KR20070022711A - Clock-based user interface for HDD time-shift buffer navigation - Google Patents

Abstract

The time-shift buffer of the recorded programming whose time of recording extends from the predetermined lower limit to the present time is selected by the user by the displayed clock face upon selecting the desired program for immediate or delayed playback. Under user control, the rewinding of the hands on the watch face causes the minute hand to enter the sector of the watch face indicating the time interval at which incoming programming is recorded. The identifier of the program is displayed along with the clock hand positioning, allowing the user to select the currently identified program for playback at any point in the navigation.

Recording, program, clock face, rewinding, minute hand.

Description

Clock-based user interface for HDD time-shift buffer navigation

The present invention relates to a watch face-based indicator on a display, and more particularly to a watch face-based indicator that can be operated by rewinding hands.

Currently, hard disk drive (HDD) video recorders are becoming very popular very quickly. It is commonly believed that HDD-based personal video recorders (PVRs), also called HDD-based digital video recorders (DVRs), will dominate the consumer electronics market. One major advantage of HDD recorders is the parallel audio / visual (A / V) playback and recording feature, also known as time shifting, which allows for immediate playback by the same device where previously recorded or currently recorded programs are recording. To be selected. Another major advantage of HDD recorders is their large storage capacity. There is an increasing interest in providing a user with an immediate understanding of the HDD concept and providing a comfortable, simple, intuitive and user-friendly interface.

Navigation through the recorded program is typically implemented by displaying a time shift bar where the sectioning corresponds to the order of the recorded programs stored in the time shift buffer. One end of the bar represents the current time and the other end represents the lower temporal limit of the buffer.

A known user interface for a HDD PVR is shown in FIG. Prior art time shifting system 100 includes a PVR 104, a display 108, a cable 112, and a remote controller 113. The connection of the PVR 104 to the cable provider by the set top box and the provider's distribution network is not shown. The display 108 is an incoming broadcast being simultaneously recorded by the PVR 104 on its internal HDD (not shown), as evident by the record button 114 currently displayed on the screen. shows a scene of a broadcast). The last three hours of recordings have their right end 120 representing the current time (17:43 (or 5:43 PM)), and the other end 124 is the temporal lower limit 128 of the time shift buffer containing the recorded programming ( Represented symbolically on the display 108 by a time shift bar 116 representing 14:43 (or 2:43 PM). Screen message 132 indicates that the time shift buffer is full, which means that the buffer length is three hours. The various rectangular sections of the time shift bar 116 distinguishable from each other by their different hatchings and other markings represent the respective time intervals for the past three hours, and the recordings made at these time intervals. Each of program titles 136 is displayed above its respective section representing the program and its time interval. The time shift bar 116 is continuously shifted left as the incoming broadcast is stored, and recordings older than 3 hours are shifted out of the buffer. Alternatively and vice versa, shifting is done to the right, and incoming programming may initially appear at the left end of bar 116.

The user operates the remote controller 113, or possibly the PVR 104, to move the screen cursor (not shown) within the desired time interval at the time shift bar 116 to record each recording for immediate or delayed playback. The selected program. Although hatching is shown in FIG. 1 to distinguish adjacent sections of time shift bar 116, adjacent sections are typically colored differently. Red is often used to mark a program for permanent storage so that when the program falls off the time shift bar 116, the program will change to a permanent title available on the PVR 104. For example, additional coloring of sections by channel or genre is also possible.

However, many users find themselves unfamiliar with this concept and are too confused and difficult to understand. In addition, in the above example, even if the time shift buffer having a typical length of 1 to 8 hours is 3 hours long, this length will be increased to 16, 32 or even more times as the capacity of the subsequent HDD is increased. As the time shift buffer size increases, granularity worsens, reducing the size of sectioning and program titles on the screen, making the user interface less readable and less understandable. Moreover, the granularity problem is exacerbated when the recorder is connected to a device having a small display such as a small television.

The present invention is configured to address the above mentioned disadvantages of the prior art. It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus comprising a display and a processor configured to present a watch face on the display, a method operable on the apparatus, and a computer program for performing the method. The processor is configured to represent needles, the needles being rewinded such that the time period is allocated among predetermined time intervals for a predetermined time period back in the past, and the processor is further configured to: While within any one of the intervals, a display of the item corresponding to the interval comprising the time currently shown by the needles on the display; And, if present, at least one of an enablement for selection of playback of the recording associated with the interval.

The details of the invention disclosed herein will be described with reference to the drawings listed below.

1 depicts a known HDD PVR system and a time-shift-bar based user interface for navigating a time shift buffer.

