Text-Based Information Transmission
Description
The present application relates to text-based information transmission such as, for
example, data-carousel text-based information broadcasting an example for which is the
XML-based low-profile information service Journaline®.
Data carousel text-based information broadcasting being representative of a text-based
information transmission, enables text-based information to be distributed to a huge
amount of users with keeping the technical overhead reasonably low. For example, no
uplink or feedback signals from the receivers to the broadcast transmitter is necessary.
In order to enable the users to individually navigate through the information content
provided by the broadcast signal according to their personal preferences, the whole
information is divided-up into objects referring to other objects, thereby enabling
interactively navigating to the resulting linked arrangement of objects. To be more
precise, menu objects enable the user to select, among menu items, in order to proceed
from one object to the other.
Although it would be possible to provide each object with a parent object ID in order to
enable the user to move from this object to its parent object by pressing, for example, a
respective return button, the provision of such a parent link is not provided in any data
carousel broadcast system or is not even worthwhile due to fact that more than one
menu object may forward-link to an object so that a preset parent object ID pointer
would not allow for an intuitive return action. In the Newsservice Journaline, the
objects are arranged in a hierarchal tree structure with links leading from the route
object to any other object extend via link items of objects such as the menu items of
menu objects or the interactivity features links of objects, the link item pointing to
another such as, for example, hierarchically subordinate, object.
Taking the above properties of data carousel text-based information broadcasting
systems into account, it becomes clear that the navigation through the respective tree
structure of text-based information objects may be cumbersome for the users, or that an
updating of the information content broadcasted by the broadcast signal may be limited.
For example, in order to render the information broadcasted available for users of
different languages, the text-based information tree structure may be provided in the
form of a forest of disjoint rooted trees, with each receiver being configured to start the
navigation through the respective rooted tree structure or being configurable to start

navigation at a selectable one of these rooted tree structures. New languages may be
accommodated by new trees with new tree roots. However, the necessity of configuring
the receiver is sometimes unwanted due to the related overhead in providing the user
with the ability of configuring the receiver. In auto radios, for example, the number of
input switches may be highly restricted so that a configuration of the radio to a new root
object ID associated with a newly supported service language would be too
cumbersome. Another possibility is to configure all receivers to start navigation at a
common root menu object, with this root menu object providing the user with the ability
of selecting a language so that each language would correspond to a respective sub-tree
of the whole tree and adding a new language would merely necessitate adding a menu
item to the root menu object pointing to the new tree of objects concerning the newly
supported language. However, even this possibility would necessitate the user having to
select the language first in order to navigate through the actual information in his/her
language.
Another problem stemming from the above-mentioned properties of data carousel text-
based information broadcasting, which the broadcaster faces, is the broadcaster's
necessity of continuously updating the text information objects in order to keep the
information contained therein up-to-date. Some information presented in the data
carousel is of temporary validity only. In other words, this information should be
broadcasted merely for a limited time duration with assigning the object ID to another
information content upon expiration of the respective time duration. Even other
information, however, is relevant for a longer time in a periodic manner. For example,
some object IDs could be reserved for presenting information on birthdays of famous
persons to the user and the names of persons for a specific date would get relevant on a
year-by-year basis with the information broadcaster having to update the content
associated with that object ID each day.
Further, data carousel text-based information broadcasting signals are not restricted to
textual information alone. For example, some objects may contain additional data,
which is to be disregarded by low-profile receivers, with this additional data being
dedicated for high-level receivers capable of handling this additional information such
as data pertaining special symbols, graphics, location information or the like. In some
cases, it would be a waste of time for a user having a low-level receiver to visit a certain
object due to their main content relying on this additional data rather than pure text data.
This, in turn, increases the navigation overhead for the user.

Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide a text-based information
transmission concept such that the user navigation overhead and/or the broadcaster's
content managing/updating overhead may be reduced.
This object is achieved by a receiver according to claim 1, a text-based information
signal according to claim 12, a transmission system according to claim 16, a method
according to claim 17 and a computer-program according to claim 18.
The present invention is based on the finding that the navigation overhead and/or the
content managing/updating overhead may be reduced by providing link objects such as
menu objects or other menu-like objects having links to other objects, with condition
data being associated with the link items of the link objects so that, depending on a
check as to whether the condition data is fulfilled or not, an automatic handling of a link
object may be performed. For example, the automatic handling may comprise an
automatic appointment of an object ID referred to by a link item of the link object that
has condition data associated therewith which is fulfilled, as a newly-selected object ID.
In this case, the displaying of the link object to the user may even be suppressed.
Therefore, the user is not concerned with selecting among link items of link objects, the
selection among which would have been clear beforehand. Alternatively, the automatic
handling may comprise rendering a presentation to be presented - such as, for example,
visually and/or auditory - to the user, representing the link items of the link object in a
way depending on the aforementioned check of the condition data with appointing,
then, an object ID referred to by a link item of the link object that is - for example,
manually - selected by the user via a user-operable selector, as the newly-selected object
ID. According to the dependency on the check result, the link items having condition
data associated therewith which is fulfilled, could, for example, be arranged at the
beginning of the menu so as to ease the selection of these menu items by the user via the
user-operable selector relative to the other ones. The opposite could be true as well.
According to another embodiment or for other link objects, the dependency on the
check result could be implemented such that the link items having condition data
associated therewith which is fulfilled, could, for example, be highlighted with
respected to the other link items to be more recognizable by the user, with leaving the
order among the link items unchanged. Again, the opposite could be true as well so that
these link items would be represented less recognizable. According to even another
embodiment or for even other link objects, the dependency on the check result could be
implemented such that the link items having condition data associated therewith which
is not fulfilled, could, for example, be left away. The menu would, thus, be shortened.

Even in this case, the opposite could be true as well so that these link items having
condition data associated therewith which is fulfilled, would be deleted from the menu.
The condition data associated with the link items of a link object, could belong to
various selection criteria. For example, the condition data could necessitate a
comparison with one or more of a language setting of the broadcast receiver, a current
date, current time, a current week day, a current position of the receiver, an audio or
video channel which the receiver is currently attuned to, the receiver's display
capability, the receiver's ability to determine the current position of the receiver, the
receiver's ability to perform a navigation, the receiver's ability to access external data
networks and the receiver's telecommunication capability. An condition type indication
within the automatically-handling supporting link object could be used to identify which
of these possible selection criteria the condition data within the link object the condition
data refers to.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the mechanism for automatic-
link handling of link objects is applied to Journaline® receivers in way so that
Journaline® receivers, which do not support the automatic-link handling feature, will
display a standard Journaline® link object to the user for link selection when receiving a
automatic handling supporting object. In order to enable older Journaline® receivers to
still handle menu objects supporting automatic handling, the new automatic-handling
supporting menu objects still use existing object type IDs in the object header section.
The automatic-handling pertaining information is also not introduced into the link
objects by use of new JML codes. Rather, the automatic-handling mechanism is built
into existing object syntax via escape sequences comprising an escape symbol followed
by a length indication specifying the length of the following data section, which is to be
disregarded by receivers not being capable of understanding the automatic-handling
mechanism.
Preferred embodiments of the present invention are described in the following in more
detail with regard to the Figs. In particular:
Fig. 1 shows a block diagram of a broadcast system according to an
embodiment of the present invention;
Fig. 2 shows a schematic diagram illustrating a method object according to an
embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 3 shows a schematic diagram of an automatic-handling supporting menu
object according to an embodiment;
Fig. 4 shows a schematic diagram of a hieratical tree structure of objects
according to an embodiment;
Fig. 5 shows a block diagram of a receiver according to an embodiment;
Fig. 6 shows a flow chart illustrating a mode of operation of the processor of
the receiver of Fig. 5 according to an embodiment;
Fig. 7 shows a flow chart of a menu object handling of the receiver of Fig. 5
according to an embodiment; and
Fig. 8 shows a schematic diagram of an exemplary modification of a JML
object of type menu according to an embodiment.
It is noted that the embodiments outlined below exemplarily relate to data carousel text-
based information broadcasting. However, the present invention is neither restricted to
carousel based data transmission nor broadcasting. Rather, differing from the below
outlined embodiments, the present invention may also be applied to data transmissions
where the data objects are transferred on demand. Similarly, differing from the below
outlined embodiments, the present invention may also be applied to address-based data
transmissions directed to specified addressees which may or may not ordered the
transmission by demand, and the below-outlined embodiments may, thus, also be
transferred to these applications. The following embodiments, however, will be outlined
with respect to a specific possibility, namely, carousel-based broadcasting in order to
ease the understanding of the principles of the present invention.
Fig. 1 shows a data carousel text-based information broadcast system according to an
embodiment. The system comprises a broadcast transmission system 10 for
broadcasting the data carousel text-based information broadcast signal 12 to
corresponding receivers 14 for receiving the signal 12. The broadcast transmission
system 10 comprises an object memory 16 in which, for a plurality of unique object
IDs, a respective information object is stored. The update and/or management 18 of the
information objects within memory 16 including, inter alia, the association of the
unique object IDs to different textual information or different textual-information
pertaining subjects, is performed by an object manager 20 comprised by the broadcast

