System and method for sharing content with a remote device

• US 9,495,072 B2
• Filed: 02/02/2006
• Issued: 11/15/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kortum, Philip T., Sullivan, Marc A., Cansler, James L. Jr., Williams, Alyssa Lenorah Noll
• Primary Examiner(s): Chacko, Joe
• Application Number:
  US11/346,616
• Publication Number:
  US 20070180382A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,939 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42204 User interfaces specially adapted for controlling a client device through a remote control device; Remote control devices therefor constructive details of casings for the remote control device H01H9/0235; user interfaces for controlling a tuning device of a television receiver through a remote control H03J9/00; remote control of peripheral devices connected to a television receiver through the remote control device of the television receiver H04B1/205
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4345 Extraction or processing of SI, e.g. extracting service information from an MPEG stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4751 for defining user accounts, e.g. accounts for children
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/632 using a connection between clients on a wide area network, e.g. setting up a peer-to-peer communication via Internet for retrieving video segments from the hard-disk of other client devices broadcast-related systems characterised by transmission among terminal devices H04H60/80; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• 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 7/17309 Transmission or handling of upstream communications

Abstract

A system and method for sharing content is provided. A system incorporating teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a housing and a wide area network (WAN) connector extending from the housing. The system may also include a graphical user interface (GUI) engine located within the housing. In practice, the GUI engine may be operable to initiate an outputting of a first list navigable with a remote control and a second list navigable with the remote control. The remote control may be a Set Top Box (STB) remote control and the first list may be configured to facilitate remote control-based navigation. The first list may contain an identifier for at least one piece of selectable content, which may be, for example, photographs, videos, songs, etc. The second list may include an alias for at least one available share partner. In practice, a user of the system may want to give a share partner revocable access to some portion of selectable content.

Claims

1. A system for facilitating a sharing of content, the system comprising:

a housing;

a wide area network connector coupled to the housing;

a graphical user interface engine located within the housing, wherein the graphical user interface engine outputs a first list navigable with a remote control and a second list navigable with the remote control, wherein the first list comprises a selectable identifier set for a portion of content controlled by a first user, wherein a selectable identifier in the selectable identifier set corresponds to particular content, wherein the second list comprises a selectable alias set, and wherein a selectable alias in the selectable alias set corresponds to a device of a particular user; and

a sharing engine to;

send a message via the wide area network connector to a device associated with a second user whose alias is selected in the second list in response to receipt by the graphical user interface engine of user input to send an offer to the second user, wherein the message indicates a desire of the first user to enable the second user to access first content corresponding to a selected identifier in the first list, wherein a number of other users that are able to be granted access to the first content is limited to a first number;

receive an acceptance response to the message; and

send, in response to the acceptance response, a notification to a display device associated with the first user that the second user is granted access to the first content, wherein the notification includes a first indicator of a current number of the other users granted access to the first content and a second indicator of the first number.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a set top box device that comprises the housing, the wide area network connector, the graphical user interface engine, and the sharing engine.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the display device comprises a television communicatively coupled to the set top box device and operable to display the first list and the second list.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the sharing engine sends the message to the device via a network-based service provider that stores the first content.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the sharing engine is configured to:

receive a revocation command for the first content, wherein the revocation command includes an identifier associated with the second user; and

send a revocation message for the first content to the device.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the first content is stored remote from the graphical user interface engine.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface engine presents an update screen to allow the first user to add an alias of an additional user to the second list.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising an upload engine to allow the first user to add an additional selectable identifier to the first list.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein content type of the content is from a group consisting of a video content type, an audio content type, a photographic content type, and an informational content type.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein an alias of the second list corresponds to a third user associated with a remote set top box device.