Patent · US Expired

User interface for selecting television information services through pseudo-channel access

US5587734A · kind A · utility

114Cited by
76References
6Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateNov 3, 1994
Grant dateDec 24, 1996
Priority date
Expiry dateNov 3, 2014

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04N2007/1739
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A cable system in which a plurality of non-interactive channels occupy a first group of carrier frequencies and a plurality of pseudo-channels, each assigned to an information service from a plurality of information services, are carried by a second group of carrier frequencies. A tuner is controlled by a processor in response to a channel selector. If the selected channel number represents a non-interactive channel the tuner is set to that channel. If the selected channel number is a pseudo-channel representing an interactive service, the tuner is set to an assigned carrier frequency in the second group of carrier frequencies. The assigned carrier frequency is provided from a cable control mode to a data receiver at the subscriber's television interface controller. Channels are selected from a single numerical sequence of channel numbers.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.