KR20070061125A - Apparatus for automatic creation and managing of contents information for universal plug and play av server and method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

A device and a method for automatically generating/managing for content information in a UPnP A/V server are provided to efficiently collect and automatically classify content list information of each device, reconfigure the content list information according to user's taste, and automatically recognize and update items of the content information changed by an external application. A user interface(301) registers the content information by receiving input from the user and forms a list of registered contents. A content information manager(302) manages the registered contents and generates a content tree based on the registered content information. A DIDL(Digital Item Declaration Language) generation manager(303) forms a DOM(Document Object Model) tree from the content tree and generates a DIDL document by using DOM tree information. The user interface includes a content tree view displaying folders storing the registered contents, a content list view displaying the list of the contents stored in the selected folder, and a menu tool bar including a view setting menu.

Description

Apparatus for automatic creation and managing of contents information for Universal Plug and Play AV Server and method

1 illustrates the components of the UPnP AV architecture.

2 shows the components of the DIDL.

3A is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an apparatus for automatically generating and managing content information according to the present invention.

FIG. 3B illustrates an example of an internal configuration of components of the apparatus for automatically generating and managing content information according to the present invention of FIG. 3A.

4 illustrates an example of a user interface configuration according to the present invention.

5 illustrates an example of a screen on which a content registration wizard is executed.

6 illustrates an example of a structure of a content tree.

7A and 7B are flowcharts of content registration and content information management.

8 illustrates a flow of content registration and management for automatically updating content information.

The present invention relates to digital content information generation in a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) AV network environment, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for automatically generating and managing content information while increasing user convenience.

More specifically, content information that can be used in devices such as UPnP media servers in the Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) AV architecture can be easily collected, reconstructed and efficiently managed in consideration of user preferences, and digital items (DIDL) Declaration Language).

The UPnP AV architecture is a standard that automatically recognizes UPnP devices connected to the network based on the UPnP device architecture, and shares and plays back AV content information such as audio, video, and images in each device.

1 illustrates the components of the UPnP AV architecture. As shown in FIG. 1, the UPnP AV architecture includes a control point 101, a UPnP media server 102, and a UPnP media renderer 103.

The UPnP media server 102 collects a list of contents existing in each device, and the UPnP media renderer 103 plays content existing in a remote location. The control point 101 collects and displays the information of the UPnP media server 102 and the media renderer 103 existing in the network.

The user may search content scattered in the network for each device through the control point 101 and set the UPnP media renderer 103 to play the content.

Information of the content delivered to the control point 101 by the UPnP media server 102 is expressed in the DIDL-Lite multimedia description language defined on the basis of XML.

DIDL (Digital Item Declaration Language) is a language that expresses content information established in MPEG-21. UPnP media server 102 expresses various AV contents such as audio, video, and image existing in the current device through the language. Should be.

2 shows the components of the DIDL. As shown in FIG. 2, DIDL is composed of various elements such as containers, items, components, resources, and descriptors. Therefore, it is not easy for users to directly write them in a desired form, and the amount of AV contents existing in each system is also huge. It takes a lot of time and effort to create and manage it yourself.

The existing method of generating content information for UPnP media server has been developed in a simple manner of generating DIDL by directly creating a text format DIDL document or searching a specific directory and classifying the AV contents in the directory by type of audio, image, and video. . Direct generation of DIDL document is based on understanding complex DIDL structure composed of various elements such as container, item, component, resource, descriptor, etc., and is suitable for simple test data generation, There is a problem in that data generation is limited.

DIDL generation method by extracting content in specific directory and classifying by content type is uniform and simple to lose the meaning of the directory classified by the user, and does not support the creation of a new content set considering the user's preference. . In addition, even if a change occurs such that content is newly created or deleted for another application of the system, there is a problem that the changed situation is not reflected unless the user directly re-registers the information.

