KR20130045479A - Multimedia device for processing data related to audience rating and method for controlling the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A multimedia device and a control method of the multimedia device which processes data related to broadcasting rating are provided to use broadcast data for real-time broadcasting rating investigation, thereby increasing data processing speed. CONSTITUTION: A multimedia device receives an EIT(Event Information Table) which includes time information of an event and a descriptor related to broadcasting rating(S1601). The multimedia device parses the descriptor related to the broadcasting rating in the received EIT(S1602). When time of an event of being watched is ended, the multimedia device generates OSD(On Screen Display)(S1603). The multimedia device accesses a server by using address information of the server included in the descriptor related to the broadcasting rating and transmits inputted data related to the broadcasting rating to the server(S1604,S1605). [Reference numerals] (AA) Start; (BB) End; (S1601) Receive an EIT; (S1602) Parse a descriptor related to the broadcasting rating in the EIT; (S1603) Generate an OSD can receive viewing rate related generation data when an event time ends; (S1604) Access to a viewing rate information server by using address information of the server included in the descriptor; (S1605) Transmit the viewing rate related data to the accessed server

Description

Control method of a multimedia device for processing data related to viewer ratings and the multimedia device {MULTIMEDIA DEVICE FOR PROCESSING DATA RELATED TO AUDIENCE RATING AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING THE SAME}

The present invention relates to a method for controlling a multimedia device that processes viewership-related data, and more particularly, to a network communication technology for automatically collecting viewership-related information according to a user's broadcast viewing type.

As the audience rating research method according to the prior art, two methods are largely adopted. First, there is a method of interviewing (only for individuals) in which an investigator interviews a subject directly, and another method is a questionnaire survey (for both individuals and households) that a person to be surveyed directly fills in.

Meanwhile, the concept of a previous viewership may be expressed, for example, as a percentage of the total number of individuals or households who have been in a state where a person or generation who has watched a particular program or a specific time zone of the TV can watch the broadcast at the time. Of course, this is merely an example of a brief description of the existing viewer rating and the scope of the present invention should be determined by the claims with reference to the entire specification.

However, the audience rating research method according to the prior art has technical problems from the following two viewpoints.

First of all, the broadcasters should employ a certain number of people to survey the viewer ratings, and the viewers must write their own handwriting, which takes a lot of time to collect data and has a problem in terms of resource resources.

In addition, the existing viewer rating research method is mostly to collect only a piece of data about whether or not to watch, there is a fatal problem that can not reflect the various feedback of the user who watched a particular program.

An object of the present invention is to define broadcast data for performing a viewer rating survey in real time.

Another object of the present invention is to define a protocol between a broadcasting station, a server, and a multimedia device so that various feedback data of a user can be included in a viewer rating research process.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a technique for optimizing a graphic user interface for rating viewer survey according to a user's broadcasting program viewing form.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method of controlling a multimedia device, the method including: receiving an event information table (EIT) including time information of an event and a descriptor related to an audience rating, and an audience rating within the received EIT; Parsing the related descriptor (the viewer related descriptor includes address information of a server collecting the viewership related data) and the viewer rating related data when the time of the currently viewed event ends by using the time information of the event. Generating an on-screen display (OSD) capable of inputting; accessing the server by using address information of a server included in the rating related descriptor; and accessing the rating data to the accessed server. Transmitting a step.

Furthermore, a multimedia device for processing viewership-related data according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a broadcast receiving module that receives address information of a server that collects events and viewership-related data from an external source device, and the received event. A video decoder for decoding included video data, a display module for outputting the decoded video data, and a total time at which decoded video data of the event is output correspond to a predetermined threshold value. And a network interface module for accessing a server for collecting viewership-related data using the received address information, and a controller for generating viewership-related data for the event for transmission to the accessed server.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is a technical effect of increasing the data processing speed and managing in one server by using broadcast data for performing audience rating research in real time.

In addition, according to another embodiment of the present invention, a protocol between a broadcasting station, a server, and a multimedia device is defined so that various feedback data of a user may be included in an audience rating research process.

In addition, according to another embodiment of the present invention, there is an advantage of providing a technique for optimizing a graphical user interface for a viewer rating survey according to the user's viewing type of a broadcast program.

