U.S. patent application number 15/857051 was filed with the patent office on 2019-07-04 for systems and methods for resuming media in different modes of playback based on attributes of a physical environment.
The applicant listed for this patent is ROVI Guides, Inc.. Invention is credited to Adam Bates, Mark K. Berner, David W. Chamberlin, Eric Dorsey, Jonathan A. Logan, Jesse F. Patterson, Paul Stevens, William L. Thomas, Herbert A. Waterman.
Application Number | 20190208270 15/857051 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 62948382 |
Filed Date | 2019-07-04 |
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United States Patent
Application |
20190208270 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Bates; Adam ; et
al. |
July 4, 2019 |
SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR RESUMING MEDIA IN DIFFERENT MODES OF
PLAYBACK BASED ON ATTRIBUTES OF A PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
Abstract
Systems and methods are described for resuming media in
different modes of playback, based on attributes of a physical
environment that a user has moved to. For example, a user may
access a media asset (e.g., television broadcast of a baseball
game) in a first environment (e.g., a living room). A media
guidance application may then determine that the user has left the
first environment. In response, the media guidance application may
identify the user's new environment (e.g., a car) and analyze
characteristics of the new environment. Based on the
characteristics, the media guidance application may determine a
suitable mode of playback (e.g., an audio version featuring
play-by-play commentary of the baseball game on the car's radio)
that the user can access from the playback position from where the
user left off at the first environment.
Inventors: |
Bates; Adam; (Los Gatos,
CA) ; Patterson; Jesse F.; (Pacifica, CA) ;
Berner; Mark K.; (Santa Clara, CA) ; Dorsey;
Eric; (Palo Alto, CA) ; Logan; Jonathan A.;
(Mountain View, CA) ; Chamberlin; David W.;
(Pacifica, CA) ; Stevens; Paul; (Felton, CA)
; Waterman; Herbert A.; (Merced, CA) ; Thomas;
William L.; (Evergreen, CO) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
ROVI Guides, Inc. |
San Jose |
CA |
US |
|
|
Family ID: |
62948382 |
Appl. No.: |
15/857051 |
Filed: |
December 28, 2017 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04N 21/43615 20130101;
H04N 21/6587 20130101; H04N 21/44222 20130101; H04N 21/4302
20130101; H04N 21/41407 20130101; H04N 21/42202 20130101; H04N
21/44218 20130101 |
International
Class: |
H04N 21/442 20060101
H04N021/442; H04N 21/6587 20060101 H04N021/6587; H04N 21/43
20060101 H04N021/43 |
Claims
1. (canceled)
2. A method for resuming media in different modes of playback based
on attributes of a physical environment where the media is being
resumed, the method comprising: generating for presentation a media
asset for a first user in a first physical environment; collecting
data from sensor circuitry representing a location of the first
user; processing the collected data to determine the location of
the first user has changed from the first physical environment to a
second physical environment indicating that the first user has left
the first physical environment and has entered the second physical
environment; and in response to determining that the location of
the first user has changed: identifying a playback position of the
media asset that was generated for presentation when the first user
left the first physical environment; determining an attribute of
the second physical environment; determining an environment type of
the second physical environment; determining a plurality of
candidate roles associated with the environment type; determining a
first role, of the plurality of candidate roles, of the first user,
by: determining, based on data from the sensor circuitry, that the
first user is in a first physical space within the second physical
environment; comparing the first physical space to a plurality of
physical space templates, wherein each physical space template is
associated with a role of the plurality of candidate roles;
determining, based on the comparing, whether the first physical
space matches a first physical space template corresponding to the
first role; and in response to determining that the first physical
space matches the first physical space template corresponding to
the first role, identifying a first plurality of modes of playback
associated with the first role; comparing a plurality of versions
of the media asset with the identified first plurality of modes to
identify a first version of the media asset that corresponds to a
first mode; and generating a presentation of the media asset at the
second physical environment in the identified first version
starting from the identified playback position.
