Limited social TV apparatus

• US 20070283380A1
• Filed: 06/05/2006
• Published: 12/06/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Palo Alto Research Center, Inc. (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Thornton, James D., Aoki, Paul M., Szymanski, Margareth H.
• Granted Patent: US 8,074,251 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/21805 enabling multiple viewpoints, e.g. using a plurality of cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44 Processing of video elementary streams, e.g. splicing a video clip retrieved from local storage with an incoming video stream or rendering scenes according to encoded video stream scene graphs
• 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 21/8547 involving timestamps for synchronizing content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/10 Adaptations for transmission by electrical cable H04N7/12 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/15 Conference systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

One aspect of the disclosed technology is a limited social television system that provides a light-weight process that allows multiple audience members to close the loop of interaction and create a compelling feeling of “shared experience” on the part of the response-reviewer.

Claims

1. An apparatus, for presenting an extracted-experiential data stream, said apparatus:

comprising;

a media access logic configured to access said extracted-experiential data stream;

a first presentation logic configured to present content from said extracted-experiential data stream accessed by the media access logic;

a position monitor logic configured to monitor a first playback position in a time dimension of said extracted-experiential data stream;

a proximity detector configured to detect proximity of said first playback position to a commentary clip trigger position associated with a commentary clip; and

a second presentation logic configured to present the commentary clip in conjunction with the first presentation logic.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a communication mechanism configured to receive a command request from a social-space related user selectable control; and

an internal control handler configured to process said command request to perform an operation related to the extracted-experiential data stream.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the proximity detector is further configured to detect proximity of said first playback position to an insertion coordinate associated with replacement/additional content;

and

the second presentation logic is further configured to present said replacement/additional content at said insertion coordinate instead of said extracted-experiential data stream content.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the proximity detector is further configured to detect proximity of said first playback position to an insertion coordinate associated with replacement/additional content;

and

the second presentation logic is further configured to present said replacement/additional content at said insertion coordinate instead of said extracted-experiential data stream content.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, further comprising:

a completion logic configured to detect completion of the presentation of said replacement/additional content; and

a resumption logic, responsive to the completion logic, configured to resume presentation of said extracted-experiential data stream content at a resumption coordinate within said extracted-experiential data stream.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said commentary clip is one of a plurality of commentary clips each having a respective a respective commentary clip trigger position and wherein some of said plurality of commentary clips are associated with a group.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein said some of said plurality of commentary clips are enabled for presentation as said group.