1 is a diagram illustrating an entire system for processing audience rating related data according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a block diagram illustrating in detail the internal configuration modules of a multimedia device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a block diagram illustrating in detail the internal configuration modules of a multimedia device according to another embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a diagram illustrating a broadcast data structure according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating the broadcast data structure shown in FIG. 4 in more detail.
6 and 7 are diagrams for describing a process of generating an OSD capable of inputting audience rating-related data according to an embodiment of the present invention.
8A and 8B are diagrams for describing a process of selecting a first option on an OSD capable of inputting viewership-related data.
9A and 9B are diagrams for describing a process of selecting a second option on an OSD capable of inputting viewership-related data.
10 and 11 are diagrams for describing a process of generating an OSD capable of inputting viewer rating-related data according to another embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating a graphical user interface (GUI) in which a multimedia device lists programs having high priority according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 13 is a diagram of a multimedia device according to an embodiment of the present invention displaying data related to viewer ratings on an electronic program guide (EPG).
FIG. 14 is a diagram for describing a process of using a specific VOD service by a multimedia device according to an embodiment of the present invention with reference to priority information.
FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating a specific operation sequence of the entire system illustrated in FIG. 1 in chronological order.
16 is a flowchart illustrating a process of processing data related to viewer ratings by a multimedia device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

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

The suffix "module" and " part "for components used in the following description are given merely for ease of description, and the" module "and" part "

On the other hand, the multimedia device described herein is, for example, an intelligent electronic device that adds a computer support function to a broadcast reception function. The multimedia device is faithful to the broadcast reception function and has an Internet function added thereto. It can have more convenient interface than pad or space remote controller. In addition, it is connected to the Internet and a computer with the support of a wired or wireless Internet function, and can perform functions such as e-mail, web browsing, banking or gaming. A standardized general-purpose OS can be used for these various functions.

Therefore, in the multimedia device described in the present invention, various applications can be freely added or deleted, for example, on a general-purpose OS kernel, so that various user-friendly functions can be performed. More specifically, the multimedia device may be, for example, a web TV, an Internet TV, an internet protocol television (IPTV), a network TV, a hybrid broadcast broadband television (HBBTV), a smart TV, an open hybrid TV (OHTV), or the like. In some cases, it is also applicable to smartphones, PCs, and home appliances.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The above and other features and advantages of the present invention will be more apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: FIG.

As used herein, terms used in the present invention are selected from general terms that are widely used in the present invention while taking into account the functions of the present invention, but these may vary depending on the intention or custom of a person skilled in the art or the emergence of new technologies. In addition, in certain cases, there may be a term arbitrarily selected by the applicant, in which case the meaning thereof will be described in the description of the corresponding invention. Therefore, it is intended that the terminology used herein should be interpreted based on the meaning of the term rather than on the name of the term, and on the entire contents of the specification.

1 is a diagram illustrating an entire system for processing audience rating related data according to an embodiment of the present invention. Furthermore, the event term used herein refers to a set of elementary streams (ES) having a common time domain, for example. Thus, the event may be represented, for example, as a broadcast program, a television program, a program, or the like.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, a plurality of multimedia devices (IPTV 100, network TV 110, and smart TV 120) may be bi-directionally communicated through a network. The broadcasting station 130 transmits event related information such as an event information table (EIT) and EPG information to a multimedia device. At this time, it is designed to include connection address information of a server capable of collecting audience rating related data. For example, a method of implementing through EIT will be described later in detail with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5.

Accordingly, the multimedia device according to an embodiment of the present invention may access the viewership information server 140 and provide various information related to the viewership. Furthermore, the viewership information server 140 is designed to give priority to each event by using viewership related data collected from at least one multimedia device.

In addition, the multimedia device that has received the priority-related data from the viewership information server 140, can access the particular VOD server 150 to quickly receive a VOD service associated with the particular event among the high-priority events. There are technical advantages.

Meanwhile, although the broadcasting station 130 and the viewership server 140 are shown as separate entities in FIG. 1, it is also within the scope of the present invention to design one subject to be managed according to a design change by those skilled in the art. Furthermore, specific configuration modules of the multimedia devices 100, 110, and 120 illustrated in FIG. 1 will be described later in detail with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.

2 is a block diagram illustrating in detail the internal configuration modules of a multimedia device according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, the multimedia device 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a broadcast receiving module 210, a demodulator 240, a network interface 220, an external device interface 230, and a memory. 260, a controller 250, a video output unit 270, an audio output unit 280, a power supply unit 290, and a user interface 295. Meanwhile, the multimedia device 200 is designed to perform data communication with the remote controller 297, and the remote controller 297 may adopt, for example, an IR infrared method or an RF method (eg, Bluetooth). In addition, the feedback signal may be designed to appear in the multimedia device according to the motion of the remote controller 297.

In addition, the appearance of the remote controller 297 may be designed to include some or all of the QWERTY keyboard, and in some cases, the virtual QWERTY keyboard may be designed to be output on the multimedia device screen, and the present invention may be applied. .

The broadcast receiving module 210 may be designed as, for example, an RF tuner or as an interface for receiving broadcast data from an external device such as an STB. The demodulator 240 receives a digital IF signal (DIF) converted by the broadcast receiving module 210 and performs a demodulation operation.

