System for configuring soft keys in a media communication system

• US 8,863,189 B2
• Filed: 02/19/2008
• Issued: 10/14/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/19/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: White, Scott, Cansler, James L., Anderson, Brett
• Primary Examiner(s): Alcon, Fernando
• Application Number:
  US12/033,084
• Publication Number:
  US 20090210922A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,429 Days
• Field of Search: 725/46
• US Class Current: 725/46
• 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 21/42227 the keys being reprogrammable, e.g. soft keys
• 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 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• 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 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• 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 21/485 End-user interface for client configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6581 Reference data, e.g. a movie identifier for ordering a movie or a product identifier in a home shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/854 Content authoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17354 in an intermediate station common to a plurality of user terminals

Abstract

A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, set top box (STB) having a controller to record one or more soft key preferences associated with a user of the STB for each of a plurality of media presentation states of a media communication system, receive a request for presentation of a graphical user interface (GUI) associated with one of the media presentation states, select one or more soft keys according to the one or more soft key preferences assigned to the requested media presentation state, and present the selected one or more soft keys in the GUI. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A set top box, comprising:

a memory to store computer instructions; and

a controller coupled with the memory, wherein the controller, responsive to executing the computer instructions, performs operations comprising;

recording soft key preferences associated with a user of the set top box for each of a plurality of media presentation states of a media communication system, wherein each of the plurality of media presentation states comprises a separate user interface for managing a corresponding one of an electronic programming guide, a video-on-demand catalog, a set top box help guide, a personal content library, and a web portal, and wherein the recording of the soft key preferences is based on user input indicating keys that have been determined to be likely to be utilized;

receiving a request for presentation of a graphical user interface associated with one of the plurality of media presentation states;

monitoring navigation activity at each separate user interface for the electronic programming guide, the video-on-demand catalog, the set top box help guide, and the web portal;

determining from the navigation activity a usage pattern by utilizing correlation pattern recognition that identifies combinations of key strokes to perform a plurality of functions;

selecting soft keys based on the usage pattern and according to the soft key preferences assigned to a requested media presentation state corresponding to the request for presentation, wherein each of the soft keys combines the plurality of functions associated with managing operations of the set top box;

presenting the soft keys in the graphical user interface, wherein a first portion of the graphical user interface is presented exclusively at a display device coupled with the set top box and a second portion of the graphical user interface is presented exclusively at a remote controller in communication with the set top box, wherein the remote controller manages operations of the set top box over a wireless interface, wherein the second portion of the graphical user interface presented at the remote controller displays the soft keys at a display of the remote controller, and wherein the first portion of the graphical user interface presented at the display device does not present the soft keys;

generating a modified second portion of the graphical user interface and displaying the modified second portion of the graphical user interface, wherein the generating of the modified second portion of the graphical user interface includes removing first and second soft keys of the soft keys and creating a third soft key with a combined functionality of the first and second soft keys, wherein the functionality of the first and second keys was included in the soft key preferences that was based on the user input.

2. The set top box of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

relocating to primary soft key positions, target soft keys identified by the soft key preferences for each of the plurality of media presentation states;

relocating other soft keys not identified by the soft key preferences to secondary soft key positions, wherein the primary soft key positions are above the secondary soft key positions in graphical user interfaces presented by the set top box; and

removing from the graphical user interfaces presented by the set top box some of the other soft keys not identified by the soft key preferences.

3. The set top box of claim 1, wherein the usage pattern defines a frequency of use of the soft keys and a contextual use of the soft keys and wherein the operations further comprise receiving additional user input that indicates a name for the third soft key and displaying the name, and wherein the second portion of the graphical user interface presented at a remote controller display comprises a purchase button that includes a combined functionality of buying a media service and confirming the buying of the media service in a single manipulation of the purchase button.

4. The set top box of claim 1, wherein the soft key preferences include an identification of keystrokes that are unlikely to be used in each of the plurality of media presentation states, wherein the soft keys are configured to be manipulated for managing a media program supplied by the media communication system and a menu of a digital video recorder, wherein the media communication system corresponds to an internet protocol television communication system, and wherein one of the soft keys enables purchasing selected media content and confirming a purchase of the selected media content in a single pressing of the one of the soft keys.

5. The set top box of claim 1, wherein the first soft key provides a first function for a user action, wherein the second soft key provides a second function for a confirmation of the user action, and wherein the operations further comprise receiving additional user input that indicates a name for the third soft key and displaying the name.

6. The set top box of claim 1, wherein the presenting of the soft keys in the graphical user interface is performed without allowing the user to delete any of the soft keys.