transmission system 10. The object manager 20 is, for example, a computer assisting a
news editor in mapping the textual information the editor wishes to broadcast onto the
unique object IDs.
Further, the broadcast transmission system 10 comprises a broadcast transmitter 22. The
broadcast transmitter 22 is configured to broadcast the objects 24 stored in memory 16
in the form of a data carousel. That is, the broadcast transmitter 22 transmits text
information objects 24 of each object ID repeatedly at a repetition rate associated with
the respective object ID.
The receivers 14 receive the data carousel text-based information broadcast signal 12
and enable a user thereof to navigate through the textual information content of said
signal by selecting menu items of menu objects among the information objects 24.
For example, the receivers 14 may be radios dedicated for receiving a digital audio
broadcast signal into which the data carousel text-based information broadcast signal 12
is embedded. Alternatively, the receivers may be a televisor or some other multi-media
device and the signal 12 may generally a part of a multi-media, audio, video and/or data
broadcast signal. For illustrative purposes only, in the following description merely the
audio alternative is described. However, whenever the audio option is mentioned, the
other possibilities are possible alternatives although not specifically mentioned.
As it will be outlined in more detail below, the receivers 14 may comprise a
presentation device such as a graphic or text display, a printer or, additionally or
alternatively, a loud speaker for presenting to the user, a presentation representing the
textual content of the objects 24 or at least an output for outputting the presentation to a
respective presentation device. Accordingly, the broadcast transmission system 10 may
be part of a digital audio/video/data broadcast system. However, the present invention is
not restricted to this example of wireless transmission. Rather, any non-directional
transmission of signal 12 to receivers 14 could be used.
As already outlined above and as will be described in more detail below with respect to
Fig. 4, the textual information contained in signal 12 is divided-up into objects 24
which, in turn, may be organized in a hierarchic tree structure by means of link objects
among objects 24. In particular, each object 24 may be of a specific object type. Among
the object types, link objects and non-link objects may be distinguished. Link objects
comprise link items pointing to other objects and being selectable by users by
interacting with the receiver. Link objects may, for example, menu objects or text

objects having hot buttons pointing to other objects. For sake of simplicity, in the
following description, the link objects are assumed to be menu objects. However, the
following embodiments are readably transferable to other object types although not
explicitly mentioned.
Menu objects may, for example, result in a menu presented to the user, the menu
comprising menu items among which the user may choose, and which refer or point to
other objects with another object ID.
Non-link objects which will be referred to as message objects in the following, do not
comprise any reference or pointer to any other object ID, but may merely be pointed to
by one or more of the menu (or link) objects by use of its unique object ID.
Fig. 2 shows an example for a message object 26. As can be seen, the message object
comprises its unique object ID 26a and information 26b. The information 26b may
comprise pure text or may be supplemented by some additional data such as specific
symbols, graphic or even some multimedia elements, like images or video sequences.
As indicated by the parenthesis, it may even be possible that a message object 26
merely comprises non-textual information in section 26b. Escape symbols may be used
in order to guarantee for back-compatibility with receivers 14 not being capable of
handling the additional non-textual information portion of section 26b and instead to
merely present the textual portion thereof to the user.
Fig. 3 shows a menu object 28 as comprising an object ID 28a, a title section 28b and
one or several menu items 28c. As shown in Fig. 3, each menu item 28c has associated
therewith a pointer 30 referring to another object ID. Further, at least one of the menu
items 28c has associated therewith condition data 32 defining a condition, which may
be checked at the receiver's side, to be fulfilled or not fulfilled. As will be outlined
below, the condition data associated with one menu item 28c may even composed of
more than one condition with the condition data 32 being fulfilled if all or, alternatively,
at least one of the conditions is fulfilled. Then, on the basis of the respective check
result, an automatic handling of the menu object 28 is performed as will be described in
more detail below.
The title section 28b comprises textual information describing the title. Similarly, each
menu item section 28c comprises a menu label 33, i.e. textual information, describing
the respective menu item.

Further, although not explicitly mentioned above, message objects 26 and menu objects
28 may comprise an object-type identifier enabling distinguishing therebetween to
enable identifying a menu object as menu objects and a message object as message
objects. Further, besides the object types illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3, other object types
may be available as well.
The way Figs. 2 and 3 exemplify message and menu objects is of illustrative nature
only. The data sections shown therein may be sequentially arranged within the object in
the order from top to bottom as shown in these Figs., or may be arranged in any other
way within the respective object. Moreover, some data sections may be optional such
as, for example, the title section 28b or may even be not provided. Further, the data
sections 28a to 28c and 26a and 26b may be of a fixed predetermined size or may be of
varying size with respective sectioning symbols indicating the boarders between the
sections such as, for example, at the beginning of each subsequent section, respectively.
Similarly, the pointer 30, the condition data 32 and/or the menu label 33 do not
necessarily have to be included within a respective common even contiguous menu item
section 28c to which they belong or which they form. Rather, it is sufficient if the
association between pointers 30, condition data 32 and menu label 33 together forming
a menu item 28c is derivable at the receiver's side. Further, the difference between
menu/link objects and non-link/message objects may vanish and the object type
indication may thus be obsolete with, then, the difference between these objects merely
being the absence or existence of link items wherein the link items may, as outlined
above, menu items forming an ordered list of menu options or hot buttons placed
anywhere in the presentation of the respective object. Thus, Fig. 3 may also be
interpreted as showing an example for a more generic link object by replacing "menu"
by "link" and replacing "title" with "text-based information". Again, in the following,
reference is made to menu objects for illustrative purposes only, and this following
description may easily be transferred to any type pf link object in the same way, i.e. be
replacing the term "menu" by "link". Finally, it is noted that in the following
description the term "menu item" is sometimes also used to denote the respective "menu
label" describing the same.
As already noted above, the information content contained in objects 24 is
hierarchically organized by means of the menu objects 28. To illustrate this, reference is
made to Fig. 4. Fig. 4 shows menu objects and message objects arranged in an
illustrated tree structure as defined by the pointers of the menu items of the menu
objects. In particular, menu objects are illustrated by rectangles 44 having rounded
corners and being marked with "M" and message objects are illustrated by rectangles

