Patent · US Expired

Delivery of interactive program guide data

US6625810B1 · kind B1 · utility

30Cited by
15References
15Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateFeb 16, 1999
Grant dateSep 23, 2003
Priority date
Expiry dateFeb 16, 2019

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04N21/482
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Interactive program guide (IPG) data is delivered to a receiver from which a program guide can be retrieved. The IPG data includes schedule-data for each of a plurality of time slots, description-data for each of the plurality of time slots, and non-time-sensitive foundation data. The IPG data is delivered by the steps of: (a) delivering a plurality of segments of foundation data having a predetermined closed-loop order; (b) delivering the schedule-data segments for a first time slot; (c) delivering the description-data segments for a first time slot; (d) delivering the schedule-data segments and the description-data segments for each of the remaining time slots; (e) subsequent to the delivery of the first schedule-data segment for each time slot, during a gap of sufficient duration to enable the receiver to allocate memory space for storing all of the schedule-data segments for the time slot, delivering the next non-time-sensitive foundation-data segments in the predetermined order for use by the receiver; and (f) subsequent to the delivery of the first description-data segment for each time slot, during a gap of sufficient duration to enable the receiver to allocate memory space …

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