KR20090041551A - Electronic program guide information providing system and method - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an electronic program guide information providing system and method for providing electronic program guide (EPG) information more conveniently and quickly in an Internet protocol based television (IPTV).

The electronic program guide information providing system according to the present invention collectively manages the integrated EPG database in which the EPG (electronic program guide) information including the program information of contents is integrated and the integrated EPG information stored in the integrated EPG database. Is an EPG provision server that provides the user side by dividing the information into a binary or XML format for real time, and an EPG generator that generates integrated EPG information stored in the integrated EPG database in binary or XML format and delivers them to the EPG provision server, respectively. Include.

Description

Electronic program guide information providing system and method {SYSTEM AND MEHTOD FOR PROVIDING ELECTRONIC PROGRAM GUIDE}

The present invention relates to an electronic program guide information providing system and method for providing electronic program guide (EPG) information more conveniently and quickly in an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) system.

Nowadays, with the spread of broadband media and the increase in communication speed, the Internet is emerging as a new medium for enabling One source Multi Service. That is, a number of over-the-air television and radio channels, as well as multimedia contents provided by various Internet providers, are provided as broadcast services through the Internet. Demand is also on the rise.

A representative service that emerged from this background is IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) based on Internet Protocol.

IPTV is an interactive television service provided by using a high-speed internet network, which refers to a TV connected to a content providing server through an internet network through a set-top box. Accordingly, the information service, video content, and broadcast content of the content providing server are provided to the television receiver via the set top box.

Accordingly, currently commercially available television receivers provide an electronic program guide (hereinafter, referred to as an electronic program guide (EPG)) service for providing program information to viewers.

In the past, the World DAB Standardization Organization established the standard by devising the EPG XML to complement the EPG providing function and to expand the EPG service. A feature of the EPG XML method is basically to provide DAB or program information that can be provided using a XML technology by defining a specific tag.

EPG information written in EPG XML is transmitted through a server in the form of a file or scrim, and then parsed by a terminal capable of receiving processing, and guided to the user along with text or graphics.

However, the XML format is too verbose and overloading, which is a critical factor in the performance of the entire application when transmitting over a relatively slow medium such as a network environment or an embedded system.

In particular, when switching the screen in IPTV takes a long zapping time (zapping time) to change from the first screen to the next screen there is a problem that does not meet the user's satisfaction.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and it is a technical problem to reduce the overload when parsing existing electronic program guide information, and to provide electronic program guide (EPG) information more conveniently and quickly.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an EPG information providing system comprising: an integrated EPG database that integrally stores EPG (electronic program guide) information including program information of contents; An EPG providing server that collectively manages the integrated EPG information stored in the integrated EPG database and divides the integrated EPG information into a binary format or an XML format for real time and provides the integrated EPG information to a user side; And an EPG generator for generating integrated EPG information stored in the integrated EPG database in a binary format or an XML format, respectively, and delivering the integrated EPG information to the EPG providing server.

According to an example of the present invention, the EPG information providing system may further include a set-top box for accessing the EPG providing server and displaying the EPG information received through the EPG providing server.

At this time, the network for communication between the set-top box and the EPG providing server uses an Internet Protocol (IP) network, but is not limited to a specific type as long as it is a wired or wireless communication network that enables the network.

The EPG information in the XML format means EPG information of content for which real time information is required. For example, it may include emergency news, event news, announcements, and the like, as well as electronic program guide information for news services, home shopping services, and over-the-air broadcasting services provided by IPTV.

According to an aspect of the present invention, a set-top box includes an input / output unit that is responsible for input / output of various data related to a content; An EPG management application configured to determine a data format of the EPG information, process it according to a corresponding format, and display it on the screen when EPG information for providing program information of the content is input in a binary or XMl format; And storage for storing the content and the EPG information.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, the set-top box may further include a VOD management application for receiving and processing information on the content, a user interface for implementing the information, and an order request from a user.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the EPG management application, the EPG engine for storing and processing the EPG information in the binary or XMl format in the storage; And an EPG browser for displaying the EPG information stored and processed by the EPG engine on a screen.

The EPG management application may further include an XML EPG parser that parses the EPG information in the XML format.

According to another example of the present invention, the EPG management application may further include a version check engine for checking and managing the version of the EPG information.

On the other hand, EPG card information providing method according to the present invention for achieving the technical problem, (a) the user requesting the EPG information through the set-top box; (b) receiving and downloading corresponding EPG information from an external server in which the EPG information is stored; (c) determining whether the downloaded EPG information is in a binary format or an XML format; (d) if the EPG information is in binary format, the corresponding EPG information stored in the storage is retrieved and displayed on the screen, and if the EPG information is in XML format, the EPG information is parsed and output to the screen. It may include a step.

