MXPA96004575A - A method and a system for the diffusion of digital audio information comprising data compression, encryption and the synthesis of - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system and method of disseminating information that allows the user to listen to the specific content of information whenever and wherever he wishes. A radio or television receiver system receives information from an FM subcarrier, a TV Vertical Suppression Interval transmission, an active television transmission image area, a separate television audio program transmission or a channel specialized radio and stores the information transmitted in a memory. The user interface allows the selection, from the memory, of the information stored through a set of menus that control a hierarchical database, to have access to the particular elements of the information. Normally, the system includes a RAM and / or a magnetic storage medium such as a digital audio tape, a magneto-optical minidisk, a magnetic disk or an optical disc, sufficient to store information of the audio output, for several hours. A decompression device accepts the compressed digital audio information elements that were accessed and transforms them into audible speech signals. The user interface is either a voice control or a single-position or multi-position switch that allows the exploration of the menu items and the selection of them. The system is also capable of transmitting alphanumeric data and converting this alphanumeric data into an audible form using a digital synthesizer.

Description

A METHOD AND A SYSTEM FOR THE DIFFUSION OF DIGITAL AUDIO INFORMATION COMPRISING THE COMPRESSION OF DATA, ENCRYPTION AND SYNTHESIS OF VOICE CROSS REFERENCE WITH RELATED APPLICATIONS This invention relates to a co-pending joint ownership application with serial number 08/181394, filed on January 12, 1994 entitled A METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR INFORMATION DISSEMINATION USING VARIOUS MODES OF TRANSMISSION by John O. Ryan, which is a Continuation in Part of U.S. Patent Application 5,406,626, published April 11, 1995 entitled RADIO RECEIVER FOR INFORMATION DISSEMINATION USING SUBCARRIER by John O. Ryan.

BACKGROUND Field of the Invention This invention relates to a radio or television transmission system for transmitting audio and text information and, more especially, for transmitting digitized audio data and text data.

Description of the Prior Art Numerous systems transmit information on FM radio subcarriers. See for example, the Patent of P1316 / 96MX United States No. 5,152,011 issued to Scho ob, September 29, 1992. A single sideband communication system with FM data capability for the transmission of analog voice signals is also known. See U.S. Patent 4,852,086 issued to Eastmond et al., July 20, 1989. It is also known to broadcast sideband FM radio for computers specially adapted for transmission, for example, news and financial information. Commercially available products obtainable from Mainstream, Telemet, and DeskTop Data transmit data on FM radio sidebands for reception by personal computers equipped with software and special FM radio receivers. The information is normally transmitted, received and stored in digital form in the memory of the computer so that the user of the computer has access to it using a software operated by menu. The data is displayed on the computer screen in conventional alphanumeric form. One product in this category is News Edge, a news service available from DeskTop Data, Inc. of Waltham, Massachusetts, which provides the user with several news and financial information services through FM radio sideband. The software provided with the product scans the input information and when the P1316 / 96MX input information meets the parameters set by the user, the information is saved or saved on disk and / or displayed on the computer screen. These systems have the disadvantage of requiring as a platform a personal computer and of providing information only on a computer screen. They require the usual computer skills to operate these systems, which tend to be quite expensive. Data can also be transmitted in the Vertical Suppression Interval of a television broadcast. The Federal Communications Commission has canceled several Vertical Suppression Interval lines for the transmission of point-to-multipoint data that can be sold to interested users. In addition to using the Suppression Interval Vertical, the data can be transmitted through a television channel using a 384 Kpbs transmission system during the active video portion of the television channel using a system obtainable from WavePhore, Inc. This system transports or uploads digital data within the area activates an existing broadcast signal, without interfering with the regular television image. The decoded data can include text and sound. An additional channel of communication for the transmission of data or audio is the Program channel of Pl Jlb / 9bMX Separate Audio available in television broadcast. The additional prior art comprises the following: French Patent 2 651 352 ("352) of Urba 2000 Association, EPO Patent 0 128 093 ("093) of Texas Instruments Inc., EPO Patent 0 552 051 (" 051) of Hitachi and United States Patent 4,788,543 ("543) of Rubin. The "352 patent discloses an RDS system that is the transmission of data to a receiver for limited deployment." Patent 5"352 makes no mention of a memory device. In fact, this memory device could prevent data from being displayed. The '093 patent relates to the transmission of digital data representing audible phonemes that accompany other digital data representing data that may have been transmitted in the unused portion of the television signal for presentation in a CRT.

