Interactive remote participation in live entertainment

• US 9,066,144 B2
• Filed: 10/12/2012
• Issued: 06/23/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/13/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CryTek GmbH
• Original Assignee: CryTek GmbH
• Inventors: Yerli, Cevat
• Primary Examiner(s): MENGESHA, MULUGETA A
• Application Number:
  US13/651,153
• Publication Number:
  US 20130097635A1
• Time in Patent Office: 984 Days
• Field of Search: 725/24, 725/37, 725/105, 725/106
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2187 Live feed
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4756 for rating content, e.g. scoring a recommended movie
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4758 for providing answers, e.g. voting

Abstract

A system and method for remote participation in live events are described. The system comprises one or more interactive environments, each hosting a live event and including means for continuously recording the interactive environment; a transmitter coupled to the one or more interactive environments, configured to receive from each interactive environment the respective recording and to transfer each recording to at least some of a plurality of remote viewers; a processing unit configured to receive feedback related to one of said live events from two or more of the remote viewers, wherein, based on the feedback, the processing unit is configured to determine an interactive environment hosting the related live event and to directly update the determined interactive environment based on the feedback.

Claims

1. A system for remote participation in live events, comprising:

a plurality of interactive environments, each hosting a live event and including a computing device configured to continuously record the interactive environment;

a transmitter coupled to the plurality of interactive environments, wherein the transmitter is configured to receive from each interactive environment the respective recording and to transfer each recording to at least some of a plurality of remote viewers; and

a processing unit configured to receive feedback related to one of said live events from two or more of the remote viewers,

wherein, based on the feedback, the processing unit is further configured to determine an interactive environment hosting the related live event and to directly update the determined interactive environment based on the feedback, and

wherein the processing unit comprises a middleware module configured to asynchronously organize the communication between the processing unit and the plurality of remote viewers, wherein the middleware module is configured to expose a plurality of network connections for receiving the feedback of the remote viewers and transferring data processed by the processing unit to the determined interactive environment of the plurality of interactive environments, wherein the middleware module is further configured, if one of the plurality of remote viewers is participating in more than one live event, to filter all requests and feedback of the one remote viewer towards a correct live event session so that data is stored and processed in connection to a respective live event session.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising one or more feedback channels to couple at least some of the remote viewers to the processing unit, each feedback channel associated with one interactive environment.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising one or more transfer channels, each associated with one interactive environment, wherein the processing unit is configured to transfer the recording of an interactive environment to at least some of the remote viewers via the associated transfer channels.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a security component configured to authenticate a remote viewer and to authorize participation of the remote viewer in one of said interactive environments.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein a plurality of local viewers in at least one of said interactive environments is coupled to the processing unit via one of said feedback channels and wherein the processing unit is further configured to receive feedback related to the local live event from at least one of the local viewers and, based on the received feedback, update the local interactive environment.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein the transmitter is configured to broadcast and/or stream the recording via at least one of the transfer channels, including at least a television channel and an internet live stream.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising, at each remote viewer, an interaction device including an output device for receiving and rendering at least one recording and an input device for generating feedback on the displayed at least one recording.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the processing unit is further configured to process the feedback from a plurality of remote and/or local viewers and compute at least one value based on the processed feedback.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein, based on the received feedback, the processing unit is configured to generate a visual representation and to update the interactive environment by displaying said visual representation within the interactive environment.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein each live event is one of a sports event, a cultural event, a social event, a television show, a political speech, or a live conference.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the interactive environment is a computer-generated environment, including at least one of a concurrently or synchronously experienced game-session, a live collaborative engagement of users, or a social environment.

12. A method for remote participation in live events, comprising:

providing a plurality of interactive environments, each hosting a live event;

continuously recording each interactive environment;

receiving from each interactive environment the respective recording and transferring each recording to at least some of a plurality of remote viewers;

receiving feedback related to one of said live events from two or more of the remote viewers;

determining, based on the feedback, an interactive environment hosting the related live event;

directly updating the determined interactive environment based on the feedback; and

asynchronously organizing communication with the plurality of remote viewers using a middleware module, wherein the middleware module is configured to expose a plurality of network connections for receiving the feedback of the remote viewers and transferring processed data to the determined interactive environment of the plurality of interactive environments, wherein the middleware module is further configured, if one of the plurality of remote viewers is participating in more than one live event, to filter all requests and feedback of the one remote viewer towards a correct live event session so that data is stored and processed in connection to a respective live event session.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising providing one or more feedback channels, each feedback channel to transfer feedback associated with one of the interactive environments.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising providing one or more transfer channels, each transfer channel to transfer the recording of one interactive environment to at least some of the remote viewers.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising authenticating a remote viewer and authorizing participation of the remote viewer in one of said interactive environments.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising receiving from at least one of a plurality of local viewers in an interactive environment feedback related to the local live event and, based on the received feedback, updating the local interactive environment.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein transferring the recording includes broadcasting and/or streaming the recording via at least one of the transfer channels.

18. The method of claim 12, further comprising processing the feedback from a plurality of remote and/or local viewers and computing at least one value based on the processed feedback.

19. The method of claim 12, further comprising, based on the received feedback, updating the interactive environment by initiating an action within the interactive environment.

20. The method of claim 12, further comprising, based on the received feedback, generating a visual representation and updating the interactive environment by displaying said visual representation within the interactive environment.

21. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, wherein said instructions, when installed and executed on a computing device, cause said computing device to:

provide a plurality of interactive environments, each hosting a live event;

continuously record each interactive environment;

receive from each interactive environment the respective recording and transfer each recording to at least some of a plurality of remote viewers;

receive feedback related to one of said live events from two or more of the remote viewers;

determine, based on the feedback, an interactive environment hosting the related live event;

directly update the determined interactive environment based on the feedback; and

asynchronously organize communication with the plurality of remote viewers using a middleware module, wherein the middleware module is configured to expose a plurality of network connections for receiving the feedback data of the remote viewers and transferring processed data to the determined interactive environment of the plurality of interactive environments, wherein the middleware module is further configured, if one of the plurality of remote viewers is participating in more than one live event, to filter all requests and feedback of the one remote viewer towards a correct live event session so that data is stored and processed in connection to a respective live event session.