Provision of alternate content in response to QR code

• US 9,280,515 B2
• Filed: 12/03/2010
• Issued: 03/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dish Technologies LLC (Dish Network Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Echostar Technologies LLC (Echostar Corporation)
• Inventors: Gaede, Jason, Schaefer, Germar
• Primary Examiner(s): Mai, Thien T
• Application Number:
  US12/960,285
• Publication Number:
  US 20120138671A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,922 Days
• Field of Search: 235/375, 235/462.01, 235/462.1, 705/14.55
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9554 by using bar codes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/00 Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions information retrieval, database structures or file system structures therefor G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/236 Assembling of a multiplex stream, e.g. transport stream, by combining a video stream with other content or additional data, e.g. inserting a URL [Uniform Resource Locator] into a video stream, multiplexing software data into a video stream; Remultiplexing of multiplex streams; Insertion of stuffing bits into the multiplex stream, e.g. to obtain a constant bit-rate; Assembling of a packetised elementary stream multiplexing of data packets for data networks, e.g. RTP/UDP H04L65/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2665 Gathering content from different sources, e.g. Internet and satellite
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4223 Cameras H04N23/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4722 for requesting additional data associated with the content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6581 Reference data, e.g. a movie identifier for ordering a movie or a product identifier in a home shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8126 involving additional data, e.g. news, sports, stocks, weather forecasts
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8352 involving content or source identification data, e.g. Unique Material Identifier [UMID]

Abstract

A party that is not the source or originator of a QR code is enabled to provide a consumer a selection of related alternate content rather than content identified in the QR code. A method is implemented on a computer system to receive additional content information represented by a QR code extracted by a consumer'"'"'s QR reader device from a media presentation containing the QR code. The QR code is generated by a source of the media presentation. A location of alternate content from a captive environment related to the additional content information is identified. The location of the alternate content may be identified based upon the decoded information from the QR code. The location of the alternate content is transmitted to the QR reader device.

Claims

1. A method implemented on a computer system comprising:

receiving at a first server a first address location from a QR reader device, wherein the first address location is extracted from a QR code contained in a media presentation, wherein the first address location includes additional content related to the media presentation provided by the source of the media presentation;

accessing the first address location at the first server for the additional content to collect data about the additional content;

identifying a second address location having alternate content from a captive directory, the alternate content being related to the additional content information based on the collected data about the additional content, wherein the identifying comprises;

searching a local directory of the first server having available alternate content to determine an affinity between the additional content information and the available alternate content,

selecting alternate content from the available alternate content having a highest affinity with the additional content information, and

returning a location identifier associated with the selected alternate content as the location; and

transmitting the second address location of the alternate content to the QR reader device.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising

determining whether the additional content information comprises the QR code and, if so,

decoding the QR code to aid in the identifying operation.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising

determining whether the alternate content related to the QR code information is available locally and, if so,

transmitting the alternate content to the QR reader device in lieu of transmitting the location.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the captive environment comprises a set of information previously collected and indexed as alternate content.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the captive environment comprises a content server.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising indexing alternate content in a captive environment based on an affinity with the additional content information.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the additional content comprises a release date of a feature film, and wherein the alternate content comprises the date on which the film will be presented on a television network.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the identification further comprises determining that the local directory does not have alternate content with a high enough affinity to the additional content.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the identification further comprises requesting from a captive directory located on a server separate from the first server alternate content to be provided.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the request comprises the data collected by the first server from accessing the first address location.

4. A computer program product comprising computer-executable instructions for performing a computer process stored in a non-transitory storage medium of a mobile device, wherein the instructions comprise operations to:

receive additional content information contained in a QR code extracted by a QR reader of the mobile device from a media presentation containing the QR code, wherein the QR code is generated by a source of the media presentation, wherein the additional content information comprises a first address location having secondary material related to the media presentation;

access the first address location from the mobile device to collect data about the secondary material related to the media presentation;

search a local database of the mobile device for alternate content to be provided in lieu of the first address location;

identify a second address location having alternate content from a captive environment comprising the local database or a captive directory server separate from the mobile device, the alternate content being related to the secondary material related to the media presentation based on the collected data about the secondary material related to the media presentation; and

present the alternate content from the second address location.

5. The computer program product of claim 4, wherein the instructions further comprise operations to

determine whether the additional content information comprises the QR code and, if so,

decode the QR code to aid in the identifying operation.

6. The computer program product of claim 4, wherein the instructions providing the identifying operation further comprise operations to

search a directory of available alternate content to determine an affinity between the additional content information and the available alternate content;

select alternate content from the available alternate content having a highest affinity with the additional content information; and

return a location identifier associated with the selected alternate content as the location.

7. The computer program product of claim 4, wherein the instructions further comprise operations to

determine whether the alternate content related to the QR code information is available locally and, if so,

transmit the alternate content to the QR reader device in lieu of transmitting the location.

21. The computer program product of claim 4, wherein the operations further include to determine that the local directory does not include alternate content with a high enough affinity, and send a request for alternate content to a server.

8. A method implemented on a computer system comprising

receiving a television media presentation created by a third party source at a television network provider, wherein the third party source is different from the television network provider;

generating a QR code comprising a location identifier for additional content stored within a captive environment of the television network provider, wherein the additional content is related to the television media presentation created by the third party source, wherein the QR code generation is performed by the television network provider presenting the television media presentation;

transmitting the QR code in conjunction with a transmission of the media presentation from the network provider;

receiving a request for the additional content from a consumer device;

transmitting the additional content to the consumer device.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising combining the QR code within the media presentation.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the additional content comprises an address identifier of a location for accessing further additional content.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the first transmitting operation is incorporated within a streaming media transmission over a telecommunication network.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the second transmitting operation further comprises transmitting a web page.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the consumer device is a QR code reader.