GB2359212A

GB2359212A - Speedier channel changing method in digital data broadcasting service

Info

Publication number: GB2359212A
Application number: GB0031696A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Sang Jeong Woo; Hyung Mo Park; Ha Keun Lee
Original assignee: LG Electronics Inc
Current assignee: LG Electronics Inc
Priority date: 1999-12-27
Filing date: 2000-12-27
Publication date: 2001-08-15
Anticipated expiration: 2020-12-27
Also published as: DE10065005A1; GB2359212B; DE10065005B4; GB0031696D0

Abstract

A method of speeding up channel changing in a digital data broadcasting service is described. When a receiver is switched on a User Interface Component 10 (UI) transmits current channel information at S100 to all other components, a Service Information Component 30 (SI) then constructs a service database at S200 of all the channels received by a Data Transport Component 20 (DT) and notifies at S300 a Data Service Component 40 (DS) when it is complete. The DS then requests at S400 a service list from the SI and initialises each data service by requesting at S500 the primary data of each service from the DT and notifies at S600 a Service Presentation Component 50 (SP) that a service is possible. When a channel is changed the UI transmits at S700 new channel information to all components. The SP receives at S800 service data from the DS and presents it to the user. A second invention relates to recording a file name, a reference number and path by a MHEG engine and downloading a file with the largest reference number.

Description

2359212 DIGITAL DATA BROADCASTING SERVICE AND FILE DOWNLOADIN METHOD

THEREOF

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

G Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a digital data broadcasting service and file downloading method thereof, and more particularly, to a digital data broadcasting service method capable of setting a receiver by downloading primary data required 1 for data service before a user selects a data channel.

2. Description of the Background Art

1 i Generally, in a digital data broadcasting service, when a user selects a data channel, all data involving the service are received and processed immediately upon selecting the data channel. Such a conventional digital data broadcasting service method will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Figure 1 is a block diagram illustrating the construction of a conventional digital TV receiving hardware, in which a MPEG transport stream received through a front end 100 is delivered to a deMUX system 400 via a common interface 200.

The thusly delivered MPEG stream is classified by packet IDs while passing through a PID filter, and restores scrambled signals while passing through a descrambler.

Among the restored signals, an AN signal is sent to an AN filter and filtered to produce an image(video) and sound(audio), and PCR data is used for visual 1 1 () information of the service. The rest of the signals is data for use In a data service, which is stored in a SRAM, and thereafter is used for the data service. Mostly, in this process, a CPU system 300 is introduced to perform software control.

Figure 2A is a schematic view of a data service receiver which a digital data broadcasting service method is adapted to. Figure 213 is a schematic view of the system configuration of one example of a data service receiver of Figure 2A, wherein a service data presentation component(SP) is a component called as an application, including a MHEG browser, HTML browser, serve title engine, etc., a data service component(DS) is a component in close connection with the present invention, including a data carousel, object carousel, etc., a data transport component(DT) is a component for delivering data from a broadcasting network to other components, i.e., a demultiplexer(deMUX), and a service information component is a component for constructing information on all forms of services including data services and AV services received from a broadcaster, i.e., a PSIl& manager.

In the conventional digital data broadcasting service method for the configured digital data service receiver, as illustrated in Figure 3, when power is applied to a receiver, a user interface component 10 outputs information on the current channel to a service information component 30, data service component 40, and service data presentation component 50 in S1 0.

At this time, there iJ no data service in the current channel, the components involved in data service wait for the selection of a data service channel.

Next, when a user changes the channel, the user interface component transmits new channel information to all components in S20, and accordingly the service information component 30 construct service information on the new 2 channel in S30.

At this time, if data broadcasting is contained in the new channel, the service information component 30 notifies the data service component of this fact in S40. Accordingly, the data service component 40 performs a service initialization by sending and receiving the data service of the new channel tolfrom the data transport component in S50.

Afterwards, the data service component 40 notifies the service data presentation component 50 that a data service is prepared in S60. Thus, the service data presentation component requests a service data/object required for 1 expression to the data service component, and receives the same to thus present it by a user output device.

Afterwards, the above process is repeatedly performed whenever the data service channel is changed.

That is, as describe above, in the conventional art, when the user selects a channel having data from a data broadcasting receiver, he or she must process all data involved in service. Thus, there occurs a problem that the user has to wait a data preparation period whenever he or she selects a new service.