The techniques used are in the French system Antiope or in the British Teletext systems. The patent "051 is a system for issuing radio warnings, it has no operating user interface system connected to a decipher or memory to control the memory for the selection of the information." The patent "543 describes a method of handling the priority of transmission of messages disseminated to Pl J16 / 96MX individual users using a 2-way transmission system. The memory here is used to control the transmission of information. The system described below uses a one-way transmission system, where all receivers store the transmitted information. The memory in the present application stores the information, which can be retrieved later by the user. All these systems have the disadvantage that the listener or user of the data is restricted to a specific place or time of access to the information. The portable radio, either hand-held or inside a car, also limits the user to access only the information that is being transmitted in real time.

SUMMARY This system and the method allow the user to listen to a specific news item or an information element when and where the user wishes. The present invention is directed to a method and system for the dissemination of information that uses various transmission modes and that meets the individual needs of the user. The invention includes a system for receiving information through a tuner that extracts digitized alphanumeric data and / or compresses data P1316 / 96MX audio from the Vertical Suppression Interval of a video signal from a television station, the active television image area using the arePhore system, the separated audio program signal (SAP) of a signal from audio from a television station or a system for receiving digitized alphanumeric data or compressed audio information by radio sidebands (subcarriers) including an FM subcarrier of an FM broadcast signal. In addition, a suitable installation dedicated to the transmission can be provided. The conditional access circuitry in the receiver decrypts the previously encrypted digitized alphanumeric data or the compressed audio data which is then stored as a basis in a memory. A user interface (for example, either a simple manual switch or a voice activated control) handles a hierarchy of menus and allows the user to access the information by indicating their selections from the menus. The system then extracts the information from the database. A speech producing device includes a decompression system and a digital-to-analog converter (D / A) or other voice producing device converts the extracted data into an audio signal to be supplied to the user by speakers or headphones. The system can be alone or be part of a F'l Mb / h X existing radio receiver, which shares the components of the radio receiver. One mode of the user interface is a four-way switch (the corresponding positions for example to the cursor control keys on a computer) for selecting the menus and scanning them by listing various categories of information. Normally the system includes a volatile or non-volatile RAM (random access memory) or a non-volatile storage medium such as a digital audio tape, a magneto-optical minidisk, a magnetic disk or an optical disk, enough to store information, for example, for a few hours. The information is for example, news, sports, climates, cultural information, advertisements, commercial listings or music. The information is transmitted in encrypted digital form using data compression techniques. The use of encryption techniques controlled the access to the information database as a whole or to selected parts that the user has contracted. Another feature is a channel skip tuner to find the particular FM radio station subcarrier, the Vertical Suppression Interval of the TV station, the active TV image area channel or the TV station SAP channel in the which service is provided. The voice producing device can EH316 / 96MX found either under automatic control or under user control to produce different speeds of the audio output. This audio speed control can change the pitch or change the separation between words. Also, the user has the opportunity to preselect the database elements in order to build a personal profile and extract the particular information without having to explore all the menus.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS These and other features as well as other aspects of the present invention will be better understood with reference to the following description, the appended claims and the accompanying drawings wherein: Figure 1 shows a block diagram of a receiver apparatus of in accordance with the present invention; Figure 2 shows a block diagram of a transmission system in accordance with the present invention; Figure 3 shows a block diagram of an alternative embodiment of the apparatus of Figure 1; and Figure 4 shows a block diagram of a second alternative embodiment of the apparatus of Figure 1.

