Intelligent device having background caching of web pages from a digital television broadcast signal and method of same

• US 7,039,929 B2
• Filed: 01/18/2001
• Issued: 05/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Wang, David S., Brotz, Mario Udo
• Primary Examiner(s): Srivastava, Vivek
• Application Number:
  US09/766,183
• Publication Number:
  US 20010007105A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,930 Days
• Field of Search: 725/46, 725/37, 725/40, 725/136, 725/112, 725/9, 725/12
• US Class Current: 725/9
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4263 involving specific tuning arrangements, e.g. two tuners
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4335 Housekeeping operations, e.g. prioritizing content for deletion because of storage space restrictions storage management, e.g. defragmentation G06F3/0604; unloading stored programs G06F9/445; storage management in file systems G06F16/10; buffering arrangements in a network node or in an end terminal in packet networks H04L49/90
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4348 Demultiplexing of additional data and video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• 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 21/466 Learning process for intelligent management, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies services using the results of monitoring in broadcast systems H04H60/61
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4722 for requesting additional data associated with the content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only

Abstract

A client-side intelligent device having background caching of web pages within a digital television (DTV) system and method of same. The present invention includes a digital television system having an intelligent device for interfacing with a user/viewer and controlling the display of information on a display screen. The intelligent device, in one embodiment, is a set-top-box, but could be any intelligent electronic device or computer system. The set-top-box is configured to receive a DTV signal (e.g., land based cable or digital satellite system) that includes audio/visual information as well as data signals in a datacast format. The datacast format includes web pages, e.g., in the HTML (hypertext markup language) format of the world wide web. The DTV broadcasters support multiple channels of information on which content providers can supply a domain of web pages on a periodic basis. The present invention is able to display viewer-selected web pages on the DTV system. An intelligent filter is used that modifies itself based on user behavior and user preferences in terms of the web pages that a viewer routinely visits. The intelligent filter is then used to identify certain web pages of the pages that are being broadcast and these identified web pages are stored in a cache memory for later use by the viewer. A second tuner can be used to poll multiple channels when updating the cached contents. Cached web pages avoid broadcast latencies (due to periodic updating) and thereby are displayed faster to the viewer.

Claims

1. In a digital electronic system, a method of storing information comprising:

maintaining an intelligent filter that records hypertext documents that were previously accessed by a viewer of said digital electronic system;

monitoring datacast information decoded from a digital broadcast signal to identify newly received hypertext documents, wherein said monitoring comprises;

tuning a tuner to a selected channel within said digital broadcast signal and receiving datacast information therefrom for a time period;

identifying newly received hypertext documents from said received datacast information;

updating said selected channel and initializing said time period at expiration of said time period; and

repeating said tuning, identify, and updating; and

storing into a cache memory any of said newly received hypertext documents that are recorded in said intelligent filter.

2. A method as described in claim 1 wherein said datacast information comprises a domain of hypertext documents that are periodically broadcast and wherein said digital electronic system is a digital television system.

3. A method as described in claim 2 further comprising provided a selected hypertext document is not located within said cache memory, obtaining said selected hypertext document upon its next occurrence within said datacast information and displaying said selected hypertext document on a display screen of said digital television system.

4. A method as described in claim 2 further comprising provided said selected hypertext document is not located within said cache memory, obtaining said selected hypertext document from a digital modem coupled to the word wide web and displaying said selected hypertext document on a display screen of said digital television system.

5. A method as described in claim 1 wherein said maintaining comprises:

receiving and recording identifiers of hypertext documents accessed by said viewer;

recording a count associated with each identifier of hypertext documents received, said count indicating the number of times each recorded hypertext document was accessed by said viewer; and

ranking said identifiers of said intelligent filter based on their associated counts.

6. A method as described in claim 5 wherein said maintaining further comprises removing from said intelligent filter any recorded identifier of a hypertext document that has not been accessed by said viewer for a predetermined time period.

7. A method as described in claim 1 wherein said hypertext documents are web pages and wherein said identifiers are web page addresses.

8. A digital electronic system comprising:

a display screen;

a tuner coupled to receive a digital television broadcast signal;

an intelligent controller coupled to said display screen and coupled to said tuner, said intelligent controller comprising a processor coupled to a bus and a memory unit containing instructions that when executed implement a method of displaying information comprising;

maintaining an intelligent filter that records hypertext documents that were previously accessed by a viewer of said digital electronic system;

monitoring datacast information decoded from said digital television broadcast signal to identify newly received hypertext documents, wherein said monitoring comprises;

tuning a tuner to a selected channel within said digital broadcast signal and receiving datacast information therefrom for a time period;

identifying newly received hypertext documents from said received datacast information;

updating said selected channel and initializing said time period at expiration of said time period; and

repeating said tuning, identify, and updating; and

storing into a cache memory any of said newly received hypertext documents that are recorded in said intelligent filter.

9. A digital electronic system as described in claim 8 wherein said datacast information comprises a domain of hypertext documents that are periodically broadcast.

10. A digital electronic system as described in claim 9 wherein said method further comprises provided said selected hypertext document is not located within said cache memory, obtaining said selected hypertext document upon its next occurrence within said datacast information and displaying said selected hypertext document on said display screen.

11. A digital electronic system as described in claim 9 wherein said method further comprises provided a selected hypertext document is not located within said cache memory, obtaining said selected hypertext document from a digital modem coupled to the word wide web and displaying said selected hypertext document on said display screen.

12. A digital electronic system as described in claim 8 wherein said maintaining comprises:

receiving and recording identifiers of hypertext documents accessed by said viewer;

recording a count associated with each identifier of hypertext documents received, said count indicating the number of times each recorded hypertext document was accessed by said viewer; and

ranking said identifiers of said intelligent filter based on their associated counts.

13. A digital electronic system as described in claim 12 wherein said maintaining further comprises the removing from said intelligent filter any recorded identifier of a hypertext document that has not been accessed by said viewer for a predetermined time period.

14. A digital electronic system as described in claim 8 wherein said hypertext documents are web pages and wherein said identifiers are web page addresses.