METHODS AND SYSTEM FOR DISTRIBUTING INFORMATION VIA MULTIPLE FORMS OF DELIVERY SERVICES

• US 20170366498A1
• Filed: 09/28/2016
• Published: 12/21/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Greenfly, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Greenfly, Inc.
• Inventors: Green, Shawn David, Kirschner, Daniel Brian
• Granted Patent: US 9,942,189 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 16/435 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/437 Administration of user profiles, e.g. generation, initialisation, adaptation, distribution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/438 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/483 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/101 Collaborative creation, e.g. joint development of products or services
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/10 Services
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/166 using acquisition arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/172 Classification, e.g. identification
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/00 Speaker identification or verification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/06 Decision making techniques; Pattern matching strategies
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/16 Hidden Markov models [HMM]
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/22 Interactive procedures; Man-machine interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 : Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4756 : for rating content, e.g. scoring a recommended movie
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4758 : for providing answers, e.g. voting
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4784 : receiving rewards
• 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

Abstract

A content distribution facilitation system is described comprising configured servers and a network interface configured to interface with a plurality of terminals in a client server relationship and optionally with a cloud-based storage system. A request from a first source for content comprising content criteria is received, the content criteria comprising content subject matter. At least a portion of the content request content criteria is transmitted to a selected content contributor. If recorded content is received from the first content contributor, the first source is provided with access to the received recorded content. The recorded content may be transmitted via one or more networks to one or more destination devices. Optionally, a voice analysis and/or facial recognition engine are utilized to determine if the recorded content is from the first content contributor.

Claims

1. (canceled)

2. A content management and distribution system, comprising:

a computer system comprising one or more computing devices;

a network interface; and

a computer storage system comprising a non-transitory storage device, said computer storage system having stored thereon executable program instructions that direct the computer system to at least;

receive a first plurality of content contributor profiles from a first content requester;

receive a second plurality of content contributor profiles from a second content requester;

maintain a data store comprising;

the received first plurality of content contributor profiles, the first plurality of content contributor profiles comprising an identification of a profession associated with a respective content contributor, wherein the identified profession in at least one of first plurality of content contributor profiles includes at least one of the following;

athlete, actor, agent, athlete scout, medical expert, or celebrity, and

an indication that the first plurality of contributor profiles is associated with the first content requester;

the received second plurality of content contributor profiles, the second plurality of content contributor profiles comprising an identification of a profession associated with a respective content contributor, wherein the identified profession in at least one of second plurality of content contributor profiles includes at least one of the following;

athlete, actor, agent, athlete scout, medical expert, or celebrity, and

an indication that the second plurality of contributor profiles is associated with the second content requester; and

identify a first entity accessing the content management and distribution system;

in response to determining that the first entity is the first content requester, provide the first entity with access to the first plurality of content contributor profiles and prevent access to the second plurality of content contributor profiles, or

in response to determining that the first entity is the second content requester, provide the first entity with access to the second plurality of content contributor profiles and prevent access to the first plurality of content contributor profiles;

identify, to the first entity, at least a portion of the content contributors that the first entity is permitted access to;

receive, via a content request user interface, a request for new content from the first entity, the content request comprising;

a selection of a set of content contributors from a user interface that lists, using assigned set identifiers, a plurality of content contributor sets previously defined by the first entity and/or one or more specifically identified content contributors;

a content subject matter specification provided via a content subject matter interface, including a request for video and audio content of a content contributor discussing a first specified subject;

text that a responding content contributor is to read while an audio video recording is made of the responding content contributor; and

response deadline timing information;

transmit, using the network interface, at least a portion of the content request, including the content subject matter specification, text, and deadline timing information, to respective computer devices of the selected set of content contributors and/or of the one or more specifically identified content contributors,

wherein the respective computer devices are to display the request, and at least partly in response to a given contributor providing a first input, prompt the given contributor to capture the requested video and audio content and to read the text during the capture of the requested video and audio content;

receive an indication from one or more of the computer devices of the selected set of content contributors and/or of the one or more specifically identified content contributors, that recorded video and audio content, recorded using a respective computer device camera, is being provided to a cloud-based non-transitory storage system, wherein the video and audio content is provided to the cloud-based non-transitory storage system via an application programming interface (API);

provide, over a network, the first entity with access to items of content captured by a respective computer device using a camera from one or more content contributors and stored on the cloud-based non-transitory storage system; and

