Systems and methods to reference resources in a television-based entertainment system

• US 7,216,170 B2
• Filed: 05/22/2002
• Issued: 05/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/22/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zhigu Holdings Limited
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Danker, Daniel, Vaithilingam, Gandhimathi, Ludvig, Edward Anthony
• Primary Examiner(s): Dalencourt; Yves
• Application Number:
  US10/154,622
• Publication Number:
  US 20030233451A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,812 Days
• Field of Search: 725/68, 725/6, 725/131, 725/2, 725/100, 725/133, 725/50, 725/136, 725/246, 725/142
• US Class Current: 709/225
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2221 being a cable television head-end CATV in broadcast systems H04H20/78
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2362 Generation or processing of Service Information [SI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4345 Extraction or processing of SI, e.g. extracting service information from an MPEG stream
• 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 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 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

Abstract

The described implementations provide for referencing locally and remotely deployed resources in a television-based entertainment system. The entertainment system includes a content provider or network server. The network server accesses a digital broadcast network via any one of multiple different digital broadcasting protocols. The network server distributes source content to a head end component of the system, which in turn distributes the source content to a client device such as a set-top box. The source content includes a number of embedded references to resources such as those deployed locally by the set-top box and/or deployed remotely by the network server. The set-top box utilizes a mapping table to determine actual values of syntactical abstractions in syntax of the embedded references to access and/or launch at least one locally or remotely deployed resource.

Claims

1. A computer-based method comprising:

receiving, by a client device, source content comprising one or more embedded references to resources identified via unique syntactical abstractions; and

determining, by the client device, actual values of the unique syntactical abstractions in syntax of the embedded references, the unique syntactical abstractions representing at least a subset of abstractions enforceable by a single schema to reference resources independent of particular criteria used by networks associated with different respective digital broadcast standards to reference deployed resources effective to allow an individual unique syntactical abstraction to be referenced to multiple deployed resources, wherein the embedded references to deployed resources are transport stream universal resource locators (TS URL), the transport universal resource locators comprising;

a name space notation;

an original network identifier that identifies an original carrier of a transport stream;

a transport stream identifier that uniquely identifies the transport stream within a terrestrial, cable, or satellite network;

a service identifier that uniquely identifies a service or a program within the transport stream;

either component tags or packet identifiers, each component tag for identifying an elementary stream with the transport stream and each packet identifier for uniquely identifying the elementary stream within the transport stream and is defined in a program map table for individual elementary streams in the transport stream; and

,

one of an event identifier that identifies an event within the service, an application reference that uniquely identifies the application, and a path identifier that references an object in an object carousel within the service if the URL identifies a service.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the client device is a set-top box.

3. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein at least one of the resources is embedded in non-volatile memory of the client device.

4. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein at least one of the resources is a hardware aspect of the client device.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein a first resource of the resources is deployed by a first network server using a first digital network broadcasting protocol, and wherein a second resource of the resources is deployed by a second network server using a second digital network broadcasting protocol that is different than the first digital network broadcasting protocol.

6. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein a resource of the resources is deployed locally by the client device, and wherein the method thrther comprises launching the resource.

7. A computer-implemented method comprising:

embedding a resource referencing mechanism into program data, the resource referencing mechanism providing syntactical abstractions to reference resources deployed on networks independent of whether a first network of the networks references resources using a first standard that is different from a second standard used by a second network to reference resources, wherein the resource referencing mechanism comprises a name space notation, an original network identifier that identifies an original carrier of a transport stream, a transport stream identifier that uniquely identifies the transport stream within a terrestrial, cable, or satellite network, and a service identifier that uniquely identifies a service or a program within the transport stream;

communicating the program data to a client device; and

resolving, by the client device, semantics of the resource referencing mechanism to access at least one resource of the resources, the semantics being resolved using a single schema;

wherein the resolving is performed by a first application, and wherein at least a subset of the resources corresponds to one or more of;

a forced tune, by the client device, to a broadcast channel;

a second application hosted by the client device; and

navigation from a first page of the first application to a second page of the first application.

