System and method for providing an activity schedule of a public person over a network

• US 6,925,458 B2
• Filed: 12/20/2000
• Issued: 08/02/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: George Likourezos, Michael A. Scaturro, Paul E. Scaturro
• Original Assignee: George Likourezos, Michael A. Scaturro, Paul E. Scaturro
• Inventors: Scaturro, Michael A., Likourezos, George, Scaturro, Paul E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Rones, Charles
• Assistant Examiner(s): ABEL JALIL, NEVEEN
• Application Number:
  US09/741,416
• Publication Number:
  US 20020078033A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,686 Days
• Field of Search: 725/53, 725/39, 725/86, 725/46, 725/153, 705/300, 705/26, 345/327, 345/333, 345/353, 345/721, 340/332, 364/188, 707/3, 707/4, 707/5
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access

Abstract

A system and method are disclosed for providing timely and efficient scheduled media information of upcoming media activities of public persons to interested individuals over a network, such as the Internet. The present invention allows individuals to request upcoming media activities of public persons via a network and be provided with such information via a search engine having access to at least one media schedule database. The system includes a media schedule database storing scheduled media activities of a plurality of public persons and a database manager for creating and revising records of the media schedule database. The database manager is preferably a computer system having access to the media schedule database for revising, appending, deleting, etc. data stored within the media schedule database and for adding data within the media schedule database. The database manager also has access to a server of the system for automatically receiving media schedule data via a network, such as the Internet, and for routing via the server the media information to the interested individuals.

Claims

1. An information processing system for centralizing and managing media schedule data and providing the media schedule data in response to a search query entered via a graphical user interface accessible by a plurality of users and received by said system via a network connection from a remote computer terminal corresponding to one of the plurality of users, said information processing system comprising:

a server connected to a network via the network connection for receiving the search query;

a media schedule database containing media schedule data comprising a plurality of records, each record of the plurality of records including at least a name of a person and at least a time and/or place description of the occurrence of at least one media activity of said person, wherein said at least one media activity is selected from the group consisting essentially of broadcast events, such as radio, television and web broadcast events, and non-broadcast events, such as a live appearance at a particular venue, wherein at least one media activity of said at least one media activity is scheduled to take place in a future time, wherein at least two non-related media activities of said at least one media activity can overlap in time such that said person is scheduled to appear simultaneously in two different venues of a plurality of venues during the time overlap, such as a television program and a particular location, and wherein one of the two different venues can be a particular venue for the live appearance; and

a database query search engine configured for receiving the search query from the server and for searching the media schedule database for obtaining at least one record of the plurality of records approximately satisfying the search query.

2. An information processing system for centralizing and managing media schedule data and providing the media schedule data in response to a search query entered via a graphical user interface accessible by a plurality of users and received by said system via a network connection from a remote computer terminal corresponding to one of the plurality of users, said information processing system comprising:

a server connected to a network via the network connection for receiving one of the search query and media schedule data from the remote computer terminal, wherein said media schedule data includes at least a name of a person and at least a time and/or place description of the occurrence of at least two non-related media activities of said person, wherein said at least two non-related media activities are selected from the group consisting essentially of broadcast events, such as radio, television and web broadcast events, and non-broadcast events, such as a live appearance at a particular venue, and wherein at least one non-related media activity of said at least two non-related media activities is scheduled to take place in a future time;

a media schedule database containing stored media schedule data comprising a plurality of records, each record of the plurality of records including at least a name of a person and a time and/or place description of the occurrence of at least two non-related media activities of said person, wherein said at least two non-related media activities are selected from the group consisting essentially of broadcast events, such as radio, television and web broadcast events, and non-broadcast events, such as a live appearance at a particular venue, wherein at least one non-related media activity of said at least two non-related media activities is scheduled to take place in a future time, wherein said at least two non-related media activities can overlap in time such that said person is scheduled to appear simultaneously in two different venues of a plurality of venues during the time overlap, such as a television program and a particular location, and wherein one of the two different venues can be a particular venue for the live appearance; and

a database query search engine configured for receiving the search query from the server and for searching the media schedule database for obtaining at least one record of the plurality of records approximately satisfying the search query.

3. The system according to claim 2, further comprising a database manager having application software for managing the plurality of records, for instructing the server to receive media schedule data from at least one remote computer terminal, for processing media schedule data received by the server, and for transmitting the processed media schedule data to the media schedule database.

