USER INTERFACE WITH AVAILABLE MULTIMEDIA CONTENT FROM MULTIPLE MULTIMEDIA WEBSITES

• US 20100114857A1
• Filed: 10/17/2008
• Published: 05/06/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dish Technologies LLC (Dish Network Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Dish Digital LLC
• Inventors: Edwards, John, Edwards, Nathan, Brueck, David
• Granted Patent: US 8,321,401 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/709
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/743 a collection of video files or sequences
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/78 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2355 involving reformatting operations of additional data, e.g. HTML pages optimising the visualization of content for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/9577; tracking of instant messages H04L51/234; media packet handling at the source H04L65/762
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• 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 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8153 comprising still images, e.g. texture, background image

Abstract

Automatically and repeatedly crawling multiple multimedia websites to identify and collect information about the multimedia content that is available for delivery over the Internet to a client device for playback on a media player operating on the client device. In one embodiment, the method normalizes the collected information by converting the different formats of the collected information into a common format and converting the different nomenclatures of the collected information into a common nomenclature. The method updates an index with the normalized information, and sends a data feed to the client device to populate the user interface on the client device with the normalized information of the index. The user interface allows the user to navigate and select the multimedia content that is available for delivery over the Internet for playback on the media player.

Claims

1. A server for populating a user interface on a client device with available multimedia content from a plurality of servers, comprising:

a computing device including,

a network connection to connect to the Internet,

a plurality of crawlers to access the plurality of servers over the network connection, and to automatically and repeatedly crawl the plurality of servers to identify and collect information about multimedia content that is available for delivery over the Internet to the client device for playback on a media player operating on the client device, wherein at least some of the plurality of servers are operated by different entities, and wherein at least some the information about the multimedia content on each of the plurality of servers is represented in different formats and according to different nomenclatures; and

an index manager coupled to the plurality of crawlers and a data store,

wherein the index manager includes,

collection logic to receive the collected information from the plurality of crawlers;

normalization logic to convert the different formats of the collected information into a common format and to convert the different nomenclatures into a common nomenclature;

index logic to update an index of the available multimedia content with the normalized information; and

user interface logic coupled to the data store and the client device, the user interface logic to send a data feed to the client device to populate the user interface on the client device with the normalized information of the index, wherein the user interface allows a user to navigate and select the multimedia content that is available for delivery over the Internet for playback on the media player operating on the client device.

2. The server of claim 1, wherein the user interface allows the user to navigate and select the multimedia content that is available for delivery over the Internet for playback on the media player operating on the client device without requiring the user to input a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) to one of the plurality of servers.

3. The server of claim 1, wherein the collected information about the multimedia content comprises metadata describing the multimedia content, and wherein the normalization logic transforms the metadata into the normalized information.

4. The server of claim 3, wherein the metadata comprises a title or a description, and a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) indicating a web address where the multimedia content is available for delivery over the Internet for playback on the media player.

5. The server of claim 3, wherein the metadata comprises a thumbnail of an image of the multimedia content, and wherein the normalization logic comprises resize logic to resize the thumbnail to a common thumbnail size to transform the metadata.

6. The server of claim 3, wherein the metadata comprises a plurality of fields, each having a value, and wherein the normalization logic comprises:

rename logic to rename one or more of the plurality of field names of the metadata into the common nomenclature to transform the metadata; and

conversion logic to convert one or more of the values of the plurality of fields into the common nomenclature to transform the metadata.

7. The server of claim 3, wherein the metadata is stored according to a site-specific data structure, and wherein the normalization logic comprises reformat logic to reformat the site-specific data structure of the metadata into a common data structure.

8. The server of claim 3, wherein the metadata is stored in a plurality of locations on at least one of the plurality of servers according to a site-specific data structure, and wherein the normalization logic comprises reorganization logic to extract parts of the metadata from different locations of the plurality of locations, and to reorganize the parts of the metadata into a common data structure.

