Disparity data transport in standard caption service

Disparity DATA TRANSPORT IN STANDARD CAPTION SERVICE

Cross-references to related documents

This application relates to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/452,247 to Mark Eyer, filed March 14, 2011, and claims priority thereto. This application also relates to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/415,924 to Mark Eyer et al., entitled "Service Linkage to Caption Disparity Data Transport," filed on November 22, 2010. like; and No. 61/415,457 to Mark Eyer et al, entitled "Disparity Data Signaling and Transport for 3D Captioning," filed on November 19, 2010, a U.S. Provisional Patent Application, filed on November 19, 2010. ; No. 61/346,652 to Mark Eyer et al., entitled "Disparity Data Transport," filed on May 20, 2010; and No. 61/313,612 to Mark Eyer et al., filed March 12, 2010, and filed March 23, 2010, entitled "Extended Command Stream for CEA-708 Captions (CEA-708 Captions U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/316,733 to Mark Eyer et al., entitled "Efficient Transport of Frame-by-Frame Change in Captioning Disparity Data," filed on August 31, 2010, and entitled "Efficient Transport of Frame-by-Frame Change in Captioning Disparity Data (Efficient Transmission of Frame-by-Frame Changes of Caption Parallax Data)" to Mark Eyer, U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/378,792; This application also relates to regular patent applications Nos. 13/022,828, 13/022,817 and 13/022,810, each filed on February 8, 2011; Each of the above applications is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Copyright and Trademark Notice

Portions of the disclosure of this patent document contain copyrighted material. The copyright owner has no objection to any facsimile reproduction of the patent document or patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent Office's patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrights. Trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

<p>When closed captions (CCs) accompany three-dimensional (3D) stereoscopic video programs, standards are needed that define where the captions come from in the z-axis (depth) and how this information should be conveyed to the receiver. Without such signaling, captions may not be optimally positioned on the video display to prevent or interfere with other video objects.</p>

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Certain illustrative embodiments, together with objects and advantages, illustrating an arrangement and method of operation, may best be understood by reference to the following detailed description set forth in connection with the accompanying drawings. 1 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary caption_disparity_data() command configuration according to a specific embodiment of the present invention; 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of piecewise linear approximation of created disparity data according to a specific embodiment of the present invention; 3 shows an exemplary encoder in accordance with a particular embodiment of the present invention; 4 illustrates an exemplary decoder in accordance with a particular embodiment of the present invention; 5 is an exemplary television receiver arrangement in accordance with a particular embodiment of the present invention. 6 is an exemplary flowchart of a process in accordance with a particular embodiment of the present invention; 7 is an exemplary implementation block diagram of a television receiver apparatus in accordance with a particular embodiment of the present invention;

While the present invention may be embodied in many different forms, specific embodiments will be shown in the drawings and described in detail herein, and the present disclosure of these embodiments is not intended to limit the invention to the specific embodiments shown and described. rather than as examples of the principles of the present invention. In the following description, the same reference numerals are used to describe the same, similar, or corresponding parts in several drawings.

As used herein, the term "a" or "a" is defined as 'one or two or more'. As used herein, the term "plurality" is defined as 'two or three or more'. As used herein, the term "another" is defined as 'at least a second or additional'. As used herein, the terms "comprising" and/or "having" are defined as 'comprising' (ie, open-ended language). As used herein, the term "coupled" is defined as 'connected', but not necessarily directly and not necessarily mechanically coupled. As used herein, the term "program" or "computer program" or similar terms is defined as a 'sequence of instructions' designed to be executed on a computer system. "Program" or "computer program" means a subroutine, program module, script, function, procedure, object method, object implementation, executable application, applet, servlet, source code, object code, shared library/dynamic load (DLL) library) and/or other sequences of instructions designed to be executed on a computer system.

As used herein, the term "program" may also be used in a second context (the above definition is for a first context). In a second context, this term is used in the sense of "television program". In this context, the term is interpreted as a television program and in an electronic program guide (EPG), whether the content is a film, a sporting event, a short in a multi-part series, a news broadcast, etc. It is used to mean any coherent sequence of audio video content, such as reported as a television program. The term may also be interpreted to encompass commercial spots and other program-like content that may not be reported as programs in electronic program guides (EPGs).

