PROVIDING MULTIPLE VIDEO PERSPECTIVES OF ACTIVITIES THROUGH A DATA NETWORK TO A REMOTE MULTIMEDIA SERVER FOR SELECTIVE DISPLAY BY REMOTE VIEWING AUDIENCES

• US 20090009605A1
• Filed: 09/15/2008
• Published: 01/08/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Front Row Technologies LLC (Ortiz & Lopez PLLC)
• Original Assignee: Front Row Technologies LLC (Ortiz & Lopez PLLC)
• Inventors: Ortiz, Luis M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,782,363 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/157
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/21805 enabling multiple viewpoints, e.g. using a plurality of cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2187 Live feed
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4126 The peripheral being portable, e.g. PDAs or mobile phones
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4181 for conditional access
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4263 involving specific tuning arrangements, e.g. two tuners
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4312 involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4314 for fitting data in a restricted space on the screen, e.g. EPG data in a rectangular grid
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47815 Electronic shopping payment schemes, payment architectures or payment protocols for electronic shopping systems G06Q20/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6131 involving transmission via a mobile phone network wireless downlink channel access H04W74/006
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8126 involving additional data, e.g. news, sports, stocks, weather forecasts
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/698 for achieving an enlarged field of view, e.g. panoramic image capture
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/38 Transmitter circuitry for the transmission of television signals according to analogue transmission standards H04N5/14 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/44 Receiver circuitry for the reception of television signals according to analogue transmission standards H04N5/14 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/77 between a recording apparatus and a television camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/18 Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 : for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources

Abstract

Multiple visual perspectives in video of private and public activities including those in public areas such as entertainment venues captured by cameras located near the activities can be transmitted over data networks to a server where video-related data is processed and recorded for selective display by authorized, remote video display devices (e.g., HDTV, set-top boxes, computers, handheld devices) in wired/wireless communication with the server. Users can be registered and authorized to access the server to provide/access video captured by cameras at activities. Wireless handheld devices can selectively retrieve video-related data captured at activities for server storage and subsequent display by video display devices. Captured video/pictures can be organized in a server based on at least one of: activity title, activity time, activity date, activity place, wireless handheld device location at time of video recording, distance from location of interest. Simultaneous display of multiple videos on a display can be synchronized.

Claims

1. A system capable of providing remote viewing of activities from different visual perspectives to a remote audience, comprising a server adapted to:

receive different visual perspectives of an activity simultaneously captured during the activity as video by more than one camera located near the activity, process the different visual perspectives into video-related data and record the video-related data in a database associated with said server for selective retrieval and display by users and remote video display devices authorized to communicate with the server and retrieve video-related data over a data network.

2. The system capable of providing remote viewing of activities from different visual perspectives to a remote audience as provided in claim 1, further comprising a registration module adapted to register users and authorize user access to said server to retrieve video of the different visual perspectives from said database.

3. The system capable of providing remote viewing of activities from different visual perspectives to a remote audience as provided in claim 1, further comprising a registration module adapted to register users and authorize user access to said server to upload video into said database of an activity captured by a camera included in a wireless handheld device and operated by the user.

4. The system capable of providing remote viewing of activities from different visual perspectives to a remote audience as provided in claim 3, further comprising an activity organization module adapted to organize the video uploaded into said database from the camera operated by the user, wherein the video is automatically organized by said server based on at least one of:

activity title, activity time, activity date, activity place, location of wireless handheld device at time of video recording.

5. The system capable of providing remote viewing of activities from different visual perspectives to a remote audience as provided in claim 1, further comprising an activity organization module adapted to organize video simultaneously captured during the activity by cameras located near the activity and provided to said server, wherein said video is automatically organized by said server based on at least one of:

activity title, activity time, activity date, activity place, wireless handheld device location at time of video recording.

6. The system capable of providing remote viewing of activities from different visual perspectives to a remote audience as provided in claim 1, further comprising a registration module adapted to register user video display devices and authorize user video display devices access to said server to allow user video display devices to selectively retrieve and display video-related data captured at the activity.

7. The system capable of providing remote viewing of activities from different visual perspectives to a remote audience as provided in claim 1, further comprising an activity organization module adapted to provide selective access to the video of the different visual perspectives from said server, wherein said video is provided to a remote video display device from said server based on a request from the remote video display device for at least one of:

activity title, activity time, activity date, activity place, location of wireless handheld device at time of video recording, distance from location of interest.

8. The system capable of providing remote viewing of activities from different visual perspectives to a remote audience as provided in claim 1, further comprising a community association module adapted to associate users registered with an online communities also registered within said server and to provide registered users selective access to video of activities stored on said server that were captured using a camera included in a wireless handheld device by registered community members located near the activity and stored on said server in association with a online community, wherein said video is provided to the registered users from said server based on requests from the registered users of at least one of:

online community name, activity title, activity time, activity date, activity place, wireless handheld device location at time of video recording, distance from location of interest.

