KR20030059578A - A digital set-top box which embodies a photo album and a photo album embodying method using the digital set-top box - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A digital set top box for displaying a photograph album and a method of displaying the photograph album are provided to receive digital images and motion-picture data in various forms from external peripheral devices to display the digital images and motion-picture data on a screen. CONSTITUTION: A digital set top box for displaying digital image or motion pictures includes a digital signal input processor(210), a thumbnail data processor(220), a data storage unit(230), and a main controller(260). The digital signal input processor converts the digital images or motion pictures received from external peripheral devices into MPEG I-pictures. The thumbnail data processor converts image or motion-picture data of the MPEG I-pictures into RGB data. The data storage unit mixes the RGB data with MPEG data and stores them. The main controller calls the RGB data stored in the data storage unit according to a function selected by a user to display the data through a display.

Description

Digital set-top box embodying a photo album and a photo album implementation method using the same {A DIGITAL SET-TOP BOX WHICH EMBODIES A PHOTO ALBUM AND A PHOTO ALBUM EMBODYING METHOD USING THE DIGITAL SET-TOP BOX}

The present invention relates to a set-top box, and more particularly, to a digital set-top box implementing a photo album capable of expressing a photo album on a screen by receiving digital image or video data from an external peripheral device and a method of implementing a photo album using the same.

In general, a user may include a satellite antenna for receiving a satellite signal to watch satellite broadcasts, a set-top box for controlling the position and orientation of the satellite antenna and processing the signal received from the satellite antenna to be displayed on a display device; A display device (often a TV screen) for receiving an image signal from the display and displaying the received video signal can be used to watch the received satellite broadcast.

The user sets the menu using various functions of the set-top box. At this time, the image used as the wallpaper is a limited kind of image, and thus the user cannot display the desired image. There is a problem that can not take advantage of more various functions.

In order to solve such a problem, the technical problem to be achieved by the present invention is to enable the display of various types of still image or video data on the screen according to the user's selection.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a digital set-top box implementing a photo album according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a method of implementing a photo album according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a diagram illustrating a file system for storing photo album data in a data storage medium according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4A and 4B illustrate a result of implementing a photo album on a screen according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The set-top box implementing the photo album according to one feature of the present invention for achieving the above object,

Digital set-top box that receives digital image or video data from an external peripheral, processes the data, and then displays the result through a display device.

A digital signal input processor configured to determine digitized image or video data input from the external peripheral device and convert the digitalized image or video data into an MPEG I picture;

A thumbnail data processing unit for retrieving MPEG I pictures received from the digital signal input processing unit and converting image or video data into RGB data in a small capacity image form;

A data storage unit for mixing and storing the Algibi data converted by the thumbnail data processing unit and the converted MPEG data; And

A main control unit which determines a function selection of a user and controls to display the information through the display apparatus by calling the ALGBI data stored in the data storage unit;

It includes.

Photo album implementation method using a set-top box according to another feature of the present invention,

A photo album implementation method for receiving digital image or video data from an external peripheral device, processing the data, and expressing the result through a display device.

Receive digital image or video data from the external peripheral device and convert the received digital image or video data into RGB data so that the photo album can be embodied by thumbnail data smaller than the first digital image or video data. Converting;

Mixing the converted Algibi data and digital image or video data and storing the mixed data in an information storage device; And

Recalling the digital data stored in the information storage device according to the user's selection and expressing it on the display device

It includes.

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

1 is a block diagram illustrating a digital set-top box implementing a photo album according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, a digital set-top box 200 implementing a photo album according to an embodiment of the present invention is a peripheral device of a user PC 110, a digital camera 120, and a digital camcorder 130. A digital signal input processing unit 210 for receiving and interfacing digital data input from the digital signal; Thumbnail that converts the image or video data received from the digital signal input processing unit 210 into RGB data, which is a small capacity image, and mixes the image data converted into RGB data between the header information and the MPEG I picture to process the data. (Hereinafter referred to as a Thumnail) data processing module 220; A hard disk 230 that receives data processed by the thumbnail data processing module 220 and stores the data in a file system format; If the user wants to display by selecting the photo album function, the data stored in the hard disk 230 is read and decoded in the Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) data format to display a full screen display for a specific screen. Supporting MPEG decoder 240; A memory 250 for temporarily storing the sequence header and the GOP header information retrieved from the thumbnail data processing unit 220 or temporarily storing each header information until the I picture is retrieved from the MPEG data; Call the RGB data stored in the hard disk 230, read and demodulate the data stored in the hard disk 230 through the MPEG decoder 240, and receive the user's photo album selection results to display on a specific screen A main controller 260 for controlling; A user interface 270 for processing user selection data so that a user may alternatively utilize image data among one or more photo album items represented on a screen of the TV 300; A data call module 280 that receives a user's photo album function selection result from the user interface 270 and calls image or video data stored in the hard disk 230 through the main controller 260; And a converter 290 for converting the digital data of the image or video selected by the user into analog data for presentation on the TV 300.

