I
`[11] Patent Number:
`[19]
`United States Patent
`
`Parsons
`[45] Date of Patent:
`
`9
`4 486,853
`
`Dec. 4, 1984
`
`[S4] APPARATUS FOR RECEIVING AND
`DISPLAYING CONTINUOUSLY UPDATED
`DATA
`
`4,138.735
`4,150,781
`4,247,759
`
`
`...................... 364/900
`2/1979 Allocca e! a].
`.
`.. 235/382
`4/1979 Silverman et a1.
`1/1981 Yuns et a1.
`235/381
`
`[75]
`
`Frederick G. Parsons, Arlington, Va.
`Inventor:
`.
`.
`.
`gelemet American, Inc., Alexandrla,
`[73] ASSIEHCC:
`a.
`21
`1. N .: 249830
`0
`’
`Apr. 1, 1931
`
`] App
`[
`[22] Filed:
`
`3
`................................................ GOGF 7/00
`Int. Cl.
`[51]
`. ................................................... 364/900
`52 US. Cl.
`E53% Field of Search _______________ 235/454, 380, 381, 332;
`371/49; 364”00‘ 900; 340/825.26, 142. 179/2
`DP; 370/71
`
`[561
`
`_
`References Cited
`U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
`
`6/1968 Epstein ........................... 340/825.26
`3,387,268
`2/1965 Saito ............... 381/14
`3,478,169
`
`.. 340/142
`3,611,294 10/1971 O'Neill
`3679832 7/1972 Halpern
`381/14
`
`. 340/825.26
`3,716,835
`2/1973 Weinberg
`
`8/1976 Cleveland et a1.
`.
`.. 179/2 DP
`3.976840
`3,999,042 12/1976 Silverman et a1.
`.
`...... 235/382
`
`9/1977 Forman et al.
`.
`4,048,619
`370/71
`., 364/200
`..........
`4,064,490 12/1979 Nagel
`
`4.066.910
`1/1978 Swift
`235/454
`1/1978 Ghorrnley .......
`.. 179/2 DP
`4,068,095
`
`4,112,369
`9/1978 Forman et a1.
`.
`370/71
`.......................... 364/200
`4,128,874 12/1978 Pertl et a],
`
`Primary Examiner—Charles R Atkinson
`Assistant Examiner—Mmhael R. Flemmg
`Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Mason, Fenwick & Lawrence
`[57]
`ABSTRACT
`.
`,
`.
`.
`Receiving and dlsplaying apparatus is disclosed for
`receiving a continuously transmitted stream of encoded
`data messages, whereby selected of the data messages
`t d'
`d t bl
`dd
`b1
`h
`,
`are 5 ore in an up :1 ea 5! a
`ressa e memory avmg
`a plurality of locations, one for each of the selected data
`messages. Each of the data messages has 1ts unique
`word 1dent1fy1ng the nature of the data message. In
`particular, the receiving and displaying apparatus in—
`cludes a temporary storage means wherein each data
`message and in particular, its identifying word is stored
`and means for comparing the temporarily stored identi-
`fying word with the identifying word of each of the
`data messages as presently stored within the locations of
`the addressable memory. The comparing means oper-
`ates to successively compare the temporarily stored
`identifying word with the identifying words as stored
`with each of the plurality of locations and if there is a
`match, for updating the matched location with the new
`data message and if a match is not made. to discard that
`incoming data message.
`
`39 Claims, 23 Drawing Figura
`
`ZYNGA EX. 1015
`
`

`

`US. Patent Dec. 4, 1984
`
`Sheet 1 of 16
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`US. Patent Dec. 4, 1984
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`US. Patent Dec. 4, 1984
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`US. Patent Dec. 4
`
`, 1984
`
`Sheet 4 of 16
`
`4,486,853
`
`F/6‘. 4A;
`
`FIG: 4B.
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`

`

`U.S. Patent Dec. 4, 1984
`
`Sheet50f16
`
`4,486,853
`
`EXECUTIVE PROGRAM
`
`I30
`
`['76. Z
`
` INITIALIZE
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`FOR KEY-
`
`STROKE
`
`
` UPDATES
`
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`
`SEQUENCE REGISTER
`
`
`
`

`

`US. Patent Dec. 4, 1984
`
`Sheet 6 of 16
`
`4,486,853
`
`FIG. 8A.
`
`SUBROUTINE PROG
`
`'50
`
`I62
`
`PROG ROUTES
`PROGRAM SEQUENCE
`BASED UPON KEYSTROKE
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`

