Signal Transmission Management System

• US 20080072251A1
• Filed: 02/18/2004
• Published: 03/20/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/18/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kianoush Namvar
• Original Assignee: Kianoush Namvar
• Inventors: Namvar, Kianoush
• Granted Patent: US 8,973,035 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/36
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/30 by a single channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/33 by plural channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/06 Arrangements for scheduling broadcast services or broadcast-related services
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/07 characterised by processes or methods for the generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/31 Arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/37 for identifying segments of broadcast information, e.g. scenes or extracting programme ID
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/66 for using the result on distributors' side
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/222 Secondary servers, e.g. proxy server, cable television Head-end provisioning of proxy services in data packet switching networks H04L67/56
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2543 Billing , e.g. for subscription services payment schemes, architectures or protocols G06Q20/00; e-commerce G06Q30/00; arrangements for billing for the use of broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/21
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2547 Third Party Billing, e.g. billing of advertiser
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25866 Management of end-user data customer care in data networks H04L41/5077
• 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 21/25891 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 21/26225 involving billing parameters, e.g. priority for subscribers of premium services
• 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 21/4755 for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre retrieval personalisation and generation of user profiles for the retrieval of video data G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306
• 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 21/6587 : Control parameters, e.g. trick play commands, viewpoint selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 : involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17309 : Transmission or handling of upstream communications

Abstract

The present invention relates to transmission of signals to a plurality of subscriber receivers, where each signal represents a type of information which belongs to a particular contents category. A central management server receives administrative instructions pertaining to the transmission of the signals. In response to the administrative instructions, the central management server organizes and synchronizes signals originating from one or more signal sources before these signals are transmitted to the subscriber receivers. At least one client computer each has an interface towards the central management server. Thus, the client computer(s) may produce administrative instructions for organizing a sub-set of the signals to be transmitted via the central management server.

Claims

1. A system for transmitting signals (S) to a plurality of subscriber receivers (110), wherein each signal (S) represents a type of information belonging to a particular contents category, comprising:

a central management server (100) adapted to receive administrative instructions (I_adm1, I_adm2, I_adm3) pertaining to the transmission of the signals (S) to the subscriber receivers (110), and in response to the administrative instructions (I_adm1, I_adm2, I_adm3) organize signals (s_1a, s_1b, s_2a, s_2b, s₁, s₂, s₃, s₄, C) from at least one signal source (120, 141, 142, 143, 144, 151a-b, 152a-b) before transmission thereof to the subscriber receivers (110), and

at least one client computer (151, 152, 153) each having an interface towards the central management server (100) and being adapted to produce administrative instructions (I_adm1, I_adm2, I_adm3) for organizing a sub-set of the signals (S) to be transmitted via the central management server (100).

2. A system according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises a central transmission unit (160) adapted to receive the signals (S) from the central management server (100) and, in accordance with an organization scheme (200) produced by the central management server (100), transmit these signals (S) to the subscriber receivers (110) via a central signal distribution system (165, 170).

3. A system according to claim 2, characterized in that the organization scheme (200) specifies, for each signal (S) to be transmitted, a transmission resource (TV3, TV4, TV5, CNN, Fill1, Fill2, Fill3, Fill4), a time instance and a contents category, wherein the contents category for at least one segment (s′

) of the signal (S) determines which sub-segment that will be presented in which subscriber receiver (110).

4. A system according to claim 3, characterized in that each of the subscriber receivers (110) comprises an interpreting unit having a user specific key representing a profile category of at least one user associated with the subscriber receiver, the interpreting unit being adapted to control the reception of a signal (S) such that the key in combination with a piece of contents category information received with respect to a segment (s′

) of the signal (S) control the subscriber receiver to present a predetermined sub-segment (s′

_1d) transmitted via a particular transmission resource (TV3, TV4, TV5, CNN, Fill1, Fill2, Fill3, Fill4).

5. A system according to any one of the claims 3 or 4, characterized in that it comprises a return channel (N) from at least one particular subscriber receiver (111) of the subscriber receivers (110) adapted to forward activity-monitoring information (R) pertaining to signals (S) having been presented in the particular subscriber receiver (111) to the central management server (100), and the central management server (100) is adapted to generate a compiled data set representing the activity-monitoring information (R).

6. A system according to any one of the claims 3-5, characterized in that at least one of at least one client computer (151, 152, 153) comprises a means for manually entering activity-monitoring information (R) pertaining to signals (S) having been presented in one or more subscriber receivers (110), and based thereon produce a compiled data set representing the activity-monitoring information (R).