in a cache, again in order to detect an object 24 having this object ID associated
therewith, and so on. Processor 42 may use the memory 50 in order to keep track of the
recently visited object IDs in their visiting order. In other words, processor 42 may store
a path history in memory 50, the path history comprising a list of traversed object IDs
when navigating from the root object 36 to any other object 24. The path history stored
in memory 50 may be restricted to a certain number of object IDs, with this number
being, for example, equal to the maximum number of hierarchy levels or greater than
the latter. Processor 42 may use the path history in order to obtain the object ID of the
menu objects from where the user reached the currently-displayed object upon the user
requesting returning to this previous menu by use of, for example, the user-operable
selector 44 or some other input means of receiver 14 indicating the user's whish to
return to the parent menu. The processor 42 may be configured to shorten the history
path in case a newly selected object ID is already present in the path history list stored
in memory 50. Further, the processor 42 may be configured to remove the oldest or any
other object IDs from the path history list upon the number of different object IDs in the
path history exceeding the maximum number.
The display may be text or graphic display such as a TFT, LCD or OLED display, for
example. Similarly to the antenna, same may be external to receiver. For example,
display 48 may be the display of a car into which the receiver may be built in and which
is, for example, also used to display other information such as navigation or video
information from other sources.
Before an embodiment of the functionality of receiver is described in more detail below,
it is noted that the receiver of Fig. 5 is merely a specific embodiment and that several
changes may be made with, nevertheless, achieving the same or similar advantages. For
example, although the receiver of Fig. 5 was shown to comprise a display 48 as a device
for presenting the textual content of the information objects to the users, other
presentation devices are possible as well such as the loud speaker 46 in which case the
processor would by configured to, in rendering the presentation to be presented to the
user, convert textual content of the objects such as the link/menu labels, into speech, or
a printer (not shown) in which case the processor would involve a printer driver in
rendering the presentation to be presented to the user. Further, the receiver could be a
computer. Even further, in case of the text-based information signal not being a data-
carousel broadcast signal, the receiver could be configured to order or pull the object
having the currently selected object ID from the transmission site instead of monitoring
a data-carousel signal to intercept the object having the selected object ID. However, the
following description illustratively concentrates on a data-carousel signal application.

Referring to Fig. 6, the mode of operation of receiver 14 is described in accordance with
an embodiment. When entering the information service represented by the broadcast
signal 12, such as when switching on receiver 14, the selected or current object ID is
initialized in step 60. For example, the selected object ID may be initialized to the
object ID of the root object 36 (Fig. 4) as has already been described above. Thereupon,
processor 42 extracts 62 a next object 24 within data carousel broadcast signal 12
having the selected object ID associated therewith. In addition, prior to the extraction
62, processor may try to fetch a cached version of an object having the selected object
ID from an internal object cache in, for example, memory 50. If available, processor
may use the cached version and may proceed with analyzing the object as described
below. Again, in a non data-carousel system, step 62 may comprise processor 42
actively requesting an object having the selected ID from a server.
In analyzing this object, processor 42 determines as to whether the object obtained in
step 62 is a menu object in step 64. If this is not the case, processor 42 presents the
object content on the display 48 in step 66. The user may need some time to read the
text contained within the current object having a current/selected object ID and during
this time, processor 42 cycles though a waiting loop 68. In particular, processor 42
checks as to whether the user requests to return to the previous menu object from the
aforementioned path history by monitoring, for example, the user-operable selector 44
or some other input means of the receiver 14 in step 70. During that time that this is not
the case, processor 42 monitors the broadcast signal 12 to determine as to whether the
broadcast signal transmits another object with the current/selected object ID and, if so,
as to whether this more-recently transmitted object has been revised relative to the
currently-displayed object, wherein processor 42 may perform this determination based
on a revision index comprised by any message object, although not shown in Fig. 2.
Optionally, processor 42 may actualize the presentation screen displayed on display 48
in step 72 if a more actual object has been found. Again, in a non data-carousel system,
step 72 could comprise processor 42 actively and intermittently checking at a server as
to whether a newer version object having the selected ID is available and, if yes,
updating the presentation screen.
Further, as soon as the user requests returning to the previous main object, processor 42
appoints the most-recently visited object ID of the path history in memory 50 as the
newly-selected object ID in step 74, whereupon the operation proceeds with step 62.

If processor 42 determines in step 64 that the object having associated therewith the
selected object ID is a menu object, the operation proceeds with a menu object handling
76 which is described in more detail with respect to Fig. 7.
When handling menu objects, processor 42 firstly determines in step 80 as to whether
the receiver 14 itself supports automatic handling or as to whether the automatic
handling feature of the receiver is activated by the user. If not, processor 42 ignores the
condition data 32 (see Fig. 3) of the menu items and handles the menu object normally.
Thus, if the current menu object is an object supporting automatic handling, processor
42 ignores eventual condition data and handles the menu object normally in step 82. If,
according to the different object types, normal menu objects which do not comprise the
condition data 32 shown in Fig. 3, co-exit with automatic-handling menu objects,
processor 42 handles both types identically in step 82. That is, processor 42 cycles
through a loop, which is similar to that shown in Fig. 6 in steps 70 and 72 with,
however, the processor 42 being responsive to not only the user instructing to return to
the previous menu, but also to the user's instruction by use of the user-operable selector
44 to change to an object having an object ID associated with one of the menu items of
the current normal menu object. In other words, in step 82, processor 42 displays the
menu on display 48 and if the user selects one of the menu items, processor 42 changes
the current object ID to the object ID to which the pointer 30 of the selected menu item
28c (see Fig. 3) refers. Until this time or until the user requesting to return to the
previous menu, processor 42 may actualize the menu if the menu object with a currently
displayed object ID and having a different revision index occurs in the broadcast signal.
Again, in a non data-carousel system, processor 42 could actively and intermittently
check at a server as to whether a newer version object having the selected ID is
available and, if yes, updating the presentation screen. In performing the determination
80, processor 42 checks, for example, a state within memory 50, which is user-settable
according to the user's preferences. If, for example, the user does not wish processor 42
to automatically handle automatic-handling supporting menu objects, steps 80 and 82
will cause these menu objects to be handled like normal menu objects. It is noted,
however, that steps 80 and 82 could be left out if the receiver 14 steadily supports
automatic handling of automatic-handling supporting menu objects.
However, if the automatic-handling is supported, processor 42 determines in step 84 as
to whether the current menu object is an object supporting automatic handling. If not,
processor 42 handles the normal menu object as described above with respect to step 82.
It should be noted, however, that it is also possible that the afore-mentioned co-

