System and method for construction, delivery and display of iTV content

• US 20040003400A1
• Filed: 03/14/2003
• Published: 01/01/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications Management LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Original Assignee: TVWorks LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Inventors: Carney, John, Hegde, Prakash, Chung, Alex, Chane, Lena, Thomson, Greg, Brandyberry, David, Marenghi, Matt, Chu, Viva, Franzen, Leon, Dawson, Ruth, Niranjan, Sithampara Babu, Andrade, David de
• Granted Patent: US 8,042,132 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/42
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4437 Implementing a Virtual Machine [VM] virtual machines in general G06F9/45533
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4438 Window management, e.g. event handling following interaction with the user interface
• 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 21/4622 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 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47214 for content reservation or setting reminders; for requesting event notification, e.g. of sport results or stock market stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; notification of incoming messages in packet switching networks H04L51/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• 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 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• 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 21/8543 using a description language, e.g. Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Expert Group [MHEG], eXtensible Markup Language [XML] information retrieval of semistructured data, the underlying structure being taken into account, e.g. mark-up language structure data G06F16/80
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8545 for generating interactive applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/45 Picture in picture , e.g. displaying simultaneously another television channel in a region of the screen
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/165 Centralised control of user terminal subsequent to an upstream request signal H04N7/17345; Registering at central by two-way working H04N7/17309
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

iTV content is created and deployed using a server component adapted to allow content developers to create applications according to an authoring specification that describes a framework for same; a transport component configured to optimize and deliver the aplications to one or more clients; and a client component adapted to render the applications through a television so as to permit user interaction therewith. The authoring specification provides for the presentation of content through one or more templates defined therein, allowing application definition and behavior to remain common across multiple client device types, middleware platforms, and/or iTV operating environments. The framework for applications accommodates advertising, promotions, content placement packages and/or programming campaign definitions, so as to permit a selection of a specific advertisement, promotion or content at a time of preparation of the iTV content by the server, and/or a time of execution of the applications by the client.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a server component adapted to allow content developers to create interactive television (iTV) applications, in which there is a separation of application behavior from content and business rules, according to an authoring specification that describes a framework for the iTV applications;

a transport component configured to optimize the iTV applications from the server component and to deliver the iTV applications to one or more client devices; and

a client component resident on at least one of the client devices and adapted to render the iTV applications through a television so as to permit user interaction with the iTV applications.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the iTV applications comprise one or more of (a) interactive program guides, (b) television menus, (c) content services, (d) virtual channels, (e) video on demand applications, (f) personal video recorder applications, (g) broadcast on demand applications, (h) enhanced television services applications, (i) help, (j) customer support, (k) self service, (l) games, or (m) data service applications.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the client component comprises a software module resident in a memory of the at least one of the client devices, the software module being one of:

a Java applet, a C applet, a C++ applet, or a C# applet.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the client component is adapted to download the iTV applications delivered by the transport component in response to user input.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the transport component includes a broadcast carousel and the client component is further adapted to download the iTV applications from the broadcast carousel in response to the user input.

6. The system of claim 3 wherein the client component is adapted to load the iTV applications from memory in response to user input.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the transport component includes a broadcast carousel and the client component is further adapted to download the iTV applications from the broadcast carousel in response to the user input.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the authoring specification comprises an extensible markup language (XML) authoring specification.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the presentation of content is accommodated through one or more templates defined within the XML authoring specification.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the server component is configured to apply one or more business rules in preparing the iTV applications for delivery to the transport component.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the framework for iTV applications accommodates advertising, promotions, content placement packages and/or programming campaign definitions, so as to permit a selection of a specific advertisement, promotion or content at a time of preparation of the iTV content by the server component, and/or a time of execution of the iTV applications by the client component, such selection being made according to one or more business rules.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the one or more business rules comprise rules for placing and/or automating product offerings, promotions, advertising campaigns, VOD, broadcast-on-demand, transactional opportunities, and/or other types of content across disparate television services.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the iTV applications are tagged in a manner such that the iTV applications present all placement opportunities across all applications as a set of programmable opportunities.

14. The sytem of claim 13 wherein a programmable opportunity is any location or set of locations within the iTV applications where content may be placed, said content including advertisements, promotions, data including text images and/or video, or another application.

15. The system of claim 13 where the server component presents a view of the programmable opportunities for automated control of individual programming opportunities or groups of programming opportunities.

16. The system of claim 12 wherein the rules for placing and/or automating product offerings accommodate multiple selection criteria chosen from the list including:

location, current channel, current channel family, current channel category, time of day, offering category, current program, current program genre, current iTV application, current content type, and subscriber profile.

