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US 7,849,476 B2Granted
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
Estimating the term…
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.
Claims21
A system for automatically switching to an interactive application during a commercial break in video programming comprising:
- an interactive application module for executing an interactive application program and generating output data;
- a video program module that generates a video program signal;
- an input module for entering user input commands into the interactive application module;
- a break detection module to detect a commercial break in the video program signal and generate a break beginning signal;
- a display module having a primary display area for receiving the video program signal and the interactive application output data and displaying a primary display image corresponding to either the video 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 commercial break, the interactive application output data is automatically presented in the primary display area, wherein
- upon the activation of a second interactive application, said system automatically saves a user's progress in the operation of said interactive program in a memory as to allow the user to use said second interactive application, and
- restoring said user's progress of said interactive program by accessing said memory to retrieve information corresponding to said user's progress
- automatically switching back to the display of said video program at the end of said commercial break unless said user enables an override command at the time of said switching operation as to continue the operation of said interactive application until said interactive application is terminated
- at the time said interactive application is terminated, said system automatically saves said user's progress in the operation of said interactive application as to resume the display of said video program in said primary display area, and
- received information corresponding to said video program is stored where the video program stored corresponds from the period when said interactive application and said second interactive application is being used after said override command is performed until said interactive applications is terminated, and
- playing back said stored information in said primary area, when said interactive applications are terminated, as to drop at least one frame of video from said stored information until said video program can be presented in real time only when the operation of said interactive application lasts longer than the period of time corresponding to said beginning of said commercial break and the end of said commercial break.
9 more elements
A method of executing an interactive application program during a commercial break comprising the steps of:
- providing a video program module which generates a video program signal;
- providing an interactive application module to receive user input commands and generate output data according to an interactive application program;
- detecting a commercial break in the video program signal;
- presenting the video program in a primary display device area of a display until the beginning of the commercial break is detected;
- displaying the interactive application in the primary display area until the end of said commercial break, where said video program is automatically resumed to be displayed in said primary display area, except when said user enters in an override command at the time of said commercial break whereby said interactive application is displayed in the primary display area until said interactive application is terminated, wherein
- received information corresponding to said video program is stored, where the video program being stored, corresponds from the period when said interactive application is being used after said override command and said storing ends when said interactive application is terminated, and
- playing back said stored information in said primary area, when said interactive application is terminated, as to drop at least one frame of video from said stored information until said video program can be presented in real time.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.