Method and apparatus for a search-enabled remote control device

• US 9,792,369 B2
• Filed: 07/25/2011
• Issued: 10/17/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Yahoo Assets LLC
• Original Assignee: Yahoo Holdings, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Zito, David, Essas, Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): Peng, Huawen A
• Application Number:
  US13/189,785
• Publication Number:
  US 20110282902A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,276 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/437 Administration of user profiles, e.g. generation, initialisation, adaptation, distribution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/735 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• 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 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/33 Arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/46 for recognising users' preferences
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/65 for using the result on users' side
• 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 21/42204 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 21/42209 for displaying non-command information, e.g. electronic program guide [EPG], e-mail, messages or a second television channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; 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 21/47815 Electronic shopping payment schemes, payment architectures or payment protocols for electronic shopping systems G06Q20/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4828 for searching program descriptors retrieval of video data G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4858 for modifying screen layout parameters, e.g. fonts, size of the windows
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/488 Data services, e.g. news ticker systems specially adapted for using meteorological information in broadcast systems H04H60/71
• 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 21/812 : involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 : Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/445 : for displaying additional information H04N5/50 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 : Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17336 : Handling of requests in head-ends

Abstract

A search-enabled remote control device to facilitate viewers'"'"' ability to search through programming and/or content options and view results. In one embodiment, a viewer is able to use a traditional remote control interface to navigate through menus or selections and to display search results on screen. In another embodiment, a viewer'"'"'s watching behavior and/or searching habits are tracked by the search-enabled remote control and used to develop a viewer profile, which may in turn be used to target advertisements, information and/or future programming options.

Claims

1. A search-enabled remote control device comprising:

a plurality of input controls;

a display portion;

a processor coupled to said plurality of input controls and said display portion; and

a memory coupled to said processor, said memory including instructions to cause the processor to;

control a display device communicatively coupled to a remote server via communications with the remote server;

when a viewer profile for the user has not been created, establish the viewer profile for the user by receiving viewer-specific data via the search-enabled remote control device;

transmit the viewer profile from the search-enabled remote control device to the remote server;

receive search criteria entered using said plurality of input controls of the search-enabled remote control device;

transmit said search criteria from the search-enabled remote control device to the remote server to update the viewer profile;

receive a plurality of viewer requests entered using said plurality of input controls;

transmit said plurality of viewer requests to the remote server via the communications with the remote server;

track actions and behaviors of a user while the user watches the display device, the actions and behaviors comprising interactions by the user on the remote control device and comprising content viewed by the user on the display device, the interactions by the user on the remote control device comprising channel changing actions and volume changing actions;

transmit the tracked actions and behaviors of the user to the remote server to update the viewer profile for the user;

receive web-based search results on the search-enabled remote control device based on said search criteria;

prioritizing the web-based search results based on viewer profile data and merchant rankings; and

present the prioritized web-based search results on said display portion of the search-enabled remote control device, wherein, independent of any subsequent viewer-issued requests, one or more updated search results are received from the remote server, the one or more updated search results corresponding to a change of the content being displayed on the display device.

2. The search-enabled remote control device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of search results are received on the search-enabled remote control device based on said viewer profile from the remote server, the search-enabled remote control device receiving the plurality of search results according to the content being displayed on the display device.

3. The search-enabled remote control device of claim 1, wherein the display device comprises a set top box communicatively coupled to said remote server, said remote server is operable to cause said display device to display broadcast content received from a broadcast source, and wherein said instruction sequences cause the processor to communicate with said remote server without going through the set top box.

4. The search-enabled remote control device of claim 1, wherein said display device is associated with said viewer profile using a unique identification code.

5. The search-enabled remote control device of claim 1, wherein said remote server maintains said viewer profile in a global viewer database, and wherein said viewer profile is usable to customize content that is to be provided to said display device.

6. The search-enabled remote control device of claim 5, wherein said customized content includes at least one of broadcast programming, online content, advertisements, and commercial offers.

