Systems and Methods for Dynamic Conversion of Web Content to an Interactive Walled Garden Program

• US 20080120661A1
• Filed: 01/31/2008
• Published: 05/22/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sandke, Steven, Feinberg, Brian, Ludvig, Edward, Logue, Jay
• Application Number:
  US12/023,625
• Publication Number:
  US 20080120661A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/105
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2355 involving reformatting operations of additional data, e.g. HTML pages optimising the visualization of content for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/9577; tracking of instant messages H04L51/234; media packet handling at the source H04L65/762
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4402 involving reformatting operations of video signals for household redistribution, storage or real-time display details of conversion of video standards at pixel level H04N7/01; video transcoding H04N19/40; adapting incoming signals to the display format of the display terminal G09G5/005; media handling at the source in data packet switching networks H04L65/764
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4725 using interactive regions of the image, e.g. hot spots details of information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8543 using a description language, e.g. Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Expert Group [MHEG], eXtensible Markup Language [XML] information retrieval of semistructured data, the underlying structure being taken into account, e.g. mark-up language structure data G06F16/80
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8545 for generating interactive applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/165 Centralised control of user terminal subsequent to an upstream request signal H04N7/17345; Registering at central by two-way working H04N7/17309
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

Systems and methods to dynamically convert Web content to an interactive program for display on resource constrained television clients are described. In particular, a head-end server in a digital television entertainment system downloads the Web content from an external data source. The head-end server dynamically transcodes the downloaded content into an interactive walled garden program (iWGP) that includes MPEG stills and metadata for delivery to a client in the television entertainment system.

Claims

1. A computer-readable medium comprising computer-program instructions executable by a processor to performs operations comprising:

fetching Web content from an external data source;

responsive to receiving the Web content, transcoding the Web content to an interactive walled garden program (iWGP); and

delivering the iWGP to a client in a television entertainment infrastructure.

2. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the Web content is in an HTML data format.

3. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the client comprises a set-top box.

4. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the iWGP includes a relative link to a different iWGP such that the client can be used to navigate from the iWGP to the different iWGP, the link indicating a digital service corresponding to the different iWGP and target metadata for the different iWGP.

5. A computer readable medium as recited in claim 1, wherein a iWGP metadata page includes at least one relative link to a different metadata document in the iWGP.

6. A computer readable medium as recited in claim 1, wherein each metadata document includes an identifier to a corresponding background video component.

7. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 1, wherein fetching the Web content further comprises communicating content targeting information to the external data source for use by the external data source to select localized source content for transcoding by a cable-head-end into the iWGP.

8. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the computer-program instructions for transcoding the Web content further comprises instructions for generating a plurality of different video components over time from a single interface page of the Web content, the interface page comprising attributes that are dynamic over time.

9. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the computer-program instructions for transcoding the Web content further comprise instructions for configuring the iWGP with a program name, a target iWGP transport rate, a parental control rating, a digital service corresponding to the iWGP, an MPEG program number at which the iWGP is being broadcast, and/or a program broadcast frequency.

10. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the computer-program instructions for delivering the iWGP to the client further comprise instructions for broadcasting the iWGP to the client over an in-band communication channel or over a combination of the in-band communication channel and an out-of-band communication channel.

11. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the computer-program instructions for delivering the iWGP to the client further comprise instructions for:

broadcasting one or more video components to the client via an in-band communication channel; and

broadcasting the one or more metadata components to the client over an out-of-band communication channel, the metadata components corresponding to the video components.

12. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the Web content comprises one or more interface pages, and wherein transcoding the Web content further comprises, for each interface page of the one or more interface pages, generating digital video components according to specified picture quality attributes.

13. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the Web content comprises one or more interface pages, and wherein delivering the iWGP to the client further comprises:

identifying a priority attribute associated with at least one interface page of the interface pages; and

configuring a carousel to broadcast the at least one interface page to the client multiple times within a latency period specified according to the priority attribute.