Interactive Television Framework Utilizing Program-Synchronous Triggers and Standard Messaging and Presence-Detection Protocols

摘要

A system for enabling nodes of a client-server network to interact with broadcast program content, the system includes a server node that can detect the presence on the network of one or more client nodes; a trigger extractor that can extract program-synchronous triggers from within the content of a broadcast program; and an application manager that, in response to extraction of a program-synchronous trigger from a broadcast program, can facilitate interactive communication, relating to the broadcast program content, between the server node and one or more client nodes whose presence on the network has been detected.