Apparatus and method for providing and obtaining product information through a broadcast signal

• US 8,832,746 B2
• Filed: 09/13/2011
• Issued: 09/09/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/12/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Pack, Bok Hyun, Kim, Young Kuk, Ahn, Hyun, Ryu, Han Seop, Yun, Yeo Han
• Primary Examiner(s): Lonsberry, Hunter B
• Application Number:
  US13/231,234
• Publication Number:
  US 20120066718A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,092 Days
• Field of Search: 725/44, 725/47, 725 50- 52, 725/60
• US Class Current: 725/52
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2542 for selling goods, e.g. TV shopping payment schemes, payment architectures or payment protocols for electronic shopping systems G06Q20/12
• 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 21/4381 Recovering the multiplex stream from a specific network, e.g. recovering MPEG packets from ATM cells transmission of MPEG streams over ATM H04L12/5601
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44012 involving rendering scenes according to scene graphs, e.g. MPEG-4 scene graphs
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4725 using interactive regions of the image, e.g. hot spots details of information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47815 Electronic shopping payment schemes, payment architectures or payment protocols for electronic shopping systems G06Q20/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64322 IP
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8153 comprising still images, e.g. texture, background image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8352 involving content or source identification data, e.g. Unique Material Identifier [UMID]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/858 Linking data to content, e.g. by linking an URL to a video object, by creating a hotspot
• 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 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for providing and obtaining product information through a broadcast signal. In this present invention, information identifying a product item, which is in a scene to be presented from a broadcast signal, is provided together with a broadcast signal, then a signal receiving terminal stores the product information for a new product item and displays the stored information to a viewer to select one product item while or after watching an interesting broadcast program, and transmits data identifying a selected product item to a predetermined web site and receives web site address for the selected item from that site. As a result, detailed information for the selected item is acquired from a server addressed by the received web site address.

Claims

1. A network device for processing multiple data from a server, the network device comprising:

a network interface configured to receive main video data and additional data indicating at least one icon;

a video decoder configured to decode the received main video data;

a memory configured to store the at least one icon;

an user interface configured to receive a first command signal for requesting the stored at least one icon; and

a controller configured to control the network interface, the video decoder, the memory, and the user interface, wherein the controller is further configured to;

display the at least one icon,

receive site address corresponding to the at least one icon through the network interface based on the additional data to receive supplementary information corresponding to the at least one icon,

transmit information related to the at least one icon to a predetermined server when the selected at least one icon is not linked to any server,

receive link information from the predetermined server via the network interface,

retrieve the supplementary information by using the received link information, and

display the received supplementary information.

2. The network device of claim 1, wherein the controller further controls the video decoder to stop decoding the received main video data when the user interface receives the first command signal.

3. The network device of claim 1, wherein the controller further controls a frame composer to display both the at least one icon and the main video data.

4. The network device of claim 1, wherein the first command signal is received while displaying the main video data.

5. The network device of claim 1, wherein the additional data comprises a uniform resource locator (URL) information corresponding to the at least one icon.

6. The network device of claim 5, wherein the network interface accesses a specific URL corresponding to a specific icon when the user interface receives a second command signal for selecting the specific icon.

7. The network device of claim 6, wherein a first server providing the additional data is different from a second server corresponding to the specific URL.

8. The network device of claim 1, wherein the additional data is either bounded or unbounded to the main video data.

9. The network device of claim 1, wherein the additional data comprises at least one of still picture data or moving picture data.

10. The network device of claim 1, wherein the network device corresponds to an internet TV or a Web-TV.

11. A method of processing multiple data packets from a server in an internet television, the method comprising:

receiving main video data and additional data indicating at least one icon from at least one server via a network interface;

displaying the at least one icon while displaying the received main video data from the at least one server;

selecting a specific icon from among the at least one icon via a user interface;

receiving site address corresponding to the specific icon based on the additional data to receive supplementary information corresponding to the specific icon;

transmitting information related to the selected specific icon to a predetermined server when the selected specific icon is not linked to any server;

receiving link information from the predetermined server via the network interface;

retrieving the supplementary information by using the received link information; and

displaying the received supplementary information.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein displaying the at least one icon comprises:

storing both a coordinate value and graphic image data corresponding to each of the at least one icon into a memory; and

outputting the graphic image data in a specific position based on the stored coordinate value.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein displaying the at least one icon performs only when a request signal is received via the user interface.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein retrieving the supplementary information comprises:

receiving web page data from the accessed specific server;

interpreting the web page data according to an activated web browsing program, wherein the web browsing program is stored in a memory; and

sending text/video data and audio data to a video decoder and an audio decoder respectively.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein a first server linked to a first icon is different from a second server linked to a second icon.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein a server providing the additional data is different from the each of servers linked to the each of the icons.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the at least one icon is either bounded or unbounded to the main video data.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein the additional data comprises at least one of still picture data or moving picture data.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein the main video data is either overlapped with the at least one icon or separated from the at least one icon.