Identifying ancillary information associated with an audio/video program

• US 20050028217A1
• Filed: 09/01/2004
• Published: 02/03/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: David B. Kinder, Jason T. Cassezza, Jerilyn L. Marler, Mary J. Lalomia, Scott P. Casey
• Original Assignee: David B. Kinder, Jason T. Cassezza, Jerilyn L. Marler, Mary J. Lalomia, Scott P. Casey
• Inventors: Marler, Jerilyn L., Casey, Scott P., Lalomia, Mary J., Kinder, David B., Cassezza, Jason T.
• Granted Patent: US 7,559,073 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/112
• 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 21/4622 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 21/4722 for requesting additional data associated with the content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8126 involving additional data, e.g. news, sports, stocks, weather forecasts
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/445 for displaying additional information H04N5/50 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/088 the inserted signal being digital

Abstract

A system communicates video information including television content associated with a plurality of channels and ancillary information. Information may be transmitted with the ancillary information that is indicative of the type of content included in the ancillary information. This provides the user, in one embodiment of the present invention, with a visual indication of the type of information that accompanies television content. This helps the user to decide whether the user wishes to view the ancillary information and provides the opportunity to select that enhancement for viewing.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

transmitting video data;

transmitting ancillary information associated with said video data; and

transmitting a universal resource locator that enables access to an icon for display, said icon indicative of the content of said ancillary information.

6. The method of claim 1 further including providing information that causes an icon to be displayed as an overlay.

7. The method of claim 6 further including transmitting a duration for the display of said icon in said ancillary information.

8. The method of claim 7 further including determining whether the icon has been displayed for the duration set with the ancillary information.

9. The method of claim 1 further including providing information to produce a plurality of icons indicative of content in said ancillary information.

31. The method of claim 1 wherein transmitting a universal resource locator includes transmitting a universal resource locator that enables access to an Internet web page.

32. The method of claim 31 including automatically accessing said web page.

33. The method of claim 1 wherein transmitting a universal resource locator includes transmitting a universal resource locator that points to a location in the transmitted ancillary information.

34. The method of claim 9 wherein providing information to produce a plurality of icons includes providing information to produce a plurality of icons that indicate, with increasing specificity, the content of said ancillary information.

2-5. -5. (Canceled).

10-13. -13. (Canceled).

14. A method comprising:

receiving video data, ancillary information associated with said video data, and information that may be used to identify the content included in said ancillary information;

displaying an icon indicative of the content included in said ancillary information;

receiving a local identifier in the ancillary information that points to a location storing the icon indicative of content; and

storing said local identifier and using said stored local identifier to again display said icon.

35. The method of claim 14 including receiving a plurality of icons, each icon to indicate a type of content that may be included in ancillary information, and determining which icons indicating a type of content included in ancillary information have been user-selected.

36. The method of claim 35 including receiving ancillary information including a particular type of content, and in response thereto, displaying the icon indicative of the particular content type.

37. The method of claim 35 including determining if received ancillary information includes a type of content corresponding to any user-selected icon, and in response to an affirmative determination, displaying the icon indicative of the type of content included in the ancillary information.

38. The method of claim 14 including receiving said video data and said information used to identify the content included in said ancillary information in a first transport stream and receiving said ancillary information over a second transport stream.

39. The method of claim 38 wherein receiving the ancillary information over a second transport stream includes receiving said ancillary information over an MPEG-2 delivery system.

15-19. -19. (Canceled).

20. An article comprising a machine-readable storage medium containing instructions that, if executed enable a system to:

receive video data, ancillary information associated with the video data, and information that may be used to identify the content included in the ancillary information;

receive a local identifier in the ancillary information that points to a location storing an icon indicative of content included in said ancillary information; and

store said local identifier and use said stored local identifier to repeatedly display said icon.

40. The article of claim 20 further comprising instructions that, if executed enable the system to receive a plurality of icons, each icon to indicate a type of content that may be included in said ancillary information, and determine which of the plurality of icons have been user-selected.

41. The article of claim 40 further comprising instructions that, if executed enable the system to receive ancillary information including a particular type of content, and in response thereto, display the icon that indicates the type of content included in said ancillary information.

42. The article of claim 20 further comprising instructions that, if executed enable the system to receive the video data and information used to identify the content included in said ancillary information in a first transport stream and receive said ancillary information over a second transport stream.

43. The article of claim 20 further comprising instructions that, if executed enable the system to display a plurality of icons that indicate features of the content of said ancillary information with increasing specificity.

21-30. -30. (Canceled).