Internet content and television programming selectively displaying system

• US 6,295,057 B1
• Filed: 04/03/2000
• Issued: 09/25/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Nakano, Hiroaki, Niijima, Makoto, Rosin, Robert, Sonoda, Yumie, Hsu, P. Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): dela Torre, Crescelle N.
• Application Number:
  US09/541,248
• Time in Patent Office: 540 Days
• Field of Search: 345/335, 345/327, 345/339, 345/329, 345/341, 345/352, 345/353, 345/354, 345/355, 345/356, 345/357, 709/203, 709/217, 709/219, 348/7, 348/12, 348/13, 348/569, 348/906
• US Class Current: 715/744
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• 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 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• 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 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4668 for recommending content, e.g. movies
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4755 for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre retrieval personalisation and generation of user profiles for the retrieval of video data G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4786 e-mailing message switching systems, e.g. electronic mail systems H04L51/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/643 Communication protocols network streaming protocols, e.g. real-time transport protocol [RTP] or real-time control protocol [RTCP], H04L65/65
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/147 Communication arrangements, e.g. identifying the communication as a video-communication, intermediate storage of the signals selecting H04Q
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/165 Centralised control of user terminal subsequent to an upstream request signal H04N7/17345; Registering at central by two-way working H04N7/17309
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

An internet on-demand system for television presents internet content and traditional television programming as part of a single coherent interface. The system can display an internet gateway interface which actively scrolls through and highlights links to selected web pages which are organized according to templates corresponding to their content. The links are highlighted in a dynamic revolving sequence with associated graphics and sounds. The system includes a server and a client capable of providing a dynamic graphical user interface. The web pages are presented on the graphical user interface as channels as part of the same milieu as channels of traditional television programming. The user can select a channel from a rotary menu wheel. An intelligent agent passively filters selected web pages for a user to explore based on the user'"'"'s past pattern of usage of the client. The server queries the client regarding its available data stream connections, including telephone modems, cable modems, and digital satellite broadcasting, in order to determine the most efficient delivery of different types of data through all of the available bandwidth connections. The efficient delivery of data allows the client to present text, graphics, video, audio and other multimedia information from a web page over the internet as a coordinated presentation.

Claims

1. A system for selectively displaying Internet content and television programming on a display, comprising:

a client, including a display, and channels separately representing individual Internet content and individual television content;

a selector for enabling selecting between the channels, wherein when an individual television content channel or an individual Internet content channel is selected the client presents the content associated with the selected channel on the display;

a plurality of templates in the individual Internet content channels;

an identifying-filtering element for identifying attributes of the contents of a web page comprising aspects of the subject matter of the web page, and for filtering the attributes for each template into a set of topics, links associated with each topic, and objects associated with each link;

a presenting element for presenting on the display a dynamic Internet gateway interface which enables selective scrolling through the Internet content channels, the templates, and the topics, links, and objects, comprising a dynamic interface; and

a server, including a connecting-downloading element for establishing a data connection with the client and downloading data along the data connection to the client.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the client includes a video input, at least one data communication line, and a digital storage medium, the client is capable of displaying video from the video input and data from the digital storage medium on the display, the server is connected to the client by the communication line, the server being capable of communication with a plurality of other servers, wherein the server and the client can communicate with one another such that documents from the other servers can be provided to the client and stored on the digital storage device, and the server further includes a database categorizing a number of documents from the other servers into topics of interest according to pre-selected criteria.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the client includes a set top box, connected to the display, for providing connections to video and computer data sources to be processed and displayed on the display.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the client further comprises a graphical user interface, and the server provides the graphical user interface with a page with links to Internet content.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a menu for providing a single uniform interface to enable the user to navigate among the channels of Internet sites and television stations.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a service interconnected with the server, for providing quality control in presenting selected links to web pages by preselecting links to other web pages created and maintained by other Internet entities and organizations.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the templates categorize and organize the links.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of dedicated menus, each for a different command function including a plurality of different customized controls.

9. The system of claim 2, wherein the server monitors documents requested by the client in order to determine the topics of interest to the user of the client.

10. The system of claim 2, wherein the server provides suggestions to the client for additional documents categorized into the topics of interest from the other servers.

