Audio information dissemination using various transmission modes
Contents
1. 380 9 4 788 543 11 1988 Rubin 340 825 44 4 852 086 7 1989 Eastmond et al 370 69 1 4 868 866 9 1989 Williams Jr 4 942 616 7 1990 Linstroth et al 5 042 070 8 1991 Linna etal 381 59 5 086 510 2 1992 Guenther et al ANTENNA 11 r p wee 1 I l 5 131 020 7 1992 Liebesny et al 379 59 5 133 010 7 1992 Borth et al 381 38 List continued on next page FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS 373386 6 1990 European Pat Off 8 1 0967 2651352 3 1991 France 4024132 2 1992 Germany WO 8704309 71987 WIPO WO 8901429 2 1989 WIPO Primary Examiner Bernarr E Gregory Attorney Agent or Firm Skjerven Morrill MacPherson Franklin amp Friel Norman R Klivans 57 ABSTRACT A system and method of information dissemination that permits the user to listen to the specific content of informa tion when and where he or she wants to A radio or television receiver system receives information from a FM subcarrier a television vertical blanking interval transmission a tele vision separate audio program transmission or a dedicated channel and stores the transmitted information in a memory A user interface allows selection from the memory of the stored information via a set of menus controlling a hierar chical database so as to access particular items of informa tion Typic2. means for providing a set of menus describing the database and for making selections from the set of menus 10 20 25 35 10 means for selecting data from the database in response to the selections means for providing the selected data in encrypted com pressed and digital form a decryptor for decrypting the selected data a decompressor for decompressing the decrypted data a converter for converting the digital data to analog audio data and means for outputting the analog audio data 28 A system for information dissemination to transmit audio data comprising a data producing sub system for converting analog audio information to digital data and producing an associated database with menus a data compressor for compressing the encrypted audio data an encryptor for encrypting the digital audio data an inserter for inserting the compressed encrypted digital audio data into a transmission channel a receiver for receiving the transmitted compressed encrypted digital audio data a memory for storing the selected data in the database means for providing a set of menus to a user describing the database and means for updating the data in the database a controller for selecting data from the database and providing the selected data in the encrypted com pressed digital form a decryptor for decrypting the encrypted compressed digital audio data a decompressor for decompressing the compressed digital a
3. now U S Pat No 5 406 626 issued Apr 11 1995 BACKGROUND This invention relates to a radio or television broadcasting system for transmission of audio information to a specially adapted receiver which converts the selected transmitted audio information to a form usable by the user Numerous systems transmit information on FM radio subcarriers See for instance U S Pat No 5 152 011 issued to Schwob Sep 29 1992 Also known is a single sideband communication system with FM data capability for trans mission of analog voice signals See U S Pat No 4 852 086 issued to Eastmond et al Jul 20 1989 Also known is FM radio sideband broadcasting to spe cially adapted computers for transmission for instance of news and financial information Commercially available products available from Mainstream Telemet and DeskTop Data broadcast data over FM radio sidebands for receipt by personal computers equipped with special FM radio receiv ers and software Typically information is transmitted in digital form received and stored in the computer memory for access by the computer user using menu driven software The data is displayed on the computer screen in conven tional alphanumeric form One product in this category is News Edge a news service available from DeskTop Data Inc of Waltham Mass which delivers a number of news and financial information services to a user via FM radio side band Software provided with the product
4. 06 626 4 1995 Ryan eere nen 380 9 5 182 555 1 1993 Sumner 5 590 195 12 1996 Ryan cerent 380 9 5 751 806 Sheet 1 of 2 May 12 1998 U S Patent 9 JOMLNOD NOLLASHSNd MO 30V JU31NI YITIOYLNOOOYDIN 37153 HOLMS JJA TOUINOD JOSLNO2 SSAVOV TWNOILLIGNOO V1VO NOISSIYdNO0930 VIVO q31dAJ9N3 VNN3LINV 5 751 806 Sheet 2 of 2 May 12 1998 U S Patent NOILNGIMLSIG LINA 1381405905 ONITIIG NOILdAYONS V1VQ olany LINN 9NSN3on poins N3 0dS Noi V2IISSV2 ONDDHIV9 ANY SMIN OJNI ONY SMIN I3SS3NdWOO Q3LdAMON3 LS 09 35 95 ee NEW VIVO D ae RHENO INIT SNOHd 319030 gt _ _ _ 9 40 NOILWIS Oldv3 ONILSIX TWAMGINI AL me dVS 5 j 29 olany NOILVH3N39 YALLINSNVEL 9 VNNILNY s 5 751 806 1 AUDIO INFORMATION DISSEMINATION USING VARIOUS TRANSMISSION MODES This application is a division of application Ser No 08 181 394 filed Jan 12 1994 and is now U S Pat No 5 590 195 which is a Continuation in Part of application Ser No 08 031 763 filed Mar 15 1993 entitled RADIO RECEIVER FOR INFORMATION DISSEMINATION USING SUBCARRIER by John O Ryan
