Interactive Media Program Guide Tile Segmentation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional user interfaces for mobile devices, such as interactive media program guides, face challenges in balancing information, usability, and efficiency due to resource-intensive rendering and caching requirements, making features like resizing graphics impractical for large media program listings.
Innovation Solution
Representing the interactive media program guide as a series of discrete paginated columns, allowing each column to be treated as a separate data structure for independent user interface operations, enabling efficient in-place cell expansion and reduced resource usage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the entire overall image of the interactive media program guide is rendered and cached to support smooth scrolling, then smooth scrolling is achieved, but resource consumption increases and certain user interface features become impractical
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the overall program guide image into discrete tile segments that can be independently rendered, cached, and managed. Instead of treating the entire guide as one large image, the system segments it into manageable units that can be loaded and scrolled through efficiently, reducing the resource burden of caching and rendering the complete guide at once while maintaining smooth scrolling capability.
2Ease of operation
If the overall image of the interactive media program guide is rendered and cached, then smooth scrolling is enabled, but the complexity of re-rendering and re-caching for dynamic features increases
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the program guide into tiles, the system simplifies the rendering and caching process. Each tile can be independently processed, cached, and updated, which reduces the overall complexity compared to managing a single large image. This segmentation enables efficient handling of dynamic features without requiring complete re-rendering of the entire guide.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary rendering and caching of individual tiles before they are needed for display. This advance preparation allows tiles to be readily available when scrolling or when dynamic features are activated, reducing the complexity of on-the-fly rendering and caching operations.
3Manufacturing precision
If graphics are resized in the overall image of the interactive media program guide, then visual quality may improve, but the resource-intensive rendering and caching process becomes even more burdensome
Solution Approach 1:
The tile segmentation approach allows graphics to be resized and processed at the individual tile level rather than requiring re-rendering of the entire program guide image. This localized processing significantly reduces the computational resources and energy required for graphic manipulation while maintaining visual quality in the displayed tiles.
Data Source
AI summary
An exemplary method includes an interactive media program guide system 1) displaying a user-scrollable view of a section of a paginated column of an interactive media program guide that includes a two-dimensional matrix grid of cells representing a plurality of media program listings, 2) detecting a user selection of a cell included in the matrix grid of cells and the user-scrollable view, the cell representing a media program listing included in the plurality of media program listings, and, 3) in response to the user selection of the cell, expanding the cell in-place within the paginated column of the interactive media program guide and populating the expanded cell with display content associated with a media program represented by the media program listing. Corresponding systems and methods are also described.