Social television

• US 8,863,185 B2
• Filed: 01/04/2011
• Issued: 10/14/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/04/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Stinson, Willis David III, Abou-Khamis, Omar Abdallah, Chang, Robin Chu-Hsin
• Primary Examiner(s): Goodarzi, Nasser
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chae, Kyu
• Application Number:
  US12/984,025
• Publication Number:
  US 20120174157A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,379 Days
• Field of Search: 725/37, 725 38- 40, 725/43, 725 44- 53, 725/59, 725/61
• US Class Current: 725/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• 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 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72

Abstract

A system may include a media content processing subsystem configured to provide media content to a display device. The system may further include an adjunct computing device in communication with the media content processing subsystem and configured to receive interactive program guide data, receive social information associated with an account on a social network, and display the interactive program guide data augmented with the social information.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a media content processing device configured to provide media content to a display device; and

an adjunct computing device in communication with the media content processing device and configured to;

receive interactive program guide data that corresponds to instances of the media content,

receive social information associated with an account of a social network, the social information including a number of friends of the account that are viewing each instance of the media content, and a number of friends that have joined a chat room for each instance of the media content,

display a first interface that presents the interactive program guide data augmented with the social information, including for each instance of the interactive program guide data for which a corresponding instance of the media content is being viewed by at least one friend a popularity indication indicative of the number of friends viewing the corresponding instance of the media content, and for each instance of the interactive program guide data for which at least one friend has joined the chat room for the corresponding instance of the media content a popularity indication indicative of the number of friends that have joined the chat room,

include a new message indicator for each instance of the interactive program guide data that notifies when additional content is available from the friends in the chat room for the corresponding instance of the media content,

receive a command that identifies a particular instance of the interactive program guide data from the first interface,

display a second interface, in response to the command, that presents a social interaction display associated with the particular instance of the interactive program guide data, wherein the social interaction display is based at least in part on a subset of the social information that augments the particular instance,

determine, in response to the command, whether an automatic tuning feature is activated, and

if the automatic tuning feature is activated, tune the media content processing device to a particular instance of the media content that corresponds to the particular instance of the interactive program guide data.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the social information includes at least one of social graph information indicative of friends of the account, presence information regarding the online status of friends of the account, and chat messages between friends and the account.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a server in communication with the social network and the adjunct computing device, the server being configured to receive the social information from the social network and provide the social information to the adjunct computing device.

4. The system of claim 3, further comprising a database in communication with the server and configured to maintain a mapping of accounts of the social network to adjunct device accounts.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the server is configured to utilize the mapping of accounts of the social network to the adjunct device accounts to determine the social information associated with the account of a social network to provide to the adjunct computing device.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the adjunct computing device is further configured to directly augment the interactive program guide data with the social information to indicate which of the instances of the media content are being at least one of:

experienced by friends of the account, and

discussed by friends of the account.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the adjunct computing device is further configured to receive the interactive program guide data from the media content processing device.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the media content processing device is further configured to send the particular instance of the media content to the display device, and the adjunct computing device is further configured to receive state information indicative of the particular instance of the media content currently being sent to the display device.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the social information includes social graph information indicative of friends of the account.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the adjunct computing device is further configured to:

directly augment each instance of the interactive program guide data presented by the first interface with a corresponding subset of the social information, wherein each corresponding subset relates to activity associated with an instance of the media content that corresponds to that instance of the interactive program guide data.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the adjunct computing device is further configured to display the particular instance of the media content in the second interface with the social interaction display.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the adjunct computing device is further configured to transmit the social interaction display to the media content processing device to be displayed on the display device with the particular instance of the media content.