The converter 290 preferably further includes a video DAC and an audio DAC for converting the video and audio data into analog data, respectively.

Each module described above may be a program or a device storing a program that independently performs each function, and the present invention is not limited to the embodiment.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings the operation of the set-top box having a security function according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a method of implementing a photo album according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a view illustrating a file system for storing photo album data in a data storage medium according to an embodiment of the present invention. 4B is a diagram illustrating a result of implementing a photo album on a screen according to an embodiment of the present invention.

First, a general satellite broadcast display process of video and sound data transmitted from one or more satellites through a satellite broadcasting reception antenna (not shown) is decoded through the set-top box 200 and then reproduced by the TV 300. Description is omitted.

The user compresses the captured image data by executing an image data compression program (not shown) built in peripheral devices such as the user PC 110, the digital camera 120, and the digital camcorder 130. In the following, detailed description on the compression of general video data is omitted.

The digital signal input processing unit 210 is a USB (Universal Serial Bus) or IEEE1394 or Ethernet (Ethernet) or MPEG-2 transport stream from a peripheral device such as the user PC 110, the digital camera 120, the digital camcorder 130, etc. A digital image or video data in the form of (Transport Stream) is received (S100).

At this time, the image data received by the digital signal input processing unit 210 is a compressed digitized image such as JPG, BMP, GIF file format or digitized such as MJPEG (Motion JPEG), DV (Digital Video), MPEG, AVI format, etc. A video may be received and the present invention is not limited only to the embodiment.

The digital signal input processing unit 210 checks whether the data input from the peripheral device is still image data or video data (S110).

If the input data is a still image, the digital signal input processing unit 210 starts the still image data with a sequence start code (or header) and ends with a sequence end code (or header). The image is converted into an I picture and generated (S111). If the input data is a moving picture, the input data is simply left in the MPEG moving picture data format, and converted to MPEG data in the DV format or the MJPEG format. In this case, the digital signal input processing unit further includes a module for converting input video data into MPEG data according to an input format.

The digital signal input processor 210 transmits the converted MPEG I picture and MPEG data to the thumbnail data processing module 220, and the thumbnail data processing module 220 receives the first MPEG I picture (still image) from the received data. Search for the converted MPEG I picture (S120), and convert the searched first MPEG I picture to RGB data (S130).

The MPEG I picture search in MPEG data is first searched for the sequence header in the input video data stream and then the GOP header is searched. MPEG data consists of frames of an I picture, a P picture, and a B picture. The I picture independently has information that can be decoded a frame of a scene. MPEG data is encoded in the order of a sequence header, a group of picture (GOP) header, a picture header, and a sequence end header. The sequence header is information that designates a screen format and the like at the head of a sequence layer of MPEG data, and has a horizontal and vertical size of a frame and a quantization table of I frames. The GOP header is not an important frame when reproducing an I frame. However, an MPEG frame always has an I frame after the GOP header. Therefore, it is desirable to add a GOP header so that the I frame search by the thumbnail data processing module 220 can be performed through the GOP header. In the GOP header, there are "Closed_GOP" and "Broken_Link flag". "Closed_GOP" indicates whether the video in the GOP can be played independently from other GOPs. To indicate that it is not available. That is, "Closed_GOP" means that the B frame itself is completed by I frames and P frames on both sides of the B frame, and when there is no previous I frame or P frame at the time of capturing the image data, the next I frame or P frame To complete the frame. In this case, if this value is 0, it refers to the reference frame of both I frames or P frames, and if this value is 1, it refers to the next I frame or P frame. In the image data capture used in the embodiment of the present invention, this value must be set to 1 so that the MPEG decoder 240 does not find the I frame or the P frame before the GOP when the image data is reproduced. In addition, when "Closed_GOP" becomes 1, the "Broken_Link flag" means that one frame of reference is lost because one frame of reference is lost when B frames in the GOP are encoded with a bidirectional frame of reference. When there is a B frame referring to the B frame, this B frame is a flag not to be decoded. In an embodiment of the present invention, if the value of the "Broken_Link flag" is set to 1, the MPEG decoder 240 is always set to decode only I frames, so that the MPEG decoder 240 does not perform unnecessary work.

When the sequence header and the GOP header are found and found, the thumbnail data processing module 220 analyzes the picture header. At this time, the thumbnail data processing module 220 temporarily stores the retrieved sequence header and GOP header information in the memory 240. The thumbnail data processing module 220 searches for the I frame by searching the I frame through analysis of the picture header. If the I picture is not found until the next sequence header and GOP header are found, the thumbnail data processing module 220 updates the sequence header and the GOP header stored in the memory 240 with the latest information. Set the Broken_Link flag in the GOP header. Since the sequence header and the GOP header are necessary elements for storing the captured still image on the hard disk 230, the sequence header and the GOP header should be stored in the memory 240.

