Patent Publication Number: US-2006002390-A1

Title: Method and apparatus for storing and searching broadcasting stream

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
      This application claims the priority of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2004-0051006, filed on Jul. 1, 2004, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.  
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      1. Field of the Invention  
      The present invention relates to digital broadcasting and, more particularly, to a method of and an apparatus for storing a broadcasting stream received by a digital broadcasting receiver, and searching the stored broadcasting stream.  
      2. Description of the Related Art  
      Digital broadcasting allows high quality audio, video, graphics, and various additional information to be transmitted. Multimedia services, which the digital broadcasting is able to provide, include a travel and traffic information service, an information service interworking with a program capable of combining headline letters with images or traffic information with an electronic map, an independent information service having no connection with website broadcasting or a program such as a GPS (global positioning system) for digital broadcasting, and a moving picture transmission service.  
      A digital broadcasting receiver receives a digital broadcasting stream through a wire/wireless channel, stores the received stream in a storage medium, and plays and manages the broadcasting stream stored in the storage medium. A conventional digital broadcasting receiver designates a storage path and file name of a received digital broadcasting stream and stores the digital broadcasting stream according to rules predetermined by a manufacturer, to efficiently play and manage the digital broadcasting stream stored in a storage medium. But since the storage path and the file name are set without considering the content of the received broadcasting stream, the content of the broadcasting stream cannot be identified based on the storage path and the file name. Hence, it is difficult to manage and search the broadcasting stream that is stored according to the conventional method.  
      While a user may be requested to designate the storage path and file name of the broadcasting stream to be stored, if a user is using an input device, such as a remote controller, with which alpha-numeric character entry is difficult, it is hard for the user to input the storage path and file name in a digital broadcasting receiver.  
      Alternatively, the storage path and file name of the received broadcasting stream may be designated and stored using broadcasting information received through an additional channel or a network path. But an additional channel must then be secured. Thus, it is difficult to set the storage path and file name of the broadcasting stream in a mobile digital broadcasting receiver in which it is difficult to secure an additional network connection path.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      Additional aspects and/or advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part, will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.  
      The present invention provides a method of and an apparatus for storing a digital broadcasting stream using service information indicating a content included in the digital broadcasting stream received by a digital broadcasting receiver, and searching the stored broadcasting stream.  
      The present invention also provides a method of and an apparatus for constructing a database for storing a digital broadcasting stream with information indicating a content included in the digital broadcasting stream received by a digital broadcasting receiver, and searching the digital broadcasting stream using the constructed database.  
      According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of storing a broadcasting stream, having operations of: storing a broadcasting stream received during a predetermined period; extracting information indicating a content of the received broadcasting stream from the received broadcasting stream; and constructing a database based on the extracted information, wherein the database includes link information about the stored broadcasting stream.  
      According to one aspect, the information indicating the content of the broadcasting stream is extracted from a high-speed information channel of transmission frames of the received broadcasting stream.  
      According to one aspect, link information has at least one of a storage path, file name, storage date, or storage location of the broadcasting stream.  
      According to one aspect, information indicating the content includes at least one of ensemble information, sub channel configuration, basic service and service component configuration, service component language, or a data service label, and the database has a hierarchical data structure based on the information indicating the content.  
      According to one aspect, the method additionally has operations of checking whether the extracted information indicating the content is effective and constructing the database when the information indicating the content is recognized to be effective.  
      According to one aspect, the method additionally has operations of attempting to extract the information indicating the content of the broadcasting stream until reaching a predetermined number of attempts or until a predetermined time elapses, and if the predetermined number of attempts is reached or the predetermined time elapses, the information indicating the content of the broadcasting stream is determined to not be effective.  
      According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of storing and searching a broadcasting stream in a broadcasting receiver, the method having operations of: storing a broadcasting stream during a predetermined period; extracting information indicating a content of the received broadcasting stream from the received broadcasting stream; constructing a database based on the extracted information; displaying the information indicating the content of the stored broadcasting stream based on the database; and searching a broadcasting stream corresponding to select information from the stored broadcasting stream when the select information, selected on the basis of the information to be displayed, is received, wherein the database includes link information about the stored broadcasting stream.  
