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

• US 20100289900A1
• Filed: 07/27/2010
• Published: 11/18/2010
• 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 8,184,169 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/159
• 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 for remote viewing of at least one activity from at least two different visual perspectives to a remote audience, said system comprising:

a server to receive the at least two different visual perspectives of the at least one activity simultaneously captured during the at least one activity as a streaming video signal by a combination of at least one of a plurality of cameras singularly included in each of at least one of a plurality of hand held devices and at least one of a plurality of standalone cameras, all located near the at least one activity;

said server having circuitry to process the streaming video signal into video-related data and record the video-related data in a database associated with said server;

selection means to selectively retrieve and display said streaming video display signal by at least one user of a plurality of users over at least one of a plurality of remote video display devices authorized to communicate with the server and retrieve streaming video-related data over a data network; and

at least one of a plurality of wireless hand held devices communicating with said server, wherein each of said at least one of said plurality of wireless hand held devices includes integrated components comprising a GUI based menu driven touch screen display and a video processing unit with video tuning hardware to select segments of the streaming video signal viewable on said GUI based menu driven touch screen display as real time or pre-recorded video footage.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a registration module to register the at least one user and authorize the at least one user access to said server to retrieve the streaming video signal of the at least two different visual perspectives from said database.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a registration module to register the at least one user and authorize the at least one user access to said server to upload the streaming video signal into said database of the at least one activity captured by the combination of the at least one of said plurality of cameras and the at least one of said plurality of standalone cameras camera, and operated by the at least one user.

4. The system of claim 3, further comprising an activity organization module to organize the streaming video signal uploaded into said database from a combination of streaming video signals emanating from the at least one of said plurality of cameras and the at least one of said plurality of standalone cameras, operated by the at least one user, wherein video from the streaming video signal is automatically organized by said server based on at least one of:

at least one activity title, an activity time, an activity date, an activity place, a location of the at least one wireless handheld device at a time of a video recording of the streaming video signal.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising an activity organization module to organize the streaming video signal simultaneously captured during the at least one activity by a combination of the at least one of said plurality of cameras and the at least one of said plurality of standalone cameras, located near the at least one activity and provided to said server, wherein said streaming video signal is automatically organized by at least one of said server based on at least one of:

at least one activity title, an activity time, an activity date, an activity place, a location of the at least one of said plurality of wireless handheld devices at a time of recording of the streaming video signal.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a registration module to register at least one user remote video display device among the at least one of a plurality of remote video display devices and authorize at least one registered user access to said server to allow the at least one registered user to selectively retrieve and display the streaming video-related data captured at the at least one activity.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising an activity organization module to provide selective access to the streaming video signal of the at least two of said plurality of different visual perspectives from said server, wherein said streaming video signal is provided to at least one remote video display device among said remote video display devices from said server based on a request from at least one registered user for at least one of:

at least one activity title, an activity time, an activity date, an activity place, a location of the at least one of said plurality of wireless handheld devices at a time of video recording, and a distance from a location of interest.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a community association module to associate at least one user registered with at least one of a plurality of online communities also registered within said server and to provide the at least one registered user selective access to the streaming video signal of the at least one activity stored on said server that were captured using a combination of the at least one of said plurality of cameras and the at least one of said plurality of standalone cameras, by the at least one registered user located near the at least one of said plurality of activities and stored on said server in association with the at least one online community, wherein the streaming video signal is provided to the at least one registered user from said server based on requests from the at least one registered user of at least one of:

a name of said at least one of said plurality of online communities at least one activity title, an activity time, an activity date, an activity place, a location of the at least one of said plurality of wireless handheld devices at a time of a recording of the streaming video signal, and a distance from a location of interest.

9. The system of claim 2, further comprising a community association module to associate the at least one user with at least one of a plurality of online communities also registered within said server and to provide at least one registered user selective access to the streaming video signal of activities stored in said database that were captured using a combination of the at least one of said plurality of cameras and the at least one of said plurality of standalone cameras, operated by the at least one registered user located near the at least one activity and stored in said database in association with the at least one of said plurality of online communities, wherein said streaming video signal is provided to the at least one registered user from said server based on requests from the at least one registered user of at least one of:

a name of the at least one of said plurality of online communities, an activity title, an activity time, an activity date, an activity place, a location of the at least one of said plurality of wireless handheld devices at a time of recording of the streaming video signal, and a distance from a location of interest.

