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Dynamic mosaic extended electronic programming guide for television program selection and displayRelated Patent Categories: Interactive Video Distribution Systems, Operator Interface, To Facilitate Tuning Or Selection Of Video Signal, Electronic Program Guide, Content Arrangement, Based On Genre, Theme, Or CategoryDynamic mosaic extended electronic programming guide for television program selection and display description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20070011702, Dynamic mosaic extended electronic programming guide for television program selection and display. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/647,287, filed Jan. 27, 2005 and U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/678,773, filed May 9, 2005, both of which are included by reference in their entirety for all purposes. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] Television service providers including cable, satellite, terrestrial, video over internet, IPTV, and others can deliver a large number of channels to subscribers. To choose and select desired program among hundreds of available channels, subscribers can browse channels one by one or use grid or mosaic based Electronic Programming Guides (EPG) by which they might search for possible choices, with the effect to that those subscribers are able to select one or more choices for presentation. However, while they achieve the general goal of allowing users to search and select, known systems are subject to several draw-backs. [0003] Browsing a large number of channels in a search of a desired show is time consuming and inefficient. For example, to preview currently broadcasted shows subscriber can surf 300 channels one by one while spending 10 seconds on each, requires over 50 minutes, which is, in many cases, longer than subscriber choose to watch television program, or the duration of desired program itself. Grid based EPG, although listing titles of programs for several channels at once, including the option of selecting favorite channels and expediting program selection process, displays on average 2 shows per grid's channel line, for the total of 600 shows subscriber has to view to select desired show. Moreover, grid based EPG does not allow users to observe the actual video content of several channels at once, thus forcing subscribers to decide on channel and program selection merely from its textual description, and not its actual content. Although some EPGs allow subscribers to preview in PIP a program selected from the grid, still users can not simultaneously observe content of more than one program. Grid based EPGs that allow subscribers to search programs by title or content category, displayed search results still in a textual representation of a matched program; at the same time not including in the search programs available over VOD, local or network PVR, or program available thru other service provider or source. [0004] Existing mosaic based EPG (MEPG), used by CANAL+ in France for example, is also limiting since it creates pages made of mosaic element each of which is assigned for an extended period of time to a specific channel. CANAL+ offers 3 screens each with 20 elements for the total of 60 channels. However, for such static MEPG, 300 channels may be presented on 15 separate screens forcing a subscriber whishing to find all "News" programs to preview video content of 300 channels by surfing 15 separate screens each with 20 elements. When a subscriber whishes to compare content of two or more channels not present on the same screen, he or she has to toggle between two or more EPG screens, rendering such system as cumbersome, inconvenient, and difficult to use. Such static MEPG systems do not allow subscribers to customize EPG screens to simultaneously display video content of their favorite channels on the same screen. Also, existing MEPG systems, when attempting to group channels by category (e.g. movies, news, cartoons) fail because the same channel broadcasts shows that can belong to different content categories at different times of the day: "Cartoons" in the morning, "Soap Operas" in the afternoon, "News" in the evening, and "Movies" at night. As the result, with the existing MEPG system, when the channels are grouped by category and displayed on the same screen, subscriber that tunes to "cartoons" mosaic EPG page, expecting to see cartoons, actually sees programs that belong to other content categories. [0005] In U.S. Patent Application No. 20040070593, discloses a mosaic-like UI that can be dynamically rearranged in response, in part, to user selection and static metadata about the video titles stored in the library. However, this solution does not work for the television broadcasting environment where each channel's metadata is not static, but dynamic, since it is being contentiously updated and changed. The '593 application does not take into account business needs of service provider which might want to auction off locations of some or all of the mosaic elements on some or all MEPG screens to broadcasters or other third parties. The '593 application does not allow subscribers to simultaneously view video feed from one of any broadcasting channels on one part of the screen while simultaneously accessing MEPG in the remaining portion of the same screen. [0006] In addition to the difficulties of selecting among a large number of currently broadcasting programs, as described above, subscribers also have many challenges selecting upcoming shows using existing EPGs. Again, to find a show that matches their criteria, subscribers have to review set of hundreds of shows that immediately following currently broadcasting programs plus review another set of hundreds of shows that follow after. This task becomes very arduous because by default programs in the existing grid and mosaic based EPGs are organized by channel and time, but not by program category. [0007] So, to choose desired program subscribers have to review many hundreds of entries most of which do not belong to desired program category. The problem of program selection will be exacerbated in the future when even more channels and programs become accessible to subscribers thanks to proliferation of client PVR, VOD over cable, VOD over Internet, network PVR, and other program delivery methods and service. Not only subscribers would have to review hundreds of available programs