U.S. patent application number 14/575264 was filed with the patent office on 2016-06-23 for methods and systems for generating a notification.
The applicant listed for this patent is Rovi Guides, Inc.. Invention is credited to Calvin Nguyen, Donn Smith.
Application Number | 20160182954 14/575264 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 56131051 |
Filed Date | 2016-06-23 |
United States Patent
Application |
20160182954 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Nguyen; Calvin ; et
al. |
June 23, 2016 |
METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR GENERATING A NOTIFICATION
Abstract
Methods and systems are disclosed herein for a media guidance
application that alerts a user to the appearance of objects in
media content that may be of interest to the user. For example, as
media content progresses, the media guidance application may
determine objects that may interest a user. The media guidance
application may record the number of determined objects and present
the number to the user as well as supplemental content associated
with each object.
Inventors: |
Nguyen; Calvin; (North
Hills, CA) ; Smith; Donn; (New York, NY) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Rovi Guides, Inc. |
Santa Clara |
CA |
US |
|
|
Family ID: |
56131051 |
Appl. No.: |
14/575264 |
Filed: |
December 18, 2014 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
725/10 ;
725/14 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04N 21/4532 20130101;
H04N 21/4722 20130101; H04N 21/8133 20130101; H04N 21/44204
20130101; H04N 21/4668 20130101; H04N 21/4667 20130101; H04N
21/44222 20130101 |
International
Class: |
H04N 21/466 20060101
H04N021/466; H04N 21/81 20060101 H04N021/81; H04N 21/4722 20060101
H04N021/4722; H04N 21/442 20060101 H04N021/442; H04N 21/45 20060101
H04N021/45 |
Claims
1. A method of indicating an amount of content of interest to
users, the method comprising: generating for display a portion of a
media asset to a user; determining that an object in the media
asset is of interest to the user; determining that a supplemental
asset that corresponds to the object is available; in response to
determining that the supplemental asset is available, incrementing
a counter, wherein the counter corresponds to a total number of
supplemental assets available for the portion of the media asset;
determining that the portion of the media asset is no longer being
presented; and in response to determining that the portion of the
media asset is no longer being presented, generating for display an
indication of the total number of supplemental assets available for
the portion of the media asset to the user.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the portion of
the media asset is no longer being presented comprises determining
that the media asset is at one of an end of the media asset, a
beginning of a commercial break, and an end of a scene in the media
asset.
3. The method of claim 1, further comprising, in response to
determining that the portion of the media asset is no longer being
presented, generating for display a user-selectable indication of
the supplemental asset, wherein the user-selectable indication
comprises information about the supplemental asset.
4. The method of claim 3, further comprising: determining whether
the user selected the user-selectable indication; and determining,
based on a user selection of the user-selectable indication,
whether to present to the user a second supplemental asset related
to the supplemental asset, at a future time.
5. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining a user's
level of interest in the supplemental asset; storing the user's
level of interest in the supplemental asset; and determining, based
on the stored user's level of interest in the supplemental asset,
whether to present to the user a second supplemental asset related
to the supplemental asset, at a future time.
6. The method of claim 1, further comprising in response to
determining that the supplemental asset that corresponds to the
object is available, notifying the user during the presentation of
the portion of the media asset that the supplemental asset is
available.
7. The method of claim 1, further comprising, incrementing the
counter in response to determining that an additional supplemental
asset is available for the object in the portion of the media
asset.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the object in
the media asset is of interest to the user further comprises
cross-referencing the object with a database listing objects that
are of interest to the user to determine whether the object matches
one of the objects that are of interest to the user.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the supplemental
asset that corresponds to the object is available further comprises
cross-referencing the object with a database listing assets that
correspond to the object and selecting the supplemental asset from
the assets that corresponds to the object.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein generating for display an
indication of the total number of supplemental assets available to
the user is performed on one of a different device and a different
screen.
11. A system for indicating an amount of content of interest to
users, the system comprising: storage circuitry configured to store
a counter; and control circuitry configured to: generate for
display a portion of a media asset to a user; determine that an
object in the media asset is of interest to the user; determine
that a supplemental asset that corresponds to the object is
available; in response to determining that the supplemental asset
is available, increment the counter, wherein the counter
corresponds to a total number of supplemental assets available for
the portion of the media asset; determine that the portion of the
media asset is no longer being presented; and in response to
determining that the portion of the media asset is no longer being
presented, generate for display an indication of the total number
of supplemental assets available for the portion of the media asset
to the user.
12. The system of claim 11, wherein determining that the portion of
the media asset is no longer being presented comprises determining
that the media asset is at one of an end of the media asset, a
beginning of a commercial break, and an end of a scene in the media
asset.
13. The system of claim 12, wherein the control circuitry is
further configured to, in response to determining that the portion
of the media asset is no longer being presented, generate for
display a user-selectable indication of the supplemental asset,
wherein the user-selectable indication comprises information about
the supplemental asset.
14. The system of claim 13, wherein the control circuitry is
further configured to: determine whether the user selected the
user-selectable indication; and determine, based on a user
selection of the user-selectable indication, whether to present to
the user a second supplemental asset related to the supplemental
asset, at a future time.
15. The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry is
further configured to: determine a user's level of interest in the
supplemental asset; store the user's level of interest in the
supplemental asset; and determine, based on the stored user's level
of interest in the supplemental asset, whether to present to the
user a second supplemental asset related to the supplemental asset,
at a future time.
16. The system of claim 11, further comprising control circuitry
configured to, in response to determining that the supplemental
asset that corresponds to the object is available, notify the user
during the presentation of the portion of the media asset that the
supplemental asset is available.
17. The system of claim 11, further comprising control circuitry
configured to increment the counter in response to determining that
an additional supplemental asset is available for another object in
the portion of the media asset.
18. The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry
configured to determine that the object in the media asset is of
interest to the user is further configured to cross-reference the
object with a database listing objects that are of interest to the
user to determine whether the object matches one of the objects
that are of interest to the user.
19. The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry
configured to determine that the supplemental asset that
corresponds to the object is available is further configured to
cross-reference the object with a database listing assets that
correspond to the object and selecting the supplemental asset, from
the assets, that corresponds to the object.
20. The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry
configured to generate for display an indication of the total
number of supplemental assets available to the user is further
configured to generate for display the indication on one of a
different device and a different screen.
21-50. (canceled)
Description
BACKGROUND
[0001] In conventional systems, users have access to a plethora of
media content. With so much content available, users often require
assistance in selecting content, and content providers often
require assistance in selecting what content to provide to users.
To aid in selecting content, systems often collect data related to
what content a user watches (or does not watch), what content a
user likes (or dislikes), etc. and stores this information in a
user profile.
SUMMARY
[0002] Accordingly, methods and systems are described herein for a
media guidance application that recommends content to a user based
on a user's interests. Specifically, the media guidance application
alerts a user to the appearance of objects in media content that
may interest the user. For example, a user may be interested in
video games and baseball as indicated by the user's profile.
Furthermore, while watching a movie a user may encounter a scene
where two characters are playing a video game such as "Mortal
Kombat." Because the user is interested in video games, as
indicated in the user's profile, the media guidance application may
search for content associated with the video game (e.g., a new
expansion pack). As the movie continues, another scene in the movie
may show a baseball game. Because the user is interested in
baseball, the media guidance application may search for content
associated with the baseball game (e.g., a baseball game scheduled
to be played in the near future). The media guidance application
may record the number of scenes for which associated content was
found and may present an indication of that number at the end of
the movie.
[0003] Furthermore, the media guidance application may provide
access to the content, additional information about the content,
etc., when the user selects the indication. For example, in
response to a selection of the indication, the media guidance
application may provide a link to the new expansion and/or
additional information about the expansion pack. Likewise, in
response to a selection of the indication, the media guidance
application may provide the user with an option to schedule a
recording of the baseball game in the near future.
[0004] In some aspects, the media guidance application may present
a portion of a media asset to a user. For example, the media
guidance application may present a media asset such as a movie, a
show, or a news program to the user. The media guidance application
may also detect a particular portion of the media asset (e.g., a
scene, chapter, segment between two commercial breaks, a segment
beginning after the introduction credits, or ending before the
closing credits, etc.).
[0005] The media guidance application may determine whether or not
an object in the media asset is of interest to the user. For
example, the media guidance application may compare the user's
interests as indicated in a user's profile to the object (or
information about the object) in the media asset. For example, in
response to determining that an object corresponds to a particular
character in the media asset, the media guidance application may
determine whether or not the user is interested in the character
(or an actor portraying the character) by comparing the character
to a user profile associated with the user. For example, the media
guidance application may base a determination of whether or not the
user is interested in the character on whether or not the object
(or information about the object) matches the user's interests.
[0006] The media guidance application may then determine whether or
not a supplemental asset that corresponds to the object is
available. For example, in response to determining that an object
corresponding to the actor matches the user's interests, the media
guidance application may search a database of supplemental assets
for a supplemental asset corresponding to the actor.
[0007] The media guidance application may then, in response to
determining that the supplemental asset is available, increment a
counter, wherein the counter corresponds to a total number of
supplemental assets available for the portion of the media asset.
For example, if the media guidance application determined that a
supplemental asset is available for the actor, the media guidance
application may increment a counter. For example, if the counter
previously stood at "four" (corresponding to four previously
appearing objects that had supplemental assets available), the
media guidance application may increment the counter to read "five"
(corresponding to the addition of the supplemental asset for the
actor).
[0008] The media guidance application may then determine that the
portion of the media asset is no longer being presented. For
example, the media guidance application may detect a trigger in the
media asset that indicates that the scene featuring the object has
ended, a commercial break has begun, and/or program credits are
being presented.
[0009] The media guidance application may then, in response to
determining that the portion of the media asset is no longer being
presented, indicate a total number of supplemental assets available
for the portion of the media asset to the user. For example, the
media guidance application may present a number (e.g., "23") on the
screen corresponding to the twenty-three supplemental assets that
are available to the user.
