NARROWCAST MEDIA CONTENT DISTRIBUTION AND DISPLAY SYSTEM WITH CONTENT BIASING ENGINE

• US 20140059123A1
• Filed: 11/04/2013
• Published: 02/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cineplex Digital Media Inc.
• Original Assignee: Cineplex Digital Media Inc.
• Inventors: Stuart, Kenneth R., Elliott, Edward D., Krawetz, Bryan Andrew, Patel, Jayesh Kumar
• Granted Patent: US 9,553,920 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/438 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1454 involving copying of the display data of a local workstation or window to a remote workstation or window so that an actual copy of the data is displayed simultaneously on two or more displays, e.g. teledisplay
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display

Abstract

A media content distribution and display system and method that includes a central server, a plurality of remote display devices, and an electronic network for communicating therebetween. The central server receives and stores a plurality of media content, where each of the media content has one or more attributes associated therewith that relate to characteristics of the media content. The plurality of remote display devices receive via the electronic network the media content from the central server. Each of the remote display devices includes at least one electronic display, one or more target attributes associated with the remote display device that relate to environmental variables of the remote display device, and a biasing engine for comparing the media content attributes with the target attributes, and for causing the electronic display to display only those of the media content having one or more of the attributes associated therewith that satisfy a predetermined matching criteria with respect to the one or more target attributes.

Claims

1. A media content distribution and display system comprising:

an electronic network;

a plurality of remote display devices connected with the electronic network, each of the remote display devices comprising;

at least one electronic display,

one or more target attributes associated with the remote display device that relate to environmental variables of the remote display device, and

one or more sensors configured to automatically measure the environmental variables associated with the one or more target attributes; and

a central server, connected with each of the plurality of remote display devices via the electronic network, for storing a plurality of media content for distribution to the plurality of remote display devices, each of the media content having one or more content attributes, the central server including a biasing engine for comparing the media content attributes with the target attributes of the plurality of remote display devices, the biasing engine causing the electronic display of at least one of the plurality of remote display devices to display only those of the plurality of media content that have one or more of the content attributes that satisfy a matching criteria based on the one or more target attributes of the at least one remote display device.

2. The system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the one or more target attributes associated with one of the plurality of remote display devices is different from the one or more target attributes associated with another one of the plurality of remote display devices.

3. The system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the predetermined matching criteria of the biasing engine of one of the plurality of remote display devices is different from the matching criteria of the biasing engine of another one of the plurality of remote display devices.

4. The system in accordance with claim 1, further comprising:

at least one user device for submitting, via the electronic network, at least one media content and the content attributes to the central server.

5. The system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the predetermined matching criteria includes whether any of the content attributes match any of the target attributes.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the biasing engine generates weighted target attributes based on a weight assigned to target attributes, and ranks the media content having content attributes matching the target attributes by the weighted target attributes, wherein the predetermined matching criteria includes a criterion of the ranking of the media content.

7. The system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the one or more sensors includes one or more hardware sensors for measuring the environmental variables of the remote display devices.

8. The system in accordance with claim 7, wherein the one or more sensors includes one or more software sensors for measuring the environmental variables of the remote display devices.

9. The system in accordance with claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of remote display devices further comprises:

a local storage medium for storing the media content received from the central server via the electronic network.

10. The system in accordance with claim 9, wherein each of the plurality of remote display devices further comprises:

a retrieval search engine that searches for and retrieves via the electronic network any of the plurality of media content having content attributes that satisfy the matching criteria but are not stored on the local storage medium.

11. The system in accordance with claim 10, wherein the retrieval search engine searches for media content stored on the central server and any of local storage medium associated with one of the plurality of remote display devices.

12. The system in accordance with claim 11, wherein matching criteria for each remote display device includes a criterion of whether the media content is stored on its local storage medium.

13. The system in accordance with claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of remote display devices comprises two or more electronic displays.

14. The system in accordance with claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of the central servers connected to the electronic network for storing the plurality of media content for distribution to the plurality of remote display devices.

15. A media content distribution and display method comprising:

storing, on a central server, a plurality of media content for distribution to the plurality of remote display devices, each of the media content having one or more content attributes;

distributing, by the central server via an electronic network, the plurality of media content to a plurality of remote display devices, each of the plurality of remote display devices comprising;

at least one electronic display,

one or more target attributes associated with the remote display device that relate to environmental variables of the remote display device, and

one or more sensors configured to automatically measure the environmental variables associated with the one or more target attributes; and

comparing, by a biasing engine connected with the electronic network, the content attributes with the target attributes of the plurality of remote display devices, the biasing engine causing the electronic display of at least one of the plurality of remote display devices to display only those of the plurality of media content that have one or more of the attributes that satisfy a matching criteria based on the one or more target attributes of the at least one remote display device.

16. The method in accordance with claim 15, wherein the one or more target attributes associated with one of the plurality of remote display devices is different from the one or more target attributes associated with another one of the plurality of remote display devices.

17. The method in accordance with claim 16, wherein the predetermined matching criteria for one of the plurality of remote display devices is different from the predetermined matching criteria for another one of the plurality of remote display devices.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the storing of the plurality of media content on the central server further comprises:

receiving the media content from a user device connected to the central server via the electronic network.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

assigning, by the biasing engine, varying weights to the target attributes to generate weighted target attributes; and

ranking the media content having attributes matching the target attributes by the weighted target attributes, wherein the predetermined matching criteria includes a criterion of the ranking of the media content.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium containing instructions to configure a processor to perform operations comprising:

storing, on a central server, a plurality of media content for distribution to the plurality of remote display devices, each of the media content having one or more content attributes;

distributing, by the central server via an electronic network, the plurality of media content to a plurality of remote display devices, each of the plurality of remote display devices comprising;

at least one electronic display,

one or more target attributes associated with the remote display device that relate to environmental variables of the remote display device, and

one or more sensors configured to automatically measure the environmental variables associated with the one or more target attributes; and

comparing, by a biasing engine connected with the electronic network, the content attributes with the target attributes of the plurality of remote display devices, the biasing engine causing the electronic display of at least one of the plurality of remote display devices to display only those of the plurality of media content that have one or more of the attributes that satisfy a matching criteria based on the one or more target attributes of the at least one remote display device.