WO2017073803A1

WO2017073803A1 - Method, system, and non-transitory computer-readable recording medium for managing application provided on digital signage

Info

Publication number: WO2017073803A1
Application number: PCT/KR2015/011449
Authority: WO
Inventors: 김정호
Original assignee: 주식회사 노크
Priority date: 2015-10-28
Filing date: 2015-10-28
Publication date: 2017-05-04

Abstract

According to one aspect of the present invention, a method for managing an application provided on a digital signage is provided, the method comprising the steps of: obtaining configuration information for an application which is included in an application package to be provided on a digital signage; and, with reference to the configuration information, determining a configuration of at least one among the combination and the provision status of two or more applications included in the application package.

Description

Methods, systems, and non-transitory computer readable recording media for managing applications provided in digital signage

The present invention relates to a method, system and non-transitory computer readable recording medium for managing an application provided in a digital signage.

In recent years, forms of content providing media have been diversified and content providing methods have been automated. For example, in the case of outdoor advertising, a modern method of providing advertising content through flexible media such as LED display boards or LCD TVs is different from the traditional method of providing advertising content through fixed printing media such as paper or film. It is introduced.

So-called digital signage or smart signage is a communication tool that advertisers can use in marketing, advertising, training, etc. and drive the customer experience.It is common in public places such as airports, hotels, hospitals, etc. It refers to a digital video device that provides not only in-broadcast content but also advertisement content intended by an advertiser. Also referred to as a digital signage and a digital information display (DID). Not only is it equipped with a processor and memory, it is free to move and express various contents clearly, and it is used for various purposes such as promotion, customer service, and guide media in department stores, subways, and bus stops. In addition, not only advertisement content is provided through digital signage, but various kinds of contents having a different purpose than advertisement are provided.

As described above, a manager (for example, an advertiser) who wants to use digital signage has various needs by business or by manager characteristics. However, according to the related arts introduced so far, it is only possible to control the degree of content of an image, a video, etc. while an application (for example, a video player, a news widget, etc.) that can be executed in the digital signage is already determined. Therefore, there is a limit that administrators cannot use digital signage flexibly by using a wide range of applications (or application combinations) that they want, and it is difficult to meet various needs of administrators.

Therefore, there is a need for a technology that allows an administrator to freely assemble and set the provisioning state of applications to be executed in digital signage, and to allow various applications executed in digital signage to be integratedly managed.

The object of the present invention is to solve all the problems of the prior art described above.

The present invention obtains configuration information about an application included in an application package to be provided in a digital signage, and determines a setting regarding a combination or provision state of two or more applications included in the application package with reference to the configuration information. Other objectives are to allow administrators to freely assemble and set the provisioning state of applications to be run in digital signage, and to allow various applications running in digital signage to be integrated and managed.

Representative configuration of the present invention for achieving the above object is as follows.

According to an aspect of the present invention, a method for managing an application provided in a digital signage, the method comprising: obtaining setting information about an application included in an application package to be provided in a digital signage, and the setting With reference to the information, a method is provided that includes determining a setting regarding at least one of a combination state and a provision state of two or more applications included in the application package.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a system for managing an application provided in a digital signage, wherein the configuration information management unit obtains setting information about an application included in an application package to be provided in the digital signage. And an application package manager configured to determine a setting relating to at least one of a combination and provision states of two or more applications included in the application package with reference to the setting information.

In addition, there is further provided a computer readable recording medium for recording another method for implementing the present invention, another system, and a non-transitory computer program for executing the method.

According to the present invention, since an administrator can freely assemble an application to be executed in the digital signage and set its provisioning state, various applications can be combined and executed in the digital signage as set by the administrator without being limited to a specific application. Effect is achieved.

In addition, according to the present invention, a setting regarding a combination of installation, update update, and replacement of various applications included in an application package, and a setting regarding a provision state of an execution time, a display area, etc., can be integrated and managed. And since the settings thereof can be shared between two or more administrators, the effect of reducing the administrative burden on the application running in the digital signage and increase the utilization of the digital signage is achieved.

1 is a diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of an entire system for managing an application provided in a digital signage according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a diagram showing in detail the internal configuration of the management system 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration in which a provision state of a plurality of applications included in an application package executed in a digital signage is controlled according to an embodiment of the present invention.

