KR101394575B1 - System and Method of User device aware conferencing using networked services - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system and method for providing a conference service using a network service according to the capabilities of a user terminal.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of providing a conference service using a network service according to a capability of a user terminal, the method comprising: determining media conversion necessary for media transmission corresponding to a user terminal capability according to a conference service participation request; To retrieve the transcoding service location of the network device supporting the media conversion. Then, the media conversion is performed by accessing the transcoding service location, and the converted media is transmitted to the user terminal.

Description

Technical Field [0001] The present invention relates to a system and a method for providing a conference service using a network service according to a capability of a user terminal,

The present invention relates to a system and method for providing a conference service using a network service according to the capabilities of a user terminal.

The present invention relates to a conference system and a method for converting multimedia data into an optimal state by using a service registered and available on a network according to a media processing capability of a terminal used by a user participating in the conference service.

In general, a conference service provided in a conference uses a centralized media server to process media used in a conference, and transmits the mixed media to users. When a conference is provided without a separate media server, In a direct mixing manner. In order to do this, a media server or a terminal must be equipped with a technique for optimizing various types of media codecs and media. If there is no codec required, there is a problem that the media can not be received or processed or displayed. In other words, another method for solving this problem is that the necessary codec or software must be downloaded.

In addition, current media servers are limited to the number of conferences that can be supported at the same time or the number of participants per each conference, so that there is a problem that the number of conferences that can be supported at the same time,

In order to use the conference, it is necessary to consider whether the user terminal supports the service use function. On the other hand, downloading the program for the service use by the user terminal is troublesome as well as limited resources of the user terminal, . ≪ / RTI > Accordingly, there is a desperate need to provide services that can be converted into optimized services depending on the terminal capabilities and location of each user for the use of available services that exist in the Internet.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the prior art, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a conference system configuration and method for performing media conversion through a transcoding service on a network for optimal media transmission according to terminal capabilities used by users participating in a conference, The purpose is to provide.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a system for providing a conference service using a network service according to a capability of a user terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention,

A service list management unit for registering a new conference service and managing the registered service list information; A conference management unit for determining a media conversion required for media transmission corresponding to a user terminal capability requesting participation of the conference service; A service routing path management unit searching the network device supporting the media conversion through the Internet according to a request of the conference management unit and providing the transcoding service location information; And a conference data transmission manager connected to the transcoding service location to perform the media conversion and transmit the converted media to the user terminal.

Meanwhile, a method of providing a conference service using a network service according to a capability of a user terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: a) performing media conversion necessary for media transmission corresponding to a user terminal capability according to a conference service participation request; Determining; b) retrieving the transcoding service location of the network device supporting the media conversion over the Internet; And c) performing the media conversion by connecting to the transcoding service location, and transmitting the converted media to the user terminal.

According to the present invention, in providing a conference service to a plurality of users, the media transcoding required according to the media processing capability of the user terminal participating in the conference is performed in the Internet or network provider network, It is possible to reduce the burden of mounting a plurality of codecs in the terminal and the development cost.

If a new codec such as a new broadband codec or a simultaneous multimedia codec is developed in the future, it is not developed / mounted in the terminal but is registered and operated in the network. In case of changing the type of terminal used by the user in a distributed manner So that the same service can be provided flexibly and actively.

In addition, not only service providers and content providers but also ordinary individuals can expect to have an effect of contributing to the creation and activation of new services by enabling registration and provision of media conversion functions according to official procedures.

1 is a network configuration diagram for providing a conference service through various types of user terminals according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a block diagram illustrating a system configuration for providing a conference service according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIGS. 3A and 3B show conference support procedures of a conference service providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a block diagram illustrating a service registration, deletion, and search function of the service list management unit according to an embodiment of the present invention.
5A and 5B show a block diagram of functions performed by the conference management unit according to the embodiment of the present invention.
6 is a block diagram of a service search function for media conversion in the service routing path management unit according to the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 7 illustrates a user-specific media conversion list according to an embodiment of the present invention.
8 is a block diagram of functions performed by the conference data transmission management unit according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings so that those skilled in the art can easily carry out the present invention. The present invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. In order to clearly illustrate the present invention, parts not related to the description are omitted, and similar parts are denoted by like reference characters throughout the specification.

