KR100323699B1 - User interface of video display for electronic program guide - Google Patents

Abstract

A user interface of an electronic program guide (EPG) of an image display device.

The conventional EPG performs a function selected by a user by using information of an EPG screen displayed in a grid form.

The present invention is an EPG user interface for displaying an EPG in the form of a grid or a list on a screen of an image display device, and further displaying information related to the item in a window when the control pointer is moved on an arbitrary item. When moving over a program item, the detailed description, menu list or title of the program is displayed in the window. When the control pointer moves to a channel number or channel name, the detailed description or menu list of the program is displayed. When moved over the Control Bar) or the EPG button, the button function is displayed, and the EPG information is displayed on the original video signal in a translucent manner to maximize the visible area.

Also, the EPG information is displayed in the form of channel number and channel name only so as not to cover the original video signal.If the control pointer is moved over the displayed channel number or channel name, the channel (or any number of channels adjacent to the channel) is displayed. A list of programs appeared.

Description

USER INTERFACE OF VIDEO DISPLAY FOR ELECTRONIC PROGRAM GUIDE}

The present invention decodes an electronic program guide (EPG: ELECTRONIC PROGRAM GUIDE) signal carried on a TV signal in a video display device such as a TV or a VCR, displays the overlapped video signal on a TV screen, and displays the EPG information screen displayed on the TV screen. The present invention relates to a user interface of an electronic program guide of an image display device that provides a user with various information about a channel and a program, and allows an arbitrary function to be executed directly on an EPG screen.

The EPG information is included in the TV signal to show the result to the user, and the user can use this to browse TV programs as well as to select channels.

Conventionally, as one of such techniques, EPG data is transmitted in a vertical blanking section (VBI) of an analog TV, and a TV receiver decodes and displays EPG data contained in the VBI on a screen.

On the other hand, in the case of digital TV, the EPG information is included in the digital video stream and transmitted, and the EPG information is decoded by the decoder and superimposed on the video signal to be displayed on the screen.

The conventional EPG user interface displays program information in the form of a grid or a list on the screen, obtains predetermined information desired by the user using the EPG information screen displayed on the screen, and displays the information on the EPG information screen. Selecting a channel item enables direct international languages for that channel.

However, such a conventional EPG user interface has a problem in that the EPG screen covers part or all of the TV screen, thereby reducing the visible area of the program being broadcast. In particular, in the case of digital TV, a large number of channels are compared with conventional analog TVs. In order to conveniently use the combination of EPG and TV as described above, it is difficult to simply follow the existing TV usage method, and a new, more user-friendly and user-friendly, simple and powerful EPG user interface is required. It is becoming.

According to the present invention, when an EPG is displayed on a screen in the form of a grid or a list, and a control pointer such as a mouse or a trackball cursor moves to any item on the EPG information screen, the EPG is associated with the item. The electronic program guide (EPG) interface of the video display device further displays information on the screen and displays the related information in the form of a sub-window when the EPG information screen is viewed in the main window. to provide.

The present invention also provides an electronic program guide (EPG) of an image display device in which the EPG information screen or related information is processed and displayed as translucent with respect to the video screen to maximize the visible area of the video screen and prevent the EPG information from covering the video screen. ) Provides an interface.

In addition, the present invention displays a detailed description of the program or a menu list or title in the window when the control pointer is moved over a program item, and displays a detailed description or menu list of the program when the control pointer is moved to a channel number or channel name. When the control pointer is moved over the Control Bar or the EPG button, it displays the button function, allowing the user to more conveniently and concisely understand the overall or partial details of the program and the functions that can be executed. Provides an electronic program guide (EPG) interface.

In addition, the present invention is to display the EPG information screen in the form of only the channel number and channel name so as not to cover the original video signal, and if the control pointer is moved over the displayed channel number or channel name, the channel (or any number adjacent to the channel) An electronic program guide (EPG) interface of an image display device is provided so that a program list of a channel) is displayed.

1 is a block diagram of an image display device to which the present invention is applied.

Figure 2 shows a first embodiment of the EPG interface screen according to the present invention

3 is a view showing a second embodiment of the EPG interface screen according to the present invention;

4 is a view showing an example of information displayed in a sub-window when a control pointer is positioned on a program item in the EPG interface according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates a case where a list of menus that can be selected when a program item is selected in the EPG interface according to the present invention is shown; FIG.

