JP2003504923A - Method and apparatus for generating a video window with parameters determining position and scaling factor - Google Patents

Abstract

A method and apparatus for creating and manipulating a video window on a television display is disclosed. A set of parameters specifying a source region and a destination position in the source coordinate system is obtained. The source coordinate system has a source origin at a position in the source coordinate system. A destination starting point is set at a certain position in the destination coordinate system. Next, the source region is transformed to a position in the destination coordinate system corresponding to the destination position in the source coordinate system.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to computer software. More particularly, the present invention relates to methods and apparatus for implementing picture-in-picture functionality in digital television.

[0002]

[Prior art]

The digital television revolution is one of the most important things in the history of broadcast television. The advent of digital television has enabled high-speed data transmission via satellite, cable and terrestrial television channels. Digital television will not only improve video and audio quality significantly, but will also provide users with more channels. Most importantly, the advent of digital television marks the dawn of a truly interactive television era. For example, a digital receiver could offer a variety of advanced services, ranging from simple interactive quiz programs to Internet broadcasts and a mix of television and web-based content. As the digital TV market grows, content developers will find rich, cost-effective features as the foundation for establishing next-generation interactive TV services such as electronic programming guides, video-on-demand and advanced broadcasting. , Looking for a reliable software platform.

Picture-in-picture is a function that is widespread in many currently available televisions. However, the picture-in-picture function is typically implemented in hardware. As digital television technology matures, it will be desirable for picture-in-picture functionality to be implemented in software.

Not only the environment for implementing the picture-in-picture function but also the picture-in-picture function
The functionality of the picture function was also limited. For example, picture-in-picture
The window is usually restricted to a preset position within the video monitor.
Moreover, even if a TV viewer wants to watch multiple channels at the same time,
There was no ability to create multiple picture-in-picture windows.

While picture-in-picture functionality is important to consumers, compatibility of electronic devices that support picture-in-picture functionality is equally important. In today's high technology society, TVs are usually V manufactured by other companies.
Manufactured to be compatible with CR and remote controls. Therefore, it is common for VCRs and televisions manufactured by various companies to be used in combination with others. As a result, the remote controllers provided in these VCRs and televisions are often used interchangeably. Similarly, universal remote controls are commonly used. Although these remote controls are intended to be compatible with a variety of televisions, there is no one-to-one correspondence between the features supported by the remote control and the features provided by various television manufacturers. It is rare. Moreover, consumers today have a wide variety of choices, making it impossible to predict the picture-in-picture capabilities of each television that can use a remote control.

From the above, it would be desirable to be able to create a picture-in-picture window at a location selected by a television viewer. Further, it would be advantageous if a television viewer could create multiple picture-in-picture windows. Finally, it would be desirable to be able to implement these picture-in-picture features for use with any digital television that provides picture-in-picture features.

[0007]

[Outline of the Invention]

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for implementing a video window (eg, picture-in-picture window) on a display associated with a digital television. This is achieved, in part, by an application programming interface that provides a set of methods that allow the query and creation of video windows. In this way, the video window can be scaled or converted according to the parameters specified by the user.

According to one aspect of the invention, an application programming interface provides a set video window method that enables creation of a video window. set·
The video window method has a set of parameters that indicate the source area of the image, the destination location, and a scaling factor that indicates the amount by which the source area is scaled when converted to the destination location. Therefore, the set video window method may be called to transform and scale the source region when a set of parameters is specified.

According to another aspect of the invention, an application programming interface enables obtaining values for a set of parameters after a set video window method has been called to create a video window. Provide a second method.

According to yet another aspect of the invention, a video component object implementing an application programming interface may be obtained for each video window present in the display. As an example, a video component object may be acquired for the underlying image. As another example, video component objects may be obtained for each picture-in-picture video window.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the present invention implements conversion and scaling functions so that video images can be converted and / or scaled according to the capabilities of various hardware. In this way, the set video window method can have various picture-in-picture functions for sale. For example,
Not only the positions allowed for the picture-in-picture windows but the number of picture-in-picture windows allowed for one television may change. Thus, the remote control can provide a picture-in-picture function compatible with not only future televisions but also various current televisions.

According to yet another aspect of the invention, the invention is implemented on a Java platform. The Java platform provides an ideal development and deployment platform for new types of interactive services. The Java programming language gives content developers greater control and flexibility regarding the "look and feel" of their applications so that they can deliver the most dynamic and powerful interactive television programming to their viewers. You can In addition, interactive television applications written in the Java programming language provide security, scalability, and portability across a diverse array of television receivers, allowing content developers to market their interactive applications. You can reduce the time and cost to send to.

