JP7579899B2 - Program, information processing method and terminal - Google Patents

Description

The following description relates to a content providing method and system, and more specifically to a method and system for providing content so that a user can view an overview of video content of a specific video content collection, and a computer program recorded on a computer-readable recording medium for causing an electronic device to execute the content providing method.

Since various electronic devices such as smartphones and tablets have begun to be equipped with camera modules, it has become common to provide electronic devices with video (image and video) capture capabilities using camera modules.

For example, when a user of an electronic device switches to a video capture mode using the camera of the electronic device, the electronic device displays a preview image input to the camera on the screen. In conventional technology, when a user operates the electronic device to input a video capture command, the electronic device encodes the video captured after the video capture command and generates a video file in a preset format (for example, MP4 (MPEG-4 Part 14)).

There are also services that allow users to upload such video files to a server and provide content such as video files to users from the server via a network. For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a user-created content service method and system.

However, such conventional technologies are limited to providing a user with only one specific video content (e.g., video content requested by a user or video content selected by a server) or a list of content, and are unable to provide a function that allows a user to check a specific category of content (e.g., video content uploaded by a specific user) in general. For example, the user profile home area of conventional social network services is generally composed of a passive atmosphere such as a user's photo, introduction, and posting list, and has the limitation that visitors must continue to interact with the content to view it, rather than intuitively and actively conveying the user's style.

Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2009-0054740 International Publication No. 2014/010167 US Patent Application Publication No. 2014/0019540 US Patent Application Publication No. 2013/0332543 US Patent Application Publication No. 2013/0260893

A program executed by a terminal that communicates with a server, the program being executed by the terminal, which receives a first video content uploaded by a first user and a second video content uploaded by a second user through a communication unit of the terminal, controls the first video content to be displayed in a first display area of a display unit of the terminal and the second video content to be displayed in a second display area of the display unit through a control unit of the terminal, controls the first video content to be displayed in a third display area of the display unit based on an input by a user of the terminal for the first video content, and controls the control unit to display multiple contents uploaded by the first user on the display unit based on an input to the terminal on which the first video content is displayed.

An information processing method for a terminal that communicates with a server, comprising: receiving a first video content uploaded by a first user and a second video content uploaded by a second user by a communication unit of the terminal; controlling a control unit of the terminal to display the first video content in a first display area of a display unit of the terminal and the second video content in a second display area of the display unit; controlling the control unit to display the first video content in a third display area of the display unit based on input by a user of the terminal regarding the first video content; and controlling the control unit to display multiple contents uploaded by the first user on the display unit based on input to the terminal on which the first video content is displayed.
A terminal that communicates with a server,
a communication unit that receives a first video content uploaded by a first user and a second video content uploaded by a second user;
a display unit that displays the first video content in a first display area and the second video content in a second display area;
The device further includes a control unit that controls displaying the first video content in a third display area of the display unit based on input by a user of the terminal regarding the first video content, and controls displaying multiple contents uploaded by the first user on the display unit based on input to the terminal on which the first video content is displayed.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a network environment in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the internal configuration of an electronic device and a server according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a user list display in the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a display of representative video content of a user in one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of display of video content selected from a user list in one embodiment of the present invention. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of moving to a screen for displaying video content of a specific user in one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining an example in which video content is played in one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example in which selected video content is played back in chronological order in one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of moving to a screen in a content display area in an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example for explaining playback of additional content in one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining an example of layer switching in one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating example components that may be included in a processor of an electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a content providing method that can be executed by an electronic device in an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating example components that may be included in a server processor in one embodiment of the present invention. 4 is a flow chart illustrating an example of a content providing method that can be performed by a server in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

The following describes the embodiments in detail with reference to the attached drawings.

The content provision system according to an embodiment of the present invention may be realized by an electronic device or a server described below, and the content provision method according to an embodiment of the present invention may be executed by the electronic device or the server. For example, an application realized as a computer program according to an embodiment of the present invention may be installed and executed in an electronic device, and the electronic device may execute the content provision method according to an embodiment of the present invention according to the control of the executed application. The computer program may be recorded in a computer-readable recording medium to cause the electronic device to execute the content provision method. As another example, the server may provide content to the electronic device by data communication with the application installed in the electronic device according to the content provision method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 1 is a diagram showing an example of a network environment in one embodiment of the present invention. The network environment in Figure 1 shows an example including multiple electronic devices 110, 120, 130, 140, multiple servers 150, 160, and a network 170. Figure 1 is merely an example for explaining the invention, and the number of electronic devices and the number of servers are not limited to those shown in Figure 1.

The electronic devices 110, 120, 130, and 140 may be fixed terminals or mobile terminals realized by computer devices. Examples of the electronic devices 110, 120, 130, and 140 include smartphones, mobile phones, navigation systems, personal computers (PCs), notebook PCs, digital broadcasting terminals, personal digital assistants (PDAs), portable multimedia players (PMPs), and tablets. As an example, a smartphone is shown as an example of the electronic device 1 (110) in FIG. 1, but in an embodiment of the present invention, the electronic device 1 (110) may refer to one of various devices that can communicate with other electronic devices 120, 130, and 140 and/or servers 150 and 160 via a network 170 using a substantially wireless or wired communication method.

The communication method is not limited, and may include not only a communication method using a communication network that the network 170 can include (for example, a mobile communication network, a wired Internet, a wireless Internet, or a broadcasting network), but also short-range wireless communication between devices. For example, the network 170 may include any one or more of a personal area network (PAN), a local area network (LAN), a campus area network (CAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), a wide area network (WAN), a broadband network (BBN), the Internet, and the like. Furthermore, the network 170 may include any one or more of a network topology including, but not limited to, a bus network, a star network, a ring network, a mesh network, a star-bus network, a tree or a hierarchical network, and the like.

