EP1689104A1 - Radio with display for text information referring to other text information objects - Google Patents

Abstract

Digital radio with a text display has means for modifying the text display by the radio listener in that a current text display contains a reference or tip relating to other displayable information. The user then selects further text information using a user selection device such as an operating button on the radio that has an allocated function that is only occasionally used and is thus suitable for use as a user selection device. An independent claim is made for a method for controlling a digital radio and in particular for controlling its receipt of auxiliary textual information.

Description

The present invention relates to radios, and more particularly to those having an indicator for displaying textual information.

There are already text-based news services for digital broadcasting systems in which a user of a radio can read text messages on a display of the radio. In this case, further information, namely text information, is broadcast in the broadcast signal together with the audio information for the radio. A radio standard that allows this transmission of audio information and text information side by side in a transmission channel or broadcast signal, for example, the DAB standard (DAB = Digital Audio Broadcasting).

Text-based news services are already using this possibility of digital broadcasting to broadcast text messages to terminals. For example, broadcasters broadcast in addition to the actual broadcast program, so the audio information, text information that can be displayed on the display of the user's radio receiver, such as the name of the broadcast program or current news or the like. The program manager decided on the type and order of the information. Previous text-based messaging services allowed a user to have limited control over the selection of text messages displayed on their display, such as by switching programs.

It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide a text information service scheme that provides a user with a more effective way of accessing desired text information via the radio by means of a radio.

This object is achieved by a radio receiver according to claim 1 and a method for controlling a radio receiver according to claim 14.

One finding of the present invention is that a user of a broadcast receiver will access textual information much more quickly if a reference to another textual information object in the broadcast signal is included in a text information object included in the broadcast signal that is being displayed on the broadcasting system's display and, by simply operating a user selection means, the user is allowed to cause the text information to be displayed to be changed from the text information of the current text information object to the text information of the text information object referred to by the current text information object. The additional effort here is very limited, as in today's radio receivers mostly a "blank" button, which has an assigned function only in special situations of use of the radio receiver and is thus occupied, exists and can be used as a user selection device.

According to a specific embodiment of the present invention, the text information objects become in the broadcast signal sequentially among other information in the broadcast signal, such as the audio information or other information, broadcast from a broadcasting station, each text information object having an object ID. If a text information object references another text information object, its object IDs will be different. The introduction of the object IDs makes it possible to divide the content of the text information objects in the broadcast signal into groups and to transmit them cyclically repeatedly for receivers and thereby to update them. A broadcast receiver can thus, without having to analyze the content of the text information objects, ie the text information, recognize whether a particular text information object just received, although different from the current one, affects the same subject as a previously received one and thus represents an update, or whether the currently received text information object content relates to a completely different subject. An update can be easily made by comparing the object ID of a text information object immediately or not immediately following the currently displayed text information object in the broadcast signal with the object ID of the currently displayed one. Depending on whether the comparison results in the identity of the object IDs, the update is made or not.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the update for the broadcast receivers can be made less expensive by the text information objects next to the object ID still have a revision index, which provides information about which version of the text information associated with this object ID, this text information object concerns. Consequently, a radio receiver is not forced to perform an update blindly whenever a text information object whose object ID matches the object ID of the currently displayed text information object is broadcast again in the broadcast signal. Rather, the update is still made dependent on whether the revision index has changed. Image construction and other rendering mechanisms are therefore omitted if the new text information object with the same object ID can not differ in content from that already displayed, since it concerns the same version of the text information for this object ID. The additional expenditure due to the burden on the transmission channel by the revision index in each text information object is comparatively small.

The update can also be made more user-friendly by distinguishing between the individual text information objects. According to one embodiment of the present invention, menu objects, list objects, and plain text objects exist. Each text information object is assigned to one of these types by an object descriptor or object type ID. In the case of menu items or list items, the broadcast receiver performs the update immediately, ie, without user interaction, while otherwise updating is conditional on the user's consent to update so that it will not be abruptly interrupted due to a possibly minor update when reading a coherent longer text.

According to a further embodiment, it is further provided that, in the case where the amount of text information of the new text information object is greater than a displayable size, the display displays a section of the text information of this new text information object that is at least partially associated with a section overlays that the ad showed before updating from the old text information object. In the case of list and menu objects in particular, this has the advantage that the user does not have to re-orientate himself in the list or the menu after the update has taken place, and that nevertheless he still receives the update when scrolling further.

If the radio receiver or the radio has a cache memory for temporarily storing text information objects already received, it is possible for the text information of the current text information object to be displayed to change text information of the text information object with a different object ID The current text information object refers to first look in the cache memory to see if a text information object with that object ID is not already in the cache. The user thus gets to the new text information of the new text information object faster and does not have to wait for the time duration until a text information object with the desired object ID pointed to by the current text information object is re-broadcast in the broadcast signal.

In order for the user to know, as they scroll through the menu, the same which menu options point to object IDs for which a text information object is cached is stored, a cache hit identifier may be provided which first caches text information objects for all object IDs associated with menu items of the menu item and then, by modifying the textual information to be displayed, causes the Menu options for which text information objects are present in the cache for which users are visibly distinguishable from those for whom no text information objects are still present in the cache memory. This speeds up for a user zapping through the menus, ie the node of the object tree according to which the text information objects are arranged.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, a broadcast receiver supports favorite functionality. In a favorites memory for this purpose one or more object IDs of text information objects are stored, which relate to objects that repeats the user, for example, every morning on the way to work, interest and which he can retrieve by operating a favorite query device. In order to prevent the user from adding object IDs to the favorites, which are not assigned to a text information object with this object for a long time, such as a one-time news message, but which are subsequently reassigned to a text information object with a different content For example, a text information object includes a static flag. The add-listen functionality of the broadcast receiver is activated only if the static flag is set, otherwise not, thereby avoiding pointless addition of randomly assigned object IDs.

Fig. 1

ein Übersichtsblockschaltbild mit Sender und Empfänger zu Veranschaulichung eines Textinformationsrundfunkdienstes gemäß einem Ausführungsbeispiel der vorliegenden Erfindung;

Fig. 2

eine exemplarische Baumstruktur, in der die Textinformationsobjekte des Dienstes von Fig. 1 angeordnet sind;

Fig. 3

eine schematische Zeichnung zur Veranschaulichung des Aufbaus der Textinformationsobjekte nach dem Dienst von Fig. 1 gemäß einem Ausführungsbeispiel der vorliegenden Erfindung;

Fig. 4a-e

schematische Zeichnungen zur Veranschaulichung des Aufbaus exemplarischer Textinformationsobjekte oder von Teilen derselben durch NML- und UTF-8-Codes;

Fig. 5

eine schematische Zeichnung zur Veranschaulichung der seriellen und zyklischen Übertragung der Textinformationsobjekte in dem Rundfunksignal von Figur 1;

Fig. 6a-d

exemplarische Bildschirmanzeigen auf der Anzeige des Rundfunkempfängers von Fig. 1;

Fig. 7

ein Flussdiagramm eines Anzeige-Aktualisierungs-Prozesses gemäß einem Ausführungsbeispiel der vorliegenden Erfindung;

Fig. 8

ein Flussdiagramm eines Cache-AktualisierungsProzesses gemäß einem Ausführungsbeispiel der vorliegenden Erfindung;

Fig. 9

eine schematische Skizze einer exemplarischen Baumstruktur von Textinformationsobjekten zur Veranschaulichung der Cache-Verdrängungs-Strategie gemäß einem Ausführungsbeispiel der vorliegenden Erfindung;

Fig. 10

ein Flussdiagramm eines Scroll-Prozesses gemäß einem Ausführungsbeispiels der vorliegenden Erfindung;

Fig. 11

ein Flussdiagramm eines Menü-Auswahl-Prozesses gemäß einem Ausführungsbeispiels der vorliegenden Erfindung;

Fig. 12

ein Flussdiagramm einer Objekt-Pfad-Aktualisierung gemäß einem Ausführungsbeispiel der vorliegenden Erfindung; und

Fig. 13

ein Flussdiagramm eines Eine-Hierarchie-Ebene-Zurück-Prozesses gemäß einem Ausführungsbeispiel der vorliegenden Erfindung; und

Fig. 14

ein Flussdiagramm eines Favoriten-Hinzufügung-Prozesses gemäß einem Ausführungsbeispiel der vorliegenden Erfindung.

