Consumption distance based customized rendering of entertainment programming

• US 6,330,718 B1
• Filed: 10/30/1998
• Issued: 12/11/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Mineral Lassen LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Shah-Nazaroff, Anthony A., Williams, Christopher D.
• Primary Examiner(s): GRANT, CHRISTOPHER C
• Application Number:
  US09/182,502
• Time in Patent Office: 1,138 Days
• Field of Search: H04/N.716, H04/N.7173, 345/327, 345/333, 345/334, 345/744, 345/745, 345/746, 345/747, 348/10, 348/13, 348/553, 348/92, 348/93, 348/778, 455/6.2, 455/6.3, 725/37
• US Class Current: 725/37
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/426 Internal components of the client ; Characteristics thereof H04N5/44 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4318 by altering the content in the rendering process, e.g. blanking, blurring or masking an image region image enhancement or restoration in general G06T5/00
• 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 21/485 End-user interface for client configuration
• 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

Abstract

An entertainment system sets a number of operating parameters to a number of parameters values in view of a consumption distance of an entertainment program. The entertainment system then renders the entertainment program for the consumption distance using the parameter values set for the operating parameters.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining a consumption distance;

setting at least one of cell sizes, font sizes, icon sizes, and button sizes to be rendered on a display device of an entertainment system to one of a plurality of parameter values for an entertainment program based on the consumption distance; and

operating the entertainment system to render the entertainment program on the display device for the consumption distance using the set parameter values.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a consumption distance further comprises receiving the consumption distance from a user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises dynamically determining the consumption distance.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the dynamic determination of the consumption distance is performed in view of one or more characteristics associated with the entertainment program.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the dynamic determination of the consumption distance is performed in view of one or more characteristics associated with a user of the entertainment program.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein setting comprises retrieving a preferred setting for the consumption distance from an operating parameter user preference storage based on a user identity and the entertainment programming type.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising periodically checking to determine whether the current parameter value settings are appropriate for the current entertainment program and user combination and resetting the current parameter value setting to other parameter values if it is determined that the settings are not appropriate.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein setting comprises determining the entertainment programming type and retrieving a preferred setting for the consumption distance from an operating parameter user preference storage based on the entertainment programming type.

11. The article of claim 8, wherein the programming instructions further enable the apparatus to be able to dynamically determine the consumption distance.

12. The article of claim 11, wherein the programming instructions further enable the apparatus to be able to perform the dynamic determination of the consumption distance in view of one or more characteristics associated with the entertainment program.

13. The article of claim 11, wherein the programming instructions further enable the apparatus to be able to perform the dynamic determination of the consumption distance in view of one or more characteristics associated with a user of the entertainment program.

9. An article of manufacture comprising a recordable medium having recorded thereon a plurality of executable programming instructions usable to program an apparatus to enable the apparatus to be able to cause an entertainment system to render an entertainment program for a consumption distance by determining a consumption distance and setting at least one of cell sizes, font sizes, icon sizes, and button sizes to be rendered on a display device of the entertainment system to a plurality of parameter values in view of the consumption distance.

10. The article of claim 9, wherein the programming instructions further enable the apparatus to be able to determine the consumption distance by receiving the consumption distance from a user.

14. An entertainment system comprising:

a mechanism to determine a consumption distance and to set at least one of cell sizes, font sizes, icon sizes, and button sizes to be rendered on a display device of the entertainment system to a plurality of parameter values for rendering an entertainment program for the consumption distance;

a plurality of storage locations to hold the parameter values; and

a rendering subsystem coupled to the storage locations to render the entertainment program for the consumption distance using the set parameter values.

15. The entertainment system of claim 14, wherein the mechanism further includes a user interface to facilitate receipt of the consumption distance from a user.

16. The entertainment system of claim 15, wherein the mechanism dynamically determines the consumption distance.

17. The entertainment system of claim 16, wherein the mechanism makes the dynamic determination of the consumption distance in view of one or more characteristics associated with the entertainment program.

18. The entertainment system of claim 16, wherein the mechanism makes the dynamic determination of the consumption distance in view of one or more characteristics associated with a user of the entertainment program.

19. An apparatus comprising:

means for determining a consumption distance for an entertainment program in view of one or more characteristics associated with the entertainment program;

means for setting a plurality of scalable operating parameters of an entertainment system to a plurality of parameter values to cause the entertainment system to render the entertainment program for the consumption distance;

means for periodically checking to determine whether current parameter value settings are appropriate for a current entertainment program and user combination; and

means for resetting the plurality of operating system parameters to other parameter values if it is determined that the settings are not appropriate.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the apparatus further comprises means for receiving the consumption distance from a user.

