SMART PHONE AS REMOTE CONTROL DEVICE

• US 20090298535A1
• Filed: 06/02/2008
• Published: 12/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Knowledge Ventures, L.P. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Klein, Adam, Britt, James Austin, Fox, Joshua J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,150,387 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/556.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72415 for remote control of appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43615 Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805

Abstract

A communication device such as a smart phone is enabled for remotely controlling set-top boxes (STBs) over Internet protocol networks using an applet running on the communication device. Authentication from within a multimedia content distribution network may be achieved by verifying that a network identifier associated with the communication device is associated with an account that has granted access to the smart phone and that is associated with the controlled STB. A viewing pane on the communication device permits a user to remotely view content received on or available to the controlled STB.

Claims

1. A hand-held communication device comprising:

a user agent including instructions, stored on computer readable media, the instructions operable for receiving a plurality of user inputs and, in response, generating a plurality of commands for managing in real time the multimedia content sent to a set-top box over a digital television network; and

a transceiver for sending the plurality of commands through the digital television network to the set-top box.

2. The hand-held communication device of claim 1, wherein the digital television network is a proprietary network for distributing digital television content.

3. The hand-held communication device of claim 1, wherein the transceiver is operable for communicating over the Internet.

4. The hand-held communication device of claim 1, wherein the hand-held communication device further comprises:

a touch screen display for presenting a user interface.

5. The hand-held communication device of claim 4, wherein the user interface includes a plurality of configurable virtual buttons for selecting digital television content to be sent to the set-top box.

6. The hand-held communication device of claim 5, wherein the hand-held communication device is remotely located from the set-top box.

7. The hand-held communication device of claim 1, wherein the transceiver is further for receiving incoming data from the digital television network.

8. The hand-held communication device of claim 7, wherein the incoming data includes local video content corresponding to digital television video content substantially simultaneously received by the set-top box.

9. The hand-held communication device of claim 1, wherein the user agent is an HTTP user agent.

10. The hand-held communication device of claim 9, wherein the user agent is a web browser.

11. The hand-held communication device of claim 9, wherein the hand-held communication device is associated with a first network identifier;

and

wherein the set-top box is associated with a second network identifier, wherein the first network identifier and second network identifier are associated with a user account for the digital television network, and wherein the plurality of commands for managing multimedia content sent to the set-top box are accepted in response to verifying a permission level between the first network identifier and the user account or between the first network identifier and the second network identifier.

12. A digital television service provided from a multimedia content distribution network, the digital television service comprising:

providing digital television content to a set-top box in response to receiving a plurality of commands sent over an Internet protocol (IP) network from a hand-held communication device, wherein the plurality of commands are for managing in real time the digital television content provided to the set-top box;

wherein the set-top box is communicatively coupled to the multimedia content distribution network.

13. The digital television service of claim 12, wherein the plurality of commands are provided to and processed by a user agent executing on the hand-held communication device, wherein the user agent is enabled for web-based communication with an access server that is communicatively coupled to the multimedia content distribution network to forward data indicative of the plurality of commands to an IPTV content server.

14. The digital television service of claim 12, further comprising:

establishing a session for communication between the hand-held communication device and the multimedia content distribution network.

15. The digital television service of claim 14, wherein establishing the session includes receiving an incoming telephone call from the hand-held communication device.

16. The digital television service of claim 14, wherein establishing the session includes placing an outgoing telephone call to the hand-held communication device.

17. The digital television service of claim 12, further comprising:

providing data indicative of the digital television content to the hand-held communication device.

18. The digital television service of claim 12, wherein the data indicative of the digital television content includes electronic programming guide data.

19. The digital television service of claim 12, wherein the data indicative of the digital television content includes streaming video content.

20. The digital television service of claim 19, wherein the streaming video content corresponds to a preview of a digital television program that is available for a scheduled transmission to the set-top box.

21. The digital television service of claim 20, wherein the streaming video content corresponds to a preview of a digital television program available on a channel not then currently received by the set-top box.

22. A method of managing in real time the digital television content provided to a set-top box from a multimedia content distribution network, the method comprising:

receiving remote control commands from a smart phone running a web applet stored on computer readable media communicatively coupled to the smart phone, the remote control commands indicative of user input to the smart phone; and

selectively delivering digital television content to the set-top box based on the received remote control commands.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the smart phone includes a touch screen display with virtual buttons to permit entry of the user input.

24. The method of claim 23, the method further comprising:

previewing in a pane on the touch screen display digital television content that is available to the set-top box.