SOCIAL TELEVISION

• US 20120174157A1
• Filed: 01/04/2011
• Published: 07/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/04/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Stinson, Willis David III, Abou-Khamis, Omar Abdallah, Chang, Robin Chu-Hsin
• Granted Patent: US 8,863,185 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72

Abstract

A system may include a media content processing subsystem configured to provide media content to a display device. The system may further include an adjunct computing device in communication with the media content processing subsystem and configured to receive interactive program guide data, receive social information associated with an account on a social network, and display the interactive program guide data augmented with the social information.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a media content processing device configured to provide media content to a display device; and

an adjunct computing device in communication with the media content processing device and configured to;

receive interactive program guide data,

receive social information associated with an account on a social network, and

display the interactive program guide data augmented with the social information.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the social information includes at least one of social graph information indicative of friends of a user, presence information regarding the online status of friends of the user, and chat messages between friends and the user.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a server in communication with the social network and the adjunct computing device, the server being configured to receive the social information from the social network and provide the social information to the adjunct computing device.

4. The system of claim 3, further comprising a database in communication with the server and configured to maintain a mapping of accounts on the social network to accounts of users of adjunct devices.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the server is configured to use the mapping of accounts on the social network to accounts of users of the adjunct devices to determine which social information to provide to the adjunct computing device.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the interactive program guide data includes data corresponding to instances of media content being broadcast, streamed, or otherwise available for being experienced by users.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the adjunct computing device is further configured to augment the interactive program guide data to indicate which instances of media content are being at least one of:

experienced by friends of a user, and

discussed by friends of the user.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the adjunct computing device is further configured to augment the interactive program guide data to include at least one popularity indication indicative of how many friends of a user are at least one of joined and viewing a chat room for an instance of media content.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the adjunct computing device is further configured to include a new message indicator to notify a user when additional content is available from friends of the user.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the adjunct computing device is a tablet computing device.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the adjunct computing device is further configured to receive the interactive program guide data from the media content processing device.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the adjunct computing device is further configured to pair the adjunct computing device with the media content processing device.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the media content processing device is further configured to send an instance of media content to the display device to be experienced by a user, and the adjunct computing device is further configured to receive state information indicative of the instance of media content currently being sent to the display device.

14. A method, comprising:

pairing an adjunct computing device with a media content processing device;

associating the adjunct computing device with an account of a social network;

receiving interactive program guide data;

receiving social information; and

displaying the interactive program guide data augmented with the social information to a user.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

maintaining a mapping of accounts on the social network to accounts of users of adjunct devices; and

determining the social information to provide to the adjunct computing device according to the mapping of accounts.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the social information includes at least one of social graph information indicative of friends of the user, presence information regarding the online status of friends of the user, and chat messages between friends and the user.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising augmenting the interactive program guide data to indicate which instances of media content are presently being at least one of:

experienced by friends of the user, and

discussed by friends of the user.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

displaying an instance of media content to the user on a display device;

receiving state information indicative of the instance of media content currently being displayed by the display device; and

updating the interactive program guide data to indicate the instance of media content currently being displayed by the display device.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising at least one of:

receiving an invitation from a friend of the user to at least one of tune to an instance of media content, join a chat room associated with an instance of media content, and view a chat room associated with an instance of media content; and

sending an invitation to a friend of the user to at least one of tune to an instance of media content, join a chat room associated with an instance of media content, and view a chat room associated with an instance of media content.

20. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

displaying an instance of media content to the user on a display device accompanied by a chat room associated with the instance of media content;

receiving input from the user by the adjunct computing device; and

providing the received input as a chat message into the chat room.

21. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving a command to switch to displaying a chat room associated with a particular instance of media content;

determining whether an automatic tuning feature is activated; and

if the automatic tuning feature is activated, tuning the media content processing device to the particular instance of media content.

22. A computer-readable medium tangibly embodying computer-executable instructions configured to cause a processor of a computing device to:

pair the computing device with a media content processing device;

associate the computing device with an account of a social network;

send the association of the computing device with the account of the social network to a server;

receive interactive program guide data;

receive social information from the server according to the association of the computing device with the account of the social network; and

display the interactive program guide data augmented with the social information to a user.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 22, further comprising instructions configured to cause the processor to at least one of:

augment the interactive program guide data to indicate which instances of media content are presently being at least one of viewed by friends of the user and discussed by friends of the user;

augment the interactive program guide data include at least one popularity indication indicative of how many of friends of the user have at least one of joined and are viewing a chat room for an instance of media content; and

include a new message indicator to provide the user with a notification of when there is additional content in the chat room from friends of the user.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 22, wherein the computing device is a tablet computing device, and the instructions comprise a social television application.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 22, wherein the media content processing device is implemented as computer executable instructions executed by the processor of the computing device.