Signal transmission management system

• US 8,973,035 B2
• Filed: 02/18/2004
• Issued: 03/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/18/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kianoush Namvar
• Original Assignee: Kianoush Namvar
• Inventors: Namvar, Kianoush
• Primary Examiner(s): Pendleton, Brian T
• Assistant Examiner(s): Saint Cyr, Jean D
• Application Number:
  US10/563,396
• Publication Number:
  US 20080072251A1
• Time in Patent Office: 4,031 Days
• Field of Search: 725/36, 725/34, 725/46
• US Class Current: 725/36
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/30 by a single channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/33 by plural channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/06 Arrangements for scheduling broadcast services or broadcast-related services
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/07 characterised by processes or methods for the generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/31 Arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/37 for identifying segments of broadcast information, e.g. scenes or extracting programme ID
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/66 for using the result on distributors' side
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/222 Secondary servers, e.g. proxy server, cable television Head-end provisioning of proxy services in data packet switching networks H04L67/56
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2543 Billing , e.g. for subscription services payment schemes, architectures or protocols G06Q20/00; e-commerce G06Q30/00; arrangements for billing for the use of broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/21
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2547 Third Party Billing, e.g. billing of advertiser
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25866 Management of end-user data customer care in data networks H04L41/5077
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25883 being end-user demographical data, e.g. age, family status or address arrangements for identifying locations of users in broadcast systems H04H60/52
• 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 21/26225 involving billing parameters, e.g. priority for subscribers of premium services
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44222 Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programs or purchase activity monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• 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 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6587 : Control parameters, e.g. trick play commands, viewpoint selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 : involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17309 : Transmission or handling of upstream communications

Abstract

The present invention relates to transmission of signals to a plurality of subscriber receivers, where each signal represents a type of information which belongs to a particular contents category. A central management server receives administrative instructions pertaining to the transmission of the signals. In response to the administrative instructions, the central management server organizes and synchronizes signals originating from one or more signal sources before these signals are transmitted to the subscriber receivers. At least one client computer each has an interface towards the central management server. Thus, the client computer(s) may produce administrative instructions for organizing a sub-set of the signals to be transmitted via the central management server.

Claims

1. A system for organization of signals for transmitting thereof to a plurality of subscriber receivers, wherein each signal represents a type of information belonging to a particular contents category, comprising:

a central management server adapted to generate a compiled data set representing at least activity-monitoring information;

at least one client computer each having an interface towards the central management server adapted to receive the compiled data set from the central management server, and produce administrative instructions based at least partially on the compiled data set for organizing a sub-set of the signals to be transmitted over at least one of a number of transmission resources available to each client computer under management of the central management server, whereby the administrative instructions produced by each client computer specifies, for each signal to be transmitted, at least a time instance and a contents category, wherein the contents category for at least one sub-segment of each signal determines which sub-segment that will be presented in which subscriber receiver of the plurality of subscriber receivers; and

the central management server adapted to receive, from the at least one client computer, the administrative instructions produced at the at least one client computer pertaining to the transmission of the signals to the subscriber receivers, and in response to the administrative instructions organize signals from at least one of a number of signal sources before transmission thereof to at least one of the plurality of subscriber receivers.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein a transmission unit is adapted to receive the signals from the central management server and, in accordance with an organization scheme produced by the central management server, transmit the signals via a central signal distribution system.

3. A system according to claim 1 wherein each of the subscriber receivers comprises an interpreting unit having a user specific key representing a profile category of at least one user associated with the subscriber receiver, the interpreting unit being adapted to control the reception of a signal such that the key in combination with a piece of contents category information received with respect to a segment of the signal control the subscriber receiver to present a predetermined sub-segment transmitted via a particular transmission resource.

4. A system according to claim 1, wherein it comprises a return channel from at least one particular subscriber receiver of the subscriber receivers adapted to forward activity-monitoring information pertaining to signals having been presented in the particular subscriber receiver to the central management server.

5. A system according to claim 1, wherein it comprises at least one billing unit adapted to produce billing information pertaining to a respective utilization of the transmission resources administrated by the central management server.

6. A system according to claim 1, wherein it comprises at least one auxiliary distribution channel which includes at least one distribution resource in addition to the central signal distribution system adapted to transmit signals to the subscriber receivers outside the central management server.

7. A system according to claim 1, wherein the signals represent at least one of text information, acoustic information, image information and video information.

8. A system according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the

subscriber receivers is represented by at least one of a TV-tuner, a satellite signal decoder, a computer and a broadband mobile communication terminal.

9. A system according to claim 2, wherein the organization scheme specifies, for each signal to be transmitted, at least the time instance and the content category.

10. A system according to claim 9, wherein the organization scheme specifies, for each signal to be transmitted, at least the contents category, wherein the contents category for at least one segment of the signal determines which sub-segment that will be presented in which subscriber receiver.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein each subscriber receiver of the plurality of subscriber receivers comprises an interpretation unit and a user specific key, wherein each subscriber receiver is configured to present a particular received signal to a user based at least in part on the user specific key.

