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:
Apr. 16, 2002
Filed:
Feb. 17, 1999
Pierre Willard, Palo Alto, CA (US);
OpenTV, Corp., Mountainview, CA (US);
Abstract
A system and method implemented in an interactive television system for scheduling delivery of modules of interactive television applications from a broadcast station to a receiving station. In one embodiment, the system calculates a start time from a predetermined end time and transmission interval for a module. In other embodiments, a transmission interval may be calculated instead of being predetermined, or all of the scheduling information may be explicitly provided to the broadcast station. The module is packetized and transmission of the packets for the module is begun at the corresponding start time. All of the packets except the last packet are transmitted within the transmission interval (i.e., between the start time and the delivery time.) The greater the transmission interval, the greater the flexibility the broadcast station has to schedule delivery of the packets and modules. The last packet is held until the scheduled delivery time and is then transmitted. Because a module is considered to have been delivered to the receiving station when the last packet is received, the delivery time of the module is controllable to within the limits of the last packet's delivery.