1404 results about "Electronic program guide" patented technology

An intelligent electronic appliance preferably includes a user interface, data input and / or output port, and an intelligent processor. A preferred embodiment comprises a set top box for interacting with broadband media streams, with an adaptive user interface, content-based media processing and / or media metadata processing, and telecommunications integration. An adaptive user interface models the user, by observation, feedback, and / or explicit input, and presents a user interface and / or executes functions based on the user model. A content-based media processing system analyzes media content, for example audio and video, to understand the content, for example to generate content-descriptive metadata. A media metadata processing system operates on locally or remotely generated metadata to process the media in accordance with the metadata, which may be, for example, an electronic program guide, MPEG 7 data, and / or automatically generated format. A set top box preferably includes digital trick play effects, and incorporated digital rights management features.

A system and method for implementing an electronic programming guide that allows a television viewer to access and interact with television scheduling information. The electronic programming guide provides the viewer with a grid which lists channels, titles and show times. To help the viewer locate information about shows the viewer is interested in, the guide can filter the data prior to display. Only the data that meets certain filter criteria will be displayed. The filter criteria are set by the viewer. The filter criteria can be changed by manipulating a variable selection element such as a slider.

An electronic program guide (EPG) organizes and presents programming information to the viewer and allows for creation of queries to facilitate both simple and complex searches of the programming information. According to one aspect, the EPG is configured to automatically identify programs that a viewer is likely to prefer. The EPG collects viewing preferences of a viewer and, based upon the these viewing preferences, automatically develops queries for identifying programs that the viewer is likely to want to watch. The EPG further enables multiple viewers to merge their individual queries into one composite query or to run queries in background to periodically check for programs and notify the viewer when a program is identified. Queries are saved in an EPG database in a hierarchic structure with directories and sub-directories to make it easy for a viewer to organize and retrieve queries. Another aspect concerns creating queries for a channel, network name or program name using a 10-key keypad. The viewer enters digits in the number or name, one digit at a time. With each entry, the viewer might intend to enter a number or letter. The EPG is configured to interpret the data as representing all possible choices, including the number and letters associated with the key. For instance, when a viewer depresses the key with number “5,” the EPG interprets that data to mean “5” or “j” or “k” or “1.” The EPG identifies all programs, channels, and networks which begin with the number or letters. As the viewer continues to enter data, the list of programs, channel, and networks dynamically narrows so that after a few button presses, the viewer is presented with a short list of possible choices.

In a broadcasting system, an electronic program guide (EPG) is used to determine what broadcast program is on a given channel at a given time in a given location. With the particular determined broadcast program as an input, timing offset objects defining interactive content related to the determined broadcast program can be retrieved from a timing offsets database. Each timing offset object specifies a time from the beginning of the program, an act to perform at the time, and a reference to interactive content on which to perform the act at the time. With the reference to the interactive content as an input, an interactive application or other interactive content can be retrieved from an interactive content database. The EPG, the timing offsets database, and the interactive content database may be located logically or physically together or separately, and they may be cached locally or referenced from an external source.

A system for searching for programs is provided. The system may provide the user with an opportunity to indicate an interest in a given program. The system may provide the user with an opportunity to request that the system locate programs that are related to the given program in which the user has indicated an interest. The system may locate program listings that are related to the given program. The located program listings may be related to the given program based on attributes of the given program. The system may display a list of located listings and allow the user to select listings from the list. The system may tune to a program selected from the list, may display an information display screen for a program selected from the list, etc. The system may provide the user with an opportunity to configure and save search parameters. The system may sort related program listings based on the attributes of the given program. The system may provide the user with the opportunity to retrieve saved searches to locate currently available program listings and the opportunity to delete a saved search, rename, a saved search, receive automatic notifications of programs matching a saved search, etc.

