Thomson Licensing

At&t Bell Laboratories

Thomson Consumer Electronics Inc.

Thomas H Hamilton

Daniel Warren Macauley

Mike Arthur Derrenberger

Hugh Boyd Morrison

Steven Charles Rhoads

Robert Joseph Logan

Kenneth Wayne Maze

John Frederick Teskey

Jill Suzanne Allen

Michael Eugene Willcox

A system and a method is disclosed which allows both advertisement and program information to be shown on a channel banner, while user changes channel. In another embodiment, an 'advertisement channel' is inserted into an active channel list (e.g., scan list), so that when a user is changing channel, a selected ad will be displayed. In yet another embodiment, a method for tracking and collating advertisement display activity in a video system supporting composite display of image data associated with different multimedia functions and advertisements is disclosed.

Advertisement and tracking in a television apparatus

An on-screen display system for displaying instructions for guiding a user to utilize various features of a consumer electronics product such as a television receiver or VCR, includes a memory for storing both uncompressed text data and compressed text data, and an associated microprocessor for retrieving the text data, decompressing it if necessary, and presenting it to a display buffer. Text data compression is in part accomplished by a dictionary containing text data representing commonly used text 'strings' comprising one or more words which is stored in the memory. Code words related to the location of respective dictionary entries in memory are substituted for respective uncompressed text data. Text data compression is also accomplished by substituting a format change code word indicating that adjacent text data representing a first string of text with a first format, such as all lower case or mixed case, is to be converted to text data representing a second string of text with a second format, such as all upper case or title case. In this way, text data representing text differing only in format only needs to be stored once. The format change code word is employed both in the uncompressed text data portion of the memory and in the dictionary portion of the memory and the text data, whether uncompressed or compressed, is retrieved and formatted for display in the same manner.

Television on-screen display system utilizing text data compression

A microprocessor-controlled coin telephone station includes apparatus that enables it to provide dialed telecommunications service and accept payment therefor--which is its primary function. The coin telephone station further includes apparatus for automatically dialing predetermined telephone numbers, automatically answering incoming telephone calls, and apparatus for monitoring conditions associated with its primary function in order to be a participating member of a hierarchal reporting network--which is its secondary function. In order to carry out the secondary function, the coin telephone station stores operating instructions which cause it to operate as either a Master or a Slave station within the hierarchal network. The operating instructions are downloaded into the telephone station from a Host computer over the Public Switched Telephone Network, which enables it to remotely reconfigure its hierarchal network of telephone stations to efficiently accommodate additional stations and periodic changes in the cost of long distance telephone calls.

Payphone having master and slave modes

Growing community of inventors

Indianapolis, IN, United States of America

Thomas H Hamilton