WO2002096104A2 - Configurable multi-video receiving method and apparatus - Google Patents

Configurable multi-video receiving method and apparatus Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2002096104A2
WO2002096104A2 PCT/CA2002/000756 CA0200756W WO02096104A2 WO 2002096104 A2 WO2002096104 A2 WO 2002096104A2 CA 0200756 W CA0200756 W CA 0200756W WO 02096104 A2 WO02096104 A2 WO 02096104A2
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WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
smart card
video signal
unit
data
signal
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/CA2002/000756
Other languages
French (fr)
Other versions
WO2002096104A3 (en
Inventor
Marc Arseneau
Original Assignee
Marc Arseneau
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Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Marc Arseneau filed Critical Marc Arseneau
Priority to AU2002257461A priority Critical patent/AU2002257461A1/en
Publication of WO2002096104A2 publication Critical patent/WO2002096104A2/en
Publication of WO2002096104A3 publication Critical patent/WO2002096104A3/en

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Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
    • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
    • H04N21/43—Processing of content or additional data, e.g. demultiplexing additional data from a digital video stream; Elementary client operations, e.g. monitoring of home network or synchronising decoder's clock; Client middleware
    • H04N21/44—Processing of video elementary streams, e.g. splicing a video clip retrieved from local storage with an incoming video stream, rendering scenes according to MPEG-4 scene graphs
    • H04N21/4402—Processing of video elementary streams, e.g. splicing a video clip retrieved from local storage with an incoming video stream, rendering scenes according to MPEG-4 scene graphs involving reformatting operations of video signals for household redistribution, storage or real-time display
    • H04N21/440254—Processing of video elementary streams, e.g. splicing a video clip retrieved from local storage with an incoming video stream, rendering scenes according to MPEG-4 scene graphs involving reformatting operations of video signals for household redistribution, storage or real-time display by altering signal-to-noise parameters, e.g. requantization
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
    • H04N21/20—Servers specifically adapted for the distribution of content, e.g. VOD servers; Operations thereof
    • H04N21/23—Processing of content or additional data; Elementary server operations; Server middleware
    • H04N21/236—Assembling of a multiplex stream, e.g. transport stream, by combining a video stream with other content or additional data, e.g. inserting a URL [Uniform Resource Locator] into a video stream, multiplexing software data into a video stream; Remultiplexing of multiplex streams; Insertion of stuffing bits into the multiplex stream, e.g. to obtain a constant bit-rate; Assembling of a packetised elementary stream
    • H04N21/2365—Multiplexing of several video streams
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
    • H04N21/20—Servers specifically adapted for the distribution of content, e.g. VOD servers; Operations thereof
    • H04N21/23—Processing of content or additional data; Elementary server operations; Server middleware
    • H04N21/236—Assembling of a multiplex stream, e.g. transport stream, by combining a video stream with other content or additional data, e.g. inserting a URL [Uniform Resource Locator] into a video stream, multiplexing software data into a video stream; Remultiplexing of multiplex streams; Insertion of stuffing bits into the multiplex stream, e.g. to obtain a constant bit-rate; Assembling of a packetised elementary stream
    • H04N21/2368—Multiplexing of audio and video streams
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
    • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
    • H04N21/43—Processing of content or additional data, e.g. demultiplexing additional data from a digital video stream; Elementary client operations, e.g. monitoring of home network or synchronising decoder's clock; Client middleware
    • H04N21/431—Generation of visual interfaces for content selection or interaction; Content or additional data rendering
    • H04N21/4312—Generation of visual interfaces for content selection or interaction; Content or additional data rendering involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
    • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
    • H04N21/43—Processing of content or additional data, e.g. demultiplexing additional data from a digital video stream; Elementary client operations, e.g. monitoring of home network or synchronising decoder's clock; Client middleware
    • H04N21/431—Generation of visual interfaces for content selection or interaction; Content or additional data rendering
    • H04N21/4312—Generation of visual interfaces for content selection or interaction; Content or additional data rendering involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations
    • H04N21/4314—Generation of visual interfaces for content selection or interaction; Content or additional data rendering involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations for fitting data in a restricted space on the screen, e.g. EPG data in a rectangular grid
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
    • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
    • H04N21/43—Processing of content or additional data, e.g. demultiplexing additional data from a digital video stream; Elementary client operations, e.g. monitoring of home network or synchronising decoder's clock; Client middleware
    • H04N21/431—Generation of visual interfaces for content selection or interaction; Content or additional data rendering
    • H04N21/4312—Generation of visual interfaces for content selection or interaction; Content or additional data rendering involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations
    • H04N21/4316—Generation of visual interfaces for content selection or interaction; Content or additional data rendering involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
    • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
    • H04N21/43—Processing of content or additional data, e.g. demultiplexing additional data from a digital video stream; Elementary client operations, e.g. monitoring of home network or synchronising decoder's clock; Client middleware
    • H04N21/435—Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
    • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
    • H04N21/47—End-user applications
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N5/00—Details of television systems
    • H04N5/44—Receiver circuitry for the reception of television signals according to analogue transmission standards
    • H04N5/60—Receiver circuitry for the reception of television signals according to analogue transmission standards for the sound signals
    • H04N5/607—Receiver circuitry for the reception of television signals according to analogue transmission standards for the sound signals for more than one sound signal, e.g. stereo, multilanguages
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N7/00—Television systems
    • H04N7/08—Systems for the simultaneous or sequential transmission of more than one television signal, e.g. additional information signals, the signals occupying wholly or partially the same frequency band, e.g. by time division
    • H04N7/0806—Systems for the simultaneous or sequential transmission of more than one television signal, e.g. additional information signals, the signals occupying wholly or partially the same frequency band, e.g. by time division the signals being two or more video signals
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N7/00—Television systems
    • H04N7/12—Systems in which the television signal is transmitted via one channel or a plurality of parallel channels, the bandwidth of each channel being less than the bandwidth of the television signal

Definitions

  • This invention relates to multi-video program receiving method and apparatus, and more precisely, to a customized displaying of more than one video programs related to an event.
  • Assisting to a live event is an enjoyable experience as all our senses are overwhelmed by various sensations.
  • the assisting is therefore more enjoyable than a remote assisting via a television program related to said event for instance.
  • Each user assisting to said event may have the desire to obtain various information about or related to the event. For instance, a user might want to have the specifications of one of the golf players in the case of a golf tournament, or specifications related to a specific car or team, in the case of a car-racing event. The user may receive this information by reading a brochure, which may be. sold at the entrance of the event. Unfortunately, the user will not have access to updated information as the brochure is printed prior to the event.
  • radio scanners are available. Such radio scanners enable the live event viewer to scan and listen to conversations between a pilot and his crew.
  • the device lacks excitement and entertainment because it only offers sound, making it difficult for the user to easily understand who they are listening to and being potentially more disruptive than enhancing.
  • these radio scanners are limited to the providing of sound.
