IN-HOUSE TV TO TV CHANNEL PEEKING

• US 20020010935A1
• Filed: 12/14/1999
• Published: 01/24/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Uniloc 2017 LLC (SoftBank Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Philips Electronics North America Corporation (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: SITNIK, ERAN
• Granted Patent: US 6,988,276 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/78
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/80 characterised by transmission among terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2805 Home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/14 Systems for two-way working H04N7/12, H04N7/173 take precedence

Abstract

A method and apparatus for providing peer-to-peer communications between televisions wherein a query request is sent from any of the televisions to any other of the televisions. The query request is for information identifying content currently watched on the queried television including samples of the currently watched content. In operation, each television is first identified to each other television. The identifying information includes determining whether a given television may receive content identifying information from each other of the televisions. In some instances, the querying television may only be allowed to receive certain types of content identifying information from the queried television. The identifying of the television is performed by either the televisions or a mediator that is separate from each of the televisions. The televisions receive information identifying what content identifying information a given other television may receive from a user of the televisions. The televisions first determine whether a given user may set and alter the content identifying information a given other television may receive by requesting identifying information from the user such as a password. When a user does not have a proper password, the television will not set and alter the content identifying information a given other television may receive.

Claims

1. A television comprising:

a connection configured to be operatively coupled to a connection of an other television; and

a processor configured to provide query information to the other television and configured to provide queried information in response to a query request from the other television.

2. The television of claim 1, wherein said connection is configured to provide said query and queried information to the other television.

3. The television of claim 1, wherein said processor is configured to receive query compliance status information identifying the query compliance status of the other television.

4. The television of claim 3, wherein said processor is configured to receive identifying information from a user prior to enabling the user to do at least one of set and change query compliance status information.

5. The television of claim 3, wherein said processor is configured to provide any queried information to the other television that does not violate the query compliance status of the other television.

6. The television of claim 1, wherein said connection is one of an in-home network connection and an Internet connection.

11. The communication system of claim 1, wherein each of said plurality of televisions are configured to be interconnected by one of an in-home network connection and an Internet connection.

7. A communication system comprising a plurality of televisions interconnected together, wherein said televisions are configured to provide query information to others of said plurality of televisions and are configured to provide queried information in response to a query request from said others of said plurality of televisions.

8. The communication system of claim 7, wherein each of said plurality of televisions is configured to receive query compliance status information identifying the query compliance status of each other of said plurality of televisions.

9. The communication system of claim 8, wherein each of said plurality of televisions is configured to receive identifying information from a user prior to enabling the user to do at least one of set and change query compliance status information.

10. The communication system of claim 8, wherein each of said plurality of televisions is configured to provide any queried information to others of said plurality of televisions that does not violate the query compliance status of said others of said plurality of televisions.

12. A method of providing communications between a plurality of televisions, said method comprising:

a. sending a query request from any of said plurality of televisions to any other of said plurality of televisions, and

b. sending queried information from said any other of said plurality of televisions to said any of said plurality of televisions that sent the query request.

13. The method of claim 12, comprising identifying each of said plurality of televisions to each other of said plurality of televisions prior to act a.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein said identifying comprises identifying a query compliance status between each of said plurality of televisions.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein said identifying is performed by a mediator that is separate from each of said plurality of televisions.

16. The method of claim 12, comprising confirming a query compliance status of said any of said plurality of televisions that sent the query request prior to performing act b and not sending queried information if said query violates said query compliance status.

17. The method of claim 16, comprising receiving said query compliance status of said any of said plurality of televisions from a user of said any of said plurality of televisions.

18. The method of claim 17, comprising requesting user identifying information prior to receiving said query compliance status and not altering said query compliance status if altering said query compliance status violates access rights of said user.