Television – Receiver circuitry – Tuning
Reexamination Certificate
1998-05-12
2001-03-06
Harvey, David E. (Department: 2714)
Television
Receiver circuitry
Tuning
C348S734000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06198513
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION AND PRIOR ART
This invention relates generally to television receivers and particularly to remotely controlled television receivers that include sequential up and down (up/dn) channel tuning. In conventional remote control television receivers, the user accesses a menu, via a keyboard on the receiver or a hand held remote control unit, for selecting which of the many television channels the receiver is capable of receiving that he wishes to put into a memory so that, when sequentially tuning, only those channels are accessed. Direct access tuning, that is tuning directly to a channel by entry of its channel number, is permitted at all times. In receivers with automatic programming, all receivable channels are put into memory and channels may be deleted (and subsequently added), generally by resorting to a menu.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,673,089 describes a system for surfing among channels that are related by a theme, i.e., a special category such as sports, news, etc. A plurality of theme keys are provided on a remote control transmitter and the various desired channels are included in the “theme” in a separate menu. In one aspect, tuning among the channels in a selected theme occurs automatically for a fixed short period of time until the theme key is operated again. In another aspect, the theme key is operated whenever a channel change within the theme is desired. The television channel up/dn keys are used for sequential tuning among all channels in memory. The system requires additional theme keys, provides no indication of the selected theme to the viewer and does not use the channel up/dn keys for tuning when selecting theme channels, which has the potential of viewer confusion.
With the invention of the above-mentioned copending application, the user is enabled to denominate from among the memory channels, selected ones (surf channels) that are of particular interest. Thus the viewer is able to tune among the surf channels without the necessity of tuning through all the channels in memory or of using direct accessing. When the receiver is in the surf mode, sequential tuning with the television receiver up/dn keys only occurs among the surf channels. For example, a viewer on a Sunday afternoon may wish to view a number of sporting events and may readily access the television receiver menu to denominate those channels of interest as surf channels and thereby be able to sequence through only the selected sporting event channels by the use of up/dn buttons (keys) on the remote control transmitter, or on a receiver keyboard, or with a cursor and channel up/dn icons displayed on the viewing screen of the receiver.
The present invention expands the surfing feature to provide for a number of surfing groups that may be individually created so that, when in any particular surfing group, operation of the television receiver up/dn keys only tunes to surf channels within the selected surfing group. These surfing groups may be individually identified as to content, source or any other viewer-determined criterion. For example, one surfing group may be devoted to sports, another to news, etc. Also, a surfing group may identify its user and be labelled accordingly. Such labelling might be Dad, Mom, Joey, etc. With the present invention, a single viewer-operated control (a surf key on the remote control transmitter, or an on screen cursor) is used to activate and deactivate the surfing feature, and to change among the surfing groups. Tuning among the surf channels in any of the surfing groups occurs in response to the same channel up/dn keys of the television receiver. Also, an on-screen display advises the viewer of the active surfing group to avoid any confusion. One or more of the surfing groups may be deleted, if desired to avoid cycling through inactive surfing groups.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
A principal object of the invention is to provide a novel method and apparatus for operating a television receiver.
Another object of the invention is to provide an improved method of channel tuning in a television receiver.
A further object of the invention is to enable a viewer to create special groups of desired channels from the normal memory channels, and to sequentially tune among only the channels in a selected group with the television receiver up/dn keys.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4870492 (1989-09-01), Hakamada
patent: 5161023 (1992-11-01), Keenan
patent: 5353121 (1994-10-01), Young et al.
patent: 5414426 (1995-05-01), O'Donnell et al.
patent: 5481256 (1996-01-01), Darbee et al.
patent: 5585866 (1996-12-01), Miller et al.
patent: 5673089 (1997-09-01), Yuen et al.
patent: 5886746 (1999-03-01), Yuen et al.
patent: 7-264574 (1995-10-01), None
patent: 01056 (1995-05-01), None
A portion of the User's Manuel for the Mitsubishi CS35803 television receiver, p.2. March 28, 1995, “Star Sight”.
Harvey David E.
Zenith Electronics Corporation
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