  • Mini-portable television sets have been developed and are already available on the market. Via such mini-portable television sets, the live event user can watch the race to the extent that it is broadcast, but, in most cases, the live events are broadcast on cable TV and are therefore inaccessible to these devices. These mini-portable television sets have therefore limited applications and do not offer the excitement or any added value of the event that would motivate the user to widely use it. These mini-portable television sets do not provide customized information.
  • Wireless handled devices based on Web technology have been developed. These devices run on PDA and are linked to the Web. Such devices provide VIP guests and general audience live timing and scoring, radio feeds and background information on team cars, car drivers, golf players, etc. They integrate rich multi-media and multi-menu interfaces. Unfortunately, these devices have many drawbacks.
  • a first drawback is the fact that the technology is usually implemented using a point-to-point connection, such point-to-point connection does not allow a massive use of the device at a live event as an important frequency bandwidth would be necessary to serve an important number of users.
  • Such devices have a limited effectiveness when delivering video content due to the limited bandwidth used.
  • data compressions are mandatory in order to deal with the limited amount of bandwidth. In these conditions, it is very difficult to obtain realtime video streams.
  • these devices are very expensive due to the fact that they are based on an expensive hardware architecture. There is therefore a need for a method and an apparatus to overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks.
  • Another object of the invention is to provide an apparatus for receiving more than one video program and data related to a live event.
  • the present invention provides An apparatus for displaying at least one of a plurality of video program signals inserted in a main video signal together with customized information, the at least one of the plurality of video program signals having a first resolution, the main signal having a second resolution substantially higher than the first resolution, the apparatus comprising a receiving unit receiving the main video signal, a smart card unit comprising at least smart card data according to a client need, a user interface for enabling a user to select at least one of the plurality of video programs contained in said main video signal for a display, the user interface providing a command signal representative of the selected at least one of the plurality of video programs to display, a display screen, receiving the selected video signal for display and a processing unit receiving the main video signal and selecting at least one part of the main video signal provided by the receiving unit according to said command signal provided by the user interface,
  • a method for displaying at least one of a plurality of video program signals inserted in a transmitted main video signal together with customized information comprised in a smart card unit the at least one of a plurality of video program signals having a first resolution, the main signal having a second resolution substantially higher than the first resolution
  • the method comprising the steps of receiving the transmitted main video signal using a reception unit, digitizing the received video signal to provide a digitized video signal, accessing a smart card unit, the smart card unit comprising at least the customized information, extracting at least one part of the digitized video signal in accordance with customized information comprised in the smart card unit, the extracting being performed by selecting at least one spatial location of the digitized video signal and providing the extracted at least one part of the digitized video signal to a user.
  • Fig.1 is a diagram that shows a transmitting unit and a plurality of reception units
  • Fig. 2 is a block diagram that shows a data source, which is used to provide data to the user.
  • Fig. 3 is a diagram that shows a perspective view of a reception unit; the reception unit comprises a plurality of buttons for enabling a user to control it;
  • Fig. 4 is a diagram that shows one image of a main video signal; the image comprises four different images originating from different video signals;
  • Fig. 5 is diagram which shows how four sound track signals are embodied in a single main video signal
  • Fig. 6 is a flow chart that shows how various video program signals are transmitted to a plurality of reception unit
  • Fig. 7 shows a block diagram of the preferred embodiments of a reception unit, the reception unit comprises a tunable receiver, a video digitizer, a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), a frame buffer, a graphics storage unit, a microprocessor, a user interface, an audio unit, a display unit and an input/output interface;
  • Fig. 8 is a flow chart that shows how the reception unit operates in the preferred embodiment of the invention.
  • the system comprises a broadcasting unit 17, a plurality of sound sources, a plurality of video sources, a data source 24, and a plurality of reception, unit 28.
  • the broadcasting unit 17 comprises a sound formatting unit 18, a video formatting unit 20, a combining unit 22, a transmitting unit 26.
  • the sound formatting unit 18 receives a plurality of sound track signals from the plurality of sound sources.
  • the sound formatting unit 18 provides a plurality of formatted soundtrack signals.
  • the formatted soundtrack signals have a specific bandwidth as explained below.
  • the video formatting unit 20 receives a plurality of video signals from a plurality of video sources.
  • the video formatting unit 20 provides a plurality of formatted video signals.
  • the formatted video signals have a pixel resolution of 360 by 240.
  • the combining unit 22 receives the plurality of formatted soundtrack signals, the plurality of formatted video signals, and a data signal provided by the data source 24.
  • the combining unit 22 combines the plurality of formatted soundtrack signals, the plurality of formatted video signals, and the data signals into a single video signal.
  • the combined video signal is a NTSC compatible video signal.
  • four sound sources 10 are used, and four video sources are used in order to combine the video signals. In another embodiment of the invention, more than four video sources may be used.
  • the transmitting unit 26 receives the combined video signal and transmits the combined video signal in the preferred embodiment of the invention.
  • the transmitting unit 26 operates under the North American NTSC broadcast standard, which includes the luminance carrier, the chrominance carrier, and the audio carrier.
  • the total bandwidth of the transmitted signal does not exceed 6 MHz.
  • the transmitting unit 26 is capable of covering a range of 3 km, which is necessary to suit the needs of the application. In the case of an application that requires a larger coverage, a more powerful transmitting unit 26 may be used.
  • a plurality of reception units 28 receives a transmitted signal transmitted using the transmitting unit 26. As explained below, each of the reception units 28 are able to receive at least one of the plurality of video sources and at least one of the corresponding sound sources.
  • the data source 24 comprises a formatting unit 31 , a communication unit 35, a processing unit 33, an operating parameter database 37 and an event data database 39.
  • the data signals provided by the data source 24 are formatted data signals as shown in Fig. 2.
  • the formatting unit 31 formats a data signal in order for it to be further embedded into a formatted data signal by the combining unit 22.
  • the processing unit 33 transmits/receives send/receive data signal to/from the communication unit 35.
  • the communication unit 35 enables the data source to be connected to a computer network for instance.
  • the communication unit 35 may be an Ethernet compatible communication device.
  • the communication unit 35 may comprise a modem. More than one computers may therefore be connected to the data source 24 via the communication unit 35.
  • various information providers may provide live information remotely using their computers via the communication unit 35 to the plurality of reception unit 28 using the invention.
  • the data shared using the communication unit 35 may be data related to operating parameters or data related to the event.
  • the processing unit 33 stores data related to operating parameters in the operating parameters database 37.
  • the processing unit 33 stores data related to the event in the event data database 39.
  • the processing unit 33 may retrieve operating parameters comprised in the operating parameters database 37 or event data comprised in the event data database 39.
  • the retrieval of the operating parameters data and the event data may be performed at a certain timing frequency depending on at least one criteria set by a network administrator.
  • a criteria may be the size or the amount of the data to be transmitted to the plurality of reception units 28, the time of the event, the amount of different data to transmit, etc.
  • the operating variables comprise data such as authorization keys, video decoding information, channel allocation information, RF frequency change request, etc.
