Broadcast receiving apparatus and method for providing widget service thereof

• US 9,392,207 B2
• Filed: 11/20/2009
• Issued: 07/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Yim, Jin-ho, Shin, Seung-chul, Song, Sang-gon
• Primary Examiner(s): CHEN, CAI Y
• Application Number:
  US12/622,552
• Publication Number:
  US 20100165201A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,426 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/488 Data services, e.g. news ticker systems specially adapted for using meteorological information in broadcast systems H04H60/71
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8126 involving additional data, e.g. news, sports, stocks, weather forecasts

Abstract

A method for providing a widget service in a broadcast receiving apparatus is provided. A method for providing the widget service includes operations of receiving widget information, and displaying on a picture-in-picture (PIP) screen at least part of all the received widget information which is to be fitted to the PIP screen, upon occurrence of a preset or trigger event. Therefore, it is possible for a user to construct a sub-screen for providing a widget service by selecting only part of widget information forming the entire display screen rather than reducing the size of the entire display screen.

Claims

1. A method for providing a widget service in a display apparatus, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of widget items corresponding to the widget service corresponding to a single channel;

arranging the plurality of widget items;

displaying the arranged plurality of widget items in an area on a screen of the display apparatus;

receiving a user command for changing a size of the area;

determining a subset of the plurality of widget items, in response to the user command;

rearranging the determined subset of the plurality of widget items; and

displaying the rearranged subset of the plurality of widget items in the size-changed area,

wherein at least one of the receiving and the displaying is performed using a processor, and

wherein a number of widget items included in the determined subset is less than a number of widget items included in the plurality of widget items, and is determined based on the size of the size-changed area.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

providing a user interface (UI) window through which a user selects at least one widget item, from among the received plurality of widget items, to use in constructing the size-changed area.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

requesting at least one widget item which is to be fitted to the size-changed area.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the receiving the plurality of widget items comprises receiving all widget items, and

the determining comprises selecting at least one widget item to be fitted to the size-changed area from among all the received widget items, and the rearranging comprises rearranging the selected at least one widget item according to a size of the size-changed area.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the plurality of widget items is received in Markup Language from an external server or hub site.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

if a size of the size-changed area is changed, then

extracting, from the received plurality of widget items, at least one widget item to be fitted to the size-changed area of which the size has been changed, and

displaying the extracted at least one widget item on the size-changed area.

7. A method for providing a widget service in a display apparatus, the method comprising:

allocating a widget service to an available channel to create a widget service channel;

receiving a user command for changing a size of a display area in a screen of the display apparatus;

determining a subset of a plurality of widget items in the size-changed area, extracted from all of the plurality of widget items required to provide the widget service, in response to the user command, the plurality of widget items corresponding to a single channel;

rearranging the determined subset of the plurality of widget items; and

displaying the rearranged subset of the plurality of widget items in the size-changed area,

wherein at least one of the allocating, the extracting and the displaying is performed using a processor, and

wherein a number of widget items included in the determined subset is less than a number of widget items included in the plurality of widget items, and is determined based on the size of the size-changed area.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the command relates to when the size-changed area for displaying the widget service is executed or when a channel of the size-changed area is changed from a general broadcast channel to the widget service channel.

9. The method as claimed in claim 7, further comprising:

providing a user interface (UI) window through which a user selects at least one widget item, from among all the plurality of widget items, to use in constructing the size-changed area.

10. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the plurality of widget items is received in Markup Language from an external server or hub site.

11. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the displaying comprises displaying a plurality of size-changed areas, and

widget items enough to fill each of the plurality of size-changed areas appears on each of the plurality of size-changed areas.

12. The method as claimed in claim 7, further comprising:

if a size of the size-changed area is changed, then

re-extracting, from the all widget items required to provide the widget service, at least one widget item to be fitted to the size-changed area of which the size has been changed, and

displaying the re-extracted information on the size-changed area.

13. A display apparatus comprising:

a receiver which receives a plurality of widget items which is arranged and displayed in an area on a screen of the display apparatus, and which receives a user command for changing a size of the area, the plurality of widget items corresponding to a single channel; and

a display unit which determines a subset of the received plurality of widget items, in response to the user command, and which rearranges the determined subset of the plurality of widget items and displays the rearranged subset of the plurality of widget items in the size-changed area,

wherein a number of widget items included in the determined subset is less than a number of widget items included in the plurality of widget items, and is determined based on the size of the size-changed area.

14. The display apparatus as claimed in claim 13, further comprising:

a user interface (UI) unit which provides a UI window through which a user selects at least one widget item, from among the received plurality of widget items, to use in constructing the size-changed area.

15. The display apparatus as claimed in claim 13, wherein the plurality of widget items is received in Markup Language from an external server or hub site.

16. The display apparatus as claimed in claim 13, further comprising:

a controller which allocates a widget service to an available channel to create a widget service channel; and

a scanning unit which scans channels,

wherein, if there is the available channel among the scanned channels, the controller allocates the widget service to the available channel to create the widget service channel.

17. The display apparatus as claimed in claim 13, wherein, if a size of the size-changed area is changed, the display unit displays at least one widget item to be fitted to the size-changed area of which the size has been changed.