P1316 / 9ßMX DETAILED DESCRIPTION Figure 1 shows a receiving apparatus 10 according to one embodiment of the invention. A broadcast signal is received from an antenna 11 (as used in automotive or portable applications) that provides a radio broadcast signal or a television broadcast signal received in a tuner 12. Each audio data element is "tagged" "with a designation to allow the recovery, from the database, of the encrypted and stored audio data. The tuner 12 is either an FM subcarrier tuner of the type well known in the art for extracting an FM broadcast subcarrier signal; a television tuner designed to produce the output of the Vertical Suppression Interval or an active image area or of an audio program channel separated from a television broadcast signal; or a specialized radio channel tuner. In the case of an FM subcarrier tuner, as is well known, subcarrier signals are usually digitized data transmissions from subcarriers rented from commercial FM stations. The Vertical Suppression Interval is now available for point-to-multipoint transmission. As mentioned above, the active image area of a television transmission can be used using the P1316 / 96MX WavePhore system. The tuner 12 provides on line 14 the extracted digitized audio data (which are usually encrypted) to the conditional access circuitry 16 and to the microcontroller (controller) 20 (described below) on line 18. Access circuitry 16 conditional ensures that data encrypted on line 14 is encrypted only if the appropriate key or command has been supplied, as described below. The conditioned access circuitry 16 decrypts the received data (as authorized by the microcontroller 20 on line 22a) and provided on line 26 in simple form (deciphered data) for storage in memory 28 which can be a conventional integrated circuit random access memory (RAM) . The memory 28 can be volatile or non-volatile integrated circuit (random access memory). The memory 28 may include a non-volatile storage medium, such as a digital audio tape, a magneto-optical minidisk, a magnetic disk or an optical disk, with sufficient capacity to store audio output data information, for several hours. In order to provide the necessary amount of audio data in a minimum time frame, to minimize bandwidth requirements and P1316 / 96MX to minimize the memory requirement, the original audio data is a modality subject to a data compression algorithm in the transmitter to sufficiently compress the data (this data compression circuitry as shown in the Figure 2 will be discussed later). The receiving apparatus 10 includes in the decompression circuitry 39 an associated decompression algorithm, connected to the output of the memory 28 via the line 43 to supply the decompressed data to the digital-to-analog converter 30 for the conversion of the digitized data into analog audio signals. The conditioned access circuitry 16 and the microcontroller 20 are further described below. There is access to the decrypted compressed data leaving the memory 28 under the control of the microcontroller (microprocessor) 20 via the control signals on the line 22b to determine which particular data elements stored in the memory 28 will be supplied by the line of output 43 to the decompression circuitry 39. Some of the data a user uses in this system may be in alphanumeric form, which can be easily transmitted in that form and converted into audio in the receiver by speech synthesis. These P1316 / 96MX data is transmitted in alphanumeric form due to considerations of bandwidth, speed and memory conservation. In order to accommodate the dual transmission of alphanumeric data as well as audio data, the switch 46 controlled by the microcontroller 20 on line 47 determines whether the data to which it is currently accessed is in the form of originally alphanumeric data or compressed audio data. When the originally alphanumeric data is accessed, the alphanumeric data is provided to the speech (voice) synthesizer 45 via line 43 whose audio output is to connect to the switch 46 for connection to the conventional audio amplifier 36 and to the horn or hearing aid 38. On line 42 the user interface 40 enters the commands to the microcontroller 20 to determine which data of the memory 28 will be accessed. The information is categorized, stored and accessed in the form of a conventional hierarchical database stored in the memory 28 under the control of the microcontroller 20. The user interface 40 (either simply manual or by voice control) handles a hierarchy of menus that allows the user to access the information by indicating their selections from the menus. In one embodiment, the user interface 40 is P131b / 9bMX a voice-activated command system. For example, the device turns on and is initiated by the spoken command "ON" ("ON") of the user. And responds then announced in audible form, through the horn 38, the main categories available in the database, for example, "NEWS", "SPORTS", "ENTERTAINMENT" ("NEWS", "SPORTS", "ENTERTAINMENT") , etc. When the desired category is announced, the user responds by saying "YES" ("YES"). The device then announces again the subcategories of the selected main category and again the user selects the desired subcategory with a "YES" ("YES") until the specific item needed is accessed. For example, the category and subcategory path to the most recent news regarding the General Motors Corporation may be "NEWS ... BUSINESS .. NATIONAL .. AUTOMOTIVE .. GM" ("NEWS ... BUSINESS ... NATIONAL ... AUTOMOBIL ...

