KR20110026233A - Network television and method for searching contents thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A method for searching content in the network television system is provided to enable a user to easily search a desired content by arranging the searched content by the specific arrangement rule. CONSTITUTION: An interface unit(160) receives inputs of content search terms and content array terms. A network interface unit(140) receives content search result. A control unit(190) arranges the searched content by the content arrangement rule. A display unit(130) displays the arranged content search result.

Description

Network Television and Method for Searching Contents Thereof}

The present invention relates to a network TV and its content integrated search method. More specifically, the present invention relates to a network TV and a content integrated search method for the integrated search content in the network TV system.

Conventional TV transmits contents produced by a broadcaster through radio wave transmission media such as terrestrial, cable or satellite broadcasting, and a user views the transmitted content through a TV receiver capable of receiving the respective transmission media.

However, as digital-based digital broadcasting has been developed and used in existing analog broadcasting, a variety of real-time broadcasting, CoD (Contents on Demend), games, news, etc., using the Internet network connected to each home, in addition to the existing radio media. A variety of content services can be provided to users.

An example of providing a content service using the Internet is IPTV. The IPTV is a content service that transmits various information services, video contents, and broadcasts to a user's television through a high-speed Internet network.

However, the IPTV has only one content provider for providing content, and recently, a broadband TV that is further developed from the IPTV and receives content from a plurality of different content providers has been developed.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a network TV and a method for integrated content search for a network that searches a content owned by a plurality of different content providers in a single search.

An object of the present invention is to provide a network TV and its content integrated search method for sorting searched content on a predetermined basis and providing the same to a user.

An object of the present invention is to provide a network TV that provides not only the title of the searched content but also additional information of the searched content, and a method for integrated content search.

In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, a network TV system for searching contents in a network TV system includes: a user interface configured to receive content search conditions and content sorting conditions from a user; A network interface unit transmitting the received content search condition to a plurality of different content providers and receiving a search result of the content search based on the content search condition; A controller configured to sort the received content search results according to the content sorting condition; And a display unit displaying the sorted content search results.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method of collectively searching content in a network TV system includes: receiving a content search condition and a content sorting condition from a user; Transmitting the content search condition to a content provider; Receiving a content search result searched based on the content search condition; Sorting the received content search results according to the content sorting condition; And displaying the sorted content search results.

According to the present invention, unlike a content search that searches only content owned by one content provider, it is possible to collectively search content owned by a plurality of different content providers.

According to the present invention, in contrast to a content search that merely provides a title of a searched content, additional information such as content price and image quality is provided in addition to the title of the searched content so that a user can easily search for desired content.

According to the present invention, unlike the content search for simply listing the searched content, the searched content is sorted according to a predetermined content sorting criterion so that the user can search the desired content more easily.

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

1 is a structural diagram showing a system structure of a network TV according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the network TV system includes a content provider 20, a service provider 30, a network operator 40, and a network TV 10.

Here, the network TV refers to a TV system equipped with an Internet communication module and capable of receiving a broadcast program or other content through an existing Internet network. The network TV according to the embodiments of the present invention may include a TV receiver or a network capable of receiving a broadcast program or content through the Internet, such as an IPTV, a broadband TV, a web TV, and the like.

The network operator 40 provides the network TV 10 with the base software necessary for the contents provided by the content provider 20 to operate normally in the network TV 10. In addition, the content provider 20 may be provided with hardware information of the network TV 10 necessary for the content to be normally executed on the network TV 10.

For example, the network operator 40 provides a main screen configured when contents provided by content providers are displayed on the network TV 10, and provides a user interface for the user to select content. The network operator 40 may be a server operated by the manufacturer of the network TV 10.

The content provider 20 generates the content and configures the content in a format that can be played on the network TV 10, and provides the contents according to the request of the network TV 10. The content can be any data that can be serviced over a network.

The network TV 10 may be equipped with dedicated firmware for reproducing, searching for, displaying a list, and the like for each content provider 20. The firmware may be mounted on the network TV 10 during the manufacturing process of the network TV 10 or may be downloaded and installed by the user through the network during use.

The firmware of the network TV 10 may be referred to as a program for playing or executing content provided by the content provider 20. The firmware may vary depending on the type of content provided by the content provider 20. For example, when the content provider 20 is a VOD provider, the firmware may be a VOD playback program. When the content provider 20 is an AOD or MOD service provider, the content provider 20 may be an AOD or MOD playback program. If the content provider 20 is a video telephone operator, it may be a video telephone program.

