Patent Application
20100095328
The invention relates to a technique for controlling the download of an electronic guide for mobile television or similar services. More specifically, the invention relates to a technique for controlling the download of an electronic guide for a media content distribution service to a user device.
A television (TV) network for broadcasting TV programs typically comprises a number of channels with at least one TV service per channel, each service consecutively broadcasting its programs. Typically the network offers an accompanying electronic service guide (ESG) or electronic program guide (EPG) which contains information related to the channels/services and programs. ESG and EPG are used synonymously herein and often simply referred to as “electronic guide”.
An ESG typically comprises data related to control information and to presentation information. Control information is required by a user device to be able to control reception and presentation of services/programs. Examples for control information are the IP multicast address of a service, data related to the used codecs, timing information, for example related to the broadcast time of a particular program (e.g. “18:01:22 GMT”), etc. The presentation data comprises information intended for presentation to a user, for example on a screen of a user device. Such channel-related and/or program-related presentation information may comprise for example a title and a short description of a program, user timing information, for example “19:00 German time”, a link to a webpage providing channel and program-related information, etc.
In recent times, mobile TV systems have been developed with the intention to allow reception of TV services on mobile user devices such as mobile phones, smart phones, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), notebooks equipped with appropriate cards for mobile TV reception, and similar mobile user devices. Mobile TV systems may conform, for example, to the DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld) IPDC (IP-Data Cast) standard, or the OMA (Open Mobile Alliance) BCAST (Browser and Content-Broadcast Working Group) 1.0 standard.
Networks providing mobile TV services, or more generally multimedia content broadcast services for mobile reception, may be either mobile networks, for example GSM or UMTS networks (these may use for example the OMA BCAST standard), or may be digital broadcast TV networks (these may use for example the DVB-H standard). Future mobile TV systems may be based on at least one of broadcasting services, multicast services, both broadcast and multicast services being generally designated as point-to-multipoint (PTM) services, and point-to-point (PTP, unicast) content distribution services. These services are generally referred to as media content distribution services herein.
An electronic guide such as an ESG usually comprises multiple parts or items represented for example by fragments. A fragment is typically an XML-encoded data set or file. The files/fragments may be linked using references and identifiers to constitute the complete electronic guide. A fragment may for example be related to a particular service, a list of channels or programs of a particular channel/service, or may be related to the content of a particular program. A fragment may also be related to preview data or interactivity data. Details are specified, for example, in the OMA BCAST technical specification (TS) “Mobile Broadcast Services” and the TS “Service Guide for Mobile Broadcast Services”.
An electronic guide may be delivered from the network to the user device in different ways. It may for example be broadcasted in multiplex with the services. This is the mechanism specified in DVB-H. Alternatively, the electronic guide may be retrieved by a user device interactively, i.e. by setting up a point-to-point communication with a TV server of the network for retrieval of the guide. This approach is followed in OMA BCAST and in the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) MBMS (Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Services) standard.
For the interactive retrieval of the electronic guide, there is generally only a limited transmission capacity available, for example to not affect the transmission of the TV feed. A common procedure for interactively retrieving an electronic guide aims at retrieving the whole guide. However, this poses a time delay for presenting particular fragments to the user, as due to the limited available transmission capacity at least some of the fragments requested by the user will not (yet) be available in the user device.
According to an alternative procedure for interactive retrieval of an electronic guide, fragments are retrieved not until they are requested by the user. An interactive retrieval of a particular fragment may then be triggered if the user tries to access a particular channel or a program list of a channel or a content description of a particular program. This approach in any case causes a noticeable delay for the user.
Users of TV systems in general and of mobile TV systems in particular tend to often move rapidly between TV channels (“zap”), i.e. the average viewing times of a particular channel may be low, and will be even lower if there is no information available, for example on the ongoing and the next program. The above-discussed delay times thus pose a problem to operators of mobile TV networks with interactive electronic guide retrieval and to providers of the TV services.
For these reasons, there is a need for a technique for controlling a download of an electronic guide for a media content distribution service in such a way that delay times for receiving at least one of presentation information and control information of the electronic guide in a user device are shortened.
According to a first aspect of the invention, a method for controlling a download of an electronic guide for a media content distribution service of a telecom network to a user device is proposed. The method comprises the steps of monitoring a user behaviour related to the user device, determining—based on the monitoring—a ranking of fragments of the electronic guide to be downloaded onto the user device, and initiating the download of one or more of the fragments to the user device based on the ranking.
