Television program scheduler for providing an indication to a user that a television program is about to start

DETAILED DESCRIPTION According to the present invention, there is provided a television program scheduler for providing an indication to a user that a television program is about to start, comprising: (a) a clock for keeping date and time; (b) inputting means for inputting information relating to a user selected schedule of at least one television program, wherein the information includes date and start time of the at least one television program; (c) a display for displaying at least a portion of the information; (d) control means for comparing the date and start time of the at least one television program to the date and time of the clock; and (e) indicating means for providing the indication to the user in response to the control means, the indication being initiated a pre-determined period of time before the start of the at least one television program.
The schedule information is preferably in the form of the newly adopted schedule codes of television programs which include date, start time and end time or start time and duration and channel.
Alternatively, the user can input the schedule information using a dedicated scheduling routine.
Still again, the television program scheduler can also include a microphone and speech recognition circuitry for receiving commands and information spoken by the user.
A typical pre-determined period of time before the start of a television program that the scheduler provides an indication to a user is in the range of 5-30 minutes.
However, this period of time can be set by the user according to his personal requirements.
The indication to the user that a scheduled television program is about to start can be through activating a buzzer or an LED or flashing the display.
The level of indication is preferably adapted as a function of time before the start of a scheduled television program to impress upon the user that start of a scheduled television program he wants to watch is approaching.
This can be achieved in one or more ways including increasing the rate of flashing of the display or the LED or increasing the sound emitted by the buzzer as the time kept by clock approaches the start time of a scheduled television program