Patent attributes
In one embodiment, a method of obtaining information associated with a television access device used in a television reception system, wherein the method is carried out in a control device that does not have direct access to the configuration information of the access device involves directing the access device to generate and communicate a signal to the control device suitable for driving a display, wherein the signal contains a visual representation of one or more successive video frames containing at least one or more of the following: a service provider logo, a VOD channel accessible by the access device, a broadcast channel accessible by the access device, a program content stored on the access device, an access device model identifier, a MAC address, a software version and a system time on a display; receiving the signal and storing a representation of the video frame; processing the video frame using optical character recognition (OCR) and pattern matching to extract information from the video frame; and storing the extracted information to a configuration database in the control device. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract.
