System, method and device for swapping display configurations between viewing devices

• US 8,789,126 B1
• Filed: 08/30/2011
• Issued: 07/22/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cox Communications Incorporated (Cox Enterprises Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Cox Communications Incorporated (Cox Enterprises Incorporated)
• Inventors: Nijim, Yousef Wasef, Lam, Daniel D., Langa, Jay P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Harold, Jefferey
• Assistant Examiner(s): Monshi, Samira
• Application Number:
  US13/221,063
• Time in Patent Office: 1,057 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 725/133
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41265 having a remote control device for bidirectional communication between the remote control device and client device unidirectional remote control device H04N21/42204
• 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 21/4333 Processing operations in response to a pause request
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4755 for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre retrieval personalisation and generation of user profiles for the retrieval of video data G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306

Abstract

A system, method and device for swapping display configurations between viewing devices. The system allows for swapping channels back and forth between the TV and the media device. A user and devices associated with the user are registered with the system. A swap setup is configured by setting swap configuration information. Swap functionality is provided to the registered devices. A swap initiation signal is received at the registered devices and display configurations are swapped between the registered devices.

Claims

1. A method for swapping display configurations between viewing devices, comprising

registering a user and viewing devices associated with the user;

displaying a first display configuration on a first viewing device, the first display configuration being a personalized mosaic including a plurality of tiles each having first dimensions, the plurality of tiles including a first program and a second program, wherein the first viewing device provides audio of the first program and an indication that the audio of the first program is being provided;

displaying a second display configuration on a second viewing device, the second display configuration being a second personalized mosaic including a plurality of tiles each having second dimensions, the plurality of tiles including the first program and the second program, wherein the second viewing device provides the audio of the second program and an indication that the audio of the second program is being provided;

configuring a swap setup by setting swap configuration information;

providing swap functionality to the registered viewing devices;

receiving a swap initiation signal at the registered viewing devices;

when the swap initiation relates to swapping the audio, swapping the audio of the first program on the first viewing device with the audio of the second program on a second viewing device, wherein the first viewing device is updated to indicate on the first display configuration that the audio of the second program is being provided and the second viewing device is updated to indicate on the second display configuration that the audio of the first program is being provided; and

when the swap initiation relates to swapping the video, swapping display configurations between the registered viewing devices by swapping the first display configuration on the first viewing device with the second display configuration on a second viewing device so that the first display configuration is displayed on the second viewing device and the second display configuration is displayed on the first viewing device, wherein dimensions of one or more of the plurality of tiles of the personalized mosaic is increased by swapping the one or more of the plurality of tiles of the personalized mosaic of the first display configuration between the first and second viewing devices.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing swap functionality to the registered viewing devices comprises downloading a swap application to a first viewing device and to a second viewing device to provide the swapping functionality between the first viewing device and the second viewing device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuring swap setup by setting swap configuration information further comprises setting parameters to control an operation defined via a user interface screen, to preset a viewing device for displaying a mosaic configuration, and to specify a number of channels to display on a viewing device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the setting parameters to control the operation defined via a user interface screen further comprises requesting provisioning of a mosaic configuration, naming the mosaic configuration, specify channels displayed in the mosaic configuration, and personalizing the setup of the mosaic configuration by choosing programs to be included in the mosaic configuration.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising presenting the mosaic configuration in an interactive program guide using a tiled layout to show multiple thumbnails of video streams on a single screen.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising highlighting a tile in the mosaic configuration to hear audio accompanying the highlighted tile.

7. The method of claim 5 further comprising highlight and selecting a tile in the mosaic configuration to directly tune to a channel associated with highlighted tile.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the swapping display configurations between the registered viewing devices comprises swapping the audio between the first viewing device and the second viewing device and providing an indication of audio source on the first viewing device and on the second viewing device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the swapping display configurations between the registered viewing devices comprises swapping a mosaic configuration on the first viewing device with a display configuration on the second viewing device, wherein the size of the mosaic and the number of channels displayed in the mosaic is adjusted adaptively based on a size of a screen on the second viewing device and a number of channels chosen by a user.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the swapping display configurations between the registered viewing devices comprises swapping a first channel to the second viewing device and thereafter swapping a second channel to the second viewing device, wherein the first channel and the second channel are displayed mosaicly on the second viewing device upon the swap of the second channel to the second viewing device.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the first display configuration and the second display configuration are both full screen programs.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the swapping display configurations between the registered viewing devices comprises:

displaying a personalized mosaic configuration on a first viewing device;

displaying a single program on a second viewing device; and

causing the personalized mosaic configuration to be displayed on the second viewing device and the single program to be displayed on the first viewing device.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

setting up the recording of multiple programs via a first viewing device;

choosing to watch a program by swapping the viewing of the program from display on the first viewing device to display on the second viewing device; and

continuing to record the multiple programs displayed on the first viewing device.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising communicating the registration and swap configuration information to a server at a headend.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the swapping display configurations between the registered viewing devices comprises causing a display of programs to move across viewing devices.

