KR20110068852A - Method and system for providing media service - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A media service providing method and system thereof are provided to conveniently provide various media services by providing media service based on HTTP without using a streaming server. CONSTITUTION: A terminal requests a broadcast service to a media service providing system through HTTP(S210). Among index files saved in a database, the media service providing system extracts the index files corresponding to the broadcast service which the terminal requests(S220). The media service providing system provides the extracted index files to the terminal through HTTP(S230). The terminal receives and reproduces media files from a content providing server and/or an advertisement providing server(S240,S250).

Description

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING MEDIA SERVICE}

The present invention relates to a method and system for providing a media service.

Recently, various media services such as Google's YouTube, Yahoo! Video, Apple's iTunes, and Flickr are provided on the Internet. In addition, video on demand (VoD) services are provided. Audio on demand (AoD) services, Internet protocol television (IPTV) services, and real-time video / audio services. However, the current broadcast service is based on a streaming server, which is expensive to provide a service, and also uses a variety of communication ports for the service, there is a problem that it is difficult to provide a service in a firewall (firewall).

In addition, advertisements inserted in the middle of watching a broadcast through the Internet to a terminal are collectively provided by a content provider such as a broadcasting station regardless of the location or characteristics of the user. This is because the advertisement is provided without considering the characteristics such as the user's location, age, personality, etc. at all, the effect of the advertisement is low and it is difficult to provide good information to the user. Therefore, there is a need for a new method of providing advertisements based on various characteristics of users.

An object of the present invention is to provide a method and system for providing a media service based on hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP).

According to one aspect of the present invention, a method for providing a media service in a media service providing system is provided. The media service providing method includes receiving a broadcast service request from a terminal, searching for an index file corresponding to the broadcast service, and providing the index file searched to the terminal. The index file includes an internet identifier of each of the plurality of media files corresponding to the broadcast service.

In this case, the broadcast service may be requested through a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), and the index file may be provided to the terminal through the HTTP.

The plurality of Internet identifiers may be arranged in order.

Each internet identifier may represent a link of a corresponding media file or may include a uniform resource identifier (URI) of the corresponding media file.

Each media file may correspond to a part of one broadcast service.

The broadcast service may be provided through HTTP in at least one broadcast content server indicated by the Internet identifiers of the plurality of media files.

The index file may further include an internet identifier of at least one media file for the advertisement service. In this case, an internet identifier of the at least one media file and an internet identifier of the plurality of media files may be arranged in the index file in order.

The advertisement service may be provided through HTTP in at least one advertisement content server indicated by the internet identifier of the at least one media file.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a method for receiving a media service at a terminal is provided. The method for receiving a media service may include: requesting a broadcast service from a media service providing system, receiving an index file corresponding to the broadcast service from the media service providing system, and receiving a plurality of internet identifiers included in the index file. Receiving a corresponding media file, respectively.

According to another feature of the present invention, there is provided a media service providing system including a database, a controller and a transceiver. The database stores a plurality of index files, each index file including internet identifiers of a plurality of media files for a corresponding broadcast service. The controller searches the database for an index file corresponding to the broadcast service requested from the terminal. The transceiver receives the request for the broadcast service from the terminal and provides an index file corresponding to the requested broadcast service to the terminal.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, since it is possible to provide a media service using an HTTP-based without using a streaming server, it is possible to easily provide a variety of media services, and also to effectively provide services in a variety of Internet environment have.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, an advertisement suitable for a user may be provided.

1 is a diagram schematically illustrating a media service providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a schematic flowchart of a method for providing a media service according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 and 4 are diagrams illustrating an index file and a server corresponding thereto according to an embodiment of the present invention.
5 is a diagram illustrating division of a media file according to an embodiment of the present invention.
6 is a diagram schematically illustrating a content providing server according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

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. The present invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. 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.

1 is a diagram schematically illustrating a media service providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, the media service providing system 10 is connected to various terminals 21, 22, and 23 such as a mobile phone, a smartphone, and an IPTV through the Internet 30, and hypertext transfer protocol. A video and / or audio broadcasting service is provided to the terminals 21-23 based on protocol, HTTP). The media service providing system 10 includes a controller 110, a database 120, and a transceiver 130.

The database 120 stores an index file for a broadcast service. The index file corresponds to a list of internet identifiers for media files corresponding to broadcast services. The internet identifier may be a uniform resource identifier (URI), for example, and represents a link of a media file.

