SMART INTERACTIVE PROGRAM GUIDE

• US 20080229359A1
• Filed: 03/14/2007
• Published: 09/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Scientific-Atlanta LLC (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Scientific-Atlanta LLC (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Robinson, W. Andrew
• Application Number:
  US11/685,826
• Publication Number:
  US 20080229359A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42204 User interfaces specially adapted for controlling a client device through a remote control device; Remote control devices therefor constructive details of casings for the remote control device H01H9/0235; user interfaces for controlling a tuning device of a television receiver through a remote control H03J9/00; remote control of peripheral devices connected to a television receiver through the remote control device of the television receiver H04B1/205
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4221 Dedicated function buttons, e.g. for the control of an EPG, subtitles, aspect ratio, picture-in-picture or teletext
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42692 for reading from or writing on a volatile storage medium, e.g. Random Access Memory [RAM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4821 using a grid, e.g. sorted out by channel and broadcast time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4858 for modifying screen layout parameters, e.g. fonts, size of the windows

Abstract

Systems, methods, and applications for controlling an interactive program guide (IPG) to be displayed on a display screen are disclosed herein. According to one embodiment, among others, an application is stored in memory and is configured to control an IPG. The application comprises logic configured to maintain a data structure. The data structure includes a first category corresponding to a plurality of media services and a second category corresponding to a first value representing the number of times that a tuner system tunes to each one of the media services. The application also comprises logic configured to detect when the tuner system tunes to a particular media service channel. In addition, the application comprises logic configured to increment the first value related to the particular media service channel in response to detecting the tuner system tuning to the particular media service channel.

Claims

1. An application stored in memory and configured to control an interactive program guide (IPG) to be displayed on a display screen, the application comprising:

logic configured to maintain a data structure having a first category corresponding to a plurality of media services and a second category corresponding to a first value representing the number of times that a tuner system tunes to each one of the media services;

logic configured to detect when the tuner system tunes to a particular media service channel; and

logic configured to increment the first value related to the particular media service channel in response to detecting the tuner system tuning to the particular media service channel.

2. The application of claim 1, wherein the logic configured to detect when the tuner system tunes to a particular media service channel is further configured to detect when the tuner system remains tuned to the particular media service channel for a predetermined length of time.

3. The application of claim 2, wherein the logic configured to increment is further configured to increment the first value when it is detected that the tuner system remains tuned to the particular media service channel for the predetermined length of time.

4. The application of claim 1, further comprising logic configured to rank the channels in an order based on the first value.

5. The application of claim 1, wherein the data structure includes a third category corresponding to a second value representing the most recent time that the tuner system was tuned to each one of the media services.

6. The application of claim 5, further comprising logic configured to rank the channels in an order based on the first value, wherein, when the first value of two or more channels is the same, the logic configured to rank the channels is configured to use the second value to rank the two or more channels based the most recent time.

7. A set-top box comprising:

a processor adapted to control operations of the set-top box; and

a memory device in communication with the processor, the memory device adapted to store a program guide application executable by the processor;

wherein the program guide application is configured to provide a program guide having a first section and a second section;

wherein the first section includes a first set of media services, each of the first set of media services having a corresponding channel number and corresponding accessibility time period, the first set of media services listed in the first section in an order based on a user-selected sorting technique; and

wherein the second section includes a second set of media services, each of the second set of media services having a corresponding channel number and corresponding accessibility time period, the second set of media services listed in the second section in an order based on a count of the number of times that each respective media service is tuned to.

8. The set-top box of claim 7, wherein the program guide application is further configured to provide an options screen enabling a user to alter parameters related to the second section.

9. The set-top box of claim 8, wherein the program guide application is responsive to user inputs from a remote control device.

10. The set-top box of claim 8, wherein the options screen enables the user to select the number of channels to be displayed in the second section.

11. The set-top box of claim 8, wherein the options screen allows the user to select a time period over which the counts for the media services are considered.

12. The set-top box of claim 8, wherein the options screen allows the user to purge one or more channels from the second section.

13. The set-top box of claim 7, wherein the second section is positioned between two media services listed consecutively according to the user-selected sorting technique.

14. The set-top box of claim 13, wherein the program guide application allows the user to scroll through the media services in the first section and second section.

15. The set-top box of claim 7, wherein the program guide application is configured to change a television program view to a program guide view in response to an input from a user.

16. The set-top box of claim 15, wherein the program guide view initially consists of a portion of the second set of media services in the second section.

17. The set-top box of claim 7, wherein the set-top box is incorporated within a television set.

18. The set-top box of claim 7, wherein the user-selected sorting technique is selected from a list consisting of a numerical order based on channel number, an order based on theme, and an alphabetical order based on title.

19. A method comprising the steps of:

displaying, in a program guide, a list of media services and the corresponding channel number of each media service;

listing the media services in an order based on the number of times that a tuner tunes to each media service; and

displaying media titles corresponding to at least one time period when the media titles are available on the respective media services.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the step of listing the media services comprises listing the media services in an order based on the number of times that the tuner tunes to each media service during a preceding time period.

21. The method of claim 19, further comprising the steps of:

determining whether the tuner tunes to two or more media services the same number of times; and

when it is determined that the tuner tunes to two or more media services the same number of times, listing the media services tuned-to the same number of times based on the media service that the tuner tuned to most recently.