System and method for remotely selecting subscribers and controlling messages to subscribers in a cable television system

• US 5,724,525 A
• Filed: 03/28/1995
• Issued: 03/03/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 02/16/1993
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Scientific-Atlanta Incorporated (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ivey, M. Kent, Beyers, Robert J. II, Durden, Gregory S., Kuban, Curt M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Harvey, Jack B.
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHUNG TRANS, XUONG MY
• Application Number:
  US08/412,090
• Time in Patent Office: 1,071 Days
• Field of Search: 364/401, 358/86, 358/85, 358/84, 380/20, 380/10, 348/3, 348/7, 348/10, 348/12, 395/240, 395/3
• US Class Current: 705/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/306 using TV related infrastructures external card used for payment with client device H04N21/4185
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/42 Arrangements for resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/78 CATV [Community Antenna Television] systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/07 characterised by processes or methods for the generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00098 via a television channel, e.g. for a series of still pictures with or without sound
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4786 e-mailing message switching systems, e.g. electronic mail systems H04L51/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/165 Centralised control of user terminal subsequent to an upstream request signal H04N7/17345; Registering at central by two-way working H04N7/17309

Abstract

A system and method are provided for selecting groups of one or more cable television subscribers remotely from a billing computer using data fields in either the billing computer database or a system control computer database. A selection criteria language may be used for selecting subscribers based on data fields in the system control database. Once a group of cable subscribers has been selected, an on-screen message may be remotely created and transmitted to the selected subscribers using cable transmission apparatus. The method provides a way of correlating subscriber information in a comprehensive subscriber database (such as may exist on a billing computer) with other subscriber information in a more limited database stored on a system control computer to allow on-screen messages to be targeted at subscribers selected on the basis of criteria from either database. It also allows message attributes (such as duration of display, colors, and message alerts) to be specified remotely from a billing computer rather than requiring the presence of a human operator at the system control computer.

Claims

1. A method for selecting cable television terminals from a first computer coupled to a system control computer coupled to said cable television terminals, the method comprising the steps of:

selecting a group of subscribers through the use of desired criteria combined through logical operators which act upon a first database residing on said first computer, and forming therefrom a subscriber list comprising a plurality of cable television terminal identifiers each corresponding to a member of said group;

creating an on-screen message at said first computer intended for display to members of said group; and

transmitting said subscriber list and said on-screen message from said first computer to said system control computer.

2. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of transmitting said on-screen message from said system control computer to cable television terminals corresponding to said terminal identifiers in said subscriber list.

3. A method according to claim 2, further comprising the step of transmitting, from said first computer to said system control computer, a starting and ending time during which said on-screen message is to be transmitted.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising the step of notifying said first computer after said on-screen message has been transmitted to said cable television terminals corresponding to said terminal identifiers in said subscriber list.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein said step of creating an on-screen message further comprises the step of defining display attributes of said on-screen message.

6. A method according to claim 5, wherein said display attributes include a message alert feature.

7. A method as in claim 1, wherein said step of transmitting said subscriber list and said on-screen message to said system control computer comprises the step of using a computer protocol comprising one or more transactions, each transaction including a data block and a checksum.

8. A method as in claim 7, wherein said transmitting step comprises the step of transmitting over a telephone line.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein said selecting step comprises the step of selecting subscribers from said first database based on demographic information contained in said first database.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein said transmitting step comprises the step of transmitting said subscriber list over a telephone line which links said first computer to said system control computer.

11. A system for selecting cable television terminals and transmitting an on-screen message to a group of one or more of said cable television terminals, comprising:

a first computer including a subscriber database comprising information which relates subscribers to terminal identifiers; and

a system control computer, coupled to said first computer and including a system control database comprising information which relates said terminal identifiers to physical device information for each terminal;

wherein said first computer comprises means for selecting a group of said subscribers from said subscriber database, creating a subscriber list comprising a group of selected terminal identifiers, where said terminal identifiers satisfy the application of logical operators for combining desired values and for identifying said subscriber list, and transmitting said subscriber list and information identifying said on-screen message to said system control computer; and

wherein said system control computer comprises interface means for receiving said transmitted subscriber list and said information identifying said on-screen message, retrieval means for retrieving physical device information from said system control database corresponding to said selected terminal identifiers contained in said transmitted subscriber list, and cable transmission means for transmitting said on-screen message to terminals corresponding to said selected terminal identifiers.

12. A system as in claim 11, wherein said system control computer further comprises means for notifying said terminals corresponding to said selected terminal identifiers of their participation in said group.

13. A system according to claim 11, wherein said cable transmission means uses in-band data transmission techniques.

14. A system according to claim 11, wherein said cable transmission means uses out-of-band data transmission techniques.

15. A system according to claim 11, wherein said on-screen message comprises a plurality of character compression codes to represent message data.

16. A method for creating an on-screen message and specifying recipients for the on-screen message from a first computer, comprising the steps of:

generating at said first computer a selection criteria statement which specifies a group of subscribers using criteria stored in a database residing on a system control computer coupled to said first computer, wherein said generating step comprises the step of using logical operators to combine desired values for terminal characteristics stored in said database residing on said system control computer to generate said selection criteria statement;

creating at said first computer an on-screen message intended for display to said group of subscribers; and

transmitting said selection criteria statement and said on-screen message to said system control computer.

