KR101523380B1 - Method for providing interactive service - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention discloses a method for providing an interactive service. The present invention provides a method comprising: identifying a interactive application that is requested by a monitoring application; Receiving and caching data registered from the data server for the identified interactive application while the data manager is waiting for the interactive application to run; And controlling at least one of the interactive application and the data manager to expose the data when the interactive application is activated. The waiting time of the user of the interactive service including the data according to the present invention can be reduced.

Interactive services, data, manager, cache, monitoring application, data manager, system

Description

{Method for providing interactive service}

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an interactive service providing method, and more particularly, to a method for reducing waiting time of an interactive service providing data useful to a user.

Currently, the digital broadcasting standard is divided into three categories: DVB-MHP (Digital Video Broadcasting - Multimedia Home Platform) in Europe, ATSCDASE (Advanced Television Systems Committee) in the United States, Open Cable Application Platform (OCAP) ), And other standardization organizations.

Recently, digital broadcasting standards have been actively researched, and broadcasting signals including video, audio, and data have been compression-processed into digital signals. As a result, multi-channelization of TV broadcasting has become possible, It is possible to provide a variety of programs.

In addition, independent interactive services such as weather, fortune-telling, news, securities, email, electronic program guides (EPG), TV shopping, banking, telephone services and Internet search, and data related directly or indirectly Information) can be provided.

In an interactive service, a head-end combines data provided to a user (e.g., weather, news, various texts collected from a securities server, and graphic information) and an interactive application to provide the combined service to a user.

Here, the interactive application may be an application program executed on the basis of a JVM (Java Virtual Machine) at the broadcast receiving terminal.

Currently, the data that is combined with interactive applications is mainly provided by the object carousel method.

The broadcast receiving terminal downloads the interactive application from the head end when the user has an interactive service request, and loads the interactive application into the memory and drives the same.

The interactive application, which is then activated, requests data to be provided to a predetermined server, and receives data from the server.

Conventionally, the interactive application is started, and the service is started only after the interactive application receives the necessary data from the server.

Therefore, conventionally, there is a problem that a waiting time for starting an interactive service requires a considerable time because it includes a data reception time outside the waiting time of the interactive application.

Meanwhile, recently, interactive services provide advertisement data.

Advertisements provided by interactive services are provided in a form of multimedia such as image, voice, and video gradually from simple text. In addition, in the past, advertisements which were provided only in one direction are being developed into a form in which users can directly participate and interact with each other.

Recently, when an advertisement is selected during the interactive service, detailed information about the product introduced by the advertisement is output, so that the user can obtain various information about the product, and furthermore, it can participate in the questionnaire and purchase the product .

When providing an interactive service including such an advertisement, the driven interactive application requests predetermined data to the data server according to a predetermined schedule, and receives and outputs the related data from the data server. Also, when there is advertisement data related to the interactive application, the advertisement server requests the advertisement data to the advertisement server, and receives and outputs the advertisement data.

Generally, an interactive application is activated and an interactive service is provided to the user when the initial advertisement data is received. The time taken for the interactive application to be activated is approximately 5 seconds to 10 seconds, and the time required for requesting and receiving the advertisement data is 3 seconds to 5 seconds. Thus, a latency of up to 15 seconds is required to provide interactive services including advertising.

As described above, since the process of requesting and receiving the related data is performed after the running of the interactive application, there is a problem that a lot of waiting time is required for the user to use the interactive service.

Even if it is an interactive service that provides useful information in a broadcast service, when a user who requests an immediate service is taken into account, a user is required to wait for 10 seconds or more, which is a big obstacle to the activation of the interactive service.

In general, interactive services are forced to include advertising data for the service provider's profits. It is difficult to immediately display advertisements on interactive services in terms of the time mentioned above.

Therefore, there is an urgent need for a method of guaranteeing exposure of advertisement data in an interactive service and not requiring a large waiting time for a user.

