KR100717176B1 - Method and system for providing multi-application - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system and a method for providing a data broadcast. The present invention relates to a second application, which is a general data broadcast application, and an application for managing the second application. And encodes the second application and transmits the second application together with the application information table. The first application is first executed at the user receiving end, and accesses the application information table through objects and functions provided by the user receiving end to display the application list on the user screen. In addition, the first application executes the selected application from the displayed application list through an object and a function generated based on one or more information of an organization ID and an application ID of the corresponding application. Therefore, multi-application transmission is possible, thereby enhancing convenience of both the user and the broadcaster.

Interactive Broadcast, Data Broadcast, Multi-Application, Management Application

Description

Multi-application delivery method and multi-application delivery system {METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING MULTI-APPLICATION}

1 is a diagram illustrating a process from multi-application authoring to sending, including a multi-application providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a diagram illustrating a multi-application structure.

3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a process in which a first application obtains information on second applications.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of a process of executing a corresponding second application when a specific application is selected from the second application list shown by the first application.

5 is a view for explaining a management function for the second applications of the first application.

6 and 7 illustrate screen implementation examples of the first application.

8 is a diagram illustrating an example of using a button in which a running second application stops executing and calls a first application.

9-11 are various embodiments of executing a multi-application on a screen.

12 is an overall flow diagram for multi-application authoring and delivery.

The present invention relates to a data broadcasting providing system and a data broadcasting providing method.

Recently, with the rapid development of communication technology, digital broadcasting technology has also started to spread in broadcasting technology. Digital broadcasting is a next-generation broadcasting technology that enables two-way operation, playback, and accumulation unlike conventional analog broadcasting. It is a television broadcasting that compresses and exports a television signal in a digital form in which information signals are encoded and recorded. Technology is a key technology in the age of multimedia.

Digitalization of broadcasts enables data broadcasting or interactive broadcasting such as auctions, games, purchases of goods, and viewing additional information while watching TV. Accordingly, applications provided with broadcast programs in data broadcasting are being developed.

However, in most cases, only one application-oriented service provided for a specific time and a specific channel, a need for a plurality of application providing services is emerging to reflect various user preferences and give users more choice.

In particular, in the case of simply serving a plurality of applications by sending out the same channel at the same time, whether to provide a plurality of applications depends on the type of receiver.

Therefore, rather than providing a plurality of applications in terms of delivery, multi-application provision in terms of the application itself needs to be considered.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a multi-application in data broadcasting.

In particular, in consideration of the multi-application service in terms of the application rather than the transmission, it is to enable the multi-application service regardless of the type of the receiver of the user.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a data broadcasting providing system comprising: a content database storing second application information which is a general data broadcasting application and first application information as an application for managing the second application; A program manager configured to store broadcast program program information; a transmission manager configured to drive transmission of the first application and the second application at a corresponding time point based on information stored in the program information database and the content database; And a data encoder for encoding the first application and the second application received from the delivery manager to transmit an application and application information table.

In addition, a method for providing a data broadcast according to a feature of the present invention for achieving the above technical problem, a) a second application which is a general data broadcasting application and an application for managing the second application to produce and store the first application; step; b) encoding the first application and the second application according to broadcast program programming information and transmitting the encoded information together with an application information table.

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

As shown in FIG. 1, an application providing system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may include an editor 100, a content database 200, a organization information database 300, a transmission manager 400, and a data encoder 500. Include.

The editor 100 is a content authoring tool, which authors a general application and a management application that manages the general application, and also generates metadata containing information about each application. In this case, the editor 100 may be configured as a data broadcasting dedicated authoring tool for generating a source in a structure suitable for a corresponding function depending on whether it is a management application or a general application. It may also be a general source code generation tool used to generate source code.

Hereinafter, for convenience, an application for managing a general application is referred to as a first application, and a general application is referred to as a second application.

The first application manages information such as application ID, name, etc. of the second applications, and is sent with a plurality of second applications to show a list of the second applications, enable navigation, and execute the second application. Preside over

The second application is a program having unique functions, such as one large Java program, an HTML website, and the like, such as a Yahoo web page and a Naver web page on a PC. The second application reports its own operation state and the like to the first application.

