PLATFORM FOR THE DELIVERY OF CONTENT AND SERVICES TO NETWORKED CONNECTED COMPUTING DEVICES

• US 20140201331A1
• Filed: 05/24/2012
• Published: 07/17/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Corethree Limited (Constellation Software Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Corethree Limited (Constellation Software Incorporated)
• Inventors: Kershaw, Richard, Smith, Michael, Murdoch, James
• Application Number:
  US14/119,928
• Publication Number:
  US 20140201331A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9027 Trees
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/022 Knowledge engineering; Knowledge acquisition
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0633 Workflow analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/509 wherein the managed service relates to media content delivery, e.g. audio, video or TV
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0421 Anonymous communication, i.e. the party's identifiers are hidden from the other party or parties, e.g. using an anonymizer
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/185 by embedding added-value information into content, e.g. geo-tagging
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring

Abstract

Platform for the delivery of content and services to networked connected computing devices, in which the platform stores content by arranging nodes in a hierarchical data format that is capable of semantically representing content, with each node including a unique ID. The hierarchical format acts as an abstraction layer that insulates a content or service creator and the connected computing devices from being restricted (i) to any specific, predefined data format for the content or (ii) to any specific, predefined transport media for exchanging data over the network.

Claims

1. Platform for the delivery of content and services to networked connected computing devices, in which the platform stores content by arranging nodes in a hierarchical format that is capable of semantically representing content, with each node including a unique ID and in which the hierarchical format acts as an abstraction layer that insulates a content or service creator and the connected computing devices from being restricted (i) to any specific, predefined data format for the content or (ii) to any specific, predefined transport media for exchanging data over the network.

2. The platform of claim 1, in which the data format is a generic format that is capable of representing many different types of semantic content.

3. The platform of claim 1 in which the unique ID is a unique number, such as a GUID.

4. The platform of claim 1 in which the unique ID is a unique position in a tree hierarchy.

5. The platform of claim 1 in which the platform is server-based and the content is stored as a database on the server.

6. The platform of claim 1 in which individual content entities are linked to a parent and one or more child nodes to enable semantic, hierarchical organisation of content.

7. The platform of claim 1 in which individual content entities are linked to a parent and one or more child nodes to enable visual organisation and navigation of content within a user interface in a development environment.

11. The platform of claim 1 in which a node may be referenced with a textual path or the unique ID.

12. The platform of claim 1 in which a node includes a property defining how long each connected computing device may store that node before requesting fresh content.

13. The platform of claim 1 in which a node is defined by a type which identifies the kind of content the node contains, where types are hierarchically organised in a range of types, so that if a connected computing device is compatible with a specific type, then it can use all the properties of that type, but if it is not compatible with that type then it reverts to a simpler, higher-level type with properties that it can use.

15. The platform of claim 1 in which a node includes a property which defines that it is a placeholder or alias to another node, to enable re-use of common content structures.

16. The platform of claim 1 in which a node includes a property which defines that it is a placeholder or alias to another node, to enable multiple branches of a hierarchical tree of nodes to make use of a single set of nodes without duplication of data, to reduce bandwidth used by connected devices retrieving these nodes.

17. The platform of claim 1 in which meta-data may be inherited by children of the node with the addition of a flag upon an individual item of meta-data indicating that it should be inherited by descendants.

18. The platform of claim 1 in which business logic is represented as modules and these modules can be connected together in a visual development environment, for example using drag-and-drop, to form workflows, with modules that can be triggered with an alias from one or more nodes, where the modules produce further nodes and which can then be published for use in other workflows.

26. The platform of claim 1 in which the platform stores an abstracted record of a customer activity to enable activity to be analysed whilst preserving customers'"'"' privacy.

29. The platform of claim 1, in which the platform provides digital tickets to the connected computing devices for them to display, the tickets including an animated watermark or image that indicates that the ticket is validly available for use.

31. The platform of claim 1, in which the platform responds to requests from client-based applications running on networked connected computing devices, the request using standards-based protocols such as HTTP or Protocol Buffers.

35. The platform of claim 1 in which the services include live information aggregated from the internet.

8-10. -10. (canceled)

14. (canceled)

19-25. -25. (canceled)

27-28. -28. (canceled)

30. (canceled)

32-34. -34. (canceled)

36-38. -38. (canceled)

39. A method of providing content and services to networked connected computing devices, in which the method includes the step of using a platform that stores content by arranging nodes in a hierarchical data format that is capable of semantically representing content, with each node including a unique ID and in which the hierarchical format acts as an abstraction layer that insulates a content or service creator and the connected computing devices from being restricted (i) to any specific, predefined data format for the content or (ii) to any specific, predefined transport media for exchanging data over the network.

40. A platform for the delivery of content and services to networked connected computing devices, in which business logic is represented as modules and these modules can be connected together in a visual development environment, for example using drag-and-drop, to form workflows with modules that can be triggered with an alias from one or more nodes, where the modules produce further nodes and which can then be published for use in workflows

41-44. -44. (canceled)