The present invention makes it possible to deal with various televisions by making the video window scalable and convertible. This is particularly advantageous when used in devices such as remote controls. In this way, the viewer may operate the remote controller without needing knowledge of the functions of the television operated by the remote controller.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without some or all of these specific details. Other well-known process steps have not been described in detail so as not to unnecessarily obscure the present invention.

Here, an invention is described that enables the system to implement a picture-in-picture function regardless of the hardware configuration of the system. More specifically, in the invention described herein, applications implement picture-in-picture functionality in a digital television environment. For example, the present invention can be used to manage the position and scaling of multiple video windows. Figure 1
It is a block diagram which shows a typical digital television receiver. As shown in FIG. 1, the signal is received via antenna 102 and tuned by tuner module 104 to produce MPEG2 transport stream 106. The demultiplexer 108 then produces an encrypted MPEG stream 110 that includes a video stream 112, an audio stream 114, and a data stream 116. These three streams are then processed by the conditional access subsystem 118. For example, the conditional access subsystem 118 may use the decryption information 12
The key management information 120 may be used instead of 2 (for example, a decryption algorithm). The conditional access subsystem 118 produces a decoded MPEG stream 123 that includes a video stream 124 and an audio stream 125 along with the data 126. They are all decrypted. Decoder 128 then decodes M
The PEG stream 123 is processed, and the decoded video data is sent to the frame buffer 130 and the decoded audio data is sent to the speaker 132. Data 126
When is processed, it is possible that a Java application consisting of many classes is included in the data. In one embodiment, a Java application can be an application used to create one or more picture-in-picture windows at a user-specified location on a video monitor.

As explained above, the conventional picture-in-picture function is limited. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the generation of a conventional picture-in-picture window 200 on a television screen 202. This is typically accomplished by hardware that does not allow the user to reposition the picture-in-picture window 200 within the television screen 202. Moreover, television viewers typically have only the option of generating only a single picture-in-picture window, which requires the window to display the entire video program. As described with reference to the figures below, the present invention provides a system for implementing such picture-in-picture functionality in a digital television environment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a system in which the present invention can be implemented. As shown, the system comprises hardware 302 that includes video hardware 304 and graphics hardware 306 (eg, a frame buffer). In addition, specific hardware 302 is required to scale and border the video.
It has native control software that provides graphic signal processing functions.

Java (registered trademark) is a pioneer of a commercial object-oriented language.
It was developed as a highly portable language that can run on any compatible device that supports the va platform. Therefore, Java® offers a broad perspective as a software platform for next-generation set-top boxes and digital television.

Java Virtual Machine (JVM) 310 is one of the platforms that can be used to implement the present invention. As shown, Jav
The a Media Framework API (JMF) 312 enables the display and capture of multimedia data within Java applications and applets. JMF312 specifies an integrated architecture, messaging protocol, and programming interface for playing, ingesting, and conferencing compressed streaming and archival timing-based media including audio and video across all Java-enabled platforms. To do. For example, JMF 312 enables features such as start, stop, play, and so on.

Further, a Java extraction window tool kit (AWT) 314 is provided. The AWT 314 is a large collection of classes that builds a graphical user interface within Java. For example, AWT314
Provides functions for managing and controlling the display (eg, keyboard, mouse, menu). More specifically, AWT 314 manages the display of one or more components. However, each component is a collection of graphical elements that are treated as a whole. For example, the component may be an image or a window. For more details on JMF and AWT, see Essen.
Tial JMF Java (trademark) Java Media Frame
work ", Rob Gordon and Stephen Talley,
Prentice Hall 1999, ISBN 0-13-080104-
6 and "The Java Class Libraries Volume
2 "Second Edition, Patrick Chan and Rosana Lee,
Prentice Hall 1997, ISBN 02011310031, each of which is incorporated herein by reference.

In addition to the components described above, a video component 316 is disclosed. More specifically, the video component 316 is implemented by the installation of objects having the application programming interfaces disclosed herein. Video component 316 is described in further detail below with reference to FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a video component implementing an application programming interface (API), according to one embodiment of the invention. As shown, the video component 400 includes a data structure that enables picture-in-picture functionality to be implemented in a digital television environment (eg,
Object). More specifically, this allows a video window (eg, a picture-in-picture window) to be created as well as queried to determine the attributes of the created video window 2. It is implemented by implementing an application programming interface that contains one method.