3. (canceled)
4. The method of claim 2, further comprising: detecting that a
second user is present at the second physical environment with the
first user; determining a second role of the plurality of candidate
roles, of the second user, wherein the second role is different
from the first role; identifying a second mode of playback that
corresponds to the second role, wherein the second mode of playback
includes playback using an output that is also used by the first
mode and additionally includes an output that is not used by the
first mode; identifying a second version of the media asset that
corresponds to the second mode; and generating a presentation of
the media asset at the second physical environment to the second
user using the output that is not used by the first mode from the
identified playback position.
5. The method of claim 2, further comprising: retrieving a priority
level associated with each of the identified modes; determining
that the first version of the media asset corresponds to the first
mode and that a second version of the media asset corresponds to a
second mode; and selecting the first version as the identified
version in response to determining that a priority level associated
with the first mode is greater than a priority level associated
with the second mode.
6. The method of claim 2, wherein the first mode presents content
using a single device configured to output audio only, wherein a
second mode of the modes presents content using multiple types of
devices simultaneously, and wherein generating for presentation the
media asset in the second physical environment comprises generating
a display of the media asset on a display device and outputting
audio of the media asset via a separate audio output device.
7. The method of claim 2, wherein determining the attribute
comprises: receiving user input classifying the second physical
environment; identifying a social occasion at the second physical
environment, wherein the social occasion represents an activity
that the user is participating in; and identifying a plurality of
devices associated with the social occasion that are available at
the second physical environment.
8. The method of claim 2, wherein determining the attribute
comprises: detecting a second user in the second physical
environment; accessing a viewing history of the second user; and in
response to determining that the second user has not viewed the
media asset based on the viewing history: identifying a first
device that is not perceptible to the second user; and generating
the presentation of the media asset on the first device.
9. The method of claim 8, further comprising: determining, while
the media asset is presented on the first device, that the second
user has reached a current playback position in the media asset;
and in response to determining that the second user has reached the
current play position in the media asset being presented:
identifying a second device that is perceptible to the first user
and the second user; and generating the presentation of the media
asset on the second device.
10. The method of claim 9, wherein generating the presentation of
the media asset on the second device comprises changing the
identified version from the first version of the media asset that
corresponds to the first mode associated with the first device, to
a second version of the media asset that corresponds to a second
mode associated with the second device.
11. The method of claim 2, further comprising: retrieving a social
interaction level associated with each of the identified modes;
determining that the first version of the media asset corresponds
to the first mode and that a second version of the media asset
corresponds to a second mode; and selecting the first version as
the identified version in response to determining that the social
interaction level associated with the first mode is greater than
the social interaction level associated with the second mode.
12. A system for resuming media in different modes of playback
based on attributes of a physical environment where the media is
being resumed, the system comprising: sensor circuitry; and control
circuitry configured to: generate for presentation a media asset
for a first user in a first physical environment; collect data from
the sensor circuitry representing a location of the first user;
process the collected data to determine the location of the first
user has changed from the first physical environment to a second
physical environment indicating that the first user has left the
first physical environment and has entered the second physical
environment; and in response to determining that the location of
the first user has changed: identify a playback position of the
media asset that was generated for presentation when the first user
left the first physical environment; determine an attribute of the
second physical environment; determine an environment type of the
second physical environment; determine a plurality of candidate
roles associated with the environment type; determine a first role,
of the plurality of candidate roles, of the first user, by:
determining, based on data from the sensor circuitry, that the
first user is in a first physical space within the second physical
environment; comparing the first physical space to a plurality of
physical space templates, wherein each physical space template is
associated with a role of the plurality of candidate roles;
determining, based on the comparing, whether the first physical
space matches a first physical space template corresponding to the
first role; and in response to determining that the first physical
space matches the first physical space template corresponding to
the first role, identifying a first plurality of modes of playback
associated with the first role; compare a plurality of versions of
the media asset with the identified first plurality of modes to
identify a first version of the media asset that corresponds to a
first mode; and generate a presentation of the media asset at the
second physical environment in the identified first version
starting from the identified playback position.
13. (canceled)
14. The system of claim 12, wherein the control circuitry is
further configured to: detect that a second user is present at the
second physical environment with the first user; determine a second
role of the plurality of candidate roles, of the second user,
wherein the second role is different from the first role; identify
a second mode of playback that corresponds to the second role,
wherein the second mode of playback includes playback using an
output that is also used by the first mode and additionally
includes an output that is not used by the first mode; identify a
second version of the media asset that corresponds to the second
mode; and generate a presentation of the media asset at the second
physical environment to the second user using the output that is
not used by the first mode from the identified playback
position.
