Systems and methods for creating variable length clips from a media stream

• US 9,998,802 B2
• Filed: 12/31/2008
• Issued: 06/12/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sling Media LLC (Dish Network Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sling Media LLC (Dish Network Corporation)
• Inventors: Conway, Frank, Curtis, Sean, Griffin, Brian J., Hirschhorn, Jason, Lucas, Brian, Rao, Padmanabha R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Netzloff, Eric R
• Assistant Examiner(s): Stibley, Michael R
• Application Number:
  US12/347,465
• Publication Number:
  US 20090157697A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,450 Days
• Field of Search: 705 14
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/00 Editing; Indexing; Addressing; Timing or synchronising; Monitoring; Measuring tape travel
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/031 Electronic editing of digitised analogue information signals, e.g. audio or video signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4015 where at least one of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. white board sharing, collaboration or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/765 intermediate
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23424 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for inserting or substituting an advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2541 Rights Management protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10; 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 21/2743 Video hosting of uploaded data from client
• 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 21/47205 for manipulating displayed content, e.g. interacting with MPEG-4 objects, editing locally
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/835 Generation of protective data, e.g. certificates protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8355 involving usage data, e.g. number of copies or viewings allowed
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/00 Television systems details H04N3/00, H04N5/00; methods or arrangements, for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/00; selective content distribution H04N21/00
• 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 7/173 with two-way working, e.g. subscriber sending a programme selection signal

Abstract

Systems and methods are described for providing variable-length media clips based upon a received media stream. An exemplary system for providing media clips to users includes a database comprising a list of rules associated with a plurality of programs, as well as a first server and a second server. The first server receives information about a particular program being viewed by a media player and obtains rules from the database for the identified program that are transmitted to the media player. The second server receives a media clip of the particular program being viewed from the media player, wherein the media clip is created at the media player in accordance with the rules corresponding to the program, and subsequently makes the media clip available to the users.

Claims

1. A method executable by a media player device to create a variable length media clip from a media stream received via a network, the method comprising:

receiving the media stream via the network by the media player device, wherein the media stream encodes a particular program for presentation to a viewer;

decoding the media stream by the media player device;

storing the decoded media stream in a buffer of the media player device;

automatically identifying, by the media player device, a title of the particular program encoded by the media stream;

transmitting identifying information about the particular program comprising the title of the particular program from the media player device via the network to a remotely-located first computer server, the remotely-located first computer server having access to a database of maximum clip lengths for each of a plurality of different programs;

receiving, by the media player device, a maximum clip length for the particular program that was automatically identified by the media player device from the remotely-located first computer server having access to the database of maximum clip lengths;

after receiving the maximum clip length for the particular program from the remotely-located first computer server, the media player device extracting a portion of the decoded media stream from the buffer to thereby create the variable length clip of the particular program, wherein the extracted portion of the media stream has a start point and an end point that are based upon inputs received by the media player device from the viewer;

enforcing the length of the variable length media clip by the media player device to be less than the maximum clip length for the particular program that is received from the remotely-located first computer server; and

transmitting the extracted clip from the media player device via the network for redistribution of the clip on the network by a remotely-located second computer server.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the automatic identifying comprises the media player device identifying the particular program encoded by the media stream without input from the viewer.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the extracting is performed only after the maximum clip length is obtained from the remotely-located first computer server.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the information about the particular program comprises a station identification and a program identification.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising the media player device determining the station identification and the program identification from the media stream itself.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein the identifying comprises generating an informational banner in the media stream, capturing an image of the informational banner, and performing an optical character recognition of the image to thereby extract information about the media stream.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the generating comprises directing a remotely-located placeshifting device that provides the media stream to generate the banner from a controlled device so that the banner is visible within the media stream.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the optical character recognition is performed by the remotely-located first computer server.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein the optical character recognition is performed by the media player device.

10. The method of claim 2 wherein the program is identified from information contained in an electronic program guide associated with the media player device.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the obtaining comprises receiving a plurality of rules associated with the identified program from the remotely-located first computer server.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the media clip provided to the remote server comprises metadata describing at least some of the plurality of rules associated with the identified program.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the receiving of the media stream comprises receiving a place-shifted media stream over a network from a placeshifting device.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the receiving of the media stream comprises receiving the media stream from a television source.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the television source is at least one of a satellite television source, a cable television source, and a broadcast television source.

16. A media player device comprising a processor and a memory, wherein the processor is configured to execute instructions stored in the memory to perform a method that creates a variable length media clip from a media stream received via a network, the method comprising:

receiving the media stream via the network by the media player device, wherein the media stream encodes a particular program for presentation to a viewer;

decoding the media stream by the media player device;

storing the decoded media stream in a buffer of the media player device;

automatically identifying, by the media player device, a title of the particular program encoded by the media stream;

transmitting identifying information about the particular program comprising the title of the particular program from the media player device via the network to a remotely-located first computer server, the remotely-located first computer server having access to a database of maximum clip lengths for each of a plurality of different programs;

receiving, by the media player device, a maximum clip length for the particular program that was automatically identified by the media player device from the remotely-located first computer server having access to the database of maximum clip lengths;

after receiving the maximum clip length for the particular program from the remotely-located first computer server, the media player device extracting a portion of the decoded media stream from the buffer to thereby create the variable length clip of the particular program, wherein the extracted portion of the media stream has a start point and an end point that are based upon inputs received by the media player device from the viewer;

enforcing the length of the variable length media clip by the media player device to be less than the maximum clip length for the particular program that is received from the remotely-located first computer server; and

transmitting the extracted clip from the media player device via the network for redistribution of the clip on the network by a remotely-located second computer server.

17. The media player device of claim 16 wherein the automatic identifying comprises the media player device identifying the particular program encoded by the media stream without input from the viewer.

18. The media player device of claim 17 wherein the extracting is performed only after the maximum clip length is obtained from the remotely-located first computer server.

19. The media player device of claim 16 wherein the program is identified from information contained in an electronic program guide associated with the media player device.

20. The media player device of claim 16 wherein the obtaining comprises receiving a plurality of rules associated with the identified program from the remotely-located first computer server.

21. The media player device of claim 20 wherein the media clip provided to the second computer system comprises metadata describing at least some of the plurality of rules associated with the identified program.

22. The media player device of claim 21 wherein the remotely-located second computer system enforces the at least some of the plurality of rules associated with the identified program in redistribution of the clip.