KR20030052043A - Method for Restricting to view a harmful program and Satellite Broadcasting Receiving System for performing the Method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A method for restricting program viewing and a system for receiving satellite broadcasting for realizing the same are provided to voluntarily avoid viewing-restricted programs by a viewing-restricting message formed of video and audio of a viewing-restriction setting person. CONSTITUTION: A user turns on a set top box(S51). A control unit turns on a message state displayer(S52). The control unit searches transport stream of a received broadcasting program for an event information table to confirm whether the corresponding broadcasting program is a viewing-restricted program(S53-S54). If so, an MPEG decoding unit decodes the broadcasting program of the corresponding channel and video and audio signal processors process the decoded data to display the broadcasting program on a monitor(S55). It is judged whether the channel is converted(S56). In the case of the viewing-restricted program, the user inputs personal information(S57). The control unit confirms an age of the user(S58). The MPEG decoding unit decodes the broadcasting program, and video and audio signal processors process the decoded data to display the broadcasting program on the monitor with a viewing-restricting message formed of video and audio(S59). The control unit counts a reproduction frequency of the viewing-restricting message(S60). The user turns the channel according to the viewing-restricting message(S61). It is judged whether the user turns off the set top box(S62).

Description

Method for Restricting to view a harmful program and Satellite Broadcasting Receiving System for performing the Method}

The present invention relates to a broadcast receiving system having a parental control function of a harmful program. More particularly, the present invention relates to a program having a parental control level set to a satellite broadcast signal, and psychologically blocks an access of a subject to be viewed. The present invention relates to a method for limiting viewing of a program that can be avoided and to a satellite broadcasting receiving system for implementing the same.

Unlike terrestrial television broadcasting, television broadcasting using communication satellites provides broadcasting signals to a wider area by using communication satellites located at an altitude of about tens to hundreds of kilometers from the earth's surface. Recently, with the development of digital transmission technology and digital signal processing technology, digital satellite broadcasting is becoming a reality, and this digital satellite broadcasting is very resistant to noise, is not affected by transmission line distance, and has almost no signal degradation. It is a broadcast method that is very suitable for long-distance transmission of a television signal vulnerable to waveform distortion in that it can be realized.

Such digital satellite broadcasting contributes to high quality cultural life by providing viewers with a variety of information, entertainment and culture programs in clearer and superior sound quality. However, a problem among the offerings is that adult programs are offered randomly to a wide range of viewers, including indiscriminate minors and adolescents. In the case of movies, screenings are screened by controlling the access to theaters based on the ratings to prevent viewing from minors.However, in the case of television programs provided to families, harmful effects such as violence or pornography are provided. Insufficient institutional mechanisms for restricting viewing to minors and adolescents have resulted in adverse effects in many ways.

In order to reduce the above-mentioned adverse effects, various methods of restricting viewing of television programs have been proposed. One method is to use a password, which is the most widely used method at present. The password usage method is to set a parental control channel such as an adult channel as a password for a satellite broadcasting receiver, and allow viewing of a program on the channel only when the set password and the entered password match. The viewing channel, the viewing program, and the viewing time may be restricted for the restricted person.

Another method improved from the above-mentioned password usage method is that a broadcast station inserts a rating to broadcast a television signal for each program, and a parental control setter sets a password in the home television receiver and inputs the password. It is to install a parental control device that mutes a certain level or more of broadcast programs for viewers who do not.

However, the satellite broadcasting system has a feature that can accommodate many channels from dozens to hundreds, and since there are many transitional channels such as test broadcasts, the parental control settler has a password for each parental control channel. There is a problem that must be set, and to manage the set password for each program. In addition, when the above-described transitional channel disappears or is changed to a channel having a different frequency, there is a problem in that the password must be changed for each changed channel.

As another method, the patent application No. 1998-33277 filed with the name "apparatus and method for warning the viewing of inappropriate program" and the patent application filed with the name "approval method and apparatus suitable for viewing of video signal" There is a parental control method disclosed in 1998-33278. Patent application No. 1998-33277 stores a list of programs that allow viewing in advance, and a method of providing a voice message pre-stored in a memory when the program is not viewed in comparison with the list is disclosed. No. 1998-33278 compares rating information detected from a received broadcast program with viewing permission information previously stored in a broadcast receiver, and displays a message on the screen by superimposing a message on the broadcast program if it is not included in the viewing permission range. A method of viewing and limiting a signal is disclosed.