References throughout this document to "one embodiment," "a particular embodiment," "an embodiment," "an embodiment," "an example," or similar terms refer to a particular feature, structure or that the feature is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, appearances of such phrases in various places throughout this specification are not all referring to the same embodiment. Moreover, the particular features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments, but are not limited thereto.

As used herein, the term "or" is to be construed to mean inclusive or any one or any combination. Thus, "A, B or C" means "any of A, B, C, A and B, A and C, B and C, A and B and C". An exception to this definition will be made only when combinations of elements, functions, steps or actions are in some way essentially mutually exclusive.

In the display of 3D video programs, when close captions are rendered, the CC window and associated text are rendered in the plane of the screen, unless steps are taken to render the window and text appear at different, more appropriate perceived depths. is likely to be An object in a scene within the 3D content may be presented to the viewer as if it were some distance in front of the plane of the display screen. If a caption window located deep in the plane of the display should be placed on top of that object, a "depth violation" will occur. In this case, the viewer is presented with a conflicting depth cue, which causes eye strain and discomfort. The presentation of captions is preferably individually tailored to the content of the video presentation, since captions can intersect content in the scene on the z-axis if they are only placed in the screen plane. To achieve this, to define the perceived placement in the z-axis of the window containing the caption text (a specified distance forward or backward from the plane of the screen) for effective presentation and not to disturb objects in the scene. Additional information may be transmitted along with the caption. Although a number of techniques can be devised to provide this information, many techniques have drawbacks.

Stereoscopic 3D television requires delivering separate views for the left and right eyes to the display screen, with a method that allows each eye of the viewer to see only the image that is intended to be seen by that eye. For a given object, an illusion of depth is obtained when a left-eye view and a right-eye view are different in the horizontal position of the arrangement of the object. An overview of the underlying technologies involved in three-dimensional display systems can be found in "3D Display Systems" (particularly 10 and 11 and Figure 5), which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

The term "disparity", as used herein, is more formally "screen disparity" (i.e., what is measured on the screen) as distinct from "retinal disparity". , and is defined as the difference between the actual x-coordinates of the corresponding points in the left image and the right image in a pair of aligned stereoscopic images displayed on the screen. For simplicity, the less formal term "parallax" will be used herein. By convention, when the parallax is negative (eg, when the left eye image is rendered to the right of the right eye image on the screen), the object is perceived as being forward from the plane of the screen. When the parallax is positive (eg, when the left eye image is rendered to the left of the right eye image on the screen), the object is perceived as being backward from the plane of the screen.

The term "parallax data" may refer to any data representing a parallax value to be used to render a given graphic object (such as a caption window and its associated text). The term may also be used more generally to refer to data that reflects the z-axis position of an object in the current scene. A screen area can be mapped to ranges, and the z-axis position of the object in each range closest to the viewer is recorded as coordinates in the map. Such a map may be referred to as a "disparity map" or a "depth map". The disparity map may be changed for each frame and may be expressed in a number of ways. Note that although parallax is a measure of the horizontal offset of the left and right eye images, this offset need not be an integer number of pixels, as fractional pixel offsets are perfectly acceptable.

In the context of delivering 3D video and CC content for display, parallax is usually expressed as a percentage of the width of the accompanying video. Accordingly, the parallax is a dimensionless number. For example, the signaling method may designate that the disparity of one unit be 1/1920 of the width of the video content. However, a parallax of 1/1920 is not the smallest increment in real parallax even at a screen width of 1920 pixels. According to this definition, a parallax of 7 is a distance that is 7/1920 of the width of the video content. Again, by this definition, in the special case of a screen with a horizontal resolution of 1920 pixels, this works well so that one full unit of disparity is the same width as one display pixel, but this is a special case. will be thought If the display screen has fewer than 1920 horizontal pixels, for example 1600 horizontal pixels, the parallax is scaled accordingly and the parallax of 7 is (7/1920)(1600) = 5.83 pixels. Therefore, it would be most appropriate to view the parallax as the difference between the actual positions on the screen along the x-axis (horizontal) of the corresponding points in the left-eye image and the right-eye image of a pair of aligned stereoscopic images. It is also noteworthy that the CC window is a two-dimensional window that is generally positioned along the z-axis and perceived as being in a plane parallel to the plane of the display screen.

