Webtv Networks, Inc.

Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Apple Inc.

Rocket Science Games, Inc.

Microsoft Corporation

Bruce A Leak

Phillip York Goldman

Stephen G Perlman

Lee S Mighdoll

Joe Freeman Britt, Jr

Christopher M White

David R Anderson

Andrew T McFadden

Keith R Ohlfs

Daniel John Zigmond

Dean J Blackketter

Sean Michael Callahan

Timo A Bruck

Peter John Potrebic

Shannon B Vosseller

David J Cheng

Marcus Tai-Tong Aiu

Wei Huang

Samuel Thomas Scott, Iii

John R Matheny

Konstantin Othmer

Alan Cohn

Michael A Killianey

Mark Krueger

Eric M Tucker

Edward Harp

Steven C Wasserman

John Matheny

Philip Y Goldman

A recorded content management system determines when recorded content maintained in a television-based entertainment and information system has been watched by a viewer. When a segment or percentage of the recorded content for a particular program is displayed for viewing, it is determined whether the program has been watched so that the recorded content, or a portion of the recorded content, can be queued for deletion, or maintained for additional viewing.

Recorded content management

A system for accessing the World Wide Web or other information sources using the Internet incorporates scaled-down versions of images associated with recently-viewed documents or documents designated as favorites into a recent menu or a favorites menu, respectively. As a user accesses a Web page, a scaled-down version of the Web page is inserted into a recent menu. The user can view the recent menu and visually determine the identity of the recently-viewed Web pages, which allows the user to conveniently select Web pages to access. This recent menu also enables the user to access recently-viewed documents in any order, which does not need to be in the chronological order in which the pages were originally viewed or in a reverse chronological order. Scaled-down versions of Web pages designated as favorites are stored in the favorites menu, thereby assisting the user in recalling the content of the favorite documents.

Displaying scaled-down versions of documents on favorites and recent menu

Methods and systems for scaling down a Web page image enables the image to be displayed on a standard television without horizontal scrolling of the image. A Web page image that initially has a horizontal dimension larger than the horizontal dimension of a television display is received from a web server and subsequently scaled down by a scaling factor that is based only upon the amount of scaling that is necessary to fit the image within the horizontal dimension of the television display. This scaling factor is used to scale the image horizontally and vertically, thus preserving the aspect ratio of the image. When a hyperlink from the scaled down Web page image is selected, coordinates to the hyperlink are scaled up based on the same scaling factor so that they will correspond with the server-side image map of the Web page image.

Resizing internet document for display on television screen

An interactive television system includes 'connected' receiver units capable of establishing bi-directional connections to remote information stores, such as Web servers, and 'disconnected' receiver units unequipped to make such connections. The system supports the use of broadcast triggers that include connectivity values indicating whether an information resource identified by a trigger refers to &#x201c;connected content&#x201d; or &#x201c;disconnected content.&#x201d; The term &#x201c;connected content&#x201d; refers to information resources that require bi-directional connections to remote information stores; the term &#x201c;disconnected content&#x201d; refers to information resources, such as a locally stored program guide, that do not require such bi-directional connections. Disconnected receiver units identify and reject connected-content triggers by examining connectivity values broadcast as part of triggers. Thus, content providers can broadcast connected-content triggers to connected and disconnected receiver units without interrupting disconnected receiver units with links to inaccessible content. Furthermore, the ability to distinguish between connected and disconnected content allows vendors who sell or lease receiver units to offer a lower level of service to those customers who do not wish to pay for the ability to access connected content.

Providing multiple levels of interactive television service using triggers and trigger filters

Systems and methods for obtaining and maintaining operable and updated versions of software on a client, which may be a set-top box or a personal computer. A server automatically downloads software updates over a satellite link to a client after such upgrades become available at the server without requiring interaction with a user. Similarly, corrupted software is automatically replaced by the client first automatically detecting if a corrupted state exists in local software or data using a checksum technique. If such corruption is found, the client automatically connects over the Internet to a server that contains a replacement for the corrupted program or data. The client then automatically receives a download of the program or data from the server.

