System and method for providing a user interface

• US 20050076383A1
• Filed: 01/06/2004
• Published: 04/07/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Rowlen, Matthew, Upendran, Manish, Vakili, Valla, Behhnam-Dehkordy, Hamid-Reza
• Application Number:
  US10/752,739
• Publication Number:
  US 20050076383A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/109
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4438 Window management, e.g. event handling following interaction with the user interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; 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 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4755 for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre retrieval personalisation and generation of user profiles for the retrieval of video data G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4781 Games
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47815 Electronic shopping payment schemes, payment architectures or payment protocols for electronic shopping systems G06Q20/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4786 e-mailing message switching systems, e.g. electronic mail systems H04L51/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104

Abstract

A system and method for providing a user interface is disclosed. In one embodiment, a system includes a user computer coupled to a data network to display a user interface usable to enter user preferences. The system may further include a server coupled to the data network to receive the user preferences from the user computer, and to generate non-broadcast content based on the user preferences. In one embodiment, the system further includes a broadcast-based client-side device, coupled to the network, to receive broadcast programming content from a broadcast source, and to receive the non-broadcast content from the server.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a user computer, coupled to a data network, to display a user interface usable to enter a plurality of user preferences; and

a server coupled to the data network to receive said plurality of user preferences from said user computer and to generate non-broadcast content based on said plurality of user preferences; and

a broadcast-based client-side device, coupled to the network, to receive broadcast programming content from a broadcast source, and to receive said non-broadcast content from said server.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said data network is the Internet, said broadcast source is a television programming source, and said broadcast-based client-side device includes a set top box that is coupled to the Internet and to said broadcast source.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said user interface is used to access a user account prior to entering said plurality of user preferences, said user account to be used to associate said plurality of user preferences with a particular user.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein said plurality of user preferences relate to one or more of games, personals, fantasy sports, movie content, music content, video on demand, content overlays, auctions and photos.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein said user interface is to include a plurality of hyperlinks usable to access a plurality of submenus, said submenus usable to enter said plurality of user preferences.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein said plurality of submenus relate to one or more of games, personals, fantasy sports, movie content, music content, video on demand, content overlays, auctions and photos.

7. The system of claim 3, wherein said user interface includes one or more drop down menus usable to enter said plurality of user preferences.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein said user interface is populated with server data from said server over said data network, said server data relating to said plurality of user preferences.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein said server is further to:

generate said non-broadcast content using said plurality of user preferences entered using said user interface;

receive a request from said broadcast-based client-side device; and

transmit said non-broadcast content to said broadcast-based client-side device in response to said request.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein said broadcast-based client-side device is further to display said non-broadcast content and said broadcast programming content on a display of said broadcast-based client-side device, and wherein said non-broadcast content is displayed in accordance with said plurality of user preferences.

11. A method comprising:

entering a plurality of user preferences using a user interface displayed on a user computer that is coupled to a data network;

receiving, by a server coupled to the data network, said plurality of user preferences from said user computer;

generating, by said server, non-broadcast content based on said plurality of user preferences; and

receiving, by a broadcast-based client-side device coupled to the data network, broadcast programming content from a broadcast source and said non-broadcast content from said server.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said receiving by the broadcast-based client-side device comprises receiving, by the broadcast-based client-side device coupled to the data network, broadcast programming content from the broadcast source and said non-broadcast content from said server, where said data network is the Internet, said broadcast source is a television programming source, and said broadcast-based client-side device includes a set top box that is coupled to the Internet and to said broadcast source.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising accessing, using said user interface, a user account prior to said entering the plurality of user preferences, said user account to be used to associate said plurality of user preferences with a particular user.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein said accessing comprises accessing, using said user interface, the user account prior to said entering the plurality of user preferences, said user account to be used to associate said plurality of user preferences with the particular user, and wherein said plurality of user preferences relate to one or more of games, personals, fantasy sports, movie content, music content, video on demand, content overlays, auctions and photos.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein said accessing comprises accessing, using said user interface, the user account prior to said entering the plurality of user preferences, said user account to be used to associate said plurality of user preferences with the particular user, and wherein said user interface includes a plurality of hyperlinks usable to access a plurality of submenus, said submenus usable to enter said plurality of user preferences.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein said accessing comprises accessing, using said user interface, the user account prior to said entering the plurality of user preferences, said user account to be used to associate said plurality of user preferences with the particular user, and wherein said user interface includes a plurality of hyperlinks usable to access a plurality of submenus that relate to one or more of games, personals, fantasy sports, movie content, music content, video on demand, content overlays, auctions and photos.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein said accessing comprises accessing, using said user interface, the user account prior to said entering the plurality of user preferences, said user account to be used to associate said plurality of user preferences with the particular user, and wherein said user interface includes one or more drop down menus usable to enter said plurality of user preferences.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising populating said user interface with server data from said server over said data network, said server data to relate to said plurality of user preferences.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

