KR20080003594A - Method for displaying broadcasting contents - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for displaying broadcasting contents is provided to enable application to display a service object on an EPG(Electronic Program Guide) screen according to a property about the service object included in a received broadcasting signal. A method for displaying broadcasting contents comprises the following steps of: receiving a property about a service object included in a received broadcasting signal as a first property applied to a service and a program in common, a second property applied to only the service, and a third property applied to only the second property and the program; and displaying EPG(Electronic Program Guide) information according to the received property. The property is provided from a package which provides an application program interface.

Description

Method for displaying broadcasting contents}

1 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a process in which a terminal receives an application

2 is a hierarchical diagram illustrating a concept in which an application is executed through middleware.

3 is a conceptual diagram in which an application is run in middleware

4 is a table showing the description of interfaces and classes in the dmb.si package.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a code in which an EPG application can obtain information about a service, to more easily explain the present invention.

FIG. 6A to FIG. 6C are tables showing the fields that can be used for the attribute dmb.si.Attribute, which is a class of the dmb.si package, and a table summarizing the brief description.

7 is a diagram conceptually illustrating a method for obtaining an attribute by an embodiment of a broadcast content presentation method according to the present invention;

The present invention relates to a broadcast content presentation method, and more particularly, to a broadcast content presentation method capable of stably and efficiently expressing broadcast program organization information.

The digital broadcasting system may transmit various multimedia services in addition to broadcast contents. In addition, as shown in the examples of terrestrial digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) or satellite DMB, digital broadcasting is the basis for providing convenience of mobile reception.

Digital multimedia broadcasting based on digital audio broadcasting (DAB) is defined to enable various data broadcasting services. In particular, the terrestrial DMB broadcasting is aimed at a free service unlike the satellite DMB broadcasting so that anyone who owns the receiving terminal can easily receive the broadcasting.

 In addition to a broadcast transmission terminal, a user may use a terrestrial DMB service using a mobile phone, a portable multimedia player (PMP), a personal digital assistant (PDA), or the like.

Hereinafter, a terrestrial DMB service will be described for convenience of description, but other types of broadcast services can be applied to a description that similarly describes.

When the broadcast transmitting end transmits the broadcast content, the terminal capable of receiving the broadcast signal may play the broadcast content through an application in which the terminal can drive the content.

1 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a process in which a terminal receives an application.

The broadcast reception terminal may receive an application from a broadcast transmission terminal or a signal transmission terminal of a communication network. The terminal may have a separate application installed by the manufacturer.

The terminal may express the broadcast content from the broadcast transmission terminal received through the application, and store the broadcast content or play the broadcast content stored through the application.

In digital broadcasting, not only audio, video, and data, but also program information may be included in a broadcast signal for user convenience and transmitted. Program information is often referred to as an electronic program guide (EPG).

The EPG aims to provide information on programs by time zone based on the current time, and may provide guidance on the contents of each broadcast program.

Terminals receiving terrestrial DMB may perform various applications depending on the type of terminal. However, when an application that can be performed varies according to the type of terminal, the presentation environment of the broadcast content may vary.

Accordingly, a broadcast service including a terrestrial DMB may set an application interface and an application driving environment for allowing an application to be commonly implemented according to the type of a broadcast receiving terminal. Hereinafter, for convenience, a hardware and software platform for receiving a user control command through an application interface and displaying an application is referred to as middleware. In addition, the terminal includes both a terminal for fixed reception and a terminal for mobile reception.

An application programming interface (API), which is a common interface between the broadcast receiving terminal and the middleware, may be defined. The user may view broadcast content implemented by the application through an application that interfaces with the middleware. The user can then receive, install or run an application for a new service through the middleware.

When the broadcast receiving terminal implements the EPG content through the application, the middleware provides the application with channel information or program information for implementing the EPG content, and the application can display the EPG content on the screen through the API based on the provided information. have.

However, when expressing the EPG information on the middleware, there is a problem that the application cannot implement the EPG normally when the information related to the channel provided by the middleware and the program related information are not distinguished.

