KR101080417B1 - Method and apparatus for changing channel - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for switching channels, and when a predetermined signal is received, the predetermined signal is set to switch to a program channel corresponding to the time when the predetermined signal is received, and the program corresponding to the time When the broadcast time of a program corresponding to the time is obtained from the received program information, and a predetermined signal set within the obtained broadcast time is received, when switching to a corresponding program channel, when the start time of the corresponding program is missed due to other work, A single press of the hotkey not only powers on the channel switching device, but also switches to the desired channel. In addition, unlike conventional hotkeys, when a broadcast time is different regardless of a broadcaster or a channel, a program that a user wants to watch may be set to the same hotkey as desired.

Description

Method and apparatus for switching channels {Method and apparatus for changing channel}

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an apparatus for switching channels according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a method of setting a switching signal according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of switching channels when the device for switching channels according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention is turned off.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a method of switching channels when the device for switching channels according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention is turned on.

The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for switching channels, and particularly, when a user wants to watch a TV program at a specific time of day, and sets a hotkey at a remote control device to quickly show the program to a user. A method and apparatus for switching channels using hotkeys. A hot key is a key that allows a user to switch from a desired channel to a desired channel through a single hotkey through several steps.

Disclosed are a method for setting a hotkey for allowing a user to designate a specific channel to be watched by an arbitrary hotkey and inputting the hotkey, and a method for switching a channel using the hotkey. The hotkey is generally located on a remote control (eg remote control). The remote control device is a device for remotely controlling a TV or various electronic products by reading a key code from a memory according to a user's key input and sending it out in an infrared or RF signal form.

Conventional remote control device has a plurality of keys, and when at least one or more keys are pressed, the corresponding key code is read out from the memory and sent to the TV, it was possible to perform a remote control, a specific broadcast station with a single input Hotkeys were provided that let you switch to a specific channel.

Hotkey setting method of remote control device is to input hotkey setting mode key to set hotkey, key indicating device to provide external signal and key indicating channel, and key to finish and save hotkey setting. Set a hotkey. Preferably, the key indicating the apparatus for providing the external signal is a key indicating over-the-air broadcasting, and the key indicating the channel is a key indicating a broadcasting station channel. For example, a key indicating over-the-air broadcasting corresponds to "0" in the Seoul area and "11" in the MBC broadcasting station. The device for providing the external signal includes a video device, a DVD device, airwaves and satellite broadcasting.

Preferably, the hot key is a broadcasting station channel key on which a specific broadcasting channel is displayed. When the hot key is pressed, the hot key switches to a predetermined channel.

In the prior art, it is possible to switch to only the channel with information on a channel set as a hotkey. Each channel and hotkey correspond to one-to-one correspondence, and when the hotkey is placed on the remote control device, the number of channels that can be set by the hotkey is limited because of the limited number. In addition, if a hotkey is pressed before setting a new channel, there is a problem that only the channel previously set in the hotkey is switched.

The technical problem to be achieved by the present invention is to enable the viewer to switch to the desired channel by using the hotkey according to the day and time, and when the TV is turned off, to switch to the desired channel by turning on the TV using the hotkey There is provided a method and apparatus for setting a hotkey that can be enabled, and for switching channels using the set hotkey.

Further, the present invention provides a computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for executing the above-described method on a computer.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of switching a channel, the method comprising: setting a predetermined signal to switch to a program channel corresponding to a received time when a predetermined signal is received; Acquiring a broadcast time of a program corresponding to the time from received program information such as a program corresponding to the time; Switching to the corresponding program channel when the predetermined signal is received within the acquired broadcasting time.

In order to solve the above other technical problem, the present invention provides a computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for executing a method of switching the channel on a computer.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for switching a channel, comprising: an information obtaining unit obtaining a broadcast time of a program being broadcast from program information received together with the program being broadcast; A channel switching setting unit configured to set the received predetermined signal to switch to a channel of the broadcasting program when a predetermined signal is received within a broadcasting time of the broadcasting program; And a channel switching unit that switches to the set channel when the predetermined signal is received within a broadcast time of the program being broadcast.

