KR100816953B1 - Method for updating an application program in Digital Television - Google Patents

Abstract

In a digital television receiver capable of receiving data broadcast, URL data is stored in a corresponding sector of a hard disk, which is a storage device, and when a user requests an upgrade for a digital television application, the URL is played. You can download the service program provided by the service provider of the URL and upgrade the application program.

It receives the URL information contained in the broadcast signal, determines whether the same URL information is stored in the storage device in the digital television receiver, stores the URL information in the storage space of the corresponding storage device, and stores the URL stored in the storage space. Among the information, the user selects the URL of the site that has the latest updated application, connects to the Internet site, downloads the program to update, and updates the application of the digital television to update through this. do.

Url, hard disk, storage, internet, application, digital, television

Description

Method for updating an application program using Digital TV {Method for updating an application program in Digital Television}

1 is a block diagram showing a decoding apparatus of a conventional digital television,

2 is a signal flowchart showing a method of connecting an Internet of a conventional digital television,

3 is a block diagram illustrating an apparatus for performing an update method of a DTV application program using an inventor's URL as an example.

4 is a signal flow diagram illustrating a method of updating a DTV application program using the present inventors URL.

The present invention relates to a method for updating an application program of a digital television, and more particularly, a hard disk drive (HDD) which is a storage device in a digital television or a personal video recorder (hereinafter, abbreviated as 'PVR') capable of receiving data broadcast. After storing the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) data in the corresponding sector, the service provided by the service provider of the URL through the Internet communication by replaying the URL when a user requests update of the digital television application. This is to download the program and update the application.

With the development of the digital broadcasting industry, the emergence of various new multimedia services centered on video services, and the transformation of the system accordingly, the boundary of the media that has been considered to have different properties such as communication, broadcasting, and computer so far The trend is blurring. In other words, broadcasts pursuing communication based on two-way one-to-one information transmission (the way two people exchange information) and one-way one-to-many information transmission (one-to-many one-way information transmission), and information retrieval Computers for storage, storage and updating are fused together, bringing media to a whole new level.

For example, a video dialtone (VDT) for transmitting a TV video signal using a communication network, an internet broadcast through a telephone line, is an example of providing a broadcasting service through an existing communication network, and using voice cable network for CATV. And data transmission, which is a case of providing a communication service using a broadcasting network (a good example of the Internet service using a cable TV), and searching and copying data using the Internet and sending and receiving e-mail messages using a mobile phone (information telephone). Services ...) are examples of the convergence of computer and communication.

According to the trend of the digital broadcasting industry, a new type of digital television receiver is required for interworking with various media functions, especially computer data management function and internet communication function. PVR is currently being issued for this purpose.

The PVR is a personal video recorder that can record a broadcast program for more than 24 hours without a separate tape. The PVR is a product that is being greatly issued by electronic companies and is also called a digital video recorder (DVR). It refers to a product with a built-in HDD that stores and plays digital video / audio streams in real time.

These PVRs are similar to existing VCRs, such as PLAY, FAST FORWARD, REWIND, PAUSE, SLOW MOTION, etc. It also has an instant replay function that allows you to watch the scene you want to watch again and again.

The above-described function is a main function of the PVR not interworking with the network, and the characteristic of the PVR interworking with the network is a service using an interactive service, that is, a program guide (EPG) information.

In other words, EPG (Electronic Program Guide) data is downloaded through an external network (PSTN or high-speed Internet network) or communication network connected to the PVR to provide viewers with the program-related information. You can get the information about the program, you can search the desired program by various conditions such as genre, actor, time zone, etc. And one-click reservation recording of the channel program is possible.

Furthermore, through the bidirectional link between the service provider and the PVR, it is possible to collect / analyze the viewer's viewing patterns or preferences, thereby enabling interactive services such as recommending programs suitable for each viewer's preferences, automatic recording, and target advertisements.

As such, the PVR can simultaneously process storage and playback of data such as broadcast streams in real time using a high-capacity, high-speed hard disk, and also receives additional data through an Internet connection and stores the data on the hard disk. And will enable user-centric personal televisions, including changeable.

In general, data broadcasting refers to a function of a digital television that can transmit not only audio or video information but also data or software recorded / stored in a computer to a user, for example, watching a television program. At the same time, various application services for the contents of major daily newspapers, new information, entertainment, and advertisements can be delivered to users through digital television. In particular, when the user uses Internet communication, the various server providers providing the application services can be provided. It can be accessed arbitrarily, so that the desired information can be selectively searched and provided.

In addition, among the broadcasts currently being conducted by broadcasting stations, commercial companies use them to advertise their companies' products, and in particular, some wired broadcasts have a separate home shopping channel to advertise their products.                         

In addition, some companies make their own homepages on the Internet to advertise their companies and products, and now they are also conducting cyber shopping through homepages on the Internet. When advertising through magazines, you often specify your company's URL.

