Interactive information system for home users
8 claims: 2 independent, 6 dependent
- 1PATENTOVÉ NÁROKY 1. Interaktivní televizní informační systém pro přenášení videobrazových informací do domácích televizorů spřažený rozvodným systémem kabelové televize, vyznačující se t í m , že zahrnuje oblastní zpracovatelské středisko pro shromaždování uvedených videoobrazových informací za účelem jejich přenášení rozvodným systémem kabelové televize, a alespoň jeden uzel připojený na uvedený rozvodný systém kabelové televize pro zachycování a ukládání videoobrazových informací, tento uzel je přitom ve spojení s alespoň jedním z domácích televizorů, přičemž účastník - předplatitel kabelové televize sledující jeden z domácích televizorů může videoobrazové informace uložené v uvedeném sdruženém uzlu komunikačními povely zobrazovat a vstupovat s nimi do interakce, přičemž každý z uzlů rozvodného systému kabelové televize obsahuje v podstatě stejnou kopii videoobrazových informací vysílaných distribučním kabelovým systémem oblastním zpracovatelským střediskem tak, že účastník - předplatitel vstupuje přímo do interakce s videoobrazovými informacemi uloženými v uzlu a ne s videoobrazovými informacemi uloženými v oblastním zpracovatelském středisku.
- 2Interaktivní televizní informační systém podle nároku 1, vyznačující se tím, že uvedené uzly zahrnují prostředky pro vysílání uvedených videoobrazových informací do domácích televizorů na video kmitočtech nepoužívaných systémem kabelového televizního rozvodu pro přenášení normálních programů kabelové televize.
- 3Interaktivní televizní informační systém podle nároku 2, vyznačující se tím, že každý z uvedených domácích televizorů obsahuje připojenou řídící jednotku domácího propojovacího modulu s prostředky pro přijímání jednoho z většího množství kanálů vysílaných uvedeným uzlem v konkurenčním režimu, přičemž uvedené řídící jednotce domácího propojovacího modulu je po aktivováni přidělen jeden kanál z uzlu neobsazený žádnou jinou řídící jednotkou domácího propojovacího modulu napojenou na uzel, videoobrazové informace jsou přitom přenášeny z uzlu do řídící jednotky domácího propojovacího modulu uvedeným přiděleným kanálem.
- 4Interaktivní televizní informační systém podle nároku 3, vyznačující se tím, že zahrnuje dále prostředky propojené s uvedenými řídícími jednotkami domácích propojovacích modulů pro vytištění informací přijímaných z uvedeného přidruženého uzlu.
- 5Interaktivní televizní informační systém podle nároku 1, vyznačující se tím, že dále zahrnuje koncovou stanici pro distribuci programů kabelové televize účastníkům - předplatitelům systému kabelového rozvodu a pro komprimování vybraných televizních kanálů, a alespoň jeden uzel propojený se systémem rozvodu kabelové televize pro dekomprimování vybraných televizních kanálů, které byly komprimovány v uvedené koncové stanici, dekomprimované televizní kanály jsou přitom na vyžádání distribuovány účastníkům - předplatitelům kabelové televize sledujícím domácí televizory napojené na uvedený uzel.
- 6Interaktivní televizní informační systém podle nároku 3, vyznačující se tím, že uvedená řídící jednotka domácího propojovacího modulu zahrnuje obvody snímače obrazu pro ukládání obrázků videoobrazových informací z uvedeného uzlu takového typu, že uvedený kanál z uzlu je přidělován řídící jednotce domácího propojovacího modulu pouze tehdy, jestliže jsou z uzlu do řídící jednotky přenášený videoobrazové informace, přičemž uvedený kanál je uvolněn pro přenos videoobrazové informace do ostatních řídících jednotek domácích propojovacích modulů po celou další dobu.
- 7Interaktivní televizní informační systém pro přenášení videoobrazových informací do domácích televizorů prostřednictvím telefonního systému využívajícího optických vláken, vyznačující se tím, že zahrnuje oblastní zpracovatelské středisko pro shromaždování a zpracovávání uvedených videoobrazových informací za účelem jejich přenášení uvedeným telefonním systémem využívajícím optických vláken, a alespoň jeden uzel umístěný v dálkovém terminálu telefonního systému využívajícího optických vláken pro zachycování a ukládání zpracovaných a zkompletovaných videoobrazových informací, videoobrazové informace jsou na požádání distribuovány z uzlu do domácích televizorů sledovaných účastníky - předplatiteli. Způsob pro přenášení interaktivních videoobrazových informací do domácích televizorů napojených na systém rozvodu kabelové televize, vyznačující se tím, že obsahuje krok zpracování a zkompletování informací v oblastním zpracovatelském středisku, dále krok vysílání zpracovaných a zkompletovaných informací z oblastního zpracovatelského střediska do většího množství uzlů v uvedeném systému rozvodu kabelové televize, kde je každý z uzlů sdružen alespoň s jedním z domácích televizorů, přičemž každý z uzlů přijímá a ukládá v podstatě totožnou kopii zpracovaných a zkompletovaných informací, a jako další krok přenos videoobrazové informace uložené v uzlu do domácího televizoru sdruženého s uzlem v odpověčf na povely přijímané od účastníka-předplatitele systému rozvodu kabelové televize takovým způsobem, že účastník vstupuje do přímé interakce s videoobrazovými informacemi uloženými v přidruženém uzlu, ale nikoliv s videoobrazovými informacemi uloženými v oblastním zpracovatelském středisku.
- 89. Způsob přenášení interaktivní videoobrazové informace podle nároku 8,vyznačující se tím, že dále obsahuje krok použití informací uložených v uvedeném uzlu pro řízení zařízeni v domácnosti účastníka - předplatitele.
Independent claims8
165 paragraphs, as filed
Field of technology
The present invention relates to an interactive system using multiple media to convey information to users in their homes, and more particularly to an interactive multimedia system with distributed processing and storage of information provided to a user via existing cable television distribution systems to which the system is permanently connected.
Prior art
Distributed processing and storage represent relatively new approaches to working with data and - due to various technological limitations - they have not yet been considered for use in the field of videotext information. The PRODIGY / R / information service, which is now offered nationwide in the Sears and IBM markets, is said to use a distributed database architecture. However, the system only distributes databases to regional mainframes. Their core technology - like other commonly used videotext information technologies - is still based solely on maintaining continuous two-way real-time communication between a personal computer / or other terminal / located in the home and a mainframe computer installed anywhere. Almost all videotext information centers use telephone lines and modems to connect the two above-mentioned units, although some attempts have been made with two-way cable television and other media. However, existing systems are severely limited in many respects.
Because each user of a traditional videotext information system is directly connected to a central computer, the coupled computer must be able to satisfy many subscribers at the same time in the initial period after disconnection, while remaining almost unused for the remainder. With the growing number of participants, the system needs to be expanded at great expense with additional mainframe computers. Any problems, whether on the host computer or in the communication network connecting it to the users, can result in a functional failure of the entire system.
The speed at which information can be retrieved from such systems is limited by the speed at which the host computer can recognize user queries and search for information in its centrally stored media. Even the largest and fastest hosts cannot overcome the severe limitations of the speed at which information can be transmitted over a telephone line or other media through which these computers are connected to a user. Telephone lines have a narrow bandwidth and can only transmit a limited amount of information at a given time. For example, at an assumed normal communication speed of 2400 baud, it will take 8 to 10 seconds for the main computer to send text information filling the screen to the user's terminal over a telephone line. In the case of complex graphics or photographic quality images, the transfer could take more than 1/2 hour per image.
