KR19990069722A - How to provide service guide information in the on demand service terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

end. The technical field to which the invention described in the claims belongs

The present invention relates to a method for providing service guidance information on a service of at least one service supply server that provides an on demand service from an on demand service terminal to a user from a guide information provider.

I. The technical problem to be solved by the invention

Provided is a service guide information providing method for minimizing access to a guide information provider in an on demand service terminal.

All. Summary of Solution of the Invention

When the service provider first accesses the guide information provider, the service guide information is received from the guide information provider and stored in the local memory, and when the service guide information is requested from the user, the service guide information stored in the local memory is provided to the user.

la. Important uses of the invention

Used by on demand service terminals.

Description

How to provide service guide information in the on demand service terminal

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an on demand service terminal, and in particular, receives a service guide information for a service of at least one service supply server that supplies an on demand service from a guide information provider. It is about how to give to.

In general, program guide information of the previous television (Television) broadcasts were supplied in publications such as newspapers and magazines or TV announcements. However, numerous channels and programs are provided not only for digital multi-channel broadcasting but also for various on demand services. As a result, viewers have more choices, while program selection is more complicated. Accordingly, in digital multi-channel broadcasting and VOD (Video On Demand) services, it is assumed to provide program guide information as service guide information as one of data services. The program guide information may be an EPG (Electronic Program Guide) that provides a program table or information on the contents of each program as one of data services.

In addition to on-demand video services, all on-demand services, such as news on demand (NOD), interactive video games, and interactive shopping, provide service guidance information for the service of the provisioning server. . In the present specification, "service supply server" refers to a server that supplies an on demand service, and "guide information provider" refers to a side supplying service guide information for a service of a service supply server. As an example of an on-demand video service, a service supply server corresponds to a video server that supplies a video program to a user, and a guide information provider is a top layer of an on-demand video service. Level 1 gateway).

The procedure for receiving the service to be provided from the service provision server when the user uses the on demand service will be described. First, the user accesses a guide information provider as an on demand service terminal, and receives and confirms service guide information such as a program list. After that, select the information or service such as the actual desired program and receive it from the service supply server.

As described above, in order to receive on demand service, the service must be connected to the information provider first. As a result, even when searching only some service guide information such as the program title, it was always necessary to access the guide information provider. In addition, in most cases, the contents of the service guide information are not changed frequently. Nevertheless, in order to receive on demand services, the user must first connect to the information provider, thereby increasing the number of times or times of access to the information provider.

As described above, in order to receive an on demand service, a connection must be connected to a guide information provider, which causes communication costs and service delays as the time or number of times of access to the guide information provider increases.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a service guide information providing method that can minimize the access to the guide information provider in the on demand service terminal.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a service guide information providing method that can provide service guide information to a user even when the on demand service terminal is not connected to the guide information provider.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a service guide information providing method that can be directly connected to the service supply server to receive the service even when the on-demand service terminal is not connected to the guide information provider.

1 is a configuration diagram of an on-demand video service system using a digital CATV distribution network to which the present invention is applied;

2 is a block diagram of the set-top box of FIG.

3-5 are process flow diagrams in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a process of storing service guide information received from a guide information provider in a local memory of an on-demand service terminal when first connected to the guide information provider, and service guide information from a user. And providing the service guide information stored in the local memory to the user when a request is made.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Many specific details are set forth in the following description and in the accompanying drawings to provide a more general understanding of the invention. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. And a detailed description of known functions and configurations that may unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present invention will be omitted. In addition, the on-demand service is provided through various networks such as a digital CATV (Cable Television) network, a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) or an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN). Hereinafter, the present invention uses the digital CATV distribution network as an example. Will be described with an example of application to a case of performing an on-demand video service.

In general, digital CATV systems provide various additional services such as interactive multimedia services represented by video on demand as well as analog TV broadcasting provided by existing analog CATV. In particular, it uses a digital transmission path and adopts the MPEG (Moving Picture Expert Group) 2 standard as an information compression technology to deliver high quality video to the user's home. In such a digital CATV system, subscribers receive video service using a set top box.

FIG. 1 illustrates a configuration of an on-demand video service system using a digital CATV distribution network to which the present invention is applied. In this case, only one video server is shown. In FIG. 1, the subscriber 110 is provided with an L1 gateway 102 corresponding to a guide information provider, a video server 104 corresponding to a service provision server, a set-top box 106 and a TV receiver 108. The set top box 106 corresponding to the demand terminal is connected to the digital CATV distribution network 100. The set top box 106 of the subscriber side 110 is connected to the digital CATV distribution network 100 through a bidirectional transmission path, and receives a signal input from a user through an input device such as a remote controller. And transmits the analog video signal by decoding the digital video signal received from the digital CATV distribution network 100. The analog video signal input terminal of the TV receiver 108 is connected to the output terminal of the set top box 106. The TV receiver 108 then displays a screen according to the video signal output from the set top box 106.

