Selective invocation of playback content supplementation

• US 9,779,163 B2
• Filed: 09/17/2013
• Issued: 10/03/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/17/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: The Invention Science Fund I, L.L.C. (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: The Invention Science Fund I, L.L.C. (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Levien, Royce A., Lord, Robert W., Malamud, Mark A., Wood, Jr., Lowell L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Flanders, Andrew C
• Application Number:
  US14/029,227
• Publication Number:
  US 20140088744A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,477 Days
• Field of Search: 700 94, 381 61, 381 58
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/60 of audio data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/165 Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path

Abstract

A system, method, computer program product, and carrier are described for obtaining one or more positions in a playable message and at least an indication of a playback system configuration and signaling a decision of which supplemental content to use in supplementing the one or more positions in the playable message.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

obtaining one or more positions in a playable message and at least an indication of a playback system configuration;

encountering more than one option available for use at the one or more positions in the playable message;

permitting a user to decide which supplemental content to use in supplementing the one or more positions in the playable message responsive to the indication of the playback system configuration and in response to encountering the more than one option available for use at the one or more positions in the playable message; and

signaling a decision of which supplemental content to use in response to the permitting the user to decide which supplemental content to use in supplementing the one or more positions in the playable message,

wherein at least one of the obtaining, encountering, permitting or signaling is at least partially implemented in hardware.

2. A method, comprising:

receiving an identification of one or more positions associated with a content and an identification of at least one playback system;

encountering more than one option available for use at the one or more positions associated with the content;

obtaining a selection of at least one supplemental item to use in supplementing the one or more positions associated with the content responsive to the identification of at least one playback system and in response to encountering more than one option available for use at the one or more positions associated with the content; and

signaling a decision of the at least one supplemental item to use in supplementing the one or more positions associated with the content based at least in part on the obtained selection,

wherein at least one of the receiving, encountering, obtaining or signaling is at least partially implemented in hardware.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein receiving an identification of one or more positions associated with a content and an identification of at least one playback system comprises:

accepting information about the one or more positions at a message supplementation system.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein receiving an identification of one or more positions associated with a content and an identification of at least one playback system comprises:

obtaining a relationship at least between the one or more positions and one or more past event dates.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein receiving an identification of one or more positions associated with a content and an identification of at least one playback system comprises:

obtaining one or more positions in a playable message and at least an indication of a playback system configuration.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein obtaining one or more positions in a playable message and at least an indication of a playback system configuration comprises:

obtaining one or more user identifiers in the indication of the playback system configuration.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein signaling a decision of the at least one supplemental item to use in supplementing the one or more positions associated with the content based at least in part on the obtained selection comprises:

signaling a decision of which supplemental content to use in supplementing the one or more positions in the playable message responsive to the indication of the playback system configuration.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein receiving an identification of one or more positions associated with a content and an identification of at least one playback system comprises:

receiving an identification of one or more positions associated with at least one of an audio clip or a video clip.

9. The method of claim 2, wherein receiving an identification of one or more positions associated with a content and an identification of at least one playback system comprises:

receiving an identification of one or more positions associated with at least one streaming media content.

10. The method of claim 2, wherein receiving an identification of one or more positions associated with a content and an identification of at least one playback system comprises:

receiving an identification of one or more positions associated with a content to be streamed to at least one playback system, the at least one playback system operably coupled via the Internet.

11. The method of claim 2, wherein receiving an identification of one or more positions associated with a content and an identification of at least one playback system comprises:

receiving at a playback system an identification of one or more positions associated with a content.

12. The method of claim 2, wherein encountering more than one option available for use at the one or more positions associated with the content comprises:

encountering more than one supplemental content option available for use at the one or more positions associated with the content.

13. The method of claim 2, wherein encountering more than one option available for use at the one or more positions associated with the content comprises:

encountering more than one environment available for use at the one or more positions associated with the content.

14. The method of claim 2, wherein encountering more than one option available for use at the one or more positions associated with the content comprises:

encountering more than one virtual environment available for use at the one or more positions associated with the content.

15. The method of claim 2, wherein encountering more than one option available for use at the one or more positions associated with the content comprises:

encountering one or more apparent user preferences associated with the one or more positions associated with the content.