      According to one aspect, the information indicating the content of the stored broadcasting stream is displayed as a hierarchical data structure based on at least one of a broadcasting type, a storage date, a broadcasting title, a broadcasting station, or a size of the stored data.  
      According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for storing and searching a broadcasting stream in a broadcasting receiver, the apparatus having: an information extracting unit extracting information from a received broadcasting stream indicating a content of the received broadcasting stream; a database constructing and searching unit constructing a database based on the extracted information indicating the content of the received broadcasting stream, and searching the constructed database; a storage medium storing the received broadcasting stream and the constructed database; and a control unit controlling the constructed database to be stored in the storage medium, controlling the information indicating the content of the broadcasting stream stored in the storage medium to be output based on the database that the database constructing and searching unit searches from the storage medium, and when a searching request signal is received, searching a broadcasting stream corresponding to the received searching request signal from the storage medium, wherein the database includes link information about the broadcasting stream stored in the storage medium.  
      According to one aspect, the information-extracting unit extracts the information indicating the content of the broadcasting stream from a high-speed information channel of the received broadcasting stream. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
      These and/or other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, of which:  
       FIG. 1  is a functional block diagram of a digital broadcasting receiver including broadcasting stream storing and searching apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;  
       FIG. 2  is a structure diagram of a transmission frame of a general digital broadcasting stream;  
       FIG. 3  is a structure diagram of an FIB (fast information block) illustrated in  FIG. 2 ;  
       FIG. 4  shows an example of constructing a database, and a diagram showing a relationship between the constructed database and storage media;  
       FIG. 5  is a flowchart of a method of storing a broadcasting stream according to an embodiment of the present invention; and  
       FIG. 6  is a flowchart of a method of searching a broadcasting stream according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
      Reference will now be made in detail to embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the like elements throughout. The embodiments are described to explain the present invention by referring to the figures.  
       FIG. 1  is a functional block diagram of a digital broadcasting receiver including broadcasting stream storing and searching apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to  FIG. 1 , the digital broadcasting receiver includes a channel selecting and receiving unit  101 , a stream analyzing unit  102 , a decoder  103 , an information extracting unit  104 , a database constructing and searching unit  105 , a storage medium  106 , a control unit  107 , and a user interface unit  108 .  
      The channel selecting and receiving unit  101  extracts a digital broadcasting signal of a channel selected by a user from a digital broadcasting signal received through a wire/wireless channel, and outputs a demodulated broadcasting stream by demodulating the extracted digital broadcasting signal and removing a carrier wave therefrom.  
      The stream analyzing unit  102  classifies the received broadcasting stream according to channels and media when receiving the broadcasting stream of the selected channel from the channel selecting and receiving unit  101 .  FIG. 2  shows a structure of a transmission frame of the received digital broadcasting stream. Referring to  FIG. 2 , the digital broadcasting stream includes a synchronization channel (SC)  210 , a fast information channel (FIC)  220 , and a main service channel (MSC)  230 .  
      According to one embodiment, the SC  210  includes a null symbol, which can determine a transmission mode, and a reference symbol, which is required for a carrier wave frequency synchronization.  
      The FIC  220  is used to transfer pieces of information necessary for the digital broadcasting receiver to process data, for example, information about a service configuration or multiplied types of data, or data necessary to be fast transmitted. The FIC  220  may include multiplex configuration information (MCI) including information of the each sub channel&#39;s configuration, and service information (SI) that is additional information of each service. Accordingly, by identifying the FIC  220 , a service of which data is transmitted through the MSC  230  can be recognized. Also, it can be determined which application will use the service. In particular, the SI may include information indicating a content of a received broadcasting stream. The FIC  220  may include data which should be transmitted quickly within a fixed time. For example, a simple message about an emergency can be transmitted through the FIC  220 . The FIC  220  is composed of fast information blocks (FIBs) as shown in  FIG. 2 .  
