Interactive television triggers having connected content/disconnected content attribute
First Claim
1. In an interactive television system comprised of a broadcast station for transmitting video content to either or both of i) one or more relay stations that in turn retransmit the video content for broadcasting, and ii) a plurality of individual receiver units each comprising a local computing system associated with a display for viewing both video and Internet content in an interactive manner, a method for presenting to the receiver units access to Internet content to enable interactive viewing of Internet content with received video content, but doing so in a manner that takes into account differences between different types of receiver units, namely, those capable of connecting to the Internet and those that are not, the method comprising:
- receiving video content that includes a trigger which identifies certain Internet content;
said trigger being characterized by at least one attribute that identifies the trigger as either a connected or a disconnected content trigger that permits the different types of receiver units to process the trigger differently, so that receiving units that are connected to the Internet can process the trigger and then connect and download the identified Internet content, and those receivers that have no Internet connection, will selectively forego processing the trigger depending on whether the trigger is connected or a disconnected content trigger; and
processing the received trigger to determine whether it is a connected or a disconnected trigger based on the particular attribute for the trigger that is present.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Interactive television content can be classified as either disconnected content or as connected content. An interactive television system involves some receivers that cannot establish connections to the Internet and therefore cannot properly process triggers to connected content. The system also involves other receiver units that can establish connections to the Internet and can process triggers to connected content. A trigger in accordance with the invention involves a “connected content/disconnected content” attribute that identifies the trigger as either a trigger to disconnected content or a trigger to connected content. Receiver units that cannot process triggers to connected content can therefore use the attribute to identify triggers to such connected content and can then ignore such triggers, while those receiver units that can process triggers to connect content can use those triggers to make the desired Internet connection.
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Citations
27 Claims
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1. In an interactive television system comprised of a broadcast station for transmitting video content to either or both of i) one or more relay stations that in turn retransmit the video content for broadcasting, and ii) a plurality of individual receiver units each comprising a local computing system associated with a display for viewing both video and Internet content in an interactive manner, a method for presenting to the receiver units access to Internet content to enable interactive viewing of Internet content with received video content, but doing so in a manner that takes into account differences between different types of receiver units, namely, those capable of connecting to the Internet and those that are not, the method comprising:
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receiving video content that includes a trigger which identifies certain Internet content;
said trigger being characterized by at least one attribute that identifies the trigger as either a connected or a disconnected content trigger that permits the different types of receiver units to process the trigger differently, so that receiving units that are connected to the Internet can process the trigger and then connect and download the identified Internet content, and those receivers that have no Internet connection, will selectively forego processing the trigger depending on whether the trigger is connected or a disconnected content trigger; and
processing the received trigger to determine whether it is a connected or a disconnected trigger based on the particular attribute for the trigger that is present. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
if the trigger is a disconnected content trigger, then retrieving the identified Internet content and including it with the video content before retransmitting it from the relay station, and if the trigger is a connected content trigger, then simply retransmitting the video content with the trigger. -
9. A method as defined in claim 8 wherein the video content is retransmitted to the plurality of receiver units via a satellite.
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10. A method as defined in claim 8, wherein the video content is retransmitted to the plurality of receiver units via a coaxial cable.
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11. A method as defined in claim 8, wherein the video content is retransmitted to the plurality of receiver units via a fiber optic cable.
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12. A method as defined in claim 8;
- wherein the video content is retransmitted to the plurality of receiver units via an air terrestrial broadcast.
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13. A method as defined in claim 8, wherein the video content is retransmitted to the plurality of receiver units in step (c) via a packet-switched network.
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14. A method defined in claim 13, wherein the packet-switched network is the Internet.
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15. A method as defined in claims 1 or 2, wherein when the attribute of the trigger identifies the trigger as a connected content trigger, then receiving units that are connected to the Internet can process the trigger and ten connect and download the identified Internet content, and those receivers that have no Internet connection can forego processing the trigger and retrieve previously cached Internet content corresponding to the identified Internet content from the local computing system of the receiving unit.