8. A method as recited in claim 7, wherein the client device is a set-top box.

9. A method as recited in claim 7, wherein the embedding further comprises:

mapping an abstraction to a GI virtual channel number;

communicating a mapping table to the client device to resolve semantics of syntax of the resource referencing mechanism.

10. A method as recited in claim 7, wherein the embedding further comprises mapping an elementary transport stream abstraction in the resource referencing mechanism to a packet identifier to reference at least one resource of the resources.

11. A computer-based method comprising:

accessing a single schema to enforce syntax rules of a resource referencing mechanism, the resource referencing mechanism abstracting at least a subset of specific syntax used by multiple different digital broadcast network resource referencing criteria and comprising either component tags or packet identifiers, each component tag for identifying an elementary stream with a transport stream and each packet identifier for uniquely identifying the elementary stream within the transport stream and is defined in a program map table for individual elementary streams in the transport stream, and further comprising one of an event identifier that identifies an event within a service, an application reference that uniquely identifies an application, and a path identifier that references an object in an object carousel within the service if the resource referencing mechanism identifies the service;

receiving source content from a content provider, the source content comprising a resource reference based on the resource referencing mechanism;

enforcing syntax of the resource reference against the single schema to access one or more resources;

creating an electronic file that maps an abstraction of the resource referencing mechanisms to a transport stream;

resolving the abstraction against actual data values that identify the transport stream; and

communicating the electronic file to an application hosted by the client device, the electronic file for evaluation by the application to resolve any abstractions included in the reference against the actual data values, the actual data values being used to tune the client device to the resource.

12. A method as recited in claim 11, wherein operations of accessing the single schema, receiving the source content, and enforcing the syntax are performed by a set-top box.

13. A method as recited in claim 11, wherein the resource referencing mechanism is a transport stream referencing mechanism.

14. A method as recited in claim 11, wherein a first resource of the resources is deployed on a first network based on a first digital broadcast standard, and wherein a second resource of the resources is deployed on a second network based on a second digital broadcast standard that utilizes a different resource referencing mechanism than the first digital broadcast standard.

15. A computer-readable medium for referencing locally and remotely deployed resources in a digital broadcast network, the computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions executable by a processor and for:

receiving, by a client device, source content comprising one or more embedded references to resources, the references comprising;

a service identifier that uniquely identifies a service or a program within the source content;

one of an event identifier that identifies an event within the service, an application reference that uniquely identifies an application, and a path identifier that references an object in an object carousel within the service if the reference identifies the service; and

determining, by the client device, actual values of syntactical abstractions in syntax of the embedded references to access at least one resource of the resources, the syntactical abstractions comprising a least a subset of abstractions used to reference resources deployed by respective ones of multiple networks independent of different resource referencing syntax standards used by the respective ones;

wherein the instructions for determining the actual values further comprise instructions for evaluating a mapping table generated by a head end of the digital broadcast network, the mapping table correlating at least one syntactical abstraction to a respective source identifier corresponding to a resource of the resources.

16. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 15, wherein the client device is a set-top box.

17. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 15, wherein the embedded references are transport stream (TS) Universal Resource Locator (URL) references.

18. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 15, wherein at least one of the resources is embedded in non-volatile memory of the client device.

19. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 15, wherein at least one of the resources is a hardware aspect of the client device.

20. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 15, wherein the at least one resource is an object of the client device, the object being controlled by a service on a transport stream, an elementary stream within a service, an in-band or out-of-band carousel on a transport stream, an object or file on a carousel, or an application either on a current transport stream or any other transport stream.

21. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 15, wherein a first resource of the resources is deployed by a first network server using a first resource referencing syntax that is compatible with a first digital broadcasting protocols, and wherein a second resource of the resources is deployed by a second network server using a second resource referencing syntax that is compatible with a second digital network broadcasting protocol and not compatible with the first resource referencing syntax.

22. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 15, wherein for said determining, the client device uses mapping table to correlate at least one specific vital channel number (VCN) to a source identifier for a resource of the resources.

23. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 15, wherein a resource of the resources is deployed locally by the client device, and wherein the instructions further comprises instructions for launching the resource.

24. A computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions for execution by a processor to reference resources in a television-based entertainment system, the computer-executable instructions comprising instructions for:

embedding a resource referencing mechanism into program data, the resource referencing mechanism providing syntactical abstractions to reference resources deployed on networks independent of whether a first network of the networks references resources using a first standard that is different from a second standard used by a second network to reference resources, wherein the resource referencing mechanism comprises a name space notation, an original network identifier that identifies an original carrier of a transport stream, a transport stream identifier that uniquely identifies the transport stream within a terrestrial, cable, or satellite network, and a service identifier that uniquely identifies a service or a program within the transport stream;

communicating the program data to a client device; and

resolving, by the client device, semantics of the resource referencing mechanism to access at least one resource of the resources, the semantics being resolved;

wherein the resolving is performed by a first application, and wherein at least a subset of the resources corresponds to one or more of;

a forced tune, by the client device, to a broadcast channel;

a second application hosted by the client device; and

navigation from a first page of the first application to a second page of the first application.

25. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 24, wherein the client device is a set-top box.

26. A computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions for execution by a processor, the computer-executable instructions comprising instructions for:

receiving source content from a content provider, the source content comprising one or more resource references based on a resource referencing mechanism, a single schema being used to enforce syntax rules of the resource referencing mechanism, the resource referencing mechanism abstracting at least a subset of specific syntax used by multiple different digital broadcast network resource referencing criteria, the resource referencing mechanism comprising component tags for identifying an elementary stream within a transport stream of the source content;

enforcing syntax of the resource references against the single schema to access one or more resources;

creating an electronic file that maps an abstraction of the resource referencing mechanisms to a transport stream;

resolving the abstraction against actual data values that identify the transport stream; and

communicating the electronic file to an application hosted by the client device, the electronic file for evaluation by the application to resolve any abstractions included in the reference against the actual data values, the actual data values being used to tune the client device to the resource.

27. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 26, wherein the client device is a set-top box.

28. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 26, wherein the multiple different digital broadcast network resource referencing criteria are associated with at least two of the following standards:

Digital Video Broadcasting, OpenCable™

Applications Platform, Advanced Television Systems Committee, National Television Standards Committee, and GI Motorola standards.

29. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 26, wherein the instructions for creating an electronic file further comprise instructions for mapping abstractions in the resource referencing mechanism to a GI virtual channel number for resolving semantics of the reference.

30. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 26, wherein the instructions for creating an electronic file further comprise instructions for mapping elementary transport stream abstractions in the resource referencing mechanism to a packet identifier for resolving semantics of the reference corresponding to a resource on a GI network.

31. A computing device for referencing locally and remotely deployed resources in a digital broadcast network, the computing device comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory comprising computer-executable instructions for execution by a processor and comprising instructions for;

receiving, by a client device, source content comprising one or more embedded references to resources, individual embedded references comprising transport stream universal resource locators (TS URL) that include a name space notation, an original network identifier that identifies an original carrier of a transport stream, and a transport stream identifier that uniquely identifies the transport stream within a terrestrial, cable, or satellite network;

determining, by the client device, actual values of at least a subset of syntactical abstractions in syntax of the embedded references, the syntactical abstractions representing different syntaxes to reference resources on respective ones of multiple different networks based on different respective digital broadcast standards;

and wherein a first reference of the embedded references is based on a first syntax rule to access a corresponding resource deployed on a first network based on a first digital broadcasting protocol, and wherein a second reference of the embedded references is based on a second syntax rule that is not the same as the first syntax rule, the second syntax rule being used to access a corresponding resource deployed on a second network based on a second digital broadcasting protocol that is not the first digital broadcasting protocol.

32. A computing device as recited in claim 31, wherein the client device is a set-top box.

33. A computing device as recited in claim 31, wherein at least one of the resources is embedded in non-volatile memory of the client device.