100: network

200: management system

210: setting information management unit

220: application package management unit

230: communication unit

240: control unit

300: application serving server

400: manager device

500: digital signage

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The following detailed description of the invention refers to the accompanying drawings that show, by way of illustration, specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention. It should be understood that the various embodiments of the present invention are different but need not be mutually exclusive. For example, certain shapes, structures, and characteristics described herein may be implemented with changes from one embodiment to another without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. In addition, it is to be understood that the location or arrangement of individual components within each embodiment may be changed without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the following detailed description is not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present invention should be taken as encompassing the scope of the claims of the claims and all equivalents thereto. Like reference numerals in the drawings indicate the same or similar elements throughout the several aspects.

Hereinafter, various preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings so that those skilled in the art can easily implement the present invention.

Configuration of the entire system

As shown in FIG. 1, the entire system according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a communication network 100, a management system 200, an application providing server 300, an administrator device 400, and a digital signage 500. It may include.

First, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the communication network 100 may be configured regardless of a communication mode such as wired communication or wireless communication, and may include a local area network (LAN) and a metropolitan area network (MAN). Network, a wide area network (WAN), and the like. Preferably, the communication network 100 as used herein may be a known Internet or World Wide Web (WWW). However, the communication network 100 may include, at least in part, a known wired / wireless data communication network, a known telephone network, or a known wired / wireless television communication network without being limited thereto.

Next, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the management system 200 obtains the setting information about the application included in the application package to be provided in the digital signage 500, and to the application package with reference to the setting information By determining settings related to the combination or delivery status of two or more applications included, the administrator can freely assemble and set the delivery status of the applications to be executed in the digital signage 500, and the digital signage 500 It can perform functions that enable various applications to be integratedly managed.

The configuration and function of the management system 200 according to the present invention will be described in detail through the following detailed description. On the other hand, as described above with respect to the management system 200, this description is exemplary, at least some of the functions or components required for the management system 200 is required, the application providing server 300, the manager device ( It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that 400 may be realized within the digital signage 500 or may be included within the application providing server 300, the administrator device 400, or the digital signage 500.

Meanwhile, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the management system 200 may perform a function of providing source data of content to be provided through an application in the digital signage 500, but providing source data of content. A content providing server (not shown) that performs a function may exist as a separate component from the management system 200.

Next, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the application providing server 300 performs a function of providing an application that can be executed in the digital signage 500. Here, according to an embodiment of the present invention, an application provided from the application providing server 300 may support at least one library that defines configuration information regarding a combination or provision state of applications.

Next, the manager device 400 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a function for allowing an administrator to communicate after accessing the management system 200, the application providing server 300, or the digital signage 500. As a digital device to be used, any digital device having a computing power by mounting a microprocessor such as a smart phone, a tablet, a desktop computer, a notebook computer, a workstation, a PDA, a web pad, a mobile phone, etc. Can be employed as the administrator device 400 accordingly.

In addition, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the manager device 400 may support an application (or program module) (not shown) for allowing an administrator to input setting information necessary to collectively control a combination or provision state of an application. May be included). Such an application, which is distinguished from an application executed in the digital signage 500, may be downloaded to the manager device 400 from the management system 200 or another external server (not shown). On the other hand, the nature of the application that the manager device 400 includes the configuration information management unit 210, the application package management unit 220, the communication unit 230 and the control unit 240 of the management system 200, which will be described later May be similar. Here, the application included in the manager device 400 may be replaced by a hardware device or a firmware device that at least a part thereof may perform substantially the same or equivalent functions thereof.

Next, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the digital signage 500 may perform a function of executing an application in which a combination or provision state is integrated by the management system 200.

Specifically, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the digital signage 500 is configured to perform a function of communicating with the management system 200 or the manager device 400 and controlling an application or content to be provided to people. Element may include a set top box (not shown). In addition, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the digital signage 500 may further include a display panel such as an LCD panel, an OLED panel, and a speaker for sound output.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the digital signage 500 may be installed in a public place such as a department store, a subway, a bus station, an airport, a hotel, a hospital, etc., but this is merely an example of the enumeration. Therefore, it should be noted that the place where the digital signage 500 is installed is not necessarily limited to those listed above.

Configuration of Management System

Hereinafter, the internal configuration of the management system 200 according to the present invention and the function of each component will be described.