A television viewer may select a “source rectangle” in the image with a mouse or other input device when selecting the picture-in-picture feature. For example, a television viewer may select the height, width, and position of the source rectangle by entering numbers on the keyboard or remote control. The corresponding video window is then created by the set video window method 402. The set video window method 402 uses the source position 41
A video image having a boundary designated by a height 406 and a width 408 measured from 0 can be scaled according to a designated scale factor 412 and displayed at a destination position 404. Both source location 410 and destination location 404 may be specified using x and y coordinates. The source rectangle may be specified in the source coordinate system by specifying height 406, width 408, and source position 410.
Destination location 404 specifies the location in the destination coordinate system where the destination rectangle will be placed when the source rectangle is scaled by a scaling factor 412. As such, a video window is created by using the set video window method 402.

Once the video window is created, it is desirable to see various attributes of the video window. For example, it may be desirable to determine position (eg, destination position), height, width, or magnification. This is advantageous, for example, in determining whether an area is occupied by a video window or whether further video windows can be placed in this area. For this purpose, a query video window method.
412 can determine characteristics of the video window such as position and magnification. This is accomplished, for example, by returning the video component object from a series of one or more video component objects. Therefore,
By using the API, it becomes possible to implement the picture-in-picture function in a digital television environment that does not depend on the underlying hardware.

Rather than querying the attributes of the video window after creating the video window, it is desirable to query the possible values before setting the video window. For this purpose, a set of methods for implementing video rectangle queries are provided. The set of methods may be implemented in both the source and destination coordinate systems. Alternatively, another set of methods may be implemented in each of the source and destination coordinate systems. As shown, a supported scale value method can be used to determine those scaling values supported by the underlying coordinate system.
) 414 may be used. In addition, supported X coordinate methods (supp) to determine their x coordinate values supported by the underlying coordinate system.
An orted x coordinate value method) 416 may be used. Similarly, to determine those y-coordinate values supported by the underlying coordinate system, supported y-coordinate methods (support) are used.
ed y coordinate value method) 418 may be used. In addition, the valid width method 42 is used to determine the effective width and height for the source rectangle selected as the video window selected to be transformed and scaled.
0 and the valid height method
422 may be used.

An equivalent application of the present invention provides the methods of the API described in FIG. 4 on individual objects associated with video components. This requires that the video component be able to associate an object that implements the method of Figure 4 with the original video component and instantiate that object, whatever mechanism is used for instantiation. To do. One way would be to use a JMF player object. J
The MF player object provides a method (getVisualComponent) that provides access to a video component and a method (ge that provides an object related to the video component that controls display of video data).
tControls). The application is getVisualC
instantiate the video component using the open component method,
An object that implements the API described in FIG. 4 is acquired from the getControls method.

As described above, the video component 400 enables inquiry and setting of the video window. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a display of a video window for a video component according to one embodiment of the invention. As shown, when the set video window method is called, the underlying video image 50
A video window 502 is displayed on the screen 4. Video window 502 has a video height 506 and a video width 508, both of which were scaled according to a scaling factor and displayed at destination video location 510.

An origin is set at the reference position to use the same method for each video window (eg, the underlying video image or picture-in-picture window). According to one embodiment, the origin is set at the upper left corner of each coordinate system. For example, the starting point in the source coordinate system may be set as 512. When the set video window method is called to transform and scale the selected source rectangle, a destination coordinate system is created where the origin of the destination coordinate system is in the same position as the origin of the source coordinate system. Is set. For example, the starting point in the destination coordinate system may be set at the upper left corner, such as 514.

Applications implementing the above methods with instantiated video component objects can be implemented on various devices such as remote controls. Therefore, when a video component is instantiated, the application can query the parameters of the video window and transform and scale the video window with the video component object. FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system in which video components can be implemented. As shown, the system includes hardware 30
2, graphics hardware 306, AWT 314, and video component 400. The application 602 can obtain the video component object 400 and set or query the video window. More specifically, the video component object 400 can perform these functions by the video software 604 as well as the AWT 314. By instantiating one or more of one or more video windows in one video monitor. One or more video component objects may be instantiated to provide one or more video windows. Thus, the application 602 may acquire multiple video components 400 simultaneously or sequentially and set multiple video windows within one monitor.

