System for and method of providing subscriber voting interaction

• US 8,955,007 B2
• Filed: 12/10/2010
• Issued: 02/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Yanko, Jay S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bruckart, Benjamin R
• Assistant Examiner(s): Malangone, Carmine
• Application Number:
  US12/965,284
• Publication Number:
  US 20120151516A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,523 Days
• Field of Search: 725/16, 725 37- 61, 725/24
• US Class Current: 725/24
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/33 Arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/66 for using the result on distributors' side
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• 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 21/4758 for providing answers, e.g. voting
• 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 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38

Abstract

A system for and method of providing subscriber voting interaction. The system and method may include outputting program content data via a network, wherein the program content data comprises a plurality of images, receiving, from one or more of a plurality of subscriber systems, voting data that indicates a subscriber'"'"'s vote for at least one of the plurality of images, aggregating the received voting data, and outputting, to the plurality of subscriber systems, the aggregated voting data via the network.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

an output computing apparatus to output program content data via a network, wherein the program content data comprises a plurality of images, wherein each of the plurality of images is selectable, wherein the plurality of selectable images comprise a plurality of selectable characters associated with the program content data, wherein the plurality of selectable characters become selectable in response to a user input device being pointed toward at least one of the plurality of selectable characters, wherein the program content data is part of a live broadcast;

a subscriber input computing apparatus to receive, from one or more of a plurality of subscriber systems, voting data that indicates a subscriber'"'"'s vote for at least one of the plurality of images and further configured to receive, from one or more of the plurality of subscriber systems, comment data related to the program content data during the live broadcast, wherein the subscriber is part of a plurality of subscribers;

a subscriber input aggregation computing apparatus to aggregate the received voting data and the received comment data;

the output computing apparatus to output, to the one or more of the plurality of subscriber systems, the aggregated voting data and the aggregated comment data via the network during the live broadcast, wherein each subscriber of the plurality of subscribers are placed in at least one of a plurality of social networking peer groups based on similarities between at least one of each subscriber'"'"'s voting data and voting data associated with one or more other members in the at least one of the plurality of social networking peer groups, each subscriber'"'"'s comment data and comment data associated with one or more members in the at least one of the plurality of social networking peer groups, and interest data associated with each subscriber and interest data associated with one or more members in the at least one of the plurality of social networking peer groups; and

an advertising computing apparatus that outputs advertising content data, associated with the program content data, over the network and receives, from the user input device, one of a request to skip and a request to view the advertising content data, wherein, if the advertising computing apparatus receives the request to skip the advertising content data, the advertising computing apparatus provides second advertising content data that is at least one of a same length as the advertising content data and selected by the subscriber.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the program content data comprises at least one of a television program, an advertisement video, a movie video, a sports video, and a news video.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a subscriber profile computing apparatus to register a plurality of subscribers associated with the plurality of subscriber systems.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the subscriber'"'"'s vote indicates an opinion of the subscriber of the at least one of the plurality of images.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the aggregated comment data and the aggregated voting data are outputted simultaneously.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein, if the advertising computing apparatus receives the request to skip the advertising content data, the advertising computing apparatus charges an opt-out fee to the subscriber.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the second advertising content data is a same length as the advertising content data.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the second advertising content data is selected by the subscriber.

9. A method, comprising:

outputting program content data via a network, wherein the program content data comprises a plurality of images, wherein each of the plurality of images is selectable, wherein the plurality of selectable images comprise a plurality of selectable characters associated with the program content data, wherein the plurality of selectable characters become selectable in response to a user input device being pointed toward at least one of the plurality of selectable characters, wherein the program content data is part of a live broadcast;

receiving, from one or more of a plurality of subscriber systems, voting data that indicates a subscriber'"'"'s vote for at least one of the plurality of images, wherein the subscriber is part of a plurality of subscribers;

aggregating the received voting data;

outputting, to the one or more of the plurality of subscriber systems, the aggregated voting data via the network;

receiving, from the one or more of the plurality of subscriber systems during the live broadcast, comment data related to the program content data;

aggregating the comment data;

outputting, to the one or more of the plurality of subscriber systems, the aggregated comment data via the network during the live broadcast, wherein each subscriber of the plurality of subscribers are placed in at least one of a plurality of social networking peer groups based on similarities between at least one of each subscriber'"'"'s voting data and voting data associated with one or more other members in the at least one of the plurality of social networking peer groups, each subscriber'"'"'s comment data and comment data associated with one or more members in the at least one of the plurality of social networking peer groups, and interest data associated with each subscriber and interest data associated with one or more members in the at least one of the plurality of social networking peer group;

outputting advertising content data, associated with the program content data, over the network;

receiving, from the user input device, one of a request to skip the advertising content data and a request to view the advertising content data; and

in response to receiving the request to skip the advertising content data, outputting a second advertising content data over the network that is at least one of a same length as the advertising content data and selected by the subscriber.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the program content data comprises at least one of a television program, an advertisement video, a movie video, a sports video, and a news video.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising registering a plurality of subscribers associated with the plurality of subscriber systems.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the subscriber'"'"'s vote indicates an opinion of the subscriber of the at least one of the plurality of images.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the aggregated voting data indicates one or more subscriber rating statistics.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein one of the one or more subscriber rating statistics indicates a proportion of a plurality of subscribers that like a character associated with the program content data.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein one of the one or more subscriber rating statistics indicates a proportion of a plurality of subscribers that like the program content data.

16. A non-transitory computer readable media comprising code to perform the acts of the method of claim 9.

17. The method of claim 9, wherein the aggregated comment data and the aggregated voting data are outputted simultaneously.

18. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

charging a subscriber associated with the user input device an opt-out fee in response to receiving the request to skip the advertising content data.

19. The method of claim 9, wherein the second advertising content data is a same length as the advertising content data.

20. The method of claim 9, wherein the second advertising content data is selected by the subscriber.