Each of the servers 150 and 160 may be realized by one or more computer devices that communicate with the multiple electronic devices 110, 120, 130, and 140 via the network 170 to provide instructions, code, files, content, services, and the like. For example, the server 150 may be a system that provides a first service to the multiple electronic devices 110, 120, 130, and 140 connected via the network 170, and the server 160 may also be a system that provides a second service to the multiple electronic devices 110, 120, 130, and 140 connected via the network 170. As a more specific example, the server 160 may be a system that provides an installation file for installing an application (computer program) as a second service to the multiple electronic devices 110, 120, 130, and 140. Furthermore, the server 150 may be a system that installs an application using an installation file and provides a first service for a content providing server (such as a game, SNS, chat, content streaming, video recording service, or video editing service) that works in conjunction with the application to multiple electronic devices 110, 120, 130, and 140 that execute the installed application.

Figure 2 is a block diagram for explaining the internal configuration of an electronic device and a server in one embodiment of the present invention. In Figure 2, the internal configuration of electronic device 1 (110) and the internal configuration of server 150 are explained as examples of electronic devices. In addition, other electronic devices 120, 130, 140 and server 160 may also have the same or similar internal configuration as electronic device 1 (110) or server 150 described above.

The electronic device 1 (110) and the server 150 may include memories 211, 221, processors 212, 222, communication modules 213, 223, and input/output interfaces 214, 224. The memories 211, 221 are computer-readable recording media and may include a RAM (random access memory), a ROM (read only memory), and a permanent large-capacity storage device such as a disk drive. Here, the permanent large-capacity storage device such as a ROM or a disk drive may be included in the electronic device 1 (110) or the server 150 as a separate permanent storage device separate from the memories 211, 221. In addition, the memories 211, 221 may record an operating system and at least one program code (for example, a browser installed and executed in the electronic device 1 (110) or a code for an application installed in the electronic device 1 (110) to provide a specific service). Such software components may be loaded from a computer-readable recording medium other than the memory 211, 221. Such another computer-readable recording medium may include a computer-readable recording medium such as a floppy drive, a disk, a tape, a DVD/CD-ROM drive, a memory card, etc. In other embodiments, the software components may be loaded into the memory 211, 221 through the communication modules 213, 223, which are not computer-readable recording media. For example, at least one program may be loaded into the memory 211, 221 based on a program (such as the above-mentioned application) that is installed by a file provided by a developer or a file distribution system (such as the server 160) that distributes the installation file of the application via the network 170.

The processors 212, 222 may be configured to process computer program instructions by performing basic arithmetic, logic, and input/output operations. The instructions may be provided to the processors 212, 222 by the memory 211, 221 or the communication module 213, 223. For example, the processors 212, 222 may be configured to execute instructions received according to program code recorded in a recording device such as the memory 211, 221.

The communication modules 213 and 223 may provide a function for the electronic device 1 (110) and the server 150 to communicate with each other via the network 170, or may provide a function for the electronic device 1 (110) and/or the server 150 to communicate with other electronic devices (for example, the electronic device 2 (120)) or other servers (for example, the server 160). As an example, a request generated by the processor 212 of the electronic device 1 (110) according to a program code recorded in a recording device such as the memory 211 may be transmitted to the server 150 via the network 170 under the control of the communication module 213. Conversely, a control signal, instruction, content, file, etc. provided under the control of the processor 222 of the server 150 may be received by the electronic device 1 (110) through the communication module 213 of the electronic device 1 (110) via the communication module 223 and the network 170. For example, control signals, commands, content, files, etc. of the server 150 received through the communication module 213 may be transmitted to the processor 212 or memory 211, and the content, files, etc. may be recorded on a recording medium (the above-mentioned permanent recording device) that may be further included in the electronic device 1 (110).

The input/output interface 214 may be a means for interfacing with the input/output device 215. For example, the input device may include a device such as a keyboard or a mouse, and the output device may include a device such as a display or a speaker. As another example, the input/output interface 214 may be a means for interfacing with a device in which input and output functions are integrated into one, such as a touch screen. The input/output device 215 may be configured as a single device together with the electronic device 1 (110). In addition, the input/output interface 224 of the server 150 may be a means for interfacing with an input or output device (not shown) that is connected to the server 150 or that can be included in the server 150. As a more specific example, when the processor 212 of the electronic device 1 (110) processes the instructions of the computer program loaded in the memory 211, a service screen or content configured using data provided by the server 150 or the electronic device 2 (120) may be displayed on the display through the input/output interface 214.

In other embodiments, the electronic device 1 (110) and the server 150 may include more components than those in FIG. 2. However, it is not necessary to clearly show most of the conventional technical components. For example, the electronic device 1 (110) may be realized to include at least some of the input/output devices 215 described above, and may further include other components such as a transceiver, a GPS (Global Positioning System) module, a camera, various sensors, a database, etc. As a more specific example, if the electronic device 1 (110) is a smartphone, various components that are generally included in a smartphone, such as an acceleration sensor, a gyro sensor, a camera module, various physical buttons, a button using a touch panel, an input/output port, and a vibrator for vibration, may be further included in the electronic device 1 (110).

