KR20090120547A - System for providing network disk service using iptv and method theoreof - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A remote disc service system and method using IPTV is provided to share the remote disc which uploads and downloads multimedia contents between users using IPTV. CONSTITUTION: The remote disc service system(400) using IPTV comprises the remote disc, the upload part, the encoding part, and the disk management part. The remote disc(420) is allocated for each user and uploads and downloads multimedia contents. The upload part(411) uploads the multimedia contents from the user terminal. The encoding part(413) recognizes the uploaded multimedia contents file format and automatically encodes in the output format for IPTV. The disk management part(415) stores the encoded multimedia contents in the remote disc.

Description

Remote disk service system using IPTV and its method {SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING NETWORK DISK SERVICE USING IPTV AND METHOD THEOREOF}

The present invention relates to a remote disk service system and method using IPTV, and more particularly, to a remote disk service system using IPTV for automatically encoding and storing multimedia content uploaded from a user terminal in a format suitable for output of IPTV; It's about how.

An interactive broadcast service is a service that can receive digital multimedia contents such as games, education, and life information through a TV, and a viewer can use various services such as games, additional information, and shopping with a simple remote control operation.

Generally, a TV for watching two-way broadcasting is called various concepts such as a smart TV, an enhanced TV, an intelligent TV, an internet TV, and the like. In theory, interactive TV refers to a TV that allows the viewer to control what to watch and when to watch it. Functionally, a TV that integrates Internet services, data broadcasting services, and PVR (Personal Video Recorder) functions in addition to general broadcasting Means.

However, in the related art, services and contents provided by using IPTV are defined by a bidirectional broadcast service provider, and thus there is a limit to satisfying various needs of users.

Accordingly, a technology for uploading and downloading multimedia contents by sharing a disk remotely by users using IPTV has been proposed.

As a first prior art, Korean Laid-Open Patent No. 2007-0112899 manages multimedia content delivered from a device such as a user's computer or a set-top box, and transmits the multimedia content to the user's set-top box at the request of the user. Disclosed are a TV album service method and system using IPTV that can share multimedia contents among users.

In addition, as a second prior art, Korean Registered Patent No. 0736809 receives a download request from a user, transmits the download request to a predetermined web hard providing server through the Internet, and receives multimedia content for the download request. Discloses a set-top box and a method for providing multimedia content in the set-top box.

However, although the first and second prior arts disclose a technology in which users using IPTV share multimedia contents among users using a device such as a set-top box, the multimedia contents uploaded by the user can be displayed on the IPTV. There was a problem that was limited to the format.

In addition, in the first and second prior arts, the same data may be duplicated and stored at the time of uploading the multimedia content, thereby causing unnecessary waste of storage space.

An embodiment of the present invention provides a remote disk service system and method using an IPTV that allows users using IPTV to remotely share the disk to upload and download content.

In addition, an embodiment of the present invention provides a remote disk service system using IPTV and a method for automatically encoding and storing multimedia content in various formats uploaded from a set-top box of a user in a format suitable for output of an IPTV.

In addition, an embodiment of the present invention provides a remote disk service system and method using an IPTV that can set the access rights for each multimedia content uploaded from the set-top box of the user.

As a technical means for achieving the above technical problem, the first aspect of the present invention is a remote disk service system using an IPTV, the remote disk and user terminal which can be assigned to each user to upload and download a plurality of multimedia content An upload unit for uploading the multimedia content, an encoding unit for recognizing a file format of the uploaded multimedia content into a format that can be output from the IPTV, and a disk management unit for storing the encoded multimedia content on the remote disk It provides remote disk service system using IPTV.

As a technical means for achieving the above technical problem, the second aspect of the present invention is a method for providing a remote disk service using IPTV, the step of uploading multimedia content from a user terminal, the file format of the uploaded multimedia content is recognized The present invention provides a remote disk service providing method using IPTV, the method comprising automatically encoding a format suitable for output of an IPTV and storing the encoded multimedia contents on a remote disk.

As a technical means for achieving the above-described technical problem, a second aspect of the present invention is a recording medium in which a data structure used for remote disk service using IPTV is recorded, indicating the capacity of a personal disk available only to the user. A recording medium on which a data structure is included, the accessor list data including data indicating the capacity of a shared disk available to others other than the user, and an identifier of a person permitted to access the personal disk or shared disk. To provide.

