Smart phone as remote control device

• US 8,150,387 B2
• Filed: 06/02/2008
• Issued: 04/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Knowledge Ventures, L.P. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Klein, Adam, Britt, James Austin, Fox, Joshua J.
• Primary Examiner(s): WEST, LEWIS G
• Application Number:
  US12/131,524
• Publication Number:
  US 20090298535A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,401 Days
• Field of Search: 455/556.1, 455/556.2, 455/420, 725/39, 725/40, 725/43, 348/734
• US Class Current: 455/420
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72415 for remote control of appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43615 Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805

Abstract

A communication device such as a smart phone is enabled for remotely controlling set-top boxes (STBs) over Internet protocol networks using an applet running on the communication device. Authentication from within a multimedia content distribution network may be achieved by verifying that a network identifier associated with the communication device is associated with an account that has granted access to the smart phone and that is associated with the controlled STB. A viewing pane on the communication device permits a user to remotely view content received on or available to the controlled STB.

Claims

1. A hand-held communication device comprising:

a processor having access to a computer readable medium including user agent instructions executable by the processor; and

a touch screen display;

wherein the user agent instructions include instructions for;

receiving video data from a server of a digital television network, wherein the video data is indicative of multimedia content being provided to a client via the digital television network;

displaying a remote control interface on the touch screen display, wherein the remote control interface includes;

a content pane for displaying the video data;

a command virtual control corresponding to a remote control command; and

a first virtual control for selecting a first set-top box associated with a client account and a second virtual control for selecting a second set-top box associated with the client account;

generating, responsive to detecting a user input via the command virtual control, the remote control command; and

sending the remote control command to the server of the digital television network for delivery, via the digital television network, to the client.

2. The hand-held communication device of claim 1, wherein the remote control interface includes a history virtual control for displaying a viewing history of a selected set-top box.

3. The hand-held communication device of claim 1, wherein the remote control interface comprises a web applet.

4. The hand-held communication device of claim 1, wherein the remote control interface includes a channel virtual control for selecting a channel of a selected set-top box.

5. The hand-held communication device of claim 4, wherein the user agent instructions include instructions for displaying multimedia content associated with a currently selected channel.

6. The hand-held communication device of claim 1, further comprising a transceiver for receiving the video data from the server of the digital television network.

7. The hand-held communication device of claim 6, wherein the digital television network is an Internet protocol television network.

8. The hand-held communication device of claim 1, wherein the user agent is a hypertext transfer protocol user agent.

9. The hand-held communication device of claim 8, wherein the user agent is a web browser.

10. The hand-held communication device of claim 8, wherein the hand-held communication device is associated with a first network identifier, the client is associated with a second network identifier, the first network identifier and the second network identifier are associated with a user account for the digital television network, and a verification of the remote control command is based on the first network identifier and the second network identifier.

11. A digital television service suitable for use in a multimedia content distribution network, the digital television service comprising:

providing digital television content to a set-top box;

providing video data to a hand-held communication device configured to display the video data, wherein the video data is indicative of a portion of the digital television content being provided to the set-top box;

responsive to receiving a remote control command from the hand-held communication device, controlling the set-top box based on the remote control command to control content being output from the set-top box; and

sending, from a network server, history data indicative of a viewing history of the set-top box to the hand-held communication device, wherein the history data is displayable by the hand-held communication device.

12. The digital television service of claim 11, wherein the remote control command is generated by a user agent executing on the hand-held communication device, wherein the user agent is enabled for web-based communication with an access server that is communicatively coupled to the multimedia content distribution network to forward data indicative of the remote control command to an Internet protocol television content server.

13. The digital television service of claim 11, further comprising:

establishing a session for communication between the hand-held communication device and the multimedia content distribution network.

14. The digital television service of claim 13, wherein establishing the session includes receiving an incoming telephone call from the hand-held communication device.

15. The digital television service of claim 13, wherein establishing the session includes placing an outgoing telephone call to the hand-held communication device.

16. The digital television service of claim 11, further comprising providing electronic programming guide data to the hand-held communication device.

17. The digital television service of claim 11, wherein the video data includes streaming video content.

18. The digital television service of claim 17, wherein the streaming video content corresponds to digital television content for a channel selected by the set-top box.

19. The digital television service of claim 18, wherein the streaming video content corresponds to digital television content for a channel not currently selected by the set-top box.

20. A method of remotely managing content delivered to a client via a multimedia content distribution network, the method comprising:

providing multimedia content to the client;

providing video data to a smart phone, wherein the video data is indicative of the multimedia content being provided to the client;

receiving a signal indicative of user input at the smart phone, the user input indicative of a remote control command; and

controlling the client based on the remote control command to control content being displayed at the client,

wherein the client comprises a first set-top box and a second set-top box both associated with a single user account for the multimedia content distribution network, and wherein controlling the client based on the remote control command includes controlling the first set-top box and the second set-top box based on the remote control command.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the user input includes user interaction with a virtual control on a touch screen display of the smart phone.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the video data includes streaming video.

23. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

sending, from a network server, history data indicative of a viewing history of the client to the smart phone, wherein the history data is displayable by the smart phone.