Method and apparatus for receiving television signal, broadcast data receiving and reproducing apparatus, and broadcast data receiving and reproducing system

• US 20020060748A1
• Filed: 11/15/2001
• Published: 05/23/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Aratani, Shuntaro, Ohno, Tomoyuki, Shibamiya, Yoshikazu, Mori, Shigeki, Miyamoto, Katsuhiro
• Granted Patent: US 7,697,068 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/552
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00291 with receiver circuitry television receiver circuitry per se H04N5/44
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4117 for generating hard copies of the content, e.g. printer, electronic paper interfaces to printers G06F3/12; printing data G06K15/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4135 external recorder interface circuits between an apparatus for recording television signals and a television receiver H04N5/775
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4143 embedded in a Personal Computer [PC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4221 Dedicated function buttons, e.g. for the control of an EPG, subtitles, aspect ratio, picture-in-picture or teletext
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/426 Internal components of the client ; Characteristics thereof H04N5/44 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42676 for modulating an analogue carrier signal to encode digital information or demodulating it to decode digital information, e.g. ADSL or cable modem
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4312 involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4349 by extracting from data carousels, e.g. extraction of software modules from a DVB carousel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43632 involving a wired protocol, e.g. IEEE 1394 high-speed IEEE 1394 serial bus H04L12/40052
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/443 OS processes, e.g. booting an STB, implementing a Java virtual machine in an STB or power management in an STB
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4431 characterized by the use of Application Program Interface [API] libraries
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/488 Data services, e.g. news ticker systems specially adapted for using meteorological information in broadcast systems H04H60/71
• 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 5/445 for displaying additional information H04N5/50 takes precedence

Abstract

A television signal receiving apparatus receives television signals including broadcast data signals and outputs the received data signals to a display device. The display device displays an image that has characters and/or pictures generated from the data signals. A communication unit of the receiving apparatus is connected to and communicates with an external device. A control unit controls the image to be displayed on the display device according to results of communication with the communication unit.

Claims

1. A television signal receiving apparatus for receiving television signals including broadcast data signals, comprising:

receiver means for receiving the broadcast data signals;

output means for outputting the broadcast data signals, received by said receiver means, to a display device, wherein said display device displays an image including characters and/or pictures generated from the broadcast data signals;

communication means for communicating with an external device connected thereto; and

control means for controlling the image to be displayed on said display device in accordance with results of communication by said communication means.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the data of the broadcast data signals includes display control data for use by said control means to modify the image displayed on said display device.

3. An apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the display control data comprises display layout information of the image to be displayed on said display device and script information for displaying the image on said display device.

4. An apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the script information is associated with the results of communication, and

wherein said control means performs control to select the script information responsive to the results of communication and to perform a display process represented by the script information.

5. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said control means controls the output means so that a portion of the broadcast data signals is selectively output to said display device in response to the results of communication.

6. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the data of the broadcast data signals includes at least one of moving-picture data, still-picture data, audio data, character data, and control command data.

7. An apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the character data is described in a markup language, and includes display layout information of the image displayed on said display device, and script information for displaying the image on said display device.

8. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said communication means communicates with said external device in compliance with the IEEE1394 Standard.

9. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said control means starts controlling said display device based on a notification from said communication means notifying that said external device has been connected thereto and has started communications.

10. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said control means controls said communication means to transmit a command querying the status of said external device, and controls said display device so that the displayed image is changed in response to data from said external device.

11. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said control means controls said display device so that the image displayed on said display device is changed in response to an event content of an event command received from said external device through the communication means.

12. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said external device comprises a printer device.

14. An apparatus according to claim 13, wherein data of broadcast data signals include at least one of moving-picture data, still-picture data, audio data, and character data.

15. An apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the character data is described in a markup language, and includes display layout information of an image to be displayed on said display device, print layout information of an image to be printed out on said printer device, and script information for displaying the image on said display device.

16. An apparatus according to claim 14, wherein said display control means monitors states of said printer device including, at least, one of a printing state, a print halted state, and an error state, and controls said display means so as to display at least one of the character data, the still-picture data, and the moving-picture data in response to the states.

17. An apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising communication means for communicating with said printer device, wherein said communication means communicates with said printer device in compliance with the IEEE1394 Standard.

19. An apparatus according to claim 18, further comprising:

receiver means for receiving the broadcast data;

acquisition means responsive to the broadcast data for acquiring moving-picture data, audio data, and still-picture data multiplexed on a data broadcasting radio wave, character information described in a markup language, and markup text data including layout information and the script information;

storage means for storing the acquired data; and

display control means which generates display data based on the broadcast data and controls a display means so as to display the display data.

20. An apparatus according to claim 19, wherein the layout information comprises at least print layout information and display layout information, said print data output means forms the print data based on the print layout information, and said display control means generates the display data based on the display layout information.

21. An apparatus according to claim 18, wherein said control means controls said apparatus so as to execute the script in response to a communication command reporting, output from said printer device to said communication means, based on a status of said printer device.