If the I picture is detected, the thumbnail data processing module 220 captures the contents of the P picture or the B picture header, the GOP header, the sequence header, and the like until the header of the I picture is detected. 270) temporarily stored. When the capturing of the contents is completed, the thumbnail data processing module 220 concatenates the sequence header stored in the memory 240 and the updated GOP header, attaches the I picture header and the I picture contents, and finally adds the sequence end header. Reconstruct the captured still image. This is because the MPEG decoder 240 needs to have a format of a sequence header, a GOP header, an I picture header, an I picture content, and a sequence end header order in order to reproduce one frame.

The reason for changing to RGB data in the above-mentioned RGB data conversion step (S130) is that since the MPEG decoder 240 is one when displaying the thumbnail data on the screen, it is difficult to display them in multiple sheets at the same time. This is to make it possible to display several sheets at the same time when displaying on the OSD (OnScreen Display) plane. The thumbnail data is data for displaying a large original image as a small image so that a large amount of images can be easily and quickly viewed or managed. For example, software for managing multiple images usually provides a smaller image of each image, which helps users avoid having to remember the file name of each image.

In the above RGB data conversion process, the size of the converted RGB data may be resized. Thumbnail data is to allow the display of multiple images to be displayed in a small capacity, so make them 1/4 or 1/16 smaller than the original image. The size of the readjustment may be input through the user interface 270 from the outside, and the present invention is not limited to the embodiment.

The data converted into the RGB format is transferred to the hard disk 230 by a file system of the hard disk 230 including a main header and a file header, as shown in FIG. Save it. At this time, the data stored in the hard disk 230 are all compressed data in MPEG, and is stored in the form that the actual MPEG data corresponding to the file is stored following the thumbnail data by a file system having a main header and a file header. Using the main header and file header, the file name, date, author name, and description of the video are also stored.

In this case, when the processor power of the main controller 260 is low and there is no file system that the hard disk 230 or the memory 250 has, the main header, It can be saved using the area divided into file header, thumbnail storage, and MPEG data storage. If the processor power of the main controller 260 is high, the main controller 260 may store the data using only the header information area and the data storage space of the main header and the file header, but the present invention is not limited to the exemplary embodiment.

The user interface 270 checks whether the user has selected the photo album function through the remote controller 400 (S150). In this case, the user interface 270 may check the selection of a photo album function input through an operation button located outside the set top box, and the present invention is not limited to the embodiment.

If the photo album function selection is detected from the remote control unit 400 by the user's operation, the user interface 270 transmits the photo album function selection result to the data call module 280, and the data call module 280 may display the main page. The controller 260 requests data call according to the user's photo album function selection (S160), and the main controller 260 reads a list of files stored in the hard disk 230 and calls thumbnail data converted to RGB data. Process (S170). At this time, the main control unit 260 determines how to display, which is the user may want to view several sheets at once in the form of thumbnail data, and select from the menu to view a single image in full screen or thumbnail data form. Because you can.

The main controller 260 transfers the read thumbnail data to the converter 270, and the converter 270 converts the received thumbnail data into an analog signal and displays the same on the screen of the TV 300 (S180). In this case, since the thumbnail data of the RGB type displayed on the screen is represented by OSD, which is a method of displaying subtitles or menus displayed on the screen without passing through the MPEG decoder 240, several thumbnail data are displayed at a time. Whether it is shown or not can be selected by the user. This is because one of the MPEG decoders 240 is difficult to decode several images at the same time, so that the MPEG decoder 240 has previously changed to the RGB form.

If the user selects a full screen data display, the main controller 260 transfers the MPEG data of the file stored in the hard disk 230 to the MPEG decoder 240, and the MPEG decoder 240 transmits the hard disk 230. Decode MPEG data stored on the screen and show it on the screen in full screen.

Determination of the display method by the main controller 260 receives the display selection result received from the user from the user interface 270, reads the data stored in the hard disk 230, buffers it in the memory 250, and then MPEG Display through the decoder (240).

As shown in FIG. 4A, thumbnail data may be read and displayed in a horizontal and vertical alignment, and a specific file name may be displayed and displayed in the displayed image or video data item display area. In this case, the user may group the images by using a cursor, or select an image and group the images into one group. In addition, image files can be sorted by name, date, and group, and can be moved, renamed, and deleted, user-selected images or groups, or randomly selected images. It can be implemented as a slide show (slide show), a function that makes the background music when the video is shown.