The metadata contains information about the first application or the second application. For example, in the case of ACAP-J application, it can be composed of clsss file, image file such as png, and txt files, and in case of ACAP-X application, image file such as html file, png, etc., is composed of txt files Can be. At this time, the metadata is an xml file containing information about each application, and the creator and type of each application are information about whether the application is ACAP-X or ACAP-J, information about an image or text file required by the application, and an application is required. This information includes information about which system should provide the information at what frequency.

The content database 200 stores the first application, the second application, and metadata of each application authored by the authoring tool.

The program information database 300 stores program information about programs provided by each broadcasting station. For example, the program information database 300 may include program time information and program content information of each program, and may include application information required for each program. You may.

The transmission manager 400 manages the start and end of the application, and reads the corresponding first application, the second application, and the metadata from the content database 200 at a necessary time according to the broadcast program organization information of the organization information database. To send the application.

The data encoder 500 may receive an application and metadata from the delivery manager to encode the application and add program and system related information. In this case, the data encoder 500 may refer to application-related information of metadata and send necessary information to an application information table (AIT).

More specifically, the AIT is transmitted by the data encoder 500, and includes an application name, a start class, an application base directory, an organization ID, an application ID, an application's priority, and visibility (per application). Stores application-specific information such as visibility, control code, and language code for the application.

For example, data encoder 500 includes an Advanced Common Application Platform (ACAP) encoder and a Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) encoder, so that the ACAP encoder can contain application files (e.g., for ACAP-J). class files, .png v files, .txt files, etc.) are encoded and transmitted to the PSIP (Program and System Information Protocol) encoder. At this time, the ACAP encoder refers to the application-related information of the metadata and sends necessary information to the AIT of the terrestrial data broadcasting standard ACAP. The program and system information protocol (PSIP) encoder can add program and system related information to the multiplexer, and then mux, modulate, and transmit the A / V stream and the data broadcast stream by the multiplexer, modulator, etc. And so on.

More specifically, FIG. 2 is an exemplary diagram of a structure of a second application using a first application, and a multi-application in consideration of a plurality of applications includes one management function application, that is, a first application and a plurality of second applications. .

The first application is sent out along with the second application to show a list of applications, provide navigation functions, and manage application execution, which is the first of the serviced applications. That is, when transmitting the AIT including information on application execution, the data encoder 500 sets and transmits the first application and the second application differently, and interprets it at the receiving end of the user to execute the first application first. You can do that.

Immediately after execution, the first application may obtain information about the second applications to be serviced at the user receiving end from the AIT, and execute the corresponding applications.

For example, as shown in FIG. 3, the first application may obtain information about the applications using AppsDatabase and AppAttributes, which are one of Java program objects provided by the user receiving end.

The AppsDatabase is an object that manages the information of the available applications and can be composed of Java program objects provided by the user receiving end. The application entries of the AppsDatabase obtain the information about the applications from the AIT, and the application through the AppsDatabase object of the user receiving middleware Can be provided to them.

The first application may obtain an AppAttributes object providing application attribute information through a function provided by AppsDatabase, and display information of applications in the AIT on a user screen through the AppAttributes object.

That is, if the data encoder 500 loads information about an application currently being serviced to an AIT and transmits the information, and provides an AppsDatabase object having a function for accessing the AIT at a user receiving end, the first application may execute a function provided by AppsDatabase. This allows you to access information about the application currently in service.

At this time, an example of a function provided by AppsDatabase is as follows.

getAppAttributes (AppsDatabaseFilter): Returns AppAttributes objects for currently available applications.

getAppIDs (AppsDatabaseFilter): Returns IDs for applications that meet the AppDatabaseFilter criteria.

getAppProxy (AppID): Returns the ApplicationProxy object of the application associated with the given application ID.

In addition, the AppAtributes object provides variables and functions that can obtain various information about each application registered in the AIT. Examples of the functions provided by the AppAttributes class are as follows.

getName (): returns the application name

getNames (): returns all application names

getPriority (): Returns the application's priority.

In conclusion, the first application obtains application information such as the name of the application from the AppAttributes and displays it on the screen, AppAttributes are obtained from the AppsDatabase, and the AppsDatabase may be composed of a class that is implemented from a database that stores an application currently being serviced.

In addition, as shown in FIG. 4, when the user selects a specific application from the displayed application list, the first application may cause the corresponding application to be executed.

For example, in FIG. 4, when the first application displays three second applications on the screen, and the user selects the entry 1 application by using a remote controller or the like, the first application displays the application selected by the user. You can use an AppProxy object to run it.

