WO2018182061A1

WO2018182061A1 - Adaptive bitrate image service method

Info

Publication number: WO2018182061A1
Application number: PCT/KR2017/003332
Authority: WO
Inventors: 김경욱; 류창현; 김형조
Original assignee: (주)판도라티비
Priority date: 2017-03-27
Filing date: 2017-03-28
Publication date: 2018-10-04
Also published as: KR101879439B1

Abstract

Disclosed is an adaptive bitrate image service method. The image service method, according to one aspect of the present invention, executed at an image-providing device connected with a user terminal via a communication network, comprises the steps of: encoding a video being serviced into multiple bitrates; when a request for the video being serviced is received from the user terminal, determining a service method corresponding to the communication bandwidth for the user terminal, and selecting the video being serviced that is encoded into a bitrate corresponding to the service method; providing the selected video being serviced to the user terminal; and in order to determine the next service method to be provided to the user terminal in the future, storing a history of the videos being serviced that were provided so as to correspond to the user terminal.

Description

Adaptive Bitrate Video Service Method

The present invention relates to a video service, and more particularly, to an adaptive bitrate video service method of varying a bit rate according to a bandwidth or the like.

Recently, with the development of mobile communication and mobile devices, the Internet has been used anytime and anywhere. Accordingly, video services are being actively provided to mobile devices as well as general desktops.

Currently, most Content Providers (CPs) service the video data in a manner that allows the play operation to be performed in parallel. In general, since a fixed bit-rate video data is transmitted, The communication bandwidth state is not taken into account. In other words, when the server transmits the video content to the mobile terminal, the data is transmitted at a predetermined transmission rate in advance. As a result, the service providing the video content must use a limited wireless network resource, thereby guaranteeing a certain quality of service. Not easy to do In addition, when the number of simultaneous users increases or the quality of service decreases due to a change in the state of the wireless network in a wireless network used to transmit video content, a problem such as a broken or stopped screen played on the terminal may occur. Can be.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an adaptive bitrate video service method for providing a service video encoded with a bitrate according to a communication bandwidth with a user terminal.

Other objects of the present invention will become more apparent through the preferred embodiments described below.

According to an aspect of the present invention, an image service method performed in an image providing apparatus coupled to a user terminal through a communication network, the method comprising: encoding a service video into a plurality of bit rates; If a request for the service video is received from a user terminal, determining a service scheme corresponding to a communication bandwidth with the user terminal and selecting a service video encoded with a bit rate according to the service scheme; Providing a selected service video to the user terminal; And storing a service history of the service video so as to correspond to the user terminal in order to determine a next service method to be provided later to the user terminal. A recorded record carrier is provided.

Here, when the service method is a high bit rate method, the next service method may be an advertisement method that provides advertisement content together, and when the service method is a low bit rate method, the next service method may be set as an advertisement-free method. .

When the communication bandwidth is less than or equal to a preset threshold, the service video may be provided to the user terminal in a download manner, and advertisement content may be provided to the user terminal in a streaming manner while providing the service video.

In addition, an estimated download time may be calculated based on the communication bandwidth and the service video, and the advertisement content may be selected to have a play time corresponding to the estimated download time.

In addition, when the service scheme is a dual scheme, after selecting and serving a service video encoded with a first bitrate, provided after a preset time or amount of data, the rest is encoded with a second bitrate higher than the first bitrate. Can be serviced by the service video.

In addition, the second bitrate may be determined based on a data transmission rate for the service video encoded with the first bitrate.

In addition, when the service method is a low bit rate method, a plurality of snapshots corresponding to a plurality of playback points of the service video are provided to the user terminal first, and the image from the playback point according to the snapshot selected by the user terminal Data may be provided to the user terminal.

In addition, the advertisement image may be used as a background image of the provided image including the plurality of snapshots.

In addition, the advertisement content corresponding to the snapshot selected by the user among the plurality of snapshots may be provided as the background image and the service video may be displayed on a portion of the screen.

Other aspects, features, and advantages other than those described above will become apparent from the following drawings, claims, and detailed description of the invention.

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a service video at a bit rate for more stable playback by determining a service method adaptively to a communication bandwidth with a user terminal.