Recently, as the interest in digital TV is increasing, studies on application software applied thereto are being carried out actively. Among them, MHEG(Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Expert Group) provides interactive multimedialhypermedia to the user in a distributed environment consisting of different kinds of platforms, which is being actively studied by European countries and others employing the DVI3i(Digital Video Broadcasting) standard. The MHEG is constructed of two parts, i.e., a MHEG object which is contents transmitted via a communication network, and a MHEG engine that 3 1 () receives the MHEG object from a receiver system, such as a digital TV and converts the same into a user-available data through a series of processes. In the process in which the MHEG engine receives the MHEG object from the communication network, the IDSM-CC(Digital Storage Media Command and Control) protocol proposed as part of the MPEG standard is applied in order to control audio/video streams. Because the MHEG object exists in the distributed state across the communication network, and its position is variable, the MHEG engine cannot have position information on all service objects. Thus, the object carousel performs the above-mentioned function in the DSM-CC protocol.

In the method for downloading files through the service data presentation component, i.e., the MHEG engine, for example, supposing that a desired MHEG object(MHEG filel) is disposed at the position as in Figure 5 in the distributed environment, the process of searching the MHEG object will be described as follows with reference to Figure 6.

The MHEG engine firstly calls a function defined in the object carousel in order to search a service gateway which is a kind of a root directory. As the result, if the service gateway is detected, a subdirectoryl is searched by a function for searching a directory, and a subdirectory2 is searched by the same process in SA1 and SA2.

Resultantly, if the MHEG engine detects the desired MHEG file, this file is obtained by the function for reading the same, and then decoded. Thereafter, the MHEG object to be used in the MHEG engine is obtained finally in SA3 and SA4.

However, in the file downloading method according to the conventional art, it 'Is disadvantageous In that the MHEG engine has to wait until each searching step is finished, that is, until the object carousel finishes the execution of the 4 function called by the MHEG engine. In particular, this method is disadvantageous in that, even upon obtaining the file containing the MHEG service, the above described procedure must be repeated for thereby making the user more inconvenient.

) 5 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a digital data broadcasting service method capable of receiving a data service as soon as a user selects or changes a channel by downloading primary data required for the data service and setting the same in a receiver before the user selects a data channel.

To achieve the above object, there is provided a digital data broadcasting service method according to the present invention, which includes. a first step in which a user interface component transmits information on the current channel to all components when power is applied to a receiver., a second step in which a service information component constructs service information on all channels by receiving data through a data transport component and notifies a data service component of this fact; a third step in which the data service component initializes each service to primary data of all data service channels by requesting a data list to the service information component and notifies a service data presentation component that a data service is possible; a fourth step in which, when a user changes a channel, the user interface component transmits information of a new channel., and a fifth step in which the service data presentation component receives a service datalobject from the data service component to present the i 1 () same in a user output device.

It is another object of the present invention to solve the problem that engine speed is lowered when a MHEG engine wants to obtain a required object from the outside, and to make a user receive a specific MHEG data service frequently used by itself more rapidly.

The first characteristic of the present invention is that the MHEG engine has a processing routine for recording the directory path and file name of a user selected file- The second characteristic of the present invention is that the MHEG engine has a processing routine for recording the directory path and file reference number of times of a user selected file.

The third characteristic of the present invention is that the MHEG engine determines a file to be firstly downloaded based on the data recorded in the first and second characteristics.

Additional advantages, object and feature of the invention will become more apparent from the description which follows.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will become better understood with reference to the accompanying drawings which are given only by way of illustration and thus are not]imitative of the present invention, wherein..

Figure 1 is a block diagram illustrating the construction of a conventional digital TV receiving hardware system; Figure 2A is a schematic view of a data service receiver which a digital data 6 1 () broadcasting service method is adapted to., Figure 213 is a block diagram of one example of a digital data service receiver of Figure 2A; Figure 3 is a view illustrating the procedure for a conventional digital data broadcasting service method., Figure 4 is a view illustrating a digital data broadcasting service process according to the present invention; Figure 5 is an explanatory view illustrating the position of a MHEG object in a distributed environment., Figure 6 is a signal flow diagram of a MHEG object searching method of conventional art; Figure 7 is a signal flow diagram of a digital data broadcasting service method using a MHEG engine according to the present invention; Figure 8 is a detailed signal flow diagram of digital data broadcasting service using the MHEG engine according to the present invention; and Figure 9 is a block diagram of a hardware which digital data broadcasting service of the present invention is adapted to.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The operation and effects of a digital data broadcasting method according to the present invention will now be described with reference to Figure 4.

First, when power is applied to a receiver, a user interface component(U1) transmits the current channel information all other components(SP), (DS), (S1), (DT) in S100. In other words, the user interface component(U1) memorizes a service channel selected right before the receiver is turned off, performs the step 7 required for receiving the channel, and transmits the information of the channel to the other components (SP), (DS), (S1), (DT).

Next, a service information component(S1) constructs service information on all channels in S200.

That is, the service information component(S1) constructs a service information database across all channels along with a data transport component(DT). The service information constructed at that time includes the information transmitted to a data service channel.

Next, the service information component(S1) notifies the data service component(DS) that the service information database is constructed in S300.

