Trial selection of STB remote control codes

• US 7,966,552 B2
• Filed: 02/14/2007
• Issued: 06/21/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Saturn Licensing LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Candelore, Brant L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hutton; Doug
• Assistant Examiner(s): Dasgupta; Soumya
• Application Number:
  US11/706,918
• Publication Number:
  US 20080092045A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,588 Days
• Field of Search: 715/201, 715/204, 715/210, 348/408, 348/558, 382/176, 382/190, 382/229, 382/321
• US Class Current: 715/201
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/635 Overlay text, e.g. embedded captions in a TV program
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/10 Character recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/1444 Selective acquisition, locating or processing of specific regions, e.g. highlighted text, fiducial marks or predetermined fields
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42661 for reading from or writing on a magnetic storage medium, e.g. hard disk drive
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/431 Generation of visual interfaces for content selection or interaction; Content or additional data rendering
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4351 involving reassembling additional data, e.g. rebuilding an executable program from recovered modules
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43615 Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44008 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in the video stream arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4722 for requesting additional data associated with the content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8133 specifically related to the content, e.g. biography of the actors in a movie, detailed information about an article seen in a video program
• 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

Abstract

A method consistent with certain embodiments of identifying a functional command set for an access device that accesses television programming provided by a service provider at a control device involves transmitting a first command from a first command set of a group of possible command sets for the access device to the access device. The first command includes a command that is expected to cause the access device to generate a text containing video frame. A determination is made as to whether the extracted text corresponds to the first command set. The first command set is identified as the functional command set for the access device in response to determining that the extracted text corresponds to the first command set. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract.

Claims

1. A method of identifying a functional command set for an access device that accesses television programming provided by a service provider, comprising:

at a control device;

transmitting a first command from a first command set of a plurality of possible command sets for the access device to the access device, wherein the first command comprises a command that causes the access device to generate a video output that includes text;

processing the video output of the access device using an optical character recognition (OCR) process that extracts text from the video output;

determining whether the extracted text corresponds to the first command set; and

identifying, in response to determining that the extracted text corresponds to the first command set, the first command set as the functional command set for the access device.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising conducting, via the control device, a verifying process, comprising:

transmitting at least one additional command to the access device that is expected to cause the access device to generate an additional text containing video frame; and

processing additional video output of the access device using the OCR process to extract additional text from the additional video output;

determining whether the additional extracted text corresponds to the first command set; and

verifying, in response to determining that the additional extracted text corresponds to the first command set, that the first command set comprises the functional command set for the access device.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first command comprises a MENU command and wherein the text containing video frame comprises a menu.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first command comprises a GUIDE display command and wherein the text containing video frame comprises an on screen display of a program guide.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising, in response to determining that the extracted text does not correspond to the first command set, iteratively selecting an additional command set and repeating the transmitting, processing, and determining for each selected additional command set of the plurality of possible command sets until the functional command set for the access device is identified.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the OCR process is carried out on a selected segment of the video frame.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

the OCR process is enabled to detect special symbols in the video frame; and

identifying, in response to determining that the extracted text corresponds to the first command set, the first command set as the functional command set for the access device comprises, identifying the first command set as the functional command set for the access device in response to determining that a detected special symbol corresponds to the first command set.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the special symbols include logos of one or more service providers or television channels.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the transmitting comprises transmitting of one of an infrared remote control command and an RF remote control command.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the transmitting comprises sending a “

Select”

command.

11. A computer readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed on a programmed processor, carry out a process according to claim 1.

12. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting an ON command from the first command set to the access device;

determining whether a video synchronization signal is received from the access device; and

where identifying, in response to determining that the extracted text corresponds to the first command set, the first command set as the functional command set for the access device comprises identifying the first command set as the functional command set for the access device in response to determining that the video synchronization signal is received from the access device.

13. A method of identifying a functional command set for an access device that accesses television programming provided by a service provider, comprising:

at a control device;

transmitting a first command from a first command set of a plurality of possible command sets for the access device to the access device, wherein the transmitting comprises transmitting of one of an infrared remote control command and an RF remote control command and the first command comprises a command that causes the access device to generate video output that includes text;

processing the video output of the access device using an optical character recognition (OCR) process that extracts text from the video output;

determining whether the extracted text corresponds to the first command set as either a menu or a program guide on an on screen display;

in response to determining that the extracted text corresponds to the first command set, identifying the first command set as the functional command set for the access device; and

in response to determining that the extracted text does not correspond to the first command set, repeating the transmitting, processing, and determining for additional command sets until the functional command set for the access device is identified.