In order to solve the problems of the related art as described above, it is an object of the present invention to provide an interactive service providing method capable of greatly reducing waiting time of an interactive service providing predetermined data.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an interactive service providing method capable of reducing waiting time of an interactive service that provides advertisement data together.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a monitoring application identifies an interactive application requested by a user. Receiving and caching data registered from the data server for the identified interactive application while the data manager is waiting for the interactive application to run; And controlling the exposure of the data by at least one of the interactive application and the data manager when the interactive application is driven.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for controlling an interactive application, the method comprising: monitoring whether an interactive application is activated; Receiving a predetermined interactive service request by a user; Receiving and caching data registered for the interactive application from a data server while waiting for an interactive application for the service to wait; And exposing the cached data when the interactive application is activated.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a recording medium on which a program of instructions executable by a digital processing apparatus to provide an interactive service is tangibly embodied and can be read by a digital processing apparatus, Receiving interactive application identification information requested by the user; Requesting the data server for registered data for the requested interactive application; Receiving the registered data from the data server; And a step of caching the received data.

According to the present invention, a data manager installed in a broadcast receiving terminal can request, receive, and cache data in advance before operating an interactive application in cooperation with a monitoring application, thereby reducing wait time for providing an interactive service.

While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the invention is not intended to be limited to the particular embodiments, but includes all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention. Like reference numerals are used for like elements in describing each drawing.

It is to be understood that when an element is referred to as being "connected" or "connected" to another element, it may be directly connected or connected to the other element, . On the other hand, when an element is referred to as being "directly connected" or "directly connected" to another element, it should be understood that there are no other elements in between.

The terminology used in this application is used only to describe a specific embodiment and is not intended to limit the invention. The singular expressions include plural expressions unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. In the present description, the terms "comprises" or "having", etc. are intended to specify that there are stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, parts or combinations thereof, But do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, or combinations thereof.

Unless defined otherwise, all terms used herein, including technical or scientific terms, have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. Terms such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries are to be interpreted as having a meaning consistent with the contextual meaning of the related art and are to be interpreted as either ideal or overly formal in the sense of the present application Do not.

 Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In order to facilitate a thorough understanding of the present invention, the same reference numerals are used for the same means regardless of the number of the drawings.

1 is a block diagram illustrating an interactive service providing system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

1, an interactive service providing system according to the present invention may include a head-end 100 and a data server 102, and may include a head end 100 and a data server 102, And one or more broadcast receiving terminals 104 connected via a network.

The head end 100 processes a broadcast program provided on a predetermined channel and transmits the broadcast program to the broadcast receiving terminal 104. [

Here, the broadcast program may include not only a program provided in real time but also an on-demand video provided in a downloading manner according to a user's request.

The headend 100 encodes the video of the broadcast program into a transport stream of a predetermined format, for example, Moving Picture Experts Group-2 (MPEG-2) scheme.

In addition, the headend 100 scrambles video for restricted reception so that other users other than the legitimate subscriber can not access the broadcast program, and then transmits the scrambled video to the broadcast receiving terminal 104 via the network.

The broadcast receiving terminal 104 may be a set-top box that processes and reproduces a transport stream transmitted from the headend 100 and executes an interactive application according to a user's request.

Here, the network may include the Internet, a cable network, a satellite communication network, and a terrestrial network.

On the other hand, the headend 100 can provide the broadcast receiving terminal 104 with an interactive application for using various additional services and providing bidirectional services, as well as a broadcast program.

The interactive application is independent of or cooperates with the broadcast program and provides useful data to the user. The interactive application includes weather, fortune, news, securities, e-mail, electronic program guide (EPG), TV shopping, banking, And an interactive interactive application capable of providing data (additional information) directly or indirectly related to a broadcast program.

The broadcast receiving terminal 104 processes the broadcast signal (video, audio, and data) corresponding to the channel selected by the user and provides the processed signal to the user.

An operating system and middleware for application execution are installed in the broadcast receiving terminal 104. An interactive application according to a request of the user is downloaded from the head end 100 and the corresponding interactive application is driven and data To the user.

The interactive application outputs an interface for requesting a predetermined service by a user, and parses data associated with the application to output text, graphics, video, and audio.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the broadcast receiving terminal 104 requests data registered for the interactive application to the data server 102 before the interactive application is started, that is, during the standby time for the interactive application, And performs a process of receiving and caching data.

