KR20110120711A - Method and apparatus for providing application service - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A method and a device for providing an application service are provided to supply a discriminated application to each broadcasting receiver. CONSTITUTION: A database(210) stores characteristic information about a broadcasting receiver. The characteristic information includes at least one among an inherent identifier, group information, and specification information about the broadcasting receiver. A network communication unit(212) receives the inherent identifier from the broadcast receiver. An AIT generator(204) generates personalized AIT corresponding to the inherent identifier by referring to a database.

Description

Method and apparatus for providing application service {Method and Apparatus for providing application service}

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for providing an application service, and more particularly, to a method, an apparatus, and a system for installing different applications according to a broadcast receiver.

Recently, the broadcasting environment is rapidly changing, such as the development of broadcasting technology, the emergence of various new broadcasting media, and the convergence of broadcasting and communication. In the broadcasting environment where the viewer passively enjoys the one-way A / V service provided by the broadcasting station through TV, the viewer actively participates in information services such as news, traffic information, weather information, and various interactive data services such as e-commerce and home banking. It is expanding to interactive broadcasting, that is, data broadcasting environment.

Data broadcasting technologies include Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) in Europe, European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) in the US, Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE), CableLabs, and Association of Radio in Japan Standardization has been standardized by major global standards organizations such as Industries and Businesses, and recently, domestic and international standards are being adopted to accommodate IPTV, a new broadcasting medium.

MHP (Multimedia Home Platform), the first to standardize data broadcasting, is being standardized through DVB and ETSI. MHP is available in three versions, 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2. The 1.0 version is based on the Java platform, and 1.1 adds Markup language features called Stored Application, HD video and graphics, and DVB-HTML. Finally, the 1.2 version is standardized through DVB and ETSI to support the transmission of Monitor Application, Unbound Application, and DVB service through the Broadband IP Network (IPTV) introduced in OCAP (OpenCable Application Platform) in 1.1. have.

In addition, there is also a Globally Executable MHP (GEM) as one of the digital data broadcasting standards. GEM is a standard provided to be used as a general standard by removing elements used only in the European broadcasting environment from the MHP standard.

In the MHP or GEM standard, an application information table (AIT) is transmitted to a broadcast receiver or transmitted in a transport stream, and the broadcast receiver refers to the AIT to download an application included in the AIT, and Manage. In the same way, a table called XAIT (eXtended Application Information Table) is provided, which is a table for providing the same purpose or information of an unbound application. An unbound application is an application that resides like a daemon on a regular PC and provides services. This is classified according to the type of service, and since it is the same in all aspects, such as the form and method of data, the following descriptions assume that XAIT and AIT have the same meaning.

As described above, the AIT is an information table for application signaling. In the conventional MHP or GEM standard, only the AIT is provided to all broadcast receivers, but the AIT is not considered to provide a specific AIT for each broadcast receiver. .

Recently, the specifications of broadcast receivers vary greatly according to the activation of data broadcasting services. Conventionally, different applications are not provided according to the specifications of broadcast receivers, and further, specialized applications are not provided for users who own broadcast receivers. There is a problem.

The present invention, to solve the problems of the prior art as described above, proposes a method, apparatus and system for providing an application service that can provide a differentiated application to each broadcast receiver.

According to an embodiment of the present invention to achieve the above object, a method for providing an application service of a broadcast system, the method comprising: storing attribute information for a broadcast receiver, wherein the attribute information is a unique identifier for the broadcast receiver, a group At least one of information and specification information; Receiving a unique identifier from a first broadcast receiver; Generating a personalized application information table corresponding to the first broadcast receiver by identifying the unique identifier; And transmitting the personalized application information table to the first broadcast receiver.

Preferably, the group information may be information on a group to which the user of the broadcast receiver belongs, and the group information may be at least one of company, religion, group, and relative identification information to which the user of the broadcast receiver belongs.

The specification information may be at least one of supportable interface information and supportable video information of the broadcast receiver.

Preferably, the supportable interface information includes information on whether the broadcast receiver supports a motion mouse, and the supportable video information includes information on whether the broadcast receiver supports 3D video.

Preferably, the first broadcast receiver may download one or more applications included in the personalized application information table from the broadcast system.

More preferably, the broadcast receiver is plural, and the broadcast system includes a plurality of application servers according to groups or specifications of the plurality of broadcast receivers, and the first broadcast receiver is an application server according to a group and specification to which the broadcast receiver belongs. Access to download the one or more applications.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a method of providing an application service of a broadcast system, the method comprising: storing attribute information about a broadcast receiver, wherein the attribute information includes at least one of a unique identifier, group information, and specification information for the broadcast receiver; box-; Generating a personalized application information table corresponding to the broadcast receiver using the attribute information; Receiving a unique identifier from the broadcast receiver; Identifying the unique identifier and extracting a personalized application information table corresponding to the broadcast receiver; And transmitting the personalized application information table to the broadcast receiver.