Throughout the specification, when an element is referred to as "comprising ", it means that it can include other elements as well, without excluding other elements unless specifically stated otherwise. Also, the terms " part, "" module," and " module ", etc. in the specification mean a unit for processing at least one function or operation and may be implemented by hardware or software or a combination of hardware and software have.

Conventional services are mainly developed and provided by a service provider or a content provider. However, general users can easily develop a service in the future and register the service in the Internet or a specific network provider network by a formal method This is expected to lead to a flexible service support environment. The services mentioned here can include a wide range of services such as e-mail and messaging services, as well as services providing specific sub-functions such as video transcoding, audio transcoding, and sentence translation.

In this case, according to the embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to convert the service into an optimized service according to the terminal capability or location of each user by using available services that are available in the Internet.

For example, when a conference service uses video from a broadband codec (such as MPEG4 or H.264), when a user participating in a conference uses a terminal capable of processing only a general video codec (e.g., H.263) , It is possible to convert the media using a transcoding service (that is, a codec that converts H.264 to H.263) available for the broadband codec over the Internet, and then transmit the video. Even if a new broadband or high-quality codec is developed in the future, it is possible to provide the service in a highly scalable manner even if large users having different geographical positions participate in the conference, .

Also, during participation in the conference, the user may change the location as needed, and may participate using other types of terminals. For example, if you join a conference from your office to your laptop and then go outside, you can continue using your cell phone to attend the conference. In this case, the user can receive the high quality service by adapting the same service to the terminal capability of the user by being transmitted in the format converted to the media suitable for the mobile phone by the network.

A system and method for providing a conference service using a network service according to the capabilities of a user terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

1 is a network configuration diagram for providing a conference service through various types of user terminals according to an embodiment of the present invention.

1, a multimedia conference service in which video, audio, image, sound, text, application (e.g., online lecture, VoD, etc.) contents are provided is provided to various users through a network , The user shows a configuration model that can participate in a conference using various types of user terminals.

Various services using various types of contents are registered on a network operated by the Internet or a specific network operator. Such service management is distributed and managed by the Internet or network provider network equipment (eg, router, switch, etc.) It is the model that is searched by the search algorithm on demand.

2 is a block diagram illustrating a system configuration for providing a conference service according to an embodiment of the present invention.

A system for providing a conference service using a network service according to an embodiment of the present invention is installed in an Internet or network provider network device (e.g., a router, a switch, etc.) to search for a function or service necessary for providing a conference service, Performs the media conversion on the network according to the media processing capability of the attending user terminal, and transmits the media conversion result to the user.

2, a conference service providing system 100 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a service list management unit 110, a conference management unit 120, a service routing path management unit 130, And a conference data transmission management unit 140.

The service list management unit (Service List Manager) 110 registers or deletes new services or provides service list information managed by itself.

The conference manager 120 performs functions such as conference creation / start, participation, and withdrawal, and includes conference information (conference ID, media type, media specific support codec, , Media-specific support codec, and the like) and determines whether transcoding required for media transmission corresponding to the user terminal is necessary. In addition, when the user is informed of a change in terminal type or location being used, the terminal determines again which transcoding is necessary for the new terminal of the user. Here, the media includes video (video), audio, image, sound, text, and the like)

The service routing path manager 130 provides a function of distributing a media-dependent transcoding service (hereinafter also referred to as 'conversion service') required by the user to the Internet or a network operator's network, (ID, location, and the like) acquired via the network.

In the present invention, when the service routing path manager 130 searches for one or more transcoding services for the same media, the service routing path selects a transcoding service closest to the location of the user terminal To provide the corresponding transcoding service location and information.

