System to Enhance Television Viewing by Merging Television and the Internet

摘要

Disclosed is a system comprising: a control unit including a software application for detecting programming being displayed on a television, the software application further providing a graphical user interface to enable a viewer to obtain information about a selected object of interest appearing in the programming being displayed by the television; an inquiry server in communication with the control unit, the inquiry server configured to receive a viewer inquiry about the selected object of interest, and retrieve information about the selected object of interest in response to the viewer inquiry; an information server in communication with the inquiry server.