Electronic information dissemination system
First Claim
1. A system for use with an existing communication medium for disseminating desired information to a plurality of remote stations, said system having at least one feeder station to supply the information, a central station to receive and encode the information for transmission, and a plurality of remote stations to receive the encoded information and output the same in human or machine readable form, wherein said system comprises:
- data processing means for encoding information at the central station and for transmitting same, said data processing means including means for providing a global code for global data common to all of said plurality of remote stations and a distinct code for personalized data assigned to each one of said plurality of remote stations, and means for coupling global data with the global code and personalized data with each of the distinct codes;
interface means for linking the central station to the existing communication medium whereby the encoded information from the data processing means may be transmitted to all of said plurality of remote stations;
selection means accessible to the communication medium at each remote station for receiving and selectively remembering the global data coupled with the global code and the personalized data coupled with the distinct code assigned to the remote station; and
output means at each remote station for reproducing the information represented by a combination of the global data and the personalized data assigned to the remote station and received and remembered by said selection means;
said output means including data combining means for combining the personalized data for the particular remote station with the global data such that indicia are generated for reproducing the information represented by the combination of the global and personalized data.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An electronic information dissemination system electronically distributes information such as bulk mailed letters, bills, and other information from one or more sources to each of a plurality of remote stations located in homes or businesses. The system includes individually addressable receiver/decoders at each remote station. Each receiver/decoder has information processing and memory for identifying its distinct address plus a "global" address common to the plurality of remote stations in the system. Information is gathered from various sources at a centrally located data handling station which encodes the data for transmission to the remote stations. The transmission path is provided by an existing communications network such as CATV or a switched telephone system.
418 Citations
16 Claims
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1. A system for use with an existing communication medium for disseminating desired information to a plurality of remote stations, said system having at least one feeder station to supply the information, a central station to receive and encode the information for transmission, and a plurality of remote stations to receive the encoded information and output the same in human or machine readable form, wherein said system comprises:
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data processing means for encoding information at the central station and for transmitting same, said data processing means including means for providing a global code for global data common to all of said plurality of remote stations and a distinct code for personalized data assigned to each one of said plurality of remote stations, and means for coupling global data with the global code and personalized data with each of the distinct codes; interface means for linking the central station to the existing communication medium whereby the encoded information from the data processing means may be transmitted to all of said plurality of remote stations; selection means accessible to the communication medium at each remote station for receiving and selectively remembering the global data coupled with the global code and the personalized data coupled with the distinct code assigned to the remote station; and output means at each remote station for reproducing the information represented by a combination of the global data and the personalized data assigned to the remote station and received and remembered by said selection means; said output means including data combining means for combining the personalized data for the particular remote station with the global data such that indicia are generated for reproducing the information represented by the combination of the global and personalized data. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. An information disseminating system for use with an existing cable television system comprising:
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central receiver means for automatically receiving an electronic data signal at a central location from a remote source, said data signal including source identification data and a plurality of discrete, personalized data packets representing printable text, said packets being distinctly identified for different ones of a plurality of remote stations; data handling means operatively connected to said central receiver means and responsive to the electronic data signal for coupling a global address to the source identification data and a distinct local address to each of the personalized data packets such that addressed data are generated; memory means associated with said data handling means for storing the addressed data; signal conversion means operatively coupled to said memory means and the cable television system for converting the stored addressed data to a radio frequency signal distinct from the television signals but suitable for transmission over the cable television system; remote receiving means coupled to said cable television system at each of the remote stations for receiving the source identification data and the personalized data packets contained in the radio frequency signal; selector means operatively connected with said remote receiving means for identifying the source identification data under the global address and the personalized data packet under the distinct local address for the particular remote station; data combining means associated with said selector means for combining the personalized data packet with the source identification data and generating print signals for reproducing the combination of the source identification data and the personalized data packet; and printer means responsive to the print signals for printing the information contained in the source identification data and the personalized data and the personalized data packet under the local address of the particular remote station. - View Dependent Claims (7)
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8. In an information dissemination system of the type for transmitting data signals over distances from a central data handling station to a plurality of remote stations via an existing communication medium, wherein the data signals include both a global message under a global code common to all of the remote stations and individual messages under distinct codes that are each unique to particular remote station, the remote stations each having apparatus for receiving and printing the messages contained in the data signals, the apparatus comprising:
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receiver means for receiving the data signals including the global message and the individual messages; selection means operatively connected with the receiver means for identifying and storing the global message under the global code and an individual message under the distinct code for the particular remote station; data combining means for combining the individual message with the global message and generating print signals for reproducing the combined global and individual messages; and printing means responsive to the print signals for printing the combined global and individual messages selected by the selection means. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. In an electronic communication system a method for disseminating personalized information from a central station to a plurality of remote stations through said communication system comprising the steps of:
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receiving data at the central station from one or more sources, said data including standard and personalized data; encoding the data at the central station by coupling a global code to the standard data and distinct codes to the personalized data, said distinct codes being associated with different ones of the remote stations; transmitting the encoded data over the communications system to all of the plurality of remote stations; receiving the encoded data at each of the remote stations; processing only that part of said received data consisting of the standard data coupled to the global code and the personalized data coupled to the distinct code for the respective remote station to provide personalized information; and generating a human readable display of the personalized information contained in the combination of the processed standard and personalized data. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16)
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Specification