KR20010080022A - Television system adapted to function as server for distributing broadcasted stand-alone applications - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a television system configured to function as a server for distributing broadcast standalone applications to external devices. The broadcast standalone application may be included in a data stream broadcast or in a long program video signal via a dedicated data delivery channel. In the presently contemplated implementation, the broadcast standalone application is a Java applet and the external device is Java-enabled. In one embodiment, the television system displays application identification information sufficient to store the standalone application prior to transmission to the external device and to inform viewers of different standalone applications capable of downloading to the external device. The television system also provides a mechanism that allows the viewer to select any one or more different standalone applications for downloading to the external device. In a particularly contemplated embodiment, the external device is an intelligent remote controller, eg, Philips "Fronto" iRCD.

Description

Television system adapted to function as server for distributing broadcasted stand-alone applications

Computers adapted or configured to distribute files, applications, and data to other computers or devices, for example, via a network (LAN, WAN, Internet, etc.) are commonly referred to as a "server." Servers of a wide variety of forms and configurations are already known.

Interactive television systems are also already known for receiving and retransmitting interactive program information to remote, portable devices that allow television system users / viewers to interact with games, sports, education, or other broadcast television programs.

For example, U. S. Patent No. 4,592, 546, issued June 3, 1986, contains interactive program information inserted into the Vertical Blanking Interval (VBI) of a broadcast NTSC television signal, and by a television receiver or set top box. It describes an interactive television system that is received and downloaded to a viewer's portable device. The interactive program information includes game play or other interactive commands that enable the viewer to use the portable device to enjoy a skilled game with a remote participant in connection with a live event. The technology of US Pat. No. 4,592,546 is incorporated herein by reference.

U.S. Patent No. 5,343,239, issued to Lappington et al. On August 30, 1994, discloses a transaction that allows viewers to participate interactively with an interactive television program during channel surfing between programs, without any discontinuity. It describes a transaction-based interactive television system. The interactive program information is inserted into the VBI of the broadcast television signal, received and decoded by the set top decoder, and the set top decoder then transmits the decoded program information to the portable device via an infrared (IR) link. The portable device may be designed to execute a proprietary high level command language to execute a comment or command delivered by the set top decoder via the IR link and allow the viewer to participate in the interactive program. The disclosure of U.S. Patent No. 5,343,239 is incorporated herein by reference.

However, currently available technologies include broadcast standalone applications (e.g. Java applets), external devices such as Intelligent Remote Control (iRCD), Personal Digital Assistants (PDA), standalone game machines, etc. There is no provision for a television system adapted to distribute to devices, which is a significant disadvantage of currently available technologies.

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention generally relates to television systems, and in particular, broadcasted stand-alone applications (e.g., Java applets), intelligent remote control (iRCD), personal digital assistant ( A television system adapted to distribute to external devices such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), standalone game machines, and the like.

1 is a functional block diagram of a television system constructed in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Based on the foregoing, it can be seen that there is a need in the art to address important shortcomings as described above in the currently available technologies. The present invention satisfies this need in the art.

The present invention, in one aspect, includes a television system configured to function as a server for distributing a broadcast standalone application to an external device. The broadcast standalone application may be included in a data stream broadcast through a broadcast program video signal or a dedicated data transmission channel. In the present contemplated implementation, the broadcast standalone application is a Java applet and the external device is Java-enabled. In one embodiment, the television system stores application identification information sufficient to store the standalone application prior to transmission to the external device and to inform viewers of different standalone applications that can be used to download to the external device. It is also desirable for the television system to provide a mechanism that allows the user to select any one or more of different standalone applications that can be used to download to an external device. In a particularly contemplated embodiment, the external device is, for example, an intelligent remote controller which is Philips' “Pronto” iRCD.

In one embodiment, the lifetime of a standalone application is dependent on the length of time the viewer remains tuned to the selected channel. In another embodiment, the standalone application is broadcast over a premium or pay-per-view channel. In yet another embodiment, the standalone application includes advertising content.

In another aspect, the present invention extracts a broadcast stand-alone application from a signal received by the tuner, a tuner capable of selectively tuning to a selected channel on which a signal including a data processor, memory, standalone application is broadcast, and extracted Data extractor, transmitter adapted to supply a standalone application to the data processor, and a television system with a television display. The data processor is programmed to store the standalone application extracted from the memory, to selectively retrieve the standalone application from the memory, and to supply the retrieved standalone application to the transmitter. The transmitter is adapted to send the retrieved standalone application received from the data processor to an external device.

