RU2402165C2 - Method of creating integrated news channel - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: information technology.

SUBSTANCE: metadata which classify new bulletins as a whole and their separate subject matter are formed; said metadata are sent to a user terminal. Received metadata are recorded into memory which may or may not be integrated into the user terminal. Recorded metadata are compared with previously recorded news bulletins and their subject matter; based on said comparison, recorded news bulletins are divided into video files of news items; obtained video files are recorded into memory. A database of news items is created with possibility of further browsing in an audio-visual information display device. In order to provide the proper accuracy of dividing recorded news bulletins into video files of news items, the timing device of the user terminal is periodically corrected using standard time signals.

EFFECT: possibility of selection of separate news items of interest by a user, acquaintance with history of the news item previously browsed by the user, as well as with the entire spectrum of views on the browsed news item.

6 cl, 5 dwg

Description

FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY

The invention relates to interactive digital television and is intended for forming on the client side an integrated news channel (INC), which provides the user with the opportunity to view news at any time convenient for him, to track the development in time of any news story, to compare the points of view of various channels on a particular event , select for viewing plots that meet his preferences. Thus, the integration of television news information is achieved both in time and in channels.

BACKGROUND

Television is inherently problematic due to the contradiction between its broadcast nature and individual consumption.

The main of them:

- The problem of choosing a viewing time. Television cannot provide the viewer the opportunity to watch the selected program when the viewer wants it. The viewer is forced to either adapt to the broadcast network or skip the transmission.

In addition, speaking more specifically about news programs, which were and still remain one of the most popular, here there are problems that can be summarized as “what to watch” and “how to watch”:

- the user is forced to watch the entire news block, compiled based on a certain “average” viewer, although only some subjects may be of interest to him;

- television cannot provide the viewer with the opportunity to familiarize themselves in sufficient detail with the background of the news story they are viewing;

- television cannot provide the viewer with the opportunity to get acquainted with the whole range of points of view on the news story he is viewing.

The transition to digital television broadcasting, accompanied by a sharp increase in the number of channels, not only does not solve these problems, but even gives rise to a new one - the problem of choosing the programs that are most preferred for viewing among the whole set of programs broadcast on all channels.

Recently, the efforts of developers have been focused on solving the very last of these problems, which is not surprising: it is rapidly growing along with an increase in the number of channels. Existing ways to solve it at the place of implementation are divided into two categories. In the first, the selection of content in accordance with the audience’s tastes of the user is carried out on the server side (in the studio, which is creating the television channel and / or broadcasting it). An example is the organization of “virtual channels” described in US Pat. No. 6,088,722. Various methods of organizing video-on-demand (VoD, video on demand) (see, for example, US patent No. 6.804.825) or multimedia-on-demand (MoD, media on demand) (see ., for example, US patent No. 6.804.708).

The advantages of the methods belonging to this category include the exact coincidence of the moments of the beginnings / endings of the video sequences received by the viewer and the moments of the actual beginnings / endings of the TV shows or films ordered by him.

The main disadvantage is a significant increase in the load on the transmitting equipment and communication channels, which limits the application of these methods to relatively small networks. The disadvantages include the mandatory presence of an upstream channel through which user requests or information about user profiles, i.e. user preferences arrives at the server. We should not forget about possible abuse of confidential information contained in these requests or in user profiles.

The methods of the second category are implemented on the client side. A user terminal, often called a DVR (digital video recorder) or PVR (personal video recorder), selects only those programs from general-purpose television channels that match the viewer's preferences. This choice is made by comparing user profiles with previously entered in one way or another into the user terminal electronic program guide (EPG, electronic program guide). The user terminal, as a rule, has an integrated information storage device or is connected to an external information storage device, onto which the selected programs are recorded. In these cases, the first of the above problems is solved - the problem of choosing the viewing time. This scheme is most fully described in US patent No. 6.324.338. It was he who was adopted as the prototype of the present invention.

The advantage of the methods of this category is that the transmitting equipment and communication channels work as usual. It is also important that the ascending channel is not required.

Disadvantages: firstly, due to frequently occurring changes in the program guide, it is impossible to ensure exact coincidence of the moments of the start / end of recordings and the moments of the actual start / end of the selected programs. In addition, the methods of this category, as well as all other modern technologies, do not provide a solution to the problems that were identified above as “what to watch” and “how to watch”. The user is forced to choose the whole program for recording, since only they are presented in the electronic program guide, while for them only their individual plots may be of interest, the presence of which in one or another program may not be known in advance and moreover, the time is not known airing them. The user is also deprived of the opportunity to compare different points of view on a particular issue and view the history of its development over time.

