Abstract:
A screen interface for a communication device is provided. The screen interface includes a screen for displaying information. A control circuit controls the displaying of information. The control circuit controls the screen to have a first display mode in which the screen includes a first display section surrounding a second independently controllable display section.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention generally relates to a visual communication device and, more particularly, to an information display for a visual communication device. 
     BACKGROUND 
     As deregulation of the telephone industry continues and as companies prepare to enter the local telephone access market, there is a need to offer new and innovative services that distinguish common carriers from their competitors. This cannot be accomplished without introducing new local access network architectures that will be able to support these new and innovative services. 
     Conventionally, customer premises telephone and/or data connections contain splitters for separating analog voice calls from other data services such as ETHERNET transported over digital subscriber line (DSL) modems. ETHERNET is a registered trademark of Xerox Corporation. Voice band data and voice signals are sent through a communications switch in a central or local office to an interexchange carrier or Internet service provider. DSL data is sent through a digital subscriber loop asynchronous mode (DSLAM) switch which may include a router. The DSLAM switch connects many lines and routes the digital data to a telephone company&#39;s digital switch. 
     A major problem with this configuration is that interexchange carriers attempting to penetrate the local telephone company&#39;s territory must lease trunk lines from the local telephone company switch to the interexchange company&#39;s network for digital traffic. Furthermore, the Internet service provider must lease a modem from the local phone company in the DSLAM switch and route its data through the local phone company&#39;s digital switch. Thus, the local phone company leases and/or provides a significant amount of equipment, driving up the cost of entry for any other company trying to provide local telephone services and making it difficult for the interexchange companies to differentiate their services. Furthermore, since DSL modem technology is not standardized, in order to ensure compatibility, the type DSL modem provided by the local telephone company must also be provided to the end user in the customer premises equipment (CPE). Additionally, since the network is not completely controlled by the interexchange companies, it is difficult for the interexchange companies to provide data at committed delivery rates. Any performance improvements implemented by the interexchange companies may not be realized by their customers, because the capabilities of the local telephone company equipment may or may not meet their performance needs and/or desired Quality levels. Thus, it is difficult for the interexchange companies to convince potential customers to switch to their equipment or to use their services. These factors ensure the continued market presence of the local telephone company. 
     As part of this system, there is a need for improved architectures, services and equipment utilized to distinguish the interexchange companies&#39; products and services. An integral part of developing such new services is providing a customer with devices and interfaces to permit easy access to and utilization of the services. In addition, these devices must be provided to customers at an affordable cost. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     In order to provide an improved network, it is desirable for the interexchange companies to have access to at least one of the twisted-pair lines or alternate wireless facility connecting each of the individual users to the local telephone network before the lines are routed through the conventional local telephone network equipment. It is preferable to have access to these lines prior to the splitter and modem technology offered by the local service providers. By having access to the twisted-pair wires entering the customer&#39;s premises, interexchange companies can differentiate their services by providing higher bandwidth, improving the capabilities of the customer premises equipment, and lowering overall system costs to the customer by providing competitive service alternatives. 
     The new architecture may utilize a videophone and/or other devices to provide new services to an end user; an intelligent services director (ISD) disposed near the customer&#39;s premises for multiplexing and coordinating many digital services onto a single twisted-pair line; a facilities management platform (FMP) disposed in the local telephone network&#39;s central office for routing data to an appropriate interexchange company network; and a network server platform (NSP) coupled to the FMP for providing new and innovative services to the customer and for distinguishing services provided by the interexchange companies from those services provided by the local telephone network. 
     The video phone integrates a plurality of devices used to access multiple telephoning services. The device utilizes intelligent control circuitry that integrates several service access devices into one unit that has a user-friendly interface and flexible connectivity to the telephone network. The video phone creates an advantage by offering a flexible platform which gives the user the ability to place and receive phone calls while offering services that are advanced compared with traditional telephoning. Some of these services include: voice calls, video calls, voice recognition, bill paying, Internet access, advertising, e-mail, voicemail, videomail, operator services, debit card transactions, and alarm monitoring. The present invention provides systems and methods of displaying information to a customer using the videophone. In a particular implementation, the information displayed to the customer is advertising. Using revenues derived from the advertisers whose advertising is displayed to the customers, interexchange companies can offer videophones to their customers at a reduced cost. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The foregoing summary of the invention, as well as the following detailed description of preferred embodiments, is better understood when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which are included by way of example, and not by way of limitation with regard to the claimed invention. 
     FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of a hybrid fiber twisted pair local loop network architecture. 
     FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of an intelligent services director (ISD) consistent with the architecture shown in FIG.  1 . 
     FIGS. 3A and 3B illustrate an embodiment of a videophone consistent with the architecture shown in FIG.  1 . 
     FIG. 4A is a block diagram of an embodiment of a facilities management platform (FMP) consistent with the architecture shown in FIG.  1 . 
     FIG. 4B illustrates a block diagram of an embodiment of a network server platform (NSP) consistent with the architecture shown in FIG.  1 . 
     FIG. 5 illustrates an information display having first and second display sections in accordance with the present invention. 
     FIG. 6A illustrates an information display in accordance with the present invention in which advertising is displayed in the first display section and a user interface is displayed in the second display section. 
     FIG. 6B illustrates an information display in which the first display section is grown with respect to the first display section of FIG.  6 A. 
     FIG. 6C illustrates an information display in which additional information is displayed when the first display section is grown. 
     FIG. 7 illustrates an example of an information display in accordance with the present invention. 
     FIG. 8A illustrates a full-screen display which may be provided when a customer touches display portion  300   d  of FIG.  7 . 
     FIG. 8B illustrate a pop-up window which may be provided when a customer touches display portion  300   d  of FIG.  7 . 
     FIG. 9 illustrates another example of an information display in accordance with the present invention. 
     FIG. 10 illustrates an exemplary process by which information for the information display of the present invention is collected. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Referring to FIG. 1, a first exemplary communication network architecture employing a hybrid fiber, twisted-pair (HFTP) local loop  1  architecture is shown. An intelligent services director (ISD)  22  may be coupled to a central office  34  via a twisted-pair wire, hybrid fiber interconnection, wireless and/or other customer connection  30 , a protector block  26 , and/or a main distribution frame (MDF)  28 . The ISD  22  and the central or local office  34  may communicate with each other using, for example, framed, time division, frequency-division, synchronous, asynchronous and/or spread spectrum formats, but in exemplary embodiments uses DSL modem technology. The central office  34  preferably includes a facilities management platform (FMP)  32  for processing data exchanged across the customer connection  30 . The FMP  32  may be configured to separate the plain old telephone service (POTS) from the remainder of the data on the customer connection  30  using, for example, a tethered virtual radio channel (TVRC) modem (shown in FIG.  4 A). The remaining data may be output to a high speed backbone network (e.g., a fiber-optic network) such as an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switching network, The analog POTS data may be output directly to a public switch telephone network (PSTN)  46 , and/or it may be digitized, routed through the high speed backbone network, and then output to the PSTN  46 . 
     The FMP  32  may process data and/or analog/digitized voice between customer premise equipment (CPE)  10  and any number of networks. For example, the FMP  32  may be interconnected with a synchronous optical network (SONET)  42  for interconnection to any number of additional networks such as an InterSpan backbone  48 , the PSTN  46 , a public switch switching network (e.g. call setup SS7-type network)  44 , common backbone  58  via node routing complex  50  (e.g., AT&amp;T Worldnet Service Node Routing Complex including customer router  52 , channel service unit  54  and access router  56 ) and/or a network server platform (NSP)  36 . Alternatively, the FMP  32  may be directly connected to any of these networks. One or more FWPs  32  may be connected directly to the high speed backbone network (e.g., direct fiber connection with the SONET network  42 ) or they may be linked via a trunk line (e.g., trunks  40  or  42 ) to one or more additional networks. 
     The NSP  36  may provide a massive cache storage for various information that may be provided across the SONET network  42  to the FMP  32  and out to the ISD  22 . The NSP  36  and the FMP  32  may collectively define an access network server complex  38 . The NSP  36  may be interconnected with multiple FMPs  32 . Furthermore, each FMP  32  may interconnect with one or more ISDs  22 . The NSP  36  may be located anywhere but is preferably located in a point-of-presence (POP) facility. The NSP  36  may further act as a gateway to, for example, any number of additional services. 
