Method and apparatus for providing electronic program guide information from a single electronic program guide server

• US 6,020,880 A
• Filed: 02/05/1997
• Issued: 02/01/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 02/05/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Naimpally, Saiprasad V.
• Primary Examiner(s): Grant, Chris
• Application Number:
  US08/795,915
• Time in Patent Office: 1,091 Days
• Field of Search: 345/327, 348/906, 348/7, 348/12, 348/13, 348/563, 348/564, 348/569, 348/570, 348/10, 455/4.2, 455/5.1, 455/6.2, 455/6.3
• US Class Current: 725/48
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25883 being end-user demographical data, e.g. age, family status or address arrangements for identifying locations of users in broadcast systems H04H60/52
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26283 for associating distribution time parameters to content, e.g. to generate electronic program guide data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2665 Gathering content from different sources, e.g. Internet and satellite
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2668 Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. insertion of targeted commercials based on end-user profiles information retrieval from the Internet by querying with filtering and personalisation G06F16/9535; arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast H04H20/10; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; adaptation of message content in packet-switching networks H04L51/063
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/454 Content or additional data filtering, e.g. blocking advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only

Abstract

A method and apparatus for requesting, receiving, processing, and providing information from a single source to a television viewer. An information provider is accessed via a communications link and specific data, which is separate and distinct from video signals received by the television receiver, is downloaded to the television receiver. The data provided by the information provider is database information with minimal formatting and does not contain any graphical overhead. Requests for information from the information provider may be on demand or at a predetermined time. The information provided may be filtered by the information provider and/or television receiver based on selected program categories and/or a user provided profile.

Claims

1. Apparatus to provide a subscriber with Electronic Program Guide (EPG) information on a television receiver having an on-screen display device which is used to display control functions of the television receiver, the apparatus being for use with an Electronic Program Guide Server (EPGS), the apparatus comprising:

a bi-directional communication link interconnecting the television receiver and the EPGS,

a database included in the EPGS containing at least one of;

a) TV schedule information for substantially all terrestrial broadcast TV stations in a predetermined area,

b) TV schedule information for substantially all cable companies in the predetermined area,

c) TV schedule information for substantially all satellite TV delivery services in the predetermined area,

d) TV schedule information for substantially all telco TV delivery services in the predetermined area, and

e) TV schedule information for substantially all other kinds of available TV service to the home in the predetermined area,

selection means for selecting data from the database of the EPGS for presentation to the subscriber,

requesting means in the television receiver for requesting data over the bi-directional communication link,

receiving means in the television receiver for receiving the requested data over the bi-directional communication link, the requested data being separate from a video input signal received by the television receiver, and

processing means for processing the data from said receiving means into data formatted for display using the on-screen display device of the television receiver, and for providing the formatted data to the on-screen display device.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the database contains data based on at least one of:

a) a nationwide,

b) a regional, and

c) a statewide

data.

3. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

memory means for storing the received data from said receiving means, wherein said processing means processes the data from said memory means into the formatted data.

4. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the data conforms to a closed-caption protocol and is decoded using a closed caption device contained in the television receiver.

5. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the formatted data is displayed in a foreground portion of a received video image.

6. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the received data is encoded with time information and title information.

7. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the received data further contains at least one of:

a) a program rating,

b) a program summary, and

c) a capsule review

of a respective program.

8. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said selection means is contained in the television receiver and the data selected is a subset of the data in the database and the selection is based upon at least one of:

a) a predetermined menu generated by the television receiver,

b) a scan list generated by the television receiver,

c) a time frame, and

d) a program type.

9. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the received data includes time data for updating an internal clock of the television receiver.

10. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a user profile is provided to the EPGS by the television receiver, the user profile including at least one of:

a) subscriber address,

b) telephone exchange information,

c) area code information,

d) a satellite TV service provider to which the user subscribes,

e) a local telco delivery service to which the user subscribes, and

e) other types of enrollment information.

11. An apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the user profile is created when the user initially subscribes to the EPGS.

12. An apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the selection means is contained in the EPGS and selects the data based on the user profile.

13. An apparatus according to claim 10, wherein:

said selection means consists of an EPGS selection means and a television receiver selection means,

said EPGS selection means selects the data based on the user profile, and

said television receiver selection means further selects data based upon at least one of;

a) a predetermined menu generated by the television receiver,

b) a scan list generated by the television receiver,

c) a time frame, and

d) a program type.

14. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

a) the communications link is a telephone connection,

b) the EPGS uses telephone exchange information of the subscriber to determine available television stations, and

c) the telephone exchange information is extracted from the telephone connection.

15. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the bi-directional communication link is one of a telephone line and a cable television line.

16. An apparatus according to claim 1 wherein:

the processing means processes the data received by the receiving means into text data and the apparatus further comprises;

conversion means for converting the formatted text data from said processing means into audio information, and

audio means for providing the audio information to a speaker system of the television receiver.

17. An apparatus according to claim 16, wherein said audio information is substituted for an audio signal of a respective video input signal.

18. An apparatus according to claim 16, wherein said audio information is blended with an audio signal of a respective video input signal.

19. A method for providing Electronic Program Guide (EPG) information from an Electronic Program Guide Server (EPGS) to a television receiver with an on-screen display device which is used to display control functions of the television receiver, the method comprising the steps of:

a) connecting the television receiver and the EPGS with a bi-directional communications link,

b) requesting data from the EPGS over the bi-directional communications link,

c) receiving the data of step a) into the television receiver over the bi-directional communications link,

d) storing the received data of step b) into a memory,

e) processing the data stored in step d) into data formatted for display on the on-screen display device, and

f) providing the formatted data to the television receiver on-screen display device.