System and method enabling visual filtering of content

• US 20110307783A1
• Filed: 02/07/2011
• Published: 12/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/11/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Disney Enterprises Incorporated (The Walt Disney Company)
• Original Assignee: Disney Enterprises Incorporated (The Walt Disney Company)
• Inventors: Robert, Arnaud, Drake, Edward C., Bartley, William
• Granted Patent: US 9,185,326 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/716
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/743 a collection of video files or sequences
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/431 Generation of visual interfaces for content selection or interaction; Content or additional data rendering
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/454 Content or additional data filtering, e.g. blocking advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4755 for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre retrieval personalisation and generation of user profiles for the retrieval of video data G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8146 involving graphical data, e.g. 3D object, 2D graphics
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/445 for displaying additional information H04N5/50 takes precedence

Abstract

There is presented a system and method enabling visual filtering of content. The system comprises a server, a content database storing content units and accessible through the server, and a filtering and display application. The filtering and display application is configured to enable visual filtering of the content units by filtering a plurality of graphical representations corresponding to a plurality of content units stored by the system, to extract a first plurality of graphical representations for displaying to a user, displaying the first plurality of graphical representations as active graphical representations selectable by the user in a first featured display, and dynamically filtering the first plurality of graphical representations and replacing the first featured display with another featured display of a first subset of active graphical representations selectable by the user according to an input received from the user.

Claims

1. A method for use by a system for enabling visual filtering of content, the method comprising:

filtering a plurality of graphical representations corresponding to a plurality of content units stored by the system, to extract a first plurality of graphical representations for displaying to a user;

displaying the first plurality of graphical representations as active graphical representations selectable by the user in a first featured display; and

dynamically filtering the first plurality of graphical representations and replacing the first featured display with another featured display of a first subset of active graphical representations selectable by the user, according to an input received from the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first featured display and the another featured display comprise a graphical list view.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first featured display and the another featured display comprise a graphical array.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the filtering of the plurality of graphical representations to extract the first plurality of graphical representations for displaying to the user is performed according to one of history data and preference data, the one of the history data and the preference data being associated with the user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the filtering of the plurality of graphical representations to extract the first plurality of graphical representations for displaying to the user is performed according to a first input received from the user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first plurality of graphical representations and the first subset of graphical representations comprises audio-visual images.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the filtering and the dynamic filtering is performed according to a metadata associated with each of the respective graphical representations.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the filtering and the dynamic filtering is performed according to a metadata associated with each of the respective graphical representations, the metadata sourced from the system.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the filtering and the dynamic filtering is performed according to a metadata associated with each of the respective graphical representations, the metadata sourced from a third party data provider.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the filtering and the dynamic filtering is performed according to a distribution window of the content to which each content unit respectively corresponds.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the filtering and the dynamic filtering is performed according to pricing of the content to which each content unit respectively corresponds.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the filtering and the dynamic filtering is performed according to at least one of a present availability and a future availability of the content to which each content unit respectively corresponds.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the filtering and the dynamic filtering is performed according to a genre of the content to which each content unit respectively corresponds.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of content units comprises content units corresponding to audio-visual content.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying another plurality of graphical representations in a preliminary display as active graphical representations selectable by the user, before the filtering.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

displaying a second plurality of graphical representations comprising the another plurality of graphical representations of the preliminary display not extracted by the filtering in a visually de-emphasized background display; and

overlaying the background display by the first featured display including the first plurality of graphical representations.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein displaying the second plurality of graphical representations comprises displaying the second plurality of graphical representations as inactive graphical representations not selectable by the user.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein each of the first plurality of graphical representations comprised by the first featured display is enlarged relative to the second plurality of graphical representations comprised by the background display.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising

visually de-emphasizing the first plurality of graphical representations not identified by the dynamic filtering.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein visually de-emphasizing the first plurality of graphical representations not identified by the dynamic filtering comprises moving those graphical representations from the first featured display to the background display.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein visually de-emphasizing the first plurality of graphical representations not identified by the dynamic filtering comprises reducing the size of those graphical representations and displaying those graphical representations as inactive graphical representations not selectable by the user.