As described above with reference to FIG. 4, the video component object 400 allows both the set video window method 402 and the query video window method 412 to be called by an application. FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing one method of creating a video window by calling the SetVideoWindow method. The process begins at block 700 and at block 702 a video component object is obtained. For example, the video component object can be selected from one or more pre-instantiated video component objects. The user (eg, television viewer) may then select or enter parameters and define the source and destination areas (eg, rectangle) for the video window (eg, picture-in-picture window) to be displayed. You can The parameters are then stored in blocks 704-71.
It is set as shown in 0. At block 704, the desired position for the destination area is set to the selected area in the monitor (eg, upper right quadrant). Then, in block 706, the scaling factor is set to the selected scaling factor.
For example, the scaling factor for the destination region may be specified to be a quarter of the size and size of the source region. Then, at block 708, the position parameter of the set video window method is set to the desired position. Then block 7
At 10, the source region is designated. For example, the boundaries of the source region may be set by specifying the position, height, and width of the source.

Once the set video window method parameters have been specified, at block 712 the set video window method is invoked. The application that calls the set video window method may be independent of the hardware that implements the picture-in-picture functionality, so the parameters specified by the user are ultimately a function of the hardware. It doesn't have to be inside. For example, a universal remote control can allow a picture-in-picture to be placed anywhere on the screen to allow any magnification. However, in a television using a universal remote controller, a picture-in-picture window can be created only at a specific position (for example, the lower left corner of the screen). Similarly, the television can only support a certain magnification (eg, one half, one quarter). Therefore, according to one embodiment, the set video window method returns an object (e.g., a video component object) with a value that was finally set by the set video window method. If at block 714, the position of the resulting window is determined to be equal to the desired position, then at block 716 the process ends. If the resulting position is not equal to the desired position, then either the hardware cannot support the desired position or the desired position is currently occupied. Therefore, it is then determined, at block 718, whether the resulting position indicates that there are no additional positions for displaying additional video windows. If there are no more positions, the process ends at block 720 and the video window is not displayed. However, if there are more positions where the video window can be displayed, then at block 722 the desired position is set to another position. For example, the position may be arbitrarily selected from the set of possible positions, or the television viewer may select another desired position. The process then continues at block 706 for the newly selected desired location.

In addition to verifying that the resulting position is equal to the desired position, other parameters may be verified as well. For example, the hardware may only support a certain scaling factor. Therefore, it may be verified (eg, at block 714) whether the resulting scaling is equal to the selected scaling. These examples are exemplary only, and other selections may be similarly validated by the values in the returned video component object.

Once a video window is created and displayed, it is desirable to query the parameter values of the video window for a variety of reasons. For example, FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a karaoke application of the present invention. A video window 802 is displayed on the monitor 800. When a television viewer wishes to watch a music channel offering karaoke options, it may need to determine where to place the video window 802 in order to properly display the lyrics 804 associated therewith. .

FIG. 9 is a flow chart showing one method of determining parameters for the current video window. The process begins at block 900 and at block 902 a video component is obtained from a set of one or more video component objects. For example, a video component object may be associated with each picture-in-picture video window, rather than just the entire underlying image. Furthermore, multiple picture-in-picture windows may be supported by some systems. Once the video component object is obtained, at block 904 the query video window method shown in FIG. 4 is called. According to one embodiment, the query video window method returns an object that specifies the parameters of the video window for the video component object. Then, in block 906, the position where the video window was placed is obtained from this returned object. Once the position of the existing video window is obtained, at block 908, at or near the desired video position,
Graphic functions may be performed. As an example, the query video window method may use a picture-in-picture method so that if the picture-in-picture window does not exist at a particular location, only that window will be displayed at that location. It may be used to optimize functionality. As another example,
The query video window method returns a second picture-in-picture
It may be used to determine whether or not a picture-in-picture window exists at the position where the window is to be arranged. Finally, as described above with reference to Figure 8, the query video window method may be used to determine the area within the karaoke application where the lyrics can be displayed.