13. A method, comprising:

pairing an adjunct computing device with a media content processing device;

associating the adjunct computing device with an account of a social network;

receiving interactive program guide data corresponding to instances of media content;

receiving social information associated with the account, the social information including a number of friends of the account that are viewing each instance of media content, and a number of friends that have joined a chat room for each instance of the media content;

displaying a first interface presenting the interactive program guide data augmented with the social information, including for each instance of the interactive program guide data for which a corresponding instance of the media content is being viewed by at least one friend a popularity indication indicative of the number of friends viewing the corresponding instance of media content, and for each instance of the interactive program guide data for which at least one friend has joined the chat room for the corresponding instance of the media content a popularity indication indicative of the number of friends that have joined the chat room,

including a new message indicator for each instance of the interactive program guide data that notifies when additional content is available from the friends in the chat room for the corresponding instance of the media content;

receiving a command identifying a particular instance of the interactive program guide data from the first interface;

displaying, in response to the command, a second interface presenting a social interaction display associated with the particular instance of the interactive program guide data, the social interaction display being based at least in part on a subset of the social information that augments the particular instance;

determining, in response to the command, whether an automatic tuning feature is activated, and

if the automatic tuning feature is activated, tuning the media content processing device to a particular instance of the media content corresponding to the particular instance of the interactive program guide data.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

maintaining a mapping of accounts of the social network to the adjunct device accounts; and

utilizing the mapping of accounts of the social network to the adjunct device accounts to determine the social information associated with the account to provide to the adjunct computing device.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the social information includes at least one of social graph information indicative of friends of the account, presence information regarding the online status of friends of the account, and chat messages between friends and the account.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising directly augmenting the interactive program guide data with the social information to indicate which of the instances of the media content are presently being at least one of:

experienced by friends of the account, and

discussed by friends of the account.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

displaying the particular instance of the media content on a display device;

receiving state information indicative of the particular instance of the media content currently being displayed by the display device; and

updating the interactive program guide data to indicate the particular instance of the media content currently being displayed by the display device.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising at least one of:

receiving an invitation from a friend of the account to at least one of tune to the particular instance of the media content, join the chat room associated with the particular instance of the media content, and view the chat room associated with the particular instance of the media content; and

sending an invitation to a friend of the account to at least one of tune to the particular instance of the media content, join the chat room associated with the particular instance of the media content, and view the chat room associated with the particular instance of the media content.

19. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

displaying the particular instance of the media content on a display device accompanied by the chat room associated with the particular instance of the media content;

receiving input from the user by the adjunct computing device; and

providing the received input as a chat message into the chat room.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein the particular instance of media content includes a synchronized on demand instance of media content.

21. A non-transitory computer-readable medium tangibly embodying computer-executable instructions configured to cause a processor of a computing device to:

pair the computing device with a media content processing device;

associate the computing device with an account of a social network;

send the association of the computing device with the account of the social network to a server;

receive interactive program guide data that corresponds to instances of media content;

receive social information from the server according to the association of the computing device with the account of the social network, the social information including a number of friends of the account that are viewing each instance of media content, and for each instance of the interactive program guide data for which at least one friend has joined a chat room for the corresponding instance of the media content a popularity indication indicative of the number of friends that have joined the chat room;

display a first interface that presents the interactive program guide data augmented with the social information, including for each instance of the interactive program guide data for which a corresponding instance of media content is being viewed by at least one friend a popularity indication indicative of the number of friends viewing the corresponding instance of media content, and for each instance of the interactive program guide data for which at least one friend has joined the chat room for the corresponding instance of the media content a popularity indication indicative of the number of friends that have joined the chat room;

include a new message indicator for each instance of the interactive program guide data that notifies when additional content is available from the friends in the chat room for the corresponding instance of the media content;

receive a command that identifies a particular instance of the interactive program guide data from the first interface;

display, in response to the command, a second interface that presents a social interaction display associated with the particular instance of the interactive program guide data, wherein the social interaction display is based at least in part on a subset of the social information that augments the particular instance;

determine, in response to the command, whether an automatic tuning feature is activated; and

if the automatic tuning feature is activated, tune the media content processing device to the media content that corresponds to the particular instance of the interactive program guide.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 21, wherein the computing device is a tablet computing device, and the instructions comprise a social television application.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 21, wherein the media content processing device is implemented as computer executable instructions executed by the processor of the computing device.