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be explained below with reference to accompanying drawings. Show it:

Fig. 1

an overview block diagram with transmitter and receiver to illustrate a text information broadcast service according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 2

an exemplary tree structure in which the text information objects of the service of Fig. 1 are arranged;

Fig. 3

a schematic drawing illustrating the structure of the text information objects after the service of Fig. 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 4a-e

schematic drawings to illustrate the construction of exemplary text information objects or parts thereof by NML and UTF-8 codes;

Fig. 5

a schematic drawing illustrating the serial and cyclic transmission of the text information objects in the broadcast signal of Figure 1;

Fig. 6a-d

exemplary screen displays on the display of the broadcast receiver of FIG. 1;

Fig. 7

a flowchart of a display update process according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 8

a flowchart of a cache update process according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 9

a schematic sketch of an exemplary tree structure of text information objects to illustrate the cache displacement strategy according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 10

a flowchart of a scrolling process according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 11

a flowchart of a menu selection process according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 12

a flowchart of an object-path update according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

Fig. 13

a flowchart of a one-hierarchy level-back process according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

Fig. 14

a flowchart of a favorite addition process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The present invention will be described below with reference to the figures against the background of a text information broadcasting service as shown in Figure 1 in construction. However, radios according to the present invention could also be used in other text information broadcasting systems. In elements that occur equally in different figures, the same reference numerals have been used for them, a repeated description of the elements being avoided.

The text information broadcasting service of Fig. 1, also referred to hereinafter as "NewsService Journaline", is illustrated in Fig. 1 on a pair of broadcast transmitter 10 and radio receiver 12. The broadcast transmitter 10 is a stationary central broadcasting station which is connected via an antenna 14, e.g. a broadcast mast, broadcast signals 16 to a plurality of radio receivers, such as the radio receiver 12 emits. The broadcast signal 16 includes, in addition to audio information that may relate to different broadcast programs, text information intended for the radio receivers or terminals 12 and their users in the context of the text message broadcast service. The broadcast signal 16 corresponds to the DAB standard, for example.

The radio transmitter 10 comprises, among other components intended for audio transmission or for the transmission of the audio information and not shown here for reasons of clarity, a memory 18 and an embedding device 20. The memory 18 contains a list 22 of text information objects , As will be described in more detail later, each includes Text information object at least one object identification number or object ID and the actual text content, ie the text information. In addition, text information objects also contain further information depending on their type, as will also be described in more detail below. The text information objects in list 22 are maintained and updated by a service operator. He makes the selection of topics that affect the objects, the structure in which the objects are ordered, and the length of time in which they are repeatedly broadcast cyclically.

The embedding means 20 is connected to the memory 18 for reading out the text information objects from the memory 18 and incorporating them into the broadcast signal to broadcast the same via the antenna 14 as the broadcast signal 16. The readout or transmission by the binding device 20 takes place cyclically for each text information object, so that a total of all text information objects are transmitted cyclically one after the other in the broadcast signal 16, with different cycle repetition times, as described in more detail later with reference to FIG becomes.

A radio receiver 12 according to the present embodiment comprises a receiving device 24, a control device 26, a loudspeaker 28, a display or a display 30, a memory 32, a first control panel 34 and a second control panel 36. The receiver 24 is provided with a data input an antenna 38, to receive the broadcast signal 16 via the same 38. The receiving device 24 is designed to be suitable for converting the audio signal 16 from the broadcast signal 16 and extract the text information and pass it to the controller 26 via its data output.

The controller 26, such as e.g. a processor or the like, first passes the audio information to the speaker 28. Here already a selection has been made under an offer of various audio content or radio programs. The forwarding of selected audio signals can either take place via an internal line to an integrated loudspeaker 28, as shown in FIG. 1 by solid lines, or via a loudspeaker connection or by outputting suitable audio signals to an external loudspeaker 40 which is external to the radio receiver 12 is arranged as shown by dotted lines in Figure 1.

For example, the user of the radio receiver 12 can change from one broadcast program to the other via the control panel 36, which comprises, for example, only one toggle switch with two tilt positions or tilt positions. The control panel 36 is for this purpose connected to the control device 26, which in turn is designed to change the current program and thus the audio signals to the loudspeakers 28 and 40, depending on the presence of a respective tilt position.

The control panel 34 consists of four buttons, one with an arrow down, one with an arrow up, one with an arrow to the left and another with an arrow to the right, or out two toggle switches, which are arranged perpendicular to each other, or a diamond-shaped toggle switch, but other possibilities for the control panel 34 exist. Instead of a control panel with buttons, for example, a voice input could be provided. The control panel 34 is provided so that the user can supply via the control panel 34 of the control means 26 control signals with which it can influence in a manner as will be discussed in more detail below, which text information the control means 26 as to be displayed Forwards text information to the display 30. The text information which the controller 26 forwards to the display 30 extracts the same from the text information objects contained in the broadcast signal 16 and extracted from the broadcast signal by the receiver 24. The text information display functionality is completely detached from the reproduction of the audio information, so that upon actuation of the control panel 34, the sound reproduction or the currently played over the speaker 28 or 40 program is not interrupted.

The radio receiver 12 of Figure 1 further comprises in the memory 32, which is also referred to as a cache memory below, and for example, is a RAM, a list already received text information objects 42, an object path list 44 of object IDs whose Contents and meaning will be discussed in more detail below, and a list or an array of object IDs, which is referred to as favorite list 46, the meaning of which will also be specified in more detail below.

Through the "News Service Journaline" the user of the radio or radio receiver 12 can easily and immediately access information according to his or her current interest type. The information is in plain text. The text information is contained in the text information objects. There are several text information objects that can be distinguished according to their type. On the one hand there are menu objects, text objects and list objects. Before discussing the structure of the individual object types, reference should be made to FIG. 2 to briefly illustrate their hierarchical structure.

Figure 2 illustrates how the text information objects according to the present embodiment are arranged in a tree structure. FIG. 2 shows an exemplary example of an object tree 50 of text information objects. The text information objects are indicated in FIG. 2 with square rectangles or rounded rectangles. Each text information object is labeled with an "M", "T" and "L" for menu, text or list object. As already mentioned, every text information object has an object ID assigned to it. By way of example only, it is assumed that the text information object at the root of the object tree 50 is assigned the fixed object ID 0, ie, 0x0000. This main menu object, indicated at 52, is located in the first hierarchical level of the object tree 50 and is first of all transmitted to the display 30 by the control device 26 as soon as it has been broadcast via the broadcast signal 16 after switching on the radio 12 forwarded to the ad. The main menu item 52 is thus initially shown when the user is using the radio or the NewsServcie Journaline functionality of the radio 12 first time without requesting a specific object ID.

In the embodiment of FIG. 2, the text information object at the root of the object tree 50 is a menu object. As will be discussed in more detail below, each menu item comprises in its text information a plurality of menu options or menu items to which a reference to a text information object of a next higher hierarchical level in the form of an object ID is assigned. In the present exemplary example, the menu object 52 includes four menu options, and thus four references to other text information objects, as indicated by arrows 54. In particular, in the present example, the menu object 52 refers to two further menu objects 56 and 58 and two text objects 60 and 62, all of which form the text information objects of the second hierarchical level. While the menu items 56 and 58 of the second hierarchical level in turn have references to other text information objects indicated by arrows 64 and 66, text objects, and thus also the text objects 60 and 62, do not include a reference to another text information object. They contain only text information. The text objects "T" thus form the leaves of the object tree 50. The same applies to list objects "L".

Thus, as shown in FIG. 2, the exemplary object tree 50 of FIG. 2 forms four hierarchical levels, although any other number is conceivable. Furthermore, it is conceivable that two menu objects (possibly different hierarchical levels) refer to the same text information object, as is also the case in FIG Arrows 64 and 66 and the text information object 68 in the third hierarchical level.

The number of hierarchical levels of the tree structure may be set to a particular value, such as e.g. 20, be limited so that the receiving side at the radio receivers 12, the storage space for storing the data path 44 can be suitably dimensioned.

From the description of Fig. 2 it is clear that each text information object, hereinafter also sometimes referred to simply as an object, must be referenced by at least one menu object, or that at least one menu object must have a reference to the same. Only for the object 52 at the root of the object tree 50 does not need to exist a text information object that refers to the same. Of course, this would be possible.

The text information objects are therefore structured as in FIG. 2. All of these text information objects in the object tree 50 are stored in the list 22 in the memory 18 of the broadcast transmitter 10. Should for any reason the broadcaster 10 be unable to provide the "News Service Jouranline" service, the object at the root of the object tree 50 may also be a text object such that the object tree 50 has only one hierarchical level, the textual information in that textual object, for example indicate the temporary failure of the service.

Fig. 3 shows an embodiment for constructing text information objects according to an embodiment of the present invention. After Figure 3 is divided Text information object 100 into an object header section 100a and an object content section 100b and is a maximum of 2044 bytes long. The maximum length is not mandatory. Of course it would also be possible to allow unlimited lengths. However, it makes it possible that the storage of the objects 100 on both the receiving side and the transmitting side can be done in a simple manner in arrays in which the objects are arranged with an offset of 2044 bytes or a multiple thereof to each other and therefore easy to handle.

