Program guide application interface system

• US 10,205,995 B2
• Filed: 12/30/2010
• Issued: 02/12/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/05/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: UV Corporation (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rovi Guides, Inc. (Adeia Inc.)
• Inventors: Ellis, Michael D., Knee, Robert A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Michael H
• Application Number:
  US12/982,382
• Publication Number:
  US 20110099573A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,966 Days
• Field of Search: 725 37, 725 39
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26216 involving the channel capacity, e.g. network bandwidth admission control, resource allocation in open networks H04L12/5692; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; establishing a schedule or organising the servicing of application requests taking into account QoS H04L67/61
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42204 User interfaces specially adapted for controlling a client device through a remote control device; Remote control devices therefor constructive details of casings for the remote control device H01H9/0235; user interfaces for controlling a tuning device of a television receiver through a remote control H03J9/00; remote control of peripheral devices connected to a television receiver through the remote control device of the television receiver H04B1/205
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/426 Internal components of the client ; Characteristics thereof H04N5/44 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4438 Window management, e.g. event handling following interaction with the user interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4508 Management of client data or end-user data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4542 Blocking scenes or portions of the received content, e.g. censoring scenes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/472 End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or services; End-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification, for manipulating displayed content end-user interfaces for retrieving video data from a database G06F16/739; network services for supporting unicast streaming H04L65/612
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• 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 5/772 the recording apparatus and the television camera being placed in the same enclosure
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/775 between a recording apparatus and a television receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/7755 the recorder being connected to, or coupled with, the antenna of the television receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/782 on tape
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A program guide system is provided that supports a program guide application and multiple non-guide applications. The program guide system has a program guide application interface that allows the non-guide applications to use both device resources and program guide resources. The application interface maintains a list of registered applications and directs control requests from various applications to the current primary application. The application interface also has a user interface input director that directs keystrokes and other user input commands to the appropriate application. If a keystroke for the program guide application is detected while a non-guide application is running, the program guide application is invoked.

Claims

1. A method for resolving conflicts between requesting applications implemented on user television equipment, the method comprising:

receiving, with a control request processor, a first request to access a resource of the user television equipment from a first requesting application and a second request to access the resource of the user television equipment from a second requesting application, wherein neither the first nor the second requesting application has access to the resource when the first request and the second request are received, wherein the resource includes a plurality of video management functions;

in response to determining that each of the first requesting application and the second requesting application requests access to a same one of the plurality of video management functions of the resource, detecting, with the control request processor, a conflict between the first request to access the resource of the user television equipment and the second request to access the resource of the user television equipment; and

coordinating the first request and the second request, with the control request processor, to resolve the conflict based at least in part on a first operational status of the first requesting application and a second operational status of the second requesting application;

wherein the first operational status is selected from a group consisting of an active status when the first requesting application is actively running and an inactive status when the first requesting application is running in a background, and

wherein the active status is associated with a first list of resources that are used under the active status, and the inactive status is associated with a second list of resources that are used under the inactive status.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the resource is one of a device resource and a program guide resource.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting the conflict comprises determining that the first requesting application and the second requesting application request access to the resource at substantially the same time.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein coordinating the first request and the second request comprises:

choosing one of the first request and the second request based on a comparison of the first requesting application and the second requesting application, wherein the chosen request corresponds to a requesting application of a favored type; and

providing the requesting application corresponding to the chosen request with access to the resource of the user television equipment.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein coordinating the first request and the second request comprises:

choosing one of the first request and the second request based on a relative importance of the first request and the second request; and

providing the requesting application corresponding to the chosen request with access to the resource of the user television equipment.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first request is assigned a first weight by the first requesting application and the second request is assigned a second weight by the second requesting application, and wherein coordinating the first request and the second request comprises:

comparing the first and the second weights assigned to the first request and the second request;

choosing one of the first request and the second request based on the comparison; and

