GB2343051A

GB2343051A - Receiving broadcast and related internet material

Info

Publication number: GB2343051A
Application number: GB9823290A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Scott Mackenzie Walker; Alex John James Miller; Yiming Zhou
Original assignee: Sony United Kingdom Ltd
Current assignee: Sony Europe Ltd
Priority date: 1998-10-23
Filing date: 1998-10-23
Publication date: 2000-04-26
Anticipated expiration: 2018-10-23
Also published as: GB9823290D0; GB2343051B

Abstract

Apparatus for receiving broadcast material from a plurality of broadcast channels according to a schedule of programmes to be received comprises means for detecting time gaps between adjacent programmes in the schedule; means for accessing an electronic programme guide providing bibliographic information about a programme adjacent in the schedule to the time gap; means for initiating a search of internet sites using the bibliographic details for the adjacent programme, so as to detect a list of internet sites or prerecorded material providing material relating to the programme adjacent to the time gap; and a user control for selecting material relating to the programme adjacent to the time gap, for viewing during the time gap.

Description

RF. CF. IVING BROADCAST MATERIAL This invention relates to apparatus and methods for receiving broadcast material.

The advent of digital television and interactive networks mean that a wide variety of entertainment choices will be open to the home entertainment consumer.

This will include a vast number of channels, some of which will be free, some will be paid by regular subscription and others which will be so-called"pay per view" channels. The consumer will be able to access information about these channels through electronic programme guides, possibly also receiving further related information concerning the main actors, the main plot lines or the director.

Consumer equipment for receiving home entertainment is also likely to become more complex. The number of television sets and other home entertainment hardware per household is likely to further increase, while systems become increasingly capable of handling more than one type of storage or transmission medium. The home entertainment consumer of the future might therefore have a compact disc (CD) collection, a digital versatile disc (DVD) collection, a laser disc collection and a videotape collection, which may be played and (where appropriate) recorded on by a variety of devices. Also, the system may be capable of receiving information from, say, the internet as well as a satellite, cable and/or terrestrial source.

With this choice of programming sources, even when the user has selected a schedule of viewing or listening for a period of time (e. g. an evening) it is likely that the schedule of programmes will not be contiguous, i. e. there may well be gaps between programmes. Finding other programmes from the programme guides to fill those gaps can be even more onerous.

This invention provides apparatus for receiving broadcast material from a plurality of broadcast channels according to a schedule of programmes to be received, the apparatus comprising: means for detecting time gaps between adjacent programmes in the schedule; means for accessing an electronic programme guide providing bibliographic information about a programme adjacent in the schedule to the time gap; means for initiating a search of internet sites using the bibliographic details for the adjacent programme, so as to detect a list of internet sites providing material relating to the programme adjacent to the time gap; and a user control for selecting material relating to the programme adjacent to the time gap, for viewing during the time gap.

The invention addresses the problems described above by providing apparatus which automatically accesses an electronic programme guide to obtain information on a programme or programmes adjacent to a time gap, before initiating a search of at least the internet (but also possibly lists of available pre-recorded material and so on) to find material which may be relevant to a programme adjacent to the time gap. The user can then select one of the items uncovered by the search (or indeed none at all) to view during the time gap.

Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a home entertainment system; Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of a set-top-box; Figure 3 is a flow chart illustrating the formation of a user action log; Figure 4 is a flow chart illustrating the formation of an adaptive programme guide; Figure 5 schematically illustrates the parsing of electronic programme guide data for inclusion in the user action log ; Figures 6 to 8 schematically illustrate a distribution of data stored in the user action log; Figure 9 is a flowchart illustrating a recording operation; Figure 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating user privileges when a single user is operating the system of Figure 1; Figures 11 and 12 illustrate user privileges when two or more users are operating the system of Figure 1; Figure 13 schematically illustrates the derivation of highlight and/or preview programme clips; Figure 14 schematically illustrates a remote control device; Figure 15 is a flow chart illustrating the display of related material on the remote control device; and Figure 16 is a flow chart illustrating the display of replay material on the remote control device.

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a home entertainment system comprising a number of system components linked by an IEEE1394 network 10. The components include a satellite dish and receiver 20, a television 30, a computer such as a Personal Computer (PC) 40, telephone apparatus 50, an audio receiver, recorder and playback device 60, a video storage device 70, a data storage device 80, a digital camera 90, a doorbell monitor 95 and a set top box (STB) 100. Remote control units 110 are arranged to interact with the STB 100.