22. An apparatus according to claim 21, wherein said communication command reporting includes at least one of a print completed state, a print halted state, and an error state of the printer device.

23. An apparatus according to claim 18, wherein said control means start controlling of execution of the script in response to a notification from said communication means notifying that said printer device has been connected thereto and has started communication.

24. An apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the broadcast data includes information associating a status of said printer device with the script.

25. An apparatus according to claim 18, wherein said communication means communicates with the printer device in compliance with said IEEE1394 Standard.

27. A method according to claim 26, wherein the data represented by the broadcast data signals includes display control data for use in modifying the image to be displayed on the display device in the control step.

28. A method according to claim 27, wherein the display control data comprises display layout information of the image to be displayed on the display device and script information for displaying the image on the display device.

29. A method according to claim 28, wherein the script information is associated with the results of communication, and

wherein said control step performs control to select the script information responsive to the results of communication and to perform a display process responsive to the script information.

30. A method according to claim 26, wherein said control step controls the output step so that a portion of the broadcast data signals is selectively output to the display device in response to the results of communication.

31. A method according to claim 26, wherein the data of the broadcast data signals includes at least one of moving-picture data, still-picture data, audio data, character data, and control command data.

32. A method according to claim 26, wherein the character data is described in a markup language, and includes display layout information of the image displayed on the display device, and script information for displaying the image on the display device.

33. A method according to claim 26, wherein said communication step communicates with the external device in compliance with the IEEE1394 Standard.

34. A method according to claim 26, wherein said control step starts controlling the display device based on a notification in the communication step notifying that the external device has been connected thereto and has started communication.

35. A method according to claim 26, wherein said control step controls the communication step to transmit a command querying the status of the external device, and controls the display device so that the displayed image is changed in response to data from the external device.

36. A method according to claim 26, wherein said control step controls the display device so that the image displayed on the display device is changed in response to an event content of an event command that is received from the external device in the communication step.

37. A method according to claim 26, wherein the external device comprises a printer device.

13. A television signal receiving apparatus for receiving television signals including broadcast data signals, comprising:

receiver means for receiving the broadcast data signals;

display means for displaying a plurality of images including an image relating to the broadcast data signals received from said receiver means;

print data output means for creating print data based on the broadcast data signals and for outputting the print data to a printer device; and

display control means for monitoring a status of said printer device and for changing a display content to be presented on said display means in accordance with the status of said printer device.

18. A broadcast data receiving and reproducing apparatus for receiving broadcast data and for presenting a variety of displays of data including the broadcast data, comprising:

print data output means for forming print data based on the broadcast data and for outputting the print data to a printer device;

communication means for communication with said printer device;

control means for controlling said apparatus so as to execute a script based on script information of the broadcast data in accordance with results of communication by said communication means.

26. A television signal receiving method for receiving television signals including broadcast data signals, comprising the steps of:

receiving the broadcast data signals;

outputting the broadcast data signals received in the receiving step to a display device, wherein the display device displays an image including characters and/or pictures generated from the broadcast data signals;

communicating with an external device connected thereto; and

performing controlled modification of the image to be displayed on the display device in accordance with results of communication in the communication step.

38. A broadcast data receiving and reproducing system comprising a broadcast data receiving and reproducing apparatus for receiving broadcast data and for presenting a variety of displays of data including the broadcast data, and an external device with which the broadcast data receiving and reproducing apparatus communicates,

wherein the broadcast data receiving and reproducing apparatus comprises:

receiver means for receiving data broadcasting radio waves,

acquisition means for acquiring at least one of moving-picture data, audio data, still-picture data, and character data multiplexed on the data broadcasting radio waves,

display means for displaying a variety of displays including the data acquired by the acquisition means,

communication means for communicating with the external device, and

display control means for controlling said display means to change the display content on said display means based on results of communications with said external device.

39. A broadcast data receiving and reproducing system comprising a broadcast data receiving and reproducing apparatus for receiving broadcast data and for presenting a variety of displays of data including the broadcast data, and a printer device with which the broadcast data receiving and reproducing apparatus communicates,

wherein the broadcast data receiving and reproducing apparatus comprises:

receiver means for receiving data broadcasting radio waves,

acquisition means for acquiring at least one of moving-picture data, audio data, still-picture data, and character data multiplexed on the data broadcasting radio waves,

display means for displaying a variety of displays including the data acquired by said acquisition means,

communication means for communicating with said printer device,

print data output means for forming print data based on stored data, and outputting the print data to said printer device, and

display control means which monitors the status of said printer device, and changes the display content on said display means based on a state of said printer device.

40. A television signal receiving apparatus for receiving broadcast television signals including data signals, representing an image including characters and/or pictures, comprising:

a receiver;

a display device in communication with said receiver by a signal outputter;

a communicator connected to an external device; and

a controller in communication with said communicator,

wherein said receiver receives the data signals, said outputter outputs the data signals, received by said receiver, to said display device, said display device displays an image including characters and/or pictures generated from the data signals, and said controller controls the image to be displayed on said display device in accordance with results of communication with said communicator.