HK1088435B - Storage medium in which audio-visual data with event information is recorded, and reproducing apparatus and reproducing method thereof - Google Patents

Description

Storage medium in which audio-visual data having event information is recorded, and reproducing apparatus and reproducing method thereof

Technical Field

The present invention relates to reproduction of multimedia data, and more particularly, to a storage medium in which audio-visual data having event information is recorded, and a reproducing apparatus and reproducing method thereof.

Background

Encoded audio-visual (AV) data, navigation data that controls reproduction of the AV data, and movie objects (movie objects) are recorded in a conventional multimedia storage medium. In more detail, the AV data includes AV stream data including video data and audio data encoded on the basis of the MPEG standard and/or additional information such as a sub-picture displaying a subtitle, and information data including encoding attribute information of the AV stream data or time-to-position information (time-to-position information) of the AV stream data. The navigation data includes additional information such as an AV data reproduction order, an AV data reproduction time, and an entry point for random access designated by a content manufacturer. The movie object includes navigation commands that control reproduction of AV data, such as commands to reproduce AV data by using navigation data and commands to jump to other navigation data. Accordingly, AV data can be reproduced by using navigation commands in the storage medium, and a user can watch a movie. Hereinafter, a set of navigation commands will be referred to as a movie object.

[0003] Summary of the invention

Technical problem

However, in a conventional storage medium in which AV data is recorded, a program such as a game or a chat that uses reproduced AV data to provide a user interactive operation or an application to which a program operation is added, such as an application that provides a browsing operation to restore information related to reproduced AV data from a markup document and displays the information, cannot be recorded in the same recording medium as the AV data. That is, with a conventional storage medium in which AV data is recorded, the AV data can be simply reproduced, but additional application programs such as a program providing interactive operations to a user cannot be provided.

Technical solution

The present invention provides a storage medium in which audio-visual data having event information is recorded, and a reproducing apparatus and a reproducing method thereof.

Advantageous effects

The storage medium may be controlled such that an application to which a program operation is added is synchronized with a specific reproduction time of the AV data by using the event information while reproducing the entire AV data or a portion of the AV data.

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.

Drawings

These and/or other aspects and advantages of the present 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 illustrates data stored in a storage medium according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a block diagram of an apparatus for reproducing AV data including event information according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3 illustrates event data included in an AV stream according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a table representing event data included in an information file according to another embodiment of the present invention; and

fig. 5 is a table representing event descriptors according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

An aspect of the present invention provides a storage medium in which audio-visual data having event information is recorded, and a reproducing apparatus and a reproducing method thereof.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a storage medium including: audio-visual (AV) data; and event information which activates an event when a predetermined specific scene is reproduced while the AV data is reproduced, and executes a predetermined program application corresponding to the activated event by synchronizing the program application with the specific scene.

According to an aspect of the invention, the event information may include: event data indicating that a specific scene is being reproduced; and an event descriptor in which a program application corresponding to the event data is defined. The event data may be included in AV data. The event data may be included in AV stream data or information data constituting the AV data. The event data may include information indicating that predetermined data included in the AV data is event data, information indicating a point in time when an event is to be activated, an event identifier, and/or additional information.

According to an aspect of the present invention, event data may be included in the AV stream data, and the information indicating a point in time when the event is to be activated may be a position of a bitstream including the event data among the AV stream data. The event descriptor may include an event identifier, information about a program application to be executed, and/or information required to execute the program application. The event descriptor may be recorded separately from event data included in the AV data. The event descriptor may be included in an application management table in which information about the operation of the program application is recorded. The program application may further include a program operation providing an additional operation to a user, and the program application is implemented by a program language selected from the group consisting of JAVA and a markup language. According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a reproducing apparatus including: and a presentation engine which activates an event when a specific scene indicated by the event information is reproduced while audio-visual (AV) data including the event information is reproduced, and transmits information about the activated event to the application manager, wherein the application manager controls a program application indicated by the event information and corresponding to the activated event to be synchronized with the specific scene and to be executed. The presentation engine may activate an event when a specific scene is reproduced based on event data constituting the event information and indicating that the specific scene is being reproduced, and the application manager may control a program application to be executed with reference to an event descriptor in which the program application corresponding to the activated event is defined. The event data may be included in AV stream data or information data constituting the AV data, and the presentation engine may reproduce the AV data including the event data. The event data may include information indicating that predetermined data included in the AV data is event data, information indicating a point in time at which an event is to be activated, an event identifier, and/or additional information, and the presentation engine activates an event corresponding to the event identifier while reproducing the AV data on the basis of the information indicating the point in time at which the event is to be activated and transmits the activated event to the application manager together with the event identifier.

