Media Channel Navigation User Interface Systems and Methods

• US 20160127785A1
• Filed: 03/31/2015
• Published: 05/05/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Higa, George M., Roberts, Brian F.
• Granted Patent: US 11,115,704 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/252 Processing of multiple end-users' preferences to derive collaborative data
• 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 21/4312 involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• 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 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• 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 21/4586 Content update operation triggered locally, e.g. by comparing the version of software modules in a DVB carousel to the version stored locally deployment, distribution, installation, update of software G06F8/65; error detection or correction of the data by redundancy during software upgrading G06F11/1433; arrangements for updating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/25
• 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 21/4661 Deriving a combined profile for a plurality of end-users of the same client, e.g. for family members within a home user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306
• 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 21/472 End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or services; End-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification, for manipulating displayed content end-user interfaces for retrieving video data from a database G06F16/739; network services for supporting unicast streaming H04L65/612
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47205 for manipulating displayed content, e.g. interacting with MPEG-4 objects, editing locally
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4725 using interactive regions of the image, e.g. hot spots details of information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94
• 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 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4821 using a grid, e.g. sorted out by channel and broadcast time
• 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 21/6582 : 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 21/8133 : specifically related to the content, e.g. biography of the actors in a movie, detailed information about an article seen in a video program

Abstract

An exemplary method includes a media channel navigation user interface system detecting, while media content distributed on a media channel is being presented for display on a display screen, a user request to launch a media channel navigation user interface, and providing, in response to the detected user request and for concurrent display with the presentation of the media content on the display screen, a media channel navigation user interface pane comprising a set of media channel navigation tools that include at least media content channel navigation tools selectable by a user to launch different types of menus of media channels in the media channel navigation user interface pane.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

detecting, by a media channel navigation user interface system while media content distributed on a media channel is being presented for display on a display screen, a user request to launch a media channel navigation user interface; and

providing, by the media channel navigation user interface system in response to the detected user request and for concurrent display with the presentation of the media content on the display screen, a media channel navigation user interface pane comprising a set of media channel navigation tools that include

a first media channel navigation tool selectable by a user to launch a first type of menu of media channels in the media channel navigation user interface pane, and

a second media channel navigation tool selectable by the user to launch a second type of menu of media channels in the media channel navigation user interface pane, the second type of menu of media channels different from the first type of menu of media channels.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first type of menu of media channels comprises one of a recency-based menu of media channels, a similarity-based menu of media channels, and an alphabet-based menu of media channels.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the second type of menu of media channels comprises a different one of the recency-based menu of media channels, the similarity-based menu of media channels, and the alphabet-based menu of media channels.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of media channel navigation tools further include a third media channel navigation tool selectable by the user to launch a third type of menu of media channels in the media channel navigation user interface pane, the third type of menu of media channels different from the second type of menu of media channels and the first type of menu of media channels.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein:

the first type of menu of media channels comprises a recency-based menu of media channels;

the second type of menu of media channels comprises a similarity-based menu of media channels; and

the third type of menu of media channels comprises an alphabet-based menu of media channels.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting, by the media channel navigation user interface system, a selection of the first media channel navigation tool in the media channel navigation user interface pane; and

providing, by the media channel navigation user interface system in response to the detected selection of the first media channel navigation tool, the first type of menu of media channels for concurrent display with the set of media channel navigation tools in the media channel navigation user interface pane.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein:

the first type of menu of media channels comprises a recency-based menu of media channels; and

the providing of the first type of menu of media channels for display comprises selecting one or more media channels, from a history of accessed media channels, for inclusion in the recency-based menu of media channels based on a set of predefined recency-based channel selection factors.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

detecting, by the media channel navigation user interface system, a selection of a media channel included in the first type of menu of media channels; and

providing, by the media channel navigation user interface system in response to the detected selection of the media channel, content related to the media channel for display within the first type of menu of media channels in media channel navigation user interface pane.

9. The method of claim 1, embodied as computer-executable instructions on at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium.

10. A method comprising:

accessing, by a media content access system, a media channel;

providing, by the media content access system for display on a display screen, a presentation of media content distributed on the accessed media channel; and

providing, by the media content access system for concurrent display with the presentation of the media content on the display screen, a media channel navigation user interface pane that includes a menu of media channel navigation tools comprising

a recent-channel navigation tool selectable by a user to launch, in the media channel navigation user interface pane, a recency-based menu of one or more media channels selected for inclusion in the recency-based menu based on recency of access of the one or more media channels by the media content access system prior to the launch of the recency-based menu, and

a similar-channel navigation tool selectable by the user to launch, in the media channel navigation user interface pane, a similarity-based menu of one or more media channels selected for inclusion in the similarity-based menu based on at least one attribute shared with the accessed media channel.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the set of media channel navigation tools further include an alphabet-based channel navigation tool selectable by the user to launch, in the media channel navigation user interface pane, an alphabet-based menu of one or more media channels selected for inclusion in the alphabet-based menu based on alphabetical similarity to the accessed media channel.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

detecting, by the media channel navigation user interface system, a selection of the recent-channel navigation tool in the media channel navigation user interface pane; and

providing, by the media channel navigation user interface system in response to the detected selection of the recent-channel navigation tool, the recency-based menu of one or more media channels for concurrent display with the set of media channel navigation tools in the media channel navigation user interface pane.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

detecting, by the media channel navigation user interface system, a selection of a media channel included in the recency-based menu of one or more media channels; and

providing, by the media channel navigation user interface system in response to the detected selection of the media channel and for display in the recency-based menu, informational content about a media program currently being distributed on the selected media channel.

14. The method of claim 10, embodied as computer-executable instructions on at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium.

15. A system comprising:

at least one physical computing device that;

detects, while media content distributed on a media channel is being presented for display on a display screen, a user request to launch a media channel navigation user interface; and

provides, in response to the detected user request and for concurrent display with the presentation of the media content on the display screen, a media channel navigation user interface pane comprising a set of media channel navigation tools that include

a first media channel navigation tool selectable by a user to launch a first type of menu of media channels in the media channel navigation user interface pane, and

a second media channel navigation tool selectable by the user to launch a second type of menu of media channels in the media channel navigation user interface pane, the second type of menu of media channels different from the first type of menu of media channels.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the first type of menu of media channels comprises one of a recency-based menu of media channels, a similarity-based menu of media channels, and an alphabet-based menu of media channels.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the second type of menu of media channels comprises a different one of the recency-based menu of media channels, the similarity-based menu of media channels, and the alphabet-based menu of media channels.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the set of media channel navigation tools further include a third media channel navigation tool selectable by the user to launch a third type of menu of media channels in the media channel navigation user interface pane, the third type of menu of media channels different from the second type of menu of media channels and the first type of menu of media channels.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein:

the first type of menu of media channels comprises a recency-based menu of media channels;

the second type of menu of media channels comprises a similarity-based menu of media channels; and

the third type of menu of media channels comprises an alphabet-based menu of media channels.

20. The system of claim 15, further comprising:

detecting, by the media channel navigation user interface system, a selection of the first media channel navigation tool in the media channel navigation user interface pane; and

providing, by the media channel navigation user interface system in response to the detected selection of the first media channel navigation tool, the first type of menu of media channels for concurrent display with the set of media channel navigation tools in the media channel navigation user interface pane.