Patent Grant
8146117
This invention relates to interactive television program guides, and more particularly, to techniques for providing real-time data to supplement the program listings data used in interactive television program guides.
Interactive television program guides allow television users to view television program listings on their televisions. Program guides also allow users to display program listings in various formats, to perform genre-based searches for programs of interest, to order pay-per-view programs, etc. Interactive program guides are typically implemented on microprocessor-based set-top boxes. Program listings data is transmitted to the set-top boxes from a centralized data distribution facility via the user's cable system headend. The program listings data is typically stored in a database in the set-top box, where it may be accessed by the interactive program guide.
Much of the program listings information displayed on the user's television is fairly static. The titles and scheduled broadcast times for most television programs do not change once they have been established. However, some of the information that may be presented in the program guide may be dynamic. For example, sports scores may be presented in the program guide next to the program titles for certain sports events. This type of information changes frequently. If real-time data on sports scores is provided to the program guide, the guide may continually display up-to-the-minute scores with the program listings in real time. Data services that use real-time information such as news services may also be provided. A program guide system that provides some of these real-time data services is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,589,892. Although the system of the '892 patent is in many respects satisfactory, it would be desirable to be able to provide a program guide system with a number of improvements.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide a program guide system that allows real-time data such as sports scores to be stored in the database maintained on the user's set-top box or other suitable program guide platform. At a later time (e.g., after the conclusion of a sporting event), the scores may be retrieved and displayed by the program guide.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a program guide system that allows updated program listings information to be provided using the same data path as the real-time data.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a program guide system in which unique keys may be generated to facilitate the matching of real-time data entries and the program listings with which they are associated.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a program guide system that displays a controllable ticker containing real-time information on the user's display screen on top of a television program.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a program guide system in which real-time data is stored by the program guide in a database and in which different expiration times may be established for different types of stored real-time data.
These and other objects of the invention are accomplished in accordance with the principles of the present invention by providing an interactive television program guide system in which an interactive television program guide is implemented on user television equipment or other suitable platform such as a client-server based arrangement. In a client-server arrangement, the program guide is partially implemented on a server and partially implemented on a client. Server functions may be performed by the portion of the program guide that is implemented on a central server and client functions may be performed by the portion of the program guide that is implemented on the user television equipment. The user television equipment may be based on a set-top box or other suitable platform and may contain a videocassette recorder for recording television programs and a television.
A main facility contains a program guide database in which program listings data is stored. The program listings data contains program titles, broadcast times, and other suitable television program schedule information that may be displayed for the user by the program guide. The program listings data is distributed to multiple television distribution facilities, each of which distributes the program listings data to the user television equipment of multiple users.
A source of real-time data, which may be either one or more real-time data sources or a real-time data collection facility that receives data from real-time data sources provides real-time data to the television distribution facilities. The real-time data may contain sports scores for games in progress, current news, current financial or weather information, etc. Each television distribution facility may distribute the real-time data to the program guides associated with that television distribution facility.
The program listings data and the real-time data may be stored in a database maintained by the program guide. The database may be located on the user television equipment, on a server on which at least part of the program guide is implemented, or a combination of such locations or other suitable location. If desired, the program guide may access the stored real-time data after the conclusion of a live event with which the data was originally associated.
Updated program schedule information may be provided to the program guide implemented on the user television equipment or other platform as part of the real-time data stream from the source of real-time data. This data distribution path is particularly suitable for program listings updates of the type that might naturally occur at the source of real-time data. For example, if the scheduled time for a game changes due to a weather delay, information concerning the delay may be most readily obtained at the source of real-time data. Because the game delay affects the scheduled broadcast time of that game, the game delay is of the type of program listings data that may be provided to the program guide as part of the real-time data stream.
In order to match each item of real-time data for a live event with the corresponding program listings data for that event, a key generator is used at both the main facility and the source of real-time data. The key generator at the main facility generates a unique key for each program listing based on attributes of the program listing such as start date, start time, category of event, etc. The key generator at the source of real-time data generates a unique key for each item of real-time data associated with an event using the same algorithm as the key generator at the main facility. The keys that are generated at the main facility are distributed to the program guide implemented on the user television equipment or other suitable platform with their associated program listings data. Similarly, the keys that are generated at the source of real-time data are distributed to the program guide with their associated real-time data. At the user television equipment or other suitable platform, the keys for the program listings are compared to the keys for the real-time data. Program listings are matched with real-time data based on which keys match.
