KR20090112877A - System and method for providing personalized mosaic electronic program guide - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A personalized moving picture mosaic EPG offering system and a method thereof are provided to enable a user to easily search and view broadcast contents. CONSTITUTION: A personalized moving picture mosaic EPG offering system comprises a stream server(100) which produces a high-speed data stream and a low-speed data stream by receiving broadcast data from a contents provider, and a wired network server(200) which receives the data streams and provides them to a wired user terminal. The transmitted low-speed data stream is used when the user terminal generates a mosaic EPG.

Description

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING PERSONALIZED MOSAIC ELECTRONIC PROGRAM GUIDE}

The present invention relates to a system and method for providing a personalized video mosaic phiji, and more particularly, a video mosaic EPG (Electronic Program Guide) in which a user terminal is personalized with low load by providing a low-speed data stream provided to a wireless communication terminal to a wired user terminal. The present invention relates to a system and a method for generating a screen.

With the spread of the Internet and the development of digital broadcasting technology, the use of two-way broadcasting services provided by high-speed Internet networks is increasing.

Two-way broadcasting service is a service that provides information service, video content, and broadcasting to a two-way broadcasting receiver (for example, an IPTV (Internet Protocol Television), a DMB receiver, a set-top box, etc.) by using high speed internet. You can receive various contents and additional services provided by the Internet such as watching movies, home shopping, home banking, online games, and MP3.

In particular, in the IPTV broadcasting service, since there are many kinds of broadcasting contents, there is a problem that a user cannot easily select contents to watch.

In order to solve this problem, a mosaic EPG (Electronic Program Guide) is provided to a user in an IPTV broadcasting service. However, since the broadcast service provider directly generates the mosaic EPG screen, the user has no choice but to receive an EPG screen having the same contents despite the fact that the preferred channel is different for each user. Therefore, when there is no channel that the user wants to watch on the mosaic EPG screen, the inconvenience of having to directly search for the channel to be watched among the plurality of EPG screens still exists.

On the other hand, when displaying a high-resolution data stream on the EPG screen in order to show the channel information on the mosaic EPG screen, there is a problem that a high load on the user terminal. In addition, even when a high resolution data stream is converted to a low resolution and displayed on an EPG screen, there is a problem that a large load is generated on the set top box for resolution conversion.

In addition, in order to provide broadcast contents from the IPTV broadcasting service to the wireless communication terminal, it was necessary to separately transcode and convert the data into a low resolution data stream suitable for the wireless communication terminal. Therefore, the IPTV broadcasting system for providing a wired / wireless integrated service has a problem of inefficiently providing broadcast contents.

An embodiment of the present invention provides a personalized EPG providing system and method that can provide a personalized video mosaic EPG (Electronic Program Guide) screen for each user at a low load.

In addition, an embodiment of the present invention provides a personalized EPG providing system and method incorporating wired and wireless, which can use a low-resolution low-speed data stream transmitted to a wireless communication terminal to generate an EPG screen.

As a technical means for achieving the above technical problem, a first aspect of the present invention is a stream server for receiving broadcast data from a content provider to generate a high speed data stream and a low speed data stream, the high speed data stream and a low speed data stream And a wired network server for providing a wired network server to the wired user terminal and a wired network server for receiving and providing the low speed data stream to a wireless communication terminal, wherein the wired network server provides each of the low speed data streams through a channel for the low speed data stream. And the transmitted low speed data streams each is used to generate mosaic vellum in the user terminal.

In addition, the second aspect of the present invention receives an input unit for receiving the command to generate an e-pitch and a content reproduction command from a user, and receives a low-speed data stream through each channel, and uses the received low-speed data stream in accordance with the An easy-to-use page generating unit, a high-speed data stream receiving the high-speed data stream, a content processing unit decoding the received high-speed data stream to play the content screen in the user terminal, and the content-playing command Personalized video mosaic including a screen switching unit for switching between the playback screen, wherein the easy generation unit receives a channel selection command for generating an easy page from the input unit, and stores the channel information for the selected channel in a channel configuration DB Epiji Provider To provide.

In addition, the third aspect of the present invention (a) receiving a command for selecting a channel to be included in the screen, (b) collecting the channel information associated with the selected channel and storing in the channel configuration DB, (c) Receiving a low speed data stream to generate a mosaic vellum, and filtering the low speed data stream associated with the selected channel based on the channel information; and (d) synthesizing the filtered low speed data stream to generate a mosaic pidji screen. It provides a method for generating a personalized video mosaic epiji comprising the step of.