4. The system according to claim 2, further comprising application software for instructing said server to retrieve media schedule data from at least one remote computer terminal.

5. The system according to claim 2, wherein said description of one non-related media activity of said at least two non-related media activities includes at least a date, at least one venue from the plurality of venues, and a media category.

6. The system according to claim 2, wherein one of the plurality of venues includes one of a television program, a particular location, a multimedia program, such as a web cast, and a radio program.

7. The system according to claim 2, wherein the at least two non-related media activities are characterized as media activities wherein the person would be appearing at two respective venues of the plurality of venues, the two respective venues of the plurality of venues being the same or two different venues.

8. A method for providing media schedule data in response to a user-submitted query over a communication network, said method comprising the steps of:

searching a media schedule database comprising a plurality of records, each record of the plurality of records including media schedule data having at least a name of a person and at least a time and/or place description of the occurrence of at least two non-related media activities of said person, wherein said at least two non-related media activities are selected from the group consisting essentially of broadcast events, such as radio, television and web broadcast events, and non-broadcast events, such as a live appearance at a particular venue, wherein one of said at least two non-related media activities is scheduled to take place in a future time in one of a plurality of venues, and retrieving a record approximately satisfying the user-submitted query, wherein said at least two non-related media activities can overlap in time such that said person is scheduled to appear simultaneously in two venues of said plurality of venues during the time overlap, such as a television program and a particular location, and wherein one of the two different venues can be a particular venue for the live appearance; and

transmitting at least a portion of the media schedule data of the retrieved record to a remote computer terminal via the communication network.

9. A method for providing media schedule data in response to a user-submitted query over a communication network and for receiving media schedule data from at least one user who is not an operator of said method, said method comprising the steps of:

searching a media schedule database comprising a plurality of records, each record of the plurality of records including media schedule data having at least a name of a person and at least a time and/or place description of the occurrence of at least two non-related media activities of said person, wherein said at least two non-related media activities are selected from the group consisting essentially of broadcast events, such as radio, television and web broadcast events, and non-broadcast events, such as a live appearance at a particular venue, wherein one of said at least two non-related media activities is scheduled to take place in a future time in one of a plurality of venues, and retrieving a record approximately satisfying the user-submitted query, wherein said at least two non-related media activities can overlap in time such that said person is scheduled to appear simultaneously in two different venues of said plurality of venues during the time overlap, such as a television program and a particular location, and wherein one of the two different venues can be a particular venue for the live appearance;

transmitting at least a portion of the media schedule data of the retrieved record to a remote computer terminal via the communication network; and

processing the received media schedule data and storing the processed media schedule data within said media schedule database.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein said description of the at least one non-related media activity includes at least a date, at least one venue from the plurality of venues, and a media category, and wherein one of the plurality of venues includes one of a television program, a particular location, a multimedia program, such as a web cast, and a radio program.

11. A method for centralizing and managing media schedule data and providing the media schedule data in response to a search query entered via a graphical user interface accessible by a plurality of users and received by said system via a network connection from a remote computer terminal corresponding to one of the plurality of users, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving the search query from the remote computer terminal;

maintaining a media schedule database comprising a plurality of records, each record of the plurality of records including media schedule data; and

searching the media schedule database and retrieving at least one record of the plurality of records approximately satisfying the search query;

wherein said media schedule data includes at least a name of a person and at least a time and/or place description of the occurrence of at least one media activity of said person,

wherein said at least one media activity is selected from the group consisting essentially of broadcast events, such as radio, television and web broadcast events, and non-broadcast events, such as a live appearance at a particular venue,

wherein at least one media activity of said at least one media activity is scheduled to take place in a future time,

wherein at least two non-related media activities of said at least one media activity can overlap in time such that said person is scheduled to appear simultaneously in two different venues of a plurality of venues during the time overlap, such as a television program and a particular location, and

wherein one of the two different venues can be a particular venue for the live appearance.

12. The method according to claim 11, further comprising the steps of:

receiving a location and/or name of a person from the remote computer terminal; and

providing media schedule data to the remote computer terminal via the network connection, wherein the media schedule data is related to the received location and/or person.

13. The method according to claim 11, further comprising the step of transmitting to the remote computer terminal a reminder message relating to the contents of at least one record of the plurality of records of said media schedule database.

