KR20120117543A - Method and apparatus for providing e-book contents service - Google Patents

Abstract

As the requirements for book content to be described in e-books, such as e-books, become more advanced, the current open publishing format specification does not support advanced e-book content, such as 2D graphic elements or videos, and EPUB. Although it is possible to use a separate advanced eBook standard without using an electronic publication standard, there is a problem that does not guarantee compatibility with the existing EPUB standard. Accordingly, an embodiment of the present invention proposes an e-book content service technology capable of reproducing an e-book content including Open Publication Structure (OPS) including graphics, video, and the like while ensuring compatibility with an existing e-book standard file.

Description

E-BOOK CONTENT SERVICE DEVICE AND METHOD {METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING E-BOOK CONTENTS SERVICE}

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to e-book content services. In particular, the present invention relates to an open publication including graphics, video, text, etc. while ensuring compatibility with existing electronic publication files, such as EPUB (Electronic Publication) files. TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an eBook content service apparatus and method suitable for playing eBook content.

The International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) has established the Electronic Publication (EPUB) standard as an open, free e-book standard.

Since these EPUBs became the world's official standard in September 2007, many e-book manufacturers have adopted this EPUB format to produce e-book content. In North America, most e-books support this EPUB except specific e-book models. Most domestic e-book makers also support EPUB. When describing EPUB, it is often compared to mp3, a kind of music file. Music files come in a variety of audio compression formats, including mp3, wma, asf, wav, and ogg, with mp3 being the most popular. As a result, few devices don't support wma or ogg, but few don't support mp3. Likewise, there are EPUB, pdf, azw, etc. in e-book format, but the most popular format is EPUB.

The data format included in these EPUBs describes the EPUB file structure, which consists of the Open eBook Publication Format (OEBPS) container format (OCF) and XML, a ZIP-like file structure containing the Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME). The Open Packaging Format (OPF), and the Open Publishing Structure (OPS), which is the actual page content, may be included.

In addition, LASeR (Lightweight Application Scene Representation) is one of technologies for animation services in mobile terminals, and is required for compressing two-dimensional animation contents that can be applied to mobile applications among the functions of binary format for scene (BiFS). Set low complexity profile by selecting only nodes, but reduce the size of program memory for mobile terminals to around 50Kb, and simplify quantization techniques that require complex floating point operations to minimize performance degradation and reduce complexity requirements Says technology.

MIME refers to a communication protocol required for transmitting and receiving various types of data such as text, image, video, and sound in internet communication. That is, when the web server transmits data at the request of a browser, information about the data type is sent before the contents of the data, which may mean a standard regarding the data type. The browser selects an application for playing the data according to the data type indicated by the MIME, and some of these applications may be loaded in the browser by default.

The open publishing format uses the XHTML1.1 or DTBook standard, which has similar functionality to a basic web page.

However, as the requirements of e-books, e.g., book content to be described in e-books, are advanced, the current open publishing format specification does not support advanced e-book content, for example, 2D graphic elements or videos.

Although it is possible to use a separate advanced eBook standard without using the EPUB standard, there is a problem that does not guarantee compatibility with the existing EPUB standard.

Accordingly, in an embodiment of the present invention, to provide an eBook content service technology that can easily play eBook content in an Open Publication Structure (OPS) including graphics, video, etc. while maintaining compatibility with existing EPUB files. do.

In addition, in the embodiment of the present invention, the user terminal, for example, the e-book content playback environment of the user terminal, such as a smart phone (notepad), a laptop (laptop) computer, a tablet computer (tablet computer) Accordingly, an e-book content service technology capable of processing selective playback of e-book content is proposed.

Specifically, an embodiment of the present invention proposes an eBook content service technology capable of processing selective playback of eBook content according to whether a MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) type file and an open publication format content are interpreted.

The e-book content service apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention reads an e-book standard file provided from a terminal driver, inspects a file structure and a table of contents structure, and checks the file structure and the table of contents structure of the e-book standard file. An e-book structure analysis unit for selectively extracting the open publication structure e-book content or basic e-book content according to the inspection result, and reproducing the e-book content or basic e-book content of the open publication format extracted from the e-book structure analysis unit; It may include a content playback unit for commanding the terminal driving unit.

