Alternate display content controller

• US 6,337,717 B1
• Filed: 02/05/1999
• Issued: 01/08/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Ostendo Technologies Inc.
• Original Assignee: xSides Corporation
• Inventors: Campbell, Scott, Nason, D David, OʼRourke, Thomas C
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Michael
• Application Number:
  US09/246,040
• Time in Patent Office: 1,068 Days
• Field of Search: H04/Y.5445, 348/563, 348/564, 348/565, 348/567, 348/569, 348/570, 348/714, 348/586, 345/509, 345/515
• US Class Current: 348/567
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 1/16 the pattern of rectangular co-ordinates extending over the whole area of the screen, i.e. television type raster
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 1/165 Details of a display terminal using a CRT, the details relating to the control arrangement of the display terminal and to the interfaces thereto details suitable for both CRT and flat panel G09G5/003; specific for a flat panel G09G3/2092
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2310/061 for resetting or blanking
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/02 Graphics controller able to handle multiple formats, e.g. input or output formats
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3611 Control of matrices with row and column drivers
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/14 Display of multiple viewports

Abstract

An alternate display content controller provides a technique for controlling a video display separately from and in addition to the content displayed on the operating system monitor. Where the display is a computer monitor, the alternate display content controller interacts with the computer utility operating system and hardware drivers to control allocation of display space and create and control one or more parallel graphical user interfaces adjacent the operating system desktop. An alternate display content controller may be incorporated in either hardware or software. As software, an alternate display content controller may be an application running on the computer operating system, or may include an operating system kernel of varying complexity ranging from dependent on the utility operating system for hardware system services to a parallel system independent of the utility operating system and capable of supporting dedicated applications. The alternate display content controller may also include content and operating software delivered over the internet or any other LAN. The alternate display content controller may also be included in a television decoder/settop box to permit two or more parallel graphical user interfaces to be displayed simultaneously.

Claims

1. A method for enabling the display of an image on a display area portion of a television video display system in conjunction with the display of a separately controlled user interface of the television that occupies a first display area, the video display system having a total displayable area and a video display memory, comprising:

modifying the total displayable area of the video display system to include a second display area by adjusting the parameters of the video display system;

when the modified displayable area is larger than before modification, locating additional video display memory to correspond to the second display area, thereby creating an increased amount of video display memory that is addressable;

allocating the modified displayable area between the first display area and the second display area;

writing the image to the video display memory, such that at least a portion of the image is written to the video display memory that corresponds to the second display area in accordance with the allocation of the modified displayable area; and

transferring the video display memory contents to the video display system so that the image is displayed in conjunction with the separately controlled user interface of the television video display system.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the enabling of the display of the image is performed by computer software located in a television settop box.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the computer software is a portion of the resident operating system of the television settop box.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the computer software includes a portion of an operating system separate from the resident operating system of the television settop box.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the enabling of the display of the image is performed by computer hardware in conjunction with a television settop box.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the allocation of the modified displayable area decreases the size of the first display area available to the separately controlled user interface of the television video display system relative to the size of the total displayable area.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the modified displayable area is larger than before modifications and the allocating of the modified displayable area increases the size of the first display area that is allocated to the separately controlled user interface of the television video display system.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the increased size of the first display area is not a standard video resolution mode size.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein at least a portion of the image is displayed on a part of the first display area allocated to the separately controlled user interface of the television video display system so that at least a portion of the image appears to continuously overwrite at least a portion of the user interface while the image is displayed.

10. The method of claim 1, the television having a communications channel to an information source, the method further comprising:

receiving data from the information source; and

writing the received data as part of writing the image to the video display memory.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising translating the received data into a conventional television format before writing the received data.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the modifying of displayable area further comprises adjusting the parameters of the video display system to increase the number of displayable pixels in at least one dimension of the displayable area to less than or equal to the maximum number of pixels that can be effectively displayed by the video display system.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the adjusting the parameters of the video display system is performed using techniques that address pixels in an overscan area of the video display system.

14. A system for enabling the display of an image on a display area portion of a television video display system having a video display memory and a total displayable area, the television having a separately controlled user interface that occupies a first display area, comprising:

a display controller that

modifies the total displayable area of the video display system to include a second display area by adjusting the parameters of the video display system;

when the modified displayable area is larger than before modification, locates additional memory to correspond to the second display area, thereby creating an increased amount of memory that is addressable;

allocates the modified display area between the first display area that is controlled by the separately controlled television user interface and the second display area;

writes the image to the video display memory, such that at least a portion of the image is written to the video display memory that corresponds to the second display area in accordance with the allocation of the modified displayable area; and

transfers the increased memory contents to the video display system so that the image is displayed in conjunction with the separately controlled user interface of the television video display system.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the display controller is computer software located in a television settop box.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the display controller computer software is a portion of the resident operating system of the television settop box.

