KR20040017580A - Region portal service method using a digital set-top box - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A method for a region portal service by using a digital set-top box is provided to easily obtain wanted materials at home. CONSTITUTION: A service providing device which stores notices and various information data of all regions transmits notices and various information data of the corresponding region to a system operating device of each region(S10). A random digital set-top box is turned on(S12). A user who uses the digital set-top box selects local information viewing, a television displays a plurality of detailed items(S14). If the user selects one of the detailed items, the system operating device provides information related to the selected item to the digital set-top box(S16,S20). The digital set-top box displays the information related to the selected item through the television(S18,S22,S24). If the user selects a video conference, the digital set-top box realizes a video phone function(S26-S28).

Description

Region portal service method using a digital set-top box}

The present invention relates to a local portal service method using a digital set-top box, and more specifically, to provide a user's digital announcements and various information in the user's area to the user's digital set-top box in real time. Local portal service method using a digital set-top box.

Currently, if you want to order food in the house, such as an apartment or a detached house, find a restaurant by referring to the phone book and then call the restaurant or order the food using the information sheet containing the restaurant's phone number. In this case, if there is no phone book or no information sheet, you must go out of the house and go to the restaurant to order food or check the restaurant's phone number and call the phone number to order food.

And, in the case of an apartment complex, information to be known by all residents in the apartment is mainly informed through a broadcast in the management office, even in this case there is a problem that can not obtain such information if the residents are not at home.

In particular, in the case of apartment complex, there is a management agent for each building, and the management staff attaches various information necessary for the building to the bulletin board. If the management staff is not diligent, they may not be able to present the information to be posted properly. Rather, each consenting residents have to come to the place where the bulletin board is located to get the necessary information.

The present invention has been proposed to solve the above problems, and provides a local portal service method using a digital set-top box to provide a real-time announcement or various information in the area where the user resides in accordance with the user's request That is the purpose.

1 is a configuration diagram of a system to which a method according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied;

2 is an internal configuration diagram of the digital set-top box shown in FIG.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of serving a local portal using a digital set-top box according to an embodiment of the present invention.

* Explanation of symbols for main parts of the drawings

100: service providing apparatus 200: Internet

300: system operation unit 400: digital set-top box

In order to achieve the above object, a local portal service method using a digital set-top box according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention is provided by a user who receives a service content selected by a user using a telephone line of a VDSL and displays it on a television in real time. Digital set top box; A system operating device installed at a predetermined unit of area and relaying service contents required by the digital set-top box in real time by two-way data communication with an arbitrary digital set-top box; And a service providing apparatus for providing corresponding service contents to a corresponding system operating apparatus in real time according to a service content request from the system operating apparatus input through the Internet.

A first step of transmitting a notice and a variety of information data of a corresponding region from the service providing apparatus storing announcements and various information data of all regions to the system operating apparatus installed for each region; A second step of displaying a plurality of detailed selection items through the television when the digital set-top box is turned on and a user selects to view local information; A third step of providing, to the digital set-top box, information on the selected detailed selection item by the system operating apparatus when any one of the detailed selection items is selected from the plurality of detailed selection items; And a fourth process for the digital set-top box to display information on the selected detailed selection item through the television.

Hereinafter, a regional portal service method using a digital set top box according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a configuration diagram of a system to which a method according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied, wherein a user's digital set-top box 400 receives a service content selected by a user using a telephone line of a VDSL and displays it on a television in real time; It is installed by a predetermined regional unit, and is connected to the digital set-top box 400 of the plurality of users in the region through a telephone line of VDSL, and required by the digital set-top box by two-way data communication with any digital set-top box. System operating apparatus 300 for providing a service content in real time; And store and receive various service contents from a content providing device (not shown), and operate the corresponding service contents in real time according to a service content request from the system operating apparatus 300 input through the Internet 200. It is provided with a service providing device 100 to provide to the device (300).

Here, the content providing apparatus is a device managed by a content provider, the service providing apparatus 100 is a device managed by a service provider, and the system operating apparatus 300 is a system operator (that is, a virtual store that is granted goodwill). It can be called an operator).

Although only two of the system operating apparatuses 300 are illustrated in FIG. 1, the system operating apparatuses 300 may be more than one, and one system operating apparatus 300 is capable of two-way communication with about 150 digital set-top boxes 400. Of course, the one system operating device 300 may be bidirectionally communicated with the 150 or more digital set-top boxes 400, as well as can be expanded.

