KR20060122158A - Digital tv proxy apparatus for a/v home networking and network system including the same - Google Patents

Abstract

A digital TV proxy apparatus for A/V home networking and a network system including the same are provided to connect the digital TV proxy apparatus to an existing digital TV having no network function, thereby acquiring effects as if a networking digital TV operates on an A/V home network. A digital TV proxy apparatus(340) comprises the followings: a digital network interface module(342) which receives data transmitted on an A/V home network; a central control module(344) which decodes the receives data and separates a voice signal from a video signal before processing user interfaces for devices connected on the A/V home network; and a signal processing module which processes the voice signal and the video signal overlaid with the user interface and outputs the signals to a digital TV. The signal processing module includes the followings: a voice processing module(346) for processing the voice signal; and a voice output module(348) for outputting the processed voice.

Description

Digital TV proxy apparatus for A / V home networking and network system including the same

1 is a diagram illustrating an example of the contents of a DeviceInfo.xml file generated for each device according to a grammar structure of DeviceInfo.xsd.

2 is a diagram illustrating an example of the contents of an XHT931.xml file generated for each device according to the grammar structure of XHT931.xsd.

3 is a block diagram illustrating an A / V home network system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a digital TV proxy apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a flowchart illustrating an operation process of an A / V home network system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

6 is an exemplary diagram illustrating a cable connection structure of a digital TV proxy apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

<Description of Main Parts of Drawings>

340: digital TV proxy device

342: digital network interface module

344: central control module

346: voice processing module

348: audio output module

350: video buffer module

352: graphic overlay module

354: video output module

356: user input module

The present invention relates to home networking, and more particularly, to a device and a system for providing a network function to a conventional digital TV having no network function through a digital TV proxy device.

In recent years, with the breakthrough development of digital audio / video (A / V) processing technology, digital television (TV), set-top box, DVD player (DVD player) Various A / V devices such as digital amplifiers are installed and used in homes or offices. In addition, a user of a home or office can conveniently control these devices using a remote control or the like. However, as the number of A / V devices installed in a certain space increases, controlling each device becomes more complicated and difficult.

Therefore, technologies for interfacing a plurality of A / V devices into a single system and allowing a user to easily control the systemized A / V devices have been studied. In these studies, the A / V devices are connected to other A / V devices through a network interface, so that they have a single A / V network system.

As part of this research, the eXpandable Home Theater (XHT) technical standard, which is middleware for A / V Home Networking, has recently been developed and presented. The XHT technology is a digital TV-centric home network solution developed by Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. and has been adopted as a standard specification of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA).

XHT technology uses the IEEE 1394 cable that can stably transmit a number of high definition (HD) signals, and A / V devices connected to digital TV using the Internet protocol, a communication standard mainly used on the Internet. Allows you to control multiple digital TVs. With XHT technology, you can watch digital broadcasts using the digital broadcast reception function of digital TV in the living room even in the home.

In addition, the low cost network interface unit (NIU) using XHT technology is in the form of a memory card, which makes it easy to change the reception method such as terrestrial, satellite, and cable, thereby reducing the economic burden on broadcasters. In particular, XHT technology enables various types of portal services through a browser embedded in digital TV.

Looking at the operation order of the A / V devices implemented by the XHT technology, a local IP address is automatically assigned to each of the A / V devices in the XHT network by a predetermined address assignment algorithm. Then, A / V devices assigned a local IP address transfer their device information to an Exensible Markup Language (XML) file (DeviceInfo.xml) according to a predefined syntax format (defined by the DeviceInfo.xsd file). Expression and transmit it to other A / V devices.

In the DeviceInfo.xml, a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) of a file (XHT931.xsd) describing a set of Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) commands for operating an A / V device is recorded.

The A / V device generating the DeviceInfo.xml generates an XML file (XHT931.xml) recording the HTTP commands supported by the device by referring to XHT931.xsd and transmits the same to other A / V devices.

For one A / V device, another A / V device that receives the DeviceInfo.xml representing the device information and XHT931.xml that records the supporting HTTP commands uses the received files to transmit the A / V device. It is possible to grasp information of the device and to control the A / V device by using an HTTP command.

FIG. 1 is an example 10 of the contents of a DeviceInfo.xml file generated for each device according to a syntax of DeviceInfo.xsd.

The deviceInfo tag position 12 describes the location information of the deviceInfo.xsd file, the date and the version, and the manufacturer tag position 13 describes the manufacturer name, URI, and date of manufacture of the A / V device. In the functionType tag position 14, a functional name of the product, a subname, a model name, and the like are described. In the 1394StreamSource tag position 15, the coding method of the stream and the bit rate of the stream are described.

