KR101384819B1 - Contents processing server and control method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a content processing server and a control method thereof. The control method of the content processing server comprises the following steps: storing a database in which a piece of client identification information and a piece of service subscription identification information are matched; extracting the service subscription identification information and service content identification information from a content using request signal when the signal is received from a communication terminal; extracting client identification information matched with the extracted service subscription identification information from the database; determining if there is a content using authority corresponding to the service content identification information after matching the extracted client identification information and service content identification information using the database; and processing the corresponding content.

Description

Content processing server and its control method {CONTENTS PROCESSING SERVER AND CONTROL METHOD THEREOF}

The present invention relates to a content processing server and a method of controlling the same, and more particularly, a content processing server for linking content purchase states between different services so that content purchased from any one service can be used by another service and the same. It relates to a control method.

With the recent development of communication technology, the types of terminals owned or used by users have been diversified.

For example, users may own and use various PCs such as personal computers (PCs), set-top boxes (STBs), smartphones, and iPads at the same time.

These various types of terminals can use the registered content only by subscribing to each service and purchasing the content.

For example, a user with an STB terminal must subscribe to the Internet TV (IPTV) service to purchase content corresponding to the IPTV service, and a user with a personal computer must subscribe to the Internet service to purchase content corresponding to the Internet service. The user having a smart phone must subscribe to a mobile communication service and purchase contents corresponding to the mobile communication service.

However, in the related art, the content purchase history is not shared between different services, and therefore, the user purchases the content purchased from the first service (for example, IPTV service) in the second service (for example, mobile communication service). Had to purchase new content from the second service.

In this case, it is a matter of course that the following function of the inter-service content (that is, the function of allowing the second service to watch the content that was viewed halfway in the first service) may not be provided to the user.

Patent Publication 10-2005-0121663

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and an object thereof is to provide a content processing server and a method of controlling the same, which allow seamless use of content purchased from different services.

In order to achieve the above object, the content processing server according to the present invention includes a customer table in which customer identification information and at least one service subscription identification information match, and a service table in which service subscription identification information and service content identification information match. A database section; When the content use request signal is received from the communication terminal, service subscription identification information and service content identification information are extracted from the content use request signal, and information for extracting customer identification information matching the extracted service subscription identification information from the database unit. An extraction unit; An authority judging unit judging whether the customer identification information extracted by the information extraction unit matches the service content identification information by using the database unit, and determining whether there is a right to use the content corresponding to the service content identification information; And a content processing unit for processing the corresponding content according to the determination of the authority determining unit.

In addition, to achieve the above object, a control method of a content processing server according to the present invention comprises the steps of: storing a database in which customer identification information and at least one service subscription identification information is matched; If a content use request signal is received from a communication terminal, extracting service subscription identification information and service content identification information from the content use request signal; Extracting customer identification information matched with the extracted service subscription identification information from the database; Determining whether or not the extracted customer identification information and the service content identification information are matched by using the database to determine whether there is a right to use content corresponding to the service content identification information; And processing the corresponding content according to the determination.

As described above, according to the present invention, if the content is purchased only in one service without having to purchase the same content for each service, the corresponding content can be used in other services.

In addition, content that was being played in another service can be seamlessly played back in a terminal using another service.

Depending on whether the service subscriber identification information and the customer identification information are matched, the service content identification information and the representative content identification information may be selectively used, or content purchased from another service may be separately used, or rights management may be separately performed for each service. . That is, the right to use may be given only for content purchased from each service.

1 is a schematic structural diagram of an entire communication system including a content processing server according to an embodiment of the present invention,
2 is a functional block diagram of the content processing server of FIG. 1,
3 is an example of each table included in the database of FIG.
4 is a control flowchart of a content processing server according to an embodiment of the present invention.

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

A schematic configuration of an entire communication system including a content processing server 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG.

As shown in the figure, the entire communication system includes a content processing server 100, a set-top box (STB) 200 connected to an IPTV, a pad 300 for performing Wi-Fi communication, and a smartphone 400 for accessing a mobile communication network. It is configured to include.

Peripheral devices other than the content processing server 100, that is, the devices directly manipulated by the user are not limited to those illustrated in FIG. 1.

In this embodiment, the user operates the peripheral devices to subscribe to a service corresponding to each peripheral device to purchase the content.

That is, the user may subscribe to the IPTV service of the content processing server 100 by manipulating the set-top box 200 or use the pad 300 to subscribe to the pad 300 service of the content processing server 100. Alternatively, the smart phone 400 may be used to subscribe to the mobile communication network service of the content processing server 100.

