Patent Document

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATION 
       [0001]    This application claims priority from Korean Patent Application No. 10-2010-0010478, filed on Feb. 4, 2010, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    1. Field 
         [0003]    The present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for displaying additional information of content, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for displaying additional information of content by displaying additional information related to content via a thumbnail image, which represents the content. 
         [0004]    2. Description of the Related Art 
         [0005]    Currently, various devices support playback of motion picture contents and provide information related to contents by displaying titles of contents in text form or by displaying thumbnail images. Thumbnail images help a user to select content by decoding motion picture content and displaying portions of motion pictures.  FIG. 1  shows a conventional method of displaying thumbnails, in which a list of contents, which includes thumbnail images  110 , filenames  120 , file sizes  121 , and overall playback times  122 , is displayed. Such a method of displaying thumbnails may only provide information regarding features of content itself.  FIG. 2  shows a conventional method of displaying remaining power of a battery. Such a method may only provide information regarding battery power, and possible playback time of content with the currently remaining battery power may not be determined. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0006]    Exemplary embodiments include a method and apparatus for displaying additional information of content by displaying additional information related to content via a thumbnail image, which represents the content. 
         [0007]    According to an exemplary embodiment, there is provided a method of displaying information about content, the method including obtaining a thumbnail image and additional information related to the content; modifying the thumbnail image based on the additional information; and displaying the modified thumbnail image. 
         [0008]    The obtaining may include determining a position of the content at which playback of the content has stopped with respect to an entire playback length of time of the content, based on a playback history of the content, and the modifying may include modifying a first portion of the thumbnail image that corresponds to a first amount of time of the content that precedes the position to be distinguishable from a second portion of the thumbnail image that corresponds to a second amount of time of the content that follows the position. 
         [0009]    The modifying the first portion to be distinguishable from the second portion may include modifying a color of the first portion of the thumbnail image to be a grayscale color. 
         [0010]    The obtaining of additional information may include determining a remaining power of a playback device that outputs the content and estimating a possible playback time of the content based on the remaining power, and the modifying may include modifying a first portion of the thumbnail image that corresponds to a first amount of time of the content that precedes the possible playback time to be distinguishable from a second portion of the thumbnail image that corresponds to a second amount of time of the content that follows the possible playback time. 
         [0011]    The obtaining may include obtaining information regarding an estimated playback time of the content, and the modifying may include mapping the entire thumbnail image to an overall playback time of the content and modifying a first portion of the thumbnail image corresponding to a segment of the content which is estimated to be played back to be distinguishable from a second portion of the thumbnail image corresponding to a segment of the content which is estimated to not be played back. 
         [0012]    The modifying may include changing a color of a portion of the thumbnail image based on the additional information. 
         [0013]    The method may further include obtaining a second thumbnail image and second additional information related to second content and modifying the second thumbnail image based on the second additional information, and the displaying may include displaying the modified thumbnail image and the modified second thumbnail image as a list. 
         [0014]    According to another exemplary embodiment, there is provided an apparatus for displaying information about content, the apparatus may include a storage unit that stores information about the content; an output unit; and a control unit that obtains a thumbnail image and additional information related to the content, modifies the thumbnail image based on the additional information, and displaying the modified thumbnail image via the output unit. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0015]    The above and other advantages will become more apparent by describing in detail exemplary embodiments thereof with reference to the attached drawings in which: 
           [0016]      FIG. 1  shows a conventional method of displaying thumbnails; 
           [0017]      FIG. 2  shows a conventional method of displaying remaining power of a battery; 
           [0018]      FIG. 3  is a schematic view of an apparatus for displaying additional information, according to an exemplary embodiment; 
           [0019]      FIG. 4  is a flowchart of a method of displaying additional information according to an exemplary embodiment; 
           [0020]      FIG. 5  is a flowchart of a method of displaying additional information, according to another exemplary embodiment; 
           [0021]      FIGS. 6A ,  6 B, and  6 C show examples of thumbnail images according to the exemplary embodiment shown in  FIG. 5 ; 
           [0022]      FIG. 7  is a flowchart of a method of displaying additional information according to another exemplary embodiment; and 
           [0023]      FIG. 8  shows an example of thumbnail images according to the exemplary embodiment shown in  FIG. 7 . 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS 
       [0024]      FIG. 3  is a schematic view of an apparatus  300  for displaying additional information, according to an exemplary embodiment. 
         [0025]    Referring to  FIG. 3 , the apparatus  300  includes a storage unit  310  that stores content-related information, an output unit  330 , and a control unit  320  that processes content-related information read from the storage unit  310  and that displays a result of processing via the output unit  330 . The control unit  320  includes an additional information obtaining unit  321  that obtains a thumbnail image and additional information related to the content and a thumbnail image modifying unit  322  that modifies the thumbnail image based on the obtained additional information. The control unit  320  displays the modified thumbnail image via the output unit  330 . The control unit  320  may be a microprocessor. The storage unit  310  may be a memory such as, for example, a read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), flash memory, or the like. 
         [0026]    Detailed descriptions of functions, operations, and various embodiments of the control unit  320  will be given below with reference to  FIGS. 4 through 8 . 
         [0027]      FIG. 4  is a flowchart of a method of displaying additional information, according to an exemplary embodiment. 
         [0028]    Referring to  FIGS. 3 and 4 , the additional information obtaining unit  321  obtains a thumbnail image and additional information with respect to content by using information stored in the storage unit  310  (operation  410 ). A thumbnail image is a small-size image representing content. The thumbnail image may be created by using a first image or a first key frame that is output by decoding the content or by using a representative image provided by a content creator. However, the present exemplary embodiment is not limited thereto. Additional information is information related to content and represented by using the thumbnail image. For example, to obtain additional information, the additional information obtaining unit  321  estimates playback time of content to predict a specific portion of the content to be played back by a user and a specific portion of the content not to be played back by the user. Information regarding a point of the content up to which the user watched the content or remaining power of a device may be used for the estimation of playback time. 
         [0029]    The thumbnail image modifying unit  322  modifies a thumbnail image based on obtained additional information (operation  420 ). Modification of a thumbnail image may entail changing the color of a particular region in the thumbnail image, grayscaling the thumbnail image, or changing the size or the shape of the thumbnail image. However, the present exemplary embodiment is not limited thereto, and any of various methods for displaying additional information may be employed. If additional information to be displayed includes information regarding estimated playback time of content, the entire thumbnail image is mapped to the overall playback time of the content, and a portion of the thumbnail image corresponding to a segment of the content, which is estimated to be played back, and another portion of the thumbnail image corresponding to another segment of the content, which is estimated not to be played back, are indicated differently. 
         [0030]    A modified thumbnail image is displayed by the output unit  330  (operation  430 ). At this point, information for identifying corresponding content, such as content filenames or content titles, may be displayed. Furthermore, text indicating additional information displayed on the thumbnail image and the size of content may also be displayed. Displayed information may be a list of contents, and each of the items in the list of contents may include information that identifies corresponding content and a modified thumbnail image obtained in operations  410  and  420 . 
         [0031]    Since additional information is displayed, not as text, but as modifications of a thumbnail image, a user may intuitively recognize the additional information, and the recognized additional information helps the user to select content. 
         [0032]      FIG. 5  is a flowchart of a method of displaying additional information according to another exemplary embodiment, in which a point of content, up to which a user has recently watched the content, is indicated. 
         [0033]    Referring to  FIG. 5 , playback history information of content is obtained (operation  510 ). The playback history information includes a point at which playback of content has been stopped. Information regarding points at which playback of each of contents have been stopped may be obtained from a playback log file or a database, in which the history of content playback is stored. However, the present exemplary embodiment is not limited thereto, and various modifications may be made herein. In operation  520 , it is determined whether a point at which playback of content has been stopped is located between a starting point and an end point of the content. If the point at which playback of the content has been stopped is the starting point of playback of the content, a user has not watched the corresponding content, and thus it is not necessary to modify a corresponding thumbnail image. If the point at which playback of the content has been stopped is the end point of playback of the content, a user has played back the entire corresponding content, and thus it is not necessary to modify a corresponding thumbnail image. If the point at which playback of the content has been stopped is between the starting point and the end point of the content, it is necessary to modify a corresponding thumbnail image to indicate the point at which playback of the content has been stopped. 
         [0034]    If it is determined that playback of content has been recently stopped before the content is completely played back, information regarding the entire playback time of the content is obtained. The information may be obtained from metadata of the content or from a database in which information regarding the content is stored. However, the present exemplary embodiment is not limited thereto, and various modifications may be made herein. A relative position of a final point at which playback of the content has been stopped with respect to the entire playback time of the content is calculated (operation  530 ). For example, if playback of content with an entire playback time of 60 minutes has been stopped after 12 minutes, the relative position of the final point at which playback of the content has been stopped with respect to the entire playback time of the content is 0.2. 
         [0000]      Relative Position=Point At Which Playback Has Been Stopped/Entire Playback Time  [Equation 1]
 
