CN111491178B

CN111491178B - Method, system and electronic equipment for television program scene interaction

Info

Publication number: CN111491178B
Application number: CN201910083710.8A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 崔俊生; 邓向冬; 余英
Original assignee: Planning Institute Of Radio And Television Of State Administration Of Radio And Television
Current assignee: Planning Institute Of Radio And Television Of State Administration Of Radio And Television
Priority date: 2019-01-29
Filing date: 2019-01-29
Publication date: 2022-06-17
Anticipated expiration: 2039-01-29
Also published as: CN111491178A

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention relates to a method, a system and electronic equipment for television program scene interaction. And running the interactive application at the service end for the television client connected to the interactive application virtualizer, wherein the interactive application is closely related to the content of the currently played television program, then sending an image user interface generated during the running of the interactive application to the television client in a compressed picture form, and receiving user feedback sent by the television client to drive the interactive application to continue running. And receiving the interactive application picturized picture sent by the interactive application virtualizer at the client, configuring the picture as an image layer displayed on a television program video layer and displaying the picture, and transmitting the picture to the server when receiving user feedback aiming at the interactive application, thereby realizing the television program scene interaction. The invention effectively solves the problems of low hardware configuration and integrated adaptation of different platforms of the set top box, and realizes the scene interaction of the television programs under the condition of not influencing the live programs watched by audiences and the deployment of the existing television network.

Description

Method, system and electronic equipment for television program scene interaction

Technical Field

The present invention generally belongs to the field of data processing, and in particular, to a method, a system, and an electronic device for television program scene interaction.

Background

Television viewers have not met the need to passively watch television with the increased participation of television programs. Meanwhile, a television program producing and broadcasting side such as a television station also has a need for interactive applications strongly related to the scenes of the programs by the types of society, news, and the like, in order to obtain viewer opinions, viewpoints, and the like. The strong and relevant interaction of television program scenes has become a strong demand for television users and television program producers and broadcasters.

The existing mode for solving the requirement mainly responds to the requirement in technical forms such as shaking by WeChat, scanning two-dimensional codes and the like, and some program scene related interactions are made. However, the program interaction in these technical forms cannot meet the requirements of the television station for making program scene-related interactive applications and also cannot meet the interactive requirements of television viewers in the aspects of interactive program form, flexibility, interactive service requirements and the like.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the above problems, embodiments of the present invention provide a method, a system, and a data processing device for television program context interaction, which solve the above problems and implement television program context interaction with a low operation cost.

In a first aspect of the invention, a method for television program scene interaction is provided. The method comprises the following steps: responding to the connection established with the television client, starting and running an interactive application, wherein the interactive application is closely related to the content of the television program currently played at the television client; acquiring a first image user interface of an interactive application, wherein the first image user interface comprises interactive information; performing picture processing on the first image user interface to obtain a first interactive picture; and sending a first interactive picture to the television client, wherein the first interactive picture is fused with the video layer of the played television program at the television client.

In certain embodiments, the method further comprises: detecting a television program played by a television client; and determining an interactive application to be run for the television client based on the detection.

In some embodiments, launching and running the interactive application in response to establishing a connection with the television client comprises: generating a service identifier, wherein the service identifier is associated with the television client and the interactive application; based on the scheduling strategy, sending a service identifier and a connection address for establishing connection with a server running the interactive application to the television client; and responding to a connection request from the television client, and starting and running the interactive application associated with the service identification.

In certain embodiments, the method further comprises: generating a display parameter for indicating a display mode of the first interactive picture at the television client; and sending the display parameters to the television client.

In certain embodiments, the method further comprises: receiving feedback information of the television client aiming at the interactive information; acquiring a second image user interface of the interactive application based on the feedback information; determining a change region of the second graphical user interface relative to the first graphical user interface; performing picture processing on a part corresponding to the change area to obtain a second interactive picture; and sending the second interactive picture to the television client.

In some embodiments, obtaining the second graphical user interface of the interactive application based on the feedback information comprises: mapping the feedback information to a content triggering operation of the first image user interface; and acquiring a second image user interface of the interactive application based on the content triggering operation and the interactive logic of the interactive application.

In certain embodiments, the method further comprises: determining display parameters for the changed region; and sending the display parameters about the changed area to the television client.

In some embodiments, the processing the first image user interface into a picture comprises: and performing compression coding on the first image user interface as a picture to obtain a compression-coded first interactive picture. In some embodiments, the processing the second image user interface into a picture comprises: and the second image user interface is used as a picture to be compressed and coded to obtain a compressed and coded second interactive picture.

In some embodiments, generating the first graphical user interface comprising the interaction information comprises: creating a plurality of interactive application templates according to the requirements of television interactive services so that a television program making user can generate interactive applications by configuring own contents according to different program types; receiving program scene related interaction information from a television program making user; and generating interactive application which is closely related to the program scene by the television program making user based on the interactive application template and the program scene related interactive information.

In a second aspect of the invention, a method for television program scene interaction is provided. The method comprises the following steps: receiving an interactive picture comprising interactive information from a server running an interactive application, wherein the interactive picture is associated with the interactive application specific to the played television program; configuring the interactive picture as an image layer displayed on a television program video layer; receiving user feedback input for the interactive information; and transmitting the user feedback input to the server to prompt the server to continue to execute the next operation of the interactive application.