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a user list display in one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 shows an example of a user list displayed on a touch screen screen of an electronic device 1 (110) equipped with a touch screen. At this time, a user of the electronic device 1 (110) may control the user list displayed on the touch screen screen by touch gestures such as touch and drag, swipe, or flick. For example, FIG. 3 shows an example in which a representative video content 311 of user a, a representative video content 312 of user b, a representative video content 313 of user c, and a representative video content 314 of user d are displayed on the first screen 310, and a representative video content 315 of user e and a representative video content 316 of user f are displayed. At this time, an upward flick is recognized as a user input to the first screen 310, and the display portion of the user list may be changed to the second screen 320. The second screen 320 shows how, by moving the user list upward on the first screen 310, only a portion of the representative video content 311 of user a and the representative video content 312 of user b are displayed, while the representative video content 313 of user c, the representative video content 314 of user d, the representative video content 315 of user e, and the representative video content 316 of user f are displayed.

In one embodiment, the users included in the user list may be users with whom the user of electronic device 1 (110) has formed a personal relationship (for example, a friendship relationship in a messenger or social network service) in a service provided by a content providing server according to an embodiment of the present invention or in another service linked to the service. Here, the content providing server may correspond to the above-mentioned server 150, for example.

In another embodiment, the users included in the user list may be users selected according to preset criteria from among all users of the service provided by the content providing server according to an embodiment of the present invention (for example, a certain number of users may be selected based on the date of the most recent content update for each user, or may be selected randomly). In this case, the electronic device 1 (110) may receive and display a user list including representative video content of a certain number of users from the content providing server, and then extend the user list by additionally receiving representative video content of the users whenever it becomes necessary to further display the user list in accordance with an input such as a touch gesture by the user.

At this time, the user's representative video content may be content selected from the content uploaded by the user according to a preset criterion (for example, content recently uploaded to the content providing server, or content selected randomly). For example, assuming that user a has uploaded content 1, content 2, and content 3, and the most recently uploaded content is content 3, content 3 may be selected as user a's representative video content. In addition, the user's representative video content shown in FIG. 3 may each be a video content, for example, and may be repeatedly played in each display area. For example, user a's representative video content displayed in first area 310 in FIG. 3 may be repeatedly played in first area 310.

4 is a diagram showing an example of displaying a representative video content of a user in an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 illustrates an example in which video content 410 is shown as the representative video content of user a. Here, the character string "Signal" shown in the first dotted box 411 may represent the identifier of user a, and the numbers "2,321" shown in the second dotted box 412 may represent the number of times that video content 410 has been selected by a user and played up to now. In addition, the number "48" shown in the third dotted box 413 may represent the number of times that a user of video content 410 has selected a user interface provided to display a favorable impression or recommendation of video content 410 (hereinafter, "recommendation number"). Depending on the embodiment, the number of comments entered by a user regarding video content 410, the date on which video content 410 was filmed, or the date on which video content 410 was uploaded may be displayed together with video content 410.

As described above, the video content 410 may be provided in a form that is repeatedly played in a corresponding area, rather than in an image form such as a snapshot. For example, the content provided in the embodiment of the present invention may be video content generated by an electronic device having a camera (for example, the electronic device 2 (120)) switching to a video shooting mode using the camera, capturing a preview image input to the camera based on a preset frame rate (FPS: frame per second), and applying at least one time-fake effect from a plurality of preset time-fake effects to the captured preview image. While it is difficult to freely search, extract, and control frames from a video file of a specific format such as MP4, it is possible to freely search, extract, and control frames from the captured preview image, so that the electronic device can easily apply various time-fake effects to the preview image according to the control of the application. In this case, the frame rate of the preview image may be set in consideration of the fact that a large number of video contents are played on one screen, as in the above-mentioned user list.

Figure 5 is a diagram showing an example of displaying content selected from a user list in one embodiment of the present invention. Figure 5 shows an example in which representative video content 312 of user b is selected by the user of electronic device 1 (110) from the user list described in first screen 310 of Figure 3 (by touching, as an example, the area on first screen 310 where representative video content 312 of user b is displayed), and the selected representative video content 312 of user b is played back over the entire area for displaying content, as in third screen 510.

At this time, depending on the embodiment, the third screen 510 may further display various additional information related to the area in which the representative video content 312 of user b is being played.

The first dotted box 511 shown on the third screen 510 indicates that the profile information of user b is displayed as additional information. The profile information of user b may include, for example, a profile picture of user b and an identifier such as a nickname of user b. The profile information of user b may also include a link to a home screen of user b and a screen that provides an overview of the content uploaded by user b.

The second dotted box 512 shown on the third screen 510 indicates that location information regarding the shooting location of the representative video content 312 of user b is displayed as additional information. Such location information may be determined based on the GPS coordinates acquired by the electronic device when the representative video content 312 was shot with the electronic device of user b. For example, the location information may be displayed in the form of a proper noun related to the GPS coordinates, such as "OO Park" or "AA Garden." Such display of location information would be easily understood by a person skilled in the art from various conventional technologies that provide location information based on GPS coordinates.

The third dotted box 513 shown on the third screen 510 indicates that, as additional information, the number of times that the representative video content 312 of user b has been queried by other users (as an example, the user of electronic device 1 (110)) is displayed. For example, the number of times that the representative video content 312 of user b has been queried may be displayed in the form of "queries 50."

The fourth dotted box 514 shown on the third screen 510 indicates that date information regarding the shooting date of the representative video content 312 of user b is displayed as additional information. Such date information may be determined based on time information when the representative video content 312 was shot on user b's electronic device.

The fifth dotted box 515 shown in the third screen 510 indicates that various other information may be displayed as additional information. For example, various other information such as the recommendations and number of comments mentioned above may also be displayed.

