KR20010114001A - An internet broadcasting signal receiving system having a tuning function and a method of channel setting up - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an Internet broadcast receiving system that can conveniently listen to Internet radio broadcasts by setting a channel without retrieving the Internet address of an Internet broadcast station. The present invention relates to a wired / wireless Internet network through an Internet connection unit and then scans with a tuner. While viewing the Internet address of the Internet radio station displayed in the address bar and setting the desired channel, press the channel to check the details of the program on the radio station on the LCD and click on the desired program to listen to the Internet station that you can listen to. System.

Description

An internet broadcasting signal receiving system having a tuning function and a method of channel setting up}

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a broadcast receiving apparatus using the Internet. More particularly, the present invention relates to an Internet broadcast listening system that can conveniently listen to Internet radio broadcasts by setting them on a channel without searching an internet address of an internet broadcast station.

Due to the rapid development of the Internet, new concepts of home appliances such as electronic devices and Internet TVs based on IP (Internet Protocol) are being developed and rapidly spread to the general public.

Existing radios have a function of providing a radio broadcast to a user through tuning that selects a channel according to frequency. However, there are a myriad of Internet radio stations (more than 10,000) currently on the Internet. In order to select an Internet radio station suitable for the user's taste, they first search through appropriate keywords and then enter each site. You must click on the desired channel again. Dozens of new Internet radio stations are being created every day, so it is inconvenient to search and connect from time to time.

An object of the present invention is to provide a system for allowing a user to easily listen to an Internet broadcast by tuning an address of an internet radio station and a terminal for broadcasting.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an internet broadcast listening system capable of accessing the internet in a wireless manner, performing tuning, and receiving an internet radio broadcast through an audio function.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a terminal for listening to Internet broadcast, which can perform a cellular phone function and a radio function.

Internet broadcasting listening system according to the present invention for achieving the above object is a personal computer that can be connected to the Internet radio station server and a wired communication means using a TCP / IP program, using the personal computer and Bluetooth (Bluetooth) protocol It comprises a Internet radio terminal for performing short-range wireless transmission and reception, and performs the selection and audio function of the Internet radio station provided from the personal computer.

A feature of the configuration of the Internet broadcast listening system according to the present invention is that an Internet connection unit for communicating with an Internet radio station server through a telephone line (PSDN) by embedding a TCP / IP program and selecting an Internet radio station through the Internet connection unit. It includes a tuning unit and an audio unit that performs an audio function.

Features of another configuration of the terminal for listening to the Internet broadcast according to the present invention are a wireless Internet connection that can be connected through an Internet radio station server and a wireless network, a tuning unit that selects an Internet radio station through the wireless Internet connection, and , An audio unit performing an audio function and a telephone function unit performing a portable communication terminal (Cellular) function.

Another feature of the Internet broadcasting listening system according to the present invention is that the Internet connection for performing wireless communication with the Internet radio station server by running a radio application protocol program, and stores the address of the Internet radio station provided from the Internet server A data storage unit, a tuning unit for receiving an operation signal of a user and scanning an internet station address stored in the data storage unit, and an internet radio provided by an internet radio station selected by the tuning unit. It includes an audio function unit that performs a general audio function to listen to the program.

A detailed feature of the Internet broadcasting listening system according to the present invention is characterized by having an address bar representing the address of an internet radio station stored in the data storage unit in letters and an internet address indicated in the address bar. A liquid crystal display that displays program information provided by an internet radio station in a character that can be recognized by a user is added.

1 is an exemplary configuration of an internet broadcast listening system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

2 is an exemplary configuration diagram of an internet broadcast listening system according to another embodiment of the present invention;

3 is an exemplary configuration diagram of an internet broadcast listening system according to another embodiment of the present invention;

4 is an exemplary configuration diagram of an internet broadcast listening system according to another embodiment of the present invention;

5 is a configuration diagram illustrating the system of FIG. 4 in more detail;

6 is an exemplary view illustrating in detail the user interface of FIG. 5;

7 is a flowchart illustrating a process for establishing an internet radio channel according to the present invention.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail the configuration and operation of the Internet broadcast listening system and the terminal for listening to the Internet broadcast according to the present invention. In the following example, although described as a system and a terminal for listening to the "Internet radio", it will not be mentioned that it may include an audio signal of the TV broadcast.