In certain embodiments, the method further comprises: receiving a service identifier from a server and a connection address used for establishing connection with the server running the interactive application; and sending a connection request directed to the connection address.

In certain embodiments, the method further comprises: receiving display parameters for indicating a display mode of the interactive picture; and configuring the interactive picture to be displayed on the television program video layer according to the display parameters.

In some embodiments, the interactive picture is compression encoded, the method further comprising decompressing the compression encoded interactive picture.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises configuring different pixels in the interactive picture to be displayed with different transparency according to alpha channel data in the interactive picture.

In a third aspect of the present invention, a data processing apparatus is provided. The apparatus comprises a processor, and a memory storing processor-readable instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform the method described according to the first aspect of the invention.

In a fourth aspect of the invention, an electronic device is provided. The apparatus comprises a processor, and a memory storing processor-readable instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform the method described according to the second aspect of the invention.

In a fifth aspect of the invention, there is provided a system for television program context interaction, comprising a first data processing apparatus as described in the third aspect of the invention and a second data processing apparatus as described in the fourth aspect of the invention, the first data processing apparatus communicating with the second data processing apparatus over a transmission network to implement the television program context interaction.

In a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a system for television program context interaction, comprising: the television program live broadcasting system is used for live broadcasting television programs to television clients in a first network through the first network; the interactive application processing platform runs interactive applications for the television client, transmits interactive pictures of an image user interface of at least one television scene interactive application to the television client through a second network, and receives feedback information of the interactive pictures from the television client; and the television client configures the interactive pictures from the interactive application processing platform into an image layer displayed on a video layer of the television program, receives feedback information about the interactive pictures from a user of the television client, and transmits the feedback information to the interactive application processing service platform through the second network.

In some embodiments, the interactive application processing platform comprises: the scheduling service cluster is used for distributing a service identifier and a connection address of an interactive application virtualizer for running interactive application to the television client based on a scheduling strategy; and the interactive application virtualizer service cluster is used for responding to a connection request from the television client, inquiring the resource address of the television interactive application and the ID information of the television client from the scheduling service cluster according to the service identifier provided by the television client, and starting and running the interactive application.

In a seventh aspect of the invention, there is provided a computer readable storage medium storing machine readable instructions which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform the method described in accordance with the first and second aspects of the invention.

The embodiment of the invention effectively solves the problems of low hardware configuration and integrated adaptation of different platforms of the set top box, and realizes the scene interaction of the television programs under the condition of not influencing the watching of live programs by audiences and the deployment of the conventional television network. Meanwhile, by providing a plurality of interactive application templates, a television program producer can select the application templates as required, and after the interactive content of the current television program is configured, the interactive service is automatically generated. In this way, the television program producer can implement the program scene interaction service quickly and at low cost.

Drawings

FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a television program scenario interaction application system according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates a schematic block diagram of a logical implementation of an interactive application processing platform according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 shows a flow diagram of a method for television program scenario interaction, according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 shows a flow diagram of a method for television program scenario interaction in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention; and

fig. 5 shows a schematic diagram of a data processing device according to an embodiment of the invention.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention more apparent, the present invention is described in further detail below with reference to specific embodiments and the accompanying drawings. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention is not limited to the drawings and the following examples.

As used herein, the term "include" and its various variants are to be understood as open-ended terms, which mean "including, but not limited to. The term "based on" may be understood as "based at least in part on". The term "one embodiment" may be understood as "at least one embodiment". The term "another embodiment" may be understood as "at least one other embodiment".

As mentioned above, currently, tv stations respond to the program scene interaction requirement through technical forms such as wechat shake, wechat two-dimensional code, etc. However, there are a number of problems with these forms of program interaction. Firstly, the program scene interaction in these technical forms needs third-party tools such as a mobile phone and a WeChat platform, and these technical forms of platforms are controlled by the third-party platform, so that the broadcast television system is difficult to safely control in the aspects of safety and the like. Secondly, the interaction in the technical forms is not directly displayed on a large television screen, and the strong program scene related interactive application cannot be directly realized on the television screen. Therefore, the interactive user coverage rate is low, the user arrival rate is low, and the influence is limited. The interactive program form, flexibility, interactive service requirements and other aspects are far from the requirements of television stations for making program scene-related interactive applications and far from the interactive requirements of television audiences.

With the wide development of cable television bidirectional networks and the vigorous development of IPTV, set-top boxes with bidirectional return capability have more and more market share, and provide necessary conditions for directly realizing related interactive application of program scene on a large television screen. The inventors have observed that in this case, at least the following problems still exist for program scene interaction on a television screen directly through an existing set-top box:

1) the set-top box has low cost control because the set-top box is given to a user by an operator, so that most of the existing bidirectional set-top boxes are difficult to run relatively complex applications simultaneously when the live television is played besides meeting the basic live television.

2) The set-top boxes are manufactured by a plurality of manufacturers, the set-top boxes have various software and hardware platforms, and the realization of various interactive applications on all bidirectional set-top boxes through one universal application or plug-in is very difficult.

