Apparatus for controlling a television receiver using a plurality of stored labels

DETAILED DESCRIPTION In accordance with the present invention, apparatus is provided for controlling a television receiver to select a television channel corresponding to a preassigned channel number.
The apparatus includes a read-only memory for storing a plurality of labels, and a programmable memory for storing at least one channel number.
An operator-actuated control generates a first signal comprising a data set representative of one of the labels and a channel number to be associated therewith.
A processor receives the first signal, and responsive thereto, causes the programmable memory to store the channel number as corresponding to the one label.
The operator-actuated control further generates a second signal comprising a data set representative of the one label independent of the channel number.
Upon receiving the second signal, the processor retrieves from the programmable memory the channel number and generates an output control signal corresponding to the channel number.
In one embodiment of the invention, each of the labels is stored in the read-only memory as one of an ordered series of predetermined ROM address.
The programmable memory includes a plurality of RAM addresses, each of the RAM addresses being capable of storing one of the channel numbers thereat.
The programmable memory also stores a marker bit value for each of the ROM addresses, and upon receipt of the first signal, the processor causes an activated value to be stored for the marker bit corresponding to the ROM address for the one label.
The processor then counts the number of the activation values corresponding to the ROM addresses preceding the label and stores the channel number at the RAM address corresponding to the count.
Upon receipt of the second signal, the processor retrieves the corresponding channel number by counting the number of activation values corresponding to the ROM addresses preceding the one label and retrieving the channel number from the one of the RAM addresses corresponding to the count