Retrieving information from a broadcast signal

• US 6,658,662 B1
• Filed: 06/30/1997
• Issued: 12/02/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Nielsen, Jakob
• Primary Examiner(s): GRANT, CHRISTOPHER C
• Application Number:
  US08/885,801
• Time in Patent Office: 2,346 Days
• Field of Search: H04/N.716, H04/N.7173, 348/327, 348/10, 348/12, 348/13, 455/6.2, 455/6.3, 455/5.1, 455/4.2, 725/109, 725/110, 725/111, 725/112, 725/113, 725/37, 725/131, 725/134
• US Class Current: 725/109
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/635 Overlay text, e.g. embedded captions in a TV program
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2389 Multiplex stream processing, e.g. multiplex stream encrypting
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4385 Multiplex stream processing, e.g. multiplex stream decrypting
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44008 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in the video stream arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4722 for requesting additional data associated with the content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/16 Analogue secrecy systems; Analogue subscription systems

Abstract

A broadcast video signal is captured on user command and processed to identify network addresses contain therein. Network addresses are stored together with information about the program during which they originated. Identified network addresses are accessed over the network to validate their correctness and a snapshot of the page displayed is stored and related to the network address. An HTML file is constructed showing the original image from which the HTML file was constructed, the address(es) extracted from the original image as hypertext lines and snapshots of the corresponding images. By viewing the HTML file, a user can quickly determine if he wishes to retrieve information from the network addresses and can do so by clicking in the hypertext links.

Claims

1. A method of capturing information from a video signal, the method comprising:

providing an element for storing an image from said video signal;

automatically identifying at least one network address contained in said image; and

creating a summary document in a markup language, which document includes a representation of the image from the video signal, a list comprising said at least one network address, and a representation of at least one document located at said at least one network address.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said summary document further includes a representation of general information about the video signal.