As regards the telecom or telecommunications network, the media content distribution service may be provided by a PTM-enabled network, for example a broadcast-enabled network, or a network enabled for any other PTM service, such as a multicast service. The network may also be enabled additionally or alternatively to offer PTP-services for the media content distribution. The electronic guide may comprise an electronic program or service guide or any other guide including at least one of presentation information and control information related to content PTM services of a PTM-enabled network. The media content may comprise video data, audio data such as speech and music, or multimedia/TV data, i.e. a combination of video data, audio data, picture data and rich media data.
The monitoring step allows a prediction of future behaviour of the user or users of the user device, i.e. a determination of the probability for each of the fragments constituting the electronic guide of being requested for presentation/control by the user device. The monitoring may additionally or alternatively comprise monitoring the user behaviour related to other user equipment of the user.
The download may be performed interactively, i.e. by setting up a point-to-point communication with a network node for retrieval of the guide. The connection setup may be requested by the user device or the network node. In the step of initiating the download, instead of providing all of the fragments for download, only some of the fragments may be provided, namely these fragments which are ranked high, for example, which have been assigned a high priority according to the ranking. The fragments may be provided successively in accordance with their ranking.
The fragments may be ranked according to a probability for each of the fragments of being requested by the user device for at least one of a presentation to a user of the user device and control of the user device. A request for presentation may for example be a request for presentation of the channel list, program list or particular program information entered by a user of the user device into a keypad or similar input terminal of the user device. Another example for a request for presentation is a channel change request of the user, for example in case the user device is configured to present information on the newly selected channel during channel change. On any such request for presentation, the user device tries to access the corresponding fragment(s) in a storage area of the device for retrieval, rendering and, e.g., display on a screen of the device. Fragments, which are already stored in the storage area (and which are not expired), may not be included in the ranking algorithm.
The method according to the first aspect of the invention may be performed in the user device, or it may be performed in a node of the network, for example in a TV server of the network. As a further alternative, one or more of the steps of the method may be performed in the user device (e.g., the monitoring step), and one or some of the steps may be performed in the network (e.g., the determination step and the step of initiating the download).
The electronic guide may comprise fragments to be pushed onto the user device and fragments to be downloaded interactively. For example, control information of the electronic guide may be broadcasted, whereas part or all of the presentation information is provided on request to the user device. At least some fragments to be pushed onto the user device may also be interactively downloadable. In this way, for example fragments may be interactively retrieved without having to wait for the next broadcast of these fragments.
The step of monitoring may comprise detecting a channel list selected by the user. The electronic guide may provide at least one channel list, namely the list of all available channels. Further channel lists may be configurable, for example a list of channels preferred by the user. In case a user rarely selects any of the channel lists, the fragments representing the channel list or parts of the channel list may not be ranked very high for download.
The terms “channel” and “service” are used synonymously herein if not otherwise indicated. It is to be understood that a channel may contain a single service, for example a TV sender/broadcast station, such that the service has its own dedicated channel. A channel may, however, as well contain more than one service, for example four services/stations. All such configurations shall be encompassed by the term “channel” as used herein. Whereas it is acknowledged that the usage of the term “channel” instead of “service” may be technically incorrect in certain circumstances, this terminology is nevertheless commonly used (originating from the era of analogous broadcast) and therefore is followed herein.
The step of monitoring may comprise detecting a selection of a channel by a user. For example, the user may select one of the broadcast channels presented to him from the channel list, or the user may initiate a channel change from one channel to another channel, e.g. the next channel.
The step of monitoring may alternatively, or additionally, comprise detecting a duration of selection of the channel. In case a channel is selected for a long time, fragments representing program list and program information may be ranked high, whereas for a channel selected only for a short time, for example when the user zaps through the channel, only fragments related to the current program may be ranked high.
The step of monitoring may also comprise detecting a program selected by the user. The fragments related to this program may then be ranked high. For example, the position of the program within a schedule of the corresponding service/channel may be detected (the user often watches a program or programs starting at 21:00 GMT). Additionally or alternatively, a content-related aspect of the selected program may be detected (the user watches the news program at 21:00 GMT, but rarely watches any other program at 21:00 GMT; he or she may also watch news programs at other starting times).
