Patent ID: 6937289

Claim:
A method for delivering and storing control data for an interactive device using a horizontal overscan portion of a video signal, the method comprising the steps of: receiving the video signal during a transmission session, the transmission session comprising a plurality of frames, wherein the plurality of frames defines a program that is displayed to a viewer during the transmission session; extracting control words from the horizontal overscan portion of the video signal, each control word comprising a plurality of data bits, the plurality of data bits defining a sequence code and the control data, the sequence code facilitating error grading, each control word that includes the same control data also having the same sequence code; where for each control word, the method further comprises the steps of: using the sequence code to determine an error grade for the control word; and determining if the control word is already stored in the interactive device; and if not, storing the control word in the interactive device; else storing the control word having a higher quality as indicated by the error grade in the interactive device, and discarding the control word having a lower quality as indicated by the error grade; and following the transmission session, when the program is no longer being displayed to the viewer, performing a behavior defined by the control data of each control word stored in the interactive device.