The URL is a standard information location expression method for uniformly expressing a number of information or materials on the Internet together with a method for obtaining a location (protocol), and a general digital television internet access method is a method of displaying a program signal that a user wants to watch such as a telephone line. It is to transmit / receive to modem through communication means of.

Hereinafter, an internet access method of a digital television will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a diagram showing the internal structure of a digital television for Internet communication.

As shown in FIG. 1, the internal structure of the microcomputer 1 receives a broadcast signal received from an antenna (not shown) and outputs a control signal according to the microcomputer 1 and a control signal output from the microcomputer 1. An image processing unit (2) for image processing the video signal of the broadcast signal, a display unit (3) for displaying the video signal output from the image processing unit (2) and the Internet processing unit (4).

The Internet processing section 4 includes a VGA (Video Graphics Adapter) processing section 4a for processing Internet video information into a television video signal, an Internet microcomputer 4b for processing Internet information according to the control signal of the microcomputer, and a broadcast. Main memory 4c for storing signals and Internet information, ROM 4d for storing programs for Internet access, and flash memory 4e for storing information for receiving e-mail or serving as a cache memory of a Web browser. And a modem 4f, which is an internet interfacer between the digital television and the outside.

In the Internet connection of the digital television configured as described above, when the user first inputs the Internet connection key through the external key input unit, the microcomputer 1 transmits the Internet connection command signal to the Internet microcomputer 4b.

Then, according to the internet access command signal of the microcomputer 1, the internet microcomputer 4b loads the internet access program stored in the ROM 4d and attempts to access the internet accordingly. The transmission is made through a modem 4f, which is an internet interface, and information and arithmetic information necessary for the internet processing of the internet microcomputer 4b are stored in the main memory 4c.

When the modem 4f receives internet information provided by a service provider, the internet microcomputer 4b outputs the converted internet information to the VGA processor 4a through a data conversion process, and outputs the output internet. The information is converted into a television video signal by the VGA processor 4a and then output to the screen through the display unit 3.

At this time, if the Internet information received from the service provider is information related to update or e-mail, the user stores the information in the flash memory 4e, and the microcomputer 1 loads it when requested by the user. Update the program.

However, the internet access method of such a digital television has the following problems.

First, if a user wants to access the homepage of a specific company, which is the service provider, or does not know whether or not the homepage is present, the homepage address should be found using a search engine.

Second, it takes a lot of time for beginners using the Internet to find out the homepage address using a search engine.

That is, in order to access the service provider's web site and obtain the necessary information, the ordinary digital television viewers must memorize or memorize the addresses of the web sites, and finally, create a URL through the key input unit. It is desirable to save such URL information because of the troublesome work as above. In this case, the hard disk of a digital television that stores URLs has limited storage capacity, and not only URLs but also many data such as video / audio streams are URL information. Since it stores and reproduces in real time as described above, it is required to provide a separate space for storing the URL information.

Accordingly, the present invention has been invented to solve the above problems, and provides a method of assigning a physical sector address to URL information and storing the same in a corresponding sector provided separately in a hard disk, and using the stored URL information according to the method. An object of the present invention is to provide a method for updating a corresponding application program of a digital television or PVR equipped with the hard disk.

       In order to achieve the above object, there is provided a method of updating a DTV application program using a URL according to the present invention, comprising: a first step of receiving URL information on a broadcast signal; and the same URL information as the URL information received from the first step; A second step of determining whether it is stored in the hard disk in the digital television receiver; and if the received URL information is not stored in the hard disk as a result of the determination from the second step, the received URL information is converted into URL information. A third step of storing the updated application program among the URL information stored in the storage space of the hard disk through the third step; Step 4 and accessing the Internet site of the URL selected by the user through the fourth step A fifth step, a sixth step of downloading and storing a program to be updated from an internet site accessed through the fifth step, and a digital television to be updated using the stored updated program through the sixth step The seventh step of updating the application program.

Hereinafter, a method of updating a DTV application program using a URL according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4.

First, as shown in FIG. 4, in the method of updating a DTV application program using a URL according to the present invention, by checking whether a URL transmitted on a broadcast signal is received and parsing information about the URL from the broadcast signal ( The thirtieth step S30 of parsing is performed.

For example, as shown in FIG. 3, when a broadcasting station performs a commercial broadcast, a packet identifier is assigned to a header of a URL, which is the homepage address of the advertiser, and the URL to which the packet identifier is assigned is a frequency of a minor channel. When transmitted in a band, the tuner 30 of the receiving side (digital television receiver) receives this URL, and the packet identifier assigned to the header of the received URL by the microcomputer 32 is a packet identifier (PID). Check whether a packet identifier conforms to the PSIP (Program Service Information Protocol), which is a broadcast additional information related standard.

