Peer to peer media distribution system and method

• US 20080086754A1
• Filed: 09/14/2006
• Published: 04/10/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sbc Knowledge Ventures, L.P.
• Original Assignee: Sbc Knowledge Ventures, L.P.
• Inventors: Gibbon, David Crawford, Shahraray, Behzad, Wei, Bin, Liu, Zhu, Chen, Yih-Farn
• Granted Patent: US 8,589,973 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/105
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/613 for the control of the source by the destination control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components specially adapted for selective content distribution H04N21/637
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/764 at the destination reformatting of additional data in video clients H04N21/4355
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/21815 comprising local storage units
• 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 21/25825 involving client display capabilities, e.g. screen resolution of a mobile phone optimising the visualisation of content during browsing in the Internet G06F16/9577; processing of terminal status or physical abilities in wireless networks H04W8/22; authentication in wireless network security H04W12/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/278 Content descriptor database or directory service for end-user access details of content or meta data based information retrieval of video data in video databases G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4348 Demultiplexing of additional data and video streams
• 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 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• 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 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4882 for displaying messages, e.g. warnings, reminders arrangements for providing short real-time information to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1895
• 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 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A method is disclosed that includes receiving a multimedia data stream comprising audio data, video data, and text data at a first electronic device of a plurality of electronic devices responsive to a network. A content structure of the multimedia data stream is automatically determined at least partially based on the text data. The portion of multimedia data stream is stored in a local media database and the associated content structure is stored in a local content index. A network index alert is generated to update a centralized content index of available media content via the network.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a multimedia data stream comprising audio data, video data, and text data at a first electronic device of a plurality of electronic devices responsive to a network;

automatically determining a content structure of the multimedia data stream at least partially based on the text data;

storing at least a portion of the multimedia data stream in a local media database and storing associated content structure in a local content index; and

generating a network index alert to update a centralized content index of available media content via the network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the network index alert includes an image related to the video data, the associated content structure, and a unique identifier.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving at the first electronic device a request from a second electronic device of the plurality of electronic devices for a selected portion of the multimedia data stream, the request comprising a device identifier associated with the second electronic device and payment information;

verifying the payment information; and

streaming the selected portion to the second electronic device when the payment information is verified.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising storing a log entry including the device identifier and the payment information in a usage log of the memory.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

automatically generating an electronic debit to an account associated with the second electronic device based on the payment information; and

automatically generating an electronic credit to an account associated with a content owner.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

segmenting the multimedia data stream into one or more multimedia segments based on the content structure, each multimedia segment comprising at least a portion of the multimedia data stream; and

generating content index information for each segment of the one or more multimedia segments, the content index information comprising an unique identifier, an image related to the multimedia segment, and a text description.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

automatically searching the local content index of the first electronic device and the centralized content index using one or more keywords from a consumer profile associated with the first electronic device; and

automatically sending a personal media alert to a display device coupled to the first electronic device when at least one keyword of the one or more keywords is found.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the personal media alert includes a user selectable list of available media content that matches at least one keyword of the one or more keywords, wherein each element in the user selectable list comprises an image related to the video data of the portion of the multimedia data stream, the associated content structure, and the unique identifier.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein a consumer selects a list element in the user selectable list that is associated with a third electronic device.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

transmitting a request for the selected list element to the third electronic device, the request including a device identifier associated with the first electronic device, an unique identifier associated with the selected list element, and payment information; and

receiving a multimedia stream related to the selected list element from the third electronic device.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the text data comprises closed-caption text within the multimedia data stream.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a text transcription from the audio data using a speech recognition module, the text transcription including timing information;

extracting the text data from the multimedia data stream; and

synchronizing the text data to the timing information.