Moreover, the step of monitoring may comprise detecting at least one fragment of the electronic guide selected for presentation by the user. For example, an absolut time position (e.g., the starting time) or a position in a time schedule of the particular channel may be detected, or a content-related aspect of the information represented by the fragment (e.g., type of program) may be detected to enable identification of similar fragments. The detecting may additionally or alternatively comprise detecting a selection of at least one of a channel list (or service list), a program list and information related to particular programs provided by the electronic service guide.
The step of monitoring may also comprise detecting an expiry of a fragment downloaded to the user device. For example, a program-related fragment may implicitly expire with the starting time of the subsequent program, or may have an explicit expiry time associated therewith. Even if a fragment would be otherwise ranked high in the determination step, in case of expiry it would be useless to download this fragment, which might therefore be considered in the determination step. A lower ranking might also be determined before the expiry time of the fragment (e.g., a program has been broadcasted already to 80% of its duration).
The step of determining a ranking of fragments may comprise ranking fragments according to at least one channel to which the fragments are related. For example, it may have been detected in a monitoring step that a particular channel is often selected in comparison to the other available channels (i.e., this particular channel is preferred by the user). Fragments related to this particular channel may be ranked higher than fragments related to the other channels. A preference of channels leading to a corresponding ranking of fragments may additionally or alternatively also be configured for evaluation in the determination step, e.g. in a user profile.
The step of determining may then further comprise a ranking of fragments according to at least one of a selection, a frequency of selection and a duration of a selection of the at least one channel to which the fragments are related. For example, fragments related to a particular channel may be ranked higher than other fragments because the channel is included in a list of channels preferred by the user, but may additionally or alternatively be ranked before other fragments because the channel is frequently selected by the user. A more refined ranking determination scheme may further consider that, although the channel (service) is frequently selected, the duration of selection is short for this channel (i.e., the user only zaps through). Detecting a frequency of selections of a channel may include determining the number of selections of this channel within a given number of selections of any of the available channels or of the channels of a particular channel list.
The step of determining a ranking of fragments may comprise ranking fragments according to a program list provided by the electronic guide. For example, if a fragment belonging to a particular program list has been determined to be ranked high, further fragments related to this particular program list may also be ranked high. The step of determining a ranking of fragments may additionally or alternatively comprise ranking fragments according to a frequency of selection of a program list of at least one of the channels to which the fragments are associated. For example, in case a fragment is related to a program list which is frequently selected for presentation, it may be ranked high.
The step of determining a ranking of fragments may comprise ranking fragments according to programs to which the fragments are related. For instance, the fragments may be ranked according to their relative or absolute position in the time schedule of the corresponding channel/service. As an example, fragments representing information related to a program at a preferred usage time of the user device may be ranked high (i.e. the user prefers to watch the channel at 21:00 GMT), although the current time is not near to the usage time (current time is 17:00 GMT). A similar ranking might be applied to fragments related to program highlights of the channel (i.e. a movie to be broadcasted this evening) without considering a user monitoring.
The step of determining a ranking of fragments may then further comprise ranking fragments according to a current program on at least one channel, to which the fragments are related. For example, fragments related to the currently ongoing programs on all preferred channels (according to a list of preferred channels configured by the user and/or determined based on a user monitoring) may be ranked high. Still further, the step of determining a ranking of fragments may comprise ranking fragments according to a subsequent program on the at least one channel to which the fragments are related. For example, the subsequent programs of the most preferred channels may be ranked high.
The electronic guide of the user device may be organized hierarchically. A top level may comprise the channels (services) of a channel list, for example the list of all available channels. Further channel lists may be organized separately or may be derived from the most comprehensive list, which may be the list of (currently or generally) available channels. A second level may comprise the current program for each of the channels/services. A third level may comprise the next programs for each of the channels and further levels may comprise the further subsequent programs. Thus, a branch of the hierarchically organized program/service guide may contain information related to programs of a particular channel/service.
The step of determining a ranking of fragments may thus comprise ranking fragments according to at least one of the levels and branches of the electronic guide the fragments are associated with. For example, fragments may be ranked according to being related to a level (e.g. the level representing the currently ongoing program/s), and additionally according to being related to a branch (e.g. the branches representing the most preferred channels/services).
Alternatively, the step of determining a ranking of fragments may comprise ranking fragments according to groups to which the fragments belong. Fragments may be sorted into groups, e.g. according to the OMA BCAST standard, whereby each fragment belonging to a group may contain a group ID. For example, in case a fragment is ranked high because of other ranking criteria, the further fragments belonging to the group may also be ranked high.