7. A system according to any one of the claims 5 or 6, characterized in that at least one of the at least one client computer (151, 152, 153) is adapted to receive the compiled data set from the central management server (100), and produce the administrative instructions (I_adm1, I_adm2, I_adm3) on basis thereof.

8. A system according to any one of the claims 3-7, characterized in that it comprises at least one billing unit (190, 191) adapted to produce billing information pertaining to a respective utilization of the transmission resources (TV3, TV4, TV5, CNN, Fill1, Fill2, Fill3, Fill4) administrated by the central management server (100).

9. A system according to any one of the claims 2-8, characterized in that it comprises at least one auxiliary distribution channel (165, 185) adapted to transmit signals (S, σ

1, σ

2) to the subscriber receivers (110) outside the organization scheme (200) produced by the central management server (100)

10. A system according to claim 9, characterized in that the at least one auxiliary distribution channel includes at least one distribution resource (185) in addition to the central signal distribution system (165, 170).

11. A system according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the signals (S, σ

1, σ

2) represent at least one of text information, acoustic information, image information and video information.

12. A system according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that at least one of the subscriber receivers (110) is represented by at least one of a TV-tuner, a satellite signal decoder, a computer and a broadband mobile communication terminal.

13. A client computer (151, 152, 153) adapted to be included in a system according to any one of the claims 1-12, characterized in that it comprises a graphical user interface (300) adapted to present a time relationship between different signals (S) to be transmitted on at least one channel (TV1, TV2) over which the client computer has a management control.

14. A client computer (151, 152, 153) according to claim 13, characterized in that the graphical user interface (300) comprises a first graphical means (310) adapted to, for each of the signals (S) to be transmitted on the at least one channel (TV1, TV2), present the signal'"'"'s contents category, and a second graphical means (320) adapted to, for at least a sub-set of the signals (S) to be transmitted on the at least one channel (TV1, TV2), enable a user to manipulate segments (s′

) of each signal (S) such that a particular sub-segment (s′

_1d) will be presented in each subscriber receiver of the subscriber receivers (110) which has a profile category matching a contents category associated with the particular sub-segment (s′

_1d).

15. A client computer (151, 152, 153) according to claim 14, characterized in that the graphical user interface comprises a third graphical means (330) adapted to, for at least a sub-set of the signals (S) to be transmitted on the at least one channel (TV1, TV2), enable the user to select a suitable sub-segment (s′

_1d) for each of a number of profile categories for a segment (s′

) of a signal (S).

16. A client computer (151, 152, 153) according to claim 15, characterized in that the third graphical means (330) comprises a selection means adapted to enable the user to, for each sub-segment (s′

_1d) select a profile category, wherein a default profile category is based on a compiled data set formed on basis of activity-monitoring information (R) pertaining to signals (S) having been presented in the subscriber receivers (110).

17. A client computer (151, 152, 153) according to any one of the claims 15 or 16, characterized in that the third graphical means (330) comprises a selection means adapted to allow the user to, for each sub-segment (s′

_1d) select a geographical area within which subscriber receivers will present the sub-segment (s′

_1d), wherein a default geographical area is based on positional information pertaining to signals (S) having been presented in the subscriber receivers (110).

18. A client computer (151, 152, 153) according to any one of the claims 15-17, characterized in that the third graphical means (330) comprises a selection means adapted to enable the user to, for each sub-segment (s′

_1d) select a priority level denoting a relative position of the sub-segment (s′

_1d) within a particular segment (s′

).

19. A client computer (151, 152, 153) according to any one of the claims 13-18, characterized in that it comprises a compiler adapted to produce a preliminary organization of the signals (S) on the at least one channel (TV1, TV2) before transmitting corresponding administrative instructions to the central management server (100).

20. A client computer (151, 152, 153) according to claim 19, characterized in that the graphical user interface comprises a fourth graphical means adapted to enable a user to manipulate the preliminary organization of the signals (S), and client computer comprises processing means adapted to, based on the user manipulations, produce administrative instructions to the central management server (100).

21. A client computer (151, 152, 153) according to any one of the claims 13-20, characterized in that the signals (S, σ

1, σ

2) represent at least one of text information, acoustic information, image information and video information.

22. A computer program directly loadable into the internal memory of a computer, comprising software for controlling the functions of a client computer according to any of the claims 13-21 when said program is run on the computer.

23. A computer readable medium, having a program recorded thereon, where the program is to make a computer control the functions of a client computer according to any of the claims 13-21.