many of which are irrelevant to the search since they belong to other program categories, subscribers have to juggle among several EPGs each of which is representing its own service. For example, digital cable service and VOD over cable are represented by their own EPGs, TiVO or ReplayTV PVR services are represented by their own EPGs, and VOD over Internet, like Akimbo, is also represented by its own EPG. With more and more content delivery options, subscribers are forced to spend greater amount of time searching and selecting desired content distributed among various systems represented by own EPGs. [0008] What's more, existing EPG services use textural representation of programs and services, like interactive TV. However, it's been shown that people gravitate towards search of video information not by its textual representation but by its visual representation. The best example of this are display cases of a video store, like Blockbuster. There, latest movie releases are arranged in such a manner as to allow customers to view and select desire program by viewing front covers of the DVD cases. Most DVDs, on their front covers, show a visual representation of the video content that allows them to quickly and easily infer its genre, participating actors, and thus make a selection. Unfortunately, existing EPG services have not been designed to display program's visual representation and allow subscribers to choose desired program by it. Instead, subscribers have to choose desired program by its textual representation. [0009] To simplify content selection process, subscribers ought to have a Content Portal that can allow them to choose desired program based on its visual representation and can consolidate access to programs available over multiple services, including those based on a locally or remotely stored content, and services based on programs broadcasted over various available media. Thus, Content Portal ought to allow subscribers to access currently broadcasted programs, soon to be broadcasted programs, locally stored and remotely stored programs by their visual representation. While consolidating access and selection of programs available over multiple networks, Content Portal should also preserve access to advanced value added services like interactive television and on demand advertisement. [0010] In addition to EPGs, subscribers can choose desired program using other program sources including printed TV guides, and TV guides offered over the Internet. There, subscribers have to deal with the same problems of choosing desired content based on its textual representation, but not on its visual representation. [0011] Similarly to the digital TV service providers, providers of digital and satellite radio services like XM and Cirrus have not incorporated visual representation of broadcasted or soon to be broadcasted content, although amount of available content over hundreds of available channels is large. Similarly to the digital TV service, subscribers to the digital radio service have to choose desired program based on its textual representation. With hundreds of simultaneously available programs, this task becomes as challenging as selecting video content from digital TV service providers. BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0012] The invention provides a method and system capable of solving many problems of content preview and selection for visual or audio content offered over digital TV or digital radio networks, and generally a user interface (UI) for accessing content. One aspect of the invention is a method of creating and presenting a Dynamic Mosaic Extended Electronic Programming Guide (DMXEPG) using video, audio, special applications, and service dynamic metadata. The system enables television or digital radio service subscribers to select and display of various programs including video, interactive TV applications, or any combination of audio or visual components grouped and presented in accordance with the dynamic program/show metadata, business rules and objectives of service providers, broadcasters, and/or personal subscriber choices. Another aspect of the invention is to print programming guides or guides in electronic form using the same solution of utilizing dynamic metadata to group, consolidate, and display program information with the purpose of allowing subscribers to view and select desired program using program's visual representation. [0013] In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, the system can merge channel programs/shows metadata for multiple services offered by one or more than one service provider using a unique channel identifier, e.g., a service source ID either for digital TV or radio services. Such merger is performed on the backend and merged metadata is displayed on a client device or in a printed program information guide. This invention differs from the mechanism described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,072,983, which describes merging channel metadata on the client side. [0014] In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, an application can be provided on devices with more than one tuner that can simultaneously display video and applications graphics of that application on more than one display. [0015] In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, applications can be provided on devices with more than one tuner that can simultaneously display a program chosen by the subscriber on one portion of the screen, while displaying DMXEPG or its components on the rest of the screen. [0016] In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, metadata from different value-added services can be integrated into a matrix element (ME) of the DMXEPG and displayed to subscribers for currently broadcasted or soon to be broadcasted programs. [0017] In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, integrated metadata can be recorded for later playback. [0018] Further aspects of the present invention include: [0019] (a) it can dynamically assign channels to Mosaic Element (ME) using: continuously updated metadata (programming schedule) about television (broadcasted) channel (EPG programming/listings), criteria received from one or more sources. For example a subscriber, service provider, or third party. Example of third party can be broadcaster, content critic, and the like. [0020] (b) it can dynamically assign iTV applications, Interactive advertisement, VOD