FIG. 10 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary method of displaying karaoke lyrics in block 908 of FIG. The process begins at block 1000. At block 1002, it is determined whether the position where the video window is located is in the upper right quadrant of the screen. If the video window is displayed in the upper right quadrant of the screen, then at block 1004 the karaoke lyrics are displayed on the left side of the screen. However, if the position indicates that the video window is not located in the upper right quadrant of the screen, then at block 1006 it is determined whether the video window is located in the lower right quadrant of the screen. It If the video window is not visible in the lower right quadrant, it must be on the left side of the screen. Therefore, the karaoke lyrics are rendered on the right side of the screen at block 1008. When the lyrics are displayed, at 1010, a bouncing ball is displayed along with the accompaniment. The process described above
Although providing confirmation of the right and left sides of the screen, more complex methods may be implemented to display karaoke lyrics or other graphical elements around one or more video windows.

As mentioned above, the query video window method may also be used to optimize the display of a picture-in-picture window. FIG. 11 is a flow chart illustrating one method of optimizing the picture-in-picture function at block 908 of FIG. The process begins at block 1100 and at block 1102 it is determined whether the position of the video window is located at the desired position. If that position is located at the desired position,
The process ends at block 1104 because the video window does not need to be drawn. However, if the video window is not located at the desired location, then at block 1106 the video window is drawn at the desired location. In this way, the picture-in-picture function may be optimized.

The query video method can also be used to implement the display of picture-in-picture in systems that support multiple picture-in-picture video windows.
FIG. 12 is a flow chart illustrating one method of using the query function to display multiple picture-in-picture video windows at block 908 of FIG. The process begins at block 1200 and at block 1202 an existing video window is placed in the upper right quadrant of the screen,
It is determined whether the position of the existing video window suggests. If the position indicates that the existing video window is not displayed in the upper right quadrant of the screen, then at block 1204, a new video window may be drawn in the lower right quadrant. However, if the existing video window is not displayed in the upper right quadrant, then block 1206 determines if the position of the existing video window is in the lower right quadrant of the screen. If the existing video window is not in the lower right quadrant, then at block 1208 a new video window may be drawn in the lower right quadrant. Next, at block 1210, it is determined whether an existing video window is displayed in the upper left quadrant of the screen. If the existing video window is not located in the upper left quadrant, then at block 1212 a new video window may be displayed in the upper left quadrant. Otherwise, if the existing video window is located in the upper left quadrant, then at block 1214 the new video window is displayed in the lower left quadrant. In this way, one or more video windows (eg, picture-in-picture windows) can be displayed so that they do not overlap each other. Although the process described above presents a simple way to display multiple picture-in-picture windows, the process is merely exemplary, and other positions within the screen may be more than one. May be checked and compared for specified parameters (e.g., location) with respect to additional video window requirements.

Multiple video component objects, such as those shown in FIG. 4, may be instantiated for use in a system that supports a single picture-in-picture window. FIG. 13 shows a single picture-in-picture
FIG. 6 illustrates the use of multiple video component objects within a system that supports windows. As shown, a first video component may be associated with an underlying video window 1300 or image, and a second video component object may be associated with a second video window (eg, picture-in-picture). -Window) 1302. For example, a television viewer may view the center court as a basic video window 1300 and the subcourt as a picture-in-picture window 1302 when watching a tennis match. Additionally, the statistics may be displayed in a further text window 1304. The system may also allow a user to replace the underlying video window 1300 and picture-in-picture window 1302. Therefore, those video components may be associated with various windows and parameters in response to this replacement.

Similarly, multiple video component objects may be instantiated for use in a system that supports multiple picture-in-picture windows. FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating the use of multiple video component objects in a system that supports multiple picture-in-picture windows. As such, the first video component 1400 may be associated with a first picture-in-picture window and the second video component 1402 may be associated with a second picture-in-picture window. Well, the third video component 1404 may be associated with a third picture-in-picture window. For example, as described above with reference to FIG. 13, a television viewer may wish to view multiple picture-in-picture windows while watching a tennis match or the like. Therefore, as shown, the first video component 1400 may be used to display the center court and the second video component 1402 may be used to display the spectator camera. The third video component 1404 may be used to display a sub court. Additionally, additional text windows 1406 may be used to display statistics such as scores. further,
The base image 1408 may display an overview of a match with selected areas for display in multiple picture-in-picture windows.

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for implementing picture-in-picture functionality without requiring knowledge of the capabilities of the hardware that provides the picture-in-picture functionality. The application programming interface is
Allows a video window to be created. Furthermore, the installation of the video component object with the disclosed application programming interface allows the specification and display of one or more video windows. Further, a reference function is disclosed.