Here, the e-book structure analysis unit, when the terminal drive is capable of interpreting a MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) type file and the open-published format e-book content can be played, delivers the open-published format e-book content to the content playback unit. It can be characterized by.

In addition, the open publication format eBook content may include at least one of graphic content, video content, audio content, or video content including the audio content.

In addition, the e-book structure analysis unit obtains an open publication format ID linked to the table of contents of the web language of the e-book standard file, and based on the obtained open publication format ID, a MIME type in an open packaging format file. File and open publishing format eBook content.

The terminal driver may be configured to deliver the basic e-book content to the content player when the MIME type file cannot be interpreted or the open-published e-book content cannot be reproduced.

An eBook content service method according to an embodiment of the present invention may include obtaining a location of an open packaging format file from a container XML file of an eBook standard file provided from a terminal driver, and interpreting the obtained open packaging format file in a web language. And generating a table of contents structure, inspecting the contents of the table of contents for the generated table of contents structure, and processing a content reproduction according to the result of the inspection.

The process of processing the selective content reproduction may include obtaining an open publication format ID linked to the table of contents structure, and a MIME type file and an open format in the open packaging format file based on the obtained open publication format ID. And acquiring a publication format content, and if the terminal driving unit is capable of interpreting the MIME type file and reproducing the open publication format content, playing the open publication format content.

The processing of the selective playback may further include obtaining an open publication format ID linked to the table of contents structure, and a MIME type file and an open publication in the open packaging format file based on the obtained open publication format ID. Acquiring a format content; and if the terminal driver cannot interpret the MIME type file, or if the open publication format content cannot be played, a process of causing the basic content included in the fallback attribute to be played. It may include.

The open publication content may include at least one of graphic content, video content, audio content, or video content including the audio content.

According to the present invention, by using an advanced e-book data structure compatible with the existing EPUB content, it is possible to efficiently consume the advanced e-book content including the existing EPUB content, graphics, videos, etc. in one e-book terminal device. Content has the advantage that the part that can be interpreted in the existing EPUB terminal device can be consumed without problems.

Further, according to the present invention, the user terminal, for example, according to the eBook content playback environment of the user terminal, such as a smart phone (notepad), a notebook (laptop) computer, a tablet computer (tablet computer) The e-book content can be selectively played.

For this reason, in the present invention, it is possible to further activate the e-book service market, and it is possible to expect an increase in revenue due to an increase in demand for e-book services in terms of service providers.

1 is a block diagram illustrating an apparatus for e-book content service according to an embodiment of the present invention;
2 is an exemplary diagram of an e-book standard file structure applied to an embodiment of the present invention;
3 is a flowchart illustrating an e-book content service method according to an embodiment of the present invention;
4 is a detailed flowchart of a content checking process of the table of contents structure of FIG. 3 and a content playing process according to the result thereof;

Advantages and features of the present invention and methods for achieving them will be apparent with reference to the embodiments described below in detail with the accompanying drawings. The present invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. To fully disclose the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art, and the invention is only defined by the scope of the claims. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout.

In the following description of the present invention, a detailed description of known functions and configurations incorporated herein will be omitted when it may make the subject matter of the present invention rather unclear. The following terms are defined in consideration of the functions in the embodiments of the present invention, which may vary depending on the intention of the user, the intention or the custom of the operator. Therefore, the definition should be based on the contents throughout this specification.

Each block of the accompanying block diagrams and combinations of steps of the flowchart may be performed by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be loaded into a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus so that the instructions, which may be executed by a processor of a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, And means for performing the functions described in each step are created. These computer program instructions may be stored in a computer usable or computer readable memory that can be directed to a computer or other programmable data processing equipment to implement functionality in a particular manner, and thus the computer usable or computer readable memory. It is also possible for the instructions stored in to produce an article of manufacture containing instruction means for performing the functions described in each block or flowchart of each step of the block diagram. Computer program instructions may also be mounted on a computer or other programmable data processing equipment, such that a series of operating steps may be performed on the computer or other programmable data processing equipment to create a computer-implemented process to create a computer or other programmable data. Instructions that perform processing equipment may also provide steps for performing the functions described in each block of the block diagram and in each step of the flowchart.

