US 4,965,825 A · Signal processing apparatus and methods

Abstract

A unified system of programming communication for use on individual computer systems with capacity for generating relevant user specific information simultaneously at each station of a plurality of subscriber stations. The system includes a transmission station which is a central control system of a system of receiver station computers controlled by the station transmission. Each individual computer system is self-structuring in that any given transmission station can transmit control information causing selected apparatus at selected receiver stations to combine the computers at those stations based on the transmission of the station, thereby causing the individual computers to come under control of station. The unified system also includes apparatus for combining the user specific information generated at subscriber station into broadcast programming, so that broadcast programming is displayed at every station with user specific information displayed in the broadcast programming. The unified system includes apparatus for restricting the combined programming so that it is available only at selected stations tuned to a given transmission station's transmission. The unified system includes apparatus for documenting the use of the control signals and/or programming at said selected stations and for monitoring the availability and use, of programming.

Claims25

Dependent claims

In a signal processor system, carrier transmission receiving means;

means for demodulating said carrier transmission to detect an information transmission thereon;
detector means for detecting an embedded signal in the information transmission and removing it from said information transmission;
first control means responsive to said detected signal to activate and/or deactivate equipment external to said signal processor system;
second control means activated by said detected signal to monitor the performance and/or output of said first control means;
a recorder means for receiving and recording data collected by said monitor means;
and control means for instructing said recorder to direct information recorded thereon to a remote site.

3 more elements

A method of generating computer output at a multiplicity of receiver stations each of which includes a computer adapted to generate and transmit user specific signals to one or more associated output devices, with at least some of said computers being programmed to process modification control signals so as to modify said computers' method of processing data and generating output information content, each of said computers being programmed to accommodate a special user application, comprising the steps of:

transmitting an instruct-to-generate signal to said computers at a time when corresponding user specific output information content does not exist,
detecting the presence of said instruct-to-generate signal at selected receiver stations and coupling said instruct-to-generate signal to the computers associated with said selected stations, and
causing said last named computer to generate their user specific output information content in response to said instruct-to-generate signal, thereby to transmit to each of their associated output devices an output signal comprising the user specific output information content and the user specific signal of its associated computer, the output signals at a multiplicity of said output devices being different, with each output signal specific to a specific user.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Signal processing apparatus and methods

Life of this patent

Signal processing apparatus and methods

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims25