CA1327393C - Presentation player - Google Patents
Presentation playerInfo
- Publication number
- CA1327393C CA1327393C CA000572467A CA572467A CA1327393C CA 1327393 C CA1327393 C CA 1327393C CA 000572467 A CA000572467 A CA 000572467A CA 572467 A CA572467 A CA 572467A CA 1327393 C CA1327393 C CA 1327393C
- Authority
- CA
- Canada
- Prior art keywords
- video
- subscriber
- audio
- presentation
- digital
- Prior art date
- Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
- Expired - Fee Related
Links
Classifications
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
- H04N7/00—Television systems
- H04N7/16—Analogue secrecy systems; Analogue subscription systems
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
- H04N7/00—Television systems
- H04N7/16—Analogue secrecy systems; Analogue subscription systems
- H04N7/173—Analogue secrecy systems; Analogue subscription systems with two-way working, e.g. subscriber sending a programme selection signal
- H04N7/17345—Control of the passage of the selected programme
- H04N7/17354—Control of the passage of the selected programme in an intermediate station common to a plurality of user terminals
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04H—BROADCAST COMMUNICATION
- H04H20/00—Arrangements for broadcast or for distribution combined with broadcast
- H04H20/38—Arrangements for distribution where lower stations, e.g. receivers, interact with the broadcast
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04H—BROADCAST COMMUNICATION
- H04H20/00—Arrangements for broadcast or for distribution combined with broadcast
- H04H20/65—Arrangements characterised by transmission systems for broadcast
- H04H20/76—Wired systems
- H04H20/77—Wired systems using carrier waves
- H04H20/78—CATV [Community Antenna Television] systems
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04H—BROADCAST COMMUNICATION
- H04H60/00—Arrangements for broadcast applications with a direct linking to broadcast information or broadcast space-time; Broadcast-related systems
- H04H60/09—Arrangements for device control with a direct linkage to broadcast information or to broadcast space-time; Arrangements for control of broadcast-related services
- H04H60/14—Arrangements for conditional access to broadcast information or to broadcast-related services
- H04H60/15—Arrangements for conditional access to broadcast information or to broadcast-related services on receiving information
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
- H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
- H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
- H04N21/47—End-user applications
- H04N21/475—End-user interface for inputting end-user data, e.g. personal identification number [PIN], preference data
- H04N21/4755—End-user interface for inputting end-user data, e.g. personal identification number [PIN], preference data for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04H—BROADCAST COMMUNICATION
- H04H2201/00—Aspects of broadcast communication
- H04H2201/70—Aspects of broadcast communication characterised in that receivers can be addressed
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
- H04N7/00—Television systems
- H04N7/16—Analogue secrecy systems; Analogue subscription systems
- H04N7/173—Analogue secrecy systems; Analogue subscription systems with two-way working, e.g. subscriber sending a programme selection signal
- H04N2007/1739—Analogue secrecy systems; Analogue subscription systems with two-way working, e.g. subscriber sending a programme selection signal the upstream communication being transmitted via a separate link, e.g. telephone line
Abstract
ABSTRACT
The present invention relates to a presentation player which is utilized in a digital, interactive communication system accessible to a plurality of subscribers who can select any of a plurality of pre-recorded video/audio presentations for viewing on their television sets. The presentation player includes a converter which is tuned to a channel for monitoring a digital stream of information including digital packets representative of the video/audio presentations selected by subscribers. These digital packets of information include an address assigned to the particular requesting subscriber. In accordance with this addressing information, a controller distributes the digital packet of information to one of a plurality of subscriber servers housed within the presentation player. The subscriber server receiving the uniquely addressed digital packets converts the packet into an NTSC-compatible analog formatted video/audio presentation for transmission to the requesting subscriber.
The present invention relates to a presentation player which is utilized in a digital, interactive communication system accessible to a plurality of subscribers who can select any of a plurality of pre-recorded video/audio presentations for viewing on their television sets. The presentation player includes a converter which is tuned to a channel for monitoring a digital stream of information including digital packets representative of the video/audio presentations selected by subscribers. These digital packets of information include an address assigned to the particular requesting subscriber. In accordance with this addressing information, a controller distributes the digital packet of information to one of a plurality of subscriber servers housed within the presentation player. The subscriber server receiving the uniquely addressed digital packets converts the packet into an NTSC-compatible analog formatted video/audio presentation for transmission to the requesting subscriber.
Description
~ 327393 3200q 0i0788 PRESENTATION PLAYER
The present invention relates in general to digital, interactive communication systems, caDable of transmitting at a subscriber's request stlll-television video~frames, possibly with an accompanying audio message, and more particularly to a presentation player which receives a stream of digital packets through a standard CATV distribu~ion trunk, converts the digital packets into the selected video presentation with accompanying audio and transmits such presentation to the requesting subscriber on a pre-assigned output channel within a standard CATV
distribution feeder.
Conventionally, different kinds o co~munication systems are used to provide voice, data, and video communication services to subscribers. In par.icular, interactive cable television systems have been developed to distribute information to subscriber's televisions at their requests. One such syste~ concerns a shopping service where subscribers sho? at home in an "electronic mall". This system is distinguished from home shopping channels since it allows subscribers to select which products or se~Jices they will view on their television screens by use o~ in-house subscriber ~pparatus, such as 25 tele?hones or ChTV key ~ads. In operation, the subscriber tunes to a channel and requests connection to a remote location by dialing a predetermined telephone number, or accesses Yia a CATV reverse channel. As soon as the system identifies the subscriber, his television screen beyins to display still-frame video, and possibly accompanying audio, and directories of "electronic stores" comprising products or services that may be entered or passed, examined in further detail, saved for future consideration, or purchased just by-touching keys on a touch-tone telephone in response to prompts on the television screen. A main-frame host computer controls the flow of information in the system.
This shopping service uses a CATV network to distribute the video presentations and accompanying audio messages requested by subscribers. At various locations in the CATV network, a device known as a frame store unit captures the video and audio portions of a presentation. Each of these locations seeves a small group of subscribers. The function of each frame store unit is to capture the video frames destined for subscribers assigned to the particular frame store unit. The frame store unit captures a video frame bearing the address of an assigned subscriber and converts the frame into a form it can store. Next, the fra~e store unit detecmines which audio message to associate with the videQ frame, bundles the audio and video together by time multiplexing the video on one channel and frequency multiplexing the audio on another channel, and then injects the result into the CATV feeder cable. The composite signal trans.~itted by the fr~me store unit appears as a standard television picture on the subscriber's television.
The audio and video signals processed by the frame store unit are in analog format. This is in shar~ contrast to the presentation player of the present invention which receives and processes both the video and audio portions of a presentation in digital format. Moreover, the presentation player time multiplexes both the video and audio on a single channel.
The advanta~es of the presentation player over the frame store unit are numerous. The presentation player makes it possible for the interactive communication system to service more subscribers than the prior system because both the audio and video signals are time mul-iplexed on one channel. Moreover, the digital processing of these signals results in improved distortion immunity, improved audio fidelit~, and an improved capability to maintain the integrity of the video ?ortion of a presentation. An additional advantage of digital processing is an increase in the portion of the CATV
- 1 32739~
frequency spectrum usable for transmission of the proposed audio/video service.
Thus, the digital processing and time multiplexing of both audio and video by the presentation player offers significant advantages over the frame store unit used in other interactive communication systems.
An objective of the present invention is to overcome the deficiencies of the prior art noted above by providing a pre~entation player which can be utilized in a digital, interactive communication system capable of transmitting to subscribers television quality, still-video and motion-video presentations with accompanying audio~
It is another object of the presentation player of the present invention to process both video and audio signals in a digital format and thereby provide a more accurate reproduction of the original signals.
It is a Eurther object of the present invention to operate the presentation player as part of a new and improved interactive communication systems for merchandising ~roducts and services to subscribers.
