System and method for identifying common media content

• US 8,161,111 B2
• Filed: 02/15/2007
• Issued: 04/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: III Holdings 2, LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: PacketVideo Corporation (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Inventors: Espelien, Joel
• Primary Examiner(s): Pwu, Jeffrey
• Assistant Examiner(s): LI, GUANG W
• Application Number:
  US11/706,480
• Publication Number:
  US 20070226315A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,888 Days
• Field of Search: 709/205
• US Class Current: 709/205
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4015 where at least one of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. white board sharing, collaboration or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43076 of the same content streams on multiple devices, e.g. when family members are watching the same movie on different devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/436 Interfacing a local distribution network, e.g. communicating with another STB or one or more peripheral devices inside the home
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/632 using a connection between clients on a wide area network, e.g. setting up a peer-to-peer communication via Internet for retrieving video segments from the hard-disk of other client devices broadcast-related systems characterised by transmission among terminal devices H04H60/80; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A system and a method identify common media content with two or more terminals that are remote with respect to each other for users to access, to consume and/or to experience a multimedia file of the common media content. A list of the common media content of the first terminal and to the second terminal is displayed via the first terminal and the second terminal. The first terminal and the second terminal may be synchronized for the first user and for the second user to experience the multimedia file via the shared viewing session. A communication associated with the multimedia file may be transmitted between the first terminal and the second terminal via a shared communication channel over the network before, during and/or after a playback of the multimedia file.

Claims

1. A system for identifying multimedia for a first user and a second user, the system comprising:

a first terminal connected to a network wherein the first terminal has a first media library of multimedia files wherein the first user consumes multimedia files of the first media library on the first terminal;

first metadata associated with the multimedia files of the first media library wherein the first terminal stores the first metadata;

a second terminal connected to the first terminal by the network and located remote relative to the first terminal wherein the second terminal has a second media library of multimedia files wherein the second user consumes multimedia files of the second media library on the second terminal; and

second metadata associated with the multimedia files of the second media library wherein the second terminal stores the second metadata and further wherein the first terminal and the second terminal identify a list of common media content and further wherein the list of common media content indicates the multimedia files that are located in both the first media library and the second media library wherein the list of common media content is based on comparison of the first metadata to the second metadata and further wherein the first terminal and the second terminal display the list of common media content wherein a common media session of synchronized consumption of a multimedia file which encodes the multimedia is initiated for the first terminal and the second terminal in response to user input that selects the multimedia file from the list of common media content and further wherein the first terminal and the second terminal provide simultaneous and synchronized playback of the multimedia encoded by the multimedia file during the common media session of synchronized consumption.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the first terminal transmits the first metadata to the second terminal.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the second terminal performs the comparison of the first metadata to the second metadata.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the first user pauses consumption of the multimedia file on the first terminal to pause consumption of the multimedia file on the second terminal.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a network source connected to the network wherein the network source transmits to the second terminal a new multimedia file corresponding to one of the multimedia files of the first media library that is not in the second media library.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the first terminal transmits a first communication to the second terminal that indicates that the first terminal is ready to initiate the common media session and further wherein the second terminal transmits a second communication to the first terminal that the second terminal is ready to initiate the common media session wherein the common media session initiates in response to the first terminal receiving the second communication and the second terminal receiving the first communication.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the first terminal sends a message to the second terminal indicating the multimedia files of the first media library that correspond to multimedia files of the second media library and further wherein the list of common media content is based on the message.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the first terminal accepts user input from the first user during the common media session and further wherein the first terminal transmits a communication based on the user input from the first terminal to the second terminal during the common media session using the network wherein the second terminal displays the communication during the common media session.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the first terminal accepts user input from the first user during the common media session and further wherein the first terminal transmits a communication based on the user input to the second terminal during the common media session using the network and further wherein the second terminal displays the communication during a second consumption of the multimedia file subsequent to the common media session.