9. The server of claim 1, wherein the index manager further includes comparison logic to compare the collected information against previously collected information, if any, stored in the index.

10. The server of claim 9, wherein the comparison logic compares the collected information against previously collected information, if any, stored in the index after the normalization logic converts the different formats of the collected information into the common format and the different nomenclatures into the common nomenclature.

11. The server of claim 1, wherein the index manager further includes identifier logic to identify each of the plurality of servers to be crawled by each of the plurality of crawlers.

12. The server of claim 11, wherein the identifier logic is configured to receive input from an administrator to add or remove one or more servers to be crawled by the plurality of crawlers.

13. The server of claim 11, wherein each of the plurality of crawlers is configured to receive an initial Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of a different one of the plurality of servers from the identifier logic to access that server using the URL.

14. The server of claim 13, wherein at least one of the plurality of crawlers is configured to identify a link on the initial server to another URL having information regarding the multimedia content, to access another webpage using the other URL, to identify information at the other URL regarding multimedia content that is available for delivery over the Internet, and to retrieve the identified information to send to the collection logic.

15. The server of claim 13, wherein the at least one initial server contains a content catalog including information regarding multimedia content that is available for delivery over the Internet, and wherein the normalization logic is configured to parse the content catalog to extract the information regarding the multimedia content that is available for delivery over the Internet.

16. The server of claim 1, wherein the index manager further includes reporting logic coupled to the user interface logic to monitor activity by the user on the media player, and to generate statistical information about the monitored activity for reporting.

17. The server of claim 1, wherein the index manager further includes editor logic to receive input to modify an entry in the index, and to modify the entry based on the input.

18. The server of claim 17, wherein the input is user input received from one of a plurality of users in a community.

19. The server of claim 1, wherein the user interface allows the user to navigate and select the multimedia content that is available for delivery over the Internet for playback on the media player operating on the client device according to a filter designating one or more filtering criteria.

20. A method for populating a user interface on a client device with available multimedia content from a plurality of servers, comprising:

accessing the plurality of servers over the Internet;

automatically and repeatedly crawling the plurality of servers to identify and collect information about multimedia content that is available for delivery over the Internet to the client device for playback on a media player operating on the client device, wherein at least some of the plurality of websites are operated by different entities, and wherein at least some the information about the multimedia content on each of the plurality of servers is represented in different formats and according to different nomenclatures;

normalizing the collected information by converting the different formats of the collected information into a common format and to convert the different nomenclatures into a common nomenclature;

updating an index of the available multimedia content with the normalized information; and

sending a data feed to the client device to populate the user interface on the client device with the normalized information of the index, wherein the user interface allows a user to navigate and select the multimedia content that is available for delivery over the Internet for playback on the media player operating on the client device.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the user interface allows the user to navigate and select the multimedia content that is available for delivery over the Internet for playback on the media player operating on the client device without requiring the user to input a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) to one of the plurality of servers.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the collected information about the multimedia content comprises:

a thumbnail of an image of the multimedia content; and

metadata describing the multimedia content, and wherein said normalizing comprises;

resizing the thumbnail to a common thumbnail size;

renaming one or more values of the metadata into the common nomenclature; and

reformatting a site-specific data structure of the metadata into a common data structure.

23. The method of claim 20, further comprising comparing the collected information against previously collected information, if any, stored in the index.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein said comparing is performed after said normalizing.

25. The method of claim 20, further comprising receiving input from an administrator to add or remove one or more of the plurality of servers to be crawled.

26. The method of claim 20, wherein said automatically and repeatedly crawling comprises:

accessing one of the plurality of servers using an initial Uniform Resource Locator (URL);

identifying a link on the initial server to another URL having information regarding the multimedia content;

accessing another server using the other URL;

identifying information at the other URL regarding multimedia content that is available for delivery over the Internet; and

retrieving the identified information.

27. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

monitoring activity by the user on the media player; and

generating statistical information about the monitored activity for reporting.

28. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

receiving community input to modify an entry in the index; and

modifying the entry based on the community input.

29. A client device for populating a user interface on a client device with available multimedia content from a plurality of servers, wherein at least some of the plurality of websites are operated by different entities, the client device comprising:

a computing device including,

a network connection to connect to the Internet, and

a media player operating on the computing device, the media player including a user interface, the media player to receive a data feed from a server to populate the user interface, wherein the data feed includes information about multimedia content that is available for delivery over the Internet to the client device, wherein the information has been previously collected from the plurality of servers and previously normalized by converting the different formats of the collected information into a common format and by converting the different nomenclatures into a common nomenclature, wherein the user interface allows a user to navigate and select the multimedia content that is available for delivery over the Internet for playback on the media player operating on the client device.

30. The client device of claim 29, wherein the computing device further comprises an input interface to receive data from an input device to allow a user to navigate and select the multimedia content that is available for delivery over the Internet for playback on the media player operating on the client device.

31. The client device of claim 30, wherein the input interface is configured to receive the data from the input device in a first format that is specific to the input device, and to convert the first format to a second format that is specific to one of the plurality of servers having the available multimedia content.

32. The client device of claim 29, wherein the user interface allows the user to navigate and select the multimedia content that is available for delivery over the Internet for playback on the media player operating on the client device without requiring the user to input a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) to one of the plurality of servers.

33. The client device of claim 29, wherein the user interface allows the user to navigate and select the multimedia content that is available for delivery over the Internet for playback on the media player operating on the client device according to a filter designating one or more filtering criteria.

34. The client device of claim 29, wherein the user interface is a graphical user interface (GUI), wherein the GUI allows the user to navigate and select the multimedia content that is available for delivery over the Internet for playback on the media player operating on the client device without requiring the user to input a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) to one of the plurality of servers.

35. The client device of claim 34, wherein the GUI comprises a plurality of thumbnails, each thumbnail representative of an available video of the multimedia content that is available over the Internet for playback on the media player, and wherein the GUI allows the user to select one of the plurality of thumbnails to playback the available video on a viewing display.

36. The client device of claim 29, wherein the user interface is a graphical user interface (GUI) widget as an overlay on a viewing display of the media player, and wherein the viewing display is configured to playback a selected video.

37. The client device of claim 36, wherein the GUI widget is configured to hide after a specified period of time or after the user has selected a video to view.

38. The client device of claim 36, wherein the viewing display is configured to have a fullscreen feature that hides the GUI widget.

39. The client device of claim 36, wherein a second GUI widget is configured to pause, rewind, fast forward, time shift, or play the selected video during playback.

40. The client device of claim 36, wherein the media player is configured to stream a plurality of videos on the media player at the same time on multiple screens, one of the multiple screens being the largest, and wherein the media player allows the user to select one of the plurality of videos at any time to be displayed on the largest screen.

41. The client device of claim 29, wherein the media player is a plug-in in a web browser application.

42. The client device of claim 29, wherein the media player is a stand-alone application.

43. An article of manufacture comprising:

a machine-readable storage medium that provides instructions that, if executed by a machine, will cause the machine to perform operations comprising,

accessing a plurality of servers over the Internet;

automatically and repeatedly crawling the plurality of servers to identify and collect information about multimedia content that is available for delivery over the Internet to the client device for playback on a media player operating on the client device, wherein at least some of the plurality of websites are operated by different entities, and wherein at least some the information about the multimedia content on each of the plurality of servers is represented in different formats and according to different nomenclatures;

converting the different formats of the collected information into a common format and to convert the different nomenclatures into a common nomenclature;

updating an index of the available multimedia content with the normalized information; and

sending a data feed to the client device to populate the user interface on the client device with the normalized information of the index, wherein the user interface allows a user to navigate and select the multimedia content that is available for delivery over the Internet for playback on the media player operating on the client device.