1 is a flowchart illustrating an adaptive bitrate video service process performed in an image providing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a problem of determining a next service method using history information according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a flowchart illustrating an adaptive image providing process using a communication bandwidth according to another embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a table showing service method information for a service video according to an embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a flowchart illustrating a video providing process using a double bit rate according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an initially provided video service interface screen displayed on a user terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG.

As the invention allows for various changes and numerous embodiments, particular embodiments will be illustrated in the drawings and described in detail in the written description. However, this is not intended to limit the present invention to specific embodiments, it should be understood to include all changes, equivalents, and substitutes included in the spirit and scope of the present invention.

When a component is referred to as being "connected" or "connected" to another component, it may be directly connected to or connected to that other component, but it may be understood that other components may be present in between. Should be. On the other hand, when a component is said to be "directly connected" or "directly connected" to another component, it should be understood that there is no other component in between.

Terms such as first and second may be used to describe various components, but the components should not be limited by the terms. The terms are used only for the purpose of distinguishing one component from another. For example, terms such as a first threshold value, a second threshold value, and the like, which will be described later, may be pre-specified as threshold values that are substantially different or partially the same value, but may be confused when expressed with the same word. For the sake of convenience, the terms "first" and "second" will be written together for convenience of classification.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. Singular expressions include plural expressions unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. As used herein, the terms "comprise" or "have" are intended to indicate that there is a feature, number, step, action, component, part, or combination thereof described on the specification, and one or more other features. It is to be understood that the present invention does not exclude the possibility of the presence or the addition of numbers, steps, operations, components, components, or a combination thereof.

In addition, the components of the embodiments described with reference to the drawings are not limited to the corresponding embodiments, and may be implemented to be included in other embodiments within the scope of the technical spirit of the present invention. Even if the description is omitted, it is obvious that a plurality of embodiments may be reimplemented into one integrated embodiment.

In addition, in the description with reference to the accompanying drawings, the same components regardless of reference numerals will be given the same or related reference numerals and redundant description thereof will be omitted. In the following description of the present invention, if it is determined that the detailed description of the related known technology may unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present invention, the detailed description thereof will be omitted.

Referring to FIG. 1, an image providing apparatus, which is a server apparatus that provides an image service, encodes and stores a plurality of bitrates for a service video (hereinafter, referred to as a service video) (S10). For the sake of understanding, five different bitrates of one minute video A are encoded and stored.

When a request for the service video is received from the user terminal through the communication network, the communication bandwidth with the user terminal is measured (S10). The measurement of the communication bandwidth may be measured using a transmission rate of data received from the user terminal and the like, which will be apparent to those skilled in the art, and thus a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

The image providing apparatus determines a service scheme corresponding to the measured bandwidth, and selects a service video encoded with a bit rate according to the determined service scheme (S30). For example, the lower the communication bandwidth, the lower the bitrate encoded service video will be selected.

For convenience of understanding, a specific example will be described.

4 is a table illustrating service method information for a service video according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4, a bit rate corresponding to each bandwidth is set for the service video A. For example, when the bandwidth is 10 (the bandwidth value and the unit are arbitrary examples) or less, the value of the bit rate is 5 ( Similarly, figures and units are provided as examples).

In addition, according to an example, as a service method, in addition to a bit rate according to a bandwidth, a providing method of a download method or a streaming method may be determined. If the bandwidth is low, the download method can provide more stable service even if there is a waiting time than the stream network. In addition, an advertisement method for providing advertisement content or the like may also be determined as a service method. For example, in the case of providing a service video in a high bit rate method that provides a high-definition video, it is an advertisement method that provides advertising content. Can be provided. Here, the high bit rate or low bit rate is only for convenience of description and may be processed based on the bit rate numerical value. Hereinafter, for convenience of description, referring to the table shown in FIG. 4, the bit rate is referred to as a low bit rate of less than 10, a bit rate of 20 or more, a high bit rate, and an intermediate bit rate.

Referring back to FIG. 1, the image providing apparatus provides a service video according to the selected service method to the user terminal (S40). According to an example, as shown in the drawing, the provision history of the provided service video is stored to correspond to the corresponding user terminal (or the user's account) (S50). As a reason for storing the provision history, when a video service request is received from the same user terminal (or user account) in the future, a service scheme to be provided (hereinafter, referred to as a next service scheme) may be determined based on the history information.

