Apparatus and method for EPG sorting and automatic realignment

• US 10,063,930 B2
• Filed: 04/15/2016
• Issued: 08/28/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: OpenTV, Inc. (Kudelski SA)
• Original Assignee: OpenTV, Inc. (Kudelski SA)
• Inventors: Chai, Crx K., Fishman, Alex, Huntington, Matthew, Chellin, Isaac, Lu, Kevin
• Primary Examiner(s): Kumar, Pankaj
• Assistant Examiner(s): Newlin, Timothy R
• Application Number:
  US15/130,002
• Publication Number:
  US 20160234561A1
• Time in Patent Office: 865 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4314 for fitting data in a restricted space on the screen, e.g. EPG data in a rectangular grid
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47205 for manipulating displayed content, e.g. interacting with MPEG-4 objects, editing locally
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4821 using a grid, e.g. sorted out by channel and broadcast time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4858 for modifying screen layout parameters, e.g. fonts, size of the windows

Abstract

In various example embodiments, a system and method for electronic program guide (EPG) sorting and automatic realignment is provided. In example embodiments, a graphical user interface having an EPG including a plurality of rows of thumbnails representing programs is presented on a device of a user. Each row of thumbnails may be navigated independent of other rows. A navigational input is received via a touchscreen of the device. The navigational input indicates an action performed on the graphical user interface that triggers a realignment of programming information presented on the EPG. An updated EPG with the realignment of the programming information indicated by the navigational input is then provided.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

causing, by one or more processors of a media device, a graphical user interface to be presented on a display, the graphical user interface comprising a plurality of rows of thumbnails, each row of thumbnails on the plurality of rows of thumbnails representing a set of media items in a plurality of media items, each thumbnail positioned in its corresponding row of thumbnails of the plurality of rows of thumbnails according to a start time of a media item associated with each thumbnail, each row of thumbnails in the plurality of rows of thumbnails allowing navigation along a time axis independent of other rows of thumbnails of the plurality of rows of thumbnails, the navigation for each row of thumbnails in the plurality of rows of thumbnails enabled based on an input corresponding to an interaction, received via a touchscreen, with the row of thumbnails, the navigation for each row of thumbnails in the plurality of rows of thumbnails being based on a navigable direction indicated by the interaction;

responsive to receiving at least one input corresponding to one or more interactions, detecting that the at least one input causes a realignment of one or more rows of thumbnails allowing navigation independently along the time axis, the at least one input causing the one or more rows of thumbnails to realign according to at least two program information categories;

realigning, based on the detecting that the at least one input causes the realignment, the one or more rows of thumbnails on the graphical user interface according to the at least two program information categories; and

causing display of an updated graphical user interface with the realigned one or more rows of thumbnails based on the at least one input.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least two program information categories comprise a time and a genre.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least two program information categories comprise a time and a meta-tag category.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least two program information categories comprise a time and a theme.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least two program information categories comprises two selections from the group consisting of a time, a genre, favorites, a theme, a particular actor, popularity, relevance, and social connection programming.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least two program information categories comprise a time, a genre, favorites, a theme, a particular actor, popularity, relevance, or social connection programming.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the realigning comprises visually scrolling each visible row of the graphical user interface to their realigned position on the updated graphical user interface at a speed that results in all visible rows reaching their realigned position at a same time.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one input comprises one or more of a scrolling input performed to a row of the thumbnails, a drag and drop of an icon onto a thumbnail, a selection of an icon or button, or a selection from a drop down menu.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the media items are broadcast programs that each start at a predetermined time.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one input comprises a drag and drop of a tag icon onto a thumbnail that triggers a determination of programs that have a matching meta-tag as that of a program corresponding to the thumbnail on which the tag icon was dropped.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the realigning realigns more than one row of thumbnails, the realigning comprises:

calculating a speed of realignment for each visible row of the more than one row of thumbnails that results in all visible rows reaching their realigned position at a same time, the speed of realignment being based on a distance current information is from a final realigned position for each visible row; and

visually scrolling each visible row of the graphical user interface to their final realigned position on the updated graphical user interface at their respective calculated speed of realignment.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the realigning realigns more than one row of thumbnails, the realigning comprises visually scrolling each visible row of the more than one row of thumbnails to their final realigned position on an updated graphical user interface such that all visible rows reach their realigned position at a same time.

10. A system comprising:

one or more hardware processors; and

a storage device storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more hardware processors, causes the one or more hardware processors to perform operations comprising;

causing a graphical user interface to be presented on a display, the graphical user interface comprising a plurality of rows of thumbnails, each row of thumbnails on the plurality of rows of thumbnails representing a set of media items in a plurality of media items, each thumbnail positioned in its corresponding row of thumbnails of the plurality of rows of thumbnails according to a start time of a media item associated with the thumbnail, each row of thumbnails in the plurality of rows of thumbnails allowing navigation along a time axis independent of other rows of thumbnails of the plurality of rows of thumbnails, the navigation for each row of thumbnails in the plurality of rows of thumbnails enabled based on an input corresponding to an interaction, received via a touchscreen, with the row of thumbnails, the navigation for each row of thumbnails in the plurality of rows of thumbnails being based on a navigable direction indicated by the interaction;

responsive to receiving at least one input corresponding to one or more interactions, detecting that the at least one input causes a realignment of one or more rows of thumbnails allowing navigation independently along the time axis, the at least one input causing the one or more rows of thumbnails to realign according to at least two program information categories;

realigning, based on the detecting that the at least one input causes the realignment, the one or more rows of thumbnails on the graphical user interface according to the at least two program information categories; and

causing display of an updated graphical user interface with the realigned one or more rows of thumbnails based on the at least one input.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the at least two program information categories comprise a time and a genre.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the at least two program information categories comprise a time and a meta-tag category.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the at least two program information categories comprise a time and a theme.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the at least two program information categories comprises two selections from the group consisting of a time, a genre, favorites, a theme, a particular actor, popularity, relevance, and social connection programming.

18. A machine-readable storage device storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

causing a graphical user interface to be presented on a display, the graphical user interface comprising a plurality of rows of thumbnails, each row of thumbnails on the plurality of rows of thumbnails representing a set of media items in a plurality of media items, each thumbnail positioned in its corresponding row of thumbnails of the plurality of rows of thumbnails according to a start time of a media item associated with the thumbnail, each row of thumbnails in the plurality of rows of thumbnails allowing navigation along a time axis independent of other rows of thumbnails of the plurality of rows of thumbnails, the navigation for each row of thumbnails in the plurality of rows of thumbnails enabled based on an input corresponding to an interaction, received via a touchscreen, with the row of thumbnails, the navigation for each row of thumbnails in the plurality of rows of thumbnails being based on a navigable direction indicated by the interaction;

responsive to receiving at least one input corresponding to one or more interactions, detecting that the at least one input causes a realignment of one or more rows of thumbnails allowing navigation independently along the time axis, the at least one input causing the one or more rows of thumbnails to realign according to at least two program information categories;

realigning, based on the detecting that the at least one input causes the realignment, the one or more rows of thumbnails on the graphical user interface according to the at least two program information categories; and

causing display of an updated graphical user interface with the realigned one or more rows of thumbnails based on the at least one input.

19. The machine-readable storage device of claim 18, wherein the at least two program information categories comprises two selections from the group consisting of a time, a genre, favorites, a theme, a particular actor, popularity, relevance;

and social connection programming.

20. The machine-readable storage device of claim 18, wherein the realigning comprises visually scrolling each visible row of the graphical user interface to their realigned position on the updated graphical user interface at a speed that results in all visible rows reaching their realigned position at a same time.