Abstract:
A television system provides a virtual audience community for television viewers by displaying a common shared broadcast and images of other viewers of the broadcast.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]     This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application No. 60/565,996, hereby incorporated by reference. 
     
    
     STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT  
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     The present invention relates to television systems for use in home entertainment and the like and in particular to a television system that provides a virtual audience community for television viewers.  
         [0003]     Millions of households have television receivers through which they may watch sporting events or other entertainment broadcasts. Especially with the advent of high definition television, the picture and sound quality of such broadcasts can rival those of sporting arenas and movie theaters. Nevertheless, the experience of watching a sporting event alone is a far cry from the experience at the sporting event surrounded by other fans.  
         [0004]     For this reason, it is common for individuals watching a sporting event on television to watch it with friends or family at home or with other fans in a sports bar or the like.  
         [0005]     An unexpected benefit of the Internet was the ability to create virtual communities through chat rooms and online games and the like. Nevertheless, such communities require a fair degree of familiarity with computer software and hardware and at least, at present, the ability to easily type on a keyboard.  
       BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0006]     The present invention provides a television receiver that simultaneously carries both a standard broadcast signal, for example, of a sporting event or the like, inset with images of at least one other viewer so as to create an informal virtual audience for a broadcast event. In a preferred embodiment, the invention takes advantage of the ability of conventional television cable to transmit both FM broadcast signals and digital Internet signals, the latter which may be used to exchange non-broadcast video and audio data of other viewers. The visual and audible presence of other viewers sharing a common viewing experience provides a sense of community, a venue for informal interaction, and increases enjoyment of the broadcast entertainment.  
         [0007]     Specifically then, the present invention provides a virtual community television system having a display monitor and a first tuner system for receiving a broadcast video program and displaying it on the display monitor. The television system also provides a second tuner system for receiving an Internet protocol digital signal to display a video signal of a remote viewer of the broadcast video program on the monitor. A camera in the system provides a video signal of a person watching the display monitor which may be transmitted as an Internet protocol digital signal to the remote viewer.  
         [0008]     It is thus an object of at least one embodiment of the invention to provide a sense of community when multiple people, separated from each other, share the viewing of a broadcast program or sporting event.  
         [0009]     The first tuner may be a cable television tuner and the second tuner may be a cable modem.  
         [0010]     Thus it is an object of at least one embodiment of the invention to provide a system that may work within existing broadcast licenses and infrastructure. The community service can be provided to existing cable subscribers without the need for a license to rebroadcast the program as would be required, for example, in a pure Internet implementation. The ability to distribute video broadcasts (to many users) and virtual community data of users discussing the broadcasts, on an address specific basis, is currently available over a single cable medium.  
         [0011]     The first tuner is a television tuner receiving a free-space radio broadcast.  
         [0012]     Thus it is another object of at least one embodiment of the invention to provide a system that can work with flexible sources of broadcasts and Internet connections.  
         [0013]     The display of the video signal of the remote viewer may be an inset in the display of the broadcast video program.  
         [0014]     Thus it is another object of at least one embodiment of the invention to provide a means for creating a community experience with pre-existing display hardware.  
         [0015]     The first tuner includes a remote control for changing a channel of the broadcast video program independently of the reception of the Internet protocol digital signal.  
         [0016]     It is thus another object of at least one embodiment of the invention to provide a system that provides a familiar television-type interface with the users.  
         [0017]     The invention further includes a microphone providing an audio signal of the person watching the display monitor; and the distribution amplifier system transmits the audio signal to the remote viewer.  
         [0018]     Thus it is another object of at least one embodiment of the invention to provide both audio and visual representation of other members of the virtual community.  
         [0019]     The broadcast video program and the video signal of the remote user may include audio tracks and the invention may include a summer adding together the audio tracks or selecting the louder of the audio tracks.  
         [0020]     Thus it is another object of at least one embodiment of the invention to provide for the flexible integration of the broadcast program and the virtual community data.  
         [0021]     The invention employs a virtual community cable service having a server communicating with a subscriber network providing multiple connected terminal devices, each having display monitors and cameras providing images of viewers of the display monitors. The server is programmed to broadcast a video program to the connected terminal devices and to exchange Internet protocol signals with the connected terminal devices so as to interconnect a subset of the connected terminal devices receiving the broadcast video program to each other to exchange images of viewers of the respective monitors of the subset of connected terminal devices.  
