METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRESENTING MEDIA PROGRAMS

• US 20090328122A1
• Filed: 06/25/2008
• Published: 12/31/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: ABELLA, ALICIA, AMENTO, BRIAN, STEAD, LARRY
• Granted Patent: US 8,839,327 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/114
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/338 using television networks
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/53 involving additional visual information provided to the game scene, e.g. by overlay to simulate a head-up display [HUD] or displaying a laser sight in a shooting game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/63 by the player, e.g. authoring using a level editor
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/822 Strategy games; Role-playing games A63F13/825, A63F13/828 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/87 Communicating with other players during game play, e.g. by e-mail or chat
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/535 for monitoring, e.g. of user parameters, terminal parameters, application parameters, network parameters
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/572 Communication between players during game play of non game information, e.g. e-mail, chat, file transfer, streaming of audio and streaming of video
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1016 IP multimedia subsystem [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/102 Gateways arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways, H04L12/66
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2221 being a cable television head-end CATV in broadcast systems H04H20/78
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2225 Local VOD servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2743 Video hosting of uploaded data from client
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41265 having a remote control device for bidirectional communication between the remote control device and client device unidirectional remote control device H04N21/42204
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44012 involving rendering scenes according to scene graphs, e.g. MPEG-4 scene graphs
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44222 : Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programs or purchase activity monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 : for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4758 : for providing answers, e.g. voting
• 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 21/6405 : Multicasting data broadcast and multicast in packet switching networks H04L12/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6408 : Unicasting
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64322 : IP
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 : Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a system having a controller to collect one or more temporal actions initiated by each of a plurality of users while presenting a media program to said plurality of users, generate one or more symbolic overlays according to the one or more temporal actions collected for each user, and combine the presentation of the media program with a presentation of the one or more symbolic overlays. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

presenting each of a plurality of users a media program;

collecting one or more temporal actions initiated by the plurality of users while the media program is presented;

creating one or more symbolic overlays corresponding to the one or more temporal actions of each user; and

combining the presentation of the media program with a presentation of the one or more symbolic overlays.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the media program corresponds to one of a video stream, an audio stream, a sequence of still images, a sequence of text images, and combinations thereof.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a portion of the plurality of users synchronously initiate the presentation of the media program, and wherein for said portion of the plurality of users the method comprises:

creating a synchronous symbolic overlay; and

combining the synchronous presentation of the media program with the synchronous symbolic overlay.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein a portion of the plurality of users asynchronously initiates the presentation of the media program, and wherein for each user of said portion of the plurality of users the method comprises:

creating an asynchronous symbolic overlay; and

combining the asynchronous presentation of the media program with the asynchronous symbolic overlay.

5. The method of claim 1, comprising generating metadata for each of the one or more temporal actions of each user, wherein the one or more temporal actions comprise at least one of a textual commentary, an audio commentary, an emotional reaction, a gesture, an expression, a sketch, and a vote.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein each of the one or more symbolic overlays comprise one of an avatar representation of each user, an actual image of each user, or combinations thereof, wherein the one or more temporal actions are expressed by way of one of the avatar representation of each user, the actual image of each user, or combinations thereof, wherein the gesture of the avatar corresponds to a motion of a body of the avatar, and wherein the expression of the avatar comprises at least one of a plurality of expressions comprising shock, sadness, laughter, excitement, drooling, confusion, anger, or winking.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the one or more symbolic overlays correspond to a virtual audience representing at least a portion of the plurality of users, and wherein each of the one or more symbolic overlays includes one or more depictions of at least a portion of the one or more temporal actions.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the one or more depictions are represented by one or more iconic symbols.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more depictions of a corresponding symbolic overlay are selectable by the portion of the plurality of users of said corresponding symbolic overlay, and wherein the method comprises:

detecting a selection of the one or more depictions; and

presenting a temporal action of one of plurality of users associated with the selected depiction.

10. The method of claim 1, comprising assigning the plurality of users to a buddy list, and wherein the method comprises:

receiving from one of the plurality of users authentication information; and

responsive to validating the authentication information, presenting the authenticated user an activity status of at least a portion of the buddy list.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the activity status comprises at least one of an identity of a user from the buddy list, an identity of the media program being presented to the user, and a time lapse since the presentation of the media program was initiated by the user.

12. The method of claim 11, comprising:

detecting a selection made by the authenticated user from the buddy list;

identifying one of the plurality of users from the buddy list associated with the selection;

identifying the media program being presented to the selected user, and the time lapse since the presentation was initiated by the selected user; and

presenting the authenticated user the media program synchronized to the presentation of the media program presented to the selected user.

