Ascertaining events in media

• US 9,794,212 B2
• Filed: 02/09/2015
• Issued: 10/17/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: IMDb.com, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: IMDb.com, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Siegel, Hilliard Bruce, Fishkin, Kenneth P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Won, Michael Y
• Application Number:
  US14/617,043
• Publication Number:
  US 20150156161A1
• Time in Patent Office: 981 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2408 Monitoring of the upstream path of the transmission network, e.g. client requests monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876; scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4758 for providing answers, e.g. voting
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4781 Games
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4784 receiving rewards
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4826 using recommendation lists, e.g. of programs or channels sorted out according to their score
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8547 involving timestamps for synchronizing content

Abstract

Disclosed are various embodiments relating to the identification of events that occur within a media item. A plurality of messages are received from client devices, wherein each of the messages comprises a timestamp indicating a time relative to a media item. The existence of an event in the media item is determined based at least in part on a clustering of at least a subset of the messages received. Points are awarded to a subset of users based at least in part upon the timestamp and the clustering of messages received.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium embodying a program executable in a computing device, wherein when executed the program causes the computing device to at least:

receive a plurality of messages from a plurality of user devices in response to a request transmitted over a network to the plurality of user devices, wherein individual ones of the plurality of messages include a timestamp representative of a point in time in a media item, the request includes a category selector and the individual ones of the plurality of messages further include a selection of a category;

determine where an event occurred in the media item based at least in part on a clustering of at least one subset of the plurality of messages received from the plurality of user devices; and

award an amount of points to at least one subset of a plurality of users, the amount of points being determined based at least in part on the timestamp included in a respective at least one of the plurality of messages and the clustering of the at least one subset of the plurality of messages.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the program further causes the computing device to at least encode for display the media item and a request associated with the media item to be sent to the plurality of user devices, the request further comprising encoding for display a social network module that publishes content that can be viewed by users among the plurality of users who are linked in a social networking system.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 2, wherein the social network module is configured to allow the users among the plurality of users who are linked in the social networking system to communicate with each other by publishing a feed.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the program further causes the computing device to at least determine a degree of accuracy for the individual ones of the plurality of messages by determining a validation score for the individual ones of the plurality of messages, the validation score being based at least in part on a period of time between the timestamp of a respective one of the plurality of messages and an estimated point in time representative of an occurrence of the event in the media item.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the program further causes the computing device to determine a message sequence representative of an order in which the individual ones of the plurality of messages have been received based at least in part on the timestamp included in the plurality of messages.

6. A system, comprising:

at least one computing device; and

a media application executable in the at least one computing device, wherein when executed the media application causes the at least one computing device to at least;

facilitate receipt of a plurality of messages in response to a request from a plurality of clients over a network, individual ones of the plurality of messages comprising at least one timestamp representative of a point in time in a media item, the request including a category selector and the individual ones of the plurality of messages further including a selection of a category;

determine where an event occurred in the media item based at least in part on a number of the plurality of messages received and a clustering of at least one subset of the plurality of messages received; and

award an amount of points to at least one subset of a plurality of users, the amount of points being determined based at least in part on the at least one timestamp the plurality of messages and the clustering of the at least one subset of the plurality of messages.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the media application further causes the at least one computing device to at least determine a degree of accuracy for the individual ones of the plurality of messages by determining a validation score for the individual ones of the plurality of messages.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the degree of accuracy is determined based at least upon a comparison of the validation score to a predefined threshold score.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the validation score is based at least on an examination of individual ones of the at least one timestamp associated with the individual ones of the plurality of messages.

10. The system of claim 6, wherein the individual ones of the plurality of messages corresponds to a notation of when a user interface element was manipulated by one of the plurality of users.

11. The system of claim 6, wherein at least one of the plurality of messages includes a comment relating to the event in the media item.

12. The system of claim 6, wherein individual ones of a plurality of requests, including the request, are transmitted to a respective client of the plurality of clients serially at a plurality of different points in time.

13. The system of claim 6, wherein the media application further causes the at least one computing device to at least subtract an amount of points from a respective user account associated with individual ones of the at least one subset of the plurality of users, the amount of points being determined based at least in part on a proximity of one of the plurality of messages relative to a clustering of a plurality of other user messages.

14. The system of claim 6, wherein determining where the event occurred in the media item is based at least in part on the clustering of the at least one subset of the plurality of messages received from the plurality of clients further causes the at least one computing device to at least determine whether a requisite number of the plurality of messages has been received.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the requisite number of the plurality of messages is a predefined percentage of all messages sent from the plurality of clients.

16. A method, comprising:

transmitting, by a computing device, a media item and a request for rendering for display to a plurality of clients over a network;

receiving, by the computing device, a plurality of messages from a plurality of clients in response to the request, wherein individual ones of the plurality of messages comprise a timestamp indicating a time relative to the media item, the request including a category selector and the individual ones of the plurality of messages further including a selection of a category;

determining, by the computing device, where an event occurred in the media item based at least in part on a clustering of at least one subset of the plurality of messages; and

awarding, by the computing device, an amount of points to a respective user account associated with individual ones of at least one subset of a plurality of users, the amount of points being determined based at least in part on the timestamp and the clustering of the at least one subset of the plurality of messages.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising determining, by the computing device, a degree of accuracy for the individual ones of the plurality of messages by determining a validation score for the individual ones of the plurality of messages.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the method further comprises storing, by the computing device, in association with the respective user account:

a list of a plurality of media items transmitted to a respective user;

a record of the requests transmitted to the respective user; and

a log of the individual ones of the plurality of messages received from the respective user.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the method further comprises encoding, by the computing device, the media item, and the request for rendering for display further comprises encoding, by the computing device, for rendering for display a social network module that publishes content that can be viewed by users among the plurality of users who are linked in a social networking system.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein a different version of the media item is transmitted to individual ones of the plurality of clients over a network.