According to one of the problem solving means of the present invention described above, the user provides a personalized video mosaic EPG screen for each user has an effect that it is easier to search for and watch the desired broadcast content.

In addition, according to one of the other problem solving means of the present invention, since the EPG screen is generated using the filtered low-resolution low-speed data stream, it is possible to display the mosaic EPG screen as a video without difficulty even in a low-spec user terminal.

In addition, according to one of the other problem solving means of the present invention is to use a low-resolution low-speed data stream for transmission to the wireless communication terminal to generate an EPG screen has the effect of implementing a more efficient IPTV broadcasting system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings so that those skilled in the art may easily implement the present invention. As those skilled in the art would realize, the described embodiments may be modified in various different ways, all without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention. In the drawings, parts irrelevant to the description are omitted in order to clearly describe the present invention, and like reference numerals designate like parts throughout the specification.

Throughout the specification, when a part is "connected" to another part, this includes not only "directly connected" but also "electrically connected" with another element in between. . In addition, when a part is said to "include" a certain component, which means that it may further include other components, except to exclude other components unless otherwise stated.

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

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) broadcasting service system for providing a personalized Electronic Program Guide (EPG) screen according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, an IPTV broadcasting service system for providing a personalized EPG screen according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a stream server 100, a wired network server 200, a wireless network server 300, and a user. And a terminal 400 and a wireless communication terminal 500.

The stream server 100 receives broadcast content from a broadcast content provider and converts the received broadcast content into a high speed data stream and a low speed data stream. A high speed data stream is a high resolution video stream that can be transmitted and received smoothly in a high speed communication environment. A low speed data stream is a low resolution video stream that can transmit and receive smoothly even in a low speed communication environment. Say a stream. Each of the low speed data streams is transmitted on a channel for low speed data streams allocated with a small band.

The wired network server 200 receives the high speed data stream and the low speed data stream from the stream server 100, and transmits the received data stream to the user terminal 400. For example, the data stream may be transmitted to a plurality of user terminals 400 in a multicast manner.

The wireless network server 300 receives the low speed data stream from the stream server 100 and transmits the received low speed data stream to the wireless communication terminal 300. For example, the data stream may be transmitted to the plurality of wireless communication terminals 500 in a multicast manner.

The user terminal 400 receives a low speed data stream from the wired network server 200 to generate and display a personalized EPG screen. It also serves to display the received data on the content playback screen by receiving a high speed data stream. The content playback screen refers to a screen on which broadcast content is played. The user terminal 400 includes not only a set-top box (STB) but also a personal computer, a notebook, a kiosk, and the like.

Since the user terminal 400 generates an EPG screen using a low speed data stream, the user terminal 400 may display an EPG screen including a plurality of moving images with a small load.

The wireless communication terminal 500 receives a low speed data stream from the wireless network server 300 and displays the received data. The wireless communication terminal 500 includes, for example, not only a mobile phone but also a PDA, a UMPC (Ultra Mobile PC), a tablet PC (Tablet PC), and the like, capable of wireless communication.

Since the low speed data stream is low resolution video data, the low speed data stream may be displayed on the wireless communication terminal 500 even without a separate conversion process such as conversion of resolution.

Therefore, the low speed data stream generated by the stream server 100 can be used not only to generate an EPG screen in the user terminal 400 but also be displayed as a reproduction screen of content in the wireless communication terminal 500, thereby making it more efficient. IPTV broadcasting service system can be implemented.

Hereinafter, a detailed configuration of the stream server 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 2.

2 is a detailed block diagram of the stream server 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 2, the stream server 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a digital broadcast receiver 110, an analog broadcast receiver 120, a converter 130, and a transmitter 140.

In addition, the transform unit 130 includes a trans coding unit 131 and an encoding unit 132.

The digital broadcast receiver 110 receives digital broadcast content from a content provider and provides the received digital broadcast content to the converter 130.

The analog broadcast receiver 120 receives analog broadcast content from a content provider and provides the received analog broadcast content to the converter 130.

Since the stream server 100 includes the digital broadcast receiver 110 and the analog broadcast receiver 120, the stream server 100 can process the digital broadcast content and the analog broadcast content together.

