Providing multiple video perspectives of activities through a data network to a remote multimedia server for selective display by remote viewing audiences

• US 7,782,363 B2
• Filed: 09/15/2008
• Issued: 08/24/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Front Row Technologies LLC (Ortiz & Lopez PLLC)
• Original Assignee: Front Row Technologies LLC (Ortiz & Lopez PLLC)
• Inventors: Ortiz, Luis M.
• Primary Examiner(s): SELBY, GEVELL V
• Application Number:
  US12/210,971
• Publication Number:
  US 20090009605A1
• Time in Patent Office: 708 Days
• Field of Search: 348/143, 348/207.1, 348/211.99, 3482111-2113, 348/211.11, 348/333.05
• US Class Current: 348/211.8
• 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 providing remote viewing of at least one of a plurality of activities from at least two of a plurality of different visual perspectives to a remote audience, comprising the following:

a server to receive the at least two different visual perspectives of the at least one of a plurality of activities simultaneously captured during the at least one activity as a streaming video signal by a combination of the at least one of a plurality of cameras singularly included in each of the 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 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 wireless hand held device 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 touch screen display as real time or pre-recorded video footage.

2. The system capable of providing remote viewing of the at least one activity from the at least two different visual perspectives to the remote audience as provided in 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 capable of providing remote viewing of the at least one activity from the at least two different visual perspectives to the remote audience as provided in claim 1, further comprising a registration module adapted 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 a combination of the at least one camera and the at least one standalone camera, and operated by the at least one user.

4. The system capable of providing remote viewing of the at least one activity from the at least two different visual perspectives to the remote audience as provided in claim 3, further comprising an activity organization module adapted to organize the streaming video signal uploaded into said database from a combination of streaming video signals emanating from the at least one camera and the at least one stand alone camera, operated by the at least one user, wherein the video is automatically organized by said server based on at least one of:

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

5. The system capable of providing remote viewing of the at least one activity from the at least two different visual perspectives to the remote audience as provided in 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 camera and at least one stand alone camera, 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:

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

6. The system capable of providing remote viewing of the at least one activity from the at least two different visual perspectives to the remote audience as provided in claim 1, further comprising a registration module adapted to register the at least one user remote video display device and authorize said 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 providing remote viewing of the at least one activity from the at least two different visual perspectives to the remote audience as provided in claim 1, further comprising an activity organization module to provide selective access to the streaming video signal of the at least two different visual perspectives from said server, wherein said streaming video signal is provided to the at least one remote video display device from said server based on a request from the at least one registered user for at least one of:

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, distance from location of interest.

8. The system capable of providing remote viewing of the at least one activity from the at least two different visual perspectives to the remote audience as provided in claim 1, further comprising a community association module adapted to associate the 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 camera and the at least one standalone camera, by the at least one registered user located near the at least one activity and stored on said server in association with the at least one online community, wherein said at least one 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:

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 the streaming video signal recording, distance from location of interest.

9. The system capable of providing remote viewing of the at least one activity from the at least two different visual perspectives to the remote audience as provided in claim 2, further comprising a community association module to associate the at least one registered user with an 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 activities stored in said database that were captured using a combination of the at least one camera and the at least one standalone camera, operated by the at least one registered user located near the 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:

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

10. The system capable of providing remote viewing of the at least one activity from the at least two different visual perspectives to the remote audience as provided in claim 3, further comprising a community association module to associate the at least one registered user with an 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 activities stored in said database that were captured using a combination of the at least one camera and the at least one standalone camera, operated by the at least one registered user located near the 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:

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

11. The system capable of providing remote viewing of the at least one activity from the at least two different visual perspectives to the remote audience as provided in claim 3, further comprising a community association module adapted to associate the at least one registered user 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 the combination of the at least one camera and the at least one standalone camera, by the at least one registered user within the at least one online community located near the at least one activity 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:

