Convergence-enabled DVD and web system
Contents
1. 7 8 the DVD Text Data parser uses the positional playback 17 The system of claim 14 wherein the browser is further data to index into the DVD Text Data Structure to for displaying a hyperlink corresponding to the any one obtain a selected URL from the plurality of URLs URL 16 The system of claim 14 wherein the browser displays the designated content designated at the same time as the media player displays video content2. Spruce Technologies of San Jose Calif In Step 100 the media player 80 will then emulate this register information the GPRMs when playing DVDs for example the method in which the windows media player does this is explained in Microsoft s documentation for the program The menu index thus obtained from the GPRMs in Step 142 can be used in Step 144 as an index into corre sponding fields in the DVD s TXTDT_MG structure also read in by the media player 80 which contains URLs stored there by the DVD authoring system As detailed in the DVD specification the TXTDT_MG structure within the DVD data includes various predefined fields holding specified information such as producer name vocalist name lan guages and the like and a provider unique field designated for such use may be used to store the URL Thus by monitoring the designated GPRM an outside program such as the event script 50 can reliably derive the appropriate URL from the current menu index and the current button For systems using Microsoft DirectShow the DVDTex tInfoParser object based on an ATL COM interface named IDVDtTextInfoParser can preferably facilitate playback of DVD 70 using the DirectShow DVDGraphBuilder interface however other techniques also will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art As described above DVDTextInfo Parser then accesses the DirectShow IDVDInfo interface to read in text data This technique is used in the preferred embodiment
3. content corresponding to the URL informa tion and synchronized with the DVD content 20 35 40 45 55 65 2 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS These and other objects features and advantages of the present invention are better understood by reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which FIG 1 is a block diagram of an integrated DVD and web browser system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention FIG 2 is an example screen showing DVD and WWW playback according to the preferred embodiment and FIG 3 is a flowchart showing the steps in displaying DVD content in conjunction with WWW or streamed media content in the preferred embodiment DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENTLY PREFERRED EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENT FIG 1 shows an integrated DVD WWW system prefer ably known as a Convergence Enabled System according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention As is well known in the art web browser 10 is preferably imple mented on a personal computer or the like The browser can preferably simultaneously display web content and DVD content or can be readily adapted to do so as will be apparent to those skilled in the art Also the DVD system 20 is preferably a DVD drive and associated support circuitry installed within the computer however a dedicated DVD player communicable with and controllable by th
4. from DVD 4 Register Information Get Menu Index from Emulated GPRMS Index into TXTDT_MG 150 Display URL Using Browser US 7 313 809 B1 Page 2 U S PATENT DOCUMENTS JP 11161664 6 1999 WO WO 98 47080 10 1998 6 564 255 B1 5 2003 Mobini et al 0 0 0 0 709 219 6 580 870 B1 6 2003 Kanazawa et al 386 95 OTHER PUBLICATIONS FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS 0 814 419 A2 0814419 A2 0886276 A2 10063562 11161663 12 1997 12 1997 12 1998 3 1998 6 1999 Mascha M Seaman G Interactive education Transitioning CD ROMs to the Web Computer Networks and ISDN Systems NL North Holland Publishing Amsterdam vol 27 No 2 Nov 1 1994 pp 267 272 Guidebook for DVD Video Text Data Usage Sep 1999 V 1 0 cited by examiner U S Patent Dec 25 2007 Sheet 1 of 2 US 7 313 809 B1 Web Page Playback 30 Window 40 DVD System 20 Web Browser Event Script DvVDTextInfoParser 10 20 7 FIGURE 1 39 FIGURE 2 40 U S Patent Dec 25 2007 Sheet 2 of 2 US 7 313 809 B1 Play DVD Emulate DVD Register Information 100 Click DVD Display Button eee AN Generate 120 EC_DVD Button Change Message Call DVDTextInfoParser 1380 Responsive to Message FIGURE 3 Dts ns ee act a ___ 140 Extract URL from DVD Register Information Index into TXTDT_MG 150 _____ Display URL Using Browser US 7 313 809 B1 1 CONVERG