Figure 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of moving to a screen for displaying a specific user's content in one embodiment of the present invention. Figure 6 shows an example in which a user b's content display area 610 is provided as a result of a user selecting a link included in the profile information of user b on the third screen 510 of Figure 5 described above. The content display area 610 of user b is an area in which the content uploaded by user b can be roughly checked, and may be used as a home screen for the content of user b, for example. In the content display area 610 of user b, additional information such as the number of posts uploaded by user b, the number of followings, the number of followers, the number of recommendations, etc. of user b may be further displayed.

The content display area as shown in the example of FIG. 6 provides a function for roughly checking the contents included in a specific video content set (for example, the video content set uploaded by user b in FIG. 6). For example, suppose that electronic device 1 (110) receives a URL list of URLs for accessing a certain number of video contents among the video contents uploaded by user b from a content providing server. Here, the URL for accessing the video contents is merely an example, and address information for informing where the video contents are located on the network and a list of such address information can be used in the embodiment of the present invention without restriction. Such address information and list of address information may be generalized and expressed as "indicator" and "indicator list", respectively. In this case, electronic device 1 (110) may use the URL list to determine the order of video contents to be played in the content display area (for example, the content display area assigned to user b) from the video content set in sequence or randomly. In this case, the electronic device 1 (110) may obtain the video content using the corresponding URLs in the URL list according to the determined order of the video content, and play the video content in the predetermined content display area in the order in which it was obtained.

7 is a diagram for explaining an example of content playback in one embodiment of the present invention. When the electronic device 1 (110) is to play video content in the content display area 610 of user b as in the example of FIG. 6, the electronic device 1 (110) may request video content related to the content display area 610 of user b from the content providing server. The content providing server 710 may be realized like the above-mentioned server 150, and may manage a content database 720 in which a plurality of content sets in which video content uploaded by users is classified by user are stored. Here, the content database 720 may be realized so as to be included in the content providing server 710, or may be realized in another device and managed by data communication between the content providing server 710 and the other device. For example, the content providing server 710 may manage the uploaded video content in association with the identifier of the user who uploaded the video content. In other words, the video content associated with the identifier of a specific user constitutes one video content set. For example, the content providing server 710 may check the collection of video content uploaded by user b from the content database 720 by receiving a request including the identifier of user b or the identifier of the content display area 610 assigned to user b from the electronic device 1 (110). In this way, the content database 720 can be said to manage the uploaded content in association with various parameters as a criterion for classifying the content, rather than actually managing a collection of content. As in the above example, the uploaded video content and the identifier of the user who uploaded the video content are managed in association with each other, or the video content and the corresponding category name are managed in association with each other, so that the video content of a specific user or a specific category forms one content collection.

Here, the content providing server 710 may generate a URL list including URLs for accessing some of the video content included in the video content set and transmit the URL list to the electronic device 1 (110) instead of transmitting all of the contents of the confirmed video content set to the electronic device 1 (110). At this time, some of the video content may be selected based on the date the video content was uploaded or may be selected randomly. In some embodiments, the video content may be selected based on various conditions such as the size and resolution of the video content.

In this case, electronic device 1 (110) may use the URL list received from content providing server 710 to determine the order of video content to be played in user b's content display area 610 in sequence or randomly from the set of video content. At this time, electronic device 1 (110) may acquire and play the video content in sequence according to the determined order of the video content. The video content may be acquired using the corresponding URL in the URL list.

Therefore, electronic device 1 (110) can download and play the video content in sequence or randomly, rather than downloading and playing all the video content in the URL list. When the user of electronic device 1 (110) no longer needs to display user b's content display area 610, the process of acquiring and playing the video content can immediately end.

At this time, under certain conditions, the content providing server 710 may further transmit to the electronic device 1 (110) a URL for accessing a part of the video content other than the above video content in the video content collection. In this case, the electronic device 1 (110) may extend the URL list using the received URL, and may download and play the video content sequentially or randomly using the extended URL list.

As described above, the content display area according to an embodiment of the present invention can be said to be an area for playing back some of the video content included in a specific video content set in sequence in one area for general review. Therefore, since it is not necessary to review all of the video content, the content providing method and system according to an embodiment of the present invention can receive only some of the video content included in a specific video content set and play them back in sequence or randomly, and this can be repeated as long as the content display area is displayed on the screen of the electronic device 1 (110). In addition, by expanding the URL list of video content that is played according to specific conditions, it becomes possible to review even more diverse video content.

Furthermore, all video content described in the embodiments of the present invention may be content that is automatically played by the system regardless of an explicit play command from the user.

In the above example, when the content display area 610 is arranged on the home screen of user b, the user of electronic device 1 (110) can roughly check some of the video content uploaded by user b on the home screen of user b, and can check an even more diverse range of video content by using a URL list that is gradually expanded according to specific conditions.

Figure 8 is a diagram showing an example in which selected video contents are played back in chronological order in one embodiment of the present invention. For example, assume that the first content set includes 10 contents from the first content to the tenth content. As described in Figure 7, the electronic device 1 (110) may receive a URL list for a portion of the video content set from the content providing server 710, and may acquire and play the video contents in an order determined sequentially or randomly according to the URL list. For example, if the determined order is the first content, the second content, and the third content, the electronic device 1 (110) acquires and plays the first content, acquires and plays the second content, and further acquires and plays the third content. In this case, the process of acquiring the next content may be carried out while one content is being played back. As a result, as shown in FIG. 8, user b's content display area 610 may be changed in sequence to user b's content display area 810 in which the first content is being played, to user b's content display area 820 in which the second content is being played, and then to user b's content display area 830 in which the third content is being played.