The step of determining a ranking of fragments may comprise the determination of preference groups of channels, at least one of the preference groups indicating channels preferred by the user. As an example, the determination step may include determining the preferred channels from a list of preferred channels configurable by the user or users of the user device. Additionally or alternatively, the determination step may include a determination of these channels which are selected with the highest frequencies. For example, the three channels most often selected are determined to constitute the preference group of the most preferred channels, the three channels with the next highest selection frequencies are determined to constitute the preference group of the preferred channels, and the remaining channels are determined to constitute the preference group of the less preferred channels. In another example the determination step includes a determination of these channels which are selected at least with a predetermined threshold frequency. The most preferred channels are the channels with the highest selection frequencies, which in combination are selected with a frequency of at least two third of all channel selection activities. The most preferred channels may be few or more channels, depending on user behaviour.
The preference groups of channels may also be determined considering the duration of selection of channels to, e.g., allow excluding the channels which are only selected when the user zaps through the channel list.
The step of determining a ranking of fragments may comprise associating fragments with one priority out of at least two priorities. For example, fragments may be associated with a high, medium and low priority. Also, there may exist more different priorities, e.g., as many priorities as there are fragments. The fragments which are of high priority may be scheduled for download to the user device first, followed by the fragments associated to a lower priority.
The step of determining a ranking of fragments may comprise ranking fragments according to a number of fragments simultaneously presentable on a display of the user device. The step of determining a ranking of fragments may then comprise ranking fragments according to a size of at least one of a channel list and a program list when presented on the display. As an example, a program list may comprise fragments representing information on the current program, the next program and further subsequent programs. The screen of the user devices may allow only the presentation of information related to two programs. Then the fragments related to the current and next program may be ranked before the further fragments of the program list, as the presentation of the current and the next program comprises the “first screen” appearing on request of the program list.
The step of initiating the download of the fragments may comprise initiating the download, wherein the fragments are transmitted within a dedicated transaction. Such an electronic guide acquisition transaction may for example comprise transmitting a dedicated request message (e.g. according to OMA BCAST) for one or more fragments from the user device to the network and transmitting a dedicated response message containing one or more of the requested fragments from the network to the user device.
In the alternative, the step of initiating the download of the fragments may comprise initiating a download procedure, wherein the fragments are transmitted piggybacked. For example, a procedure may be provided by the media content distribution system to signal a change of a selected channel from the user device to the network. A further transaction might be provided to signal a current state of the user device to the network. These transactions may be used to transmit a request for fragments. The response message of the network, which typically does not contain any further information than a generic acknowledgement, may then be used for transmitting one or more of the required fragments or electronic guide items piggybacked to the user device.
According to another aspect of the invention, a computer program is proposed comprising program code portions for performing the steps according to any one of the method aspects described herein when the computer program is run on one or more computing devices. The computer program may be stored on a computer readable recording medium.
According to a further aspect of the invention, a user device is proposed which is adapted for controlling a download of an electronic guide for a media content distribution to the user device. The user device comprises a ranking component for determining, based on a monitoring of a user behaviour related to the user device, a ranking of fragments of the electronic guide to be downloaded interactively onto the user device, and a download component for initiating the download of one or more of the fragments to the user device based on the ranking.
The user device may further comprise a monitoring component for monitoring the user behaviour related to the user device, wherein the monitoring component is communicatively connected to the ranking determination component. Thus, the monitoring is at least partly performed in the user device itself. A further monitoring may for example be performed in the network providing the electronic guide.
According to a still further aspect of the invention, a user device is proposed which is adapted for receiving a download of an electronic guide for a media content distribution service, wherein the user device comprises a monitoring component for monitoring a user behaviour related to the user device, and wherein the monitoring component is adapted for communication with a ranking determination component in a network node of a network providing the electronic guide, the ranking determination component being adapted for determining a ranking of fragments of the electronic guide to be downloaded interactively onto the user device.
According to another aspect of the invention, a network node of a network providing an electronic guide is proposed, wherein the network node is adapted for controlling a download of the electronic guide for a media content distribution service of the network to a user device. The network node comprises a ranking component for determining, based on a monitoring of a user behaviour related to the user device, a ranking of fragments of the electronic guide to be downloaded from the network onto a user device, and a download component for initiating the download of one or more of the fragments to the user device based on the ranking.
The network node may further comprise a first monitoring component for monitoring the user behaviour related to the user device, wherein the first monitoring component is communicatively connected to the ranking determination component. The first monitoring component may be adapted for monitoring the download of one or more of the fragments to the user device.