In the embodiment of Figure 1, the STB is arranged as a master device to have operational control over the other devices attached to the IEEE1394 network 10. So, for example, the STB 100 may control the television screen 30 to display pictures received by the satellite receiver 20 while the video storage device 70 records pictures captured by the digital camera 90, and so on. The routing of multimedia data between the different devices takes place under the protocols established by the IEEE1394 standard.

The doorbell monitor is arranged to monitor not only when the user's doorbell rings, but also whether the house door is then opened. The use for this feature will be described further below.

Figure 2 schematically illustrates the set top box 100. Internally, the set top box comprises a number of components connected to an internal data and address bus arrangement 150. These components include a central processing unit (CPU) 160, read only memory (ROM) 170, random access memory (RAM) 180, a real time clock (RTC) 190, data storage such as a disc drive 200, a remote control interface 210 for interfacing to the remote controls 110, a device controller 220 having device drivers for the various devices attached to the IEEE1394 network, a telephone and/or ISDN interface 230 for connecting to a telephone and/or ISDN line 240, and an IEEE1394 interface 250 for connecting to the IEEE1394 bus 10.

The operations of the STB to be described below take place by suitable data and signal processing programmes stored in the ROM 170, the storage device 200 and/or the RAM 180 being run by the CPU 160.

Figure 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating the formation of a user action log by the STB.

The description of Figure 3 takes the example of television programmes, but it is equally applicable to audio (radio) programmes or any other broadcast material possibly including terrestrial broadcast, satellite broadcast, cable transmissions, material broadcast via the internet and so on. In fact, in this description,"broadcast" material refers to material for which the user has little or no control over the arrival time of the material.

Referring to Figure 3, for each programme viewed by the user, the STB accesses data relating to that programme from an electronic programme guide (EPG).

EPGs are becoming widely available either as part of the bit stream providing the actual broadcast material or as separate digital information from an external EPG vendor, for example being accessed via the internet or a dial-up modem connection.

An example of part of the information contained in an EPG is as follows:

Channel 17 : 00 17: 30 18: 00 18: 30 BBC1 Blue Peter Neighbours National News Regional News BBC2 Red Dwarf Does he take The Simpsons The Simpsons sugar ITV Carlton Hollyoaks Home and London Tonight Sizzled Away ITV Meridian Hollyoaks Home and Meridian Sizzled Away Tonight C4 The Cosby The Cosby The Munsters The Munsters

Show Show CS Family Affairs Family Affairs FILM: Hercules FILM: Hercules FOX The Racoons The Racoons Genuine Risk Genuine Risk CBS Up to the Up to the CBS News CBS News Minute Minute CNN Evening Evening Evening Edition Evening Edition Edition Edition ABC It happens Thursday It happens every Thursday every...

Sky 1 Star Trek: DS9 Star Trek: DS9 Xena Xena Discovery Mother Nature Acorn: The Nut Jungle Cubs Nature TNT CHiPs CHiPs Starsky & Hutch Starsky & Hutch Nickelodeon You're on Charlie Brown You're on Nick, Charlie Brown Nick, Encore Just one of the Just one of the Just one of the Just one of the Guys Guys Guys Guys HBO Nothing in Nothing in Nothing in Nothing in Common Common Common Common In addition, the EPG provides, for each listed programme, information such as the programme title, a brief description, a programme category, for example selected from a standard category list and the people concerned in the making of the programme, such as actors, directors and so on are listed. If any one of these items is missing from the particular EPG entry relating to a current programme, this is not a problem for the operations to be described as that item can simply be ignored in the following description.

An example of a part of such a standard category list is as follows. The categories are arranged in a hierarchical structure, with a small number of fundamental categories, each broken down into sub-categories and so on. As the whole list would extend over many pages only a few of the categories are listed here.

Advertising: Teleshopping Public service announcements Animation : Cartoon Feature length cartoon Plasticine Puppets Culture: Documentary Documentary: Architecture Cinema Fashion Jazz Event Event: Classical music Jazz Literature Theatre Discussion Discussion: Debate Debate: Consumers/Everyday Life Politics and so on.

An alternative standard for programme categorisation has been proposed by the DVB consortium.

At a step 260, so-called key words are parsed from the programme information provided by the EPG. The parsing operation is carried out with the assistance of an electronic dictionary 270 such as the so-called Wordnet dictionary distributed by Princeton University and available at the priority date of this application on the internet at http://www. cogsci. princeton. edu/-wn/ The Wordnet programme and associated dictionary is capable of establishing which words within the programme description are nouns. These words can then be passed to subsequent steps for addition to the user action log.