According to one of the problem solving means of the present invention described above, it is possible to provide a remote disk that can upload and download multimedia content between users using the IPTV.

According to another one of the above-described means for solving the problems of the present invention, by converting the multimedia content of the various formats uploaded from the user's set-top box automatically encoded and stored in a format suitable for the output of the IPTV, a separate conversion operation for the contents of the various formats You can watch it directly through IPTV

According to another one of the above-described problem solving means of the present invention, if the multimedia content uploaded from the user overlaps with the existing content file on the remote disk, by limiting the upload of the multimedia content to efficiently utilize and search the remote disk can do.

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, a remote disk service system using IPTV and a method thereof will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 6.

1 is a diagram illustrating a connection relationship of a remote disk service system using an IPTV according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, a network configuration of a remote disk service system according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a broadcaster 100, a two-way broadcast system 200, an upload terminal 300, and a remote disk service system 400. do.

The broadcaster 100 provides various broadcast programs, that is, broadcast contents, to the interactive broadcast system 200. In this case, the provided broadcast content may include related additional information and an EPG for such additional information.

The interactive broadcast system 200 manages broadcast content and EPG provided from the broadcaster 100, distributes broadcast content, transmits it to the upload terminal 300, and processes a user response signal input from a return channel.

The upload terminal 300 and the download terminal 500 are devices for using an interactive broadcast service, and are generally composed of broadcast output devices 310 and 510 and set top boxes 320 and 520.

The upload terminal 300 is a user terminal for uploading multimedia contents to the remote disk service system 400, and further includes a computer 330.

The download terminal 500 is a user terminal that downloads multimedia content from the remote disk service system 400.

The broadcast output devices 310 and 510 output broadcast contents received from the bidirectional broadcast system 200, and transmit the user response signal received through the remote controller through the return channels of the set top boxes 320 and 520. ).

The set top boxes 320 and 520 are digital broadcast receivers for receiving broadcast content transmitted through the Internet. The set top boxes 320 and 520 receive and provide EPG information related to all programs as well as image data to a user.

The set-top box 320 includes an external input device for connecting an external storage device such as a USB memory, a flash card, or a digital camera. The set-top box 320 recognizes the external storage device connected through the external input device and stores the multimedia stored in the external storage device. The content is outputted and displayed on the screen of the broadcast output device 310, so that the user can upload the desired multimedia content to the remote disk service system 400.

The computer 330 accesses the remote disk service system 400 via the Internet and uploads the multimedia content selected by the user to the remote disk service system 400.

The set-top box 520 outputs and displays a content file on the remote disk service system 400 through a screen of the broadcast output device 510 so that a user can search for and download a desired content file.

The remote disk service system 400 provides a remote disk for uploading, downloading, and sharing multimedia contents among users who use the broadcast output apparatuses 310 and 510. The remote disk service system 400 automatically encodes multimedia contents of various formats uploaded from the set-top box 320 or the computer 330 of the upload terminal 300 into a format suitable for output of the broadcast output devices 310 and 510. Save it.

In addition, when a download request for multimedia content is received from the download terminal 500, the remote disk service system 400 transmits the multimedia content selected by the user to the set-top box 520 of the download terminal 500.

2 is a detailed block diagram of a remote disk service system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, the remote disk service system 400 includes an uploader 411, a deduplication unit 412, an encoder 413, a grader 414, a disk manager 415, and an authority information DB ( 416, a connection control unit 417, a charging unit 418, a download unit 419, and a remote disk 420, where the remote disk 420 includes a personal disk 421 and a shared disk 422. Include.

When the upload unit 411 receives an upload request from the upload terminal 300, the upload unit 411 uploads the multimedia content selected by the user from the set-top box 320 or the computer 330 of the upload terminal 300.

The deduplication unit 412 checks whether the multimedia content uploaded to the remote disk 420 overlaps with the existing content file, and stores a link of the duplicated existing content file when the existing content file is duplicated. That is, the de-duplication unit 412 extracts a list of existing content files similar to the file information of the uploaded multimedia content, and performs similarity calculation to determine a duplicate content file for a content file having a predetermined score or more. The file information includes the file name, size, and playback time of the multimedia content.

