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EP0849946A2 Expired / Lapsed EP ⏱️ 0.0 years remaining

Interactive TV broadcasting system and file access method applied thereto

Assignee: Toshiba Corp
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Filing: 1997-11-19
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2017-11-19
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Abstract

Abstract An HTML file is converted to an IT script and then distributed from a TV station 12 or response server (15) to each home TV receiver (11). In this case, link information which is the most significant feature of the HTML file is used as the operation guiding button of the IT script. If the button is selected by the user by use of a remote-control unit or the like, access is automatically made to the response server (15) via a trunk line network (14). In the response server (15), a large number of HTML files converted to interactive program scripts are previously held and an IT script corresponding to an HTML file specified by the link information assigned to the button selected by the viewer is transmitted online from the response server to the TV receiver (11). <IMAGE>

Inventors

  • 👤 Katsunori Takami
  • 👤 Dairoku Sekiguchi
  • 👤 Seiji Miura

Bibliographic Details

Application Number —
Jurisdiction EP
Data Source google_patents
Last Synchronized 2026-10-24 09:22
CPC Classifications
H; H04; H04N; H04N21/00; H04N21/80; H04N21/85; H04N21/858; H04N21/8586; H04N7/00; H04N7/14; H04N21/40; H04N21/45; H04N21/462; H04N21/4622; H04N21/47; H04N21/478; H04N21/4782; H04N7/08; H04N7/087; H04N7/088; H04L; H04L67/00; H04L67/01; H04L67/02; H04L69/00; H04L69/30; H04L69/32; H04L69/322; H04L69/329

Claims Analysis

Total Claims: 9
Claim 1
Independent Claim 252 words
An interactive television broadcasting system for transmitting an interactive program script including operation guiding graphics data and various information items and superimposed on a television broadcasting signal to display the interactive program script on the screen of a television receiver and transmitting a response or service request from the viewer from the television receiver (11) to a response server (15) via a network (13), characterized by comprising: script converting means (126, 134) for converting data with a link structure having an address of other data to be referred to as designating information to the interactive program script and converting the address as the designating information to the graphics data of the interactive program script; means (125) for superimposing the interactive program script converted by said script converting means on the television broadcasting signal and transmitting the resultant of superimposition; script decoder means (112) for decoding the interactive program script transmitted by said transmitting means to display the same on the screen of the television receiver; and means (11, 15) for accessing the response server in response to the selecting operation by the viewer for the operation guiding graphics data on the screen, acquiring an interactive program script corresponding to data specified by the address designating information assigned to the graphics data from the data with the link structure previously converted as the interactive program script and held in the response server and displaying the acquired interactive program script on the screen of the television receiver by use of said script decoder means.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim 135 words
A system according to claim 1, characterized in that the response server (15) includes: means (135) for holding data with a plurality of link structures converted to interactive program scripts by said script converting means (134); means (131, 132, 136) for transmitting an interactive program script corresponding to data specified by the address designating information to the television receiver when the interactive program script is held in the response server; and means (131, 132, 136) for accessing another server to acquire data specified by the address designating information when the interactive program script corresponding to data specified by the address designating information is not held in the response server, converting the acquired data to an interactive program script by use of said script converting means and transmitting the resultant of conversion to the television receiver.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim 82 words
A system according to claim 1, characterized by further comprising means (112) for storing address designating information of data displayed on the screen of the television receiver in a storing unit; and means (112) for reading out address designating information from the storing unit, acquiring an interactive program script corresponding to data specified by the address designating information from the response server or from another server via the response server, and displaying the acquired script on the screen of the television receiver.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim 113 words
A system according to claim 1, characterized by further comprising means (411) for acquiring data satisfying a preset searching condition based on a keyword from each server on the network according to the preset searching condition; means (412) for calculating the adaptability of conversion of each of acquired data items to an interactive program script based on the constraints including the maximum data size transmittable as the interactive program script; and means (413) for selecting data with adaptability larger than a preset adaptability from the acquired data group and assigning address information of each of the selected data items to graphics data of the interactive program script to generate an address list menu.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim 57 words
A system according to claim 1, characterized by further comprising: means (311) for acquiring data with a link structure from each server on the network; means (312) for converting the acquired data to the interactive program script; and means (313) for transmitting data converted to the interactive program script to the television receiver as a video signal.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim 241 words
A data access method for referring to desired data with a desired link structure present on a network on a television receiver in an interactive television broadcasting system for transmitting an interactive program script including operation guiding graphics data and various information items and superimposed on a television broadcasting signal to display the interactive program on the screen of the television receiver and transmitting a response or service request from the viewer from the television receiver to a response server via the network, characterized by comprising the steps of: extracting address designating information from data with the link structure having the address designating information indicating the location of other data to be referred to and converting the address designating information to graphics data of the interactive program script to convert the data with the link structure to the interactive program script; superimposing the thus converted data with the link structure on the television broadcasting signal as the interactive program script and transmitting the resultant of superimposition; accessing the response server in response to the selecting operation of graphics data displayed on the screen of the television receiver to acquire an interactive program script corresponding to data specified by the address designating information assigned to the graphics data from the data with the link structure previously converted as the interactive program script and held in the response server; and displaying the acquired interactive program script on the screen of the television receiver.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim 63 words
A method according to claim 6, characterized in that the response server accesses another server to acquire data specified by the address designating information when the interactive program script corresponding to data specified by the address designating information is not held in the response server, and the acquired data is converted to the interactive program script and then transmitted to the television receiver.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim 131 words
A method according to claim 6, characterized by further comprising the steps of extracting a text, image and address designating information to other data contained in data with the link structure to be converted from the data with the link structure and replacing the text, image and address designating information on the data with the link structure by corresponding resource identifiers; deriving a text resource, image resource and address resource for the interactive program script from the extracted text, image and address designating information; arranging the text resource, image resource and address resource on a screen provided in the interactive program based on the arrangement relation between a control sentence contained in the data with the link structure and the resource identifiers to generate screen data of the interactive program script.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim 66 words
A method according to claim 8, characterized by further comprising the steps of dividing the generated screen data of the interactive program script into first screen data containing the resources other than the image resource and second screen data containing the image resource; and arranging an image calling graphics data for calling the second screen data from the first screen data in the first screen data.

References Cited (Backward Citations)

US6040872A Cited

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