System and method for construction, delivery and display of iTV content

• US 8,042,132 B2
• Filed: 03/14/2003
• Issued: 10/18/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications Management LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Original Assignee: TVWorks LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Inventors: Hegde, Prakash, Chung, Alex, Chane, Lena, Thomson, Greg, Brandyberry, David, Marenghi, Matt, Chu, Viva, Franzen, Leon, Dawson, Ruth, Niranjan, Sithampara Babu, Carney, John, de Andrade, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Kelley; Christopher
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hicks; Charles N
• Application Number:
  US10/390,064
• Publication Number:
  US 20040003400A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,140 Days
• Field of Search: 725/35, 725/37, 725/40, 725/53, 725/100, 725109-110, 709230-231, 709217-219, 395/154
• US Class Current: 725/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4437 Implementing a Virtual Machine [VM] virtual machines in general G06F9/45533
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4438 Window management, e.g. event handling following interaction with the user interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• 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 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47214 for content reservation or setting reminders; for requesting event notification, e.g. of sport results or stock market stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; notification of incoming messages in packet switching networks H04L51/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4786 e-mailing message switching systems, e.g. electronic mail systems H04L51/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4828 for searching program descriptors retrieval of video data G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8543 using a description language, e.g. Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Expert Group [MHEG], eXtensible Markup Language [XML] information retrieval of semistructured data, the underlying structure being taken into account, e.g. mark-up language structure data G06F16/80
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8545 for generating interactive applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/45 Picture in picture , e.g. displaying simultaneously another television channel in a region of the screen
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/165 Centralised control of user terminal subsequent to an upstream request signal H04N7/17345; Registering at central by two-way working H04N7/17309
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

iTV content is created and deployed using a server component adapted to allow content developers to create applications according to an authoring specification that describes a framework for same; a transport component configured to optimize and deliver the applications to one or more clients; and a client component adapted to render the applications through a television so as to permit user interaction therewith. The authoring specification provides for the presentation of content through one or more templates defined therein, allowing application definition and behavior to remain common across multiple client device types, middleware platforms, and/or iTV operating environments. The framework for applications accommodates advertising, promotions, content placement packages and/or programming campaign definitions, so as to permit a selection of a specific advertisement, promotion or content at a time of preparation of the iTV content by the server, and/or a time of execution of the applications by the client.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

an application server configured to

generate one or more interactive television (iTV) applications using an authored specification that describes a framework for content and behavior of the one or more iTV applications, wherein the authored specification includes an application layout file and one or more descriptors, the application layout file specifying a layout for the one or more iTV applications and the one or more descriptors directing the application server to select content of the one or more iTV applications dynamically when generating the one or more iTV applications,

use the one or more descriptors to query for selected content when generating the one or more iTV applications, and

create references to the selected content when generating the one or more iTV applications; and

a distribution center configured to transmit the one or more iTV applications to one or more client devices.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the one or more iTV applications comprise at least one of (a) interactive program guides, (b) television menus, (c) content services, (d) virtual channels, (e) video on demand applications, (f) personal video recorder applications, (g) broadcast on demand applications, (h) enhanced television services applications, (i) help, (j) customer support, (k) self service, (l) games, and (m) data service applications.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprising a user device configured to render the one or more iTV applications through a display to permit user interaction with the one or more iTV applications.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the user device is configured to download the one or more iTV applications transmitted by the distribution center in response to user input.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the distribution center includes a broadcast carousel and the user device is further configured to download the one or more iTV applications from the broadcast carousel in response to the user input.

6. The system of claim 3 wherein the user device is configured to load the one or more iTV applications from memory in response to user input.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the distribution center includes a broadcast carousel and the user device is further configured to download the one or more iTV applications from the broadcast carousel in response to the user input.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the authored specification is an extensible markup language (XML) authored specification.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the application layout file includes one or more templates for a presentation of the one or more iTV applications.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the application server is configured to apply one or more business rules in preparing the one or more iTV applications for delivery to the distribution center.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the framework for content and behavior of the one or more iTV applications includes at least one of advertising, promotions, content placement packages and programming campaign definitions, so as to permit a selection of at least one of a specific advertisement at a time of preparation of iTV content by the application server, promotion at a time of preparation of iTV content by the application server, content at a time of preparation of iTV content by the application server, and a time of execution of iTV applications by the user device, wherein the selection is determined according to the one or more business rules.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the one or more business rules comprise rules for transactional opportunities across disparate television services including at least one of placing product offerings, automating product offerings, promotions, advertising campaigns, video-on-demand, and broadcast-on-demand.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the one or more iTV applications are tagged as a set of programmable opportunities.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein a programmable opportunity includes a location within the one or more iTV applications where content data may be placed, said content data including at least one of advertisements, promotions, data including text, data including images, data including video, and another application.

15. The system of claim 13 where the application server presents a view of the programmable opportunities to a user.

16. The system of claim 12 wherein the rules for placing product offerings or automating product offerings include multiple selection criteria chosen from the list including:

location, current channel, current channel family, current channel category, time of day, offering category, current program, current program genre, current iTV application, current content type, and subscriber profile.

