THREE-DIMENSIONAL SHAPE USER INTERFACE FOR MEDIA CONTENT DELIVERY SYSTEMS AND METHODS

• US 20110310100A1
• Filed: 06/21/2010
• Published: 12/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Adimatyam, Venkata S., Gavade, Sameer
• Granted Patent: US 8,537,157 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/420
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04802 3D-info-object: information is displayed on the internal or external surface of a three dimensional manipulable object, e.g. on the faces of a cube that can be rotated by the user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/20 Editing of 3D images, e.g. changing shapes or colours, aligning objects or positioning parts
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2200/24 involving graphical user interfaces [GUIs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2219/2016 Rotation, translation, scaling

Abstract

Exemplary three-dimensional (“3-D”) shape user interfaces for media content delivery systems and methods are disclosed. An exemplary method includes a media content delivery computing system maintaining data representative of a 3-D shape model including a plurality of shape faces, dynamically selecting, in accordance with a shape content selection heuristic, display content for association with at least one of the plurality of shape faces, and utilizing the data representative of the 3-D shape model to render a graphical representation of a 3-D shape in a graphical user interface. In some examples, the method further includes the computing system feeding the dynamically selected display content, which may include one or more video feeds, into at least one of the plurality of shape faces in real time. Corresponding methods and systems are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

maintaining, by a media content delivery computing system, data representative of a three-dimensional (“

3-D”

) shape model including a plurality of shape faces;

dynamically selecting, by the media content delivery computing system in accordance with a shape content selection heuristic, display content for association with at least one of the plurality of shape faces; and

utilizing, by the media content delivery computing system, the data representative of the 3-D shape model to render a graphical representation of a 3-D shape in a graphical user interface;

wherein the graphical representation of the 3-D shape displays the at least one of the plurality of shape faces containing the display content dynamically selected by the media content delivery computing system in accordance with the shape content selection heuristic.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising feeding, by the media content delivery computing system, the dynamically selected display content into the at least one of the plurality of shape faces in real time.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the display content comprises streaming video content.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein:

the plurality of shape faces comprises at least a first shape face and a second shape face;

the streaming video content comprises a first video program and a second video program;

the first shape face includes the first video program displayed therein; and

the second shape face includes the second video program displayed therein.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting, by the media content delivery computing system, user input requesting a display of a 3-D shape user interface;

wherein the dynamically selecting and the utilizing are performed by the media content delivery computing system in response to the user input requesting the display of the 3-D shape user interface.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting, by the media content delivery computing system, user input requesting that the 3-D shape be rotated in the graphical user interface;

dynamically selecting, by the media content delivery computing system in accordance with the shape content selection heuristic and in response to the detecting of the user input, other display content for association with at least one other of the plurality of shape faces; and

rotating, by the media content delivery computing system, the 3-D shape in the graphical user interface such that the graphical representation of the 3-D shape displays the at least one other of the plurality of shape faces containing the other display content.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the user input requesting that the 3-D shape be rotated comprises a hand gesture provided by a user, the hand gesture mimicking a rotation of a physical object.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the display content comprises information related to a media content program being presented by the media content delivery computing system during the rendering of the graphical representation of the 3-D shape.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing, by the media content delivery computing system, at least one tool for use by an end user to customize at least one condition to be included in the shape content selection heuristic.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the dynamically selecting of the display content for association with the at least one of the plurality of shape faces comprises dynamically selecting a live video feed for association with the at least one of the plurality of shape faces based at least in part on the at least one condition customized by the end user.

11. The method of claim 1, embodied as computer-executable instructions on at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium.

12. A method comprising:

maintaining, by a media content delivery computing system, data representative of a three-dimensional (“

3-D”

) shape model including a plurality of shape faces;

receiving, by the media content delivery computing system, one or more video feeds;

utilizing, by the media content delivery computing system, the data representative of the 3-D shape model to render a graphical representation of a 3-D shape in a graphical user interface; and

feeding, by the media content delivery computing system, at least one of the one or more video feeds into at least one of the plurality of shape faces in real time such that the graphical representation of the 3-D shape displays the at least one of the plurality of shape faces containing the at least one of the one or more video feeds.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

maintaining, by the media content delivery computing system, data representative of a shape content selection heuristic; and

dynamically selecting, by the media content delivery computing system in accordance with the shape content selection heuristic, the at least one of the one or more video feeds for the feeding into the at least one of the plurality of shape faces.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein:

the at least one of the plurality of shape faces comprises a first shape face and a second shape face within the plurality of shape faces;

the at least one of the one or more video feeds comprises a first video program feed and a second video program feed;

the first shape face includes the first video program feed displayed therein; and

the second shape face includes the second video program feed displayed therein.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

detecting, by the media content delivery computing system, user input requesting a display of a 3-D shape user interface;

wherein the utilizing and the feeding are performed by the media content access subsystem in response to the user input requesting the display of the 3-D shape user interface.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

detecting, by the media content delivery computing system, user input requesting that the 3-D shape be rotated in the graphical user interface; and

rotating, by the media content delivery computing system, the 3-D shape in the graphical user interface.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising providing, by the media content delivery computing system, at least one tool for use by an end user to customize at least one condition to be used by the media content delivery computing system to select the at least one of the one or more video feeds for the feeding into the at least one of the plurality of shape faces.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the at least one condition customized by the end user specifies at least one of a program channel, a media content program series, and a media content attribute to be used to select the at least one of the one or more video feeds for the feeding into the at least one of the plurality of shape faces.

19. The method of claim 12, embodied as computer-executable instructions on at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium.

20. A system comprising:

a media content distribution subsystem configured to transmit a plurality of video feeds; and

a media content access subsystem communicatively coupled to the media content distribution subsystem and configured to

maintain data representative of a three-dimensional (“

3-D”

) shape model including a plurality of shape faces,

receive the plurality of video feeds from the media content distribution subsystem,

dynamically select, based at least in part on an end-user-configured condition specified by a shape content selection heuristic, at least one of the plurality of video feeds for association with at least one of the plurality of shape faces,

utilize the data representative of the 3-D shape model to render a graphical representation of a 3-D shape in a graphical user interface, and

feed the dynamically selected at least one of the plurality of video feeds into the at least one of the plurality of shape faces in real time such that the graphical representation of the 3-D shape displays the at least one of the plurality of shape faces containing the at least one of the plurality of video feeds.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the end-user-configured condition specifies at least one of a preferred program channel, a preferred media content program series, and a preferred media content attribute.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein:

the 3-D shape model comprises a 3-D cube model;

the plurality of shape faces includes a plurality of cube faces; and

the graphical representation of the 3-D shape in the graphical user interface comprises a graphical representation of a 3-D cube in the graphical user interface.