5. United States Patent Ryan 54 75 73 21 22 60 51 52 58 56 US00575 18064 Patent Number 5 751 806 45 Date of Patent May 12 1998 AUDIO INFORMATION DISSEMINATION USING VARIOUS TRANSMISSION MODES Inventor John O Ryan Cupertino Calif Assignee Command Audio Corporation Redwood City Calif Notice The term of this patent shall not extend beyond the expiration date of Pat No 5 406 626 Appl No 769 092 Filed Dec 18 1996 Related U S Application Data Division of Ser No 181 394 Jan 12 1994 Pat No 5 590 195 which is a continuation in part of Ser No 31 763 Mar 15 1993 Pat No 5 406 626 Int CLS esaet H04L 9 00 HO4B 1 06 US CL 380 9 380 49 380 50 455 45 Field of Search 380 4 9 23 25 380 49 50 59 340 825 31 825 34 455 39 42 45 References Cited U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 4247908 1 1981 Lockhart et al 395 325 4 266 243 5 1981 Shutterly see 380 19 4 323 921 4 1982 Guillou 380 23 X 4 393 277 7 1983 Besen et al 379 88 4 473 824 9 1984 Claytor 340 825 27 4 608 456 8 1986 et al 380 28 4 677 552 6 1987 Sibley Jr 4 682 368 7 1987 Takahashi 4 683 586 7 1987 Sakamoto et al 380 48 4 752 953 6 1988 Paik et al
6. ally the system includes RAM and or a storage medium such as a digital audio tape a magneto optical mini disk a magnetic disk or optical disk sufficient to store information for 10 hours of audio A decompression device accepts the accessed compressed digital audio information items which may have been encrypted and transforms them into spoken speech The user interface is either by voice or a single or multi position switch allowing scanning through and selection from the menu items The signal for such a device is generated by converting analog audio signals into a digital audio data stream which may be encrypted The encrypted digital data stream is compressed and inserted on the radio or television carrier via an FM Subcarrier the television vertical interval or the separate audio program channel of a television transmitter The system is also capable of transmitting alphanumeric data and converting this alphanumeric to a voice form using a speech synthesizer 28 Claims 2 Drawing Sheets USER INTERFACE VOICE RECOGNITION OR SUSHBUTION CONTROL 5 751 806 2 U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 5 206 641 4 1993 Grant et al 5 46473 9 1992 Critchlow et al 375 8 5210611 oerein 348 473 5 146 612 9 1992 Grosjean et al 5 239 700 8 1993 Guenther etal 455 158 4 5 152011 9 1992 Schwob 5 295 154 3 1994 Meier et al 375 200 5 177 685 1 1993 Davis etal 5 4
7. ansmission speed is one kilobaud This is sufficient to download in approxi mately one hour the needed data to memory 28 In use after purchase of the unit the user programs it to the frequencies of the local stations providing the transmis sions There may be multiple such stations in one area due to the limited transmission distance of FM radio and TV signals A channel skipping feature as is now available commercially in various radios in one embodiment included in microcontroller 20 seeks out stations having a particular signature or frequency to maintain reception even when moving from the transmission area of one station carrying the service to the transmission area of a second station carrying the service It would take less than a minute for the system to scan the entire FM band or TV band looking for the signature transmission The data encryption access is accomplished in several ways In one embodiment a simple addressed on off com mand is transmitted without data encryption to disable individual units belonging to people who have not paid the required monthly subscription fee to receive the service The encryption can be used to provide access to the entire data base or to individual parts of the data base 10 20 25 35 45 55 65 6 In a more sophisticated encryption system where it is believed there is a problem of manufacture and sale of unauthorized units then proper data encryption is used requirin
8. be reached after four or five YES responses from the user In one embodiment three additional spoken commands by the user such as BACK STOP and GO are sufficient to provide the user effective and rapid control of the system In another embodiment a manual input device such as a switch assembly having for instance four positions up down left right corresponding to the familiar cursor con trol on a computer with each position indicating one of four commands is provided for user manual operation This switch may be adapted to attach to the steering wheel of an automobile for use by the driver The control is linked to the rest of the device by wire infrared or ultrasonically as is a conventional television remote control Another version uses a one position control switch The user briefly depresses the switch to select the category or item as announced or to scan through the menus Briefly depressing the switch while an actual data item is being read executes stop Depressing it again then executes go Holding the switch down for a second or two executes back at any time to return to a predetermined point in the database For full effectiveness the information dissemination device needs to be on 24 hours a day In order to conserve power the received data could be first stored in random access memory RAM which consumes little power and when the RAM is full dumped to a more permanent storage m