The controller 110 searches the database 120 for an index file for the broadcast service requested by the terminals 21-23.

The transceiver 130 receives a broadcast service request from the terminals 21-23 through HTTP, and transmits the index file extracted by the controller 110 to the terminals 21-23 through HTTP.

After receiving the index file, the terminals 21-23 receive and play the media file for the broadcast service based on the HTTP in the order listed in the index file. The terminal 21-23 may continuously receive the media file to be played while playing the media file. In this case, the terminal 21-23 may cache the media file in consideration of the case where the communication environment is not good, so that the broadcast service may not be a problem.

Meanwhile, the media file may be provided by the media service providing system 10 or may be provided by a separate media providing system. In this case, a media file encoded at an appropriate bitrate may be provided in consideration of the bandwidth of the network.

Next, a media service providing method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 2 to 6.

2 is a schematic flowchart of a method for providing a media service according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIGS. 3 and 4 are diagrams illustrating an index file and a server corresponding thereto according to an embodiment of the present invention. A diagram illustrating division of a media file according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, the terminal 21 requests a broadcast service from the media service providing system 10 through HTTP (S210). The media service providing system 10 extracts an index file corresponding to the broadcast service requested by the terminal 21 from the index file stored in the database 120 (S220). The media service providing system 10 provides the extracted index file to the terminal 21 through HTTP (S230).

Referring to FIG. 3, at least one URI is arranged in an order in the index file 300, and the URI is a URI (URI_A1, URI_A2) for an advertisement in addition to URIs (URI_B1, URI_B2, URI_B3, URI_B4) for a broadcast service. It may further include. The URI for the broadcast service is an internet identifier for the broadcast media file provided by the content providing server 310, and the URI for the advertisement is an internet identifier for the advertisement media file provided by the advertisement providing server 320. The content providing server 310 or the advertisement providing server 320 may exist in the media service providing system 10 as an HTTP server, or may exist separately.

On the other hand, since there may be a plurality of content providing servers that service the media desired by the terminal 21 on the Internet, the media service providing system 10 provides a user with the corresponding terminal 21 when providing the index file to the terminal 21. It can be provided through the content providing server 310 best suited for. In addition, the media service providing system 10 may provide an index file of the advertising media through the advertisement providing server 320 most suitable for the user of the terminal 21. In addition, since content is provided to the terminal 21 based on the URI, the media service providing system 10 may provide media caching through a communication device or a server such as a content delivery network (CND) or a proxy. Service). Accordingly, IP-based media service can be effectively provided.

4, the advertisement providing server 420 according to another embodiment of the present invention checks the position of the terminal 21 and provides an advertisement based on the position. For example, the advertisement providing server 420 may include global positioning system (GPS) information of the terminal 21, information of a base station (not shown) to which the terminal 21 is connected, and an IP (internet protocol) address of the terminal 21. And at least one piece of location information including the location information of the terminal 21 confirmed by the terminal 21 communicating with the base station, to confirm the location of the terminal. The advertisement providing server 420 may provide an advertisement on a subject that may be of interest to a user such as a restaurant, a shopping mall, a coffee shop, etc. around the terminal 21 based on the location of the terminal 21. For example, if the user of the terminal 21 receives a broadcasting service at the time of having a business trip to Jeju Island for dinner, the media service for the advertisement of the restaurant for the user's preferred menu among the restaurants in the region where the user is located in Jeju Island is broadcasted. Can be provided during.

To this end, the advertisement providing server 420 may be connected to a plurality of advertisement providing servers 421 and 422 providing individual advertisement media, and the user may be interested in advertisements provided by the plurality of advertisement providing servers 421 and 422. Advertisement on the topic can be selected and provided.

Referring back to FIG. 2, the terminal 21 receives and plays a media file corresponding to each URI from the content providing server 310 and / or the advertisement providing server 320 in a predetermined order in the index file (S240). , S250).

When a plurality of URIs are included in the index file in order, each URI may represent a part of the entire file for the broadcast service. For example, as shown in Fig. 5, the first URI (http://www.example.com/example.ogv#t=0s,30s) is set from 0 to 30 seconds of the entire media file for the broadcast service. Point to the corresponding file 510, and the second URI (http://www.example.com/example.ogv#t=30s,60s) indicates the file (520) corresponding to 30 to 60 seconds of the total media file. ), And the third URI (http://www.example.com/example.ogv#t=60s,90s) may indicate a file 530 corresponding to 60 to 90 seconds of the entire file. . In this case, one media file may be automatically divided according to a setting for splitting the file or an advertisement media inserted in the middle.

