SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SHARING MEDIA CONTENT BETWEEN USERS

• US 20130013698A1
• Filed: 07/05/2011
• Published: 01/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/05/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Relyea, Donald H., Ruiz-Velasco, Enrique, Pandey, Siddharth
• Granted Patent: US 9,191,431 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1818 Conference organisation arrangements, e.g. handling schedules, setting up parameters needed by nodes to attend a conference, booking network resources, notifying involved parties
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4015 where at least one of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. white board sharing, collaboration or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services

Abstract

An exemplary system includes a first user device associated with a first user and a second user device associated with a second user. The first user device is configured to detect a request input by the first user to share media content being processed by the user device with the second user, generate an invite message including data configured to be utilized by the second user device to access the media content, and send the invite message to the second user device by way of a messaging service. The second user device is configured to receive the invite message from the first user device by way of the messaging service, determine that the invite message is associated with a media sharing service, and perform one or more operations to facilitate access to the media content by the second user. Corresponding methods, systems, and apparatus are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

detecting, by a media sharing facility implemented by a user device, a request input by a user of the user device to share media content being processed by the user device with another user; and

generating, by the media sharing facility in response to the share request, an invite message configured to be sent by the user device to another user device associated with the another user, the invite message comprising

an indicator configured to be utilized by the another user device to determine that the invite message is associated with a media sharing service, and

data configured to be utilized by the another user device to access the media content.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending, by a messaging facility implemented by the user device, the invite message to the another user device by way of a messaging service.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

receiving, by the another user device associated with the another user, the invite message from the user device by way of the messaging service;

determining, by a media sharing facility implemented by the another user device based on the indicator included in the invite message, that the invite message is associated with the media sharing service; and

performing, by the media sharing facility implemented by the another user device in response to the determining that the invite message is associated with the media sharing service, one or more operations to facilitate access to the media content by the another user.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more operations comprise:

providing, by the media sharing facility implemented by the another user device, a notification of the invite message for presentation to the another user of the another user device, the notification indicating a user input command to be input by the another user to initiate accessing of the media content by the another user device;

detecting, by the media sharing facility implemented by the another user device, a user input of the user input command; and

utilizing, by the media sharing facility implemented by the another user device in response to the detected user input of the user input command, data included in the invite message to access the media content associated with the invite message from a media content distribution subsystem.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more operations comprise forwarding, by the media sharing facility implemented by the another user device, the invite message to one or more other user devices associated with the another user.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the one or more other user devices associated with the another user comprise at least one set-top box device.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the one or more other user devices associated with the another user are not configured to access the messaging service.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein:

the another user device and the one or more other user devices associated with the user are located within a footprint of a local area network; and

the invite message is forwarded to the one or more other user devices by way of the local area network.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the one or more operations further comprise:

providing, by the media sharing facility implemented by the another user device, a notification of the invite message for presentation to the another user of the another user device, the notification including a user input command to be input by the another user to forward the invite message to the one or more other user devices associated with the another user; and

detecting, by the media sharing facility implemented by the user device, a user input of the user input command to forward the invite message to the one or more other user devices associated with the another user;

wherein the forwarding of the invite message to the one or more other user devices associated with the another user is performed in response to the detected user input of the user input command.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein the one or more operations further comprise determining, by the media sharing facility implemented by the another user device, that the another user device is located within a footprint of a local area network;

wherein the forwarding of the invite message to the one or more other user devices associated with the another user is performed in response to the determining that the another user device is located within the footprint of the local area network.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the messaging service comprises a text messaging service; and

the invite message comprises a text message.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the text message comprises one of a Short Message Service (“

SMS”

) message, a Multimedia Message Service (“

MMS”

) message, and an Enhanced Message Service (“

EMS”

) message.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the messaging service comprises one of an instant messaging service, an email messaging service, and a social media messaging service.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the data included in the invite message and configured to be used to access the media content comprises one of a Uniform Resource Locator (“

URL”

) configured to be used to access the media content from a media content distribution subsystem and an identifier of a television channel configured to be tuned to in order to access the media content from the media content distribution subsystem.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the media content comprises one of

television programming content transmitted to the user device by a media content distribution subsystem,

end user generated live video accessed by the user device from the media content distribution subsystem, and

end user generated live video captured by a video camera implemented by the user device.

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

17. A method comprising:

receiving, by a user device associated with a user, an invite message sent by another user device associated with another user to the user device by way of a messaging service, the invite message comprising

an indicator configured to be utilized by the user device to determine that the invite message is associated with a media sharing service, and

data configured to be utilized by the user device to access the media content;

determining, by a media sharing facility implemented by the user device based on the indicator included in the invite message, that the invite message is associated with the media sharing service; and

performing, by the media sharing facility implemented by the user device in response to the determining that the invite message is associated with the media sharing service, one or more operations to facilitate access to the media content by the user.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the one or more operations comprise:

providing, by the media sharing facility implemented by the user device, a notification of the invite message for presentation to the user of the user device, the notification indicating a user input command to be input by the user to initiate access to the media content by the user device;

detecting, by the media sharing facility implemented by the user device, a user input of the user input command; and

utilizing, by the media sharing facility implemented by the user device in response to the detected user input of the user input command, data included in the invite message to access the media content associated with the invite message from a media content distribution subsystem.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the one or more operations comprise forwarding, by the media sharing facility implemented by the user device, the invite message to one or more other user devices associated with the user.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the one or more other user devices associated with the user comprise at least one set-top box device not configured to access the messaging service.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein:

the user device and the one or more other user devices associated with the user are located within a footprint of a local area network; and

the invite message is forwarded to the one or more other user devices by way of the local area network.

22. The method of claim 17, embodied as computer-executable instructions on at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium.

23. A method comprising:

capturing, by a mobile device, live video of a scene;

transmitting, by the mobile device, a source video feed including data representative of the live video to a media content distribution subsystem in real time;

receiving, by the mobile device from the media content distribution subsystem, data configured to be used to access the live video from the media content distribution subsystem;

receiving, by the mobile device from a user of the mobile device, a request to share the live video with another user;

generating, by the mobile device in response to the share request, a text message that includes the data configured to be used to access the live video from the media content distribution subsystem; and

sending, by the mobile device by way of a text messaging service and in response to the share request, the text message to a user device associated with the another user, the data included in the text message configured to be used by the user device to access the live video from the media content distribution subsystem in real time.

24. A system comprising:

a first user device associated with a first user; and

a second user device associated with a second user;

wherein the first user device is configured to

detect a request input by the first user to share media content being processed by the user device with the second user,

generate, in response to the share request, an invite message including an indicator configured to be utilized by the second user device to determine that the invite message is associated with a media sharing service and data configured to be utilized by the second user device to access the media content, and

send the invite message to the second user device by way of a messaging service; and

wherein the second user device is configured to

receive the invite message from the first user device by way of the messaging service,

determine, based on the indicator included in the invite message, that the invite message is associated with the media sharing service, and

perform, in response to the determination that the invite message is associated with the media sharing service, one or more operations to facilitate access to the media content by the second user.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein:

the messaging service comprises a text messaging service; and

the invite message comprises a text message.