provide a control enabling the first entity to at least stream or to at least download one or more of the items of content from the cloud-based non-transitory storage system to a system associated with the first entity;

enable a second content contributor to stream from the cloud-based non-transitory storage system a first item of content captured by a computer device of a first content contributor responding to the request for new content, and to record a comment comprising audio and video on at least the streamed first item of content captured by the computer device of the first content contributor;

link the recorded comment from the second content contributor with the first item of content from the first content contributor, for which the recorded comment is being provided;

display a visual indication of a parent-child relationship with respect to the recorded comment from the second content contributor and the first item of content from the first content contributor, for which the recorded comment is being provided.

3. The content management and distribution system as defined in claim 2, wherein the program instructions further direct the computer system to:

use a voice biometrics analysis engine to determine if a voice in an item of content belongs to a corresponding content contributor to whom the content request was transmitted to, wherein the voice biometrics analysis engine uses one or more of;

a Hidden Markov model, a neural network, a Gaussian mixture model, or frequency estimation, and if the voice biometrics analysis engine determines that the voice in the item of content does not belongs to the corresponding content contributor to whom the content request was transmitted to, perform a verification failure action.

4. The content management and distribution system as defined in claim 2, wherein the program instructions further direct the computer system to:

use a face recognition system to compare facial features of a first face in a given of content to reference facial features of a content contributor to whom a content request was transmitted to, to determine if the first face belongs to the content contributor to whom the content request was transmitted to, wherein the face recognition system uses one or more of;

PCA (Principal Component Analysis), Independent Component Analysis (ICA), EBGM (Elastic Bunch Graph Matching), LDA (Linear Discriminate Analysis), Trace transform, 3-D morphable face model, HMM (Hidden Markov model), or MSL (Multilinear Subspace Learning), and if the face recognition system determines that the first face does not belong to the content contributor to whom the content request was transmitted to, perform a verification failure action.

5. The content management and distribution system as defined in claim 2, wherein the program instructions further direct the computer system to overlay a mark on an item of video content received from a respective content contributor so that the mark is displayed as an overlay during playback of the item of video content.

6. The content management and distribution system as defined in claim 2, wherein the content request is transmitted to a computer device of least one representative of at least one content contributor in the selected set of content contributor sand/or of the one or more specifically identified content contributors.

7. The content management and distribution system as defined in claim 2, wherein the program instructions further direct the computer system to:

provide a user interface that enables the first entity to issue an electronic request to at least one content contributor, requesting the at least one content contributor post content received from the at least one content contributor, or a link to such content, on a social media site.

8. The content management and distribution system as defined in claim 2, wherein the program instructions further direct the computer system to:

provide a share invitation user interface to a computer device of at least one content requester, the share invitation user interface comprising;

a social media platform interface configured to receive a selection of one or more social media platforms;

an invitee interface configured to receive an identification of one or more content creators to whom a social media share invitation is to be transmitted;

a video content link interface configured to receive a link to an item of video content to be shared via one or more social media platforms selected via the social media platform interface;

a send control, which when activated, initiates transmission of invitations to share the item of video content for which a link was received via the video content link interface to the one or more content creators identified via the invitee interface, wherein the invitations include respective posting controls for the one or more social media platforms selected via the social media platform interface, wherein activation of a given posting control causes the item of video content to be shared via the corresponding social media platform,

9. The content management and distribution system as defined in claim 2, wherein the program instructions further direct the computer system to:

determine in real time which content contributors are currently watching a first program and identifying such content contributors to at least one content requester.

10. The content management and distribution system as defined in claim 2, wherein the program instructions further direct the computer system to:

provide a user interface enabling a content requester to define a set of content contributors;

provide a user interface enabling the content requester to assign an identifier to a defined set of content contributors;

provide a user interface that lists, using assigned set identifiers, a plurality of content contributor sets defined by the content requester and that enables the content requester to select one or more content contributor sets to whom a content request is to be submitted.

11. The content management and distribution system as defined in claim 2, wherein the request for content from the first entity comprises a video file, or a link to a video file, or both a video file and a link to a video file, and wherein transmission of at least a portion of the content request further comprises transmission of the video file, or the link to a video file, or both the video file and the link to a video file to the selected set of content contributors and/or the one or more specifically identified content contributors, and the content subject matter specification from the first entity comprises a request to comment on the video file.

