Method and apparatus for obtaining external charged content in UPnP network

• US 20070156447A1
• Filed: 12/29/2006
• Published: 07/05/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/02/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Kim, Jeong-ja, Ko, Young-goo, Choi, Sang-sun
• Granted Patent: US 8,209,260 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/12 specially adapted for electronic shopping systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/123 Shopping for digital content
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast

Abstract

An apparatus and method capable of purchasing external charged content in a UPnP network are provided. A media server (MS) provides a media renderer (MR) with a URL that executes a CGI that that performs purchasing of a charged content included in an external server, and, if the MR requests the reproduction of content corresponding to the URL, the MS executes a CGI of the URL, purchases charged content corresponding to the URL, and downloads the charged content, thereby browsing a list of contents provided by an external contents purchase site through a consumer electronic device such as a digital television, in which a UPnP audio/visual control point is mounted without a separate interface, purchasing desired content, and reproducing the purchased content.

Claims

1. A method of obtaining external content in a Universal Plug and Play network, the method comprising:

receiving a request from a media renderer to transmit charged content existing in an external server;

performing a process of purchasing the charged content based on the request; and

receiving the charged content which is purchased from the external server.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a control point with a uniform resource locator (URL) that triggers a common gate interface performs the process of purchasing the charged content,

wherein, in the receiving the request from the media renderer, a call message including the URL is received from the media renderer.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the URL is included in a response message in response to a call of the control point, and is provided to the control point.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the URL is included in a tag of the response message.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein, in the performing the process of purchasing the charged content, user information for authenticating membership of a user is transmitted to the external server to pay for the charged content using reserved points of the user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the purchased charged content comprises transmitting a message indicating a receipt procedure of the charged content to the media renderer,

wherein the message has a format to be reproduced by the media renderer.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising if the performing the process of purchasing the charged content cannot be carried out, transmitting an error message to the media renderer,

wherein the error message has a format to be reproduced by the media renderer.

8. A computer readable recording medium having embodied thereon a computer program method of obtaining external content in a Universal Plug and Play network, the method comprising

receiving a request from a media renderer to transmit charged content existing in an external server;

performing a process of purchasing the charged content based on the request; and

receiving the charged content which is purchased from the external server.

9. An apparatus for obtaining an external content in a Universal Plug and Play network, the apparatus comprising:

a common gate interface module which performs a process of purchasing charged content existing in an external server using a common gate interface based on a request from a media renderer to transmit the charged content; and

a content receiver which receives the charged content which is purchased from the external server.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising:

a uniform resource locator (URL) providing unit which provides a control point with a URL that triggers the common gate interface,

wherein the common gate interface module receives a call message including the URL from the media renderer as the request for transmission of the charged content.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the URL providing unit provides the URL included in a response message to the control point in response to a call of the control point.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the URL is included in a tag of the response message.

13. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the common gate interface module transmits a user information for authenticating membership of a user to the external server in order to pay for the charged content using reserved points of the user.

14. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the content receiving unit transmits a message indicating a receipt procedure of the charged content to the media renderer, wherein the message has a format to be reproduced by the media renderer.

15. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein if the common gate interface module cannot perform the process of purchasing the charged content, the common gate interface module transmits an error message to the media renderer,

wherein the error message has a format to be reproduced by the media renderer.