DIGITAL CONTENT DELIVERY SYSTEM TRANSACTION ENGINE

• US 20080005760A1
• Filed: 09/14/2007
• Published: 01/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: 10TH Avenue Media LLC
• Original Assignee: Roomster Incorporated
• Inventors: OLSON, MATTHEW, HENDRICKSON, DAVID, KAY, RICHARD, TEMKIN, GREGORY
• Granted Patent: US 10,681,420 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2143 located in a single building, e.g. hotel, hospital or museum arrangements specially adapted for plural spots in a confined site in broadcast systems H04H20/63; adaptations for transmission by electric cable for domestic distribution in television systems H04N7/106
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25435 involving characteristics of content or additional data, e.g. video resolution or the amount of advertising
• 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 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4781 Games
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4784 receiving rewards
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6587 Control parameters, e.g. trick play commands, viewpoint selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17336 Handling of requests in head-ends

Abstract

A system for delivering digital content on demand in a multiple unit environment includes a server local to the multiple unit environment. The server stores, in its memory, the digital content, and is capable of supporting multiple simultaneous asynchronous accesses to the digital content. A billing system tracks the bill for each unit in the multiple unit environment, based on the accessed digital content. Within each unit that supports access to the digital content, an access system (preferably a set-top box) allows a user to access the digital content.

Claims

1. A system for delivering digital content on demand, comprising:

a plurality of multiple-unit environments, each multiple-unit environment including;

a server local to the multiple unit environment including a memory to store digital content;

a plurality of access systems, each access system configured to access the digital content on the server; and

a billing system for billing a user of the access system for accessing the digital content in response to a user profile associated with the user;

a network; and

a remote server coupled to each of the multiple unit environments through the network, the remote server including a memory to store a plurality of user profiles;

wherein for each multiple-unit environment, the billing system is configured to retrieve a user profile stored in the memory of the remote server as the user profile associated with the user.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein for each multiple-unit environment, the server is configured to select digital content for presentation to the user in response to the retrieved user profile.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein for each multiple-unit environment, the server is configured to retrieve digital content associated with the retrieved user profile.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein for each multiple-unit environment, the server is configured to select digital content for presentation to the user from among the digital content associated with the retrieved user profile retrieved.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein for each multiple-unit environment, the remote server is configured to transmit digital content associated with the retrieved user profile to the server in the multiple-unit environments based on services local to the multiple-unit environment.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein each multiple-unit environment is a hotel and each access system of the multiple-unit environment is located in a room of the hotel.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein:

each user profile stored in the memory of the remote server includes a rate key; and

for each multiple-unit environment, the billing system is configured to bill the user at a rate selected from among default rates and custom rates in response to the rate key in the retrieved user profile.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein for each multiple-unit environment:

the billing system is configured to update the retrieved user profile and transmit the updated user profile to the remote server.

9. A method of delivering digital content, comprising:

registering a user in one of a plurality of multiple-unit environments;

retrieving a user profile associated with the user from a remote server; and

presenting digital content to the user in response to the user profile.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

billing the user for the presented digital content in response to the user profile.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

accessing a rate key in the user profile; and

billing the use for the presented digital content at a rate selected from among default rates and custom rates in response to the rate key in the user profile.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

retrieving digital content from the remote server based on the user profile; and

storing the retrieved digital content on a server local to the multiple unit environment.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

presenting the retrieved digital content to the user from the server local to the multiple unit environment.

14. The method of claim 12, retrieving the digital content from the remote server based on the user profile further comprising:

retrieving digital content from the remote server based on services local to the multiple-unit environment.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

updating the user profile; and

transmitting the updated user profile to the remote server.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

registering the user in a second one of the plurality of multiple-unit environments;

retrieving the user profile associated with the user in the second multiple-unit environment from the remote server; and

presenting digital content to the user in the second multiple-unit environment in response to the user profile.

17. A computer readable medium storing an article of computer readable code that when executed on a computer, cause the computer to:

register a user in one of a plurality of multiple-unit environments;

retrieve a user profile associated with the user from a remote server; and

present digital content to the user in response to the user profile.

18. The computer readable medium storing the article of computer readable code of claim 17 that when executed on the computer, further causes the computer to:

retrieve digital content from the remote server based on the user profile;

store the retrieved digital content on a server local to the multiple unit environment.

19. The computer readable medium storing the article of computer readable code of claim 17 that when executed on the computer, further causes the computer to:

update the user profile; and

transmit the updated user profile to the remote server.

20. The computer readable medium storing the article of computer readable code of claim 17 that when executed on the computer, further causes the computer to:

bill the user for the presented digital content in response to the user profile.