Centralized broadcast channel real-time search system

• US 6,810,526 B1
• Filed: 05/19/1999
• Issued: 10/26/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: March Networks Corporation (Infinova (Canada) Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: March Networks Corporation (Infinova (Canada) Ltd.)
• Inventors: Reed, Jim, MacLean, Roger, Menard, Rob, Streatch, Paul
• Primary Examiner(s): Miller, John
• Assistant Examiner(s): Shang, Annan Q.
• Application Number:
  US09/242,328
• Time in Patent Office: 1,987 Days
• Field of Search: 725/46, 725/32, 725/34, 725/50, 725/58, 725/91, 725/114, 725/119, 725/138, 725/144, 725/109-113, 725/9, 725/14, 709/219
• US Class Current: 725/46
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/735 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7844 using original textual content or text extracted from visual content or transcript of audio data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation

Abstract

A system for monitoring broadcast channels, includes a device for receiving a plurality of broadcast channels, a central search engine operable to search the received channels for a match with a pre-stored profile, a central memory connected to the search engine for storing the profile, and a plurality of user terminals connected to the search engine over a network. The search engine is responsive to commands from the user terminals to store the profiles to be searched in the memory in association with the identity of the user terminal from which the command was received. A device sends an alert signal over the network when a match is found with a pre-stored profile to the user terminal associated with the pre-stored profile. The alert signal identifies the broadcast channel matching the pre-stored profile.

Claims

1. A system for monitoring broadcast channels, comprising:

a) a plurality of broadcast receivers for receiving a plurality of broadcast channels;

b) a central search server operable to continually search incoming data streams for a match with pre-stored profiles;

c) a charnel server associated with each broadcast channel for continually deriving therefrom a dynamically changing data stream that is representative of, and changes with, the current content of the associated broadcast channel, said channel server providing said dynamically changing data stream to said central search server for matching with said pre-stored profiles;

d) a memory connected to said central search server for storing said profiles; and

e) a plurality of remote user terminals connected to said central search server over a network, said central search server being responsive to commands from said user terminals to store said profiles in said memory in association with the identity of the user terminal from which a said command was received; and

e) said central search server being programmed to send an alert signal over said network in response to said central search server finding a match with a said pre-stored profile to the remote user terminal associated with said pre-stored profile, said alert signal identifying the broadcast channel matching the pre-stored profile.

2. A system as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that said channel server extracts a closed caption text stream from the broadcast channel to provide said dynamically changing data stream to said search server.

3. A system as claimed in claim 2, wherein said channel servers also output to said network a multimedia stream containing a digitized multimedia version of said broadcast channels.

4. A system as claimed in claim 3, wherein said channel servers delay the multimedia version of the broadcast channels so as to permit the user to access a program segment immediately preceding the occurrence of a match.

5. A system as claimed in claim 3, wherein said search server contains a search engine receiving said text stream from said channel servers over a LAN.

6. A system as claimed in claim 5, wherein said search server extracts the address of the channel server associated with particular text from the originating address on the LAN and sends said address to said remote user terminal with the alert signal.

7. A system as claimed in claim 6, wherein said search engine creates an index of search words contained in said pre-stored profiles that maps said words to the pre-stored profiles in which they occur so that all the profiles containing a matched word can be searched at the same time.

8. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said user terminals are adapted to receive said broadcast channels directly over said network from their respective sources, and said alert signal includes the address of the source of said broadcast channels on said wide area network.

9. A system as claimed in claim 3, wherein said user terminals are adapted to receive said broadcast channels directly over said network from said channel servers in multimedia format and said alert signal includes the network address of the originating channel server.

10. A system as claimed in claim 4, wherein said user terminals comprises personal computers.

11. A system as claimed in claim 2, wherein said pre-stored profile consists of one or more keywords selected by the user and said search engine searches said closed caption text accompanying said broadcast channels to locate said one or more keywords and thereby identify program content of interest to the user.

12. A system as claimed in claim 8, wherein said network is the Internet and said address includes the IP address of said source.

13. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said search server instructs a said channel server to store a multimedia segment corresponding to a match for later retrieval by a user.

14. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said alert signal is in the form of an e-mail message to the user identifying the program source.

15. A system as claimed in claim 2, wherein said text stream is provided in time-tagged form to the search server.

16. A method of monitoring broadcast channels from a central location for a plurality of distributed users, comprising the steps of:

a) receiving a plurality of broadcast channels at a central location;

b) responding to commands over a network from distributed remote user terminals to store profiles specifying search criteria at said central location;

c) continually deriving a dynamically changing data stream from each said broadcast channel for matching with said pre-stored profiles, said data stream being representative of, and changing with, the current content of the associated broadcast channel;

d) continually searching said data stream for a match with said pre-stored profiles; and

e) sending an alert signal over said network in response to a match with a said pre-stored profile to the user terminal associated with said pre-stored profile, said alert signal identify the broadcast channel matching the pre-stored profile.

17. A method as claimed in claim 16, wherein the pre-stored profiles contain keywords, and said keywords are compared with a closed caption text stream providing said data stream extracted from said channels.

18. A method as claimed in claim 17, wherein an index is built of al keywords in said profiles, said index mapping the keywords to the profiles containing them, whereby all the profiles containing a keyword can be searched simultaneously.

19. A method as claimed in claim 16, wherein said broadcast channel is made available on the network in multimedia format, and said alert signal contains the network address of the multimedia source of the matched channel.

20. A method as claimed in claim 19, wherein a program segment corresponding to a match is stored a the central location for later retrieval by a user.

21. A method as claimed in claim 19, wherein the multimedia output is delayed relative to the text stream to permit the user to access a program segment immediately preceding a match.

22. A method as claimed in claim 19, wherein said alert signal activates the user terminal to display automatically a matched channel.

23. A method as claimed in claim 19, wherein said alert signal is in the form of an e-mail message identifying the matched channel.