The service providing apparatus 100 includes: a first storage unit for storing contents related to various services; A streaming server for transmitting the service contents stored in the first storage unit to the system operating apparatus 300 through the Internet, and inputting the input service contents to the first storage unit; A storage area network (SAN) switching unit installed between the first storage unit and the streaming server to switch service content movement between the first storage unit and the streaming server; A web / database server for delivering various service contents provided from the content providing apparatus (not shown) to the streaming server through the Internet; Additional information of service contents stored in the first storage unit (for example, location and serial number of each service content, access information of each service operating device, access information of a content providing device, billing information, and operation of other service providing devices) A second storage unit for storing information necessary for the storage; And a Manager PC that searches, inserts, deletes, updates, and reconstructs additional information stored in the second storage unit through the DML command in the web / database server.

The service providing apparatus 100 and the content providing apparatus (not shown) are interconnected by the Internet connected to the web / database server, and the service providing apparatus 100 and the system are connected through the Internet 200 connected to the streaming server. The operating device 300 is interconnected.

In addition, the first storage means a large capacity, which can be expanded as needed, and is used in the same manner as using one storage space with the help of the sand switching unit. That is, the first storage unit is physically independent of a plurality, but is logically a storage space.

The service providing apparatus 100 receives a movie or value-added data from a content providing apparatus (not shown) and stores it in the first storage unit. The stored content is 10 megabytes to several gigabytes. Therefore, in order to solve this, it is necessary to have a switch and a plurality of storage unit.

The San switching unit performs service content movement between the first storage unit and the streaming server by a fiber channel.

The SAN switching unit may be configured as a SAN (SAN) and is merely an embodiment of the present invention, and refers to a switching function and equipment for accessing various memories, which are not limited thereto.

It is a matter of course that the means by a channel other than the example fiber channel is also possible here.

In addition, the streaming server provides service contents to multiple system operating apparatuses 300 at the same time using a method of reproducing voice, video, animation, etc. in real time on the Internet.

According to the service providing apparatus 100 illustrated in FIG. 1, for example, when a content providing apparatus (not shown) supplies a content of a region of “Gangnam-gu Office News” to the service providing apparatus 100, the service providing apparatus 100. ) Will store the contents of the area "Gangnam-gu Office News" received in the first storage unit.

That is, the service providing apparatus 100 stores the web site of the "Gangnam-gu Office News" provided by the content providing apparatus (not shown) through the Internet and stores the web / database server in the first storage unit through the switch. . And, additional information (that is, the location and serial number of the local news, "Gangnam-gu Office News", access information of each system operating device, access information of the content providing device (not shown), and various other service providing device ( Information necessary for the operation of 100) is stored in the second storage unit through a SCSI (Small Computer System Interface). The manager fish retrieves, inserts, deletes, updates, and reorganizes the data stored in the second storage through the DML (Data Manipulation Language) command to the web / database server. The result is passed to the second store.

On the other hand, the system operating apparatus 300, the storage unit for storing the service content provided from the service providing apparatus 100; A media server connected to the Internet by a cable or an optical cable to receive service contents provided from the service providing apparatus 100, and temporarily store and output the service contents in the storage unit; A multi-point distribution unit for setting and outputting a plurality of transmission paths for service contents output from the media server; And a private branch exchange that transfers the service content from the multipoint distribution unit to the corresponding digital set-top box 400 via a telephone line.

The media server is connected to the streaming server of the service providing apparatus 100 by a cable or an optical cable to receive not only service contents but also regional announcements and various information materials, and the received service contents and regional announcements and various information materials. Save to storage.

And, the digital set-top box 400, as shown in Figure 2, from a plurality of audio / video input sources (e.g., television tuner, movie camera, VTR, cable broadcasting, satellite broadcasting, CCD camera, microphone, etc.) A plurality of analog / digital converters (ADCs) for receiving audio / video signals and digitally converting them; The audio / video signal of one channel selected from the audio / video signals of the multiple channels provided from the analog / digital converters is output through the storage signal output port, and the audio / video signals and MPEG of the multiple channels are output. An audio / video switching unit for outputting the decoded audio / video signal through the audio / video signal output port; An MPEG encoder which receives an audio / video signal output through the storage signal output port of the audio / video switching unit and encodes the MPEG signal; A storage unit in the form of a hard disk drive (HDD) in which audio / video signals encoded by the MPEG encoder are stored, and MPEG contents input through a VDSL line or a LAN line are stored; A sub-control unit which stores the output data from the MPEG encoder and the MPEG contents input through the VDSL line or the LAN line to the storage unit, and outputs the data stored in the storage unit; A main control unit for providing a control command for storing and outputting data to the storage unit to the sub control unit, and controlling a corresponding operation based on a remote signal from a remote control unit (not shown) received in the remote control receiving unit; An MPEG decoder which MPEG-decodes the data outputted from the sub-controller and transmits the MPEG-decoded data to the audio / video switching unit; A screen generator for making a video signal of one channel as a main screen and a video signal of other channels among the video signals of a plurality of channels from the audio / video switching unit; The contents of the 24-bit overlay memory (not shown) of RGB 8: 8: 8 are assigned to a specific color key value (ie, the color key value corresponding to the OSD character (or picture) required for the screens to be output). An OSD synthesizer for implementing a graphic OSD suitable for a screen from the screen generator in comparison with the above; A video output section for displaying a video screen from the OSD synthesizing section on a television monitor (not shown); An audio / digital / analog converter for analog converting a voice signal of an active channel to the main screen provided by the audio / video switcher; An audio output unit for outputting audio from the audio digital / analog conversion unit to the outside through a speaker of a television (not shown); RAM which stores codes of operating programs required for the digital set-top box; And a ROM in which all programs related to driving and control of the digital set-top box are stored.