In the userInterface tag position 16, information about the user interface is described, and in the eventNotificationUI tag position 17, information about the user interface informing the occurrence of an event is described. In the example of FIG. 1, the user interface function is not supported. In the HTTPCommandInterfaceRef tag position 18, the name of the XHT standard supporting the HTTP commands and the URI of the file (XHT931.xsd) defining the commands are recorded.

FIG. 2 is an example 20 of contents of an XHT931.xml file generated for each device according to the syntax of the XHT931.xsd.

First, the URI, date, and version of the referenced XHT931.xsd file are described in the OperationList tag position 22, and thereafter, an operation code supported by the corresponding A / V device is recorded. In the embodiment of FIG. 2, the A / V device may notify other A / V devices when a device state change occurs (EVENT-NOTIFICATION) 23, a power on / off function (POWER) 24, and A function to play content (PLAY) 25, a function to stop playing content (STOP; 26), a function to pause playing content (PAUSE) 27, and a function to rewind the content (REWIND) 28).

If the first A / V device that has received the DeviceInfo.xml and XHT931.xml wants to control the second A / V device that has transmitted the xml files, the first A / V device may control the second A / V device by the HTTP command combining the URI and the operation code. 2 A / V device can be controlled.

For example, when a first A / V device is called a digital TV and a second A / V device is a source device that stores a transport stream (TS), the user includes the TS in a digital TV using a remote controller. It is said to give an order to watch a programmed program. If the IP address assigned to the source device is 192.168.0.2, the digital TV simply transmits an HTTP command “http://192.168.0.2/CEA931?play&press” to the source device. The A / V device according to the XHT standard has a web server, and has a built-in device controller for converting the above-described HTTP command into device operation. Therefore, the source device responds according to the transmitted HTTP command. Can be performed. Therefore, the source device transmits the TS to the digital TV using the IEEE 1394 network, and the received digital TV can decode the TS and display the TS to the user.

That is, as high-speed data transmission such as HD broadcasting is enabled, a network is formed between each device by IEEE1394, WI-FI, or Gigabit Ethernet, and the digital TV can control each device. It is designed.

To this end, software for displaying a user interface for controlling each device as well as for each device as well as a digital TV should be equipped with software capable of transmitting the received command to other devices.

However, existing digital TVs do not have this capability, so to build an A / V network system, a new digital TV (hereinafter referred to as a 'networked digital TV') equipped with middleware technology for A / V home networking such as XHT is newly developed. You will have a problem to install.

An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for allowing an existing digital TV that is not equipped with middleware technology for home networking to participate in an A / V home network.

The object of the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned object, and other objects that are not mentioned will be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the following description.

In order to achieve the above object, a digital TV proxy apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is a digital network interface module for receiving data transmitted on an A / V home network, and decodes the received data into a voice signal and a video signal. A central control module for separating and processing a user interface for devices connected on the A / V home network; and a signal processing module for processing the voice signal and the video signal overlaid with the user interface and outputting the digital signal to a digital TV. do.

In addition, in order to achieve the above object, a network system according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a digital TV that is not equipped with a networking function, a network device that provides a networking function through a predetermined digital interface and the network device; A digital network interface module for receiving data transmitted on an A / V home network, a central control module for decoding the received data into a voice signal and a video signal, and processing a user interface for the network device. And a signal processing module for processing a signal and a video signal overlaid with the user interface and outputting the signal to the digital TV.

Specific details of other embodiments are included in the detailed description and the drawings.

Advantages and features of the present invention and methods for achieving them will be apparent with reference to the embodiments described below in detail with the accompanying drawings. However, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed below, but can be implemented in various different forms, and only the embodiments make the disclosure of the present invention complete, and the general knowledge in the art to which the present invention belongs. It is provided to fully inform the person having the scope of the invention, which is defined only by the scope of the claims.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described with reference to a block diagram or a flowchart illustrating a digital TV proxy device and a network system including the device according to embodiments of the present invention. At this point, it will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and combinations of flowchart illustrations may be performed by computer program instructions. Because these computer program instructions may be mounted on a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing equipment, those instructions executed through the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing equipment are described in flow chart block (s). It will create a means to perform the specified functions. These computer program instructions may be stored in a computer usable or computer readable memory that can be directed to a computer or other programmable data processing equipment to implement functionality in a particular manner, and thus the computer usable or computer readable memory. It is also possible for the instructions stored in to produce an article of manufacture containing instruction means for performing the functions described in the flowchart block (s). Computer program instructions It is also possible to mount on a computer or other programmable data processing equipment, so that a series of operating steps are performed on the computer or other programmable data processing equipment to create a computer-implemented process to perform the computer or other programmable data processing equipment. It is also possible for the instructions to provide steps for performing the functions described in the flowchart block (s).

