Method for representing animated menu buttons

Field of invention The present invention relates to a method of adding a dynamic menu button (animation button) to an optical storage medium.

Today's optical storage media formats can support visual menus, for example for content management or control functions. The use of such a visual menu is to select one of a plurality of titles on an optical disc, or to select a chapter within a title. From the user's point of view, such a menu consists of a large number of buttons displayed on the display. The user can navigate through the menu by pressing the up, down, left, and right buttons on the remote control, for example, to select the menu button, and can activate the menu button by any "OK" button on the remote control. Indicators, usually highlights or arrows, provide feedback to the user to indicate which button is currently selected or activated. The menu button can have one of the "normal", "selected", or "activated" states.

However, known DVD menus have only static visual buttons, which limits their additional functionality considerably.

In addition, the embedding of subtitles in video sequences is included in the document ETS 300 743: Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB); Subtitling System (DVB-ST) provided by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). The standard for subtitling is known.

The present invention can be used to provide more feedback to users manipulating menus associated with optical storage media. This feedback consists of visually and / or audibly dynamic buttons (animated buttons). A method of providing such feedback is disclosed in claim 1.

A storage medium that includes a dynamic menu is disclosed in claim 9.

A device suitable for presenting such a menu is disclosed in claim 10.

According to the present invention, the menu buttons displayed on the display can have different appearances depending on the state. The state of the menu button may be "normal", "selected", or "activated". For each of these conditions, the button can have a different color or shape. In addition, some or all menu buttons can be associated with a sound or sequence of sounds, depending on the menu button state. Examples of sounds include clicks or melodies, or audio sequences. The present invention provides a data structure in which these additional functions can be described.

Advantageous embodiments of the present invention are disclosed in the dependent claims, the following description, and the drawings.

Examples of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in FIG. FIG. 1 shows an on-screen menu according to the present invention and a corresponding remote control.

<figref num="1">An on-screen menu according to the present invention and a corresponding remote controller are shown.</figref>

FIG. 1 shows a video screen 1 containing a menu consisting of buttons 2 and 3 and related text describing the buttons. When the user presses buttons 5 and 6 on the remote controller 4, the state of buttons 2 and 3 and the display of buttons 2 and 3 change. In FIG. 1, one button 2 is selected and looks different from the unselected button 3. When the user presses the "right" button 6 on the remote control, for example, another button 3 to the right of the currently selected button 2 is selected. When the user presses the "OK" button 5, the selected button is activated and the function associated with the selected button is executed. According to the present invention, the selected button 2 is dynamic, eg, has a different color and shape than the unselected button 3, and the color and shape can change. In particular, depending on the state of the button, the button can be replaced with a moving symbol or animation.

An advantageous embodiment of the present invention is a subtitling standard included in the document "ETS 300 743: Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB); Subtitling System" (DVB-ST) provided by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). Based on the syntax and semantics of. To improve the ability of menus related to optical storage media, the page composition segment defined in DVB-ST is to describe a dynamic menu button and also to button a sound or a sequence of sounds. It is extended to correspond to. The extended page composition segment is referred to herein as the "menu page composition segment".

The present invention, like DVB_ST, uses page formatting segments to describe the location of one or more rectangular areas on a display. However, in that case, it is assumed that the area contains the representation of one button in a certain state, for example, as pixel data or a bitmap. Therefore, each button image can be addressed by an identifier (ID), that is, "region_id". In this embodiment of the present invention, backward compatibility with DVB-ST is maintained by using the segment type ID associated with the menu page typesetting segment. Menu page typesetting segments are defined as listed in Table 1.

The "menu page typesetting segment" according to the present invention can replace, for example, the original page typesetting segment in DVB-ST. The menu page typesetting segment describes the menu and also provides the necessary layout and timing information as well as additional control information.

One embodiment of the present invention is a simple case with a static menu, where each button is represented by, for example, three images. The first image represents the button in the "normal" state, the second image represents the button in the "selected" state, and the third image represents the button in the "activated" state. These images can be stored in a storage medium, for example, as a bitmap file, and can be used for displaying menus.

Another embodiment goes beyond static menus, and menu page typesetting segments also allow the description of dynamic buttons (animation buttons). In this case, the "normal" and "selected" states of the button are represented by a series of images displayed on the screen, respectively, which series may be repeated, for example, periodically, as a result. , Animated effects can be obtained. You can also define an animation for the "activated" state of the button, but here it is advantageous to display the animation phase only once. This is because menus usually disappear or change after the button is activated.

For all button animations in the menu, the menu author can specify the animation frame speed to determine how long each phase of the animation will be displayed.

Advantageously, the present invention can also provide auditory feedback to the user. A sound identifier associated with a sound may be assigned to the button if the button is in the "selected" or "activated" state. This sound identifier can be stored in the storage medium. The corresponding sound is played when the button enters each button state. In certain embodiments of the invention, the corresponding sounds are repeatedly reproduced as long as the buttons remain in their respective states.

The structure of the menu page typesetting segment and the field semantics of the menu page typesetting segment are based on the structure and semantics given in DVB-ST, Section 7.2.1 Page Typesetting Segment. Additional semantics definitions are used for extended menus according to the invention.

Table 1 shows the structure of the menu page typesetting segment according to the present invention. Lines 1-8 are the same as the DVB-ST subtitle segment and can be backwards compatible. The meanings of the fields shown in Table 1 are explained below. Pixel addressing is based on a coordinate system whose origin is defined by the upper left corner of the corresponding video screen. Pixel addresses increase from left to right and from top to bottom. The corresponding video dimensions are defined as video_width * video_height.

<tables num="1"><img id="000002" he="174" wi="158" file="JP6046292B2_D0001.tif" img-format="tif" img-content="drawing" /></tables>

A segment is generally a unit of data within a storage area. segment_type specifies that type. Menu page typesetting segments are identified, for example, by setting segment_type = 0x18. This is because this value has not yet been used in DVB-ST. The other fields in rows 2-8 of Table 1 specify the segment dataset.

The animation_frame_rate_code field specifies the frame speed of the animation when dynamic buttons are used. This applies to the range of regions specified by start_region_id_xxx and end_region_id_xxx. Here, "xxx" refers to the state of the button. If start_region_id_xxx and the corresponding end_region_id_xxx are different, they define the range of areas that will be displayed at this animation frame speed. The display repeats periodically for the normal state and the selected state. For the "activated" state, the display is performed only once. If start_region_id_xxx is equal to the corresponding end_region_id_xxx, this means a static or non-dynamic button state. Only the area specified by start_region_id_xxx is displayed, and animation_frame_rate_code has no meaning for that button state.

Table 2 shows an example of a list of animation_frame_rate_code. Animations can be viewed at maximum video frame speeds, eg 30 images per second. This means that another phase of the animation is displayed for each video frame. It's also sufficient to display another phase of the dynamic button every other video frame, which has a different effect. In addition, it is possible to determine the frame speed relative or absolutely. Therefore, the animation_frame_rate_code field has two different meanings depending on the presence or absence of the corresponding video. In this case, animation_frame_rate_code gives the animation frame speed relative to the video frame speed. Otherwise, give the absolute frame speed.

<tables num="2"><img id="000003" he="57" wi="159" file="JP6046292B2_D0001.tif" img-format="tif" img-content="drawing" /></tables>

The button_number field specifies the number that is the internal identifier of the button and is used for the fields defined below, such as the neighbor_info () field. In addition, when button_number is entered directly through the user interface (UI), the corresponding button is activated. Therefore, button_number is unique within the menu. It is, for example, a two-digit number in the range between 0 and 99.

Some fields used for menu animation by the present invention must be specified individually for each button. These fields are listed from row 11 of Table 1 where the loop across all buttons begins. Each execution example of the loop involves one button. Implicitly, the button described by the first execution example of the while loop in menu_page_composition_segment () is considered "selected" when the menu is entered, the page timeout for the menu is sent, and it becomes active. When it is, it is considered "activated".

The button_horizontal_address field specifies the horizontal address of the upper left pixel of the button. The specified horizontal position is between 0 and video_width-1. Similarly, the button_vertical_address field specifies the vertical address of the upper left pixel of the button. The specified vertical position is between 0 and video_height-1.

The upper_button_number field specifies that the button is selected when the user moves up from the current button. The lower_button_number field specifies that the button is selected when the user moves down from the current button. The left_button_number field specifies that the button is selected when the user moves to the left from the current button. The right_button_number field then specifies that the button is selected when the user moves to the right from the current button.

The start_region_id_normal field specifies the ID of the first region provided for normal button display, and the end_region_id_normal field specifies the ID of the last region provided for normal button display. There will be an area between start_region_id_normal and end_region_id_normal and all areas containing them. If start_region_id_normal is different from end_region_id_normal, then that range of regions will be displayed periodically at the animation frame rate determined by animation_frame_rate_code.

The start_region_id_selected field specifies the ID of the first area provided for button display in the selected state, and the end_region_id_selected field specifies the ID of the last area provided for button display in the selected state. There will be an area between start_region_id_selected and end_region_id_selected and all areas containing them. If start_region_id_selected is different from end_region_id_selected, then that range of regions will be displayed periodically at the animation frame rate described by animation_frame_rate_code.

The start_region_id_activated field specifies the ID of the first region provided for button display in the activated state, and the end_region_id_activated field specifies the ID of the last region provided for button display in the activated state. To do. There will be an area between start_region_id_activated and end_region_id_activated and all areas containing them. If start_region_id_activated is different from end_region_id_activated, then that range of regions will only be displayed once at the animation frame rate described by animation_frame_rate_code.

The button_command_info () field acts as a container for the command associated with the button and specifies the command to execute when this button is activated.

Finally, the selected_sound_id field specifies the ID of the sound that should be played when the button enters the "selected" state, and the activated_sound_id field plays when the button enters the "activated" state. Specify the ID of the sound to be played.

The present invention can be used specifically for menus stored on Blu-ray discs, but can also be used for DVDs and other optical or non-optical mass storage media.