A controllable ticker may be displayed on the user's television display screen. The controllable ticker contains a user-selectable category and a user-selectable status information item. Illustrative categories that may be selected by the user include different sports or sports leagues, etc. Illustrative status information items that may be selected by the user include games in the selected category. The controllable ticker may be displayed on a user's screen on top of a television program.
The user may use right and left cursor keys or any other suitable user interface to change the category for the controllable ticker. When the user changes the category for the controllable ticker the controllable ticker may display the most recently viewed status information item for that category or the first status information item for that category.
The user may set up preferences for different categories and status information items. For example, the user may set up a favorite category as being the sport “baseball.” The user may invoke a favorites mode in which the categories displayed in the controllable ticker are limited to categories that satisfy the user's preferences. The user may also switch between different categories using a special remote control button such as a “favorites” button that directs the controllable ticker to display only categories that satisfy the user's preferences. A television icon may be provided with the status information item when the status information item relates to a television program that is available on the user television equipment. The user may direct the program guide to record programs from the controllable ticker or may direct the program guide to tune to the channel associated with a selected status information item from the controllable ticker. The user may also set reminders from the controllable ticker and may purchase pay television programs from the controllable ticker.
The real-time data stored in the database maintained by the program guide may be periodically purged from the database. The system may assign different expiration times to different types of data. For example, game preview information may be removed from the database 15 minutes after a game starts. Several types of real-time data may be removed from the database at a daily rollover time (e.g., 7:00 AM). Other suitable expiration times may be established to handle data types such as game recaps, score updates, event updates, league scores, league schedules, team notes, etc.
Further features of the invention, its nature and various advantages will be more apparent from the accompanying drawings and the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.
a is a flow chart of steps involved in changing categories and status information items in a controllable ticker such as the controllable ticker of
b is a flow chart of steps involved in using an automatically scrolling controllable ticker in accordance with the present invention.
a, 27b, and 27c are diagrams showing illustrative controllable ticker arrangements in accordance with the present invention.
An illustrative interactive television program guide system 20 in accordance with the present invention is shown in
Television distribution facility 26 is a facility for distributing television signals to users, such as a cable system headed, a broadcast distribution facility, or a satellite television distribution facility.
Real-time data sources 30 such as real-time sports score source 32, real-time news data source 34, and real-time stock market data source 36 are used to gather information such as sports scores, stock quotes, and the like from various sporting and news events. Real-time information from real-time data sources 30 may be provided to each of the television distribution facilities 26 by providing this information to main facility 22 via communications path 38 and redistributing the information to television distribution facilities 26 via paths 28. Alternatively (or in addition), real-time information from real-time data sources 30 may be provided directly to television distribution facilities 26 or may be provided to one or more real-time data collection facilities 40 via communications paths such as communications path 42, where the data may be processed for retransmission to television distribution facilities 26 via communications paths such as communications path 44. If desired, data from real-time data collection facility 40 may be provided to television distribution facility 26 via communications path 46, main facility 22, and communications path 28. Communications paths 38, 42, 44, and 46 may be any suitable communications paths such as satellite links, coaxial cable, fiber optics, free-space transmissions, telephone links, or a combination of such links or other suitable links.
The program guide information transmitted by main facility 22 to television distribution facility 26 includes television program listings data such as program times, channels, titles, descriptions, etc. Transmitted program information also includes pay program data such as pricing information for individual programs and subscription channels, time windows for ordering programs and channels, telephone numbers for placing orders that cannot be impulse ordered, etc.
The real-time data transmitted to television distribution facility 26 may include current sports scores for games in progress, real-time game statistics, game delay information, game availability information (i.e., information on whether a given game is blocked out or not), real-time stock quotes or other financial information, real-time news, current weather information, or any other suitable real-time data.
Each television distribution facility 26 may distribute both the program guide data received from program guide database 24 and the real-time data received from real-time data sources 30 to the program guides of users at associated user television equipment 48 via communications links 50. User television equipment 48 may be any suitable equipment for providing television to the user that contains sufficient processing capabilities to implement an interactive television program guide. Paths 50 may be cable links, fiber-optic links, satellite links, broadcast or other free-space links, or other suitable link or combination of such links. Any suitable communications scheme may be used to transmit data over paths 50, including in-band transmissions, vertical blanking interval transmissions, out-of-band transmissions, digital transmissions, analog transmissions, cable transmissions, satellite transmissions, over-the-air transmissions, multichannel multipoint distribution services (MMDS) transmissions, etc.
