SYNCHRONIZING AUDIENCE FEEDBACK FROM LIVE AND TIME-SHIFTED BROADCAST VIEWS

• US 20110202687A1
• Filed: 04/28/2011
• Published: 08/18/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Spot411 Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Spot411 Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Shah, Ajay, Glitsch, Hans M.
• Application Number:
  US13/096,965
• Publication Number:
  US 20110202687A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/248
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/433 using audio data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4393 Multimedia presentations, e.g. slide shows, multimedia albums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2407 Monitoring of transmitted content, e.g. distribution time, number of downloads arrangements for monitoring programmes for broadcast or for distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4394 involving operations for analysing the audio stream, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in audio streams arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58

Abstract

An audio channel of a time-based media presentation provides a basis for synchronizing to the presentation across a variety of platforms independent of when and where the presentation is being viewed. By pre-processing the media into a series of non-unique hashes, and similarly processing an audio stream of the media captured at a client device, a comparison can be made that yields an accurate time offset within the presentation. The comparison may usefully be performed over a data network using a server that hosts data from the pre-processed media, and a variety of applications may be deployed on the client device based on the resulting synchronization.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

transmitting a broadcast of a time-based media presentation;

receiving audience feedback relating to the time-based media presentation over a data network during the broadcast thereby providing live audience feedback;

synchronizing at least one client device to a time-shifted view of the time-based media presentation;

receiving additional client feedback from the client device synchronously with the time-shifted view; and

combining the additional client feedback with the live audience feedback according to a time offset within the time-based media presentation, thereby providing feedback data that aggregates audience feedback synchronized to both of a live version of the time-based media presentation and the time-shifted view of the time-based media presentation.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the time-based media presentation is a sports event.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the time-based media presentation is a live television broadcast.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the time-based media presentation is a pre-recorded television broadcast.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein synchronizing includes synchronizing based upon audio content within the time-based media presentation.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein synchronizing includes receiving a plurality of hashes of the audio content from the client device and resolving the time offset within the time-shifted view based upon the plurality of hashes.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the client device includes one or more of a laptop computer, a notebook computer, a mobile device, and a cellular phone.

8. A computer program product for tracking audience participation, the computer program product comprising computer executable code embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium that, when executing on one or more computing devices, performs the steps of:

transmitting a broadcast of a time-based media presentation;

receiving audience feedback relating to the time-based media presentation over a data network during the broadcast thereby providing live audience feedback;

synchronizing at least one client device to a time-shifted view of the time-based media presentation;

receiving additional client feedback from the client device synchronously with the time-shifted view; and

combining the additional client feedback with the live audience feedback according to a time offset within the time-based media presentation, thereby providing feedback data that aggregates audience feedback synchronized to both of a live version of the time-based media presentation and the time-shifted view of the time-based media presentation.

9. The computer program product of claim 8 wherein the time-based media presentation is a sports event.

10. The computer program product of claim 8 wherein the time-based media presentation is a live television broadcast.

11. The computer program product of claim 8 wherein the time-based media presentation is a pre-recorded television broadcast.

12. The computer program product of claim 8 wherein synchronizing includes synchronizing based upon audio content within the time-based media presentation.

13. The computer program product of claim 12 wherein synchronizing includes receiving a plurality of hashes of the audio content from the client device and resolving the time offset within the time-shifted view based upon the plurality of hashes.

14. The computer program product of claim 8 wherein the client device includes one or more of a laptop computer, a notebook computer, a mobile device, and a cellular phone.

15. A device comprising:

an interface to a data network;

a database; and

a processor configured to receive and audience feedback over a data network relating to a live television broadcast, and to store the audience feedback in the database as live audience feedback;

the processor further configured to synchronize at least one client device to a time-shifted view of the live television broadcast based upon audio content within the time-shifted view of the live television broadcast, and to receive additional client feedback from the at least one client device over the data network synchronously with the time-shifted view; and

to combine the additional client feedback with the live audience feedback according to a time offset within the time-based media presentation, thereby providing feedback data that aggregates audience feedback synchronized to both the live television broadcast and a time-shifted view of the live television broadcast.

16. The device of claim 15 wherein the processor is further configured to transmit supplement content to the at least one client device that is synchronized to the time-shifted view.

17. The device of claim 15 wherein the data network includes the Internet.

18. The device of claim 15 wherein the interface to the data network includes a web server.

19. The device of claim 15 wherein the processor is configured to synchronize the at least one client device to the time-shifted view based upon a plurality of hashes created by the client device based upon the audio content and transmitted to the processor over the data network.

20. The device of claim 15 wherein the audience feedback includes responses to explicit audience questions.