9. e of claim 1 wherein the user interface is voice activated 15 The device of claim 11 wherein the user interface includes a manual input device adapted to be mountable on an automobile steering wheel and a link from the manual input device to the controller 16 The device of claim 11 wherein the user interface includes a control for determining a speed at which the speech output device outputs the analog signal 17 The device of claim 1 further comprising an amplifier connected to the speech producing device for amplifying the analog signal and means for converting the amplified signal to sound 18 The device of claim 1 further comprising means for connecting the receiver to an automobile radio set 19 The device of claim 1 further comprising means for designating a hierarchy for the database 20 The device of claim 1 further comprising means for storing said digital data received in a RAM memory up to the capacity of the RAM memory before transferring said digital data to a memory from a group consisting of a disk medium and tape medium 21 The device of claim 20 wherein said disk medium is a digital audio tape 22 The device of claim 21 wherein said disk medium is a magnetic disk 23 The device of claim 20 wherein said disk medium is a magnetic optical disk 24 The device of claim 20 wherein said disk medium is an optical disk 5 751 806 9 25 The device of claim 1 wherein a speed of transmis si
10. edium such as a digital audio tape a magneto optical mini disk a magnetic disk or an optical disk sufficient to store information for 10 hours or more of audio The speech producing device 30 may be a digital to analog convertor that converts digitized and decompressed audio data into understandable and well modulated audio analog signals The audio analog signals are provided on line 34 to a conventional audio amplifier 36 and hence to a loud speaker or earphones 38 to be listened to by the user Tuner 12 microcontroller 20 conditional access circuitry 16 and 5 751 806 5 memory 28 typically remain powered at all times by battery power if necessary to receive a continuous update of the broadcast database and thereby to store current news in memory 28 When using the Vertical Blanking Interval it is possible to transmit at a rate of 2 megabits per second on 6 Vertical Blanking Interval lines each with a 50 microseconds dura tion to provide a 24 000 bit per second channel with a 50 error correction overhead In one version the device of FIG 115 a portable unit similar to a portable radio and includes the user voice or manual interface In another embodiment the device of FIG 1 is built into a conventional portable radio or automobile radio sharing where possible common components In one embodiment user interface 40 has a speed control to determine the output speed of speech output The Digital to analog convertor 30 or the Sp
11. eech synthesizer 44 may receive information faster than normal speaking speed It is well known that people can understand speech at faster than normal speech rates Thus the user by pushing a button on the receiver unit or providing the proper verbal command increases the speech speed so as to obtain information faster analogous to skimming printed material This speed ing up can use well known techniques that change the pitch or eliminates the gaps between words A similar slowing down approach can be used in case the user wants to carefully note what is being said for example while taking notes In the embodiment using a voice activated user interface 40 the number of commands provided is limited for instance to 5 to 10 and hence a relatively simple commer cially available voice input recognition circuit is sufficient In another embodiment the user interface for an automobile based system is associated with a heads up display expected to be available in various automobiles in the near future This provides visual display of the database menu items analogous to a computer screen to allow faster access to the database menus Advantageously by transmitting and storing the audio data in a compressed form even though encrypted the required bandwidth of the transmission channel is vastly reduced as are the memory requirements thereby substan tially reducing the component cost When used in FM subcarrier transmission the typical tr
