Terminal authorization method

a technology of termination and authorization method, applied in the field of termination authorization method, can solve the problems of certain premium programming that may not be suitable for young children, and achieve the effect of improving the control of the system operator

USRE36988E1Inactive Publication Date: 2000-12-12CISCO TECH INC
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Patent Information

Authority / Receiving Office
US · United States
Patent Type
Patents(United States)
Current Assignee / Owner
Publication Date
2000-12-12
Estimated Expiration
Not applicable · inactive patent

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Abstract

A terminal apparatus for use in a cable television system which provides a plurality of channels capable of being tuned for display at a television receiver is provided. The apparatus includes a memory for storing data for generating a plurality of predetermined character screens and for storing deauthorization data, a character generator for generating character screens from the stored character screen data at the television receiver, a deauthorization mechanism responsive to the deauthorization data in the memory for deauthoring selected ones of the plurality of channels, and a controller for controlling the memory and the character generator, and for composing at least one predetermined character screen for display at the television receiver in accordance with the deauthorization of a channel by the deauthorization mechanism.
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Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention generally relates to a terminal authorization method and, more particularly, to a method for establishing user friendly authorizations and deauthorizations to control an interactive terminal in a cable television system.Two-way interactive cable television systems are known for transmitting entertainment, information and data signals over a cable facility to a plurality of users. Data may be transmitted and addressed to a particular subscriber over a separate data channel or a so-called "in-band" data channel. In a downstream direction, addressed control data may represent services authorized to a particular terminal or control commands to that terminal. In an upstream direction from a terminal to the service provider or system manager location, control data may represent selections made by a user in response to a polling request or at the time of user selection.One environment in which two-way interactive cable television systems may...

Examples

Embodiment Construction

FIG. 1 is a block schematic diagram of an interactive entertainment system in accordance with the present invention. The depicted embodiment relates to its application in a hotel or hospital system environment. However, the present invention is not limited in this respect. The present invention may be applied in any two-way interactive entertainment system involving a distribution network including trunk lines and feeder cables of optical or coaxial cable. For example, satellite receiver and decoder 3, cable receiver and descrambler 4, video modulator 5, addressable transmitter / receiver 10, locally generated video modulator 11, and system manager 12 may all be located at the location of a cable television system head end. In this example, coaxial cable or optical fiber transmission link 6 can couple the cable television head end to two-way interactive terminals 7, 8, or 9 of the entertainment system located at individual subscriber premises.

The embodiment of FIG. 1 is especially exe...