Here, the method of subscribing to each service and performing a kind of login process for using the corresponding service uses a known technology.

For example, in order to log in to an IPTV service using the set-top box 200, the set-top box 200 may transmit the mac address of the set-top box 200 to the content processing server 100 according to a user's operation. In order to log in to the mobile communication network service using the 400, the smartphone 400 may transmit the terminal telephone number to the content processing server 100 according to a user's manipulation.

In this case, the content processing server 100 transmits service subscription identification information corresponding to the logged-in service to the terminal (set-top box 200, smartphone 400, etc.), even if the same user is assigned to each service. Service subscription identification information for each other is distinguished from each other. A more detailed description thereof will be given later.

As such, the service subscription identification information is set differently for each service. For the interworking between the services, the user may input a unique specific value such as a social security number when registering for each service.

Meanwhile, referring to the main functions of the content processing server 100, a database in which customer identification information and at least one service subscription identification information are matched is stored, and when a content use request signal is received from the communication terminal, the service is provided from the content use request signal. Extracting the subscription identification information and the service content identification information, extracting customer identification information matching the extracted service subscription identification information from the database, and determining whether the extracted customer identification information and the service content identification information are matched using the database; It is determined whether there is a right to use the content corresponding to the service content identification information (for example, whether to purchase the content).

Specific functional blocks of the content processing server 100 are as shown in FIG. 2.

As shown in the figure, the content processing server 100 includes an information extracting unit 120, an authority determining unit 130, a content processing unit 140, a database unit 110, and a usage record checking unit 150. Can be configured.

The database unit 110 includes a customer table with matching customer identification information and at least one service subscription identification information, and a service table with matching service subscription identification information and service content identification information. One service content identification information may further include a matched content table.

An example of the service table is as shown in FIG. 3 (a), an example of the customer table is as shown in FIG. 3 (b), and an example of the content table is as shown in FIG. 3 (c). .

First, referring to the service table of FIG. 3A, service subscription identification information, service content identification information, and time stamps are matched.

In this case, the service subscription identification information means identification information (for example, an identification number) assigned to a subscriber who subscribes for each service, and the same person is assigned different service subscription identification information for each service. Here, the service may be distinguished according to the type of each terminal. For example, the case of accessing the content using the set-top box 200 and the case of accessing the content using the smartphone 400 may use different services. have. This may be said that the set-top box 200 and the smartphone 400 use different services because the format may be changed according to the corresponding terminal even if the received content is the same.

Looking at the format of the service subscription identification information, 'SVC_1_1' refers to the first subscriber to the first service, 'SVC_2_5' refers to the fifth subscriber to the second service.

Here, the subscribers corresponding to each service subscription identification information may be the same person or different people.

For example, when the same person "Customer_1" subscribes to the first service, the service subscription identification information of "SVC_1_1" may be assigned, and the service subscription identification information "SVC_2_5" is assigned to the second service subscription. You can get it.

The service content identification information corresponds to identification information (for example, an identification number) of content for each service, which is registered for each service and immediately available upon request of a user. Different service content identification information may be allocated to each service for the same content.

Looking at the format of the service content identification information, 'Asset_1_2' means the second generated content among the contents used in the first service, and 'Asset_2_7' means the seventh generated content among the contents used in the second service. do.

The time stamp indicates a location where the subscriber corresponding to the service subscription identification information has watched or used the content corresponding to the service content identification information. In this embodiment, the time stamp means a playback time.

For example, the subscriber 'SVC_1_1' means that the user watched the content of 'Asset_1_2' for 7 minutes and 51 seconds.

Here, the match between the subscriber 'SVC_1_1' and the content 'Asset_1_2' means that the subscriber 'SVC_1_1' purchases the content 'Asset_1_2' and is immediately available.

For example, if there is a login request from the user through the set-top box 200, the content processing server 100 transmits the service subscription identification information corresponding to the login request to the set-top box 200 after performing the login process. When there is a content purchase request or a content use request including service subscription identification information and service content identification information from the set-top box 200, the service subscription identification information and the service content identification information are matched with the service table of FIG. It is to check whether the content has been purchased or whether the user has permission to use the content.

As such, determining whether to purchase content and use authority for each service by using a service table corresponds to a known technology, and thus a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

In FIG. 3 (a), all service subscription identification information of all users is collected in one table, but each service may have a separate table to match service subscription identification information with service content identification information. to be.