Here, the audio / video switching unit, the sub control unit and the OSD synthesis unit are field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), which are types of programmable logic chips.

The main control unit and the sub control unit communicate with each other via a local bus. The ROM further stores personal information (eg, name, address, credit card information, ID card information, etc.) of the user using the digital set-top box.

Also, in FIG. 2, the screen generating unit, the OSD synthesizing unit, the image output unit, the audio digital / analog converting unit, and the audio output unit are collectively referred to as a plurality of channels of audio and video output from the audio / video switching unit. It is called audio / video output means outputted according to a user's selection condition under the control of the controller.

The MPEG encoder has a built-in first-in-first-out (FIFO) buffer (not shown), and the secondary controller directly accesses the buffer of the MPEG encoder, and the main controller processes only the control command. The main control unit processes only the control command and the address index for the storage unit, and the sub control unit is in charge of the remaining large burst transmission.

In addition, in FIG. 2, the VDSL line is a telephone line, and a VOD is realized through the VDSL line, and the LAN line is composed of two Internet lines as the Internet line. A network interface card (NIC) is installed between the VDSL line and the two LAN lines and the local bus. The network interface card ensures that the digital set-top box and the network are always connected. The network interface card connected to the two internet lines is provided with a network address translation (NAT) function, which is used as a home gateway device. In other words, if the user is not in a VDSL environment, the user may use a digital set-top box by directly connecting to an Internet line (ie, a LAN line).

In addition, in order to use the digital set-top box in a non-crowded area such as a restaurant or laundry, such as a local store, the digital set-top box is directly connected to the Internet line (ie, a LAN line or an ADSL line) as described above. In this case, the VOD service and the video call service may be limited, but the ordered status may be received and displayed from the system operating apparatus 300, and the system operating apparatus 300 to which the local store belongs may be used as a server. You will be served.

Also, the ROM of FIG. 2 includes VOIP software for enabling a digital set-top box to perform a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) function, and a slick (SLIC-SUBSCRIBER LINE INTERFACE CIRCUITS) on a local bus to perform the VOIP function. One output terminal of is connected, and the other output terminal of the SLIC is connected to the audio / video switching unit.

The SLIC outputs an analog audio signal input as a digital audio signal. The digital audio signal output from the output terminal of the SLIC is input to the audio / video switching unit and also to the main control unit via the local bus.

The main control unit controls the VOIP function based on the VOIP software after storing the VOIP software stored in the ROM when the digital set-top box is powered on. Therefore, the digital set-top box of FIG. 2 also serves as a VOIP phone. That is, the digital set-top box of Figure 2 has a built-in VOIP function for transmitting voice and video using IP.

In FIG. 2, an audio / video signal input from the audio / video input source (ie, a signal input through an analog / digital converter) is composed of an RCA input and a super video (S-video), and the four input sources. Only the audio / video signal of one input source is stored in the storage unit through the MPEG encoder and the sub-controller according to the command of the main controller. Since the four input sources are transmitted to the screen generating unit in real time, they are displayed in a combination of up to three channels while displaying the stored contents.

In addition, the digital set-top box of FIG. 2 can be selected and used in a VDSL telephone environment or a LAN environment capable of high-speed communication of up to 25 megabytes per second and 12 megabits per second in both directions. When a network is selected, a server (not shown) is selected. Through updating the latest content information and necessary data is provided by the user's request. In addition, to facilitate multi-tasking, data input through the network is stored in a hard disk drive (HDD) storage for temporal buffering, and then read from the storage, and the MPEG decoder and audio / video switching unit It is transmitted to the screen generation unit through.

According to the digital set-top box of FIG. 2 configured as described above, various contents can be provided as desired through the VDSL line or the LAN line as well as the normal PVR function, and output is also possible.

Next, a local portal service operation using a digital set-top box according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 3.

First, the service providing apparatus 100 transmits the notices and various information data for each region stored in the first storage unit (not shown) to the system operating apparatus 300 through the Internet 200 (step S10). The system operating apparatus 300 is installed one by one for each regional unit, and the system operating apparatus 300 manages, for example, the 1500 generation digital set-top box 400 in a predetermined region.

