KR100678904B1 - Apparatus and method for displaying multimedia content - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for displaying multimedia contents, and to display multimedia contents by providing different time units on a vertical axis and a horizontal axis of a grid and inserting the multimedia contents into each grid to simplify the search and display of the multimedia contents. An apparatus and method are provided.

An apparatus for displaying multimedia contents according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a command receiving unit for receiving a layout change signal of the multimedia content displayed in a grid with different time units on the vertical axis and the horizontal axis; A determination unit that determines whether a change signal of the multimedia content is changed due to a change, a content placement unit that arranges the multimedia content by changing time units on the vertical axis and the horizontal axis of the grid according to the determination result, and the arranged multimedia content. It includes a display unit for displaying.

Multimedia content, time unit, representative row, representative column, rotation

Description

Apparatus and method for displaying multimedia content

1 shows an input device including a conventional direction input key.

2 is a view showing that the multimedia content is displayed by a conventional device.

3 is a block diagram illustrating an apparatus for displaying multimedia content according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a diagram illustrating displaying multimedia content according to an embodiment of the present invention.

5A to 5E are views illustrating a process of changing time information of multimedia content according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating multimedia content displayed on a specific time basis in a plurality of rows according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

7 is a flowchart illustrating a process of displaying multimedia content according to an embodiment of the present invention.

<Explanation of symbols on main parts of the drawings>

310: additional information correction 320: storage unit

330: command receiving unit 340: determination unit

350: content placement unit 360: display unit

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for displaying multimedia contents. More particularly, the present invention relates to a multimedia for simplifying search and display of multimedia contents by assigning different time units to a vertical axis and a horizontal axis of a grid and inserting the multimedia content into each grid. An apparatus and method for displaying content are provided.

In the past, the Internet, which was confined to a specific class, has been widely spread through the implementation of the web, which has influenced the digital industry as a whole. Internet-based services and content distributed through the Internet have become the yardstick for the digital industry in the 21st century. In addition, as the multimedia of contents has been realized through the high speed of the internet network, mobile phones, PDAs, notebooks, etc., multimedia has become an essential item, not an option.

Digital TVs provide various functions in addition to the content providing function of the conventional analog TV. It provides many functions as the center of digital home appliances such as digital broadcasting reception, electronic program guide (EPG), two-way communication, and the Internet, and it is also possible to take charge of server functions in a ubiquitous environment. Recently, Internet functions have been added to digital TVs, and a Java virtual machine and a user interface (UI) for using the Internet have been developed. Digital broadcasting provides high quality / high quality, multi-channel, two-way connection and internet access through broadcasting. An interactive connection enables an interactive service that transmits a variety of multimedia information with the broadcast and the user actively participates in it.

In order to spread interactive TV services, various applications and revenue generation must be achieved. On the other hand, Java technology can be applied to digital TV to develop more dynamic multimedia applications than HTML.

In order to provide the above functions, the input method of the TV has many limitations. The conventional remote control (Remote Control, hereinafter referred to as a remote control) having only simple functions such as channel change and volume control has difficulty in fully utilizing the functions of a digital TV.

In particular, in connection with the reception of the electronic program guide, the Internet, and digital broadcasting, many menu switching is required to use various various functions. On the other hand, digital TV is mainly used for remote control in that it is controlled at a long distance, and it is difficult to utilize a touch screen in a mouse or a PDA in a computer. Therefore, there is a need for a method of efficiently utilizing the functions of the digital TV through the direction movement or input of a specific button provided by the remote control.

1 shows an input device including a conventional direction input key. The remote controller 10 has a direction input key 15. In FIG. 1, the direction input key 15 moves the cursor, the focus, and the screen in the up, down, left, and right directions. A similar function is the jog shuttles 16 and 17. It receives directional input via the wheel, such as up, down, left, or right. The jog shuttle was viewed from above at 16 and from the side at 17. Digital devices that employ remote controls, keypads, or jog shuttles offer simple and convenient functions through these directional keys.

