Broadcast interactive digital radio

• US 6,588,015 B1
• Filed: 01/14/1998
• Issued: 07/01/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 01/14/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: General Instrument Corporation (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Inventors: Eyer, Mark K., Walker, G. Kent
• Primary Examiner(s): Faile, Andrew
• Assistant Examiner(s): BROWN, RUEBEN M
• Application Number:
  US09/007,295
• Time in Patent Office: 1,994 Days
• Field of Search: 348/7, 725/135-142, 725/86-103, 725/114-117, 725/131-153, 704/500-504
• US Class Current: 725/89
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/106 Receiver-side switching
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/40 Arrangements for broadcast specially adapted for accumulation-type receivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/74 using programme related information, e.g. title, composer or interpreter
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2543 Billing , e.g. for subscription services payment schemes, architectures or protocols G06Q20/00; e-commerce G06Q30/00; arrangements for billing for the use of broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/21
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6543 for forcing some client operations, e.g. recording remote booting in general G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02

Abstract

A digital radio broadcast system provides various interactive features, including skip forward and skip backward. In one embodiment, data is transmitted at a faster than real time rate and accumulated in a buffer at a receiver. The user can play a current track or skip to subsequent or earlier tracks. In another embodiment, two or more programming service streams (i.e., user channels) are communicated such that a user can move directly from a current track to the beginning of a track of another stream. In another embodiment, tiers of service levels are provided so that paying subscribers can bypass some or all of the commercial messages, while non-paying subscribers can not bypass the commercials. Replacement programming may be transmitted in a portion of the bandwidth of the free service. At a receiver, control data may be used with multimedia data to provide a multimedia clip which identifies features of a track, such as artist, song title or lyrics. Identifying data may be communicated with the tracks to allow a user to skip disliked tracks or recover favorite tracks on another programming service stream.

Claims

1. A method for broadcasting digital programming services to a plurality of decoders, each service having a plurality of program segments, comprising the steps of:

packetizing said plurality of program segments for transport in at least one data stream, each of said program segments defining a separate track of the associated programming service;

providing data which indicates access points for said program segments; and

broadcasting said packetized program segments at an overall data rate which is greater than a play rate of the programming services;

wherein each decoder is adapted to;

receive said packetized programming segments;

temporarily store at least a portion of the program segments in a buffer prior to playback;

allow a user to skip forward or backward to a track which is stored in the buffer based on said access points while playing a current one of said tracks; and

delete at least one track in the buffer when a buffer fullness level is reached.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

said packetized program segments are broadcast in one data stream at a rate which is greater than a play rate of the programming services.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

when the buffer fullness level is reached, the oldest track which is stored in the buffer is deleted.

4. The method of claim 1, comprising the further step of:

transmitting control data with said program segments to provide information regarding the contents of said program segments.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein each of said program segments comprises a separate multimedia track, comprising the further step of:

transmitting control data with said program segments for use in providing a multimedia clip corresponding to said multimedia track regarding the contents of said track.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein:

said overall data rate is adapted to be reduced, at least temporarily, to said play rate.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising the further step of:

transmitting segment identifiers with said packetized program segments;

wherein, at said decoder;

said segment identifiers are adapted to be stored in memory according to a user command; and

said program segments are selectively recovered according to the segment identifiers.

8. A method for broadcasting digital programming services to a plurality of decoders, each service having a plurality of program segments, comprising the steps of:

packetizing said plurality of program segments for transport in at least one data stream, each of said program segments comprising one of a separate non-commercial track or a separate commercial track;

providing data which indicates access points for said program segments; and

broadcasting said packetized program segments at an overall data rate which is greater than a play rate of the programming services;

wherein each decoder is adapted to;

receive said packetized programming segments;

temporarily store at least a portion of the program segments in a buffer prior to playback;

delete at least one program segment in the buffer when a buffer fullness level is reached; and

allow a user to skip forward or backward to a track which is stored in the buffer while playing a current one of said tracks;

such that;

a plurality of service tiers are provided, one of said service tiers allowing a user to skip over at least some of the commercial tracks, while another one of said service tiers does not allow a user to skip over the commercial tracks.

9. A method for broadcasting digital programming services to a plurality of decoders, each service having a plurality of program segments, comprising the steps of:

packetizing said plurality of program segments for transport in a plurality of data streams, including a first channel of first program segments in a first data stream, and a second channel of second program segments in a second data stream, each of said program segments defining a separate track of the associated programming service;

providing data which indicates access points for said first and second program segments of said first and second channels;

broadcasting said packetized program segments at an overall data rate which is greater than a play rate of the programming services;

wherein each decoder is adapted to;

receive said packetized programming segments;

temporarily store at least a portion of the program segments in a buffer prior to playback;

allow a user to skip from a currently playing first track on the first channel to a starting point of a second track in the second channel; and

delete at least one track in the buffer when a buffer fullness level is reached.

