Specialized media presentation via an electronic program guide (EPG)

• US 7,962,938 B2
• Filed: 04/27/2004
• Issued: 06/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Barrett, Peter T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hirl; Joseph P
• Assistant Examiner(s): Rabovianski; Jivka
• Application Number:
  US10/833,709
• Publication Number:
  US 20050240964A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,604 Days
• Field of Search: 725/132, 725/51, 725/53
• US Class Current: 725/51
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/426 Internal components of the client ; Characteristics thereof H04N5/44 takes precedence
• 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 21/4722 for requesting additional data associated with the content
• 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 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4821 using a grid, e.g. sorted out by channel and broadcast time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4828 for searching program descriptors retrieval of video data G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6175 involving transmission via Internet broadcast-related systems characterised by the transmission system being the Internet H04H60/82
• 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 21/8153 comprising still images, e.g. texture, background image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8405 represented by keywords
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

An electronic program guide (EPG) is enhanced to have entries that enable access to one or more images. When an image-related entry is selected by a user, a television-based device presents the one or more images that are associated with the selected entry. In a described search-related implementation, portions of the EPG, such as actors and actresses names, are presented as links. Selection of a link effectuates a search of a group of files and is followed by the visual presentation of a slide show of images resulting from the search. In a described email-related implementation, a third party can email images to an email address that is associated with the television-based device. In response to the emailed images, an image entry is added to the channel lineup of the EPG. Selection of the image entry causes the device to visually present the emailed images in a slide show.

Claims

1. A client device comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory;

a search effectuator, maintained in the memory and executable on the one or more processors, to formulate a search request in response to selection of a link that is visually displayed in an electronic program guide (EPG) generated by an EPG application stored in the memory and implemented by the one or more processors of the client device, the search effectuator sending the search request to a search service;

a link target monitor, maintained in the memory and executable on the one or more processors, to monitor a selector of the EPG to detect when the link visually displayed in the EPG is selected based on input from a user; and

a search results scrubber, maintained in the memory and executable on the one or more processors, to scrub search results received in response to the search request by extracting images from the search results to provide a slideshow of the images extracted from the search results for presentation on an associated display screen.

2. The client device as recited in claim 1, further comprising a scrubbed results presenter that presents the slideshow of images extracted from the search results as scrubbed search results on the associated display screen.

3. The client device as recited in claim 2, wherein the scrubbed results presenter comprises a slideshow viewer for presenting the images extracted from the search results as the slideshow in response to selection of the link.

4. The client device as recited in claim 1, the search request comprising at least one word taken from the selected link used as a keyword in the search request.

5. The client device as recited in claim 1, wherein the search effectuator sends the search request to the search service through a television network to a television network server, which forwards the search request over a general network to the search service.

6. The client device as recited in claim 5, wherein:

the general network comprises the internet, and the search service comprises a third party search engine; and

the search effectuator formulates the search request in accordance with the third party search engine by including an indication that an image search is requested.

7. The client device as recited in claim 1, wherein the search results scrubber parses the search results according to image tags in the search results to extract the images from the search results.

8. The client device as recited in claim 7, wherein the search results scrubber transforms the parsed search results from a first format including images and text into a second format for presentation of the extracted images as the slideshow.

9. The client device as recited in claim 7, wherein the first format comprises a hypertext markup language (html) format, and the second format comprises an extensible markup language (xml) format.

10. An arrangement for media access via an electronic program guide (EPG) in conjunction with a search, the arrangement comprising:

effectuation means, stored in memory and executable on one or more processors, for formulating a search request in response to selection of a link that is visually displayed in the EPG, the effectuation means transmitting the search request to a search service;

monitor means, stored in memory and executable on one or more processors, for monitoring link targets of the EPG to detect when the link visually displayed in the EPG is selected by user input; and

scrub means, stored in the memory and executable on the one or more processors, for extracting images from search results resulting from the search to produce scrubbed search results in an accessible format by extracting the images from the search results to provide a slideshow of the images extracted from the search results for presentation on an associated display screen.

11. The arrangement as recited in claim 10, further comprising:

presentation means for presenting on the associated display screen the scrubbed search results as produced by the scrub means in the accessible format.

12. The arrangement as recited in claim 10, wherein the effectuation means comprises:

formulation means for formulating the search request using at least part of a the selected link displayed in the EPG as a keyword in the search request.

13. The arrangement as recited in claim 10, wherein:

the effectuation means comprises transmission means for transmitting the search request that is related to the selected link over a television network to a server, which forwards the search request to the search service; and

the search request includes an indication to the search service that an image search is requested.