10. The system of claim 3, further comprising a community association module to associate at least one registered user with at least one online community also registered within said server and to provide the at least one registered user selective access to the streaming video signal of activities stored in said database that were captured using a combination of the at least one of said plurality of cameras and the at least one of said plurality of standalone cameras, operated by the at least one registered user located near the at least one activity and stored in said database in association with the at least one online community, wherein said streaming video signal is provided to the at least one registered user from said server based on requests from the at least one registered user of at least one of:

a name of the at least one online community, an activity title, an activity time, an activity date, an activity place, a location of the at least one of said plurality of wireless handheld devices at a time of recording of the streaming video signal, a distance from a location of interest.

11. The system of claim 3, further comprising a community association module adapted to associate at least one registered user with at least one online community also registered within said server and to provide the at least one registered user selective access to the streaming video signal of the at least one activity stored on said server that were captured using the combination of the at least one of said plurality of cameras and the at least one of said plurality of standalone cameras, by the at least one registered user within the at least one online community located near the at least one of said plurality of activities and stored on said server in association with the at least one online community, wherein said streaming video signal is provided to the at least one registered user from said server based on requests from the at least one registered user of at least one of:

a name of the at least one online community, an activity title, an activity time, an activity date, an activity place, a location of the at least one of said plurality of wireless handheld devices at a time of recording of the streaming video signal, and a distance from a location of interest.

12. The system of claim 4, further comprising a community association module adapted to associate at least one registered user with at least one online community also registered within said server and to provide the at least one registered user selective access to an organized streaming video signal of the at least one activity captured using the combination of the at least one of said plurality of cameras and the at least one of said plurality standalone cameras, by the at least one registered user of an activity and provided to said server, wherein said organized streaming video signal is provided to the at least one registered user from said server based on requests from the at least one registered user of at least one of:

at least one activity title, an activity time, an activity date, an activity place, a location the at least one of said plurality of wireless handheld devices at a time of recording the streaming video signal, and a distance from a location of interest.

13. A system for remote viewing of an at least one activity from at least two different visual perspectives to a remote audience, said system comprising:

a remote server to;

receive the at least two different visual perspectives of the least one activity simultaneously captured during the at least one activity by a combination of at least one camera of a plurality of cameras singularly included in each at least one of a plurality of hand held devices and at least one of a plurality of standalone cameras, located at the at least one activity, process the at least two different visual perspectives into streaming video-related data and record the streaming video-related data for selective retrieval and display by at least one user and at least one of a plurality of remote video display devices authorized to communicate with the remote server over a data network;

a registration module to register the at least one user and the at least one remote video display device and authorize the at least one user access to said remote server to provide a streaming video image captured at the at least one activity and selectively retrieve the streaming video-related data for selective display by the at least one remote video display device;

an activity organization module for organizing said streaming video-related data, wherein said streaming video signal is automatically organized by said server based on identifying data including at least one of;

the at least one activity title, activity time, activity date, activity place, location of an at least one a plurality of wireless handheld devices at time of the streaming video signal recording, and

said activity organization module further configured to provide selective access to organized said streaming video signal from said remote server by said at least one remote video display device based on a request for at least one of;

the at least one activity title, activity time, activity dater activity place, at least one of a plurality of wireless handheld devices location at time of video recording, distance from location of interest; and

a video processing unit in the at least one hand held device to parse said streaming video signal by tuning video frequency. channels and delivering said signal to an onboard touch screen display.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising a community association module adapted to associate at least one registered user with at least one online community also registered within said remote server and to provide the at least one registered user selective access to the streaming video signal of the at least one activity stored on said remote server captured using the combination of at least one camera and the at least one standalone by the at least one registered user located near the at least one activity and stored on said remote server in association with the at least one online community, wherein said streaming video signal is provided to the at least one registered user from said remote server based on requests from the at least one registered user of at least one of:

a name of the at least one online community, at least one activity title, an activity time, an activity date, an activity place, a location of the at least one of said plurality of wireless handheld devices location at a time of recording of the streaming video signal, and a distance from a location of interest.