The latest Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) technologies and fiber-optic cable technologies will provide greater information transfer capacity in the commercial sphere, but the installation of these networks in a larger number of private apartments cannot be expected for the next ten years. Moreover, even if fiber-optic cables were used to connect the host computer to the home terminal, even the largest computers would not be enough for the entire city of users, especially not in the initial period. For example, the largest ticket reservation system can only process 8000 transactions per second.
Until recently, the problem of bandwidth has not received adequate attention from experts dealing with this issue - all computer interfaces were character-oriented or worked with alpha-mosaic displays with very low resolution, using protocols such as NAPLPS or Teletel. While simple character-based information is relatively easy to transmit over a telephone line, it is difficult to interpret and use the resulting display. Even simple alpha-mosaic displays take a relatively long time - about eight seconds - to transmit information over a telephone line. The level of interactivity is therefore low, and in addition, such systems become uninteresting and difficult to use due to poorer display quality. Then, when it becomes commonplace, it usually finds that the difficulty of using these systems to obtain useful information, along with their slow and uninteresting graphics, makes it much more attractive to other, classic ways of searching for information, ie working with information in printed form.
Graphical user interfaces, especially those that achieve high resolution - photorealistic displays - are far more interesting and easier to use, but require much more data to be transmitted to create interesting images that promptly meet user requirements. What videotext information workers have neglected was the fact that while broadband data media remain very limited, or expensive, the relative cost of storage media such as magnetic disk drives, direct access chips (DRAMs), and other forms of data storage , have fallen very rapidly, as have the prices of fast microprocessors, which can access and display data stored on storage media with high selection efficiency. It follows that the maximum distributed architecture should overcome the bandwidth constraints and provide a cost-effective and very fast-running information system. The system according to the invention takes advantage of the above-mentioned technological changes, which are constantly occurring, and thus overcomes the mentioned problems in the field of videotext information.
The essence of the invention
The present invention, unlike prior art systems of its kind, offers easily comprehensible photographic quality images and moving video, accompanied by sound (word and music), along with traditional textual and graphical information. This combination is referred to among experts as a multimedia system. It is only feasible because the data required by the user of the present invention is stored locally in the memory of a processing module or node serving a particular household or group of households through an installed broadband medium - a coaxial television cable connection leading to and directed to each household. directly to the television. Because each local node can serve all the households connected to it, and because it is independent of any central computer except for daily updates, the whole system is also very reliable and economically adaptable. The performance of the system will not change, whether it is used by only two or two hundred home users at a time. It will work and provide information to end users even if the update source, usually the processing center computer, is out of service for some time.
Briefly, the system of the present invention includes a regional processing center for assembling and processing information to be transmitted over a television cable distribution system and at least one node connected to the cable television distribution system for collecting and storing processed and assembled information, the node being associated with at least one home TV.
It is advantageous if many television subscribers share information stored in one node. The subscriber can display the information stored in the node to which he is connected and interact with them using communication commands sent to the node. Since each of the nodes in the cable distribution system contains essentially a set of information identical to the information transmitted from the regional processing center, the subscriber is in direct dialogue with the information stored in the node but not with the information stored in the regional processing center. Each of the nodes of the system is connected to the supply cable of the television cable distribution in the place immediately following the line extension amplifier (approximately every quarter mile). As a rule, there are one to ten taps with four or more outputs between each of the two line extension amplifiers on the supply cable, which according to the invention are served by only one node. The nodes transmit information to home televisions on frequencies of television channels not used by the cable distribution system to transmit a normal cable television program. Usually these frequencies are higher than the band of the last used cable TV channel.
Inserts - adapters for the supply line are used to connect the nodes to the supply cable. These inserts include a low pass filter to block information from any of the nodes above (upstream), while the frequencies used by the cable system for normal cable television transmission go unattenuated in the downstream direction.
Nodes send information to the home TVs associated with them over a large number of frequency channels. The control unit of the home connection module / interface / installed at the TV in each household, receives and decodes a certain channel from the node, preferably on the next available frequency channel in
in the mode of competitive operation. The interface controller communicates back to the node in narrower frequency request mode. In this competitive embodiment, each home interface control unit includes an electronic section that decodes only the channel assigned to it for viewing / image / by the user. In other uses of the invention, the control units communicate with their associated node on a non-competitive basis.
As described above, the user searches for certain information presented using multiple different media / audio, video, i.e. multimedia / by sending commands back to the node. These commands are forwarded to the node via a return path using available cable television lines. This distribution is also used by their own multimedia information transmitted from the node to home televisions.
It is advantageous if the users of the system are equipped with a touch panel for remote control, either in the version with a complete typewriter keyboard or without it, so that they can enter user commands to the control unit connected to their television. As an alternative or extended embodiment, there are control units adapted to receive commands from a conventional PC keyboard via an interface operating with infrared frequencies connected to the keyboard.
Another existing option offers printer users to print permanent records of information received from the node, including tickets to social entertainment events or vouchers for discounts on goods, etc.
The best configuration of the system is such that the user's responses can be transmitted directly from the subscriber terminals to the selected merchants. User responses are returned to the selected merchants after passing through the subscriber cable to the node and sending downstream user responses to the end node at which the telephone line is located via the telephone line connected to the node and / or the upstream nodes. As an optional extension, an automatic dialing device can be installed for the convenience of the user, so that the user's telephone number can be dialed and allowed to speak directly to the merchant offering the goods through a system, e.g. the seller of a particular item described in the system under a specific advertisement.
Advantageously, the nodes of the present invention can also be used to decompress compressed television programs and to distribute decompressed programs to users connected to the system.
The significance of the present invention for the electronic distribution of information and the multimedia industry lies in the fact that it makes it possible to deliver photographic quality images as well as sound, moving video recordings simultaneously to millions of households. The system can handle even periods of peak load, and what is not the most important, it can provide information perceptually similar to what the home viewer used to expect from network television, ie interesting color three-dimensional graphics, photographic quality images and fluently presented texts. These possibilities surpass the standard of existing systems with limited graphics, which looks more like video games, and with blurred, imperfectly presented texts. Earlier videotext information systems could not achieve more resp. offer better quality without using the approach outlined in this brief summary and elaborated in more detail below.
Overview of pictures in the drawing
Said and other characteristics and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent upon reading the following text in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Giant. 1 illustrates the construction of a regional network according to the invention, in which the regional device receives data for pre-processing for all cities in the area and distributes pre-processed data to the respective cable television distributions, the data are then transmitted in the network .
Giant. 2 illustrates hardware according to the present invention connected to a conventional cable television system. Giant. 2A-2C show various variants of interconnection of nodes with cable television distribution.
Giant. 3 shows a diagram of the connection of a node according to the invention to a conventional television supply cable and the connection of the node to a cable household user.
Giant. 4 shows the bandwidth utilization of the system by a conventional television.
Giant. 5 is a schematic diagram of an interposed section of a power cable that is used to connect each node to the power cable.
Giant. 6A and B together show a diagram of a node.
Giant. 7 is a schematic illustration of an extension amplifier module used to connect additional channels to a node.
Giant. 8 is a schematic illustration of a control unit of a home interface module that provides an interface between a node and a user's television receiver. Giant. 8A is a block diagram of image sensor circuits in a home interface module control unit.
Giant. 9 is a diagram of a second way of using the invention, where the interconnection module on the branch makes it possible to reduce the number of electronic elements in each control unit of the home interconnection module.
Giant. 10 is a schematic illustration of a node in a second embodiment of the invention.
Giant. 11A and 11B together represent a basic diagram of a jumper interconnection module used in a second method of using the invention in a competitive operating mode.
Giant. 12 is a basic diagram of a junction interface module used in a second method of using the invention in a non-competitive operating mode.
Giant. 13 is a basic diagram of a simplified control unit of a home interface module used in a second embodiment of the invention.
