Concurrent presentation of media and related content lists

• US 7,890,849 B2
• Filed: 09/15/2006
• Issued: 02/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Liu, Jun, Moraveji, Neema, Thambiratnam, Kishan, Yu, Roger, Seide, Frank
• Primary Examiner(s): RIES, LAURIE ANNE
• Application Number:
  US11/532,384
• Publication Number:
  US 20080072132A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,614 Days
• Field of Search: 715/201, 715/203, 715/255, 725/37, 725/40, 725/44, 725/47, 725/49, 348/564, 348/E5.105
• US Class Current: 715/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4393 Multimedia presentations, e.g. slide shows, multimedia albums
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/447 Temporal browsing, e.g. timeline

Abstract

The concurrent presentation technique provides information about content related to a source media currently being presented to a user in a fashion that allows the user to keep viewing the source media while either interactively or non-interactively perusing a list of related content. Thus, the user can see a list of related content without interrupting the presentation experience, and if desired, the user can choose to interact with the list to obtain further information about available related content.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented process for providing a source media presentation to a user along with a listing of available content items related to source media, comprising using a computer to perform the following process actions:

receiving the source media presentation;

identifying content items that are related to the source media;

presenting the source media presentation to the user;

automatically presenting a listing of the identified related content items to the user in a manner that in a passive presentation mode does not interrupt or obstruct the source media presentation, wherein the source media presentation and the listing of the identified related content items are displayed to the user in different portions of a screen of a display of said computer; and

in response to navigation commands input from the user, allowing the user to navigate through the listing of the identified related content items.

2. The process of claim 1, wherein the action of automatically presenting a listing of the identified related content items to the user, comprises the actions of:

displaying only one of the related content item listings on a portion of the screen of a display of said computer;

determining if the currently displayed related content item listing has been displayed for more than a prescribed amount of time; and

replacing the currently displayed related content item listing with another of the listings, whenever the currently displayed related content item listing has been displayed for more than the prescribed amount of time.

3. The process of claim 2, wherein the process action of replacing the currently displayed related content item listing with another of the listings, comprises an action of vertically scrolling the currently displayed related content item listing out of view while vertically scrolling said other listing into view.

4. The process of claim 1, wherein the source media presentation is of a type that has more than one part and these parts have different related content items associated with them, and wherein the process action of automatically presenting a listing of the identified related content items to the user, comprises the actions of:

whenever one part of the source media presentation transitions to another, displaying one of the related content item listings associated with the new part of the presentation in lieu of a related content item listings associated with the previous part of the presentation;

whenever the new part of the source media presentation has more than one related content item listing associated with it, determining if the displayed related content item listing associated with the new part of the presentation has been displayed for more than a prescribed amount of time; and

whenever the displayed related content item listing has been displayed for more than the prescribed amount of time, replacing the displayed related content item listing with another of the listings associated with the new part of the presentation.

5. The process of claim 4, wherein the process action of replacing the displayed related content item listing with another of the listings associated with the new part of the presentation, comprises an action of horizontally scrolling the displayed related content item listing out of view while horizontally scrolling the listing associated with the new part of the presentation into view.

6. The process of claim 1, wherein the source media presentation comprises one of a web page, document, image, video, or audio-video combination, and wherein the process actions of presenting the source media presentation and a listing of the identified related content items to the user, comprises the actions of:

displaying the source media presentation on an upper portion of the screen of a display of said computer;

displaying the related content item listings on a portion of the screen below the source media presentation.

7. The process of claim 1, wherein the source media presentation comprises audio, and wherein the process actions of presenting the source media presentation and a listing of the identified related content items to the user, comprises the actions of:

playing the source media presentation employing audio playback components of said computer; and

displaying the related content item listings on a lower portion of the screen of a display of said computer.

8. The process of claim 1, wherein the related content items comprise one of a web page, document file, image file, separate audio or video file, and audio-video combinations (A/V).

9. The process of claim 1, wherein the related content items comprise advertisements for goods, services or events.

10. A computer-implemented process for providing a source media presentation to a user via a network-connected computing device along with an interactive listing of available content items related to source media, comprising using a computer to perform the following process actions:

presenting the source media presentation to the user;

identifying content items available via the network that are related to the source media;

automatically presenting a listing of the identified related content items to the user during the presentation of the source media, wherein the source media presentation and the listing of the identified related content items are displayed to the user in different portions of a screen of a display of said computer; and

in response to navigation commands input from the user, allowing the user to navigate through the related content item listings.

