204v 210}
Contents
1. Internet Connection Error Trouble shooting Checklist 1 O N r call 1 888 SKY DISH The Network can be slow right now Please check for Web access from your computer Make sure your Gateway is connected to the modem Check that your modem is turned on and working Call your ISP to see if they are having problems Check that your set top box yellow light is on MORE TRY FIGURE 6B Home Network Connection Error XXXX Trouble shooting Checklist Check the wiring between the ESTB and Gateway Make sure the power is on the Gateway if there is link light on the Gateway that be checked If there is link light on the ESTB that could be checked Make sure you are using one of the following gateways If you are using a custom network configuration please check your settings by or call 1 888 SKY DISH MORE TRY INFO AGAIN CLOSE Patent Application Publication Jan 29 2004 Sheet 9 of 9 FIGURE 6 US 2004 0019691 1 Set Top Box Connection Error Trouble shooting Checklist 4 Make sure the dongle is properly connected to the STB 2 Check for a LINK light on the dongle 3 Check to make sure the Gateway is properly connected and powered on 4 Try restarting the STB before calling or call 1 888 SKY DISH MORE TRY FIGURE 6D Internet on TV Help Index General information DSL Modem Home Network Getway Wired Connection to t2. If the user ultimately has to contact a help desk this feedback infor mation can be passed to the help desk which greatly reduces the burden on the help desk SET FLAG FOR INTERNET FAILURE SET FLAG FOR LOCAL NETWORK FAILURE Patent Application Publication Jan 29 2004 Sheet 1 of 9 US 2004 0019691 1 FIGURE 1 INTERNET GATEWAY 4 24 MULTICAST SYSTEM BROADCAST SET TOP BOX HIGH BANDWIDTH US 2004 0019691 1 Jan 29 2004 Sheet 2 of 9 Patent Application Publication MYOMLAN FOVAYALNI OL YYOMLAN W3qoONW JANYSLNI JANYALNI AYOWSW NOISIA3 TAL sd3Al39398 34771945 80 Patent Application Publication Jan 29 2004 Sheet 3 of 9 US 2004 0019691 FIGURE 3A PING INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER 200 202 N SET FLAG FOR INTERNET FAILURE INTERNET PING FAILS PING LOCAL 206 4 NETWORK 208 LOCAL NETWORK PING FAILS SET FLAG FOR LOCAL NETWORK FAILURE Patent Application Publication Jan 29 2004 Sheet 4 of 9 US 2004 0019691 1 FIGURE 38 PING HIGH BANDWIDTH SERVICE 212 FLAG FOR INTERNET GATEWAY FAILURE 214 INTERNET GATEWAY PING FAILS HAS A FAILURE FLAG BEEN SET PRESENTING TROUBLE SHOOTING DATA TO
3. a variety of formats such as object code or source code Such code is described generically herein as programming code or a computer program for simplification Clearly the executable machine code may be integrated with the code of other programs implemented as subroutines by external program calls or by other techniques as known in the art 0176 The embodiments of the invention may be executed by a computer processor or similar device pro grammed in the manner of method steps or may be executed by an electronic system which is provided with means for executing these steps Similarly an electronic memory medium such computer diskettes CD Roms Random Access Memory RAM Read Only Memory ROM or similar computer software storage media known in the art may be programmed to execute such method steps As well electronic signals representing these method steps may also be transmitted via a communication network 0177 The invention could for example be applied to computers smart terminals smart appliances Bluetooth devices personal digital assistants and Internet ready tele phones Again such implementations would be clear to one skilled in the art and do not take away from the invention What is claimed is 1 Aconvergent multimedia system comprising an Internet Service Provider ISP connected to an Inter net network a Home Network a convergent multimedia device on said Home Network an Internet Gateway connec
4. concept of the invention can also be used in applications other than troubleshooting for example in registering Users to new services For example the STB 20 may detect that the User has attempted to access a service which is not consistent with his subscription In addition to advising the User of the error the STB 20 could also provide instruction screens that assist the User in subscribing to the new service 0172 The task of signing Users up to new services had been done manually in the past Similar to the case of the troubleshooting embodiment the invention would allow the number of support persons to be reduced This reduces overhead costs saving the service provider money 0173 Many variations to the architecture are also pos sible As note above for example the Internet modem may be internal to the set top box as shown in FIG 2 or external as in FIG 4 Another alternative to the architecture shown in FIG 4 is to use a dual port modem in lieu of the DSL modem 306 This would eliminate the need for a separate Home Networking Internet Gateway device CONCLUSIONS 0174 While particular embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described it is clear that Jan 29 2004 changes and modifications may be made to such embodi ments without departing from the true scope and spirit of the invention 0175 The method steps of the invention may be embodi ment in sets of executable machine code stored in
5. is stored in the video memory 118 of the STB 100 and is processed as required by the television driver 120 before being transmitted to the television 22 0054 The interconnection between the set top box 100 and the television 22 may be effected in a number of manners as known in the art for example 0055 1 the use of line level audio and video connec tions 0056 2 the use of separate luminance and chromi nance signals for example in an SVHS format or 0057 3 by modulating the audio and video signals onto a carrier channel such as channel 3 or 4 Such an arrangement may be necessary for television sets 22 not having separate audio and video inputs 0058 It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the block diagram of FIG 2 is greatly simplified It is common for example for set top boxes to have the func tionality to super impose alphanumeric characters other symbols and bitmap graphics over the video images stored in the video memory 118 As well the set top boxes may have various tuners modulators demodulators decoders decrypters demultiplexers filters and cable connections However such details are known in the art and will not be addressed herein 0059 The method of the invention is now described with respect to the flow charts of FIGS 3A and 3B and against the backdrops of FIGS 1 and 2 In short the method is to check connectivity and operability at three different levels on a peri
