Collaborative annotation of multimedia content

• US 10,248,931 B2
• Filed: 06/23/2008
• Issued: 04/02/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/23/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Amento, Brian Scott, Harrison, Christopher, Stead, Larry
• Primary Examiner(s): Ng, Amy
• Assistant Examiner(s): Muhebbullah, Sajeda
• Application Number:
  US12/144,418
• Publication Number:
  US 20090319885A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,935 Days
• Field of Search: 715230, 715233, 715719, 715723
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A method for collaborative annotating of a program of multimedia content includes enabling a first user to create a program annotation, enabling the first user to store annotation data, and enabling a second user to access the annotation data. The second user may navigate the program using the annotation and/or view the annotation while viewing the program. The first user may create the annotation while viewing the program, for example, by asserting an annotation button on a remote control device. The annotation may include the frame that was displayed when the user created the annotation, text, audio, an image, or video selected by the viewer. The annotations include chronological information indicative of a chronological location of the annotation within the program. The annotations may include “rating annotations” indicating the author'"'"'s subjective rating of a portion of the program that is in chronological proximity to the annotation'"'"'s chronological location.

Claims

1. A data processing system comprising:

a processor; and

a computer readable storage medium accessible to the processor and including processor executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations including;

generating annotation data indicative of an annotation responsive to detecting an annotation request from a first user viewing a program wherein the annotation includes a rating indicating either an approval or disapproval of proximal content, wherein the proximal content comprises content within a time period to the chronological location of the annotation;

receiving, from the first user, a collaboration group request indicative of a first collaboration group defined by the first user, wherein the first collaboration group includes a second user and wherein the collaboration group request includes information indicative of the second user;

maintaining first group data including first collaboration group annotations created by any member of the first collaboration group;

receiving, from the second user, a compound annotation criteria including first and second annotation criterion, wherein satisfaction of the first annotation criterion requires an approval density exceeding a threshold density and wherein satisfaction of the second annotation criterion requires a disapproval density exceeding the threshold density, wherein the approval density indicates a density of ratings approving the content and wherein the disapproval density indicates a density of ratings disapproving the content and further wherein satisfaction of the compound annotation criteria indicates proximal content satisfying the first annotation criterion and the second annotation criterion simultaneously;

identifying chronological locations in the program satisfying the compound annotation criteria;

receiving, from the second user, a navigation request indicating a particular one of the chronological locations identified; and

responsive to the navigation request from the second user, navigating to the particular one of the chronological locations identified.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein navigating to the particular one of the chronological locations comprises navigating to a first encountered of the chronological locations identified.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein detecting the annotation request includes:

detecting the first user asserting an annotation button on a remote control device while the first user is viewing the program.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the annotation criteria further include an annotation content criterion indicating an aspect of content in the program.

5. A method supporting collaborative annotations for a program of multimedia content, wherein the annotations are shared by a plurality of users in an annotation group, the method comprising:

receiving, from a first user, a collaboration group request indicative of a first collaboration group defined by the first user, wherein the first collaboration group includes a second user and wherein the collaboration group request includes information indicative of the second user;

responsive to an annotation request from the first user annotating a program, generating, by an application server, annotation data indicative of an annotation, wherein the annotation is associated with a selected chronological location within the program and further wherein the annotation includes a rating indicative of either an approval or disapproval of proximal content, wherein the proximal content comprises content within a time period to the chronological location of the annotation;

maintaining first group data including first collaboration group annotations created by any member of the first collaboration group;

responsive to the second user requesting the program, providing, by the application server, the second user access to the first group data;

receiving, from the second user, a compound annotation criteria including first and second annotation criterion, wherein satisfaction of the first annotation criterion requires an approval density exceeding a threshold density and wherein satisfaction of the second annotation criterion requires a disapproval density exceeding the threshold density, wherein the approval density indicates a density of ratings approving the content and wherein the disapproval density indicates a density of ratings disapproving the content and further wherein satisfaction of the compound annotation criteria indicates proximal content satisfying the first annotation criterion and the second annotation criterion simultaneously;

identifying chronological locations in the program satisfying the compound annotation criteria;

receiving, from the second user, a navigation request; and

responsive to the navigation request from the second user, navigating to a particular one of the chronological locations identified.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the annotation includes an image indicative of a frame of the program displayed when the user annotated the program.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the annotation includes content selected by the first user from:

text, an audio segment, an image, and a video segment.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein navigating to the particular one of the chronological locations comprises navigating to a first encountered of the chronological locations identified.

9. The method of claim 5, further comprising, generating the annotation request responsive to the first user asserting an annotation button on a remote control device.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein creating the annotation includes creating a chat annotation including text generated by the first user.

11. The method of claim 5, wherein the particular annotations comprise the disapproval rating annotations.

12. A collaborative annotation method, comprising:

receiving, from a first user, a collaboration group request indicative of a first collaboration group comprising a plurality of users defined by the first user, wherein the first collaboration group includes a second user and wherein the collaboration group request includes information indicative of the second user;

maintaining first group data including first collaboration group annotations created by any member of the first collaboration group, wherein each of the first collaboration group annotations includes a rating indicating either an approval or disapproval of proximal content, wherein the proximal content includes content within a time period to the chronological location of the annotation;

receiving, from the second user, a compound annotation criteria including first and second annotation criterion, wherein satisfaction of the first annotation criterion requires an approval density exceeding a threshold density and wherein satisfaction of the second annotation criterion requires a disapproval density exceeding the threshold density, wherein the approval density indicates a density of ratings approving the content and wherein the disapproval density indicates a density of ratings disapproving the content and further wherein satisfaction of the compound annotation criteria indicates proximal content satisfying the first annotation criterion and the second annotation criterion simultaneously;

identifying chronological locations in the program satisfying the compound annotation criteria;

receiving, from the second user, a navigation request; and

responsive to the navigation request, advancing the program of multimedia content to a particular one of the chronological locations identified.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising, enabling a third user to define the plurality of users.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising enabling the first user to navigate the program of multimedia content by the annotations.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising enabling the first user to send the annotation to a selected recipient for use in viewing the content.

16. A method, comprising:

generating annotation data responsive to detecting an annotation request from a first user viewing a program wherein the annotation data is indicative of an annotation and a rating, wherein the rating indicates either an approval or disapproval of proximal content, wherein the proximal content includes content within a time period to the chronological location of the annotation;

receiving, from the first user, a collaboration group request indicative of a first collaboration group defined by the first user, wherein the first collaboration group includes a second user and wherein the collaboration group request includes information indicative of the second user;

maintaining first group data including first collaboration group annotations created by any member of the first collaboration group;

receiving, from the second user, a compound annotation criteria including first and second annotation criterion, wherein satisfaction of the first annotation criterion requires an approval density exceeding a threshold density and wherein satisfaction of the second annotation criterion requires a disapproval density exceeding the threshold density, wherein the approval density indicates a density of ratings approving the content and wherein the disapproval density indicates a density of ratings disapproving the content and further wherein satisfaction of the compound annotation criteria indicates proximal content satisfying the first annotation criterion and the second annotation criterion simultaneously;

identifying chronological locations in the program satisfying the compound annotation criteria;

receiving, from the second user, a navigation request indicating a particular one of the chronological locations identified;

responsive to the navigation request from the second user, navigating to the particular one of the chronological locations identified.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the annotation includes an image indicative of the content displayed when the first user generated the annotation request.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the annotation includes content selected from:

text, an audio segment, an image, and a video segment.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the annotations include chronological information indicative of a chronological location within the program.