Patent Application
20060149761
Pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 119(a), this application claims the benefit of earlier filing date and right of priority to Korean Application No. 10-2004-0103768, filed on Dec. 9, 2004, the contents of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
The present invention relates to allowing a user to easily recognize and access containers of a media server connected to an open network system, such as a universal plug and play (UPnP) network.
A universal plug and play (UPnP) network includes a control point (CP) for controlling a device and devices for providing services. The CP is capable of discovering and controlling different types of devices and receives and processes events through a provided interface.
Audio visual (AV) devices connected with the UPnP network include a media server 1a for providing media data and a media renderer 1b for reproducing media data, as shown in
The media server 1a allows the reading of information related to its own media files through a content directory service (CDS). Information contained in a media file includes the name, format, size, presentation time, URL, and type of the media file.
The CDS expresses objects belonging to the media server 1a in a tree structure, as shown in
In a current UPnP AV network, the highest-level object in the tree structure provided by the CDS, such as a root object 2a as shown in
Since only both a root object identifier “0” and the structure shown in
However, even if the “Item 4” is a media file frequently used by the user, the above-described top-down selection of an object (i.e., a container) must continuously be performed whenever the CP 1c is operated or a control device is changed. Thus, the top-down selection causes a user to experience great inconvenience.
Therefore, in order to convenience the user when using a user interface, it is preferred that the CP 1c express objects in the form of graphics or icons, which can be easily recognized by a user. However, since there is no standardization defining types or properties of the objects, the CP 1c inevitably expresses character string information received from the media server 1a as is. This makes it difficult for the user to recognize the objects.
The present invention is directed to providing media data in an open network system.
Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a management method allowing a user to easily access objects specified by the user.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for allowing an application such as a control point to identify a type or an attribute of each object.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, which allows a user to easily access an object, an object structure of a CDS comprises one object tree structure and a shortcut object separated from the tree structure.
In addition, according to one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an action capable of registering and querying a featured object.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, a bookmark object and a shortcut object are managed as featured objects.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, which can identify each object type, an identifier of a media object, particularly, the container, that is, an object ID is defined and used as a character string capable of identifying a type of the media object.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, which can identify each object type, an identifier of a media object, particularly, the container, that is, an object ID is used as a predetermined character string, and type information capable of identifying a type of the media object is defined and used.
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, an apparatus operationally connected to an open network system for providing media data, comprises a service for managing objects, and a storage unit for storing at least one object structure, the at least one object structure comprising at least one of a container and an item under a tree structure, wherein the at least one object structure comprises at least one object specified as a feature of the service.
Preferably, the at least one object specified as a feature of the service is a bookmark container, wherein a plurality of bookmark containers are interconnected to each other under the tree structure. Preferably, an identifier of a bookmark item in a root container of the tree structure is written in a state variable. Alternatively, an identifier of a bookmark item, which is not in a root container of the tree structure, is not written in a state variable.
In one aspect of the invention, the at least one object specified as a feature of the service is an element of an object structure different from an object structure comprising files containing media data.
In another aspect of the invention, the at least one object specified as a feature of the service is an element of a sub-object structure, wherein the sub-object structure is an element of a container of an object structure comprising files containing media data.
In a further aspect of the invention, the at least one object specified as a feature of the service is a shortcut container. Preferably, the service is a content directory service defined in a Universal Plug and Play protocol.
In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, a method for providing media data in an open network system comprises providing a service for managing objects, providing a storage unit for storing at least one object structure in a storage unit, the at least one object structure comprising at least one of a container and an item under a tree structure, recording at least one object specified as a feature of the service in the storage unit, and writing information related to the at least one object specified as a feature of the service.
Preferably, the at least object specified as a feature of the service is a bookmark container.
In one aspect of the invention, the writing step comprises writing in a state variable an identifier for at least one bookmark item contained in the recorded at least one object specified as a feature of the service.
In another aspect of the invention, the writing step comprises writing in the state variable information related to a service name and a service version.
In a further aspect of the invention, the at least one object specified as a feature of the service is recorded under an object structure different from an object structure comprising files containing media data. Alternatively, the at least one object specified as a feature of the service is recorded in a sub-object structure, wherein the sub-object structure is an element of a container of an object structure comprising files containing media data.
In yet another aspect of the invention, the at least one object specified as a feature of the service is a shortcut container.
Preferably, the information related to the recorded at least one object specified as a feature of the service is written in the storage unit. Alternatively, the information related to the recorded at least one object specified as a feature of the service is written in a memory unit other than the storage unit.
Preferably, the service is a content directory service defined in a Universal Plug & Play protocol.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description of the present invention are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.