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2. In an interactive television system comprised of a broadcast station for transmitting video content to either or both of i) one or more relay stations that in turn retransmit the video content for broadcasting, and ii) a plurality of individual receiver units each comprising a local computing system associated with a display for viewing both video and Internet content in an interactive manner, a computer program product comprised of a computer readable medium for carrying executable instructions for implementing a method for presenting to the receiver units access to Internet content to enable interactive viewing of Internet content with received video content, but doing so in a manner that takes into account differences between different types of receiver units, namely, those capable of connecting to the Internet and those that are not, and wherein the method is comprised of:
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receiving video content that includes a trigger which identifies certain Internet content;
said trigger being characterized by at least one attribute that identifies the trigger as either a connected or a disconnected content trigger that permits the different types of receiver units to process the trigger differently, so that receiving units that are connected to die Internet can process the trigger and then connect and download the identified Internet content, and those receivers that have no Internet connection, will selectively forego processing the trigger depending on whether the trigger is connected or a disconnected content trigger; and
processing the received trigger to determine whether it is a connected or a disconnected trigger based on the particular attribute for the trigger that is present.
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16. In an interactive television system comprised of a broadcast station for transmitting video content to either or both of i) one or more relay stations that in turn retransmit the video content for broadcasting, and ii) a plurality of individual receiver units each comprising a local computing system associated with a display for viewing both video and Internet content in an interactive manner, a method for presenting to the receiver units access to Internet content to enable interactive viewing of Internet content with received video content, but doing so in a manner that lakes into account differences between different types of receiver units, namely, those capable of connecting to the Internet and those that arc not the method comprising:
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receiving at the receiving units video content that includes a trigger which identifies certain Internet content;
said trigger being characterized by the presence of one of two attributes in the sense that when a first attribute is present, the trigger is a connected content trigger that permits the different types of receiver units to process the trigger differently, so that receiving units that are connected to the Internet can process the trigger and then connect and download the identified Internet content, and those receivers that have no Internet connection, will forego processing the trigger, and when a second attribute is present, the trigger is a disconnected content trigger that permits the different types of receiver units to process the trigger differently, so that receiving units that are connected to the Internet can process the trigger and then connect and download the identified Internet content, and those receivers that have no Internet connection can also process the trigger and retrieve previously cached Internet content corresponding to the identified Internet content from the local computing system of the receiving unit;
processing the received trigger to determine which of the two attributes is present; and
the different types of receiver units thereafter responding to the trigger in different ways so that receiver units that arc connected to the Internet respond to both connected and disconnected triggers, by being able to connect and download the identified Internet content from the Internet, while receiver units that are not connected to the Internet only respond to disconnected triggers, by being able to retrieve cached Internet content from the local computing system that corresponds to the identified Internet content. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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17. In an interactive television system comprised of a broadcast station for transmitting video content to either or both of i) one or more relay stations that in turn retransmit the video content for broadcasting, and ii) a plurality of individual receiver units each comprising a local computing system associated with a display for viewing both video and Internet content in an interactive manner, a computer program product comprised of a computer readable medium for carrying executable instructions for implementing a method for presenting to the receiver units access to Internet content to enable interactive viewing of Internet content with received video content, but doing so in a manner that takes into account differences between different types of receiver units, namely, those capable of connecting to the Internet and those that are not, and wherein the method is comprised of:
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receiving at the receiving units video content that includes a trigger which identifies certain Internet content;
said trigger being characterized by the presence of one of two attributes in the sense that when a first attribute is present, the trigger is a connected content trigger that permits the different types of receiver units to process the trigger differently, so that receiving units that arc connected to the Internet can process the trigger and then connect and download the identified Internet content, and those receivers that have no Internet connection, will forego processing the trigger, and when a second attribute is present, the trigger is a disconnected content trigger that permits the different types of receiver units to process the trigger differently, so that receiving units that are connected to the Internet can process the trigger and then connect and download the identified Internet content, and those receivers that have no internet connection can also process the trigger and retrieve previously cached Internet content corresponding to the identified Internet content from the local computing system of the receiving unit;
processing the received trigger to determine which of the two attributes is present; and
the different types of receiver units thereafter responding to the trigger in different ways so that receiver units that are connected to the Internet respond to both connected and disconnected triggers, by being able to connect and download the identified Internet content from the Internet, while receiver units that arc not connected to the Internet only respond to disconnected triggers, by being able to retrieve cached Internet content from the local computing system that corresponds to the identified Internet content.
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Specification