Patent ID: 6195090
Filing Date: 2001-02-27
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
An interactive sporting event monitoring system for facilitating monitoring of a live sporting event wherein spectators at the sporting event can identify one or more contestants by contestant identifiers, each of a plurality of the one or more contestants having a radio transmitter on a distinct transmitting frequency for transmitting audio information to a data receiving station, the data receiving station comprising a plurality of radio receivers wherein each radio receiver is tuned to a corresponding contestant's radio transmitter, wherein each radio receiver's audio output is digitized and digitally tagged with the corresponding contestant identifier, the interactive sporting event monitoring system comprising:tuning means for selecting a television channel, the television channel comprising one or more channels of sporting-event audio information, wherein each of the one or more channels of sporting-event audio information is encoded with a corresponding channel identifier distinguishing that channel from other channels;detecting means for detecting the one or more channels of sporting-event audio information on the television channel, the detecting means being for associating each of the one or more channels of sporting-event audio information with its corresponding channel identifier, each channel identifier including a corresponding contestant identifier and each of the one or more channels of sporting-event audio information including audio information of the contestant identified by the corresponding contestant identifier;a user input adapted to accept a user-specified channel identifier from a user, the user-specified channel identifier specifying a channel of sporting-event audio information that the user desires to monitor; andmonitoring means for placing the channel of sporting-event audio information that the user desires to monitor in a format to facilitate monitoring thereof by a user.