The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention. Features, elements, and aspects of the invention that are referenced by the same numerals in different figures represent the same, equivalent, or similar features, elements, or aspects in accordance with one or more embodiments.
a and 4b are views illustrating an object structure managed by a media server in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.
a and 6b are views illustrating object structures managed by a media server in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.
c is a view illustrating a screen image displaying a container as an icon on a control point (CP) with respect to object structures as shown in
a and 8b are views illustrating syntax of an action message for registering a predetermined object as a shortcut object and querying the shortcut object in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.
The present invention relates to providing media data in an open network system.
Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description and drawings, the same reference numerals are used to designate the same or similar components, and so repetition of the description on the same or similar components will be omitted.
a and 4b illustrate object structures having been stored in a storage unit (e.g., a hard disk) of the media server 200. In
b illustrates an example in which the bookmark container, as an additional root container, is registered as a shortcut container in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. Description regarding the shortcut container will be given below.
In the state in which container types have been defined according to an embodiment shown in
Accordingly, the CP 100 reads out and displays graphic thumbnails (e.g., icons) according to types stored therein instead of expressing received containers of the direct children as character strings.
The browsing action used in the above-described procedure for querying objects under a specific container is one example of the present invention. In another embodiment of the present invention, the CP 100 can search for objects specified as a service feature, such as “BOOKMARK”, through an additional action such as a feature querying action in addition to the browsing action. Featured objects managed by the CDS may comprise an Electronic Programming Guide (EPG) type and a TUNER type, as described above, in addition to a BOOKMARK type. Preferably, these featured objects are defined for reporting to the CP differently from general objects in order to efficiently use the CDS. If there is a feature supported by the CDS with respect to a feature querying action, the CDS can provide the name of the feature, a current version of the feature, and a list of objects under a root container among containers included in the feature as output arguments of the feature querying action. The CDS manages state variables about a predetermined service feature in order to respond to the feature querying action. Preferably, the state variables comprise a name of each feature, a version of the feature, and object IDs of a root container among containers belonging to the feature (e.g., object IDs of bookmark items if the service feature is a bookmark).
Hereinafter, a scheme for managing a “shortcut” according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described.
When an object structure shown in
Herein, the syntax of a called shortcut registration action message is shown in
As described above, if the action of the “RegisterShortcutObject” is called for the “My Movie” container by setting the value of the “IsRootObject” as “ON”, the CDS of the media server 200 converts the object structure shown in
If the “RegisterShortcutObject” action is called by setting the value of the “IsRootObject” as “OFF”, the media server 200 stores information about the object (i.e., the “My Movie” object), which is called when the “RegisterShortcutObject” action is called, in a storage unit (e.g., a memory) as a shortcut item without changing the conventional tree structure. Objects to be registered as shortcut items by setting the value of the “IsRootObject” as “OFF” may be confirmed through, for example, a shortcut querying action (reference numeral S21 of
In the meantime, if the “shortcut” is registered as one service feature by the CDS in the media server 200, the shortcut querying action is identical to the above-described feature querying action. Since the shortcut querying action specifies one feature and performs querying differently from the feature querying action, the shortcut querying action is a subset of the feature querying action.
Herein, the syntax of a response message for the shortcut querying action is shown in
Although objects to be registered as shortcut objects are created in an additional root level according to the previous embodiment, a shortcut container (e.g., a container having “SHORTCUT” as an ID) may be separated from a tree structure of a default root container “0” and additionally defined. An object specified as a shortcut object may be registered as a child container of the shortcut container “SHORTCUT”. To this end, the third input argument of the “RegisterShortcutObject” action indicates whether the shortcut container is defined as an additional root object or belongs to the default root container “0” as an independent shortcut container. In other words, as shown in
If the “IsSeparatedObject”=“OFF”, an object registered as the shortcut object stays in a current position of the conventional tree structure. If the “IsSeparatedObject”=“ON”, the object registered as the shortcut object is registered as a direct child of the additionally separated shortcut root container (“SHORTCUT”). In this embodiment, although a plurality of containers are registered as shortcut containers, because the containers are preferably registered as direct children of the shortcut container, as shown in
As described above, according to at least one embodiment of the present invention, an enhanced user interface such as a suitable graphic thumbnail is provided with respect to media data of media types widely used regardless of media server manufacturing companies, thereby enabling a user to easily recognize specific objects. In addition, it is possible for a user to quickly access objects mainly searched by the user through a shortcut function, thereby allowing the user to experience convenience for the use of media devices.
Although preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims.
The foregoing embodiments and advantages are merely exemplary and are not to be constructed as limiting the present teaching can be readily applied to other types of apparatuses. The present invention is intended to be illustrative, and not to limit the scope of the claims. Many alternatives, modifications, and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art. In the claims, means-plus-function clauses are intended to cover the structure described herein as performing the recited function and not only structural equivalents but also equivalent structures.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2004-0103768 | Dec 2004 | KR | national |
