METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR TRANSFERRING AN INTERACTIVE FEATURE TO ANOTHER DEVICE

• US 20170332140A1
• Filed: 07/01/2016
• Published: 11/16/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/10/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rovi Guides, Inc. (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rovi Guides, Inc. (Adeia Inc.)
• Inventors: Blake, John, Patel, Milan, Young, Rowena, Bourdon, Jean Michel Pierre
• Granted Patent: US 10,939,164 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/44 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/74 Browsing; Visualisation therefor end-user interfaces for requesting or interacting with video content, e.g. video on demand interfaces or electronic program guides, H04N21/472
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0272 Period of advertisement exposure
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/38 Arrangements for distribution where lower stations, e.g. receivers, interact with the broadcast
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/56 Arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition covered by groups H04H60/29-H04H60/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/80 characterised by transmission among terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23113 involving housekeeping operations for stored content, e.g. prioritizing content for deletion because of storage space restrictions storage management, e.g. defragmentation G06F3/0604; snloading stored programs G06F9/445; housekeeping operations in file systems, e.g. deletion policies G06F16/10; buffering arrangements in a network node or in an end terminal in packet networks H04L49/90
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/252 Processing of multiple end-users' preferences to derive collaborative data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4126 The peripheral being portable, e.g. PDAs or mobile phones
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41265 having a remote control device for bidirectional communication between the remote control device and client device unidirectional remote control device H04N21/42204
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/431 Generation of visual interfaces for content selection or interaction; Content or additional data rendering
• 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 21/458 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 21/47217 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4821 using a grid, e.g. sorted out by channel and broadcast time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/83 : Generation or processing of protective or descriptive data associated with content; Content structuring
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/845 : Structuring of content, e.g. decomposing content into time segments

Abstract

Methods and systems are presented for transferring an interactive feature from a first device to a second device. Two users may be consuming a media asset. Upon receipt of a command to active an interactive feature, a determination is made whether a user who did not activate the interactive feature is interested in the media asset. Upon that determination, a timer is activated that tracks an amount of time for which the interactive feature is active and a determination is made whether a threshold time period has been met. Once the threshold time period is met, a device associated with the user that activated the interactive feature is identified and the users are prompted to transfer the interactive feature to the device.

Claims

1. (canceled)

2. A method for transferring an interactive feature from a first device to a second device, the method comprising:

detecting that a first user and a second user are consuming a media asset on a first device;

receiving, from the second user, a command to activate an interactive feature on the first device, thereby interrupting consumption of the media asset by the first user;

in response to receiving the command to activate the interactive feature;

comparing data of a first profile associated with the first user with metadata of the media asset to determine whether the media asset is of interest to the first user;

determining, based on the comparing, that the metadata associated with the media asset matches the data of the first profile;

in response to determining that the metadata associated with the media asset matches the data of the first profile;

activating a timer that tracks a period of time that the interactive feature has been active on the first device;

determining that the period of time for which the interactive feature has been active is greater than a threshold; and

in response to determining that the period of time is greater than the threshold;

identifying a second device that is associated with the second user; and

prompting the second user with a selectable option to transfer the interactive feature from the first device to the second device.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

in response to determining that the metadata associated with the media asset does not match the data of the first profile, refraining from activating the timer and refraining from prompting the second user with the selectable option to transfer the interactive feature from the first device to the second device.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining, based on the data in the first profile associated with the first user, that the first user is interested in the interactive feature; and

increasing the threshold based on the determining.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein identifying the second device that is associated with the second user comprises:

detecting a plurality of accessible devices;

determining, based on a second user profile associated with the second user, that a device of the plurality of accessible devices is associated with the second user; and

identifying the device as the second device.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein prompting the second user with the selectable option to transfer the interactive feature from the first device to the second device comprises prompting the second user on the second device.

7. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

generating the threshold;

storing the threshold in the first profile; and

retrieving the threshold from the first profile.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein generating the threshold comprises:

determining that media currently being consumed by the first user has been interrupted by an advertisement;

detecting that the first user started disregarding the advertisement;

generating the threshold based on a time period between a first time when the media was interrupted by the advertisement and a second time when the first user started disregarding the advertisement.

9. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

receiving a user selection of the selectable option;

transferring the interactive feature from the first device to the second device;

detecting that the first user is disregarding the media asset; and

in response to detecting that the first user is disregarding the media asset, generating for display a selectable option to transfer the interactive feature from the second device back to the first device.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein detecting that the first user is disregarding the media asset comprises:

detecting that the user'"'"'s eyes are not turned in the direction of the media asset;

activating a timer that tracks a period of time that the user'"'"'s eyes are not turned in the direction of the media asset;

determining, based on the timer, that the period of time for which the user'"'"'s eyes are not turned in the direction of the media asset is greater a threshold; and

based on the determining, detecting that the user is disregarding the media asset.

11. The method of claim 2, wherein prompting the second user to transfer the interactive feature from the first device to the second device comprises:

detecting a plurality of accessible devices;

determining that a first accessible device of the plurality of accessible devices is associated with the first user; and

generating for display, on the first accessible device, a prompt to transfer the interactive feature to the first accessible device.

12. A system for transferring an interactive feature from a first device to a second device, the system comprising:

control circuitry configured to;

detect that a first user and a second user are consuming a media asset on a first device;

receive, from the second user, a command to activate an interactive feature on the first device, thereby interrupting consumption of the media asset by the first user;

in response to receiving the command to activate the interactive feature;

compare data of a first profile associated with the first user with metadata of the media asset to determine whether the media asset is of interest to the first user;

determine, based on the comparing, that the metadata associated with the media asset matches the data of the first profile;

in response to determining that the metadata associated with the media asset matches the data of the first profile;

activate a timer that tracks a period of time that the interactive feature has been active on the first device;

determine that the period of time for which the interactive feature has been active is greater than a threshold; and

in response to determining that the period of time is greater than the threshold;

identify a second device that is associated with the second user; and

prompt the second user with a selectable option to transfer the interactive feature from the first device to the second device.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:

in response to determining that the metadata associated with the media asset does not match the data of the first profile, refrain from activating the timer and refraining from prompting the second user with the selectable option to transfer the interactive feature from the first device to the second device.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:

determine, based on the data in the first profile associated with the first user, that the first user is interested in the interactive feature; and

increase the threshold based on the determining.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the control circuitry is configured, when identifying the second device that is associated with the second user, to:

detect a plurality of accessible devices;

determine, based on a second user profile associated with the second user, that a device of the plurality of accessible devices is associated with the second user; and

identify the device as the second device.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the control circuitry is further configured, when prompting the second user with the selectable option to transfer the interactive feature from the first device to the second device, to prompt the second user on the second device.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:

generate the threshold;

store the threshold in the first profile; and

retrieve the threshold from the first profile.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the control circuitry is further configured, when generating the threshold, to:

determine that media currently being consumed by the first user has been interrupted by an advertisement;

detect that the first user started disregarding the advertisement;

generate the threshold based on a time period between a first time when the media was interrupted by the advertisement and a second time when the first user started disregarding the advertisement.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:

receive a user selection of the selectable option;

transfer the interactive feature from the first device to the second device;

detect that the first user is disregarding the media asset; and

in response to detecting that the first user is disregarding the media asset, generate for display a selectable option to transfer the interactive feature from the second device back to the first device.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the control circuitry is further configured, when detecting that the first user is disregarding the media asset, to:

detect that the user'"'"'s eyes are not turned in the direction of the media asset;

activate a timer that tracks a period of time that the user'"'"'s eyes are not turned in the direction of the media asset;

determine, based on the timer, that the period of time for which the user'"'"'s eyes are not turned in the direction of the media asset is greater a threshold; and

based on the determining, detect that the user is disregarding the media asset.

21. The system of claim 12, wherein the control circuitry is further configured, when prompting the second user to transfer the interactive feature from the first device to the second device, to:

detect a plurality of accessible devices;

determine that a first accessible device of the plurality of accessible devices is associated with the first user; and

generate for display, on the first accessible device, a prompt to transfer the interactive feature to the first accessible device.

22-51. -51. (canceled)