  • the event data comprised in the event data database is data related to the event and which has to be displayed on a display screen of the reception unit 28. As explained below, these data are processed and formatted by the reception unit 28 upon receiving.
  • the reception unit 28 comprises a display screen, which is a LCD display screen 96. Still in the preferred embodiment of the invention, the display screen 96 is visible in the light and at night using front light TFT active matrix technology. The display measures 3.8 inches in diagonal.
  • the display screen 96 has a pixel resolution of 320 by 240.
  • the aspect ratio of the display screen is the North American TV standard 4:3. It will be appreciated by someone skilled in the art that other television standards may be used.
  • the reception unit 28 comprises a user interface having a plurality of buttons.
  • the user interface comprises a power on/off button 30, a back button 32, a menu button 34, a volume up button 36, a volume down button 38, a left button 40, a right button 42, an up button 46, a down button 44 and a enter button 48.
  • the power on button 30 enables the user to switch on, switch off the reception unit 28.
  • the volume up button 36 enables the user to increase the output volume of the reception unit 28.
  • the volume down button 38 enables the user to decrease the output volume of the reception unit 28.
  • the menu button 34 enables the user to access graphics.
  • the back button 32 enables the user to access a screen display prior a last command.
  • the left button 40, the right button 42, the down button 38, and the up button 46 enable the user to navigate in a plurality of menus displayed on the display screen 96.
  • the enter button 48 enables the user to confirm a selection in a menu displayed on the display screen of the reception unit 28.
  • Fig. 4 there is shown a diagram, which presents a single image of the combined video signal generated by the combining unit 22.
  • the single image shown in this figure comprises four sub-images, respectively sub- image 80, sub-image 82, sub-image 84 and sub-image 86.
  • Sub-image 80 refers to an image originating from the first video source.
  • Sub-image 82 refers to an image originating from the second video source.
  • Sub-image 84 refers to an image originating from the third video source.
  • Sub-image 86 refers to an image originating from the fourth video source.
  • the pixel resolution of the sub-image 80, the sub-image 82, the sub-image 84 and the sub-image 86 are 320 by 240.
  • the first sound track signal is stored in the main audio channel portion of the combined video signal, which is referred as the L+R portion of the combined video signal.
  • the second sound track signal is stored in the L-R portion of the combined video signal;
  • the third sound track signal is stored in the SAP portion of the combined video signal and
  • the fourth sound track signal is stored in the cue channel portion of the combined video signal.
  • a first video signal is provided by a video source.
  • a first soundtrack signal is provided by a first sound source.
  • a second video signal is provided by a second video source.
  • a second soundtrack signal is provided by a second sound source.
  • a third video signal is provided by a third video source.
  • a third soundtrack signal is provided by a third sound source.
  • a fourth video signal is provided by a fourth video source.
  • a fourth soundtrack signal is provided by a fourth sound source.
  • the first video signal provided in step 50, the second video signal provided in step 54, the third video signal provided in step 58 and the fourth video signal provided in step 62 are formatted in a suitable format by the video formatting unit 20 as explained below.
  • the first soundtrack signal provided in step 52, the second soundtrack signal provided in step 56, the third soundtrack signal provided in step 60, and the fourth soundtrack signal provided in step 64 are formatted by the sound formatting unit 18 into a suitable format as explained below.
  • step 70 the combining is performed using the plurality of formatted soundtrack signal generated according to step 68 and the plurality of formatted video signals generated according to step 66 and using a data signal providing according to step 48.
  • step 72 the combined signal generated to step 70 is transmitted using the transmitting unit 26.
  • At least one graphics source may be used instead of at least one video source.
  • Fig. 7 there is shown a block diagram of the reception unit
  • the reception unit 28 comprises a tunable receiver 80, a video digitizer 82, a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) 84, a frame buffer 86, a graphics storage unit 88, a microprocessor 90, an audio unit 92, a display unit 102, a smart card memory 97, a user interface 98, and an input/output interface 100.
  • the display unit 102 comprises a LCD driving circuit 94 and a LCD screen
  • the LCD screen 96 is a Sanyo TM038QV-67A02A
  • the FPGA 84 is a Xilinx Spartan II.
  • the microprocessor 90 is a Microchip PIC16F877.
  • the tunable receiver 80 is a Samsung TCPN9081 DA10C.
  • the video digitizer 82 is a Philipps SAA7111.
  • the frame buffer 86 is a ISSI IS62LV12816L.
  • the graphics storage unit 88 is an AMD 29LV640D.
  • the combined video signal transmitted using the transmitting unit 26 is received by an antenna of the tunable receiver 80.
  • the microprocessor 90 sends a selected channel signal to the tunable receiver 80.
  • the tunable receiver 80 extracts a video signal according to the selected channel signal.
  • the video digitizer 82 digitizes the video signal received from the tunable receiver 80.
  • the FPGA 84 receives the digitized video signal provided by the video digitizer 82 and stores at least one- frame of the digitized video signal into the frame buffer 86; the digitized video signal is stored into the frame buffer 86 at a rate of 30 frames per second.
  • the FPGA 84 further extracts the embedded data comprised in the Vertical Blanking Interval (VBI) portion of the digitized video signal and stores the data in the FPGA 84.
  • the graphics storage unit 88 comprises graphics that are stored using BMP file format; furthermore, the graphics resolution as well as the color depth of the graphics stored are the same than graphics resolution and color depth of the LCD screen 96.
  • the microprocessor 90 controls the audio unit 92.
  • the audio unit 92 comprises an audio amplifier receiving an audio signal received from the tunable receiver 80 according to a selected portion of the video signal transmitted in accordance with the storing scheme presented in Fig. 5.
  • the user may provide information using the user interface 98 to the microprocessor 90.
  • the input/output interface 100 is connected to said microprocessor 90 in order to upload/download information from a remote device.
  • the input/output interface 100 is a serial compatible port.
  • Information downloaded from a remote device may comprise graphics data, which, after being collected by said microprocessor 90 via, said input/output interface 100, are provided to the graphics storage unit 88 via the FPGA 84.
  • the FPGA 84 provides a video signal to display to the LCD driving circuit 94 of the display unit 102.
  • the LCD driving circuit 94 provides a final signal to the LCD screen 96.
  • the smart card memory 97 provides smart card data to the FPGA. Data may be stored in the smart card memory via the FPGA.
  • the smart card memory 97 is an SDRAM that comprises graphical content.
  • the smart card memory 97 may also comprise an unscrambling code used to unscramble the transmitted video signal, together with an identification of the channel used to transmit the video signal.
  • the smart card memory 97 may also comprise simple text data or video data streams.
  • the smart card unit may also comprise a list of available channels for a particular event.
  • the size of the smart card memory might depend on the type of event; typically, and in the preferred embodiment of the invention, the size is ⁇ Mbytes.
  • Each user may buy a smart card memory 97, according to his particular needs. In fact a user may buy a reception 28 and then buy/update a smart card memory 97 for each event to which the user will attend.
  • buying/updating his smart card memory allows the user to choose a service that will suit his needs; for instance, the user may choose to have a basic service that will include only the receiving of multi-video programs and basic data, while some users might prefer to have a device that comprises more information about the participants of the event.