The data distribution technique that is used to distribute data on paths 50 depends on the type of information that is being distributed. For example, text and graphics may be distributed over an out-of-band channel using an out-of-band modulator. Video information may also be distributed in this way, although large quantities of video information may be more efficiently distributed using one or more digital channels on path 50. Such digital channels may also be used for distributing text and graphics. If desired, an interactive television program guide may be implemented using a client-server architecture. In a client-server arrangement, the program guide is partially implemented on a server and partially implemented on a client. The server may be a server such as server 55 at television distribution facility 26. The client may be user television equipment (e.g., set-top boxes). Program guide data and real-time data that are distributed to a client-server program guide at television distribution facility 26 may be stored in a database 57 at television distribution facility 26. For clarity, the present invention is sometimes described primarily in the context of program guides that are implemented on user television equipment, rather than in the context of program guides that are implemented partially on a server and partially on user television equipment.
Each user has a receiver, which is typically a set-top box such as set-top box 52, but which may be other suitable television equipment such as an advanced television receiver into which circuitry similar to set-top-box circuitry has been integrated or a personal computer television (PC/TV). For purposes of illustration, the present invention will be described in the context of user television equipment 48 that uses set-top boxes 52.
Data such as program guide data may be distributed to set-top boxes 52 periodically and stored in database 53. In a client-server architecture, this database need not be maintained on the set-top box. For example, the program guide may maintain a database such as database 57 on a server such as server 55 located at television distribution facility 26 or some other suitable location or locations. In configurations where the program guide resides on set-top boxes 52, television distribution facility 26 may poll set-top boxes 52 periodically for certain information (e.g., pay program account information or information regarding programs that have been purchased and viewed using locally-generated authorization techniques). Real-time data from a source of real-time data such as real-time data sources 30 or real-time data collection facility 40 may be distributed to set-top boxes 52 in real time and may be stored in database 53 if it is desired to access this information at a later point in time (e.g., to provide access to the sports scores for games that have recently concluded).
Main facility 22 preferably contains a processor to handle information distribution tasks. Each set-top box 52 preferably contains a processor to handle tasks associated with implementing the interactive television program guide. Television distribution facility 26 may contain a processor for handling tasks associated with data distribution or for implementing the server functions of a client-server program guide.
Each set-top box 52 is typically connected to an optional videocassette recorder 54 so that selected television programs may be recorded. Set-top box 52 may send commands to videocassette recorder 54 using infrared transmitter 56. Each videocassette recorder 54 is connected to a television 58. To record a program, the interactive television program guide implemented on set-top box 52 tunes set-top box 52 to a particular channel and sends control signals to videocassette recorder 54 using infrared transmitter 56 that direct videocassette recorder 54 to start and stop recording at the appropriate times.
During use of the program guide, television program listings, real-time data, advertisements, and other information may be displayed on television 58. Each set-top box 52, videocassette recorder 54, and television 58 may be controlled by one or more remote controls 60 or any other suitable user input interface such as a wireless keyboard, mouse, trackball, dedicated set of keys, etc. A typical remote control 60 has cursor keys for positioning a highlight region on the program guide screen and an OK or select button for selecting a highlighted item on the screen. Other typical remote control buttons include buttons such as an information button (for requesting additional information on a highlighted listing), a record button (for directing the program guide to record a program for a highlighted listing), channel up and down buttons, volume control buttons, numeric keys, etc.
Communications paths 50 preferably have sufficient bandwidth to allow television distribution facility 26 to distribute television programming, program listings information, real-time data, advertisements, and other information to user television equipment 48. Multiple television and audio channels (analog, digital, or both analog and digital) may be provided to user television equipment 48 via communications paths 50. If desired, some of the data may be distributed to user television equipment 48 by one or more distribution facilities that are separate from television distribution facility 26 using communications paths that are at least partly separate from communications paths 50.
