In-house location based services

• US 9,167,056 B2
• Filed: 09/16/2013
• Issued: 10/20/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Klein, Philippe
• Primary Examiner(s): Ton, Dang
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kaur, Pamit
• Application Number:
  US14/027,356
• Publication Number:
  US 20140012902A1
• Time in Patent Office: 764 Days
• Field of Search: 370/328
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/282 based on user interaction within the home receiver circuitry for displaying additional information being controlled by a remote control apparatus H04N21/42204
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1026 at the edge
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences

Abstract

A mobile device of a user discovers topological information about electronic devices in a premise environment, and shares such information with a media gateway. The media gateway uses the topological information to augment content from a server, such as a web page that supports access to media content, to add graphical objects corresponding to those electronic devices in proximity to the mobile device that are capable of reproducing the streaming media content. Selection of the one of the add-on graphical objects causes delivery of the media content to the corresponding electronic device instead of the display of the mobile device. In this manner, a more natural selection mechanism than that available using conventional pull-down lists of options is provided.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a media gateway, a request for content from a mobile device, wherein the request comprises at least information identifying at least one electronic device in a premise environment;

accessing, by the media gateway, the content identified in the request;

modifying, by the media gateway, the content to include at least one graphical object representing the at least one electronic device in the premise environment;

transmitting, by the media gateway, the modified content to the mobile device for display;

receiving, by the media gateway, an indication of a selection of the at least one graphical object from the mobile device, the at least one graphical object representing the at least one electronic device capable of displaying the content;

directing, by the media gateway, the content to the at least one electronic device corresponding to the selection of the at least one graphical object.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the content comprises a network page.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the content comprises elements of a markup language that supports hyperlinks to media content.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the markup language comprises hypertext markup language (HTML).

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile device is selected from a group consisting of a cellular telephone, a smart phone, a portable personal computer, and a tablet computer.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the information comprises identity and capability information for the at least one electronic device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the information is determined by the mobile device using wireless communication with the at least one electronic device within a certain proximity of the mobile device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying, by the media gateway, the content further comprises augmenting the content with additional information representing at least one selectable graphical object for display at the mobile device, the at least one selected graphic object corresponding to the at least one electronic device if capable of reproducing media content.

9. A system comprising:

a media gateway comprising at least one processor, wherein the media gateway is configured to;

access content identified in a request for the content received from a mobile device;

supplement the content to include at a plurality of graphical objects, each of the plurality of graphical objects corresponding to at least one of a plurality of electronic devices in a premise environment identified via information obtained by the mobile device;

transmit the supplemented content to the mobile device for display;

receive a selection of a selected one of the plurality of graphical objects from the mobile device; and

transmit the content to the selected one of the plurality of electronic devices corresponding to the selection for display if the selected one of the plurality of electronic devices is capable of rendering the content.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the media gateway if further configured to determine whether the content comprises language constructs associated with media content.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the media gateway if further configured to determine whether at least one of the plurality of electronic devices is capable of rendering the media content.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the content comprises content of a network page.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the information further comprises topological information having identity and capability information for each of the plurality of electronic devices.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the topological information further comprises information representing arrangement and connectivity of at least a portion of the plurality of electronic devices.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the topological information is determined by the mobile device using wireless communication with the plurality of electronic devices within a certain proximity of the mobile device.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium embodying a program executable in at least one computing device, comprising code that:

accesses network page content identified in a request for the network page content received from a mobile device;

supplements the network page content to include at a plurality of graphical objects, each of the plurality of graphical objects corresponding to at least one of a plurality of electronic devices in a premise environment identified in topological information obtained via the mobile device;

transmits the supplemented network page content to the mobile device for display;

receive a selection of a selected one of the plurality of graphical objects from the mobile device; and

transmits at least a portion of the network page to the selected one of the plurality of electronic devices corresponding to the selection for display if the selected one of the plurality of electronic devices is capable of rendering the content.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the network page content further comprises elements of a markup language that supports hyperlinks to media content.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the markup language further comprises hypertext markup language (HTML).

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the mobile device is selected from a group consisting of a cellular telephone, a smart phone, a portable personal computer, and a tablet computer.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the topological information further comprises identity and capability information for each of the one or more electronic devices.