The external device interface 230 is an interface that enables data communication between the external device and the multimedia device 200. The external device interface 230 may be connected to an external device such as a digital versatile disk (DVD), a Blu-ray, a game device, a camera, a camcorder, a computer (laptop), an STB, or the like by wire or wireless.

The network interface 220 provides an interface for connecting the multimedia device 200 to a wired / wireless network including an internet network. The network interface 220 may include, for example, an Ethernet terminal for connection with a wired network, and for example, for connection with a wireless network, for example, a wireless LAN (WLAN) (Wi-Fi). ), Wireless broadband (Wibro), world interoperability for microwave access (Wimax), high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) communication standards, and the like.

The network interface 220 may transmit or receive data with another user or another electronic device through the connected network or another network linked to the connected network.

The memory 260 may store a program for processing and controlling each signal in the controller 250, or may store a signal-processed video, audio, or data signal. In addition, the memory 260 may perform a function for temporarily storing an image, audio, or data signal input from the external device interface 230 or the network interface 220. In addition, the memory 260 stores, for example, various OSs, middleware, and platforms.

The user interface 295 transmits a signal input by a user to the controller 250 or transmits a signal from the controller 250 to an external device (eg, the remote controller 297). For example, the user interface 295 may be configured such as power on / off, channel selection, screen setting, etc. from the remote controller 297 according to various communication methods such as a radio frequency (RF) communication method and an infrared (IR) communication method. The control signal is received and processed, or the control signal from the controller 250 is transmitted to the remote controller 297.

The controller 250 demultiplexes an input stream or processes demultiplexed signals through the broadcast receiving module 210, the demodulator 240, the network interface 220, or the external device interface 230. Can generate and output a signal for video or audio output.

Furthermore, the controller 250 may include a demultiplexer 251, an audio decoder 252, an audio processor 253, a video decoder 254, a mixer 255, a frame rate converter 256, and a formatter 257. And the OSD generator 258.

The demultiplexer 251 demultiplexes the AV data of the encoded broadcast program, and transmits the audio data to the audio decoder 252 and the video data to the video decoder 254. The audio processor 253 converts the decoded audio data into a data format that can be processed by the audio output unit 280.

The frame rate converter 256 may convert a frame rate of an input image. For example, a 60Hz frame rate is converted to 120Hz or 240Hz. The formatter 257 receives the output signal of the frame rate converter 256 and changes the format of the signal to suit the video output unit 270 and outputs the signal. Furthermore, the mixer 255 combines the graphic data generated by the OSD generator 258 with the decoded video data.

The video output unit 270 converts an image signal, a data signal, an OSD signal processed by the controller 250, or an image signal, data signal, etc. received from the external device interface 230 into R, G, and B signals, respectively. To generate a drive signal. The video output unit 270 may be a PDP, an LCD, an OLED, a flexible display, a 3D display, or the like. The audio output unit 280 receives a signal processed by the controller 250, for example, a stereo signal, a 3.1 channel signal, or a 5.1 channel signal, and outputs a voice signal.

The power supply unit 290 supplies the corresponding power throughout the multimedia device 200. In particular, power may be supplied to the controller 250 and the video output unit 270, which may be implemented in the form of a system on chip (SOC).

In particular, referring to the embodiment of the present invention, a multimedia device 200 that processes viewer rating related data will be described.

The broadcast receiving module 210 receives an event information table (EIT) including time information of the event and a descriptor related to an audience rating. Further, the control unit 250 is designed to parse the rating related descriptor in the received EIT. The viewer rating descriptor includes, for example, address information of a server collecting viewer rating related data. Descriptors in the EIT newly defined in the present invention will be described later with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5.

The OSD generator 258 generates an on screen display (OSD) for inputting viewer rating-related data when the current time of the current event ends, using the time information of the event. The OSD described above will be described later with reference to FIGS. 6 to 9B.

In addition, the network interface 220 accesses the server by using address information of the server included in the audience rating descriptor. In addition, the network interface 220 is designed to transmit audience rating data to the accessed server. In addition, the rating-related data described above includes, for example, at least one of the number of recommendations or the number of review comments for a specific event.

Meanwhile, according to another embodiment of the present invention, the network interface 220 receives a list in which titles of events are arranged according to priority information from the rating information server 140 shown in FIG. 1. The priority information is determined according to at least one of the recommendation number and the review comment number, for example. The video output unit 270 displays the list under the control of the controller 250.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the user interface 295 receives a signal for selecting a title of a specific event on the list described above. The network interface 220 is designed to access a Video On Demand (VOD) server that provides the selected specific event. This can be referred to FIG. 14.

