Digital video recorder for automatically recording an upcoming program that is being advertised

• US 20060143658A1
• Filed: 12/28/2004
• Published: 06/29/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Stone, Christopher J.
• Granted Patent: US 9,210,368 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44218 Detecting physical presence or behaviour of the user, e.g. using sensors to detect if the user is leaving the room or changes his face expression during a TV program methods or arrangements for recognising human body or animal bodies or body parts G06V40/10; methods or arrangements for acquiring or recognising human faces, facial parts, facial sketches, facial expressions G06V40/16; methods or arrangements for recognising movements or behaviour G06V40/20; arrangements for identifying users in broadcast systems H04H60/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47214 for content reservation or setting reminders; for requesting event notification, e.g. of sport results or stock market stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; notification of incoming messages in packet switching networks H04L51/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8405 represented by keywords
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/782 on tape
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A method and apparatus is provided for recording a program being advertised during a broadcast of another program. The method begins by receiving a user request to record the program being advertised in an advertisement appearing in a broadcast of the other program. The other program is embodied in a video signal received from an external broadcasting source. At least one prescribed keyword is identified in a locally stored segment of the video signal that contains the advertisement. The prescribed keyword(s) pertains to a time at which the program being advertised is to be broadcast. A recording session is established in accordance with the prescribed keyword(s) to record the program being advertised. Finally, the program being advertised is recorded during the established recording session.

Claims

1. A method for recording a program being advertised during a broadcast of another program, comprising:

receiving a user request to record the program being advertised in an advertisement appearing in a broadcast of the other program, said other program being embodied in a video signal received from an external broadcasting source;

identifying at least one prescribed keyword in a locally stored segment of the video signal that contains the advertisement, said keyword pertaining to a time at which the program being advertised is to be broadcast;

establishing a recording session in accordance with said at least one prescribed keyword to record the program being advertised; and

recording the program being advertised during the established recording session.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of identifying at least one prescribed keyword comprises extracting said at least one prescribed keyword from a closed caption portion of the locally stored segment of the video signal.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of identifying at least one prescribed keyword comprises extracting said at least one prescribed keyword from an audio portion of the locally stored segment of the video signal.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of identifying at least one prescribed keyword comprises extracting said at least one prescribed keyword from an image portion of the locally stored segment of the video signal.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of identifying at least one prescribed keyword comprises:

attempting to extract said at least one prescribed keyword from a closed caption portion of the locally stored segment of the video signal; and

if said at least one prescribed keyword is not available from the closed caption portion, extracting said at least one prescribed keyword from an audio portion of the locally stored segment of the video signal.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of identifying at least one prescribed keyword comprises:

attempting to extract said at least one prescribed keyword from a closed caption portion of the locally stored segment of the video signal; and

if said at least one prescribed keyword is not available from the closed caption portion, attempting to extract said at least one prescribed keyword from an audio portion of the locally stored segment of the video signal; and

if said at least one prescribed keyword is not available from the audio portion, extracting said at least one prescribed keyword from an image portion of the locally stored segment of the video signal.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein said at least one prescribed keyword comprises a day of week and time of day at which the program being advertised is to broadcast.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein said at least one prescribed keyword comprises a date and time of day at which the program being advertised is to broadcast.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein said at least one prescribed keyword comprises a month, day of week and time of day at which the program being advertised is to broadcast.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of requesting the user to verify establishment of the recording session.

11. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon one or more software programs which, when executed, implement the method of claim 1.

12. The computer-readable storage medium according to claim 11, wherein the one or more software programs are responsive to a digital video recorder.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein the video signal is encoded according to a moving pictures experts group (MPEG) standard.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the program being advertised is recorded on a hard disk drive.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the program being advertised is recorded on an optical storage medium.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the locally stored segment of the video signal that contains the advertisement is stored in a buffer.

17. An apparatus for recording a program being advertised during a broadcast of another program, comprising:

a computer-readable storage medium; and

a processor responsive to the computer-readable storage medium and to a software program, the software program, when loaded into the processor, operative to;

receive a user request to record the program being advertised in an advertisement appearing in a broadcast of the other program, said other program being embodied in a video signal received from an external broadcasting source;

identify at least one prescribed keyword in a locally stored segment of the video signal that contains the advertisement, said keyword pertaining to a time at which the program being advertised is to be broadcast;

cause a recording session to be established in accordance with said at least one prescribed keyword to record the program being advertised; and

cause the program being advertised to be recorded onto the computer-readable storage medium during the established recording session.