KR19990086216A - Rating Service in Digital Television Broadcasting System - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a technology that enables a user to view a program received through an authentication procedure or immediately according to an audience rating set by a user after assigning a 'viewing grade' to a program in digital television broadcasting.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a rating is given by a number from 1 to 10 according to the content of a program, and is transmitted through a program configuration information (PSI) table on a transport stream in a television transmission system. In the TV receiving system, information about a rating level that a user can watch with the TV receiving system is set in advance, and compared with the rating level of the received program, so that the user can immediately view it or enable viewing through a predetermined authentication procedure. . At this time, the authentication procedure is to set the password in advance, and if a program of an unauthorized viewing grade is received, the password is required, and only when the input password matches the set password as required, the user can watch.

As described above, according to the present invention, a rating is given to a broadcast program, and a user can appropriately limit viewing of an adult program that is not permitted by a minor by setting a rating.

Description

Method for providing a parental rating service in a digital TV system

The present invention relates to a technology that enables a user to watch a program through an authentication procedure or according to an audience rating set by a user after assigning a 'viewing grade' to a program in digital television broadcasting.

In general, since a program provided by a television broadcast can be viewed by anyone regardless of its contents, there is a problem that a minor may watch an adult program. In order to solve this problem, in the conventional television broadcasting, the age that can be watched for a particular program is displayed on a part of the displayed screen, so that parents can arbitrarily limit the viewing of minors in each home.

On the other hand, as pay-TV of TV broadcasting proceeds, various techniques for limiting broadcast viewing itself have been studied and known (these technologies are called 'conditional access'). However, such conditional access technology inherently restricts the viewing of television broadcasts, and does not restrict the viewing according to the contents of the program to the subscribers who are allowed access.

On the other hand, as the conventional analog television broadcasting is digitized, efforts are being made by broadcast related companies to develop and provide new services not provided by the conventional analog television broadcasting.

The present invention relates to a service that can be newly provided in digital television broadcasting as described above, and after viewing the rating according to the contents of the program, the viewing can be restricted according to the rating set in the television receiving system. The purpose is to provide a 'grade service' method. Here, 'viewing grade service' means that a certain grade is given according to the contents of the program (for example, adult, adolescent, etc.), and then a grade that can be viewed in each family is set to a higher grade (ie, closer to adult) than the set grade. A service that allows you to restrict access to minors when viewing the program.

In order to achieve this object, the method of the present invention comprises the steps of: defining a rating according to the content of a program to be transmitted; Transmitting the defined audience rating in a television transmission system by using a program configuration information (PSI) table when broadcasting a corresponding program; Setting a rating of a viewable program on a television receiving system; Determining whether to allow viewing by comparing a viewing grade of the received program with the set viewing grade in a television receiving system; And if the program received as a result of the comparison is allowed to view the program immediately, and if the program is not permitted, the program can be viewed after a predetermined authentication procedure.

1 is a schematic diagram showing a transmission system for digital television broadcasting;

2 is a schematic diagram showing a receiving system of digital television broadcasting;

3 is a state transition diagram of a digital television receiving system to which the present invention is applied;

4 is a flow diagram illustrating a procedure for setting a rating for a user according to the present invention;

5 is a flowchart illustrating a detailed procedure performed in the S3 state of FIG.

* Explanation of symbols for main parts of the drawings

12: application encoder 14: transport packet decomposition and multiplexing unit

16: Channel Coding Unit 18: RF Modulator

21: RF demodulator 22: Channel decoding unit

23: transport packet assembly and demultiplexer 24: application decoder

25: display unit 26: clock reproduction unit

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

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a transmission system of digital television broadcasting, showing a transmission structure of terrestrial broadcasting. 1, a digital television transmission system includes an application encoder 12, a transport packet decomposition and multiplexer 14, a channel coding unit 16, and an RF modulator 18. Audio, data, etc.) signals are coded / modulated and transmitted via radio signals.

The application encoder 12 compresses and encodes a source signal as a video encoder or an audio encoder and outputs an elementary stream. At this time, an elementary stream corresponding to the number of internal encoders is generated and output. As the application encoder 12 in digital television broadcasting, an encoder according to the MPEG2 video standard may be used for video, and US Dolby AC-3 encoder may be used for audio.