6. issue gethost commands down to the application layer where the Internet Service Provider uses different servers to support different applications an email server for example Thus the manner in which this step is effected will depend on the architecture of the system and the level of detail that is desirable 0063 The routine then waits at step 202 for a certain period of time and if no reply is received the ping is considered to have failed On failure an Internet failure flag is set at step 204 0064 Regardless of whether the Internet ping is success ful control then passes to step 206 where a ping is issued to the home network Again a certain time period can be allowed for a response at step 208 and on failure a home network failure flag is set at step 210 0065 Finally the same process is repeated at steps 212 216 for checking the connectivity of the Internet Gateway Note that the ping at step 212 will be different from that of step 200 above as typically the Internet Gateway will not be associated with an IP address 0066 Then like the Internet and home network checks above the routine sets an Internet Gateway failure flag at step 216 if this ping fails at step 214 0067 Having completed the set of connectivity checks at step 218 the system now checks to see whether any failure flags were set and if so presents the User with trouble shooting information at step 220 If no fai
7. 2 0096 The TV Portal 310 will generally be different from an Internet Portal in at least the following ways 0097 1 Usability Requirements 0098 The viewing experience on a television is different than that of a PC For example a person is typically sitting much farther away from a television than a PC resulting in a requirement for larger text fonts as well as more simple and concise presenta tion and 0099 2 Television Context 0100 Given that all of the TV Portal 310 cannot be reasonably re purposed for optimal television pre sentation the extent and specific content needs to be selected to have the most value in a television context 0101 Generally the content which will be support by the TV Portal 310 can be categorized as follows 0102 1 Re purposed Portal Content 0103 Content from the ISP s existing Internet Por tal can be re purposed for the TV Portal 310 rather than generating new content 0104 2 Highest Usage Sites 0105 The highest trafficked sites can be re purposed and cached on the TV Portal 310 The focus will be to port the top 4 or 5 broadband verticals although high bandwidth streaming video would not be offered US 2004 0019691 0106 3 Complementing the TV Viewing Experience 0107 The content on the TV Portal 310 should complement a television viewing experience Thus the TV Portal 310 should allow Users to look up a phone number for an advertising c
8. Messaging and Chat Applications 0165 this case each help screen may be content heavy and allow Users to navieate to a deeper details page return to the Help Index or cancel and return to watching full screen television programming However it is recom mended that the amount of Help text be limited per topic for this medium since the television 22 is not a good medium for reading If more Help information is needed it should be enclosed in a physical manual or should point the customer towards a Web site 0166 Options and Alternatives 0167 The invention is not limited by the nature of the content software applications and physical components described herein As well it is clear that many alternative embodiments could also be employed For example 0168 1 the connectivity tests be made in response to certain requests For example when the User makes a request to toggle from one application to another a ping could be made for the new service This would test the new service before the User commits to the tog gling 0169 2 the connectivity tests be made along with other requests For example a ping could be made when the User submits his login and password to access a certain service or 0170 3 diagnostic tests could also be run on a con tinuous basis for many other system services and physical components such as for the High Bandwidth Service 0171 The contextual help
9. US 20040019691A1 Patent Application Publication Pub No US 2004 0019691 1 United States Daymond et al 43 Pub Date Jan 29 2004 54 METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR SET TOP BOX SERVICE AND SUPPORT 76 Inventors Michael Daymond Schomberg CA Nelson Patricio Oliveira Toronto CA Correspondence Address Martin Korn Locke Liddell amp Sapp LLP 2200 Ross Ave Ste 2200 Dallas TX 75201 US 21 Appl No 10 202 908 22 Filed Jul 26 2002 Publication Classification GCH tity Os th eens colin attracted GO6F 15 16 52 US CL 709 231 PING INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER 200 202 INTERNET PING FAILS PING LOCAL 206 4 NETWORK 208 LOCAL NETWORK PING FAILS 57 ABSTRACT The present invention relates a method and system for television set top box STB service and support Typical STBs provide little feedback to the user when there is error or a failure and generally only do so when the user attempts to perform a task The system of the invention employs periodic testing of various devices and applica tions so that the user is generally of failures in advance As well the testing is performed at different levels in the system so that the user can be provided with troubleshoot ing information tailored to the particulars of the failure Thus when there is a failure the user is provided with focussed instructions on how to address it
10. USER US 2004 0019691 1 Jan 29 2004 Sheet 5 of 9 Patent Application Publication OLE AL 1N3LNOO ALYYd MANLYWd J ZLE 1 31 ALOI 01 LAS 5 1N3LNOO ANY ADIANAS YAHLO 2 r SLOWEY Patent Application Publication 29 2004 Sheet 6 of 9 0 2004 0019691 1 FIGURE 5A 200 NS CLOSE TROUBLE SHOOTING WINDOW CHECK CLOSE NETWORK WINDOW CONNECT 204 CONNECTIVITY FAILURE DISPLAY TROUBLE SHOOTING DATA 202 TROUBLE SHOOTING DATA REQUESTED MORE CONNECTIVITY FIGURE 5B 220 CLOSE TROUBLE CLOSE WINDOW SHOOTING WINDOW CONNECTIVITY 224 FAILURE DISPLAY TROUBLE SHOOTING DATA MORE TROUBLE SHOOTING DATA REQUESTED Patent Application Publication Jan 29 2004 Sheet 7 of 9 0 2004 0019691 1 FIGURE 5 240 INTERNET GATEWAY CONNECT CLOSE TROUBLE CLOSE SHOOTING WINDOW WINDOW CONNECTIVITY FAILURE 244 DISPLAY TROUBLE SHOOTING DATA TROUBLE SHOOTING DATA REQUESTED MORE Patent Application Publication Jan 29 2004 Sheet 8 of 9 US 2004 0019691 FIGURE 6A
11. age can be reassembled in the correct order but to maintain real time operation late packets often must be discarded Thus the quality that real time Internet transmis sions offer can never be guaranteed 0012 While the speed of Internet access is improving as is the speed of the Internet backbone it still must increase by orders of magnitude in order to have the bandwidth necessary to offer effective high quality video transmissions in real time Digital subscriber line access DSL for example can offer last mile communication rates on the order of 800 kbps kilobits per second but communication can never be effected any faster than the slowest device interconnecting the two end points in the communication Improving the speed of the last mile may improve com munication rates between some points some of the time but does not address all of the bottlenecks in the system 0013 Another problem is that the market for convergent devices is very price sensitive Thus many convergent devices are sold with limited functionality in an effort to keep costs down For example 0014 1 some convergent devices use a single com munication channel to provide all content and data communication including web browsing email and real time video This is simply an inefficient use of resources as the range of services is too diverse real time video often demanding 100 times the band width or more than the email or web browsing