5. however other techniques can be used with platforms on which DirectShow is not available for example the TXTDT_MG structure can be directly read in from the DVD 70 Preferably event script 50 is a Java script however alternative implementations such as a Microsoft Visual Basic Script may be used instead Also DVDTextInfoParser 60 is preferably an ActiveX control using an ATL COM interface however other program implementations may be used as well Further although DVDTextInfoParser 60 may access the DVD system 20 each time a URL is needed in the preferred embodiment it preferably reads the TXTDT_MG structure into memory each time a DVD 70 is initialized and references the information in memory This is because the Windows Media Player used as the media player 80 in the preferred embodiment does not work well with other objects simultaneously accessing interfaces to the same DVD 70 If this problem is resolved in future versions of DirectShow the access as needed scheme might work equally well Thus a one size fits all template web page could be made in which a field 40 displays DVD playback while a window 30 displays web content When the user selects a button the media player 80 generates an EC_Button_ Change event which is acted upon by the event script 50 to call DVDTextInfoParser 60 based on the button number and menu title index number to obtain the corresponding URL 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60
6. present invention is to provide a system for integrating static and interactive multimedia delivery systems such as DVD systems and the WWW It is another object of the present invention to provide a multimedia delivery system which is interactive and easily modifiable It is a further object of the present invention to provide a highly interactive and dynamic multimedia system which is capable of providing high quality multimedia content The above objects are achieved according to an aspect of the present invention by providing a system which integrates a DVD system and WWW content or similarly presented information such as HTML formatted material Universal Resource Locator URL information corresponding to sites or media streams accessible via the WWW or another content delivery system are stored in fields within the DVD data When a user actuates a DVD element that has a corresponding URL the information from that site is dis played in a web browser to enhance the DVD viewing experience Conversely the DVD system can be controlled when the user actuates HTML information from a web page or the like This arrangement provides for two way control i e HTML is able to control DVD content and vice versa Having the WWW information embedded in the DVD brings a number of benefits perhaps the foremost of which is the ability to write a one size fits all template web page that can interrogate the DVD for URL information and present WWW
7. shown in Step 110 of FIG 3 When this occurs the media player 80 generates a Windows event message such as EC_DVD_Button_Change signifying that a particular but ton has been selected or actuated and providing its number Step 120 In the preferred embodiment this message is intercepted by an event script 50 which calls DVDTextIn foParser 60 Step 130 a custom object that uses the current DVD button provided by the media player 80 via EC_D VD_Button_Change and information extracted from a par ticular field within the DVD 70 corresponding to that button US 7 313 809 B1 3 as described in greater detail below in order to obtain a URL Step 140 that can be accessed by the web browser 10 and displayed on the web page 30 Step 150 More specifically as is known in the art the media player 80 preferably generates information on the current status of the DVD 70 as part of its playback process The DVD 70 is preferably authored to cause the DVD system 20 to write the index of the currently displayed menu into a specific General DVD parameter GPRM by e g inserting DVD commands at strategic places into the DVD data set during its compi lation An example of a DVD authoring system which automatically performs this task is described in U S patent application Ser No 09 010 267 to Brodersen et al incor porated herein by reference A commercially available sys tem which automatically performs this task is the DVD Maestro system of
8. 65 4 from the DYD s TXTDT_MG structure The content corre sponding to the retrieved URL is then displayed in the web page 30 Similarly when an EC_ Domain Change or EC_Chapter_Change event occurs DVDTextInfoParser 60 could be called to check for corresponding URLs and synchronize the web content in web page 30 to the current chapter displayed in playback field 40 If the corresponding URL content contains a reference to streaming content the streaming video can be displayed in combination with or in place of the DVD content In a similar manner HTML code in the web page 30 may make calls to the event script 50 or a similar script to retrieve the URLs stored in TXTDT_MG as will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art These may then be displayed in the web page 30 as hyperlinks controls or the like to enable the browser to display web content 30 corresponding to URLS in the DVD 70 Thus rather than or in conjunction with controlling the system by accessing features of the DVD display 40 as described above the system may be controlled by accessing features of the web page 30 The above description of the preferred embodiment has been presented for explanation purposes only and the present invention is not so limited Modifications embel lishments and alternative implementations of the invention will be readily apparent those skilled in the art and are encompassed by the invention For example in the preferred embodiment
