KR101649922B1 - Server and method for delivering contents in instant message service - Google Patents

Abstract

An embodiment of the present invention, a method for transmitting content in an instant message server includes the steps of: receiving a request for uploading content from a transmitter terminal; determining the size of the content corresponding to the request for upload; requesting to issue a content key corresponding to the request for upload to a content storing server; receiving the content key from the content storing server; and transmitting the received content key to the transmitter terminal and a receiver terminal. At this time, the transmitter terminal and the receiver terminal share the transmitted content key individually.

Description

Technical Field [0001] The present invention relates to an instant message server and a method for transmitting content,

The present invention relates to an instant message server and method for content transmission.

As the high-speed wireless network technology and various types of smart terminals are popularized, the utilization of the instant messenger service utilizing the instant is increasing. An instant messenger is an application in which two or more users perform real-time text communication based on a network such as the Internet.

Recently, as the communication environment develops, instant messenger enables various real-time multimedia communication such as voice and video as well as text communication. That is, the instant messenger can transmit not only text but also various contents such as files, images, photographs, images, videos and music. However, in order to transmit multimedia and contents in the instant messenger, there is a problem that a relatively long time is required compared to text transmission. Further, in the case of using a pay communication environment, there is a problem that a user who transmits and receives contents excessively pays communication charges as it transmits and receives contents.

As a conventional technology for transmitting content in the instant messenger service, Korean Patent Registration No. 10-1069075 (entitled " Media Management System and Method ") discloses a storage management component of media, a server communication component, Components, instant messaging components, and media components, and discloses systems and methods for browsing media files on a network or sharing them with other users using instant message components.

Korean Patent Registration No. 10-0733603 entitled " Mobile multimedia instant messenger service system and mobile multimedia messenger service method using the same ") discloses a mobile multimedia instant messenger service system in which multimedia data including images and moving pictures Discloses a mobile multimedia messenger service system and method in which data can be exchanged in real time in a messenger service.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an instant message server and method for efficiently transmitting contents according to the size of contents.

It should be understood, however, that the technical scope of the present invention is not limited to the above-described technical problems, and other technical problems may exist.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of transmitting content in an instant message server, the method comprising: receiving a content upload request from a sender terminal; Determining a size of the content corresponding to the upload request; Requesting a content storage server to issue a content key corresponding to an upload request; Receiving a content key from a content storage server; And transmitting the received content key to the sender terminal and the receiver terminal, respectively. At this time, the sender terminal and the receiver terminal each share the delivered content key.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, an instant message server includes a communication module for transmitting an instant message between a sender terminal and a receiver terminal, a memory for storing a program for transmitting and receiving an instant message, and a processor for executing the program. At this time, as the program is executed, the processor receives the content upload request from the sender terminal, determines the size of the content corresponding to the upload request, requests the content storage server to issue the content key in response to the upload request After receiving the content key from the content storage server, the content key is transmitted to the sender terminal and the receiver terminal, and the sender terminal and the receiver terminal share the delivered content key, respectively. To the content server, and is downloaded from the content server to the receiver terminal.

According to any one of the above-mentioned means for solving the above-mentioned problems, an embodiment of the present invention can efficiently transmit contents in a different manner according to the size of contents.

Accordingly, in the case of transmitting content less than a predetermined size, downloading of content from the content server to the receiver terminal starts before the transmitter terminal completes uploading the content to the content server, It is possible to shorten the content delivery time to the terminal.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, in the case of transmitting a content having a predetermined size or more, downloading of contents is started to the receiver terminal according to a request of the receiver after the uploading of contents from the transmitter terminal to the contents server is completed, It is possible to solve the problem that the storage space of the receiver terminal becomes insufficient, and the storage space of the receiver terminal can be secured.

In addition, an embodiment of the present invention can save the charge of communication charges due to excessive data usage.

1 is a configuration diagram of an instant message transmission / reception system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a content transmission method according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a flowchart illustrating a content transmission method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a flowchart of a content transmission method in an instant message server according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example in which content less than a preset size is transmitted to a recipient terminal and displayed.
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example in which content having a predetermined size or more is transmitted to a recipient terminal and displayed.
7 is a flowchart of a chat log generation method according to an embodiment of the present invention.
8 is a configuration diagram of an instant message server according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, which will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art. The present invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. In order to clearly explain the present invention in the drawings, parts not related to the description are omitted.

Throughout the specification, when a part is referred to as being "connected" to another part, it includes not only "directly connected" but also "electrically connected" with another part in between . Also, when an element is referred to as "comprising ", it means that it can include other elements as well, without departing from the other elements unless specifically stated otherwise.

