Title of Invention

METHOD FOR CHANNEL SCANNING AND SORTING BASED ON GENRE, START AND END TIME OF CURRENTLY BROADCASTED PROGRAMS IN ESG DATA

Abstract

The invention describes a method and system to search a program in an Electronic Service Guide (ESG) based on the content of the programs being broadcasted on the handheld device. According to the invention, the search method looks for the program focusing on the content of the program, irrespective of the type of channel on which the program is being broadcasted. ESG data contains a content fragment and a schedule fragment. The method makes use of the genre field of the content fragment in order to determine the content of the program. The information about the start and the end time of the program is obtained from the schedule fragment. There is a provision to search programs based on subcategories of a particular broad category as well. Eg. Sports programs can be categorized based on a specific sport. The user interface containing these broad categories and sub-categories can be navigated using simple key press. Further, a 'register alert' option is available to the user in case the broadcast time of the programs being searched is different from the current time.

Full Text

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention, in general relates to the field of communication. It relates to the field of Broadcast Technology for Handheld devices (Mobile Phones) DVB-H and its user interface. More particularly the invention relates to a system and method for channel scanning and sorting based on the content genre, start and end time in ESG data. DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART Similar search or sorting method is available on DVB-T which uses Electronic Program Guide (EPG) and Setup Box. Here user can select the category and list the categorized channels, only based on the channel type. The existing method on DVB-T which uses setup box cannot be used for Mobile Devices. DVB-T search method shall categorize only the Channels. For E.g.: If user selects Sports to categorize the channels, it shall categorize the channels that belong to sports channels. Like ESPN, Star Sports etc. But it doesn't check the current broadcasted program to verify if that program belongs to the sports category on these particular channels. The draw back of this approach is, user may be interested in watching some game/ match which may not be broadcasted in the categorized sports channels but it is broadcasted on some other channel. In the proposed search method, the channel category is not considered. It shall search for the content or the program which is presently broadcasted and it shall categorize the channel based on the category of the broadcasted Program within the channel. This approach is more useful than the previous approach where user can specifically find his interesting program. For E.g.: If BBC news channel is broadcasting some drama/documentary movie, the proposed search method can list the BBC news channel under the Movie category list when user searches for the Movies on all the channels. This is NOT possible with the present existing search method on DVB-T. The patent no. US6742184B1 describes an Electronic Television Program Guide (EPG) with a calendar tool. The EPG has a facility of searching programs based on the category of the programs. The category to which a program belongs is defined by a set of descriptors. These descriptors can be two-tiered like sports/baseball and music/drama. However, searching on the basis of these subcategories (baseball or drama) has not been mentioned in the patent. The user may be allowed to select a range of time to search programs that are scheduled to be broadcasted in that range of time. The published patent application no. US20060130098A1 describes a method to search an EPG based on channel metadata and content metadata. The method is applicable to a mobile station, a set-top box, a wireless phone, etc. The content metadata contains information about the program being broadcasted such as genre, actor, rating of the program, etc. However, the search methodology as described in the application employs user input (text input) instead of allowing the user to navigate through predefined categories. The start time and duration of programs is read from schedule metadata to generate the EPG. However, searching of programs on the basis of start and end time of the programs has not been explicitly mentioned in the application. The patent publication no. US7149983B1 discloses a user interface and a method to organize data based on various categories and subcategories. The user interface can be implemented in any electronic appliance such as handheld PC, PDA, mobile telephone, etc. In one of the embodiments of the invention, the user interface can be utilized as an Electronic Program Guide (EPG). The EPG can be used to search for programs based on title, duration, broadcast date and time, genre or category of program, etc by reading the available metadata. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to broadcast on handheld devices using Digital Video Broadcasting - Handheld (DVB-H) standard. More specifically, the invention describes a method to search a program in an Electronic Service Guide (ESG) based on the content of the programs being broadcasted on the handheld device. According to the invention, the search algorithm looks for the program focusing on the content of the program, irrespective of the type of channel on which the program is being broadcasted. ESG data contains a content fragment and a schedule fragment. The algorithm makes use of the genre field of the content fragment in order to determine the content of the program. The information about the start and the end time of the program is obtained from the schedule fragment. There is a provision to search programs based on subcategories of a particular broad category as well. Eg. Sports programs can be categorized based on a specific sport. The user interface containing these broad categories and sub-categories can be navigated using simple key press. Further, a 'register alert' option is available to the user in case the broadcast time of the programs being searched is different from the current time. DVB-H systems are capable of receiving the Electronics Service Guide (ESG) and can store these data internally. Taking an advantage of this Genre field in the CONTENT FRAGMENT, and schedule information of the program in Schedule Fragment, program search mechanism can be devised to list the channels which are broadcasting the specific program. Genre field in the CONTENT FRAGMENT describe the category / characteristic of the program, like if it belongs to MOVIE or MUSIC or SPORTS etc. Based on this information the user will come to know about those channels whose programs belong to any of these categories and on user- preferred time. This saves the user's time to manually search for his preferred program. This approach can be incorporated to any devices (like setup boxes, mobile handsets etc.) that is capable of receiving the program details like type of the program and program schedule. The search method lists only those channels which are broadcasting the given type of program. The listed channels can be any type of the channels i.e. one channel could be news channel and the next channel could be movie channel. But the program which they are broadcasting belongs to the user selected category. User can play and switch between only those listed channels if they are broadcasted presently and also can reserve a program for alert if their broadcast time is different than the current time. Accordingly the invention explains a method for channel scanning and sorting based on the content genre, start and end time in ESG data wherein the said method searches a program in an Electronic Service Guide (ESG) based on the content of the programs being broadcasted on a device. Accordingly the invention also explains a system for channel scanning and sorting based on the content genre, start and end time in ESG data wherein the said system searches a program in an Electronic Service Guide (ESG) based on the content of the programs being broadcasted on a device. These and other objects, features and advantages of. the present invention will become more apparent from the ensuing detailed description of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS Figure 1 illustrates a flow chart which depicts the procedure for searching the CONTENT GENRE, Start and End time of all the programs and lists the sorted channels. Figure 2 depicts the representation of the User Interface for the above search method. Figure 3 depicts the method in which the subcategories can be accessed via the arrow mark shown in front of each category. For this User may press right navigation key to access this. