SIGNAL TRANSMISSION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

• US 20150222733A1
• Filed: 02/04/2015
• Published: 08/06/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/18/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Kianoush Namvar
• Original Assignee: Kianoush Namvar
• Inventors: Namvar, Kianoush
• Application Number:
  US14/613,674
• Publication Number:
  US 20150222733A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/30 by a single channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/33 by plural channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/06 Arrangements for scheduling broadcast services or broadcast-related services
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/07 characterised by processes or methods for the generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/31 Arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/37 for identifying segments of broadcast information, e.g. scenes or extracting programme ID
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/66 for using the result on distributors' side
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/222 Secondary servers, e.g. proxy server, cable television Head-end provisioning of proxy services in data packet switching networks H04L67/56
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2543 Billing , e.g. for subscription services payment schemes, architectures or protocols G06Q20/00; e-commerce G06Q30/00; arrangements for billing for the use of broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/21
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2547 Third Party Billing, e.g. billing of advertiser
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25866 Management of end-user data customer care in data networks H04L41/5077
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25883 being end-user demographical data, e.g. age, family status or address arrangements for identifying locations of users in broadcast systems H04H60/52
• 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 21/26225 involving billing parameters, e.g. priority for subscribers of premium services
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44222 Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programs or purchase activity monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4755 for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre retrieval personalisation and generation of user profiles for the retrieval of video data G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6587 : Control parameters, e.g. trick play commands, viewpoint selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 : involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17309 : Transmission or handling of upstream communications

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system for organizing a plurality of signals to be transmitted to a plurality of subscriber receivers over at least one channel. At least one computer includes at least one processor and comprises at least one of a client computer and a server computer. The at least one computer is configured to generate at least one graphical user interface comprising (i) a scalable timeline that visually represents an absolute time reference for the at least one channel, the scalable timeline comprising a plurality of horizontal lines each corresponding to a channel of the at least one channel, wherein each horizontal line comprises an arrangement of different signals to be transmitted over a corresponding channel at different times, and (ii) a vertical time indicator on the scalable timeline that visually represents a present time, such that at least one signal currently being transmitted over the at least one channel is identifiable.

Claims

1. A system for organizing a plurality of signals to be transmitted to a plurality of subscriber receivers over at least one channel, comprising:

at least one computer including at least one processor, wherein the at least one computer comprises at least one of a client computer and a server computer, the at least one computer configured to generate at least one graphical user interface comprising;

(i) a scalable timeline that visually represents an absolute time reference for the at least one channel, the scalable timeline comprising a plurality of horizontal lines each corresponding to a channel of the at least one channel, wherein each horizontal line comprises an arrangement of different signals to be transmitted over a corresponding channel at different times; and

(ii) a vertical time indicator on the scalable timeline that visually represents a present time, such that at least one signal currently being transmitted over the at least one channel is identifiable.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one computer is further configured to receive user input, through the at least one graphical user interface, for organizing the plurality of signals over the at least one channel, and produce administrative instructions based at least partially on the user input.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the at least one computer is at least one client computer, the system further comprising a central management server in communication with the at least one client computer, the central management server configured to receive the administrative instructions from the at least one client computer and transmit, to at least a portion of the plurality of subscriber receivers, signals organized based at least partially on the administrative instructions.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one graphical user interface displays, for each of the signals to be transmitted over the at least one channel, a contents category corresponding to each signal, and for at least a subset of the signals to be transmitted over the at least one channel, facilitates a user to manipulate segments of each signal such that a particular sub-segment will be displayed by each subscriber receiver of the subscriber receivers that has a profile category matching the contents category corresponding to the particular sub-segment.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one graphical user interface is configured to, for at least a sub-set of the signals to be transmitted over the at least one channel, facilitate the user to select a suitable sub-segment for each of a number of profile categories for a segment of a signal.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface is further configured to enable the user to, for each sub-segment, select a profile category, wherein a default profile category is based on a compiled data set formed on basis of activity-monitoring information pertaining to signals having been presented in the subscriber receivers.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface is further configured to allow the user to, for each sub-segment, select a geographical area within which subscriber receivers will present the sub-segment, wherein a default geographical area is based on positional information pertaining to signals having been presented in the subscriber receivers.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface is further configured to enable the user to, for each sub-segment, select a priority level denoting a relative position of the sub-segment within a particular segment.