In other words, when an application attempts to express an EPG using information related to a channel from middleware, if the information related to the channel and the program related information are not distinguished, the EPG can be implemented with information related to the program. It could have gone wrong.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a broadcast content presentation method that enables an application to stably display broadcast content.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a broadcast content presentation method that enables an application to efficiently obtain and display broadcast related information in a broadcast receiving terminal.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a property for a service object included in a received broadcast signal, a first property commonly applied to a service and a program, a second property applied only to a service, and a third property applied only to a program. Receiving each of the steps; And expressing electronic program guide (EPG) information according to the provided attribute.

The step of receiving the attribute may be provided from a package that provides an application program interface.

The package may include a class having the first attribute, the second attribute, and the third attribute.

The first property may depend on the Object package of the java.lang class.

The first attribute is a first field indicating an identifier of a service information (SI) object, a second field indicating a brief description of the object, a third field indicating a free service by a service object, and a service object. The fourth field meaning the genre of the fifth field meaning the keyword of the service object, the sixth field meaning the language setting of the service object, the seventh field meaning the long name of the object, and a long description of the object. An eighth field meaning a, an ninth field meaning a name of the object, a tenth field meaning a rating of the object, an eleventh field meaning a description of each rating, and a string indicating the type of the object. It may include at least one field of the twelfth field means.

The second attribute may include at least one of a first field representing lower service components and a second field representing a service.

The third attribute is a first field indicating a program currently being aired on a service, a second field indicating a running time of a service, a third field indicating a start time of a service, and a fourth field indicating an end time of a service. A fifth field representing a group to which the object belongs, a sixth field representing a program, a seventh field representing program locations, an eighth field representing a program associated with the location object, and a program to be broadcasted next in the service. At least one field may include a ninth field meaning, a tenth field meaning program parts, and an eleventh field indicating a relative start time of a segment in a program.

In another aspect, the present invention applies only to a first property commonly applied to a service and a program included in a broadcast signal from a dmb.si package that provides an application program interface, a second property applied only to a service, and a program. Receiving each of the third attributes to be provided; And expressing electronic program guide (EPG) information according to the provided attribute.

The first, second and third attributes of the dmb.si package may depend on the Object package of the java.lang class.

The second attribute and the third attribute may depend on a class representing the first attribute.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings, preferred embodiments of the present invention that can specifically realize the above object will be described.

2 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a concept in which an application is executed through middleware. First, referring to FIG. 2, the concept of running an application on middleware will be described below.

The broadcast reception terminal may receive an application from the broadcast transmission terminal. The broadcast receiving terminal may have a built-in application in addition to the received application (layer a).

The internal blocks included in the broadcast receiving terminal may decode and execute the received application (layer c). The terminal system resources are included in a system layer (layer c) including a tuner, a broadcast decoder, a storage device, a graphics device, a user input device, and a communication interface.

The running application can be exposed to the outside through a certain interface. A middleware platform, such as an application manager or a channel navigator, may externally display an application that the broadcast receiving terminal decodes and executes for the user to interface (b layer). The middleware may manage and control the internal resources of the device such that the application is displayed by linking the hardware of the broadcast receiving terminal with the application.

An interface that presents an application may display content according to an implementation function of the application, and the user may control the application through the interface.

An application running in middleware may use a Java application based on java script. In the case of terrestrial DMB, the Java environment defines that one application runs in one logically independent java virtual machine (JVM).

Among Java environments that can be defined as middleware to run an application, service information is a concept that collectively refers to multiplex channel configuration or broadcast programming information. Applications such as EPGs should be able to express service information received by various types of terminals to the user. Accordingly, a broadcast system such as a terrestrial DMB may define basic elements commonly included in service information for compatibility, and may define necessary conditions for each element.

In the case of terrestrial DMB, the service information of the middleware of the terrestrial DMB is described. In the terrestrial DMB, service information is regarded as composed of several kinds of service objects. These objects refer to the various entities that the service information describes, and each object is defined with attributes.

In addition, the terrestrial DMB is designed to obtain service information in different ways in different broadcasting networks. The following may be defined as service objects.

Among them, multiplex is a physical division unit that contains a service.