7. The search-enabled remote control device of claim 1, wherein said plurality of viewer requests includes one or more of a set of search criteria, broadcast content viewed, non-broadcast content requested, content selected for recording, channel changing activities, and volume adjustments.

8. The search-enabled remote control device of claim 1, wherein said display device is to:

receive user preferences from said remote server; and

display broadcast content received from a broadcast source and non-broadcast content in accordance with said user preferences.

9. A method comprising:

controlling, by a processor, a display device communicatively coupled to a remote server via communications between a search-enabled remote control device and the remote server;

when a viewer profile for the user has not been created, establishing, by the processor, the viewer profile for the user by receiving viewer-specific data from the search-enabled remote control device;

receiving, by the processor, one or more search criteria from the search-enabled remote control device;

updating, by the processor, the viewer profile with the one or more search criteria;

receiving, by the processor, a plurality of viewer requests at the remote server via the communications with the remote server;

receiving, by the processor, tracked actions and behaviors of a user while the user watches the display device, the actions and behaviors comprising interactions by the user on the remote control device and comprising content viewed by the user on the display device, the interactions by the user on the remote control device comprising channel changing actions and volume changing actions;

updating, by the processor, the viewer profile for the user based on the received tracked actions and behaviors of the user;

prioritizing, by the processor, a plurality of web-based search results based on viewer profile data and merchant rankings;

transmitting, by the processor, the plurality of web-based search results to the search-enabled remote control device; and

transmitting, independent of any subsequent viewer-issued requests, one or more updated search results from the remote server, the one or more updated search results corresponding to a change of the content being displayed on the display device.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said display device is associated with said viewer profile using a unique identification code.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein a remote server maintains said viewer profile in a global viewer database, and wherein said viewer profile is usable to customize content that is to be provided to said display device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said customized content includes at least one of broadcast programming, online content, advertisements, and commercial offers.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein said plurality of viewer requests includes one or more of a set of search criteria, broadcast content viewed, non-broadcast content requested, content selected for recording, channel changing activities, and volume adjustments.

14. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

receiving user preferences from a remote server; and

displaying broadcast content received from a broadcast source and non-broadcast content in accordance with said user preferences.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein transmitting said one or more search criteria comprises transmitting said one or more search criteria to a remote server, and wherein said remote server is to cause broadcast content received from a broadcast source to be displayed simultaneously with non-broadcast content.

16. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer program instructions tangibly embodied therein and executed by a processor to provide display information, the computer program instructions comprising:

computer readable program code to control a display device communicatively coupled to a remote server via communications with the remote server;

computer readable program code to, when a viewer profile for the user has not been created, establish the viewer profile for the user by receiving viewer-specific data via the search-enabled remote control device;

computer readable program code to transmit the viewer profile from the search-enabled remote control device to the remote server;

computer readable program code to receive one or more search criteria entered using said plurality of input controls of the search-enabled remote control device;

computer readable program code to transmit said one or more search criteria from the search-enabled remote control device to the remote server to update the viewer profile;

computer readable program code to receive a plurality of viewer requests entered using said plurality of input controls;

computer readable program code to transmit said plurality of viewer requests to the remote server via the communications with the remote server;

computer readable program code to track actions and behaviors of a user while the user watches the display device, the actions and behaviors comprising interactions by the user on the remote control device and comprising content viewed by the user on the display device, the interactions by the user on the remote control device comprising channel changing actions and volume changing actions;

computer readable program code to transmit the tracked actions and behaviors of the user to the remote server to update the viewer profile for the user;

computer readable program code to receive a plurality of web-based search results on the search-enabled remote control device based on said one or more search criteria;

computer readable program code to prioritize the plurality of web-based search results based on viewer profile data and merchant rankings; and

computer readable program code to present the plurality of web-based search results on said display portion of the search-enabled remote control device, wherein, independent of any subsequent viewer-issued requests, one or more updated search results are received from the remote server, the one or more updated search results corresponding to a change of the content being displayed on the display device.