2 is a perspective view of a personal digital assistant (PDA) with clock-based time-shift-buffer navigation in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates the display shown in FIG. 2 in more detail in connection with specific time shift buffer content.

4 is similar to the clock face of FIG. 3 but with different buffer contents.

5 is a view of the watch face of FIG. 4 after 20 minutes rewind.

FIG. 6 is a view of the watch face of FIG. 5 composed of an alternative current time display scheme and a table corresponding to the watch face;

7 is a view of the watch face of FIG. 3 with different buffer contents and time to rewind near the end of the buffer.

The user interface for the HDD PVR according to the present invention has a reduced screen-area footprint, which is provided with small display and mini HDD-based devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), video MPEG players, and the like. It will potentially be used in portable HDD recorders.

2 shows a PDA equipped for clock-based time-shift-buffer navigation according to the invention, as an illustrative and non-limiting example. PDA 200 has a base 204, a flip-top 208 that houses a display 212. Display 212 shows clock plate 216, hour hand 220, and minute hand 224. Display 212 includes a selectable-program title field 228.

Base 204 includes a processor (not shown), and alternatively a mini-HDD with a time shift buffer (not shown), although a remotely-located HDD can be used to communicate with the processor. A processor implemented in any suitable combination of hardware, palmware, and / or software may wirelessly receive programming, display the programming on display 212, or transmit for remote display on another device, and transmit the programming. Write in an intrinsic or remote time-shift buffer and operate according to an input unit such as keyboard 232 under user control. However, the user interface of the present invention is not limited to implementation in a PDA or any other specific device. Thus, for example, a remote controller can act as an input unit, and an external processor and / or display can be used. Likewise, it is within the scope of the present invention that the display may be implemented with any type of screen or for example a holographic image.

3 illustrates the display 212 of FIG. 2 in more detail with respect to specific time shift buffer content. Clock hands 220, 224 may be rewinded or forward wound under operator control via input unit 232 to navigate the time-shift buffer of recorded programming. In the presently illustrated embodiment, the "navigation" hands of hands 220, 224 displayed at this moment are the other pairs of "current time" hands that keep time in a conventional manner by a stable clockwise rotation on the clock face. "Overlayed" to exclude from view. The current time is accordingly 15:00 (or 3 P.M.). The time display 302 may be arranged around the clock face to enhance immediate awareness of what the clock face is being displayed.

Perhaps the hatched area 304 of the upper left quarter circle of the clock face 216, which is actually colored rather than hatched, indicates that recording has been continuously recorded for 15 minutes. This user interface is because rewinding the needles 220, 224 such that the minute hand 224 passes across the hatched area 304 places the needles to read 14:45, ie 15 minutes before the current time. Is intuitive. According to the watch face 216 shown in FIG. 3, the additional rewinding of the hands 220, 224 causes the minute hand 224 to be the “transparent area” 308 of the watch face, the background color of the display, ie the watch face 216. It passes into the colored region of the display area 312 surrounding it. Transparency indicates that the program in the time-shift buffer does not precede the foregoing recordings made between 14:45 and 15:00, and as a result, the program recording was initiated by PDA 200 only 15 minutes ago. Indicates. The selectable-program title field displays the title of the program currently displayed by the navigation hands 220, 224. If this program is provided at least 20 minutes long and the user does not navigate the hands of the hands 220, 224 by the keyboard 232, the selectable-program title field is now-hidden, the current-time hands of the time. As it passes under navigation clock hands 220 and 224 to indicate that it is 15:05, it will maintain the same title display for 5 minutes from now to 15:05.

4 is a diagram of an exemplary watch face 400 similar to the watch face of FIG. 3 but with different buffer content. Although various colors of the palette are desirable to distinguish adjacent areas of the watch face 400, black and white coloring, as long as the displayed texture or other characteristic allows the immediate areas of the display to immediately distinguish from each other. Will be enough. In the former multi-color displays, red is used to mark programs that must be maintained for selection and playback even after the programs are shifted out of the time-shift buffer.

As in FIG. 3, the navigation needles 402, 404 represent the current time; Unlike the time-shift buffer, which can be navigated by the watch face 216 of FIG. 3, which only includes 15 minutes of recorded programming, the time-shift buffer that can be navigated by the watch face 400 is at least one hour of time. Contains the recorded program. The selectable-program title field 408 displays the title of the program currently recorded and displayed on the screen by the hatched area or sector 412. The boundary between the current area 412 and the previous area 416 indicates that recording of “Dances with Wolves” begins at 14:50. Recording of the area 416 and the corresponding program starts at 14:35 and ends at 14:50, and proceeds in this way around the clock face 400. The start of the recording time for the program corresponding to area 440 is at least 14:00, but will generally be faster. Starting at 15:00 and navigating backward in time past the area 440 causes the display 212 to overwrite the currently displayed area 412 because the length of the navigation time exceeds one hour. Because. In this sense, the clock face of the present invention efficiently stratifies the representation of the time-shift buffer to the current top layer which extends the display back only an hour or more at any given moment.