3 is a block diagram illustrating in detail the internal configuration modules of a multimedia device according to another embodiment of the present invention. Unlike FIG. 2, the PSIP decoder for parsing the descriptor of the EIT is shown separately. Of course, it is also within the scope of the present invention to design the role of the PSIP decoder in the control unit 250 shown in FIG.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the multimedia device 300 includes a broadcast receiving module 301, a demodulator 302, a demultiplexer 303, an audio / video decoder 304, a display ( display module 305, PSI / PSIP (Program Specific Information / Program and System Information Protocol) decoder 307, channel manager 308, channel map 309, controller 310, memory 311 , A user interface 312, and a network interface module 313.

The broadcast receiving module 301 may receive a digital broadcast signal including a PSI / PSIP table. The received PSI / PSIP table may include, for example, an event information table (EIT) and a virtual channel table (VCT). Meanwhile, the operation of the broadcast receiving module 301 may be controlled by the channel manager 308. Therefore, the broadcast receiving module 301 records the result of the received digital broadcast signal in the channel map 309.

The demodulator 302 receives a tuned signal from the broadcast receiving module 301 and demodulates the signal into a VSB / EVSB (Vestigal Side Band / Enhanced Vestigal Side Band) signal. The demultiplexer 303 demultiplexes audio, video and PSI / PSIP table data from the transport packets demodulated and received by the demodulator 302.

In this case, demultiplexing of PSI / PSIP table data may be controlled by the PSI / PSIP decoder 307, and demultiplexing of audio and video may be controlled by the channel manager 308.

The demultiplexer 303 satisfies the PID from the transport packets when the PSI / PSIP decoder 307 parses a master guide table (MGT) and sets a PID (packet identifier) for a desired table as a condition. Sections of the PSI / PSIP table may be created and transmitted to the PSI / PSIP decoder 307. In addition, when the A / V PID of the corresponding virtual channel is set by the channel manager 308 as the condition, the demultiplexing unit 303 may demultiplex the A / V elementary stream and transmit the demultiplexer 303 to the A / V decoder 304. have.

The PSI / PSIP decoder 307 parses the PSI / PSIP table section, reads all remaining sections of the actual section data which are not performed by the section filtering of the demultiplexer 303, and then SI / PSIP. Can be written to database 306.

The channel manager 308 may request the reception of the channel related information table and receive the result with reference to the channel map 309. In this case, the PSI / PSIP decoder 307 may demultiplex the channel related information table and transmit an A / V PID (Packet IDentifier) list to the channel manager 308.

The channel manager 308 may control the A / V decoder 304 by directly controlling the demultiplexer 303 using the received A / V PID. The controller 310 may control a graphical user interface (GUI) for displaying a state of a receiver system on an on screen display (OSD).

In particular, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the broadcast receiving module 301 of the multimedia device 300 that processes viewership-related data receives address information of a server that collects event and viewership-related data from an external source device. do. The external source device corresponds to, for example, the broadcast station 130 shown in FIG. 1.

The video decoder in the AV decoder 304 decodes the video data included in the received event, and the display module 305 outputs the decoded video data.

When the total time at which the decoded video data of the event is output corresponds to a preset threshold value, the network interface module 313 may use the received address information to obtain viewer rating-related data. Access the server you are collecting. In this case, the aforementioned PSI / PSIP decoder 307 parses a specific descriptor in the EIT.

The controller 310 generates viewer rating related data for the event for transmission to the accessed server. The server corresponds to, for example, the viewership information server 140 illustrated in FIG. 1. Furthermore, the controller 310 further includes an OSD generator for generating first graphic data for inputting a recommendation for the event or second graphic data for inputting a review comment on the event. Design to include.

The address information of the server collecting the viewership-related data is included in the descriptor of the EIT, and the descriptor newly defined in the specification of the present invention will be described later with reference to FIG. 5.

In addition, the viewership-related data generated by the controller includes, for example, at least one or more of information identifying whether the event has been viewed, information identifying whether the event has been recommended, or a review comment on the event. Doing.

4 is a diagram illustrating a broadcast data structure according to an embodiment of the present invention. The event information table (EIT) shown in FIG. 4 is an example data structure, and the scope of the present invention should in principle be interpreted as the claims and the disclosure of the specification.

In the EIT illustrated in FIG. 4, the table_id field indicates a unique table identifier (ID) allocated to uniquely distinguish the EIT. That is, the table_id field represents a value indicating that the table to which the received section belongs is an EIT.

The section_syntax_indicator field may be set to a value of 1, and means that the section_length field follows the general MPEG-2 section syntax. The private_indicator field allocates '1' as an example. The section_length field represents the remaining length of a section in bytes from the section_length field to the end of this section.