The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to solve the above problems, to improve the method of creating and managing inconvenient content information, and to efficiently collect and automatically organize the content list information existing in the device, and user preferences It can be easily reconfigured to suit the needs, and can be automatically recognized and updated in consideration of the situation of changing content information such as creation, deletion, or change of contents by an external application, and automatically converted into DIDL document. The present invention provides an apparatus and method for automatically generating and managing content information for a UPnP AV server.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for automatically generating and managing content information for a UPnP AV server, including: a user interface configured to register content information based on a user's input and configure a registered content list; A content information manager managing the registered content and generating a content tree based on the registered content information; And a DIDL generation manager configured to configure the generated content tree as a Document Object Model (DOM) tree, and to generate the DOM tree information as a DIDL (Digital Item Declaration Language) document.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for automatically generating and managing content information for a UPnP AV server, including: (a) registering content information by receiving a user input and configuring a registered content list; (b) managing the registered content and generating a content tree based on the registered content information; And (c) constructing the generated content tree as a Document Object Model (DOM) tree, and generating the DOM tree information as a DIDL (Digital Item Declaration Language) document.

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

3A is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an apparatus for automatically generating and managing content information according to the present invention.

The device receives a user input to register content information, a user interface 301 for configuring a registered content list, a content information manager for managing the registered content, and generating a content tree based on registered content information. 302 and a DIDL generation manager 303 which configures the generated content tree as a Document Object Model (DOM) tree and generates this DOM tree information as a Digital Item Declaration Language (DIDL) document.

FIG. 3B illustrates an example of an internal configuration of components of the apparatus for automatically generating and managing content information according to the present invention of FIG. 3A.

In the overall operation, when a user collects content information through a content registration menu of the user interface 301, the content information manager 302 generates a content tree based on the collected content information and shows it to the user. When the user requests the generation of the DIDL information, the DIDL creation manager 303 configures the content tree as a DOM tree, and this information is generated in the DIDL document 304 again.

The Document Object Model (DOM) is a document object model. It is an object-based document model for interworking XML documents through a web browser.

4 illustrates an example of a user interface configuration according to the present invention. The user interface 301 may display a list of contents stored in the folder when the content tree view 401 displaying the folders in which registered contents are stored to the user and a folder of the content tree view 401 is selected. A menu toolbar 403 including a content list view 402 and a content registration menu 404, a DIDL document generation menu 405, and a view setup menu 406 that sets the content displayed in the content list view to be displayed. It includes. The menu toolbar 403 also includes a UPnP media server execution menu 407.

When the content registration menu 404 of the menu toolbar 403 is selected, the content registration wizard is executed. 5 illustrates an example of a screen on which a content registration wizard is executed. Similar to the installation screen of the general application program, the content registration wizard allows content to be automatically registered by selecting a few steps, thereby allowing the user to efficiently collect content information.

Registration of content through the registration wizard proceeds with the step of reducing the scope from the local system root directory to the detailed directory. When a specific directory is selected, the content information manager 302 is extended to the structure of subdirectories of the directory. Search and collect content information, and create a content tree based on the information. The generated content tree is shown on the user screen as shown in the content tree view 401 of FIG. 4.

The content tree view 401 displays the entire structure 408 of the content tree, with each node in the tree matching a subdirectory of the registered local system directory.

The content present in each node is displayed in the content list view 402 and may be displayed in various forms such as an icon, a thumbnail image, and text.

The content information manager 302 stores a virtual directory 409 node containing user symbols and meanings, such as a video, an audio playlist, and an album of images, in the content tree 408 existing in the content tree view 401. Enable to add

The virtual directory 409 node is added to the root node of the content tree 408, and the user can add the content of each node in the existing content tree 408 in a simple manner such as drag and drop to add content to their own preferences. You can organize your list by collecting them.

The contents existing in the virtual directory 409 node are shown to the user in the same manner as the contents of the general directory, but inside the tree, as shown in FIG. 6 in which the structure of the contents tree is shown, a formal reference object (see FIG. 6) is used. 602 is generated. That is, the content information object 601 owns a list managing the reference object 602 referencing itself, and the reference object 602 becomes a pointer to the content information object 601 which is its original object. . As a result, the content information manager 302 generates the content existing in the virtual directory node as a formal reference object referring to the original content, and manages the actual object and the reference object separately.

The separate management method of the actual object 601 and the reference object 602 of the content information manager 302 prevents unnecessary generation of unnecessary memory usage by preventing duplicate generation of the same content information for a vast amount of AV content in the system.

In addition, instead of searching the entire content tree to remove the corresponding content information when removing the actual content from an external application, if the content information object 601 is found by searching only the part of the content tree connected to the actual directory, the reference object connected to the content is removed. 602 can be auto-discovered to quickly reflect content information changes in the entire tree.

