System and method in a television system for providing information associated with a user-selected person in a television program

• US 8,819,732 B2
• Filed: 09/13/2010
• Issued: 08/26/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Karaoguz, Jeyhan, Seshadri, Nambirajan
• Primary Examiner(s): MENGESHA, MULUGETA A
• Application Number:
  US12/880,888
• Publication Number:
  US 20110067055A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,443 Days
• Field of Search: 725/38, 725/40, 725 60- 61
• US Class Current: 725/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0304 Detection arrangements using opto-electronic means constructional details of pointing devices not related to the detection arrangement using opto-electronic means G06F3/033; optical digitisers G06F3/042
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0308 comprising a plurality of distinctive and separately oriented light emitters or reflectors associated to the pointing device, e.g. remote cursor controller with distinct and separately oriented LEDs at the tip whose radiations are captured by a photo-detector associated to the screen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0325 using a plurality of light emitters or reflectors or a plurality of detectors forming a reference frame from which to derive the orientation of the object, e.g. by triangulation or on the basis of reference deformation in the picked up image
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0346 with detection of the device orientation or free movement in a 3D space, e.g. 3D mice, 6-DOF [six degrees of freedom] pointers using gyroscopes, accelerometers or tilt-sensors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0386 for light pen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0412 Digitisers structurally integrated in a display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0428 by sensing at the edges of the touch surface the interruption of optical paths, e.g. an illumination plane, parallel to the touch surface which may be virtual sensing beam interruptions in a planar beam grid of an optical touch-screen G06F3/0421
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234318 by decomposing into objects, e.g. MPEG-4 objects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23892 involving embedding information at multiplex stream level, e.g. embedding a watermark at packet level
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2408 Monitoring of the upstream path of the transmission network, e.g. client requests monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876; scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25841 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; arrangements for identifying locations of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/51; location of the user terminal in data switching networks H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2668 Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. insertion of targeted commercials based on end-user profiles information retrieval from the Internet by querying with filtering and personalisation G06F16/9535; arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast H04H20/10; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; adaptation of message content in packet-switching networks H04L51/063
• 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 21/42204 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 21/42206 characterized by hardware details
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42209 for displaying non-command information, e.g. electronic program guide [EPG], e-mail, messages or a second television channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42222 Additional components integrated in the remote control device, e.g. timer, speaker, sensors for detecting position, direction or movement of the remote control, microphone or battery charging device
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4325 by playing back content from the storage medium reproduction of recorded television signals H04N5/76; reproduction of recorded television signals H04N9/79
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/436 Interfacing a local distribution network, e.g. communicating with another STB or one or more peripheral devices inside the home
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/438 : Interfacing the downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. retrieving encoded video stream packets from an IP network
• 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 21/4524 : involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; systems specially adapted for using geographical information in broadcast systems H04H60/70; protocols in which the network application is adapted for the location of the user terminal in communication control or processing H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• 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 21/472 : End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or services; End-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification, for manipulating displayed content end-user interfaces for retrieving video data from a database G06F16/739; network services for supporting unicast streaming H04L65/612
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4722 : for requesting additional data associated with the content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4725 : using interactive regions of the image, e.g. hot spots details of information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4728 : for selecting a Region Of Interest [ROI], e.g. for requesting a higher resolution version of a selected region
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47805 : Electronic banking banking in general G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47815 : Electronic shopping payment schemes, payment architectures or payment protocols for electronic shopping systems G06Q20/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 : Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 : End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4826 : using recommendation lists, e.g. of programs or channels sorted out according to their score
• 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 21/8126 : involving additional data, e.g. news, sports, stocks, weather forecasts
• 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 21/8173 : End-user applications, e.g. Web browser, game
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/845 : Structuring of content, e.g. decomposing content into time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8545 : for generating interactive applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/858 : Linking data to content, e.g. by linking an URL to a video object, by creating a hotspot
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/445 : for displaying additional information H04N5/50 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 : Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8205 : involving the multiplexing of an additional signal and the colour video signal

Abstract

A system and method in a television system for providing information associated with a user-selected person in a television program, substantially as shown in and/or described in connection with at least one of the figures, as set forth more completely in the claims.