Hereinafter, an instant message transmission / reception system 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

1 is a configuration diagram of an instant message transmission / reception system 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The instant message transmission / reception system 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention performs an instant messenger service between various terminals such as a computer, a smart phone, and the like. At this time, the instant messenger service provides text, voice, and video communication between the sender terminal 130 and the receiver terminal 140 in real time using a network such as the Internet. In addition, the instant messenger service transmits contents such as text, voice, image, and moving picture between the sender terminal 130 and the receiver terminal 140 through the instant message transmission / reception system 10.

The instant message transmission / reception system 10 includes an instant message server 100, a content server 110, a content storage server 120, a sender terminal 130 and a receiver terminal 140. [ At this time, the instant message transmission / reception system 10 may be, for example, a chat system.

In addition, each component of the instant message transmission / reception system 10 can be connected via a network. The network means a connection structure in which information can be exchanged between each node such as a server and a terminal. Examples of such networks include, but are not limited to, a 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) network, a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, a World Interoperability for Microwave Access (WIMAX) network, But is not limited to, an area network, a wide area network (WAN), a personal area network (PAN), a Bluetooth network, a satellite broadcast network, an analog broadcast network, a digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB)

The instant message server 100 included in the instant message transmission / reception system 10 delivers the instant message and contents delivered from the sender terminal 130 to the recipient terminal 140. At this time, when the sender terminal 130 delivers the content, the instant message server 100 can upload the content using the content server 110 and the content storage server 120. The recipient terminal 140 can download the content using the content server 110. [

The content server 110 is a server that uploads content from the sender terminal 130 and transmits the content so that the uploaded content is downloaded to the receiver terminal 140. In addition, the content server 110 can upload and manage content using the content storage server 120.

At this time, the instant message server 100 and the content server 110 may be separately installed in an independent server computer, or may be installed in the same server computer as a server program, respectively.

The content storage server 120 stores the uploaded content from the content server 110. In addition, the content storage server 120 transmits the stored content to the content server 110 at the request of the content server 110.

For example, the content storage server 120 may include one or more storage devices, a processor, and a memory, and may be an independent server computer capable of directly performing content uploading and management, and the like. In addition, the content storage server 120 includes only one or more storage devices, and the uploading and managing of the content may be performed by another server computer such as the content server 110 connected to the network.

In addition, the instant messaging system 10 may include one or more content storage servers 120. And one or more content storage servers 120 may be used in combination with the network. For example, one or more content storage servers 120 may be a file server, a direct attached storage (DAS), a network attached storage (NAS), and a storage area network (SAN).

The one or more content storage servers 120 may distribute and store contents in order to prevent a network load when uploading and downloading contents. Also, one or more content storage servers 120 may store a plurality of copies of the same content for backup of the content.

In addition, the content storage server 120 can manage content based on a content key such as a unique identifier of the content. If the instant message transmission / reception system 10 includes a plurality of content storage servers 120, the content storage server 120 stores the content key using the identifier of the content and the address of the content storage terminal, The content can be managed based on the content.

The content key generated by the content storage server 120 may be transmitted to the sender terminal 130 and the receiver terminal 140, respectively. The content key transmitted to the sender terminal 130 and the receiver terminal 140 can be used for uploading and downloading of content. That is, when the content server 110 receives a download request for the content uploaded by the sender terminal 130 from the receiver terminal 140, the content server 110 transmits the content corresponding to the content key uploaded by the sender terminal 130 to the receiver terminal 140).

The sender terminal 130 and the recipient terminal 140 included in the instant message transmission / reception system 10 can send and receive instant messages based on the instant message application installed in each terminal. For example, the instant message application may be a chat program. In addition, the instant message application may be in the form of an independent program installed in the sender terminal 130 and the recipient terminal 140, or may be an add-on program included in a program such as a web browser.

The sender terminal 130 may deliver the instant message and content to the recipient terminal 140 based on the instant message application installed on the sender terminal 130 and the communication module 810 included in the sender terminal 130. [ The recipient terminal 140 receives the instant message and the contents delivered by the sender terminal 130 based on the instant message application installed in the recipient terminal 140 and the communication module 810 included in the recipient terminal 140 can do.

The sender terminal 130 and the receiver terminal 140 according to an embodiment of the present invention are distinguished for convenience. That is, the sender terminal 130 may transmit the instant message and the contents to the recipient terminal 140, and may receive the instant message and the contents transmitted by the recipient terminal 140. The recipient terminal 140 may also receive the instant message and content from the sender terminal 130 and send the instant message and content to the sender terminal 130. That is, the sender terminal 130 and the receiver terminal 140 may be the sender terminal 130 if they transmit the instant message and the contents even to the same terminal, ).

Meanwhile, the sender terminal 130 and the receiver terminal 140 include a display module, a memory, a processor, a communication module, and the like, and collectively refer to all terminals that can use the network. For example, the sender terminal 130 and the recipient terminal 140 may be a general computing system, such as a personal computer, a server computer.

