METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR BROADCASTING WWW PAGES TO MOBILE RADIO DEVICES USING MODIFIED RDS (RADIO DATA SYSTEM) TECHNOLOGY

摘要

The present invention provides a system that transmits web pages using the Radio Data System (RDS) protocol. A web receiver is provided that can access the subcarrier data in an RDS signal and includes a display device for displaying and choosing web pages. Each radio station broadcasting in an area can have a selection of web pages (and these may be fully or partially common with, or different from, other radio stations) that can be accessed when tuning to that station. The web pages could include a local city web page with local weather, map, restaurant, entertainment, and service information, the broadcasting radio station could have an associated web page that gave information about the current entertainment being provided, or any desired web page. In one embodiment, the web receiver is primarily a read-only device that allows the user to choose between the fixed number of services/pages provided the available radio stations, i.e., the user cannot browse the web in the traditional fashion. This makes the web receiver particularly suitable for vehicular or other applications in which the user cannot be expected to actively interact with the device. The higher-resolution screen characteristic of web receivers makes it possible to display information such as maps and other graphics that would be impossible to show using a traditional alphanumeric RDS receiver. In addition to web pages, bytecode data, such as Java programming language applets, could also be delivered using this technology.