The converter 130 converts the received broadcast content into an appropriate format so that the received broadcast content can be displayed in real time on the user terminal 400 and the wireless communication terminal 500.

The transcoding unit 131 serves to transcode the received broadcast content so that the wireless communication terminal 500 can be used. The transcoding unit 131 processes, converts, and sorts the received broadcast content to fit the bandwidth of the wireless network, the characteristics and the performance of the wireless communication terminal 500, and uses streaming technology to reproduce data in real time. It is responsible for data conversion. For example, digital broadcast content created with 20 Mbps Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) 2 can be transcoded into a low-resolution format that takes up less bandwidth for display on PDAs or mobile phones.

The encoding unit 132 encodes the received broadcast content into a format suitable for transmission through a network, and converts data by using a streaming technology to reproduce data in real time.

The converter 130 may convert the received broadcast data into a high speed data stream and a low speed data stream.

The converted high speed data stream may be displayed as a content image in the user terminal 400, and the converted low speed data stream may be used to generate an EPG screen in the user terminal 400. In addition, the converted low speed data stream may be displayed on the content reproduction screen in the wireless communication terminal 500.

Since the low speed data stream is used to display an EPG screen in the user terminal 400, the user terminal 400 may display an EPG screen including a plurality of moving images with a low load.

In addition, the low speed data stream generated by the stream server 100 is not only used to generate an EPG screen in the user terminal 400 but also can be directly reproduced as a content image in the wireless communication terminal 500. The service system can be implemented.

The transmitter 140 transmits the converted data stream to the wired network server 200 and the wireless network server 300.

Hereinafter, a detailed configuration of a user terminal 400 for providing a personalized EPG screen according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 3.

3 is a detailed configuration diagram of a user terminal 400 that provides a personalized EPG screen according to an embodiment of the present invention.

A user terminal 400 providing a personalized EPG screen according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an input unit 410, an EPG generator 420, a terminal controller 430, a content processor 440, and a screen switcher 450. ) And the display unit 460.

The EPG generator 420 includes an EPG controller 421, a channel configuration DB (Data Base) 423, a low speed stream receiver 425, a decoder 427, and a screen synthesizer 429.

In addition, the content processor 440 includes a fast stream receiver 441 and a decoder 443.

The input unit 410 receives an EPG generation command and a content reproducing command from a user and provides the received command signal to the EPG control unit 421 and the terminal control unit 430. An EPG generation command is a series of commands that a user inputs to create a personalized EPG screen. The EPG generation command includes, for example, a command for calling a screen for generating an EPG, a command for selecting a channel to be included in the EPG, and the like. In addition, the content reproducing command refers to a series of commands input by the user for reproducing broadcast content to the user terminal 400.

The EPG generator 420 generates a personalized EPG screen according to the EPG generation command received from the input unit 410. The EPG generator 420 receives the low speed data stream from the stream server 100 based on the EPG generation command, and synthesizes the received low speed data stream to generate a personalized EPG screen.

The EPG control unit 421 receives EPG generation commands and controls each element in the EPG generation unit 420 to generate a personalized EPG screen. The EPG control unit 421 stores the channel information about the channel selected by the user for inclusion in the EPG screen in the channel configuration DB 423 based on the EPG generation command. In addition, based on the channel information, a low speed data stream is received and a control signal is transmitted to synthesize an EPG screen.

The channel configuration DB 423 stores the information on the channel selected by the user for inclusion in the EPG screen.

The low speed stream receiving unit 425 serves to receive a low speed data stream from the stream server 100.

The low speed stream receiving unit 425 may filter only data to be included in the EPI screen among the received low data streams based on the channel information stored in the channel configuration DB 423.

 As another example, the low speed stream receiving unit 425 may receive the low speed data stream pre-filtered by the stream server 100. When only the pre-filtered low speed data stream is received, the channel information should be provided to the stream server 100 in advance, and the stream server 100 may select a low speed data stream to be included in the EPG screen based on the pre-provided channel information. Will be filtered.

Therefore, since the low speed stream receiving unit 425 can receive only the low speed data stream necessary for generating the EPG screen, the user terminal 400 can display the moving picture mosaic EPG screen with low load.

The decoding unit 427 receives a low speed data stream from the low speed stream receiving unit 425 and decodes the received data to be reproduced by the user terminal 400.