      The MSC  230  transmits actual content data which a service provider supplies. That is, the MSC  230  transmits audio, video, and data information. Further, when the FIC  220  is short of space, the MSC  230  can share a part of FIC data, but cannot include the FIC data which should be quickly transmitted, because the MSC  230  is applied with time interleaving and thus, takes a little time to be decoded. The actual content data transmitted through the MSC  230  can be divided according to a data transmission mode. The data transmission mode may be a stream mode or a packet mode.  
      Accordingly, the stream analyzing unit  102  transfers the FIC  220  of the received broadcasting stream to the information-extracting unit  104 , classifies the MSC  230  according to the media, and transfers the classified MSC  230  to the decoder  103 . The media may include audio, video, and/or data information.  
      The decoder  103  restores the audio, video and data information transferred from the stream analyzing unit  102  to their former states before coding. The restored audio, video and data information is transmitted to corresponding output devices (not shown), respectively. The output devices may include a monitor or a speaker. Accordingly, the user can watch/listen to the selected digital broadcasting through the corresponding output device. According to one embodiment, the decoder  103  includes decoders corresponding to the audio, video, and data information respectively transferred from the stream analyzing unit  102 .  
      The information extracting unit  104  extracts service information of the currently stored broadcasting stream by analyzing the FIC  220  stream received from the stream analyzing unit  102 . The service information includes information indicating the content of the broadcasting stream.  
      The FIC  220  stream transferred from the stream analyzing unit  102  is composed of the FIBs as shown in  FIG. 2 . The FIB is composed as shown in  FIG. 3 .  
       FIG. 3  is a structure diagram of the FIB. The FIB is composed of an FIB data field  310  and a CRC (cyclic redundancy check code) field  320 . The information extracting unit  104  checks whether the extracted service information is effective (valid) based on data transmitted through the CRC field. That is, the information-extracting unit  104  checks if the information indicating the content of the broadcasting stream is effective.  
      The FIB data field  310  is 30 bytes, and includes FIGs (fast information groups), particularly FIG 1 ˜FIGt. If the FIB data field  310  is not filled with the FIGs, an end marker  340  indicating the end of the FIG data and null data are padded  350  to form a 256-bit FIB. An FIG type field  360  indicating a type of data included in the FIG data field  380  and a length field  370  indicating a length of the FIG data field  380  are inserted in a header, and then the actual data is stored in the FIG data field  380 . The information about an FIG type or the syntax of data varies according to an application to be used or information to be indicated.  
      The information to be included in the FIG type field  360  and FIG data field  380  can be defined as shown in Table 1.  
                   TABLE 1                       FIG type   Content                  0/0   Ensemble information       0/1   Sub channel configuration       0/2   Basic service and service component configuring       0/5   Service component language       1/5   Data service label                  
 
      The ensemble information of Table 1 is broadcasting stream provider information. For example, the ensemble information includes information about a broadcasting station such as KBS (Korea Broadcasting System), MBC (Munhwa Broadcasting Company) and SBS (Seoul Broadcasting System). The sub channel configuration is information about a type of broadcasting that indicates the broadcasting stream is a sport, news, a drama, home shopping, or others. The basic service and service component configuration is information which indicates a detailed type of broadcasting. For example, if the broadcasting is sports, the basic service and service component configuration indicates that the sport is, for example, baseball or soccer. The service component language is broadcasting language information which indicates the language used in the broadcasting stream is, for instance, Korean or English. The data service label is a broadcasting title of the broadcasting stream.  
      Therefore, the information indicating a content of a broadcasting stream can include the ensemble information, the sub channel configuration, the basic service and service component configuration, the service component language, and the data service label. The information extracting unit  104  extracts the information indicating a content of a broadcasting stream transmitted through the FIG data field  380 . The extracted information is transmitted to the database constructing and searching unit  105 .  