The use of digital TVs with these direction inputs should be considered usability. There are two main types of usefulness. Easy use and Intuitive use.

Ease of use is to allow the user to make minimal input or to easily use a function. The problem of ease of use in the digital TV is a case where a large amount of input may be required when performing a function through a direction input of a remote controller or a jog shuttle. Therefore, it is important to provide many functions while reducing the number of inputs.

Intuition of use means that if a function is performed or if there is a result for an input, the function or result is the result that the user expected. For example, if you press the left side while viewing a menu, the screen moves to the left side or the menu on the left side is selected.

2 is a view showing that the multimedia content is displayed by a conventional device.

As shown in FIG. 2, a plurality of multimedia contents may be arranged and displayed in a grid. In this case, the multimedia content 20 arranged in each grid may be a thumbnail, that is, a thumbnail-thumbnail of the original multimedia content, or may be a separate icon. That is, in order to display the original multimedia content, a thumbnail or an icon must be selected by the user, so that the corresponding original multimedia content can be displayed in its original size.

In this case, the device displays the thumbnails 20 according to the arrangement order determined by the user, and the creation time, access time, size and file name of the multimedia content may be used as the order. Thus, the user can view and search the thumbnails 20 arranged in the order determined by the user. As the number of contents increases, the search efficiency gradually decreases.

For example, if the number of thumbnails 20 displayed on the screen is 10 and the total number of stored multimedia contents is 100, the user may search for the desired multimedia contents with 10 key inputs. However, if the total number of the stored multimedia content is 1000, the user can search the desired multimedia content only after 100 key inputs, it is very difficult to perform such a search with a remote control that is inconvenient to operate.

Accordingly, there is a need for an apparatus and method for displaying multimedia contents that are searched by a small number of key inputs, that is, ease of use and easy operation, that is, intuitive to use.

An object of the present invention is to give different time units to the vertical and horizontal axes of a grid and to insert multimedia content into each grid.

It is also an object of the present invention to brighten the brightness of the multimedia content of the rows and columns that are the center of the grid of the present invention.

The objects of the present invention are not limited to the above-mentioned objects, and other objects that are not mentioned will be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the following description.

In order to achieve the above object, an apparatus for displaying multimedia content according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a command receiving unit for receiving a layout change signal of the multimedia content displayed in a grid of different time units on the vertical axis and the horizontal axis, and the arrangement A determination unit which determines whether a change signal is a change signal of the arrangement of the multimedia content by the change of the time unit, and a content placement unit which arranges the multimedia content by changing time units of the vertical and horizontal axes of the grid according to the determination result; And a display unit displaying the arranged multimedia contents.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of displaying multimedia content, the method comprising: receiving a layout change signal of a multimedia content displayed in a grid in which time units of a vertical axis and a horizontal axis are different from each other; Determining whether the multimedia content is a change signal of the multimedia content; and disposing the multimedia content by changing time units of the vertical and horizontal axes of the grid according to the determination result, and displaying the arranged multimedia content. Include.

Specific details of other embodiments are included in the detailed description and the drawings.

Advantages and features of the present invention and methods for achieving them will be apparent with reference to the embodiments described below in detail with the accompanying drawings. However, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed below, but can be implemented in various different forms, and only the embodiments make the disclosure of the present invention complete, and the general knowledge in the art to which the present invention belongs. It is provided to fully inform the person having the scope of the invention, which is defined only by the scope of the claims. Like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout.

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

3 is a block diagram illustrating an apparatus for displaying multimedia content according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, wherein the apparatus includes an additional government correction unit 310, a storage unit 320, a command receiving unit 330, a determination unit 340, It is configured to include a content placement unit 350 and the display unit 360.

The storage unit 320 stores multimedia contents. The multimedia content may be stored including information such as file name, creation time, access time, file size, and representative designation field, and each information may be modified by a user.

