Method and apparatus for Internet TV

Abstract

A telephone interface and voice recognition driven Internet browser system and method for accessing/browsing the Internet or other remote computing services on a cable or satellite television includes a phone for receiving a voice signal from a user. The voice signal controls a telephone interface, which displays Internet contents or other computing services on the television via a cable or satellite television channel/media. The system also includes a voice recognizer, preferably operated on a supercomputer or located in the phone, for recognizing/interpreting/analyzing a plurality of voice signals and generating command signals to access/browse the Internet or other computer services. The voice recognizer is capable of recognizing/interpreting/analyzing voice signals transmitted from a plurality of users in real time. The system further includes a stack of computers and an Internet browser. Each of the stack of computers is capable of accessing/browsing the Internet and retrieving/organizing requested Internet contents via the Internet browser. The requested Internet contents are sent to the user via a cable or satellite television channel/media with a frame grabber, an intelligent router, or a pre-downloaded system.

1 . A system for accessing/browsing the Internet on a television, comprising: 
 a phone for receiving a voice signal from a user, the voice signal controlling a television display, which is capable of displaying Internet contents via a television channel;    a voice recognizer for recognizing/interpreting/analyzing the voice signal and generating a command signal, the voice recognizer being capable of recognizing/interpreting/analyzing voice signals transmitted from a plurality of users;    an Internet browser for accessing/browsing the Internet and retrieving/organizing requested Internet contents; and    a stack of computers, each of the stack of computers operable to access/browse the Internet and retrieve/organize requested Internet contents based on the command signal and the requested Internet contents being sent from at least one of the stack of computers to the television via the television channel.    
   
   
       2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the television channel is a cable television channel.  
   
   
       3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the television channel is a satellite television channel.  
   
   
       4 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a filter having an identification, wherein the phone has an identification, if the identification of the phone does not match with the identification of the filter, the filter filters out the requested Internet contents, and if the identification of the phone matches with the identification of the filter, the filter lets the requested Internet contents pass through such that the requested Internet contents are displayed on the television.  
   
   
       5 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a frame grabber, the frame grabber locally refreshes the Internet contents on the television until a subsequent user request being made.  
   
   
       6 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a frame grabber, the frame grabber locally refreshes the Internet contents on the television for a period of time.  
   
   
       7 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the voice recognizer is operated by a supercomputer coupled to a phone switching network.  
   
   
       8 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the stack of computers and the Internet browser are disposed in a cable system.  
   
   
       9 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the phone switching network is coupled to a plurality of phones for routing corresponding voice signals from the plurality of users to the voice recognizer for recognizing/interpreting/analyzing the corresponding voice signal and generating command signals to access/browse the Internet.  
   
   
       10 . A method of accessing/browsing the Internet on a television, comprising: 
 receiving a voice signal from a user, the voice signal controlling a television display, which is capable of displaying, requested Internet contents via a television channel;    routing the voice signal to a voice recognizer;    recognizing/interpreting/analyzing the voice signal and generating command signals, the voice recognizer being capable of recognizing/interpreting/analyzing voice signals transmitted from a plurality of users;    accessing/browsing the requested Internet contents; and    presenting accessed/browsed Internet contents on the television via the television channel.    
   
   
       11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the television channel is a cable television channel.  
   
   
       12 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the television channel is a satellite television channel.  
   
   
       13 . The method of  claim 10 , further comprising filtering out the requested Internet contents by a filter if an identification of the phone does not match with an identification of the filter, the filter letting the requested Internet contents pass through if the identification of the phone matches with the identification of the filter.  
   
   
       14 . The method of  claim 10 , further comprising locally refreshing the Internet contents on the television until a subsequent user request being made.  
   
   
       15 . The method of  claim 10 , further comprising locally refreshing the Internet contents on the television for a period of time.  
   
   
       16 . A computer program storage medium readable by a computing system and encoding a computer program of instructions for executing a computer process for accessing/browsing the Internet on a television, the computer process comprising: 
 receiving a voice signal from a user, the voice signal controlling a television display, which is capable of displaying, requested Internet contents via a television channel;    routing the voice signal to a voice recognizer;    recognizing/interpreting/analyzing the voice signal and generating command signals, the voice recognizer being capable of recognizing/interpreting/analyzing voice signals transmitted from a plurality of users;    accessing/browsing the requested Internet contents; and    presenting accessed/browsed Internet contents on the television via the television channel.    
   
   
       17 . A computer data signal embodied in a carrier wave readable by a computing system and encoding a computer program of instructions for executing a computer process for accessing/browsing the Internet on a television, the computer process comprising: 
 receiving a voice signal from a user, the voice signal controlling a television display, which is capable of displaying, requested Internet contents via a television channel;    routing the voice signal to a voice recognizer;    recognizing/interpreting/analyzing the voice signal and generating command signals, the voice recognizer being capable of recognizing/interpreting/analyzing voice signals transmitted from a plurality of users;    accessing/browsing the requested Internet contents; and    presenting accessed/browsed Internet contents on the television via the television channel.    
   
   
       18 . A system for requesting Internet access/browsing via a narrowband medium and displaying requested information via a broadband medium, comprising: 
 a control device for uploading a user's request via the narrowband medium;    a stack of computers for receiving and processing the user's request from the control device, each of the stack of computers operable to access/browse the Internet and retrieve Internet contents based on the user's request;    an Internet browser, operated by at least one of the computers, being arranged and configured to access/browse the Internet and retrieve the requested Internet contents; and    a receiving device for receiving and displaying the Internet contents from the stack of computers, the Internet contents being downloaded to the receiving device via the broadband medium.    
   
   
       19 . The system of  claim 18 , wherein the narrowband medium includes a phone line.  
   
   
       20 . The system of  claim 18 , wherein the broadband medium includes a cable line.  
   
   
       21 . The system of  claim 18 , wherein the broadband medium includes a satellite signal wave.  
   
   
       22 . The system of  claim 18 , wherein the control device includes a phone, and the receiving device includes a television.  
   
   
       23 . A system for requesting a computing service provided at a remote site via a narrowband medium and displaying requested computing service at a local site via a broadband medium, comprising: 
 a control device for uploading the computing service request via the narrowband medium, the control device being located at the local site;    a computer for receiving and processing the computing service request from the control device; and    a receiving device for receiving and displaying a processed result from the computer, the processed result being downloaded to the receiving device via the broadband medium.    
   
   
       24 . The system of  claim 23 , wherein the narrowband medium includes a phone line.  
   
   
       25 . The system of  claim 23 , wherein the broadband medium includes a cable line.  
   
   
       26 . The system of  claim 23 , wherein the broadband medium includes a satellite wave.  
   
   
       27 . The system of  claim 23 , wherein the control device includes a phone, and the receiving device includes a television.