Experience sharing with commenting

• US 9,367,864 B2
• Filed: 03/19/2015
• Issued: 06/14/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Lee, Steven John, Mendis, Indika Charles, Braun, Max Benjamin, Chi, Liang-Yu Tom, Rhodes, Bradley James
• Primary Examiner(s): Wang, Liangche A
• Assistant Examiner(s): AGUIAR, JOHNNY B
• Application Number:
  US14/662,495
• Publication Number:
  US 20150304253A1
• Time in Patent Office: 453 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 709/206, 709/207, 709217-219, 709/223, 709/224, 709/227, 709/232
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/23 Updating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0605 Supply or demand aggregation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 Processing of requisition or of purchase orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0643 Graphical representation of items or shoppers
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/006 Mixed reality object pose determination, tracking or camera calibration for mixed reality G06T7/00
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/006 Details of the interface to the display terminal specific for a display terminal using a CRT G09G1/167; using a flat panel G09G3/2096; circuits for interfacing with colour displays G09G5/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 Interoperability with other network applications or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/611 for multicast or broadcast systems for broadcast or conference H04L12/18; arrangements for broadcast or distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/00; arrangements for broadcast applications with a direct linkage to broadcast information or to broadcast space-time H04H60/00; selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS], H04W4/06

Abstract

Exemplary embodiments involve real-time commenting in experience-sharing sessions. An exemplary method involves: (a) a server system facilitating an experience sharing session between a sharing device and one or more viewing devices, wherein the server system receives media in real-time from the sharing device and transmits the media to the one or more viewing devices in real-time, wherein the media comprises video; (b) during the experience sharing session, the server system receiving one or more comments from one or more of the viewing devices; (d) the server system filtering the received comments in real-time based on filter criteria; and (e) the server system initiating real-time delivery, to the sharing device, of one or more of the received comments that satisfy the filter criteria.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

a server system facilitating an experience sharing session between a sharing device and one or more viewing devices, wherein facilitating the experience sharing session comprises receiving a share in real-time from the sharing device and transmitting at least a portion of the share to the one or more viewing devices in real-time, wherein the share comprises video, wherein the sharing device comprises a head-mountable device (HMD), and wherein the share is based on point-of-view video captured at the HMD;

during the experience sharing session;

the server system receiving a plurality of comments associated with the share, wherein the plurality of comments are received from one or more of the viewing devices;

determining a context of the sharing device based on one or more context signals, wherein each of the one or more context signals provides information pertaining to a state or an environment of the sharing device;

based at least in part on the context of the sharing device, the server system determining filter criteria that corresponds to the context;

the server system filtering the received comments in real-time based on the determined filter criteria, wherein the filtering comprises;

(a) determining a respective rating for each received comment according to the determined filter criteria and (b) determining a first ranking of the received comments based on the respective ratings of the received comments; and

the server system initiating real-time delivery, to the sharing device, of one or more of the highest-ranking received comments indicated by the first ranking; and

at a later time during the experience sharing session, the server system;

(a) determining a second context of the sharing device, wherein the second context is different from the previously determined context;

(b) in response to determining the second context that differs from the previously determined context, the server system updating the filter criteria;

(c) using the updated filter criteria as a basis for determining a second respective rating for each received comment and for any comment received subsequent to the real-time delivery of one or more of the highest-ranking received comments indicated by the first ranking;

(d) determining a second ranking of the fated comments rated using the updated filter criteria based on the respective second ratings of the fated comments rated using the updated filter criteria; and

(e) initiating real-time delivery, to the sharing device, of one or more of the highest-ranking comments indicated by the second ranking.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the server system filtering the received comments based on filter criteria comprises:

the server system determining a rating of a received comment from a particular viewing device;

the server system comparing the rating of the received comment to a threshold rating; and

the server system determining that the received comment satisfies the filter criteria if the rating exceeds the threshold rating.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the rating of the received comment is based, at least in part, on one or more of the following:

(a) audience voting, (b) content of the received comment, (c) an identity of the particular viewing device, (d) a geographic location of the particular viewing device, (e) one or more user-defined parameters, (f) recency of the received comment.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the server system storing any of the received comments that do not satisfy the filter criteria.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the server system generating a comment summary based on one or more of the received comments; and

the server system initiating sending the comment summary to the sharing device.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the server system determining that two or more of the received comments that satisfy the filter criteria are related; and

the server system threading the two or more related comments before initiating delivery of the two or more related comments to the sharing device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the server system implements the method of claim 1 to facilitate a real-time chat session as part of the experience-sharing session, the method further comprising:

determining a conversational relationship between two or more of the received comments and;

sending data that indicates the conversational relationship to the sharing device for display of the two or more of the received comments based on the conversational relationship.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more of the received comments are stored, the method further comprising:

the server system detecting a trigger event that corresponds to a given one of the stored comments; and

