TELEVISION RECEIVER AND METHOD

• US 20110145883A1
• Filed: 03/31/2009
• Published: 06/16/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/09/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Godar, Anthony William, de Gomes Moreira, Sergio Paulo
• Application Number:
  US12/937,132
• Publication Number:
  US 20110145883A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/131
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41265 having a remote control device for bidirectional communication between the remote control device and client device unidirectional remote control device H04N21/42204
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4147 PVR [Personal Video Recorder] H04N5/76 takes precedence ; arrangements for broadcast with accumulation-type receivers H04H20/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43637 involving a wireless protocol, e.g. Bluetooth, RF or wireless LAN [IEEE 802.11] arrangements for wireless networking or broadcasting of information in indoor or near-field type systems H04B10/114
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44008 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in the video stream arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/445 for displaying additional information H04N5/50 takes precedence

Abstract

A television receiver, comprises an optical character recognizer to identify text in a received video image and a hypertext link generator to generate a hypertext link responsive to respective identified text, wherein the television receiver is operable to form a connection to a network in accordance with the hypertext link, in which the hypertext link has a default target that comprises as an argument at least part of the content of the respective identified text, and the default target is selected according to the context of the received video image.

Claims

1. A television receiver, comprising:

an optical character recogniser to identify text in a received video image; and

a hypertext link generator to generate a hypertext link responsive to respective identified text, and wherein

the television receiver is operable to form a connection to a network in accordance with the hypertext link, in which

the hypertext link has a default target that comprises as an argument at least part of the content of the respective identified text, and

the default target is selected according to a context of the received video image.

2. A television receiver in accordance with claim 1, comprising an internet communication port;

and in which;

the network is part of the internet, and

the hypertext link is an internet link.

3. A television receiver in accordance with claim 1, in which the default target and context are one or more selected from the list consisting of:

i. selection of a movie-related default target in the context of vertically scrolling text;

ii. selection of a news-related default target in the context of horizontally scrolling text; and

iii. selection of a general search default target in the context of static text.

4. A television receiver in accordance with claim 1, in which the context of the received video image is selected responsive to keywords found within a corresponding electronic programme guide entry.

5. A television receiver in accordance with claim 1, comprising a selection interface to enable the indication of text in the received video image by a user.

6. A television receiver in accordance with claim 5, in which the selection interface is operable to select a hypertext link if a corresponding region of the video image substantially coincident with the respective displayed text is selected by the user.

7. A television receiver in accordance with claim 5, in which the selection interface is operable to list hypertext links within a window displayed on a same display as the received video image.

8. A television receiver in accordance with claim 7, in which the listed hypertext links are hypertext links generated either in response to currently displayed text in the received video image or in response to text displayed in the received video image during a predetermined time period preceding the listing of the hypertext links.

9. A television receiver in accordance with claim 1, comprising a video recorder.

10. A television receiver in accordance with claim 1, in which the received video images are one or more selected from the list consisting of:

i. broadcast television images;

ii. video images recorded by a video recorder of the television receiver and then played back by a media player of the television receiver; and

iii. video images from a read-only medium played back by a media player of the television receiver.

11. A method of operation of a television receiver, comprising the steps of:

receiving a video image;

applying optical character recognition to some or all of the video image to identify text in the video image;

generating a hypertext link responsive to respective identified text;

selecting a default hypertext link target according to the context of the received video image; and

forming a connection to a network in accordance with the default hypertext link target, the default hypertext link target further comprising as an argument at least part of the content of the respective identified text.

12. A method according to claim 11, in which:

the network is part of the internet; and

the hypertext link is an internet link.

13. A method according to claim 11, in which the default target and context are one or more selected from the list consisting of:

i. selection of a movie-related default target in the context of vertically scrolling text;

ii. selection of a news-related default target in the context of horizontally scrolling text; and

iii. selection of a general search default target in the context of static text.

14. A method according to claims 11 in which the received video images are one or more selected from the list consisting of:

i. broadcast television images;

ii. video images recorded by a video recorder of the television receiver; and

iii. video images from a read-only medium played back by a media player of the television receiver.

15. A tangible computer-readable storage medium on which is stored instructions of a computer program, the instructions, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform a method of operation of a television receiver the method comprising:

receiving a video image;

applying optical character recognition to some or all of the video image to identify text in the video image;

generating a hypertext link responsive to respective identified text;

selecting a default hypertext link target according to the context of the received video image; and

forming a connection to a network in accordance with the default hypertext link target, the default hypertext link target further comprising as an argument at least part of the content of the respective identified text.

16. The tangible computer-readable storage medium, in which the default target and context are one or more selected from the list consisting of:

i. selection of a movie-related default target in the context of vertically scrolling text;

ii. selection of a news-related default target in the context of horizontally scrolling text; and

iii. selection of a general search default target in the context of static text.

17. The tangible computer-readable storage medium, in which the received video images are one or more selected from the list consisting of:

i. broadcast television images;

ii. video images recorded by a video recorder of the television receiver; and

iii. video images from a read-only medium played back by a media player of the television receiver.