Method for indicating whether to provide supplementary services through EPG information in a terrestrial DMB system

• US 20070039022A1
• Filed: 08/10/2006
• Published: 02/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Kim, Young-Jip, Jeon, Jin-Woo, Kim, Sun-Mi, Lee, Byoung-Dai, Lee, Kyung-Shin
• Application Number:
  US11/502,648
• Publication Number:
  US 20070039022A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4312 involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4314 for fitting data in a restricted space on the screen, e.g. EPG data in a rectangular grid
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8133 specifically related to the content, e.g. biography of the actors in a movie, detailed information about an article seen in a video program
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8543 using a description language, e.g. Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Expert Group [MHEG], eXtensible Markup Language [XML] information retrieval of semistructured data, the underlying structure being taken into account, e.g. mark-up language structure data G06F16/80
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only

Abstract

Disclosed is a method for indicating whether to provide supplementary services through EPG information in a terrestrial DMB system. In this method, a DMB terminal of the terrestrial DMB system receives DMB broadcast data, and extracts the EPG information from the DMB broadcast data. The extracted EPG information is sorted according to service formats of an XML schema for providing the EPG information. Supplementary service information relating to a corresponding program is extracted from the sorted EPG information by means of a program format of the XML schema, and the extracted supplementary service information is stored together with the EPG information. The supplementary service information is provided together with program information of the corresponding program when the EPG information is displayed.

Claims

1. A method for indicating whether to provide supplementary services through EPG information in a terrestrial DMB system, the method comprising the steps of:

defining an XML schema having service formats for providing EPG information;

receiving DMB broadcast data by a DMB terminal of the terrestrial DMB system;

extracting the EPG information from the received DMB broadcast data by the DMB terminal;

sorting the extracted EPG information by the DMB Terminal according to the service formats of the defined XML schema;

extracting supplementary service information relating to a corresponding program from the sorted EPG information by means of a program format of the defined XML schema;

storing the extracted supplementary service information together with the EPG information both relating to the corresponding program; and

providing the stored supplementary service information together with program information of the corresponding program when the EPG information is displayed.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the providing step further comprises the steps of:

first converting the supplementary service information into an icon; and

storing the converted icon with program information such that the converted icon is displayed in the program information of the corresponding program when the EPG information is displayed.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the providing step further comprises the steps of:

assigning a unique color to the supplementary service information of a corresponding program; and

displaying the supplementary service information in the program information of the corresponding program by displaying a background color of the program information as the assigned unique color.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the defining step further comprises the step of additionally defining a “

video”

format as one of a plurality of service formats in the XML schema for providing the EPG information.

5. The method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the XML schema that defines the plurality of service formats in which the “

video”

format is additionally defined, comprises the following table;

6. The method as claimed in claims 1, wherein the defining step further comprises the step of in order to extract the supplementary service information from the XML schema for a program format, defining a “

ProgrammeFormat”

element that includes the supplementary service information for the program format.

7. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the XML schema that defines the “

ProgrammeFormat”

element that includes the supplementary service information comprises the following table;