Television/internet terminal user interface

• US 7,181,756 B1
• Filed: 04/28/2000
• Issued: 02/20/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/17/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Rovi Technologies Corporation (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Zigmond, Daniel J., Anderson, David R., White, Christopher M., Yaksick, Jeffrey D.
• Primary Examiner(s): BUI, KIEU OANH T
• Application Number:
  US09/561,085
• Time in Patent Office: 2,489 Days
• Field of Search: 725/40, 725/51, 725/52, 725/108, 725/110, 725/111, 725/112, 725/41, 725/42, 725/54, 725/56, 725/90, 725/43, 348/563, 348/564
• US Class Current: 725/43
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42204 User interfaces specially adapted for controlling a client device through a remote control device; Remote control devices therefor constructive details of casings for the remote control device H01H9/0235; user interfaces for controlling a tuning device of a television receiver through a remote control H03J9/00; remote control of peripheral devices connected to a television receiver through the remote control device of the television receiver H04B1/205
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/426 Internal components of the client ; Characteristics thereof H04N5/44 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• 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 21/462 Content or additional data management, e.g. creating a master electronic program guide from data received from the Internet and a Head-end, controlling the complexity of a video stream by scaling the resolution or bit-rate based on the client capabilities
• 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 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4884 for displaying subtitles
• 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 7/08 Systems for the simultaneous or sequential transmission of more than one television signal, e.g. additional information signals, the signals occupying wholly or partially the same frequency band , e.g. by time division H04N7/007 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/088 the inserted signal being digital

Abstract

A viewer of television programming is alerted to the availability of content related to the programming (e.g. an associated Internet web page) by an icon momentarily displayed on the screen. Using a remote control, the viewer can select the icon. A control panel then appears, superimposed over the television image, and provides additional detail about the related content. By further operating the remote control, the viewer can select the associated content for viewing, or return to watching the television. Various other features and variations are disclosed.

Claims

1. A method of displaying a page of auxiliary data on a screen also used for viewing video, comprising:

displaying the video full screen;

during a transition before display of any of the page of auxiliary data begins, reducing the size of the displayed video while preparing to display the page of auxiliary data, wherein the reduced-size displayed video is displayed instead of the full-screen displayed video; and

displaying the page of auxiliary data instead of the reduced-size displayed video.

2. The method of claim 1 in which the page of auxiliary data is a graphical page defined by HTML data.

3. The method of claim 1 in which said reducing leaves a marginal area of the screen unused by the display of the video, and wherein the method further includes displaying progress indicia in said marginal area indicating progress of the preparing to display said page of auxiliary data.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the progress indicia include a bar graph status indicator.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the progress indicia further include a descriptor of the auxiliary data.

6. The method of claim 1 in which said preparing includes downloading said page of auxiliary data from a remote computer.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising displaying progress indicia indicating progress of the downloading.

8. The method of claim 1 which includes:

after said displaying the page of auxiliary data, removing the page of auxiliary data from the screen; and

displaying the video on the screen.

9. A computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions for performing the method of claim 1.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the reduced-size displayed video and the full-screen displayed video have substantially the same aspect ratio.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein said reducing leaves an area of the screen unused by the display of the video and the display of the page of auxiliary data.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the unused area surrounds the reduced-size displayed video.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the reducing includes shrinking the displayed video from the full screen size to the reduced size.

14. A method of switching in response to a user command between display of video on a screen and display of related markup language-defined content on the screen, the method comprising:

displaying video on a screen, the video having a first size;

receiving a command from a user to switch to display of related markup language-defined content on the screen;

downloading the related markup language-defined content from a remote computer;

during said downloading and before display of any of the related markup language-defined content begins, reducing the size of the displayed video to a second size from the first size, wherein said reducing leaves a marginal area of the screen unused by the displayed video, and wherein the displayed video is displayed only in its reduced second size;

displaying a graphical status indicator in the marginal area, the graphical status indicator indicating progress in said downloading the related markup language-defined content;

removing the displayed video from the screen; and

displaying the related markup language-defined content on the screen.

15. The method of claim 14 further including:

receiving a command from the user to return to display of the video;

removing the related markup language-defined content from the screen; and

displaying the video on the screen.

16. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions for performing the method of claim 14.

17. The method of claim 14 wherein the reducing substantially maintains the aspect ratio of the displayed video.

18. The method of claim 14 wherein the marginal area surrounds the reduced-size displayed video.

19. The method of claim 14 wherein the reducing includes shrinking the displayed video from a full screen size to the reduced size.

20. A method of switching between display of video on a screen and display of auxiliary data on the screen, the method comprising:

displaying video at a first size on a screen;

reducing the size of the displayed video, said reducing leaving an area of the screen unused by the displayed video, wherein the reduced-size displayed video replaces the first-size displayed video; and

displaying progress indicia in the area, the progress indicia indicating progress in preparing to display auxiliary data.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein the auxiliary data is a graphical page defined by markup language.

22. The method of claim 20 wherein said preparing includes downloading the auxiliary data from a remote computer, and wherein the progress indicia indicate downloading progress.

23. The method of claim 20 wherein the progress indicia include a graphical status indicator and a descriptor of the auxiliary data.

24. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions for performing the method of claim 20.

25. The method of claim 20 further comprising:

removing the displayed video from the screen; and

displaying the auxiliary data on the screen.

26. The method of claim 20 wherein the reducing substantially maintains the aspect ratio of the displayed video.

27. The method of claim 20 wherein the unused area surrounds the reduced-size displayed video.

28. The method of claim 20 wherein the reducing includes shrinking the displayed video from a full screen size to the reduced size.