Apparatus and method for processing an interactive service

• US 9,078,042 B2
• Filed: 09/12/2013
• Issued: 07/07/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Oh, Sejin, Kim, Jinpil, An, Seungjoo, Lee, Jinwon, Kim, Kyungho, Moon, Kyoungsoo
• Primary Examiner(s): Alata, Yassin
• Application Number:
  US14/025,227
• Publication Number:
  US 20140075470A1
• Time in Patent Office: 663 Days
• Field of Search: 725 23- 24, 725 32- 36, 725 60- 61
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23892 involving embedding information at multiplex stream level, e.g. embedding a watermark at packet level
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43072 of multiple content streams on the same device
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4348 Demultiplexing of additional data and video streams
• 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 21/44008 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in the video stream arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• 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 21/478 Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8126 involving additional data, e.g. news, sports, stocks, weather forecasts
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8358 involving watermark protecting executable software by watermarking G06F21/16; image watermarking in general G06T1/0021; watermarks inserted in still images for transmission purposes H04N1/32144; inserting watermarks during video coding H04N19/467
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8455 involving pointers to the content, e.g. pointers to the I-frames of the video stream
• 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

Abstract

A method of processing an interactive service and an apparatus thereof are disclosed. The present invention includes receiving uncompressed audio content or uncompressed video content from an external decoding unit, extracting identifiers of frames from the received content periodically, submitting requests containing the identifiers and receiving a trigger for the content when a new segment is detected or when an event activation needs to be communicated to the receiver, wherein the trigger indicates the current time of the contents and references a particular interactive event in an application parameter table or signals that the event is to be executed now or at a specified future time, wherein the application parameter table includes information about at least one of applications.

Claims

1. A method of processing an interactive service at a receiver, the method comprising:

receiving an uncompressed audio content or an uncompressed video content from an external decoding unit;

extracting signatures from frames of the received content;

sending the extracted signatures to an ACR (Auto Content Recognition) server, to be checked against a database of signatures of frames in order to recognize the frames represented by the signatures, wherein the frames represented by the signatures are identified by the ACR server;

receiving a time base trigger from the ACR server, wherein the type of trigger is decided by the ACR server based on the frames represented by the signatures, wherein the time base trigger establishes a time base for activations of events, wherein the time base is synchronized with the frames, and

retrieving an application parameter table using information in the time base trigger,

wherein the application parameter table includes information about at least one of applications,

wherein the information about at least one of applications include first IDs (identifiers) identifying each of the applications, and information about at least one of the events,

wherein the information about at least one of the events include second IDs identifying each of the events, and information about at least one of data to be used for the corresponding event,

wherein the information about at least one of data include third IDs identifying each of the data,

wherein the retrieving an application parameter table further includes,

receiving an activation message table along with the application parameter table,

wherein the activation message table includes activation messages for activating the events at activation times relative to the established time base,

wherein each of the activation messages include first attributes, second attributes, third attributes and timing information,

wherein the first attribute matches the first ID to identify the application targeted by the activation message,

wherein the second attribute matches the second ID to identify the event targeted by the activation message,

wherein the timing information indicates start of time period for the event targeted by the activation message, and

wherein the third attribute matches the third ID to identify the data to be used for the event targeted by the activation message.

2. The method of claim 1,

wherein the time is a media time,

wherein the media time is a parameter referencing a point in the playout of a content item.

3. The method of claim 1,

wherein the application is a Declarative Object, a Triggered Declarative Object, a Non-Real Time Declarative Object or an Unbound Declarative Object.

4. An apparatus for processing an interactive service, the apparatus comprising:

a receiving module that receives an uncompressed audio content or an uncompressed video content from an external decoding unit;

a signature extraction module that extracts signatures from frames of the received content;

a network interface that sends the extracted signatures to an ACR (Auto Content Recognition) server, to be checked against a database of signatures of frames in order to recognize the frames represented by the signatures, wherein the frames represented by the signatures are identified by the ACR server,

wherein the network interface receives a time base trigger from the ACR server,

wherein the type of trigger is decided by the ACR server based on the frames represented by the signatures, wherein the time base trigger establishes a time base for activations of events, wherein the time base is synchronized with the frames,

wherein the network interface retrieves an application parameter table using information in the time base trigger,

wherein the application parameter table includes information about at least one of applications,

wherein the information about at least one of applications include first IDs (identifiers) identifying each of the applications, and information about at least one of the events,

wherein the information about at least one of the events include second IDs identifying each of the events, and information about at least one of data to be used for the corresponding event,

wherein the information about at least one of data include third IDs identifying each of the data,

wherein the network interface receives an activation message table along with the application parameter table,

wherein the activation message table includes activation messages for activating the events at activation times relative to the established time base,

wherein each of the activation messages include first attributes, second attributes, third attributes and timing information,

wherein the first attribute matches the first ID to identify the application targeted by the activation message,

wherein the second attribute matches the second ID to identify the event targeted by the activation message,

wherein the timing information indicates start of time period for the event targeted by the activation message, and

wherein the third attribute matches the third ID to identify the data to be used for the event targeted by the activation message.

5. The apparatus of claim 4,

wherein the time is a media time,

wherein the media time is a parameter referencing a point in the playout of a content item.

6. The apparatus of claim 4,

wherein the application is a Declarative Object, a Triggered Declarative Object, a Non-Real Time Declarative Object or an Unbound Declarative Object.