Claims

1. A method, in a television system, for responding to user selection of an object in television programming, the method comprising:

by the television system;

determining an identity of a user-selected object in a television program being presented to a user on a first display device, where the user-selected object corresponds to a selected person;

determining, based at least in part on the determined object identity, one or more actions to perform related to the selected person, the one or more actions comprising displaying, on a second display device, a form of communication with which to communicate with the selected person or an associate of the selected person;

wherein the form of communication comprises email, fax, live chat, instant messaging, telephone call, or video phone call; and

performing the determined one or more actions.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said determining one or more actions comprises determining one or more potential actions, and presenting the determined one or more potential actions to the user for user-selection of at least one of the determined one or more potential actions.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determined one or more actions comprise providing information related to the selected person to the user.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the information related to the selected person comprises information about the selected person.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the information related to the selected person comprises information about an entity associated with the selected person.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein said step of providing information related to the selected person to the user comprises outputting the information related to the selected person on a television screen.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the determined one or more actions comprise:

acquiring, via a communication network, information related to the selected person; and

presenting the acquired information to the user.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said acquiring comprises communicating with an information server of a commercial enterprise associated with the selected person.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the determined one or more actions comprise communicating information to a networked entity remote from the user'"'"'s local television system regarding the user'"'"'s selection of the user-selected object.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said communicating information to a networked entity remote from the user'"'"'s local television system enterprise comprises communicating information about the user to the networked entity.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the determined one or more actions comprise managing two-way communication between the user and a networked entity remote from the user'"'"'s local television system regarding the selected person.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein said identity determining, said action determining, and said action performing are performed in a user'"'"'s local television system.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said identity determining, said action determining, and said action performing are performed in a television system component separate from a television.

14. The method of claim 1, comprising providing a user interface by which the user may control the manner in which the determined one or more actions are performed.

15. The method of claim 1, comprising:

receiving data associating a user-selectable object in the television program with a network address of a networked entity; and

storing the received data in memory of a user'"'"'s local television system.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving user input relating to a form of communication with which to communicate with the selected person or an associate of the selected person comprises receiving user input relating to the form of communication with which to communicate with the selected person.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein receiving user input relating to a form of communication with which to communicate with the selected person or an associate of the selected person comprises receiving user input relating to the form of communication with which to communicate with the associate of the selected person.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the second display device is a television controller.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the second display device is based on a user preference, and the second display device is one of a television controller, mobile phone, or a personal computer.

20. A television system for responding to user selection of an object in television programming, the television system comprising:

at least one processor operable to, at least;

determine an identity of a user-selected object in a television program being presented to a user, where the user-selected object corresponds to a selected person;

determine, based at least in part on the determined object identity, one or more actions to perform associated with the selected person, the one or more actions comprising displaying, on a second display device, a form of communication with which to communicate with the selected person or an associate of the selected person, while continuing to present the television program to the user;

wherein the form of communication comprises email, fax, live chat, instant messaging, telephone call, or video phone call; and

perform the determined one or more actions.

21. The television system of claim 20, wherein said at least one processor is operable to determine one or more actions by, at least in part, operating to determine one or more potential actions, and present the determined one or more potential actions to the user for user-selection of at least one of the determined one or more potential actions.

22. The television system of claim 20, where the determined one or more actions comprise providing information related to the selected person to the user.

23. The television system of claim 22, where the information related to the selected person comprises information about the selected person.

24. The television system of claim 22, where the information related to the selected person comprises information about an entity associated with the selected person.

25. The television system of claim 20, further comprising:

acquiring, via a communication network, information related to the selected person, wherein said acquiring comprises communicating with an information server of a commercial enterprise associated with the selected person; and

presenting the acquired information to the user.

26. The television system of claim 20, where the determined one or more actions comprise communicating information to a networked entity remote from the user'"'"'s local television system regarding the user'"'"'s selection of the user-selected object.

27. The television system of claim 26, where said communicating information to a networked entity remote from the user'"'"'s local television system comprises communicating information about the user to the networked entity.

28. The television system of claim 20, where the determined one or more actions comprises managing two-way communication between the user and a networked entity remote from the user'"'"'s local television system regarding the selected person.

29. The television system of claim 20, wherein said at least one processor is located in a user'"'"'s local television system.

30. The television system of claim 29, wherein said at least one processor is located in a television system component separate from a television.

31. The television system of claim 20, wherein the at least one processor is operable to provide a user interface by which the user may control the manner in which the determined one or more actions are performed.

32. The television system of claim 20, wherein the at least one processor is operable to:

receive data associating a user-selectable object in the television program with a network address of a networked entity; and

store the received data in memory of a user'"'"'s local television system.

33. The television system of claim 20, wherein the television program is presented on a first display device and the form of communication is displayed on a second display device.