MERGING ELECTRONIC PROGRAM GUIDE INFORMATION

• US 20090260038A1
• Filed: 04/11/2008
• Published: 10/15/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Hess, Hans Peter, Irwin, Paul, Hayton, Michael S., Acton, Colin Lee, Pickett, Shawn, Ohno, Hiroshi, Azera, Frederic, Bordelet, Renaud, Cirrincione, Cory Jon
• Granted Patent: US 8,225,354 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/49
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4143 embedded in a Personal Computer [PC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4263 involving specific tuning arrangements, e.g. two tuners
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4345 Extraction or processing of SI, e.g. extracting service information from an MPEG stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/50 Tuning indicators; Automatic tuning control

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed herein for merging EPG data associated with a variety of program sources. In one aspect, EPG data is accessed for different program sources and rules are selected that define how entries in the EPG data are to be merged. The rules may be selected based on whether the EPG data was collected in-band or out-of-band. In addition, the merging rules can be dependent on the program source, which allows the flexibility of applying different rules to different program sources. The EPG data from the different program sources is merged into a single EPG based on the selected rules.

Claims

1. A machine implemented method for merging electronic program guide (EPG) data, the method comprising:

accessing EPG data for a plurality of sources of program content;

selecting rules from a plurality of rule sets, the selected rules define how the EPG data is to be merged; and

merging the EPG data from the plurality of sources into merged EPG data based on the selected rules.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the selecting rules depends upon whether the EPG data is derived in-band or out-of-band.

3. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the selecting rules depends upon the source of the program content.

4. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an updated version of the plurality of rule sets;

accessing new EPG data for the plurality of sources of program content;

selecting new rules from the updated version of the plurality of rule sets; and

merging the new EPG data into a new EPG based on the selected new rules.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

segregating tuners that receive programs from the plurality of sources into a plurality of tuner groups; and

forming a separate channel lineup for each tuner group, wherein each channel lineup includes all channels that are available for every tuner in a tuner group.

6. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

displaying an EPG interface based on the merged EPG data.

7. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

mining the merged EPG data.

8. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

displaying a user interface that indicates that the merged EPG data contains a channel that has been merged, the channel is available from at least two different sources of the plurality of sources; and

allowing the user to select which of the at least two different sources will be used in future merges of the channel.

9. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

displaying a user interface that indicates that the merged EPG data contains a channel that has been merged, the channel is available from at least two different sources of the plurality of sources; and

allowing the user to select which of the at least two different sources the user prefers to tune to for the channel.

10. A computer readable medium having stored thereon a set of instructions which, when executed on a processor, cause the processor to perform:

creating at least one lineup object for each of a plurality of tuners that receive program content, each lineup object contains electronic program guide (EPG) data for a particular source of the plurality of sources of the program content;

merging the lineup objects to create a hierarchical tree of lineup objects until a root lineup object is created, the merging includes merging at least two child lineup objects to form a parent lineup object, the merging child lineup objects includes merging EPG data in the child lineup objects; and

displaying an EPG interface based on the EPG data in the root lineup object.

11. A computer readable medium as recited in claim 10, wherein the merging the lineup objects includes:

selecting rules from a plurality of rule sets, the selected rules define how entries in the EPG data are to be merged, the selecting is based on whether the EPG data contained in the child lineup objects was collected in-band or out-of-band.

12. A computer readable medium as recited in claim 11, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to perform:

accessing new rules from an updated version of the plurality of rule sets;

re-merging the lineup objects in the hierarchical tree or lineup objects derived from the lineup objects in the hierarchical tree to create a new hierarchical tree of lineup objects until a new root lineup object is created; and

displaying a new EPG interface based on the EPG data in the new root lineup object.

13. A computer readable medium as recited in claim 10, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to perform:

determining that a change has occurred to the EPG data contained in at least one of the lineup objects that were created for each of the plurality of tuners;

propagating the change up the hierarchical tree of lineup objects to the root lineup object to generate a new version of the root lineup object; and

displaying a new EPG interface based on the EPG data in the new version of the root lineup object.

14. A computer readable medium as recited in claim 10, wherein the instructions that cause the processor to perform merging the lineup objects cause the processor to perform:

identifying a first of the child lineup objects as a primary and a second of the child lineup objects as a secondary; and

merging the primary and the secondary into a parent lineup object, the merging is performed based on a set of rules in a merge lineup rule object.

15. A computer readable medium as recited in claim 14, wherein the merge lineup rule object is selected based on whether the source of EPG data for the first lineup object and the second lineup object are in-band or out-of-band.

16. A computer readable medium as recited in claim 14, further comprising:

merging a first channel in the primary with a second channel in the secondary based on one or more channel merge rule objects that define rules for merging channels.

17. A computer readable medium as recited in claim 16, further comprising:

merging a first program in the primary with a second program in the secondary based on one or more program merge rule objects that define rules for merging programs.

18. A system including:

a processor; and

a computer readable medium coupled to the processor and having stored thereon a set of instructions which, when executed on the processor, cause the processor to perform;

accessing EPG data for a plurality of program sources, the program guide information includes a first schedule associated with a first channel and a second schedule associated with the first channel;

merging the first schedule and the second schedule to form a merged schedule, the merging includes;

accessing a parameter for determining which entries from the first schedule and which entries from the second schedule should be used to form the merged schedule;

determining a point in the future based on the parameter;

adding entries from the first schedule that are prior to the point in the future to the merged schedule; and

adding entries from the second schedule that are after the point in the future to the merged schedule.

19. A system as recited in claim 18, wherein the instructions which,

when executed on the processor, cause the processor to perform:

displaying a user interface that indicates that the merged schedule contains a channel that has been merged, the channel is available from at least two different sources of the plurality of sources; and

allowing the user to select which of the at least two different sources will be used in future merges of the channel.

20. A system as recited in claim 18, wherein the instructions which,

when executed on the processor, cause the processor to perform:

displaying a user interface that indicates that the merged schedule contains a channel that has been merged, the channel is available from at least two different sources of the plurality of sources; and

allowing the user to select which of the at least two different sources the user prefers to tune to for the channel.