Method and system for displaying and selecting content of an electronic program guide
First Claim
1. A method of generating television program guide information for presentation to a viewer, comprising the steps of:
- receiving, from at least a first source, electronic program schedule information containing more than one field of data;
populating at least one record in a database with the program schedule data;
mining the database record to create associations among the data;
forming dynamic interrelationships between the associated data; and
presenting, in response to a user selection, the dynamic interrelated data in a hierarchical format on a display device.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method of presenting an interactive electronic program guide (EPG) in a hierarchal data form which interactively allows users to find content more quickly. Search results of the EPG are stored in data records which are associated with meta criteria based on functional interrelationships. The method depicts the selections available to a user, and interacts with a user'"'"'s selection by moving laterally, upward, or downward through the hierarchal format. Information is organized in a more useable manner by grouping channels into categories. Additional methods remove shows already recorded by a user based on information maintained in a database.
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Citations
16 Claims
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1. A method of generating television program guide information for presentation to a viewer, comprising the steps of:
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receiving, from at least a first source, electronic program schedule information containing more than one field of data;
populating at least one record in a database with the program schedule data;
mining the database record to create associations among the data;
forming dynamic interrelationships between the associated data; and
presenting, in response to a user selection, the dynamic interrelated data in a hierarchical format on a display device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method of selecting television program guide content comprising the steps of:
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electronically receiving program content data for a set of channels from at least a first source;
populating at least one database record with the program content data;
mining the database record to form associations among the data;
creating meta criteria for the data associations;
searching, upon a user'"'"'s request;
the meta criteria for all data associated in the mining step; and
presenting, in a hierarchical format, the results of the searching step on an interactive display device. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10)
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11. A method of selecting television program guide content comprising the steps of:
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electronically receiving schedule guide information for a set of channels from at least a first source;
selecting programs based on a specific time-slot over multiple days; and
narrowing the selection by limiting the set of channels to a particular sub-set. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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Specification