GM ") The trajectory for a review of the recent film Aladdin could be" ENTERTAINMENT .. HOLLYWOOD .. MOVIE REVIEWS .. ALADDIN "(" ENTERTAINMENT ... HOLLYWOOD ... MOVIE REVIEWS ... ALADIN "). Topics OR elements will normally be reached after four or five "YES" responses by the user In one modality, three additional spoken commands by the user such as "BACK", "STOP" and "GO" ("RETURN, FOR P1316 / 96MX FORWARD ") are sufficient to provide the user with quick and effective control of the system In another embodiment, for manual operation by the user a manual input device is provided, such as a switch unit having, for example , four positions (up, down, left, right) corresponding to the familiar cursor control on a computer and each position indicates one of four commands.This switch can be adapted to join the steering wheel of a car, for use by part of the driver The control is linked to the rest of the receiver apparatus 10 by cables, controlled by infrared rays or in ultrasonic form as in conventional television remote controls Another version of the user interface 40 includes a one position control switch The user briefly presses the switch to select the category or item as announced or scanned through the menus. Briefly pressing the switch while reading a current data element executes a "stop". Pressing again will execute a "go". Keeping the switch pressed, for example a second or two, a "back" is executed at any time, to return to a predetermined point in the database. For complete effectiveness, the receiving device P1316 / 96MX 10 can be at least partially ignited 24 hours a day. With the. In order to conserve energy, the received data can be stored first in the random access memory (RAM) which is part of the memory 28, which consumes little power, and when the RAM is full it is transferred to a storage medium, as a digital audio tape, a magneto-optical minidisk, a magnetic disk or an optical disk. The tuner 12, the microcotroler 20, the conditioned access circuitry 16 and the memory 28 are the elements that normally remain energized all the time (by battery power if necessary) to receive a continuous update of the broadcast information and to store this way the current data in memory 28. When using the Vertical Suppression Interval to transmit data, it is possible to transmit them at a rate of 2 megabits per second in 6 consecutive lines of Vertical Suppression Interval, each with 50 microseconds in duration to provide a 24,000 bit per second channel with a 50% error correction decrease. A version of the receiving apparatus 10 of Figure 1 is a portable unit (similar to a portable radio) included in the housing of the manual interface 40 or P1316 / 96MX activated by user voice. In another embodiment, the receiver apparatus of Figure 1 is integrated into a portable radio or a conventional automobile radio, sharing, where possible, common components and, when appropriate, a separate user interface. In one embodiment, the user interface 40 includes a speed control to determine the output speed of the speech output. The digital-to-analog converter 30 or the speech synthesizer 45 can receive data faster than the normal speech rate. It is well known that people can understand a conversation at a speed faster than the speed of normal talk. In this way, the user interface 40 increases the speech speed as described above, to obtain faster information analogous to the breakdown of printed material. This speed increase can use well-known techniques that change the pace or that eliminate gaps or gaps between words. A similar deceleration approach can be used in case the user wants to write down carefully what is being said, for example, while taking notes. In the mode using a voice activated user interface 40, the number of commands provided is usually limited (for example from 5 to 10) and hence a circuit is sufficient Pl? L fc »/ 96MX relatively simple voice recognition recognition commercially available. In another embodiment, the user interface for a car-based system is associated with a display at eye level, which is expected to be available in several automobiles in the near future. This provides the visual display of the database menus in a manner analogous to a computer screen, to allow faster access to the database menus. Advantageously, in transmitting and storing the audio data in a compressed form (even if they are encrypted), the required bandwidth of the transmission channel is greatly reduced, depending on the requirements of memory 28, thereby reducing very importantly the cost of the memory component 28 when used in an FM subcarrier transmission, the typical transmission speed is one kilobaud. In an SAP channel, the typical transmission speed is 15 kilobaud. During use, after acquisition of the receiving apparatus 10, the user programs it at the frequencies of the local stations that supply the transmissions. Due to the limited transmission distance of FM radio and TV signals, in one area P1 16 / 96MX there can be a multiplicity of these stations. A particular feature of channel hopping (such as that currently available commercially in several radios) in a mode included in the microcontroller 20 searches for stations that have a particular signature or frequency, to maintain reception even when it moves away from the transmission area of a station that carries the service to the transmission area of a second station that carries the service. It will take less than a minute for the system to scan the entire FM band or the TV band looking for the rubric transmission. The decryption / access of the data of block 16 is achieved in several alternate ways. In one embodiment, a simple directed on / off command is transmitted (without data encryption) to deactivate