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US 10,219,032 B2Granted
Tuning Behavior Enhancement
AssigneeARRIS Enterprises LLC
InventorsYeqing Wang, Yaxi Zhang
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A client device, which can be a set-top box or a gateway device, can be operative to continue processing content (e.g., a television program) in its pipeline, while it is requesting a different content (e.g., tuning or obtaining a targeted ad). Instead of seeing a blank screen or a muted still-shot, the user in some circumstances would be able to continue to see a segment of the processed content information.
Claims22
A method for processing content received from a communications network, the method comprising:
- in one or more processors of a Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) device communicatively coupled to a communications network:
- receiving from the communications network a signal containing a program;
- processing the received signal to display the program;
- receiving a request to tune to other content;
- determining whether the request was generated from a user input device or from a module of the CPE device;
- and
- differentiating, based on a result of the determining, between a user-initiated command to tune to other content and a non-user initiated command to tune to other content, the differentiating comprising:
- responsively to the request being generated from a user input device, stopping the processing of the signal containing the program while obtaining the other content, and during a delay after the user-initiated command to tune to other content has been received, displaying one of a mute to black and a mute to still;
- and
- responsively to the request being generated from a module of the CPE device, during a delay after the non-user initiated command to tune to other content has been received, continuing to process the signal containing the program for display of the program while obtaining the other content, and continuing to display the program during the delay.
7 more elements
A Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) device comprising:
- at least one output port configured to output one or more signals containing content information leading to the display of content on a display device, a demodulator, decryptor, and decoder for processing a signal containing content information received from a communications network;
- a storage device for storing advertisements;
- and
- one or more processors communicatively coupled to the communications network, the one or more processors configured to execute computer-readable instructions for:
- receiving from the communications network a signal containing a program;
- processing the received signal to display the program;
- receiving a request to tune to other content;
- determining whether the request was generated from a user input device or from a module of the CPE device;
- and
- differentiating, based on a result of the determining, between a user-initiated command to tune to other content and a non-user initiated command to tune to other content, the differentiating comprising:
- responsively to the request being generated from a user input device, stopping the processing of the signal containing the program while obtaining the other content, and during a delay after the user-initiated command to tune to other content has been received, displaying one of a mute to black and a mute to still;
- and
- responsively to the request being generated from a module of the CPE device, during a delay after the non-user initiated command to tune to other content has been received, continuing to process the signal containing the program for display of the program while obtaining the other content, and continuing to display the program during the delay.
10 more elements
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors of a Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) device communicatively coupled to a communications network to:
- receive from the communications network a signal containing a program;
- process the received signal to display the program;
- receiving a request to tune to other content;
- determining whether the request was generated from a user input device or from a module of the CPE device;
- and
- differentiating, based on a result of the determining, between a user-initiated command to tune to other content and a non-user initiated command to tune to other content, the differentiating comprising:
- responsively to the request being generated from a user input device, stopping the processing of the signal containing the program while obtaining the other content, and during a delay after the user-initiated command to tune to other content has been received, displaying one of a mute to black and a mute to still;
- and
- responsively to the request being generated from a module of the CPE device, during a delay after the non-user initiated command to tune to other content has been received, continuing to process the signal containing the program for display of the program while obtaining the other content, and continuing to display the program during the delay.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.