Bidirectional broadcasting method, bidirectional broadcasting system and receiver apparatus for bidirectional broadcast

• US 5,719,619 A
• Filed: 09/29/1995
• Issued: 02/17/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/1994
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Hattori, Yoshitsugu, Yoshinobu, Hitoshi, Nagai, Kunio
• Primary Examiner(s): Peng, John K.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lo., Linus H.
• Application Number:
  US08/536,379
• Time in Patent Office: 872 Days
• Field of Search: 348/1, 348/2, 348/7, 348/10, 348/12, 348/13, 455/2, 455/4.2, 455/5.1, 455/6.1, 455/6.2, 455/6.3
• US Class Current: 725/24
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/00 Telephonic communication systems specially adapted for combination with other electrical systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/08 Systems for the simultaneous or sequential transmission of more than one television signal, e.g. additional information signals, the signals occupying wholly or partially the same frequency band , e.g. by time division H04N7/007 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/147 Communication arrangements, e.g. identifying the communication as a video-communication, intermediate storage of the signals selecting H04Q

Abstract

A bidirectional broadcasting method and system allows, even when an existing telephone voting service is used to respond to a bidirectional broadcast, broadcasting wherein a plurality of questions are related to each other. A broadcasting station broadcasts questions, answer choices for a response to each question and responding destination telephone numbers for the individual answer choices, and successively broadcasts evaluation information for allowing receiver apparatus to perform evaluation of histories of responses to the questions and determine whether or not the responding persons of the individual receiver apparatus are response allowed persons. Each receiver apparatus stores the history of responses to the questions into a memory and, based on the evaluation data from the broadcasting station, evaluates the history of responses to the questions. Then, based on the selection data from the broadcasting station and a result of the evaluation, it determines whether or not a given person is allowed to respond to a later question. When it is determined that such person is not a response-allowed person, the receiver apparatus prevents origination of a call for a later response therefrom.

Claims

1. A bidirectional broadcasting method wherein a question, a plurality of answer choices for a response to the question and responding destination telephone numbers for the individual answer choices are broadcast from a broadcast studio along with a broadcast signal and terminating call number information of responses to the individual answer choices from responding persons is obtained by said broadcast studio, the improvement comprising the steps of:

broadcasting said question, said answer choices, said responding telephone numbers, evaluation information and selection information to a receiver apparatus;

operating said receiver apparatus by a responding person, whereby one of said plurality of answer choices is selected;

transmitting said destination telephone number corresponding to said selected answer choice to communicate said selected answer choice to said studio;

comparing a history of previously selected answer choices with the evaluation information to evaluate histories of responses to more than one question; and

selecting a response-allowed person on the basis of the comparison and the selection information, whereby

the broadcasting of a question, the broadcasting of evaluation information and the broadcasting of selection information are performed repetitively more than one time to successively reduce the number of the response-allowed persons.

2. A bidirectional broadcasting method according to claim 1 wherein the question and the answer choices to the question are broadcast as a broadcasting program to receiving persons, and a number of the question, numbers of the answer choices and the responding destination telephone number information for the individual answer choices are broadcast in a multiplexed condition with said broadcasting signal.

3. A bidirectional broadcasting method according to claim 2 wherein the broadcasting signal is a television signal, and said responding destination telephone number information, said evaluation information and said selection information are multiplexed in a vertical blanking period of the television signal.

4. A bidirectional broadcasting method according to claim 2 wherein the broadcasting signal is a television signal, and said responding destination telephone number information, said evaluation information and said selection information are multiplexed with an audio multiplexed channel.

5. A bidirectional broadcasting method according to claim 2 wherein the broadcasting signal is an FM radio signal, and said responding destination telephone number information, said evaluation information and said selection information are transmitted by an FM multiteletex broadcasting system.

6. A bidirectional broadcasting method according to claim 2 wherein, for multiplexing, said responding destination telephone number information, said evaluation information and said selection information are multiplexed as sound which can be separated from ordinary sound in an audio signal of the broadcasting signal.

7. A bidirectional broadcasting method according to any one of claims 1 to 6 wherein terminating calls to the telephone numbers for the individual answer choices from the responding persons are received by a central office of a telephone voting service and numbers of the terminating calls for the individual answer choices are notified from the central office to the broadcasting studio.

8. A bidirectional broadcasting method according to any one of claims 1 to 6 further comprising the step of, after the number of the response-allowed persons is reduced, broadcasting data for requesting sending out of identification information of the individual response-allowed persons in a multiplexed condition with the broadcasting signal to the receiver apparatus.

