System and method for displaying and searching multimedia events scheduling information

• US 9,066,148 B2
• Filed: 12/20/2013
• Issued: 06/23/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Gossweiler, Richard Carl III, Reiss, David N., Wagner, Mark, Blackburn, John, Taylor, Thomas H., Bauer, Marisa, Brown, David A., Sahami, Mehran, Crosby, Neha, Heilman, Timothy Dharma, Patel, Manish Gordhan, Tull, Alice, Zhang, Lucy Congyun, Zigmond, Daniel John, Scott, Marcia
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, KIM T
• Application Number:
  US14/136,680
• Publication Number:
  US 20140115629A1
• Time in Patent Office: 550 Days
• Field of Search: 725/39, 725/131
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; 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 21/4586 Content update operation triggered locally, e.g. by comparing the version of software modules in a DVB carousel to the version stored locally deployment, distribution, installation, update of software G06F8/65; error detection or correction of the data by redundancy during software upgrading G06F11/1433; arrangements for updating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/25
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4722 for requesting additional data associated with the content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4821 using a grid, e.g. sorted out by channel and broadcast time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4828 for searching program descriptors retrieval of video data G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6547 comprising parameters, e.g. for client setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only

Abstract

Disclosed are computer implemented method, systems, and non-transitory media for presenting information representing a plurality of time-bounded events in (i) a first grid and (ii) a second grid. The first grid has a first size and represents a first set of time-bounded events in the plurality of time-bounded events. The second grid has a second size smaller than the first size. The second grid represents a second set of time-bounded events in the plurality of time-bounded events. This second set of time-bounded events includes a greater number of time-bounded events than the first set of time-bounded events.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method, performed by a computer system having one or more processors and memory storing one or more programs for execution by the one or more processors, the method comprising:

presenting information representing a plurality of time-bounded events in (i) a first grid and (ii) a second grid, wherein

(A) the first grid has a first size, and

the first grid represents a first set of time-bounded events in the plurality of time-bounded events, and

(B) the second grid has a second size smaller than the first size,

the second grid represents a second set of time-bounded events in the plurality of time-bounded events, and

the second set of time-bounded events includes a greater number of time-bounded events than the first set of time-bounded events, wherein

the information representing a plurality of time-bounded events is responsive to a search query,

the search results of the search query are presented in the second grid and a subset of the search results is presented in the first grid using a predefined scheme for visually identifying the search results and a subset of the search results, and

the predefined scheme is (i) a color scheme for displaying different subsets of the search results using different colors or (ii) a highlighting scheme for displaying different subsets of the search results using a highlighting method.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of time-bounded events comprises scheduled presentations of multimedia content.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of time-bounded events comprises television shows scheduled for broadcast in a predefined time period.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein an axis of the first grid corresponds to television channels and an axis of the second grid corresponds to time.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of time-bounded events comprises data resulting from a search of a database in accordance with the search query.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the search query is a user specified search query.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the search query comprises a predefined search query.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responding to a user action of hovering a pointer over a time-bounded event displayed in the second grid by displaying additional information corresponding to the time-bounded event.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising acquiring additional data from a server corresponding to the displayed additional information.

10. A computer implemented method, performed by a computer system having one or more processors and memory storing one or more programs for execution by the one or more processors, the method comprising:

presenting information representing a plurality of time-bounded events in (i) a first grid and (ii) a second grid, wherein

(A) the first grid has a first size, and

the first grid represents a first set of time-bounded events in the plurality of time-bounded events, and

(B) the second grid has a second size smaller than the first size,

the second grid represents a second set of time-bounded events in the plurality of time-bounded events, and

the second set of time-bounded events includes a greater number of time-bounded events than the first set of time-bounded events, wherein

the information representing a plurality of time-bounded events is responsive to a search query,

the search results of the search query are presented in the second grid using a predefined scheme for visually distinguishing the search results in accordance with relevance to the search query,

events presented in the first grid that correspond to the search results are visually distinguished in accordance with the predefined scheme, and

the predefined scheme includes visual distinctions between search results having different levels of relevance to the search query.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the plurality of time-bounded events comprises scheduled presentations of multimedia content.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the plurality of time-bounded events comprises television shows scheduled for broadcast in a predefined time period.

13. A system for presenting information representing a plurality of time-bounded events, comprising:

memory;

one or more processors; and

one or more modules stored in memory and configured for execution by the one or more processors, the one or modules comprising instructions for;

presenting the information representing the plurality of time-bounded events in (i) a first grid and (ii) a second grid, wherein

(A) the first grid has a first size, and

the first grid represents a first set of time-bounded events in the plurality of time-bounded events, and

(B) the second grid has a second size smaller than the first size,

the second grid represents a second set of time-bounded events in the plurality of time-bounded events, and

the second set of time-bounded events includes a greater number of time-bounded events than the first set of time-bounded events, wherein

the information representing a plurality of time-bounded events is responsive to a search query,

the search results of the search query are presented in the second grid and a subset of the search results is presented in the first grid using a predefined scheme for visually identifying the search results and a subset of the search results, and

the predefined scheme is (i) a color scheme for displaying different subsets of the search results using different colors or (ii) a highlighting scheme for displaying different subsets of the search results using a highlighting method.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the plurality of time-bounded events comprises scheduled presentations of multimedia content.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the plurality of time-bounded events comprises television shows scheduled for broadcast in a predefined time period.

16. A system for presenting information representing a plurality of time-bounded events, comprising:

memory;

one or more processors; and

one or more modules stored in memory and configured for execution by the one or more processors, the one or modules comprising instructions for;

presenting the information representing the plurality of time-bounded events in (i) a first grid and (ii) a second grid, wherein

(A) the first grid has a first size, and

the first grid represents a first set of time-bounded events in the plurality of time-bounded events, and

(B) the second grid has a second size smaller than the first size,

the second grid represents a second set of time-bounded events in the plurality of time-bounded events,

the second set of time-bounded events includes a greater number of time-bounded events than the first set of time-bounded events, wherein

the information representing a plurality of time-bounded events is responsive to a search query,

the search results of the search query are presented in the second grid and a subset of the search results is presented in the first grid using a predefined scheme for visually identifying the search results and a subset of the search results, and

the predefined scheme includes visual distinctions between search results having different levels of relevance.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the plurality of time-bounded events comprises scheduled presentations of multimedia content.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the plurality of time-bounded events comprises television shows scheduled for broadcast in a predefined time period.

19. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing one or more programs for execution by one or more processors of a computer system for presenting information representing a plurality of time-bounded events, the one or more programs comprising instructions for:

presenting the information representing the plurality of time-bounded events in (i) a first grid and (ii) a second grid, wherein

(A) the first grid has a first size, and

the first grid represents a first set of time-bounded events in the plurality of time-bounded events, and

(B) the second grid has a second size smaller than the first size,

the second grid represents a second set of time-bounded events in the plurality of time-bounded events, and

the second set of time-bounded events includes a greater number of time-bounded events than the first set of time-bounded events, wherein

the information representing a plurality of time-bounded events is responsive to a search query,

the search results of the search query are presented in the second grid and a subset of the search results is presented in the first grid using a predefined scheme for visually identifying the search results and a subset of the search results, and

the predefined scheme is (i) a color scheme for displaying different subsets of the search results using different colors or (ii) a highlighting scheme for displaying different subsets of the search results using a highlighting method.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the plurality of time-bounded events comprises scheduled presentations of multimedia content.