Ascertaining events in media

• US 9,015,744 B1
• Filed: 06/25/2012
• Issued: 04/21/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: IMDb.com, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: IMBD.com Incorporated
• Inventors: Siegel, Hilliard Bruce, Fishkin, Kenneth P.
• Primary Examiner(s): WON, MICHAEL YOUNG
• Application Number:
  US13/532,234
• Time in Patent Office: 1,030 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 725/23
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2408 Monitoring of the upstream path of the transmission network, e.g. client requests monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876; scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4758 for providing answers, e.g. voting
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4781 Games
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4784 receiving rewards
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4826 using recommendation lists, e.g. of programs or channels sorted out according to their score
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8547 involving timestamps for synchronizing content

Abstract

Disclosed are various embodiments relating to the identification of events that occur within a media item. A media item and a request are encoded for rendering for display, wherein the request relates to an occurrence of an event in the media item. The media item and the request are transmitted to a plurality of clients. A plurality of replies are received in response to the request, wherein each of the replies comprises a timestamp indicating a time relative to the media item. The existence of an event in the media item is determined based at least in part on a clustering of at least a subset of the replies.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium embodying a program executable in a computing device, comprising:

code that encodes for display a media item and a request associated with the media item to be sent to a plurality of client devices to be rendered on the plurality of client devices;

code that receives a plurality of replies in response to the request from the plurality of client devices, wherein each of the plurality of replies includes a timestamp representative of a point in time in the media item, and at least one of the plurality of replies includes a comment relating to the media item;

code that determines where an event occurred in the media item based at least in part on a clustering of at least a subset of the plurality of replies received from the plurality of client devices;

code that determines a degree of accuracy for each of the plurality of replies by determining a validation score for each of the plurality of replies; and

code that awards an amount of points to at least a subset of a plurality of users, the amount of points being determined based at least in part on the timestamp included in a respective one of the plurality of replies and the clustering of the at least a subset of the plurality of replies.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the validation score is based at least on an examination of each of the timestamps associated with each of the plurality of replies.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein each of a plurality of requests, including the request, is transmitted to a respective one of the plurality of client devices serially at a plurality of different points in time.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising:

code that subtracts an amount of points from the at least a subset of the plurality of users, the amount of points being determined based at least in part on a proximity of one of the plurality of replies relative to a clustering of a plurality of other user replies.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the code that determines where an event occurred in the media item based at least in part on a clustering of at least a subset of the plurality of replies received from the plurality of client devices further comprises code that determines whether a requisite number of the plurality of replies has been received.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 5, wherein the requisite number of the plurality of replies is a predefined percentage of all replies sent from the plurality of client devices.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the media item and the request are transmitted to the plurality of clients at different points in time.

8. A system, comprising:

at least one computing device; and

a media application executable in the at least one computing device, the media application comprising;

logic that generates a request associated with a transmission of a media item, wherein the request relates to an occurrence of an event in the media item;

logic that facilitates receipt of a plurality of replies in response to the request from a plurality of clients over a network, each of the plurality of replies comprising a timestamp representative of a point in time in the media item and a comment associated with the event in the media item;

logic that associates each of the plurality of replies with a respective user account;

logic that determines where the event occurred in the respective one of the media items based at least in part on a number of the plurality of replies received and a clustering of at least a subset of the plurality of replies received;

logic that determines a degree of accuracy for each of the plurality of replies by determining a validation score for each of the plurality of replies; and

logic that awards an amount of points to at least a subset of a plurality of users, the amount of points being determined based at least in part on the timestamp and the clustering of the at least a subset of the plurality of replies.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein both the media item and the request are simultaneously transmitted to the plurality of clients.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the request is transmitted to each respective one of the plurality of clients at a separate point in time.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the media application further comprises logic that stores in association with each respective user account:

a list of a plurality of transmitted media items to a respective user;

a record of the request transmitted to the respective user; and

a log of each of the plurality of replies received from the respective user.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the media application further comprises logic that publishes information to a plurality of clients relating to the one of the media items currently being transmitted.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein each of the plurality of replies is associated with a respective one of a plurality of users.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the media application further comprises logic that subtracts an amount of points from at least a subset of the plurality of users, the amount of points being determined based at least in part on a proximity of one of the replies relative to a cluster of a plurality of other user replies.

15. The system of claim 8, wherein the amount of points is determined based at least in part on a proximity of the timestamp relative to a point in time associated with the occurrence of the event in the media item.

16. A method, comprising:

encoding, in a computing device, a media item and a request for rendering for display, wherein the request relates to an occurrence of an event in the media item;

transmitting, in the computing device, the media item and the request to a plurality of clients over a network;

receiving, in the computing device, a plurality of replies in response to the request, wherein each of the plurality of replies comprises a timestamp indicating a time relative to the media item;

determining, in the computing device, whether the event occurred in the media item based at least in part on a clustering of at least a subset of the plurality of replies;

determining, in the computing device, a degree of accuracy for each of the plurality of replies by determining a validation score for each of the plurality of replies; and

awarding, in the computing device, an amount of points to at least a subset of a plurality of users, the amount of points being determined based at least in part on the timestamp and the clustering of the at least a subset of the plurality of replies.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the media item and the request are transmitted to the plurality of clients to be rendered simultaneously on the plurality of clients.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the media item and the request are transmitted to the plurality of clients at different points in time.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein a different version of the media item is transmitted to each of the plurality of clients over a network.

20. The method of claim 16, where a different request is transmitted to each of the plurality of clients over the network.

21. The method of claim 16, where at least one of the plurality of replies further comprises a comment relating to the media item.