generating said non-broadcast content using said plurality of user preferences entered using said user interface;

receiving a request from said broadcast-based client-side device; and

transmitting said non-broadcast content to said broadcast-based client-side device in response to said request.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising displaying, by said broadcast-based client-side device, said non-broadcast content and said broadcast programming content on a display of said broadcast-based client-side device, and wherein said non-broadcast content is displayed in accordance with said plurality of user preferences.

21. A computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer program code embodied therein to display information, the computer program product having;

computer readable program code to enter a plurality of user preferences using a user interface displayed on a user computer that is coupled to a data network;

computer readable program code to receive, by a server coupled to the data network, said plurality of user preferences from said user computer;

computer readable program code to generate, by said server, non-broadcast content based on said plurality of user preferences; and

computer readable program code to receive, by a broadcast-based client-side device coupled to the data network, broadcast programming content from a broadcast source and said non-broadcast content from said server.

22. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein said computer readable program code to receive by the broadcast-based client-side device comprises computer readable program code to receive, by the broadcast-based client-side device coupled to the data network, broadcast programming content from the broadcast source and said non-broadcast content from said server, where said data network is the Internet, said broadcast source is a television programming source, and said broadcast-based client-side device includes a set top box that is coupled to the Internet and to said broadcast source.

23. The computer program product of claim 21, further comprising computer readable program code to access, using said user interface, a user account prior to said entering the plurality of user preferences, said user account to be used to associate said plurality of user preferences with a particular user.

24. The computer program product of claim 23, wherein said computer readable program code to access comprises computer readable program code to access, using said user interface, the user account prior to said entering the plurality of user preferences, said user account to be used to associate said plurality of user preferences with the particular user, and wherein said plurality of user preferences relate to one or more of games, personals, fantasy sports, movie content, music content, video on demand, content overlays, auctions and photos.

25. The computer program product of claim 23, wherein said computer readable program code to access comprises computer readable program code to access, using said user interface, the user account prior to said entering the plurality of user preferences, said user account to be used to associate said plurality of user preferences with the particular user, and wherein said user interface includes a plurality of hyperlinks usable to access a plurality of submenus, said submenus usable to enter said plurality of user preferences.

26. The computer program product of claim 25, wherein said computer readable program code to access comprises computer readable program code to access, using said user interface, the user account prior to said entering the plurality of user preferences, said user account to be used to associate said plurality of user preferences with the particular user, and wherein said user interface includes a plurality of hyperlinks usable to access a plurality of submenus that relate to one or more of games, personals, fantasy sports, movie content, music content, video on demand, content overlays, auctions and photos.

27. The computer program product of claim 23, wherein said computer readable program code to access comprises computer readable program code to access, using said user interface, the user account prior to said entering the plurality of user preferences, said user account to be used to associate said plurality of user preferences with the particular user, and wherein said user interface includes one or more drop down menus usable to enter said plurality of user preferences.

28. The computer program product of claim 21, further comprising computer readable program code to populate said user interface with server data from said server over said data network, said server data to relate to said plurality of user preferences.

29. The computer program product of claim 28, further having:

computer readable program code to generate said non-broadcast content using said plurality of user preferences entered using said user interface;

computer readable program code to receive a request from said broadcast-based client-side device; and

computer readable program code to transmit said non-broadcast content to said broadcast-based client-side device in response to said request.

30. The computer program product of claim 29, further comprising computer readable program code to display, by said broadcast-based client-side device, said non-broadcast content and said broadcast programming content on a display of said broadcast-based client-side device, and wherein said non-broadcast content is displayed in accordance with said plurality of user preferences.