Channel dancer

• US 20020054087A1
• Filed: 04/17/2001
• Published: 05/09/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Andrews Kurth LLP, CacheStream Corp. (Columbia Bakeries, Inc.), Andrews Kurth Kenyon LLP (Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP)
• Original Assignee: Andrews Kurth LLP
• Inventors: Grimes, Tom, Noll, Roland, Mai, Khanh
• Application Number:
  US09/835,529
• Publication Number:
  US 20020054087A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/744
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2402 Monitoring of the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. bandwidth available traffic monitoring in data switching networks H04L43/00; monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2541 Rights Management protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10; security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2542 for selling goods, e.g. TV shopping payment schemes, payment architectures or payment protocols for electronic shopping systems G06Q20/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2543 Billing , e.g. for subscription services payment schemes, architectures or protocols G06Q20/00; e-commerce G06Q30/00; arrangements for billing for the use of broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/21
• 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 21/2668 Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. insertion of targeted commercials based on end-user profiles information retrieval from the Internet by querying with filtering and personalisation G06F16/9535; arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast H04H20/10; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; adaptation of message content in packet-switching networks H04L51/063
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42684 Client identification by a unique number or address, e.g. serial number, MAC address, socket ID network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming H04L61/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• 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 21/47805 Electronic banking banking in general G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• 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 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A system and method (the “Channel Dancer”) of delivering broadband content that has been personalized for a recipient user is disclosed. By excelling in the personalization of the user'"'"'s view of broadband content on the Internet and otherwise, the system and method develop “stickiness” with the user that maximizes the benefits and effectiveness of advertising and related activities. The system preferably comprises a network operations center (“NOC”) that receives and packages content, with promotional materials, on virtual channels, a transmission medium that transmits the virtual channels, a broadband ISP with a point-of-presence (“POP”) server that receives the virtual channels and routs virtual channels to a user machine, based on requests received from client software (the “client”) resident on the user machine and filtering performed by the client based on a personal profile of the user.

Claims

1. A method for customizing an interface to accommodate a user'"'"'s availability of content, comprising:

determining a link speed that a user machine can accommodate; and

using a control channel and the determined link speed, creating a display of content choices available to a user on the user machine.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the user machine is a personal computer and the step of determining determines a maximum bandwidth at which the personal computer receives content from an internet service provider (“

ISP”

).

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the display of content choices is a dynamic graphical user interface (“

GUI”

).

4. The method of claim 3 wherein a skin for the dynamic GUI is used.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the skin is personalized for the user.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the skin includes advertisements.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the creating step uses a personal profile of the user.

8. The method of claim 4 wherein the content is filtered for the user using the personal profile.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the content is multimedia content.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the content is made available from a source using a satellite transponder to multicast the content.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the content includes infomercials with links to web sites.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the creating step is created to create an additional display.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the content is broadcast on virtual channels.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the content is routed to the user machine by a software module resident at an Internet Service Provider (“

ISP”

).

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the content is routed to the user machine by a dedicated server at an ISP.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining step and the creating step are performed by a software module resident on the user machine.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein software at an ISP location assists in performing the determining step.

18. A computer readable medium containing instructions for customizing an interface to accommodate a user'"'"'s availability of content, by performing the method of claim 1.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the incentive includes cash.

21. The method of claim 19 wherein the incentive includes credits that may be used to purchase pay-per-view content.

22. The method of claim 19 wherein the incentive is points of a credit card loyalty system.

23. The method of claim 19 wherein the incentive may be used to purchase data on virtual channels.

24. The method of claim 19 wherein the step of offering comprises transmitting an HTML page.

25. The method of claim 19 wherein the step of receiving acceptance comprises receiving data via the Internet.

26. The method of claim 19 wherein the offering step is performed by a client server at an ISP.

27. The method of claim 19 further comprising tracking incentives, wherein a network operations center is used to track the incentives.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein the step of receiving an acceptance comprises receiving an Internet communication at the network operations center.

29. The method of claim 19 wherein the offering step comprises sending an offer on a virtual channel.

30. The method of claim 19 wherein the step of offering comprises using a satellite transponder.

31. The method of claim 19 wherein acceptance includes a one-click action and the step of receiving an acceptance comprises receiving an indication of the one-click action.

32. The method of claim 19 further comprising:

storing the subscriber data.

33. The method of claim 32 wherein the subscriber data is stored in a file at a user machine.

34. The method of claim 32 wherein the subscriber data is stored at the client server.

35. The method of claim 19 wherein the step of receiving an acceptance comprises:

storing data about the user at a personal computer; and

the user authorizing a software program on the personal computer to send the stored data about the user over the internet.

36. A computer-readable medium containing instruction for gathering data about a subscriber over the Internet using incentives, by performing the method of claim 19.

38. The method of claim 37 wherein the request is received from client software resident on the user machine.

39. The method of claim 37 wherein the request is received over a network.

40. The method of claim 37 wherein the requested portion of the multicast data comprises multimedia content.

41. The method of claim 37 further comprising:

receiving a control channel that contains information about the multicast data; and

,

using the control channel to locate the requested portion of multicast data.

42. The method of claim 37 further comprising:

determining whether a user at the user machine is authorized to view the requested portion of data.