After the digital set-top box 400 in an arbitrary area is turned on (step S12), a user who uses the digital set-top box 400 on the television monitor associated with the digital set-top box 400 by using a remote control or the like. When the local view is selected on the initial screen (step S14), the digital set-top box 400 causes the display to display a number of detailed choices (e.g., bulletin board view, local store view, video conferencing, etc.). do.

Viewing the multiple detailed choices, the user selects the desired detailed choice.

For example, when the user selects the bulletin board view (step S16), a corresponding bulletin board view selection signal and a unique number of the digital set-top box 400 which selected the bulletin board view are transmitted to the system operating apparatus 300. . Accordingly, the system operating apparatus 300 transmits information on news, local news, neighborhood meeting schedules, etc. of public organizations in the region to which the digital set-top box 400 belongs, to the corresponding digital set-top box 400, and The digital set-top box 400 having received various kinds of information pertaining to the bulletin board view displays such contents on the monitor of the television (step S18). Thus, the user can check the news, local news, neighborhood meetings, etc. of the public agencies in the area displayed on the television monitor.

On the other hand, when the user selects the local store view (step S20), the corresponding local store view selection signal and the unique number of the digital set-top box 400 selected for the local store view are transmitted to the system operating apparatus 300. do. Accordingly, the system operating apparatus 300 notifies the corresponding digital set-top box 400 of information on the menu of each restaurant, as well as the location and telephone number of restaurants, laundry, etc., in the region where the digital set-top box 400 belongs. The digital set-top box 400 transmits the data to the local store view, and displays the contents on the monitor of the television (step S22). Thus, the user can view the menu of each restaurant as well as the location and telephone number of the local restaurant, laundry, etc. displayed on the television monitor, for example, select and order the food to be ordered (step S24). That is, when a user A orders a menu of a restaurant B by a remote control operation, the menu order information (for example, order food and delivery destination) is received at the remote control receiver of the user A's digital set-top box 400. Receiving the orderer's address and telephone number, etc.) and transmitting the order information to the main control unit through the local bus, and transmitting the menu order information to the system operating apparatus 300 through the local bus and the VDSL's telephone line. The system operating apparatus 300 transmits the menu order information of the user A to the digital set-top box 400 provided in the restaurant B. Accordingly, since the menu order of the user A is displayed on the screen of the television connected to the digital set-top box 400 of the restaurant B, the restaurant B presents the food of the menu to the user A. Will be given. In this case, charging is done by cash or credit card.

Finally, if the user selects the video conference (step S26), the video conference function implemented in the digital set-top box 400 of the user proceeds to the video conference in each home (step S28).

In this way, if the digital set-top box 400 is turned off ("Yes" in step S30) after the bulletin board viewing, local store viewing, and video conferencing by the user's selection, no further operation is performed.

In the above-described embodiment of the present invention, the bulletin board view, the local store view, and the video conference are enumerated as the detailed selection items of the local information view, but other detailed selection items may be added as necessary.

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, when a user requests a notice and various information of a corresponding region by using a digital set-top box in each home, the system operating apparatus provides the notice and various information of the corresponding region in real time. At any time, you can easily obtain the materials you want.

In particular, it is possible to easily order the desired food without using a phone book or information sheet of companies such as restaurants in the region.

On the other hand, the present invention is not limited only to the above-described embodiment, but can be modified and modified within the scope not departing from the gist of the present invention, the technical idea to which such modifications and variations are also applied to the claims Must see

Claims (4)

A user digital set-top box that receives the service content selected by the user through a telephone line of the VDSL and displays the same through a television in real time; A system operating device installed at a predetermined unit of area and relaying service contents required by the digital set-top box in real time by two-way data communication with an arbitrary digital set-top box; And a service providing apparatus for providing corresponding service contents to a corresponding system operating apparatus in real time according to a service content request from the system operating apparatus input through the Internet. A first step of transmitting a notice and a variety of information data of a corresponding region from the service providing apparatus storing announcements and various information data of all regions to the system operating apparatus installed for each region; A second step of displaying a plurality of detailed selection items through the television when the digital set-top box is turned on and the user selects to view local information; A third step of providing, to the digital set-top box, information on the selected detailed selection item by the system operating apparatus when any one of the detailed selection items is selected from the plurality of detailed selection items; And And a fourth process for the digital set-top box to display information on the selected detailed selection item through the television. The method of claim 1, The plurality of detailed selection items are local portal service method using a digital set-top box, characterized in that consisting of bulletin board view, local store view, video conferencing. The method of claim 2, When the view of the bulletin board is selected, the local portal service method using a digital set-top box, characterized in that it provides information about public institution news, local news, neighborhood association schedule in the area. The method of claim 2, When the local store view is selected, the local portal service method using a digital set-top box, which provides a menu of each restaurant as well as the location and telephone number of restaurants, laundry, etc. in the region.