9. The system capable of providing remote viewing of activities from different visual perspectives to a remote audience as provided in claim 2, further comprising a community association module adapted to associate registered users with an online community also registered within said server and to provide registered users selective access to video of activities stored in said database that were captured using a camera included in a wireless handheld device operated by registered community members located near the activity and stored in said database in association with a online community, wherein said video is provided to the registered users from said server based on requests from the registered users of at least one of:

online community name, activity title, activity time, activity date, activity place, wireless handheld device location at time of video recording, distance from location of interest.

10. The system capable of providing remote viewing of activities from different visual perspectives to a remote audience as provided in claim 2, further comprising a community association module adapted to associate registered users with an online community also registered within said server and to provide registered users selective access to video of activities stored on said database that were captured using a camera included in a wireless handheld device operated by registered community members located near the activity and stored in said database in association with a online community, wherein said video is provided to the registered users from said server based on requests from the registered users of at least one of:

online community name, activity title, activity time, activity date, activity place, wireless handheld device location at time of video recording, distance from location of interest.

11. The system capable of providing remote viewing of activities from different visual perspectives to a remote audience as provided in claim 3, further comprising a community association module adapted to associate registered users with an online community also registered within said server and to provide the registered users selective access to video of activities stored on said server that were captured using a camera included in a wireless handheld device by registered community members located near the activity and stored on said server in association with an online community, wherein said video is provided to the registered users from said server based on requests from the registered users of at least one of:

online community name, activity title, activity time, activity date, activity place, wireless handheld device location at time of video recording, distance from location of interest.

12. The system capable of providing remote viewing of activities from different visual perspectives to a remote audience as provided in claim 4, further comprising a community association module adapted to associate registered users with an online communities also registered within said server and to provide registered users selective access to organized video of activity captured using a camera included in a wireless handheld device by community members of an activity and provided to said server, wherein said video is provided to the registered users from said server based on requests from the registered users of at least one of:

activity title, activity time, activity date, activity place, wireless handheld device location at time of video recording, distance from location of interest.

13. A system capable of providing remote viewing of activities from different visual perspectives to a remote audience, comprising:

a server adapted to;

receive different visual perspectives of an activity simultaneously captured during the activity by more than one camera located at the activity, process the different visual perspectives into video-related data and record the video-related data for selective retrieval and display by users and remote video display devices authorized to communicate with the remote server over a data network;

a registration module adapted to register users and remote video display devices and authorize user access to said server to;

provide video captured at the activity and selectively retrieve video-related data for selective display by remote video display devices;

an activity organization module adapted to organize said video-related data, wherein said video is automatically organized by said server based on identifying data including at least one of;

activity title, activity time, activity date, activity place, location of wireless handheld device at time of video recording, and said activity organization module is further adapted to provide selective access to the organized video from said server by said remote video display devices based on a request for at least one of;

activity title, activity time, activity dater activity place, wireless handheld device location at time of video recording, distance from location of interest.

14. The system capable of providing remote viewing of activities from different visual perspectives to a remote audience as provided in claim 13, further comprising a community association module adapted to associate registered users with an online community also registered within said server and to provide the registered users selective access to video of activities stored on said server that were captured using a camera included in a wireless handheld device by registered community members located near the activity and stored on said server in association with an online community, wherein said video is provided to the registered users from said server based on requests from the registered users of at least one of:

online community name, activity title, activity time, activity date, activity place, wireless handheld device location at time of video recording, distance from location of interest.

15. A method providing increased remote video viewing opportunities of activities to a remote audience, said method comprising the steps of:

providing a server adapted to;

receive different visual perspectives of a public activity captured by more than one camera located at an activity, process the different visual perspectives into video-related data and record the video-related data for selective retrieval by and display on video display devices authorized to communicate with the server over a data network;

receiving different visual perspectives of an activity captured by more than one camera located at an activity, wherein said different visual perspectives are received at the server through a data network;

processing the different visual perspectives at the server into video-enabled data and recording the video-enabled data in a memory associated with the server; and

providing video-related data selected by video display devices to said video display devices, wherein said video-related data is provided to said video display devices from said server over a data network.

16. A method providing increased remote video viewing opportunities of activities to a remote audience, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving different visual perspectives of an activity captured as video by more than one camera located at an activity at a server adapted to receive and process video, wherein said different visual perspectives received at the server adapted to receive and process video through a data network;

processing the different visual perspectives at the server adapted to receive and process video into video-enabled data and recording the video-enabled data in a memory associated with the server adapted to receive and process video; and

providing video-related data selected by video display devices to said video display devices, wherein said video-related data is provided to said video display devices from said server adapted to receive and process video over a data network.

