Methods and devices for providing companion services to video

• US 8,861,858 B2
• Filed: 06/01/2012
• Issued: 10/14/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Adams, Neil Patrick
• Primary Examiner(s): Kumar, Pankaj
• Assistant Examiner(s): NEWLIN, TIMOTHY R
• Application Number:
  US13/583,300
• Publication Number:
  US 20130326552A1
• Time in Patent Office: 865 Days
• Field of Search: 725/60, 725/61, 382/181, 382/229
• US Class Current: 382/181
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/12 Use of codes for handling textual entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234 Processing of video elementary streams, e.g. splicing of video streams or manipulating encoded video stream scene graphs
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41265 having a remote control device for bidirectional communication between the remote control device and client device unidirectional remote control device H04N21/42204
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4333 Processing operations in response to a pause request
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44008 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in the video stream arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4725 using interactive regions of the image, e.g. hot spots details of information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application

Abstract

Methods and devices for providing companion services to video are described. In one example embodiment, the method includes: identifying text contained within a video; determining, by performing pattern matching, if the identified text in the video contains actionable text; and if the identified text in the video contains actionable text, providing access to one or more features based on the actionable text.

Claims

1. A method performed by a processor, the method comprising:

identifying text contained within a video;

determining, by performing pattern matching, if the identified text in the video contains actionable text that includes a geographic address by determining if the identified text includes text having at least one predetermined format; and

if the identified text in the video contains actionable text that includes a geographic address, providing access to at least one feature based on the actionable text by providing a selectable option to display a map associated with the geographic address.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein providing access to at least one features comprises:

providing access to the at least one feature during playback of the video.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that playback of the video has been paused, and wherein identifying text contained within a video comprises;

identifying text contained within a frame of the video displayed while the playback of the video has been paused.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining if the identified text in the video contains actionable text comprises:

determining if the identified text in the video contains a string of characters having at least one predetermined format.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein determining if the identified text in the video contains a string of characters having at least one predetermined format comprises:

determining if the identified text in the video contains a string of characters representing an address of a predetermined type.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying text contained in the video comprises:

analyzing at least one frame of the video to identify text contained in the video.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein identifying text contained in the video comprises:

intermittently analyzing frames of the video.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining if the identified text contains actionable text that includes a phone number; and

if the identified text contains actionable text that includes a phone number, providing a selectable option to initiate a communication to the phone number.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining if the identified text contains actionable text that includes a website address; and

if the identified text contains actionable text that includes a website address, providing a selectable option to navigate to the website address using a web browser.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining if the identified text contains actionable text that includes an email address; and

if the identified text contains actionable text that includes an email address, providing a selectable option to compose an email having a recipient address field populated with the email address.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein providing access to at least one feature based on the actionable text comprises automatically performing a function associated with the actionable text on a companion device.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining if the identified text contains actionable text that includes contact information; and

if the identified text contains actionable text that includes contact information, providing a selectable option to store the contact information in an address book.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining if the identified text contains actionable text that includes a date; and

if the identified text contains actionable text that includes a date, providing a selectable option to create a calendar event based on the date.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein providing access to at least one feature based on the actionable text comprises adding a link to the at least one feature to a list which includes links to other features based on other actionable text identified in the video.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

streaming the video to a media display device for playback on the media display device.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein providing access to at least one feature based on the actionable text comprises sending a command to a companion device from a media display device instructing the companion device to provide access to the at least one feature based on the actionable text,

the method further comprising displaying the video on the media display device.

17. A companion device comprising:

a display;

a short range communications subsystem for providing a video to a media display device for playback on the media display device; and

a processor coupled to the display and the short range communications subsystem, the processor being configured to;

identify text contained within a video;

determine, by performing pattern matching, if the identified text in the video contains actionable text that includes a geographic address by determining if the identified text includes text having at least one predetermined format; and

if the identified text in the video contains actionable text that includes a geographic address, provide access to at least one feature based on the actionable text by providing a selectable option to display a map associated with the geographic address.

18. The companion device of claim 17 wherein providing access to at least one feature comprises:

providing access to the at least one feature during playback of the video.

19. A media display device comprising:

a display for displaying a video;

a short range communications subsystem for sending a command to a companion device to instruct the companion device to provide access to at least one feature based on actionable text identified in a video;

a processor coupled to the display and the short range communications subsystem, the processor being configured to;

identify text contained within a video;

determine, by performing pattern matching, if the identified text in the video contains actionable text that includes a geographic address by determining if the identified text includes text having at least one predetermined format; and

if the identified text in the video contains actionable text that includes a geographic address, provide access to at least one feature based on the actionable text by providing a selectable option to display a map associated with the geographic address.