6 and 7 illustrate examples of EPG screens when the EPG button is selected in the EPG interface according to the present invention.

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an image display device to which the present invention is applied.

A TV receiver 101 for receiving a TV signal, a tuner 102 for tuning the received TV signal, and a TV signal decoder 103 for converting the tuned TV signal or video data into a display format signal A moving picture storage 104 for supplying video data to the TV signal decoder 103, an EPG decoder 105 for decoding an EPG signal from an output signal of the TV signal decoder 103, and the EPG. An EPG database 106 that stores the EPG data decoded by the decoder 105, a display device 107 in charge of signal processing for displaying the decoded TV signal and the EPG signal, and the display device 107. The display device 107 includes an overlay area 109 and a main screen area 110 as a video memory 108. have .

The selection of information and the functioning of the information provided in the EPG information screen are made using the control pointer controller, which may be, for example, a mouse, a trackball, or a menu key on the remote control. It may be a cursor displayed on the screen.

A control controller, such as a mouse, can be used in connection with the display device 107, which can be easily implemented from a technology such as using a mouse or trackball in a conventional PC. Omitted.

In addition, the technique of overlay processing of the EPG information screen and the TV signal (video screen) can also be similarly realized from the existing OSD processing technique, etc., and since it is already known, illustration and description of a specific circuit configuration are omitted.

A feature of the present invention is that the EPG information screen overlaid on the video screen as an EPG user interface is treated as translucent, or the EPG information screen is composed of only a channel number and a channel name. When the control pointer is placed over a certain item (program name, channel number, channel name, bookmark (EPG softkey), etc.), the relevant information related to the item is displayed at the same time, and if it is out of the item, the display of the information is removed. have.

Therefore, FIGS. 1 to 7 focus on the EPG interface screen related to the features of the present invention and how the features on the screen are implemented, and how to use or use various information provided in the EPG information screen is described. The functions provided by the existing EPG user interface are similar and are treated as references.

First, the operation of the image display device configured as shown in FIG. 1 will be briefly described as follows.

TV signals received by the TV receiver 101 and tuned through the tuner 102 or video data read from the video storage device 104 such as a video tape, CD-ROM, disk, or the like are input to the TV signal decoder 103. The display device 107 is converted into an acceptable signal and then output to the monitor 111.

Meanwhile, EPG data included in the TV signal is decoded by the EPG decoder 105 and stored in the EPG data base 106.

The video signal output from the TV signal decoder 103 and the EPG data output from the EPG database 106 are processed in the overlay area 109 and the main picture area 110 of the video memory 108 in the display device 107. And appropriately overlayed and displayed on the monitor 111.

Fig. 2 shows the EPG information screen displayed together with the video signal on the monitor screen as described above.

The control bar 202 is displayed at the bottom of the video screen 201.

The control bar 202 is a collection of tools for controlling a TV, including a 'GUIDE' button for displaying an EPG on the screen, an 'OPTION' button for displaying a window for selecting user options, an audio (AUDIO) and 'AUDIO' button and 'CAPTION' button to select the language of the caption, 'CAPTURE' button to stop the moving image and save the still image, and to record the currently received TV signal to the storage device. 'RECORD' button, 'CH +/-' button for channel selection, 'VOL +/-' button for volume control, and 'TV / VCR' button for switching between TV mode and VCR mode. It is.

When one of these buttons is selected as the cursor (control pointer) by the user using an input controller such as a mouse or trackball, the corresponding function is performed.

On the other hand, when the EPG button is selected, the EPG information screen 203 is displayed in the form of a grid or a list. FIG. 2 shows a case where the horizontal axis is displayed as a time axis and the vertical axis is displayed as a list of channels. .

That is, the EPG information screen 203 includes a channel number 204, a channel name 205 (broadcasting station name), time 206, function buttons 207a, 207b, 207c, and 207d, a vertical scroll bar 208, and a horizontal scroll bar ( 209).

The EPG information screen 203 is translucently displayed together with the TV screen 201 by using an alpha blending technique or a technique of alternately inserting a color key into an object surface. do.

The user's selection is immediately applied while the EPG information screen 203 is displayed on the TV screen and fed back to the user in the form of channel selection.

On the other hand, even if the EPG is displayed semi-transparently as shown in FIG. 2, the user may still be dissatisfied with the video screen 201 being obscured.