14. The method according to claim 13, further comprising conducting, via the control device, a verifying process, comprising:

transmitting at least one additional command to the access device that is expected to cause the access device to generate an additional text containing video frame; and

processing additional video output of the access device using the OCR process to extract additional text from the additional video output;

determining whether the additional extracted text corresponds to the first command set; and

verifying, in response to determining that the additional extracted text corresponds to the first command set, that the first command set comprises the functional command set for the access device.

15. The method according to claim 13, wherein the OCR process is carried out on a selected segment of the video frame.

16. The method according to claim 13, wherein:

the OCR process is enabled to detect special symbols in the video frame; and

identifying, in response to determining that the extracted text corresponds to the first command set, the first command set as the functional command set for the access device comprises, identifying the first command set as the functional command set for the access device in response to determining that a detected special symbol corresponds to the first command set.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein the special symbols include logos of one or more service providers or television channels.

18. The method according to claim 13, wherein the transmitting comprises sending a “

Select”

command.

19. The method according to claim 13, further comprising:

transmitting an ON command from the first command set to the access device;

determining whether a video synchronization signal is received from the access device; and

where identifying, in response to determining that the extracted text corresponds to the first command set, the first command set as the functional command set for the access device comprises identifying the first command set as the functional command set for the access device in response to determining that the video synchronization signal is received from the access device.

20. A control device that identifies a functional command set for an access device that accesses television programming provided by a service provider, comprising:

a memory that stores a plurality of possible command sets of remote commands for the access device;

a video input coupled to the access device for receiving video signals;

a video frame store that stores a video frame received at the video input;

an optical character recognition (OCR) machine that carries out an OCR process on the video frame stored in the video frame store that extracts text from the video frame;

a transmitter; and

a processor programmed to;

instruct the transmitter to transmit a first command from a first of the plurality of possible command sets of remote commands to the access device, wherein the first command comprises a command that causes the access device to generate video output that includes text;

process the video output of the access device using the OCR process that extracts text from the video output;

determine whether the extracted text corresponds to the first command set; and

identify, in response to determining that the extracted text corresponds to the first command set, the first command set as the functional command set for the access device.

21. The control device according to claim 20, wherein the processor is further programmed to conduct a verifying process, comprising:

causing the transmitter to transmit at least one additional command to the access device that is expected to cause the access device to generate an additional text containing video frame; and

causing the OCR machine to process additional video output of the access device stored in the frame store using the OCR process to extract additional text from the additional video output;

determining whether the additional extracted text corresponds to the first command set; and

verifying, in response to determining that the additional extracted text corresponds to the first command set, that the first command set comprises the functional command set for the access device.

22. The control device according to claim 20, wherein the first command comprises a MENU command and wherein the text containing video frame comprises a menu.

23. The control according to claim 20, wherein the first command comprises a GUIDE display command and wherein the text containing video frame comprises a program guide.

24. The control device according to claim 20, wherein the processor is further programmed to, in response to determining that the extracted text does not correspond to the first command set, iteratively select an additional command set and repeat the transmitting, via the transmitter, and determining for each selected additional command set of the plurality of possible command sets of remote commands until the functional command set for the access device is identified.

25. The control device according to claim 20, wherein the OCR process is carried out on a selected segment of the video frame.

26. The control device according to claim 20, wherein:

the OCR process is enabled to detect special symbols in the video frame; and

in being programmed to identify, in response to determining that the extracted text corresponds to the first command set, the first command set as the functional command set for the access device, the processor is further programmed to identify the first command set as the functional command set for the access device in response to determining that a detected special symbol corresponds to the first command set.

27. The control device according to claim 26, wherein the special symbols include logos of one or more service providers or television channels.

28. The control device according to claim 20, wherein the transmitter comprises of one of an infrared remote control command transmitter and a radio frequency (RF) remote control command transmitter.

29. The control device according to claim 20, wherein the transmitter sends a “

Select”

command.

30. The control device according to claim 20, further comprising:

a video synchronization detector; and

where the processor is further programmed to;

cause the transmitter to transmit an ON command from the first command set to the access device;

determine whether a video synchronization signal is received via the video synchronization device from the access device; and

where, in being programmed to identify, in response to determining that the extracted text corresponds to the first command set, the first command set as the functional command set for the access device, the processor is programmed to identify the first command set as the functional command set for the access device in response to determining that the video synchronization signal is received via the video synchronization detector from the access device.