In the presently contemplated embodiment, the data processor creates and maintains a separate file for each standalone application stored in memory that contains sufficient information for the viewer to identify the standalone application, or the viewer is standalone. It is programmed to at least create a planned database of standalone applications stored in memory containing sufficient application information to identify the application. Preferably, the data processor is programmed to retrieve and display application identification information on the television display to enable the viewer to identify a standalone application that can be used for download. In one embodiment, the television system further includes an additional tuner, and the data processor is also programmed to periodically tune the additional tuner to the selected channel so that independent application broadcasts on the selected channel are periodically extracted and stored in memory. do.

In another aspect, the present invention includes a method comprising receiving a standalone application broadcast in a television system and transmitting the broadcast standalone application received from the television system to an external device. In one embodiment, the method further includes storing the received broadcast standalone application prior to transmitting the broadcast standalone application received from the television system to the external device.

These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying Figure 1.

The following terms are used throughout this specification, ie throughout the specification and claims.

(A) A "television system" includes, but is not limited to, any type of broadcast television system, or air, that primarily receives and displays broadcast video signals including any form of digital, analog or hybrid signals. Aerial), cable, satellite broadcast television system, or intended to include. The term "television system" is also intended to mean or include a television receiver and / or cable or satellite set-top converter and / or decoder box capable of receiving and displaying broadcast video signals, and any device hardware.

(B) "broadcasting" transmits any digital, analog or hybrid signal to any number of television systems ("broad") via any medium (e.g., air, cable, fiber, wired, wireless, etc.). It is intended to mean or include ("casting"), and is not limited to any particular form of signal or transmission medium.

(C) “data processor” includes, but is not limited to, a digital signal processor (DSP), a microcontroller, a microprocessor, a state machine, a field programmable logic array (FPLA), a field programmable gate array, and some form of data It is intended to mean or include any form of data processor, including any other machine, apparatus, device, circuit or circuit elements capable of receiving and processing the data.

(D) the “standalone application” is performed independently by the receiving device, without any further interaction between the recipient device and the user of the television system, ie without any required additional inclusion of the television system. It is intended to mean and include any executable software code, computer program or applet that can be executed and executed.

(E) "External device" means, but is not limited to, any device that is outside of the essential components of a television system that is required for the television system to receive and display video signals. A remote control unit (RCD) (sometimes a remote control unit (RCU) or remote controller (RC)) used by television viewers to operate the television system (e.g., "Fronto" intelligent RC sold by Philips Electronics). Sometimes referred to as); Standalone hand-held devices such as personal video game machines (e.g. "Game Boy" personal video game machines sold by Nintendo), or personal digital assistants (PDAs) (e.g. Sold by "Nino" PDA); Or any other machine or device equipped with a data processor capable of executing a standalone application.

In another aspect, the present invention relates to a television system configured, programmed, or adapted to function as a server for distributing broadcast standalone applications (eg, Java applets) to an external device. It includes. According to the invention, the television system is provided via a broadcast channel (e.g., in the VBIs of a broadcast television program signal) or via separate digital data feeds or broadcasts (e.g., digital data). Receive standalone applications (via one or more channels dedicated to delivery services). In the currently contemplated implementation, the television system stores the received standalone applications in local memory and then tunes the title and / or category and / or description of the stored standalone applications to a particular channel or channels. Display automatically, and / or upon request by the viewer, thereby allowing the viewer to select any one or more of the stored standalone applications for download to the external device. Of course, the external device and the television system must communicate with each other using standard communication protocols, such as mutually understood communication protocols, for example an infrared (IR) RC5 protocol.

After the external device downloads the standalone application from the television system (server), it can execute and execute the downloaded standalone application without any additional viewer- or machine-interaction with the television system. For example, to illustrate the point, a viewer can download a video game to a standalone video game machine, then take the standalone video game machine to a remote location at vacation time and then download fraud while on vacation. Play video games. In other words, the external device does not have to receive any additional information or instructions from the television system, and the viewer does not have to interact with a television program broadcast through the television system. Appropriate engines and resources will be provided to interpret and execute (i.e. perform) the.

The standalone applications may be any suitable programming, although Java or other open-platform (“universal”) programming language, which can now be understood as being universally executed by any “Java-Enable” device, will be well used. Can be written in language. In this connection, Java applets can be easily and efficiently deployed to the television system of the present invention without any significant hardware modifications to existing and readily available television system hardware. Of course, depending on the required data rate, available bandwidth, specific application and / or various other factors, higher level and / or proprietary programming languages may be considered appropriate. In this regard, the present invention is not limited to any particular hardware and / or software implementation or environment.