For example, the object header section 100a, in turn, is divided into a standard 3-byte header 100a1 and an extension header 100a2, assuming the latter has a length of n bytes, where n is an integer greater than or equal to zero. The object contents section 100b is m bytes long, where m is an integer greater than zero.

The standard header 100a1, for example, again decomposes into a 2-byte or 16-bit object ID 102, which may be 0x0000 at the main object 52 (FIG. 2), and an object descriptor 104, which may be the eight lower-order ones Bits of the standard header 100 occupies. The number of 16 bits of the object ID limits the number of allocatable IDs to 2 ¹⁶ , that is about 10 ⁶ . The bits of the object descriptor 104 have different meanings. As indicated at 106, the three MSB (MSB = Most Significant Bits) of the object descriptor 104 form an object type ID 108, the three LSB (LSB = Least Significant Bits) a revision type. Index 110 and the two bits therebetween, a static flag 112 and a compression flag 114.

The object type ID 108 indicates by its value the object type of the text information object 100, as shown in the following table. Object type ID value Property Type 0x1 Menu object 0x2 Text object 0x3 Title-only object 0x4 List object

The list can of course always be supplemented with new object types that would have to be ignored by previous recipients.

As will be discussed below, the static flag has the meaning that, when set, it allows the user to add the object ID 102 to the favorites list 46. The static flag is set or not set by the text information broadcast service operator, depending on whether the object ID is assigned only randomly and temporarily, ie displays only the same content information for a limited time, in which case adding to the favorites does not make sense would be, or if the assignment of the object ID is permanent, and so that a favorite addition would be useful, as will be discussed in more detail below.

The compression flag 114 indicates whether or not the object contents section 100b is compressed in a predetermined manner. The revision index is set by the service operator to indicate in the cyclically repeatedly serially transmitted text information objects with the same object ID, Which version of the text information or object to which these textual information objects are related. For each update, the revision index 110 is incremented on the send side. For example, if the textual information of a particular object ID is related to the soccer match of a football match that is currently taking place, the text information "0: 0" indicating the score would appear in the first text information objects having this object ID together with the revision index 000b ( _FIG. b are transmitted for binary), while for a target in the memory 18, the text information on would be changed and at the same time the revision index from 000 _b to 001 _b would be modified so that subsequently transmitted Texinformationsobjekt with this object "0 1" ID would have the text information "0: 1" and the revision index 001 _b . Consequently, as will be discussed in more detail below, the revision index allows updates to be made at the receiving end depending on whether the revision index has changed from an already received text information object to a newly received text information object or not, without analyzing the content to have to.

The object ID is linked on the send side with text information, which is then contained in the object content section 10b, as will be explained below. As mentioned earlier, there are object IDs that are randomly and only temporarily assigned, and where the static flag 112 is not set, and those where the object IDs are fixed with some kind of textual information (for example, the current weather report of a City), which is updated if necessary, in which case the revision index 110 is incremented.

The extension header 100a2 represents an extension option for the message service. If the data application signaling information of the broadcast system, that is, the control information in the broadcast signal besides the audio information and the text information, indicates that the extension header 100a2 contains additional header information, For example, a recipient who is unable to work with the extension header can easily ignore this section. Since the display is in the use of the extension header and the usual data application signaling information of the broadcast system, the length of the extension header 100a2 is the same for all objects of the "NewsService Journaline".

As already mentioned, the actual text content or text information is contained in the text information objects in the object content section 100b. The text information is coded, for example, in a UTF-8 bit coding (UTF = Unicode Transformation Format).

Before the coding of the text information and the further information in the object content section 100b with reference to FIG. 4 is illustrated in more detail, each type of object will first be described in greater detail below with reference to FIGS. 6a to 6d. FIGS. 6a to 6d each show an example of a screen display as it results on the display 30 depending on the object type. It should be noted that the examples assume a display capable of representing a plurality of lines on a screen, but that the service can of course also be implemented on existing car radio displays, which can display mostly only one line of 16 characters.

Figure 6a shows the screen layout as it appears on the display 30 when displaying the textual information of a textual object, i. with object type ID = 0x2. As can be seen, a text information or a text-only message of a text object is divided into a title 150 and the actual text 152, the so-called text body. For presentation to the user, the title 150 and the subsequent actual text portion 152 are displayed on the screen of the automatic line break display 30. The user may scroll vertically through the text, for example, by operating a vertically positioned toggle switch or the like on the control panel 34. The title 150 is appended to the text portion 152 so that it may be included in the displayed portion of the display along with the remaining text 152 as appropriate 30 is pushed. Any font can be used for display.

More specifically, it will be the normal case that the amount of textual information of a textual object is larger than a displayable amount, so that only a part of the textual information can be displayed on the screen of the display 30. This displayable portion is moved by operating corresponding keys on the control panel 34 via title 150 and text 152. This possibility is indicated to the user by means of corresponding arrows on the right-hand edge of the screen of the display 30, as can be seen at 154 and 156 in FIG. 6a. In the present case, the displayable section is at the beginning of the entire text message. Another scrolling upwards does not make sense. This is indicated by a corresponding, for example color highlighting the arrow 154, which points upward. Appropriate Emphasis is made at arrow 156 when the displayable area or section is at the end of the message and therefore scrolling down is no longer possible.

Figure 6b shows a title-only message (object type ID = 0x3). Title-only messages only include a title 150 that is displayed on the screen of the display 30. A text section 152 or body text is not provided. For presentation to the user, the title text 150 is displayed on the screen of the display 30 again, for example, with automatic line break. If necessary, the user can scroll through the text. In the present case, however, the title can be displayed completely on the screen of the display 30, so that, by the absence of the arrows 154 and 156, the user is indicated that the title 150 has been completely displayed and there is no possibility of scrolling. The representation of a pure title message can, for example, always be centered both in the line and in the vertical direction. As a font, in turn, each is equally usable.

FIG. 6c shows a list message or the text information of a list object (object type ID = 0x4). A list message includes a title 160 and a list of text lines 162a-162d. For display to the user, unlike the text messages shown in Figure 6a, the title should always be visible on the screen of the display 30 as the user scrolls through the lines 162a-162d of information in the body section 162. It may be advantageous to use a font having a uniform character spacing in the row direction to represent list objects. to allow two-column tables by providing blanks, as in the example of FIG. If the title 160 or any of the lines 162a to 162d exceeds a line length of the screen of the display 30, this list item is cut off at the end of the line, for example.

FIG. 6a shows a menu or the text information of a menu object (object type ID = 0x1). A menu contains a title 170 and a list of menu options 172a, 172b and 172c. Each menu option is associated with a reference to another text information object, in the form of an object ID. As with the list object of Figure 6c, the user can scroll through the menu options. One of the menu options on the screen of the display 30 is always highlighted, in this case the menu option 172b. If the user indicates by pressing a suitable button on the control panel 34, e.g. The key to the right indicates that it wants to access the text information object referenced by the reference of the menu option currently highlighted, and its contents are as well circumscribed by the text in the highlighted line of the menu as in the present one Case through the menu option text "Second Bundesliga 32nd round", as will be described below, the text information of this text information object is next displayed on the display, whereby the current object or textual information on the screen of the display 30 replaced by the new one.

More specifically, a menu option consists of a reference to another text information object and a label that contains a line on the screen of the display 30 represents and denotes or circumscribes the content of the referenced text information object. If the title or label exceeds the length of one line of the screen of the display 30, the corresponding content could be cut off. In addition to the corresponding scroll arrows 156, 154, on the screen of the display 30 in the case of a menu item, square brackets 174 highlight menu options that can not be displayed immediately because they are not yet in the cache memory 32 , as will be discussed in more detail below.

After having described examples of text information of text information objects of different object types in the foregoing with reference to FIG. 6, the coding of this text information in the object content section 100b (FIG. 3) will be described below by way of example with reference to FIGS. 4a-4e. Because of the strong limitation of the available bandwidths of common broadcasting systems for data services, as efficient as possible codings are used in the generation of the text information objects to be transmitted.

The object content section is usually divided into a title and a body section. Only for title-only objects does the body section in the object content section be missing. The title and body sections of each object are structured by NML codes (NML = NewsService Markup Language), which indicate the beginning and end of a particular block of information within the object content section, such as title and body section.

Within a particular information block, such as of the title or body section, escape sequences may be provided to introduce text formatting information, such as textual information. Text highlighting, forced word wrapping, etc., as well as additional functionalities, e.g. Information areas that can easily be ignored by recipients who are unable to handle the additional functionality or who do not support this additional functionality.

Both NML codes and escape sequences are one-byte codes ranging from 0x00 to 0xlF, called UTF-8 control codes. In particular, the NML codes range from 0x00 to 0xOF and the escape sequences range from 0x10 to 0xlF.

