System and method for linking video, services and applications in an interactive television system

• US 6,651,251 B1
• Filed: 03/17/1999
• Issued: 11/18/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Matthews, Joseph H. III, Shoff, Daniel J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Srivastava, Vivek
• Assistant Examiner(s): LONSBERRY, HUNTER B
• Application Number:
  US09/270,633
• Time in Patent Office: 1,707 Days
• Field of Search: 725/56, 725/86-88, 725/8, 725/37, 725/38, 386/68, 386/83
• US Class Current: 725/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/00 Image analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/41 Bandwidth or redundancy reduction by scanning H04N1/17 ; methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/46 Embedding additional information in the video signal during the compression process H04N19/517, H04N19/68, H04N19/70 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/858 Linking data to content, e.g. by linking an URL to a video object, by creating a hotspot
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17336 Handling of requests in head-ends

Abstract

An interactive television system is provided with an interactive information system by which channels or services interact together. The information system provides informational messages that prompt a user to select an associated channel or service. If selected, the system transfers control to the selected channels or services. If necessary, information associated with the informational messages is provided to the selected channel or service. In a preferred embodiment the informational messages are sequentially displayed video segments. The video segments may be associated with other channels or services in the interactive viewing system. The user may use an input device, by depressing a single button, and launch another channel or service that is associated with the currently displayed video segment.

Claims

1. An interactive television system for displaying video segments on a television and for receiving user input related to the video segments, comprising:

a script providing an order that a plurality of video segments are displayed and timing information related to an amount of time the video segments are displayed;

the script including;

a script object including a name field that identifies at least first and second different series of video segments that are displayed on the television, only one of which is displayed at a time in a continuous loop, and a timing field identifying a time the first series of video segments are displayed on the television in a continuous loop and a time that the second series of video segments are displayed on the television in a continuous loop; and

a control frame that includes multiple controls related to bitmaps that are displayed overlaying the video segments;

the control frame including a name field that identifies a particular control, a duration field that indicates the length of time the control is displayed overlaying the video segment, and an action field that indicates an action to take based on user input that occurs while the control is displayed on the television;

the action field for identifying an application to launch that is associated with a currently displayed video segment in response to user input.

2. The interactive viewing system of claim 1 wherein the control frame further includes position information indicating a position that a bitmap is to be displayed on a video segment.

3. The interactive viewing system of claim 1 wherein the control is displayed on the video segment a predetermined period of time after the start of the video segment to prevent the user from inadvertently selecting the wrong action during a transition between video segments.

4. The interactive viewing system of claim 1 wherein the control is removed from the video segment a predetermined period of time before the end of the video segment to prevent the user from inadvertently selecting the wrong action during a transition between video segments.

5. The interactive viewing system of claim 1 further comprising a table having a parent field and a child field that establishes a parent child relationship between the script object and the control frame.

6. The interactive viewing system of claim 1 further including a page object that establishes the different screens that are displayed on the television during a video segment.

7. The interactive viewing system of claim 1 wherein each of the video segments has a title associated therewith and based on user input, the title of the current video segment is passed to the launched application identified in the action field.

8. The interactive viewing system of claim 1 wherein the timing information provided by the script is an actual time synchronized to the system clock.

9. The interactive viewing system of claim 1 wherein the timing information provided by the script is a relative time that is relative to a starting time of the script.