Giant. 14 is a basic diagram of yet another method of using the invention, in which all elements of the node electronics are located in the control unit of each user's home interconnection module.
Giant. 15 is a schematic diagram of a remote control touch panel device that is most suitable for use with the system of the present invention.
Giant. 16-18 show: in the first case a PC keyboard interface module designed as an optional extension, in the second case a telephone interface module for a home interface module control unit, and in the third case a video input electronics for loading user videos to create header advertisements.
Giant. 19 shows the effect of the device according to the invention on the electronics for remote control in the subscriber's home.
Giant. 20 shows a method of using the invention in which information is transmitted to nodes from an external source.
Giant. 21-25 illustrate various schemes of using bandwidth to distribute decompressed television programs using the nodes of the present invention.
Giant. 26 illustrates an embodiment where the nodes of the invention are located at remote telephone company exchanges interconnected by fiber optic cables.
Giant. 27 illustrates an embodiment of the invention in which high frequency distribution nodes are utilized, with all electronics and memory capacities concentrated in a node at a television cable terminal.
Giant. 28A shows simplified electronics of a distribution node.
Giant. 28B shows electronics for compressing / decompressing an image in a node, and FIG. 28C shows electronics for an interposed section in a supply cable for a distribution node.
Examples of embodiments of the invention
I. Recapitulation of the system / overview /
The present invention relates to a distributed computer system that offers a wealth of consumer-oriented information and advertising materials. The user enters the dialogue with the system via the remote control device, watching the output of the system on the unmodified television set simply as another television channel.
The small home control unit of the connection module containing the remote control receiver is located at the top of the TV and is connected to the TV cable in series with the TV. This unit transmits the user's commands given via the remote control back against the direction of data flow through the subscriber channel of the cable TV connection to the local computer.
- referred to as a node - which is connected ε by a cable line - outside the household.
The node computer is in direct interaction with the user and has a complete copy of all the data of the entire system stored on the internal storage medium, such as a hard disk. This host computer is perfect in all respects and does not need to contact the host computer to complete the information required by the user. Nodal computers are located in wiring on poles, underground or in the basements of residential buildings, each of which serves about 40 households.
II. Information flow through the system
With reference to the drawings, in which the same reference numerals denote the same elements, and in particular with reference first to FIG.
1, the data for the system comes from different contractual information or service providers. Data from these providers are received by computer modem via telephone lines 2 by the regional processing center 4. Advertisements and information overviews such as advertisements, resp. Ads of a certain category with a header and television program listings, comes to the regional center £ during the day. This information is processed and compiled into data magazines for each cable distribution according to the requirements of individual customers. The magazine of processed data is ready for transmission until the next morning, with the proviso that it is transmitted via a computer modem over telephone lines J6 to a computer 8 located in the cable terminal 10 of the target cable distribution.
The terminal computer 8 functions as a storage and redirection device receiving the data and transmitting it to all nodes 12 via the cable distribution 14. The terminal computer 8 transmits the updated data at a rate of 9600 bits per second, which appears to be the most advantageous or higher. The entire set of updated data is transmitted repeatedly until the following day. This ensures that error data caused by random noise and uncorrected by error correction codes in the blocks is corrected the next time the data file is passed.
It should be noted that the computer of the 8th terminal, which functions only as a buffer, is not a mandatory element of the system, ie. that the system could run data transmitted from the regional processing center 4 directly to the nodes 12. The computer of the terminal 8 is nevertheless included in the recommended use of the invention, as it provides one additional backup memory level in case of regional processing center failure.
The home user comes into contact with the system using a remote control device operating in the infrared frequency band. The remote control signal is received by a unit at the top of the receiver, referred to as the home interface module / HIC / 16 control unit. The HIC 16 sends user commands received from the remote control back to the cable connection to node 12, which is already outside the user's home.
Some of the information and services introduced into the system offer interactive sessions with the user, such as the purchase of theater tickets, music or sports programs, or even home delivery purchases. The user's choices are transmitted from the node 12 via the supply cable to the last node in the direction of data flow (end node), and from there back to the end station computer 8 via the telephone line 18 connected to the end node. Computer 8. the terminal then transmits the user's response packets back to the regional center 4 via the telephone lines 20. The regional processing center 1 converts the user's response packets into the format expected by the particular service provider and transmits the user data back to the respective service provider via the computer modem over the telephone line 22.
III. Information content and system database
Common information provided by the system includes television programs one month in advance, advertisements, resp. advertisements classified by header, advertisements and overviews such as sensational tabloid rights, guides to local restaurants, overviews of local entertainment programs, various partial information such as the latest sports results, financial news, traffic situations, current weather radar map and forecasts.
Various information sources and advertisements will be based on image information from the digitized video format, on the radio from the digitized audio recording and on text information from ASCII or EBCDIC text. Reports and advertisements will be transmitted from the regional processing center 4 via a computer modem from the computer of the supplier of this information / computer-computer connection /.
The Regional Processing Center 4. converts and normalizes the input digitized images, digitized audio and text into a standardized system format. The normalized data is then moved to the object-oriented database. Each object in the database consists of one or more of the following components: one or more digitized images of photographic or computer graphics /e.g. sequences of images for animation /, digitized audio recordings, metatext writing language / to be defined, based on user input, when and how to show images and play sound /, textual information / such as own ad text under a certain header or company address and office hours /, the coordinates of the location of the company or store / usable for calculating the distance of the store from the user's house /, and entries in the thesaurus / used to store associations / assignments / between objects /.
After normalization and storage in the target database, the data are grouped by category / TV program reports, advertisements sorted by header, etc./. The grouped / categorized / data is then further processed to achieve a valid assignment or meaning between data objects. Assignments, where they are valid, are attached to the relevant objects in the form of thesaurus entries, so the assignments move with the data object.
The above-mentioned metacommunication language is used to guide the program of the user's interface module in transposing the user's commands from the remote control device to the functional interventions visible on the user's television screen. These operations may include, for example, presenting an image and playing an audio recording when the home user places the on-screen cursor on a specific icon, word, or other image using the remote control and then presses the PLAY button on the remote control.
The data objects of the system database are made up of advertisements in the form of layered or stored information in the stack, which allow the viewer to search in the stack (similar to turning pages in a catalog) and find layers of information that interest him. Layered advertising is a video-like catalog or consumer guide, in which the user can, at will, browse and view parts that seem interesting to him.
Structuring data of the layered advertisement type / advertisement / is also applicable to any type of information contained in the network. Ads mediated by the system may be text-only, such as a simple ad for a used car, or may contain an image of a used car offered for sale. The system can store and display the entire department store catalog in layers with hundreds of images and sound recordings in one object module. Alternatively, the system allows to store as an object module a list of information such as a monthly overview of television programs. On request, this monthly program guide can be extended with selected images of actors from movie scenes or TV shows that appear on the screen along with the soundtrack while the viewer goes through the menu of TV programs.
In summary, the system uses a universal approach to creating and storing files of various types of information, from audiovisual moving sequences to textual information overviews to static images. Layered data structures offer a decoding and display logic with which the user is in interactive contact, uniformly structured material.
Information and service providers, advertising agencies, newspaper advertising departments, etc. are equipped with videographic workstations based on popular personal computers. These workstations have patented / special and commercial software that allows third-party partners to create definitive, broadcastable ads by combining short sections of moving sequences with still images and sound. These advertisements can then be transmitted via modem to the regional processing center, where they are prepared for incorporation into the system database.
IV. Overview of the distributed system architecture
The Regional Processing Center 4. is to ensure the processing and completion of information files / referred to as magazines / for each cable distribution. Once the data is collected and processed in the regional center 4., it is ready for presentation to the viewer. You only need to move them to nodes 12 to make them available to home users.