[0010] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may
also, in response to determining that the portion of the media
asset is no longer being presented, generate for display a
user-selectable indication of the supplemental asset, wherein the
user-selectable indication comprises information about the
supplemental asset. For example, the media guidance application may
generate for display a listing for the supplemental asset that
includes a title of the supplemental asset. Additionally or
alternatively, the media guidance application may generate for
display a short description of the supplemental asset. For example,
the description may indicate the object to which the supplemental
asset is related and/or describe the contents of the supplemental
asset.
[0011] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may also
determine whether the user selected the user-selectable indication.
For example, based on whether or not the user selected the
user-selectable indication, the media guidance application may
determine whether or not to present a second supplemental asset
related to the supplemental asset, at a future time. For example,
the media guidance application may determine that the user is
interested in cooking and that a character in a movie being
presented to the user is cooking a meal. Based on that, the media
guidance application may present to the user an advertisement of a
cooking class. The media guidance application may further detect
that the user selected the advertisement and based on that
determination may generate for display, at a future time, an
advertisement for another cooking class. Conversely, if the user
did not select the cooking class, the media guidance application
may not present to the user an advertisement for another cooking
class in the future.
[0012] In some embodiments, the user-selectable indication may
include an indication of user's level of interest in the
supplemental asset. The media guidance application may store the
user's level of interest in the supplemental asset and in the
future may determine whether to present to the user a second
supplemental asset related to the supplemental asset based on the
level of interest stored. For example, if the user is interested in
a specific actor and that actor is performing in a movie that the
user is watching, the media guidance application may present to the
user, during a commercial break or during end-of-the-movie credits,
an offer to purchase another movie featuring the actor. The media
guidance application may present to the user an icon (e.g., green
colored circle, an icon with "Yes" on it or an icon with a smiley
face on it) selectable by the user that indicates that the user is
interested in the offer to purchase the other movie featuring the
actor. The media guidance application may also present to the user
an icon (e.g., a red colored circle, an icon with "No" on it or an
icon with a sad face on it) selectable by the user that indicates
that the user is not interested in the offer to purchase the other
movie featuring the actor. When the user selects the icon
indicating that he is interested in the offer to purchase the other
movie, the media guidance application may present future offers to
the user to purchase movies. Conversely, if the user selects the
icon indicating that the user is not interested in purchasing the
other movie, the media guidance application may not present to the
user future offers to purchase movies featuring the actor.
[0013] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may, in
response to determining that a supplemental asset that corresponds
to an object is available, notify the user during the presentation
of the portion of the media asset that the supplemental asset is
available. For example, if the user is interested in motorcycles
and a character in a movie that the user is watching is riding a
motorcycle, the media guidance application may present to the user,
during a commercial break or end-of-the-movie credits, an offer to
buy tickets to a motorcycle show. The media guidance application
may also notify the user of the availability of the offer by having
the device that the movie is being watched on alert the user (e.g.,
through a vibration, an audio tone, a visual cue, etc.).
[0014] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may
increment the counter in response to determining that multiple
supplemental assets are available for an object in a portion of the
media asset. For example, if the media guidance application
determines that an object corresponds to multiple interests of the
user (e.g., baseball game and a favorite baseball player), the
media guidance application may present multiple supplemental assets
(e.g., one corresponding to baseball and one corresponding to the
baseball player).
[0015] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may
determine that an object in the media asset is of interest to the
user by cross-referencing the object with a database listing
objects that are of interest to the user. If the media guidance
application finds at least one match, than the object from the
media asset is of interest to the user. For example, if a character
is fishing in the media asset, the media guidance application may
access a database that includes the user's interests (e.g., user
profile) to determine whether the user is interested in fishing.
The user profile may be based on the user's interactions with the
media guidance application or may be based on the user entering his
or her interests into a media guidance database.
[0016] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may
determine that a supplemental asset that corresponds to an object
is available by cross-referencing the object with a database
listing assets that correspond to the object and selecting the
supplemental asset from the assets that correspond to the object.
For example, if the user likes skiing and a character is skiing in
the media asset, the media guidance application may access a
database in order to cross-reference skiing with objects in the
database. If the media guidance application determines that several
objects correspond to skiing (e.g., an email about new skis
available for sale, an advertisement for an opening of a new ski
resort and a sale at a ski store), the media guidance application
may select one or more of those objects to present to the user.
[0017] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may
indicate the number of supplemental assets available to the user on
one of a different device and a different screen. For example, if
the media guidance application is presenting a movie to a user via
a smart TV or a set-top box, the media guidance application may
present a counter of available supplemental assets on an electronic
tablet or a smart phone associated with the user. Additionally or
alternatively, if the media guidance application detects that a
user device on which the movie is being presented includes two
displays and the movie is being presented on the first display, the
media guidance application may present the counter on the second
display.
[0018] It should be noted that the systems and/or methods described
above may be applied to, or used in accordance with, other systems,
methods and/or apparatuses.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0019] The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure
will be apparent upon consideration of the following detailed
description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings,
in which like reference characters refer to like parts throughout,
and in which:
[0020] FIG. 1 shows an illustrative embodiment of a display screen
that may be used to provide media guidance application listings and
other media guidance information, in accordance with some
embodiments of the disclosure;
[0021] FIG. 2 shows another illustrative embodiment of a display
screen that may be used to provide media guidance application
listings, in accordance with some embodiments of the
disclosure;
[0022] FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment
(UE) device in accordance with some embodiments of the
disclosure;
[0023] FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in
accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;
[0024] FIG. 5 shows an illustrative embodiment of a display screen
that may be used to provide an indication of a total number of
supplemental assets available for the portion of the media asset to
the user, in accordance with some embodiments of the
disclosure;
[0025] FIG. 6 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in
indicating the total number of supplemental assets available for
the portion of the media asset to the user, in accordance with some
embodiments of the disclosure; and
[0026] FIG. 7 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in
determining whether a supplemental asset that is of interest to the
user is available and whether the media guidance application may
increment and display a counter based on the availability of the
supplemental asset, in accordance with some embodiments of the
disclosure.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0027] Methods and systems are described herein for a media
guidance application that alerts a user to the appearance of
objects in media content that represent a user's interests. For
example, the user may be interested in motorcycles and baseball.
The media guidance application may store those interests in a user
profile. While presenting a media asset (e.g., a movie, a news
program, a show, etc.) to a user, the media guidance application
may detect that a character in the media asset is riding a
motorcycle. Based on the user being interested in motorcycles and
the character riding a motorcycle in the media asset, the media
guidance application may search for a supplemental asset to present
to the user. As the media asset continues to be presented, the
media guidance application may detect a scene from a baseball game.
Based on the user being interested in baseball and the scene from
the baseball game in the media asset, the media guidance
application may search for another supplemental asset to present to
the user. At an opportune time during the presentation of the media
asset, the media guidance application may present to a user a
counter that represents a number of supplemental assets available
to the user.
[0028] As referred to herein, "a media guidance application,"
"interactive media guidance application," or "guidance application"
is an application that allows a user to access available media
content. The media guidance application and/or any instructions for
performing any of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded
on computer-readable media. Computer-readable media includes any
media capable of storing data. The computer-readable media may be
transitory, including, but not limited to, propagating electrical
or electromagnetic signals, or may be non-transitory, including,
but not limited to, volatile and nonvolatile computer memory or
storage devices such as a hard disk, floppy disk, USB drive, DVD,
CD, media cards, register memory, processor caches, Random Access
Memory ("RAM"), etc.
[0029] Media guidance applications may take various forms depending
on the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type of
media guidance application is an interactive television program
guide. Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to
as electronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications
that, among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate
many types of content or media assets. Interactive media guidance
applications may generate graphical user interface screens that
enable a user to navigate among, locate and select content.
[0030] As referred to herein, the terms "media asset" and "content"
should be understood to mean an electronically consumable user
asset, such as television programming, as well as pay-per-view
programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand (VOD) systems),
Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadable content,
Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information, pictures,
rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles, books,
electronic books, blogs, advertisements, chat sessions, social
media, applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia
and/or combination of the same. Guidance applications also allow
users to navigate among and locate content. As referred to herein,
the term "multimedia" should be understood to mean content that
utilizes at least two different content forms described above, for
example, text, audio, images, video, or interactivity content
forms. Content may be recorded, played, displayed or accessed by
user equipment devices, but can also be part of a live performance.
As referred to herein, the term "supplemental asset" should be
understood to mean a media asset that is related to another media
asset and/or an object in another media asset.
[0031] In some embodiments, a media guidance application may
present (e.g., via control circuitry) a portion of a media asset to
a user. For example, the media guidance application may be
presenting a news program to a user. The news program may contain
commercial breaks. A portion of the news program may include a
segment or parts of the news program between commercial breaks. As
referred to herein, a "portion" is a part of a media asset
distinguishable from another part of the media asset or another
media asset. A portion may be a scene, chapter, segment between two
commercial breaks, a segment beginning after the introduction
credits or a segment ending before the closing credits. In
addition, a portion may be a news story or a news segment. For
example, if a news program has 12 stories, the news program may
have 12 portions. If a news program has four segments (e.g., top
stories, local news, sports and weather), the news program may have
four portions. A portion may also be created by a user. For
example, if a user is watching a movie and at some point pauses the
movie, a portion may be the part of the movie between the start and
the time the movie was paused.
[0032] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may
determine that an object in the media asset is of interest to the
user. For example, the media guidance application may be presenting
a news program to a user. While presenting the news program, the
media guidance application may detect in the news program a scene
from a football game. The media guidance application may then
determine that the scene from a football game is an object in the
news program. The media guidance application may retrieve keywords,
phrases, etc. (e.g., from subtitles) associated with the object.
The media guidance application may further access a user profile
that stores the user's interests. The user profile may also contain
keywords that describe the user's interests. The media guidance
application may compare the keywords associated with the object to
the keywords in the user profile. If a predetermined number of
keywords match, the media guidance application has determined that
an object in the media asset is of interest to the user.
[0033] In order to determine whether or not objects exist in the
media asset, the media guidance application may access a database
that lists objects that can be found in media assets at certain
times during playback, how long objects are presented, etc. For
example, the database may contain an entry for a media asset that
indicates that a particular object appears at the twenty-three
minute mark of the media asset.