2 shows a block diagram of the set-top box 106 of FIG. In FIG. 2, the central processing unit (CPU) 200 controls an operation of each part of the set-top box 106 according to a command or information for receiving an on-demand video service input through the remote receiver 210. The memory 202, which is a local memory of the set-top box 106, stores a processing program and various reference data of the CPU 200 and temporarily stores the processing data. The network interface 204 is connected to the digital CATV distribution network 100 through a bidirectional transmission path to receive digital video signals from the digital CATV distribution network 100 and to transmit network communication data to the digital CATV distribution network 100. Provide an interface. The MPEG decoder 206 MPEG-decodes the digital video signal received from the digital CATV distribution network 100 via the network interface 204. The video analog processor 208 outputs the MPEG decoded video signal to the TV receiver 108 as an analog video signal. The remote receiver 210 receives an IR (Infrared) signal from a remote controller (not shown), which is an input device, decodes a command, and provides the decoded command to the CPU 200. The CPU 100, the memory 202, the network interface 204, the MPEG decoder 206, the video analog processing unit 208, and the remote receiving unit 210 as described above are connected to each other via the system bus 212. do.

3 is a process flow diagram for providing program guide information, which is service guide information of an on-demand video service according to an embodiment of the present invention, in accordance with the present invention when a user connects to the L1 gateway 102 as the set-top box 106 described above. The process to be performed in the CPU 200 is shown in the steps (300) to (316). First, when connected to the L1 gateway 102 through the digital CATV distribution network 100, the CPU 200 responds to this in step 300, the service guide information of the video-on-demand service to the memory 202 in step 302 In other words, it checks whether program guide information is stored. At this time, in the case of connecting to the L1 gateway 102 for the first time, program guide information will not be stored in the memory 202. On the other hand, if the user has previously connected to the L1 gateway 102, the program guide information is stored in the memory 202 according to the present invention as described below.

If the program guide information is not stored in the memory 202 in the step 302 as the first connection to the L1 gateway 102 occurs, the CPU 200 transmits the program guide information from the L1 gateway 102 in step 304. Received through the digital CATV distribution network 100 and stored in the memory 202 and performs step 310. On the contrary, if the program guide information is stored in the memory 202 according to the previous connection to the L1 gateway 102, the CPU 200 changes the program guide information of the L1 gateway 102 in step 306. Check if it is done. At this time, if the program guide information of the L1 gateway 102 is changed, i.e., different from the program guide information stored in the memory 202, the CPU 200 changes the program guide information from the L1 gateway 102 in step 308. Is supplied through the digital CATV distribution network 100 and updated to the memory 202, and then step 310 is performed.

In step 310, the program guide information stored in the memory 202 is provided to the user through the TV receiver 108, and in step 312, the user waits for information or service selection by the user. The contents of the service are programs that can be supplied from video servers. In this state, the user selects the desired information or program using the remote controller based on the program guide information displayed through the TV receiver 108. At this time, for example, if the user selects the information or program of the video server 104 among the plurality of video servers, the CPU 200 supplies the data of the information or program selected by the user in step 314. ). Next, in step 316, the video server 104 retrieves the data selected by the user and provides the data to the user through the TV receiver 108. The CPU 200 then returns to perform a normal control routine.

Therefore, upon first access to the L1 gateway 102, the program guide information of the L1 gateway 102 is received and stored in the memory 202. The program guide information of the memory 202 is then updated every time the L1 gateway 102 is connected. . Accordingly, when the user requests the program guide information, the program guide information can be provided to the user without being connected to the L1 gateway 102. Accordingly, the program guide information can be provided directly to the video server 104, which is a video server, without going through the L1 gateway 102. You will be able to access on-demand video services.

4 illustrates a process 400 performed by the CPU 200 according to the present invention when a user requests program guide information in a state where program guide information, which is service guide information, is stored in the memory 202 as described above. 408). First, when the user requests the program guide information, the CPU 200 responds to the request in step 400, and provides the program guide information stored in the memory 202 to the user through the TV receiver 108 in step 402. In step 404, the user waits for information or service selection. In this state, the user selects the desired information or program using the remote controller based on the program guide information displayed through the TV receiver 108. In this case, for example, assuming that the user selects the information or program of the video server 104 among the plurality of video servers, the CPU 200 supplies the data of the information or program selected by the user in step 406. (104). Next, in step 408, the video server 104 retrieves the data selected by the user and provides the data to the user through the TV receiver 108. The CPU 200 then returns to perform a normal control routine.