`US. Patent Dec. 4, 1934
`
`Sheet7of 16
`
`4,486,853
`
`FIG. 8B.
`
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`
`[66
`
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`

`

`US. Patent Dec. 4, 1984
`
`Sheet80f16
`
`4,486,853
`
`FIG. 86'.
`
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`
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`
`

`

`US. Patent Dec. 4, 1984
`
`Sheet9of 16
`
`4,486,853
`
`F/G‘. 8E.
`
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`

`

`US. Patent Dec. 4, 1984
`
`Sheet 10 of 16
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`US. Patent Dec. 4, 1984
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`US. Patent Dec. 4, 1984
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`

`US. Patent Dec. 4, 1984
`
`Sheet 14 of 16
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`4,486,853
`
`FIG. /0A.
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`

`

`U.S. Patent Dec. 4, 1984
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`Sheet 15 of 16
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`

`1
`
`4,486,853
`
`APPARATUS FOR RECEIVING AND DISPLAYING
`CONTINUOUSLY UPDATED DATA
`
`BACKGROUND AND OBJECTS OF THE
`INVENTION
`
`5
`
`15
`
`20
`
`Buying and selling securities and other investments
`typically requires constant attention to prices, news
`information, and recommendations of large securities
`1‘10
`firms and investment advisory services. News 0
`changes in recommendations issued by large institutions
`tend to affect prices within several days of the an—
`nouncement. Private investors typically have contacted
`their securities firm or their stock broker for price,
`news, and recommendations. This method, while satis—
`factory, was time consuming and sometimes difficult,
`since Stockbrokers typically have many clients to serve.
`and spend a large portion of their day selling securities
`rather than brokering information.
`Individually, private investors have access to per—
`sonal quotation devices such as the Marketline terminal,
`US. Pat. No. 3,716,835, (Weinberg et al, 1973). The
`Marketline system consists of a central processor facil-
`ity which collects securities information from the ex—
`changes and interfaces this information to a number of 25
`terminals via standard telephone lines. The terminals
`have a cradle for a telephone handset, and a means for
`coupling data from the handset to display and from the
`terminal keyboard to the central processor. The sub-
`scriber to this system dials a private telephone number
`and enters, via the keyboard, a password to obtain secu-
`rities information.
`Another patent, US. Pat. No. 3,976,840, (Cleveland
`et al, 1976) describes a similar terminal identified as a
`portable securities selector system. This terminal pro-
`vides not only for securities information to be elicited
`but also for transactions to be automatically executed by
`an investor from a conventional telephone. Once again,
`the investor dials a private telephone number and enters
`via a keyboard, a password to obtain securities informa—
`tion.
`
`30
`
`35
`
`45
`
`50
`
`55
`
`Both of these systems suffer from the drawback that
`the subscriber must be near a telephone. Moreover, in
`order for the phone not to be busy when a subscriber
`requests information or wishes to execute transactions,
`the system must use a large number of telephone lines at
`its central processing facility. This increases the expense
`of the service to the subscriber. In addition, the sub-
`scriber cannot maintain connection to the service since
`this will tie-up phone lines and the processor, and be
`quite expensive to the subscriber.
`A number of patents have attempted to solve the
`problem of telephone connection to the central proces-
`sor. US. Pat. No. 3,387,268, (Epstein, 1968) discloses a
`“quotation monitoring unit",
`in which continuously
`updated stock trading transaction information is trans-
`mitted over a communications channel from a central
`location, so that a plurality of portable radio receivers
`referred to as "tapewatcher apparatus" respond to
`transmitted data regarding a “predetermined number of 60
`subscriber selected stocks" to display the relevant stock
`market information. This system suffers from the disad—
`vantage that the system sends “rnultiplicities of essen—
`tially chronologically arranged stock trading transac—
`tions” to the owner of the terminal. In this case, the
`owner would have to continuously monitor the commu-
`nications channel in order to obtain proper quotations
`of a security. Moreover, if a security did not trade early
`
`65
`
`2 .
`in the day, an owner could conceivably be without the
`information for the better part of the day. In addition,
`the quotation mointoring unit had no provisions for
`security, therefore it was difficult to provide subscrip-
`tion services.
`An alternative form of the above is shown in US
`Pat. No. 3,611,294, (O‘Neill, 1971). This patent discloses
`a somewhat similar concept, which specifically refers to
`continuous transmission or broadcasting of stock mar-
