PERSONALIZED CONTENT AGGREGATION PLATFORM

• US 20160080815A1
• Filed: 09/15/2014
• Published: 03/17/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Ruffini, Michael P., Trimper, John K., Subramanian, Sankar, Fragale, Joseph G., Fronsdahl, Dwight W., Heitlinger, Paul D., Kher, Rahul, Klings, Eric N., Wang, Dongchen
• Granted Patent: US 9,467,743 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4438 Window management, e.g. event handling following interaction with the user interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/458 Scheduling content for creating a personalised stream, e.g. by combining a locally stored advertisement with an incoming stream; Updating operations, e.g. for OS modules ; time-related management operations arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast or during the distribution H04H20/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4668 for recommending content, e.g. movies
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• 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 21/4825 using a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlists
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4826 using recommendation lists, e.g. of programs or channels sorted out according to their score
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4828 for searching program descriptors retrieval of video data G06F16/739

Abstract

A user device receives, from a network device, a content index of content items available for presentation via a content distribution network. The user device presents a user interface to configure a personalized channel plan and receives, via the user interface, user input to configure the personalized channel plan. The personalized channel plan includes a schedule of selected content items, from the content index, for presentation on a remote viewing device. The user device sends, to a remote viewing device, presentation instructions for the personalized channel plan, wherein the instructions cause the viewing device to present the selected content items to the user.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a user device and from a network device, a content index of content items available for presentation;

presenting, by the user device, a user interface to configure a personalized channel plan;

receiving, by the user device and via the user interface, user input to configure the personalized channel plan, wherein the personalized channel plan includes a schedule of selected content items, from the content index, for presentation on a viewing device that is different than the user device; and

sending, by the user device and to the viewing device, instructions for the personalized channel plan, wherein the instructions cause the viewing device to present the selected content items to the user.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining, by the user device, links to access at least some of the selected content items.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the links include uniform resource locator (URL) for a network location to retrieve content formatted for a type of the viewing device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected content items include content from different television networks.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the selected content includes web-based content.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the sending further comprises:

discovering the viewing device within a local wireless network; and

sending the instructions via the local wireless network.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected content items include alternative content items for a same time period, and wherein the user input further includes instructions to selectively present the alternative content items.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the user input further includes instructions to retrieve an automatically-suggested content item, for presentation at a particular time, based on a user profile.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the instructions to retrieve the automatically-suggested content item include one or more user-selected criteria for the automatically-suggested content item.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more user-selected criteria for the automatically-suggested content item includes a content source, a duration, a genre, a keyword, or a content rating.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more user-selected criteria for the automatically-suggested content item includes weighted mix of different content categories.

12. A system, comprising:

a user device including;

a network interface to communicate with a network device and a remote viewing device;

a memory for storing instructions; and

a processor configured to execute the instructions to;

receive, from the network device, a content index of content items available for presentation via a content distribution network;

present a user interface to configure a personalized channel plan;

receive, via the user interface, user input to configure the personalized channel plan, wherein the personalized channel plan includes a schedule of selected content items, from the content index, for presentation on the remote viewing device; and

send, to the remote viewing device, presentation instructions for the personalized channel plan, wherein the instructions cause the viewing device to present the selected content items to the user.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the remote viewing device further comprises:

a host application to receive and execute the presentation instructions.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the user interface includes a scheduling grid for the personalized channel plan.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein, when receiving the user input to schedule the personalized channel plan, the processor is further configured to:

receive user input to drag a title from the content index into the scheduling grid.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the selected content items include live linear broadcast content and on-demand content.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the remote viewing device includes one or more of:

a set-top box (STB);

a cable card;

or

a smart television.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the instructions to:

store, in the memory, the personalized channel plan.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium, storing instructions executable by one or more processors, the non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising one or more instructions to:

receive, from a network device, a content index of content items available for presentation via a content distribution network;

present a user interface to configure a personalized channel plan;

receive, via the user interface, user input to schedule the personalized channel plan, wherein the personalized channel plan includes a schedule of selected content items, from the content index; and

provide presentation instructions for the personalized channel plan, wherein the instructions cause a viewing device to present the selected content items to the user.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19, further comprising one or more instructions to:

store the personalized channel plan; and

obtain links to access at least some of the selected content items.