[0034] In another example, the media guidance application may
detect objects in a media asset using object recognition. For
example, the media guidance application may incorporate and/or have
access to a content recognition module. The content recognition
module may use object recognition techniques such as edge
detection, pattern recognition, including, but not limited to,
self-learning systems (e.g., neural networks), optical character
recognition, on-line character recognition (including, but not
limited to, dynamic character recognition, real-time character
recognition, intelligent character recognition), and/or any other
suitable technique to monitor the appearance (or lack thereof) of
one or more objects. For example, the media guidance application
may be monitoring the video of the media asset. The video may
include a series of frames. For each frame of the video, the media
application may use a content recognition module or algorithm to
detect the objects in each of the frames or series of frames.
[0035] In some embodiments, the content recognition module or
algorithm may also include speech recognition techniques, including
but not limited to Hidden Markov Models, dynamic time warping,
and/or neural networks (as described above) to translate the audio
signal of the media asset into text and/or processing audio data.
For example, the content recognition module may monitor the audio
signal for indications of objects in a media asset. A character in
a media asset may be describing a motorcycle that he was just
riding. From that description, the media guidance application may
detect that a motorcycle is part of a scene currently being
presented to the user. Additionally or alternatively, the content
recognition module may recognize the sound of a motorcycle being
driven in the media asset in order to detect the motorcycle.
[0036] As referred to herein, an "object" is any user-identifiable
part of a media asset that is distinct from other identifiable
parts in the media asset. For example, an object can be any
physical object in the media asset, which can include a bottle of
soda, a couch, a ball, a house, etc. Also, any person, animal or
plant may be an object. A scene may also be an object in a media
asset. For example, a scene of a football game can include a
stadium, fans, players, referees, etc. Actors and characters in a
movie may also be objects. For example, if a certain actor is
portraying the current president of the United States, both the
actor and the president of the United States may be objects in the
media asset.
[0037] Once the media guidance application detects an object in the
media asset, it may compare the object with the user's interests.
The user's interests may be stored in a user profile. If the user
is interested in the sport of football, the user profile may store
football as a user's interest. Additionally or alternatively, the
user's favorite professional football team, favorite college team
and favorite players on those teams may be stored. The user profile
may be located locally on the user device or remotely to be
retrieved by the user device via a network connection.
[0038] The media guidance application may allow a user to provide
user profile information or may automatically compile user profile
information. The media guidance application may, for example,
monitor the content the user accesses and/or other interactions the
user may have with the guidance application. Additionally or
alternatively, the media guidance application may obtain all or
part of other user profiles that are related to a particular user
(e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the user accesses, such
as www.allrovi.com, from other media guidance applications the user
accesses, from other interactive applications the user accesses,
from another user equipment device of the user, etc.), and/or
obtain information about the user from other sources that the media
guidance application may access. As a result, a user can be
provided with a unified guidance application experience across the
user's different user equipment devices. This type of user
experience is described in greater detail below in connection with
FIG. 4. Additional personalized media guidance application features
are described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent
Application Publication No. 2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005,
Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and
Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0174430,
filed Feb. 21, 2002, which are hereby incorporated by reference
herein in their entireties.
[0039] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may
determine that a supplemental asset that corresponds to the object
is available. For example, the media guidance application may
search a database of supplemental assets to compare the object with
the supplemental assets in the database. The media guidance
application may also search the Internet for available supplemental
assets. The media guidance application may use any commercial
search engine or any specialized search engine to search the
internet. For example, if the user is interested in football and a
scene from a football game appears in a movie that the user is
watching, the media guidance application may search the database of
supplemental assets for football-related objects. One of those
objects could be a notification to the user that a college football
game is going to be broadcast in the near future. Additionally or
alternatively, the object may be an email to the user informing the
user that tickets are available for a football game featuring the
user's favorite college football team.
[0040] In some embodiments, in response to determining that the
supplemental asset is available, the media guidance application may
increment a counter, where the counter corresponds to a total
number of supplemental assets available for the portion of the
media asset. A counter may be a software module that keeps track of
a number of supplemental assets available to the user. The software
module may store multiple counters. For example, if the media
guidance application determined that a supplemental asset is
available for "football", the media guidance application may
increment a counter for the current portion of the media asset. If
the counter previously stood at "four" (corresponding to four
previously appearing objects that had supplemental assets
available), the media guidance application may increment the
counter to read "five" (corresponding to the addition of the
supplemental asset for "football"). When the media guidance
application detects, that a new portion of the media asset has
begun, the counter is reset to zero. Additionally or alternatively,
the media guidance application may store a second counter
corresponding to a number of supplemental assets available for the
whole media asset. This counter is not reset in response to a
beginning of a new portion of the media asset. Both of these
counters may be incremented by one or may be incremented by another
number. For example, if two supplemental assets are available for
one object of interest to the user, the media guidance application
may make two supplemental assets available to the user and may
increment the counter by two.
[0041] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may then
determine that the portion of the media asset is no longer being
presented. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may
determine that the portion of the media asset is no longer being
presented based on a trigger. As referred to herein, "a trigger"
may be anything that causes the media guidance application to
determine that a portion of the media asset has ended. For example,
the media guidance application may detect a trigger in the media
asset that indicates that a scene has ended or a commercial break
has begun. The media guidance application may also detect a trigger
in the media asset that indicates that movie credits are being
currently presented. Additionally or alternatively, the trigger may
be the act, by the user, of pausing the media asset.
[0042] A trigger may be based on any information. For example, a
trigger may be metadata or a black screen that is presented before
any commercial break. Additionally or alternatively, the trigger
may be a software module that retrieves, from a database, all times
in a media asset where a known portion of the media asset ends. A
trigger may also be a software module that detects that a user
paused or otherwise stopped the presentation of the media asset. A
trigger may also be part of the object recognition system described
above. The object recognition system may detect an end of a portion
of a media asset based on a shape in the media asset or a
particular scene in the media asset.
[0043] In some embodiments, in response to determining that the
portion of the media asset is no longer being presented, the media
guidance application may indicate, to the user, the total number of
supplemental assets available for the portion of the media asset.
For example, the media guidance application may display a number
(e.g., "23") corresponding to the twenty-three supplemental assets
that are available to the user. The number may be selectable by the
user in order to bring up further details of the supplemental
assets available. These details may include any of a short
description of the supplemental asset, a short summary of the
supplemental asset and a description of the related object in the
media asset. The indicator may also represent the rank of the media
asset compared with other media assets that the user consumed
during a particular amount of time (e.g., a day, a week, a month,
etc.). The indicator may also represent a rating of the media asset
based on ratings from other users. The rating may be based on a
scale (e.g., five stars to one star). Additionally or
alternatively, the user selecting the indicator may enable the user
to recommend the media asset to other users.
[0044] In some embodiments in response to determining that the
portion of the media asset is no longer being presented, the media
guidance application generates for display a user-selectable
indication of the supplemental asset, wherein the user-selectable
indication comprises information about the supplemental asset. For
example, the user may select the number of supplemental assets
available that is displayed. In response to the user selecting the
number, the media guidance application may further present multiple
selectable indications that correspond to supplemental assets
available. These indications may include any of a short description
of the supplemental asset, a short summary of the supplemental
asset or a description of the corresponding object in the media
asset. Alternatively, the indication can be a title of the
supplemental asset, or any other information about the supplemental
asset that may be useful to the user.
[0045] A user-selectable indication may be a link to the
supplemental asset. For example, if a supplemental asset is an
email and the user selects the supplemental asset, the media
guidance application may execute the user's email program in order
to retrieve the email. For example, if the supplemental asset is a
link to a website, the media guidance application may open an
Internet browser and navigate to the website address corresponding
to the indication. Additionally or alternatively, the
user-selectable indication may include an icon representing the
type of supplemental asset (e.g., email or website) and a short
summary of the supplemental asset. The indication may also include
a sound associated with a number of media assets available to the
user. For example, a different sound may be played based on a
number of supplemental assets available. Also, a different sound
volume may be selected based on the number of supplemental assets
available.
[0046] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may also
determine whether the user selected the user-selectable indication
and determine, based on whether the user selected the
user-selectable indication, whether or not to present to the user,
at a future time, a second supplemental asset related to the
supplemental asset. For example, if the user selected a
supplemental asset containing an offer for tickets to the user's
favorite college football team's game, the media guidance
application may present to the user offers to buy tickets to other
games involving his favorite college football team. Additionally or
alternatively, the media guidance application may present to the
user offers to buy tickets to other football games and sporting
events involving other sports and sports teams. Conversely, if the
user did not select the offer to buy tickets, the media guidance
application may not present to the user offers to buy tickets to
future football games.
[0047] In some embodiments, the user-selectable indication may
include an indication of user's level of interest in the
supplemental asset. The media guidance application may then store
the user's level of interest in the supplemental asset and
determine, based on the stored level of interest, whether to
present a second supplemental asset, related to the supplemental
asset, at a future time. For example, the media guidance
application may generate for display an icon containing three
colors (e.g., green, yellow and red) selectable by the user that
indicate the user's level of interest in watching an upcoming
interview with his favorite actor. If a user selects the green part
of the icon, the media guidance application may present to the user
future interviews with the user's favorite actor or other actors.
If the user selects the yellow part of the icon, the media guidance
application may present to the user future interviews with his
favorite actor only and not other actors. If the user selects the
red part of the icon, the media guidance application may not
present any future interviews to the user.
[0048] In some embodiments, in response to determining that the
supplemental asset that corresponds to the object is available, the
media guidance application may notify the user during the
presentation of the portion of the media asset that the
supplemental asset is available. For example, if a media guidance
application determines that tickets are available for a football
game involving the user's favorite team, the media guidance
application may notify the user of the availability of the offer by
having the device on which the media asset is being presented alert
the user (e.g., through a vibration, an audio tone, a visual cue,
etc.) before the end of the current portion of the media asset. The
media guidance application may alert the user of the supplemental
asset in different ways, depending on the type of the supplemental
asset. For example, if the supplemental asset is an email, the
media guidance application may notify the user of the availability
of the email through a vibration. If the supplemental asset is a
link to an Internet web page, the media guidance application may
generate an audio tone, and if the supplemental asset is an offer
to present another media asset, the notification may be a visual
cue.
