US 20050210514 A1
A wireless communication device (104) comprising a transceiver (202), a memory portion (206) and a display (208). The transceiver (202) receives (704, 806) a data stream of media content from a remote device (102) on a periodic basis. The memory portion (206) stores (704, 806) the data stream in a content cache (306). The data stream is retrieved from the content cache (306) a portion at a time, and the display (208) displays (706, 808) the portion. The display (208) has a passive mode and an actuated mode. In the passive mode, dynamic media content is continually provided at the display (208) throughout operation. In the actuated mode, detailed content and/or functionality associated with the dynamic media content is provided. The touch screen (210) changes the display from the passive mode to the actuated mode upon activation.
1. A method for a wireless communication device comprising:
receiving a data stream of media content from a remote device on a periodic basis;
storing the data stream in a content cache; and
retrieving the data stream from the content cache, a portion at a time, and displaying the portion on a display.
2. The method of
3. The method of
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8. The method of
9. A wireless communication device comprising:
a wireless transceiver configured to receive a data stream of media content from a remote device on a periodic basis;
a memory portion configured to store the data stream; and
a display configured to display the data stream a portion at a time.
10. The wireless communication device of
11. The wireless communication device of
12. The wireless communication device of
13. The wireless communication device of
14. The wireless communication device of
15. The wireless communication device of
16. The wireless communication device of
17. A wireless communication device comprising:
a display having a passive mode and an actuated mode, the passive mode being effective to continually display dynamic media content at a portion of the display throughout operation in the passive mode, and the actuated mode being effective to provide at least one of detailed content and functionality associated with the dynamic media content displayed at the portion of the display; and
a touch screen, overlaying the display, configured to change the display from the passive mode to the actuated mode upon activation of a portion of the touch screen associated with the portion of the display.
18. The wireless communication device of
19. The wireless communication device of
20. The wireless communication device of
The present invention relates generally to the field of systems and methods for providing information to wireless communication devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods for providing applications and media artifacts, including text, video, audio and multimedia content, to wireless communication devices that utilize and interact with such content and/or related functions.
Television broadcast companies are able to multimedia broadcast content to televisions of many consumers. Televisions are quite popular among consumers due, in part, to the convenience of simply viewing the multimedia broadcast content with minimal interaction required. Televisions became even more convenient when portable versions of them enabled consumers to view the multimedia broadcast content wherever the consumer traveled. Portable televisions receive multimedia broadcast content continually and, thus, subject the power source of the portable television to constant power drain.
Computing devices are also capable of providing multimedia content to consumers. Consumers may download and view multimedia content on a desktop or notebook computer via access to a computer network, such as the Internet. Also, information may be provided to a networked-computer by utilizing Push Technology. Unlike other systems which require each device to request information from information sources, Push Technology delivers information automatically to a device according to programmed preferences. Thus, Push Technology eliminates the need of a computing device to seek out one or more information sources to gather specific information of interest. Some computing devices receive “streams” of multimedia content and, thus, continually receive the content similar to portable televisions. Other computing devices download the multimedia content all-at-once so that the computing device is not constantly communicating with the computer network.
Unfortunately, television and computer technologies are not well suited for many wireless applications. Users of wireless communication devices frequently need access to a variety of information, but such information is not as readily available as wired connections due to the limited bandwidth of wireless connections. Wireless communication systems are challenged to maximize the quality of information provided to wireless communication devices while minimizing the traffic imposed on the wireless connections to the devices.
In view of the above, there is a need for a system and method for managing and displaying content at a wireless communication device to maximize content quality while minimizing power consumption. In particular, there is a need for a system and method that provides continuous media content for convenient, passive viewing without necessitating constant communications or large all-at-once downloads that may significantly impact power consumption.
One aspect of the present invention is a wireless communication device comprising a wireless transceiver, a memory portion and a display, and a method thereof. The wireless transceiver receives a data stream of media content from a remote device on a periodic basis. The memory portion stores the data stream in a content cache. The data stream is retrieved from the content cache a portion at a time, and the display displays the portion.
Another aspect of the present invention is a wireless communication device comprising a display and a touch screen overlaying the display. The display has a passive mode and an actuated mode. In the passive mode, dynamic media content is continually displayed at a portion of the display throughout operation. In the actuated mode, detailed content and/or functionality associated with the dynamic media content displayed at the portion of the display is provided. The touch screen changes the display from the passive mode to the actuated mode upon activation of a portion of the touch screen associated with the portion of the display.
The media gateway 102 may receive feeds of media channels, buffer and cache the feeds, and feed them to wireless communication devices 104. The term “channel” refers to content that is received from a single content source and provided in a particular format, such as an XML language, and the term “feed” refers to fetching of a file from a particular channel. For one embodiment, the media gateway 102 compresses combined channels and provides them to the wireless communication devices 104 where they are decompressed, separated and stored in a content cache. The media gateway 102 may feed information to the wireless communication device 104 using push, pull and poll technology. For example, for one embodiment, the media gateway 102 generally pushes information to the wireless communication device 104, and the device pull technology from the media gateway upon request.