15. The system of claim 12, wherein the control circuitry is
further configured to: retrieve a priority level associated with
each of the identified modes; determine that the first version of
the media asset corresponds to the first mode and that a second
version of the media asset corresponds to a second mode; and select
the first version as the identified version in response to
determining that a priority level associated with the first mode is
greater than a priority level associated with the second mode.
16. The system of claim 12, wherein the first mode presents content
using a single device configured to output audio only, wherein a
second mode of the modes presents content using multiple types of
devices simultaneously, and wherein the control circuitry is
further configured, when generating for presentation the media
asset in the second physical environment, to generate a display of
the media asset on a display device and output audio of the media
asset via a separate audio output device.
17. The system of claim 12, wherein the control circuitry is
further configured, when determining the attribute of the second
physical environment, to: receive user input classifying the second
physical environment; identify a social occasion at the second
physical environment, wherein the social occasion represents an
activity that the user is participating in; and identify a
plurality of devices associated with the social occasion that are
available at the second physical environment.
18. The system of claim 12, wherein the control circuitry is
further configured, when determining the attribute of the second
physical environment, to: detect a second user in the second
physical environment; access a viewing history of the second user;
and in response to determining that the second user has not viewed
the media asset based on the viewing history: identify a first
device that is not perceptible to the second user; and generate the
presentation of the media asset on the first device.
19. The system of claim 18, wherein the control circuitry is
further configured to: determine, while the media asset is
presented on the first device, that the second user has reached a
current playback position in the media asset; and in response to
determining that the second user has reached the current play
position in the media asset being presented: identify a second
device that is perceptible to the first user and the second user;
and generate the presentation of the media asset on the second
device.
20. The system of claim 19, wherein the control circuitry is
further configured to generate the presentation of the media asset
on the second device by changing the identified version from the
first version of the media asset that corresponds to the first mode
associated with the first device, to a second version of the media
asset that corresponds to a second mode associated with the second
device.
21. The system of claim 12, wherein the control circuitry is
further configured to: retrieve a social interaction level
associated with each of the identified modes; determine that the
first version of the media asset corresponds to the first mode and
that a second version of the media asset corresponds to a second
mode; and select the first version as the identified version in
response to determining that the social interaction level
associated with the first mode is greater than the social
interaction level associated with the second mode.
22-51. (canceled)
Description
BACKGROUND
[0001] Continuity is an important aspect of consuming media. In the
related art, a user may stop accessing a media asset on a first
device and may continue accessing on a second device, at a playback
position where he/she left off. However, the related art does not
select a second device or version of the media asset that is
appropriate for playback, based on the environment the user is in.
For example, the related art may cause the user to continue
watching a baseball game on a mobile device even if the user is
driving a car. The related art does not consider resumption on a
device not specified by a user and does not select a playback
format for such a device, based on attributes of the related
environment.
SUMMARY
[0002] Systems and methods are thus described that address these
issues by resuming media in different modes of playback, based on
attributes of a physical environment that a user has moved to.
Suppose that the user is viewing a baseball game on a television
that is connected to a set-top box. The media guidance application
may detect, using motion sensors, that the user is in his/her
living room. The media guidance application may additionally detect
that the user is leaving the living room and entering his/her car.
In response, the media guidance application may determine the
playback position of the baseball game on the set-top box and may
identify whether the user is a passenger or driver using motion
sensors. Depending on what the user is doing in the car, the media
guidance application may identify various modes of playback that
the user has access to. For example, if the user is a driver, the
media guidance application may determine that the car stereo system
is an appropriate mode of playback, as video would distract the
driver and create unsafe driving conditions. If the user is a
passenger, the media guidance application may determine that, in
addition to the car stereo system, the user can access a video
component of the baseball game on his/her smartphone. Upon
determining a mode of playback, the media guidance application may
select a version of the media that is compatible with the mode of
playback. For example, the car stereo system may be compatible with
audio only. The media guidance application may then continue
playback of the baseball game, from the playback position where
he/she left off in the living room, in an audio version featuring
play-by-play commentary.
