System to Enhance Television Viewing by Merging Television and the Internet

摘要

Disclosed is a system comprising: a control unit including a software application for detecting programming being displayed on a television, the software application further providing a graphical user interface to enable a viewer to obtain information about a selected object of interest appearing in the programming being displayed by the television; an inquiry server in communication with the control unit, the inquiry server configured to receive a viewer inquiry about the selected object of interest, and retrieve information about the selected object of interest in response to the viewer inquiry; an information server in communication with the inquiry server.

主权项

1. A system for enhancing television viewing, said system comprising:
a control unit including a software application for detecting programming being displayed on a television, said software application further providing a graphical user interface to enable a viewer to obtain information about a selected object of interest appearing in said programming being displayed by said television; an inquiry server in communication with said control unit, said inquiry server configured to receive a viewer inquiry about said selected object of interest, and retrieve information about said selected object of interest in response to said viewer inquiry; an information server in communication with said inquiry server, said information server having an Internet link to said selected object in said television display, said Internet link for enabling said inquiry server to obtain information related to said selected object of interest and provide said obtained information to said inquiry server; and a purchasing server configured to transmit a purchase request to an object provider, said purchasing server configured to receive said purchase inquiry from said inquiry server, and communicate with a viewer account for sending a purchase request confirmation to said viewer.