PARENT-CONTROLLED EPISODIC CONTENT ON A CHILD TELECOMMUNICATION DEVICE

• US 20110237236A1
• Filed: 03/25/2010
• Published: 09/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Wickman, Marianna, Kemery, Michael, Wang, Winston
• Granted Patent: US 8,750,854 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/419
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2149 Restricted operating environment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

Techniques for remotely establishing sequences of content to be enabled on a child device are described herein.

Claims

1. A child telecommunications device, comprising:

an interactive user interface that offers content items to a user of the child telecommunications device;

the child telecommunications device being configured to perform actions comprising;

receiving remote configuration information that indicates a sequence of individual content items to be made available on the interactive user interface; and

enabling the individual content items one at a time on the interactive user interface in the sequence indicated by the remote configuration information.

2. A child telecommunications device as recited in claim 1, wherein enabling any particular content item of the sequence is performed only after any preceding content item of the sequence has been played.

3. A child telecommunications device as recited in claim 1, the actions further comprising downloading any particular content item only in conjunction with enabling that particular content item.

4. A child telecommunications device as recited in claim 1, wherein enabling any particular content item of the sequence is performed only after any preceding content item of the sequence has been completed.

5. A child telecommunications device as recited in claim 1, wherein:

the content items have associated completion criteria; and

enabling any particular content item of the sequence is performed only after any preceding content item of the sequence has been completed in accordance with the completion criteria associated with the preceding content item.

6. A child telecommunications device as recited in claim 1, wherein:

the content items comprise interactive educational content items having associated completion criteria; and

enabling any particular content item of the sequence is performed only after any preceding content item of the sequence has been completed in accordance with the completion criteria associated with the preceding content item.

7. A child telecommunications device as recited in claim 1, wherein enabling any particular content item of the sequence is performed only after any preceding content item of the sequence has been selected on the interactive user interface by a user of the child telecommunications device.

8. A child telecommunications device as recited in claim 1, wherein enabling any particular content item of the sequence is performed only after disabling any preceding content item of the sequence.

9. One or more computer-readable media containing instructions that are executable on a telecommunications device to perform actions comprising:

receiving remote configuration information that indicates a sequence of individual content items to be made available to a user of the telecommunications device; and

enabling any particular content item of the sequence only when the user of the telecommunications device is done with any preceding content item of the sequence.

10. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 9, the actions further comprising:

when enabling any particular content item of the sequence, disabling any preceding content item of the sequence.

11. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 9, the actions further comprising:

showing individual content items on a graphical display of the telecommunications device when they are enabled; and

hiding individual content items from the graphical display of the telecommunications device when they are disabled.

12. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 9, the actions further comprising downloading any particular content item only in conjunction with enabling that particular content item.

13. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 9, wherein:

the content items include completion criteria; and

enabling any particular content item of the sequence is performed only after any preceding content item of the sequence has been completed in accordance with the completion criteria of the preceding content item.

14. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 9, wherein:

the content items comprise interactive educational content items having associated completion criteria; and

enabling any particular content item of the sequence is performed only after any preceding content item of the sequence has been completed in accordance with the completion criteria associated with the preceding content item.

15. A method comprising:

associating a set of telecommunication devices with a common subscription feature;

designating a parent device from among the set of telecommunication devices;

designating a child device from among the set of telecommunication devices;

configuring the parent device to accept configuration information for the child device from a user of the parent device, the configuration information indicating a sequence of individual content items to be made available on the child device;

configuring the child device to;

receive the configuration information; and

enable the individual content items one at a time on an interactive user interface of the child device in the sequence indicated by the configuration information.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the child device enables any particular content item of the sequence only after any preceding content item of the sequence has been played.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the child device downloads any particular content item only in conjunction with enabling that particular content item.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein:

the content items include completion criteria; and

the child device enables any particular content item of the sequence only after any preceding content item of the sequence has been completed in accordance with the completion criteria of the preceding content item.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein:

the content items comprise interactive educational content items having associated completion criteria; and

the child device enables any particular content item of the sequence only after any preceding content item of the sequence has been completed in accordance with the completion criteria associated with the preceding content item.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the child device enables any particular content item of the sequence only after any preceding content item of the sequence has been selected by a user of the child telecommunications device.

21. The method of claim 15, wherein the child device enables any particular content item of the sequence only after disabling any preceding content item of the sequence.