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

• US 20040226051A1
• Filed: 07/29/2003
• Published: 11/11/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alex Chung, David Brandyberry, David D.E. Andrade, Greg Thomson, John Carney, Lena Chane, Leon Franzen, Matt Marenghi, Prakash Hegde, Ruth Dawson, Sithampara Babu Niranjan, Viva Chu
• Original Assignee: TVWorks LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Inventors: Andrade, David de, Carney, John, Hegde, Prakash, Chung, Alex, Chane, Lena, Thomson, Greg, Brandyberry, David, Marenghi, Matt, Chu, Viva, Franzen, Leon, Dawson, Ruth, Niranjan, Sithampara Babu
• Granted Patent: US 8,413,205 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/135
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23617 by inserting additional data into a data carousel, e.g. inserting software modules into a DVB carousel arrangements for broadcast or for distribution of identical information repeatedly in broadcast distribution systems H04H20/16
• 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 21/25891 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 21/2668 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 21/4349 by extracting from data carousels, e.g. extraction of software modules from a DVB carousel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4438 Window management, e.g. event handling following interaction with the user interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• 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 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4781 Games
• 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 21/488 Data services, e.g. news ticker systems specially adapted for using meteorological information in broadcast systems H04H60/71
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• 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

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 including an operator-deployed application management system 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 including an operator-deployed application management system 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 1 wherein the authoring specification comprises an extensible markup language (XML) authoring specification.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the presentation of content is accommodated through one or more templates defined within the XML authoring specification.

7. 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.

8. The system of claim 7 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.

9. The system of claim 8 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.

10. The system of claim 9 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.

11. The sytem of claim 10 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.

12. The system of claim 10 where the server component presents a view of the programmable opportunities for automated control of individual programming opportunities or groups of programming opportunities.

13. The system of claim 9 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.

14. The system of claim 9 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.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the iTV applications are configured to respond in a subscriber-specific manner to user interactions with the iTV applications.

16. The system of claim 8 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.

17. 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.

18. 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.