Ad-hoc web content player

• US 9,645,700 B2
• Filed: 02/04/2013
• Issued: 05/09/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Daniel E. Tsai
• Original Assignee: Daniel E. Tsai
• Inventors: Tsai, Daniel E.
• Primary Examiner(s): CHUANG, JUNG-MU T
• Application Number:
  US13/758,245
• Publication Number:
  US 20130151351A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,555 Days
• Field of Search: 715714, 715716
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions

Abstract

A system for dynamically playing information using conventional feeds and ad-hoc feeds to produce “playable” content includes a device that executes a player engine, the player engine collecting, combining and sequencing items to play based on selection criteria and device context, of text, image, video content by parsing selective tags, patterns, text, identifiers and resource types of interest on resources such as web pages to produce playable content, storing the playable contents results from parsing in a queue of playable feed items, selecting items from the queue to produce an ad-hoc feed and playing the ad-hoc feed.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a processor;

a display; and

a memory coupled to the processor for executing a computer program for producing and dynamic playback of one or more visual items of playable content that represent information parsed from one or more feeds, the computer program product comprises instructions to cause the processor to;

produce the one or more visual items of playable content from the one or more feeds, by instructions to;

convert information content from a given one of the one or more feeds into a specified mark-up language format;

apply parsing rules to parse the converted information content from the given feed into code functions and data elements to provide one or more datasets;

load a first one of the data elements and code functions into a player window of a player to render the one or more datasets into one of the produced visual playable content item, with a title of the given feed providing a title in a window portion of the one of the visual items of playable content, an image in the given feed displayed in the window, and information from the given feed summarized as a description of the given feed appearing in the window;

store the produced one of the visual items of playable content in a queue in a storage device;

manage the queue that includes the produced one of the visual items of playable content;

retrieve the one of the visual items of playable content according to criteria specified for playback of the one of the visual items of playable content; and

render on the display the retrieved one of the visual items of playable content in one or more of the windows.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the player is a single or a set of simultaneous, asynchronous players that run on the system, each player having a player engine that retrieves the visual items of playable content in a sequence over a period of time, and which is regularly repeated, and with the period of time of the sequence and a repetition rate of the sequence being based on user defined parameters.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a set of interaction tools to facilitate interaction with the queued items, as the queued items are played, and to perform operations on the played item.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the player is integrated into a browser and is available at any time to load feeds during browsing.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the player is a site-tool playing products on an e-commerce site.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the player includes a player engine that includes a player control pad that further configures the system to launch:

a promo box that provides quick links to playable content, with the promo box including a link that when clicked on, causes the player to be immediately loaded.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein sponsored messages, links, and advertisement are shown in the promo box to generate revenue and providing additional content.

9. The system of claim 7 wherein the program comprises instructions that filter the type of information sent to the promo box, by user selection of one or more of location, time, audience, and activity.

4. The system of claim wherein the interactions include at least one of to make comments, to purchase an item, to make a call, and to make a reservation.

10. A method executed on a device, the method comprises:

receiving by a processor in the device a plurality of ad-hoc feeds that are web-resource based feeds;

producing by the processor in the device one or more visual items of playable content from the received ad-hoc feeds by;

converting information content from a given one of the ad-hoc feeds into a specified mark-up language format;

applying parsing rules to parse the converted information content from the given ad-hoc feed into code functions and data elements to provide one or more datasets;

loading a first one of the data elements and code functions into a player window of a player to render the one or more datasets into one of the produced visual items of playable content, with a title of the given ad-hoc feed providing a title in a given visual item of playable content window, an image in the ad-hoc feed displayed in the window, and information from the ad-hoc feed summarized as a description of the ad-hoc feed appearing in the window;

storing by the processor the produced one or more visual items of playable content in a computer storage;

dynamically playing the produced one or more visual items of playable content in the player, by;

queuing selected visual items of the produced playable content for playback, with the visual items selected according to criteria specified for playback of the visual items of playable content; and

rendering on a display the queued selected visual items of playable content in one or more windows by cycling through the queued selected visual items to play each visual item of playable content in a sequence that is regularly repeated with the sequence and a repetition rate of the sequence being based on user defined criteria.

11. A computer program product tangibly embodied on a computer readable storage device, the computer program product for playing content, the computer program product comprising instructions for causing a device to:

receive ad-hoc feeds;

produce one or more visual items of playable content from the received ad-hoc feeds by instructions to;

convert information content from a given one of the ad-hoc feeds into a specified mark-up language format;

apply parsing rules to parse the converted information content from the given ad-hoc feed into code functions and data elements to provide one or more datasets comprising one or more of image, text, audio and video portions of the given ad-hoc feed;

load a first one of the data elements and code functions of the given ad-hoc feed into a player window of a player to render the one of more datasets into one of the produced visual items of playable content;

store the one or more produced visual items of playable content in a computer storage;

execute a player engine that plays the one or more visual items of playable content, as images parsed from the ad-hoc feeds, and rendered on a display device;

apply one or more user focus tools by a user to one of the visual items of playable content, rendered on the display device, the one or more user focus tools functionally selected according to at least one of context of the user, device and location of the device;

produce new content by application of the one or more user focus tools; and

cause the new content that results from applying the one or more user focus tools to be rendered on the display device with the rendered visual item.