17. A method as in claim 16, further comprising the step of transmitting said on-screen message to said group of subscribers.

18. Apparatus for controlling the transmission of addressed messages to groups of subscribers of a subscription television system, said apparatus comprising:

a database comprising information which relates terminal characteristics to terminal identifiers;

computer interface means for receiving from another computer a message and a selection criteria statement comprising desired values for one or more of said terminal characteristics;

group management means, coupled to said computer interface means and to said database, for converting said selection criteria statement into a list of said terminal identifiers through the application of logical operators drawn from said selection criteria statement as applied to said database to generate said list;

system event scheduler means for scheduling said message at a future time; and

device management means, coupled to and responsive to said system event scheduler means, for transmitting said message to terminals identified in said list of terminal identifiers.

19. The system control computer apparatus of claim 18, wherein said computer interface means supplies an acknowledgement to said another computer after said message has been transmitted.

20. Apparatus for controlling the transmission of a message to a plurality of terminals in a subscription television system, said apparatus comprising:

a database comprising information which relates terminal characteristics to terminal identifiers;

computer interface means for receiving from another computer said message and a list of terminal identifiers constituting a group to which said message is to be transmitted, said group identified by a group code;

group management means, coupled to said computer interface means and to said database, for storing group information regarding said list of terminal identifiers as said group as identified by said group code into said database;

system event scheduler means for scheduling said message; and

device management means, coupled to and responsive to said system event scheduler means, for transmitting said message to said terminal identifiers constituting said group.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein said computer interface means comprises means for receiving from said another computer a command for adding a new terminal identifier to a previously constituted group, said command including referencing said group at least through said group code;

and wherein said group management means comprises means for adding said new terminal identifier to said group information in said database.

22. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein said computer interface means comprises means for receiving from said another computer a command for scheduling said message, said command including referencing said group at least through said group code;

and wherein said system event scheduler means is responsive to said command for scheduling said message.

23. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein said computer interface means comprises means for receiving from said another computer a command for deleting a previously constituted group, said command including referencing said group at least through said group code;

and wherein said group management means comprises means for deleting said stored group information from said database.

24. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein said computer interface means comprises means for receiving from said another computer a command for deleting a terminal from a previously constituted group, said command including referencing said group at least through said group code;

and wherein said group management means comprises means for deleting said terminal from said stored group information.

25. Apparatus for selecting cable television terminals, comprising:

a subscriber database comprising information which relates subscribers to terminal identifiers; and

computer means, coupled to said database, for selecting a group of said subscribers from said subscriber database, creating a subscriber list comprising a corresponding group of selected terminal identifiers, creating an on-screen message for display to members of said group of subscribers, transmitting said subscriber list and said on-screen message to a system control computer which is coupled to said apparatus, storing said group of subscribers as a group retrievable by a group code and retrieving said group by said group code; and

memory means, responsive to said computer means, for storing said group retrievable by said group code,

wherein said selected terminal identifiers coincide with terminal identifiers stored in a separate database in said system control computer; and

wherein said subscriber database further comprises information which relates demographic data concerning said subscribers to said terminal identifiers, and wherein said computer means comprises means for creating said subscriber list on the basis of demographic criteria specified in relation to said demographic data stored in said subscriber database.

26. Apparatus for selecting cable television terminals from a first computer coupled to a system control computer, the system control computer having an associated database comprising stored terminal characteristics for the cable television terminals and data representing a group of cable television terminals as stored in response to a computer message and as retrievable by a group code, the apparatus comprising:

means for generating from the first computer said computer message comprising a selection criteria statement, said selection criteria statement comprising criteria for characterizing said group of said cable television terminals by referencing one or more desired values for said terminal characteristics stored in said system control computer database; and

means for transmitting said computer message to said system control computer over a link.

27. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein said selection criteria statement comprises two of more desired values for said terminal characteristics, wherein said two or more values are logically linked using a logical operator selected from the set consisting of logical AND logical OR.

28. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein said one or more desired values comprises a range of terminal serial numbers.

29. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein said one or more desired values comprises a service code for said cable television terminals.

30. Apparatus for selecting cable television terminals from a first computer coupled to a system control computer, the system control computer having a database comprising stored terminal identifiers for the cable television terminals, the apparatus comprising:

a subscriber database comprising information relating subscriber information to said terminal identifiers stored in said system control computer database;

means for generating a computer message comprising said list group, said list group comprising a list of said terminal identifiers corresponding to subscriber data selected from said subscriber database in accordance with a desired grouping of subscribers, said desired grouping previously selected and stored as said list group in said database in said system control computer and retrievable with a group code, said computer message including said group code for identifying said list group on said system control computer; and

means for transmitting said computer message to said system control computer over a link.

31. The apparatus of claim 30, further comprising means for generating and transmitting to said system control computer a second computer message comprising schedule information for selecting a message to said list group.

32. The apparatus of claim 30, further comprising means for generating and transmitting to said system control computer a second computer message comprising a command to delete one or more of said terminals from said list group.

33. The apparatus of claim 30, further comprising a generator for generating and transmitting to said system control computer message comprising a command to add one or more terminals to said list group.