METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING AND RECEIVING USER INTERFACE

• US 20090265422A1
• Filed: 04/15/2009
• Published: 10/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Ryu, Young-sun, Park, Kyung-mo, Cho, Seong-ho, Park, Ho-yeon
• Granted Patent: US 9,084,020 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/452 Remote windowing, e.g. X-Window System, desktop virtualisation protocols for virtual reality H04L67/131
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23412 for generating or manipulating the scene composition of objects, e.g. MPEG-4 objects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41265 having a remote control device for bidirectional communication between the remote control device and client device unidirectional remote control device H04N21/42204
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43615 Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44012 involving rendering scenes according to scene graphs, e.g. MPEG-4 scene graphs
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4431 characterized by the use of Application Program Interface [API] libraries
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application

Abstract

In a method of providing/receiving a user interface between a user interface client and a user interface server, when the user interface server encodes information on a plurality of user interface scenes in a multimedia data format and transmits the encoded information to the user interface client. The user interface client receives and reproduces the multimedia data so that a user interface may be displayed to which a variety of effect are applied considering individual characteristics of the user interface client such as performance of the user interface client and user preference.

Claims

1. A method of providing a user interface to a user interface client from a user interface server, the method comprising:

encoding information on a plurality of user interface scenes in a multimedia data format; and

transmitting the multimedia data to the user interface client.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the encoding comprising encoding the information in the multimedia data format using a scene description method of MPEG.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the encoding comprising encoding the information on the plurality of user interface scenes to display a user interface at a plurality of different user interface clients.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the encoding the information on the plurality of user interface scenes comprising:

encoding presentation information to present objects included in the user interface scene in a scene;

encoding event information on events generated by the objects; and

encoding function information on functions called to process the events.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the encoding the presentation information comprising encoding at least one or more of information on description of a structure of the scene, information on description of a method of presenting the objects, or information needed to dynamically configure the scene.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the encoding the information on description of a structure of the scene comprising encoding at least one or more of layout, form, template, positions of the objects, or presentation time of each object forming the scene.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the encoding the information on description of a method of presenting the objects comprising encoding at least one or more of type of media or a presentation method of the media to present each of the objects.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the encoding the information to dynamically configure the scene encoding at least one or more of hardware source of the user interface client, preference, or network environment.

9. The method of claim 4, wherein the encoding the event information comprising encoding at least one or more of information on description of events generated by the objects, information on description of a method of processing the events, or information on mapping between the events and device API (application programming interface) to process the events.

10. The method of claim 4, wherein the encoding the function information comprising encoding at least one or more of information on description of operations of device APIs to process the events or information on calling of the device APIs to process the events.

11. The method of claim 2, further comprising receiving a control signal transmitted by the user interface client based on the transmitted multimedia data and performing a control operation according to the received control signal.

31. A computer readable recording medium recording a program controlling a computer for executing the method defined by claim 1.

12. A method of receiving a user interface from a user interface server in a user interface client, the method comprising:

receiving multimedia data including information on a plurality of user interface scenes and decoding the multimedia data; and

displaying the plurality of user interface scenes by reproducing the decoded multimedia data.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the receiving the multimedia data comprising receiving multimedia data encoded using a scene description method of MPEG.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the information on the plurality of user interface scenes comprising information to display a user interface at a plurality of different user interface clients.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the information on the plurality of user interface scene comprises:

presentation information to present objects included in the user interface scene in a scene;

event information on events generated by the objects; and

function information on functions called to process the events.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the presentation information comprises at least one or more of information on description of a structure of the scene, information on description of a method of presenting the objects, or information needed to dynamically configure the scene.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the information on description of a structure of the scene comprises at least one or more of layout, form, template, positions of the objects, or presentation time of each object forming the scene.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the information on description of a method of presenting the objects comprises at least one or more of type of media or a presentation method of the media to present each of the objects.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the information to dynamically configure the scene comprises at least one or more of hardware source of the user interface client, preference, or network environment.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the event information comprises at least one or more of information on description of events generated by the objects, information on description of a method of processing the events, or information on mapping between the events and device API (application programming interface) to process the events.

21. The method of claim 15, wherein the function information comprises at least one or more of information on description of operations of device APIs to process the events or information on calling of the device APIs to process the events.

22. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

displaying one of the plurality of user interface scenes based on the information needed to dynamically configure the scene; and

transmitting a predetermined control signal to the user interface server according to the selection of a user based on the displayed user interface.

43. A computer readable recording medium recording a program controlling a computer for executing the methods defined by claim 12.

23. A user interface server for providing a user interface to a user interface client, the user interface server comprising:

an encoding unit encoding information on a plurality of user interface scenes in a multimedia data format; and

a transmission unit transmitting the multimedia data to the user interface client.

24. The user interface server of claim 23, wherein the multimedia data format comprising a scene description method of MPEG.

25. The user interface server of claim 24, wherein the information on the plurality of user interface scenes is to display a user interface at a plurality of different user interface clients.

26. The user interface server of claim 23, further comprising a control performing unit receiving a control signal transmitted by the user interface client based on the transmitted multimedia data and performing a control operation according to the received control signal.

27. A user interface client for receiving a user interface from a user interface server, the user interface client comprising:

a decoding unit receiving multimedia data including information on a plurality of user interface scenes and decoding the multimedia data; and

a reproduction unit displaying the plurality of user interface scenes by reproducing the decoded multimedia data.

28. The user interface server of claim 27, wherein the format of the multimedia data is a multimedia data format comprising a scene description method of MPEG.

29. The user interface server of claim 28, wherein the information on the plurality of user interface scenes is to display a user interface at a plurality of different user interface clients.

30. The user interface server of claim 29, further comprising a control performing unit displaying one of the plurality of user interface scenes based on information to dynamically configure the user interface scene and transmitting a predetermined control signal to the user interface server according to the selection of a user based on the displayed user interface.

32. A method of providing a user interface to a user interface client from a user interface server, the method comprising:

encoding the user interface in a multimedia data format; and

transmitting the multimedia data to the user interface client,

wherein the multimedia data includes information on a protocol of a control message transmitted to the user interface server when the user interface client performs a control operation according to the user interface.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the multimedia data format comprising a scene description method of MPEG.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the user interface is a widget.

42. A computer readable recording medium recording a program controlling a computer for executing the methods defined by claim 32.

35. A method of receiving a user interface from a user interface server in a user interface client, the method comprising:

receiving a multimedia data including a first user interface and decoding the multimedia data;

receiving information on a content provided to a user via the user interface; and

generating a second user interface by coupling the first user interface and the information on the content.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the format of the multimedia data is a multimedia data format comprising a scene description method of MPEG.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the user interface is a widget.

44. A computer readable recording medium recording a program controlling a computer for executing the methods defined by claim 35.

38. A user interface server providing a user interface to a user interface client, the user interface server comprising:

a user interface generation unit generating the user interface;

a user interface encoding unit encoding the user interface in a multimedia data format; and

a user interface providing unit transmitting the multimedia data to the user interface client,

wherein the multimedia data includes information on a protocol of a control message transmitted to the user interface server when the user interface client performs a control operation according to the user interface.

39. The user interface server of claim 38, wherein the multimedia data format comprising a scene description method of MPEG and the user interface is a widget.

40. A user interface client receiving a user interface from a user interface server, the user interface client comprising:

a user interface decoding unit receiving a multimedia data including a first user interface and decoding the multimedia data; and

a user interface coupling unit generating a second user interface by coupling the first user interface and information on a content provided to a user via the user interface.

41. The user interface client of claim 40, wherein the multimedia data format is obtained by using a scene description method of MPEG and the user interface is a widget.