Referring to FIG. 2, the image providing apparatus determines a service method (S210), and determines whether the service method is a high bit rate method (S220). Referring to FIG. 4, when the communication bandwidth is 30 or more, a service video encoded with bit rate 20 is provided, and when the bit rate is 20 or more, the high bit rate may be set. The values can be set to intermediate bit rates.

As a result of the determination in S220, in the case of a high bit rate, the next service method may be determined as an advertisement method. In other words, when a video service is requested from the same user terminal (or user account) in the future, the next service method is determined as an advertisement method in which advertisement content is provided even if a service video according to a low bit rate is provided.

On the contrary, if the current service method is not high bit rate, the current service method is to provide a low-quality video. Therefore, the next service method is determined by the non-advertising method, thereby providing a benefit of watching the service video without an advertisement. will be.

In other words, the user who watches the video at a high bit rate must watch the advertisement later, whereas the user who is currently watching the low bit rate video does not have to watch the advertisement later.

As described above, according to an example, the image providing method itself may be changed according to the communication bandwidth.

Referring to FIG. 3, the bandwidth is measured (S310) and compared with a preset threshold (S320). If the threshold value is higher than the threshold value, the service video is provided by the streaming method (streaming) which can be viewed immediately (S330). S340).

The image providing method according to the present embodiment may be used only when providing a service video encoded with a low bit rate. In other words, when providing a service video encoded with the lowest bit rate, even when the communication bandwidth is less than the threshold value, the service video is provided in a download manner so that the user terminal can play the video more stably without interruption.

And, according to an example, when providing a service video by the download method, it is possible to first provide the advertising content to the user terminal during the download time. In this case, the image providing apparatus may calculate the download expected time based on the communication bandwidth and the service video to be provided, and select and provide an advertisement content having a play time corresponding to the download expected time. Accordingly, the user only needs to watch the advertisement as long as it is downloaded.

Until now, the description has focused on providing a service video encoded at a specific bitrate according to the determined service method. According to another embodiment, even if one service video is provided, the service video encoded with different bit rates may be divided and transmitted to provide a video more adaptively to bandwidth.

Referring to FIG. 4 along with FIG. 4, a service method determined according to the measured communication bandwidth may be determined in a dual manner (S510). As illustrated with reference to FIG. 4, when the bitrate determined according to the communication bandwidth is an intermediate bitrate, the bitrate may be determined by a streaming duplex method.

In this case, the image providing apparatus first provides a service video encoded with the first bit rate (S520).

Provide a preset amount of time (e.g., halfway between the total duration of a service video and 5 minutes if the total duration is 10 minutes) or a preset amount of data (e.g. 30-50% of the total amount of data) Thereafter, the service video encoded with the second bitrate is provided from the corresponding playback time (S530). The second bitrate may be set higher than with the first bitrate.

As a specific example, for the sake of understanding, for a video A having a playing time of 10 minutes, the service video is encoded in bitrate 10 for 5 minutes, and the service video encoded in bitrate 15 for the remaining 5 minutes. To provide. Therefore, the user can watch the image with higher quality after 5 minutes of playing time.

Here, according to another example, the time point at which the start of providing the service video encoded with the second bit rate may be set may be variably set according to the current data rate. If the data rate of the service video encoded with the first bitrate is higher, the time point of providing the service video encoded with the second bitrate may be faster.

In a similar manner, according to another example, the second bitrate may be determined based on the data rate for the service video encoded with the first bitrate. The higher the transmission speed of the service video encoded with the first bitrate, the higher the service video according to the second bitrate may be provided.

In addition, the first bitrate may be set higher than the second bitrate. In other words, the first 5 minutes may provide a service video encoded in bitrate 15, and the remaining bitrates. It is to provide a service video encoded in 10. The reason is that the user generally does not watch all the contents of the video, but only the first part of the video, so that it is more satisfactory for the user to provide a better image quality at first than later.

According to an example, when the communication bandwidth is low, the service video may be provided at a low bit rate and may be determined by the user at the time of the first playback.

