System and method for personal content access

• US 8,955,030 B2
• Filed: 03/23/2007
• Issued: 02/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Monument Bank of Intellectual Property, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Quarterhill Inc. (f/k/a Wi-LAN Inc.)
• Inventors: Heie, Anders, Gould, Adam F., Librizzi, Michael S.
• Primary Examiner(s): MONTOYA, OSCHTA I
• Application Number:
  US11/690,706
• Publication Number:
  US 20080235733A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,881 Days
• Field of Search: 725/135, 725/46, 725/81, 725/85, 725/100, 725/98, 725/139, 725/151, 725/34, 709/246, 709/217, 709/229
• US Class Current: 725/135
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; 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 21/4753 for user identification, e.g. by entering a PIN or password cryptographic authentication protocols H04L9/32; networks authentication protocols H04L63/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8455 involving pointers to the content, e.g. pointers to the I-frames of the video stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A method and system for integrated personal content access have been disclosed. The system includes a gateway which is able to communicate across devices, coordinating media content distribution among the devices and users. The gateway can seamlessly switch or copy content streams from one device to another, even if the devices use different formats or protocols. Tags can be used for adding embellishments to content on the fly for viewing by the user or by others. Tokens for indicating the identity and source of content, along with a location within the content, can also be used when sharing content or when switching content viewing between devices. Additionally, a network of gateways is possible, where content may be shared between devices connected to different gateways.

Claims

1. A method for providing integrated content access to a user, comprising:

receiving a selection of a multimedia content from a target display device, the target display device being a different display device than an initial display device, and the target display device is associated with an identity of the user;

updating a current viewing state associated with the identity of the user;

accessing a token corresponding to the multimedia content, the token indicating an offset in the multimedia content corresponding to a position within the multimedia content, wherein the offset is null for unviewed multimedia content;

determining whether the target display device has direct access to the multimedia content from a first streaming source;

and responsive to determining that the target display device does not have direct access to the multimedia content from the first streaming source, encoding, at a content management device, the multimedia content starting at the offset indicated by the token and sending the encoded multimedia content from the content management device to the target display device starting at the offset indicated by the token for display upon receipt at the target display device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the multimedia content was partially-viewed at the initial display device by the user;

responsive to determining that the multimedia content has been partially-viewed at the initial display device by the user;

determining whether the multimedia content is a paused stream;

responsive to determining that the multimedia content is not a paused stream;

creating a temporary token corresponding to the multimedia content; and

accessing the temporary token and sending the multimedia content to the target display device starting at an offset retrieved from the temporary token for display upon receipt at the target display device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a best source for the multimedia content; and

sending the multimedia content to the target display device from the best source starting at the offset indicated by the token for display upon receipt at the target display device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the determining the best source comprises:

if the target display device does not have direct access to the multimedia content from the first streaming source, determining if the multimedia content is available through an alternate streaming source.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the determining the best source further comprises:

if the multimedia content is available through the alternate streaming source, sending the multimedia content to the target display device starting at the offset indicated by the token for display upon receipt at the target display device.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the multimedia content is encoded responsive to determining the multimedia content is not available through the alternate streaming source.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request to pause the displaying of the multimedia content at the target display device; and

creating a second token in response to the request, wherein the second token comprises information about a second offset within the multimedia content displaying at the target display device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the offset is one of time based and frame based.

9. A content management device configured to provide integrated content access to a user, the content management device comprising:

at least one content distribution interface connected by at least one communication link to an initial display device and a target display device, the target display device being a different display device than the initial display device, and the target display device being associated with an identity of the user;

at least one processor configured to execute at least one computer-executable instruction sequence; and

a computer-readable memory storing the at least one computer-executable instruction sequence, which upon execution of the at least one computer-executable instruction sequence by the processor causes the processor to perform;

receiving, at the content management device, a selection of a multimedia content from the target display device;

updating a current viewing state associated with the identity of the user;

accessing a token corresponding to the multimedia content, the token indicating an offset in the multimedia content corresponding to a position within the multimedia content, wherein the offset is null for unviewed multimedia content;

determining whether the target display device has direct access to the multimedia content from a first streaming source; and

responsive to determining that the target display device does not have direct access to the multimedia content from the first streaming source, encoding, at a content management device, the multimedia content starting at the offset indicated by the token and sending the encoded multimedia content from the content management device via the content distribution interface to the target display device starting at the offset indicated by the token for display upon receipt at the target display device.

10. The device of claim 9, upon execution of the at least one computer-executable instruction sequence by the processor further causes the processor to perform:

determining whether the multimedia content was partially-viewed at the initial display device by the user;

responsive to determining that the multimedia content has been partially-viewed at the initial display device by the user;

creating a temporary token corresponding to the multimedia content; and

accessing the temporary token and sending the multimedia content to the target display device starting at an offset retrieved from the temporary token for display upon receipt at the target display device.

11. The device of claim 9, wherein execution of the at least one computer-executable instruction sequence by the processor further causes the processor to perform:

determining a best source for the multimedia content; and

sending the multimedia content to the target display device from the best source starting at the offset indicated by the token for display upon receipt at the target display device.

12. The content management device of claim 9, wherein the offset is one of time based and frame based.

13. A non-transitory computer readable medium with program instructions for providing integrated content access to a user, comprising instructions for:

receiving a selection of a multimedia content from a target display device, the target display device being different than an initial display device, and the target display device being associated with an identity of the user;

updating a current viewing state associated with the identity of the user;

accessing a token corresponding to the multimedia content, the token indicating an offset in the multimedia content corresponding to a position within the multimedia content, wherein the offset is null for unviewed multimedia content;

determining whether the target display device has direct access to the multimedia content from a first streaming source; and

responsive to determining that the target display device does not have direct access to the multimedia content from the first streaming source, encoding, at a content management device, the multimedia content starting at the offset indicated by the token and sending the encoded multimedia content from the content management device to the target display device starting at the offset indicated by the token for display upon receipt at the target display device.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the offset is one of time based and frame based.

15. A method for a user gateway to share digital content with one or more target devices, comprising:

receiving a selection of one or more target contacts with which to share the digital content being displayed on a source device;

creating a token, for each target contact of the one or more target contacts, associated with the digital content, each token comprising offset information corresponding to a previously presented offset within the digital content;

sending each token to a respective target gateway associated with each selected target contact of the one or more selected target contacts, each target gateway being configured to access the offset information from the token and to distribute the digital content to a respective target device starting at the offset corresponding to the offset information, each target gateway being different than the user gateway;

receiving a reply from each target gateway to request access, responsive to the respective gateway not having direct access to a stream of the digital content from a respective first streaming source;

encoding the digital content at a second source; and

streaming a new stream of the encoded digital content from the second source to each target gateway that replied to request access.

16. The method of claim 15, the receiving comprising:

receiving a request for a list of target contacts;

displaying the list of target contacts at the source device; and

receiving the selection of one or more target contacts with which to share the digital content being displayed on the source device.

17. The method of claim 15, the sending further comprising:

determining, for each target gateway, if the target gateway can access the digital content.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

creating the new stream of the digital content.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the offset is one of time based and frame based.