When there is a plurality of multimedia contents having the same creation time or access time, the multimedia contents representing the multimedia contents may be designated. Information on this may be included in the representative designation field. That is, the representative designation field is a means for notifying that the corresponding multimedia content is a representative multimedia content among multimedia contents having the same generation time or access time.

The representative designation field may include at least one time unit of year, month, day, hour, minute, and second. For example, the representative multimedia content includes multimedia content that includes the year and the month in a representative designation field among a plurality of multimedia contents having a specific year and a generation time or an access time of the specific month. Therefore, the user can designate the representative multimedia content by inputting a time unit in the representative designation field of the specific multimedia content.

In addition, the representative designation field may include information set by the user. In other words, the user inputs a flag of representative multimedia content rather than inputting a time unit into the representative designation field of the specific multimedia content. Accordingly, the multimedia content may be representative multimedia content unconditionally regardless of time unit.

The command receiver 330 serves to receive a layout change signal of the multimedia content displayed in a grid in which time units on the vertical axis and the horizontal axis are different. That is, the plurality of multimedia contents are initially arranged in a grid, and the time units on the vertical axis and the horizontal axis are arranged in different states.

For example, if the time unit on the vertical axis is year and the time unit on the horizontal axis is month, the first row on the vertical axis can be 2001, the second row on 2002, the third row on 2003, and the first column on the horizontal axis. May be January, the second column February, and the third column March. Of course, if there is no multimedia content using the year and month as the creation time or access time, the display of the year and month may be omitted.

In the display state of the multimedia content, the command receiving unit 330 receives a layout change signal of the displayed multimedia content. The user may transmit a batch change signal to the device by using the up, down, left, right buttons, wheels, jog shuttles, and other buttons provided on the remote controller, and the command receiving unit 330 receives a signal for this. . In this case, an infrared communication may be used as a communication method between the remote controller and the command receiver 330, and a wireless communication method such as a wireless LAN, Bluetooth, WiBro, or the like may be used.

The batch change signal received by the command receiver 330 may include a batch change signal by moving up, down, left, and right of the multimedia content, and by changing a unit of time.

The up, down, left, and right movements are movements for changing the focus of the currently displayed multimedia contents, for example, all of the currently displayed multimedia contents are moved up by one lattice according to the upward movement signal. That is, when the time unit of the vertical axis is the year, the user can search the multimedia contents by the year by transmitting the movement signal in the upward direction once.

On the other hand, the arrangement change signal by changing the time unit is a signal for changing the time unit of the vertical axis and the horizontal axis of the grid, it may be divided into a time unit increase signal and a time unit decrease signal. That is, it is possible to increase or decrease the time unit of the currently displayed multimedia content. For example, if the time unit of the current vertical axis is month and the time unit of the horizontal axis is day, when the time unit increase signal is received, the time unit of the vertical axis is changed. It is the year, and the time unit on the horizontal axis is the month. Similarly, upon receiving the time unit reduction signal, the time unit on the vertical axis becomes work, and the time unit on the horizontal axis becomes hour.

In addition, the command receiving unit 330 may receive information for modifying additional information of a specific multimedia content.

The received batch change signal or additional information correction signal is transmitted to the determination unit 340.

The determiner 340 determines the signal received from the command receiver 330. That is, it is determined whether the received signal is a batch change signal or a supplementary information correction signal, and when the received signal is a batch change signal, it is determined whether the signal is a batch change signal by changing a unit of time by moving up, down, left and right. It is.

Thus, according to the received signal, the additional government modifying unit 310 causes the additional information of the multimedia content stored in the storage unit 320 to be modified or the content arranging unit 350 changes the arrangement of the displayed multimedia content. .

The additional government correction unit 310 modifies the additional information of the multimedia content stored in the storage unit 320 according to the signal received from the determination unit 340. The additional information may include a file name, a preference, and a representative designation field. Here, preference is a personal taste of the user, and the user may view or search for multimedia content according to the preference by setting a preference for each step.

Since the description of the representative designation field has been described above, it will be omitted.

