Method and apparatus for exchanging preferences for replaying a program on a personal video recorder

• US 8,196,168 B1
• Filed: 11/16/2004
• Issued: 06/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Time Warner Inc. (Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Time Warner Inc. (Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bryan, David Alan, Boccon-Gibod, Gilles
• Primary Examiner(s): Pendleton, Brian
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lewis, Jonathan V
• Application Number:
  US10/990,206
• Time in Patent Office: 2,758 Days
• Field of Search: 725/46, 725/134
• US Class Current: 725/46
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/20 Disc-shaped record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/90 Tape-like record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/002 Programmed access in sequence to a plurality of record carriers or indexed parts, e.g. tracks, thereof, e.g. for editing; transfer of record carriers from magazine G11B15/68, G11B17/10; G11B17/22
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/107 of operating tapes
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/34 Indicating arrangements indicating means incorporated in magazine or cassette G11B23/046 and G11B23/0875; indicating measured values in general G01D
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/27 Arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/33 Arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/73 using meta-information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/80 characterised by transmission among terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/252 Processing of multiple end-users' preferences to derive collaborative data
• 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 21/4325 by playing back content from the storage medium reproduction of recorded television signals H04N5/76; reproduction of recorded television signals H04N9/79
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4542 Blocking scenes or portions of the received content, e.g. censoring scenes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4756 for rating content, e.g. scoring a recommended movie
• 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 21/8455 involving pointers to the content, e.g. pointers to the I-frames of the video stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/765 Interface circuits between an apparatus for recording and another apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/772 : the recording apparatus and the television camera being placed in the same enclosure
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/781 : on disks or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/783 : Adaptations for reproducing at a rate different from the recording rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/85 : on discs or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/907 : using static stores, e.g. storage tubes or semiconductor memories H04N5/91 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 : by receiver means only
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/173 : with two-way working, e.g. subscriber sending a programme selection signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8042 : involving data reduction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8205 : involving the multiplexing of an additional signal and the colour video signal

Abstract

Personal video recorders (PVRs) contain many desirable features, including the ability to skip undesirable portions of a recorded broadcast program. Disclosed is a method and system for a PVR user to share with other users tags identifying desirable program portions or segments (“Hot-Spots”) and undesirable segments (“Cold-Spots”). Other users are able to either automatically or manually to adjust the replay of the program based on the tags.

Claims

1. In a system for sharing television program viewing experiences between users of an electronic user community, said users of electronic user community sharing some viewing interests, wherein users watch portions of a program, generate a user rating for said portions indicating the opinion of the users of the respective portions and a tag is generated for each portion based on the respective user ratings, a method of presenting a program to a first user of said electronic user community, the method comprising:

receiving a program by a program player device associated with said first user, said device including a screen for presenting said program to said one of said users, said program including a first portion and a second portion following said first portion;

receiving by said program player device a first and a second tag associated with said first and second portions, respectively; and

generating a graphic overlay on said screen, said graphic overlay being partially overlapped on said screen while said first portion of said program is shown wherein at least during said first portion, both said first portion and said graphic overlay are shown to said one user simultaneously, said graphic overlay representing said first and said second tags to indicate to said one user how the other users of said electronic user community have rated said second portion.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

determining if said tags correspond to one of a first and a second value defining whether users of the community like said second portion; and

altering how the program is played by said device based on said determination automatically in accordance with the values of said tags.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein altering how the program is played includes skipping one or more segments of the program.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein altering how the program is played by the device includes playing segments of the program that are indicated as desirable based on whether the tags have said first value.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein altering the program playback is performed automatically by a personal video recorder.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein altering the program playback includes altering the playback speed of selected segments of the program automatically, without any input from said first user.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the altering the playback speed includes increasing the playback speed of a segment based on the value of the respective tags.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the altering the playback speed includes decreasing the playback speed of a segment if said tags have said second value.

9. The method of claim 2, wherein the altering the program playback includes removing a portion of the program and substituting alternative program segment for the removed portion.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein the displayed tags display the information in a binary format.

28. The method of claim 1, wherein the displayed tags display the information in an analog format.

29. The method of claim 1, wherein the tags are generated by a user indicating positive segments and negative segments.

10. A method for sharing viewing preferences associated with a program between a community of users, each user being associated with a respective content player, wherein a respective tag is created for segments of a program, each tag having a tag value indicating the opinion of at least one user of the content of the respective program segment, said tags and said program being transmitted to a first user, the method comprising:

receiving the tags by at least the-content player of the first user; and

displaying on a TV screen associated with the content player of the first user a graphic display superimposed on the program, with said graphic display and a portion of said program being simultaneously visible to the first user, said graphic display providing during a first segment of the program information from a tag associated with a second segment shown subsequently to said first segment.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the content player receives the tags from a network server.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the displayed tags are used by said content to skip portions of a viewed program.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the skipped portions are skipped automatically by content player based on the respective tag value.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the displayed tags are used to indicate portions of the program that are more desirable to view.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the displayed tags are used to indicate portions of the program that are less desirable to view.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the displayed tags display the information in a binary format.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein the displayed tags display the information in an analog format.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein the tags are generated by a user indicating positive segments and negative segments.

19. The method of claim 10, wherein the user is provided with a feedback device receiving feedback from the user indicating whether the user likes or dislikes the program segments, further comprising monitoring said feedback device and automatically reporting the results of said monitoring to a remote location for generating said plurality of tags.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein monitoring includes tracking the user'"'"'s eye movement using a camera.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein any of a user'"'"'s blood pressure, respiration rate, and galvanic skin response are monitored to determine tags.

24. The method of claim 12, wherein the skipped portions of a viewed program are replaced with other content.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the other content are hot-spot segments from other programs.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the other content are smart ads.

22. A multimedia player associated with a first user, the first user being a member of an electronic user community, the community generating a first tag and a second tag descriptive of the content of a first portion and a second portion subsequent of said first portion in a program, said first and second tags being generated by the users of the electronic user community to indicate opinions of the users regarding the content of the first and second portions, said multimedia player comprising:

a player unit receiving and presenting the program to the first user, said first portion being presented before the second portion;

a network connection, attached to the player unit, said network connection receiving said first and said second tags; and

a control unit configured to perform functions of the player unit and the network connection,

wherein the control unit is further configured to display said first and second tags superimposed a display screen as a graphic overlay overlapping and being presented simultaneously with said first portion of said program with at least said second tag being presented during said first portion.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the tags aggregate the preferences of multiple users.

30. The player of claim 22 wherein said controller is configured to generate said graphic overlay as a binary representation of said received tags.

31. The player of claim 22 wherein said controller is configured to generate said graphic overlay as an analog signal to represent said received tags.

32. The player of claim 22 further comprising a remote control including a tag selector operated by the user to generate local tags representing the user'"'"'s opinion regarding respective program segments, wherein said controller is adapted to receive said local tags and send them to a remote location via said network connection.

33. The player of claim 32 further comprising a data storage storing said local tags prior to their transmission.