Patent ID: 7120924

Claim:
A hyperlinked annotation data reception system comprising: a tuner receiving a broadcast signal encoded with a plurality of mask data packets and a plurality of object data packets, each mask data packet corresponding to a particular video frame of a video program and including graphics data associated with a plurality of video objects in the particular video frame, the mask data packet including an identifier to an object mapping table included in a particular one of the plurality of object data packets, the object mapping table including an entry associated with each of the plurality of video objects in the particular video frame, each entry in the object mapping table referencing information data structures included in one or more of the plurality of object data packets, the information data structures including information for the corresponding video object; a video decoder extracting the mask data packets and object data packets from the broadcast signal; a display device; a memory storing the extracted mask data packets and object data packets; and a central processing unit in communication with said memory, wherein said memory stores a computer program for: determining whether each of the plurality of video objects is visible in the particular video frame; for each video object determined to be visible in the particular video frame, overlaying the graphics image on the corresponding video object; receiving a user selection associated with one of the overlaid graphics images; retrieving the identifier of the object mapping table from the mask data packet corresponding to the particular video frame responsive to the user selection; retrieving the object mapping table based on the retrieved identifier; locating the entry in the object mapping table for the video object associated with the user selection; identifying the information data structures referenced in the located entry; retrieving the information in the information data structures; and displaying the retrieved information on the display device.