Apparatus for receiving encoded messages on the screen of a television receiver and for redisplay thereof on the same receiver screen in a readable format

Claim 1

Apparatus for receiving optically encoded data transmitted via a broadcast television receiver and superimposed on the normal pictorial information, and for displaying said data in readable format on the screen of said television receiver, comprising: optically responsive means at the television receiver for receiving the optically encoded data from the screen thereof; means coupled to said optically responsive means for generating horizontal and vertical synchronization signals in synchronization with the program received by the television receiver; means coupled to said optically responsive means for processing the encoded data and converting it into a format which allows its display on the screen of the television receiver in a readable format; means utilizing said generated synchronization signals for establishing synchronization between said processed data and the program received by the television receiver; and means for coupling said processed-synchronized data to the antenna terminals of the television receiver, so that said data is displayed on the screen of said television receiver in place of a portion of the pictorial information of the broadcast program without extracting the pictorial information and reprocessing it, whereby encoded data can be received and displayed in a readable format in conjunction with an ongoing broadcast program without connection to the inside of the television receiver.