BACK-END CONTENT ANALYSIS SYSTEM TO INITIATE SECOND-SCREEN CONFIRMATION

• US 20170048580A1
• Filed: 08/11/2015
• Published: 02/16/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/11/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ARRIS Enterprises LLC (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: ARRIS Enterprises LLC (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Inventors: Wickramasuriya, Jehan, Vasudevan, Venugopal
• Granted Patent: US 10,097,882 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4122 additional display device, e.g. video projector digital output for controlling a plurality of local displays G06F3/1423
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42203 sound input device, e.g. microphone
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43079 of additional data with content streams on multiple devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4367 Establishing a secure communication between the client and a peripheral device or smart card
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44008 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in the video stream arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8358 involving watermark protecting executable software by watermarking G06F21/16; image watermarking in general G06T1/0021; watermarks inserted in still images for transmission purposes H04N1/32144; inserting watermarks during video coding H04N19/467

Abstract

Particular embodiments provide a hybrid approach to confirming a presence of the second-screen device in a same location as a first-screen device. In one embodiment, a trigger phase and a confirmation phase are used to confirm the presence of the second-screen device in a physical proximity to the first-screen device. The trigger phase may be performed at a back-end system. The back-end system may detect events for the content being delivered to the first-screen device using content detection techniques. The back-end system may generate a trigger event when certain conditions are met based on the detection. Once the trigger event is detected, the back-end system may confirm that the second-screen device is physically present in a same location with the first-screen device. For example, the back-end system may communicate with the second-screen device to initiate a content detection analysis on the second-screen device.

Claims

1. A method for confirming presence of a second-screen device with regard to a first-screen device, the method comprising:

receiving, by a back-end computer system comprising one or more servers coupled to a network of a content delivery system, a content that is being delivered by the content delivery system via the network to a first-screen device, wherein the back-end computer system is at a remote physical location separate from both the first-screen device and the second-screen device, and wherein the first-screen device is associated with a user account;

performing, by the back-end computer system, a content detection analysis of the content;

determining, by the back-end computer system, a trigger event based on the content detection analysis, the trigger event being triggered based on a portion of the content;

selecting, by the back-end computer system, a second-screen device associated with a user account entity, wherein the user account entity is associated with the user account of the first-screen device; and

communicating, by the back-end computer system, the trigger event to the selected second-screen device, the trigger event causing the second-screen device to start a presence detection analysis using hardware of the second-screen device to confirm the second-screen device'"'"'s presence with regard to the first-screen device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the content comprises:

tuning, by the back-end computer system, to a channel that is being used to send content to the first-screen device to receive the content from the content delivery network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the content comprises:

using a tuner farm to tune to a plurality of channels being provided by the content delivery system to receive content from each of the plurality of channels.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the content comprises receiving a control signal from the first-screen device indicating the content being requested and using the control signal to request the content from the content delivery network.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the back-end computer system is integrated with the content delivery system.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the content detection analysis of the content comprises:

performing a fingerprint analysis of multiple portions of a characteristic of the content.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the characteristic of the content comprises audio and/or video.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating multiple fingerprints from the multiple portions of the content;

comparing the multiple fingerprints to a fingerprint index; and

when a match between a first fingerprint in the multiple fingerprints and a second fingerprint in the fingerprint index occurs, determining the trigger event occurred.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the user comprises a first user, and wherein selecting the second-screen device comprises:

determining a set of second users and the first user that are associated with the first-screen device, wherein the set of second users and the first user are associated with different second-screen devices; and

selecting the first user from the set of second users and the first user.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

sending the trigger event to the different second-screen devices for set of second users and the first user, the trigger event causing the different second-screen devices to start the presence detection analysis using hardware of the different second-screen devices to confirm the different second-screen device'"'"'s presence with regard to the first-screen device.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a presence confirmation from the second-screen device, wherein the presence confirmation indicates the second-screen device is in a same location as the first-screen device; and

performing an action based on receiving the presence confirmation.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the action comprises:

determining second-screen content to send to the second-screen device based on the presence confirmation; and

sending the second-screen content to the second-screen device in coordination with the first-screen content being output on the first-screen device.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the action comprises:

using the presence confirmation to initiate an application that uses the presence confirmation to perform the action.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the application adjusts a bidding price for sending the second-screen content based on the presence confirmation.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

collating multiple presence confirmations for the first-screen content, the multiple presence confirmations received from multiple second-screen devices; and

using the collated multiple presence confirmations to adjust the bidding price.

16. A method for confirming presence of a second-screen device with regard to a first-screen device, the method comprising:

receiving, by the second-screen device, a trigger event from a back-end system comprising one or more computer servers coupled to a network of a content delivery system, the back-end system receiving content from the content delivery system that is being delivered by the content delivery system to the first-screen device and the back-end system performing a first content detection analysis of the content to determine the trigger event, wherein the back-end system is at a remote physical location separate from both the first-screen device and the second-screen device;

based on receiving the trigger event, initiating, by the second-screen device, access of a hardware element to detect information within a range of the second-screen device;

determining, by the second-screen device, whether the second-screen device is in a same location as the first-screen device using a second content detection analysis of the information detected by the hardware element; and

sending, by the second-screen device, a presence confirmation that the second-screen device is in the same location of the first-screen device when the second content detection analysis detects the content from the content delivery system is being output by the first-screen device.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving a communication of an action to perform on the second-screen device upon determining the presence confirmation.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the trigger event is received at an operating system layer and the hardware element is accessed through the operating system layer.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein initiating access comprises accessing a microphone of the second-screen device to detect audio in the range.

20. A system comprising:

a first-screen device configured to request content from a content delivery system;

a second-screen device associated with a user of the first-screen device;

a back-end system integrated with the content delivery system, the back-end system comprising one or more computers at a physical location remote from both the first-screen device and the second-screen device, the one or more computers configured to perform;

receiving the content that is being delivered by the content delivery system to the first-screen device;

performing a content detection analysis of the content;

determining a trigger event based on the content detection analysis, the trigger event being triggered based on detecting the trigger event in a portion of the content; and

communicating the trigger event to the second-screen device for the user, the trigger event causing the second-screen device to start a presence detection analysis using hardware of the second-screen device to confirm the second-screen device'"'"'s presence with regard to the first-screen device.