The present invention can be implemented on any suitable computer system. Figure 1
5 shows a representative general purpose computer system 1502 suitable for implementing the present invention. The computer system may take any suitable form. For example, the computer system may be integrated with a digital television receiver or set top box.

Computer system 1530, and more specifically CPU 1532, may be configured to support virtual machines, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art. Computer system 1502 includes number of processors 1504 (central processing unit) connected to memory devices including primary storage device 1506 (typically read-only memory or ROM) and primary storage device 1508 (typically random access memory or RAM). That is, it is also called a CPU). As is well known to those skilled in the art, the ROM has a function of unidirectionally transferring data and instructions to the CPU 1504, and the RAM is usually used for bidirectionally transferring data and instructions. Both primary storage devices 1506 and 1508 may include any suitable computer-readable media. CPU 1504 may generally include any number of processors.

Secondary storage medium 1510 is typically a mass memory device, and is bidirectionally CP
It is connected to U1504 to supplement the data storage capacity. Mass memory device 15
10 is a computer-readable medium that can be used to store a program including computer code, data, and the like. Mass memory device 1510 is typically a storage medium, such as a hard disk, that is generally slower than primary storage devices 1506 and 1508.

The CPU 1504 may also be connected to one or more input / output devices 1512. The input / output device 1512 includes a video monitor, a trackball, a mouse, a keyboard, a microphone, a touch sensitive display, a transducer card reader, a magnetic or paper tape reader, a tablet, a stylus,
It includes, but is not limited to, devices such as voice or handwriting recognizers, or other well known input devices such as computers. Finally, the CPU 1504
May optionally be connected to a computer or telecommunications network (eg, internet or intranet network) using the network connections shown generally at 1514. Given such a network connection, it is believed that CPU 1504 can receive information from the network and output information to the network while performing the method steps described above. Such information is often represented as a series of instructions executed using CPU 1504, which can be received from and output to the network, for example in the form of computer data signals embodied in a carrier wave. Is.

While the embodiments and applications of the invention have been shown and described, many variations and modifications are possible within the spirit, scope and intent of the invention, and these variations should be read in the present specification. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art. For example, the present invention has been described as implementing the picture-in-picture function in any system regardless of the hardware configuration of the system. Although the video component object was defined as containing two methods, other embodiments are possible as these methods are exemplary only. Also, although the present invention has been described as implemented in a digital television environment, other applications are possible. Furthermore, although the present invention is described herein as being implemented on the Java platform, the present invention may be implemented on various platforms or contexts in which object oriented languages are used. Accordingly, this embodiment is considered to be illustrative and not limiting, and the invention is not limited to the details herein, but modified within the scope of the appended claims and equivalents. can do.

[Brief description of drawings]

[Figure 1]   It is a block diagram which shows a typical digital television receiver.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the creation of a conventional picture-in-picture window on a television screen.

[Figure 3]   It is a block diagram which shows the system which can implement this invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates a video component implementing an application programming interface (API) according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates a display of a video window for a video component according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system in which video components can be implemented.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing one method of creating a video window by calling the SetVideoWindow method.

[Figure 8]   It is a figure which shows the karaoke application of this invention.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart illustrating one method of determining parameters for the current video window.

10 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method of displaying karaoke lyrics in block 908 of FIG.

FIG. 11 Optimizes the picture-in-picture function at block 908 of FIG. 9 1
3 is a flowchart showing one method.

FIG. 12 is a flow chart illustrating one method of using the query function to display multiple picture-in-picture video windows in block 908 of FIG.

FIG. 13 illustrates the use of multiple video component objects within a system that supports a single picture-in-picture window.

FIG. 14 illustrates the use of multiple video component objects in a system that supports multiple picture-in-picture windows.

FIG. 15   1 illustrates a typical general purpose computer system suitable for implementing the present invention.

[Explanation of sign]