The service provider 30 provides network communication between the network operator 40, the content provider 20, and the network TV 10. The network may include any wired or wireless Internet network using the Internet protocol. In particular, the service provider 30 transmits the content provided by the content provider 20 to the network TV 10, performs maintenance management of the transmission network so that the user can be stably received the content, and the content provider ( 20) provides the infrastructure for network transmission.

The network TV 10 receives and plays or executes content through the service provider 30 in response to a user's command. In some embodiments, the network TV 10 may be replaced with a device equipped with a network module, such as a network set-top box or a telephone for a network.

In more detail, the content provider 20 may be a business operator that creates various contents to be provided to the network TV 10. The content provider 20 may include a TV station, a radio station, a VOD operator, an AOD operator, a game operator, a video telephone service provider, and the like.

The TV station refers to a conventional terrestrial or cable broadcasting station. The broadcasting station may create and store a program that users can watch and convert it digitally.

Radio stations provide audio content and may have video channels, but most of them operate without video channels.

VOD operators and AOD operators have different characteristics from TV stations and radio stations. In other words, in the case of VOD or AOD, it saves the broadcasting program, movie, and music that I want and then plays it for viewing. For example, if there is a broadcast program that was not properly viewed because there is no time to watch the current broadcast program, it is possible to access a site that provides such a broadcast service and download the file or play it immediately.

AOD providers likewise offer the ability to listen to audio programs in real time.

The Music On Demand (MOD) service allows me to download and listen to the music I want. This seems to be similar to AOD, but the target of the service is likely to be record labels or record distributors extending existing Web services.

In addition, the content provider 20 may provide various services to the network TV through the Internet such as a packet filter (PF) server, an EPG service provider, an electronic content guide (ECG) service provider, and a portal server operator. It can be any server operator present.

The PF server is serviced by a company that manages all broadcasting information and location information provided by the content provider. This service mainly contains broadcasting time or location information necessary for broadcasting and information that a user can access.

The EPG service provides EPG information so that a user can search a broadcast program by time zone and grasp by channel.

The ECG service provides the user with the information of the content that the content provider has, the location and access authority of the access server. In other words, it is an electronic program guide that provides detailed information on the content and the function to easily access the server having the content.

The portal server is a web service provided by each broadcasting station. When the portal server receives a request from the user terminal, the portal server connects to the broadcasting server or the web server of the service provider. The role of the portal server is to search for a list of programs provided by each broadcasting station or a content provider providing a content service.

The service provider 30 transmits data and commands of the network operator 40, the content provider 20, and the network TV 10. The service provider 30 may be an internet service provider. According to the exemplary embodiment, the service providers 30 may provide the above Internet services using the existing cable network. In this case, it is necessary to change the equipment of the transmission network.

That is, the service provider 30 should be configured with network equipment capable of real-time data transmission, and can configure the network in consideration of the bandwidth of the network TV 10 side. These devices can reduce bandwidth by processing large amounts of multimedia data using multicast service, which is the basic network service of network TV.

If the bandwidth is not secured, the service provider 30 retranscodes broadcast data transmitted from the optical cable network configuration or the content provider 20 in an effort to secure the bandwidth, such as MPEG-4 or MPEG-7. It can also be transformed into a form.

The service provider 30 may provide a network management system (NMS), a dynamic host control protocol (DHCP), and a contents delivery network (CDN) service. As shown in FIG. 2, the service provider 30 may include servers for providing such services.

Referring to FIG. 2, the NMS manager 33 allows the service provider 30 to manage the transmission network and the network TV 10 to transmit data to each network TV 10. That is, the NMS manager 33 checks how much traffic is generated for the content being transmitted through the network, and in which region the bandwidth is insufficient.

The DHCP server 32 automatically assigns an IP address to the network TV 10 and informs the address of the CDN server. DHCP server 32 serves to assign an IP address to each PC even in a network using a general PC. The address for connecting to the allowed network TV 10 is transmitted so that the user can proceed with the registration procedure when the user first connects.

The CDN server 31 is a server that provides CDN information provided by the service provider 30 to the network TV 10. When the network TV 10 is operated with power applied for the first time, the IPN server 31 receives an IP from the DHCP server 32. The CDN information is received from the CDN server 31 while receiving the address. This information may include user registration or authentication of the content provider 20 and the aforementioned PF information.

