Active requesting of information for pseudo-live performance

• US 9,009,254 B2
• Filed: 11/30/2011
• Issued: 04/14/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property II LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Crandall, Evan Stephen
• Primary Examiner(s): SHINGLES, KRISTIE D
• Application Number:
  US13/307,136
• Publication Number:
  US 20120079070A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,231 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217, 709/231
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/40 Arrangements for broadcast specially adapted for accumulation-type receivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/13 Arrangements for device control affected by the broadcast information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/80 characterised by transmission among terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/75 Media network packet handling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/764 at the destination reformatting of additional data in video clients H04N21/4355
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4333 Processing operations in response to a pause request
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4363 Adapting the video stream to a specific local network, e.g. a Bluetooth® network
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4402 involving reformatting operations of video signals for household redistribution, storage or real-time display details of conversion of video standards at pixel level H04N7/01; video transcoding H04N19/40; adapting incoming signals to the display format of the display terminal G09G5/005; media handling at the source in data packet switching networks H04L65/764
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/165 Centralised control of user terminal subsequent to an upstream request signal H04N7/17345; Registering at central by two-way working H04N7/17309
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17327 with deferred transmission or handling of upstream communications

Abstract

Mass amounts of information, such as entire libraries of songs or movies, for example, may be stored locally near end-users, and this information may be accessed and reproduced in response to commands received from a transmitting station via a network. When a radio or television station desires to transmit a song or movie, for example, the radio or television station can, rather than transmitting the entire song or movie, merely transmit a command for reproducing the song or movie. An end-user'"'"'s performance reproduction device, such as an enhanced radio or a television set, then accesses and reproduces the locally stored song or movie. Since the radio or television station need not transmit the entire performance, network traffic can be significantly reduced. The performance reproduction device may actively request information from the radio or television station when fresh or additional information is needed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining a present location based on a positioning system;

determining a local station matching a user preference using a local station master table and the present location;

generating, via a processor, a request based on the user preference;

communicating the request to the local station;

receiving a local media from the local station in response to the request;

replacing a portion of stored media with the local media, wherein the stored media is associated with a home station located in a home location different than the present location, to yield modified stored media; and

generating a pseudo-live performance comprising a mixture of the local media and the modified stored media, and wherein the generating of the pseudo-live performance further comprises synthesizing speech based on text received with the local media into one of an audio presentation and a video presentation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the present location is determined for a device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the device is a multi-media device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the local station occurs in a network server.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the local media comprises at least one of local weather, traffic reports, and local news.

6. The new method of claim 1, wherein the stored media is modified by inserting an identification of the local station.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the stored media is further modified by inserting an interval of silence.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising repeating the determining of the present location, the determining of the local station, the generating of the request, the communicating of the request, the receiving of the local media, the modifying of the stored media, and the generating of the pseudo-live performance with a pre-defined frequency.

9. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a computer-readable storage device having instructions stored which, when executed on the processor, perform operations comprising;

determining a present location based on a positioning system;

determining a local station matching a user preference using a local station master table and the present location;

generating a request based on the user preference;

communicating the request to the local station;

receiving a local media from the local station in response to the request; and

replacing a portion stored media with the local media, wherein the stored media is associated with a home station located in a home location different than the present location, to yield modified stored media; and

generating a pseudo-live performance comprising a mixture of the local media and the modified stored media, and wherein the generating of the pseudo-live performance further comprises synthesizing speech based on text received with the local media into one of an audio presentation and a video presentation.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the present location is determined for device

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the device is a multi-media device.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the determining the local station occurs in a network server.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the local media comprises at least one of local weather, traffic reports, and local news.

14. A computer-readable storage device having instructions stored which, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

determining a present location based on a positioning system;

determining a local station matching a user preference using a local station master table and the present location;

generating a request based at least in part on the user preference;

communicating the request to the local station;

receiving a local media from the local station in response to the request; and

replacing a portion of stored media with the local media, wherein the stored media is associated with a home station located in a home location different than the present location, to yield modified stored media; and

generating a pseudo-live performance comprising a mixture of the local media and the modified stored media, and wherein the generating of the pseudo-live performance further comprises synthesizing speech based on text received with the lcal media into one of an audio presentation and a video presentation.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the present location is determined for device.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the device is a multi-media device.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the local media comprises at least one of local weather, traffic reports, and local news.