individual receiving devices belonging to users who have not paid the subscription fee required (eg, monthly) to receive the service. The decryption can be used to provide access to the entire database or to individual parts of the database depending on what the user paid. In an alternative and more sophisticated decryption system, where it is believed that there is a problem of manufacturing and selling unauthorized receiving units, the appropriate data encryption is used, which requires P1316 / 96MX the reception of a key and the decryption of the data received with the decryption circuitry in block 16. Hence, the unauthorized receiving units without this specialized deciphering circuitry will not operate at all. In one embodiment of a decryption system (analogous to television encryption, pay per event cable), the decryption keys are supplied by radio transmission. Each individual receiving unit has a unique "hidden" key of, for example, 40 to 50 binary digits in read-only memory. Each unit also has a non-hidden "public" serial number. All transmitted data is encrypted in a conventional manner using a master key that is periodically changed to improve security. Each receiving unit receives a master key to decrypt the data transmission. The master key is transmitted to each unit as follows: Periodic transmission of data dissemination is interrupted to transmit the key information. The key information is a series of packets, a packet for each individual receiving unit and each packet includes (1) an address field which is the public serial number of a particular receiving unit; P 1 6 / 6MX • n 20 followed by (2) a second field that is the current master key encrypted with the unique "hidden key" of the receiving unit that has that particular serial number. The receiving unit looks for these packages (which are denoted by a particular rubric or that appear at particular times or times to avoid confusion with the data). When a particular receiving unit receives the packet that includes its own address (public serial number), it stores and decrypts the subsequent field of the encrypted master key, thus obtaining the master key, in order to decrypt the subsequent encrypted data. In a second embodiment of the encryption system, a master key uniquely encrypted for each individual receiving unit is physically supplied to each user periodically (for example once a month). The key is entered in each receiving unit by means of a numeric keypad or, the key is incorporated in a card or device that can be read electronically when inserted in a suitable port in the receiving unit. In another embodiment, the speech synthesizer 45 is controlled to provide a variety of particular voices. These voices are selected by the user, ie they can be male / female voices or other voices, or the system is programmed by the P1316 / 96MX controller 20 to select different voices for different types of categories or for different categories of information. The device of Figure 1 as incorporated in a conventional radio or television receiver uses antenna 11 of the radio or television receiver. The tuner 12 may be present in addition to the conventional radio or television tuner or may be part of the radio or television tuner. The other blocks of Figure 1 (with the exception of amplifier 36 and horn 38) are unique to this system and are components added to a conventional radio or television receiver. Another embodiment may encompass all elements of the receiver unit with the exception of interface 40 and audio elements 36, 38 in a device located on the trunk line of a car, similar to CD music systems, and with an output of the radio minitransmitter tuned to an unused FM or AM radio channel. This output of the radio transmitter would be coupled to the standard radio antenna of the automobile to emit the audio signal to the user. Another mode of the receiver can provide the reception and storage of data in a main base unit, where the received data is stored in a P1316 / 96MX disk storage (as mentioned above) and the disc is played on the portable (car) unit. An additional variant includes a main base unit that contains all the particulars of an automotive unit that can be disconnected from the home unit and connected in an automotive unit for continuous use while the user is in the car. The transmission portion of the system is illustrated in Figure 2, indicating the following steps and elements. The data generation portion 51 contains the usual human (non-electronic) steps of news and information collection and the classification and formatting of news and information. These are the data collection and organization steps typical of any news service that provides a database. For audio transmission, this news audio information as well as other audio information is input into the electronic portions, having a microphone (not shown) whose output is supplied to a converter 60 that converts the analog audio signals into of digitized audio data. The digitized audio data is compressed due to memory and bandwidth considerations in the compression circuitry 57. The digitized and compressed audio is encrypted in the data encryption circuitry 58, in accordance with the instructions P131Ó / 96MX key distribution from a billing / subscriber unit 59. This billing / subscription unit is a human input to the system that determines the appropriate decryption key for an individual subscriber. The digitized and encrypted audio data establish a database. When it is advantageous to use originally alphanumeric information, this originally alphanumeric information, coming from step 56 of news and conventional sorting and formatting, gets in shape for transmission and encryption by the data encryption circuitry 