[0049] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may
increment the counter in response to determining that an additional
supplemental asset is available for the object in the portion of
the media asset. For example, if a media guidance application
determines that a baseball game is available for viewing based on
the user being interested in baseball and characters playing
baseball in the movie being watched by the user, the media guidance
application may increment the counter of events of interest to the
user. If the media guidance application determines that an offer to
buy baseball tickets is an additional available supplemental asset,
the media guidance application may increment the counter again. The
media guidance application may also only increment the counter by
one if one supplemental asset is available for multiple objects in
the media asset. For example, if a user is interested in shopping
and cooking and an object being presented in the media asset is a
cookbook, the media guidance application may only increment the
counter by one for a supplemental asset that represents an offer to
buy the cookbook despite the supplemental asset matching both user
interests.
[0050] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may
indicate the number of supplemental assets available to the user on
one of a different device and a different screen. For example, the
media guidance application may be presenting the media asset to the
user via a smart TV or a set-top box. The media guidance
application may also detect that a user owns an electronic tablet
or a smart phone. The media guidance application may then generate
for display the counter of available supplemental assets on the
electronic tablet and/or the smart phone. Additionally or
alternatively, if a device on which the media guidance application
is presenting the media asset has more then one display, the
counter may be presented on a different display then the display
where the media asset is being presented.
[0051] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may
aggregate the displayed counters as the media asset progresses. For
example, a media asset may be presented to the user (e.g., a
movie). The media guidance application may determine that three
supplemental assets are available to the user prior to the first
commercial break. During the first commercial break, the media
guidance application may present to the user a counter that
indicates the number three, "3," corresponding to three available
supplemental assets. If the user does not select the counter, the
media guidance application may store the value of the counter and
the corresponding supplemental assets for a later presentation to
the user. As the media asset progresses, the media guidance
application may determine, prior to the second commercial break,
that another two supplemental assets are available to the user.
Because the user did not select the counter at the first commercial
break, the media guidance application may aggregate the counter and
the corresponding supplemental assets and present to the user the
number five "5," corresponding to the total number of supplemental
assets available to the user prior to the first commercial break
and the second commercial break. Alternatively, if the user
selected the counter after the first commercial break, the counter
would not be aggregated and would be reset to zero.
[0052] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may
aggregate all supplemental assets available for the entire media
asset. For example, the media guidance application may search for
supplemental assets based on the objects in the media asset and the
user's interest and present those to the user during a break in the
presentation of the media asset. The media guidance application may
store a second counter representing the number of supplemental
assets available for the entire media asset. That counter may be
presented during end credits regardless as to whether the user
selected any counter during any other break in presentation of the
media asset. The second counter may be stored and incremented in
parallel with the first counter as described above.
[0053] FIGS. 1-2 show illustrative display screens that may be used
to provide media guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS.
1-2 may be implemented on any suitable user equipment device or
platform. While the displays of FIGS. 1-2 are illustrated as full
screen displays, they may also be fully or partially overlaid over
content being displayed. A user may indicate a desire to access
content information by selecting a selectable option provided in a
display screen (e.g., a menu option, a listings option, an icon, a
hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicated button (e.g., a GUIDE
button) on a remote control or other user input interface or
device. In response to the user's indication, the media guidance
application may provide a display screen with media guidance data
organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in a
grid, by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category
(e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories of
programming), or other predefined, user-defined, or other
organization criteria.
[0054] FIG. 1 shows an illustrative grid of a program listings
display 100 arranged by time and channel that also enables access
to different types of content in a single display. Display 100 may
include grid 102 with: (1) a column of channel/content type
identifiers 104, where each channel/content type identifier (which
is a cell in the column) identifies a different channel or content
type available; and (2) a row of time identifiers 106, where each
time identifier (which is a cell in the row) identifies a time
block of programming. Grid 102 also includes cells of program
listings, such as program listing 108, where each listing provides
the title of the program provided on the listing's associated
channel and time. With a user input device, a user can select
program listings by moving highlight region 110. Information
relating to the program listing selected by highlight region 110
may be provided in program information region 112. Region 112 may
include, for example, the program title, the program description,
the time the program is provided (if applicable), the channel the
program is on (if applicable), the program's rating, and other
desired information.
[0055] In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g.,
content that is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user
equipment devices at a predetermined time and is provided according
to a schedule), the media guidance application also provides access
to non-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user
equipment device at any time and is not provided according to a
schedule). Non-linear programming may include content from
different content sources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD),
Internet content (e.g., streaming media, downloadable media, etc.),
locally stored content (e.g., content stored on any user equipment
device described above or other storage device), or other
time-independent content. On-demand content may include movies or
any other content provided by a particular content provider (e.g.,
HBO On Demand providing "The Sopranos" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm").
HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time Warner Company L.P.
et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM are trademarks
owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content may include web
events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or content available
on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content through an
Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).
[0056] Grid 102 may provide media guidance data for non-linear
programming including on-demand listing 114, recorded content
listing 116, and Internet content listing 118. A display combining
media guidance data for content from different types of content
sources is sometimes referred to as a "mixed-media" display.
Various permutations of the types of media guidance data that may
be displayed that are different than display 100 may be based on
user selection or guidance application definition (e.g., a display
of only recorded and broadcast listings, only on-demand and
broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings 114, 116, and
118 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayed in grid
102 to indicate that selection of these listings may provide access
to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings, or
Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings for
these content types may be included directly in grid 102.
Additional media guidance data may be displayed in response to the
user selecting one of the navigational icons 120. (Pressing an
arrow key on a user input device may affect the display in a
similar manner as selecting navigational icons 120.)
[0057] Display 100 may also include video region 122, advertisement
124, and options region 126. Video region 122 may allow the user to
view and/or preview programs that are currently available, will be
available, or were available to the user. The content of video
region 122 may correspond to, or be independent from, one of the
listings displayed in grid 102. Grid displays including a video
region are sometimes referred to as picture-in-guide (PIG)
displays. PIG displays and their functionalities are described in
greater detail in Satterfield et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,378,
issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,794, issued
May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in
their entireties. PIG displays may be included in other media
guidance application display screens of the embodiments described
herein.
[0058] Advertisement 124 may provide an advertisement for content
that, depending on a viewer's access rights (e.g., for subscription
programming), is currently available for viewing, will be available
for viewing in the future, or may never become available for
viewing, and may correspond to or be unrelated to one or more of
the content listings in grid 102. Advertisement 124 may also be for
products or services related or unrelated to the content displayed
in grid 102. Advertisement 124 may be selectable and provide
further information about content, provide information about a
product or a service, enable purchasing of content, a product, or a
service, provide content relating to the advertisement, etc.
Advertisement 124 may be targeted based on a user's
profile/preferences, monitored user activity, the type of display
provided, or on other suitable targeted advertisement bases.
[0059] While advertisement 124 is shown as rectangular or banner
shaped, advertisements may be provided in any suitable size, shape,
and location in a guidance application display. For example,
advertisement 124 may be provided as a rectangular shape that is
horizontally adjacent to grid 102. This is sometimes referred to as
a panel advertisement. In addition, advertisements may be overlaid
over content or a guidance application display or embedded within a
display. Advertisements may also include text, images, rotating
images, video clips, or other types of content described above.
Advertisements may be stored in a user equipment device having a
guidance application, in a database connected to the user
equipment, in a remote location (including streaming media
servers), or on other storage means, or a combination of these
locations. Providing advertisements in a media guidance application
is discussed in greater detail in, for example, Knudson et al.,
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0110499, filed Jan.
17, 2003; Ward, III et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,756,997, issued Jun. 29,
2004; and Schein et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,388,714, issued May 14,
2002, which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their
entireties. It will be appreciated that advertisements may be
included in other media guidance application display screens of the
embodiments described herein.
[0060] Options region 126 may allow the user to access different
types of content, media guidance application displays, and/or media
guidance application features. Options region 126 may be part of
display 100 (and other display screens described herein), or may be
invoked by a user by selecting an on-screen option or pressing a
dedicated or assignable button on a user input device. The
selectable options within options region 126 may concern features
related to program listings in grid 102 or may include options
available from a main menu display. Features related to program
listings may include searching for other air times or ways of
receiving a program, recording a program, enabling series recording
of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,
purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a
main menu display may include search options, VOD options, parental
control options, Internet options, cloud-based options, device
synchronization options, second screen device options, options to
access various types of media guidance data displays, options to
subscribe to a premium service, options to edit a user's profile,
options to access a browse overlay, or other options.
[0061] The media guidance application may be personalized based on
a user's preferences. A personalized media guidance application
allows a user to customize displays and features to create a
personalized "experience" with the media guidance application. This
personalized experience may be created by allowing a user to input
these customizations and/or by the media guidance application
monitoring user activity to determine various user preferences.
Users may access their personalized guidance application by logging
in or otherwise identifying themselves to the guidance application.
Customization of the media guidance application may be made in
accordance with a user profile. The customizations may include
varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays, font
size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,
only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channels
based on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display of
channels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features
(e.g., recording or series recordings for particular users,
recording quality, etc.), parental control settings, customized
presentation of Internet content (e.g., presentation of social
media content, e-mail, electronically delivered articles, etc.) and
other desired customizations.
[0062] The media guidance application may allow a user to provide
user profile information or may automatically compile user profile
information. The media guidance application may, for example,
monitor the content the user accesses and/or other interactions the
user may have with the guidance application. Additionally, the
media guidance application may obtain all or part of other user
profiles that are related to a particular user (e.g., from other
web sites on the Internet the user accesses, such as
www.allrovi.com, from other media guidance applications the user
accesses, from other interactive applications the user accesses,
from another user equipment device of the user, etc.), and/or
obtain information about the user from other sources that the media
guidance application may access. As a result, a user can be
provided with a unified guidance application experience across the
user's different user equipment devices. This type of user
experience is described in greater detail below in connection with
FIG. 4. Additional personalized media guidance application features
are described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent
Application Publication No. 2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005,
Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and
Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0174430,
filed Feb. 21, 2002, which are hereby incorporated by reference
herein in their entireties.