Certain functions, such as pay program purchasing, the purchasing of products or services, and data collection functions, may require that user television equipment 48 transmit data to television distribution facility 26 over communications paths 50. If desired, such data may be transmitted over telephone lines or other separate communications paths. If functions such as these are provided using facilities separate from television distribution facility 26, some of the communications involving user television equipment 48 may be made directly with the separate facilities.
An illustrative interactive television program guide main menu screen 62 is shown in
If the user selects what's on now option 80 (e.g., by positioning a highlight such as highlight 88 on top of option 80 with remote control cursor keys and by pressing a select button), the program guide may present what's on now screen 90 of
What's on now screen 90 also contains program listings such as program listing 94 that are combined with real-time data 96. In the example of
As defined herein, “real-time data” refers to data that is communicated essentially in real time from real-time data sources 30. Such data may be buffered at certain points in system 20. “Stored real-time data” refers to data such as final sports scores or closing stock prices, etc. that are stored in the database 53 or 57 that is maintained by the program guide implemented on user television equipment 48 or the equivalent database maintained by the program guide implemented using a client-server architecture.
The examples of combining program listings information and real-time data that are shown in
Program guide listings screens such as screen 90 of
If desired, the program guide may provide a sports menu such as sports menu 112 of
Sports menu 112 contains today's games option 114 for viewing information on the games that are scheduled to be played that day. What's on now option 116 (shown being selected with highlight region 118) allows the user to view information on the sports events that are currently being broadcast and that are available to the user. Highlights this week option 120 allows the user to view information on sports highlights of the week. Scores option 122 allows the user to view sports scores information, both for games in progress (using data received by the program guide from real-time data sources 30 in real time) and for games that have concluded (using data received by the program guide and stored in the database maintained by the program guide such as database 53 or database 57).
An illustrative sports what's on now screen 124 that may be displayed by the program guide when the user selects option 116 of
An illustrative today's games screen 136 that may be displayed by the program guide is shown in
Games that are available to the user to watch on television are indicated by television icon 148. This icon is merely illustrative. If desired, the channel call letters and channel number of those channels that are available to the user might be displayed (as in the arrangement of
Steps involved in providing a program guide screen such as today's games screen 136 of
When real-time data is received (e.g., at step 150 of
In order for the program guide to be able to determine which program listing is associated with a given item of real-time data, an identical key generator is used at both main facility 24 and at the source of real-time data (i.e., at real-time data sources 30 or at real-time data collection facility 40). As shown in
Steps involved in using the key generators to uniquely identify the program listings and the real-time data for various live events are shown in
At step 172, a second key generator 156 that operates using the same algorithm as the first key generator is used at the source of real-time data (i.e., either at real-time data sources 30 or real-time data collection facility 40) to create a unique key for the real-time data associated with a live event that will match the unique key for the same live event that was generated by the first key generator. At step 174, the real-time data for the live event and the associated unique key are distributed to the program guide (e.g., at television distribution facility 26 or user television equipment 48). Program listings and the keys associated with the program listings are stored in the database maintained by the program guide (e.g., database 53 or database 57). Real-time data and the keys associated with the real-time data may be stored in the database maintained by the program guide if desired to reduce latency and allow access to the real-time data after it has been transmitted.
At step 176, the program guide compares the real-time data events keys received from the source of real-time data with the program listings event keys received from database 24 of main facility 22 to determine which event data is associated with which program listings data. Typically, the program listings keys to which the real-time data keys are being compared at step 176 have been stored in the database maintained by the program guide (e.g., database 53 or database 57). Whenever there is a match between the key for a program listing and the key for some real-time data, it can be concluded that the program listing and the real-time data are for the same live event. The program guide may therefore simultaneously display both the program listing and the associated real-time data for the same event together (e.g., on a program guide display screen such as today's games screen 146 of
The approach of
Sometimes it may be desirable to update program listings information in the database maintained by the program guide using the data feed for the real-time data provided by real-time data sources 30. For example, a game may be delayed due to changing weather conditions or a game may no longer be blacked out because the game has achieved a certain level of ticket sales. This type of information affects the program listings that are displayed by the program guide. For example, a weather delay affects the scheduled broadcast time for the game in the program listing and a change in a game's blackout status affects whether the game appears in a program listings with an associated channel number. The best way to acquire such updated program listings information may be to use real-time sports data source 32.
