Systems and methods for linking television viewers with advertisers and broadcasters
First Claim
1. An interactive television system having a display screen comprising:
- means for storing television schedule information including television program titles;
means for displaying some of the schedule information including television program titles on the screen;
means for selecting one of the displayed television program titles;
a plurality of Internet data sources, each data source having a unique address;
means responsive to the television program title selecting means for searching the Internet to identify one or more data sources from the plurality of Internet data sources having data contextually related to the selected television program title;
means for selecting a data source from the one or more identified data sources having data contextually related to the selected television program title;
means responsive to the data source selecting means for establishing a link to the selected data source according to the unique address of the selected data source;
means for searching the linked data source for the data contextually related to the selected television program title; and
means for displaying the data from the linked data source on the screen.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention provides systems and methods for providing television schedule information to a viewer, and for allowing the viewer to link, search, select and interact with information in a remote database, e.g., a database on the internet. The television schedule information can be displayed on a variety of viewer interfaces, such as televisions screens, computer monitors, PCTV screens and the like. The television schedule information may be stored on the viewer'"'"'s computer, television, PCTV, or a remote server (e.g., a website), or the television schedule information may be downloaded from a remote database to the viewer'"'"'s computer, television or PCTV.
1592 Citations
19 Claims
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1. An interactive television system having a display screen comprising:
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means for storing television schedule information including television program titles; means for displaying some of the schedule information including television program titles on the screen; means for selecting one of the displayed television program titles; a plurality of Internet data sources, each data source having a unique address; means responsive to the television program title selecting means for searching the Internet to identify one or more data sources from the plurality of Internet data sources having data contextually related to the selected television program title; means for selecting a data source from the one or more identified data sources having data contextually related to the selected television program title; means responsive to the data source selecting means for establishing a link to the selected data source according to the unique address of the selected data source; means for searching the linked data source for the data contextually related to the selected television program title; and means for displaying the data from the linked data source on the screen. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18)
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17. An interactive television system having a display screen comprising:
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means for storing television schedule information including television program titles; means for displaying some of the schedule information including television program titles on the screen; means for selecting one of the displayed television program titles; a plurality of Internet data sources, each data source having a unique address; means responsive to the television program title selecting means for searching the Internet to identify and establish a link to a data source having data contextually related to the selected television program title according to the unique address of the data source; and means for displaying data from the linked data source on the screen.
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19. An interactive television system having a display screen comprising:
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means for storing television schedule information including television program titles; means for displaying some of the schedule information including television program titles on the screen; means for selecting one of the displayed television program titles; a plurality of Internet data sources, each data source having a unique address; means responsive to the television program title selecting means for searching the Internet to identify and establish a link to a data source having data contextually related to the selected television program title according to the unique address of the data source; and means for displaying data from the linked data source on the screen.
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Specification