System and method for automatic switching to interactive application during television program breaks
AssigneeThomson Licensing
InventorsJohn Herbert Stevens, Timothy Joseph Tully
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system and method for automatically switching a primary image of a display module from a television program to an interactive application upon detecting the beginning of a commercial break and optionally switching the primary image back to the television program upon detecting or determining the end of the commercial break; wherein the user's progress in executing the interactive application is automatically saved upon return to the television program so that the user can progressively execute the interactive application program during consecutive commercial breaks.
Claims22
A system for automatically switching to an interactive application during television commercial breaks comprising:
- an interactive application module capable of executing an interactive application program and generating output data;
- a television program module that generates a television program signal;
- an input module for entering user input commands into the interactive application module;
- a break detection module adapted to detect television commercial breaks in the television program signal and generate a break beginning signal;
- a display module having a primary display area capable of receiving the television program signal and the interactive application output data and displaying a primary display image corresponding to either the television program signal or the interactive application output data;
- and
- a switching module that switches the primary display image to the interactive application output data upon receiving the break beginning signal so that upon detecting the beginning of a television commercial break the interactive application output data is automatically presented in the primary display area.
A method of executing an interactive application program during television commercial breaks comprising the steps of:
- providing a television program module which generates a television program signal;
- providing an interactive application module adapted to receive user input commands and generate output data according to an interactive application program;
- providing a break detection module to detect the beginning of television commercial breaks in the television program signal;
- presenting the television program in a primary display area of a display module until the beginning of a television commercial break is detected and then displaying the interactive application in the primary display area.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.