In the following, examples of text information objects (FIGS. 4a to 4c) or information blocks in the object content section (FIGS. 4d and 4e) are described with reference to the examples of FIGS. 4a to 4e.

First, the NML code is explained in more detail. Each object block in the object content section is started with an NML code and by either the NML code "End", the occurrence of another NML code or the end of the object content section completed.

• 0x00 sei der NML-Code für "Ende". Er wird verwendet, um einen Abschnitt bzw. Block innerhalb des Objekt-Inhalt-Abschnitts zu beenden, ohne dass ein weiterer Abschnitt bzw. weiterer Block begonnen wird. Er ist auf jeden Objekt-Typ anwendbar.
• 0x01 sei der NML-Code für "Titel" und zeigt durch sein Auftreten in dem Objekt-Inhalt-Abschnitt 100b empfangsseitig den Beginn des Titel-Abschnittes bzw. Titel-Blockes an. Exakt ein Titel-Block muss pro Objekt für alle bisher definierten Objekt-Arten vorhanden sein, der NML-Code 0x01 also zumindest einmal im Abschnitt 100b auftreten. Der Titel-Block muss zudem der erste Block in dem Objekt-Inhalt-Abschnitt 100b sein. Der NML-Code 0x01 ist ebenfalls bei allen Objekt-Typen anwendbar.
• 0x02 sei der NML-Code für einen Menü-Options-Block-Beginn. Dieser Code stellt also den Anfang jeder Menü-Option in einem Menü-Objekt dar. Dieser Code ist folglich auch nur für Menü-Objekte vorgesehen. Auf das Auftreten des NML-Codes 0x02 hin erwartet der Empfänger bzw. ein in der Steuereinrichtung 26 vorgesehener Dekodierer (nicht gezeigt) in den nachfolgenden Bytes zunächst die Zieladresse bzw. den Verweis bzw. die Objekt-ID des Textinformationsobjekts, auf das verwiesen wird, und anschließend den Text der Menü-Option, der angezeigt werden soll und den Inhalt das referenzierten Objektes beschreibt. Pro Menü-Option eines Menü-Objekts tritt der Code 0x02 einmal in dem Objekt-Inhalt-Abschnitt auf. Genauer ausgedrückt, erwartet empfangsseitig der Dekodierer in der Steuereinrichtung 26, dass auf den Code 0x02 zwei Bytes folgen, die die Objekt-ID des referenzierten Objekts angeben, d.h. des Objekts, das angezeigt werden soll, falls der Benutzer diese Menü-Option auswählt, und daraufhin noch n Bytes, die die anzuzeigende Menü-Options-Beschreibung anzeigen, die in einer Zeile des Menüs dem Benutzer angezeigt werden soll und ihm quasi die Auswahl unter allen Menü-Optionen ermöglichen soll.

The NML codes are defined as examples in the following way:

• 0x00 is the NML code for "end". It is used to terminate a section or block within the object content section without requiring another section or another block is started. It is applicable to every object type.
• Let 0x01 be the NML code for "Title" and indicate by its appearance in the object content section 100b at the receiving end the beginning of the title section or title block. Exactly one title block must exist per object for all previously defined object types, ie the NML code 0x01 will appear at least once in section 100b. The title block must also be the first block in the object content section 100b. The NML code 0x01 is also applicable to all object types.
• Let 0x02 be the NML code for a menu option block start. So this code represents the beginning of every menu option in a menu object. This code is therefore only intended for menu objects. Upon the occurrence of the NML code 0x02, the receiver or decoder (not shown) provided in the controller 26 first awaits, in the subsequent bytes, the destination address or object ID of the referenced text information object referred to, and then the text of the menu option that should be displayed and describes the content of the referenced object. For each menu item of a menu item, the code 0x02 occurs once in the item contents section. More specifically, on the receive side, the decoder in the controller 26 expects the code 0x02 to be followed by two bytes indicating the object ID of the referenced object, ie the object to be displayed if the user selects this menu option, and then another n bytes, which indicate the menu option description to be displayed, in one line of the menu should be displayed to the user and to allow him virtually the selection of all menu options.

For example, Figure 4a shows a textual information object for the menu item of Figure 6a with the NML codes 0x00 to 0x02 for illustration. As already described with reference to FIG. 3, the object 100 starts with an object header 100a, which in the present case is n bytes long by way of example. This is followed by the object content section 100b. The first byte of the object content portion 100b is 0x01, that is, the NML code indicating the beginning of the title block whose textual content immediately follows the NML code 0x01 at the byte position 0 + 1 and byte 0 + 2 extends to byte k. In this section 200, in a manner which will be specified later, the title of the menu of FIG. 6d is stored, namely, "Sport Germany Soccer". The receive-side decoder knows when the title 200 is finished, since, as mentioned above, the text information of the title is encoded only with one-byte or multi-byte UTF-8 codewords other than NML codes or Escape Sequences are. Thus, once the receive-side decoder encounters the NML code 0x02 at byte k + 1 as shown, it knows that this is the beginning of a next block, namely the first menu option block. The following two bytes k + 2 and k + 3 indicate by object ID OxAABB the next text information object to be displayed, in case that this menu item is selected. This is followed at 202 within bits k + 4 through p by the text encoding for the first menu option of the menu of Figure 6d, namely "Bundesliga 32nd round". This is followed by the byte p + 1 again an NML code 0x02 to indicate the beginning of a menu option block. As an illustration, the menu option blocks are again at the reference numerals 204a, 204b and 204c. At the end of the text information object 100, the NML code 0x00 occurs at byte t + 1. It indicates the end of the entire text information object 100 in this case. This NML code 0x00 may be missing if, for example, the extension header contains the length of the entire text information object, so that the end of the entire object can be detected at the receiving end by appropriate syntactic analysis.

Furthermore, let 0x03 be the NML code indicating the beginning of a body block in the object content section. This therefore contains the text of the text body which is displayed as the actual text in a text object, that is, as 152 in FIG. 6a, for example. Only one body block is possible in each object content section and thus only the occurrence of only once 0x03. The code occurs only with text objects. For title-only objects, the NML code 0x03 is missing in the Object Content section because they do not have a body but only a title. A coding example for a title information object is shown in FIG. 4b as an example for the text object of FIG. 6a. The body block is visible at 206. It consists of the NML code 0x03 followed by the UTF-8 encoding for the body text 152, namely "The cash position of the municipalities ...".

The NML code 0x04 indicates the beginning of a bullet block in the object content section. This code only occurs with list objects in the Object Content section. In the list-point blocks, the NML code 0x04 is followed by the encoding for the text to be displayed for that list item in a row of the list on the screen of the display. FIG. 4c shows an example of a coding of a text information object using the example of FIG the list object of Figure 6c. The bullet point blocks are indicated at 208a, 208b and 208c.

Having described various embodiments of text information objects to illustrate the NML codes with reference to FIGS. 4a to 4c, the coding of the text information in the individual blocks 204a to 204c, 206 and 208a to 208c will be described with reference to FIGS. 4d and 4e.

A block in the content section may have multiple escape sequences that should not be immediately displayed to the user. Instead, escape sequences may include rendering pointers for the display, such as a display. an indication of a portion of text to be highlighted, a forced line break, a preferred line break, etc., or highlight portions of text that are not intended for direct rendering, such as textual editing; Binary code, that is, things that need to be ignored by recipients who are unable to process those data.

Escape or ESC codes can be for example: ESC code Surname description 0x10 preferred line break If applicable, such as when the radio is equipped with a multi-line screen or a dedicated rendering device, the receiver or its display should display the text following the code 0x10 starting on a new line. If not applicable to a particular type of rendering device for a display, insert a space. 0x11 Hyphenation point If a word does not fit completely in the end of a screen line, a receiver can insert a hyphen character at the receiving end when 0x11 occurs and a line break at this position: Otherwise, this code will be ignored without being replaced by another character. The code 0x11 is especially recommended for words with more than 15 letters. 0x12 Highlighting start If applicable, on the receive side, the text between the "highlight start" and the "highlight stop" code should be displayed in a highlighted form according to the recipient's rendering capabilities or display.
Also, these codes should simply be ignored if the rendering device (not shown in the figures) of the display is not capable of highlighting at the receiving end. 0x13 Highlighting stop 0x1A Data section start These escape codes specify a section within the text that is not processed by NewsService receivers 12. 0x1B Data section continuation which is not able to evaluate the data section. The data portion may include, for example, HTML / XML compliant labels or binary data. Each of these two codes or codewords is followed by a byte specifying the length of the following data section in "Number of Bytes minus One". For example, a sample text with such data slices might read, "This is a <big> great </ big>test!" (big = big), where the representation without the "data segment" eps-sequence "this is a <big> great </ big>test!" would be and the intended representation on a simple receiver "this is a great test!". In the former case, therefore, the display would be able to take into account and execute the commands indicated in parentheses in the display, ie in this case the word "grand" in bold or otherwise capitalized. An example of the section of an object content section that encodes this text sequence is shown, for example, in FIG. 4d. If the data portion is more than 256 bytes, the "data portion continuation" escape code is inserted immediately after the previous data portion to make the data portion longer by max. 256 bytes to expand with each repetition. An example of this coding is shown in FIG. 4e. The embodiments of Figures 4d and 4e may thus be used to indicate the text passages in blocks 204a-204c, 206 and 208a-208c for appropriately equipped receivers with corresponding indicators in a particular manner. 0x1C Extension code beginning These escape codes allow the signaling of extended escape sequences. Each of these two codes or codewords is followed by an 0x1D Extension code end extended code value that is one byte long. These extended code values are for additional enhancements to be backwards compatible for legacy receivers. If an "extension code" exists in a "start" and an "end" version, (eg, an "extension code value" would be 0x00 = <bold>), with the need for both <bold-start> and <bold-end> are signaled, the same "extension code value" is used: in the first case, the "extension code start" escape code is continued, in the second case with "extension code end" -escape code. If an "extension code" contains only a single code without an explicit start / end version, you should always continue with the "extension code begin" code. If a receiver is unable to interpret "extension codes," it may have the "extension code begin / end" escape code (1 byte) and the following "extension code value" (1 byte ) to ignore.

