System and method for providing personalized channel setting to social television viewer

• US 9,185,463 B2
• Filed: 11/11/2013
• Issued: 11/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/11/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Comigo Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Comigo Ltd.
• Inventors: Moran, Dov, Lentzitzky, Motty
• Primary Examiner(s): Bruckart, Benjamin R
• Assistant Examiner(s): Malangone, Carmine
• Application Number:
  US14/076,288
• Publication Number:
  US 20140137147A1
• Time in Patent Office: 729 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/00 Security arrangements for protecting computers, components thereof, programs or data against unauthorised activity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1078 Logging; Metering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2135 Metering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44204 Monitoring of content usage, e.g. the number of times a movie has been viewed, copied or the amount which has been watched monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; protecting generic digital content where the protection is independent of the precise nature of the content G06F21/10; arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services in broadcast systems H04H60/31
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4627 Rights management associated to the content security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4751 for defining user accounts, e.g. accounts for children
• 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 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104

Abstract

A method of sharing usage data of multimedia content is provided. The method comprises providing a set of media channels, providing access, to one or more pre-selected remote users, to usage data regarding consumption of the multimedia content, and selectively restricting access of at least a portion of the usage data to at least a portion of the remote users.

Claims

1. A method for use in a system comprising a plurality of client terminals in communication with each other, said method for operating said client terminals in an improved manner such that usage data of multimedia content is shared between a plurality of remote users associated with said client terminals, the method comprising:

defining one or more remote user categories and one or more media categories;

providing a set of media channels each providing multimedia content to a first one of said client terminals associated with a first user;

storing usage data related to media content provided to said first user in a storage device;

assigning at least a portion of said remote users to said remote user categories, and at least a portion of said media channels to said media categories;

defining a group of remote users selected according to at least one of said remote user categories and said media categories;

defining, for at least one or more combinations of one of the remote user categories and one of the media categories, access restrictions of at least a portion of said usage data relating to media channels assigned to the media category, for remote users assigned to the remote user category;

providing access, to one or more of said group of remote users, to said usage data; and

selectively restricting access, automatically and based on said access restrictions, of at least a portion of said usage data to at least a portion of said remote users.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said usage data is selected from at least one of the group consisting of:

viewing history, recording history, user comments and combinations thereof.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein said selectively restricting access is based on a time schedule.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein said selectively restricting access is based on programming.

5. A computer implemented method for use in a system comprising a plurality of client terminals in communication with each other via a communication network, said method for operating said client terminals in an improved manner such that usage data of multimedia content is shared between a plurality of remote users associated with said client terminals, said method comprising:

defining one or more remote user categories and one or more media categories;

providing a set of media channels each providing multimedia content to a first one of said plurality of client terminals associated with a first user;

storing usage data related to media content provided to said first user in a storage device;

assigning at least a portion of said remote users to said remote user categories, and at least a portion of said media channels to said media categories;

defining, for at least one or more combinations of one of the remote user categories and one of the media categories, access restrictions of at least a portion of said usage data relating to media channels assigned to the media category, for remote users assigned to the remote user category;

providing access via said network, to one or more of a group of remote users selected according to said user categories, to said usage data; and

selectively restricting access, automatically and based on said access restrictions, of at least a portion of said usage data to at least a portion of said remote users.

6. The computer implemented method according to claim 5, wherein said usage data is selected from at least one of the group consisting of:

viewing history, recording history, user comments and combinations thereof.

7. The computer implemented method according to claim 5, wherein said selectively restricting access is based on a time schedule.

8. The computer implemented method according to claim 5, wherein said selectively restricting access is based on programming.

9. A system for sharing usage data of multimedia content comprising a communication network and a plurality of client terminals in communication with each other via said communication network, said communication network comprising at least one central unit processor to operate said client terminals, in an improved manner such that usage data of multimedia content is shared between a plurality of remote users associated with said client terminals, to:

define one or more remote user categories and one or more media categories;

provide a set of media channels each providing multimedia content to a first one of said client terminals associated with a first user;

store usage data related to media content provided to said first user in a storage device;

assign at least a portion of said remote users to said remote user categories, and at least a portion of said media channels to said media categories;

define, for at least one or more combinations of one of the remote user categories and one of the media categories, access restrictions of at least a portion of said usage data relating to media channels assigned to the media category, for remote users assigned to the remote user category;

provide access via said network, to one or more of a group of remote users selected according to said user categories, to said usage data;

selectively restrict access, automatically and based on said access restrictions, of at least a portion of said usage data to at least a portion of said remote users.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein said usage data is selected from at least one of the group consisting of:

viewing history, recording history, user comments and combinations thereof.

11. The system according to claim 9, wherein said selectively restricting access is based on one or more of a time schedule and programming.