9. ENCE ENABLED DVD AND WEB SYSTEM CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application is based on and claims priority from U S Provisional Application Ser No 60 129 724 filed on Apr 16 1999 and hereby incorporated by reference BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1 Field of the Invention The present invention is directed to interactive multime dia systems More particularly the invention is directed to DVD systems which are able to selectively control the processing of content from the World Wide Web and the like and to web based systems which are able to selectively access DVD systems and the like 2 Background of the Related Art Digital Versatile Discs or variously Digital Video Discs or DVDs and the World Wide Web WWW are extremely powerful interactive multimedia tools However they both have their drawbacks Although DVDs are capable of stor ing large amounts of high quality video and audio data once they are manufactured their content is essentially static it cannot be changed updated or personalized Also the lim ited interactivity does not meet the demands of many of today s computer literate users Further although the WWW is dynamic and rapidly changing it is not capable of providing high quality multimedia content in real time for many users due to limited bandwidth SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made with the above problems of the prior art in mind and a first object of the
10. United States Patent US007313809B1 12 10 Patent No US 7 313 809 B1 Mohan et al 45 Date of Patent Dec 25 2007 54 CONVERGENCE ENABLED DVD AND WEB 6 230 295 B1 5 2001 Watkins 0 0 eee 714 742 SYSTEM 6 262 724 B1 7 2001 Crow etal 345 723 6 434 326 B1 8 2002 Kondo et al 386 125 75 Inventors Fergal John Mohan Sunnyvale CA 6 467 026 B2 10 2002 Yamamoto et al 711 118 US Rainer Brodersen Santa Clara Continued CA US a Wee seas de ere Te FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS ssignee e Inc Cupertino C 73 8 PP p uS EP 0762422 A2 3 1997 Notice Subject to any disclaimer the term of this n patent is extended or adjusted under 35 Continued U S C 154 b by 0 days OTHER PUBLICATIONS 21 Appl No 09 546 575 RAC User s Manual RC5200P 1996 Thomson Consumer Elec tronics 22 Filed Apr 10 2000 Continued Related U S Application Data Primary Examiner Vincent F Boccio 60 Provisional application No 60 129 724 filed on Apr 74 Attorney Agent or Firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw 16 1999 Pittman LLP 51 Int CL 57 ABSTRACT HOAN 7 173 2006 01 52 U S Ch oiii 725 109 725 110 386 95 A System integrates a DVD system and a WWW web 386 125 386 126 browser Universal Resource Locator URL information P ee corresponding to sites accessible by the browser are stored ob kieldor Ee me a 26 46 725 aeolian in fields within the DVD data When a user actuat
11. e computer may also be used for this purpose Further DVD 70 played by the DVD system 20 is preferably specially authored as described in greater detail below In use the browser 10 displays a web page 30 defined by e g HTML code and stored at a site specified by the user to the browser 10 The browser 10 may also display a separate or integrated playback field 40 i e a window frame or other field for video content from DVD system 20 or streamed content from the WWW with synchronized audio from the DVD 20 or streamed content played on the computer s speakers as is known in the art see FIG 2 Preferably the playback field 40 is generated by a media player 80 such as the Microsoft Windows Media Player with a call thereto embedded in HTML code for the dis played web page as is known in the art Other multimedia players may also be adapted for this purpose as well As is known in the art DVD systems may be configured to display buttons and the like to enable a user to navigate the DVD 70 and access various portions thereof In a dedicated DVD player these buttons are accessed by a cursor controlled by cursor direction keys on the DVD player s console remote control or the like however when a DVD is played in the computer using the media player 80 the buttons may be accessed by positioning or clicking the computer s mouse cursor on the buttons displayed by the media player 80 as is common with graphical user interfaces as