In addition, as shown in FIG. 4B, whenever the mouse pointer is moved to the image or video data item on the list, the corresponding thumbnail data may be represented. When the user uses the remote controller 400 or directly selects the corresponding item, an image is displayed on the screen of the TV 300, and in the case of a video clip, it is displayed in full screen.

The embodiment of the present invention is only one embodiment, and many changes and modifications may be made to the components of the present invention without departing from the gist of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited only to the embodiments. .

As described above, the digital set-top box implementing the photo album of the present invention and the photo album implementation method using the same allow to receive various types of digital image or video data from an external peripheral device and display them with one or more functions on the screen. .

Claims (9)

In a digital set-top box that receives digital image or video data from an external peripheral, processes the data, and then displays the result through a display device. A digital signal input processor configured to determine digitized image or video data input from the external peripheral device and convert the digitalized image or video data into an MPEG I picture; A thumbnail data processing unit for retrieving MPEG I pictures received from the digital signal input processing unit and converting image or video data into RGB data in a small capacity image form; A data storage unit for mixing and storing the Algibi data converted by the thumbnail data processing unit and the converted MPEG data; And A main control unit which determines a function selection of a user and controls to display the information through the display apparatus by calling the ALGBI data stored in the data storage unit; Digital set-top box implementing a photo album containing. In claim 1, If the user wants a full screen display of the transmitted image or video data, MPEG decoding unit for reading the data stored in the data storage unit to demodulate the MPEG data format and to support a full screen display for a specific screen; A memory for temporarily storing the header information retrieved by the MPEG decoding unit or temporarily storing the header information until searching for the I picture included in the MPEG data; A user interface for allowing a user to select among one or more photo album items displayed on a screen of the display device; A data call module for receiving a user's photo album function selection result from the user interface and calling the image or video data stored in the data storage unit through the main controller; And A converter for receiving a photo album function selection result from the user interface from the main controller and converting the digital image of the selected image or video into analog data to be displayed on the display device; Digital set-top box implementing a photo album further comprising. The digital signal input processing unit of claim 1, wherein the digital signal input processing unit A digital set-top box that implements a photo album, characterized in that from the external peripheral device to convert the digitized still image data according to a plurality of formats or digitized video data in a plurality of format forms into an MPEG I picture. In a photo album implementation method of receiving digital image or video data from an external peripheral device, processing the data, and expressing the result through a display device, Receive digital image or video data from the external peripheral device and convert the received digital image or video data into RGB data so that the photo album can be embodied by thumbnail data smaller than the first digital image or video data. Converting; Mixing the converted Algibi data and digital image or video data and storing the mixed data in an information storage device; And Calling digital data stored in the information storage device and expressing the same on the display device according to a user's selection; Photo album implementation method using a digital set-top box comprising a. The method of claim 4, wherein the Algibi data conversion step If the data input from the external peripheral device is digital image data, converting the received image data into an MPEG I picture; If the data input from the external peripheral device is digital video data, converting the data into MPEG data according to a data format; Retrieving the first I picture from the MPEG I picture and the converted MPEG data Photo album implementation method using a digital set-top box comprising a. The method of claim 5, wherein the first I picture retrieval step Retrieving a sequence header from an input video data stream and retrieving a GOP header; Analyzing a picture header when the sequence header and the GOP header are found, and temporarily storing the retrieved sequence header and GOP header information in a memory; When picture header analysis is completed, the I picture is searched, and when the I picture is detected, the contents of the I picture until the header information and P picture or B picture header information, GOP header information, and sequence header information are detected are stored in the memory. Temporarily storing in the; Updating the sequence header and the GOP header stored in the memory if the I picture is not found until the sequence header and the GOP header are found; And Reconstructing the image by successively adding the sequence header information, the updated GOP header information, the I picture header information, the I picture information, and the sequence end header information stored in the memory. Photo album implementation method using a digital set-top box comprising a. 5. The method of claim 4, wherein storing the information storage device Inserting a name of a file, a date, a brief description of the file, and information related to a file group in the thumbnail data converted into the Algivy form to complete data processing; Storing the thumbnail data in the information storage device using an area divided into a header, a thumbnail, and an MPEG data storage space. Photo album implementation method using a digital set-top box comprising a. The method of claim 4, wherein the displaying of the display device Checking a selection of a photo album function selected by a user and calling thumbnail data of an Algivy type stored in the information storage device; Reading and processing thumbnail data included in image data or moving image data called from the information storage device, and displaying the result on a screen of the display device; Photo album implementation method using a digital set-top box comprising a. In claim 4, A method of implementing a photo album using a digital set-top box, characterized in that for converting the digital still image data according to one or more formats or the digitalized video data in one or more formats from the external peripheral device and converting the converted digital data into Algibi data. .