Remote control for menu driven subscriber access to television programming
First Claim
1. A remote control unit adapted for use with a set-top terminal, the set-top terminal receiving a plurality of television signals and generating a plurality of menus associated with the television signals, each menu belonging to a hierarchy of menus including main menus and submenus, each menu corresponding to a single program or a group or related programs and having menu options that represent one of the programs or group of programs, the remote control unit comprising:
- means within the remote control unit, for communicating with the set-top terminal to provide thereby communications adapted to allow selection of a desired program from the plurality of hierarchal menus; and
a plurality of switches, coupled to the means for communicating, comprising;
menu select switches for causing the communication of a signal adapted to directly selecting a desired menu from the plurality of hierarchal menus, each menu select switch corresponding to a particular menu and having an icon representing that particular menu, wherein a selected submenu is directly selected by depressing a menu select switch that corresponds to that selected submenu without first selecting one of the main menus; and
cursor movement switches for causing the communication of a signal adapted to moving a cursor through menu options presented on the plurality of menus;
whereby a user by touch may distinguish the cursor movement switches and menu select switches from the remainder of the plurality of switches without looking at the remote control unit.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An expanded television program delivery system is disclosed which allows viewers to select television and audio program choices from a series of menus. Menus are partially stored in a set-top terminal in each subscriber'"'"'s home. The menus may be reprogrammed by signals sent from a headend or from a central operations center. The system allows for a great number of television signals to be transmitted by using digital compression techniques. An operations center with computer-assisted packaging allows various television, audio and data signals to be combined, compressed and multiplexed into signals transmitted on various channels to a cable headend which distributes the signals to individual set-top terminals. Various types of menus may be used and the menus may incorporate information included within the video/data signal received by the set-top terminal. A remote control unit with icon buttons allows a subscriber to select programs based upon a series of major menus, submenus, and during program menus. Various billing and statistics gathering methods for the program delivery system are also disclosed.
288 Citations
5 Claims
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1. A remote control unit adapted for use with a set-top terminal, the set-top terminal receiving a plurality of television signals and generating a plurality of menus associated with the television signals, each menu belonging to a hierarchy of menus including main menus and submenus, each menu corresponding to a single program or a group or related programs and having menu options that represent one of the programs or group of programs, the remote control unit comprising:
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means within the remote control unit, for communicating with the set-top terminal to provide thereby communications adapted to allow selection of a desired program from the plurality of hierarchal menus; and
a plurality of switches, coupled to the means for communicating, comprising;
menu select switches for causing the communication of a signal adapted to directly selecting a desired menu from the plurality of hierarchal menus, each menu select switch corresponding to a particular menu and having an icon representing that particular menu, wherein a selected submenu is directly selected by depressing a menu select switch that corresponds to that selected submenu without first selecting one of the main menus; and
cursor movement switches for causing the communication of a signal adapted to moving a cursor through menu options presented on the plurality of menus;
whereby a user by touch may distinguish the cursor movement switches and menu select switches from the remainder of the plurality of switches without looking at the remote control unit. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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Specification