Content interactivity gateway

• US 20070174624A1
• Filed: 10/10/2006
• Published: 07/26/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/23/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mediaclaw Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Mediaclaw Incorporated
• Inventors: Wolosewicz, Jack, Breisacher, Erich
• Granted Patent: US 9,065,683 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/176
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2541 Rights Management protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10; security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2547 Third Party Billing, e.g. billing of advertiser
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42203 sound input device, e.g. microphone
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42684 Client identification by a unique number or address, e.g. serial number, MAC address, socket ID network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming H04L61/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4333 Processing operations in response to a pause request
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4394 involving operations for analysing the audio stream, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in audio streams arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44236 Monitoring of piracy processes or activities protecting computer platforms against harmful, malicious or unexpected behaviour or activities using intrusion detection and counter measures G06F21/566; computer virus detection and handling G06F21/56
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/45455 applied to a region of the image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/458 Scheduling content for creating a personalised stream, e.g. by combining a locally stored advertisement with an incoming stream; Updating operations, e.g. for OS modules ; time-related management operations arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast or during the distribution H04H20/10
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6543 for forcing some client operations, e.g. recording remote booting in general G06F9/4416
• 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 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8358 involving watermark protecting executable software by watermarking G06F21/16; image watermarking in general G06T1/0021; watermarks inserted in still images for transmission purposes H04N1/32144; inserting watermarks during video coding H04N19/467
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02

Abstract

A gateway (e.g., a web site) connects content (e.g., pirated content) playing on a host device to a variety of informational, advertising, merchandising and DRM resources. Links, icons and other elements for connecting with the resources are provided to the host device by the gateway and can be presented to the user while the content is playing or paused. The type of resource presented to the user and the timing of the presentation can be based on content identifying information, timing information and/or other information provided by the host device.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a reader including first information for establishing communication with a resource gateway, where the reader is configured for receiving content from an uncontrolled distribution channel and for extracting second information from the content for associating the content with a resource provided by the resource gateway; and

an interface operatively coupled to the reader and configured for operatively coupling at least portions of the system to the resource gateway using at least some of the first information included in the reader.

2. The system of claim 1, where the second information includes a content identifier.

3. The system of claim 2, where the interface is configured for sending the content identifier to the gateway and for receiving from the gateway an ad associated with the content identifier.

4. The system of claim 3, where the ad is selected by the gateway from a repository of ads.

5. The system of claim 1, where the second information includes timing information.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a content formatter operatively coupled to the reader and configured to convert content into a format that can be played by a content player.

7. The system of claim 6, further comprising:

a content player operatively coupled to the content formatter and the interface, the content player for presenting the formatted content with an ad received from the gateway.

8. The system of claim 1, where the reader is a multi-protocol reader.

9. The system of claim 1, where the reader is a watermark reader.

10. A method, comprising:

receiving content including a watermark containing first information;

extracting the first information from the content using a watermark reader;

establishing communication with a resource gateway using second information stored in the watermark reader; and

sending the first information to the resource gateway.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving from the gateway an ad associated with the first information.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

presenting the content and the ad on a display device using timing information included in the first information.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving input associated with an interaction with the ad; and

providing access to a resource in response to the input, where the resource is determined at least in part by a content identifier included in the first information.

14. A computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform the operations of:

receiving content including a watermark containing first information;

extracting the first information from the content using a watermark reader;

establishing communication with a resource gateway using second information stored in the watermark reader; and

sending the first information to the resource gateway.

15. A system, comprising:

means for receiving content including a watermark containing first information;

means for extracting the first information from the content using a watermark reader;

means for establishing communication with a resource gateway using second information stored in the watermark reader; and

means for sending the first information to the resource gateway.

16. A method, comprising:

receiving a request to establish communication with a device, where the request is based on information included in a reader of the device;

receiving information included in a watermark associated with content configured for presentation on the device; and

determining an ad from a plurality of ads based on the information.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

transmitting the ad to the device for presentation with the content.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

updating the plurality of ads based on a bidding process.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

responsive to interaction with the ad, operatively coupling the device with a resource associated with the ad.

20. A method, comprising:

transmitting a bit stream to a device, the bit stream including instructions, which, when executed by a processor in the device, causes the processor to perform the operations of;

installing a reader on the device, the reader configured for reading a content identifier from content received by the device, the reader including information for establishing communication with a gateway; and

establishing communication with the gateway using the information.

21. A method, comprising:

retrieving content from a device in a network including a plurality of devices, the network operationally coupled to a resource gateway configurable for providing the plurality of devices access to one or more resources;

inserting a watermark in the content, the watermark including information for establishing communication with the resource gateway; and

making the watermarked content available to the plurality of devices in the network.

22. A method, comprising:

receiving content for presentation on a device, the content including a watermark;

extracting information from the watermark, the information including a content identifier;

operatively connecting with a gateway, the gateway configured for accessing a repository of ads and for updating the repository of ads through a bidding process; and

receiving an ad, where the ad was selected at the gateway using the content identifier.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

responsive to input resulting from interaction with the ad,

operatively connecting the device to a resource associated with the ad.

24. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

presenting the content on a display screen of the device; and

overlaying the ad on the content so that the content is at least partially obscured by the ad.

25. A method, comprising:

receiving content for presentation on a device, the content including a watermark;

extracting information from the watermark, the information including a user identifier; and

operatively connecting with a gateway, the gateway configured for determining content usage rights associated with a user of the device based on the user identifier.

26. A method, comprising:

receiving information extracted from a watermark associated with content adapted for presentation on a device, the information including a user identifier; and

determining content usage rights associated with a user of the device based on the user identifier.

27. A method, comprising:

receiving polluted content from an uncontrolled distribution channel;

extracting information from the polluted content;

establishing communication with a resource gateway using the information;

receiving a reader from the resource gateway; and

processing the polluted content with the reader to provide unpolluted content.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

receiving a content player including the reader; and

processing the polluted content with the reader in the content player to provide unpolluted content.