     The ISD  22  may be interconnected to various devices such as a videophone  130 , other digital phones  18 , set-top devices, computers, and/or other devices comprising the customer premise equipment  10 . The customer premise equipment may individually or collectively serve as a local network computer at the customer site. Application applets may be downloaded from the NSP  36  into some or all of the individual devices within the customer premise equipment  10 . Where applets are provided by the NSP  36 , the programming of the applets may be updated such that the applets are continually configured to the latest software version by the interexchange carrier. In this way, the CPE  10  may be kept up to date by simply reloading updated applets. In addition, certain applets may be resident on any of the CPE  10 . These resident applets may be periodically reinitialized by simply sending a request from, for example, a digital phone  18  and/or a videophone  130  to the FMP  32  and thereafter to the NSP  36  for reinitialization and downloading of new applets. To ensure widespread availability of the new features made possible by the present architecture, the customer premise equipment may be provided to end users either at a subsidized cost or given away for free, with the cost of the equipment being amortized over the services sold to the user through the equipment. Additionally, the service provider may collect fees from advertisers to subsidize the cost of the equipment. 
     Referring to FIG. 2, the ISD  22  may connect with a variety of devices including analog and digital voice telephones  15 ,  18 ; digital videophones  130 , devices for monitoring home security (not shown), meter reading devices (not shown), utilities devices/energy management facilities (not shown), facsimile devices  16 , personal computers  14 , and/or other digital or analog devices. Some or all of these devices may be connected with the ISD  22  via any suitable mechanism such as a single and/or multiple twisted-pair wires fiber and/or a wireless connection. For example, a number of digital devices may be multi-dropped on a single twisted-pair connection. Similarly, analog phones and other analog devices may be multi-dropped using conventional techniques. 
     The ISD  22  may be located within the home/business or mounted exterior to the home/business. The ISD  22  may operate from electrical power supplied by the local or central office  34  and/or from the customer&#39;s power supplied by the customer&#39;s power company. Where the ISD  22  includes a modem, it may be desirable to power the ISD  22  with supplemental power from the home in order to provide sufficient power to enable the optimal operation of the modem. 
     As shown in FIG. 2, in some embodiments the ISD  22  may include a controller  100  which may have any of a variety of elements such as a central processing unit  102 , a DRAM  103 , an SRAM  104 , a ROM  105  and/or an Internet protocol (IP) bridge router  106  connecting the controller  100  to a system bus  111 . The system bus  111  may be connected with a variety of network interface devices  110 . The network interface devices  110  may be variously configured to include an integrated services digital network (ISDN) interface  113 , an ETHERNET interface  119  (for example, 28.8 kbps data, 56 kbps data, or ISDN or any other suitable bit rate service), an IEEE 1394 “fire wire” interface  112  (e.g., for a digital videodisc device (DVD)), a digital subscriber line (DSL) modem (e.g., a TVRC modem interface  114 ), a residential interface  115  (e.g., standard POTS phone systems such as tip ring), a business interface  116  (e.g., a T1 line and/or PABX interface), a radio frequency (RF) audio/video interface  120  (e.g., a cable television connection), and a cordless phone interface  123  (e.g., a 900 MHZ transceiver). Connected to one of the network interfaces and/or the system bus  111  may be any number of devices such as an audio interface  122  (e.g., for digital audio, digital telephones, digital audio tape (DAT) recorders/players, music for restaurants, MIDI interface, DVD, etc.), a digital phone  121 , a videophone/user interface  130 , a television set-top device  131  and/or other devices. Where the network interface is utilized, it may be desirable to use, for example, the IEEE 1394 interface  112  and/or the ETHERNET interface  119 . 
     A lifeline  126  may be provided for continuous telephone service in the event of a power failure at the CPE  10 . The lifeline  126  may be utilized to connect the ISD  22  to the local telecommunications company&#39;s central office  34  and, in particular, to the FMP  32  located in the central office  34 . 
     The ISD may be variously configured to provide any number of suitable services. For example, the ISD  22  may offer high fidelity radio channels by allowing the user to select a particular channel and obtaining a digitized radio channel from a remote location and outputting the digital audio, for example, on audio interface  122 , video phone  130 , and/or digital phones  121 . A digital telephone may be connected to the audio interface  122  such that a user may select any one of a number of digital audio service channels by simply having the user push a digital audio service channel button on the telephone and have the speaker phone output particular channels. The telephone may be preprogramed to provide the digital audio channels at a particular time, such as a wake up call for bedroom mounted telephone, or elsewhere in the house. The user may select any number of services on the video phone and/or other user interface such as a cable set-top device. These services may include any number of suitable services such as weather, headlines in the news, stock quotes, neighborhood community services information, ticket information, restaurant information, service directories (e.g., yellow pages), call conferencing, billing systems, mailing systems, coupons, advertisements, maps, classes, Internet, pay-per-view (PPV), and/or other services using any suitable user interface such as the audio interface  122 , the video phone/user interface  130 , digital phones,  121  and/or another suitable device such as a settop device  131 . 
