Storage control method and apparatus for an interactive television terminal
First Claim
1. A two-way interactive system comprising:
- a host data processor;
a central data store controlled by the host data processor for storing a central data base, said central data base comprising a plurality of data items, each of said data items having a relative priority preassigned within said central data base; and
at least one local terminal subsystem connectable to the host data processor for accessing data items stored in the central data base, each of said at least one local terminal subsystem comprising;
a local processor for controlling access to the host data processor;
memory means controlled by the local processor and comprising a first memory area for storing data items accessed from the central data base;
locating means, operable when the first memory area has no vacant space for storing a newly accessed data item, for locating a data item in said first memory area for deletion according to criteria relating to the data items which includes locating one data item wherein the preassigned relative priority of the located data item is lower than the preassigned relative priority of at least one of the other data items stored in the first memory area, the criteria further including tie-breaking criteria to select one data item when more than one data item is located having preassigned relative priorities lower than the preassigned relative priority of the at least one of the other data items; and
deleting means responsive to said locating means for deleting the data item located by the locating means to create space in the first memory area for the newly accessed data item.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An interactive terminal comprises a processor, a local data store connected to the processor, a character generator responsive to processor control for generating a television signal output to an associated television receiver, a key pad or remote control for inputting information to the processor, and a power supply input. The terminal is coupled, via 2-way RF communications, to a central location designated as the system manager, where the terminal is accessed by polling for monitoring and servicing terminal user requests. The interactive terminal has a local storage capacity for storing a number of character screen commands, accessed from a central data base at the system manager, for use in generating prompting screens displayed on the television receiver. In use, a user may call for a variety of services by operating the input keys of the key pad to cause a prompting screen to be displayed. Screen commands are stored at the terminal according to an assigned priority. The stored screen commands also include pointers which are used by the terminal processor to prefetch screens which will likely follow the current screen in a decision tree structure manner. Thus, screens may be prefetched from the central data base and downloaded for storage at the terminal so that they are available for display if and when called for. If a particular branch of a decision tree is not selected, screens associated with the unselected branch are deleted from terminal memory as needed to make room for new screens. The terminal memory is also controlled so that data is swapped in and out of memory based on its relative priority.
116 Citations
42 Claims
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1. A two-way interactive system comprising:
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a host data processor; a central data store controlled by the host data processor for storing a central data base, said central data base comprising a plurality of data items, each of said data items having a relative priority preassigned within said central data base; and at least one local terminal subsystem connectable to the host data processor for accessing data items stored in the central data base, each of said at least one local terminal subsystem comprising; a local processor for controlling access to the host data processor; memory means controlled by the local processor and comprising a first memory area for storing data items accessed from the central data base; locating means, operable when the first memory area has no vacant space for storing a newly accessed data item, for locating a data item in said first memory area for deletion according to criteria relating to the data items which includes locating one data item wherein the preassigned relative priority of the located data item is lower than the preassigned relative priority of at least one of the other data items stored in the first memory area, the criteria further including tie-breaking criteria to select one data item when more than one data item is located having preassigned relative priorities lower than the preassigned relative priority of the at least one of the other data items; and deleting means responsive to said locating means for deleting the data item located by the locating means to create space in the first memory area for the newly accessed data item. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A two-way interactive system characterized by a plurality of system features, the system comprising:
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a host data processor; a central data store controlled by the host data processor for storing a central data base, said central data base comprising a plurality of data items, each of said data items having a relative priority preassigned within said central data base; and at least one local terminal subsystem connectable to the host data processor for accessing data items stored in the central data base, each of said at least one local terminal subsystem comprising; a local processor for controlling access to the host data processor; a keyboard having a plurality of keys for inputting information to the local processor, the local processor activating a system feature of the plurality of system features in response to actuation of a predetermined key of the keyboard; a character screen generator capable of generating a plurality of character display screens; memory means controlled by the local processor and comprising a first memory area for storing data items accessed from the central data base, the data items stored in the first memory area including a plurality of character screen commands, said character screen generator being responsive to said local processor and a predetermined character screen command for generating a respective character display screen viewable on an associated display device; locating means, operable when the first memory area has no vacant space for storing a newly accessed data item, for locating a data item in said first memory area for deletion according to criteria related to the data items which includes locating one data item wherein the preassigned relative priority of the located data item is lower than the preassigned relative priority of at least one of the other data items stored in the first memory area, the criteria further including tie-breaking criteria to select one data item when more than one data item is located having preassigned relative priorities lower than the preassigned relative priority of the at least one of the other data items; and deleting means responsive to said locating means for deleting the data item located by the locating means to create space in the first memory area for the newly accessed data item. