Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N5/00—Details of television systems
  • H04N5/44—Receiver circuitry for the reception of television signals according to analogue transmission standards
  • H04N5/445—Receiver circuitry for the reception of television signals according to analogue transmission standards for displaying additional information
  • H04N5/45—Picture in picture, e.g. displaying simultaneously another television channel in a region of the screen
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/41—Structure of client; Structure of client peripherals
  • H04N21/426—Internal components of the client ; Characteristics thereof
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/43—Processing of content or additional data, e.g. demultiplexing additional data from a digital video stream; Elementary client operations, e.g. monitoring of home network or synchronising decoder's clock; Client middleware
  • H04N21/431—Generation of visual interfaces for content selection or interaction; Content or additional data rendering
  • H04N21/4312—Generation of visual interfaces for content selection or interaction; Content or additional data rendering involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations
  • H04N21/4316—Generation of visual interfaces for content selection or interaction; Content or additional data rendering involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/43—Processing of content or additional data, e.g. demultiplexing additional data from a digital video stream; Elementary client operations, e.g. monitoring of home network or synchronising decoder's clock; Client middleware
  • H04N21/44—Processing of video elementary streams, e.g. splicing a video clip retrieved from local storage with an incoming video stream, rendering scenes according to MPEG-4 scene graphs
  • H04N21/4402—Processing of video elementary streams, e.g. splicing a video clip retrieved from local storage with an incoming video stream, rendering scenes according to MPEG-4 scene graphs involving reformatting operations of video signals for household redistribution, storage or real-time display
  • H04N21/440263—Processing of video elementary streams, e.g. splicing a video clip retrieved from local storage with an incoming video stream, rendering scenes according to MPEG-4 scene graphs involving reformatting operations of video signals for household redistribution, storage or real-time display by altering the spatial resolution, e.g. for displaying on a connected PDA
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/47—End-user applications
  • H04N21/485—End-user interface for client configuration
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/47—End-user applications
  • H04N21/488—Data services, e.g. news ticker