102 antenna 104 tuner module 106 MPEG2 transport stream 108 demultiplexer 110 encrypted MPEG stream 112 video stream 114 audio stream 116 data stream 118 conditional access subsystem 120 key management information 122 decryption information 123 decrypted MPEG stream 124 video stream 125 audio stream 126 data 128 decoder 130 frame buffer 132 speaker 200 picture-in-picture window 202 television screen 302 hardware 304 video hardware 306 graphics hardware 308 native control software 310 Java virtual machine 312 Java media framework API (JMF) 314 Java 314 Extraction Window Toolkit (AWT) 316 Video Components 400 Video Components 402 Set Video Window Methods (set video win)
dow method) 404 destination position 406 height 408 width 410 source position 412 scale factor 412 query video window method (query video w)
(in method) 414 Supported Scale Value Method (supported)
scale value method 416 Supported X coordinate method (supported x coor)
Dine value method 418 Supported y coordinate method (supported y core)
Dinate value method 420 Valid width method (valid width method)
) 422 valid height method
d) 502 video window 504 video image 506 video height 508 video width 510 destination video position 602 application 604 video software 800 monitor 802 video window 804 lyrics 1300 base video window 1302 second video window 1304 text window 1400 first Video component 1402 Second video component 1404 Third video component 1406 Text window 1408 Basic image 1502 General purpose computer system 1504 Processor 1506 Primary storage device, ROM 1508 Primary storage device, RAM 1510 Mass memory device 1512 Input / output device 1514 Network 1530 computer system 1532 CPU

[Procedure for Amendment] Submission for translation of Article 34 Amendment of Patent Cooperation Treaty

[Submission date] June 18, 2001 (2001.6.18)

[Procedure Amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Name of item to be corrected] Claim 1

[Correction method] Change

[Contents of correction]

1. A method for creating a video window on a display for a television, comprising the step of obtaining an object having an interface including a first method enabling the creation of a video window, said first method. It has a source region of the image, and the destination position, has a set of parameters indicating the magnification showing the scaling amount when the source region is converted into the destination location, further to specify the set of parameters Responsively invoking the first method.

[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] March 8, 2002 (2002.3.8)

[Procedure Amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Name of item to be corrected] 0029

[Correction method] Change

[Contents of correction]

Applications implementing the above methods with instantiated video component objects can be implemented on various devices such as remote controls. Therefore, when a video component is instantiated, the application can query the parameters of the video window and transform and scale the video window with the video component object. FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system in which video components can be implemented. As shown, the system includes hardware 30
2, graphics hardware 306, AWT 314, and video component 400. The application 602 can obtain the video component object 400 and set or query the video window. More specifically, the video component object 400 can perform these functions by the video software 604 as well as the AWT 314. By instantiating one or more Bideou Indou within one video monitor, one or more video component object may be instantiated to provide one or more video windows. Thus, the application 602 may acquire multiple video components 400 simultaneously or sequentially and set multiple video windows within one monitor.

[Procedure Amendment 2]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0040

[Correction method] Change

[Contents of correction]

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for implementing picture-in-picture functionality without requiring knowledge of the capabilities of the hardware that provides the picture-in-picture functionality. The application programming interface is
Allows a video window to be referenced and created. Furthermore, the installation of the video component object with the disclosed application programming interface allows the specification and display of one or more video windows. Further, a reference function for referring to the video window is disclosed.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (81) Designated countries EP (AT, BE, CH, CY, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, IE, I T, LU, MC, NL, PT, SE), OA (BF, BJ , CF, CG, CI, CM, GA, GN, GW, ML, MR, NE, SN, TD, TG), AP (GH, GM, K E, LS, MW, MZ, SD, SL, SZ, TZ, UG , ZW), EA (AM, AZ, BY, KG, KZ, MD, RU, TJ, TM), AE, AG, AL, AM, AT, AU, AZ, BA, BB, BG, BR, BY, BZ, C A, CH, CN, CR, CU, CZ, DE, DK, DM , DZ, EE, ES, FI, GB, GD, GE, GH, GM, HR, HU, ID, IL, IN, IS, JP, K E, KG, KP, KR, KZ, LC, LK, LR, LS , LT, LU, LV, MA, MD, MG, MK, MN, MW, MX, MZ, NO, NZ, PL, PT, RO, R U, SD, SE, SG, SI, SK, SL, TJ, TM , TR, TT, TZ, UA, UG, UZ, VN, YU, ZA, ZW (72) Inventor Rivas Jesus David             United States California 94131               San Francisco 28th Story             258 (72) Inventor Bunro Jame's             United States California 94303               Palo Alto, San Antonio Law             Do, 901, Sun Microsystems Y             Ncorporated (72) Inventor Ye Tao             United States California 94087               Sunnyvale, # 116, East L               Camino Real, 929 F-term (reference) 5C023 AA02 AA04 AA15 BA11 CA02                       DA04 DA08                 5C025 BA28 BA30 CA06 CA09 CA10                       CA11 DA01 DA10                 5C082 AA02 BA27 BA41 CA62 CB01                       CB06 DA87 MM05 MM09

