KR100725126B1 - System and method for providing user channel service - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system and method for providing information on a program desired by a user using a ticker. The present invention relates to a user channel in a set-top box connected to a television and receiving metadata and broadcast signals for programs in a channel. A service providing method comprising: a first step of extracting additional information about a program corresponding to preset viewing information by analyzing the received metadata and broadcasting the additional information about the extracted program; And a second step of synthesizing to the image of the tuned specific broadcast signal of the signal and displaying it through the ticker EPG displayed on the television screen so that the user can view additional information about the desired program.

Description

System and method for providing user channel service {SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING USER CHANNEL SERVICE}

1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a user channel service providing system according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of the set top box shown in FIG. 1;

3 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of a television screen showing a ticker electronic program guide according to the present invention;

4 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of a television screen showing a general electronic program guide;

Figure 5 is a flow chart showing step by step an embodiment of a method for providing a user channel service according to the present invention.

<Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

10: broadcast satellite 12: cable station

14 broadcast signal transmission antenna 16 satellite antenna

18: antenna 20: home

22: set-top box 24: television

26: remote control 30: synchronization unit

32: local oscillation frequency generator 34: remote control signal receiver

36: control unit 38: intermediate frequency generating unit

40: video / audio separation unit 42: metadata collection unit

44: metadata selection unit 46: ticker

48: video synthesis unit

The present invention relates to a system and method for providing a user channel service, and more particularly, to a system and method for providing information on a program desired by a user using a ticker.

Technically, an electronic program guide (EPG) shows that a broadcasting station inserts information of a corresponding broadcast between broadcast signals, and a receiver receives the information of the broadcast with a separate set-top box.

The electronic program guide information is separately separated from the broadcast signal and displayed on the television screen when the viewer desires it.

The prior art related to the above-described electronic program guide is as follows.

Korean Patent Application No. 2003-0063976 'Method and Apparatus for Providing Personal Channel Service for Providing Preferred Program in User Preferred Viewing Time Zone' automatically extracts user's preferred time and preferred program based on user's PDR usage history Thus, the user can watch the favorite program at the user's favorite time through the personal channel.

To this end, a first step of receiving description data and program guide data of a program to be broadcast through a TV network, based on the usage history of the user terminal to determine the user preferred time zone and the preferred program of the preferred time zone to include the program A second step of updating guide data, a third step of generating an electronic program guide indicating that the preferred program is output through the personal channel in the preferred time zone based on the updated program guide data, and the electronic program guide And outputting the output to the user terminal.

Republic of Korea Patent Application No. 1997-0005804 'TV program guide method' to guide the program using the KBPS (Korean Broadcasting Program System).

To this end, learning the preferences of the user's broadcast program and storing the result, determining whether a program received in a channel other than the channel being currently watched is in the stored preferred program, and the stored preference When the program is received, the step of instructing the user to receive the program is performed.

However, the above-mentioned patent application No. 2003-0063976 allows a user to watch a preferred program at a user's preferred time based on the user's PDR usage history, and patent application No. 1997-0005804 learns and prefers a user's preference for a broadcast program. When a program is received, the user is guided to receive the program. Both patent applications have a drawback in that an electronic program guide service is provided regardless of the user's intention.

Therefore, it may be very useful to allow the user to preset viewing information about a program that he / she wants to watch so that only information about the program corresponding to the viewing information is provided to the electronic program guide service.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and allows a user to preset viewing information on a program that he / she wants to watch, and guides the electronic program only through the ticker for information on the program corresponding to the viewing information. It is an object of the present invention to provide a user channel service providing system and method for providing a service.

The present invention for achieving the above object has the following features.

According to the present invention, a method for providing a user channel service in a set-top box connected to a television and receiving metadata and broadcast signals for a program in a channel, the received metadata is analyzed to a program corresponding to preset viewing information. And a second step of extracting additional information about the extracted program and a second step of displaying additional information about the extracted program on the television screen so that a user can view additional information about a desired program. .

The second step provides the television with additional information about the extracted program via a ticker.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a method for providing a user channel service in a set-top box connected to a television and receiving metadata and broadcast signals for a program in a channel, the received metadata being analyzed by a user's remote control operation. A first step of extracting additional information about a program corresponding to preset viewing information, and a ticker displayed on the television screen by synthesizing the additional information about the extracted program to an image of a specific broadcast signal tuned among the broadcast signals; It is provided with a second step of displaying through the EPG to allow the user to view additional information about the desired program.

