Channel control method and apparatus
AssigneeSamsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
InventorsSi Baek Kim, Jae Young Lee
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A channel control method and apparatus of a broadcast reception system are provided for facilitating channel selection by providing multiple broadcast channel images on a screen. A method of managing channels for a channel control device includes receiving video images of plural channels from a content delivery device, displaying the video images of plural channels on a screen simultaneously, receiving an input for selecting at least one of the plural channels; and transmitting a channel selection request indicating the selected channel to the content delivery device. The channel control method and apparatus are capable of facilitating a user to search for broadcast channels, resulting in improvement of the user's convenience.
Claims18
A method of managing channels for a remote control device comprising a touch screen, the method comprising:
- entering into a channel search mode automatically upon a fulfillment of a geographic condition;
- transmitting a content request message comprising a list of channels to a content delivery device, the content request message requesting video images of plural channels in the list;
- receiving video images of plural channels in the list of channels from the content delivery device;
- displaying the video images of the plural channels on the touch screen simultaneously;
- receiving an input for selecting at least one of the plural channels by a touch made on the touch screen;
- and
- transmitting a channel selection request indicating the selected channel to the content delivery device,
- wherein the geographic condition is fulfilled when the remote control device is located within a set distance from the content delivery device.
A remote control device comprising:
- a content request message transmitter configured to transmit a content request message comprising a list of channels to a content delivery device, the content request message requesting video images of multiple channels in the list;
- a display unit configured to display a multichannel screen image comprising video images of multiple channels in the list of channels from the content delivery device on a touch screen;
- an input unit configured to receive a channel selection input for selecting at least one of the video images corresponding to the multiple channels by a touch made on the touch screen;
- a channel selection request transmitter configured to transmit a channel selection request to a channel configuration device;
- and
- a control unit configured to control the display unit to display the multiple video images on a single screen, to control the channel selection request transmitter to transmit the channel selection request corresponding to the channel selection input to the channel configuration device, to control the content request message transmitter to transmit the content request message to the content delivery device, and to enter the remote control device into a channel search mode automatically upon a fulfillment of a geographic condition,
- wherein the geographic condition is fulfilled when the remote control device is located within a set distance from the content delivery device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.