Claims (27)

[Claims] 1. A method for creating a video window on a display for a television, comprising the step of obtaining an object having an interface including a first method enabling the creation of a video window, said first method. Has a set of parameters indicating a source region of the image, a destination position, and a scaling factor indicating an amount by which the source region is converted to the destination position, and further according to designation of the set of parameters. Calling the first method. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the object comprises obtaining the object from one or more objects associated with a request for one or more video windows. Method. 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first method scales the source area if the destination area is not occupied by a picture-in-picture window, A method of converting to the destination location. 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first method scales the source region and converts to the destination location if the scaling factor is supported by the television. ,Method. 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first method scales the source area and converts to the destination location if the destination location is supported by the television. how to. 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the source region has a height,
Width, method defined by source position. 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the interface is
The method further comprising a second method that enables obtaining a value for the set of parameters. 8. The method of claim 7, further comprising: A method comprising invoking the second method in response to a user selection. 9. A method for manipulating a video window on a display for a television, which shows a source region of an image, a destination position, and an amount by which the source region is scaled when converted to the destination position. Receiving a set of parameters indicative of a scaling factor, and attempting to apply the scaling factor to the set of dimensions of the source region such that the set of dimensions of the source region is changed. Method. 10. The method of claim 9, further comprising the step of attempting to apply the scaling factor to the set of dimensions of the source region is unsuccessful. A method comprising attempting to apply another scaling factor to the set. 11. The method of claim 9, further comprising obtaining a second scale factor when the attempt to apply the scale factor to the set of dimensions of the source region is unsuccessful. And trying to apply the second scaling factor to the set of dimensions. 12. The method of claim 9, further comprising:   A method comprising attempting to convert the source region to the destination location. 13. A method of creating a video window on a display for a television comprising receiving a set of parameters indicating a source region of an image and a first destination location to which the source region is transformed. , The source region has a set of dimensions, and further comprising attempting to convert the source region to the first destination location. 14. The method of claim 13, further comprising obtaining a second destination location when the step of attempting to convert the source region to the first destination location is unsuccessful. And attempting to convert the source region to the second destination location.
Method. 15. A method of creating a video window on a display for a television comprising converting an area of an image from a source location to a destination location, the area being first when in the source location. And has a second set of dimensions when in the destination position, and further includes an inquiry to confirm at least one of the destination position and the second set of dimensions. A method comprising performing steps. 16. The method of claim 15, further comprising obtaining an object that specifies the destination location and the second set of dimensions. 17. The method of claim 15, further comprising one or more at one or more locations located at the destination location and around the region defined by the dimensions of the second set. A method of displaying a graphical element of. 18. The method of claim 17, wherein the one or more graphical elements form one or more words. 19. The method of claim 15, further comprising: if a second region of the image does not overlap the region located at the destination location and having the second set of dimensions. Converting the second region from a second source location to a second destination location. 20. The method of claim 15, further comprising converting the area from the source location to the destination location if the area is not located at the destination location. . 21. A method of creating a video window on a display for a television, comprising the step of obtaining a set of parameters identifying a source region and a destination position within a source coordinate system, the source coordinate system comprising: Having a source origin at a certain position in the source coordinate system, and further setting a destination origin at a certain position in the destination coordinate system; and Converting the source region to a location. 22. The method of claim 21, wherein the set of parameters further comprises a scaling factor, and the method further comprises applying the scaling factor to the source region. 23. A device for creating a video window on a display for a television, comprising: a processor and a memory storing instructions, the instructions providing one or more scaling factors supported by the television. A method comprising instructions for determining, each of the one or more scaling factors identifying a scalable amount of a region located at a location of an image provided on the display. 24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the memory further comprises instructions for determining an acceptable set of dimensions for the region located at the location of the image. . 25. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the memory further comprises instructions for determining x-coordinate values and y-coordinate values supported by the television. 26. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the memory further comprises instructions for selecting one of the one or more scaling factors, and the one of the one or more scaling factors. Instructions for applying the selected one to the region of the image. 27. An apparatus for creating a video window on a display for a television, comprising: a processor and a memory, at least one of the processor and the memory enabling creation of a video window. Is adapted to obtain an object having an interface including a method of, the first method comprising a source region of an image and a destination position,
An apparatus having a set of parameters indicating a scaling factor indicating an amount by which the source region is scaled prior to conversion to the destination location.