     In further embodiments, the ISD  22  may be configured as an IP proxy server such that each of the devices connected to the server utilizes transmission control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP) protocol. This configuration allows any device associated with the ISD to access the Internet via an IP connection through the FMP  32 . Where the ISD  22  is configured as an IP proxy server, it may accommodate additional devices that do not support the TCP/IP protocol. In this embodiment, the ISD  22  may have a proprietary or conventional interface connecting the ISD  22  to any associated device such as to the set top box  131 , the personal computer  14 , the video telephone  130 , the digital telephone  18 , and/or some other end user device. 
     In still further embodiments, the ISD  22  may be compatible with multicast broadcast services where multicast information is broadcast by a central location and/or other server on one of the networks connected to the FMP  32 , e.g., an ATM-switched network. The ISD  22  may download the multicast information via the FMP  32  to any of the devices connected to the ISD  22 . The ISD  22  and/or CPE  10  devices may selectively filter the information in accordance with a specific customer user&#39;s preferences. For example, one user may select all country music broadcasts on a particular day while another user may select financial information. The ISD  22  and/or any of the CPE  10  devices may also be programmed to store information representing users&#39; preferences and/or the received uni-cast or multicast information in memory or other storage media for later replay. Thus, for example, video clips or movies may be multicast to all customers in the community with certain users being preconfigured to select the desired video clip/movie in real time for immediate viewing and/or into storage for later viewing. 
     Referring to FIG. 3A, a videophone  130  may include a touch screen display  141  and soft keys  142  around the perimeter of the display  141 . The display may be responsive to touch, pressure, and/or light input. Some or all of the soft keys  142  may be programmable and may vary in function depending upon, for example, the applet being run by the videophone  130 . The function of each soft key may be displayed next to the key on the display  141 . The functions of the soft keys  142  may also be manually changed by the user by pressing scroll buttons  143 . The videophone  140  may also include a handset  144  (which may be connected via a cord or wireless connection to the rest of the videophone and/or directly to the ISD), a keypad  150 , a video camera  145 , a credit card reader  146 , a smart card slot  147 , a microphone  149 , a motion and/or light detector  148 , built-in speaker(s)  155 , a printer/scanner/facsimile  152 , and/or external speakers  154  (e.g., stereo speakers). A keyboard  153  and/or a postage scale  151  may also be connected to the videophone  130 . A mouse, trackball, touchpad, etc. may also be provided as input devices, e.g., to interact with the user interface. Any or all of the above-mentioned items may be integrated with the videophone unit itself or may be physically separate from the videophone unit. A block diagram of the video phone unit is shown in FIG.  3 B. Referring to FIG. 3B, in addition to the items above, the video phone  130  may also include a signal processor  171 , high speed interface circuitry  172 , memory  173 , power supply  174 , all interconnected via a controller  170 . Among other functions, controller  170  serves to format the audio and video from the microphone and camera of videophone  130  in a suitable data format such as H.323. 
     When the videophone  130  is used as a video telephone, the display  141  may include one or more video window(s)  160  for viewing a person to whom a customer is speaking and/or showing the picture seen by the person on the other end of the video phone. The display may also include a display window  161  for displaying the identifier, phone number, IP address, etc. of a called (or addressed) party, a virtual keypad  162 , virtual buttons  163  for performing various telephone functions, service directory icons  165 , a mail icon  164 , and/or various other service icons  166  which may be used, for example, for obtaining coupons or connecting with an operator. Any or all of these items may be displayed as virtual buttons and/or graphic icons and may be arranged in any combination. Additionally, any number of other display features may be shown on the video phone in accordance with one or more of the applications incorporated by reference below. 
     Referring to FIG. 4A, the FMP  32  may coordinate the flow of data packets, separate voice signals from other signals, perform line monitoring and switching functions, and/or convert between analog and digital signals. The FMP  32  may process data sent from the CPE  10  to the central or local office  34  by separating and reconstructing analog voice signals, data, and control frames. The FMP  32  may process data sent from the central or local office  34  to the CPE  10  by separating control messages from user information, and configure this information into segments that for transport across the digital subscriber loop. The FMP  32  may also terminate the link layer associated with the digital subscriber loop. 