The present invention is directed to a presentation player used in an interactive communication system ~herein subscribers select from a 1 3273q3 plurality of video/audio peesentations for viewing on their television sets. The video/audio presentations are transmitted in the form of diyital pac~ets of information to a plurality of presentation pl~yers 5 strategically located in the vicini~y of the subscriber. Each of the digitized packets transmitted to the presentation players is uniquely a~dressed to a requesting subscriber.
The presentation player includes a converter, a controller, and at least one subscriber server. The converter is tuned to a ixed-~req~ency, narrow-band control channel which broadcasts tuning information. This tuning informaticn causes the converter to tune to a broadband channel where it monitors a digital stream of information including the digital packets representative of selected ~ideo/audio presentations. The converter also detects ~or further processing the digital packets uniquely addressed to predetermined ones of the requesting subscribers.
The controller means receives the uniquel~
addressed di9ital packets from the convertec ana transmits each of these packets to a pre-assigned subscriber secver according to the packets unique address. That is, each presentation plaver ?rocesses the digital packets addressed to specific subscribers. ~ore speciically, each subscriber server ~ithin a presentation player is in turn responsible for processing the digital pac~ets of certain subscribers. The su`oscriber server receives the digital packets, converts them into analog formatted (conventional NTSC) video/audio presentations which are then transmitted to the requesting subscriber.
For a fuller understanding of the nature and objects of the invention, reference should be made to following detailed description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.
I FIG. 1 is a block diaqram of a digital,interactive communication system which in conjunction with a CATV network and the presentation ~la~er of the present invention provides subscribers with television quality, still-video presentations.
FIG. 2 is an exploded block diagram of the presentation player show in FIG. 1.
FIG. 3 is an exploded block diagram of the presentation player converter shown in FIG. 2.
FIG. 4 is an exploded block diagram o~ the subscriber server shown in FIG. 2.
Referring to FIG. 1, the presentation player of the present invention is utilized in conjunction with a digital, interactive cable television system generally designated as 10. In the operation of system 10, a subscriber uses a touch-tone telephone 1 to communicate with the system 10. The transmission 1 3273q3 signals sent through telephone 12 are carried over conventional telephone lines to a Local Operating Center ~"LOC") 11 of the system 10, which makes use of local area network technology. At the LOC 11, the tone-signals of telephone 12 are received by a voice network interface (nVNI") 14. If the tone-signals are conventional voice grade transmissions, they are transmitted to VNI 14 in analog format and are rec-ogni~ed and decoded by VNI 14 to ASCII characters recognized by an interface 16. In the instance where the tone-signals are received by VNI 14 as digital signals, VNI 14 likewise transforms the digitized touch-tone signals into protocol recognized by in-terface 16. VNI 14 could be a Summa Four, Inc., Specialty Digital Switch Model No. SDS-1000 having a predetermined number of outgoing telephone lines for bridging incoming subscriber calls to service representatives when required. Notwithstanding whether the tone-signals are in digital or analog form, the output signal of VMI 14 is transmitted to a first local area network (~LANN) 18 via the in-terface 16. While VNI 14 is shown in FIG. 1 as be-ing located at the LOC 11, it is anticipated by the present invention that VNI 14 need not be co-located at the same location as LOC 11.
The network topology of first LAN 18, that is the physical organization of the network, is known as a ring topology. A ring topology h~s all devices in the network connected by a single co~munications cable that for~s a circle or ring. Signals are sent from one device to another around the ring. As a signal moves around the ring, each device in the LAN
electronically detects whether the message is Eor it.
If it is, the device processes the sinnal. If not, the device will normally regenerate the signal and transmit it to the next device in the !ing.
Network access identifies-the procedures that allow each device in the network to communicate and receive data. The networ~ access imethod used in LAN 18 is conventionally known as token passing. A
token is a special bit pattern that constantly travels around the network. Every device in the network must wait until it receives the token, before it can transmit its message, reinserts the token in the netwo~k, which is then ?assed to the next device in the network. If a device has no message to send, it allows the token to pass to the next device in the network. In effect, possession of the token is permission to transmit a message.
The transmission medium connecting devices in LAN 18 can be either a broadband or a baseband coaxial cable. Baseband coaxial cable carries one signal at a time, but the signal travels at a rapid speed-in the range of ten million bit ~er second. Anv of a number of conventional methods are used to allow manv devices to access LAN 18 concurrently.
The devices comprising LAN 1~ include a plurality of single-board computers each having a special function in seeving the subscribers, as well as a random ~ccess memory, a clock, and input/output facilities. The single-board computers each include specialized application software and are associated with an interface which connects it to LAN l8. In addition to the single-board compu~ers, LAN 13 further comprises a large-scale data base ~8 conven_ionally referred to as a "disc ~arm". Stored in the data base's hard disk memory units i5 digital in~ocmation representing video presentations of ~300ds or services. Generally, these video presentations comprise television quality, still-~ra~e images, or textual information, or textual infor~ation ovarlaid on a still-frame image, or an~ co,~bina-ion of the foregoing. These video presentations ~ay be accompanied by an audio ~essage and are referred to hereafter as "video/audio presentations". Any of these Qtored video/au~io ?resent3tions can be viewed by a subscriber upon request during any session on the system 10. Also stored in data base 23 is navigational information describing the pathways between peesentations, as well as information about subscribers. ~'y~ically, the companies o~ering goods 1 3~7393 or services to subscribers develop a structure of video/audio presentations representing an electronic store.
One example of the single-board computers coupled to LAW 18 are those manufactured by Intel Corporation of Santa Clara, California and are designated as i~odel No. iSBC 36/100 or Model iSbc 186/100. The computers are denoted according to their functional application in the LAN 18, and are identified in FIG. 1 as the session server 20, navigation server 22, subscriber information server 24, and cashier server 26. While the servers 20,22,24, and 26 are each identified by a single functional task, the present invention anticipated 1~ that each server will have appropriate software so that the server can switch functions depending on the demands of system 10. During any subscriber session on system 10, one session server 20 will be dedicated to serving a particular subscriber~ The number of session servers 20 at any LOC 11 will depend on the number of subscribers serviced by the LOC 11.
Accordingly, the number of session servers 20 at a LOC
11 could by anywhere in the range of 100 to 2,000 units.
The output message from VNI 14 is transmitted through interface 16 to one of the plurality of session servers 20. Inter~ace 16 l 3273q3 associates an incoming subscrlber call to an available session server 20. The session server 20, like all the servers comprising the LAN 18 is itself connected to LAN 18 by means of an interface. Though each server is shown in FIG. 1 as connected to an inter-face, in the physlcal construction of LAN 18 an in-terface may be shared by a plurality of servers.
Session server 20 processes the message by translating or converting it into some logical signal that the other servers understand, and then passes the signal on to LAN 18 for further processing by the other servers. In essence, the session server 20 interprets the digital signal representing a key on the touch-tone telephone 12 and sends out a command or commands to other servers on LAN 18. Included in these commands are the subscriber~s re~uests for sel-ected presentations.
Navigation server 22 includes a dynamic RAM
memory which can store at any instance sufficient information to enable the subscriber to move about any of the clientsl presentation structures. The information stored in navigation server 22 defines the pathways between the presentations in any presentaticn structure. Since navigation server 22 incorporates a dynamic RAM memory, it will only store navigation in-formation that is useful at any particular time in a subscriber session. Typically, the dynamic RAM memory of navigation server 22 has approximately 10 megabytes of RAI~ ~emory. Thus navigation server 22 is not capable of storing all of the clients' presentation networks within its memory. This information is stored in the hard disk memories of data base 28.
In operation of system 10, the subscriber designates the presentation or presentations he desires to view by depressing keys on touch-tone telephone 12. The digitized signals which represent the depressed telephone keys are processed by session server 20 and are addressed to navigation server 22.