7. A computer-readable storage device comprising computer instructions which, responsive to being executed by a media processor, cause the media processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving a request for presentation of a graphical user interface associated with one of a plurality of media presentation states of a media communication system, wherein each of the plurality of media presentation states comprises a separate user interface for managing a corresponding one of an electronic programming guide, a video-on-demand catalog, and a personal content library;

selecting soft keys according to soft key preferences associated with a user of the media processor and assigned to a requested media presentation state corresponding to the request for presentation, wherein a portion of the soft keys combine a plurality of functions associated with managing operations of the media processor, wherein the selecting of the soft keys that combine the plurality of functions is based on identifying a usage pattern utilizing correlation pattern recognition that identifies combinations of key strokes to perform the plurality of functions;

presenting the soft keys in the graphical user interface, wherein a first portion of the graphical user interface is presented exclusively at a display device coupled with the media processor and a second portion of the graphical user interface is presented exclusively at a remote controller in communication with the media processor, wherein the remote controller manages operations of the media processor over a wireless interface; and

generating a modified second portion of the graphical user interface and displaying the modified second portion of the graphical user interface, wherein the generating of the modified second portion of the graphical user interface includes removing first and second soft keys of the soft keys and creating a third soft key with a combined functionality of the first and second soft keys, wherein the functionality of the first and second keys was included in the soft key preferences.

8. The computer-readable storage device of claim 7, wherein the media processor comprises a set top box, and wherein the media communication system comprises an internet protocol television communication system.

9. The computer-readable storage device of claim 7, wherein the operations further comprise presenting a customization graphical user interface to receive user input to define the soft key preferences for a requested media presentation state.

10. The computer-readable storage device of claim 7, wherein the operations further comprise defining soft key macros corresponding to the soft key preferences.

11. The computer-readable storage device of claim 7, wherein the operations further comprise:

monitoring navigation activity associated with each of the plurality of media presentation states of the media communication system, wherein the navigation activity is at each separate user interface for the electronic programming guide and the video-on-demand catalog; and

determining from the navigation activity the usage pattern.

12. The computer-readable storage device of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise:

relocating to primary soft key positions, target soft keys identified by the soft key preferences for each of the plurality of media presentation states;

relocating other soft keys not identified by the soft key preferences to secondary soft key positions, wherein the primary soft key positions are above the secondary soft key positions in graphical user interfaces presented by the media processor; and

removing from the graphical user interfaces presented by the media processor some of the other soft keys not identified by the soft key preferences.

13. The computer-readable storage device of claim 11, wherein the usage pattern defines a frequency of use of soft keys and a contextual use of soft keys.

14. The computer-readable storage device of claim 7, wherein the second portion of the graphical user interface presented at the remote controller displays the soft keys and the first portion of the graphical user interface presented at the display device does not present the soft keys.

15. The computer-readable storage device of claim 7, wherein the second portion of the graphical user interface presented at the remote controller displays a first portion of the soft keys and the first portion of the graphical user interface presented at the display device displays a second portion of the soft keys.

16. A remote controller that manages operations of a media processor, the remote controller comprising:

a memory to store computer instructions; and

a controller coupled with the memory, wherein the controller, responsive to executing the computer instructions, performs operations comprising;

selecting a first portion of soft keys selected according to soft key preferences associated with user input at the media processor and assigned to each of a plurality of media presentation states of a media communication system, wherein at least one of the soft keys combines a plurality of functions associated with managing operations of the media processor, wherein the selecting of the first portion of the soft keys is based on identifying a usage pattern utilizing correlation pattern recognition that identifies combinations of key strokes to perform the plurality of functions;

exclusively displaying the first portion of the soft keys, wherein a second portion of the soft keys is exclusively presented at a display device coupled with the media processor, wherein the controller manages the operations of the media processor over a wireless interface; and

generating a modified first portion of the graphical user interface and displaying the modified first portion of the graphical user interface, wherein the generating of the modified first portion of the graphical user interface includes removing first and second soft keys of the soft keys and creating a third soft key with a combined functionality of the first and second soft keys, wherein the functionality of the first and second keys was included in the soft key preferences.

17. The remote controller of claim 16, wherein each of the plurality of media presentation states comprises a separate user interface for managing a corresponding one of an electronic programming guide, a video-on-demand catalog, a set top box help guide, and a web portal, and wherein the media processor comprises a set top box.

18. The remote controller of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise:

monitoring navigation activity associated with each of the plurality of media presentation states of the media communication system, wherein the navigation activity is at each separate user interface for a electronic programming guide, a video-on-demand catalog, a set top box help guide, and a web portal; and

determining from the navigation activity the usage pattern.

19. The remote controller of claim 18, wherein the usage pattern defines a frequency of use of the soft keys and a contextual use of the soft keys.

20. The remote controller of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise receiving the first portion of the soft keys from the media processor over the wireless interface.

21. The remote controller of claim 20, wherein the wireless interface comprises a radio frequency communication medium.