KR100502242B1 - Automatic channel change method and apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

In the automatic channel switching method of the present invention, when a reference region for identifying a broadcast program is selected, a first step of storing position information and channel information of the reference region, and a broadcast program from video data corresponding to the position of the reference region Extracting and storing the information for identification; and checking whether the same information as the information for identifying the stored broadcast program is extracted from the video data corresponding to the position of the reference region among the video data received from the stored channel. And a fourth step of switching to the stored channel when the same information as the information for identifying the stored broadcast program is extracted from the video data corresponding to the position of the reference region among the video data received from the stored channel. Characterized in having a.

Description

Automatic channel switching method and apparatus {AUTOMATIC CHANNEL CHANGE METHOD AND APPARATUS}

The present invention relates to a television receiver, and more particularly, to an automatic channel switching method and apparatus for continuous viewing of a continuous broadcast program.

In general, broadcasting stations often broadcast broadcast programs by dividing the broadcast program into a plurality of programs and inserting advertisements therebetween. Such broadcast programs include feature broadcasts, drama series, and sports broadcasts.

As such, when an advertisement is broadcast in the middle of a broadcast program, the user may check the broadcast status of another channel or watch a broadcast program broadcast through another channel until the next subsequent broadcast program starts.

As described above, when the user switches to another channel during the advertisement, the user may not know exactly when the next subsequent broadcast program starts, and there is a need to check the status of the previous channel from time to time.

Therefore, in the related art, when a user switches a channel for a period of time after one of the broadcast programs divided into a plurality of broadcast programs is ended, the next broadcast program is automatically switched to the previous channel when the next broadcast program starts. There was a need for development of a method that could be reverted.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is that when a user switches a channel for a time after the end of any one of the broadcast programs divided into a plurality of broadcast programs and before the next broadcast program is broadcast, the next broadcast program starts automatically. The present invention provides an automatic channel switching method and apparatus for returning to a previous channel so that a user can continuously watch a broadcast program divided into a plurality of channels.

In order to achieve the above object, the automatic channel switching method of the present invention includes a first step of storing location information and channel information of the reference area when a reference area for broadcast program identification is selected, and at the location of the reference area. A second step of extracting and storing information for identifying a broadcast program from corresponding video data; information for identifying the stored broadcast program from video data corresponding to a position of the reference region among video data received from the stored channel; A third step of checking whether the same information is extracted; and if the same information as the information for identifying the stored broadcast program is extracted from the video data corresponding to the position of the reference region among the video data received from the stored channel, the stored information is extracted. And a fourth step of switching to a channel. The.

Although the present invention can be applied to an analog television receiver, the following description will be given with an example in which the present invention is applied to a digital television receiver.

Referring to FIG. 1, which shows a block diagram of a digital television receiver to which the present invention is applicable, the first and second tuners 102 and 114 receive a television broadcast signal received through an antenna 100 of the microprocessor 136. The channel is tuned according to the control, and an IF (Intermediate Frequency) signal is output according to the tune. The first and second IF modules 104 and 116 receive IF signals from the first and second tuners 102 and 114, respectively, and convert the IF signals into baseband signals. The first and second channel decoders 106 and 118 receive baseband signals from the first and second IF modules 104 and 116, respectively, and perform channel decoding to reproduce the data bit stream. The first and second TS decoders 108 and 120 receive data bit streams from the first and second channel decoders 106 and 118, respectively, and separate the audio data, the video data, and the additional data. The first and second audio decoders 110 and 122 receive audio data separated by the first and second TS decoders 108 and 120, respectively, and perform decoding under the control of the microprocessor 136. 124, and the audio processing and output unit 124 processes audio data provided by the first and second audio decoders 110 and 112 and outputs the same through a speaker 126 or an audio output terminal (not shown). do.