The present invention aims to add a tuning function to an internet radio. In other words, a complicated series of processes for accessing the Internet using a computer, searching for a radio station, logging in to the station, and listening to a desired radio program are performed by adding a tuner function in the radio. In this case, the Internet radio station information that appears as a search result of the Internet search engine means an Internet address and may be expressed as a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). Here, "URL" refers to a format that can consistently represent the address of a resource accessible from the Internet. The type of resource may vary depending on the Internet application protocol. In other words, when using Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), the protocol of the World Wide Web, a resource is a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) page, an image file, a program such as a Common Gateway Interface (CGI) or Java (JAVA) applet, or other HTTP. Other files supported by. A URL consists of the name of a protocol needed to access a resource, a domain name to identify a particular computer on the Internet, and a pathname hierarchically indicating the location of the computer file. In the following description, tuning means that a radio channel can be scanned and a URL indicated by a program of a desired broadcasting station can be easily stored in a predetermined storage device.

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an Internet radio listening system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The configuration is a personal computer that can be connected to an Internet radio station server and a wired communication means using a TCP / IP program, and performs a short-range wireless transmission and reception using the personal computer and a Bluetooth protocol. It consists of an internet radio terminal which performs the selection and audio function of an internet radio station provided from the.

It is assumed that a personal computer (PC), which is a node of a wired IP (Internet Protocol) network, has a function of executing a protocol of TCP, which is connected to or can be connected to the Internet. This structure makes it simple to configure Internet radio. First of all, in order for Internet Radio to communicate with a PC, a radio transceiver must be built into the PC and the radio. In order to be able to apply to any device that can use wireless communication between all devices in short distance, it should be able to take charge of communication between devices using Bluetooth protocol, which is an open protocol. Accordingly, in this structure, only the radio transceiver function capable of communicating with a PC is built in the Internet radio 100. As a result, only radio tuning functions and general audio functions such as sound file playback and recording are implemented to simplify the function of Internet radio.

2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an Internet radio listening system according to another embodiment of the present invention. The functions performed by the PC in FIG. 1 are all embedded in the Internet radio 200, and the radio is implemented to perform a tuner function and an audio function. Its configuration includes an Internet connection unit having a built-in TCP / IP program to communicate with an Internet radio station server through a telephone line (PSDN), a tuning unit for selecting an Internet radio station through the Internet connection unit, and audio for performing an audio function. It includes wealth. Therefore, there is a possibility that the Internet radio 200 becomes complicated and expensive. However, the advantage of this case is that the PC does not need to be turned on to receive the Internet Dario broadcast. Only one button of the Internet radio 200 can be connected to and listen to an Internet radio station through a modem.

Meanwhile, only the radio function of the Internet radio of FIG. 1 may be implemented to be embedded in a mobile communication terminal such as a mobile phone or a PCS, or may be attached in the form of a Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) card. In this case, it may be easily applied using a function such as an Internet access function or a liquid crystal display (LCD) that the communication terminal has.

3 is a block diagram showing an Internet radio listening system according to this embodiment. The Internet radio terminal 300 includes a wireless Internet access unit accessible through an Internet radio station server and a wireless network, a tuning unit for selecting an Internet radio station through the wireless Internet connection unit, and an audio unit performing an audio function. And a mobile phone function unit performing a portable communication terminal (Cellular) function.

4 is an overall configuration diagram of an internet radio 400 system having a tuner function. 2 is similar to the structure of FIG. 2, but has a merit of being able to receive a radio by accessing a wireless Internet network regardless of time and place through a wireless network, regardless of time and place.

FIG. 5 illustrates the configuration of FIG. 4 in more detail. The configuration includes an Internet connection unit 410 for wirelessly communicating with an Internet radio station server by driving a radio application protocol program, and an Internet radio provided from the Internet server. A data storage unit 420 storing an address of a broadcasting station, and receiving an operation signal of a user, scanning an internet broadcasting station address stored in the data storage unit 420 and setting a channel to set the channel; An audio function unit for performing a general audio function to listen to the Internet radio program provided by the user interface unit 430 provided by the user interface unit 430 and the selected Internet radio station by the operation of the user interface unit 430 440.