17. The system of claim 12 wherein the one or more business rules include subscriber-specific rules according to a subscriber profile associated with a particular one of the client devices.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein a first iTV application of the one or more iTV applications is configured to respond in a user-specific manner to user interactions with the first iTV application.

19. The system of claim 1 wherein the framework for content and behavior of the one or more iTV applications is common across multiple client device types.

20. The system of claim 1 wherein the framework for content and behavior of the one or more iTV applications is common across multiple middleware platforms.

21. The system of claim 1 wherein the framework for content and behavior of the one or more iTV applications is common across multiple iTV operating environments.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein the framework for content and behavior of the one or more iTV applications is further common across multiple different client device types.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein each of the multiple different client device types comprises a set top box and one or more iTV operating environments.

24. The system of claim 22 wherein each of the multiple different client device types comprises a set top box and one or more middleware platforms.

25. The system of claim 11 wherein the business rules are selected at one of the following instances:

dynamically at the time of execution of the one or more iTV applications, or at the time of application creation.

26. The system of claim 1, wherein the framework for content and behavior of the one or more iTV applications includes business rules, wherein the business rules are selected at a time of execution of the one or more iTV applications.

27. The system of claim 1, wherein the framework for content and behavior of the one or more iTV applications includes an application profile definition that corresponds to one or more actions in an authoring specification, wherein the application profile definition provides a common model for at least one of provisioning, managing, deploying, advertising, commerce, layout, animation, events and navigation, dynamic data insertion, and optimization of the one or more iTV applications across different iTV operating environments.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein each of the different iTV operating environments includes content distribution platforms and set top boxes having resident iTV middleware.

29. A method, comprising:

generating, at a server, one or more interactive television (iTV) applications using an authored specification that describes a framework for content and behavior of the one or more iTV applications, wherein the authored specification includes an application layout file and one or more descriptors, the application layout file specifying a layout for the one or more iTV applications and the one or more descriptors directing the server to select content of the one or more iTV applications dynamically when generating the one or more iTV applications;

using, by the server, the one or more descriptors to query for selected content when generating the one or more iTV applications;

creating, by the server, references to the selected content when generating the one or more iTV applications; and

transmitting the one or more iTV applications to one or more client devices.

30. The method of claim 29 further comprising executing one or more business rules when rendering the one or more iTV applications.

31. The method of claim 29 wherein the authored specification is an extensible markup language (XML) authored specification, the authored specification created from an XML schema.

32. The method of claim 31 wherein the one or more iTV applications comprise at least one of (a) interactive program guides, (b) television menus, (c) content services, (d) virtual channels, (e) video on demand applications, (f) personal video recorder applications, (g) broadcast on demand applications, (h) enhanced television services applications, (i) help, (j) customer support, (k) self service, and (l) data service applications.

33. The method of claim 31 wherein the transmitting includes using one of a broadcast carousel or a two-way back channel.

34. The method of claim 31 wherein the transmitting includes using a channel other than a carousel.

35. The method of claim 31 wherein the XML schema is adapted to separate data, business rules and a layout event model through one or more templates defined within the XML schema.

36. The method of claim 29 further comprising rendering the one or more iTV applications at a client device to permit user interaction with the one or more iTV applications to cause a display device to display the selected content.

37. The method of claim 36 wherein the one or more iTV applications are rendered by applying one or more business rules that comprise one or more rules for transactional opportunities across disparate services, including at least one of placing product offerings, automating product offerings, promotions, and advertising campaigns.

38. The method of claim 37 wherein the rules for placing or automating product offerings include multiple selection criteria chosen from the list including:

location, current channel, current channel family, current channel category, time of day, offering category, current program, current program genre, current iTV application, current content type, and subscriber profile.

39. The method of claim 37 wherein the one or more business rules include user-specific rules according to a user profile.

40. The method of claim 31 wherein a first iTV application of the one or more iTV applications is configured to respond in a user-specific manner to user interactions with the first iTV application.

41. The method of claim 31 wherein the framework for content and behavior of the one or more iTV applications includes at least one of advertising, promotions, content placement packages and campaign definitions, to permit a selection of a specific advertisement at a time of execution of the one or more iTV applications by a user device, such selection being made according to a business rule.

42. The method of claim 41 wherein the business rule is selected dynamically at the time of execution of the one or more iTV applications.

43. The method of claim 31, wherein the framework for content and behavior of the one or more iTV applications includes business rules and the one or more iTV applications are configured to permit a selection and use of a specific business rule at a time of execution of the one or more iTV applications.

44. The method of claim 31, wherein the framework for content and behavior of the one or more iTV applications includes an application profile definition that corresponds to one or more actions in the XML schema that provides a common model for at least one of provisioning, managing, deploying, advertising, commerce, layout, animation, events and navigation, dynamic data insertion, and optimization of the one or more iTV applications across different iTV operating environments.