17. The system of claim 12 wherein the one or more business rules accommodate subscriber-specific rules according to a subscriber profile associated with a particular one of the client devices upon which the client component is resident.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the iTV applications are configured to respond in a subscriber-specific manner to user interactions with the iTV applications.

19. The system of claim 1 wherein the application definition and behavior is common across multiple client device types.

20. The system of claim 1 wherein the application definition and behavior is common across multiple middleware platforms.

21. The system of claim 1 wherein the application definition and behavior is common across multiple iTV operating environments.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein the application definition and behavior is further common across multiple different client device types.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein each of the multiple different client device types comprises a set top box and one or more iTV operating environments.

24. The system of claim 22 wherein each of the multiple different client device types comprises a set top box and one or more middleware platforms.

25. The system of claim 11 wherein the business rules are selected at one of the following instances:

dynamically at the time of execution of the iTV applications, or at the time of application creation.

26. The system of claim 1, wherein the framework for iTV application definition accommodates business rules, so as to permit a selection and use of a specific business rule at a time of execution of the iTV applications.

27. The system of claim 1, wherein the framework for iTV application definition accommodates an application profile definition, defined by a set of capabilities that correspond to a set of actions in the authoring specification, which provides a common model for provisioning, managing, deploying, advertising, commerce, layout, animation, events and navigation, dynamic data insertion, and optimization of the iTV applications across different iTV operating environments.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein each of the different iTV operating environments includes content distribution platforms and set top boxes having resident iTV middleware.

29. A method, comprising:

broadcasting, using an interactive television (iTV) transport component, iTV applications rendered according to an aothouring specification which describes a framework for iTV application definition and behavior that is common across multiple different client device types and iTV operating environments; and

rendering the iTV applications using a client component and through a television so as to permit user interaction with the iTV applications.

30. The method of claim 29 further comprising executing one or more business rules when rendering the iTV applications.

31. The method of claim 29 wherein the authoring specification comprises an extensible markup language (XML) schema.

32. The method of claim 31 wherein the iTV applications comprise one or more of (a) interactive program guides, (b) television menus, (c) content services, (d) virtual channels, (e) video on demand applications, (f) personal video recorder applications, (g) broadcast on demand applications, (h) enhanced television services applications, or (i) help, (j) customer support, (k) self service, or (l) data service applications.

33. The method of claim 31 wherein the transport component broadcasts the iTV applications using one of a broadcast carousel or a two-way back channel.

34. The method of claim 31 wherein the transport component broadcasts the iTV applications within a channel other than a carousel.

35. The method of claim 31 wherein the XML schema is adapted to separate data, business rules and a layout event model through one or more templates defined within the XML schema.

36. The method of claim 31 wherein the iTV applications are rendered by applying one or more business rules to the iTV applications and executing the iTV applications in accordance therewith to cause the television to display content associated with the iTV applications.

37. The method of claim 36 wherein the one or more business rules comprise rules for placing and/or automating product offerings, promotions, advertising campaigns, and/or transactional opportunities across disparate television services.

38. The method of claim 37 wherein the rules for placing and/or automating product offerings accommodate multiple selection criteria chosen from the list including:

location, current channel, current channel family, current channel category, time of day, offering category, current program, current program genre, current iTV application, current content type, and subscriber profile.

39. The method of claim 37 wherein the one or more business rules accommodate subscriber-specific rules according to a subscriber profile.

40. The method of claim 31 wherein the iTV applications are configured to respond in a subscriber-specific manner to user interactions with the iTV applications.

41. The method of claim 31 wherein the framework for iTV application definition accommodates advertising, promotions, content placement packages and/or campaign definitions, so as to permit a selection of a specific advertisement at a time of execution of the iTV applications by the client component, such selection being made according to a business rule.

42. The method of claim 41 wherein the business rule is selected dynamically at the time of execution of the iTV applications, or at server side packaging time prior to broadcast or back channel response

43. The method of claim 31, wherein the framework for iTV application definition accommodates business rules, so as to permit a selection and use of a specific business rule at a time of execution of the iTV applications.

44. The method of claim 31, wherein the framework for iTV application definition accommodates an application profile definition, defined by a set of capabilities that correspond to a set of actions in the XML schema that provides a common model for provisioning, managing, deploying, advertising, commerce, layout, animation, events and navigation, dynamic data insertion, and optimization of the iTV applications across the different iTV operating environments.

45. The method of claim 30 wherein the iTV applications are rendered by applying one or more business rules to the iTV applications and executing the iTV applications in accordance therewith to cause the television to display content associated with the iTV applications.

46. A method, comprising executing an optimized version of an interactive television (iTV) application originally written in accordance with an authoring specification that describes a framework for iTV application definition and behavior, in which application behavior is separated from content and business rules, so as to render the iTV application through a television.

