Method & Apparatus for an Enhanced Television Viewing Experience
First Claim
Patent Images
1. An enhanced TV appliance comprising:
- receiving means to receive at least three logical data streams, a first of the at least three logical data streams comprising broadcast audio data and broadcast video data, a second of the at least three logical data streams comprising data pages, and a third of the at least three logical data streams comprising program guide data; and
a compositing system to construct a display image including at least a portion of the broadcast video data and at least a portion of a data page, said constructing occurring according to the data page,wherein the program guide data comprises entries for a plurality of programs, each such entry including a scheduled broadcast time for a program, a broadcast channel for the program, and a Uniform Resource Locator (“
URL”
) for a main data page for the program.
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Abstract
Embodiments of the invention include methods and systems to provide an enhanced television experience via a receiver that can access both broadcast and Internet content and can combine elements from both into a single enhanced display. Broadcast-delivered and Internet-delivered content elements are aligned in context by extending the data in an electronic program guide to include an Internet Universal Resource Locator (“URL”) for each program. The URL is used by the receiver to access the supplemental content on the Internet corresponding to a specific broadcast program.
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Citations
17 Claims
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1. An enhanced TV appliance comprising:
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receiving means to receive at least three logical data streams, a first of the at least three logical data streams comprising broadcast audio data and broadcast video data, a second of the at least three logical data streams comprising data pages, and a third of the at least three logical data streams comprising program guide data; and a compositing system to construct a display image including at least a portion of the broadcast video data and at least a portion of a data page, said constructing occurring according to the data page, wherein the program guide data comprises entries for a plurality of programs, each such entry including a scheduled broadcast time for a program, a broadcast channel for the program, and a Uniform Resource Locator (“
URL”
) for a main data page for the program. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. An audio/video compositing and display system comprising:
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a program guide data interpreter to extract a broadcast channel identifier and a corresponding Internet Uniform Resource Locator (“
URL”
) for a program listed in the program guide;a media receiver to obtain broadcast audio data and broadcast video data from the identified broadcast channel; Internet access logic to retrieve a data page identified by the Internet URL, said data page including a video hole-cutter region definition; compositing logic to prepare a display image including some material from the data page and some of the video data received by the media receiver, said preparing to be controlled by the video hole-cutter region definition; audio mixing logic to master an audio signal for reproduction, said audio signal comprising some of the broadcast audio data received by the media receiver, said mastering to be controlled by the data page; a monitor to present the display image to a viewer; and a speaker to emit the audio signal to the viewer. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14)
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15. A method for an enhanced TV receiver operation, comprising:
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receiving program guide data from a program guide provider, said program guide data including a plurality of entries, each entry including a scheduled time, a scheduled channel and a main data page locator; receiving a user'"'"'s selection of a program guide entry; tuning a broadcast media receiver to receive broadcast audio data and broadcast video data on the scheduled channel of the selected program guide entry; signaling Internet access logic to retrieve a main data page identified by the main data page locator of the selected program guide entry; preparing a display image by compositing the video data received by the broadcast media receiver according to information in the main data page; and sending the display image to an output device. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17)
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Specification