Telecommunications – Radiotelephone system – Programming control
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-20
2004-12-07
Hudspeth, David (Department: 2681)
Telecommunications
Radiotelephone system
Programming control
C455S345000, C455S456300
Reexamination Certificate
active
06829475
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Entertainment systems commonly found in today's vehicles usually consist of a radio, CD/DVD player, cassette player and optionally a GPS based navigation device. The following problems are common to all such existing vehicular entertainment systems: Inadequate control interface for selecting from large numbers of broadcasts, lack of personalized broadcasts, no feature expansion, inadequate storage capabilities, no integration with portable data devices, inability to manage broadcast advertisements, and outdated navigation entry. Following is a description of each of these sets of problems.
Radios in vehicles have historically received only amplitude modulation (AM) band and frequency modulation (FM) band terrestrial radio broadcasts. AM and FM radio stations have a transmission range limited to a relatively small geographic area by government regulations. Because the number of broadcasts that can be received in most geographic areas has been relatively small, selecting a broadcast to hear in a vehicle has traditionally required no more than four types of simple receiver controls: (1) an AM/FM band selector, (2) a tuning control to allow the listener to manually scan all possible broadcast frequencies within a band, (3) a scan control that finds and plays a few seconds of each station that has sufficient signal strength to be clearly heard, and (4) a small number of preset push buttons that can each be programmed by the listener to tune to one radio station of a set band and frequency.
The small and inflexible number of radio controls creates the following two related problems: First, no method exists to select all existing AM/FM radio stations by station format or to select by format from thousands of forthcoming digital audio broadcasts. Radio stations broadcast a set format of programming (country music, news, rock music, talk, etc.). Many large metropolitan areas have up to 100 combined AM and FM stations of as many as 20+ different possible formats whose signals can be clearly received throughout most of the metropolitan area with as many more fringe stations that can be received in parts of the area. A listener must now know the band and frequency of a radio station having a desired format he enjoys. Unfortunately, in a large metropolitan area, there may be more stations of a desired format or formats than can be selected with an existing radio's few simple preset buttons.
Several proposals have unsuccessfully tried to correct this problem by enhancing broadcast systems. Some FM stations do broadcast format information along with other digital data about the station's programming using a method known as Radio Broadcast Data System (RBDS), also known as RDS, involving the use of FM sub-carriers. The Program Type Category (PTY) feature of an RDS radio allows searching for radio stations by their format. There are now approximately 13 manufacturers of RBDS car receivers. With an RBDS car radio, a user could tune to FM stations by their format.
However, RBDS/RDS has not been well received in the United States. Since the introduction of RDS in 1995 there were only 706 RDS broadcasters versus approximately 7,700 total FM radio stations as of a July 1998 report by the Electronic Industries Alliance. Worse yet, a February 1999 report by the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association shows that of this small number of RDS broadcasters in the United States, only 41% broadcast their format. Therefore, RDS broadcasts do not now solve the problem for the vast majority of listeners.
The 4,784 AM stations licensed by the FCC as of May 1999 do not have an equivalent sub-carrier available to them as do FM stations to send out data about their programming. Although an international consortium of 40 broadcasters and electronic manufacturers known as Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) have proposed a digital AM broadcast system that would allow a DRM radio to tune to stations by their format, the standards for such a system have not yet been established.
Compounding the problem, new multimedia devices with wireless Internet and satellite connectivity are expected to appear in vehicles in the very near future. These multimedia devices will be able to receive existing analog AM, FM and TV audio broadcasts as well as receive and record thousands of new digital audio broadcasts. A wireless Internet receiver can receive thousands of digital broadcasts from the Internet from cellular (AMPS, GMS, etc.), paging, FM sub-carrier, satellite and other frequencies. As of June 1999, BRS Media consultant's report shows 2,415 Internet audio broadcasts from worldwide AM/FM radio stations that simulcast their live audio broadcasts onto the Internet, up from 1,252 the previous year. Similar future Internet audio broadcast growth is expected. In addition, satellite broadcasters such as CD Radio, XM Radio and WorldSpace are expected to transmit to vehicles at least 100 new digital audio stations apiece over satellite S-band and L-band frequencies within the next few years. These stations can be received over broad geographic areas.
The vast amount of broadcast content soon to be available easily overloads existing simple vehicle radio control designs. Another shortcoming of today's vehicles is that presets for existing AM/FM radio stations are only good for one geographic location. When traveling long distances outside an area where radio station formats are known by the listener, the most desirable radio stations from the old area that are stored in the radio's preset button memory no longer work. The listener must manually tune the radio to each available station in the new area and listen to each station to determine if it has a desired format. If the traveler is used to hearing a syndicated program that is broadcast over many radio stations throughout a country, then he may not know what station in the new area carries the syndicated program or what time the broadcast appears in the new area. Several prior attempts have unsuccessfully overcome these two related problems. They fall into two categories.
One is the RDS broadcast system mentioned above, which broadcasts information about station formats. RDS also provides an alternative frequency list of stations playing a specific program with the same PI (program identification) code; this allows many RDS based radios to automatically switch to a new station playing the same program if the current station falls out of transmission range. However, as was mentioned above, this solution suffers in that few FM stations in the U.S. broadcast program information via RDS, and RDS does not cover AM radio stations.
The second type of solution implemented by automotive radio manufacturers such as Panasonic, Pioneer, Sony and others consists of an internal database of national radio station information contained in non-volatile memory inside a radio receiver. In some cases, this database is updateable by manual or automatic means. These radios require the listener to indicate each new location. Once that is done, frequencies of radio stations from the database that are in the new area and match the listener's desired formats are played in sequence or are loaded into the preset memory selections of the radio.
However, this solution has not been optimal as automatic updates to the internal database that account for changes in station formats or new stations are not readily available in all markets throughout a country. Therefore, the database is likely to become unreliable and so not useful. Further, such databases do not include programming information for stations so they do not help find a station in a new area that runs the same syndicated programming found in the old, familiar broadcast area.
When driving, it would also be advantageous to receive information of personal interest when desired during a trip rather than having to wait for a scheduled broadcast of that information. RDS broadcasts, in addition to providing programming specific information as mentioned above, are also capable of constantly t
Gubka Steven S.
Hede William S.
Lee Jeffrey S.
Weisshaar Bernhard P.
Wharton Kenneth E.
Hudspeth David
Mancini Brian M.
Motorola Inc.
Nguyen Huy D
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