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

12. The system capable of providing remote viewing of the at least one activity from the at least two different visual perspectives to the remote audience as provided in claim 4, further comprising a community association module adapted to associate the at least one registered user with an 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 an organized streaming video signal of the at least one activity captured using the combination of the at least one camera and the at least one standalone camera, by the registered users 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:

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

13. A system capable of providing remote viewing of an at least one of a plurality of activities from at least two of a plurality of different visual perspectives to a remote audience, comprising:

a remote server adapted 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 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 of a plurality of users 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 adapted to organize 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 is further adapted 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 capable of providing remote viewing of the at least one activity from the at least two different visual perspectives to the remote audience as provided in claim 13, further comprising a community association module adapted to associate the at least one registered user with at least one of a plurality of online communities 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 camera 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:

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 the streaming video signal recording, distance from location of interest.

15. A method providing remote video viewing opportunities of an at least one of a plurality of activities to a remote audience, said method comprising the steps of:

providing a server to;

receive at least two of a plurality of different visual perspectives of at least one activity captured by a combination of at least one 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 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 providing remote video viewing opportunities of an at least one of a plurality of activities to a remote audience, said method comprising the steps of:

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 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 video images are delivered to a server, wherein said server providing a digital gateway in transmitting the at least two streaming video images to a data network;

processing the at least two different visual perspectives at the server, whereby said server processes the at least two 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 streaming video images selectable through a selection means at the at least one hand held device selectively viewing simultaneously the at least two different visual perspectives through a touch screen display;

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

17. The method providing remote video viewing opportunities of an at least one activity including at least one of a plurality of private activities and public activities that occur at entertainment venues to the remote audience in claim 16, further comprising the steps of:

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

18. The method providing remote video viewing opportunities of the at least one activity to the remote audience in claim 16, further comprising the step of organizing said at least two streaming video images captured by at least two of the plurality of registered users at the at least one activity using at least one of the at least one camera and the at least one standalone camera wherein said at least two streaming video images are provided to said server to process said at least two streaming video images based on identifying attribute data including at least one of:

the at least one activity title, activity time, activity date, activity place, GPS position of the at least one wireless handheld device at time of the at least one streaming video image recording, distance from location of interest; and

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

19. The method providing remote video viewing opportunities of the at least one activity to the remote audience in claim 18, further comprising the step of providing through the selection means the at least one user access to said at least one streaming video image based on said attribute data filtering.

20. The method providing remote video viewing opportunities of the at least one activity to the remote audience in claim 16, further comprising the steps of:

registering the at least one user of at least one of a plurality of online communities at a server to receive and process the 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 video image captured at the at least one activity using the combination of at least one camera and the at least one standalone camera, 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 the at least one remote video display device.

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

registering an at least one of a plurality of users 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 providing remote video viewing opportunities of at least one of a plurality of activities to a remote audience, said method comprising the steps of:

registering at least one of a plurality of users populating at least one of a plurality of online communities accessing a server adapted to receive and process video and 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 camera 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 providing 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, comprising a multimedia server including a video synchronization module, wherein said server comprising circuitry to simultaneously receive the at least two visual perspectives 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 devise 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 process 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 hand held device display includes an onboard video processing unit, onboard GPS chipset, wherein said processing unit having circuitry to process incoming and outgoing video furnished with GPS space and time coordinates on toolbar screen inset.

24. The system capable of providing synchronized remote viewing of the at least one activity from the at least two visual perspectives to the remote audience in claim 23, further comprising a video synchronization engine capable of synchronizing the playing of video of the at least two visual perspectives of the at least one activity on the at least one remote video display device based on time of capture information related to tags on said images.

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

receiving in a server the at least two 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 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 visual perspectives as the at least two video images on said single video screen;

recording video of said at least two perspectives captured from the combination of the at least one camera and the at least one standalone camera, the at least one hand held device transmits video over a commercial cellular network interfacing with the Internet.