The data server 102 registers data provided by each interactive service in advance, and registers the latest data in cooperation with a weather server, a stock server, a news server, and the like.

Here, the broadcast receiving terminal 104 and the data server 102 may be connected through a return path.

2, the broadcast receiving terminal 104 according to the present invention may include a monitoring application 200, a data manager 202, and an interactive application 204 driven according to a user's request have.

The monitoring application 200 monitors the status of the broadcast receiving terminal 104 while continuously executing the broadcast receiving terminal, and monitors the interactive application requested by the user or the currently watched channel information.

The monitoring application 200 is used as a navigator in the MHP (Multimedia Home Platform), which is a European digital TV standard, and as a monitor application in the OCAP (Open Cable Applications Platform) Platform) is used in the term observer.

However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and a system application for monitoring interactive applications and channel information according to the present invention may be included in the scope of the monitoring application 200 according to the present invention.

The data manager 202 is used for caching data necessary for driving the interactive application 204 and for controlling exposure of data. The data manager 202 can be defined as a system application of the middleware, like the monitoring application 200.

Here, the data cached by the data manager 202 is static data such as text, image, audio, and video that are commonly provided to a specific interactive service regardless of the user, and static data is dynamic The concept is contrasted with data.

Here, the dynamic data may include, for example, data provided on a screen when a specific user makes a purchase purchase request through the broadcast receiving terminal 104, or data provided when detailed information of a specific product is requested, Data provided.

According to the present invention, the monitoring application 200 identifies the interactive application requested by the user, and the data manager 202 requests the registered data for the identified interactive application to the data server 102.

Thereafter, the data manager 202 caches the data transmitted by the data server 102 in a memory.

The interactive application 204 in which the drive is started exposes the cached data to a predefined area.

At this time, the interactive application 204 can transmit a predetermined command to the data manager 202 without directly controlling the exposure of the data, and allow the data manager 202 to directly perform exposure of the data.

According to the present invention, the data manager 202, which is interlocked with the monitoring application 200, performs a process of requesting, receiving, and caching data to be provided to the user independently of the waiting for the interactive application.

Accordingly, when the interactive application is driven, the waiting time for requesting / receiving data, that is, the process of requesting and receiving data from the data server 102 by the interactive application is omitted, The service can be provided immediately.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a detailed configuration of a data manager according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

3, the data manager according to the present invention may include a monitoring application interworking module 300, a data server communication module 302, a cache management module 304, and an exposure control module 306. [

The monitoring application interworking module 300 receives identification information about an interactive application currently in a standby state from the monitoring application 200. [

When the interactive application identification information is received, the data server communication module 302 requests the data server 102 to register the data for the interactive application, and receives the data from the data server 102.

Data corresponding to each interactive application is registered in advance in the data server 102 according to the present invention.

Here, the data may be various kinds of data classified according to services provided to users such as weather, securities, news, games, and the like, and each service server (for example, weather server, It can be updated to the latest data in conjunction.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, data provided from the data server 102 to the broadcast receiving terminal 104 may include advertisement data as well as data for various services.

In this case, the data server 102 stores advertisement data for each interactive application.

When the interactive service includes advertisement data, the data server communication module 302 requests the advertisement data registered for the interactive application according to the user's request to the data server 102, and transmits the advertisement data from the data server 102 .

According to the present invention, the data server 102 may transmit, along with advertisement data, advertisement identification information for identifying the advertisement data, advertisement type information about the type of advertisement data, and schedule information to the broadcast receiving terminal 104.

Here, the advertisement data is content exposed in the advertisement area, and the advertisement type information is information for identifying the advertisement data as text, audio clip, video clip, banner, flash, and still image.

The schedule information is information on an exposure order, an update period, and the like of a plurality of pieces of advertisement data in a predetermined interactive service.

The cache management module 304 caches the received data in the memory provided in the broadcast receiving terminal 104.

As described above, the data request, reception, and cache can be performed during the waiting time of the interactive application. When the interactive application is activated, the exposure control module 306 outputs the data to the predefined area.

On the other hand, if the interactive application directly controls data exposure, the exposure control module 306 may only communicate with the interactive application to perform the process of transmitting the cached data.