The network node may comprise an interface component for interfacing with a second monitoring component in the user device, the second monitoring component adapted for monitoring a user behaviour related to the user device, wherein the interface component is communicatively connected to the ranking determination component.
In the following, the invention will further be described with reference to exemplary embodiments illustrated in the figures, in which:
a-d are flow charts each illustrating details of the sequence of operation in the embodiment of
In the following description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth, such as specific network types and topologies including particular network nodes etc., in order to provide a thorough understanding of the current invention. It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the current invention may be practised in other embodiments that depart from these specific details. For example, the skilled artisan will appreciate that the current invention may be practised in any network for providing media content distribution services, to which movable users may attach. The invention is thus applicable to mobile networks which for example implement the OMA BCAST standard or any other standard for mobile TV application. The invention is also applicable to networks for digital TV broadcast/multicast which for example follow the DVB-H standard, or any other standard for digital media content broadcast/multicast distribution. Further, the invention is also applicable to wireless networks such as WLAN or Bluetooth or similar wireless networks, which implement a media content PTM or PTP distribution technique.
Whereas the exemplary embodiments described below are based on broadcast-enabled networks and the PTM transmissions are broadcast transmissions, the skilled person will understand that other PTM or PTP transmission techniques might also be used, for example a PTM technique based on multicast transmission or other PTM or PTP techniques to be developed in the future.
Further, the invention is applicable not only to TV PTM distribution, but to any kind of media content distribution technique, which may, for example, be related to pure video transmission or audio transmission including the transmission of speech, music and similar audio data.
Those skilled in the art will further appreciate that functions explained hereinbelow may be implemented using individual hardware circuitry, using software functioning in conjunction with a programmable microprocessor or a general purpose computer, using an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) and/or using one or more digital signal processors (DSPs). It will also be appreciated that when the current invention is described as a method, it may also be embodied in a computer processor and a memory coupled to a processor, wherein the memory is encoded with one or more programs that perform the methods disclosed herein when executed by the processor.
In
The network 104 comprises a network node 106 implementing functionalities of a server for mobile TV services. In particular, the TV server 106 controls the broadcast of TV services. These services may comprise standard TV services for dedicated TV receivers and may also comprise services specifically adapted for mobile TV reception on mobile devices such as, e.g., mobile phones, smartphones, etc. with comparatively small screens. A TV program broadcasted by the network 104 is schematically indicated by arrow 108.
The broadcast 108 may be received by the user device 102 via antenna 109. The user device 102 comprises a screen 112 for display of the received broadcast data, i.e. the TV program. The mobile device 102 may be a mobile phone, a smartphone or any other mobile device, for example a notebook with an insertion card plugged in for mobile TV reception according to the OMA BCAST standards or the DVB-H standards.
The network 104 provides an electronic service guide (or, in another embodiment, electronic program guide) which is not broadcasted via the transmission 108 to the user device 102. Instead, the ESG has to be fetched (retrieved interactively) by or pushed onto the user device 102. For retrieval, the device 102 may initiate a unicast communication 110 to the TV server 106. The communication 110 may comprise sending a request for a particular fragment or fragments of the ESG to the server 106, which responds with transmitting one or more of the requested fragments. The communication 110 may be based on an IP-UDP transmission, an IP-TCP-HTTP connection (IP Internet Protocol, UDP User Datagram Protocol, TCP Transmission Control Protocol, HTTP HyperText Transfer Protocol) or may be based on the FLUTE (File delivery over Unidirectional Transport) protocol. Each fragment may be an XML (eXtensible Markup Language)-encoded data file.
Data of the communication 110 are received via the antenna 109 of the user device 102. For example, the data may be transferred via the radio interface of the mobile network 104. In alternative embodiments, the communication 110 may be based on a purely wireline connection between the TV server 106 and the user device 102. The device 102 may for example establish the communication over an USB interface, an IP-based interface, or the like.
The parts or fragments of the ESG fetched by or pushed onto the user device 102 may be stored in the user device and presented to the user on his or her request. On entering a corresponding command into a keypad (not shown) or similar input device associated with the user device 102, a display 114 of ESG fragments may result on the screen 112, which overlays or replaces other presentations on the screen, for example a running TV program.
