Note : Les descriptions sont présentées dans la langue officielle dans laquelle elles ont été soumises.
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Method for Data Processing in a Radio Receiver
The present invention is based on a method for data processing in
a radio receiver.
It is already known from Thomas Lauterbach, publ., Digital Audio
Broadcasting, p. 134, Franzis Verlag, 1996, that data in addition
to radio programs are transmitted during DAB (digital audio
broadcasting).
US-5,946,326A describes a device and a method for transmitting
data-based services. Audio, video, and data based services are
described. WO 97/43838A1 describes the use of DAB for
transmitting control information. EP-A-804012 describes a system
of DAB and mobile radio for scanning and receiving multimedia
services.
Advantages of the present invention
In contrast to this, the method according to the present
invention for processing data in a radio receiver entails the
advantage that software programs that run in the radio receiver
evaluate data in order to control their execution. Because of
this, user, location, or time specific execution is achieved,
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other locally available data in the radio receiver being
usable for runtime control. This leads to high acceptance
amongst the users of these radio receivers, and it offers
the suppliers of these programs advantages with respect to
broadcasting them.
Advantageous developments and improvements to the
method for data processing in a radio receiver are made
possible.
A broad aspect of the invention provides a method
for processing data in a radio receiver, the radio receiver
being loaded with a software element and being connected
with sensors and at least one data receiving apparatus, the
method comprising: receiving program data transmitted with
radio signals; assembling software programs in the radio
receiver from the program data; running the software
programs by means of the software element; providing local
data using the sensors; providing received data using the at
least one data receiving apparatus; loading the local data
and the received data to the software programs by way of
interfaces of the software element; evaluating, by the
software programs, all of the data that has been loaded;
controlling, by means of all the data, the execution of the
software programs; and inputting user specific data by means
of the radio receiver and using the user specific data for
program runtime control; wherein the program data, the local
data and the received data are buffered as buffered data;
and wherein the buffered data are updated if more current
data from the sensors and the at least one data receiving
apparatus are present.
Another broad aspect of the invention provides a
method for processing data in a radio receiver, the radio
receiver being loaded with a software element and being
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connected with sensors and at least one data receiving
apparatus, the method comprising: receiving program data
transmitted with radio signals; assembling software programs
in the radio receiver from the program data; running the
software programs by means of the software element;
providing local data using the sensors; providing received
data using the at least one data receiving apparatus;
loading the local data and the received data to the software
programs by way of interfaces of the software element;
evaluating, by the software programs, all of the data that
has been loaded; controlling, by means of all the data, the
execution of the software programs; and wherein the program
data that is transmitted with the radio signals is used by
the software programs for program runtime control; wherein
the program data, the local data and the received data are
buffered as buffered data; and wherein the buffered data are
updated if more current data from the sensors and the at
least one data receiving apparatus are present.
It is particularly advantageous that data that are
evaluated by the programs for runtime control are input at
the radio receiver. Because of this, the user compiles a
user profile in order to control execution of the program
according to his needs and wishes.
It is also an advantage that data are received by
way of radio signals and then used for the runtime control
of programs. This makes it possible for a service provider
to influence the execution of the program according to his
needs, i.e., for advertising.
In one development of the method according to the
present invention program data and/or data generated by
sensors and/or that have been received by radio signals are
buffered until such
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time as they are subsequently evaluated by the programs
running in the radio receiver.
Furthermore, it is an advantage that the data that
are used for runtime control of programs are kept up-to-date
because data that is more up-to-date overwrites older,
stored data. As a result, program execution is always
controlled by prevailing conditions.
It is also an advantage that the data are
transferred by MOT (Multimedia Object Transfer) protocol.
This ensures a great amount of freedom with respect to the
organization of a data file and of the quantity of data used
by DAB.
Drawings
One exemplary embodiment of the present invention
is shown in the drawing appended hereto, and will be
described in greater detail below. Figure 1 is a flow chart
for the method according to the present invention.
