Displaying programming and non-programming contents on user-display systems across computer networks

• US 20070050809A1
• Filed: 09/01/2005
• Published: 03/01/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/01/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ABroadcasting Company
• Original Assignee: ABroadcasting Company
• Inventors: Pharn, Art
• Granted Patent: US 7,856,645 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4586 Content update operation triggered locally, e.g. by comparing the version of software modules in a DVB carousel to the version stored locally deployment, distribution, installation, update of software G06F8/65; error detection or correction of the data by redundancy during software upgrading G06F11/1433; arrangements for updating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/25
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4722 for requesting additional data associated with the content
• 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 21/8133 specifically related to the content, e.g. biography of the actors in a movie, detailed information about an article seen in a video program
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

According to one embodiment, a system and method for displaying on a user-display system a program comprising a programming content including a plurality of programming content segments and a non-programming content including at least one non-programming content segment. The method includes receiving in the user-display system a first programming content segment of the programming content transmitted from a first source across a computer network, identifying at least one non-programming content segment associated with the first programming content, the identified non-programming content segment received in the user-display system from a second source across the computer network, and displaying the identified non-programming content segment by the user-display system.

Claims

1. A method for displaying on a user-display system a program comprising a programming content including a plurality of programming content segments and a non-programming content including at least one non-programming content segment, the method comprising:

receiving in the user-display system a first programming content segment of the programming content transmitted from a first source across a computer network;

identifying at least one non-programming content segment associated with the first programming content, the identified non-programming content segment received in the user-display system from a second source across the computer network; and

displaying the identified non-programming content segment by the user-display system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the identified non-programming content segment is displayed after a completion of displaying of the first programming content segment.

3. The method of claim 2, the identifying comprising:

determining if the identified non-programming content segment has been previously stored within the user-display system; and

fetching the identified non-programming content segment from the second source across the computer network if the identified non-programming content segment is not stored within the user-display system.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the fetching is commenced prior to the completion of displaying of the first programming content segment.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the program content further includes at least one instruction data portion transmitted from the first source and received in the user-display system, the at least one instruction data portion associated with the first programming content segment and comprising a timing data corresponding to a duration of the non-programming content segment associated with the first programming content segment.

6. The method of claim 3, the determining further comprising:

transmitting request data to the second source for the non-programming content segment;

receiving an identifier for the non-programming content segment from the second source based on the request data; and

comparing the received identifier for the non-programming content segment to identifiers corresponding to non-programming content segments residing in the user-display system to determine if the identified non-programming content has been previously stored within the user-display system.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the request data further comprises identifier data corresponding to the user-display system.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the identifier data comprises at least one of an internet protocol (IP) address corresponding to the user-display system, the timing data corresponding to the duration of the non-programming content segment associated with the first programming content, broadcasting-channel data corresponding to transmission channel of the program, program identifier data identifying the transmitted program content, and at least one username corresponding to at least one user associated with the user-display system.

9. The method of claim 3, the fetching further comprising:

transmitting the identifier for the non-programming content segment to the second source for obtaining the identified non-programming content segment;

receiving the identified non-programming content segment transmitted from the second source based on the transmitted identifier; and

storing the identified non-programming content in the user-display system.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer network comprises the Internet.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the second source transmits the identified non-programming content segment at a substantially faster rate than the programming content segments transmitted from the first source.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the non-programming content segments are of a higher resolution than the programming content segments.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the identified non-programming content segments is selected by the second source based on a user-profile of a user associated with the user-display system.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the first source comprises a first sever system and the second source comprises a second sever system.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the non-programming content comprises advertising content.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

wherein the programming content is transmitted from a first source to a plurality of user-display systems corresponding to a plurality of different users,

wherein each user-display system receives non-programming content segments from the second source for displaying in between the programming content segments, and

wherein the second source selects different non-programming content segments for different users based on predetermined differences in the user-profiles of the users.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the plurality of user-display systems are in peer-to-peer communication with each other for transmitting of the programming content between the user-display systems.

18. A method of claim 1, further comprising:

billing an entity providing the identified non-programming content segment based on a frequency of selection of the identified non-programming content segment and a predetermined billing rate corresponding to the identified non-programming content segment.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

billing at least one entity providing the differently selected non-programming content segment wherein the at least one entity is billed differently based on the number of user-display systems for which a non-programming content segment was selected, a frequency of selected non-programming content segment, and the different predetermined billing rates corresponding to the differently selected non-programming content segments.

20. A user-display system adapted to display a program comprising a programming content including a plurality of programming content segments and a non-programming content including at least one non-programming content segment, the user-display system is further adapted to:

receive a first programming content segment of the programming content transmitted from a first source across a computer network;

identify at least one non-programming content segment associated with the first programming content, the identified non-programming content segment received in the user-display system from a second source across the computer network; and

display the identified non-programming content segment by the user-display system.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the user-display system is further adapted to:

transmit request data to the second source for the non-programming content segment;

receive an identifier for the non-programming content segment from the second source based on the request data; and

compare the received identifier for the non-programming content segment to identifiers corresponding to non-programming content segments residing in the user-display system to determine if the identified non-programming content has been previously stored within the user-display system.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the user-display system is further adapted to:

determine if the identified non-programming content segment has been previously stored within the user-display system based on an identifier for the identified non-programming content segment received from the second source; and

fetch the identified non-programming content segment from the second source across the computer network if the identified non-programming content segment is not stored within the user-display system, wherein the fetch is commenced prior to completion of the display of the first programming content segment.

23. The system of claim 20, further comprising:

wherein the user-display system is adapted to receive the identified non-programming content segment transmitted from the second source at a substantially faster rate and higher resolution than the programming content segments transmitted from the first source, and

wherein the user-display system is adapted to display the higher resolution identified non-programming content segments received from the second source.

24. The system of claim 20, wherein the user-display system comprising:

a display subsystem adapted to display the program to the user; and

a data storage subsystem adapted to receive and store the programming and non-programming contents of the program.

25. The system of claim 24, further comprising:

wherein the display subsystem comprises at least one of a computer monitor and a television screen, and

wherein the data storage subsystem comprises a computer hard disk drive.