16. A system for swapping display configurations between viewing devices, comprising:

memory for storing data;

a processor, coupled to the memory, the processor implementing a user interface screen, the user interface screen being presented to a user for registering a user and the viewing devices associated with the user, displaying a first display configuration on a first viewing device, the first display configuration is a personalized mosaic including a plurality of tiles each having first dimensions, the plurality of tiles including a first program and a second program, wherein the first viewing device provides audio of the first program and an indication that the audio of the first program is being provided, displaying a second display configuration on a second viewing device, the second display configuration is a second personalized mosaic including a plurality of tiles each having second dimensions, the plurality of tiles including the first program and the second program, wherein the second viewing device provides the audio of the second program and an indication that the audio of the second program is being provided, selecting viewing devices from the registered viewing devices of the user for associating swap functions thereto, setting a display configuration for the selected viewing devices, and configuring a swap setup by setting swap configuration information, wherein when the swap initiation relates to swapping the audio, swapping the audio of the first program on the first viewing device with the audio of the second program on a second viewing device, wherein the first viewing device is updated to indicate that the audio of the second program is being provided and the second viewing device is updated to indicate that the audio of the first program is being provided, and wherein when the swap initiation relates to swapping the programming, swapping the first display configuration on the first viewing device with the second display configuration on a second viewing device so that the first display configuration is displayed on the second viewing device and the second display configuration is displayed on the first viewing device, wherein dimensions of one or more of the plurality of tiles of the personalized mosaic is increased by swapping the one or more of the plurality of tiles of the personalized mosaic of the first display configuration between the first and second viewing devices.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the processor receives a swap initiation signal and swaps display configurations between the selected viewing devices.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the processor configures swap setup by setting parameters to control an operation defined via the user interface screen, to preset at least one of the selected viewing devices for displaying a mosaic configuration, and to specify a number of channels to display in the mosaic configuration on the preset at least one of the selected viewing devices.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the user interface screen provides provisioning of a mosaic configuration, naming the mosaic configuration, specifying of channels displayed in the mosaic configuration, and personalizing the setup of the mosaic configuration by choosing programs to be included in the mosaic configuration.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the processor swaps display configurations between the selected viewing devices by swapping the audio between a first viewing device and a second viewing device and providing an indication of audio source on the first viewing device and on the second viewing device.

21. The system of claim 16, wherein the processor swaps display configurations between the selected viewing devices by swapping a mosaic configuration on a first viewing device with a display configuration on a second viewing device, wherein the size of the mosaic and the number of channels displayed in the mosaic is adjusted adaptively based on a size of a screen on the second viewing device and a number of channels chosen by a user.

22. The system of claim 16, wherein the processor swaps display configurations between the selected viewing devices by swapping a first channel to a second viewing device and thereafter swapping a second channel to a second viewing device, wherein the first channel and the second channel are displayed mosaicly on the second viewing device upon the swap of the second channel to the second viewing device.

23. The system of claim 16, wherein the first display configuration and the second display configuration are both full screen programs.

24. The system of claim 16, wherein the first display configuration is a personalized mosaic configuration and the second display configuration is a full screen program configuration.

25. The system of claim 16, wherein the user interface screen provides an option for setting up recording of multiple programs via a first viewing device and an option for by swapping the viewing of a program from display on the first viewing device to display on the second viewing device when a user chooses to watch a program via the user interface screen, wherein the programs selected for recording continue to be recorded and displayed on the first viewing device.

26. A non-transitory computer-readable memory including executable instructions which, when executed by a processor, provides for swapping display configurations between viewing devices, by:

registering a user and viewing devices associated with the user;

displaying a first configuration on a first viewing device, the first configuration is a first personalized mosaic including a plurality of tiles each having first dimensions, the plurality of tiles including a first program and a second program, wherein the first viewing device provides audio of the first program and an indication that the audio of the first program is being provided;

displaying a second configuration on a second viewing device, the second configuration is a second personalized mosaic including a plurality of tiles each having second dimensions, the plurality of tiles including the first program and the second program, wherein the second viewing device provides the audio of the second program and an indication that the audio of the second program is being provided;

providing swap functionality to the registered viewing devices;

receiving swap initiation at the registered viewing devices; and

when the swap initiation relates to swapping the audio, swapping the audio of the first program on the first viewing device with the audio of the second program on a second viewing device, wherein the first viewing device is updated to indicate that the audio of the second program is being provided and the second viewing device is updated to indicate that the audio of the first program is being provided.

27. The non-transitory computer-readable memory of claim 26, further comprising when the swap initiation signal is for the display configurations, swapping display configurations between the registered viewing devices by swapping the first display configuration on the first viewing device with the second display configuration on a second viewing device so that the first display configuration is displayed on the second viewing device and the second display configuration is displayed on the first viewing device, wherein dimensions of one or more of the plurality of tiles of the personalized mosaic is increased by swapping the one or more of the plurality of tiles of the personalized mosaic of the first display configuration between the first and second viewing devices.

28. The non-transitory computer-readable memory of claim 26, wherein the processor receives a swap initiation signal and swaps display configurations between the selected viewing devices.

29. The non-transitory computer-readable memory of claim 26, wherein the processor configures swap setup by setting parameters to control an operation defined via the user interface screen, to preset at least one of the selected viewing devices for displaying a mosaic configuration, and to specify a number of channels to display in the mosaic configuration on the preset at least one of the selected viewing devices.

30. The non-transitory computer-readable memory of claim 26, wherein the user interface screen provides provisioning of a mosaic configuration, naming the mosaic configuration, specifying of channels displayed in the mosaic configuration, and personalizing the setup of the mosaic configuration by choosing programs to be included in the mosaic configuration.