METHODS FOR PLAYING BACK PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED CONTENT

• US 20110126086A1
• Filed: 01/18/2011
• Published: 05/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/19/2007
• 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: Bedingfield, James Carlton SR.
• Granted Patent: US 8,135,754 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/202
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/487 using geographical or spatial information, e.g. location
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/489 using time information

Abstract

Previously published content is played back by identifying a previous time in which the previously published content was previously published and automatically adding an indication of the previous time in which the content was previously published, while playing back the previously published content. The indication may include a timestamp of the previous time, ambience and/or historical context of the previous time, an electronic program guide for the previous time, a current events guide for the previous time and/or archived content for the previous time that is related to the user of the content. Related systems, methods, computer program products and content playback devices are described.

Claims

1. A method of playing back previously published content, comprising:

identifying an age of the previously published content; and

automatically adding visual ambience to the previously published content as a function of the age of the previously published content, so as to provide a visual but non-alphanumeric indication of the age of the previously published content while playing back the previously published content.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein automatically adding visual ambience comprises surrounding the previously published content by a frame that includes the visual ambience.

3. The method according to claim 1 wherein automatically adding visual ambience comprises overlaying the previously published visual content with a visual overlay that adds the visual ambience.

4. A method of playing back previously published content, comprising:

identifying a previous time in which the previously published content was previously published;

automatically adding archived content for the previous time that is related to a user who is playing back the previously published content, so as to provide the user a personal context as to events that were occurring in the user'"'"'s life at the previous time in which the previously published content was previously published while playing back the previously published content; and

automatically adding a current events guide for the previous time, so as to also provide the user a separate historical context of the previous time in which the previously published content was previously published while playing back the previously published content.

5. The method according to claim 4 wherein automatically adding a current events guide comprises searching external data sources for current events content at the previous time.

6. The method according to claim 5 wherein the external data sources comprise archived news media.

7. The method according to claim 5 wherein the searching external data sources comprises searching external data sources from a single media provider for the current events content at the previous time.

8. The method according to claim 4 wherein the archived content for the previous time that is related to the user comprises photographs of the user from the previous time.

9. The method according to claim 4 wherein the archived content for the previous time that is related to the user comprises a calendar of the user from the previous time.

10. The method according to claim 4 wherein the archived content for the previous time that is related to the user comprises videos of the user from the previous time.

11. The method according to claim 4 wherein the archived content for the previous time that is related to the user comprises emails of the user from the previous time.

12. The method according to claim 4 further comprising automatically adding a timestamp of the previous time in which the previously published content was previously published, while playing back the previously published content.

13. The method according to claim 4 wherein the current events guide corresponds to a geographic location of a user who is playing back the previously published content.

14. A method of playing content, comprising:

identifying a geographic location that is associated with the content;

indentifying a geographic location of a user who is playing the content;

automatically adding content that is related to the geographic location that is associated with the content, so as to provide the user a context as to the geographic location that is associated with the content while playing the content; and

automatically adding content that is related to the geographic location of the user who is playing the content, so as to also provide the user a context as to the geographic location that is associated with the user while playing the content.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein identifying a geographic location that is associated with the content comprises using metadata that is associated with the content to identify the geographic location that is associated with the content.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein identifying a geographic location of a user who is playing the content comprises identifying an address that is associated with a content player that is playing the content for the user and obtaining the geographic location of the user who is playing the content from the address that was identified.

17. A method according to claim 14 wherein automatically adding content that is related to the geographic location that is associated with the content comprises automatically adding current events that are related to the geographic location that is associated with the content.

18. The method according to claim 14 wherein automatically adding content that is related to the geographic location of the user who is playing the content comprises automatically adding current events that are related to the geographic location of the user who is playing the content.

19. The method according to claim 14 wherein identifying a geographic location that is associated with the content comprises searching the content to identify the geographic location that is associated with the content.