The step 260 also involves a further search for actors'names by comparison with a database of actors'names stored in the dictionary 270. Again at the priority date of this application, a list of over 6000 television and film actors'and actresses' names can be found on the internet at: http://dir. yahoo. com/Entertainment/ActorsandActresses/ At a step 270 a test is formed as to whether the user watched at least half of the current programme. This test is carried out by establishing the start and stop times of the user's viewing (with the aid of the real time clock 190) and comparing these to the duration of the programme as specified in the received EPG. If less than half of the programme was viewed, details of that programme are not added to the user action log and control returns to the step 260 to be repeated for the next-viewed programme.

However, if at least half of the programme has been viewed, control passes to a step 280 where an entry is made relating to the current viewing activity in the user action log 290.

The user action log 290 is effectively a list of actions and associated frequencies of occurrence, maintained over a predetermined number of actions such as the most recent 1000 actions.

Each action relates to a particular viewing operation. When an action (i. e. viewing the current programme) is added to the user action log, the frequency of occurrence for each of the key words identified in the step 260 is incremented. (If a key word is not present in the log at all, that key word is added with an initial frequency of occurrence of 1.) Also, the frequency of occurrence is incremented for data relating to the particular period of viewing the channel carrying the current programme. So, for example, if the user has viewed a programme on channel x between 7pm and 7.30pm on a Tuesday using a television set located in the user's kitchen, the occurrence frequencies for the following entry in the user action log is incremented: Tuesday, 7-7.30, channel x, kitchen TV In this way, over the course of time, a user action log is built up giving a history of that user's viewing habits and preferences. Parts of the user action log will be shown graphically below, but the user action log can also be considered as a table of events and associated frequencies of occurrence. A schematic example is shown below:

Event Type Details Number of Occurrences Programme category News 37 Animation: puppets 11 Entertainment: soap opera 259 Discussion : debate: politics 2 Programme Director Sydney Lumet 13 Stephen Spielberg 6 Grant/Naylor 3 ** Viewing time TV: 19:000 - 19:30 135 TV: 08: 00-08: 20 22 TV: 13 : 35-14: 00 126 Although the information shown above appears to relate to one user or to a collective analysis of whoever is using the equipment at any time, this is just for clarity of the above description. In fact, a user action log is maintained for each individual user and, in some embodiments, for each permutation of groups of users of the system.

Separate logs can also be maintained for different periods in the week, e. g. weekends and weekdays.

In order to do this, the system has to detect who is currently using the system at any time. In the preferred embodiments, this is carried out as follows. Each user has an associated personal remote control device 110. When the user starts to use the system, for example to watch or listen to a programme, the user"logs in"to the system by pressing a button on that user's remote control device 110. This causes a message to be transmitted from that remote control device to the STB, identifying that user and indicating that the user has started using the system. When the user is ready to finish using the system, the user again presses an appropriate button on his remote control sending a corresponding"log out"message to the STB. In this way, the STB maintains a record of all currently logged-in users, and so adds a new entry relating to a currently viewed programme to the user action log appropriate to either the current individual user or to the group of currently viewing users.

Figure 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating the process by which the STB derives an"adaptive programme guide"and a"virtual channel"of proposed viewing for the currently logged-in user (s). In the embodiments to be described these are derived from the user action logs, but in other embodiments where a"learning"system is not employed to generate the user action logs, a user could input manually a series of criteria for use in deriving the virtual channel and adaptive programme guide. These criteria would be stored in a file and used in the same way as the user action log in the description below.

One of the disadvantages of broadcast systems providing very many broadcast channels is the complexity of the programme guides. With analogue terrestrial television and radio, the user had only to consult programme listings for perhaps four or five channels. This could easily be done using a printed programme guide. With systems currently being implemented (including analogue cable and satellite systems as well as the newer digital broadcast systems) the number of channels available is huge, possibly 200 or more, and so even with an on-screen EPG the user could be faced with searching for a long time before being able to select the best viewing schedule for an evening's television.

This disadvantage is addressed by the present embodiments, in that a virtual channel and an adaptive programme guide are generated for display to the user.