The transport packet decomposing and multiplexing unit 14 firstly transforms each elementary stream input into PES packets, and then forms and outputs a transport packet of 188 bytes. In this case, program specific information (PSI) for programs transmitted through a current transport stream is formed into four tables (PAT, PMT, NIT, CAT), and then inserted into a transport stream and transmitted. . Here, the PAT (Program Association Table) has a program number indicating which programs the transport stream currently being transmitted is composed of and a corresponding PID (PMT-PID). The PMT (Program Map Table) contains the contents and PIDs of the elementary streams included in a program. The PMT is transmitted in a transport packet having a PMT-PID designated by the PAT as a PID. NIT represents a Network Information Table, and CAT represents a Conditional Access Table.

In Figure 1, the channel coding unit 16 and the RF modulator 18 is a block for modulating and transmitting the transport stream to a radio signal after the error correction code, the detailed configuration is terrestrial broadcast, satellite broadcast or CATV broadcast? The terrestrial broadcast also depends on the local television standards. In the case of U.S. terrestrial television broadcasting, the channel coding unit 16 includes a reedsolmon encoder, an interleaver, a trellis encoder, and the like. Include.

2 is a schematic diagram showing a receiving system for digital television broadcasting, which includes an RF demodulation unit 21, a channel decoding unit 22, a transport packet assembly and demultiplexing unit 23, and an application decoder 24. And a display section 25 and a clock reproducing section 26. In Figure 2 the receiving system performs the reverse process for the function of the transmitting system. However, the clock reproducing unit 26 regenerates the reference clock CLK by using the clock information transmitted through the transport stream to use it as a clock of the receiving system, and the display unit 25 displays an image corresponding to the source signal. Display or sound.

On the other hand, in order to provide the service according to the present invention, the transmission system should provide the audience rating information corresponding to the contents of the program in the program configuration information (PSI), and the reception system should be able to extract this information. In the embodiment of the present invention, when the rating information is defined as a number from 1 to 10, an example of classifying the ratings is shown in Table 1 below.

Audience rating Contents 1-2 Child can watch 3-4 Can watch until elementary school student 5-6 Can watch until junior high student 7-8 High school students can watch 9-10 Adult

As shown in Table 1, the ratings are assigned according to the contents of the program, and any number from 1 to 10 is assigned. The larger the number is, the closer it is to adult use, and the smaller the number, the smaller the number is. Such ratings should be determined by public organizations according to the program contents (obscenity, violence, etc.) in consideration of social customs.

When the rating is determined for the program, this information is included in a part of the PSI information table and transmitted as a transport stream as shown in Table 2 below. The receiving system decodes this table and stores the contents in a separate memory. .

Program number Audience rating 10 9 20 7 30 9 40 2

Referring to Table 2, it can be seen that the program of program number 10 should be viewed only by an adult as an adult, and the program of program number 40 can be viewed by a child.

3 is a state transition diagram of a digital television receiving system to which the present invention is applied. Referring to FIG. 3, an operation state of the digital television reception system includes states S1 to S10, where S1 represents a ready state, S2 represents an initialize state, and S3 represents a rating state. Indicates. S4 represents a locking state, S5 represents a notification state, S6 represents an authentication state, S7 represents a component setting state, S8 represents a play state, and S9 represents a play state. The read PPS state, S10 indicates a power off state. That is, the conventional analog television is in a play state (S8) to be viewed as soon as the power is turned on, but in the digital television reception system according to the present invention, after passing through a plurality of states, the state transitions to the play state (S8) only when permitted. Allows you to watch television.

Referring to Fig. 3, the state S1 is a state waiting for the operation on the television receiving system, and the state transitions to the first state when the power is turned on in the power-off state S10. The S2 state is a state in which the RF demodulation unit 21 and the channel decoding unit 22 of the television receiving system are operated to receive the transport stream in accordance with a previously set parameter value. In general, in the S2 state, the transport stream of the currently received broadcast channel is decoded, and then the packet whose transport packet ID (PID) is "0" is found (ie, the PAT table), and then the ID (PMT-) specified in the PAT table is found. Find transport packets (ie, PMT tables) of PIDs. When the PMT table is found, the viewer searches for a packet in which an elementary stream of a desired program number is transmitted.

