Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/47—End-user applications
  • H04N21/482—End-user interface for program selection
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/47—End-user applications
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/43—Processing of content or additional data, e.g. demultiplexing additional data from a digital video stream; Elementary client operations, e.g. monitoring of home network or synchronising decoder's clock; Client middleware
  • H04N21/431—Generation of visual interfaces for content selection or interaction; Content or additional data rendering
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/41—Structure of client; Structure of client peripherals
  • H04N21/426—Internal components of the client ; Characteristics thereof

Definitions

• the invention relates to a method for navigating through a list of elements accessible using an audiovisual receiver, and an audiovisual receiver provided with a user interface for selection.
• Patent application FR 2 805 698 filed by the applicant and published on August 31, 2001 describes a method for selecting a channel
• This request describes the continuous scrolling of elements grouped in a list, the element in the center of the screen is always the one with the focus, so just wait for the desired service to scroll and position itself in this position to select it and at the same time activate it.
• the item in the center of the screen is
• Another method is to display a page of a certain number of elements extracted from the list.
• the page is arranged vertically and the direction commands "arrow up” and “arrow down” allow you to navigate within this page and move the focus, the elements of the page do not change place.
• the user can of course change the page displayed either by pressing a "previous page” or “next page” key, or by positioning the focus on the last element in bottom of the page and pressing en, either by placing the focus on the first element at the top of the page and pressing.
• the element having the focus is at the beginning or at the end of the new page. The user then finds it difficult to locate it in the list.
• the user does not remember if the item with the focus is the first in the list (if it is placed at the top of the page) or the last (s 'it is placed at the bottom of the page).
• the location within the list is not precise, the user does not have a good understanding of the actual situation of the element within the list of elements.
• the present invention relates to a method of navigating in a list which allows the user-selectable element to be precisely located, and the receiver making it possible to select an element in this way.
• the subject of the present invention is a method of navigation on elements displayed on a display means, comprising a first step of developing and displaying a first sub-list of elements extracted from a list of elements. , the current sub-list element being graphically highlighted; characterized in that it comprises a second step of developing and displaying a second sub-list of elements, said step being activated when, following the introduction of a navigation command, the new current element is located in the first or last position of the first sublist, the second sublist presenting the new current element surrounded by at least two elements.
• the navigation is carried out thanks to sublists displayed on a screen and following the identification of the new element having the focus, it is visually surrounded by at least two elements accessible by each of the navigation keys. available.
• the user can locate this new element and possibly return to the previous element which is also displayed.
• the identification step is triggered by a command from the user received by the receiver.
• the latter can thus navigate at will in the list of elements.
• the steps of identifying and displaying a second sublist take place after a determined time, the elements of the list being successively highlighted by the receiver in the defined order. In this case, the receiver controls the scrolling of the elements on the screen.
• the new current element is located at the same position in the second sublist as in the first sublist.
• the sublists are displayed using a grid.
• the second sublist presents the new element framed by at least four elements located in the four directions of navigation.
• the number of elements framing the new current element is programmable.
• the elements displayed are service identifiers broadcast by a digital television network.
• the elements are identifiers of services broadcast by a digital television network.
• the elements are event identifiers broadcast by a television network.
• the method comprises a step of displaying an indicator associated with the services or events displayed, the presence of the indicator signaling that the service or the associated event is not broadcast by the same satellite than the currently selected channel.
• the user can see whether the selection of the service or the event associated with this indicator requires a change of satellite by activation of a motorized antenna, and therefore a certain time to view the selected element.
• This indicator is presented when, in its configuration of the receiver, it has integrated by a suitable means the presence of a motorized antenna.
• the present invention also relates to an audiovisual terminal comprising a means for introducing navigation commands and a means for displaying a first sublist by highlighting graphically a first element called "current"; characterized in that it comprises a means for developing a second sublist activated when, following the introduction of a navigation command, the new current element is located in the first or last position of the first sub-list, the second sub-list displayed by the display means presenting the new element framed by at least two elements.
• FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a digital television reception system according to an exemplary embodiment
• FIG. 2 is an example of representation on the screen of a user interface page displaying two sublists displayed before and after the execution of a navigation command ⁇ ;
• FIG. 3 is an example of a screen appearance following the execution of a navigation command ⁇ and displaying a sublist of 11 elements,
• - Figure 4 is an example of a screen appearance following the execution of a navigation command ⁇ by navigating in a page of ten services
• - Figure 5 is an example of a screen appearance following the execution of a navigation command -> to successively view sublists of 10 services
• FIG. 6 is an example of a screen appearance following the execution of a navigation command - ⁇ when the list limit is reached.
