Apparatus and method for providing pause function of broadcasting streaming in terminal

• US 20060146854A1
• Filed: 12/29/2005
• Published: 07/06/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Optis Cellular Technology LLC (Brevet Capital)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Park, Seong-Jun
• Granted Patent: US 8,046,483 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/428
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4147 PVR [Personal Video Recorder] H04N5/76 takes precedence ; arrangements for broadcast with accumulation-type receivers H04H20/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4333 Processing operations in response to a pause request
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6437 Real-time Transport Protocol [RTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

An apparatus and method for providing a pause function of a broadcasting streaming in a terminal are disclosed. A player of the terminal includes a temporary storage buffer. When a key for a pause of broadcasting streaming is inputted, reproducing of streaming is suspended and broadcasting streaming packet data is continuously received from a network and temporarily stored in the temporary storage buffer. When a pause release key is inputted, the broadcasting streaming packet data starts to be reproduced starting from a time point of the pause. Thus, a pause function is provided for a streaming service of broadcasting content whose reproducing rate cannot be controlled by a user.

Claims

1. A method for providing a pause function of a broadcasting streaming service of a terminal, comprising:

when a pause key is inputted, suspending reproducing and temporarily storing broadcasting streaming packet data transmitted from a server; and

when a pause release key is inputted, reproducing the temporarily stored broadcasting streaming packet data starting from a time point of the pause.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the pause key comprises a call key for receiving a voice call and a specific key set for a pause of reproducing.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of temporarily storing the broadcasting streaming packet data comprises:

suspending reproducing and recording current broadcasting streaming packet data when the pause key is inputted;

continuously receiving the broadcasting streaming packet data from the server; and

temporarily storing the received broadcasting streaming packet data.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein when the pause key is a call key for receiving a voice call, the terminal performs a call service.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the current broadcasting streaming packet data comprises current image frame position and voice frame position.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the broadcasting streaming packet data comprises packet data for live content and packet data for prerecorded broadcast content.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the broadcasting streaming packet data comprises packet data of broadcasting content whose reproducing rate cannot be controlled by a user.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein when the pause key is inputted, an OS of the terminal changes a task for processing the pause key from a wait state to a running state, changes a multimedia player task from a running state to a wait state in order to suspend reproducing, and maintains a network task in a running state in order to receive the broadcasting streaming packet data from the streaming server and temporarily stores it.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein if the pause key is the call key, the task for processing the pause key indicates a system call task for commanding performing of the call service, whereas if the pause key is the specific key set for suspending reproducing, the task for processing the pause key indicates a user interface task.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein when the pause release key is inputted, the OS of the terminal changes a task for processing the pause release key from a running state to a wait state, and changes the multimedia player task from the wait state to the running state in order to resume reproducing of the temporarily stored broadcasting streaming packet data starting from the time point of the pause.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein when the pause release key is a call termination key, the task for processing the pause release key indicates a system call task, whereas if the pause release key is a specific key set for releasing the pause, the task for processing the pause release key indicates a user interface task.

12. An apparatus for providing a pause function of a broadcasting streaming of a terminal comprising:

a network interface unit for receiving broadcasting streaming packet data from a streaming server through a wireless network;

a user input interface unit for receiving a key for a pause of a broadcasting streaming; and

a player for suspending reproducing, receiving the broadcasting streaming packet data through the network interface unit and temporarily storing it when a pause key is inputted, and reproducing the temporarily stored broadcasting streaming packet data starting from the time point of the pause when a pause release key is inputted.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the player comprises:

a controller for generally controlling the reproducing and pause function of the broadcasting streaming packet data received from the network interface unit; and

a temporary storage buffer for temporarily storing the broadcasting streaming packet data received through the network interface unit under the control of the controller.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising:

a video CODEC for decoding video data of the broadcasting streaming packet data under the control of the controller; and

an audio CODEC for decoding audio data of the broadcasting streaming packet data under the control of the controller.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the controller controls an OS and when an interrupt for pausing the broadcasting streaming occurs, the OS maintains a network task in a running state and changes a multimedia player task from a running state to a wait state.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein when a pause release interrupt occurs, the OS maintains the network task in the running state and changes the multimedia player task from the wait state to the running state.

17. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising:

a display unit for displaying decoded video data of the broadcasting streaming packet data under the control of the player; and

a speaker for outputting decoded audio data of the broadcasting streaming packet data under the control of the player.

18. A communication device supporting multimedia communications and streaming broadcast signal reception, the device comprising:

a communication module to send and receive information via a communications network to allow a user to communicate with other users;

a streaming broadcast module to receive streaming broadcast packet data via a wireless interface;

a player to perform playback of the received streaming broadcast packet data;

a processor cooperating with the communication module, the streaming broadcast module, and the player, to perform the steps of,

detecting an incoming communication received through the communication module while the player is performing playback of the streaming broadcast packet data being received,

pausing the playback performed by the player to allow the user to handle the detected incoming communication, and

resuming playback after the user has handled the detected incoming communication, by referring to the streaming broadcast packet data that was continuously received by the streaming broadcast module during the pausing of playback.

19. The device of claim 18, wherein the incoming communication is a voice call, a text message, or a multimedia message.

20. The device of claim 18, wherein the pausing is automatically performed without user intervention upon detecting the incoming communication or performed in accordance with specific commands received from the user.

21. The device of claim 18, wherein streaming broadcast packet data received during the pausing is stored in a memory device.

22. The device of claim 18, further comprising a display means on which visual data of the streaming broadcast packet data and visual data of the incoming communication are displayed separately to respectively fill an entire screen of the display means or are displayed together on the same screen of the display means.

23. The device of claim 18, further comprising an audio output means through which audio data of the streaming broadcast packet data and audio data of the incoming communication are outputted separately or together.