Definitions

• the invention which is the subject of this application relates to the generation of video displays from a broadcast stream of information.
• the video display generated is displayed on a display means such as a television screen or monitor screen and generates a recognisable and defined display to be watched by the viewer.
• the invention is particularly directed towards the ability to generate a video signal and interpret the same to allow a plurality of displays to be displayed on the screen. It is submitted that this has several advantages, such as, but not exclusively, the generation of a display showing signing information for the deaf, with the signing information relating to the images and audio signals for another display shown; the showing of displays which indicate to the viewer what is being displayed on other channels and the like.
• the broadcast of television video signals involves the transmission of a number of streams of data representing the broadcast picture, said streams of data generated by encoding apparatus, to the decoding apparatus which is provided at each of the premises of subscribers to the broadcast service.
• Each channel which can be viewed is formed from a combination of video and audio data streams, each of which carries information relating to the video or audio signal to be generated.
• the video and audio signals are encoded into streams of data representative of portions or blocks of the display which is being broadcast and are encoded by splitting the display into a number of pixels the number of which define the resolution and data is generated to represent the pixel blocks defined.
• the encoding method used is a manner best suited to the particular display or audio requirements at that time so that the stream of data is accurate but is also as short as practically possible so as to improve bandwidth efficiency.
• the signals can be broadcast via satellite, cable or using conventional transmitters and are received by the decoder.
• the decoder is required to decode the data streams and regenerate a picture which is to be displayed on the screen.
• There are various International Standards in position to which manufacturers of the required apparatus comply such as for example, MPEG 1 and MPEG 2 standards.
• a known problem with this form of video signal transmission is that the requirement to selectively show a further display on screen as a smaller part of the larger display has not been addressed effectively. It is known to be possible to generate displays from a number of the streams of data and then display a number of subsidiary displays to form one overall display by using the technique of mosaicing but this type of display is only formed from a combination of side by side displays and is not satisfactory . This is not a solution to the problem addressed by the current invention wherein there may be a need for an additional display such as the service of a visual signing display to be provided by the broadcast providers so that the service can be selectively displayed by those viewers who require the same. If mosaicing, i.e the use of a number of displays from a stream of data was used for this the visual signing would either have to be permanently shown to all viewers or to none of the viewers, which is unacceptable.
• the aim of the present invention is to provide a means whereby at least two video displays can be generated from the same video signal data stream and then a decision made as to whether one or both or all of the displays are to be positioned to be viewable by the viewer.
• a broadcast system comprising an encoder for generating a single stream of data representing a video display of a predetermined resolution, transmitting means for transmitting the stream of data to be received by a data receiver including decoder means, said decoder means provided to decode the single stream of data and the receiver provided to reconstruct the video display to be viewed on a display screen connected thereto and characterised in that said stream of data includes data for at least a first and a second video displays and the display generated on the display screen can be selected in response to a user command or a predetermined control setting to comprise the first or second display or either of the first or second display with the other positioned therein.
• the second display is smaller in size than the first display and is superimposed or overlaid on the first display to be viewed.
• the said second display is positioned so as to be unobtrusive such as in one of the corners of the screen when viewed.
• the second display which is generated includes visual signing information and relates to the images which are displayed on the first display at that time, and are in synchronisation therewith.
• a method of generating first and second video displays on a display screen comprising the steps of scaling a first video field to a resolution which is less than the predetermined resolution of video signal to be displayed on the display screen, scaling a second video field with a resolution no greater than that which is the difference between the predetermined resolution and the resolution of the first video field, combining and encoding the data for the first and second displays and transmitting the encoded data for the video signal to a decoder, as a single stream of data decoding the data stream to generate video displays for said first and second video displays and upsampling the said first display to generate the same into the required size to be displayed across the display screen.
• the predetermined resolution referred to is the horizontal resolution which can be any standard or combined resolution such as, in one embodiment, 720 pixels. With this resolution, the encoding of the first display with a horizontal resolution of 544 pixels is found to be particularly advantageous. It is also of advantage if both of the first and second display video data is aspect ratio adjusted or includes scale factors prior to display.
• the said display is "positioned" with respect to the first display so that it does not overlie the same so that when the video signal display is upsampled, the second display is not viewable.
• the second video display is required to be viewed by the viewer then the second display is positioned with respect to the first display to overlie the same when displayed on the screen.
• the second video display is moved to the required position on the first display prior to the upsampling of the same or alternatively the first display is upsampled and the second display moved into position.
• the selection of whether or not the second display is shown can be made by either the setting of a characteristic of a control feature of the decoding apparatus to allow for long term selection or, alternatively by remote control or other selection means provided.
• the decoder includes a process unit to allow the decoder to position the second display with respect to the first display as required.
• a method for generating a video display of a predetermined resolution on a display screen comprising generating a video signal comprising a first set of data relating to a first partition of the display of a resolution less than the predetermined resolution and a second set of data representing at least a second partition of the display, said first and second sets of data, in combination, representing the predetermined resolution, data representing the first and second sets of data transmitted as a single stream of data and then upsampling at least the first set of data relating to the first partition of the display.
• the decoder receives a transmitted stream of data which relates to a video display of the predetermined resolution, however it also receives a signal indicating that the data is in two sets representing different displays and said first display therefore has lower resolution than the predetermined resolution and the remaining data represents the video signal for the difference and the decoder reconstructs the data into frames of the number of the predetermined resolution, representing the first and second displays, the decoder then upsamples the first set of frames for the first display to allow the display of the same across the whole of the display screen.
• the second display is moved to be superimposed on the first display and upsampling then takes place.
• This aspect has the advantage in that the resolution of the first display is as the predetermined resolution and that no upsampling is required to take place prior to the display of the first display.
• a method of scaling and encoding video data for first and second video displays to be selectively shown simultaneously when decoded comprising the steps of scaling a first video field to a resolution which is less than the predetermined resolution of video signal to be displayed on the display screen, scaling a second video field with a resolution no greater than that which is the difference between the predetermined resolution and the resolution of the first video field, combining and encoding data and transmitting the encoded data for the video signal as a single stream of data.
• FIGS. 1A - 1 G illustrate an embodiment of the invention.
• Figures 2A - 2G illustrate a variation of the embodiment of Figure 1.
• FIGS 1A - 1 G there is shown, for illustrative purposes first, primary and second, secondary displays 2,4 according to the invention. These displays are shown in a form which is not for on screen display but are shown prior to final processing. To reach the stage of Figure 1 the following steps are followed.

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• 1998
  • 1998-08-06 GB GBGB9817037.6A patent/GB9817037D0/en not_active Ceased
• 1999
  • 1999-08-06 EP EP99936775A patent/EP1042913A1/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 1999-08-06 AU AU51758/99A patent/AU5175899A/en not_active Abandoned
  • 1999-08-06 WO PCT/GB1999/002421 patent/WO2000008848A1/en not_active Application Discontinuation

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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