APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR TRANSMITTING MEDIA CONTENT

• US 20110113440A1
• Filed: 11/10/2009
• Published: 05/12/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2009
• 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: CHANG, E-LEE, SCHULTZ, NATASHA BARRETT, ROBERTS, LINDA, SUNG, JA-YOUNG, King, Robert Arthur
• Granted Patent: US 9,031,379 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/9
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/33 Arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/80 characterised by transmission among terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43074 of additional data with content streams on the same device, e.g. of EPG data or interactive icon with a TV program
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4756 for rating content, e.g. scoring a recommended movie
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/80 Transformation of the television signal for recording, e.g. modulation, frequency changing; Inverse transformation for playback

Abstract

A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a computing device operative in an interactive television (iTV) network, including a controller to: receive a signal from a first communication device to start a first media evaluation session of media content and associate a first user-generated comment with the media content; receive, at a different time, a signal from at least a second communication device to start a second media evaluation session of the media content and associate a second user-generated comment with the media content; synchronize the first user-generated comment and the second user-generated comment into a single commentary timeline; and insert the synchronized user-generated comments in a temporal vicinity of the media content as an overlay for playback by a media device. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A computing device operative in an interactive television (iTV) network, comprising a controller to:

receive a signal from a first communication device to start a first media evaluation session of media content and associate a first user-generated comment with the media content;

receive, at a different time, a signal from at least a second communication device to start a second media evaluation session of the media content and associate a second user-generated comment with the media content;

synchronize the first user-generated comment and the second user-generated comment into a single commentary timeline; and

insert the synchronized user-generated comments in a temporal vicinity of the media content as an overlay for playback by a media device.

2. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the controller is operative to synchronize the first user-generated comment and the second user-generated comment based on start times of the first and second media evaluation sessions.

3. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the controller is operative to identify a start time and a stop time of the first media evaluation session and the second media evaluation session.

4. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the controller is operative to receive additional user-generated comments from additional communication devices and synchronize all of the user-generated comments and insert them in a single commentary timeline.

5. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the iTV network comprises at least one of internet protocol television (IPTV), interactive cable television, and interactive satellite television.

6. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the media content comprises at least one of video content, audio-only content, or video with no audio content.

7. The computing device of claim 1, wherein computing device comprises at least one of a mobile device, a computer, a set-top-box (STB), and telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a server or a computing tablet.

8. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the overlay includes menu buttons and other operative controls.

9. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the overlay includes a timeline which reflects an entire duration of the media content playing at the media device.

10. A method, comprising:

receiving, from a plurality of communication devices, asynchronous commentary that evaluates media content;

associating the media content with the asynchronous commentary;

synchronizing the asynchronous commentary to form synchronized comments grouped into a commentary timeline; and

superimposing the synchronized comments with the media content as an overlay for playback by a media device.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the commentary is a user-generated commentary, and wherein the method comprises receiving additional user-generated comments from additional communication devices and synchronizing all of the user-generated comments and inserting them in a single commentary timeline in a temporal vicinity of the media content.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the media content comprises at least one of video content, audio-only content, or video with no audio content.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the communication devices comprise one of a mobile device, a cellular phone, a wireless device, a laptop, or a television remote control.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the media content initially evaluated is a first run movie.

15. The method of claim 14, comprising receiving additional comments from additional communication devices, wherein the additional comments are based on the movie being viewed later when released in digital video disk (DVD) format, and synchronizing all of the comments and inserting them in a single commentary timeline.

16. The method of claim 10, comprising identifying a start time and a stop time of the evaluation of the media content using a corresponding one of the communication devices.

17. A computer-readable storage medium, comprising a program for instructing a computer to overlay, in non-real-time, asynchronous comments which evaluate media content into a single commentary timeline.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the overlay includes a timeline which reflects an entire duration of the media content playing at a media device.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, comprising instruction to identify a start time and a stop time of the evaluation of the media content using a communication device.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the communication device comprises one of a mobile device, a cellular phone, a wireless device, a laptop, or a television remote control.