Guide menu based on a repeatedly-rotating sequence

• US 10,149,014 B2
• Filed: 01/08/2013
• Issued: 12/04/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications Management LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications Management LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Inventors: Chane, Lena D., Marenghi, Matt, Ahmad-Taylor, Ty, Chung, Alex, Hegde, Prakash, Moreau, Samuel, Haber, Darrel
• Primary Examiner(s): Kumar, Pankaj
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hicks, Charles N
• Application Number:
  US13/736,283
• Publication Number:
  US 20130198784A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,156 Days
• Field of Search: 725 37, 725 36, 725 42, 725 48, 725 61
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2355 involving reformatting operations of additional data, e.g. HTML pages optimising the visualization of content for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/9577; tracking of instant messages H04L51/234; media packet handling at the source H04L65/762
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2665 Gathering content from different sources, e.g. Internet and satellite
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4437 Implementing a Virtual Machine [VM] virtual machines in general G06F9/45533
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4438 Window management, e.g. event handling following interaction with the user interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47214 for content reservation or setting reminders; for requesting event notification, e.g. of sport results or stock market stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; notification of incoming messages in packet switching networks H04L51/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4786 e-mailing message switching systems, e.g. electronic mail systems H04L51/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4828 for searching program descriptors retrieval of video data G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8543 using a description language, e.g. Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Expert Group [MHEG], eXtensible Markup Language [XML] information retrieval of semistructured data, the underlying structure being taken into account, e.g. mark-up language structure data G06F16/80
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8545 for generating interactive applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/45 Picture in picture , e.g. displaying simultaneously another television channel in a region of the screen

Abstract

An iTV user interface includes a navigable menu area through which a user can select from among a variety of services and a content display area in which formatted data associated with a selected menu service are displayed to the user. The formatted data is displayed in a rotating or ticker fashion having both a passive mode, in which the formatted data is displayed in a sequence independent of any selection operations by a television viewer, and active mode, in which the formatted data is displayed in a sequence that depends on selection operations by the television viewer. Advertisements and/or promotions may be interspersed among the content items. The navigable menu area and the content display area may be displayed to the viewer at the same time as television programming is displayed on the television.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

causing display, within a guide menu and in a first repeatedly-rotating sequence, of a plurality of content items associated with a plurality of menu categories; and

based on receiving a selection associated with a particular menu category of the plurality of menu categories, causing display, within the guide menu and in a second repeatedly-rotating sequence, of a set of content items, of the plurality of content items, associated with the particular menu category.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first repeatedly-rotating sequence is associated with a passive ticker mode for the guide menu.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the second repeatedly-rotating sequence is associated with an active ticker mode for the guide menu.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising causing display of an advertisement between two content items of the plurality content items.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising causing display of an advertisement between two content items of the set of content items.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

causing display, for each of the plurality of content items, of an indication of an associated menu category.

7. A method comprising:

causing display, within a guide menu and in a first repeatedly-rotating sequence, of a first set of content items, of a plurality of content items, associated with a first menu category of a plurality of menu categories, wherein the plurality of content items are associated with the plurality of menu categories;

based on causing display of a last content item from the first set of content items, causing display, within the guide menu and in the first repeatedly-rotating sequence, of a second set of content items, of the plurality of content items, associated with a second menu category; and

based on receiving a selection associated with the second menu category, causing display, within the guide menu and in a second repeatedly-rotating sequence, of the second set of content items.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the first repeatedly-rotating sequence is associated with a passive ticker mode of the guide menu.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the second repeatedly-rotating sequence is associated with an active ticker mode of the guide menu.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising causing display of an advertisement between the first set of content items and the second set of content items.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising causing display of an advertisement between two content items of the second set of content items.

12. A method comprising:

causing display, within a guide menu and in a first repeatedly-rotating sequence, of a plurality of content items, wherein the plurality of content items are associated with a plurality of menu categories, wherein the first repeatedly-rotating sequence is defined by a first time period for displaying the plurality of content items and a first display order for the plurality of content items; and

based on receiving a selection associated with a first menu category of the plurality of menu categories, causing display, within the guide menu and in a second repeatedly-rotating sequence, of a first set of content items of the plurality of content items, associated with the first menu category, wherein the second repeatedly-rotating sequence is defined by a second time period for displaying the first set of content items and a second display order for the first set of content items.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the second repeatedly-rotating sequence is performed until a selection associated with a second menu category is received, and wherein the method further comprises:

based on receiving the selection associated with the second menu category, causing display, within the guide menu and in a third repeatedly-rotating sequence, of a second set of content items, of the plurality of content items, associated with the second menu category.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving content for display; and

causing display of the guide menu with a first portion of the content for display.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising causing display of an advertisement between two content items of the plurality of content items.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising causing display of an advertisement between two content items of the first set of content items.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the first repeatedly-rotating sequence is associated with a passive ticker mode.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the second repeatedly-rotating sequence is associated with an active ticker mode.

19. The method of claim 12, further comprising causing display of an advertisement between two content items of the second set of content items.

20. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

based on receiving a selection associated with a content item being displayed within the guide menu, causing display of information associated with the content item.