Apparatus, systems and methods to communicate received commands from a receiving device to a mobile device

• US 8,369,799 B2
• Filed: 10/25/2007
• Issued: 02/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dish Technologies LLC (Dish Network Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Echostar Technologies LLC (Echostar Corporation)
• Inventors: Taylor, Thomas S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ghebretinsae, Temesgh
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tsvey, Gennadiy
• Application Number:
  US11/924,464
• Publication Number:
  US 20090111392A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,930 Days
• Field of Search: 455/88
• US Class Current: 455/88
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 17/02 using a radio link
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/40 Remote control systems using repeaters, converters, gateways
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/41 Remote control of gateways
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/42 Transmitting or receiving remote control signals via a network
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/93 Remote control using other portable devices, e.g. mobile phone, PDA, laptop
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/40 Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/472 End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or services; End-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification, for manipulating displayed content end-user interfaces for retrieving video data from a database G06F16/739; network services for supporting unicast streaming H04L65/612
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/475 End-user interface for inputting end-user data, e.g. personal identification number [PIN], preference data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/04 adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user

Abstract

A receiving device embodiment receives a user command from an external source. The user command is directed to a remote target destination. A first interactive programming command communicator embodiment generates a mobile device command from the received user command, and communicates the mobile device command to a mobile device. A second interactive programming command communicator embodiment receives the mobile device command from the receiving device. A target destination is identified from information in the mobile device command, and information from the mobile device command is communicated to the target destination.

Claims

1. A method to wirelessly communicate commands with receiving devices, comprising:

receiving a stream of audio/visual programming content with a receiving device;

presenting the stream of audio/visual programming content with a presentation device associated with the receiving device;

receiving with a receiving device a user command from an external source, the user command directed to a remote target destination;

modifying a presentation of the stream of audio/visual programming by at least forwarding or reversing the presentation of the stream;

generating a mobile device command from the received user command, the generating including adding at least one image from the modified stream of audio/visual programming content to the mobile device command, the mobile device command directing a mobile device to delay a further communication of the mobile device command until a different time; and

communicating the mobile device command to the mobile device, the mobile device configured to permit a user to electronically send, receive, create, edit, and manage information.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein generating the mobile device command from the received user command comprises:

adding an order to purchase an item from the remote target destination into the mobile device command.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein generating the mobile device command from the received user command comprises:

retrieving personal user information from a memory; and

adding the personal user information into the mobile device command.

4. The method of claim 3, comprising:

adding an order to purchase an item from the remote target destination into the mobile device command to cause delivery of the item ordered; and

based on the personal user information, receiving an invoice corresponding to the item purchased.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein generating the mobile device command from the received user command comprises:

adding a vote into the mobile device command.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein generating the mobile device command from the received user command comprises:

adding a user message into the mobile device command; and

adding an electronic address corresponding to the remote target destination into the mobile device command.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein communicating the mobile device command comprises:

transmitting the mobile device command to the mobile device such that the mobile device communicates the user message to the remote target destination based on the electronic address.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein adding a user message into the mobile device command comprises:

adding text from the user command into the user message; and

adding protocol information into the user message to identify a protocol used to forward the user message to the remote target destination.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein adding a user message into the mobile device command comprises:

adding data corresponding to an image into the user message; and

adding image protocol information into the user message to identify a type of program usable to present the image on a presentation device at the remote target destination.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving the user command from an external source comprises:

receiving the user command from a remote control.

11. A receiving device operable to communicate with mobile devices, comprising:

a programming interface configured to receive a stream of audio/visual programming from a program source;

an output interface configure to present the stream of audio/visual programming to an associated presentation device;

a command receiver configured to receive a user command from an external source;

a processing system operable, upon receiving the user command, to instruct the output interface to modify the presentation of the stream of audio/visual programming by at least forwarding or reversing the presentation of the stream, the processing system further operable to construct a mobile device command directed to a remote target destination and add at least one image or video clip from the modified stream of audio/visual programming to the mobile device command;

a memory configured to pre-store an email address corresponding to the remote target destination, the email address added to the mobile device command at the direction of the user command; and

a mobile device interface configured to communicate the mobile device command to a mobile device, the mobile device configured to permit a user to electronically send, receive, create, edit, and manage information wherein the mobile device is configured to delay further communication of the mobile device command until a different time.

12. The receiving device according to claim 11, further comprising:

a memory to store personal user information, wherein the processing system is further operable to retrieve the personal user information and format the personal user information into the mobile device command.

13. The receiving device according to claim 11 wherein the mobile device interface comprises:

a transmitter configured to communicate to the mobile device a signal having the mobile device command therein.

14. A method to wirelessly communicate commands with receiving devices, comprising:

receiving a stream of audio/visual programming with a receiving device;

presenting the stream of audio/visual programming with a presentation device associated with the receiving device;

receiving with the receiving device a user command from an external source, the user command directed to a remote target destination;

modifying a presentation of the stream of audio/visual programming forwarding or reversing the presentation of the stream;

generating a mobile device command from the received user command, the mobile device command configured to;

direct a mobile device to identify the remote target destination from first information in the mobile device command,

direct the mobile device to delay a further communication of the mobile device command until a different time,

direct the mobile device to communicate second information from the mobile device command to the remote target destination, the second information including a text phrase pre-stored in the receiving device, and

direct the mobile device to communicate third information from the mobile device command to the remote target destination, the third information including at least one image from the modified stream of audio/visual programming, wherein the mobile device is configured to permit a user to electronically send, receive, create, edit, and manage information, wherein the mobile device command further directs the mobile device to delay a communication of the mobile device command until a different time; and

communicating the mobile device command to the mobile device.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

retrieving personal user information, the personal user information identifying a user associated with the receiving device; and

including data representing the personal user information in the second information.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the personal user information is stored in a memory of the receiving device.

17. The method of claim 14 wherein communicating the mobile device command to the mobile device occurs via a Bluetooth protocol.

18. The method of claim 14 wherein the second information includes an order to purchase from a vendor.

19. The method of claim 14 wherein the second information includes an electronic address and a user message.