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:
Nov. 10, 1998
Filed:
Feb. 21, 1996
Eric Diehl, Strasbourg, FR;
Joel Hamon, Lipsheim, FR;
Thomson Consumer Electronics S.A., Courbevoie, FR;
Abstract
A device such as a pay TV decoder, a television receiver, a VCR or a remote control is automatically customized with information such as channel, frequency, and/or remote control codes that is stored in memory in a smart card. The smart card transmits the information to the device via a smart card reader. The information is transmitted to the device in response to the smart card being coupled to the smart card reader. Customization by smart card facilitates efficient production of devices such as pay TV decoders because all devices can be identical during manufacturing and customized easily after manufacturing. For example, a cable TV operator can customize each pay TV decoder with channel allocation information appropriate for the site of the decoder by using a smart card.