The virtual channel is a concatenation of broadcast items from various different (real) broadcast channels, put together to form a contiguous or near-contiguous viewing session (e. g. an evening's viewing). The programmes included in the virtual channel are selected by the STB to be those which have the highest objective likeness to the viewer's previous viewing habits and preferences. As an example, a virtual channel comprises a successive list of programme titles and respective channel numbers as follows:

Time Period Channel Programme Title 17: 00-17: 30 BBC 2 Red Dwarf 17: 30-18: 00 BBC 1 Neighbours 18: 00-18: 30 CNN Evening Edition .........

To watch the virtual channel, the user simply accepts the recommendations made by the STB. The STB maintains the consecutive list in memory as shown above, and, by reference to the real time clock and/or programme delivery control (PDC) information transmitted along with the broadcast programmes, switches between channels at the appropriate times.

The adaptive program guide is a similar list of broadcast items of at least a predetermined level of interest assessed objectively by the STB using the viewing habits and preferences stored in the user action log. So, the virtual channel provides those broadcast programmes having the highest objectively determined likeness to the viewing habits and preferences stored in the user action log, so that the virtual channel proposes only one programme at any one time. In contrast, the adaptive programme guide can have any number of programmes for a single time slot, subject to those programmes having at least a minimum likeness. The adaptive programme guide therefore removes programmes assessed not to be of interest from the list presented to the user. Because the adaptive programme guide includes programmes other than the most likely selection, it is effectively a superset of the virtual channel, including all of the programmes of the virtual channel and possibly many more. The user can select programmes from the adaptive programme guide to watch instead of those proposed in the virtual channel, for example by editing the virtual channel to replace a programme originally selected by the STB for inclusion in the virtual channel with another programme from the adaptive programme guide.

So, Figure 4 schematically illustrates the selection made by the STB of those programmes to be included in the virtual channel and the adaptive programme guide.

The selection can be made at any time after the EPG information has been received for a particular day, though in the present embodiment the time at which the STB executes the steps of Figure 4 and selects programmes for the virtual channel and the adaptive programme guide for a particular day is at 1 lpm the evening before that day.

The process shown in Figure 4 refers to three main inputs: the EPG, the user action log 290 and a table of user privileges 300. User privileges, and particularly their use when groups of users are viewing, will be discussed below in more detail with reference to Figures 10 to 12. However, for the purposes of Figure 4, it is sufficient to consider that the user privileges define types of programmes which the users are or are not allowed to view, and are set by a system"superuser", such as a parent. So, for example, a young child might be barred by the system from watching any broadcast or pre-recorded programme having an adult content, expressed as an adult certification.

The effect of this on the operation of Figure 4 is that programmes which do not comply with the user's privileges will not be included in the virtual channel or adaptive programme guide for that user.

At a step 310, the next date and time range to be considered is set. This might, for example, start at midnight and increment through the day in ten minute intervals.

At a step 320 a next channel is selected, and the programme information for that time period and that channel examined. At a step 330 the selected programme is compared with user privilege data 300. If the programme does not comply with the user's privileges then control is passed to a step 340 where a test is carried out to detect whether all channels have been tested for the current date and time range. If this is not the case, control returns to step 320 where the channel is incremented.

If, at step 340, all available channels have been tested for the current date and time range, control passes to a step 350 where a test is carried out to detect whether all date and time ranges in the current period of interest (e. g. a day) have been tested. If so, then the whole process ends. If not, then control passes back to step 310 where the date and time range is incremented.

Returning to step 330, if the current programme does comply with the user's privileges, the"likeness"between that programme and the user action log for that user is assessed at a step 360. This assessment will be described in more detail below with reference to Figures 5 to 8, but in brief, a likeness value is generated having a higher value for better degrees of objectively assessed likeness between the user action log and the current programme.

At a step 370 the likeness value is compared with a threshold. If it is greater than the threshold then the programme is passed for inclusion in at least the adaptive programme guide, and possibly in the virtual channel. So, at a step 380 the likeness value for the current programme is compared with the likeness value for the programme currently in the virtual channel for that time period. If the current programme has the higher likeness value, it replaces the programme in the virtual channel which is in turn demoted to the adaptive programme guide. Otherwise, the current programme is placed directly in the adaptive programme guide. Control passes again to the step 340, as described above.

When the virtual channel and the adaptive program guide are displayed, the user might find that there is nothing of interest in the proposed selection. The user can then adjust the threshold for inclusion of items in the adaptive programme guide, for example by operating a key on the remote control or by moving a screen icon such as a slider. Setting the threshold to zero is akin to switching off the adaptive programme guide function, as the whole electronic programme guide will be displayed.