3) China has a plurality of cable television operators, each television operator adopts different hardware and software solutions of different set top box manufacturers, and the integration difficulty of unified and complex 'interactive application libraries' is serious.

In view of this, the embodiment of the present invention provides a television program scene interaction scheme, which can cover all national cable television bidirectional and IPTV set-top boxes, and achieve full arrival of 2 hundred million bidirectional set-top boxes in China (including cable television bidirectional set-top boxes, IPTV set-top boxes, and internet set-top boxes with live television capability), and the number of the set-top boxes is increasing at an accelerated rate due to the influence of a three-network convergence policy. The interactive application with complex and gorgeous interfaces can be realized even on the set top box with extremely low hardware configuration, so that the interactive application of complex television program scenes can be realized on a television screen.

Embodiments of the present invention are further described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a tv program scenario interaction application system 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown, the system 100 includes a program scene interactive system part and a television content live broadcasting system part, and for convenience of description, different layers of presentations are respectively processed from a television station production, a service system side interactive application process and a television client side interactive application process.

The system 100 includes a plurality of television stations, each of which may include an interactive application production/test terminal. A television station here refers to any television programming broadcaster who broadcasts its television programs through a television content live broadcast system. An interactive application production/test terminal 110 of a television station 1 and an interactive application production/test terminal 111 of a television station n are shown for producing and/or testing interactive applications. In combination with television programs to be played by a television station, such as news-like programs, social-like programs, and the like, the television station selects an appropriate television scene interactive application template according to the program type and interactive contents expected to interact with television audiences, and utilizes an interactive application making/testing terminal to make interactive applications.

The interactive application production/test terminal may be any data processing capable machine, such as a computer, mobile processing device, or the like. According to the embodiment of the invention, through the program scene interactive service system, a television station can develop program scene interactive application without additionally purchasing any equipment.

According to the embodiment of the invention, the interactive application runs at the service system end, so that a service platform for making the television scene interactive application facing to the television terminal users is provided for each television program making and broadcasting party, and a uniform interactive interface is provided for all the television terminal users. The interactive application is also referred to as a tv scene interactive application in the present invention, and is closely related to a tv program currently played at a tv client, and performs interaction with a tv viewer based on a content scene of the tv program. As an example, for a news program there is a corresponding first interactive application associated with the news program content, while for a sports live program there is also a corresponding second interactive application associated with the sports live content.

According to embodiments of the present invention, the interactive application may include a plurality of graphical user interfaces associated with each other based on interactive service logic, each graphical user interface including content or information for interactive communication to television viewers. By way of example, such interactive information may be presented as text, numerical options or alternative buttons, text entry boxes, etc., and the viewer may conveniently press numeric keys or enter characters by operating a remote control or otherwise provide feedback to the graphical user interface by voice, etc.

The television clients of system 100 may include various set-top boxes such as a cable two-way set-top box 140, an IPTV set-top box 141, and an internet set-top box 142 with live television capabilities. The inventors have noted that a two-way set-top box for interactive applications, regardless of its configuration, may have two display layers, a Video layer (Video) and an image layer (Graphic), on a set-top box system-on-a-chip (SoC). The video layer is generally used for playing videos of televisions, and the image layer is generally used for fusing and displaying contents such as subtitles or pictures on the video layer.

In view of this, in the embodiment of the present invention, through the service system of the system 100, the interactive application made by the television station is run at the service end and is sent to the set top box through the dedicated line network or the internet 130 after being rendered and picturized, so that the complex interactive application is run and rendered at the service end, and is superimposed on the image layer above the video layer at the television client end, so that the complex television program scene interactive application is played with the television program on the low-configuration television client end (set top box) in a fusion manner.

The Service system of the system 100 may be a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) cloud Service based system, and includes an interactive application template server 120 and an interactive application production database 121 associated therewith, an interactive application Service platform 122 and a background database 123 associated therewith, and an interactive application processing platform 124. The interactive application template server 120 may provide a variety of interactive application templates for television stations. A television program production department of a television station can easily and quickly produce and test corresponding program scene interactive application by simply configuring different interactive application templates selected according to needs through a program scene interactive production terminal.

The interactive application service platform 122 may further process the interactive application made by the tv stations according to the information about the corresponding tv stations stored in the background database 123, and may also perform analysis processing according to the audience interaction information of the whole network, so as to meet the needs of other applications, such as advertisement delivery application analysis, and the like. Specifically, the interactive application service platform 122 may start a background service of the interactive application, and the background service may include services such as a service for receiving and storing user feedback of the interactive application, a real-time statistical processing service, a program producer for transmitting interactive feedback information to a television station in real time, and the like according to different types of the interactive application.

The interactive application processing platform 124 runs the rendered interactive application, and sends the interactive application to the client after being picturized. In one embodiment, the tv station can also independently make an interactive application with special requirements for the interactive program, and directly release the interactive application to the interactive application processing platform 124, and then send the interactive application to the client through the private network or the internet 130 after processing.