According to another aspect of the present invention, an application service providing apparatus, comprising: a database for storing attribute information of a broadcast receiver, wherein the attribute information includes at least one of a unique identifier, group information, and specification information for the broadcast receiver; ; A network communication unit for receiving a unique identifier from the broadcast receiver; And an AIT generator for generating a personalized application information table corresponding to the unique identifier with reference to the database.

According to the present invention, there is an advantage of providing a personalized application information table according to the specification of a broadcast receiver and a group to which a broadcast receiver user belongs with reference to the attribute information.

1 is a diagram illustrating an application service providing system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a diagram showing a detailed configuration of a broadcast system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 illustrates a database field structure according to an embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a flowchart of an application service providing process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As the present invention allows for various changes and numerous embodiments, particular embodiments will be illustrated in the drawings and described in detail in the written description. However, this is not intended to limit the present invention to specific embodiments, it should be understood to include all modifications, equivalents, and substitutes included in the spirit and scope of the present invention. Like reference numerals are used for like elements in describing each drawing.

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

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

As shown in FIG. 1, the broadcast system 100 according to the present embodiment is connected to one or more broadcast receivers 102-1 to 102-n (hereinafter, collectively referred to as “102”) through a network.

Here, the network may include all of the ground network, cable network, satellite network and the Internet.

The broadcast system 100 according to the present embodiment provides a broadcast program according to a preset schedule. In addition, each of audio and video signals (broadcast programs) for various broadcast channels is converted into a preset format, and a transport stream combined with data and applications related to the broadcast program is transmitted to the broadcast receiver 102.

In addition, the broadcast system 100 performs a scheduling function for each broadcast program and scrambling for reception restriction so that no user other than the subscriber can access.

Furthermore, the broadcast system 100 may provide an Internet service and various communication services while having a separate communication server (for example, a return pass server) for processing a user's requirement through an uplink channel.

The broadcast receiver 102 selectively receives and outputs a transport stream corresponding to a predetermined channel among transport streams transmitted by the broadcast system 100.

Here, the broadcast receiver 102 may be a set-top box that selectively receives the transport stream and decodes the transport stream, but is not limited thereto. If the broadcast receiver 102 is a terminal capable of decoding the transport stream received through a network, It can contain everything.

The transport stream transmitted by the broadcasting system 100 includes system information (SI) for signaling service information (ie, channel information).

The SI may include a bucket association table ("BAT"), a service description table (SDT), an event information table ("EIT"), and an application information table ("AIT"). ") And the like. Among these, the AIT includes detailed information about an application to be installed in the broadcast receiver 102 for a specific service. For example, the AIT may include application identification information and application location information.

As described above, the application information table may include the XAIT in addition to the AIT, and for convenience, the following description will focus on the AIT, but it should be understood by those skilled in the art that the application information table may include the XAIT.

Here, the application location information may be address information of the server where the application is stored, or is an identifier of a multicast channel (original network id, transport stream id, service id) that is previously transmitted and may be joined to acquire data. )

Table 1 is an XAIT format, which is an information table used in the present invention, in which location information of an application is included, and application location information is written in a (<location> field or a <transportViaOC> field), which is an http (s) address. In addition, it may be an identifier of the multicast channel (original network id, transport stream id, service id).

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the broadcast system 100 may provide an AIT personalized for each broadcast receiver 102.

The AIT provided when the broadcast receiver 102 first enters a service of the broadcast system 100 includes information about an application that should be basically installed in the broadcast receiver 102.

Here, the initial service entry may be defined as the broadcast receiver 102 receiving the transport stream provided by the broadcast system 100 for the first time.

In the broadcast system 100 according to the present embodiment, when a specific broadcast receiver 102 enters a service for the first time while maintaining attribute information such as a unique identifier, group information, and specification information for each broadcast receiver, the corresponding broadcast receiver The personalized AIT for the corresponding broadcast receiver is generated with reference to the attribute information of 102 and transmitted to the broadcast receiver 102. At this point, if there is a common application that all users need to download, they can multicast and write this information to AIT.

As described above, the broadcast system 100 may dynamically generate the AIT when the broadcast receiver 102 first enters the service, but the broadcast system 100 is not limited thereto. The broadcast system 100 may store the broadcast receiver 102 stored in the database 210. It may be generated in advance by referring to the attribute information of the), and may transmit the personalized AIT generated in advance to the broadcast receiver 102.

