Apparatus and method for managing a social network

• US 9,639,561 B2
• Filed: 04/18/2016
• Issued: 05/02/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2009
• 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: Roberts, Linda, Chang, E-Lee, Sung, Ja-Young, Schultz, Natasha Barrett, King, Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Marandi, James R
• Application Number:
  US15/131,696
• Publication Number:
  US 20160232183A1
• Time in Patent Office: 379 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/21 Design, administration or maintenance of databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/252 between a Database Management System and a front-end application
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7867 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, title and artist information, manually generated time, location and usage information, user ratings
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/20 Education
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4438 Window management, e.g. event handling following interaction with the user interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4722 for requesting additional data associated with the content
• 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 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8173 End-user applications, e.g. Web browser, game
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17327 with deferred transmission or handling of upstream communications

Abstract

A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a system having a controller to collect one or more user-generated comments from each of a plurality of computing devices, detect a correlation in the one or more user-generated comments collected from the plurality of computing devices, and establish a social network between the plurality of computing devices according to the detected correlation. The one or more user-generated comments can be temporally associated with media content presented at the plurality of computing devices. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

obtaining, by a processing system including a processor, a plurality of commentaries from a plurality of computing devices associated with a presentation of content, wherein the plurality of commentaries are obtained utilizing an overlay presented at each of the plurality of computing devices, and wherein the overlay is combined with the content during the presentation;

detecting, by the processing system, a correlation in a subset of the plurality of commentaries;

transmitting, by the processing system in response to the detecting of the correlation, a first message to target computing devices of the plurality of computing devices from which the subset of the plurality of commentaries have been obtained, wherein the first message provides notice associated with a social network;

establishing, by the processing system, the social network responsive to receiving second messages from at least some of the target computing devices, wherein the second messages are associated with joining the social network;

detecting, by the processing system, a decorrelation of commentaries collected from the plurality of computing devices, wherein the decorrelation indicates a lack of common interest between the plurality of computing devices in a portion of the social network; and

selectively terminating, by the processing system, the portion of the social network responsive to the detecting of the decorrelation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of computing devices include first and second computing devices, wherein the presentation of the content includes a first presentation by the first computing device of an overlay combined with the content that is at a different time than a second presentation by the second computing device of the overlay combined with the content, wherein a first commentary of the plurality of commentaries is obtained from the first computing device during the first presentation, and wherein a second commentary of the plurality of commentaries is obtained from the second computing device during the second presentation.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the correlation corresponds to a behavioral pattern exhibiting a lack of understanding of a portion of the content, and wherein the system determines the behavioral pattern according to regression analysis and key words.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, by the system, the content from a source computing device storing the content, wherein the source computing device is part of the social network, and

wherein the obtaining of the plurality of commentaries is responsive to a request received by the system from the source computing device.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting additional computing devices with users having interests correlated to the plurality of commentaries; and

requesting authorization from members of the social network to add the additional computing devices to the social network.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising sharing a commentary of the plurality of commentaries between the plurality of computing devices.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the establishing of the social network comprises instructing a server managing an already existing social network to establish the social network as a sub-group within the already existing social network.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting, by the processing system, the correlation from a recognition of an item from a group consisting of;

recorded speech and drawings in the subset of the plurality of commentaries; and

submitting, by the processing system, a notification to a second system presenting the content, wherein the notification indicates that the correlation comprises a lack of understanding of a portion of the content.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the correlation comprises a behavioral pattern exhibiting an understanding of a portion of the content, wherein the content is selected from a group consisting of:

video content;

audio content;

still image content;

text content;

articles;

lecture presentation materials; and

combinations thereof.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

detecting, by the processing system, the behavioral pattern from a recognition of an item selected from a group consisting of;

recorded speech and drawings in the subset of the plurality of commentaries; and

submitting, by the processing system, a notification to a media source associated with the content, wherein the notification indicates the understanding of the portion of the content.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting, by the processing system, from the subset of the plurality of commentaries a degree of understanding of the content; and

submitting, by the processing system, a notification that describes the degree of understanding of the content.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

receiving, by the processing system, a request to identify correlated comments, wherein the request is received from a requesting computing device of the plurality of computing devices, and wherein the detecting of the correlation is responsive to the request; and

transmitting, by the processing system, the notification responsive to detecting that a result of a comparison of the degree of understanding satisfies a threshold.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing, by the processing system in the overlay, a plurality of iconic symbols descriptive of a particular commentary of the plurality of commentaries, wherein each iconic symbol of the plurality of iconic symbols differs in appearance.

14. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processing system including a processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:

obtaining a plurality of commentaries associated with a presentation of media content from a plurality of computing devices, wherein the plurality of commentaries are obtained utilizing an overlay presented at each of the plurality of computing devices that is combined with the content during the presentation;

detecting, in the plurality of commentaries, a correlation in a subset of the plurality of commentaries;

transmitting, in response to the correlation, a first message to target computing devices of the plurality of computing devices from which the subset of the plurality of commentaries have been obtained, wherein the first message provides notice associated with a social network;

receiving second messages from at least some of the target computing devices, wherein the second messages are associated with joining the social network;

enabling the at least some of the target computing device to join the social network responsive to the receiving of the second messages;

detecting a decorrelation of commentaries collected from the plurality of computing devices, wherein the decorrelation indicates a lack of common interest between the plurality of computing devices in a portion of the social network; and

selectively terminating a portion of the social network responsive to the detecting of the decorrelation.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the plurality of computing devices includes first and second computing devices, wherein a first presentation by the first computing device of the media content is at a different time than a second presentation by the second computing device of the media content, wherein a first commentary of the plurality of commentaries is obtained from the first computing device during the first presentation, and wherein a second commentary of the plurality of commentaries is obtained from the second computing device during the second presentation.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise enabling sharing commentaries between the plurality of computing devices.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise submitting a notification to a source computing device, wherein the source computing device is one of the plurality of computing devices, wherein the notification identifies the correlation, and wherein the notification indicates a level of understanding of at least a portion of the media content.

18. A computing device, comprising:

a processing system including a processor; and

a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processing system, facilitate performance of operations, comprising;

presenting media content via on overlay that is presented at each of a plurality of computing devices that is combined with the media content to illustrate commentaries temporally associated with portions of the media content;

receiving an invitation to a social network that includes a second computing device, wherein the second computing device is a source of a subset of the commentaries temporally associated with the portions of the media content, wherein the subset of the commentaries are provided through an overlay provided at the second computing device;

sending an acceptance of the invitation which enables joining the social network;

submitting third commentaries after joining the social network, wherein the third commentaries are analyzed to detect a decorrelation of commentaries collected from a plurality of computing devices; and

receiving a termination from the social network responsive to a detection of the decorrelation of the commentaries.

19. The computing device of claim 18, wherein a first commentary of the commentaries is obtained from a first computing device of the plurality of computing devices during a first presentation, wherein a second commentary of the commentaries is obtained from a second computing device of the plurality of computing devices during a second presentation, and wherein the first and second presentations occur at different times.