WO2007066957A1

WO2007066957A1 - Method for the efficient treatment of information list transmitted through inband of broadcast network

Info

Publication number: WO2007066957A1
Application number: PCT/KR2006/005210
Authority: WO
Inventors: Gyu Nam Lee; Jung Jun Park; Kook Sun Yi
Original assignee: Alticast Corp.; Kum Young Co., Ltd.
Priority date: 2005-12-05
Filing date: 2006-12-05
Publication date: 2007-06-14
Also published as: KR20070058989A; KR100831411B1

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for the efficient treatment of an information list transmitted through an inband of a broadcast network at a set top box. The method in accordance with the present invention comprises the steps of: a) receiving an information list transmitted through the inband of the broadcast network from a head end that performs transmission of the information list; b) recording the received information list in a memory in a character array; and c) indexing a recording start point of each of individual information included in the information list to generate an integer array for the indexed information. The method has advantages that the information list transmitted through an inband of a broadcast network can be efficiently managed while minimizing the memory capacity.

Description

METHOD FOR THE EFFICIENT TREATMENT OF INFORMATION LIST TRANSMITTED THROUGH INBAND OF

BROADCAST NETWORK

Technical Field

[1] The present invention relates to a method for the efficient treatment of an information list transmitted through an inband of a broadcast network at a set top box. Background Art

[2] The standardization of digital broadcasting is proceeding rapidly and various

technical developments are proceeding in transfer of digital signals through broadcast network, data multiplexing, video and sound signal processing, display for digital televisions, and so forth. Digital broadcasting is advantageous over analog

broadcasting in data compression capacity, transfer rate and sound and picture qualities. And, differently from analog broadcasting, digital broadcasting enables effective utilization of frequencies through digital modulation. Thus, it is capable of providing various contents with good sound and picture qualities to users through hundreds of channels and viewers can access a variety of information through televisions.

[3] Most of all, digital broadcasting enables the interactive television through data broadcasting. Interactive television enables the viewer to interact with the TV, beyond just controlling channels, volume, videotapes, etc. The user can make payments, do banking, shop, make reservations, play games or participate in forums using the interactive television.

[4] But, at present, the memory capacity of a set top box is typically very small at about

6 M. In order to solve the problems arising from such a small memory capacity, storage is often equipped at the set top box. However, the large sized data transmitted through an inband inevitably leads to high load to the memory.

Disclosure of Invention

Technical Problem

[5] An object of the present invention is to provide a method for the efficient

management of an information list at a set top box while minimizing the capacity of the memory assigned for the processing of the information list.

[6] Another object of the present invention is to provide a way to efficiently utilize a bandwidth assigned for the transmission of an information list through a broadcast network. [7] Still another object of the present invention is to provide a method to carry out efficient search based on the information list.

Technical Solution

[8] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method for the efficient treatment of an information list transmitted through an inband of a broadcast network at a set top box, which comprises the steps of: a) receiving an information list transmitted through the inband of the broadcast network from a head end that performs transmission of the information list; b) recording the received information list in a memory in a character array; and c) indexing a recording start point of each of individual information included in the information list to generate an integer array for the indexed information.

Advantageous Effects

[9] The method in accordance with the present invention is advantageous in that, by transmitting an information list in a character array, the bandwidth required for the transmission of the information list can be significantly reduced. Specifically, in a case that each sub data values of the individual information (for example, an identification number, song title, singer, and so forth) are indexed along with the individual information, less than about 500 songs can be included in the information list due to the limit of the bandwidth assigned to a particular channel. Particularly important is the indexing of the individual information and the sub data values thereof is not easy because of the memory capacity limit of the set top box. This problem could be solved by provision of a method comprising the steps of receiving an information list transmitted through the inband of the broadcast network from a head end that performs transmission of the information list, recording the received information list in a memory in a character array, and indexing a recording start point of each of individual information included in the information list to generate an integer array for the indexed information. Consequently, the method in accordance with the present invention is advantageous in that the information list transmitted through an inband of a broadcast network can be managed efficiently while minimizing the memory capacity.

Especially, the method enables to provide the information list through the same channel along with the application that utilizes the information list due to efficient utilization of the bandwidth. For example, when a list of plural songs is provided as the information list, the information list can be provided along with sing-a-song application through the same channel. The method in accordance with the present invention can be also applicable to the realization of various services such as VOD (video on demand) service by efficient provision of the contents information list. Brief Description of the Drawings [10] Fig. 1 illustrates a preferred embodiment of the method for the efficient treatment of an information list transmitted through an inband of a broadcast network at a set top box, in accordance with the present invention.