15. A method for providing remote video viewing opportunities of at least one activity to a remote audience, said method comprising:

providing a server to;

receive at least two of a plurality of different visual perspectives of the at least one activity captured by a combination of at least one of a plurality of cameras singularly included in each of at least one of a plurality of hand held devices and at least one of a plurality of standalone cameras, located at the at least one activity,

process the at least two different visual perspectives into video-related data and record the video-related data for selective retrieval by and display on at least

one of a plurality of remote video display devices authorized to communicate with the server over a data network;

receiving the at least two different visual perspectives of the at least one activity captured by the combination of the at least one camera and the at least one standalone camera, located at the at least one activity, wherein said at least two different visual perspectives are received at the server through a data network as video;

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

providing video-related data selected by at least one of a registered user associated with the at least one remote video display device, wherein said video-related data is provided to said at least one remote video display device from said server over said data network; and

further processing the video-related data through a video processing unit in the at least one hand held device parsing said data by tuning frequencies and delivering said data to an onboard touch screen display.

16. A method for providing remote video viewing opportunities of at least one activity to a remote audience, said method comprising:

receiving at least two of a plurality of different visual perspectives of the at least one activity captured as at least two of a plurality of streaming video images by a combination of at least one of a plurality of cameras singularly included in each of at least one of a plurality of hand held devices and at least one of a plurality of standalone cameras, located at the at least one activity, whereby said at least two of said plurality of streaming video images are delivered to a server, said server providing a digital gateway in transmitting the at least two of said plurality of streaming video images to a data network;

processing the at least two of said plurality of different visual perspectives at the server, whereby said server processes the at least two of said plurality of streaming video images as video-enabled data and records the video-enabled data in a memory device;

processing a wireless transmission medium comprising said at least two of said plurality of streaming video images selectable through'"'"' a selection means at the at least one of said plurality of hand held devices selectively viewing simultaneously the at least two of said plurality of different visual perspectives through a touch screen display; and

further processing the at least two of said plurality of streaming video images through video processing within the at least one of said plurality of hand held devices while tagging said images with GPS attributes.

17. The method of claim 16, said method further comprising:

registering and authorizing at least one registered user to access said server to receive and process the at least two of said plurality of streaming video images captured at the at least one activity using the combination of the least one of a plurality of cameras and the at least one of said plurality of standalone cameras and to selectively retrieve said video-related data captured at the at least one activity for display by the at least one of said plurality of hand held devices, wherein said at least one of said plurality of hand held device devices comprises at least one of a plurality of video processing cellular phones.

18. The method of claim 16, said method further comprising:

organizing said at least two of said plurality of streaming video images captured by at least two a of plurality of registered users at the at least one activity using at least one of the at least one of said plurality of cameras and the at least one of said plurality of standalone cameras wherein said at least two of said plurality of streaming video images are provided to said server to process said at least two of said plurality of streaming video images based on identifying attribute data including at least one of;

at least one activity title, an activity time, an activity date, an activity place, a GPS position of the at least one of said plurality of handheld devices at a time of recording of the at least one of said plurality of streaming video images, and a distance from a location of interest; and

capturing said at least two of said plurality of streaming video images with said at least one of said plurality of hand held devices wherein said at least one of said plurality of hand held devices defines a position of the at least one of said plurality of cameras through GPS tracking hardware and establishes an accurate clock time by importing external time data through an established link, wherein a time frame and said GPS tracking hardware register said at least two of said plurality of streaming video images with a specific coordinate pair in time and space.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising providing through the selection means at least one user access to said at least one of said plurality of streaming video images based on attribute data filtering.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

registering at least one user of at least one of a plurality of online communities at a server to receive and process at least one streaming video image; and

authorizing the at least one user to;

access said server to receive and process the at least one streaming video image;

storing in a storage means the at least one streaming video image captured at the at least one activity using the combination of at least one of said plurality of cameras and the at least one of said plurality of standalone cameras; and

selectively retrieve with a selection means video-related data associated with the at least one streaming video image by said at least one user on a subscription basis from said server to display on at least one remote video display device.

21. A method for providing remote video viewing opportunities of at least one of a plurality of activities to a remote audience, said method:

registering at least one user at a server adapted to receive and process at least one of a plurality of streaming video images;

authorizing through a subscription service the at least one user to access said server to receive and process said at least one streaming video image;

providing the at least one streaming video image captured at the at least one activity using a combination of at least one of a plurality of cameras singularly included in each at least one of a plurality of wireless hand held devices and at least one of a plurality of standalone cameras, and to selectively retrieve video-related data associated with the at least one streaming video image captured at the at least one activity for display by an at least one of a plurality of remote video display devices;

receiving at least one of a plurality of different visual perspectives of the at least one activity captured as the at least one streaming video image by the combination of at least one camera and at least one standalone camera, located at the at least one activity, at said server, wherein said server adapted to receive and process the at least one streaming video image, wherein said different visual perspectives received at the server to a subscriber based data network;

processing the at least one different visual perspective at the server, wherein said server receives and processes the at least one streaming video image into video-enabled data and recording the video-enabled data in a memory associated with said server;

organizing the at least one streaming video image captured by the at least one user at the at least one activity using the combination of the at least one camera and the at least one standalone camera and interfacing with said server to receive and process the at least one video image based on identifying at least one of the following data-attributes;