existence of normal menu and automatic-handling supporting menu objects does not
exist but that merely the latter ones exist. In this case, steps 84 and 86 may be left out.
However, if automatic-handling is supported or active and the current object supports
automatic handling, then processor 42 determines in step 88 as to whether the selection
type associated with the automatic-handling supporting menu object is known to
receiver 14 or not. As will be described in more detail below, it is possible that the
broadcast signal 12 allows the condition data 32 within an automatic-handling
supporting menu object 28 (see Fig. 3) to pertain one of a plurality of different types of
conditions. That is, the broadcast signal 12 may comprise automatic-handling
supporting menu objects 28 where the condition type differs from object to object.
Further, the condition data within one automatic-handling selection menu object 28
could optionally be restricted to be directed to one condition type only. Examples for
selection/condition types comprise language, date, time, week day, a geographic region,
an audio or video channel which the receiver may be attuned to, a display capability, a
hardware capability to determine the current position of the receiver, a hardware
capability to perform a navigation, a hardware capability to access external data
networks and/or a hardware capability to allow the user to telecommunicate.
If processor 42 or receiver 14 does not know or is not able to handle the selection type
of the current menu object, processor 42 checks the menu items to determine as to
whether any of these menu items is to be selected by default in case the condition data is
not fulfilled or the condition/selection type is unknown, or as to whether any of the
menu items has associated therewith a default flag being enabled. This check is
performed in step 90. Step 90 is optional. That is, such default indication capability does
not have to be provided within the broadcast signal 12. If none of the menu items is
indicated to be selected by default, processor 42 handles the current automatic-handling
supporting menu object in step 92 as it was the case in steps 82 and 86. That is, the
condition data is ignored and the menu object is handled normally.
Then, processor 42 checks the menu items to determine as to whether more than one of
these menu items is to be selected by default and as to whether any of the menu items
has associated therewith a default flag being enabled, respectively. If not, i.e. if exactly
one of the menu items is indicated to be selected by default, processor 42 automatically
selects in step 94, the respective link/menu item and appoints the object ID pointed to
by the pointer of said menu item as the newly-selected object ID with the processing
then proceeding with step 62 in Fig. 6. Alternatively, the indication of the menu item by
default, merely results in processor 42 highlighting said link item in the menu when

displaying the menu on display 48, arranging same at the first position or shortening the
menu to maintain merely the default menu item in step 94 with then awaiting the user's
input as already outlined above with respect to step 82. In the latter case, the automatic
handling most likely facilitates the selection to be performed manually by the user due
to the fact that the default menu item is highlighted within the menu displayed.
According to the automatic selection alternative, the user may not even bothered with
the menu. That is, processor 42 may suppress the displaying of the menu to the user so
that the navigation of the user through the object tree is likely to be facilitated.
If more than one of the menu items is to be selected by default and has associated
therewith a default flag being enabled, respectively, the processor 42 presents the menu
to the user with, however, highlighting said link items in the menu when presenting the
menu to the user, arranging same at the first positions o the menu or shortening the
menu to maintain merely the default menu items in step 100.
If the selection type is known, processor 42 determines in step 96 as to whether any or
at least one menu item exists the condition data of which is fulfilled. If the
determination 96 reveals that there is no menu item with its condition data being
fulfilled, the process proceeds at step 90 where the default indication is checked.
However, if there is at least one menu item with its condition data being fulfilled,
processor 42 then determines in step 98 as to whether there is more than one link/menu
item with its condition data being fulfilled. If this is the case, the processor 42 displays
the menu on display 48 with, however, highlighting the link/menu items having its
condition data being fulfilled in step 100, arranging same at the first positions of the
menu or shortening the menu to maintain merely the link/menu items having its
condition data being fulfilled. The opposite may also be true, i.e. processor 42 may
displays the menu on display 48 with, however, rendering the link/menu items having
its condition data being fulfilled less visible, arranging the same at the last positions of
the menu or shortening the menu by removing the link/menu items having its condition
data being fulfilled. The selection among these options may be fixed or may depend on
the selection type.
If, however, there is merely one link/menu item, the condition data of which is fulfilled,
the process proceeds with step 94. That is, processor 42 automatically selects the
matching link/menu item and appoints the object ID pointed to by the pointer of said
menu item as the newly-selected object ID with the processing then proceeding with
step 62 in Fig. 6. Alternatively, processor 42 highlights said link item in the menu when
displaying the menu on display 48, arranges same at the first position or shortens the

menu to maintain merely the default menu item in step 94 with then awaiting the user's
input as already outlined above with respect to step 82. Again, the opposite may also be
true, i.e. processor 42 may displays the menu on display 48 with, however, rendering
the matching link/menu item having its condition data being fulfilled less visible,
arranging the same at the last position of the menu or shortening the menu by removing
the matching link/menu item having its condition data being fulfilled.
The actual processing performed by processor 42 and determining as to whether
condition data is fulfilled or not (steps 96 and 98) depends on the kind of condition data.
For example, if the condition data indicates a certain date or a certain time or some
weekday, or the like, processor 42 compares the respective condition data with
information on the current date, current time or current weekday with the processor 42
obtaining the latter information from, for example, an internal clock. If the condition
type is the language, processor 42 compares the condition data, for example, with an
internal language setting. For example, this language setting may be fixed from the
manufacturer of receiver 14. Alternatively, the language selection may be user-settable
so that the user may change the preferred language of the textual information he or she
is presented with. In case of the condition type indicating the hardware capability of
receiver 14, processor 42 may, for example, compare the condition data with a version
number of receiver 14 reflecting, for example, how old the receiver is and to what
extent the receiver is able to process certain parts of the objects reachable via the
respective link item. In other words, processor may compare the condition data with one
or more of a language setting of the broadcast receiver, a current date, current time, a
current week day, a current position of the receiver, an audio or video channel which the
receiver is currently attuned to, the receiver's display capability, the receiver's ability to
determine the current position of the receiver, the receiver's ability to perform a
navigation, the receiver's ability to access external data networks and the receiver's
telecommunication capability.
It should be noted that the presentation of the menu items the condition data if which is
fulfilled, may even depend on the condition type itself. For example, while the menu
items the condition data if which is fulfilled may be rendered more recognizable for the
user when the condition pertains the language, the menu items the condition data if
which is fulfilled may even be hidden or rendered less recognizable for the user when
the condition pertains a receivers minimum hardware capability in order to prevent the
user from, or render more difficult the user selecting menu items pointing to objects the
content of which is not useful for the receiver in an sufficient way.

In any case, the automatic-handling performed in steps 94 and 100 eases the user's
navigation through the information service contained within broadcast signal 12. For
example, the highlighting of links having its condition data being fulfilled or being
indicated to be selected by default, renders the selection of the respective menu items
easier for the user. By this way, it is possible to ease the selection of menu items for the
user, which are more likely to be preferred by the user than the other menu items. For
example, the user may set its preferred language according to his preference so that
respective menu items pertaining this language will be highlighted within the menu
relative to the other menu items. The object manager (see Fig. 1), in turn, may provide
menu items which, according to their semantic content, are merely interesting during
certain dates or daytimes with condition data indicating these dates or daytimes so that
during these times, the user's attention is drawn to these menu items.
As indicated above, the highlighting may ease the user's selection of the respective
menu items relative to the other menu items. It is even possible to suppress the
displaying of menu items having condition data not being fulfilled. Further, highlighting
the menu items having its condition data being fulfilled or being indicated to be selected
by default may be highlighted by indicating the other menu items in a less-visible sense.
The automatic selection in step 94, in turn, especially eases the navigation of the user
through the object tree. The user does not have to select any of the menu items.
Moreover, the selection, which is automatically performed, most likely complies with
the preferences of the user due to the above-mentioned setting of the condition data by
the broadcast signal's editor or by the user's setting respective settings of its receiver.
After having described embodiments of the present invention with no particular
preference to any specific news service, the following description describes an
embodiment of automatic-object handling in case of the existing Newsservice
Journalinc®. In other words, the following description describes supplementing the
Newsservice Journaline® with menu objects supporting automatic handling as described
above with the supplementing feature being realized such that older receives, which
were not built to handle automatic-handling supporting menu objects, are still able to
handle these new objects like normal menu objects (compare step 86). It is noted
,however, that the below outlined embodiment is also transferable to other link objects
of the Newsservice Journaline®, such as objects having hot buttons or interactivity
features pointing to other object IDs, or future other object types may be extended to
support automatic handling as outlined below.