[0063] Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is
shown in FIG. 2. Video mosaic display 200 includes selectable
options 202 for content information organized based on content
type, genre, and/or other organization criteria. In display 200,
television listings option 204 is selected, thus providing listings
206, 208, 210, and 212 as broadcast program listings. In display
200 the listings may provide graphical images including cover art,
still images from the content, video clip previews, live video from
the content, or other types of content that indicate to a user the
content being described by the media guidance data in the listing.
Each of the graphical listings may also be accompanied by text to
provide further information about the content associated with the
listing. For example, listing 208 may include more than one
portion, including media portion 214 and text portion 216. Media
portion 214 and/or text portion 216 may be selectable to view
content in full-screen or to view information related to the
content displayed in media portion 214 (e.g., to view listings for
the channel that the video is displayed on).
[0064] The listings in display 200 are of different sizes (i.e.,
listing 206 is larger than listings 208, 210, and 212), but if
desired, all the listings may be the same size. Listings may be of
different sizes or graphically accentuated to indicate degrees of
interest to the user or to emphasize certain content, as desired by
the content provider or based on user preferences. Various systems
and methods for graphically accentuating content listings are
discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S. Patent Application
Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Dec. 29, 2005, which is hereby
incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
[0065] Users may access content and the media guidance application
(and its display screens described above and below) from one or
more of their user equipment devices. FIG. 3 shows a generalized
embodiment of illustrative user equipment device 300. More specific
implementations of user equipment devices are discussed below in
connection with FIG. 4. User equipment device 300 may receive
content and data via input/output (hereinafter "I/O") path 302. I/O
path 302 may provide content (e.g., broadcast programming,
on-demand programming, Internet content, content available over a
local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN), and/or other
content) and data to control circuitry 304, which includes
processing circuitry 306 and storage 308. Control circuitry 304 may
be used to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable
data using I/O path 302. I/O path 302 may connect control circuitry
304 (and specifically processing circuitry 306) to one or more
communications paths (described below). I/O functions may be
provided by one or more of these communications paths, but are
shown as a single path in FIG. 3 to avoid overcomplicating the
drawing.
[0066] Control circuitry 304 may be based on any suitable
processing circuitry such as processing circuitry 306. As referred
to herein, processing circuitry should be understood to mean
circuitry based on one or more microprocessors, microcontrollers,
digital signal processors, programmable logic devices,
field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application-specific
integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may include a multi-core
processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or any suitable
number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments, processing
circuitry may be distributed across multiple separate processors or
processing units, for example, multiple of the same type of
processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multiple
different processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel
Core i7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 304
executes instructions for a media guidance application stored in
memory (i.e., storage 308). Specifically, control circuitry 304 may
be instructed by the media guidance application to perform the
functions discussed above and below. For example, the media
guidance application may provide instructions to control circuitry
304 to generate the media guidance displays. In some
implementations, any action performed by control circuitry 304 may
be based on instructions received from the media guidance
application.
[0067] In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 304
may include communications circuitry suitable for communicating
with a guidance application server or other networks or servers.
The instructions for carrying out the above mentioned functionality
may be stored on the guidance application server. Communications
circuitry may include a cable modem, an integrated services digital
network (ISDN) modem, a digital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a
telephone modem, Ethernet card, or a wireless modem for
communications with other equipment, or any other suitable
communications circuitry. Such communications may involve the
Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths
(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 4). In
addition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that
enables peer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or
communication of user equipment devices in locations remote from
each other (described in more detail below).
[0068] Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as
storage 308 that is part of control circuitry 304. As referred to
herein, the phrase "electronic storage device" or "storage device"
should be understood to mean any device for storing electronic
data, computer software, or firmware, such as random-access memory,
read-only memory, hard drives, optical drives, digital video disc
(DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD) recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD)
recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders, digital video recorders (DVR,
sometimes called a personal video recorder, or PVR), solid state
devices, quantum storage devices, gaming consoles, gaming media, or
any other suitable fixed or removable storage devices, and/or any
combination of the same. Storage 308 may be used to store various
types of content described herein as well as media guidance data
described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used (e.g., to
launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-based
storage, described in relation to FIG. 4, may be used to supplement
storage 308 or instead of storage 308.
[0069] Control circuitry 304 may include video generating circuitry
and tuning circuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or
more MPEG-2 decoders or other digital decoding circuitry,
high-definition tuners, or any other suitable tuning or video
circuits or combinations of such circuits. Encoding circuitry
(e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog, or digital signals to
MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided. Control circuitry
304 may also include scaler circuitry for upconverting and
downconverting content into the preferred output format of the user
equipment 300. Circuitry 304 may also include digital-to-analog
converter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry for
converting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and
encoding circuitry may be used by the user equipment device to
receive and to display, to play, or to record content. The tuning
and encoding circuitry may also be used to receive guidance data.
The circuitry described herein, including for example, the tuning,
video generating, encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting,
scaler, and analog/digital circuitry, may be implemented using
software running on one or more general purpose or specialized
processors. Multiple tuners may be provided to handle simultaneous
tuning functions (e.g., watch and record functions,
picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording,
etc.). If storage 308 is provided as a separate device from user
equipment 300, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including
multiple tuners) may be associated with storage 308.
[0070] A user may send instructions to control circuitry 304 using
user input interface 310. User input interface 310 may be any
suitable user interface, such as a remote control, mouse,
trackball, keypad, keyboard, touch screen, touchpad, stylus input,
joystick, voice recognition interface, or other user input
interfaces. Display 312 may be provided as a stand-alone device or
integrated with other elements of user equipment device 300. For
example, display 312 may be a touchscreen or touch-sensitive
display. In such circumstances, user input interface 310 may be
integrated with or combined with display 312. Display 312 may be
one or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display
(LCD) for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low
temperature poly silicon display, electronic ink display,
electrophoretic display, active matrix display, electro-wetting
display, electrofluidic display, cathode ray tube display,
light-emitting diode display, electroluminescent display, plasma
display panel, high-performance addressing display, thin-film
transistor display, organic light-emitting diode display,
surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser
television, carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric
modulator display, or any other suitable equipment for displaying
visual images. In some embodiments, display 312 may be
HDTV-capable. In some embodiments, display 312 may be a 3D display,
and the interactive media guidance application and any suitable
content may be displayed in 3D. A video card or graphics card may
generate the output to the display 312. The video card may offer
various functions such as accelerated rendering of 3D scenes and 2D
graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or the ability to
connect multiple monitors. The video card may be any processing
circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry 304. The
video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 304.
Speakers 314 may be provided as integrated with other elements of
user equipment device 300 or may be stand-alone units. The audio
component of videos and other content displayed on display 312 may
be played through speakers 314. In some embodiments, the audio may
be distributed to a receiver (not shown), which processes and
outputs the audio via speakers 314.
[0071] The guidance application may be implemented using any
suitable architecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone
application wholly-implemented on user equipment device 300. In
such an approach, instructions of the application are stored
locally (e.g., in storage 308), and data for use by the application
is downloaded on a periodic basis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed,
from an Internet resource, or using another suitable approach).
Control circuitry 304 may retrieve instructions of the application
from storage 308 and process the instructions to generate any of
the displays discussed herein. Based on the processed instructions,
control circuitry 304 may determine what action to perform when
input is received from input interface 310. For example, movement
of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated by the processed
instructions when input interface 310 indicates that an up/down
button was selected.
[0072] In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a
client-server based application. Data for use by a thick or thin
client implemented on user equipment device 300 is retrieved
on-demand by issuing requests to a server remote to the user
equipment device 300. In one example of a client-server based
guidance application, control circuitry 304 runs a web browser that
interprets web pages provided by a remote server. For example, the
remote server may store the instructions for the application in a
storage device. The remote server may process the stored
instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 304) and
generate the displays discussed above and below. The client device
may receive the displays generated by the remote server and may
display the content of the displays locally on equipment device
300. This way, the processing of the instructions is performed
remotely by the server while the resulting displays are provided
locally on equipment device 300. Equipment device 300 may receive
inputs from the user via input interface 310 and transmit those
inputs to the remote server for processing and generating the
corresponding displays. For example, equipment device 300 may
transmit a communication to the remote server indicating that an
up/down button was selected via input interface 310. The remote
server may process instructions in accordance with that input and
generate a display of the application corresponding to the input
(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated
display is then transmitted to equipment device 300 for
presentation to the user.
[0073] In some embodiments, the media guidance application is
downloaded and interpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or
virtual machine (run by control circuitry 304). In some
embodiments, the guidance application may be encoded in the ETV
Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received by control circuitry 304
as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by a user agent running
on control circuitry 304. For example, the guidance application may
be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, the guidance
application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files that are
received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitable
middleware executed by control circuitry 304. In some of such
embodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital media
encoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example,
encoded and transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG
audio and video packets of a program.
[0074] User equipment device 300 of FIG. 3 can be implemented in
system 400 of FIG. 4 as user television equipment 402, user
computer equipment 404, wireless user communications device 406, or
any other type of user equipment suitable for accessing content,
such as a non-portable gaming machine. For simplicity, these
devices may be referred to herein collectively as user equipment or
user equipment devices, and may be substantially similar to user
equipment devices described above. User equipment devices, on which
a media guidance application may be implemented, may function as a
standalone device or may be part of a network of devices. Various
network configurations of devices may be implemented and are
discussed in more detail below.