The first and second video decoders 112 and 128 receive the video data separated by the first and second TS decoders 108 and 120, respectively, and perform decoding under the control of the microprocessor 136. The mixer 130 mixes outputs and OSD data of the first and second video decoders 112 and 128 under the control of the microprocessor 136, and PIP, POP, etc. are performed according to the mixing method. The video processing and output unit 132 processes the output of the mixer 130 and outputs it through the water pipe 134.

The microprocessor 136 controls the digital television receiver as a whole, and performs an automatic channel switching function according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. The user interface 140 connects between the keypad 142 and the IR receiver 144 and the microprocessor 136 so that various commands input by the user through the keypad 142 and the remote controller 146 are input to the microprocessor 136. To provide. The memory unit 138 stores a processing program and various information of the microprocessor 136. In particular, the memory unit 138 provides a video data storage area for video decoding of the first and second video decoders 112 and 128. A line denoted by B in FIG. 1 represents a bus connecting the units of the digital television receiver.

For convenience of description, the first tuner 102, the first IF module 104, the first channel decoder 106, the first TS decoder 108, the first audio decoder 110, and the first video decoder 112 are described. The main channel, the second tuner 114, the second IF module 116, the second channel decoder 118, the second TS decoder 120, the second audio decoder 122, the second video decoder 128 Assume a channel. In this case, the primary channel is used when the channel is tuned according to a user's request and output to the speaker 126 and the water pipe 134, and the subchannel is used when performing a background check.

The automatic channel switching process according to the present invention consists of a broadcast program identification information setting process and a background check process.

First, a process of setting broadcast program identification information will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 2.

When the user requests the setting of the automatic channel switching function according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention using the keypad 142 or the remote controller 146 (step 200), the microprocessor 136 may refer to the identification of the broadcast program. OSD data is provided to the mixer 130 to guide the selection of the region. The mixer 130 mixes the OSD data with the video signal under the control of the microprocessor 136 and outputs the OSD data to the water pipe 134 through the video processing and output unit 132 (step 204). After outputting the OSD, the microprocessor 136 checks whether the user selects the reference area using the remote controller 146 (step 206).

Here, a process of selecting a reference region for identifying a broadcast program will be described with reference to FIG. 3. 3 shows a sports relay screen, in which an image A indicating that the World Cup is broadcast is displayed on the upper left side, and initials B of a broadcasting station relaying the World Cup are displayed on the upper right side. Since the image (A) and the initial (B) are not displayed during the advertisement but only during the spoof relaying, the area where the image (A) or the initial (B) is displayed can be selected as the reference region. Such selection of the reference area may be known to the user through the OSD guidance.

When the user selects a reference region according to the guide, the microprocessor 136 stores the position and channel information of the reference region (step 208), and extracts an image or text for identifying a broadcast program from the reference region ( Step 210).

Herein, a process of extracting an image or text for identifying a broadcast program from the reference region will be described.

Since video data is temporarily stored in the memory unit 138 for video decoding, the microprocessor 136 reads video data corresponding to a reference region selected by the user from the memory unit 138 among the temporarily stored video data. The microprocessor 136 detects an edge with respect to video data corresponding to the reference region, removes noise, and extracts an object region. Here, the object region extraction refers to an operation of extracting an area consisting of an edge by removing an area where an edge component is not detected based on edge data from which noise is removed.

When the object region is extracted through this process, the microprocessor 136 performs character recognition on the extracted object region. The character recognition method includes a matrix matching method, a circular matching method, a nonlinear form normalization method, a statistical method, a neural network method, a structural method, a layout processing, and a form processing.

When the character is recognized by performing character recognition on the object region, the microprocessor 136 determines the recognized character as a character for identifying a corresponding broadcast program, and if the character is not recognized for the object region, The object area is determined as an image for identifying a broadcast program.

When the image is extracted from the reference region selected by the user through the above process (step 212), the microprocessor 136 stores the extracted image in the memory unit 138 (step 214).

On the other hand, if a character is extracted from the reference region selected by the user (step 216), the microprocessor 136 stores the extracted character in the memory unit 138 (step 218).

