FORM 2
THE PATENTS ACT, 1970
(39 of 1970)
&
THE PATENTS RULES, 2003
PROVISIONAL
Specification
(Under section 10 and rule 13)
INTERACTIVE TELEVISION
TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES LTD.
an Indian Company
Bombay House,
24, Sir Homi Mody Street,
Mumbai400 001,
Maharashtra, India.
THE FOLLOWING SPECIFICATION DESCRIBES

Field of the Invention:
This invention relates to methods and apparatus for implementation of a set of Interactive Applications using a flexible Framework.
Background of the Invention:
Multimedia processing platforms are available which are capable of a variety of entertainment, collaboration and information applications that allows an end-user to
a) View Broadcast / on-demand TV content
b) Playback / Record Audio-Video files and view images either from local storage or from Internet
c) Collaborate over the IP network (Video Chat, Audio Chat, Send/receive SMS)
d) Share Audio-Video / Image content with others
e) Browse information over the internet
However, a limitation is that to provide such applications in a single platform requires a single user interface to tie these applications together. There is therefore a need for seamlessly blending available broadcast / or-demand TV content (available from local cable TV provider or satellite TV provider through a separate box or Internet TV content through IPTV) with information and media content available in local storage and internet for doing value-added interactive applications on various ,media such as the TV network.
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In the prior art to develop such a system, one needs to invoke each application separately and configure them based on use case scenarios. This requires the core architect to design separate core modules for separate applications. What is observed is that these modules have a lot of commonality that can be utilized. Further, third-party applications like web browser, chat etc. also need to be integrated under the same user interface. In order to control the third-party applications in a generic way, there is also the need to control the inputs to the applications (which are normally keyboard and mouse events) and output of the applications (which are normally graphics drivers). This leads to the requirement of having a generic media framework which can be dynamically configured to carry out different functionalities. At the same time it should allow the integration of third-party applications with minimal interactions with the same.
This invention envisages a novel way of integrating broadcast TV content available from existing set top boxes with the information and media content available in a local storage and internet. The blending of the broadcast TV content with the information and media content available in local storage and internet also opens up possibilities of various value-added applications where the broadcast TV content can be made interactive.
The invention provides a mechanism to blend already available broadcast TV content (available from local cable TV provider or satellite TV provider through a separate box) with information and media content available in local storage and internet for doing value-added interactive applications on TV.
In order to achieve the above requirement, this invention also aims at the creation of a generic media framework consisting of a Media Source Sub-system, a Media
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Process Sub-system, a media Sink Sub-system and a Control Sub-system, which can dynamically configured to bring about a wide-range of media centric interactive applications.
In particular, this invention envisages a subsystem based approach to processing of digital media in order to make all media centric applications come under a common architecture, using which any media application can be developed and even third party application executables can also be integrated provided they have a well defined set of user inputs.
The framework solution in accordance with this invention provides an Input Event Decision Manager (IEDM) which works in tandem with an user interface to maintain the application state. Based on this application state, the IEDM forwards certain user inputs, received from kernel event drivers like that of keyboard, mouse, IR etc. to certain user modules. Using this mechanism any third party application can be controlled by filtering the user events that it wishes to receive.
The framework solution in accordance with this invention further provides means to launch a third-party application (like web browser) from the framework along with running Display Enhancement algorithms like TV anti-flicker through the display driver.
The invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which
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Error! Reference source not found, and further illustrates how various applications can be mapped using the media framework.
Error! Reference source not found.. This figure describes the flow of content in an interactive TV application.
Detailed Description of Invention:
Various applications have been mapped using the current framework. Let us first
consider an interactive TV application.
The media workflow of interactive TV is as follows:
Video source is A/V in and sink is display, processing is rendered/blended with
graphics.
Audio source is line-in and sink is line out, processing is bypassed.
> Broadcast TV feed from existing STB goes into the interactive STB via analog input.
> The interactive STB has it own graphics media content which is blended with the broadcast TV video.
> The final display to the user from the interactive STB is a "hybrid" of broadcast and interactive contents
The following are some of the use cases of the interactive TV.
Use Case I — Interactive Advertisements on TV
Using this application, a user can view "click-able" advertisement content on broadcast TV. To achieve this, the web browser is transparently blended with the TV and the links are placed on "hotspots" in the content. The coordinate and URL
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details of these hotspots are delivered with the content meta-data. A user can click on these contents and the website for buying the product or more information on the same opens up.
Use Case II -- SMS Voting on TV
Interactive reality game shows on TV require the user to send votes using Short Messaging Service (SMS) to some well known SMS server. Further these numbers and messaging details are flashed onto the TV channel at the bottom of the screen. Using the interactive TV application, a user can invoke a semi-transparent graphics window on the TV. The user reads the SMS details from the screen and types in the same into this SMS window. The user then sends an SMS to vote for his or her favorite contestant or answer interactive quizzes.
Similarly, many other applications can also be mapped to the same infrastructure. A few other application workflows are given below:
Video Conference workflow
Flow of media for a Peer-to-Peer Video Conference application can be similarly established, where on one side the local video source is camera and sink is networking, the processing done is encoding and on the other side, the remote video source is network and sink is display, the processing done is decoding. Similarly for audio, the local audio source is microphone and sink is network, the processing done is encoding and the remote audio source is network, sink is earphone out, the processing done is decoding.
> Video from user's camera is encoded and streamed over network to peer.
> Peer's video coming over network is decoded and displayed
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> The speech data from user is captured from microphone, encoded and streamed over network to peer
> Peer's speech coming from remote end is decoded and played back to earphone out.
PVR workflow
A typical PVR scenario can be captured as follows:
Video source is A/V in, sink is storage and optionally display and processing is
encoding.
Audio source is line in, sink is storage and optionally line out, and processing is
encoding.
> Analog TV feed is captured, encoded and stored.
> The same feed can be sent to display and line out in parallel.
Place-shifting workflow
The place-shifting application allows remote user to log into his home Customer-premises-equipment (CPE) from a remote computer over the internet. Using this connection he can watch his favorite TV shows sitting anywhere in the world. The workflow for place-shifting application is as follows.
Video source is A/V in, sink is network as well as display, and processing is encoding.
Audio source is line in, sink is network as well as line out, and processing is encoding.
> Analog TV feed is captured and sent to display and line out
> The same feed is in-parallel encoded and sent to network to be decoded and viewed by remote host
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IPTV Workflow
IPTV application can be realized as follows:
Video source is network, processing is de-multiplexing and decoding, and sink is
display.
Audio source is network, processing is de-multiplexing and decoding, and sink is
line out.
> In case of IPTV, the audio and video feeds are coming from network over IP.
> The content is de-multiplexed and decoded and sent to output channels.
Although the invention has been described in terms of particular embodiments and applications, one of ordinary skill in the art, in light of this teaching, can generate additional embodiments and modifications without departing from the spirit of or exceeding the scope of the claimed invention. Accordingly, it is to be understood that the drawings and descriptions herein are proffered by way of example to facilitate comprehension of the invention and should not be construed to limit the scope thereof.
Dated this 12th day of May, 2008
Mofaan^Dewan O/R. K. Dewan & Co Applicant's Patent Attorneys
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