Method and apparatus for reformatting of content for display on interactive television

• US 7,143,347 B2
• Filed: 02/01/2002
• Issued: 11/28/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: OpenTV, Inc. (Kudelski SA)
• Original Assignee: OpenTV, Inc. (Kudelski SA)
• Inventors: Su, Dongmin
• Primary Examiner(s): Bashore, William
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ries, L.
• Application Number:
  US10/061,903
• Publication Number:
  US 20020199190A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,761 Days
• Field of Search: 715/530, 715/517, 715/518, 715/520, 715/521
• US Class Current: 715/208
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0209 Incentive being awarded or redeemed in connection with the playing of a video game
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0276 Advertisement creation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/613 for the control of the source by the destination control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components specially adapted for selective content distribution H04N21/637
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2343 involving reformatting operations of video signals for distribution or compliance with end-user requests or end-user device requirements video transcoding H04N19/40; media packet handling at the source H04L65/762
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234336 by media transcoding, e.g. video is transformed into a slideshow of still pictures or audio is converted into text
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2356 by altering the spatial resolution
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2542 for selling goods, e.g. TV shopping payment schemes, payment architectures or payment protocols for electronic shopping systems G06Q20/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25825 involving client display capabilities, e.g. screen resolution of a mobile phone optimising the visualisation of content during browsing in the Internet G06F16/9577; processing of terminal status or physical abilities in wireless networks H04W8/22; authentication in wireless network security H04W12/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25875 involving end-user authentication restricting access to computer systems by authenticating users using a predetermined code G06F21/33; arrangements for secret or secure communication including means for verifying the identity or authority of a user of the system H04L9/32; networks authentication protocols H04L63/08; authentication in wireless network security H04W12/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; 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 21/2668 Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. insertion of targeted commercials based on end-user profiles information retrieval from the Internet by querying with filtering and personalisation G06F16/9535; arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast H04H20/10; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; adaptation of message content in packet-switching networks H04L51/063
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4312 involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4314 for fitting data in a restricted space on the screen, e.g. EPG data in a rectangular grid
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4349 : by extracting from data carousels, e.g. extraction of software modules from a DVB carousel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/437 : Interfacing the upstream path of the transmission network, e.g. for transmitting client requests to a VOD server flow control in data networks H04L47/10; streaming protocols, e.g. RTP or RTCP, H04L65/65; scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests in data packet switching networks H04L67/60
• 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 21/643 : Communication protocols network streaming protocols, e.g. real-time transport protocol [RTP] or real-time control protocol [RTCP], H04L65/65
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64707 : for transferring content from a first network to a second network, e.g. between IP and wireless
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 : involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 : Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8543 : using a description language, e.g. Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Expert Group [MHEG], eXtensible Markup Language [XML] information retrieval of semistructured data, the underlying structure being taken into account, e.g. mark-up language structure data G06F16/80
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8545 : for generating interactive applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/165 : Centralised control of user terminal subsequent to an upstream request signal H04N7/17345; Registering at central by two-way working H04N7/17309
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17309 : Transmission or handling of upstream communications

Abstract

A method and apparatus for presenting a variety of content from a multitude of sources broadcast from a head end server to a client device. The broadcast content comprises HTML input from broadcast, cache, the internet or other sources is processed by a lay out engine for image positioning to avoid overlapping and shaped for appearance on a client device. The image is transferred to a client device in a client compatible code for presentation to a user on a client device.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium containing instructions that when executed by a distributed computer system cause the distributed computer system to:

receive content at a server from a service provider containing an original image;

extract markup language original image information from the content, the markup language original image information comprising original image size information;

pass the original image size information to a layout engine;

convert the original image to a target format to form a target format image and adding a pixel buffer to an x and y boundary dimension of the target format image, so that a target format image boundary x and y dimension is modulo 16 for layout on the client device display;

calculate the layout of the modulo 16 target format image on the client device display using the modulo 16 image boundary dimension instead of using the original image dimensions;

position the original image in the lay out engine for display on a client device display to avoid overlapping content adjacent the image when displayed on the client device display; and

send the positioned image to the client device for display to a user.

2. The medium of claim 1, wherein the target format is an MPEG format, the medium further comprising instructions that cause the distributed computer system to:

calculate the target format image boundaries wherein X_original and Y_original are the original image x and y dimensions X_modified_boundary and Y_modified_boundary are the dimensions of modified image boundary, wherein

16<

=X_modified_boundary−

X_original<

=and

16<

=Y_modified_boundary−

Y_original<

=.

