System for controlling television and billing for its use
First Claim
1. A computer controlled television system including a central processor generating command messages, a plurality of television sets, each television set including a microprocessor-controlled means for monitoring use of the television set of which said microprocessor-controlled means forms a part and generating charge data, and a non-volatile memory for storing the charge data, said system being characterized in that each said microprocessor-controlled means is selectively responsive to a read bill command message to transfer the charge data from the memory to the central processor and responsive to a write bill command message for storing in the memory the charge data contained in the write bill command message, whereby the charge data can be transferred from the memory in one television set to the memory in another television set.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A billing system for billing for the use of television sets in a hospital, hotel or the like includes a computer located in a billing office and television sets located in various rooms. Command signals from the computer, video signals, and power for powering the television are all delivered to each television set over a single coaxial cable. Each television set includes a microprocessor, a modem and logic circuits which remain active even if a user turns off his television receiver. The computer may assume control over any one or more of the television receivers by issuing a slave command which, at a time specified in the command (1) turns an addressed television receiver on if it is off and (2) tunes the addressed receiver to a specific channel. The slave commands may be of two types. One type permits no control over the TV receiver by a user and the other permits a user to override the slave command. Billing for TV usage is stored in the TV set and is transferred to the computer in response to a command from the computer. Billing information in one TV set may be transferred to another set if a user should move from one room to another. In a second embodiment, power is provided from a conventional AC wall outlet but in this case the slave commands are not executed if the television receiver is unplugged.
221 Citations
12 Claims
- 1. A computer controlled television system including a central processor generating command messages, a plurality of television sets, each television set including a microprocessor-controlled means for monitoring use of the television set of which said microprocessor-controlled means forms a part and generating charge data, and a non-volatile memory for storing the charge data, said system being characterized in that each said microprocessor-controlled means is selectively responsive to a read bill command message to transfer the charge data from the memory to the central processor and responsive to a write bill command message for storing in the memory the charge data contained in the write bill command message, whereby the charge data can be transferred from the memory in one television set to the memory in another television set.
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3. A computer controlled television system comprising:
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a central computer issuing command messages; a plurality of television sets connected to said computer, each of said television sets including; a television receiver by means of which a video signal transmitted over one of a plurality of channels can be viewed on a screen, switch means for selecting the channel to be viewed on said screen thereof, a microprocessor that receives said command messages from said central computer, a memory addressable by the microprocessor thereof for storing display messages, and a video character generator connected to said television receiver thereof which receives the display messages from said memory thereof by operation of said microprocessor thereof to display said display messages on said screen thereof; wherein said microprocessor thereof is responsive to a premium command message for saving in said memory thereof the numbers of premium channels for which a charge is to be made for viewing and wherein said microprocessor thereof includes means for comparing the number of the channel selected for viewing with the numbers of said premium channels saved in said memory thereof and, when the number of the selected channel equals one of said premium channel numbers, transferring a warning display message from said memory thereof to said video character generator thereof whereby said warning display message is displayed on said screen thereof. - View Dependent Claims (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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Specification