Media device knowledge base

• US 9,405,813 B1
• Filed: 02/19/2015
• Issued: 08/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/19/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PCCW Vuclip (Singapore) Pte Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Vuclip, Inc. (PCCW Limited)
• Inventors: Qian, Kelly, Shen, Bo
• Primary Examiner(s): Sheleheda, James R
• Application Number:
  US14/626,559
• Publication Number:
  US 20160246860A1
• Time in Patent Office: 530 Days
• Field of Search: 725/86
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/254 Extract, transform and load [ETL] procedures, e.g. ETL data flows in data warehouses
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/70 of video data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5651 Reducing the amount or size of exchanged application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2343 involving reformatting operations of video signals for distribution or compliance with end-user requests or end-user device requirements video transcoding H04N19/40; media packet handling at the source H04L65/762
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2387 Stream processing in response to a playback request from an end-user, e.g. for trick-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2402 Monitoring of the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. bandwidth available traffic monitoring in data switching networks H04L43/00; monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25825 involving client display capabilities, e.g. screen resolution of a mobile phone optimising the visualisation of content during browsing in the Internet G06F16/9577; processing of terminal status or physical abilities in wireless networks H04W8/22; authentication in wireless network security H04W12/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25833 involving client hardware characteristics, e.g. manufacturer, processing or storage capabilities allocation of resources considering hardware capabilities in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/5044; allocation of resources considering software capabilities in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/5055
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2662 Controlling the complexity of the video stream, e.g. by scaling the resolution or bitrate of the video stream based on the client capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4126 The peripheral being portable, e.g. PDAs or mobile phones
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4516 involving client characteristics, e.g. Set-Top-Box type, software version or amount of memory available

Abstract

A media content distribution service identifies a type of media device sending a request to the service over a network and to dynamically adapt content requested by the media device based on the identification. A request sent by a media device may, for example, identify a media content item a user desires to view at the media device, specify a search query for media content items, or otherwise request interaction with the service. According an embodiment, a media content distribution service may use information known about an identified media device type to dynamically adapt media content or other requested resources for display by the media device. By dynamically adapting media content and other resources based on an identified media device type, the media content distribution service may provide access to the services that is compatible with a wide range of media devices having varying device specifications and capabilities.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, from a media device, a request for media content, the request including user agent identification data;

extracting the user agent identification data from the request;

in response to determining that a mapping between the user agent identification data and a device profile does not exist in a device profile data store;

identifying one or more keywords in the user agent identification data;

querying, based on the one or more keywords identified in the user agent identification data, one or more external device information resources to retrieve device information related to a type of the media device;

generating a new device profile based on the device information retrieved from the one or more external device information resources;

storing the new device profile in the device profile data store in association with the user agent identification data;

causing formatting of the media content based on the new device profile;

sending the formatted media content to the media device for playback;

wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the media content is video content, and wherein the device profile includes one or more device attributes related to video playback.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving the device profile for the media device includes retrieving the device profile from a device profile data store.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the device profile in association with the user agent identification data in a profile cache.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the user agent identification data comprises a user agent string included in a request header.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein causing formatting of the media content based on the device profile includes one or more of:

selecting one or more codecs for transcoding the media content, formatting one or more images associated with the media content, selecting a subtitle language.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the device profile includes device information collected from one or more external device information resources.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the user agent identification data includes identifying one or more keywords contained in the user agent identification data.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying one or more keywords in the user agent identification data includes identifying one or more of:

a device manufacturer name, a device model name, an operating system name, an operation system version, a client application name, and a client application version.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing a mapping between the user agent identification data and the new device profile in the device profile data store.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising, in response to determining that a mapping between the user agent identification data and a device profile does not exist in a device profile data store, sending, to the media device, a link to web-based survey that requests identifying information about the media device.

12. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by one or more computing devices, cause performance of:

receiving, from a media device, a request for media content;

extracting user agent identification data from the request;

in response to determining that a mapping between the user agent identification data and a device profile does not exist in a device profile data store;

identifying one or more keywords in the user agent identification data;

querying, based on the one or more keywords identified in the user agent identification data, one or more external device information resources to retrieve device information related to a type of the media device;

generating a new device profile based on the device information retrieved from the one or more external device information resources;

storing the new device profile in the device profile data store in association with the user agent identification data;

causing formatting of the media content based on the new device profile;

sending the formatted media content to the media device for playback.

13. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 12, wherein the media content is video content, and wherein the device profile includes one or more device attributes related to video playback.

14. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 12, wherein retrieving the device profile for the media device includes retrieving the device profile from a device profile data store.

15. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 12, further comprising storing the device profile in association with the user agent identification data in a profile cache.

16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 12, wherein the user agent identification data comprises a user agent string included in a request header.

17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 12, wherein causing formatting of the media content based on the device profile includes one or more of:

selecting one or more codecs for transcoding the media content, formatting one or more images associated with the media content, and selecting a subtitle language.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the device profile includes device information collected from one or more external device information resources.

19. The method of claim 12, wherein analyzing the user agent identification data includes identifying one or more keywords contained in the user agent identification data.

20. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 12, wherein identifying one or more keywords in the user agent identification data includes identifying one or more of:

a device manufacturer name, a device model name, an operating system name, an operation system version, a client application name, and a client application version.

21. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 12, further comprising storing a mapping between the user agent identification data and the new device profile in the device profile data store.

22. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 12, further comprising, in response to determining that a mapping between the user agent identification data and a device profile does not exist in a device profile data store, sending, to the media device, a link to web-based survey that requests identifying information about the media device.