In the following, the term "program" will be used
to refer to a "software program". The term "program" will
not refer to a radio program, such as NDR 2.
A radio receiver, preferably a radio receiver for
a motor vehicle, has software that is run in a processor
that is part of
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the radio receiver. Such software is an operating system that
permits execution of programs that are installed in the operating
system. The operating system also has a software element that
creates an environment for the programs that are running that is
independent of the apparatus. Thus, the programs are independent
of the particular processor or the particular operating system.
The software element and the programs running thereon are
programed in the widely used Java programing language so that, in
this instance in particular, very small programs, so-called
aplets, can be written very easily. The software element is thus
a Java processor. Besides this, the software element can also
run directly on the processor of the radio receiver as a Java
operating system. A further possibility is that the Java
processor be integrated directly into the processor.
The programs that run on the radio receiver are received as
program data by way of digital radio signals and then assembled
in the radio receiver so that they can then run as a program.
DAB is used as the digital radio broadcast transmission method.
DAB is a digital broadcast transmission method whereby additional
data information is transmitted with the actual audio program.
DAB is particularly well suited for the mobile receiver in a
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motor vehicle, since the properties of DAB are designed for
mobile reception. In particular, because the signals that carry
the information are divided amongst several carrier frequencies-
when the signals on the different carrier frequencies do not
interfere with each other-frequency selective attenuation does
not weaken the whole signal to the point that reception is no
longer possible; rather, given frequency selective attenuation,
only the information that is being transmitted on the frequency
that undergoes this powerful attenuation is lost. Because of
error detecting and error correcting codes, this part of the
information can, however, be reconstructed in the radio receiver.
This division of the signals amongst different carrier
frequencies is referred to as orthogonal frequency division
multiplex (OFDM).
These error detecting and error correcting codes require that
additional data be added to the data that is to be transmitted,
which is done in the radio receiver. Accordingly, redundancy is
added. This redundancy is either added at the end of a data
block, or the redundancy is added at different positions between
the data, in accordance with a predetermined rule. Then, errors
that occur are detected and corrected in the radio receiver by
means of this redundancy.
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In addition to DAB, other radio broadcast transmission methods
such as digital video broadcasting (DVB) and digital radio
mondial (DRM) are also suitable for such data transmission.
These methods differ from DAB essentially by a different frame
structure, a different bandwidth, and a different transmission
frequency, although here, too, use is made of error detecting and
error correcting codes and OFDM, for example. Analog
broadcasting methods have digital carriers such as, for example,
the familiar radio data signal, which can also be used for such
data transmission.
In addition to receiving program data in order to be able to
assemble programs running on the software element by means of
these program data, programs that are executed by means of the
software element can be previously stored in a memory of the
radio receiver or loaded from other data sources, for example,
from a chip card.
The programs that are executed in a radio receiver will depend
initially on the transmitter that is selected if the programs are
to be received by means of DAB radio broadcast signals. The
programs are thus coupled to a particular transmitter. The
simplest case for such a program that is executed in a radio
receiver is the presentation of the transmitter name and
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additionally the type of program, i.e., whether this is a news
station or a classical music station.
According to the present invention, data from local data sources,
or received data, or input data are used for runtime control of
the programs that run on the radio receiver. This is
particularly suitable for advertising, for on the one hand this
permits an advertisement that is linked to a specific locality,
for example, a local furniture store, or an advertisement that is
specific to a user, for example, a user who is interested in
recreational electronics.
In addition, it is also possible to provide the user with local
information about events by way of a radio receiver, or to
provide the user with user-specific information such as
information about the stock exchange.
Figure 1 is a flow chart for the method according to the present
invention; this is executed in the processor of the radio
receiver. In step 1 of the method, the DAB signals are received.
In addition to this, the radio broadcast signals that have been
received are amplified, converted to a lower intermediate
frequency, and filtered in order to eliminated unwanted frequency
components. The filtered signals are then digitized.