9. The system of claim 1, comprising a compiler adapted to produce a preliminary organization of the signals on the at least one channel before transmitting corresponding administrative instructions to the central management server.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface is configured to enable a user to manipulate the preliminary organization of the signals, and the at least one computer comprises processing means adapted for producing administrative instructions for transmission to a central management server on the basis of user manipulations.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one graphical user interface further comprises a symbol field corresponding to each channel of the at least one channel, the symbol field indicating a content type for a signal currently being transmitted or a signal that is scheduled to be transmitted next.

22. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one computer is further configured to verify content of each of the signals to be transmitted with respect to content of any neighboring signal segments.

23. The system of claim 3, wherein the at least one administrative instruction specifies that at least one channel is available for use by at least one second client computer during a particular time interval.

12. A method for transmitting a signal to a plurality of subscriber receivers over at least one channel of a plurality of channels, comprising:

generating, on at least one client computer, at least one graphical user interface comprising a scalable timeline adapted to visually represent an absolute time reference for the at least one channel, the scalable timeline representing a horizontal arrangement of signals to be transmitted over the at least one channel at different times;

receiving user input through the at least one graphical user interface for arranging different signals horizontally along the scalable timeline; and

generating a vertical time indicator on the scalable timeline that visually represents a present time, wherein the vertical time indicator identifies at least one signal of the horizontal arrangement of signals for the at least one channel that is currently being transmitted.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

producing administrative instructions based at least partially on the user input;

transmitting, to a central management server, the administrative instructions, wherein the administrative instructions enable the central management server to organize the signals and transmit, to at least a portion of the plurality of subscriber receivers, signals organized based at least partially on the administrative instructions.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving, at a central management server, the administrative instructions from the at least one client computer; and

transmitting, to the at least a portion of the plurality of subscriber receivers, the signals organized based at least partially on the administrative instructions.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

displaying, on the at least one graphical user interface and for each of the signals to be transmitted over at least one channel of the plurality of channels, a contents category corresponding to each signal; and

facilitating a user to manipulate segments of at least one signal such that a particular sub-segment will be displayed by each subscriber receiver of the subscriber receivers that has a profile category matching the contents category corresponding to the particular sub-segment.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving, from a user, a sub-segment for each of a number of profile categories for a segment of a signal.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving, from a user through the at least one graphical user interface, a selection of a profile category for each sub-segment, wherein a default profile category is based on a compiled data set formed on basis of activity-monitoring information pertaining to signals having been presented in the subscriber receivers.

18. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

generating, on the at least one graphical user interface, a symbol field corresponding to each channel of the plurality of channels, the symbol field indicating a content type for a signal currently being transmitted or a signal that is scheduled to be transmitted next.

19. A computer program product for transmitting a signal to a plurality of subscriber receivers over at least one channel of a plurality of channels, comprising at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium including program instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of at least one computer, cause the at least one computer to:

generate at least one graphical user interface comprising a scalable timeline adapted to visually represent an absolute time reference for the at least one channel, the scalable timeline representing a horizontal arrangement of signals to be transmitted over the at least one channel at different times;

receive user input through the at least one graphical user interface for arranging different signals horizontally along the scalable timeline; and

generate a vertical time indicator on the scalable timeline that visually represents a present time, wherein the vertical time indicator identifies at least one signal of the horizontal arrangement of signals for the at least one channel that is currently being transmitted.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the program instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the at least one computer to:

produce administrative instructions based at least partially on the user input;

transmit, to a central management server, the administrative instructions, wherein the administrative instructions enable the central management server to organize the signals and transmit, to at least a portion of the plurality of subscriber receivers, signals organized based at least partially on the administrative instructions.

21. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the program instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the at least one computer to:

display, on the at least one graphical user interface and for each of the signals to be transmitted over the plurality of channels, a contents category corresponding to each signal; and

facilitate a user to manipulate segments of at least one signal such that a particular sub-segment will be displayed by each subscriber receiver of the subscriber receivers that has a profile category matching the contents category corresponding to the particular sub-segment.