12. The computer program product of claim 11 further comprising instructions to:

queue the produced visual items of playable content for playback in a sequence according to criteria specified for playback; and

customize the queued visual items of playable content by at least one property of location of the device, time of day, audience intended for the visual items, and activity engaged in by the user.

13. A system for dynamically playing information, the system comprises:

a processor;

a display; and

a memory coupled to the processor storing a player engine that configures the processor to;

sequence visual items of playable content in a queue to play, with the sequenced visual items of playable content including components that were parsed from ad-hoc feeds into corresponding code functions and data elements to provide corresponding datasets, and which corresponding code functions and data elements are loaded into a player window of the player engine to render corresponding visual items of playable content, and with sequencing based on selection criteria;

select visual items of playable content from the queue;

render the selected visual items of playable content in a window on the display;

apply one or more user focus operation tools by a user to one or more of the rendered visual items of playable content, with the one or more user focus operation tools applied being based on at least one of device context, characteristics of the one or more visual items of playable content, and user preferences specified for user focus operations;

store new content resulting from the application of the one or more user focus operation tools to the one or more visual items of playable content; and

render in a new player window the new content from applying the one or more user focus operation tools to the visual items of playable content.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the player engine customizes display of the visual items of playable content by at least one property of topic, location of the device, time of day, audience intended for the visual items, and activity engaged in by the user.

15. A mobile device comprises:

a processor;

a memory coupled to the processor storing a computer program product that configures the processor to;

launch a player application to playback visual items of playable content in one or more player windows;

receive in the player application information feeds, the information feeds including web pages including web folders of images, text, and video data and ad hoc feeds including syndication feeds and podcast feeds;

convert information content from the information feeds into a specified mark-up language format;

apply parsing rules to parse the converted information content from the one or more feeds into code functions and data elements to provide one or more datasets comprising one or more of image, text, audio and video portions of the one or more feeds;

load a first one of the one or more data elements and code functions into a player window of a player application to render the one or more datasets into one or more of the produced visual items of playable content playable in the player application, where the visual items of playable content comprise one or more components that are text, audio, video, and/or images parsed from the information feeds;

store in a queue, the produced visual items of playable content;

render produced visual items of playable content during a playback mode of the player application;

apply one or more user focus operation tools by a user to one or more of the rendered visual items of playable content, with the one or more user focus operation tools applied being based on at least one of device context, characteristics of the one or more visual items of playable content, and user preferences specified for user focus operations;

store new content resulting from the application of the one or more user focus operation tools to the one or more visual items of playable content; and

render in a new player window the new content from applying the one or more user focus operation tools to the visual items of playable content.

16. The device of claim 15 wherein the computer program further configures the processor to:

asynchronously playback the produced visual items of playable content stored in the queue in a player window of the launched player application, independently of a web browser window of a launched web browser application.

17. The device of claim 15 wherein the computer program further configures the processor to:

asynchronously playback plural ones of the produced visual items of playable content stored in the queue, in a corresponding plural number of player windows without a need for a user interaction.

18. The device of claim 15 wherein the instructions to apply parsing rules further configure the processor to:

apply XSLT (XML (Extensible Markup Language) Stylesheet Language for Transformations) parsing rules to convert the mark-up language format of an ad-hoc feed into XML format.

19. The device of claim 15 wherein the computer program further configures the processor to:

collect the produced visual items of playable content into a grouped set of produced visual items of playable content.

20. The device of claim 15 wherein the instructions to apply parsing rules comprises instructions to:

produce from the datasets information regarding sources of the information feeds, banners, titles, contents, links, media, and interactions provided for the received feeds.

21. The device of claim 15 wherein the computer program further configures the processor to:

select a subset of the produced visual items of playable content from the queue for playback.

22. The device of claim 21 wherein the computer program selects the subset based on one or more user defined criteria selected from groups consisting of location of the device, time of day, audience intended for the visual items, and activity engaged in by the user.

23. The device of claim 21 wherein the computer program selects the subset based on one or more default criteria that includes at least one of number of players, number of feeds played in each player, and a playback speed.

24. The device of claim 15 wherein the computer program further configures the processor to:

repeatedly play the stored visual items of playable content in the queue for playback in a single player window.