17. The method providing increased remote video viewing opportunities of activities including private activities and public activities that occur at entertainment venues to a remote audience in claim 16, further comprising the steps of:

registering users and authorizing the users to access said server adapted to receive and process video to provide video captured at the activity using a camera included in a wireless handheld device and to selectively retrieve video-related data captured at the activity for display by video display devices.

18. The method providing increased remote video viewing opportunities of activities to a remote audience in claim 16, further comprising the step of organizing video captured by a user at the activity using a camera included in a wireless handheld device and provided to said server adapted to receive and process video based on identifying data including at least one of:

activity title, activity time, activity date, activity place, GPS position of wireless handheld device at time of video recording.

19. The method providing increased remote video viewing opportunities of activities to a remote audience in claim 18, further comprising the step of providing selective user access to the organized video from said server adapted to receive and process video based on a request from the user of at least one of:

activity title, activity time, activity date, activity place, wireless handheld device location at time of video recording, distance from location of interest.

20. The method providing increased remote video viewing opportunities of activities to a remote audience in claim 16, further comprising the steps of:

registering online communities and online community users at a server adapted to receive and process video and authorizing the online community members to;

access said server adapted to receive and process video to store video captured at the activity using a camera included in a wireless handheld device, wherein the video is associated with an online community to which the online community member is associated, and

selectively retrieve video-related data associated with the online community from said server adapted to receive and process video for display by remote video display devices.

21. A method providing increased remote video viewing opportunities of activities to a remote audience, said method comprising the steps of:

registering users at a server adapted to receive and process video and authorizing the users to access said server adapted to receive and process video to provide video captured at the activity using a camera included in a wireless handheld device and to selectively retrieve video-related data captured at the activity for display by video display devices;

receiving different visual perspectives of an activity captured as video by more than one camera located at an activity at said server adapted to receive and process video, wherein said different visual perspectives received at the server through a data network;

processing the different visual perspectives at the server adapted to receive and process video into video-enabled data and recording the video-enabled data in a memory associated with said server adapted to receive and process video;

organizing video captured by a user at the activity using a camera included in a wireless handheld device and provided to said server adapted to receive and process video based on identifying data including at least one of;

activity title, activity time, activity date, activity place, location of wireless handheld device at time of video recording; and

providing user access to the organized video from said server adapted to receive and process video based on a request from the user of at least one of;

activity title, activity time, activity date, activity place, wireless handheld device location at time of video recording, wherein said video-related data is provided to said video display devices from said server adapted to receive and process video over a data network.

22. A method providing increased remote video viewing opportunities of activities to a remote audience, said method comprising the steps of:

registering users and online communities at a server adapted to receive and process video and authorizing the users associated with online communicates to access said server adapted to receive and process video to provide video captured at the activity using a camera included in a wireless handheld device and to selectively retrieve video-related data captured at the activity for display by video display devices;

receiving different visual perspectives of an activity captured as video by more than one camera located at an activity at said server adapted to receive and process video, wherein said different visual perspectives received at said server adapted to receive and process video through a data network;

processing the different visual perspectives at said server adapted to receive and process video into video-enabled data and recording the video-enabled data in a memory associated with said server adapted to receive and process video;

organizing video captured by a user at the activity using a camera included in a wireless handheld device and provided to said server adapted to receive and process video based on identifying data including at least one of;

online community name, activity title, activity time, activity date, activity place, wireless handheld device location at time of video recording, distance from a location of interest; and

providing user access to the organized video from said server adapted to receive and process video based on a request from the user of at least one of;

activity title, activity time, activity date, activity place, wireless handheld device location at time of video recording, wherein said video-related data is provided to said video display devices from said server adapted to receive and process video over a data network.

23. A system capable of providing synchronized remote viewing of activities from different visual perspectives to a remote audience, comprising a multimedia server including a video synchronization module, said server adapted to receive different visual perspectives of an activity simultaneously captured during the activity as video by more than one camera located near the activity and tagged with time of capture information, process the different visual perspectives into video-related data for selective retrieval and synchronized display remote video display devices.

24. The system capable of providing synchronized remote viewing of activities from different visual perspectives to a remote audience in claim 23, further comprising a video synchronization engine capable of synchronization the playing of more than one video perspective of an activity on a remote video display devices based on time of capture information tagged on the more than one video perspective.

25. A method providing synchronized viewing of more than one visual perspective recorded in video format by a remote audience, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving in a server different visual perspectives of an activity captured as video and time stamped with time of capture information by more than one camera located at an activity;

processing the different visual perspectives on the server for synchronized and simultaneous display as more than one video on a single video display device; and

displaying simultaneously and in synchronicity with respect to time the different visual perspectives as more than one video on a single video display.