Graphical-interactive-screen display apparatus and peripheral units

• US 5,648,813 A
• Filed: 10/20/1994
• Issued: 07/15/1997
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/1993
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Tsuji, Seiji, Nakano, Yoshio, Tanigawa, Hidekazu, Ohtsu, Takashi, Mukai, Masaki
• Primary Examiner(s): Peng, John K.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Flynn, Nathan J.
• Application Number:
  US08/326,758
• Time in Patent Office: 999 Days
• Field of Search: 348/6, 348/7, 348/12, 348/13, 348/10, 348/461, 348/467, 348/468, 348/473, 348/476, 348/478, 348/486, 348/706, 348/563, 453/5.1, 453/3.1, 453/6.1
• US Class Current: 725/139
• 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 21/42204 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 21/42209 for displaying non-command information, e.g. electronic program guide [EPG], e-mail, messages or a second television channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42224 Touch pad or touch panel provided on the remote control
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42226 Reprogrammable remote control devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42228 the reprogrammable keys being displayed on a display screen in order to reduce the number of keys on the remote control device itself
• 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 21/4314 for fitting data in a restricted space on the screen, e.g. EPG data in a rectangular grid
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4438 Window management, e.g. event handling following interaction with the user interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6547 comprising parameters, e.g. for client setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8146 involving graphical data, e.g. 3D object, 2D graphics
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8543 using a description language, e.g. Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Expert Group [MHEG], eXtensible Markup Language [XML] information retrieval of semistructured data, the underlying structure being taken into account, e.g. mark-up language structure data G06F16/80
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only

Abstract

A program receiver for displaying a graphical interactive picture by receiving a program transmitted from a program transmitter, the program receiver comprising: a storage unit for storing a plurality of basic picture elements in advance, the plurality of basic picture elements being figures composing the graphical interactive picture manipulated by a user; a signal receipt unit for receiving a signal transmitted from the program transmitter, the signal being a multiplex signal including a program and data specifying a structure of the graphical interactive picture; a signal separation unit for separating the signal received by the signal receipt unit into a program signal and a graphical-interactive-picture-structure specification data signal; a first graphical interactive picture generation unit for generating the graphical interactive picture by combining the basic picture elements stored in the storage unit based on the graphical-interactive-picture-structure specification data signal from the signal separation unit; and a display unit for displaying the graphical interactive picture generated by the first graphical interactive picture generation unit.

Claims

1. A program receiver for displaying a graphical interactive picture by receiving a program transmitted from a program transmitter, said program receiver comprising:

storage means for storing a plurality of basic picture elements in advance, said plurality of basic picture elements being figures composing the graphical interactive picture manipulated by a user and said basic picture elements being composed of file names identifying each basic picture element and bit map data for each basic picture element;

signal receipt means for receiving a signal transmitted from said program transmitter, said signal being a multiplex signal including a program and data specifying a structure of the graphical interactive picture;

signal separation means for separating the signal received by said signal receipt means into a program signal and a graphical-interactive-picture-structure specification data signal;

first graphical interactive picture generation means for generating the graphical interactive picture by combining the basic picture elements stored in said storage means based on the graphical-interactive-picture-structure specification data signal from said signal separation means; and

display means for displaying the graphical interactive picture generated by said first graphical interactive picture generation means.

2. The program receiver of claim 1 further comprising:

interactive manipulation means for inputting manipulation to the graphical interactive picture displayed by said display means;

basic action storage means for storing a content of an action for updating the graphical-interactive-picture-structure specification data; and

second graphical interactive picture generation means for retrieving the content of the action from said basic action storage means based on action information directing an update of the graphical interactive picture upon receipt of the input manipulation from said interactive manipulation means to update the graphical-interactive-picture-structure specification data to generate an updated graphical interactive picture.

3. The program receiver of claim 2, wherein said first graphical interactive picture generation means includes:

a receipt·

decode unit for receiving the graphical interactive-picture-structure specification data signal from said signal separation means to decode the same;

a storage unit for storing decoded graphical interactive-picture-structure specification data from said receipt·

decode unit, the graphical-interactive-picture structure specification data being composed of a panel object definition including a plurality pieces of panel object information, an action definition including a plurality pieces of action information, and a shape definition including a plurality pieces of shape information;

a first process unit for retrieving the graphical interactive-picture-structure specification data from said storage unit, extracting the basic picture elements corresponding to the file names by referring to the shape information from said storage unit in accordance with the retrieved graphical-interactive-picture-structure specification data, and for placing the extracted basic picture elements by referring to the panel object information; and

a first display control unit for controlling the display means to display the basic picture elements placed by said first process unit as the graphical interactive picture.

