Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer-to-computer data addressing
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-09
2002-01-08
Rinehart, Mark H. (Department: 2152)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer-to-computer data addressing
C725S052000, C725S109000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06338094
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND
FIG. 8
(Prior Art) is a diagram of an interactive television system
300
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
301
) from the Internet and displaying that information at an appropriate point in the baseball game (for example, when the batter
302
is batting).
System
300
includes a server
303
maintained by the broadcaster, a broadcasting antenna
304
, a transceiver unit
305
, a television set
306
, and an Internet access point
307
. Transceiver unit
305
, which may be a set-top box, includes a receiving antenna
308
and a remote control unit
309
. A viewer uses remote control unit
309
to control the transceiver unit and/or to interact with interactive television content via the transceiver unit. A video link
310
couples transceiver unit
305
to television set
306
so that the transceiver unit can use the television set as a display device.
FIG. 9
(Prior Art) is a block diagram of transceiver unit
305
. TV interface circuitry
311
of the transceiver unit
305
includes a tuner that is tuned to receive broadcast television video and to remove a television carrier signal. TV interface circuitry
311
digitizes the video signal after the carrier signal has been removed. Software executed by a digital processor
312
receives the digitized signal from TV interface
311
and decodes and checks the digitized signal for errors. Transceiver unit
305
drives the television set
306
via video encoder
313
and audio digital-to-analog converter
314
. Digital processor
312
realizes a type of web browser that can access the Internet via a modem
315
. Transceiver unit
305
includes an infrared interface
316
for receiving infrared transmissions from remote control unit
309
. Local storage provides memory for processor
312
, and may house a web browsing program.
Television video
317
is broadcast over the airwaves from broadcasting antenna
304
to receiving antenna
308
of transceiver unit
305
. At an appropriate time in the baseball game when the broadcaster wishes batter statistics
301
to be displayed (for example, when batter
302
appears on the television screen), the broadcaster broadcasts a trigger
318
along with the television video
317
. Trigger
318
contains a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that identifies an information resource
319
on the broadcaster's server
303
. In this case, information resource
319
is a web page containing the batter's statistics.
Transceiver unit
305
receives trigger
318
, accesses the Internet via Internet access point
307
, uses the URL from the trigger to retrieve the web page of batter statistics from server
303
, and then displays the batter statistics
301
. In this way, broadcasters use triggers to have their viewers' transceiver units retrieve information from the Internet and display that information in concert with their programming. Transceiver unit
305
and television
306
together form a user interface device that is a client of the server
303
while connected to the Internet, similar to personal computer that is connected to the Internet by an Internet service provider (ISP).
In general, connection of a user interface device to the Internet may be made by a variety of communication channels, including twisted pair telephone lines, coaxial cable, and wireless signal communication via local transceivers or orbiting satellites. Most user interface device Internet connections are made by relatively low-bandwidth communication channels, mainly twisted pair telephone lines, due to the existing infrastructure of such telephone lines and the cost of implementing high-bandwidth infrastructure. This constrains the type of information that may be presented to users via the Internet connection, because television transmissions generally require greater bandwidth than twisted pair telephone wires can provide. U.S. Pat. No. 5,978,381 to Perlman et al., which is incorporated by reference herein, provides means for distributing high-bandwidth information to users via low-bandwidth communication channels by distributing the content at times when the users are not using the Internet connection.
Connecting to the Internet via an ISP over a low-bandwidth communication channel typically involves a delay of perhaps thirty seconds. During this time, general video information stored in a user interface device may be displayed, as disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/149,405 to Bruck et al., incorporated by reference herein. This video information is downloaded via the Internet, for example overnight, so that it may be displayed when the user interface device is being powered-up at a later time. The general video information may also be displayed on the user interface device during a reconnection to the Internet after a long period of disconnection from the Internet.
Once connected to the Internet another delay commonly occurs when the user attempts to access a web page, particularly as information from the web page is transferred to the user interface device. Depending upon the protocol employed, further delay may be encountered as the temporary connection between the user interface device and web page is established. It is common during these delays for an hourglass or similar symbol that signifies waiting to be displayed to the user. Also, a simple graphic associated with the link or web page being accessed may be displayed during the delay in loading the web page, as disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/149,407 to Bruck et al., incorporated herein by reference. Such a graphic may be static or may display simple motion. The information required to display the graphic is downloaded prior to display of the graphic, the graphic information download occurring during idle time after a first web page has finished downloading and before another web page has been requested.
Television and video differ from web graphics in the apparent richness of the television or video experience as compared with the relative simplicity of animated web graphics. Other differences may be categorized in terms of formats or standards. Television standards include National TV Standards Committee (NTSC), Phase Alternating Line (PAL), Systeme En Couleur Avec Memoire (SECAM), and Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC). Video, which may involve compression of television information for facilitating transmission and storage, has standards including Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) and variants MPEG 1-4 and M-JPEG.
Web pages and graphics, on the other hand, accord to formats or standards such as American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) for text, Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) for pictures and Macromedia Flash for vector graphics. Web pages and graphics are presented via hypertext markup language (HTML) or extensible markup language (XML) documents that are interpreted by web browser programs executed by a processor in the user interface device to create the desired display.
A general difference between web graphics and television or video files is that web graphics are run as programs that manipulate the display in an organized manner defined by the programs, whereas television and video files are presented in a typically large series of display frames, each of which may include information about all the pixels forming the frame. As a result, presentation of a television file or video file requires many times the amount of information required for a web page presenting web graphics of a similar duration. This difference is usually apparent to the viewer, as web surfing typically does not offer the rich visual and audio presentations available via television or video. On the other hand, television and video do not offer the variety of topics available to a user by navigating millions of web pages available on the World Wide Web.
SUMMARY
A
Bruck Timo
Holbrook Donato Kristen V.
Lewis Garth A.
Sack Lena D.
Scott Samuel Thomas
Jaroenchonwanit Bunjob
WebTV Networks Inc.
Workman & Nydegger & Seeley
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