10. A method for identifying multimedia for a first user and a second user, the method comprising the steps of:

connecting a first terminal and a second terminal to a network wherein the first terminal has a first media library of multimedia files and first metadata associated with the first media library of multimedia files and further wherein the second terminal has a second media library of multimedia files and second metadata associated with the second media library of multimedia files wherein the second terminal is located remote relative to the first terminal;

transmitting the first metadata from the first terminal to the second terminal;

generating a list of common media content wherein the list of common media content is determined based on comparison of the first metadata to the second metadata and further wherein the list of common media content indicates the multimedia files of the first media library that correspond to the multimedia files of the second media library wherein the list of common media content indicates that a first multimedia file of the first media library corresponds to a second multimedia file of the second media library and further wherein the second multimedia file is a different file than the first multimedia file;

displaying an electronic program guide via the first terminal and the second terminal wherein the electronic program guide provides the list of common media content; and

initiating a common media session of synchronized playback of the first multimedia file for the first terminal and the second multimedia file for the second terminal in response to user input on at least one of the first terminal and the second terminal.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising the step of:

updating the list of common media content on a periodic basis.

12. The method of claim 10 further comprising the step of:

sending a message from the first terminal to the second terminal which is an invitation for the second user to partake in the common media session of synchronized playback wherein the user input which initiates the common media session of synchronized playback is user input on the second terminal that indicates acceptance of the invitation.

13. The method of claim 10 further comprising the step of:

providing a graphic user interface on the first terminal and the second terminal that allows the first user to select the first multimedia file from the list of common media content and allows the second user to select the second multimedia file from the list of common media content wherein the graphic user interface displays the first metadata associated with the multimedia files of the first media library that correspond to the multimedia files of the second media library.

14. The method of claim 10 further comprising the step of:

indicating multimedia files that are in the first media library that do not have corresponding multimedia files in the second media library wherein the second terminal indicates to the second user the multimedia files that are in the first media library that do not have corresponding multimedia files in the second media library.

15. The method of claim 10 further comprising the step of:

transmitting a new multimedia file that corresponds to one of the multimedia files of the first media library that is not in the second media library wherein a media store transmits the new multimedia file to the second terminal.

20. The method of claim 10 wherein the first multimedia file and the second multimedia file encode the same multimedia content.

21. The method of claim 10 wherein the second multimedia file is a different version of the first multimedia file.

16. A system for identifying multimedia for a first user and a second user, the system comprising:

a network connected to a media provider wherein the media provider has a first media library of multimedia files;

a first terminal connected to the network wherein the first terminal has a second media library of multimedia files and further wherein the first terminal enables the first user to consume multimedia files of the second media library; and

a second terminal connected to the first terminal by the network and located remote relative to the first terminal wherein the second terminal has a third media library of multimedia files and further wherein the second terminal enables the second user to consume multimedia files of the third media library wherein the first media library, the second media library and the third media library are located at different locations wherein the first terminal and the second terminal identify a multimedia file of the second media library that is not one of the multimedia files of the third media library and further wherein the multimedia file encodes the multimedia wherein the second terminal accesses the first media library via the network to obtain the multimedia file from the media provider and further wherein a common media session of synchronized consumption of the multimedia file is initiated for the first terminal and the second terminal such that the first terminal and the second terminal initiate the synchronized consumption of the multimedia file wherein the first terminal and the second terminal provide simultaneous and synchronized playback of the multimedia encoded by the multimedia file during the common media session of synchronized consumption.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the first user pauses consumption of the multimedia file on the first terminal to pause consumption of the multimedia file on the second terminal.

18. The system of claim 16 wherein communications are transmitted from the first terminal and the second terminal to each other wherein the communications initiate the common media session.

19. The system of claim 16 wherein the first terminal and the second terminal delay initiation of the common media session for a time period after the second terminal indicates that the second terminal will participate in the common media session and further wherein the time period is based on an amount of time required for the second terminal to obtain the multimedia file from the media provider.