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. 17, 2000
Filed:
Jul. 22, 1998
Henricus A Van Gestel, Eindhoven, NL;
U.S. Philips Corporation, New York, NY (US);
Abstract
There exists a problem of backwards compatibility and future proofness of data transmission systems and, more particularly, interactive television broadcast transmissions. In view hereof, service providers must take into account that their service is to be processed by receivers having different capabilities. To this end, operational signals for different receiver types are identified by respective level data (operation.sub.-- level) defining which receiver capabilities are required to perform the operation. Two operation levels (full.sub.-- operation.sub.-- level and minimum.sub.-- operation.sub.-- level) are sufficient. More levels can be defined by means of chaining techniques. In a practical embodiment, a plurality of operations is packed in a transmission block. Events (e.g., user actions) are represented by an index to the list, the index depending on whether the receiver has full or minimal capabilities.