12. g receipt of a key and decryption of the data with decryption circuitry Hence unauthorized units without such dedicated decryption circuitry would not be operative at all In one embodiment of an encryption system analogous to pay per view cable TV encryption decryption keys are delivered by radio transmission Each individual receiver unit has a unique hidden key of for instance 40 to 50 binary digits in read only memory Each unit also has a public non hidden serial number All transmitted data is conventionally encrypted using a master key which is changed periodically both to force users to pay for the service and to enhance security Each receiver unit must receive a master key to decrypt the data transmission The master key is transmitted to each unit as follows Periodically the transmission of the data is interrupted to transmit key information The key information is a series of packets one packet for each individual receiver unit with each packet including 1 an address field which is the public serial number of a particular unit followed by 2 a second field which is the current master key encrypted with the unique hidden key of the unit having that particular serial number The receivers look for these packets which are denoted by a particular signature or occur at particular times to avoid confusion with the data When a particular unit receives the packet including its own address public serial numbe
13. her features and other aspects of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following description appended claims and accompa nying drawings where FIG 1 shows a block diagram of a receiving apparatus in accordance with the present invention and FIG 2 shows a block diagram of a transmission system in accordance with the present invention DETAILED DESCRIPTION FIG 1 shows a device in accordance with one embodi ment of the invention A broadcast signal is received from an antenna by 10 as used in automobile or portable 5 751 806 3 applications which provides a received radio broadcast signal or television video broadcast signal to a tuner 12 This tuner is either a FM Subcarrier tuner of the type well known in the art for extracting an FM broadcast subcarrier signal a television tuner designed to produce the output of the Vertical Blanking Interval a Separate Audio Program chan nel from a television broadcast signal or a dedicated radio channel In the case of an FM subcarrier tuner as is well known the subcarrier signals are typically transmissions of digitized data on subcarriers leased from commercial FM stations The Vertical Blanking Interval is already available for point to multipoint transmission The FM Subcarrier or the TV tuner 12 provides on line 14 the extracted digitized audio which is typically encrypted to conditional access circuitry 16 A receiver sub system converts dig
14. io transmitter tuned to an unused FM or AM radio channel This radio transmitter output would be coupled to the standard automobile radio antenna for outputting of the audio signal to the user Another embodiment of the receiver may provide for the reception and storage of the received data on a home base unit wherein the received data is stored on a disk storage as discussed above and the disk is played back on the portable automobile unit A further embodiment of this feature could 5 751 806 7 encompass a home base unit containing all the features of an automobile unit and can be unplugged from the home base and plugged into the automobile unit for continuing use while the user is in the automobile The transmitting portion of the system is described in FIG 2 indicating the following steps The Data Generating portion 51 contains the usual human elements of News and Information Gathering step 55 with the News and Informa tion Classified and formatted step 56 i e data producing sub system For the audio transmission this news and information is spoken into the electronics portions beginning with the A D convertor 60 which converts the analog audio signals to a digital audio The digitized audio is compressed for bandwidth considerations in data compressor 57 The compressed digitized audio is encrypted in encryptor 58 according to instructions from a Billing Subscriber system 55 The Encrypted digital audio establishes a data base
15. itized and encrypted alphanumeric data and compressed digitized audio data 14 from the transmitter to an analog signal representing spoken words The tuner provides the data to the conditional access system 16 and microcontroller controller 20 described below Conditional access circuitry 16 ensures that the data is decrypted only if the proper key or command has been provided as described below Conditional access circuitry 16 decrypts the received audio data as authorized by microcontroller 20 over lines 22 on line 26 for storage to the memory 28 which may be conventional integrated circuit random access memory RAM In one embodiment the memory comprises volatile RAM memory In another embodiment this memory may consist of a non volatile storage medium such as a digital audio tape a magneto optical mini disk a magnetic disk or an optical disk with sufficient capacity to store information for 10 hours of audio In order to provide the needed quantity of audio data in a reasonable time frame and to minimize the memory require ment the original audio data is ideally passed through a data compression algorithm at the transmitting end to compress the data sufficiently for a narrow band data transmission channel This is shown in FIG 2 at 58 and will be discussed later The receiving apparatus has a companion decompres sion algorithm 39 at the output of the memory to provide the decompressed audio data to the digital to analog con ve