Also, each block or each step may represent a module, segment, or portion of code that includes one or more executable instructions for executing the specified logical function (s). It should also be noted that in some alternative embodiments the functions noted in the blocks or steps may occur out of order. For example, two blocks or steps shown in succession may in fact be performed substantially concurrently, or the blocks or steps may sometimes be performed in reverse order according to the corresponding function.

Prior to the description of the embodiment, the present invention takes into consideration the situation as the playback requirements of the recent e-book content are advanced, and thus the compatibility with the existing e-book standard file, e.g. EPUB file (electronic publication file) By guaranteeing efficient service of advanced e-book content including 2D graphics, video, and the like, it is possible to easily achieve the object of the present invention from this technical idea.

Here, the terms used in describing the embodiments of the present invention will be briefly summarized.

First, EPUB is an e-book technical standard established by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). Since becoming a global standard in September 2007, many e-book makers have adopted this EPUB format to produce e-book content. In North America, most e-book terminals except specific e-book models support this EPUB and domestic e-book companies Most of them also support EPUB. When describing EPUB, it is often compared to mp3, a kind of music file. Music files come in a variety of audio compression formats, including mp3, wma, asf, wav, and ogg, with mp3 being the most popular. As a result, few devices don't support wma or ogg, but few don't support mp3. Likewise, there are EPUB, pdf, azw, etc. in e-book format, but the most popular format is EPUB.

The data format included in these EPUBs describes the EPUB file structure, which consists of the Open eBook Publication Format (OEBPS) container format (OCF) and XML, a ZIP-like file structure containing the Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME). The Open Packaging Format (OPF), and the Open Publishing Structure (OPS), which is the actual page content, may be included.

LASeR (Lightweight Application Scene Representation) is one of the technologies for animation services in mobile terminals. Among the functions of the binary format for scene (BiFS), only nodes necessary for compressing 2D animation contents that can be applied to mobile applications are available. Technology to define low complexity profile, reduce the size of program memory for mobile terminals to around 50Kb, and simplify quantization techniques that require complex floating point operations to minimize performance degradation and reduce complexity requirements Say

Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) refers to communication protocols required for sending and receiving various types of data such as text, images, video, and sound in Internet communication. That is, when the web server transmits data at the request of a browser, information about the data type is sent before the contents of the data, which may mean a standard regarding the data type. The browser selects an application for playing the data according to the data type indicated by the MIME, and some of these applications may be loaded in the browser by default.

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

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an e-book content service apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, and may include an e-book structure analyzing unit 100, a content reproducing unit 102, a terminal driving unit 10, and the like.

An eBook content service device according to an embodiment of the present invention is a client terminal capable of playing digital eBook content, such as a smart phone, a notepad, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, or the like. Terminals may be included, and the e-book content need not be limited to any particular terminal if possible.

As shown in FIG. 1, the e-book structure analyzing unit 100 reads an e-book standard file provided from the terminal driver 10, for example, an EPUB file, examines a file structure and a table of contents structure, and checks the file structure of the EPUB file. And extracting e-book content, such as graphic content or video content or audio content or audio / video content, in an open publication structure (OPS), which is responsible for each page according to the inspection result of the table of contents structure. To the content reproducing unit 102.

For example, the eBook structure analyzer 100 obtains an OPS ID linked to a table of contents of a web language, and based on the obtained OPS ID, an MIME type in an Open Packaging Format (OPF) file. If the terminal acquires the file and the OPS content, and the terminal satisfies both of the conditions for the interpretation of the MIME type file (Condition A) and the reproduction of the OPS Content (Condition B), the corresponding OPS eBook content is acquired. The content may be delivered to the playback unit 102. In this case, the OPS e-book content may include, for example, at least one of graphic content, video content, audio content, or audio / video content.

On the other hand, if one of the above-mentioned conditions A and B is not satisfied, for example, when the terminal cannot interpret the MIME type file or play the OPS content, it is possible that the attributes of the basic content, for example, fallback ( basic content included in an attribute) may be delivered to the content reproducing unit 102. In this case, the basic content may include, for example, a text file.

