Apparatus and method for media on demand commentaries

• US 9,015,778 B2
• Filed: 11/13/2009
• Issued: 04/21/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Roberts, Linda, Chang, E-Lee, Sung, Ja-Young, King, Robert Arthur, Barrett Schultz, Natasha
• Primary Examiner(s): Featherstone, Mark D
• Application Number:
  US12/617,813
• Publication Number:
  US 20110119694A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,985 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 725/86
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/33 Arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/104 Grouping of entities
• 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 21/23418 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics television picture signal circuitry for scene change detection H04N5/147; filtering for image enhancement G06T5/00; methods or arrangements for recognising scenes G06V20/00; arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2353 specifically adapted to content descriptors, e.g. coding, compressing or processing of metadata
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2668 Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. insertion of targeted commercials based on end-user profiles information retrieval from the Internet by querying with filtering and personalisation G06F16/9535; arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast H04H20/10; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; adaptation of message content in packet-switching networks H04L51/063
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44008 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in the video stream arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4756 for rating content, e.g. scoring a recommended movie
• 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 21/4882 for displaying messages, e.g. warnings, reminders arrangements for providing short real-time information to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1895
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8133 specifically related to the content, e.g. biography of the actors in a movie, detailed information about an article seen in a video program
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments

Abstract

A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a system having a controller to present an overlay that is combined with a presentation of media content at each of a plurality of computing devices to illustrate a collection of one or more user-generated comments temporally associated with portions of the presented media content such as portions of a media on demand presentation, collect one or more user-generated comments from each of the plurality of computing devices, and present the one or more user-generated comments from each of the plurality of computing devices as part of a video on demand catalog. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing, by a system including a processor, an overlay to be combined with media content during presentation at each of a plurality of computing devices on an internet protocol television network to illustrate a collection of user-generated comments temporally associated with portions of the media content, wherein the portions of the media content comprise portions of a media on demand presentation;

collecting, by the system, the user-generated comments from the plurality of computing devices;

providing, by the system, the user-generated comments to the plurality of computing devices for presentation in the overlay;

identifying, by the system, target portions of the media content that each satisfy a threshold number of comments and non-target portions of the media content that do not satisfy the threshold number of comments, wherein the target portions are associated with corresponding target comments of the user-generated comments, and wherein the non-target portions are associated with non-target corresponding comments of the user-generated comments; and

generating, by the system, a video on demand catalog that includes the target portions of the media content and the corresponding target comments without including the non-target portions of the media content and the non-target corresponding comments.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising:

accessing a group of user profiles corresponding to a group of computing devices;

identifying a common interest based on an analysis of the group of user profiles; and

selecting the plurality of computing devices from among the group of computing devices based on the common interest.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the video on demand catalog includes comments generated by sources associated with the media content.

4. The method of claim 1, comprising generating, by the system, a video on demand trailer that includes the target portions of the media content without the corresponding comments of the user-generated comments.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the user-generated comments are associated with a predetermined group of users selected by one of a common geographic area or a common subject interest, wherein the overlay comprises a time line with annotation corresponding to the user-generated comments.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising providing, by the system, graphical indicators that distinguish between commentaries of users, directors, actors and supporting staff.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising:

categorizing a source of the user-generated comments; and

providing a graphical indicator for a category that represents the source.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein the sources include one of a director or an actor of the media content.

9. The method of claim 3, wherein the sources include supporting staff comments which are temporally associated with portions of the media content.

10. A system, comprising:

a memory to store computer instructions; and

a controller coupled with the memory, wherein the controller, responsive to executing the computer instructions, performs operations comprising;

providing an overlay to be combined with media content during presentation at each of a plurality of computing devices to illustrate a collection of user-generated comments temporally associated with portions of the media content;

collecting the user-generated comments from the plurality of computing devices;

identifying target portions of the media content based on a number of comments corresponding to each of the target portions that satisfies a comment frequency threshold; and

generating a video on demand catalog that includes the target portions of the media content and corresponding comments of the user-generated comments without including other portions of the media content that do not satisfy the comment frequency threshold.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise:

accessing a group of user profiles corresponding to a group of computing devices;

identifying a common interest based on an analysis of the group of user profiles; and

selecting the plurality of computing devices from among the group of computing devices based on the common interest.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein operations further comprise:

categorizing a source of the user-generated comments; and

providing a graphical indicator for a category that represents the source.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise:

generating a video on demand trailer that includes the target portions of the media content without the corresponding comments of the user-generated comments.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the video on demand catalog includes comments generated by sources associated with the media content, wherein the sources include one of a director or an actor of the media content.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the plurality of computing devices comprises a portable communication device, and wherein the controller operates over an Internet Protocol TV network.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the user-generated comments are associated with a predetermined group of users selected by one of a common geographic area or a common subject interest forming a focus group.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise:

generating graphical indicators that distinguish between commentaries of users, directors, actors and supporting staff; and

providing the user-generated comments to each of the plurality of computing devices.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the user-generated comments are associated with a predetermined group of users selected based on a common subject interest.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, comprising computer instructions which, responsive to being executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

providing an overlay to be combined with media content during presentation at each of a plurality of computing devices to illustrate a collection of user-generated comments temporally associated with portions of the media content;

collecting the user-generated comments from the plurality of computing devices;

identifying target portions of the media content based on a number of comments corresponding to each of the target portions that satisfies a comment number threshold; and

generating a video on demand trailer that includes the target portions of the media content without corresponding comments of the user-generated comments without including other portions of the media content that do not satisfy the comment number threshold.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the plurality of computing devices operate over an interactive television network and wherein the operations further comprise:

generating a video on demand catalog that includes the target portions of the media content and the corresponding comments of the user-generated comments.