UPI media reception service of the media player 30. Part 32 is used to control the transmission of multimedia content using the existing A / V Architecture (A / V Architecture) protocol.

UF media control service unit 22 transmits a control signal to UF media transmission service unit 12, so that UF media transmission service unit 12 adapts the multimedia content through the media transmission unit 11 engine unit (21).

In addition, the UPI media control service unit 22 controls the adaptation engine unit 21 so that the adaptation engine unit 21 converts the multimedia content according to the user environment provided by the user environment control unit 23.

The UMP media receiving service unit 32 controls the media player 31 under the control of the UMP media control service unit 22 so that the media player 31 receives and plays the converted multimedia content. .

The user environment layer is composed of the user environment control unit 23 of the indoor conversion server 20 and the user environment collection unit 33 of the media player 30 to collect the user environment and reflect the multimedia content.

The user environment collector 33 collects a user context of the media player 30. The user environment collection unit 33 describes the collected user environment information by MPEG-21 DIA tools, and transmits the described user environment information to the user environment control unit 23. In this case, in order to transmit the described user environment information to the user environment control unit 23, a method of transmitting the information of the home appliance as shown in FIG. 2 through a conventional UPI device recognition protocol, but the user to the home appliance information list Add part of environment 400.

2 is an XML document for home appliance basic information including a user environment regarding a codec of the media player 30. The user environment controller 23 analyzes the received user environment and provides the adaptation engine 21 to the adaptation engine 21. The adaptation engine 21 converts the multimedia content according to the user environment.

3 is a flowchart illustrating an intelligent multimedia service process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The user first selects the multimedia content through the remote control function of the indoor conversion server 20 (S1). In addition, the user can select an available media player 30, for example, a PDA, an HDTV, or the like. Here, before the user selects the multimedia content and the media player, the multimedia content possessed by the media server 10 and the information of the usable media player 30 may be used by using the existing UI architecture. It is provided to the indoor conversion server 20.

In other words, the on-premises conversion server 20 uses the UI media control service unit 22 which also performs the UI media architecture function, upon request of the user, a list of available multimedia contents, a list of media servers, and a media player list. Display and allow the user to select the desired multimedia content and media player.

Of course, the module performing the UI media architecture function is included in the media server 10 or the media player 30, so that the user can list the multimedia contents available through the media server 10 or the media player 30, the media server. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that you may check the list of media players, and select the desired multimedia content and media player.

   Next, the user environment collection unit 33 of the media player 30 collects user environment information and describes it by MPEG-21 DIA tools, and describes the user environment information described in the home conversion server ( It transmits to the user environment control part 23 of 20) (S2). If the user selects any multimedia content on the home network through the in-house conversion server 20, the multimedia content of the media server 10 should be able to be transmitted to the media player 30, which is a feature of the present invention. Since the content conversion process that reflects the user's environment should be performed, the indoor conversion server 20 should be able to know the user's environment in the conversion process.

In this case, in order to transmit the described user environment information to the user environment control unit 23, a method of transmitting the information of the home appliance as shown in FIG. 2 through a conventional UPI device recognition protocol, but the user to the home appliance information list Add an environment 400 part. The user environment information is transmitted from the media player 30 to the in-house conversion server 20 in the process of transferring the information between the home appliances automatically.

The user environment control unit 23 of the indoor conversion server 20 analyzes the received user environment information and provides it to the adaptation engine unit 21, which adapts the selected multimedia content according to the user environment. (S3).

The indoor conversion server 20 transmits the multimedia content converted according to the user environment to the media player 30 using the existing A / V architecture protocol. The media player 30 plays back the transmitted multimedia contents and displays them to the user (S4).

As described above, although the present invention has been described by way of limited embodiments and drawings, the present invention is not limited thereto, and the technical idea of the present invention and the following by those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains. Various modifications and variations are possible without departing from the scope of the claims to be described in the following.

The present invention provides a home network intelligent multimedia service that is most suitable for a user by converting multimedia contents according to a user's environment through a media conversion server in a situation where a plurality of different specification home network terminals are connected to each other using a home network middleware. Can be provided.

Claims (10)

In the media conversion apparatus in a home network environment, A user environment control unit for interpreting user environment information transmitted from the media player by the UPI device recognition protocol; A UPI media control service unit which controls transmission and reception of a multimedia server and a multimedia content during the media playback period; And An adaptation engine for converting the multimedia content transmitted from the media server according to the user environment information and providing the media content to the media player; Media conversion device in home network environment. The method of claim 1, The user environment information is represented by the MPEG-21 adaptation tool. Media conversion device in home network environment. The method of claim 2, The user environment information is in the form of being added to the home appliance information list Media conversion device in home network environment. The method of claim 1, The UPP media control service unit controls the multimedia content transmission using the UNP media architecture (UPnP A / V Architecture) protocol. Media conversion device in home network environment. In a media player in a home network environment, A user environment collection unit which collects user environment information and describes it by an MPEG-21 adaptation tool; A media player which plays the multimedia content converted according to the user environment information by a media converter; And UPI media receiving service unit for controlling the reception and playback of the multimedia content from the media conversion apparatus; Media player in home network environment. The method of claim 5, The user environment collecting unit transmits the user environment information to the media conversion apparatus by a UPI device recognition protocol. Media player in home network environment. The method of claim 6, The user environment information is in the form of being added to the home appliance information list Media player in home network environment. In an intelligent multimedia service system in a home network environment, A media server storing multimedia content; A media conversion device for receiving the multimedia content from the media server and converting the multimedia content according to user environment information; And A media player for playing the converted multimedia content, The media player collects the user environment information and transmits the user environment information to the media conversion apparatus by a UPI device recognition protocol. Intelligent Multimedia Service System in Home Network Environment. The method of claim 8, The user environment information is represented by the MPEG-21 adaptation tool. Intelligent Multimedia Service System in Home Network Environment. The method of claim 9, The user environment information is in the form of being added to the home appliance information list Intelligent Multimedia Service System in Home Network Environment.

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