Interactive television system

Claim 2

System according to claim 1, characterized in that said header portion (H) consists of four fields, a field (H1) which identifies the received channel, a field (H2) which identifies the current activity, a field (H3) which identifies the number of control sequences and a field (H4) which identifies the waiting time out of the following message.

Claim 3

System according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that each Interactive Option control (CM_OI) is set up by a header area (AI) and by a control area (AC), the header area comprising a field (CT) corresponding to the type of control and a field (CL) indicating the length of the control, the control area comprising one or more sectors or descriptors (DM).

Claim 4

System according to claim 3, characterized in that the TV mask descriptor (DM) comprises: a field (DMM) for the mask visualization time out; and one or more sections (DZ) for the definition of the strings.

Claim 5

System according to claim 4, characterized in that each section (DZ) comprises a plurality of fields (DZT, DZL, DZN) repeated for each control and at least one string sub-descriptor.

Claim 6

System according to claim 5, characterized in that said plurality of fields repeated for each control comprise: - a field (DZT) indicating the type of strings which follow; - a field (DZL) indicating the length of the section; - a field (DZN) indicating the number of strings contained in the section and string sub-descriptors (DS).

Claim 7

System according to the claims 4, 5 and 6, characterized in that each string sub-descriptor comprises a plurality of fields (DSL, DSC, DSO, DSS, DSR, DSV, DSB, DSA, DSQ) and a String Text field (DST) with a length which depends on the data of the string.

Claim 8

System according to claim 7, characterized in that said plurality of fields contained in the string sub-descriptor (DS) comprise: - a field (DSL) which defines the length of the descriptor; - a descriptor indication field (DSC), which defines if the string has to be written, cancelled or used for the visualization of the user's name; - a field (DSO) indicating the string type, and in particular if the string is of the type which contains the indication of a telephone number to be dialled or which do not contain any indication; - a field (DSS) which contains the real and true indication of the phone number to be dialled; - a field (DSR) which defines the line of the mask on which the start of the string has to be positioned; - a field (DSV) which defines the column of the mask on which the start of the string has to be placed; - a field (DSB) which defines the number of bytes necessary to codify the string attributes; - a plurality of fields (DSA1, ..., DSAd) which define the characteritics which are common to all characters of the string; - a field (DSQ) which defines the number of bytes foreseen for the string text.

Claim 9

System according to claim 3, characterized in that the user's response management control (CM_GRU) includes said control header area (AI) and a plurality of offset fields (OFF1 - OFF5) which are used as pointers for the following descriptor groups: - Response Management Descriptor (DGR); - Telephone Descriptor (DT); - TV Mask Descriptor (DM); - Output Descriptor (DO).

Claim 10

System according to claim 9, characterized in that the user response management control (CM_GRU) comprises also Response Management Descriptors (DR) which include the following fields: - a response indication field (DRR), i.e. the response the actions are linked to; - a descriptor length field (DRL), i.e. the field indicating the number of bytes necessary for the complete transmission of the descriptor; - at least one field (DRA) which indicates the action to be carried out in relation to the user's response; - at least one field (DRP) which mentions the identification of the output descriptor or the "response weight" indicating a numerical value for each response to be used in the score calculation;

Claim 11

System according to claim 9, characterized in that the User Response Management control (CM_GRU) comprises also telephone descriptors (DT), i.e, descriptors suitable to define in a complete way the call the user set has to carry out, and it comprises the following fields: - a descriptor identification field (DTI); - a descriptor length identification field (DTL); - a field (DTT) which identifies the type of transmission network the call is addressed to; - a field (DTE) which identifies the type of payment; - a field (DTC) which identifies the estimated cost of the call; - a field (DTN) which identifies the phone number to be called; - a field (DTR) which indicates the number of times by which the call has to be repeated; - a field (DTF) which indicates the frequency of the repetitions; - a field (DTD) which indicates the maximum duration of the call; - fields (DTA-DTB) which indicate an alternative action in the case in which the call is not successful.

Claim 12

System according to claim 9, characterized in that the user response management control (CM_GRU) comprises also a TV mask descriptor (DM) with a series of sub-descriptors of strings of the "common" type and of the "response" type of the output descriptors (DO) by which it is possible to define a message to be printed in presence of a user response and signalling message descriptors (DL), i.e. descriptors suitable to activate on the screen one of the standard messages contained in the user's set.