So far, referring to Figs. 2 to 6, the structure of the text information objects has been described. The text information objects are transmitted by the transmitter 10 in the broadcast signal 16, and parsed in the controller 26 by means of a decoder or parser (not shown) therein in the manner explained with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4. In addition, the control device 26 comprises an image processing device, not shown, which generates from the syntactically analyzed text information in the object content section of the text information object to be displayed suitable data, such as pixel data, which is then sent to the display 30 become. It should be noted, however, that the division regarding the image generation or processing and text extraction from the text information object to be displayed can also be proportionately shifted to the display 30 or that specially provided modules are connected between the control device 26 and the display 30.

While FIGS. 3 and 4 dealt with the construction of a single text information object, it will be described with reference to FIG. 5 in which order the text information objects in the broadcast signal 16 are transmitted. FIG. 5 shows by way of example in a line 300 a section of a broadcasting signal 16. An arrow 302 indicates which part of the broadcasting signal 16 is broadcast earlier or later, i. according to Figure 5, the left part before the right part. Within the broadcast signal 300, individual text information objects are indicated by blocks. Each text information object is numbered. The number is the object ID associated with the text information object.

Although this is shown in FIG. 5 as if the text information objects were broadcast in chronological succession, it is of course possible for the emission of individual text information objects to take place temporally quasi-simultaneously. Nevertheless, an order is defined among the text information objects in any case, namely by the serial forwarding of the emitted text information objects received at the antenna 38 by the receiver 12, so that the representation in FIG. 5 can also be used for this case. The text information objects are thus sequentially arranged in the broadcast signal 300 in a certain order. The transmitter 10 Depending on the priority, each text information object radiates repeatedly with a certain frequency. In FIG. 5, for example, the text information object with the object ID 1 with the repeat duration τ ₁ and that with the object ID 25 with τ ₂₅ . The frequency or repetition time depends on the expected frequency with which the respective text information object is desired by users of terminals, ie for weather news more frequently than for specific news from home or abroad. For this purpose, the service provider constantly updates the text information objects in the memory 18. This means, on the one hand, the addition of text information objects to the list 22 with the assignment of new object IDs. However, this must also be accompanied by the change of at least one menu object, which must now have a further menu item or a further menu option with a reference to this new text information object. Therefore, there is also a change of the corresponding entry in the list 22 to the corresponding object ID of this changed menu object. For example, if the object with the object ID 1 in FIG. 5 were this menu object to be changed, it would have changed at the next broadcast after the cycle time duration τ ₁ , and as described above, in particular the revision would Index is incremented. For example, in FIG. 5, the text information object 304 having the object ID 1 is the text information object whose text information is currently being displayed on the display 30, and the text information object 306 also having the object ID 1 is the text information object just received from the receiver 12 For example, the receiver may determine from the revision index of the text information object 306 and compare it to the revision index of the text information object 304 whether an update is necessary is or not. Within a certain total repetition period (not shown in FIG. 5), each text information object is broadcast at least once.

It should be noted that it is clear from the description of FIG. 5 that in the present description the term "text information object" is used ambiguously: on the one hand, it refers to an object which is transmitted in the broadcast signal, but on the other hand also to all objects with one special object ID. Thus, strictly speaking, not text information object is arranged in the tree structure in FIG. 2, but object IDs. Each object ID represents a plurality of text message objects broadcast one after the other, with the corresponding object ID. For their part, these do not all have to be identical, but can be updated over time. Nonetheless, it is clear from the context of meaning in which way the term "text information object" has just been used.

Having described the "NewsService Journaline" service, including the structure of the text information objects and the way in which they are broadcast, the function of the receiver 12 will now be described with reference to FIGS. 7 to 13 described in more detail according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 7 shows how the controller 26, in a display update process, examines a text information object just received to determine whether or not to update the screen contents of the display 30. At the entrance of a text information object 5, the controller 26 first checks in a step 400 whether the object ID of a currently received text information object is identical to the object ID of a currently displayed text information object. This would mean that the newly received text information object could include any changes to the older one currently being displayed. If the comparison in step 400 does not result in an identity, the display update process ends at 402 to restart upon receipt of the next received or subsequent text information object. If there is identity at step 400, control unit 26 checks in step 404 whether the revision index (110 in Figure 3) is the same in the currently received and currently displayed text information object. If this is the case, this means that, on the receiving side, it can be assumed that the content has not changed with respect to this object ID. Upon determination of the identity in step 404, the display update process thus ends at 406 to begin again with the text information object immediately following it. However, if there is inequality in step 404, in a step 408 the controller 26 checks the object type ID (108 in Figure 3), either of the currently received or currently displayed text information object, to see if it is a list, menu or title-only object type, ie 0x1, 0x3 or 0x4. If so, then in a step 410, the newly received text information object is displayed on the display 30, whereby the text information on the display 30 is updated.

In the update in step 410, a display controller (not shown) causes the current scroll position the user is maintained. This prevents the user, who has been laboriously scrolling or crawling through a part of a list or menu, to start over again when updating. Thus, for a menu item, updating step 410 will result in a menu option line of the pre-update menu, such as row 172b in Figure 6d, having the same screen position even after the update, provided that the new menu Object has enough lines or enough menu options or that it still has this menu option. Similarly, in the case of a list object, after step 410, updating results in a list line of the list being displayed at the same screen position before the update as after the update, provided that the new list object has enough rows. For example, the updating of step 410 is performed such that the so-so-many menu option and / or list line appears at the same screen position before and after the update. This also means that the displayable area before and after the update at least partially overlaps, so that user confusion during an update is avoided.

Alternatively, for checking for equality of an entry in the new object with the currently displayed entry of the currently displayed object, for example, the object ID of the menu entry or the text of the menu or list entry can also be used.

In the case of a title-only object, however, in step 410 it may be provided simply to include the updated textual content of the newly received object as a new object new object ID easy to start from the beginning, since title-only news anyway have by definition no larger body text. A possible new "scrolling" does not hurt.

For list, menu, and title-only objects, updating to 410 occurs immediately, automatically, and without the user having to consent. In the case of text objects, however, it can be cumbersome if the user is returned from the current reading position in a continuous text to the beginning or the currently read content is no longer contained in the updated object. Therefore, in the case that the check at 408 indicates that the currently displayed or currently received text information object is not a list, menu, or title-only object, it is therefore a text object in a step 410, the user, such as via a request via the display 30 or via a flashing light, a flashing "update" on the screen of the display 30, or other device, informs that there is an updated version of what he's just reading. The user is thereby asked at the same time, whether he wants an update or would like to avoid such or rejects. The consent can be expressed by the user via the control panel 34, such as by pressing a certain key, or by another confirmation device. The rejection may be a no-response operation, such as not pressing a key. The possibility that the user expresses his consent may also be limited in time, such as by a maximum consent period. In a step 412, the controller checks, whether the user gives or disapproves. In the event that the user refuses an update, the display update process ends 414 until it is restarted. Otherwise, a display update is made 416. However, the display update in step 416 is performed without retaining the current display position as in step 410, but preferably as in displaying a text information object with a new object ID from the beginning, that is, in the scrolled position to the beginning.