As shown in
Steps involved in distributing updated program listings as part of the real-time data distributed from real-time data sources 30 are shown in
Another aspect of the invention involves displaying a controllable ticker on the user's television screen. As shown in
Controllable ticker 186 may contain a selectable category 192 such as major league baseball, National Football League (NFL) football, National Hockey League (NHL) hockey, news, or any other suitable user-defined or predefined category. The user may select from different categories that are available using right and left remote control cursor keys as indicated by arrows 194. For example, if the user is viewing the controllable ticker 186 shown on the top screen 188 of
Each category 192 has a number of associated items of status information. For example, in the controllable ticker 186 shown in the top screen 188 of
An icon such as television icon 187 may be displayed with a status information item such as status information item 196 that corresponds to a program listing for a program or channel that is available on the user's user television equipment. The user may select a status information item that contains a television icon (or other suitable indicator of television program availability) as shown in
A user may select from among the various status information items associated with a given category by using up and down remote control cursor keys as indicated by arrows 198. For example, if the program guide is displaying the controllable ticker 186 shown on the upper screen 188 of
Steps involved in providing the controllable ticker are shown in
If the user presses a left or right remote control cursor key or some other suitable button, the program guide changes the category for the controllable ticker at step 204 of
As shown in
If the user presses a left or right cursor key (for example), the program guide changes the category for the controllable ticker at step 286. If the user presses an up or down cursor key (for example) the program guide changes the status information item to the previous or next such item at step 288. If desired, the scrolling action of the controllable ticker may be resumed after a predetermined amount of time elapses (e.g., 15 seconds) or after the user presses play. As shown by line 288, in these situations the program guide resumes scrolling of the controllable ticker and displays the automatically scrolling controllable ticker at step 282.
The program guide may allow the user to cancel the display of the controllable ticker using any suitable technique. For example, the program guide may provide an opportunity for the user to cancel the display of the controllable ticker whenever the user presses the play key or an exit key as shown at step 208 of
If desired, the user may direct the program guide to display additional information (either from the real-time data source or the program listings database or both) that relates to a displayed status information item. For example, as shown in
The user may set up certain preferences for the program guide to use when displaying the controllable ticker. For example, the program guide may provide a screen such as select preferences screen 214 of
Once the user's preferences have been selected by the user, the program guide may use the selected preferences in displaying the controllable ticker. This may be accomplished using a number of suitable techniques. For example, the program guide may only display categories in the controllable ticker that are one of the user's selected favorite categories. If desired, the user may turn on or off a “favorites mode” in the program guide using, for example, a favorites mode option 220 in a set-up menu 222, as shown in
Another example involves the use of a remote control favorites key. As shown in
Steps involved in using the controllable ticker with user-selected preferences are shown in
The different types of real-time data provided to the program guide from real-time sources 30 are useful for different periods of time. For example, notes on a particular sports team may be of interest for several days, whereas current score information may only be of interest for a few minutes. In order to avoid cluttering the database maintained by the program guide (e.g., database 53 or database 57), the program guide may purge the database maintained by the program guide to remove data that is outdated and thus no longer useful.
A different expiration time may be assigned to each item of real-time data. After an item of data has expired (as determined by its expiration time), the program guide may remove that data from the database maintained by the program guide. For example, the expiration time for a score update may be the time of the score update plus 10 minutes. When the program guide determines that more than 10 minutes have elapsed since the score update, that score update may be removed from the database.
A roll-over time may be used to establish a time of day (or time of day and day of the week, etc.) at which certain information may be cleared out of the database. The roll-over time may be any suitable time, such as 7:00 AM Eastern Standard Time. Certain data types may expire at the rollover time. Illustrative expiration times for various different types of data are shown in the table of
Steps involved in maintaining the database using expiration times such as the illustrative expiration times of
Steps involved in providing various types of real-time data to the program guide are shown in
As shown in
Steps involved in displaying the illustrative types of sports-related real-time data provided to the program guide in
As shown in
In addition, any suitable type of display containing real-time data may be sponsored, not just displays such as controllable ticker 290. As shown in
Another illustrative example of a sponsored program guide display screen with real-time data is shown in
The foregoing is merely illustrative of the principles of this invention and various modifications can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention.
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/307,004, filed Nov. 26, 2002 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,386,871, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/229,047, filed Jan. 12, 1999, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,536,041, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/089,486, filed Jun. 16, 1998, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.
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