         [0035]    A thumbnail image corresponding to content is obtained (operation  540 ). The thumbnail image corresponding to content may be generated by using a first key frame of the content. Alternatively, a key frame corresponding to the relative position calculated in operation  530  may be extracted from the content via a decoder and used as a thumbnail image. The obtained thumbnail image is modified based on the relative position calculated in operation  530 , where a left portion and a right portion of the thumbnail image with respect to the relative position are indicated differently (operation  550 ). For example, since the left portion of the thumbnail image from the relative position is the portion of content a user has already watched, the left portion is modified to be a grayscale portion. On the contrary, since the right portion of the thumbnail image from the relative position is the portion of content expected to be watched by the user, the original thumbnail image is used in the right portion. According to another exemplary embodiment, the left portion of the thumbnail image may be modified to be a different color. The modified thumbnail image is displayed via the output unit  330  (operation  560 ). 
         [0036]    In the case of displaying a list of contents for content selection, operations  510  through  560  are repeated with respect to each of the contents, and the titles of content files are displayed with modified thumbnail images. 
         [0037]    Furthermore, although a corresponding thumbnail image is not modified in the case where a user has completely watched a corresponding content in the embodiment shown in  FIG. 5 , the entire thumbnail image of the corresponding content may also be modified to be a grayscale portion so as to distinguish the corresponding content from contents the user has not yet watched and to indicate that the user has already watched the corresponding content completely. 
         [0038]    A user may intuitively learn about contents he or she has previously watched through information displayed on thumbnail images of contents, where the information is in regard to the playback history of the contents. 
         [0039]      FIGS. 6A through 6C  show examples of thumbnail images according to the exemplary embodiment shown in  FIG. 5 . 
         [0040]    Referring to  FIG. 6A , in the case where playback of content with an entire playback time of 100 minutes has been stopped after 20 minutes, the relative position calculated based on Equation 1 is 0.2. Therefore, a portion  610  on the left of the relative position, which corresponds to the left 20% of a thumbnail image, is modified to be a grayscale portion, and a remaining portion  620  of the thumbnail image is unchanged. 
         [0041]    Referring to  FIG. 6B , in the case where playback of content with an entire playback time of 100 minutes has been stopped after 50 minutes, the relative position calculated based on Equation 1 is 0.5. Therefore, a portion  630  on the left of the relative position, which corresponds to the left half of a thumbnail image, is modified to be a grayscale portion, and a remaining portion  640  of the thumbnail image is unchanged. 
         [0042]    Referring to  FIG. 6C , in the case where playback of content with an entire playback time of 100 minutes has been stopped after 80 minutes, the relative position calculated based on Equation 1 is 0.8. Therefore, a portion  650  on the left of the relative position, which corresponds to the left 80% of a thumbnail image, is modified to be a grayscale portion, and a remaining portion  660  of the thumbnail image is unchanged. 
         [0043]      FIG. 7  is a flowchart of a method of displaying additional information according to another exemplary embodiment, in which a possible playback time of content with currently remaining power may be displayed. 
         [0044]    Referring to  FIG. 7 , information regarding power of the apparatus  300  is obtained (operation  710 ). The information regarding power of the apparatus  300  includes information regarding currently remaining power. The playback time of content, which is possible with the currently remaining power, is estimated (operation  720 ). The estimation of the possible playback time requires information regarding the bit rate of the content, the duration of the content, and the length and the width of images, which is obtained from among internal information related to the corresponding content. A thumbnail image corresponding to the content is obtained (operation  730 ). The thumbnail image is modified so that a portion of the content that may be played back and a remaining portion of the content are indicated differently (operation  740 ), and the thumbnail image is displayed (operation  750 ). 
         [0045]    If the entire playback time of content is referred to as T and the actual possible playback time of the content is referred to as t, a thumbnail image may be modified as follows: 
         [0000]      if  x ≦( t×W )/ T,I ′( x,y )= I ( x,y )
 