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

providing the at least one user access to an organized arrangement of at least two of the plurality of streaming video images from said server, wherein said server receives and processes said at least two images in a synchronized split screen fashion per request from an at least one registered user based on at least one of;

the at least one activity title, activity time, activity date, activity place, the at least one wireless handheld device location at time of the at least one video image recording, wherein said video-related data is provided to said at least one video display device from said server to receive and process the at least one streaming video image proceeded by transmission over the data network; and

further processing the video-related data through a video processing unit in the at least one hand held device parsing said data by tuning frequencies and delivering said data to an onboard touch screen display.

22. A method for providing remote video viewing opportunities of at least one of a plurality of activities to a remote audience, said method comprising:

registering at least one user populating at least one of a plurality of online communities accessing a server adapted to receive and process video;

authorizing the at least one registered user associated with said online communities to access said server adapted to receive and process video captured at the at least one activity using a combination of at least one of a plurality of cameras singularly included in each at least one of a plurality of wireless hand held devices and at least one of a plurality of standalone cameras, and to selectively retrieve video-related data captured at the at least one activity for display by at least one of a plurality of video display devices;

receiving at least one of a plurality of different visual perspectives of the at least one activity captured as video by the combination of the at least one camera and the at least one standalone camera located at the at least one activity in the proximity of said server, wherein said server functions to receive and process video of said at least one different visual perspective through a data network;

processing the at least one different visual perspective at said server into video-enabled data and recording the video-enabled data in a memory associated with said server;

organizing video captured by the at least one user at the at least one activity in an image processing unit included in the at least one of wireless handheld device, wherein said at least one hand held device processes incoming and outgoing video with said processing unit based on identifying attribute data including at least one of;

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

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

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

23. A system for synchronized remote viewing of at least one of a plurality of activities from at least two of a plurality of visual perspectives to a remote audience, said system comprising:

a multimedia server including a video synchronization module, wherein said server comprising circuitry to simultaneously receive the at least two visual captured during the at least one activity as video by a combination of at least one of a plurality of cameras singularly included in each at least one of a plurality of wireless hand held devices and at least one of a plurality of standalone cameras, wherein the combination of the at least one camera and the at least one standalone camera are configured to generate video image tags with time of capture information, and said video synchronization module processes the at least two different visual perspectives into video-related data for selective retrieval and synchronized display on at least one of a plurality of remote video display devices comprising at least one of a plurality of hand held device displays; and

said at least one of said plurality of hand held device displays including an onboard video processing unit, an onboard GPS chipset, said onboard video processing unit having circuitry to process incoming and outgoing video furnished with GPS space and time coordinates on a toolbar screen inset.

24. The system of claim 23, further comprising a video synchronization engine for synchronizing the playing of video of the at least two visual perspectives of the at least one activity on the at least one of the plurality of remote video display devices based on time of capture information related to said video image tags on images.

25. A method for providing synchronized viewing of at least two of a plurality of visual perspectives recorded in video format by a remote audience, said method comprising:

receiving in a server the at least two of said plurality of visual perspectives of an activity captured as video and time stamped with time of capture information by a combination of at least one of a plurality of cameras singularly included in each at least one of a plurality of wireless hand held devices and at least one of a plurality of standalone cameras, located at an at least one of a plurality of activities;

processing the at least two of said plurality of visual perspectives on the server for synchronized and simultaneous display as at least two of a plurality of video images on a single video display screen;

displaying simultaneously and in synchronicity with respect to time the at least two of said plurality of visual perspectives as the at least two video images of said plurality of video images on said single video display screen; and

recording video of said at least two of said plurality of perspectives captured from the combination of at least one camera among the plurality of cameras and at least one standalone camera among the plurality of standalone cameras, and

transmitting said video over a commercial cellular network interfacing with the Internet to at least one wireless hand held device among said plurality of wireless hand devices.