Television chat system

• US 10,015,556 B2
• Filed: 11/03/2016
• Issued: 07/03/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Rovi Guides, Inc. (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rovi Guides, Inc. (Adeia Inc.)
• Inventors: DeWeese, Toby, McKissick, Pamela L., Thomas, William L., Ellis, Michael D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Saltarelli, Dominic D
• Application Number:
  US15/342,869
• Publication Number:
  US 20170142489A1
• Time in Patent Office: 607 Days
• Field of Search: 725 37- 51
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1818 Conference organisation arrangements, e.g. handling schedules, setting up parameters needed by nodes to attend a conference, booking network resources, notifying involved parties
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2408 Monitoring of the upstream path of the transmission network, e.g. client requests monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876; scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/254 Management at additional data server, e.g. shopping server, rights management server arrangements for maintenance or administration in data networks H04L41/00; network services using third party service providers H04L67/53
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2665 Gathering content from different sources, e.g. Internet and satellite
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4223 Cameras H04N23/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/431 Generation of visual interfaces for content selection or interaction; Content or additional data rendering
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/454 Content or additional data filtering, e.g. blocking advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4751 for defining user accounts, e.g. accounts for children
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4755 for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre retrieval personalisation and generation of user profiles for the retrieval of video data G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4756 for rating content, e.g. scoring a recommended movie
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4758 for providing answers, e.g. voting
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4786 e-mailing message switching systems, e.g. electronic mail systems H04L51/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/632 using a connection between clients on a wide area network, e.g. setting up a peer-to-peer communication via Internet for retrieving video segments from the hard-disk of other client devices broadcast-related systems characterised by transmission among terminal devices H04H60/80; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6581 Reference data, e.g. a movie identifier for ordering a movie or a product identifier in a home shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8173 End-user applications, e.g. Web browser, game
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 : Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8545 : for generating interactive applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/147 : Communication arrangements, e.g. identifying the communication as a video-communication, intermediate storage of the signals selecting H04Q
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 : Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A television chat system is provided that allows television viewers to engage in real-time communications in chat groups with other television viewers while watching television. Users of the television chat system may engage in real-time communications with other users who are currently watching the same television program or channel.

The system allows real-time communications in a chat group to be transmitted between users at user television equipment devices via a television distribution facility. The television chat system of the present invention permits users to join chat groups related to television programs, channels, or categories of programs that the user may be interested in. Real-time communications may be textual messages, audio communications, or video communications.

Claims

1. A method for providing chat groups in a chat system in which users at a plurality of user devices may communicate with one another in the chat groups, each user device being connected to a media asset distribution facility by a communications path, the method comprising:

transmitting programming that is displayed on a user device over one or more communication paths that connect with a media asset distribution facility;

generating for display, at a first user device, a listing of a plurality of currently available chat groups related to media assets, and an interface for participating in one of the plurality of currently available chat groups, the listing being transmitted from a remote storage device;

sending a chat request from a first user to a second user, while the first user is consuming the media asset;

determining that the second user is consuming the media asset currently being consumed by the first user;

in response to determining that the second user is consuming the media asset currently being consumed by the first user, generating for display to the second user the chat request from the first user; and

distributing real-time communications between each of the user devices for the first user and the second user in the chat group in real-time over the one or more communication paths.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating for display a first selectable option to join the chat group corresponding to one of the media assets;

generating for display a second selectable option to send a chat request to the users in the chat group.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

generating for display a third selectable option to block a chat request from the second user.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

receiving a set of names and/or addresses of a group of users;

generating for display a third selectable option to only allow chat requests from the group of users.

5. A system for providing chat groups in a chat system in which users at a plurality of user devices may communicate with one another in the chat groups, each user device being connected to a media asset distribution facility by a communications path, the system comprising:

control circuitry configured to;

transmit programming that is displayed on a user device over one or more communication paths that connect with a media asset distribution facility;

generate for display, at a first user device, a listing of a plurality of currently available chat groups related to media assets, and an interface for participating in one of the plurality of currently available chat groups, the listing being transmitted from a remote storage device;

sending a chat request from a first user to a second user, while the first user is consuming the media asset;

determining that the second user is consuming the media asset currently being consumed by the first user;

in response to determining that the second user is consuming the media asset currently being consumed by the first user, generating for display to the second user the chat request from the first user; and

distribute real-time communications between each of the user devices for the first user and the second user in the chat group in real-time over the one or more communication paths.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:

generate for display a first selectable option to join the chat group corresponding to one of the media assets;

generate for display a second selectable option to send a chat request to the users in the chat group.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:

generate for display a third selectable option to block a chat request from the second user.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:

receive a set of names and/or addresses of a group of users;

generate for display a third selectable option to only allow chat requests from the group of users.