Interactive entertainment and information system using television set-top box
First Claim
1. An interactive television system, comprising,a head-end having means for injecting video information into a transmission medium, the video information including a plurality of page images, the video information further including meta-data associated with at least one of the plurality of page images, the meta-data for the at least one page image being transmitted with the page image;
- means at the subscriber end for detecting a first request to display one of the plurality of page images;
means for selecting and outputting video signals representing the page image upon detection of the first request, the page image including at least one active location having an action corresponding thereto;
means at the subscriber end for detecting a second request to take the action corresponding to the active location; and
means for taking the action upon detection of the second request, including means for submitting a form.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An interactive entertainment and information system using a television set-top box, wherein pages of information are periodically provided to the set-top box for user interaction therewith. The pages include associated meta-data defining active locations on each page. When a page is displayed, the user interacts with the active locations on the page by entering commands via a remote control device, whereby the system reads the meta-data and takes the action associated with the location. Actions include moving to other active locations, hyperlinking to other pages, entering user form data and submitting the data as a form into memory. The form data may be read from memory, and the pages may be related to a conventional television program, thereby providing significant user interactivity with the television.
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Citations
34 Claims
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1. An interactive television system, comprising,
a head-end having means for injecting video information into a transmission medium, the video information including a plurality of page images, the video information further including meta-data associated with at least one of the plurality of page images, the meta-data for the at least one page image being transmitted with the page image; -
means at the subscriber end for detecting a first request to display one of the plurality of page images;
means for selecting and outputting video signals representing the page image upon detection of the first request, the page image including at least one active location having an action corresponding thereto;
means at the subscriber end for detecting a second request to take the action corresponding to the active location; and
means for taking the action upon detection of the second request, including means for submitting a form. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. In a television-based system having a head-end for providing video information to set-top boxes of users, a method of enabling users to interact with said video information, comprising:
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injecting video information into a transport stream of a transmission medium for transmission to the set-top boxes, the video information including a plurality of page images and meta-data associated with the page images;
detecting at the set-top box a first user request to display one of the plurality of page images;
selecting a page image based on the user request;
outputting video signals representing the selected page image from the set-top box, the meta-data associated with the page image identifying at least one active location and an action corresponding thereto;
detecting at the set-top box a second request to take the action corresponding to the active location;
taking the action including writing user-data to a memory at the subscriber end; and
communicating user-data from the memory to the head-end. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. An interactive television system, comprising:
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a head-end having means for periodically injecting video information into a transmission medium, the video information including a plurality of page images, the plurality of page images being arranged as a carousel of video images;
means for rebuilding the carousel a plurality of times with a change to at least one video image in the plurality of page images such that a page image appears to have animated motion;
means at the subscriber end for detecting a first request to display one of the plurality of page images;
means for selecting and outputting video signals representing the page image upon detection of the first request, the page image including at least one active location having a corresponding action;
means at the subscriber end for detecting a second request to take the action corresponding to the active location; and
means for taking the action upon detection of the second request.
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31. In a television-based system having a head-end for providing video information to set-top boxes, a method of enabling users to interact with said video information, comprising:
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injecting a plurality of page images as video information into a transmission medium for transmission to the set-top boxes, the video information including meta-data associated with the page images, wherein injecting the plurality of page images includes changing at least one page image in the plurality of page images, and periodically repeating the injection of page images;
detecting at the set-top box a first user request to display one of the plurality of page images;
selecting as a selected page image a page image based on the user request;
outputting video signals representing the selected page image from the set-top box including changing the selected page image a plurality of times such that the page image appears to have animated motion thereon, the meta-data associated with the page image identifying at least one active location and a corresponding action;
detecting at the set-top box a second request to take the action corresponding to the active location; and
taking the action corresponding to the active location.
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32. In a television-based system having a head-end for providing video information to set-top boxes of users, a method of enabling users to interact with said video information, comprising:
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injecting a plurality of page images as video information into a transmission medium for transmission to the set-top boxes, the video information including meta-data associated with the page images;
detecting at the set-top box a first user request to display one of the plurality of page images;
selecting a page image based on the user request;
outputting video signals representing the selected page image from the set-top box, the meta-data associated with the page image identifying at least one active location and an action corresponding thereto;
detecting at the set-top box a second request to take the action corresponding to the active location;
taking the action, including submitting a form.
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33. In a television-based system having a head-end for providing video information to set-top boxes of users, a method of enabling users to interact with said video information, comprising:
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injecting a plurality of page images as video information into a transmission medium for transmission to the set-top boxes, the video information including meta-data associated with the page images;
detecting at the set-top box a first user request to display one of the plurality of page images;
selecting a page image based on the user request;
outputting video signals representing the selected page image from the set-top box, the meta-data associated with the page image identifying at least one active location and an action corresponding thereto;
detecting at the set-top box a second request to take the action corresponding to the active location; and
taking the action including receiving user-data and changing the output video signal to reflect the state of the user-data. - View Dependent Claims (34)
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Specification