Video Content Monitoring Device and Methods Thereof

• US 20140325548A1
• Filed: 07/11/2014
• Published: 10/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: O'Hern, William
• Granted Patent: US 9,635,419 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/64 for providing detail information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2407 Monitoring of transmitted content, e.g. distribution time, number of downloads arrangements for monitoring programmes for broadcast or for distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25 Management operations performed by the server for facilitating the content distribution or administrating data related to end-users or client devices, e.g. end-user or client device authentication, learning user preferences for recommending movies maintenance or administration in data networks H04L41/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; 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 21/26603 for automatically generating descriptors from content, e.g. when it is not made available by its provider, using content analysis techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44008 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in the video stream arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/442 Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. detecting the failure of a recording device, monitoring the downstream bandwidth, the number of times a movie has been viewed, the storage space available from the internal hard disk arrangements for monitoring broadcast services or broadcast-related services H04H60/29; arrangements for identifying or recognising characteristics with a direct linkage to broadcast information H04H60/35; monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; monitoring in wireless networks H04W24/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44209 Monitoring of downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. bandwidth variations of a wireless network arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6405 Multicasting data broadcast and multicast in packet switching networks H04L12/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64723 Monitoring of network processes or resources, e.g. monitoring of network load traffic related reporting in data switching networks H04L43/062
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments

Abstract

A method that incorporates teachings of the subject disclosure may include, for example, receiving a packet indicative of a request for a number of video content items. The video content items are identified based on a network traffic flow characteristic associated with the packet and a popularity level is determined associated with each video content item of the number of video content items. The popularity level for each of the video content items is compared to a popularity threshold, and a portion of a video content item is displayed responsive to the popularity level exceeding the popularity threshold. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a system comprising a processor, a packet indicative of a request for a plurality of video content items;

identifying, by the system, the plurality of video content items based on a network traffic flow characteristic associated with the packet;

determining, by the system, a popularity level associated with each video content item of the plurality of video content items;

comparing, by the system, for each video content item of the plurality of video content items, the popularity level to a popularity threshold; and

presenting, by the system, a portion of a video content item of the plurality of video content items responsive to the popularity level exceeding the popularity threshold.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the portion of the video content item of the plurality of video content items comprises:

presenting, by the system, an option to view the portion of the video content item; and

presenting, by the system, a popularity characteristic based on the popularity level associated with the video content item.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein providing the portion of the video content item of the plurality of video content items further comprises displaying a subject category associated with the video content item.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the popularity characteristic indicates a number of received requests for the video content item of the plurality of video content items.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the popularity characteristic indicates a number of received requests for the video content item of the plurality of video content items for a specified period of time.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the popularity characteristic indicates a user rating for the video content item of the plurality of video content items.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the portion of the video content item of the plurality of video content items comprises:

presenting, by the system, an option to download the portion of the video content item; and

presenting, by the system, a popularity characteristic based on the popularity level associated with the video content item.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, by the system, a protocol indicator indicating one of a multicast protocol, a unicast protocol or a combination thereof, wherein the presenting of the portion of the video content item of the plurality of video content items is according to the protocol indicator.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the network traffic flow characteristic comprises an internet protocol address, and wherein the protocol indicator further comprises one of a server protocol, a peer-to-peer protocol, or a combination thereof.

10. A system, comprising:

a memory to store executable instructions; and

a processor in communication with the memory, wherein the processor, in response to executing the instructions, facilitates performance of operations comprising;

receiving a plurality of popularity levels from a first data processing device, the plurality of popularity levels based on analysis of a network traffic flow characteristic associated with a plurality of packets associated with a plurality of video content items, wherein the network traffic flow characteristic indicates a peer-to-peer communication; and

presenting a portion of the plurality of video content items having popularity levels that exceed a popularity threshold.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the presenting of the plurality of video content items comprises displaying a list of options to view the plurality of video content items, wherein the list of options comprises a protocol indicator.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the network traffic flow characteristic comprises an internet protocol address, and wherein the protocol indicator further comprises one of a server protocol, a peer-to-peer protocol, or a combination thereof.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise:

displaying an option to view the portion of the video content item; and

displaying a popularity characteristic based on the popularity level associated with the video content item.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the popularity characteristic indicates a number of received requests for the video content item of the plurality of video content items.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the popularity characteristic indicates a number of received requests for the video content item of the plurality of video content items for a specified period of time.

16. A machine-readable storage device comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:

receiving over a network at a first data processing device a packet from a second data processing device, the packet indicative of a request for video content at a third data processing device;

determining a popularity level associated with the video content in response to receiving the packet; and

comparing the popularity level to a popularity threshold.

17. The machine-readable storage device of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise:

presenting a portion of the video content responsive to the comparing of the popularity level exceeding a popularity threshold; and

identifying the video content based on a network traffic flow characteristic associated with the packet, wherein the network traffic flow characteristic indicates a peer-to-peer communication.

18. The machine-readable storage device of claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise:

presenting an option to view a portion of the video content, wherein the option comprises a network protocol indicator indicating one of a multicast protocol, a unicast protocol or a combination thereof; and

presenting a popularity characteristic based on the popularity level associated with the video content.

19. The machine-readable storage device of claim 18, wherein the operations further comprise displaying a subject category associated with the video content.

20. The machine-readable storage device of claim 18, wherein the popularity characteristic indicates a number of received requests for the video content.