Personalized integrated video user experience

• US 10,812,869 B2
• Filed: 12/28/2015
• Issued: 10/20/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 01/05/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Saturn Licensing LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Shenkler, Andrew M., McRoss, Loren H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Pendleton, Brian T
• Assistant Examiner(s): Saint Cyr, Jean D
• Application Number:
  US14/981,683
• Publication Number:
  US 20160198239A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,758 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/245 specially adapted to a particular type of game, e.g. steering wheels
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/352 involving special game server arrangements, e.g. regional servers connected to a national server or a plurality of servers managing partitions of the game world
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/537 using indicators, e.g. showing the condition of a game character on screen
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/61 using advertising information
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04804 Transparency, e.g. transparent or translucent windows
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23424 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for inserting or substituting an advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2387 Stream processing in response to a playback request from an end-user, e.g. for trick-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25883 being end-user demographical data, e.g. age, family status or address arrangements for identifying locations of users in broadcast systems H04H60/52
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4222 Remote control device emulator integrated into a non-television apparatus, e.g. a PDA, media center or smart toy remote control device for a television receiver integrated into a mobile phone H04M1/72415
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4312 involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations
• 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 21/4784 receiving rewards
• 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: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

A personalized integrated video user experience enables a user to view full screen streaming content utilizing an overlaid user interface to navigate throughout the experience. Included in the experience is scrubber branding as well as embedded unlockable contextual content that is presented to the user at specified times. The embedded unlockable or promotion of either digital contextual content or physical contextual goods is related to the content being streamed and enhances the user experience by enabling the user to perform additional actions such as purchasing items and acquiring additional information. An NFC-enabled or Bluetooth® device is able to be used to authenticate the experience as well as navigate content and interact with the streaming experience for an educational experience.

Claims

1. A method programmed in a non-transitory memory of a device comprising:

a. providing streaming content including a user interface overlay, wherein the streaming content is persistently streaming underneath the user interface overlay, wherein multiple versions of the streaming content are stored, wherein a user who is subscriber of the streaming content receives the streaming content at a higher bandwidth than a non-subscriber;

b. displaying advertisement content within a video player during fast forwarding or rewinding of the streaming content;

c. minimizing the user interface overlay during playback of the streaming content;

d. providing contextual content related to the streaming content; and

e. enabling interactivity and decision making with the contextual content, wherein the contextual content is initially locked, and the contextual content is unlocked after the user watches a specified position in the streaming content or after the user watches a specified amount of the streaming content, wherein the locked contextual content is visible but not accessible.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the advertisement content is targeted toward an end user based on at least one of demographics, purchasing behavior, browsing behavior, streaming behavior, and personal preferences.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the contextual content is dynamically available such that a content owner is able to position and manage the contextual content at any time.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the user interface in which an end user navigates to explore content available, includes:

descriptions of the streaming content, a plurality of images corresponding to the streaming content and the descriptions of the streaming content, and the contextual content associated with the streaming content, wherein each image of the plurality of images fade in or appear from a side of a screen, wherein a graphic associated with the contextual content is displayed proximate to a corresponding image of the plurality of images of the streaming content.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the user interface overlay is on top of the streaming content which includes full screen streaming content running in the background.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the user interface enables a user to access metadata related to the streaming content while playing the streaming content, and a user is able to hide or display the metadata on the user interface overlay via action buttons.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the user interface provides commerce activities, wherein at a specific point in the streaming content, a dynamically programmed pop-up is displayed which enables accessing the contextual content, further wherein accessing the contextual content includes purchasing music, providing coupons and promotional offerings and displaying bonus content.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing a content owner with a tool to modify the contextual content related to the streaming content, wherein the tool enables the content owner to select the contextual content and specify a time point or time amount to display the contextual content.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the tool is accessible via a portal.

19. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving exercise-related information from a wearable fitness device, wherein the advertisement content is based on the exercise-related information.

20. The method of claim 1 further comprising monitoring the user with a camera device to determine that the user is watching a screen of the device by detecting eyes of the user with the camera device, and pausing the video when the yes of the user are not watching the screen.

10. An apparatus comprising:

a. a non-transitory memory for storing an application, the application for;

i. providing streaming content including a user interface overlay, wherein the streaming content is persistently streaming underneath the user interface overlay, wherein multiple versions of the streaming content are stored, wherein a user who is a subscriber of the streaming content receives the streaming content at a higher bandwidth than a non-subscriber;

ii. displaying advertisement content within a video player during fast forwarding or rewinding of the streaming content;

iii. minimizing the user interface overlay during playback of the streaming content;

iv. providing contextual content related to the streaming content; and

v. enabling interactivity with the contextual content, wherein the contextual content is initially locked, and the contextual content is unlocked after the user watches a specified amount of the streaming content, wherein the locked contextual content is visible but not accessible, wherein the specified amount of the streaming content includes a cumulative amount able to be achieved by skipping around the streaming content, wherein the contextual content includes video or audio from the streaming content; and

b. a processing component coupled to the memory, the processing component configured for processing the application.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the advertisement content is targeted toward an end user based on at least one of demographics, purchasing behavior, browsing behavior, streaming behavior and personal preferences.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the contextual content is dynamically available such that a content owner is able to position and manage the contextual content at any time.

13. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the user interface in which an end user navigates to explore content available, includes:

descriptions of the streaming content, a plurality of images corresponding to the streaming content and the descriptions of the streaming content, and the contextual content associated with the streaming content, wherein each image of the plurality of images fade in or appear from a side of a screen, wherein a graphic associated with the contextual content is displayed proximate to a corresponding image of the plurality of images of the streaming content.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the user interface overlay is on top of the streaming content which includes full screen streaming content running in the background.

15. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the user interface enables the user to access metadata related to the streaming content while playing the streaming content, and a user is able to hide or display the metadata on the user interface overlay via action buttons.

16. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the user interface provides commerce activities, wherein at a specific point in the streaming content, a dynamically programmed pop-up is displayed which enables accessing the contextual content, further wherein accessing the contextual content includes purchasing music, providing coupons and promotional offerings and displaying bonus content.

17. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the application is further for providing a content owner with a tool to modify the contextual content related to the streaming content, wherein the tool enables the content owner to select the contextual content and specify a time point or time amount to display the contextual content.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the tool is accessible via a portal.