A subscriber characterization system is presented in which the subscriber's selections are monitored, including monitoring of the time duration programming is watched, the volume at which the programming is listened to, and any available information regarding the type of programming, including category and sub-category of the programming. The characterization system can extract textual information related to the programming from closed captioning data, electronic program guides, or other text sources associated with the programming. The extracted information is used to form program characteristics vectors. The programming characteristics vectors can be used in combination with the subscriber selection data to form a subscriber profile. Heuristic rules indicating the relationships between programming choices and demographics can be applied to generate additional probabilistic information regarding demographics and programming and product interests.

A method of navigating through television programs is disclosed. A television receiver displays a mosaic image with sub-images representing the available programs. The receiver further receives an electronic program guide with program descriptions. Upon activating a "theme" button (42), the viewer can enter a desired program type, e.g. "movie". In response thereto, the brightness of the sub-images representing programs that are not desired is reduced. The user is thus assisted in navigating through programs he is interested in, while maintaining the mosaic structure he is familiar with, and without losing the association between channels and their positions on the mosaic screen.

An electronic programming guide (EPG) system employs a preference engine and processing system that learns viewers' television watching preferences by monitoring their viewing patterns. The system operates transparently to build a profile of a viewer's tastes. The profile is used to provide services, for example, recommending or automatically recording television programs the viewer might be interested in watching. To permit the personalization of the preferences database, a user interface is provided to allow the user to simulate various kinds of interaction with the system. This allows the system to build a profile rapidly without requiring a long interaction history to personalize the system.

A television viewer uses a PIP format for display of program related information such as television program listings from a program schedule data base in the background and moving, real time images of a program selected from the displayed listings in the PIP window. All the text of the background information lies outside the PIP window. In one embodiment, as the viewer selects a particular program from the display of current television program listings by means of a cursor or a code number, the corresponding program automatically appears in the PIP window.

A TV program selection support system selects only programs suiting viewer's preference or necessary for a viewer from a large number of programs to be broadcast and proposes the selected programs to the viewer. The TV program selection support system comprises a program receiver for receiving broadcast TV programs, an EPG receiver for receiving an electronic program table listing TV programs, an EPG storage device for storing an EPG received by the EPG receiver, an operating means to be operated by the viewer to select a program from the stored electronic program table, a program selection support program for determining viewer's view tendency by analyzing the operation made by the viewer, creating an electronic program table on the basis of the view tendency and displaying the created electronic program table.

An interactive entertainment system enables presentation of supplemental interactive content along side traditional broadcast video programs, such as television shows and movies. The programs are broadcast in a conventional manner. The supplemental content is supplied as part of the same program signal over the broadcast network, or separately over another distribution network. A viewer computing unit is located at the viewer's home to present the program and supplemental content to a viewer. When the viewer tunes to a particular channel, the viewer computing unit consults an electronic programming guide (EPG) to determine if the present program carried on the channel is interactive. If it is, the viewer computing unit launches a browser. The browser uses a target specification stored in the EPG to activate a target resource containing the supplemental content for enhancing the broadcast program. The target resource contains display layout instructions prescribing how the supplemental content and the video content program are to appear in relation to one another when displayed. When the data from the target resource is downloaded, the viewer computing unit is responsive to the layout instructions obtained from the target resource to display the supplemental content concurrently with the video content program. Embedding the layout instructions in the supplemental content advantageously places control of the presentation to the content developers. The developers are free to arrange the data and video in any manner they choose.

A client-server interactive television program guide system is provided. An interactive television program guide client is implemented on user television equipment. The interactive television program guide provides users with an opportunity to define expressions that are processed by the program guide server. The program guide server may provide program guide data, schedules reminders, schedules program recordings, and parentally locks programs based on the expressions. Users' viewing histories may be tracked. The program guide server may analyze the viewing histories and generates viewing recommendations, targets advertising, and collects program ratings information based on the viewing histories.