In the S3 state, the ratings of the received program are compared with the set ratings. As a result of the comparison, if the rating of the received program is lower than or equal to the set rating, even minors can watch the program, change from S3 state to S7 state, set various parameter values of hardware in S7, and then change the received program to S8 state. Make it available for viewing. If, as a result of the comparison in the S3 state, the ratings of the received programs are higher than the set ratings, the screen transitions to the S4 state and locks the programs so that they are not displayed. Inform the user that viewing is not possible.

In the S6 state, the user inputs a password for viewing and performs an authentication procedure.If the input password matches the preset password, the user transitions to step S7 to set various parameters of the hardware, and then transitions to the S8 state. Enable viewing of the program. If the passwords do not match, the process transitions to S5 state and informs the user that the passwords do not match.

If the channel is changed while watching, the program transitions to the S9 state, receives the transport stream of the new channel again, and reads program configuration information for the new transport stream as performed in step S2. Then, the state transitions to S3 to repeat the series of processes described above, so that the received program can be viewed only when certain requirements are satisfied.

If it is necessary to change hardware parameters such as volume control, audio / video stop (AV stop) in S4 or S5, go to step S7 to reset the hardware according to the new parameters. In the state of abandoning the viewing of the current channel and selecting another channel, the state transitions to the S9 state receives a transport stream of the newly selected channel to read the program configuration information (PSI).

When the power is turned off in any state (S1-S9), the state transitions to the state S10 to stop the operation of the television receiving system.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of setting a rating of a user according to the present invention. Referring to FIG. 4, when a setting key is input in step 41, a user (usually a parent of each family) inputs a number corresponding to a rating level in step 42. In the embodiment of the present invention, the rating is "1 to 10", the specific rating is as described in Table 1. In step 43, the numerical value input by the user is stored in the nonvolatile memory to be used in the rating state S3 of FIG.

Although not shown in detail in the drawing, in order to process the password in the S6 state, the user who sets the rating to set the "password" so that it can be used in the authentication process (S6).

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a detailed procedure performed in the rating state S3 of FIG. 3.

Referring to FIG. 5, in step 51, a rating of a received program is read. As described above, the rating information is displayed in the program configuration information (PSI) table. In general, it is preferable to load the rating information of the corresponding program in the user-defined area of the PMT table.

In step 52, if the received rating is higher than the preset rating, the rating is performed in step 53, and then the authentication procedure is performed in step 53, and then the received rating is viewed in step 54. If the received audience rating is equal to or lower than the set audience rating, the process proceeds directly to step 54 without the authentication procedure, so that the received program can be viewed.

In step 53, the authentication process may be performed by inputting a password or by using an image, a voice, or a card.

As described above, the present invention provides a rating according to the content of a program broadcast in digital television broadcasting, and then compares the rating set in each receiver with the received rating to limit the viewing of the program. By preventing adult programs from being watched, there is an effect that can protect the emotions of minors. In particular, in a situation in which a broadcasting medium can have a significant socio-cultural influence, such as in modern society, the present invention can provide benefits that are invisible to society as a whole by limiting the viewing of adult broadcast programs.

Claims (2)

Defining a rating according to content of a program to be transmitted; Transmitting the defined audience rating in a television transmission system by using a program configuration information (PSI) table when broadcasting a corresponding program; Setting a rating of a viewable program on a television receiving system; Determining whether to allow viewing by comparing a viewing grade of the received program with the set viewing grade in a television receiving system; And A digital television broadcasting system comprising the step of enabling a user to immediately view a corresponding program if the received program is an allowed viewing grade, and allowing the program to be viewed after passing a predetermined authentication procedure if the rating is not permitted. How to service rating in. The method of claim 1, wherein the authentication procedure Setting a predetermined password in advance; Requesting a password if the received program is an unauthorized viewing rating; And comparing the input password with the preset password according to a request to enable viewing, and disabling viewing if it does not match.