64, which is similar to the 58 data encryption circuitry. The switch 61 is controlled by an operator to determine whether the system transmits digitized and compressed audio information or alphanumeric information. The data of the switch 61 is sent via a transmission path, such as a dedicated telephone line 63, to a transmission station, such as an existing radio and television station 50. In order to supply the necessary amount of audio data in a reasonable time frame, to conserve bandwidth and save memory space in the receiver, the audio data is passed through a data compression algorithm in the end of P131 / 96MX transmission. This data compression is included in block 57 of Figure 2. In addition to data compression, since the transmission facility is not transmitting the information "live", as with most broadcast facilities the transmission facility it can maximize the use of the available transmission bandwidth or available memory using not only the aforementioned data compression techniques, but can transmit the data at a rate unrelated to the speed of speech. The speed of data transmission may be faster than that of "real-time" speech when broadcast bandwidth considerations allow. In addition, the transmission speed may be slower than "real-time" speech if only a narrower broadcast bandwidth is to be used. This variation in the transmission speed affects the time required to transmit a given amount of information. The variation in the speed and amount of speech compression can be dynamic and can be a function of the nature of the information that will be transmitted. The data terminated on line 63 is inserted into the FM subcarrier, on the separate Audio Program channel, in the active image of the Vertical Television Suppression Interval using a conventional 62 1 / 96MX ri data insertion device for transmission by means of a television or radio convention transmitter 53 via the antenna 54, in addition to the generation of conventional audio and video program material from the element 52. In the embodiments of Figures 1 and 2, the order of the elements can be varied according to the particular needs of a system. In the alternative embodiment of Figure 3, many elements identical to those in Figure 1 are included, the memory 28 receives and stores encrypted data on line 14, before processing by the conditioned access circuitry 16. In an alternative embodiment of Figure 4, the decompression circuitry 39 performs its function prior to the storage of the digital data in the memory 28. This memory assumes that there is no need for a conservative use of the memory 28. A system for the dissemination audio, as described above, creates possibilities of use beyond the transmission of information by voice or by alphanumeric data. Selectively controlling the compression and speed of data transmission, the system allows the transmission of music. Music streaming allows a "Walkman ^" portable receiving device to receive only music. These P1316 / 96MX Broadcast Broadcasts may include, for example, a list of ten rock music hits for teens, or other combinations programmed by the broadcast facility. This special portable receiver has all the elements of the system described above, with the exception of the voice synthesizer 45 and the switch 46. The horn 38 is replaced by a headset headphones. The user interface 40 includes a button unit for selecting specific musical selections. The conditioned access circuitry 16 is programmed to receive only the type of musical selections that the user has contracted. In order to save energy and space, the memory 28 includes only sufficient random access memory (RAM) to store the required music playing time. A separate long-lived power source is incorporated to keep the tuner 12 active, the conditional access circuitry 16, the microcontroller 20 and the memory 28 to receive broadcast music when the user is not using the portable receiver. The decompression circuitry 39, the digital-to-analog converter 30 and the audio amplifier 36 are energized, in addition to the previously annotated elements (12, 16, 28 and 20), only when the user is listening to the music. He P1316 / 96MX tuner 12 is adapted to one of the transmission channels described above; the SAP, the Vertical Suppression Interval of a television channel, an active image television channel or an FM subcarrier transmission. For a broadcast medium, in addition to the transmission medium of the FM subcarrier data, the Separate Audio Program channel, the active television image area or the vertical television blanking interval, a specialized radio channel may be used. in accordance with the invention. An example of this specialized radio channel is dedicated to the cell phone channel. The cell phone system has a central transmitter in each cell that hosts thousands of telephone calls within its cell. One of the channels of each cell of this system can specialize to transmit the data to specialized receivers. A specialized channel addition may include a satellite transmission of the data. Since some subscribers can not have their receiving units turned on when certain data is transmitted, it is clear that the broadcast facility 50, 51 will update the database from time to time, even if in step 55 it has not been generated recently. new information The data for a news item in P1316 / 96MX may include a date and time code to indicate to the user the validity of the information. While the drawings have been shown and the preferred forms of the invention have been described, and because variations in the preferred form will be apparent to those skilled in the art, the invention should not be construed as limited to the specific form shown and described, but as set forth in the following claims.