The source_id field indicates the source_id of the virtual channel transmitting the events described in the section. The version_number field represents a version value of EIT-i. When the content of the EIT-i is changed, the version_number field may be expressed as the remaining value divided by 32 after incrementing by one.

The current_next_indicator field indicates that the transmitted table is always applicable and may be set to 1. The section_number field indicates the number of the corresponding section. The last_section_number field indicates the last section number of the complete EIT.

The protocol_version field is set to an initial value of 0 and is set to a value other than 0 when the protocol is changed. The num_events_in_section field indicates the number of events existing in the corresponding EIT section. If the num_events_in_section field value is 0, this indicates that there are no events defined in the corresponding section.

After the num_events_in_section field, there is an event loop repeated as many as the number of events included in the section. The event loop may include an event_id field, a start_time field, an ETM_location field, a length_in_seconds field, a title_length field, and a title_text () field.

In addition, the event loop may further include a descriptor_length field and a descriptor () field applied to each event individually.

The event_id field represents an identification number for identifying a corresponding event in an event loop. This identification number may be used as part of the event ETM_id.

The start_time field indicates a start time of an event. The ETM_location field indicates the presence and location of an extended text message (ETM).

The length_in_seconds field represents the duration of an event in seconds.

The title_length field indicates the length of the next title_text () in bytes. If the title_length field value is 0, it means that there is no title in the corresponding event.

The title_text () field indicates an event title of a multi-string structure. The descriptor_length field indicates the total length of the following event descriptor in bytes.

In particular, the end time of the current event (broadcast program) can be calculated using the start_time field and the length_in_seconds field shown in FIG. 4. For example, if the above-described start_time field indicates 10 am and the above-mentioned length_in_seconds field indicates 1 hour, it can be estimated that the corresponding event will end at 11 am. Therefore, as soon as the current time changes to 11 am, an OSD for inputting viewer rating-related information is displayed in a pop-up window format. Meanwhile, a solution for determining a server that collects viewership related information will be described later with reference to FIG. 5.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating the broadcast data structure shown in FIG. 4 in more detail. FIG. 5 is a descriptor that defines connection address information of a server that processes viewer rating related data included in the EIT illustrated in FIG. 4. However, FIG. 5 is an embodiment, and in some cases, changing to another data format is within the scope of the present invention.

The descriptor_tag field shown in FIG. 5 is a tag for identifying an audience rating descriptor and is designed to have a value of 0xA5, for example. In addition, the descriptor_length field indicates the length from the next field after the current field to the last field of the descriptor in bytes.

The server_address_text () field indicates, for example, a string indicating an address (IP, port, etc.) of a server related to a viewership survey managed or operated by a broadcaster. Further, for example, it may be defined as a string in UFT-16 format.

Therefore, when adopting the descriptor (Audience Rating Descriptor) shown in Figure 5, which is newly defined in the present invention, there is a technical effect that each multimedia device can transmit the audience rating-related feedback information in real time. A GUI for collecting audience rating data using the data formats illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5 described above will be described below with reference to FIGS. 6 to 14.

6 and 7 are diagrams for describing a process of generating an OSD capable of inputting audience rating-related data according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIGS. 6 and 7, when a user finishes watching a specific event, the GUI for collecting viewership related information will be described.

First, as shown in FIG. 6, it is assumed that a user is watching an arbitrary event using the multimedia device 600 according to an embodiment of the present invention. For example, an event 601 provided by a TBC station (channel 7) 602 is currently displayed.

Furthermore, as described above with reference to FIG. 4, the end time of the event 601 displayed in FIG. 6 is calculated using the start_time field, the length_in_seconds field, and the like of the EIT. If the current time corresponds to the end time (701), as shown in FIG. 7, the OSD generator of the multimedia device 700 displays a menu popup window 703 in which the user can select two options. Is designed. For reference, feedback information of the user input through the menu pop-up window 703 is automatically transmitted to the rating management server defined in the descriptor shown in FIG. 5. In addition, in FIG. 7, it is assumed that the above-described channel 7 702 is maintained. However, after the menu pop-up window 703 is generated, the window 703 is maintained even if the channel is changed. There is an advantage that the evaluation of the event and the surfing to other channels can be done simultaneously.

On the other hand, the menu pop-up window 703 shown in FIG. 7 is designed so that two options can be selected. The first option is graphic data for guiding the user to select whether or not to recommend a specific event watched, and the second option is graphic data for inputting a specific review comment on the specific event watched by the user. . The first option described above will be described later with reference to FIGS. 8A and 8B, and the second option described above will be described below with reference to FIGS. 9A and 9B.

8A and 8B are diagrams for describing a process of selecting a first option on an OSD capable of inputting viewership-related data.

