The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 19, 1976
Filed:
Apr. 25, 1975
Brian E Belcher, Dallas, TX (US);
John G Campbell, Irving, TX (US);
Other;
Abstract
A two-way cable communications system includes a master station having a transmitter for transmitting television program and interrogation signals to a plurality of remote units or transceivers through a cable network and a receiver for receiving reply signals from individual ones of the remote units. Each remote unit includes a receiver for receiving the program and interrogation information from the master station, a transmitter for transmitting reply signals back to the master station and television converter and receiver means for reproducing the television programs. A remote control means coupled to the remote unit through a mmulticonductor cable includes a channel selector and encoder means for encoding the channel selector information and a switch means to enable the channel selector to be utilized to provide viewer response information. The output of the encoder means is clocked into a storage register having its output coupled to a converter which operates a television tuner when the switch means is in a first condition. The output of the storage register is also coupled to a data readout circuit which is enabled by an interrogation signal to apply the data to the remote transmitter. The encoder output is also applied to a gating circuit which is enabled when the switch means is in a second condition to couple the output to the data readout circuit. Thus both program rating and viewer response information may be obtained from the remote channel selector control.