Apparatus for transmitting broadcast signals, apparatus for receiving broadcast signals, method for transmitting broadcast signals and method for receiving broadcast signals

• US 9,800,952 B2
• Filed: 12/01/2014
• Issued: 10/24/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: An, Seungjoo, Moon, Kyoungsoo, Lee, Jinwon, Ko, Woosuk, Oh, Sejin, Kang, Donghyun, Hong, Sungryong
• Primary Examiner(s): Kumar, Pankaj
• Assistant Examiner(s): BROWN, RUEBEN M
• Application Number:
  US15/101,365
• Publication Number:
  US 20160309238A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,058 Days
• Field of Search: 725 19, 725 20
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/93 which locates resources of other pieces of information, e.g. URL [Uniform Resource Locator]
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 2201/50 characterised by the use of watermarks
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/13 Arrangements for device control affected by the broadcast information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2353 specifically adapted to content descriptors, e.g. coding, compressing or processing of metadata
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2383 Channel coding or modulation of digital bit-stream, e.g. QPSK modulation arrangements for detecting or preventing errors in the information received by adapting the channel coding H04L1/0009; analogue front ends or means for connecting modulators, demodulators or transceivers to a transmission line H04L27/0002
• 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 21/4126 The peripheral being portable, e.g. PDAs or mobile phones
• 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 21/64322 IP
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8133 specifically related to the content, e.g. biography of the actors in a movie, detailed information about an article seen in a video program
• 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 21/8547 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

The present invention provides a method of transmitting broadcast signals. The method includes, receiving an uncompressed broadcast content from an external receiving unit, wherein an watermark is embedded in a frame of the uncompressed broadcast content; extracting the embedded watermark from the uncompressed broadcast content; parsing the extracted watermark; generating an URL by using information in the parsed watermark; and launching an application by using the generated URL, wherein the application provides the interactive services related to the uncompressed broadcast content.

Claims

1. A method of providing interactive services, the method comprising:

receiving a broadcast content from an external input source, the broadcast content derived from a broadcast stream,

wherein the broadcast content includes frames in which a plurality of watermarks are embedded,

wherein each of the watermarks carries a watermark block including a fragment generated by dividing full watermark information,

wherein the watermark block includes a fragment number field and a last fragment field, the fragment number field indicates a fragment number of the fragment included in the corresponding watermark block, and the last fragment field indicates a fragment number of last fragment generated from the full watermark information to which the fragment included in the corresponding watermark block belongs,

wherein the full watermark information includes both a channel ID (Identifier) and an EIDR (Entertainment Industry Data Registry), the channel ID identifies a broadcast service associated with the broadcast content, and the EIDR identifies the broadcast content received from the external input source,

wherein the full watermark information further includes first URL data and second URL data, the first URL data includes signaling bits which identify a portion of a final URL to be used for construction of the final URL, and the second URL data includes the rest of the final URL, and

wherein values of the signaling bits are pre-assigned to specific domain strings;

extracting the watermarks from the broadcast content;

re-assembling the full watermark information using the fragment number field, the last fragment field and the watermark blocks in the watermarks;

generating the final URL by using the first URL data and the second URL data in the full watermark information;

requesting supplementary information for the broadcast content to a server by using the generated final URL; and

retrieving the supplementary information from the server.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the full watermark information further includes first information and second information,

the first information identifying the server for acquisition of the supplementary information, and

the second information identifying a specific point of the broadcast content in which a corresponding watermark is embedded.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the full watermark information further includes third information specifying configuration of the full watermark information.

4. An apparatus for providing interactive services, the apparatus comprising:

a receiving module configured to receive a broadcast content from an external input source, the broadcast content derived from a broadcast stream,

wherein the broadcast content includes frames that a plurality of watermarks are embedded,

wherein each of the watermarks carries a watermark block including a fragment generated by dividing full watermark information,

wherein the watermark block includes a fragment number field and a last fragment field, the fragment number field indicates a fragment number of the fragment included in the corresponding watermark block, and the last fragment field indicates a fragment number of last fragment generated from the full watermark information to which the fragment included in the corresponding watermark block belongs,

wherein the full watermark information includes both a channel ID (Identifier) and an EIDR (Entertainment Industry Data Registry), the channel ID identifies a broadcast service associated with the broadcast content, and the EIDR identifies the broadcast content received from the external input source,

wherein the full watermark information further includes first URL data and second URL data, the first URL data includes signaling bits which identify a portion of a final URL to be used for construction of the final URL, and the second URL data includes the rest of the final URL, and

wherein values of the signaling bits are pre-assigned to specific domain strings;

an extracting module configured to extract the watermarks from the broadcast content;

a re-assembling module configured to re-assemble the full watermark information using the fragment number field, the last fragment field and the watermark blocks in the watermarks;

a generating module configured to generate the final URL by using the first URL data and the second URL data in the full watermark information; and

a network interface configured to request supplementary information for the broadcast content to a server by using the generated final URL, and retrieve supplementary information from the server.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the full watermark information further includes first information and second information,

the first information identifying the server for acquisition of the supplementary information, and

the second information identifying a specific point of the broadcast content in which a corresponding watermark is embedded.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the full watermark information further includes third information specifying a configuration of the full watermark information.