     In some embodiments, the FMP  32  may include an access module  70  and a digital loop carrier  87 . The access module  70  may include a line protector  71 , a cross-connector  73 , a plurality of TVRC modems  80 , a plurality of digital filters  82 , a controller multiplexer  84 , and/or a router and facilities interface  86 . The digital loop carrier  87  may include a plurality of line cards  96 , a time domain multiplexing (TDM) multiplexor (MUX)  88 , a TDM bus  90 , a controller  92 , and/or a facilities interface  94 . 
     During normal operations, digital signals on the customer connection  30  (e.g., twisted-pair lines) containing both voice and data may be received by the TVRC modems  80  via the line protector  71  and the cross-connector  73 . Preferably, the line protector  71  includes lightning blocks for grounding power surges due to lightning or other stray voltage surges. The TVRC modems  80  may send the digital voice and/or data signals to the controller multiplexor  84  and the digital filters  82 . The digital filters  82  may separate the voice signals from the digital data signals, and the controller multiplexor  84  may then multiplex the voice signals and/or data signals received from the digital filters  82 . The controller multiplexor  84  may then send multiplexed voice signals to the TDM MUX  88  and the data signals to the router and facilities interface  86  for transmission to one or more external networks. The TDM MUX  88  may multiplex the voice signals from the controller multiplexor  84  and/or send the voice signals to the TDM bus  90 , which may then send the digital voice signals to the controller  92  and then to the facilities interface  94  for transmission to one or more external networks. Both the router and facilities interface  86  and the facilities interface  94  may convert between electrical signals and optical signals when a fiber optic link is utilized. 
     When there is a failure of the digital data link (e.g., if there is a failure of the TVRC modems  80  at the FMP  32  or the TVRC modem  114  at the ISD  22 ), only analog voice signals might be sent over the subscriber lines  30 . In such a case, the analog voice signals may be directly routed to the line cards  96 , bypassing the TVRC modems  80 , the digital filters  82 , the controller multiplexor  84 , and the TDM MUX  88 . Thus, voice communication is ensured despite a failure of the digital data link. The line cards  96  may convert the analog voice signals into digital format (e.g., TDM format) and send the digitized voice data onto the TDM bus  90  and eventually through the controller  92  and the facilities interface  94  for transmission to one or more external networks. 
     Referring to FIG. 4B, the NSP  36  may be variously configured to provide any number of services provided by a server such as information services, Internet services, pay-per-view movie services, data-base services, commercial and advertising services, and/or other suitable services. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 4B, the NSP  36  includes a router  185  having a backbone  180  (e.g., a fiber distributed data interface (FDDI) backbone) that interconnects a management server  182 , an information/database server  183 , and/or one or more application server clusters  184 . The NSP  36  may be connected via the router  185  by a link  181  to one or more external networks, NSPs  36 , and/or FMPs  32 . The information/data base server  183  may perform storage and/or database functions. The application server cluster  184  may maintain and control the downloading of applets to the ISD  22 . The NSP  36  may also include a voice/call processor  186  configured to handle call and data routing functions, set-up functions, distributed operating system functions, voice recognition functions for spoken commands input from any of the ISD connected devices as well as other functions. 
     When screen  141  of videophone  130  is an inactive state, a full-screen display of, for example, advertising is presented as described in U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,574, filed Dec. 31, 1997, entitled “Advertising Screen Saver”, filed concurrently herewith. When screen  141  is placed in an active state by, for example, touching the screen, the display on the screen is changed to include a first display section and a second display section. With reference to FIG. 5, a first display section  300  includes portions  300   a,    300   b,    300   c,  and  300   d  which form a border or frame around second display section  302 . Second display section  302  constitutes the main display section and displays, for example, the user interface shown in FIG. 3A for accessing various services and further described in U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,905, filed Dec. 31, 1997, entitled “The VideoPhone” and filed concurrently herewith, and/or displays data from a data service requested by the subscriber (e.g., a television program, stock quotations, sports scores, etc.). First display section  300  displays other data such as advertising which may be related or unrelated to what is being displayed on second display section  302 . The data displayed in first display section may include text, graphics, and/or animations, as well as buttons or icons which solicit customer input. Thus, for example, icons or buttons of the different video and audio channels available for viewing and listening may be arranged in first display section  300  to permit the customer to easily and quickly change channels. 