On the other hand, the system 100 for live broadcasting of tv content is not affected in the embodiment of the present invention, and the conventional tv broadcasting system may still be used. When the television program is finished, the broadcasting/transmission is started, and the television content is transmitted to the set-top box through a television program overlay network (cable television, IPTV and the like) in a satellite, SDH, optical fiber, microwave and other modes.

The set-top box performs signal processing on the television content and displays the television content on a television screen as a video layer. Meanwhile, the set-top box displays the picture of the interactive application from the interactive application processing platform 124 on the television screen by using the image layer of the set-top box SoC. Therefore, the set top box fuses the interactive application and the television program and provides the interactive application and the television program to the audience. And the audience further feeds back the interactive application, so that the interaction of the television program scene is realized.

It is to be understood that the components of system 100 are merely illustrative and that any number of each type of device may be included in system 100 and that the devices are not limited to being physically separate and may be collocated in a physical device. By way of example, although the interactive application template server 120, the interactive application service platform 122, and the interactive application processing platform 124 on the service system side are shown in fig. 1 as separate devices, they may also be physically collocated or implemented as the same device. Likewise, the interactive application production database 121 and the backend database 123 are shown as separate data repositories, which may also be implemented as the same data repository.

The concept of television program scenario interaction proposed by the present invention is described above in connection with the system 100 of fig. 1. It can be seen that, in terms of hardware facilities, the embodiment of the present invention provides a unified interactive platform, which does not require any modification to the current broadcast television broadcasting, transmission and overlay network, and for a television station, only needs a program scene making/testing terminal, and does not require any system development and purchase.

According to the embodiment of the invention, the service system of the system 100 can provide SaaS cloud service for television program production and broadcasting parties, and meet the situation interaction application of each television program production and broadcasting party for thousands of or even hundreds of millions of television users in a convenient and low-cost manner.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic block diagram of a logical implementation of the interactive application processing platform 124 according to one embodiment of the present invention. As shown, the interactive application processing platform 124 may include an interactive application virtualizer service cluster 210, a dispatch service cluster 220, and a dispatch database 230. When the television station generates and releases the interactive application through the interactive application template server 120, it may provide and store the information related to the interactive application in the scheduling database 230. Z set-top boxes 240-1, 240-x, 240-Z (collectively 240) communicate with dispatch service cluster 220 and interactive application virtualizer service cluster 210, respectively, over network 130 to enable interaction.

The interactive application virtualizer service cluster 210 runs a plurality of interactive applications, which are associated with respective set-top boxes 240 and may each run in a respective interactive application virtualizer, such as the n interactive application virtualizers 211-1 through 211-n shown in the figure. The dispatch service cluster 220 is used to perform dispatch on a large number of set top boxes 240 according to a dispatch policy, which may include m dispatch services 221-1 through 221-m. Each scheduling service may be for a scheduling application for multiple set top boxes.

It should be appreciated that for ease of description, FIG. 2 illustrates a logical implementation of the interactive application processing platform 124, however the interactive application virtualizer service cluster 210 and the dispatch service cluster 220 may be implemented integrally. A service cluster may include a collection of entities that implement a service in a cloud platform. In addition, each interactive application virtualizer may run different or the same interactive applications for multiple set-top boxes; the interactive application virtualizer may run in a physical machine or a virtual machine of a public cloud.

In one embodiment, the process of scheduling services and launching an interoperability application may be as follows. The interactive application virtualizer service cluster 210 monitors the status of each interactive application virtualizer 221 and feeds back to the dispatch service cluster 220 and the dispatch database 230 in real-time. In this way, the dispatch service cluster 220 may be aware of the capabilities or number of interactive applications that the interactive application processing platform 124 is currently capable of providing.

When the set-top box 240-z feeds back program playing information to the scheduling service cluster 220, or the scheduling service cluster 220 detects a currently played television program at the set-top box 240-z, or detects that the television program played at the set-top box 240-z changes, the scheduling service 221 determines whether an appropriate context interaction application exists in the interaction application processing platform 124. When the presence is determined, the scheduling service 221 generates a service identifier, and associates the information related to the set top box 240-z and the resource address of the appropriate context interaction application with the service identifier, and further stores the information in the scheduling database 230. The information associated with set top box 240-z may include a set top box ID, currently playing program information, display parameters, and the like.

The dispatch service cluster 220 further determines whether an interactive application virtualizer 211 is available to run the determined context interactive application. If there is an interactive application virtualizer 211 available, such as interactive application virtualizer 211-n, then dispatch service cluster 220 sends the generated service identification and the address of the corresponding interactive application virtualizer 211 to set top box 240-z. The set top box 240-z then establishes a connection with the interactive application virtualizer 211-n using the obtained address information and may then transmit the service identification to the interactive application virtualizer 211-n. The interactive application virtualizer 211-n queries the scheduling service cluster 220 for the resource address of the tv interactive application, the ID information of the tv client, and the like using the service identifier, to obtain information necessary for running the interactive application, and further starts running the interactive application for the set top box 240-z.

In this way, the interactive application processing platform 124 can run the corresponding interactive application on the platform for tens of millions of set-top boxes simultaneously according to the number and capability of the configured interactive application virtualizers. Under the condition that the service cluster capacity is limited, a scheduling strategy can be further adopted in real time, so that scene interactive application is operated aiming at more set top boxes in a short time, and feedback interactive information is obtained.