A mechanism for automatic-link selection from a menu by Journaline® receivers based
on language or other preferences is described in the following. Journaline® receivers,
which do not support the automatic-link selection feature, will display a standard
Journaline® menu object to the user for menu selection instead. If a receiver cannot
make a choice by itself, because, for example, there is no preferred language set, then
the broadcaster can decide whether he wants a default selection or if the user should
manually select a link.
In order to enable older Journaline® receivers to still handle menu objects supporting
automatic handling, the new automatic-handling supporting menu objects still use the
same object type ID in the object header section than normal menu objects, i.e. object-
type ID 001. The automatic-handling pertaining information is also not introduced into
the menu objects by use of any of the JML codes or syntax elements used for dividing-
up the JML object's content sections serially into logical blocks of information, such as
title, menu item, and so on (compare Fig. 2). New JML codes would not be interpretable
by older receivers. Rather, the automatic-handling mechanism is signaled via the data
sections of escape sequences defined in the Standard (ETSI TS 102979 VI. 1.1). The
escape symbol used in Journaline® is 0x1 A followed by one byte specifying the length
of the following data section. The whole data section is to be disregarded by receivers
not being capable of understanding the automatic-handling mechanism. Obviously,
maximally 256 bytes may be contained within the escape sequence data section. To
extend this size, a special escape symbol, namely Ox IB may be used to provide a further
data section for accommodating a immediately following part of the automatic handling
data such as condition data. The latter symbol is also followed by a byte indicating the
length of the data extending section. All data sections of a run of escape sequences -
comprising merely one or more escape symbols Ox IB - are then concatenated in order to
yield an automatic handling unit such as a condition data or selection marker, or a
selection type indication.
The content of each data section starts with a data section (DS) type indication of 8 bits.
In order to signal the automatic-handling mechanism, two new Journaline® data section
types are introduced, namely DS "selection object" and DS "selection marker". The
automatic handling is, according to the present embodiment, applied to Journaline®
menu objects although, as indicated above, other possibilities would be available as
well. At most, one selection criterion or selection type per menu object may be allowed.
Broadcasters may decide to base content selection on several different selection types
by cascading menu objects with different selection types in their respective object data
section.

The DS selection objects may be signaled by DS type code OxCO succeeding a
respective length indication which, in turn, follows an escape symbol. The DS selection
object may be restricted to occur maximally once before the first visual text character
within the respective menu object. Moreover, as already indicated above, the DS type
symbol OxCO may be restricted or may be available only for menu objects.
As described in more detail below, the DS type symbol OxCO signals to the receiver that
the current JML menu object supports automatically handling such as automatically
selecting one of its link items. Such a menu object is called selection object in the
following. The condition for the automatic handling including automatic selection is
provided with the selection marker DS (OxCl) described in more detail below.
The selection marker could be signaled by use of DS type symbol OxCl. Again, this
symbol would succeed a respective length indication which, in turn, follows an escape
symbol. Of course, selection markers are only available for selection objects. Its
position within the data sequence of the selection object could be restricted to the
position between the pointer or link target of a respective menu item and the first visual
text character of said menu item (compare Fig. 8). The selection marker defines the
selection condition(s) for a link item within the selection object. Zero, one or more
selection markers shall be defined per link item. The condition for the link item is
fulfilled if the condition in at least one of its selection markers is fulfilled. Moreover,
the condition of link items having no selection marker may be interpreted as being
fulfilled. Alternatively, the condition of link items for which no selection marker is
provided may be interpreted as generally not being fulfilled. In the following, the first
alternative is assumed to be true. However, it is noted that the fiction regarding the
conditions of menu items without selection markers being fulfilled or not, may even
depend on the selection type/criterion contained in the DS selection object.
Both DS type symbols are followed by respective codes describing, for example, the
selection/condition type and the menu item selection condition itself and a default flag,
respectively. As far as the selection marker is concerned, it might be that a restriction is
posed onto these markers according to which merely one selection marker per selection
object may have the default flag enabled. However, as was described above, it is also
possible to allow more than one default flag to be enabled.
In order to ease the understanding of the above-outlined DS type symbols and the
following description thereof, reference will be made to Fig. 8, which shows a JML

selection object. As already outlined above, a JML object comprises a header section
100 followed by a content section 102. The header section comprises the object ID (see
28a in Fig. 3) and the object type symbol which is, as denoted above, for a selection
object equal to the object ID of a menu object, i.e. 001. The content section 102 is
serially divided-up or structured into a sequence of logical blocks. In case of menu
objects, this is a title block 102a and one or more link items 102b. The JML codes
indicating the beginning of a respective block 102a and 102b are 8 bit codes from 0x00
to OxOF inclusively. In Fig. 8, 0x01 signals the beginning of the title block 102a and
0x02 indicates the beginning of a link/menu item 102b. As indicated at the end of the
fragment of the object illustrated in Fig. 8, more than one menu item may be
concatenated. The receivers may be supposed to or may be configured to adopt the
order the menu items are arranged within the menu object when displaying the menu to
the user (in the absence of any automatic-handling actions as described with respect to
steps 94 and 100).
As is shown in Fig. 8, both blocks 102a and 102b comprise a respective text character
portion. In Fig. 8, this portion is indicated by "title" in case of the title block 102a and
"menu option 1" in case of menu item 102b. Additionally, each menu item JML code
0x02 is immediately followed by two bytes representing the pointer (30 in Fig. 3), i.e.
the object ID to be visited upon selection of the respective menu item by the user. In
Fig. 8, the object ID of the target JML object of the menu item 102b exemplarily is
OxAABB.
j
However, as the menu object shown in Fig. 8 is a selection object, additional data
sections concerning the automatic handling are inserted into the menu object by use of
the aforementioned escape sequences 0x1 A, namely data sections 104 and 106. As
already described above, the data sections are embedded in to the object by means of
escape symbols, namely an escape symbol OxlA followed by a length indication of 1
byte, namely 0x01 in case of data section 104 and 0x04 in case of data section 106.
Within each data section, the aforementioned DS type symbols OxCO and OxCl occur at
the beginning with additional data following which is described in more detail below.
The data section "selection object" 104 has the following structure and content. The
presence of a data section 104 with DS type value OxCO within a menu object indicates
that this menu object supports automatic handling including automatic selection of one
of its link items 102b if supported by the receiver. It also defines the selection type, i.e.
whether this automatic selection is based on language or any other condition type as
already indicated above.