12. been exhausted control will pass to a generic Help window such as the one presented in FIG 6D 0139 2 a Try Again button to re test the connection and Jan 29 2004 0140 3 a Close button to ignore the problem and close the dialog box 0141 Similarly in the event of a Home Network Con nection failure at state 200 of FIG 5A the User will be presented with the dialogue box of FIG 6B Again the connectivity test could include diagnostics that vary the content of the dialogue box depend on the nature of the error As well this dialogue box also includes a separate numeric or alpha numeric identifier to assist the HelpDesk or to allow the User to obtain further information in an electronic or hard copy paper User s manual 0142 In addition the Home Network Connection Error exemplary content for this dialogue box could include the following 0143 1 Check the wiring between the ESTB and Gateway 0144 2 Make sure the power is on the Gateway 0145 3 If there is link light on the Gateway verify that it is illuminated 0146 4 If there is a link light on the ESTB verify that it is illuminated 0147 5 Make sure you are using one of the following gateways 0148 6 If you are using a custom network configu ration please check your settings 0149 Like the Internet Connectivity Error dialogue box this dialogue box should also include buttons for More Info Tr
13. ce over IP using the Internet as a voice telephone net work video telephony Internet games remote collabora tive work and telemedicine 0008 As well there is pressure to support all of the services described above on single convergent devices which makes the software and hardware development and support tasks even more complex One such convergent Jan 29 2004 device which is showing great promise is the set top box STB This device acts as an interface between a television or other signal acquisition device and various telecommu nication media such as telephone lines television cable networks and xDSL digital subscriber line facilities 0009 Interconnectivity to other media or mediums may interface over a local area network LAN 0010 Unfortunately the Internet is not well suited to real time global transmission or communication The whole premise of the Internet is to interconnect a vast and disparate collection of computers servers routers computer networks and public telecommunication networks allowing two par ties to communicate via whatever entities happen to be interconnected at any particular time 0011 Unless a dedicated pipeline is reserved which consumes enormous resources the Internet offers no guar antees as to how quickly or uniformly data packets will arrive or even the order in which the data packets will arrive Each data packet is numbered so that the packages for a larger mess
14. ch connec tivity test In this way the connections can be tested con tinuously in the background while other software applica tions are being run The three connectivity tests being performed in the preferred embodiment of the invention are the home network connectivity test presented in FIG 5A the Internet Service Provider connectivity presented in FIG 5B and the connectivity of the Internet Gateway in FIG 5C 0116 The software process presented in FIG 5A begins at state 200 where the STB 300 issues a ping to the connection to the Home Network 26 If the connectivity is acceptable then the software process remains in state 200 timing loop could also be added so that the network con nectivity is only checked on a periodic basis 0117 If a Home Network ping discovers a Home Net work connectivity failure then the process moves to state 202 and a warning is issued to the User In response the User will either be able to close the current window which would return the process to state 200 or to request trouble shooting data which moves the process to state 204 At state 204 trouble shooting data is obtained from the system memory of the STB 300 and is displayed to the User It is possible that the amount of trouble shooting data will exceed the capacity of one display screen therefore there will be an Jan 29 2004 optional tab on the screen so that the User can request more information Once either the problem is correcte
15. creen 21 A method of operating a convergent multimedia device having an antenna for receiving transmissions from a wireless transmitter a multitasking operating system being connected to a display screen an audio output device and a Home Network said Home Network being connected to an Internet Service Provider via a hard wired communication network and said method comprising the steps of checking connectivity between said convergent multime dia device and said wireless transmitter checking connectivity between said convergent multime dia device and said Internet Service Provider checking connectivity between said convergent multime dia device and said Home Network and responding to the failure of one or more of said connec tions by presenting an alarm on said display screen or said audio output device 22 convergent multimedia system comprising a high bandwidth network an Internet Service Provider a Home Network a convergent multimedia device on said Home Network having a receiver for receiving transmissions from said high bandwidth network and a hard wired communication network for connecting said Home Network to said Internet Service Provider said convergent multimedia device having a multitasking operating system being connected to a display screen and an audio output device and being operable to perform the steps of checking connectivity between said convergent multi media device and said
16. d or all of the trouble shooting data has been exhausted the process returns to state 200 0118 In the preferred embodiment the process will wait 300 milliseconds for a response to the ping issued at state 200 before it will decide that the communication attempt has failed 0119 The software process presented in FIG 5B begins at state 220 where the STB 300 issues a ping to the connection to the local ISP 308 If the connectivity is acceptable then the software process remains in state 220 timing loop could also be added so that the ISP connectivity is checked on a periodic basis If an ISP ping discovers an ISP connectivity failure then the process changes to state 222 and a warning is issued to the User In response the User will either be able to close the window which would return the process to state 220 or to request trouble shooting data which moves the process to state 224 0120 At state 224 trouble shooting data is obtained from the system memory of the STB 300 and is displayed to the User It is possible that the amount of troubleshooting data will exceed the capacity of one display screen therefore there will be an optional tab on the screen so that the User can request more information Once either the problem is corrected or all of the trouble shooting data has been exhausted the process returns to state 220 0121 The ISP connectivity testing at state 220 of FIG 5B will generally be affected by issuing a numb