14. The arrangement as recited in claim 10, wherein the scrub means comprises:

parse means for parsing the search results to identify image tags in the search results; and

transformation means for transforming the parsed search results from a first format including images and text into a second format for presentation of the extracted images as the slideshow.

15. The arrangement as recited in claim 10, wherein the arrangement comprises at least one of:

one or more processor-accessible storage media;

or

at least one device.

16. One or more processor-accessible storage media wherein the storage media is not transmission media, comprising processor-executable instructions that, when executed, direct a client device to perform actions comprising:

generating, by the client device, an electronic program guide (EPG) displaying a plurality of television channel entries, the EPG comprising at least one link that is visually displayed in association with one of the television channel entries;

receiving a selection of the at least one link;

effectuating a search of a group of files responsive to the selection of the at least one link;

receiving search results from the effectuated search, the search results in a first format; and

scrubbing the search results in the first format to identify images or links to images in the search results to produce scrubbed search results in a second format by extracting the images from the search results to provide a slideshow of the images extracted from the search results for presentation on an associated display screens.

17. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 16, wherein the action of effectuating comprises actions of:

formulating a search request using the selected at least one link to determine at least one keyword; and

sending the search request to a search service with an indication that the search is an image search.

18. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 17, wherein:

the at least one keyword comprises at least part of a name of an actor or an actress; and

the action of sending comprises an action of sending the search request to the search service through a television network and over the internet.

19. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 16, wherein:

the action of scrubbing comprises actions of;

parsing the search results in the first format to identify image tags in the search results to produce parsed search results; and

transforming the parsed search results from a first format including images and text to produce parsed and transformed search results comprising the images or links to images in the second format; and

the processor-executable instructions, when executed, direct the client device to perform a further action comprising presenting the parsed and transformed search results on the display screen from a file in the second format.

20. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 16, wherein the scrubbed search results comprise uniform resource locators (URLs) for the images or links to images identified.

21. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 16, wherein:

the scrubbed search results comprise multiple image files; and

the processor-executable instructions, when executed, direct the client device to perform a further action comprising presenting the multiple image files on a display screen by employing a slideshow mechanism to display the multiple images as search results in response to the selection of the at least one link.

22. The one or more processor-accessible storage media as recited in claim 16, wherein the one or more processor-accessible media comprise one or more storage media.

23. A method comprising:

displaying an electronic program guide (EPG) having at least one linked name that is visually displayed within the EPG;

monitoring a selector of the EPG to detect if the at least one linked name that is visually displayed is selected;

if the at least one linked name is selected;

effectuating a search with a search service using a search request, the search request comprising at least part of the at least one linked name as a search term for the search and an indication that an image search is requested;

receiving search results in a first format as a result of effectuating the image search;

identifying images in the search results in the first format to produce search results in a second format, the second format providing the images as a slideshow; and

presenting the search results in the second format as the slideshow of the images on a display screen in response to selection of the at least one linked name.

24. The method as recited in claim 23, wherein the effectuating comprises:

sending the search request over the internet to a third party search engine comprising the search service.

25. The method as recited in claim 23, wherein the scrubbing comprises:

parsing the search results in the first format to extract images or links to images; and

transforming the images or links to images to a second format for presentation as the slideshow.

26. A television-based client device comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory;

an electronic program guide (EPG) application, stored in the memory and executed on the one or more processors of the television-based client device, to generate an EPG to display a plurality of channel entries, the channel entries listing programs available for viewing through the television-based client device, the EPG visually displaying at least one selectable link in at least one channel entry;

a search effectuator, stored in the memory and executable on the one or more processors, to effectuate an image search in response to selection by a user of the at least one selectable link visually displayed in at least one channel entry as part of the EPG, the search effectuator formulating a search request based on the link selected by the user and sending the search request over a network to a search service, the search request comprising at least a portion of the selected link used as a keyword in the search request and an indication that an image search is requested;

a link target monitor, stored in the memory and executable on the one or more processors, to monitor a selector of the EPG to detect when the link that is visually displayed in the individual channel entry of the EPG is being selected based on input from the user;

a search results scrubber, stored in the memory and executable on the one or more processors, to scrub search results received in response to the search by extracting images from the search results based on image tags in the search results to provide a slideshow of the images extracted from the search results for presentation on an associated display screen; and

a scrubbed results presenter for presenting the images extracted from the search results as the slideshow on the display screen in response to the link being selected.