`ket information in encoded form, to be received by a
`plurality of broadcast receivers, each of which is pro-
`vided with a “decoding attachment", or a completely
`self—contained receiver-decoder which transfers subse-
`quently received information to a suitable readout dis-
`play upon receipt of a predetermined identity message.
`In this system, each receiver is coded by identification
`coad wheels to establish an identity coad for a particular
`stock, and when information is received by AM, FM or
`PM transmission regarding that stock, a shift register
`identifies the coad for the particular stock and provides
`an output pulse producing the display of the message
`regarding the stock price, etc. However,
`this system
`suffers from a number of disadvantages. Due to the
`design of the decode wheels/decoder attachment, a
`particular securities price is present at the output (dis-
`play) only when the decoder wheels are set to that
`security. Subscribers to this service must wait for the
`transmission of information on the security of interest
`before it is displayed. They must wait for a correlation
`between the identity code for a particular security and
`the receipt of a predetermined identity message. This
`wait may be several minutes ifa large number of securi-
`ties are transmitted and private investors are apt to be
`impatient.
`US Pat. No. 4,112,369, (1978) represents a later ver-
`sion of a radio broadcasting system for transmitting, on
`FM, continuously updated stock data regarding securi-
`ties and commodities. The “portable receiver terminal"
`includes a tuned FM receiver and a keyboard for enter-
`ing a password to identify a particular subscriber. A
`“keyboard" is generated to decode the received data
`regarding particular stocks to store the date for future
`use or to be displayed. The keyword is generated using
`an identification number stored in the terminal. When a
`subscriber desires to display broadcast information re—
`garding current stock market prices, etc., or selected
`stocks, he enters a “unique password" in his keyboard
`which is combined with the identification number to
`generate a “keyword“ which decodes the received
`binary data and produces an output display of the stock
`market data. This system is advantageous in that the
`identification number stores in the device must be com-
`bined with the password entered on the keyboard in
`order to form the keyword; passwords cannot be shared
`among subscribers. However, it suffers from the disad-
`vantage that each receiver terminal must have a unique
`identification number stored in it. These terminals do
`not lend themselves to mass production and are there-
`fore more expensive to produce than terminals not pre-
`wired with such numbers. Moreover, passwords and
`terminals are uniquely connected adding additional
`complications to inventory control, terminal distribu—
`tion. and subscription accounting of the service. The
`subscriber has the added inconvenience of entering his
`password on the keyboard whenever he turns on the
`unit to request information.
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`3
`
`SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
`
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`It is an object of this invention to receive a stream of
`encoded data comprising a plurality of data groups and
`for selectively identifying the data messages to be fur-
`ther processed.
`It
`is a more particular object of this invention to
`provide a new and novel receiving and displaying appa-
`ratus that is capable of storing a limited number of data
`messages and yet is capable of receiving a stream of a
`larger number of encoded data messages and for select-
`ing those of particular interest to be stored and subse-
`quently displayed by the apparatus.
`It is a particular object of this invention to provide
`new and novel receiving and displaying apparatus that
`a user may carry with him/her, and use to receive and
`display data messages of particular interest to the user,
`while discarding those data messages that are being
`continuously transmitted but which are not of interest
`to the user.
`In accordance with these and other objects of the
`invention, the subject invention comprises apparatus for
`receiving a continuously transmitted stream of encoded
`data messages, wherein selected of the data messages
`are stored in an updateable, addressable memory having
`a plurality of locations, one for each of the selected
`messages. Each of the data messages has its unique
`word identifying the nature of the data message. In
`particular. the receiving and displaying apparatus in-
`cludes a temporary storage means wherein each data
`message and in particular, its identifying word is stored;
`the temporarily stored identifying word is compared by
`a comparison means with the identifying word of each
`of the data messages as presently stored within the loca~
`tions of the addressable memory. The comparing means
`operates
`to successively compare the temporarily
`stored identifying word with the identifying words as
