Interactive on-screen electronic programming guide display, method and system

• US 20040194139A1
• Filed: 03/27/2003
• Published: 09/30/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sharp Laboratories of America Incorporated (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Sharp Laboratories of America Incorporated (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Hanley, Mark G., Feather, Gary, Rao, Vishnu Kumar Shivaji
• Application Number:
  US10/401,445
• Publication Number:
  US 20040194139A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/52
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/743 a collection of video files or sequences
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/78 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• 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 21/4332 by placing content in organized collections, e.g. local EPG data repository interfaces, Database management systems or updating for information retrieval G06F16/23; details of retrieval of video data and associated meta data in video database G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4828 for searching program descriptors retrieval of video data G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8405 represented by keywords

Abstract

A system, a methodology and a related, on-screen, interactive user interface which displays electronic programming guide (EPG) text, with highlighted and user-selectable keywords that enable focused, precision informational navigation through the available EPG database. The display also presents different categories of virtual tools that can be employed by a user for navigating purposes, accessible via a suitable remote, hand-held control device.

Claims

1. An interactive electronic programming guide (EPG) user interface for television programming comprising

a display on the screen of a user'"'"'s television receiver containing currently available EPG database supplied text, and

predetermined navigation-capable keyword content in that text, freely selectable by user action within the display to initiate navigation within the EPG database, thus to produce an EPG-informational change in the display, which change directly relates to the user-selected keyword content.

2. The interface of claim 1, wherein said keyword content is constructed to enable the initiation of different EPG navigational responses with respect to different permitted modes of user selection regarding the content.

3. The interface of claim 2, wherein such different responses lead respectively to different kinds of changes in the nature of an on-screen display of EGP textual and navigational information.

4. The interface of claim of claim 3, wherein one of such different kinds of changes introduces one form of a manipulable context presentation of EPG textual information at one granularity level in the display, and another kind of such changes introduces another form of a manipulable context presentation of EPG textual information at a different granularity level in the display.

5. The interface of claim 4, wherein said one form of context presentation presents itself in the display as a scrollbar-manipulable interface, and said other form of context presentation presents itself as a button/tab-manipulable interface.

6. A system for furnishing an interactive display of currently available electronic programming guide (EPG) textual information on the screen in a user'"'"'s television receiver comprising,

display structure for creating such an on-screen display in relation to EPG textual information which is presented as an input to the display structure,

a library of navigational, action-promoting keywords which are based upon words expected nominally to be present within a currently available EPG textual database,

relationship structure operatively interposed said display structure and said library, and operatively connectable to a currently available EPG textual database, operable selectively to establish, as a presentation input to said display structure, a flow of modified EPG textual information, wherein words in the unmodified EPG textual information which have a selected relationship to keywords in said library are supplied by said display structure as visually identifiable, navigation-capable keywords in an on-screen EPG textual display thereby created by the display structure, and

selection structure operatively connected to said display structure employable by a user to perform a selection, within the on-screen EPG textual display, of at least one visually identifiable keyword presented in the display.

7. A method for enabling interactive use of an available, text-based electronic programming guide (EPG) database comprising

treating selected words in such a database text as user-selectable, navigation-active keywords, selection of which initiates related navigational transport through the database,

presenting such keyword-treated text as an on-screen interface display in a user'"'"'s television receiver,

enabling user interaction with that interface in the form of keyword selection activity, and

as a response to any such keyword selection activity producing a related change in the EPG informational content presented to the user in the displayed interface.

8. A method for presenting available electronic programming guide (EPG) database information as an interactive display on the screen in a user'"'"'s television receiver comprising

establishing a library of navigational, action-promoting keywords which are based upon words expected nominally to be present within a currently available EPG textual database,

relating such keywords to locate defined matching relationships with words found present in such a currently available EPG database,

as a result of said relating and locating, creating a modified EPG data stream, wherein such “

matching relationship”

words are treated in this data stream as navigationally active words which are selectable by a user to initiate related navigational transport through the EPG database, and

presenting as an interactive interface on the screen in a user'"'"'s television receiver, for user selection, a visually readable display of EPG information drawn from the modified EPG data stream.

9. An electronic programming guide (EPG) data stream derived from, and structured as a modified form of at least a part of, an available EPG database, said data stream being effectively presentable as an interactive display on the screen in a user'"'"'s television receiver, and comprising

a body of text data selected from such a database, and

within that data body pre-selected keywords that are user-selectable in such an interactive display as navigational-interface tools enabling selective navigational informational and screen-displayable transport through the data stream derivation from the EPG database.