System and method for content delivery

• US 20070277202A1
• Filed: 11/16/2006
• Published: 11/29/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Lin, Frank Li-De, Hwang, Paul Jin, Kuroko, Masashi, Miller, Timothy Scott
• Granted Patent: US 7,797,722 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/42 Arrangements for resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/33 Arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/46 for recognising users' preferences
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/108 characterised by resources being split in blocks or fragments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1091 Interfacing with client-server systems or between P2P systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2312 Data placement on disk arrays data placement in general G06F3/0604
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26216 involving the channel capacity, e.g. network bandwidth admission control, resource allocation in open networks H04L12/5692; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; establishing a schedule or organising the servicing of application requests taking into account QoS H04L67/61
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26241 involving the time of distribution, e.g. the best time of the day for inserting an advertisement or airing a children program
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4661 Deriving a combined profile for a plurality of end-users of the same client, e.g. for family members within a home user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306
• 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

Abstract

Based on a user profile, content that is predicted to be desired by the user, including past episodes of a series that may have been missed by the user, is downloaded to the user'"'"'s home system during periods of low bandwidth usage in the home system. A determination is made dynamically as to whether to provide the content from a server or a peer-to-peer network based on network attributes, file size, etc.

Claims

1. A method for providing content over a network to a home system for display of the content on a display device of the home system, comprising:

generating a viewer profile associated with the home system;

based on the profile, predicting at least one piece of content in which a viewer of the home system is interested; and

automatically pushing, during at least one period of low bandwidth usage in the home system, the piece to the home system over the network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the viewer profile is based at least in part on noting that an episode in a series was viewed, and the piece is an earlier episode in the series, the earlier episode being available on a server storing episode archives.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the profile is based on preferences received from the home system.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the profile is based on user selection activity associated with the home system.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the profile is based on program metadata including title, genre, and broadcast time of programs watched by a user of the home system for more than a threshold time period.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising, based on the profile, developing a list of recommended programming and downloading the list to the home system for viewing thereof.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the list is displayed in response to manipulation of a single button on a remote controller of the home system.

8. A method for delivering content to a home system communicating with at least one server and at least one peer-to-peer (P2P) network, comprising:

determining at least one characteristic of at least one network associated with the home system; and

based at least in part on the characteristic, determining whether to provide at least one content file to the home system from the server or the P2P network.

9. The method of claim 8, comprising determining a number of peers in the peer network that can serve content to the home system and at least partially based thereon, determining whether to provide the content file to the home system from the server or the P2P network.

10. The method of claim 9, comprising determining at least one attribute of the file and at least partially based thereon, determining whether to provide the content file to the home system from the server and/or the P2P network.

11. The method of claim 10, comprising determining whether to deliver the file immediately to the home system or deliver the file.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein if the file is in standard definition (SD) format and is not currently available on the P2P network, the server is selected as the delivery source.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein if the file is in high definition (HD) format and is to be automatically “

pushed”

to the home system and a sufficient number of peers exist in the P2P network to which the file is designated as being pushed to or that can serve as sources for the file, the P2P network is selected to deliver the file.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein if the P2P network is selected and a sufficient number of peers are turned off during transmission of the file to the home network, transmission of the file is transferred to the server.

15. A system, comprising:

at least one home system including at least one display device;

at least one server communicating with the home system for providing content thereto for display on the display device;

logic for determining content likely to be desired by a user of the home system; and

logic for providing the content to the home system during at least one period of low bandwidth usage in the home system without a request from the home system to do so.

16. The system of claim 15, comprising providing the content based at least in part on noting that an episode in a series was viewed in the home system, and the content is an earlier episode in the series, the earlier episode being available on a server storing episode archives.

17. The system of claim 15, further comprising:

at least one peer-to-peer (P2P) network communicating with the home network; and

logic for determining whether to provide the content to the home system from the server or the P2P network.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the logic for determining whether to provide the content to the home system from the server or the P2P network is based at least in part on a network attribute.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the logic for determining whether to provide the content to the home system from the server or the P2P network is based at least in part on determining a number of peers in the peer network that can serve content to the home system.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the logic for determining whether to provide the content to the home system from the server or the P2P network is based at least in part on determining at least one attribute of the content.