System and method for automatic channel lineup determination

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11997347-B2
Application number	US-201313793519-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 11, 2013
Priority date	Mar 11, 2013
Publication date	May 28, 2024
Grant date	May 28, 2024

Abstract

A current geographical location of a portable device is used to facilitate selection of channel lineup that is appropriate for a Multi-System Operator (MSO) provider and the current geographical location of the portable device. A program guide GUI of the portable device is then configured using the selected channel lineup. The configured GUI is displayable to a user of the portable device whereupon the configured GUI is available for use in commanding tuning operations of a set-top box.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for configuring a program guide graphical user interface (GUI) on a portable device, comprising:
in response to the portable device joining a wireless network, causing the portable device to:
initiate a wireless sniff to receive from a set-top box that is a member of the wireless network a data that identifies the set-top box;
determine a current geographical location of the portable device;
use the data received from the set-top box in combination with the determined current geographical location of the portable device to automatically identify within a Multi-System Operator (MSO) map, in which each of a plurality of MSO providers is correlated to a geographical location and a set-top box identity, a single one of the plurality of MSO providers;
automatically identify a channel lineup that is appropriate for the identified one of the plurality of MSO providers and the determined current geographical location of the portable device; and
automatically configure the program guide GUI on the portable device whereby the selected channel lineup is displayable to a user of the portable device for use in commanding tuning operations of the set-top box.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the current geographical location of the portable device is determined using a GPS device resident on the portable device.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the current geographical location of the portable device is determined using a location service of a network on which the portable device communicates.

4. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the selected channel lineup is retrieved from the set-top box and returned to the portable device whereupon an app resident on the portable device uses the selected channel lineup in configuring the program guide GUI on the portable device.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the selected channel lineup is retrieved from an Internet cloud device and returned to the portable device whereupon an app resident on the portable device uses the selected channel lineup in configuring the program guide GUI on the portable device.

6. The method as recited in claim 1 , comprising displaying on the portable device indicia of the selected one of the plurality of MSO providers for confirmation by the user.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 , comprising displaying on the portable device indicia of the determined geographic location of the portable device for confirmation by the user.

8. The method as recited in claim 1 , comprising storing the selected channel lineup in the portable device in association with the data received from the set-top box and periodically causing the selected channel lineup to be updated.

9. The method as recited in claim 8 , comprising storing plural channel lineups in the portable device each in association with a data indicative of an identify of a corresponding plurality of set-top boxes.

Assignees

• Universal Electronics Inc

Inventors

• Arling Paul D

Classifications

• H04N21/4383 Primary

  Accessing a communication channel · CPC title

• H04N21/41265

  having a remote control device for bidirectional communication between the remote control device and client device (unidirectional remote control device H04N21/42204) · CPC title

• H04N21/41407

  embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop (constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57) · CPC title

• H04N21/442

  Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. detecting the failure of a recording device, monitoring the downstream bandwidth, the number of times a movie has been viewed, the storage space available from the internal hard disk {(arrangements for monitoring broadcast services or broadcast-related services H04H60/29; arrangements for identifying or recognising characteristics with a direct linkage to broadcast information H04H60/35; monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; monitoring in wireless networks H04W24/00)} · CPC title

• H04N21/4524

  involving the geographical location of the client (retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; systems specially adapted for using geographical information in broadcast systems H04H60/70; protocols in which the network application is adapted for the location of the user terminal in communication control or processing H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00) · CPC title