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Method and apparatus for time-shifting video and text in a text-enhanced television program

Method and apparatus for time-shifting video and text in a text-enhanced television program description/claims

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/297,151, filed Apr. 26, 1999, which is a §371 application of PCT/US98/08305; U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/044,161, filed Apr. 21, 1997; and U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/052,248, filed Jul. 11, 1997, the disclosures of which are all hereby fully incorporated by reference.

This application is also a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 10/047,940, filed Oct. 25, 2001, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/369,755, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/095,740, filed Aug. 7, 1998; PCT Application No. PCT/US98/08305, filed Apr. 20, 1998; and U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/052,248, filed Jul. 11, 1997, the disclosures of which are all incorporated herein by reference.

The present invention is a system wherein television program-related information (PRI) is embedded in the vertical blanking interval (VBI) of a television signal for display on a viewer's television screen at the same time as the television program. The PRI is typically contained in an Internet site, the addresses for which are embedded in the television signal. The Internet site addresses may also be transmitted synchronously with, but separate from the video portion, e.g., via an interface device such as a telephone or cable modem. Typically such an “enhanced” television program consists of a display with the video portion of the program in a picture-in-picture (PIP) window and the PRI in the remaining portion of the display area of the television screen.

This PRI may be any textual or graphic information associated with the current television program. The PRI may consist of a textual display of a World Wide Web (WWW) or other Internet site address to which the viewer can choose to link to through a connection with an Internet Service Provider. Alternatively, the PRI may be contained in one or more Web pages, the addresses of which are inserted into the vertical blanking interval (VBI) and are automatically retrieved by the user's terminal and displayed on the display screen. Some examples of PRI are cast members' biographies, trivia about the show, information relating to the particular episode or scene, and closeups of information that cannot be readily seen or is hidden in the video portion of the program. Some of the PRI may be time dependent on the program. For example, the PRI may change to correspond to a particular scene or frame of the television program.

With so much information on the screen, some of which may be changing at a fairly rapid pace, it is desirable to provide the viewer the option of pausing a particular frame of a text-enhanced program display and then resume viewing the program without losing continuity of the video and PRI portions of the program or program content.

In the past fixed delays have been generated to allow broadcast editing. This has been accomplished with video recording. With the increasing availability of low cost semiconductor memory it is desirable to utilize this as a method of variability time-shifting a program. Concurrently other erasable storage means such as magnetic bubble semiconductor memory, erasable optical disks economically provide FIFO storage of large quantities of data that are advantageously utilized in the embodiments of the invention.

According to one embodiment of the invention, a television system is provided which allows a viewer of a PRI-enhanced television program to pause the program at a particular frame, examine the PRI at his or her leisure, perhaps browse through other, linked Web pages, and then resume viewing the program from that frame, without losing continuity of the video and PRI portions of the program or program content.

According to one embodiment of the invention, an apparatus for time-shifting video and program related information (PRI) in an enhanced television program is provided which includes a display screen, a tuner for receiving a television signal with embedded data representative of an address for an Internet site including PRI, means for extracting the embedded data from the television signal, a memory for storing the embedded data, input means for inputting viewer commands, a time-shifting apparatus capable of simultaneously storing the television signal as it is received and outputting the stored television signal for display, means for communicating with an Internet service provider to retrieve information from the Internet site including the PRI, and a microcontroller.

The microcontroller is configured to retrieve the Internet site address from memory and retrieve the PRI from the Internet site in response to a first viewer command, generate a composite display including a television program contained in the television signal in a first portion of the display and the PRI in a second portion of the display in response to the first viewer command, control the time-shifting apparatus to store the television signal as it is received and display a still frame from the stored television signal in a first portion of the display screen in response to a second viewer command, and control the time-shifting apparatus to output the portion of the stored television signal subsequent to the still frame for display in the first portion of the display in response to a third viewer command.

According to another embodiment, a method for time-shifting video and program related information (PRI) in an enhanced television program is provided which includes the steps of receiving a television signal with embedded data representative of an address for an Internet site including PRI, extracting the embedded data from the television signal, storing the embedded data in a memory, selecting an Internet mode in response to a first viewer command, communicating with an Internet service provider to retrieve information from the Internet site including the PRI, displaying a television program contained in the television signal in a first portion of a display screen and the PRI in a second portion of the display screen, storing the television signal in a time-shifting apparatus and continuously displaying a still frame from the stored television signal in response to a second viewer command, and simultaneously displaying the television program subsequent to the still frame from the stored television signal and continuing to store the television signal as it is received in response to a third viewer command.

According to an alternate embodiment, one or more suspend flags are embedded in the television signal, and the “pause” operation wherein the television signal is stored in the time-shifting apparatus and the still frame displayed in response to detection of such a suspend flag. This feature may be deactivated such that the “pause” operation is only performed in response to a viewer command.

The foregoing features and advantages of the invention will be better understood by referring to the following drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a time-shifting apparatus according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a display screen in an Internet mode of the time-shifting apparatus;

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