Information system

A user interface for an interactive information delivery system comprising:

• means for receiving at least one of dialing and dialed telephone number information and control commands from a first terminal over a first communications link, and
• means for transmitting commands to an information server means, for controlling the server means to access text or other visual data from an information store,
• the text or other visual data including:
• control command prompts, and
• means for transmitting said visual data over a second communications link separate from the first communications link to a second terminal separated from said first terminal, the second communications link being selected according to said at least one of dialing and dialed telephone number information received over the first communications link and connected to a search terminal whereby the separated first and second terminals are arranged to cooperate through the server to enable control commands to be transmitted to the server from the first terminal in response to control command prompts displayed by the second terminal, the first and second terminals cooperating as display and data entry elements of the same user interface.

A method of operating an interactive information delivery system, said method comprising:

• transmitting at least one of dialing and dialed telephone number information and control commands to a server over a first communications link from a first terminal;
• controlling the server in response to said at least one of dialing and dialed telephone number information to select a second communications link separate from the first communications link;
• controlling the server to select text or other visual information for transmission over the delivery communications link to a second terminal separate from said first terminal in response to said control commands, the text or other visual information including control command prompts;
• and
• transmitting said information from the server over the selected second communications link for display on a display unit at said second terminal whereby the separated first and second terminals are arranged to cooperate through the server to enable control commands to be transmitted to the server from the first terminal in response to control command prompts displayed by the second terminal, the first and second terminals cooperating as display and data entry elements of the same user interface.