Apparatus for tracking the distribution of media content

• US 8,621,066 B2
• Filed: 03/12/2009
• Issued: 12/31/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Purdy, Kermit Hal, Amento, Brian, Stead, Larry, Abella, Alicia, Cheung, Eric, Nathan, Mukesh, Caceres, Ramon, Zaman, Luis
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Haresh N
• Application Number:
  US12/403,214
• Publication Number:
  US 20100235491A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,755 Days
• Field of Search: 709200-203, 709217-228
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually

Abstract

A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a recipient client device having a controller operable to receive and store a media object from an originating device, track locations where the media object has been since the media object has been stored in the recipient client device, track identifiers associated with a device or a user that has accessed the media object at the locations, and track and store annotations about the media object by the device or the user that accessed the media object. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A server, comprising:

a memory comprising computer instructions; and

a controller coupled to the memory, wherein when the computer instructions are executed by the controller, the controller performs operations comprising;

receiving media content from an originating device;

transmitting tracking software and the media content to a recipient device requesting the media content, wherein the tracking software comprises computer instructions for storage in a first computer-readable storage medium of the recipient device for execution by a first processor of the recipient device;

transmitting the tracking software to the originating device, wherein the tracking software comprises computer instructions for storage in a second computer-readable storage medium of the originating device for execution by a second processor of the originating device;

tracking, according to first tracking information supplied by at least one of the originating device and the recipient device, locations where the media content has been distributed to at least one other device by at least one of the originating device and the recipient device;

tracking, according to tracking information supplied by at least one of the other devices, locations where the media content has been distributed to yet other devices;

tracking, according to at least one of the first or the second tracking information supplied by at least one of the foregoing devices annotations about the media content; and

tracking a travel path of the media content by obtaining geolocation information from the foregoing devices.

2. The server of claim 1, wherein the controller further performs operations comprising tracking locations of the media content by obtaining at least one of the geolocation information from the foregoing devices or location identifiers associated with a local area network where the distribution of the media content took place.

3. The server of claim 1, wherein the server is part of a network of a plurality of servers sharing tracking information supplied by the tracking software operating in the foregoing devices.

4. The server of claim 1, wherein the tracking software operating in the foregoing devices collects demographic information, and wherein the controller further performs operations comprising receiving the demographic information.

5. The server of claim 1, wherein the media content comprises one of audio content, image content, and a combination thereof.

6. The server of claim 1, wherein the controller further performs operations comprising submitting recommendations to at least a portion of the foregoing devices to consume other media content based on at least one of a genre of the media content, the location where the media content was distributed, and the annotations about the media content.

7. The server of claim 1, wherein the foregoing devices receive the tracking software with the distributed media content.

8. The server of claim 1, wherein the controller further performs operations comprising identifying at least one of demographic patterns or psychographic patterns from at least one of the first or the second tracking information received from at least a portion of the foregoing devices.

9. The server of claim 8, wherein the controller further performs operations comprising sharing at least one of the demographic patterns or psychographic patterns with at least one of an author of the media content, and a population of recipients of the media content.

10. The server of claim 1, wherein the tracking of the travel path further comprises tracking the travel path by obtaining location identifiers associated with a network element where the foregoing devices receive communication services.