Nodes 12 are the endpoints of the distributed system architecture of the present invention. Each node can serve up to 60 households in competitive mode (with optional node extension module 124, which will be discussed below), in which up to 31 of the 60 households can use the node independently and simultaneously. The home user interacts with the node 12 via the control unit of the home interface module 16. which it controls by means of the touch panel of a remote control device 40 operating in the infrared frequency band (discussed in more detail below).
Node 12 receives and stores on the internal high-capacity medium all advertising data transmitted by the computer of the end station 8. The daily transmissions from the regional center to the computer 8 and further from the computer 8 of the end station to the nodes 12 relate only to changes in the node database. These changes consist in adding new data, deleting outdated, invalid data and changes to existing data. These updates cover approximately 20% of the total database for a given day, although the system is designed to make a 100% change each night.
The entire database with which the user interacts is local to the user. A full bandwidth television channel is introduced into each household from node 12. A cable system can use a thousand or more nodes. This fact contrasts with the possibilities of previous and new videotext systems, which communicate via telephone lines via 1/1000 of the TV channel bandwidth and use a single main computer to serve the entire city with tens of thousands or more users.
V. Interface between the system and the cable television distribution
Referring to Figures 1 and 2, it is assumed that some advertisements are created in the offices of the information providers and in the agencies on the workstations. Information reports such as television programs, cinema programs and advertisements classified under certain headings are received from providers via a computer modem by telephone line 2. to the regional processing center 4, where they are transposed into object object modules.
After normalization, the object modules are grouped together for transfer to the appropriate cable television distribution system. The data magazine / group of advertisements / is transmitted over the leased line .6 preferably with a transmission speed of 56 Kb / s / although the transmission speed can range between 2400 b / s up to TI /1.544 Mb / s /. The terminal computer then transmits the data magazine at the appropriate transmission rate (preferably 9600 baud) via cable television to all nodes 12 at the same time, thus updating the node databases.
The most advantageous type of terminal computer 8 is an industrial, microprocessor-based control computer with large-capacity magnetic or optical memories for reading and writing. The computer of the terminal station 8 transmits a high-frequency signal in the band 74 MHz (between television channels four and five). This signal is modulated using a simple frequency shift keying / FSK / technique, optimally at 9600 bps.
Based on the data, the modulated 74 MHz signal is combined with the cable television signals in the cable television terminal 10 via a high-frequency combiner and retransmits the cable television channels. In normal, resp. In typical cable television wiring, the output of a high frequency combiner is connected to a coaxial cable 24 of a long-distance connecting line. This long-distance line 24, for which a high-quality coaxial cable is used, forms the backbone of the cable distribution. In order to maintain the signal strength, main amplifiers 26 are located on the long-distance line at a quarter of a mile. system connected individual residential streets.
Like the trunk cable 24, the supply cable 30 is equipped with amplifiers, referred to as line extension units, which are spaced in sections of about 1/4 mile, which generally corresponds to ten telephone poles. At each telephone mast, and sometimes at half the distance between them, taps 34 are installed on the supply cable. Each tap 34 usually has four to eight outputs to which the connecting subscriber cables 36 are connected. The subscriber line 36 is routed to a house and routed inside to users' televisions 38. Typically, two line extension units are installed in the supply cable, sometimes three, but rarely more due to signal quality.
At the beginning of the supply cable, just behind the bridge amplifier 28, one node 12 is located. Additional nodes 12 are then located along each supply cable 30 behind each line extension unit. To illustrate: approximately 8,000 expansion unit amplifiers will be installed in a large cable distribution system for 100,000 households requiring an average of 2,000 million supply cables. The corresponding number of nodes in such a distribution system would be 8,000.
In an alternative use of the invention shown in Fig. 2A, a node connected to the beginning of the supply cable 30 may also serve households up to the first extension unit 32 on other supply cables connected to the same bridge amplifier 28. If a return path is added, one node 12 may serve households on both sides of the expansion unit 32, as shown in Fig. 2B. Finally, as shown in FIG. 2C, if the extension units 32 on the supply cable are extended to transmit 650 MHz, and if a return path is added, one node can serve all households on multiple supply cables from a single bridge amplifier 28.
The home user interacts with the system via a remote control device 40 operating in the infrared frequency band. The remote control signal is received by the control unit of the home connection module (HIC) located at the top of the user's television 38. The HIC 16 is connected in series to the user's cable connection 36 / and the converter box, if the cable uses the user's television . User commands are sent back over the subscriber cable connection and branch 34 to node 12 on a mast near the house. This signaling between the HIC .16 and the node 12 takes place in the band 5 to 50 MHz, which is reserved for the reverse signaling channel in all cable systems.
The last node 42 on each power cable 30 has a connection to a telephone line 18 allowing user responses to be sent back to the end station computer 8. All nodes on the power cable (usually 2) facing the end node 42 send upstream responses of users connected to them. to the end node 42 by means of a high-frequency signal in the band 74.5 MHz (between channel 4 and 5), preferably at a transmission rate of 9600 bps. The circuit is terminated by the terminal computer 8 sending user responses back to the regional processing center 4 via the data line 20.
In summary, the system transmits the updated data via cable without occupying the cable channels due to the fact that it uses the free space between the channels.
The return path for interactive services is along the subscriber connection to the node at low frequencies, then in the direction of data flow through the interchannel space along the supply cable always to its end, then along telephone lines back to the terminal computer and then again over telephone lines to the regional computer. processing center and from there by telephone to the relevant service provider. The total delay of signal transmission from the user back to the service provider is not more than 5 seconds.
VI. Frequency band used by the system
Referring to Figures 3, 4 and 5, each node 12 transmits on up to 32 standard television channels. These 32 channels are transmitted continuously as a block of adjacent channels above the last channel used by cable television. For example, if a cable television system offers 50 broadcast channels, then the system of the present invention will use channels 51 to 82. According to the present invention, frequencies 462 to 654 MHz would be used if the cable television system operated in the 50 to 450 MHz band. If the cable television system used the 50 to 300 MHz waveband, the system of the present invention would operate at 312 to 450 MHz, etc. These frequencies pass through tap 34 and all household splitters, but do not pass through extension units 32 or bridge amplifiers on trunk 28 not weakened. These out-of-band frequencies are unusable by the cable television system from the end station due to the bandwidth limitations of the series of long-distance and supply amplifiers.
The shaded areas in Fig. 4 show the use of the frequency band. The vertical gray bands passing through 28 and 32 represent areas of minimum frequency bandwidth. A typical cable television system, as already stated, is in the frequency band 300 to 450 MHz. Node 12 evaluates the unused frequency bandwidth of the supply cable 30, taps 34 and subscriber connection 36 to the household, which is at least 600 MHz. It is shown graphically by a horizontal hatched surface 44. Each node only serves taps up to the next expansion unit 3, which usually represents less than 20 taps in total and an average of 30 households / per tap /.
Some signals in the range 462 to 654 MHz from the nodes 12 pass through the extension units 32, because these units do not interrupt the signals above their cutoff frequency, which in our case is 450 MHz. To solve this problem, the interleaved section on the supply cable 46 has a built-in low pass filter 48, which sharply interrupts the signal in the band above 450 MHz, so that another node 12 can reuse the frequency band 462 to 654 MHz for the next set of taps to the next spreader. line unit, etc.
When the user presses a button on the IR control panel 40 operating in the infrared (IR) band, the HIC 16 receives a command and modulates it to an 11 MHz signal, which it sends over the branch line 36 via the subscriber line 36. via the interposed section of line 46 to node 12. The interposed section of the power cable 46 includes a narrowband latch 49, which prevents further 11 MHz signal from moving further upstream (in the pictures to the left) in bidirectional cable television systems having installed in expansion units 32 and bridge amplifiers 28. return path amplifiers / 5 to 50 MHz /.