4. The program receiver of claim 3, wherein said interactive manipulation means includes:

an input manipulation acceptance unit for accepting a user'"'"'s input manipulation to the graphical interactive picture; and

an interactive signal transmission unit for transmitting the input manipulation accepted by said manipulation acceptance unit to said second graphical interactive picture generation unit as an interactive signal, and

wherein said second graphical interactive picture generation means includes;

an interactive signal receipt unit for receiving the interactive signal from said interactive signal transmission unit;

an interactive signal interpretation unit for interpreting the interactive signal received by said interactive signal receipt unit;

a graphical-interactive-picture-structure specification data update unit for retrieving a content of an action from said basic action storage means in accordance with the interactive signal interpreted by said interactive signal interpretation unit to update the graphical-interactive-picture-structure specification data in said storage unit;

a second process unit for retrieving updated graphical-interactive-picture-structure specification data from said storage unit, and for extracting the basic picture elements corresponding to the file names from said storage means to place the extracted display elements; and

a second display control unit for controlling said display means to display the basic picture elements placed by said second process unit as an updated graphical interactive picture.

5. The program receiver of claim 4 further comprising information transmission means for transmitting the data of the graphical interactive picture updated by said interactive manipulation means to said program transmitter.

6. The program receiver of claim 3 further comprising information transmission means for transmitting the data of the graphical interactive picture updated by said interactive manipulation means to said program transmitter.

7. The program receiver of claim 3 further comprising information record means for outputting data related to the graphical interactive picture as per manipulation form said interactive manipulation means to make a record thereof.

8. The program receiver of claim 2 further comprising information record means for outputting data related to the graphical interactive picture as per manipulation form said interactive manipulation means to make a record thereof.

9. The program receiver of claim 3 wherein said graphical-interactive-picture-structure specification data further includes a class definition including a plurality of pieces of class attribute information.

10. A program receiver for displaying a graphical interactive picture by receiving a program transmitted from a program transmitter, said program receiver comprising:

storage means for storing a plurality of basic picture elements in advance, said plurality of basic picture elements being figures composing the graphical interactive picture manipulated by a user and said basic picture elements being composed of file names identifying each basic picture element and bit map data for each basic picture element;

signal receipt means for receiving a signal transmitted from said program transmitter, said signal being a multiplex signal including a program and data specifying a structure of the graphical interactive picture;

signal separation means for separating the signal received by said signal receipt means into a program signal and a graphical-interactive-picture-structure specification data signal;

first graphical interactive picture generation means for generating the graphical interactive picture by combining the basic picture elements stored in said storage means based on the graphical-interactive-picture-structure specification data signal from said signal separation means, said first graphical interactive picture generation means comprising;

a receipt·

decode unit for receiving the graphical interactive-picture-structure specification data signal from said signal separation means to decode the same;

a data division unit for dividing the decoded graphical-interactive-picture-structure specification data from said receipt·

decode unit into a first graphical-interactive-picture-structure specification data and a second graphical-interactive-picture structure specification data, said first graphical interactive-picture-structure specification data excluding a synthesis instruction, said second graphical-interactive-picture-structure specification data including the synthesis instruction, the graphical interactive-picture-structure specification data being composed of a panel object definition including a plurality pieces of panel object information, an action definition including a plurality pieces of action information, a shape definition including a plurality pieces of shape information, and synthesis direction data including a synthesis command in case of the second graphical-interactive-picture-structure specification data;

a first graphical-interactive-picture-structure specification data storage unit for storing the first graphical-interactive-picture-structure specification data;

a second graphical-interactive-picture-structure specification data storage unit for storing the second graphical-interactive-picture-structure specification data;

a graphical interactive picture synthesis unit for synthesizing the first graphical-interactive-picture structure specification data in said first graphical interactive-picture-structure specification data storage unit and the second graphical-interactive-picture structure specification data in said second graphical interactive-picture-structure specification data storage unit in accordance with the synthesis command of the synthesis direction data stored in said second graphical-interactive-picture-structure specification data storage unit;

a graphical-interactive-picture-structure specification data update unit for updating the first graphical-interactive-picture-structure specification data in said first graphical-interactive-picture structure specification data storage unit with the synthesized graphical-interactive-picture-structure specification data from said graphical interactive picture synthesis unit;

a first process unit for retrieving updated graphical-interactive-picture-structure specification data from said first graphical-interactive-picture structure specification data storage unit, and for extracting the basic picture elements corresponding to the file names by referring to the shape information in said storage means to place the extracted basic picture elements by referring to the panel object information; and

a first display control unit for controlling said display means to display the basic picture elements placed by said first process unit as an updated graphical interactive picture;

display means for displaying the graphical interactive picture generated by said first graphical interactive picture generation means;

interactive manipulation means for inputting manipulation to the graphical interactive picture displayed by said display means;

basic action storage means for storing a content of an action for updating the graphical-interactive-picture-structure specification data; and

second graphical interactive picture generation means for retrieving the content of the action from said basic action storage means based on action information directing an update of the graphical interactive picture upon receipt of the input manipulation from said interactive manipulation means to update the graphical-interactive-picture-structure specification data to generate an updated graphical interactive picture.