Systems and methods for sharing media content between users

• US 9,191,431 B2
• Filed: 07/05/2011
• Issued: 11/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/05/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Relyea, Donald H., Ruiz-Velasco, Enrique, Pandey, Siddharth
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu, Viet
• Assistant Examiner(s): Edwards, James
• Application Number:
  US13/176,730
• Publication Number:
  US 20130013698A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,596 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1818 Conference organisation arrangements, e.g. handling schedules, setting up parameters needed by nodes to attend a conference, booking network resources, notifying involved parties
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4015 where at least one of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. white board sharing, collaboration or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services

Abstract

An exemplary system includes a first user device associated with a first user and a second user device associated with a second user. The first user device is configured to detect a request input by the first user to share media content being processed by the user device with the second user, generate an invite message including data configured to be utilized by the second user device to access the media content, and send the invite message to the second user device by way of a messaging service. The second user device is configured to receive the invite message from the first user device by way of the messaging service, determine that the invite message is associated with a media sharing service, and perform one or more operations to facilitate access to the media content by the second user. Corresponding methods, systems, and apparatus are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

detecting, by a media sharing facility implemented by a first user device, a request input by a user of the first user device to share, in real time, end user generated live video being captured by the first user device with a second user device; and

generating, by the media sharing facility implemented by the first user device in response to the share request, an invite message configured to be sent from the first user device to the second user device by way of a messaging service provided by a messaging subsystem, the invite message comprising

an indicator configured to be utilized by a media sharing facility implemented by the second user device to determine that the invite message is configured to facilitate access to shared media content by way of a media sharing service and perform, in response to the determination that the invite message is configured to facilitate access to shared media content by way of the media sharing service, one or more operations to facilitate access, by an additional user device associated with a user of the second user device and not configured to access the messaging service, to the end user generated live video in real time from a media content distribution subsystem separate and independent of the messaging subsystem, and

data configured to be utilized by the additional user device associated with the user of the second user device to access, in real time, the end user generated live video from the media content distribution subsystem.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending, by a messaging facility implemented by the first user device, the invite message from the first user device to the second user device by way of the messaging service provided by the messaging subsystem.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

receiving, by the second user device, the invite message from the first user device by way of the messaging service;

determining, by a media sharing facility implemented by the second user device based on the indicator included in the invite message, that the invite message is configured to facilitate access to shared media content by way of the media sharing service; and

performing, by the media sharing facility implemented by the second user device in response to the determining that the invite message is configured to facilitate access to shared media content by way of the media sharing service, the one or more operations to facilitate access, by the additional user device, to the end user generated live video in real time from the media content distribution subsystem.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

utilizing, by the media sharing facility implemented by the second user device, data included in the invite message to access, in real time, the end user generated live video associated with the invite message from the media content distribution subsystem.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more operations comprise forwarding, by the media sharing facility implemented by the second user device, the invite message to the additional user device associated with the user of the second user device.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the additional user device associated with the user of the second user device comprises at least one set-top box device.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein:

the second user device and the additional user device associated with the user of the second user device are configured to communicate with one another by way of a local area network; and

the invite message is forwarded to the additional user device by way of the local area network.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the one or more operations further comprise:

providing, by the media sharing facility implemented by the second user device, a notification of the invite message for presentation by the second user device, the notification including a user input command to be input by the user of the second user device to forward the invite message to the additional user device associated with the user of the second user device; and

detecting, by the media sharing facility implemented by the second user device, a user input of the user input command to forward the invite message to the additional user device associated with the user of the second user device;

wherein the forwarding of the invite message to the additional user device associated with the user of the second user device is performed in response to the detected user input of the user input command.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the one or more operations further comprise determining, by the media sharing facility implemented by the second user device, that the second user device is configured to communicate with the additional user device by way of a local area network;

wherein the forwarding of the invite message to the additional user device associated with the user of the second user device is performed in response to the determining that the second user device is configured to communicate with the additional user device by way of the local area network.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the messaging service comprises a text messaging service; and

the invite message comprises a text message.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the text message comprises one of a Short Message Service (“

SMS”

) message, a Multimedia Message Service (“

MMS”

) message, and an Enhanced Message Service (“

EMS”

) message.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the messaging service comprises one of an instant messaging service, an email messaging service, and a social media messaging service.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the data included in the invite message and configured to be used to access, in real time, the end user generated live video comprises one of a Uniform Resource Locator (“

URL”

) configured to be used to access, in real time, the end user generated live video from the media content distribution subsystem and an identifier of a television channel configured to be tuned to in order to access, in real time, the end user generated live video from the media content distribution subsystem.

