Generating media trials based upon media consumption

• US 9,268,458 B1
• Filed: 08/08/2012
• Issued: 02/23/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: IMDb.com, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Siegel, Hilliard Bruce
• Primary Examiner(s): Salomon, Phenuel
• Application Number:
  US13/569,315
• Time in Patent Office: 1,294 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/435 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/251 Learning process for intelligent management, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies details of learning user preferences for the retrieval of video data in a video database G06F16/739; computer systems using learning methods G06N3/08
• 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 21/44213 Monitoring of end-user related data arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33

Abstract

Disclosed are various embodiments for determining a foundational media item based at least upon an activity associated with a user. A related media item is identified based upon pre-defined relational metadata associated with the foundational media item. A recommendation is generated for the related media item that authorizes a presentation of the related media item through a user interface generated in a computing device.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

at least one computing device configured to perform operations comprising;

determine a foundational media item based at least upon an activity associated with a user, the foundational media item being of a first format type;

identify a related media item based upon pre-defined relational metadata associated with the foundational media item, the pre-defined relational metadata identifying the related media item as related to the foundational media item, the related media item being of a second format type;

generate a recommendation to the user for the related media item, wherein the recommendation authorizes a presentation of the related media item through a user interface generated in the at least one computing device, the presentation of the related media item having a usage restriction;

disable the presentation of the related media item according to the usage restriction; and

enable, after disabling the presentation of the related media item, the presentation of the related media item according to another activity associated with the user with respect to a media item distinct from the related media item; and

wherein the activity further comprises a purchase history of a another user, the first user being associated with a pre-defined user list comprising the another user.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the usage restriction is a limited number of presentations.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein after meeting the limited number of presentations, the related media item remains present in the user interface, the related media item being in a disabled state.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the user interface facilitates purchasing the related media item.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the activity further comprises a presence by the user at a public performance of content associated with the foundational media item.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the presence is determined by a client application executed in a mobile computing device of the user.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the client application uses a geolocation service.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the content is identified using an acoustic fingerprinting service.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one computing device is further configured to perform operations comprising:

generate the user interface to present the related media item to the user; and

transmit the user interface to a client computing device.

10. A method, comprising:

determining, in at least one computing device, a foundational media item based at least upon an activity associated with a first user;

identifying, in the at least one computing device, a related media item based upon pre-defined relational metadata associated with the foundational media item, the pre-defined relational metadata identifying the related media item as related to the foundational media item;

generating, in the at least one computing device, a recommendation for the related media item, wherein the recommendation authorizes a presentation of the related media item through a user interface generated in the at least one computing device, the presentation having a usage restriction;

disabling, in the at least one computing device, the presentation of the related media item according to the usage restriction;

enabling, in the at least one computing device, after disabling the presentation of the related media item, the presentation of the related media item according to another activity associated with the first user with respect to a media item distinct from the related media item; and

wherein the activity further comprises a purchase history of a second user, the first user being associated with a pre-defined user list comprising the second user.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the usage restriction is a time limit for the presentation.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the pre-defined user list is obtained, via a network, from a data store located remote from the at least one computing device.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the activity further comprises a presence by the second user at a performance of content associated with the foundational media item.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising the steps of:

generating, in the at least one computing device, the user interface to present the related media item to the first user; and

transmitting, in the at least one computing device, data encoding the user interface to a client computing device.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the user interface facilitates acquiring rights to the related media item.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the usage restriction comprises a predefined number of playbacks.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium embodying a program executable in a computing device, the program, when executed, causing the computing device to perform operations comprising:

determine a foundational media item based at least upon an activity associated with a first user, the foundational media item being of a first format type selected from the group consisting of audio, video, and electronic book;

identify a related media item based at least upon pre-defined relational metadata associated with the foundational media item, the pre-defined relational metadata identifying the related media item as related to the foundational media item, the related media item being of a second format type, the second format type being a different format type than the first format type;

generate a recommendation to the first user for the related media item, wherein the recommendation authorizes a presentation of the related media item through a user interface, the presentation having a usage restriction comprising being limited to a pre-defined length of time;

disable the presentation of the related media item according to the usage restriction;

enable, after disabling the presentation of the related media item, the presentation of the related media item according to another activity associated with the first user with respect to a media item distinct from the related media item;

generate the user interface to present the related media item to the first user;

transmit, via a network, data encoding the user interface to a client computing device; and

wherein the activity further comprises a purchase history of a second user, the first user being associated with a pre-defined user list comprising the second user.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the activity comprises a browsing history of the first user.