The ice cream cone was invented at the St. Louis Worlds Fair by Ernest Hamwi in 1904. His waffle booth was next to an ice cream vendor who ran short of dishes. Hamwi rolled a waffle to hold ice cream and the cone was born.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8139924 | System and method for digital content retrieval Flexibility with respect to access and enjoyment of time shifted content in a content distribution network is provided, especially with regard to content not present on a DVR. A DVR accesses a network storage device over a network for particular portions of content ... | 03/20/2012 |
| 8065696 | Control-based content pricing In an implementation of control-based content pricing, a content server distributes media content to a client device in response to a request from the client device to receive the media content. A valuation application allocates a cost to the client device when the ... | 11/22/2011 |
| 8060901 | Information providing method and information providing system A terminal can play back song or video information in real time without downloading it, and thus restrictions on the hardware of the terminal are reduced and a large amount of music can be listened to anytime and anywhere. Also, the user can listen to music more che... | 11/15/2011 |
| 8001560 | Method for providing subscripton-on-demand services A method for providing subscription-on-demand services for video-on-demand programs within an interactive information distribution system. The method includes associating a plurality of video-on-demand programming packages as a programming bundle and identifying a n... | 08/16/2011 |
| RE42053 | Server apparatus, subscriber apparatus and information on demand system An information on demand system provides a user of a terminal (subscriber) information through a network such as CATV such that the user pays an adequate charge to a server (information provider). According to the information on demand system, the received informati... | 01/18/2011 |
| 7844624 | Information delivery system, information delivery method, information delivery server, content delivery server and client terminal The information delivery system is configured with a media database 1009 which stores media data, a sequence information database 1008 which stores sequence information for specifying the address of media data to deliver, a scene searcher 1005 w... | 11/30/2010 |
| 7389522 | Device and method for receiving information and device and method for transmitting information The present invention makes viewers surely view commercial programs. When a commercial program is broadcasted and displayed on a display (7A), a viewer is requested a response. The viewer operates a prescribed key in the ten key (32) of a remote... | 06/17/2008 |
| 7373213 | Management system and apparatus, method therefor, and device manufacturing method A management apparatus which manages a parameter for an industrial device acquires AGA measurement results obtained by operating the industrial device with an operation job parameter value and non-operation job parameter value. An inspection apparatus acquires an â€... | 05/13/2008 |
| 7370026 | Method and apparatus for providing personalized supplemental programming A method and apparatus for providing personalized supplemental programming is provided. In one embodiment, the invention can include searching text for a keyword, the text associated with primary programming to be provided to an element of an entertainment system, a... | 05/06/2008 |
| 7367039 | System and method for evaluating callback functionality in a satellite television network A combination of new hardware at the subscriber site, hardware and services at the satellite broadcasting center and new installation procedures provide a cost-effective approach for verifying “callback” functionality. The required test and monitoring hardware m... | 04/29/2008 |
| 7353267 | Targeted network video download interface A system provides a user with free Internet network access, in which an access control system sends video advertising files to a user who gains access to the Internet through a network connection that includes a viewer program that operates independently of the user... | 04/01/2008 |
| 7353229 | Post-session internet advertising system The present invention is directed to a post-session advertising system that may be used in media such as computers, personal digital assistants, telephones, televisions, radios, and similar devices. In one preferred embodiment, a first display is viewed in a first p... | 04/01/2008 |
| 7343614 | Program delivery system for VOD A novel network manager for use with a cable television system headend capable of monitoring and managing headend components and set top terminals in a television delivery system. The invention relates to methods and apparatus that manage and coordinate the receptio... | 03/11/2008 |
| 7340759 | Systems and methods for adaptive pricing in a digital broadband delivery system Methods and systems are provided for dynamically pricing viewing options in a digital broadband communication network by receiving bandwidth allocation information from a bandwidth allocation manager and dynamically assigning a price criterion to each of a group of ... | 03/04/2008 |
| 7310810 | Broadcasting apparatus and method, receiving apparatus and method, and medium To compensate a failure in downloading of music piece data. For example, when a viewer instructs purchase of a music pieceC to an IRD at a timing t0 during the sixth transmission of music piece data, the music piece data to be transmitted for the seventh time... | 12/18/2007 |
| 7263709 | System for displaying video data having a promotion module responsive to a viewer profile to entice a viewer to watch a premium content A video system has an input port to receive video data that includes a plurality of premium contents and has an output port to couple to a video display for displaying video data selected by a viewer. A preference engine is coupled to the input port and is configure... | 08/28/2007 |
| 7254716 | Security supervisor governing allowed transactions on a system bus A circuit generally comprising a plurality of master modules and a supervisor module is disclosed. The supervisor module may be configured to (i) detect a target address and a particular master module of the master modules initiating a transaction on a bus, (ii) ide... | 08/07/2007 |
| 7243364 | Interactive entertainment network system and method for customizing operation thereof according to viewer preferences An interactive entertainment network system has a video-on-demand (VOD) application which allows viewers to create their own customized lists of preferred video content programs, such as movies, games, TV shows, and so forth. Viewers are permitted to select criteria... | 07/10/2007 |
| 7240359 | Programming distribution system A method is provided for distributing programming. A first set of programs is transmitted in real time according to a schedule of programming. A second set of programs is stored on a server, with at least one of the first set of programs having a counterpart in the ... | 07/03/2007 |
| 7237251 | Method and apparatus for using delay time during switching events to display previously stored information elements During the several seconds of delay time that it takes for a digital set top box (“STB”) that is connected to a television or other display device to switch channels and display the next target program, other information or data can be displayed to a viewer of t... | 06/26/2007 |