14. The method of claim 1, embodied as computer-executable instructions on at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium.

15. A method comprising:

receiving, by a first user device associated with a first user, an invite message sent from a second user device associated with a second user by way of a messaging service provided by a messaging subsystem, the invite message comprising

an indicator configured to be utilized by the first user device to determine that the invite message is configured to facilitate access to shared media content by way of a media sharing service, and

data configured to be utilized by an additional user device associated with the first user to access, in real time, end user generated live video captured by a video camera implemented by the second user device from a media content distribution subsystem;

determining, by a media sharing facility implemented by the first user device based on the indicator included in the invite message, that the invite message is configured to facilitate access to shared media content by way of the media sharing service; and

performing, by the media sharing facility implemented by the first user device in response to the determining that the invite message is configured to facilitate access to shared media content by way of the media sharing service, one or more operations to facilitate access, by the additional user device, in real time to the end user generated live video from the media content distribution subsystem,

wherein the additional user device associated with the first user is not configured to access the messaging service.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the one or more operations comprise:

providing, by the media sharing facility implemented by the first user device, a notification of the invite message for presentation to the first user of the first user device, the notification indicating a user input command to be input by the first user to initiate access, in real time, to the end user generated live video by the first user device;

detecting, by the media sharing facility implemented by the first user device, a user input of the user input command; and

utilizing, by the media sharing facility implemented by the first user device in response to the detected user input of the user input command, data included in the invite message to access, in real time, the end user generated live video associated with the invite message from the media content distribution subsystem.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the one or more operations comprise forwarding, by the media sharing facility implemented by the first user device, the invite message to the additional user device associated with the first user.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the additional user device associated with the first user comprises at least one set-top box device not configured to access the messaging service.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein:

the first user device and the additional user device associated with the first user are configured to communicate with one another by way of a local area network; and

the invite message is forwarded to the additional user device by way of the local area network.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the forwarding of the invite message to the additional user device comprises:

generating, by the first user device, an additional invite message including the data configured to be utilized by the additional user device associated with the first user to access, in real time, the end user generated live video captured by the video camera implemented by the second user device from the media content distribution subsystem; and

transmitting, by the first user device, the additional invite message to the additional user device.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein the forwarding of the invite message to the additional user device comprises forwarding the invite message to the additional user device by using at least one of a messaging format and a communications protocol that is different than a messaging format or a communications protocol used by the messaging service.

22. The method of claim 15, embodied as computer-executable instructions on at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium.

23. A method comprising:

capturing, by a first user device, live video of a scene;

transmitting, by the first user device, a source video feed including data representative of the live video to a media content distribution subsystem in real time;

receiving, by the first user device from the media content distribution subsystem, data configured to be used by a second user device to access the live video from the media content distribution subsystem;

receiving, by the first user device from a user of the first user device, a request to share the live video with a third user device;

generating, by the first user device in response to the share request, a text message configured to be used by the third user device to perform one or more operations to facilitate access, by the second user device, to the live video from the media content distribution system, the text message including the data configured to be used by the second user device to access the live video from the media content distribution subsystem; and

sending, by the first user device by way of a text messaging service and in response to the share request, the text message from the first user device to the third user device,

wherein the second user device is not configured to access the text messaging service.

24. A system comprising:

a first user device associated with a first user;

a second user device associated with a second user; and

a third user device associated with the second user;

wherein the first user device

detects a request input by the first user to share, in real time, end user generated live video being captured by the first user device with the second user,

generates, in response to the share request, an invite message including an indicator configured to be utilized by the second user device to determine that the invite message is configured to facilitate access to shared media content by way of a media sharing service and data configured to be utilized by the third user device to access, in real time, the end user generated live video from a media content distribution subsystem, and

sends the invite message to the second user device by way of a messaging service provided by a messaging subsystem;

wherein the second user device

receives the invite message from the first user device by way of the messaging service,

determines, based on the indicator included in the invite message, that the invite message is configured to facilitate access to shared media content by way of the media sharing service, and

performs, in response to the determination that the invite message is configured to facilitate access to shared media content by way of the media sharing service, one or more operations to facilitate access, by the third user device, to the end user generated live video in real time from the media content distribution subsystem; and

wherein the third user device is not configured to access the messaging service.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein:

the messaging service comprises a text messaging service; and

the invite message comprises a text message.