Here, the method of calculating the similarity of the content file to determine whether there is a duplicate, first extract a character string excluding a special character from the file name of the uploaded multimedia content, and then extracts similar files from the list of existing content files. Next, only the content files having the same file format are selected from the list of the extracted content files, and then the similar files are extracted within a certain ratio. In the case of a video or music file, only similar content files are compared within a predetermined ratio by comparing the playing time. Leave

On the other hand, the similarity calculation method of the string of the content file can be calculated as the rate of appearance of the string of two or more consecutive characters, that is, the number of bigrams / total bigrams that appear in common.

For example, the similarity between 'Spider-Man 2' and 'Spider-Man 3' is that the total bigram is 'Spa', 'Pi', 'Ether', 'The Man', 'Man 2', 'Man 3' 6, There are 4 bigrams that overlap, resulting in 0.66. If the file size is 600M and 610M, respectively, the similarity rate of the file size is 600/610 = 0.98, and the similarity rate of reproduction time is 125 minutes / 134 minutes = 0.93.

The encoding unit 413 recognizes a file format of the multimedia content uploaded from the set-top box 320 or the computer 330 of the upload terminal 300, and automatically encodes and stores the file format in a format suitable for the output of the broadcast output device 310. .

The grader 414 automatically assigns an age grade of an appropriate age group available for each multimedia content stored in the remote disk 420. The method of designating an appropriate age group may select a predetermined keyword that is restricted for each age group, and then, if a word matching the predetermined keyword exists from the file name of each content, the predetermined age group may be specified. In addition, contents such as movies and dramas are built in advance for each content group, and even if the content is deleted, the age information of the corresponding content file is automatically assigned even if the content is uploaded again while the content information is retained. If it is difficult to discern because it does not exist, it can be automatically designated as adult content.

The disk manager 415 performs overall management of the remote disk 420 according to upload and download of multimedia content. In addition, the disk management unit 415 periodically deletes content files that are not downloaded for a long time in consideration of the popularity (link count), the last access time, and the disk capacity of the contents in order to maintain the capacity of the shared disk 422 at an appropriate level. .

The authority information DB 416 stores the allocation details of the shared disk 422 and the personal disk 421 for each user, a list of content files stored on each disk, a list of permission to access the personal disk, and the like.

The access controller 417 controls the access of the remote disk 420 according to the access authority such as age grade granted to each multimedia content.

The charging unit 418 charges and pays according to the purchase of the remote disk 420.

When the download unit 419 receives a download request from the download terminal 500, the download unit 419 downloads the content file on the remote disk selected by the user to the set top box 520 of the download terminal 500.

Remote disk 420 includes a personal disk 421 for limited sharing and a shared disk 422 for full sharing. The user may purchase a used capacity of the remote disk 420 to upload and download content. The personal disk 421 may be accessed only to download the content file by the other party that allows the user to restrict the access of others, the shared disk 422 anyone can access and upload and download.

3A is a flowchart illustrating a method of uploading multimedia content using IPTV according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In step S11, the remote disk service system 400 receives the upload request of the multimedia content from the set-top box 320 or the computer 330 of the upload terminal 300, and then proceeds to step S12, the upload It is determined whether the capacity of the requested multimedia content exceeds the upload capacity of the user's remote disk 420.

As a result of the determination in step S12, if the capacity of the uploaded multimedia content exceeds the upload capacity of the user's disk, the process proceeds to step S13, where the user confirms whether to purchase additional disks, If the upload capacity is not exceeded, the process proceeds to step 16 to determine whether the uploaded multimedia content overlaps with an existing content file on the remote disk 420.

In step S13, the remote disk service system 400 terminates the uploading process of the multimedia content when a request for additional purchase of a disk is not received from the user, while receiving a request for additional purchase of a disk from the user. In step S14, charging is performed according to the additional purchase of the disk.

Next, in step S15, the remote disk service system 400 changes and stores the capacity of the remote disk of the user, and proceeds to step 16, where the multimedia content requested by the user is duplicated with the existing content file. Determine if you can.