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

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an apparatus for switching channels according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, a device for switching channels according to the present embodiment includes a control signal receiver 110, a setting storage unit 120, a broadcast signal receiver 130, a broadcast information storage unit 140, and a controller 150. And a display unit 160. The controller 150 includes an information acquisition unit 151, a channel switching setting unit 152, and a channel switching unit 153.

The control signal receiver 110 receives a switching signal for switching a channel or a setting signal for setting a channel from the control device. The control device is preferably a remote controller. The setting signal is a signal used to set a switching signal according to a broadcast time of a program broadcasted on a channel. Preferably, the changeover signal is generated from a hotkey located at the control device. The switching signal may be set to correspond to another channel according to the broadcast time. That is, the switching signal is a different switching signal corresponding to each broadcasting time even with one identical switching signal. Accordingly, a channel to which one switching signal is switched depending on the time received by the control signal receiver 110 may vary.

The setting storage unit 120 stores the information on the switching signal and the recently output channel information set according to the broadcasting time by the user. The information on the switch signal includes EPG information of a program corresponding to the switch signal. Preferably, the EPG information includes a broadcast time of a program corresponding to the switching signal.

The broadcast signal receiver 130 receives a program from the outside and then outputs EPG information on the received program to the broadcast information storage 140. When the broadcast signal receiver 130 receives a control signal from the channel switcher 153, the broadcast signal receiver 130 receives a program corresponding to the control signal.

The broadcast information storage unit 140 stores the EPG information of the program received by the broadcast signal receiver 130. Preferably, not only the EPG information of the program currently being received but also the EPG information received in another time zone is preferably stored. When the EPG information received in another time zone is stored, the stored EPG information may be used whenever a channel corresponding to the switch signal is set. An Electronic Program Guide (EPG) is an on-screen television program guide that allows viewers to search, select, or find content using a remote control, keyboard, or telephone keypad with time, title, channel, or genre. . The information of the corresponding broadcast inserted between the broadcast signals and transmitted to the receiver set-top box is called an EPG.

When the setting signal is received by the control signal receiving unit 110, the information obtaining unit 151 checks the setting storage unit 120 to determine whether there is a switching signal corresponding to the broadcast time at which the setting signal is received. As a result of checking whether the switch signal is present, if there is a switch signal corresponding to the broadcast time at which the setting signal is received, an input window is sent to the display unit 160 to receive input from the user to change the existing switch signal. Output As a result of checking whether the switch signal exists, the information acquisition unit 151 causes the broadcast information storage unit 140 to display the display unit 160 when there is no switch signal corresponding to the broadcast time at which the set signal is received. The EPG information of the currently broadcast program is output. The EPG information of the program currently being broadcast is not limited to the EPG information of the program currently being output to the display unit 160 but includes EPG information of a program currently being broadcast in another channel.

When the switching signal is input to the control signal receiving unit 110, the information obtaining unit 151 determines whether the setting storage unit 120 has channel setting information corresponding to the input switching signal through the setting storage unit 120. Check it. As a result of the check, if there is corresponding channel setting information, the channel setting information is output to the channel switching unit 153, and the channel switching unit 153 switches the channel using the channel setting information. If there is no corresponding channel setting information as a result of checking through the setting storage unit 120, an input window is output to the display unit 160 in order to receive input from a user whether a hot key is set.

When the setting signal is input, the channel switching setting unit 152 sets to switch to the channel of the program selected by the user according to the time when the switching signal is input and stores in the setting storage unit 120. The time at which the switch signal is input is preferably divided into a broadcast time of a program selected by the user.

When the switching signal set by the channel switching setting unit 152 is received by the control signal receiving unit 110 within the broadcast time of the program corresponding to the switching signal, the channel switching unit 153 switches to the channel where the corresponding program is broadcasting. do. If there is the corresponding channel setting information, the channel switching unit 153 preferably switches to the set channel, and if there is no corresponding channel setting information, the channel switching unit 153 confirms whether the user sets the hotkey.

