Selective interactivity

• US 9,414,114 B2
• Filed: 03/13/2013
• Issued: 08/09/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Comcast Cable Holdings LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Inventors: Ariantaj, Steve, Shapiro, Igor, Veeraraghavan, Vilas, Wiebe, Stephen, Thomas, Mark
• Primary Examiner(s): EKPO, NNENNA NGOZI
• Application Number:
  US13/800,579
• Publication Number:
  US 20140282653A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,245 Days
• Field of Search: 725/13, 725/14, 725/9, 725/61
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/251 Learning process for intelligent management, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies details of learning user preferences for the retrieval of video data in a video database G06F16/739; computer systems using learning methods G06N3/08
• 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 21/2668 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 21/44204 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 21/44222 Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programs or purchase activity monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• 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 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8166 involving executable data, e.g. software arrangements for executing specific programs G06F9/44; broadcasting computer programmes in broadcast systems H04H20/91; involving the movement of software or configuration parameters H04L67/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8545 for generating interactive applications

Abstract

A system may selectively deliver interactive portions of a piece of content, based for example on a recipient user'"'"'s historical tendency to use interactive portions of prior content. Multiple levels of interactivity may be defined for a given piece of content, such as an advertisement, and different users may receive different levels of interactivity based on how much they use interactive features. Some users may receive no interactive features at all, while others may receive the interactive features, and despite the fact that all of the users'"'"' devices may be perfectly capable of processing the interactive features for the user. The omission from transmission may conserve bandwidth and transmission resources.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

monitoring, by one or more computing devices, a level of usage, by a user, of first interactive content that accompanies first content consumed by the user;

determining, based at least on the level of usage of the first interactive content, a future level of interactivity;

in response to a determination that second content has accompanying second interactive content, and based on the future level of interactivity, determining that the second interactive content should not be transmitted to a user device associated with the user; and

transmitting, to the user device associated with the user, the second content without the second interactive content.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing, for the second interactive content, information indicating one or more conditions to be met in order for the user to receive the second interactive content, wherein the determining that the second interactive content should not be transmitted is further based on the stored information.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein one of the one or more conditions indicates a frequency with which the user historically accesses interactive content.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein one of the one or more conditions indicates a frequency with which the user historically uses an interface feature with interactive content.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the second interactive content that accompanies the second content involves use of a second device different from a first device used by the user to consume the second content, and

performing the transmitting after verifying that the second device is present with the first device.

12. The method of claim 2, wherein a first one of the one or more conditions indicates a threshold of the user'"'"'s historical usage of interactive options;

and wherein a second one of the one or more conditions indicates how the first one of the one or more conditions may be varied based on a current state of a data delivery network.

5. A method comprising:

determining, by one or more computing devices, a plurality of interactive features associated with video content;

delivering the video content to a plurality of user devices;

selectively delivering one or more of the plurality of interactive features to particular ones of the plurality of user devices based on respective probabilities of corresponding users using interactive features associated with the video content; and

storing, for each of the plurality of interactive features, information indicating one or more conditions to be met in order for a user not to receive any of the plurality of interactive features, wherein one of the one or more conditions indicates a frequency with which the user uses an identified interface option with interactive content.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

selecting interactive features for a first user based on a frequency with which the first user has previously engaged in interactive features.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

determining one or more user interface options for a first one of the interactive features; and

determining a frequency with which the first user has previously engaged in interactive features using the determined one or more user interface options.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

determining one or more user consumption devices for the first user; and

determining a frequency with which the first user has previously engaged in interactive features using the determined one or more user consumption devices.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein one of the one or more conditions determines a frequency with which the user accesses interactive content.

10. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

determining that two sequential pieces of content each have interactive options, and that a first user is engaged with an interactive option for a first one of the sequential pieces of content; and

in response to the determining, determining that interactive features of a second one of the sequential pieces of content should not be transmitted to the first user.

13. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

determining that a first one of the interactive features involves use of a second device different from a first device used by the user to consume the video content, and

performing the selective delivery after verifying, for respective users, that a second device of each respective user is present with a first device of each respective user.

14. The method of claim 5, further comprising determining the one or more conditions for delivery of interactive features, wherein the conditions comprise conditions specifying different user usage probability thresholds, and conditions specifying different states of a data delivery network.

15. A method comprising:

determining, by a computing device, that a first sequential piece of content and a second sequential piece of content, each having at least one respective interactive portion configured for interactive display, are to be delivered to a consumption device;

delivering, to the consumption device, the first sequential piece of content and the respective at least one interactive portion; and

in response to a determination that the consumption device is currently engaged with the respective at least one interactive portion of the first sequential piece of content, delivering the second sequential piece of content to the consumption device without the respective at least one interactive portion of the second sequential piece of content.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

determining whether to include an additional at least one interactive portion with delivery of a third piece of content based on conditions indicating user usage probability thresholds.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

determining whether to include an additional at least one interactive portion with delivery of a third piece of content based on conditions specifying different interactive portions for different data delivery network states.