Then, if the packet identifier assigned to the header of the received URL is suitable for the PSIP, a transport parser 31, which is a demultiplexer under the control of the microcomputer 32, is received through the tuner 30. The corresponding URL information of the packet identifier is parsed from the broadcast signal.

Next, when the step 30 (S30) is finished, the process proceeds to step 31 (S31).

The thirty-first step S31 is a step of determining whether the same information as the URL information parsed from the received broadcast signal is stored in the digital television receiver.

That is, as shown in FIG. 3, the same information as the URL information parsed by the microcomputer 32 mounted in the digital television receiver through the thirtieth step S30 is provided to the hard disk HDD of the Internet processing unit 33 ( It is determined whether it is stored in 33a).

Next, when the 31st step S31 is finished, the process proceeds to the 32nd step S32 or returns to the 30th step S30.

In the thirty-second step S32, according to the thirty-first step S31, it is determined that the same information as the URL information parsed through the thirtieth step S30 does not exist in the digital television receiver. Is stored in the hard disk of the digital television receiver. Otherwise, if the same information as the URL information parsed through the thirtieth step S30 exists in the digital television receiver, the thirtieth step S30 is received. After returning to the mode, the URL information is continuously received through the tuner under the control of the microcomputer.

That is, when it is determined that the same information as the URL information parsed through the thirtieth step S30 does not exist in the digital television receiver, and proceeds to the thirty-second step S32, it is parsed through the thirtieth step S30. A physical sector address is given to the URL information and stored in the area of the corresponding hard disk 33a corresponding to the address. Otherwise, if the same URL exists, the process returns to the URL reception mode.

On the other hand, the location of the hard disk 33a where the URL information is stored is a location on a real disk given a physical sector address. First, the addressing scheme of the hard disk will be briefly described to help the present invention.

In general, in a hard disk, three coordinates are used when the disk controller refers to a specific position on the disk, that is, a head number, a cylinder number, and a sector number.

The head number is the number assigned to the heads, ie pointing to a specific disk surface, the cylinder number is the number assigned to the cylinders, one cylinder containing all tracks arranged at the same position on each disk surface, and the sector number Is a number assigned to the sectors, and is a unit area for accessing data to the wedge-shaped track divided by dividing the track into a wedge shape. The three coordinates described above are referred to as physical sector addresses.

On the other hand, the interface on the host computer side must have a uniform sector addressing system because it must be able to operate with any hard disk drive. For example, in DOS (Disk Operating System), the one-dimensional sector numbering method (one- Place sectors on disk in a dimensional sector numbering scheme.

DOS simply numbers all sectors on track 0, starting with sector 1 of disk 0 and track 0, followed by the previous number to the next sector, that is disk 1, track 0 or more. All sectors are numbered out, and this sector address is called a logical sector address.

In addition, two methods of interface between hard disk and external system are widely used. One is Small Computer System Interface (SCSI), which is used for workstation-class external system, and supports only logical sector address and the other is IDE (Intergrated). Devoce Electronics) supports both CHS (cylinder, head, sector), that is, physical sector address, and LBA (Logical Block Address), that is, logical sector address, but most of them use logical sector address mode.

Therefore, in order to refer to a specific position on the disk indicated by the logical sector address input from the host computer in the hard disk, the logical sector address must be converted into a physical sector address indicating a physical position on the physical disk.

However, in order to convert the logical sector address to the physical sector address, it takes a considerable amount of time to add or subtract a logical operation. In order to reduce the time required for the conversion, the hard disk driver address system for storing URL information is a physical sector. Applying an address scheme is a preferred embodiment in the present invention.

In addition, according to the present invention, it is preferable to physically divide the space of the hard disk in advance according to each ratio according to the stored data.

In other words, if the data stored in the hard disk includes AV data, advertisement data, and URL data, the physical space of the hard disk is previously classified based on the ratio of the data stored in the hard disk.

For example, if the physical space ratio of the hard disk is AV data: advertisement data: URL data = 50: 30: 20, four heads, 3000 cylinders, and 100 sectors per track, 3000 × 4 × 100 = 1,200,000. If two sectors are 1k bytes, a disk having 1,200, 000 sectors has a storage capacity of 600Mbytes, of which 120Mbytes of URL data can be stored because the space ratio of the hard disk occupies 20%. The ratio may vary depending on the physical classification of the hard disk, and the URL information is stored by assigning a physical sector address to the header, cylinder, and sector on the disk.

In addition, as described above, the URL may be wirelessly received as a broadcast signal and stored in a physical space of a corresponding hard disk drive. Alternatively, the URL of the corresponding Internet site may be received by wire by directly accessing an Internet site, and the corresponding hard disk may be received. It is also a preferred embodiment in the present invention to be able to store in the physical space of the disk drive.