The ESG display 114 schematically depicted in
The ESG display 114 may also comprise a program list, showing the programs of a particular selected channel, for example the current program and the subsequent programs on this channel. The programs may be displayed with program name, start time of the program and possibly subtitle or similar additional information. The display 114 may also comprise a presentation related to an ongoing or future program, for example including a title of the program, the start time and a detailed program description, for example a summary of the program or a list of topics or actors related to the program.
An ESG management component 204 performs management functionalities related to the retrieval, storage and presentation of ESG fragments. The ESG management component 204 is connected to a fragment acquisition component 206 which is adapted for retrieving ESG fragments via the unicast communication 110. In the example shown in
The management component 204 stores ESG fragments retrieved by the acquisition component 206 in a storage 210, which may be a storage area physically located in a storage unit of the user device 102 dedicated for use by the TV application 200. For presentation of one or more fragments on the screen 112, the fragments are retrieved from the storage 210 by the management component 204 and are forwarded to the user interface component 202. The interface 202 performs rendering of the information represented by the fragments.
The management component also performs control functions related to the presentation of programs. For example, on processing respective fragments including control information related to controlling the reception of services, the management component 204 may communicate with a control component (not shown) of the TV application 200 for control of a presentation of a program broadcasted from the network 104 on the screen 112 of the user device 102.
A monitoring component 212, ranking component 214 and a download component 216 are further provided. The monitoring component 212 is adapted for monitoring the user interface 202. For example, the monitoring component 212 detects a presentation of at least one of a channel list, one or more program lists and one or more programs on the screen of the user device 102 (see
The ranking component 214 is adapted for determining a ranking of fragments to be downloaded interactively. The ranking component 214 determines a ranking of fragments based on the usage data stored in the storage component 218. Based on the ranking, the download component 216 initiates a download of fragments via the HTTP connection 208. In the embodiment depicted in
In an alternative embodiment, the download component 216 may also be directly connected with the fragment acquisition component 206 to initiate the download of fragments. In a further alternative embodiment, the ranking component 214 may also directly communicate with the monitoring component 212. In a still further alternative embodiment, the monitoring component 212 may be omitted. The usage data stored in the storage component 218 may then comprise user profile data. Several user profiles each representing a typical usage of an ESG may be configured by an operator of the network 104. At least one of these profiles may be stored in the usage data storage 218. A user of the user device may choose and configure a particular of the user profiles. The ranking component 214 may then rely on this particular user profile stored in the storage 218.
The application 306 comprises a ranking component 308 for determining a ranking of fragments of the electronic service guide provided by the network 305. The application 306 further comprises a download component 310 for initiating a download of fragments to the user device 302 based on the ranking determined by the ranking component 308.
The application 306 further comprises a monitoring component 312 adapted to monitor a point-to-point (unicast) HTTP connection 314 between the TV server 304 and the user device 302 for retrieval of ESG fragments. The monitoring component 312 is adapted to monitor the retrieval requests sent from the user device 302 to the TV server 304. The component 312 is additionally adapted to monitor the fragments sent by the TV server 304 to the user device 302. For example, the monitoring component 312 monitors the fragments requested for presentation and control purposes by the user device, and further monitors the fragments which are actually downloaded to the user device. The downloaded fragments comprise, in addition to the fragments requested by the user device, also the fragments which are sent to the device 302 without having been requested, namely the fragments which have been determined by the ranking component 310 for download. In addition, there may be fragments sent to the user device on decision of the operator of the network 305. Such fragments may for example represent advertisement information, or presentation information related to news or other information of interest for the users of the mobile TV system 300. In an alternative embodiment, a monitoring component may be adapted to only monitor part of the communication between user device and server, for example only the retrieval requests of the user device.
In the embodiment of
In the embodiment shown in
The data stored in a storage component 410 of the TV application 406 comprises predetermined user profile data. A user profile, as an example, may specify preferences of users in terms of channels and/or programs and related to preferred program contents, languages, or similar user behaviour. After configuration by an operator of the network 405, from the TV server 404 several user profiles each representing a typical usage of the ESG are stored in the storage 410. One of the predetermined user profiles may or may not be chosen by a user of the user device 402 for configuration and may be stored accordingly in the storage 410. The stored user profiles may thus represent a predetermined behaviour of groups of users (all users have to be associated to one of the profiles) or of single users (each user has to choose a profile for personal configuration). In the former case of non-personalized user profiles, the ranking component 412 determines the fragments to be downloaded for the users being associated to a particular user profile simultaneously.