The sender terminal 130 and the receiver terminal 140 may be connected to a wireless communication device that is guaranteed to be portable and mobility such as a Personal Communication System (PCS), a Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), a Personal Digital Cellular (PDC) Personal Handyphone System, PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), IMT (International Mobile Telecommunication) -2000, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) -2000, W-Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA), WiBro (Wireless Broadband Internet) And the like, and the like, for example.

The sender terminal 130 and the receiver terminal 140 may be connected to a personal computer capable of wireless communication such as a notebook computer and a tablet PC and may be a smart device such as a smart phone, device) and the like.

The instant message transmission and reception system 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention may provide a 1: 1 chat that can exchange instant messages and contents between a sender terminal 130 and a recipient terminal 140, 130 and the recipient terminal 140 and a group chat capable of exchanging contents.

Meanwhile, the instant message server 100 of the instant message transmission / reception system 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention receives a content upload request from the sender terminal 130. At this time, the instant message server 100 determines the content size corresponding to the upload request. Then, the instant message server 100 requests the content storage server 120 to issue the content key in response to the upload request. After receiving the content key, the instant message server 100 delivers the received content key to the sender terminal 130 and the receiver terminal 140. Thus, the sender terminal 130 and the recipient terminal 140 share a common content key, respectively.

At this time, the transmission method of the content transmitted from the sender terminal 130 to the receiver terminal 140 may vary according to the size of the content.

For example, when the size of the content is less than a predetermined size as in the case of a low-resolution image, the recipient terminal 140 uploads the content from the content server 110 in parallel with uploading the content to the content server 110 Contents can be downloaded. That is, before the sender terminal 130 completes uploading the content to the content server 110, the receiver terminal 140 may start downloading the content being uploaded from the content server 110. [ The receiver terminal 140 may display the contents downloaded to the display module.

Conversely, when the size of the content is equal to or larger than a predetermined size, such as a high-resolution image, a high-quality moving image, and a photograph, the content server 110 can upload the content uploaded by the sender terminal 130 to the content storage server 120 . The content server 110 may transmit a thumbnail generated based on the content uploaded to the recipient terminal 140. In addition, the receiver terminal 140 can display the received thumbnail on the display module. If the recipient terminal 140 requests download of the content corresponding to the thumbnail, the recipient terminal 140 can download the content from the content server 110. [

Meanwhile, the criterion for determining the size of the content may be changed according to the setting of the instant message transmission / reception system 10. For example, the instant message transmission / reception system 10 may determine that the content less than 512 KB is a content having a size smaller than a preset size, and the content larger than 512 KB is a content having a size greater than a predetermined size. In addition, the criterion for determining the size of the content may be set differently depending on the type of the content. The criteria for determining the size of the content may be set by each of the servers 100, 110 and 120, the sender terminal 130 and the receiver terminal 140.

In addition, the contents according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may include text, document, moving picture, photograph, image, and music.

Hereinafter, a content transmission method of the content server 110 according to the content size will be described with reference to FIG. 2 and FIG.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a content transmission method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

First, the sender terminal 130 requests the instant message server 100 to upload the content to the receiver terminal 140 (S200).

Upon receiving the upload request from the sender terminal 130, the instant message server 100 requests the content storage server 120 to issue a content key corresponding to the content to be uploaded (S210).

The content storage server 120 receiving the content key issuance request generates a content key and transmits the generated content key to the instant message server 100 (S211). At this time, the content key may be unique for each content. When there are a plurality of content storage servers 120, the content storage server 120 may transmit the generated content key and the address of the content storage server 120 in which the content is stored to the instant message server 100 have.

The instant message server 100 receiving the content key transmits the content key to the sender terminal 130 in step S212 and transmits the content key to the receiver terminal 140 in step S213. At this time, the instant message server 100 simultaneously transmits the content key to the sender terminal 130 and the receiver terminal 140.

Upon receiving the content key, the sender terminal 130 may request the content server 110 to upload the content corresponding to the content key and the content key at step S220. At this time, the sender terminal 130 may add metadata of the content to the upload request of the content and transmit the metadata. The metadata of the content may include the size of the content and the kind of the content. The metadata of the content may be used to determine whether the content is successfully uploaded or downloaded. In addition, the metadata of the content can be used as a criterion for selecting a viewer application or the like used for browsing contents at the recipient terminal 140.

The recipient terminal 140 receiving the content key from the instant message server 100 may request the content server 110 to download the content corresponding to the content key and the content key at step S230.

The content server 110 receives the content upload request of the sender terminal 130 and the content download request of the receiver terminal 140 and then uploads the content corresponding to the content key from the sender terminal 130 at step S240. In addition, the content server 110 allows the receiver terminal 140 to download the uploaded content (S250). At this time, when the sender terminal 130 uploads the content, the receiver terminal 140 can download the content in parallel with the upload.

