Television user interface

Abstract

A user interface for a television display includes a remote control with a touch pad. The remote control communicates wirelessly with a receiver. Periodic samples of touch positions are time stamped only when they are received at the receiver, and the timestamps are quantized to the interval of the periodic samples. The response of the user interface to gestures may be determined by a set of cascaded style sheets. Directional gestures may be used to skip forward or backward by a relative time during playback. During EPG scrolling, a position indicator may remain fixed in a horizontal direction until a time boundary of the EPG is reached, at which point the position indicator may move to the end of the time boundary. When scrolling programme items, an item may remain highlighted until it scrolls off the display, at which point the highlighting disappears until scrolling is complete. During scrolling, multiple directional gestures may be used to increase speed of scrolling. A swipe and hold gesture may be used to control the speed of scrolling, which is dependent on the length of time of the hold.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention relates to user interfaces for television displays, and to apparatus, methods and computer programs for implementing such user interfaces, particularly but not exclusively using a remote control.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Electronic programme guides (EPGs) provide a user interface for the display of television programmes, such as audio and video programmes, to the user. Interactive EPGs allow the user to select programmes for viewing and / or recording. Examples of known EPGs include those provided with the Sky™ and Sky+™ set-top boxes. Aspects of those EPGs are described in WO-A-96 / 37996, WO-A-99 / 66721 and WO-A-2009 / 050489.[0003]EPGs are typically designed for display on a television (TV) screen, and are therefore limited by the resolution of that screen. With the advent of High Definition TV (HDTV), higher resolution EPGs are possible. However, the number of different channels available continues to increase and the user must t...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent text describes a method for improving the user experience when scrolling through a series of video or audio content. The method involves displaying a position indicator on the screen that remains fixed in position until the user reaches the end of the content, which helps them to focus on a specific part of the display. When scrolling through highlighted items, the method prevents flickering or jumping of the highlighting by keeping it in place until the user finishes scrolling. The method also allows the user to increase the speed of scrolling by using multiple directional gestures or a swipe and hold gesture, which is dependent on the length of time hold. These gestures are more intuitive for the user than controlling scrolling based on speed or acceleration of the gestures.

Problems solved by technology

Periodic samples of touch positions are time stamped only when they are received at the receiver, which can lead to variable latency; to overcome this problem, the time stamps may be quantized to the interval of the periodic samples.

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