Abstract: A system and method for providing specified electronic commerce services to users, in particular e-Logistics services, services which are available in the marketplace from a variety of service providers whose electronic commerce systems are incompatible. There is provided a user/customer interface to the specified electronic commerce services, called a Common Alliance Interface, and a distinct interface for service providers of the specified electronic commerce services. Between the two interfaces is a business process layer which integrates one or more components of the specified electronic commerce services, these integrated components thereby being transparent to users. The service provider obtains access to users of the Common Alliance Interface by updating entries in a UDDI registry. There is further provided a service template which the service provider can modify to provide an adaptation layer between their legacy application and the business process layer.

Abstract: A method (and structure) of querying one or more Web-based data sources, includes receiving a compound query statement having at least one first-level query and at least one aggregation operator. An aggregation operator is determined which applies to each first-level query. Each aggregation operator can be either explicit or implicit. An implicit aggregation operator is an aggregation operator defining a default aggregate operation if no explicit aggregation operator is present.

Abstract: A method (and structure) of querying one or more Web-based data sources, includes receiving a query statement including at least one query, parsing the input query to identify a target data source for each query, and dispatching each query to a respective one of the data sources for a target data source search.

Abstract: A network capable of providing rich media presentations includes a network server and a client station. The network implements HotMedia architecture to transmit the presentation including non-linkable media from the server to the client station. The server transmits the presentation as a streaming file in a framework of frames including a header frame, thumbnail frame, meta frame, media frame and end-of-stream frame. The client station includes an action enabling kernel and a client master module. The action enabling kernel contains a table lookup of action triggering inputs and consequent action commands for hotlinking. The master module controls a selection process of the various types of media involved in the presentation and provides a signal to the action enabling kernel to provide an appropriate action handler to the server. When a media frame is encountered the master module checks to determine that a media object has been created to handle the media frame.

Abstract: An apparatus is provided for an interactive television commerce environment, acting as a central point of control and information for enabling and facilitating information distribution and transactions in this environment. The apparatus is an essential element of an interactive television (ITV) commerce system, and enables the introduction of interactive commerce services in cable, satellite, and other broadcast networks. Other services provided include interfacing with off-line interactive ads, historical review and tracking services for users, and providing feedback and ITV ad modification capabilities to advertisers. The apparatus, residing at a local head end, can also add to or modify ads by inserting content of local relevance.

Abstract: An interactive TV contextual content surfing method, system and program product enables viewers to surf from one related program to another through hyperlinking. A TV broadcast station receives interactive TV program content generated by creators. The content is categorized by the creator and provided to the broadcast station in the MPEG or web-streaming video/audio formats. A broadcast server stores a dynamic table of correspondence between TV program categories and TV channel numbers. The hyperlinking information contains a list of channels that broadcast the same nature of programs by referencing the correspondence table. The server broadcasts the hyperlinking information to the list of channels. The broadcast network carries the TV programs and associated classification information in separate channels to the local TV station for retransmission to TV devices including set-top boxes.

Abstract: An interactive TV content creation tool imports video and other assets, including WebPages, Java script, etc., as a series of resources for interactive TV content creation for real time audience estimation and program ratings. A processing system embeds hyperlinks into one or more objects contained in a program frame as desired. Each hotlink has attributes. These attributes include shape, name, description and Z-order. The hotlink can have one of several shapes, including rectangle, ellipse and parallelogram. The hotlink types are included in an object tree which is displayed in a window to a creator. A hotlink type is selected in the hotlink tree, and a window displays a linked properties tab available for the selected object. There are several link types available; linking to a URL, another interactive TV content file, a video clip, an audio clip, an image, or a tracking action and transaction action. There are different parameters for different actions. One parameter is a tracking script.

Abstract: An improved method and apparatus are disclosed for selectively inserting interactive content into a live TV or recorded broadcasting presentation and tracking the usage of the inserted content by end user viewers of the presentation. The method and apparatus enable operators to watch the live audiovisual programming feed, view and navigate product lists from e-commerce servers, control the insertion of interactive content into the audiovisual programming, monitor the content insertion status, and track the usage by client viewers of the inserted content in real time. It is especially useful for interactive e-commerce applications.

Abstract: A method for indicating the location of time dependent video hot links to a user, comprising the steps of: displaying a motion video presentation on a first portion of a display device, the video presentation including a hot link region which can be selected by a user to link to different content; displaying an indication of the presence of the hot link region in the video presentation. The method may comprise the further step of altering a visual attribute of at least a portion of the hot link region when a user manipulable cursor is within the first portion. The method may comprise the further step of displaying an indication of the presence of the hot link region in the video presentation on a second portion of the display screen.