Intelligent device having background caching of web pages within a digital television system and method of same
First Claim
1. In a digital television system, a method of displaying information comprising the steps of:
- a) maintaining an intelligent filter that records hypertext documents that were previously accessed by a viewer of said digital television system;
b) monitoring datacast information decoded from a digital television broadcast signal to identify newly received hypertext documents;
c) storing into a cache memory any of said newly received hypertext documents that are recorded in said intelligent filter;
d) receiving, from a viewer, an identifier of a selected hypertext document; and
e) provided said selected hypertext document is located within said cache memory, accessing said selected hypertext document from said cache memory and displaying said selected hypertext document on a display screen of said digital television system.
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Abstract
A client-side intelligent device having background caching of web pages within a digital television (DTV) system and method of same. The present invention includes a digital television system having an intelligent device for interfacing with a user/viewer and controlling the display of information on a display screen. The intelligent device, in one embodiment, is a set-top-box, but could be any intelligent electronic device or computer system. The set-top-box is configured to receive a DTV signal (e.g., land based cable or digital satellite system) that includes audio/visual information as well as data signals in a datacast format. The datacast format includes web pages, e.g., in the HTML (hypertext markup language) format of the world wide web. The DTV broadcasters support multiple channels of information on which content providers can supply a domain of web pages on a periodic basis. The present invention is able to display viewer-selected web pages on the DTV system. An intelligent filter is used that modifies itself based on user behavior and user preferences in terms of the web pages that a viewer routinely visits. The intelligent filter is then used to identify certain web pages of the pages that are being broadcast and these identified web pages are stored in a cache memory for later use by the viewer. A second tuner can be used to poll multiple channels when updating the cached contents. Cached web pages avoid broadcast latencies (due to periodic updating) and thereby are displayed faster to the viewer.
31 Citations
23 Claims
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1. In a digital television system, a method of displaying information comprising the steps of:
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a) maintaining an intelligent filter that records hypertext documents that were previously accessed by a viewer of said digital television system;
b) monitoring datacast information decoded from a digital television broadcast signal to identify newly received hypertext documents;
c) storing into a cache memory any of said newly received hypertext documents that are recorded in said intelligent filter;
d) receiving, from a viewer, an identifier of a selected hypertext document; and
e) provided said selected hypertext document is located within said cache memory, accessing said selected hypertext document from said cache memory and displaying said selected hypertext document on a display screen of said digital television system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. In a client-side digital television system, a method of displaying information comprising the steps of:
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a) maintaining an intelligent filter that records hypertext documents based on the frequency that hypertext documents were previously accessed by a viewer of said digital television system;
b) monitoring datacast information decoded from a received digital television broadcast signal to identify newly received hypertext documents, said step b) comprising the steps of;
b1) sequentially scanning a first tuner of said digital television system over channels of said digital television broadcast signal for a predetermined time period for each scanned channel; and
b2) at each scanned channel, identifying newly received hypertext documents;
c) storing into a cache memory any of said newly received hypertext documents that are recorded in said intelligent filter;
d) receiving, from a viewer, an identifier of a selected hypertext document; and
e) provided said selected hypertext document is located within said cache memory, accessing said selected hypertext document from said cache memory and displaying said selected hypertext document on a display screen of said digital television system. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A digital television system comprising:
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a display screen;
a tuner coupled to receive a digital television broadcast signal;
an intelligent controller coupled to said display screen and coupled to said tuner, said intelligent controller comprising a processor coupled to a bus and a memory unit containing instructions that when executed implement a method of displaying information comprising the steps of;
a) maintaining an intelligent filter that records hypertext documents that were previously accessed by a viewer of said digital television system;
b) monitoring datacast information decoded from said digital television broadcast signal to identify newly received hypertext documents;
c) storing into a cache memory any of said newly received hypertext documents that are recorded in said intelligent filter;
d) receiving, from a viewer, an identifier of a selected hypertext document; and
e) provided said selected hypertext document is located within said cache memory, accessing said selected hypertext document from said cache memory and displaying said selected hypertext document on said display screen. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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Specification