As a result of the determination in step S16, when the multimedia content overlaps with an existing content file on the remote disk 420, the flow advances to step S17, where the multimedia content is linked to and stored in the existing content file. If the multimedia content does not overlap with the existing content file, the process proceeds to step S18 where the file format of the uploaded multimedia content is recognized and automatically encoded into a format suitable for the output of the broadcast output device 310. Do this.

Next, in step S19, the remote disk service system 400 stores the encoded multimedia content on the remote disk 420 of the user, and then proceeds to step S20 to allow access to the stored multimedia content. Automatically assign age ratings.

The redundancy check process with the existing content file can be omitted if the remote disk to which the user wishes to upload the multimedia content is his personal disk 421. That is, the remote disk service system 400 omits the steps S16 and S17 of performing a redundancy check process with an existing content file when the remote disk to be uploaded by the user is the personal disk 421. Upload directly to the user's personal disk 421.

3B is a flowchart illustrating a method of downloading multimedia content using IPTV according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In step S31, the remote disk service system 400 receives a download request of any multimedia content on the remote disk 420 from the set top box 520 of the download terminal 500.

In step S32, the remote disk service system 400 determines whether the requested content is a rating limit file, and if the download requested content is a rating limit file, the process proceeds to step S33. A password is input to confirm whether the user is allowed to access the requested content file.

In step S34, the remote disk service system 400 determines whether the password input in step S33 matches the password set in the content file. If the password does not match the password set in the content file, step S31. If it matches with the password set in the content file, the process proceeds to step S35 to determine whether the capacity of the content file exceeds the download capacity of the user's disk.

As a result of the determination in step S35, if the download capacity has not been exceeded, the process proceeds to step S39, where it is allowed to download the content file to the download terminal 500, whereas the download capacity is exceeded. Next, the process proceeds to step S36, and it is confirmed by the user whether or not to purchase additional disks.

In step S36, the remote disk service system 400 terminates the downloading process of the content file when a request for additional purchase of a disk has not been received from the user, whereas the request for an additional purchase of a disk is received from the user. Proceeding to step S37, charging is performed according to the additional purchase of the disk.

Next, in step S38, the remote disk service system 400 changes and stores the capacity of the user's disk according to the additional purchase of the disk, and then proceeds to step S39 to download the content file terminal 500. Download to the set-top box 520.

4A and 4B illustrate a file structure in a process of uploading and downloading multimedia content using IPTV according to an embodiment of the present invention, respectively.

Referring to FIG. 4A, in the process of uploading multimedia content, the content file is directly uploaded to a user's personal disk or a shared disk after granting an appropriate age grade for each content and confirming the upload capacity of the disk.

Referring to FIG. 4B, in the process of downloading multimedia content, if the content to be downloaded exists on the user's personal disk, the content is downloaded immediately. If the content is present on the shared disk, the content is not directly downloaded but the user's personal disk. Download after copying. At this time, the copy is not actually made, but a link of the corresponding file on the shared disk is created and reduced by the copied capacity of the link file on the personal disk. This allows you to limit your personal download capacity based on your charges. In addition, you can copy content files that you want to own among the content files on the shared disk and own them on your personal disk. The user can separately check whether the user intends to own the content file.

In addition, a file existing in another user's personal disk can be downloaded only when the other party allows the download, and in this case, the file can be directly downloaded to the set-top box of the user terminal without copying or linking. In this case, the contents on the personal disk are basically owned by the individual, so that copying and linking may not be allowed.

5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a download screen of a content file according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 5, a download screen of a content file according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a “My Disk List” screen, a “Tyne Disk List” screen, and a “Shared Disk List” screen.

On the 'My Disk List' screen, a content list of the personal disk is displayed. When the content file to be downloaded is selected from the content list, the selected content is downloaded to the set-top box of the user terminal.

'ID input window' is displayed on the screen of other disk to input the ID of another person's personal disk. If the other person's personal disk allows the other party's access, the contents list of the other's personal disk is displayed. If the user selects a content file to download, the selected content can be downloaded.

On the 'Shared disk list' screen, a 'search term input window' for entering a search word is displayed, and when a keyword is searched in the 'search term input window', a corresponding search result is output. If the content to be downloaded is selected from the searched content list, the downloadable capacity of the user's personal disk is checked and copied to the user's personal disk and downloaded to the set-top box of the user terminal.