The subject matter of the present specification solves a problem accompanying the transmission of data to support a 3D caption service. There is a need for a method for delivering data in the DTV caption channel of a CEA-708 compliant device that can be guaranteed as nearly as possible to be backward compatible with legacy (existing, fielded) caption decoders. One possible method is in US Patent Application Serial No. 13/022,810 to Eyer et al., entitled "EXTENDED COMMAND STREAM FOR CLOSED CAPTION DISPARITY," filed on February 8, 2011. Using the Extended Channel described, this US application is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. In the above application, the extended service number is used to convey the time difference data.

Closed caption data for 3D audio/video content contains both the definition of caption window attribute and text as well as parallax data specifying the z-axis position (depth) at which each caption window should be rendered on the 3D video. include In some content creation and distribution scenarios, 2D versions of the same content are distributed to receivers over different paths (eg, broadcast over different channels on cables). The same closed caption data, including parallax data, may accompany the 2D version of the content. Since the 2D version of the content is processed by a receiver that does not support 3D (which can be referred to as a "legacy" receiver), disparity data must be properly ignored or skipped when the caption data is processed.

The CEA Advanced Captioning Standard, CEA-708, contains a number of measures to allow future extensions to the standard to be made. While adding parallax data using one of these extensions would appear to be a logical choice, the implementation of the CEA-708 caption decoder has been found to be insufficient with respect to the way it handles some of these extensions. The CEA-708 standard has been found to be unclear or confusing in some areas, leading to implementation errors or omissions.

Legacy decoders have been looking for ways to minimize the likelihood of being adversely affected by the presence of disparity data in caption streams. The method described herein includes passing the disparity data within a separate caption service known to be associated with one of the standard caption services.

The CEA-708 Advanced Captioning standard supports multiple simultaneous captioning services, for example, so that captions in different languages can be provided for the same program. CEA-708 defines a "minimum decoder" in section 9. The minimum specification decoder must handle "standard" service numbers 1-6. Handling "extended" services 7 to 63 is optional. According to CEA-708, "a decoder shall be able to decode all caption channel block headers consisting of a standard service header, an extended service block header, and a null block header".

One of the disparity data transmission methods described herein involves placing 3D data in an "Adjunct Data" service. In this way, according to a preferred embodiment, the standard service number 6 is recognized as an additional data service. Accordingly, service 6 may carry data used by the receiver to render service 6 as well as caption services 1 to 5 .

A system may be designed in which caption service 6 (or any other standard service number in the range 1 to 6) can carry 3D data for one or more standard services. For example, in standard service #6, there may be signaling associating a specific 3D data block with a specific standard service among standard services 1 to 6 . In the aforementioned patent application in which the extended service is used, it is mentioned that the use of the standard service for transmission of disparity data is inconvenient and inefficient. However, after further research, it has been found that, in a real world situation, one or more of the standard service numbers (usually service 1, service 2 and perhaps rarely service 3) are rarely used. Thus, while seemingly inconvenient and inefficient, in real-world applications, this has turned out not to be the case. Therefore, although the aforementioned patent application has devised a clear solution to the problem of transmission of time difference data by use of the extended service, the theoretical compatibility problem with all legacy receiver devices remains.

A further aspect of the previously disclosed subject matter is that the data structure used to convey 3D parallax data is referred to as a "variable-length" command, which is defined in CEA-708-D section 7.1.11.2. Including how to use the extensibility feature of -708. It is recognized that this method is not suitable for use in connection with most standard services, as it is believed that there are a significant number of legacy receivers that cannot handle this feature. If such a receiver encounters one of these variable length commands, it will probably display a confusing caption output on the screen. However, when disparity data is delivered in the standard service #6 service block, this is not a problem unless a case arises that all six standard services are being used at the same time. In current practice, even two simultaneous captioning services are rarely used. Programs with captions in both English and Spanish are somewhat rare, but not absent. Programs with captions added in three or more simultaneous languages are being produced, but they are extremely rare. Thus, placing the variable length command in service #6 does not interfere with the delivery of most currently contemplated caption services.

