METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR GROUP MEDIA CONSUMPTION

• US 20100226288A1
• Filed: 03/04/2009
• Published: 09/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/04/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Mukerji, Ankur III, White, Scott, SCOTT, CHARLES
• Granted Patent: US 9,276,761 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/260
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2898 Subscriber equipments DSL modems H04M11/062; cable modems H04L12/2801
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234318 by decomposing into objects, e.g. MPEG-4 objects
• 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 21/8545 for generating interactive applications
• 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 set-top box comprising a controller to send an invite for participation in a media conference to at least one media device, the media conference comprising a presentation of a media program supplied by an interactive television (iTV) network, receive an acceptance of the invite from at least one accepting media device of the at least one media device, connect the at least one accepting media device to a communications bridge operably coupled to the STB, wherein the communications bridge enables the STB and the at least one accepting media device to engage in one of voice, video, and synthesized speech to text communications, and present the media program with at least a portion of the communications between the STB and the at least one accepting media device during the media conference. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A set-top box (STB) comprising a controller to:

send an invite for participation in a media conference to at least one media device, the media conference comprising a presentation of a media program supplied by an interactive television (iTV) network;

receive an acceptance of the invite from at least one accepting media device of the at least one media device;

connect the at least one accepting media device to a communications bridge operably coupled to the STB, wherein the communications bridge enables the STB and the at least one accepting media device to engage in one of voice, video, and synthesized speech to text communications; and

present the media program with at least a portion of the communications between the STB and the at least one accepting media device during the media conference.

2. The STB of claim 1, wherein the iTV network comprises one of internet protocol television, interactive cable television, and interactive satellite television.

3. The STB of claim 1, wherein the media program comprises at least one of one of audio content, video content, image content, and text content, wherein the at least one media device comprises at least one of another STB, a computer, a mobile phone, and a landline phone.

4. The STB of claim 1, wherein the controller is operative to receive the voice communications from the at least one accepting media device and convert the voice communications into text communications.

5. The STB of claim 1, wherein the controller is operative to create at least one of a first avatar associated with a first user of the STB and a second avatar associated with a second user of an accepting media device of the at least one accepting media device, wherein actions associated with the first and second avatars are based at least in part on the communications from the first and second users, and wherein the avatars are presented with at least one of the media program and the communications.

6. The STB of claim 1, wherein the media program is selected from recorded media content.

7. The STB of claim 1, wherein at least one of the controller and the at least one accepting media device is operative to control the communications from the communications bridge independently from the media program.

8. The STB of claim 1, wherein the controller is operative to receive and utilize at least one vote from at least one of the STB and the at least one accepting media device to perform at least one of selecting the media program and selecting a time for the media program to be presented.

9. The STB of claim 1, wherein the voice communications of at least one of the STB and the at least one accepting media device are inputted by a microphone operably connected to a remote controller.

10. The STB of claim 1, wherein the controller is operative to utilize at least one of media program ratings, the communications, user preferences, demographics, psychographics, and user profiles associated with users of the set-top box and the at least one media device to create at least one buddy list, wherein the at least one buddy list comprises a group of users with similar viewing interests.

11. The STB of claim 10, wherein the controller is operative to automatically send invites to users in a buddy list of the at least one buddy list to participate in the media conference.

12. The STB of claim 1, wherein the controller is operable to control the media conference.

13. The STB of claim 1, comprising sending the invite to the at least one media device based on a selection in an electronic programming guide.

14. The STB of claim 1, wherein the controller is operable to:

detect voice communications in a vicinity of the STB; and

submit to the at least one accepting media device at least one of an identifier and at least one of the detected voice communications and synthesized text derived from the detected voice communications, wherein the identifier is associated with the detected voice communications.

15. The STB of claim 1, wherein the controller is operable to:

receive an identifier and at least one of voice communications and synthesized text derived from the voice communications from an accepting media device of the at least one accepting media device, wherein the identifier is associated with the voice communications detected by the accepting media device; and

present at least one of the identifier and a derivative of the identifier and at least one of the received voice communications, text synthesized by the STB from the received voice communications, and the synthesized text supplied by the accepting media device.

16. A recipient media processor comprising a controller to:

receive an invite from an initiating media processor for participation in a media conference, wherein the media conference comprises a presentation of a media program;

send an acceptance of the invite to the initiating media processor;

communicate over a communications bridge operably coupled to the initiating media processor;

receive from the initiating media processor text synthesized from speech; and

present the synthesized text and the media program during the media conference.

17. The recipient media processor of claim 16, wherein the controller is operable to:

receive an identifier from the initiating media processor, wherein the identifier is associated with the received synthesized text; and

present at least one of the identifier and a derivative of the identifier.

18. The recipient media processor of claim 16, wherein the controller is operable to:

detect speech communications; and

transmit to the initiating media processor an identifier and one of the detected speech communications and text synthesized from the detected speech communications.

19. The recipient media processor of claim 16, wherein the controller is operable to present one of text communications synthesized by the controller from the detected speech communications supplied by the initiating media processor, and one of the detected speech communications and synthesized text communications supplied by the initiating media processor, and wherein the presentation is accompanied by one of the identifier and a derivative thereof, wherein each of the recipient media processor and initiating media processor comprise one of a STB, a computer, a communications device, and a gaming console.

20. A method, comprising:

receiving an acceptance from a media device in response to an invite to participate in a media conference, wherein the media conference comprises a presentation of a media program supplied by an interactive television (iTV) network;

connecting the media device to a communications bridge, wherein the communications bridge enables at least two parties to engage in at least one of voice, video, and synthesized speech to text communications; and

presenting the media program and at least a portion of the communications taking place at the communications bridge during the media conference.

21. The method of claim 20, comprising converting the voice communications into text communications using at least one of the media device and the communications bridge, wherein the text communications are presented during the media conference.

22. The method of claim 21, comprising muting the voice communications when presenting the text communications during the media conference.

23. The method of claim 20, comprising creating an avatar associated with a user of the media device and presenting the avatar with at least one of the media program and the communications, wherein actions associated with the avatar are based at least in part on the communications from the user.

24. A computer-readable storage medium, comprising computer instructions to:

receive a video stream from at least one media device, wherein speech communications taking place within a vicinity of the at least one media device are converted into text communications; and

present the text communications with the video stream.

25. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 24, comprising computer instructions to send an invite to the at least one media device to participate in the media conference, receive an acceptance to the invite from the at least one media device, and connect to the at least one media device to a communications bridge, wherein the communications bridge enables the at least one media device to engage in at least one of video, image, voice and text communications.

26. The computer-readable medium of claim 25, comprising computer instructions to present a scroll bar, wherein the scroll bar enables to the at least one media device to scroll through the text communications.

27. A network element comprising a controller to:

receive a request from a first media device to initiate a media conference comprising a media program;

allow the first media device and a second media device to participate in the media conference;

transmit the media program and at least one of voice, image, video, and text communications from at least one of the first media device and the second media device to the other of the first media device and the second media device during the media conference; and

transmit at least one of a first avatar associated with a first user of the first media device and a second avatar associated with a second user of the second media device, wherein actions associated with the first and second avatars are based at least in part on communications between the first and second users.