Personnalization module for interactive digital television system
First Claim
1. An interactive digital television system (iDTV) comprising a broadcast operator (BO) adapted to send towards a plurality of subscriber units (SB:
- SB1-SB3) a downstream digital broadcast stream (BS) selected amongst a plurality of broadcast signals received from interactive digital television providers (ITVP), and an interaction return channel operator (RCO) adapted to provide interactivity between said plurality of subscriber units and said interactive digital television provider by means of bi-directional interaction return channels (IC1, IC2, IC3), characterized in that said interactive digital television system further comprises a personalization module (PM) coupled to said bi-directional interaction return channels (IC1, IC2, IC3) and adapted to allow intercommunication between subscriber units (SB;
SB1-SB3) of said plurality.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An interactive digital television system (iDTV) with a personalization module (PM) for injecting signals towards a small user-groups. The iDTV system comprises a broadcast operator (BO) for sending to subscriber units (SB: SB1-SB3) a downstream digital broadcast stream (BS) received from an interactive digital television provider (ITVP), and also comprising an interaction return channel operator (RCO) for providing interactivity between the subscriber units and the interactive digital television provider by means of a bi-directional interaction return channel (IC). The personalization module (PM) is coupled to the bi-directional interaction return channel (IC) and allows intercommunication between the subscriber units. As a result, a user can escape the limitations of the current linear TV programs and is transformed from a pure spectator into a producer and director of a collective or individual iDTV experience. In this way, when implicit or explicit groups of users are created, a user of the group may send control or data signals to the other users of the group. Data signals may be multimedia data to display and control signals may be recommendations of switching all together to another broadcasted channel. Preferably, each subscriber unit comprises a set-top box (STB) coupled to a server-side logic (L1) of the interactive digital television provider (ITVP) via the personalization module (PM) and this personalization module comprises an application logic proxy (L1′) able to interpret signals sent over the interaction return channel (IC) between the set-top box and the server-side logic in order to forward selected ones of these signals to other parts of the iDTV system. The personalization module (PM) comprises some or all the following modules: the application logic proxy (L1′), a content-reflector and forking module (L2), a community support module (L3), a presence module (L4), a terminal capability module (L5) and a broadcast data collector module (L6), interconnected through a routing/forwarding layer or link (RFL).
73 Citations
22 Claims
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1. An interactive digital television system (iDTV) comprising
a broadcast operator (BO) adapted to send towards a plurality of subscriber units (SB: - SB1-SB3) a downstream digital broadcast stream (BS) selected amongst a plurality of broadcast signals received from interactive digital television providers (ITVP), and
an interaction return channel operator (RCO) adapted to provide interactivity between said plurality of subscriber units and said interactive digital television provider by means of bi-directional interaction return channels (IC1, IC2, IC3), characterized in that said interactive digital television system further comprises a personalization module (PM) coupled to said bi-directional interaction return channels (IC1, IC2, IC3) and adapted to allow intercommunication between subscriber units (SB;
SB1-SB3) of said plurality. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
- SB1-SB3) a downstream digital broadcast stream (BS) selected amongst a plurality of broadcast signals received from interactive digital television providers (ITVP), and
Specification