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Interactive cable television system without a return pathRelated Patent Categories: Interactive Video Distribution Systems, Program, Message, Or Commercial Insertion Or Substitution, Specific To Individual User Or HouseholdInteractive cable television system without a return path description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20060117340, Interactive cable television system without a return path. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
PRIORITY [0001] This application is a continuation-in-part ("CIP") of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/848,812 filed on May 4, 2001 that claims priority from U.S. Provisional Application 60/202,338 filed on May 5, 2000, both of which are incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. TECHNICAL FIELD AND BACKGROUND ART [0002] The invention pertains to television systems, particularly digital headend content distribution systems. DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART [0003] Cable television systems have not yet achieved the promise of the 500 channel TV set, largely due to bandwidth constraints for delivering the channels to the subscribers over cable plant. Although a coaxial cable system may permit a cable system operator to provide, for example, 50 television channels, each 6 MHz wide, with a total bandwidth of 300 MHz, this total bandwidth is insufficient to permit an arrangement wherein each subscriber may have, in addition to these 50 channels, an additional 50 to 450 channels. Communication with a subscriber begins at the headend and proceeds over a communication path that involves one of a number of trunks, and then over one of a number of feeders, then over one of a number of taps. Each feeder may have, for example, fifty or more subscribers, and each trunk might serve a hundred or more feeders. The result is that 500 subscribers per trunk are not atypical. Thus merely to provide a private one-way information service, and nothing else, to each of these 5000 subscribers would require the trunk to carry 5000 different signals, each using about 6 MHz of bandwidth, and would alone require a trunk bandwidth of 30 (biz, which is nearly two orders of magnitude greater than provided by a typical coaxial cable system. [0004] What is needed is a low cost, low bandwidth means for delivering content to cable television subscribers. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0005] The present invention provides a method and apparatus for providing low bandwidth and low cost content to cable television subscribers. The apparatus involves an inexpensive web content server which can be integrated with existing cable headends and which can deliver up to 50 discrete digital channels on a single 6 MHz bandwidth slot. The web content server includes an administrative tool which allows quick provisioning and configuring of existing channels. The web content server generates a set of browser instances with each browser instance cycl.sup.ing through its own unique set of web pages. The web pages may be stored locally on the web content server or located globally on the Internet or other wide area network (WAN) or local area network (LAN). The web server periodically captures digital images corresponding with the web pages displayed by each browser instance and individually processes each as a discrete digital channel. The digital channels are multiplexed onto a single 6 MHz analog channel. At the set top box or the TV itself each image stream corresponding with each browser instance is presented to the subscriber as a separately selectable channel. The content may be used to deliver any information currently available on the Internet, or generated locally as Web pages. [0006] An embodiment of the invention teaches a method for providing interactive information content in an analog cable system having only a one-way communication path from a cable head end to a communication device, such as a set-top box that is associated with a television. A set-top box receives a plurality of interactive information content signals on at least one analog channel from the cable head end. In certain embodiments the interactive information content signals are data streams that sent over an analog carrier channel. The set-top box provides one of the interactive information content signals to the television for display. The interactive information content signal is a selection screen. A user can then use a user-input device, such as, a remote control to make a selection. In general, the user will select a key, such as a directional key and the remote control will provide the selection/directional signal to the set-top box. The set-top box then outputs a new information content signal based the received selection signal. In certain embodiments a map is sent from the cable head end to the set-top box and the set-top box uses the map to determine the next interactive information content signal to provide to the television. The interactive information content signals may be MPEG data streams and the set-top box may decode the data stream prior to providing the information content to the television. In one embodiment, the interactive information content is representative of a web page. [0007] The map that is provided by the cable head end may be a coordinate map that relates locations of web links from displayed versions of the interactive information content streams with selection signals from a user input device. Thus, the set-top box can receive a directional signal and can determine which data stream should be decoded and displayed on the television. In embodiments, a stream may periodically have data updated for the web page wherein the data is sent from the head end. [0008] In certain embodiments, all of the interactive information content signals are sent on a single analog channel in the cable television network. The selection screen may be one of the interactive information content signals wherein the set-top box will access the selection screen first. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0009] These and other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description in conjunction with the appended drawings in which: [0010] FIG. 1 shows the overall system environment showing a plurality of Cable TV subscribers coupled across a cable plant to a cable headend which includes a web content server for delivery of a plurality of low bandwidth digital channels to the user on a single selected analog channel. [0011] FIG. 1A shows an example of the digital transport streams. [0012] FIG. 1B shows an indicator superimposed on a television. [0013] FIG. 1C shows the various modules that are included inside of the set-top box. [0014] FIG. 1D shows an example of a selection screen provided on a television of a user. [0015] FIG. 1E shows an example of a screen that is presented on a user's television if the user selects News. [0016] FIG. 1F shows a flow chart of the steps that are performed by the set-top box when a request is made for interactive content in a cable system that provides only one-way transmission of information content. [0017] FIG. 2 is a hardware block diagram of a computer suitable for implementing the web content server shown in FIG. 1. [0018] FIG. 3 is a software block diagram of the web content server shown in FIG. 2. [0019] FIGS. 4A-C show the graphical user interfaces associated with administrative 30 setup of the web content server shown in FIGS. 1-3. Continue reading about Interactive cable television system without a return path... 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