Thus, all the methods of customization (orientation to the preferences of a specific user) of television that exist today, along with their strengths, are not without obvious flaws.

Most noticeably, these shortcomings are manifested in transmissions consisting of heterogeneous fragments of varying degrees of interest for the user. For transfers of this type include, for example, concerts and so-called television magazines. Many other programs and films also consist of heterogeneous fragments, so it may be of some interest to be able to compile selections of scenes of a certain subject from them or, on the contrary, exclude individual scenes during recording and / or viewing (for example, for the purpose of parental control). The most striking and one of the most popular examples of such programs are news releases.

In this regard, there is an urgent need to develop a method that

- It will provide the user with the opportunity to choose to view not only the entire issue of news programs, but also their individual stories that meet his interests;

- give the user the opportunity to familiarize themselves in detail with the background of the news story they are viewing;

- will provide the user with the opportunity to get acquainted with the whole range of points of view on the news story they are viewing.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In the present invention, this problem is solved by developing a method of forming an integrated news channel (INC). The basis of this method is the formation of metadata that classifies not only news programs in general, but also their individual topics (start time, end time, genre, theme, authors, copyright holders, performers, participants, short announcement, any other text, graphic and multimedia information associated with this issue of the news program in its entirety and its individual plots), hereinafter referred to as extended metadata. The preparation of advanced metadata is performed in the studio for the formation of advanced metadata (SFRM) by editors at the automated workstations of editors (AWP), each of which is a hardware-software complex. As software used in ARMP, it is possible, but not necessary, to use components of the software package RIKOR Digital Interactive Television Platform (RIKOR ITV) developed by the applicant (Rospatent. Certificate on official registration of the computer program No. 2002610334, registered in the Register computer programs March 7, 2002).

The user terminal initially records the entire news broadcasts. The number of issues of news programs that can be recorded simultaneously is determined by the availability of free resources of the user terminal tuners. After receiving the extended metadata, the software installed on the user terminal compares them with the recorded issues of news programs and, on the basis of the comparison, divides the recorded issues of news programs into video files of stories.

In order to ensure proper accuracy of separation of recorded issues of news programs into video files of news stories, the user terminal’s timing device is periodically adjusted according to the exact time signals sent by the SFRM or other source.

Ultimately, the user side will find a collection of video files of news stories recorded in the database of the integrated news channel. Physically video files of news stories are recorded on a storage device that can be integrated or not with a user terminal.

Video files of news items are entered into the database with the possibility of viewing them later on the device for displaying audiovisual information, which can be integrated or not with the user terminal, at any time convenient for the user in the form of a whole video sequence, or by selecting from the database independently of each other , or in a combined way. For example, all videos devoted to an event and reflecting the points of view of various channels on this event can be selected for viewing. Or videos can be selected for viewing, allowing you to track the development in time of a particular event.

A user terminal may be equipped with input, editing, and storage tools for a user profile containing demographic characteristics of the user and / or his explicit preferences when viewing news programs. Moreover, in some implementations, the user profile can be adjusted based on the collection of information about the viewing history of television programs in general and / or news programs in particular. In these cases, it is possible to sort news items listed in the INC, also by the degree of their compliance with user preferences. For example, some news headings that are not of interest to a particular user may be completely removed from the database of the integrated news channel.

By reducing the free space allocated on the storage device for storing the INC database to the established limit, the oldest news stories are deleted.

Thus, the present invention eliminates all the problems listed in the section "prior art".

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The presented invention contains a method of forming an integrated news channel. The method is implemented on the user terminal, which is part of the system schematically depicted in figure 1 and includes the following elements:

1 - station for receiving and storing video data,

2 - channel for transmitting video data,

3 - studio for the formation of advanced metadata,

4 - channel broadcast advanced metadata,

5 - user terminal.

At station 1, video data is received from the operators of the TV services (not shown in the diagram).

Figure 2-4 presents a diagram of the interaction of functional modules, data streams and control in the user terminal 5. In this case, Figure 2 relates to the basic case (see paragraph 1 of the claims). Figure 3 relates to the case when at least one user profile is formed on the user terminal and this user profile is used to sort news items recorded in the integrated news channel in accordance with user preferences (see paragraph 5 of the claims) . Figure 4 relates to the case when at least one user profile is generated at the user terminal; they collect data about the browsing history and use this data to correct the profile of the user, which in turn is used to sort news items (see paragraph 7 of the claims).

