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:
Sep. 05, 1995
Filed:
Sep. 15, 1994
Sung J Kim, Fishers, IN (US);
John H Furrey, Indianapolis, IN (US);
Thomson Consumer Electronics, Inc., Indianapolis, IN (US);
Abstract
A VCR controls a cable box, and monitors television signals received from the cable box in a 'closed loop' manner. By monitoring an appropriate signal the controller of the VCR can detect perturbations of signal level which indicate that the cable box has changed channels. That is, the output signal of the cable box remodulated on, for example, the RF carrier frequency of channel 3, will be momentarily lost during the period in which the cable box changes channels. Thus, the subject apparatus can determine if the cable box is 'off' or 'on' by issuing a channel change command and observing if the cable box responds to the channel change command. In one embodiment of the invention the VCR causes an on-screen display of an error message if it determines that it is unable to control the came box.