         [0000]      else  I ′( x,y )= G ( I ( x,y ))  [Equation 2]
 
         [0046]    Here, W indicates the width of a thumbnail image, H indicates the height of the thumbnail image, I(x, y) indicates a value of a pixel of the thumbnail image at the coordinate (x, y) (0≦x&lt;W, 0≦y&lt;H), the G( ) calculation refers to a calculation for deleting color information of the pixel and modifying the pixel to be grayscale, and I′(x, y) indicates a new value of the pixel of the thumbnail image generated as a result of the modification. 
         [0047]    If a plurality of contents are to be indicated with thumbnail images, the method is repeated to modify and display thumbnail images with respect to each of the contents. 
         [0048]    In the case where the battery duration is limited as in mobile apparatuses, the possible playback time of particular content is indicated by comparing the remaining battery duration and the amount of power required for content playback, and thus a user may select content in consideration of the remaining power. 
         [0049]      FIG. 8  shows an example of thumbnail images according to the exemplary embodiment shown in  FIG. 7 . 
         [0050]    Referring to  FIG. 8 , it is estimated that only 60% of content may be played back with the currently remaining power, and thus a portion  810  of the thumbnail image corresponding to the possible playback time is unchanged, whereas a remaining portion  820  of the thumbnail image is modified to be grayscale. 
         [0051]    The exemplary embodiments can also be embodied as computer readable codes on a computer readable recording medium. The computer readable recording medium is any data storage device that can store data which can be thereafter read by a computer system. Examples of the computer readable recording medium include read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), CD-ROMs, magnetic tapes, floppy disks, optical data storage devices, etc. The computer readable recording medium can also be distributed over network coupled computer systems so that the computer readable code is stored and executed in a distributed fashion. 
         [0052]    While the present disclosure has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the following claims.

Technology Category: g