SYSTEM AND METHOD PROVIDING A FREQUENTLY-ACCESSED SERVICE OR ASSET LIST ON A SECOND DISPLAY

• US 20120210345A1
• Filed: 08/25/2011
• Published: 08/16/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/11/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Network Entertainment International LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Wong, Ling Jun, McCoy, Charles, Xiong, True
• Granted Patent: US 10,306,279 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/25
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/252 Processing of multiple end-users' preferences to derive collaborative data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/254 Management at additional data server, e.g. shopping server, rights management server arrangements for maintenance or administration in data networks H04L41/00; network services using third party service providers H04L67/53
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41265 having a remote control device for bidirectional communication between the remote control device and client device unidirectional remote control device H04N21/42204
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4722 for requesting additional data associated with the content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6175 involving transmission via Internet broadcast-related systems characterised by the transmission system being the Internet H04H60/82

Abstract

Apparatus and methods are provided to implement a technique for using a second display with a content playback device. In one implementation, this feature provides users a frequently-accessed service or asset list when browsing on a second display. Such systems and methods may be particularly advantageous when a user normally only visits a few services in an entire list of available services on a regular basis. The frequently-accessed list of services or assets may be populated by the user through the second display or may be populated by the server that is tracking service access by the user. The frequently-accessed service or asset list (or both) may be specific to the user account, a user profile within the user account, the second display, or the content playback device. In some implementations, the second display may be a smart phone that can often be found beside the user, a laptop or tablet PC, or the like.

Claims

1. A method of creating a list of frequently-accessed services or assets or both, comprising:

i. in a management server infrastructure where a second display associated with a user account allows access to a plurality of services and assets for playback of assets by a content playback device, at least a portion of the services and assets having counters associated therewith for enumerating a number of accesses, upon access of a service or asset on the second display, causing a counter associated with the service or asset, respectively, to be incremented; and

ii. displaying a list of frequently-accessed services or assets or both on the second display, the list including services or assets or both having a highest number of accesses according to the respective counters.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the counters are maintained on the second display.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the counters are maintained on a server.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the displaying is caused by a user request on the second display.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the list of frequently-accessed services or assets on the second display further includes services or assets, respectively, that have been manually entered.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the list of frequently-accessed services or assets on the second display further includes services or assets, respectively, that have been entered by action of a service, wherein a user has directed from within a service that the service or asset, respectively, be included in the list of frequently-accessed services or assets.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising removing a service or asset from the list of frequently-accessed services or assets, respectively, if the respective service or asset has not been accessed for a time period greater than the duration of an expiration window.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising stopping operation of the expiration window or the counters upon direction by a user.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing data about a second display, content playback device, user account, or user profile associated with the service or asset access, and wherein the frequently-accessed service or asset list is specific to the second display, content playback device, user account, or user profile, respectively.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the list of frequently-accessed services or assets is specific to a time-of-day recorded by the second display, content playback device, user account, or user profile.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising filtering the list of frequently-accessed services or assets based on a regional ruleset corresponding to a region in which the content playback device resides.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the second display is a tablet computer, a smart phone, a laptop computer, an internet appliance, or a computing device with internet access.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising ordering the list on the second display according to the number of accesses according to the respective counters.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable medium, comprising instructions for causing a computing device to implement the method of claim 1.

15. A method of enabling a user to access a frequently-accessed service or asset on a second display, comprising:

i. in a management server infrastructure where a second display associated with a user account allows access to a plurality of services or assets for playback of assets by a content playback device, at least a portion of the services or assets, respectively, having a counter associated therewith for enumerating a number of accesses, upon access of a service or asset on one second display, receiving a signal about the accessed service or asset, respectively, at a management server; and

ii. causing the display on the one or another second display of a list of the most frequently-accessed services or assets or both, the list including services or assets or both, respectively, associated with the user account having a highest number of accesses according to the respective counters.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the list of frequently-accessed services or assets caused to be displayed on the second display includes services or assets that have been manually entered.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the list of frequently-accessed services or assets caused to be displayed on the second display includes services or assets that have been entered by action of a service, wherein a user has directed from within a service that the service or asset be included in the list of frequently-accessed services or assets.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising storing data about a second display, content playback device, user account, or user profile associated with the service or asset access, and wherein the frequently-accessed service or asset list is specific to the second display, content playback device, user account, or user profile, respectively.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising filtering the frequently-accessed service or asset list based on a regional ruleset corresponding to a region in which a content playback device associated with the user account resides.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium, comprising instructions for causing a computing device to implement the method of claim 15.