[0003] In some aspects, the media guidance application may generate
for presentation a media asset for a first user in a first physical
environment. The media asset may be an electronically consumable
user asset such as television programming, on-demand programs,
Internet content, video clips, audio, multimedia, etc. The first
physical environment represents the user's initial location. For
example, the media guidance application may be displaying the music
video "Adventure of a Lifetime by Coldplay" through the user's
smartphone in the first physical environment, the user's home.
[0004] The media guidance application may collect data from sensor
circuitry representing a location of the first user. Collecting the
data may comprise accessing at least one of global positioning
information of a mobile device associated with the first user,
calendar information associated with the first user, network
connection information of a mobile device associated with the first
user, and social media associated with the first user. For example,
the user may be accessing a mobile device with information about
positioning, network connections, and a user profile. The
positioning information may allow the media guidance application to
determine global positioning coordinates associated with the user
and classify the user's location (e.g., home, office, gym, etc.)
from the coordinates.
[0005] In terms of network connection information, the media
guidance application may determine the location of the user based
on the Wi-fi connection of the user (e.g., home Wi-fi, office
Wi-fi, public Wi-fi, etc.) This may be more robust if the user has
Wi-fi extenders. For example, if the user is in the basement and
the main router is on the second floor, the user may opt to connect
his/her mobile device to a Wi-fi extender located in the basement.
As a result, the media guidance application may determine that the
user is located in the basement because he/she is connected to the
basement Wi-fi extender. Network connection strength can also be
used by the media guidance application to estimate the user's
approximate distance from the network connection source. For
example, if the user's Wi-fi connection strength is poor (e.g.,
mobile device receiving only 10% of the signal outputted from the
router), the media guidance application may estimate that the user
is a large distance away from the router (e.g., at least 50 feet
away). Similarly, if the network connection between a cell tower
and the user's mobile device is poor, the media guidance
application may determine that the user is a large distance away
from the location of the cell tower.
[0006] In terms of user profile information, the media guidance
application may track events that the user is participating in. For
example, the media guidance application may access the user's
calendar information and detect that the user will be at a friend's
house between 2:00 pm and 5:00 pm. The media guidance application
may estimate, using resources such as Google Maps, that the user
will need to commute to the friend's house for one hour.
Accordingly, the media guidance application may determine that from
1:00 pm to 2:00 pm, the user's location may be in the user's car
and from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm, the user will be at the friend's
house. Likewise, the media guidance application may access posts,
event descriptions, and messages on social media that are
associated with the user to anticipate the user's location. For
example, the user's Facebook events may indicate that the user is
attending an event at the friend's house at 6:00 pm. As a result,
the media guidance application may determine that the location of
the user will be the friend's house at 6:00 pm.
[0007] In some cases, the user may not have access to a mobile
device. Thus, other types of sensor circuitry may be utilized.
These sensors may include, but are not limited to, video sensors,
audio sensors, and motion sensors. The media guidance application
may communicate with the sensors through a Bluetooth or Wi-fi
connection. For example, the media guidance application may use a
video sensor (e.g., a security camera) to potentially capture
images at the first physical environment. The video sensors may be
placed in parts of an environment that allow the sensor to capture
an image of the entire environment. The media guidance application
may then utilize computer vision techniques such as segmentation,
to classify if a person (e.g., the user) appears in the image. In
some cases, audio sensors may be utilized to capture audio. The
media guidance application may analyze the audio using natural
language processing (e.g., voice recognition); if the media
guidance application detects the user's voice from an audio sensor
in the first physical environment, the media guidance application
may determine that the user is in the first physical environment.
In the case of motion sensors, the media guidance application may
count the number of individuals in an environment based on who
enters or leaves. For example, if the motion sensor is placed in
the doorway of a living room, the media guidance application may
increment the number of individuals in the living room whenever
motion is detected of an object entering the living room. Likewise,
the media guidance application may decrement the number of
individuals in the living room whenever motion is detected of the
object moving in the opposite direction.