The content arranging unit 350 serves to change the arrangement of the displayed multimedia content according to the command of the determining unit 340. That is, when the received command signal is an up, down, left, right movement command, the displayed multimedia content is moved in the corresponding direction, and when the received command signal is a layout change according to the change of time unit, the vertical and horizontal axes of the grid The multimedia content is arranged by changing the time unit.

Initially, the plurality of multimedia contents are arranged in a grid, and the time units on the vertical axis and the horizontal axis are arranged in different states. If the received command signal is a movement signal of the displayed multimedia content, the content placement unit 350 changes its arrangement.

For example, the vertical axis may be arranged according to the year, and the horizontal axis may be arranged according to the month. When the command signal in the up or down direction is received, the entire multimedia content is rearranged in the up or down direction. Accordingly, the user can perform a search on a yearly basis. Similarly, when a command signal in a left or right direction is received, the content arranging unit 350 arranges the entire multimedia content in a left or right direction, and accordingly, the user can perform a monthly search.

In addition, the content placement unit 350 may receive a layout change signal according to a change of a time unit. At this time, the content arranging unit 350 arranges the multimedia content by changing the time unit of the vertical axis and the horizontal axis of the grid.

That is, when the vertical axis and the horizontal axis of the currently displayed multimedia content are months and days, respectively, if the command signal transmitted is a time unit increase signal, the time units of the vertical axis and the horizontal axis are changed to year and month, respectively, and the delivered command signal is decreased by the time unit. If it is a signal, the time units of the vertical axis and the horizontal axis are changed to days and hours, respectively.

At this time, the content placement unit 350 may rearrange the multimedia content by giving a visual effect. That is, when the transmitted command signal is a time unit change signal, one row or column of the multimedia content displayed in a grid is rotated by 90 degrees about one multimedia content included in the row or column, and the row or row arranged after the rotation is The rest of the multimedia content is laid out according to the time unit of the column. Detailed description thereof will be described later with reference to FIGS. 5A to 5E.

The display unit 360 serves to display multimedia content according to the arrangement of the content placement unit 350. The display unit 360 may display a multimedia content using a display device such as a cathode ray tube (CRT) or a liquid crystal display (LCD).

4 is a diagram illustrating displaying multimedia contents according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, and illustrates that a plurality of multimedia contents arranged in a state in which time units on a vertical axis and a horizontal axis are different are arranged in a grid.

In FIG. 4, the vertical unit represents a year, and the horizontal unit represents a month, and the year and month are displayed in a predetermined area 454 of each multimedia content 450. That is, since the time unit currently being displayed is the year and the month, it is displayed for the year and the month, and if the set time unit is the month and the day, the year, month, and day in the predetermined area 454 of each multimedia content 450 May be displayed.

The multimedia content 450 displayed here may be representative multimedia content 450 of each time unit. That is, the representative multimedia content 450 of the year and month is displayed, which may be set by the user or set automatically. As described above, the user may generate the representative multimedia content by inputting time information or inputting a user specified flag in the representative designation field of the multimedia content.

Meanwhile, the representative multimedia content may be set automatically. If the user does not specify the representative multimedia content, the representative multimedia content may be designated in order of creation time, access time, file name, and size. In addition, the user may view and search the displayed multimedia content, and the multimedia content recently viewed and retrieved may be representative multimedia content.

One row of the horizontal axis of the displayed multimedia content grid may be displayed as the representative row 410. That is, as shown in FIG. 4, it may be displayed slightly larger than the remaining multimedia content 450. In addition, a column including the multimedia content 450 located in the center of the representative row 410 may be the representative column 420. The multimedia content included in the representative column 420 may be different from the representative row 410. It may be displayed slightly larger than the multimedia content 450, and may be displayed to be the same size as the other multimedia content 450 as shown.

In addition, the multimedia content 450 included in the representative row 410 and the representative column 420 is displayed to be slightly brighter than the remaining multimedia content 450, so that the user may indicate that the representative row 410 and the representative column 420 are the same. You can also make it aware.

