Information offering system

United States Patent m

Kurihara

[54] INFORMATION OFFERING SYSTEM [75] Inventor: Akira Kurihara. Tokyo. Japan [73] Assignee: Sony Corporation. Tokyo. Japan

[21] Appl. No.: 492,794

[22] Filed: Jun. 20,1995

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data

Jun. 24, 1994 [JP] Japan 6-142721

[51] Lit. CI.6 G06F 13/00

[52] U.S. CI 348/7; 348/17; 395/200.47

[58] Field of Search 395/200. 20, 337.

395/200.09, 200.47; 382/157; 348/7. 12.

13. 8. 14, 17

[56] References Cited

U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS

5,119.188 6/1992 McCalleyetal 348/6

5,197,127 3/1993 Waclawsky et al 395/200.54

5,247,347 9/1993 Littoral et al 348/7

5,483.278 1/1996 Strubbe et al 348/7

5,523,796 6/1996 Marshall et al 348/589

5,539.635 7/1996 Larson 364/479.04

5,559,549 9/1996 Hendricks et al 348/6

5,594,794 1/1997 Eyer et al 380/20

5,640,484 6/1997 Mankovitz 386/83

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US005801750A [ii] Patent Number: 5,801,750 [45] Date of Patent: Sep. 1, 1998

5,659.351 8/1997 Huber 348/7

Primary Examiner—Parshotam S. Lail

Assistant Examiner—Kenneth R. Coulter

Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Frommer Lawrence & Haug

LLP; William S. Frommer

[57] ABSTRACT

An information offering system which allows users to obtain desired information readily while minimizing the effect that the users' knowledge and/or skill level has on the information retrieval time and information retrieval cost. The information offering system is composed of a center CE as an information offerer and user terminals TE which receive offers of information from the center CE. The center CE is provided with a transmission antenna AT for transmitting antenna radio wave RF1 to a communication satellite SA. The communication satellite SA transmits re-transmission radio wave RF2 to the terminal TE. Thereby, a satellite broadcasting network is constructed as a first communication mode for offering partial information from the center CE to the terminal TE. A communication network such as ISDN using a cable CA as a medium is also constructed between the center CE and the terminal TE to enable transmission of whole information specified by the terminal TE from the center CE to the terminal TE in a second communication mode.

30 Claims, 8 Drawing Sheets