47. The method of claim 46 wherein the iTV application definition and behavior is common across multiple different client device types and iTV operating environments.

48. The method of claim 46 wherein the authoring specification comprises an extensible markup language (XML) authoring specification.

49. The method of claim 46 further comprising rendering the iTV application according to user input via a client device upon which the iTV application is executed.

50. The method of claim 46 wherein the optimized version of the iTV application is created by a server component that packages and optimizes applications in a format targetable to multiple set top devices and iTV operating environments.

51. The method of claim 50 wherein the iTV application is tagged in a manner such that the iTV application presents all placement opportunities as a set of programmable opportunities.

52. The method of claim 51 wherein a programmable opportunity is any location or set of locations within the iTV application where content may be placed, said content including advertisements, promotions, data including text images and/or video, or another application.

53. The method of claim 51 wherein the server component presents a view of the programmable opportunities for automated control of individual programming opportunities or groups of programming opportunities.

54. The method of claim 46, wherein the iTV application is executed in accordance with one or more business rules.

55. The method of claim 54 wherein the one or more business rules comprise rules for placing and/or automating product offerings, promotions, advertising campaigns, and/or transactional opportunities across disparate television services accessible via a client device upon which the iTV application is executed.

56. The method of claim 55 wherein the rules for placing and/or automating product offerings accommodate multiple selection criteria chosen from the list including:

location, current channel, current channel family, current channel category, time of day, offering category, current program, current program genre, current iTV application, current content type, and subscriber profile.

57. The method of claim 54 wherein the one or more business rules accommodate subscriber-specific rules according to a subscriber profile.

58. The method of claim 46 wherein the iTV application is configured to respond in a subscriber-specific manner to user interactions with the iTV application.

59. A method for construction, delivery and display of television (TV) applications, data and business rules (TV Content), comprising:

constructing the TV Content according to one or more business rules and an authoring specification that describes a framework for the TV Content in which there is a separation of application behavior from content and business rules;

optimizing the TV Content and delivering the TV Content to one or more client devices

rendering the TV Content through the one or more client devices so as to display the TV applications and data on TVs associated therewith.

60. The method of claim 59 wherein the TV Content comprises an extensible markup language (XML) format prior to being optimized.

61. The method of claim 59, wherein the authoring specification comprises an extensible markup language (XML) authoring specification.

62. The method of claim 61, wherein the XML authoring specification describes a common application framework for application definition and behavior across multiple client device types and operating environments.

63. The method of claim 62, wherein the TV Content represents a unified TV application system for delivering multiple TV services, such as one or more of (a) interactive program guides, (b) television menus, (c) content services, (d) virtual channels, (e) video on demand applications, (f) personal video recorder applications, (g) broadcast on demand applications, (h) enhanced television services applications, (i) help, (j) customer support, (k) self service, or (l) data service applications.

64. The method of claim 63, wherein the TV Content is harvested from a multiplicity of sources through local authoring and management user interfaces according to a schedule configured according to the one or more business rules.

65. The method of claim 64, wherein harvested TV Content is categorized and stored in a catalog.

66. The method of claim 65, wherein the TV Content is delivered to the client by executing business rules according to a schedule to generate the TV applications, dynamic data and business rules.

67. The method of claim 66, wherein the one or more business rules are created for delivery in broadcast and in response to 2-way requests.

68. The method of claim 67, wherein the one or more business rules provide a method to place and automate product offerings, promotions, and transactional opportunities in a unified manner across the TV services.

69. The method of claim 67, wherein the one or more business rules provide a method to place offerings according to multiple selection rules such as location, current channel, current channel family, current channel category, time-of-day, offering category, current program, current program genre, current application, current content type, and subscriber profile.

70. The method of claim 67, wherein the one or more business rules provide a method to target the selected offerings to the client devices in response to a two-way request, such that a selected offering, data or action is further selected according to subscriber profiles of the client devices.

71. The method of claim 67, wherein the one or more business rules provide a method to place and automate advertising campaigns in a unified manner across the TV services.

72. The method of claim 61, wherein the application, data and business rules corresponding to a particular service are delivered as separate packages according to a set of the one or more business rules.

73. The method of claim 59 wherein the one or more business rules comprise rules for placing and/or automating product offerings, promotions, advertising campaigns, and/or transactional opportunities across disparate television services.

74. The method of claim 73 wherein the TV Content is tagged in a manner such that the TV applications present all placement opportunities across all applications as a set of programmable opportunities.

75. The method of claim 74 wherein a programmable opportunity is any location or set of locations within the TV applications where content may be placed, said content including advertisements, promotions, data including text images and/or video, or another application.