• - Figure 7 is an example of representation of three screen appearances showing the display of a list part following navigation commands and according to the prior art
• - Figure 8 is an example of representation of three screen appearances showing the display of a list part following the introduction of navigation commands commandes and ⁇ ;
• FIG. 9 presents three screen appearances showing the display of a part of the list following the introduction of navigation commands ⁇ when the end of the list is reached;
• FIG. 10 shows three screen appearances showing the display of a part of the list following the introduction of navigation commands ⁇ and ⁇ near the end of the list;
• FIG. 1 1 shows the behavior of the focus and the display of the sublist following the introduction of several commands ⁇ when the focus is close to the start of the list;
• - Figure 12 is an example of representation of three screen appearances showing the display of a list part following the introduction of navigation commands - ⁇ and ⁇ ;
• - Figure 13 shows a variant of the focus behavior and the display of the sublist following the introduction of commands ⁇ and ⁇ when the element in the focus is close to the start of the list;
• - Figure 14 shows a variant of the focus behavior and the display of the sublist following the introduction of commands ⁇ and ⁇ when the element in the focus is close to the start of the list;
• - Figure 15 shows a flow diagram of the operation of the user interface according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
• the receiver can be an interactive television, but also a receiver intended for the reception of digital video data or else provided for connection to a two-way network, Internet for example.
• FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a digital television reception system.
• the receiver 1 of FIG. 1 is connected to a display screen 2, an antenna, itself connected to a reception means 4 which comprises: a tuner which supplies a signal to a demodulator, the data received are corrected by a circuit corrector and transmitted to a demultiplexer.
• the demultiplexer includes a certain number of filters programmed by a central unit 3 as a function of the various applications supported by the receiver 1. The filters correspond to identification information present in the header of the packets of the demodulated signal.
• the audio or video sections or packets filtered by the demultiplexer are stored in predefined areas of a data memory 9 for the attention of these applications. If necessary, the information is firstly decrypted by a decrypting circuit according to the rights of the user, before being stored in the data memory 9.
• the receiver also includes an audio / video decoding logic 10 for the generation of audiovisual signals sent to the television screen 2, and possibly an interface 5 for communication with a local high-speed digital bus 6 making it possible to receive audio / video data from a bidirectional network with storage in the memory 9 This network is for example an IEEE 1394 network.
• An executable program memory 12 contains the operating software of the receiver and specific applications.
• the memory 12 contains at least five applications: an audio decoder, a video decoder, a Teletext decoder, an access control assembly, as well as a module user interface called "Browser".
• the memory 12 is represented in the form of a single block, but comprises at the same time random access memory, read-only memory and reprogrammable persistent memory (for example of “Flash” type).
• the receiver also includes an infrared interface 7 of a remote control 8, said interface also being connected to the microprocessor 3.
• the remote control is provided with the direction keys ⁇ , ⁇ , - ⁇ and ⁇ - and "OK" and "Menu” whose function we will see later.
• a character generator 11 often called an OSD circuit, from the English “On Screen Display” (literally meaning “display on the screen") allows the generation of command menus or graphics relating to the parameters of the receiver or to an application special.
• the video signal generated by this character generator is multiplexed with one of the video signals coming from the reception means 4 or from the interface 5 with the digital network to a first Scart socket (SCART socket in English) connected to the viewing screen 2.
• the exemplary embodiment takes place in the context of a digital television broadcasting system, for example of the DVB (for “Digital Video Broadcast”) type.
• the invention is not limited to this framework, and can be used in other environments where ordered lists of items are presented to a user.
• the user interface includes an electronic program guide sub-application. This guide allows the user to access descriptive information concerning the services as well as present and future events broadcast by these services. This information is derived from data also broadcast on the network. In one example, this data is DVB service data, described in more detail in the document "EN 300 468 Digital Video Broadcasting; Specification for Service Information (SI) in DVB Systems". This document is published by ETSI ("European Telecommunications Standards Institute").
