Mechanism and apparatus for construction of modular-based interactive programming guides and TV portals

• US 7,701,468 B2
• Filed: 01/28/2002
• Issued: 04/20/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: JLB Ventures, LLC
• Original Assignee: JLB Ventures, LLC
• Inventors: Kamen, Yakov
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN BA, HOANG VU A
• Application Number:
  US10/059,547
• Publication Number:
  US 20020129369A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,004 Days
• Field of Search: 725/47, 725/39, 725/61, 345/543, 345/530, 345/419, 345/581, 345/619, 715/700, 715/836
• US Class Current: 345/619
• 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 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only

Abstract

A method to separately assign and modify multiple attributes of information and structure to an individual block or to a larger unitary whole comprised of multiple blocks is disclosed. A number of block instances of a block is determined. Each block instance is associated with one or more structure attributes. A number of data elements is determined. Each data element is associated with one or more information attributes. The data elements are mapped to the block instances. The mapped block instances are displayed contiguously.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining a first number of block instances available to a viewer in an interactive three-dimensional programming guide (IPG) at an IPG computing device;

determining a second number of available information attribute sets to be presented to the viewer;

determining whether the first number is greater than the second number;

in response to determining that the first number is greater than the second number, choosing a first mapping technique of at least three mapping techniques;

mapping the available information attribute sets to the available block instances to generate mapped block instances based on the mapping technique chosen; and

displaying the mapped block instances contiguously.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the mapped block instances is associated with one or more structure attributes.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein only when the first number is greater than the second number, two or more block instances are mapped with the same information attributes.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein at least two mapped block instances are identical, and wherein the at least two identical block instances are mapped with the same information attributes.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein when the first number is greater than the second number, one or more block instances is not visible to the viewer.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein when the first number is greater than the second number, a number of displayed mapped block instances is greater than the second number.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein each displayed mapped block instance is manipulated by modifying the associated one or more structure attributes.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein each displayed mapped block instance is manipulated by modifying the associated one or more structure attributes and an associated one or more information attributes.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein each displayed mapped block instances is manipulated independently of the other displayed mapped block instances.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein each displayed mapped block instance is manipulated by modifying an associated one or more information attributes.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the mapped block instances are displayed contiguously on a surface.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the surface is a bar.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the surface is associated with one or more surface attributes.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

in response to determining that the first number is not greater than the second number, determining whether the first number is equal to the second number;

in response to determining that the first number is equal to the second number, choosing a second mapping technique of the at least three mapping techniques.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising:

in response to determining that the first number is not greater or equal to the second number, choosing a third mapping technique of the at least three mapping techniques.

16. A system including:

a computer readable storage medium having stored thereon sequences of instructions which are executable by a system, and which, when executed by the system, cause the system to perform a method, comprising the steps of;

determining a first number of block instances available to a viewer in an interactive three-dimensional programming guide (IPG);

determining a second number of available information attribute sets to be presented to the viewer;

determining whether the first number is greater than the second number;

in response to determining that the first number is greater than the second number, choosing a first mapping technique of at least three mapping techniques; and

mapping the available information attribute sets to the available block instances to generate mapped block instances based on the mapping technique chosen; and

displaying the mapped block instances contiguously.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein each of the mapped block instances is associated with one or more structure attributes.

18. The system, of claim 17, wherein each displayed mapped block instance is manipulated by modifying the associated one or more structure attributes.

19. The system, of claim 17, wherein each displayed mapped block instance is manipulated by modifying the associated one or more structure attributes and an associated one or more information attributes.

20. The system, of claim 16, wherein only when the first number is greater than the second number, two or more block instances are mapped with the same information attributes.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein at least two mapped block instances are identical, and wherein the at least two identical block instances are mapped with the same information attributes.

22. The system, of claim 16, wherein when the first number is greater than the second number, one or more block instances is not visible.

23. The system, of claim 16, wherein when the first number is greater than the second number, a number of contiguously displayed mapped block instances is greater than the second number.

24. The system, of claim 16, wherein each displayed mapped block instances is manipulated independently of the other displayed mapped block instances.

25. The system, of claim 24, wherein the mapped block instances are displayed contiguously on a surface.

26. The system, of claim 25, wherein the surface is a bar.

27. The system, of claim 25, wherein the surface is associated with one or more surface attributes.

28. The system of claim 17, wherein each displayed mapped block instance is manipulated by modifying an associated one or more information attributes.

29. The system of claim 16, the storage medium comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to further perform the steps of:

in response to determining that the first number is not greater than the second number, determining whether the first number is equal to the second number;

in response to determining that the first number is equal to the second number, choosing a second mapping technique of the at least three mapping techniques.

30. The system of claim 29, the storage medium comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to further perform the step of:

in response to determining that the first number is not greater or equal to the second number, choosing a third mapping technique of the at least three mapping techniques.

31. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled with the processor, the memory operable to include a first queue to store active data elements and a second queue to store inactive data elements,

wherein a first number of available block instances is compared with a second number of available data elements to determine whether the first number is greater than the second number, wherein the second number of available data elements is equal to a number of active data elements stored in the first queue and a number of inactive data elements stored in the second queue and

wherein in response to determining that the first number is greater than the second number, one of at least three display techniques is chosen, wherein the active data elements stored in the first queue are displayed in visible block instances in an interactive three-dimensional programming guide (IPG), and wherein the visible block instances are displayed contiguously in accordance with the chosen display technique.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein each block instance is associated with one or more structure attributes.

33. The system of claim 31, wherein each data element is associated with one or more information attributes.

34. The system of claim 31, wherein an inactive data element is displayed in a visible block instance by moving the inactive data element from the inactive queue to the active queue.

35. The system of claim 31, wherein an inactive data element is displayed in the visible block instances by swapping the inactive data element with an active data element being displayed in the visible block instances.

36. The system of claim 31, wherein two or more visible block instances display identical data elements.

37. The system, of claim 31, wherein in response to determining that the first number is not greater than the second number, and that the first number is equal to the second number, a second mapping technique of the at least three mapping techniques is chosen.

38. The system of claim 37, wherein in response to determining that the first number is not greater or equal to the second number, choosing a third mapping technique of the at least three mapping techniques.