When the storing of the text or image for the program identification is completed, the microprocessor 136 starts a background check for automatic channel switching through subchannels and then performs operations according to a user's request (steps 220 and 222). In this case, the background check is performed through the subchannel.

A background check process according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 4.

The microprocessor 136 reads the position information and the channel information of the reference region selected by the user from the memory unit 138 and selects a channel according to the channel information through the subchannel. The video data received through the subchannel is temporarily stored in the memory unit 138, and the microprocessor 136 reads the video data corresponding to the position of the reference area among the temporarily stored video data, and reads the read data. An image or text is extracted from the video data (step 300). Since the description of the image or character extraction process has been described above, it will be omitted.

When the image is extracted from the video data corresponding to the position of the reference region (step 302), the microprocessor 136 checks whether the image stored in the memory unit 138 is identical to the extracted image (step 304). On the other hand, if a character is extracted from the video data corresponding to the position of the reference region (step 306), the microprocessor 136 checks whether the character stored in the memory unit 138 is identical to the extracted character (step 308). ).

The image extracted from the video data corresponding to the position of the reference area and the image stored in the memory unit 138 are the same, or the character extracted from the video data corresponding to the position of the reference area and the character stored in the memory unit 138. If is equal, the microprocessor 136 terminates the background check and controls to tune the channel stored in the memory unit 138 through the main channel (steps 310 and 312).

Thus, even if the user is watching the broadcast state or the broadcast program of another channel using the main channel, the main channel returns to the selected channel when the preselected broadcast program starts.

As described above, when the user switches channels during the time after any one of the broadcast programs divided into a plurality of broadcast programs is terminated and before the next broadcast program is broadcast, the present invention is automatically started when the next broadcast program is started. By returning to the previous channel, it is possible to provide convenience for the user to continuously watch the broadcast program divided into a plurality.

1 is a block diagram of a television receiver to which the present invention is applicable.

2 is a flowchart of a process for setting broadcast program identification information according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a diagram showing an example screen output during sports relay.

4 is a flow chart of a background check procedure in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols on main parts of drawing

100: antenna 102: first tuner

104: first IF module 106: first channel decoder

108: first TS decoder 110: first audio decoder

112: first video decoder 114: second tuner

116: second IF module 118: second channel decoder

120: second TS decoder 122: second audio decoder

124: audio processing and output unit 126: speaker

128: second video decoder 130: mixer

132: video processing and output unit 134: water pipe

136: microprocessor 138: memory

140: user interface 142: keypad

144: IR receiver 146: remote controller

Claims (4)

In the automatic channel switching method, A first step of storing location information and channel information of the reference area when a reference area including image information for broadcast program identification is selected; A second step of extracting and storing information for identifying a broadcast program from video data corresponding to a position of the reference region; A third step of checking whether the same information as the information for identifying the stored broadcast program is extracted from the video data corresponding to the position of the reference region among the video data received from the stored channel; And if the same information as the information for identifying the stored broadcast program is extracted from the video data corresponding to the position of the reference region among the video data received from the stored channel, switching to the stored channel. Automatic channel switching method. The method of claim 1, And the third step is performed through subchannels. delete In the automatic channel switching device, An output unit for outputting audio data and video data; A main channel unit for tuning a selected channel among broadcast signals, restoring audio data and video data received through the tuned channel, and outputting the same through the output unit; A sub-channel unit which tunes a selected channel of the broadcast signal and restores video data received through the tuned channel; A user interface unit providing an interface with a user, A memory unit for storing various kinds of information, When a reference region including image information for identifying a broadcast program is selected through the user interface unit, location information and channel information of the reference region are stored, and for identifying a broadcast program from video data corresponding to the position of the reference region. Extract and store information, After the sub-channel unit controls to tune the stored channel, the sub-channel unit extracts the same information as the information for identifying the stored broadcast program from the video data corresponding to the position of the reference region among the received video data. And a control unit for switching a channel of a main channel unit to the stored channel.