in response to the trigger event, the server system sending the given stored comment to the sharing device.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the server system receiving a request for comment from the sharing device;

the server system sending the request for comment to one or more of the viewing devices; and

the server system implementing the method of claim 1 to filter and send to the sharing device comments that are received from one or more of the viewing devices in response to the request for comment.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the request for comment indicates a subject or event, and wherein filtering the received comments in real-time based on filter criteria comprises identifying any comment that relates to the indicated subject or event.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the filter criteria used to filter the comments comprises first filter criteria, the method further comprising:

the server system receiving one or more comments from the sharing device;

the server system filtering the received comments from the sharing device in real-time based on second filter criteria; and

the server system initiating delivery, to one or more of the viewing devices, of one or more of the received comments from the sharing device that satisfy the second filter criteria.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the second filter criteria is different from the first filter criteria.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the second filter criteria indicates different filtering for each of at least two viewing devices.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein determining filter criteria that corresponds to the context comprises selecting one of a plurality of ranking criteria based on the context associated with the sharing device, wherein each of the plurality of ranking criteria provides criteria for ranking the plurality of comments.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the context of the sharing device corresponds to an activity of a user of the sharing device, and wherein the determined filter criteria corresponds to the activity.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the context of the sharing device corresponds to a current geographic location of sharing device, and wherein the determined filter criteria corresponds to the current geographic location.

17. A server system comprising:

a non-transitory computer-readable medium; and

program instructions stored on the non-transitory computer-readable medium and executable by at least one processor to;

facilitate an experience sharing session between a sharing device and one or more viewing devices by receiving a share in real-time from the sharing device and transmitting at least a portion of the share to the one or more viewing devices in real-time, wherein the sharing device comprises a head-mountable device (HMD), and wherein the share is based on point-of-view video captured at the HMD;

during the experience sharing session;

receive a plurality of comments associated with the share, wherein the plurality of comments are received from one or more of the viewing devices;

determine a context of the sharing device based on one or more context signals, wherein each of the one or more context signals provides information pertaining to a state or an environment of the sharing device;

based at least in part on the context of the sharing device, determine filter criteria that corresponds to the context;

filter the received comments in real-time based on the determined filter criteria, wherein the filtering comprises;

(a) determining a rating for each received comment according to the determined filter criteria and (b) determining a first ranking of the received comments based on the respective ratings of the received comments; and

initiate delivery, to the sharing device, of one or more of the highest-ranking received comments indicated by the first ranking; and

at a later time during the experience sharing session;

(a) determine a second context of the sharing device, wherein the second context is different from the previously determined context;

(b) in response to determining the second context that differs from the previously determined context, update the filter criteria;

(c) use the updated filter criteria as a basis to determine a second respective rating for each received comment and for any comment received subsequent to the real-time delivery of one or more of the highest-ranking received comments indicated by the first ranking;

(d) determine a second ranking of the comments rated using the updated filter criteria based on the respective second ratings of the comments rated using the updated filter criteria; and

(e) initiate real-time delivery, to the sharing device, of one or more of the highest-ranking comments indicated by the second ranking.

18. An article of manufacture including a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by a processor, cause the processor to perform functions, the instructions comprising:

instructions for facilitating an experience sharing session between a sharing device and one or more viewing devices, wherein facilitating the experience sharing session comprises receiving a share in real-time from the sharing device and transmitting at least a portion of the share to one or more of the viewing devices in real-time, wherein the sharing device comprises a head-mountable device display (HMD), and wherein the share is based on point-of-view video captured at the HMD;

instructions for, during the experience sharing session;

receiving a plurality of comments associated with the share, wherein the plurality of comments are received from one or more of the viewing devices;

determining a context of the sharing device based on one or more context signals, wherein each of the one or more context signals provides information pertaining to a state or an environment of the sharing device;

based at least in part on the context of the sharing device, the server system determining filter criteria that corresponds to the context;

filtering the received comments in real-time based on the determined filter criteria, wherein the filtering comprises;

(a) determining a respective rating for each received comment according to the determined filter criteria and (b) determining a first ranking of the received comments based on the respective ratings of the received comments; and

initiating real-time delivery, to the sharing device, of one or more of the highest-ranking received comments indicated by the first ranking; and

at a later time during the experience sharing session, the server system;

(a) determining a second context of the sharing device, wherein the second context is different from the previously determined context;

(b) in response to determining the second context that differs from the previously determined context, the server system updating the filter criteria;

(c) using the updated filter criteria as a basis for determining a second respective rating for each received comment and for any comment received subsequent to the real-time delivery of one or more of the highest-ranking received comments indicated by the first ranking;

(d) determining a second ranking the comments rated using the updated filter criteria based on the respective second ratings of the comments rated using the updated filter criteria; and

(e) initiating real-time delivery, to the sharing device, of one or more of the highest-ranking comments indicated by the second ranking.