The conventional parental control method including the aforementioned two methods is a method of compulsory and unconditional parental control to minors or teenagers who are unilaterally restricted by the subjective judgment of the parental control setter. It only adds to the unpleasant displeasure and amplifies the curiosity with the opposite payment, which is not an effective way to silence the curiosity. Therefore, there has been a need to provide a viewing restriction method that is more effective than the compulsory viewing restriction method and allows the viewer to voluntarily restrict the viewing.

Therefore, the present invention relates to a program having a parental control level for a program having a parental control level set in a received satellite broadcast signal in order to impose parental control on the parental control program in a psychological manner rather than in a unilateral and coercive manner. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for restricting viewing of a program that can psychologically block access and voluntarily avoid viewing, and a satellite broadcasting reception system for implementing the same.

1 is a block diagram of a satellite broadcast receiving system having a parental control function according to an embodiment of the present invention;

2 is a detailed block diagram of the inside of the set-top box shown in FIG.

3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a television broadcast signal applied to a satellite broadcast reception system;

4 is a flowchart illustrating a process of registering a parental control message of a setter for parental control;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a process of delivering a parental control message for a parental level program using a set top box in which a parental control message is registered.

<Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

10: satellite broadcasting receiving antenna 11: set-top box

12 television monitor 16: power button

17: message registration button 18: message status indicator

23 tuner / demodulator 24 transport demultiplexer

25: MPEG decoder 26: video signal processor

27: audio signal processor 28: control unit

According to the present invention for achieving the above object, a method for limiting viewing of a program in a broadcast receiving system, the parental or third party or a parental control message produced by a video or video and audio registered by the setter to the broadcast receiving system A first step of making; A second step of setting and registering a parental level for a program received by the broadcast receiving system; A third step of checking whether a program received at the broadcast receiving system is a program having a parental level; And the fourth step of displaying the parental control message when the program is a parental control level.

According to another preferred embodiment of the present invention, a broadcast receiving system includes a storage unit for storing a viewing restriction message; A decoder that extracts a rating from a program received in the broadcast receiving system; A discriminator for determining whether the program has a parental level; And an output device for displaying the parental control message when the program is a program having a parental control level.

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

Referring to Figure 1, the configuration of a satellite broadcast receiving system having a parental control function according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention is shown.

As shown, a satellite broadcast receiving system having a parental control function for harmful programs is called a satellite broadcast receiver (Set-Top Box) for receiving satellite broadcasts through the satellite antenna 10. 11 and a monitor connected to the set top box 11 to display a program of the satellite broadcast channel selected in the set top box 11, for example, a television monitor 12. In addition, the satellite broadcast receiving system of the present invention generates inputting a parental control message for a parental control setter who sets a parental control function for a parental control subject and provides the generated parental control message to the set top box 11, for example. For example, the digital camera 13 further includes.

The limiting audience of the set-top box 11 is a minor or a teenager who should not watch a broadcast program that exceeds the parental level, and the setter who sets the parental control does not watch a parental control program that exceeds the parental level. A guardian, such as a parent or teacher, who manages, supervises, and supervises a child.

In the present invention, the parental control message of the parental control setter includes a face body image of the parental control setter photographed by the video camera 13 and a voice of the parental control setter generated through the microphone. The parental control message includes a plurality of parental control messages configured to gradually increase a warning level for delivering a message in a tone of a parental control set voice message and an expression of a video message.

The set top box 11 is configured to input a plurality of operation setting buttons including the housing 15 and the power button 16 installed outside the housing 15 and the image and audio data of the parental control setter into the set top box 11. And a message status indicator 18 for displaying the input and storage states of the image and audio data, for example, a light emitting diode.

2, a detailed internal block configuration of the set top box 11 is shown.

As shown, the set-top box 11 includes a flash memory 20, a data memory 21, a hard disk 22, a tuner / demodulator 23, and a transport de-multiplexer 24. ), An MPEG decoder (Motion Picture Expert Group Decoder) 25, a video signal processor 26, an audio signal processor 27, and a controller 28.

The flash memory 20 basically stores a control program for driving the set-top box 11 and a control program for viewing restriction according to the present invention, and the data memory 21 is a satellite broadcast received from a broadcast satellite. It is used to temporarily store a signal and can usually be implemented as SD RAM (Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory).

The hard disk 22 stores the image and audio data produced by the parental level setter as the parental control messages of the image and audio, respectively, and the parental control messages of the image data and audio data are of a parental level with a restricted parental level. When a program is found, it is inserted into the video and audio signals of the parental control program and played.

