Method for generating an on-screen menu
AssigneeThomson Licensing
InventorsJobst Hoerentrup, Dirk Gandolph, Carsten Herpel, Ralf Ostermann, Hartmut Peters
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for generating an on-screen menu comprising menu buttons and other menu items, e.g. help text, is characterized in that one or more groups of menu buttons or menu items are defined, wherein a group comprises one or more menu buttons or menu items and has associated a defined area on the screen. A state is assigned to a button, the state being “enabled” or “disabled”, wherein only an enabled button or item may be displayed, and wherein within a group not more than one button or item may be enabled. The state of a button can be changed by commands associated with other buttons.
Claims4
A method for generating a displayable menu page from data of a menu data segment, the menu page comprising separately rendered selectable menu buttons, comprising:
- accessing definition of at least one group of two or more menu buttons from the menu data segment,
- wherein the definition of the at least one group in the menu data segment comprises a parameter indicating the number of menu buttons in a respective group of the at least one group, and
- wherein each of the two or more menu buttons has associated a defined area on a display and for each of the two or more menu buttons a reference number is defined, and for each of the two or more menu buttons a numerically_selectable_flag is defined, and each menu button that belongs to the displayable menu page is separately rendered, and wherein a menu button belongs to not more than one group of the at least one group;
- and
- assigning a state to each separately rendered menu button, the state being “enabled” or “disabled”,
- wherein only an enabled menu button is displayed, wherein a menu button in the “enabled” state may have a further state of “normal”, “selected” or “activated”,
- wherein the menu button is considered to be a same menu button irrespective of its state being the “disabled” state, the “enabled” and “normal” state, the “enabled” and “selected” state or the “enabled” and “activated” state,
- wherein not more than one menu button within a group may be enabled simultaneously, and
- wherein the numerically_selectable_flag indicates if the menu button is numerically selectable.
An apparatus for processing a data stream, the data stream comprising menu data for a displayable menu page, wherein the displayable menu page comprises selectable menu buttons to be separately rendered, the apparatus including:
- means for separately rendering each menu button that belongs to the displayable menu page;
- means for defining, based on data from said data stream, at least one group of two or more menu buttons,
- wherein a menu button belongs to not more than one group, for each of the two or more menu buttons a reference number is defined, and for each of the two or more menu buttons a numerically_selectable_flag is defined, and
- wherein based on the data from said data stream, a parameter indicating the number of menu buttons in a respective group is defined for the at least one group;
- means for associating with each of said menu buttons a defined area on a display;
- and
- means for assigning a state to each of said separately rendered menu buttons belonging to a group, the state being “enabled” or “disabled”,
- wherein only an enabled menu button is displayed, wherein a menu button in the “enabled” state may have a further state of “normal”, “selected” or “activated”, and
- wherein the menu button is considered to be a same menu button irrespective of its state being the “disabled” state, the “enabled” and “normal” state, the “enabled” and “selected” state or the “enabled” and “activated” state, and
- wherein not more than one menu button within a group may be enabled simultaneously, and
- wherein the numerically_selectable_flag indicates if the menu button is numerically selectable.
A removable data storage medium containing audio-visual data and a menu data segment for generating a displayable menu page relating to the audio-visual data, the menu page comprising separately rendered selectable menu buttons, wherein for the menu data segment
- at least one group of two or more menu buttons is defined in said menu data segment,
- wherein a definition of the at least one group in the menu data segment comprises a parameter indicating the number of menu buttons in a respective group of the at least one group, and
- wherein each of the two or more menu buttons has associated a defined area on the display, and for each of the two or more menu buttons a reference number is defined, and for each of the two or more menu buttons a numerically_selectable_flag is defined, and each menu button that belongs to the displayable menu page is separately rendered;
- a menu button belongs to not more than one group of the at least one group;
- and
- a state is assigned to each separately rendered menu button, the state being “enabled” or “disabled”,
- wherein only an enabled menu button is displayed, wherein a menu button in the “enabled” state may have a further state of “normal”, “selected” or “activated”,
- wherein the menu button is considered to be a same menu button irrespective of its state being the “disabled” state, the “enabled” and “normal” state, the “enabled” and “selected” state or the “enabled” and “activated” state,
- wherein not more than one menu button within a group may be enabled simultaneously, and
- wherein the numerically_selectable_flag indicates if the menu button is numerically selectable.
A method for recording audio-visual data and a menu data segment for generating a displayable menu page relating to the audio-visual data on a removable data storage medium, the menu page comprising separately rendered selectable menu buttons, the method comprising:
- creating, in said menu data segment, data for at least one group of two or more menu buttons,
- wherein a definition of the at least one group in the menu data segment comprises a parameter indicating the number of menu buttons in a respective group of the at least one group,
- wherein each of said menu buttons has associated a defined area on the display and for each of the two or more menu buttons a reference number is defined, and for each of the two or more menu buttons a numerically_selectable_flag is defined, and each menu button that belongs to the displayable menu page is separately rendered, wherein a menu button belongs to not more than one group of the at least one group,
- wherein upon generating a menu from said menu data segment, a state is assigned to each menu button of said at least one group of menu buttons, the state being “enabled” or “disabled”,
- wherein only an enabled menu button may be displayed and may have one of the states “normal”, “selected” or “activated”,
- wherein the menu button is considered to be a same menu button irrespective of its state being the “disabled” state, the “enabled” and “normal” state, the “enabled” and “selected” state or the “enabled” and “activated” state,
- wherein not more than one menu button within a group may be enabled simultaneously, and
- wherein the numerically_selectable_flag indicates if the menu button is numerically selectable;
- and
- recording said menu data segment and the audio-visual data on said removable data storage medium.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.