14. The method according to claim 11, further comprising the steps of:

providing a plurality of user-selectable locations on said graphical user interface; and

presenting at least a name of a person and a description of at least one media activity of said person, upon a selection of one of said plurality of user-selectable locations, wherein said person is scheduled to appear in the selected location.

15. The method according to claim 14, further comprising the step of providing at least one sub-category upon selection of said one of said plurality of user-selectable categories, prior to the presenting step.

16. The method according to claim 11, further comprising the steps of:

providing a plurality of user-selectable categories on said graphical user interface; and

presenting at least a name of a person and a description of at least one media activity of said person, upon a selection of one of said plurality of user-selectable categories, wherein said person belongs to the selected user-selectable category.

17. The method according to claim 16, further comprising the step of providing at least one sub-category upon selection of said one of said plurality of user-selectable categories, prior to the presenting step.

18. The method according to claim 11, further comprising the steps of:

connecting the remote computer terminal to a network location via the network connection for enabling said one of the plurality of users to perform at least one action at the network location; and

invoicing an operator of the network location, if said at least one action includes a sales transaction, for a percentage of the sales transaction.

19. The method according to claim 11, further comprising the steps of:

receiving media schedule data from at least one remote computer terminal;

processing the received media schedule data; and

storing the processed media schedule data within said media schedule database.

20. A method for centralizing and managing media schedule data and providing the media schedule data in response to a search query entered via a graphical user interface accessible by a plurality of users and received by said system via a network connection from a remote computer terminal corresponding to one of the plurality of users, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving one of the search query and media schedule data from the remote computer terminal, wherein said media schedule data includes at least a name of a person and at least a time and/or place description of the occurrence of at least two non-related media activities of said person, wherein said at least two non-related media activities are selected from the group consisting essentially of broadcast events, such as radio, television and web broadcast events, and non-broadcast events, such as a live appearance at a particular venue, and wherein one non-related media activity of said at least two non-related media activities is scheduled to take place in a future time, wherein said at least two non-related media activities can overlap in time such that said person is scheduled to appear simultaneously in two different venues of a plurality of venues during the time overlap, such as a television program and a particular location, and wherein one of the two different venues can be a particular venue for the live appearance;

maintaining a media schedule database comprising a plurality of records, each record of the plurality of records including media schedule data; and

searching the media schedule database and retrieving at least one record of the plurality of records approximately satisfying the search query.

21. The method according to claim 20, further comprising the steps of:

receiving a location and/or name of a person from the remote computer terminal; and

providing media schedule data to the remote computer terminal via the network connection, wherein the media schedule data is related to the received location and/or person.

22. The method according to claim 20, further comprising the step of transmitting to the remote computer terminal a reminder message relating to the contents of at least one record of the plurality of records of said media schedule database.

23. The method according to claim 20, further comprising the steps of:

providing a plurality of user-selectable locations on said graphical user interface; and

presenting at least a name of a person and a description of at least one media activity of said person, upon a selection of one of said plurality of user-selectable locations, wherein said person is scheduled to appear in the selected location.

24. The method according to claim 23, further comprising the step of providing at least one sub-category upon selection of said one of said plurality of user-selectable categories, prior to the presenting step.

25. The method according to claim 20, further comprising the steps of:

providing a plurality of user-selectable categories on said graphical user interface; and

presenting at least a name of a person and a description of at least one media activity of said person, upon a selection of one of said plurality of user-selectable categories, wherein said person belongs to the selected user-selectable category.

26. The method according to claim 25, further comprising the step of providing at least one sub-category upon selection of said one of said plurality of user-selectable categories, prior to the presenting step.

27. The method according to claim 20, further comprising the steps of:

connecting the remote computer terminal to a network location via the network connection for enabling said one of the plurality of users to perform at least one action at the network location; and

invoicing an operator of the network location, if said at least one action includes a sales transaction, for a percentage of the sales transaction.

28. The method according to claim 20, further comprising the steps of:

retrieving media schedule data from at least one remote computer terminal;

processing the retrieved media schedule data; and

storing the processed media schedule data within said media schedule database.

29. The method according to claim 20, wherein the search query contains one of a name of a person, a venue, a date, and a combination thereof.

30. The method according to claim 20, wherein said description of one non-related media activity of said at least two non-related media activities includes at least a date, at least one venue from the plurality of venues, and a media category.

31. The method according to claim 20, wherein one of the plurality of venues includes one of a television program, a particular location, a multimedia program, such as a web cast, and a radio program.