The implementation of the service system and interactive application interaction at the television client is described further below. Fig. 3 shows a flowchart of a method 300 for tv program scenario interaction according to an embodiment of the present invention, where the method 300 may be implemented at a service system side (e.g., the interactive application processing platform 124).

At 310, in response to establishing a connection with a television client, an interactive application is launched and run. The interactive application is closely related to the content of the television program currently played at the television client, namely, the scene interactive application.

In one embodiment, the interactive application processing platform 124 runs a contextual interactive application associated with a broadcasted television program for each television client (set-top box) connected to the interactive application, which includes a plurality of graphical user interfaces for interacting with viewers, the graphical user interfaces being interrelated based on interactive service logic.

In one embodiment of the present invention, as previously described, prior to running the interactive application, the interactive application processing platform 124 schedules services and connects the television client to the corresponding interactive application virtualizer in the manner described above in order to run the corresponding interactive application for the television client. Specifically, the interactive application processing platform 124 determines an interactive application to be run for the television client, generates a service identifier, and allocates and transmits the service identifier and a connection address of the interactive application virtualizer to the television client based on a scheduling policy. And after receiving the connection request and the service identifier from the television client, the interactive application virtualizer queries the resource address and the related information of the set top box of the interactive application from the scheduling service cluster and starts to run the interactive application.

In one embodiment, when the television station sets the interactive information to the selected interactive application template according to the interactive application template provided by the interactive application template server 120, or the television station provides the interactive information to the interactive application template server 120, the interactive application template server 120 further generates the interactive application that can be run on the processing server 124 from the interactive application template and the interactive information, generates a database instance and related background services required for the interactive application, and transmits the generated interactive application to the interactive application processing platform 124. In another embodiment, the television station may directly distribute the interactive application including the interactive information/content to the interactive application processing platform 124. In other words, the tv station can develop the interactive application according to its own service requirement, and directly release the interactive application to the interactive application processing platform 124.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the interactive application template or the interactive information/content from the television station can be implemented based on a web page, and can also be a graphical interface application local to the server. In this embodiment, when the interactive application virtualizer runs the interactive application, a rendering tree is constructed by a rendering engine, and a page or a graphical interface is rendered, so that a dazzling image user interface is obtained.

At 320, a first graphical user interface of an interactive application is obtained, the first graphical user interface including interactive information. As previously described, the interactive application includes a plurality of graphical user interfaces for interacting with the viewer that are interrelated based on interactive business logic.

At 330, the first graphical user interface is graphically processed to obtain a first interactive picture. According to an embodiment of the invention, the data sent to the client set-top box is image data, so that the set-top box can display the interactive content at the image layer. In one embodiment, the interactive application processing platform 124 images the image user interface, compresses and encodes the image user interface as a picture, and transmits the obtained compressed and encoded interactive picture to the client.

To control the display effect at the client, the interactive application processing platform 124 may generate display parameters associated with the graphical user interface containing the interactive information. The display parameters may include the size, position, alpha channel information in the image (for controlling the transparency of the picture display of the interactive application), and the like of a display window on a display interface (e.g., a television display screen).

At 340, a first interactive picture is sent to the client, where the interactive picture is to be merged with the video layer of the television program at the client. The interactive application processing platform 124 sends the compressed and encoded interactive application picture to the set-top box through the private network or the internet, and the set-top box can then perform fusion display on the interactive application picture and the television program video to present to the audience.

When the audience receives the interactive content on the television screen, the audience can operate input equipment such as a remote controller or make feedback on the interactive information in a voice input mode or the like. The set-top box passes the feedback information to the interactive application processing platform 124.

In one embodiment, when the interactive application processing platform 124 receives feedback information of the client for the interactive information, the feedback information is converted into a content trigger operation (for example, keyboard/mouse input) to drive the interactive application to continue running according to the business logic of the interactive application, and a second user graphical interface of the interactive application is obtained. At the moment, a change area of the second user graphical interface relative to the first user graphical interface is determined, and the interface part corresponding to the change area is picturized to obtain a second interactive picture.

The interactive application processing platform 124 performs compression coding on the second interactive picture to obtain second interactive picture data. The interactive application processing platform 124 may further determine parameters of the change area, such as the position and size of the change area, and send the obtained compressed and encoded image data and the parameters of the change area to the tv client. And the client set-top box performs fusion display on the second interactive picture and the television program video, and presents the second interactive picture and the television program video to audiences for further interaction. The interactive application processing platform 124 continues to compress the changed part of the image user interface into pictures according to the running condition of the interactive application and the user feedback, and transmits the pictures to the television client.

It can be understood that when the interactive application runs, the program group related to the television station can obtain the user feedback information in real time, and the background service of the interactive application can perform real-time statistical processing to feed back the real-time statistical processing result to the television station in time.

When the interactive application with a certain viewer is finished, the service system, such as the interactive application service platform 122 or the interactive application processing platform 124, can process the interactive data and transmit the interactive data back to the television station.

While the operations at the service system are described above primarily in connection with fig. 3, fig. 4 shows a flow diagram of a method 400 for television program scenario interaction of an embodiment of the invention, the method 400 may be implemented at a television client, such as at a two-way set-top box.

