Parent-controlled episodic content on a child telecommunication device

• US 8,750,854 B2
• Filed: 03/25/2010
• Issued: 06/10/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Wickman, Marianna, Kemery, Michael, Wang, Winston
• Primary Examiner(s): Batista, Marcos
• Application Number:
  US12/732,103
• Publication Number:
  US 20110237236A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,538 Days
• Field of Search: 455/450, 370/338
• US Class Current: 455/419
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2149 Restricted operating environment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

Techniques for remotely establishing sequences of content to be enabled on a child device are described herein.

Claims

1. A child telecommunications device, comprising:

an interactive user interface that offers content items to a user of the child telecommunications device;

the child telecommunications device being configured to perform actions comprising;

receiving remote configuration information that indicates a sequence of individual content items to be made available on the interactive user interface;

enabling the individual content items one at a time on the interactive user interface in the sequence indicated by the remote configuration information;

receiving input through the interactive user interface;

based on the input, performing one or more actions meeting completion criteria associated with one of the individual content items;

responsive to the performing, disabling any preceding content item of the sequence; and

responsive to the disabling, enabling a next content item in the sequence of individual content items.

2. A child telecommunications device as recited in claim 1, wherein enabling any particular content item of the sequence is performed only after any preceding content item of the sequence has been played.

3. A child telecommunications device as recited in claim 1, the actions further comprising downloading any particular content item only in conjunction with enabling that particular content item.

4. A child telecommunications device as recited in claim 1, wherein enabling any particular content item of the sequence is performed only after any preceding content item of the sequence has been completed.

5. A child telecommunications device as recited in claim 1, wherein:

the content items have associated completion criteria; and

enabling any particular content item of the sequence is performed only after any preceding content item of the sequence has been completed in accordance with the completion criteria associated with the preceding content item.

6. A child telecommunications device as recited in claim 1, wherein:

the content items comprise interactive educational content items having associated completion criteria; and

enabling any particular content item of the sequence is performed only after any preceding content item of the sequence has been completed in accordance with the completion criteria associated with the preceding content item.

7. A child telecommunications device as recited in claim 1, wherein enabling any particular content item of the sequence is performed only after any preceding content item of the sequence has been selected on the interactive user interface by a user of the child telecommunications device.

8. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media containing instructions that are executable on a telecommunications device to perform actions comprising:

receiving remote configuration information that indicates a sequence of individual content items to be made available to a user of the telecommunications device;

receiving input through an interactive user interface of the telecommunications device;

based on the input, performing one or more actions meeting completion criteria associated with one of the individual content items;

responsive to the performing, disabling any preceding content item of the sequence; and

responsive to the disabling, enabling a next content item in the sequence of individual content items.

9. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 8, the actions further comprising:

showing individual content items on a graphical display of the telecommunications device when they are enabled; and

hiding individual content items from the graphical display of the telecommunications device when they are disabled.

10. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media of claim 8, the actions further comprising downloading any particular content item only in conjunction with enabling that particular content item.

11. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 8, wherein:

the content items include completion criteria; and

enabling any particular content item of the sequence is performed only after any preceding content item of the sequence has been completed in accordance with the completion criteria of the preceding content item.

12. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 8, wherein:

the content items comprise interactive educational content items having associated completion criteria; and

enabling any particular content item of the sequence is performed only after any preceding content item of the sequence has been completed in accordance with the completion criteria associated with the preceding content item.

13. A method comprising:

receiving, by a child telecommunications device, remote configuration information that indicates a sequence of individual content items to be made available on an interactive user interface of the child telecommunications device;

enabling, by the child telecommunications device, the individual content items one at a time on the interactive user interface in the sequence indicated by the remote configuration information;

receiving, by the child telecommunications device, input through the interactive user interface;

based on the input, performing, by the child telecommunications device, one or more actions meeting completion criteria associated with one of the individual content items;

responsive to the performing, disabling, by the child telecommunications device, any preceding content item of the sequence; and

responsive to the disabling, enabling, by the child telecommunications device, a next content item in the sequence of individual content items.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein enabling any particular content item of the sequence is performed only after any preceding content item of the sequence has been played.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising downloading any particular content item only in conjunction with enabling that particular content item.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein enabling any particular content item of the sequence is performed only after any preceding content item of the sequence has been completed.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the content items have associated completion criteria and the method further comprises enabling any particular content item of the sequence only after any preceding content item of the sequence has been completed in accordance with the completion criteria associated with the preceding content item.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the content items comprise interactive educational content items having associated completion criteria, and the method further comprises enabling any particular content item of the sequence only after any preceding content item of the sequence has been completed in accordance with the completion criteria associated with the preceding content item.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein enabling any particular content item of the sequence is performed only after any preceding content item of the sequence has been selected on the interactive user interface by a user of the child telecommunications device.