Although the media gateway 102 may operate on a common platform with other devices, the media gateway may also serve as a control point across multiple platforms. Regardless of the platform used, the media gateway 102 controls, bills and tracks information that is available to the wireless communication devices 104 and, thus, has access to media content from one or more sources. As shown in
The media gateway 102 may also be directly controlled by a service provider, or be coupled to a cockpit controller 114 of a service provider, to manage the flow of billing information 116 and/or other media content 118, such as service provider promotions, for the wireless communication system 100.
Referring to the media gateway 102, wireless communication devices 104 and content aggregator 108 shown in
An exemplary function of the wireless communication device 104 as represented by the internal components 200, upon reception of wireless signals, the internal components detect communication signals and the transceiver 202 demodulates the communication signals to recover incoming information, such as voice and/or data, transmitted by the wireless signals. After receiving the incoming information from the transceiver 202, the processor 204 formats the incoming information for one or more output devices 208. Likewise, for transmission of wireless signals, the processor 204 formats outgoing information, which may or may not be activated by the input devices 210, and conveys the outgoing information to the transceiver 202 for modulation to communication signals. The transceiver 202 conveys the modulated signals to the media gateway 102 via a remote transceiver.
The input and output devices 208, 210 of the internal components 200 may include a variety of visual, audio and/or mechanical outputs. For example, the output device(s) 208 may include a visual output device 216 such as a liquid crystal display and light emitting diode indicator, an audio output device 218 such as a speaker, alarm and/or buzzer, and/or a mechanical output device 220 such as a vibrating mechanism. Likewise, by example, the input devices 210 may include a visual input device 222 such as an optical sensor (for example, a camera), an audio input device 224 such as a microphone, and a mechanical input device 226 such as a flip sensor, keyboard, keypad, selection button, touch pad, touch screen, capacitive sensor, motion sensor, and switch. Actions that may actuate one or more input devices 210 include, but not limited to, opening the wireless communication device, unlocking the device, moving the device to actuate a motion, moving the device to actuate a location positioning system, and operating the device.
The internal components 200 of the media gateway 102, wireless communication devices 104 and content aggregator 108 may include a location circuit 228. Examples of the location circuit 228 include, but are not limited to, a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, a triangulation receiver, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, or any other information collecting device that may identify a current location of the device.
The memory portion 206 of the internal components 200 may be used by the processor 204 to store and retrieve data. The data that may be stored by the memory portion 206 include, but is not limited to, operating systems, applications, and data. Each operating system includes executable code that controls basic functions of the communication device, such as interaction among the components of the internal components 200, communication with external devices via the transceiver 202 and/or the component interface 212, and storage and retrieval of applications and data to and from the memory portion 206. Each application includes executable code utilizes an operating system to provide more specific functionality for the communication device, such as file system service and handling of protected and unprotected data stored in the memory portion 206. Data is non-executable code or information that may be referenced and/or manipulated by an operating system or application for performing functions of the communication device.
The processor 204 may perform various operations to store, manipulate and retrieve information in the memory portion 206. Each component of the internal components 200 is not limited to a single component but represents functions that may be performed by a single component or multiple cooperative components, such as a central processing unit operating in conjunction with a digital signal processor and one or more input/output processors. Likewise, two or more components of the internal components 200 may be combined or integrated so long as the functions of these components may be performed by the communication device.
The exemplary embodiment of the device also includes one or more plug-ins 312 to provide functionality and one or more containers 314 operating as framework elements and having an area on the display. Examples of plug-in functionality include, but are not limited to, instant messaging buddy activity viewing, news reading, live play sport viewing and advertisement viewing. Each container 314 may be associated with one or more plug-ins 312. For example, as shown in
The exemplary embodiment of the device further includes one or more display templates 316 and a display area 318, as referenced above, associated with a container 314. Each container 314 may provide a channel 308 of content, stored in the content cache 306, at the display area 318 of an output device 208. Individual items 310 of the channel 308 are displayed based on the container information and corresponding display template 316. The display template 316 defines the manner in which content is displayed at the display area 318. The display template 316 to use for a particular content is defined by channel settings for the current channel 308.
The plug-ins may display and gather information in a number of ways, make network connections, gather external information and provide the information via an output device 208. Plug-ins may be loaded into containers to provide customization, particularly for idle state plug-ins. The plug-ins have specific functionality to provide relevant information to an output device 208. The plug-in framework allows the plug-in to launch applications by supplying a launch string. The plug-ins may search locally to the device to gather information and provide the information to the output device 208. The plug-ins may also call the functionality of other applications, services and/or API's on the display and surface the information and/or functionality wherever the container exists. Each piece of information may include a direct access link to more information by providing more content or direct access to functionality, applications or tasks. Examples of plug-ins include news reader plug-ins, short cut plug-ins, and 3rd party plug-ins.