All HICs 16 send a signal to node 12 at 11 MHz. To avoid network congestion, node 12 calls the HIC 16 at 12 MHz on a cyclic basis. Data for the .50 printer is also transmitted on the specified HIC when the user selects printable material on the screen, such as theater tickets or department store coupons. A third way to use this 12 MHz frequency is to status the available channel status from node 12 to HICs 16. When the user first grabs the remote control panel and presses one button, HIC 16 reads this status word and selects the lowest available channel if available. The HIC 16 then reports back to node 12 on 11 MHz to reserve the channel.
For interactive services, such as mail order business or ticketing, user responses must be routed back to the appropriate service provider. As already mentioned, the two-way interactivity of the system is ensured by a chain of storage and redirection nodes. Assume that the user interacts with the node at the far left of Figure 4. The user's responses are transmitted on 11 MHz from the HIC 16 and proceed to node 12 via port 36. Node 12 transmits user responses at 74.5 MHz to the last node 42 over the supply cable 30. The end node 42 comprises a modem 67 / FIG. 6A and transmits the user's responses over the telephone lines 18 to the computer of the central station 8, which routes the user's responses to the regional processing center 4, which finally passes them to the respective service provider. The total delay of the user's response to the service provider will not exceed 5 seconds.
VII. Node characteristics and HIC
All but one of the system's channels are interactive. These interactive channels are allocated on an operator-by-arrival basis. All channels are scrambled, so a certain channel can only be watched in the home that has been assigned. Once allocated, the channel is decoded by the HIC 16 for the needs of the respective viewer. The system channel is assigned to a single household on request (in order to request the channel, the user activates the remote control device 40). The channel remains assigned to the user until it is released, or until a certain number of minutes have elapsed during which the user remains completely passive.
There is a sufficient number of channels available for each of the nodes, which allows competition in a ratio of 2: 1 or greater. The high frequency audio / video modules (described below in connection with Fig. 6B) are inserted into circuits (4 channels per module) so that the node is adequately occupied for the desired level of competition.
Once a system channel is assigned to one user of the approximately forty households that can apply for it, the home user enters an individual interaction with node 12.
In other households, this channel is not traceable. For the user, the system is represented by the channel assigned to his television. The user interacts with the system using a remote control device 40 to move the screen pointer to a selected icon, text or image. Then, by pressing the button labeled PLAY on the control device 40, it selects the material and recalls the desired information.
When the user tunes in the system channel, the latest TV program overview appears on the screen. All cable television recipients can use this service simply by tuning the cable television channel reserved for the system according to the invention. After tuning to this channel, the user watches the non-interactive channel of the system. If the user presses any button on the remote control's touch panel £ 0, he sends a system channel assignment request to node 12. The system then automatically connects it to one of the 31 assignable interactive channels (provided that at least one of them is available) and the user can start using the system without registering a channel change.
The change from a non-interactive display-only channel to an interactive channel is implemented by the control unit of the home interface module / HIC / 16 located at the top of the user's television 38. The controller. the home interconnection module unit 16 monitors the data stream at a frequency of 12 MHz keyed by a frequency shift from the node 12 modulated by the HIC activation command 16 on the principle of cyclic operation. (An alternative solution according to the invention uses the vertical blanking interval of the non-interactive channel to receive commands from the node for channel allocation and release).
Because the user usually spends a lot of time looking at menus and other stationary information displays while working with the system, the virtual channel may be released for use by other users during these dead periods / if no new information is received from the node / by installing an image sensor. in each HIC. Thus, the user is assigned a virtual channel only during short periods of time when data is actually transmitted from the node to the HIC, thereby streamlining the use of virtual channels while eliminating network congestion problems.
The image sensor 39, captured in detail in Fig. 8A, consists of the control logic of the image sensor 202 of the video D / A converter 204, the video RAM 206, the video A / D converter 208 and the NTSC encoder 212. The actual functions of the image sensor: once the control logic of the image sensor 202 receives a trigger pulse from the CPU 80. activates at an appropriate time / derived from the sync pulses the NTSC / video D / A converter 204 which digitizes the video image. The obtained data set is then stored in the video RAM 206 at the address determined by the image sensor control logic 202. The data file stored in the video RAM 206 is converted back to the video D / A converter 208 (under the control logic of the image sensor 202). sent to the NTSC encoder 212 and further output to the A / B switch 41. The A / B switch 41, controlled by the CPU 80, passes the video either from the virtual channel or from the image sensor 39 to the high frequency modulator 98, from where it is transmitted to the user's television set, as described below. While the A / B switch 41 passes video from the image sensor 39 to the user, the stored data set is read repeatedly from the RAM 206, converted to video, and forwarded to the user's television. This process continues until the viewer decides to proceed to the next page or image on their television.
As shown in Fig. 8, the electronic section of the control unit of the home interface module 16 is intended not only for converting stored data sets, but also signals of any available interactive channels to the same channel as the non-interactive display channel / 1. channel/. The HIC 16 also includes an infrared receiver that receives commands from the remote control device 40. The received commands are modulated to the frequency 11 MHz and transmitted over the cable back from the user's home to node 12.
Remote control device 40 / fig. 15 / is battery powered and is based on standard infrared remote control technology. On the panel of the remote control device, there is a touch pad 52 on which the user swings his finger and thus moves the pointer cursor on the television screen. The touch pad 52 is a wireless equivalent of a mechanical mouse used in Macintosh computers, among others.
It is preferred that the system include a thermal or jet printer 50 connected to the HIC 16, allowing the system to print a permanent copy of the information on a television screen upon request. Printer 50 may also print department store coupons for special promotions. Another possibility for using the printer 50 is to print tickets to theaters, concerts and sporting events, including coding in a specific bar code. The bar code of these tickets can then be scanned at the stadium or in the theater and the validity of the tickets thus verified. Tickets of all kinds can be purchased through the system by the user entering their credit card number and PIN / personal identification number / on the screen.
In general, the information system of the present invention can be characterized as a system based on distributed data processing, designed to offer consumers a highly interactive and stimulating environment. The system displays photographic quality images in both static and short moving sequences, in both cases with synchronized soundtrack. Due to the ability to display the system in photographic quality, it does not use any graphics protocol such as NAPLPS or GKS, etc. The system exceeds the display level of the type of video games, which is achieved by earlier and currently common videotex systems.
VIII. Technical description of the HIC unit
Reference is now made to Figures 5-8. Updated. from the terminal station of the computer 8 they are received from the supply cable of the cable television distribution 30 on the frequency 74 MHz via the directional branch 58 and the splitter 59. The data are demodulated on a high-frequency receiver / demodulator 62 / at the optimal transmission speed 9600 bps. / About the processor 64 The I / O processor 64 stores data in the system RAM 66, where it is then read by the CPU 68 and transferred to the local hard disk 70. As shown in FIG. 5, the DC supply of the node is provided from a power supply 60 connected to the AC cable supply line via a combiner 55 /.
The node control software places the received data in the system database and performs several indexing steps to include it in the categories of the existing database. These categories include product types, product names, company name, category to which the product or service belongs, etc. In addition, the updated database units (advertising data objects) contain thesaurus entries that incorporate the database unit (object) into a hierarchically structured thesaurus, so that a network of meanings and associations between individual data is created in the node database.
When a user tunes their TV to a system non-interactive channel (usually one channel higher than the highest channel used by the cable TV system), they will see the latest TV listings in the non-interactive channel scroll vertically on the TV screen.
