US 5,621,456 · Granted 1997-04-15

Apple's 1997 Blueprint for the Interactive TV Remote

Before smartphones ruled your living room, Apple patented a smart set-top box that acted as a traffic cop between your cable, TV, VCR, and other devices. You'd use a remote control with special buttons to browse categories, search programs, and jump between services—basically inventing the interactive TV guide that cable companies still use today.

Curated and verified by the IsItPatented Editorial team

The plain-English version

What it protects

The patent covers a hardware and software system for routing audio and video signals between multiple devices (cable, TV, VCR) through a central control unit called a transceiver. What's protected here is the specific architecture: a CPU-based module that decodes and encodes video, a switch that routes signals, optional CD-ROM storage, and the remote control interface with its button layout (categories button, info button, list button, arrow navigation, center select). Anyone building a similar middleman device that performs these switching and display functions would potentially infringe.

Why it matters

This patent captures Apple's early bet on the living room as a networked computing frontier. Filed in 1993 and granted in 1997, it represents the company's vision for interactive cable before the internet consumed that space. While the cable TV industry eventually evolved differently than Apple imagined, the patent's core insight—that a smart device sitting between content sources and displays needs intelligent software and a sophisticated remote interface—became foundational to how streaming boxes and smart TVs work today.

Real-world use

Every time you use a cable box or streaming device remote to browse program categories, see show info without changing channels, or jump between services, you're using interaction patterns this patent staked out decades before your phone became the remote.

Original USPTO abstract

An interactive audio-visual (A/V) transceiver is advantageously coupled to a television and/or telephone (T/T) cable, a TV, a video recorder (VCR), and other A/V devices. The A/V transceiver switches data between a program/service provider and the connected A/V devices. In one embodiment, the transceiver includes three primary modules, a main module including a CPU, a system bus, system memory, an infra-red (IR) control unit, an audio-visual bus, an A/V decoder, an A/V processor, and an A/V encoder, an A/V connect module including a number of tuner/demodulators and a switch, and an optional CD ROM module. The A/V transceiver hardware is complemented with an operating system and software program which supports the functions provided in the A/V user interface. Additionally, a remote control device is provided to communicate with the A/V transceiver to interactively manage selection of program and service sources, selection program and service offerings from any selected source, viewing of selected program offerings, and interaction with selected service offerings. The remote control device is advantageously provided with a basic A/V control button group, an interactive control button group, an auxiliary control button group and a numeric key pad to facilitate control of the transceiver. The interactive control button group includes an info button, a list button, a categories button, a pix button, a mark button, a jump button, and a pointing device consisting of up, down, left, and right arrow buttons, and a center select button.

Patent details

Publication number: US 5,621,456
Filing date: 1993-06-22
Grant date: 1997-04-15
Assignee: Apple Computer, Inc.
Inventor(s): FLORIN; FABRICE, BUETTNER; MICHAEL, COREY; GLENN, FRITSCHE; JANEY, MARESCA; PETER, MILLER; PETER, PURDY; BILL, SHARPE; STUART, WEST; NICK
CPC class: H04N7/15

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