     The size of the first display section  300  should be sufficient to permit the effective communication of data such as advertising to the subscriber. However, it is generally desirable that the size of first display section  300  should not adversely impact on the viewability of data (i.e., menus, video, etc.) displayed in second display section  302 . Bearing these considerations in mind, the particular dimensions of the first display section  300  are not critical to the present invention. Preferably, the size of first display section  300  is at least partly configurable by the user. For example, by dragging at a corner  310  between two adjacent border portions as suggested in FIG. 6A, the portions  300   a - 300   d  of first display section may be grown or shrunk. FIG. 6B shows the case in which the portions  300   a - 300   d  are grown relative to FIG.  6 A. In these cases of growth or shrinkage, the size of the data displayed in display portions  300   a - 300   d  may be increased, decreased, or remain the same. For example, the size of the alphanumeric characters comprising the text in display section  300  is increased in FIG. 6B relative to FIG.  6 A. Similarly, when first display section  300  is shrunk, the size of the data displayed in first display section  300  may be decreased. In an alternative implementation, the growing or shrinking of the first display section  300  results in the display of more or less data. That is, when first display section  300  is grown, data is added to first display section  300 . For example, in the case of text, lines of text may be added as can be seen by comparing the display of FIG. 6C to the display of FIG.  6 A. Similarly, when display section  300  is shrunk, data may be removed from first display section  300 . 
     While portions  300   a,    300   b,    300   c,  and  300   d  are shown in FIG. 5 as having the same thickness, the invention is not limited in this respect. For example, border portion  300   c  may have a thickness greater than the thickness of the other border portions so as to accommodate more lines of text, larger graphics and animations, and the like. If desired, display sections  300   a - 300   d  may be separately grown or shrunk. For example, by dragging one of the boundaries  305   a - 305   d  (see FIG. 5) between the respective display portions  300   a - 300   d  and the second display section  302 , the thickness of that particular display portion may be grown or shrunk. 
     Preferably, there are limitations on the degree to which first display section  300  may be grown or shrunk. That is, the customer is not permitted to shrink the border to be smaller than some predetermined border size. In this way, advertising or other information can be continuously displayed to the viewer, even while the customer is actively using some other feature of videophone  130 , e.g., a video call, watching a movie, etc. By continuously providing advertising while the customer is actively using some other feature, advertising revenue to the interexchange operators can be increased, thereby permitting the interexchange operator to provide the videophone to customers at a subsidized price or even for free. Alternatively, upon payment to the interchange operator, a suitable applet may be provided to videophone  130  to permit the customer to shrink first display region  300  so as to eliminate the border, if desired. 
     It will be apparent that there are an almost unlimited number of ways in which first display portion  300  may be utilized to communicate data such as advertising to the customer. While this invention is not limited to any particular one of these ways, several illustrative, but non-limiting, examples will now be described. In FIG. 7, the top and bottom display portions  300   a  and  300   c  contain information about the company and/or product being advertised. Display portion  300   d  provides a prompt which, when touched, immediately provides additional information regarding the product and/or company being advertised. This additional data may be presented as a full-screen window such as the window shown in FIG. 8A, which window may be closed by pressing “Done” button  801  or some other suitable prompt. Alternatively, a more limited display of the additional data may be presented using a pop-up window  901  as shown in FIG.  8 B. The alignment of pop-up window  901  (e.g., centered, upper left corner, lower right corner, etc.) is not critical. If desired, the customer can be provided with the capability of dragging pop-up window  901  to a desired display position. As with the full-screen window of FIG. 8A, the pop-up window of FIG. 8B may include a “Done” button or some other suitable prompt for closing the window. In addition, pop-up window  901  may include a “More” button or some other suitable prompt which may be touched to provide additional information (e.g., address, phone, store hours, etc.) by changing the text and/or graphics displayed in pop-up window  901 . The full-screen window of FIG. 8A may also be provided with a “More” button or some other suitable prompt for accessing additional information. 
     Display portion  300   b  of FIG. 7 may be touched to store information regarding the product and/or company being advertised for viewing at a later time. This information may be stored in memory  173  of videophone  130  or may, for example, be e-mailed to the customer. The user interface may be configured to permit the customer to access this stored information. 
