Interactive television receiver unit browser that waits to send requests

• US 6,966,066 B1
• Filed: 10/25/2001
• Issued: 11/15/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Blackketter, Dean J., Zigmond, Daniel J.
• Primary Examiner(s): TRAN, HAI V
• Application Number:
  US10/029,055
• Time in Patent Office: 1,482 Days
• Field of Search: 725/60, 725 96- 97, 725/121, 709/207, 709217-229, 370/234
• US Class Current: 725/121
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26275 for distributing content or additional data in a staggered manner, e.g. repeating movies on different channels in a time-staggered manner in a near video on demand system
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• 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 21/4722 for requesting additional data associated with the content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47815 Electronic shopping payment schemes, payment architectures or payment protocols for electronic shopping systems G06Q20/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6175 involving transmission via Internet broadcast-related systems characterised by the transmission system being the Internet H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8543 using a description language, e.g. Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Expert Group [MHEG], eXtensible Markup Language [XML] information retrieval of semistructured data, the underlying structure being taken into account, e.g. mark-up language structure data G06F16/80
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/858 Linking data to content, e.g. by linking an URL to a video object, by creating a hotspot
• 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 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17327 with deferred transmission or handling of upstream communications

Abstract

In interactive television, a broadcaster may broadcast triggers to a great many receiver units prompting the receiver units to attempt to send requests to a single destination on the Internet at roughly the same time. Such a large number of simultaneous requests can give rise to throughput problems and server overload. A receiver unit in accordance with the invention, rather than immediately attempting to send a request, waits a period of time (for example, a random period) before sending the request so as not to overload the server. In one embodiment, a trigger is received on an interactive television receiver unit prompting the viewer to select an icon. If the viewer selects the icon, then a browser in the receiver unit retrieves a web page on the Internet identified by a URL in the trigger. The web page includes an indication of a destination, scheduling information, and a form area. The viewer enters user information in association with the form area. The browser captures that user information, incorporates it into a request, and then stores the request in a queue along with the scheduling information. The browser periodically checks the scheduling information in the queue and determines from the scheduling information if it is time to send the request. When the browser determines the time has come to send a request in the queue, the browser retrieves the request and sends it to the destination. The browser may then receive a return response and display it.

Claims

1. In a computer network which interconnects a plurality of servers and a plurality of receiver units, wherein the plurality of receiver units are capable of sending requests to a plurality of destinations for processing, a method of controlling and scheduling when a request is sent to a destination, comprising:

receiving at a receiver unit a first communication that includes (i) scheduling information for determining when a request associated with the first communication should be sent to a destination for processing, the scheduling information being under the control of an author of the first communication and being capable of differing from one receiver unit to another, and (ii) an indication of the destination to receive and process the request associated with the first communication;

preparing the request to be processed by the destination and storing the request at the receiver unit;

at the receiver unit waiting a period of time determined by the scheduling information before attempting to the send the request to the destination; and

after the period of time, automatically sending the request to the destination for processing.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first communication is a broadcast trigger, the broadcast trigger being received by the receiver unit from a one-way broadcast communication channel.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiver unit is not connected to a network for accessing the destination during at least a portion of time while the receiver unit prepares and stores the request and waits to send the request.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the receiver unit automatically establishes a connection to the network and sends the request to the destination without human input.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the scheduling information comprises an indication that the request can be sent at a later time.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the scheduling information comprises a time.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the time is a time after which the request will not be sent to the destination by the television receiver unit.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the scheduling information comprises a date.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the date is an expiration date after which the request will not be sent to the destination by the receiver unit.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the destination is identified by a Uniform Resource Locator (URL).

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the request comprises a Uniform Resource Locator (URL).

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the scheduling information comprises a script.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the receiver unit includes a browser, the browser including a deferrer object and a queue, the method further comprising the script calling a method on the deferrer object such that the request is placed in the queue.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the browser uses information stored in the queue to determine when to send the request to the destination.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving on the receiver unit a second communication from the destination; and

removing the request from the queue in response to the second communication.

