Patent · US Expired

Interactive home terminal employing common consumer-electronics as components in a manner to facilitate the bi-directional communication of data

US5990882A · kind A · utility

34Cited by
6References
6Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateApr 24, 1997
Grant dateNov 23, 1999
Priority date
Expiry dateApr 24, 2017

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04N21/8173
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A consumer's interactive home terminal equipment includes a television (1). video tape recorder (2) and a telephone apparatus (6) or bidirectional paging device. The video tape recorder serves as both a mass storage and an input channel for new basic information, the television is a display device, and the telephone apparatus, advantageously a digital mobile phone, is a bidirectional communications channel to the outside world. A video cassette (3), which contains in picture format certain input forms, is inserted in the video tape recorder and an input form is displayed (10) on the television screen (4) to the user. The user fills out the necessary input fields (11) and the picture is converted (12) into a telephone short message or data call to be sent forward (13, 14, 15). An acknowledgment or other answer (16) received via telephone is stored (17) on the video cassette in picture format.

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