Collaborative screensaver

• US 6,957,398 B1
• Filed: 12/22/2000
• Issued: 10/18/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Farshad Nayeri
• Original Assignee: Farshad Nayeri
• Inventors: Nayeri, Farshad
• Primary Examiner(s): SAX, STEVEN PAUL
• Application Number:
  US09/741,800
• Time in Patent Office: 1,761 Days
• Field of Search: 715/867, 715/751, 715/753, 715/759, 715/752, 715/754, 715/757, 715/745, 715/811, 715/789, 709/204, 709/205, 709/100, 709/230, 345/867, 345744-747, 345/866, 345/749, 345/811, 345703-712, 710/1, 713/100
• US Class Current: 715/867
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9536 Search customisation based on social or collaborative filtering

Abstract

Audiovisual images from independent providers on the Internet are exhibited as part of an updating, shared, collaboratively-produced multimedia exhibition system. Each individual user can choose to include or exclude certain content by personalizing his collection of images, by optionally rating each picture. Groups of users can share their collections amongst themselves. Content providers on the internet can allow visitors to include their audivisual information by adding a single button. The server keeps profile information for each user and for the groups to which the user belongs.

Claims

1. An Internet-based computer network comprising:

a plurality of client computers corresponding to a community of users sharing a community customizable screensaver;

at least one content provider computer; and

a server computer;

each of the plurality of client computers of the community being programmed to gather personal preferences of an associated user of the community with respect to content to be shared using the community customizable screensaver and to cause the personal preferences to be sent to the server computer;

the server computer being programmed to receive the personal preferences from the plurality of client computers of the community and to cause one or more of the plurality of client computers of the community to retrieve content of the community customizable screensaver corresponding to the personal preferences of the users in the community for presentation by the community customizable screensaver.

2. The network of claim 1 wherein the client computer is a mobile device with display.

3. The network of claim 1 wherein the one or more of the client computers of the community are programmed to exclude presentation of content the community customizable screensaver based on input from a user of the one or more client computers.

4. An Internet-based computer network comprising:

a plurality of client computers corresponding to a community of users sharing a community customizable screensaver;

at least one content provider computer; and

a server computer;

each of the plurality of client computers of the community being programmed to receive content from the at least one content provider computer, to allow a user of each of the plurality of client computers of the community to perform a single action indicating a desire to include content in the community customizable screensaver, and to transmit information to the server computer indicating the desire to include the indicated content in the community customizable screensaver;

the server computer being programmed to receive the information indicating the desire to include the indicated content in the community customizable screensaver and to cause one or more of the plurality of client computers in the community to retrieve the indicated content for presentation by the community customizable screensaver.

5. A method for implementing a community customizable screensaver on a network, the network including a plurality of client computers corresponding to a community of users sharing the community customizable screensaver, a plurality of content provider computers, and a server computer, the method comprising;

receiving user preferences from the community of users corresponding to content for presentation by the community customizable screensaver;

identifying reference information to provide access to content of the community customizable screen saver corresponding to the received user preferences of the community;

transmitting the reference information from the sever to a client computer associated with a user in the community of users through a first connection;

receiving the reference information at the client computer associated with the user;

establishing a second connection from the client computer with one or more of plurality of the content provider computers;

retrieving the content associated with the community screensaver at the location using the reference information; and

presenting one or more of the retrieved content.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein identifying the reference information includes identifying a universal resource locator to access content of the community screensaver.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein presenting one or more content items includes presenting at least one of visual and audio content.

8. The method of claim 5 wherein presenting the content includes presenting multimedia content.

9. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

actuating during presentation of the content, a hypertext link to the-content provider from which the content was accessed.

10. The method of claim 5 further comprising transmitting at least one report to the server regarding availability of the content from the content provider computers.

11. The method of claim 5 further comprising allowing a user of the client device to perform a single action indicating a desire to add the content to a user collection, and transmitting information to the server indicating the desire to include the content in the user collection.

12. The method of claim 5 further comprising accessing in response to the transmitted personal preferences, content corresponding to the personal preferences from at least one content provider, and periodically receiving updated information regarding the location of the content from the server.

13. A method in an Internet-based computer network comprising a plurality of client computers corresponding to a community of users sharing a community customizable screensaver, at least one content provider computer, and a server computer, the method comprising:

each of the client computers associated with the community gathering personal preferences of one or more users of the community with respect to content for the community customizable screensaver;

sending the personal preferences for the community customizable screensaver content to be sent to the server computer; and

receiving the personal preferences for the community customizable screensaver content; and

causing a plurality of client computers of the community to retrieve content of the community customizable screensaver corresponding to the personal preferences of the users in the community for presentation by the community customizable screensaver.