That is, when receiving an input for removing registered content, the content information manager 302 searches only the content tree portion actually connected to the directory, finds the content information object, and identifies and deletes the corresponding content information.

In addition to generating the content tree, the content tree manager 302 checks the content information at regular time intervals in order to maintain consistency between the actual content and the generated content information at regular time intervals. The inspection time interval may be specified by the user in consideration of the amount of registered content.

Since content can be created or deleted by external factors, the generated content tree must have an auto-update function to maintain consistency with the actual content information. This automatic update function may take some time when the amount of content is enormous, and thus cannot be frequently performed. Therefore, it can be checked at regular time intervals that do not interfere with the use of the system, or control to use only for accurate information transmission when the content list request from the control point.

The DIDL document generation manager 303 reconstructs the generated content tree into a DOM tree that implements the DIDL document structure in memory and generates the DIDL document as a DIDL document. That is, all directory nodes of the content tree are mapped to component nodes of the DOM tree, and content information nodes of each node of the content tree are created as item nodes of the DOM tree.

7A and 7B are flowcharts of content registration and content information management, and show a basic flow from content registration to DIDL generation.

If the content registration menu is selected in the user input waiting state 701 (702), the content registration wizard is executed (703) to generate the content tree (704). When the user requests the generation of a DIDL document to be used by the UPnP media server (705), after confirming whether the content tree is generated (706), the content tree is converted into a DOM tree (707), and generated as a DIDL document (708).

If the user input occurs in the content tree view (709), check whether the content tree is generated in advance and ready to execute the command (710), and if the content tree is created, after confirming whether it is a virtual directory creation command ( 711), the command is executed 712. If the content tree view input 709 relates to the creation of the reference object (713), it first checks whether the created virtual directory exists (714), and performs the reference object creation (715).

8 illustrates a flow of content registration and management for automatically updating content information.

If the user information waiting for the user input in the user interface (801) request setting the content information automatic update (802) shows the setting screen for this to the user (803), save the settings (804), and automatically updates according to the settings In operation 805, a content tree to be checked exists.

If the content tree exists, the content information automatic update module is executed (806). The executed content tree auto-update module updates the generated content tree according to the setting (807) and checks in real time whether the end message has been delivered (808).

If the end message of the content information auto-update module is input from the user (810), the message is delivered to the content information auto-update module (812), and the content information auto-update module received the message terminates the service ( 809).

Through the above process, the user can register the content with only a few simple selection buttons through means such as a content registration wizard, and the device according to the present invention can maintain an existing directory in order to maintain the concept of the directory classified by the user. Creates a content tree with the same structure and AV content information.

The generated content tree is shown to the user, and the user can add a virtual directory containing user symbols and meanings such as a video playlist, a playlist of audio, and an album of images. The user adds existing content by dragging and dropping the content into the virtual directory to construct a content list according to his or her taste. As described above, the contents existing in the virtual directory are shown to the user in the same manner as the contents of the general directory, but in the tree, a formal reference object referring to the original contents is created and managed. Such a content object management method not only prevents duplicate generation of the same content information for a vast amount of AV content in the system, but also quickly reflects the content tree when removing the content from an external application, thereby efficiently managing the content tree.

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 descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation. Examples included in the above description are introduced for the understanding of the present invention, and these examples do not limit the spirit and scope of the present invention. For example, in the above description, the Internet is mainly used as an example of a communication network, but it is also possible to use a public telephone communication network such as a PSTN, and in addition to the above examples, various embodiments according to the present invention are possible. It will be obvious to those of ordinary skill in this technical field. The scope of the present invention is shown not in the above description but in the claims, and all differences within the scope will be construed as being included in the present invention.

In addition, it can be easily understood by those skilled in the art that each of the above steps according to the present invention can be variously implemented in software or hardware using a general programming technique.

And some steps of the invention may also be embodied as computer readable code on a computer readable recording medium. The computer-readable recording medium includes all kinds of recording devices in which data that can be read by a computer system is stored. Examples of computer-readable recording media include ROM, RAM, CD-ROM, CD-RW, magnetic tape, floppy disks, HDDs, optical disks, magneto-optical storage devices, and carrier wave (eg, Internet It also includes the implementation in the form of). The computer readable recording medium can also be distributed over network coupled computer systems so that the computer readable code is stored and executed in a distributed fashion.

