System for fast development of interactive applications

• US 7,146,615 B1
• Filed: 07/06/2000
• Issued: 12/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/09/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Orange S.A., Telediffusion De France SA
• Original Assignee: Orange S.A., Telediffusion De France SA
• Inventors: Carado, Jean-Antoine, Hervet, Yves
• Primary Examiner(s): Thomson, William
• Assistant Examiner(s): ZHEN, LI B
• Application Number:
  US10/030,651
• Time in Patent Office: 2,343 Days
• Field of Search: 719/318, 717/113, 717/110, 715/762, 715/763, 725/37
• US Class Current: 719/318
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/443 OS processes, e.g. booting an STB, implementing a Java virtual machine in an STB or power management in an STB
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8166 involving executable data, e.g. software arrangements for executing specific programs G06F9/44; broadcasting computer programmes in broadcast systems H04H20/91; involving the movement of software or configuration parameters H04L67/34

Abstract

The invention concerns a system for developing interactive applications transmitted through a network. The system comprises, activated by the operation of a computer, an electronic editor (E) for simulating a display screen of a display monitor, and an interface controlling (MCS) a control module associated with said display monitor. A module generating virtual objects (GOV) specific to the application to be developed is provided, the virtual objects being selected at least among images in point mode, video files, textual files, capable of being edited, displayed, represented by the editor (E) for forming a scene of the pplication. A control module (COR) for correlating event/action pairs is provided, an event corresponding to the imbalance of the state of an operation system and an action corresponding to an initialization or a modification of the display or the representation of one or several scenes constituting the applications. The invention is useful for developing interactive applications, in particular on TV channel, Internet network or the like.

Claims

1. A system for developing interactive applications distributed on a digital transmission channel, these interactive applications installed at a point of the digital transmission network consisting of a succession of scenes incorporating at least images in point mode, video images, sound sequences and information in text file form represented at the level of at least one display monitor, the interactive nature of said interactive applications being produced by way of a specific functionalization of a control interface for a control module of said display monitor furnished with an operating system, said display monitor, said control module and said operating system constituting an execution platform, said system for developing interactive applications comprising:

at least one electronic editor allowing the simulation of a display screen of said display monitor and of the control interface for a control module associated with said display monitor, and

means for generating a plurality of virtual objects specific to a considered interactive application, each virtual object of said plurality of virtual objects consisting of components chosen from among at least images in point mode, video images, sound sequences and information in the form of text files to be edited, displayed and represented by said electronic editor so as to form at least one constituent scene of said considered interactive application;

control means for correlating a plurality of event/action pairs, an event being defined as a breakage of state equilibrium of said operating system and an action being defined as one of an initialization and a modification of at least one display and representation parameter for a scene of said considered interactive application said control means for correlating a plurality of event/action pairs comprises means for generating a series of instructions exhibiting a checking structure of a list of requests type for “

EVENT”

IF condition on any given Boolean variable of a set of Boolean variables being true THEN “

ACTION”

where “

EVENT”

designates a variable representative of an event and “

ACTION”

designates a variable representative of an action conditioned on said set of Boolean variables, said variable “

EVENT”

being true constituting for each event/action pair a breakage of state equilibrium of said operating system and said action constituting an initialization or a modification of at least one of the display and representation parameters for at least one scene of said considered interactive application, said set of event/action pairs being organized according to a suite of lines of macro-instructions each comprising an execution position field, an event field, an action field, a list of conditions field and a Boolean halt variable field; and

means for storing the set of event/action pairs, correlated and constituting said considered interactive application.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said display monitor, said control module and said operating system being those of a television receiver, said electronic editor allows the simulation of the display screen of said television receiver and of the control interface for a universal remote control module associated with said television receiver, with a specific key of said simulated universal remote control module there being associated an event, causing the breakage of state equilibrium of said operating system.

3. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said display monitor, said control monitor and said operating system being those of one of a workstation and of a microcomputer, said electronic editor allows the simulation of the display screen of said microcomputer and of the control interface for a peripheral input apparatus of said microcomputer, like its keyboard, with a specific key of said peripheral input apparatus there being associated an event causing the breakage of state equilibrium of said operating system.

4. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said set of event/action pairs is correlated according to a logic one-to-one mapping between event and action, according to a native interactive application, independently of the access format imposed by the system or platform for access to said considered interactive application.

5. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said electronic editor, said means generating virtual objects specific to said considered interactive application and said control means for correlating a plurality of event/action pairs comprise a driver software module making it possible, on the basis of a window for displaying a representation of said control module and of peripheral apparatuses, to receive a corresponding variable “

EVENT” and

, on the basis of a window for displaying scenes of said considered interactive application, to cause one of their initialization and their modification.

6. The system as claimed in claim 5, further comprising a tool for creating macroinstructions, said tool comprising at least one screen page for correlating event/action pairs, at least one display window for a set of events, a display window for a triggered action associated with one of the events of said set of events, and at least one parameterization window for the action triggered, and means for pointing and for selecting, said correlating of event/action pairs being performed by selecting one event from among the set of events and of the action by way of the pointing means.

7. The system as claimed in claim 5, further comprising a tool for creating virtual objects, said tool for creating virtual objects comprising at least one screen page for creating objects, at least one window for displaying a list of accessible objects, said list of objects being displayed according to a level field and an object designation field, a window for choosing the mode of display/representation of said objects, a field of object type making it possible to discriminate the nature of said objects, and a field relating to a set of parameters dependent on the medium of display/representation of said objects.

8. The system as claimed in claim 5, further comprising a tool for editing the media, said tool for editing the media comprising at least one “

Media”

screen page window, at least one window for displaying a list of execution platforms, a window for displaying a list of specific media capable of intervening in the composition of a scene, each medium being defined by a name and an attribute, the attribute allocated to a given medium making it possible to discriminate one of the internal and external nature of said medium with regard to the application considered.

9. The system as claimed in claim 5, further comprising a tool for editing phrases in the form of a text file, each phrase comprising an identification number making it possible to assign to this phrase at least one of an interactive application level and at a level of at least one scenes of said considered interactive application.

10. The system as claimed in claim 5, further comprising a scene creation tool comprising at least one window for displaying a list of standard scenes tagged by a specific designation, a window for defining parameters of the chosen scene, parameters including scene identification number, color palette, choice of background on initialization of the scene, and starting position of the cursor, and a window for choosing options, said tool making it possible to create a new scene, to duplicate or to delete an existing scene.

11. The system as claimed in claim 5, further comprising a tool for defining options in a scene, said tool for defining options making it possible on the basis of a given list of options for the scene considered

to allot an option determined from among said given list of options, each option corresponding to a display attribute of a virtual object;

and

to browse and choose an auxiliary option around the option allotted on the basis of a set of control buttons of the control module associated with said display monitor.

12. The system as claimed in claim 5, further comprising a tool for editing the attributes of a given interactive application, said attributes comprising at least one interactive application descriptive comments field, an interactive application author field, an interactive application name field, an interactive application version number field, and an interactive application color palette field.

13. The system as claimed in claim 5, wherein, for each application execution platform, it comprises a set of data tables common to the execution platform/application pair, said set of common data comprising at least:

a table of application data relating to said platform;

a table of characteristic data for each platform;

a table of events relating to said platform;

a table of application actions relating to said platform;

a table of fonts available for said platform.

14. The system as claimed in claim 13, wherein said table of application data relating to said platform is defined for the application considered by way of a text file.

15. The system as claimed in claim 13, wherein each element of the list of scenes, which element relates to a scene considered, a constituent of this application, comprises at least one list of scene attributes, a list of constituent virtual objects of the scene, a list of options, a list of phrases of the scene.

16. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein each interactive application is defined by a set of lists comprising at least one list of interactive application attributes, a list of common virtual objects, a list of event/action pairs, a list of fonts, a list of media, a list of variables, a list of phrases, a list of color palettes, a list of colors and a list of scenes.

17. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the set of data structures and macroinstructions constituting a native interactive application, it furthermore comprises a module for translating said native interactive application into an interactive application dedicated to a determined-type access terminal.

18. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein, with the aim of developing cyclically broadcast interactive applications accessible on a TV channel from an access terminal furnished with a TV decoder, said system comprises at least:

a manager means for managing a plurality of successive scenes of said considered interactive application according to a level of depth of each scene with regard to the current scene, said manager module making it possible to analyze and to discriminate over a determined number of successive scenes neighboring the current scene the common virtual objects and the common media associated with these objects of these successive scenes from the distinct virtual objects and distinct media associated with these objects of these successive scenes;

means of updating said virtual objects and common media and virtual objects and distinct media for at least one successive scene of this plurality of successive scenes with respect to the current scene, thereby making it possible to optimize the volume of reupdating data and the acquisition time for these updating data as a function of the memory size allocated to each type of medium and of the number of levels of depth of analysis of each successive scene.