[0075] A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the
system features described above in connection with FIG. 3 may not
be classified solely as user television equipment 402, user
computer equipment 404, or a wireless user communications device
406. For example, user television equipment 402 may, like some user
computer equipment 404, be Internet-enabled allowing for access to
Internet content, while user computer equipment 404 may, like some
television equipment 402, include a tuner allowing for access to
television programming. The media guidance application may have the
same layout on various different types of user equipment or may be
tailored to the display capabilities of the user equipment. For
example, on user computer equipment 404, the guidance application
may be provided as a web site accessed by a web browser. In another
example, the guidance application may be scaled down for wireless
user communications devices 406.
[0076] In system 400, there is typically more than one of each type
of user equipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 4 to
avoid overcomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may
utilize more than one type of user equipment device and also more
than one of each type of user equipment device.
[0077] In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user
television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, wireless
user communications device 406) may be referred to as a "second
screen device." For example, a second screen device may supplement
content presented on a first user equipment device. The content
presented on the second screen device may be any suitable content
that supplements the content presented on the first user device. In
some embodiments, the second screen device provides an interface
for adjusting settings and display preferences of the first user
device. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured
for interacting with other second screen devices or for interacting
with a social network. The second screen device can be located in
the same room as the first user device, a different room from the
first user device but in the same house or building, or in a
different building from the first user device.
[0078] The user may also set various settings to maintain
consistent media guidance application settings across in-home
devices and remote devices. Settings include those described
herein, as well as channel and program favorites, programming
preferences that the guidance application utilizes to make
programming recommendations, display preferences, and other
desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channel
as a favorite on, for example, the web site www.allrovi.com on
their personal computer at their office, the same channel would
appear as a favorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user
television equipment and user computer equipment) as well as the
user's mobile devices, if desired. Therefore, changes made on one
user equipment device can change the guidance experience on another
user equipment device, regardless of whether they are the same or a
different type of user equipment device. In addition, the changes
made may be based on settings input by a user, as well as user
activity monitored by the guidance application.
[0079] The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications
network 414. Namely, user television equipment 402, user computer
equipment 404, and wireless user communications device 406 are
coupled to communications network 414 via communications paths 408,
410, and 412, respectively. Communications network 414 may be one
or more networks including the Internet, a mobile phone network,
mobile voice or data network (e.g., a 4G or LTE network), cable
network, public switched telephone network, or other types of
communications network or combinations of communications networks.
Paths 408, 410, and 412 may separately or together include one or
more communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-optic
path, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications
(e.g., IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other
wireless signals), or any other suitable wired or wireless
communications path or combination of such paths. Path 412 is drawn
with dotted lines to indicate that in the exemplary embodiment
shown in FIG. 4 it is a wireless path and paths 408 and 410 are
drawn as solid lines to indicate they are wired paths (although
these paths may be wireless paths, if desired). Communications with
the user equipment devices may be provided by one or more of these
communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 4 to
avoid overcomplicating the drawing.
[0080] Although communications paths are not drawn between user
equipment devices, these devices may communicate directly with each
other via communication paths, such as those described above in
connection with paths 408, 410, and 412, as well as other
short-range point-to-point communication paths, such as USB cables,
IEEE 1394 cables, wireless paths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE
802-11x, etc.), or other short-range communication via wired or
wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is a certification mark owned by
Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipment devices may also communicate
with each other directly through an indirect path via
communications network 414.
[0081] System 400 includes content source 416 and media guidance
data source 418 coupled to communications network 414 via
communication paths 420 and 422, respectively. Paths 420 and 422
may include any of the communication paths described above in
connection with paths 408, 410, and 412. Communications with the
content source 416 and media guidance data source 418 may be
exchanged over one or more communications paths, but are shown as a
single path in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. In
addition, there may be more than one of each of content source 416
and media guidance data source 418, but only one of each is shown
in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The different
types of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired,
content source 416 and media guidance data source 418 may be
integrated as one source device. Although communications between
sources 416 and 418 with user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406
are shown as through communications network 414, in some
embodiments, sources 416 and 418 may communicate directly with user
equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 via communication paths (not
shown) such as those described above in connection with paths 408,
410, and 412.
[0082] Content source 416 may include one or more types of content
distribution equipment including a television distribution
facility, cable system headend, satellite distribution facility,
programming sources (e.g., television broadcasters, such as NBC,
ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediate distribution facilities and/or
servers, Internet providers, on-demand media servers, and other
content providers. NBC is a trademark owned by the National
Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by the
American Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned
by the Home Box Office, Inc. Content source 416 may be the
originator of content (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast
provider, etc.) or may not be the originator of content (e.g., an
on-demand content provider, an Internet provider of content of
broadcast programs for downloading, etc.). Content source 416 may
include cable sources, satellite providers, on-demand providers,
Internet providers, over-the-top content providers, or other
providers of content. Content source 416 may also include a remote
media server used to store different types of content (including
video content selected by a user), in a location remote from any of
the user equipment devices. Systems and methods for remote storage
of content, and providing remotely stored content to user equipment
are discussed in greater detail in connection with Ellis et al.,
U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, which is hereby
incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
[0083] Media guidance data source 418 may provide media guidance
data, such as the media guidance data described above. Media
guidance data may be provided to the user equipment devices using
any suitable approach. In some embodiments, the guidance
application may be a stand-alone interactive television program
guide that receives program guide data via a data feed (e.g., a
continuous feed or trickle feed). Program schedule data and other
guidance data may be provided to the user equipment on a television
channel sideband, using an in-band digital signal, using an
out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitable data
transmission technique. Program schedule data and other media
guidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog
or digital television channels.
[0084] In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data
source 418 may be provided to users' equipment using a
client-server approach. For example, a user equipment device may
pull media guidance data from a server, or a server may push media
guidance data to a user equipment device. In some embodiments, a
guidance application client residing on the user's equipment may
initiate sessions with source 418 to obtain guidance data when
needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of date or when the
user equipment device receives a request from the user to receive
data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment with any
suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specified
period of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to a
request from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 418
may provide user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 the media
guidance application itself or software updates for the media
guidance application.
[0085] In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include
viewer data. For example, the viewer data may include current
and/or historical user activity information (e.g., what content the
user typically watches, what times of day the user watches content,
whether the user interacts with a social network, at what times the
user interacts with a social network to post information, what
types of content the user typically watches (e.g., pay TV or free
TV), mood, brain activity information, etc.). The media guidance
data may also include subscription data. For example, the
subscription data may identify to which sources or services a given
user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the given user
has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,
whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user
has added a premium level of services, whether the user has
increased Internet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data
and/or the subscription data may identify patterns of a given user
for a period of more than one year. The media guidance data may
include a model (e.g., a survivor model) used for generating a
score that indicates a likelihood a given user will terminate
access to a service/source. For example, the media guidance
application may process the viewer data with the subscription data
using the model to generate a value or score that indicates a
likelihood of whether the given user will terminate access to a
particular service or source. In particular, a higher score may
indicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminate
access to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the
media guidance application may generate promotions and
advertisements that entice the user to keep the particular service
or source indicated by the score as one to which the user will
likely terminate access.
[0086] Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-alone
applications implemented on user equipment devices. For example,
the media guidance application may be implemented as software or a
set of executable instructions which may be stored in storage 308,
and executed by control circuitry 304 of a user equipment device
300. In some embodiments, media guidance applications may be
client-server applications where only a client application resides
on the user equipment device, and server application resides on a
remote server. For example, media guidance applications may be
implemented partially as a client application on control circuitry
304 of user equipment device 300 and partially on a remote server
as a server application (e.g., media guidance data source 418)
running on control circuitry of the remote server. When executed by
control circuitry of the remote server (such as media guidance data
source 418), the media guidance application may instruct the
control circuitry to generate the guidance application displays and
transmit the generated displays to the user equipment devices. The
server application may instruct the control circuitry of the media
guidance data source 418 to transmit data for storage on the user
equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry of
the receiving user equipment to generate the guidance application
displays.
[0087] Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user
equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 may be over-the-top (OTT)
content. OTT content delivery allows Internet-enabled user devices,
including any user equipment device described above, to receive
content that is transferred over the Internet, including any
content described above, in addition to content received over cable
or satellite connections. OTT content is delivered via an Internet
connection provided by an Internet service provider (ISP), but a
third party distributes the content. The ISP may not be responsible
for the viewing abilities, copyrights, or redistribution of the
content, and may only transfer IP packets provided by the OTT
content provider. Examples of OTT content providers include
YOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IP
packets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is a
trademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by
Hulu, LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively
provide media guidance data described above. In addition to content
and/or media guidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute
media guidance applications (e.g., web-based applications or
cloud-based applications), or the content can be displayed by media
guidance applications stored on the user equipment device.
[0088] Media guidance system 400 is intended to illustrate a number
of approaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment
devices and sources of content and guidance data may communicate
with each other for the purpose of accessing content and providing
media guidance. The embodiments described herein may be applied in
any one or a subset of these approaches, or in a system employing
other approaches for delivering content and providing media
guidance. The following four approaches provide specific
illustrations of the generalized example of FIG. 4.
[0089] In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with
each other within a home network. User equipment devices can
communicate with each other directly via short-range point-to-point
communication schemes described above, via indirect paths through a
hub or other similar device provided on a home network, or via
communications network 414. Each of the multiple individuals in a
single home may operate different user equipment devices on the
home network. As a result, it may be desirable for various media
guidance information or settings to be communicated between the
different user equipment devices. For example, it may be desirable
for users to maintain consistent media guidance application
settings on different user equipment devices within a home network,
as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 11/179,410, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different
types of user equipment devices in a home network may also
communicate with each other to transmit content. For example, a
user may transmit content from user computer equipment to a
portable video player or portable music player.
[0090] In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user
equipment by which they access content and obtain media guidance.
For example, some users may have home networks that are accessed by
in-home and mobile devices. Users may control in-home devices via a
media guidance application implemented on a remote device. For
example, users may access an online media guidance application on a
website via a personal computer at their office, or a mobile device
such as a PDA or web-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set
various settings (e.g., recordings, reminders, or other settings)
on the online guidance application to control the user's in-home
equipment. The online guide may control the user's equipment
directly, or by communicating with a media guidance application on
the user's in-home equipment. Various systems and methods for user
equipment devices communicating, where the user equipment devices
are in locations remote from each other, is discussed in, for
example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issued Oct. 25,
2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its
entirety.
