Sony Corporation

Sony Electronics Inc

Other

Sony Corporation of America

Franklin Servan-Schreiber

Eduardo A Sciammarella

Eduardo Sciammarella

Andrew M Proehl

Kenneth Herndon

Jad Nehme

Nghi Dong Doan

Salvatore Cataudella

Anne Kim

Ken Herndon

Mghi Dong Doan

Method of advertising on-line during, for example, a world wide web session is provided by downloading full page advertisements from a predetermined site (e.g., remote server) to a user's computer during a communication link idle time. The downloaded advertising data are stored and then displayed when the user makes a request to retrieve new data, for example, a hyperlink request to a selected remote server. The advertisement remains displayed while the connection to the selected remote server is made and at least until a portion of new content data is transmitted to the user terminal.

Method of advertising on line during a communication link idle time

A method and structure for the display of categorical information on a display screen utilizes visual factors such as scale and location to express the degree of importance of a particular category over other categories of categorical information with respect to a selected measurement value. Categorical information is displayed primarily based on the selected measurement value of volume of programming or frequency of use at any given time.

Visual display of categorical information through visual factors such as scale and location

A method and apparatus for adjusting font size in an electronic program guide display are provided. A multiple channel broadcasting system generates an electronic program guide identifying channels and corresponding programs in a broadcasting system. The broadcast system determines a number of characters to be displayed in an area of an electronic program guide. The broadcast system determines a number of display pixels available for display of the characters. The broadcast system adjusts the font size of the characters to display the number of characters within the number of pixels available.

Method and apparatus for displaying an electronic program guide

Multiple images are displayed on a screen of a computer system to reflect a temporal relationship among them. Based on date and time when an image is obtained in relation to other displayed images, its size is set accordingly. Namely, the more recent the image, the larger its size on the screen. In addition, the larger the size of the image, the more processing operations, including graphical or text processing functions, are available to a user to be performed on that image.

Display of multiple images based on a temporal relationship among them with various operations available to a user as a function of the image size

A method and structure is capable of scanning through available programs on a display screen and selectively displaying the most recently scanned programs in a spiral formation on the display screen. The spiral formation conveys visual information to the viewer about when the programs were scanned by the arrangement and sizing of a number of positions of the spiral formation. Provided with the visual information of the recently scanned programs in the spiral formation, the viewer can readily determine which programs were recently scanned and when they were scanned.

Channel scan function and method of displaying scanned channels

An improved electronic programming guide (EPG) having time blocks capable of selectively expanding and contracting in size, according to a mode of the EPG, in order to facilitate fast and efficient time navigation through available programming by a viewer of multiple channel broadcast system. In one implementation, when a navigation element remains stationary over a time block for a period of time, a multiple program display mode is initiated, and the time block increases in size relative to other displayed time blocks. Responsive to the navigation element moving outside the time block, a navigation mode is initiated, wherein the time block as well as other displayed time blocks become equal in size, and display only the channel information for a particular channel segment.

Electronic program guide having different modes for viewing

Display of multiple images based on a temporal relationship among them

Data items are arranged into groups and each group is represented by a graphical object (a so-called landmark) for easily identifying each group and its corresponding data items on a screen display. The landmark may have display attributes (such as shape, color, size, function, animation, etc.) which are different from the display attributes of another landmark. Each landmark has two non-parallel lines (grid lines) associated therewith and is positioned at the intersection of the two lines providing directional orientation when the landmark is displaced on the screen display.

Identification of data items on a screen display using landmark and grid

Images representing search results are displayed on a screen of a computer system. The search results are responsive to a search in a database initiated by a user by entering a keyword or keywords via an input device. The images are displayed in such a way that an image corresponding to the highest matching value is the largest is size, while remaining matches are represented by images in direct proportion to their relevance to the keyword. In addition, the relevance of an image is indicated by its proximity to the keyword displayed on the screen: the closer the displayed image to the keyword, the more relevant the match represented by that image is to that keyword. This display operation is equivalent to two simultaneous searches with boolean operators 'OR' and 'AND'. A graphical squeegee may be dragged across images representing search results in order to filter the results based on a keyword. The squeegee is displayed as a vertical bar and is associated with a keyword. As the squeegee is moved across the screen, images relevant to the keyword are moved while remaining images are not moved.

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New York, NY, United States of America

Franklin Servan-Schreiber