Furthermore, when a specific condition is satisfied, the electronic device 1 (110) may obtain, from the content providing server 720, URLs for a portion of video content other than the above video content in a specific video content set, and expand the URL list. At this time, if the order determined by the expanded URL list is the order of the first content to the sixth content, the electronic device 1 (110) may repeat obtaining and playing the content according to the determined order. In this case, the content display area 610 of the user b may be changed in order as shown in the content display areas 810 to 860 in FIG. 8. If content playback is continuously requested after playback up to the sixth content has been performed, the electronic device 1 (110) may repeat playback of the video content again, starting from the first content.

In other words, the electronic device 1 (110) will continue to play the video content while the content display area is displayed on the screen. In this case, the longer the content display area is displayed on the screen of the electronic device 1 (110), the higher the probability that the same video content will be repeatedly played. Therefore, the electronic device 1 (110) may configure a cache memory to record a video content file that has been downloaded once, and repeatedly reuse the video content file recorded in the cache memory. For example, the electronic device 1 (110) may record a video content file that has been downloaded once in the cache memory in association with the corresponding URL. In addition, the cache memory may be searched from the URL of the content currently to be played, and if a video content file that has already been downloaded from the URL exists, the corresponding file may be reused, thereby reducing the download and memory load time for the video content file.

Such a content display area does not need to be limited to a specific user's home screen, and the collection of video content does not need to be limited to a specific user's video content. For example, when it is necessary to roughly check a portion of a specific category of video content from the entire video content regardless of the user, or when it is necessary to roughly check a portion of video content uploaded by another user with whom the user has a personal relationship, a person skilled in the art will be able to easily understand from the above-described embodiment of the present invention that the content providing method and system according to the embodiment of the present invention can be modified and used.

The specific condition for receiving additional content may include, for example, moving the content display area onto the screen.

Figure 9 is a diagram showing an example of a content display area being moved onto the screen in one embodiment of the present invention. Figure 9 shows an example in which a user's flick gesture on user b's content display area 610 causes user b's content display area 610 to move off the screen, and such movement causes a list of the first portion of content (first content 910, second content 920, and third content 930) to be displayed.

In this case, the specific condition may be based on the movement of user b on the screen of the content display area 610 by the user's input. For example, the above-mentioned specific condition may be that the list for the video content of the URL list is all displayed on the screen by user b's movement on the screen of the content display area 610 (as an example, when there is no additional video content to be displayed in the video content list). In this case, the electronic device 1 (110) may generate a content addition request and transmit it to the content providing server 710, and the content providing server 710 may transmit URLs for other parts of the video content included in the video content set to the electronic device 1 (110) in accordance with the content addition request, and the electronic device 1 (110) may expand the URL list using the received URL.

Figure 10 is a diagram showing an example for explaining the playback of additional content in one embodiment of the present invention. As described above, electronic device 1 (110) may determine the video content to be played back by further using the content newly added by expanding the URL list (for example, the fourth content 1010, the fifth content 1020, and the sixth content 1030 in Figure 10). Figure 10 also shows that the list of video content that appears as user b moves across the screen of content display area 610 includes all of the video content in the expanded URL list.

If the video content in the expanded URL list is displayed on the screen at least once, and there is no additional content to display from the video content list, a content addition request may be transmitted to the content providing server 710 again, and URLs for some other video content may be provided to the electronic device 1 (110) again. In this case, the electronic device 1 (110) may expand the URL list again. Thus, this URL list expansion process may be repeated as certain conditions are repeated or until no video content for which additional URLs are provided remains in the video content collection.

In one embodiment, the content display area described in the embodiment of the present invention may be realized in a user profile screen. In this case, a list for some of the videos posted by the corresponding user may be arbitrarily recommended in the user profile screen, and the videos in the list may be automatically played in the content display area realized in the user profile screen. In this case, instead of forcibly selecting many postings as targets, an arbitrary playback target may be selected by paging in a certain unit. In addition, in order to naturally connect the playback of postings, an effect of connecting as if it were a single video may be given by overlapping the video surface view and then cross-fading in/out. The overlapping front and back areas may each preload the metadata of the video, thereby realizing the playback of video content so that the phenomenon of interruption due to the loading time during cross playback does not occur. After the video content is played once, if there is a locally recorded cache, it can be played quickly and efficiently without data communication.

For example, delays in continuous playback of video content can occur due to the time it takes for the video content to load. Therefore, in order to prevent such delays, layer switching between two layers can be used to enable video content to be played continuously without delay.

FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining an example of layer switching in one embodiment of the present invention. The electronic device 1 (110) may load a first content and play the first content on the screen of the electronic device 1 (110) on the first layer 1110 while loading a second content and playing it on the second layer 1120 located below the first layer 1110. The first layer 1110 and the second layer 1120 may be arranged at the same horizontal position as the content display area and may be the same size as the content display area. Also, initially, the first layer 1110 may be overlaid on the top side of the second layer 1120. At this time, the content actually played on the screen of the electronic device 1 (110) may be the first content, and the second layer 1120 on which the second content is played is not displayed by the first layer 1110. In this case, the electronic device 1 (110) may switch between the first layer 1110 and the second layer 1120 when playback of the first content is completed, so that the second content is displayed on the screen of the electronic device 1 (110) in the second layer 1120.

The content display area is an area for checking the overall video content of a particular video content collection, so the video content does not necessarily need to be played from the beginning. In particular, for content that is played repeatedly, the starting point is not very important, so there is no problem if two pieces of content are played simultaneously or with a certain time lag.