Downloading software from a server to a client

A server system provides a client system with access to a number of services. For each service, if a given service provider is overloaded or if the client is unable to contact that provider, the client can contact another service provider capable of providing the requested service. The server system provides information to the client system identifying a list of services that the server system provides. For each service in the list of services, the information may include a service name identifying the service, and a unique port identifying each service provider for that service, so that one service name can be used in accessing multiple service providers of a desired service. A request from the client may include a service name identifying the desired service, and a port selected from ports provided by the server system that corresponds to a service provider for the desired service.

Method for downloading a web page to a client for efficient display on a television screen

Interactive television triggers having connected content/disconnected content attribute

Method of improving access to services provided by a plurality of remote service providers

Methods and systems for scaling down a Web page image enables the image to be displayed on a standard television without horizontal scrolling of the image. A Web page image that initially has a horizontal dimension larger than the horizontal dimension of a television display is received from a web server and subsequently scaled down by a scaling factor that is based only upon the amount of scaling that is necessary to fit the image within the horizontal dimension of the television display. This scaling factor is used to scale the image horizontally and vertically, thus preserving the aspect ratio of the image. When a hyperlink from the scaled down Web page image is selected, coordinates to the hyperlink are scaled up based on the same scaling factor so that they will correspond with the server side image map of the Web page image.

Interactive television content can be classified as either disconnected content or as connected content. An interactive television system involves some receivers that cannot establish connections to the Internet and therefore cannot properly process triggers to connected content. The system also involves other receiver units that can establish connections to the Internet and can process triggers to connected content. A trigger in accordance with the invention involves a &ldquo;connected content/disconnected content&rdquo; attribute that identifies the trigger as either a trigger to disconnected content or a trigger to connected content. Receiver units that cannot process triggers to connected content can therefore use the attribute to identify triggers to such connected content and can then ignore such triggers, while those receiver units that can process triggers to connect content can use those triggers to make the desired Internet connection.

A method is described of providing a document to a client coupled to a server. The server functions as a proxy on behalf of the client for purposes of accessing a remote server. In the method, a document is retrieved from the remote server in response to a request from the client. The document includes data to be used by the client in generating a display. The proxying server alters (i.e., transcodes) the data in the document to form a transcoded document. The transcoded document is then transmitted to the client. The proxying server transcodes the data in the document in order to perform at least one of the following functions: (1) matching decompression requirements at the client; (2) converting the document into a format compatible for the client; (3) reducing latency experienced by the client; and (4) altering the document to fit into smaller memory space.

Method of transcoding documents in a network environment using a proxy server

A method and system are provided for reducing flicker of an image defined in HTML format for display on a television monitor. When an image is retrieved from a server by a user browser system that uses a television monitor and a dedicated computer system to display HTML documents, analysis is performed on the image to determine whether the image exhibits a tendency to interlace flicker if such an image were to be displayed unmodified on the television monitor. If the analysis indicates that the image would exhibit a tendency to interlace flicker, the dedicated computer system identifies a flicker reduction filter that reduces the interlace flicker. The dedicated computer system applies the filter to the images before it is displayed on the television monitor. Otherwise, the dedicated computer system displays the image as retrieved from the server without flicker reduction filtering.

Method and apparatus for reducing flicker when displaying HTML images on a television monitor

A server system provides a client system with a number of on-line services including a log-in service. Once the server receives a request from the user for initiating access to the server, the log-in service accesses a user database for information including access privileges of the authorized user in relation to the other services available on the server. The server then generates an information packet containing this information, and transmits the information packet to the client. The client than transmits a second request to the server, requesting use of another service offered by the server. The information packet provided by the server in response to the log-in request is transmitted along with the second request to the server. The server then regulates access by the client to this other service by using the information packet transmitted back to the server from the client. Thus, access to the user database is minimized.

Method of using electronic tickets containing privileges for improved security

Growing community of inventors

Palo Alto, CA, United States of America

Bruce A Leak