It is believed that all existing receivers can appropriately skip the service block corresponding to the service number that it is not currently decoding. In addition, proper handling in receivers of standard caption services 1 to 6 is required by FCC rules. If any legacy receiver attempts to decode the disparity data [this should not normally happen, because the caption service containing the disparity data is not advertised to the Caption Service Descriptor], the receiver will If configured according to -708-D, the receiver will simply ignore the contents of the command.

Summarizing the above, several problems are solved as follows:

One. There is a need for a method of delivery of 3D parallax data that is compatible with legacy devices (ie, does not produce strange output when processing caption data for a 2D version of a broadcast).

2. Passing 3D data in the extended service (caption service in "extended range" 7 to 63) may work fine, but the safest solution to help ensure legacy compatibility due to the extra bytes in the service block This cannot be

3. When 3D parallax data is transmitted in a caption service identified as a standard service such as service #6, the 3-bit standard service number of the 2D service to which this 3D data is linked is included in each variable length command.

4. The 3D parallax data in standard service #6 (if the user selects service #6 in the menu) could possibly be decoded by a legacy decoder. In this case, the legacy device, if configured to be CEA-708-D compliant, will decode correctly, but will simply ignore the 3D data as unsupported instructions.

To optimize compatibility with legacy decoders (although we cannot fully guarantee that all legacy decoders can properly ignore new instructions), the variable length instructions defined in CEA-708-D section 7.1.11.2 may be used. These instructions use the "C3" instruction ("C3 code set - extended control code set 2"). If implemented properly, legacy decoders will skip variable length instructions, further ensuring that unpredictable actions are not taken.

Therefore, to help ensure that the legacy decoder does not malfunction due to attempting to process the parallax data, standard service #6 is used (in the exemplary preferred implementation) to convey the parallax data. Variable length instructions may also be used to define the disparity data in any suitable manner, to prevent legacy decoders from attempting to render the service. While some legacy decoders may not properly implement the "variable length skip extension" feature defined in CEA-708, viewers may not be given the option to choose standard service #6 because it is an "unannounced" service. . Unless all six standard services actually carry a caption service (a situation that exists, but is currently considered extremely rare), service #6 is the ATSC A/65 Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP). will not be notified to the caption service descriptor (CSD) defined in

An exemplary variable length parallax command is indicated by 100 in FIG. 1 . As specified in CEA-708-D Section 7.1.11.2, variable-length instructions are denoted by the EXT1 character followed by a number in the range 0x90 to 0x9F, where the "0x" notation represents the number expressed in hexadecimal format. . In the command format shown in Fig. 1, the EXT1 character (0x10) is followed by 0x90. In this regard, 0x90 is the command identifier for the SetDisparity command. According to the syntax defined in CEA-708-D section 7.1.11.2, the next byte contains a 2-bit type field, 0 bits, followed by a 5-bit length field.

The caption_disparity_data() data structure follows the bytes containing the length field. The syntax of one example of caption disparity data is shown in pseudocode in the table below, which will be described in detail at that point.

2 is an example of a piecewise linear approximation of generated parallax data in accordance with certain embodiments of the present invention, as described in the aforementioned US Patent Application Serial No. 13/022,817.

Referring now to FIG. 3 , a basic diagram of a service provider, such as a broadcasting station, is shown. Generally speaking, a single service provider may provide multiple programs over one or more transport streams. Audio, video and caption data are provided to an encoder, which encodes the data into packets suitable for distribution (including the caption data packets described above). As shown, program A and program B are encoded by encoders 402 and 404 and then provided to a transport stream multiplexer 410, which in turn provides a physical channel such as cable or satellite broadcast. Provides an output that can be distributed over a medium.