Navigation server 22 fetches from data base 28 the navigational data needed at that time to move about a presentation network in accordance with the subscriber's requests. Thus, for example, as the subscriber requests information within a specific presentation structure, the dynamic memory will only store navigational information about that portion of the presentation network that could be requested by 2~ the subscriber at that particular time in the subscriber session. As the session proceeds and the subscriber moves about the presentation structure, the navigation information within the dynamic memory will change with the subscriber's movement in the structure. According to this navigational data stored within its dynamic memory, and from its interpretation of the di~itized signals of session server 20, the 1 3273q3 navigation server 22 determines which of the presentations stored in data base 28 have been selected bv the subscriber and transmits ~ signal through LAN 13 for the data base 28 to transmit the requested presentations to the subscriber~
Subscriber information server 24 stores information about system iO subs~ribers. The information stored about each subscriber includes the subscriber's telephone number, the subscriberls personal i~entification number, and it identifies a presentation player designated to re_eive the subscriber's requested presentat-ions. As will be explained in more detail below, the presentation player receives, stores, and re-transmits to the subscriber those presentations requested by the subscriber.
Typically, server 2~ is active for only a portion of any subscriber session. In the operation of the system lO, session server 20 queries subscriber information server 24 Eor information concerning a subscriber. Server 24 then fetches the requested information and sends it to session server 20 which stores the information in its memory. Since session server 20 is active during the entire subscriber session there is no furthec need to ~uery server 24 for information durinq the remainder of the subscriber's session.
-~ 327393 Cashier server 26 processes all information concerning the subscriber's purchases of merchandise or services. For example, cashier server 26 queries the subscriber as to the means by which he intends to -pay for purchases. If the subscriber selects a credit card as means for payment, cashier server 26 accesses the subscriber's credit card identification number from data base 2~ and transmits an appropriate message to an authorization service so that the purchase is charged to the subscriber's credit card. ~nother function of cashier server 26 is to advise the clients of purchases so that the goods are sent expeditiously to the subscriber.
Purchase information can be transmitted on-line to the client or it can be stored in cashier server 26 and "batched" to a client at a later time.
For example, all purchases made during a given period are stored by cashier server 26 in a storage data file, but at the end of the period they are sent in batches to the various clients for further processing. Cashier server 26 can also describe the means by which the purchased goods will be delivered to the subscriber. That is, it will advise the client whether the goods are to be shipped and by which means, or whether the subscriber will pick up the goods at the client's store.
A second L~N 30, also a rinq topology, is connected to data base 28 for sending the digital signals representing the video/audio present3tions to a CATV system. Tran~mission of a single video frame requires approximately 30 kilo-bytes to 50 kilo-bytes of information. Since a large number of bytes of digital information is required to re~resent the video or image portion of a presentation, sec~nd L~N 30 is needed since it accommodates a larger quantity of digital information at a higher rate of speed than first LAN 18. To meet this requirement, the transmission medium of second LAN ~0 is a broadband medium and preferably a fiber optic cable compri,ing several optical fibers having a broader banawidth than first LAN 18 which transmits several hundred thousand bits of information per second.
A channel server 32 receives subscriber control information from first LAN 18 and information representative of selected video presentations from second LAN 32 for transmission to a CATV head end 38.
Interface 34 and interface 36 respectively couple channel server 32 to first LAN 18 and second LAN 30.
Channel server 32 comprises a microprocessor~ a ~AM
memory of several megabytes, a foeward-error correction encoder, and a modulator. The video, audi-and control information received by channel se~:er 32 is converted into a hi9h-speed digital stream and modulated so that it is suit~ble for ~ransmission by a cable television network. Channel server 32 also schedules the order in which the information is sent to the cable television network, and performs forward-error correction coding to assume reliability in transmission by the cable television network.
Typically, a LOC 11 will service approximately 5,000 to 10,000 subscribers depending on its location. Each LOC 11 is capable of communicating with other LOCts by means of a gateway 40 which in turn communicates with a high-speed transmission medium, such as a broadband terrestrial or a communication satellite. Gateway 40 comprises a microcomputer having a memory of at least several megabytes, and is coupled to first LAN 18 and second LAN 30 by interface 42 and interface 44, respectively. In communicating with other LOC's, LOC
11 can request information, such as a video/audio - presentation not found in its data base 28, and can in turn respond to the requests of other LOC's.
In a conventional cable television net"ork incorporating a CATV head end 38, trunk cables 46 emerge from the head end 38 as the primary signal path. Along the trunk cables 46 are a plurality of nodes 48. At each node 48 a bridger amplifier 49 (shown in FIGS. 2,3, and 4) is generally located to amplify the video/audio presentations and to convey them along a secondary cable 50 to the subscriber's ~ 1 327393 home 52. At each node 48, and according to the present invention, a presentation player 5~ is located which has as an output at least one secondary cable S0. Eight potential secondary cables 50 are snown in FIG. 2 as being connected to presentation player 5~, while only one of the secondary cables 50 is shown in actual use. Along each secondary cable 50 a drop connection 56 to a drop cable 58 extends into the subscriber's home 52 for connection to a television set 60. Each drop cable 58 is typically a coaxial cable.
According to the present invention, the presentation player 54 is a cable-television-outside-plant device about the size of a conventional CATV bridging amplifier and generally has the same power and mounting requirements as a ~ridging amplifier. Broadly defined, the presentation player is a frequenc~-agile broadband receiver with a high-speed data demodulator tuned by a 2G narrow-band fi~ed frequency control channel. The purpose of presentation player 5~ is to receive from the CATV head end 38 a stream of digital packets representing the video/audio presentations to convert these digit~l packets into video/audio presentations, and to transmit particular video/audio p~esent3tion, on pre-assigned output channels to requesting subscribers. Each Qresent~tion player 54 ærocesses i~` 1 327393 only those digital packets representative of video/audio presentations requested by subscribers assigned to that presentation player 5~. That is, the digital packets representing the video/audio presentations requested by a subscriber are addressed to the specific presentation player 5~ assigned the task of processing the video/audio presentation ~or the subscriber.
Referring to FIG. 2, the presentation player ~4 incorporates at least one and as many as eight subscriber servers 62. The subscriber server 62 may ke available to only a single subscriber and installed in a home as subscriber apparatus, but typically will be shared among a small group of subscribers according 1~ to usage criteria. Any individual subscriber among a predefined group may access a subscriber server 62 by telephoning the LOC 11 service number and logging on.
When a subscriber has captured the use of a subscriber server 62, no other subscriber in the same group may use the subscriber server 62 until tnis first subscriber has finished. The number of subscribers, and of simultaneous users, for whom a single presentation player 5~ has been installed depends upon (1) t~e number of subscriber servers 62 ?resent in the presentation player 54, ~2) the assum?tions of average usage by the su~scribers assigned to each subscriber server 62, and (3) the number of ~ ~ 3273q3 subscriber selectab!e output channels available to the LOC 11 for transmitting the visual/audio presentations within the cable television net-.~ork.
The presentation player shown in FIG. 2 comprises eight subscriber servers 62; however, it is anticipated by the present invention that there may or may not be more than one output channel frequency accessible by two or more subscriber servers.
Typically, presentation player 54 will be installed near abridging amplifier 49 and wili serve between one and eight simultaneous users serviced by one to eight secondary cables 50. The specific number of secondary cables ~or feeders) 50 distributed from a presentation player 54 is determined by design criteria related to (1) the number of homes served by the CATV feeder cable in question (2) the local CATV-system channel allocation, and (3) the local installation and utility make-ready considerations.
In addition to the subscriber servers 62, each presentation player 54 further includes a subscriber server controller 64 and a presentation player converter 66. The choice of configuration of any presentation player 54 will depend upon the service needs of the area in which the presentation player S4 is installed.
Presentation player convertee 66 is tuned to a fixed Erequency, narrow- band control channel in 1 3~7393 order to tune itself to a broadband channel for receiving the digital packets representative of the video/audio presentations. In other words, convert~r 66 receives tuning information on the narrow-band control channel and in response to this information tunes itself to the deslgnated broadband channel carrying the stream of digital packets being broadcast by LOC 11. This self-tuning arrangement causes the presentation player converter 66 to select the correct channel, demodulate the signal to form a digital stream appropriate for local processing, perform forward error correction, and determine whether packetized information within the digital stream bein~
monitored is intended for a particular subscriber server 62 housed within the presentation player 54.