A service refers to the highest unit that can be selected and used by a user at any time in a continuously transmitted network regardless of time. Each service may be represented by a more specific service such as a TV service, a radio service, and a data service.

A component is an infinite length stream divided according to a transmission format such as video or audio and is a unit that is decoded by a physical decoder of the terminal. Each component may be represented by more specific components such as a video component, an audio component, and a data component when the format of the corresponding component is a well-known format.

A program represents a unit stream that has been edited into a topic within a limited airing time, such as an hour-long drama or movie.

Segments refer to specific sections within a program. If it is necessary to announce some sections of the program as the program information, the sections may be expressed separately.

Location refers to the service to which the program is sent and the time of the delivery. If the same program is repeatedly sent out at multiple times in multiple services, the program includes a location for the number of times it is sent.

A group is a collection of one or more programs. It is possible to provide a movie series by grouping programs having the same theme among several movie programs transmitted in different services and time zones.

3 is a conceptual diagram of running an application in middleware. Referring to FIG. 3, the concept of running an application on middleware is as follows.

The application running in the broadcast receiving terminal may be driven in a terminal in which a virtual machine (JVM) is driven even though the terminal has various forms. An application running on a Java virtual machine can obtain service information from a number of library packages through an API. 3 illustrates dmb.si, dmb.app, dmb.io, and the like among dmb packages supporting applications.

The example dmb.app gets a list of applications and defines a class for controlling other applications. Application signaling (signaling) is announced to the broadcasting network and the terminal obtains a list of all applications that have obtained the corresponding signaling message, and among them, the desired application can be selected and installed and executed.

dmb.si provides an API for getting service information.

The application can provide a query to the dmb.si package for a property value assigned to a service object and extract the result as a list of service objects of the same type.

An application can receive the results of a query as a view rather than as a list of service objects. Unlike a list, the view varies depending on the content of the query used to create the view whenever the service information changes. The difference is that it can.

The created view can be used again if you provide another query to dmb.si, or you can register listeners to see objects added, deleted, or updated in the view.

4 is a table listing descriptions of interfaces and classes in the dmb.si package. Referring to FIG. 4, an interface and a class are described in the dmb.si package as follows.

As an interface of the dmb.si package, SIChangeListener, SIObject, SIView, Value can be defined, and as a class, there can be Attribute, SIDatabase, SIQuery, ValueFactory.

For example, attributes in the dmb.si package are classes that define standard attributes. And, among the interfaces of the dmb.si package, SIObject is an interface representing an object related to all service information.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a code in which an EPG application can obtain information about a service in order to more easily explain the present invention.

In FIG. 5, v is a value generated using a ValueFactory that is a program among service objects of SIobject (S1). The EPG application may use SIQuery to obtain a value at q1 in which the genre (GENRE), which is an attribute of v, is a movie (S2).

In addition, the EPG application may use SIQuery to obtain a value at v of q free (S3).

q may include a program object that satisfies q1 and q2 at the same time (S4).

The EPG application may have a value in which SIObject is a program in SIDatabade using programs (S5), and may obtain a result of arranging the values (S6).

In this way, the EPG application obtains service information from the dmb.si package, and configures and displays the information on the screen.

6A to 6C are diagrams for convenience of dividing the fields that can be used for the attribute dmb.si.Attribute, which is a class of the dmb.si package, and a table summarizing a brief description.

Attributes (dmb.si.Attribute) used in dmb.si illustrated in FIGS. 6A to 6C are COMPONENTS, CURRENT_PROGRAM, DESC, DURATION, END_TIME, FREE, GENRE, GROUPS, ID, KEYWORDS, LANG, LOCATIONS, LONG_DESC, LONG_NAME. It may have fields such as NAME, NEXT_PROGRAM, OFFSET, PROGRAM, PROGRAMS, RATING, RATING_DESC, SEGMENTS, SERVICE, START_TIME and TYPE. The fields exemplified below are as follows.

COMPONENTS means underlying service components.

CURRENT_PROGRAM means the program currently being aired by the service.

DESC means a brief description of the object.

DURATION means running time.

END_TIME means end time.

FREE means free service.

GENRE means genre.

GROUPS means the groups to which the object belongs.