The electronic device 1 (110) may also load the third content and play it on the first layer 1110 while the second content is being played on the screen of the electronic device 1 (110) on the second layer 1120. In this case, the third content on the first layer 1110 located below the second layer 1120 is not displayed. At this time, when the playback of the second content ends, the electronic device 1 (110) may again switch between the first layer 1110 and the second layer 1120 so that the third content being played is displayed on the screen of the electronic device 1 (110).

In this way, by playing two video contents on two layers and switching between the layers, it is possible to prevent delays due to loading time when playing video contents continuously. Also, the first layer 1110 and the second layer 1120 may correspond to a double overlapping front area and back area, as described above. In other words, by preloading metadata of the second content in the second layer 1120 while the first content is being played on the first layer 1110, when the first layer 1110 and the second layer 1120 are switched with the end of playback of the first content, it is possible to prevent the phenomenon of video playback being interrupted due to the loading time caused by cross playback.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing an example of components that may be included in a processor of an electronic device in one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing an example of a content provision method that may be executed by an electronic device in one embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 12 shows the processor 212 of the electronic device 1 (110) described above. As shown in Figure 12, the processor 212 includes a video content request unit 1210, a URL list receiving unit 1220, an order determination unit 1230, and a video content playback unit 1240, and may optionally further include a content addition request unit 1250 and a URL list expansion unit 1260. Such processor 212 and components of processor 212 may execute steps 1310 to 1360 included in the content provision method of Figure 13. The processor 212 and components of processor 212 may be realized to execute instructions by the code of an operating system included in memory 211 or the code of at least one computer program (for example, an application for a content provision service provided by a content provision server). Here, the components of processor 212 may represent different functions of processor 212 that are executed by processor 212 according to control instructions provided by the code recorded in electronic device 1 (110). For example, the video content request unit 1210 may be used as a functional representation of the processor 212 that controls the electronic device 1 (110) so that the processor 212 requests video content according to the control instructions described above.

In step 1310, the video content request unit 1210 may respond to a request to display a preset content display area related to a service provided by the content providing server on the screen of the electronic device 1 (110) and request video content related to the preset content display area from the content providing server. Here, in the preset content display area, video content may be played with a video content set related to the service provided by the content providing server as a playback target, and the video content to be played in the preset content display area may be requested from the content providing server. The content providing server may correspond to the above-mentioned content providing server (for example, the content providing server 710 of FIG. 7) and may be realized by the server 150 described with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2. Such a content providing server may manage a content display area related to a specific video content set. For example, in the case of a service that provides users with content uploaded by users, the content providing server may manage a set of uploaded content for each user, and may allocate and manage at least one content display area for each user. A set of video contents associated with such a content display area may be determined by the identifier of the corresponding user or the identifier of the content display area, and when the video content requesting unit 1210 attempts to display a specific content display area on the screen, the video content requesting unit 1210 may send a request including an identifier associated with the content display area to the content providing server, so that the content providing server may determine the set of video contents to be displayed in the content display area based on the identifier.

In step 1320, the URL list receiving unit 1220 may receive a URL list including URLs for accessing a portion of the video content of the video content set associated with the pre-defined content display area from the content providing server via the network. As described above, the content providing server may determine the video content set according to the request, generate a URL list for the portion of the video content included in the determined video content set, and transmit the URL list to the electronic device 1 (110). The video content included in the determined video content set may include content uploaded by a first user to which the corresponding content display area is assigned. The portion of the video content may be selected in a random manner as described above, or may be selected based on various conditions such as the upload date of the content.

In step 1330, the order determination unit 1230 may sequentially or randomly determine video content to be played in a pre-defined content display area using the URL list. In practice, step 1330 may be a process of selecting video content to be played, or a process of determining the order of video content to be played in a pre-defined content display area from a set of video content using the indicator list.

In step 1340, the video content playback unit 1240 may acquire the determined video content using the corresponding URL of the URL list according to the determined order of the video content, and play the determined video content in the predetermined content display area in the order of acquisition. Step 1340 may be a process of acquiring the video content using the corresponding indicator of the indicator list according to the determined order of the video content, and playing the video content in the predetermined content display area in the order of acquisition. As described above, the embodiment of the present invention is intended to provide an area (for example, a preview area) for roughly checking the video content included in a specific video content set, and it is not necessary to play all the video content of a specific video content set or the video content included in the URL list. For example, when playing randomly selected video content, the same video content may be selected consecutively, or there may be video content that is not played.

In step 1350, the content addition request unit 1250 may transmit a content addition request to the content providing server via a network based on the movement of a preset content display area to the screen of the electronic device 1 (110) by the input of the user of the electronic device 1 (110). At this time, the content addition request unit 1250 may acquire at least a part of the video content according to the URL list received by the movement of the preset content display area on the screen of the electronic device 1 (110), display them in parallel on the screen of the electronic device 1 (110), generate a content addition request based on the occupancy rate at which the video content according to the URL list is displayed on the screen of the electronic device 1 (110) by the movement, and transmit the content addition request to the content providing server. For example, as described with reference to FIG. 9, in the list of video content displayed by the movement of the content display area, when all video content according to the URL list is displayed on the screen of the electronic device 1 (110), the content addition request unit 1250 may transmit a content addition request to the content providing server. As another example, a content addition request may be sent when a certain number of video contents from the URL list are displayed on the screen of the electronic device 1 (110) as a video content list, or conversely, when the number of video contents from the URL list that are not displayed as a video content list is less than a preset number. Such display of the video content list may be based on movement of the content display area due to user input. As another example, a content addition request may be sent every time the content display area is moved due to user input. Such a content addition request may be repeated every time a specific condition based on the movement of the content display area is met, and until all video contents in the video content set are received.