Functions such as wireless Internet protocols such as WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), WML (Wireless Markup Language) or ME (Mobile Explorer) and the existing Extensible Markup Language (XML) in the Internet Radio 400 to allow access to the wireless Internet. Should be able to perform In addition, it is necessary to implement both a communication function and an audio function of the portable communication terminal capable of transmitting its location information to the base station by accessing the wireless network.

The WAP protocol for wireless Internet access, which is one of the functions of the Internet radio, will be described in more detail as follows. WAP is the de facto global standard for providing wireless information and telephony services on digital mobile phones and other wireless terminals, with handset makers accounting for 75 percent of the world's market. Around 100 million subscribers worldwide have joined WAP, and by the end of 2000, tens of millions of WAP browser-capable products will be available to consumers. WAP allows wireless network providers to provide subscribers with the information they want anywhere, anytime. Therefore, there will be no difficulty in implementing the Internet radio according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating in detail the configuration of the user interface of FIG. 5. As shown in the figure, it consists of four windows. The first window is a function that automatically or manually scans a channel of an Internet radio station to set a channel of a desired Internet radio station. The manual scan key 431 performs a tuning function to manually scan a channel of an internet radio station and select a channel of a desired internet station. The input screen key 432 is used to input simple information of an internet radio station address. When the input screen key 432 is pressed, a screen for inputting Korean and English appears on the LCD screen 437. This is for inputting channel number or simple information. The autoscan key 433 is a key for automatically scanning an internet radio station, which is different from the principle of automatically scanning a radio which is a conventional frequency channel. Conventional radios scan all frequencies in the appropriate frequency band to set up a radio station, whereas the Internet radio tuner according to the present invention reads a radio channel from an internet address mapping table of an internet radio station residing in the radio's RAM. appear in address bar 435 of a.

The address bar 435 displays simple information such as an internet address and a channel number of an internet radio station selected by the input screen key 432 or the tuner of the auto scan 433. The setting switch 434 adds to a predetermined button of the window b 436 by looking at the address bar and clicking a desired channel. The next time you connect, you can simply click on the button in window b, which will allow you to select an Internet radio station without tuning the window a.

Window c is a liquid crystal display (LCD), which displays program information provided by an internet radio station having an internet address shown in the address bar 435 in a form in which a user can recognize it. In window d, there are buttons for audio functions such as play, stop, and power off.

7 is a flowchart illustrating a method for setting an internet radio station channel according to the present invention.

Search the Internet radio station's address (URL) by running an Internet search program embedded in an Internet terminal or in a server that can be connected through a wired or wireless network.

A plurality of URLs according to the search result calculated by the search program are stored in each channel using the setting key according to the user's intention.

Recognizing the user's selection control signal, such as selecting a desired channel through auto scan or manual scan, or pressing a set channel button, connects to the address of the corresponding Internet broadcasting station (step S3).

Scan with tuner buttons 431, 432 and 433 to view the Internet address of the Internet radio station displayed in the address bar and set the channel by pressing the Set Channel 434 key. Pressing a channel key in window b 436 will display the contents of the radio station's detailed program in window c 437 and click to select the desired program.

The mapping table displayed in the address bar 435 represents the channel number and the Internet address and simple information that the subscriber can easily store. An example is shown in Table 1 below.

channel address information ch 1 www.cnn.com cnn news ch 2 radio.mbc.co.kr mbc radio ː ː ː

The mapping table may be embedded in a terminal or managed by an internet server. If the terminal itself is embedded, it has an initial mapping table in memory and periodically updates the mapping table after performing a direct search program according to the tuner operation when updating the table.

Even if managed by an Internet server, the server has an initial mapping table. After executing the search program directly on the server, update the mapping table to reflect the changed status information. In this case, when updating the mapping table of the terminal, it is possible to connect to the server and receive the contents of the mapping table of the server, and the updating process of the mapping table can be processed more quickly than when the terminal is embedded in the terminal.

