Electrical program guide system and method
First Claim
1. A transmission apparatus for transmitting a plurality of programs of different broadcasting channels, said programs formatted to be displayed on a display screen, the apparatus comprising:
- production means for producing a plurality of broadcasting channels;
screen reduction means for receiving said plurality of broadcasting channels, including means for compressing and means for encoding each of said plurality of broadcasting channels, and for generating a corresponding plurality of reduced screen images;
archiving means for receiving the plurality of reduced screen images, for dividing the plurality of reduced screen images into a plurality of multi-screens, and for arranging the plurality of multi-screens into a virtual frame,said virtual frame being larger than said display screen; and
transmission means for multiplexing the plurality of channels produced by said production means with said virtual frame to produce multiplexed data and transmitting the multiplexed data via a single transmission channel.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
An electrical program guide system and method by which a desired program can be selected rapidly with certainty, intuitively and directly from among a large number of programs, in which nine reduced screens reduced from nine screens of different programs are arranged in a 3×3 matrix to construct one multi-screen as a screen for program selection. Six such screens for program selection are individually produced by multi-screen production circuits and encoded by MPEG video encoders, and then multiplexed by a multiplexer so that they may be transmitted via a single transmission channel. The multiplexed signal is subjected to error correction coding and QPSK modulation by a transmission line coding apparatus and then it is further subjected to frequency conversion by an up converter. The resultant signal is transmitted to an artificial satellite through a mixer and a parabola antenna. Each multi-screen received on the reception side from the satellite is displayed as 3×3 pieces of reduced screens of full motion, and a viewer will find out and directly select a desired program from a preview screen formed from the reduced screens.
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Citations
8 Claims
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1. A transmission apparatus for transmitting a plurality of programs of different broadcasting channels, said programs formatted to be displayed on a display screen, the apparatus comprising:
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production means for producing a plurality of broadcasting channels; screen reduction means for receiving said plurality of broadcasting channels, including means for compressing and means for encoding each of said plurality of broadcasting channels, and for generating a corresponding plurality of reduced screen images; archiving means for receiving the plurality of reduced screen images, for dividing the plurality of reduced screen images into a plurality of multi-screens, and for arranging the plurality of multi-screens into a virtual frame, said virtual frame being larger than said display screen; and transmission means for multiplexing the plurality of channels produced by said production means with said virtual frame to produce multiplexed data and transmitting the multiplexed data via a single transmission channel. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
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4. A transmission method for transmitting a plurality of programs of different broadcasting channels, said programs being formatted to be displayed on a display screen, comprising the steps of:
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producing a plurality of broadcasting channels; reducing each of said plurality of broadcasting channels, including compressing and encoding each of said plurality of broadcasting channels, to generate a corresponding plurality of reduced screen images; dividing the plurality of reduced screen images into a plurality of multi-screens; arranging said plurality of multi-screens to form a virtual frame, said virtual frame being larger than said display screen; and multiplexing said virtual frame with the plurality of broadcasting channels to form multiplexed data; and transmitting the multiplexed data via a single transmission channel.
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5. A reception apparatus for receiving a plurality of programs of different broadcasting channels and a virtual frame formed by encoding reduced screen images of the plurality of programs, comprising:
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reception means for switchably receiving the plurality of programs of different broadcasting channels and the virtual frame for program selection; extraction means for extracting the virtual frame received by said reception means from the transmission channel; storage means for storing the virtual frame in a memory, so that the virtual frame is arranged as a plurality of multi-screens, each formed of an equal number of reduced screen images, wherein each of said plurality of multi-screens is accessible via a respective memory address; accessing means for individually retrieving a selected one of said plurality of multi-screens forming said virtual frame corresponding to selected ones of said plurality of images; and a display for displaying said selected retrieved multi-screen, wherein said selected ones of said plurality of images are arranged so that rows or columns of displayed images forming at least one of said plurality of multi-screens correspond to programs of a single category.
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6. A reception method for receiving a virtual frame formed by encoding reduced screen images of a plurality of programs of different broadcasting channels via a transmission channel, comprising the steps of:
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switchably receiving the plurality of programs of different broadcasting channels and the virtual frame; extracting the virtual frame from the transmission channel; storing the virtual frame arranged as a plurality of multi-screens, each multi-screen formed of an equal number of reduced screen images, in a memory, wherein each multi-screen is accessible at a respective address of said memory; retrieving a selected one of said plurality of multi-screens formed of said reduced screen images from said memory; and displaying said selected multi-screen, wherein displayed reduced screen images forming said selected multi-screen are arranged in rows or columns containing images corresponding to a single program category.
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7. A broadcasting system including a transmission apparatus and a reception apparatus, comprising:
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production means provided in said transmission apparatus for producing a plurality of broadcasting channels; reducing means for receiving said plurality of channels and generating a corresponding plurality of reduced screen images; dividing means for dividing the plurality of reduced screen images into a plurality of multi-screens; arranging means for arranging said plurality of multi-screens into a virtual frame; transmission means provided in said transmission apparatus for multiplexing said virtual frame with the plurality of channels produced by said production means and transmitting the multiplexed data via a single transmission channel; reception means provided in said reception apparatus for switchably receiving the plurality of programs of different broadcasting channels and the virtual frame; extracting means provided in said reception means for extracting the virtual frame from the single transmission channel; storage means provided in said reception apparatus for storing virtual frame extracted by said extraction means, wherein each of said plurality of multi-screens is accessible at a respective address of said memory;
retrieving means for retrieving a selected one of said plurality of multi-screens from said memory; anda display for displaying said images reduced screen forming said selected one of said plurality of multi-screens, wherein displayed reduced screen images are arranged in rows or columns containing images corresponding to a single program category.
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8. A broadcasting method wherein a signal transmitted from a transmission apparatus is received by a reception apparatus, comprising the steps of:
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producing, by said transmission apparatus, a plurality of broadcasting channels; reducing images of said plurality of broadcast channels to produce a plurality of reduced screen images; dividing the plurality of reduced screen images into a plurality of multi-screens; arranging the plurality of multi-screens to form a virtual frame; multiplexing, by said transmission apparatus, the plurality of channels with virtual frame; transmitting the multiplexed data via a single transmission channel; switchably receiving, by said reception apparatus the plurality of programs of different broadcasting channels and the virtual frame; extracting, by said reception apparatus, the plurality of multi-screens forming the virtual frame; and storing, by said reception apparatus, the plurality of multi-screens forming the virtual frame extracted by said step of extracting, wherein the plurality of multi-screens are stored in a linked relationship with each other.
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Specification