KR20090074621A - Method of upgrading a software - Google Patents

Abstract

A method of upgrading software is provided to upgrade software in a standby mode of a digital television only when software upgrade request information exists by OAD(Over Air Download). A controller determines whether a power-off request signal is inputted from a user selection unit(414). When the power-off request signal is inputted, the controller determines whether software upgrade request information is stored in a data storage unit(416). When the software upgrade request information is not stored in the data storage unit, the controller turns off power to convert the digital television into a standby mode(418). When the software upgrade request information is stored in the data storage unit, the controller turns off power to convert the digital television into the standby mode(420). The controller upgrades software of the digital television by using software stored in the data storage unit(422).

Description

How to upgrade your software {METHOD OF UPGRADING A SOFTWARE}

The present invention relates to a method of upgrading the software of a digital television, and more particularly, to a method of upgrading the software of a digital television by an over air download (OAD) method.

Due to the proliferation of high speed internet and the advent of digitalized broadcasting program production environment, digital broadcasting system using digital television which can provide various additional contents as well as functions of existing television has been developed.

As one of such digital broadcasting systems, a digital broadcasting system using an Internet Protocol (hereinafter, simply referred to as 'IP') network is used. A digital broadcasting system using an IP network refers to a service that can provide various contents delivered through an IP-based communication network through a television. The digital television using an IP network is an MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 method through an IP network. It performs the function of displaying digital information compressed and transmitted by technology. Digital television using the IP network as described above can provide a variety of additional services, such as Internet search, watching movies, home banking, short message service (SMS) and reservation services.

In addition, a television (recording function television) equipped with a personal video recorder (PVR) function that automatically records and plays back a broadcast in an internal storage unit (HDD: hard disk drive) is also a digital television. It is widely spread in recent years. Since the recording function television as described above includes a storage unit (HDD), not only a broadcast program but also various contents such as EPG and schedule information can be stored, so that the user can obtain various information from the digital television.

That is, the digital television not only provides various information to the user through the Internet, but also stores and provides various contents to the user.

On the other hand, the digital television as described above is released with the appropriate software embedded at the time the product is released. The software is for controlling the operation of the user interface of the digital television or the operation of the digital television itself, and needs to be continuously upgraded to change the usage environment or improve the performance of the digital television.

There are many ways to upgrade the software of digital television, but among these, Over Air Download (hereinafter, simply 'OAD') is used to extract the updated software included in the broadcast program and upgrade the software of the digital television. The method is widely used.

A conventional method of upgrading software by the OAD method is briefly described as follows.

In other words, the updated software is included in the broadcast program while the user is watching the digital television and transmitted to the digital software and stored in the storage unit of the digital television.

Then, when the user turns off the digital television and the digital television is kept in the standby mode, the control unit of the digital television determines whether there is updated software in the storage unit, and if there is the updated software, executes it to execute the digital television. The software will be upgraded.

In this case, the standby mode of the digital television refers to a state in which only minimal power for supplying various control signals is supplied through the user selection unit, and power is not supplied to the channel tuning unit, the signal processing unit, the display unit, and the speaker. Say wait. That is, since the upgrade of the software is executed when the digital television is in the standby mode, the control unit of the digital television always determines the presence or absence of the updated software as described above in the standby mode, and executes it when there is the updated software. do.

However, since the conventional software upgrade method as described above is executed every time the standby mode is switched, the power consumption is increased by driving the control unit as described above in the standby mode, thereby increasing the overall power consumption of the digital television. There is a problem. In other words, in order to determine whether to upgrade the software, the control unit must search the data of the storage unit in the standby mode to check whether the downloaded software exists. If the downloaded software is stored, the most recently downloaded software has not been executed yet. To determine whether or not, the controller should be supplied with power for the above operation for several minutes in the standby mode.

Furthermore, despite the fact that one or more software upgrades do not occur in a single day, it is a problem that power consumption in the standby mode is increased because in the related art, it is determined whether to upgrade the software every time it is switched to the standby mode as described above. There is this.

An object of the present invention for solving the above problems is to provide a software upgrade method that can upgrade the software in the standby mode of the digital television only when there is software upgrade request information by over-air download.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a software upgrade method applied to a digital television, wherein the control unit of the television sets the last over-air download (OAD) check time while the digital television is turned on. Extracting; Extracting a current time by the controller; The controller determines whether to download the over-air by using the last over-air download check time and the current time only when the over-air download check period interval has elapsed. Storing software upgrade request information in a storage unit of the digital television; And when the power off signal for the digital television is input, the controller turns off the power of the digital television after confirming the software upgrade request information, and the controller upgrades the software in the standby mode of the digital television. Upgrading the software of the digital television according to the requested information.

