Method and apparatus for automatically converting source video into electronic mail messages

• US 10,462,510 B2
• Filed: 12/11/2015
• Issued: 10/29/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/06/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property II LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Begeja, Lee, Gibbon, David Crawford, Liu, Zhu, Markowitz, Robert Edward, Renger, Bernard Simon, Shahraray, Behzad, Zamchick, Gary Lee
• Primary Examiner(s): Bruckart, Benjamin R
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bantamoi, Anthony
• Application Number:
  US14/966,747
• Publication Number:
  US 20160100209A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,418 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23418 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics television picture signal circuitry for scene change detection H04N5/147; filtering for image enhancement G06T5/00; methods or arrangements for recognising scenes G06V20/00; arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26603 for automatically generating descriptors from content, e.g. when it is not made available by its provider, using content analysis techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4828 for searching program descriptors retrieval of video data G06F16/739
• 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 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

The invention relates to a method and system for automatically identifying video content within source video and transmitting the video content to an electronic mail client. The transmitted video content can be streaming video, video files, and/or other medium derived from the source video. An enhanced electronic mail client is also disclosed.

Claims

1. A method for operation of a video server comprising:

receiving a source video comprising a plurality of different programs;

analyzing the source video to produce a plurality of video segments of the source video;

comparing the plurality of video segments of the source video to a profile of a user;

identifying a set of video segments of the plurality of video segments of the source video based on the comparing;

transforming the set of video segments for transmission to a device associated with the user to generate a transformed set of video segments;

generating an electronic message containing the transformed set of video segments; and

transmitting the electronic message to the device associated with the user for display of the transformed set of video segments as a graphical representation including a media control bar comprising a play bar depicting a plurality of representations, each of the plurality of representations comprising color coded summary information corresponding to a related one of the plurality of different programs, the plurality of representations depicted in a predetermined order queued for presentation, each of the plurality of representations related to a respective one of the transformed set of video segments.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the graphical representation further comprises an annotate button for associating a user comment with one of the transformed set of video segments.

3. The method of claim 2, the analyzing further comprising:

classifying each particular one of the plurality of video segments based on content of the each particular one of the plurality of video segments, wherein the comparing comprises comparing keywords of the profile to a classification of a respective video segment.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the source video is selected based on an interest of a target audience comprising the user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying is further based on criteria specified by the user.

6. An apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a memory to store computer program instructions, the computer program instructions when executed on the processor cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

receiving a source video comprising a plurality of different programs;

analyzing the source video to produce a plurality of video segments of the source video;

comparing the plurality of video segments of the source video to a profile of a user;

identifying a set of video segments of the plurality of video segments of the source video based on the comparing;

transforming the set of video segments for transmission to a device associated with the user to generate a transformed set of video segments;

generating an electronic message containing the transformed set of video segments; and

transmitting the electronic message to the device associated with the user for display of the transformed set of video segments as a graphical representation including a media control bar comprising a play bar depicting a plurality of representations, each of the plurality of representations comprising color coded summary information corresponding to a related one of the plurality of different programs, the plurality of representations depicted in a predetermined order queued for presentation, each of the plurality of representations related to a respective one of the transformed set of video segments.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the graphical representation further comprises an annotate button for associating a user comment with one of the transformed set of video segments.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, the analyzing further comprising:

classifying each particular one of the plurality of video segments based on content of the each particular one of the plurality of video segments, wherein the comparing comprises comparing keywords of the profile to a classification of a respective video segment.

9. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the source video is selected based on an interest of a target audience comprising the user.

10. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the identifying is further based on criteria specified by the user.

11. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer program instructions, which, when executed on a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving a source video comprising a plurality of different programs;

analyzing the source video to produce a plurality of video segments of the source video;

comparing the plurality of video segments of the source video to a profile of a user;

identifying a set of video segments of the plurality of video segments of the source video based on the comparing;

transforming the set of video segments for transmission to a device associated with the user to generate a transformed set of video segments;

generating an electronic message containing the transformed set of video segments; and

transmitting the electronic message to the device associated with the user for display of the transformed set of video segments as a graphical representation including a media control bar comprising a play bar depicting-a plurality of representations, each of the plurality of representations comprising color coded summary information corresponding to a related one of the plurality of different programs, the plurality of representations depicted in a predetermined order queued for presentation, each of the plurality of representations related to a respective one of the transformed set of video segments.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the graphical representation further comprises an annotate button for associating a user comment with one of the transformed set of video segments.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, the analyzing further comprising:

classifying each particular one of the plurality of video segments based on content of the each particular one of the plurality of video segments, wherein the comparing comprises comparing keywords of the profile to a classification of a respective video segment.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the identifying is further based on criteria specified by the user.