16. of digitized audio data When it is advantageous to use alphanumeric information the alphanumeric information is put in a form for transmis sion and encrypted Switch 61 which can be controlled by an operator determines whether the system transmits com pressed digitized audio or alphanumeric information The Data is sent by a transmission path such as a dedicated telephone line 63 to a transmission station such as an existing radio and television station In order to provide the needed quantity of audio data in a reasonable time frame the audio data must be passed through a data compression algorithm at the transmitting end to compress the audio data sufficiently for a narrow band data transmission channel This is show as 58 in FIG 2 In addition to data compression since the transmission facility is not transmitting the information in a live fashion as with most broadcasting facilities it can maximize the use of the available bandwidth of transmission by not only using the above mentioned data compression techniques but can transmit the data at a rate unrelated to the speed of speech The speed of transmission of the data can be faster than the real time speech when bandwidth considerations permit In addition the speed of transmission can be slower than the real time speech if a narrower bandwidth is available This variation in transmission speed affects the time required to transmit a given amount of information The comple
17. on of said data can be varied 26 A method for information dissemination for transmit ting alphanumeric and audio data comprising the steps of converting said audio data to digital audio data providing said alphanumeric data as digital alphanumeric data establishing a data base of digitized data with menus for selection of particular segments from said data base compressing said digital audio data encrypting said compressed digital data encrypting said digitized alphanumeric data selecting between digital alphanumeric data and com pressed audio data transmitting said selected data extracting the data from the transmitted signal providing a memory storing the extracted data in the memory as a database providing a set of menus describing the database selecting items from the set of menus providing portions of the stored data in response to the selected items from said menus decrypting said encrypted data selecting digitized alphanumeric data or compressed data decompressing said compressed digital data converting the provided portions from the digital form to a first analog signal representing audio signals converting alphanumeric digitized data to a second analog signal representing spoken words and outputting said first and second analog signals for human hearing 27 A device comprising an extractor for extracting data from a transmitted signal memory for storing the extracted data as a database
18. orm to an analog signal 2 The device of claim 1 wherein the memory stores the entire database 3 The device of claim 1 wherein the memory comprises a combination of a volatile RAM memory and a non volatile memory 4 The device of claim 3 wherein the non volatile memory is selected from the group consisting of an audio tape a magneto optical mini disk a magnetic disk or an optical disk 5 The device of claim 1 wherein the received data is audio data that has been converted from analog form to digital form 6 The device of claim 5 where in the received digitized audio data is digitized and has been compressed 7 The of claim 5 wherein the digitized audio data has been encrypted 8 The device of claim 1 wherein the received data is alphanumeric data 9 The device of claim 8 wherein the alphanumeric data is converted to voice data by a speech synthesizer 10 The device of claim 1 wherein the extracted data is in digital form has been encrypted and compressed and fur ther comprising a decryptor for decrypting the extracted data 11 The device of claim 10 wherein said system has a decompression algorithm to decompress data that has been compressed prior to its transmission to the receiver 12 The device of claim 10 wherein the decryptor is enabled by a key received by the device 13 The device of claim 10 wherein the decryptor is enabled by a key device operatively connected to the decryptor 14 The devic