Meanwhile, according to the present invention, the monitoring application interworking module 300 can receive a driving end message of the interactive application from the monitoring application 200. [

Upon termination of the running of the interactive application, the cache management module 304 performs a process of deleting the previously cached data.

Then, when another interactive application runs, the registered data is cached for the corresponding interactive application.

In the above description, the data of the interactive application according to the request of the user is cached in advance.

Here, the request of the user according to the present invention may directly request execution of the predetermined interactive application by the user, but may also be defined as a channel change request of the user.

The standalone interactive application is provided regardless of the channel viewed by the user, and can be selectively provided only when there is a request for execution of the interactive application of the user.

Thus, as shown in FIG. 4A, the standalone interactive application is in a standby state (step 402) when there is a direct interactive application execution request from the user (step 400) A cache process is performed (step 404).

Thereafter, the interactive application is driven (step 406). Here, the data is immediately exposed immediately after the interactive application is started (step 408)

Meanwhile, the interactive interactive application is provided in cooperation with a channel viewed by the user, and can be requested by the user at any time during the viewing of the channel.

Generally, a source ID is assigned to each channel in digital broadcasting.

The data manager 202 according to the present invention may further include a channel information storage module 308. The channel information storage module 308 stores interlocked interactive application identification information matched to each source ID.

The monitoring application interworking module 300 receives the source ID information about the changed channel from the monitoring application 200 when the user requests the channel change.

When the source ID information is received, the data server communication module 302 refers to the channel information storage module 308 to search for an interactive application matched with the source ID, and transmits data about the discovered interactive application to the data server 102 ).

In the above description, the data manager 202 receives source ID information from the monitoring application 200. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and may be applied to an application programming interface (API) The source ID information may be received.

According to the present invention, in the case of the interactive interactive application, since the process of caching data in advance is performed only by the request of the channel change of the user, the interactive service can be provided in a short time during the channel viewing.

As shown in FIG. 4B, in the interactive interactive application, when a channel change is made (step 410), the data cache process of the data manager 202 is performed (step 412).

Thereafter, if there is an interactive service request from the user watching the channel (step 414), the interlocked interactive application is put in a standby state for driving the interlocked interactive application (step 416).

After the interlocking interactive application is activated (step 418), the data is immediately exposed (step 420).

Of course, in the interlocking interactive application, if the data cache is performed according to the direct execution request of the user, the same operation as in the standalone interactive application can be performed as shown in FIG. 4A.

4C, when the interactive application is requested (step 430), not only the waiting time for the interactive application (step 432) but also after the interactive application is started (step 434) 436), the interactive service is initiated (step 436).

4A to 4C, the interactive service providing method according to the present invention can provide an interactive service without requiring a user to wait a lot of waiting time because the data provided to the user during the standby of the interactive application is cached .

Hereinafter, an interactive service providing process according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 5 to FIG.

5 is a flowchart illustrating a process of providing an interactive service according to an embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a diagram illustrating a process performed when a user requests a direct interactive application execution.

Referring to FIG. 5, the monitoring application 200 determines whether there is a user's stand-alone or interactive service request (step 500). If there is an interactive service request, the monitoring application 200 identifies the corresponding interactive application Information to the data manager 202 (step 502).

The data manager 202 requests data for the interactive application to the data server 102 (step 504).

Where the data request may include interactive application identification information.

Data for each interactive application is registered in advance in the data server 102 (step 506).

As described above, the data registered for the interactive application may include data and advertisement data for direct service provision.

When a data request is received from the data manager 202, the data server 102 extracts the registered data for the interactive application (step 508) and transmits it to the data manager 202 (step 510).

The data manager 202 caches the data in memory (step 512).

If the advertisement data is provided, the data provided in step 514 may include advertisement identification information, advertisement type information, and schedule information.

Thereafter, when the interactive application 204 is activated, the data manager 202 controls the exposure of the data in conjunction with the interactive application 204 (step 514).

On the other hand, if the user requests the termination of the interactive service (step 516), the monitoring application 200 transmits the end message of the interactive application to the data manager 202 (step 518).

Upon receiving the drive termination message, the data manager 202 deletes the cached data (step 520).