Time-shift-buffer navigation is described in FIG. 5, which is a diagram of the clock face of FIG. 4 after 20 minutes rewind. Rewinding / forwarding by the input device 232 can be continued through pressing a " fast forward / backward " button, and in a " skip forward / backward " You can jump from one area to an adjacent area. In the former case, the selectable-program title field 502 preferably displays the same title continuously when the minute hand 404 crosses the corresponding area, and immediately enters the appropriate title when entering the adjacent area. Switch to, and keep displaying the title until it enters the next area. In this specification, in FIG. 5, the 20-minute rewinding of the navigation needles 402, 404 is assumed to be almost instantaneous, and the current time is now displayable as the result of the rewinding. Is indicated by. The current-time hands 508, 512 should be distinguishable from the navigation hands 402, 404, where it is shown as consisting of, for example, dashed lines. The title of the program "Meet the Press" is the item or tag currently displayed in the selectable-program type field 502. Thus, a comparison of FIGS. 4 and 5 shows that an area 416 not identified in FIG. 4 is now identified in FIG. 5 as corresponding to a program named “Meet the Press”. FIG. 5 also expands on FIG. 4 by indicating a start time, that is, 13:45, to record a program corresponding to area 440. It can also be seen that the time-shift buffer includes a previously-recorded program corresponding to area 524, whose recording time ends at 13:45.

Once the user has moved the navigation hands 402, 404 to the desired program to enable the selection of the program, the appropriate button on the keyboard 232 is operable to select that program for immediate or delayed playback. It is also possible to configure the PDA 200 such that a navigated-to program is automatically selected without additional operation after a preset amount of time. Preferably, in either case, the selected program begins to play at the beginning of the program, even though the navigated-to time can be used to mark the start of playback within the program.

Although the selectable program title field 502 is used as a navigation tracker of a user to make a program selection, the present invention is not limited to this implementation. PDA 200 may additionally or alternatively include, for example, a speech synthesizer that announces program titles during navigation. As another alternative embodiment of the present invention, the navigation may only serve as a compact user interface that allows the user to scan the memory device, for example, by allowing the user to identify the current time interval.

FIG. 6 is a diagram of a watch face 600 similar to the watch face of FIG. 5 but incorporating optional labeling characteristics. The current-time hands are replaced with a digital indication 604 whose display is held while the navigation and current-time hands match. In addition, the table 608 may optionally be displayed near the watch face 600. The table entries include the title, start time and end time for any program currently displayed. Although the end and start times of the maximum current and minimum current displayed programs are not provided on the screen only by the watch face 600, respectively, these times may optionally be added with additional entries extending further into the past or future. Together can be conveniently provided on the table.

FIG. 7 is a diagram of an exemplary specific case where the watch face 700 according to the present invention appears to be the result of navigation towards the temporal lower limit of the time-shift buffer. Since the end of the entry of the time-shift buffer corresponds to the current time shown as 15:00 in FIG. 7, and no recording exists before 12:00, the time-shift buffer is from 12:00 to 15:00. It can be inferred that it is three hours long. The transparent or unfilled portion of the watch face is preferably in the background color of the display, as described above. Navigation in the transparent portion will remove the selectable program title field 704 by, for example, displaying a blank item.

As mentioned above, clock-based time-shift buffer navigation by the user interface of the present invention is modern and reduces screen space according to the small factor of mobile and especially portable devices. This is accomplished by spiraling conventional time-shift bars into a layered, symmetrical configuration that simultaneously provides a display of only one hour worth of programming. Moreover, the intuitive concept of rewinding the watch is used to provide an easily understandable user navigation tool.

While what has been considered and described as preferred embodiments of the invention, it will of course be understood that various changes and modifications in form or detail may be made readily without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, although round, especially circular clock plates are disclosed herein, the clock plate may be of any type as long as the concentric hands pass time interval regions on the clock plate. Accordingly, the present invention should not be limited to the precise forms described or illustrated, but should be constructed to cover any modifications that may exist within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims (22)