[0091] In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside
and outside a home can use their media guidance application to
communicate directly with content source 416 to access content.
Specifically, within a home, users of user television equipment 402
and user computer equipment 404 may access the media guidance
application to navigate among and locate desirable content. Users
may also access the media guidance application outside of the home
using wireless user communications devices 406 to navigate among
and locate desirable content.
[0092] In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in
a cloud computing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud
computing environment, various types of computing services for
content sharing, storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites
or social networking sites) are provided by a collection of
network-accessible computing and storage resources, referred to as
"the cloud." For example, the cloud can include a collection of
server computing devices, which may be located centrally or at
distributed locations, that provide cloud-based services to various
types of users and devices connected via a network such as the
Internet via communications network 414. These cloud resources may
include one or more content sources 416 and one or more media
guidance data sources 418. In addition or in the alternative, the
remote computing sites may include other user equipment devices,
such as user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404,
and wireless user communications device 406. For example, the other
user equipment devices may provide access to a stored copy of a
video or a streamed video. In such embodiments, user equipment
devices may operate in a peer-to-peer manner without communicating
with a central server.
[0093] The cloud provides access to services, such as content
storage, content sharing, or social networking services, among
other examples, as well as access to any content described above,
for user equipment devices. Services can be provided in the cloud
through cloud computing service providers, or through other
providers of online services. For example, the cloud-based services
can include a content storage service, a content sharing site, a
social networking site, or other services via which user-sourced
content is distributed for viewing by others on connected devices.
These cloud-based services may allow a user equipment device to
store content to the cloud and to receive content from the cloud
rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-stored
content.
[0094] A user may use various content capture devices, such as
camcorders, digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders,
mobile phones, and handheld computing devices, to record content.
The user can upload content to a content storage service on the
cloud either directly, for example, from user computer equipment
404 or wireless user communications device 406 having content
capture feature. Alternatively, the user can first transfer the
content to a user equipment device, such as user computer equipment
404. The user equipment device storing the content uploads the
content to the cloud using a data transmission service on
communications network 414. In some embodiments, the user equipment
device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipment devices
can access the content directly from the user equipment device on
which the user stored the content.
[0095] Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device
using, for example, a web browser, a media guidance application, a
desktop application, a mobile application, and/or any combination
of access applications of the same. The user equipment device may
be a cloud client that relies on cloud computing for application
delivery, or the user equipment device may have some functionality
without access to cloud resources. For example, some applications
running on the user equipment device may be cloud applications,
i.e., applications delivered as a service over the Internet, while
other applications may be stored and run on the user equipment
device. In some embodiments, a user device may receive content from
multiple cloud resources simultaneously. For example, a user device
can stream audio from one cloud resource while downloading content
from a second cloud resource. Or a user device can download content
from multiple cloud resources for more efficient downloading. In
some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloud resources
for processing operations such as the processing operations
performed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG.
3.
[0096] FIG. 5 shows an illustrative example of a screen that would
present an indicator to the user of the number of supplemental
assets available. Display screen 500 presents a display 520 of
movie credits, and a number of supplemental assets available to the
user via indicator 504.
[0097] In FIG. 5, the media guidance application has determined
that twenty-three media assets are available to the user by
displaying indicator 504. The user may select via input interface
310 (FIG. 3) indicator 504 in order to get more information on the
available supplemental assets. Once the user selects indicator 504,
the media guidance application may generate for display an
indicator of each available supplemental asset. The indicator may
include a short description of the asset as well as other
information about the asset. Indicator 504 may be based on a
household profile where the media guidance application may store
interests for every user in a household in the same profile and
treat all the member of the household as one user. Members of a
household may be family members living in the same house or
apartment. Alternatively, members of a household may be any number
of people who share at least one user equipment device on which the
media guidance application resides. Indicator 504 may also be based
on an individual user. For example, when the media guidance
application starts a presentation of a media asset, the media
guidance application may present to the user an option to login in
order to establish user's identity. Additionally or alternatively,
the media guidance application may use a face recognition module in
conjunction with a camera on a user equipment device in order to
determine the user's identity. If the media guidance application
detects more then one user, it may present supplemental assets that
correspond to user interests of each user. Additionally or
alternatively, the media guidance application may only present
those supplemental assets that are of interest to all the users
detected.
[0098] If multiple users are consuming the media asset, the media
guidance application may display multiple indicators 504. Each
indicator may correspond to each user detected. For example, if
three users are consuming a media asset, the media guidance
application may detect that all three users have separate profiles
and different interests. The media guidance application may then
assign a color to each counter to represent a particular user.
Alternatively, the media guidance application my present an
indication (e.g. photo, icon, name, etc.) corresponding to each
user together with the counter corresponding to each user.
[0099] Indicator 504 may be visible and available for user
selection while the credits are scrolling. The indicator may
disappear once the presentation of the media asset has ended. If
indicator 504 is presented to the user during a commercial break,
indicator 504 may appear on the screen until the commercial break
is over and the media asset presentation is resumed. If a user
selects indicator 504, the media guidance application may present
to the user a selectable list of available supplemental assets. The
media guidance application may also pause the media asset and
remove it from the display. Alternatively, the media guidance
application may present the list of supplemental assets on the same
screen as the media asset by decreasing the area of the screen on
which the media asset is being presented and presenting the list of
supplemental assets next to the media asset.
[0100] The media guidance application may present other options to
the user once the user selects indicator 504. For example, the
media guidance application may present an option for the user to
share the user's opinions about the media asset on a social
networking site. The media guidance application may also present an
option to the user to share the user's opinion of each supplemental
asset on a social networking site.
[0101] Indicator 504 may be of any size. For example, indicator 504
may change depending on the size of the display that the media
asset is being presented on. The media guidance application may
also change the size of the indicator depending on the resolution
of the display or on whether the media asset is presented in
standard definition or high definition. Indicator 504 may be
presented in different colors. For example, indicator 504 may be
presented in red if the supplemental assets corresponding to the
indicator have been popular with other users. Alternatively, the
indicator may be blue if the supplemental assets corresponding to
the indicator have not been popular with other users. The media
guidance application may access a database that stores the
supplemental assets in order to retrieve popularity information of
each supplemental asset. Indicator 504 may also be enclosed in a
circle or any other shape, or it may not be enclosed and be
presented on its own.
[0102] Indicator 504 may represent supplemental assets for only the
portion of the media asset preceding the end credits, however it
may also represent supplemental assets corresponding to the entire
media asset. If indicator 504 is presented during a commercial
break, it may represent supplemental assets for the portion of the
media asset just prior to the commercial break or it may represent
supplemental assets for all the portions of the media asset prior
to the commercial break.
[0103] The media guidance application may also present indicator
504 on a second display, if the user device includes a second
display. In response to a user selection of indicator 504 on the
second display, the media guidance application may present the list
of supplemental assets on the second display. While indicator 504
is presented and also while the list of supplemental assets is
presented, the media guidance application may pause the
presentation of the media asset. Alternatively, the media guidance
application may present a prompt to the user asking the user to
either pause the media asset or let the media asset continue being
presented. If the user instructs the media guidance application to
continue presenting the media asset, the media guidance application
may store another counter to represent new supplemental assets that
may be available to the user for the next portion of the media
asset.
[0104] The media guidance application may also present indicator
504 on a different user equipment device. For example, if the media
guidance application is presenting a media asset via a set-top box
or smart TV, the media guidance application may present indicator
504 on a smart phone or an electronic tablet associated with the
user. If the media guidance application presents indicator 504 on
another device, all other operations (e.g. selecting the indicator,
presenting the supplemental asset, selecting a supplemental asset,
etc.) may be performed on the other device.
[0105] FIG. 6 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for indicating
an amount of content of interest to users. It should be noted that
process 600 or any step thereof could be performed on, or provided
by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 3-4. For example, process 600
may be executed by control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3) as instructed by
a media guidance application implemented on user equipment 402,
404, and/or 406 (FIG. 4) in order to distribute control of media
guidance application operations for a target device among multiple
user devices. In addition, one or more steps of process 600 may be
incorporated into or combined with one or more steps of any other
process or embodiment (e.g., process 700 (FIG. 7)).
[0106] At step 602, a media guidance application presents (e.g.,
via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) a portion of a media asset to a
user. For example, the media guidance application may display the
video of the media asset on display 312 (FIG. 3) and play the audio
of the media asset on speakers 314 (FIG. 3). In some embodiments,
the media guidance application may retrieve the media asset from
one or more sources (e.g., storage 308 (FIG. 3), media content
source 416 (FIG. 4), etc.), and guidance data associated with the
media asset may be retrieved from a source of media guidance data
(e.g., media guidance data source 418 (FIG. 4)).
[0107] At step 604, the media guidance application determines
(e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) that an object in the
media asset is of interest to the user. For example, the media
guidance application may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 304
(FIG. 3)) that a user has an existing user profile. The user
profile may be stored locally in storage 308 (FIG. 3) or it can be
stored at the media guidance data source 418 (FIG. 4). The user
profile may contain data indicating a user's interests. The media
guidance application may detect (e.g., via control circuitry 304
(FIG. 3)) an object in the media asset (e.g., via object
recognition, cross-referencing a database, etc.). The media
guidance application may compare (e.g., via control circuitry 304
(FIG. 3)) a user's interests in the user profile to the detected
object in order to determine a match between the user's interests
and the object.
[0108] At step 606, the media guidance application determines that
a supplemental asset that corresponds to the object is available.
For example, the media guidance application may access (e.g., via
control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) a database that lists available
supplemental assets. The media guidance application may then
cross-reference the object with the database to determine if a
match between at least one supplemental asset and the object
exists. The database may be stored locally in storage 308 (FIG. 3)
or may be stored at the media guidance data source 418 (FIG. 4). If
the database is stored at media guidance data source 418 (FIG. 4),
the media guidance application may access the database via
communications network 414 (FIG. 4) If a match exists, the media
guidance application may move to step 608.