The conference data transmission manager (conference data delivery manager) 140 accesses the service location when the conference service data is transmitted by using the user-specific transcoding service information provided by the service routing path management unit 130, And then transmits to the user terminal.

3A and 3B illustrate a conference support procedure of the conference service providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3A, a service list management unit 110 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention performs a service registration, a service deletion, and a service information search for officially registering a new service in the Internet or a network operator's network do.

That is, when receiving a service registration request (S301), the service list management unit 110 adds the new service to the list to be available (S302) and replies that the service registration is completed (S303).

When receiving the service deletion request (S304), the service list management unit 110 deletes the service from the list (S305) and replies that the service deletion is completed (S306).

When receiving the service list request (S307), the service list management unit 110 searches for a service based on the requested service ID in the registered service list (S308), and provides the searched service information (S309).

Next, referring to FIG. 3B, the conference management unit 120 generates a conference and determines the need to perform additional media conversion on the network before each media transmission using the user terminal capability information input through the user participation do.

That is, when receiving the conference start request from the user terminal (S310), the conference management unit 120 generates new conference information according to the received conference descriptor (S311), and replies that the conference start is completed (S312 ).

Then, the conference management unit 120 receives a conference participation request from the user terminal (S313). At this time, the conference participation request information includes at least one of supportable media capability information of the conference ID, user information, and video, audio, image, sound, and text of the user terminal.

The conference management unit 120 adds the received user terminal capability information to the corresponding conference, decides a medium required for user-specific transcoding for the conference service (S314), and responds to the user terminal that the conference participation request is completed (S315 ).

Meanwhile, when an event notifying that the terminal type and position of the user participating in the conference has been changed is generated (S316), the conference management unit 120 complements the previously stored user and user terminal information with the changed information, (S317).

Next, the service providing system 100 may perform the following procedure of searching mutual service information between distributed network devices, searching for a service location, performing media conversion, and finally transmitting the service information to the user terminal.

The conference management unit 120 requests the service routing path management unit 130 to perform a service search for the transcoding service at step S318 and the service routing path management unit 130 searches for the transcoding service object at step S319, , And returns the location and information of the transcoding service found through the search to the conference management unit 120 (S320).

After that, the conference management unit 120 transmits the per-user media conversion list to the conference data transmission management unit 140 to request the conference service transmission (S321). The conference data transmission management unit 140 performs per-user transcoding And transmits the service data to the user terminal (S322). Then, the conference data transmission result is transmitted to the conference management unit 120 (S323)

4 is a block diagram illustrating a service registration, deletion, and search function of the service list management unit according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4, the service list management unit 110 according to an embodiment of the present invention performs a service registration, deletion, and search function according to a specific request in more detail.

If there is a new service registration request (S401), the service list management unit 110 checks the reliability of the service to be registered (S402) and determines whether the reliability is satisfied (S403). The satisfaction of the reliability is determined according to the service policy applied by the service provider providing the conference type service of the present invention. If the reliability is not satisfied or the reliability is not satisfied, the process returns to the step S401. If the reliability is satisfied, the service information is added to the service list managed by the user (S404).

Alternatively, if there is a service deletion request (S405), the service list management unit 110 deletes the requested service from the service list managed by itself (S406).

Alternatively, if there is a service search request (S407), the service list management unit 110 determines whether the requested service exists in the service list managed by the service list management server 110 (S408). If the requested service exists, And provides service information (S409). On the other hand, if the requested service does not exist in step S408, it is notified to the target of the service search that there is no corresponding service information (S410).

5A and 5B are block diagrams of functions performed by the conference management unit according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIGS. 5A and 5B, when a user participates in a conference, the user terminal capability information is received and a comparison is made with respect to a codec for each media supported by the participating conference service to determine whether media conversion is necessary. A coding service is requested to the service routing path management unit 130 to acquire information.

