Picture-in-picture mosaic

• US 20070250896A1
• Filed: 03/22/2006
• Published: 10/25/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sound View Innovations, LLC (Sound View Innovation Holdings, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Robinson, David, Dion, Gino, Furlong, Jeff, Parker, Alistair, Higgins, Sean
• Granted Patent: US 7,644,425 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/135
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23418 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics television picture signal circuitry for scene change detection H04N5/147; filtering for image enhancement G06T5/00; methods or arrangements for recognising scenes G06V20/00; arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23424 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for inserting or substituting an advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234336 by media transcoding, e.g. video is transformed into a slideshow of still pictures or audio is converted into text
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44016 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for substituting a video clip
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8153 comprising still images, e.g. texture, background image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8549 Creating video summaries, e.g. movie trailer retrieval in video databases by using presentations in form of a video summary G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/45 Picture in picture , e.g. displaying simultaneously another television channel in a region of the screen
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only

Abstract

The PIP system enables display of a mosaic of favorite channels in a Picture-in-Picture (PIP) format to a subscriber terminal. Picture-in-Picture support is efficiently provided by sending only I-Frames of the secondary video channel to the end-user. That is, any unnecessary packets (null, B-P frames, audio, etc.) in the secondary video channel are stripped away. This method uses very little bandwidth and is STB agnostic.

Claims

1. A method for producing thumbnail images of video content in a video stream carrying frames of compressed video data, comprising:

a) storing in an input buffer a preset amount of the video data from said video stream;

b) selecting from said input buffer a specified number of frames identified by a significant change in the video data for generating a preview signal;

c) converting said preview signal into a picture-in-picture (PIP) stream and broadcasting said PIP stream to subscriber terminals (ST) over an access network according to a transmission protocol recognized by said network; and

d) at a ST, joining a PIP stream of interest for playback of a thumbnail moving image with the video content in said video stream, overlaid on a full size image of the video content in any video stream that is currently played-back on said ST,

wherein said PIP stream uses a portion of network bandwidth otherwise needed if all frames of said video streams were broadcast over said access network.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said video stream is an elementary video stream broadcast from an interactive broadcast delivery system in a MPEG2 transport stream, and said frames identified by a significant change in the video data are I-Frames.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein PIP stream is broadcast in a vestigial sideband frequency modulation format, carried on a secondary channel.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising e) providing a user interface (UI) for said thumbnail image for enabling selection of said corresponding video stream at said ST.

5. A method as claimed in claim 4, wherein step e) comprises:

processing stream data pertinent to said video stream for generating a UI signal associated with said preview signal;

encoding said UI signal into an UI stream according to a transmission protocol recognized by said network; and

broadcasting said UI streams over said network.

6. A method as claimed in claim 5, wherein said UI is a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) frame which presents channel identification information to the respective thumbnail image.

7. A method as claimed in claim 5, wherein said stream data includes channel and program identification data pertinent to said preview signal.

8. A method as claimed in claim 5, further comprising including in said IU presentation data for presenting said thumbnail image with a background and/or frame of choice.

9. A server for producing thumbnail images of video content in video streams carrying frames of compressed video data, comprising:

n input buffers, each for storing a preset amount of the video data from a respective video stream, under control of a controller;

m preprocessing units, each associated to an input buffer for extracting from said associated input buffer a specified number of frames identified by a significant change in the video data, and generating from said specified number of frames an individual preview signal, where m and n are integers and m≦

n;

a network interface for converting each said individual preview signal into a picture-in-picture (PIP) stream and broadcasting said PIP streams to subscriber terminals (ST) over an access network,

wherein each PIP stream uses a portion of bandwidth otherwise needed if all frames of said video stream were broadcast to said ST.

10. A server as claimed in claim 9, wherein said video stream is an elementary video stream broadcast from an interactive broadcast delivery system over a MPEG2 transport stream.

11. A server as claimed in claim 10, wherein said frames identified by a significant change in the video data are I-Frames.

12. A server as claimed in claim 9, wherein said network interface comprises m PIP senders for encoding said individual preview signals into said PIP streams according to a transmission protocol recognized by said network.

13. A server as claimed in claim 9, further comprising a PIP presentation subsystem for receiving from said controller stream data pertinent to each said video stream and providing a user interface (UI) signal for each said individual preview signal.

14. A server as claimed in claim 13, wherein said network interface further comprises an UI sender for encoding said UI signal into an UI stream according to a transmission protocol recognized by said network and broadcasting said UI streams over said network.

15. A server as claimed in claim 13, wherein said UI is a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) frame which presents channel identification information to the respective thumbnail video image for enabling selection of said corresponding video stream at said ST.

16. A server as claimed in claim 13, wherein said UI signal comprises additional presentation data for said corresponding thumbnail image.

17. A server as claimed in claim 13, further comprising a database for maintaining said stream data for all video streams processed by said server.

18. A server as claimed in claim 9, further comprising a video multiplexer for multiplexing said individual preview signals into a composite preview signal.

19. A server as claimed in claim 18, wherein said network interface converts said composite preview signal into a PIP mosaic stream, and broadcasts said PIP mosaic stream to said STs for enabling said STs to join said PIP mosaic stream for playback of a preview mosaic of thumbnail moving images of the video content.

20. A server as claimed in claim 18, further comprising a PIP presentation subsystem for receiving from said controller stream data pertinent to each said video stream and providing a user interface (UI) signal for said composite preview signal.

21. A server as claimed in claim 9, further comprising a translation unit for further reducing the number of video frames in each said individual preview signal.

22. A server as claimed in claim 9, further comprising j video multiplexers, each for multiplexing a set of said individual preview signals into a distinct composite preview signal.

23. A server as claimed in claim 22, wherein said network interface converts each said distinct composite preview signal into a respective PIP mosaic stream, and broadcasts said PIP mosaic stream to said ST, for enabling said STs to join any of said distinct PIP mosaic stream for playback of a corresponding preview mosaic of thumbnail moving images of the video content.

24. A picture-in-picture (PIP) receiving unit for enabling a subscriber terminal (ST) to join a PIP streams for playback of a thumbnail moving image of video content in a corresponding video stream, overlaid on a full size image of the video content in any video stream that is currently played-back on said ST, comprising:

a network interface for interaction with a PIP server over an access network for requesting, receiving and demodulating a reduced bandwidth PIP stream into a preview signal including a specified number of frames of video data selected from a video stream carrying frames of compressed video data;

a user interface for enabling a user of said ST to request said PIP stream from said PIP server; and

a PIP decoder for converting said preview signal into a video signal for enabling playback of a thumbnail moving image of the video content in said video stream at said ST.