The content player 102 receives the e-book content provided from the e-book structure analysis unit 100, for example, OPS e-book content or basic content, and the terminal driver 10 to play the e-book content (for example, screen playback). You can command

The terminal driving unit 10 may include, for example, a playback device and peripheral devices for a mobile terminal such as a smartphone, a tablet PC, a note pad, and the like, according to a playback command of the content playback unit 102. Screen playback can be processed. The e-book content processed by the terminal driver 10 for screen reproduction may include, for example, at least one of graphic content, video content, audio content, audio / video content, or text file.

FIG. 2 is a diagram exemplarily illustrating a structure of an e-book standard file, for example, an EPUB file described with reference to FIG. 1. The files that make up an eBook can be compressed in the form of a ZIP. The file extension can be set to "epub" to distinguish it from a normal ZIP archive.

As shown in FIG. 2, the EPUB file may include an open eBook Publishing Format container format file (OECF file container) file 200, an OPF file 204, an OPS file 210, and the like. .

The OCF file 200 may play a role of collecting all the files necessary for constructing the EPUB into one file.

The OPF file 204 may include metadata information related to eBook content, such as book titles, authors, publishers, publication dates, etc., and a method for describing such information may include, for example, " Dublin Core "metadata specification.

In addition, the OPF file 204 may include table of contents data of a book having an extension of "ncx", and when a specific item of the reproduced table of contents is selected by using the ncx file to play the table of contents, the page of the table of contents is selected. It can provide a function to move.

In addition, the files constituting the EPUB may be configured according to the folder structure described in the OCF standard, and a container XML file 202 describing such a folder structure may be required, for example, a file called "Container.xml". .

The OPS file 210 refers to a structure constituting the e-book, and may include page-specific information including text and images. As a way to describe this page-specific information, you can follow Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML) 1.1, for example, and you can bind XML to non-XHTML specifications through XML islands support. By providing a scheme, if the eBook playback terminal can interpret the XML file of the corresponding standard, the terminal supports playback.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, advanced eBook content based on Lightweight Application Scene Representation (LASeR), Binary Format for Scene (BiFS), etc. can be described in XML Arland, and using a fallback function supported by the OPF. A terminal supporting the advanced eBook content related standard may play the corresponding page, and a terminal which does not support the related standard may play the general page connected in the fallback. The reproduction of this general page may be expressed as the following web language.

<manifest>

      <item id = "item1" href = "epub_laser01.xml"

media-type = "application / laser + xml" fallback = "fall1" />

      <item id = "fall1" href = "epub01.xml"

media-type = "application / xhtml + xml" />

      ...

</ manifest>

Referring to the above-described web language, in the embodiment of the present invention, if the terminal can interpret the MIME type application / laser + xml and support LASeRML, the epub_laser01.xml is played; otherwise, the fallback attribute You can implement to play epub01.xml with ID described in the fallback.

3 is a flow chart illustrating an e-book content service method according to an embodiment of the present invention, specifically, an e-book content playback process performed by the e-book structure analysis unit 100 of FIG. 1.

As shown in FIG. 3, the e-book structure analysis unit 100 may receive an e-book standard file, for example, an EPUB file as shown in FIG. 2 from the terminal driver 10, from which the e-book structure analysis unit 100 may be provided. From the container XML file of the EPUB file, for example, the Container.xml file 202, the location of the OPF file 204 can be obtained, for example, the location of the Volume.opf file 206 and the Toc.ncx file 208. There is (S300).

Thereafter, the e-book structure analyzing unit 100 may generate the table of contents structure of the web language by analyzing the volume.opf file 206 and the Toc.ncx file 208 thus obtained (S302). For example, the table of contents structure of the web language may be generated using the ID or src information of the OPS file 210.

In step S304 and step S306, the e-book structure analyzing unit 100 examines the contents of the table of contents according to the embodiment of the present invention with respect to the contents of the web language generated in this way, and optionally selects the contents according to the inspection result. Can be played back.

The contents contents inspection according to the contents contents inspection and the result thereof will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 4.