19. ow retrieval of the stored encrypted audio data from the database User interface 40 inputs commands on line 42 to micro controller 20 to determine which items of data from random access memory 28 are to be listened to The transmitted information is categorized stored and accessed in a conventional hierarchial database in memory 28 under control of microcontroller 20 A user interface either a simple manual or voice control driving a hierarchy of menus allows a user to access the information by indi cating his selections from the menus In one embodiment user interface 46 is a voice activated command system For instance the device is turned on and initialized by the user s spoken ON command It then responds by vocally announcing via loud speaker 38 the major database categories available e g NEWS SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT etc When the desired category has been announced the user responds by saying YES The device then announces again the sub categories of the selected major category and the user again selects the desired sub category with a spoken Y ES until the specific item needed is accessed For example the category and sub category path to the latest news regarding the General Motors Corporation might be NEWS BUSINESS NATIONAL AUTOMOTIVE GM The path to a review of the recent movie Aladdin might be ENTER TAINMENT HOLLYWOOD MOVIE REVIEWS ALADDIN Typically items will
20. r it stores and decrypts the subsequent encrypted master key field thereby obtaining the master key in order to decrypt subsequent encrypted data In a second encryption system embodiment a uniquely encrypted master key for each individual receiver is physi cally delivered to each user periodically such as once a month The key could be entered into each unit by a keypad or the key could be embodied in an electronically readable card or device inserted into a suitable port in the receiver In another embodiment speech output device 30 is con trolled to provide a variety of particular voices These voices are selected by the user Le to be male female or other voices or the system is programmed via microcontroller 20 to select different voices for different types of or categories of information The device of FIG 1 as incorporated in a conventional radio or television receiver uses the antenna of the radio or television receiver The tuner 12 may be in addition to the conventional radio or television tuner or could be part of the radio or television tuner The other blocks of FIG 1 with the exception of amplifier 36 and loud speaker 38 are unique to this system and are added components to a conventional radio or television receiver Another embodiment may encompass all of the elements of the receiver except the control and audio in a device stored in the trunk of an automobile similar to CD music systems with an output mini rad
21. rtor for conversion of the digitized audio data to analog audio signals The conditional access system 16 and microcontroller 20 are described below The encrypted compressed data output of the tuner is accessed under control of microcontroller microprocessor 20 via control signals at lines 22 to determine which particular items of data stored in memory 28 to be provided via output line 43 to the decompression circuitry 39 via switch 45 Much of the data that a user would use in such a system is in alphanumeric form that can be easily transmitted in that form and converted to audio via speech synthesis Such data can be transmitted in alphanumeric form for bandwidth and speed considerations In order to accommodate the dual transmission of alphanumeric data as well as audio data switch 46 controlled by microcontroller 20 determines whether the system is responding to original alphanumeric data or compressed audio data When alphanumeric data is being transmitted the alphanumeric data is fed into a speech synthesizer 45 whose audio output is connected to switch 46 for connection of the audio output to audio amplifier 36 and loudspeaker 38 In other embodiments the received data is stored as encrypted data or in another convenient form and converted 15 20 25 35 45 55 65 4 to a form usable by a speech producing device prior to being converted to speech Each audio data item is tagged with an designation to all
22. scans incoming information and when the incoming information meets parameters set by the user the information is saved to disk and or displayed on the computer screen These systems have the disadvantage of requiring a personal computer as a platform and providing information only on a computer screen The usual computer skills are needed in order to operate such systems which tend to be quite expensive Data can also be transmitted in the Vertical Blanking Interval of a transmission The Federal Communications Commission has set aside several lines of the Vertical Blanking Interval for point to multipoint data transmission which may be sold to interested users An additional channel of communication for data or audio transmission is the Separate Audio Program channel avail able in television broadcasting of these systems have disadvantage that the listener or user of the data must be tied down to a specific place or time to hear the information The portable radio be it hand held or in an automobile also limits the user to getting only the information that is presently being transmitted SUMMARY The system and method described below permits the user to listen to the specific content of information when and where he or she wants to The present invention is directed to a method and system for information dissemination using various modes of transmission that satisfies the needs of 10 15 25 35 45 55 2 s