3. The medium of claim 1, wherein the target format is an MPEG format, the medium further comprising instructions that cause the distributed computer system to:

perform a shape ratio conversion on the modulo 16 target format image so that the modulo 16 target format image displayed on the client device display resembles the image as it would appear when displayed on a personal computer monitor.

4. The medium of claim 1 further comprising instructions that cause the distributed computer system to:

convert a style sheet into an element node tree; and

transmit the element node tree to the client device.

5. The medium of claim 1, wherein the target format is an MPEG format, the medium further comprising instructions that cause the distributed computer system to:

send service provider content from a head end to the server;

display the modulo 16 target format image at a user at the client device and complete an e-commerce transaction between the service provider and the client device user.

6. A computer readable medium containing instructions that when executed by a distributed computer system cause the distributed computer system to:

receive content at a server from a service provider containing an original image;

extract markup language original image information from the content, the markup language original image information comprising original image size information;

pass the original image size information to a layout engine;

convert the original image to a target format to form a target format image and adding a pixel buffer to an x and y boundary dimension of the target format image, so that a target format image boundary x and y dimension is modulo 16 for layout on the client device display;

calculate the layout of the modulo 16 target format image on the client device display using the modulo 16 image boundary dimension instead of using the original image dimensions, wherein X original and Y original are the original image x and y dimensions X_modified_boundary and Y_modified_boundary are the dimensions of modified image boundary, wherein

16<

=X_modified_boundary−

X_original<

=and

16<

=Y_modified_boundary−

Y_original<

=,

position the original image in the lay out engine for display on a client device display to avoid overlapping content adjacent the image when displayed on the client device display;

send the positioned image to the client device for display to a user;

convert a style sheet into an element node tree; and

transmit the element node tree to the client device.

7. The medium of claim 6 further comprising instructions that cause the distributed computer system to:

send the service provider content from a head end to the server; and

complete an e-commerce transaction between the service provider and the client device user.

8. A method for formatting content for display in a distributed computer system comprising:

receiving content at a server from a service provider containing an original image;

extracting markup language original image information from the content, the markup language original image information comprising original image size information;

passing the original image size information to a layout engine,

converting the original image to a target format to form target format image and adding a pixel buffer to an x and y boundary dimension of the target format image, so that a target format image boundary x and y dimension is modulo 16 for layout on the client device display;

calculating the layout of the modulo 16 target format image on the client device display using the modulo 16 image boundary dimension instead of using the original image dimensions,

positioning the original image in the lay out engine for display on a client device display to avoid overlapping content adjacent the image when displayed on the client device display; and

sending the positioned image to the client device for display to a user.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the target format is an MPEG format, the method further comprising:

calculating the target format image boundaries wherein X original and Y_original are the original image x and y dimensions X_modified_boundary and Y_modified_boundary are the dimensions of modified image boundary, wherein

16<

=X_modified_boundary−

X_original<

=and

16<

=Y_modified_boundary−

Y_original<

=.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the target format is an MPEG format, the method further comprising:

performing a shape ratio conversion on the modulo 16 target format image so that the modulo 16 target format image displayed on the client device display resembles the image as it would appear when displayed on a personal computer monitor.

11. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

converting a style sheet into an element node tree; and

transmitting the element node tree to the client device.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the target format is an MPEG format, the method further comprising:

sending service provider content from a head end to the server;

displaying the modulo 16 target format image at a user at the client device; and

completing an e-commerce transaction between the service provider and the client device user.

13. A method for formatting content for display in a distributed computer system comprising:

receiving content at a server from a service provider containing an original image;

extracting markup language original image information from the content, the markup language original image information comprising original image size information;

passing the original image size information to a layout engine;

converting the original image to a target format to form a target format image and adding a pixel buffer to an x and y boundary dimension of the target format image, so that a target format image boundary x and y dimension is modulo 16 for layout on the client device display;

calculating the layout of the modulo 16 target format image on the client device display using the modulo 16 image boundary dimension instead of using the original image dimensions, wherein X_original and Y_original are the original image x and y dimensions X_modified_boundary and Y_modified_boundary are the dimensions of modified image boundary wherein

16<

=X_modified_boundary−

X_original<

=and

16<

=Y_modified_boundary−

Y_original<

=;

positioning the original image in the layout engine for display on a client device display to avoid overlapping content adjacent the image when displayed on the client device display;

sending the positioned image to the client device for display to a user;

converting a cascading style sheet into an element node tree; and

transmitting the element node tree to the client device.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

sending the service provider content from a head end to the server; and

completing an ecommerce transaction between the service provider and the client device user.