INTERACTIVE MEDIA PORTAL

• US 20100131977A1
• Filed: 11/21/2008
• Published: 05/27/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Vong, William H., Young, Mark G., Torresan, Adriana Tavares, Siu, Randy, San Jule, Todd, Paguirigan, Joseph S., Scoffie, Philippe J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,386,954 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/37
• 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 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4438 Window management, e.g. event handling following interaction with the user interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4722 for requesting additional data associated with the content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4825 using a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlists
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/485 End-user interface for client configuration

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed herein for a media center portal. One implementation includes displaying first content in an expanded state and second content in a contracted state. At least a portion of the first content is presented in a viewport. A request is received to expand the second content. The first content is contracted for display in the contracted state. The second content is expanded for display in the expanded state. The contracted first content is displayed while displaying the expanded second content. At least a portion of the second content is presented in a text reader when in the expanded state.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method comprising:

displaying first content in an expanded state for the first content and second content in a contracted state for the second content, at least a portion of the first content is presented in a viewport;

receiving a request to expand the second content;

contracting the first content for display in a contracted state for the first content;

expanding the second content for display in an expanded state for the second content; and

displaying the first content in the contracted state for the first content while displaying the second content in the expanded state for the second content, at least a portion of the second content is presented in a text reader at least when in the expanded state for the second content.

2. A computer implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein the contracting the first content for display in the contracted state includes reducing the size of the viewport but continuing to play at least a portion of the first content in the viewport.

3. A computer implemented method as recited in claim 2, wherein when in the expanded state for the first content, the first content includes first items for selecting streaming video and second items for selecting broadcast channels and further comprising:

switching between playing streaming video and a broadcast channel in the viewport in response to receiving a single click request of one of the first items or second items.

4. A computer implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein:

the displaying the second content in the contracted state for the second content includes displaying headlines of articles; and

the expanding the second content for the expanded state for the second content includes displaying text of one of the articles in the text reader, the text reader is not displayed in the contracted state for the second content.

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

displaying third content in a contracted state for the third content while displaying the first content in the expanded state for the first content and the second content in the contracted state for the second content, the third content tracks information in real time.

6. A computer implemented method as recited in claim 5, wherein the displaying third content in a contracted state for the third content while displaying the first content in the expanded state for the first content and the second content in the contracted state for the second content includes displaying the third content to the left of the first content and the second content to the right of the first content.

7. A computer implemented method as recited in claim 6, further comprising

displaying the first content in the contracted state for the first content while displaying the second content in the contracted state for the second content while displaying the third content in an expanded state for the third content.

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

receiving a request to subscribe to an RSS feed, the request coming via a remote control device.

9. A computer storage medium having stored thereon instructions which, when executed on a processor, implement a method comprising the steps of:

displaying a selected video in a viewport in a first region of a display;

displaying a list of articles in a second region of the display while displaying the selected video in the viewport;

receiving a request to display a selected article of the articles in a larger region than the second region; and

in response to the request,

displaying at least a portion of the selected article in an text reader in a larger region than the second region; and

displaying a reduced size version of the viewport while displaying the selected article in the text reader, the reduced size version of the viewport continues to play the selected video.

10. A computer storage medium as recited in claim 9, further comprising instructions which, when executed on the processor, implement the additional step of:

displaying tracking information that tracks information in real time while displaying the reduced size version of the viewport in the second region while displaying the selected article in the text reader in the first region, the tracking information is displayed in a third region of the display.

11. A computer storage medium as recited in claim 10, further comprising instructions which, when executed on the processor, implement the additional steps of:

receiving a request to display the tracking information in a region that is larger than the third region;

in response to the request to display the tracking information in a region that is larger than the third region, displaying the list of articles while displaying the reduced size version of the viewport while displaying the tracking information in a region that is larger than the third region, the list of articles is displayed without the text reader, the reduced size version of the viewport continues to play the selected video.

12. A computer storage medium as recited in claim 11, wherein the instructions which, when executed on the processor, perform the displaying the tracking information in a region that is larger than the third region, the list of articles is displayed without the text reader, the reduced size version of the viewport continues to play the selected video include instructions which, when executed on the processor, perform displaying the list of articles without displaying the text reader in the second region while displaying the reduced size version of the viewport in the third region while displaying the expanded version of the tracking information in the first region.

13. A computer storage medium as recited in claim 9, further comprising instructions which, when executed on the processor, implement the additional steps of:

providing a selection of a plurality of streaming videos and a selection of a plurality of broadcast station feeds; and

displaying a selected streaming video or a selected broadcast station in the viewport.

14. A computer implemented method comprising:

displaying video content, text articles, and tracking information in separate regions of a display screen, one of the regions is an expanded region and two of the regions are contracted regions, each of the video content, text articles, and tracking information have an expanded state and a contracted state;

receiving one or more requests to move the video content, text articles, and tracking information to different ones of the regions; and

moving the video content, the text articles, and the tracking information to different regions in response to the one or more requests to move the content, each of the video content, the text articles, and the tracking information are displayed in the expanded state when in the expanded region and the contracted state when in one of the contracted regions.

15. A computer implemented method as recited in claim 14 wherein:

when the video content is in the expanded state a selected video is played in a viewport and a list of a plurality of video items is available for selection to be played in the viewport, when the video content is in the contracted region the selected video is played in a reduced size viewport.

16. A computer implemented method as recited in claim 15, wherein the list of a plurality of video items includes a plurality of streaming videos and a selection of a plurality of broadcast station feeds.

17. A computer implemented method as recited in claim 16 wherein:

when the text articles are in the expanded state a selected text article is presented in a text reader and a list of a plurality of articles is available for selection to be played in the text reader.

18. A computer implemented method as recited in claim 17 wherein when the text articles are in the contracted state the text reader is not displayed.

19. A computer implemented method as recited in claim 14, further comprising receiving user preferences what information to track.

20. A computer implemented method as recited in claim 14, further comprising receiving a request to subscribe to an RSS feed via a remote control.