• This data is transported in the multiplex stream received by the receiver in packets having identifiers so identified known by the demultiplexer of the reception circuit 4 under control of the microprocessor 3 and recovered by the latter in a part of the data memory 9, for use by the user interface application.
• the data relating to the electronic program guide are organized in 'tables' describing in a hierarchical manner the objects of the flow. A description of the services available can be obtained in a known manner, in particular from a table labeled 'SDT'.
• the hierarchy of the tables as well as the identifiers of the corresponding packets are described in the document DVB which has just been cited.
• the filters of the demultiplexer are programmed in an appropriate manner.
• the packets containing the services are grouped in order to draw up a list of the services available at the receiver.
• This list is stored in a part 13 of the data memory 9.
• the receiver displays sublists which are parts of the global list, the number of elements of a sublist being determined by the receiver.
• the receiver sends the video content of the current service that the user can select with the "program +" and "program -" keys.
• the number and / or text identifier of the current service is displayed in a small window on the screen, independently of the sublists displayed.
• FIG. 2 is a simplified diagram of two examples of screen appearances showing the user interface generated by the device in FIG. 1 and presenting a sublist. This screen appearance is controlled following a navigation in functions accessible by the "menu" key.
• the top screen shows a list of services numbered from 20 to 29, service 29 is in focus, ie if the user selects it with his remote control, he will be able to view the content broadcast.
• the user presses the command ⁇ in the order of the list it is the service 30 which is then highlighted.
• the screen appearance at the bottom of the Figure 2 is displayed, service 29 (not service 30) starts the list at the top.
• the sub-list displayed contains the ten or so departments whose unit number begins at "0" and ends at "9". But insofar as the service 29 appears, 11 services are presented on this screen page.
• the rule of always displaying ten services of 10 in 10 is respected, the user who would quickly like to scan the first tens of services to reach the one that interests him, can navigate from 10 services to 10 services. If he wishes, for example, to reach service 125, he knows that he must press the page change key 12 times to view the sublist presenting the services from 120 to 129.
• Figure 3 is a simplified diagram of two examples of screen appearances when the user uses the command ⁇ from the screen appearance of figure 2.
• the top screen shows a list of services numbered from 29 to 39, the user has positioned focus on service 29 with the command ⁇ .
• the service 28 which is then highlighted.
• the screen appearance at the bottom of FIG. 3 is displayed, the service 29 starts the sublist from the bottom and the service 20 from the top.
• the displayed sublist does indeed include 10 services whose unit digits start at 0 and end at 9. In this way, the user in view of this screen appearance, can thus know the services accessible from the service in focus: service 27 by command ⁇ and service 29 by command ⁇ .
• FIG. 4 is a simplified diagram of two examples of screen appearances when the user uses the command ⁇ from a standard screen appearance.
• the top screen shows a list of ten services numbered from 20 to 29, the user has focused service 20 using of one or more commands ⁇ .
• the service 20 begins the sublist from the bottom and the service 10 from the top, therefore 11 services are displayed.
• the displayed sublist does indeed include at least the 10 services whose unit digits start at 0 and end at 9. In this way, the user in view of this screen appearance, can thus know the services accessible from of the service in the focus: service 18 by the command ⁇ and service 20 by the command ⁇ .
• FIG. 5 is a simplified diagram of two examples of screen appearances showing the navigation of 10 to 10 services.
• the top screen shows a list of ten services numbered from 20 to 29, the user has put service 25 in focus using one or more commands ⁇ or ⁇ .
• the browser understands that the user wishes to display the following sublist by increasing the number of services by 10.
• the screen appearance at the bottom of FIG. 5 is then displayed, the service 30 begins the sublist from the top and the service 39 from the bottom, the service in focus is the tenth service after the service 25 so the service 35. In this way, the user can very quickly navigate from pages of 10 services to pages of 10 services.
• FIG. 6 is a simplified diagram of two examples of screen appearances showing the appearance of navigation when the end of the list is reached.
• the top screen shows a list of ten services numbered from 30 to 39, the user has put service 37 in focus.
• the command - * to jump to the next tenth service. But the total number of services at 45.
• the screen appearance at the bottom of figure 6 displayed following this command shows a sublist starting with the service 40 according to the rule to display a sublist from the service whose unit digit is "0".
• An alternative embodiment consists in that the highlighting of the services at the screen level is effected by an automatic scrolling.
