DIGITAL BROADCAST RECEPTION APPARATUS AND METHOD OF PROVIDING ADDITIONAL CONTENT

• US 20090205005A1
• Filed: 02/12/2009
• Published: 08/13/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Kim, Hue-yin, Lee, Sang-woong, Kim, Young-suk, Gwon, Hae-su, Hong, Gyung-pyo, Ahn, Jin-yong, Kim, Kwang-hyuk, Ahn, Sung-wook
• Granted Patent: US 9,113,041 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/113
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4722 for requesting additional data associated with the content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6543 for forcing some client operations, e.g. recording remote booting in general G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

Disclosed is a method of providing additional content in a digital broadcast reception apparatus, the method including receiving a locator of additional content from a broadcast server while a user watches a broadcast program, receiving an instruction to insert the additional content from the broadcast server, receiving and reproducing the additional content from a content providing server designated by the locator, and switching back to the broadcast program. Thus, it is not necessary to allocate a separate channel and/or to switch channels for providing additional content.

Claims

1. A method of providing additional content in a reception apparatus, the method comprising:

receiving a locator of additional content from a broadcast server while a program is being viewed;

receiving an instruction to insert the additional content from the broadcast server;

receiving and reproducing the additional content from a content providing server designated by the locator; and

switching back to the program;

wherein one of the receiving of a locator, receiving an instruction, receiving and reproducing the additional content, or the switching back to the program is controlled by a controller.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving and the reproducing of the additional content comprises searching for the additional content by using an address of the content providing server and a location identifier of the additional content that are included in the locator.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the locator comprises an identifier of a channel into which the additional content is to be inserted, and

the searching of the additional content further comprises verifying whether the channel is a channel into which the additional content is to be inserted or not by using the locator.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the content providing server is a web server,

the location identifier is in the form of URL (uniform resource locator) and comprises at least one of an identifier of a channel to insert the additional content, a switch ID for identifying a switch from a broadcast program to advertisement content, and a file identifier of the additional content, and

the searching of the additional content comprises, if the channel is the same as a channel into which the additional content is to be inserted, searching for a file having the same location identifier in the content providing server.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the receiving and the reproducing of the additional content further comprises, if the additional content is not found in the content providing server, reproducing underlying additional content included in a content stream of the program.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving of the instruction comprises receiving a DPI (digital program insertion) trigger from the broadcast server.

13. A computer readable storage medium having recorded thereon a computer program for executing the method of claim 1.

7. A reception apparatus comprising:

a broadcast reception unit receiving data from a broadcast server;

an additional content reception unit receiving data from a content providing server;

a playback unit reproducing data received by the broadcast reception unit and the additional content reception unit; and

a control unit, which, when a locator of additional content and an instruction to insert the additional content are received while a program is being viewed, controls the additional content reception unit to receive the additional content designated by the locator and controls the playback unit to switch back to the program being viewed after reproducing the received additional content.

8. The reception apparatus of claim 7, wherein the control unit searches for the additional content by using an address of the content providing server and a location identifier of the additional content that are included in the locator.

9. The reception apparatus of claim 8, wherein the locator comprises an identifier of a channel into which the additional content is to be inserted, and

the control unit verifies whether the channel is a channel into which the additional content is to be inserted or not by using the locator.

10. The reception apparatus of claim 8, wherein the content providing server is a web server,

the location identifier is in the form of URL (uniform resource locator) and comprises at least one of an identifier of a channel into which the additional content is to be inserted, a switch ID for identifying a switch from the program to advertisement content, and a file identifier of the additional content, and,

if the channel is the same as a channel into which the additional content is to be inserted, the control unit searches for a file having the same location identifier in the content providing server.

11. The reception apparatus of claim 8, wherein, if the additional content is not found in the content providing server, the control unit controls the playback unit to reproduce underlying additional content included in a content stream of the program.

12. The reception apparatus of claim 7, wherein the instruction to insert the additional content is a DPI (digital program insertion) trigger received from the broadcast server.