As such, when the parsed URL information is stored in the physical space of the corresponding hard disk, when the user is able to access the Internet corresponding to the site corresponding to the URL information using the URL information, the 32nd step (S32) When the step is terminated, the thirty-third step S33 and the thirty-fourth step S34 are sequentially performed.

 The thirty-third step (S33) is a step in which the user inputs a corresponding Internet access key to access the Internet, and the thirty-fourth step (S34) corresponds to the corresponding Internet access key signal input through the thirty-third step (S33). In this step, the URL information and the Internet access guide menu are displayed on the screen of the digital television.

That is, as shown in FIG. 3, when the user inputs the Internet access key through a key input unit (not shown), the microcomputer 32 loads URL information stored in the hard disk 33a to process the image processor 34. Processing to a television video signal, outputs the URL information processed into the television video signal through the display unit 35.

 At this time, the microcomputer 32 loads the Internet access guide menu pre-stored in the ROM 37d, processes it as a television video signal through the image processing unit 34, and then displays the URL information through the display unit 35. Outputting together is a preferred embodiment in the present invention.                     

When the URL information is output through the display unit 35 and the thirty-fourth step S34 ends, the process proceeds to thirty-fifth step S35.

The 35 th step S35 is a step in which the user selects the URL information displayed on the screen when the URL information is displayed on the screen of the digital television through the 34 th step S34. Internet access is made with the corresponding Internet site at the URL address.

That is, as shown in FIG. 3, when the user selects the URL according to the thirty-fourth step S34, the microcomputer 32 transmits an internet access command signal of the URL to the internet microcomputer 33b.

Then, the Internet microcomputer 33b loads the Internet connection program stored in the ROM 33d according to the Internet access command signal of the microcomputer 32, and attempts to access the Internet through the Internet access program. The transmission of the information about is performed via the modem 33c, which is an internet interface, and information and arithmetic information necessary during the internet connection processing of the internet microcomputer 33b are stored in the main memory 33e.

Next, when the user selects the corresponding URL information displayed on the screen through the 35 th step S35, and thus establishes an internet connection with the corresponding internet site of the URL address selected by the user, the 35 th step S35. ) Is terminated and the process proceeds to step 36 (S36).

The 36th step S36 is a step in which a user downloads a corresponding application program from a corresponding Internet site of a URL address selected by the user.                     

For example, when a user downloads an application of a newly developed digital television receiver from company A (eg LG Electronics) and wants to update the application already built, the user provides the updated application. If the relevant URL information displayed on the screen of the digital television is selected in order to directly access the company A's site, the URL information, that is, the Internet connection is established with the company A, and the updated application is accessed from the connected Internet site. You can download the program.

As such, when the user selects the corresponding URL information from the displayed menu and makes an Internet connection with the site providing the corresponding URL information, the user downloads necessary data from the site where the Internet connection is made according to the user's selection. The downloaded data allows the user to update the programs.

As described in detail above, the method for updating a DTV application program using a URL according to the present invention stores a URL data in a corresponding sector of a hard disk mounted in the digital television receiver, and then uses a user for the application program of the digital television receiver. If there is an upgrade request, the corresponding URL can be reproduced by downloading the service program provided by the corresponding service provider of the URL through internet communication and upgrading the application.                     

Although the invention has been described in detail only with respect to the specific examples described, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations are possible within the spirit of the invention, and such modifications and variations belong to the appended claims.

Claims (5)

A first step of receiving URL information carried in a broadcast signal; A second step of determining whether the same URL information as the URL information received from the first step is stored in the storage device in the digital television receiver using the packet identifier included in the URL information; A third step of storing the received URL information in a storage space of a corresponding storage device in which the URL information is stored when the received URL information is not stored in the storage device as a result determined from the second step; A fourth step of the user selecting a corresponding URL having an updated application program among URL information stored in the storage space of the corresponding storage device through the third step; A fifth step of accessing the Internet site of the corresponding URL selected from the user through the fourth step; A sixth step of downloading and storing a program to be updated from an internet site accessed through the fifth step; And And a seventh step of updating the application program of the digital television to be updated using the stored updated program through the sixth step; and updating the DTV application program using the URL.       The method of claim 1, wherein the storage device;       Update method of the DTV application using the URL, characterized in that the hard disk. delete The method of claim 2, wherein the third step; As a result of the determination from the second step, when the received URL information is not stored in the hard disk, a physical sector address is assigned to the received URL information and stored directly in the physical location of the corresponding hard disk. To update the DTV application using a URL. The method of claim 2, wherein the fourth step comprises: A first step of the user inputting an internet access key; A second step of displaying URL information stored in the hard disk and an internet access guide menu according to a key signal inputted from the first step; And a third step of reading a URL having the updated application program from the URL information displayed from the second step.

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