Method and system for prefetching internet content for video recorders

• US 8,332,414 B2
• Filed: 07/01/2008
• Issued: 12/11/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/01/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Nguyen, Phuong, Gibbs, Simon J., Kunjithapatham, Anugeetha, Rathod, Priyang
• Primary Examiner(s): Robinson, Greta
• Assistant Examiner(s): VO, CECILE H
• Application Number:
  US12/166,265
• Publication Number:
  US 20100005084A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,624 Days
• Field of Search: 707/736, 707/999.003, 707/999.006, 707/999.01, 707/999.103, 707/999.002, 707/999.107, 707/999.201, 707/723, 707/749, 725 10-225, 715 10- 53, 715110-127
• US Class Current: 707/749
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/78 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7844 using original textual content or text extracted from visual content or transcript of audio data
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/322 used signal is digitally coded
• 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 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4755 for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre retrieval personalisation and generation of user profiles for the retrieval of video data G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4884 for displaying subtitles
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/781 on disks or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/782 on tape
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8205 involving the multiplexing of an additional signal and the colour video signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8233 the additional signal being a character code signal

Abstract

A method and system for providing information related to content accessed by a user of an electronic device is provided. An implementation involves determining content of interest to the user for access via an electronic device; obtaining metadata for said content; prefetching information related to said metadata; upon detecting availability of further metadata for said content, prefetching additional information related to said further metadata; and upon access to the content by the user via the electronic device, selectively providing the prefetched information to the user.

Claims

1. A method for providing information related to content accessed by a user, comprising

determining content of interest to the user for access via an electronic device by examining currently recorded content on the electronic device;

obtaining search information for said content of interest to the user by examining metadata of the currently recorded content, and basing the search information at least partially on the determined content of interest;

sending a query to a search engine via the Internet, wherein the query is based on the search information, prior to determining content related to said search information;

prefetching content related to said search information based on results returned from the search engine in response to the query, wherein the prefetching includes downloading the content related to said search information and storing the content related to said search engine it locally prior to the content being explicitly selected by the user;

upon detecting availability of further search information for said content of interest to the user, sending another query to the search engine via the Internet, wherein the another query is based on the further search information, and prefetching additional content related to said further search information based on results returned from the search engine in response to the another query, wherein the prefetching includes downloading the content related to said search information and storing the content locally; and

upon access to the content of interest to the user by the user via the electronic device, selectively providing the prefetched content to the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining content of interest to the user further includes determining content selected by the user to be recorded on a personal video recorder (PVR).

3. The method of claim 2, wherein obtaining search information for said content of interest to the user includes obtaining electronic program guide information for the selected content.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein prefetching content related to said search information includes prefetching information related to the electronic program guide information for the selected content, from at least one selected from a group consisting of external and local sources, electronic program guide information for the selected content.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein pre-fetching additional content includes, upon detecting availability of closed caption information for the selected content, prefetching additional content related to the closed caption information.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein selectively providing the prefetched content includes, upon access to the selected content on the PVR by the user, selectively displaying the prefetched content to the user.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the prefetched content further includes providing the pre-fetched content to the user essentially at the same time as user access to the said content of interest to the user, thereby-wherein latency is reduced in providing related information to the user.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the prefetched content comprises video content.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the search information is obtained based on determining keywords from one or more of closed caption information, metadata and electronic program guide (EPG) information.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the search information is further obtained on determining phrases.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the video content is obtained over the Internet.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

initiating a search using the determined keywords; and

obtaining content of interest to the user over the Internet, wherein the obtained content of interest of the user comprises video content.

13. The method of claim 2, wherein the content of interest to the user comprises video content currently being recorded on the PVR.

14. A system comprising:

a decoder configured to decode an input video signal into a signal playable by a display, wherein the decoder further includes a metadata capture module configured to capture metadata from the input video signal;

an interface configured to send the video signal playable by a display to a display;

a keyword and phrase extractor configured to extract keywords and phrases from the metadata captured by the metadata capture module;

a local memory;

a content prefetch agent configured to access an Internet search engine using the extracted keywords and phrases from the metadata to retrieve content related to the input video signal and to store it in the local data store prior to a user actually selecting the content; and

wherein the interface is further configured to send information related to prefetched content related to the input video signal that has been stored in the local data store to the display.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the metadata capture module is a closed captions and subtitles capture module.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the metadata capture module is an electronic program guide object capture module.

17. The system of claim 14, further comprising:

a user prefetch configuration module configured to accept user input as to settings relating to prefetching preferences and communicate with the content prefetch agent to enact those preferences based on the user.