17. dia device and the Home Network and responding to the failure of one or more of the connections by presenting an announcement on the display screen or the audio output device BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 0027 These and other features of the invention will become more apparent from the following description in which reference is made to the appended drawings in which 0028 1 presents a block diagram of an exemplary convergent communication system in a broad embodiment of the invention Jan 29 2004 0029 FIG 2 presents a block diagram of an exemplary convergent device in a broad embodiment of the invention 0030 FIGS and present a flow chart of a method of operation for a convergent device in a broad embodiment of the invention 0031 FIG 4 presents a block diagram of a convergent communication system in a preferred embodiment of the invention 0032 FIGS 5A through 5C present state diagrams of a method of operation for a set top box in a preferred embodi ment of the invention and 0033 FIGS 6A through 6D present screen captures of dialogue boxes to be displayed to the User in a preferred embodiment of the invention DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION 0034 A system and methodology which addresses the objects outlined above is presented in FIGS 1 through 3 0035 To begin with FIG 1 lays out a block diagram of an exemplary system for implementing t
18. e public domain operating systems such as Linux are preferred over the proprietary offerings As noted above the STB market is very cost sensi tive so this selection can result in reduced costs and US 2004 0019691 very sienificant market advantage Linux based operating systems eenerally require the addition of a windows manager but many suitable windows man agers are also available 0079 2 Internet On Television IOTV Capability 0080 The IOTV package is a bundle of 3 popular Internet applications Web Browsing email and Instant Messaging IM Other applications could also be implemented such as Chat 0081 Users can enjoy these features using the full television screen or share the screen with another application due to the use of the multiprocessing operating system It is straightforward to offer these services with standard features such as 0082 a the Web browser supporting 128 bit SSL secure sockets layer to allow for on line banking and electronic commerce transactions 0083 b the email being operable to access Bell Sympatico web email service or any POP3 or IMAP service 0084 the IM client allowing popular IM fea tures and interoperating with Sympatico Lycos planned IM service as well as the major IM services including ICQ AOL Messenger and MS Messenger and 0085 notification being supported for IM 0086 The IOTV service will allow for up to 6 User pro
19. er of pings 0122 Internet Service Providers typically have a number of access channels for example having different channels for email and Web Browsing Thus pings should be issued to each address Similarly a DNS ping should also be issued as part of the connectivity testing at state 220 In each case the system will allow 300 milliseconds for a response before deciding that the communication attempt has failed 0123 DNS Domain Name System server is a server that maintains a database of domain names host names and their corresponding IP addresses The Internet uses IP addresses to identify locations but these numeric addresses are not as easily remembered as alphanumeric domain names Hence a Web browser can be given a domain name such as www mycompany com and it will be sent to a DNS server to be converted to the IP address 204 0 8 51 0124 Similarly the software process presented in FIG 5C begins at state 240 where the STB 300 issues a ping to the Internet Gateway 304 If the connectivity is acceptable then the software process remains in state 240 A timing loop could also be added so that the Internet Gateway connec tivity is checked on a periodic basis If an Internet Gateway ping discovers a connectivity failure then the process changes to state 242 and a warning is issued to the User In response the User will either be able to close the display window which would return the process to state 240 or to reques
20. files so that User ID and passwords address books bookmarks and notification preferences will be stored and activated allowing rapid access to services and 0087 3 Home Network Connectivity 0088 In the preferred embodiment the STB 300 is supplied with an Ethernet port 30 for connection to the Home Network 26 though a USB universal services bus port could also be used The intent is that the User can purchase a low cost third party Home Network interface device to connect their STB 300 to their Home Network 26 if necessary Instal lation and configuration of the connection to the Home Network 26 and any necessary adapters can easily be automated using plug and play tech niques known in the art 0089 Currently popular Home Networks are based on Ethernet 802 11 HomePNA and Home RF though almost any network could be used that supports TCP IP telecom munication protocol over Internet Protocol the standard Internet communication framework The choice of this technology will be up to the customer A mixture of tech nologies is possible as well 0090 In FIG 4 the Home Network 26 is shown to support a Personal Computer PC 28 and a printer 302 though any number of appliances could be supported The PC 28 could be any platform IBM compatible or Macin tosh for example provided it is compatible with the rest of the network 0091 The Home Network 26 preferably communicates with the Internet services u
21. for a reliable convergent multi media system provided with consideration for the problems outlined above SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 0021 It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a method and system which obviates or mitigates at least one of the disadvantages described above 0022 One aspect of the invention is broadly defined as a method of operating a convergent multimedia device com prising the steps of performing connectivity testing between the convergent multimedia device and interconnected devices and 0023 responding to the failure of one or more of the connections by presenting an announcement on a display screen 0024 Another aspect of the invention is defined as a convergent multimedia system comprising an Internet Ser vice Provider a Home Network a convergent multimedia device on the Home Network an Internet Gateway con nected to the Home Network 0025 and hard wired communication network for con necting the Internet Gateway to the Internet Service Pro vider the convergent multimedia device having a multitask ing operating system being connected to a display screen and an audio output device and being operable to perform the steps of checking connectivity between the convergent multimedia device and the Internet Gateway checking con nectivity between the convergent multimedia device and the Internet Service Provider 0026 checking connectivity between the convergent multime
