Jim A Sasso

US Patent:

20010044855, Nov 22, 2001

Filed:

Mar 28, 2001

Appl. No.:

09/820176

Inventors:

Brian Vermeire - Santa Monica CA, US
Jim Sasso - Irvine CA, US
Lewis Kurfist - Park Ridge NJ, US

International Classification:

G06F009/00
G06F009/54
G06F015/163
G06F009/46

US Classification:

709/310000, 709/330000

Abstract:

A system for accessing content over a network of computers. The system includes a database system, a content provider interface, a viewer interface, and a virtual remote control. The database system maps channels codes to network addresses as well as to content descriptions. The network address identifies a unit of information or entertainment content. The channel codes include a genre code and a numerical code. The content provider interface assists content providers in entering the network addresses and the content descriptions for their information and entertainment content into the database system. The viewer interface includes a guide (which may be printed or electronic) and a network browser. The viewer interface displays the content descriptions and allows the user to select and view the unit of content on a channel. The virtual remote control is software implemented and allows the viewer to access the channels or to surf through the channels for a given genre. In some embodiments, the viewer can use a microphone, game pad, infra red controller, mouse, keyboard or other computer peripheral to control the virtual remote control or the viewer interface. In one embodiment, a speech recognition module and speech synthesizer module are included. In some embodiments, only channels associated to units of content are accessible while the viewer surfs through channels. In some embodiments, the viewer can assign channels associated to units of content to the viewer's favorites list.