KR101227495B1 - Apparatus for transmitting/receiving broadcasting signal and method for limiting viewing - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention comprises the steps of setting and storing user viewing restriction identification information; Determining by comparing the set parental level identification information with scene information of a broadcast stream; The present invention relates to a parental control method, a broadcast transmitter, and a receiver, comprising: controlling output of a parental control scene or a scene section based on the determination result, and transmitting rating information in a unit of a scene or a scene section according to the present invention. Therefore, the broadcast receiver may limit the viewing per scene according to the user viewing restriction setting.

In addition, in the DVR including the hard disk, skipping to the next viewable scene is possible.

Finally, if a program is not available for viewing due to a parental control rating, the EPG can be used to provide a guide to the user to play back as long as the time of the scene where the actual broadcast start time is not available. To help.

Parental Control, Scenes, Broadcast Receivers

Description

{Apparatus for transmitting / receiving broadcasting signal and method for limiting viewing}

1A is a flowchart illustrating a conventional parental control method.

1B is a table showing the parental level of V-chip.

2 is a diagram illustrating an internal configuration of a broadcast receiver for performing viewing restriction according to a scene according to the present invention.

3 is an exemplary view illustrating a viewing restriction descriptor for each scene of a broadcast signal according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a method for restricting viewing by broadcasting scenes according to the present invention.

Description of the Related Art [0002]

10: tuner / demodulator 20: TS demultiplexer

30: control unit 40: audio / video decoder

50: parental control scene detection unit 60: memory

70: A / V Processor 80: Output Interface

The present invention relates to a broadcast transmitter, a broadcast receiver, and a parental control method.

In general, digital broadcasting has a significant increase in channel utilization compared with conventional analog broadcasting, and as the number of channels available to the user increases, a channel that broadcasts only a movie-only channel or an adult-only program has appeared. In addition, various types of information may be provided together with the program through data broadcasting. An example of such information is EPG (Electronic Program Guide) information. The most basic function of EPG is to provide broadcast information, and may also provide advertisements or other life information. Accordingly, viewers are exposed to a considerable amount of information compared to analog broadcasting, and many of them may be unnecessary or harmful information. In particular, information that may be harmful if provided to minors must be restricted.

Currently, when parents uniformly set rating information and a minor tries to watch a program over a set level, the viewing of the program is restricted through a password input procedure. However, if the minor does not know the password, the program cannot be viewed, but because the information of the program can be viewed, it may be provided to the minor as harmful information even though the contents are in text form.

In addition, parents who want to limit the viewing by using the rating information should have a clear understanding of the rating information system, which requires more effort than necessary. In addition, the rating information is uniformly set by the broadcast service subject, and may be considered to be provided to the minor according to the subjective judgment of the parent.

FIG. 1A relates to a television having a conventional parental control function and a parental control alarm method thereof (application number 10-2001-0044354). The class of the broadcasting signal is determined based on a program class signal included in the received broadcasting signal. Doing; Detecting whether the user has set a viewing permission level; And if the user has not set the viewing permission grade, displaying the grade determined in the determining step to the outside.

More specifically, in the United States, TV production from July 1998 mandated the attachment of a V-chip that would block, at parent's discretion, programs that are inappropriate for children to watch. V is the initial of Violence, and V-Chip was invented by Tim Collins, professor of engineering at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. In order to judge parents using V chip, all programs are marked with a degree of violence and indecentness.

1B is a table showing the parental level of V-chip.

The Children's Category (TV-Y) is a program suitable for all children and is designed to be viewed by children aged 2-6 years old. Doesn't contain anything that amazes the child. TV-Y 7 is suitable for children over 7 years of age, suitable for children who can distinguish operation from reality, and include some physical comic violence in the subject and content. Includes content that may be surprising to children under seven years of age. The general category (TV-G) is a program that is generally suitable for all age groups, but it is not specially designed for children, but it can be watched by children without parental guidance. TV-PG contains content that is not suitable for children to watch and requires parental guidance. It's okay to watch it with parents, sometimes with harsh language, a bit of violent scenes, and even conversations or situations that suggest sex. TV-14 is not suitable for children under 14 years of age. Parental control is required to prevent children under 14 years of age from watching. It includes complex topics, sexual content, harsh language, and intense violence. TV-M is an adult program that is not suitable for viewers under the age of 17. It includes vulgar language, violent scenes, and explicit sexual content.