Functionality and selection by the adaptive programme guide is maintained, however, for non-zero threshold values.

Figures 5 to 8 schematically illustrate the derivation of the likeness value described above.

In particular, Figure 5 schematically illustrates the programme information 400 from the EPG associated with a particular programme. The programme information includes a sentence describing the programme. This is parsed to form a list of keywords 410, primarily nouns, for example using the"Wordnet"program and list of personnel described above. The keywords are compared with frequencies of occurrence of those keywords previously stored in the user action log. Figures 6 to 8 illustrate the way in which this is done.

Figure 6 schematically illustrates a set of keywords under the grouping "Director". Figure 7 illustrates a set under the grouping"female star". Figure 8 illustrates a set under the grouping"category", i. e. a category from the long list of programme categories described above.

In more detail, as a programme is watched for at least half its length, details of the programme are stored in the user action log as described above, by incrementing the frequency of occurrence for each category, key word, date and time, title etc. In the same way, negative attributes can be stored for programmes which are contemporaneous with the watched programme and which are not watched. For example, the user action log entry for a particular category etc. can be decreased by, say, 0.5, for a programme which is not watched while another programme is watched for at least 50% of the watched programme's length.

The characteristics can be stored in the user action log as three ranks or orders.

For the example of the attributes title, time, day and channel (i. e. leaving aside keywords and personnel for the purposes of this table), these would be: 1 st order: title, time, day of the week, channel 2nd order: (title & time), (title & day of the week), (title & channel) 3rd order: (title & time & day of the week), (title & time & channel), (time & day of the week & channel) In this way, the significance of various combinations of programme attributes and viewing habits can be detected.

When the likeness value is to be assessed for a new programme, the match between features of the new programme and the stored attributes in the user action log.

In particular, the attributes of the new programme are detected and arranged in the three orders described above. These ordered characteristics are then considered as characteristic values Co.. CM, where Ci = I (UAL values)/1 (actions contributing to log for that characteristic) where UAL signifies"user action log".

A recursive calculation can then be performed to determine the likeness value for the new programme. The recursive calculation derives a value I by a series of ordered steps, steps i=0 to i=M.

step 0 Io = 0 stepiIt=Io+ (l-Ii) C, step i+l IjE + (1-Ij) Cj step M I** = I** + (I-I**)C** The derived value IM is then considered to be the interest level or likeness value for the newly considered programme.

In other embodiments, the likeness fit can be assessed not only from the frequency of occurrence associated with each keyword, but also from the (objectively assessed) importance which the user is deemed to have attached to that grouping of keywords. So, for example, because the grouping under"Director"is a highly peaked distribution, it is assumed by the STB logic that the user attaches a lot of importance to the choice of director and so the likeness value will be weighted more towards a good fit with the user's favourite directors. In contrast, the distribution shown in Figure 7 is fairly flat, which suggests that the user does not place great weight on the choice of female star in a programme. Accordingly the likeness value will be weighted so as to have little bearing on the choice of female star. It is noted here that one of the groupings used is the date, time and channel of the programme, so that if a user always watches at a particular time on a particular channel, that will be reflected in the calculation of likeness value of a programme at that time and channel.

A statistical test which detects the flat or peaked nature of a distribution is the so-called"entropy"test. A distribution having a low entropy is a relatively peaked distribution, and one having a high entropy is more flat. So, the likeness value is weighted generally inversely according to the entropy of each grouping of data.

In further embodiments, the user action log can be maintained in two temporal partitions, one for weekday viewing and one for weekend viewing. Here, the definition of weekday and weekend depends on local cultural and religious practices, but in the United Kingdom the weekend would generally be considered to be Saturday and Sunday, although these days could be altered by a user setting of the STB.

In other embodiments, the user can control the adaptive programme guide to display only those programmes in a certain broad category such as sport, news etc.

This will lead to the display of programmes within that category but still having at least a certain objectively determined interest level for the user.

If the likeness value exceeds a second, higher, threshold then further action can be taken as illustrated schematically in Figure 9. In particular, the operations of Figure 9 ensure that even if a user is absent (not viewing), a programme having a very high likeness to that user's established viewing habits and preferences will be automatically recorded for viewing later.

In Figure 9, a programme having a high interest level (a high likeness value) for a particular user is about to be broadcast. The programme is within the adaptive programme guide, but in order to trigger the process described below a further threshold value for the programme's likeness value could be applied.

A test is first performed at a step 430 to detect whether that user is currently viewing the system (i. e. is the user logged in ?). If so, then the process (at least as regards that particular programme).

