BROADCAST RECEIVING APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING WIDGET SERVICE THEREOF

• US 20100165201A1
• Filed: 11/20/2009
• Published: 07/01/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: SONG, Sang-gon, YIM, Jin-ho, SHIN, Seung-chul
• Granted Patent: US 9,392,207 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/565
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/488 Data services, e.g. news ticker systems specially adapted for using meteorological information in broadcast systems H04H60/71
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8126 involving additional data, e.g. news, sports, stocks, weather forecasts

Abstract

A method for providing a widget service in a broadcast receiving apparatus is provided. A method for providing the widget service includes operations of receiving widget information, and displaying on a picture-in-picture (PIP) screen at least part of all the received widget information which is to be fitted to the PIP screen, upon occurrence of a preset or trigger event. Therefore, it is possible for a user to construct a sub-screen for providing a widget service by selecting only part of widget information forming the entire display screen rather than reducing the size of the entire display screen.

Claims

1. A method for providing a widget service in a broadcast receiving apparatus, the method comprising:

receiving widget information; and

displaying on a picture-in-picture (PIP) screen at least part of all the received widget information which is to be fitted to the PIP screen, upon occurrence of a trigger event,

wherein at least one of the receiving and the displaying is performed using a processor.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein during the displaying, at least one of an amount and a type of widget information displayed on the PIP screen changes according to a change in size of the PIP screen.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

providing a user interface (UI) window through which a user selects widget information, from among the received widget information, to use in constructing the PIP screen.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

requesting widget information which is to be fitted to the PIP screen.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the receiving comprises receiving all widget information, and

the displaying comprises selecting widget information to be fitted to the PIP screen from among all the received widget information, rearranging the selected widget information according to a size of the PIP screen, and displaying the rearranged information on the PIP screen.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the widget information is received in Markup Language from an external server or hub site.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

if a size of the PIP screen is changed, then

extracting, from the received widget information, widget information to be fitted to the PIP screen of which the size has been changed, and

displaying the extracted widget information on the PIP screen.

8. A method for providing a widget service in a broadcast receiving apparatus, the method comprising:

allocating a widget service to an available channel to create a widget service channel;

extracting at least part of widget information, which is to be fitted to a picture-in-picture (PIP) screen, from all widget information required to provide the widget service; and

displaying the extracted at least part of the widget information on the PIP screen, upon occurrence of an event to display a widget service channel on the PIP screen,

wherein at least one of the allocating, the extracting and the displaying is performed using a processor.

9. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein during the displaying, at least one of an amount and a type of widget information displayed on the PIP screen changes according to a change in size of the PIP screen.

10. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the event occurs when the PIP screen for displaying the widget service is executed or when a channel of the PIP screen is changed from a general broadcast channel to the widget service channel.

11. The method as claimed in claim 8, further comprising:

providing a user interface (UI) window through which a user selects widget information, from among all the widget information, to use in constructing the PIP screen.

12. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the widget information is received in Markup Language from an external server or hub site.

13. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the displaying comprises displaying a plurality of PIP screens, and

widget information enough to fill each of the plurality of PIP screens appears on each of the plurality of PIP screens.

14. The method as claimed in claim 8, further comprising:

if a size of the PIP screen is changed, then

re-extracting, from the all widget information required to provide the widget service, widget information to be fitted to the PIP screen of which the size has been changed, and

displaying the re-extracted information on the PIP screen.

15. A broadcast receiving apparatus comprising:

a receiver which receives widget information; and

a display unit which displays on a picture-in-picture (PIP) screen at least part of all the received widget information which is to be fitted to the PIP screen, upon occurrence of a trigger event.

16. The broadcast receiving apparatus as claimed in claim 15, wherein at least one of an amount and a type of widget information displayed on the PIP screen changes according to a change in size of the PIP screen.

17. The broadcast receiving apparatus as claimed in claim 15, further comprising:

a user interface (UI) unit which provides a UI window through which a user selects widget information, from among the received widget information, to use in constructing the PIP screen.

18. The broadcast receiving apparatus as claimed in claim 15, wherein the widget information is received in Markup Language from an external server or hub site.

19. The broadcast receiving apparatus as claimed in claim 15, further comprising:

a controller which allocates a widget service to an available channel to create a widget service channel; and

a scanning unit which scans channels,

wherein, if there is the available channel among the scanned channels, the controller allocates the widget service to the available channel to create the widget service channel.

20. The broadcast receiving apparatus as claimed in claim 15, wherein, if a size of the PIP screen is changed, the display unit displays widget information to be fitted to the PIP screen of which the size has been changed.

21. A broadcast receiving apparatus comprising:

a receiver that receives widget information; and

a display unit that displays at least a part of the received widget information on a picture-in-picture (PIP) screen,

wherein the PIP screen is configured to display thereon a larger or smaller portion of the received widget information depending on a size of the PIP screen.

22. The broadcast receiving apparatus as claimed in claim 21, wherein the PIP is reconfigured to display thereon a larger portion of the received widget information when the size of the PIP is increased, and reconfigured to display thereon a smaller portion of the received widget information when the size of the PIP is decreased.

23. A method of providing widget services, the method comprising:

receiving widget information from a network;

mapping at least a part of the received widget information to a picture-in-picture (PIP) screen; and

displaying the mapped at least a part of the widget information on the PIP screen to provide a widget service allocated to an available channel.

24. The method as claimed in claim 23, wherein the PIP screen is configured to display thereon a larger or smaller portion of the received widget information depending on a size of the PIP screen.

25. The method as claimed in claim 24, wherein the PIP is reconfigured to display thereon a larger portion of the received widget information when the size of the PIP is increased, and reconfigured to display thereon a smaller portion of the received widget information when the size of the PIP is decreased.