25. A mobile device comprises:

a processor;

a display in communication with the processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor storing a player application that configures the processor to;

store in a queue in a computer storage on the device, visual items of playable content, with the queue organized by linked data structures of data types, and with the visual items of playable content including components that were parsed from structured and/or ad-hoc feeds into corresponding code functions and data elements to provide corresponding datasets, and which corresponding code functions and data elements are loaded into a player window of the player application to render the corresponding datasets into corresponding one or more of the visual items of playable content;

provide a set of player controls that control playback of the visual items of playable content;

play as a sequence the produced visual items of playable content on a display device in accordance with selections from the player controls; and

in response to a user command from one or more of the player controls,

provide a set of user interaction tools that enable a user to interact with the visual items of playable content during playback of the visual items of playable content, and through the user interaction tools produce new content; and

associate the produced new content with the corresponding visual items of playable content.

26. The mobile device of claim 25, wherein the player controls include a pause control that causes the processor to pause playing of the visual items of playable content by the player application;

and the program further configures the processor to;

provide a subset of the user interaction tools, the tools being tools that are relevant to the visual items paused by the player application, the subset of tools providing user interactions with the paused visual items of playable content.

27. The mobile device of claim 26 wherein one paused visual item of playable content is a product for sale, and the subset of tools includes at least one tool selected from a group consisting of a comment tool, a call tool, a transaction tool, and a coupon tool.

28. The mobile device of claim 25 wherein the user interactive tools are part of the visual items of playable content definition.

29. The mobile device of claim 25 wherein the user interactive tools are built into the player application.

30. The mobile device of claim 25 wherein a first one of the set of user interaction tools is a coupon tool, with the coupon tool providing a coupon related to the visual items of playable content, which is clipped and saved, with data for the coupon invoked by the coupon tool is embedded within one of the ad-hoc feeds that produced the particular items.

31. The mobile device of claim 25 wherein one or more of the visual items of playable content is paused in the display to provide a focused one or more of the visual items of playable content;

and

the processor configures the player application to;

retrieve data in the paused visual items; and

apply the retrieved data to a user interactive tool, with the user interactive tool based on at least one factor selected from a group consisting of topic, location, time, audience and activity.

32. The mobile device of claim 25 wherein the user interactive tool is represented by an icon that is hyperlinked to a URL to provide the user interactive tool that is dynamically associated with the visual items in focus based on the device and the user context to offer the user relevant interactions with the visual items.

33. A mobile device comprises:

a processor;

a memory coupled to the processor storing a computer program product that configures the processor to;

launch a single player from a web page having plural feeds, the processor is further configured to;

detect feeds on the web page;

produce from the detected feeds visual items of playable content, by configuring the processor to;

apply parsing rules to parse one of the detected feeds on the web page into code functions and data elements to provide one or more datasets comprising one or more of image, text, audio and video portions of the one of the detected feeds;

load a first one of the data elements and code functions into a player window of a player to render the one or more datasets into one of the produced visual items of playable content;

store the one of the produced visual items of playable content in a queue in a computing storage on the device along with data that includes information related to the visual items of playable content including content type data;

retrieve from the queue in the computer storage on the device, for playback at least two different content types of the produced visual items of playable content the content types selected from a group consisting of tagged content converted into visual items of playable content, images, text, and feed links converted into visual items of playable content; and

repeatedly play the at least two, different retrieved content types in the single player in a sequence, as produced visual items of playable content that are rendered as images on a display device of the mobile device; and

in response to a user command,

provide a set of user interaction tools that enable a user to interact with the produced visual items of playable content during playback to produce new content; and

associate the produced new content with the corresponding visual items.

34. The mobile device of claim 33, wherein the processor is configured to launch a single player with which the at least two different content types are played.

35. The mobile device of claim 33 wherein the processor is configured to:

parse the web page for content to detect a directory of feeds, particular tagged contents, images, and text.

36. The mobile device of claim 35, wherein tagged content is converted into the visual items of playable content using specific tags and patterns of tags and values on the web page of tagged content to identify content on the web page.

37. A mobile device comprises:

a display;

a processor;

a memory coupled to the processor storing a computer program product that configures the processor to;

retrieve from a queue in a computer storage on the device, sets of visual items of playable content, where the queue is organized by linked data structures of data types of components of information feeds that were parsed into the sets of the visual items of playable content from components of the information feeds into corresponding code functions and data elements to provide corresponding datasets, and which corresponding code functions and data elements are loaded into a player window of a player engine to render the corresponding datasets into a corresponding one or ones of the visual items of playable content, with the retrieved visual items displayed in a sequence for a time period that is regularly repeated until a user interaction or a new set is retrieved by the processor; and

render the retrieved one or more sets of visual items on a display device with the rendition of the retrieved visual items in the one or more sets rendered with a title parsed from a feed title in the information feed, a banner parsed from a feed image, and a description of the information feed; and

display the visual items in a sequence for a predetermined number of seconds receive a signal that pauses playback of the sequence;

receive an assertion of a user interaction tool from a set of user interaction tools that enable a user to interact with the paused sequence to apply a respective operation to one of the visual items of playable content in the paused sequence;

produce new content from the application of the user interaction tool;

associate the produced new content with the corresponding visual item of playable content; and

store the new content in the computing storage.