  • the user might choose to store information on the smart card memory 97.
  • the smart card memory may be removed from the reception unit 28 and may be read by a computer using a smart card memory reader. The user may then, at home, have access to information stored in the smart card memory, and update his smart card memory and/or subscribe for a new event. Such subscription may be done by downloading data from a Web server through the Internet using the computer and updating the smart card memory.
  • the use of the smart card memory enables therefore the user to have information totally customized to suit his needs. Moreover, in the case that the reception unit is rented to a user during an event, the user, by having a smart card memory, may bring souvenirs from the event.
  • the organizer of the live event may collect information related to the smart card memory that will be used, in order to follow-up with the user in the future.
  • the user may buy objects from the live event during and after the live event using the smart card memory identification instead of the credit card number.
  • the objects might include souvenirs, tee-shirts, etc.
  • an organizer may decide to pre-sell a plurality of smart card memories to a third party, the plurality of smart card memories being configured according to the needs of the third party, that will in turn provides them to a selected subset of participants to an event.
  • the smart card unit may therefore be used as a marketing tool by the third party.
  • a configuration set up is performed.
  • the configuration set up 110 comprises the providing of a selected channel signal to the tunable receiver 80.
  • the reception unit 28 receives simultaneously a single channel signal, in an alternative embodiment, the reception unit 28 may receive, simultaneously, a plurality of channel signals using a plurality of tunable receivers 80.
  • the display unit 102 is carefully tuned by the microprocessor 90 via the FPGA 84.
  • the user performs a mode selection. If the user selects the video mode, a first channel is selected according to step 114.
  • step 116 video is processed by the FPGA 84.
  • the FPGA 84 retrieves a frame from the frame buffer 86.
  • the FPGA 84 unscrambles the retrieved frame using a code stored in the smart card memory 97 and provides the video signal to display to the LCD driving circuit 94.
  • the tunable receiver 80 extracts a corresponding audio signal to the video signal selected from the corresponding portion of the transmitted video signal.
  • the audio unit 92 provides an amplified audio signal, which may be listened by the user using headsets for instance.
  • the amplified audio signal and the displayed video signal are provided to the user according to step 118.
  • a menu is provided to the user.
  • the menu is created using data extracted from the digitized video signal in the Vertical Blanking Interface (VBI) portion of the signal and stored in the FPGA 84 and using graphics data stored in the graphics storage unit 88.
  • VBI Vertical Blanking Interface
  • graphics are stored using BMP file format.
  • the microprocessor 90 controls the FPGA 84 to generate a video signal to be displayed which is then provided to the LCD driving circuit 94, the video signal to be displayed comprises the above-mentioned data provided by the FPGA 84 together combined with graphics data stored in the graphics storage unit.
  • the user selects via the user interface 98 a new data to obtain.
  • the data may be the ranking of a participant of the live event, a summary of a part of the event.
  • the microprocessor 90 controls the FPGA 84 to retrieve data, which is stored in the FPGA 84.
  • the data are provided to the user as explained previously.
  • the video signal to be displayed comprises the data as well as graphics data retrieved from the graphics storage unit 88 by the FPGA 84. The video signal to be displayed is therefore created by the FPGA 84.
  • the sound formatting unit 18 converts the first soundtrack signal, the second soundtrack signal, the third soundtrack signal and the fourth soundtrack signal into formatted soundtrack signals that will be combined and modulated to create a combined video signal having the first soundtrack signal, the second soundtrack signal, the third soundtrack signal and the fourth soundtrack signal modulated according to the scheme displayed in Fig. 5.
  • the video formatting unit 20 comprises four digitizers receiving respectively the first video signal, the second video signal, the third video signal and the fourth video signal and providing a first digitized video signal, a second digitized video signal, a third digitized video signal and a fourth digitized video signal.
  • the video formatting unit 20 further comprises four interpolating units respectively connected to the first digitizer, the second digitizer, the third digitizer and the fourth digitizer.
  • the first interpolating unit receives the first digitized video signal
  • the second interpolating unit receives the second digitized video signal
  • the third interpolating unit receives the third digitized video signal
  • the fourth interpolating unit receives the fourth digitized video signal.
  • Each interpolating unit dismisses one pixel about two horizontally and one pixel about two vertically.
  • the first interpolating unit provides therefore an interpolated image that has a pixel resolution of one about four of the original pixel resolution, the resolution of the first digitized image provided to the first interpolating unit.
  • the second interpolating unit, the third interpolating and the fourth interpolating unit operate in the same manner as the first interpolating unit.
  • the combining unit 22 receives the formatted video signals and the formatted soundtrack signals and provides a combined video signal.
  • the combining unit 22 further comprises a scrambling unit which scrambles the combined video signal prior providing it to the transmitting unit 26; this scrambling unit is not shown in Fig. 1.
  • switching vertical lines two by two performs the scrambling.
  • the FPGA comprised in the reception unit is used to unscramble the transmitted video signal. Someone skilled in the art will appreciate that other scrambling schemes may be used.
  • the invention may therefore be used to broadcast information during a live event to a plurality of user using a private broadcast.
  • Customized information are provided to each of the plurality of users via the smart card memory.
  • the operator may decide to provide information using the Vertical Blanking Interval (VBI) as explained above.
  • VBI Vertical Blanking Interval
  • the use of the smart card memory provides a new set of features ranging from information customization to information storing.
  • VBI Vertical Blanking Interval

Abstract

A method and apparatus for receiving a plurality of video signals using a single video signal transmitted using a point-to-multipoint connection; the plurality of video signals originate from various locations of an event. Information received using a reception unit may be fully customized according to user's needs. The information received in the reception unit comprise at least one of the plurality of video signals, at least one of the plurality of sound track signals related to the at least one of the plurality of video signals, data transmitted using the vertical blanking interval (VBI) of the single video signal and graphics.

Description

CONFIGURABLE MULTI-VIDEO RECEIVING METHOD AND APPARATUS
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to multi-video program receiving method and apparatus, and more precisely, to a customized displaying of more than one video programs related to an event.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Assisting to a live event is an enjoyable experience as all our senses are overwhelmed by various sensations. The assisting is therefore more enjoyable than a remote assisting via a television program related to said event for instance.
Unfortunately, it is usually difficult to have more than one view of the live event when assisting to said event. This is particularly true during Formula Grand Prix competitions, where a viewer is usually seated at a particular point of the circuit.
Usually in that case, the viewer cannot have access to other parts of the circuit, unless a large screen is available for instance. This may prevent him from enjoying an action that is taking place at a remote location of the circuit unavailable to him.
Each user assisting to said event may have the desire to obtain various information about or related to the event. For instance, a user might want to have the specifications of one of the golf players in the case of a golf tournament, or specifications related to a specific car or team, in the case of a car-racing event. The user may receive this information by reading a brochure, which may be. sold at the entrance of the event. Unfortunately, the user will not have access to updated information as the brochure is printed prior to the event.