The method of making a payment for service subscription and content purchase is also a well-known technology, and thus a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

Next, looking at the customer table of Figure 3 (b), the customer identification information and the service subscription identification information is matched.

In this case, the customer identification information means unique identification information (for example, an identification number) for each customer, and the service subscription identification information, as described above, refers to identification information (for example, an identification number) assigned to a subscriber who subscribes for each service. it means.

For example, a person named "Customer_1" is assigned a service subscription identification information called "SVC_1_1" when a person subscribes to a first service, and "SVC_2_5" as a person named "Customer_1" joins a second service. 3 (b) shows that the service subscription identification information of 'A' is assigned, and the service subscription identification information of 'SVC_3_2' is assigned as the same person named 'Customer_1' subscribes to the third service. .

Referring to the customer table of FIG. 3 (b), 'SVC_1_1', 'SVC_2_5', and 'SVC_3_2' included in the first to fourth records of FIG. 3 (a) are all the same customer, that is, each service subscription of the customer_1. It can be seen that the identification information. As such, even the same customer has different identification information for each service, and the different service subscription identification information is matched with customer identification information (which may be the social security number entered during membership registration), which is unique identification information for each customer in the customer table. Can be stored.

Finally, referring to the content table of FIG. 3C, representative content identification information and service content identification information are matched.

Here, the representative content identification information means unique identification information for each content, and the service content identification information means content identification information registered for each service as described above.

Therefore, even the same content may have different service content identification information for each service. This is because even the same content may not be maintained in the same form, such as being encoded in a different format for each service.

That is, a video called 'content_1' may be encoded and provided in a high quality format to an IPTV service subscriber, and encoded and provided in a low quality format to a mobile communication service subscriber using the smartphone 400. The service content identification information of the encoded file may be 'Asset_1_3' and the service content identification information of the encoded file for the mobile service subscriber may be 'Asset_5_2'.

When the content use request signal is received from the communication terminal, for example, the set-top box 200, the information extractor 120 extracts the service subscription identification information and the service content identification information from the content use request signal, and extracts the extracted service subscription identification information. Extracts customer identification information matched from the database unit 110.

In the present embodiment, unless otherwise stated, 'SVC_1_1' is included as service subscription identification information and 'Asset_1_21' is included as service content identification information in the content use request signal received from the communication terminal, that is, the set-top box 200. Assume that it is.

In this case, the information extracting unit 120 searches the service table of FIG. 3 (a) to determine whether 'SVC_1_1' and 'Asset_1_21' match each other, and if it matches with each other, the authority determining unit 130 to be described later. In this case, it is determined that the corresponding content has already been purchased and available. If not matched with each other, as shown in FIG. 3 (a), the information extractor 120 matches the customer identification information matching 'SVC_1_1' with FIG. 3. It is extracted by using the customer table of (b). Referring to FIG. 3B, 'customer_1' matching 'SVC_1_1' is extracted.

In this case, the information extracting unit 120 may extract customer identification information from the database unit 110 and then extract all service subscription identification information corresponding to the customer identification information from the database unit 110.

For example, the information extracting unit 120 may extract all service subscription identification information matched with 'customer_1', that is, 'SVC_1_1', 'SVC_2_5', and 'SVC_3_2' using the customer table of FIG. 3 (b). It can be.

In addition, the information extraction unit 120 may extract representative content identification information matched with the service content identification information from the database unit 110, more specifically, the content table of FIG. 3C.

That is, in the present embodiment, 'content _3' matching 'Asset_1_21' is extracted as representative content identification information.

The authority determining unit 130 determines whether the customer identification information extracted by the information extracting unit 120, that is, 'customer_1' and the service content identification information are matched using a database, to purchase content corresponding to the service content identification information. Determine whether or not.

At this time, the authority determining unit 130 determines whether to purchase the content corresponding to the service content identification information according to whether the service subscription identification information and the service content identification information extracted by the information extraction unit 120 are matched with the database unit 110. Can be determined.

More specifically, the authority determining unit 130 may determine whether the service content identification information matched with the service content identification information extracted by the information extraction unit 120 matches another service content identification information matched with the representative content identification information. It may be determined whether there is a right to use corresponding content, for example, whether to purchase it.

For example, the authority determining unit 130 may include service subscription identification information matching 'customer_1', that is, 'Asset_1_21', 'SVC_1_1', 'SVC_2_5', 'SVC_3_2' and 'Content_3', It is determined whether or not 'Asset_2_7' and 'Asset_3_1' correspond to each other using the service table of FIG. 3 (a).