38. The mobile device of claim 37, wherein the processor is configured to:

repeatedly display the sequence of the visual items for the predetermined number of seconds.

39. The mobile device of claim 37, wherein the processor is configured to:

periodically retrieve from the queue a new set of the produced visual items of playable content based on a set refresh value; and

display the new set in another sequence for a time period.

40. The mobile device of claim 37, wherein the processor is configured to:

launch a web browser; and

at least one player is launched playing the visual items derived from at least one feed provided from the launch of the web browser.

41. The mobile device of claim 37, wherein the processor is configured to:

launch plural player applications, each player application playing a sequence of the visual items of playable content independently of others of the player applications.

42. The mobile device of claim 41, wherein the plural players play the visual items independent of the web browser, allowing the user to continue with conventional browsing, while also showing playing feed contents in a small, concise visual manner.

43. The mobile device of claim 37, wherein a single player is launched and renders a combined view of all visual items.

44. The mobile device of claim 37, wherein the visual items are played in a player that operates independently of a web browser and the visual items are played in parallel as a user browses various web sites.

45. A web server comprises:

a processor;

a memory in communication with the processor, the memory storing a computer program product that configures the processor to produce webpages, the webpages including links, with at least one of the links linked to code that generates a player, with the player comprising instructions to;

access content from a webpage generated by the web server;

apply parsing rules to parse the content from the webpage into code functions and data elements to provide one or more datasets comprising one or more of image, text, audio and video portions of the webpage;

load a first one of the data elements and code functions into a player window of a player to render the one or more datasets into a visual item of playable content;

store the visual item of playable content in a queue; and

render the visual item of playable content that is stored in the queue and which is played asynchronously, with other visual items of playable content that are stored in the queue.

46. The web server of claim 45 wherein the player allows websites to promote feed-based information directly to a user without a need for a feed reader software.

47. The web server of claim 45 wherein the player is interactive permitting a user to select a feed and obtain playable feed items.

48. The web server of claim 45 wherein the player further comprises instructions to:

receive one or more ad-hoc feeds including syndication feeds and podcast feeds;

convert information content from one or more of the ad-hoc feeds into a specified mark-up language format;

apply parsing rules to parse the converted information content into code functions and data elements to provide one or more datasets comprising portions of the one or more ad-hoc feeds;

load a first one of the data elements and code functions into the player to render the one or more datasets into one of the produced visual items of playable content; and

store the produced visual items of playable content in the queue.

49. The web server of claim 48 further comprises instructions to:

send to the player parsed pieces of content from the webpage after a user has browsed away from the webpage.

50. The web server of claim 48 further comprises instructions to:

add links to the web page to start the player embedded within the web page as a popup window.

51. A mobile device comprises:

a processor;

a memory coupled to the processor storing a computer program product that configures the processor to;

launch a web browser to a web page having an integrated extension in the web browser,

launch a player application by selecting links that represent syndicated feeds on the web page by receiving data representing a user dragging and dropping one of the links from the syndicated feeds onto the integrated extension causing the player application to load;

process the dragged and dropped linked contents;

convert information content from one or more of the dragged and dropped linked content into a specified mark-up language format;

apply parsing rules to parse the converted information content into code functions and data elements to provide one or more datasets comprising portions of the dragged and dropped linked content;

load a first one of the data elements and code functions into a player window of the player application to render the one or more datasets into one of the produced visual items of playable content.

52. The mobile device of claim 51, wherein the integrated extension is represented as an icon on a toolbar.

53. The mobile device of claim 51, wherein the integrated extension is represented on a menu within the web browser.

54. The mobile device of claim 51, wherein the integrated extension is available during browsing to load and play feeds as the feeds are found.

55. The mobile device of claim 51, wherein the player application is provided as a small pop-up window.

56. The mobile device of claim 51, wherein the web pages includes links to feeds represented by icons on the web pages.

57. The mobile device of claim 51 wherein the program further configures the device to:

parse the feeds into data and code components; and

produce from the data a representation of the visual items of playable content where a feed'"'"'s title becomes the visual item of playable content window title, the feed'"'"'s image becomes a banner in the visual item of playable content to recognize a source of the feed, and a description of the feed appears under the title in the visual item of playable content.