Facsimile and static presentation processing – Static presentation processing – Attribute control
Patent
1988-04-19
1990-03-27
George, Keith E.
Facsimile and static presentation processing
Static presentation processing
Attribute control
379 92, H04H 900
Patent
active
049125524
ABSTRACT:
A system is disclosed which may be used for collecting television channel tuning data, household purchase data, VCR channel usage data and the like; on site at a plurality of preselected households, wherein the system concentrates and transmits the collected data to a central site in a fault tolerant manner, transparent to the occupants of the household. The novel system features a hub and spoke architecture for effecting communications between the central site and each household (remote site). The hub and spoke architecture at each remote site comprises a hub unit, and a set of spoke meters. The hub unit is adapted to be coupled, in a variety of ways, to a set of metering devices, one or more of which is coupled to one or more television receivers and/or cable television converters. Not all of the metering devices need be coupled to the television receiver or cable converter, e.g., stand alone purchase meters and wands may be coupled to the hub. The meters may be polled systematically, e.g. on a virtually continuous or periodic basis, by the hub, which then collects and concentrates the data acquired by each meter. As a result of this arrangement standard communications and data transmission "smarts" can be used at the meter level, meter storage requirements are kept to a minimum and no meter communications programming is required. Additionally, the hub can be easily reprogrammed by downloading control software from the central site without having to modify the meters.
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Allison, III Arthur W.
Damoci Joseph A.
Forlines William H.
Gipson Carl B.
Kern Matthew F.
Angus Robert M.
Control Data Corporation
George Keith E.
Heller Edward P.
Niebuhr Frederick W.
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