When an internet broadcaster broadcasts live broadcasts, in addition to the above channel tuning method, the Internet radio has a built-in audio player, which displays the broadcaster in an address bar and sets a channel to listen in real time. Tuning method includes a method of applying a sensor to detect a voice and selecting a broadcasting station that transmits live broadcast according to its output signal, and selecting a broadcasting station by grasping the attributes of the broadcasting file transmitted from the extension of the file according to the result of the search program. There may be a way. In this case, the liquid crystal display may be omitted.

As described above, the Internet radio listening system according to the present invention can receive an Internet radio broadcast regardless of a place, and eliminates the inconvenience of searching for internet station information by automatically performing tuning in an Internet server. Has the effect.

Claims (17)

A personal computer that can be connected to an Internet broadcasting station server through a wired communication means using a TCP / IP program, An internet broadcast listening system including an internet broadcast receiving terminal that performs short-range wireless transmission and reception using the personal computer and a Bluetooth protocol, and performs an audio function and selection of an internet broadcasting station provided from the personal computer. A tuning function unit for selecting a specific broadcasting station from a plurality of internet broadcasting stations, And an audio output unit for converting a broadcast signal provided from an internet broadcasting station into an audible sound and providing the same. The method of claim 2; And the audio output unit outputs the broadcast contents of the broadcasting station as an audio signal when selecting a specific broadcasting station by tuning. An Internet connection for embedding a TCP / IP program to communicate with an Internet radio station server through a telephone line (PSDN); A tuning unit for selecting an internet broadcasting station through the internet connection unit; Internet broadcasting listening system comprising an audio unit for performing an audio function. A wireless Internet connection that can be accessed through an Internet broadcasting station server and a wireless network, A tuning unit for selecting an internet broadcasting station through the wireless internet access unit; Internet broadcast listening system including an audio unit for performing an audio function. An internet access unit for wirelessly communicating with an internet broadcasting station server by operating a radio application protocol program; A data storage unit storing an address of an internet broadcasting station provided from the internet server; A user interface for receiving an operation signal from a user and scanning an internet station address stored in the data storage unit; And an audio function unit which performs a general audio function to listen to an internet broadcast program provided by an internet broadcasting station selected by the control signal provided from the user interfacing unit. The method of claim 6; An address bar representing the address of the Internet broadcasting station stored in the data storage unit in letters; And a liquid crystal display unit displaying program information provided by an internet broadcasting station having an internet address indicated in the address bar in a character that can be recognized by a user. The method of claim 7, wherein And a plurality of channel buttons for setting and storing the address of the Internet broadcasting station indicated in the address bar in a predetermined button. The method of claim 6; The Internet broadcast listening system, characterized in that the Internet access through the Internet connection is performed in a wireless (wireless) method using a WAP (Wireless Application Protocol). The method of claim 6; Internet access through the Internet connection is characterized in that the Internet broadcast listening system is carried out in a wireless manner using a ME (Mobile Explorer). The method of claim 6; Internet connection through the Internet connection is characterized in that the Internet broadcast listening system is performed by a computer using a TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) program. The method of claim 6; And the user interfacing unit carries auto scan and manual scan functions. The method of claim 6; And the user information (I.D.) is stored in the data storage to confirm that the user is an effective user of the Internet server. The method of claim 6; And a plurality of buttons configured to perform an audio function in the audio function unit. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 14; Internet broadcasting listening system is implemented in the form of an independent terminal separated from the computer. A wireless Internet connection that can be accessed through an Internet broadcasting station server and a wireless network, A tuning unit for selecting an internet broadcasting station through the wireless internet access unit; An audio unit performing an audio function, An Internet broadcast receiving terminal comprising a telephone function unit that performs a portable communication terminal (Cellular) function. A first process of searching an address (URL) of an Internet broadcasting station by running an Internet search program; Storing a plurality of URLs searched by the first process in each channel; And a third step of recognizing a selection control signal of a user who designates a predetermined channel and connecting the selected control signal to an address of the corresponding internet broadcasting station.