The channel switching unit 153 outputs an ON signal to a power supply device (not shown) when the switching signal is input to the control signal receiving unit 110 when the channel switching unit is in the OFF state. If the switching device is in the ON state, when the switching signal is input to the control signal receiving unit 110, the information acquisition unit 151 determines that the channel corresponding to the input switching signal is input to the setting storage unit 120. Whether it is set or not is confirmed through the setting storage unit 120. The channel switcher 153 switches to the set channel if the corresponding channel is set.

The display unit 160 outputs a program to be received, and outputs EPG information of the program being output to the screen. It is preferable that the user selects the output screen.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a method of setting a channel switch signal according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. A method of setting a channel switching signal according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

In step 201, the control signal receiving unit 110 receives a setting signal from the control device. The control device is preferably an external control device (eg, a remote controller).

In step 202, the information acquisition unit 151 checks and determines whether there is a switching signal corresponding to the time when the setting signal is received. The switching signal corresponding to the time when the setting signal is received means a switching signal corresponding to a program in which the setting signal is received by the control signal receiving unit 110 in the broadcasting time. If the corresponding switch signal already exists, the process proceeds to step 203 to confirm from the user whether to change the setting of the switch signal, and proceeds to step 204 if the corresponding switch signal does not exist.

In step 203, the control signal receiving unit 110 receives from the user whether to change the already existing switching signal. The control signal receiving unit 110 preferably receives a signal not to change the existing switching signal from the user or terminates as it is after a certain time without any signal. When the control signal receiver 110 receives a signal from the user to change the already existing switching signal, the control unit 110 proceeds to step 204.

In step 204, the information acquisition unit 151 outputs a control signal to the broadcast information storage unit 140 to output the EPG information of the currently broadcast program to the display unit 160. The EPG information of the currently broadcast program may include not only a program currently being broadcast on the display 160 but also EPG information of a program being broadcast on another channel.

In step 205, the user selects a channel of the program to be switched in response to the switching signal.

In step 206, the channel switching setting unit 502 checks the setting storage unit 120 to determine whether there is a part of the program broadcasting time of another switching signal that is already set and the broadcasting time of the program selected in step 205. If any part of the broadcast time overlaps, the process proceeds to step 207. If the broadcast time does not overlap, the process proceeds to step 208.

In step 207, if a signal for changing the setting of the previously set other switching signal is input to the control signal receiving unit 110 by the user, the flow proceeds to step 208. The signal for changing the setting is preferably output from the control device. The control signal receiver 110 preferably receives a signal not to change the setting or terminates after a predetermined time without any signal.

In step 208, if the switching signal is input within the broadcast time of the program selected in step 205, the channel switching setting unit 152 sets to switch to the channel on which the selected program is broadcast, and stores the setting in the setting storage unit 120. The broadcast time is preferably a period characterized by periodicity. In particular, the broadcast time may be set in units of one day or in units of one week. For example, if a news program broadcasted on channel 11 from 9 pm to 10 pm every evening is set to correspond to the switch signal, the switch signal is received at any time during the broadcast time from 9 pm to 10 pm every evening. When input to 110, the channel switcher 153 sends a control signal to the broadcast signal receiver 130 to switch the channel to channel 11. It is also possible to set the switching signal for a program broadcasted at a specific time of day. If the selected program is not a program that is broadcasted periodically as a result of determining from the information stored in the broadcast information storage unit 140, it is preferable to check whether or not to set a switching signal to the user. However, even if the selected program is not a program that is broadcast periodically, it may be possible to change the channel of the selected program if the switch signal is input to the control signal receiver 110 at the broadcast time of the selected program. The changeover signal is preferably output from a hotkey located on the control device.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of switching channels when the device for switching channels according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention is turned off.

When the switching signal is input to the control signal receiving unit 110 while the device for switching channels is turned off in step 301, the channel switching unit 153 supplies power to the device for switching channels to the power supply of the device for switching channels. Send a signal to turn ON.

In step 302, the information acquisition unit 151 checks whether there is channel setting information stored in the setting storage unit 120 and corresponding to the input switching signal.

If the channel corresponding to the input switching signal is not set in the setting storage unit 120 in step 303, the last viewed channel is maintained.