The following notation is used:

6 - television signals of real TV channels,

7 - buffer INC (database),

8 - hardware of the user terminal,

9 - TV

10 - viewing control module,

11 - UDU,

12 - metadata database,

13 - module forming profiles

14 - profile database,

15 - view history database,

16 - module for the formation and maintenance of INC.

UDU - a remote control device. TV - TV, monitor or other device for displaying audiovisual information.

Bold lines are used for video streams, thin solid lines for data streams, thin dashed lines for controls.

Figure 5 presents an example of a possible implementation of the user interface of the integrated news channel.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Video data receiving and storage station 1 integrates news programs from the entire television network. The studio for generating advanced metadata and video data by channel 3 for transmitting video data 2 is connected to the station for receiving and storing video data 1 and is equipped with software that allows you to create advanced metadata characterizing the release of the news program as a whole and its individual plots (start time, end time, genre, theme, authors, copyright holders, performers, participants, short announcement, any other textual, graphic and multimedia information compared to this issue of news programs entirely and its individual subjects), and transmit them to the user terminal 5 through the channel 4.

Part of the metadata, for example, the names of headings, subheadings, stories, the date the news was created, the name of the information source, is subsequently used by software installed on the user terminal 5 to sort news stories entered into the database database of the integrated news channel. Other metadata, for example, biographies of participants, various background information, are used as additional materials called up by the user when using interactive services.

Extended metadata generation studio 3 transmits only extended metadata to user terminal 5. At the same time, any transport medium can be used to transmit advanced metadata: satellite, cable, terrestrial television, computer, telephone networks, etc. As the software tools used in Studio 3 to create and broadcast advanced metadata, it is possible, but not necessary, to use the components of the RIKOR Digital Interactive Television Platform (RIKOR ITV) software package mentioned above.

The user terminal may be a television set-top box (see Figure 2-4, for a diagram of the interaction of the functional modules of the user terminal in some of its possible implementations) connected to any display device for audiovisual information 9, for example, a television. The set-top box components can be integrated with an audiovisual display device. In addition, the functions of the user terminal can be implemented in a personal computer (PC) equipped with one or more digital tuners. Moreover, the essence of the present invention does not depend on the specific hardware and software platforms of the PC. The essence of the present invention does not depend on the above and other possible schemes for the hardware implementation of a user terminal, therefore, for brevity, we will mainly talk about one of them, namely, a television set-top box, to which a television 9 is connected, as shown in FIG. 2- four.

The user can interact with the terminal using a remote control device (RC) 11, which can be an infrared remote control (RC), or a remote control or a wireless keyboard based on other physical principles, such as Bluetooth or WiFi, or a touch panel. In addition, you can use the controls located on the set-top box or TV, as well as the mouse keyboard and the keyboard of a personal computer (laptop, PDA, tablet, etc.) connected to terminal 5 via wireless communication (for example, infrared, Bluetooth or WiFi). The essence of the present invention does not depend on the above and other possible schemes of hardware implementation of the remote control device, therefore, in the future, for brevity, we will mainly talk about one of them, namely, the remote control.

To interact with the terminal software, a browser program is used, with which the window interface of the corresponding software module is called up through the menu and the UDD commands are transferred to the control commands for this module. The essence of the present invention is implemented in application software and therefore does not depend on the hardware and software (operating system or middleware) platform of the terminal.

For ease of description and accurate to the conventions understood by a person skilled in the art, in Figures 2-4, the user terminal hardware is represented by a single module 8, and its functional features are implemented by software modules and databases located in the device memory.

As module 8, you can use the known hardware platforms of an interactive digital receiver, as a rule, which includes the following:

- one or more receivers (tuners) of digital television signals,

- direct access storage device, such as a hard disk,

- flash memory for storing the real-time operating system (RTOS),

- single or dual processor system,

- receiver commands of the remote control device,

- receivers of conditional access cards and service payment cards,

- receivers of flash memory cards,

- devices for connecting to telephone and / or computer networks and for organizing a return channel (modem and / or network card, etc.),

- audio, video outputs to information display devices,

- DVD or CD-drives (possibly recording),

- interfaces for connecting peripheral devices,

- time reference device.