12. es a DVD See application file for complete een history element that has a corresponding URL the web browser displays information from that site When the user actuates 56 References Cited an HTML menu or other browser implemented feature the U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 5 701 383 A 12 1997 Russo et al w 386 46 5 727 141 A 3 1998 Hoddie et al oo 395 175 5 774 664 A 6 1998 Hidary et al 395 200 48 5 774 666 A 6 1998 Portuesi 0 cece 725 110 5 818 935 A 10 1998 Maas escis rspssisresiesesri 380 20 5 909 551 A 6 1999 Tahara et al 0 709 231 5 991 798 A 11 1999 Ozaki etal 0 709 217 6 047 292 A 4 2000 Kelly et al 6 081 264 A 6 2000 Rosen et al 345 723 6 173 406 B1 1 2001 Wang etal 713 201 DVD system accesses a portion of the DVD data specified in the menu This arrangement provides for two way com munication i e HTML in the browser is able to control DVD content and vice versa Having the WWW information embedded in the DVD brings a number of benefits the foremost of which is the ability to write a one size fits all template web page that can interrogate the DVD for URL information and present WWW content corresponding to the URL synchronized with the DVD information 17 Claims 2 Drawing Sheets Play DVD Emulate DVD Register Information Click DVD Display Button Generate EC_DVD_Button_Change Message 120 7 14 Extract URL
13. g a DVD Text Data Structure from the DVD each time the DVD is initialized the DVD Text Data Structure including the URLs and the DVD Text Data parser is for using the button number message to index into the DVD Text Data Structure to obtain the URLs 6 The system of claim 1 wherein the content designated by the URL is HTML coded 7 The system of claim 1 wherein the content designated by the URL is streaming media content 8 A system for generating information representative of the contents of a DVD the DVD having been authored such that the information includes embedded commands to popu late a plurality of elements of a General DVD Parameter Register GPRM with positional playback data the system comprising a DVD unit for playing the DVD and generating the information and upon receiving a certain embedded command writing indicia of a current position of play within the DVD into the GPRM a DVD Text Data parser for receiving the information and parsing a TXTDT_MG data structure in the informa tion to derive data containing a Universal Resource Locator URL therefrom jak 5 20 25 35 45 50 65 6 a browser for displaying a hyperlink corresponding to the URL and responsive to actuation thereof content des ignated by the URL and a media player adapted for receiving the information extracting video content from the information and displaying the video content 9 The system of claim 8 wherein
14. he contents of a DVD and upon receiving a certain command embedded in the information writing indicia of a current position of play within the DVD into the one or more GPRMs a media unit adapted to receive the information and extract a TXTDT_MG data structure associated with the DVD and further adapted to display video content extracted from the information and a browser for displaying content designated by Universal Resource Locators URLs the URLs being derived by using the GPRMs to index into the TXTDT_MG data structure 2 The system of claim 1 wherein URLs are derived using a DVD Text Data parser and the indicia to index into the DVD Text Data Structure to obtain the URL 3 The system of claim 2 wherein the media player is for displaying a menu button specified by the information from the DVD the menu button being associated with the URL the association between the menu button and the URL being responsive to the positional playback data in the GPRMs and the browser is for displaying the content specified by the URL responsive to user actuation of the menu button 4 The system of claim 3 wherein the media player is for generating a button number message responsive to the user actuation of the menu button the system further comprising an event script for receiving the message and responsive thereto call ing the DVD Text Data parser 5 The system of claim 3 wherein the DVD Text Data parser is further for receivin
15. he system a highly flexible and effective advertising medium In another potential application a DVD containing a business or sales training program produced to take advan tage of many DVD features such as Multiple Language Tracks and Multiple Camera Angles could be distributed worldwide Viewers could interact directly with the content and be qualified based on their performance The DVDs would be usable at any time as an offline reference In yet another potential application a professor works with his AV team to author several DVDs to be distributed to the students to take with them The student may then view lectures and seminars from top professors from around the world in their own home Classwork and tests could be administered remotely via each professor s website Sched US 7 313 809 B1 5 uled class hours with chat boards would give the student the ability to refer to every discussion that ever took place at any given time and the DVDs could be saved as future refer ences Such variations and implementations are to be considered within the scope of the present invention What is claimed is 1 A system for generating information representative of the contents of a DVD the DVD having been authored such that the information includes embedded commands to popu late one or more General DVD Parameter Registers GPRMs the system comprising a DVD unit for playing the DVD and generating infor mation representative of t