In essence, the presentation player converter 66 is a frequency-agile broadband receiver with a high-speed data receiver tuned by a narrow-band fi~ed frequency control channel.
The output signal fcom presentation player converter o6 is transmitted to subscriber server controller 64 as shown in FI~. 2. Subscriber server controller ~ is a dispatching device which routes signals from the Qresentation player o6 to the 2S appropriate subscriber server 62. Th3t is to say, subscriber server controller 64 determines the speci~ic subscriber server 62 designated to receive - `
` 1 327393 the packetized information. This packetizea information includes video and audio packets representative of the video/audio presentation, as well as a presentation script. The presentation script determines when and for what period of time the subscriber server 62 will transmit video and audio frames representative of a particular video/audio presentation. The operation of su~scriber server 62 includes the completion of a digital to audio conversion of the video/audio presentation, insertion of graphic information which is constructed from ASCII
characters, the mixinq in of background audio music and the transmission of the video/audio presentations on the assigned output channels in compatible NTSC
format for viewing by the requesting subscriber.
The function of presentation player converter 66 is to loca~e and tune to that frequency band within the CATV spectrum where the digital information stream is located, and to transformand monitor this information for processing and handling details as required to deliver video/audio presentations to requesting subscribers. This function of presentation player converter 66 is more apparent from the following description o~ its components.
Referring to FIG. 3, presentation player converter 66 includes a fi~ed-~requenc~ ceceiver 68 1 3~7393 which is permanently tuned to a predetermined narrow-band control channel within the CATV spectrum.
This narrow-band control channel, for example lOk~z or less, contains the information required by converter 66 to control presentation player 54. Fixed control channel receiver 68 transmits digitally encoded information to a demodulator 70 implemented in VLSI at a rate of approximately 9600 bits per second. At this rate, as many as one hundred million destination addresses can be controlled along ~qith error correction overhead, presentation format variants and a set of diagnostic commands. After the demodulator 70 performs a forward error correction, it passes the signal to a receiver controller 72 which stores handling and processinq commands including product presentatlon script illstructions, video/audio packet designations, diagnostic reporting schedules, and local storage of subscriber information screens.
The frequencv of the designated, high-speed input channel is transmitted by receiver controller 72 to a frequency-agile broadband receiver 74. Receiver 74 tunes to the channel designated by receiver controller 72. The designated channel signal is sent bv receiver 74 to a demodulator 76. Demodulator 76 converts the analog signal into a digital bit stream, performs o-ward correction and then sends the digital packets there~y received to receiver controller 72.
At receiver controller 72 the di~ital packets inte~ded for the presentation player 54 are selected and transmitted to subscriber server controller 64.
Subscriber server controller 64 sends t:~e digital packets of information to one of the subscriber servers 62 which resides in the presentation player 54. In accordance with addr~ssIng information included within the diqital ~acket. Each subscriber server 62 housed within a presentation player 5~ is responsible for processing the digital packets of information designated for subscribers assigned to that particular presentation player.
Referring to FIG. 4, the pac~ets of information transmitted from subscriber server controller 64, are received by a small CPU 78 in the subscriber server 62 and are stored in an ~l pool 80. CPU 78 determines ~hich o~ the information packets is a script packet and then uses the script packet to determine how the video and audio packets are to be combined with graphic information in real time for vie~Ying by the subscriber. The script packets also define fidelity and duration of background and overlav audio, as well a5 screen location and duration of video images ~ith accompanvin~ visual te~t. ~oreover, the script packets may define an automated series o~ audio/video sequences in ~ulfillin~ a specific request from a 2~
subscriber. In case of error detection during preparation of a product presentation sequence, the subscriber error controller 64 will substitute a substitute message from local RAi~ to comrnunicate information or instructions to the requesting user.
Feom CPU 78, the script packets are transmitted to a video expander 82 or an audio expander 84 depending on whether they contain visual or audio information. A video expander 82 includes graphic overlay capabilities, as well as functions for reversing the process as defined by a video compression algorithm. Audio expander 84 decompresses the audio packets and converts them into real time.
The video and audio packets are also processed by video processor B6 and audio processor 88. After the video and audio information have been queued and expanded, they are used to modulate a subscriber-selectable CATV channel by rneans of an output modulator ~0, a frequency-agile transmitter, which transmits to the requesting subscriber the assembled presentation in NTSC format on the frequency assigned bv the CPU 78 as directed by the LOC 11.
Accordinglv, it is throu~h ~he ^ ~sentation ?layer 54 that the requested video~audio presentations are transmitted on pre-assiqned output channels to the requesting subscribers.
Although the illustrative embodiment o~ the 1 3273q~
present invention has been described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to thi.s precise embodiment and that various changes or modifications may be effected therein by one skilled in the art without departing rrom the scope or spirit of the invention.
The present invention relates in general to digital, interactive communication systems, caDable of transmitting at a subscriber's request stlll-television video~frames, possibly with an accompanying audio message, and more particularly to a presentation player which receives a stream of digital packets through a standard CATV distribu~ion trunk, converts the digital packets into the selected video presentation with accompanying audio and transmits such presentation to the requesting subscriber on a pre-assigned output channel within a standard CATV
distribution feeder.
Conventionally, different kinds o co~munication systems are used to provide voice, data, and video communication services to subscribers. In par.icular, interactive cable television systems have been developed to distribute information to subscriber's televisions at their requests. One such syste~ concerns a shopping service where subscribers sho? at home in an "electronic mall". This system is distinguished from home shopping channels since it allows subscribers to select which products or se~Jices they will view on their television screens by use o~ in-house subscriber ~pparatus, such as 25 tele?hones or ChTV key ~ads. In operation, the subscriber tunes to a channel and requests connection to a remote location by dialing a predetermined telephone number, or accesses Yia a CATV reverse channel. As soon as the system identifies the subscriber, his television screen beyins to display still-frame video, and possibly accompanying audio, and directories of "electronic stores" comprising products or services that may be entered or passed, examined in further detail, saved for future consideration, or purchased just by-touching keys on a touch-tone telephone in response to prompts on the television screen. A main-frame host computer controls the flow of information in the system.
This shopping service uses a CATV network to distribute the video presentations and accompanying audio messages requested by subscribers. At various locations in the CATV network, a device known as a frame store unit captures the video and audio portions of a presentation. Each of these locations seeves a small group of subscribers. The function of each frame store unit is to capture the video frames destined for subscribers assigned to the particular frame store unit. The frame store unit captures a video frame bearing the address of an assigned subscriber and converts the frame into a form it can store. Next, the fra~e store unit detecmines which audio message to associate with the videQ frame, bundles the audio and video together by time multiplexing the video on one channel and frequency multiplexing the audio on another channel, and then injects the result into the CATV feeder cable. The composite signal trans.~itted by the fr~me store unit appears as a standard television picture on the subscriber's television.
The audio and video signals processed by the frame store unit are in analog format. This is in shar~ contrast to the presentation player of the present invention which receives and processes both the video and audio portions of a presentation in digital format. Moreover, the presentation player time multiplexes both the video and audio on a single channel.
The advanta~es of the presentation player over the frame store unit are numerous. The presentation player makes it possible for the interactive communication system to service more subscribers than the prior system because both the audio and video signals are time mul-iplexed on one channel. Moreover, the digital processing of these signals results in improved distortion immunity, improved audio fidelit~, and an improved capability to maintain the integrity of the video ?ortion of a presentation. An additional advantage of digital processing is an increase in the portion of the CATV
- 1 32739~
frequency spectrum usable for transmission of the proposed audio/video service.
Thus, the digital processing and time multiplexing of both audio and video by the presentation player offers significant advantages over the frame store unit used in other interactive communication systems.
