Parental control for CATV converters

[54] PARENTAL CONTROL FOR CATV CONVERTERS

[75] Inventor: John J. Hayes, Chesapeake, Va.

[73] Assignee: RCA Corporation, Princeton, N.J.

[21] Appl. No.: 829,242

[22] Filed: Feb. 14,1986

[51] Int. a* H04H 1/02; H04N 7/00

[52] U.S. CI. 455/4; 455/131;

455/26.1; 358/349; 358/86

[58] Field of Search 455/4, 131, 1, 26.1,

455/181, 186, 151; 380/20; 358/86, 349

[56] References Cited

U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS

4,348,696 9/1982 Beier 358/349

4,375,651 3/1983 Templin et al 455/186

4,425,579 1/1984 Merrell 455/186

4,510,623 4/1985 Bonneau et al 455/181

Primary Examiner—Jin F. Ng

Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Paul J. Rasmussen; Peter M. Emanuel; Richard G. Coalter

[57] ABSTRACT

A controller in a CATV converter provides three operating modes comprising: (1) a family viewing mode in which conversion of selected channels is blocked; (2) an enter access code mode for selecting the channels to be blocked from family viewing; and (3) a parental control mode in which all channels may be viewed. The family viewing mode is enabled by turn-on of the converter or by commands by the user or the CATV system operator. The enter access code mode is initiated by a user command. The parental control mode is enabled by user entry of a valid access code or when a new access code is created while in the enter access code mode.

9 Claims, 12 Drawing Figures

PORTION OF CONVERTER MEMORY STORING
LIST OF BLOCKED CHANNELS. ONE
BIT IS ALLOCATED FOR EACH CHANNEL

THE NUMBER IN EACH CELL REPRESENTS
THE CHANNEL NUMBER ASSOCIATED WITH
THAT BIT POSITION.

BIT = 1: CORRESPONDING CHANNEL BLOCKED

BIT = 0: CORRESPONDING CHANNEL NOT BLOCKED

FIG. 3

PORTION OF CONVERTER MEMORY STORING
THE ACCESS CODE. CODE IS STORED
AS FOUR BINARY CODED DECIMAL (BCD)
DIGITS.