A client-side intelligent device having background caching of web pages within
a digital television (DTV) system and method of same. The present invention includes
a digital television system having an intelligent device for interfacing with a
user/viewer and controlling the display of information on a display screen. The
intelligent device, in one embodiment, is a set-top-box, but could be any intelligent
electronic device or computer system. The set-top-box is configured to receive
a DTV signal (e.g., land based cable or digital satellite system) that includes
audio/visual information as well as data signals in a datacast format. The datacast
format includes web pages, e.g., in the HTML (hypertext markup language) format
of the world wide web. The DTV broadcasters support multiple channels of information
on which content providers can supply a domain of web pages on a periodic basis.
The present invention is able to display viewer-selected web pages on the DTV system.
An intelligent filter is used that modifies itself based on user behavior and user
preferences in terms of the web pages that a viewer routinely visits. The intelligent
filter is then used to identify certain web pages of the pages that are being broadcast
and these identified web pages are stored in a cache memory for later use by the
viewer. A second tuner can be used to poll multiple channels when updating the
cached contents. Cached web pages avoid broadcast latencies (due to periodic updating)
and thereby are displayed faster to the viewer.