Various solutions have been implemented in order to enable the viewer at the live event to access more information about the event. For instance, in some major car racing events, such as CART/NASCAR, radio scanners are available. Such radio scanners enable the live event viewer to scan and listen to conversations between a pilot and his crew. Unfortunately, the device lacks excitement and entertainment because it only offers sound, making it difficult for the user to easily understand who they are listening to and being potentially more disruptive than enhancing. Furthermore, these radio scanners are limited to the providing of sound.
Mini-portable television sets have been developed and are already available on the market. Via such mini-portable television sets, the live event user can watch the race to the extent that it is broadcast, but, in most cases, the live events are broadcast on cable TV and are therefore inaccessible to these devices. These mini-portable television sets have therefore limited applications and do not offer the excitement or any added value of the event that would motivate the user to widely use it. These mini-portable television sets do not provide customized information.
It is also important to note that while some information may be useful for some users, some other information might not be useful for other users. For instance, in Grand Prix races, some users may be interested by technical information related to a car, while some users are only interested by timing data. Having a limited and fixed access to a certain type of information may cause frustrations to the user.
Wireless handled devices based on Web technology have been developed. These devices run on PDA and are linked to the Web. Such devices provide VIP guests and general audience live timing and scoring, radio feeds and background information on team cars, car drivers, golf players, etc. They integrate rich multi-media and multi-menu interfaces. Unfortunately, these devices have many drawbacks. A first drawback is the fact that the technology is usually implemented using a point-to-point connection, such point-to-point connection does not allow a massive use of the device at a live event as an important frequency bandwidth would be necessary to serve an important number of users. Such devices have a limited effectiveness when delivering video content due to the limited bandwidth used. Moreover, data compressions are mandatory in order to deal with the limited amount of bandwidth. In these conditions, it is very difficult to obtain realtime video streams. Finally, these devices are very expensive due to the fact that they are based on an expensive hardware architecture. There is therefore a need for a method and an apparatus to overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the invention to provide a method for receiving more than one video program and data related to a live event.
Yet, another object of the invention is to provide an apparatus for receiving more than one video program and data related to a live event.
It is another object of the invention to provide a method and apparatus for providing customized information to a plurality of users using a point-to-multipoint connection.
It is another object of the invention to provide a method and apparatus for receiving more than one video signal and a data signal using a point to multi-point connection. According to the above objects, from a broad aspect, the present invention provides An apparatus for displaying at least one of a plurality of video program signals inserted in a main video signal together with customized information, the at least one of the plurality of video program signals having a first resolution, the main signal having a second resolution substantially higher than the first resolution, the apparatus comprising a receiving unit receiving the main video signal, a smart card unit comprising at least smart card data according to a client need, a user interface for enabling a user to select at least one of the plurality of video programs contained in said main video signal for a display, the user interface providing a command signal representative of the selected at least one of the plurality of video programs to display, a display screen, receiving the selected video signal for display and a processing unit receiving the main video signal and selecting at least one part of the main video signal provided by the receiving unit according to said command signal provided by the user interface, at least one of the selected at least one of the plurality of video programs to display being displayed on said display screen in accordance with the smart card data. According to another broad aspect of the invention, there is provided a method for displaying at least one of a plurality of video program signals inserted in a transmitted main video signal together with customized information comprised in a smart card unit, the at least one of a plurality of video program signals having a first resolution, the main signal having a second resolution substantially higher than the first resolution, the method comprising the steps of receiving the transmitted main video signal using a reception unit, digitizing the received video signal to provide a digitized video signal, accessing a smart card unit, the smart card unit comprising at least the customized information, extracting at least one part of the digitized video signal in accordance with customized information comprised in the smart card unit, the extracting being performed by selecting at least one spatial location of the digitized video signal and providing the extracted at least one part of the digitized video signal to a user.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
These and other features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more clearly understood with the following description and accompanying drawings, wherein:
Fig.1 is a diagram that shows a transmitting unit and a plurality of reception units;
Fig. 2 is a block diagram that shows a data source, which is used to provide data to the user.
Fig. 3 is a diagram that shows a perspective view of a reception unit; the reception unit comprises a plurality of buttons for enabling a user to control it; Fig. 4 is a diagram that shows one image of a main video signal; the image comprises four different images originating from different video signals;
Fig. 5 is diagram which shows how four sound track signals are embodied in a single main video signal;
Fig. 6 is a flow chart that shows how various video program signals are transmitted to a plurality of reception unit;
Fig. 7 shows a block diagram of the preferred embodiments of a reception unit, the reception unit comprises a tunable receiver, a video digitizer, a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), a frame buffer, a graphics storage unit, a microprocessor, a user interface, an audio unit, a display unit and an input/output interface;
Fig. 8 is a flow chart that shows how the reception unit operates in the preferred embodiment of the invention;
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF DIFFERENT EMBODIMENTS
Now referring to Fig. 1 , there is shown the preferred embodiment of the invention. The system comprises a broadcasting unit 17, a plurality of sound sources, a plurality of video sources, a data source 24, and a plurality of reception, unit 28.
The broadcasting unit 17 comprises a sound formatting unit 18, a video formatting unit 20, a combining unit 22, a transmitting unit 26.
The sound formatting unit 18 receives a plurality of sound track signals from the plurality of sound sources. The sound formatting unit 18 provides a plurality of formatted soundtrack signals. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the formatted soundtrack signals have a specific bandwidth as explained below.
The video formatting unit 20 receives a plurality of video signals from a plurality of video sources. The video formatting unit 20 provides a plurality of formatted video signals. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the formatted video signals have a pixel resolution of 360 by 240.
The combining unit 22 receives the plurality of formatted soundtrack signals, the plurality of formatted video signals, and a data signal provided by the data source 24. The combining unit 22 combines the plurality of formatted soundtrack signals, the plurality of formatted video signals, and the data signals into a single video signal. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the combined video signal is a NTSC compatible video signal. Still in the preferred embodiment of the invention, four sound sources 10 are used, and four video sources are used in order to combine the video signals. In another embodiment of the invention, more than four video sources may be used. The transmitting unit 26 receives the combined video signal and transmits the combined video signal in the preferred embodiment of the invention. The transmitting unit 26 operates under the North American NTSC broadcast standard, which includes the luminance carrier, the chrominance carrier, and the audio carrier. The total bandwidth of the transmitted signal does not exceed 6 MHz. Still in the preferred embodiment of the invention, the transmitting unit 26 is capable of covering a range of 3 km, which is necessary to suit the needs of the application. In the case of an application that requires a larger coverage, a more powerful transmitting unit 26 may be used.
A plurality of reception units 28 receives a transmitted signal transmitted using the transmitting unit 26. As explained below, each of the reception units 28 are able to receive at least one of the plurality of video sources and at least one of the corresponding sound sources.
Now referring to Fig. 2, there is shown a block diagram of the data source 24. The data source 24 comprises a formatting unit 31 , a communication unit 35, a processing unit 33, an operating parameter database 37 and an event data database 39.