In step 1360, the URL list expansion unit 1260 may receive a URL for accessing another part of the video content of the video content set, i.e., a part of the video content other than the above video content in the video content set, from the content providing server in accordance with the content addition request, and expand the URL list. The content providing server may confirm a URL for another part of the video content from the video content set in accordance with the content addition request, and transmit it to the electronic device 1 (110). At this time, the URL list expansion unit 1260 may add the URL transmitted by the content providing server to the URL list, and expand the URL list.

In this way, a portion of the video content of a specific video content set is continuously played and provided, so that an area where the video content of the specific video content set can be viewed generally can be provided to the user more efficiently. In addition, the URL list for determining the video content to be played can be expanded by user input. This embodiment of the present invention eliminates the need to transmit the video content of a specific video content set all at once, so that it is possible to distribute or reduce traffic for transmitting the video content, and also from the perspective of the user's terminal, the data cost for downloading the video content can be reduced.

Such video content may be generated by a first user's electronic device (for example, electronic device 2 (120)) that shoots the video content transitioning to a video shooting mode using a camera, capturing a preview video input to the camera based on a preset frame rate (FPS), and applying at least one of a plurality of preset time fake effects to the captured preview video. The preview video may refer to a video input to the camera module before the user starts shooting (recording) when the camera module is executed on the electronic device, and may refer to a frame before a video file is generated in a specific video format such as MP4 by the end of video shooting (recording). Since such frames are images that do not have a specific video format for enhancing the compression effect, the frames can be freely searched, extracted, and controlled (for example, time fake effects such as speeding up the playback speed of frames, slowing down the playback speed of frames, or changing the playback order of frames from forward to reverse can be applied).

As described with reference to FIG. 11, the first layer and the second layer may be used to prevent delays due to loading time when continuously playing video content. For example, in step 1340, the video content playback unit 1240 may load a first video content in accordance with the order in which the video content was acquired and play it on the first layer corresponding to the position of a preset content display area, while loading a second video content and playing it on the second layer located below the first layer, and switch the positions of the first layer and the second layer as the playback of the first video content ends, thereby playing the second video content on the second layer.

In addition, the video content may include information regarding the date and location at which the video content was shot, and the information regarding the date and location at which the video content to be played was shot may be displayed on the screen of the electronic device 1 (110) on which the acquired video content is played. In addition to the information regarding the date and location, various other information such as the number of recommendations and the number of comments may be displayed together with the corresponding video content.

Figure 14 is a block diagram showing an example of components that may be included in a server processor in one embodiment of the present invention, and Figure 15 is a flowchart showing an example of a content provision method that may be executed by a server in one embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 14 shows the processor 222 of the server 150 described above. Here, the server 150 may be a device that realizes the content providing server described above. As shown in Figure 14, the processor 222 may include a video content management unit 1410, a content display area management unit 1420, a video content request receiving unit 1430, and a URL list providing unit 1440, and may optionally further include a content addition request receiving unit 1450 and a URL information transmitting unit 1460. Such processor 222 and components of the processor 222 may execute steps 1510 to 1550 included in the content providing method of Figure 15. The processor 222 and components of the processor 222 may be realized to execute instructions by the operating system code included in the memory 221 or at least one computer program code. Here, the components of the processor 222 may be representations of different functions of the processor 222 that are executed by the processor 222 according to control instructions provided by the code recorded in the server 150. For example, the video content management unit 1410 may be used as a functional representation of the processor 222 controlling the server 150 so that the processor 222 manages the video content according to the control instructions described above.

In step 1510, the video content management unit 1410 may manage the video content uploaded by the users on a per-user basis. For example, 100 pieces of video content, from video content 1 to video content 100, uploaded by user A may be associated with user A's identifier and classified and managed as one video content collection.

In step 1520, the content display area management unit 1420 may allocate at least one content display area for each user. For example, a content display area for roughly checking the content of user A may be allocated for user A, and a collection of video contents managed in association with user A may be identified in the content display area. For example, the content display area may include an identifier of a corresponding collection of video contents and an identifier of user A. As another example, the identifier of user A and the identifier of the content display area allocated to user A may be managed in correspondence with each other in the server 150, and the identifier of user A and the video contents uploaded by user A may be managed in correspondence with each other, so that the collection of video contents of user A may be identified by the identifier of the content display area.

In step 1530, the video content request receiving unit 1430 may receive a request for video content associated with the preset content display area from the electronic device. The video content to be played in the preset content display area may be received from the electronic device at the content providing server. Here, the electronic device may correspond to the above-mentioned electronic device 1 (110). In addition, the request for video content associated with the preset content display area may include an identifier of the content display area or an identifier of a user corresponding to the content display area. Such an identifier may be understood as identification information for matching the content display area with a set of video content uploaded by a user to which the content display area is assigned.

In step 1540, the URL list sending unit 1440 may check a video content set of a user to which a preset content display area is assigned among a video content set managed for each user, and may send a URL list of URLs for accessing a portion of the video content included in the checked video content set to the electronic device via a network. At this time, the electronic device may determine and acquire video content for playback based on the URL list as described above, and play the video content.

The electronic device may also be configured to transmit a content addition request to a content providing server via a network based on movement of a predefined content display area on the screen of the electronic device by input from a user of the electronic device.

At step 1550, the content addition request receiving unit 1450 may receive a content addition request from the electronic device.

In step 1560, the URL information providing unit 1460 may send a URL for accessing another part of the video content in the video content set, i.e., a part of the video content other than the above video content in the video content set, to the electronic device in response to the content addition request.

At this time, the electronic device may receive URLs from the content providing server and extend the already received URL list. The electronic device may also use the extended URL list to determine and acquire video content for playback, and play the acquired video content.