         [0022]     Thus it is another object of at least one embodiment of the invention to provide a system for interconnecting terminals providing virtual communities for broadcasts.  
         [0023]     The subset may be defined by a community table cross-referencing a set of Internet addresses of users of the connected terminal devices.  
         [0024]     Thus it is another object of at least one embodiment of the invention to provide a mechanism for flexibly generating multiple virtual communities for a given broadcast event.  
         [0025]     The virtual community cable service may accept Internet protocol signals from connected terminal devices to populate the community table.  
         [0026]     It is thus an object of at least one embodiment of the invention to allow users themselves to define their communities.  
         [0027]     Each connected terminal device when receiving a broadcast provides an Internet protocol signal to the server when activated to initiate the interconnection of other connected terminal devices receiving the broadcast and associated with the connected terminal devices by the community table.  
         [0028]     Thus it is an object of at least one embodiment of the invention to allow the communities to be determined by the particular broadcasts being viewed.  
         [0029]     These particular objects and advantages may apply to only some embodiments falling within the claims and thus do not define the scope of the invention. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0030]      FIG. 1  is a simplified perspective view of a home television receiver used in the present invention and configured as part of a virtual community television system;  
         [0031]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram of the cable modem modified to simultaneously broadcast and display broadcast cable television images and sound, and Internet broadcast video and sound to be superimposed on the television receiver;  
         [0032]      FIG. 3  is a block diagram showing interconnection of multiple home television receivers through a cable provider also providing an Internet connection for Internet communication; and  
         [0033]      FIG. 4  is a data table held in the computer of  FIG. 2  providing a simple means of connecting to community members.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       [0034]     Referring now to  FIG. 1 , a virtual community terminal  10  may include a standard television-type display monitor  12 , such as may be a cathode ray tube (CRT), a liquid crystal display (LCD), a plasma display, or other similar device.  
         [0035]     As depicted, the display monitor  12  includes integral speakers  14  and a charge coupled device (CCD) camera  16  aimed toward a viewing area  18 . A viewer  20  may sit in the viewing area  18  so as to view the display  22  of the display monitor  12  as well as hear sound from the speakers  14  and to be within the acquisition angle of the camera  16 . Camera  16  may also include a built-in microphone  23  receiving sounds within the viewing area  18 .  
         [0036]     The display monitor  12  is attached via a cable  24  to a converter interface  26  as will be described in greater detail below. Converter interface  26  also receives a connection via cable  28  from the camera  16  and its microphone  23 . A standard residential cable television cable  30  is also connected to the converter interface  26 . The converter interface  26  may further include a remote infrared receiver  27  allowing for channel selection using a remote control  29  held by the user.  
         [0037]     Referring now to  FIG. 2 , the converter interface  26  receives signals from the cable  30  at the input of a broadband amplifier  32  which boosts the signals to a standard level to be received by a first tuner  34  and second tuner  36 .  
         [0038]     The first tuner  34  is a conventional cable TV tuner and is controlled by a central processing unit (CPU)  38  receiving infrared beam  40  from the remote control  29  through remote infrared receiver  27  described before. The first tuner converts frequency multiplexed cable signals to a common frequency compatible with the input of the display monitor. The output of the first tuner  34  is received by booster amplifier  42  and provided by cable  24  to the cable input of the display monitor  12  and provides both a video and audio signal of a conventional cable program such as sporting events and movies.  
         [0039]     The second tuner  36  provides a connection to one or more specially allocated frequency bands of the cable  30  that may be used for up linking and down linking digital data. The output of the second tuner  36  is provided to a modem  44 , such a standard cable modem of conventional design, which connects to a media access controller  46 . The modem also connects to a distribution amplifier  50  to provide signals to the cable  30 . The media access controller  46  may receive TCP/IP protocol signals from the modem  44  and provide them to the CPU  38  and the CPU  38  may provide signals to the media access controller  46  which forwards them to the modem  44  which provides data back to a distribution amplifier  50  that provides signals on the cable  30  according to methods well known in the art. CPU  38  also receives video and audio signals over cable  28  from the camera  16  and microphone  23  for transmitting these over cable  30  using the media access controller  46  as described above.  
         [0040]     Referring now to  FIG. 3 , a number of virtual community terminals  10   a,    10   b,  and  10   c  may be connected via the cables  30   a,    30   b,  and  30   c  to receive a video stream  52  broadcast by a video server  54  from a cable company  53 . The video stream  52  will be a standard FM television signal.  