First, as shown in FIG. 8A, the multimedia device 800 according to an embodiment of the present invention displays a menu pop-up window 803 when the event of the channel 802 that the user is watching ended (801). do. The specific graphic of the window 803 described above can be arbitrarily changed according to a person skilled in the art, and it is also within the scope of the present invention that the user can be designed to set in advance whether the window 803 is to be output.

In this case, the first option may be selected using the remote controller 805 described above, and the position of the indicator 804 may be designed to move according to the movement of the remote controller 805.

Therefore, the screen shown in FIG. 8A is designed to be switched to the screen shown in FIG. 8B. That is, when the recommendation item representing the first option is selected in FIG. 8A, as shown in FIG. 8B, the multimedia device 850 displays the next GUI 853 to select a good recommendation or a bad recommendation. In FIG. 8B, it is assumed that the channel is not changed after the event is completed (851) (852). However, even if the channel is changed after the event is finished, the GUI 853 may be maintained.

Furthermore, the user of the multimedia device 850 may adjust the indicator 854 to be located at a specific recommendation item by using the remote controller 855. For example, a user who likes the event he / she watched can make a good recommendation as shown in FIG. 8B.

9A and 9B are diagrams for describing a process of selecting a second option on an OSD capable of inputting viewership-related data.

First, as shown in FIG. 9A, the multimedia device 900 according to an embodiment of the present invention displays a menu popup window 903 when the event of the channel 902 that the user is watching ended (901). do. In this case, the second option may be selected using the remote controller 905 described above, and the position of the indicator 904 may be designed to move according to the movement of the remote controller 905.

Therefore, the screen shown in FIG. 9A is designed to be switched to the screen shown in FIG. 9B. That is, when a review comment writing item representing the second option is selected in FIG. 9A, as shown in FIG. 9B, the multimedia device 950 displays a GUI 953 that can be directly typed. The user of the multimedia device 950 can use the remote controller 955 to adjust the indicator 954 to be located in the above-described GUI 953.

Furthermore, the remote controller 955 may be designed to have some or all of the qwerty keyboard as described above, or may adopt a method of selecting a virtual keyboard displayed on the screen of the multimedia device 950. have.

10 and 11 are diagrams for describing a process of generating an OSD capable of inputting viewer rating-related data according to another embodiment of the present invention.

10 and 11, when a user reaches a time of a predetermined threshold while watching a specific event, a GUI for collecting viewer rating related information will be described. 6 and 7 described above, there is an advantage that the user does not necessarily have to wait until a specific event ends. In particular, the embodiment is designed to give a weight to the total time of viewing the event rather than the end of the event.

First, as shown in FIG. 10, it is assumed that a user is watching an arbitrary event using the multimedia device 1000 according to an embodiment of the present invention. For example, an event 1001 provided by an ESP station (channel 11) 1002 is currently displayed.

At this time, if the same channel is continuously maintained without changing the channel, the multimedia device 1000 first determines whether the limit value (eg, 10 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, etc.) is exceeded by counting time. do. In addition, when the threshold value is exceeded, information on an event of the current channel can be detected using the EIT described above. Accordingly, when the viewer information is transmitted by accessing a specific server using the descriptor illustrated in FIG. 5, it is possible to transmit information on an event of a current channel together.

If the total time in which the same channel is maintained without changing the channel exceeds a threshold (1101), as illustrated in FIG. 11, the OSD generator of the multimedia device 1100 may select two options from the menu. It is designed to display a popup window 1103. For reference, feedback information of a user input through the menu pop-up window 1103 is automatically transmitted to an audience management server defined in the descriptor illustrated in FIG. 5.

In addition, for each process of selecting the GUI 1103 capable of selecting the two options shown in FIG. 11, the same embodiment may be applied as described above with reference to FIGS. 8A, 8B, 9A, and 9B.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating a graphical user interface (GUI) in which a multimedia device lists programs having high priority according to an embodiment of the present invention. For the previous drawings, the case where the viewership-related data is transmitted from the multimedia device to the viewership information server is mainly described. In FIG. 12, a process of collecting viewer rating related data received from at least one multimedia device and providing a processed list to the multimedia device will be described.

As described above, the audience rating information server collects recommendation information, review comment information, and the like of a specific event from a plurality of multimedia devices. Accordingly, the viewership information server may determine the priority of the events according to the number of recommendations and the number of review comments of each event. Furthermore, the server may generate a list in which the titles of the events are arranged in order of priority and provide them to each multimedia device. In this case, the multimedia device may send the most recent list only when requested, or the list may be sent to the multimedia device at regular intervals, or the list may be sent to the multimedia device only when the rank is changed. There is a number. All these embodiments are within the scope of the present invention.