FIG. 8 shows a further process which is carried out continuously by the control device 26 when a newly received text information object arrives. The process of Figure 8 is a cache update process. The cache update process of FIG. 8 is for the receiver 12 to always retrieve at least a portion of the previously received text information objects, more specifically, for each object ID, the most recent version text information object for fast display Has access. For cache update, in the cache update process, the controller 26 first checks in a step 450, based on the object ID of the newly received text information object, whether a text information object having this object ID is included in the list 22 in the memory 32. If so, ie in the case of a cache hit, it is checked in step 452 whether the revision index of the newly received text information object is different from the revision index of the text information object stored in memory 32 and the same object ID. If step 452 results in the identity of the two revision indexes, the cache update process ends at 454 to arrive of the subsequent text information object to start again from the beginning. If the check in step 452 reveals that the revision index of the newly received text information object is different from that in the cache memory 32, in step 456 the replacement of the corresponding entry in the list 42 is performed by the newly received text information object.

If, however, step 450 indicates that there is no entry with such an object ID in the list 42 of the cache memory 32, ie, a cache miss, the controller 26 checks in a step 458 whether the entry for the list 42 in the Memory 32 is full space, or if there is enough space to make an entry in the list 42. If the cache is not full, then in a step 460, the controller 26 enters the newly received text information object in the list 22 and the cache memory 32, respectively. However, this will only be the case in an initial phase after switching on the receiver 12 or the "NewsService Journaline" functionality of the receiver 12. After some time, the cache memory 32 will be full. In this case, in a step 462, the controller 26 checks for a certain cache displacement strategy, as will be explained in more detail below with reference to Figure 9, whether in the cache memory 32 in the list 42, a text information object exists that a has lower cache priority than the newly received one. The check 462 takes into account the tree structure of the text information objects and defines, among the text information objects, a priority order depending on whether they are being interspersed by the currently displayed text information object or a text information object in the data path the root object and the currently displayed text information object or not, or more generally, because of its position in the tree or its relative position to the currently displayed text information object within the tree structure. In addition, between objects of the same cache priority, the time of the last reception or content update or the frequency of reception or content updates can be evaluated.

In order to illustrate this, an object tree is again shown as an example in FIG. 9, with menu objects again being marked with M and text objects with T. All menu items are numbered by a number at the bottom left corner indicating the item ID. The currently displayed text information object is the text object with the object ID 100. It is in the fourth hierarchical level. In order to get from the main object with the object ID 0 to the currently displayed text object with the object ID 100, the user had to change the text information objects or the menu objects with the object ID 3 in the second one Go through the hierarchy level and the object ID 12 in the third hierarchical level. The sequence of object IDs of the text information objects from the main object with the object ID 0 to and including the currently displayed object with the object ID 100, with the menu objects lying therebetween in the object tree form the object object. Path 44, the receiver 12 stores in the memory 32, and will be discussed in more detail later. It is actually created to allow the user to return to higher menu levels, and therefore also saved to each "Favorites". In the present exemplary case, the object path is {0, 3, 12, 100}. All objects whose object ID are contained in the object path 44 (FIG. 1) are encircled by a dashed line in FIG. By a semicolon line in Figure 9, in addition to the object-path objects, all objects are referenced, which will be referred to by at least one of the objects in the object-path; these are the objects with the object IDs 1, 2, 4,..., 9, 13 in the example of FIG. 9. By way of example only, the currently displayed text information object in the example of FIG. 9 was a text object. If it were a menu object, the semicolon line would include objects located in the fifth hierarchical level of the object tree.

1. 1. Niedrigste Priorität haben Textinformations-Objekte, die sich außerhalb der Strichpunkt-Linie befinden, d.h. Textinformations-Objekte, auf die nicht durch zumindest eines der Textinformationsobjekte in dem Objektpfad (angezeigt durch die gestrichelte Linie) verwiesen wird. Dies sind bei dem Beispiel von Figur 9 die Textinformationsobjekte 10, 11, 14 bis 20.
2. 2. Nächsthöhere Priorität besitzen Textinformations-Objekte, die sich zwischen der Strickpunkt-Linie und der gestrichelten Linie befinden. Dies sind also die Objekte, die sich nicht auf dem Objekt-Pfad befindet, auf die aber zumindest durch ein Objekt in dem Objekt-Pfad verwiesen wird.
   • 2.1. Unter diesen Objekten ist wiederum eine Prioritäts-Reihenfolge definiert, derart, dass Objekte einer höheren Hierarchieebene eine höhere Priorität aufweisen als solche einer niedrigeren Hierarchieebene, d.h. in dem Beispiel von Figur 9 das Objekt mit der Objekt-ID 13 eine höhere Priorität als die mit dem Objekt-IDs 1, 2, 4 bis 9.
     • 2.2 Unter denen gleicher Priorität sollten dann wiederum Menü-Objekte höherer Priorität aufweisen als die übrigen Objekt-Typen. Das Objekt mit der Objekt-ID 2 hätte folglich geringere Priorität als die Objekte mit den Objekts-ID 1, 4 bis 9.
       • 2.3 Unter den Verbleibenden mit gleicher Priorität könnte wiederum eine Prioritäts-Reihenfolge dadurch definiert werden, dass Objekten, bei denen das Static-Flag gesetzt ist, eine höhere Priorität zugewiesen wird, als solchen mit nicht gesetzten Static-Flag.
3. 3. Nächsthöhere Priorität umfassen wiederum die Menüs bzw. Objekte im Objekt-Pfad, vorliegend folglich die Objekte mit den Objekt-IDs 0, 3, 12 und 100. Unter diesen könnte wieder eine Prioritäts-Reihenfolge in Abhängigkeit von der Hierarchieebene definiert werden.

The cache displacement strategy, according to which a priority order is set among the objects, now proceeds as follows:

1. 1. Low priority is given to text information objects that are outside the dash-dot line, that is, text information objects that are not referenced by at least one of the text information objects in the object path (indicated by the dashed line). In the example of FIG. 9, these are the text information objects 10, 11, 14 to 20.
2. 2. Next higher priority text information objects, which are located between the knot point line and the dashed line. So these are the objects that are not on the object path, but are referenced by at least one object in the object path.
   • 2.1. Among these objects, a priority order is again defined, such that objects of a higher hierarchical level have a higher priority than those of a lower hierarchical level, ie in the example of FIG. 9 the object with the object ID 13 has a higher priority than the one with the Object IDs 1, 2, 4 to 9.
     • 2.2 Among those with the same priority, menu objects of higher priority should then have higher priority than the other object types. The object with the object ID 2 would therefore have a lower priority than the objects with the object ID 1, 4 to 9.
       • 2.3 Among those with the same priority, a priority order could again be defined by assigning a higher priority to objects with the static flag set than those with non-set static flag.
3. 3. Next higher priority again comprise the menus or objects in the object path, in the present case the objects with the object IDs 0, 3, 12 and 100. Among these, again a priority order could be defined depending on the hierarchical level.

It could also be provided that, deviating from the predatory strategy shown above, special objects having object IDs contained in the favorite list 46 in the memory 32 have the highest priority. Furthermore, the highest priority could be given to those objects pointed to by the currently displayed object, that is, referenced with the object ID 100. Furthermore, objects in the dash-dot line could all be treated the same, so the objects of the object-path would be treated the same as the objects they refer to, ie point 3 would be missing.

Returning to FIG. 8, if it is determined at step 462 that no lower priority cache object exists in the cache memory, the cache update process ends at 464. If such exists, at step 466, the lowest priority object is replaced with the currently received object. Even if several objects of equal priority in the memory are the ones with the lowest priority, the oldest-received one should be replaced.

FIG. 10 shows a process performed by the controller 26 when a user on the control panel 34, while displaying a text information object on the display 30, operates keys intended for scrolling, such as those shown in FIG. the up arrow and down arrow keys. In this case, in a step 500, the control device 26 shifts the text detail of the text information of the currently displayed object to be displayed downwards or upwards, if still possible. In the case of menu items and list items, as described, the title is always displayed on the screen of the display.

FIG. 11 shows a process executed by the controller 26 when, with the text information object displayed, the user operates a select key that may be a dedicated key on the operator panel 34, or is, for example, the right arrow key. Upon actuation of this button or selection device checks the controller 26, in a step 550, whether or not the currently displayed text information object is a menu item. If this is not the case, the selection key is not assigned, ie no function is assigned to it, and the process of FIG. 11 ends at 552. If it is a menu object, then the control device 26 beats in the memory 32 in a step 554 to see if it contains an object with an object ID associated with the highlighted menu option (see 172b in Figure 6d). If so, that is, in the case of a cache hit, in a step 556, the controller 26 changes the text information to be displayed to that of the object contained in the cache memory 32. Since the access to the cache memory 32 is fast, the screen change to the display 30 for the user thus imperceptibly, ie immediately. However, if the look-up at 554 results in a cache miss, then in step 558 the controller 26 waits for an object having the searched object ID to be broadcast in the broadcast signal 16. Of course, during step 558 all other processes are performed as usual, in particular the processes of Figure 7 and Figure 8 on the now incoming objects. Once the object with the searched object ID is received, the controller 26 changes in a step 560 the text information to be displayed on the screen of the display 30 to that of the currently received object with the searched object ID. After steps 560 and 556, respectively, an object-path update is performed in a step 562, as shown in greater detail in FIG.