The screen synthesizer 429 serves to generate an EPG screen by using the received data stream. The screen synthesizer 429 may receive the decoded data stream from the decoder 427, and generate the EPG screen to synthesize the received data stream and display the result in a mosaic form.

Therefore, the EPG generator 420 may provide the user with an EPG screen customized for each user based on the EPG generation command of the user. Since the EPG generator 420 generates the EPG screen by using the low speed data stream, it is not necessary to separately adjust the resolution of data to be included in the EPG screen. In addition, since the moving picture is provided as a low speed data stream, the EPG screen can be displayed with a small load even if a plurality of moving pictures are included in the EPG screen.

Meanwhile, the terminal controller 430 receives an EPG generation command and a content reproducing command from the input unit 410 to convert the display screen into an EPG generation screen and a content reproducing screen so as to display the EPG screen and broadcast content.

The content processor 440 receives a high speed data stream from the stream server 100 and decodes the received data stream to be reproduced by the user terminal 400. The content processor 440 includes a fast stream receiver 441 for receiving a fast data stream and a decoder 443 for decoding the received data. The decoded data is provided to the display unit 460 to be reproduced on the display screen.

The screen switching unit 450 receives a content playback command from the terminal controller 430 and changes the display screen from the EPG screen to the content playback screen. In addition, the screen switching unit 460 may switch the display screen from the content playback screen to the EPG screen.

The display 460 receives data from the EPG generator 420 and the content processor 440 and plays the EPG screen and broadcast content on the display screen.

The user terminal 400 may be located in a user's home, or may be located at a head-end of an IPTV broadcasting system. In addition, the server may be centrally managed and managed for each user.

Hereinafter, a method of generating a personalized EPG screen according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 4.

4 is a detailed flowchart illustrating a method of generating a personalized EPG screen according to an embodiment of the present invention.

First, when a channel to be included in the EPG screen is selected (S400), channel information related to the selected channel is stored in the channel configuration DB 423 (S402).

Thereafter, it is determined whether a channel to be further included in the EPG screen exists (S404).

As a result of the determination, if a channel to be included further exists, the channel to be included in the EPG screen is selected again (S400).

As a result of the determination, if there is no channel to be included, the low speed stream receiving unit 425 receives the low speed data stream and filters the data stream to be included in the EPG screen based on the stored channel information (S406). As described above, the low speed stream receiving unit 425 may receive the low speed data stream filtered in advance according to the channel information in the stream server 100.

Thereafter, the received low data stream is synthesized to generate an EPG screen (S408), and the generated EPG screen is displayed on a display screen (S410).

Hereinafter, a method of switching between an EPG screen and a content playback screen according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 5.

5 is a detailed flowchart illustrating a method of switching between an EPG screen and a content playback screen according to an embodiment of the present invention.

First, when an EPG screen is generated (S500), the generated EPG screen is displayed (S502).

Thereafter, it is determined whether or not the content to be displayed on the content playback screen is selected (S504).

As a result of the determination, when the content to be displayed is not selected, the EPG screen is continuously displayed (S502).

As a result of the determination, when the content to be displayed is selected, reception of the low speed data stream is stopped (S506), and a high speed data stream of the selected channel is received (S508).

Since the reception of the low speed data and the high speed data stream are received for the reproduction of the content, the load on the user terminal can be reduced.

Thereafter, the display screen is switched to the content playback screen and the received content is displayed (S510).

Thereafter, it is determined whether to move to the EPG screen (S512).

As a result of the determination (S512), when the user wants to move to the EPG screen, the reception of the high speed data stream is stopped (S51S), and the low speed data stream to be included in the EPG screen is received (S516).

Thereafter, the display screen is switched to the EPG screen (S518), and the EPG screen is displayed (S502).

Hereinafter, an example of a personalized EPG screen according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 6.

6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a personalized EPG screen according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As illustrated in FIG. 6, the personalized EPG screen according to an embodiment of the present invention may be provided in a mosaic form. Channel information of each channel may be included in each grid of the mosaic EPG screen, and in particular, content of each channel may be provided in the form of a video.

As described above, although a plurality of videos are included in the mosaic EPG, since the EPG is generated by receiving a low speed data stream, the user terminal 400 does not take much load.

Since the user terminal 400 is provided with a separate low speed data stream for generating an EPG screen from the stream server 100, the user terminal 400 does not need to convert the resolution of the data in order to generate the EPG screen. As a result, the load on the user terminal 400 is reduced.

