MHP television device and GUI application

• US 6,993,727 B2
• Filed: 08/31/2001
• Issued: 01/31/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/04/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Service Centre Europe N.V. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Service Centre Europe N.V. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Mugura, Kazuto, Copejans, Gert, Vaboquestal, Laurent, De Ceulaer, Luc, Heugebaert, Andre
• Primary Examiner(s): Huynh, Ba
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Nhon D.
• Application Number:
  US09/944,757
• Publication Number:
  US 20020047860A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,614 Days
• Field of Search: 715/776, 715/777, 715/773, 715/808, 715/816, 715827-831, 715/836, 715/716, 715/768, 715/810, 715/834, 715/840
• US Class Current: 715/843
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/431 Generation of visual interfaces for content selection or interaction; Content or additional data rendering
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4433 Implementing client middleware, e.g. Multimedia Home Platform [MHP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4438 Window management, e.g. event handling following interaction with the user interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications

Abstract

An MHP television device including a user input and a GUI application for use in such a device wherein the GUI application maintains at least one notional wheel to which activities and strings for representing the activities may be assigned and generates an image for display, the image including an edge of the notional wheel on which a predetermined number of the strings are arranged for display, the GUI application being responsive to the user input both to rotate the notional wheel so as to display different strings and to select any activity represented by a string on the notional wheel at a predetermined position of the image.

Claims

1. An MHP television device including a GUI application and a user input wherein the GUI application maintains at least one notional wheel to which activities and strings for representing the activities may be assigned and generates an image for display, the image including an edge of the notional wheel on which a predetermined number of the strings are arranged for display and further including function areas corresponding to predetermined functions, the GUI application being responsive to the user input to initiate the functions and also to rotate the notional wheel so as to display different strings and to select any activity represented by a string on the notional wheel at a predetermined position of the image,

wherein the GUI application generates an edit image including the edge of a notional wheel in response to selection of an edit function, and

wherein the edit image includes a re-name function area, and the GUI application is responsive to the re-name function to generate a re-name image for display, the image including the edge of a notional wheel on which the string at the predetermined position of the notional wheel of the edit image is retained at the predetermined position and characters appear at other positions of the notional wheel, the GUI application being responsive to the user input to rotate the notional wheel and move the string within the predetermined position such that each character of the string can be changed in turn by rotating the notional wheel.

2. An MHP television device according to claim 1 comprising one of a set top box and an integrated television.

3. An MHP television device according to claim 1 wherein the GUI application stores activities and their respective strings in groups, the strings of each group being assigned to a respective notional wheel and being available for display on the edge of the respective notional wheel and wherein the activities include groups, such that selection of a group causes the GUI application to generate an image including the edge of a notional wheel with the strings of the selected group.

4. An MHP television device according to claim 1 wherein the activities include television channels and the image includes a portion adjacent the predetermined position for displaying an internally assigned channel number corresponding to the channel currently represented by the string at the predetermined position.

5. An MHP television device according to claim 1 wherein the edit image includes a hide function area and the GUI application is responsive to the hide function such that the string currently at the predetermined position may be hidden or unhidden from display.

6. An MHP television device according to claim 1 wherein the edit image includes a lock function area and the GUI application is responsive to the lock function such that the activity represented by the string currently at the predetermined position may be made available or unavailable for selection.

7. An MHP television device according to claim 1 wherein responsive to the user input, the GUI application moves the string at the predetermined position to a temporary position so as to leave a space at the predetermined position or moves the string from the temporary position to the predetermined position, rotation of the notional wheel maintaining the space at the predetermined position such that a string may be moved out of one position on the notional wheel and back in to a different position.

8. An MHP television device according to claim 7 wherein when a string is at the temporary position, the GUI application causes a copy function area to be displayed on the edit image and, responsive to selection of the copy function, the GUI application allows selection of other notional wheels, each with a space at the predetermined position, thereby allowing the insertion of the string from the temporary position into the other notional wheels.

9. An MHP television device according to claim 1 wherein responsive to selection of a scan function, the GUI application generates a scan image including the edge of a notional wheel and a start function area, the GUI application being responsive to the start function area to initiate scanning of all available activities and to assign all of the detected activities and their respective strings to the notional wheel.

10. An MHP television device according to claim 1 wherein the GUI application only conducts a repaint operation to update an image for display upon receipt of an appropriate trigger, the GUI application then determining which part of the image requires an update and conducting a repaint operation for that part.

11. An MHP television device according to claim 1 wherein the GUI application comprises a wheel data object for maintaining a list of activities in relation to the notional wheels and a string wheel object for providing data representing the displayed edge of the current notional wheel.

12. An MHP television device according to claim 11 wherein the GUI application further comprises a main pane object responsive to the user input and an animator object wherein, responsive to the user input to rotate a notional wheel, the main pane creates an animation object for rotating the wheel and the animator object controls the animation object to change the data of the string wheel object on the basis of the data in the wheel data object.

13. An MHP television device according to claim 12 wherein each time the animator object controls the animation object to conduct a process to produce the next frame, the process returns the time to wait for the animation object to produce the following frame such that when a predetermined number of animations have been conducted for rotating the notional wheel, the animation object conducts a process to align the wheel relative to the predetermined position.

14. A GUI application for use with an MHP television device and a user input wherein the GUI application maintains at least one notional wheel to which activities and strings for representing the activities may be assigned and generates an image for display, the image including an edge of the notional wheel on which a predetermined number of the strings are arranged for display and further including function areas corresponding to predetermined functions, the GUI application being responsive to the user input to initiate the functions and also to rotate the notional wheel so as to display different strings and to select any activity represented by a string on the notional wheel at a predetermined position of the image,

wherein the GUI application generates an edit image including the edge of a notional wheel in response to selection of an edit function, and

wherein the edit image includes a re-name function area, responsive to the re-name function generating a re-name image for display, the image including the edge of a notional wheel on which the string at the predetermined position of the notional wheel of the edit image is retained at the predetermined position and characters appear at other positions of the notional wheel, the GUI application being responsive to the user input rotating the notional wheel and moving the string within the predetermined position such that each character of the string can be changed in turn by rotating the notional wheel.

15. A GUI application according to claim 14 wherein the GUI application stores activities and their respective strings in groups, the strings of each group being assigned to a respective notional wheel and being available for display on the edge of the respective notional wheel and wherein the activities include groups, such that selection of a group causes the GUI application to generate an image including the edge of a notional wheel with the strings of the selected group.

16. A method of providing an MHP television device including a user input with a graphical user interface comprising:

maintaining at least one notional wheel to which activities and strings for representing the activities may be assigned,

generating an image for display, the image including an edge of the notional wheel on which a predetermined number of the strings are arranged for display and further including function areas corresponding to predetermined functions, and

in response to the user input, initiating the functions and also rotating the notional wheel so as to display different strings and selecting any activity represented by a string on the notional wheel at a predetermined position of the image,

in response to selection of an edit function, generating an edit image including the edge of a notional wheel, the edit image including a re-name function area, and

in response to the re-name function, generating a re-name function area, and generating a re-name image for display, the image including the edge of a notional wheel on which the string at the predetermined position of the notional wheel of the edit image is retained at the predetermined position and characters appear at other positions of the notional wheel; and

in response to the user input, rotating the notional wheel and moving the string within the predetermined position such that each character of the string can be changed in turn by rotating the notional wheel.

17. A computer readable storage medium having recorded thereon code components that, when loaded on an MHP television device and executed will cause that MHP television device to operate according to claim 16.