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In step 2, the digitized signals are decoded, when error
detection and error correcting codes are used in order to correct
any errors that have occurred in the digitized signals In step
3 the information that is transmitted in individual data sets
within the DAB framework is sorted.
Then, in step 4 of the method, the particular program is
assembled from the sorted program data, when useful data is
processed separately from the program data. Such useful data are
the data that are presented by the programs such as text, image,
audio and video sequences.
In step 5 of the method, one or a plurality of assembled programs
are started by the radio receiver, and in step 6 the programs
that have been started search for data so as to control their
execution.
These data are either contained in the digital radio broadcast
signals, as described heretofore, or the data are taken from
local data sources. Such local data sources are pickups that
are connected to the radio receiver. They are brightness
sensors, temperature sensors, an oil level sensor, and a gasoline
level sensor. These pickups supply data that a program compares
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with data that is preset in the radio receiver for the particular
sensor, and if these values are exceeded or not reached, they
inform the user of this change, this information being shown in a
display of the radio receiver so that the user can react to the
changes.
An additional data source is a locating device, a GPS (Global
Positioning System) receiver that supplies the coordinates of
the radio receiver if the radio receiver is close to the locating
device. In this case, the locating device is a data receiving
apparatus.
The program that is running then involves data with which the
program compares the current location coordinates, in order to
arrive at a location-dependent presentation of the advertisement
or local information. The comparison involves formation of a
difference between the actual coordinates and coordinates that
are stored in the program as coordinates, and a comparison of the
difference with a threshold for the difference that is stored in
the program that is running; when the difference lies beneath
this threshold the location dependent version for this area is
presented, and if not, then this location dependent version is
not presented by the program. If a plurality of location
dependent presentations are possible for different coordinates,
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then such a difference is formed with several predetermined
coordinates until such time as a difference lies beneath the
predetermined threshold, or until such time as all the
predetermined coordinates have been used to form a difference.
In the latter case, no location dependent presentation of
information is undertaken by the program that is running.
In addition to the radio receiver, it is possible to use other
data receiving apparatuses that are connected to the radio
receiver as a data receiving apparatus. Thus, a mobile telephone
that can also receive data is connected to the radio receiver and
sends data to this radio receiver. Such mobile telephones can be
designed in keeping with the GSM (Global System for Mobile
Communications) or the UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications
System) standard, although other mobile radio standards that are
suitable for data reception can also be used. if the radio
receiver is stationary, it can also be coupled to the telephone
network or receive data via a satellite.
Local data are also input to the radio receiver by the user. The
user indicates whether or not he is interested in particular
event, together with his age, in order to identify a target group
for a specific advertiser, or which other interests he may have,
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e.g., with respect to best sellers, music, or sport. A keyboard
with which the user inputs this information is a pickup.
A program that presents news will provide mainly sports news for
the user if the user has input the fact that he or she is
interested mainly in sports.
The Java processor has interfaces with which the different data
sources can be addressed. The program that is being executed
uses these interfaces to load the data from the individual data
sources.
In step 7 of the process, these data are loaded in order to be
evaluated in step 8 according to the details referred to above.
Then, in step 9 of the process the program is executed according
to this evaluation.
Data that are received by way of DAB radio broadcast signals are
buffered until such time as they are checked. Thus, it is
ensured that all usable data are used for runtime control of the
programs.
Because data is overwritten by newer data, it is ensured that the
data that is checked by the programs for runtime control is
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always up-to-date. Location coordinates are overwritten by new
location coordinates, and user specific inputs are overwritten by
new user specific inputs.
Because of the division of the data during transmission by means
of DAB radio broadcast signals in the MOT frames, great
flexibility in the addressability and size of the data is
achieved. The MOT protocol permits the addressing of 268 Mb.
The data that are used for assembling programs and the multimedia
data are sent by means of MOT frames.
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