Enabling and/or disabling selected types of broadcast triggers

Details Enabling and/or disabling selected types of broadcast triggers Enabling and/or disabling selected types of broadcast triggers

1999-04-20

2002-10-01

Faile, Andrew (Department: 2611)

Interactive video distribution systems

Operator interface

To facilitate tuning or selection of video signal

C725S051000, C725S135000, C725S139000, C725S110000, C725S060000, C725S039000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06460180

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
FIG. 1
(Prior Art) is a diagram of an interactive television system
100
that enhances a television viewing experience by integrating television programming with content from the Internet. The broadcast of a baseball game can, for example, be enhanced by retrieving relevant information (for example, a batter's batting statistics
101
) from the Internet and displaying that information at an appropriate point in the baseball game (for example, when the batter
102
is batting).
System
100
includes a server
103
maintained by the broadcaster, a broadcasting antenna
104
, a receiver unit
105
, a television set
106
, and an Internet access point
107
. Receiver unit
105
includes a receiving antenna
108
and a remote control unit
109
. A viewer uses remote control unit
109
to control the receiver unit and/or to interact with interactive television content via the receiver unit. A video link
110
couples receiver unit
105
to television set
106
so that the receiver unit can use the television set as a display device.
FIG. 2
is a block diagram of receiver unit
105
. TV interface circuitry
111
of the receiver unit
105
includes a tuner that is tuned to receive the broadcast television video and to remove a television carrier signal. After the carrier signal is removed, TV interface circuitry
111
digitizes the resulting video signal. Software executed by a digital processor
112
receives the digitized signal from TV interface
111
and decodes and checks the digitized signal for errors. Receiver unit
105
drives the television set
106
via video encoder
113
and audio digital-to-analog converter
114
. Digital processor
112
realizes a type of web browser that can access the Internet via a modem
115
. Receiver unit
105
includes an infrared interface
116
for receiving infrared transmissions from remote control unit
109
.
To enhance the baseball game by the display of batter statistics
101
, television video
117
is broadcast over the airwaves from broadcasting antenna
104
to receiving antenna
108
of receiver unit
105
. At an appropriate time in the baseball game when the broadcaster wishes batter statistics
101
to be displayed (for example, when batter
102
appears on the television screen), the broadcaster broadcasts a trigger
118
along with the television video
117
. Trigger
118
contains a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that identifies an information resource
119
on the broadcaster's server
103
. In this case, information resource
119
is a web page containing the batter's statistics.
Receiver unit
105
receives trigger
118
, accesses the Internet via Internet access point
107
, uses the URL from the trigger to retrieve the web page of batter statistics from server
103
, and then displays the batter statistics
101
. In this way, broadcasters use triggers to have their viewers' receiver units retrieve information from the Internet and display that information in concert with their programming.
A service company may, for a fee, provide receiver units and Internet access to individual viewers. The service company may not be an Internet Service Provider (ISP) that maintains the Internet access point. Rather, the service company contracts with an ISP and then resells the Internet access to individual viewers. The service company may pay the ISP for the Internet activity of its viewers by the connect-hour. The service company therefore has an interest in controlling the magnitude of Internet accessing so that it can keep associated costs from exceeding the amount it bills its individual viewers.
As seen from the illustration of
FIG. 1
, a broadcaster that transmits an unduly large number of triggers could cause the service company to incur large charges from the ISP. A means of controlling such costs and inducing broadcasters to reimburse the service company for costs associated with their transmissions is desired.
SUMMARY
In interactive television, information from an information resource may be displayed along with television video in a synchronized fashion. When information is to be displayed at a point in the television video, a trigger is broadcast along with the television video. The trigger identifies the information resource and indicates how information from the information resource is to be displayed. Some triggers are ignored in accordance with the invention whereas other such triggers are not ignored. When the receiver unit receives a trigger, the receiver unit determines whether a rule stored in the receiver unit applies to the trigger. If the rule applies, then the receiver unit takes a predetermined action. If the rule does not apply, then the rule has no effect and the trigger is acted upon by the receiver unit in normal fashion (a default trigger handling condition). In one embodiment, the predetermined action is to ignore the trigger. By including one or more such rules in a receiver unit, the receiver unit is made to ignore certain specific types of triggers but not to ignore other types of triggers. The rules can be automatically loaded into the receiver unit on power-up by broadcast communication over the airwaves, from a permanent storage device (coupled to or a part of) the receiver unit, or by downloading from the Internet. The rules can be updated periodically.
A service company can cause receiver units to ignore certain types of triggers by causing the receiver units to load particular lists of rules. Accordingly, triggers from a particular broadcaster that does not reimburse the service company for costs associated with supporting the triggers can be disabled. It is therefore believed that a service company's capability to disable particular triggers may help induce broadcasters to reimburse service companies for Internet access costs associated with supporting the broadcaster's triggers.
Other methods and structures are disclosed in the detailed description below. This summary does not purport to define the invention. The invention is defined by the claims.


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