34. A computing device as recited in claim 31, wherein at least one of the resources is a hardware aspect of the client device.

35. A computing device as recited in claim 31, wherein a mapping table correlates at least one specific virtual channel number (VCN) to a source identifier for a resource of the resources.

36. A computing device as recited in claim 31, wherein a resource of the resources is deployed locally by the client device, and wherein the instructions further comprises instructions for launching the resource.

37. A computing device as recited in claim 31, wherein the instructions for determining the actual values further comprise instructions for evaluating a mapping table generated by a head end of the digital broadcast network, the mapping table correlating at least one syntactical abstraction to a respective source identifier corresponding to a resource of the resources.

38. A computing device as recited in claim 31, wherein the instructions for determining the actual values further comprise instructions for:

evaluating a mapping table generated by a head end of the digital broadcast network, the mapping table correlating one or more virtual channel numbers to respective source identifiers; and

resolving syntactical semantics of at least one reference of the references based on the one or more virtual channel numbers and respective source identifiers to access at least one of the resources.

39. A computing device to reference resources in a television-based entertainment system, the computing device comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory comprising computer-executable instructions for execution by a processor and comprising instructions for;

embedding a resource referencing mechanism into program data, the resource referencing mechanism providing syntactical abstractions to reference resources deployed on networks independent of whether a first network of the networks references resources using a first standard that is different from a second standard used by a second network to reference resources, wherein the resource referencing mechanism comprises a name space notation, an original network identifier that identifies an original carrier of a transport stream, a transport stream identifier that uniquely identifies the transport stream within a terrestrial, cable, or satellite network, and a service identifier that uniquely identifies a service or a program within the transport stream;

communicating the program data to a client device; and

resolving, by the client device, semantics of the resource referencing mechanism to access at least one resource of the resources, the semantics being resolved using a single schema;

wherein the syntactical abstractions abstract syntax criteria to access resources deployed by multiple networks, a first network of the multiple networks being configured to reference resources using first syntax criteria to reference resources deployed on the first network, the first syntax criteria being different that any syntax criteria used to reference resources deployed by at least one other network of the multiple networks.

40. A computing device as recited in claim 39, wherein the client device is a set-top box.

41. A computing device as recited in claim 39, wherein the resolving is performed by a first application, and wherein at least a subset of the resources corresponds to one or more of:

a forced tune, by the client device, to a broadcast channel;

a second application hosted by the client device; and

navigation from a first page of the first application to a second page of the first application.

42. A computing device to reference resources in a television-based entertainment system, the computing device comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory comprising computer-executable instructions for execution by a processor and comprising instructions for;

receiving source content from a content provider, the source content comprising one or more resource references based on a resource referencing mechanism, a single schema being used to enforce syntax rules of the resource referencing mechanism, the resource referencing mechanism abstracting at least a subset of specific syntax used to reference resources across networks, each network being based on a particular one protocol of multiple different digital broadcast protocots, the resource referencing mechanism comprising component tags for identifying an elementary stream within a transport stream of the source content;

enforcing syntax of the resource references against the single schema to access one or more resources;

creating an electronic file that maps an abstraction of the resource referencing mechanism to a virtual channel number that corresponds to a source id of the resource, wherein the creating an electronic file further comprising mapping elementary transport stream abstractions in the resource referencing mechanism to a packet identifier for resolving semantics of the reference corresponding to the resource, and wherein the resource is deployed on the network, the network being based on GI network digital broadcast standards; and

communicating the electronic file to an application hosted by the client device, the electronic file for evaluation by the application to resolve the abstraction to the virtual channel number and the source id to access the resource.

43. A computing device as recited in claim 42, wherein the client device is a set-top box.

44. A computing device as recited in claim 42, wherein the multiple different digital broadcast protocols are associated with at least two of the following standards:

Digital Video Broadcasting, OpenCable™

Applications Platform, Advanced Television Systems Committee, National Television Standards Committee, and GI Motorola standards.