13. The method of claim 1, comprising:

detecting a pattern of behavior for each of the plurality of users according to the one or more temporal actions initiated by each user; and

generating a behavioral profile for each of the plurality of users according to each user'"'"'s detected pattern of behavior.

14. The method of claim 1, comprising notifying at least one of the plurality of users when another one of the plurality of users initiates a temporal action.

15. The method of claim 1, comprising assigning one or more portions of the plurality of users to a corresponding one or more buddy lists, wherein each of the one or more buddy lists is associated with a corresponding one or more media programs.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the method operates in a proxy server, and wherein the media program is streamed to the proxy server from a media communication system, and wherein the media communication system comprises one of a social networking portal, an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) communication system, a satellite TV communication system, and a cable TV communication system.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the media program is supplied by a content provider, and wherein the content provider inserts metadata in the media program corresponding to one or more symbolic overlay conditions.

18. The method of claim 17, comprising:

retrieving the one or more symbolic overlay conditions from the media program; and

managing the presentation of one or more temporal actions according to the one or more symbolic overlay conditions.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the one or more symbolic overlay conditions comprise at least one of a symbolic overlay design, and a policy to manage the presentation of temporal actions in each of the one or more symbolic overlays.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the symbolic overlay design is described according to an extensible markup language.

21. The method of claim 1, comprising presenting each of the plurality of users one or more temporal occurrences of the one or more temporal actions initiated by each of the plurality of users.

22. The method of claim 21, comprising:

detecting a selection by one of the plurality of users of one of the one or more temporal occurrences; and

presenting the user making the selection a portion of the media program associated with the selected temporal occurrence.

23. The method of claim 21, comprising compacting a presentation length of the media program for a select one of the plurality of users according to the temporal occurrence of the one or more temporal actions initiated by each of the plurality of users.

24. The method of claim 23, comprising:

extracting one or more portions of the media program, each portion associated with a corresponding one or more temporal occurrences that exceed a threshold; and

generating a compacted media program by concatenating the extracted one or more portions.

25. The method of claim 1, comprising presenting a user of the plurality of users the one or more temporal actions initiated by a portion of the plurality of users responsive receiving a request from said user.

26. The method of claim 1, comprising presenting at least a portion of the plurality of users a media guide, wherein the media guide comprises at least one of a list of media programs indicating a frequency of consumption by the plurality of users, a list of media programs available for presentation, and a rating of the media programs available for presentation.

27. A system, comprising a controller to:

collect one or more temporal actions initiated by each of a plurality of users while presenting a media program to said plurality of users;

generate one or more symbolic overlays according to the one or more temporal actions collected for each user; and

combine the presentation of the media program with a presentation of the one or more symbolic overlays.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the media program corresponds to one of a video stream, an audio stream, a sequence of still images, a sequence of text images, and combinations thereof, and wherein the controller is adapted to present the media program to each user at a corresponding time initiated by each user.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein for a portion of the plurality of users that synchronously initiate the presentation of the media program, the controller is adapted to:

generate a synchronous symbolic overlay; and

combine the synchronous presentation of the media program with the synchronous symbolic overlay.

30. The system of claim 28, wherein for each user of a portion of the plurality of users that asynchronously initiates the presentation of the media program, the controller is adapted to:

generate an asynchronous symbolic overlay; and

combine the asynchronous presentation of the media program with the asynchronous symbolic overlay.

31. A computer-readable storage medium, comprising computer instructions for combining a presentation of a media program with a presentation of one or more symbolic overlays generated from one or more temporal actions collected from a plurality of users while presenting the media program to said plurality of users.

32. The storage medium of claim 31, wherein the media program corresponds to one of a video stream, an audio stream, a sequence of still images, a sequence of text images, and combinations thereof, and wherein the storage medium comprises computer instructions for presenting the media program to each user at a corresponding time initiated by each user.

33. The storage medium of claim 32, wherein for a portion of the plurality of users that synchronously initiate the presentation of the media program, the storage medium comprises computer instructions for:

generating a synchronous symbolic overlay; and

combining the synchronous presentation of the media program with the synchronous symbolic overlay.

34. The storage medium of claim 32, wherein for each user of a portion of the plurality of users that asynchronously initiates the presentation of the media program, the storage medium comprises computer instructions for:

generating an asynchronous symbolic overlay; and

combining the asynchronous presentation of the media program with the asynchronous symbolic overlay.