Fragmented content

• US 9,392,335 B2
• Filed: 03/06/2012
• Issued: 07/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Inventors: Broome, Allen, Kiok, Joseph, Leddy, John, Field, Brian, Rosenfeld, Eric, Mao, Weidong, Kotay, Sree
• Primary Examiner(s): Chin, Ricky
• Application Number:
  US13/412,922
• Publication Number:
  US 20130239145A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,589 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23109 by placing content in organized collections, e.g. EPG data repository details of retrieval of video data and associated meta data in video databases G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23418 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics television picture signal circuitry for scene change detection H04N5/147; filtering for image enhancement G06T5/00; methods or arrangements for recognising scenes G06V20/00; arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/252 Processing of multiple end-users' preferences to derive collaborative data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26258 for generating a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlist, or scheduling item distribution according to such list retrieval of multimedia data based on playlists G06F16/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2668 Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. insertion of targeted commercials based on end-user profiles information retrieval from the Internet by querying with filtering and personalisation G06F16/9535; arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast H04H20/10; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; adaptation of message content in packet-switching networks H04L51/063
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4821 using a grid, e.g. sorted out by channel and broadcast time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4825 using a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlists
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments

Abstract

An apparatus, method, system and computer-readable medium are provided for generating one or more segments associated with content. The segments may include fragments that may correspond to portions of the content. The segments and/or the fragments may be included in a playlist, and may be based at least in part on a user selection.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

causing, by a computing device, transmission of a manifest for displaying one or more fragments of a content item and one or more user comments received from a web site, wherein the manifest associates the one or more fragments with the one or more comments, and wherein the content item is a program comprising more than one fragment associated with a portion of the content item;

causing concurrent presentation of;

selectable fragments of the one or more fragments,

the one or more user comments, and

a rating received for at least one of the one or more fragments;

receiving an indication that at least one of the one or more fragments have been selected for inclusion in a listing;

generating the listing comprising the selected at least one of the one or more fragments; and

causing display of the selected at least one of the one or more fragments based on a transmission of the listing.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the indication that the at least one of the one or more fragments have been selected comprises receiving a selection from a user via at least one of a video program listing, an interactive programming guide (IPG), and a mobile computing device application.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the web site is associated with at least one user.

4. A method comprising:

determining, by a computing device, a plurality of portions of content associated with one or more content items;

causing concurrent presentation of;

selectable portions of the plurality of portions of content,

one or more user comments associated with at least one of the plurality of portions of content and received from a web site,

a rating received for at least one of the plurality of portions of content, and

an option for ad-free content;

receiving at least one indication indicating a selection of one or more portions of the plurality of portions of content and indicating a selection of the option for ad-free content;

determining based on the at least one indication, a plurality of fragments, from the one or more portions, wherein the fragments exclude ad content based on ad insertion information;

generating a listing indicating the plurality of fragments; and

causing, based on the listing, transmission of at least one of the plurality of fragments.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein determining the plurality of fragments is further based on a passage of a predetermined amount of time.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

grouping the plurality of fragments into the listing based on a genre associated with at least one of the plurality of fragments.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

transmitting the listing to a user device.

8. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

transmitting a social networking status from social networking connections of a second user for at least one fragment of the plurality of fragments.

9. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

grouping the plurality of fragments into the listing based on at least one user preference.

10. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

grouping the plurality of fragments into the listing based on a rating associated with at least one of the plurality of fragments.

11. The method of claim 4, wherein the ad insertion information is stored in a manifest and the manifest further comprises at least one of an index, a pointer, and a reference to at least one random access frame inside at least one of the plurality of fragments.

12. The method of claim 4, wherein the one or more content items comprise a first content item having a first type and a second content item having a second type, and further comprising:

grouping a first group of the plurality of fragments into a first segment comprising fragments of the first type; and

grouping a second group of the plurality of fragments into a second segment comprising fragments of the second type.

13. The method of claim 4, further comprising inserting a gap corresponding to a commercial break into the listing based on the ad insertion information.

14. A method comprising:

receiving, by a computing device, at least one user fragment preference;

storing the at least one user fragment preference in a profile associated with a user;

causing concurrent presentation of;

a plurality of fragments,

an option to select, based on the profile, selectable fragments from the presented plurality of fragments,

one or more user comments associated with at least one of the selectable fragments and received from a web site, and

a rating received for at least one of the selectable fragments;

wherein the plurality of fragments are associated with one or more content assets, and wherein each of the one or more content assets comprises more than one fragment associated with a portion of the content asset;

in response to receiving a selection of the option, selecting one or more selectable fragments based on the at least one user fragment preference stored in the profile;

generating a listing comprising the selected one or more selectable fragments; and

causing the selected one or more selectable fragments to be displayed.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the at least one user fragment preference is based on at least one of:

a genre, previous fragment selections of the user, and a rating.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the one or more content assets comprise a first content asset having a first type and a second content asset having a second type, and further comprising:

grouping a first group of the plurality of fragments into a first segment comprising fragments of the first type; and

grouping a second group of the plurality of fragments into a second segment comprising fragments of the second type.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

grouping the at least one selectable fragments based on the rating received for the at least one of the selectable fragments.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein receiving the selection of the option comprises receiving the selection of the option from the user via at least one of a video program listing, an interactive programming guide (IPG), and a mobile computing device application.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the listing further comprises at least one of an index, a pointer, and a reference to at least one random access frame inside at least one of the selected one or more selectable fragments.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein the web site is associated with the user.