Exactly one selection criterion may be applied to one menu object. The DS data section
"selection object" has the following format succeeding its indication symbol OxCO. In
particular, a selection type indicator of 8 bits follows symbol OxCO. In the exemplarily
case of Fig. 8, this is 0x00. In particular, the selection type indicator 108 of 8 bits
defines the type of the selection object and the selection criterion, respectively. For
example, the selection type 0x00 may describe the selection criterion "language". That
is, the menu item 102b of the current menu object is available in multiple languages and
the receiver may chose menu items of a preferred language.
Of course, other values may be used for other selection type definitions.
The data section "selection marker" 106, namely its structure and content, is described
in the following. The data section DS type value OxCl defines a selection condition for
a link item 102b. It permits the selection of link 102b based on a condition value 110.
Receivers that support the automatic handling mechanism are expected to match each
condition 110 of each link item 102b against actual conditions, such as time and date or
an own stored data set, such as a language setting and receiver version number,
respectively, as described above and as will be exemplified below with respect to
language. As also described above, in case of a match, the automatic handling
mechanism may cause the selected link item to be selected or handled automatically
without presenting the menu object to the user. Optionally, additional bytes may be
comprised by the DS selection marker depending on the condition or depending on the
condition type.
The DS type "selection marker" 106 may be restricted to a portion within a link item
102b of a selection object located between the link target definition 112 and the first
visual text character for the link item (see menu option 1 in Fig. 8). The selection object
carries 0, 1 or multiple selection conditions 106 per link item.
The DS data section "selection marker" may have the following format. A default flag
114 of one bit is used for signaling the default selection described with respect to Fig. 7
regarding steps 90 and 94. Several bytes or n x 8 bits are used to define the selection
condition 110. To obtain byte alignment, 7 bits may be reserved for future application.
The default flag 114 indicates whether the receiver should select the respective link item
102b if no other condition within the selection object matches or if the receiver does not
understand the selection type 108. If none of the selection markers 106 within the menu

has the default flag set to 1, the receiver cannot not automatically decide which
selection to make and, therefore, may present the menu to the user as a regular menu
object for manual selection (see step 92 in Fig. 7).
If the flag, however, is set to 1, as it is exemplified in Fig. 8, this indicates a default
choice for the selection object (compare step 94 of Fig. 7). If it is set to 0 for all link
items 102b, no default is signaled for the selection object. If it is set to 1 for exactly one
link item, the receiver may automatically select same in case no condition data is
fulfilled or the selection type is not supported, or may present the menu with
individually handling the default link item as described above with respect to Fig. 7. If it
is set to 1 for more than one link item, the receiver may, in case no condition data is
fulfilled or the selection type is not supported, present the menu with handling the
default link items differently from the others as described above with respect to Fig. 7.
With regard to the default flags within one selection object, the number of such
selection markers with its default flag set to 1 could be restricted to 1 at maximum
within one selection object.
The field 110 reserved for defining the selection condition could have a length which, in
turn, depends on the selection type 108 of the selection object. For example, the afore-
mentioned selection type value 0x00 indicating the language as the selection type, could
have associated therewith a selection criteria length of 24 bits or 3 bytes, respectively.
The code used to identify the language could be the three-letter ISO language code as
defined in ISO 639-2 (codes for the representation of names of languages - Part 2:
Alpha-3 code) defined in lowercase characters. If the language code is equal to the
receiver's preferences, the condition is fulfilled.
If the receiver detects the selection object data section 104 and the selection type value
108 is known, the behavior of a receiver receiving selection object of Fig. 8 could be as
follows:
1. Go through all link items 102b and check if at least one of the conditions 110
given for this link item 102b is fulfilled (similar to determination in step 96 of
Fig. 7). In this regard, link items without a selection marker data section could
be handled as if their condition would be fulfilled. The opposite could also be
true. Further, both options could be used for different automatic handling
supporting objects depending on the selection type.

2. Count the link items 102b with fulfilled condition.
a. If there is only one, then select that data link or present the textual
content of the object with presenting this link item differing from the
others (compare steps 98 and 94 in Fig. 7).
b. If there are more matching link items, then present the menu items with
presenting the matching ones differently from the other link items to the
user for manual selection (compare step 100).
3. If there are no link items with fulfilled conditions (no-exit of step 96 in Fig. 7)
and
a) exactly one of the link items has its default flag set to 1 within a selection
marker DS (compare yes-exit of step 90 in Fig. 7), select this link or
present the textual content of the object with presenting this default link
item differing from the others,
b) more than one of the link items has its default flag set to 1 within a
selection marker DS (compare yes-exit of step 90 in Fig. 7), present the
textual content of the object with presenting these default link items
differing from the others.
4. If there are no link items with fulfilled conditions and there is no link item with
its default flag set to 1 within a selection market DS, present the complete menu
to the user for manual selection (compare step 92 of Fig. 7).
If the receiver does not support the specific selection type value, the behavior of the
receiver could be as follows:
1. Check all link items for the presence of a default flag set to 1 within a selection
marker DS.
a. If there is one, select the link item with
the default flag set to 1 or present the textual content of the object with
presenting this default link item differing from the others (compare step
94 in Fig. 7).

b. If there is more than one, present the textual content of the object with
presenting these default link items differing from the others (compare
step 100 in Fig. 7).
c. If there is none, present the menu to the user for manual selection
(compare step 92 of Fig. 7).
As a fallback, if a receiver does not support the automatic handling mechanism at all,
the menu could be presented as a regular menu to the user as it was outlined before with
respect to Fig. 7 (see step 86).
The broadcaster may decide whether there should always be an automatic handling by
assigning a default link item through the default flag. Receivers that can handle
automatic handling may not include menu objects where the link has been selected
automatically in their history and hide these objects from the user, if possible.
It should be noted that, as already indicated above, the condition type is not restricted to
language and also not to the examples indicated above. For example, the condition type
could relate to a category of data, which the textual content of the objects referred to by
that menu item belong to. For example, an automatically-handling supporting menu
object could contain the menu items news, sports and economy. The receiver could have
stored the user-settable user preferences indicating user-preferred categories. As to
whether a condition data relating to a category is fulfilled or not, is then determined by
comparing this condition data with the category preferences stored in the receiver.
Moreover, the stored category preferences could not only indicate categories, which the
user is interested in or not, but the category preferences could also bring the categories
into a preference order by assigning values to the individual category. For example, all
categories having associated therewith a value greater than zero in the category
preferences could be displayed in step 100, for example with, however, ordering the
menu items according to their preference values, i.e. by listing menu items having
condition data referring to higher preference values first and then the menu item having
associated therewith condition data indicating categories for which the category
preferences indicate a lower value. For example, a user could assign a value of 100 to
economy, a value of 50 to news and a value of zero for sports. Thus, the value item
"sports" would not be displayed and the menu item "economy" would be displayed
before the menu item "news". It is noted that this order is independent from the order at
which the menu items occur in the menu object.

Further, it is noted that the procedure according to Fig. 7 and according to the
description of Fig. 8 with regard to the automatic handling is only one exemplified
possibility. For example, it would be possible for the receiver to choose the target object
ID of the menu item, the condition data of which is fulfilled firstly when scanning the
menu items in their order in which they are arranged in the menu object.
In addition, as denoted above, it is possible that processor 42 suppresses entering the
object IDs of automatically-handling supporting menu objects into the history path
stored in memory 50 in cases where same have not been displayed by the user, but have
been subjected to automatic selection. By this manner, the automatic selection is
transparent for the user and the navigation through the object tree and, in particular, the
return feature maintains logical for the user.
Further, in the above embodiments, condition data was always present in automatic
handling supporting objects. Alternatively, merely default functionality is used. Further,
the differentiation between one matching or default link item being present or more than
one may be omitted. Accordingly, the automatic handling may not comprise the
automatic selection but merely the automatic handling type rendering. The opposite
may also be true.
Depending on an actual implementation, the inventive broadcast concept can be
implemented in hardware or in software. Therefore, the present invention also relates to
a computer program, which can be stored on a computer-readable medium such as a
CD, a disk, DVD, a memory stick, a memory card or a memory chip. The present
invention is, therefore, also a computer program having a program code which, when
executed on a computer, performs the inventive method described in connection with
the above figures.
While this invention has been described in terms of several preferred embodiments,
there are alterations, permutations, and equivalents which fall within the scope of this
invention. It should also be noted that there are many alternative ways of implementing
the methods and compositions of the present invention. It is therefore intended that the
following appended claims be interpreted as including all such alterations,
permutations, and equivalents as fall within the true spirit and scope of the present
invention.

