ENHANCED PROGRAM METADATA ON CROSS-MEDIA BAR

• US 20100157157A1
• Filed: 05/20/2009
• Published: 06/24/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Saturn Licensing LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: YI, HYEHOON
• Granted Patent: US 8,228,435 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/570
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0362 with detection of 1D translations or rotations of an operating part of the device, e.g. scroll wheels, sliders, knobs, rollers or belts
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4312 involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations
• 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 21/4345 Extraction or processing of SI, e.g. extracting service information from an MPEG stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4438 Window management, e.g. event handling following interaction with the user interface
• 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 21/4722 for requesting additional data associated with the content
• 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 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73

Abstract

When a user hovers a screen cursor over a TV channel icon on a cross-media bar (XMB) user interface (UI) for a threshold period, enhanced metadata from PSIP/XDS/EPG that pertains to the program currently available on the associated TV channel is presented in a pop-up window on the XMB UI.

Claims

1. System comprising:

video display;

processor controlling video display;

TV tuner providing TV signals to the processor for presentation on the display;

the processor presenting a user interface (UI) on the TV display, the UI listing icons representing respective media sources in a horizontal row, at least one media source being the TV tuner represented by a TV icon, wherein when the TV icon is active a list of TV channel icons is presented in a vertical column under the TV icon, wherein when a TV channel icon is active for a first period first metadata associated with a respective TV channel is presented on the display, wherein when the TV channel icon is active for greater than the first period second metadata associated with the respective TV channel is presented on the display without requiring the user to tune to the TV channel or invoke a program guide application, the TV channel icon listing metadata associated with only a currently available program such that no metadata associated with past or future TV programs can be displayed on the UI.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first metadata includes channel logo, channel name and current program title information.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the first metadata includes one or more of channel logo, channel name, current program title information.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the second metadata includes program thumbnail, program description and episode title.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the second metadata includes one or more of program thumbnail, program description, episode title.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the second metadata includes information pertaining to a program different than a current program on the TV channel.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the second metadata includes a video preview of the TV channel.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the second metadata is presented in a window on the display covering only a fractional portion of the display.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the window is presented in a bottom right corner region of the display.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the second metadata is automatically presented on the display in response to user-controlled activation of an associated TV channel icon without removing the UI from the display and without requiring a user to tune to a channel or access the EPG.

11. Method comprising:

presenting a cross-media bar (XMB) on a TV display, the XMB showing representations of at least two sources of information, one of the sources being a TV tuner and another source not being a TV tuner;

in response to activation of a representation of the TV tuner, presenting representations of TV channels available from the TV tuner; and

presenting first metadata pertaining to a program currently carried on the channel at a first time and then presenting second metadata pertaining to the program currently carried on the channel at a second time.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the representations are icons and the second time is established when a screen cursor has hovered on a TV channel icon for at least a threshold period.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the first metadata is presented alongside the representation of the TV channel at a first time and the second metadata is presented in a window spaced from the representation of the TV channel at a second time.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the window is presented simultaneously with the representations of the TV channels available from the TV timer.

15. Audio-video display assembly, comprising:

video display;

processor controlling the display;

computer readable storage medium accessible to the processor and bearing instructions to cause the processor to;

present, on the display, a user interface (UI) including icons representing respective TV channels available for presentation on the display;

present, next to each icon, a name of a program currently available on the associated channel; and

in response to a user-controlled selection of an icon, present, in a window distanced on the display from the icon, enhanced information pertaining to the program, wherein no information pertaining to any program not currently available on one of the TV channels is presented.

16. The assembly of claim 15, wherein the processor also presents, responsive to user input, an electronic program guide (EPG) on the display in lieu of the UI, the EPG containing information on programs that are not currently available on any channel.

17. The assembly of claim 15, wherein user-controlled selection of an icon is effected by hovering a screen cursor over an icon for at least as long as a threshold period.

18. The assembly of claim 16, wherein the enhanced information is automatically presented on the display in response to user selection of an associated icon without removing the UI from the display and without requiring a user to time to a channel or access the EPG.

19. The assembly of claim 15, wherein the window is presented simultaneously with the icons.

20. The assembly of claim 15, wherein the enhanced information includes one or more of program thumbnail, program description, episode title.