Interactive program summary panel
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0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention includes a method of displaying for a viewer summary information relating to programming available on an interactive television or televideo system. In a preferred embodiment, the method includes obtaining a user selection indication corresponding to a scheduled program selected by the viewer from a programming guide. Based on the user selection indication, the interactive television system accesses summary information relating specifically to the program selected by the viewer. The summary information preferably includes a text description of the programming and display imagery relating to the programming. The display imagery may include a multi-frame video sequence of or relating to the programming or a still video image.
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Citations
40 Claims
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1-20. -20. (canceled)
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21. In an interactive televideo system having a central control node in bidirectional communication with plural viewer stations that include video display sets operably coupled to interactive station controllers, the central control node delivering video programming over multiple channels to the plural viewer stations and receiving information from the interactive station controllers, the system including a programming guide from which viewers select programming, a method of displaying summary information chosen from one or more kinds of summary information ranging in relatedness to the selected programming with a preference for displaying the most closely related kind of summary information available, comprising:
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providing programming information from the central control node to an interactive station controller, the programming information including at least an identity for each of a plurality of available programs;
providing summary information from the central control node to an interactive station controller, wherein the summary information is associated with at least one of the available programs and comprises display imagery including one or more of a still image, a plurality of images, a video segment of less than the entire program, or the current broadcast of the program;
storing the programming information at the interactive station controller;
storing the summary information at the interactive station controller;
accessing the programming information and displaying the programming information in the programming guide on the video display;
obtaining a user selection indication corresponding to programming selected by the viewer from the programming guide;
accessing in response to the user selection indication the summary information relating to the programming selected by the viewer; and
displaying the most closely related kind of summary information available for the selected programming. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. In an interactive video system having a central control node in bidirectional communication with plural viewer stations that include video display sets operably coupled to interactive station controllers, the central control node delivering video programming over multiple channels to the plural viewer stations and receiving information from the interactive station controllers, the system including a programming guide from which viewers select programming, a method of displaying summary information chosen from one or more kinds of summary information ranging in relatedness to the selected programming with a preference for displaying the most closely related kind of summary information available, comprising:
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obtaining from the central control node programming summary information that relates to programming available to a viewer, the programming summary information including at least a plurality of images, each image being related to at least one of the available programming;
storing the programming summary information in a memory associated with the interactive station controller system;
obtaining an indication of programming selected by the viewer from the programming guide;
retrieving from the memory the programming summary information corresponding to the programming selected by the viewer from the programming guide in response to the obtained indication, wherein the retrieved programming summary information is the most closely related kind of summary information available for the selected programming; and
displaying the retrieved programming summary information for the viewer on a video display set. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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36. In an interactive video system having a central control node in bidirectional communication with plural viewer stations that include video display sets operably coupled to interactive station controllers, the central control node delivering video programming over multiple channels to the plural viewer stations and receiving information from the interactive station controllers, the system including a programming guide listing programming available to a viewer, a method of displaying summary information at an individual user station chosen from one or more kinds of summary information ranging in relatedness to the selected programming with a preference for displaying the most closely related kind of summary information available, comprising:
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providing from the central control node to the plurality of viewer stations programming information, the programming information including an identification of a plurality of programs currently available from the central control node and an identification of a plurality of future programs that will be available from the central control node at a future time;
storing the programming information at the plurality of viewer stations;
providing from the central control node to the plurality of viewer stations summary information, wherein the summary information is associated with at least one of the available programs and display imagery including one or more of a still image, a plurality of images, a video segment of less than the entire program, or the current broadcast of the program;
storing the summary information at the plurality of viewer stations;
accessing and displaying the programming information at an individual user station in response to a request from a viewer of the individual user station to display the program guide;
obtaining a user selection at the individual user station, the user selection indicating a currently selected program within the program guide;
in response to a user selection of a currently available program, displaying at the individual user station the currently available program simultaneously with the program guide; and
in response to a user selection of one of the at least one of the future programs, accessing and displaying at the individual user station the most closely related kind of summary information available for the selected programming simultaneously with the program guide. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38, 39, 40)
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Specification