22. h as geostationary or low Earth orbit LEO satellites geosynchronous and middle Earth orbit MEO sys tems These systems all have a high initial capital cost but they can broadcast over such a broad geographic area referred to as the footprint that they can generate sufficient revenues to offset their costs US 2004 0019691 0042 3 digital cable television networks and 0043 4 VDSL Very High Speed Digital Subscriber Line 0044 Any kind of Home Network 26 or LAN could be employed including an Ethernet or the like This network is necessary to interface with personal computers 28 and other Internet or LAN appliances such as printers or Internet fax machines that the User may have 0045 In the preferred embodiment described hereinafter access to the Internet 30 is shown via the Home Network 26 using an Internet Gateway 32 but it could be accessed directly by the set top box 20 There are many bidirectional techniques for accessing the Internet 30 including for example dial up modems using telephone lines DSL digi tal subscriber line over telephone lines television cable modems wireless local loops point to point wireless and cellular telephone networks 0046 A convergent device which provides the necessary functionality could be embodied in many different forms using many different architectures The embodiments of the invention are generally described herein with respect to a television set t
23. h a device will generally only receive satellite data and not have the functionality to transmit data 0050 The STB 100 may also communicate with a home local network via a network interface card 110 This is a bi directional channel as data may be received or transmitted to the home network Ethernet USB and RS 232 cards are common examples of such a network interface card 110 0051 The STB 100 may also include an internal modem 112 for communicating with the Internet 30 This modem 112 may be used to contact an Internet Service Provider to obtain Internet access over telephone lines a cable television network or wireless Alternatively the interconnection to the Jan 29 2004 Internet 30 may be made via the local area network in which case the set top box 100 itself may not include an internal modem 112 0052 The STB 100 also requires an interface with the User In this case the interface is provided by an external alpha numeric keyboard 114 which communicates with the STB 100 using a wireless infrared IR connection and an infrared pickup 116 in the STB 100 Alternatively a hard wire connection may be used or a different wireless tech nique such as a radio frequency connection RF Keyboards 114 for STB 100 often have dedicated keys such as volume adjustment or keys for launching specific applications but may also be replaced with less sophisticated remote control hand held devices 0053 Output video and audio data
24. he STB Wireless Connection to the STB USB Port to the STB STB Hardware Internet email Instant Messaging and Chat Applications MORE TRY wom LOSE ONOARWN gt US 2004 0019691 METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR SET TOP BOX SERVICE AND SUPPORT 0001 The present invention relates generally to conver gent multimedia systems and more specifically to a method and system for television set top box STB service and support BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 0002 Over the last two decades telecommunication ser vices have seen tremendous change The familiar analogue telephones radios televisions and recording devices are being or have already been replaced with higher quality more powerful and more flexible digital devices 0003 Television broadcasting for example traditionally offered no more than thirty or forty channels available on a local basis using short range wireless FM frequency modu lated transmissions or analogue cable networks Digital satellite transmissions now offer hundreds of television channels and the broad footprint of the satellite transmis sions mean that these signals can be received across vast geographical areas High definition television HDTV stan dards are also being established and widely accepted offer ing much higher quality which is almost a necessity for the wide screen televisions common today As well pay per view direct to home and video on demand services now allow Users t
25. he invention Most convergent systems do not offer comprehensive multimedia services because they lack the necessary infrastructure A truly comprehensive system requires the User interface typically a video display audio device such as a television or multimedia enabled personal computer to have intercon nectivity with 0036 1 download only high bandwidth media chan nel for receiving audio video broadcasts or multi cast data 0037 2 a local area network LAN so that access can be made to a local computer or similar device and 0038 3 access to the Internet via a bi directional communication channel 0039 In FIG 1 a block diagram of such a system is shown In this example the User accesses his multimedia content via a set top box 20 and television 22 The set top box 20 receives high bandwidth data from an external source of some kind 24 This high bandwidth source 24 could distribute content using broadcast multicast narrow cast unicast or other techniques and access customers using various high bandwidth communication media including satellite cable HFC and xDSL communications The only restriction on this high bandwidth source 24 is that it must be able to offer connection oriented high bandwidth ser vices Many systems are available for doing this including the following 0040 1 land based wireless systems such as point to point transmissions 0041 2 Earth orbiting communication satellites suc
26. high bandwidth network checking connectivity between said convergent multi media device and said an Internet Service Provider checking connectivity between said convergent multi media device and said a Home Network and responding to the failure of one or more of said connections by presenting an alarm on said display screen or said audio output device US 2004 0019691 23 convergent multimedia system comprising a wireless transmitter an Internet Service Provider a Home Network a convergent multimedia device on said Home Network and having an antenna for receiving transmissions from said wireless transmitter and a hard wired communication network for connecting said Home Network to said Internet Service Provider said convergent multimedia device having a multitasking operating system being connected to a display screen 10 Jan 29 2004 and an audio output device and being operable to perform the steps of checking connectivity between said convergent multi media device and said wireless transmitter checking connectivity between said convergent multi media device and said an Internet Service Provider checking connectivity between said convergent multi media device and said a Home Network and responding to the failure of one or more of said connections by presenting an alarm on said display screen or said audio output device