The user cannot interact with this display, as the viewer only watches the channel in demo mode / system channel one at 462MHz /. All viewers can watch this channel in the cable TV system at the same time, whether or not they have a home interface module control unit installed at home. The HIC 16 has a latch 72 to block this channel, but this latch 72 is controlled by an RF switch 74 allowing the signal to pass until the user picks up the remote control device 40 and presses any of its buttons. The remote control command from the user is received by an IR receiver 76 installed on the HIC box at the top of the TV. The signal is then demodulated by the remote control receiver / demodulator .78. and sends to the HIC CPU 80.
The CPU 80 of the HIC begins the process of obtaining an interactive, allocated channel - so that the user can communicate with the system - by reading a status word from the data stream transmitted by node 12 to the user over connection 36 at 12 MHz. This frequency is selected from the subscriber line 36 via the directional tap 82 and via the splitter / mixer 84. The RF data receiver 86 detects and demodulates the signal to a sequential data stream, which it sends to the CPU I / O port. The CPU 80 of the HIC reads the status word and selects the number of the lowest free interactive channel
Λ / 1 of 31 /. If all channels are entered, which should happen very rarely, signal lamp 88 lights up to indicate full occupancy. The HIC CPU 80 does not stop monitoring the status word until one of the channels is free. When the channel is released and activatable, the HIC CPU 80 turns on the green readiness indicator light 90. Assuming one of the channels is available, node 12 assigns it to the requesting HIC 16. The CPU 80 of the HIC maps the allocated channel to the channel tuner 92. The tuner 92 demodulates the channel signal from RF to video.
However, none of the interactive channels are transmitted with video synchronization information, and is therefore scrambled and untraceable on a normal television set.
All 32 system channels are synchronized by a single sync pulse generator at node 12. In order to reapply the video sync pulses to the interactive channels, the HIC 16 extracts these pulses from the conversion mode channel. This selection is made by the channel tuner 93, which is permanently tuned to the non-interactive channel 1 with a frequency of 462 MHz. Tuner 93 demodulates system channel 1 and passes the composite video signal to NTSC sync extractor 96. which then passes the sync pulses to the NTSC sync additive circuit 97, so that the interactive channel is converted to a complete composite video.
After resynchronization, the interactive video channel is modulated by the RF modulator 98 at the frequency of the system channel / 462 MHz /.
CPU 1/0 disconnects the RF switch 74 circuit, thereby becoming an effective narrowband latch 72 for 462 MHz and exchanging the demo mode channel. The opposite 1/0 command affects the RF modulator 98, which shifts the interactive channel to the above frequency. From the user's point of view, nothing changes, except that the main menu appears on the screen. The user can now communicate with the system.
The frequency band from 468 to 654 MHz uses 31 interactive channels. These interactive channels consist of images and sounds from advertising data objects stored in RAM 100 at node 12. The data object is stored in RAM 100 as the system claims to display information or images and play sounds. The data objects to be displayed are retrieved from the hard disk 70 and stored in the RAM 66. The data object contains compressed video and audio components. The CPU 68 reads the compressed image from the RAM 66 and sends it on via the image decompressor 102. The output data from the decompressor 102 is stored in the RAM 100. Audio recordings from the advertising data objects are processed in the same way. Like the video component, the audio recording is read from the disk 70 in a compressed form. The CPU sends the compressed audio to the digital signal processor / DSP / 102 for decompression and then stores the decompressed digital audio in the RAM 100.
The sync pulse generator for video 104 rectifies the video display logic 106, which periodically reads the digital image from memory and sends it to the video D / A converter 108, generating an analog video waveform. The digitized audio recording is regularly read from memory as needed and sent to the audio D / A converter 109. Audio processing takes place in the audio processing logic section 110. The video and audio components are encoded in the NTSC encoder 112. which produces a broadcast video signal passed on to the RF modulator 114. Although the NTSC sync pulses generated by the generator 104 combine with the video and audio components for timing purposes for proper NTSG encoding, the sync signal from the interactive channels (i.e. all channels except the first) is suppressed by suppressors. 115. As mentioned above, the absence of synchronization pulses in these channels prevents users from watching channels allocated to other households.
The output signals from the RF modulators 114 are fed to an RF combiner 116, which acts on the RF mixer to produce a wideband signal of the combined channels. The combined channel signal is then passed through a mixer / splitter 118 into the interposed section 46 of the feed channel 30 / FIG. 5 /, where it enters via the directional junction 120 to be sent to the junction 34 and then via the user connections 36 to the households.
The control logic of the interface 122 for the node expansion unit serves to functionally couple the CPU 68 to the node expansion unit 124 / FIG. 7 /. The node expansion unit 124 provides 16 additional interactive channels and is necessary to achieve the full capacity of the 32 channels (31 interactive) described above, because each CPU can serve only 16 channels. Under normal circumstances, 16 channels / 15 interactive / allocated on a competitive basis will suffice for adequate service for 40 households, but in high-density cable distribution areas such as large tenement houses, 31 interactive channels are needed. The output of the node expansion unit 124 is connected to the RF combiner 116 of the primary node via a directional tap 126.
IX. Alternative uses of the invention
The present invention can be used in various embodiments. In one variation of the use shown in FIG. 9, most of the circuits from the HIC 16 are isolated and moved to the tap, more specifically to the tap interface 128. FIG. 10 shows the electronics of a node in this method of using the invention. Only the electronics providing operation in the demo mode channel remain in the node 12, as shown in FIG. 11A and 11B, the branch interface 128 in this case includes electronics for the interactive channel, but since there is only one, it must be shared in competitive mode by the four households that are usually connected to the branch. The branch interface 128 also includes narrowband delays to connect a single interactive channel to the first household that chooses it, while the other households remain connected to the non-interactive channel.
In another embodiment of the present invention shown in Fig. 12, the tap interface 128 includes a separate service electronics section for each of up to 60 households connected to the tap associated with the node. In this way of using the invention, there is never a competition between households for the data stored in the node. This should be highlighted in comparison with the first recommended use of the invention, where competition occurs, but the system requires only 32 sections of service electronics, ie one for each channel.
In another different way of using the invention shown in Fig. 13, all the electronics of the node are installed in each household in the HIC 16. In this case, each HIC unit 16 would include substantially all of the electronics elements shown in Fig. 10, but as with the implementation shown in Fig. 12, there is no competition between households.
X. Infrared remote control device
A remote control device operating in the infrared frequency band 40 recommended for use in the present invention is shown in more detail in Figure 15. The contact surface of the touch panel 52 consists of an array of diaphragm switches 132. When inactive, all demultiplexer outputs 1 of 16 are labeled 134 are turned on and thus sensitize all vertical columns of field 132 to scan. When the user touches any point in the field, the closing of the switch is detected by the multiplexer 1 of 16 labeled 136. This raises the voltage level of the output port labeled ANY OUT of the multiplexer of 16366 to the upper level and thus activates timer 338. The upper level signal from the timer 138 then activates the connected oscillator 140 again and deactivates the continuous all on state of the demultiplexer 1 of 16 134, thereby initiating reading and reading of the columns and rows of the touch field 132 via the 4x4 matrix counter / sensor numbered 142. The switch closures detected by the sensor 142 are encoded with a corresponding position on the touch panel (derived from the timing of the scanning process) in parallel by the serial Manchester encoder 144 and the encoded signal is sent to the infrared transmitter 146.
