Radio receiver for information dissemenation using subcarrier

• US 5,406,626 A
• Filed: 03/15/1993
• Issued: 04/11/1995
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/1993
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Macrovision Corporation (Adeia Inc.)
• Inventors: Ryan, John O.
• Primary Examiner(s): Gregory, Bernarr E.
• Application Number:
  US08/031,763
• Time in Patent Office: 757 Days
• Field of Search: 340/905, 364/401, 364/408, 364/409, 364/424.01, 379/100, 455/45
• US Class Current: 705/51
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00086 Circuits for prevention of unauthorised reproduction or copying, e.g. piracy indicating unauthorised use of record carriers in general G11B23/28; scrambling for television signal recording H04N5/913; network architectures or network protocols for network security H04L63/00; cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for secret or secure communication H04L9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/0021 involving encryption or decryption of contents recorded on or reproduced from a record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00224 wherein the key is obtained from a remote server
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00246 wherein the key is obtained from a local device, e.g. device key initially stored by the player or by the recorder
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00413 wherein the key is input by a user
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/0071 involving a purchase action
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/10527 Audio or video recording; Data buffering arrangements G11B20/12 - G11B20/18 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/031 Electronic editing of digitised analogue information signals, e.g. audio or video signals
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/102 Programmed access in sequence to addressed parts of tracks of operating record carriers access by moving the head G11B3/08, G11B5/54, G11B7/085, G11B21/022; by moving the record carrier G11B15/005, G11B17/005, by driving of both record carrier and head G11B15/1816
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/34 Indicating arrangements indicating means incorporated in magazine or cassette G11B23/046 and G11B23/0875; indicating measured values in general G01D
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/34 using an out-of-band subcarrier signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/15 on receiving information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/602 for digital sound signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/04 Systems for the transmission of one television signal, i.e. both picture and sound, by a single carrier H04N7/084, H04N7/087 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/06 Systems for the simultaneous transmission of one television signal, i.e. both picture and sound, by more than one carrier H04N7/084, H04N7/087 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/081 the additional information signals being transmitted by means of a subcarrier
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/0881 the signal being time-compressed before its insertion and subsequently decompressed at reception
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/0882 for the transmission of character code signals, e.g. for teletext circuits for the digital non-picture data signal H04N7/035
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/162 Authorising the user terminal, e.g. by paying; Registering the use of a subscription channel, e.g. billing

Abstract

A radio receiver receives FM subcarrier transmissions, and stores the transmitted textual information in a random access memory. The information is typically news, weather, sports, entertainment or other information of interest. A user interface allows selection from the memory of the stored information via a set of menus controlling a hierarchical database, so as to access particular items of information. A speech synthesizer accepts the accessed textual information items and transforms them into spoken speech. The user interface is either by voice or a single or multi-position switch allowing scanning through and selection from the menu items.

Claims

1. A receiver system comprising:

a radio tuner for demodulating data from a radio signal;

a memory for storing the demodulated data as a database;

a user interface for providing a set of hierarchical menus describing the database, and for accepting selections from the set of menus;

a controller for selecting data from the database in response to the accepted selections and outputting the selected data in an alphanumeric form; and

a speech synthesizer for converting the selected data from alphanumeric form to an analog audio signal representing spoken words.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the radio tuner demodulates the data from an FM radio station carrier.

3. The device of claim 2, wherein the radio tuner includes means for channel skip tuning to a particular FM radio station sideband.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the memory stores the entire database.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the extracted data is encrypted, and further comprising a decryptor for decrypting the extracted data.

6. The device of claim 5, wherein the decryptor is enabled by a key received by the radio tuner.

7. The device of claim 5, wherein the decryptor is enabled by a key device connected to the decryptor.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein the alphanumeric form uses an ASCII code that represents alphanumeric text.

9. The device of claim 1, wherein the user interface is voice activated.

10. The device of claim 1, wherein the user interface includes:

a manual input device for mounting on an automobile steering wheel; and

a wireless link from the manual input device to the controller.

11. The device of claim 1, wherein the user interface includes a control for determining a speed at which the speech synthesizer outputs the analog audio signal.

12. The device of claim 1, wherein the memory stores at least four megabits of the data.

13. The device of claim 1, further comprising:

an amplifier connected to the speech synthesizer for amplifying the analog audio signal; and

means for converting the amplified signal to sound.

14. The device of claim 1, further comprising means for connecting the radio tuner to a radio receiver set.

15. The device of claim 1, further comprising a device for making a printed copy of the selected data.

16. The device of claim 1, wherein the speech synthesizer includes means for generating a plurality of voices.

17. The device of claim 16, wherein the means for generating a plurality of voices includes voice selection depending on a category of the selected data.

18. The device of claim 16, wherein the means for generating a plurality of voices includes voice selection in response to user control.

19. The device of claim 1, further comprising means for designating by a user a hierarchy for the database.

20. A method for transmitting alphanumeric data via a radio signal to a receiver, comprising:

broadcasting the radio signal;

demodulating the alphanumeric data from the radio signal;

determining if the data is encrypted and if encrypted, decrypting the alphanumeric data;

storing the demodulated data in a memory as a database;

generating a set of menus describing the database;

selecting items of the alphanumeric data the set of menus;

selecting from the memory portions of the stored data in response to the selected items, the portions being in alphanumeric form; and

converting the selected portions from the alphanumeric form to an analog audio signal representing spoken words.

21. A receiver system comprising:

a radio tuner for receiving a radio signal;

a demodulator within said radio tuner to detect data in the received signal;

conditional access circuitry for determining whether the data is encrypted;

a decryptor for decrypting any of the data that is encrypted;

a memory for storing the data;

a user interface for generating a set of menus describing the data, and for accepting selections from the set of menus;

a controller for selecting data in response to the accepted selections and outputting the selected data in alphanumeric form; and

a speech synthesizer for converting the selected data from an alphanumeric form to an analog audio signal representing spoken words.