According to an example of the present invention, the step (a) is a case of booting by applying the power of the set-top box, a manual request by the user's request, or a request according to a predetermined period set internally in the system It may be executed in any one of the cases, but is not limited thereto.

According to an example of the present invention, in the method of downloading the EPG information received from the external server in step (b), when the EPG information is in binary format, (b-1-1) in binary format stored in the set-top box. Checking the version of the EPG information of the; (b-1-2) determining whether the version of the EPG information received from the external server is newer than the version of the EPG information stored in the set-top box; And (b-1-3) if the version of the EPG information received from the external server is the latest as a result of the determination, downloading the EPG information.

According to another example of the present invention, in the method of downloading the EPG information received from the external server in step (b), when the EPG information is in XML format, (b-2-1) XML stored in the set-top box Checking a version of the EPG information in the format; (b-2-2) determining whether a version of the EPG information received from the external server is newer than a version of the EPG information stored in the set-top box; And (b-2-3) if the latest version of the EPG information received from the external server exists as a result of the determination, downloading the EPG information.

According to the present invention, by providing the EPG information in binary format to the set-top box periodically to execute the information stored in the set-top box to reduce the zapping time to change the channel and screen have.

In addition, general EPG information is provided in binary format to solve the problems caused by overload, and EPG information that needs real time is provided through communication with a server in real time, thereby real-time service and shortening zapping time. This has the effect of improving the quality of service.

Hereinafter, an electronic program guide (EPG) information providing system and method according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

First, the binary format and XML format of EPG information described in the embodiment of the present invention will be described.

In EPG information, the XML format is a type of document, which takes a human-readable text format for easier access while ensuring interoperability. This actually means that it contains extra data that is not needed in the data processing process, and there is a loss of storage space caused by the text format.

In a typical computing environment, this overload is not a problem. However, in the case of a terminal that frequently accesses a relatively slow medium such as a network environment or an embedded system, or has limited resources, the overload caused by using information in XML format is a problem. It can be an important factor in determining performance.

Therefore, converting the XML format to the binary format can be greatly improved in two aspects as follows.

1. Compression

As mentioned earlier, the information in XML format is oriented to a human-readable document format, so all data is stored in text format. This causes a waste of storage space. For example, suppose you store the number 100. If you want to save it in binary format, you can only allocate 1 byte, but to save in text format, you need 6 bytes with 3 characters in total, 2 bytes per character. That means that it takes up six times as much storage space as binary.

Therefore, binary format has less data than XML format, so there is less overload due to the compression and decompression process, and the speed can be improved.

2. Encoding

Data in XML format can be saved because it is encoded in binary format for each data type. However, compared to the compression rate of the general compression scheme, the amount of space saved by the encoding is weak. However, this does not mean that the performance of the encoding scheme is lower than that of the compression scheme.

The advantage of an encoding company is not just about saving space. Encoded binary documents are also called pre-parsed documents, which implies that the parsing process of XML documents is no longer needed. By storing the data in a pre-parsed form, it means that there is no need to parse the text strings and extract the data for each access.

One of the drawbacks of XML-format documents is that because the data is recorded in a human-friendly form, the computer must parse and extract the data through a parsing process to understand it. This is a lightweight process, especially for resource-constrained devices such as embedded devices.

Thus, the binary format has significant system benefits since the parsing process has been eliminated, and the speed of access to documents can be significantly improved.

With reference to this, a system and method for providing EPG information in binary format will be described.

1 is a diagram showing a network configuration of an EPG information providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

EPG information providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in Figure 1, a plurality of set-top box 100 is provided on the user side, such a plurality of set-top box 100 is the head end through the network 200 (Head-end) 300 is connected.

The plurality of set-top boxes 100 are respectively connected to the display device 400 such as a TV or a monitor provided in a home or an office to visually display various data information provided from the headend 300, and the operation for this is performed by a remote controller. It may be performed through a user operation means, including a keypad.

The network 200 may be an IP-based network, but the present invention is not limited to using an IP-based network, and is not limited to a specific form as long as the wired / wireless communication network enables the network. For example, the server-to-server network in the headend 300 may communicate using a local area network (LAN).

The headend 300 is a server including various data information to provide a service for each user. The headend 300 is a content providing server 310, an EPG providing server 320, an EPG generator 330, and an integrated EPG database. 340 may be included.