`stored with each of the plurality of locations and if there
`is a match, for updating the matched location with the
`new data message and if a match is not made, to discard
`that incoming data message.
`In a further aspect of this invention, the receiving and
`displaying apparatus is adapted to receive an encoder
`card having a stored manifestation thereon in the form
`of a keyword that permits the user to gain access to the
`transmitted stream of data messages. In one embodi-
`ment of this invention, it is contemplated that the con-
`tinuous stream of an encoded data messages is transmit-
`ted with alike keyword that is matched to the keyword
`stored within the decoder card and if a match is made,
`the receiving and displaying apparatus is enabled to
`receive and decode the transmitted stream of data mes-
`sages. In an alternative embodiment,
`the continuous
`stream of data messages is transmitted with various bits
`of each data message reordered;
`the decoding card
`includes a data manifestation permitting the reordering
`or restructuring of the transmitted messages so as to be
`intelligible to the receiving and displaying apparatus.
`In a still further feature of this invention, the decoder
`cards may illustratively comprise a series of bars and
`spaces, at least one of which is transmissive or reflective
`to radiation to be sensed so that the receiving and dis-
`playing apparatus may readout from the decoding card
`the keyword to be stored thereby. In one embodiment,
`a protective layer is disposed over that layer comprising
`the spaces and bars, the protective layer being opaque
`to radiation in the visual range thus rendering the spaces
`and bars unintelligible. In an alternative embodiment,
`
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`the spaces and bars are made variously reflective or
`transmissive, and nonreflective or nontransmission to
`radiation whereby a distinction between the spaces and
`bars may be observed.
`In a still further feature of this invention, the receiv-
`ing and displaying apparatus includes a classifier, which
`comprises an array or set of switches that may be selec—
`tively preset to provide a manifestation to be compared
`with a character contained within the transmitted
`stream of encoded messages and if a comparison is
`made, to enable the receiving and storing apparatus to
`receive the data stream or more specifically, a part of
`the data stream in the form of a promotional message. In
`this manner. selected parts of the data stream may be
`only received by those apparati that have been preset to
`receive that message.
`BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
`
`These and other objects and advantages of the pres-
`ent invention will become more apparent by referring
`to the following detailed description and drawings. in
`which:
`FIGS. 1A and 1B show respectively a functional
`block diagram of the manner in which data from a plu-
`rality of sources are encoded and encrypted to be trans-
`mitted to the receiver/display devices of this invention,
`and a flow diagram of the manner in which data from
`the plurality of sources as identified in FIG. 1A are
`assembled and continuously transmitted;
`FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of the receiver/-
`display device in accordance of the teachings of this
`invention;
`FIG. 3 is a detailed, schematic drawing of the ele-
`ments of the receiver/display device as more generally
`shown in FIG. 2;
`FIGS. 4A and 4B are respectively a plan view of the
`housing for the receiver/display device as shOWn in
`FIGS. 2 and 3 including the keyboard configuration,
`and a sideview thereof;
`FIGS. 5A and 5B are plan views of opposite sides of
`a matrix de-encryption card to be inserted within the
`housing of the receiver/display device as shown in
`FIG. 4A to permit de-encryption of the transmitted
`message;
`FIGS. 6A and 6B are respectively a perspective view
`and a cross-sectional view of a further embodiment of a
`de-encryption card to be used in conjunction with the
`receiver/display device of this invention;
`FIG. 7 is a high-level flow diagram of the executive
`program to be stored within the programmable read
`only memory (PROM) as shown in FIG. 3;
`FIGS. 8A through 81 are detailed flow diagrams of
`the FROG routine as generally shown in FIG. 7 for
`controlling the interpretation of the actuation and se—
`quence of actuation of the keys of the keyboard as
`shown in FIGS. 2, 3 and 4A; and
`FIGS. 9, and 10A and 108 show respectively a high-
`level flow diagram and a lower order flow diagram of
`the interrupt routine for checking and updating ofinfor-
`mation as stored within the RAMs of the receiver/dis-
`play device of this invention in response to the recep-
`tion of each data character in the interface as shown in
`FIG. 3.
`
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`DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE
`INVENTION
`
`Referring to the drawings, wherein like reference
`characters designate corresponding parts throughout
`
`