If the user is not present, then at a step 434 a warning is issued to the user.

This could be for example a pre-recorded audio announcement being played over the loudspeakers 60, a visible warning on the television 30 or computer 40, a message paged using the telephone 50 and so on. The skilled man will appreciate that many different types of warning are possible with the collection of interconnected equipment of Figure 1.

After the warning has been issued the system pauses for a time T to allow that user to log in to the system if he so desires. The time T could be, for example, one minute. After the pause, a further test is performed at a step 438 to detect whether that user is viewing. If he is, then the process ends as regards that programme. (The user can be left to decide for himself what to view and/or record at that stage).

If the user is still not present at the step 438 then at a step 440 the likeness values of the programmes of the adaptive programme guide for the current time are compared with a second, higher, threshold. It is known that they all exceed a first threshold and comply with the user's privileges in order to have entered the adaptive programme guide, and it is known that the programme of interest which triggered the process is in the adaptive programme guide. The likeness values can preferably be stored with the programme details in the adaptive programme guide, or altematively could be recalculated at this stage.

If the likeness value of a current programme in the adaptive programme guide exceeds the second threshold then it is recorded at a step 450 using the recording device 70. An electronic mail message can also be sent to the user at a step 460 to inform him that the programme has been stored.

If more than one programme of the adaptive programme guide for the current time exceeds the second threshold, then this situation can be handled in various ways.

If there is the capacity to record only one programme at a time, then the programme with the highest likeness value will be recorded. Since this by definition will be from the virtual channel, the test at step 440 could just have referred to the likeness values for the virtual channel programmes. Alternatively, if there is capacity to store more than one programme, those having the highest likeness values are stored.

Figures 10 to 12 schematically illustrate the way in which the privileges and preferences for multiple users are combined. In particular, Figure 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating user privileges when a single user is operating the system of Figure 1, and Figures 11 and 12 illustrate different ways of handling group user privileges when two or more users are operating the system.

Referring to Figure 10, a single user logged in to the system has a user ID 500 which in turn is used to specify a virtual channel and adaptive programme guide 510.

As a result of these the user controls 520 his viewing on a television screen 530.

When a second user logs in, as shown in Figure 11, the individual adaptive programme guides 510 are no longer relevant. Instead, a group adaptive programme guide and virtual channel 560, derived from a user log relating to viewing actions previously undertaken collectively by that group and the lowest common privileges associated with the group members is used to control 570 programmes shown on the television screen 580.

In an alternative arrangement, user IDs 590 control the creation of a group adaptive programme guide and virtual channel 600 form a sum or other combination of the user action logs 610,620 associated individually with each of the two users. This in turn controls 630 programmes shown on the television screen 640.

In either of Figures 11 and 12, the privileges and preferences established when the first of the users logs in are modified when another user logs in.

Figure 13 schematically illustrates the derivation of highlight and/or preview programme clips as performed by the STB.

A received programme is stored on the video storage device 70. With the received programme so-called"metadata" (accompanying data) is provided by the programme initiator. The metadata can be stored with the programme on the video storage device 70 or separately on, say, the data storage device 80.

The metadata defines two things in relation to successive time periods (e. g. frames or small groups of frames) of the received video signal. Firstly, the metadata flags parts of the received programme which could be watched as a user preview in order to attract the user to watch the programme but without giving away the story.

Secondly, the metadata identifies parts of the programme giving highlights-for example, goals being scored in the case of a football game or major story lines in the case of a soap opera. Indeed, the highlight information could be categorised, particularly in the case of sports events. For example, in the case of a motor race a first category could indicate major overtaking manoeuvres in the race, a second category indicates a major crash and so on, so that a user could select highlights according to his taste.

Accordingly, the user can request either a preview or a set of highlights for a stored programme. The programme is replayed along with the accompanying metadata. The STB detects and causes to be displayed those parts of the programme flagged by the metadata as containing highlight or preview material.

To speed the process, the STB can dump the highlight or preview material to an intermediate store so that it can be displayed substantially shamelessly to the user.

User preferences regarding highlight or preview material for different categories of programme can be stored as a user profile, these being compared with details derived from the EPG.

In a further embodiment, the apparatus can be arranged to record only highlight parts of a programme. This might be appropriate if a user is going to be away from home for some time but wishes to see the major developments over that period in, say, a favourite soap opera.

If the user is watching a series of programmes from the virtual channel (or a series otherwise selected) it may be that a gap occurs between desired programmes.

