Systems and methods for acquiring, categorizing and delivering media in interactive media guidance applications

• US 20080086456A1
• Filed: 12/18/2006
• Published: 04/10/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: UV Corporation (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: United Video Properties Incorporated (Adeia Inc.)
• Inventors: Bryant, Jay S., Rasanen, Kirsten
• Granted Patent: US 8,832,742 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/3
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23418 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics television picture signal circuitry for scene change detection H04N5/147; filtering for image enhancement G06T5/00; methods or arrangements for recognising scenes G06V20/00; arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; 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 21/4622 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 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47214 for content reservation or setting reminders; for requesting event notification, e.g. of sport results or stock market stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; notification of incoming messages in packet switching networks H04L51/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4821 using a grid, e.g. sorted out by channel and broadcast time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6175 involving transmission via Internet broadcast-related systems characterised by the transmission system being the Internet H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8133 specifically related to the content, e.g. biography of the actors in a movie, detailed information about an article seen in a video program
• 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: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

Systems and methods are discussed for providing guidance for Internet-delivered media. In some embodiments, information on available media on the Internet is gathered. The information is associated with existing media guidance data. The associations enable a media guidance application to identify relevant online media and to display listings in a user-friendly way. A user interface for an online media guidance application is also provided. The user interface allows a user to narrow down the large amount of Internet-delivered media in a systematic way according to criteria that interests a user.

Claims

1. A method for providing guidance for videos on the Internet, comprising:

accessing a plurality of Internet sites to identify videos provided by the Internet sites;

storing metadata from the Internet sites for each of the identified videos;

associating guidance application data from a guidance application database with the metadata for each of the identified videos;

selecting a subset of the videos; and

generating a display indicating each video of the subset of the identified videos to a user, wherein the display includes the guidance application data associated with each indicated video.

2. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the Internet sites comprise web sites.

3. The method defined in claim 1 wherein accessing the plurality of Internet sites comprises crawling the Internet sites and scraping the metadata.

4. The method defined in claim 1 wherein storing the metadata comprises storing a URL to each of the videos.

5. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the indicated videos of the display are arranged in a video mosaic.

6. The method defined in claim 1 wherein:

the display indicates each video using a frame from each video; and

in response to the user selecting a frame, redirecting the user to the Internet site that provides the video of the selected frame.

7. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the display comprises the stored metadata for the identified videos.

8. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the subset of videos is selected in accordance with user personalization data.

9. The method defined in claim 8 wherein the user personalization data is derived from express user preference designations.

10. The method defined in claim 8 wherein the user personalization data is derived from monitored user behavior.

11. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the subset of videos is selected in accordance with an editor'"'"'s preference designations.

12. The method defined in claim 11 further comprising receiving the editor'"'"'s preference designations.

13. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the guidance application data of the display comprises program descriptions, editorial comments, media content related to the videos, or links to Internet sites providing media content related to the indicated videos.

14. The method defined in claim 1 further comprising storing the identified videos.

15. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the display is provided by an interactive program guide.

16. A system for providing guidance for videos on the Internet, comprising:

communication circuitry;

storage; and

processing circuitry configured to;

access a plurality of Internet sites using the communication circuitry to identify videos provided by the Internet sites;

store metadata from the Internet sites in the storage for each of the identified videos;

associate guidance application data from a guidance application database with the metadata for each of the identified videos;

select a subset of the videos; and

generate a display indicating each video of the subset of the identified videos, wherein the display includes the guidance application data associated with each indicated video.

17. The system defined in claim 16 wherein the Internet sites comprise web sites.

18. The system defined in claim 16 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to crawl the Internet sites and scrape the metadata.

19. The system defined in claim 16 wherein the stored metadata comprises the URL to each of the videos.

20. The system defined in claim 16 wherein the indicated videos of the display are arranged in a video mosaic.

21. The system defined in claim 16 wherein:

the display indicates each video using a frame from each video; and

the processing circuitry is further configured to redirect a user to the Internet site that provides the video of a frame in response to the user selecting the frame.

22. The system defined in claim 16 wherein the display comprises the stored metadata for the identified videos.

23. The system defined in claim 16 wherein the subset of videos is selected in accordance with user personalization data.

24. The system defined in claim 23 wherein the user personalization data is derived from express user preference designations.

25. The system defined in claim 23 wherein the user personalization data is derived from monitored user behavior.

26. The system defined in claim 16 wherein the subset of videos is selected in accordance with an editor'"'"'s preference designations.

27. The system defined in claim 26 wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to receive an editor'"'"'s preference designations.

28. The system defined in claim 16 wherein the guidance application data of the display comprises program descriptions, editorial comments, media content related to the videos, or links to Internet sites providing media content related to the indicated videos.

29. The system defined in claim 16 wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to store the identified videos in the storage.

30. The system defined in claim 16 wherein the processing circuitry is configured by instructions of an interactive program guide.