6 is a flowchart illustrating a video service interface screen initially displayed on a user terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 6, the image providing apparatus may display a playback time selection screen 600 including a plurality of snapshots 610 according to each viewpoint on the user terminal. When the bandwidth is low, a disconnection phenomenon may occur, so that unnecessary transmission of image data is prevented.

Accordingly, the user can select whether or not to receive and play the service video from a certain point of time, thereby preventing unnecessary transmission and reception of video data.

In this case, the image providing device may transmit a service video for a time required for the user to select one snapshot, and thus, the image providing device may receive a portion of the image data before the image is reproduced, thereby stably maintaining the image. To be regenerated.

In other words, the image providing apparatus preferentially provides a snapshot according to a plurality of playback points of a service video to the user terminal, and provides the image data from the playback point corresponding to the snapshot selected by the user terminal to the user terminal.

According to an example, an advertisement image may be used as a background image of the playback time selection screen 600 including the plurality of snapshots 610. That is, the advertisement content is displayed on the background of the screen on which the snapshots are displayed.

According to another example, when providing a service video encoded in a low bit rate, the video service may be provided in such a manner that the service video is displayed only on a part of the screen instead of the entire screen. At this time, the advertisement content corresponding to the snapshot selected by the user among the plurality of snapshots may be provided as the background image of the service video. In other words, a service video is displayed on a part of the screen by dividing the screen, and the advertisement content is displayed on the other screen. The advertisement is selected in advance so as to correspond to a snapshot selected by the user at the play time selection screen 600. In this case, the related information may be displayed to correspond to each snapshot image (for example, one side of the image) so that the user can recognize what advertisement content is set in each snapshot. For example, the first advertisement image is displayed on the upper right side of the snapshot 1 610, and the second advertisement image is displayed on the upper right side of the snapshot 2.

The above-described adaptive bitrate video service method according to the present invention can be embodied as computer readable codes on a computer readable recording medium. Computer-readable recording media include all kinds of recording media having data stored thereon that can be decrypted by a computer system. For example, there may be a read only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a magnetic tape, a magnetic disk, a flash memory, an optical data storage device, and the like. The computer readable recording medium can also be distributed over computer systems connected over a computer network, stored and executed as readable code in a distributed fashion.

In addition, while the above has been described with reference to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as set forth in the claims below. It will be understood that various modifications and changes can be made.

Claims

In the video service method performed in the image providing apparatus coupled to the user terminal through a communication network,

Encoding a service video in a plurality of bitrates;

If a request for the service video is received from a user terminal, determining a service scheme corresponding to a communication bandwidth with the user terminal and selecting a service video encoded with a bit rate according to the service scheme;

Providing a selected service video to the user terminal; And

And storing a providing history of the service video so as to correspond to the user terminal in order to determine a next service method to be provided later to the user terminal.
The method according to claim 1,

When the service method is a high bit rate method, the next service method is an advertisement method for providing advertisement content together, and when the service method is a low bit rate method, the next service method is set to an advertisement-free method. Rate video service method.
The method according to claim 1,

If the communication bandwidth is less than or equal to a preset threshold,

And providing the service video to the user terminal in a download manner, while providing the advertisement content in a streaming manner to the user terminal while providing the service video.
The method according to claim 3,

And calculating an expected download time based on the communication bandwidth and the service video, wherein the advertisement content is selected to have a playback time corresponding to the estimated download time.
The method according to claim 3,

If the service method is a dual method,

Adaptive bitrate, which selects and serves a service video encoded with a first bitrate, but provides a service time encoded with a second bitrate higher than the first bitrate after providing a preset time or amount of data. Video service method.
The method according to claim 5,

And determining the second bitrate based on a data rate for the service video encoded with the first bitrate.
The method according to claim 1,

If the service method is a low bit rate method,

Adaptive bitrate for providing the user terminal with a plurality of snapshots according to the playback time of the service video first, and providing the video data from the playback time according to the snapshot selected by the user terminal to the user terminal. Video service method.
The method according to claim 7,

An adaptive bitrate video service method using an advertisement video as a background image of a provided video including the plurality of snapshots.
The method according to claim 8,

And providing the advertisement content corresponding to the snapshot selected by the user among the plurality of snapshots as the background image and displaying the service video on a portion of the screen.
A recording medium having a computer program recorded thereon for performing the method of claim 1.