The STB is operable to propose material to be displayed during this time gap.

On detecting a time gap in the virtual channel, the STB seeks material from other sources to fill the gap by trying to obtain material corresponding in some way to the material to be viewed either immediately before or immediately after the gap.

A first step in doing this is to establish a set of key words, as described above, for the programme to one side of the time gap. These key words are then used by the STB as search terms amongst (for example) the following material sources: the internet stored video material, for example on the video storage device 70 stored audio material image stored on the computer 40 and so on. These searches can be conducted in advance of the time of the gap. The STB then presents the user, via the television 30, with a selectable menu from which material to fill the gap (if any) can be selected.

Sometimes the converse can occur, in that the user is temporarily distracted from watching or listening to a programme and can miss a few minutes from within the programme. This can seriously affect viewer enjoyment.

In an attempt to alleviate this problem, the STB is operable to buffer the missed section using a multisession recording/replay device such as the video storage device 70 or a random access memory device.

The start of an interruption is detected in one of at least three ways: firstly, the telephone ringing and being answered; secondly the doorbell going and being answered; and thirdly by a simple user request via the user's remote control device.

In response to the start of an interruption, the current programme is stored to the multisession recording device. At the end of the interruption, preferably signalled by the user with the user's remote control device, replay is commenced from the start of the recorded section. However, the programme has to carry on being recorded and replayed a certain time later in order that the user can watch the whole of the remainder of the programme. This recording and replay mechanism for effectively time-shifting a programme to a few minutes (or whatever period) later may have to carry on throughout a contiguous viewing period.

Figure 14 is a schematic diagram of a remote control device 110. The device comprises a keyboard 700, a processor 710, a display screen 720 and a bi-directional communications interface 730, all within a housing 740 intended to be carried in the user's hand.

The bi-directional communications interface 730 is arranged to communicate data wirelessly with the remote control interface 210 of the STB 100. Since there may be many remote controls 110 operating with the system, the communication between the remote controls and the STB may operate on different respective carrier frequencies (for radio or infra-red communication) or by some other multiplexing scheme such as time division or code division multiplexing.

The keyboard accepts user input including, amongst other things, login and logout information so that a user can log in to the overall system (this information being transmitted directly to the STB 100), programme selections when that user has control of the operation of the system, device controls, for example to start a video replay from the storage device 70, and so on. Apart from the login/logout, these are generally standard functions of a remote controller.

Another technique for logging in to the system might just be to operate any key on the remote control 110. If each user has an individual remote control, and signals form the individual remote controls are distinguishable by the multiplexing scheme used, the simple operation of the remote control would signify the presence of that user. A further technique is for the remote control or the STB to include a microphone and voice recognition software for identifying the user.

The screen 720, for example a colour LCD screen of the general type found in palmtop computers, can display information originating from the remote control or from the STB. As examples of information originating from the remote control, when a device instruction key is operated by the user, there might be various options relating to that device operation-for example, the speed to be used in a shuttle replay operation. These options can be presented to the user in the form of a menu or an adjustable screen icon generated by the processor 710, so that the user can select the required option to be transmitted to the STB.

The possibilities for display of information originating from the STB, or from the home entertainment system in general, are very large. Some examples will now be described.

(i) Personal Content A user appointment diary and address/telephone book can be maintained on the data storage device 80. The user can therefore access this type of data for display on the screen 720 by communication with the STB. The way in which the data is stored and displayed can be otherwise conventional, the difference being that the storage is performed centrally rather than locally at the remote control.

(ii) Internet browsing The user can browse the internet as though the remote control was a terminal directly connected via a modem link to an internet point of presence. Again, the browsing techniques can be otherwise conventional, but the modem and the software can be held centrally and operated under the control of the STB, with the remotely linked remote control being a wireless terminal.

(iii) Programme Guides The user can request display on the screen 720 of a programme guide-perhaps the full EPG, the adaptive programme guide described earlier or the virtual channel also described earlier. These can be transmitted to the remote control from the STB via the communications link. The user can then page up and down the programme guide and select one or more programmes for reception and/or recording. The details of the selected programmes are then retransmitted back to the STB and the requests actioned.

(iv) Related Content The user, while watching or listening to a particular broadcast or recorded programme, can request so-called related content to be displayed on the screen 720.

Related content might include teletext information, subtitling, internet or recorded material derived in the same way as described above for the"gap filling"process, and so on. In this way, the user can view related material on the screen 720 without disrupting viewing on the main screen 30 for other users.