Referring now to FIG. 1, a functional block diagram of a television system 10 manufactured in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention can be seen. The television system 10 is:

Data processor 20 (which may conveniently be a system microprocessor present in the television receiver or set-top box, but is not limited to such);

Memory 30 (eg, DRAM, SRAM, EEPROM, flash memory, or other type of semiconductor memory device, which may suitably be separate or partial from the data processor 20);

Tuner 40 (of course, television systems with one or more tuners are also possible, such as Picture-In-Picture (PIP) systems);

Data extractor / converter 50 (eg, decoder, descrambler and / or decryption engine);

Receive control signals (e.g., IR RC5 protocol commands) from a remote controller 70, interpret and translate the received control signals, and then translate the translated control signals (e.g., commands) Is transmitted to appropriate logic devices and / or set-top boxes (eg, the data processor 20) in the television receiver to perform control of the designated functions or operations of the television system 10, A remote controller (RC) interface (I / F) module 60;

A receiver that is compatible with digital data streams (the transmitter 75 may be part of the RC / IF module 60. Whether it is separate from or part of the RC I / F module 60 is not a limitation of the present invention). A transmitter 75 capable of transmitting to an external device equipped with; And

Television display 80 (eg, a CRT).

In accordance with the presently contemplated exemplary implementation of the invention, the tuner 40 includes a broadcast program video comprising stand-alone application (s), for example Java applet (s). Tunes to the channel selected by the viewer to receive the signal. The data extractor / converter 50 is a standalone application (s) from the broadcast program video signal (e.g., by descrambling, decoding, decoding and / or translating, converting, digital data extracted from the broadcast program video signal). ) And then supply the extracted standalone application (s) to the data processor 20. The data processor 20 can be programmed to recognize the extracted standalone applications that it receives from the data extractor / converter 50, and then easily store the standalone applications in the memory in a planned manner for easy retrieval. Create an application database

In this regard, a separate application file or record may be created and maintained for each received standalone application, each application file or record having different data describing different characteristics or aspects of the standalone application stored therein. It includes fields. For example, the title of the standalone application can be specified in one data field; The category of standalone application (eg, game, educational, business, entertainment and / or other application categories) may be specified in another data field; The resources needed to run the standalone application, for example the memory and processor speed requirements, and the programming language (eg Java) used to code the standalone application may be specified in other data fields. There is; Pricing information for the standalone application may be specified in another data field; The length of the data field containing the code for the standalone application may be specified in another data field; A brief description of the contents of the standalone application can be specified in other data fields; The advertisement data field may be used to store a stored advertisement for at least partially offsetting the cost of the product (ie standalone application); And / or items and conditions for the use and / or purchase of the standalone application may still be specified in other data fields. Of course, the manner in which the database is organized, including the number and formats of data fields used, is not limiting of the invention. Indeed, the standalone applications are extracted from the broadcast program video signal (or received via a separate data feed or broadcast digital data delivery service channel) and then directly transmitted to the external device (ie, the data Without first being sent to a processor and without regard to the data processor); Alternatively, it is possible to carry out the invention in which the standalone applications are temporarily stored (eg in asynchronous FIFO buffer memory) and then transmitted to the external device.

Returning to the example embodiment shown in FIG. 1, when the viewer tunes to the selected channel (s) on which the standalone applications are broadcast over the selected channel (s), the television system 10 causes the viewers to listen. To automatically display a "menu" listing down standalone applications when down loading is available (eg, title and / or category and / or content description, etc.) when tuning to the channel (s). Programmable, and / or the television system 10 is based on instructions generated by the viewer, for example, via a remote controller 90 that can be adapted to conventional design and fabrication. It may be programmed to display only a "menu" that lists the standalone applications available for download upon request from the viewer. The viewer can then select the standalone application or applications that he / she has chosen to download (e.g., using the direction arrow keys and the "enter" key on the remote controller 90), The selected standalone application (s) will be downloaded by the television system 10 to an external device.

As mentioned previously, the remote controller 90 may function as the external device, for example a Philips "Fronto" intelligent remote controller, but this certainly does not limit the invention. For example, the remote controller 9 does not have the ability to perform (execute) downloaded standalone applications, but to command the television system to operate the television system, i.e. via an IR or RF or other communication link. Can be used only by the viewer in a conventional manner, in which case a separate external device should be a standard remote controller, which must be used to download and execute the standalone applications. Alternatively, the remote controller can be used to dowload (and store if desired) the standalone applications and then re-transmit them (eg, later) to another external device.

The external device must have the ability to receive data transmitted by the television system (ie, download the standalone applications) and have the ability to interpret and execute the executable code of the standalone applications it downloads. . In this regard, as already mentioned, the external device may include an intelligent remote controller (RC) (such as a "Fronto" Intelligent RC sold by Philips Electronics); Standalone hand-held devices such as personal video game machines (e.g. "Game Boy" personal video game machines sold by Nintendo), or personal digital assistants (PDAs, e.g. Sold by "Nino" PDA); Or any other machine or device with a data processor capable of executing a standalone application. As already mentioned, in the modern contemplated implementation of the present invention, the standalone applications are Java applets, thus requiring the external device to be Java-enabled for the implementation. In the exemplary implementation of the invention shown in FIG. 1, the remote controller 90 functions as the external device, although it does not limit the invention. It is currently planned that the Philips “Fronto” Intelligent RC is particularly suitable for the application, which includes built-in touch-screen display, IR ports on both receive and transmit, programmable data processor, and recharge / This is because it has a communication dock.