`

`5
`the several figures, FIG. 1 illustrates the flow ofinvest-
`ment information from their primary sources 10 to sub-
`scribers in possession of hand-held devices 20 of the
`present invention for receiving, decoding and display-
`ing the transmitted data, illustratively investment infor-
`mation. Information from the floor of the exchanges
`and/or one or more securities firm is relayed to a cen-
`tral processor, generally designated by the numeral 12.
`The sources of data includes as illustratively shown in
`FIG. 1 a source 10a of information such as last traded of
`the high and low prices of securities traded on the New
`York Stock Exchange (NYSE), a source 100 of recom-
`mendations on a variety of investment vehicles, such as
`stocks, options, and futures, a source 10b of option
`prices and a source 10c of commodity prices. This infor-
`mation is stored in data file of memory 12a and encoded
`and encrypted by apparatus 12b in a data format which
`allows the data to be compressed. The data so com-
`pressed can be sent more rapidly than it normally would
`using standard communication encoding. Next, the en-
`crypted and encoded data is applied to a serial inter—
`face/modulator 14 before being transmitted over a
`transmission line 15 in. a serial fashion to a broadcast
`station 16. Illustratively, the data storage file 1211, the
`encoding and encrypting circuit 12b. and serial inter-
`face/modulator 14 may take the form of a Digital
`Equipment Corporation (DEC) PDP—l 1/34A processor
`with DEC‘s 8-16 line asynchronous serial
`interface
`model DZ-ll multiplex serial communication interface
`and a frequency shift keying (FSK) modulator as manu~
`factured by Western Electric Company under their
`designation No. 202.
`Illustratively, interface/modula-
`tor 14 frequency shift keys a carrier on the transmission
`line 15 illustratively taking the form of a C2 conditioned
`private line. The model 202 modulator is capable of
`frequency shift keying at a frequency in the range of
`1,100 and 2200 Hz, thus providing a baud rate in the
`order of 1800 bps on the private C2 conditioned trans-
`mission line and at a baud rate of 1200 bps on switched
`(dial-up) connections and unconditioned lines. Though
`.not shown in FIG. 1A, tuned filters at 1100 and 2200 Hz
`are used illustratively to intercouple the transmission
`line 15 with its interface/modulator 14 and with the
`broadcast 16 to eliminate noise likely to be present on
`the transmission line 15. It is contemplated that level
`control would not be necessary since such private trans-
`mission lines and noise levels are relatively constant
`compared to their switched counterparts. As is well
`known in the art,
`the transmission line 15,
`if imple-
`mented as a private line, would logically include a four
`wire line permitting independent paths between the
`interface/modulator 14 and the broadcast station 16.
`Thusl the path going from the broadcast station 16 to
`the interface/modulator 14 include market information
`and news features either direct from a broker service or
`from the New York Stock Exchange. By contrast the
`path from the broadcast station 16 to the interface/-
`modulator 14, may be operative at a baud rate in the
`order of 300 to 1800 bps and would include the informa-
`tion to be broadcast to and received by the broadcast
`station 16. Though not shown in the drawings,
`the
`broadcast station 16 includes a demodulator, illustra-
`tively taking the form of a Model 202, as by Western
`Electric Co., for demodulating the signal transmitted
`over the transmission line 15.
`In turn, the broadcast
`station 16 transmits the demodulated signal by fre-
`quency shift keying (FSK). As illustrated in FIG. 1A,
`the security data as broadcast from the broadcast station
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`16 are received by each of the plurality of remote recei»
`var/display devices 20.
`As illustrated in FIG. 18, data is transmitted from the
`broadcast station 16 in serial fashion to each of the
`receiver/display devices 20 in continuous fashion. The
`data is taken from the various sources 10 as shown in
`FIG. 1A and is assembled into a message block 13 com-
`prised of the stock prices disposed in a first message 13a
`in a second message 131) and future prices arranged in a
`third message 13c. In particular, each message of the
`message block 13 comprises a series of data submes-
`sages, each submessage describing one security, whose
`type may be a stock, stock option or commodity future,
`followed by a submessage describing another security.
`Thus,
`the message block 13 illustratively compiles a
`string of submessages divided into three message types
`13a, b, and c as shown in FIG. 13. As will be explained
`below, it is contemplated that a promotional message
`(not shown in FIG. 18) may be disposed as the first
`message and serve to faciliate the decoding of the entire
`message block 13. The message block 13 is repeatedly
`transmitted as a loop by the broadcast station 16. while
`at the same time the data as derived from the sources 10
`is applied to the data file storage 12a to update the
`information contained in the message block 13. Thus, as
`prices change upon the exchange of interest,
`the
`changed price information is inserted into the message
`block 13 and thereafter rebroadcast as the loop 17 to