This encoded data from the physical channel is received at a television receiver device (eg, a television or set top box) as shown in FIG. 4 . The transport streams are demultiplexed in transport stream demultiplexer 504 to produce one or more program streams, including audio, video and caption data (and possibly other data not shown). The video packet from program A is passed from demultiplexer 504 to video parser 508 . Audio packets from program A are passed from demultiplexer 504 to audio decoder 512, which in turn produces an audio output. The video parser 508 extracts video packets from the video stream and passes them to the video decoder 514 . The video parser 508 extracts user data from the video stream and passes it to the user data parser 510 . The user data parser 510 extracts the closed caption data from the user data packet, and transmits it to the caption processor 516 . In the caption processor 516, a caption service block including data for a caption service other than the caption service of interest is filtered out and discarded. When the video content is 3D, the caption processor 516 processes a caption service block corresponding to a main service of interest, and simultaneously processes a caption service block corresponding to a mapped additional data service. The output of caption processor 516 is a graphical representation of a closed caption, typically text surrounded by a caption window. For 3D content, the output of the caption processor 516 is separate caption output for the left and right eye views, with appropriate parallax applied to set the perceived depth (z-plane position) of each caption window.

The caption graphic is synthesized with the video data in a synthesizer 520 to generate 3D video in which captions are placed according to the data in the caption data packet in the x, y, and z planes. Such data may position the caption on the z-axis in a static manner or dynamically upon creation of the caption data.

The receiver arrangement is shown in more detail in FIG. 5 , where the content is received at the tuner/demodulator 602 of the receiver 600 via any suitable source, such as terrestrial broadcast, cable or satellite. The transport stream from tuner/demodulator 602 is demultiplexed into audio and video streams at demultiplexer 606 . Audio is decoded at an audio decoder 610 , while video is decoded at a video decoder 614 . Uncompressed A/V data may also be received via an optionally available uncompressed A/V interface 618 .

A/V content may also be received via network interface 626 via Internet 622 for IP television content decoding. In addition, a storage device 630 for non-real time (NRT) storage content may be provided. NRT content can be played back by demultiplexing at 606 in a similar manner to other content sources. The receiver generally operates under the control of a processor, such as CPU 638 , which is interconnected to working memory 640 and program memory 642 as well as to graphics subsystem 644 via one or more buses 650 and the like.

The CPU 638 receives the disparity data as well as the closed caption data from the demultiplexer 606 through the mechanisms described herein, and parses the data in the supplementary data service to obtain caption data at any z position as well as the x and y position. decide whether to find This information is passed to graphics subsystem 644, and the image is synthesized in synthesizer 660 to produce output suitable for processing and display on a video display.

The following method overcomes potential problems present with alternative delivery and transmission methods. The following method uses the standard transport service, since the standard transport service may be the most secure way to ensure legacy compatibility.

According to this approach, standard service #6 (or other standard service number n = any of services 1 to 6) is defined as an additional data service. The characteristics of the supplementary data service include:

<img file="KR20140017536A_D0001.tif" /> formatted as a variable length command such that a properly designed receiver ignores the contents of the packet (see CEA-708-D Section 7.1.11.2 Variable Length Codes 0x90 to 0x9F);

<img file="KR20140017536A_D0002.tif" /> not notified to PSIP caption service technicians (thus, properly designed receivers do not notify and offer services containing additional data to users);

<img file="KR20140017536A_D0003.tif" /> Contains 3D data for standard services #1 to #6 (which service a particular data block is associated with is signaled by a data structure; see below).

This method overcomes the following potential problems:

a. Not all legacy receivers may be designed to properly ignore extended service packets. This is because the data structure for the CEA-708-D service block (see Table 9 in CEA-708-D) includes an additional 1 byte when the service_number field = '111' (decimal 7). Thus, the use of extension services can be potentially problematic.

The subject matter of the present invention places additional data in standard service packets. All legacy decoders must be able to handle the presence of standard service packets, and can filter out packets corresponding to services that are not set to decode (unselected services).

b. Some legacy receivers may not use PSIP caption service descriptors (CSDs) to create a user interface for selection of caption services. In this case, it may be possible for the user to select caption service #6 (additional data channel) and attempt to decode it. The proposed method uses "variable length" commands that the receiver will not be aware of. The receiver will ignore unsupported commands, so it must be able to skip an appropriate number of bytes to ignore the command. In this case, nothing will be displayed for service #6.

