System, device, and method for delivering multimedia

• US 8,695,031 B2
• Filed: 08/01/2007
• Issued: 04/08/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vecima Networks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Concurrent Computer Corporation
• Inventors: Kumar, Kshitij, Steinberg, Avigdor L., Paul, Debraj
• Primary Examiner(s): Bruckart, Benjamin
• Assistant Examiner(s): Le, Rong
• Application Number:
  US12/376,119
• Publication Number:
  US 20090199230A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,442 Days
• Field of Search: 725 9- 21, 725 32- 36, 725/110, 725/133, 725/134, 725/114, 725/115, 725/145, 725/151, 725/139, 709/204, 709/217, 709/227, 709/231
• US Class Current: 725/32
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0268 at point-of-sale [POS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4878 Advertisement messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0027 Collaboration services where a computer is used for data transfer and the telephone is used for telephonic communication

Abstract

A system and method for delivery of multimedia data includes a plurality of media devices coupled to each other via a network. Each of the media devices is configured to retrieve multimedia data and advertisement data from an external source such as a public and/or private network. The multimedia data may include a number of video clips and the advertisement data includes a number of advertisements. Each media device is also configured to associate an advertisement of the advertisement data to a video clip of the multimedia data based on one of a number of criteria and transmit the associated video clip and advertisement to a playback device for viewing thereon.

Claims

1. A system for delivering multimedia, the system comprising:

a plurality of media devices coupled to each other via a network, each media device being configured;

to retrieve multimedia data and advertisement data from an external source, the multimedia data including a number of video clips and the advertisement data including a number of advertisements,

store the multimedia data and the advertisement data,

transmit the multimedia data to at least one other media device in response to a request for the multimedia data, and

associate an advertisement of the advertisement data to a video clip of the multimedia data;

wherein at least one of the media devices is further configured to;

determine a number of available sources of the multimedia data that are external to the at least one of the media devices;

select a subset of the number of available sources based on a determination of proximity of each of the number of available sources relative to the at least one other media device;

retrieve first portions of the multimedia data from a first group of sources selected from the subset of the number of available sources; and

retrieve second portions of the multimedia data from a second group of sources selected from the subset of the number of available sources, where the first group of sources and the second group of sources are different groups;

wherein the first portions are transmitted to the at least one other media device before the second portions;

wherein the first group of sources selected from the subset of the number of sources are physically farther from the at least one other media device than the second group of sources selected from the subset of the number of available sources.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein to store the multimedia data comprises to store the multimedia data in a distributed manner.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein to associate the advertisement to the video clip comprises to associate the advertisement to the video clip based on metadata associated with the video clip and the advertisement.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein to associate the advertisement to the video clip comprises to associate the advertisement to the video clip based on at least one of a category of the video, a category of the advertisement, a profile of a user requesting the video, and a popularity of the video.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the network is a hybrid peer-to-peer-client/server network.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein each media device is further configured to transmit an associated video and advertisement to a television service provider headend station.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a playback device coupled to at least one of the media devices and located remotely therefrom, the playback device being configured to receive an associated video and advertisement from the coupled media device in response to a request from a user of the playback device and display the associated video and advertisement to the user.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the playback device is configured to display a preview of available videos to the user and generate a request for a video in response to a selection made by the user.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the playback device is configured to upload a video to one of the media devices in response to a command provided by the user.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the media devices is further configured to select the sub-set of the number of available sources based on a bunny-hill algorithm to ensure the availability of the first portions to the playback device.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the determination of proximity is directionally sensitive.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one media device is further configured to modify network conditions to change the determination of proximity.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the determination of proximity changes over time.

14. A method for delivering multimedia, the method comprising:

retrieving multimedia data from an external source, the multimedia data including a number of video clips;

selecting advertisement data comprising a number of advertisements based on a combination of a bid for an advertisement spot in the multimedia data and other advertisements associated with the multimedia data, wherein the bid at least exceeds a minimum threshold amount; and

retrieving the advertisement data, the advertisement data including a number of advertisements;

storing the multimedia data and the advertisement data in one or more of a plurality of media devices coupled to each other via a network;

transmitting the multimedia data to at least one other media device over a network in response to a request for the multimedia data; and

associating an advertisement of the advertisement data to a video clip of the multimedia data;

determining a number of available sources of the multimedia data;

selecting a subset of the number of available sources based on a determination of a proximity of each of the number of available sources relative to the one or more of the plurality of media devices;

retrieving first portions of the multimedia data from a first group of sources selected from the subset;

retrieving second portions of the multimedia data from a second group of sources selected from the subset, the first group and the second group different groups;

the first portions being transmitted to the one or more of the plurality of media devices before the second portions; and

the first group being physically farther from the one or more of the plurality of media devices than the second group.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein storing the multimedia data comprises to storing the multimedia data in a distributed manner between at least two of the media devices.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein associating the advertisement data to the video clip comprises associating the advertisement to the video clip based on metadata associated with the video clip and the advertisement.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein associating the advertisement data to the video clip comprises associating the advertisement to the video clip based on at least one of a category of the video, a category of the advertisement, a profile of a user requesting the video, and a popularity of the video.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein transmitting the multimedia data to the at least one other media device over the network comprises transmitting the multimedia data to the at least one other media device over a hybrid peer-to-peer-client/server network.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising transmitting an associated video and advertisement to a television service provider headend station.

20. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving associated video and an advertisement with a playback device coupled to at least one of the media devices and located remotely therefrom in response to a request form a user of the playback device; and

displaying the associated video and the advertisement to the user.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

displaying a preview of available videos to the user; and

generating a request for a video in response to a selection made by the user.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising uploading a video to one of the media devices in response to a command provided by the user.

23. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

determining a number of available sources of the user requested video; and

selecting a sub-set of the number of available sources based on a calculated download time of each number of available sources.

24. A system for delivering multimedia, the system comprising:

a plurality of media devices coupled to each other via a network, each media device being configured;

to retrieve multimedia data and advertisement data from a selection of determined external sources comprising a first group of sources and a second group of sources, the multimedia data including a number of video clips and the advertisement data including a number of advertisements, where first parts of the multimedia data are retrieved from the first group of sources that are located physically farther from each the media devices than the second group of sources from which second parts of the multimedia data are retrieved, the first group and the second group different groups, the first parts being retrieved before the second parts,

store the multimedia data and the advertisement data,

transmit the multimedia data to at least one other media device in response to a request for the multimedia data, and

associate an advertisement of the advertisement data to a video clip of the multimedia data;

wherein each media device is further configured to transmit the associated video and advertisement to a television service provider headend station;

wherein the television service provider headend station comprises a broadcast interface module coupled to both a switched digital video server and a video-on-demand server.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein one or more of the plurality of media devices is configured to convert the associated video into a broadcast-able data file in accordance with a predetermined video format.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the predetermined video format is viewable by a standard television.

27. The system of claim 24, wherein one or more of the plurality media devices is configured to transport control data and auxiliary content data using an Enhanced Television Binary Format.