BROADCAST RECEIVING TERMINAL AND PROGRAM EXECUTION METHOD

• US 20070157209A1
• Filed: 05/31/2006
• Published: 07/05/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: HASHIMOTO, Satoshi, SUZUKI, Takaaki
• Granted Patent: US 8,677,368 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5014 Reservation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/522 Manager
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5011 the resources being hardware resources other than CPUs, Servers and Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/526 Mutual exclusion algorithms
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4345 Extraction or processing of SI, e.g. extracting service information from an MPEG stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/443 OS processes, e.g. booting an STB, implementing a Java virtual machine in an STB or power management in an STB
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4516 involving client characteristics, e.g. Set-Top-Box type, software version or amount of memory available
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47214 for content reservation or setting reminders; for requesting event notification, e.g. of sport results or stock market stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; notification of incoming messages in packet switching networks H04L51/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6543 for forcing some client operations, e.g. recording remote booting in general G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/814 comprising emergency warnings arrangements specially adapted for emergency or urgency in broadcast systems H04H20/59; arrangements for providing alarms, notifications, alerts to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1895
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8146 involving graphical data, e.g. 3D object, 2D graphics
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/79 Processing of colour television signals in connection with recording

Abstract

Under a resource manager, unexpected blocking is prevented without calling a handler for resolving a resource contention, by assigning a priority level depending on the program that has requested for a reservation of a resource as well as by assigning a special priority level which permits a reservation of a resource without any conditions in the case of a program which is urgently needed such as an EAS module.

Claims

1. A broadcast receiving terminal, comprising:

a program execution unit operable to control execution of a program having a pre-set priority level;

a resource contention detection unit

operable, in the case where a reservation of a resource is requested according to the execution of the program performed by said program execution unit, to detect whether or not a contention of the resource occurs due to the fact that the requested resource has already been reserved by another program executed by said program execution unit;

operable, in the case where a reservation of a resource is requested by a specified program among the programs to be executed by said program execution unit, to set a priority level of the specified program as the highest;

a resource reservation program determination unit operable, when the contention occurs, to determine to permit a program having the highest priority level to reserve the resource which is under contention; and

a resource reservation program notification unit operable to notify of the reservation of the resource to the program which is permitted to reserve the resource, based on the determination made by said resource reservation program determination unit.

2. The broadcast receiving terminal according to claim 1,

wherein in the case where a resource contention handler for resolving the contention is registered when the contention occurs, said resource reservation program determination unit is operable, when the contention occurs, to determine to:

call the resource contention handler in the case where the priority level of the program requesting the reservation of the resource is not the highest; and

permit the program requesting the reservation of the resource to reserve the resource which is under contention, without calling the resource contention handler, in the case where the priority level of the program requesting the reservation of the resource is the highest.

3. The broadcast receiving terminal according to claim 1,

wherein the specified program is specified in correspondence with the resource.

4. The broadcast receiving terminal according to claim 1,

wherein the specified program is a program for notifying a user of alert information included in a received broadcast wave.

5. The broadcast receiving terminal according to claim 1,

wherein the resource is a resource equivalent to a tuner.

6. A broadcast receiving terminal comprising:

a program execution unit operable to control execution of a program for which a priority level is pre-set;

a resource contention detection unit operable, in the case where a reservation of a resource is requested according to the execution of the program performed by said program execution unit, to detect whether or not a contention of the resource occurs due to the fact that the requested resource has already been reserved by another program executed by said program execution unit;

a resource reservation program determination unit operable, when the contention occurs, to determine to;

permit a program having a highest priority level to reserve the resource which is under contention, in the case where the program requesting the reservation of the resource is not a specified program, and

permit the specified program to reserve the resource which is under contention, in the case where the program requesting the reservation of the resource is the specified program; and

a resource reservation program notification unit operable to notify of the reservation of the resource to the program which is permitted to reserve the resource, based on the determination made by said resource reservation program determination unit.

7. The broadcast receiving terminal according to claim 6,

wherein in the case where a resource contention handier for resolving the contention is registered when the contention occurs, said resource reservation program determination unit is operable, when the contention occurs, to determine to:

call the resource contention handler in the case where the program requesting the reservation of the resource is not the specified program; and

permit the specified program to reserve the resource which is under contention, without calling the resource contention handler, in the case where the program requesting the reservation of the resource is the specified program.

8. The broadcast receiving terminal according to claim 6,

wherein the specified program is specified in correspondence with the resource.

9. The broadcast receiving terminal according to claim 6,

wherein the specified program is a program for notifying a user of alert information included in a received broadcast wave.

10. The broadcast receiving terminal according to claim 6,

wherein the resource is a resource equivalent to a tuner.

11. The broadcast receiving terminal according to claim 6,

wherein the resource contention handler is registered by a program authorized to register the resource contention handler.

12. A program execution method for executing a program in a broadcast receiving terminal, said method comprising:

a program execution step of controlling execution of a program having a pre-set priority level;

a resource contention detection step of

detecting, in the case where a reservation of a resource is requested according to the execution of the program performed by said program execution unit, whether or not a contention of the resource occurs due to the fact that the requested resource has already been reserved by another program executed by said program execution unit;

setting, in the case where a reservation of a resource is requested by a specified program among the programs to be executed by said program execution unit, a priority level of the specified program as the highest; and

a resource reservation program determination step of determining, when the contention occurs, to permit a program having the highest priority level to reserve the resource which is under contention; and

a resource reservation program notification step of notifying of the reservation of the resource to the program which is permitted to reserve the resource, based on the determination made by said resource reservation program determination unit.

13. A program for a broadcast receiving terminal, said program causing a computer to execute the steps included in the program execution method according to claim 12.