16. A method as recited in claim 12, wherein the script includes random functionality so that the scheduling information produces a random period of time to wait.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving on the receiver unit an indication from the destination that the destination received the request; and

displaying at least a portion of the indication that the destination received the request.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the indication that the destination received the request comprises a confirmation number.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the request comprises information entered by a user of the receiver unit.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the first communication is received at the receiver unit from a packet-switched network.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein the request comprises an electronic order.

22. In a computer network which interconnects a plurality of servers and a plurality of receiver units, wherein the receiver units are capable of sending requests to a plurality of destinations for processing, a method of controlling and scheduling when a request is sent to a destination, comprising:

identifying one or more destinations for receiving requests from the plurality of receiver units;

generating scheduling information that indicates a destination for receiving requests and that determines when the receiver units should send requests to the destination, the scheduling information producing different results as between at least some of the receiver units that receive the scheduling information;

creating a first communication that associates the scheduling information with a particular request, thereby allowing the author of the first communication to control the scheduling information that is associated with the particular request and determine when the particular request should be sent; and

distributing the first communication to the plurality of the receiver units so that the receiver units receiving the first communication may send requests according to the scheduling information provided by the first communication.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein the scheduling information is in the form of a script that is either part of a broadcast trigger, a web page or an attachment to a web page.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the scheduling information comprises a script to be executed by the receiver units, the method further comprising including random functionality in the script so that the scheduling information at each of the receiver units executing the script produces a random period of time to wait prior to initiating the particular electronic transaction.

25. The method of claim 22 wherein the destination in the scheduling information is identified by a Uniform Resource Locator (URL).

26. For a computer network which interconnects a plurality of servers and a plurality of receiver units, wherein the receiver units are capable of sending requests to a plurality of destinations for processing, a computer program product comprising a computer readable medium carrying computer-executable instructions that implement a method of controlling and scheduling when a request is sent from a receiver unit to a destination, the method comprising:

receiving at a receiver unit a first communication that includes (i) scheduling information for determining when a request associated with the first communication should be sent for processing, the scheduling information being under the control of an author of the first communication and being capable of differing from one receiver unit to another, and (ii) an indication of a destination to receive and process the request associated with the first communication;

preparing the request to be processed by the destination and storing the request at the receiver unit;

at the receiver unit waiting a period of time determined by the scheduling information before attempting to the send the request to the destination; and

after the period of time, automatically sending the request to the destination for processing.

27. The computer program product of claim 26, wherein the receiver unit is connected to a network, and wherein the method further comprises disconnecting the receiver unit from the network during the period of time.

28. The computer program product of claim 26, wherein storing the request comprises placing the request in a queue.

29. The computer program product of claim 28 wherein the method further comprises:

receiving on the receiver unit, an indication from the destination that the destination received the request; and

removing the request from the queue in response to the indication that the destination received the request.

30. The computer program product of claim 26, wherein the method further comprises incorporating information entered by a user of the receiver unit into the request.

31. For a computer network which interconnects a plurality of servers and a plurality of receiver units, wherein the receiver units are capable of sending requests to a plurality of destinations for processing, a computer program product comprising a computer readable medium for carrying computer-executable instructions that implement a method of controlling and scheduling when a request is sent from a receiver unit to a destination for processing, the method comprising:

identifying one or more destinations for receiving requests from the plurality of receiver units;

providing scheduling information that indicates a destination for receiving requests and that determines when the receiver units should send requests to the destination, the scheduling information producing different results as between at least some of the receiver units that receive the scheduling information;

creating a first communication that associates the scheduling information with a particular request, thereby allowing the author of the first communication to control the scheduling information that is associated with the particular request and determine when the particular request should be sent; and

distributing the first communication to the plurality of the receiver units so that the receiver units receiving the first communication may send requests according to the scheduling information provided by the first communication.

32. The computer program product of claim 31, wherein the scheduling information is in the form of a script that is either part of a broadcast trigger, a web page, or an attachment to a web page.

33. The computer program product of claim 31, wherein the method further comprises including random functionality in the scheduling information so that each of the interactive television receiver units using the scheduling information produces a random period of time to wait prior to initiating the particular electronic transaction.