27. important in the convergent service market but most companies focus on the STB 20 itself rather than looking at the whole system While the STB 20 of the invention may cost more than other set top boxes the system as a whole offers improved service at a lower cost because the new service layer is automated it will decrease the help desk overhead required so the overall cost of the system will go down To emulate the service representative help desk layer this new layer has to provide instructional and or troubleshoot ing data 0071 The invention of FIGS 1 through 3B addresses many of the problems in the art It provides a true convergent platform by supporting both Internet connectivity and high bandwidth connectivity which is necessary for real time transmission of audio video programming As well by monitoring the connectivity of the various communication channels Users are surprised by communication difficulties far less often This improves the reliability of the system and improves the User s experience with it Other advantages of the invention are identified with respect to particular embodiments of the invention described hereinafter 0072 The preferred embodiment of the invention is pre sented by means of the block diagram of FIG 4 the flow charts of FIGS 5A through 5C and the dialogue boxes that will be presented on the User s screen per FIGS 6A through 6D 0073 To begin with the physica
28. l arrangement of the preferred embodiment is much the same as those presented above with respect to FIGS 1 and 2 above 0074 There are however some additional details which should be considered Referring to FIG 4 the high band width data channel is preferably provisioned using a geo stationary satellite so the User must have a receiving dish 108 and the set top box STB 300 provisioned accordingly This is the least complex of the satellite transmission tech niques currently available and is generally the least expen sive and most reliable for this application Many digital television broadcast systems use this technique including for example Bell Express Vu 0075 The STB 300 itself has a number of important features including the following 0076 1 Operating System 0077 The operating system for the STB 300 is preferably a multi processing operating system such as a Windows or Linux based system This allows the connectivity checking to be performed while other operations are also being performed 0078 It also allows more than one application to be active at the same time Thus Users can toggle back and forth between applications or even have more than one application open on the screen at the same time say for example having a television program playing and using the Web browser to view a television schedule on a portion of the screen at the same time Of the operating systems currently avail able th
29. lure flags were set the routine simply ends 0068 Step 220 is an important step because many sys tems simply present a connectivity failure system error or service not available message to the User The User is then left to sift through an operating manual or contact a telephone based service and support person the help desk Help desks are expensive and are placed at a great disadvantage because they do not have access to the system that has the problem The set top box 20 itself however is in position to run other diagnostics or at least take many factors into account before deciding how to advise the User 0069 The method of the flow charts of FIGS and 3B can be repeated periodically under the supervision of a hardware or software timer or be hard coded into the operation of the STB 20 In the preferred embodiment of the invention this testing is performed every 5 minutes simply to keep the burden on the complete system under control Technically the system could perform these tests much more often particularly the local tests the local burden is insig nificant compared to the burden that the real time content presents to the system However the remote burden is significant if a typical community has 8 000 to 10 000 set top boxes it would not be practicable to perform the pinging more often than every five minutes or so Jan 29 2004 0070 As noted in the background cost is very
30. m 1 wherein said step of checking connectivity between said convergent multimedia device and an address on said Internet network comprises the step of checking connectivity between said convergent multime dia device and said ISP 6 The system of claim 1 wherein said steps of checking are performed periodically 7 The system of claim 1 wherein said wireless transmit ter comprises an Earth orbiting satellite 8 The system of claim 3 wherein said Earth orbiting satellite comprises a geo stationary satellite 9 The system of claim 1 wherein said Home Network comprises a home or small office home office network 10 The system of claim 1 wherein said Home Network comprises an Ethernet network 11 The system of claim 1 wherein said hard wired communication network comprises a digital subscriber line DSL communication network 12 The system of claim 1 wherein said hard wired communication network comprises cable modems and a television cable network 13 The system of claim 1 wherein said convergent multimedia device is further operable to perform the steps of responding to the failure of one or more of said connec tions by presenting help data on said display screen of said convergent multimedia device 14 The system of claim 1 wherein said convergent multimedia device is further operable to perform the steps of responding to the failure of one or more of said connec tions by presenting troubleshooting informatio
31. n on said display screen of said convergent multimedia device 15 The system of claim 1 wherein said convergent multimedia device is a set top box STB and said display screen is incorporated in a computer 16 The system of claim 1 wherein said convergent multimedia device is a television set top box STB and said display screen is incorporated in a television 17 The system of claim 1 wherein said multitasking operating system comprises a public domain operating sys tem and a windows manager 18 The system of claim 17 wherein said multitasking operating system comprises a Linux operating system and a windows manager 19 A method of operating a convergent multimedia device comprising the steps of checking connectivity between said convergent multime dia device and an Internet Gateway checking connectivity between said convergent multime dia device and an Internet Service Provider Jan 29 2004 checking connectivity between said convergent multime dia device and a Home Network and responding to the failure of one or more of said connec tions by presenting an announcement on a display screen or an audio output device 20 A method of operating a convergent multimedia device comprising the steps of performing connectivity testing between said convergent multimedia device and interconnected devices and responding to the failure of one or more of said connec tions by presenting an announcement on a display s