As shown in FIG. 2, the management system 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a configuration information management unit 210, an application package management unit 220, a communication unit 230, and a control unit 240. Can be. According to an embodiment of the present invention, at least some of the configuration information management unit 210, the application package management unit 220, the communication unit 230 and the control unit 240, the application providing server 300, the manager device 400 Or a program module in communication with the digital signage 500. Such program modules may be included in the management system 200 in the form of operating systems, application modules or other program modules, and may be physically stored in various known storage devices. In addition, such program modules may be stored in a remote storage device that can communicate with the management system 200. On the other hand, such program modules include, but are not limited to, routines, subroutines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or execute particular abstract data types, described below, in accordance with the present invention.

First, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the configuration information management unit 210 may perform a function of acquiring configuration information regarding an application included in an application package to be provided by the digital signage 400. According to an embodiment of the present invention, setting information regarding the application may be obtained from the administrator device 400 or the application providing server 300.

Next, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the application package manager 220 determines a setting regarding a combination or provision state of two or more applications included in the application package with reference to the setting information obtained as described above. Function can be performed.

Specifically, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the application package manager 220 may determine a setting regarding installation, update, deletion, replacement, etc. of each of two or more applications to be included in the application package. For example, the application package management unit 220 according to an embodiment of the present invention is an application to be included in an application package to be provided in the digital signage 500, such as Chrome, YouTube, Twitter, etc. You can decide to have these applications combined, you can decide to update these applications on a weekly basis, and decide which of the least-used of these applications will be replaced by other applications outside of the application package.

In addition, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the application package manager 220 may include a time zone in which each of two or more applications to be included in the application package is executed in the digital signage 500, and an execution time between two or more applications to be included in the application package. Ratio and the like. For example, the application package manager 220 according to an embodiment of the present invention may determine that YouTube and Twitter are always executed, and chrome may be executed only when a search request is input.

In addition, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the application package manager 220 may determine areas where graphic elements corresponding to each of two or more applications to be included in the application package are displayed on the screen of the digital signage 500. For example, the application package management unit 220 according to an embodiment of the present invention, the graphic elements (ie, video content, playback control bar, etc.) according to YouTube is the center of the screen of the digital signage 500 And a graphic element according to Twitter (ie, tweet posts, account information, etc.) may be determined to be displayed on the bottom right of the screen of the digital signage 500.

Referring to FIG. 3A, among the plurality of applications included in the application package, the first application 310 is always executed in all time zones, and the second application 320 and the third application 330 have a predetermined cycle. Can be run alternately. In addition, referring to FIG. 3B, the graphic element according to the first application 310 may be displayed in the center of the screen 501 of the digital signage 500, and the second application 320 and the first application may be displayed. 3 The graphic elements according to the application 330 may be displayed on the lower left and lower right of the screen 501 of the digital signage 500, respectively.

Meanwhile, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the application package manager 220 may determine a setting regarding a combination or provision state of two or more applications included in the application package with reference to the context information about the application package. have. Here, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the context information includes information on specifications such as the resolution or size of the display screen included in the digital signage 400, the number of channels or the volume of the speaker, and the digital signage. Information regarding the place where the 400 is installed, information about the type of people who are provided with information through the digital signage 400, information about the number of people who are paying attention to the digital signage 400 may be included. have.

For example, the application package management unit 220 according to an embodiment of the present invention, in the case of an application package provided in the digital signage 500 is installed in a place with a large population, such as a subway station, various times for a short time By shortening the cycle of multiple applications running alternately so that information can be provided, a large number of applications can be executed in a unit of time. For another example, the application package management unit 220 according to an embodiment of the present invention is provided in the digital signage 500 installed in a place where people tend to stay at one place for a long time such as a library or a cafe. In the case of an application package, a small number of applications may be executed in a unit time by lengthening a cycle in which several applications are alternately executed so that deep information can be provided for a relatively long time.

On the other hand, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the application package management unit 200, as described above, has a function to share an application package including two or more applications whose settings related to the combination or provision state is determined between the various administrators Can be done. Accordingly, according to the present invention, an administrator who wants to execute an application he / she wants through the digital signage 500 does not need to input configuration information for various applications included in the application package by another administrator. Since the settings related to the created and shared application package can be retrieved and applied to the application package, the effect of dramatically reducing the management burden on the digital signage 500 is achieved.

