Method and system for on-demand delivery of personalized internet-based content to television viewers

• US 20060146788A1
• Filed: 12/17/2004
• Published: 07/06/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Brown, Michael A., Briscoe, Edward D.
• Granted Patent: US 7,721,315 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23106 involving caching operations prefetching while addressing of a memory level in which the access to the desired data or data block requires associative addressing means within memory systems or architectures G06F12/0862; caching at an intermediate stage in a data network H04L67/568
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23113 involving housekeeping operations for stored content, e.g. prioritizing content for deletion because of storage space restrictions storage management, e.g. defragmentation G06F3/0604; snloading stored programs G06F9/445; housekeeping operations in file systems, e.g. deletion policies G06F16/10; buffering arrangements in a network node or in an end terminal in packet networks H04L49/90
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234309 by transcoding between formats or standards, e.g. from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 or from Quicktime to Realvideo conversion of standards in analog television systems H04N7/01
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4882 for displaying messages, e.g. warnings, reminders arrangements for providing short real-time information to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1895
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6118 involving cable transmission, e.g. using a cable modem
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6581 Reference data, e.g. a movie identifier for ordering a movie or a product identifier in a home shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17336 Handling of requests in head-ends

Abstract

A method of delivering personalized content to customers of a subscription television service for display on their televisions, the method comprising: (a) converting Internet-based content from an Internet based format to a format suitable for display on a customer'"'"'s television through a customer'"'"'s set top box, and (b) after the conversion, delivering the converted content to a set top box associated with that customer for display on that customer'"'"'s television. With such a method, the customer'"'"'s set top box need not be Internet-enabled. Preferably, the customer'"'"'s subscription television service is a cable television service.

Claims

1. A method of delivering personalized content to customers of a subscription television service for display on their televisions, the method comprising:

converting Internet-based content from an Internet based format to a format suitable for display on a customer'"'"'s television through a customer'"'"'s set top box, and

after the conversion, delivering the converted content to a set top box associated with that customer for display on that customer'"'"'s television.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the subscription television service is a cable television service, the method further comprising:

responsive to a request for Internet-based content submitted to that customer'"'"'s set top box, (1) sending the content request from that customer'"'"'s set top box to a cable provider video-on-demand system, (2) processing the request within said cable provider video-on-demand system; and

wherein the delivering step comprises, responsive to the processing by the video-on-demand system, delivering the content to that customer'"'"'s set top box.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the content comprises multimedia content.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the multimedia content comprises video.

5. The method of claim 2 further comprising retrieving the Internet-based content from an Internet-based storage system having a messaging address associated with the customer, the retrieved content having an Internet-based data format.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

associating the customer messaging address with an identifier for the customer'"'"'s set top box;

determining the identifier for the customer'"'"'s set top box at least partially from the request; and

responsive to the content request, selecting content retrieved from the customer messaging address that is associated with the determined identifier for display on the customer'"'"'s television through the customer'"'"'s set top box.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the request is submitted to the set top box via either a remote control or a user panel on the set top box,

8. The method of claim 6 further comprising periodically pulling new content for the customer from the storage system for conversion.

9. The method of claim 6 further comprising periodically pushing new content for the customer from the storage system for conversion.

10. A method of making personalized content available for viewing by customers of a subscription television service on their televisions, the method comprising:

associating a customer messaging address for a storage system that is configured to store Internet-based content for the customer with an identifier for a set top box subscribed to by that customer;

retrieving from the storage system the content stored at the customer'"'"'s messaging address;

converting the retrieved content from an Internet-based format to a format suitable for playback on the customer'"'"'s television through the set top box, wherein the converting step is not performed by the set top box; and

storing the converted content such that it is accessible to the customer via a request input from the customer to the set top box.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the subscription television service is a cable television service, the method further comprising storing the converted content in a storage area of a cable head end.

12. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

receiving a request from the customer to play stored content, the request being submitted as input to the set top box; and

responsive to the received play request, playing the requested content on the customer'"'"'s television through the customer'"'"'s set top box.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the retrieving step comprises periodically pushing new content from the customer'"'"'s messaging address to a cable head end.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein the retrieving step comprises periodically pulling new content from the customer'"'"'s messaging address to a cable head end.

15. The method of claim 10 wherein the subscription television service is a satellite television service.

16. A system for making personalized content available for viewing by cable customers on their televisions, the system comprising:

a storage system configured to store Internet-based content for a customer messaging address;

a database configured to store data that associates the customer messaging address with an identifier for a set top box subscribed to by that customer;

a cable head end in communication with the storage system, the database, and a set top box for the customer'"'"'s television, the cable head end being configured to (1) retrieve the content stored at the customer'"'"'s messaging address, and (2) convert the retrieved content from an Internet-based format to a format suitable for playback on the customer'"'"'s television through the set top box.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the cable head end is further configured to store the converted content and make said stored converted content accessible to the customer via a request input from the customer to the set top box.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the head end comprises:

a conversion and playback system configured to perform the content retrieval and conversion;

a video-on-demand (VoD) system in communication with the customer'"'"'s set top box and the conversion and playback system, the VoD system being configured to (1) receive a request from the customer to play stored content, the request being submitted to the VoD system by the customer as input to the set top box, (2) communicate the received play request to the conversion and playback system; and

wherein the conversion and playback system is further configured to, responsive to the communicated play request, cause the requested content to be communicated to the customer'"'"'s set top box for playback on the customer'"'"'s television.

19. The system of claim 16 further comprising a content staging module in communication with the storage system and configured to (1) retrieve content from an Internet website that matches an identified customer interest, and (2) provide the retrieved content to the storage system for subsequent conversion and playback on the customer'"'"'s television.

20. A method of providing a cable customer with access to Internet-based content stored at a messaging address associated with the customer, the method comprising:

interfacing a conversion and playback system with a cable company video-on-demand (VoD) system to which the customer subscribes, the conversion and playback system being configured to (1) communicate with a storage system to retrieve Internet-based content stored at the customer'"'"'s messaging address, (2) convert the retrieved content from an Internet-based format to a format suitable for playback on the customer'"'"'s television through a set top box for the customer'"'"'s television, and (3) interact with the VoD system to effectuate communication of the converted content to the set top box for display on the customer'"'"'s television, wherein the conversion and playback system is not located within the set top box.

21. A method of delivering Internet-based content to customers of a subscription television service for display on their televisions, the method comprising:

delivering Internet-based content from an Internet-based messaging address associated with a customer to a set top box associated with that customer for display on that customer'"'"'s television, independently of whether that customer'"'"'s set top box is Internet-enabled.