At 410, an interactive picture including interactive information is received from a server running an interactive application. In one embodiment, the set-top box receives a compression-encoded interactive picture, which is a user graphical interface of an interactive application. The set-top box can decompress and encode the interactive picture and restore the interactive picture into an image for display.

At 420, the interactive picture is configured as an image layer for display on a video layer of a television program. The set top box takes the interactive picture as an image layer and performs fusion display with the television program video of the video layer. As mentioned above, the interactive picture is rendered at the server, so the set-top box can directly present the interactive picture. In one embodiment, the set-top box presents the interactive picture on the television screen according to the received or preset interactive picture display parameters, such as display position, size, alpha channel information, and the like, and may configure different pixels in the interactive picture to be displayed with different transparencies. In this way, the viewer can view the television program on the television screen without being affected.

In another embodiment, when the service system only delivers the changed part of the image, the set-top box updates only the changed part accordingly, updating it to the corresponding location, while the rest of the image is unchanged.

At 430, user feedback input for the interaction information is received. The viewer may feedback the interactive information by operating a remote control or other input device, and the set-top box receives the feedback input and passes the user feedback input to the server-side interactive application processing platform 124 at 440. The interactive application processing platform 124 processes the feedback information and implements the next interactive process.

The method and the device for interactive application transmission are characterized in that the rendering interactive application is operated at the server side, the image of the interactive application is changed, partial images are compressed and transmitted to the set top box, the set top box displays the image transmitted by the server on the image layer, the interactive operation of a user is transmitted to the server side, and then the server side drives the interactive application to continue interactive operation according to the feedback interactive operation. In this way, the interactive application appears to the user to be running on the set-top box, but actually runs on the server, and due to the strong processing capability of the server, the complex interactive application can be run, and the image user interface of the gorgeous interactive application is rendered.

The set-top box is only responsible for displaying pictures on an image layer and returning user interaction operation, so that the problems of low hardware configuration and integrated adaptation of different platforms of the set-top box are well solved, and the integrated interface is simple and feasible. The set top box has the advantages that the CPU and GPU of all interactive applications are few in operation, and even the set top box with the lowest hardware configuration at present can display complex interactive applications which are operated and rendered by a server. Meanwhile, the picture of the interactive application can be transparently or semi-transparently displayed on the image layer, so that the interactive application hardly influences the audience to watch live programs when the interactive application is displayed on a television.

The television program scene interaction scheme provided by the invention can cover all the bidirectional set top boxes (including a broadcast and television wired network bidirectional set top box, an IPTV set top box and an Internet set top box with a television live broadcast capability) in the country, and has very high social benefit and economic benefit. Through strong correlation interaction of the scenes of the television programs such as society, news and the like, the heart sound of common people can be obtained at the first time, and government mechanisms can be helped to obtain the civil situation in time. On the other hand, the following application scenarios are provided: the television station develops program scene advertisements by interactive application in the normal broadcasting program time period outside the conventional advertisement time period, thereby greatly expanding advertisement space and time; in addition, the service system or the television station can realize accurate advertisement putting by combining big data analysis, so that the advertisement is put to the user who wants to know the related advertisement, and the efficiency and the benefit of the advertisement are greatly improved.

Fig. 5 illustrates a block diagram of a data processing device 500 suitable for implementing embodiments of the present invention. As shown, the apparatus 500 includes a processor 510. Processor 510 controls the operation and functions of device 500. For example, in some embodiments, processor 510 may perform various operations by way of instructions 530 stored in memory 520 coupled thereto. The memory 520 may be of any suitable type suitable to the local technical environment and may be implemented using any suitable data storage technology, including but not limited to semiconductor-based memory devices, magnetic memory devices and systems, optical memory devices and systems. Although only a single memory unit is illustrated in FIG. 5, there may be multiple physically distinct memory units within device 500.

The processor 510 may be of any suitable type suitable to the local technical environment, and may include, but is not limited to, one or more of general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microcontrollers, digital signal controllers (DSPs), and controller-based multi-core controller architectures. The device 500 may also include multiple processors 510.

When apparatus 500 acts as a device at a service system, processor 510, when executing instructions 530, causes the device to perform actions to implement method 300 described above with reference to fig. 1-3. According to an embodiment of the invention, the actions comprise: responding to the connection established with the television client, starting and running an interactive application, wherein the interactive application is closely related to the content of the television program currently played at the television client; acquiring a first image user interface of an interactive application, wherein the first image user interface comprises interactive information; performing picture processing on the first image user interface to obtain a first interactive picture; and sending a first interactive picture to the television client, wherein the first interactive picture is fused with the video layer of the played television program at the television client.

In some embodiments, the actions further include: detecting a television program played by a television client; and determining an interactive application to be run for the television client based on the detection.

In some embodiments, launching and running the interactive application in response to establishing a connection with the television client comprises: generating a service identifier, wherein the service identifier is associated with the television client and the interactive application; based on a scheduling strategy, sending a service identifier and a connection address for establishing connection with a server running interactive application to a television client; and responding to a connection request from the television client, and starting and running the interactive application associated with the service identification.