Therefore, in the present invention, as shown in FIG. 3, when the 'GUIDE' button is selected, a part of the video screen 301, and in FIG. 3, the EPG information having only a list of the channel number 302 and the channel name 303 at the left edge. An embodiment for outputting a screen is provided.

In the EPG screen of FIG. 3, when a user clicks a desired channel number or channel name using the control pointer 304, channel selection may be performed.

In addition, when the control pointer 304 is moved to the desired channel number or channel name 305, a list 306 of programs corresponding to the channel is generated and displayed in the form of a window.

In this way, channel selection may be performed while the video screen 301 is maximized, and a list of programs included in the channel may be recognized at a glance.

In addition, if the list of programs for the corresponding channel is long, a scroll bar may be further displayed on the list of programs 306.

3 differs in that all of the grid-like EPGs do not appear on the screen as compared to FIG. 2, but FIGS. 2 and 3 have all the features of the present invention to be described later.

However, when displaying the EPG as shown in Fig. 3, the user can see only the program list of the channel he wants to see, which is advantageous in that the confusion occurs when the video is overlaid and the visual area of the video is secured more widely. Do.

Meanwhile, as shown in FIG. 3, when the control pointer 304 moves on a specific channel in the EPG information screen including only the channel number and the channel name, an embodiment of simultaneously displaying the program list of the adjacent up and down channels is also possible.

That is, when the control pointer 304 is moved on the channel 14-1 (MAX) as shown in FIG. 3, the program list for not only the channel MAX but also the adjacent upper N channels and the lower M channels is simultaneously displayed. Where M and N are positive integers.

4 shows that the program is focused by changing the color or contrast of the box of the program 401 when the control pointer 400 moves over an arbitrary program 401 in the EPG user interface of the present invention. If the title of the program is too long or the running time of the program is too short to display the title in a given area, the title of the program is displayed as a sub-window 402 near the control pointer 400. In addition, the detailed description 403 of the program 401 is further displayed below the EPG.

This pop-up window is also applied to buttons such as channel number (CH NO.) And channel name (CH NAME). When the control pointer 400 moves over them, 'sort in channel number order' or ' You can also display additional descriptions of the button's function, such as "Sort by channel name."

The window that appears when the 'GUIDE' button is pressed is used as a window for editing the 'Favorites', 'Search', and 'Remind / Record' lists as well as a 2-D grid EPG for the time and channel axes.

To enable these tasks in a single window, bookmarks such as 'What'sOnNow', 'Favorites', 'Search', and 'Remind / Record' shown at the top of FIG.

These bookmarks allow users to work with pages with different functions in a single window.

Looking at the function and purpose of the pages except 'What'sOnNow', 'Favorites' allows users to present their desired channels and programs according to their preferences when the selection of channels and programs is too wide. 'Provides a search function to the user so that they can easily find the desired program, and' Remind / Record 'provides the user's program attention function and reservation recording function.

'Favorite list' has the exact same interface as the grid list that appears in 'What'sOnNow', but differs from 'What'sOnNow' in that its contents can be edited by the user.

For example, to include a specific program in the Favorites list:

In the 'What'sOnNow' page of FIG. 5, move the control pointer to 'Animal Instincts 3' 501, and click a specific button on the control pointer controller, for example, right-click on the mouse, double-click on the trackball, or on the remote control. When the menu button is clicked, the popup menu 502 is displayed near 'Animal Instincts 3' 501.

In this pop-up menu 502, 'Add To Favorite List' is selected.

In this process, a detailed description 503 of the selected program 501 is presented.

The above process is also applied to the box representing the channel as the channel number or the channel name, so that any channel can be selected in the 'Favorite List'.

Including a particular program in the 'Favorite List' is possible in the list of programs on any page other than the grid list of the 'Favorites' page, but deleting a specific program already included in the 'Favorite List' is only possible in the 'Favorites' page. Do.

Deleting a particular program from the 'Favorites' list is also done by a pop-up menu by the button manipulation of the control pointer controller in the same way as the input process.

Meanwhile, an example for including a specific program in the 'Remind / Record List' is as follows.

When the control pointer is positioned on 'Animal Instincts 3' 501 of FIG. 5 and a button of the control pointer controller is operated, a pop-up menu appears near 'Animal Instincts 3'.