In PIP-mounted television systems, the system is connected to the " secondary " tuner (i.e., the primary channel of interest to the viewer) over the particular channel (s) on which the standalone applications are broadcast over that particular channel (s). A periodic tuner, e.g., fixed periodic intervals and / or whenever it is detected that the PIP mode was not invoked by the viewer (e.g., a tuner not used to tune a "larger" picture) Whereby the "secondary" tuner is usable), which can be programmed to tune. In this way, a repository of currently available standalone applications will always be available for immediate download without the viewer having to incur any delay or wait.

Several technologies are currently planned to financially reward the provider of the broadcast standalone applications (eg, the cable system operator, the cable network, the application creator or distributor, or any other entity). Thereby enhancing the economic viability of the system.

For example, the lifetime of each downloaded standalone application may be linked to the time at which the viewer is tuned to a particular channel (or set of channels), e.g., the channel through which the standalone application is broadcast, Thereby capturing or tying the viewer to specific channel (s) during the time period in which the viewer is running the downloaded standalone application. For example, a disable / kill, delete command may be performed to terminate the application when the viewer switches channels or turns off the television system. Television or cable networks can use this mechanism to increase viewership, which translates into higher advertising revenue.

Alternatively, or in addition, the broadcast standalone applications may be delivered via fee channel (s) and / or pay-per-view channel (s) to which the viewer subscribes (ie, pays), Thereby the viewer will have to pay for the broadcast standalone application (s) he / she selects (the applications can be sold individually or in a "package", or the viewer can choose any You can pay a fixed fee for a defined period of time (e.g., one or two hours) at which the application is free to download.

Alternatively, or in addition, advertisement content may be included in the broadcast standalone applications such that the provider of the applications may generate significant advertising revenues for the distribution of the applications (eg, each advertiser Pay a fixed amount per customer to download an application that includes the advertisement (s)).

While the presently contemplated exemplary embodiments and implementations of the invention have been described in detail above, many modifications and / or modifications of the basic inventive concepts which have been described herein and may appear to those skilled in the relevant art are attached to the appended claims. As defined in the following, it should be clearly understood that it is still within the spirit and scope of the present invention.

Claims (14)

Television system 10, configured to function as a server for distributing stand-alone applications broadcast to external device 90. The method of claim 1, The broadcast standalone application is a Java applet and the external device (90) is Java-enabled. The method of claim 1, The external device (90) is an intelligent remote controller. In the television system 10: Data processor 20; Memory 20; A tuner 40 that can selectively tune to the selected channel through which a signal comprising standalone applications is broadcast over the selected channel; A data extractor (50) adapted to extract the broadcast standalone applications from the signal received by the tuner (40) and to supply the extracted standalone applications to the data processor (20); Transmitter 75; A television display 80, The data processor 20 stores the extracted standalone applications in the memory 30, selectively retrieves the standalone applications from the memory 30, and supplies the retrieved standalone applications to the transmitter 75. Programmed; The transmitter (75) is adapted to send the retrieved standalone applications that it receives from the data processor (20) to an external device (90). The method of claim 4, wherein The data processor 20 is programmed to create and maintain separate files for each standalone application that the data processor stores in the memory 30, and includes information sufficient for a viewer to identify the standalone application. , TV system (10). The method of claim 4, wherein The data processor 20 is programmed to generate a planned database of the standalone applications that the data processor stores in the memory 30 and includes sufficient application identification information for the viewer to identify the standalone application. (10). The method of claim 6, The data processor (20) is programmed to retrieve and display the application identification information on the television display (80) to allow the viewer to identify the standalone applications that are available for download. The method of claim 4, wherein Further includes an additional tuner, The data processor 20 is programmed to periodically tune an additional tuner to the selected channel, whereby the standalone applications broadcast over the selected channel are periodically extracted and stored in the memory 30. (10) .` The method of claim 4, wherein The lifetime of at least selected of the standalone applications is linked to the duration of time the viewer remains tuned to the selected channel. The method of claim 4, wherein The selected channel is a fee channel or a pay-per-view channel. The method of claim 4, wherein And at least selected ones of the standalone applications comprise advertising content. At the television system 10, receiving a broadcast standalone application; And Transmitting the received broadcast standalone application from the television system (10) to an external device (90). The method of claim 12, Storing the received broadcast standalone application before transmitting the received broadcast standalone application from the television system (10) to an external device (90). The method of claim 12, The broadcast standalone application is a Java applet and the external device (90) is Java-enabled.