Abstract:
A subscriber to a service will have the ability to order or request additional information on products that are being advertised. The service will have the ability to know which commercial is being aired in which subscriber initiated the request. The subscriber to the service upon viewing a commercial on a display terminal can click on the advertisement to alert the advertiser that the customer is interested in the item that is being advertised. Such interest may include, receiving an information pamphlet, receiving a coupon, and ordering the product directly from the manufacturer or distributor through a requisition request.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
     This invention relates to interactive commercials, and more particularly, to a communication server which helps provide for interactive commercial service. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     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. 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 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. 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. 
     One innovative service is for interactive commercials. Interactive commercials are commercials which allow consumers who are watching the commercial to either order the service or merchandise described in the commercial or obtain more information about the product or service. In order for interactive commercials to work, a system is needed which can determine what commercial the consumer is watching and then to match that consumer to that product so as to allow, for example, a manufacturer or retailer to contact the consumer regarding the product or service. It is an object of the present invention to provide such a system to facilitate interactive commercial services. 
     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 video phone 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 present invention introduces a novel concept for interactive commercials. A subscriber to the service will have the ability to order or request additional information on products that are being advertised. The service will have the ability to know which commercial is being aired in which subscriber initiated the request. 
     According to one embodiment of the present invention, a subscriber to the service upon viewing a commercial on a display terminal can click on the advertisement to alert the advertiser that the customer is interested in the item that is being advertised. Such interest may include, receiving an information pamphlet, receiving a coupon, and ordering the product directly from the manufacturer or distributor through a requisition request. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING 
     The novel features of the invention are set out particularly in the appended claims, but the invention will be understood more fully and clearly from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments of the invention as set forth in the accompanying drawings, in which: 
     FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of a hybrid fiber twisted pair local loop architecture. 
     FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of an intelligent services director consistent with the architecture shown in FIG.  1 . 
     FIGS. 3A and 3B illustrate an embodiment of a video phone consistent with the architecture shown in FIG.  1 . 
     FIG. 4A is a block diagram of an embodiment of a facilities management platform consistent with the architecture shown in FIG.  1 . 
     FIG. 4B illustrates a block diagram of an embodiment of a network server platform consistent with the architecture shown in FIG.  1 . 
     FIG. 5 illustrates a telephone network containing a communication server; 
     FIG. 6 is a block diagram of the communication server; 
     FIG. 7 illustrates the format of a TCP/IP message; 
     FIG. 8 is a flow chart depicting the interaction between the communication server and the television networks; and 
     FIGS. 9A and 9B are flow charts illustrating the operations of telephone networks according to one embodiment of the present invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     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 connector 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 ), and/or a network server platform (NSP)  36 . Alternatively, the FMP  32  may be directly connected to any of these networks. One or more FMPs  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 net  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. 
     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, 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 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  (e.g., for 28.8 kbs data, 56 kbs data, or ISDN), an IEEE  1394  “fire wire” interface  112  (e.g., for a digital videodisc device (DVD)), a TVRC modem interface  114  (e.g., for a digital subscriber line (DSL) modem), a residential interface  114 , (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 . 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 . 
     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 user 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 dialed-telephone-number window  161  for displaying the phone number dialed, 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 are transported 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 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 an 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. 
     FIG. 5 illustrates a telephone network which is configured to include the inventive communication server  226 . According to one embodiment, a subscriber unit  212  is provided as a set top device which is attached to a television  213 . The set top device  212  is also connected to a phone line  215  and can also be connected to a cable TV, a direct TV satellite, etc. In another embodiment of the present invention, the subscriber unit can be contained within a video telephone  216 . A detailed description of a video telephone can be found in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/001,905 entitled “Video telephone” which is being filed concurrently herewith, and is incorporated herein by reference. The subscriber unit for video telephone  216  is connected to the ISD  22  via a telephone line  215  or  217 , respectively. As noted above, the ISD  22  is connected to a facilities management platform  32  via a connection  30 . The facilities management platform  32  is connected to a sonet ring  42  to which the communication server  226  is connected. The communication server  226  is interconnected to a plurality of television broadcasting networks  228  where the communication server receives information about the advertisements that are being broadcasted on television stations. The connection  230  from the communication server to the television networks can be a low-speed data feed, since only small amounts of data are being transferred. 
     FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram of the communication server  226 . The communication server  226  comprises a communications processor or central processor  250 . The central processor  250  receives commercial information from the television networks  228  through a receiver/decoder  252 . The processor  250  then stores the received commercial information in a memory  256 . The communication server  226  receives information from the subscriber unit via the telephone network through the receiver/decoder  254 . The communication server  226  receives requests from the subscriber unit in the form of TCP/IP messages. FIG. 7 illustrates the format of a TCP/IP message, wherein the message  280  divided into two sections, a header section  282  and a data section  284 . The message sent by the subscriber unit is decoded by the receiver/decoder  254  to determine the type of request the subscriber has initiated, the identity of the subscriber, the channel that this subscriber is viewing, and the time that the request was initiated. According to one embodiment of the present invention, the identity of the subscriber is extracted from a source field in the header section of the message, while the request type and the channel and time are extracted from the data portion of the message. The communication server  226  also contains a transmitter  258  which is able to transmit information either to the subscriber unit or to a remote server  260 . The transmitter  258  is used to transmit messages to the subscriber unit or the remote messages based upon the request received from the subscriber. 
     The data that is sent from the television networks to the communication server  226  includes, but is not limited to, the identity of the advertisement, the time at which the advertisement was broadcasted, and the channel on which the advertisement was broadcasted. 
     The following example will serve to illustrate one embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 8, the communication server  226  regularly receives commercial information from at least one television network in step  300 . The communication server  226  then stores the received commercial information in step  302 . This process is regularly repeated so as to keep the commercial information stored in the communication server current. The communication server can also remove information from the storage means after a predetermined period of time. 
     According to the present invention, commercials are regularly displayed on a display device such as a video telephonee or a television which is attached to a set top device. The commercials are sent to the display device over the telephone network and are displayed on the display device in step  400  of FIGS. 9A and 9B. If a subscriber is watching a commercial for yellow widgets on channel  12 , for example, and wants to order or receive more information about yellow widgets, the subscriber selects the commercial using an actuation means in step  402 . According to one embodiment of the present invention, the actuation means can be a remote control device which sends signals to the set top device so as to create a subscriber request with respect to the commercial being displayed. In another embodiment of the present invention, the actuation means is simply a touch screen on the display device wherein the subscriber only needs to touch on the advertisement itself to create a subscriber request as illustrated in step  404 . 
     Once a subscriber request has been created, the request is transmitted to the communication server  226  through the telephone network in step  406 . The communication server  226  then decodes the subscriber request message to determine the subscriber&#39;s identity, the channel number that the subscriber was watching, i.e., channel  12  in our example, a time at which the subscriber request was initiated, and a message type indicating an identity of the subscriber request in step  408 . Once the message has been decoded, the processor in the communication server  226  then queries the database in its memory to determine the identity of the advertisement that was broadcasted by comparing the channel number and the time at which the advertisement was broadcasted with the channel number and time stored in the database in the memory of the communication server in step  410 . It will be understood by one skilled in the art that the database can also be contained in a memory outside of the communication server  226 . 
     If a match is not found in step  412 , a message can be sent back to the subscriber in step  426  and a message such as “additional information not available” can be displayed on the display device in step  428 . Once a match is found in step  412 , the identity of the advertisement can be extracted from the database and stored in a new location along with the subscriber request information. 
     Once a match is found, the communication server determines the action requested by the subscriber by analyzing the message type information contained in the subscriber request. For example, the subscriber can request more information on the product or the subscriber can indicate the desire to purchase the product. In step  416 , it is determined whether the subscriber has requested more information on the product. If it is determined that more information has been requested, the communication server checks the database to see if more information is available in step  418 . If more information is not available, a message is sent to the subscriber unit in step  426  and the message is then displayed on the display means in step  428  indicating that no additional information is available. However, if it is determined in step  418  that additional information is available, the additional information is sent to the subscriber unit in step  420  and the additional information is displayed on the display means in step  422 . The additional information can also include coupons which can be either printed by a printer attached to the display means or stored on a smart card by swiping the smart card through a smart card slot located on the display means. The system then determines whether there is a new subscriber request in step  424  and if there is a new request, the system returns to step  406 . 
