Maintaining a minimum level of real time media recommendations in the absence of online friends

• US 9,003,056 B2
• Filed: 12/13/2006
• Issued: 04/07/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Concert Technology Corporation
• Original Assignee: Napo Enerprises, LLC (Concert Technology Corporation)
• Inventors: Svendsen, Hugh
• Primary Examiner(s): Bengzon, Greg C
• Application Number:
  US11/609,945
• Publication Number:
  US 20090083362A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,037 Days
• Field of Search: 709/213, 709203-207, 707/5, 455/466
• US Class Current: 709/234
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/10 Indexing; Addressing; Timing or synchronising; Measuring tape travel
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/00 Data switching networks interconnection of, or transfer of information or other signals between, memories, input/output devices or central processing units G06F13/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4625 Single bridge functionality, e.g. connection of two networks over a single bridge
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services independent of the application payload and not provided for in the other groups of this subclass networks security protocols H04L9/40; wireless communication networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23106 involving caching operations prefetching while addressing of a memory level in which the access to the desired data or data block requires associative addressing means within memory systems or architectures G06F12/0862; caching at an intermediate stage in a data network H04L67/568
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/254 Management at additional data server, e.g. shopping server, rights management server arrangements for maintenance or administration in data networks H04L41/00; network services using third party service providers H04L67/53
• 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 7/00 Television systems details H04N3/00, H04N5/00; methods or arrangements, for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/00; selective content distribution H04N21/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17336 Handling of requests in head-ends

Abstract

The present invention provides a peer-to-peer (P2P) network for providing real time media recommendations. The P2P network includes a central server interconnecting a number of peer devices. In operation, a proxy function of the central server receives media recommendations from one or more peer devices that are active and online as media presentations identified by the media recommendations are played by the peer devices. The one or more peer devices are included in a group of peer devices associated with a first peer device. The proxy function provides the media recommendations to the first peer device. An augmentation function of the central server monitors a recommendation level of the first peer device. If the recommendation level falls below a minimum recommendation level, the augmentation function augments the media recommendations provided to the first peer device to increase the recommendation level to or above the minimum recommendation level.

Claims

1. A central server comprising:

a communication interface communicatively coupling the central server to a plurality of peer devices via a network; and

a control system associated with the communication interface and comprising;

a proxy function adapted to;

receive media recommendations from ones of a group of peer devices that are active and online as media presentations identified by the media recommendations are played by the ones of the group of peer devices, the group of peer devices comprising at least one of the plurality of peer devices associated with a first one of the plurality of peer devices; and

provide the media recommendations to the first one of the plurality of peer devices; and

an augmentation function adapted to;

monitor a media recommendation level for the first one of the plurality of peer devices wherein in order to monitor the media recommendation level, the augmentation function is further adapted to monitor a number of media recommendations provided to the first one of the plurality of peer devices over a defined period of time;

determine whether the media recommendation level for the first one of the plurality of peer devices is less than a minimum recommendation level; and

augment the media recommendations provided to the first one of the plurality of peer devices if the media recommendation level is less than the minimum recommendation level.

2. The central server of claim 1 wherein the media recommendation level is indicative of a number of media recommendations provided to the first one of the plurality of peer devices.

3. The central server of claim 1 wherein in order to monitor the media recommendation level, the augmentation function is further adapted to determine whether each of the group of peer devices associated with the first one of the plurality of peer devices is active and online.

4. The central server of claim 3 wherein the minimum recommendation level is a minimum number of peer devices from the group of peer devices that are to be active and online, and in order to determine whether the media recommendation level for the first one of the plurality of peer devices is less than the minimum recommendation level, the augmentation function is further adapted to determine whether a number of the group of peer devices that are active and online is less than the minimum number of peer devices.

5. The central server of claim 1 wherein the minimum recommendation level is a minimum number of media recommendations, and in order to determine whether the media recommendation level for the first one of the plurality of peer devices is less than the minimum recommendation level, the augmentation function is further adapted to determine whether the number of media recommendations provided to the first one of the plurality of peer devices over the defined period of time is less than the minimum number of media recommendations.

