Systems and methods for streaming media content

• US 9,832,249 B2
• Filed: 01/02/2015
• Issued: 11/28/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hitchcock, Daniel W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kumar, Pankaj
• Assistant Examiner(s): Andramuno, Franklin
• Application Number:
  US14/588,489
• Publication Number:
  US 20150113406A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,061 Days
• Field of Search: 725 25, 725 38, 725105
• 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 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25841 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; arrangements for identifying locations of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/51; location of the user terminal in data switching networks H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43072 of multiple content streams on the same device
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4524 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; systems specially adapted for using geographical information in broadcast systems H04H60/70; protocols in which the network application is adapted for the location of the user terminal in communication control or processing H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/472 End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or services; End-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification, for manipulating displayed content end-user interfaces for retrieving video data from a database G06F16/739; network services for supporting unicast streaming H04L65/612
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6175 involving transmission via Internet broadcast-related systems characterised by the transmission system being the Internet H04H60/82

Abstract

Disclosed are various embodiments for facilitating streaming of media content. Video content is retrieved over a network from one or more client devices capturing video content. Data items associated with the plurality of video content are also retrieved. A list order for the plurality of video content is determined according to at least a portion of the retrieved data items, and a user interface is encoded for display where the user interface contains a plurality of items corresponding to the plurality of video content, the items being positioned within the user interface according to the list order.

Claims

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

group a plurality of videos into a plurality of groupings based at least in part on metadata associated with individual ones of the plurality of videos;

encode a user interface for display on a viewer device, the user interface comprising individual ones of the plurality of groupings displayed at respective positions within the user interface, wherein the respective positions are based at least in part on the metadata;

in response to retrieving a selection of one of the plurality of groupings, sort the plurality of videos associated with the one of the plurality of groupings based at least in part on a defined criteria; and

stream one of the plurality of videos associated with the one of the plurality of groupings.

2. The computer-readable of claim 1, wherein the user interface is embodied as a map and the metadata comprises location data.

3. The computer-readable of claim 1, wherein the selection further comprises a panning operation or a zooming operation.

4. The computer-readable of claim 1, wherein the defined criteria comprises at least one of video resolution, audio quality, user identifier, or temporal data criteria.

5. The computer-readable of claim 1, wherein the plurality of videos are sorted into a ranked list based at least in part on the defined criteria.

6. The computer-readable of claim 5, wherein the defined criteria is based at least in part on a highest rated user of at least one client device down to a lowest rated user of the at least one client device.

7. A system, comprising:

a data store; and

at least one computing device in communication with the data store, the at least one computing device being configured to at least;

determine a grouping for a plurality of video content according to at least a portion of a plurality of data items associated with individual ones of the plurality of video content; and

encode a user interface for display, the user interface containing a plurality of items corresponding to the grouping, the plurality of items displayed at respective positions within the user interface, wherein the respective positions are based at least in part on at least the portion of the plurality of data items and a viewer criterion, the viewer criterion comprising a previously selected preference of a viewer.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the at least one computing device is further configured to at least interface with a content delivery service that retrieves the plurality of video content from at least one client device.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the at least one computing device interfaces with the content delivery service via one or more application programming interface (API) calls.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the user interface is embodied as a map and at least the portion of the plurality of data items comprises information regarding a location in which at least one of the plurality of video content was recorded.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the at least one computing device is further configured to at least:

retrieve a listing of a plurality of friends of the viewer from a third party system; and

store the listing of the plurality of friends in the data store in communication with the at least one computing device.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the individual ones of the plurality of video content is associated with one of the plurality of friends of the viewer.

13. A method, comprising:

identifying data associated with a plurality of video content received from at least one client device;

determining a grouping of at least a portion of the plurality of video content based at least in part on the data;

determining, in response to retrieving a selection of the grouping in a user interface, a list order for at least the portion of the plurality of video content of the grouping based at least in part on a defined criteria; and

encoding the user interface for display, the user interface including at least the portion of the plurality of video content of the grouping, at least the portion of the plurality of video content displayed at respective positions within the user interface, wherein the respective positions are based at least in part on the list order.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the user interface comprises at least one representative image for the grouping.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the defined criteria is based at least in part on a common event associated with the data associated with the plurality of video content.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the user interface is embodied as a map comprising an exploded view of a region selected by a viewer of a viewing device.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein determining the list order is based at least in part on a number of faces detected within individual ones of the plurality of video content.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising assigning a higher priority in the list order to the video content containing a relatively higher number of faces relative to other video content containing a relatively lower number of faces.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein determining the list order is based at least in part on a ranking of a highest rated user down to a lowest rated user.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein the defined criteria includes at least one of video resolution, audio quality, user identifier, or temporal data criteria.