Interactive entertainment and information system using television set-top box

In a television-based system having a head-end for providing video information to set-top boxes of users, a method of enabling users to interact with said video information, comprising:

• injecting video information into a transport stream of a transmission medium for transmission to the set-top boxes, the video information including a plurality of page images and meta-data associated with the page images;
• detecting at the set-top box a first user request to display one of the plurality of page images;
• selecting a page image based on the user request;
• outputting video signals representing the selected page image from the set-top box, the meta-data associated with the page image identifying at least one active location and an action corresponding thereto;
• detecting at the set-top box a second request to take the action corresponding to the active location;
• taking the action including writing user-data to a memory at the subscriber end;
• and
• communicating user-data from the memory to the head-end.

An interactive television system, comprising:

• a head-end having means for periodically injecting video information into a transmission medium, the video information including a plurality of page images, the plurality of page images being arranged as a carousel of video images;
• means for rebuilding the carousel a plurality of times with a change to at least one video image in the plurality of page images such that a page image appears to have animated motion;
• means at the subscriber end for detecting a first request to display one of the plurality of page images;
• means for selecting and outputting video signals representing the page image upon detection of the first request, the page image including at least one active location having a corresponding action;
• means at the subscriber end for detecting a second request to take the action corresponding to the active location;
• and
• means for taking the action upon detection of the second request.

In a television-based system having a head-end for providing video information to set-top boxes, a method of enabling users to interact with said video information, comprising:

• injecting a plurality of page images as video information into a transmission medium for transmission to the set-top boxes, the video information including meta-data associated with the page images, wherein injecting the plurality of page images includes changing at least one page image in the plurality of page images, and periodically repeating the injection of page images;
• detecting at the set-top box a first user request to display one of the plurality of page images;
• selecting as a selected page image a page image based on the user request;
• outputting video signals representing the selected page image from the set-top box including changing the selected page image a plurality of times such that the page image appears to have animated motion thereon, the meta-data associated with the page image identifying at least one active location and a corresponding action;
• detecting at the set-top box a second request to take the action corresponding to the active location;
• and
• taking the action corresponding to the active location.

In a television-based system having a head-end for providing video information to set-top boxes of users, a method of enabling users to interact with said video information, comprising:

• injecting a plurality of page images as video information into a transmission medium for transmission to the set-top boxes, the video information including meta-data associated with the page images;
• detecting at the set-top box a first user request to display one of the plurality of page images;
• selecting a page image based on the user request;
• outputting video signals representing the selected page image from the set-top box, the meta-data associated with the page image identifying at least one active location and an action corresponding thereto;
• detecting at the set-top box a second request to take the action corresponding to the active location;
• taking the action, including submitting a form.

In a television-based system having a head-end for providing video information to set-top boxes of users, a method of enabling users to interact with said video information, comprising:

• injecting a plurality of page images as video information into a transmission medium for transmission to the set-top boxes, the video information including meta-data associated with the page images;
• detecting at the set-top box a first user request to display one of the plurality of page images;
• selecting a page image based on the user request;
• outputting video signals representing the selected page image from the set-top box, the meta-data associated with the page image identifying at least one active location and an action corresponding thereto;
• detecting at the set-top box a second request to take the action corresponding to the active location;
• and
• taking the action including receiving user-data and changing the output video signal to reflect the state of the user-data.