Specifically, the content providing server 310 refers to a web site or a database for providing video on demand (VOD) content. To this end, data of the VOD content is stored in the content providing server 310, and in some cases, a plurality of content supply servers are built below the content providing server 310 to store the VOD content in each content supply server. Can be. According to this configuration, the content providing server 310 can collectively manage the list of content supply servers and the content stored therein.

The EPG providing server 320 collectively stores the EPG information of the VOD content provided by the content providing server 310 in the integrated EPG database 340 and, when providing the plurality of set-top boxes 100 in binary or XML format. Provided separately. The EPG provision server 320 may include a binary EPG information database (not shown) for temporarily storing EPG information in binary format and an XML EPG information database (not shown) for temporarily storing EPG information in XML format. Can be.

In this embodiment, the general EPG information among the integrated EPG information is generated and provided in binary format, and the real-time EPG information is generated and provided in XML format.

EPG information depends on the format of the VOD content, but generally includes program information such as content ID, content title, content summary, content broadcast time, and other content related information (such as actor, director, storyline, etc.).

Here, the EPG information in the XML format is a standard standard mainly used for providing EPG information. The tag can be extended by a user defining a tag separately. However, as described above, since the memory occupies a large amount of data, there is a limitation in applying it to a set-top box having a limited capacity.

As an alternative to overcoming this limitation, the binary format can be applied.

The EPG information in the binary format according to the present embodiment is data information encoded using binary encoding of 0 or 1, and can be directly read without parsing by a set-top box performing a computing function.

The EPG generator 330 may be divided into a binary EPG generator 332 and a real-time EPG generator 334. These EPG information may be stored in an XML format (format) or binary in the integrated EPG database 340. It can mean an application program that generates a format.

That is, the binary EPG generator 332 generates the integrated EPG information stored in the integrated EPG database 340 in a binary format, and the real-time EPG generator 334 generates the integrated EPG information stored in the integrated EPG database 340. Generate in XML format (format).

As described above, the EPG information in the binary format and the EPG information in the XML format generated by the EPG generator 330 may be temporarily stored in the EPG providing server 320 and transferred to the plurality of set-top boxes 100 at the request of the user. .

Accordingly, the EPG information providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention provides a plurality of set top boxes by providing EPG information in binary format generated through the binary EPG generator 332 to the plurality of set top boxes 100 with respect to general EPG information. In operation 100, the EPG information in binary format can be directly executed and displayed, thereby reducing the time required for parsing the EPG information. Thus, there is a feature of the present invention in providing a quick screen to the user.

On the other hand, for EPG information that needs to provide information in real time, such as news or emergency announcements or event news, the EPG information providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention is an XML format generated by the EPG generator for real-time Provides EPG information of a plurality of set-top boxes (). Therefore, there is a feature that can receive the latest information in real time while minimizing the overload of the system.

Let's look at the internal configuration of the set-top box for this purpose.

2 is a diagram schematically showing an internal configuration of a set-top box applied to the EPG information providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The set-top box 100 of FIG. 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention receives a serviceable content from the headend 300 of FIG. 1 and displays a general content providing service that is displayed on the display device 400 of FIG. 1. The present invention provides an EPG service that receives EPG information for displaying content on a screen and processes the EPG information according to the specification of the EPG information.

To this end, the set-top box according to the embodiment of the present invention may largely include the input and output unit 110, the VOD management application 120, the EPG management application 130 and the storage 140.

The input / output unit 110 is responsible for input / output of various data related to the VOD content.

The storage 140 is a memory space for storing VOD content and EPG information.

The VOD management application 120 processes information on VOD content and a user interface for implementing the information, and receives a request for an order from a user and transmits it to a headend.

The EPG management application 130 is in charge of a user interface for processing differently according to the specification of the EPG information and displaying it on the screen when the EPG information providing additional service information of the VOD content is input.

In detail, the EPG management application 130 inputs not only the XML EPG parser 132 that parses the EPG information in the XML format, but also the EPG information parsed through the XML EPG parser 132 and inputted through an input unit. The EPG engine 133 may store and process binary EPG information in the storage 140, and the EPG browser 134 may display EPG information stored and processed by the EPG engine 133 on a screen. .

In such a configuration, it may further include a version check engine (not shown) for checking and managing the version of the EPG information.

According to this configuration, since the EPG information in binary format is already encoded data, a parsing process such as XML format is unnecessary, and it can be executed immediately upon loading.

Therefore, the EPG management application 130 according to the present embodiment determines the standard (eg, binary format, XML format) of the EPG information received in the set-top box 100 and processes (parses) the EPG after the corresponding standard. Display on the screen through the browser 134.