17. The system of claim 15 wherein the display controller computer software includes a portion of an operating system separate from the resident operating system of the television settop box.

18. The system of claim 14 wherein the display controller is computer hardware that performs in conjunction with a television settop box.

19. The system of claim 14 wherein, when the display controller allocates the modified display area, it decreases the first display area available to the separately controlled user interface of the television video display system relative to the size of the total displayable area.

20. The system of claim 14 wherein, when the display controller allocates the modified display area, it increases the first display area available to the separately controlled user interface of the television video display system.

21. The system of claim 20 wherein the increased size of the first display area is not a standard video resolution mode size.

22. The system of claim 14 wherein at least a portion of the image is displayed on a part of the first display area allocated to the separately controlled user interface of the television video display system so that at least a portion of the image appears to continuously overwrite at least a portion of the user interface while the image is displayed.

23. The system of claim 14, the television having a communications channel to an information source, wherein the display controller, in response to receiving data from the information source, writes the received data as part of writing the image to the memory.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the display controller translates the received data into a conventional television format before writing the received data.

25. The system of claim 14 wherein the display controller modifies the total displayable area by adjusting the parameters of the video display system to increase the number of displayable pixels in at least one dimension of the displayable area to less than or equal to the maximum number of pixels that can be effectively displayed by the video display system.

26. The system of claim 25 wherein the adjusting the parameters of the video display system is performed using techniques that address pixels in an overscan area of the video display system.

27. A computer readable memory medium containing instructions for controlling a computer processor to enable the display of an image on a display area portion of a television video display system in conjunction with the display of a separately controlled user interface of the television that occupies a first display area, the video display system having a video display memory and a total displayable area, by:

modifying the total displayable area of the video display system to include a second display area by adjusting the parameters of the video display system;

when the modified total displayable area is larger than before modification, locating additional video display memory to correspond to the second display area, thereby creating an increased amount of video display memory that is addressable;

allocating the modified total display area between the first display area that is controlled by the separately controlled television user interface and the second display area;

writing the image to the video display memory in accordance with the allocation of the modified display area; and

transferring the video display memory contents to the video display system so that the image is displayed in conjunction with the separately controlled user interface.

28. The computer readable memory medium of claim 27 wherein the enabling of the display of the image is performed by computer software located in a television settop box.

29. The computer readable memory medium of claim 28 wherein the computer software is a portion of the resident operating system of the television settop box.

30. The computer readable memory medium of claim 28 wherein the computer software includes a portion of an operating system separate from the resident operating system of the television settop box.

31. The computer readable memory medium of claim 27 wherein the enabling of the display of the image is performed by computer hardware in conjunction with a television settop box.

32. The computer readable memory medium of claim 27 wherein the allocation of the modified display area decreases the size of the first display area available to the separately controlled user interface of the television video display system relative to the size of the total displayable area.

33. The computer readable memory medium of claim 27 wherein the allocation of the modified display area increases the size of the first display area available to the separately controlled user interface of the television video display system.

34. The computer readable memory medium of claim 33 wherein the increased size of the first display area allocated to the separately controlled user interface is not a standard video resolution mode size.

35. The computer readable memory medium of claim 27 wherein at least a portion of the image is displayed on at least a portion of the first display area allocated to the separately controlled user interface of the television video display system so that at least a portion of the image appears to continuously overwrite at least a portion of the user interface while the image is displayed.

36. The computer readable memory medium of claim 27, the television having a communications channel to an information source, the instructions further comprising:

receiving data from the information source; and

writing the received data as part of writing the image to the video display memory.

37. The computer readable memory medium of claim 36, further comprising translating the received data into a conventional television format before writing the received data.

38. The computer readable memory medium of claim 27 wherein the modifying of the total displayable area further comprises adjusting the parameters of the video display system to increase the number of displayable pixels in at least one dimension of the displayable area to less than or equal to the maximum number of pixels that can be effectively displayed by the video display system.

39. The computer readable memory medium of claim 38 wherein the adjusting the parameters of the video display system is performed using techniques that address pixels in an overscan area of the video display system.