As described above, the network TV 10 may be replaced by a network set-top box or a network telephone equipped with an Internet communication module. The network TV 10 may have a structure described with reference to FIG. 3.

The network TV 10 basically has a network interface capable of accessing the network, receives an IP address or is already assigned an IP address, thereby receiving and processing a data packet from the network. When the data packet is multimedia data, Can play on the screen.

The network TV 10 may operate to transmit the user's requirements in both directions while processing the multimedia data. In addition, the network TV 10 is preferably provided with buttons for the network TV on the remote control for controlling the network TV 10 so that the service can be used well.

3 is a block diagram of a network TV 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 3, the network TV 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a broadcast receiver 100, a demultiplexer 110, an image signal processor 120, a display 130, and a network interface. The unit 140, the OSD generating unit 150, the user interface unit 160, the storage interface unit 170, the memory unit 180, and the controller 190 are included.

The digital broadcast signal is transmitted in the form of a packetized transport stream by time division multiplexing the video signal, the audio signal and the data signal.

The broadcast receiver 100 receives a broadcast signal transmitted from the outside through an antenna. The broadcast receiver 100 includes a tuner for tuning a broadcast signal having a predetermined frequency band and a demodulator for outputting a broadcast signal of a tuned specific channel in the form of a transport stream through a VSB (Vestigial Sideband) demodulation process and an error correction process. can do.

The broadcast signal received through the broadcast receiver 100 is divided into various additional data defined by the demultiplexer 110 as a video signal, an audio signal, and PSIP (Program and System Information Protocol) information. Is output.

The video data separated by the demultiplexer 110 is processed by the image signal processor 120 and displayed on the display 130.

In this case, the image signal processing unit 120 includes an MPEG-2 decoder and a scaler for converting video data to match the vertical frequency, resolution, aspect ratio, etc. according to the output standard of the display unit 130.

Here, the display unit 130 may be applied to various types of display modules such as digital light processing (DLP), liquid crystal display (LCD), plasma display panel (PDP), and the like.

The audio signal may be processed by the voice signal processor (not shown) and output to the speaker. The voice signal processor may include an AC-3 decoder.

On the other hand, the additional data included in the additional data separated by the demultiplexer 110 is stored in the memory unit 180 through the storage interface unit 170 to be described later.

The memory unit 180 may be embodied as an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM).

The OSD generator 150 generates a search screen for receiving a content search condition and a content sorting condition to be described later by a user in the form of an OSD (On Screen Display).

The user interface 160 receives a user input, for example, a content search condition and a content sorting condition, to be described later.

According to an embodiment, the user interface 160 may include an infrared receiver for receiving an infrared signal input through a remote controller or an RF communication module for receiving an RF signal. In some embodiments, the user interface 160 may include a local key input unit provided at one side of the panel of the network TV 10.

The network interface unit 140 receives a broadcast program, that is, content data, from the network. That is, the network interface unit 140 receives content such as a broadcast program provided by the service provider 30 through a network.

In addition, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the network interface unit 140 transmits a content search condition input by the user interface unit 160 to a plurality of different content providers 21, 22, and 23 through a network. Can transmit Thereafter, the content search result searched based on the content search condition may be received from the plurality of content providers 21, 22, and 23.

The controller 190 sorts the received content search result according to the content sorting condition input by the user interface 160.

The display 130 displays the sorted content search results and provides them to the user.

Hereinafter, a content integrated search process according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 to 8.

4 to 8 are exemplary views illustrating a content integrated search process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 4, a user may search for desired content by using the network TV 10 of the present invention.

For example, the user may execute a content search function as shown in FIG. 4 using a remote controller.

In this case, the user interface 160 receives the content search condition 51 and the content sorting condition 52 from the user.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the content search condition 51 may include at least one of a title, genre, price, image quality, available period, subtitle information, download speed, and viewing restriction age of the content to be searched. .

For example, as illustrated in FIG. 4, the content search condition 51 received from the user may include a title, price, and quality of content to be searched.

As described above, the network TV 10 of the present invention includes not only the title of the content but also other additional information of the content to be searched in the search condition in order to search the content so that a more detailed content search can be performed.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the user interface 160 may further receive a content search condition editing command for editing an item of the content search condition 51 from a user.

Referring to FIG. 4, the display unit 130 may further display an edit button 53 for editing an item of the content search condition 51 on a content search screen, and the user may use the edit button using a remote controller. By clicking 53 or pressing a key button of a remote controller mapped to the edit button 53, a content search condition editing command can be executed.