32. o have access to more valuable viewing prod ucts and on a more flexible scheduling basis 0004 The last decade has also seen the explosive growth of data communication networks such as the Internet Wide Area Networks WANs Local Area Networks LANs offering tremendously efficient means of organizing and distributing computerized data These efficiencies have resulted in widespread use for both business and personal applications 0005 The Internet is an excellent medium for multimedia applications because of the rich formatting including for example sound animation and personal interaction with the End User As well access to the Internet is almost pervasive in developed countries As a result the Internet has become a common medium for operating online auctions academic and public forums retail shopping remote computing Inter net radio distributing publications such as newspapers and magazines and performing electronic mail email transac tions 0006 The personal computers PCs which Users gener ally employ to access the Internet have also grown in power over the last decade They are now able to decompress and play high fidelity sound and high quality video at real time speeds As well many PCs are able to record this informa tion flawlessly on optical storage media such as CD Roms and DVDs 0007 While these telecommunication systems are already complex there is a market for new services such as voi
33. odic basis the Internet Service Provider the Inter net Gateway and the home network connection As noted in the background there are many instances where the User may be working in one domain with the expectation that another domain will be available only to find out that it is not The invention resolves this by checking the connectivity of each system periodically and advising the User of any problems 0060 One way of implementing such a process is pre sented in the flow chart of FIGS 3A and 3B Clearly there are unlimited variations that could be made to this routine 0061 The process begins at step 200 where the set top box 100 pings the Internet service provider A ping is a software utility used to determine whether a specific IP address is accessible It works by sending a packet to the specified address and waiting for a reply Alternatively a US 2004 0019691 gethost command could be executed which causes packet to be sent to the DNS domain name server asking it to resolve an IP address to a server If the DNS responds then obviously the Internet connection is operating 0062 It will be clear from the description which follows that the purpose of issuing such ping and gethost commands is to obtain details regarding errors and failures The more information that can be obtained in this respect the more effective the troubleshooting process will be Therefore one could even
34. ompany look up the playing time for an advertised movie or find the value of personal stocks after seeing a business news story 0108 4 Complement the High Bandwidth Service Offer ing 0109 Similar to item 3 above the TV Portal 310 should complement the high bandwidth service offering by providing schedules and additional infor mation regarding the products available 0110 5 Leverage Partner Content 011 The strategy will be to leverage Partner s assets and content as they fit into the TV Portal 310 This could include content from news services sports services record and movie producers and the like and 0112 6 Revenue Generation 0113 The TV Portal 310 could be used to generate revenues using electronic commerce techniques known in the art 0114 In addition the ISP Network 308 would also have access to the Internet 30 so that content could be imported from other service and content providers 314 These Web pages of these service and content providers 314 may be tailored for television viewing but many will not As well some of these service and content providers 314 may have peering connections with the ISP s network 308 but in general traffic will transit the Internet 30 0115 As noted above it is preferable that the operating system of the invention be a multi processing operating system Thus the connectivity testing of the invention can be effected by launching separate threads for ea
35. op box but it is understood that the invention could be implemented on other devices For example the functionality of the invention could be made integral to the television a Personal Computer PC or similar device 0047 exemplary television set top box that is com patible with the system of FIG 1 is presented as a block diagram in 2 At the heart of the set top box 100 lies a microprocessor 102 which controls all of the data process ing input output and software applications While a generic microprocessor such as a Pentium could be used dedi cated microprocessors digital signal processors DSPs micro controllers or application specific integrated circuits ASICs could also be used 0048 Software for controlling the microprocessor 102 software applications and data content are stored on the system memory 104 The system memory 104 could be comprised of read only memory ROM random access memory RAM or various high density storage media such as magnetic disk drives hard disks optical drives such as CD ROMs or other bulk storage media as known in the art Typically the system memory 104 will include a combina tion of these volatile and non volatile memories to store an operating system web browsers email software and other software applications 0049 The set top box STB 100 also includes a satellite receiver 106 for receiving video data via an external satellite antenna or dish 108 Note that suc
36. services 0015 2 most set top boxes only have the hardware and operating system to support one service at a time To toggle between a television program and an email service for example requires one to close the television program window altogether and launch a new software application to open the email window The closing and launching of applications is a pain fully slow process and does not allow real time interaction between the various services and 0016 3 an effort to keep costs down features that are not essential are rarely included in a set top box Thus typical set top boxes include no internal diag US 2004 0019691 and little no User feedback in the event of errors failures or other problems 0017 Finally Users of television and telephone devices are used to having very high levels of service which simply do not exist on today s computer based and Internet based communication systems 0018 System failures are particularly frustrating to the User when they are unexpected For example a User may prepare an email message only to find that his Internet connection has been lost 0019 Ifthe above problems could be overcome conver gent devices could be offered which truly support compre hensive and reliable multimedia services As well such a system could be adopted to many electronic devices and would not simply be limited to set top boxes 0020 There is therefore a need