In some embodiments, the actions further include: generating a display parameter for indicating a display mode of the first interactive picture at the television client; and sending the display parameters to the television client.

In some embodiments, the actions further include: receiving feedback information of the television client aiming at the interactive information; acquiring a second image user interface of the interactive application based on the feedback information; determining a change region of the second graphical user interface relative to the first graphical user interface; performing picture processing on a part corresponding to the change area to obtain a second interactive picture; and sending the second interactive picture to the television client.

In some embodiments, obtaining the second graphical user interface of the interactive application based on the feedback information comprises: mapping the feedback information to content triggering operation of the first image user interface; and acquiring a second image user interface of the interactive application based on the content triggering operation and the interactive logic of the interactive application.

In some embodiments, the actions further include: determining display parameters for the changed region; and sending the display parameters about the changed area to the television client.

In some embodiments, the processing the first image user interface into a picture comprises: and the first image user interface is used as a picture to be compressed and coded to obtain a first interactive picture which is compressed and coded. The processing of the second image user interface into pictures comprises the following steps: and the second image user interface is used as a picture to be compressed and coded to obtain a compressed and coded second interactive picture.

In some embodiments, generating the first graphical user interface comprising the interaction information comprises: creating a plurality of interactive application templates according to the interactive service requirements of the television so as to enable a television program making user to generate interactive application by configuring own content according to different program types; receiving program scene related interaction information from a television program making user; and generating interactive application which is closely related to the program scene by the television program making user based on the interactive application template and the program scene related interactive information.

When apparatus 500 is acting as a device at a television client, processor 510, when executing instructions 530, causes the device to perform actions to implement method 400 described above with reference to fig. 1-3. According to an embodiment of the invention, the actions comprise: receiving an interactive picture comprising interactive information from a server running an interactive application, wherein the interactive picture is associated with the interactive application specific to the played television program; configuring the interactive picture as an image layer displayed on a television program video layer; receiving user feedback input for the interactive information; and transmitting the user feedback input to the server to prompt the server to execute the next operation of the interactive application.

In some embodiments, the actions further include: receiving a service identifier and a connection address of an interactive application from a server; and sending a connection request directed to the connection address.

In some embodiments, the actions further include: receiving display parameters for indicating a display mode of the interactive picture; and configuring the interactive picture to be displayed on the television program video layer according to the display parameters. In some embodiments, different pixels in the interactive picture are configured to be displayed with different transparency according to alpha channel data in the interactive picture.

In some embodiments, the interactive picture is compression encoded, and the acts further comprise decompressing the compression encoded interactive picture.

Embodiments of the present invention also provide a computer readable storage medium having stored thereon machine readable instructions which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform the

methods

300 and 400 described in accordance with the present invention.

Those of skill in the art will understand that the logic and/or steps represented in the flowcharts or otherwise described herein, e.g., an ordered listing of executable instructions that can be viewed as implementing logical functions, can be embodied in any computer-readable medium for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device, such as a computer-based system, processor-containing system, or other system that can fetch the instructions from the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device and execute the instructions. For the purposes of this description, a "computer-readable medium" can be any means that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer-readable medium would include the following: an electrical connection (electronic device) having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette (magnetic device), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical fiber device, and a portable compact disc read-only memory (CDROM). Further, the computer-readable medium could even be paper or another suitable medium upon which the program is printed, as the program can be electronically captured, via for instance optical scanning of the paper or other medium, then compiled, interpreted or otherwise processed in a suitable manner if necessary, and then stored in a computer memory.

It should be understood that portions of the present invention may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or a combination thereof. In the above embodiments, various steps or methods may be implemented in software or firmware stored in a memory and executed by a suitable instruction execution system. For example, if implemented in hardware, as in another embodiment, any one or combination of the following techniques, which are known in the art, may be used: a discrete logic circuit having a logic gate circuit for implementing a logic function on a data signal, an application specific integrated circuit having an appropriate combinational logic gate circuit, a Programmable Gate Array (PGA), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), or the like.

In the description herein, references to the description of the term "one embodiment," "some embodiments," "an example," "a specific example," or "some examples," etc., mean that a particular feature, structure, material, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment or example is included in at least one embodiment or example of the invention. In this specification, the schematic representations of the terms used above do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment or example. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, materials, or characteristics described may be combined in any suitable manner in any one or more embodiments or examples.

The embodiments of the present invention have been described above. However, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. Any modification, equivalent replacement, or improvement made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method for interactive television program scenes, adapted for a server, comprising:

responding to the connection with a television client, starting and running an interactive application, wherein the interactive application is closely related to the content of a television program currently played at the television client, the interactive application comprises at least one image user interface for interaction, and when the at least one image user interface comprises a plurality of image user interfaces, the plurality of image user interfaces are mutually related based on interactive service logic;

acquiring a first image user interface of an interactive application, wherein the first image user interface comprises interactive information;

the first image user interface is subjected to picture processing to obtain a first interactive picture; and

