Method and system for personalized multimedia delivery service

• US 20030163815A1
• Filed: 12/28/2001
• Published: 08/28/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/06/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Zamchick, Gary L., Gibbon, David Crawford, Shahraray, Behzad, Liu, Zhu, Renger, Bernard S., Markowitz, Robert Edward, Begeja, Lee, Huber, Kenneth Mervin
• Application Number:
  US10/034,679
• Publication Number:
  US 20030163815A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/46
• 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

A method and system for extracting multimedia content segments, such as electronic clips or “eClips,” from a source of video or other multimedia content. The extraction is based on individual preferences such as key terms and/or phrases as well as content source, which a user may identify in a profile. User profiles can be stored in a service platform and continually checked against new content in the system. When matches are found between a user profile and the content, the service platform can alert the user that segments have been identified and extracted. The user may then view/play these automatically provided segments (eClips). In addition, the eClips service is capable of stitching the clips of diverse sources together, providing an automatically generated multimedia experience that revolves around the user'"'"'s provided profile.

Claims

1. A method for delivering a customized video presentation to a user, the method comprising:

searching, based on a user criterion, at least one video asset to thereby identify a subset of the video asset containing portions corresponding to the user criterion;

calculating segments of the video asset, the segments comprising the corresponding portions and portions adjacent to the corresponding portions, where the adjacent portions are relevant to the corresponding portions and the user criterion;

accessing the segments within the video asset to thereby form the customized video presentation; and

making contents of the customized video presentation available to the user for viewing.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said searching includes forwarding a segment request to a database storing the at least one video asset, and further wherein said calculating includes designating pointers that identify beginning and end portions of the segments.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said making contents of the customized video presentation available to the user for viewing further comprises making the pointers available to the user for selection.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein video segments are streamed to the user upon selection of at least one clip pointer by the user.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the segments are combined for continuous delivery of the customized video presentation to the user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the user criterion includes search terms or phrases input by the user.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the user criterion is included in a pre-defined user profile.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising periodically notifying the user when the customized video presentation becomes available.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the customized video presentation is assembled and delivered automatically at periodic intervals.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing the user with the ability to negotiate among and between the segments.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein searching the video asset comprises searching the video asset based on text corresponding to an audio portion associated with the video asset.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the text is either closed-captioning text associated with the video asset, speech-recognition text generated by speech recognition software operating on the audio portion, or a manually-generated transcription of the audio portion.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein said calculating segments of the video asset is based on the text.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein said calculating segments of the video asset is performed using multimodal story segmentation algorithms.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the customized video presentation is streamed to the user over a network.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the customized video presentation is downloaded to the user'"'"'s local computer.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising interlacing advertisements in between at least some of the combined video segments in the customized video presentation.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the customized video presentation is delivered to a television of the user via a set top box.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the searching is performed on a plurality of video assets of different sources.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the video asset is a video file, a live broadcast, a video stream or a video tape.

21. A system for delivering a customized video presentation comprising video clips to a user, comprising:

a video capture device operable to receive a plurality of video inputs;

a video database operable to store the plurality of video inputs and text associated with the video inputs;

a video server operable to search the video inputs within the video database in accordance with a user criterion and based on the text, the video server being further operable to extract from the video inputs video clips corresponding to the user criterion and combine the video clips into a customized video presentation to be made available for delivery to the user in whole or in part,

wherein the video server determines a length of each video clip by including only portions corresponding to the user criteria and surrounding portions that relate to the corresponding portions.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the video server determines clip pointers designating beginning and end portions of the video clips, and further wherein the clip pointers are made available to the user to thereby select at least one of the video clips for viewing.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein a video clip corresponding to a clip pointer is streamed to the user upon selection of the clip pointer by the user.

24. The system of claim 21, further comprising:

a multimedia delivery server to interface with the video server and a multimedia delivery client accessed by the user; and

a profile database for storing the user criterion.

25. The system of claim 21, wherein said profile database serves as a basis for searches performed by the video server on behalf of the user.

26. The system of claim 21, wherein the video server search the video inputs based on text corresponding to an audio portion associated with the video inputs.

27. The system of claim 21, wherein the text is either closed-captioning text associated with the video inputs, speech-recognition text generated by speech recognition software operating on the audio portion, or a manually-generated transcription of the audio portion.

28. The system of claim 21, wherein the video server determines a length of each video clip based on multimodal story segmentation algorithms.

29. The system of claim 21, further comprising a set top box for receiving the customized video presentation from the video server and thereafter displaying all or part of the customized video presentation on a television of the user.

30. The system of claim 21, wherein the customized video presentation is created and delivered to the user periodically according to a pre-determined schedule.

31. The system of claim 21, wherein the video server periodically notifies the user when the customized video presentation becomes available.

32. The method of claim 21, wherein the customized video presentation is downloaded to the user'"'"'s local computer.

33. A system for receiving a customized video show, comprising:

a software client installed on a device of a user; and

an interface for interacting with the software client to input a user search criterion, thereby providing search parameters for searching a plurality of video inputs and accessing at least a portion of the video inputs that comprises the customized video show,

wherein the user selects, via the software client, at least a portion of the customized video show for viewing.

34. The system of claim 33, wherein the software client presents identifying portions of subtopics of the video show, whereby the user selects at least one of the subtopics for viewing.

35. The system of claim 33, wherein the user requests that discrete components of the customized video show be automatically combined for continuous streaming to the user.

36. The system of claim 33, wherein the user interface is a web page.

37. The system of claim 33, wherein the user device is a set top box attached to a television of the user.

38. The system of claim 33, wherein the user archives the at least a portion of the customized video show, whereby the at least a portion of the customized video show is made available to other users of a peer-to-peer network of which the user is a member.

39. The system of claim 33, wherein the user downloads, via the software client, the customized video show for at least temporary storage on a local computer.

40. The system of claim 33, wherein the customized video show is streamed to the user via the software client.

41. The system of claim 33, wherein the search criterion is a predetermined user profile.

42. The system of claim 41, wherein the user requests, via the software client, notification of availability of the customized video show.

43. The system of claim 41, wherein the user requests, via the software client, periodic delivery of customized video shows as they become available.

44. The system of claim 33, wherein the user receives, via email, pointers identifying beginning and end portions of subsections of the customized video show.

45. The system of claim 44, wherein the user receives an email attachment linked to the entire customized video show.

46. A method for providing a customized video presentation to a user, comprising:

identifying, in response to a request from the user, clip pointers that identify, based on text associated with video inputs, beginning and end portions of video clips within the video inputs;

making the clip pointers available to the user; and

accessing the video inputs for delivery to the user a video clip corresponding to a clip pointer selected by the user.

47. The method of claim 46, wherein the user request is received as a portion of an individualized user profile stored within a database.

48. The method of claim 47, wherein the clip pointers are identified based on the user profile as the video inputs are received.

49. The method of claim 47, wherein the clip pointers are periodically identified to the user according to a predetermined schedule.

50. The method of claim 47, wherein the clip pointers are made available to the user upon a demand by the user.

51. The method of claim 46, wherein all of the identified video clips are automatically combined and continuously streamed to the user.