DISPLAY APPARATUS FOR PROCESSING MULTIPLE APPLICATIONS AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING THE SAME

• US 20120304229A1
• Filed: 11/03/2011
• Published: 11/29/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: CHOI, Gowoon, SUK, Jihe, KIM, Ryoung, KIM, Changkyoon
• Granted Patent: US 9,015,758 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/41
• 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 21/478 Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4821 using a grid, e.g. sorted out by channel and broadcast time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8173 End-user applications, e.g. Web browser, game

Abstract

A method of controlling a display apparatus and which includes displaying received audio and video contents on a display unit of the display apparatus, receiving a request signal for executing an application browser and displaying a list of applications stored in a memory associated with the display apparatus, the list of applications stored in the memory including an editable application group including at least one application that can be edited and a non-editable application group including at least one application that cannot be edited; generating graphic data representing the applications included in the editable application group and non-editable application group; and displaying the received video data in a first area of the display unit and displaying the generated graphic data representing the applications in a second area within the first area.

Claims

1. A network device, comprising:

a receiver configured to receive contents including at least one of audio data, video data and graphic data, wherein the contents are from either an external device or a memory of the network device; and

a controller configured to display the video data or the graphic data included in the received contents on a display unit of the network device, to receive a request signal for executing an application browser and displaying a list of applications stored in a memory associated with the network device, said list of applications stored in the memory including an editable application group including at least one application that can be edited and a non-editable application group including at least one application that cannot be edited, to generate graphic data representing the applications included in the editable application group and non-editable application group, and to display the received video data in a first area of the display unit and display the generated graphic data representing the applications in a second area within the first area.

2. The network device of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to distinctively display the at least one application included in the non-editable application group from the at least one application included in the editable application group so as to notify a user watching the network device not to attempt to edit the at least one application included in the non-editable application group.

3. The network device of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to receive an edit request signal for initiating an edit mode for editing the editable application group, to receive a selection signal indicating a selection of the at least one application included in the editable application group, and to display at least one indicator area indicating a location of the second area where the selected application can be relocated to, and

wherein the at least one indicator area is only displayed between applications that can be relocated and is not displayed between system applications included in the non-editable application group that cannot be relocated.

4. The network device of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to receive a deletion selection signal indicating a deletion of the at least one application included in the editable first group, to delete the at least one application and not displaying the deleted application in the first area, to receive a recover signal indicating a recovery of the deleted application, and to extract link information associated with the deleted application stored in the memory and redisplaying the recovered application in the first area, and

wherein the controller is further configured to distinctively redisplay the recovered application from other applications.

5. The network device of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to receive a categorizing signal requesting the list of applications stored in the memory be categorized and displayed on the display unit, to read metadata corresponding to the applications stored in the memory for identifying a type of each application, to generate iconic graphic data for each application based on the read metadata, to categorize the applications based on the read metadata, and to display the categorized applications using the iconic graphic data in the second area of the display unit.

6. The network device of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to receive a recent viewing signal requesting a list of recently used applications among the applications stored in the memory be displayed in the second area of the display unit, to access a table stored in the memory including the list of recently used applications;

and to display the list of recently used applications in the second area of the display unit.

7. The network device of claim 6, wherein the controller is further configured to display a list of channels in a first sub region of the second area, said list of channels corresponding to broadcast channels that have been recently viewed for longer than a predetermined time period;

and to display a list of items in a second sub region of the second area, said list of items corresponding to applications that are not broadcast channels and that have been recently accessed.

8. The network device of claim 7, wherein the displayed list of channels includes thumbnail images representing the channels, and

wherein the thumbnail images correspond to a captured screen shot of a previously watched program on a particular channel, thumbnail images received from a contents provider, channel logos, or channel numbers.

9. The network device of claim 7, wherein the list of channels are stored in a first area of the table and the list of items are stored in a second area of the table that is distinct from the first area of the table.

10. The network device of claim 1, wherein the editable application group includes application that have been downloaded by a user of the network device and the non-editable application group includes system applications provided by a manufacturer of the network device.

11. A method of controlling a display apparatus, the method comprising:

processing contents including at least one of audio data, video data and graphic data, wherein the contents are from either an external device or a memory of the network device;

displaying the video data or the graphic data included in the processed contents on a display unit of the display apparatus;

receiving a request signal for displaying a list of previously accessed contents stored in a memory associated with the display apparatus;

generating graphic data representing the previously accessed contents; and

displaying the received video data in a first area of the display unit and displaying the generated graphic data representing the previously accessed contents in a second area within the first area.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the list of previously accessed contents includes previously viewed channels and previously used items.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

displaying the generated graphic data representing the previously watched channels in an order based on a time a corresponding channel was viewed; and

displaying the generated graphic data representing the previously viewed items in an order based on a time a corresponding item was used.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the generating the graphic data for the previous viewed channels comprises capturing a thumbnail image of a corresponding channel when the channel was viewed, receiving a thumbnail image, a channel logo or channel number for the corresponding channel from a contents provider and retrieving the thumbnail image, the channel logo or the channel number from the memory for the corresponding channel.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the displaying the generated graphic data representing the previously accessed contents comprises displaying the generated graphic data for previously viewed channels and displaying the generated graphic data for previously used items in first and second rows in the second area.

16. A network device, comprising:

a receiver configured to receive contents including at least one of audio data, video data and graphic data, wherein the contents are from either an external device or a memory of the network device; and

a controller configured to display the video data or the graphic data included in the received contents on a display unit of the network device, to receive a request signal for displaying a list of previously accessed contents stored in a memory associated with the network device, to generate graphic data representing the previously accessed contents, and to display the received video data in a first area of the display unit and displaying the generated graphic data representing the previously accessed contents in a second area within the first area.

17. The network device of claim 16, wherein the list of previously accessed contents includes previously viewed channels and previously used items.

18. The network device of claim 17, wherein the controller is further configured to display the generated graphic data representing the previously watched channels in an order based on a time a corresponding channel was viewed, and to display the generated graphic data representing the previously viewed items in an order based on a time a corresponding item was used.

19. The network device of claim 17, wherein the controller is further configured to generate the graphic data for the previous viewed channels by capturing a thumbnail image of a corresponding channel when the channel was viewed, by receiving a thumbnail image, a channel logo or channel number for the corresponding channel from a contents provider and retrieving the thumbnail image, the channel logo or the channel number from the memory for the corresponding channel.

20. The network device of claim 17, wherein the controller is further configured to display the generated graphic data for previously viewed channels and display the generated graphic data for previously used items in first and second rows in the second area.