Linking and browsing media on television

• US 10,382,837 B2
• Filed: 12/11/2015
• Issued: 08/13/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/06/2006
• 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: Gorti, Sreenivasa, Nadarajah, Dinesh, Lowrie, Peter
• Primary Examiner(s): Sams, Michelle L
• Application Number:
  US14/966,132
• Publication Number:
  US 20160100231A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,341 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/08 Monochrome to colour transformation
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/10 Mixing of images, i.e. displayed pixel being the result of an operation, e.g. adding, on the corresponding input pixels
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/38 Arrangements for distribution where lower stations, e.g. receivers, interact with the broadcast
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/93 which locates resources of other pieces of information, e.g. URL [Uniform Resource Locator]
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/33 Arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4725 using interactive regions of the image, e.g. hot spots details of information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6106 specially adapted to the downstream path of the transmission network
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6175 involving transmission via Internet broadcast-related systems characterised by the transmission system being the Internet H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8133 specifically related to the content, e.g. biography of the actors in a movie, detailed information about an article seen in a video program
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/858 Linking data to content, e.g. by linking an URL to a video object, by creating a hotspot
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8583 by creating hot-spots
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

Techniques for linking and browsing media on a television (TV) are provided. A selected program, which is associated with a channel of the TV, is detected and additional content, which is associated with that channel and/or the selected program, is dynamically acquired from one or more external sources. The additional content is formatted as links and simultaneously presented within a display of the TV along with the selected program that continues to play on the TV. Furthermore, activation of any link results in the additional content being dynamically acquired and presented within the display.

Claims

1. A device comprising:

a processing system including a processor; and

a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processing system, facilitate performance of operations, the operations comprising;

receiving a program from equipment of a content provider;

providing a presentation of the program at a display device coupled to the processor;

receiving an information request from a communication device of a viewer coupled to the processor;

assembling metadata comprising a date and a time the information request was received and an identifier of the program;

transmitting the metadata to the equipment of the content provider;

receiving, from the equipment of the content provider, additional content related to a context of the presentation at an elapsed time of the program that the information request was received, wherein the additional content includes a plurality of content items including a geographic map to a location depicted visually within the program at the elapsed time of the program;

ranking the content items;

presenting a plurality of first selectable links at the display device corresponding to the content items, wherein the plurality of first selectable links are presented in an order according to the ranking;

detecting a selection of one of the plurality of first selectable links to obtain a selected link;

presenting at the display device a selected content item corresponding to the selected link; and

during presentation of the selected content item;

pausing the presentation of the program; and

displaying at the display device a second selectable link for facilitating resuming the presentation of the program.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the metadata further comprises the elapsed time of the program corresponding to the date and the time, and wherein the metadata enables the content provider to identify the additional content.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the communication device comprises a remote control associated with the display device, and wherein the context comprises one of an identity of the viewer, an identifier of the device or both.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of first selectable links comprises a universal resource locator (URL) to enable presentation of a corresponding content item at the display device, and wherein the metadata comprises a viewer profile maintaining anonymity of the viewer.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the program is presented in a video display area of the display device, and wherein the plurality of first selectable links are presented in a link display area of the display device outside the video display area.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the metadata is transmitted over a network, and wherein the selected content item is dynamically streamed over the network.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the metadata comprises a search query that is transmitted to a plurality of content services.

8. The device of claim 7, wherein the plurality of content services comprises a content service other than the content provider.

9. The device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

supplying descriptive information for each of the content items.

10. The device of claim 1, wherein the metadata comprises a viewer profile maintaining anonymity of the viewer.

11. A method comprising:

receiving, by a processing system comprising a processor, a program from equipment of a content provider;

providing, by the processing system, a presentation of the program in a program display area of a display device coupled to the processor;

receiving, by the processing system, an information request from a communication device of a viewer coupled to the processor;

assembling, by the processing system, metadata comprising a date and a time the information request was received and an identifier of the program;

transmitting, by the processing system, the metadata to the equipment of the content provider;

receiving, by the processing system from the equipment of the content provider, additional content related to a context of the presentation at the time the information request was received, wherein the additional content includes a plurality of content items including geographic maps to locations depicted visually within the program;

ranking, by the processing system, the content items;

presenting, by the processing system, a plurality of first selectable links at the display device corresponding to the content items, wherein the plurality of first selectable links are presented in an order according to the ranking;

detecting, by the processing system, a selection of one of the plurality of first selectable links to obtain a selected link;

presenting, by the processing system, at the display device a selected content item corresponding to the selected link; and

during presentation of the selected content item;

pausing, by the processing system, the presentation of the program; and

displaying, by the processing system at the display device, a second selectable link for facilitating resuming the presentation of the program.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the metadata further comprises an elapsed time of the program corresponding to the date and the time, and wherein the metadata enables the content provider to identify the additional content.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein at least one of the plurality of first selectable links comprises a universal resource locator (URL) to enable presentation of a corresponding content item at the display device.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the metadata is transmitted over a network, and wherein the selected content item is dynamically streamed over the network.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the metadata comprises a search query that is transmitted to a plurality of content services.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising supplying, by the processing system, descriptive information for each of the content items.

17. A non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processing system including a processor, facilitate performance of operations, the operations comprising:

receiving a program from equipment of a content provider;

providing a presentation of the program at a display device coupled to the processor;

receiving an information request from a communication device of a viewer coupled to the processor;

assembling metadata comprising a date and a time the information request was received and an identifier of the program;

transmitting the metadata as a search query to the equipment of the content provider and to a plurality of content services;

receiving, in response to the search query, additional content related to a context of the presentation at the date and time the information request was received, wherein the additional content includes a plurality of content items including a map of a location that has been depicted visually within the program by the time the information request was received;

ranking the content items; and

presenting a plurality of first selectable links at the display device corresponding to the content items, wherein the plurality of first selectable links are presented in an order according to the ranking;

detecting a selection of one of the plurality of first selectable links to obtain a selected link;

presenting at the display device a selected content item corresponding to the selected link; and

during presentation of the selected content item;

pausing the presentation of the program; and

displaying at the display device a second selectable link for facilitating resuming the presentation of the program.

18. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein at least one of the plurality of first selectable links comprises a universal resource locator (URL) to enable presentation of a corresponding content item at the display device.

19. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the metadata is transmitted over a network, and wherein the selected content item is dynamically streamed over the network.

20. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise:

supplying descriptive information for each of the content items.