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The set top box is embedded in the television or installed outside of the television.

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According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a set-top box connected to a television and receiving metadata and broadcast signals for a program in a channel, comprising: a metadata collector configured to collect the received metadata; And a metadata selection unit for analyzing the metadata provided from the extracted additional information about the program corresponding to the preset viewing information, transmitting the additional information to the television, and displaying the additional information on the screen of the television.

The metadata selector transmits additional information about a program corresponding to preset viewing information to the television through a ticker.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, a set-top box connected to a television and receiving metadata and broadcast signals for a program in a channel, each of which separates the video and audio of a specific broadcast signal tuned among the broadcast signals. Metadata for extracting additional information about a program corresponding to preset viewing information by analyzing a voice separation unit, a metadata collection unit for collecting the received metadata, and metadata provided from the metadata collection unit. A selection unit, a remote control signal receiving unit for receiving a user's remote control signal, a control unit controlling the metadata selecting unit according to a control signal provided from the remote control signal receiving unit, and an image provided from the video / audio separation unit. Addition regarding the extracted program provided from the metadata selection unit It is provided to include an image synthesizing unit for synthesizing information and transmitting the information to the television to be displayed through the ticker EPG displayed on the screen of the television.

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The set top box is embedded in the television or installed outside of the television.

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

1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a user channel service providing system according to the present invention, a broadcast satellite 10, a cable broadcasting station 12, a broadcast signal transmission antenna 14, a satellite antenna 16, an antenna 18 ), The home 20, and the remote control 26. The home 20 has a set top box 22 and a television 24.

In the figure, the set-top box 22 of the premises 20 receives meta data and broadcast signals for programs in a channel and provides them to the television 24 so that a user can watch a particular program or view meta information. . Of course, while watching a particular program, you can view the meta information at the same time and select a different channel. In particular, in the present invention, the meta information is selected according to the intentional viewer information and automatically viewed while watching a specific program, which will be described in detail below.

The set top box 22 may be embedded in the television 24 or installed outside of the television 24, and transmits metadata and broadcast signals for programs in the channel to the broadcast satellite 10, the cable broadcast station 12, And a satellite antenna 16, a cable, and an antenna 18 from the broadcast signal transmitting antenna 14 selectively.

Each function of the set top box 22 is controlled by a remote controller 26 from a user, or each function is controlled by a user's direct key operation. In particular, the user may provide viewer information to the set top box 22 through the operation of the remote controller 26.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of the set-top box shown in FIG. 1, and includes a tuning unit 30, a local oscillation frequency generator 32, a remote control signal receiver 34, a controller 36, and an intermediate frequency generator. 38, a video / audio separation unit 40, a metadata collecting unit 42, a metadata selecting unit 44, a ticker 46, and an image synthesizing unit 48.

In the figure, the remote controller signal receiver 34 receives various signals provided from the remote controller 26 and provides them to the controller 36. In particular, the user's viewing information is included in the signal provided from the remote controller 26.

The control unit 36 controls each function of the set top box 22 according to various signals provided from the remote control signal receiving unit 34. In particular, the controller 36 stores the viewing information of the user in a predetermined storage device and accesses it when necessary.

The tuner 30 receives the meta data about the program in the channel and the specific broadcast signal provided under the control of the controller 36 and provides the received broadcast signal to the intermediate frequency generator 38. In particular, the tuning unit 30 receives a broadcasting signal of a specific channel according to the tuning signal provided from the control unit 36 among a plurality of broadcasting signals.

The local oscillation frequency generator 32 provides the local oscillation frequency to the intermediate frequency generator 38 corresponding to the tuning signal of the controller 36.

The intermediate frequency generator 38 synthesizes a broadcast signal of a specific channel provided from the tuner 30 and the local oscillation frequency provided from the local oscillation frequency generator 32 to produce a specific intermediate frequency, and the tuner 30 Receive metadata about a program in a channel provided from).

The intermediate frequency refers to a frequency corresponding to the difference between the frequency of the received radio wave by the frequency converter and the local oscillator frequency in the superheterodyne receiver. In general, the intermediate frequency is intended to be lower than the reception frequency to facilitate amplification and to increase selectivity and fidelity. The median frequency of a standard broadcast receiver (radio receiver) is 455 kHz, the FM broadcast receiver (frequency modulated broadcast band receiver) is 10.7 MHz, and the television receiver uses 58.75 MHz (video) and 54.25 MHz (audio).