One embodiment of the present invention can also be implemented in the form of a recording medium containing instructions executable by a computer, such as a program module executed by the computer. Computer readable media can be any available media that can be accessed by a computer and includes both volatile and nonvolatile media, removable and non-removable media. In addition, computer readable media may include both computer storage media and communication media. Computer storage media includes both volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data. Communication media typically includes computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave, or other transmission mechanism, and includes any information delivery media.

The foregoing description of the present invention is intended for illustration, and it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention may be easily modified in other specific forms without changing the technical spirit or essential features of the present invention. will be. Therefore, it should be understood that the embodiments described above are exemplary in all respects and not restrictive. For example, each component described as a single type may be implemented in a distributed manner, and similarly, components described as distributed may be implemented in a combined form.

The scope of the present invention is shown by the following claims rather than the above description, and all changes or modifications derived from the meaning and scope of the claims and their equivalents should be construed as being included in the scope of the present invention. do.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an IPTV broadcasting service system for providing a personalized EPG screen according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a detailed configuration diagram of a stream server according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a detailed configuration diagram of a user terminal providing a personalized EPG screen according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a detailed flowchart illustrating a method of generating a personalized EPG screen according to an embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a detailed flowchart illustrating a method of switching between an EPG screen and a content playback screen according to an embodiment of the present invention.

6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a personalized EPG screen according to an embodiment of the present invention.

* Explanation of symbols on the main parts of the drawing

100: stream server 200: wired network server

300: wireless network server 400: user terminal

500: wireless communication terminal

Claims (11)

In the system for providing personalized video mosaic phiji, A stream server for receiving broadcast data from a content provider to generate a high speed data stream and a low speed data stream; and It includes a wired network server for receiving the high speed data stream and the low speed data stream to provide a wired user terminal, And wherein said wired network server transmits each of said low speed data streams through a channel for said low speed data streams and each of said transmitted low speed data streams is used to generate a mosaic page at said user terminal. The method of claim 1, A wireless network server for receiving the low speed data stream to provide to a wireless communication terminal, Wherein each of the low speed data streams sent by the wireless network server is displayed on a content playback screen at the wireless communication terminal. The method of claim 1, The stream server includes a digital broadcast receiver for receiving digital broadcast data from a content provider, and an analog broadcast receiver for receiving analog broadcast data from the content provider. The method of claim 1, And the stream server comprises an encoding unit for converting broadcast data received from the content provider into the high speed data stream and a transcoding unit for converting the broadcast data into the low speed data stream. The method of claim 1, The high speed data stream provided to the user terminal is displayed on the content playback screen on the user terminal, and the low speed data stream provided to the user terminal is displayed on the mosaic easy page on the user terminal. . The method of claim 2, And a low speed data stream provided to the wireless communication terminal is displayed at the wireless communication terminal without changing the resolution. In the device for providing a personalized video mosaic epidemic, An input unit for receiving an instruction for generating an epiji and a content for playing from a user; An epitaxial generation unit configured to receive a low speed data stream through each channel, and to generate an easy page screen according to the easy page generation command using the received low speed data stream; A content processing unit which receives a high speed data stream and decodes the received high speed data stream in order to play the content screen on the user terminal; On the basis of the content playback command comprises a screen switching unit for switching between the screen and the content playback screen, And an epitaxial generation unit receiving a channel selection command for generating an epigene from the input unit, and storing channel information on the selected channel in a channel configuration DB. The method of claim 7, wherein And an epitaxial generation unit filtering only data to be included in an epitaxial screen among the received low speed data streams based on channel information stored in the channel configuration DB. The method of claim 7, wherein Channel information stored in the channel configuration DB is provided to the stream server, And the epitaxial generation unit receives a low-speed data stream filtered by only data to be included in an epitaxial screen from the stream server. In the method of creating a personalized video mosaic epiji, (a) receiving a command for selecting a channel to be included in the screen (b) collecting channel information related to the selected channel and storing the channel information in a channel configuration DB; (c) receiving a low speed data stream to generate a mosaic vellum, and filtering the low speed data stream associated with the selected channel based on the channel information; and (d) synthesizing the filtered low speed data stream to generate a mosaic episode screen. The method of claim 10, Step (c) is And receiving a low data stream filtered by only data corresponding to the selected channel based on the channel information.

Images