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. 26, 1999
Filed:
Nov. 24, 1997
Kenneth R Brooks, Middletown, MD (US);
Ulric E Arthur, Burtonsville, MD (US);
Bell Atlantic Network Services, Inc., Arlington, VA (US);
Abstract
Apparatus and method for selectively executing a resident terminal application and an information provider-specific application stored in a digital entertainment terminal adapted to decode broadband data signals from a video dial tone network. The digital entertainment terminal stores the resident terminal application related to native operations including network communications in a nonvolatile memory, and stores the information provider-specific applications used for accessing the information provider's services in a dynamic memory. The digital entertainment terminal is adapted to suspend execution of one of the resident application and the information provider-specific application and begin execution of the other application in response to a toggle input from a user's remote control, and resume execution of the suspended application in response to a second toggle input from the user's remote control. Decoding of received broadband signals from the video dial tone network is based upon stored connection block descriptors, and is thus independent of the suspension of one of the applications. Thus, a user may pause an interactive session to scan broadcast channels, or to initiate a second interactive session.