providing the requesting application corresponding to the chosen request with access to the resource of the user television equipment.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving, with the control request processor, a list of resource requirements for each of the first requesting application and the second requesting application;

wherein coordinating the first request and the second request comprises;

choosing one of the first request and the second request based on the lists of resource requirements; and

providing the requesting application corresponding to the chosen request with access to the resource of the user television equipment.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein coordinating the first request and the second request comprises:

in response to determining that the resource can be shared by the first requesting application and the second requesting application,

providing, via the control request processor, each of the first requesting application and the second requesting application with access to the resource of the user television equipment; and

in response to determining that the resource cannot be shared by the first requesting application and the second requesting application, providing one of the first requesting application and the second requesting application with access to the resource of the user television equipment.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the resource can be shared simultaneously by the first requesting application and the second requesting application; and

resolving the conflict by simultaneously providing the first requesting application with access to a first portion of the resource and the second requesting application with access to a second portion of the resource.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first request is associated with generating a first display and the second request is associated with generating a second display, the method further comprising:

resolving the conflict by generating for display an overlay of at least one of the first display and the second display.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the control request processor is further configured to:

receive a list of resource requirements for each of the first requesting application and the second requesting application;

choose one of the first request and the second request based on the lists of resource requirements; and

provide the requesting application corresponding to the chosen request with access to the resource of the user television equipment.

11. A system for resolving conflicts between requesting applications implemented on user television equipment, the system comprising:

a control request processor configured to;

receive a first request to access a resource of the user television equipment from a first requesting application and a second request to access the resource of the user television equipment from a second requesting application, wherein neither the first requesting application nor the second requesting application has access to the resource when the first request and the second request are received, wherein the resource includes a plurality of video management functions;

in response to determining that each of the first requesting application and the second requesting application requests access to a same one of the plurality of video management functions of the resource, detect a conflict between the first request to access the resource of the user television equipment and the second request to access the resource of the user television equipment; and

coordinate the first request and the second request to resolve the conflict based at least in part on a first operational status of the first requesting application and a second operational status of the second requesting application;

wherein the first operational status is selected from a group consisting of an active status when the first requesting application is actively running and an inactive status when the first requesting application is running in a background, and

wherein the active status is associated with a first list of resources that are used under the active status, and the inactive status is associated with a second list of resources that are used under the inactive status.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the resource is one of a device resource and a program guide resource.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the control request processor is further configured to detect the conflict by determining that the first requesting application and the second requesting application request access to the resource at substantially the same time.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the control request processor is further configured to:

choose one of the first request and the second request based on a comparison of the first requesting application and the second requesting application, wherein the chosen request corresponds to a requesting application of a favored type; and

provide the requesting application corresponding to the chosen request with access to the resource of the user television equipment.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the control request processor is further configured to:

choose one of the first request and the second request based on a relative importance of the first request and the second request; and

provide the requesting application corresponding to the chosen request with access to the resource of the user television equipment.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the first request is assigned a first weight by the first requesting application and the second request is assigned a second weight by the second requesting application, and wherein the control request processor is further configured to:

compare the first and the second weights assigned to the first request and the second request;

choose one of the first request and the second request based on the comparison; and

provide the requesting application corresponding to the chosen request with access to the resource of the user television equipment.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the control request processor is further configured to:

in response to determining that the resource can be shared by the first requesting application and the second requesting application, provide each of the first requesting application and the second requesting application with access to the resource of the user television equipment; and

in response to determining that the resource cannot be shared by the first requesting application and the second requesting application, providing one of the first requesting application and the second requesting application with access to the resource of the user television equipment.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the control request processor is further configured to:

determine whether the resource can be shared simultaneously by the first requesting application and the second requesting application; and

resolve the conflict by simultaneously providing the first requesting application with access to a first portion of the resource and the second requesting application with access to a second portion of the resource.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein the first request is associated with generating a first display, the second request is associated with generating a second display, and the control request processor is further configured to:

resolve the conflict by generating for display an overlay of at least one of the first display and the second display.