In addition, the personalized AIT may be provided to the broadcast receiver 102 by reflecting the registered or changed information when a new application for a specific broadcast receiver 102 is registered or when an existing application is changed, as well as when the service first enters. have.

In the following description, the AIT is dynamically generated when the broadcast receiver 102 first enters a service.

Conventionally, personalization or grouping of AITs has not been discussed in the MHP or GEM standard. However, in the case of providing personalized AITs as in the present embodiment, more specific services may be provided for each broadcast receiver 102.

2 is a diagram illustrating a detailed configuration of a broadcast system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 2, the broadcasting system according to the present embodiment includes a video encoder 200, an audio encoder 202, an AIT generator 204, a multiplexer 206, a modulator 208, a database 210, and a network. The communication unit 212 may be included.

The video encoder 200 converts a video signal of a broadcast program provided from a broadcast program provider or the like into a Moving Picture Experts Group 2 (MPEG2) stream belonging to a digital broadcast standard.

In addition, the audio encoder 202 converts an audio signal of a broadcast program into a preset format such as an MPEG-2 stream or an AC-3 stream.

The video and audio streams encoded as above are input to the multiplexer 206.

The multiplexer 206 receives an AIT for the application, which is multiplexed with the video and audio streams and output to the modulator 208.

The AIT generator 204 refers to the database 210 to generate a personalized AIT for each broadcast receiver 102.

3 is a diagram illustrating a field structure of the database 210 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 3, the database 210 according to the present embodiment includes a unique identifier field 300, a group field 302, and a specification field 304.

The unique identifier field 300 stores a unique identifier for identifying each broadcast receiver 102, and the unique identifier may include a manufacturing code of the broadcast receiver 102, user identification information of the broadcast receiver 102, and the like. .

The group field 302 stores information for identifying a group to which the user of the broadcast receiver 102 belongs.

Here, the group refers to the company, religion, group, relative, etc. to which the user belongs, and the group information may include identification information regarding the company, religion, group, relative, and the like.

According to the present embodiment, the group information may store information about one or more groups to which the user belongs, and the AIT generator 204 may generate a personalized AIT that reflects all of the one or more group information.

The specification field 304 stores information about specifications supported by the broadcast receiver 102.

The specification information may include interface information and image information that can be supported by the broadcast receiver 102. For example, the supportable interface information of the broadcast receiver 102 includes information on whether the broadcast receiver 102 can process only signals from a conventional remote controller, can connect with a motion mouse, and whether the touch screen function is supported. can do.

In addition, the supportable video information may include information about which of the SD, HD, and 3D (3D) video can be supported by the broadcast receiver 102.

In addition, the specification information may be at least one of supportable interface information and supportable video information of the broadcast receiver, and may further include information on the presence or absence of a hard disk and whether a dual decoder is supported.

Information on the presence or absence of a hard disk may be used to provide a PVR related service to a broadcast receiver, and information on whether to support dual decoder may be used to provide a PIP service or an EPG service for various channels.

In addition, although not described above, the attribute information may also include region information where the broadcast receiver 102 is installed and personal preference information of the user of the broadcast receiver 102.

Here, the preference information may include a user's viewing history, a VOD purchase history, an e-commerce history, an age, a gender, and the like, and the broadcasting system 100 may be updated later, separately from the personalized AIT initially using the preference information. To provide a personalized AIT.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, when the network communication unit 212 receives a unique identifier from the broadcast receiver 102 that first entered the service, the AIT generator 204 is received with reference to the database 210. Create a personalized AIT corresponding to the unique identifier.

The AIT generator 204 reads region information, group information, and specification information corresponding to the unique identifier from the database 210, and generates an AIT using such attribute information.

For example, when the group information of the first broadcast receiver 102-1 includes information such as company A and church B, and the specification information includes motion mouse support information, the AIT generator 204 generates the group information. And generate the AIT reflecting the specification information.

The personalized AIT for the first broadcast receiver 102-1 includes information on basic applications commonly provided to all the broadcast receivers 102, information on applications providing company A and church B information, and a motion mouse. Information about the interoperable application may be included.

In addition, when the C company and the relative information are included in the group information of the second broadcast receiver 102-2, and the 3D video support information is included in the specification information, the AIT generator 204 may add the C information to the basic application. An AIT is generated including information about an application that provides information related to a company and a user's relatives, and information about an application that can be used in a 3D manner.

The personalized AIT is input to the multiplexer 206, which multiplexer 206 outputs a transport stream comprising a video, an audio stream and a personalized AIT, which is modulated at the modulator 208 to the broadcast receiver 102. It is sent out.

The broadcast receiver 102 receives a transport stream from the broadcast system 100.