FIG. 12 illustrates the object path update process of step 562 the controller 26 looked up in the memory 32 whether the new object ID, ie the object ID of the now newly displayed on the display 30 object that was associated with the selected menu option, already exists in the object path 44. If so, simply adding the new object ID to the end of the object path list of object IDs would result in a circular reference. Consequently, if the lookup results in a hit in step 580, the controller 26, in a step 582, causes the object path list 44 to be deleted up to this object ID, ie, to end with that object ID. Otherwise, ie in the case of a miss at lookup step 580, in a step 584 the new object ID is appended to the end of the object path list 44 unless the object path is length limited and has already reached its maximum length.

The management of the object path list 44 is intended to allow menu-back functionality, as will be explained in more detail with reference to FIG. 13, which illustrates a process that the controller 26 invokes upon pressing a back button. such as the left-arrow button on the control panel 34, when a text information object is being displayed on the display 30. Namely, in this case, in a step 600, the controller 26 retrieves, from the object path list 44, the object ID immediately preceding the object path of the object ID of the currently displayed object in the object path, and its object thus refers to it. For example, referring briefly to FIG. 9, pressing the back button there would cause the object ID 12 to be detected in step 600. Subsequently, in a step 602, the controller 26 beats in the memory 32 for an object with this object ID. In the case of a cache hit, in a step 604, the controller 26 changes the text information to be displayed to that of the object contained in the cache memory 32. Otherwise, ie in the event of a failure, the controller 26 waits in step 606 until an object having the searched object ID is broadcast in the broadcast signal 16, whereupon, as in a step 608, the text information to be displayed is that of the currently received object with searched object ID changes. After steps 604 and 608, in a step 610, the controller 26 updates the object path list 44 by truncating it around the last object ID, namely the object ID of the text information object that was displayed before the change 604, 608.

Of course, as indicated in Fig. 13, prior to step 600, it is checked in step 612 whether the object ID path 44 has any more than one object ID. The length would be one if the user were currently in the main menu (i.e., 0x0000, for example). If so, the operation of the menu back key would have no consequences and the process ended at 614. Otherwise, the process would start at 600 as described above.

According to the embodiment of Figure 14, the receiver 12 has favorite functionality to allow a user to store certain menu or message objects for fast and direct future access, for example by giving them the highest priority in cache memory is assigned.

For example, in order to realize the favorite functionality, the receiver 12 comprises a dedicated key, the user's long press of which may express his desire to add the object ID of the currently displayed text information object to the favorites list, while pressing the same key briefly in that the control means uses the favorite object ID in the favorite memory for the next text information object to be displayed. Of course, other means may be provided with which the user may invoke a favorite addition or a favorite call. Figure 14 illustrates a favorite add button activation control process. If the user indicates the desire to add, then in step 700 the controller 26 first checks to see if the currently displayed object has a set static flag. If this is the case, this means that the object ID for a particular menu or a specific message object (eg, topic-related) is static or permanently provided. For example, a menu object regarding "weather forecast for Bamberg" could always be offered by a particular news service or news service under object ID 0x0020. Thus, in this case, it makes sense to allow the user to add such an object ID to a favorites list. Thus, in this case, the controller 26 adds the object ID to the favorites list 46 in the memory 32 in a step 702. However, this would not make sense with an object ID, for example, which is currently assigned to a text object that indicates the current score of a football match currently taking place. Namely, this game ends in finite time and the object ID will be awarded elsewhere, for example for a political daily report or similar. If the static flag is not set, then the process ends at 704 without addition. In this case, the rejection 704 may be accompanied by, for example, a tone drowning the normal audio signal from the speaker 28 or 40 and indicating the rejection to the user, or accompanied by a brief fade.

It should be noted that it is preferred that a receiver 12 that supports the favorites functionality also for each favorite object ID, the full path of object IDs from the main object with the main object ID ( eg 0x0000) down to the respective favorite object. Otherwise, the recipient will not be able to provide the menu-back functionality or return-to-higher-menu functionality to a user if a user has invoked this favorite object, although of course the object itself as well the immediate sub-objects, in the case that it is a menu object pointing to them, would still be reachable. If a menu from the object ID path should no longer exist (be shipped) upon restoration of a favorite seer, the controller could instead jump directly to the default main menu (e.g., 0x0000).

In the receiver described above, a record of all menu object IDs has been preserved from the currently displayed menu / message object back to the main menu object (eg, object ID 0x0000), the so-called object ID path. In this way, it can provide a "back to higher menu level" functionality.

If an object with a particular object ID is currently displayed to the user and at the same time provides an updated version of the same object, i. an object with identical object ID but different revision index is received, contrary to the preceding description, the user could always be displayed, independently of the object type, that such a current version of this object has been received, such as e.g. by showing a flashing "update" sign on the screen. However, it is preferable for menu or list message objects to update the screen of the display immediately with the content of the new object, while the user's current relative position within the list, i. the list-line index is kept in the same position on the screen. Instead of the list-line index, a recipient could evaluate to the list-line or object text or, in the case of a menu object, the object ID of the referenced object. In a title-only message, it is preferable to immediately update the screen of the display with the content of the new object.

If a menu object contains references to object IDs that have not yet been received, these menu items or menu options are nevertheless offered to the user. This could of course be omitted. However, it is preferred to offer all menu options, but to clearly indicate to the user which menu options are immediately available, since the objects have already been received and are in the cache, and which are not immediately available, such as eg by framing the menu option label or title with square brackets, as shown in Figure 6d.

For applications with extreme memory bottlenecks, the receiver could only keep in its memory the currently displayed object along with the object ID path associated with the currently displayed object. If the user then requests another object, he must wait until the requested object is received in the next time.

As mentioned earlier, the "NewsService Journaline" service described above can be broadcast via DAB as a new user application. Each individual NewsService Journaline object could be transported as an "MSC Data Group", with reference to Chapter 5.3.3 "Packaged Mode - Data Group Level" in "Radio Broadcasting Systems, Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) to mobile, portable and fixed receivers ", ETSI EN 301 401 V1.3.2, 2000-09.

An MSC data group would then contain the following items:

An MSC data group header of two or four bytes, a session header that would be optional and 3 + n bytes long, an MSC data group field containing a "NewsService Journaline" object or text information object includes, for example, m bytes, max. however, 2044 bytes, and finally an MSC data group CRC of two bytes, which is mandatory for "NewsService Journaline".

• Erweiterungs-Flag = 0 (Bei auf Eins gesetztem Flag müsste der Empfänger Conditional Access bzw. eine Zugriffskontrolle unterstützen, um die Informationen zu dekodieren. Falls ein Empfänger kein Conditional Access unterstützt, müsste er die MSC-Datengruppe verwerfen)
• CRC-Flag = 1
• Segment-Flag = O (Wert hängt von dem Erweiterungs-Flag ab)
• Benutzer-Zugriffs-Flag = 0 (Wert hängt von dem Erweiterungs-Flag ab)
• Datengruppentyp = 0000_b ("Allgemeine Daten")
• Kontinuitäts-Index:
  • Inkrementiert kontinuierlich für jedes Objekt, kann aber ohne weiteres ignoriert werden.
• Wiederhol-Index:
  • Wird üblicherweise dem Wert 000b aufweisen, kann aber ebenfalls ignoriert werden.
• Erweiterungs-Feld:
  • Nicht vorhanden, weil das Erweiterungs-Flag auf 0 eingestellt ist.

The following settings could be defined uniformly for all recipients. Specifically, it could be set to have the following layout in the MSC Data Group Header field:

• Extension flag = 0 (If the flag is set to one, the receiver would need to support conditional access or access control to decode the information.) If a receiver does not support conditional access, it would have to discard the MSC data group.)
• CRC flag = 1
• Segment flag = O (value depends on the extension flag)
• User access flag = 0 (value depends on the extension flag)
• Data group type = 0000 _b ("General data")
• Continuity Index:
  • Increments continuously for each object, but can be easily ignored.
• Repeat Index:
  • Usually having the value 000b, but can also be ignored.
• Extension field:
  • Not available because the extension flag is set to 0.

The following information could be used to signal the DAB "NewsService Journaline" data application, referring to the capital 8.1.20 "User Application Information" from the above document or standard.

The main 11-bit "user application type" ID for the "News Service Journal" could be 0x44A from the range of proprietary user applications until officially standardized by DAB bodies. The value corresponds to 10001001010 _b .