21. A method comprising:

setting a plurality of operating parameters of an entertainment system to a plurality of parameter values for rendering an entertainment program for a user;

periodically checking to determine whether the current parameter value settings are appropriate for the current entertainment program and user combination;

resetting the plurality of operating system parameters to other parameter values if it is determined that the settings are not appropriate; and

operating the entertainment system to render the entertainment program for the user using the parameter values set for the operating parameters.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the method further comprises receiving a consumption distance from a user and applying the consumption distance to determine the parameter values.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the determination of the parameter values is performed in view of one or more characteristics associated with a user of the entertainment program.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein the entertainment program is a web based program.

25. An article of manufacture comprising a recordable medium having recorded thereon a plurality of executable programming instructions usable to program an apparatus to enable the apparatus to be able to cause an entertainment system to render an entertainment program for a consumption distance by setting a plurality of operating parameters of the entertainment system to a plurality of parameter values in view of the consumption distance, the parameter values being determined in view of the consumption distance, the current parameter value settings being periodically checked to determine whether they are appropriate for the current entertainment program and user combination, the current parameter value settings being reset to other parameter values if it is determined that the settings are not appropriate.

26. The article of claim 25, wherein the programming instructions further enable the apparatus to be able to receive the consumption distance from a user and apply the consumption distance to determine the parameter values.

27. The article of claim 25, wherein the programming instructions further enable the apparatus to be able to perform the determination of the parameter values in view of one or more characteristics associated with a user of the entertainment program.

28. The article of claim 25, wherein the entertainment program is a web based program.

29. An entertainment system comprising:

a mechanism to set a plurality of operating parameters of the entertainment system to a plurality of parameter values for rendering an entertainment program for a consumption distance, the mechanism determining the parameter values in view of the consumption distance and determining the consumption distance in view of one or more characteristics associated with the entertainment program;

a plurality of storage locations to hold the parameter values;

an inference engine to periodically check to determine whether the current parameter value settings are appropriate for a current entertainment program and user combination and to reset the plurality of operating system parameters to other parameter values if it is determined that the settings are not appropriate; and

a rendering subsystem coupled to the storage locations to render the entertainment program for the consumption distance using the parameter values set for the operating parameters.

30. The entertainment system of claim 29, wherein the mechanism further includes a user interface to facilitate receipt of the consumption distance from a user.

31. The entertainment system of claim 29, wherein the mechanism makes the determination of the consumption distance in view of one or more characteristics associated with a user of the entertainment program.

32. The entertainment system of claim 29, wherein the entertainment program is a web based program.

33. A method comprising

receiving a consumption distance preference for the use of an entertainment system from an entertainment system user;

selecting a set of operating parameter values based on the consumption distance preference from a stored set of operating parameter values; and

rendering received entertainment programming in accordance with the selected operating parameter values.

34. The method of claim 33 wherein receiving a consumption distance preference comprises receiving a television remote control signal.

35. The method of claim 33 wherein selecting a set of operating parameter values comprises retrieving operating parameter values from a consumption distance based operating parameter value storage and storing the selected operating parameters in an operating parameter current values storage.

36. The method of claim 33 wherein selecting a set of operating value parameter values comprises automatically setting operating parameter values in accordance with a consumption distance.

37. The method of claim 33 wherein selecting a set of operating parameter values comprises retrieving the last operating parameter values selected in view of the last received consumption distance preference.

38. The method of claim 33 wherein entertainment programming includes one or more of publicly broadcast television and radio programming received through AM/FM, VHF/UHF, cable, satellite, tapes, diskettes, compact disks, digital versatile disks.

39. The method of claim 33 wherein the operating parameters comprise one or more of font sizes, button sizes and icon sizes.

40. A method comprising

retrieving the last setting in an entertainment system for operating parameter values, the operating parameter values being associated with a consumption distance;

rendering received entertainment programming in accordance with the retrieved settings;

periodically checking to determine if the current setting for consumption distance is appropriate for the current entertainment program and user combination by comparing the current setting for consumption distance with an inferred appropriate setting; and

if the current setting for consumption distance is determined to be inappropriate for the current entertainment program and user combination, then adjusting the setting for consumption distance accordingly.

41. The method of claim 40 wherein adjusting comprises retrieving values from a consumption distance based operating parameter value storage and causing the values to be stored in an operating parameter current values storage, and refreshing system operating parameters for rendering the entertainment system programming using the operating parameter current values storage.

42. The method of claim 41 wherein the inferred appropriate setting is determined by:

inferring the identity of the current user;

determining the entertainment programming type;

retrieving the preferred setting for the consumption distance from an operating parameter user preference storage based on the inferred user identity and the entertainment programming type.

43. The method of claim 42 wherein inferring the identity of the user comprises comparing the entertainment programming type with previously accumulated consumption habit data for different users.