program links to Mosaic Element (ME) using criteria received from one or more sources. For example a subscriber, service provider, or third party. Example of third party can be broadcaster, content critic, and the like. [0021] (c) it allows to support DMXEPG where subscribers can simultaneously observe any pre-selected channel chosen by them or video content from other sources, like DVD players or programs offered by another digital TV service provider, on one portion of the screen while observing other ME with or without program related textual information on the rest of the screen [0022] (d) it allows service providers to collect payments from broadcasters, content owners, or third parties for assigning without service subscriber input their programs to pre-selected ME and DMXEPG screens [0023] (e) it allows service providers to collect payments from advertisers for assigning, without service subscriber input, logos, videos, or other visual or audio materials to ME or DMXEPG screens [0024] (f) it allows service providers to create more than one variant of DMXEPG pages, and without subscriber input associate the specific DMXEPG variant to subsets of subscribers. These subscriber subsets can be defined by one or more criteria. For example, subscriber demographic data, capabilities of subscriber device, or capabilities of service provider head-end equipment, etc. [0025] (g) it simplifies for subscribers channel, program, and iTV application selection, usage of interactive TV applications and DMXEPG by using available buttons on the remote control in conjunction with the optional rotating element integrated into the remote control [0026] (h) it allows subscribers to customize DMXEPG page which can be set to display in some or all MEs either channels, programs or interactive applications chosen by the subscriber [0027] (i) it allows subscribers to choose currently broadcasted or upcoming show which are organized according to their type, business rules or service provider, or client equipment capabilities [0028] (j) it allows subscribers to choose desired program among currently broadcasted or soon to be broadcasted audio or video programs based on their visual representation [0029] (k) it allows subscribers using services of multiple digital TV or digital radio service providers, to choose desired program from a single programming guide and also use the same programming guide to choose desired program stored either locally or remotely [0030] (l) it allows subscribers using programming guide to access value added services, like VOD, which are integrated into related ME of DMXEPG. For example, ME displaying currently broadcasting or soon to be broadcasted show can have embedded sign indicating to subscribers availability of previously broadcasted episodes of the same show over VOD service [0031] (m) it allows to created application on devices with more than one tuner that can simultaneously display video and applications graphics of that application on more than one display, for example allowing subscribers to view and navigate DMXEPG on one display, which can be a touch screen display, and view selected show on another display [0032] (n) it allows subscribers with devices with multiple tuners to simultaneously view DMXEPG on one portion of the screen while viewing desired program delivered from local or remote source on the other portion of the screen. [0033] (o) it allows subscribers to record desired program along with metadata of related services like TV commerce, interactive advertisement, VOD, interactive TV applications, and others [0034] (p) it allows to virtually increase size of displayed video in the ME to improve content recognition by the subscriber by zooming in and truncating source video [0035] (q) it allows subscribers to search channels by channel name [0036] (r) it allows subscribers to create one or more customized DMXEPG channel line up by reassigning channel numbers to numbers selected by the subscriber. For example, subscriber can group desired channels by assigning numbers to the channels that would allow channels to be located closely to each other during channel surfing. This system can be implemented by processing original channel line up on the client side or on the headend side [0037] (s) it allows to create content representation system using ME which is a visual and or audio representation, in addition to the textual description, of accessible content (information) or representation of content category and type. [0038] (t) it allows subscriber to browse, view, and select desired program from all subscriber accessible content information using DMXEPG which comprises ME [0039] (u) it allows to pre-search and display to subscribers related information including showing times, channel number, or location (VOD, PVR) of past or upcoming episodes of the show in the selected ME. For example, subscriber reviewing a show in specific ME, can ascertain show times of upcoming or past episodes as well as VOD ordering or PVR start play options [0040] (v) it allows to indicate to subscribers availability of video trailer or show video preview or related value added service stored on PVR, network PVR, or VOD server on ME representing currently broadcasted or soon to be broadcasted shows [0041] (w) it allows subscribers to enable content filtering service managed by service provider or third party in addition to or instead of TV Parental Guidance (TVPG) or Motion Picture (MPAA) ratings. For example, based on user preference, DMXEPG service (back-end service suite, client software, or their combination) can deny access to one or more channel, program, or portion of a program in accordance with the criteria managed by either service provider and/or third party. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0042] Various aspects of the present invention are described in the following detailed discussion of an illustrative embodiment of the invention. The embodiment is explained in the figures listed below and in the following detailed discussion. [0043] FIG. 1 is the screen for the first level of multi-dimensional DMXEPG which, according to the invention, dynamically generated by assigning to ME programs that match program content, business, and subscriber preference rules. Continue reading about Dynamic mosaic extended electronic programming guide for television program selection and display... 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