초록 ▼

The present invention includes a method of displaying for a viewer summary information relating to programming available on an interactive television or televideo system. In a preferred embodiment, the method includes obtaining a user selection indication corresponding to a scheduled program selecte

The present invention includes a method of displaying for a viewer summary information relating to programming available on an interactive television or televideo system. In a preferred embodiment, the method includes obtaining a user selection indication corresponding to a scheduled program selected by the viewer from a programming guide. Based on the user selection indication, the interactive television system accesses summary information relating specifically to the program selected by the viewer. The summary information preferably includes a text description of the programming and display imagery relating to the programming. The display imagery may include a multiframe video sequence of or relating to the programming or a still video image.

대표청구항 ▼

[ We claim:] [1.] In an interactive video system having a central control node in bidirectional communication with plural viewer stations that include video display sets operably coupled to interactive station controllers, the central control node delivering video programming over multiple channels

[ We claim:] [1.] In an interactive video system having a central control node in bidirectional communication with plural viewer stations that include video display sets operably coupled to interactive station controllers, the central control node delivering video programming over multiple channels to the plural viewer stations and receiving information from the interactive station controllers, the system including a programming guide which identifies a plurality of current programs which are currently being broadcast for viewing and a plurality of future programs which will be available for viewing in the future, the program guide allowing the viewer to navigate through the program guide to focus on and select a program included within the guide, a method of displaying for a viewer a video segment relating to programming included in the programming guide, comprising:storing in a memory associated with the central control node of the interactive video system a plurality of video segments, each video segment being associated with at least one of said plurality of future programs available to a viewer from the interactive video system;obtaining an indication at a viewer station of the selected program in response to the viewer focusing on the selected program;whenever the selected program is one of the plurality of future programs, transmitting the indication of the selected program to the central control node, retrieving from the memory at the central control node in response to the transmitted indication the video segment associated with the selected program, transmitting the video segment from the central control node to the viewer station, and displaying the video segment for the viewer on a video display set simultaneously with the programming guide; andwhenever the selected program is one of the plurality of current programs, forming the video segment associated with the selected program from the broadcasted programming and displaying the video segment for the viewer on the video display set simultaneously with the programming guide.