AppProxy is a proxy of an application that acts as a proxy for controlling the operation state of a specific application between the first application and the middleware of the receiving end. As described above, AppProxy is obtained through a getAppProxy (AppID key) function of AppsDatabase. In this case, an AppID object required as an argument of this function may be created through an organization ID and an application ID of the corresponding application.

AppProxy has a one-to-one correspondence with each application entry signaled to the AIT. AppProxy provides a function that allows the receiving middleware to start, stop, and pause the application, so the first application obtains the AppProxy of the application to be run, and the start () function of the AppProxy. Call to make the application run by the middleware at the receiving end.

The second application sends the stop information to the user receiving end when the user selects execution stop or the sending is stopped at the transmitting end while the first application receives the stop information from the receiving end and receives the AppProxy of the second application. Get the application to stop by calling AppProxy's stop () function.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of a first application function implementation screen will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 to 7.

As illustrated in FIG. 5, the first application may provide an application list including a list of second applications in service to a screen. That is, the first application may provide a navigation function that allows the user to select by providing a second application list that provides music bank, news, and game related information, respectively, according to a user's selection.

As shown in FIG. 6, the first application is displayed on an arbitrary area of the screen of the user receiving end, and as shown in FIG. 7, the user uses the buttons of the remote controller such as up / down buttons to display the second application list. While the navigation is focused on the desired second application, the selected second application can be executed.

Meanwhile, as shown in FIG. 8, the first application may provide an execution status title bar to display the second application being executed among the plurality of second applications displayed on the screen. In addition, by using a specific button such as an "exit button" so that a user can switch the running second application to another second application, the second applications can be configured to stop each execution and call the first application. May be

9-11 illustrate embodiments of an application execution method scenario under a multi-application architecture.

As shown in FIG. 9, when two or more second applications appear on one screen, each second application repeats execution and interruption, and each second application does not utilize the entire screen. Two or more second applications may be displayed on one screen using only the region. At this time, each second application continues to maintain its graphic data without deleting it even if execution is interrupted. In addition, when the suspended second application is re-executed, since the previous graphic data is continuously applied, two or more second applications may be displayed on one screen.

At this time, the second application which is actually running among the plurality of second applications displayed on the screen may display the execution status title bar as described above. The switching between the respective second applications may be performed by calling the first application. Similarly, the second application which has been executed may display the execution status title bar.

As described above, although each of the second applications is illustrated as not overlapping, the second applications may be implemented to overlap as necessary. It is also natural that the display form of the execution status title bar and the movement between applications can be implemented in various ways.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example in which one second application is displayed on one screen, and a screen switching between second applications is performed while one second application uses the entire screen. In this case, unlike the case where a plurality of second applications are displayed on one screen, each second application does not need to maintain previous graphic data when the execution is stopped.

Meanwhile, switching between the second applications may be implemented in various ways. First, the user may call the first application through an exit button of the second application being executed. In this case, the first application may display a list of the second application on the screen, and allow the user to select another second application through a navigation function of the first application.

Alternatively, a key button of a specific remote control may be defined as a second application switch button, and the button key value may be registered as a UserEvent in the first application. UserEvent is an event handling mechanism defined by the Digital Video Broadcasting-Multimedia Home Platform (DVB-MHP) to handle remote key events without the need for a second application to appear on the screen. have. When the first application handles application switching using a UserEvent, when the user presses the switch button, the first application re-executes the previous running second application without showing the second application list, thereby resuming the currently running second application. You can switch to another second application.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example in which an application in the form of a notification window appears as a pop-up during operation of a second application.

When the first application is executed to provide a list of second applications and the user selects and uses a particular second application, the second application selected by the user is executed and is running until the first application is called to use another application. 2 Only applications can appear on the screen.

In this case, when a specific event occurs, such as a breaking news notification application, a notification window application may be configured to display a notification window for an event as a pop-up on a screen of a running second application even when another second application is running.

Unlike the second application appearing on the actual screen, the notification window application must be prepared for event processing in the background, and process the event when the actual event occurs, so that the content is popped up on the second application currently occupying the screen. To be displayed.

The notification window application may be executed together when the first application is executed, instead of an application selected and executed by the user, and the notification window application may be automatically executed when the first application is executed. At this time, the first application should be able to distinguish the second application from the notification window application from the list of applications managed by the first application.

Hereinafter, a multi-application providing method according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 12.