37. sing a DSL digital subscriber Jan 29 2004 line modem 306 which allows high speed communication on the order of 800 mbps The DSL will generally require an Internet Gateway 304 as an interface to the Home Network 26 Such Internet Gateways 304 typically provide software functionality to allow multiple Internet devices on the Home Network 26 to access the Internet 30 and they also protect the Home Network 26 from external security risk This also provides a PPPoE Point to Point Protocol over Ethernet client to support Sympatico Access Manager 0092 All of these components are found on the User location The system components that are remote from the User will now be described 0093 The remote components may vary a great deal depending on the services being provided and the nature of the network itself These nature of these components gen erally do not limit the invention itself 0094 In the preferred embodiment the User will access the network of an Internet Service Provider ISP using the DSL modem 306 which may communicate over copper wire such as a telephone network or using a DOCSIS modem over a cable television network The ISP s network 308 may have many modems multiplexers servers data storage units computers or other components 0095 In the preferred embodiment the ISP will have components to support a television portal TV portal 310 which will also have access to partner and third party content 31
38. t of an Internet Connection failure at state 220 of FIG 5B for example the User will be presented with the dialogue box of FIG 6A If the connec tion check was unsuccessful due to an Internet connection problem then the User would see this screen 0130 Note that the content of the dialogue box can vary with the context of the error That is the connectivity test may be operable to detect where or how the error took place As noted above for example several pings are issued to the ISP thus the software of the invention may be tailored to the particular ISP ping which failed 0131 For each dialogue box there should be a separate numeric or alpha numeric identifier which would assist the HelpDesk if they had to be contacted In addition to includ ing this Internet Connection Error exemplary content for this dialogue box could include the following 0132 1 The Network could be slow right now Please check for Web access from your computer 0133 2 Make sure your Gateway is connected to the modem 0134 3 Check that your modem is turned on and working 0135 4 Call your ISP to see if they are having problems 0136 5 Check that your set top box yellow light is on 0137 The dialogue box will also include command tabs for the following 0138 1 a More Info button which links this window to another window with additional trouble shooting information Once all of the trouble shooting windows have
39. t trouble shooting data which moves the process to state 244 At state 244 trouble shooting data is obtained from the system memory of the set top box 100 and is displayed to the User 0125 Ifthe amount of trouble shooting data exceeds the capacity of one display screen there will be an optional tab US 2004 0019691 on the screen so that the User request more information Once either the problem is corrected or all of the trouble shooting data has been exhausted the process returns to state 240 0126 FIGS 6A through 6D present screen dumps of dialogue boxes that may be used to advise the User of connectivity failures and further advise the User of the trouble shooting efforts that should be made before connect ing an on line or telephone Help Desk or Service Repre sentative 0127 This troubleshooting checklist helps reduce the number of calls that have to be made to the Help Desk thus reducing overall costs of the system As well the calls that are made are directed to the proper Help Desk by the invention Without any diagnostics most User help calls would be directed to the STB Service Provider s main help number rather than to the party that caused the problem for example a particular software hardware or content pro vider 0128 The invention also increases User satisfaction as Users are able to correct problems much more quickly than having to contact a generic Help Desk 0129 In the even
40. ted to said Home Network and a hard wired communication network for connecting said Internet Gateway to said ISP said convergent multimedia device having a multitasking operating system being connected to a display screen and an audio output device and being operable to perform the steps of checking connectivity between said convergent multi media device and said Internet Gateway checking connectivity between said convergent multi media device and an address on said Internet net work checking connectivity between said convergent multi media device and said Home Network and responding to the failure of one or more of said connections by presenting an announcement on said display screen or said audio output device 2 The system of claim 1 wherein said step of checking connectivity between said convergent multimedia device and an address on said Internet network comprises issuing a ping US 2004 0019691 3 The system of claim 1 wherein said step of checking connectivity between said convergent multimedia device and an address on said Internet network comprises issuing a gethost 4 The system of claim 1 wherein said step of checking connectivity between said convergent multimedia device and an address on said Internet network comprises the step of checking connectivity between said convergent multime dia device and a DNS domain name server on said Internet network 5 The system of clai
41. y Again and Close 0150 The third trouble shooting dialogue box in the preferred embodiment of the invention is intended to address a physical connection failure at the STB 300 level Like the trouble shooting dialogue boxes listed above this dialogue box includes a Set Top Box Connection Error and trouble shooting suggestions These suggestions might include the following or other suggestions appropriate to the platform and particulars 0151 1 sure the dongle is properly connected to the STB 0152 2 Check for a LINK light on the dongle 0153 3 Check to make sure the Gateway is properly connected and powered on 0154 4 Try restarting the STB before calling 0155 Again this dialogue box should also have buttons for More Info Try Again and Close 0156 As noted when all troubleshooting screens are exhausted the software of the invention simply begins to display generic help dialogue boxes such as the one in FIG 6D As for all of the dialogue boxes herein the content and topics will change according to customer marketing and operational needs Typically though entries would include 0157 0158 0159 0160 1 General IOTV information 2 DSL Modem 3 Home Network Getway 4 Wired Connection to the STB US 2004 0019691 0161 5 Wireless Connection to the 5 0162 6 USB Port to the STB 0163 7 STB Hardware 0164 8 Internet email Instant
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