The hardware module 8 is designed to receive compressed digital television signals, demodulate them, demultiplex them to individual television channels, descramble them, extract audio, video and metadata streams, decode the streams of the selected channel (s), record them and display them on the TV screen. A preferred feature of hardware module 8 is the ability to simultaneously process multiple input transport streams that, after being split into separate television channels, are fed to a data storage device (eg, a hard disk) to implement the functions of an integrated news channel and / or view them on a display device. To implement the INC function, the interface of the information storage device must provide the bandwidth necessary for simultaneous recording of the available television input channels and reading out the news programs and / or their plots for playback on the display device. Hardware module 8 comprises means for receiving extended metadata. For example, if metadata arrives at the set-top box as part of a television signal, such means are the tuner hardware components and / or software that allows them to be distinguished from the television signal. If the metadata is sent to the set-top box via the Internet, such means are a modem or a network card and related software.

Typically, the user terminal is equipped with input, editing and storage of user profiles (see Figure 3). User profiles can be entered and edited using UDD 11 through the window interface of the profile generation module 13. User profiles are stored in the profile database 14. Database 14 contains for each user his name, which is used as the user identifier on the terminal, and preferences in watching TV shows, for example, preferred topics, favorite genres, artists, time and country of release of the program, other preferred characteristics of the programs and / or fragments thereof. Database 14 may contain demographic data of the user (for example, gender, age, marital status, presence of children, etc.), interests in leisure activities, any other information that can be used directly or indirectly to determine the user's viewing preferences and create his psychographic portrait.

The user profile can be adjusted based on his actual preferences (Figure 4). The viewing control module 10 measures channel switching time and transmission viewing time. Information about the actual viewing times of the programs is analyzed and combined with the metadata of the programs and their plots from the base 12 and is stored for each characteristic of the viewed transmission of both the real broadcast channel and the INC in the viewing history database 15. The data from the viewing history database 15 is used to adjust the profiles users in module 13. This option can be disabled at the request of the user.

Extended metadata coming from the studio 3 to the user terminal 5 is entered into the metadata database 12. Physically, the metadata database 12 is stored on a storage device built into the user terminal 5. The metadata database 12 can also be stored on an external storage device. When the user terminal 5 is constantly connected to a computer network, it can be stored on a remote server.

The extended metadata generation studio 3 transmits only metadata to the user terminal 5. The news programs themselves are delivered to the user terminal directly from the TV service provider.

Initially, news programs from various television channels are recorded on the storage device, selected in accordance with user preferences, the availability of tuner resources and free space on the storage device. The formation of an integrated news channel is carried out later, after receiving metadata, from the content previously recorded on the storage device, while the essence of the present invention does not depend on what specific algorithms are used when choosing news programs for recording. For example, the recording of news programs can be preliminarily planned according to the electronic program guide or started according to control pulses sent by the advanced metadata generation studio 3.

The formation and maintenance of the integrated news channel is carried out by the module for the formation and maintenance of INC. 16. Module 16, based on the metadata received from the metadata database 12, splits the files of news programs recorded in the INC 7 buffer into video files of individual news stories that are recorded in the same database 7.

Physically, the INC 7 buffer is stored on a storage device built into the user terminal 5. The INC 7 buffer can also be stored on an external storage device. When the user terminal 5 is constantly connected to the computer network, it can be stored on a remote server.

In order to ensure proper accuracy of separation of pre-recorded issues of news programs into video files of news stories, the user terminal’s timing device is periodically adjusted according to the exact time signals sent by studio 3 or another source. The user terminal 5 is equipped with means for receiving accurate time signals. Exact time signals may be sent to the user terminal along with or separately from the extended metadata.

For module 16 to form an integrated news channel, 3 metadata of news stories sent from the studio must contain at least the following information:

- identifier of this news story;

- The television channel on which it was broadcast;

- time of the beginning of its broadcasting;

- time of the end of its broadcasting or duration of broadcasting.

A news item identifier is an individual number assigned to him at Studio 3.

Module 16 also monitors the availability of free space in buffer 7 and updates the integrated news channel — deleting news stories that have lost their relevance. When reducing the free space in the buffer 7 to the established lower limit, the module 16 generates a command for the buffer 7 to delete part of the news items. At the same time, he forms a command for database 12 to delete metadata corresponding to deleted news stories. In the simplest case, nevertheless sufficient to implement the present invention and schematically represented in FIG. 2, video files with the earliest recording date are deleted. In addition, a life time can be assigned to news stories, after which they are deleted from the storage device. For different news programs and news headings, different lifetimes can be set.