Referring to the service table of FIG. 3 (a), it can be seen that 'SVC_2_5' and 'Asset_2_7' match each other. This means that a person named 'customer_1' subscribes to a second service and has already purchased and used 'Asset_2_7' corresponding to the content 'Asset_1_21'.

As another example, when the content use request signal received from the set-top box 200 includes 'SVC_1_1' as service subscription identification information and 'Asset_1_14' as service content identification information, the authority determining unit 130 The service subscription identification information matched to 'customer_1', that is, whether 'SVC_1_1', 'SVC_2_5', 'SVC_3_2' and 'Asset_1_14' and 'Asset_3_6' matched to 'Content_4' correspond to each other. Judgment is made using the service table in a). Looking at the service table of FIG. 3 (A), it can be seen that 'SVC_3_2' and 'Asset_3_6' match each other. This means that a person named 'customer_1' subscribes to a third service and already purchases 'Asset_3_6' corresponding to the content 'Asset_1_14' and has a use right.

The content processor 140 processes the corresponding content according to the determination of the authority determiner 130.

For example, as in the previous example, when the content use request signal received from the set-top box 200 includes 'SVC_1_1' as service subscription identification information and 'Asset_1_21' as service content identification information, the authority determining unit ( If it is determined in step 130) that a person named 'customer_1' corresponding to 'SVC_1_1' has already purchased the 'Asset_2_7' corresponding to the content 'Asset_1_21' by subscribing to the second service, the content processing unit 140 corresponds to the corresponding content. In addition, 'Asset_1_21' may be transmitted to the set-top box 200 so that the subscriber can use or view it.

In this case, the processing of the corresponding content of the content processing unit 140 may include transmitting a message on the availability of the content to the set-top box 200.

The usage record checking unit 150 checks the usage record of the corresponding content that matches all the service subscription identification information corresponding to the customer identification information.

For example, when the content use request signal received from the set-top box 200 includes 'SVC_1_1' as service subscription identification information and 'Asset_1_21' as service content identification information, the authority determining unit 130 If a person named 'customer_1' corresponding to 'SVC_1_1' has already subscribed to the second service and determines that the user has already purchased 'Asset_2_7' corresponding to the content 'Asset_1_21', the usage record checking unit 150 determines that 'Asset_2_7' To check the timestamp of the. In the service table of Fig. 3A, 14 minutes and 26 seconds are matched by time stamps.

In this case, the content processor 140 may transmit a control signal to start playback from 14 minutes and 26 seconds when the corresponding content, that is, 'Asset_1_21' is transmitted to the set-top box 200 for playback.

Hereinafter, a control process of the content processing server 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 4.

In the description of the present embodiment, it is assumed that a communication terminal operated by a user is an LTE (Long Term Evolution) mobile phone.

When the content processing server 100 receives a CTN (telephone number) authentication request from the LTE mobile phone 400 (step S1), the content processing server 100 performs authentication processing and transmits the LTE service subscription identification information to the LTE mobile phone 400 (step S3). ).

When the content viewing request is received from the LTE mobile phone 400 (step S5), the content processing server 100 transmits the content. The LTE service subscription identification information and the service content identification information included in the request are extracted (step S7).

Subsequently, the content processing server 100 extracts customer identification information matching the LTE service subscription identification information (step S9), and extracts representative content identification information matching the service content identification information using a database provided (step S9). S11).

Thereafter, the content processing server 100 inquires the purchase history of other services using the customer identification information and the representative content identification information (step S13). In the present embodiment, for example, an LTE service, that is, a mobile communication service, does not purchase content to be watched.

The detailed process of inquiring the purchase history in other services (for example, IPTV service) is the same as described above, and thus redundant description is omitted.

If the desired content has already been purchased from another service (step S15), the content processing server 100 continues using the time stamp matched with the purchased content according to the selection of the replay from the LTE mobile phone 400 (step S17). If the view is processed (step S19), and the subsequent view is not selected from the LTE mobile phone 400, playback processing is performed from the first section (step S21).

If the corresponding service is not purchased in other services (step S15), the content processing server 100 confirms whether or not the purchase is made by the user (step S23), processes the content purchase, and transmits the result to the LTE mobile phone 400 ( Step S25).

In the above-described embodiment, only the case where the representative content identification information is matched with each service content identification information has been described as an example. However, an asset that does not match the representative content may exist among specific assets.