If the uploaded content is voice, music, or video encoded with a codec that is not supported by the instant messaging system 10, the content server 110 transmits the uploaded content to the codec Can be encoded. The content server 110 may download the converted content to the sender terminal 130 and upload the converted content to the content storage server 120.

On the other hand, the content may be composed of a plurality of data. In this case, the data may be a packet, a data gram, a frame, a cell and a data unit. The content composed of a plurality of data can be created by combining a plurality of data after the upload and download are completed.

When the sender terminal 130 uploads a plurality of data included in the content to the content server 110, the content server 110 transmits the received data to the content storage server 120 and simultaneously transmits the received data to the receiver terminal 140 (S241, S250).

Also, until the download of the plurality of data is completed, the recipient terminal 140 transmits the content key and content download request to the content server 110 (S230) and repeats the process of downloading the data (S250) Can be performed.

In addition, the content storage server 120 may notify the content server 110 that the content storage is completed when the content is uploaded (S260).

The content server 110 receives the content storage completion notification from the content storage server 120 and completes the content download to the content storage server 120 and the content download of the receiver terminal 140, It may request to generate a chat log (S270).

The instant message server 100 receiving the chat log generation request can transmit the chat log to the sender terminal 130 (S271). In addition, the instant message server 100 may transmit the chat log to the recipient terminal (S272) and complete the transmission of the content. At this time, the chat log of the sender terminal 130 and the receiver terminal 130 can be simultaneously transmitted.

As described above, in the case of the content less than the predetermined size, the content upload time of the sender terminal 130 becomes (A) in FIG. 2, and the download time of the receiver terminal 140 becomes (B) of FIG. In addition, since the uploading and downloading proceed simultaneously, the total time required for uploading and downloading can be as shown in Fig. 2 (A) as the uploading time. As described above, in the content transmission method according to an embodiment of the present invention, when the content size is less than a predetermined size, downloading proceeds with content upload as the key of the content is shared, 140 can be shortened.

Next, referring to FIG. 3, transmission of a content having a predetermined size or more will be described.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a content transmission method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

First, the sender terminal 130 requests the instant message server 100 to upload content in order to deliver the content to the receiver terminal 140 (S300).

Upon receiving the upload request from the sender terminal 130, the instant message server 100 requests the content storage server 120 to issue a content key corresponding to the content to be uploaded (S310).

The content storage server 120 receiving the content key issuance request generates a content key and transmits the generated content key to the instant message server 100 (S311). At this time, the content key generation method is the same as the content transmission method of less than the preset size described with reference to FIG.

The instant message server 100 receiving the content key transmits the content key to the sender terminal 130 at step S312 and transmits the content key to the receiver terminal 140 at step S313. At this time, the content key may be simultaneously transmitted to the sender terminal 130 and the receiver terminal 140.

Upon receiving the content key, the sender terminal 130 may request the content server 110 to upload the content key and content corresponding to the content key in operation S320.

After receiving the content upload request from the sender terminal 130, the content server 110 may receive the content to be uploaded by the sender terminal 130 (S340). The content server 110 may upload the received content to the content storage server 120 (S341).

2, if the uploaded content supports encoding not provided by the instant message system 10, the content server 110 converts the encoded content into an encoding supported by the instant messaging system 10, can do. In addition, the content server 110 may upload the converted content to the content storage server 120. The recipient terminal 140 may download the converted content from the content server 110. [

At this time, as described with reference to FIG. 2, the content may be composed of a plurality of data. The content server 110 may receive the content storage completion notification from the content storage server 120 in step S350 and request the instant message server 100 to generate a chat log when the content is uploaded in step S360. .

The instant message server 100 receiving the chat log generation request from the content server 110 may generate a chat log and simultaneously transmit the chat log to the sender terminal 130 and the receiver terminal 140 at steps S361 and S362, .

The recipient terminal 140 having received the chat log can request a thumbnail of the content corresponding to the content key included in the chat log to the content server 110 at step S370.

The content server 110 receiving the thumbnail transmission request may generate a thumbnail corresponding to the content and transmit the generated thumbnail to the receiver terminal 140 (S371). Thereafter, when the recipient terminal 140 requests download of the content corresponding to the thumbnail (S380), the content server 110 may transmit the content corresponding to the content key corresponding to the thumbnail to the recipient terminal 140 S381).

As described above, in the content transmission method according to an embodiment of the present invention, the sender terminal 130 and the receiver terminal 140 can share the content key. Therefore, if the size of the content is relatively large, that is, if the size of the content is equal to or larger than the predetermined size, the recipient terminal 140 does not collectively receive the content transmitted by the sender terminal 130, And the content storage space of the receiver terminal 140 can be efficiently managed.

