Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Sandisk Technologies Inc.

Thomson Consumer Electronics Inc.

Open Tv Corporation

Elliot Broadwin

Jon C Haass

Fabrice Jogand-Coulomb

Henry Hutton

Pascal Achille Caillon

Kurt Forsyth Webster

Phillip Jeffrey Balma

Brendan Kavanagh

Aviv Alluf

James Frederick Schram

Systems and methods of predictive data acquisition are disclosed. A personal proxy server is configured to acquire first data in response to a first request to access the first data and to acquire second data prior to receiving a second request to access the second data. The first request and the second request are received from a common source. The personal proxy server is also configured to store the acquired first data and the acquired second data so that the acquired first data and the acquired second data are accessible to the personal proxy server.

System and method of predictive data acquisition

A system and method for displaying still video images related to video content in an interactive broadcast television system. The system and method of the present invention may also be used for simulating an Internet home page on an interactive television system. The present invention thus supports hyperlinked web-like navigational capabilities in an interactive television system. According to the method of the present invention, the video delivery system provides or broadcasts one or more audio/video channels each comprising video content and also provides or broadcasts at least one still image channel comprising a plurality of still video images, preferably MPEG-2 compressed still images. The user or viewer can select options displayed on the television screen to view desired information. When the set top box receives user input selecting an option to view one of the linked still images, the set top box captures the requested image from the still image broadcast channel, stores the image in memory, and displays the captured still video image corresponding to the selection. The user can also request to view an image which is not currently being transmitted by the video delivery system. In this instance, the system provides user requested still images 'on demand' on a dedicated 'search' channel. The user can thus selectively navigate between the video content and stills in a web-like hyperlinked fashion.

Interactive television system and method having on-demand web-like navigational capabilities for displaying requested hyperlinked web-like still images associated with television content

Interactive television system and method having on-demand web-like

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Fremont, CA, United States of America

Elliot Broadwin