Meanwhile, the program guide information of the L1 gateway 102 may be changed. In this case, as shown in FIG. 3, the program guide information of the memory 202 is updated every time the L1 gateway 102 is connected, but is forcibly updated in case the L1 gateway 102 is not connected for a long time. It would be desirable to do so. To this end, the inspection point is set in advance, and whenever the inspection point is reached, the program guide information is checked for change, and if changed, the changed program guide information is supplied from the L1 gateway 102 to be updated in the memory 202. At this time, the inspection time is set by the user or the manufacturer at regular intervals or by the user to set the desired valid time.

5 shows a process performed by the CPU 200 according to the present invention in order to update the program guide information stored in the memory 202 as described above (500) to (508). First, the CPU 200 checks whether an inspection time point set as described above is reached in operation 500. At this point, if the inspection point is reached, the CPU 200 accesses the L1 gateway 102 through the network interface 204 in step 502 and checks whether the program guide information of the L1 gateway 102 has changed in step 504. do. In this case, when the program guide information of the L1 gateway 102 is changed, that is, the program guide information stored in the memory 202 is different, the CPU 200 changes the program guide information from the L1 gateway 102 in step 506. Is supplied through the digital CATV distribution network 100, updated in the memory 202, and then step 508 is performed. In step 508, the connection with the L1 gateway 102 is terminated. If the inspection time is set to a certain period, the program guide information is updated at regular intervals. If the inspection time is set to the valid time, the program guide information is updated to the valid time.

Therefore, by storing and using the program guide information of the L1 gateway 102, a guide information provider, in the memory 202 of the set-top box 106, an on demand terminal, the user can use the program guide information even in a situation where the user is not connected to the L1 gateway 102. Can be used. In addition, the on-demand video service can be received by directly connecting to the video server 104 which is a video server without going through the L1 gateway 102. As a result, the connection to the L1 gateway 102, that is, the time or the number of times of the connection to the L1 gateway 102 can be minimized.

Meanwhile, in the above description of the present invention, specific embodiments have been described, but various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. In particular, the embodiment of the present invention shows an example of application to the set-top box for the on-demand video service, but on, such as news on demand, interactive video games, interactive shopping, etc. requiring guidance information about the service of the service provision server. The same applies to all terminals for demand services. It can also be applied to a client computer that connects to a computer communication provider or a server of a service provider on the Internet. In this case, it is applied to provide the guide information supplied to the initial screen when connected to the supplier. Therefore, the scope of the invention should not be defined by the described embodiments, but should be defined by the equivalent of claims and claims.

As described above, the present invention minimizes the time and the number of times of access to the information provider by storing and using the service information of the information provider in the local memory of the on-demand terminal, thereby greatly reducing the communication cost.

Claims (10)

A method of providing service guidance information on a service of at least one service supply server supplying an on demand service in an on demand service terminal having a local memory from a guide information provider and providing the service to a user; Receiving the service guide information from the guide information provider and storing it in the local memory when the guide information provider is first accessed; And providing the service guide information stored in the local memory to the user when the service guide information is requested from the user. The method of claim 1, further comprising: checking whether the service guide information is changed each time the user is connected to the guide information provider, and receiving the changed service guide information from the guide information provider and updating the information in the local memory. Service guide information providing method characterized in that. The method of claim 1, Accessing the guide information provider each time a preset inspection time is reached; Checking whether the service guide information has been changed, and if changed, receiving the changed service guide information from the guide information provider and updating the service guide information in the local memory. The method of claim 3, wherein the inspection time point is set at a predetermined cycle. 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the inspection time point is a time point when the valid time point is set by the user. A method of providing service guidance information on a service of at least one service supply server supplying an on demand service in an on demand service terminal having a local memory from a guide information provider and providing the service to a user; Receiving the service guide information from the guide information provider and storing it in the local memory when the guide information provider is first accessed; Providing the service guide information stored in the local memory to the user when the service guide information is requested from the user; Accessing a service supply server supplying data of information or service selected by the user when selecting information or service desired by the user based on the service guide information provided to the user; And searching for the data selected by the user in the connected service supply server and providing the data to the user. The method of claim 6, further comprising: checking whether the service guide information is changed each time it is connected to the guide information provider, and receiving the changed service guide information from the guide information provider and updating the local memory in the local memory. Service guide information providing method characterized in that. The method of claim 6, Accessing the guide information provider each time a preset inspection time is reached; Checking whether the service guide information has been changed, and if changed, receiving the changed service guide information from the guide information provider and updating the service guide information in the local memory. The method of claim 8, wherein the inspection time point is set at a predetermined cycle. The method of claim 8, wherein the inspection time point is a time point when the valid time point is set by the user.