Providing information about video content

• US 9,160,977 B2
• Filed: 07/22/2008
• Issued: 10/13/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Synamedia Limited
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Davies, Colin John, Walker, James Geoffrey, Thexton, Nicholas, Parnall, Simon John
• Primary Examiner(s): SALAD, ABDULLAHI ELMI
• Application Number:
  US12/452,760
• Publication Number:
  US 20100146077A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,639 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/78 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23892 involving embedding information at multiplex stream level, e.g. embedding a watermark at packet level
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25841 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; arrangements for identifying locations of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/51; location of the user terminal in data switching networks H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25883 being end-user demographical data, e.g. age, family status or address arrangements for identifying locations of users in broadcast systems H04H60/52
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26283 for associating distribution time parameters to content, e.g. to generate electronic program guide data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2665 Gathering content from different sources, e.g. Internet and satellite
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4524 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; systems specially adapted for using geographical information in broadcast systems H04H60/70; protocols in which the network application is adapted for the location of the user terminal in communication control or processing H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• 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 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4722 for requesting additional data associated with the content
• 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 21/4828 for searching program descriptors retrieval of video data G06F16/739
• 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 21/8405 represented by keywords
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A method of providing information about video content to a client is disclosed. The method includes: receiving a request from a client requesting information about video content, the request including an internet protocol address of the client; establishing (a) a geographic location of the client from the internet protocol address; and (b) a time of the request; identifying one or more content providers available in the geographic location; in dependence on the one or more content providers and the time, retrieving information about the video content from a database; and providing the information to the client. Related apparatus and methods are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A method of providing information about video content to a user of a client device, said method comprising:

receiving a request from the client device requesting information about video content, wherein, without input from the user and prior to rendering a web page to which the user has navigated, said request is automatically created and submitted by said client device in response to said client device parsing a portion of hypertext markup language text, said request including an internet protocol address of said client device;

establishing (a) a geographic location of said client device from said internet protocol address; and

(b) a time of said request;

identifying one or more content providers available in said geographic location;

in dependence on said one or more content providers and said time, retrieving information about said video content from a database; and

providing said information to said client device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said client device comprises one of a plurality of client devices parsing portions of hypertext markup language text when loading websites, and wherein said method further comprises:

for each website, recording automatic requests received from said plurality of client devices in response to said client devices parsing portions of hypertext markup language text when loading each website;

ranking said websites in dependence on a number of recorded automatic requests; and

providing ranking data to said client devices in response to a request received from said client devices.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said portion of hypertext markup language text is supplied to said client device in response to a previous request received from said client device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said information is provided in the form of an image.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said image comprises one or more hyperlinks.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said one or more content providers comprise television platforms, and wherein said video content comprises video content broadcast by at least one television platform.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said information comprises a time at which said video content is next available and a channel on which said video content is next available.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said video content comprises video content available for download from at least one of said one or more content providers via the internet.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said information comprises one or more links to websites of said one or more content providers from where said video content can be downloaded.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said information further comprises costs of downloading said video content from said websites.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein said video content comprises video content available to purchase as recorded media from at least one of said one or more content providers.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said information comprises one or more links to websites of said one or more content providers from where said recorded media can be purchased.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said information further comprises costs of purchasing said recorded media from said websites.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing related information to said client device if information about said video content is not available, wherein said related information comprises related information about related video content related to said video content.

15. Apparatus for providing information about video content to a user of a client device, said apparatus comprising:

means for receiving a request from the client device requesting information about video content, wherein, without input from the user and prior to rendering a web page to which the user has navigated, said request is automatically created and submitted by said client device in response to said client

device parsing a portion of hypertext markup language text, said request including an internet protocol address of said client device;

means for establishing (a) a geographic location of said client device from said internet protocol address; and

(b) a time of said request from said request;

means for identifying one or more television platforms available in said geographic location;

means for retrieving information about said video content from a database in dependence on said one or more television platforms and said time; and

means for providing said information to said client device.

16. Apparatus operable to provide information about video content to a user of a client device, said apparatus comprising:

a server comprising a processor and memory to;

receive a request from the client device requesting information about video content, wherein, without input from the user and prior to rendering a web page to which the user has navigated, said request is automatically created and submitted by said client device in response to said client device parsing a portion of hypertext markup language text, said

request including an internet protocol address of said client device;

establish (a) a geographic location of said client device from said internet protocol address; and

(b) a time of said request from said request;

identify one or more television platforms available in said geographic location;

retrieve information about said video content from a database in dependence on said one or more television platforms and said time; and

provide said information to said client device.