Claim 13

System according to claim 12, characterized in that said output descriptor (DO) comprises: - a field (DOI) which indicates the descriptor identification; - a field (DOL) which indicates the length of the descriptor; - a field (DON) which indicates the number of lines to be printed; - a series of sections (DOM, DOR, DOC, DOT) which define the length of the line, the starting line, the starting column, and the text of the line.

Claim 14

System according to claim 12, characterized in that said signalling message descriptor (DL) comprises: - a field (DLI) which indicates the identification of the descriptor; - a field (DLL) which indicates the length of the descriptor; - a field (DLT) which indicates the visualization timeout; - a field (DLN) which indicates the number of attributes; - a series of attributes (DLA) for the description of the attributes of the character to be visualized; - a field (DLC) which indicates the starting column of the outline; - a field (DLM) indicating the maximum line amplitude; - a field (DLR) indicating the number of lines to be visualized; - a series of sections for the description of the lines set up by a field (DLB) for the starting column, a field DLD for the length line and byte (DLT) of the line text to be visualized.

Claim 15

System according to claim 3, characterized in that score synthesis control (CM_SP) comprises said header area (AI) as well as the following fields: - a field (CF) which indicates the number of present score bands; - a certain number of band fields (CQ), each one indicating the upper limit of the different score bands, as well as a TV mask descriptor (DM) with a series of sub-descriptors.

Claim 16

System according to claim 3, characterized in that the Prize and Lot Drawing control (CM_GSP) comprises said header area (AI) as well as the following fields: - a field (CV) which indicates the number of winners to whom a courtesy message has to be transmitted; - a certain number of fields (CU), each one being an identification of a user; - a TV mask descriptor (DM) with a series of sub-descriptors.

Claim 17

System according to claim 3, characterized in that the clock definition control (CM_DO) comprises said header area (AI) as well as the following fields: - a field (OT) which indicates the clock type; - fields (OR, OC) which indicate the positioning line and column of the clock; - fields (OD, OE, OF, OG, OH) which indicate the graphic components of the single elements setting up the clock.

Claim 18

System according to claim 3, characterized in that the frame definition control (CM_DC) comprises said header field (AI) as well as the following fields: - fields (NR, NS) which indicate the starting and ending line of the frame; - fields (NC, NE) which indicate the starting and ending column of the frame; - a field (ND) which indicates the colour of the background.

Claim 19

System according to claim 3, characterized in that the score table definition control (CM_DTP) comprises said header field (AI) as well as the following fields: - a field (PG) which indicates the identification of the play or of the programme referred to; - a field (PV) which indicates the visualization mode; - a field (PD) which indicates the reset date of the scores; - a score table descriptor (DP) set up by a plurality of fields which indicate the score number to be activated and the graphic characteristics by which said activation will be carried out; - a score descriptor (DU) for each score to be activated; - a field (DPS) which indicates the number of strings; - a plurality of graphic string descriptors (DQ).

Claim 20

System according to claim 3, characterized in that the special character graphic definition control (CM_DCS) comprises said header field (AI) as well as the following fields: - a field (SN) which indicates the number of special characters which will follow; - at least a special character descriptor (DB) set up by a field (DBC) for the identification of the character which will then be used to recall it followed by a field (DBS) which defines the shape of the special character.

Claim 21

System according to claim 3, characterized in that the graphic option disabling control (CM_DOG) comprises said header field (AI) as well as the following fields: - a field (BG) which indicates the options to be disabled; - a field (BM) which indicates the disabling mode.

Claim 22

System according to claim 3, characterized in that the TV icon visualization request control (CM_RVI) comprises said header field (AI) as well as the following fields: - a field (IT, IN) which indicate the visualization time out and the number of icon definition strings; - graphic string descriptors (DQ); - fields (IL, IR, IC) comprising the icon type as well as the positioning line and column.

Claim 23

System according to claim 3, characterized in that the score table visualization request control (CM_RVTP) comprises said header field (AI) as well as the following fields: - a field (CO) which indicates the visualization timeout; - a score table descriptor (DP).