Method and apparatus for secure transactions in an interactive television ticker

• US 20040003412A1
• Filed: 06/27/2002
• Published: 01/01/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ARRIS Enterprises LLC (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Digeo Incorporated (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Inventors: Halbert, Richard V.
• Granted Patent: US 7,266,835 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/112
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/085 involving remote charge determination or related payment systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0248 Avoiding fraud
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0253 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2221 being a cable television head-end CATV in broadcast systems H04H20/78
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2542 for selling goods, e.g. TV shopping payment schemes, payment architectures or payment protocols for electronic shopping systems G06Q20/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4431 characterized by the use of Application Program Interface [API] libraries
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47815 Electronic shopping payment schemes, payment architectures or payment protocols for electronic shopping systems G06Q20/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4886 for displaying a ticker, e.g. scrolling banner for news, stock exchange, weather data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8133 specifically related to the content, e.g. biography of the actors in a movie, detailed information about an article seen in a video program
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A user can perform secure transactions via an interactive television ticker. While viewing an advertisement scrolling in the ticker, the user can select that advertisement to initiate an on-line transaction. That resulting transaction can be performed within the ticker. A visual indicator (such as an icon) can be displayed in the ticker to indicate to the viewer that the transaction is secure, so as to allow confidential information to be safely exchanged. Security can be provided by way of a security application integrated with software of the ticker or by way of another security component with which the ticker software communicates.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

presenting a ticker having a screen interface on a portion of a display screen capable to display a video image received from;

presenting an item within the screen interface of the ticker;

if a user responds to the presented item, initiating a transaction related to the presented item with the user within the screen interface of the ticker; and

securely conducting at least a portion of the transaction with the user within the screen interface of the ticker.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein presenting the item within the screen interface of the ticker comprises presenting an advertisement.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein initiating the transaction comprises initiating a commercial transaction in response to the advertisement.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein initiating the transaction related to the presented item with the user within the screen interface of the ticker comprises presenting information requested by the user within the screen interface of the ticker.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein securely conducting at least the portion of the transaction with the user includes:

establishing a secure connection with a remote location;

encrypting data entered by the user and sending the encrypted data to the remote location; and

decrypting data received from the remote location and presenting the decrypted data within the screen interface of the ticker.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising determining whether at least another portion of the transaction needs to be securely conducted.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising calling a secure component separate from software of the ticker to allow the ticker to enter a secure mode.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting an indicator along with the ticker during the portion of the transaction to indicate that the portion of the transaction is secure.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein presenting the item within the screen interface of the ticker comprises presenting the item to be in context with subject matter of the video image.

10. An article of manufacture, comprising:

a machine-readable medium having instructions stored thereon to;

present a ticker having a screen interface on a portion of a display screen capable to display a video image;

present an advertisement within the screen interface of the ticker;

responsive to user response to the presented advertisement, initiate a transaction related to the presented advertisement within the screen interface of the ticker; and

securely conduct at least a portion of the transaction within the screen interface of the ticker.

11. The article of manufacture of claim 10 wherein the machine-readable medium further includes instructions stored thereon to present an indicator along with the ticker during the portion of the transaction to indicate that the portion of the transaction is secure.

12. The article of manufacture of claim 10 wherein the instructions to securely conduct at least a portion of the transaction within the screen interface of the ticker include instructions to:

establish a secure connection with a remote location;

encrypt user-entered data and send the encrypted data to the remote location; and

decrypt data received from the remote location and present the decrypted data within the screen interface of the ticker.

13. The article of manufacture of claim 12 wherein the instructions to securely conduct at least a portion of the transaction within the screen interface of the ticker further include instructions to call a secure component separate from the ticker to allow the ticker to enter a secure mode.

14. The article of manufacture of claim 10 wherein the machine-readable medium further includes instructions stored thereon to determine whether at least another portion of the transaction needs to be securely conducted.

15. The article of manufacture of claim 10 wherein the machine-readable medium further includes instructions stored thereon to securely conduct an informational transaction within the screen interface of the ticker that is unrelated to the advertisement.

16. A ticker for a video casting system, the ticker comprising:

a plurality of selectable items, wherein at least one of the items comprises an advertisement that is presented along with a video image that is displayed on a first portion of a display screen, the plurality of selectable items capable of being presented on a second portion of a display screen;

at least one scroll region within the second portion of the display screen to present the selectable items, including the advertisement, therein;

a navigation control to select the advertisement presented within the scroll region to initiate a transaction related to the presented advertisement within the scroll region; and

an indicator to indicate that at least a portion of the initiated transaction is secure.

17. The ticker of claim 16, further comprising:

a ticker user interface (UI) to generate the scroll region that presents the advertisement and to provide the navigation control to select that advertisement presented within the scroll region;

a ticker application program interface (API) in communication with the ticker (UI) to control presentation of the indicator by the ticker UI and to provide the selectable items to the ticker UI; and

a security application in communication with the ticker API to establish a secure connection between the ticker API and a remote location, the security application being configured to instruct the ticker API to control the ticker UI to present the indicator if the secure connection is established, the security application further being configured to encrypt and decrypt information exchanged between the ticker API and the remote location.

18. The ticker of claim 16, further comprising a feed manager in communication with a video casting system and with the ticker API to control transmission of ticker data, associated with the selectable items, from the video casting system to the ticker API.

19. The ticker of claim 16, further comprising a security application to provide secure communication for the portion of the transaction.