10. A method for broadcasting digital programming services to a plurality of decoders, each service having a plurality of program segments, comprising the steps of:

packetizing said plurality of program segments for transport in at least one data stream, each of said program segments comprising one of a separate non-commercial track or a separate commercial track;

broadcasting said packetized program segments at an overall data rate which is greater than a play rate of the programming services;

communicating at least one of the non-commercial program segments as replacement programming in a replacement programming bandwidth of the at least one broadcast data stream, such that;

a plurality of service tiers are provided, one of said service tiers allowing a user to recover the non-commercial replacement program segments, while another one of said service tiers allows a user to recover the commercial tracks in lieu of recovering the non-commercial replacement program tracks;

wherein each decoder is adapted to;

receive said packetized programming segments;

temporarily store at least a portion of the program segments in a buffer prior to playback;

delete at least one program segment in the buffer when a buffer fullness level is reached.

11. An apparatus for broadcasting digital programming services to a plurality of decoders, each service having a plurality of program segments, comprising:

a packetizer for packetizing said plurality of program segments for transport in at least one broadcast data stream, each of said program segments defining a separate track of the associated programming service;

means for providing data which designates access points for said program segments; and

means for broadcasting said packetized program segments in at least one data stream at an overall data rate which is greater than a play rate of the programming services;

wherein each decoder is adapted to;

receive said packetized programming segments;

to store at least a portion of the program segments in a buffer prior to playback;

allow a user to skip forward or backward to a track which is stored in the buffer while playing a current one of said tracks; and

delete one or more tracks in the buffer when a buffer fullness level is reached.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein:

said packetized program segments are broadcast in one data stream at a rate which is greater than a play rate of the programming services.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein:

when the buffer fullness level is reached, the oldest program segment which is stored in the buffer is deleted.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising:

means for communicating control data with said program segments to provide information regarding the contents of said program segments.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein each of said program segments comprises a separate multimedia track, further comprising:

means for communicating control data with said program segments for use in providing a multimedia clip corresponding to said multimedia track regarding the contents of said track.

16. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein:

each of said program segments comprises one of a separate non-commercial track or a separate commercial track, and

a plurality of service tiers are provided, one of said service tiers allowing a user to skip over at least some of the commercial tracks, while another one of said service tiers does not allow a user to skip over the commercial tracks.

17. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the packetized program segments are communicated in a plurality of data streams, including a first channel of first program segments in a first data stream, and a second channel of second program segments in a second data stream, said apparatus further comprising:

means for providing data which indicates access points for said first and second program segments of said first and second channels to allow a user to skip from a currently playing first track on the first channel to a starting point of a second track in the second channel.

18. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein each of said program segments comprises one of a separate non-commercial track or a separate commercial track, further comprising:

means for communicating at least one of the non-commercial program tracks as replacement programming in a replacement programming bandwidth of the at least one broadcast data stream, such that;

a plurality of service tiers are provided, one of said service tiers allowing a user to recover the non-commercial replacement program tracks, while another one of said service tiers allows a user to recover the commercial tracks in lieu of recovering the non-commercial replacement program tracks.

19. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein:

said overall data rate is adapted to be reduced, at least temporarily, to said play rate.

20. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising:

means for transmitting segment identifiers with said packetized program segments;

wherein, at said decoder;

said segment identifiers are adapted to be stored in memory according to a user command; and

said program segments are selectively recovered according to the segment identifiers.

21. An apparatus for receiving broadcast digital programming services each service having a plurality of program segments, said apparatus comprising:

means for receiving said plurality of packetized program segments which are transported in at least one broadcast data stream, each of said program segments defining a separate track of the associated programming service;

said packetized program segments being received at an overall data rate which is greater than a play rate of the programming services;

a buffer for storing at least a portion of the program segments;

means for recovering data which designates access points for said program segments to allow a user to skip forward or backward to a track which is stored in the buffer while playing a current one of said tracks; and

means for deleting at least one program segment in the buffer when a buffer fullness level is reached.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein:

said packetized program segments are broadcast in one data stream at a rate which is greater than a play rate of the programming services.

23. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein:

when the buffer fullness level is reached, the oldest track which is stored in the buffer is deleted.

24. The apparatus of claim 21, further comprising:

means for recovering control data with said program segments; and

means responsive to said recovering means for providing information regarding the contents of said program segments.

25. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein each of said program segments comprises a separate multimedia track, further comprising:

means for recovering control data with said program segments; and

means responsive to said recovering means for providing a multimedia clip corresponding to said multimedia track regarding the contents of said track.

26. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein:

each of said program segments comprises one of a separate non-commercial track or a separate commercial track, and

a plurality of service tiers are provided, one of said service tiers allowing a user to skip over at least some of the commercial tracks, while another one of said service tiers does not allow a user to skip over the commercial tracks.

27. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the packetized program segments are transported in a plurality of data streams, including a first channel of first program segments in a first data stream, and a second channel of second program segments in a second data stream, said apparatus further comprising:

means for recovering data which indicates access points for said first and second program segments of said first and second channels to allow a user to skip from a currently playing first track on the first channel to a starting point of a second track in the second channel.

28. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein each of said program segments comprises one of a separate non-commercial track or a separate commercial track, further comprising:

means for recovering at least one of the non-commercial program tracks as replacement programming in a replacement programming bandwidth of the at least one broadcast data stream, such that;

a plurality of service tiers are provided, one of said service tiers allowing a user to recover the non-commercial replacement program tracks, while another one of said service tiers allows a user to recover the commercial tracks in lieu of recovering the non-commercial replacement program tracks.

29. The apparatus of claim 21, further comprising:

means for pausing a currently played segment according to a user control signal; and

means for retaining said currently played segment in said buffer until the user terminates the pausing.

30. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein:

said overall data rate is adapted to be reduced, at least temporarily, to said play rate.

31. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein segment identifiers are transported with said packetized program segments, further comprising:

means for storing said segment identifiers according to a user command; and

means for selectively recovering said program segments according to the segment identifiers.

32. A digital radio receiver, comprising:

a buffer for temporarily storing broadcast digital audio data comprising separate audio tracks which audio data is received via a communication path at a rate which is greater than a play rate thereof; and

a buffer controller for outputting said audio data to audio processing circuitry at said play rate;

wherein said buffer controller is actuable by a user input to provide at least one of a repeat, skip backward, and skip forward function for said separate audio tracks provided by said audio data.

33. The receiver of claim 32, wherein:

said audio tracks are broadcast in one data stream in said communication path at a rate which is greater than the play rate.

34. The receiver of claim 32, wherein:

when a fullness level of the buffer is reached, the oldest audio track which is stored in the buffer is deleted.

35. The receiver of claim 32, further comprising:

means for recovering control data from said communication path with the audio tracks; and

means responsive to said recovering means for providing information regarding the contents of said audio tracks.

36. The receiver of claim 32, wherein program segments each of which comprises separate multimedia tracks are communicated with said audio tracks via said communication path, further comprising:

means for recovering control data from said communication path with said audio tracks; and

means responsive to said recovering means for providing a multimedia clip corresponding to said multimedia track regarding the contents of said audio tracks.

37. The receiver of claim 32, wherein said audio tracks comprise non-commercial tracks and commercial tracks, said receiver further comprising:

means for recovering data from said communication path which indicates access points for said audio tracks to allow a user to skip forward or backward to an audio track which is stored in the buffer while playing a current one of said audio tracks;

such that;

a plurality of service tiers are provided, one of said service tiers allowing a user to skip over at least some of the commercial tracks, while another one of said service tiers does not allow a user to skip over the commercial tracks.

38. The receiver of claim 32, wherein the audio tracks are transported in a plurality of data streams, including a first channel of first audio tracks in a first data stream, and a second channel of second audio tracks in a second data stream, said receiver further comprising:

means for providing data which indicates access points for said first and second audio tracks of said first and second channels to allow a user to skip from a currently playing first audio track on the first channel to a starting point of a second audio track in the second channel.

39. The receiver of claim 32, wherein said audio tracks comprise non-commercial tracks and commercial tracks, further comprising:

means for recovering at least one of the non-commercial audio tracks as replacement programming in a replacement programming bandwidth of the at least one broadcast data stream, such that;

a plurality of service tiers are provided, one of said service tiers allowing a user to recover the non-commercial replacement audio tracks, while another one of said service tiers allows a user to recover the commercial tracks in lieu of recovering the non-commercial replacement audio tracks.

40. The receiver of claim 32, further comprising:

means for pausing a currently played track according to a user control signal; and

means for retaining said currently played track in said buffer until the user terminates the pausing.

41. The receiver of claim 32, wherein:

the rate at which the audio data is stored in the buffer is adapted to be reduced, at least temporarily, to said play rate.

42. The receiver of claim 32, wherein segment identifiers are provided with said audio tracks, further comprising:

means for storing said segment identifiers according to a user command; and

means for selectively processing said audio tracks according to the segment identifiers.