ID means ID of SI object.

KEYWORDS means keywords such as programs.

LANG stands for Language Setting.

LOCATIONS means program locations.

LONG_DESC means a long description of the object.

LONG_NAME means the long name of the object.

NAME means the name of the object.

NEXT_PROGRAM means the program to be broadcasted next in the service.

OFFSET means the relative start time of the segment in the program.

PROGRAM means the program associated with the location object.

PROGRAMS means programs.

RATING means a rating.

RATING_DESC represents a description of each viewing class.

SEGMENTS means program parts.

SERVICE means service.

START_TIME means start time.

TYPE means a string representing the type of the object.

The attribute class of the dmb.si package may include any one or more of the fields listed above.

The attributes indicated by the fields of the service objects enumerated in this way include attributes that correspond only to channel information and program information, and attributes that correspond only to channel information and program information.

For example, when configuring an EPG, START_TIME is a property that can be applied only to a program, etc., and a start time for a channel is meaningless. Therefore, when the EPG application receives the information on the property of the channel from dmb.si and expresses the EPG based on the channel information, if the EPG application receives the information about the START_TIME of the channel, the EPG may not display the EPG or display the wrong EPG information. have.

Similarly, when an EPG application composes an EPG based on attributes of service objects such as programs, attributes related to channel information, for example, attributes for COMPONENTS or SERVICE, may be meaningless information.

For example, among the fields representing the attributes listed above, ID, DESC, FREE, GENRE, KEYWORDS, LANG, LONG_DESC, LONG_NAME, NAME, RATING, RATING_DESC, and TYPE are fields representing attributes that can be commonly applied to services and programs. to be.

COMPONENTS and SERVICE are fields indicating attributes that can be applied only to a service.

On the other hand, CURRENT_PROGRAM, DURATION, START_TIME, END_TIME, GROUPS, LOCATIONS, NEXT_PROGRAM, OFFSET, PROGRAM, and SEGMENTS are fields representing properties that can be applied only to programs.

Therefore, when the EPG application obtains an attribute from the dmb.si package through an interface such as SIObject, it is preferable to separately provide an attribute related to a service and an attribute related to a program.

Attribute (dmb.si.Attribute), a class of dmb.si package, can follow object class of java.lang package of Java application. In other words, dmb.si.Attribute can be created and used by inheriting the information of the object class of java.lang, which is a package referenced by the Java application.

Therefore, in the broadcast content presentation method according to the present invention, when an EPG application obtains an attribute from dmb.si.Attribute on middleware, it is divided into an attribute for a program and an attribute for a service (channel), or a common attribute of a program and a service. You can get it.

7 conceptually illustrates an embodiment of a broadcast content presentation method according to the present invention. An embodiment of a broadcast content presentation method according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 7.

First, (a) of FIG. 7 shows that the dmb.si.Attribute, which is an attribute of a service object, is dependent on the Object class of the java.lang package.

On the other hand, (b) of FIG. 7 shows dmb.si.Attribute, which is a property of a service object, dmb.si.CommonAttribute, which is a property that can be commonly applied to a service and a program. Indicates that it can be divided into dmb.si.ProgramAttribute, a property related only to programs.

The example of FIG. 7 (b) shows that dmb.si.CommonAttribute depends on the Object class of the java.lang package, and dmb.si.ServiceAttribute and dmb.si.ProgramAttribute may depend on dmb.si.CommonAttribute. .

According to the example of FIG. 7 (b), dmb.si.ServiceAttribute inherits the attributes of the Object class of the java.lang package and the CommonAttribute class of the dmb.si package.

In addition, dmb.si.ProgramAttribute inherits the attributes of Object class of java.lang package and CommonAttribute class of dmb.si package.

However, unlike (b) of FIG. 7, dmb.si.ServiceAttribute or dmb.si.ProgramAttribute may be defined to be dependent only on the Object class of the java.lang package.

Alternatively, you can create another class that depends on dmb.si.ProgramAttribute or dmb.si.ServiceAttribute.

According to an embodiment of the broadcast content presentation method according to the present invention, when an EPG application is provided with attributes from the dmb.si class on middleware, it is possible to receive different attributes depending on whether broadcast information to be expressed is a service or a program. .