11. The process of claim 10, wherein the process action of allowing the user to navigate through the related content item listings, comprises an action of, in response to a scrolling command input from the user, scrolling the currently displayed related content item listing out of view while scrolling another one of the related content item listings into view.

12. The process of claim 11, wherein the source media presentation is of a type that has more than one part and these parts have different related content items associated with them, and wherein the process action of scrolling the currently displayed related content item listing out of view while scrolling another one of the related content item listings into view, comprises the actions of:

whenever a scrolling command input from the user dictates scrolling from the related content item listings associated with one part of the source media presentation to the listings associated with another, displaying one of the related content item listings associated with the new part of the presentation in lieu of a related content item listings associated with the previous part of the presentation; and

whenever a scrolling command input from the user dictates scrolling through the related content item listings associated with the same part of the source media presentation, repeatedly replacing the currently displayed related content item listing with another of the listings associated with the same part of the presentation until scrolling command ceases.

13. The process of claim 12, further comprising, whenever a scrolling command input from the user dictates scrolling from the related content item listings associated with one part of the source media presentation to the listings associated with another, the process actions of:

noting and saving the position of the current part of the source media being presented; and

presenting a prescribed representative position of the new part of the source media associated with the scrolled to related content item listings in lieu of the part of the source media associated with the scrolled from related content item listings.

14. The process of claim 13, further comprising a process action of presenting the noted and saved position of the part of the source media that was being presented when a scrolling command dictating scrolling from the related content item listings associated with one part of the source media presentation to the listings associated with another was originally received from the user, in response to a command input from the user dictating an end to the navigation of the related content item listings.

15. The process of claim 10, further comprising a process action of, in response to a queueing command input from the user, placing a user-selected one of the related content items listings in a queue.

16. The process of claim 15, further comprising the process actions of:

in response to a command input from the user dictating that a queue navigation session be initiated, displaying the related content item listings that have been placed in the queue;

in response to queue navigation commands input from the user, allowing the user to navigate through the listings in the queue and select any related content item listing therein; and

whenever a related content item listing in the queue is selected,

noting and saving the position of the current part of the source media being presented when the queue navigation session is initiated, and

presenting the associated related content item in lieu of the source media.

17. The process of claim 16, further comprising a process action of presenting the noted and saved position of the source media being displayed when the queue navigation session was initiated in lieu of a related content item, in response to a command input from the user dictating an end to the navigation of the queue.

18. The process of claim 16, wherein the related content items comprise goods or services that can be purchased by placing a listings associated therewith in the queue and subsequently selecting the queued listing to link to a site where the user can complete the purchase.

19. A system for providing a video presentation to a user along with a listing of available content items related to the presentation, comprising:

a network-connected television comprising a computing device;

a television control device; and

a graphical user interface computer program comprising program modules executable by the computing device, wherein the computing device is directed by the program modules to,

play the video presentation in a video presentation sector on the screen of the television;

identify content items available via the network associated with the television, which are related to the source media;

automatically display a listing of the identified related content items, one at a time, to the user in a related content sector on the television screen;

in response to related content item listings navigation commands input from the user via the television control device, allow the user to navigate through the related content item listings;

in response to a queuing command input from the user via the television control device,

place a user-selected one of the related content items listings in a queue, and

display the related content item listings that have been placed in the queue in the related content sector on the television screen; and

in response to queue navigation commands input from the user via the television control device,

allow the user to navigate through the listings in the queue and to select any related content item listing therein, and

whenever a related content item listing in the queue is selected, presenting the associated related content item in the video presentation sector on the television screen.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the program module for displaying the related content item listings that have been placed in the queue in the related content sector on the television screen, comprises sub-modules for:

displaying a horizontal line of prescribed length time slots starting from the time the queuing command is input from the user; and

displaying one of more boxes under the time slots, each of which represents a related content item listing and each of which is placed under the time slots in the order they were entered into the queue, wherein time-based related content items are represented by a box having a length along the line of time slots corresponding to their duration and wherein non-time-based related content items are represented by a box having a prescribed length along the line of time slots.