In addition, each block may represent a portion of a module, segment, or code that includes one or more executable instructions for executing a specified logical function (s). It should also be noted that in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the blocks may occur out of order. For example, the two blocks shown in succession may in fact be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending on the corresponding function.

3 is a block diagram illustrating an A / V home network system according to an embodiment of the present invention, wherein the A / V home network system 300 is a network interface such as a set-top box that receives a cable, satellite, or terrestrial broadcast signal. Network Interface Unit 310, Networked Digital TV 320, A / V Data Storage 330, Conventional Digital TV 360 and Conventional Digital TV 360, It may include a digital TV proxy device 340 to operate as 320. In addition, a remote controller 321 for controlling the operation of the networked digital TV 320 may include a digital TV proxy device 340 and a remote control 341 for controlling the operation of the conventional digital TV 360.

At this time, the devices are networked by a digital interface according to the IEEE1394 standard, the digital TV proxy device 340 is to provide the A / V signal through the cable 380 to the external input of the conventional digital TV 360 Will be delivered.

4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a digital TV proxy apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The digital TV proxy apparatus 340 may include a digital network interface module 342, a central control module 344, and a voice processing module ( 346, audio output module 348, video buffer module 350, graphic overlay module 352, video output module 354, and user input module 356.

Meanwhile, the term 'module' used in the present embodiment refers to software or a hardware component such as an FPGA or an ASIC, and the module plays a role. However, modules are not meant to be limited to software or hardware. The module may be configured to be in an addressable storage medium and may be configured to play one or more processors. Thus, as an example, a module may include components such as software components, object-oriented software components, class components, and task components, and processes, functions, properties, procedures, subroutines. , Segments of program code, drivers, firmware, microcode, circuits, data, databases, data structures, tables, arrays, and variables. The functionality provided within the components and modules may be combined into a smaller number of components and modules or further separated into additional components and modules. In addition, the components and modules may be implemented to play one or more CPUs in a device or secure multimedia card.

In addition, each module illustrated in FIG. 4 may include at least two modules as one module. For example, the voice processing module 346, the voice output module 348, the video buffer module 350, the graphic overlay module 352, and the video output module 354 may be configured as one signal processing module. Also, the voice processing module 346, the video buffer module 350, and the graphic overlay module 352 may be mounted in the central control module 344.

The digital network interface module 342 is a network port for transmitting and receiving data such as an image, a media file, various control commands, and the like transmitted on a network as shown in FIG. 3, and may be, for example, an interface module conforming to the IEEE1394 standard. .

The user input module 356 receives a command for controlling the operation of the conventional digital TV 360 from the user by a remote control device such as a remote controller and transmits the command to the central control module 344.

The central control module 344 may perform an operation according to a command received from the user input module 356. For example, the digital network interface module 342 receives the received image, delivers the video data stream to the video buffer module 350, and delivers the voice data stream to the voice processing module 346. In addition, a graphic user interface (Graphic User Interface) for displaying on the conventional digital TV 360 is transmitted to the graphic overlay module 352. In addition, the central control module 344 interprets commands related to items selected by the user through the graphic user interface in the conventional digital TV 360 and transmits a corresponding command set to another network device through a network. do.

On the other hand, the central control module 344 is equipped with the above instruction set and application software for processing the graphical user interface. Also, the MPEG2 TS decoder, the IEEE1394 stack, the network layer, the web server, the web browser, and the like are mounted so that the conventional digital TV 360 can operate like a networked digital TV. Provides the ability to

The voice processing module 346 processes the voice data stream received from the central control module 344 and is transmitted to the conventional digital TV 360 by the voice output module 348.

The video buffer module 350 temporarily stores the video data stream received from the central control module 344 and then transfers the video data stream to the graphic overlay module 352. The graphic overlay module 352 is the video data stream and the central control module ( The graphic user interface received from 344 is overlaid and transmitted to the conventional digital TV 360 through the video output module 354.

5 is a flowchart illustrating an operation process of an A / V home network system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Network Interface Units 504, such as set-top boxes that receive cable, satellite, or terrestrial broadcast signals, A / V data storage 506, and conventional digital TVs 502 are similar to networked digital TVs. The network is formed by a cable 509 that conforms to the IEEE1394 standard for the digital TV proxy device 508 to operate together, and each of the devices 504, 506, and 508 is automatically detected and recognized. An identifier, such as an IP address, is assigned to devices 504, 506, and 508. At this time, the digital TV proxy apparatus 508 has an internal structure as shown in FIG.

