Document data structure and method for integrating broadcast television with Web pages

• US 20050005302A1
• Filed: 07/16/2004
• Published: 01/06/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Blackketter, Dean J., Zigmond, Daniel J., Anderson, David R.
• Granted Patent: US 7,636,927 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/109
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/986 Document structures and storage, e.g. HTML extensions
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44012 involving rendering scenes according to scene graphs, e.g. MPEG-4 scene graphs
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/858 Linking data to content, e.g. by linking an URL to a video object, by creating a hotspot

Abstract

Described are a method and apparatus for incorporating broadcast television into Web pages. Broadcast television can be embedded into Web pages using, for example, a “tv:” attribute in conjunction with common HTML tags. Within the “tv:” attribute, a Web-page author can reference a TV station by channel number, network, or broadcast call letters. HTML documents are parsed to recover both the conventional-tags and tags that include TV attributes. The resulting Web pages display the identified broadcast TV in a frame specified by the TV attribute. One embodiment supports the presentation of television in the background of an HTML document. In that embodiment, HTML tags corresponding to overlying HTML content are provided with an attribute that defines a level of transparency from zero to one-hundred percent. The transparency attribute allows content providers to overlay any type of HTML information over a broadcast television show without completely obscuring the underlying show. This aspect of the invention employs a z attribute that can be used to specify the relative position of broadcast television and overlying HTML content.

Claims

1-19. -19. (Cancelled)

20. A method for accessing a television broadcast from an HTML document, the method comprising:

receiving markup-language data defining a markup-language document;

interpreting the markup-language data with a view object, the markup-language data specifying a background;

using the view object to determine whether the background is specified by the markup-language data comprises an image or television;

upon determining that the background specified by the markup-language data comprises an image, adding the image to the background by filling a display buffer with pixels representing the image;

upon determining that the background specified by the markup-language data comprises television, filling the display buffer with transparent pixels; and

upon determining that the background specified by the markup-language data comprises neither television nor an image, filling the display buffer with a default color.

21. A method as recited in claim 20, further including the view object identifying an object tag that includes a URI of a television resource.

22. A method as recited in claim 21, wherein the URI includes a television channel attribute.

23. A method as recited in claim 22, further including the view object reacting to the television channel attribute by issuing a call to display the broadcast of a channel identified by the channel attribute.

24. A method as recited in claim 23, wherein the call to display the broadcast causes a broadcast of the channel to be displayed.

25. A method as recited in claim 21, wherein the view object causes a television broadcast to be displayed in response to the URI identifying the television resource.

26. A method as recited in claim 25, wherein the television broadcast is displayed with other parts of the markup-language document.

27. A method as recited in claim 26, wherein one or more markup-language tags included in the markup-language data include a z attribute specifying a z position for the one or more markup-language tags, and wherein at least one of the one or more markup-language tags specifies the z position of the television broadcast with respect to other parts of the markup-language document, the method including:

displaying the television broadcast in accordance with the relative z position specified in the z attribute of the at least one of the one or more markup-language tags.

28. A method as recited in claim 26, wherein one or more markup-language tags included in the markup-language data include an attribute specifying a level of transparency for one or more portions of the markup-language document overlying at least some of the television broadcast, the method further including:

displaying the television broadcast and the overlying one or more portions of the markup-language document in accordance with the level of transparency specified in the transparency attribute of the at least one of the markup-language tags.

29. A computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions for implementing a method of accessing a television broadcast from an HTML document, the method comprising:

receiving markup-language data defining a markup-language document;

interpreting the markup-language data with a view object, the markup-language data specifying a background;

using the view object to determine whether the background is specified by the markup-language data comprises an image or television;

upon determining that the background specified by the markup-language data comprises an image, adding the image to the background by filling a display buffer with pixels representing the image;

upon determining that the background specified by the markup-language data comprises television, filling the display buffer with transparent pixels; and

upon determining that the background specified by the markup-language data comprises neither television nor an image, filling the display buffer with a default color.

30. A computer program product as recited in claim 29, further including the view object identifying an object tag that includes a URI of a television resource.

31. A computer program product as recited in claim 30, wherein the URI includes a television channel attribute.

32. A computer program product as recited in claim 31, further including the view object reacting to the television channel attribute by issuing a call to display the broadcast of a channel identified by the channel attribute.

33. A computer program product as recited in claim 32, wherein the call to display the broadcast causes a broadcast of the channel to be displayed.

34. A computer program product as recited in claim 30, wherein the view object causes a television broadcast to be displayed in response to the URI identifying the television resource.

35. A computer program product as recited in claim 34, wherein the television broadcast is displayed with other parts of the markup-language document.

36. A computer program product as recited in claim 35, wherein one or more markup-language tags included in the markup-language data include a z attribute specifying a z position for the one or more markup-language tags, and wherein at least one of the one or more markup-language tags specifies the z position of the television broadcast with respect to other parts of the markup-language document, the method including:

displaying the television broadcast in accordance with the relative z position specified in the z attribute of the at least one of the one or more markup-language tags.

37. A computer program product as recited in claim 35, wherein one or more markup-language tags included in the markup-language data include an attribute specifying a level of transparency for one or more portions of the markup-language document overlying at least some of the television broadcast, the method further including:

displaying the television broadcast and the overlying one or more portions of the markup-language document in accordance with the level of transparency specified in the transparency attribute of the at least one of the markup-language tags.