Then, the data service component(DS) request a service list to the service information component(S1) in S400. That is, the data service component(DS) requests a list of service information on all channels for the purpose of data service preparation.

At this time, the data service component(DS) selects only the information of a data service channel from the list.

Next, the data service component(DS) initializes each service after requesting primary data of all data service channels to be processed by itself in S500. In other words, it performs initialization by receiving data primarily required for the service of each data service channel using the information of each data service channel.

Here, the primary data is all data required for preparing an initial screen.

Next, the data service component(DS) notifies a service data presentation component(SP) that services are available in S600. That is, it notifies the service data presentation component(SP) that the preparation for a data service is complete, and then accepts a data request at any time if data is required.

8 Thereafter, the user interface component(UJ) transmits information on channels to all other components(SP), (DS), (S1), (DT) if the user changes a channel, for thereby performing a predetermined step to be executed in relation to channel change in S700.

Next, the service data presentation component(SP) requests a service datalobject required for expression to the data service component(DS), and presents the service datalobject on a user output device in response thereto in S800.

In other words, the present invention makes it possible to rapidly provide a digital data broadcasting service by downloading primary data required for data service and setting a receiver before a user selects a data channel.

That is, when power is on, the user interface component(U1) sends the current channel information to all other components(SP), (DS), (S1), (DT). The service information component(S1) constructs a service information database on all channels. Then, the data service component requests primary data of all data service channels to be processed by itself upon receipt of the list, and thereafter provides a digital data broadcasting service by executing an initialization.

In addition, the file downloading method of the digital data broadcasting service will now be described with reference to Figures 7 through 9.

A MHEG engine according to the present invention has a path table for recording a directory path and a file table for recording a file name.

The path table is constructed of a linked list or other data structure, of which a node is a structure having a character type pointer for indicating a directory path and an integer type variable for recording the reference number of time of that path as a member variable.

Similarly, the file table also has a linked list or data structure consisting of 9 structu res(here in after, 'file structure") each having a character type pointer for indicating a file name and an integer type variable for recording the reference number of time of that file as a member variable.

When a MHEG service is started, and the MHEG engine detects a required i file path from an object carousel through a common interfacing process, the MHEG engine allocates a memory for recording the path, and then substitute the pointer for indicating the directory path for the pointer type member variable of the path structure. And, the MHEG engine increases the reference number of time of the path one by one for each substitution, and substitutes the reference number of 1 time for the integer type member variable of the path structure.

The path structures generated by this process are recorded on the path table.

Next, when the MHEG engine obtains an actual file, it records the file name and reference number of time of that file, and records it on the file table(refer to 1 Figure 7).

If the MHEG engine has referred to the file for the first time, or referred to a new path and file, the reference number of time of the path name and file name will be 1, respectively.

In this way, whenever the user receives a specific MHEG service, the reference number of time of the path name and file name of a file containing related MHEG objects is increased one by one to be recorded.

If the existing MHEG files are updated while the user is receiving the MHEG service, the MHEG engine searches the path name of those files from the path table. and sets the files having a path of the largest reference number of time as a candidate to be downioaded in advance. In particular, the file having a file name recorded to have the largest reference number of time is downloaded in advance by searching the file table(refer to Figure 8).

If a number of new files unrecorded on the file table arrive, the flies having a path of the largest reference number of time until that time are downloaded in advance by referring only to the path name of the files while the user receives the existing MHEG service.

Meanwhile, Figure 9 is a block diagram of a hardware which the file downloading method of the present invention is adapted to, which includes: a receiving unit 501 for receiving an AV stream containing MHEG contentsa NV RAM 502 corresponding to a kind of EEPROM; an operating unit 503 having a demultiplexer and a CPU and decoding the AV stream to convert the same into data available by the MHEG engine. a system SDRAM 504 and flash memory 505 constituting a memory unit. The method for downloading a file using the MHEG engine in the thusly constructed hardware will be described as follows.

A variety of application programming interfaces(API) containing the MHEG engine and the object carousel are disposed in the flash memory 505 consisting of four memories 505A through 505D each having a capacity of 2MB.

In the state that a stream containing a MHEG data is received from the receiving unit 501, if the user wants to receive a MHEG service, the MHEG engine firstly checks if the object carousel has the file containing the MHEG service. As the result of the checking, if not, the MHEG engine requests the object carousel to download the file.

If the requested object carousel detects the position of the file by the above procedure, it reads out the same through the demultiplexer(DEMUX) of the operation unit 503, the read-out file being decoded to dataavailable by the MHEG engine. The MHEG engine processes the thusly processed data in the form that the user wants, and records the path name and file name of the used file and the 11 reference number of time thereof in the memory 505 or NVRAM 502. This operation is repeatedly carried out whenever the user wants a MHEG service.

if the existing file is updated or there occurs a necessity to download a new file while the user is receiving the service, the MHEG engine searches the contents of the path table and file table recorded in the flash memory 505, and then downloads the path and file of the largest reference number of time.