As shown in FIG. 4, the e-book structure analyzer 100 obtains an OPS ID (or src information) linked to a table of contents structure of a web language, and based on the obtained OPS ID (or src information), an OPF file ( In step 204, the MIME type file 216 and the OPS content may be obtained (S308) (S310).

At this time, the e-book structure analysis unit 100 may determine whether the current terminal can analyze the MIME type file 216 and play back OPS content (S312).

If it is determined in step S312 that the current terminal can interpret the MIME type file 216 and the OPS content can be reproduced, the eBook structure analyzer 100 transfers the corresponding OPS content to the content reproducing unit 102. In operation S314, the OPS content may be reproduced by transmitting the corresponding OPS content.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S312 that the current terminal cannot interpret the MIME type file 216 or play back the OPS content, the eBook structure analysis unit 100 may perform basic content, for example, polling. The basic content included in the attribute of the bag may be delivered to the content reproducing unit 102 so that the basic content may be reproduced (S316).

Meanwhile, in the embodiment of the present invention, when the OPS ID (or src information) included in the table of contents structure is fed back to step S308 for the next OPS check, the process may be repeated.

According to the embodiment of the present invention as described above, in a mobile terminal environment such as a smartphone, a notepad, a tablet PC, etc., while ensuring compatibility with existing eBook standard files, for example, EPUB files, at the same time graphics, video, etc. It is implemented to play OPS eBook content including.

According to the present invention, an Open Publication Structure (OPS) eBook content including graphics, video, and the like can be reproduced while ensuring compatibility with an existing eBook standard file such as EPUB in a mobile terminal environment. Depending on the environment, e-book content can be selectively serviced, and e-book service can be activated more, and service providers can expect to see an increase in revenue due to increased demand for e-book services.

100: e-book structure analysis unit 102: content playback unit 10: terminal driver

Claims (9)

Read the e-book standard file provided from the terminal driver to check the file structure and the table of contents structure, and according to the inspection result of the file structure and the table of contents structure of the e-book standard file. An e-book structure analysis unit for selectively extracting content or basic e-book content;
And a content reproducing unit instructing the terminal driving unit to reproduce the open publishing format e-book content or basic e-book content extracted from the e-book structure analyzing unit.
EBook Content Services Device.
The method of claim 1,
The eBook structure analysis unit may be configured to deliver the e-book content of the open publication format to the content playback unit when the terminal driving unit is capable of interpreting a MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) type file and reproduces the open publication format eBook content. Characterized
EBook Content Services Device.
The method of claim 1,
The open publication format eBook content includes at least one of graphic content, video content, audio content, or video content including the audio content.
EBook Content Services Device.
The method of claim 1,
The eBook structure analysis unit obtains an open publication format ID linked to the table of contents of the web language of the eBook standard file, and compares the MIME type file with an MIME type file in an open packaging format file based on the obtained open publication format ID. Obtain an e-book content in an open publishing format
EBook Content Services Device.
The method of claim 1,
The terminal driving unit delivers the basic e-book content to the content playback unit when the interpretation of the MIME type file is impossible or the open publishing format e-book content cannot be reproduced.
EBook Content Services Device. Obtaining a location of an open packaging format file from a container XML file of an eBook standard file provided from a terminal driver;
Generating a table of contents structure of a web language by analyzing the obtained open packaging format file;
Inspecting the contents of the contents with respect to the generated contents structure, and processing the optional content playback according to the inspection result.
EBook content service method.
The method according to claim 6,
The process of processing the selective content playback,
Obtaining an open publication format ID linked to the table of contents structure;
Acquiring a MIME type file and an open publication format content from the open packaging format file based on the obtained open publication format ID;
And if the terminal driver is capable of interpreting the MIME type file and playing the open publication format content, the open publication format content is reproduced.
EBook content service method.
The method according to claim 6,
The process of processing the selective playback,
Obtaining an open publication format ID linked to the table of contents structure;
Acquiring a MIME type file and an open publication format content from the open packaging format file based on the obtained open publication format ID;
And if the terminal driver cannot interpret the MIME type file or play the open publication format content, playing the basic content included in the fallback attribute.
EBook content service method.
The method according to claim 6,
The open publication format content includes at least one of graphic content, video content, audio content, or video content including the audio content.
EBook content service method.

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