3 (A), the download time of the receiver terminal 140 may be (B) of FIG. 3, and the download time of the receiver terminal 140 may be have. At this time, since the upload of the sender terminal 130 and the download of the receiver terminal 140 are executed separately, the total time required for uploading and downloading may be the sum of (A) and (B) in FIG.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, in the content transmission method according to an embodiment of the present invention, the content transmission method may be changed according to the size of the content. That is, as shown in FIG. 2, when the size of the content is less than a predetermined size, downloading can be performed together with upload without the consent of the receiver. 3, content is uploaded only to the content server 110 and the content storage server 120 when the content size is greater than a predetermined size, and when the recipient requests a content download, The content can be downloaded to the server 140.

Hereinafter, a content transmission method of the instant message server 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 4 to FIG.

4 is a flowchart of a content transmission method in the instant message server 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

First, when the instant message server 100 receives a content upload request from the sender terminal 130 (S400), it determines the size of the content corresponding to the received upload request (S410). At this time, the instant message server 100 may use the metadata of the content received when the content is uploaded from the sender terminal 130 to determine the size of the content.

After determining the size of the content to be uploaded, the instant message server 100 requests the content storage server 120 to issue a content key corresponding to the upload request (S420). Then, the instant message server 100 receives the content key generated in the content storage server 120 according to the content key issue request (S430).

At this time, the content storage server 120 may be plural. Therefore, the instant message server 100 may receive an address of the content storage server 120 that has issued the content key among the plurality of content storage servers 120 together with the content key.

The instant message server 100 delivers the received content key to the sender terminal 130 and the receiver terminal 140, respectively (S440). Accordingly, the sender terminal 130 and the recipient terminal 140 share the delivered content key, respectively.

When the instant message server 100 delivers the content key to the sender terminal 130 and the receiver terminal 140 respectively, the content transmitted by the sender terminal 130 is transmitted to the content server 110 and the content storage server 120 Respectively, and the recipient terminal 140 can download it. At this time, the content uploading method can be classified according to the size of the content.

If it is determined that the size of the content to be uploaded by the sender terminal 130 is less than the predetermined size, the sender terminal 130 transmits the content key and the content received from the instant message server 100 to the content server 110 It forwards the upload request. The sender terminal 130 uploads the content to the content server 110.

In addition, the recipient terminal 140 may transmit a content download request corresponding to the content key received from the instant message server 100 to the content server 110. [

In parallel with the uploading of the sender terminal 130, the content server 110 transmits the uploaded content to the content storage server 120 and the receiver terminal 140. An example of when the size of the content is less than a predetermined size will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example in which content less than a preset size is transmitted to a recipient terminal and displayed.

When the sender terminal 130 uploads content less than a preset size to the content server 110, the receiver terminal 140 can download the content directly from the content server 110. That is, in the case of content less than a predetermined size, the recipient terminal 140 may store the downloaded content in the storage device of the recipient terminal 140 in parallel with the upload of the sender terminal 130. Therefore, the image P510 downloaded by the sender terminal 130 can be displayed on the display module of the receiver terminal 140 immediately, such as the instant messages P500 and P520.

At this time, the downloaded image displayed on the display module of the terminal 140 may be displayed in the form of an image P510 different from a general instant message. In addition, the downloaded image displayed on the display module of the terminal 140 may be displayed in the form of an instant message including an image.

4, when it is determined that the size of the content uploaded by the sender terminal 130 is equal to or larger than a preset size, the sender terminal 130 transmits a content key and a content upload request to the content server 110 . The sender terminal 130 may upload the content to the content server 110. When the uploading is completed, the content server 110 may store the content and the content key in the content storage server 120.

In the case of content having a predetermined size or more, the content server 110 may generate a thumbnail for the content after the content upload to the content storage server 120 is completed, and may transmit the generated thumbnail to the receiver terminal 140 .

The receiver terminal 140 receives the thumbnail and requests download of the content to the content server 110, thereby downloading the content. An example of the case where the size of the content is equal to or larger than a predetermined size will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example in which content having a predetermined size or more is transmitted to a recipient terminal and displayed.

The sender terminal 130 uploads the content to be transmitted to the content server 110 first. At this time, the content uploaded to the content server 110 may be separately stored in the content storage server 120.

Upon completion of uploading of the content to the content server 110 and the content storage server 120, the recipient terminal 140 may receive a thumbnail P610 corresponding to the content from the content server 110. [ At this time, the received thumbnail may be stored in the receiver terminal 140 and displayed on the display module of the receiver terminal 140, such as an instant message (P600, P630).

At this time, the received thumbnail displayed on the display module of the terminal 140 may be displayed in the form of an image P510, which is different from a general instant message as shown in FIG. In addition, the received thumbnail displayed on the display module of the terminal 140 may be displayed in the form of an instant message (P600, P640) containing an image.