16. The method of claim 2, wherein obtaining a selection of at least one supplemental item to use in supplementing the one or more positions associated with the content responsive to the identification of at least one playback system and in response to encountering more than one option available for use at the one or more positions associated with the content comprises:

obtaining a selection from a user of at least one supplemental item to use in supplementing the one or more positions associated with the content responsive to the identification of at least one playback system and in response to encountering more than one option available for use at the one or more positions associated with the content.

17. The method of claim 2, wherein obtaining a selection of at least one supplemental item to use in supplementing the one or more positions associated with the content responsive to the identification of at least one playback system and in response to encountering more than one option available for use at the one or more positions associated with the content comprises:

causing one or more users to be queried responsive to the identification of at least one playback system and in response to encountering more than one option available for use at the one or more positions associated with the content.

18. The method of claim 2, wherein obtaining a selection of at least one supplemental item to use in supplementing the one or more positions associated with the content responsive to the identification of at least one playback system and in response to encountering more than one option available for use at the one or more positions associated with the content comprises:

accessing at least some protocol implementation logic configured for at least partially obtaining the selection.

19. The method of claim 2, wherein obtaining a selection of at least one supplemental item to use in supplementing the one or more positions associated with the content responsive to the identification of at least one playback system and in response to encountering more than one option available for use at the one or more positions associated with the content comprises:

obtaining a selection from a human user of at least one supplemental item to use in supplementing the one or more positions associated with the content responsive to the identification of at least one playback system and in response to encountering more than one option available for use at the one or more positions associated with the content.

20. The method of claim 2, wherein signaling a decision of the at least one supplemental item to use in supplementing the one or more positions associated with the content based at least in part on the obtained selection comprises:

interleaving one or more supplemental content segments between a first message portion and a second message portion of the content.

21. The method of claim 2, wherein signaling a decision of the at least one supplemental item to use in supplementing the one or more positions associated with the content based at least in part on the obtained selection comprises:

signaling a decision of the at least one supplemental item to use in supplementing the one or more positions associated with the content responsive to the identification of at least one playback system.

22. The method of claim 2, wherein signaling a decision of the at least one supplemental item to use in supplementing the one or more positions associated with the content based at least in part on the obtained selection comprises:

signaling one or more content types of the at least one supplemental item to use in supplementing the one or more positions associated with the content based at least in part on the obtained selection.

23. The method of claim 2, wherein signaling a decision of the at least one supplemental item to use in supplementing the one or more positions associated with the content based at least in part on the obtained selection comprises:

signaling a decision of a human user of the at least one supplemental item to use in supplementing the one or more positions associated with the content based at least in part on the obtained selection.

24. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

streaming at least some of the content and at least some of the at least one supplemental item.

25. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

streaming at least some of the content and at least some of the at least one supplemental item at least in part via at least a portion of the Internet.

26. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

providing at least one of the selection, the decision or the at least one supplemental item, the providing operable to facilitate a data aggregation enabling at least one of a comparative analysis or a record selection.

27. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

accessing at least information about a first content segment from a first system and information about a second content segment from a second system by configuring a presentation sequence to include the information about the first content segment and to include the information about the second content segment;

retrieving the first content segment from the first system upon signaling the decision of the at least one supplemental item to use in supplementing the one or more positions associated with the content;

retrieving the second content segment from the second system in a background or batch mode; and

controlling the flow of the first content segment and of the second content segment during a presentation of the content using the presentation sequence.

28. The method of claim 2, wherein signaling a decision of the at least one supplemental item to use in supplementing the one or more positions associated with the content based at least in part on the obtained selection comprises:

configuring one or more content selection criteria using the identification of at least one playback system.

29. The method of claim 2, wherein signaling a decision of the at least one supplemental item to use in supplementing the one or more positions associated with the content based at least in part on the obtained selection comprises:

applying one or more content selection criteria to an inventory of available content in selecting at least one supplemental content item.

30. A method, comprising:

obtaining one or more positions in a playable message and an identification of at least one playback system;

encountering more than one option available for use at the one or more positions in the playable message;

permitting a user to decide which supplemental content to use in supplementing the one or more positions in the playable message responsive to the identification of the at least one playback system and in response to encountering the more than one option available for use at the one or more positions in the playable message; and

signaling a decision of which supplemental content to use in response to the permitting the user to decide which supplemental content to use in supplementing the one or more positions in the playable message.