Mode for the Invention

[11] Specifically, the present invention provides a method for the efficient treatment of an information list transmitted through an inband of a broadcast network at a set top box, which comprises the steps of: a) receiving an information list transmitted through the inband of the broadcast network from a head end that performs transmission of the information list; b) recording the received information list in a memory in a character array; and c) indexing a recording start point of each of individual information included in the information list to generate an integer array for the indexed information.

[12] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method for the efficient treatment of an information list transmitted through an inband at a set top box, wherein the individual information is a combination of an identification number and details, and the indexing is made to a recording start point of the identification number of each of the individual information.

[13] In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a

method for the efficient treatment of an information list transmitted through an inband at a set top box, which further comprises the steps of, in response to a search request of a user through key inputs, referring to the integer array to check a recording domain of a particular individual information included in the information list and comparing the information value of the particular individual information with the key input value of the user.

[14] In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a

method for the efficient treatment of an information list transmitted through an inband at a set top box, wherein the particular individual information is one located at a midpoint of the information list.

[15] In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a

method for the efficient treatment of an information list transmitted through an inband at a set top box, further comprising the steps of, if the information value of the particular individual information located at a midpoint of the information list is matched with the key input value, displaying the individual information to be matched on a user screen,

[16] if the information value is larger than the key input value, referring again to the integer array to check a recording domain of another particular individual information located at a front midpoint of the information list and comparing the information value of the another particular individual information located at the front midpoint of the information list with the key input value, and

[17] if the information value is smaller than the key input value, referring again to the integer array to check a recording domain of further another individual information located at a rear midpoint of the information list and comparing the information value of the further another individual information located at the rear midpoint of the information list with the key input value,

[18] and retrieving the individual information to be matched by repeatedly performing the above procedures until matching of the information value with the key input value is attained.

[19] In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a

method for the efficient treatment of an information list transmitted through an inband at a set top box, wherein the information list transmitted through an inband of a broadcast network is a list of songs in which each of the songs includes an unique identification number assigned to the song and a title of the song.

[20] In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a

method for the efficient treatment of an information list transmitted through an inband at a set top box, wherein the information list transmitted through an inband of a broadcast network is a list of video on demand contents in which each of the contents includes an unique identification number assigned to the content and a title of the content.

[21] In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a

method for the efficient treatment of an information list transmitted through an inband at a set top box, wherein the indexing of a recording start point of each of individual information to generate the integer array of the step (c) is performed by an application that utilizes the information list.

[22] In the following, the present invention will be more fully illustrated referring to the attached drawing.

[23] Generally, an information list used for the construction of the sing-a-song service includes at least a list of information related to titles of the songs and unique identification numbers thereof. The information related to a particular song (an individual information) is present as a group in the information list. For example, the individual information #1 includes an identification number 1023 (Ia), a song title "Yesterday" (Ib) and a singer "Beatles" (Ic). The individual information #2 includes an identification number 1024 (2a), a song title "Empty Sky" (2b) and a singer "Cho Yongpil" (2c). Similarly, the individual information #5000 includes an identification number 1098 (5000a), a song title "Morning dew" (5000b) and a singer "Yang Hee Eun" (5000c). And, the individual information #N includes an identification number "9999" (Na), a song title "Friend" (Nb) and a singer "Cho Yongpil" (Nc). The individual information #1, #2, ..., #N constitute the information list. The sub data values (the identification number, the song title, the singer, and so forth) included in each of the individual information are co-related with one another and can be mentioned to form a group. In addition to the identification number, song title and singer, composer, lyric writer, lyrics, etc. can be also provided as a sub data.

[24] In order to realize sing-a-song function to a set top box, a list of songs having more than 1,000, preferably about 10,000 should be usually provided. Considering that the memory capacity of a common set top box is about 6 M, an efficient treatment of the grouped information list is needed.