[0109] At step 608, in response to determining that the
supplemental asset is available (e.g., via control circuitry 304
(FIG. 3)), the media guidance application increments a counter,
where the counter corresponds to a total number of supplemental
assets available for the portion of the media asset. For example,
the media guidance application may increment the counter by one if
one match is found between the object and a supplemental asset in
the database. Alternatively, the media guidance application may
increment the counter by a number of supplemental assets available
that match the object. For example, if the user is interested in
sports and the supplemental asset database includes an offer to buy
tickets for an upcoming baseball game and an upcoming football
game, the media guidance application may increment the counter by
two. The counter may be stored locally in storage 308 (FIG. 3).
Additionally or alternatively, the counter may be stored at the
media guidance data source 418 (FIG. 4). The counter may be
incremented at the media guidance data source 418 (FIG. 4) via a
communications network 414 (FIG. 4).
[0110] At step 610, the media guidance application determines that
the portion of the media asset is no longer being presented. For
example, the media guidance application may detect via control
circuitry 304 (FIG. 3) that a media asset is either at a commercial
break, at an end of a scene or at the credits (illustrated in FIG.
5). As described in an earlier part of this application, the media
guidance application may detect via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)
that the media asset is no longer being presented by accessing
metadata of the media asset that can store information on when in
the media asset commercial breaks start and end and when the
credits are presented. This metadata may be stored locally in
storage 308 (FIG. 3) or it may be stored at the media guidance data
source 418 (FIG. 4) and may be accessible through a communications
network 414 (FIG. 4).
[0111] At step 612, in response to determining that the portion of
the media asset is no longer being presented, the media guidance
application indicates to the user the total number of supplemental
assets available for the portion of the media asset. For example,
the media guidance application may present to the user, during the
credits the number twenty three "23," corresponding to twenty three
available supplemental assets. This is illustrated in FIG. 5.
[0112] It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 6
may be used with any other embodiment of this disclosure. In
addition, the steps and descriptions described in relation to FIG.
6 may be done in alternative orders or in parallel to further the
purposes of this disclosure. For example, each of these steps may
be performed in any order or in parallel or substantially
simultaneously to reduce lag or increase the speed of the system or
method. Furthermore, it should be noted that any of the devices or
equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 3-4 could be used to
perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 6.
[0113] FIG. 7 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for indicating
an amount of content of interest to users. It should be noted that
process 700 or any step thereof could be performed on, or provided
by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 3-4. For example, process 700
may be executed by control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3) as instructed by
a media guidance application implemented on user equipment 402,
404, and/or 406 (FIG. 4) in order to indicate an amount of content
of interest to a user. In addition, one or more steps of process
700 may be incorporated into or combined with one or more steps of
any other process or embodiment (e.g., process 600 (FIG. 6)).
[0114] At step 702, the media guidance application identifies
(e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) an object. The media
guidance application may identify the object based on information
from a database or based on object recognition methods discussed
earlier in this application. For example, the media guidance
application may include a content recognition module stored on
storage 308 (FIG. 3). The content recognition module may be
utilized by the media guidance application (e.g., via control
circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) to identify objects in a media asset.
Alternatively, the content recognition module may be included in
the media guidance data source 418 (FIG. 4). Objects in media
assets may be identified before the media asset is presented to the
user and the media guidance application may send object
identification requests to the media guidance data source 418 (FIG.
4) via a communications network 414 (FIG. 4).
[0115] At step 704, the media guidance application retrieves one or
more user profiles. The media guidance application may determine
(e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) that a user may have an
associated user profile. Alternatively, the media guidance
application may determine that only a household profile (discussed
earlier) exists and retrieve that profile. Also, the media guidance
application may determine the identity of a user based on a user
login provided prior to or during the presentation of the media
asset. In yet another alternative the media guidance application
may detect through a use of a camera that one or more users are
consuming the media asset. The media guidance application may use
face recognition algorithms to detect all users present and
retrieve their user profiles if those user profiles exist. The
media guidance application may use any combination of these methods
to identify users. The user profile may be stored locally on the
user's device in storage 308 (FIG. 3) or at the media guidance data
source 418 (FIG. 4) and may be accessed by the media guidance
application via communications network 414 (FIG. 4). Once the media
guidance application accesses the user profile it may retrieve
portions of the user profile that include the user's interests.
Alternatively, the media guidance application may retrieve the full
user profile.
[0116] At step 706, the media guidance application compares (e.g.,
via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) the object to the user profile.
For example, the object in the media asset may have data associated
with the object. The associated data may be stored locally in
storage 308 (FIG. 3) or at media guidance data source 418 (FIG. 4)
and may include keywords associated with the object. The user
profile may include keywords associated with the user's interests.
The media guidance application may compare the keywords associated
with the object to the keywords associated with the user's
interests and determine via control circuitry 304 whether any
keywords associated with the object match any of the keywords
associated with the user's interests.
[0117] At step 708, the media guidance application determines
(e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) whether the object
corresponds to the user profile. For example, if a number of
matched keywords reaches a predetermined threshold, the media
guidance application may proceed to step 710.
[0118] At step 710, the media guidance application accesses (e.g.,
via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) a database of supplemental
assets. For example, the database of supplemental assets may be
stored locally in storage 308 (FIG. 3) or it may be stored at media
guidance data source 418 (FIG. 4). If the database of supplemental
assets is stored at the media guidance data source, the media
guidance application may access this database over the
communications network 414 (FIG. 4).
[0119] At step 712, the media guidance application determines
(e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) whether a supplemental
asset in the database of supplemental assets corresponds to the
object from the media asset. For example, as discussed above, the
object from the media asset and the supplemental asset from the
database of supplemental assets may have associated keywords. The
media guidance application may compare (e.g., via control circuitry
304 (FIG. 3)) the keywords to determine if any matches exist
between the objects. Alternatively, if the database of supplemental
assets is stored at media guidance data source 418 (FIG. 4), the
media guidance application may transmit via communications network
414 (FIG. 4) keywords associated with the object to media guidance
data source 418 (FIG. 4). The media guidance data source may
include processing circuitry to perform the comparison in order to
find matches between the keywords. If a number of matches does not
reach a predetermined threshold, the media guidance application may
proceed to step 702 to identify other objects. If the predetermined
threshold is reached, the media guidance application may receive,
via communications network 414 (FIG. 4), from media guidance data
source 418 (FIG. 4), supplemental assets or alternatively
supplemental asset identifiers to present to the user. Supplemental
asset identifier may be data associated with the supplemental asset
and may also include a code (e.g. a set of letters, a set of
numbers or a combination of letters and numbers) to identify a
particular supplemental asset in the database of supplemental
assets. For example, a supplemental asset identifier may include a
short description of the supplemental asset, a title of the
supplemental asset and an alphanumeric string to identify the
supplemental asset in the database of supplemental assets.
Supplemental asset identifiers may be used in order to limit amount
of data transfer over the network. The media guidance application
may retrieve the full supplemental asset only when the user selects
it.
[0120] At step 714, the media guidance application increments a
counter (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)). For example,
the counter may represent the number of supplemental assets
available to the user for a current portion and/or one or more
other portions of a media asset. The counter may be stored locally
in storage 308 (FIG. 3) or it may be stored at media guidance data
source 418 (FIG. 4). If the counter is stored at media guidance
data source 418 (FIG. 4), the media guidance application may access
the counter via communications network 414 (FIG. 4) in order to
increment the counter.
[0121] At step 716, the media guidance application determines
(e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) whether to display the
counter. As discussed earlier in this application the counter may
be displayed when a portion of the media asset is not being
displayed (e.g., during a commercial, while the credits are being
displayed, etc.). If the media guidance application determines
(e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) that a portion of a
media asset is still being presented, the counter may not be
displayed and the media guidance application may revert to step
702. If the media guidance application determines (e.g., via
control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) that a counter needs to be
displayed, it may proceed to step 718.
[0122] At step 718, the media guidance application retrieves the
counter. As discussed earlier in this application, the counter may
be stored locally in storage 308 (FIG. 3) or at media guidance data
source 418 (FIG. 4). If the counter is stored locally in storage
308 (FIG. 3), the counter may be retrieved using processing
circuitry 306 (FIG. 3). Alternatively, if the counter is stored at
media guidance data source 418 (FIG. 4), the media guidance
application may retrieve the counter via communications network 414
(FIG. 4).
[0123] At step 720, the media guidance application generates a
counter for display. For example, the media guidance application
may use processing circuitry 306 (FIG. 3) to generate the counter
for display on display 312 (FIG. 3). Alternatively, if the user
device has multiple displays 312 (FIG. 3), the processing circuitry
may generate the counter on the appropriate display. For example,
if a movie is playing on the first display 312 (FIG. 3) and a
second display 312 (FIG. 3) is either idle or does not have content
associated with it, the media guidance application may present the
counter on that screen. The user may have several devices
associated with him (e.g., smart TV, set-top box, electronic table,
smart phone, etc.). If the media guidance application is presenting
a media asset on a smart TV or a set-top box, the media guidance
application may generate for display the counter on an electronic
tablet or a smart phone that is associated with the user.
[0124] It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 7
may be used with any other embodiment of this disclosure. In
addition, the steps and descriptions described in relation to FIG.
7 may be done in alternative orders or in parallel to further the
purposes of this disclosure. For example, each of these steps may
be performed in any order or in parallel or substantially
simultaneously to reduce lag or increase the speed of the system or
method. Furthermore, it should be noted that any of the devices or
equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 3-4 could be used to
perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 7.
[0125] The above-described embodiments of the present disclosure
are presented for purposes of illustration and not of limitation,
and the present disclosure is limited only by the claims that
follow. Furthermore, it should be noted that the features and
limitations described in any one embodiment may be applied to any
other embodiment herein, and flowcharts or examples relating to one
embodiment may be combined with any other embodiment in a suitable
manner, done in different orders, or done in parallel. In addition,
the systems and methods described herein may be performed in real
time. It should also be noted, the systems and/or methods described
above may be applied to, or used in accordance with, other systems
and/or methods.
* * * * *
References