| 7231589 | Access usage data storing and transmitting program and storage medium An external storage medium storing a computer readable access control program and a plurality of files. The access control program performs a first accessing process permitting a computer to access only the access control program when the computer attempts to access... | 06/12/2007 |
| 7228559 | Programming distribution and notification system A method is provided for distributing programming. A first set of programs is transmitted in real time according to a schedule of programming. A second set of programs is stored on a server, each of which is configured to be played for a user under the user's contro... | 06/05/2007 |
| 7213046 | System and method for providing efficient and secure data exchange using strip information elements A system and method for using strip information elements to provide secure data exchange and efficient bandwidth utilization is presented. When a person attends an event, an agent is downloaded into the persons' handheld device. The agent receives and manages strip ... | 05/01/2007 |
| 7200857 | Synchronized video-on-demand supplemental commentary A method for providing media to a user via an interactive media services client device coupled to a programmable media services server device includes receiving user input requesting on-screen comments to be provided with a media presentation and providing the user ... | 04/03/2007 |
| 7200858 | Data distribution system An interactive system for obtaining data for diagnostic purposes from a server having access to stores of said data wherein the server supplies the data and software to a data requesting user that enables the user to receive the data progressively so as to decide du... | 04/03/2007 |
| 7179673 | Method of fabricating liquid crystal display device A method of fabricating a liquid crystal display device is disclosed in the present invention. The method includes forming a thin film transistor in a pixel region and a pad on an edge region of a first substrate, depositing an organic passivation layer over the fir... | 02/20/2007 |
| 7178720 | Methods, computer-readable media, and computer program product for intelligent selection of items encoded onto portable machine-playable entertainment media Methods, computer-readable media, and computer program products for encoding data representing offered items that are selected for specific respective viewers onto machine-playable storage media, with the media storing data representing at least one entertainment fe... | 02/20/2007 |
| 7177429 | System and methods for permitting open access to data objects and for securing data within the data objects A system and methods for permitting open access to data objects and for securing data within the data objects is disclosed. According to one embodiment of the present invention, a method for securing a data object is disclosed. According to one embodiment of the pre... | 02/13/2007 |
| 7174367 | Information providing method and information providing apparatus for network A master content generation unit generates information (master content) that is concretized based on the original idea of a content generator. An intermediate content generation unit re-constructs a complete and concrete content that has an adequate amount of inform... | 02/06/2007 |
| 7155733 | System and method for expiration reminders of rentable media offerings The invention can be viewed as a system for providing media information to a user via an interactive media services client device coupled to a programmable media services server device. A method of the preferred embodiment of the present invention includes adding a ... | 12/26/2006 |
| 7155736 | Image transmission apparatus, image transmission system, and communication apparatus An image transmission apparatus for processing hierarchically encoded image information includes an accounting unit for performing accounting processing in correspondence with the resolution of the image information. ... | 12/26/2006 |
| 7150031 | System and method for reminders of upcoming rentable media offerings The invention can be viewed as a system for providing media information to a user via an interactive media services client device coupled to a programmable media services server device. A method of the preferred embodiment of the present invention includes adding a ... | 12/12/2006 |
| 7143010 | System and method for remotely monitoring, diagnosing, intervening with and reporting problems with cinematic equipment A system is disclosed for communicating with, and receiving data representative of equipment state and status from, movie theatre equipment in theatres. The system includes a central computer storage unit for receiving and storing data representative of equipment st... | 11/28/2006 |
| 7132956 | Electronic apparatus and remote controller A wireless AV station is furnished with an Internet browsing function, a TV viewing function, a TV recording and playback function and a message board function, and these multiple functions are activated by a command from a plurality of personal computers each opera... | 11/07/2006 |
| 7124424 | Method and apparatus for providing interactive program guide (IPG) and video-on-demand (VOD) user interfaces User interfaces for a number of services offered by an information distribution system. In one method, first (e.g., interactive program guide) and second (e.g., video-on-demand) applications are provided to support a first and second user interfaces for first and se... | 10/17/2006 |
| 7123780 | Resolution enhancement for images stored in a database A method and apparatus for the enhancement of images stored in a database are disclosed. A first image at a first resolution and a second image at second resolution are used to generate an enhanced image at a third resolution. ... | 10/17/2006 |
| 7113918 | Method for video enabled electronic commerce A method is provided for conducting commerce over a network via vision-enabled content. First, content is encoded to convert it into vision-enabled content. Payment is received for vision-enabling the content. Also, a program to decode the vision-enabled content is ... | 09/26/2006 |
| 7110714 | Television commerce system with program identifiers A commerce control network is provided for obtaining product information and for purchasing products through a two-way interactive broadcast distribution system, such as a cable or satellite television system. The network includes advanced television set top boxes t... | 09/19/2006 |
| 7106906 | Moving image generation apparatus, moving image playback apparatus, their control method, and storage medium The invention generates moving image information obtained by compositing a moving image of a user and objects selected by the user, and provides the generated moving image information to the user. For instance, when the user has inserted a coin or coins into a devic... | 09/12/2006 |
| 7093274 | Apparatus and method for accommodating fast change of digital streaming sources and formats A home video server system includes a source control library and a streaming library. A stream controller is connected between the source control library and the streaming library. Moreover, a plurality of network display terminals can be connected to the streaming ... | 08/15/2006 |