According to the present invention, only when there is software upgrade request information by over-air download, by using the method of upgrading the software in the standby mode of the digital television, it is possible to reduce the power consumption in the standby mode of the digital television. have.

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

1 is a configuration diagram of a digital broadcasting system to which a software upgrade method according to the present invention is applied.

As shown in FIG. 1, the digital broadcasting system to which the software upgrade method according to the present invention is applied includes a plurality of broadcasting system 100 for transmitting various broadcasting programs and a digital television 400 for outputting broadcasting programs transmitted from the broadcasting system. ) Is configured to include.

The broadcasting station system 100 is a system for providing broadcast programs as described above, and may be variously operated according to its type. That is, the broadcasting station system may be at least one of an over-the-air broadcasting system, a cable broadcasting system, a satellite broadcasting system, an internet broadcasting system, and a cable broadcasting system. It can be a variety of information, such as securities, news. On the other hand, each of the broadcasting station systems performs a function of transmitting software for driving its own broadcast program to the digital television along with the broadcast program via a network.

The digital television 400 not only performs a basic function of outputting a broadcast program transmitted wirelessly or by wire from a broadcasting station system, but also implements a software upgrade method according to the present invention, so that a user can watch a broadcast program more smoothly. Has characteristics.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of the digital television shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is an exemplary diagram of a format of software transmitted to the digital television shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 2, the software upgrade method according to the present invention includes a channel tuning unit 410, a signal processing unit 420, a display unit 430, a speaker 440, a data storage unit 450, and an interface 460. ), A user selector 470, and a controller 490.

The channel tuning unit 410 may include one or more tuners for tuning a broadcast signal received through an antenna, and a demodulator for outputting the tuned signal in a transport stream form through a demodulation process and an error correction process. The broadcast signal having a frequency band corresponding to the tuning control signal of the controller is tuned.

The signal processor 420 processes a broadcast signal of a channel tuned through the channel tuner and displays the same on the display. In addition, the signal processing unit processes not only the broadcast signal received through the channel tuning unit but also an image signal of an electronic program guide (EPG) (hereinafter, simply referred to as 'EPG') stored in the data storage unit. It can also be indicated in the unit. An EPG refers to organization information of a broadcast program individually received from a broadcasting station or a second broadcast service provider, and is stored and managed in a data storage unit.

The display unit 430 performs a function of outputting a video signal decoded by a signal processor from a broadcast signal of a selected channel so that a user can view it, and may include digital light processing (DLP), liquid crystal display (LCD), and PDP ( Various types of display modules such as Plasma Display Penal) may be applied.

The speaker 440 performs a function of outputting the audio signal decoded by the signal processor among the broadcast signals of the selected channel so that a user can hear it.

The data storage unit 450 is composed of a hard disk drive and the like, and stores a broadcast signal and EPG information received from the channel tuning unit. In addition, the data storage unit stores OAD check period interval information input by the user, OAD check time, software upgrade request information, and the like.

The interface 460 connects with a network and a computer (PC) to transmit and receive various broadcast signals and information.

The user selector 470 includes various menu buttons for controlling the controller, and in particular, includes a button for allowing a user to set an OAD check period interval.

The controller 490 is implemented as a CPU or a microcomputer, and outputs a broadcast program among the broadcast signals transmitted through the channel tuning unit through the speaker and the display unit. In particular, the control unit applied to the present invention checks whether the OAD is executed only when the OAD check period set by the user has elapsed while the digital television is turned on, so that unnecessary power consumption is wasted in the standby mode. It performs a function to prevent it.

On the other hand, the present invention is to check whether or not to download the software while the digital television having the above-described configuration is outputting the broadcast program in the ON state, and only when the OAD check period interval set by the user has elapsed, In order to prevent unnecessary power consumption for the OAD check in the standby mode, a software upgrade method according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 4.

4 is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of a software upgrade method according to the present invention.

While the digital television is being driven in the power-on state (402), the controller of the digital television extracts the last OAD check time (404) while extracting and checking the current time (406). That is, when OAD needs to upgrade the software necessary for digital television, the broadcasting station system downloads the updated software along with the broadcast program to the digital television, and the control unit extracts the time when the last OAD was generated and the current time. Check it.