According to the present invention, a content information manager for registering content information in response to a user input, a user interface constituting a registered content list, managing registered content, and generating a content tree based on registered content information, and generating Including the DIDL generation manager that organizes the content tree into a DOM tree, and generates this DOM tree information as a DIDL document, collects the content information through a simple interface, and configures the content tree based on the collected information. Allows the user to efficiently and conveniently collect content information for UPnP media servers, and the generated content tree does not disperse user's classification scheme by maintaining the directory that users have previously separated, and does not disrupt playlists of video and audio. Contains temporary user symbols and meaning, such as an album of images. By adding a virtual directory, it is possible to generate content information reflecting one's own preferences, and to automatically recognize and update the content information in consideration of the situation of content information change such as creation or deletion of content by an external application. By providing the function of checking the content information at intervals, it maintains the consistency of the content information between the local system, the UPnP media server, and the control point, and minimizes the user's effort in generating DIDL documents.

Claims (14)

A user interface configured to receive content input from a user and register content information to form a list of registered contents; A content information manager managing the registered content and generating a content tree based on the registered content information; And A Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), comprising: a DIDL generation manager constituting the generated content tree as a Document Object Model (DOM) tree and generating the DOM tree information as a Digital Item Declaration Language (DIDL) document ) Automatic generation and management of content information for AV server. The method of claim 1, The user interface, A content tree view displaying the folders in which registered contents are stored to a user; A content list view for displaying a list of contents stored in the folder to a user when a folder of the content tree view is selected; And Automatically generate and manage content information for UPnP AV server, including a menu toolbar including a content registration menu, a DIDL document generation menu, and a view setting menu for setting the contents displayed in the contents list view to be displayed. Device. The method of claim 2, And if the content registration menu of the menu toolbar is selected, the content information manager registers the content while reducing the range from the local system root directory to the detail directory. The method of claim 2, The content information manager creates a virtual directory node according to a user input including a playlist of video and audio and an album of image content in a content tree displayed by the content tree view. Information automatic generation and management device. The method of claim 4, wherein The virtual directory node is added to the root node of the content tree, and the content is automatically generated for the UPnP AV server, wherein the list is reconstructed by adding the content of each node of the existing content tree according to an input from the user. And management device. The method according to claim 4 or 5, The content information manager automatically generates content information for the UPnP AV server, by generating content existing in the virtual directory node as a formal reference object referring to the original content, and separately managing the actual object and the reference object. And management device. The method of claim 6, When the content information manager receives an input for removing registered content, the content information manager searches only a part of a content tree actually connected to a directory, finds a content information object, and identifies and deletes corresponding content information. Information automatic generation and management device. The method of claim 1, The content information manager automatically generates and manages content information for the UPnP AV server, wherein the content information manager maintains the consistency of the registered content information and the actual information by checking the content information at predetermined time intervals including generating a content tree. The method of claim 1, The DIDL document generation manager maps all directory nodes of the content tree to component nodes of the DOM tree, and creates content information nodes of each node of the content tree as item nodes of the DOM tree. Automatic generation and management of content information. (a) receiving content input from the user and registering the content information to construct a list of registered contents; (b) managing the registered content and generating a content tree based on the registered content information; And (c) constructing the generated content tree as a Document Object Model (DOM) tree and generating the DOM tree information as a Digital Item Declaration Language (DIDL) document; for the UPnP AV server, comprising: How to automatically create and manage content information. The method of claim 10, When the content is registered in the step (a), In step (b), a virtual directory node is generated according to a user's input including a playlist of video and audio and an album of image content in the content tree, and automatically generating and managing content information for the UPnP AV server. . The method of claim 11, In step (b), the content information for the UPnP AV server is automatically generated by generating the content existing in the virtual directory node as a formal reference object referring to the original content, and separating the real object from the reference object. How to create and manage. The method of claim 12, When receiving the input to remove the registered content, the content information for the UPnP AV server is automatically generated and managed by searching only the content tree portion actually connected to the directory to find the content information object to identify and delete the corresponding content information. Way. The method of claim 10, In step (c), all directory nodes of the content tree are mapped to component nodes of the DOM tree, and content information nodes of each node of the content tree are generated as item nodes of the DOM tree. How to automatically create and manage content information.

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