• the receiver highlights for a determined period, three seconds for example each item in the list.
• This automatic scrolling is described in patent application FR 2 805 698 cited in the preamble.
• the variant applies the method of the invention by automatically displaying a new sublist comprising the previous element in focus and the second element which did not appear previously. In this way, the user no longer needs to press the navigation keys, he can wait for the focus to position himself on the service he wants, and then press the "OK" key . At any time, the user can reverse the direction of scrolling by pressing the -> or * • key.
• An improvement visible in FIG. 6 consists in associating certain information with the service identified in the list.
• This information concerns the fact that the identified service is not on the same satellite as the current service and therefore, if the user selects it then it will have to reach a certain time that the antenna is positioned correctly. During this operation, the screen is frozen except for the flashing icon. This information is interesting for the user who might wonder why his receiver takes so long to present the service he has just selected.
• the test of belonging or not to the same bouquet sent by a satellite is carried out by comparing the service data of the current service with that of the services in the list. If the information specifying the satellite is the same, there is no need to position the antenna, otherwise it will have to be done and the icon is displayed for this service. In the sublists in Figure 6, services 30, 34, 37, 40 and 43 are not on the same satellite as that of the current service.
• the previous exemplary embodiments show graphic menus comprising in particular a variable number of elements.
• Other menus are also possible for which the number of elements displayed in a sublist is fixed or less than a maximum value if the list displayed is incomplete.
• FIG. 7 shows three examples of screen appearances showing the user interface generated by the device of FIG. 1 for the presentation on the screen of a part of the list following the introduction of navigation commands.
• the left part marked 7.A represents the initial appearance of the navigation.
• the screen presents a sublist of 8 elements noted from top to bottom: “element 1 to" element 8 ".
• element 5 is the current element, therefore it has focus.
• the central part marked B represents the screen appearance after pressing the ⁇ key.
• the focus moves to the element located below: element 6, this element is surrounded by two elements visible on the screen (appearance 7.B).
• the user presses the ⁇ key then the focus returns to the previous element: element 5 (appearance 7.C).
• This navigation is known in itself, it makes it possible to move a focus on a displayed sub-list of elements, the current element can be activated, for example with the OK key. If the list displays services, activating displays the program broadcast by this service.
• the interface displays the first eight elements of the list, element 7 (penultimate element of the sublist) has the focus.
• a navigation command ⁇ is introduced which will move the focus to the last element of the sublist: element 8.
• the user interface modifies then the sublist displayed to display element 8 surrounded by at least one element before and at least one element after.
• the sublist with elements 7 to 14 is then displayed, element 8 having the focus (appearance 13.B).
• a new sublist is created and displayed containing the elements 1 to 8, l element 7 having the focus appears well framed by elements 6 and 8 (appearance 13.B).
• Figure 9 shows three examples of appearances showing sublists when the item in focus approaches and reaches the end of the list.
• the list has 9 items in total, the user interface only displays eight items in a menu.
• the focus is on the penultimate element of the sublist (appearance 9.A).
• the user introduces a command ⁇ which will move the focus to the last element in the list: element 8.
• the user interface modifies the sublist displayed to reveal element 8 framed by at least one element before and at least one element after (appearance 9.B).
• the last in the list it cannot be framed with an element located after, and the vacuum appearing then informs the user that element 9 is the last in the list. Any other command ⁇ does not change the display.
• Figure 10 shows three examples of appearances showing sublists when the item in focus navigates near the end of the list.
• the list has 8 items, the user interface can display them all.
• the focus is on the penultimate element 7 of the list (appearance 10.A).
• the user introduces a command ⁇ which will move the focus to the last element in the list: element 8.
• element 8 As it is the last element, it cannot be surrounded by a following element, so there would be no of necessity to modify the displayed list by moving the focus to element 8. But in this case, the user cannot know that element 8 is the last element in the list.
• the user interface advantageously modifies the sub-list of appearance 10.A to reveal the element 8 preceded by the element 7 and followed by a vacuum showing the user that there is no element after ( appearance 10.B). Then the user presses the ⁇ key to return to element 7. The same sublist as appearance 10.A appears, element 7 being well surrounded by elements 6 and 8 (appearance 10.C).
• Figure 11 presents three examples of appearances showing sublists when the item in focus approaches and reaches the start of the list.
• the focus is on the second element of the sublist (appearance 1 1.A).
