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System for electronically controllably viewing on a television updateable television programming information    

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United States Patent4751578   
Link to this pagehttp://www.wikipatents.com/4751578.html
Inventor(s)Reiter; Eli (Dix Hills, NY); Zemering; Michael H. (Plainview, NY); Shannon; Frank (Lindenhurst, NY)
AbstractThe electronically controllable system of the invention for viewing on a television, updateable television programming information comprises a microcontroller which is partially controllable by remote control system and is updateable via telephone link, magnetic cards or floppy disks, or television or radio subcarrier, the microcontroller including input/output interfaces, a microprocessor and a RAM; a mixer for mixing a regularly received television signal with the signal generated by the microcontroller; an RF converter for receiving the radio frequency information from the mixer, microcontroller, and television antennae and properly converting the information into information which may be sent to the television; and a remote control system for permitting the viewer to direct the microcontroller to perform searches on information contained in the RAM so as to provide on the television screen in a chosen format, subsets of information desired by the viewer. The system preferably also includes a ROM for directing the microcontroller to access the information link should the RAM lose information due to power failure.
   














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Drawing from US Patent 4751578
System for electronically controllably viewing on a television

     updateable television programming information - US Patent 4751578 Drawing
System for electronically controllably viewing on a television updateable television programming information
Inventor     Reiter; Eli (Dix Hills, NY); Zemering; Michael H. (Plainview, NY); Shannon; Frank (Lindenhurst, NY)
Owner/Assignee     Gordon; David P. (Stamford, CT)
Patent assignment
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Company News
Publication Date     June 14, 1988
Application Number     06/738,283
PAIR File History     Application Data   Transaction History
Image File Wrapper   Patent Term   Fees
Litigation
Filing Date     May 28, 1985
US Classification     348/564 348/734 725/50 725/137 725/139 725/142
Int'l Classification     H04N 005/265
Examiner     Chin; Tommy P.
Assistant Examiner    
Attorney/Law Firm     Gordon; David P.
Address
Parent Case    
Priority Data    
USPTO Field of Search     358/188 358/194.1 358/189 358/190 358/85 358/191.1 358/183 358/903 358/141 358/142 358/146 358/147 358/22 455/151 455/131 455/603
Patent Tags     electronically controllably viewing television updateable television programming information
   
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 Technical Review Submit all comments and votes
 Claims Submit all comments and votes
 


We claim:

1. A system for electronically controllably viewing updateable information on a television having a screen comprising:

(a) a microcontroller including input/output interfaces, a microprocessor, and an updateable memory comprising at least a RAM, said RAM of said microcontroller being updateable via an electronic medium and storing updated information including at least television programming information;

(b) a mixer for mixing a regularly received television signal with the signal generated by the microcontroller in accord with instructions of said microcontroller;

(c) an RF section for receiving instructions from said microcontroller and for receiving radio frequency information from the mixer and a television station and properly converting the information into video signals which may be sent to said television for viewing; and

(d) a remote control system, said microcontroller being controllable by said remote control system, for permitting a viewer of said television to direct said microcontroller to perform a search on at least said updated television programming information contained in said RAM of said microcontroller, a subset of at least said updated television programming information being output to said mixer so as to provide on the television screen television programming information desired by the viewer in a desired format.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

said electronic medium for updating said RAM comprises telecommunications means including a central station computer and a modem.

3. A system according to claim 2, further comprising:

(e) a ROM for communicating with said central station computer after a power outage to said system for electronically controllably viewing updateable information.

4. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

said electronic medium for updating said RAM comprises an electromagnetic record.

5. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

said electronic medium for updating said RAM comprises a radio frequency subcarrier.

6. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

said information contained in said updateable memory includes further advertising information.

7. A system according to claim 6, further comprising:

(e) sound converting means, wherein said updateable memory stores digital sound information.

8. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

said desired format of said information desired by said viewer is as a window in the picture resulting from said regularly received television signal.

9. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

said desired format of said information desired by said viewer is as an overlay on the picture resulting from said regularly received television signal.

10. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

said desired format of said information desired by said viewer is a full screen display.

11. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

said television programming information provided to said screen includes at least the time, channel and program name of at least one scheduled televised program.

12. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

said information provided to said screen includes information regarding at least two scheduled television programs.