6. The central server of claim 1 wherein in order to augment the media recommendations, the augmentation function is further adapted to:

select at least one additional peer device that is active and online from the plurality of peer devices;

receive additional media recommendations from the at least one additional peer device as media presentations identified by the additional media recommendations are played by the at least one additional peer device; and

augment the media recommendations provided to the first one of the plurality of peer devices with the additional media recommendations.

7. The central server of claim 1 wherein in order to augment the media recommendations, the augmentation function is further adapted to:

generate additional media recommendations based on a play history of at least one of the group of peer devices that is at least one of a group consisting of;

inactive and offline; and

augment the media recommendations provided to the first one of the plurality of peer devices with the additional media recommendations.

8. The central server of claim 1 wherein in order to augment the media recommendations, the augmentation function is further adapted to:

generate additional media recommendations based on a user profile associated with at least one of the group of peer devices that is at least one of a group consisting of;

inactive and offline; and

augment the media recommendations provided to the first one of the plurality of peer devices with the additional media recommendations.

9. The central server of claim 1 wherein in order to augment the media recommendations, the augmentation function is further adapted to:

generate additional media recommendations based on a user profile of a user of the first one of the plurality of peer devices; and

augment the media recommendations provided to the first one of the plurality of peer devices with the additional media recommendations.

10. A method of operation of a computing device operating in a peer-to-peer media recommendation system, comprising:

receiving media recommendations from ones of a group of peer devices that are active and online as media presentations identified by the media recommendations are played by the ones of the group of peer devices, the group of peer devices comprising at least one of a plurality of peer devices associated with a first one of the plurality of peer devices;

providing the media recommendations to the first one of the plurality of peer devices;

monitoring a media recommendation level for the first one of the plurality of peer devices wherein monitoring the media recommendation level includes monitoring a number of media recommendations provided to the first one of the plurality of peer devices over a defined period of time;

determining whether the media recommendation level for the first one of the plurality of peer devices is less than a minimum recommendation level; and

augmenting the media recommendations provided to the first one of the plurality of peer devices if the media recommendation level is less than the minimum recommendation level.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the media recommendation level is indicative of a number of media recommendations provided to the first one of the plurality of peer devices.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein monitoring the media recommendation level comprises determining whether each of the group of peer devices associated with the first one of the plurality of peer devices is active and online.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the minimum recommendation level is a minimum number of peer devices from the group of peer devices that are to be active and online, and determining whether the media recommendation level for the first one of the plurality of peer devices is less than the minimum recommendation level comprises determining whether a number of the group of peer devices that are active and online is less than the minimum number of peer devices.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein monitoring the media recommendation level comprises monitoring a number of media recommendations provided to the first of the plurality of peer devices over a defined period of time.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the minimum recommendation level is a minimum number of media recommendations, and determining whether the media recommendation level for the first one of the plurality of peer devices is less than the minimum recommendation level comprises determining whether the number of media recommendations provided to the first of the plurality of peer devices over the defined period of time is less than the minimum number of media recommendations.

16. The method of claim 10 wherein augmenting the media recommendations comprises:

selecting at least one additional peer device that is active and online from the plurality of peer devices;

receiving additional media recommendations from the at least one additional peer device as media presentations identified by the additional media recommendations are played by the at least one additional peer device; and

augmenting the media recommendations provided to the first one of the plurality of peer devices with the additional media recommendations.

17. The method of claim 10 wherein augmenting the media recommendations comprises:

generating additional media recommendations based on a play history of at least one of the group of peer devices that is at least one of a group consisting of;

inactive and offline; and

augmenting the media recommendations provided to the first one of the plurality of peer devices with the additional media recommendations.

18. The method of claim 10 wherein augmenting the media recommendations comprises:

generating additional media recommendations based on a user profile associated with at least one of the group of peer devices that is at least one of the group consisting of;

inactive and offline; and

augmenting the media recommendations provided to the first one of the plurality of peer devices with the additional media recommendations.

19. The method of claim 10 wherein augmenting the media recommendations comprises:

generating additional media recommendations based on a user profile of a user of the first one of the plurality of peer devices; and

augmenting the media recommendations provided to the first one of the plurality of peer devices with the additional media recommendations.