METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ADAPTING A PRESENTATION OF MEDIA CONTENT

• US 20120023518A1
• Filed: 07/20/2010
• Published: 01/26/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/2010
• 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: Meuninck, Troy C., Brown, William A., Morris, Nadia, Bedingfield, James Carlton Sr.
• Granted Patent: US 9,560,406 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/25
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/302 for viewing without the aid of special glasses, i.e. using autostereoscopic displays
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/337 using polarisation multiplexing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/341 using temporal multiplexing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/356 having separate monoscopic and stereoscopic modes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/398 Synchronisation thereof; Control thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42203 sound input device, e.g. microphone
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44213 Monitoring of end-user related data arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• 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 21/4755 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

Abstract

A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, identifying a stereoscopic preference from a user profile associated with a user of a viewing apparatus, receiving a stereoscopic media program, generating an adapted media program by adapting one or more presentation aspects of the stereoscopic media program according to the stereoscopic preference, and presenting at a presentation device the adapted media program according to a time-division multiplexing or space-division multiplexing scheme for viewing by way of the viewing apparatus. Other embodiments are disclosed and contemplated.

Claims

1. A media processor, comprising a controller to:

assign a first viewing apparatus to a first of one or more periodic time slots;

assign a second viewing apparatus to a second of one or more periodic time slots;

retrieve first user preferences from a first user profile associated with a first user of the first viewing apparatus;

retrieve second user preferences from a second user profile associated with a second user of the second viewing apparatus;

receive first and second stereoscopic media programs from a multimedia system;

generate a first adapted media program by adapting one or more presentation aspects of the first stereoscopic media program to conform to the first user preferences;

generate a second adapted media program by adapting one or more presentation aspects of the second stereoscopic media program to conform to the second user preferences;

cause a presentation device to present the first adapted media program during the first of the one or more periodic time slots; and

cause the presentation device to present the second adapted media program during the second of the one or more periodic time slots.

2. The media processor of claim 1, wherein the media processor corresponds to a set-top box (STB), a digital video recorder (DVR), or a combination thereof.

3. The media processor of claim 1, wherein the controller is operable to:

receive a first identification of the first user from the first viewing apparatus;

identify the first user profile according to the first identification of the first user;

receive a second identification of the second user from the second viewing apparatus; and

identify the second user profile according to the second identification of the second user.

4. The media processor of claim 3, wherein the first viewing apparatus comprises a first user interface to enable identification of the first user, and wherein the second viewing apparatus comprises a second user interface to enable identification of the second user.

5. The media processor of claim 4, wherein each of the first and second user interfaces comprises an audio system to detect speech commands or a biometric reader for identifying the first and second users.

6. The media processor of claim 1, wherein the first and second user preferences comprise a plurality of parental controls.

7. The media processor of claim 6, wherein the plurality of parental controls comprise at least two settings selected from a group of settings comprising a first metric to adjust an outward extension of stereoscopic images, a second metric to cause a transcoding of a stereoscopic format to a monoscopic format, a third metric to invoke one or more metrics for adapting media programs according to an age setting of a user, a fourth metric to adjust a viewing time of media programs by the user, a fifth metric to limit viewings of media programs according to media program ratings, a sixth metric to define a time of day range for viewing media programs, and a seventh metric to define one or more media program channel preferences.

8. The media processor of claim 1, wherein the first and second viewing apparatuses comprise shutter glasses, polarized glasses or combinations thereof.

9. The media processor of claim 1, wherein the multimedia system comprises one of an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) network, a cable TV network, a satellite TV network, and multimedia portal.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, comprising computer instructions to:

identify a first stereoscopic preference from a first user profile associated with a first user of a first viewing apparatus;

identify a second stereoscopic preference from a second user profile associated with a second user of a second viewing apparatus;

receive first and second stereoscopic media programs from a multimedia system;

generate a first adapted media program by adapting one or more presentation aspects of the first stereoscopic media program according to the first stereoscopic preference;

generate a second adapted media program by adapting one or more presentation aspects of the second stereoscopic media program according to the second stereoscopic preference;

cause a presentation device to present the first adapted media program according to a time-division multiplexing (TDM) or space-division multiplexing (SDM) scheme; and

cause the presentation device to present the second adapted media program according to the TDM or SDM scheme;

wherein the first viewing apparatus is adapted to enable a viewing of the first adapted media program and disable a viewing of the second adapted media program; and

wherein the second viewing apparatus is adapted to enable a viewing of the second adapted media program and disable a viewing of the first adapted media program.

11. The storage medium of claim 10, wherein the first and second stereoscopic preferences define an extent to which stereoscopic images generated by the first and second media programs appear to project outward toward the first and second users of the first and second viewing apparatuses.

12. The storage medium of claim 10, wherein the first stereoscopic preference defines an adjustment in a presentation of the first media program to accommodate a viewing disability of the first user.

13. The storage medium of claim 10, comprising computer instructions to adapt the first and second adapted media programs according to one or more additional preferences identified in the first and second user profiles.

14. The storage medium of claim 13, wherein the one or more additional preferences comprise a first metric to cause a transcoding of a stereoscopic format to a monoscopic format, a second metric to invoke one or more metrics for adapting media programs according to an age setting of a user, a third metric to adjust a viewing time of media programs by the user, a fourth metric to limit viewings of media programs according to media program ratings, a fifth metric to define a time of day range for viewing media programs, and a sixth metric to define one or more media program channel preferences.

15. The storage medium of claim 10, comprising computer instructions to:

receive a first identification of the first user from the first viewing apparatus;

identify the first user profile according to the first identification of the first user;

receive a second identification of the second user from the second viewing apparatus; and

identify the second user profile according to the second identification of the second user.

16. The storage medium of claim 15, wherein the first viewing apparatus comprises a first user interface to enable identification of the first user, and wherein the second viewing apparatus comprises a second user interface to enable identification of the second user.

17. The storage medium of claim 16, wherein each of the first and second user interfaces comprises an audio system to detect speech commands or a biometric reader for identifying the first and second users.

18. A method, comprising:

identifying a stereoscopic preference from a user profile associated with a user of a viewing apparatus;

receiving a stereoscopic media program;

generating an adapted media program by adapting one or more presentation aspects of the stereoscopic media program according to the stereoscopic preference; and

presenting at a presentation device the adapted media program according to a time-division multiplexing (TDM) or space-division multiplexing (SDM) scheme for viewing by way of the viewing apparatus.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the stereoscopic preference defines an extent to which stereoscopic images generated by the media program appear to project toward the user of the viewing apparatus.

20. The method of claim 18, comprising further adapting the first and second media programs according to one or more additional preferences identified in the first and second user profiles, wherein the one or more additional preferences comprise a first metric to cause a transcoding of a stereoscopic format to a monoscopic format, a second metric to invoke one or more metrics according to an age setting of a user, a third metric to adjust a viewing time of media programs by the user, a fourth metric to limit viewings according to media program ratings, a fifth metric to define a time of day viewing period for the user, and a sixth metric to define one or more channel preferences.