Internet access via one-way television channels

• US 6,698,023 B2
• Filed: 10/26/1998
• Issued: 02/24/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Virtel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Virtel Corporation
• Inventors: Levitan, Gutman
• Primary Examiner(s): Srivastava, Vivek
• Application Number:
  US09/179,375
• Publication Number:
  US 20020069413A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,947 Days
• Field of Search: H04/N.5445, H04/N.716, H04/N.7173, G06/F.300, G06/F 1.300, 709/217, 709/219, 345/327, 348/12, 348/13, 348/10, 348/6, 348/906, 485/5.1, 485/6.1, 485/6.2, 485/6.3, 725/46, 725/47, 725/45, 725/44, 725/51, 725/38, 725/119, 725/139, 725/141, 725/136
• US Class Current: 725/135
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/436 Interfacing a local distribution network, e.g. communicating with another STB or one or more peripheral devices inside the home
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/445 for displaying additional information H04N5/50 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/16 Analogue secrecy systems; Analogue subscription systems

Abstract

A system using one-way TV channels to provide access to Internet content which, unlike e-mail, is not intended for a particular person but rather for an audience. An Internet server at a television transmission center downloads Web pages from Internet sites and retransmits them via a television network in broadcast manner to simultaneously reach unlimited number of client computers. The server supplies client computers in advance with a timetable listing each Web page scheduled for transmission along with time and channel of the transmission so that client computers, having their individual selection lists, could automatically download pages of interest. The system completely eliminates waiting time downloading Web pages of user'"'"'s choice whenever they are updated and instantly presents the pages on request providing television quality of images, audio and video. In addition, the system facilitates integration of television and Internet advertising.

Claims

1. A system for reducing Internet traffic and speeding up users'"'"' access to Internet content and applications, comprising:

a one-way multichannel communication medium;

a multichannel data transmitter at a transmission center connected to the one-way multichannel communication medium;

a broadcast server located at the transmission center and connected to the multichannel data transmitter for transmitting data in a broadcast manner and further connected to the Internet for downloading select Internet files from Internet servers located anywhere in the world and transmitting the downloaded files over said multichannel data transmitter in order to simultaneously reach an unlimited number of recipients served by the transmission center, said broadcast server operative for maintaining a selection list of Internet files to be transmitted in broadcast manner, downloading an entire file of the selection list from its origin Internet server before transmission of that file over said muiltichannel data transmitter, storing each downloaded file at least as long as to the end of its broadcast transmission, scheduling downloaded files for broadcast transmission in such a way to evenly distribute data flows among channels of said multichannel data transmitter and thereby to efficiently utilize the bandwidth of the channels, maintaining a timetable of broadcast transmission listing each Internet file scheduled for a transmission together with a time and a channel of the transmission, transmitting the timetable over a channel of said multichannel data transmitter prior to any Internet file listed in the timetable and transmitting each Internet file listed in the timetable over said multichannel data transmitter at the time and on the channel specified in the timetable;

at the recipient side, a channel selector connected to said one-way multichannel communication medium;

client means coupled to the channel selector for receiving said timetable of broadcast transmission from the channel over which the timetable is transmitted and for selective receiving of Internet flies from channels specified in the timetable, said client means storing a user'"'"'s selection list of Internet files for processing said timetable against the user'"'"'s selection list, identifying Internet files present in both the user'"'"'s selection list and the timetable, controlling said channel selector for automatic downloading the identified files at the time and from the channels of their broadcast transmissions as specified in the timetable, and replacing, if necessary, previous versions of the files by new versions; and

display means coupled to said client means for presenting any of the downloaded Internet files to user on user'"'"'s request at the time of user'"'"'s choice.

2. A system as defined in claim 1;

and further comprising end-user computers where said client means is an intermediate server for a group of the end-user computers connected to the intermediate server via a two-way addressable network, said intermediate server storing individual selection lists of end-users for downloading Internet files transmitted over said one-way multichannel communication medium and included in at least one individual selection list.

3. A system as defined in claim 1, wherein said one-way multichannel communication medium is a television network.