Interactive media portal

• US 8,386,954 B2
• Filed: 11/21/2008
• Issued: 02/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: San Jule, Todd, Vong, William H., Young, Mark G., Siu, Randy, Scoffie, Philippe J., Torresan, Adriana Tavares, Paguirigan, Joseph S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Tuyetlien
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chuang, Jessica
• Application Number:
  US12/276,248
• Publication Number:
  US 20100131977A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,558 Days
• Field of Search: 715/781, 725/31
• US Class Current: 715/781
• 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 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4438 Window management, e.g. event handling following interaction with the user interface
• 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 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4825 using a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlists
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/485 End-user interface for client configuration

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed herein for a media center portal. One implementation includes displaying first content in an expanded state and second content in a contracted state. At least a portion of the first content is presented in a viewport. A request is received to expand the second content. The first content is contracted for display in the contracted state. The second content is expanded for display in the expanded state. The contracted first content is displayed while displaying the expanded second content. At least a portion of the second content is presented in a text reader when in the expanded state.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method comprising:

displaying first content in an expanded state for the first content and second content in a contracted state for the second content, at least a portion of the first content is presented in a viewport, when in the expanded state for the first content, the first content includes a first list that includes items for selecting streaming videos and a second list that includes items for selecting broadcast channels, displaying the second content in the contracted state for the second content includes displaying a third list that includes items for selecting articles;

switching between playing a streaming video and a broadcast channel in the viewport in response to receiving a single click request of one of the items from the first list or one of the items from the second list;

receiving a request to expand the second content;

contracting the first content for display in a contracted state for the first content in response to the request;

expanding the second content for display in an expanded state for the second content in response to the request, the expanding the second content for the expanded state for the second content includes displaying a fourth list that includes items for selecting articles and text of one of the articles from the fourth list in a text reader, the text reader is not displayed in the contracted state for the second content; and

displaying the first content in the contracted state for the first content while displaying the second content in the expanded state for the second content.

2. A computer implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein the contracting the first content for display in the contracted state includes reducing the size of the viewport but continuing to play at least a portion of the first content in the viewport.

3. A computer implemented method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

displaying third content in a contracted state for the third content while displaying the first content in the expanded state for the first content and the second content in the contracted state for the second content, the third content tracks information in real time.

4. A computer implemented method as recited in claim 3, wherein the displaying third content in a contracted state for the third content while displaying the first content in the expanded state for the first content and the second content in the contracted state for the second content includes displaying the third content to the left of the first content and the second content to the right of the first content.

5. A computer implemented method as recited in claim 4, further comprising

displaying the first content in the contracted state for the first content while displaying the second content in the contracted state for the second content while displaying the third content in an expanded state for the third content.

6. A computer implemented method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request to subscribe to an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed, the request coming via a remote control device.

7. A computer storage device having stored thereon instructions which, when executed on a processor, cause the processor to:

display a selected video in a viewport in a first physical region of a display that serves as an expanded region, display a list of broadcast channels for selection for the viewport when in the expanded region in the first physical region, display a list of streaming videos for selection for the viewport when in the expanded region in the first physical region;

display a list of articles in a second physical region of the display that serves as a first contracted region while displaying the selected video in the viewport in the first physical region;

display tracking information that tracks weather and stocks in real time in a third physical region of the display that serves as a second contracted region while displaying the selected video in the viewport and while displaying the list of articles in the first contracted region;

receive a first request to display a selected article of the articles in the expanded region in the first physical region of the display;

display at least a portion of the selected article in a text reader in the expanded region in the first physical region of the display in response to the first request, display a reduced size version of the viewport in the second contracted region in the third physical region of the display, display a list of streaming videos in the second contracted region in the third physical region of the display, and remove the list of broadcast channels in response to the first request, and display the tracking information in real time in the first contracted region in the second physical region in response to the first request; and

receive a second request to display the tracking information in the expanded region in the first physical region of the display, and in response to the second request display a list of articles in the second contracted region in the third physical region of the display without the text reader while displaying the reduced size version of the viewport in the first contracted region in the second physical region while displaying the tracking information in the expanded region in the first physical region of the display, the reduced size version of the viewport continues to play the selected video.

8. A computer storage device as recited in claim 7, wherein the instructions which, when executed on the processor, cause the processor to display the tracking information in a region that is larger than the third region, cause the processor to display the list of articles without displaying the text reader in the second region while displaying the reduced size version of the viewport in the third region while displaying the expanded version of the tracking information in the first region.

9. A computer storage device as recited in claim 7, further comprising instructions which, when executed on the processor, cause the processor to:

provide a selection of a plurality of streaming videos and a selection of a plurality of broadcast station feeds; and

display a selected streaming video or a selected broadcast station in the viewport.

10. A computer implemented method comprising:

displaying video content, text articles, and tracking information in separate regions of a display screen, one of the regions is an expanded region and two of the regions are contracted regions, the expanded region is displayed between the two contracted regions, each of the video content, text articles, and tracking information have an expanded state and a contracted state;

receiving one or more requests to move the video content, text articles, and tracking information to different ones of the regions; and

moving the video content, the text articles, and the tracking information to different ones of the regions of the display screen in response to the one or more requests to move the content, each of the video content, the text articles, and the tracking information are displayed in the expanded state when in the expanded region and the contracted state when in one of the contracted regions, the moving including scrolling the video content, the text articles, and the tracking information sequentially through the separate ones of the regions of the display screen in response to the one or more requests, the scrolling including wrapping around the content from one of the contracted regions to the other contracted region, moving the video content, the text articles, and the tracking information includes;

presenting a viewport showing a video and a first list of video streams that can be presented in the viewport in the contracted state for the video content;

presenting a larger version of the viewport showing a video, a second list of video streams that can be presented in the viewport, and a list of broadcast channels that can be presented in the viewport in the expanded state for the video content;

presenting a first list of articles without a text reader in the contracted state for the text articles;

presenting a second list of articles and a text reader showing text from one of the articles in the second list for the expanded state for the text articles;

presenting weather information, stock information and a headline for latest news in the contracted state for the tracking information; and

presenting additional weather information, additional stock information and a headline for latest news in the expanded state for the tracking information.

11. A computer implemented method as recited in claim 10, further comprising receiving user preferences of what information to track.

12. A computer implemented method as recited in claim 10, further comprising receiving a request to subscribe to an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed via a remote control.