     If it is determined in step  416  that more additional information was not requested, the communication server determines whether the subscriber wishes to purchase a product in step  430 . If the subscriber wishes to purchase a product, the communication server then determines whether the subscriber is in a financial database which can contain credit information or bank account information for direct debit processing of the purchase and shipping address information. If it is determined that the subscriber is in the financial database in step  432 , the subscriber&#39;s account is debited for the purchase in step  439 , and a purchase order is sent to the advertiser or a manufacturer or retailer who can fill the order in step  440 . If it is determined that the subscriber is not in the financial database, the communication server can send a payment authorization form to the requesting subscriber through the telephone network in step  434 . The subscriber can then fill in the form which is displayed on the display means in step  436  and can then send the completed form to the communication server in step  438 . The communication server can then send the purchase order to the advertiser or manufacturer or retailer to fill the order. 
     According to another embodiment of the present invention, individual advertizers can also send video advertisements to the communication server  226 . The communication server can then store the video advertisement with an identification code for later broadcast to individual or a plurality of video telephones or set tops. When the communication server sends the video advertisement to the video telephone or set top, the communication server stores the time at which the video advertisement is displayed. The communication server could also store a code which indicates the locations, i.e., the video telephones and/or set tops, where the video advertisement is displayed. If a subscriber request is generated for the video advertisement by the user selecting the advertisement, the subscriber request sent to the communication server  226  can contain the subscriber&#39;s identity, a time at which the subscriber request was initiated and a message type indicating an identity (or action requested) of the subscriber request. The communication server  226  can then compare the time at which the subscriber request was initiated with the time of display stored in the memory. If a match is found, then the communication server reacts as described above. It will be understood that advertisements received from the television networks can also be stored for future display by using the above described technique. 
     The present invention has several advantages. The present invention describes a novel system that can provide revenue to telephone companies who offer interactive advertisement services. The present invention lends itself to a simple implementation without having to extensively modify the infrastructure of the current telephone network. Such revenue could be in the form of a small fee charged for each order placed by a subscriber to the interactive service. Additionally, the new service will help to reduce the costs associated with advertising and marketing products. For example, manufacturers or distributors of a product will no longer require telephone operators to manually take orders from potential buyers. Instead, a list of potential customers can be generated and sent directly to the manufacturer or distributor by the service provider or the service provider could generate an electronic list and dispatch the orders directly to the manufacturer or distributor. 
     The following applications are being filed concurrently herewith and are incorporated herein by reference: 
     1. A Hybrid Fiber Twisted-pair Local Loop Network Service Architecture (Gerszberg 41-3-13); 
     2. Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation for use in the Hybrid Fiber Twisted-pair Local Loop Network Service Architecture (Gerszberg 42-4-14); 
     3. The VideoPhone (Gerszberg 43-9-2); 
     4. VideoPhone Privacy Activator (Gerszberg 44-10-3); 
     5. VideoPhone Form Factor (Gerszberg 45-114); 