[25] For the efficient treatment of the information list, the information list transmitted through an inband is recorded in a memory in a character array. As used herein, the phrase "character array" means that the individual information is not indexed in any way. That is to say, the information list constituted of a series of the individual information is recorded in a memory with no indexing assigned to each of the individual information. Such a character array significantly reduces the bandwidth required for the transmission of the information list. Then, the recording start point of the individual information included in the information list is indexed at the set top box to generate an integer array for the indexed information. Preferably, the indexing of the recording start point of the individual information is performed by an application that utilizes the information list. For example, if the information list is a list of songs for the implementation of sing-a-sing service, the indexing is performed by a sing-a-song application. The sing-a-song application may be transmitted to the set top box along with the information list or may be installed in the set top box in advance. In Fig. 1, the sing-a-song application indexes the recording start point of the identification number based on the identification numbers (Ia, 2a, ..., Na) of the individual information #1, #2, ..., #N and generates an integer array. Fig. l(a) shows the character array of the information list and Fig. l(b) shows the integer array generated based on the character array. In Fig. l(b), the recording start point of the individual information #1 in the memory is "0". The recording start point of the individual information #2 is " 10". The recording start points of the individual information #3, #4, and #5 are "20", "31" and "40", respectively. Similarly, the recording start point of the individual information #5000 and #N are "50002" and "99990", respectively. From the integer array shown in Fig. l(b), it would be evident that the address of the memory assigned to the recording of the individual information #1 is from "0" to "9". Similarly, the recording domain of the other individual information can be inferred from the integer array. When a user requests a search by a particular key input, the integer array is firstly referred to check a recording point of a particular individual information in the information list. And then, the information value of the particular individual is compared with the key input value of the user. Preferably, the particular individual information is chosen located at the midpoint of the character array. In case of an information list including an even number of the individual information, there would be two midpoint values. In this case, it would be evident that any one of the two values can be preset as a default. For example, suppose that a user want to perform a search by inputting an identification number "1024". Then, the integer array in Fig. l(b) is firstly referred to and the recording start value located at a midpoint in the list is retrieved. Specifically, if N is 9999, the recording start position ("50002" in Fig. l(b)) of the individual information #5000 is retrieved from the integer array of Fig. l(b), and then, the information value of the individual information #5000 (a first midpoint value) is compared with the key input value of the user. The identification number " 1024" which the user has inputted is smaller than the identification number " 1098" of the individual information #5000. In this situation, the integer array is referred again to confirm the midpoint of the character array. To be specific, the integer array of Fig. l(b) is referred again to retrieve the recording start point of the individual information #2500. The identification number of the individual information #2500 (a second midpoint value) is compared with the key input value of the user. If the key input value of the user is not matched with the identification number of the individual information, successive comparisons with the third, fourth, midpoint value of the character array are

performed. By repeating this procedure, the individual information #2 to be matched with the key input value of the user would be attained. Throughout these procedures, the information value of the individual information 2 is displayed on a user screen.

Claims

[1] A method for the efficient treatment of an information list transmitted through an inband of a broadcast network at a set top box, which comprises the steps of: a) receiving an information list transmitted through the inband of the broadcast network from a head end that performs transmission of the information list;

b) recording the received information list in a memory in a character array; and c) indexing a recording start point of each of individual information included in the information list to generate an integer array for the indexed information.

[2] The method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the individual information is a

combination of an identification number and details, and the indexing is made to a recording start point of the identification number of each of the individual information.

[3] The method as set forth in claim 2, which further comprises the steps of, in

response to a search request of a user through key inputs, referring to the integer array to check a recording domain of a particular individual information included in the information list and comparing the information value of the particular individual information with the key input value of the user.

[4] The method as set forth in claim 3, wherein the particular individual information is one located at a midpoint of the information list.

[5] The method as set forth in claim 4, further comprising the steps of, if the information value of the particular individual information located at a midpoint of the information list is matched with the key input value, displaying the individual information to be matched on a user screen,

if the information value is larger than the key input value, referring again to the integer array to check a recording domain of another particular individual information located at a front midpoint of the information list and comparing the information value of the another particular individual information located at the front midpoint of the information list with the key input value, and if the information value is smaller than the key input value, referring again to the integer array to check a recording domain of further another individual information located at a rear midpoint of the information list and comparing the information value of the further another individual information located at the rear midpoint of the information list with the key input value,

and retrieving the individual information to be matched by repeatedly performing the above procedures until matching of the information value with the key input value is attained.

[6] The method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the information list transmitted through an inband of a broadcast network is a list of songs in which each of the songs includes an unique identification number assigned to the song and a title of the song.

[7] The method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the information list transmitted

through an inband of a broadcast network is a list of video on demand contents in which each of the contents includes an unique identification number assigned to the content and a title of the content.

[8] The method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the indexing of a recording start point of each of individual information to generate the integer array of the step (c) is performed by an application that utilizes the information list.

[9] The method as set forth in claim 8, wherein the information list and the application that utilizes the information list are transmitted through the same channel.