METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ENHANCING SUPPORT FOR USER-GENERATED CONTENT DELIVERY

• US 20090119710A1
• Filed: 10/30/2008
• Published: 05/07/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Kannan, Prasanna, Lo, Charles N., Coyer, James D.
• Application Number:
  US12/261,850
• Publication Number:
  US 20090119710A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/39
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1859 adapted to provide push services, e.g. data channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/189 in combination with wireless systems selective distribution or broadcast in wireless communication networks H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording

Abstract

A user-generated content (UGC) mobile distribution system supports creation of a personalized and virtual UGC broadcast channel that can be selectively clipped and cached by filtering based inter alia on content descriptors of popularity and freshness. A broadcast service provider can further provide meta data categorization for filtering that is more objective than what is supplied by a posting user of UGC content items. A broadcast program guide enables mobile devices to schedule clip downloads. Popularity, which can be sorted by applicable demographic, represents a criterion (e.g., rating scores, number of views, quantity of online discussion, etc.) whether associated content item should be downloaded for subsequent accessibility by a user, enhancing filtering based upon user profile and genre. Freshness represents how recent the associated content was made available for download by the broadcast service provider. Popularity can also be used as weighting to sort a display of cached content items.

Claims

1. A method for processing user-generated content, the method comprising:

receiving at least one characteristic for each of a plurality of user-generated content items to be broadcast by a mobile operator, the at least one characteristic generated by the mobile operator and pertaining to an objective measure of current user interest in the corresponding user-generated content;

selecting at least one user-generated content item based upon at least one characteristic; and

storing the at least one selected user-generated content item when the selected at least one user-generated-content item is broadcast.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising uploading user-generated content over a two-way data channel to the mobile operator.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one characteristic comprises popularity of a user-generated content item.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the popularity is determined based on a demographic subset of users of the mobile device.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the popularity is determined based at least in part upon a volume of discussion postings associated with the content item.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the popularity is determined based at least in part upon a plurality of ratings submitted by users who accessed the content item.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the popularity is determined based at least in part upon a number of users who accessed the content item.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one characteristic comprises freshness of a user-generated content item.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying stored user-generated content items on a user interface of the mobile device sorted by a weighting based on at least one characteristic.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one characteristic is popularity.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one characteristic is freshness.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a category of each of a plurality of user-generated content items;

accessing a category setting for a user of the mobile device; and

wherein the step of selecting user-generated content items is further based on the detected categories and the category setting.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a program guide for a plurality of content items scheduled for broadcast on a user-generated content channel; and

scheduling to store the selected at least one user-generated content items based upon the program guide.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

tracking user interaction with stored user-generated content items; and

reporting the tracked user interaction to the mobile operator for updating characteristics associated with the stored user-generated content items.

15. A computer product comprising:

a computer-readable storage medium comprising,

a first set of instructions for causing a computer to receive at least one characteristic for each of a plurality of user-generated content items to be broadcast by a mobile operator, the at least one characteristic generated by the mobile operator and pertaining to an objective measure of current user interest in the corresponding user-generated content;

a second set of instructions for causing the computer to select at least one user-generated content item based upon at least one characteristic; and

a third set of instructions for causing the computer to store the at least one selected user-generated content item as the at least one selected user-generated-content item is broadcast.

16. An apparatus for processing user-generated content, the apparatus comprising:

means for receiving at least one characteristic for each of a plurality of user-generated content items to be broadcast by a mobile operator, the at least one characteristic generated by the mobile operator and pertaining to an objective measure of current user interest in the corresponding user-generated content;

means for selecting at least one user-generated content item based upon at least one characteristic;

means for storing the at least one selected user-generated content item as the at least one selected user-generated-content item is broadcast; and

means for playing stored user-generated content items.

17. An apparatus for processing user-generated content, the apparatus comprising:

a communication module detecting at least one characteristic of each of a plurality of user-generated content items, the characteristic generated by a mobile operator pertaining to an objective measure of current user interest;

a receiver receiving a broadcast of user-generated content items;

a storage module selectively storing user-generated content items based on the characteristic; and

a user interface for playing the stored user-generated content items.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, further comprising a transmitter for wirelessly uploading user-generated content to the mobile operator.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the at least one characteristic comprises a popularity of the user-generated content items.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the popularity of the user-generated content items are based on a demographic subset of users.

21. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the popularity of a user-generated content item is based at least in part upon a volume of discussion postings associated with a content item.

22. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the popularity of a user-generated content item is based at least in part upon a plurality of ratings submitted by users who accessed the content item.

23. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the popularity of a user-generated content item is based at least in part upon a number of users who accessed the content item.

24. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the at least one characteristic comprises freshness of a user-generated content item.

25. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the user interface for displays a list of stored user-generated content items sorted by a weighting based on the characteristic.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the characteristic comprises popularity.

27. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the characteristic comprises freshness.

28. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the storage module further selectively stores user-generated content items based on a category associated with the user-generated content and a user category preference.

29. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the communication module identifies a time during which the selected user-generated content items are transmitted and activates itself to receive the selected user-generated content based upon the identified time.

30. The apparatus of claim 17, further comprising:

the user interface for tracking user interaction with user-generated content items; and

a transmitter for reporting the tracked user interaction to the mobile operator.

31. A method for broadcasting user-generated content, the method comprising:

assigning at least one characteristic to each of a plurality of user-generated content items, the at least one characteristic pertaining to an objective measure of current user interest in the user-generated content item; and

broadcasting the assigned characteristic and the content item to mobile devices.

32. The method of claim 31, further comprising receiving user-generated content from users.

33. The method of claim 31, wherein the at least one characteristic comprises popularity of the content item.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the popularity of the content item is based on a demographic subset of users of the mobile device.

35. The method of claim 31, wherein the popularity of the content item is based at least in part upon a volume of discussion postings associated with the content item.

36. The method of claim 33, wherein the popularity of the content item is based at least in part upon a plurality of ratings submitted by users who accessed the content item.

37. The method of claim 33, wherein the popularity of the content item is based at least in part upon a number of users who accessed the content item.

38. The method of claim 31, wherein the at least one characteristic comprises freshness of the content item.

39. The method of claim 31, further comprising scheduling a plurality of content items for broadcasting based on a weighting based of the assigned at least one characteristics.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein the at least one characteristic comprises popularity.

41. The method of claim 39, f wherein the at least one characteristic comprises freshness.

42. The method of claim 31, further comprising:

assigning a category to each of the plurality of user-generated content items; and

transmitting the assigned categories to the mobile device.

43. The method of claim 31, further comprising:

generating a program guide including indications of a plurality of user-generated content items scheduled to broadcast on a user-generated content channel; and

broadcasting the plurality of user-generated content items according to the program guide.

44. The method of claim 31, further comprising:

receiving indications from the mobile device regarding which user-generated content was viewed by a user; and

updating popularity of the content item based on the received indications.

45. A computer product comprising:

a computer-readable storage medium comprising,

a first set of instructions for causing a computer to assign a characteristic to a user-generated content item pertaining to an objective measure of current user interest in the user-generated content item; and

a second set of instructions for causing the computer to broadcast the content item and the assigned characteristic.

46. An apparatus for broadcast of user-generated content, the apparatus comprising:

means for assigning a characteristic to a user-generated content item pertaining to an objective measure of current user interest in the user-generated content item; and

means for broadcasting the content item.

47. An apparatus for broadcast of user-generated content, the apparatus comprising:

a computing platform for assigning at least one characteristic to a plurality of user-generated content items, the at least one characteristic pertaining to an objective measure of current user interest in the user-generated content item; and

a transmitter for broadcasting the user-generated content items and the assigned characteristics.

48. The apparatus of claim 47, further comprising a receiver for receiving user-generated content from users.

49. The apparatus of claim 47, wherein the at least one characteristic comprises a popularity of the content item.

50. The apparatus of claim 49, wherein the popularity is determined based on a demographic subset of users.

51. The apparatus of claim 49, wherein the popularity is determined based a selected one of a group consisting of a volume of discussion postings associated with the content item, a plurality of ratings submitted by users who accessed the content item, and a number of users who accessed the content item.

52. The apparatus of claim 47, wherein the at least one characteristic comprises a freshness of the content item.

53. The apparatus of claim 47, wherein the computing platform schedules a plurality of user-generated content items for broadcasting based on a weighting of assigned characteristics.

54. The apparatus of claim 53, wherein the assigned characteristic used for weighting is popularity.

55. The apparatus of claim 53, wherein the assigned characteristic used for weighting is freshness.

56. The apparatus of claim 47, wherein:

the computing platform assigns a category to each of the plurality of user-generated content items; and

the transmitter transmits the category of the user-generated content items.

57. The apparatus of claim 47, further comprising:

a receiver for receiving user interaction tracking information from the mobile device; and

wherein the computing platform updates the assigned characteristics of the user-generated content items using the user interaction tracking information.