     Referring to FIG. 9, each of the display portions  300   a - 300   d  respectively displays unrelated information. For example, display portion  300   a  may display stock information while display portion  300   c  may display sports score information. Display portions  300   b  and  300   d  may display advertising. 
     The information displayed in display portions  300   a - 300   d  in the above embodiments may be displayed for a predetermined period of time (e.g., 20 seconds) and then changed. Alternatively, one or more of these display portions may display information which scrolls in a particular direction, e.g., from left to right; from right to left; up and down; or any combination thereof. Of course, it will be appreciated that the system should be configured to present the information in first display section  300  in a manner which is not overly distracting or irritating to a customer who is watching a movie or otherwise focusing his/her attention on the display of the second display portion  302 . 
     FIG. 10 shows an illustrative, but non-limiting, example of service connectivity by an NSP to provide the data which is shown to customer in first display section  300 . In the method shown in FIG. 10, the data shown to the customer is based on a customer profile generated at startup showing his/her interests and preferences. This profile may be generated by the customer based on an identification of interests and preferences in response to various prompts via screen  141  of videophone  130 . The profile may also be generated by NSP  36  based on an analysis of customer habits (such as which services the customer frequently accesses) and of demographic data based on where the customer lives, the customer&#39;s occupation, etc. Such analysis may also be used by NSP  36  to modify or update a customer-created profile. NSP  36  comprises significant cache memory and can search for and collect information directly related to the customer profiles. When screen  141  is in the active state, some or all of the information that NSP  36  has collected for the customer is forwarded (or “pushed”) to screen  141  of videophone  130 . 
     With reference to FIG. 10, components of the system and service architecture are shown at the top including videophone  130 , intelligent services director (ISD)  22 , facilities management platform (FMP)  32  and network server platform (NSP)  36 . Info # 1   709  and Info # 2   711  are shown by way of example as one or more information service providers that the NSP  36  may access for information. Finally, by way of example, AT&amp;T information content servers as a group are shown as AT&amp;T Content Servers  713 . 
     At step  751 , videophone  130  performs system/service initialization. As mentioned above, there is a startup via a user interface applet which may be accessed, for example, by touching a customer profile icon. Then, the customer is presented with a user profile display or other input means for inputting information contents of interest to the customer. The contents ultimately may refer to channels whereby the information can be obtained, for example, stock market ticker, sports ticker channels, advertisements, product descriptions, etc. 
     At step  753 , the customer profile for selected contents (information channels) is transmitted via ISD  22  and FMP  32  for storage at NSP  36 . NSP  36  then either updates any previous user profile in memory or initializes the user profile in memory at step  755 . NSP  36  then, once the customer profile is known, can begin to search for relevant information at any and all information sources available on SONET ring network  42  (FIG.  1 ). An information receiver applet is provided to videophone  130  (step  757 ) and when screen  141  is in the active state, the applet is executed (step  759 ) and the information collected by NSP  36  is pushed to videophone  130  at step  771 . 
     Prior to pushing the information to videophone  130  at step  771 , NSP  36  collects information from various sources at steps  761 ,  763  and  765 . The access to the information source may be via private line, shared line, Internet or telephony channels. For example, at step  761  the information contents of Info # 1   709  relevant to the customer profile is downloaded and stored in cache memory of NSP  36  for subsequent pushing to videophone  130 . At step  763 , the information contents of Info # 2   711  relevant to the customer profile is downloaded and stored in cache memory of NSP  36 . Only two information sources are shown but many information sources may be queried and the query results downloaded to NSP  36 . Finally, via AT&amp;T or other Internet service provider, the respective information content servers may be queried for relevant information and provided to NSP  36 . These may include stock market tickers, sports tickers, news tickers, advertisements and the like of current interest. At either NSP  36  or videophone  130 , information filters may be used to only retrieve current data with respect to, for example, the stock portfolio or sports teams of interest to the user. Moreover, NSP  36  periodically updates the cache memory with newly received information relevant to the customer&#39;s profile. A new information source may appear on the Internet or as a telephone listing or a new sports or other channel may be identified to NSP  36  for polling. This is shown as step  767 . 
