Television user interface

Abstract

A user interface for a television display includes a remote control with a touch pad. The remote control communicates wirelessly with a receiver. Periodic samples of touch positions are time stamped only when they are received at the receiver, and the timestamps are quantized to the interval of the periodic samples. The response of the user interface to gestures may be determined by a set of cascaded style sheets. Directional gestures may be used to skip forward or backward by a relative time during playback. During EPG scrolling, a position indicator may remain fixed in a horizontal direction until a time boundary of the EPG is reached, at which point the position indicator may move to the end of the time boundary. When scrolling programme items, an item may remain highlighted until it scrolls off the display, at which point the highlighting disappears until scrolling is complete. During scrolling, multiple directional gestures may be used to increase speed of scrolling. A swipe and hold gesture may be used to control the speed of scrolling, which is dependent on the length of time of the hold.

1 : A method of providing an interactive user interface for a television display, responsive to a user-operated remote control having a touch-sensitive surface, wherein scrolling of a user interface object is responsive to a directional gesture on the touch-sensitive surface, and wherein the speed of scrolling is dependent on the length of time that a touch is held on the touch-sensitive surface at the end of the directional gesture. 
     
     
         2 : The method of  claim 1 , wherein the speed of scrolling increases from a first speed to a second speed after the touch is held for a predetermined period of time. 
     
     
         3 : The method of  claim 2 , wherein the speed of scrolling increases smoothly from the first speed to the second speed. 
     
     
         4 : The method of  claim 1 , wherein the user interface object comprises an electronic programme guide (‘EPG’). 
     
     
         5 : The method of  claim 4 , wherein the EPG includes a banner showing information relating to a highlighted programme within the EPG, and wherein the banner is automatically hidden during scrolling of the EPG. 
     
     
         6 : The method of  claim 4 , wherein highlighting of a selected programme within the EPG is inhibited during scrolling of the EPG. 
     
     
         7 : A method of providing an interactive user interface for a television display, responsive to a user-operated remote control having a touch-sensitive surface, wherein the user interface is responsive to gestures performed by the user on the touch-sensitive surface, and wherein the response of the user interface to the gestures is determined by a set of cascaded style sheets defining variable parameters for the interaction of specific ones of the gestures with user interface objects. 
     
     
         8 : The method of  claim 7 , wherein the set of cascaded style sheets define global gesture settings and specific gesture settings which inherit the global gesture settings and further define parameters for specific ones of the gestures. 
     
     
         9 : The method of  claim 7 , wherein the set of cascaded style sheets define user interface object settings. 
     
     
         10 : The method of  claim 9 , wherein the user interface object settings further define which gestures may be used with specific user interface objects. 
     
     
         11 : The method of  claim 7 , wherein the interactive user interface provides a position indicator that interacts with user interface objects, the set of cascaded style sheets defining parameters of the position indicator when interacting with specific user interface objects. 
     
     
         12 : The method of  claim 7 , including remotely modifying at least one of the set of cascaded style sheets. 
     
     
         13 : The method of  claim 7 , including modifying at least one of the set of cascaded styles sheets in response to a selection by the user. 
     
     
         14 : A method of controlling playback on a display of one or more recorded television programmes, responsive to a user-operated remote control having a touch-sensitive surface, the method comprising skipping the position of playback forward or backward by a predetermined relative time in response to a corresponding user operation on the touch-sensitive surface; wherein the relative time is determined according to the length of the programme being played back. 
     
     
         15 : The method of  claim 14 , where the corresponding user operation comprises a directional gesture on the touch-sensitive surface. 
     
     
         16 : The method of  claim 14 , including fast forwarding or rewinding playback in response to a directional gesture on the touch-sensitive surface. 
     
     
         17 : The method of  claim 16 , wherein the directional gesture and corresponding user operation are performed on separate areas of the touch-sensitive surface. 
     
     
         18 : The method of  claim 16 , wherein the playback is fast forwarded or rewound in response to the direction of said directional output. 
     
     
         19 : The method of  claim 16 , wherein the speed of said fast forwarding or rewinding is controlled according to a magnitude of the directional output. 
     
     
         20 : The method of  claim 16 , wherein the speed of said fast forwarding or rewinding is controlled according to a non-directional output from the touch-sensitive surface. 
     
     
         21 : A method of providing an interactive user interface for a television display, responsive to a user-operated remote control having a touch-sensitive surface, the method comprising displaying a plurality of programme items in a two-dimensional grid in which programme items are arranged horizontally by broadcast time and vertically by channel, together with a position indicator, wherein the grid scrolls in a horizontal direction, while maintaining the horizontal position of the position indicator fixed, in response to a horizontal gesture on the touch-sensitive surface, until the position indicator reaches a time boundary of the programme items, where the position indicator is enabled to move in said horizontal direction in order to reach a programme item past the time boundary. 
     
     
         22 : The method of  claim 21 , wherein the grid is scrolled in a vertical direction in response to a vertical direction command from a user, while maintaining the vertical position of the position indicator fixed. 
     
     
         23 : A method of providing an interactive user interface for a television display, responsive to a user-operated remote control having a touch-sensitive surface, wherein scrolling of a user interface object is responsive to a directional gesture on the touch-sensitive surface, and wherein the speed of scrolling is dependent on the number of successive said directional gestures in the same direction. 
     
     
         24 : The method of  claim 23 , wherein the direction of the gesture is resolved into a horizontal or vertical direction, and the speed of scrolling is dependent on the number of successive said directional gestures in the same resolved horizontal or vertical direction. 
     
     
         25 - 26 . (canceled)