In a more complex implementation, shown schematically in FIG. 3, video files that are least relevant to the user profile are deleted first. In an even more complicated implementation, shown in FIG. 4, the user profile can be adjusted by the profile generation module 13 based on the analysis of the browsing history, as described above. In this case, when updating the INK 7 buffer by module 16, the video files of news stories that are least relevant to the adjusted user profile will be deleted first.

The process of INC formation is ongoing. If real television channels are not watched by the user (for example, in standby mode), the resources of the tuners are completely directed to the formation of INC. If the user watches real television channels, the tuner resources involved are excluded from the formation of the INC. In this regard, in the preferred implementation, the user terminal 5 should have at least two tuners.

The extended metadata database interface 12 and the extended metadata themselves can be called up by the user on the screen of the audio-visual information display device by the control unit 10 using the remote control device 11.

The user through the interface of the control module 10 using the remote control 11 selects one of the real television broadcast channels for viewing or calls the user interface of the window type of the INK buffer (database) 7, through which he can select news items recorded in the INK for viewing, and sort them by one or another of the attributes included in the metadata.

When viewing each news story, auxiliary menus can be called up containing lists of earlier stories about the event and lists of stories about the event received from other sources of information.

One possible implementation of the integrated news channel user interface is presented in FIG. 5. News items from news programs from various real television channels are classified by headings (Today in the world, Today in Russia, Today in Moscow, Economics, Science news, Culture, Sports, etc.), recorded on an information storage device and can be viewed independently from each other by selecting from a playlist that opens when you click on the corresponding button located on the left side of the screen heading, or in the form of a whole video sequence in the manner usual for watching real television channels. The number of headings displayed on the screen, their subject and names are determined by the user. News items can be viewed in windowed or full-screen mode. At the same time, when viewing a video plot related to a certain event, the user can select through the corresponding menu items to view all earlier scenes related to this event stored on the terminal, and / or view plots from other real television channels related to this event, and / or view additional information related to this event, introduced at the advanced metadata and metadata generation studio 3, and / or take part in interactive services added at the formation studio Enhanced metadata and video data 3.

The foregoing is a description of a method for forming an integrated news channel. The above description of the invention serves solely to explain the essence of the invention.

Claims (6)

1. The method of receiving and viewing integrated news information in an interactive digital television system, which consists in generating news metadata of news programs in the studio for generating advanced metadata containing the start time, duration and description of news programs, transmitting news programs and news program metadata to the user terminal receive and record news programs and news program metadata in a storage device of a user terminal, receive a signal User selection channels provide the user with the ability to view recorded news programs based on the user selection using an audio-visual information display device associated with a user terminal, characterized in that the user terminal timing device is periodically corrected by accurate time signals, and a control signal is transmitted to start news recording programs from the studio for generating advanced metadata to the user terminal, form the At the end of the broadcasting of news programs, in the studio for the formation of advanced metadata, metadata of news programs containing the start time, duration and description of news programs, and metadata of news items containing the start time, duration and description of news stories, transmit news metadata and metadata after the broadcast of news programs news stories on the user terminal, receive and record news program metadata and news story metadata in the storage the user terminal device, the recorded news program metadata and news story metadata are compared with the recorded news programs on the basis of accurate time signals, the recorded news programs are divided into news stories based on the comparison, provide the user with the ability to view news stories based on the user’s choice using the display device audiovisual information associated with the user terminal. 2. The method according to claim 1, in which at least one user profile is additionally generated on the user terminal and news items are sorted based on the user profile. 3. The method according to claim 1, in which additionally collect and analyze data about the browsing history by the degree of their compliance with user preferences, and the collected and analyzed data about the browsing history is used to sort news stories. 4. The method according to claim 1, in which at least one user profile is additionally generated on the user terminal, browsing history data is further collected and analyzed according to the degree to which they correspond to user preferences, the user profile is adjusted based on the collected and analyzed history data views and sorts news feeds based on the adjusted user profile. 5. The method according to claim 2, or 3, or 4, wherein metadata of the news stories is used to sort the news items. 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the metadata of the news programs and the metadata of news stories during the broadcasting of news programs are formed in the studio for generating advanced metadata, the metadata of news programs and the metadata of news stories are transmitted to the user terminal during the broadcasting of the news programs.

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