6 is an exemplary diagram of a rights information database according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 6, the authority information DB 416 may include a rating limit field, a personal disk capacity field, a shared disk capacity field, a content list field of a personal disk, a content list field of a shared disk, and the like when downloading a content file for each user ID. It includes a list of permission to access a personal disk.

For example, a user with the ID aaa only purchases and uses a personal disk, and does not allow other users to access it, but uses it as a personal disk storage device. A user whose ID is bbb is purchasing and using a personal disk and a shared disk together, and the contents of the personal disk are shared by allowing access only to the allowed users by specifying an access permission list. The user with the ccc ID is allowed to access the private disk to anyone, and open and operate the private disk for the unspecified majority. The user whose ID is ddd is used to download the contents of other users rather than uploading the contents by purchasing only the shared disk without purchasing the personal disk.

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.

Although the methods and systems of the present invention have been described in connection with specific embodiments, some or all of their components or operations may be implemented using a computer system having a general purpose hardware architecture.

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 diagram illustrating a connection relationship of a remote disk service system using an IPTV according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a detailed block diagram of a remote disk service system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3A and 3B are flowcharts illustrating a method of uploading and downloading multimedia content using IPTV according to an embodiment of the present invention, respectively.

4A and 4B illustrate a file structure in a process of uploading and downloading multimedia content using IPTV according to an embodiment of the present invention, respectively.

5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a download screen of a content file according to an embodiment of the present invention.

6 is an exemplary diagram of a rights information database according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Claims (12)

In the remote disk service system using IPTV, Remote disk assigned per user to upload and download a large number of multimedia contents and Upload unit for uploading the multimedia content from a user terminal, An encoding unit for recognizing a file format of the uploaded multimedia content and automatically encoding the format into a format that can be output from the IPTV; Disk management unit for storing the encoded multimedia content on the remote disk Remote disk service system using an IPTV comprising a. The method of claim 1, The deduplication unit checks whether the uploaded multimedia content overlaps with an existing content file on the remote disk, and stores a link of the existing content file when the uploaded multimedia content overlaps with the existing content file. Remote disk service system using an IPTV further comprising. The method of claim 1, A rating granter for automatically granting access rights to allow access to the multimedia contents; An access control unit controlling access according to an access right granted to the multimedia content Remote disk service system using an IPTV further comprising. The method of claim 1, Download unit for downloading the multimedia content on the remote disk to the user terminal Remote disk service system using an IPTV further comprising. The method of claim 1, A charging unit that performs charging according to the purchase of the remote disk Remote disk service system using an IPTV further comprising. In the remote disk service providing method using IPTV, Uploading multimedia contents from a user terminal having an external input device; Recognizing a file format of the uploaded multimedia contents and automatically encoding the format into a format suitable for output of an IPTV; Storing the encoded multimedia content on a remote disk Remote disk service providing method using an IPTV comprising a. The method of claim 6, Determining whether the uploaded multimedia content overlaps with an existing content file on the remote disk; Based on the determination result, when the uploaded multimedia content overlaps with an existing content file, storing a link of the overlapped existing content file Remote disk service providing method using a further IPTV. The method of claim 6, Granting access rights to the multimedia contents; and Controlling access to the multimedia content based on the access right; Remote disk service providing method using a further IPTV. The method of claim 6, Downloading the requested multimedia content to the user terminal when a download request for the multimedia content on the remote disk is received from the user terminal; Remote disk service providing method using a further IPTV. The method of claim 6, If the capacity of the multimedia content exceeds the allowable capacity of the remote disk of the user at the time of uploading and downloading the multimedia content, performing the charging according to the additional purchase of the remote disk at the request of the user; Remote disk service providing method using a further IPTV. A recording medium on which a data structure used for remote disk service using IPTV is recorded, Data indicating the capacity of the private disk available only to you, Data indicative of the capacity of a shared disk available to others in addition to the user; and Access permission list data in which the identifier of the person allowed to access the personal disk or the shared disk is recorded. The recording medium having recorded thereon a data structure. The method of claim 11, Data indicating whether or not to restrict an age class that is allowed to access a content file on the remote disk The recording medium having recorded thereon a data structure.

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