Method and apparatus for distributing content

• US 9,860,206 B2
• Filed: 08/09/2016
• Issued: 01/02/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2013
• 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: Gibbon, David Crawford, Begeja, Lee, Gopalan, Raghuraman, Liu, Zhu, Reibman, Amy Ruth, Renger, Bernard S., Shahraray, Behzad, Zavesky, Eric
• Primary Examiner(s): Lazaro, David
• Application Number:
  US15/232,159
• Publication Number:
  US 20160352675A1
• Time in Patent Office: 511 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2743 Video hosting of uploaded data from client
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4223 Cameras H04N23/00 takes precedence
• 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 21/6377 directed to server one-way streaming services wherein the source is controlled by the destination H04L65/613
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/765 Interface circuits between an apparatus for recording and another apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8205 involving the multiplexing of an additional signal and the colour video signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8227 the additional signal being at least another television signal

Abstract

Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, receiving a plurality of media content instances, where each media content instance of the plurality of media content instances comprises origination information, identifying a common event from the origination information of each media content instance of the plurality of media content instances, determining a plurality of viewing perspectives of the plurality of media content instances responsive to identifying the common event, and sending an alert to a social network to enable access to a viewing perspective of the plurality of viewing perspectives.

Claims

1. A device, comprising:

a processor; and

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

determining a plurality of viewing perspectives of a plurality of media content instances of a common event, wherein the plurality of media content instances comprises content information, location information, and temporal information;

determining qualities of the plurality of viewing perspectives;

comparing the qualities of the plurality of viewing perspectives;

detecting a limitation in communication resources that prevents presentation of the plurality of viewing perspectives;

selecting a proper subset of viewing perspectives from the plurality of media content instances according to the limitation and the comparing;

limiting access by a social network to the proper subset of viewing perspectives selected; and

sending an alert to the social network to enable access to the proper subset of viewing perspectives.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise identifying the common event from a search result, wherein the search result is performed by searching for one or more events according to the location information and the temporal information.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the processor comprises a plurality of processors operating in a distributed processing environment.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the qualities comprise an assessment of a desirability of viewing perspective of each of the plurality of viewing perspectives.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the qualities comprise an assessment of a resolution quality of each of the plurality of viewing perspectives.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the qualities comprise an assessment of a steadiness of images recorded, a blurriness of the images recorded, an over exposure of the images recorded, an under exposure of the images recorded, or any combination thereof.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the location information of each of the plurality of media content instances comprises coordinate data and compass data from which at least a portion of each of the plurality of media content instances is recorded, and wherein the content information comprises one of still image content, video content, audio content or any combination thereof.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein the alert comprises an advertisement for soliciting access to the proper subset of viewing perspectives.

9. The device of claim 1, wherein the common event comprises a social event taking place at or near a location identified by the location information associated with a media content instance of the plurality of media content instances, wherein the operations further comprise analyzing each media content instance associated with the plurality of viewing perspectives to generate metadata descriptive of the common event, and wherein the alert comprises the metadata.

10. The device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of media content instances are supplied by a plurality of communication devices used by members of the social network, and wherein the alert is sent to the social network responsive to receiving a request from a communication device of the plurality of communication devices.

11. The device of claim 1, wherein a media content instance of the plurality of media content instances is pre-recorded by a communication device.

12. The device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise detecting a subject matter from a media content instance of the plurality of media content instances, and wherein the alert is sent to the social network responsive to the detecting the subject matter.

13. The device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving from equipment communicatively coupled to the social network a request for a media content instance associated with a viewing perspective; and

sending to the equipment the content information associated with the media content instance responsive to receiving the request.

14. The device of claim 13, wherein the content information associated with the media content instance is streamed to the equipment while the plurality of media content instances are being recorded by a plurality of communication devices located at or near a location where the common event is taking place, and wherein the content information is streamed from one of the plurality of communication devices recording the viewing perspective associated with the media content instance requested.

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

determining a plurality of viewing perspectives of a plurality of media content instances associated with a common event;

determining viewing qualities of the plurality of viewing perspectives;

comparing the viewing qualities of the plurality of viewing perspectives;

detecting a limitation in communication resources that prevents presentation of the plurality of viewing perspectives;

selecting a proper subset of viewing perspectives from the plurality of media content instances according to the limitation and comparison;

limiting access by a social network to the proper subset of viewing perspectives selected; and

sending an alert to the social network to enable access to the proper subset of viewing perspectives.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein each media content instance of the plurality of media content instances comprises orientation information, temporal information, or combinations thereof, and wherein the operations further comprise:

determining a prioritization of the plurality of viewing perspectives of the plurality of media content instances according to one of a viewing quality of each of the plurality of viewing perspectives, a state of resources of a network that provides the social network access to the plurality of viewing perspectives, a reputation obtained from the social network of an author of each of the plurality of viewing perspectives of the plurality of media content instances, or any combination thereof; and

wherein selecting the proper subset of viewing perspectives is performed according to the prioritization and limitation.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving from equipment communicatively coupled to the social network a request for a media content instance associated with a viewing perspective; and

sending, to the equipment, content information associated with the media content instance responsive to receiving the request.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein each of the plurality of media content instances comprises a coordinate location from which at least a portion of each of the plurality of media content instances is recorded, and wherein the processor comprises a plurality of processors operating in a distributed processing environment.

19. A method, comprising:

obtaining, by a system comprising a processor, a plurality of media content instances with location information that indicates an association with a common event;

determining, by the system, a plurality of viewing perspectives of the plurality of media content instances responsive to identifying the common event;

detecting, by the system, a limitation in communication resources that prevents presentation of the plurality of viewing perspectives;

selecting, by the system, a proper subset of viewing perspectives from the plurality of media content instances according to the limitation;

limiting access, by the system, to the proper subset of viewing perspectives selected; and

sending, by the system, an alert to a social network to enable access to the proper subset of viewing perspectives.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the system is a communication device of a plurality of communication devices supplying the plurality of media content instances.