That is, as shown in FIG. 12, it is assumed that the multimedia device 1200 according to an embodiment of the present invention receives a list including a priority from an audience rating information server. Therefore, the video data of the current broadcast program can be output to the first area 1201 and a list including the priority can be output to the second area 1202. This may be designed to perform the above-described function in the mixer 255 shown in FIG.

Although not shown in FIG. 12, it is also within the scope of the present invention to improve the access speed of the user by designing at least one of the number of recommendations or the number of review comments for each priority to be displayed together with the title.

FIG. 13 is a diagram of a multimedia device according to an embodiment of the present invention displaying data related to viewer ratings on an electronic program guide (EPG).

Prior art EPG services merely list titles of time-phased content. However, when the above-described embodiment of the present invention is added to the EPG service, as shown in FIG. 13, the multimedia device 1300 is designed to display the number of recommendations 1301 and the number of review comments 1302 of each event. do.

Of course, the above-mentioned recommendation number 1301 and the number of review comments 1302 may be updated in real time by the server so that new data may be updated every time the user enters the EPG screen.

Therefore, the user can quickly grasp the tendency of other people's favorite events, time zones, etc. on the EPG screen without searching for each event's priority or information.

FIG. 14 is a diagram for describing a process of using a specific VOD service by a multimedia device according to an embodiment of the present invention with reference to priority information. In the case of selecting a specific event in FIG. 12 or FIG. 13, it may be tuned to a channel that is currently being broadcast in real time.

When a specific event is selected in FIG. 12 or 13, as shown in FIG. 14, the multimedia device 1400 accesses the corresponding VOD server and lists episodes 1401, 1402, 1403, and 1404 of the selected event.

Therefore, the user has an advantage of directly selecting the most favorite episode (episode 3 in FIG. 14) among the episodes of the selected event by using the remote controller 1406 and the indicator 1405.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating a specific operation sequence of the entire system illustrated in FIG. 1 in chronological order. The data flow between the broadcasting station 1500, the multimedia device 1510, the audience rating information server 1520, and the VOD server 1530 of the system to which an embodiment of the present invention is applicable will be described in detail as follows. However, FIG. 15 is an embodiment and the scope of rights should be naturally determined by the claims.

The multimedia device 1510 receives an event information table (EIT) including time information of the event and a descriptor related to an audience rating from the broadcasting station 1500 (S1501). The multimedia device 1510 parses a viewer rating related descriptor in the received EIT (S1502). The viewer rating descriptor includes, for example, address information of a server collecting viewer rating related data. This has been described in detail with reference to FIG. 5.

The multimedia device 1510 generates an on screen display (OSD) for inputting viewer rating-related data when the current time of the current event ends by using the time information of the event (S1503).

The multimedia device 1510 accesses the viewer rating information server 1520 using address information of the server included in the viewer rating descriptor, and transmits viewer rating related data to the viewer rating information server 1520 (S1504). .

The rating information server 1520 collects rating-related data from at least one multimedia device (S1505). In addition, the priority that can be given to each event is calculated using information such as the number of recommendations or the number of review comments of each event (S1506).

The rating information server 1520 transmits a list identifying the events arranged according to the calculated priority to the multimedia device 1510 (S1507). When a specific event is selected through the user interface of the multimedia device 1510 (S1508), the VOD server 1530 related to the selected specific event is accessed (S1509).

The multimedia device 1510 is designed to receive additional information and episode information related to a specific event from the accessed VOD server 1530 (S1510).

16 is a flowchart illustrating a process of processing data related to a rating by a multimedia device according to an embodiment of the present invention. 16 is a flow chart drawn from the perspective of a multimedia device with reference to the previous figures. However, those skilled in the art may derive the method invention from the viewpoint of a broadcasting station or a server other than the multimedia device with reference to FIG. 15 and other drawings.

The multimedia device according to an embodiment of the present invention receives an event information table (EIT) including time information of an event and a descriptor related to an audience rating (S1601). The viewer rating related descriptor in the received EIT is parsed (S1602).

Using the time information of the event, the OSD (On Screen Display) for inputting the viewer rating-related data is generated when the time of the current viewing event ends (S1603). However, as described in another embodiment, it is also within the scope of the present invention to determine whether the OSD is generated based on the total time output of the event continuously without changing the channel, rather than the event end time.

The server accesses the server using the address information of the server included in the viewer rating descriptor (S1604), and transmits the viewer rating data to the accessed server (S1605).

Further, for convenience of description, the drawings are divided and described, but it is also possible to design a new embodiment by merging the embodiments described in each drawing. And according to the needs of those skilled in the art, it is also within the scope of the present invention to design a computer-readable recording medium having a program recorded thereon for executing the embodiments described above.