When the receiver clicks the download button P620 or the thumbnail P610 on the display module of the receiver terminal 140 to request download of the content, the receiver terminal 140 can download the content from the content server 110 have. When downloading of the content is completed, the recipient terminal 140 can display that the download of the content is completed (P640).

At this time, the recipient terminal 140 may display the downloaded content directly on the instant message application, or may display a " view " button P650 for displaying the content using the viewer application installed in the recipient terminal 140 have. In addition, if the receiver terminal 140 can not display the content using the installed viewer application, the receiver terminal 140 can convert the content using the built-in conversion module.

Meanwhile, the contents uploaded by the sender terminal 130 may include a plurality of pieces of data divided into predetermined sizes. The sender terminal 130 may transmit a plurality of pieces of data included in the content to the content server 110. In addition, the content server 110 may transmit the received data to the content storage server 120 and to the receiver terminal 140 at the same time.

For example, if the preset data size is 256 KB, the content having a size of 1 MB (1024 KB) can be divided into four pieces of data such as "data A", "data B", "data C" have. When the sender terminal 130 uploads the "data A" to the content server 110, the content server 110 can upload "data A" to the content storage server 120 and transmit it to the receiver server. When the sender terminal 130 again uploads the "data B" to the content server 110, the content server 110 can upload the "data B" to the content storage server 120 and transmit it to the receiver server. In one embodiment of the present invention, the content can be divided into a plurality of pieces of data and transmitted. After the transmission is completed, the content can be generated by combining the four pieces of data.

In addition, the content server 110 according to an embodiment of the present invention can store the content and the content key uploaded from the sender terminal 130 in the content storage server 120. [ At this time, if there are a plurality of content storage servers 120, the content storage server 120 may transmit the address of the content storage server 120 together with the content key to the sender terminal 130 and the receiver terminal 140.

When the content server 110 and the content storage server 120 are uploaded and the content is downloaded to the receiver terminal 140, the content server 110 determines the size of the content transmitted by the sender terminal 130, The size of the content downloaded to the uploading terminal 110 and the content storing server 120 to the uploading and receiving terminal 140 can be compared. The content server 110 can determine that the content transmission is completed when the size comparison results of the content of the content server 110, the content storage server 120, the sender terminal 130, and the receiver terminal 140 are all the same have.

When the content transmission is completed, the instant message server 100 may receive a chat log generation request from the content server 110. [

Next, a chat log generation method for contents of the instant message server 100 will be described with reference to FIG.

7 is a flowchart of a chat log generation method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

When the content is stored in the content storage server 120, the instant message server 100 can receive a chat log generation request from the content server 110 (S700). The instant message server 100 may generate a chat log for the uploaded content according to a request to generate a chat log (S710). Then, the instant message server 100 may transmit the generated chat log to the sender terminal 130 and the receiver terminal 140 (S720).

At this time, a method of generating a chat log may be the same as the case of transmitting a content less than a preset size and a content having a predetermined size or more. However, if the content size is less than the predetermined size and the content is an image, the chat log may be delivered to the recipient terminal 140 and the content may be displayed at the recipient terminal 140. On the other hand, if the content size is equal to or larger than the predetermined size, or if the content is not an image such as text or moving image, the chat log is transmitted to the recipient terminal 140 and at the same time, an icon or thumbnail Can be displayed.

5, when a chat log is generated by the instant message server 100, the recipient terminal 140 may display the content downloaded from the content server 110 on the instant messenger window (P510).

On the contrary, if the size of the content is greater than or equal to the predetermined size, the receiver terminal 140 can receive the thumbnail corresponding to the content downloaded from the content server 110 after receiving the generated chat log. The recipient terminal 140 may download the content from the content server 110 based on the content key included in the chat log.

Referring to FIG. 6, a chat log may be generated by the instant message server 100 after content having a predetermined size or more is uploaded to the content server 110 by the sender terminal 130. The recipient terminal 140 may also download a thumbnail from the content server 110 and display a thumbnail P610 of the content at the recipient terminal 140. [

If the recipient clicks the thumbnail P610 or clicks the "download" button P620 next to the thumbnail P610, the content can be downloaded from the content server 110 based on the content key included in the chat log have. Upon completion of downloading, a download completion message (P640) and contents can be displayed in the chat window of the receiver terminal 140, or a " view " button P650 for viewing contents can be displayed.

Hereinafter, an instant message server 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

8 is a configuration diagram of the instant message server 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The instant messaging server 100 includes a communication module 810, a memory 820, and a processor 830.

At this time, the communication module 810 transmits an instant message between the sender terminal 130 and the receiver terminal 140. For example, the communication module 810 may include both a wired communication module and a wireless communication module. The wired communication module may be implemented by a power line communication device, a telephone line communication device, a cable home (MoCA), an Ethernet, an IEEE1294, an integrated wired home network, and an RS-485 control device. In addition, the wireless communication module can be implemented with a wireless LAN (WLAN), Bluetooth, HDR WPAN, UWB, ZigBee, Impulse Radio, 60 GHz WPAN, Binary-CDMA, wireless USB technology and wireless HDMI technology.