According to an aspect of the present invention, when the event data is included in the AV stream data, the presentation engine may use a position of a bitstream including the event data among the AV stream data as information indicating a point in time when the event is to be activated.

According to an aspect of the present invention, the event descriptor may include an event identifier, information on an application to be executed, and/or information required to execute the application, and the application manager may receive an identifier of an activated event from the presentation engine, obtain information on the application to be executed corresponding to the event identifier with reference to the event descriptor, and control execution of the application.

According to an aspect of the present invention, the event descriptor may be represented in a table form separately from event data included in AV data or included in an application management table in which information on a program application is recorded, and the application manager may control execution of the program application with reference to the table or the application management table.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a reproducing method including: reproducing audio-visual (AV) data including event information; and, if a specific scene indicated by the event information is reproduced while the AV data is reproduced, the event is activated, a program application corresponding to the activated event is synchronized with the specific scene, and the program application is executed.

Additional and/or other aspects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.

Modes for carrying out the invention

Reference will now be made in detail to the 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 below in order to explain the present invention by referring to the figures.

Fig. 1 illustrates data stored in a storage medium according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to fig. 1, the storage medium stores AV data 212, navigation data 222, and application data 232. The AV data 212 includes a plurality of clips, which are storage units of AV data. Each clip includes AV stream data and information data.

The AV stream data may be implemented by a clip AV stream file in which video, audio, and/or additional information such as a sub picture displaying a subtitle are encoded according to the MPEG standard and recorded. However, it should be understood that other criteria may be used.

The information data may be implemented by a clip information file in which encoding attribute information of AV stream data or time-position information of AV stream data (data converting time into byte addresses) is included.

The navigation data 222 includes a plurality of playlists, which are reproduction units of the AV data 212. Each playlist includes a plurality of playitems, each playitem including information related to reproduction of a corresponding clip to be reproduced. The application data 232 includes movie objects that simply reproduce the AV data 222 and program applications that perform program operations.

When the basic AV data 212 is reproduced, a reproduction order and a reproduction time are obtained by reading a playlist using a navigation command. In addition, the reproduction time is converted into a byte address by reading the clip information file corresponding to the reproduction time based on the reproduction order. Then, the AV data 212 is reproduced by reading the clip AV stream file corresponding to the converted byte address. As described above, a mode in which the AV data 212 is simply reproduced based on time is referred to as a core mode (core mode).

On the other hand, a mode in which a program application performing a program operation is reproduced is made a full mode (fullmode). In the full mode, each program application provides an additional operation to the user while reproducing the entire AV data 212 or a part of the AV data 212 by using an Application Program Interface (API) with a movie object. That is, by synchronizing with scenes of a specific movie, specific information may be provided or a predetermined program application may operate.

For example, The beginning of a scene of a mobile phone, which occurs when The movie 'The Matrix' is reproduced, an advertisement application of a company that manufactures The mobile phone may be automatically executed. In addition, when displaying a panorama of a mountain covered with snow when reproducing the movie 'the lord soft King', an application providing a description of a province where a background of the scene is located, travel information, and a special feature may be provided.

In order to synchronize the program application with the specific scene being reproduced included in the AV data, event information (or tag information) informing the application that the specific scene of the AV data 212 is being reproduced is required. The detailed structure of the event information will be described in detail below.

Fig. 2 is a block diagram of an apparatus 200 for reproducing AV data 212 including event information according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to fig. 2, the reproducing apparatus 200 includes a presentation engine 210, a playback control engine 220, and an application manager 230. Although not shown, it is understood that the recording and/or reproducing apparatus 200 transmits the application 232, the navigation 222, and the AV data 212 with respect to the medium shown in fig. 1.

The presentation engine 210 reads, decodes, and reproduces AV data 212 and event data 212. The AV data 212 is described above, and the reproduction of the event data will be described below.

As described above, the playback control engine 220 reads the navigation data 222, and controls the presentation engine 210 to reproduce the AV data 212 based on the navigation data 222.

The application manager 230 manages and controls execution and termination of each application program, which is provided with a program language such as Java or a markup language. The application manager 230 reads application data 232 such as the above-described movie objects and program applications, and commands the playback control engine 220 to reproduce the corresponding AV data 232. In addition, the application manager 230 receives a user operation 236 and controls the playback control engine 220 to reproduce the AV data 212.

In more detail, a process of reproducing the AV data 212 in the core mode will now be described. The application manager 230 executes a navigation command such as PlayPL (playlist 1) included in a movie object included in the application data 232. The playback control engine 220 reads a corresponding playlist file in the navigation data 222 indicated by the navigation command and obtains the name of a clip file to be reproduced and information related to the reproduction from a playitem included in the playlist file. The presentation engine 210 reads corresponding clip information by using the clip file name and reproduces the clip AV stream file by using the obtained attribute information.