12. A client computer for organization of signals for transmitting thereof to a plurality of subscriber receivers, wherein each signal represents a type of information belonging to a particular contents category, comprising:

a client computer having a graphical user interface towards a central management server and adapted to receive a compiled data set from the central management server, and produce administrative instructions based at least partially on the compiled data set for organizing a sub-set of the signals to be transmitted over a number of channels available to the client computer under management of the central management server, whereby the administrative instructions produced by the client computer specifies, for each signal to be transmitted, at least a time instance and a contents category, wherein the contents category for at least one sub-segment of each signal determines which sub-segment that will be presented in which subscriber receiver of the plurality of subscriber receivers, and wherein the central management server is adapted to receive the administrative instructions pertaining to the transmission of the signals to the subscriber receivers from the client computer, wherein the central management server is further adapted to, in response to the administrative instructions, organize signals from at least one of a number of signal sources before transmission thereof to the subscriber receivers, and wherein the central management server is further adapted to generate the compiled data set representing at least activity-monitoring information.

13. A client computer according to claim 12, wherein the graphical user interface is configured to, for each of the signals to be transmitted on the at least one channel, present the signal'"'"'s contents category, and for at least a sub-set of the signals to be transmitted on the at least one channel, enable a user to manipulate segments of each signal such that a particular sub-segment will be presented in each subscriber receiver of the subscriber receivers which has a profile category matching a contents category associated with the particular sub-segment.

14. A client computer according to claim 12, wherein the graphical user interface is further configured to, for at least a sub-set of the signals to be transmitted on the at least one channel, enable the user to select a suitable sub-segment for each of a number of profile categories for a segment of a signal.

15. A client computer according to claim 14, wherein the graphical user interface is further configured to enable the user to, for each sub-segment, select a profile category, wherein a default profile category is based on a compiled data set formed on basis of activity-monitoring information pertaining to signals having been presented in the subscriber receivers.

16. A client computer according to claim 14, wherein the graphical user interface is further configured to allow the user to, for each sub-segment, select a geographical area within which subscriber receivers will present the sub-segment, wherein a default geographical area is based on positional information pertaining to signals having been presented in the subscriber receivers.

17. A client computer according to claim 14, wherein the graphical user interface is further configured to enable the user to, for each sub-segment, select a priority level denoting a relative position of the sub-segment within a particular segment.

18. A client computer according to claim 12, comprising a compiler adapted to produce a preliminary organization of the signals on the at least one channel before transmitting corresponding administrative instructions to the central management server.

19. A client computer according to claim 18, wherein the graphical user interface is further configured to enable a user to manipulate the preliminary organization of the signals, and the client computer comprises processing means adapted for producing administrative instructions to the central management server on the basis of user manipulations.

20. A client computer according to claim 12, wherein the

signals represent at least one of text information, acoustic information, image information and video information.

21. The client computer according to claim 12, wherein the graphical user interface is further configured to verify the content of each of the signals to be transmitted with respect to the contents of any neighboring signal segments.

22. The client computer according to claim 12, comprising a graphical user interface adapted to present a time relationship between different signals (S) to be transmitted on at least one channel.

23. A computer program product comprising at least one electronic computer readable storage memory storing computer executable instructions for organization of signals for transmitting thereof to a plurality of subscriber receivers, wherein each signal represents a type of information belonging to a particular contents category, the executable instructions comprising:

first computer instructions for receiving, at the client computer, a compiled data set from a central management server, wherein the compiled data set is generated by the central management server and represents at least activity-monitoring information,

second computer instructions for producing, at the client computer, administrative instructions based at least partially on the compiled data set for organizing a sub-set of the signals to be transmitted over a number of transmission resources available to the client computer,

third computer instructions for receiving, at the central management server, the administrative instructions produced at the client computer pertaining to the transmission of the signals to the subscriber receivers, and in response to the administrative instructions, organizing signals from at least one of a number of signal sources before transmission thereof to the subscriber receivers, and

fourth computer instructions for receiving, at the central management server, the signals and, in accordance with the administrative instructions, transmitting these signals to at least a portion of the plurality of subscriber receivers, the administrative instructions specifies, for each signal to be transmitted, at least a time instance and a contents category, wherein the contents category for at least one sub-segment of each signal determines which sub-segment that will be presented in which subscriber receiver of the plurality of subscriber receivers.

24. At least one electronic non-transitory computer readable storage readable-medium, having at least one program recorded thereon, wherein the at least one program is adapted to organize transmission of signals to a plurality of subscriber receivers, wherein each signal represents a type of information belonging to a particular contents category and comprises:

first computer instructions for receiving, at the client computer, a compiled data set from a central management server, wherein the compiled data set is generated by the central management server and represents at least activity-monitoring information,

second computer instructions for producing, at the client computer, the administrative instructions based at least partially on the compiled data set for organizing a sub-set of the signals to be transmitted over a number of transmission resources available to the client computer,

third computer instructions for receiving, at the central management server, the administrative instructions produced at the client computer pertaining to the transmission of the signals to the subscriber receivers, and in response to the administrative instructions organizing signals from at least one of a number of signal sources before transmission thereof to the subscriber receivers, and

fourth computer instructions for receiving, at the central management server, the signals and, in accordance with the administrative instructions, transmitting these signals to the subscriber receivers, wherein the administrative instructions specifies, for each signal to be transmitted, at least a time instance and a contents category, and wherein the contents category for at least one sub-segment of each signal determines which sub-segment that will be presented in which subscriber receiver of the plurality of subscriber receivers.