In particular, the EPG information of the binary format is omitted and the data stored in the storage 140 is immediately loaded and executed at the request of the user, thereby maximizing the gain in time. For example, there is an advantage of reducing the zapping time that changes from the first screen to the next screen when the screen is switched.

3 is an example screen of a user interface applying EPG information in a binary format according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is an example screen of a user interface applying EPG information in an XML format according to another embodiment of the present invention. to be.

Referring to FIG. 3, menu items (menu 1, menu 2, menu 3, menu 4, menu 5, menu 2-1, menu 2-2, menu 2-3, menu 2- on the display screen shown to the user) are shown. 4, menu 2-5…) are published. The illustrated menu items are a kind of schedule table in which contents are classified by category. When specific contents are selected through the menu items, detailed information of the selected contents is displayed.

EPG information for displaying such information uses data encoded in binary format to reduce zapping time when changing screens and channels such as when moving between menu items or displaying detailed information of contents through menu items. Can be.

FIG. 4 is a screen illustrating an example of applying EPG information in an XML format, and illustrates a screen B displaying real-time information on a channel screen A on which content is reproduced.

Here, the real-time information refers to the latest information such as emergency news or event news, announcements.

In addition, news content provided by IPTV, home shopping service, and content for over-the-air broadcasting service also provide the latest information in real time using EPG information in XML format.

At this time, the set-top box accesses the headend in real time and receives the EPG information in the XML format requested by the user, thereby showing the latest information to the user.

5 is a view for explaining a method for generating EPG information of various formats in the EPG information providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention, Figure 6 is a view for explaining the overall EPG information providing method according to an embodiment of the present invention It is a flow chart.

First, the EPG information providing method according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 6. In the first step, the set-top box requests EPG information from an external server (eg, a headend) at a specific time point (S100). .

The specific time point may be a case of booting by applying the power of the set-top box, or may be applied in various ways, such as when a request is made manually by a user's request or when a request is made according to a predetermined cycle set in the system.

Thereafter, the external server transmits the EPG information to the set-top box in response to a request from the set-top box, and the set-top box receives and downloads the EPG information transmitted from the external server (S200).

When downloading, check the version of EPG information received from an external server so that the latest version of information can be downloaded. Detailed description thereof will be made with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8 below.

In step S200, when the EPG information to be transmitted from the external server to the set-top box is for general or real-time use, as shown in FIG. 5, the EPG is extracted by extracting the integrated EPG information stored in the integrated EPG database (340 of FIG. 1) of the external server, respectively. The generator generates the binary or real-time (XML) format in binary or real-time (XML) format, and delivers the generated EPG information to the EPG-providing server to the EPG-providing server (320 in FIG. 1). Can be stored (S20, S30).

This process is performed before the EPG information is transmitted to the set-top box, and when the data about the EPG information is stored in the database, the version information of the EPG information may also be stored.

Thereafter, as illustrated in FIG. 6, the data format of the EPG information downloaded to the set-top box is determined (S300). This is a procedure for detecting the format of the EPG information because the parsing method is different depending on the format of the EPG information.

As a result of the determination, it may be divided into a binary format (S400) and an XML format (S500).

For example, when the EPG information downloaded to the set-top box is in binary format, the binary EPG information stored in the set-top box is loaded and directly displayed on the screen through the EPG browser (S420).

As another example, when the EPG information downloaded to the set-top box is in XML format, it is parsed by the XML EPG parser in the set-top box and output to the screen through the EPG browser (S520 and S540).

7 and 8 are flowcharts illustrating in detail a method of downloading EPG information according to a binary format and an XML format in the method for providing EPG information according to an embodiment of the present invention.

For example, when the EPG information received from the external server is in binary format, the method of downloading EPG information is as shown in FIG. 7. It is determined whether the version of the EPG information received from the external server is newer than the version of the stored EPG information (S212, S214).

If it is determined that the version of the EPG information received from the external server is the latest, the EPG information is downloaded and the version information is stored. If the version of the EPG information received from the external server is not the latest, the previously stored EPG information is used. To the screen.

As another example, when the EPG information received from the external server is in the XML format, as shown in FIG. 8, the method for downloading the EPG information is periodically checked by checking the version of the EPG information in the XML format stored in the set-top box. It is determined whether the EPG information exists (S222, S224).

That is, if the EPG information received from the external server is the latest, the EPG information is downloaded. At the same time, the version information of the downloaded EPG information can be stored.

If the EPG information received from the external server is not up to date, the version of the EPG information is checked in real time to determine whether the latest version of the EPG information exists.

Although embodiments of the present invention have been described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains may implement the present invention in other specific forms without changing the technical spirit or essential features thereof. I can understand that.

