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Television control interface with electronic guide

Television control interface with electronic guide description/claims

This patent application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/402,404, filed Apr. 11, 2006, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/159,702, filed May 28, 2002, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,062,777, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/032,374, filed Feb. 27, 1998, which claims benefit from a U.S. Provisional patent application entitled “Seamless Television Control Interface with Electronic Guide,” U.S. Application No. 60/039,278, which was filed on Feb. 28, 1997, of Alba et al., the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference for all purposes.

The present invention generally relates to television schedule information, and more particularly to a system and method for displaying a television program guide on a television screen.

As the number of television stations in a metropolitan area or on a cable network has increased, the number of programs of potential interest that are presented to a viewer has risen dramatically. With the use of dish antennas capable of receiving direct satellite signals, the multitude of programs available to the viewer has further increased.

Additionally, television faces a digital future that will see the merger of television and PC technology. The television set of the future will include a micro-computer, a modem of interconnectivity with other computers over networks, intranets, and the internet, and be connectable to computer peripherals such as printers. Such capabilities as near “video on demand” (NVOD), “video on demand”, “access to the world wide web”, “audio on demand”, etc. will be present the viewer with a plethora of information and bandwidth. In addition to PC capabilities, viewers will want to control other consumer electronic devices such as VCR's and surround sound receivers.

As has become increasingly evident, information overload can actually reduce the usefulness of the information delivered. Accordingly, a great challenge exists to provide an interface that manages and provides an intelligent, user-friendly interface to the information available.

Consequently, television schedule systems or electronic program guides (EPG) that are provided directly on the viewer's television screen have been developed to assist the viewer in sorting through these various programs and determining which programs to watch or record. One such television schedule system is disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,353,121 (Young et al.), the complete disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference. In one embodiment of Young, the television schedule includes a series of menu screens having an array of cells corresponding to different television programs. The viewer may scroll through the cells to view which television programs are being presented on various channels at various times. In addition, the viewer may select certain cells to obtain more information on the associated program or to pull up other sub-menus with additional options.

The recent development of television schedule systems, such as the above described patent to Young, have created many new challenges. One such challenge is to manage intelligently the vast stores of information available and provide user access and control directly through an electronic program guide. Another challenge is to facilitate easy access to a wide range of functionality through the combination of a limited number of user interactions. And still another challenge is to control several differing integrated electronic devices with the same ease of use incorporated into each.

The present invention provides a system and method of accessing a series of menus for controlling a variety of integrated electronic devices and for displaying schedule information on a visual interface, such as a television screen, a computer monitor or the like. An integrated electronic device is any device that has been configured to accept and perform the commands of the on-screen menuing system. The present invention also provides a system and method for allowing the viewer to navigate and interact with a program guide that is displayed, for example, on the viewer's television screen. The program guide will usually include a schedule information area that depicts the programs that are being presented on each channel at each time during the day. With an input device, such as a remote control device, pointing device, mouse, keyboard, microphone or the like, the viewer can browse through the schedule information area and/or obtain more information about programs of particular interest.

According to one aspect of the invention, actions are directly invoked by moving a pointer over areas of the visual interface and selecting or “clicking” on the area.

In one aspect of the invention, a system and method is provided for allowing the viewer to utilize display action controls, configured as glyphs, to recursively vary the configuration of the display area. Each glyph is activated by a point and click action of the user input device and serves as a switch for changing between two modes.

According to one aspect of the invention, a system and method is provided for accessing a series of menus and host functions that control a variety of integrated consumer electronic devices.

According to one aspect of the invention, a system and method is provided for allowing the user to easily change the time frame displayed on the EPG guide, and the accompanying viewer guide by activating the time bar glyph and then activating a specific time indicator glyph.

According to one aspect of the invention, a system and method is provided for changing the configuration of the pointer/cursor to provide the user with additional or alternate information. The pointer/cursor changes depending on the location of the pointer/cursor on the EPG display guide.

According to one aspect of the invention, a system and method is provided for graphically depicting the current time and the show time remaining by displaying a transparent shadow that proceeds across the EPG screen from left to right.

Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent in view of the following detailed description and the appended drawings.

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• Utility Patent

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