Multi-function TV receiver

Details Multi-function TV receiver Multi-function TV receiver

1998-02-27

2001-09-04

Eisenzopf, Reinhard J. (Department: 2614)

Television

Basic receiver with additional function

Multimode

C348S554000, C348S584000, C348S460000, C348S468000, C348S473000, C348S552000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06285407

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention generally relates to a multi-function TV receiver, and more particularly, to a multi-function TV receiver capable of analyzing and processing received scripts.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In recent years, many devices that have the ability of accessing the Internet, which is an external network, have been developed as electrical home appliances, with the recent progress of semiconductor technology. For example, contain types of TV receivers incorporate a high-performance central processing unit (CPU). Hereinafter, this kind of TV receiver will be referred to as Internet TV receiver. The Internet TV receiver accommodates therein a CPU and a modulator-demodulator (hereinafter referred to as modem). Thus the Internet TV receiver is not only able to receive TV programs in common with conventional TV receivers, but also able to access Internet servers. The Internet TV receiver is thus capable of utilizing information services for browsing a package of one or more files including downloadable software programs, and others of documents, voices, pictures, etc. which are provided through WWW (World Wide Web) servers, electronic mail services through Internet, etc. In this specification, the package and the electronic mail data will be simply referred to as Internet information.
FIG. 14
shows a configuration of conventionally contemplated Internet TVs. In
FIG. 14
, TV signals carried by broadcast waves are received through a receiving antenna
10
. The input signal is applied into a tuner
12
for a channel selection and a demodulation of signals of the selected channel. Baseband signals obtained by the demodulation comply with, for instance, the NTSC format in Japan. The baseband signal is applied to an NTSC decoder
13
for decoding therefrom a luminance signal and a chrominance signal.
A conventional TV receiver is in the structure as described above. In case of Internet TV receivers, there is provided a display mode changer
14
for selectively displaying a conventional TV program or an image which corresponds to Internet information. When a TV receiver is set in the mode to display conventional TV programs, the display mode changer
14
selectively introduces the luminance signal or the chrominance signal from the NTSC decoder
13
to an output terminal
15
for displaying it on a display (not shown) connected to the output terminal
15
.
On the other hand, Internet information is received to a TV receiver through public lines such as telephone lines etc. ISDN (Integrated Service Digital Network) lines, CATV lines, etc. The Internet information received through an input terminal
21
is applied to a modem
22
. The modem
22
is capable of receiving or transmitting data. The modem
22
is connected to a system bus
23
for receiving or transmitting data under the control of a CPU
24
. The CPU
24
performs a data processing and a control of associated circuits blocks based on a stored program, i.e., software stored in a memory
25
. If decoded data is for display control, the CPU
24
supplies the data to a graphic controller
26
. The graphic controller
26
supplies video signals to the display mode changer
14
through a video memory
27
. When a TV receiver is set in a mode to display Internet information, the display mode changer
14
selects video signals from the video memory
27
and leads out to a display unit (not shown) via the output terminal
15
. Thus, the Internet information is displayed on the display unit.
An input/output interface (I/O interface)
28
is connected to the system bus
23
. The I/O interface
28
is possible to perform the channel selection, a picture quality adjustment, a display mode switching, etc.
Further, the system bus
23
is connected with a received optical data processor
29
. The received optical data processor
29
receives and processes transmitted from a remote controller
30
. Subsequently the received optical data processor
29
is able to change over the system operating functions to modes suitable for the user's operation. The control signal in response to user's operation is supplied to the control ends of the tuner
12
, the NTSC decoder
13
, the display mode change
14
, etc.
In addition, there is such an Internet TV receiver which is provided with a screen combining unit instead of the display mode changer
14
for simultaneous displaying both of TV broadcasting and Internet information on two screens.
Next, the operation of software associated with processing of Internet information by CPU will be described in reference to FIG.
15
.
FIG. 15
is a block diagram representing operations implemented by a software for explaining one example of the software operation related to the process of Internet information by a CPU. Operational examples of software are shown, for example, in “INTERFACE”, pp. 131-135, issued on June, 1996.
FIG. 15
is a flowchart depicting the software as a flow of operations associated with the contents of the publication.
When the circuit is connected to the Internet, the communication protocol process of the modem is executed for Internet information by a modem controller
41
which is equivalent to the modem
22
. The output data of the modem controller
41
is transferred to a network processor
42
. Normally, the Internet information is transmitted as per a protocol so-called as TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). Therefor, the network processor
42
executes processes based on the TCP/IP to extract the Internet information from packets. The extracted Internet information is the applied to an HTTP processor
43
.
There are several hundred protocols on the Internet and data of the WWW contents (files existing in servers on the WWW) described in a language called HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) are exchanged as per an HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol). The HTTP is a stateless protocol designed for high speed transmission of documents.
Therefore, an HTTP processor
43
extracts HTML from HTTP and then transfer it to an HTML analyzer
44
. In the HTML analyzer
44
, a grammatical analysis of HTML is executed, prescribed data are decoded and developed data are supplied to a browser
45
. The browser
45
arranges and displays the developed data. The actual layout display is achieved by the software process by the CPU
24
and the graphic controller
26
.
According to the Internet TV described above, a signal processing system in a mode to display conventional TV program and a signal processing system in a mode to display Internet information are completely independent of each other. Further, there are cases that a user wishes to receive Internet information by connecting to the Internet, for instance, such cases that a user wishes to know detailed information on the cast of a TV program received by the user or a person or when a place wherein Internet information exists is introduced on a TV program by a URL (Universal Resource Locator) type notation (“http://www.Toshiba. . . . ”, etc.) or when the user wishes to know detailed information as to an area where the program is filmed.
In these cases, the user needs to access a file on a server linked to the Internet after entering names of the casts, a name of program recording location, URL, etc. on a memo pad, a memory, etc. and entering them into an Internet TV receiver by an entry interface such as a keyboard, etc. There are problems that such an accessing operation is inconvenient for users and Internet information is not instantly received.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
So, it is an object of the present invention to provide a multi-function TV receiver which is capable of executing processes related to objects which are transmitted in accompany with TV signals and objects which are utilized in the network including servers for improving utility value and achieving convenience.
In order to achieve the above object, a multi-function TV receiver according to one aspect of the present invention include a communication means for receiving a first object data which is transmitted

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