Method and apparatus for accessing electronic data via a familiar printed medium
OwnerSpencer A. Rathus, Jeffrey S. Nevid +1inventors
InventorsSpencer A. Rathus, Jeffrey S. Nevid, Lois Fichner-Rathus
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Abstract
The disclosed methods and apparatus relate generally to the electronics media industry, such as cable television (CATV), home shopping services, on-line computer services and computer memory applications. These methods and apparatus allow a user to access and make use of electronic media input and output devices by reference to and/or utilization of standard printed matter, such as magazines, textbooks, or any other printed matter that can be correlated to electronic media.
Claims27
A system for displaying programming material to a user, the system comprising:
- a printed stationery having at least one machine recognizable feature and a data transmitter associated therewith;
- a feature recognition unit having associated therewith a means for recognizing said feature and a means for transmitting a coded signal in response to the recognition of said feature;
- an intelligent controller having associated therewith a means for accessing said programming material in response to receiving said coded signal, wherein said intelligent controller has a data compression\decompression means associated therewith;
- and a display unit for presenting said programming material.
A method of providing a user access to programming material, the method comprising the steps of:
- printing a machine recognizable feature within a printed stationery and a data transmitter associated with said printed stationary;
- scanning said machine recognizable feature of said stationery, wherein said scanning is preformed using a feature recognition unit having associated therewith a means for recognizing said feature;
- and transmitting data associated with said machine recognizable feature via a communication link to access said programming material, wherein said accessing is preformed using an intelligent controller having associated therewith a means for accessing and displaying said programming material in response to receiving said coded signal, and wherein said intelligent controller has a data compressiondecompression means associated therewith, and wherein said programming material is related to said stationery.
A method of providing user access to programming material associated with a printed stationery, the method comprising the steps of:
- printing a machine recognizable feature within said printed stationery wherein said machine recognizable feature has associated therewith a command sequence for accessing programming material, and a data transmitter associated with said printed stationary;
- scanning said machine recognizable feature of said stationery and downloading data indicative of said machine recognizable feature via the Internet to a remote server, wherein said scanning is preformed using a feature recognition unit having associated therewith a means for recognizing said feature;
- accessing programming material from said remote server, wherein said accessing is preformed using an intelligent controller having associated therewith a means for accessing and displaying said programming material in response to receiving said coded signal and wherein said intelligent controller has a data compressiondecompression means associated therewith;
- and transmitting said programming material to said user allowing said user to perceive said programming material in a humanly perceivable form, wherein said programming material is related to said stationery.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.