The invention relates to an apparatus for receiving programs from a plurality of channels, comprising a tuner for tuning to any of the plurality of channels, and an electronic program guide (EPG) for presenting a schedule of the programs. The apparatus comprises virtual channel means for creating a user selectable virtual channel for reproducing selected programs from various genuine channels. The virtual channel means are adapted to control the tuner to tune to a channel currently broadcasting a selected program. When a user selects the virtual channel, the apparatus takes care of automatically switching between the genuine channels broadcasting the programs viewed on the virtual channel. As a consequence, the user can view the desired programs by simply selecting the virtual channel.

An individual can upload media objects to a server and specify a manner in which the media objects are to be played as a media program to an end user. The media program can be provided to the end user via a synthetic channel, which can be tuned to by the end user as if tuning to a conventional television broadcast channel. Information related to the synthetic channel such as media program listings, can be provided in an electronic program guide. If a client terminal of the end user is tuned to the synthetic channel, the media program(s) scheduled by the individual who uploaded the media objects are streamed to the client terminal for viewing by the end user.

A Digital Home Communication Terminal (DHCT) including a plurality of tuners, each of which can select one of a plurality of transmission channels provided by a Digital Broadband Delivery System (DBDS). The multiple tuners enable the DHCT to tune to a plurality of downstream media and data transmissions, thereby allowing a subscriber to tune simultaneously to multiple channels and content transmitted in the downstream transmission via the DBDS, an advantage over conventional DHCTs. The present invention enables subscribers to receive and view multiple channels and associated content, including electronic program guide information, at will. Furthermore, using the multiple-tuner DHCT of the present invention, subscribers can view multiple television stations and program content simultaneously, without degradation to television signals or pictures.

Television schedule information transmission and utilization systems (50A-50D) transmit TV schedule data and associated network control messages provided by computer (54) as packets via the Video Blanking Interval (VBI) lines in the TV signal from various television program providers (51). This data is acquired by regional data processing systems and forwarded by the regional data processing systems to subscriber units (52) and used to construct an internal database. This intern database can be accessed by the subscriber unit (52) to display a TV schedule for the channels that are received by the user's TV.

The system retrieves information from the internet using multiple search engines that are simultaneously launched by the search engine commander. The commander is responsive to a speech-enabled system including a speech recognizer and natural language parser. The user speaks to the system in natural language requests, and the parser extracts the semantic content from the user's speech, based on a set of goal oriented grammars. The preferred system includes a fixed grammar and an updatable or downloaded grammar, allowing the system to be used without extensive training and yet capable of being customized for a particular user's purposes. Results obtained from the search engines are filtered based on information extracted from an electronic program guide and from prestored user profile data. The results may be displayed on screen or through synthesized speech.

In one embodiment, informational messages about the program or channel to which a television receiver is tuned and advertising messages are displayed simultaneously with the current television program.In another embodiment, an EPG is displayed in a composite with an advertising message. Before such display, the microprocessor substitutes a transparency value for the stored background color value used to display the EPG alone in the conventional fashion on a background of a solid color or colors.

Systems and methods are provided for using an electronic program guide application to access a non-program guide application. The electronic program guide application provides a program guide display from which a user can access the non-program guide application. The electronic program guide application receives a user selection to access the non-program guide application from the program guide display. In response to the user selection, the electronic program guide application accesses the non-program guide application.

A program preselecting apparatus is provided. An electronic program guide storing unit stores an electronic program guide made up of a plurality of sets of program information of a plurality of programs, each of the plurality of sets of program information including a time slot, channel number, and content information of a respective program. A preselection criteria storing unit stores a plurality of preselection criteria used for specifying programs to be preselected, each of the plurality of preselection criteria including at least one criterion item which specifies at least the content information. A searching unit searches, according to each of the plurality of preselection criteria, the electronic program guide for a program corresponding to each set of program information that satisfies the criterion items of the preselection criterion. An overlap judging unit judges whether there are programs whose time slots overlap among programs found as a result of the search by the searching unit. A choosing unit chooses, when there are the programs whose time slots overlap, one of the programs with the overlapping time slots. A preselecting unit preselects the chosen program by storing a time slot and channel number of the chosen program.