44. The method of claim 41 wherein entertainment programming includes one or more of publicly broadcast television and radio programming received through AM/FM, VHF/UHF, cable, satellite, tapes, diskettes, compact disks, digital versatile disks.

45. The method of claim 41 wherein the operating parameters comprise one or more of font sizes, button sizes and icon sizes.

46. An apparatus for rendering entertainment programming comprising:

a rendering subsystem for rendering entertainment programming in accordance with current values of operating parameters; and

an operating parameter setting subsystem operatively coupled to the rendering subsystem having an operating parameter current value storage for storing current values of operating parameters for use by the rendering subsystem, a consumption distance based operating parameter value storage for storing a collection of operating parameter values for a number of different consumption distances and an inference engine for automatically determining an appropriate consumption distance for use in selecting values from the operating parameter value storage to store in the operating parameter current value storage.

47. The apparatus of claim 46 wherein the operating parameter setting subsystem further includes a user interface for receiving a consumption distance preference from a user and for causing values from consumption distance based operating parameter value storage to be selected and stored in operating parameter current value storage.

48. The apparatus of claim 47 wherein the user interface comprises one or more of a keyboard, a selection list, a sliding bar and sliding direction buttons.

49. The apparatus of claim 46 wherein the operating parameter setting subsystem further includes user preference storage for storing various user preferences including a preference for consumption distance associated with an entertainment programming type and a user identity.

50. The apparatus of claim 49 wherein the inference engine sets the current operating parameter values depending on the type of programming being rendered.

51. The apparatus of claim 49 wherein the inference engine infers a user identity from the type of entertainment program and selects user preferences from the user preference storage for storing in the operating parameter current value storage using the inferred user identity.

52. The apparatus of claim 46 wherein entertainment programming includes publicly broadcast television and radio programming received through AM/FM, VHF/UHF, cable, satellite, tapes, diskettes, compact disks, digital versatile disks.

53. The apparatus of claim 46 wherein the operating parameters are scalable.

54. The apparatus of claim 46 wherein the operating parameters comprise one or more of font sizes, button sizes, and icon sizes.

55. An article of manufacture comprising a recordable medium having recorded thereon a plurality of executable programming instructions usable to program an apparatus to enable the apparatus to be able to cause an entertainment system to:

receive a consumption distance preference for the use of the entertainment system from an entertainment system user;

select a set of operating parameter values based on the consumption distance preference from a stored set of operating parameter values; and

render received entertainment programming in accordance with the selected operating parameter values.

56. The article of claim 55, wherein the programming instructions further enable the apparatus to be able to retrieve operating parameter values from a consumption distance based operating parameter value storage and store the selected operating parameters in an operating parameter current values storage.

57. The article of claim 55, wherein the programming instructions further enable the apparatus to be able to automatically set operating parameter values in accordance with a consumption distance.

58. The article of claim 55, wherein the programming instructions further enable the apparatus to be able to retrieve the last operating parameter values selected in view of the last received consumption distance preference.

59. The article of claim 55, wherein entertainment programming includes one or more of publicly broadcast television and radio programming received through AM/FM, VHF/UHF, cable, satellite, tapes, diskettes, compact disks, digital versatile disks.

60. The article of claim 55, wherein the operating parameters comprise one or more of font sizes, button sizes and icon sizes.

61. The article of claim 58, wherein the programming instructions further enable the apparatus to be able to periodically check to determine if the current setting for consumption distance is appropriate for the current entertainment program and user combination by comparing the current setting for consumption distance with an inferred appropriate setting;

and if the current setting for consumption distance is determined to be inappropriate for the current entertainment program and user combination, then adjusting the setting for consumption distance accordingly.

62. The article of claim 61, wherein the programming instructions further enable the apparatus to be able to adjust the setting by retrieving values from a consumption distance based operating parameter value storage and causing the values to be stored in an operating parameter current values storage, and refreshing system operating parameters for rendering the entertainment system programming using the operating parameter current values storage.

63. The article of claim 61, wherein the programming instructions further enable the apparatus to be able to infer the identity of the current user;

determine the entertainment programming type; and

retrieve the preferred setting for the consumption distance from an operating parameter user preference storage based on the inferred user identity and the entertainment programming type.

64. The article of claim 63, wherein the programming instructions further enable the apparatus to be able to compare the entertainment programming type with previously accumulated consumption habit data for different users to infer the identity of the current user.

65. The article of claim 55, wherein the programming instructions further enable the apparatus to be able to store various user preferences including a preference for consumption distance associated with an entertainment programming type and a user identity.

66. The article of claim 55, wherein the programming instructions further enable the apparatus to be able to set the current operating parameter values depending on the type of programming being rendered.