In this case, the controller 190 may execute an edit mode for changing an item of a content search condition displayed on the display 130, for example, a title, a price, and an image quality of the content to another item.

Then, in the editing mode, the user interface unit 160 may receive a new item of the content search condition from the user, and the controller 190 receives the item of the displayed content search condition 51. You can change to a new item.

For example, in FIG. 4, the title, price, and quality items of the content are displayed as the content search condition 51. However, if the content search condition editing command is executed and a new content search condition item is input from the user, for example, the title and When the download speed is input, the item of the content search condition 51 displayed on the display 130 may be changed from the title, the price, and the image quality to the title and the download speed.

As a result, the network TV 10 of the present invention can support to input different content search conditions for each user.

The display 130 may further display a search condition input window 54 for inputting the content search condition 41 through the display 130. The user may input a desired search condition through the search condition input window 54.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the user interface 160 receives a content sorting condition 52 from a user.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, the content sorting condition 52 may be displayed on a part of a content search screen, and the content sorting condition 52 may be configured of at least one item.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the content sorting condition 52 may be an ascending or descending order of at least one of the price, image quality, and available period of the searched content.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, the content sorting condition 52 may include items of "lowest price order", "highest price order", "highest picture quality", and "name order" as detailed items.

As a result, the user can sort the retrieved content according to a predetermined rule by selecting at least one of the detailed items of the content sorting condition 52.

Although not shown in FIG. 4, the content sorting condition 52 may be an ascending or descending order of at least one of a content usage period, download speed, genre, caption information, and parental control age, in addition to the price, image quality, and name of the content. have.

According to an embodiment, the content sorting condition 52 may also be changed to a new item by editing a configuration item similarly to the content search condition 51 described above.

For example, when the search condition item edit button 55 shown in FIG. 4 is pressed, a content sort condition edit mode for changing the configuration item of the content sort condition displayed on the display 130 to another item is executed. Accordingly, the network TV 10 of the present invention can provide different content sorting conditions for each user.

When a user inputs a content search condition 51 using a remote controller and executes a search command, the network interface unit 140 transmits the received content search condition 51 to a plurality of different content providers.

As described above, the network TV 10 of the present invention integrates and searches contents in a network TV system, and thus, unlike the content search of an IPTV system in which only one content provider searches for contents, the present invention provides a number of different methods. You can search the content that the content provider has.

Then, the network interface unit 140 receives a content search result found based on the transmitted content search condition from the plurality of content providers.

Then, the controller 190 sorts the received content search result according to the input content sorting condition 52.

For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the controller 190 sorts the content search results according to the content sorting condition 52, and the display 130 displays the sorted content search results. .

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the content search result may provide at least one of title, genre, price, image quality, available period, caption information, content provider, download speed, and viewing restriction age of the searched content.

That is, the present invention can provide richer information to the user by providing additional information, such as image quality and price, of the searched content, unlike the content search of the conventional IPTV system which provides only the title of the content.

According to an embodiment, similar to the above-described content search condition editing, the controller 190 may edit the configuration item displayed as the content search result and change it to another item.

For example, the user may change the configuration item of the content search result displayed on the display 130 to another item by clicking the content search result item edit button 56 shown in FIG. 5 using the remote controller. have.

That is, although the content provider, title, price, image quality, download speed, and usage period are displayed as the items of the content search result in FIG. 5, the configuration item may be changed by clicking the content search result item edit button 56. For example, you can add a parental control item.

In addition, the content search results may be sorted according to the content sorting condition 52 received from the user and displayed on the display 130.

In FIG. 5, the content search results are sorted in ascending order of price of content.

The user may sort the content search results according to another criterion by selecting the content sorting condition 52 provided on a part of the screen displaying the content search result using the remote controller.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the user interface 160 may further receive a content selection condition for selecting predetermined content from the content search result.

For example, the user interface 160 may receive an input for clicking the content selection button 57 shown in FIG. 5 from the user. In this case, as shown in FIG. 6, the display unit 130 may further display a pop-up window for receiving a content selection condition for selecting predetermined content from the content search result.

Then, the user interface 160 may receive a content selection condition from the user, and the display 130 may display the received content selection condition in a popup window.

According to an embodiment, similar to editing the content search condition item, the configuration item of the content selection condition displayed on the display 130 may be changed to a new configuration item by clicking the edit button 58.