         [0041]     The cable company  53  also provides a web server  56  communicating TCP/IP or other internet protocol signals  58  over cables  30   a,    30   b,  and  30   c  to the terminals  10   a,    10   b,  and  10   c,  respectively. The TCP/IP signals are bi-directional.  
         [0042]     A virtual community terminal  10   d  on a separate cable network, possibly from a separate cable company installation  53 ′, may also receive the video stream  52 ′ from a separate video server  54 ′ typically from a common network source. The virtual community terminal  10   d  also may exchange TCP/IP signals  58  with local web server  56 ′. Data may be exchanged between web servers  56  and  56 ′ through the Internet  62  providing a direct path between virtual community terminals  10   d  and any of virtual community terminals  10   a - c.    
         [0043]     Each web server  56  may be programmed to receive video and audio from cameras  16  associated with each of the terminals  10   a - 10   d  and to stream that audio and video to selected of the terminals  10   a - 10   c  contained within a database community table  60  listed held within the web server  56 .  
         [0044]     Referring to  FIG. 4 , the database community table  60  provides a series of names and IP address identifications for each user of a virtual community terminal  10  for the purpose of defining a community (identified and linked by a unique group identifier) to which that user belongs. Each virtual community terminal  10 , upon being activated, communicates with the web servers  56  which then exchange video and audio data from the camera  16  of that virtual community terminal  10  with other virtual community terminals  10  in the same group. The exchange of video and audio data can be automatic for certain scheduled broadcasts and/or only if the broadcast is being viewed at a particular virtual community terminal  10 . Further, the particular definition of the virtual community determined form the database community table  60  may vary depending on the broadcast, thus allowing one virtual community to be defined for sporting events or particular sporting events and another to be defined for a broadcast movie or the like. This is readily implemented with a broadcast class entry into the database community table  60  as will be understood to those of ordinary skill in the art.  
         [0045]     Referring again to  FIG. 1 , the exchanged video and audio data from other virtual community terminals  10  is displayed as one or more inset images  64  on the main image  66 , the latter showing the sporting event or other common broadcast program. In this way a viewer  20  may watch a broadcast program in the company of other viewers virtually present by the community offered by the present device. The inset images  64  thus show other viewers (and possibly the viewer  20  of the particular virtual community terminal  10 ) of a community watching the particular broadcast event. The size, location, and number of the inset images  64  may be changed by the viewer through simple manipulation of parameters of a program executed by CPU  38  input from the user&#39;s remote control  29 .  
         [0046]     Referring again to  FIG. 2 , the CPU  38  receives the video and audio data broadcast from the web servers  56  and sums it to the data received from the cable  30  as broadcast data using booster amplifier  42  which gives priority to the signal generated by CPU  38  when that signal is present creating the overlapping image of inset images  64 . The program executed by the CPU  38  is a standard video reception program of a type well known in the art providing for resizing and activation and deactivation of particular video streams from the web servers  56 .  
         [0047]     Several different audio modes may be provided by the converter interface  26 . In a first mode, audio from the viewers  20  preempts the audio from the broadcast program. In a second mode, audio from the viewers  20  is summed together with the audio from the broadcast program. The volumes of the Internet broadcast audio can be adjusted independently of each other and of the volume of the broadcast program.  
         [0048]     The inset images  64  may be turned on and off by the viewer  20  or may switch automatically depending on audio signals associated with the particular inset image  64 , so for example, to switch to a speaking viewer  20 .  
         [0049]     The programming of the CPU  38  for implementation of the virtual community terminal  10  may be done by downloading of information from the web servers  56  provided by the cable company  53  (to allow the service to be easily installed and de-installed) and programming of different user parameters can be done interactively by the viewer  20  through a standard computer (not shown) connected to the Internet  62  or a keyboard or remote control communicating directly to the CPU  38  by the infrared beam  40 .  
         [0050]     A particular advantage of the present invention is that it does not require a separate license to rebroadcast the sporting event in stream form over the Internet. However the present invention contemplates in one embodiment that such streaming may occur.  
         [0051]     The term Internet and Internet protocol signals as used in the specification and claims is intended to cover a network exchanging digital data arranged in addressed data packets, as on the Internet, whether or not the network is publicly accessible or the particular protocol of TC/IP is used.  
         [0052]     It is specifically intended that the present invention not be limited to the embodiments and illustrations contained herein, but include modified forms of those embodiments including portions of the embodiments and combinations of elements of different embodiments as come within the scope of the following claims.