System and method for allowing access to web sites using interactive television

• US 20020144288A1
• Filed: 03/09/2001
• Published: 10/03/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Kitsukawa, Tadamasa
• Application Number:
  US09/802,638
• Publication Number:
  US 20020144288A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/112
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2543 Billing , e.g. for subscription services payment schemes, architectures or protocols G06Q20/00; e-commerce G06Q30/00; arrangements for billing for the use of broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/21
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2668 Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. insertion of targeted commercials based on end-user profiles information retrieval from the Internet by querying with filtering and personalisation G06F16/9535; arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast H04H20/10; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; adaptation of message content in packet-switching networks H04L51/063
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A system and method for billing for Internet content displayed through an interactive television (ITV) includes recording the content accessed by a consumer and the time of access to render an access record. The access record for each interaction with the ITV is stored in a consumer database. After each predetermined billing period for using the ITV system, the access record for each interaction with the ITV system is retrieved from the consumer database. For each access record, it is determined whether the content viewed is private or public content. If the content viewed is private content, the owner of the content can be billed. On the other hand, if the content viewed is public content, the viewer of the content can be billed.

Claims

1. A method for allowing access to at least one Web site using an interactive television, comprising the acts of:

establishing an access restriction table, the access restriction table including plural virtual channels, each virtual channel correlating to at least one Web site address;

making the access restriction table accessible to the television; and

selectively enabling a consumer to access a Web site address using the interactive television by selecting a virtual channel.

2. A method for correlating Web pages to virtual channels for display thereof on a television, comprising:

generating a table correlating plural Web addresses with respective virtual channel numbers;

receiving a user selection of a virtual channel number; and

accessing the table to selectively retrieve the address associated with the virtual channel number, such that content associated with the address can be displayed on the television.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the virtual channel numbers are established by telephone numbers.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the table is stored at the television.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the table is stored remote from the television and streamed thereto.

6. The method of claim 2, further comprising setting a restriction flag on each entry in the table, the flag indicating whether content associated with the address of a selected virtual channel can be displayed.

7. An interactive television system, comprising:

at least one server having Internet addresses stored therein, each address being associated with a respective virtual channel number; and

at least one interactive television, the interactive television system server including a table for selectively allowing access to at least one Web site using the interactive television.

8. The system of claim 7, comprising:

logic means for enabling a consumer to access content stored at a Web server using an interactive television;

logic means for recording at least a portion of the content accessed and a time of access to render at least one access record; and

logic means for billing the consumer at least partially based on the access record.

9. The system of claim 7, further comprising:

logic means for storing access records in a memory.

10. The system of claim 7, further comprising:

logic means for retrieving access records from the memory; and

logic means for determining whether an access record contains billable content.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

logic means for determining whether the access record contains content for private viewing or public viewing.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein each virtual channel correlates to one and only one Web site address.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein at least one virtual channel number is established by a consumer.

12. A method for correlating plural Web site addresses to plural virtual channels, comprising the acts of:

providing at least one correlation table stored in an interactive television.