The controller 190 may select content corresponding to the received content selection condition from the content search results.

For example, among the content search results shown in FIG. 5, the content selection condition shown in FIG. 6 may be selected for content having a price of 3,000 won or more and an image quality of HD.

As a result, as shown in FIG. 7, the display 130 displays only the selected content so that the user can easily select desired content.

8 is a flowchart illustrating a content integrated retrieval method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Step S81 receives a content search condition from the user. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the content search condition may include at least one of title, genre, price, image quality, available period, subtitle information, download speed, and viewing restriction age of the content to be searched.

According to an embodiment, the configuration item constituting the content search condition may be edited into another item.

In step S82, the received content search condition is transmitted to a plurality of different content providers. As a result, the content-integrated search of the present invention provides a rich search result to the user by integrating the content search for a plurality of different content providers, without performing a content search for one content provider.

In operation S83, a content search result searched based on the content search condition is received. According to an embodiment, the content search result provides not only the title of the searched content, but also at least one of other information of the content such as genre, price, image quality, available period, subtitle information, content provider, download speed, and parental control age. can do.

According to an embodiment, a configuration item constituting the content search result may be edited into another item.

Step S84 sorts the received content search results according to content sorting conditions. According to an embodiment, the content sorting condition may be an ascending or descending order of at least one of the price, image quality, and available period of the retrieved content.

According to an embodiment, the configuration item constituting the content sorting condition may be edited into another item.

In step S85, it is determined whether a content selection command for selecting predetermined content is received from the content search result.

When receiving a content selection command, step S86 selects only the content that meets the content selection condition among the content search results.

According to an embodiment, the content selection condition may include at least one of a title, a genre, a price, a quality, a usable period, subtitle information, a content provider, a download speed, and a viewing restriction age of the content.

According to an embodiment, the configuration item constituting the content selection condition may be edited into another item.

In operation S87, the selected content is displayed on the display 130.

As a result, the user can check the contents provided by a plurality of different content providers in one search.

In addition, the content desired through the additional information, such as genre, price, image quality, available period, subtitle information, content provider, download speed, parental control age, etc. of the content displayed in the content search result without checking the searched content one by one Can be easily understood.

Although the present invention has been described through the above embodiments, the above embodiments are merely intended to illustrate the spirit of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited thereto. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications may be made to the embodiments described above. The scope of the invention is defined only by the interpretation of the appended claims.

1 shows a network configuration diagram of a system of a network TV according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a block diagram of a service provider according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a block diagram of a network TV according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 to 7 are exemplary views illustrating an integrated content search process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

8 is a flowchart illustrating a content integrated retrieval method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Claims (9)

In the network TV to search the content integrated, A user interface configured to receive a content search condition and a content sorting condition from a user; A network interface unit transmitting the received content search condition to a plurality of different content providers and receiving a search result of the content search based on the content search condition; A controller configured to sort the received content search results according to the content sorting condition; And A display unit displaying the sorted content search results; Network TV comprising a. The method of claim 1, And the content search condition and the content search result include at least one of a title, a genre, a price, an image quality, an available period, and subtitle information of the content to be searched as a component. The method of claim 1, The content sorting condition is an ascending or descending order of at least one of a price, image quality, and an available period of content included in the content search result. 3. The method of claim 2, The user interface unit receives a command for editing a component constituting the content search conditions or content search results from the user, The control unit changes the component of the content search condition or the content search result to a new component in response to the input editing command. The method of claim 1, The user interface unit further receives a content selection condition for selecting a predetermined content from the content search results, The controller selects content that meets the content selection condition from the content search results, The display unit is a network TV for displaying the selected content. In the integrated search method for content in a network TV system, Receiving a content search condition and a content sorting condition from a user; Transmitting the content search condition to a plurality of different content providers; Receiving a content search result searched based on the content search condition; Sorting the received content search results according to the content sorting condition; And Displaying the sorted content search results; Content integrated search method comprising a. The method of claim 6, wherein the sorting step And sorting the contents included in the contents search results in ascending or descending order for at least one of price, image quality, and available period. The method of claim 6, Receiving a command for editing a component constituting the content search condition or a content search result from a user; And Changing a component of the content search condition or a content search result to a new component in response to the input editing command; Content integrated search method further comprising. The method of claim 6, Receiving a content selection condition for selecting predetermined content from the content search result; Selecting content corresponding to the content selection condition from the content search results; And Displaying the selected content; Content integrated search method further comprising.

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