Even if something should be displayed (broken text or anything like that), the user will decide that this is not a good captioning service and choose the better one. So, it won't do any harm at all.

Since there may be multiple services (eg, different languages) conveying 3D captions, this method can cope with the transmission of different parallax data for each service. This is achieved using the service_linkage field as described below in the format setting as will be used in the technical standard.

<b>SET DISPARITY - (DISP)</b>

<b>designation:</b><b>SetDisparity</b> - Specify parallax for 3D captions

<b>form:</b> variable length

<b>Command Coding:</b><b></b><b>EXT1, 90h, Caption_disparity_data()</b>

<img file="KR20140017536A_D0004.tif" />

<b>Explanation</b>: Caption disparity data is stored within the supplementary service using the syntax and meaning defined below. <b>SetDisparity</b> command will be sent. <b>SetDisparity</b>Specifies the amount of horizontal offset (screen parallax) between the left and right eye views for one or more caption windows when captions are used in stereoscopic 3D programs.

<b>caption parallax data</b>

<b>Caption_disparity_data()</b>The syntax of will be as shown in the table below:

<img file="KR20140017536A_D0005.tif" />

<b>Table: Caption Parallax Data Syntax</b>

The terms used in the table above are defined as follows:

<b>command_length</b> - <b>Caption_disparity_data()</b>A 5-bit unsigned integer in the range 3 to 27 representing the number of bytes to follow in this instance of .

<b>service_linkage</b> - <b>Caption_disparity_data()</b>A 3-bit unsigned integer in the range 1 to 6 indicating which standard caption service this instance of is associated with.

<b>caption_window_count</b> - <b>Caption_disparity_data()</b>A 3-bit unsigned integer in the range 1 to 7 representing the number of caption windows contained in this instance of .

<b>caption_window_id</b> - 3-bit unsigned integer identifying the window ID in the corresponding service given the disparity data in this iteration of the "for" loop.

<b>temporal_extension_flag</b> - A 1-bit flag that, when set to "1", contains data identifying a time-varying disparity path. When set to "0", this flag indicates that the last field present in the command is<b>disparity[i]</b>indicates that

<b>disparity[i] - </b>1920 Relevant caption window i( for horizontal pixels<b>caption_window_id</b>A 9-bit two's complement signed integer representing the disparity value of ). A value of 0 represents the screen plane. A negative value corresponds to the perceived depth forward from the screen. A positive value corresponds to the perceived depth backwards from the screen.

<b>alternate_disparity[i]</b> - <b>disparity[i]</b>9-bit two's complement signed integer coded identically to ; This specifies a disparity value that can be used instead of a value given in a piecewise-linear path by a decoder that cannot render a time-varying caption window.

<b>segment_count</b> - 5-bit unsigned integer ranging from 1 to 31 indicating the number of segments that follow.

<b>frame_count</b> - Coming right after <b>segment_slope_change</b> A 5-bit unsigned integer ranging from 0 to 31 indicating the number of video frames that have elapsed before application of the field.

<b>segment_slope_change</b> - <b>frame_count</b>A 5-bit two's complement signed integer in the range -16 to +15 representing the amount of gradient change to apply in the frame indicated in . The slope is specified as the number of pixels of parallax for 32 frames. A slope value of zero is assumed at the start of the time-varying path.

Referring now to FIG. 6 , an exemplary method of processing disparity data of closed captions for three-dimensional video is shown in a flowchart 900 . The process begins at block 904 where closed caption data including closed caption text within a first standard service block having a service number in the range of 1 to 6 is received. At block 908 , closed caption disparity data within a standard service block having a service number of 6 is received. In general, the standard service used for disparity data may be any of service number n from 1 to 6, but since it is relatively rare for more than the first few service numbers to be used for caption text data, service number 6 This is preferred. A linkage field is also received at block 912 that associates each instance of the disparity data to a corresponding standard service, so that the receiver can correctly use the disparity data with the closed caption text it is intended to be associated with. .