Meanwhile, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the application package manager 220 may configure an application that enables an application developer to set (ie, support) a combination of a plurality of applications included in an application package or a provision state. In order to develop, a function of managing and distributing a software development kit (SDK) or an application programming interface (API) that provides at least one library may be performed. Specifically, the application package manager 220 according to an embodiment of the present invention may distribute the above software development kit or application programming interface to a device (not shown) of an application developer, and in some cases, an application The software development kit or the application programming interface may be distributed to the application providing server 300 that performs the function of supporting the development.

Next, the communication unit 230 according to an embodiment of the present invention may perform a function to enable data transmission / reception from / to the management system 200.

Finally, the control unit 240 according to an embodiment of the present invention may perform a function of controlling the flow of data between the configuration information management unit 210, the application package management unit 220 and the communication unit 230. That is, the controller 240 according to the present invention controls the data flow from / to the outside of the management system 200 or the data flow between the respective components of the management system 200, thereby controlling the setting information management unit 210 and the application package. The management unit 220 and the communication unit 230 may control to perform a unique function, respectively.

In the above, the description is mainly given of the embodiment in which the object of application management is a digital signage, but it is to be understood that the configuration of the present invention is not necessarily limited to the above-mentioned embodiment. For example, according to another embodiment of the present invention, a smartphone, a tablet, a desktop computer, a notebook computer, a workstation, a wearable device, and other Internet of Things (IoT) devices (clocks, cars, refrigerators, washing machines, boilers, air conditioners) A device having a memory means and a microprocessor mounted therein can be any device subject to control according to the present invention. The management system 200 according to an example may perform a function of managing a combination or provision state of an application included in an application package provided by the various devices as described above.

Embodiments according to the present invention described above can be implemented in the form of program instructions that can be executed by various computer components and recorded in a computer-readable recording medium. The computer-readable recording medium may include program instructions, data files, data structures, etc. alone or in combination. Program instructions recorded on the computer-readable recording medium may be specially designed and configured for the present invention, or may be known and available to those skilled in the computer software arts. Examples of computer-readable recording media include magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks and magnetic tape, optical recording media such as CD-ROMs and DVDs, and magneto-optical media such as floptical disks. medium) and hardware devices specifically configured to store and execute program instructions, such as ROM, RAM, flash memory, and the like. Examples of program instructions include not only machine code generated by a compiler, but also high-level language code that can be executed by a computer using an interpreter or the like. The hardware device may be modified with one or more software modules to perform the processing according to the present invention, and vice versa.

Although the present invention has been described by specific matters such as specific components and limited embodiments and drawings, it is provided only to help a more general understanding of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. Those skilled in the art may make various modifications and changes from this description.

Therefore, the spirit of the present invention should not be limited to the above-described embodiments, and the scope of the spirit of the present invention is defined not only in the claims below, but also in the ranges equivalent to or equivalent to the claims. Will belong to.

Claims

As a method for managing applications provided by digital signage,

Obtaining setting information about an application included in an application package to be provided in the digital signage, and

Determining a setting regarding at least one of a combination and a provision state of two or more applications included in the application package with reference to the setting information;

How to include.
The method of claim 1,

Wherein the two or more applications support at least one library that defines configuration information regarding at least one of the combination and the provision state.
The method of claim 1,

In the determining step,

And determining a setting relating to at least one of installing, updating, deleting, and replacing each of the two or more applications.
The method of claim 1,

In the determining step,

Determining at least one of a time zone in which each of the two or more applications executes in the digital signage and a percentage of execution time between the two or more applications.
The method of claim 1,

In the determining step,

Determining a region in which graphical elements in accordance with each of the two or more applications are displayed on the screen of the digital signage.
The method of claim 1,

In the determining step,

The first application and the second application included in the application package are set to be executed simultaneously in the digital signage, and the graphic element according to the first application and the graphic element according to the second application are respectively set in the digital signage. Method to be displayed in the first area and the second area on the screen.
The method of claim 1,

In the determining step,

And with reference to contextual information relating to the application package, determining a setting regarding at least one of a combination and a provision state of two or more applications included in the application package.
The method of claim 1,

The application package for which a setting regarding at least one of the combination and provision status of the two or more applications is determined may be shared between two or more administrators.
A non-transitory computer readable recording medium for recording a computer program for executing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 8.
As a system for managing applications provided by digital signage,

A setting information management unit for obtaining setting information about an application included in an application package to be provided in the digital signage, and

An application package manager which determines a setting regarding at least one of a combination and a provision state of two or more applications included in the application package with reference to the configuration information.

System comprising a.