Telephone access information service distribution system

A bi-directional, interactive communications system for transmitting in a digital format, information services to a plurality of subscriber locations, said bi-directional interactive communications system comprising:

• a remote information services storage center for storing a variety of information services,
• a television broadcast facility for uni-directionally transmitting a selected one of said variety of information services,
• a home computing assembly disposed at each subscriber location and connected bi-directionally by telephone lines to the remote information services storage center and also being linked to the television broadcast facility,
• a television receiver connected to said home computer assembly,
• said home computing assembly communicating bi-directionally over telephone lines with the remote information services storage center to cause said selected one of said variety of information services to be transferred as digital streams of data with an individually addressed code from the remote storage center to the television broadcast facility and transferred as said digital streams of data from the television broadcast facility to said home computing assembly for storage by said home computing assembly upon comparison and matching of an identification code of said home computing assembly with said individually addressed code as received from said information services storage center,
• said home computing assembly including storage means for storing said digital streams of data as transmitted from the television broadcast facility,
• said home computing assembly further including digital processing means for processing said digital streams of data stored by the storage means and displaying said selected one of said variety of information services on said television when desired.

A bi-directional, interactive communications system for transmitting in a digital format, information services to a plurality of subscriber locations on demand, said bi-directional communications system comprising:

• a remote information services storage center for storing a variety of information service programs,
• a television broadcast facility for uni-directionally transmitting a selected one of said variety of information service programs,
• a home computing assembly disposed at each subscriber location and connected bi-directionally by telephone lines to the remote information services storage center, and also being linked to the television broadcast facility,
• a television receiver connected to said home computing assembly,
• said home computing assembly being structured to receive an individually addressed code over telephone lines to the remote information services storage center and to cause transfer of digital streams of data from the remote information services storage center to the television broadcast facility and transfer of the digital streams of data from the television broadcast facility to said home computing assembly for storage by said home computing assembly upon comparison and matching of an identification code of said home computing assembly with said individually addressed code as received from said remote information services storage center, and said home computing assembly including decoder means tuned to a television broadcast channel of said television receiver for monitoring the digital streams of data as transmitted from the television broadcast facility,
• said home computing assembly including digital processing means for receiving the digital streams of data by the requested one of home computing assemblies, and
• said home computing assembly further including distributed computer processing means for invoking the selected one of said variety of information service programs to perform a task associated with one of said variety of information service programs and means to interact with one of said variety of information service programs as received from the television broadcast facility.

A bi-directional, interactive communications system for transmitting in a digital format, information services to a plurality of subscriber locations on demand, said bi-directional communications system comprising:

• a remote information services storage center for storing a variety of information service programs,
• a television broadcast facility for uni-directionally transmitting a selected one of said variety of information service programs,
• a home computing assembly disposed at each subscriber location and connected bi-directionally by telephone lines to the remote information services storage center and also being linked to the television broadcast facility,
• a television receiver connected to said home computing assembly,
• said home computing assembly being structured to request over telephone lines one of said variety of information services from said remote information services storage center by transmission of an identification code, an information service select code, verification of existence of a previously loaded information service software, and any mode commands from said home computing assembly, and in response the remote information services storage center determines if the selected information service is already resident in the home computing assembly, and if so, transmits an authorization code to the home computing assembly to enable the previously loaded service software, and if not, the remote information services storage center transmits digital streams of data from the remote information services storage center to the television broadcast facility and transfers the digital streams of data from the television broadcast facility to said home computing assembly for storage by said home computing assembly upon comparison and matching of an identification code of said home computing assembly with an individually addressed code transmitted from said remote information services storage center, and said home computing assembly including decoder means tuned to a television broadcast channel of said television receiver for monitoring the digital streams of data as transmitted from the television broadcast facility,
• said home computing assembly including digital processing means for receiving the digital streams of data by the requested one of home computing assemblies, and
• said home computing assembly further including distributed computer processing means for invoking the selected one of said variety of information service programs to perform a task associated with one of said variety of information service programs and means to interact with one of said variety of information service programs as received from the television broadcast facility.

A bi-directional, interactive communications system for transmitting in a digital format, information services to a plurality of subscriber locations on demand, said bi-directional communications system comprising:

• a remote information services storage center for storing a mall shopping service program,
• a television broadcast facility for uni-directionally transmitting the mall shopping service program,
• a home computing assembly disposed at each subscriber location and connected bi-directionally by telephone liens to the remote information services storage center and also being linked to the television broadcast facility,
• a television receiver connected to said home computing assembly,
• said home computing assembly being structured to receive an individually addressed code form the remote information services storage center and to cause transfer of digital streams of data from the remote information services storage center to the television broadcast facility and transfer of the digital streams of data of the television broadcast facility to said home computing assembly for storage by said home computing assembly upon comparison and matching of an identification code of sd home computing assembly with said individually addressed code as received form said remote information services storage center, and
• said home computing assembly including decoder means tuned to a television broadcast channel of said television receiver for monitoring the digital streams of data as transmitted from the television broadcast facility,
• said home computing assembly including digital processing means for receiving the digital streams of data by the requesting one of home computing assemblies, and
• said home computing assembly further including distributed computer processing means for invoking the mall shopping service program and to perform a task associated with the mall shopping service program and means to interact with the mall shopping service program as received from the television broadcast facility.