An objective of the present invention is to overcome the deficiencies of the prior art noted above by providing a pre~entation player which can be utilized in a digital, interactive communication system capable of transmitting to subscribers television quality, still-video and motion-video presentations with accompanying audio~
It is another object of the presentation player of the present invention to process both video and audio signals in a digital format and thereby provide a more accurate reproduction of the original signals.
It is a Eurther object of the present invention to operate the presentation player as part of a new and improved interactive communication systems for merchandising ~roducts and services to subscribers.
The present invention is directed to a presentation player used in an interactive communication system ~herein subscribers select from a 1 3273q3 plurality of video/audio peesentations for viewing on their television sets. The video/audio presentations are transmitted in the form of diyital pac~ets of information to a plurality of presentation pl~yers 5 strategically located in the vicini~y of the subscriber. Each of the digitized packets transmitted to the presentation players is uniquely a~dressed to a requesting subscriber.
The presentation player includes a converter, a controller, and at least one subscriber server. The converter is tuned to a ixed-~req~ency, narrow-band control channel which broadcasts tuning information. This tuning informaticn causes the converter to tune to a broadband channel where it monitors a digital stream of information including the digital packets representative of selected ~ideo/audio presentations. The converter also detects ~or further processing the digital packets uniquely addressed to predetermined ones of the requesting subscribers.
The controller means receives the uniquel~
addressed di9ital packets from the convertec ana transmits each of these packets to a pre-assigned subscriber secver according to the packets unique address. That is, each presentation plaver ?rocesses the digital packets addressed to specific subscribers. ~ore speciically, each subscriber server ~ithin a presentation player is in turn responsible for processing the digital pac~ets of certain subscribers. The su`oscriber server receives the digital packets, converts them into analog formatted (conventional NTSC) video/audio presentations which are then transmitted to the requesting subscriber.
For a fuller understanding of the nature and objects of the invention, reference should be made to following detailed description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.
I FIG. 1 is a block diaqram of a digital,interactive communication system which in conjunction with a CATV network and the presentation ~la~er of the present invention provides subscribers with television quality, still-video presentations.
FIG. 2 is an exploded block diagram of the presentation player show in FIG. 1.
FIG. 3 is an exploded block diagram of the presentation player converter shown in FIG. 2.
FIG. 4 is an exploded block diagram o~ the subscriber server shown in FIG. 2.
Referring to FIG. 1, the presentation player of the present invention is utilized in conjunction with a digital, interactive cable television system generally designated as 10. In the operation of system 10, a subscriber uses a touch-tone telephone 1 to communicate with the system 10. The transmission 1 3273q3 signals sent through telephone 12 are carried over conventional telephone lines to a Local Operating Center ~"LOC") 11 of the system 10, which makes use of local area network technology. At the LOC 11, the tone-signals of telephone 12 are received by a voice network interface (nVNI") 14. If the tone-signals are conventional voice grade transmissions, they are transmitted to VNI 14 in analog format and are rec-ogni~ed and decoded by VNI 14 to ASCII characters recognized by an interface 16. In the instance where the tone-signals are received by VNI 14 as digital signals, VNI 14 likewise transforms the digitized touch-tone signals into protocol recognized by in-terface 16. VNI 14 could be a Summa Four, Inc., Specialty Digital Switch Model No. SDS-1000 having a predetermined number of outgoing telephone lines for bridging incoming subscriber calls to service representatives when required. Notwithstanding whether the tone-signals are in digital or analog form, the output signal of VMI 14 is transmitted to a first local area network (~LANN) 18 via the in-terface 16. While VNI 14 is shown in FIG. 1 as be-ing located at the LOC 11, it is anticipated by the present invention that VNI 14 need not be co-located at the same location as LOC 11.
The network topology of first LAN 18, that is the physical organization of the network, is known as a ring topology. A ring topology h~s all devices in the network connected by a single co~munications cable that for~s a circle or ring. Signals are sent from one device to another around the ring. As a signal moves around the ring, each device in the LAN
electronically detects whether the message is Eor it.
If it is, the device processes the sinnal. If not, the device will normally regenerate the signal and transmit it to the next device in the !ing.
Network access identifies-the procedures that allow each device in the network to communicate and receive data. The networ~ access imethod used in LAN 18 is conventionally known as token passing. A
token is a special bit pattern that constantly travels around the network. Every device in the network must wait until it receives the token, before it can transmit its message, reinserts the token in the netwo~k, which is then ?assed to the next device in the network. If a device has no message to send, it allows the token to pass to the next device in the network. In effect, possession of the token is permission to transmit a message.
The transmission medium connecting devices in LAN 18 can be either a broadband or a baseband coaxial cable. Baseband coaxial cable carries one signal at a time, but the signal travels at a rapid speed-in the range of ten million bit ~er second. Anv of a number of conventional methods are used to allow manv devices to access LAN 18 concurrently.
The devices comprising LAN 1~ include a plurality of single-board computers each having a special function in seeving the subscribers, as well as a random ~ccess memory, a clock, and input/output facilities. The single-board computers each include specialized application software and are associated with an interface which connects it to LAN l8. In addition to the single-board compu~ers, LAN 13 further comprises a large-scale data base ~8 conven_ionally referred to as a "disc ~arm". Stored in the data base's hard disk memory units i5 digital in~ocmation representing video presentations of ~300ds or services. Generally, these video presentations comprise television quality, still-~ra~e images, or textual information, or textual infor~ation ovarlaid on a still-frame image, or an~ co,~bina-ion of the foregoing. These video presentations ~ay be accompanied by an audio ~essage and are referred to hereafter as "video/audio presentations". Any of these Qtored video/au~io ?resent3tions can be viewed by a subscriber upon request during any session on the system 10. Also stored in data base 23 is navigational information describing the pathways between peesentations, as well as information about subscribers. ~'y~ically, the companies o~ering goods 1 3~7393 or services to subscribers develop a structure of video/audio presentations representing an electronic store.
One example of the single-board computers coupled to LAW 18 are those manufactured by Intel Corporation of Santa Clara, California and are designated as i~odel No. iSBC 36/100 or Model iSbc 186/100. The computers are denoted according to their functional application in the LAN 18, and are identified in FIG. 1 as the session server 20, navigation server 22, subscriber information server 24, and cashier server 26. While the servers 20,22,24, and 26 are each identified by a single functional task, the present invention anticipated 1~ that each server will have appropriate software so that the server can switch functions depending on the demands of system 10. During any subscriber session on system 10, one session server 20 will be dedicated to serving a particular subscriber~ The number of session servers 20 at any LOC 11 will depend on the number of subscribers serviced by the LOC 11.
Accordingly, the number of session servers 20 at a LOC
11 could by anywhere in the range of 100 to 2,000 units.
The output message from VNI 14 is transmitted through interface 16 to one of the plurality of session servers 20. Inter~ace 16 l 3273q3 associates an incoming subscrlber call to an available session server 20. The session server 20, like all the servers comprising the LAN 18 is itself connected to LAN 18 by means of an interface. Though each server is shown in FIG. 1 as connected to an inter-face, in the physlcal construction of LAN 18 an in-terface may be shared by a plurality of servers.
Session server 20 processes the message by translating or converting it into some logical signal that the other servers understand, and then passes the signal on to LAN 18 for further processing by the other servers. In essence, the session server 20 interprets the digital signal representing a key on the touch-tone telephone 12 and sends out a command or commands to other servers on LAN 18. Included in these commands are the subscriber~s re~uests for sel-ected presentations.
Navigation server 22 includes a dynamic RAM
memory which can store at any instance sufficient information to enable the subscriber to move about any of the clientsl presentation structures. The information stored in navigation server 22 defines the pathways between the presentations in any presentaticn structure. Since navigation server 22 incorporates a dynamic RAM memory, it will only store navigation in-formation that is useful at any particular time in a subscriber session. Typically, the dynamic RAM memory of navigation server 22 has approximately 10 megabytes of RAI~ ~emory. Thus navigation server 22 is not capable of storing all of the clients' presentation networks within its memory. This information is stored in the hard disk memories of data base 28.