The data signals provided by the data source 24 are formatted data signals as shown in Fig. 2. The formatting unit 31 formats a data signal in order for it to be further embedded into a formatted data signal by the combining unit 22. The processing unit 33 transmits/receives send/receive data signal to/from the communication unit 35. The communication unit 35 enables the data source to be connected to a computer network for instance. In one embodiment of the invention, the communication unit 35 may be an Ethernet compatible communication device. In an alternative embodiment, the communication unit 35 may comprise a modem. More than one computers may therefore be connected to the data source 24 via the communication unit 35.
In the case of an event, various information providers may provide live information remotely using their computers via the communication unit 35 to the plurality of reception unit 28 using the invention. The data shared using the communication unit 35 may be data related to operating parameters or data related to the event.
The processing unit 33 stores data related to operating parameters in the operating parameters database 37. The processing unit 33 stores data related to the event in the event data database 39. The processing unit 33 may retrieve operating parameters comprised in the operating parameters database 37 or event data comprised in the event data database 39. The retrieval of the operating parameters data and the event data may be performed at a certain timing frequency depending on at least one criteria set by a network administrator. A criteria may be the size or the amount of the data to be transmitted to the plurality of reception units 28, the time of the event, the amount of different data to transmit, etc.
In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the operating variables comprise data such as authorization keys, video decoding information, channel allocation information, RF frequency change request, etc. Still in the preferred embodiment of the invention, the event data comprised in the event data database is data related to the event and which has to be displayed on a display screen of the reception unit 28. As explained below, these data are processed and formatted by the reception unit 28 upon receiving.
Now referring to Fig. 3, there is shown a reception unit 28. The reception unit 28 comprises a display screen, which is a LCD display screen 96. Still in the preferred embodiment of the invention, the display screen 96 is visible in the light and at night using front light TFT active matrix technology. The display measures 3.8 inches in diagonal. The display screen 96 has a pixel resolution of 320 by 240. The aspect ratio of the display screen is the North American TV standard 4:3. It will be appreciated by someone skilled in the art that other television standards may be used.
The reception unit 28 comprises a user interface having a plurality of buttons. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the user interface comprises a power on/off button 30, a back button 32, a menu button 34, a volume up button 36, a volume down button 38, a left button 40, a right button 42, an up button 46, a down button 44 and a enter button 48.
The power on button 30 enables the user to switch on, switch off the reception unit 28. The volume up button 36 enables the user to increase the output volume of the reception unit 28. The volume down button 38 enables the user to decrease the output volume of the reception unit 28. The menu button 34 enables the user to access graphics. The back button 32 enables the user to access a screen display prior a last command. The left button 40, the right button 42, the down button 38, and the up button 46 enable the user to navigate in a plurality of menus displayed on the display screen 96. The enter button 48 enables the user to confirm a selection in a menu displayed on the display screen of the reception unit 28.
Now referring to Fig. 4, there is shown a diagram, which presents a single image of the combined video signal generated by the combining unit 22. The single image shown in this figure comprises four sub-images, respectively sub- image 80, sub-image 82, sub-image 84 and sub-image 86. Sub-image 80 refers to an image originating from the first video source. Sub-image 82 refers to an image originating from the second video source. Sub-image 84 refers to an image originating from the third video source. Sub-image 86 refers to an image originating from the fourth video source. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the pixel resolution of the sub-image 80, the sub-image 82, the sub-image 84 and the sub-image 86 are 320 by 240.
Now referring to Fig. 5, there is shown how audio is formatted in the preferred embodiment of the invention. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the first sound track signal is stored in the main audio channel portion of the combined video signal, which is referred as the L+R portion of the combined video signal. Still in the preferred embodiment of the invention, the second sound track signal is stored in the L-R portion of the combined video signal; the third sound track signal is stored in the SAP portion of the combined video signal and the fourth sound track signal is stored in the cue channel portion of the combined video signal. It will be appreciated by someone skilled in the art that alternatives storing schemes may be used depending on the transmission standard used. Furthermore, it will be appreciated that the first sound track signal, the second sound track signal, the third sound track signal and the fourth sound track signal may be compressed using a CODEC prior being inserted in the combined video signal. Someone skilled in the art will appreciate that compression may provide a higher sound quality. Now referring to Fig. 6, there is shown a flow chart, which shows the operating of the broadcasting unit 17. According to step 50, a first video signal is provided by a video source. According to step 52, a first soundtrack signal is provided by a first sound source. According to step 54, a second video signal is provided by a second video source. According to step 56, a second soundtrack signal is provided by a second sound source. According to step 58, a third video signal is provided by a third video source. According to step 60, a third soundtrack signal is provided by a third sound source. According to step 62, a fourth video signal is provided by a fourth video source. According to step 64, a fourth soundtrack signal is provided by a fourth sound source. According to step 66, the first video signal provided in step 50, the second video signal provided in step 54, the third video signal provided in step 58 and the fourth video signal provided in step 62 are formatted in a suitable format by the video formatting unit 20 as explained below. According to step 68, the first soundtrack signal provided in step 52, the second soundtrack signal provided in step 56, the third soundtrack signal provided in step 60, and the fourth soundtrack signal provided in step 64 are formatted by the sound formatting unit 18 into a suitable format as explained below. According to step 70 the combining is performed using the plurality of formatted soundtrack signal generated according to step 68 and the plurality of formatted video signals generated according to step 66 and using a data signal providing according to step 48. According to step 72, the combined signal generated to step 70 is transmitted using the transmitting unit 26.
In an alternative embodiment of the invention, at least one graphics source may be used instead of at least one video source. Now referring to Fig. 7, there is shown a block diagram of the reception unit
28 in the preferred embodiment of the invention. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the reception unit 28 comprises a tunable receiver 80, a video digitizer 82, a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) 84, a frame buffer 86, a graphics storage unit 88, a microprocessor 90, an audio unit 92, a display unit 102, a smart card memory 97, a user interface 98, and an input/output interface 100. The display unit 102 comprises a LCD driving circuit 94 and a LCD screen In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the LCD screen 96 is a Sanyo TM038QV-67A02A; the FPGA 84 is a Xilinx Spartan II. Still in the preferred embodiment of the invention, the microprocessor 90 is a Microchip PIC16F877. The tunable receiver 80 is a Samsung TCPN9081 DA10C. The video digitizer 82 is a Philipps SAA7111. The frame buffer 86 is a ISSI IS62LV12816L. The graphics storage unit 88 is an AMD 29LV640D.
The combined video signal transmitted using the transmitting unit 26 is received by an antenna of the tunable receiver 80. The microprocessor 90 sends a selected channel signal to the tunable receiver 80. The tunable receiver 80 extracts a video signal according to the selected channel signal. The video digitizer 82 digitizes the video signal received from the tunable receiver 80. The FPGA 84 receives the digitized video signal provided by the video digitizer 82 and stores at least one- frame of the digitized video signal into the frame buffer 86; the digitized video signal is stored into the frame buffer 86 at a rate of 30 frames per second. The FPGA 84 further extracts the embedded data comprised in the Vertical Blanking Interval (VBI) portion of the digitized video signal and stores the data in the FPGA 84. In the preferred embodiment, the graphics storage unit 88 comprises graphics that are stored using BMP file format; furthermore, the graphics resolution as well as the color depth of the graphics stored are the same than graphics resolution and color depth of the LCD screen 96.