P1 16 / 96MX

Claims (44)

1. NOVELTY OF THE INVENTION Having described the present invention, it is considered as a novelty and, therefore, the content of the following CLAIMS is claimed as property; A receiver adapted to receive data in a transmitted signal, characterized in that it includes: a tuner for extracting the data of the transmitted signal; a memory coupled to the tuner to store the extracted data; a user interface for providing a set of menus related to the data and for indicating selections of the menu set; a controller 20 coupled to the memory and to the user interface for selecting the memory data in response to the indicated selections and supplying the selected data; and a speech producing portion for converting the selected data into an analog signal.
2. 2. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that the data includes news, stock market information and music.
3. 3. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that the tuner is a tuner of P1316 / 96MX subcarrier of FM radio station.
4. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that the tuner extracts the data from a transmitted television signal carrier.
5. The device according to claim 4, characterized in that the tuner extracts data from a suppression interval of the television broadcast signal carrier.
6. The device according to claim 4, characterized in that the tuner extracts the data from an active image area of the television broadcast signal carrier.
7. The device according to claim 4, characterized in that the tuner is a separate tuner of audio programming channel.
8. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that the tuner is tuned to a cell phone channel.
9. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that the tuner is tuned to a satellite channel.
10. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that the data stored in the memory comprises a complete database.
11. 11. The device according to claim 10, Pl.il 6 / 9oMX characterized because the data includes elements to design a hierarchy for the database.
12. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that the memory comprises a volatile integrated circuit memory and a non-volatile storage.
13. The device according to claim 12, characterized in that the non-volatile storage is selected from the group consisting of a magnetic tape, a magneto-optical disk, a magnetic disk, an optical disk and a non-volatile integrated circuit memory.
14. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that the extracted data is digitized audio data.
15. The device according to claim 14, characterized in that the digitized audio data is compressed.
16. 16. The device according to claim 14, characterized in that the digitized audio data is encrypted.
17. 17. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that the extracted data is alphanumeric data.
18. 18. The device according to claim 17, characterized in that the speech producing portion includes a speech synthesizer to convert the data P1316 / 96MX alphanumeric in analog signal.
19. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that the extracted data is data that has been digitized, encrypted and compressed and further comprises a decoder coupled to the controller and the memory to provide access to the extracted data and the encryption of the extracted data.
20. The device according to claim 19, characterized in that the decryptor is enabled by a key device connected collectively to the decoder.
21. 21. The device according to claim 19, characterized in that the decoder is enabled by a key received by the tuner.
22. 22. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that the device includes decompression circuitry coupled to the memory to decompress the extracted data.
23. 23. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that the user interface is activated by voice.
24. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that the user interface includes: a manual input device capable of being mounted on a steering wheel, - and P131b / 9bMX a link from the manual input device to the controller.
25. 25. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that the user interface includes a control for determining the speed at which the speech producing portion emits the analog signal.
26. 26. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that the tuner includes a channel hopper tuning portion.
27. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that the speech producing portion comprises: a converter for converting the selected data into an analog signal; and an amplifier to amplify the analog signal.
28. 28. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that the receiver system is adapted to be connected to at least one antenna of a car radio.
29. 29. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that the controller stores the extracted data in a portion of the integrated circuit of the memory, up to the capacity of the integrated circuit portion, before transferring the extracted data to l 111b / 9bMX a portion. memory storage, wherein the storage portion is selected from the group consisting of a disk medium, a tape medium and a non-volatile integrated circuit memory.
30. 30. The device according to claim 29, characterized in that the tape means is a digital audio tape.
31. 31. The device according to claim 29, characterized in that the disk means is a magnetic disk.
32. 32. The device according to claim 29, characterized in that the disk means is an optical magnetic disk.
33. 33. The method according to claim 29, characterized in that characterized in that the disk means is an optical disk.
34. 34. A receiver for receiving a transmitted signal that includes compressed data, characterized in that it comprises: a tuner connected to receive, at an input terminal thereof, the transmitted signal and having an output terminal; a decoder having an input connected to the output terminal of the tuner and having an output terminal; Pl 316/96 X a user interface operatively connected to the decoder; a memory having an input port connected to the output terminal of the decoder and having an output port; a decompression unit having an input terminal connected to the output port of the memory and having an output terminal; and a converter having an input terminal connected to the output terminal of the decompression circuit and having an output terminal for supplying an analog signal.
