APPARATUS AND METHOD PROVIDING CONTENT SERVICE

• US 20080091688A1
• Filed: 03/19/2007
• Published: 04/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Oh, Yoon-hark, Yun, Hee-chul
• Granted Patent: US 9,298,748 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/21 Design, administration or maintenance of databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/273 Asynchronous replication or reconciliation

Abstract

A method and apparatus for providing contents services. The method of using a contents service includes the operations of receiving a list of available contents services from a first server and displaying the list, transmitting, to the first server, a list of contents services selected from the displayed available contents service list, and updating service subscription data with reference to the selected contents service list. Accordingly, the subscription of contents services, such as a channel service that provides each user with different information according to subscription information, can be managed at any time and at any place without being dependent on a specific PC or a specific PC program. Even while moving without being connected with a PC, a mobile device can automatically update its contents.

Claims

1. A method of using a content service, comprising:

receiving a list of available content services from a first server and displaying the list;

transmitting, to the first server, a list of content services selected from the displayed available contents service list; and

updating service subscription data with reference to the selected content service list.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving from the first server a list of content services to which a user subscribes; and

updating the service subscription data with reference to the received subscribed content service list.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

connecting to at least one second server with reference to the service subscription data; and

receiving content from the at least one second server based on the service subscription data.

28. The method according to claim 1, wherein the updating the service subscription data comprises subscribing to the selected content services.

29. The method according to claim 1, wherein the updating the service subscription data comprises unsubscribing to the selected content services.

4. A method of using a contents service, comprising:

connecting to a server when a connection of a device desiring access to the content service is detected; and

transmitting, to the server, a registration request including information about the device.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

receiving from the server a list of content services to which a user subscribes;

updating service subscription data with reference to the received subscribed content service list; and

transmitting the received subscribed content service list to the device.

6. A method of using a content service, comprising:

transmitting, to a first server, a request for information about a subscribed content service list;

receiving the subscribed content service list from the first server; and

updating service subscription data with reference to the received subscribed content service list.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

connecting to at least one second server with reference to the service subscription data; and

receiving content from the at least one second server based on the service subscription data.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the transmitting of the information request to the first server comprises transmitting, to the first server, predetermined device identification information or predetermined user identification information in order to perform authentication.

9. A method of using a content service, comprising:

receiving, from a first device, a registration request including identification information about a second device;

determining whether the second device has been registered by referring to the received identification information; and

registering the second device if the second device has not yet been registered.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the registering of the second device comprises correlating the identification information about the second device with user information about the first device and storing the correlated identification information.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving, from the second device, a request for subscription information including the identification information about the second device; and

searching for a list of subscribed content services corresponding to the second device and transmitting the list to the second device.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

transmitting a list of available content services to the first device; and

updating a list of subscribed content services associated with a user of the first device, when a request for subscribing to at least one content service is received from the first device.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving, from the first device, a request for subscription information including user information; and

searching for a list of subscribed content services corresponding to the user and transmitting the list to the first device.

14. An apparatus to use a content service comprising:

a storage unit to store service subscription data; and

a control unit to receive a list of available content services from a first server via a communication unit, to output the available content service list to a display unit, to transmit a list of content services selected from the displayed content service list to the first server, and to update the service subscription data of the storage unit with reference to the selected content service list.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the control unit receives, from the first server via the communication unit, a list of content services to which a user has subscribed and updates the service subscription data of the storage unit with reference to the received subscribed content service list.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the control unit is connected to at least one second server with reference to the service subscription data of the storage unit, receives content from the at least one second server, and stores the content in the storage unit.

17. An apparatus to use a content service comprising:

a storage unit to store service subscription data; and

a control unit to transmit a registration request including information about a device to a server via a second communication unit when a connection of the device via a first communication unit is detected, to receive from the server a list of content services to which a user has subscribed, and to update the service subscription data of the storage unit.

18. An apparatus to use a content service, comprising:

a storage unit to store service subscription data;

a communication unit to perform wireless communication; and

a control unit to transmit a request for information about a subscribed contents service list to a first server via the communication unit and to update the service subscription data of the storage unit with reference to the subscribed content service list received from the first server.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the control unit is connected to at least one second server via the communication unit with reference to the service subscription data of the storage unit, receives content from the at least one second servers, and stores the content in the storage unit.

20. An apparatus to provide a catalog service, comprising:

a storage unit to store information about available content services, user account data, and a subscribed content service list for each user; and

a control unit to correlate identification information about a second device with the user account data in the storage unit and to store the correlated identification information about the second device in the storage unit in order to register the second device, when receiving a registration request including the identification information about the second device from a first device via a first communication unit.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the control unit searches for a list of subscribed content services corresponding to the second device from the storage unit and transmits the list to the second device, when receiving a request for service subscription data including identification information about the second device from the second device via a second communication unit.

22. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the control unit transmits, to the first device via the first communication unit, an available content service list read out of the storage unit and updates a subscribed content service list for the corresponding user stored in the storage unit when receiving a request to subscribe to at least one contents service from the first device.

23. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the control unit searches for the subscribed content service list for the user from the storage unit and transmits the list to the first device, when receiving, from the first device via the first communication unit, a service subscription data request including user information.

27. The apparatus according to claim 20, wherein the control unit authenticates the second device.

24. A method to manage a content service, comprising:

transmitting a list of available content services to a first device;

receiving a request to subscribe to one or more content services from the first device or from a mobile device;

updating a subscribed content service list corresponding to a user of the first device and the mobile device; and

transmitting the subscribed content service list in response to a request from the first device or from the mobile device.

25. The method according to claim 24, wherein the content service is RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed.

26. A network comprising:

a content management server to store a content service list and user service subscription data and to update the content service list and the user service subscription data;

a mobile device to synchronize user service subscription data stored in the mobile device with the user service subscription data stored in the content management server and to receive content from a content server based on the user service subscription data; and

a first device to register the mobile device with the content management server so that the mobile device can receive content and to transmit a request, to the content management server, to subscribe or unsubscribe to a content service.