At block 916 , the receiver parses the disparity data from the closed caption data appearing at service number 6 (or n) (eg, in a parsing computer process module). The caption text and parallax data are then processed at block 920 (eg, in another processor operation), suitable to define rendering of a three-dimensional image on display of the caption text at the z-axis location defined by the parallax data. generate output. The caption text data may then be rendered in the closed caption window on the display as a 3D stereoscopic image at block 924 . Preferably, the aforementioned disparity data is conveyed in a CEA-708 compliant variable length command.

Referring now to FIG. 7, there is shown an exemplary television receiver system in which numbered blocks correspond to the same functions described in connection with the system of FIG. 5, except as noted below. In this system 940, a CPU 944 receives a demultiplexed digital television stream that includes a standard service number in the range of 1 to 6. They are parsed in parser 704 and sent to standard service processing block 950 . Parser 704 further parses association field 954 provided to standard service processing 950 to determine disparity data associated with the closed caption data from block 708 , and block 706 . ) to parse other data for processing. This parallax data is passed to graphics subsystem 644 , processed, and sent to synthesizer 660 for display as stereoscopic 3D closed caption text in a closed caption window on a display, such as display 970 .

As such, a method of processing disparity data of a closed caption for a 3D video includes: receiving closed caption data including a closed caption text in a first standard service block having a service number in the range of 1 to 6; receiving closed caption disparity data in a standard service block having a service number of 6; receiving an association field that associates each instance of the disparity data to a corresponding standard service; parsing disparity data from closed caption data appearing in service number 6; processing the caption text and the parallax data to produce an output suitable for defining a rendering of a three-dimensional image on a three-dimensional television display of the caption text at a z-axis position defined by the parallax data - the parallax data is CEA- Passed as a 708 compliant variable-length command -; and displaying the closed caption text as a stereoscopic image on the three-dimensional television display.

Another method of processing disparity data of a closed caption for a 3D video includes: receiving closed caption data including closed caption text in a first standard service block having a service number in the range of 1 to 6; receiving closed caption disparity data in a standard service block having a service number of n, where n is 1 to 6; receiving an association field that associates each instance of the disparity data to a corresponding standard service; parsing disparity data from closed caption data appearing in service number n; and processing the caption text and the parallax data to produce output suitable for defining rendering of a three-dimensional image on a display of the caption text at a z-axis position defined by the parallax data.

In certain implementations, the disparity data is passed in a CEA-708 compliant variable length command. In a particular implementation, standard service number n is service number 6. In certain implementations, the method further comprises displaying the closed caption text as a stereoscopic image on the display.

Another method of processing disparity data of closed captions for 3D video includes receiving closed caption data including closed caption text within a service block having a service number in the range of 1 to 6, a service number of 6 Receiving closed caption disparity data in a standard service block having a; receiving an association field that associates each instance of the disparity data to a corresponding standard service block; parsing disparity data from closed caption data appearing in service number 6; and processing the caption text and the parallax data to produce output suitable for defining rendering of a three-dimensional image on a display of the caption text at a z-axis position defined by the parallax data.

In certain implementations, the disparity data is passed in a CEA-708 compliant variable length command. In certain implementations, the method further comprises displaying the closed caption text as a stereoscopic image on the display.

A tangible computer-readable storage medium, such as a non-transitory storage medium or other storage device, may store instructions that, when executed on one or more programmed processors, perform any of the methods disclosed herein.

A television receiver apparatus for processing disparity data of closed captions according to a specific implementation has a receiver that receives closed caption data comprising closed caption text in a service block having a service number in the range of 1 to 6. This receiver also receives the closed caption disparity data within a standard service block having a service number of n, where n is 1 to 6. The receiver also receives an association field that associates each instance of the disparity data to a corresponding standard service. The one or more processors function as a parser that parses the disparity data from the closed caption data appearing in the service number n. The one or more processors process the caption text and the parallax data to produce output suitable for defining rendering of a three-dimensional image on a display of the caption text at a z-axis position defined by the parallax data. The synthesizer receives and processes the parallax data and caption text to produce output suitable for defining rendering of a three-dimensional image on a display of the caption text at a z-axis position defined by the parallax data.

