Associating subscription information with media content

• US 20070094304A1
• Filed: 09/30/2005
• Published: 04/26/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Scenera Technologies LLC (Scenera Research LLC)
• Original Assignee: Scenera Technologies LLC (Scenera Research LLC)
• Inventors: Morris, Robert, Horner, Richard, Bardsley, Jeffrey
• Application Number:
  US11/241,162
• Publication Number:
  US 20070094304A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A computer-implemented method and system is provided for associating subscription service information with media content. An exemplary embodiment includes receiving the media content including an identifier of a subscription service associated with the media content; using the identifier to subscribe to a subscription service using a publish/subscribe protocol; receiving information associated with the subscription service via the publish/subscribe protocol based on the subscription; and presenting the subscription information along with the media content.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for associating subscription service information with media content, comprising:

receiving the media content including an identifier of a subscription service associated with the media content;

using the identifier to subscribe to the identified subscription service using a publish/subscribe protocol;

receiving information associated with the subscription service via the publish/subscribe protocol based on the subscription; and

presenting the subscription information along with the media content.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the identifier is associated with at least a portion of the media content.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein using the identifier further includes:

using the identifier to associate subscription information with the portion of the media content; and

performing an action related to the portion of the media content using the associated subscription information.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the subscription information includes presence information.

5. The method of claim 1 further including:

using a plurality of identifiers for associating respective subscription information with the media content.

6. The method of claim 1 further including:

receiving the media content with multiple identifiers corresponding to people subscribed to the media content.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the media content includes at least one of audio data and video data.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the identifier is stored in an ID3 tag.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the identifier is stored as compact disc text.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein the identifier is stored in a MIDI field.

11. The method of claim 7 wherein multiple identifiers are associated with individual parts of the media content.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the multiple identifiers are associated with individual tracks of the audio data.

13. The method of claim 7 wherein the media content is multimedia content comprising both audio and video data and the identifier is inserted into an MPEG transport stream packet.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the subscription information includes at least one of:

subscription information of a creator of the media content;

subscription information of a contributor of the media content;

subscription information of a sender of the media content; and

subscription information of at least a subset of receivers of the media content.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein presenting the subscription information along with the media content includes at least one of displaying the subscription information associated with the media content in response to a request to play the media content, printing the subscription information, and playing an audio reproduction of content from the subscription information while the media content is played.

16. The method of claim 7 wherein the media content includes audio data having multiple tracks and multiple identifiers stored in the metadata are associated with respective tracks, the method further including presenting subscription information associated with each of the tracks when each of the tracks is played.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the subscription information includes at least one of a status that conveys status information and a communication address.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the communication address specifies at least one contact means and at least one corresponding contact address associated with the subscription information.

19. The method of claim 17 further comprising automatically opening a communication channel via the communication address associated with the subscription information.

20. The method of claim 3 wherein using the identifier to associate subscription information with the media content and performing an action related to the portion of the media content includes using the identifier as an index to retrieve a subscription URL from a cross-reference database if the identifier is not of a type sufficient to directly obtain the subscription information, and then using the subscription URL to obtain the subscription information.

21. A system for associating subscription service information with media content, comprising:

a computing device for receiving the media content including an identifier of a subscription service associated with the media content;

a publish/subscribe client coupled to the computing device, the publish/subscribe client for using the identifier to subscribe to a subscription service using a publish/subscribe protocol, and for receiving information associated with the subscription service via the publish/subscribe protocol based on the subscription; and

a media player coupled to the computing device for playing the media content and for presenting the subscription information along with the media content.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein the identifier is associated with at least a portion of the media content.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein the publish/subscribe client uses the identifier to associate subscription information with the portion of the media content;

and wherein an action is performed related to the portion of the media content using the associated subscription information.

24. The system of claim 21 wherein the subscription information includes presence information.

25. The system of claim 21 wherein the media content includes a plurality of identifiers for associating respective subscription information with the media content.

26. The system of claim 21 wherein the media content includes multiple identifiers corresponding to people subscribed to the media content.

27. The system of claim 21 wherein the media content includes at least one of audio data and video data.

28. The system of claim 27 wherein the identifier is stored in an ID3 tag.

29. The system of claim 27 wherein the identifier is stored as compact disc text.

30. The system of claim 27 wherein the identifier is stored in a MIDI field.

31. The system of claim 27 wherein multiple identifiers are associated with individual parts of the media content.

32. The system of claim 31 wherein the multiple identifiers are associated with individual tracks of the audio data.

33. The system of claim 27 wherein the media content is a media file comprising both audio and video data and the identifier is inserted into an MPEG transport stream packet.

34. The system of claim 21 wherein the subscription information includes at least one of:

subscription information of a creator of the media content;

subscription information of a contributor of the media content;

subscription information of a sender of the media content; and

subscription information of at least a subset of receivers of the media content.

35. The system of claim 34 wherein presenting the subscription information includes at least one of displaying the subscription information associated with the media content in response to a request to play the media content, printing the subscription information, and playing an audio reproduction of the content of the subscription information while the media content is played.

36. The system of claim 21 wherein the media content includes audio data having multiple tracks and multiple identifiers stored in the metadata are associated with respective tracks, wherein the subscription information associated with each of the tracks is presented when each of the tracks is played.

37. The system of claim 21 wherein the subscription information includes at least one of a status that conveys status information and a communication address.

38. The system of claim 37 wherein the communication address specifies at least one contact means and at least one corresponding contact address associated with the subscription information.

39. The system of claim 37 wherein a communication channel is automatically opened using the communication address.

40. The system of claim 23 wherein using the identifier to associate subscription information with the media content includes using the identifier as an index to retrieve a subscription URL from a cross-reference database if the identifier is not of a type sufficient to directly obtain the subscription information, and then using the subscription URL to obtain the subscription information.

41. An executable software product stored on a computer-readable medium containing program instructions for associating subscription service information with media content, the program instructions for:

receiving the media content including an identifier of a subscription service associated with the media content;

using the identifier to subscribe to a subscription service using a publish/subscribe protocol;

receiving information associated with the subscription service via the publish/subscribe protocol based on the subscription; and

presenting the subscription information along with the media content.

42. A computer-implemented method for associating subscription service information with media content, comprising:

embedding into the media content an identifier of a subscription service associated with at least a portion of the media content, wherein the identifier is embedded by at least one of a provider of the media content and a publish/subscribe service;

making the media content with the identifier available to a computing device of a receiver so that the computing device can,

use the identifier to subscribe to a subscription service using a publish/subscribe protocol;

receive information associated with the subscription service via the publish/subscribe protocol based on the subscription; and

present the subscription information along with the media content.