35. 35. The receiver according to claim 34, characterized in that the output terminal for supplying an analog signal is a headset connection.
36. 36. The receiver according to claim 34, characterized in that it further comprises: a speech synthesizer circuit having an input terminal connected to the output port of the memory and having an output terminal; and a switch having two input terminals respectively connected to the output terminals of the speech synthesizer and the converter, the switch has an output terminal for supplying P1316 / 96MX an analog signal, and also has a control terminal operatively connected to the decoder.
37. 37. The receiver according to claim 34, characterized in that the decoder includes: access circuitry connected between the output terminal of the tuner and the input port of the memory and having a control terminal; and a microcontroller operatively connected between the control terminal of the access circuitry and the user interface.
38. 38. The receiver according to claim 34, characterized in that the receiver is configured as a portable receiver to receive musical selections.
39. 39. A method for receiving transmitted digital compressed data, characterized in that it comprises the steps of: tuning a broadcast signal that includes the digitized data; extract the digital data from the broadcast signal; decipher the extracted digital data; store the decrypted data, - access the portions of data stored in response to user commands, - P1316 / 96MX unzip the portions of the data to which you have access; and convert the decompressed data into an analog signal.
40. 40. A system for transmitting audio data characterized in that it comprises: a converter for converting audio information into digital data, - a compressor for compressing the audio data; an encryptor to encrypt digital audio data; an inserter for inserting encrypted digital data compressed into a transmission channel signal; a tuner to extract the digital data from the transmission signal; a memory for storing the extracted data, - a user interface for supplying the user with a set of menus describing the stored data; a controller selects the data from the memory in response to the selections of the menus; a decryptor to decrypt the selected data, - P1316 / 96MX a decompressor to decompress the selected data, - a converter to convert the digital data into analog audio data.
41. 41. A method for transmitting audio data, characterized in that it comprises the steps of: converting the audio data into digitized data; form menus for the selection of the particular element of the database, - compress the digitized audio data; encrypt the compressed data, - transmit a signal that includes the encrypted and compressed data, - extract the data from the transmitted signal, - store the extracted data; provide a set of menus for data access, - select the elements of the menu set; supply portions of the data stored in response to the selection of the elements; decipher the supplied portions of the stored data; decompress the decrypted data; Y P131 6 / 96MX convert the decompressed data into an analog signal.
42. 42. The method according to claim 41, characterized in that the transmission speed of the data varies in order to efficiently utilize the available bandwidth of the transmitted signal.
43. 43. The method according to claim 41, characterized in that it further comprises the steps of: supplying digitized alphanumeric data; encrypt the alphanumeric data; transmit encrypted alphanumeric data; and selecting the compressed data or the encrypted alphanumeric data.
44. 44. A method for transmitting alphanumeric data, characterized in that it comprises the steps of: converting the alphanumeric data into digitized data; form menus for the selection of particular segments of the data, - encrypt the digitized data; transmit the encrypted data; extract the encrypted data; extract data from the transmitted signal P1316 / 96MX store the extracted data; it provides a set of menus for accessing the data, - selecting the elements of the set of menus, - providing portions of the data stored in response to the selection of elements, - deciphering the supplied portions of the stored data; and convert the deciphered portions into analog signal. P1316 / 96MX SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A system and method of disseminating information that allows the user to listen to the specific content of information whenever and wherever they want. A radio or television receiver system receives the information from an FM subcarrier, a TV Vertical Suppression Interval transmission, an active television transmission image area, a separate television audio program transmission or a specialized radio channel and stores the information transmitted in a memory. The user interface allows the selection, from the memory, of the information stored through a set of menus that control a hierarchical database, to have access to the particular elements of the information. Typically, the system includes a RAM and / or a magnetic storage medium such as a digital audio tape, a magneto-optical minidisk, a magnetic disk or an optical disk, sufficient to store information of the audio output, for several hours. A decompression device accepts the compressed digital audio information elements that were accessed and transforms them into audible speech signals. The user interface is either a voice control or a single-position or multi-position switch that allows the P1316 / 96MX scan of the menu items and the selection of them. The system is also capable of transmitting alphanumeric data and converting this alphanumeric data into an audible form using a speech synthesizer. P1316 / 96MX