With reference to
Each of the channels comprises a single TV service (in alternative embodiments, a channel may comprise several TV services, for example four TV services). Therefore, M channels comprise services 1, 2, 3, . . . , N, . . . , M. Each service may be named according to the corresponding TV sender, e.g. “CNN”, “BBC”, etc. For each channel, a representation of a corresponding program list 504 is provided (the branches of the hierarchical structure 500), wherein the current program as well as subsequent programs may be indicated.
The representation of the ESG 500 in a user device may provide, for example, storage place for all available channels 1 . . . M of the channel list 502. Channels 1 . . . N may be selected by the user with a 90% probability, based on all channel selection events. For these N services of the channel list 502, storage place for the associated program lists 1 . . . N is provided, wherein each program list comprises at least fragments representing the current program and the next program, i.e. the program following the current program. The total storage required in case each current program and next program is represented by a single fragment each, indicating program name and scheduled start time, comprises storage for 2 N fragments.
For the services N+1 . . . M, selected only with a 10% probability, no storage place for fragments related to the program list may be reserved. For example, the ranking component 214 in
For particular services among the first services 1 . . . N, storage place not only for information on the current and next programs, but also for further subsequent programs is reserved. Additional storage place is thus reserved for services 2 (“BBC”) and 3 (“n-tv”) and therein for representing information on programs #c (current program)+2 . . . #c+n′. These #c+n′ programs may fit into a first screen or display of the user device, when the program list is selected for presentation. Still further storage place may be reserved for programs #c+n′+1 . . . c+m′ for subsequent programs on additional displays of the user device in case the user scrolls through the program list of the ESG for a particular channel. No storage place is reserved for the subsequent programs #c+2 . . . #c+m′ of services other than services 2 and 3, as the user rarely selects and scrolls the program list for these channels.
The overall structure of the representation 500 of an ESG may be programmed into a mobile TV application before installing it on a user device or a network node, or may be configured by a network operator. The user of the device may then choose the services 1 . . . N which represent the preferred channels. In the alternative, the N services preferred by the user may be determined automatically. For example, the channel list 502 may represent the channels according to frequency of selection of these channels by the user.
The ESG structure 500 may then be used by a ranking procedure of a ranking component in the user device or the network, i.e. the procedure determines a ranking of each of the items of the structure 500, wherein each item may comprise one or more fragments. For example, the ranking technique may determine to rank the fragments for lines 506 and 508 and for services 1 . . . N with highest priority, whereas the fragments for services N+1 . . . M and/or other lines are ranked with a lower priority.
In
The monitoring is triggered in step 702 by an event related to the usage of the user device. Such an event may comprise any input of data to the device, for example via a keypad, but may also comprise a trigger signal of a timer subunit of the device for triggering a periodic execution of the monitoring procedure 700.
Next, the monitoring routine 700 detects in step 704 if any of the fragments momentarily stored in the user device have expired. To this end, the monitoring component scans all fragments stored in the user device in step 706. The fragments may either comprise an explicit expiry date, or an expiration may be calculated by the monitoring component, for example from a start time of a program to which the particular fragment may be related to, and the current time. Information identifying the detected expired fragments is stored as usage or monitoring data in step 708.
In subsequent steps, the monitoring component checks an input of a user of the user device. In step 710, it is detected, if the channel list has been selected for presentation. If this is the case, the monitoring procedure goes on to step 712 for detecting the fragments which are presented on the screen, i.e. the part of the channel list fitting onto the screen of the user device. This may for example be the channel list 500 shown in
In case the monitoring routine 700 detects in step 710 that the channel list of the ESG is not selected, the procedure goes on to step 714 to detect, if a particular channel is selected by the user. Should this be the case, in a step 716 the particular selected channel is detected. The procedure than goes on to step 712 for detecting the channel-related ESG fragments displayed on the screen. Depending on screen size and configuration of the ESG, the display may for example comprise a fragment indicating the title and start time of the current program. The detected fragment(s) are written to storage in step 708.
In case no channel has been selected, the monitoring procedure goes on from step 714 to step 718 for detecting if a program list for a channel has been selected. In case of a positive detection, step 712 is executed to detect the fragments related to presentation of the program list. These fragments may comprise the fragments presented on the first screen, i.e. the initial display or screen presented to the user, when he or she firstly selects the program list, for example fragments representing information related to the current and a next program. In case the user scrolls through the program list, the detected fragments may additionally or alternatively also comprise fragments representing information on subsequent programs.