The display device and its operation method according to the present invention can not be limitedly applied to the configuration and method of the embodiments described above, the embodiments are all or part of each embodiment so that various modifications can be made It may alternatively be configured in combination.

On the other hand, the operating method of the display device of the present invention can be implemented as a processor-readable code on a processor-readable recording medium provided in the display device. The processor-readable recording medium includes all kinds of recording apparatuses in which data that can be read by the processor is stored. Examples of the recording medium that can be read by the processor include a ROM, a RAM, a CD-ROM, a magnetic tape, a floppy disk, an optical data storage device, and the like, and may also be implemented in the form of a carrier wave such as transmission over the Internet . The processor-readable recording medium can also be distributed over network coupled computer systems so that the processor-readable code is stored and executed in a distributed fashion.

In addition, although the preferred embodiment of the present invention has been shown and described above, the present invention is not limited to the above-described specific embodiment, the technical field to which the invention belongs without departing from the spirit of the invention claimed in the claims. Of course, various modifications can be made by those skilled in the art, and these modifications will not be individually understood from the technical spirit or the prospect of the present invention.

In addition, in this specification, object invention and method invention were distinguished and demonstrated for convenience of description, respectively. However, the scope of the present invention is not limited in the order of the description, and each description of the object invention and the method invention may be supplementarily applied as necessary.

100: IPTV
110: network TV
120: smart TV
130: broadcasting station
140: viewership information server
150: VOD Server

Claims (15)

In the control method of a multimedia device for processing data related to viewer ratings,
Receiving an event information table (EIT) including time information of the event and a descriptor related to an audience rating;
Parsing the viewership related descriptor in the received EIT, wherein the viewership related descriptor includes address information of a server collecting the viewership related data;
Generating an on-screen display (OSD) for inputting viewer rating-related data when the current time of the current event ends using the time information of the event;
Accessing the server by using address information of a server included in the viewership related descriptor; And
Transmitting, to the accessed server, viewership related data.
Gt; a < / RTI > The method of claim 1,
The viewership related data,
Control method of the multimedia device including at least one of the number of recommendations or review comments for a particular event. The method of claim 2,
Receiving, from the server, a list arranging titles of events according to priority information, wherein the priority information is determined according to at least one of the recommendation number and the review comment number; And
Displaying the list
Further comprising the steps of: The method of claim 3,
Receiving, on the displayed list, a signal for selecting a title of a particular event; And
Accessing a Video On Demand (VOD) server providing the selected specific event
Further comprising the steps of: The method of claim 1,
The EIT is,
Further includes event ID information identifying each event,
Time information of the event,
And first information indicating a start time of each event and second information indicating a running time of each event. The method of claim 5,
Using the time information of the event, the step of generating an OSD for inputting the viewer rating-related data when the time of the current viewing event ends,
Calculating an end time of an event currently being viewed using the first information and the second information; And
If the current time corresponds to the calculated end time, generating the OSD
Gt; a < / RTI > A computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for executing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 6. In the multimedia device for processing the viewership-related data,
A broadcast receiving module receiving address information of a server collecting event and viewership related data from an external source device;
A video decoder to decode video data included in the received event;
A display module for outputting the decoded video data;
A network interface module accessing a server that collects viewership-related data using the received address information when the total time at which the decoded video data of the event is output corresponds to a preset threshold value ; And
A controller that generates viewer rating related data for the event for transmission to the accessed server
Multimedia device comprising a. 9. The method of claim 8,
The controller,
And an OSD generator configured to generate first graphic data for inputting a recommendation for the event or second graphic data for inputting a review comment on the event. 10. The method of claim 9,
And a mixer for mixing the video data decoded by the video decoder and the first graphic data and the second graphic data generated by the OSD generator. 9. The method of claim 8,
Address information of the server collecting the viewership-related data is included in the descriptor of the EIT,
The EIT is,
And event ID information identifying each event, first information indicating a start time of each event, and second information indicating a running time of each event. 9. The method of claim 8,
The viewer rating related data generated by the controller,
And at least one of information identifying whether the event has been viewed, information identifying whether the event has been recommended, or a review comment on the event. The method of claim 12,
The network interface module,
Receiving, from the server, a list arranging titles of events according to priority information,
The display module includes:
A multimedia device designed to display the list. The method of claim 13,
The multimedia device comprising:
A user interface module for receiving a signal for selecting a title of a specific event on the displayed list;
The controller,
And control the network interface module to access a Video On Demand (VOD) server that provides the selected particular event. 9. The method of claim 8,
The multimedia device comprising:
Multimedia device corresponding to at least one of IPTV, Web TV, network TV or smart TV.

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