Multimedia progress tracker

• US 10,531,142 B2
• Filed: 07/30/2018
• Issued: 01/07/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 01/26/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hayden, Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): Salad, Abdullahi E
• Application Number:
  US16/049,646
• Publication Number:
  US 20180338174A1
• Time in Patent Office: 526 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/613 for the control of the source by the destination control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components specially adapted for selective content distribution H04N21/637
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26258 for generating a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlist, or scheduling item distribution according to such list retrieval of multimedia data based on playlists G06F16/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4325 by playing back content from the storage medium reproduction of recorded television signals H04N5/76; reproduction of recorded television signals H04N9/79
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6587 Control parameters, e.g. trick play commands, viewpoint selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8547 involving timestamps for synchronizing content

Abstract

Disclosed are various embodiments for an application that tracks the progress of presentation of network content. The application facilitates storing, in a memory accessible to at least one computing device, at least one universal resource locator for facilitating access to multimedia network content. The application also stores, in the memory, a time marker associated with a progress of a presentation of the multimedia network content. Furthermore, the application links, in the at least one computing device, the time marker to at least one universal resource locator for resuming the presentation of the multimedia network content at a last point of progress.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

at least one computing device; and

at least one memory device to store at least one application executable on the at least one computing device, wherein when executed, the at least one application causes the at least one computing device to at least;

link a pointer to a progress of a presentation of network content, the pointer being associated with a network address identifier, and the pointer connecting the network address identifier to the progress of the presentation of the network content;

receive a request to resume playback of the presentation of the network content, the request including the network address identifier; and

resume playback of the network content through a link to the progress of the presentation of the network content according to the pointer.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the network address identifier comprises a plurality of different network address identifiers, and when executed, the at least one application further causes the at least one computing device to at least associate individual ones of the plurality of different network address identifiers with the pointer.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the network content comprises one or more of a video episode, an audio track, an eBook, or an audio book.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the network content comprises a plurality of media items.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the progress of the presentation of the network content comprises an episode identifier, and when executed, the at least one application further causes the at least one computing device to at least link the pointer to the progress of the presentation of the network content based at least in part on at least the episode identifier.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein, when executed, the at least one application further causes the at least one computing device to at least store the progress of the presentation in a memory.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein, when executed, the at least one application further causes the at least one computing device to at least:

receive a user input from a user interface rendered on a client device after resuming playback of the network content, the user input indicating another progress of the presentation; and

link the pointer to the other progress of the presentation.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable medium embodying a program executable in at least one computing device, wherein, when executed, the program causes at least one computing device to at least:

associate a network address identifier with a pointer to network content;

update a progress of a presentation of the network content according to a progress tracker by linking the progress of the presentation to the pointer; and

resume playback of the network content according to the pointer linked to the progress of the presentation of the network content in response to a use of the network address identifier.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the network content comprises a series of multimedia items.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein, when executed, the program causes the at least one computing device to at least generate a user interface comprising the network address identifier for facilitating access to the network content.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein, when executed, the program causes the at least one computing device to at least receive a request for playback of the network content via a selection of the network address identifier via the user interface.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the progress tracker comprises at least one of a season identifier, a series identifier, a volume identifier, an episode identifier, or a time identifier.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the network address identifier comprises a plurality of different network address identifiers, and individual ones of the plurality of different network address identifiers are associated with the pointer.

14. A method, comprising:

associating, via at least one computing device, a network address identifier with a pointer to network content;

linking, via the at least one computing device, the pointer associated with the network address identifier to the network content based at least in part on a progress of a presentation of the network content; and

in response to receiving a request for the network content, resuming playback of the network content through a link to the progress of the presentation according to the pointer, the request including the network address identifier.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the network content comprises a plurality of media items that make up a sequentially ordered series of media items.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the playback is resumed at a last point of the progress of the presentation.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising storing the progress of the presentation in response to a user input received from a client device.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising generating, via the at least one computing device, the network address identifier for facilitating access to the network content.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising generating, via the at least one computing device, a user interface to receive an indication of the progress of the presentation in response to a user input on a client device.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

receiving the indication of the progress of the presentation via the client device; and

storing the progress of the presentation in a data store.