Also, check whether 'Animal Instincts 3' is a program after the current time. If the program is after the current time, select 'Add To Remind / Record' from the pop-up menu.

On the other hand, if you want to delete a specific program from the Remind / Record List, like the above 'Favorites', pop-up menu appears in the desired program box, then select the 'Delete From Remind' or 'Delete From Record' menu.

5 is a screen view when the pop-up menu 502 appears in 'What'sOnNow', FIG. 6 is a screen view when the 'Search' 601 bookmark is selected, and FIG. 7 is 'Remind / Record' (701) This is the screen when the bookmark is selected.

On the other hand, the configuration of the screen when the 'Favorites' bookmark is pressed is the same as 'What'sOnNow', that is, FIG.

The search page as shown in FIG. 6 is divided into a conditional part and a search part. The search condition items of the conditional part include From, End, To, Time of Day, Channel, and Area of the year, month, and day. Category), Rating, Keyword, and the like, and a search result of a corresponding condition is presented by pressing the search button 602.

The conditions of channel, region, and class are regarded as the same as those selected when a plurality of conditions can be selected simultaneously in each list, and when not selected at all.

According to the present invention, the visible area of the video screen can be as wide as possible by preventing the EPG information screen from covering the video screen as much as possible.

In addition, the present invention is a sub-window that includes a detailed description, a title, a list of functions that can be executed from the program as information related to the item whenever the control pointer is positioned on a specific item when the control pointer is moved on the EPG information screen. The display format is displayed in more detail for maximum ease of use.

In addition, the present invention provides a list of functions that can be executed in the item as well as additional descriptions related to the item whenever the control pointer is positioned on a particular item when the control pointer is moved on the EPG information screen. By running the program immediately, the EPG user interface can be used more easily, and the necessary information can be presented at a glance.

Claims (11)

The EPG information is displayed in the form of being overlaid on the video screen, and when the control pointer moves to a specific item on the EPG information screen, information related to the item where the control pointer is located is further displayed in the form of a sub window. User interface of the electronic program guide (EPG) of the video display device. The user interface of an electronic program guide (EPG) of an image display device according to claim 1, wherein the fraud subwindow automatically disappears when the control pointer leaves the position of the item. The user interface of an electronic program guide (EPG) of an image display device according to claim 1, wherein the item to which the control pointer moves is a program, and information further displayed on the program is a detailed description of the program. The method of claim 1, wherein the item to which the control pointer moves is a program, and information displayed further on this is a menu list of functions that can be executed in the program, and when one of the menu lists is selected, the function is executed. A user interface of an electronic program guide (EPG) of an image display device. The method of claim 1, wherein the item to which the control pointer is moved is channel information such as a channel number or a channel name, and information displayed further on this is a detailed description of the channel information or a menu list of functions that can be executed in the program. The user interface of the electronic program guide (EPG) of the video display device, characterized in that the function is executed when one of the menu list is selected. The image display according to claim 1, wherein the item to which the control pointer is moved is a program, and information displayed further on this is the remaining information which is not displayed only by the corresponding program field on the EPG information screen near the control pointer. User interface of the electronic program guide (EPG) of the device. The electronic program guide of claim 1, wherein the item to which the control pointer is moved is a function button on an EPG information screen, and the information displayed further on this is a detailed description of the function of the corresponding button. (EPG) user interface. EPG information is displayed in the form of being overlaid on a certain area on the video screen, and characters, lines, and figures indicating information or distinguishing information from the area where the EPG information is overlaid on the screen are overlaid on the screen. The portion which does not represent information is semi-transparent so as to secure the visible area of the user. The user interface of the electronic program guide (EPG) of the video display device. The EPG information is displayed in the form of being overlaid on the video screen, and the EPG information is displayed on the two-dimensional plane by displaying only one axis as channel information such as channel number and channel name, and all remaining areas are transparently allocated to the video screen area. User interface of an electronic program guide (EPG) of a video display device. 10. The electronic program guide of claim 9, wherein when the control pointer moves to a channel information item on the EPG information screen, a program list of the corresponding channel is displayed as information related to the item where the control pointer is located. (EPG) user interface. The electronic program of claim 9, wherein when the control pointer moves to a channel information item on the EPG information screen, a program list of predetermined channels adjacent to the item is simultaneously displayed based on the item. User interface of the guide (EPG).