The control unit determines whether the OAD check period interval has elapsed by comparing the last OAD check time and the current time with the OAD check period interval preset in the data storage unit. That is, the present invention is to determine whether the second OAD is performed only after the OAD check period interval elapses after the first OAD is executed, and the user does not have to upgrade the software every hour or every day. The interval can be set to two days, three days or a week. In addition, the OAD check period interval may be set at a predetermined interval at the time of production of the digital television.

As a result of the interval determination 408, if the interval of the OAD check period has not elapsed, the controller repeats the interval determination processes 404 to 408 while performing a broadcast program output function.

As a result of the interval elapsed determination 408, when the interval of the OAD check period elapses, the controller determines whether the software downloaded by the new OAD is stored by searching the data storage unit (410).

As a result of the OAD determination 410, if no new OAD is generated and there is no newly downloaded software, the control unit stores the current time of the occurrence of the OAD in the data storage unit (424), and performs a broadcast program output function. While repeating the interval determination process (404 to 408).

As a result of the OAD determination 410, when a new OAD is generated and newly downloaded software is present, the control unit requests to upgrade the software of the digital television by using the current time when the OAD has been checked and the newly downloaded software. The information is stored in the data storage (412).

In operation 414, the controller determines whether a power-off request signal is input from the user selector while performing the processes 404 to 412 described above.

As a result of the power-off determination 414, when the power-off request signal is not input, the controller repeatedly performs the processes 404 to 414.

As a result of the power-off determination 414, when the power-off request signal is input, the controller determines whether the software upgrade request information is stored in the data storage unit before switching the digital television to the standby mode (416). That is, the controller determines whether the software upgrade request information is stored by checking only the data area of the data storage set to store the software upgrade request information.

As a result of the determination of the request information, if the software upgrade request information is not stored, the control unit turns off the power to switch the digital television to the standby mode (418). The standby mode refers to a state in which only minimal power is supplied to receive various control signals through the user selector. The standby mode refers to a standby state in which power is not supplied to the channel tuning unit, the signal processing unit, the display unit, and the speaker.

When the software upgrade request information is stored as a result of the determination of the request information, the controller turns off the power to switch the digital television to the standby mode (420), and uses the downloaded software stored in the data storage unit. Upgrade the software of the digital television (422).

That is, the present invention is characterized in that the controller can upgrade the software in the standby mode only when the software upgraded by the OAD is downloaded.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various changes and modifications can be made without departing from the technical spirit of the present invention. Therefore, the technical scope of the present invention should not be limited to the contents described in the detailed description of the specification but should be defined by the claims.

1 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of a digital broadcasting system to which a software upgrade method according to the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of the digital television shown in FIG.

3 is an example of the format of software transmitted to the digital television shown in FIG.

4 is a flowchart of one embodiment of a software upgrade method according to the present invention;

<Description of Major Symbols in Drawing>

410: channel tuning unit 420: signal processing unit

430: display unit 440: speaker

450: data storage unit 460: interface

470: user selection unit 490: control unit

Claims (3)

In the software upgrade method applied to digital television, Extracting, by the controller of the television, the last over-air download (OAD) check time while the digital television is powered on; Extracting a current time by the controller; The controller determines whether to download the over-air by using the last over-air download check time and the current time only when the over-air download check period interval has elapsed. Storing software upgrade request information in a storage unit of the digital television; And When the power off signal for the digital television is input, the controller verifies the software upgrade request information and then turns off the digital television. In the standby mode of the digital television, the controller requests the software upgrade. And upgrading the software of the digital television in accordance with the information. The method of claim 1, The storing of the software upgrade request information may include: Determining, by the controller, whether an over air download check period interval has elapsed using the last over air download check time and a current time; Determining, by the controller, whether the over-air download check period interval has not elapsed, and if the over-air download check period interval has elapsed, when the over-air download check period interval has elapsed; Storing, by the controller, a current time in the data storage unit when an over air download has not occurred, as a result of the over air download determination; And if the result of the over-air download is determined, when the over-air download occurs, the control unit stores a current time and software upgrade request information in the data storage unit. The method of claim 1, The step of upgrading the software, When the power-off signal for the digital television is input, the control unit searching the data storage unit to determine whether software upgrade request information is stored; If there is no software upgrade request information, by the controller, turning off the power of the digital television and switching the digital television to a standby mode; If there is software upgrade request information as a result of the determination, the control unit turns off the digital television, switches the digital television to standby mode, and then, in the standby mode, the controller controls the digital television according to the software upgrade request information. The software upgrade method comprising the step of upgrading the software.

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