sending the first interactive picture to the television client, wherein the first interactive picture is configured to be an image layer at the television client and is fused with a video layer of a played television program, so that the complex interactive application is subjected to picture processing at a server, and the complex interactive application is superposed on the video layer as the image layer at the television client, so that the complex television program scene interactive application is fused and played with the television program on the low-configuration television client;

the method further comprises the following steps:

creating a plurality of interactive application templates according to the requirements of television interactive services so as to enable a television program making user to generate interactive applications by configuring own contents according to different program types;

receiving program scene related interaction information from a television program making user; and

generating the interactive application closely related to the program scene based on the interactive application template and the program scene related interactive information;

wherein the starting and running the interactive application in response to establishing the connection with the television client comprises:

generating a service identification, wherein the service identification is associated with the television client and the interactive application;

based on a scheduling strategy, sending the service identification and a connection address for establishing connection with a server running the interactive application to the television client; and

and responding to a connection request from the television client, and starting and running the interactive application associated with the service identification.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a television program played by the television client; and

based on the detection, the interactive application to be run for the television client is determined.

3. The method according to any one of claims 1-2, further comprising: generating display parameters related to the first image user interface containing the interaction information; and

the first interactive picture is configured to be fused with a video layer of the played television program at the television client, and the method comprises the following steps: and configuring the first interactive picture to be displayed on a video layer of the played television program according to the display parameters.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving feedback information of the television client aiming at the interaction information;

acquiring a second image user interface of the interactive application based on the feedback information;

determining a change region of the second graphical user interface relative to the first graphical user interface;

performing picture processing on a part corresponding to the change area to obtain a second interactive picture; and

and sending the second interactive picture to the television client.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein obtaining a second graphical user interface of the interactive application based on the feedback information comprises:

mapping the feedback information to content triggering operation of the first image user interface; and

and acquiring a second image user interface of the interactive application based on the content triggering operation and the interactive service logic of the interactive application.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the interactive information is presented as an alphanumeric option or a selectable button.

7. A method for television program scene interaction, which is suitable for a television client, is characterized by comprising the following steps:

receiving an interactive picture comprising interactive information from a server running an interactive application, wherein the interactive application is closely related to the content of a television program currently played at a television client, the interactive application comprises at least one image user interface for interaction, the image user interface is subjected to picture processing at the server to obtain the interactive picture, and when the at least one image user interface comprises a plurality of image user interfaces, the plurality of image user interfaces are mutually related based on interactive service logic;

the interactive pictures are used as image layers and are fused and displayed with the video layers of the played television programs, so that the complex interactive application is realized in the picture processing of the server side, and the complex interactive application is used as the image layers at the television client side and is superposed on the video layers, so that the complex television program scene interactive application is realized in the low-configuration television client side and is fused and played with the television programs;

receiving user feedback input for the interaction information; and

transmitting the user feedback input to the server to cause the server to execute a next operation of the interactive application;

wherein the generation of the interactive application comprises:

the operation of the interactive application by the server side comprises the following steps:

generating a service identifier, wherein the service identifier is associated with the television client and the interactive application;

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving display parameters for indicating the display mode of the interactive picture; and

and configuring the interactive picture to be displayed on a television program video layer according to the display parameters.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving a service identifier from the server and a connection address used for establishing connection with the server running the interactive application; and

sending a connection request directed to the connection address.

10. A system for television program scene interaction, comprising:

the system comprises a television program live broadcast system, a television program live broadcast system and a television program live broadcast system, wherein the television program live broadcast system is used for live broadcasting television programs to television clients in a first network through the first network;

the interactive application processing platform is used for running an interactive application comprising at least one image user interface for interaction aiming at a television client, transmitting an interactive picture corresponding to the at least one image user interface to the television client through a second network and receiving feedback information of the television client to the interactive picture, wherein the interactive picture comprises interactive information, the interactive application is closely related to the content of a television program currently played at the television client, the image user interface is subjected to picture processing by the interactive application processing platform to obtain the interactive picture, and when the at least one image user interface comprises a plurality of image user interfaces, the plurality of image user interfaces are mutually related based on interactive service logic; and

the television client takes the interactive picture as an image layer and is fused and displayed with a video layer of the played television program, so that the complex interactive application is processed in a picture mode on an interactive application processing platform, the television client is superposed on the video layer as the image layer, the scene interactive application of the complex television program is fused and played with the television program on a low-configuration television client, feedback information about the interactive picture from a television client user is received, and the feedback information is transmitted to the interactive application processing platform through the second network;

wherein, the interactive application processing platform generates the interactive application and comprises:

wherein the interactive application processing platform running the interactive application comprises:

based on a scheduling strategy, sending the service identifier and a connection address for establishing connection with an interactive application processing platform running the interactive application to the television client; and

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the interactive application processing platform comprises:

the scheduling service cluster is used for distributing a service identifier and a connection address of an interactive application virtualizer for running interactive application to the television client based on a scheduling strategy; and

and the interactive application virtualizer service cluster responds to a connection request from the television client, inquires the resource address of the interactive application and the ID information of the television client from the scheduling service cluster according to the service identifier provided by the television client, and starts and runs the interactive application.

12. An electronic device, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory storing instructions readable by the processor, the instructions, when executed by the processor, causing the electronic device to perform operations of the method of any of claims 1-9.