9. A bidirectional broadcasting system which includes a broadcasting station which provides a bidirectional program as a broadcasting signal, and a plurality of receiver apparatus which respond to the bidirectional program by way of telephone lines, comprising:

broadcasting means provided in said broadcasting station for broadcasting a plurality of questions, answer choices for responses to the plurality of questions, a plurality of responding destination telephone numbers, each corresponding to one of said answer choices, evaluation information, and selection information;

input means on each receiver apparatus for detecting an answer choice selected by a responding person corresponding to each of said plurality of questions;

telephone calling means for telephone dialing said destination telephone number corresponding to said selected answer choice;

storage means provided on each of the receiver apparatus for storing a history of the selected answer choices;

evaluation means provided on each of the receiver apparatus for evaluating the history based on the evaluation information received from the broadcasting station;

selection means provided on each of the receiver apparatus for determining, based on the selection information and a result of the evaluation, whether a responding person of the receiver apparatus can be allowed to respond to a later question; and

means provided on each of the receiver apparatus for preventing origination of a call for a response to a subsequent question from the receiver apparatus when it is determined that the responding person of the receiver apparatus is not a response-allowed person to a later question.

10. A bidirectional broadcasting system according to claim 9 wherein each of the questions and the answer choices to the question are broadcast as a broadcasting program to the receiver apparatus, and identities of the plurality of questions, identities of the answer choices and responding destination telephone number information for the individual answer choices are broadcast as a multiplexed signal.

11. A bidirectional broadcasting system according to claim 9 wherein the broadcasting signal is a television signal, and a vertical blanking period of the television signal is used for carrying said questions, answer choices, telephone number information, evaluation information and selection information.

12. A bidirectional broadcasting system according to claim 9 wherein the broadcasting signal is a television signal, and said questions, answer choices, telephone number information, evaluation information and selection information are carried on an audio multiplexed channel.

13. A bidirectional broadcasting system according to claim 9 employing an FM radio signal, wherein said questions, answer choices, telephone number information, evaluation information and selection information are carried on an FM multiteletex broadcasting system.

14. A bidirectional broadcasting system according to claim 9 wherein, for multiplexing, said questions, answer choices, telephone number information, evaluation information and selection information is multiplexed as sound which can be separated from ordinary sound in an audio signal of the broadcasting signal.

15. A bidirectional broadcasting system according to any one of claims 9 to 14 further comprising a telephone voting system wherein terminating calls to the telephone numbers for the individual answer choices are received by a central office and numbers of the terminating calls are notified from the central office to the broadcasting station.

16. A bidirectional broadcasting system according to any one of claims 9 to 14 wherein the broadcasting station broadcasts a question, evaluation information and selection information repetitively to successively reduce the number of the response-allowed persons, and then broadcasts data for requesting sending out of identification information in a multiplexed condition with the broadcasting signal to the receiver apparatus, and each of the receiver apparatus includes storage means for holding identification information of the receiver apparatus and transmits, when the data for requesting sending out of identification information are detected, the identification information stored in said storage means to a designated responding destination.

17. A receiver apparatus for a bidirectional broadcast, comprising:

a broadcasting program receiving section for receiving a broadcasting signal and providing a bidirectional broadcast program to a user of said receiver apparatus;

a decoding section for extracting and decoding bidirectional program information multiplexed with the broadcasting signal to generate evaluation data and selection data;

a communication interface for responding to the bidirectional program by way of a telephone line;

a key inputting operation section manually operable by the user to perform responding operations to the bidirectional program;

a response execution section for communicating said responses via said communications interface in response to the responding operations;

storage means for storing a history of the responding operations;

evaluation means for comparing the history of responding operations stored in said storage means with evaluation data obtained from said multiplexed signal by said decoding means to perform an evaluation of the response; and

discrimination means for comparing said selection data with a result of said evaluation and for controlling said response execution section when said result of said evaluation does not correspond with said selection data, whereby a subsequent response by way of the telephone line is prevented irrespective of a later responding operation of the user.

18. A receiver apparatus for a bidirectional broadcast according to claim 17 further comprising storage means for storing identification information for identification of said receiver apparatus, and wherein, when the multiplexed signal obtained from said decoding section is determined to be data requesting sending out of identification information of a receiver apparatus, the identification information stored in said storage means is transmitted to a designated responding destination.