METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ORGANIZING AND PLAYING DATA

• US 20090271706A1
• Filed: 07/02/2009
• Published: 10/29/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/11/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Volk, Andrew R.
• Granted Patent: US 8,041,750 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/733
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/44 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

The present invention provides a general solution to presenting media interface and navigation tools for content provided from a plurality of sources. The invention maintains a user at a single site regardless of the source of the media content. This permits a consistent interface to be presented to the user. Because the user remains at the same site, differences in tiered membership may be tracked so that the user is only presented with content that the user is permitted to view. The invention uses a metadata language to characterize content so that viewer type, membership level, and other information can be maintained and used for an enjoyable viewing experience.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

one or more servers configured to;

generate an interface at a site on a network for display on a user computer, a plurality of media files provided by a plurality of media file providers being made available to said user computer via said network using said interface;

define a set of metadata attributes relating to said media files, each of said metadata attributes of the set having a respective predetermined location in said interface regardless of media file or media file provider;

receive said plurality of media files provided by said plurality of media file providers via the network, the received media files for use with said interface;

associate metadata attributes from the set of metadata attributes with each of said received media files; and

map each of said associated metadata attributes to its respective predetermined location in said interface, so that in said interface each of said associated metadata attributes appears at its respective predetermined location in said interface for all of said media files and media file providers,

wherein said interface comprises;

a channel description portion to display a plurality of channel selections corresponding to the plurality of media files provided by the plurality of media file providers for selection by said user;

a show description portion to display one or more show selections, and in response user selection of one of the channel selections said show description portion displays only those show selections corresponding to the channel selection;

an episode description portion to display one or more episode selections, and in response to user selection of one of the show selections said episode description portion displays only those episode selections corresponding to the show selection; and

a viewer to view media file content at the user computer, the media file content corresponding to the channel, show and episode selections made by the user using the interface.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of media files are received from more than one source.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more servers are further configured to generate a media player interface for experiencing the media content.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein said metadata attributes comprise a title for the media file.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein said metadata attributes comprise a description for the media file.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein said metadata attributes comprise a duration for the media file.

21. The system of claim 1, wherein said metadata attributes comprise an expiration date for the media file.

22. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a sequence in which a user is to experience media content corresponding to said plurality of media files based on input from the user and without regard to the ordering of said unique identifiers in the data file.

23. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

determining media content of the media files other than media content corresponding to said plurality of media files for said user to experience while waiting for said user input.

4. A system

comprising:

one or more servers configured to;

define a set of metadata attributes relating to a plurality of media files, each of said metadata attributes in the set having a respective predetermined location in an interface, said respective predetermined location for a given metadata attribute being a same location in said interface regardless of media file or media file provider;

associate metadata attributes from within said defined set of metadata attributes with said plurality of media files, wherein said plurality of media files is provided by a plurality of media file providers;

utilize the metadata attributes to map the plurality of media files to an interface, said interface generated at a site on a network, said media files being made available to a user computer via said network site using said interface; and

map each of said associated metadata attributes to its respective predetermined location in said interface, such that in said interface each of said associated media attributes appears in its respective predetermined same location for all of said media files and media file providers,

wherein said interface comprises;

a channel description portion to display a plurality of channel selections corresponding to the plurality of media files provided by the plurality of media file providers for selection by said user;

a show description portion to display one or more show selections, and in response user selection of one of the channel selections said show description portion displays only those show selections corresponding to the channel selection;

an episode description portion to display one or more episode selections, and in response to user selection of one of the show selections said episode description portion displays only those episode selections corresponding to the show selection;

a viewer to view media file content at the user computer, the media file content corresponding to the channel, show and episode selections made by the user using the interface.

5. The system of claim 4, further comprising:

a local database for storing the metadata attributes.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the plurality of media files are provided by more than one source.

24. The system of claim 4, further comprising:

determining a sequence in which a user is to experience media content corresponding to said plurality of media files based on input from the user and without regard to the ordering of said unique identifiers in the data file.

25. The system of claim 4, further comprising:

determining media content of the media files other than media content corresponding to said plurality of media files for said user to experience while waiting for said user input.

7. (canceled)

8. (canceled)

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

associating the plurality of media files and related metadata attributes automatically based on criteria chosen by one of a plurality of users.

10. (canceled)

11. (canceled)

12. (canceled)

13. (canceled)

14. (canceled)

15. (canceled)

16. (canceled)

17. (canceled)