A very interesting patent has been granted in the US. Essentially it divides functionality of a TV user interface into logical components (EPG, VoD, Photo viewer etc.) and assigns each component to a channel. The user, by tuning to the channel, launches the relevant part of the GUI. This is especially interesting for middlewares like Tru2way and MHP which allow the applications to be downloaded and stored on the set top box and so would be launched immediately on tuning.
I'm a little dubious if the patent will hold up in court. It seems to me the DVB must have discussed using the stored application parts of the GEM specification in this manner during the creation of the spec. That would be prior art.
About Me
- Chris Thornborrow
- Graphics guy who moved into digital TV 9 years ago. My interests lie in graphics and user interfaces for DTV. I am the inventor of EGG, a pseudo-3D graphics library for set top boxes with no 3D hardware. Opinions expressed on this blog are mine, not those of my employer Alticast.
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