In operation of system 10, the subscriber designates the presentation or presentations he desires to view by depressing keys on touch-tone telephone 12. The digitized signals which represent the depressed telephone keys are processed by session server 20 and are addressed to navigation server 22.
Navigation server 22 fetches from data base 28 the navigational data needed at that time to move about a presentation network in accordance with the subscriber's requests. Thus, for example, as the subscriber requests information within a specific presentation structure, the dynamic memory will only store navigational information about that portion of the presentation network that could be requested by 2~ the subscriber at that particular time in the subscriber session. As the session proceeds and the subscriber moves about the presentation structure, the navigation information within the dynamic memory will change with the subscriber's movement in the structure. According to this navigational data stored within its dynamic memory, and from its interpretation of the di~itized signals of session server 20, the 1 3273q3 navigation server 22 determines which of the presentations stored in data base 28 have been selected bv the subscriber and transmits ~ signal through LAN 13 for the data base 28 to transmit the requested presentations to the subscriber~
Subscriber information server 24 stores information about system iO subs~ribers. The information stored about each subscriber includes the subscriber's telephone number, the subscriberls personal i~entification number, and it identifies a presentation player designated to re_eive the subscriber's requested presentat-ions. As will be explained in more detail below, the presentation player receives, stores, and re-transmits to the subscriber those presentations requested by the subscriber.
Typically, server 2~ is active for only a portion of any subscriber session. In the operation of the system lO, session server 20 queries subscriber information server 24 Eor information concerning a subscriber. Server 24 then fetches the requested information and sends it to session server 20 which stores the information in its memory. Since session server 20 is active during the entire subscriber session there is no furthec need to ~uery server 24 for information durinq the remainder of the subscriber's session.
-~ 327393 Cashier server 26 processes all information concerning the subscriber's purchases of merchandise or services. For example, cashier server 26 queries the subscriber as to the means by which he intends to -pay for purchases. If the subscriber selects a credit card as means for payment, cashier server 26 accesses the subscriber's credit card identification number from data base 2~ and transmits an appropriate message to an authorization service so that the purchase is charged to the subscriber's credit card. ~nother function of cashier server 26 is to advise the clients of purchases so that the goods are sent expeditiously to the subscriber.
Purchase information can be transmitted on-line to the client or it can be stored in cashier server 26 and "batched" to a client at a later time.
For example, all purchases made during a given period are stored by cashier server 26 in a storage data file, but at the end of the period they are sent in batches to the various clients for further processing. Cashier server 26 can also describe the means by which the purchased goods will be delivered to the subscriber. That is, it will advise the client whether the goods are to be shipped and by which means, or whether the subscriber will pick up the goods at the client's store.
A second L~N 30, also a rinq topology, is connected to data base 28 for sending the digital signals representing the video/audio present3tions to a CATV system. Tran~mission of a single video frame requires approximately 30 kilo-bytes to 50 kilo-bytes of information. Since a large number of bytes of digital information is required to re~resent the video or image portion of a presentation, sec~nd L~N 30 is needed since it accommodates a larger quantity of digital information at a higher rate of speed than first LAN 18. To meet this requirement, the transmission medium of second LAN ~0 is a broadband medium and preferably a fiber optic cable compri,ing several optical fibers having a broader banawidth than first LAN 18 which transmits several hundred thousand bits of information per second.
A channel server 32 receives subscriber control information from first LAN 18 and information representative of selected video presentations from second LAN 32 for transmission to a CATV head end 38.
Interface 34 and interface 36 respectively couple channel server 32 to first LAN 18 and second LAN 30.
Channel server 32 comprises a microprocessor~ a ~AM
memory of several megabytes, a foeward-error correction encoder, and a modulator. The video, audi-and control information received by channel se~:er 32 is converted into a hi9h-speed digital stream and modulated so that it is suit~ble for ~ransmission by a cable television network. Channel server 32 also schedules the order in which the information is sent to the cable television network, and performs forward-error correction coding to assume reliability in transmission by the cable television network.
Typically, a LOC 11 will service approximately 5,000 to 10,000 subscribers depending on its location. Each LOC 11 is capable of communicating with other LOCts by means of a gateway 40 which in turn communicates with a high-speed transmission medium, such as a broadband terrestrial or a communication satellite. Gateway 40 comprises a microcomputer having a memory of at least several megabytes, and is coupled to first LAN 18 and second LAN 30 by interface 42 and interface 44, respectively. In communicating with other LOC's, LOC
11 can request information, such as a video/audio - presentation not found in its data base 28, and can in turn respond to the requests of other LOC's.
In a conventional cable television net"ork incorporating a CATV head end 38, trunk cables 46 emerge from the head end 38 as the primary signal path. Along the trunk cables 46 are a plurality of nodes 48. At each node 48 a bridger amplifier 49 (shown in FIGS. 2,3, and 4) is generally located to amplify the video/audio presentations and to convey them along a secondary cable 50 to the subscriber's ~ 1 327393 home 52. At each node 48, and according to the present invention, a presentation player 5~ is located which has as an output at least one secondary cable S0. Eight potential secondary cables 50 are snown in FIG. 2 as being connected to presentation player 5~, while only one of the secondary cables 50 is shown in actual use. Along each secondary cable 50 a drop connection 56 to a drop cable 58 extends into the subscriber's home 52 for connection to a television set 60. Each drop cable 58 is typically a coaxial cable.
According to the present invention, the presentation player 54 is a cable-television-outside-plant device about the size of a conventional CATV bridging amplifier and generally has the same power and mounting requirements as a ~ridging amplifier. Broadly defined, the presentation player is a frequenc~-agile broadband receiver with a high-speed data demodulator tuned by a 2G narrow-band fi~ed frequency control channel. The purpose of presentation player 5~ is to receive from the CATV head end 38 a stream of digital packets representing the video/audio presentations to convert these digit~l packets into video/audio presentations, and to transmit particular video/audio p~esent3tion, on pre-assigned output channels to requesting subscribers. Each Qresent~tion player 54 ærocesses i~` 1 327393 only those digital packets representative of video/audio presentations requested by subscribers assigned to that presentation player 5~. That is, the digital packets representing the video/audio presentations requested by a subscriber are addressed to the specific presentation player 5~ assigned the task of processing the video/audio presentation ~or the subscriber.
Referring to FIG. 2, the presentation player ~4 incorporates at least one and as many as eight subscriber servers 62. The subscriber server 62 may ke available to only a single subscriber and installed in a home as subscriber apparatus, but typically will be shared among a small group of subscribers according 1~ to usage criteria. Any individual subscriber among a predefined group may access a subscriber server 62 by telephoning the LOC 11 service number and logging on.
When a subscriber has captured the use of a subscriber server 62, no other subscriber in the same group may use the subscriber server 62 until tnis first subscriber has finished. The number of subscribers, and of simultaneous users, for whom a single presentation player 5~ has been installed depends upon (1) t~e number of subscriber servers 62 ?resent in the presentation player 54, ~2) the assum?tions of average usage by the su~scribers assigned to each subscriber server 62, and (3) the number of ~ ~ 3273q3 subscriber selectab!e output channels available to the LOC 11 for transmitting the visual/audio presentations within the cable television net-.~ork.
The presentation player shown in FIG. 2 comprises eight subscriber servers 62; however, it is anticipated by the present invention that there may or may not be more than one output channel frequency accessible by two or more subscriber servers.
Typically, presentation player 54 will be installed near abridging amplifier 49 and wili serve between one and eight simultaneous users serviced by one to eight secondary cables 50. The specific number of secondary cables ~or feeders) 50 distributed from a presentation player 54 is determined by design criteria related to (1) the number of homes served by the CATV feeder cable in question (2) the local CATV-system channel allocation, and (3) the local installation and utility make-ready considerations.
In addition to the subscriber servers 62, each presentation player 54 further includes a subscriber server controller 64 and a presentation player converter 66. The choice of configuration of any presentation player 54 will depend upon the service needs of the area in which the presentation player S4 is installed.