      The database constructing and searching unit  105  constructs a database of the broadcasting stream to be stored in the storage medium  106  based on the information indicating the content of the broadcasting stream that is provided from the information extracting unit  104 .  
      That is, the database is constructed to have a hierarchical data structure based on the information indicating the content of the broadcasting stream to be stored in the storage medium  106 , as shown in  410  of  FIG. 4 . The numeral  410  of  FIG. 4  indicates a database in which a plurality of broadcasting streams stored in the storage medium  106  are classified according to a broadcasting type, such as sport, news, drama, home shopping, etc. But the database can be constructed with a hierarchical data structure based on storage date, a broadcasting title, a broadcasting station, or a size of stored data.  
      Further, the database  410  includes link information of the broadcasting stream stored in the storage medium  106 . Specifically, the database  410  includes a storage path, file name, storage date, and storage location of the broadcasting stream stored in the storage medium  106 . For example, with respect to a baseball game between AAA team and BBB team, the database  410  may include link information in which storage path information is specified as “sports/baseball”, a file name is “AAA team Vs BBB team”, the storage date is Jan. 1, 2004 (2004/1/1), and the storage location in the storage medium  106  is defined as AAA  422 .  
      The constructed database  410  is stored in a database storage area  421  in a storage structure  420  of the storage medium  106  as shown in  FIG. 4 . The broadcasting stream is randomly stored in an empty storage area of the storage medium  106 .  
      When a user intends to search the stored broadcasting stream, the database constructing and searching unit  105  searches the database stored in the storage medium  106  and transmits database information to the user interface unit  108 . At this moment, the database constructing and searching unit  105  can output the database information being controlled by a control unit  107  in a hierarchical data structure that is based on the information indicating a content of the broadcasting stream.  
      For example, the database constructing and searching unit  105  can output the information indicating a content of the broadcasting stream in a hierarchical data structure  410  based on the broadcasting type as shown in  FIG. 4 . Otherwise, the database constructing and searching unit  105  can output the information indicating the content of the broadcasting stream with a hierarchical data structure based on the storage date, a size of the stored data, a broadcasting title, or a broadcasting station.  
      As shown in  FIG. 4 , the user can identify that the storage path of the baseball game between the AAA team and the BBB team is /sports/baseball/AAA team Vs BBB team, and that a baseball game between CCC team and DDD team, 9 o&#39;clock news of EEE broadcasting station, 8 o&#39;clock news of FFF broadcasting station, episode No. 20 of a drama titled ‘GGG’, an HHH anniversary documentary and a KKK special documentary are included in the storage medium  106 .  
      When the control unit  107  receives various signals through the user interface unit  108 , the control unit  107  controls every component of the digital broadcasting receiver. In particular, when a request signal of storing the broadcasting stream is received from the user interface unit  108 , the control unit  107  controls the stream analyzing unit  102  to store the intended broadcasting stream in the storage medium  106 , controls the information extracting unit  104  and the database constructing and searching unit  105  to construct the database for the broadcasting stream stored in the storage medium  106 , and stores the constructed database in the storage medium  106 .  
      Meanwhile, when a request signal for searching the broadcasting stream stored in the storage medium  106  is received from the user interface unit  108 , the control unit  107  controls the storage medium  106  and the database constructing and searching unit  105  to search the database information stored in the storage medium  106 , and transfers the searched database information to the user interface unit  108 . At this moment, the control unit  107  can control the database constructing and searching unit  105  such that the searched database information is transferred to the hierarchical data structure as previously described. The request signal of searching is generated when a user requests to play or manage the broadcasting stream stored in the storage medium  106 .  