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. In a two-way interactive system comprising a host data processor, a central data store controlled by the host data processor for storing a central data base, said central data base comprising a plurality of data items, each of the data items having a relative priority preassigned within the central data base, and at least one local terminal subsystem connectable to the host data processor for accessing data items stored in the central data base, each of said at least one local terminal subsystem comprising a local processor for controlling access to the host data processor and memory means controlled by the local processor comprising a first memory area for storing data items accessed from the central data base, a method for controlling the storage of data items in said first memory area comprising steps of:
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determining whether said first memory area contains vacant space for storing a newly accessed data item accessed from said central data base; storing said newly accessed data item in said first memory are when vacant space exists in the first memory area; and when vacant space does not exist, locating a data item in said first memory area for deletion, the preassigned relative priority of the located data item being lower than the preassigned relative priority of at least one of the other data items stored in the first memory area, tie-breaking criteria being used to select one data item when more than one data item is located having preassigned relative priorities lower than the preassigned relative priority of the at least one of the other data items; and replacing the located data item with the newly accessed data item when no vacant space exists in the first memory area. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A terminal for accessing data items stored in a central data base of a two-way interactive system, each data item having a relative priority preassigned within said central data base, the terminal comprising:
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a processor for controlling access to the plurality of data items stored in the central data base; memory means controlled by the processor and comprising a first memory area for storing data items accessed from the central data base; locating means, operable when the first memory area has no vacant space for storing a newly accessed data item, for locating a data item in the first memory area for deletion according to criteria related to the data items which includes locating one data item wherein the preassigned relative priority of the located data item is lower than the preassigned relative priority of at least one of the other data items stored in the first memory area, the criteria further including tie-breaking criteria to select one data item when more than one data item is located having preassigned relative priorities lower than the preassigned relative priority of the at least one of the other data items; and deleting means responsive to the locating means for deleting the data item located by the locating means to create space in the first memory area for the newly accessed data item. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A terminal for accessing a plurality of data items stored in a central data base of a two-way interactive system characterized by a plurality of system features, each data item having a relative priority preassigned within said central data base, the terminal comprising:
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a processor for controlling access to the plurality of data items stored in the central data base; a keyboard having a plurality of keys for inputting information to the processor, the processor activating a system feature of the plurality of system features in response to actuation of a predetermined key of the keyboard; a character screen generator capable of generating a plurality of character display screens; memory means controlled by the processor and comprising a first memory area for storing data items accessed from the central data base, the data items stored in the first memory area including a plurality of character screen commands, the character screen generator being responsive to the processor and a predetermined character screen command for generating a respective character display screen viewable on an associated display device; locating means, operable when the first memory area has no vacant space for storing a newly accessed data item, for locating a data item in the first memory area for deletion according to criteria related to the data items which includes locating one data item wherein the preassigned relative priority of at least one of the other data items stored in the preassigned relative priority of at least one of the other data items stored in the first memory area, the criteria further including tie-breaking criteria to select one data item when more than one data item is located having preassigned relative priorities lower than the preassigned relative priority of the at least one of the other data items; and deleting means responsive to the locating means for deleting the data item located by the locating means to create space in the first memory area for the newly accessed item. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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34. In a two-way interactive system characterized by a plurality of system features, the system comprising a host data processor, a central data store controlled by the host data processor for storing a central data base, said central data base comprising a plurality of data items, the plurality of data items including a plurality of character screen commands, each of the data items having a relative priority preassigned within said central data base, and at least one local terminal subsystem connectable to the host data processor for accessing data items stored in the central data base, each of the at least one local terminal subsystem comprising a local processor for controlling access to the host data processor, a character screen generator capable of generating a plurality of character display screens, a keyboard having a plurality of keys for inputting information to the local processor and memory means controlled by the local processor comprising a first memory area for storing data items accessed from the central data base, a method for controlling the storage of data items in said first memory area comprising steps of:
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determining whether said first memory means contains vacant space for storing a newly accessed data item accessed from said central data base; activating a system feature of the plurality of system features in response to actuation of a predetermined key of the keyboard; generating a character display screen viewable on an associated display device in response to a predetermined character screen command; storing said newly accessed data item in said first memory area when vacant space exists in the first memory area; and when vacant space does not exist, locating a data item in said first memory area for deletion, the preassigned relative priority of the located data item being lower than the preassigned relative priority of at least one of the other data items stored in the first memory area, tie-breaking criteria being used to select one data item when more than one data item is located having preassigned relative priorities lower than the preassigned relative priority of the at least one of the other data items; and replacing the located data item with the newly accessed data item when no vacant space exists in the first memory area. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37, 38, 39)
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40. A two-way interactive system comprising:
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a host data processor; a central data store controlled by the host data processor for storing a central data base, said central data base comprising a plurality of data items, each of said data items having a relative priority preassigned within said central data base; and at least one local terminal subsystem connectable to the host data processor for accessing data items stored in the central data base, each of said at least one local terminal subsystem comprising; a local processor for controlling access to the host data processor; a character screen generator; memory means controlled by the local processor and comprising a first memory area for storing data items accessed from the central data base, the data items stored in the first memory area including a plurality of character screen commands, said character screen generator being responsive to said local processor and a character screen command for generating a character display screen viewable on an associated display device; locating means, operable when the first memory area has no vacant space for storing a newly accessed data item, for locating a data item in said first memory area for deletion according to criteria related to the data items which includes locating one data item wherein the preassigned relative priority of the located data item is lower than the preassigned relative priority of each of the other data items stored in the first memory area, the criteria further including tie-breaking criteria to select one data item when more than one data item is located having preassigned relative priorities lower than the preassigned relative priority of the at least one of the other data items; and deleting means responsive to said locating means for deleting the data item located by the locating means to create space in the first memory area for the newly accessed data item.
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41. A terminal for accessing data items stored in a central data base of a two-way interactive system, each data item having a relative priority preassigned within said central data base, the terminal comprising:
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a processor for controlling access to the plurality of data items stored in the central data base; a character screen generator; memory means controlled by the processor and comprising a first memory area for storing data items accessed from the central data base, the data items stored in the first memory area including a plurality of character screen commands, said character screen generator being responsive to said processor and a character screen command for generating a character display screen viewable on an associated display device; locating means, operable when the first memory area has no vacant space for storing a newly accessed data item, for locating a data item in the first memory area for deletion according to criteria related to the data items which includes locating one data item wherein the preassigned relative priority of the located data item is lower than the preassigned relative priority of each of the other data items stored in the first memory area, the criteria further including tie-breaking criteria to select one data item when more than one data item is located having preassigned relative priorities lower than the preassigned relative priority of the at least one of the other data items; and deleting means responsive to the locating means for deleting the data item located by the locating means to create space in the first memory area for the newly accessed data item.
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42. In a two-way interactive terminal system comprising a host data processor, a central data store controlled by the host data processor for storing a central data base, said central data base comprising a plurality of data items, each of the data items having a relative priority preassigned within said central data base, and at least one local terminal subsystem connectable to the host data processor for accessing data items stored in the central data base, each of said at least one local terminal subsystem comprising a local processor for controlling access to the host data processor, a character screen generator and memory means controlled by the local processor comprising a first memory area for storing data items accessed from the central data base, a method for controlling the storage of data items in said first memory area comprising steps of:
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determining whether said first memory area contains vacant space for storing a newly accessed data item accessed from said central data base; storing said newly accessed data item in said first memory area when vacant space exists in the first memory area; and when vacant space does not exist, locating a data item in said first memory area for deletion, the preassigned relative priority of the located data item being lower than the preassigned relative priority of each of the other data items stored in the first memory area, tie-breaking criteria being used to select one data item when more than one data item is located having preassigned relative priorities lower than the preassigned relative priority of the at least one of the other data items; replacing the located data item with the newly accessed data item when no vacant space exists in the first memory area; and generating a character display screen viewable on an associated display device in response to a character screen command.
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Specification