If there is a Join Request in the conference conference generated according to the conference descriptor of the user terminal (S501, YES), the conference management unit 120 adds the user and terminal capability information to the conference (S502) . At this time, the conference descriptor includes at least one of supportable media capability information of video, audio, image, sound and text of the user terminal.

The conference management unit 120 determines whether the video codec supported by the user terminal matches the video codec to be used in the conference (S503), and determines whether the video codec of the user terminal is coincident (S504). If the video codec does not match, the service routing path management unit 130 makes a video conversion service search request (S505), receives the request result, and adds the video conversion service location to the per-user media conversion list (S506).

Next, the conference management unit 120 checks whether the user terminal can use audio (S507), and if available, determines whether the audio codec of the user terminal is coincident (S508). If the audio codecs do not coincide with each other, the service routing path management unit 130 makes an audio conversion service search request (S509), receives the request result, and adds the audio conversion service location to the per-user media conversion list (S510 ).

Next, the conference management unit 120 determines whether the user terminal can use the image (S511). If the user terminal is available, the conference management unit 120 determines whether the image codec of the user terminal is coincident (S512). At this time, if the image codec does not match, the service routing path management unit 130 makes an image conversion service search request (S513), receives the request result, and adds the image conversion service location to the per-user media conversion list (S514 ).

Next, the conference management unit 120 determines whether the user terminal can use the sound (S515), and determines whether the sound codec of the user terminal matches (S516). At this time, if the sound codecs do not match, the service routing path management unit 130 makes a sound conversion service search request (S517), receives the request result, and adds the sound conversion service location to the per-user media conversion list (S518 ).

Next, the conference management unit 120 determines whether the user terminal can use the text (S519), and determines whether the text codec of the user terminal is coincident (S520). At this time, if the text codec does not match, the service routing path management unit 130 makes a text conversion service search request (S521), receives the request result, and adds the text conversion service location to the per-user media conversion list (S522 ).

On the other hand, if there is a new conference creation request (S523), the conference management unit 120 adds conference information (ID, codec information for each media) to the list (S524) and performs the above step S501.

In addition, the conference management unit 120 changes the type of the user terminal to the changed type, and performs the steps S503 to S522 to determine whether the type of the user terminal is changed by the context manager (step S525) Recalculate media that require transcoding.

6 is a block diagram of a service search function for media conversion in the service routing path management unit according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 6, the service routing path management unit 130 according to the embodiment of the present invention receives a media-specific conversion service search request from the conference management unit 120 (S601). The media conversion service search request includes a list that requires media conversion for each user.

In step S602, the service routing path management unit 130 requests all the service list management units 110 connected thereto to manage the conversion service for the media required to be converted using the distributed search algorithm on the Internet.

When one or more conversion services are searched for the same media, the service routing path management unit 130 selects a conversion service closest to the user based on the location of the user, collects the location and information of the selected conversion service And returns it to the conference management unit 120.

Meanwhile, FIG. 7 shows a media conversion list for each user according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 7, the user-specific media conversion list stores user IDs and location / information of a video conversion service, an audio conversion service, an image conversion service, a sound conversion service, and a text conversion service. That is, in the case of user1, a video conversion service, an image conversion service, and a sound conversion service are required, and the service routing path management unit 130 collects and stores the position and information of the corresponding conversion service, respectively.

8 is a block diagram of functions performed by the conference data transmission management unit according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 8, the conference data transmission management unit 140 uses the returned media conversion list for each user to connect with a network device on which a media-specific transcoding service is located, transmits media to perform conversion, To the terminal.

Specifically, the conference data transmission management unit 140 according to the embodiment of the present invention receives the media conversion list for each user according to the conference service data transmission request of the conference management unit 120 (S801).

Next, the data transmission management unit 140 determines whether video conversion is necessary (S802). If the conversion is necessary, the data transmission management unit 140 connects the corresponding video conversion service on the basis of the per-user media conversion list, and transmits video to perform video conversion (S803). Then, the converted video is transmitted to the user terminal (S804).

