Method and apparatus for organizing and playing data

• US 7,512,622 B2
• Filed: 06/11/2003
• Issued: 03/31/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/11/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Volk, Andrew R., Jacoby, Ronald
• Primary Examiner(s): ROBINSON, GRETA LEE
• Application Number:
  US10/459,341
• Publication Number:
  US 20040254956A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,120 Days
• Field of Search: 707/10, 707/9, 707/100, 707/102, 707/104.1, 707/101, 707/3, 715/517, 715/518, 715/520, 715/521, 715/522, 715/523, 715/526, 715/700, 715/716, 715/733, 715/738
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/44 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

The present invention provides a general solution to presenting media interface and navigation tools for content provided from a plurality of sources. The invention maintains a user at a single site regardless of the source of the media content. This permits a consistent interface to be presented to the user. Because the user remains at the same site, differences in tiered membership may be tracked so that the user is only presented with content that the user is permitted to view. The invention uses a metadata language to characterize content so that viewer type, membership level, and other information can be maintained and used for an enjoyable viewing experience.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

generating an interface at a site on a network for display on a user computer, a plurality of media files from a plurality of media file providers being made available to said user computer via said network using said interface;

defining a set of metadata attributes relating to said plurality of media files, each of said metadata attributes in the set having a respective predetermined location in said interface, said respective predetermined location for a given metadata attribute being a same location in said interface regardless of media file or media file provider;

compiling said plurality of media files for use with said interface, wherein said plurality of media files is compiled from a plurality of media file providers;

associating metadata attributes from the set of metadata attributes with each of said plurality of media files; and

mapping each of said associated metadata attributes to its respective predetermined location in said interface, so that in said interface for said user each of said associated metadata attributes appears at its respective predetermined same location in said interface for all of said media files and media file providers,

wherein said interface comprises;

a channel description portion to display a plurality of channel selections corresponding to the plurality of media files provided by the plurality of media file providers for selection by said user;

a show description portion to display one or more show selections, and in response to user selection of one of the channel selections said show description portion displays only those show selections corresponding to the channel selection;

an episode description portion to display one or more episode selections, and in response to user selection of one of the show selections said episode description portion displays only those episode selections corresponding to the show selection; and

a viewer to view media file content at the user computer, the media file content corresponding to the channel, show and episode selections made by the user using the interface.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said metadata attributes comprises a title for the media file and one or more of a description, duration and an expiration of the media file.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

mapping said associated metadata attributes to a media player'"'"'s media player interface.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said metadata attributes comprises a description for the media file.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said metadata attributes comprises a duration for the media file.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein said metadata attributes comprises an expiration date for the media file.

7. A method of claim 1, wherein the metadata attributes comprise a title for each media file.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein said interface is provided by an Internet provider and comprises one or more web pages to present media content corresponding to any of said plurality of media files such that said interface provides a consistent user experience with respect to the media content provided by said plurality of media files regardless of the more than one media file providers from which said plurality of files are compiled.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the web page is constructed using a mark-up language.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the media content comprises streaming media.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein said interface is provided by an Internet provider and comprises one or more web pages to present media content corresponding to any of said plurality of media files such that said interface provides a consistent user experience with respect to the media content provided by said plurality of media files regardless of a plurality of network sources corresponding to said plurality of media files.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the web page is constructed using a mark-up language.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the media content comprises streaming media.

14. A method comprising:

generating a user interface at a site on a network for display on a user computer, said interface comprising predetermined graphical features and navigation capabilities at predetermined locations in said user interface, said interface making a plurality of media files from a plurality of media file providers available to said user computer;

defining a set of metadata attribute types relating to said plurality of media files, each of said metadata attribute types in the set having a respective predetermined location in said interface, said respective predetermined location for a given metadata attribute type being a same location in said interface regardless of media file or network source;

compiling said plurality of media files from a plurality of network sources, said plurality of media files having associated metadata attribute types from the set of metadata attribute types for use with said interface, each media file of said plurality of media files having at least one metadata attribute type in common with another media file of said plurality of said media files; and

mapping the at least one metadata attribute type in common to its respective predetermined location in said user interface so that as any of each media file of said plurality of media files is experienced via said user interface said at least one metadata attribute type in common is displayed at its respective predetermined same location in said user interface regardless of the network source of said media file,

wherein said interface comprises;

a channel description portion to display a plurality of channel selections corresponding to the plurality of media files provided by the plurality of media file providers for selection by the user;

a show description portion to display one or more show selections, and in response to user selection of one of the channel selections said show description portion displays only those show selections corresponding to the channel selection;

an episode description portion to display one or more episode selections, and in response to user selection of one of the show selections said episode description portion displays only those episode selections corresponding to the show selection; and

a viewer to view media file content at the user computer, the media file content corresponding to the channel, show and episode selections made by the user using the interface.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising the step of:

mapping said associated metadata attribute types to a media player'"'"'s media player interface.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein said metadata attribute type comprises a title for the media file.

17. The method of claim 14 wherein said metadata attribute type comprises a description for the media file.

18. The method of claim 14 wherein said metadata attribute type comprises a duration of the media file.

19. The method of claim 14 wherein said metadata attribute type comprises an expiration date for the media file.

20. The method of claim 14 wherein said interface is provided by an Internet provider and comprises one or more web pages to present media content corresponding to any of said plurality of media files such that said user interface provides a consistent user experience with respect to the media content provided by said plurality of media files regardless of a plurality of network sources corresponding to said plurality of media files.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein the web page is constructed using a mark-up language.

22. The method of claim 20 wherein the media content comprises streaming media.

23. A method comprising:

generating an interface at a site on a network for display on a user computer, a plurality of media files from a plurality of media file providers being made available to said user computer via said network using said interface;

defining a set of metadata attributes relating to said plurality of media files, each of said metadata attributes in the set having a respective predetermined location in said interface, said respective predetermined location for a given metadata attribute being a same location in said interface regardless of media file or media file provider;

compiling said plurality of media files for use with said interface, wherein said plurality of media files is compiled from a plurality of media file providers;

associating metadata attributes from the set of metadata attributes with each of said plurality of media files; and

mapping each of said associated metadata attributes to its respective predetermined location in said interface, so that in said interface for said user each of said associated metadata attributes appears at its respective predetermined same location in said interface for all of said media files and media file providers,

wherein said interface comprises;

a show description portion to display one or more show selections;

an episode description portion to display one or more episode selections, and in response to user selection of one of the show selections said episode description portion displays only those episode selections corresponding to the chosen show selection; and

a viewer to view media file content at the user computer, the media file content corresponding to the show and episode selections made by the user using the interface.