Application signaling is performed by a personalized AIT included in the transport stream.

According to the present embodiment, the broadcast receiver 102 downloads an application included in the personalized AIT and manages the life cycle of the application.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, independent application servers 104-1 to 104-k may be provided for each group or specification.

The personalized AIT includes information about the base application and information about a specific application by group or specification.

According to the present embodiment, since a broadcast receiver having a common group and specification may exist, a plurality of application servers 104 corresponding thereto are provided in consideration of the broadcast receiver 102 having a common group or specification, and a personalized AIT is received. Each broadcast receiver 102 connects to a specific application server 104 to download an application.

The application providing method is not limited to the case where the application is provided through the individual application server 104, and an application having a high frequency of providing may be provided to the plurality of broadcast receivers 102 through the multicasting method.

Meanwhile, in the above description, when the AIT generator 204 receives a unique identifier from the broadcast receiver 102, the AIT generator 204 is described as generating a personalized AIT corresponding to the unique identifier with reference to the database 210. However, the present invention is not limited thereto. When the attribute information about the new broadcast receiver 102 is registered at 210, it is also the scope of the present invention that the AIT generator 204 generates a personalized AIT for the broadcast receiver 102 in advance, and transmits it later. Can be included.

4 is a flowchart illustrating an AIT service providing process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a diagram illustrating a case of dynamically generating and providing an AIT.

Referring to FIG. 4, the broadcast system 100 maintains attribute information of each broadcast receiver 102 in the database 210 (step 400).

As described above, the attribute information may include a unique identifier, group information, specification information, region information, preference information, and the like of the broadcast receiver 102.

The broadcast receiver 102 that first enters the service transmits a unique identifier to the broadcast system 100 (402).

The broadcast system 100 confirms the unique identifier and generates a personalized AIT using attribute information such as group information and specification information matched with the unique identifier (step 404).

The broadcast system sends a transport stream containing the personalized AIT to the broadcast receiver 102 (step 406), and the broadcast receiver 102 decodes the transport stream to interpret the personalized AIT (step 408) and includes it in the AIT. The downloaded application is proceeded (step 410).

Although described above with reference to embodiments of the present invention, those of ordinary skill in the art various modifications and variations of the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention described in the claims below It will be appreciated that it can be changed.

Claims (11)

As a method of providing an application service of a broadcasting system,
Storing attribute information for the broadcast receiver, the attribute information including at least one of a unique identifier, group information, and specification information for the broadcast receiver;
Receiving a unique identifier from a first broadcast receiver;
Generating a personalized application information table corresponding to the first broadcast receiver by identifying the unique identifier; And
And transmitting the personalized application information table to the first broadcast receiver. The method of claim 1,
And the group information is information on a group to which a user of the broadcast receiver belongs. The method of claim 2,
The group information includes at least one of a company, a religion, a group, and relative identification information to which the user of the broadcast receiver belongs. The method of claim 1,
The specification information includes at least one of supportable interface information, supportable video information, presence or absence of a hard disk, and information on whether a dual decoder is supported by the broadcast receiver. The method of claim 4, wherein
The supportable interface information may include information on whether or not the broadcast receiver supports the motion mouse. The method of claim 4, wherein
The supportable video information includes information on whether the broadcast receiver supports 3D video. The method of claim 1,
And the first broadcast receiver downloads one or more applications included in the personalized application information table from the broadcast system. The method of claim 7, wherein
The broadcast receiver is plural,
The broadcast system includes a plurality of application servers according to a group or specifications of the plurality of broadcast receivers.
And the first broadcast receiver accesses an application server according to a group and specification to which the first broadcast receiver belongs and downloads the one or more applications. The method of claim 7, wherein
The application information table includes an HTTP address or a multicast channel identifier for an application to be provided to a plurality of broadcast receivers in common, and the broadcast receiver downloads one or more applications in a multicast manner. As a method of providing an application service of a broadcasting system,
Storing attribute information for the broadcast receiver, the attribute information including at least one of a unique identifier, group information, and specification information for the broadcast receiver;
Generating a personalized application information table corresponding to the broadcast receiver using the attribute information; And
Receiving a unique identifier from the broadcast receiver;
Identifying the unique identifier and extracting a personalized application information table corresponding to the broadcast receiver; And
Transmitting the personalized application information table to the broadcast receiver. An application service providing apparatus,
A database storing attribute information for a broadcast receiver, the attribute information including at least one of a unique identifier, group information, and specification information for the broadcast receiver;
A network communication unit for receiving a unique identifier from the broadcast receiver; And
And an AIT generator for generating a personalized application information table corresponding to the unique identifier by referring to the database.

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