If it is determined in step S802 that the audio conversion is necessary as in the above video conversion, if audio conversion is required, the audio conversion service is connected to perform conversion and transmits the converted media to the user terminal (S805 to S807). In step S807, the image conversion, the sound conversion, and the text conversion are performed in the same manner as described above, respectively, and are transmitted to the user terminal. Since the description is similar to the above-described video and audio conversion, To S816).

As described above, according to the present invention, in providing a conference service to a plurality of users, media transcoding required according to the media processing capability of a user terminal participating in a conference is performed in the Internet or network provider network, So that it is possible to reduce the burden of mounting a plurality of codecs in the terminal and the development cost. If a new codec such as a new broadband codec or a simultaneous multimedia codec is developed in the future, it is not developed / mounted in the terminal but is registered and operated in the network. In case of changing the type of terminal used by the user in a distributed manner So that the same service can be provided flexibly and actively.

In addition, not only service providers and content providers but also ordinary individuals can expect to have an effect of contributing to the creation and activation of new services by enabling registration and provision of media conversion functions according to official procedures.

The embodiments of the present invention are not limited to the above-described apparatuses and / or methods, but may be implemented through a program for realizing functions corresponding to the configuration of the embodiment of the present invention, a recording medium on which the program is recorded And such an embodiment can be easily implemented by those skilled in the art from the description of the embodiments described above.

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, It belongs to the scope of right.

Claims (11)

A service list management unit for registering a new conference service and managing the registered service list information;
A conference management unit for determining a media conversion required for media transmission corresponding to a user terminal capability requesting participation of the conference service;
A service routing path management unit searching the network device supporting the media conversion through the Internet according to a request of the conference management unit and providing the transcoding service location information; And
And a conference data transmission management unit connected to the transcoding service location to perform the media conversion and transmit the converted media to the user terminal,
The conference management unit manages conference information including a conference ID, a media type, and a media-specific support codec of the registered service, and determines a media conversion by comparing the user terminal capability with the conference information. . delete The method according to claim 1,
The conference management unit,
Wherein when the type or location of the user terminal participating in the service is changed, the media conversion necessary for the type or location of the changed user terminal is redetermined.
The method of claim 3,
The conference management unit,
And stores the transcoding service location information in a corresponding per-user media conversion list. 5. The method of claim 4,
The conference data transmission management unit,
And performs media conversion of at least one of video, audio, image, sound, and text for each user based on the user-specific media conversion list, and transmits the media conversion information to each user terminal. The method according to claim 1,
The service routing path management unit,
And selects and provides a transcoding service at a location closest to the location of the user terminal when one or more transcoding services for the same media are retrieved. A method for providing a conference service using a network service according to a capability of a user terminal,
comprising the steps of: a) determining a media conversion required for media transmission corresponding to a user terminal capability according to a conference service participation request;
b) retrieving the transcoding service location of the network device supporting the media conversion over the Internet; And
c) connecting to the transcoding service location to perform the media conversion, and transmitting the converted media to the user terminal,
Further comprising registering a new conference service and storing the conference ID and the media-specific codec information before step a). delete 8. The method of claim 7,
The step a)
Confirming at least one of supportable media capability information of video, audio, image, sound and text of the user terminal according to the conference service participation request; And
Comparing the codec information for each media of the user terminal with the codec for each media supported by the conference service,
The method comprising the steps of: 8. The method of claim 7,
The step b)
Retrieving a transcoding service location of all connected network devices using a distributed search algorithm on the Internet; And
Selecting an adjacent transcoding service location based on the location of the user
The method comprising the steps of: 8. The method of claim 7,
After step c)
Identifying a type or location change event of the user terminal participating in the service; And
And re-determining the media conversion required for the type or location of the changed user terminal
A further method of providing a conference service.

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