Presentation player convertee 66 is tuned to a fixed Erequency, narrow- band control channel in 1 3~7393 order to tune itself to a broadband channel for receiving the digital packets representative of the video/audio presentations. In other words, convert~r 66 receives tuning information on the narrow-band control channel and in response to this information tunes itself to the deslgnated broadband channel carrying the stream of digital packets being broadcast by LOC 11. This self-tuning arrangement causes the presentation player converter 66 to select the correct channel, demodulate the signal to form a digital stream appropriate for local processing, perform forward error correction, and determine whether packetized information within the digital stream bein~
monitored is intended for a particular subscriber server 62 housed within the presentation player 54.
In essence, the presentation player converter 66 is a frequency-agile broadband receiver with a high-speed data receiver tuned by a narrow-band fi~ed frequency control channel.
The output signal fcom presentation player converter o6 is transmitted to subscriber server controller 64 as shown in FI~. 2. Subscriber server controller ~ is a dispatching device which routes signals from the Qresentation player o6 to the 2S appropriate subscriber server 62. Th3t is to say, subscriber server controller 64 determines the speci~ic subscriber server 62 designated to receive - `
` 1 327393 the packetized information. This packetizea information includes video and audio packets representative of the video/audio presentation, as well as a presentation script. The presentation script determines when and for what period of time the subscriber server 62 will transmit video and audio frames representative of a particular video/audio presentation. The operation of su~scriber server 62 includes the completion of a digital to audio conversion of the video/audio presentation, insertion of graphic information which is constructed from ASCII
characters, the mixinq in of background audio music and the transmission of the video/audio presentations on the assigned output channels in compatible NTSC
format for viewing by the requesting subscriber.
The function of presentation player converter 66 is to loca~e and tune to that frequency band within the CATV spectrum where the digital information stream is located, and to transformand monitor this information for processing and handling details as required to deliver video/audio presentations to requesting subscribers. This function of presentation player converter 66 is more apparent from the following description o~ its components.
Referring to FIG. 3, presentation player converter 66 includes a fi~ed-~requenc~ ceceiver 68 1 3~7393 which is permanently tuned to a predetermined narrow-band control channel within the CATV spectrum.
This narrow-band control channel, for example lOk~z or less, contains the information required by converter 66 to control presentation player 54. Fixed control channel receiver 68 transmits digitally encoded information to a demodulator 70 implemented in VLSI at a rate of approximately 9600 bits per second. At this rate, as many as one hundred million destination addresses can be controlled along ~qith error correction overhead, presentation format variants and a set of diagnostic commands. After the demodulator 70 performs a forward error correction, it passes the signal to a receiver controller 72 which stores handling and processinq commands including product presentatlon script illstructions, video/audio packet designations, diagnostic reporting schedules, and local storage of subscriber information screens.
The frequencv of the designated, high-speed input channel is transmitted by receiver controller 72 to a frequency-agile broadband receiver 74. Receiver 74 tunes to the channel designated by receiver controller 72. The designated channel signal is sent bv receiver 74 to a demodulator 76. Demodulator 76 converts the analog signal into a digital bit stream, performs o-ward correction and then sends the digital packets there~y received to receiver controller 72.
At receiver controller 72 the di~ital packets inte~ded for the presentation player 54 are selected and transmitted to subscriber server controller 64.
Subscriber server controller 64 sends t:~e digital packets of information to one of the subscriber servers 62 which resides in the presentation player 54. In accordance with addr~ssIng information included within the diqital ~acket. Each subscriber server 62 housed within a presentation player 5~ is responsible for processing the digital packets of information designated for subscribers assigned to that particular presentation player.
Referring to FIG. 4, the pac~ets of information transmitted from subscriber server controller 64, are received by a small CPU 78 in the subscriber server 62 and are stored in an ~l pool 80. CPU 78 determines ~hich o~ the information packets is a script packet and then uses the script packet to determine how the video and audio packets are to be combined with graphic information in real time for vie~Ying by the subscriber. The script packets also define fidelity and duration of background and overlav audio, as well a5 screen location and duration of video images ~ith accompanvin~ visual te~t. ~oreover, the script packets may define an automated series o~ audio/video sequences in ~ulfillin~ a specific request from a 2~
subscriber. In case of error detection during preparation of a product presentation sequence, the subscriber error controller 64 will substitute a substitute message from local RAi~ to comrnunicate information or instructions to the requesting user.
Feom CPU 78, the script packets are transmitted to a video expander 82 or an audio expander 84 depending on whether they contain visual or audio information. A video expander 82 includes graphic overlay capabilities, as well as functions for reversing the process as defined by a video compression algorithm. Audio expander 84 decompresses the audio packets and converts them into real time.
The video and audio packets are also processed by video processor B6 and audio processor 88. After the video and audio information have been queued and expanded, they are used to modulate a subscriber-selectable CATV channel by rneans of an output modulator ~0, a frequency-agile transmitter, which transmits to the requesting subscriber the assembled presentation in NTSC format on the frequency assigned bv the CPU 78 as directed by the LOC 11.
Accordinglv, it is throu~h ~he ^ ~sentation ?layer 54 that the requested video~audio presentations are transmitted on pre-assiqned output channels to the requesting subscribers.
Although the illustrative embodiment o~ the 1 3273q~
present invention has been described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to thi.s precise embodiment and that various changes or modifications may be effected therein by one skilled in the art without departing rrom the scope or spirit of the invention.
Claims (17)
1. In an interactive communication system wherein subscribers select from a plurality of video/audio presentations, said video/audio presentations being transmitted in the form of digital packets of information to a plurality of presentation players, each said digital packet uniquely addressed to said requesting subscriber, said presentation players each comprising:
converter means tuned to a channel for monitoring a digital stream of information including said digital packets representative of selected video/audio presentations, and for detecting, for further processing, digital packets uniquely addressed to predetermined ones of said requesting subscribers;
controller means receiving said uniquely addressed digital packets and transmitting each said packet to a pre-assigned subscriber server according to its unique address; and at least one said subscriber server receiving uniquely addressed digital packets, converting said digital packets into analog formatted video/audio presentations, and transmitting said video/audio presentations to said requesting subscriber.
converter means tuned to a channel for monitoring a digital stream of information including said digital packets representative of selected video/audio presentations, and for detecting, for further processing, digital packets uniquely addressed to predetermined ones of said requesting subscribers;
controller means receiving said uniquely addressed digital packets and transmitting each said packet to a pre-assigned subscriber server according to its unique address; and at least one said subscriber server receiving uniquely addressed digital packets, converting said digital packets into analog formatted video/audio presentations, and transmitting said video/audio presentations to said requesting subscriber.
2. The presentation player in accordance with claim 1 comprising no more than eight subscriber servers.
3. The presentation player in accordance with claim 1 wherein said converter means is tuned to a broadband channel.
4. The presentation player in accordance with claim 1 wherein said subscriber server transmits said video/audio presentation on a pre-assigned output channel in NTSC format.
5. The presentation player in accordance with claim 1 wherein said subscriber server further com-prises a computer processing unit for receiving and processing said uniquely addressed digital packets and for storing such packets into a RAM memory.
6. The presentation player in accordance with claim 1 wherein said digital packets include video packets, audio packets, and script packets which determine the manner in which video and audio packets are combined into a video/audio presentation.
7. The presentation player in accordance with claim 1 wherein said converter means is tuned to said monitoring channel according to tuning information received from a pre-fixed frequency, narrow-band con-trol channel.
8. The presentation player in accordance with claim 7 wherein said narrow-band control channel is 10kHz or less.
9. The presentation player in accordance with claim 7 wherein said converter means further comprises a fixed-control-channel receiver for receiving said narrow-band control channel.
10. The presentation player in accordance with claim 9 wherein said fixed-control-channel receiver transmits digitally encoded information to a demod-ulator at a rate of approximately 9600 bits per sec-ond, the output of said demodulator is transmitted to a receiver controller which designates to a frequency-agile broadband receiver the monitoring channel.