Referring to Fig. 19, the IR remote control device 40 is also adapted to receive infrared signals transmitted by the infrared transmitter 77. which is part of the combined IR remote control receiver / transmitter 78 in the HIC 16 and is able to retransmit these received infrared signals to other electronic devices within range. Thus, for example, the user may program the node 12 (using the IR screen commands of the remote control device 40). to turn on the TV or VCR at the selected time on the selected channel. The node 12, which has in its memory the individual IR remote control signals for all common consumer electronics products, sends a corresponding command to the HIC 16 at a preselected time, which command is then sent by the infrared transmitter 77 to the IR remote control device 40. Infrared receiver 147 in the IR remote control device 40 receives a command, the command header is identified by the CPU 145. which ensures that the command is sent back by the IR remote control device via the Manchester encoder 144 and the infrared transmitter 146 to the television or video recorder to be activated / switched on. Alternatively, it is also possible for the HIC 16 to transmit a command signal and to receive the device to be controlled reflected from a distant wall or from any suitable reflective surface that is favorably oriented. In the above embodiment, the invention can be used as a universal remote control tool.
XI. Regulation of consumer consumption / automatic reading of electricity meters
The present invention can also be used to control and / or read data on home appliances using high frequency power line transmission technology. For example, a user may program the system to turn on a lamp in his home at a specified time by entering appropriate commands via a remote control / node while navigating the user by providing interactive instructions / user commands are sent to the node where they are stored by the home controller. interconnection module.
At the time programmed for activation, the node instructs the control unit of the home interconnection module to turn on the lamp, and this control unit instructs it by sending a signal r; a electrical output for the lamp via a power line in the home.
Similarly, an electricity supply company can use this capability of the invented system to regulate consumer consumption, e.g., temporarily disconnect air conditioning compressors, water heaters, or other energy-intensive appliances during peak periods, to prevent outages. congestion, networks. In addition, such a company can control not only the demanding appliances of system users, but also the appliances in neighboring houses by regulating via a high-current network. Because four houses usually have a common transformer, and because about 60% of the houses are connected to cable television, the electricity supply company should be able to control consumption in all the houses in the neighborhood with the present invention.
XII. Selective system expansion options
Based on individual choice, the system of the present invention may be equipped with an interface mode unit allowing the user to connect a conventional personal computer keyboard 150, as shown in Fig. 16, and thus enter alphanumeric commands directly without using the IR remote control device 40.
The unit supplied to the user in this case consists of a standard PC connector, the sensing logic of the keyboard 152 of the remote control modulator / controller 154 and an IR diode transmitter 156.
Another variant offers users who do not have a computer keyboard or who want a keyboard exclusively for use with this system a special touch panel unit 40 which, in addition to the touch pad 52 shown in Fig. 15, includes a complete alphanumeric membrane keyboard.
Another selection variant, shown in Fig. 17, is an interface module allowing users to introduce video for advertisements with a classification header that they want to broadcast via the system. This unit includes a plug 158 for inputting video from a camera recorder or video recorder and a video to RF signal modulator 160 in the user's HIC 16. An RF signal demodulator to video 162 and an A / D converter video 164 are then installed at node 12 to demodulate and digitize the video data, which are then sent to a regional processing center in the manner described above.
Yet another optional variant, shown in Fig. 18, is an automatic dialing unit built into the HIC 16 for automatically selecting a seller or advertiser from a screen that allows the user to make direct telephone contact with said partner. The user CPU 166 automatically provides a connection via the telephone company subscriber line interface module 168.
XIII. Providing additional information from the node about products offered in advertisements
The nodes of the present invention can be pre-programmed to check home interface controllers when displaying embedded text overlay segments on television screens of users watching a particular television broadcast and asking those users if they are interested in additional information about the respective promoted product. If the user responds positively (via your remote control device), the control unit of the user's home interface module sends a positive response to the node and the required additional information is stored in the user's electronic mailbox at the node. When a user later examines the contents of their mailbox, they recognize that they have additional information available for viewing.
XIV. Offer targeted advertising from a node while broadcasting ads on a cable TV program
The nodes of the present invention may also be programmed to provide specifically tailored advertising to users of the system while commercial advertisements are on the cable television program. In this method of using the invention, a user watching a particular program on television is automatically switched to a virtual channel over which selected, tailored advertisements for the population of that particular territory are transmitted.
These local advertisements are transmitted from the node to the user over a virtual channel for 30 seconds or 1 minute, which is the interval usually reserved in advertising programs. After the advertising time expires, the user returns from the virtual channel to the original channel and the normal program continues. In this way, creators could process and present a wide selection of commercials targeting different demographic groups, so that an ad watched by a certain category of viewers could be tailored to that group's interests, while other viewers would watch different ads also tailored to their consumer preferences. Again, switching would take place from the system for the original program to the virtual channel and back to the original program with the user's preview, with synchronization information being received from the broadcast network and transmitted from the terminal computer to the node via the data channel.
XV. Distribution of the program from an external source through a node
Referring to Fig. 20, a node 12 may be equipped with a satellite and / or RF receiver 170 for receiving and transmitting programs to the node's supply cable 30 over virtual channels. In this way, it is possible to offer users of the program an extension of the programs without using the already crowded channel space of the cable television distribution. Similarly, node 12 may be connected to the terminal directly by a fiber optic cable or an ordinary coaxial cable to retransmit a particular program or to access database control systems.
Node 12 may also receive programs from a local video source 172 (such as a video rental) connected downstream of the node. The video source 172 transmits to the node in the 5-30 MHz frequency band (the same frequency band as the user's commands), so that the signals can proceed in the upstream direction to the node. Node 12 adjusts the received video signal to a higher frequency of virtual channels so that it can be transmitted to users via the supply cable 30 upon request.
XVI. Decompressing a TV channel signal
The nodes of the present invention can also be used to decompress a compressed TV channel signal and to distribute that decompressed TV channel signal to cable-connected households. This method of using the invention allows a cable television operator to broadcast an extended number of channels without having to install expensive circuitry to decompress signals into each household or improve the wiring for transmitting a TV signal by cable.
In this embodiment of the invention, the less watched channels are preferably compressed at a ratio of four: one and their signal is transmitted from the cable television terminal in normal time slots, however, the compressed four channel signal is sent in the time space of one uncompressed standard channel. Compressed TV signals are decompressed into normally receivable TV channels in decompression nodes distributed throughout the cable distribution. television. When the user requests one of these compressed cables, the decompressed channel is transmitted from the decompression node to the user's HIC 16 via a virtual channel.
Common systems such as Jerrold / General Instrument / or DigiCable systems, or the SkyPix film system places an expensive converter in each participating household to decompress and display the signal of compressed channels. In the present invention, the costly decompression logic is located in a node serving 20 to 100 or more cable subscribers. When a user requests a compressed channel signal, that channel is decompressed at the node and transmitted to the user in the virtual channel space or in the space originally occupied by the compressed channels. If multiple users request the same compressed channel, their HICs are assigned the same virtual channel on which the decompressed channel is already transmitted.
Referring to Figures 21-25, different frequency bandwidth utilization concepts may be used depending on the frequency of users in a particular area. Giant. 21 for example, the diagram shows the bandwidth utilization best suited for the sparse suburban area, where 12 basic channels (channels 2-13) are transmitted uncompressed to all households, and 80 compressed channels are transmitted by decompression nodes located at bridge amplifiers to each of approximately 50 households connected for cable TV distribution, which are served by this node in the space of 20 standard channels above channel 13. As stated above, the electronics are grouped in such a way that more than one user can watch the same virtual channel on which the decompressed video program is transmitted. In this way, it is possible for all 50 users to easily watch decompressed channels at the same time, if they do not select more than 20 different decompressed channels at that particular time.
Giant. 22 shows the concept of using the band most suitable for a suburban area with a high density of subscribers, where each node serves approximately 100 households. Similar to the implementation of Fig. 21, the decompression node is located only at the bridge amplifier, but in this case the decompressed programs are transmitted by 40 virtual channels, allowing 40 households to claim one of 80 compressed channels at a time (40 out of 100). Again, it is possible for multiple users to watch the same decompressed program at the same time. This is achieved by increasing the frequency response of the line extension units along the branches of the cable television supply line.