45. The method of claim 30 further comprising applying the one or more business rules to the one or more iTV applications and executing the one or more iTV applications in accordance therewith to cause the one or more client devices to display content associated with the one or more iTV applications.

46. A method, comprising:

displaying, on a display device, an interactive television (iTV) application originally generated in accordance with an authored specification that describes a framework for content and behavior of the iTV application, wherein the authored specification includes an application layout file and one or more descriptors, the application layout file specifying a layout for the iTV application and the one or more descriptors directing selection of content for the iTV application dynamically when the iTV application was originally generated and the creation of references to the selected content when the iTV application was originally generated.

47. The method of claim 46 wherein the content and behavior of the iTV application is common across multiple different client device types and iTV operating environments.

48. The method of claim 46 wherein the authored specification is an extensible markup language (XML) authored specification.

49. The method of claim 46 further comprising rendering the iTV application according to user input at a client device upon which the iTV application is displayed.

50. The method of claim 46 wherein an optimized version of the iTV application is created by a server that packages and optimizes applications in a format targetable to multiple user devices and iTV operating environments.

51. The method of claim 50 wherein the iTV application is tagged as a set of programmable opportunities.

52. The method of claim 51 wherein a programmable opportunity is any location or set of locations within the iTV application where content data may be placed, said content data including at least one of advertisements, promotions, data including text, data including images, data including video, and another application.

53. The method of claim 51 wherein the server presents a view of the programmable opportunities to a user of the server.

54. The method of claim 46, wherein the iTV application is executed in accordance with one or more business rules.

55. The method of claim 54 wherein the one or more business rules include transactional opportunities across disparate services, including at least one of rules for placing product offerings, automating product offerings, promotions, and advertising campaigns.

56. The method of claim 55 wherein at least one of the rules for placing product offerings and automating product offerings include multiple selection criteria chosen from the list including:

location, current channel, current channel family, current channel category, time of day, offering category, current program, current program genre, current iTV application, current content type, and subscriber profile.

57. The method of claim 54 wherein the one or more business rules include user-specific rules according to a user profile.

58. The method of claim 46 wherein the iTV application is configured to respond in a user-specific manner to user interactions with the iTV application.

59. A method, comprising:

generating, by a server, an application according to one or more business rules and an authored specification that describes a framework for content and behavior of the application, wherein the authored specification includes an application layout file and one or more descriptors, the application layout file specifying a layout for the application and the one or more descriptors directing the server to select content of the application dynamically when generating the application;

using, by the server, the one or more descriptors to query for selected content when generating the application;

creating, by the server, references to the selected content when generating the application; and

transmitting the application to one or more client devices.

60. The method of claim 59 wherein the application is in an extensible markup language (XML) format prior to being transmitted.

61. The method of claim 59, wherein the authored specification is an extensible markup language (XML) authored specification.

62. The method of claim 61, wherein the XML authored specification describes a common application framework for application content and behavior across multiple client device types and operating environments.

63. The method of claim 62, wherein the application represents a unified television application for delivering multiple services, including at least one of (a) interactive program guides, (b) television menus, (c) content services, (d) virtual channels, (e) video on demand applications, (f) personal video recorder applications, (g) broadcast on demand applications, (h) enhanced television services applications, (i) help, (j) customer support, (k) self service, and (l) data service applications.

64. The method of claim 63, wherein the authored specification is authored from a multiplicity of sources through local authoring and management user interfaces according to a schedule configured according to the one or more business rules.

65. The method of claim 64, wherein the application is categorized and stored in a catalog.

66. The method of claim 65, wherein the application is transmitted to the one or more client devices by executing the one or more business rules according to a periodic schedule.

67. The method of claim 66, wherein the one or more business rules are created in response to a 2-way request.

68. The method of claim 67, wherein the one or more business rules provide a method to place and automate product offerings, promotions, and transactional opportunities in a unified manner across the multiple services.

69. The method of claim 67, wherein the one or more business rules provide a method to place offerings according to multiple selection rules including at least two of a location, current channel, current channel family, current channel category, time-of-day, offering category, current program, current program genre, current application, current content type, and subscriber profile.

70. The method of claim 67, wherein the one or more business rules provide a method to target the selected offerings to the client devices in response to a two-way request, wherein a selected offering, data or action is further selected according to subscriber profiles of the client devices.

71. The method of claim 67, wherein the one or more business rules provide a method to place and automate advertising campaigns in a unified manner across the multiple services.

72. The method of claim 61, wherein the application and a business rule corresponding to a particular service are transmitted as separate packages according to a set of the one or more business rules.

73. The method of claim 59 wherein the one or more business rules include rules for transactional opportunities across disparate television services, including at least one of placing product offerings, automating product offerings, promotions, and advertising campaigns.

74. The method of claim 73 wherein the application is tagged as a set of programmable opportunities.

75. The method of claim 74 wherein a programmable opportunity is any location or set of locations within the application where content data may be placed, said content data including at least one of advertisements, promotions, data including text, data including images, data including video, and another application.