User interface system

• US 20030151621A1
• Filed: 09/27/2002
• Published: 08/14/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Alcatel SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Vers, Tudor, Steele, Martyn, Chamberlain, Matthew, Upendran, Manish, Bettelheim, Richard, McEvilly, Chris
• Application Number:
  US10/260,256
• Publication Number:
  US 20030151621A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/744
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2543 Billing , e.g. for subscription services payment schemes, architectures or protocols G06Q20/00; e-commerce G06Q30/00; arrangements for billing for the use of broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/21
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25866 Management of end-user data customer care in data networks H04L41/5077
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; 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 21/441 Acquiring end-user identification , e.g. using personal code sent by the remote control or by inserting a card
• 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 21/454 Content or additional data filtering, e.g. blocking advertisements
• 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 21/47202 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 21/4786 e-mailing message switching systems, e.g. electronic mail systems H04L51/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• 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 and method for providing a user with access to a plurality of television services and content from a number of remote servers and that provides the user with access to the desired service and content through a graphical interface that is customisable and personalised for each user. In one embodiment, the system includes application components, a database component, one or more user interface servers and one or more user devices. The application components provide the user with their services such as, for example, electronic programme guide service, video on demand service, world wide web access, electronic mail etc. These systems retrieve and provide the content that is accessed and ultimately delivered to the user for viewing and interactivity. The database component contains user profile data and usage information as well as content and formatting data. The user interface server accesses data from the database component and from the application components and processes the data to generate the personalised user interface, personalised electronic programme guide and application content for delivery to the user device through the data network.

Claims

1. An interactive television system comprising:

a plurality of user devices each including a web browser, a frame buffer, a UI memory, a user data memory, and a GUI assembler; and

a plurality of servers coupled to the plurality of user devices,

wherein a personalized graphical user interface is generated by the GUI assembler from generic data received from the server and user specific data from the UI memory.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the UI memory includes at least one hidden frame, the hidden frame including data and code, and wherein the GUI assembler constructs the graphical user interface according to the data and code of the hidden frame.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the user specific data is loaded into UI memory during an initialisation process.

4. A method of rendering a personalized graphical user interface, the method comprising:

receiving generic data relating to an application at a GUI assembler associated with a user device;

retrieving user specific data from a user data memory associated with the user device;

retrieving a guideline from a UI memory associated with a user device, the guideline specifying a look and feel of the graphical user interface; and

assembling a personalized graphical user interface according to the guideline based on the user specific data and the generic data.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the guideline is specified by an instruction received from an application server, the guideline corresponding to a graphical user interface for the application provided by the application server transmitting the instruction.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the guideline is to specify a look and feel for a plurality of applications.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the guideline is loaded into the UI memory during a bootstrap process.

8. A method of generating a personalized graphical user interface in an interactive TV system, comprising:

receiving an input at a user device from a remote control operated by a user, the input specifying a request to display information different from information contained in a first graphical user interface being presented to the user;

sending a request from the user device to a web interface server for generic information relating to at least one application;

receiving the generic information relating to the at least one application at the user device from a web interface server;

retrieving at least one instruction from a UI memory associated with the user device, the at least one instruction corresponding to a display of generic information in a second graphical user interface; and

assembling the second graphical user interface on the user device according to the at least one instruction retrieved from the UI memory and the generic information received from the web interface server.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising transmitting the second graphical user interface to a display device.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the application is a broadcast television application.

11. A user device for an interactive television system, the user device comprising:

a local memory to store user specific data; and

an assembler to generate a personalized graphical user interface utilizing generic data received from a server over network and the user specific data retrieved from the local memory.

12. The user device of claim 11, including a display application to receive the personalized graphical user interface from the assembler, and to cause display of the personalized graphical user interface on a display device associated with the user device.

13. The user device of claim 12, wherein the display application is a web browser.

14. The user device of claim 12, wherein the display device is a television.

15. The user device of claim 14, including a frame buffer, the display application to communicate the personalized graphical user interface to the frame buffer for display on the television.

16. The user device of claim 12, wherein the assembler is loaded into the display application.

17. The user device of claim 11, including a network interface to receive the generic data from the server over the network.

18. The user device of claim 11, wherein the assembler is to generate the personalized graphical user interface utilizing a guideline that specifies a look and feel of the personalized graphical user interface.

19. The user device of claim 18, wherein the assembler is to retrieve the guideline from the local memory.

20. The user device of claim 19, wherein the local memory includes a user interface memory to store the guideline and a user data memory to store the user specific data.

21. A user device for an interactive television system, the user device comprising:

storage means for storing user specific data; and

generation means for generating a personalized graphical user interface utilizing generic data received from a server over network and the user specific data retrieved from the storage means.

22. The user device of claim 21, wherein the generation means is for generating the personalized graphical user interface utilizing a guideline that specifies a look and feel of the personalized graphical user interface.

23. The user device of claim 22, wherein the generation means is for retrieving the guideline from the local memory.

24. An interactive television system comprising:

a user device including a memory, and a user interface assembler; and

a server, coupled to the user device via a network, to provide generic data to the user device via the network,

wherein a personalized graphical user interface is generated by the user interface assembler from the generic data received from the server and user specific data from the memory.

25. A machine-readable medium storing a set of instructions that, when executed by a machine, causes the machine to perform a method including:

receiving generic data relating to an application at an assembler associated with a user device;

retrieving user specific data from a memory associated with the user device;

retrieving a guideline from the memory associated with a user device, the guideline specifying a look and feel of q graphical user interface; and

assembling the graphical user interface according to the guideline based on the user specific data and the generic data.

26. A machine-readable medium storing a set of instructions that, when executed by a machine, causes the machine to perform a method including:

receiving an input at a user device from a remote control operated by a user, the input specifying a request to display information different from information contained in a first graphical user interface being presented to the user;

sending a request from the user device to a server for generic information relating to at least one application;

receiving the generic information relating to the at least one application at the user device from the server;

retrieving at least one instruction from a memory associated with the user device, the at least one instruction corresponding to a display of the generic information in a second graphical user interface; and

assembling the second graphical user interface on the user device according to the at least one instruction retrieved from the memory and the generic information received from the server.