Tracking and Responding to Distracting Events

• US 20140201767A1
• Filed: 01/16/2013
• Published: 07/17/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/16/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Inventors: Seiden, Joshua, Johnson, Derek
• Granted Patent: US 8,955,002 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4325 by playing back content from the storage medium reproduction of recorded television signals H04N5/76; reproduction of recorded television signals H04N9/79
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44218 Detecting physical presence or behaviour of the user, e.g. using sensors to detect if the user is leaving the room or changes his face expression during a TV program methods or arrangements for recognising human body or animal bodies or body parts G06V40/10; methods or arrangements for acquiring or recognising human faces, facial parts, facial sketches, facial expressions G06V40/16; methods or arrangements for recognising movements or behaviour G06V40/20; arrangements for identifying users in broadcast systems H04H60/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4667 Processing of monitored end-user data, e.g. trend analysis based on the log file of viewer selections
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47217 for controlling playback functions for recorded or on-demand content, e.g. using progress bars, mode or play-point indicators or bookmarks specific graphical features in visual interfaces H04N21/4312

Abstract

A distraction monitoring system may monitor a user'"'"'s consumption of content, such as video content, and identify times at which the user is distracted from the content. The identified times may then be presented with a timeline for the video program, and the user may be permitted to view the distractions that occurred during the viewing of the video program. The user may select a distraction, and the video content may be played back from a corresponding playback point.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

presenting content to a user for consumption;

identifying, by a computing device, a distracting event occurring during the user'"'"'s consumption of the content;

determining whether the distracting event distracts the user from the content; and

in response to determining that the user'"'"'s attention was distracted, capturing information identifying the distracting event and a time of the distracting event.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein capturing the information identifying the distracting event and a time of the distracting event includes storing the information on a computer-readable medium, and further comprises storing information identifying one or more distraction preferences corresponding to the user;

and

using the user'"'"'s distraction preferences to determine whether the content presentation should be paused in response to the distracting event.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising automatically pausing presentation of the content to the user in response to determining that the user has been distracted from the content by the distracting event.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the content is presented to the user for consumption on a first device, and the method further comprises determining whether to automatically pause presentation of the content on the first device in response to determining that the user has diverted attention to a second device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the determination that the user has diverted attention to a second device includes receiving a distraction message from the second device.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying a graphical timeline for a selected video program, wherein the graphical timeline corresponds to the user'"'"'s viewing of the selected video program, and wherein the graphical timeline includes one or more indications identifying points in time when a distracting event occurred during the user'"'"'s viewing of the selected video program.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the graphical timeline includes thumbnail images identifying the distracting events.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the graphical timeline also includes thumbnail images from the selected video program, corresponding to points in time of the distracting events in the timeline.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving a user selection of one of the distractions; and

playing back the selected video program from a point in time corresponding to the selected distraction.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that a plurality of remaining users remain viewing a video program when a first user has become distracted; and

conducting arbitration between the plurality of remaining users to determine whether the video program should be automatically paused in response to the first user becoming distracted.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying a list of available timelines for a user, wherein each listed timeline corresponds to a prior viewing of a video program;

receiving a selection of one of the listed timelines; and

displaying the selected timeline, wherein the selected timeline includes a listing of distracting events that occurred during a corresponding prior viewing of a video program.

12. A method comprising:

monitoring distractions that take a user'"'"'s attention away from video content during presentation of the video content to the user;

storing information identifying the distractions and correlating the distractions to points in time in the video content; and

display a distraction timeline to the user, wherein the distraction timeline represents a duration of the video content, and identifies points during the video content at which the distractions occurred.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

detecting the opening of a door, and storing information indicating that the opening of the door is a distraction.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

using a camera to determine when a user has left a room in which the video content is being displayed; and

storing information indicating that the departure of the user from the room is a distraction.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving a distraction message from a second screen computing device, the message indicating that a user of the second screen computing device has become distracted from the video content through usage of the second screen device; and

storing information indicating that the user'"'"'s usage of the second screen device is a distraction.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving a user selection of an indicated distraction in the timeline; and

in response to the selection, identifying a corresponding portion of the video content, and beginning playback of the video content from the corresponding portion.

18. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

determining whether the distraction satisfies an auto-pause condition set by the user; and

if so, automatically pausing the video content presentation.

19. A method, comprising:

presenting a video content to a first user;

monitoring the first user'"'"'s attention during presentation of the video content;

identifying times at which the first user'"'"'s attention is diverted from the video content;

identifying a reason for the diversion of the first user'"'"'s attention;

providing the first user with a timeline for the video content, the timeline corresponding to previous time spent by the first user viewing the video content, and identifying points in time when the first user'"'"'s attention was determined to be diverted from the video content;

providing the first user with the option to select an identified point in time when the first user'"'"'s attention was determined to be diverted from the video content, and, if the option is selected playing back the video content beginning at a playback point corresponding to the selected identified point in time.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

determining that a plurality of other users are viewing the video content on a common display with the first user; and

determining whether to automatically pause the video content in response to the first user'"'"'s diverted attention, wherein the determination of whether to automatically pause is based at least in part on distraction preference settings of the plurality of other users.