As described above, the displayed multimedia content 450 corresponds to the representative multimedia content 450, that is, multimedia content having the same unit of time may exist. Accordingly, a means for displaying the quantity of multimedia content that is not displayed may be displayed in a predetermined region of the representative multimedia content 450.

In FIG. 4, a plurality of blind spots 452 are displayed on the right side of the representative multimedia content 450 of the representative row 410, which is a means for displaying the quantity of the multimedia content that is not displayed. That is, if one point is a unit quantity of the multimedia content that is not displayed, and if one point is the unit quantity of ten, the number of multimedia contents equal to the time unit of the representative multimedia content on which five points are displayed is about 50.

As such, the quantity display point 452 may be displayed on the entire representative multimedia content 450, or may be displayed only on the multimedia content 450 included in the representative row 410 or the representative column 420.

5A to 5E are diagrams illustrating a process of changing time information of multimedia content according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5A is a grid in which the time unit on the vertical axis is year and the time unit on the horizontal axis is month. It shows that it consists of two columns.

Here, it is assumed that the second row is set as the representative row and the third column is set as the representative column.

When the user wants to decrease the time unit, that is, when the time unit on the vertical axis is set to month and the time unit on the horizontal axis is set to day, the intersection point 550 of the representative row 410 and the representative column 420 is centered. The representative row will be rotated 90 degrees. In this case, the rotation process of the representative row 410 is displayed on the screen, and as shown in FIG. 5B, when the rotation of the representative row 410 starts, the remaining multimedia content may be deleted from the screen. That is, only the rotation of the representative row 410 is displayed on the screen.

In addition, the multimedia content included in the representative row 410 may not rotate according to the rotation of the representative row 410, which is displayed in a state in which the multimedia content is rotated 90 degrees according to the rotation of the representative row 410 by 90 degrees. It is to prevent becoming.

When the rotation of the representative row 410 is completed as shown in FIG. 5C, the matrix is switched so that the representative row 410 becomes the representative column 500, with the remaining multimedia content represented as shown in FIG. 5D. The display is spread out on both sides of the column 500. Here, the moving speed of the multimedia content column included in the column farthest from the representative column 500 may be formed faster than the moving speed of the multimedia content column included in the column closest to the representative column 500, which is illustrated in FIG. 5E. As described above, after moving all columns, each moved column can be stopped at the same place where it is located.

Here, the multimedia contents that are spread out on both sides of the representative column are the multimedia contents corresponding to the time unit of the representative column. That is, since the representative column after the current rotation is set in units of months, the multimedia content that is unfolded on both sides is a multimedia content having a creation time or an access time of each day of the month.

According to the arrangement of the time unit change of the multimedia content using the rotation of the representative row 410, the user can search the year unit, the month unit, and the unit of the day. You can perform a search.

For reference, FIGS. 5A to 5E illustrate a change in layout according to a time unit decrease, but the apparatus may also perform a change in layout according to a time unit increase, in which case the representative column 420 in the initially displayed grid is rotated. Will be performed.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating multimedia content displayed on a specific time basis in a plurality of rows according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

When the quantity of multimedia content having the same generation time or access time is greater than a predetermined threshold quantity, the multimedia content may be displayed in a plurality of rows 600 as shown.

Here, the threshold quantity may be set by the user, and if not set, a basic quantity such as 10 or 100 may be applied.

7 is a flowchart illustrating a process of displaying multimedia content according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Initially, the plurality of multimedia contents are arranged in a grid, and the time units on the vertical axis and the horizontal axis are arranged in different states. In this case, the displayed multimedia contents may be set by the user in advance or automatically set as representative multimedia contents.

The user sees the grid of multimedia contents displayed for the first time and transmits a desired command signal using a remote controller.

Accordingly, the command receiving unit 330 of the device receives a command signal (S710). In addition, the command receiver 330 transmits the received command signal to the determination unit 340, and the determination unit 340 determines the received command signal (S720). That is, it is determined whether the received command signal is a movement command signal, a batch change signal, or an additional information correction signal.