6 is a flowchart illustrating an interactive service providing process according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 illustrates a process of caching data through source ID identification of a channel in an interworking interactive application.

Referring to FIG. 6, the monitoring application 200 determines whether there is a channel change request (step 600). If there is a channel change request of the user, the monitoring application 200 determines whether a linked interactive application is included in the changed channel (Step 602).

If an interlocking interactive application is included, the monitoring application 200 sends the source ID of the changed channel to the data manager 202 (step 604).

The data manager 202 searches for the identification information of the interactive application matched to the source ID (step 606), and requests data for the interactive application found in the data server 102 (step 608).

As described above, the data for each interactive application is registered in advance in the data server 102 (step 610).

If there is a request for data from the data manager 202, the data server 102 extracts the registered data for the interactive application (step 612) and transmits it to the data manager 202 (step 614).

The data manager 202 caches the data in memory (step 616).

Thereafter, when the interlocking interactive application is driven according to the user's request during viewing the channel of the user, the data manager 202 controls the exposure of the data in cooperation with the interactive application 204 (step 618).

On the other hand, if the user requests the termination of the interactive service (step 620), the monitoring application 200 transmits an operation end message of the interactive application to the data manager 202 (step 622).

In steps 620 to 622, the monitoring application 200 may transmit the above-described driving termination message to the data manager 202 even when there is a user's channel change request.

Upon receiving the drive termination message, the data manager 202 deletes the cached data (step 624).

It will be apparent to those skilled in the relevant art that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. The appended claims are to be considered as falling within the scope of the following claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an interactive service providing system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention; FIG.

2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a broadcast receiving terminal according to the present invention;

3 is a diagram showing a detailed configuration of a data manager according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

4A to 4C are diagrams for comparing waiting time for providing an interactive service according to the present invention and the related art.

5 is a flowchart illustrating a process of providing an interactive service according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an interactive service providing process according to another embodiment of the present invention; FIG.

Claims (12)

The monitoring application identifying the interactive application requested by the user; Receiving and caching data registered from the data server for the identified interactive application while the data manager is waiting for the interactive application to run; And Controlling at least one of the interactive application and the data manager to expose the data in a predefined area when the interactive application is driven, Wherein the data is static data including at least one of text, image, audio, and video commonly provided to a service by the interactive application regardless of a user. The method according to claim 1, Wherein the monitoring application and the data manager are system applications of middleware. delete The method according to claim 1, Wherein the data includes at least one of advertisement data, advertisement identification information for identifying advertisement data, advertisement type information related to an advertisement data type, and schedule information. 5. The method of claim 4, Wherein the schedule information includes at least one of an exposure order and an update period for a plurality of pieces of advertisement data. The method according to claim 1, And the data manager deletes the cached data when the end of the driving of the driven interactive application is confirmed in the monitoring application. The method according to claim 1, Searching for an interactive application matched with a source ID of a changed channel if the channel change is present, Wherein the cache step receives and caches data registered for the discovered interactive application from the data server. Receiving a predetermined interactive service request by a user; Receiving and caching data registered for the interactive application from a data server while waiting for an interactive application for the service to wait; And Exposing the cached data to a predefined area when the interactive application is running, Wherein the data is static data including at least one of text, image, audio, and video commonly provided to a service by the interactive application regardless of a user. A recording medium on which a program of instructions executable by a digital processing apparatus to provide an interactive service is tangibly embodied and which can be read by a digital processing apparatus, Receiving interactive application identification information requested by a user from a monitoring application; Requesting the data server for registered data for the requested interactive application; Receiving the registered data from the data server; Caching the received data; And Performing a step of controlling the data to be exposed in a predefined area, Wherein the data is static data including at least one of text, image, audio, and video commonly provided regardless of a user in a service by the interactive application. 10. The method of claim 9, Wherein the step of caching the data is performed while the interactive application is waiting for execution. 10. The method of claim 9, Further comprising the step of deleting the cached data when receiving the drive end message of the interactive application from the monitoring application. 10. The method of claim 9, Performing a step of searching for an interactive application matching a source ID of a changed channel when there is a channel change, Wherein the requesting step requests data registered with the discovered interactive application to the data server.

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