Data processing: presentation processing of document – operator i – Presentation processing of document – Layout
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-20
2004-09-14
Feild, Joseph (Department: 2176)
Data processing: presentation processing of document, operator i
Presentation processing of document
Layout
C715S252000, C715S252000, C705S050000, C705S067000, C705S071000, C380S255000, C380S258000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06792577
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to digital data distribution technology, such as digital satellite broadcasts and multimedia content communication, and in particular, relates to a technology for distributing digital data composed of computer language instructions having data attributes. Digital data composed of instructions of a computer language having data attributes is described, for example, by a markup language format composed of tag data delimited by tags which define data attributes.
More particularly, the present invention relates to a technology for distributing digital data in a markup language (for example, XML (eXtensible Markup Language)) format in which tags which can be defined arbitrarily are used and in particular, relates to handling of style sheets (for example, XSL (eXtensible Stylesheet Language)) documents for defining the expression form, etc., of distribution data composed of XML documents, etc.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the technical field of satellite television broadcasts, digitization of data is progressing rapidly. This is because use of digital data allows a broadcast band to be used more efficiently than does use of analog data and digital data has a greater compatibility with data other than video and audio data.
For example, in the case of digital data, it is possible to carry data for four data streams in one channel, and data for high-definition television can be transmitted as it is. Also, by sending various types of system information, such as an EPG (Electronic Program Guide) together with video information and audio information, services for users (viewers) can be improved.
Data in digital form is highly compatible with general-purpose computer systems. For example, by mounting a satellite tuner card in a general-purpose computer system, by analyzing received EPG data in a computer, and by window-displaying a program menu on a computer display, program changes and recording program settings can be realized by an operation using a mouse and cursor keys. Of course, broadcast data can also be digitally recorded as it is in a hard disk contained in a computer.
Also, by transmitting data other than that for video, it is possible to increase interactivity in broadcast programs. For example, in the case of a broadcast program which provides multiple-choice questions, by transmitting an answer together with video data, on the television receiver side, answer menu buttons are prepared on the computer display, and answer checking can be performed in response to an answering operation using the mouse and cursor keys.
Furthermore, if interactivity is improved, a television receiver in a household, in addition to handling video content, can be expected to make a great advance as an information control station. For example, a television receiver can also become an Internet terminal or an electronic commerce terminal.
In efforts in digital satellite broadcast standardization, as a form (format) of digital broadcast data, use of MHEG (Multimedia and Hypermedia Expert Group) has conventionally been studied. MHEG is one type of markup description language that uses tags which define data attributes, and assumes applications in which multimedia contents are displayed on a television and a viewer extracts desired information in video on demand (VOD) and digital television broadcasts. For example, in a CS digital broadcast (SKYPerfectTV) in Japan, MHEG-5 is adopted.
However, in the MHEG, the definitions of tags are predetermined, and extendibility is lacking. That is, since only tags which are defined uniquely can be used for description, for example, a considerable amount of correction is necessary even to change one function (API (Application Programming Interface)). Also, since MHEG is designed for commercial broadcasts and specifies a method of presentation, it has a relatively low compatibility with general-purpose computers.
Accordingly, in place of MHEG, a specification based on XML (extended Markup Language) is being studied. As is already well known in the industry, similarly to HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) which is the Internet description language at present, XML is a markup description language which delimits content data using tags in order to specify the attributes thereof. It is also possible for XML to embed a link (that is, to access information (reference) to another resource object) into contents in a manner similar to HTML.
In XML, since the definitions of tags are arbitrary, that is, there is no limitation on the way to describe attributes, a high degree of freedom and high compatibility with computers and the Internet are points which can be mentioned as being more advantageous than in MHEG. Also, planning for XML to become the next generation Internet description language is under way.
As a result of the adoption of XML, the compatibility of broadcast data with respect to computers is further improved. Also, since the compatibility with the Internet is great, it is easy to provide a digital television receiver with the role of an Internet receiving terminal.
The specifications of XML can be broadly classified into “basic XML” and “advanced XML” (which is an extended version of the basic XML). The basic XML specifies that the presentation form for expressing transmission contents on a display be described using tags.
In contrast, in the advanced XML, attribute information of transmission contents can be added. A conversion that defines a method (that is, the grammar of tags) for describing attribute information is a standard convention called “DTD (Document Type Definition)”. Although DTD is fixed in the basic XML, in the advanced XML, DTD can be defined as desired, and for example, DTD can be defined for each industry. The attribute information referred to herein includes information necessary for each apparatus to understand the meaning of contents and to process them when a connection is made among different apparatuses, such as a television receiver and a computer.
Also, a method for expressing XML contents (that is, a presentation form on a display and a print output form to a printer) is described by a style sheet which is a document which differs from the DTD. For example, by changing the typefaces, the sizes thereof, the colors, etc., in the description order in the style sheet, the same DTD contents can be expressed in a completely different form. The style sheet is transmitted as a file which differs from the DTD. The style sheet for an XML document is specifically called “XSL (eXtensible Stylesheet Language)”. XSL has attracted attention as a conversion language for XML documents in addition to its primary function of a style sheet.
As shown in
FIG. 17
, the distribution of XML contents involves DTD and XSL documents in addition to an XML document. However, the document body is not necessarily limited to an XML document and may be in another markup language format, such as SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) and HTML. Also, in the case where a document described by XML is applied to, for example, a television broadcast, and it operates together with other multimedia contents so as to perform the presentation of the contents, it is assumed that the multimedia content is also contained in the document body.
On the receiving side, these received documents are parsed by a syntax analysis program called an “XML parser”. The XML parser analyzes an XML document by using a DTD document and outputs a document object. This document object is a structured document in which a tree structure is formed according to the tags in the original XML document.
Then, this document object is converted by a conversion program called an “XSL processor”. The XSL processor converts an XSL document into, for example, a script form and converts a document object into an expression form in conformance with the description of an XSL document. For example, a document described in an advanced XML format can be converted into a document of an HTML form which can be browsed by what is
Feild Joseph
Nguyen Paul
Simon Darren A.
LandOfFree
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