Furthermore, it is noted that all steps indicated in the flow diagrams are implemented by
respective means in the receiver, and that the implementations may comprise
subroutines running on a CPU, circuit parts of an ASIC or the like.

Claims
We.Claim: as attached to IPER - clean copy
1. Receiver for a text-based information signal carrying text-based information
content being divided onto information objects, wherein the receiver is a
broadcast receiver and the text-based information signal is a data carousel text-
based information broadcast signal in which the information objects are
broadcasted in a data carousel manner, the receiver comprising:
a user-operable selector (44); and
a processor (42) configured to analyze an information object comprising a
selected object ID among a plurality of unique object IDs, by
determining as to whether the information object analyzed is an
automatic-handling supporting link object (28) comprising link items
pointing to other object IDs among the plurality of unique object IDs;
if so, checking as to whether condition data associated with the link items
of the automatic-handling supporting link object is fulfilled; and
automatically appointing an object ID (30; 112) referred to by a link item
(28c; 102b) of the automatic-handling supporting link object having
condition data (32; 110) associated therewith which is fulfilled, as a
newly-selected object ID or rendering a presentation to be presented to
the user, representing the automatic-handling supporting link object in a
way depending on the check and appointing an object ID referred to by a
link item of the automatic-handling supporting link object selected by the
user via the user-operable selector, as the newly-selected object ID.
2. Receiver according to claim 1, further comprising a presentation unit (48)
configured to visually and/or auditory present to the user, the presentation to be
presented.
3. Receiver according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the processor (42) is further
configured to, in analyzing the information object comprising the selected object
ID, determine whether the information object analyzed is an automatic-handling
supporting link object by

determining (80) as to whether the information object analyzed is a link object,
and
if so, checking (84) as to whether an automatic-handling indicator (104) in the
link object is present or not.
4. Receiver according to claim 3, wherein the processor (42) is further configured
to, if the information object analyzed is a link object but no automatically-
handling supporting link object, render (82) a presentation to be presented to the
user, representing the link items of the link object in a predetermined way such
that all link items of the link object are encompassed by the presentation.
5. Receiver for a text-based information signal carrying text-based information
content being divided onto information objects, comprising:
a user-operable selector (44); and
a processor (42) configured to analyze an information object comprising a
selected object ID among a plurality of unique object IDs, by
determining as to whether the information object analyzed is an
automatic-handling supporting link object (28) comprising link items
pointing to other object IDs among the plurality of unique object IDs;
if so, checking as to whether condition data associated with the link items
of the automatic-handling supporting link object is fulfilled; and
automatically appointing an object ID (30; 112) referred to by a link item
(28c; 102b) of the automatic-handling supporting link object having
condition data (32; 110) associated therewith which is fulfilled, as a
newly-selected object ID or rendering a presentation to be presented to
the user, representing the automatic-handling supporting link object in a
way depending on the check and appointing an object ID referred to by a
link item of the automatic-handling supporting link object selected by the
user via the user-operable selector, as the newly-selected object ID,

wherein the processor (42) is further configured to, in analyzing the information
object comprising the selected object ID,
determine (96) whether none of the link items of the automatically-handling
supporting link object has associated therewith a condition data being fulfilled;
and
if so, check (90) default signaling (114) of the link items of the automatically-
handling supporting link object to determine a link object among the link objects
of the automatically-handling supporting link object determined by default and
automatically appointing (94) an object ID referred to by the link item
determined by default as the newly-selected object ID or rendering (94; 100) the
presentation to be presented to the user so that the link item determined by
default is easier to recognize for the user than link items of the automatically-
handling supporting link object not being determined by default.
6. Receiver according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the processor (42) is
configured to, in analyzing the information object comprising the selected object
ID, check (98) as to whether exactly one of the link items of the automatically-
handling supporting link object has condition data associated therewith, which is
fulfilled and, if so, automatically appointing (94) an object ID referred to by the
exactly one link item as the newly-selected object ID.
7. Receiver according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the processor (42) is
configured to, in analyzing the information object comprising the selected object
ID, check (98) as to whether more than one of the link objects of the
automatically-handling supporting link object has condition data associated
therewith which is fulfilled and, if so, render (100) the presentation to be
presented to the user such that same represents the more than one link items with
leaving out or representing in a subordinate manner, the link items having
associated therewith condition data not being fulfilled, or vice versa.
8. Receiver for a text-based information signal carrying text-based information
content being divided onto information objects, comprising:
a user-operable selector (44); and

a processor (42) configured to analyze an information object comprising a
selected object ID among a plurality of unique object IDs, by
determining as to whether the information object analyzed is an
automatic-handling supporting link object (28) comprising link items
pointing to other object IDs among the plurality of unique object IDs;
if so, checking as to whether condition data associated with the link items
of the automatic-handling supporting link object is fulfilled; and
automatically appointing an object ID (30; 112) referred to by a link item
(28c; 102b) of the automatic-handling supporting link object having
condition data (32; 110) associated therewith which is fulfilled, as a
newly-selected object ID or rendering a presentation to be presented to
the user, representing the automatic-handling supporting link object in a
way depending on the check and appointing an object ID referred to by a
link item of the automatic-handling supporting link object selected by the
user via the user-operable selector, as the newly-selected object ID,
wherein the processor (42) is configured to, in analyzing the information object
comprising the selected object ID,
if the information object analyzed is an automatically-handling supporting link
object, check (88) a condition type indication (108) within the automatically-
handling supporting link object as to whether a condition type indicated thereby
is supported by the broadcast receiver and,
if not, ignore (92) the condition data associated with the link items of the
automatically-handling supporting link object and check (90) a default signaling
of the link items of the automatically-handling supporting link object in order to
determine as to whether a link item among the link items of the automatically-
handling supporting link object is determined by default.
9. Receiver according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the processor (42) is
configured to, in checking as to whether the condition data associated with the
link items is fulfilled,