11. The presentation player in accordance with claim 1 wherein said monitoring channel is within the cable television frequency spectrum.
12. A presentation player for receiving video/
audio presentations selected by a subscriber of an interactive communication system, said video/audio presentations being transmitted in the form of digi-tal packets of information, each said digital packet uniquely addressed to said requesting subscriber, said presentation player comprising:
converter means tuned to a channel for monitor-ing a digital stream of information including said digital packets representative of selected video/
audio presentations, and for detecting, for further processing, digital packets uniquely addressed to predetermined ones of said requesting subscribers;
controller means receiving said uniquely addressed digital packets and transmitting each said packet to a pre-assigned subscriber server according to its unique address; and at least one said subscriber server receiving uniquely addressed digital packets, converting said digital packets into analog formatted video/audio presentations, and transmitting said video/audio presentations to said requesting subscriber.
audio presentations selected by a subscriber of an interactive communication system, said video/audio presentations being transmitted in the form of digi-tal packets of information, each said digital packet uniquely addressed to said requesting subscriber, said presentation player comprising:
converter means tuned to a channel for monitor-ing a digital stream of information including said digital packets representative of selected video/
audio presentations, and for detecting, for further processing, digital packets uniquely addressed to predetermined ones of said requesting subscribers;
controller means receiving said uniquely addressed digital packets and transmitting each said packet to a pre-assigned subscriber server according to its unique address; and at least one said subscriber server receiving uniquely addressed digital packets, converting said digital packets into analog formatted video/audio presentations, and transmitting said video/audio presentations to said requesting subscriber.
13. In a cable television network, a device for distributing to subscribers video/audio presentations selected by said subscribers, comprising:
means for receiving a stream of digital packets of information through a distribution medium, said digital packets representative of video/audio presentations selected by said subscribers.
means for converting said digital packets into analog formatted video/audio presentations; and means for transmitting said analog formatted video/audio presentations on pre-assigned output channels to said requesting subscribers.
means for receiving a stream of digital packets of information through a distribution medium, said digital packets representative of video/audio presentations selected by said subscribers.
means for converting said digital packets into analog formatted video/audio presentations; and means for transmitting said analog formatted video/audio presentations on pre-assigned output channels to said requesting subscribers.
14. The device in accordance with claim 13 wherein said distribution medium is a cable television distribution trunk.
15. The device in accordance with claim 13 wherein said video/audio presentations include still-frame images.
16. The device in accordance with claim 15 wherein said video/audio presentations further include one or more audio message.
17. The device in accordance with claim 13 wherein said video/audio presentations include motion images.
Applications Claiming Priority (2)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| US07/087,668 US4829372A (en) | 1987-08-20 | 1987-08-20 | Presentation player |
| US087,668 | 1987-08-20 |
Publications (1)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CA1327393C true CA1327393C (en) | 1994-03-01 |
Family
ID=22206544
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA000572467A Expired - Fee Related CA1327393C (en) | 1987-08-20 | 1988-07-19 | Presentation player |
Country Status (18)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| US (1) | US4829372A (en) |
| JP (1) | JPS6489687A (en) |
| KR (1) | KR890004574A (en) |
| CN (1) | CN1031458A (en) |
| AU (1) | AU2006188A (en) |
| CA (1) | CA1327393C (en) |
| DE (1) | DE3820426A1 (en) |
| DK (1) | DK459188A (en) |
| ES (1) | ES2007875A6 (en) |
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| FR (1) | FR2619661A1 (en) |
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| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JPS5477013A (en) * | 1977-12-02 | 1979-06-20 | Hitachi Ltd | Transmission system for picture sound |
| JPS5571382A (en) * | 1978-11-24 | 1980-05-29 | Hitachi Ltd | Buffer memory dispersive arrangement-type picture sound transmission system |
| US4450481A (en) * | 1981-08-25 | 1984-05-22 | E-Com Corporation | Tamper-resistant, expandable communications system |
| US4450477A (en) * | 1982-03-31 | 1984-05-22 | Lovett Bruce E | Television information system |
| US4509073A (en) * | 1982-04-29 | 1985-04-02 | Packet Technologies, Inc. | Two-way cable-television system |
| JPS60180387A (en) * | 1984-02-28 | 1985-09-14 | Mitsubishi Electric Corp | Display device |
| GB2155283B (en) * | 1984-03-02 | 1987-08-05 | Communications Patents Ltd | Wind broadcasting systems |
| FR2575890B1 (en) * | 1985-01-08 | 1987-01-30 | Lignes Telegraph Telephon | INTERACTIVE METHOD FOR CONSULTING A TELEVISION QUALITY IMAGE BANK THROUGH A SERVER CONNECTED TO AN INFORMATION TRANSMISSION NETWORK AND SYSTEM FOR IMPLEMENTING THE METHOD |
| US4616263A (en) * | 1985-02-11 | 1986-10-07 | Gte Corporation | Video subsystem for a hybrid videotex facility |
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| CA1284211C (en) * | 1985-04-29 | 1991-05-14 | Terrence Henry Pocock | Cable television system selectively distributing pre-recorder video and audio messages |
-
1987
- 1987-08-20 US US07/087,668 patent/US4829372A/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
-
1988
- 1988-04-22 GB GB8809565A patent/GB2208986A/en not_active Withdrawn
- 1988-04-29 SE SE8801612A patent/SE8801612L/en not_active Application Discontinuation
- 1988-05-09 NL NL8801213A patent/NL8801213A/en not_active Application Discontinuation
- 1988-05-20 ES ES8801598A patent/ES2007875A6/en not_active Expired
- 1988-06-15 DE DE3820426A patent/DE3820426A1/en not_active Withdrawn
- 1988-06-29 FR FR8808732A patent/FR2619661A1/en not_active Withdrawn
- 1988-07-05 IT IT8821226A patent/IT1226437B/en active
- 1988-07-19 CA CA000572467A patent/CA1327393C/en not_active Expired - Fee Related
- 1988-07-27 AU AU20061/88A patent/AU2006188A/en not_active Abandoned
- 1988-07-29 LU LU87306A patent/LU87306A1/en unknown
- 1988-08-04 PH PH37343A patent/PH24871A/en unknown
- 1988-08-09 JP JP63197301A patent/JPS6489687A/en active Pending
- 1988-08-16 DK DK459188A patent/DK459188A/en not_active Application Discontinuation
- 1988-08-18 NO NO88883687A patent/NO883687L/en unknown
- 1988-08-19 CN CN88106527A patent/CN1031458A/en active Pending
- 1988-08-19 FI FI883859A patent/FI883859A/en not_active IP Right Cessation
- 1988-08-20 KR KR1019880010615A patent/KR890004574A/en not_active Application Discontinuation
Also Published As
| Publication number | Publication date |
|---|---|
| CN1031458A (en) | 1989-03-01 |
| GB8809565D0 (en) | 1988-05-25 |
| SE8801612L (en) | 1989-02-21 |
| GB2208986A (en) | 1989-04-19 |
| DK459188D0 (en) | 1988-08-16 |
| NO883687D0 (en) | 1988-08-18 |
| DK459188A (en) | 1989-02-21 |
| NO883687L (en) | 1989-02-21 |
| SE8801612D0 (en) | 1988-04-29 |
| US4829372A (en) | 1989-05-09 |
| NL8801213A (en) | 1989-03-16 |
| DE3820426A1 (en) | 1989-03-02 |
| ES2007875A6 (en) | 1989-07-01 |
| LU87306A1 (en) | 1989-02-02 |
| JPS6489687A (en) | 1989-04-04 |
| IT1226437B (en) | 1991-01-15 |
| KR890004574A (en) | 1989-04-22 |
| AU2006188A (en) | 1989-02-23 |
| IT8821226A0 (en) | 1988-07-05 |
| PH24871A (en) | 1990-12-26 |
| FR2619661A1 (en) | 1989-02-24 |
| FI883859A (en) | 1989-02-21 |
| FI883859A0 (en) | 1988-08-19 |
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