Based on these ratings, parents can restrict their children to watching TV with V-chips in programs that they find inappropriate for their children.

However, in an environment where TV can be easily reached anywhere at any time, how much the TV rating system or parental control will be effective, and even if the V chip is installed, all parents can have a caring interest in watching their children's TV. It may be questionable. In addition, it is difficult to expect children or adolescents to watch according to their display level. Even if you mark the ratings, you may want to choose only the programs marked as banned when the parent's guidance is neglected. In this case, ratings may also stimulate and induce viewing curiosity. This candid psychology of teenagers speaks of the limitations and problems of rating labels. In addition, although the purpose is to protect children and youth, there is a problem that strengthening the grading system may limit the children's or youth's right to see.

The present invention is to solve the above problems, based on the user viewing restriction identification information from a broadcast transmitter for transmitting a broadcast signal including a viewing restriction descriptor, a broadcast receiver for setting the user viewing restriction identification information and the viewing restriction technician; It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of limiting output of a parental control scene or a scene section.

The broadcast receiver of the present invention for achieving the above object is a tuner unit for receiving and converting a broadcast signal including a parental restriction descriptor to an intermediate frequency; A decoder for decoding the video, audio stream and the parental level descriptor from the demodulated broadcast signal; A control unit controlling an output of a parental control scene or a scene section based on user parental control identification information from the decoded parental control descriptor; And a display unit configured to output the broadcast signal processed by the parental control scene or the scene section.

The broadcast transmitter of the present invention for achieving the above object comprises a broadcast data generation unit for generating a parental control descriptor for video data for each scene; And a transmitter for converting the video data and the audio data including the generated parental level descriptor into broadcast data.

In addition, in the broadcast receiver of the present invention, a parental control method includes: setting and storing user parental control identification information; Determining by comparing the set parental level identification information with scene information of a broadcast stream; And controlling the output of the restricted viewing scene or the scene section based on the determination result.

The objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more readily understood by reference to the accompanying drawings and the following detailed description. In the following description of the present invention, a detailed description of known functions and configurations incorporated herein will be omitted when it may make the subject matter of the present invention rather unclear.

2 is a diagram illustrating an internal configuration of a broadcast receiver that performs viewing restriction for each scene according to the present invention.

The tuner / demodulator 10 selects a channel frequency of a broadcast from among a plurality of broadcast channels, receives a broadcast signal including a parental control descriptor, and converts and demodulates it to an intermediate frequency.

The TS demultiplexer 20 separates the audio stream, the video stream, and the data stream according to the transport stream data type of the broadcast signal including the parental control descriptor. The parental control descriptor according to the present invention may be included in the header portion of the transmitted video and audio data.

The controller 30 outputs the overall control signal of the broadcast receiver and controls the output of the parental control scene or the scene section based on the user parental control identification information from the parental control technician according to the present invention.

The audio / video decoder 40 decodes and restores the audio / video data from the TS demultiplexer 20 to the original signal before encoding.

The parental control scene detection unit 50 parses a parental restriction descriptor of each audio / video data decoded by the audio / video decoder 40. The parental control scene detection unit 50 may operate as a control signal of the controller 30 and is dependent on the function of the controller 30.

The memory 60 stores the user viewing restriction identification information through the user setting application. The user restriction identification information is read at the time of reproduction of the received broadcast signal by setting the parental control age and is provided as a basis for determining the parental restriction for each scene.

The A / V processor 70 skips a scene, inserts a substitute image, processes a blue screen, and the like, when the broadcast signal is reproduced according to the viewing restriction of the decoded video and audio data.

The output interface 80 includes a display unit and a speaker, and outputs a broadcast signal as an audio and video signal in which viewing restrictions for each scene are processed.