In step 304, when the channel corresponding to the input switching signal is set in the setting storage unit 120, the channel is switched to the set channel.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a method of switching channels when the device for switching channels according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention is turned on.

When the switching signal is input to the control signal receiving unit 110 when the channel switching device is turned on in step 401, the information acquisition unit 151 sets the channel corresponding to the input switching signal to the setting storage unit 120. Check if it is

In step 402, as a result of checking whether there is channel setting information in the setting storage unit 120 in step 401, when a channel corresponding to the input switching signal is set, the channel is switched to the set channel.

In step 403, if the channel setting information corresponding to the input switching signal does not exist, the user is confirmed whether to set the channel corresponding to the input switching signal. If the user wants to set the channel corresponding to the input switching signal, the process proceeds to step 404, and if the user does not want to set the channel, the process ends.

In step 404, the user proceeds to step 202 of FIG. 2 to set the channel selected by the user to correspond to the input switching signal.

Meanwhile, the above-described embodiments of the present invention can be written as a program that can be executed in a computer, and can be implemented in a general-purpose digital computer that operates the program using a computer-readable recording medium. In addition, the structure of the data used in the above-described embodiment of the present invention can be recorded on the computer-readable recording medium through various means.

The computer-readable recording medium may be a magnetic storage medium (for example, a ROM, a floppy disk, a hard disk, etc.), an optical reading medium (for example, a CD-ROM, DVD, etc.) and a carrier wave (for example, the Internet). Storage medium).

So far I looked at the center of the preferred embodiment for the present invention. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention can be implemented in a modified form without departing from the essential features of the present invention. Therefore, the disclosed embodiments should be considered in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense. The scope of the present invention is shown in the claims rather than the foregoing description, and all differences within the scope will be construed as being included in the present invention.

According to the present invention, in a method of setting or switching a channel with a hotkey, when a user periodically sets a program to watch as a hotkey and misses the start time of the corresponding program due to another event, the channel is set by pressing the hotkey once. In addition to turning on the switching device, switching to the channel desired by the user is performed immediately.

In addition, unlike the existing hotkey, if the time is different regardless of the broadcaster or the channel, the user may set the same hotkey as desired.

Claims (13)

(a) when the predetermined signal is received, setting the predetermined signal to switch to a program channel corresponding to the time at which the predetermined signal is received; (b) acquiring a broadcast time of a program corresponding to the time from program information received such as a program corresponding to the time; (c) switching to the corresponding program channel when the predetermined signal is received within the obtained broadcasting time; Step (c) is And when the predetermined signal is received, turning on a device for outputting a program to a screen. The method of claim 1, And wherein the received predetermined signal is output from at least one key located at a remote control device. The method of claim 1, The acquired broadcasting time is a method for switching a channel, characterized in that the time that the broadcast program is being broadcast periodically. The method of claim 3, wherein The acquired broadcasting time is a method for switching a channel, characterized in that a specific time period or a specific time period of a specific day of the week. delete The method of claim 1, Step (c) is And after the device for outputting the program to the screen is turned on, if there is no program corresponding to the predetermined signal, outputting a program of a recent channel to the screen. A computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for executing the method of any one of claims 1 to 4 and 6. An information obtaining unit obtaining a broadcasting time of a program being broadcast from program information received together with the program being broadcast; A channel switching setting unit configured to set the received predetermined signal to switch to a channel of the broadcasting program when a predetermined signal is received within a broadcasting time of the broadcasting program; And When the predetermined signal is received within the broadcast time of the program being broadcast, and comprises a channel switching unit for switching to the set channel, And the channel switching unit turns on the device outputting the program on the screen when the predetermined signal is received. The method of claim 8, And the received predetermined signal is output from at least one key located at a remote control device. The method of claim 8, The acquired broadcasting time is a device for switching a channel, characterized in that the time that the broadcast program is being broadcast periodically. The method of claim 8, And the obtained broadcasting time is a specific time section or a specific time section of a specific day of the week. delete The method of claim 8, And the channel switching unit outputs a program of a recent channel to the screen when there is no program corresponding to the predetermined signal after the device for outputting the program on the screen is turned on.

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