As shown in FIG. 12, an application such as a first application, a second application, and a notification window application is first produced through the editor 100 and stored in a content database (S100 and S110). At this time, the source structure is generated according to the type of the production target application, that is, whether the first application or the second application.

The transmission manager 400 reads the corresponding application and metadata from the content database 200 at the required time according to the program organization information stored in the organization information database 300, and starts the application transmission by surrounding related systems (see FIG. S120).

The data encoder 500 receives the application and the metadata from the delivery manager 400 and encodes the application files (S130). In this case, the data encoder 500 may refer to application-related information of meta data and transmit necessary information to the AIT, and may add program and system-related information to the multiplexer.

Thereafter, the multiplexer, modulator, etc. mux, modulate, and transmit the A / V stream and the data stream transmitted by the data encoder, and display the first application and the second application on which the above-described functions are implemented at the user receiving end. do. In addition, the notification window application may be implemented as described above.

As described above is only an embodiment of the present invention, the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and various modifications may be made to the obvious matters among those skilled in the art. The scope of the present invention includes all the technical components recognized in the claims described below and equivalents thereof.

As described above, according to the present invention, a plurality of applications may be provided during data broadcasting. In particular, since the multi-application service from the application side rather than the outgoing side is realized, the multi-application service can be provided regardless of the type of the receiver of the user.

Therefore, various applications that reflect the characteristics of each program can be provided by controlling various second applications through the management function of the first application, so that a user can enjoy a variety of application services according to program characteristics, and a broadcaster Can be free.

Claims (11)

In the data broadcasting providing system, A content database configured to store second information, which is second application related information, which is a general data broadcasting application, and first information, which is first application related information, which is an application managing the second application; A programming information database for storing broadcast program programming information; A transmission manager for driving the transmission of the first application and the second application at a corresponding time point based on the first information, the second information, and the broadcast program formation information stored in the organization information database and the content database; And A data encoder for encoding the first application and the second application received from the delivery manager to transmit an application and an application information table; The application information table is a table that stores information about each application, and includes a name, a start class, an application base directory, an organization ID, an application ID, an application priority, and a visibility of each application. ), And stores one or more information of a control code and a language code for an application, and separately stores the first application and the second application. Data broadcasting providing system. delete The method of claim 1, The first application is first executed at the user receiving end, and accesses the application information table through objects and functions provided by the user receiving end to display the second application list on the user screen. Data broadcasting providing system. The method of claim 3, The first application executes the selected second application from the displayed second application list through an object and a function generated based on at least one of unique information about the corresponding application stored in the application information table. Data broadcasting providing system. The method according to any one of claims 1, 3 and 4, It further includes an editor which is a data broadcasting-only authoring tool for generating a corresponding application source in a structure suitable for a corresponding function depending on whether it is a first application or a second application. Data broadcasting provision system. In the data broadcast providing method, a) storing, after authoring, the first application as a second application that is a general data broadcasting application and an application that manages the second application; b) encoding and transmitting the first application and the second application together with an application information table according to broadcast program organization information; The application information table is a table that stores information about each application, and includes a name, a start class, an application base directory, an organization ID, an application ID, an application priority, and a visibility of each application. Visibility, control code (Language Code) for the application, and at least one of the information (Language Code) for storing information, and storing the first application and the second application Method of providing data broadcasting. delete The method of claim 6, The first application is first executed at the user receiving end, and accesses the application information table through objects and functions provided by the user receiving end to display the second application list on the user screen. Method of providing data broadcasting. The method of claim 8, The first application executes the selected second application from the displayed second application list through an object and a function provided by a user receiving end based on one or more of unique information of the corresponding application stored in the application information table. Letting Method of providing data broadcasting. The method according to any one of claims 6, 8 and 9, If a plurality of second applications are transmitted in step b), The second application is all expressed through one screen at the user receiving end, or only the activated second application is displayed on the screen of the user receiving end. Method of providing data broadcasting. The method according to any one of claims 6, 8 and 9, c) creating and storing a notification window application displaying a notification window for a notification message occurrence event as a pop-up on the screen of the second application during execution of the second application, and transmitting the same together with the first application and the second application; and, The notification window application is executed by the first application together with the first application to wait in a screen background, and when the notification message occurrence event occurs, the notification content is displayed in a popup form on the currently executing second application. doing Method of providing data broadcasting.

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