The process for requesting related content is illustrated schematically in Figure 15. Figure 15 is a schematic flow chart divided into two columns. On the left-hand column operations by the"fixed"system, in particular by the STB 100 and the television 30, are illustrated. On the right hand column are illustrated operations carried out by the remote control 110.

A step 800 represents the viewing of a programme on the screen 30. As represented by the line 810, the viewing on the main screen 30 continues uninterrupted by the remainder of the processing to be described.

At a step 820 the user requests additional content by pressing an appropriate key or selecting from an appropriate menu on the remote control 110. This is at this stage a non-specific request. The remote control 110 does not have any local record of what additional content might be available, so the request is to provide the user with information as to what additional content might be available.

At a step 830 the STB initiates a check of what relevant additional content is available. This is carried out using the processes described above, whereby terms derived from the EPG entry relating to the currently viewed programme are used as search terms to search the internet, other programmes in the EPG, lists of pre-recorded material and so on. At a step 840 a list of available material is prepared and transmitted to the remote control 110. If the list has a large number of entries, the most likely n entries, where n is a suitable number to be displayed clearly on the screen 720, can be transmitted.

At a step 850 the user selects one item from the list of available material, and the selection is sent to the STB. At a step 860 the STB initiates retrieval and sending of the selected material to the remote control 110, and finally at a step 870 the requested material is displayed on the screen 720 and the process ends.

(v) Replays Figure 16 schematically illustrates a similar process whereby the user can request and view on the screen 720 a replay of, for example, the last few seconds of material viewed on the main screen 30, without disrupting further viewing on the main screen 30. This can be useful, for example, in sports matches where one user might wish to see a replay of a goal being scored.

Again, Figure 16 is divided into the same two columns, and again it starts with a step 900 representing viewing of the main programme, which continues uninterrupted throughout the process of Figure 16.

At the same time as the programme is being viewed, the STB controls the temporary storage of a most recent y seconds-for example 60 seconds-of the programme to a multisession recording device such as the data storage device 80. So, at any time, the device 80 holds at least (see below) the most recent 60 seconds of viewed material.

At a step 910 the user requests a replay by pressing an appropriate button on the keyboard of the remote control. (This could be done by a menu entry but since the user may suddenly wish to do this, it is preferable to have a one-key entry for this function).

At a step 920 the STB locks (temporarily prevents deletion of) the currently held buffer file of the 60 seconds preceding the issue of the replay command and continues the recording of a further most recent 60 seconds of material. The newly recorded material is needed in case another user issues a replay command separate to the one already being processed.

At a step 930 the replay material is retrieved from the storage device and sent to the remote control for display 940 on the display screen 720. Initially, a predetermined part of the recorded y seconds of material can be displayed-for example, the earliest part, but since the user will be interested in a particular part of the material, the user is given the opportunity at a step 950 to shuttle backwards or forwards through the buffered material to search for and view the required section. In this step, certain buttons on the keyboard 700 (for example, backwards and forwards arrow keys) can be arranged to cause transmission to the STB of forward and backward shuttle commands, affecting the current replay position within the buffered material.

Steps 930,940 and 950 continue as a loop until the user has seen all that he requires of the replay material. When the user issues a"stop"command, for example by another key of the keyboard 700, the process ends 960 and display ceases on the display screen 720. In response to this, at a step 970 the STB can now unlock and delete the y seconds of material used for the just-finished replay process.

Claims

CLAIMS 1. Apparatus for receiving broadcast material from a plurality of broadcast channels according to a schedule of programmes to be received, the apparatus comprising : means for detecting time gaps between adjacent programmes in the schedule; means for accessing an electronic programme guide providing bibliographic information about a programme adjacent in the schedule to the time gap; means for initiating a search of internet sites using the bibliographic details for the adjacent programme, so as to detect a list of internet sites providing material relating to the programme adjacent to the time gap; and a user control for selecting material relating to the programme adjacent to the time gap, for viewing during the time gap.
2. Apparatus according to claim 1, comprising a data store for maintaining a list of pre-recorded material available to the user, in which the initiating means is also operable to search the list of pre-recorded material in accordance with the bibliographic details, to detect pre-recorded material relating to the programme adjacent to the time gap.
3. Apparatus according to claim 1 or claim 2, in which the initiating means is operable to initiate the search during reception of the programme preceding the time gap in the schedule.

*. Apparatus for receiving broadcast material, the apparatus being substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.