Mark information for detecting a specific position of the AV data 212 by using a user operation 236 or a command is included in the navigation data 222. The playback control engine 220 may receive a user operation 236 or a command prepared by a manufacturer included in the application data 232, change a reproduction position based on the tag information, and reproduce the AV data 212. The mark information includes chapter marks indicating time points for distinguishing chapters of the movie and jump marks for quick search.

A process of reproducing the AV data 212 in the full mode in which the user interactive operation is added and the application to which the program operation is added will now be described. In the full mode, in order to provide user interactive operation, an application generated by using, for example, Java or a markup language is provided together with the AV data 212. By using the entire movie or a part of the movie based on the manufacturer's intention and playing a game based on the AV data 212 to the user, the application can provide the capability of reproducing the AV data 212 for a specific purpose. For example, while a movie is being reproduced in a portion on the screen, information related to the movie, such as a still image or a document, may be provided along with the movie in the remaining portion on the screen. For a game application, a movie may be run as the background of the game, scenes of the movie may be embedded in the middle of the game, or movies having the same characters and different episodes may be provided based on the results of the game.

In an aspect of the present invention, event information is added to the AV data 212 to provide specific information synchronized with a specific scene of a movie or to run a predetermined specific application. The event information includes event data and an event descriptor. The event data is included in the AV data 212 and indicates that a specific scene, a specific character, or a specific item appears in a scene of a movie being reproduced. When an event is activated by event data, the event descriptor provides information related to the application program, which is specified information such as a program application or operation to be executed.

In more detail, the event data is included in the AV data 212 and includes information indicating an event, an Identifier (ID) of the event, and information indicating an event activation time and/or additional information.

Information indicating an event (hereinafter, referred to as 'event discriminator') is used to distinguish event data from AV data, and indicates that data having a predetermined length after the event discriminator is event data. The event ID is used to identify a specific event from a plurality of events. The event ID should generally have a unique value, but may also be a generic ID used in multiple scenes/playlists.

The information indicating the event activation time is information indicating a reproduction time when a specific scene, during which a specific application program is to be executed, is reproduced. When event data is included in the clip information file, time information should be explicitly stated. However, when event data is included in an AV stream, the event data is added to a bitstream of AV stream data corresponding to a specific scene to run a specific application, and time information is not necessarily explicit. That is, the position of the bitstream including the event data is time information.

The additional information may be included by the manufacturer and provide information to the user that is not related to the operation of the application. For example, a description of a particular event may be included in the additional information. However, it should be understood that additional information may be accessible to the user and the distributor.

Two examples of event data will now be described. Fig. 3 illustrates event data included in an AV stream according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to fig. 3, event data 300 additionally added to AV stream data is shown.

As shown in fig. 1, the AV data 212 includes AV stream data (clip AV stream file) and information data (clip information file). The format of the event data 300 differs depending on whether the event data 300 is included in the AV stream data or the information data. The embodiment shown corresponds to the former case where the data 300 is included in the AV stream. Since the AV stream data to which video, audio, and other additional data are multiplexed is constructed as a single bitstream, the event data 300 may also be represented as a bitstream starting at a specific bit of the bitstream containing the AV stream data based on a predetermined format. The event data 300 has an event discriminator 302 that distinguishes itself from the AV stream data, and the event data 300 includes event data length information 304, an event ID 306, and/or additional information 308. As described above, since the position of the bitstream including the event data 300 is information on the activation time of the event data 300, the information on the activation time of the event data 300 is not necessarily included in the present embodiment.

Fig. 4 is a table representing event data included in an information file according to another embodiment of the present invention. Referring to fig. 4, event data additionally added to the information data (clip information file) is shown. The information data includes attribute information of video, audio, and additional data included in the AV stream data and time-position information of a bitstream having a predetermined table format. Thus, the information data may define information required for the event data and may include information in a table format. Referring to fig. 4, 'EventMark ()' represents an event discriminator 402, 'length' represents event data length information 404, 'event _ ID' represents an event ID 406, 'event _ time' represents event data activation time information 408, and 'event _ discrimination' represents additional information 410. The event data shown in fig. 4 is exemplary and may be changed if necessary.

Up to now, event data indicating that a specific scene is being reproduced during reproduction of AV data has been described. An event descriptor specifying a specific application or operation to be executed when an event is activated will now be described with reference to the embodiment shown in fig. 5.