16. the URLs associated with the DVD menu buttons have been references to web pages or streaming video however the URLs may point to other types of resources and rely on the system to call appropriate helper applications for example a URL might point to a file in Adobe Acrobat PDF format so that when the browser accesses it the Adobe Acrobat reader will automatically be called to display it Even further the URLs need not point to data files but can also refer to programs which will be played when the corresponding buttons are actuated or the like Further numerous practical applications of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art For example information on events and webcasts could be distributed in the form of an electronic magazine Consumers would receive the electronic magazine in the mail on DVD The DVD can combine rich video content of the various artists and events high quality samples of content webcasts etc to be purchased interviews concert information and the ability to purchase associated merchandise all on one disc Since the disc uses high quality graphical elements that are assembled from an HTML template stored on a separate server the viewer s experience can change as often as the DVD distributor wishes In fact different content may be served to different consumers based on parameters in the URLs The fact that one disc can be a totally different experience for everyone that views it makes t
17. the content designated by the URL is HTML coded 10 The system of claim 8 wherein the content specified by the URL is streaming media content 11 A system for generating information representative of the contents of a DVD the DVD having been authored such that the information includes embedded commands to popu late a plurality of elements of a General DVD Parameter Registers GPRM with positional playback data the system comprising a DVD unit for playing the DVD and generating the information and upon receiving a certain embedded command writing indicia of a current position of play within the DVD into the GPRM a DVD Text Data parser for parsing a DVD Text Data Structure based on content of the GPRM to derive a Universal Resource Locators URL therefrom a browser for displaying a hyperlink corresponding to the URL and responsive to actuation thereof for display ing content designated by the URL and a media player adapted for receiving the information extracting the DVD Text Data Structure from the information extracting video content from the infor mation and displaying the video content the video content including a button associated with the URL wherein the browser is further for displaying content designated by the URL responsive to an actuation of the button 12 The system of claim 11 wherein the information from the DVD includes positional information associated with the URL 13 The system of claim 12
18. wherein the positional information indicates a position of the button within the DVD content 14 A system for generating information representative of the contents of a DVD the DVD having been authored such that the information includes embedded commands to popu late a plurality of elements of a General DVD Parameter Registers GPRM associated with the DVD with positional playback data the system comprising a DVD unit for playing the DVD and generating the information and upon receiving a certain embedded command writing indicia of a current position of play within the DVD into the GPRM a DVD Text Data parser for deriving a data structure from the information and based on the content of the GPRM parsing the information to derive a plurality of URLs therefrom a browser for displaying content designated by any one of the plurality of URLs wherein the browser displays content upon actuation of the any one URL and a media player adapted for receiving the information extracting video content from the information and displaying the video content the media player being further adapted to display a plurality of buttons wherein each button is associated with at least one of the plurality of URLs the association between the each button and the at least one URL being responsive to the positional playback data in the GPRM 15 The system of claim 14 wherein the information includes a DVD Text Data Structure and US 7 313 809 B1
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