At+t Corp.

Lucent Technologies Inc.

William M Schell

Guy A Story, Jr

Guy Ashley Story, Jr

Donald E Blahut

Edward Stanley Szurkowski

Kanwar Jit Singh

Pasupathi Ananta Subrahmanyam

A device for creating and analyzing larger symbolic representations without the limitations imposed by available resources of previous devices is disclosed. More specifically, a debugger for debugging a symbolic representation of a program is disclosed. The debugger comprising means for inputting a set of characteristics, means for linking the set of characteristics to the symbolic representation, means for identifying a first portion of the symbolic representation mutually exclusive from the set of characteristics, and means for analyzing a second portion of the symbolic representation for the set of characteristics wherein the second portion being mutually exclusive from the first portion. A method of debugging programs using the debugger, in addition to the resultant debugged program, is also disclosed.

Method of and apparatus for efficiently debugging programs given limited

Described is a technique for an interactive television ('ITV') system wherein viewers are allowed to select a desired level of advertisements with which they are provided. The technique comprises transmitting to a interactive services subscriber location a program and a set of advertisements (collectively referred to as a 'show'). The set of advertisements is selected based upon an input from a user associated with the interactive services subscriber location. The input comprises an indicator of an amount of advertisements in the set of advertisements. Another feature of the ITV system described is that it allows for adjusting an amount of a bill of a subscriber to interactive television services based upon the amount of advertisements viewed in a show.

Method of advertisement selection for interactive service

A method of using finite state machines (FSMs) is disclosed for controlling multiple processes in response to input signals. In an exemplary embodiment, such processes comprise facilities for providing interactive television services and multimedia signals for such services. The FSMs are arranged in a tree-like structure and communicate with each other by event messages of various types. Each FSM has multiple states and permitted state transitions. Transitions occur in response to event messages and/or input signals, and a transition can cause one or more event messages associated with such transition to be sent. At least one terminal FSM is associated with each of the multiple processes and controls that process. Status changes in each process can also cause state transitions in the FSMs. The FSMs are resident in the various processors controlling the multiple processes, which can be situated at different locations.

Method and apparatus for controlling program sources in an interactive

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Watchung, NJ, United States of America

William M Schell