Thus, if the received command signal is a movement command signal, the determination unit 340 causes the content placement unit 350 to move and display the displayed multimedia content. Accordingly, the content placement unit 350 moves the multimedia content (S730a). For example, if the received movement command signal is a signal in the upward direction, the content placement unit 350 moves the currently displayed multimedia content in the upward direction. Accordingly, the display 360 displays the moved multimedia content (S740).

If the received command signal is a layout change signal, the determination unit 340 causes the content placement unit 350 to change the time unit of the displayed multimedia content. Accordingly, the content placement unit 350 changes the arrangement of the multimedia content according to the received time unit (S730b). When the received placement command signal is a time unit increase signal, the content placement unit 350 increases the time unit on the vertical axis and the horizontal axis by one step. Relocate the multimedia contents and rearrange the multimedia contents to reduce the time units on the vertical axis and the horizontal axis by one step if the received batch command signal is a time unit decrease signal.

The arrangement change by the content placement unit 350 may be performed by the rotation of the representative row 410 or the representative column 420 as described above. That is, when the time unit on the vertical axis is larger than the time unit on the horizontal axis, the representative column 420 rotates according to the time unit increase signal, and the remaining multimedia content is displayed according to the time unit of the representative column 420 or the time unit decrease signal Accordingly, the representative row 410 is rotated and the remaining multimedia content is displayed according to the time unit of the representative row 410.

The display unit 360 displays the multimedia content that is changed in layout according to a time unit (S740).

If the received command signal is the additional information correction signal, the determination unit 340 causes the additional government correction unit 310 to modify the additional information of the multimedia content stored in the storage unit 320. Accordingly, the supplementary government correction unit 310 modifies additional information of the corresponding multimedia content (S730c), and the additional information may include a file name, a preference, and a representative designation field.

Although embodiments of the present invention have been described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains may implement the present invention in other specific forms without changing the technical spirit or essential features thereof. I can understand that. Therefore, it should be understood that the embodiments described above are exemplary in all respects and not restrictive.

According to the apparatus and method for displaying multimedia contents of the present invention as described above, there are one or more of the following effects.

First, by giving different time units to the vertical and horizontal axes of the grid and inserting the multimedia contents into each grid, there is an advantage that the user can easily enjoy and search the multimedia contents.

Second, the brightness of the multimedia content of the rows and columns which are the centers of the grids is brightened, thereby providing intuitiveness of use.

Claims (5)

A command receiver configured to receive a layout change signal of the multimedia content displayed in a grid with different time units on the vertical axis and the horizontal axis; A determination unit that determines whether the layout change signal is a layout change signal of the multimedia content due to the change of the time unit; A content arranging unit for arranging the multimedia contents by changing time units of a vertical axis and a horizontal axis of the grid according to the determination result; And Apparatus for displaying multimedia content comprising a display unit for displaying the arranged multimedia content. The method of claim 1, The content disposition unit rotates one row or column of the multimedia content displayed in the grid form by 90 degrees about one multimedia content included in the one row or column, and the time of the one row or column disposed after the rotation. Apparatus for displaying the multimedia content to arrange the remaining multimedia content in accordance with the unit. The method of claim 1, And the time unit is at least one of year, month, day, hour, minute, and second. Receiving a layout change signal of the multimedia content displayed in a grid with different time units on the vertical axis and the horizontal axis; Determining whether the layout change signal is a layout change signal of the multimedia content due to a change of the time unit; Disposing the multimedia content by changing time units of the vertical and horizontal axes of the grid according to the determination result; And Displaying the arranged multimedia content. The method of claim 4, wherein The arranging of the multimedia contents may include rotating one row or column of the grid-displayed multimedia contents by 90 degrees about one multimedia content included in the one row or column; And And disposing the remaining multimedia content according to the time unit of the one row or column arranged after the rotation.

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