IR Steuerungspatent
TeleFairy (patented 1995), short summary
The present invention relates to a device (TeleFairy) for controlling the receipt of information or material which is transmitted electronically, such as by broadcast or via wire. The invention addresses several recent problems arising from the advent of sexually explicit or excessively graphic or violent material being made freely available to minors through unregulated media. Heretofore, there have not been any restrictions imposed on the purveyors of such program material, although parents and governmental officials have expressed strong interest in controlling its availability or at least preventing minors from freely receiving it. Because overburdensome government regulation or censorship of the providers of explicit program material is limited by the First Amendment and interferes with the legitimate desires of adults who wish to receive such material, there is a strong need to provide a means for selectively screening the receipt of an unwanted program material signal when the receiver (i.e., TV, VCR) is operated by a child or other unauthorized person. The i-Box can be preset to be more or less restrictive and to differentiate between types of programming. For example, a different signal is assigned for each of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) ratings, i.e., G, PG, PG-13,R, and X, and our device can distinguish between each classification. Due to more than 400 classification signals, the device can distinguish between violent subject matter and sexually explicit subject matter, between entertainment and politics. The classifications are manual generated in a central studio and transmitted with a radio/satellite-signal simulcast with the television program at a non-interfering radio frequency. The transmission is independently from the transmission of the program signal. The transmission includes all additional data like name of actors, name of director, country, year, title, duration, classification, short description a.s.o. The i-Box is fully menue driven, no data has to be entered for programming a VCR (better than showview). To insert a desired movie in your VCR-programming-list, you just have to click in a menue of the included TV-guide. The TV-guide allows an easy overview and is updated automatically to the next 14 days. For example, if you are interested in business-information, you can program our device to do one of the following actions: "Automatic start your TV when business information is located in any channel" or "automatic record (start and stop) your VCR. With our child-protection you can protect your childs from sex, violence, or program not up to standard (like wrestling). They even don`t notice it, when they are guided to better programs. roomreflec TC`s patentierte Infrarot-Steuerungs-Technologie room-reflec® ermöglicht es Set-Top-Box-Herstellern jegliche UE-Geräte zu steuern (Video Recorder; TV; Sat Receiver) lediglich mit einem low cost chip. Der Wert des Patentes wurde von KPMG und anderen begutachtet (bis zu € 40 Millionen). Steuerungs-Know-How Das i der i-Box steht für individuell und intelligent. Das Benutzerkonzept fängt dort an, wo Digital-TV aufhört. Zwar steuert die i-Box auch digitale Receiver; bei der Entwicklung wurde allerdings darauf geachtet, daß der Benutzer seinen herkömmlichen analogen Fernseher und Videorecorder weiter benutzen kann und keine Umbauten notwendig sind. Durch die in Zukunft weiter voranschreitende Konvergenz von TV/Computer/Internet ist davon auszugehen, daß hier in den nächsten Jahren ein großer Bedarf an diesem Steuerungs-Know-How für Unternehmen wie beispielsweise Microsoft oder Philips entsteht. Patentwerte Anzuführen wären im Zusammenhang mit stillen Reserven der Wert der diversen TC- Patente, die je nach Gutachter (u.a. KPMG) zwischen 8 Mio. € und 40 Mio. € bewertet wurden. Pro Aktie ca. 7 bis 39 €, da TC ca. 1,2 Mio. Aktien ausgegeben hat. Die Lizensierungsphase beginnt Ende 2004, hier werden wir systematisch die aktuell bekannten Patentverletzer anschreiben. |