CONSUMER INTERFACE FOR PROGRAMMING A DEVICE

A TELEVISION SYSTEM FOR RECEIVING A PLURALITY OF TELEVISION PROGRAMS INCLUDES A PROGRAMMING UNIT FOR CAUSING THE TELEVISION SYSTEM TO RECEIVE AND RECORD A PARTICULAR TELEVISION SHOW AIRED ON A GIVEN CHANNEL, AT A PARTICULAR TIME AND DATE IN ACCORDANCE WITH SCHEDULE DATA ENTERED BY A USER. THE TELEVISION SYSTEM INCLUDES A CONTROLLER (415R) FOR GENERATING THE ON-SCREEN DISPLAYS IN RESPONSE TO USER-ENTERED DATA. UPON COMPLETION OF A PROGRAMMING ENTRY, THE CONTROLLER CAUSES A DISPLAY OF A SUBSTANTIALLY GRAMMATICALLY CORRECT SENTENCE (210;310) SUMMARIZING THE ENTERED PROGRAMMING INSTRUCTIONS AND ACTING AS A CONFIRMATION SCREEN. IN ONE EMBODIMENT, THE CONFIRMATION SCREEN (300) IS INTERACTIVE IN THAT CERTAIN VARIABLES (325;335;350;380) WITHIN THE SENTENCE MAY BE MODIFIED BY THE USER TO CHANGE THE SENSE OF THE SENTENCE, AND THUS TO MODIFY THE PROGRAMMING INSTRUCTIONS.(FIGURE 2)