Fig. 5 is a table representing event descriptors according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to fig. 5, the event descriptor includes an event ID 502, information 504 about a specific program application to be executed, and/or additional information 506 such as a description of the specific program application. The event descriptor may be implemented in a table including various information. More specifically, the event ID 502 is used to identify the type of event activated. The application information 504 includes the name of an application that runs when event data included in the AV data 212 is activated. If the specific event data is activated, an event descriptor including the same event ID as that included in the specific event data is selected, and a specific application corresponding to application information included in the selected event descriptor is executed.

The additional information 506 may include start-up parameters of the application, location information of the application, information required to run the application, and/or description information of the application.

A method of reproducing a storage medium having recorded therein AV data including event information according to the present invention by using the reproducing apparatus shown in fig. 2 will now be described. Referring to fig. 2, the presentation engine 210 reproduces AV data 212 including therein event data under the control of the playback control engine 220. When the reproduction time designated by the event activation time information is reached, the presentation engine 210 notifies the playback control engine 220 of the event activation by using the event ID on the basis of the event data. The playback control engine 220 notifies the application manager 230 of the event activation by using the event ID.

The application manager 230 searches for program application information corresponding to the ID of the activated event with reference to the event descriptor table 234 stored in a storage medium or a memory. The application manager 230 executes a corresponding program application by using the name of the application, location information of the application, and information required to execute the application based on the searched program application information. The location information of the application may be included in the event descriptor table 234 or in an Application Management Table (AMT) in which information about the application is managed. Additionally, the event descriptor table 234 may be included in the AMT.

Briefly, the reproducing method includes: reproducing AV data including the event data; and, if an event is activated on the basis of the event data while the AV data is being reproduced, a specific application corresponding to the activated event is executed with reference to a corresponding event descriptor.

Although not required, the embodiments of the present invention can be written as computer programs and can be executed in general-use digital computers that execute the programs using a computer readable recording medium. Examples of the computer readable recording medium include magnetic storage media (e.g., ROM, floppy disks, hard disks, flash media, etc.), optical recording media (e.g., CDs, DVDs, blu-ray, advanced optical disks, etc.), and storage media such as carrier waves (e.g., transmission through the internet). 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.

Although included on a common medium as shown, it should be understood that each application need not be on the same medium as the AV data and can be accessed by the device from another medium over an accessible network.

As described above, according to embodiments of the present invention, there is provided a storage medium in which audio-visual data having event information is recorded, and a reproducing apparatus and a reproducing method thereof.

The storage medium may be controlled such that an application to which a program operation is added is synchronized with a specific reproduction time of the AV data by using the event information while reproducing the entire AV data or a portion of the AV data.

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.

Industrial applicability

The present invention is applied to a storage medium in which audio-visual data having event information is recorded, and a reproducing apparatus and a reproducing method thereof.

Claims (9)

1. A reproduction apparatus comprising:

an application manager;

a presentation engine which activates an event when a specific scene indicated by event information is reproduced while Audio Visual (AV) data including the event information is reproduced, and transmits information about the activated event to an application manager, wherein,

the application manager controls a program application indicated by the event information and corresponding to the activated event to be synchronized with a specific scene and to be executed,

wherein the event information includes event data indicating that a specific scene is being reproduced and an event descriptor defining a program application corresponding to the event data.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the presentation engine activates an event when the specific scene is reproduced based on event data which constitutes the event information and indicates that the specific scene is being reproduced.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein,

the application manager controls a program application to be executed with reference to the event descriptor.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the event data is included in AV stream data or information data constituting the AV data, and

the presentation engine reproduces AV data including event data.

5. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the event data comprises information indicating that predetermined data included in the AV data is event data, information indicating a point in time when an event is to be activated, an event identifier, and/or additional information, and

the presentation engine activates an event corresponding to the event identifier while reproducing the AV data based on information indicating a point in time when the event is to be activated, and transmits the activated event to the application manager together with the event identifier.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein when the event data is included in the AV stream data, the presentation engine uses a position of a bitstream including the event data among the AV stream data as the information indicating a point in time when the event is to be activated.

7. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the event descriptor includes an event identifier, information on an application to be executed, and/or information required to execute the application, and the application manager receives an identifier of an activated event from the presentation engine, obtains information on the application to be executed in association with the event identifier with reference to the event descriptor, and controls execution of the application.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the event descriptor is represented in a table form separately from event data included in the AV data or included in an application management table that records information on a program application, and

the application manager controls the execution of the program application with reference to the table or the application management table.

9. A reproduction method, comprising:

reproducing audio-visual (AV) data including event information; and

activating an event when a specific scene indicated by the event information is reproduced while the AV data is reproduced, synchronizing a predetermined program application corresponding to the activated event with the specific scene, and executing the program application,

wherein the event information includes event data indicating that a specific scene is being reproduced and an event descriptor defining a program application corresponding to the event data.