The tuner / demodulator 23 tunes a channel of the satellite broadcast signal received through the satellite broadcast receiving antenna 10 by a tuning control signal provided from the controller 28, and selects, for example, a broadcast program of the tuned channel. Demodulation is performed using the well-known Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) demodulation method.

As illustrated in FIG. 3, the satellite broadcast signal includes a transport stream in which data of multiple channels are multiplexed by time division and various additional system service information. In the transport stream shown in Fig. 3, a 4-byte header and 188-byte audio and video streams are multiplexed in time division. The system service information includes an event information table (EIT) that provides information about program specific information (PSI), a network information table (NIT), and events of satellite channels in chronological order. And a time data table (TDT) having information on the broadcast date of each program. In particular, the event information table includes the start time, duration, transmission interval, condition control mode, detailed information of individual programs, for example, the program viewing age (Age Rate) and parental control settings for the purpose of guiding the program. Descriptor such as). The parental level setting descriptor may be set to a preset value when the satellite broadcast signal is transmitted from the broadcast side, that is, the broadcast station, or may be adjusted by the receiver of the broadcast signal, that is, the user of the set-top box 11.

The transport stream shown in FIG. 3 is QPSK demodulated by the tuner / demodulator 23 and applied to the transport demultiplexer 24, and system service information included in the transport stream is provided to the data memory 21. Temporarily stored.

Referring back to FIG. 2, the transport demultiplexer 24 demultiplexes the transport stream extracted by the tuner / demodulator 23 under the control of the controller 28 to extract video and audio packets. The video and audio packets extracted by the transport demultiplexer 24 are provided to the MPEG decoder 25.

The MPEG decoder 25 performs variable length decoding (VLD), Inverse Discrete Cosine Transform (I-Dct), and inverse quantization motion compensation on video and audio packets provided from the transport demultiplexer 24. MPEG video decoding techniques such as De-quantization Motion Compensation are used to recover video and audio signals before they are encoded by the broadcasting station. The video signal reconstructed by the MPEG decoder 25 is provided to the video signal processor 26 and the audio signal is provided to the audio signal processor 27.

The video signal processing unit 26 converts the video signal provided from the MPEG decoding unit 25 into an analog video signal of NTSC (National Television System Committee) or PAL (Phase Alternation by Line) method to display an image of the television monitor 12. A speaker, which is output to a device such as a cathode ray tube (CRT), and the audio signal processor 27 converts an audio signal provided from the MPEG decoder 25 into an analog audio signal and is attached to the television monitor 12. Output to (not shown). Further, according to the present invention, the video and audio signal processing sections 26 and 27 are provided with video and audio messages of the parental level setter stored in the hard disk 22 when a program having a parental level is output. Insert each one and print it out.

In the present invention, inserting and outputting a video and audio message of a parental restriction setter into a video and audio signal means inserting a parental control message into a portion of a video and audio signal of a parental control program, for example, Picture In Picture. Picture display, overlapping the parental control message for the video and audio signal of the parental control program, and displaying the parental control message in place of the video and audio signal of the parental control program in full screen. Output in the form. Therefore, when a parental control program is broadcasted through the television monitor 12, a face image of the parental control setter, for example, a guardian and a recorded voice are automatically output every halfway between the screens of the program. By doing so, whether or not you want to watch a parental control program, for example, a minor who sees and hears the face and voice of his / her guardian, the program being used will be disturbed and will be quite psychologically burdensome. .

This will be described in connection with the satellite broadcasting system shown in FIG. 2, and the controller 28 confirms the viewing grade of the corresponding program from the event information table EIT of the system service information extracted by the tuner / demodulator 23. If the viewing grade exceeds the predetermined viewing grade, the video and audio message of the parental level setter is repeatedly transmitted to the video and audio signal processing units 26 and 27 to be reproduced.

According to the present invention, the transmission and playback interval of the picture and audio message of the parental level setter can be set in various ways as follows. One method is to adjust the number of repetition of the parental control message according to the parental level value and the age of the parental control subject or the table according to the class. This method is, for example, when the program is a program that can be watched over 18 years old and the parental control subject is 15 years old, the parental control message is subtracted from the viewable age by the age of the parental control target, that is, "18-15 = 3". It is to set the number of repetitions per fixed time, e.g., per minute. Therefore, since the number of repetition of the parental control message is three times, the video and audio message of the parental control setter will be provided every 20 seconds.

Another method is to increase the number of parental control messages by adjusting the transmission and reception of the parental control setter's video and audio messages gradually over time. According to this method, when a certain time elapses, only the video and audio messages of the parental level setter are constantly played back repeatedly, so that the parental level program cannot be viewed at all.