13. A system for electronically controllably viewing updateable information on a television having a screen, comprising:

(a) a microcontroller including input/output interfaces, a microprocessor, and an updateable memory for maintaining a data base of information, said updateable memory of said microcontroller being updateable via an electronic medium;

(b) a mixer for mixing a regularly received television signal with the signal generated by the microcontroller in accord with instructions of said microcontroller;

(c) an RF section for receiving instructions from said microcontroller and for receiving radio frequency information from the mixer and a television station and properly converting the information into video signals which may be sent to said television screen for viewing; and

(d) a remote control system which can control said microcontroller, for permitting a viewer of said television to direct said microcontroller to perform a search on said data base information contained in said updateable memory of said microcontroller, wherein

said data base information comprises at least television scheduling information having code indicative of at least scheduled airing date and time of day, such that said microcontroller, upon direction from a viewer via said remote control system, may search said data base for the television scheduling information for a predetermined interval of days and time of day which is the intersection of the subset of said information having code indicative of said predetermined date interval and said subset of said information having code indicative of said predetermined time interval, and

as a result of said search, said intersection of subsets of said information data base is output to said mixer so as to provide on the television screen the information desired to be viewed by the viewer in a desired format.

14. A system according to claim 13, wherein:

said television scheduling information of said data base includes code indicative of subject matter, such that said search on said data base is by at least date, time of day, and subject matter, and such that said subset of information output to said mixer is at least the group of television programs of at least a predetermined subject matter scheduled to be aired during a given date interval and time of day interval, which is the intersection of the subset of said data base information including code indicative of said predetermined subject matter with the subset of data base information including code indicative of said date interval with the subset of data base information including code indicative of said time interval.

15. A system according to claim 14, wherein:

said updateable memory comprises a RAM, and said electronic medium for updating said RAM is selected from a group consisting of an electromagnetic record, a radio frequency subcarrier, and a central station computer with a telephonic link and a modem.

16. A system according to claim 15, wherein said electronic medium consists of a central station computer with a telephonic link and a modem, further comprising:

(e) a ROM for communicating with said central station computer after a power outage to said system for electronically controllably viewing updateable information.

17. A system according to claim 15, wherein:

said desired format of said information desired by said viewer is selected from a group consisting of, a full screen display, an overlay on the picture resulting from said regularly received television signal, and a window in the picture resulting from said regularly received television signal.

18. A system according to claim 14, wherein:

said data base of information contained in said updateable memory includes advertising information.

19. A system according to claim 18, further comprising:

(e) sound converting means, wherein said updateable memory stores digital sound information in said data base.
 Description Submit all comments and votes
 


BACKGROUND

The present invention broadly relates to a system which may be attached to, or manufactured within a television set which permits the television owner who subscribes to a particular information service, upon demand, to view on the television screen desired television programming information and subsets thereof. More particularly, the present invention permits the subscriber to controllably view at his leisure the provided updated information such that the information or desired subsets thereof may be viewed on the television either to the exclusion of the received TV signal, or as an overlay to the viewed TV program, or as a window on the screen.

Numerous television accessories, special purpose TV systems, and methods of transmitting auxiliary information to a TV receiver are known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,344,090 to Pietro Belisomi et al., discloses a picture display device which uses a ROM to keep coded data corresponding to a television picture in memory. The coded data is perceived as containing advertising or television operating instructions which may be viewed upon demand and which may be superimposed upon or viewed as an alternative to the received video signal. U.S. Pat. No. 4,288,809 to Yabe describes transmitting alphanumeric information during the blank field intervals of video signals. The added information is identified by an identification code and is stored in temporary memory means for display on the television. The patent further describes an index switch which permits the viewer to determine by an overlay on the screen, which alphanumeric programs are available. The index listing is contained on a RAM which may be updated by the blank field interval transmitted data.

The Insam U.S. Pat. No. 4,161,728 discloses means for displaying "Teletext" and/or "Viewdata" information; the former being information sent during field blanking of video information, and the latter being information sent from telephone. The patent describes means with a memory unit for storing information to be displayed, a display unit for synchronizing and producing addresses to memory containing the information to be displayed, a decoder unit, a control unit which is accessible through remote control, and a microprocessor which is responsive to programmed instruction. The Keiser U.S. Pat. No. 4,390,901 suggests the coding of the type of television programming which is available. The code information would be provided during the vertical blanking gap of the video signal and would be compared to the code contained in the receiver so that a video recorder could be turned on or off depending on how the viewer has programmed the same.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,052,719 to Hutt et al. describes the transmission of auxiliary information during the field blanking intervals of video signal transmission. On the receiving end, a television receiver system has a RAM for collecting and storing information, a selector, and a reading device. The stored information is fed to a character generator repeatedly after the memory is filled. The viewer has the choice of viewing the video signal or the auxiliary information separately or together on the screen. U.S. Pat. No. 4,270,145 to Farina discusses the use of an alphanumeric character generating circuit with memory and processor for controllably superimposing the time, channel, and other similar information on the video screen. The Doumit et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,203,130 describes the display of program schedule information and other data to cable subscribers. The information is mixed into the transmission signal on the transmission end and is displayed on the entire television screen.

While all of the above-summarized patents are useful in providing additional information to the viewer, none of the patents permits the viewer to controllably view at his leisure periodically updated informa