11. The system of claim 4, wherein the server links are predetermined web pages screened by the Internet service provider.

12. The system of claim 4, wherein the templates include links classified into categories, which templates provide a framework for presenting the links in the client graphical user interface.

13. The system of claim 5, wherein the menu overlies the screen, so as to enable video or television programming to continue in the background on the display.

14. The system of claim 6, wherein the service determines the staleness of a web site based on adequacy of maintenance or updating thereof.

15. The system of claim 7, further comprising means for modifying the links to selected topics present in the templates by monitoring the user'"'"'s use of the client to determine the user'"'"'s preferences for the selected topics in the templates.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the templates include a plurality of different categories, including web page content defined by predetermined identifying attributes identifying aspects of the subject matter of the web page content.

17. The system of claim 12, further comprising an intelligent agent for filtering web pages content into categories on the template, enabling automatic adaptation of the template and associated categories based on the past user viewing habits.

18. The system of claim 12, further comprising an active television screen user interface including the templates.

19. The system of claim 12, including a guide page comprising a template including links to different preselected pre-categorized web pages of user interest.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the intelligent agent is adapted to automatically modify, adapt, and update the guide page and templates and to organize and categorize the predetermined web links to the user based at least in part on past user viewing and browsing habits.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the guide page includes a set of topics, and a set of links associated with each topic.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein the guide page comprises a dynamic interface for scrolling through links to provide the client user with a revolving choice of links.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the links include an associated object for visually indicating the subject matter of the link.

24. The system of claim 21, wherein the guide page topic and links are selectable in a series of sequences.

25. The system of claim 21, further comprising a remote control device for selecting a link to deliver the Internet content to the client for display on the television screen.

26. The system of claim 22, wherein the guide page further includes associated objects for the scrolling links.

27. The system of claim 23, wherein the associated objects are displayed as a slideshow presentation to the user.

28. The system of claim 23, wherein the associated objects are displayed as a filmstrip presentation to the user.

29. The system of claim 24, wherein the series of sequences comprises a first set of selected topics displayed on the screen for the client user, and a subset of the first set of topics selectively highlighted in a first sequential order.

30. The system of claim 25, wherein the remote control device includes a selection button for selecting a highlighted link.

31. The system of claim 26, further comprising means for actively scrolling through frames to dynamically present topics, links, and associated objects according to a template-defined classification structure.

32. The system of claim 27, wherein the slideshow presentation comprises a dynamic sideways moving slideshow of simultaneously shown links and associated objects for a plurality of topics.

33. The system of claim 30, wherein each succeeding displayed topic is highlighted in descending order, and the sequence begins again at the first set of topics.

34. The system of claim 30, further comprising a second set of Internet links associated with the first set of topics.

35. A method of selectively displaying Internet content and television programming on a display, in a system which comprises a client, including a display, and channels separately representing individual Internet content and individual television content, a selector for enabling selecting between the channels, wherein when an individual television content channel or an individual Internet content channel is selected the client presents the content associated with the selected channel on the display, a plurality of templates in the individual Internet content channels, an identifying-filtering element for identifying attributes of the contents of a web page comprising aspects of the subject matter of the web page, and for filtering the attributes for each template into a set of topics, links associated with each topic, and objects associated with each link, a presenting element for presenting on the display a dynamic Internet gateway interface which enables selective scrolling through the Internet content channels, the templates, and the topics, links, and objects, comprising a dynamic interface, and a server, including a connecting-downloading element for establishing a data connection with the client and downloading data along the data connection to the client, wherein the method comprises:

establishing a connection between a client and a server for downloading data from the server along a data connection to the client;

generating a plurality of templates in the individual Internet content channels, including identifying attributes of the contents of a web page comprising aspects of the subject matter of the web page, and filtering the attributes for each template into a set of topics, links associated with each topic, and objects associated with each link;

displaying a dynamic Internet gateway interface which enables selective scrolling through the Internet content channels, the templates and the topics, links, and objects; and

selecting between channels separately representing individual television content and individual Internet content, in the client which includes a display, wherein when an individual television content channel is selected the client presents the content associated with the selected channel on the display, and when an individual Internet content channel is selected the client presents the template including the topics, links and objects associated with the selected channel on the display.