Synchronizing video content with extrinsic data

• US 9,357,267 B2
• Filed: 03/26/2014
• Issued: 05/31/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: IMDb.com, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: IMDb.com, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gregov, Andrej, Kane, Francis J., Treder, Douglas M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kumar, Pankaj
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hicks, Charles N
• Application Number:
  US14/225,864
• Publication Number:
  US 20140208355A1
• Time in Patent Office: 797 Days
• Field of Search: 725/40
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 90/00 Systems or methods specially adapted for administrative, commercial, financial, managerial or supervisory purposes, not involving significant data processing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25866 Management of end-user data customer care in data networks H04L41/5077
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; 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 21/41265 having a remote control device for bidirectional communication between the remote control device and client device unidirectional remote control device H04N21/42204
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43074 of additional data with content streams on the same device, e.g. of EPG data or interactive icon with a TV program
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43079 of additional data with content streams on multiple devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4394 involving operations for analysing the audio stream, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in audio streams arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44008 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in the video stream arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44204 Monitoring of content usage, e.g. the number of times a movie has been viewed, copied or the amount which has been watched monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; protecting generic digital content where the protection is independent of the precise nature of the content G06F21/10; arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services in broadcast systems H04H60/31
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4431 characterized by the use of Application Program Interface [API] libraries
• 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 21/4722 for requesting additional data associated with the content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4725 using interactive regions of the image, e.g. hot spots details of information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4756 for rating content, e.g. scoring a recommended movie
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/654 Transmission by server directed to the client
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6587 Control parameters, e.g. trick play commands, viewpoint selection
• 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 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8547 : involving timestamps for synchronizing content

Abstract

Disclosed are various embodiments for associating and synchronizing extrinsic data with video content at particular points of time in the video content. A user interface is rendered that facilitates a selection from extrinsic data items that are associated with a video content feature that is currently being presented to a user. A user selection of a particular extrinsic data item is received through the user interface, and a time in the video content feature is determined corresponding to the user selection. An association is then generated between the particular extrinsic data item and the time in the video content feature.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

causing, via at least one of one or more computing devices, a user interface to be rendered that facilitates a selection from a plurality of extrinsic data items that are associated with a video content feature that is currently being presented to a user;

receiving, via at least one of the one or more computing devices, a user selection of a particular extrinsic data item of the plurality of extrinsic data items through the user interface;

determining, via at least one of the one or more computing devices, a time in the video content feature that is currently being presented to the user, the time corresponding to the user selection; and

causing, via at least one of the one or more computing devices, the particular extrinsic data item to be rendered on an electronic display at the time during another presentation of the video content feature to another user in response to the user selection.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the time corresponds to at least one frame number in the video content feature.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, via at least one of the one or more computing devices, a graphical position relative to at least one frame of the video content feature corresponding to the user selection; and

wherein the particular extrinsic data item is rendered at the graphical position relative to the at least one frame at the time during the other presentation of the video content feature.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the user interface is rendered by a first computing device of the one or more computing devices and the video content feature is presented to the user by way of a second computing device of the one or more computing devices.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising communicating between the first computing device and the second computing device to determine the time in the video content feature.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of extrinsic data items correspond to a subset of extrinsic data items that are associated with the video content feature.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the time in the video content feature corresponding to the user selection further comprises determining, via at least one of the one or more computing devices, the time in the video content feature corresponding to the user selection using a fingerprinting approach.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of extrinsic data items correspond to a plurality of persons appearing in the video content feature, and the user selection indicates that a particular person of the plurality of persons is appearing in the video content feature relative to the time.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, via at least one of the one or more computing devices, another time in the video content feature;

receiving, via at least one of the one or more computing devices, at least one extrinsic data item based at least in part on the other time in the video content feature; and

causing, via at least one of the one or more computing devices, the at least one extrinsic data item to be rendered relative to the other time in the video content feature.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

causing, via at least one of the one or more computing devices, the video content feature to be rendered; and

wherein causing the at least one extrinsic data item to be rendered further comprises causing, via at least one of the one or more computing devices, the at least one extrinsic data item to be rendered in visual association with the video content feature.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein causing the video content feature to be rendered further comprises:

determining, via at least one of the one or more computing devices, a point of resumption for the video content feature, the point of resumption corresponding to a time in the video content feature at which presentation to the user was stopped; and

causing, via at least one of the one or more computing devices, the video content feature to be rendered beginning at the point of resumption.

12. A system, comprising:

at least one computing device comprising a processor and a memory; and

at least one service executable in the at least one computing device, wherein when executed the at least one service causes the at least one computing device to at least;

cause a user interface to be rendered that facilitates a selection from a plurality of extrinsic data items that are associated with a video content feature that is currently being presented to a user;

determine a time in the video content feature that is currently being presented to the user, the time corresponding to a user selection of a particular extrinsic data item of the plurality of extrinsic data items received through the user interface; and

cause the particular extrinsic data item to be rendered on an electronic display at the time during another presentation of the video content feature to another user in response to the user selection.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein when executed the at least one service further causes the at least one computing device to at least store an association between the particular extrinsic data item and the time in an extrinsic data library.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein when executed the at least one service further causes the at least one computing device to at least:

determine a time in the video content feature at which delivery of the video content feature to the user was stopped; and

commence streaming of the video content feature relative to the time in the video content feature at which delivery of the video content feature to the user was stopped.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein when executed the at least one service further causes the at least one computing device to at least determine whether the user selection is valid based at least in part on at least one stored association of an extrinsic data item with the time in the video content feature made by at least one other user.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein when executed the at least one service further causes the at least one computing device to at least:

determine a graphical position relative to at least one frame of the video content feature corresponding to the user selection; and

wherein the particular extrinsic data item is rendered at the graphical position relative to the at least one frame at the time during the other presentation of the video content feature.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the particular extrinsic data item is rendered as an overlay on top of the other presentation of the video content feature.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable medium embodying at least one program executable in at least one computing device, wherein when executed the at least one program causes the at least one computing device to at least:

cause a user interface to be rendered that facilitates a selection from a plurality of extrinsic data items that are associated with a video content feature that is currently being presented to a user;

determine a time in the video content feature that is currently being presented to the user, the time corresponding to a user selection of a particular extrinsic data item of the plurality of extrinsic data items received through the user interface; and

cause the particular extrinsic data item to be rendered on an electronic display at the time during another presentation of the video content feature to another user in response to the user selection.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein when executed the at least one program further causes the at least one computing device to at least determine whether the user selection is valid based at least in part on at least one stored association of an extrinsic data item with the time in the video content feature made by at least one other user.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the plurality of extrinsic data items correspond to a plurality of persons appearing in the video content feature, and the user selection indicates that a particular person of the plurality of persons is appearing in the video content feature relative to the time.