The microprocessor 90 controls the audio unit 92. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the audio unit 92 comprises an audio amplifier receiving an audio signal received from the tunable receiver 80 according to a selected portion of the video signal transmitted in accordance with the storing scheme presented in Fig. 5. The user may provide information using the user interface 98 to the microprocessor 90. The input/output interface 100 is connected to said microprocessor 90 in order to upload/download information from a remote device. In one embodiment of the invention, the input/output interface 100 is a serial compatible port. Information downloaded from a remote device may comprise graphics data, which, after being collected by said microprocessor 90 via, said input/output interface 100, are provided to the graphics storage unit 88 via the FPGA 84. The FPGA 84 provides a video signal to display to the LCD driving circuit 94 of the display unit 102. The LCD driving circuit 94 provides a final signal to the LCD screen 96.
Still referring to Fig. 7, the smart card memory 97 provides smart card data to the FPGA. Data may be stored in the smart card memory via the FPGA.
In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the smart card memory 97 is an SDRAM that comprises graphical content. The smart card memory 97 may also comprise an unscrambling code used to unscramble the transmitted video signal, together with an identification of the channel used to transmit the video signal. The smart card memory 97, may also comprise simple text data or video data streams. The smart card unit may also comprise a list of available channels for a particular event.
The size of the smart card memory might depend on the type of event; typically, and in the preferred embodiment of the invention, the size is δMbytes.
Each user may buy a smart card memory 97, according to his particular needs. In fact a user may buy a reception 28 and then buy/update a smart card memory 97 for each event to which the user will attend.
In fact, buying/updating his smart card memory allows the user to choose a service that will suit his needs; for instance, the user may choose to have a basic service that will include only the receiving of multi-video programs and basic data, while some users might prefer to have a device that comprises more information about the participants of the event.
It will be appreciated by someone skilled in the art that the use of a smart card memory enables the full customizing of information provided to the user.
In an alternative embodiment, the user might choose to store information on the smart card memory 97.
In an alternative embodiment of the invention, the smart card memory may be removed from the reception unit 28 and may be read by a computer using a smart card memory reader. The user may then, at home, have access to information stored in the smart card memory, and update his smart card memory and/or subscribe for a new event. Such subscription may be done by downloading data from a Web server through the Internet using the computer and updating the smart card memory.
The use of the smart card memory enables therefore the user to have information totally customized to suit his needs. Moreover, in the case that the reception unit is rented to a user during an event, the user, by having a smart card memory, may bring souvenirs from the event.
During the renting of the reception unit 28, it might be interesting for the organizer of the live event to collect information related to the smart card memory that will be used, in order to follow-up with the user in the future. By assigning a credit card number to a smart card memory identification, during the rental of the reception unit 28, the user may buy objects from the live event during and after the live event using the smart card memory identification instead of the credit card number. The objects might include souvenirs, tee-shirts, etc.
It will also be apreciated that an organizer may decide to pre-sell a plurality of smart card memories to a third party, the plurality of smart card memories being configured according to the needs of the third party, that will in turn provides them to a selected subset of participants to an event. The smart card unit may therefore be used as a marketing tool by the third party.
Now referring to Fig. 8, there is shown the operation of the reception unit 28. According to step 110, a configuration set up is performed. The configuration set up 110 comprises the providing of a selected channel signal to the tunable receiver 80. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the reception unit 28 receives simultaneously a single channel signal, in an alternative embodiment, the reception unit 28 may receive, simultaneously, a plurality of channel signals using a plurality of tunable receivers 80. Still according to the configuration set up, the display unit 102 is carefully tuned by the microprocessor 90 via the FPGA 84. According to step 112, the user performs a mode selection. If the user selects the video mode, a first channel is selected according to step 114. According to step 116, video is processed by the FPGA 84. More precisely, the FPGA 84 retrieves a frame from the frame buffer 86. The FPGA 84 unscrambles the retrieved frame using a code stored in the smart card memory 97 and provides the video signal to display to the LCD driving circuit 94. The tunable receiver 80 extracts a corresponding audio signal to the video signal selected from the corresponding portion of the transmitted video signal. The audio unit 92 provides an amplified audio signal, which may be listened by the user using headsets for instance. The amplified audio signal and the displayed video signal are provided to the user according to step 118.
If the user selects the graphics mode using the menu button 34, according to step 120, a menu is provided to the user. The menu is created using data extracted from the digitized video signal in the Vertical Blanking Interface (VBI) portion of the signal and stored in the FPGA 84 and using graphics data stored in the graphics storage unit 88. In the preferred embodiment, graphics are stored using BMP file format.
The microprocessor 90 controls the FPGA 84 to generate a video signal to be displayed which is then provided to the LCD driving circuit 94, the video signal to be displayed comprises the above-mentioned data provided by the FPGA 84 together combined with graphics data stored in the graphics storage unit. According to step 122, the user selects via the user interface 98 a new data to obtain. In one application of the invention, the data may be the ranking of a participant of the live event, a summary of a part of the event. According to step 124, the microprocessor 90 controls the FPGA 84 to retrieve data, which is stored in the FPGA 84. According to step 126, the data are provided to the user as explained previously. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the video signal to be displayed comprises the data as well as graphics data retrieved from the graphics storage unit 88 by the FPGA 84. The video signal to be displayed is therefore created by the FPGA 84.
Now referring back to Fig. 1 , the sound formatting unit 18 converts the first soundtrack signal, the second soundtrack signal, the third soundtrack signal and the fourth soundtrack signal into formatted soundtrack signals that will be combined and modulated to create a combined video signal having the first soundtrack signal, the second soundtrack signal, the third soundtrack signal and the fourth soundtrack signal modulated according to the scheme displayed in Fig. 5. Still referring to Fig. 1, the video formatting unit 20 comprises four digitizers receiving respectively the first video signal, the second video signal, the third video signal and the fourth video signal and providing a first digitized video signal, a second digitized video signal, a third digitized video signal and a fourth digitized video signal. The video formatting unit 20 further comprises four interpolating units respectively connected to the first digitizer, the second digitizer, the third digitizer and the fourth digitizer. The first interpolating unit receives the first digitized video signal, the second interpolating unit receives the second digitized video signal, the third interpolating unit receives the third digitized video signal and the fourth interpolating unit receives the fourth digitized video signal. Each interpolating unit dismisses one pixel about two horizontally and one pixel about two vertically. The first interpolating unit provides therefore an interpolated image that has a pixel resolution of one about four of the original pixel resolution, the resolution of the first digitized image provided to the first interpolating unit. The second interpolating unit, the third interpolating and the fourth interpolating unit operate in the same manner as the first interpolating unit. The combining unit 22 receives the formatted video signals and the formatted soundtrack signals and provides a combined video signal.