These processes do not affect the service currently received by the user because they are performed in the background. And, when the MHEG service is finally finished, the contents recorded in the memory due to the previous operation

1 are all deleted, thus not overloading the system hardwarically at all.

If the path table and file table are not recorded in the NVRAM 502, when the user does not receive the MHEG service, the MHEG engine reads out the contents recorded in the NVRAM 503 and downloads the files frequently used before and to be frequently used later by the user. Thereafter, when the user 1 actually wants the service, the files previously stored in the memory can be used right away by the demultiplexer(DEMUX) and object carousel.

The method for writing the path table and file table will be described according to the following embodiments of the invention.

According to a first embodiment, the path table and file table are completely deleted when the MHEG service is finished, for example, when the user changes the channel in which MHEG data is downloaded or turns off a TV, and then is initialized again when the MHEG service is started. This is appropriate in a case that MHEG contents are transmitted without regularity whenever its directory structure is changed.

According to a second embodiment, the path table and file table are stored in a recording unit such as the NVRAM 502 without being deleted even upon the 1 completion of the MHEG service, and is restored when the MHEG service is started. This is appropriate in a case that the MHEG data is transmitted with some regularity of the directory structure.

According to a third embodiment, both of the above methods are supported. It is optional whether the first embodiment is to be applied, or the second embodiment is to be applied.

As described above, in the present invention, the user can receives a data service as soon as a user selects or changes a channel by downloading primary data required for the data service and setting the same in a receiver before the 1 user selects a data channel. The file path, file name, and reference number of time are respectively recorded on the corresponding table by a MHEG engine during service execution. When the MHEG engine obtains an actual file, this file is recorded on the table, and thereafter the file having a file name of the largest reference number of time is preferentially downloaded by searching the file table during the service execution, for thereby reducing the download time of the file at its maximum. In addition, in a case that the MHEG engine has an bookmark function as in a general web browser, a bookmark service can be provided to the user right away.

As the present invention may be embodied in several forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof, it should also be understood that the above-described embodiments are not limited by any of the details of the foregoing description, unless otherwise specified, but rather should be construed broadly within its spirit and scope as defined in the appended claims, and therefore all changes and modifications that fall within the meets and bounds of the claims, or equivalence of such meets and bounds are therefore intended to be embraced by the appended claims.

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Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A digital data broadcasting service method comprising.

Z1 1 a first step in which a user interface component transmits information on thigcurrent channel to all components when power is applied to a receiver; a second step in which a service information component constructs service information on all channels by receiving data through a data transport component and notifies a data service component of this fact., a third step in which the data service component initializes each service to primary data of all data service channels by requesting a data list to the service information component and notifies a service data presentation component that a data service is possible., a fourth step in which, when a user changes a channel, the user interface component transmits information of a new channel; and a fifth step in which the service data presentation component receives a service data/object from the data service component to present the same in a user output device.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the user changes as channel by downloading primary data required for the data service and setting the receiver prior to channel change.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the current channel information of the first step is the information of the service channel selected right 2 5 before the receiver is turned off.

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4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the primary data is all data required for preparing an initial screen.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the data service component extracts only the information of a data service from the list of service information on all channel.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the service data 1 presentation component comprises: an MPEG browser, HTML browser, sub title engine, etc.

7. A digital data broadcasting service method, comprising..

a first step of recording a file name and a reference number of time, path of a file on the corresponding table respectively by a MHEG engine in service execution., and a second step of downloading a file having a file name of the largest reference number of time by searching a file table periodically during the service execution of MHEG engine.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the first step comprises:

a first step in which when the MHEG engine detects a required file path from an object carousel through a common interfacing process, it allocates a memory for recording the path, and then substitute the pointer for indicating the directory path for the pointer type member variable of the path structure, a second step in which the MHEG engine increases the reference number of time of the path one by one for each substitution, and substitutes the reference number of time for the integer type member variable of the path structure., a third step in which the path structures generated by this process are recorded on the path table, and a fourth step in which, when the MHEG engine obtains an actual file, it records the file name and reference number of time of that file, and records it on the file table.

1 () 1

9. The method according to claim 7, wherein, in recording the path structure on the table as in the first step, the path table and file table are completely deleted when the MHEG service is finished, and then is initialized again when the MHEG service is started.

10. The method according to claim 7, wherein, in recording the path structure on the table as in the first step, the path table and file table are stored in a recording unit such as the NVRAM 502 without being deleted even upon the completion of the MHEG service, and is restored when the MHEG service is started.

11. The method according to claim 7, wherein, in the second step, in a case that the existing MHEG files are updated during the MHEG service, the files having a path of the largest reference number of time are set as a candidate to be downloaded in advance by searching the path name of the corresponding files.

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