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION The preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be explained with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood however that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the invention, which may be embodied in various forms. The following descriptions and drawings are not to be construed as limiting the invention and numerous specific details are described to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention, as the basis for the claims and as a basis for teaching one skilled in the art how to make and/or use the invention. However in certain instances, well-known or conventional details are not described in order not to unnecessarily obscure the present invention in detail. The important factor of the proposed search method is to display the sorted channel list based on the category, start date and time of the program, which is provided by the user. In order to achieve the above stated method the ESG data and the user inputs plays a vital role. ESG data contains the content fragment and schedule fragment along with other fragments. Content Fragment contains Genre field, which contains the type of each individual program. Schedule Fragment contains the start and end time information of each broadcasted program. This information helps to search for the user inputs and get the channel list as user desires. Searching for the genre, start date and time of the program and listing the channels based on the type of the program rather than the type of the Channel alone are new in this proposed procedure. ESG data contains the content Fragment, which, in turn contains the genre of the content. ESG data also contains the schedule Fragment which contains the program schedule (start and end time of .the program). This information is available for each program on all the channels. Hence on scanning Content Fragment for genre, the system can understand how many categories are available in that session and it can display this category list to the user. User can select the category from the category list and he can enter the date and time of the broadcast time. If date and time is not mentioned then it is assumed to be the present date and time for the broadcast. Based on the user inputs the system can scan genre from Content Fragment and start and end time from schedule fragment for all the available programs, and list the channels where genre and date time matches to the user inputs. The following procedure describes the steps involved in FIGURE 1 to list the sorted channels based on the user inputs (category, start date and time). 1: Start search method 2: Identify all the Genre field in the received CONTENT FRAGMENT and present the list of categories to user. 3: Read user selection (choice), date and time. 4: To search for the selected category in available channels, set the channel counter to 1. 5: Check if channel count [chan_count] is less than total number of channels in this session. 6: If channel count is less than total number of channels, then set the program count to 1 to search for the GENRE, start and end time in all the programs. 7: Check if program count is less than total number of programs in a channel[chan_count] 8: Read GENRE, start and end time of the Program 9: Check if the GENRE is equal to the user choice 10: If GENRE is equal to the user choice and user date and time falls with in the start and end time of the program, then, add channel [chan_count] to sorted channel list. 11: if GENRE or Date and time are NOT matching to user choice then increment the program count, retrieve the next program in that channel and go to step 7. 12: If Program count reaches more than the total number of program count then increment the channel count and go to step 5. Figure 2 depicts the representation of the User Interface for the above search method. Figure 3 depicts the method the subcategories can be accessed via the arrow mark shown in front of each category. For this User may press right navigation key to access this. Apart from the above procedure, the user is provided with convenient tools such as "Add to Favorite list": Using this option the user can add the channel to his favorites to access instantly. "View Program details": User can view the details of the program, like synopsis etc. "Play": This option will be .visible to the user to watch the channel if the user.input date and time matches with the present time. "Goto TV Guide": User can check the other available program details on the selected channel. "Register Alert": This option will be available to the user if the user input date and time is not exactly same as the present time. ADVANTAGES The Advantage is for the Application user. User can select his/her desired program with one click on the mobile and see the list of channels with only user kind of programs. User need NOT manually search all the channels to check for the desired program. It will also be obvious to those skilled in the art that other control methods and apparatuses can be derived from the combinations of the various methods and apparatuses of the present invention as taught by the description and the accompanying drawings and these shall also be considered within the scope of the present invention. Further, description of such combinations and variations is therefore omitted above. It should also be noted that the host for storing the applications include but not limited to a microchip, microprocessor, handheld communication device, computer, rendering device or a multi function device. Although the present invention has been fully described in connection with the preferred embodiments thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be noted that various changes and modifications are possible and are apparent to those skilled in the art. Such changes and modifications are to be understood as included within the scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims unless they depart there from. GLOSSARY OF TERMS AND DEFINITIONS THEREOF ESG - Electronic Service Guide DVB-H - Digital Video Broadcasting - Handheld EPG - Electronic Program Guide We Claim: 1. A method for channel scanning and sorting based on the content genre, start and end time in ESG data wherein the said method searches a program in an Electronic Service Guide (ESG) based on the content of the programs being broadcasted on a device. 2. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the ESG data contains a content fragment and a schedule fragment. 3. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the said method uses the genre field of the content fragment to determine the content of the program. 4. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the information about the start and the end time of the program is obtained from the schedule fragment. 5. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the program is searched based on subcategories of a broad category where the user interface containing these broad categories and sub-categories are navigated using key press. 6. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein an alert option is available to the user if the broadcast time of the programs being searched is different from the current time. 7. A system for channel scanning and sorting based on the content genre, start and end time in ESG data wherein the said system searches a program in an Electronic Service Guide (ESG) based on the content of the programs being broadcasted on a device. 8. A method for channel scanning and sorting based on the content genre, start and end time in ESG substantially described particularly with reference to the accompanying drawings. 9. A system for channel scanning and sorting based on the content genre, start and end time in ESG substantially described particularly with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Documents:

1749-CHE-2006 AMENDED PAGES OF SPECIFICATION 26-03-2013.pdf

1749-CHE-2006 AMENDED PAGES OF SPECIFICATION 28-08-2013.pdf

1749-CHE-2006 AMENDED CLAIMS 26-03-2013.pdf

1749-CHE-2006 AMENDED CLAIMS 28-08-2013.pdf

1749-CHE-2006 CORRESPONDENCE OTHERS 26-03-2013.pdf

1749-CHE-2006 EXAMINATION REPORT REPLY RECEIVED 28-08-2013.pdf

1749-CHE-2006 FORM-1 28-08-2013.pdf

1749-CHE-2006 FORM-13 28-08-2013.pdf

1749-CHE-2006 FORM-13 12-12-2013.pdf

1749-CHE-2006 OTHER PATENT DOCUMENT 28-08-2013.pdf

1749-CHE-2006 POWER OF ATTORNEY 26-03-2013.pdf

1749-CHE-2006 POWER OF ATTORNEY 28-08-2013.pdf

1749-CHE-2006 ABSTRACT.pdf

1749-CHE-2006 CLAIMS.pdf

1749-CHE-2006 CORRESPONDENCE OTHERS.pdf

1749-CHE-2006 DESCRIPTION (COMPLETE).pdf

1749-CHE-2006 FORM 1.pdf

1749-CHE-2006 FORM 18.pdf

1749-CHE-2006 FORM 5.pdf

1749-CHE-2006 FORM-13 16-12-2013.pdf

1749-che-2006-correspondnece-others.pdf

1749-che-2006-description(provisional).pdf

1749-che-2006-drawings.pdf

1749-che-2006-form 1.pdf

1749-che-2006-form 26.pdf