22. A system enabling visual filtering of content, the system comprising:

a server;

a content database accessible through the server, the content database storing a plurality of content units;

a filtering and display application configured to enable visual filtering of the plurality of content units, by;

filtering a plurality of graphical representations corresponding to a plurality of content units stored by the system to extract a first plurality of graphical representations for displaying to a user;

displaying the first plurality of graphical representations as active graphical representations selectable by the user in a first featured display; and

dynamically filtering the first plurality of graphical representations and replacing the first featured display with another featured display of a first subset of active graphical representations selectable by the user, according to an input received from the user.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein at least one of the first featured display and the another featured display comprise a graphical list view.

24. The system of claim 22, wherein at least one of the first featured display and the another featured display comprise a graphical array.

25. The system of claim 22, wherein the filtering of the plurality of graphical representations to extract the first plurality of graphical representations for displaying to the user is performed according to one of history data and preference data, the one of the history data and the preference data being associated with the user.

26. The system of claim 22, wherein the filtering of the plurality of graphical representations to extract the first plurality of graphical representations for displaying to the user is performed according to a first input received from the user.

27. The system of claim 22, wherein at least one of the first plurality of graphical representations and the first subset of graphical representations comprises audio-visual images.

28. The system of claim 22, wherein at least one of the filtering and the dynamic filtering is performed according to a metadata associated with each of the respective graphical representations.

29. The system of claim 22, wherein at least one of the filtering and the dynamic filtering is performed according to a metadata associated with each of the respective graphical representations, the metadata sourced from the system.

30. The system of claim 22, wherein at least one of the filtering and the dynamic filtering is performed according to a metadata associated with each of the respective graphical representations, the metadata sourced from a third party data provider.

31. The system of claim 22, wherein at least one of the filtering and the dynamic filtering is performed according to a distribution window of the content to which each content unit respectively corresponds.

32. The system of claim 22, wherein at least one of the filtering and the dynamic filtering is performed according to pricing of the content to which each content unit respectively corresponds.

33. The system of claim 22, wherein at least one of the filtering and the dynamic filtering is performed according to at least one of a present availability and a future availability of the content to which each content unit respectively corresponds.

34. The system of claim 22, wherein at least one of the filtering and the dynamic filtering is performed according to a genre of the content to which each content unit respectively corresponds.

35. The system of claim 22, wherein the plurality of content units comprises content units corresponding to audio-visual content.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein at least one of the filtering and the dynamic filtering is performed according to a distribution window of the audio visual content.

37. The system of claim 22, wherein the filtering and display application is further configured to display another plurality of graphical representations in a preliminary display as active graphical representations selectable by the user, before the filtering.

38. The system of claim 37, wherein the filtering and display application is further configured to:

display a second plurality of graphical representations comprising the another plurality of graphical representations not extracted by the filtering in a visually de-emphasized background display; and

overlay the background display by the first featured display including the first plurality of graphical representations.

39. The system of claim 38, wherein displaying the second plurality of graphical representations comprises displaying the second plurality of graphical representations as inactive graphical representations not selectable by the user.

40. The system of claim 38, wherein each of the first plurality of graphical representations comprised by the first featured display is enlarged relative to the second plurality of graphical representations comprised by the background display.

41. The system of claim 22, wherein the filtering and display application is further configured to visually de-emphasize the first plurality of graphical representations not identified by the dynamic filtering.

42. The system of claim 41, wherein visually de-emphasizing the first plurality of graphical representations not identified by the dynamic filtering comprises moving those graphical representations from the first featured display to the background display.

43. The system of claim 41, wherein visually de-emphasizing the first plurality of graphical representations not identified by the dynamic filtering comprises reducing the size of those graphical representations and displaying those graphical representations as inactive graphical representations not selectable by the user.