In addition, it is also possible to change and play the parental control message itself of the parental control set that is reproduced along with the repetition of the parental control message. For example, whenever the parental control message is repeated, the parental control message may be provided such that the tone of the parental control set's voice message or the intensity of the facial expression of the video message is increased.

Viewing and listening to these repetitive parental control messages will place significant psychological burden on the parental control subjects and may induce motivation for channel switching.

The viewing restriction method of the satellite broadcast reception system having the above-described configuration will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 4 and 5.

First, FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a process of inputting a parental control message of an image and audio of a parental control setter. The parental control setter turns on the set top box 11 by turning on the power button 16 of the settop box 11. Starting from the step of driving (step S41).

When the power of the set top box 11 is turned on, the control unit 28 searches whether the parental level setting message of the parental level setter is currently registered in the hard disk 22 (step S42).

If the parental level message of the parental level setter is registered, the flow advances to step S49 to turn on the message status indicator 18 to keep it on. However, if the parental level message of the parental level setter is not registered, the process proceeds to next step S43.

In step S43, the message registration button 17 is pressed by the parental level setter to start the parental level message registration mode of the parental level setter.

Detecting that the message registration button 17 is pressed, the control unit 28 prompts the parental control setter to enter personal information of users who use the set-top box 11 through the television monitor 12. Provide a message. The personal information of the users input by the parental control setter basically includes a personal key such as age, password, or face image for identification of the user. At this time, the personal information of the users input from the parental level setter is registered in the flash memory 20 of the set top box 11 (step S44).

In a next step S45, the parental control setter sets a range of parental control programs for each user by using a parental control setting function.

Subsequently, the controller 28 repeatedly controls the message status indicator 18 to be turned on and off so that the control unit 28 inputs the image and audio data of the parental control setter, that is, the parental control message (step S46).

When the message registration button 17 is pressed again to inform that the picture and audio data of the parental level setter has been input to the set-top box 11 (step S47), the image and audio data input by the parental level setter are controlled by the control unit 28. Is stored in the hard disk 22 and registered as a parental control message (step S48). In this regard, the parental control message stored in the hard disk 22 includes one or more parental control messages as described above.

At this time, the control unit 28 keeps the message status indicator 18 in a lit state to inform that the parental control message of the parental control setter's image and audio has been successfully registered (step S49).

5 illustrates a process of transmitting a parental control message to a broadcast program having a parental control level through the set top box 11 in which the parental control message is registered in FIG. 4.

The parental control message delivery method of the present invention starts from the step of turning on the power of the set top box 11 by the user turning on the power button 16 of the set top box 11 (step S51).

When the power of the set-top box 11 is turned on, the controller 28 turns on the message status indicator 18 to indicate that the parental control message of the parental level setter is currently registered in the set-top box 11 to turn on the lighting state. To hold (step S52). However, if the parental control message of the parental control setter is not registered in the set top box 11, the process of registering the parental control message described with reference to FIG. 4 will proceed.

Next, the controller 28 searches the event information table in the transport stream of the broadcast program received by the set-top box 11 (step S53), and checks whether the corresponding program is a parental control program (step S54).

As a result of the check, if it is determined that the program currently being received is not the parental control program, the process proceeds to step S55 where the program of the corresponding channel is decoded by the MPEG decoder 25 and the video and audio signal processors 26 and 27 are decoded. The signal is processed and displayed on the television monitor 12. Thereafter, it is determined whether the channel is switched (step S56). If the channel is switched, the process proceeds to the above-described step S53 through the tap A. FIG.

On the other hand, if it is determined that the content is a parental control program, a parental control message is displayed.

According to another method of the present invention, if it is determined that the viewing restriction program is a parental control program, the process proceeds to step S57 to determine who the user of the current set-top box 11 is. As described with reference to 4, the user's password or user's image registered by the parental level setter is input.

In the next step S58, the control unit 28 checks the age of the user registered in the set-top box 11 by using the input user's private key, and the viewing age extracted from the event information table of the transport stream. The number of repetitions of the parental control message is calculated by subtracting from the (Age Rate) information. Since the number of delivery of the parental control message per minute of the present invention is calculated by using the age rate information and the age information of the viewer, the higher the value of the viewing age information, the higher the number of reproductions per minute of the parental control message may increase. will be. As a preferred embodiment of the present invention, as illustrated in FIG. 5, a method of calculating the number of times of reproduction of the viewing restriction message by using a ratio of a value of viewing age information per minute and a value of age information of a viewer per minute Although the description will be made on the contrary, the transmission interval between the video and audio message of the parental control setter may be gradually shortened over time, and each time the parental control message is repeated, It is also possible to sequentially provide a plurality of parental control messages that are set such that the strength of the tone or expression of the video message is increased.

