System and method for identifying common media content

• US 20070226315A1
• Filed: 02/15/2007
• Published: 09/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: III Holdings 2, LLC
• Original Assignee: PacketVideo Corporation (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Inventors: Espelien, Joel
• Granted Patent: US 8,161,111 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4015 where at least one of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. white board sharing, collaboration or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43076 of the same content streams on multiple devices, e.g. when family members are watching the same movie on different devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/436 Interfacing a local distribution network, e.g. communicating with another STB or one or more peripheral devices inside the home
• 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 21/632 using a connection between clients on a wide area network, e.g. setting up a peer-to-peer communication via Internet for retrieving video segments from the hard-disk of other client devices broadcast-related systems characterised by transmission among terminal devices H04H60/80; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A system and a method identify common media content with two or more terminals that are remote with respect to each other for users to access, to consume and/or to experience a multimedia file of the common media content. A first terminal of a first user connects to and/or invites a second terminal of a second user to participate in a shared viewing session of the multimedia file via a network. The first terminal transmits information associated with the multimedia file to the second terminal for the second terminal to determine whether a version of the multimedia file is accessible and is consumable by the second terminal. The second terminal procures and/or accesses the version of the multimedia file from a network provider via the network. A list of the common media content to the first terminal and to the second terminal is displayed via the first terminal and the second terminal. An attribute and/or data associated with the multimedia file, the first user and/or the second user may be displayed and/or may be identified via the list of common media content. The first terminal and the second terminal may be synchronized for the first user and for the second user to experience the multimedia file via the shared viewing session. A communication associated with the multimedia file may be transmitted between the first terminal and the second terminal via a shared communication channel over the network before, during and/or after a playback of the multimedia file. A third user determines whether to associate with the first user and/or the second user based on the attributes of and/or the data of the multimedia file and/or the list of the common media content for the first terminal and/or the second terminal.

Claims

1. A system for identifying multimedia for a first user and a second user, the system comprising:

a first terminal connected to a network wherein the first terminal has a first media library of multimedia files wherein the first terminal allows the first user to consume multimedia files of the first media library; and

a second terminal connected to the network wherein the second terminal has a second media library of multimedia files wherein the second terminal allows the second user to consume multimedia files of the second media library wherein the first terminal and the second terminal identify a list of common media content wherein the list of common media content is the multimedia files of the first media library that correspond to the multimedia files of the second media library wherein a common media session of synchronized consumption of a shared multimedia file is initiated for the first terminal and the second terminal wherein the shared multimedia file is selected from the list of common media content.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the list of common media content is generated based on metadata associated with the multimedia files of the first media library and the second media library.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

an electronic program guide that displays the list of common media content on the first terminal.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the first user pauses consumption of the shared multimedia file on the first terminal to pause consumption of the shared multimedia file on the second terminal.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a graphic user interface that allows the first user to select a multimedia file.

6. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a network source connected to the network wherein the network source transmits to the second terminal a new multimedia file corresponding to one of the multimedia files of the first media library that is not in the second media library.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the first terminal and the second terminal transmit a communication to each other that the common media session is ready to initiate.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the first terminal sends a message to the second terminal indicating the multimedia files of the first media library that correspond to multimedia files of the second media library.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the list of common media content is multimedia files of the first media library that correspond to multimedia files of the second media library and multimedia files of a third media library.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the first user transmits a communication from the first terminal to the second terminal via the network.

11. A method for identifying multimedia for a first user and a second user, the method comprising the steps of:

connecting a first terminal and a second terminal to a network wherein the first terminal has a first media library of multimedia files and the second terminal has a second media library of multimedia files;

generating a list of common media content wherein the list of common media content is the multimedia files of the first media library that correspond to the multimedia files of the second media library;

displaying an electronic program guide via the first terminal and the second terminal wherein the electronic program guide provides the list of common media content; and

initiating a common media session of synchronized consumption of a shared multimedia file wherein the shared multimedia file is selected from the list of common media content and consumed via the first terminal and the second terminal.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising the step of:

updating the list of common media content on a periodic basis.

13. The method of claim 11 further comprising the step of:

sending a message from the first terminal to the second terminal inviting the second user to partake in the shared media session of the shared multimedia file.

14. The method of claim 11 further comprising the step of:

consuming the multimedia file on a third terminal.

15. The method of claim 11 further comprising the step of:

providing a graphic user interface that allows the first user and the second user to select the shared multimedia file from the list of common media content.

16. The method of claim 11 further comprising the step of:

indicating multimedia files that are in the first media library that do not have corresponding multimedia files in the second media library.

17. The method of claim 11 further comprising the step of:

transmitting to the second terminal a new multimedia file that corresponds to one of the multimedia files of the first media library that is not in the second media library.

18. A system for identifying multimedia for a first user and a second user, the system comprising:

a network connected to a database of multimedia files;

a first terminal connected to the network wherein the first terminal has a first media library of multimedia files; and

a second terminal connected to the network wherein the second terminal has a second media library of multimedia files wherein the first terminal and the second terminal identify a multimedia file of the first media library that is not one of the multimedia files of the second library wherein the second terminal accesses the database via the network source to obtain the multimedia file wherein a common media session of synchronized consumption of the multimedia file is initiated for the first terminal and the second terminal.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the identification of the multimedia file of the first library that does not have a corresponding multimedia file of the second library is based on metadata associated with the multimedia files of the first library and the second library.

20. The system of claim 18 wherein communications are transmitted from the first user via the first terminal and the second user via the second terminal wherein the communications initiate the shared media session.