Patent Application
20090064226
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an interactive program guide, and more particularly to a user interface of an interactive program guide and the method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Digital TV (DTV) is becoming more and more popular throughout the world. In a DTV environment, the program guide is transmitted in a digital manner through a variety of channels. When a user turns on a DTV, the first thing he or she looks at is inevitably an electronic program guide (EPG). Through the EPG, it is easier for the user to understand program content, and thus select the operations he or she needs, such as pre-recording, searching, scheduling and setting up personal preferences.
Despite the advantages of EPGs, current products still have many disadvantages. For example, for some grid-based two-dimensional (2D) user interfaces for EPG, there are fixed time slots, such as thirty minutes, used to align all the programs in the EPG. However, if some programs in EPG have a starting time that does not align to the time slot of the EPG, the EPG still uses an inconsistent starting time to represent those programs, and thus the display time of those programs do not reflect their reality in the EPG. Furthermore, if a program is so lengthy that it has to occupy a couple of time slots, the viewer can not solely click a rightward button to move the indicator from that program to its right-handed side adjacent program, but rather must click the rightward button by the same times as the number of time slots it occupies. In addition, the program slots in EPG are too small to exhibit necessary information of those programs, and it is not easy for the viewer to understand when the program is showing at his or her first glance.
Because the friendly user interface is necessary to meet user demands, it is important to design a cost effective method to solve such an issue.
The user interface of an interactive program guide in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention comprises a two-dimensional EPG area and a selected program area. The two-dimensional EPG area includes a list of channels, programs corresponding to the channels and an indicator pointing to a selected program. The selected program area includes an analog clock indicating the current time and display period of the selected program and a status area with text indicating the status of the selected program.
The user interface of an interactive program guide in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention comprises a two-dimensional EPG area and a separate selected program area. The two-dimensional EPG area includes a list of channels, programs corresponding to the channels and an indicator pointing to a selected program. The separate selected program area includes means for indicating the current time and display period of the selected program and a means for indicating the status of the selected program.
The method for using a user interface of an interactive program guide in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention comprises the steps of: displaying a two-dimensional EPG, wherein the EPG has a list of channels and programs corresponding to the channels; displaying an analog clock which indicates the current time and display period of the selected program pointed by an indicator; and displaying text indicating the status of the selected program.
The invention will be described according to the appended drawings in which:
There is an indicator 111 with variable color or texture in the EPG area 11. For example, if the indicator 111 points to the program “The Rock,” a bold square encloses programs on channel “FOX” on which the selected program is shown. And a specific color, probably green, indicates the box of that selected program. Therefore, the viewer can realize the location of the selected program. The indicator 111 can be triangle-shaped and maintained in a fixed size. It is commonly seen that the number of the channels and the programs may be so large that the EPG cannot accommodate those channels and programs in a single screen. To solve such issue, the embodiment designs scrolling bars on the right-hand side and bottom of the EPG area 11. Accordingly, the viewer can realize the relating location that the selected program corresponds to the entire EPG, and change the portions he or she wants to view by means of the scrolling bars.
Even though the starting time of the EPG is based on the selected program which is highlighted by the indicator, there may be other adjacent programs which have a starting time earlier than the selected program. For example, in
In the meantime, the analog clock 221 of the selected program area 22 changes its highlighted region to 4:15-7:30 p.m., the status area 222 changes the name of the selected program as well as its display period, and the synopsis area 223 changes to a brief description for the newly selected program. Also, the preview area 23 changes to a representative picture or a piece of a preview video for the newly selected program.
The above-described embodiments of the present invention are intended to be illustrative only. Numerous alternative embodiments may be devised by persons skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the following claims.