     6. VideoPhone Centrally Controlled User Interface With User Selectable Options (Gerszberg 46-12-5); 
     7. VideoPhone User Interface Having Multiple Menu Hierarchies (Gerszberg 47-13-6); 
     8. VideoPhone Blocker (Gerszberg 79-38-26); 
     9. VideoPhone Inter-com For Extension Phones (Gerszberg 48-14-7); 
     10. Advertising Screen Saver (53-17); 
     11. VideoPhone Flexi View Advertising (Gerszberg 49-15-8); 
     12. VideoPhone Multimedia Announcement Answering Machine (Gerszberg 73-32-20); 
     13. VideoPhone Multimedia Announcement Message Toolkit (Gerszberg 74-33-21); 
     14. VideoPhone Multimedia Video Message Reception (Gerszberg 75-34-22); 
     15. VideoPhone Multimedia Interactive Corporate Menu Answering Machine Announcement (Gerszberg 76-35-23); 
     16. VideoPhone Multimedia Interactive On-Hold Information Menus (Gerszberg 77-36-24); 
     17. VideoPhone Advertisement When Calling Video Non-enabled VideoPhone Users (Gerszberg 78-37-25); 
     18. Motion Detection Advertising (Gerszberg 54-18-10); 
     19. VideoPhone Electronic Catalogue Service (Gerszberg 50-16-9); 
     20. A Facilities Management Platform For Hybrid Fiber Twisted-pair Local Loop Network, Service Architecture (Barzegar 18-56-17); 
     21. Multiple Service Access on Single Twisted-pair (Barzegar (16-51-15); 
     22. Life Line Support for Multiple Service Access on Single Twisted-pair (Barzegar 17-52-16); 
     23. A Network Server Platform (NSP) For a Hybrid Fiber Twisted-pair (HFTP) Local Loop Network Service Architecture (Gerszberg 57-4-2-2-4); 
     24. A Communication Server Apparatus For Interactive Commercial Service (Gerszberg 58-20-11); 
     25. NSP Multicast, PPV Server (Gerszberg 59-21-12); 
     26. NSP Internet, JAVA Server and VideoPhone Application Server (Gerszberg 60-5-3-22-18); 
     27. NSP WAN Interconnectivity Services for Corporate Telecommuters (Gerszberg 71-9-7-4-21-6); 
     28. NSP Telephone Directory White-Yellow Page Services (Gerszberg 61-6-4-23-19); 
     29. NSP Integrated Billing System For NSP services and Telephone services (Gerszberg 62-7-5-24-20); 
     30. Network Server Platform/Facility Management Platform Caching Server (Gerszberg 63-8-63-5); 
     31. An Integrated Services Director (ISD) For HFTP Local Loop Network Service Architecture (Gerszberg 72-36-22-12); 
     32. ISD and VideoPhone Customer Premise Network (Gerszberg 64-25-34-13-5); 
     33. ISD Wireless Network (Gerszberg 65-26-35-14-6); 
     34. ISD Controlled Set-Top Box (Gerszberg 66-27-15-7); 
     35. Integrated Remote Control and Phone (Gerszberg 67-28-16-8); 
     36. Integrated Remote Control and Phone User Interface (Gerszberg 68-29-17-9); 
     37. Integrated Remote Control and Phone Form Factor (Gerszberg 69-30-18-10); 
     38. VideoPhone Mail Machine (Attorney Docket No. 3493.73170); 
     39. Restaurant Ordering Via VideoPhone (Attorney Docket No. 3493.73171); 
     40. Ticket Ordering Via VideoPhone (Attorney Docket No. 3493.73712); 
     41. Multi-Channel Parallel/Serial Concatenated Convolutional Codes And Trellis Coded Modulation Encode/Decoder (Gelblum 4-3); 
     42. Spread Spectrum Bit Allocation Algorithm (Shively 19-2); 
     43. Digital Channelizer With Arbitrary Output Frequency (Helms 5-3); 
     44. Method And Apparatus For Allocating Data Via Discrete Multiple Tones (filed Dec. 22, 1997, Attorney Docket No. 3493.20096—Sankaranarayanan 1-1); 
     45. Method And Apparatus For Reducing Near-End Cross Talk In Discrete Multi-Tone Modulators/Demodulators (filed Dec. 22, 1997, Attorney Docket No. 3493.37219—Helms 4-32-18). 
     In addition, the following two patent applications are hereby incorporated by reference: 
     1. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/943,312 filed Oct. 14, 1997 entitled “Wideband Communication System for the Home,” to Robert R. Miller, II and Jesse E. Russell, and 
     2. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/858,170, filed May 14, 1997, entitled “Wide Band Transmission Through Wire”, to Robert R. Miller, II, Jesse E. Russell and and Richard R. Shively. 
     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.