This allows EPG applications to run reliably. In addition, when defining a new attribute for a service object, other attributes can be defined within the dmb.si.ServiceAttribute attribute or other attributes can be defined within the dmb.si.ProgramAttribute attribute. It is scalable in the environment, and can ensure more compatibility.

As illustrated in FIGS. 6A to 6C, when fields are divided so that separate attributes may be provided according to an embodiment of the broadcast content presentation method according to the present invention, dmb.si.CommonAttribute is ID, DESC, FREE, GENRE, and KEYWORDS. It may include at least one field of, LANG, LONG_DESC, LONG_NAME, NAME, RATING, RATING_DESC, and TYPE.

The dmb.si.ServiceAttribute class may include at least one field of COMPONENTS and SERVICE.

The dmb.si.ProgramAttribute class may include at least one of CURRENT_PROGRAM, DURATION, END_TIME, GROUPS, LOCATIONS, NEXT_PROGRAM, OFFSET, PROGRAM, PROGRAMS, SEGMENTS, and START_TIME.

Therefore, an embodiment of a broadcast content presentation method according to the present invention according to the present invention will be described.

When the EPG application is running, properties of the service object included in the received broadcast signal are divided into a first property commonly applied to a service and a program, a second property applied only to a service, and a third property applied only to a program. Can be provided. The first attribute, the second attribute, and the third attribute are as illustrated above.

The EPG application may display the service object as an EPG screen according to the provided property.

It is easy for a person skilled in the art to change or modify the present invention from the present specification. Therefore, although an embodiment of the present invention has been described above clearly, various modifications thereof should be made without departing from the spirit and the scope of the present invention.

The effects of the broadcast content presentation method according to the present invention described above are described as follows. According to the broadcast content presentation method according to the present invention, it is possible for an application to stably display broadcast content. In addition, an application running in the broadcast receiving terminal may efficiently obtain broadcast related information.

Claims (10)

Receiving properties of a service object included in the received broadcast signal as a first property commonly applied to a service and a program, a second property applied only to a service, and a third property applied only to a program; And And displaying electronic program guide (EPG) information according to the provided attribute. The method of claim 1, The step of receiving the attribute, broadcast content presentation method characterized in that it is provided from a package for providing an application program interface (application program interface). The method of claim 2, And the package includes a class having the first attribute, the second attribute, and the third attribute. The method of claim 1, And the first property is dependent on an Object package of a java.lang class. The method of claim 1, The first attribute is a first field indicating an identifier of a service information (SI) object, a second field indicating a brief description of the object, a third field indicating a free service by a service object, and a service object. The fourth field meaning the genre of the fifth field meaning the keyword of the service object, the sixth field meaning the language setting of the service object, the seventh field meaning the long name of the object, and a long description of the object. An eighth field meaning a, an ninth field meaning a name of the object, a tenth field meaning a rating of the object, an eleventh field meaning a description of each rating, and a string indicating the type of the object. Broadcast content presentation method comprising at least one field of the 12th field means. The method of claim 1, And wherein the second property includes at least one field of a first field representing lower service components and a second field representing a service. The method of claim 1, The third attribute is a first field indicating a program currently being aired on a service, a second field indicating a running time of a service, a third field indicating a start time of a service, and a fourth field indicating an end time of a service. A fifth field representing a group to which the object belongs, a sixth field representing a program, a seventh field representing program locations, an eighth field representing a program associated with the location object, and a program to be broadcasted next in the service. And at least one of a ninth field meaning a field, a tenth field meaning a program part, and an eleventh field indicating a relative start time of a segment in a program. From the dmb.si package that provides an application program interface, each of the first attribute commonly applied to a service and a program included in a broadcast signal, a second attribute applied only to a service, and a third attribute applied only to a program, respectively Receiving step; And And displaying electronic program guide (EPG) information according to the provided attribute. The method of claim 8, The first property, the second property and the third property of the dmb.si package is dependent on the Object package of the java.lang class. The method of claim 8, And the second property and the third property are dependent on a class representing the first property.

Images