Apparatus, Methods and Computer Program Products for Audience-Adaptive Control of Content Presentation

• US 20080046930A1
• Filed: 08/17/2006
• Published: 02/21/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/17/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Koch, Robert A., Smith, William L.
• Application Number:
  US11/465,235
• Publication Number:
  US 20080046930A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44218 Detecting physical presence or behaviour of the user, e.g. using sensors to detect if the user is leaving the room or changes his face expression during a TV program methods or arrangements for recognising human body or animal bodies or body parts G06V40/10; methods or arrangements for acquiring or recognising human faces, facial parts, facial sketches, facial expressions G06V40/16; methods or arrangements for recognising movements or behaviour G06V40/20; arrangements for identifying users in broadcast systems H04H60/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; 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 21/4661 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 21/4755 for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre retrieval personalisation and generation of user profiles for the retrieval of video data G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide apparatus, methods and/or computer program products for controlling presentation of content. In some method embodiments, a profile is stored for each of a plurality of potential audience members. Presence of a group of audience members of the plurality of potential audience members is detected. Responsive to the detection, a content presentation device is controlled based on collective consideration of the stored profiles of the group of audience members.

Claims

1. A method of presenting content, the method comprising:

storing a profile for each of a plurality of potential audience members;

detecting presence of a group of audience members of the plurality of potential audience members; and

controlling a content presentation device based on collective consideration of the stored profiles of the group of audience members.

2. The method of claim 1:

wherein detecting presence of a group of audience members of the plurality of potential audience members comprises detecting addition of a new audience member to a group of existing audience members; and

wherein controlling a content presentation device based on collective consideration of the stored profiles of the group of audience members comprises altering content presentation by the content presentation device responsive to the detection of the new audience member.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein altering content presentation by the content presentation device responsive to the detection of the new audience member comprises controlling the content presentation device based on a collective consideration of stored profiles of the new audience member and the group of existing audience members.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the stored profiles each comprise a plurality of parameters, and wherein controlling a content presentation device based on collective consideration of the stored profiles of the group of audience members comprises applying different control arbitration rules for respective ones of the profile parameters.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein controlling a content presentation device based on collective consideration of the stored profiles of the group of audience members comprises:

generating a collective profile for the group of audience members from the stored profiles responsive to the detection of the group of audience members; and

controlling the content presentation device responsive to the collective profile.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein controlling a content presentation device based on collective consideration of the stored profiles of the group of audience members comprises suspending a presentation of content based on collective consideration of the stored profiles of the group of audience members, terminating a presentation of content based on collective consideration of the stored profiles of the group of audience members, controlling access to a content channel based on collective consideration of the stored profiles of the group of audience members, editing content based on collective consideration of the stored profiles of the group of audience members and/or providing supplemental content based on collective consideration of the stored profiles of the group of audience members.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein controlling a content presentation device based on collective consideration of the stored profiles of the group of audience members comprises generating a content monitoring message based on collective consideration of the stored profiles of the group of audience members.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein generating a content monitoring message based on collective consideration of the stored profiles of the group of audience members comprises generating an alarm and/or a message based on collective consideration of the stored profiles of the group of audience members.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein storing a profile for each of a plurality of potential audience members comprises storing a profile of a generic audience member.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the stored profiles comprise an age grouping, a content rating, a presentation time parameter, a volume level and/or a content preference.

11. The method of claim 1:

wherein detecting presence of a group of audience members of the plurality of potential audience members comprises detecting loss of an audience member from a group of existing audience members; and

wherein controlling a content presentation device based on collective consideration of the stored profiles of the group of audience members comprises altering content presentation by the content presentation device responsive to the detection of the loss of the existing audience member.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein controlling a content presentation device based on collective consideration of the stored profiles of the group of audience members comprises providing a content guide based on collective consideration of the stored profiles of the group of audience members.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein providing a content guide based on collective consideration of the stored profiles of the group of audience members comprising arranging information in the content guide based on relative preferences of the group of audience members indicated in the stored profiles.

14. A computer program product comprising computer program code embodied in a storage medium, the computer program code comprising program code configured to implement the method of claim 1.

15. An apparatus configured to implement the method of claim 1.

22. The system of claim 13, wherein the audience-adaptive controller is configured to arrange information in the content guide based on relative preferences of the group of audience members indicated in the stored profiles.

16. A content presentation system comprising:

a content presentation device configured to provide an audio and/or visual output; and

an audience-adaptive controller configured to store a profile for each of a plurality of potential audience members, to detect presence of a group of audience members of the plurality of potential audience members and to control the content presentation device based on collective consideration of the stored profiles of the group of audience members.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the audience-adaptive controller is configured to detect addition of a new audience member to a group of existing audience members and to alter a content presentation by the content presentation device responsive to the detection of the new audience member.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the stored profiles each comprise a plurality of parameters, and wherein the audience-adaptive controller is configured to apply different control arbitration rules for respective ones of the profile parameters.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the audience-adaptive controller is configured to generate a content monitoring message based on collective consideration of the stored profiles of the group of audience members.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the audience-adaptive controller is configured to store a profile of a generic audience member.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein the audience-adaptive controller is configured to provide a content guide based on collective consideration of the stored profiles of the group of audience members.

23. A computer program product for controlling a content presentation device, the computer program product comprising computer program code embodied in a storage medium, the computer program code comprising:

program code configured to store a profile for each of a plurality of potential audience members, to detect presence of a group of audience members of the plurality of potential audience member and to control the content presentation device based on collective consideration of the stored profiles of the group of audience members.

24. A computer program product according to claim 23, wherein the program code configured to store a profile for each of a plurality of potential audience members, to detect presence of a group of audience members of the plurality of potential audience member and to control the content presentation device based on collective consideration of the stored profiles of the group of audience members comprises program code configured to detect addition of a new audience member to a group of existing audience members and to alter content presentation by the content presentation device responsive to the detection of the new audience member.

25. The computer program product of claim 23, wherein the program code configured to store a profile for each of a plurality of potential audience members, to detect presence of a group of audience members of the plurality of potential audience member and to control the content presentation device based on collective consideration of the stored profiles of the group of audience members comprises program code configured to generate a content monitoring message based on collective consideration of the stored profiles of the group of audience members.

26. The computer program product of claim 23, wherein the program code configured to store a profile for each of a plurality of potential audience members, to detect presence of a group of audience members of the plurality of potential audience member and to control the content presentation device based on collective consideration of the stored profiles of the group of audience members comprises program code configured to provide a content guide based on collective consideration of the stored profiles of the group of audience members.

27. The computer program product of claim 26, wherein the program code configured to provide a content guide based on collective consideration of the stored profiles of the group of audience members comprises program code configure to arrange information in the content guide based on relative preferences of the group of audience members indicated in the stored profiles.