The video / audio separator 40 receives an intermediate frequency from the intermediate frequency generator 38 to separate an audio signal and a video signal. In high-definition television, video signals may be provided as respective color difference signals, and audio signals may be provided as Dolby surround signals such as 5.1 channels.

The metadata collector 42 collects metadata provided from the intermediate frequency generator 38 and provides the metadata to the metadata selector 44.

The metadata selecting unit 44 analyzes the metadata provided from the metadata collecting unit 42 and extracts additional information about a program corresponding to preset viewing information provided from the control unit 36.

The ticker 46 generates electronic program guide data for the ticker based on additional information about a program corresponding to the viewing information provided from the metadata selecting unit 44.

The image synthesizing unit 48 synthesizes additional information about the extracted program provided from the ticker 46 to the image provided from the image / audio separation unit 40 and transmits the additional information to the television 24 to display the screen of the television 24. To be displayed as shown in FIG. 3.

3 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of a television screen showing a ticker electronic program guide according to the present invention, while FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of a television screen showing a general electronic program guide. That is, the present invention can display only the additional information related to the program corresponding to the viewing information on the screen of the television as shown in FIG. In more detail, assuming that the user selects the data of baseball relay as the genre and selects the data of Moon Geun-young as the appearance actor, the additional information of the metadata related to the program corresponding to the viewing information is extracted and displayed on the TV screen. Is displayed. At this time, the additional information displayed on the television screen is the movie young bride and lotte: Samsung Moon appeared by the ticker EPG.

5 is a flowchart illustrating step by step an embodiment of a method for providing a user channel service according to the present invention.

First, the user operates the remote controller 26 to input the viewing information about the program to be watched by the controller 36 through the remote controller signal receiver 34 in advance (step S10).

The metadata selecting unit 44 analyzes the metadata provided from the metadata collecting unit 42 according to the viewing information provided from the control unit 36, extracts only a program corresponding to the viewing information of the user, and transmits the program to the ticker 46. (Steps S12, S14).

The extracted program information is displayed on the screen of the digital television 24 using the ticker 46 so that the user can view the ticker electronic program guide (step S16). The video according to the current program and the extracted program information may be synthesized and displayed on the screen of the television 24.

The user views the ticker electronic program guide and operates the remote controller 26 to select the desired channel (step S18).

The controller 36 changes the current channel to the channel selected by the user through the remote controller 26 (step S20).

The technical spirit of the present invention has been described above with reference to the accompanying drawings. In addition, it is obvious that any person skilled in the art can make various modifications and imitations without departing from the scope of the technical idea of the present invention.

As described above, the present invention allows the user to preset viewing information about a program that the user wants to watch, and provides only the information about the program corresponding to the viewing information to the electronic program guide service through the ticker. Therefore, since the user can only receive the electronic program guide for the program he wants, it is very convenient to select the program that is in accordance with his or her taste.

Claims (13)

delete delete A method for providing user channel services in a set-top box connected to a television and receiving metadata and broadcast signals for programs in the channel, A first step of analyzing the received metadata to extract additional information about a program corresponding to preset viewing information by a user's remote control operation; By synthesizing the additional information about the extracted program to the image of the tuned specific broadcast signal of the broadcast signal and displayed through the ticker EPG displayed on the television screen, the user can view the additional information about the desired program A method for providing a user channel service comprising a second step. delete The method of claim 3, wherein And the set top box is embedded in the television or installed outside the television. delete delete delete A set-top box connected to a television and receiving metadata and broadcast signals for programs in the channel, A video / audio separation unit for separating the video and audio of the tuned specific broadcast signal, respectively; A metadata collector configured to collect the received metadata; A metadata selection unit configured to analyze metadata provided from the metadata collection unit and extract additional information about a program corresponding to preset viewing information; A remote control signal receiver for receiving a remote control signal of a user; A control unit controlling the metadata selection unit according to a control signal provided from the remote control signal receiving unit; Image synthesis for synthesizing additional information about the extracted program provided from the metadata selection unit to the image provided from the video / audio separation unit and transmitting it to the television to be displayed through a ticker EPG displayed on the screen of the television. User channel service providing system comprising a portion. delete The method of claim 9, And the set top box is embedded in the television or installed outside of the television. delete The method of claim 9, The controller stores the viewing information in a predetermined storage device and accesses it when necessary.

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