14. A method in an Internet-based computer network comprising a plurality of client computers corresponding to a community of users sharing a community customizable screensaver, at least one content provider computer, and a server computer, the method comprising:

each of the plurality of client computers of the community receiving content from the at least one content provider computer allowing a user of each of the client computers computers of the community to perform a single action indicating a desire to include the content in the community customizable a screensaver, and transmitting information to the server computer indicating the desire to include the indicated content in the community customizable screensaver; and

the server computer receiving the information indicating the desire to include the indicated content in the community customizable screensaver and causing one or more of the plurality of client computers of the community to retrieve the content for presentation by the community customizable screensaver.

15. A community customizable screensaver in a computer-readable medium comprising instructions to cause a processor to:

to receive personal preferences with respect to screensaver content gathered from a plurality of client devices corresponding to a community of users sharing a community customizable screensaver;

to instruct one or more of the plurality of client devices of the community to retrieve, from a content provider computer, content of the community customizable screensaver corresponding to the personal preferences received from the plurality of client devices corresponding to the community of users; and

to present the retrieved community customizable screensaver content.

16. An Internet-based computer network comprising:

a plurality of computers to provide one or more items of content;

a server computer configured to;

determine reference information to provide access to content items; and

group the reference information into one or more collections;

receive user preferences from a Plurality of client computers forming a community of users;

identify one or more collections of interest to each user based on the user preferences; and

to transmit the reference information for the one or more identified collections; and

each client computer in the community including a screensaver configured to;

receive the reference information corresponding to one or more identified collections from the server;

access one or more of the content items specified by the reference information; and

present one or more of accessed content items.

17. The network of claim 16, wherein the server is configured to:

perform a search of one or more of the plurality of content providers based on criteria associated with a user preference received by the server;

determine reference information for content items that meet the criteria; and

add the determined reference information for the content items that meet the criteria to a user collection.

18. The network of claim 17, wherein the server is configured to:

perform a search of one or more of the plurality of content providers based on criteria associated with a user preference;

determine reference information for content items that meet the criteria; and

create a collection of the determined reference information for the content items that meet the criteria.

19. An Internet-based computer network comprising:

a plurality of computers to provide content;

a plurality of client computers, each client computer including a screensaver and having an associated user, the client computer configured to transmit user preferences associated with each user; and

a server computer configured to;

receive user preferences;

determine reference information associated with the user preferences to provide access to content at one or more of the plurality of content computers; and

group the reference information into collections associated with each user;

transmit the user collections associated with each user to each client computer, wherein

the screensaver of the one or more client computers is configured to;

receive the user collection;

process the user collection to obtain the reference information;

access the content specified by the reference information; and

present one or more items of accessed content.

20. The network of claim 19 wherein the server is configured to receive a preference of a first user, associate the first user'"'"'s preference with content associated with a collection of a second user, wherein a change to the content of the second user collection is automatically reflected in the reference information transmitted to, received by, and presented by the screen saver associated with the first user.

21. A computer network comprising:

a plurality of computers to provide one or more items of content;

a server computer including;

an art collector configured to;

determine reference information that provides access to the content items from the plurality of computers; and

group the reference information into two or more collections;

a preference engine configured to;

receive user preferences for content from a plurality of client computers forming a community of users; and

identify one or more of the collections of interest to each user based on the user preferences; and

each client computer in the community including a screen saver configured to;

establish a first connection with the server to provide the user preferences to the server and to receive the reference information corresponding to one or more identified collections;

establish a second connection with one or more of the plurality of the content providers to access the content specified by the reference information in the one or more identified collections; and

present one or more content items from the accessed content.

22. An Internet-based computer network comprising:

one or more content provider computers;

a plurality of client computers, each client computer including a screensaver having an associated user, configured to gather and transmit user preferences for content presented by the screensaver; and

a server computer including;

a personalized sharing engine to receive and store the user preferences and to share the user preferences between users, and

an art collector to determine information that references a location of content from the one or more content provider computers corresponding to the user preferences and to provide the determined reference information to one or more of the client computers to facilitate access by the screensaver of the client computer to the content corresponding to the personal preferences at the determined location of the one or more content providers.

23. The network of claim 22, wherein the personalized sharing engine includes a plurality of collections, each collection corresponding to a user and storing the preferences for that user including indications of content presented to each user by the screensavers.

24. The network of claim 23, wherein two or more users form a community of users sharing a common screensaver and a change to the user preferences of a collection of one user in the community automatically causes a corresponding change to the user preferences of all the collections of the users in the community.