First, at the request of the user, the digital TV proxy device 508 displays icons representing the respective devices to the network interface unit 504 and the A / V data storage device 506 through a web server mounted thereon. Request (S510).

In response to the request, the network interface unit 504 and the A / V data storage device 506 transmit corresponding icons 522 and 524 to the digital TV proxy device 508 (S520).

Then, the digital TV proxy apparatus 508 displays the transmitted icons on the conventional digital TV 502 through a web browser mounted on the digital TV proxy apparatus 508 (S530, 532).

At this time, if the user selects an icon representing the A / V data storage device 506 among the icons displayed in the web browser, the digital TV proxy device 508 may display HTML (for the A / V data storage device 506). A user interface of a structured document format such as hypertext markup language) or XML (extensible markup language) is requested (S540). In this case, a conventional web command transmission method may be used.

In response, the A / V data storage device 506 transmits the corresponding user interface 552 to the digital TV proxy device 508 (S550), and the digital TV proxy device 508 transmits the transmitted user interface 552. The display is displayed on the conventional digital TV 502 through a web browser (S560, 562).

When the user selects a specific media file from the displayed user interface 552 and executes a playback operation, the digital TV proxy device 508 requests the selected media file from the A / V data storage device 506 ( In operation S570, the A / V data storage device 506 transmits the requested media file to the digital TV proxy device 508 in operation S580.

When the digital TV proxy device 508 separates the transmitted media file into voice and video signals and transmits the same to the conventional digital TV 502, the conventional digital TV 502 plays the transmitted voice and video signals on the screen. (S590, 592).

6 is an exemplary diagram illustrating a cable connection structure of a digital TV proxy apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The digital TV proxy device 620 is connected to the A / V data storage device 603 via a cable 640 that conforms to the specifications of a digital interface such as IEEE1394, and various media files from the A / V data storage device 603. Can be sent.

The conventional digital TV 610 receives a voice data signal and a video data signal for the received media file from the digital TV proxy device 610.

In FIG. 6, an audio signal is input from the digital TV proxy apparatus 620 through two audio signal lines 660 as an example of the audio data signal, and three video signal lines 650 are used as the example of the video data signal. It shows receiving a component signal through.

In this case, the voice signal and the video signal may include various types of voice signals and video signals (for example, DVI, HDMI, composite signals, etc.).

Although embodiments of the present invention have been described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains may implement the present invention in other specific forms without changing the technical spirit or essential features thereof. I can understand that. Therefore, it should be understood that the embodiments described above are exemplary in all respects and not restrictive.

According to the present invention, by connecting the digital TV proxy device according to the embodiment of the present invention to a conventional digital TV having no networking function, it is possible to obtain an effect as if the networked digital TV operates in an A / V home network. do.

Claims (12)

A digital network interface module for receiving data carried on the A / V home network; A central control module which decodes the received data into a voice signal and a video signal, and processes a user interface for devices connected on the A / V home network; And And a signal processing module for processing the audio signal and the video signal overlaid with the user interface and outputting the processed video signal to the digital TV. The method of claim 1, The signal processing module And a voice processing module for processing the voice signal and a voice output module for outputting the processed voice. The method of claim 1, The signal processing module And a video buffer module for temporarily storing the video signal, a graphic overlay module for overlaying the user interface and the stored video signal, and a video output module for outputting the overlaid signal. The method of claim 1, And the digital network interface module is a module for providing an interface conforming to the IEEE1394 standard. The method of claim 1, The central control module And a command set interpreted by a user through the user interface and transmitting a corresponding command set to the corresponding device on the A / V home network through the digital network interface module. The method of claim 1, And the user interface has a structured document format. Digital TVs without networking capabilities; A network device that provides a networking function through a predetermined digital interface; And A digital network interface module for receiving data transmitted on an A / V home network including the network device, decoding the received data into a voice signal and a video signal, and processing a user interface for the network device. And a digital TV proxy device including a central control module and a signal processing module for processing the audio signal and the video signal overlaid with the user interface and outputting the video signal to the digital TV. The method of claim 7, wherein The signal processing module And a voice processing module for processing the voice signal and a voice output module for outputting the processed voice. The method of claim 7, wherein The signal processing module And a video buffer module to temporarily store the video signal, a graphic overlay module to overlay the user interface and the stored video signal, and a video output module to output the overlaid signal. The method of claim 7, wherein The digital interface is an IEEE1394 interface, the digital network interface module is a module for providing an interface conforming to the IEEE1394 standard. The method of claim 7, wherein The central control module And interpreting a command input from a user through the user interface and transmitting a corresponding command set to the network device through the digital network interface module. The method of claim 7, wherein The user interface having a structured document format.

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