Display 212; And And a processor 204 configured to display a watch face 216 and hands 220, 224 on the display 212, wherein the hands are predetermined time periods 120, 124 in the past. Rewinding such that the time period is allocated among a plurality of predetermined time intervals 412, 416, 440, 524. While within any interval, A display of an item corresponding to the interval comprising the time 408 on which the needles are presently indicated; And If the interval has an associated recording (524, 608), generating at least one of an enablement for selection (232) of playback of the recording associated with the interval. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined time period extends to a temporal lower limit (124, 700), and regions of the watch face correspond to the time intervals (412, 416, 440, 524), exceeding one hour and the Over a clock face time period not exceeding a temporal lower limit, the rewinding of the hands overwrites at least one of the regions (416) with another of the regions (524) for the current display. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the regions of the watch face correspond to the time intervals 412, 416, 440, 524, and at any given time, each of the time intervals corresponding to the displayed regions is the needles. Intersecting a time period (412, 416, 440, 524) one hour after the time indicated by. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising an input unit operable by a user controlling the rewinding of the needles (232). The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor generates the enablement, and the apparatus further comprises an input unit operable by a user to perform the selection for playback. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one comprises the display of an item on the display (212). 7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the at least one further comprises the enablement (232). 2. The processor of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to display with the needles rewinded on the watch face, wherein the needles 508,512 indicating the current time of the needles 402,404 are rewinded. The device is displayed in a manner distinguishable from the current time. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to display numbers (604) representing the current time, the display of the numbers being held while the hands are indicative of the current time. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the predetermined time period extends to a temporal lower limit (124, 700) and the time before the temporal lower limit is represented by a background color (308) of the display. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the regions of the watch face correspond to the time intervals 412, 416, 440, and the device is the region or regions 412, 416, 440, 524 currently displayed on the watch face. Is further configured to automatically and continuously display on the display an updated table 608 indicating start times, end times, and titles of at least one recorded programs of the programs corresponding to. The earliest time and the latest time are respectively the start time of the earliest program and the end time of the latest program to correspond to the currently displayed area. The hands of claim 1, wherein the regions 412, 416, 440, 524 of the watch face correspond to the time intervals and, for a given one of the hands 404, what is generated by the processor is the hands And operate for a time interval corresponding to a currently displayed area (524) of said areas while said given one of is within said currently displayed area. 2. The regions of the watch face of claim 1, wherein the regions 412, 416, 440, 524 correspond to the time intervals and represent recordings of different program content 608, respectively, and are very adjacent to any two of the regions. And the currently displayed areas (416, 524) are colored differently. 2. The regions of the watch face 412, 416, 440, 524 correspond to the time intervals and recordings associated with time intervals, are colored differently (416, 524), and the colors. One of which is designated to mark an area for permanent storage. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions for a processor connected to a display, the computer-readable medium comprising: Execution of the instruction by the processor is: A display of the watch face 216 on the display 212; And Generate a display of the hands rewinding on the clock face for a predetermined time period 120, 124 in the past such that the time period is allocated among a plurality of predetermined time intervals 412, 416, 440, 524. The processor may be configured to: while the time the needles currently represent is within any one of the plurality of intervals, A display of an item corresponding to the interval comprising the time 408 on which the needles are presently indicated; And If the interval has an associated recording (524, 608), generating at least one of an enablement for selection (232) of playback of the recording associated with the interval. Displaying watch face 216 on display 212; And Displaying the hands 220, 224 on the watch face, wherein the hands have a plurality of predetermined time intervals 412 for the predetermined time period 120, 124 in the past. 416, 440, 524 to be rewinded, wherein the processor is configured to: while the time the needles currently represent is within any one of the plurality of intervals, A display of an item corresponding to the interval comprising the time 408 on which the needles are presently indicated; And If the interval has an associated recording (524, 608), generating at least one of an enablement for selection (232) of playback of a record associated with the interval. 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the predetermined time period extends to a temporal lower limit (124, 700), wherein regions of the watch face correspond to the time intervals (412, 416, 440, 524), exceeding one hour and the Over a clock face time period that does not exceed a temporal lower limit, the rewinding of the needles overwrites at least one of the regions (416) with another of the regions (524) for the current display. 17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the regions of the watch face correspond to the time intervals 412, 416, 440, 524, and at any given time, each of the time intervals corresponding to the displayed regions is the needles. Intersecting a time period (412, 416, 440, 524) one hour after the time indicated by. 17. The method of claim 16, further comprising controlling the rewinding of the needles by a user when operating an input unit (232). 20. The method of claim 19, wherein the rewinding of the needles generates the enablement, and the method further comprises operating an input unit 232 by a user to perform the selection for playback. . 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the processor generates the display of an item (408), and the item includes a tag that identifies the recording when a recording is made during the time interval (412). 17. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of displaying with the needles rewinded on the watch face, wherein the needles 508, 512 representing the current time are current times 402, 404 of the rewinding hands. Displayed in a distinguishable manner.

Images