Apparatus and method for creating or editing a channel map

• US 6,122,011 A
• Filed: 03/17/1998
• Issued: 09/19/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Index Systems Incorporated (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Index Systems Incorporated (Adeia Inc.)
• Inventors: Ward, Thomas E., Dias, Steve, Rallis, Jamey, Schoaff, P. Christopher, Hancock, Ken, Mankovitz, Roy J.
• Primary Examiner(s): HSIA, SHERRIE Y
• Application Number:
  US09/040,001
• Time in Patent Office: 917 Days
• Field of Search: 348/906, 348/569, 348/563, 348/564, 348/565, 348/567
• US Class Current: 348/569
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2007/1739 the upstream communication being transmitted via a separate link, e.g. telephone line
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; 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 21/42204 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 21/4314 for fitting data in a restricted space on the screen, e.g. EPG data in a rectangular grid
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4345 Extraction or processing of SI, e.g. extracting service information from an MPEG stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4438 Window management, e.g. event handling following interaction with the user interface
• 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 21/4583 Automatically resolving scheduling conflicts, e.g. when a recording by reservation has been programmed for two programs in the same time slot
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47214 for content reservation or setting reminders; for requesting event notification, e.g. of sport results or stock market stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; notification of incoming messages in packet switching networks H04L51/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4821 using a grid, e.g. sorted out by channel and broadcast time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/782 on tape
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A channel map is created and/or edited with the aid of a PIP window in which a real time television program is displayed. The PIP window is displayed on a monitor screen at the same time as a channel map of pairs of network names and local channel numbers. The local channel numbers can be individually changed to create the channel map or edit the pairings of network name and local channel number. When the local channel numbers are changed, the tuner for the PIP window also automatically changes so the television program displayed in the PIP window corresponds to the television program telecast on the local channel number displayed on the screen. This provides verification of the accuracy of the pairing of network names and local channel numbers in the channel map.

Claims

1. A method for creating a channel map comprising the steps of:

receiving a telecast program with a television tuner set to a channel;

displaying the program on a monitor screen in a PIP window;

storing in a memory a database of telecast program listings including title and a local channel number;

displaying a program listing in the database on the screen;

issuing a channel changing command from a controller;

setting the tuner to another channel responsive to the channel chancing command;

changing the local channel number displayed on the screen responsive to the channel changing command; and

comparing the program displayed in the PIP window with the displayed program listing.

2. The method of claim 1, additionally comprising the step of changing the channel to which the tuner is set until the program displayed in the PIP window matches the displayed program listing.

3. The method of claim 1, in which the displaying step displays a plurality of program listings on the screen at the same time and the changing step comprises highlighting one of the displayed program listings with a moveable cursor and changing the channel of the highlighted program listing.

4. The method of claim 1, in which the controller has up/down arrow keys to move the cursor from one program listing to another program listing and an enter key to store in the memory the channel to which the tuner is set and the changing step comprises pressing the up/down arrow keys until the desired program listing is highlighted and pressing the enter key to store the channel to which the tuner is set as the channel number of the desired program listing.

5. The method of claim 1, in which the storing step stores the database that also includes network channel names and the step of displaying a program listing displays a network channel name and the local channel number together.

6. A method for editing a channel map comprising the steps of:

receiving a telecast program with a television tuner;

displaying the program on a monitor screen;

storing in a memory the channel map comprising corresponding pairs of network channel names and local channel numbers;

displaying on the screen with the displayed program a portion of the stored channel map;

highlighting one of the local channel numbers of the displayed portion;

setting the tuner to the highlighted local channel number;

changing the highlighted local channel number and the tuner together without changing the corresponding network channel name;

comparing the displayed program with the highlighted local channel number to confirm the correspondence between the highlighted local channel number and the network channel name stored with the highlighted local channel number.

7. The method of claim 6, in which the step of displaying the program displays a program in a PIP window.

8. The method of claim 6, additionally comprising the step of storing the confirmed pairs of local channel numbers and network channel names in the memory to replace unconfirmed pairs.

9. The method of claim 8, additionally comprising the step of issuing a change command to initiate the step of storing the confirmed pairs.

