Information storage medium storing metadata and method of providing additional contents, and digital broadcast reception apparatus

• US 8,973,028 B2
• Filed: 01/28/2009
• Issued: 03/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Ahn, Sung-wook, Kim, Mun-jo, Hwang, In-chul, Kwon, O-hoon, Rhim, Eun-hee
• Primary Examiner(s): HUYNH, AN SON PHI
• Application Number:
  US12/361,137
• Publication Number:
  US 20090193456A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,225 Days
• Field of Search: 725/32, 725 34- 36, 725109-110, 725/112, 705/14.4, 705/14.41, 705/14.49, 705/14.53, 705 1457- 1462
• US Class Current: 725/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/10 Arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast or the distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/93 which locates resources of other pieces of information, e.g. URL [Uniform Resource Locator]
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/73 using meta-information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4722 for requesting additional data associated with the content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8547 involving timestamps for synchronizing content
• 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 7/163 by receiver means only

Abstract

Disclosed are an information storage medium storing metadata for providing additional content during a broadcast program, the metadata including information indicating whether to insert second additional content instead of first additional content, which is underlying additional content of the broadcast program, and a locator of the second additional content, a method of providing additional content by using the same, and a digital broadcast reception apparatus.

Claims

1. A non-transitory information storage medium storing metadata regarding a broadcasting program for providing additional content during the broadcast program, the metadata comprising:

information regarding the broadcast program;

information regarding the additional content; and

the metadata is received along with the broadcast program from a broadcast server;

wherein the information regarding the additional content comprises;

information indicating whether to reproduce second additional content instead of first additional content, which is underlying additional content of the broadcast program;

information regarding a time point to reproduce the first additional content or a time point to reproduce the second additional content which is decoded;

information indicating a duration of the first additional content or a duration of the second additional content; and

a locator of the second additional content, wherein the locator of the second additional content is written in form of uniform resource identifier (URI), wherein the locator has various formats;

wherein the information indicating whether to reproduce the second additional content comprises priority information with respect to the first additional content and the second additional content, and instructs one of the first additional content and the second additional content having a higher priority value to be reproduced, and

wherein the second additional content is reproduced instead of the first additional content in response to a priority value of the second additional content is determined to be higher than a predetermined priority value of the first additional content,

wherein the second additional content is reproduced by adjusting a priority value of one of the second additional content and the first additional content.

2. The non-transitory information storage medium of claim 1, the metadata further comprising a locator of the first additional content.

3. The non-transitory information storage medium according to claim 1, wherein the metadata comprises broadband contents guide (BCG) metadata.

4. The non-transitory information storage medium according to claim 1, wherein the priority information comprises a numerical value indicating a priority of the first additional content and the second additional content.

5. A method of providing additional content, the method comprising:

receiving metadata regarding a broadcast program along with the broadcast program from a broadcast server, the metadata comprising information regarding the broadcast program and information regarding the additional content;

decoding, using a decoder, the metadata and determining whether to reproduce second additional content instead of first additional content, wherein the first additional content is underlying additional content of the broadcast program, by using the information regarding the additional content in the metadata;

in response to the determining whether to reproduce the second additional content instead of first additional content, obtaining a locator included in the metadata of the second additional content from the information regarding the additional content in the metadata,

wherein the locator of the second additional content is written in a form of a uniform resource identifier (URI), wherein the locator has various formats;

decoding the metadata and determining a time point included in the metadata to begin reproduction of the first additional content or a time point included in the metadata to begin reproduction of the second additional content;

decoding the metadata and determining a duration included in the metadata of the first additional content or a duration of the second additional content; and

receiving the second additional content by using the obtained locator and reproducing the second additional content based on the time point to begin reproduction of the second additional;

content;

wherein the determining of whether to reproduce the second additional content comprises;

comparing a priority value of the first additional content and a priority value of the second additional content, the priority values being included in the metadata; and

determining one of the first additional content and the second additional content having a higher priority value to be reproduced,

wherein the second additional content is reproduced instead of the first additional content in response to the priority value of the second additional content is determined to be higher than a predetermined priority value of the first additional content,

wherein the second additional content is reproduced by adjusting a priority value of one of the second additional content and the first additional content.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

if it is determined to reproduce the first additional content, obtaining a locator of the first additional content from the metadata; and

receiving the first additional content by using the locator and reproducing the first additional content.

7. A non-transitory computer readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program that causes a computer to execute the method of claim 5.

8. A digital broadcast reception apparatus comprising:

a reception unit receives metadata regarding a broadcast program along with the broadcast program from a broadcast server, the metadata comprising information regarding the broadcast program and information regarding additional content, wherein the metadata further comprises;

information regarding a time point to reproduce a first additional content or a time point to reproduce a second additional content,

information indicating a duration of the first additional content and a duration of the second additional content, and

a locator of the second additional content, wherein the locator of the second additional content is written in a form of a uniform resource identifier (URI), wherein the locator has various formats;

a playback unit produces data received by the reception unit; and

a control unit determines whether to reproduce the second additional content instead of the first additional content, wherein the first additional content is underlying additional content of the broadcast program included in the metadata, by using the information regarding the additional content in the metadata,

the control unit decodes the metadata and determines the time point to begin reproduction of the first additional content or the time point to begin reproduction of the second additional content, and

in response to determining whether to reproduce the second additional content instead of first additional content, controls the reception unit and the playback unit to receive the second additional content by using the locator of the second additional content and to reproduce the second additional content based on the time point to reproduce the second additional content,

wherein the control unit compares a priority value of the first additional content and a priority value of the second additional content and determines the additional content having a higher priority to be reproduced, wherein the first priority value and the second priority value are included in the metadata,

wherein the second additional content is reproduced instead of the first additional content when a priority value of the second additional content is determined to be higher than a predetermined priority value of the first additional content,

wherein the second additional content is reproduced by adjusting a priority value of one of the second additional content and the first additional content.

9. The digital broadcast reception apparatus of claim 8, wherein, if it is determined to reproduce the first additional content, the control unit controls the reception unit and the playback unit to receive the first additional content by using a locator thereof included in the metadata and to reproduce the first additional content.