12. The content management and distribution system as defined in claim 2, wherein the program instructions further direct the computer system to:

at least partly in response to receiving a content item from at least one content contributor in response to the request from the first entity, identify a verification destination specified by the at least one content contributor, and inhibit first entity access to the content item from the at least one content contributor until a verification indication is received from the verification destination.

13. The content management and distribution system as defined in claim 2, wherein the program instructions further direct the computer system to:

at least partly in response to receiving a content item from at least one content contributor in response to the request from the first entity;

identify a verification destination specified by the first entity; and

inhibit access to the content item from the at least one content contributor to one or more users associated with the first entity until a verification indication is received from the verification destination.

14. The content management and distribution system as defined in claim 2, wherein the program instructions further direct the computer system to:

receive profile information from a third content contributor;

enable a second entity to add first information to the third content contributor;

enable a third entity to add second information to the third content contributor;

receive a search query from the second entity;

use the profile information from the third content contributor and the first information to return a first search result to the second entity and inhibit the first search result from including the second information;

receive a search query from the third entity;

use the profile information from the third content contributor and the second information to return a second search result to the third entity and inhibiting the second search result from including the first information.

15. A method of managing content and content requests, the method comprising:

maintaining, at a content distribution facilitation system comprising specially configured servers and a network interface configured to interface with a plurality of terminals in a client server relationship and with a cloud-based storage system, a data store comprising;

a first plurality of content contributor profiles, the first plurality of content contributor profiles comprising an identification of a profession associated with a respective content contributor, wherein the identified profession in at least one of first plurality of content contributor profiles includes at least one of the following;

athlete, actor, agent, athlete scout, medical expert, or celebrity, and

an indication that the first plurality of contributor profiles is associated with a first content requester;

a second plurality of content contributor profiles, the second plurality of content contributor profiles comprising an identification of a profession associated with a respective content contributor, wherein the identified profession in at least one of second, plurality of content contributor profiles includes at least one of the following;

athlete, actor, agent, athlete scout, medical expert, or celebrity, and

an indication that the second plurality of contributor profiles is associated with a second content requester; and

identifying a first entity accessing the content distribution facilitation system;

in response to determining that the first entity is the first content requester, providing the first entity with access to the first plurality of content contributor profiles and preventing access to the second plurality of content contributor profiles, or

in response to determining that the first entity is the second content requester, providing the first entity with access to the second plurality of content contributor profiles and preventing access to the first plurality of content contributor profiles;

receiving, at the content distribution facilitation system, a request for new content from the first entity, the content request comprising;

a selection of a set of content contributors previously defined by the first entity from a user interface that lists, using assigned set identifiers, a plurality of content contributor sets defined by the content requester and/or one or more specifically identified content contributors;

a content subject matter specification provided via the content subject matter interface, including a request for video and audio content of a content contributor discussing a first specified subject; and

response deadline timing information;

transmitting, by the content distribution facilitation system, at least a portion of the content request, including the content subject matter specification and deadline timing information, to respective terminals of the selected set of content contributors and/or of the one or more specifically identified content contributors,

wherein the respective terminals are to display the request, and at least partly in response to a given contributor providing a first input, prompt the given contributor to capture the requested video and audio content;

providing, via the content distribution facilitation system, the first entity with access to items of content captured by a respective terminal from a camera from one or more content contributors in the selected set of content contributors and/or the one or more specifically identified content contributors and stored on a cloud-based non-transitory storage system; and

providing a control enabling the first entity to at least stream or to at least download one or more of the items of content from the cloud-based non-transitory storage system to a system associated with the first entity.

16. The method as defined in claim 15, the method further comprising:

enabling a second content contributor, responding to the request for new content, to stream from the cloud-based non-transitory storage system a first item of content captured by a terminal of a first content contributor responding to the request for new content, and to record a comment comprising audio and video on at least the streamed first item of content captured by the terminal of the first content contributor;

linking the recorded comment from the second content contributor with the first item of content from the first content contributor, for which the recorded comment is being provided;

displaying a visual indication of a parent-child relationship with respect to the recorded comment from the second content contributor and the first item of content from the first content contributor, for which the recorded comment is being provided

17. The method as defined in claim 15, the method further comprising:

performing a voice biometrics analysis to determine if a voice in a given item of content belongs to a respective content contributor to whom the content request was transmitted to, wherein the voice biometrics analysis utilizes a Hidden Markov model, a neural network, a Gaussian mixture model, and/or frequency estimation; and

in response to the voice biometrics analysis engine determining that the voice in the item of content does not belongs to the respective content contributor to whom the content request was transmitted to, performing a verification failure action.