3 is an exemplary view illustrating a viewing restriction descriptor for each scene of a broadcast signal according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Audio / video data (a) of broadcast data and viewing restriction descriptor (b) for each scene are shown. MPEG-2 enables scene-based transmission of video data and transmits the file size and information in the header portion of the broadcast packet data. At this time, the scene-specific parental control descriptor according to the present invention is located in the packet header and transmitted. The viewing restriction descriptor for each scene may be inserted for each scene or for each section with a predetermined syntax. The DVR (Digital Video Recorder) receiving broadcast data according to the present invention can receive movement information from the broadcasting network to the next viewable scene and skip to the next viewable scene. This indexes the search to the next viewable scene to provide faster screen movement. Through this, the viewer can watch the continuous scenes for each viewing class based on the set user viewing restriction information.

According to the present invention, even if the user cannot watch the entire scene due to the parental control rating, the viewer is provided with a guide so that the viewer starts as late as the time of the scene where the actual broadcast start time cannot be viewed in the EPG (Electronic Program Guide). It is possible to watch the program continuously.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a method for restricting viewing by broadcasting scenes according to the present invention.

Enter the parental level rating information through the user interface. The set user viewing restriction rating information is stored (S101). At this time, the user viewing restriction rating information is set to a viewing restriction age. A broadcast signal is received through the broadcast network (S102). The decoded video and audio data streams are decoded through the TS demultiplexer, and the scene-specific view restriction descriptor located in the header portion of the packet data is parsed (S103 and 104). The user viewing restriction rating information is compared with the set viewing restriction descriptor for each scene, and the viewing restriction scene according to the user rating information is detected (S105). The viewing restriction scene or section is skipped or the scene is processed by a blue screen process or another image insertion (S106). The scene which can be viewed continuously is reproduced (S107).

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments and various changes and modifications may be made by those skilled in the art.

By transmitting rating information in units of scenes or in units of scene sections according to the present invention, a broadcast receiver may limit viewing per scene according to a user viewing restriction setting.

In addition, in the DVR including the hard disk, skipping to the next viewable scene is possible.

Finally, if a program is not available for viewing due to a parental control rating, the EPG can be used to provide a guide to the user to play back as long as the time of the scene where the actual broadcast start time is not available. To help.

Claims (15)

Storing user viewing restriction identification information input through the user interface; Receiving a broadcast signal; Decoding a broadcast stream included in the received broadcast signal to parse a scene-specific viewing restriction descriptor, wherein the viewing restriction descriptor is located in a header portion of packet data of the broadcast stream; Comparing the stored user viewing restriction identification information with the parsed viewing restriction descriptor to detect a viewing restriction scene or a viewing restriction section; Skipping and displaying the detected viewing restriction scene or viewing restriction section; And And providing a guide by delaying a start time of an electronic program guide (EPG) by a time corresponding to the skipped parental control scene or a parental control section. The method of claim 1, And the user viewing restriction identification information is set based on the viewing restriction age. The method of claim 1, And the parental level technician indicates an age-specific parental level according to the scene. The method of claim 1, And the parental level technician indicates a parental level according to violence, sensibility, and language use of the scene. The method of claim 1, The parental control method of displaying a substitute image during the parental control scene or the parental control section. delete delete delete delete delete A memory for storing user viewing restriction identification information input via the user interface; A tuner unit for receiving a broadcast signal; A decoder for decoding a broadcast stream included in the received broadcast signal; A parental restriction scene detection unit for parsing a parental restriction descriptor for each scene of the decoded broadcast stream and comparing the stored user parental identification information with the parsed parental restriction descriptor to detect a parental restriction scene or a parental restriction section; A descriptor is located in a header portion of packet data of the broadcast stream; And And a display unit for skipping and displaying the detected parental control scene or the parental control section. The broadcast receiver provides a guide by delaying a start time of an electronic program guide (EPG) by a time corresponding to the skipped viewing restriction scene or viewing restriction section. 12. The method of claim 11, And the user viewing restriction identification information is set through a user setting application and stored in the memory. 13. The method of claim 12, And the user viewing restriction identification information is set based on the viewing restriction age. 12. The method of claim 11, And the parental control scene detection unit detects a scene having a value higher than the user parental control identification information as the parental control scene or the parental control section. 12. The method of claim 11, And an image processor configured to perform at least one of skipping the parental control scene or a scene section and inserting a substitute image.

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