10. The method of claim 9, additionally comprising the step of issuing a cancel command to cancel storage of the confirmed pairs.

11. The method of claim 6, in which the stored channel map additionally comprises a display status for each channel represented by a network channel name, the method additionally comprising the steps of displaying the display status with the displayed portion of the channel map, toggling the displayed status between "on" and "off", and later displaying an electronic program guide that displays program listings for only the "on" channels.

12. The method of claim 6, in which the storing step additionally stores program titles with the pairs and the step of displaying a portion of the stored channel map additionally displays the program titles.

13. A method of assembling a channel map that correlates regional channel names to local channel numbers, the method comprising the steps of:

setting a television tuner to a local channel number;

displaying on the screen of a display monitor a program telecast on the local channel number to which the tuner is set;

identifying the displayed program in a data base of currently telecast program titles, a regional channel name being associated with each program title in the data base;

retrieving from the data base the regional channel name with which the program title is associated;

entering into the channel map the local channel number to which the tuner is set and the retrieved regional channel name in paired fashion; and

repeating steps a to e until the channel map is complete.

14. The method of claim 13, in which the data base is a printed television program guide that has a compressed code representation of the regional channel name, day, start time, and length of each program title in the data base and the identifying step comprises perusing the program guide to ascertain the compressed code representation of the identified program and the entering step includes decoding the compressed code representation of the identified program to derive the regional channel name.

15. The method of claim 13, in which the data base is an electronic program guide that has stored in a program schedule memory in addition to the currently telecast program titles, the regional channel name, day, start time, and length of the program associated with each program title, the identifying step comprises displaying on the screen the currently telecast program titles and selecting one of the displayed titles and the entering step includes retrieving the regional channel name associated with the selected title from the program schedule memory for entry into the channel map.

16. The method of claim 15, in which the step of displaying on a screen the program telecast on the local channel number to which the tuner is set and the step of displaying on the screen the currently telecast program titles display the telecast program and the program titles simultaneously.

17. The method of claim 16, in which the step of selecting one of the displayed titles comprises moving a cursor on the screen to highlight the selected title.

18. The method of claim 15, in which the step of selecting one of the displayed titles comprises moving a cursor on the screen to highlight the selected title.

19. The method of claim 13, in which the local channel numbers in the channel map are represented by electrical signals, the method additionally comprising the step of issuing an electrical signal representative of the regional channel name and retrieving from the channel map the electrical signal representative of the local channel number paired with the regional channel name represented by the issued signal.

20. Apparatus for assembling a channel map comprising:

a television tuner;

means for setting the tuner to a first local channel number;

means for displaying on the screen of a display monitor a program to which the tuner is set;

a data base of currently telecast program titles, a regional channel name being associated with each program title in the data base;

memory means for storing the channel map that correlates regional channel names to local channel numbers;

means for retrieving from the data base the regional channel name associated with the title of the displayed program; and

means for entering into the memory means the local channel numbers to which the tuner is set and the retrieved regional channel name in paired relationship.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, additionally comprising means responsive to the entering means for setting the tuner to a second local channel number.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, additionally comprising:

means for displaying on the screen the program to which the tuner is set by the second local channel number;

means for retrieving from the data base a second regional channel name associated with the title of the program; and

means for entering into the memory means the second local channel number to which the tuner is set and the second regional channel name in paired relationship.

23. The apparatus of claim 20, additionally comprising means for displaying the currently telecast program titles on the screen and means for highlighting one of the displayed titles with a movable cursor.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, in which the retrieving means retrieves the highlighted title.

25. The apparatus of claim 23, in which the means for displaying the program to which the tuner is set and the means for displaying the currently telecast titles simultaneously display the program and the titles on the screen.

26. The apparatus of claim 20, in which the means for setting the tuner to a first local channel number comprises means for scanning channels successively to determine which local channel numbers are not paired with a regional channel name, means for setting the tuner to each such local channel number in turn until a regional channel number is entered, and means for setting the tuner to another local channel number until all the local channel numbers are paired with regional channel numbers.

27. The apparatus of claim 26, additionally comprising means for displaying on the screen a message after all the local channel numbers are paired with the regional channel numbers.