Therefore, the embodiments described above are provided to fully inform the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art, and should be understood as illustrative and not limiting in all aspects. The invention is only defined by the scope of the claims.

1 is a diagram showing a network configuration of an EPG information providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a diagram schematically showing an internal configuration of a set-top box applied to the EPG information providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is an exemplary screen of a user interface for applying EPG information in binary format according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is an exemplary screen of a user interface applying EPG information in XML format according to another embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a view for explaining a method for generating EPG information of various formats in the EPG information providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

6 is a flowchart for explaining the EPG information providing method according to an embodiment of the present invention as a whole.

7 and 8 are flowcharts illustrating in detail a method of downloading EPG information according to a binary format and an XML format in the method for providing EPG information according to an embodiment of the present invention.

<Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

100: multiple set-top boxes 200: network

300: headend 310: content providing server

320: EPG provision server 330: EPG generator

340: Integrated EPG Information Database

110: input / output unit 120: VOD management application

130: EPG Management Application 132: XML EPG Parser

133: EPG engine 134: EPG browser

140: storage

Claims (15)

An integrated EPG database that integrally stores EPG (electronic program guide) information including program information of contents; An EPG providing server that collectively manages the integrated EPG information stored in the integrated EPG database and divides the integrated EPG information into a binary format or an XML format for real time and provides the integrated EPG information to a user side; And EPG generator that generates integrated EPG information stored in the integrated EPG database in binary format or XML format and delivers them to the EPG providing server, respectively. EPG information providing system comprising a. The method of claim 1, Set-top box for accessing the EPG providing server to display the EPG information received through the EPG providing server EPG information providing system further comprising. The method of claim 2, EPG information providing system, characterized in that the network for communication between the set-top box and the EPG providing server using an IP (Internet Protocol) network. The method of claim 1, The EPG information of the XML format is EPG information providing system, characterized in that the EPG information of the content that requires real-time information. The method of claim 1, The EPG providing server A binary EPG information database for temporarily storing the EPG information in the binary format; XML EPG information database for temporarily storing the EPG information in the XML format EPG information providing system comprising a. An input / output unit responsible for input / output of various data related to the content; When EPG (electronic program guide) information for providing program information of the content is input in a binary or XMl format, an EPG management application that determines a data format of the EPG information, processes it according to a corresponding format, and displays the same on a screen. ; And Storage for storing the content and the EPG information Set top box comprising a. The method of claim 6, The EPG management application, An EPG engine for storing and processing the EPG information in the binary or XMl format in the storage; And EPG browser for displaying EPG information stored and processed by the EPG engine on a screen Set top box comprising a. The method of claim 7, wherein And a XML EPG parser for parsing the EPG information in the XML format. The method of claim 7, wherein And a version check engine for checking and managing the version of the EPG information. The method of claim 6, And a VOD management application configured to receive and process information about the content, a user interface for implementing the information, and an order request from a user. (a) a user requesting EPG (electronic program guide) information through a set-top box; (b) receiving and downloading corresponding EPG information from an external server in which the EPG information is stored; (c) determining whether the downloaded EPG information is in a binary format or an XML format; (d) As a result of the determination, if all the EPG information is in binary format, the EPG information stored in the storage is retrieved and displayed on the screen. If the EPG information is in XML format, the EPG information is parsed and displayed on the screen. Output stage EPG information providing method comprising a. The method of claim 12, In step (a), EPG information, which is executed when booting with power of the set-top box, manually requesting by the user's request, or requesting according to a predetermined period set internally in the system. How to Provide. The method of claim 11, The method of downloading the EPG information received from the external server in the step (b), If the EPG information is in binary format, (b-1-1) checking a version of EPG information in binary format stored in the set-top box; (b-1-2) determining whether the version of the EPG information received from the external server is newer than the version of the EPG information stored in the set-top box; And (b-1-3) if the version of the EPG information received from the external server is the latest as a result of the determination, downloading the EPG information EPG information providing method further comprising. The method of claim 11, The method of downloading the EPG information received from the external server in the step (b), If the EPG information is in XML format, (b-2-1) checking a version of EPG information in XML format stored in the set-top box; (b-2-2) determining whether a version of the EPG information received from the external server is newer than a version of the EPG information stored in the set-top box; And (b-2-3) if the latest version of the EPG information received from the external server exists as a result of the determination, downloading the EPG information EPG information providing method further comprising. The method of claim 11, When providing the EPG information in binary format, Converting, by the external server, the EPG information into a binary format; Storing the converted EPG information EPG information providing method, characterized in that for performing.

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