      The user interface unit  108  receives various instructions (or various signals) that a user intends to input, provides the instructions to the control unit  107 , and provides the information received from the control unit  107  or from the database constructing and searching unit  105  to the user. The various instructions the user can input may include a power on/off, channel set, sound volume set, request of storing the received broadcasting stream, and an instruction for request of searching the stored broadcasting stream. The search request instruction may be generated during playing or managing the stored broadcasting stream. Additionally, the information received from the database constructing and searching unit  105  is database information constructed according to an embodiment of the present invention, which indicates the content of the stored broadcasting stream.  
      The storage medium  106  can store the constructed database information and the broadcasting stream that the user intends to store with the structure as shown in  420  of  FIG. 4 .  
       FIG. 5  is a flowchart of a method of storing a broadcasting stream according to an embodiment of the present invention.  
      Referring to  FIG. 5 , when a user requests to store a received broadcasting stream (operation  501 ), the control unit  107  controls an operation of the digital broadcasting receiver to extract information indicating the content of the received broadcasting stream (operation  502 ). The information indicating a content of the received broadcasting stream is extracted from the FIC  220  illustrated in  FIG. 2 . The extracted information indicating the content may include ensemble information, sub channel configuration, basic service and service component configuration, service component language, and/or a data service label as shown in Table 1.  
      It is checked whether the extracted information indicating the content is effective (operation  503 ). Specifically, it is checked whether the extracted information indicating the content is effective based on the information transferred through the CRC field illustrated in  FIG. 3 . If the extracted information is determined to be effective, link information, such as storage path and file name, of the broadcasting stream to be stored are set based on the extracted information indicating the content (operation  504 ). For example, with respect to the baseball game between AAA team and BBB team shown in  FIG. 4 , the storage path of the broadcasting stream of the baseball game is designated as “/sports/baseball/”, and the file name of the broadcasting stream is designated as “AAA team Vs BBB team”. At this moment, the storage date and the storage location can be also designated together.  
      Next, a database including the set link information is constructed as the database structure  410  illustrated in  FIG. 4 . The constructed database, which is based on the information indicating the content of the stored broadcasting stream, has a hierarchical data structure. The constructed database and the broadcasting stream to be received are stored in the storage medium  106  (operation  505 ).  
      In operation  503 , if the extracted information indicating the content is determined not to be effective, it is determined whether to retry to extract the information indicating the content (operation  506 ). If the number of times when the information indicating the content failed to be extracted does not reach a predetermined number of times, or a time associated therewith does not reach a predetermined time, the method returns to the operation  502  and another attempt to extract the information indicating the content is performed. In the opposite case, the storage path and file name of the broadcasting stream are set according to one of the conventional methods, and the broadcasting stream is stored (operation  507 ).  
       FIG. 6  is a flowchart of a method of a searching broadcasting stream according to an embodiment of the present invention.  
      When a user requests to search a broadcasting stream to play or manage a stored broadcasting stream (operation  601 ), the control unit  107  searches the database information stored in the storage medium  106 , and displays information indicating a content of the stored broadcasting stream based on the searched database (operation  602 ). The displayed information indicating the content of the broadcasting stream has the hierarchical data structure as the structure  410  illustrated in  FIG. 4 . That is, the information indicating the content of the stored broadcasting stream can be displayed as the hierarchical data structure based on the broadcasting type, the storage date, the broadcasting title, the broadcasting station, and/or the size of the stored data.  
      When information selected on the basis of the displayed information is received (operation  603 ), the control unit  107  searches a broadcasting stream corresponding to the selected information from the storage medium  106  (operation  604 ). The searched broadcasting stream can be played or managed according to the user&#39;s request. The selected information is generated by the user.  
      As described above, a database for a broadcasting stream is constructed, the broadcasting stream being stored based on service information indicating a content of the broadcasting stream that is included in a high-speed information channel of the received broadcasting stream. Further, when the stored broadcasting stream is searched, the information indicating the content of the broadcasting stream that is stored based on the constructed database is displayed, thereby easily searching the intended broadcasting stream and efficiently and systematically managing the stored broadcasting stream based on the content.  
      Although a few embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined in the claims and their equivalents.