The memory 820 stores a program for transmitting and receiving an instant message. Here, the memory 820 is collectively referred to as a non-volatile storage device that keeps stored information even when power is not supplied. For example, the memory 820 may be a compact flash (CF) card, a secure digital (SD) card, a memory stick, a solid- A magnetic computer storage device such as a NAND flash memory, a hard disk drive (HDD) and the like, and an optical disc drive such as a CD-ROM, a DVD-ROM, etc. .

In addition, the program stored in the memory 820 may be implemented in hardware such as software or an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) or an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), and may perform predetermined roles.

The processor 830 executes a program stored in the memory 820 and receives a content upload request from the sender terminal 130 via the communication module 810. [ The processor 830 then determines the size of the content corresponding to the upload request. The processor 830 requests the content storage server 120 to issue the content key through the communication module 810 and receives the content key generated from the content storage server 120, (130) and the receiver terminal (140).

At this time, the sender terminal 130 and the receiver terminal 140 share the delivered content key, respectively. The content and content key uploaded to the content server 110 may be stored in the content storage server 120. At this time, the sender terminal 130 can upload the content to the content server 110 based on the shared content key, and the receiver terminal 140 can download the content from the content server 110.

If there are a plurality of content storage servers 120, the processor 830 can receive the address of the content storage server 120 that generated the content key together with the content key through the communication module 810. [

After the content key is shared, the sender terminal 130 uploads the content having the content key to the content server 110, and the content server 110 uploads the content to the content storage server 120. The receiver terminal 140 downloads the content from the content server 110.

In addition, when the content is uploaded, the processor 830 may receive a request to generate a chat log of the content server 110 through the communication module 810. The processor 830 may generate a chat log according to a request to generate a chat log and may transmit the chat log to the sender terminal 130 and the receiver terminal 140 through the communication module 810, respectively.

Meanwhile, depending on the size of the content determined by the processor 830, the method of uploading and downloading the content of the content server 110 may be changed.

If the size of the content received by the processor 830 from the sender terminal 130 is less than a predetermined size and the sender terminal 130 uploads the content to the content server 110, And uploads the content to the server 120. Concurrently, the recipient terminal 140 downloads the content from the content server. That is, before the sender terminal 130 finishes uploading the content to the content server 110, the receiver terminal 140 may start downloading the content from the content server 110. [

At this time, the content uploaded by the sender terminal 130 may include a plurality of pieces of data divided into a predetermined data size. The sender terminal 130 may transmit a plurality of pieces of data included in the content to the content server 110. In addition, the content server 110 may transmit the received data to the content storage server 120 and to the receiver terminal 140 at the same time. After the transmission of the plurality of data is completed, a plurality of data may be combined to generate content.

Until the content server 110 uploads a plurality of pieces of data uploaded by the sender terminal 130 to the content storage server 120 and downloads the data to the receiver terminal 140, 110 to transfer the content key and the content download request, and download the content repeatedly.

Conversely, if the processor 830 determines that the size of the content is greater than or equal to the predetermined size, the sender terminal 130 may upload the content to the content server 110. The content server 110 to which the content is uploaded may upload the content to the content storage server 120.

When the content is uploaded to the content server 110 and the content storage server 120, the processor 830 can receive a chat log creation request from the content server 110 via the communication module 810. The processor 830 may then generate and transmit a chat log to both the sender terminal 130 and the recipient terminal 140.

The recipient terminal 140 receiving the chat log can request a thumbnail based on the content key included in the chat log. In response to the thumbnail request, the content server 110 may generate a thumbnail based on the content and download the generated thumbnail to the recipient terminal 140. In response to a request from the recipient, the recipient terminal 140 may download the content corresponding to the thumbnail from the content server 110.

The instant message server 100 and the content transmission method according to an embodiment of the present invention can efficiently transmit contents according to the size of contents. The instant message server 100 and the content transmission method can transmit content from the content server 110 to the receiver terminal 140 at the same time that the sender terminal 130 uploads the content to the content server. ) Can be downloaded. Therefore, the instant message server 100 and the content transmission method can shorten the time for transmitting the content from the sender terminal 130 to the receiver terminal 140. [

In addition, the instant message server 100 and the content transmission method may be configured such that, after content upload from the sender terminal 130 to the content server 110 is completed, 140). Therefore, the instant message server 100 and the contents transmission method can solve the problem that the storage space of the recipient terminal 140 becomes insufficient due to the content being stored indiscriminately, and the storage space of the recipient terminal 140 can be secured . In addition, the instant message server 100 and the content transmission method can save the charge of communication charges due to excessive data usage.

