Interactive information delivery system

An information delivery system for use with a communication medium having a plurality of transmission channels, said channels carrying a variety of broadcast programming content on ones of said plurality of transmission channels from a head end to a user end, the user end including at least one display device, comprising:

• a server node having means for broadcasting a plurality of data streams on a subset of said transmission channels in multiplexed fashion over the communication medium, each data stream being comprised of a plurality of compressed data and media objects in encoded form, each media object comprising a still image, a motion video image, an audio clip, or text in encoded form, the data objects including broadcast programming content information and instruction code directing the placement of the media objects on the display device to generate a user interface, including said content information, at least a majority of data stream being repeated at regular intervals, the data stream being formatted so that each object has a maximum latency;
• at least one distribution node;
• and
• a plurality of client nodes coupled to the transmission channels at the user end each having means for receiving the data streams, for decompressing the streams, and for producing a user-detectable output in response to each data stream in a user-selectable subset of the plurality of data streams on at least one display device, and means for maintaining said user interface for said maximum latency.

An information delivery system coupled to a transmission medium having a plurality of transmission channels, the transmission system carrying broadcast programming content from at least a broadcast television interface and at least one information service provider to a user end, the user end including a display device, including:

• a head end broadcasting a data stream of compressed media objects comprising a still image, a motion video image, an audio clip, or text in encoded form, and programming code directing the placement of the media object on the display device, [in encoded form,] on at least one of said transmission channels, the head end including an encoding means for encoding information in the media objects into an encoded form;
• wherein
• the data stream further includes a programming guide built from said media objects and containing programming information of content of the broadcast programming or the information service provider;
• and
• the user terminal is coupled to the head-end and receiving the media objects, the user terminal having an output and including decompression means and decoding means for decoding information in the media objects;
• and
• a user interface, at least partially stored in the user-terminal, the user interface including means for selecting a user-defined subset of media objects for provision to the output of the user terminal.

An information navigation system for an information delivery system, the information delivery system including a head end and a user end coupled by a transmission medium having a plurality of channels, the head end including a source of audio/visual programming transmitted on a first subset of said plurality of channels, comprising:

• an electronic program guide, the electronic program guide comprising a content listing of the audio/visual programming available on the information delivery system;
• a user interface, at least partially provided in the user end;
• and
• a service navigator, the user interface interacting with the service navigator and the electronic program guide,
• wherein the electronic program guide and user interface are transmitted to the user end in a data stream on a second subset of said plurality of channels, the data stream being comprised of a substantially repeating compressed stream of data objects including said content listing, motion video, audio, text and programming code directing the assembly of the user interface, and is responsive to user input.

An information delivery system for use with a communications network including a plurality of channels which provide broadcast program information, comprising:

• a server providing a data stream comprising a plurality of compressed data objects, each data object comprising at least a plurality of media objects, each media object comprising a still image, a motion video image, an audio clip, or text in compressed form, and including at least one data object comprising programming content information, the data stream being repeated at regular intervals in multiplexed fashion over the communications network;
• a user terminal and display device, coupled to the server via the communications network;
• a programming guide containing information on services available on the information delivery system, the programming guide being built from said data objects provided in the data stream;
• a user interface, at least a portion of which is provided in and built by the user terminal from the data objects in the data stream;
• a service navigation system, interacting with the user interface and the programming guide, to record user preferences;
• and
• an interactive mechanism coupled to the user terminal for accessing, the programming guide, and user interface.