Patent · US Expired

System manager and hypertext control interface for interactive cable television system

US6305020A · kind A · utility

135Cited by
93References
11Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateDec 9, 1997
Grant dateOct 16, 2001
Priority date
Expiry dateDec 9, 2017

Classification

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

Abstract

A system manager for use with an interactive cable system. The cable system has (i) an information service network for delivering information services to subscriber televisions, (ii) a plurality of home interface controllers, each home interface controller associated with a subscriber television and having a data transceiver operative over a data communications link to the headend, (iii) a plurality of subscriber selection devices, each such device associated with a home interface controller and in communication with the data transceiver thereof, for permitting subscriber interaction, and (iv) a plurality of interactive controllers, disposed at the headend, each interactive controller in assignable television communication over the network with a subscriber television and in data communication with a subscriber selection device. The system manager includes a call set-up server to receive and handle an initial data exchange with a calling home interface controller; a first service allocation server to pass communication and control associated with the calling home interface controller to one of a plurality of first application processors, with each first application processor being …

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