With plug-ins and channels of content, the wireless communication device may passively monitor device activity relating to information provided by one or more output devices 208. Content will be provided to the output device or devices 208 on a regular basis, and deeper content and/or functionality may be accessed by activation of one or more input devices 210.
The general concept of device engagement as well as two examples are shown. For the general concept, a channel may be selected by an input device 210 so that its content may be provided in a container during an idle state of the wireless communication device. Upon selection, as represented by block 402, a plug-in appropriate for the channel may be associated with the container and gather information, i.e., media content, in the background of the device's operation. Next, as represented by block 404, the output device 210 provides information through the selected channel. The information may be provided using uncommon technology or common technology such as JAVA SVG, Flash, SMILE and the like. At some point thereafter, as represented by block 406, a user may select the channel of particular interest by actuating an input device 210 to launch relative functionality. Thus, a command is passed to the processor 204 to cause corresponding functionality to be executed. In response, as represented by block 408, the user has more access to delve deeper into the content or functionality of the channel.
One type of channel is a media channel which is exemplified by the middle row of
Another type of channel is a functional channel which is exemplified by the bottom row of
A user may navigate among the display areas 504, 506, 508 to select one or more channels for each container and its associated display area. After a particular channel is selected, the processor 204 automatically loads the appropriate plug-in or plug-ins 312 and display template 316 for the channel based on channel configuration information and format information fetched by the device's service 304. The user may also navigate between items within a container, such as various locations and shortcut links within a display area.
As represented by
Although channel cycling may occur at predetermined time intervals or based on an initial time set by a user, the wireless communication device may also coordinate the cycling of channels for each container to maximize viewing ease by the user. For example, the channels may change for each display area in sequential order from top-to-bottom (i.e., display area 504 to display area 506 to display area 508), or vice-versa, so that the user may view each display area in the same sequential order. The carousel function may further cycle through shortcut links and channels of shortcut links in the same manner. For example, the third display area 508 may cycle between a first group of shortcut links 510 to a second group of shortcut links or cycle to other groups of shortcut links before returning the first group.
It is to be understood that, in addition to general media content of interest to a user, the wireless communication device 104 may also provide advertising content that may or may not be of interest to the user. Advertising content may be provided in a particular display area as a channel or a particular item of a channel. Also, advertising content may be intermixed with the general media content. For example, when viewing items of a particular channel or using the carousel function to cycle through channels (whether by user activation or automatically as described above), advertising content in the form of an item or a channel may be provided after a predetermined time period and/or after a predetermined number of items or channels have been viewed.
The display 600 includes one or more display areas, 606, 608, and each display area is associated with a particular container 314. For the embodiment of
If, at step 708, a container selection is detected, then the device 104 provides detailed content and/or functionality associated with the selected container 314 at step 710. The device 104 continues to provide the detailed content and/or functionality by repeating steps 710 and 712 until the detailed content and/or functionality is terminated at step 712. For example, when the user no longer wishes to view the detailed content and/or functionality any longer, the user may select a termination button. Thereafter, the device 104 returns to providing media content to the appropriate container and, if appropriate, receiving a data stream of media content from the media gateway 102 on a periodic basis.
If, at step 810, a container selection is detected, then the device 104 checks again to see if the device is in passive mode at step 812. If so, then the device 104 provides detailed content and/or functionality associated with the selected container 314 at step 814. The device 104 continues to provide the detailed content and/or functionality by repeating steps 812, 814 and 816 until the detailed content and/or functionality is terminated at step 816. Thereafter, the device 104 returns to providing media content to the appropriate container and, if appropriate, receiving a data stream of media content from the media gateway 102 on a periodic basis.
If at any time during the operation of the second exemplary mode, such as at steps 804 or 812, then the device may operate in an actuated mode at step 818. For example, the actuated mode may be activated by another feature or function of the wireless communication device 104 such as a voice and/or data call or execution of an application. After the device 104 terminates the actuated mode and returns to passive mode at step 818, the device may continue operation where it left off (as shown in
For one embodiment, the wireless communication device 104 provides instant media upon power-up. In particular, upon powering-up the device 104, the device receives a data stream of media content from the media gateway 102 and displays the data stream at a display of the device, a portion at a time. Thus, the device 104 provides current media content to the display of the device on a periodic basis in response to activation of a power source of the device and without any further actions or instructions from a user via a user interface or other source. Accordingly, the user may passively view the received media content without the need for discovering or seeking the content.
While the preferred embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described, it is to be understood that the invention is not so limited. Numerous modifications, changes, variations, substitutions and equivalents will occur to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.