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:
May. 14, 2002
Filed:
Jul. 19, 1999
Billy Wesley Beyers, Carmel, IN (US);
Aaron H. Dinwiddie, Fishers, IN (US);
Thomson Licensing S.A., Boulogne, FR;
Abstract
A television set having the option of displaying main and one or more auxiliary pictures, ratings control capability which includes means for an authorized person to limit the display of programs having ratings beyond a selected level, closed captioning capability which includes means for a viewer to choose to display closed captioning along with a picture, and a single stripper for slicing data from the vertical blanking information (VBI) portion of one or more broadcasts wherein the single stripper processes ratings control information for both main picture and auxiliary picture when the ratings control option has been invoked by cycling between main and auxiliary; and the auxiliary picture capability is disabled when the closed captioning option has been invoked.