Therefore, the content processing server first checks whether there is representative content identification information matched with the requested service content identification information, and if the representative content identification information matching the requested service content identification information exists as described above. Similarly, other service content identification information corresponding to the representative content identification information may be inquired. If the representative content identification information matching the requested service content identification information does not exist, the corresponding service content identification information corresponding to the requested service content identification information may be used. This can be done depending on whether the asset is matched to the user.

In this case, there is an advantage that a kind of content copyright can be managed for each service.

This also applies to the relationship between customer identification information and service subscription identification information.

That is, in the above-described embodiment, only the case where the customer identification information is matched with each service content subscription identification information has been described as an example. However, the user of the specific service, that is, the specific service content subscription identification information, is represented by the representative user, May not match.

Therefore, the content processing server first checks whether there is customer identification information matched with the service subscription identification information requesting the use of the content, and if the customer identification information matching the service subscription identification information requested to use the content exists. As described above, other service subscription identification information corresponding to the customer identification information may be queried, and if the customer identification information matching the service subscription identification information which requested the use of the content does not exist, the requested service subscription identification may be performed. Processing may be performed depending on whether the information matches the service content identification information.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments, but, on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the invention. It is to be understood that such variations and modifications are intended to be included in the scope of the appended claims.

100: content processing server 200: set-top box
300: pad 400: smartphone / LTE mobile phone
110: database unit 120: information extraction unit
130: authority determination unit 140: content processing unit
150: use history check unit

Claims (8)

(a) storing a database in which customer identification information and at least one service subscription identification information match;
(b) if a content use request signal is received from the communication terminal, extracting service subscription identification information and service content identification information from the content use request signal;
(c) extracting customer identification information matching the extracted service subscription identification information from the database;
(d) determining whether or not the extracted customer identification information and the service content identification information are matched using the database to determine whether there is a right to use content corresponding to the service content identification information;
(e) controlling the content processing server according to the determination of the step (d). The method of claim 1,
The step (d)
(d1) extracting all service subscription identification information corresponding to the customer identification information extracted in the step (c) from the database;
(d2) determining whether there is a right to use content corresponding to the service content identification information according to whether the service subscription identification information extracted in the step (d1) and the service content identification information are matched with the database. Control method of the content processing server, characterized in that it comprises a. 3. The method of claim 2,
The step (d2)
Extracting representative content identification information matching the service content identification information from the database;
Whether the service content identification information matched with the representative content identification information is matched with each service subscription identification information extracted in the step (d1) or not, and whether there is a right to use the content corresponding to the service content identification information. And controlling the content processing server. The method of claim 3,
(f) checking a usage record of the corresponding content matching all the service subscription identification information corresponding to the customer identification information,
In the step (e), the control method of the content processing server, characterized in that to determine the starting point of the reproduction of the content with reference to the usage record identified in the step (f). A database unit including a customer table in which customer identification information and at least one service subscription identification information match, and a service table in which service subscription identification information and service content identification information match;
When the content use request signal is received from the communication terminal, service subscription identification information and service content identification information are extracted from the content use request signal, and information for extracting customer identification information matching the extracted service subscription identification information from the database unit. An extraction unit;
An authority judging unit judging whether the customer identification information extracted by the information extraction unit matches the service content identification information by using the database unit, and determining whether there is a right to use the content corresponding to the service content identification information;
And a content processing unit for processing the corresponding content according to the determination of the authority determining unit. 6. The method of claim 5,
The information extraction unit extracts the customer identification information from the database unit and then extracts all service subscription identification information corresponding to the customer identification information from the database unit,
The authority judging unit determines whether there is a right to use content corresponding to the service content identification information according to whether the service subscription identification information extracted by the information extraction unit and the service content identification information match the database unit. A content processing server. The method according to claim 6,
The database unit may further include a content table in which representative content identification information and at least one service content identification information are matched.
The information extraction unit extracts representative content identification information matching the service content identification information from the database unit,
The authority judging unit may use the content corresponding to the service content identification information according to whether the service content identification information matched with the representative content identification information is matched with each service subscription identification information extracted by the information extraction unit. Content processing server, characterized in that determining the existence. 8. The method of claim 7,
The apparatus may further include a usage record checking unit for confirming usage records of corresponding contents matched with all service subscription identification information corresponding to the customer identification information.
And the content processing unit determines a playback start point of the corresponding content with reference to the usage record confirmed by the usage record checking unit.

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