• the user introduces a command ⁇ which will move the focus to the first item in the list: item 8 (appearance 1 1.B).
• item 8 As it is the first in the list, it cannot be framed with an element located before. Any other command ⁇ does not change the display.
• Figure 12 shows three examples of appearances when navigating from sublists to sublists.
• appearance 12.A the interface displays the first eight elements of the list, element 7 (penultimate element of the sublist) has focus.
• a navigation command ⁇ > is introduced which will display the following sublist.
• the interface displays the list of elements 7 to 14, element 13 which is the penultimate element of the sublist has the focus (appearance 12.B).
• the user then wishes to return to a previous sublist, he presses the ⁇ • key and the appearance 12.A re-appears (appearance 12.C).
• navigation from sublist to sublist does not change the position of the focus in the sublist, but the content of it.
• Figure 13 presents three examples of appearances showing sublists according to a variant when the element in the focus navigates near the end of the list.
• the list has 19 elements, the focus is on the first element of the list: element 1. Being the first, the element in the focus is not surrounded by an element before, in this way l user knows that this is the first item on the list (appearance 13.A).
• the user enters a command ⁇ .
• the focus does not remain blocked on the first element but a new list is displayed showing the last elements of the list.
• the last element of the list having the focus it cannot be framed with an element located after, and the vacuum appearing then informs the user that element 19 is the last in the list (appearance 13.B).
• the user presses the ⁇ key the user interface again displays element 1 and the seven elements that follow it (appearance 13.C).
• the list has 19 elements, the focus is on an element of the first sublist which begins with element 1 (appearance 14.A).
• the user enters a ⁇ command.
• the focus does not remain blocked on the first sublist but a new list is displayed showing the last elements of the list (appearance 14.B). Items 13 to 19 are displayed.
• the user presses the key -> the user interface again brings up element 1 and the seven elements which follow it (appearance 14.C).
• the flowchart in Figure 15 shows the sequence of steps in the user interface for displaying navigation menus.
• a first sublist is displayed, one element being highlighted.
• the user enters a navigation command to change the current element and select an element adjoining the current element.
• the user interface will then determine whether the new current element is surrounded by at least two elements, that is to say at least one front element and one element according to the navigation directions (step 15.3). If the new current element is not surrounded by at least two elements (unless it is the first or the last element in the list), then a new list is developed and displayed (step 15.4). If the new current element is the first in the old sublist, it is found last in the new sublist. If the new current element is the last in the old sublist, it is second in the new sublist. In all cases, the new current element is highlighted graphically (step 15.5).
• the presentation of lists and sublists of services broadcast within the framework of digital television should be considered only as an example of use of the present invention.
• the present invention applies to all lists of elements that can be displayed on a screen or any other display means, in particular, lists of audiovisual programs, lists of sources making it possible to obtain documents, lists of functions accessible from a terminal, etc.
• An improvement consists in that the minimum number of elements which surround before and after the element having the focus in the displayed sublist is programmable. For example, if the screen is large enough to display 21 element identifiers, the interface may require that at least 3 elements be displayed before and after the element having the focus. In this case, suppose that the displayed elements are numbered sequentially from 1 to 21, the navigation on elements 4 to 18 is carried out without changing the sublist of displayed elements.
• the user interface then includes a step of introducing the number of elements surrounding the current element. Items cannot be displayed if the new current item is the first or last item in the list, or very close to the first or last item in the list.
• the present invention also applies when the highlighted element is displayed within a grid of elements.
• the user interface tests whether the new element is surrounded by four displayed elements, that is to say , if it is not located at the edge of the grid. If so, a new sub-list of elements is developed and displayed, in which the new current element is surrounded by at least one element in all directions of navigation.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Multimedia (AREA)
• Signal Processing (AREA)
• Human Computer Interaction (AREA)
• User Interface Of Digital Computer (AREA)
• Two-Way Televisions, Distribution Of Moving Picture Or The Like (AREA)

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• 2004
  • 2004-05-19 WO PCT/EP2004/050851 patent/WO2004105392A1/fr active Application Filing
  • 2004-05-19 JP JP2006530207A patent/JP4802098B2/ja not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2004-05-19 US US10/557,397 patent/US20070067328A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2004-05-19 EP EP04741600A patent/EP1625748A1/de active Pending

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