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:
Dec. 21, 1999
Filed:
Dec. 14, 1994
William Hawkins, Atherton, CA (US);
Roderick Perkins, Menlo Park, CA (US);
William Duvall, Portola Valley, CA (US);
The 3DO Company, Redwood City, CA (US);
Abstract
An information delivery system including a head end broadcasting a data stream of media objects, the head end being coupled to a broadcast television interface and at least one information service provider and including an encoder for encoding information in the media object is disclosed. The system may deliver and implement a programming guide delineating programming information available on the information delivery system in one or more media objects in the data stream in an encoded fashion by the encoder. A user terminal is coupled to the head-end and receives the media objects. The user terminal has an output and includes a decoder for the media objects. Also provided in one aspect is a user interface, at least partially stored in the user-terminal, which selects a user-defined subset of media objects for provision to the output of the user terminal. Further, an information navigation system for an information delivery system is provided. The navigation system functions with the electronic program guide and includes a user interface having a plurality of icon representations of various functions of the system, and including a broadcast television interface. The navigation system also includes a smart service navigator which interacts with the user interface and the electronic program guide to provide an output to the user.