In a next step S59, the program of the corresponding channel is decoded via the MPEG decoding section 25 and displayed on the television monitor 12 via the video and audio signal processing sections 26 and 27. At this time, under the control of the control unit 28, the parental control message is read from the hard disk 22 and provided to the video and audio signal processing units 26 and 27, where the video and audio signals are inserted into the television monitor 12. ) Is displayed and displayed. At this time, the viewing restriction message of the picture and audio of the viewing restriction setter displayed on the television monitor 12 imposes a considerable psychological burden on the viewing restriction subject. This may cause the audience to be motivated to switch channels.

The number of reproductions of the viewing restriction message of the image and the video displayed on the television monitor 12 is counted by the control unit 28 (step S60).

In this process, when the parental restriction person switches the channel feeling psychological burden by viewing and listening to the parental control message of the image and audio on the television monitor 12 (step S61), the process returns to step S53 and the switched channel. The process of determining whether this is another parental control channel is repeated.

In step S61, nevertheless, if channel switching is not made, the process proceeds to step S62 to determine whether the set-top box 11 is turned off, and if the set-top box 11 is turned off, the process ends. .

However, if it is determined that neither channel switching nor turn-off of the set-top box 11 is performed, the process proceeds to step S63 to check the number of parental control messages transmitted to the present time, if less than the number calculated in step S58. Returning to step S59, the above-described process is repeated. This repetitive playback will be made a number of times corresponding to the viewing rating value. Therefore, even if the viewing restriction target person sees the program displayed on the television monitor 12, he or she should watch the program with psychological burden.

In step 63, if the parental control message of the parental level setter has been delivered for the calculated number of times, the process returns to step S57 again through the tab B, and the above-described process is repeated.

Although only the satellite broadcasting has been described in the above description, it is also applicable to cable broadcasting, cable TV, and general TV broadcasting.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and that various modifications and changes can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

Therefore, according to the present invention, a parental restriction level program is controlled by a parental control message using the video and audio of a parental control setter who is a parental guardian by escaping a mandatory and closed manner by a conventional password. It has the effect of spontaneously triggering behavior to be avoided.

This voluntary motivational method has the advantage that the higher the rating, the more the number of messages played by the parental restriction setter increases or the number of repetitions of the message is gradually increased according to the adult grade.

In addition, as in the prior art, the parental level setter does not have to watch the channel change or know the changed information for setting the parental level for each channel of the satellite broadcasting program, so that the parental level function can be more conveniently managed. There is an advantage.

Claims (10)

In the method for limiting viewing of a program in a broadcast receiving system, A first step of registering a parental or third party video or parental control message produced by a setter in the broadcast receiving system; A second step of setting and registering a parental level for a program received by the broadcast receiving system; A third step of checking whether a program received at the broadcast receiving system is a program having a parental level; A fourth step of displaying the parental control message if the program is a parental control level; Program viewing restriction method comprising a. The method of claim 1, The first step is a program viewing restriction method characterized in that the setter stores a plurality of parental control messages in the broadcast receiving system and register one or more of them as the parental control message. The method of claim 1, wherein the second step, Inputting the viewer's personal information by the setter to give a private key; And And checking a program viewing restriction level by extracting personal information corresponding to the private key when the private key is input. The method of claim 1, The third step is a program viewing restriction method for setting the number of times to display the viewing restriction message every predetermined time by comparing the program viewing rating and a preset program restriction rating. The method according to claim 1 or 4, The viewing restriction message is a program viewing restriction method, characterized in that the repetition time of the message is shortened as the viewing time of the viewing restriction program is increased. The method of claim 1, And the parental control message is displayed in one of a full screen, a picture-in picture, or an overlap. The method of claim 1, And the contents of the message are changed whenever the parental control message is repeated. The method of claim 1, And repeating the third and fourth steps when changing the channel of the received program. In the broadcast receiving system, A storage unit which stores a parental control message; A decoder that extracts a rating from a program received in the broadcast receiving system; A discriminator for determining whether the program has a parental level; An output device for displaying the parental control message when the program is a parental control program Broadcast receiving system capable of viewing the program, characterized in that it comprises a. The method of claim 9, And an input means for generating the parental control message.