18. The method as defined in claim 15, the method further comprising:

using a face recognition system to compare facial features of a first face in at least one of the one or more items of content to reference facial features of a respective content contributor to whom the content request was transmitted to, to determine if the first face belongs to the respective content contributor to whom the content request was transmitted to, wherein the face recognition system uses one or more of;

PCA (Principal Component Analysis), Independent Component Analysis (ICA), EBGM (Elastic Bunch Graph Matching), LDA (Linear Discriminate Analysis), Trace transform, 3-D morphable face model, HMM (Hidden Markov model), or MSL (Multilinear Subspace Learning); and

in response to the face recognition system determining that the first face does not belong to the respective content contributor to whom the content request was transmitted to, performing a verification failure action.

19. The method as defined in claim 15, the method further comprising:

overlaying a mark on an item of video content received from a respective content contributor so that the mark is displayed as an overlay during playback of the item of video content.

20. The method as defined in claim 15, wherein the content request is transmitted to a terminal of least one representative of at least one content contributor in the selected set of content contributor sand/or of the one or more specifically identified content contributors.

21. The method as defined in claim 15, the method further comprising providing a user interface that enables the first entity to issue an electronic request to at least one content contributor, requesting the at least one content contributor post content received from the at least one content contributor, or a link to such content, on a social media site.

22. The method as defined in claim 15, the method further comprising:

providing a share invitation user interface to a terminal of at least one content requester, the share invitation user interface comprising;

a social media platform interface configured to receive a selection of one or more social media platforms;

an invitee interface configured to receive an identification of one or more content creators to whom a social media share invitation is to be transmitted;

a video content link interface configured to receive a link to an item of video content to be shared via one or more social media platforms selected via the social media platform interface;

a send control, which when activated, initiates transmission of invitations to share the item of video content for which a link was received via the video content link interface to the one or more content creators identified via the invitee interface, wherein the invitations include respective posting controls for the one or more social media platforms selected via the social media platform interface, wherein activation of a given posting control causes the item of video content to be shared via the corresponding social media platform.

23. The method as defined in claim 15, the method further comprising:

providing a user interface enabling a content requester to define a set of content contributors from the plurality of content contributors;

providing a user interface enabling the content requester to assign an identifier to a defined set of content contributors;

providing a user interface that lists, using assigned set identifiers, a plurality of content contributor sets defined by the content requester and that enables the content requester to select one or more content contributor sets to whom a content request is to be submitted to.

24. The method as defined in claim 15, the method further comprising determining in real time which content contributors are currently watching a first program and identifying such content contributors to at least one content requester.

25. The method as defined in claim 15, wherein the request for content from the first entity comprises a video file, or a link to a video file, or both a video file and a link to a video file, and wherein transmitting at least a portion of the content request further comprises transmitting the video file, or the link to a video file, or both the video file and the link to a video file to the selected set of content contributors and/or the one or more specifically identified content contributors, and the content subject matter specification from the first entity comprises a request to comment on the video file.

26. The method as defined in claim 15, the method further comprising, at least partly in response to receiving a content item from a first content contributor in response to the request from the first entity, identifying a verification destination specified by the first content contributor, and inhibiting first entity access to the content item from the third content contributor until a verification indication is received from the verification destination.

27. The method as defined in claim 15, the method further comprising, at least partly in response to receiving a content item from a first content contributor in response to the request from the first entity:

identifying a verification destination specified by the first entity; and

inhibiting access to the content item from the first content contributor to one or more users associated with the first entity until a verification indication is received from the verification destination.

28. The method as defined in claim 15, the method further comprising:

receiving profile information from a first content contributor;

enabling a second entity to add first information to the first content contributor profile information;

enabling a third entity to add second information to the first content contributor profile information;

receiving a search query from the second entity;

using the profile information from the first content contributor and the first information to return a first search result to the second entity and inhibiting the first search result from including the second information;

receiving a search query from the third entity;

using the profile information from the first content contributor and the second information to return a second search result to the third entity and inhibiting the second search result from including the first information.