Audiovisual system to interrupt viewing of a first audiovisual program to provide notification of a second audiovisual program of interest to the user

• US 7,171,108 B1
• Filed: 07/31/2001
• Issued: 01/30/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Keen Personal Media, Inc. (Western Digital Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Keen Personal Media, Inc. (Western Digital Corporation)
• Inventors: Masters, Bradley S., Krapf, Russell M.
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, HUY THANH
• Application Number:
  US09/920,772
• Time in Patent Office: 2,009 Days
• Field of Search: 386/46, 386/83, 386/125, 386/126, 725/9, 725/52
• US Class Current: 386/291
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4147 PVR [Personal Video Recorder] H04N5/76 takes precedence ; arrangements for broadcast with accumulation-type receivers H04H20/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4333 Processing operations in response to a pause request
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/434 Disassembling of a multiplex stream, e.g. demultiplexing audio and video streams, extraction of additional data from a video stream; Remultiplexing of multiplex streams; Extraction or processing of SI; Disassembling of packetised elementary stream demultiplexing of data packets for data networks, e.g. RTP/UDP H04L65/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44213 Monitoring of end-user related data arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4661 Deriving a combined profile for a plurality of end-users of the same client, e.g. for family members within a home user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4668 for recommending content, e.g. movies
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47214 for content reservation or setting reminders; for requesting event notification, e.g. of sport results or stock market stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; notification of incoming messages in packet switching networks H04L51/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/445 for displaying additional information H04N5/50 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/781 on disks or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8042 involving data reduction

Abstract

An audiovisual system and a method make audiovisual programs available to a user and present on a display device a first available audiovisual program selected from the available audiovisual programs. The audiovisual system includes a disk drive and a preference determination module. The preference determination module estimates a degree of interest for each available audiovisual program. The audiovisual system further includes an alert module that generates an interrupt signal in response to the degrees of interest of the available audiovisual programs. The audiovisual system further includes a system controller responsive to user input and electronic program guide information to present the first available audiovisual program to the user. The system controller is further responsive to the interrupt signal from the alert module to interrupt presenting the first available audiovisual program to provide information to the user regarding at least a second available audiovisual program.

Claims

1. An audiovisual system for making audiovisual programs available to a user from a broadcast source and from local storage and for presenting on a display device a first available audiovisual program selected from the available audiovisual programs, the audiovisual system comprising:

a disk drive adapted to receive and store audiovisual programs and to retrieve and transmit stored audiovisual programs;

a preference determination module responsive to user input and electronic program guide information to estimate a degree of interest by the user for each available audiovisual program, wherein the available audiovisual programs include broadcasted audiovisual programs available to be received from the broadcast source and stored audiovisual programs available to be played back from the local storage;

an alert module coupled to the preference determination module, the alert module performing a comparison of the degree of interest for each available audiovisual program to at least one threshold interest criterion and generating an interrupt signal in response to the comparison; and

a system controller coupled to the alert module, the system controller responsive to user input and electronic program guide information to present the first available audiovisual program to the user, and responsive to the interrupt signal from the alert module to interrupt presenting the first available audiovisual program to provide information to the user regarding at least a second available audiovisual program.

2. The audiovisual system of claim 1, wherein the system controller is further responsive to the interrupt signal to pause presenting the first available audiovisual program.

3. The audiovisual system of claim 1, wherein the first available audiovisual program is a stored audiovisual program.

5. The audiovisual system of claim 1, wherein the available audiovisual programs comprise broadcasted audiovisual programs available to be received from the broadcast source within a predetermined time window and stored audiovisual programs.

6. The audiovisual system of claim 1, wherein the alert module is further responsive to user input to generate the at least one threshold interest criterion, whereby the interrupt signal is not transmitted to the system controller unless the degree of interest for an available audiovisual program satisfies the threshold interest criterion.

7. The audiovisual system of claim 1, wherein the alert module generates the interrupt signal in response to the degree of interest of the first available audiovisual program.

8. The audiovisual system of claim 7, wherein the estimated degree of interest of the second available audiovisual program is higher than the estimated degree of interest of the first available audiovisual program.

9. The audiovisual system of claim 1, wherein the system controller is further responsive to user input to continue presenting the first available audiovisual program to the user.

10. The audiovisual system of claim 1, wherein the system controller is further responsive to user input to begin presenting the second available audiovisual program to the user.

11. The audiovisual system of claim 10, wherein the system controller is further responsive to user input to store the first available audiovisual program on the disk drive.

12. The audiovisual system of claim 10, wherein the system controller is further responsive to user input to store a third available audiovisual program on the disk drive.

4. An audiovisual system for making audiovisual programs available to a user from a broadcast source and from local storage and for presenting on a display device a first available audiovisual program selected from the available audiovisual programs, the audiovisual system comprising:

a disk drive adapted to receive and store audiovisual programs and to retrieve and transmit stored audiovisual programs;

a preference determination module responsive to user input and electronic program guide information to estimate a degree of interest by the user for each available audiovisual program;

an alert module coupled to the preference determination module, the alert module generating an interrupt signal in response to the degrees of interest of the available audiovisual programs; and

a system controller coupled to the alert module, the system controller responsive to user input and electronic program guide information to present the first available audiovisual program to the user, and responsive to the interrupt signal from the alert module to interrupt presenting the first available audiovisual program to provide information to the user regarding at least a second available audiovisual program, wherein the first available audiovisual program is a broadcasted audiovisual program received from the broadcast source and the system controller is further responsive to the interrupt signal to store the first available audiovisual program on the disk drive while providing information to the user regarding the available audiovisual program.

13. A method of allowing a user to select among available audiovisual programs while viewing a first audiovisual program on a display device coupled to an audiovisual system, the method comprising:

presenting the first audiovisual program to the user;

generating at least one threshold interest criterion;

estimating a degree of interest by the user for the first audiovisual program and each available audiovisual program, wherein the available audiovisual programs include broadcasted audiovisual programs available to be received from the broadcast source and stored audiovisual programs available to be played back from the local storage;

comparing the degree of interest for each available audiovisual program with the threshold interest criterion; and

presenting information to the user regarding at least a second available audiovisual program which has a degree of interest which satisfies the threshold interest criterion.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising pausing the presentation of the first audiovisual program to the user.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein pausing the presentation of the first audiovisual program to the user comprises storing the first audiovisual program.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the first audiovisual program is a stored audiovisual program retrieved from a disk drive of the audiovisual system.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the first audiovisual program is a broadcasted audiovisual program received from a broadcast source, and the method further comprises storing the first audiovisual program while presenting information to the user.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the available audiovisual programs comprise broadcasted audiovisual programs available to be received from the broadcast source within a predetermined time window and stored audiovisual programs.