Community-based Method and System for Creating and Subscribing to Dynamic Push Channels

• US 20080209000A1
• Filed: 02/22/2007
• Published: 08/28/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Schmidt, David
• Granted Patent: US 7,941,497 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/207
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/16 Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/266 Channel or content management, e.g. generation and management of keys and entitlement messages in a conditional access system, merging a VOD unicast channel into a multicast channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/472 End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or services; End-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification, for manipulating displayed content end-user interfaces for retrieving video data from a database G06F16/739; network services for supporting unicast streaming H04L65/612
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4821 using a grid, e.g. sorted out by channel and broadcast time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6131 involving transmission via a mobile phone network wireless downlink channel access H04W74/006
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64322 IP
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/60 Subscription-based services using application servers or record carriers, e.g. SIM application toolkits

Abstract

A system and method are provided for allowing a user to define and subscribe to channels of information to be pushed to a wireless device. In defining a channel a specific area of a web page is selected by the user to be monitored for change. The user may also select data to be pushed should a change be detected. A regular expression is created to match the area of interest for changes and if changes occur to push the desired content to the wireless device. Icons on the wireless device alert the user to any unread pushed content. Users may also subscribe to predefined channels, or modify predefined channels should they have the security authorization to do so.

Claims

1. A system for allowing a user of a wireless device to select content of interest on a website and to define a channel in which to push changes in said content to said wireless device, said system comprising:

a) a push channel manager site;

b) a page fragment selection tool operatively connected to said push channel manager site;

c) a change target selection tool operatively connected to said push channel manager site;

d) a user interface operatively connected to said push channel manager site;

e) a push channel manager database operatively connected to said push channel manager site, said database storing information on content to be pushed;

f) a push channel monitor operatively connected to said push channel manager database for the purpose of detecting changes in said content; and

g) an IP Proxy operatively connected to said push channel manager for the purpose of pushing changes in said content to said wireless device.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a cache operatively connected to said IP Proxy for the purpose of storing said changes in said content received from said IP proxy on said wireless device.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a security and administration policy manager operatively coupled to said user interface and said push channel manager database for the purpose of determining which users may create and access said channel.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said IP proxy further comprises:

a change target transcoder.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein said user interface permits a user to select a predefined channel to receive content of interest.

6. A method for allowing a user of a wireless device to select content of interest on a website and to define a channel in which to push changes in said content to said wireless device, the method comprising the steps of:

a) selecting a website of interest;

b) selecting content of interest;

c) selecting icons to indicate if content is read or unread;

d) sending the information collected at steps a), b) and c) to a push channel monitor site; and

e) monitoring changes in said content of interest and pushing any changes to said wireless device of said user.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising the step of:

prompting said user for name and categorization information on said channel and sending the name and categorization information to said push channel monitor site.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising the step of:

storing the information from step d) in a push channel manager database.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising the steps of:

analyzing the content of interest;

generating a regular expression to match changes in said content of interest; and

storing said regular expression in a push channel manager database.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising the step of:

determining if an existing regular expression to match changes in said content of interest resides in said push channel manager database and if so utilizing said existing regular expression to detect changes in said content of interest, else creating a new regular expression and storing the same in said push channel manager database.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of:

monitoring changes in channel information in said push channel manager database and taking one of three actions;

a) creating a new channel driver;

b) dropping a channel;

or

c) reloading a channel.

12. The method of claim 6, wherein the step of monitoring of changes further comprises the steps of:

f) scanning said content of interest;

g) if a change in said content of interest has occurred, tracking the activity of changes on said content of interest;

h) if said activity is above a threshold, disabling said channel; and

i) if said activity is below said threshold, pushing said content of interest to said user.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising the step of:

if said activity is not above said threshold and if said channel is disabled, reenabling said channel.

14. The method of claim 6, further comprising the step of:

permitting a user to select a predefined channel to receive content of interest, without the need to execute steps a) through d).

15. A physical computer medium, said medium including computer executable instructions which, when executed on a wireless device, cause the wireless device to:

a) permit a user to select a website of interest;

b) permit said user to select content of interest;

c) permit said user to select icons to indicate if content is read or unread;

d) send the information collected at steps a), b) and c) to a push channel monitor site; and

e) monitor changes in said content of interest and push any changes to said wireless device.

16. The medium of claim 15 further comprising instructions to permit said user to select a predefined channel to receive content of interest, without the need to execute steps a) through d).