Giant. 23 shows yet another bandwidth utilization scheme for an area with a density exceeding even the density of a city street or rental apartment building. In this application, the decompression nodes are arranged along the supply cable 30 so that each serves about 100 households. The decompressed programs are transmitted to each of the decompression nodes over 30 additional channels above the usual space of 32 standard channels. At each decompression node in the direction of the supply cable, a low-pass filter 176 is installed to block the virtual channel space, so that the same virtual channels can be used to transmit virtual channels to another 100 homes downstream without interfering with neighboring nodes.
Finally, with reference to Figures 24 and 25, similar bandwidth utilization patterns are shown, where the signals of all cable television channels can pass through the distribution and be available to all users, and where decompressed programs are transmitted in the space above the highest channel usable cable television system. In this case, however, the compressed program must be sent to the node from an external source (e.g., via a satellite receiver 70, a RF link, or a fiber optic cable, as shown in FIG. 20 /.
To prevent unauthorized access to decompressed channels distributed by the node, frequency hopping of the bit sequence can be applied to the node. In this use of the invention, the frequency of the decompressed channels at the output of the node changes periodically (the change takes place during field blanking) by a random number generator, i.e. one of the uses of frequency rapidly tunable RF modulators 196, as shown in Fig. 28B. Each control unit of the home interconnection module contains an identical random number generator, which is set to the same default value as the node in order to decode the frequency-coded signal. Another variant is based on the principle that the node can send channel jump commands to the HIC unit in order to keep them in sync with each other. These commands can be encoded for any security using any of the common encryption techniques, such as DES encoding. In this case, each of the control units of the home interface module should contain a decryption key, which would be periodically updated by the node.
XVII. Distribution of information and programs from cable television through distribution nodes
Referring to Fig. 27, nodes 12 according to the present invention may be located in a central position, such as a cable television terminal, and transmit information and programs via coaxial or fiber optic cable to distribution nodes 190 located on supply cables running in close proximity. bridge amplifiers 28 cable TV distribution. As shown in FIG. 28A and 28B, distribution nodes 190 contain only the portion of electronics necessary for frequency switching, virtual channel allocation, and video compression / decompression — while the data processing and storage portion is now at nodes 12 at the end station.
When the system is operational, user commands are sent to the distribution node 190, where they are transmitted by the RF modem 191 over a coaxial or fiber optic cable to the end station. This end station assigns a channel for the transmission of the required information and / or programs to the distribution node 190 and also a virtual channel for the transmission from the distribution node 190 to the user's home. Control data for identifying these channels is sent from the end station to the distribution node 190. where they are demodulated by the RF modem 197 to a stream of digital data which is fed to the I / O processor G ·. The required information and / or programs are then sent to the distribution nodes 190 from the terminal 12 via a fiber optic cable or coaxial in a typical frequency band of 50-450 MHz / this frequency band is available to the system because neither the company operating the cable television system nor does not use optical or coaxial cable.
As shown in Fig. 28B, the tuners / channel selectors / 192, under the control of the CPU distribution node unit, receive the channel transmitted by the end station 12 at the end station, which contains the desired program and / or information. If a program is required and is a program that has been compressed at the terminal, it is decompressed at the distribution node by processors 194 performing decompression of the compressed video signal. The decompressed programs are then encoded by NATSC encoders 112 and modulated by rapidly retunable RF modulators 196 to the frequency of the allocated virtual channel. The information or programs are then transmitted from the distribution node 190 to the user. Central data storage in the terminal is particularly advantageous for distributing the user's videos via the system. As shown in FIG.
28C, the user's video signal from the control unit of the home interface module enters the distribution node 190 through the diplex filter 118 and finds itself on the same line as the RF from the terminal station / FIG. 28A /. The high frequency tuner 192 captures the user's video signal / FIG. 28B / a and sends it to the video compression processor 194. The compressed user video signal is then modulated by the RF modem 193 and sent through the diplex filter 195 over the fiber optic cable or coaxial cable to the terminal 12 at the terminal / before this transmission from the distribution node 190 to the terminal are sent from the node 12 to the CPU. 12 of the distribution node 190 data identifying the channel to be used for transmission, the distribution node 190 controlling the RF modem 193 /. At the terminal, the compressed video signal is accessible (and decompressible) to each user of the system connected to this terminal. In this way, the present invention is applicable to video teleconferencing. Note that the video signal compression / decompression electronics at node 12 at the end station perform the exact opposite procedure to distribution node 190, whose architecture is the same.
XVIII. Transmission fiber optic cables
In areas where household telephone companies directly connect fiber optic cables, the nodes of the present invention may be located in remote terminals of the telephone company's optoelectronic network.
Referring to Fig. 26, nodes that are deployed in each remote terminal 180 and when a user requests an interactive channel or wishes to see another program introduce a time division channel (TDM) into the working / time / interval of the respective household. The required information or channel is transmitted over an optical line (fiber) 181 to the racks at the street curbs 182 and from there distributed to each household 184 via a coaxial cable 185. The nodes 12 receive updated data from a storage and redirection computer 186 located in the telephone exchange of the network (similar to the terminal computer 8 in the cable distribution solution) over the most common 1.2 GHz optical fiber connecting the telecommunication exchange to each remote terminal.
Although the present invention has been described in relation to specific methods of its use, numerous other variations and variations of uses will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the description. Therefore, we prefer not to limit the present invention by describing the specific uses herein, but only by the appended claims.
34 sheets
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99 members in 25 offices
Priority claims8
| Document | Office | Kind | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 58920590 | United States of America | A | |
| 58920590 | United States of America | A | |
| 75493291 | United States of America | A | |
| 75493291 | United States of America | A | |
| 90589205 | – | – | – |
| 91754932 | – | – | – |
| US19900589205 | – | – | – |
| US19910754932 | – | – | – |
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| CA2052477A1 | Canada | A1 | |
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| FI914552A7 | Finland | A7 | |
| IS3759A7 | Iceland | A7 | |
| NO913772L | Norway | L | |
| EP0477786A2 | European Patent Office (EPO) | A2 | |
| AU8483891A | Australia | A | |
| IE913397A1 | Ireland | A1 | |
| WO9206550A1 | World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) | A1 | |
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| MX9101308A | Mexico | A | |
| CS286991A3This record | Czechoslovakia (until 1993) | A3 | |
| CN1063593A | China | A | |
| IL99586D0 | Israel | D0 | |
| EP0477786A3 | European Patent Office (EPO) | A3 | |
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Numbers
- Publication, DOCDB
- 286991
- Publication, EPODOC
- CS286991
- Application
- 912869
- Application, DOCDB
- 286991
- Application, EPODOC
- CS19910002869
Titles
- English
- INTERACTIVE INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR HOME USERS
Classification
- CPC, 23
- G06F3/04815
- H04N7/10
- G06F2203/04802
- H04N5/45
- H04N7/173
- H04N7/17345
- H04N21/2221
- H04N21/25891
- H04N21/4131
- H04N21/4332
- H04N21/4722
- H04N21/812
- H04N2007/17372
- H04N2007/1739
- H04N21/4117
- H04N21/6118
- H04N21/6187
- H04N21/654
- H04N21/658
- H04N19/61
- H04N19/48
- H04N19/90
- H04N21/426
- IPC, 20
- G06F3 033
- G06F3 048
- G06Q30 00
- G06T9 00
- H04N
- H04N5 44
- H04N5 45
- H04N7 10
- H04N7 173
- H04N7 26
- H04N7 50
- H04N21 222
- H04N21 258
- H04N21 41
- H04N21 433
- H04N21 4722
- H04N21 61
- H04N21 654
- H04N21 658
- H04N21 81