As such, according to an embodiment of the present invention, since a media service can be provided using an HTTP server without using a streaming server, various media services can be easily provided through the Internet. In addition, since the service can be provided in association with a device or server such as a CDN without being affected by the firewall through HTTP, the service can be effectively provided in various internet environments such as a mobile environment.

6 is a diagram schematically illustrating a content providing server according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 6, the content providing server includes a media file virtualization manager 610, a storage device 620, and a memory 630.

The storage device 620 stores a media file corresponding to the URI of the index file, and may be formed as a storage device such as a hard disk. The media file virtualization manager 610 loads a specific portion of the media file that the terminal 21 is expected to request in the memory 630 according to the divided order of the media files, and then loads the already serviced portion in the memory 630. Delete it. To this end, the media file virtualization manager 610 may include starting point and offset information of each part of the media file. If virtualization is performed by loading a specific portion of the media file expected to be serviced in this manner, the media file may be provided through the memory 630 having a processing speed higher than that of the storage device 620. Improve service delivery performance.

Meanwhile, although FIG. 6 has been described using a content providing server as an example, an advertisement providing server may be provided through virtualization as shown in FIG. 6.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and various modifications and improvements of those skilled in the art using the basic concepts of the present invention defined in the following claims are also provided. It belongs to the scope of rights.

Claims (20)

A method of providing a media service in a media service providing system,
Receiving a request for a broadcast service from a terminal;
Searching for an index file corresponding to the broadcast service, and
Providing the index file searched to the terminal
Including;
The index file includes an internet identifier of each of the plurality of media files corresponding to the broadcast service.
How to provide media services. In claim 1,
The requesting of the broadcast service may include receiving the broadcast service through a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP),
The providing of the searched index file may include providing the index file to the terminal through the HTTP.
How to provide media services. In claim 1,
And the plurality of internet identifiers are arranged in order. In claim 1,
Wherein each internet identifier represents a link of a corresponding media file. In claim 1,
Wherein each internet identifier comprises a uniform resource identifier (URI) of the corresponding media file. In claim 1,
Each media file corresponds to a part of one broadcast service. In claim 1,
The broadcast service is a media service providing method provided through HTTP in at least one broadcast content server indicated by the Internet identifier of the plurality of media files. In claim 1,
The index file further includes an internet identifier of at least one media file for an advertising service. 9. The method of claim 8,
And an internet identifier of the at least one media file and an internet identifier of the plurality of media files are arranged in order in the index file. 9. The method of claim 8,
The advertisement service is a media service providing method provided over HTTP in at least one advertising content server indicated by the Internet identifier of the at least one media file. A method for receiving a media service at a terminal,
Requesting a broadcast service from a media service providing system;
Receiving an index file corresponding to the broadcast service from the media service providing system, and
Receiving a media file corresponding to each of the plurality of internet identifiers included in the index file;
Media service receiving method comprising a. In claim 11,
The plurality of internet identifiers are arranged in order in the index file,
Receiving the corresponding media file, in order to receive the media file in order of the plurality of Internet identifiers
How to receive media services. In claim 11,
Wherein each internet identifier represents a link of a corresponding media file. In claim 11,
Wherein each internet identifier comprises a uniform resource identifier (URI) of a corresponding media file. In claim 11,
The requesting the broadcast service may include requesting the broadcast service through a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP),
Receiving the index file, receiving the index file via the HTTP,
Receiving the corresponding media file may include receiving the corresponding media file via HTTP.
How to receive media services. In claim 11,
The index file further includes an internet identifier of at least one media file for an advertising service,
Internet identifiers of the at least one media file and the plurality of internet identifiers are arranged in order in the index file.
How to receive media services. A plurality of index files, each index file including a database including Internet identifiers of a plurality of media files for a corresponding broadcast service;
A controller for searching the database for an index file corresponding to a broadcast service requested by a terminal; and
The transceiver for receiving the broadcast service from the terminal and providing an index file corresponding to the requested broadcast service to the terminal.
Media service providing system comprising a. The method of claim 17,
And the transceiver unit receives the broadcast service request from the terminal through a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) and provides an index file corresponding to the requested broadcast service. The method of claim 17,
Each Internet identifier representing a link of a corresponding media file. The method of claim 17,
Wherein each internet identifier comprises a uniform resource identifier (URI) of a corresponding media file.

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