In this way, according to an embodiment of the present invention, a part of a video content set can be played back in sequence or randomly in a content display area associated with a service provided by a content providing server, providing a function that allows a user to check the video content set generally, and other parts of the video content set can be played back in sequence or randomly together with the existing part according to the user's response.

In some embodiments, the content display area is described as an area assigned to a specific user, but it is preferably understood as an area for generally checking the contents of a specific set of video content. In other words, the specific set of video content does not need to be limited to a set of video content uploaded by one user. As in the above example, a person skilled in the art can easily understand that the embodiments of the present invention can be used to generally check a set of video content belonging to a specific category among all the video content managed by the content providing server, to generally check the video content of other users with whom the user has a personal relationship, and even to generally check the video content of other users selected by the user, by referring to the embodiments of the present invention.

In this way, according to an embodiment of the present invention, by naturally linking and automatically playing video content such as user-posted videos, an intuitive and active user introduction screen can be provided, and a service can be provided that allows visitors to naturally focus on the video content of the user without having to perform complex interactions, and to understand at a glance what type of style the user has.

The above-described systems or devices may be realized by hardware components, software components, or a combination of hardware and software components. For example, the devices and components described in the embodiments may be realized using one or more general-purpose or special-purpose computers, such as, for example, a processor, a controller, an arithmetic logic unit (ALU), a digital signal processor, a microcomputer, a field programmable gate array (FPGA), a programmable logic unit (PLU), a microprocessor, or various devices capable of executing and responding to instructions. The processing device may execute an operating system (OS) and one or more software applications that run on the OS. The processing device may also respond to the execution of the software and access, record, manipulate, process, and generate data. For convenience of understanding, one processing device may be described as being used, but one skilled in the art will understand that the processing device may include multiple processing elements and/or multiple types of processing elements. For example, a processing unit may include multiple processors or one processor and one controller. Other processing configurations, such as parallel processors, are also possible.

The method according to the embodiment may be realized in the form of program instructions executable by various computer means and recorded on a computer readable medium. The computer readable medium may include program instructions, data files, data structures, and the like, alone or in combination. The program instructions recorded on the medium may be specially designed and configured for the embodiment, or may be available to those skilled in the art of computer software. Examples of computer readable recording media include magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tapes, optical media such as CD-ROMs, DVDs, magneto-optical media such as floptical disks, and hardware devices specially configured to record and execute program instructions, such as ROMs, RAMs, flash memories, and the like. Examples of program instructions include high-level language code executed by a computer using an interpreter, etc., as well as machine language code such as that generated by a compiler.

Although the embodiments have been described above based on limited embodiments and drawings, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications and variations may be made from the above description. For example, the described techniques may be performed in an order different from that described, and/or the components of the described systems, structures, devices, circuits, etc. may be combined or combined in a manner different from that described, or may be counterbalanced or replaced by other components or equivalents, and still achieve suitable results.

Therefore, different embodiments that are equivalent to the scope of the claims are within the scope of the attached claims.

110: Electronic device 710: Content providing server 720: Content database

Claims (12)

A program executed by a terminal communicating with a server,
receiving, from the server, a first content uploaded to the server by a first user, via a communication unit of the terminal;
performing control by a control unit of the terminal to play a video of the first content on a display unit of the terminal, and control to superimpose first information, which is information about the first content, on the first content and display it on the display unit;
displaying, on the display unit, first user information regarding information of the first user including the first content, based on an input to the terminal by a user of the terminal;
The first information includes information indicating a favorable impression or recommendation of the video of the first content,
The first information includes information regarding comments on the video of the first content . The program according to claim 1 ,
The first information includes information regarding a link for displaying the first user information. 3. The program according to claim 1 or 2 ,
The first information includes information regarding a link for viewing content uploaded by the first user. The program according to any one of claims 1 to 3 ,
The first user information includes second information different from the first information. The program according to claim 4 ,
The second information includes information on the number of followings the first user is following, or the number of followers following the first user. The program according to claim 4 or 5 ,
The second information includes a number of recommendations. The program according to any one of claims 1 to 6 ,
The first user information includes a second content that is different from the first content. The program according to claim 7 ,
The terminal controls the control unit to play back a video of the second content on the display unit based on an input for the second content included in the first user information. The program according to any one of claims 1 to 8 ,
the video of the first content is played in a first display area of the display unit;
A first content included in the first user information is displayed in a second display area of the display unit that is smaller than the first display area. The program according to any one of claims 1 to 9 ,
The first user information includes a plurality of contents including the first content,
The terminal causes the control unit to play back the moving images of the plurality of contents in a set order based on an input by a user of the terminal. An information processing method for a terminal communicating with a server, comprising:
receiving, from the server, a first content uploaded to the server by a first user, via a communication unit of the terminal;
performing control by a control unit of the terminal to play a video of the first content on a display unit of the terminal, and control to superimpose first information, which is information about the first content, on the first content and display it on the display unit;
displaying, on the display unit, first user information related to information of the first user including the first content, based on an input to the terminal by a user of the terminal;
The first information includes information indicating a favorable impression or recommendation of the video of the first content,
The first information includes information regarding comments on the video of the first content . A terminal that communicates with a server,
a communication unit that receives a first content uploaded to the server by a first user;
a control unit that controls playback of a video of the first content and controls displaying first information, which is information related to the first content, superimposed on the first content;
a display unit that displays first user information related to information of the first user including the first content based on an input to the terminal by a user of the terminal;
The first information includes information indicating a favorable impression or recommendation of the video of the first content,
The first information includes information regarding comments on the video of the first content .

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