In order to protect the network against eavesdropping and uncontrolled use, the combining unit 22 further comprises a scrambling unit which scrambles the combined video signal prior providing it to the transmitting unit 26; this scrambling unit is not shown in Fig. 1.
In the preferred embodiment of the invention, switching vertical lines two by two performs the scrambling. The FPGA comprised in the reception unit is used to unscramble the transmitted video signal. Someone skilled in the art will appreciate that other scrambling schemes may be used.
The invention may therefore be used to broadcast information during a live event to a plurality of user using a private broadcast. Customized information are provided to each of the plurality of users via the smart card memory. Furthermore, the operator may decide to provide information using the Vertical Blanking Interval (VBI) as explained above. The use of the smart card memory provides a new set of features ranging from information customization to information storing.
Various exciting features may be implemented using the architecture disclosed. For instance, it is possible for a user to follow a particular car driver around a circuit covered by a plurality of video camera providing a plurality of video sources to the broadcasting unit 17 using data transmitted in the Vertical Blanking Interval (VBI). In fact, as a car driver will be followed by a constant sequence of video camera of the plurality of video cameras, it is possible to only broadcast the time at which each car driver pass a point representative of the sequence then alternate the displaying of the video sources video sources according to the sequence. A user may therefore select a car driver to follow.

Claims

I CLAIM:
1. An apparatus for displaying at least one of a plurality of video program signals inserted in a main video signal together with customized information, the at least one of the plurality of video program signals having a first resolution, the main signal having a second resolution substantially higher than the first resolution, the apparatus comprising: a receiving unit receiving the main video signal; a smart card unit comprising at least smart card data according to a client need; a user interface for enabling a user to select at least one of the plurality of video programs contained in said main video signal for a display, the user interface providing a command signal representative of the selected at least one of the plurality of video programs to display; a display screen, receiving the selected video signal for display; a processing unit receiving the main video signal and selecting at least one part of the main video signal provided by the receiving unit according to said command signal provided by the user interface, at least one of the selected at least one of the plurality of video programs to display being displayed on said display screen in accordance with the smart card data.
2. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the smart card unit is provided with connections means to enable it to be connected and removed from said apparatus.
3. The apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1-2, wherein the receiving unit is receiving a plurality of main video signals, the user interface further enabling the user to select one or more of the plurality of main video signals.
4. The apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1-3, further comprising an audio unit for receiving an audio signal from said receiving unit, wherein the main video signal comprises a plurality of sound track signals, each of the plurality of sound track signals being related to one of the plurality of video program signals.
5. The apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1-4, wherein the main video signal is encoded using a code, the smart card unit storing said code, the processing unit further decoding the received main video signal according to said code stored in said smart card unit.
6. The apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1-5, further comprising a remote control interface unit, the remote confrol interface unit being connected to said processing unit and receiving a remote control signal from a remote computer.
7. The apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1-6 wherein said first resolution is substantially 360x240.
8. The apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1-7, wherein said second resolution is 720x480.
9. The apparatus as claimed in claim 6, wherein said remote confrol interface unit is a serial compatible port unit.
10. The apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1-9, wherein said display screen is a LCD active matrix screen.
11. The apparatus as claimed 6, wherein the remote confrol interface unit provides a remote confrol signal to said smart card unit, the remote confrol updating said smart card data.
12. The apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1-11, wherein the plurality of video program signals is related to an event.
13. The apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1-12, wherein the event is a live event, the smart card data comprised in the smart card unit being related to said live event.
14. The apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein a removed smart card unit may be updated using a computer having a compatible smart card unit reader.
15. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1-14, wherein the smart card unit further comprises graphics data.
16. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1-15, wherein the smart card unit further comprises video stream data.
17. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1-16, wherein the smart card unit further comprises text data.
18. A method for displaying at least one of a plurality of video program signals inserted in a fransmitted main video signal together with customized information comprised in a smart card unit, the at least one of a plurality of video program signals having a first resolution, the main signal having a second resolution substantially higher than the first resolution, the method comprising the steps of: receiving the transmitted main video signal using a reception unit; digitizing the received video signal to provide a digitized video signal; accessing a smart card unit, the smart card unit comprising at least the customized information; extracting at least one part of the digitized video signal in accordance with customized information comprised in the smart card unit, the exfracting being performed by selecting at least one spatial location of the digitized video signal; providing the extracted at least one part of the digitized video signal to a user.
19. The method as claimed in claim 18, further comprising the step of storing the digitized video signal in a memory.
20. The method as claimed in any one of claims 18-19, wherein the main video signal is encoded, the method further comprising the step of decoding the received video signal using customized information comprised in the smart card unit.
21. The method as claimed in claim 18, further comprising the displaying of a menu to the user, the menu comprising a list of information available to the user according to customized information comprised in the smart card unit.
22. The method as claimed in any one of claims 18-21 , wherein the fransmitted main video signal comprises a plurality of sound frack signals, each sound frack signals related to one of the plurality of video program signals, the method further comprising the step of extracting at least one of the plurality of sound frack signals comprised in the fransmitted main video signal, the extracting being performed in accordance with the extracted at least one part of the digitized video signal.
23. The method as claimed in any one of claims 18-22, wherein the fransmitted main video signal comprises data stored in the Vertical Blanking Interval (VBI) of said transmitted main video signal, the method further comprising the step of exfracting the data stored in the Vertical Blanking Interval (VBI) of said fransmitted main video signal and storing said data in a data memory.
24. The method as claimed in claim 23, further comprising the step of displaying a menu comprising at least one part of the data stored in the data memory in accordance with customized information comprised in the smart card unit.
25. A business method using the apparatus of claim 1, wherein said selected one of the plurality of video programs are displayed in accordance the at least one part of the smart card data comprised in said smart card unit for a dollar value associated with said at least one part of the smart card data. .
26. A business method using the apparatus of claim 5, wherein the code is made available for a dollar value associated with a request for said video program signals.
27. A business method using the apparatus of claim 11, wherein the updating of said smart card data is performed at a dollar value associated with a request for said video program signals.
28. A business method using the apparatus of claim 15, wherein the graphics data is provided by an advertiser at a dollar value.
29. A business method using the apparatus of claim 16, wherein the video stream data is provided with advertisement which is paid by an advertiser at a dollar value.
30. A business method using the apparatus of claim 17, wherein the text data is provided by a third party for a dollar value and fransmitted to a plurality of the apparatus.
PCT/CA2002/000756 2001-05-22 2002-05-22 Configurable multi-video receiving method and apparatus WO2002096104A2 (en)

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US7966636B2 (en) 2011-06-21
EP1410622A1 (en) 2004-04-21
US20050050575A1 (en) 2005-03-03
AU2002257461A1 (en) 2002-12-03
WO2002096104A3 (en) 2003-05-22
CA2348353A1 (en) 2002-11-22
WO2002096097A1 (en) 2002-11-28

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