20. The ticker of claim 19 wherein the security application is integrated with software for the scroll region.

21. The ticker of claim 16 wherein the navigation control is configured to allow user entry of identifying information that can be communicated securely during the transaction.

22. An apparatus, comprising:

a means for presenting a ticker having a screen interface on a portion of a display screen capable to display a video image;

a means for presenting an item within the screen interface of the ticker;

a means for initiating a transaction related to the presented item within the screen interface of the ticker, if user response to the presented item is detected; and

a means for securely conducting at least a portion of the transaction within the screen interface of the ticker.

23. The apparatus of claim 22 wherein the means for securely conducting at least the portion of the transaction:

a means for establishing a secure connection with a remote location;

a means for encrypting data entered by the user and for sending the encrypted data to the remote location; and

a means for decrypting data received from the remote location and for presenting the decrypted data within the screen interface of the ticker.

24. The apparatus of claim 22, further comprising a means for presenting an indicator along with the ticker during the portion of the transaction to indicate that the portion of the transaction is secure.

25. An apparatus for a video casting system, the apparatus comprising:

at least one communication interface to receive an advertisement;

a storage medium coupled to the communication interface to store a ticker software program and a security application;

a processor, coupled to the storage medium and to the communication interface, to cooperate with the ticker software program to control presentation of the advertisement within scroll region of a ticker; and

an output section to provide the ticker to a display screen capable to present the ticker concurrently with a received television program image, the ticker being configured to allow a transaction related the advertisement to be securely conducted within the scroll region based on execution of the security application by the processor.

26. The apparatus of claim 25 wherein the ticker software program includes the security application.

27. The apparatus of claim 25 wherein the security application includes code to instruct the ticker present an indicator to indicate that the transaction is secure.

28. The apparatus of claim 25 wherein the security application is configured to establish a secure connection with a remote location, the security application being further configured to encrypt user-entered data and send the encrypted data to the remote location, and being further configured to decrypt data received from the remote location.

29. A video casting system, comprising:

a source of ticker data; and

an apparatus coupled to the source, the apparatus including;

at least one communication interface to receive an advertisement sent from the video casting system;

a storage medium coupled to the communication interface to store a ticker software program and a security application;

a processor, coupled to the storage medium and to the communication interface, to cooperate with the ticker software program to control presentation of the advertisement within scroll region of a ticker; and

an output section to provide the ticker to a display screen capable to present the ticker concurrently with a received television program image, the ticker being configured to allow a transaction related the advertisement to be securely conducted within the scroll region based on execution of the security application by the processor.

30. The system of claim 29 wherein the security application includes code to instruct the ticker present an indicator to indicate that the transaction is secure.

31. The system of claim 29 wherein the ticker software program is separate from but is configured to cooperate with the security application.

32. The system of claim 29 wherein the ticker is configured to receive user-entered responses via its scroll region and to provide the user-entered responses to the security application to allow the security application to encrypt the user-entered responses.

33. A method usable in a video casting system, the method comprising:

presenting a ticker having a screen interface on a portion of a display screen capable to display a video image received from the video casting system,

wherein the display screen comprises part of a television for the video casting system,

wherein a client terminal for the television is coupled to the display screen,

wherein the video casting system includes a plurality of sources, which provide ticker data to be displayed as items for the ticker, the plurality of sources being communicatively coupled to a plurality of broadcast centers,

wherein at least one of the broadcast centers is coupled to a server capable to provide the ticker data from the sources to the client terminal, and

wherein the video casting system is capable to provide the ticker data to the client terminal via different communication channels, including at least one of a plurality of television broadcast channels, an out-of-band channel, and a communication channel with a communication network;

presenting an item within the screen interface of the ticker, the screen interface being configured to present that item and other items received from the sources;

if a user responds to the presented item, initiating a transaction related to the presented item with the user within the screen interface of the ticker; and

securely conducting at least a portion of the transaction with the user within the screen interface of the ticker.

34. The method of claim 33 wherein presenting the item within the screen interface of the ticker comprises presenting an advertisement.

35. The method of claim 33, further comprising presenting an indicator along with the ticker during the portion of the transaction to indicate that the portion of the transaction is secure.

36. The method of claim 33 wherein presenting the item within the screen interface of the ticker comprises presenting an auction item.

37. A video casting system, comprising:

a source of ticker data including;

a feed server to receive a plurality of feeds of ticker data and having a feed engine to manipulate the ticker data received from the feeds;

a production server coupled to the feed server to receive the ticker data manipulated by the feed engine, and coupled to a database having tables for the manipulated ticker data received from the feed server, the production server being capable to change a format of the manipulated ticker data to a format compatible with client terminals configured to present a screen interface on a display screen; and

a distribution server to send the manipulated ticker data having the format compatible with the client terminals; and

a client terminal coupled to the distribution server of the source, the client terminal including;

at least one communication interface to receive an advertisement sent from the distribution server;

a storage medium coupled to the communication interface to store a ticker software program and a security application;

a processor, coupled to the storage medium and to the communication interface, to cooperate with the ticker software program to control presentation of the advertisement within scroll region of a ticker; and

an output section to provide the ticker to a display screen capable to present the ticker concurrently with a received television program image, the ticker being configured to allow a transaction related the advertisement to be securely conducted within the scroll region based on execution of the security application by the processor, the ticker being further configured to present an indicator to indicate that the transaction is secure.

38. The system of claim 37 wherein a source of ticker data comprises part of a satellite television delivery system.