23. ted data is inserted into the FM subcarrier Separate Audio Program channel or the television vertical interval according to the type of transmission channel chosen using a data insertion device In order to accommodate the fact that some subscribers may not have their units on when certain data is transmitted it is apparent that the sending facility will need to update the data base from time to time during the day even if no new information has been generated The data for a particular story or article will need to have a date stamp to indicate to the user the currency of the information These and other logistical features will become apparent with the use of the system The above description is illustrative and not limiting further modifications will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art I claim 1 A receiver for receiving transmitted data comprising access circuitry for extracting data from a received trans mission a memory coupled to the access circuitry for storing the extracted data as a database a user interface for providing a set of menus describing the database and for accepting selections from the set of menus 10 15 25 35 45 55 65 8 a controller coupled to the database for selecting data from the database in response to the accepted selections and providing the selected data in a digital form and a speech producing sub system for converting the selected data from the digital f
24. trol keys on a computer for selection from and scanning through menus listing various categories of information Typically the system includes either volatile RAM memory or a non volatile storage medium such as a digital audio tape a magneto optical mini disk a magnetic disk or optical disk sufficient to store information for 10 or more hours of audio The information is for example news sports weather cultural information advertisements or commercial listings The information is transmitted in encrypted digital form using data compression techniques which is readily stored The use of encryption techniques controls access to the information data base as a whole or to selected parts that the user has contracted for Other features are user control over the speed at which the speech is outputted and a channel skipping tuner for finding the particular FM radio station subcarrier TV station vertical interval or TV station SAP channel on which the service is provided The speech producing device may be under either automatic or user control to produce different speeds of the voices This control of the speed of the voice could be one that changes the pitch or be one that changes the spacing between words Also the user has the opportunity to pre select database items thereby to construct a personal profile so as to extract particular information without having to scan through all the menus BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING These and ot
25. uch a user The invention includes a system for receiving information via a tuner that extracts digitized alphanumeric data or compressed audio data from the Vertical Blanking Interval of a television station s video signal the Separate Audio Program SAP signal from a television stations audio signal or a system for receiving the digitized alphanumeric data or compressed audio information via radio sidebands subcarriers which includes an FM subcarrier of an FM broadcast signal In addition a suitable dedicated transmis sion facility could be used Conditional access circuitry decrypts the previously encrypted digitized alphanumeric data or compressed audio data which is then stored in a random access memory A user interface either a simple manual or voice control driving a hierarchy of menus allows a user to access the information by indicating his selections from the menus The system then extracts the information from the database in decrypted form A voice activation device including a decompression system and a digital to analog convertor D A or other speech producing device converts the encrypted digitized audio information to an audio signal for provision to the user via a loud speaker or earphones This system may be stand alone or be a part of an existing tadio receiver sharing components of the radio receiver One embodiment of the user control is a four way switch the positions corresponding for instance to the cursor con
26. udio data and a converter for converting the digital audio data to analog audio data representing the analog audio information
Download Pdf Manuals
Related Search