Message transmission in an interactive television system
AssigneeChello Broadband NV
InventorRobert Van Noetsele
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for controlling transmission of messages in an interactive television system comprising a network and a plurality of receiver units connected to the network; the method comprising: transmitting to the receiver units an trigger inviting a response from each receiver unit and indicating that a delay procedure is to be applied to the responses; and at each receiver unit: accepting from a user of the receiver unit data in response to the trigger; forming a response message for transmission to the network in response to the trigger, the response message including the data received from the user; determining the length of a delay interval to be applied to the response message; and transmitting the response message to the network after the delay.
Claims28
A method for controlling transmission of messages in an interactive television system comprising a network and a plurality of receiver units connected to the network;
- the method comprising:
- transmitting to the receiver units an invitation message inviting a response from each receiver unit and indicating that a delay procedure is to be applied to the responses;
- and at each receiver unit:
- accepting from a user of the receiver unit data in response to the invitation message;
- forming a response message for transmission to the network in response to the invitation message, the response message including the data received from the user;
- determining the length of a delay interval to be applied to the response message;
- and
- transmitting the response message to the network after the delay.
A method according to any preceding claim wherein the receiver unit is a set-top box.
A method according to any preceding claim wherein the length of the delay interval applied to the response message from the receiver unit differs from lengths of delay intervals applied to response messages from others of the plurality of receiver units connected to the network.
A method according to any preceding claim wherein the receiver units are each allocated a group.
A method substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying description and drawings.
A receiver unit for use in an interactive television transmission system comprising a network, the receiver unit comprising:
- an first input for receiving an invitation message transmitted from the network, the message inviting a response from the receiver unit and including an indication that a delay procedure is to be applied to the responses;
- a connection to a display unit for displaying an invitation to a user;
- a second input for accepting from the user data in response to the invitation;
- a message writer for writing a response message including the data from the user;
- a delay unit for applying a delay interval to the response message;
- and
- an output for outputting the response message to the network after the delay interval.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.