Methods and systems for collaborative capture of television viewer generated clickstreams

• US 20050132402A1
• Filed: 12/12/2003
• Published: 06/16/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alphonso, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gray, James, Brothers, Thomas
• Granted Patent: US 7,617,508 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/37
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/33 Arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions
• 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 21/44222 Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programs or purchase activity monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• 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 7/17309 Transmission or handling of upstream communications

Abstract

Methods and systems provide clickstream captures at both local and remote components by receiving user commands generated by the viewer locally where at least some of those commands are then sent to the remote component concurrently relative to when they are generated by the viewer. Commands may be captured and stored locally while the commands that are sent to the remote component are captured and then stored remotely from the premises of the viewer. Additionally, the user commands may be executed locally such as at a viewer appliance and/or remotely such as at a video control system of a television network. Information related to these user commands continues to be stored locally and/or remotely from the premises of the viewer after the user commands have been executed. Thus, the information related to these user commands can be processed as necessary and used for various purposes.

Claims

1. A method of capturing user commands from a viewer that am related to viewing content comprising:

receiving a first user command at a viewer appliance at a premises of the viewer,

subsequently receiving a second user command at the viewer appliance;

relative to receiving the first user command, concurrently storing information related to the first user command at the viewer appliance; and

relative to receiving the second user command, concurrently forwarding the second user command from the viewer appliance to a component located remotely from the premises of the viewer.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

executing the first user command at the viewer appliance to alter a first aspect of the content being viewed by the viewers.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

executing the first and second user commands at the viewer appliance to alter aspects of the content being viewed by the viewer.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising querying whether the information related to the first user command should be locally stored at the viewer appliance.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising guerying whether the information related to the second user command should be locally stored at the viewer appliance.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the first user command and the second user command at the viewer appliance comprises receiving the first user command and the second user command at a set-top box.

9. The method of claim 1, fir comprising:

relative to receiving the second user command, concurrently storing information related to the second user command at the viewer appliance.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the first user command and the second user command at the viewer appliance comprises receiving the first user command and the second user command at a set-top box integrated with a television.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

after a pre-determined period of time expires, forwarding the information related to the first user command from the viewer appliance.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising forwarding the information related to the first user command to a storage device located remotely from the premises of the viewer.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving targeted advertising based upon the information related to the user command.

5. The method of claim 5, further comprising forwarding the information related to the first user command from the viewer appliance to the component located remotely from the premises of the viewer.

14. A method of capturing user commands from a viewer that are related to viewing content comprising:

receiving a first user command at a viewer appliance at a premises of the viewer,

subsequently receiving a second user command at the viewer appliance;

relative to receiving the first user command, concurrently storing information related to the first user command at the viewer appliance, the information related to the first user command including a date and time of receipt;

executing the first user command at the viewer appliance to alter a first aspect of the content being viewed by the viewer while the information related to the first user command continues to be stored at the viewer appliance; and

relative to receiving the second user command, concurrently forwarding the second user command from the viewer appliance to a component located remotely from the premises of the viewer.

7. The method of claim 14, further comprising determining a result of the second user command relative to a present context and including the result in the information related to the second user command that is forwarded from the viewer appliance.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising querying whether the information related to the first user command should be locally stored at the viewer.

16. The method of claim 1514, further comprising forwarding the information related to the first user command from the viewer appliance to the component located remotely from the premises of the viewer.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising guerying whether the second user command should be locally stored at the viewer appliance.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein if the second user command is not to be locally stored at the viewer appliance.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising determining a result of the second user command relative to a present context and including the result in the information related to the second user command that is forwarded from the viewer appliance.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein determining the result of the second user command relative to a present context comprises receiving a new video stream relative to the present context.

21. The method of claim 14, wherein receiving the first user command and the second user command comprises receiving the first user command and the second user command at a set-top box integrated with a television.

22. The method of claim 14, further comprising receiving different content based upon the information related to the second user command.

23. A system for capturing user commands from a viewer that are related to viewing content, comprising:

a reception mechanism located at a premises of a viewer for receiving a first and a second user command;

a transfer mechanism located at the premises of the viewer for transferring the second user command;

a control mechanism that executes the first and second user commands received by the reception mechanism to control aspects of the content being provided to the viewer; and

a storage mechanism located at the premises of the viewer that continues to store information related to the first user command after the first user command has been executed by the control mechanisms.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the control mechanism comprises.

a first control mechanism located at the premises of the viewer for executing the first user command.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein the reception mechanism and the transfer mechanism are included in a set top box.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the control mechanism is included in the set top box.

27. The system of claim 24, wherein the transfer mechanism queries whether the first and the second command should be locally stored by the storage mechanism.

28. A method of capturing user commands from a viewer that are related to viewing content, comprising:

receiving the user command at a viewer appliance at the premises of the user;

upon receiving the user command, determining whether to store information related to the user command at the viewer appliance and storing the information related to the user command at the viewer appliance when it is determined that the information related to the user command is to be stored at the viewer appliance; and

when it is determined not to store the information related to the user command at the viewer appliance, then forwarding the user command from the viewer appliance.

29. A method of capturing user commands from a viewer that are related to viewing content comprising:

receiving the user command at a viewer appliance at the premises of the viewer;

upon receiving the user command, determining whether to store information related to the user command at the viewer appliance and storing the information related to the user command at the viewer appliance when it is determined that the user command is to be stored at the viewer appliance;

upon receiving the user command, determining whether to execute the user command at the viewer appliance and executing the user command at the viewer appliance when it is determined that the user command is to be executed at the viewer appliance; and

when it is determined not to execute the user command at the viewer appliance, then forwarding the user command from the viewer appliance.

30. A method of capturing user commands from a viewer that are related to viewing content comprising:

receiving the user command at a component remotely located from the premises of the viewer;

upon receiving the user command, querying whether to store information related to the user command and if the query is successful, then storing the information related to user command remotely from the premises of the viewer and

executing the user command.

31. A method of capturing user commands from a viewer that are related to viewing content comprising;

receiving the user command at a component remotely from the premises of the viewer;

upon receiving the user command, storing the information related to the user command remotely from the premises of the viewer; and

upon receiving the user command, querying whether to execute the user command and executing the user command when it is determined that the user command is to be executed.