In certain implementations, the disparity data is passed in a CEA-708 compliant variable length command. In a particular implementation, standard service number n is service number 6. In certain implementations, the receiver device also has a display, such as a three-dimensional television, that displays the closed caption text as a stereoscopic image generated by the synthesizer.

Another television receiver apparatus that processes disparity data of rose captions has a receiver that receives closed caption data comprising closed caption text in service blocks having service numbers in the range of 1 to 6. This receiver also receives the closed caption disparity data within a standard service block having a service number of n, where n is 1 to 6. The receiver also receives an association field that associates each instance of the disparity data to a corresponding standard service. The parser parses the disparity data from the closed caption data appearing in the service number n. The one or more processors process the caption text and the parallax data to produce output suitable for defining rendering of a three-dimensional image on a display of the caption text at a z-axis position defined by the parallax data. The synthesizer receives and processes the parallax data and caption text to produce output suitable for defining rendering of a three-dimensional image on a display of the caption text at a z-axis position defined by the parallax data.

In certain implementations, the disparity data is passed in a CEA-708 compliant variable length command. In a particular implementation, the standard service number is service number 6. In certain implementations, the three-dimensional television display displays the closed caption text as a stereoscopic image generated by the synthesizer.

Another television receiver apparatus that processes disparity data of closed captions has a three-dimensional television display and a receiver that receives closed caption data comprising closed caption text in service blocks having service numbers in the range of 1 to 6. This receiver also receives the closed caption disparity data in a standard service block with a service number of 6. The receiver also receives an association field that associates each instance of the disparity data to a corresponding standard service. The parser parses the disparity data from the closed caption data appearing in the service number n. The one or more processors process the caption text and the parallax data to produce output suitable for defining rendering of a three-dimensional image on a display of the caption text at a z-axis position defined by the parallax data. The synthesizer receives and processes the parallax data and caption text to produce output suitable for defining rendering of a three-dimensional image on a display of the caption text at a z-axis position defined by the parallax data. Parallax data is obtained from CEA-708 compliant variable length instructions.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate, in view of the above disclosure, that some of the above exemplary embodiments are based on the use of a programmed processor. However, the present invention is not limited to these exemplary embodiments, as other embodiments may be implemented using special purpose hardware and/or hardware component equivalents such as dedicated processors. Likewise, general-purpose computers, microprocessor-based computers, microcontrollers, optical computers, analog computers, dedicated processors, application specific circuits, and/or dedicated hard wired logic are alternative equivalent embodiments. can be used to construct

Those of ordinary skill in the art, in view of the above disclosure, may use data associated with program operations and processes used to implement some of the above-described embodiments without departing from specific embodiments of the present invention, disk storage devices as well as other types of data. storage devices (eg, read only memory (ROM) devices, random access memory (RAM) devices, network memory devices, optical storage elements, magnetic storage elements, magneto-optical storage elements, flash memory, core memory, and/or other equivalents non-transitory storage devices, including volatile and non-volatile storage technologies of The term 'non-transitory' does not imply that information cannot be lost by removal or other action. These alternative storage devices should be considered equivalent.

Certain embodiments described herein may be implemented or implemented using a programmed processor executing the programming instructions generally described above in flowchart form, which may be stored in any suitable electronic or computer readable storage medium. can However, those skilled in the art, in view of this disclosure, will appreciate that the above-described process may be implemented in many variations and in many suitable programming languages without departing from embodiments of the present invention. For example, the order of certain operations performed may often be changed, additional operations may be added, or operations may be deleted without departing from specific embodiments of the invention. Error trapping may be added and/or improved and changes may be made to the operational flow, user interface and information presentation without departing from specific embodiments of the present invention. Such variations are contemplated and considered equivalents.

While specific exemplary embodiments have been described, it is apparent that many alternatives, modifications, substitutions and variations will become apparent to those skilled in the art in light of the above description.