System and method enabling visual filtering of content

• US 9,185,326 B2
• Filed: 02/07/2011
• Issued: 11/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/11/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Disney Enterprises Incorporated (The Walt Disney Company)
• Original Assignee: Disney Enterprises Incorporated (The Walt Disney Company)
• Inventors: Robert, Arnaud, Drake, Edward C., Bartley, William
• Primary Examiner(s): Pham, Linh K
• Application Number:
  US12/931,702
• Publication Number:
  US 20110307783A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,737 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/743 a collection of video files or sequences
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/431 Generation of visual interfaces for content selection or interaction; Content or additional data rendering
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/454 Content or additional data filtering, e.g. blocking advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4755 for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre retrieval personalisation and generation of user profiles for the retrieval of video data G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8146 involving graphical data, e.g. 3D object, 2D graphics
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/445 for displaying additional information H04N5/50 takes precedence

Abstract

There is presented a system and method enabling visual filtering of content. The system comprises a server, a content database storing content units and accessible through the server, and a filtering and display application. The filtering and display application is configured to enable visual filtering of the content units by filtering a plurality of graphical representations corresponding to a plurality of content units stored by the system, to extract a first plurality of graphical representations for displaying to a user, displaying the first plurality of graphical representations as active graphical representations selectable by the user in a first featured display, and dynamically filtering the first plurality of graphical representations and replacing the first featured display with another featured display of a first subset of active graphical representations selectable by the user according to an input received from the user.

Claims

1. A method for use by a system for enabling visual filtering of content, the method comprising:

filtering a plurality of graphical representations corresponding to a plurality of content units stored by the system, to extract a subset of the plurality of graphical representations for displaying to a user;

displaying the subset of the plurality of graphical representations as first active graphical representations selectable by the user; and

receiving a plurality of new search letters inputted by the user, wherein for each of said plurality of new search letters inputted by the user, the method further comprises;

providing a combination of each of said plurality of new search letters with any one or more of the plurality of search letters previously inputted by the user;

dynamically filtering the subset of the plurality of graphical representations to filter out one or more graphical representations based on said combination; and

altering, in response to the dynamically filtering, the first active graphical representations to exclude the one or more graphical representations from the subset of the active graphical representations to provide second active graphical representations selectable by the user;

wherein the one or more graphical representations excluded by the dynamically filtering are displayed as part of a visually de-emphasized background display overlaid by the second active graphical representations selectable by the user, and wherein the one or more graphical representations excluded by the dynamically filtering are not selectable by the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first active graphical representations and the second active graphical representations comprises a graphical list view.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first active graphical representations and the second active graphical representations comprises a graphical array.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the filtering of the plurality of graphical representations to extract the subset of the plurality of graphical representations for displaying to the user is performed according to one of history data and preference data, the one of the history data and the preference data being associated with the user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of graphical representations and the subset of the graphical representations comprises audio-visual images.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the filtering and the dynamic filtering is performed according to a metadata associated with each of the respective graphical representations.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the filtering and the dynamic filtering is performed according to a metadata associated with each of the respective graphical representations, the metadata sourced from the system.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the filtering and the dynamic filtering is performed according to a metadata associated with each of the respective graphical representations, the metadata sourced from a third party data provider.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the filtering and the dynamic filtering is performed according to a distribution window of the content to which each content unit respectively corresponds.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the filtering and the dynamic filtering is performed according to pricing of the content to which each content unit respectively corresponds.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the filtering and the dynamic filtering is performed according to at least one of a present availability and a future availability of the content to which each content unit respectively corresponds.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the filtering and the dynamic filtering is performed according to a genre of the content to which each content unit respectively corresponds.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of content units comprises content units corresponding to audio-visual content.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the first active graphical representations is enlarged relative to the one or more graphical representations displayed as part of the visually de-emphasized the background display.

15. A system enabling visual filtering of content, the system comprising:

a server having a non-transitory storage medium;

a content database accessible through the server, the content database storing a plurality of content units;

a filtering and display application stored in the non-transitory storage medium and configured to enable visual filtering of the plurality of content units, by;

filtering a plurality of graphical representations corresponding to a plurality of content units stored by the system to extract a subset of the plurality of graphical representations for displaying to a user;

displaying the subset of the plurality of graphical representations as first active graphical representations selectable by the user; and

receiving a plurality of new search letters inputted by the user, wherein for each of said plurality of new search letters inputted by the user, the method further comprises;

providing a combination of each of said plurality of new search letters with any one or more of the plurality of search letters previously inputted by the user;

dynamically filtering the subset of the plurality of graphical representations to filter out one or more graphical representations based on said combination; and

altering, in response to the dynamically filtering, the first active graphical representations to exclude the one or more graphical representations from the subset of the active graphical representations to provide second active graphical representations selectable by the user;

wherein the one or more graphical representations excluded by the dynamically filtering are displayed as part of a visually de-emphasized background display overlaid by the second active graphical representations selectable by the user, and wherein the one or more graphical representations excluded by the dynamically filtering are not selectable by the user.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein at least one of the first active graphical representations and the second active graphical representations comprises a graphical list view.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein at least one of the first active graphical representations and the second active graphical representations comprises a graphical array.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the filtering of the plurality of graphical representations to extract the plurality of graphical representations for displaying to the user is performed according to one of history data and preference data, the one of the history data and the preference data being associated with the user.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein at least one of the plurality of graphical representations and the subset of graphical representations comprises audio-visual images.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein at least one of the filtering and the dynamic filtering is performed according to a metadata associated with each of the respective graphical representations.

21. The system of claim 15, wherein at least one of the filtering and the dynamic filtering is performed according to a metadata associated with each of the respective graphical representations, the metadata sourced from the system.

22. The system of claim 15, wherein at least one of the filtering and the dynamic filtering is performed according to a metadata associated with each of the respective graphical representations, the metadata sourced from a third party data provider.

23. The system of claim 15, wherein at least one of the filtering and the dynamic filtering is performed according to a distribution window of the content to which each content unit respectively corresponds.

24. The system of claim 15, wherein at least one of the filtering and the dynamic filtering is performed according to pricing of the content to which each content unit respectively corresponds.

25. The system of claim 15, wherein at least one of the filtering and the dynamic filtering is performed according to at least one of a present availability and a future availability of the content to which each content unit respectively corresponds.

26. The system of claim 15, wherein at least one of the filtering and the dynamic filtering is performed according to a genre of the content to which each content unit respectively corresponds.

27. The system of claim 15, wherein the plurality of content units comprises content units corresponding to audio-visual content.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein at least one of the filtering and the dynamic filtering is performed according to a distribution window of the audio visual content.

29. The system of claim 15, wherein each of the first active graphical representations is enlarged relative to the one or more graphical representations displayed as part of the visually de-emphasized the background display.