METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR AUTOMATIC SELECTION OF CHANNEL LINE UP, SET TOP BOX (STB) IR CODES, AND PAY TV OPERATOR FOR TELEVISIONS CONTROLLING AN STB

• US 20160094868A1
• Filed: 09/30/2014
• Published: 03/31/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2014
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Singhal, Ashish, Xu, Feng, Kashyap, Praveen, Zhang, Jing
• Application Number:
  US14/502,871
• Publication Number:
  US 20160094868A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 21/4221 Dedicated function buttons, e.g. for the control of an EPG, subtitles, aspect ratio, picture-in-picture or teletext
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42221 Transmission circuitry, e.g. infrared [IR] or radio frequency [RF]
• 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 21/4524 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; systems specially adapted for using geographical information in broadcast systems H04H60/70; protocols in which the network application is adapted for the location of the user terminal in communication control or processing H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/462 Content or additional data management, e.g. creating a master electronic program guide from data received from the Internet and a Head-end, controlling the complexity of a video stream by scaling the resolution or bit-rate based on the client capabilities

Abstract

A method includes automatically identifying a multi-channel video programming distributor (MVPD) using an electronic device and automatically determining infrared (IR) codes for a set top box (STB) device connected to the electronic device. The STB device receives information from the MPVD.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

automatically identifying a multi-channel video programming distributor (MVPD) using an electronic device; and

automatically determining infrared (IR) codes for a set top box (STB) device connected to the electronic device, wherein the STB device receives information from the MVPD.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically identifying the MVPD comprises using at least one of:

reverse Internet protocol (IP) lookup, searching known MVPDs based on zip code, on screen display detection (OSD), template matching and optical character recognition.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein a plurality of display templates are used for determining at least one match with a particular screen display for the STB device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein determining at least one match comprises channel banner detection.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein channel banner detection comprises classification of at least one channel banner based on at least one of screenshot global features, screenshot key differentiating points matching and template matching.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the global features comprise features of a channel banner that discriminate channel banner screenshots from non-banner screenshots.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the screenshot key differentiating points matching comprises extracting key differentiating points from a current screenshot and comparing the extracted key differentiating points with a predetermined key differentiating points matrix for all possible MVDPs.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein key differentiating points comprise coordinates on a template that do not change.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising creating a vector from the extracted key differentiating points, wherein the vector comprises key value pairs, a key represents a unique identification (ID) associated with a MVPD that a channel banner belongs to, and a value represents a key differentiating points threshold and a pointer to a key differentiating points linked list.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein template matching comprises a pixel-by-pixel matching between a screenshot and at least one graphical user interface (GUI) template for at least one MVPD.

11. The method of claim 2, wherein automatically determining IR codes for the STB device comprises:

initiating an IR input from the electronic device using an IR blaster device;

computing a cost function of each IR input from a table comprising detectable key codes;

removing IR key code sets from the table based on conflicts; and

normalizing probability of remaining IR key code sets in the table and computing the cost function for remaining IR inputs.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the computing and the removing are repeated until one IR key code set remains in the table, and the one remaining IR key code set comprises a correct IR key code set for the STB device.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

automatically determining a channel lineup for the STB device that receives information from the MVPD.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic device is a television device.

15. A method comprising:

automatically identifying a multi-channel video programming distributor (MVPD) using an electronic device; and

automatically determining a channel lineup for a set top box (STB) device that receives information from the MVPD.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein said automatically determining the channel lineup comprises using an infrared (IR) blaster device to tune to channels using the STB device, and the channels have different screenshots.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein automatically identifying the MVPD comprises using at least one of:

reverse Internet protocol (IP) lookup, searching known MVPDs based on zip code, on screen display detection (OSD), template matching and optical character recognition (OCR).

18. The method of claim 17, wherein a plurality of display templates are used for determining at least one match with a particular screen display for the STB device.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein determining at least one match comprises channel banner detection.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein channel banner detection comprises classification of at least one channel banner based on at least one of screenshot global features, screenshot key differentiating points matching and template matching.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein automatically determining the channel lineup comprises determining discriminating channels and non-discriminating channels, a discriminating channel comprises a channel that is distinguishable between potential channel lineups, and a non-discriminating channel is not distinguishable between the potential channel lineups.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein automatically determining the channel lineup further comprises:

removing all non-discriminating channels from the potential channel lineups;

computing a function of each channel from a table comprising the potential channel lineups;

removing potential channel lineups from the table based on conflicts determined from tuning to different channels using the IR blaster; and

normalizing probability of remaining potential channel lineups and re-computing the function for remaining potential channel lineups from the table.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the computing and the normalizing are repeated until one channel lineup remains in the table, and the one remaining channel lineup comprises a correct channel lineup for the STB device.

24. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

automatically determining infrared (IR) codes for the STB device connected to the electronic device.

25. A method comprising:

transmitting video frames to a server device;

determining if the video frames contain a channel banner;

determining if at least one determined channel banner is a match with at least one existing template;

receiving, by an electronic device, a matched template; and

automatically creating a channel banner template if a match is not determined to exist.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein automatically creating the channel banner template comprises:

performing image comparison between images uploaded by the electronic device to the server device for determining common display portions between images being compared;

based on a threshold, separating images that potentially contain a banner from the uploaded images; and

analyzing the separated images for creating the channel banner template.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the analyzing the separated images comprises:

averaging the separated images to form a resultant image;

performing edge detection on the averaged image for determining channel banner edges;

performing corner detection for selecting outermost corners for selecting channel banner coordinates; and

performing text detection for selected channel banner coordinates.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein performing text detection comprises:

creating a histogram along a first axis and a second axis of the separated images; and

determining areas along the first axis and the second axis for potential text detection based on a peak threshold.

29. The method of claim 25, wherein the channel banner comprises a multi-channel video programming distributor (MVPD) channel banner.

30. A method comprising:

automatically creating a channel banner template for one or more received images if required;

automatically identifying a multi-channel video programming distributor (MVPD) using an electronic device including using the created banner template if required;

automatically determining infrared (IR) codes for a set top box (STB) device; and

automatically determining a channel lineup for the STB device.