In case that no program list has been selected in step 718, the routine 700 proceeds to step 720 to detect if a program has been selected. In case of a positive detection event, in step 722, the particular selected program is detected. In the subsequent step 712 it is detected which fragments are presented on the screen.
The monitored usage data stored in step 708 in the storage 218 of the TV application 200 of
Having stored the monitoring data, in step 724 the control is returned to a main program (not shown) which will initiate the monitoring routine again in case of the occurrence of a trigger event a step 702.
The determination procedure is triggered by a trigger event in step 802. Such an event may for example be an indication of available transmission capacities for download of ESG fragments onto the user device, the indication being received from the PTM network or components of the user device. Also, a determination procedure 800 may be triggered by a signal received from a monitoring component, indicating that monitoring or usage data stored in a storage of the user device have been updated.
In step 804, the routine determines a selection frequency of the channel list of the ESG. The stored monitoring data may comprise several data sets indicating each a presentation of the channel list on the screen of the user device. The data sets may be time-stamped either explicitly or implicitly by configuring the storage in a way, that it contains only a fixed total number of data sets, wherein the data sets or records are overwritten cyclically. From the subset of data records related to a channel list selection, a selection frequency for the channel list selection may be simply determined.
In a further step 806, a frequency of the complete channel scans is determined. The channel scan frequency indicates, how often the user zaps through all the available channels. This frequency represents a zapping behaviour of the user or users of the user device. In a further step 808, the selection frequency of each of the available channels is determined. The selection frequency may be determined according to the recipe described above with regard to the determination of the channel list selection frequency.
In a further step 810, the selection frequency of the program list for each of the available channels may be determined. In an alternative embodiment, the program list selection frequency may be determined only for particular channels, for example the most often selected channels. In step 812, the selection frequency of ESG fragments representing presentation information related to the or any current program is determined. In other words, the selection frequency is determined for each channel separately and for the sum of all available channels. The latter determination indicates a general user behaviour of choosing the ESG current program presentation independent of which particular channels the user prefers.
In step 814, the routine 800 determines a selection frequency of ESG fragments representing subsequent program presentation information. In case a presentation information related to a program on a particular channel is configured to present a current program together with a next program, both the selection frequencies for a current program presentation and a next program presentation may be identical to each other.
In step 816, preference groups are determined, i.e. the available channels are sorted into groups according to the selection frequencies of the channels (i.e., according to the selection preferences of the user). A first preference group may contain the most often selected channels (i.e. the most preferred channels), for example the channels which account for at least two third of the total number of channel selections. A second preference group may contain the preferred channels, for example the channels (excluding the most preferred channels) which are sorted by the user into leading positions in the channel list. A third preference group may contain the less preferred channels, namely all the available channels which are neither most preferred nor preferred channels.
The determination routine 800 stores the determined frequencies in a particular storage, which may be associated to the usage data storage 218 of the TV application 200 in
The control is returned in step 818 to a main program which triggers the determination routine 800 again in case of another trigger event in step 802.
In step 902, the execution of the determination procedure 900 is triggered, for example by the return step 818 of the determination procedure described with respect to
In step 910, fragments to be downloaded with medium priority are determined. The rules to be executed in conjunction with step 910 are illustrated in
In step 918 of the determination routine 900 of
In step 922 of routine 900, those fragments are determined which are to be downloaded with lowest priority. An example of a rule set for performing step 922 is depicted in
Whereas the steps 904, 910, 918, 922 are illustrated in
In another embodiment of a ranking component, determination procedures similar to the routines 700, 800 and 900 of
The invention allows the optimization of the availability of an electronic service/program guide for digital multimedia content PTM services despite limited transmission capacities, which may be available for example over the radio interface of a mobile network. Lower delay times for ESG information to be presented to the user increases the user perception of the ESG. This holds for implicit access to the ESG (e.g. during channel change and zapping) or explicit access (e.g. when accessing a program list or detailed program information).
The invention is applicable to mobile TV systems, in which an ESG has to be retrieved interactively; it is also applicable to systems in which the ESG is broadcasted, but can additionally be retrieved interactively. The invention is further applicable to systems in which the ESG is partly broadcasted (for example, the control information) and partly delivered interactively (for example, the presentation information).
While the current invention has been described in relation to its preferred embodiments, it is to be understood, that this description is intended for illustrative, non-limiting purposes only. The invention shall be limited only by the scope of the claims appended hereto.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/EP2006/007806 | 8/7/2006 | WO | 00 | 12/14/2009 |
