METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DISTRIBUTING CONTENT TO COMMUNICATION DEVICES

• US 20170272391A1
• Filed: 06/08/2017
• Published: 09/21/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: MARIA, Arturo, SEDGHI, Al
• Granted Patent: US 10,735,359 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/10 Multimedia information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding

Abstract

A system that incorporates the subject disclosure may perform, for example, operations including receiving a plurality of profiles from a plurality of communication devices, where each of the plurality of profiles comprise a content preference established by users of the plurality of communication devices, receiving content from a plurality of content sources, selecting portions of the content according to the plurality of profiles supplied by the plurality of communication devices, detecting that the portions of the content are not compatible with a multimedia messaging service protocol utilized by the multimedia messaging service server, transcoding the portions of the content to generate transcoded portions of the content that comply with the multimedia messaging service protocol, and broadcasting the transcoded portions of the content to the plurality of communication devices. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a processing system including a processor, a plurality of profiles from a plurality of communication devices indicating content type and format preferences of users of the plurality of communication devices, wherein the content type and format preferences include preferences for still images, preferences for video clips, or any combination thereof;

receiving, by the processing system, first content from a plurality of content sources, wherein the first content includes broadcasting conditions that identify a broadcasting time of day and first users of the plurality of communication devices that are authorized to receive broadcasting of content;

selecting, by the processing system, portions of the first content according to the content type and format preferences of the users of the plurality of communication devices to generate selected portions of the first content; and

broadcasting, by the processing system, the selected portions of the first content to first communication devices associated with the first users of the plurality of communication devices that are authorized to receive broadcasting of content according to the broadcasting conditions.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining, by the processing system, whether the selected portions of the first content fulfill the broadcasting conditions.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the condition for broadcasting content further comprises a day for broadcasting of content, wherein the content type that is desired by the users of the plurality of communication devices includes a genre selection.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first content received from the plurality of content sources is supplied by stationary cameras and camera-enabled mobile communication devices.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting, by the processing system, the selected portions of the first content that are not compliant with a multimedia messaging service protocol to identify non-compliant selected portions; and

transcoding, by the processing system, the non-compliant selected portions to generate transcoded portions of the first content that comply with the multimedia messaging service protocol, wherein the selected portions that are broadcasted to the first communication devices are the transcoded portions.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the transcoded portions of the first content are transcoded according to a service provider policy for compacting portions of content, redacting inappropriate segments of content, or any combination thereof.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first content received from the plurality of content sources is live content.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first content received from the plurality of content sources is recorded content.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of profiles from the plurality of communication devices further includes a transmission period indicating a desired time for the users of the plurality of devices to receive the first content supplied by the plurality of content sources.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first content is received from the plurality of content sources prior to the transmission period for a portion of the users of the plurality of communications devices;

and further comprising postponing, by the processing system, broadcasting step for the portion of the users of the plurality of communication devices until the transmission period.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of profiles further includes a preferred content source of the plurality of content sources established by each of the users of the plurality of communications devices.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the first content includes tags that identify specific scenes of the first content.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the selected portions of the first content are selected from the first content according to the tags included in the first content and the plurality of profiles supplied by the plurality of communication devices.

14. A device, comprising:

a processing system including a processor; and

a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processing system, facilitate performance of operations, comprising;

transmitting a profile to a multimedia messaging service server indicating content type and format preferences of a user of the device, wherein the content type and format preferences include preferences for still images, preferences for video clips, or any combination thereof; and

receiving a portion of content that is broadcast from the multimedia messaging service server according to broadcast conditions, wherein the multimedia messaging service server selects the portion of the content according to the content type and format preference of the user of the device, and wherein the multimedia messaging service server determines if the user of the device is authorized to receive the broadcast of the portion of the content according to the broadcast conditions.

15. The device of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise presenting the portion of the content that is received.

16. The device of claim 14, wherein the multimedia messaging service server detects whether the portion of the content is not compliant with a multimedia messaging service protocol and, if not compliant, then the multimedia messaging service server transcodes the portion of the content to generate a transcoded portion of the content that complies with the multimedia messaging service protocol, and wherein the multimedia messaging service server broadcasts the transcoded portion to the device.

17. The device of claim 14, wherein the content includes tags that identify specific scenes of the content, and wherein the multimedia messaging service server selects the portion of the content according to the tags included in the content and the profile.

18. The device of claim 14, wherein the content includes tags that identify specific scenes of the content, and wherein the portion of the content is selected from the content by the multimedia messaging service server according to the tags included in the content and the profile.

19. A machine-readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processing system including a processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:

receiving a plurality of profiles from a plurality of communication devices indicating content type and format preferences of users of the plurality of communication devices;

receiving first content, wherein the first content includes broadcasting conditions that identify a broadcasting time of day and first users of the plurality of communication devices that are authorized to receive broadcasting of content;

selecting portions of the first content according to the content type and format preferences of the users of the plurality of communication devices to generate selected portions of the first content; and

broadcasting the selected portions of the first content to first communication devices associated with the first users of the plurality of communication devices.

20. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the content type and format preferences include preferences for still images, preferences for video clips, or any combination thereof, and wherein the selected portions of the first content are broadcast to first communication devices that are authorized to receive broadcasting of content according to the broadcasting conditions.