A non-frame television program guide notification system is provided. The system allows a user at a system to order and receive notifications of non-frame television programs. The user can order notifications by selecting a program or supplying a program title directly. The user can specify when and how often the notifications will be generated and received. If desired, the user can view a list of all currently requested notifications. Entries can be added to the list or the user can cancel a previously ordered notification.

An electronic program guide for the radio (radio EPG) depicts radio programs available via the Internet or analog transmission. The radio EPG displays the programming available for a plurality of radio stations and time slots. The radio EPG is interactive in that a user may select a radio program for immediate playback or future recording. Radio programs are continuously received and cached by the Internet-enabled television system such that a user may be able to select and listen to an earlier-broadcast radio program listed in the radio EPG. The EPG is broadcast using a wireless technology so that mobile devices such as cellular phones, webpads, personal desktop assistants (PDA's), personal stereos, car stereos, and laptop computers with wireless network connections can receive and display the EPG.

Preferred systems and methods are disclosed for navigating among a group or lists of programs, such as in a network terminal (such as a set top box) in a video program distribution system which presents a viewer with an electronic program guide comprising a plurality of program titles wherein the order is determined by a program score used to predict a level of interest for the viewer based in part on extrinsic data provided to the network terminal regarding the viewer's characteristics and attributes. The extrinsic data could be obtained based on the individual viewer's specific attributes, or the demographic attributes of similarly situated viewers. The extrinsic data, as well as intrinsic data is processed to provide an ordered list of program which are more reflective of that viewer's interests that a linear listing of programs. The system and method can apply for other applications involving prioritizing selection information.

One embodiment of the present invention enables a user to utilize a personalized video recorder (PVR) to order and receive specific television shows that are unavailable from his or her television content provider. Specifically, the PVR is coupled to the Internet such that it can receive an electronic programming guide (EPG) containing worldwide television programming from an EPG server computer. The PVR user utilizes the EPG to request delivery of a specific television show that is typically unavailable to him or her. Upon reception of the request, the EPG server computer locates via the Internet a PVR situated within a broadcast region of the requested television show. Next, the EPG server computer programs the PVR to record the requested television show when it is broadcast. Once the PVR records the television show, it is transmitted to the EPG server computer which transmits it to the requesting PVR.

An interactive television program guide for supporting programming blackouts is provided. In some embodiments, the interactive television program guide may unschedule the reminding and recording of blacked-out programs that have been scheduled by a user for reminding or recording. In some embodiments, the interactive television program guide may prevent a user from scheduling blacked-out programs for reminding and recording. In some embodiments, the interactive television program guide may prevent a user from ordering blacked-out pay-per-view programs. In some embodiments, the interactive television program guide may provide blackout information in information displays. In some embodiments, the interactive television program guide may provide replacement media for blacked-out programs.

An audible menu system associated with distribution of television content over a service provider network is disclosed. The menu system includes a speech synthesizer and screen reader. Electronic programming guide (EPG) elements are read by a screen reader and provided to a speech synthesizer for presenting audible representations of EPG elements to a user. The user may provide inputs to a remote control device to navigate an EPG that may also be presented through a graphical user interface. As a user navigates a cursor over selectable EPG elements, disclosed embodiments provide audible outputs that correspond to the selectable EPG elements. In some embodiments, users may provide customized audio inputs that are played as audio outputs during future menu navigation sessions.

The present invention relates to a device for acquiring electronic program guide (EPG) data from a plurality of different EPG sources (120), and combining the acquired data to a single EPG (10). At regular intervals, EPG data is acquired from different sources (120), which may include the Internet (122), digital programming broadcasters, and teletext service providers (126). Equivalent program listings (40) within the acquired EPG data are identified, and the best information is selected from the equivalent program listings (40) to be included in the combined EPG (10). The present invention is able to identify equivalent program listings (40), even if the program titles are written in different languages or when the scheduled broadcast times differ to some extent. The resulting EPG (10) is more reliable and contains more information than any of the EPGs (10) associated with the original sources (120).