Pioneer Electronic Corporation

Nissan Motor Company Limited

Masahiko Kawasaki

Kazushi Sakuma

Takashi Nozaki

Tatsuo Takahashi

Eiji Ohga

Yoshitada Sekine

Kazuyoshi Abe

Kazuhiko Yazaki

Kimihito Harada

Ryusuke Tozaki

Ruysuke Tozaki

An exciting command is transmitted from a center of a CATV system to a plurality of terminals in a block at the same time for exciting circuits in each terminal. A command to request each of the terminals to send response data is transmitted from the center to the terminals in sequence after excitation of the circuits. In response to the command, each of the terminals sends response data to the center.

Bidirectional communication method for CATV system

A center facility transmits, together with a television signal carrying a broadcast program, a message directed to a particular terminal apparatus, address data indicating an address of the particular terminal apparatus, and information quantity data indicating a quantity of the message. Recognizing that the user's terminal apparatus corresponds to the particular terminal based on the address data, the particular terminal apparatus displays all of the message on a TV receiver based on the information quantity data, and finishes the display of the message when receiving the user's instruction indicating reception of all the message.

CATV system in which message reception can be confirmed by a viewer

Based on in-band data transmitted from a center facility that include titles, start times, lengths and channel numbers of respective programs of linked channels, the titles and start times are displayed together with selection numbers on a TV receiver upon depression of a schedule switch by a user. While watching a displayed picture, the user selects one of the selection numbers. Data indicating the start time, length and channel of the selected program is stored in a timer reservation area of a memory. The selected program is automatically displayed based on the stored data.

CATV system with an easy program reservation

A terminal device for a CATV system is described which includes a microcomputer for controlling the operation of the terminal device. The type of module which is connected to an input/output port of the microcomputer is recognized by a recognizing element and information identifying the recognized kind of module is displayed on a display in response to a predetermined operation of a keyboard.

Terminal device for a catv system having a read out function

A CATV center facility transmits, together with the television signals of a plurality of programs, display control data indicating program names and selection numbers of the respective programs and channel data indicating the numbers of channels on which the respective programs are being broadcast or to be broadcast. A terminal apparatus detects the program names, selection numbers and channel numbers from the display control data and the channel data, and makes a TV receiver display the detected program names and selection numbers in an associated manner. While looking at a picture thus displayed, a user selects a desired program by pushing a corresponding numeral button of a remote controller or a keyboard. In response to the program selection by the user, the terminal apparatus is tuned to the channel of the selected program.

CATV system with transmission of program schedules, linked program

A CATV system is provided with a head end apparatus which transmits program data to each subscriber of a chargeable program so that a subscriber knows at the time of applying for a chargeable program whether or not his request is accepted.

Programmable CATV system and termainal unit therefor, including

A CATV head end, terminal unit, and system permits time reservation of selected programs by the simple process of entering a program number at the terminal unit. At the head end selected programs are transmitted via cable to the terminal units and include a timer start command located at the start of a program, and a timer end command located at the end of a program. The commands identify the program by a program number, and the start command also identifies the channel on which the program is transmitted. At the terminal unit, the received commands are compared with the program number entered at the terminal unit. If the program numbers match, the power is turned on and the channel is selected, for a start command, or the power is turned off, for an end command.

Programmable CATV system and terminal unit therefor

A CATV terminal in which an on-screen video message is superimposed over the selected video program to indicate if the selected program is a pay per view, i.e., chargeable, program. The in-band data from the head end carries an event code designating whether the program is chargeable or not. If chargeable, a controller in the CATV terminal activates an on-screen video generator to generate an on-screen message announcing that the program is a PPV or chargeable program. This is superimposed on the program, which is not observable by the viewer until an authorization key is activated. An event code altered by noise or the like will have little adverse effect since the in-band event code has a period equal to the vertical period and the controller continuously controls the on-screen video generator.

CATV terminal unit

The CATV terminal device has a first and a second memory, a decision circuit, and a channel number modifying circuit. The CATV terminal device periodically receives channel data, which is stored in the second memory. The channel data contains channel numbers representing channels on which TV programs can be received. When a person selects a desired channel as by operating a key input section, a control circuit checks if the selected channel number, which is stored in the first memory, is the one contained in the channel data. If not, the control circuit increments or decrements the selected channel number by the channel number modifying circuit until it finds a channel number contained in the channel data which is available for TV program reception. The channel number thus chosen will be set as a channel number to be turned when the present time on the timer comes. This prevents channel numbers not available for reception from being selected inadvertently during the timer setting procedure.

CATV terminal device having a program booking timer function

A CATV terminal unit includes a channel converter for selecting and down-converting a designated channel, a sound volume adjusting section for electronically adjusting the sound volume of a received signal of the channel selected by the channel converter, a power on-off device for turning power on and off, a switch circuit turned on and off in association with the turning-on and turning-off operations of the power by the power on-off device and for controlling an output of AC power from an outlet for television power, and a programmable timer device for allowing a set channel to be received by turning on the power at a set time. The CATV terminal unit further includes a power on-off detecting device for detecting the turning-on and turning-off states of the power when a time set by the programmable timer device has been reached; and a sound volume control device for supplying a control signal for adjusting the sound volume of the sound volume adjusting section to a predetermined level when the turning-off state of the power is detected by the power on-off detecting device.

A bar-code control for a manufacturing process employs a bar-code label with a combination of narrow and wide slots constituting a bar code in combination. The bar-code label is attached to a base component to which various other components are to be assembled in an assembly process and a painting process. In the assembly process, information and instructions represented by the bar code are optically read to identify the components to be assembled to the base component and to control the assembly operations. In the painting process, the bar code is read to identify the required color to be painted and to control the painting operation.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Masahiko Kawasaki