`provide a subscriber operating his receiver/display 20
`with current information. Thus, continuous repetition
`and updating has the ad vantage that the subscriber need
`not operate his receiver/display 20 continuously to
`receive timely investment information. Instead, a sub-
`scriber may activate at his discretion his receiver/dis-
`play device 20, wait no more than several minutes, and
`obtain any high, low, last trade price, or any other infor-
`mation on his investments.
`As will be described, the receiver/display device 20
`of this invention is capable of being selectively pro-
`grammed to process only those securities in which its
`subscriber is interested. More specifically,
`the recei-
`ver/display device 20 is capable of extracting from the
`repetitously transmitted loop 17 of message blocks 13,
`the data submessages corresponding to those securities
`which the subscriber has programmed his device 20 to
`receive and display. The remaining securities in which
`the subscriber has no interest are merely ignored and
`thus a subscriber is spared tedious waiting while the
`information of interest to him is being unnecessarily
`displayed.
`It is a significant feature of this invention to reduce
`the average time to access any of the information as
`obtained from the stock exchanges, option exchanges or
`future exchanges. The access time is dependent upon
`the format of the data words in which the information
`identifying the securities, options an futures is set out as
`well as the number of such stocks, options and com-
`modities that are transmitted in each block 13.
`In an illustrative embodiment of this invention, the
`stock prices as shown in the message 130 may be en-
`coded by the apparatus l2b as shown in FIG. 1A in the
`following manner. The code proposed is an 8 bit code
`plus parity bit and one start and one stop bit, making 11
`bits per character. Using such encoded characters, secu—
`rity data may illustratively include high, low and last
`quotations on approximately 1000 NYSE securities. If
`news has occurred, a special character is sent which sets
`a news flag. Special characters also transmit data re-
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`4,486,853
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`7
`garding broker recommendations. The format of the
`stock price message 130 of the block 13 may illustra-
`tively include:
`
`AB .
`
`.
`
`. IXIin§WY|Y1Y3
`
`where
`. I is up to five upper case, set of alpha charac-
`.
`AB .
`ters which denote the security’s ticker symbol
`xlxz are two bytes of numeric code which contain
`the latest trade price. The X; LSN denotes the
`fraction, if any in 16ths
`115v? one or more special character bytes coded to
`set flags and provide security recommendations of
`the broker and/or investment advisor
`Y1Y2Y3 are three bytes which contain the difference
`between the last price and high. and the difference
`between the last price and the low for the trading
`day.
`. I for stocks are upper case
`The ticker symbols AB . .
`alpha characters and will correspond to ticker symbols
`on the exchanges. Each alpha character may take the
`form of a one byte code. The last price X1X2 is encoded
`into two bytes immediately following the ticker sym-
`bols. With two bytes,
`last
`trade price data from 0
`through 999 15/16 can be transmitted. Last trades over
`999 15/16 may be coded by dropping the 10005 place
`(e.g. 11015 coded as 101$, 1112& as 112; etc). The two
`bytes may be coded as nibbles, each nibble read as a
`power of ten, save the last one which will be read as
`16ths. The data in the two bytes is decoded by reading
`the second byte (X1) as a number between 0 and 9
`(MSN) and the numerator of a fraction 0 to 15 (LSN).
`The first byte X1 is read as the tens and hundreds power.
`In this manner, the MSN of byte 1 becomes the 1005
`place. the LSN of byte 1 the tens place, the MSN of
`byte 2 the ls place and the LSN of byte 2 the fraction
`0/16 through 15/16. Most ofthe time on the NYSE. the
`fractions are quoted in 8ths. however once in a while
`16ths are used. Options are quoted in 16ths more fre-
`quently.
`The special characters ngv‘y are used to give the
`investor information concerning recommendations on
`the equity and news alert, if news has occurred on the
`security. The first character (11) is the news alert charac—
`ter and is also used as a limiter between the last price
`and the high and low offsets. A716 may be used to indi-
`cate news, on a security. A815 may be used to indicate
`no news. A916 may be used to indicate no trades on the
`security. The second, third and fourth special charac-
`ters refer to the broker or investment adviser, and their
`recommendations for the security. For example. each of
`the four special characters corresponds to:
`n=news/no news byte (A7, A8 or A9)
`E: vendor code for recommendation
`v=long term gains recommendation
`y = income recommendation
`The final three bytes of a given stock submessage
`give the high and low offset from the last price data
`X1X2. The offsets are added to and subtracted from the
`last price part of the stock message to form the high and
`low for the day. There are several ways that this infor-
`mation could be encoded in three bytes. The principal
`criterion used to judge the most acceptable method
`would be how easily it could be dec