System and method to provide audio enhancements and preferences for interactive television

• US 7,162,728 B1
• Filed: 03/30/2001
• Issued: 01/09/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: ARRIS Enterprises LLC (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Digeo Incorporated (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bahn, Catherine
• Primary Examiner(s): BUI, KIEU OANH T
• Application Number:
  US09/823,946
• Time in Patent Office: 2,111 Days
• Field of Search: 725/32, 725/36, 725/37, 725/74, 725/78, 725/82, 725/86, 725/87, 725/112, 725/134, 725/60, 725/61, 709/219, 705/14, 705/26, 705/27
• US Class Current: 725/36
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42203 sound input device, e.g. microphone
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4755 for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre retrieval personalisation and generation of user profiles for the retrieval of video data G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47815 Electronic shopping payment schemes, payment architectures or payment protocols for electronic shopping systems G06Q20/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4852 for modifying audio parameters, e.g. switching between mono and stereo
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8106 involving special audio data, e.g. different tracks for different languages
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

Audio enhancements can be provided for a shopping channel of an interactive television system. The audio enhancements allow a viewer of the shopping channel to customize the audio portion of the shopping experience, as well as providing the viewer with instructional voiceovers. The audio enhancements can be uploaded by the user, and then selected from a list of enhancements that are made available via the shopping channel. Implicit or explicit profiling may also be used to determine the audio enhancements to present to the user on the shopping channel.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

providing a user at a client terminal with a selection of audio content to accompany a shopping channel on an interactive video casting system, the user being an end consumer of advertising on the shopping channel, wherein the audio content to select from includes audio content previously uploaded by the user to the interactive video casting system and stored therein, the selection of audio content being made available via the shopping channel; and

providing the selected audio content to the user.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the audio content includes music selected from audio content stored on the interactive video casting system.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the audio content includes an audio portion of programming from another channel on the interactive video casting system.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the audio content includes Internet radio.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the audio content previously uploaded by the user includes a voiceover to provide the user with instructions regarding actions on the shopping channel.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the audio content includes a sound effect, including a style of voice capable of being selected by the user.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the interactive video casting system comprises an interactive television system.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing the audio content through explicit profiling of the user.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein explicit profiling comprises developing user audio preferences based on the user'"'"'s responses to a plurality of questions provided via the interactive video casting system.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing the audio content through implicit profiling of the user.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein implicit profiling comprises developing user audio preferences by analyzing the user'"'"'s viewing habits in the interactive video casting system.

12. A method, comprising:

providing a user at a client terminal with a selection of audio enhancements to accompany content on an interactive video casting system, the user being one of a plurality of end consumers viewing the content and the audio enhancements to select from including audio enhancements previously uploaded by the user to the interactive video casting system and stored therein; and

providing the selected audio enhancements to the client terminal.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the content comprises an Internet web site.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein the content comprises a shopping channel.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein the content comprises interactive television objects of the user, including an electronic calendar.

16. The method of claim 12 wherein the audio enhancements include music selected from audio enhancements stored on the interactive video casting system.

17. The method of claim 12 wherein the audio enhancements include an audio portion of other content available on the interactive video casting system.

18. The method of claim 12 wherein the audio enhancements comprise Internet radio.

19. The method of claim 12 wherein the audio enhancements comprise a sound effect, including a voice style capable of being selected by the user or a theme-based sound related to the content presented to the client terminal.

20. The method of claim 12 wherein the audio enhancements previously uploaded by the user comprise a voiceover to provide the user with instructions regarding actions related to the content presented to the client terminal.

21. The method of claim 12 wherein the interactive video casting system comprises an interactive television system.

22. The method of claim 12 wherein the content includes merchants'"'"' advertising, the method further comprising allowing merchants selling through a shopping channel of the interactive video casting system to provide a default audio enhancement to accompany the merchants'"'"' advertisement, the default audio enhancements capable of being changed by the user via selection of other audio enhancements.

23. The method of claim 12, further comprising selecting the accompanying audio enhancements based on explicit profiling by selecting the accompanying audio enhancements based on the user'"'"'s responses to a plurality of questions presented via the interactive video casting system.

24. The method of claim 12, further comprising selecting the accompanying audio enhancements based on implicit profiling by the interactive video casting system by analyzing the user'"'"'s viewing habits.

25. An apparatus, comprising:

a network interface coupled to receive interactive television content;

a storage medium coupled to the network interface to store at least a portion of a user'"'"'s audio preferences and audio content uploaded by the user to the network interface;

a television interface coupled to the network interface to allow user selection of audio content including audio content stored in the storage medium, to accompany content received from an interactive television network, the user being one of a plurality of end consumers viewing the interactive television content;

a processor coupled to the storage medium to coordinate the user'"'"'s audio preferences with the content received from the interactive television network by the network interface.

26. The apparatus of claim 25 wherein the content on interactive television comprises a shopping channel.

27. The apparatus of claim 25 wherein the network interface is capable to retrieve at least some audio information related to the preferences from the interactive television network via use of triggers embedded in the content received from the interactive television network.

28. A system, comprising:

a television network couplable to a communication network to provide content from the television network and from the communication network to a client terminal; and

a server capable of being coupled to the television network to provide access to audio enhancements, the server including a storage medium to store the audio enhancements, including audio enhancements previously uploaded by a user at the client terminal to the storage medium, wherein the server is further capable to provide the audio enhancements to the user at the client terminal based on user selection of at least one of the audio enhancements made from the content provided to the client terminal.

29. The system of claim 28 wherein the content includes triggers embedded in the content provided to the client terminal and usable to retrieve the at least one audio enhancement in response to user selection of that audio enhancement.

30. The system of claim 28, further comprising another storage medium coupled to the client terminal to store at least a portion of user audio preferences related to the audio enhancements.

31. A channel for an interactive video casting system, the channel comprising:

visual content provided from the interactive video casting system via the channel; and

a selection of audio enhancements to accompany the visual content, the audio enhancements including audio enhancements previously uploaded by a user at a client terminal to the interactive video casting system, the user being an end consumer of the content provided from the interactive video casting system, wherein at least one of the audio enhancements is capable of being provided via the channel in response to user selection of that audio enhancement.

32. The channel of claim 31 wherein the audio enhancements previously uploaded by the user include an instructional voiceover to provide instructions related to the visual content.

33. The channel of claim 31 wherein the audio enhancements include theme music based on the visual content, at least some of the theme music capable of being automatically selected from the selection based on user profile information.

34. The channel of claim 31, further comprising a selection of visual enhancements to accompany the visual content, at least some of the visual enhancements capable of being uploaded by the user for subsequent presentation along with the visual content, at least some of the visual enhancements capable of being automatically selected from the selection based on user profile information.