System and method for generating screen pointing information in a television control device

• US 8,947,350 B2
• Filed: 05/05/2010
• Issued: 02/03/2015
• 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): Hicks, Charles V
• Application Number:
  US12/774,321
• Publication Number:
  US 20110063206A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,735 Days
• Field of Search: 345/156
• US Class Current: 345/156
• 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 control device, for generating screen pointing information, 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 for determining an on-screen pointing location, the method comprising:

by a television control device;

transmitting an emission to a screen of a television;

receiving a plurality of signals, each signal of the plurality of signals capable of indicating a different amount of energy received by a respective sensor of a plurality of sensors located on at least one of the television, a television receiver, or at least one speaker; and

determining the on-screen pointing location pointed to by the television control device based on the energies indicated by the plurality of signals.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the television is presenting television programming on the screen during the transmitting.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the emission is imperceptible to a user.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the emission is a light emission at a light frequency that is imperceptible to the user.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the emission is an acoustic emission at an acoustic frequency that is imperceptible to the user.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of sensors are located on the screen of the television.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the plurality of sensors are overlaid on the screen of the television.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the plurality of sensors are integrated into an on-screen portion of the television.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of sensors are located on an off-screen portion of the television.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of signals is received by the television control device independent of information communicated between the television and the television control device.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of signals are received by the television control device over at least one communication link over which video information is communicated between the television and the television control device.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining of the on-screen pointing location pointed to by the television control device is further based on positional information of the television control device.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining of the on-screen pointing location pointed to by the television control device is further based on phase differences between arrivals at the television control device of each signal of the plurality of signals.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining of the on-screen pointing location pointed to by the television control device is further based on phase differences between arrivals at the plurality of sensors of the emission.

29. The method of claim 5 further comprising processing phase differences of each signal of the plurality of signals to determine a pointing direction of the television control device relative to a plurality of known locations of the plurality of sensors.

15. A method for determining an on-screen pointing location, the method comprising:

detecting, by a plurality of sensors, an emission pointed to a screen of a television by a television control device, the plurality of sensors located on at least one of the television, a television receiver, or at least one speaker; and

transmitting a plurality of signals to the television control device, each signal of the plurality of signals indicating an amount of energy received by a respective sensor of the plurality of sensors, each signal capable of indicating a different amount of energy received by each of the sensors, wherein the on-screen pointing location pointed to by the television control device is determined by the television control device based on the energies of the plurality of signals.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the emission is imperceptible to a user.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the emission is a light emission at a light frequency that is imperceptible to the user.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein the emission is an acoustic emission at an acoustic frequency that is imperceptible to the user.

19. The method of claim 15 wherein the plurality of sensors are located on the screen of the television.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the plurality of sensors are overlaid on the screen of the television.

21. The method of claim 15 wherein the plurality of sensors are located on an off-screen portion of the television.

22. The method of claim 15 wherein the plurality of sensors are located on the television receiver.

23. The method of claim 15 wherein the plurality of sensors are located on the at least one speaker.

24. The method of claim 15 wherein the plurality of signals are transmitted to the television control device over a communication link that is independent of a communication link over which television control information is communicated between the television and the television control device.

25. The method of claim 15 wherein the plurality of signals are transmitted to the television control device over a communication link over which video information is communicated between the television and the television control device.

26. The method of claim 15 wherein the on-screen pointing location pointed to by the television control device is determined further based on temporal differences or phase differences between arrivals at the television control device of each signal of the plurality of signals.

27. The method of claim 15 wherein the on-screen pointing location pointed to by the television control device is determined further based on temporal differences or phase differences between arrivals at the plurality of sensors of the emission.

30. The method of claim 27 wherein the temporal differences or phase differences are processed to determine the location of the television control device relative to the plurality of sensors.

28. A television control device comprising:

an emission source operable to transmit an emission to a screen of a television, wherein the television is operable to present television programming on the screen;

at least one communication interface operable to receive a plurality of signals, each signal of the plurality of signals corresponding to each of a plurality of sensors located on at least one of the television, a television receiver, or at least one speaker, and each signal indicates an amount of energy incident on the corresponding sensor; and

a processor in communication with the at least one communication interface, the processor operable to determine an on-screen pointing location pointed to by the television control device based on the energies of the plurality of signals.

31. The device of claim 28 wherein the processor is further operable to determine the on-screen pointing location based on temporal differences of a timing of arrival of each signal of the plurality of signals upon arrival to the plurality of sensors.

32. The device of claim 28 wherein the processor is further operable to determine the on-screen pointing location based on a phase of each signal of the plurality of signals upon arrival to the plurality of sensors.