13. An electronic device, comprising:

a network interface responsive to a network;

an acquisition module coupled to the network interface to capture a selected multimedia data stream;

a processing module coupled to the acquisition module to automatically extract a representative image and an associated text description from the selected multimedia data stream, wherein the processing module stores each data stream in a local content database and stores the image and the associated text description in a local content index; and

a personal media alert module to search the local content index and a centralized content index for keywords associated with a consumer profile and to assemble a list of data streams that include at least one of the keywords, wherein the personal media alert module sends an alert including the list of data streams to a display device coupled to the electronic device.

14. The electronic device of claim 13, wherein the personal media alert module is configured to detect a change in the local content index of the memory and to generate a content index update to a centralized content index via the network, the content index update including the image and the associated text description.

15. The electronic device of claim 13, further comprising a peer-to-peer module to receive a request for a particular data stream from a second electronic device, the request comprising an unique identifier associated with the particular data stream, a device identifier associated with the second electronic device, and an electronic payment, the peer-to-peer module to stream the particular data stream to the second electronic device via the network.

16. The electronic device of claim 15, further comprising a local billing module to record the request in a usage log in the memory, the local billing module to receive the electronic payment and to direct a portion of the electronic payment to an owner of the particular data stream.

17. The electronic device of claim 16, wherein the owner comprises a copyright owner of the particular data stream.

18. The electronic device of claim 13, further comprising a second network interface coupled to the acquisition module and responsive to a proprietary network to receive a broadcast multimedia data stream and to provide the broadcast multimedia data stream to the acquisition module.

19. The electronic device of claim 13, further comprising:

an input interface; and

an input device to configure the consumer profile to include one or more keywords related to subject matter of interest to a consumer.

20. A method of distributing media content, the method comprising:

receiving a multimedia data stream at an electronic device of a first customer;

automatically segmenting the multimedia data stream into one or more data segments and associating data content structure with each segment;

automatically transforming the data content structure associated with each of the one or more data segments into a multimedia representation that includes a representative image and a text description; and

storing the one or more data segments and the multimedia representation in a memory of the electronic device.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

searching the multimedia representation in the memory for one or more keywords; and

generating a content alert message to a user when the multimedia representation includes at least one of the one or more keywords.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein searching the text description further comprises:

searching the memory and searching one or more remote devices via a network to identify data segments containing information related to at least one keyword of the one or more keywords; and

wherein the content alert message includes a user selectable multimedia representation associated with identified data segment.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the content alert message includes a list having at least one multimedia representation, and wherein the list is organized according to a download date associated with the at least one multimedia representation.

24. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

receiving a request to access a selected data segment of the one or more data segments from a remote device, the request comprising an identifier related to the selected data segment, a device identifier associated with the remote device, and electronic payment information; and

streaming the selected data segment to the remote device via a peer-to-peer module.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the remote device comprises an electronic device associated with a second consumer.

26. A processor readable medium embodying processor readable instructions to share a multimedia data segment of an electronic device of a first consumer with a remote electronic device of a second consumer, the processor readable instructions comprising:

instructions to segment a multimedia data stream into one or more data segments;

instructions to automatically generate a text description associated with each of the one or more data segments;

instructions to transform the text description associated with each of the one or more data segments into a multimedia representation that includes a representative image and a text description; and

instructions to share the multimedia representation with a centralized content index.

27. The processor readable medium of claim 26, wherein the processor readable instructions further comprise instructions to generate a personal media alert to the first consumer when the multimedia representation includes at least one keyword of a set of keywords associated with a profile of the consumer.

28. The processor readable medium of claim 26, wherein the processor readable instructions further comprise instructions to generate a network index update to the centralized content index.

29. The processor readable medium of claim 26, wherein the processor readable instructions further comprise:

instructions to receive electronic payment information from a remote device; and

instructions to stream a particular data segment of the one or more data segments to the remote device.

30. The processor readable medium of claim 29, further comprising:

instructions to aggregate the electronic payment information and to execute the electronic payment after a predetermined number of micropayments are received; and

instructions to compensate a content owner of the particular data stream using a portion of a micropayment.