compare the condition data with one or more of a language setting of the
broadcast receiver, a current date, current time, a current week day, a current
position of the receiver, an audio or video channel which the receiver is currently
attuned to, the receiver's display capability, the receiver's ability to determine
the current position of the receiver, the receiver's ability to perform a navigation,
the receiver's ability to access external data networks and the receiver's
telecommunication capability.
10. Receiver according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the processor (42) is
further configured to, in rendering the presentation to be presented to the user,
render the presentation according to a predetermined rule depending on the
check, with the rule, in turn, being dependent on a condition type indication
(108) contained within the automatically-handling supporting link object.
11. Receiver according to claim 5 or 8, wherein the receiver is a broadcast receiver
and the text-based information signal is a data carousel text-based information
broadcast signal in which the information objects are broadcasted in a data
carousel manner.
12. Text-based information signal carrying text-based information content being
divided onto information objects (24), wherein the text-based information signal
is a data carousel text-based information broadcast signal in which the
information objects are broadcasted in a data carousel manner, with each
information object comprising an object ID (26a; 28a) among a plurality of
unique object IDs, the information objects comprising link objects (M) with link
items referring to other object IDs among the plurality of unique object IDs,
wherein at least one of the link objects comprises an automatically-handling
supporting indicator (104) identifying the at least one link object as an
automatically-handling supporting link object (28) with at least one of the link
items (28c; 102b) thereof having associated therewith condition data (32; 110)
and/or a default signaling for enabling an automatically-handling of the
automatically-handling supporting link object at the receiver side, depending as
to whether the condition data is fulfilled or not, or as to whether the default
signaling determines one or more of the link items by default, respectively.
13. Text-based information signal according to claim 10, wherein the condition data
associated with the at least one link item indicates one or more conditions of a
language, a date, a time, a week day, a geographic location, an audio or video

channel which a receiver of the text-based information signal may be attuned to,
a minimum display capability requirement, a position determination ability
requirement, a navigation determination ability requirement, data network access
ability requirement and a telecommunication capability requirement, with an
information object, to the object ID of which the respective at least one link item
refers, fitting to the one or more conditions.
14. Text-based information signal according to claim 10 or 11, wherein the
condition data (32; 110) and the automatically-handling supporting indicator
(104) are embedded into the automatically-handling supporting link object by
use of one or more escape symbols each followed by a length indication
indicating a length of a run of symbols immediately following the length
indication and concerning a respective part of the condition data and the
automatically-handling supporting indicator, respectively.
15. Text-based information signal according to any of claims 11 to 13, wherein the
at least one link object is a root (36) of an hierarchical tree (38) formed by the
information objects by means of the references of the link items of the link
objects to other information object.
16. Transmitting system configured to transmit a text-based information signal
according to any of claims 12 to 15.
17. Method for processing a text-based information signal carrying text-based
information content being divided onto information objects wherein the text-
based information signal is a data carousel text-based information broadcast
signal in which the information objects are broadcasted in a data carousel
manner, comprising:
determining as to whether a predetermined information object comprising a
selected object ID among a plurality of unique object IDs is an automatic-
handling supporting link object (28) comprising link items pointing to other
object IDs among the plurality of unique object IDs;
if so, checking as to whether condition data associated with the link items of the
automatic-handling supporting link object is fulfilled; and

automatically appointing an object ID (30; 112) referred to by a link item (28c;
102b) of the automatic-handling supporting link object having condition data
(32; 110) associated therewith which is fulfilled, as a newly-selected object ID
or rendering a presentation to be presented to the user, representing the
automatic-handling supporting link object in a way depending on the check and
appointing an object ID referred to by a link item of the automatic-handling
supporting link object selected by the user via the user-operable selector, as the
newly-selected object ID.
18. Method for processing a text-based information signal carrying text-based
information content being divided onto information objects, comprising:
determining as to whether a predetermined information object comprising a
selected object ID among a plurality of unique object IDs is an automatic-
handling supporting link object (28) comprising link items pointing to other
object IDs among the plurality of unique object IDs;
if so, checking as to whether condition data associated with the link items of the
automatic-handling supporting link object is fulfilled; and
determine (96) whether none of the link items of the automatically-handling
supporting link object has associated therewith a condition data being fulfilled;
and
if so, check (90) default signaling (114) of the link items of the
automatically-handling supporting link object to determine a link object
among the link objects of the automatically-handling supporting link
object determined by default and automatically appointing (94) an object
ID referred to by the link item determined by default as the newly-
selected object ID or rendering (94; 100) the presentation to be presented
to the user so that the link item determined by default is easier to
recognize for the user than link items of the automatically-handling
supporting link object not being determined by default
if at least one of the link items of the automatically-handling supporting
link object has associated therewith a condition data being fulfilled,
automatically appointing an object ID (30; 112) referred to by a link item

(28c; 102b) of the automatic-handling supporting link object having
condition data (32; 110) associated therewith which is fulfilled, as a
newly-selected object ID or rendering a presentation to be presented to
the user, representing the automatic-handling supporting link object in a
way depending on the check and appointing an object ID referred to by a
link item of the automatic-handling supporting link object selected by the
user via the user-operable selector, as the newly-selected object ID.
19. Method for processing a text-based information signal carrying text-based
information content being divided onto information objects, comprising:
determining as to whether a predetermined information object comprising a
selected object ID among a plurality of unique object IDs is an automatic-
handling supporting link object (28) comprising link items pointing to other
object IDs among the plurality of unique object IDs;
if the information object analyzed is an automatically-handling supporting link
object, checking (88) a condition type indication (108) within the automatically-
handling supporting link object as to whether a condition type indicated thereby
is supported by the broadcast receiver and,
if so,
checking as to whether condition data associated with the link items of
the automatic-handling supporting link object is fulfilled; and
automatically appointing an object ID (30; 112) referred to by a link item
(28c; 102b) of the automatic-handling supporting link object having
condition data (32; 110) associated therewith which is fulfilled, as a
newly-selected object ID or rendering a presentation to be presented to
the user, representing the automatic-handling supporting link object in a
way depending on the check and appointing an object ID referred to by a
link item of the automatic-handling supporting link object selected by the
user via the user-operable selector, as the newly-selected object ID;
if not, ignoring (92) the condition data associated with the link items of the
automatically-handling supporting link object and checking (90) a default
signaling of the link items of the automatically-handling supporting link object

in order to determine as to whether a link item among the link items of the
automatically-handling supporting link object is determined by default.
20. Receiver for a text-based information signal carrying text-based information
content being divided onto information objects, comprising:
a user-operable selector (44); and
a processor (42) configured to analyze an information object comprising a
selected object ID among a plurality of unique object IDs, by
determining as to whether the information object analyzed is an
automatic-handling supporting link object (28) comprising link items
pointing to other object IDs among the plurality of unique object IDs;
if so, checking as to whether condition data associated with the link items
of the automatic-handling supporting link object is fulfilled; and
automatically appointing an object ID (30; 112) referred to by a link item
(28c; 102b) of the automatic-handling supporting link object having
condition data (32; 110) associated therewith which is fulfilled, as a
newly-selected object ID.
21. Method for processing a text-based information signal carrying text-based
information content being divided onto information objects, comprising:
determining as to whether a predetermined information object comprising a
selected object ID among a plurality of unique object IDs is an automatic-
handling supporting link object (28) comprising link items pointing to other
object IDs among the plurality of unique object IDs;
if so, checking as to whether condition data associated with the link items of the
automatic-handling supporting link object is fulfilled; and
automatically appointing an object ID (30; 112) referred to by a link item (28c;
102b) of the automatic-handling supporting link object having condition data
(32; 110) associated therewith which is fulfilled, as a newly-selected object ID.

22. Computer program having instructions for performing, when running on a
computer, a method according to any of claims 17 to 19 and 21.

The navigation overhead and/or the content managing/updating overhead is reduced by
providing link objects with condition data being associated with the link items of the
link objects so that, depending on a check as to whether the condition data is fulfilled or
not, an automatic handling of a link object may be performed. For example, the
automatic handling may comprise an automatic appointing an object ID referred to by a
link item of the link object that has condition data associated therewith which is
fulfilled, as a newly-selected object ID.