• Ein Byte zur Anzeige der Version des "NewsService Journaline". Zusätzliche Informationen einer neueren Version könnten in vollständig abwärts kompatibler Weise an zwei Stellen hinzugefügt werden, nämlich zum einen in der gesamten Dienstsignalisierung, nämlich der "DAB-Benutzer-Applikations-Information" durch Erweitern der Länge des "Benutzer-Applikations-Daten"-Abschnitts unter Beibehaltung aller e-xistierender Bytes und deren Definition, wie sie in jeder vorgehenden Version des "NewsService Journaline" definiert ist, oder in dem Objekt-Header-Abschnitt jedes einzelnen Objekts durch Erweitern der Länge des "Erweiterungs-Header"-Feldes bei gleichzeitiger Beibehaltung aller existierenden Bytes und deren Definitionen, wie sie in einer vorhergehenden Version des "NewsService Journaline" definiert sind.
  • Außerdem müsste das User-Application-Data-Feld die Länge des Erweiterungs-Headers in Bytes in dem Header-Abschnitt jedes Objekts aufweisen, die zu Lesen jeder Empfänger zumindest in der Lage sein müsste, auch wenn er anschließend die Daten in dem Erweiterungs-Header verwirft, weil er zu deren Auswertung nicht in der Lage ist.

The user application data field could have the following structure:

• One byte to display the version of the "NewsService Journaline". Additional information of a newer version could be added in two places in a fully downwards compatible manner, namely, on the whole service signaling, namely the "DAB user application information" by extending the length of the "user application data" section while retaining all of the e-xisting bytes and their definition as defined in each previous version of the "NewsService Journaline", or in the object header section of each individual object by extending the length of the "Extension Header" field at the same time Retention of all existing bytes and their definitions, as defined in a previous version of the "NewsService Journaline".
  • In addition, the User Application Data field would have to have the length of the extension header in bytes in the header portion of each object, which would at least need to be able to be read by each receiver, even if subsequently the data in the extension header rejects because he is unable to evaluate it.

With identical signaling, "NewsService Journaline" can also be broadcast via DRM ("Digital Radio Mondiale") as well as via FM / RDS after adjustment of data service signaling.

With respect to the preceding description of the figures, it is to be understood that various aspects contained therein need not all be combined in the manner described, but that these aspects may be independently implemented or unimplemented, such as e.g. in particular the object path management with associated "menu back" functionality, the cache update to speed up access to other text information objects, the dependency of the display update on the revision index, the dependency of updating the object type, the favorites functionality, the avoidance of circular references in the object ID path, the different screen refresh depending on the object type, the provision of the revision index and the like.

Finally, it should be noted that, depending on the circumstances, the inventive scheme for controlling a radio can also be implemented in software. The implementation may be on a digital storage medium, in particular a floppy disk or a CD with electronically readable control signals, which may interact with a programmable computer system such that the corresponding method is executed. In general, the invention thus also consists in a computer program product with program code stored on a machine-readable carrier for carrying out the method according to the invention when the computer program product runs on a computer. In other words, the invention can thus be considered as a computer program with a program code to implement the method when the computer program runs on a computer.

Claims (15)

Radio receiver with
a receiving device (24) for receiving a broadcast signal comprising text information objects (100) in which text information (100b) is contained, wherein the text information objects in the broadcast signal (16) are arranged consecutively in time, and each text information object (100) one Object identification number (102);
a display (30) for displaying textual information to be displayed;
user selection means (34) operable by a user;
control means (26) arranged to change, based on an operation of the user selection means (34) by the user, the text information to be displayed from currently displayed text information of a currently displayed text information object to text information of a text information object referred to by the current text information object, wherein the object identification number (102) of the current text information object is different from the object identification number (102) of the text information object to which it refers;
wherein each text information object has a static flag, the broadcast receiver further comprising a favorite call facility operable by the user; a user adding device operable by the user; a favorite memory for storing an object identification number; wherein the control means is arranged to change the textual information to be displayed from the currently displayed textual information to textual information of a text information object having the same object identification number as that stored in the favorites memory, and in response to an operation of the favorite calling means by the user wherein the control means is adapted to inspect the static flag of the currently displayed text information object depending on the operation of the favorite adding means by the user, and in the case that the static flag is not set to override the operation, and in the case that the static flag is set to enter the object identification number of the currently displayed text information object in the favorite memory. A radio receiver according to claim 1, further comprising: updating means for comparing (400) the object identification number of a text information object following the currently displayed text information object with the object identification number of the currently displayed text identification object and updating (402, 410, 416) the text information to be displayed by changing the currently displayed text information of the currently displayed text information object to textual information of the following textual information object depending on the comparison. A broadcast receiver according to claim 2, wherein each text information object 100 has a revision index (110), and wherein the updating means is adapted to compare the revision index of the text information object following the currently displayed text information object with the revision index of the currently displayed text information object (404) and perform the update only for the same object identification number and unequal revision index (410, 416). A radio receiver according to claim 2 or 3, wherein each text information object further comprises an object type identifier (108), and wherein the updating means is adapted to update also depending on the object type identifier of the currently displayed or following text information item. Object, namely, depending on the same either directly (410) or after a user request (416). A broadcast receiver according to any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein the display (30) is adapted to display a section of the text information of the following text information object when updated in the case that the amount of text information of the following text information object is larger than a displayable size, which overlaps, at least in part, with a section that the ad showed prior to the update. A radio receiver according to any one of claims 1-5, wherein the currently displayed text information object is a menu item, and the currently displayed text information comprises a list of menu options, the menu item having an associated object identification number for each menu option, wherein the control means is adapted to change the text information to be displayed from the currently displayed text information of the currently displayed text information object to text information of a text information object having the same object identification number as that which is one, as a function of the operation of the user selection means (34) by the user selected highlighted menu option is assigned. A radio receiver according to claim 6, further comprising user-operable scrolling means, the control means being adapted to change the menu option currently highlighted as selected to another of the menu options depending on the user's operation of the scrolling means to change. A radio receiver according to any one of claims 1-7, further comprising a cache memory (42) for temporarily storing already received text information objects. A radio receiver according to claim 8, further comprising: cache updating means for comparing (450) the object identification number of a currently received text information object in the broadcast signal with the object identification number of each text information object stored in the cache memory (42) and replacing a stored text information object whose object identification number with the object identification number of the currently received text information object in the broadcast signal coincides with the currently received text information object. A radio receiver according to claim 8 or 9, further comprising: a cache displacement means (462, 464, 466) for comparing (450) the object identification number of a currently received text information object in the broadcast signal with the object identification number of each text information object stored in the cache memory and storing the currently received text information object in the Broadcast signal if the object identification number of the same does not match the object identification number of any of the stored text information objects. A radio receiver according to claim 10, wherein the text information objects are arranged in a tree structure and the control means is adapted to perform the storage by overstoring a text information object to be stored among those stored in the cache memory as indicated by a displacement strategy, wherein the displacement Strategy below the currently received text information object and stored in the cache depending on their location and the location of the current displayed text information object in the tree structure defines a priority, wherein among the text information objects stored in the cache memory, those with lower priority than that currently received text information object as possible to überzusicherndes text information object in question. Radio receiver according to one of claims 8 to 11, wherein the control means is adapted to look at the change of the text information to be displayed, the other text information object to which the currently displayed text information object refers using the object identification number first in the cache memory and only in in the event of a miss until it is received in the broadcast signal. A radio receiver according to any of claims 8 to 12, further comprising: a cache hit identifier with
means for looking up, for each object identification number referenced by the currently displayed text information object, whether a text information object having the object identification number exists in the cache memory; and
means for highlighting among the currently displayed textual information of those parts associated with identification numbers for which a textual information object is present in the cache memory, against those parts in the currently displayed textual information associated with identification numbers for which no textual information object in the cache Memory is present. A method of controlling a broadcast receiver having receiving means (24) for receiving a broadcast signal comprising text information objects (100) containing textual information (100b), a display (30) for displaying textual information to be displayed, and user selection means (34), which is operable by a user, wherein the text information objects in the broadcast signal (16) are arranged consecutively in time, and each text information object (100) has an object identification number (102), the broadcast receiver further comprising a favorite call device, which is operable by the user, a user-adding device operable by the user, and a favorite memory for storing an object identification number comprising, the method comprising the steps of depending on an operation of the user selection means (34) by the user, changing the text information to be displayed from currently displayed text information of a currently displayed text information object to text information of a text information object referenced by the current text information object, the object identification number (102) of the current one Text information object from the object identification number (102) of the text information object to which it refers; depending on an operation of the favorite calling means by the user, changing the text information to be displayed from the currently displayed text information to text information of a text information object having the same object identification number as that stored in the favorite memory; depending on the operation of the favorite adding means by the user, examining the static flag of the currently displayed text information object; in the event that the static flag is not set, skip the operation; and in the case that the static flag is set, enter the object identification number of the current one displayed text information object in the favorite memory. A computer program comprising program code for carrying out the method of claim 14 when the computer program runs on a computer.

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