     In summary, then as shown at step  769 , NSP  36  caches contents from different sources (including from itself—for example—local directory listings and geographical location finding services). The NSP also polls contents from various sources to, for example, obtain updates or new information. When the screen is in an active state, the collected information is ordered and delivered to the customer user via an information push at step  771 . As noted above, the pushed information may be displayed for a predetermined period of time in the various display portions and then changed or the information may be scrolled in one or more of the display portions. 
     The following applications, filed concurrently herewith, are hereby incorporated by reference: 
     1. A Hybrid Fiber Twisted-pair Local Loop Network Service Architecture (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,360, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     2. Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation for use in the Hybrid Fiber Twisted-pair Local Loop Network Service Architecture (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,425, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     3. The VideoPhone (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,905, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     4. Video Phone Privacy Activator (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,909, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     5. VideoPhone Form Factor (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,583, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     6. VideoPhone Centrally Controlled User Interface With User Selectable Options (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,576, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     7. VideoPhone User Interface Having Multiple Menu Hierarchies (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,908, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     8. VideoPhone Blocker (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,353, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     9. VideoPhone Inter-com For Extension Phones (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,358, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     10. Advertising Screen Saver (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,574, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     11. Information Display for a Visual Communication Device (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,906, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     12. VideoPhone Multimedia Announcement Answering Machine (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,911, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     13. VideoPhone Multimedia Announcement Message Toolkit (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,345, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     14. VideoPhone Multimedia Video Message Reception (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,362, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     15. VideoPhone Multimedia Interactive Corporate Menu Answering Machine Announcement (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,575, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     16. VideoPhone Multimedia Interactive On-Hold Information Menus (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,356, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     17. VideoPhone Advertisement When Calling Video Non-enabled VideoPhone Users (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,361, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     18. Motion Detection Advertising (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,355, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     19. Interactive Commercials (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,578, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     20. Video Communication Device Providing In-Home Catalog Services (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,421, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     21. A Multifunction Interface Facility Connecting Wideband Multiple Access Subscriber Loops With Various Networks (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,422, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     22. Life Line Support for Multiple Service Access on Single Twisted-pair (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,343, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     23. A Network Server Platform (NSP) For a Hybrid Fiber Twisted-pair (HFTP) Local Loop Network Service Architecture (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,582, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     24. A Communication Server Apparatus For Interactive Commercial Service (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,344, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     25. NSP Based Multicast Digital Program Delivery Services (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,580, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     26. NSP Internet, JAVA Server and VideoPhone Application Server (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,354, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     27. NSP WAN Interconnectivity Services for Corporate Telecommuting (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,540, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     28. NSP Telephone Directory White-Yellow Page Services (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,426, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     29. NSP Integrated Billing System For NSP services and Telephone services (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,359, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     30. ISD and NSP Caching Server (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,419, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     31. An Integrated Services Director (ISD) For Overall Architecture (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,417, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     32. ISD/Video Phone (Customer Premises) Local House Network Network (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,418, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     33. ISD Wireless Network (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,363, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     34. ISD Controlled Set-Top Box (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,424, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     35. Integrated Remote Control and Phone (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,423, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     36. Integrated Remote Control and Phone User Interface (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,420, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     37. Integrated Remote Control and Phone Form Factor (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,910, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     38. VideoPhone Mail Machine (Provisional Application No. 60/070,104, filed Dec. 31, 1997) ; 
     39. Restaurant Ordering Via VideoPhone (Provisional Application No. 60/070,121, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     40. Ticket Ordering Via VideoPhone (Provisional Application No. 60/070,103, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     41. Multi-Channel Parallel/Serial Concatenated Convolutional Codes And Trellis Coded Modulation Encode/Decoder (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,342, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     42. Spread Spectrum Bit Allocation Algorithm (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,842, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     43. Digital Channelizer With Arbitrary Output Frequency (U.S. application Ser. No. 09/001,581, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     44. Method And Apparatus For Allocating Data Via Discrete Multiple Tones (U.S. application Ser. No. 08/997,167, filed Dec. 31, 1997); 
     45. Method And Apparatus For Reducing Near-End Cross Talk In Discrete Multi-Tone Modulators/Demodulators (U.S. application Ser. No. 08/997,176, filed Dec. 31, 1997). 
     While exemplary systems and methods embodying the present invention are shown by way of example, it will be understood, of course, that the invention is not limited to these embodiments. Modifications may be made by those skilled in the art, particularly in light of the foregoing teachings. For example, each of the elements of the aforementioned embodiments may be utilized alone or in combination with elements of the other embodiments.