43. The method of claim 37 wherein the multicast data is received on virtual channels format.

44. The method of claim 37 wherein the multicast data is received from a satellite transponder.

45. The method of claim 37 further comprising:

reviewing a user database for information about a user at the user machine, wherein the user requests the multicast data.

46. The method of claim 45 further comprising:

confirming that the user is authorized to view the requested data based on the information about the user.

47. The method of claim 37 wherein a plurality of requests a received concurrently.

48. The method of claim 37 wherein a plurality of requests are received for the same multicast data.

49. The method of claim 37 wherein the requested multicast data is sent to a plurality of users concurrently.

50. The method of claim 37 wherein the step of receiving the multicast data comprises receiving multiple multicast feeds.

51. The method claim 37 wherein the step of sending sends streaming video.

52. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions for delivering personalized broadband content, by performing the method of claim 37.

19. A method for gathering data about a subscriber over the Internet using incentives comprising:

offering an incentive in exchange for receiving data about a subscriber;

receiving acceptance of the offer; and

providing the offered incentive, wherein the incentive may be used to purchase content.

37. A method for delivering personalized broadband content comprising:

receiving a request for a portion of multicast data in IP protocol;

receiving multicast data in an IP protocol;

locating the requested portion of multicast data; and

sending the requested portion of multicast data to a user machine connected to an ISP.

53. A method for advertising with rich media type content comprising:

sending an advertisement linked to rich media content to a user machine;

displaying the advertisement with the rich media content at the user machine;

storing the advertisement in a memory device; and

recalling the advertisement for display with other rich media content.

54. The method of claim 53 further comprising:

linking the advertisement to the other rich media content.

55. The method of claim 53 wherein the rich media content is video and audio.

56. The method of claim 53 wherein the rich media content comprises text and graphics.

57. The method of claim 53 wherein the advertisement is stored for a set period of time.

58. The method of claim 53 wherein the advertisement is a rich media advertisement.

59. The method of claim 53 wherein the advertisement is targeted to users meeting certain criteria.

60. The method of claim 53 further comprising:

deleting the advertisement from memory after it has been displayed.

61. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions for advertising with rich media type content, by performing the method of claim 53.

62. A method of delivering personalized broadband content, comprising:

receiving content at a network operations center;

associating promotional material with the content;

scheduling the content on virtual channels, wherein the virtual channels are a Multicast IP stream;

broadcasting the virtual channels over a transmission medium;

receiving the virtual channels at a broadband ISP;

routing requested virtual channels to a user machine; and

displaying the content in the requested virtual channels on the user machine.

63. A method of delivering personalized broadband content, comprising:

receiving a plurality of virtual channels at a user machine, wherein each virtual channel comprises content;

filtering the plurality of virtual channels based on a user'"'"'s personal profile;

displaying the filtered virtual channels in a GUI, wherein a virtual channel may be selected; and

,

if a virtual channel is selected, displaying or storing content from the virtual channel.

64. The method of claim 63, further comprising receiving a control channel that includes information about the virtual channels, wherein the filtering step is also based on the control channel information.

65. The method of claim 63, wherein the content is stored in a user cache on the user machine.

66. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions for delivering personalized broadband content, by:

receiving a plurality of virtual channels at a user machine, wherein each virtual channel comprises content;

filtering the plurality of virtual channels based on a user'"'"'s personal profile;

displaying the filtered virtual channels in a GUI, wherein a virtual channel may be selected; and

,

if a virtual channel is selected, displaying or storing content from the virtual channel.

68. The system of claim 67, wherein the user machine comprises a user cache and the client software stores content from virtual channels in the user cache.

69. The system of claim 67, wherein the user machine includes a personal profile and the client software filters the virtual channels based on the client software, the client software further comprising:

a dynamic GUI that displays the filtered virtual channels so that a user may select content from the filtered virtual channels for viewing and/or storing.

70. The system of claim 67, wherein the promotional materials include e-commerce opportunities through which a user on the user machine makes a purchase and wherein the NOC further comprises:

an e-commerce router that intercepts the user purchase, records the user purchase, re-routs the user purchase to a provider of the e-commerce opportunity, and invoices the provider for the purchase.

71. The system of claim 67, wherein the promotional materials include an advertisement with hyper-links that is clicked by a user at the user machine and wherein the NOC further comprises:

an advertising portal server that intercepts the advertisement click of the user, records the advertisement click, re-routs the advertisement click to a provider of the advertisement, and invoices the provider for the advertisement click.

72. The system of claim 67, wherein the transmission medium is a satellite and the POP client server is located at a broadband ISP that receives the virtual channels via satellite.

67. A system for delivering personalized broadband content, comprising:

a network operations center (“

NOC”

), comprising one or more servers, that receives content and promotional material and schedules the content for broadcast on virtual channels;

a transmission medium, operatively connected to the NOC, that transmits the virtual channels;

a point-of-presence (“

POP”

) client server that receives at least a subset of the virtual channels; and

a user machine, connected via a network to the POP client server, comprising client software that issues requests for virtual channels and processes the virtual channels to display the content and promotional materials on the user machine, wherein the POP client server routs virtual channels to the user machine based on the requests issued by the client software.