An embodiment of the present invention can also be realized in the form of a recording medium that includes a program stored in a recording medium executed by a computer or an instruction executable by a computer. Computer readable media can be any available media that can be accessed by a computer and includes both volatile and nonvolatile media, removable and non-removable media. In addition, the computer-readable medium can include both computer storage media and communication media. Computer storage media includes both volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data. Communication media typically includes any information delivery media, including computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave, or other transport mechanism.

While the methods and systems of the present invention have been described in connection with specific embodiments, some or all of those elements or operations may be implemented using a computer system having a general purpose hardware architecture.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the foregoing description of the present invention is for illustrative purposes only and that those of ordinary skill in the art can readily understand that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics of the present invention. will be. It is therefore to be understood that the above-described embodiments are illustrative in all aspects and not restrictive. For example, each component described as a single entity may be distributed and implemented, and components described as being distributed may also be implemented in a combined form.

The scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims rather than the detailed description and all changes or modifications derived from the meaning and scope of the claims and their equivalents are to be construed as being included within the scope of the present invention do.

10: Instant messaging system 100: Instant messaging server
110: Content server 120: Content storage server
130: sender terminal 140: receiver terminal

Claims (12)

A method of transmitting content in an instant message server,
Receiving a content upload request from a sender terminal;
Determining a size of the content corresponding to the upload request;
Requesting a content storage server to issue a content key corresponding to the upload request;
Receiving the content key from the content storage server; And
And transmitting the received content key to the sender terminal and the receiver terminal, respectively,
The sender terminal and the receiver terminal share the delivered content key, respectively,
Wherein a time point at which the downloading of the content is started at the recipient terminal changes according to the size of the content. The method according to claim 1,
If it is determined that the size of the content is less than a predetermined size,
The content corresponding to the content key is uploaded from the sender terminal to the content server,
The recipient terminal downloads the content corresponding to the content key from the content server in parallel with the uploading of the content,
If it is determined that the size of the content is larger than a predetermined size,
The content corresponding to the content key is uploaded from the sender terminal to the content server,
Wherein the recipient terminal downloads content corresponding to the content key from the content server after the uploading of the content is completed. 3. The method of claim 2,
Receiving a request for generating a chat log corresponding to the content from the content server;
Generating the chat log according to the request; And
And transmitting the chat log to the sender terminal and the receiver terminal, respectively,
Wherein the content server requests generation of the chat log after completion of storing the content and the content key in the content storage server. The method of claim 3,
If it is determined that the size of the content is larger than a predetermined size,
Wherein the recipient terminal receives a thumbnail corresponding to the content from the content server and downloads the uploaded content from the content server based on the content key included in the chat log. The method of claim 3,
The content is an image,
Wherein the image is displayed at the recipient terminal as the chat log is delivered to the recipient terminal. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the content includes a plurality of data,
Wherein the sender terminal downloads the one or more pieces of data when the receiver terminal uploads any one or more of the plurality of pieces of data. In an instant message server,
A communication module for transmitting an instant message between the sender terminal and the receiver terminal,
A memory for storing a program for sending and receiving an instant message, and
And a processor for executing the program,
As the processor executes the program,
Receiving a content upload request from the sender terminal, determining a size of a content corresponding to the upload request, requesting a content storage server to issue a content key in response to the upload request, Transmitting the content key to the sender terminal and the receiver terminal after receiving the key,
The sender terminal and the receiver terminal share the delivered content key, respectively,
Wherein the time of starting downloading of the contents is changed according to the size of the contents. 8. The method of claim 7,
Wherein when the processor judges that the size of the content is less than a predetermined size, the content corresponding to the content key is uploaded from the sender terminal to the content server, and the receiver terminal, in parallel with the uploading of the content, Downloads content corresponding to the content key,
The content corresponding to the content key is uploaded from the sender terminal to the content server, and after the upload of the content is completed, the content server transmits the content corresponding to the content key to the content server, And download content corresponding to the content key. 9. The method of claim 8,
Wherein the processor generates the chat log according to the request and transmits the chat log to the sender terminal and the receiver terminal, respectively, upon receipt of a request for generating a chat log corresponding to the content from the content server,
Wherein the content server requests generation of the chat log after completion of storing the content and the content key in the content storage server. 10. The method of claim 9,
When the processor determines that the size of the content is equal to or larger than a predetermined size,
Wherein the recipient terminal receives a thumbnail corresponding to the content from the content server and downloads the uploaded content from the content server based on the content key contained in the chat log. 10. The method of claim 9,
The content is an image,
And wherein the image is displayed at the recipient terminal as the chat log is delivered to the recipient terminal. 8. The method of claim 7,
Wherein the content includes a plurality of data,
Wherein the sender terminal downloads one or more pieces of data when the receiver terminal uploads any one or more of the plurality of pieces of data.

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