[0008] The media guidance application may track the sensors and
network connections in a locations database. The locations database
may list entries of all sensors and network connections associated
with the first user. For each entry, a corresponding physical
environment may be listed. For example, if the user's motion sensor
is in the user's bedroom and the motion sensor detects the first
user, the media guidance application may determine that the motion
sensor corresponds to the user's bedroom; therefore, the user is in
the bedroom.
[0009] The media guidance application may process the collected
data to determine that the location of the first user has changed
from the first physical environment to a second physical
environment, indicating that the first user has left the first
physical environment and has entered the second physical
environment. For example, the media guidance application may use
any combination of sensors and network connections to determine the
location of the user. Suppose that the user's mobile device is
connected to the user's "home Wi-fi." Accordingly, the media
guidance application may refer to the locations database and
determine that the user is in a first physical environment, home,
because "home Wi-fi" corresponds to home. The user may then exit
the first physical environment and enter his/her car, causing the
user's mobile device to disconnect with "home Wi-fi." Furthermore,
suppose that the user connects to the car's speaker system using
Bluetooth. The media guidance application may determine that the
Bluetooth connection is associated with the car's speaker system
and classify the user's location as inside the user's car, based on
the locations database. The car's speaker system may also have
access to the Internet. In this case, the speaker system's
activation alone may inform the media guidance application that the
user has entered the car. The media guidance application may thus
recognize the car as the second physical environment.
[0010] In response to determining that the location of the first
user has changed, the media guidance application may identify a
playback position of the media asset that was generated for
presentation when the first user left the first physical
environment. Upon determining that the first user has exited the
first physical environment, the media guidance application may
store the playback position of the media asset in a viewing history
database, which may be stored in a remote server. The media
guidance application may also track the playback position of the
media asset as the user accesses the media asset, and store the
playback position in the viewing history database in real time. In
some embodiments, the media guidance application may store the
playback position in response to determining that the user has
paused the media asset or is no longer accessing the media asset at
the first device. In response, the media guidance application may
determine whether the user has left the first physical environment
using sensor circuitry. The viewing history database may store the
names of the media assets that various users have accessed, the
devices the users used to access the media asset, the environments
the users were in during access, and the last positions where the
users left off. For example, if the user left the first physical
environment when the media asset "Adventure of a Lifetime by
Coldplay" reached the playback position 0:02:32 (e.g., 2 minutes
and 32 seconds from the start of the music video), the media
guidance application may upload the position 0:02:32 onto the
remote server and store it in the viewing history database. In
response to the user entering the second physical environment, the
media guidance application may refer to the viewing history
database and download the playback position from the remote
server.
[0011] The media guidance application may determine an attribute of
the second physical environment. The attribute of the second
physical environment can be a set of unique configurations that the
media guidance application may detect. These configurations may
include, but are not limited to, the number of individuals in the
environment (e.g., group of fifty people), the interaction between
the user and the environment (e.g., user driving a car), the type
of environment (e.g., quiet library), social occasion (e.g.,
party), the network quality (e.g., Wi-fi signal quality) and the
devices in the environment (e.g., television). Following the
example from above, a first user enters a car. Using sensor
circuitry, information from the locations database associated with
the second physical environment, information in the user profile,
and by identifying the devices in the second physical environment,
the media guidance application may create a set of configurations
that are identified as the attribute. In this example, the
configurations may indicate the media streaming services the user
is subscribed to (e.g., Netflix, Spotify, etc.), the devices in the
second physical environment (e.g., user's mobile device, car's
speaker system, etc.) and the number of people in the second
physical environment.
[0012] The media guidance application may search a database, based
on the attribute, to identify a first plurality of modes of
playback associated with the attribute. The locations database may
include a table for each environment with various configurations.
Each configuration may be associated with a plurality of modes of
playback. The plurality of modes of playback may include devices
(e.g., mobile device, laptop, car's speaker system, etc.) and media
streaming/playing services (e.g., Netflix, Audible, etc.) that can
be used to play back a media asset. Suppose that the locations
database has a table dedicated to configurations associated with
the user's car. The media guidance application may compare the set
of configurations described in the attribute with the
configurations in the table. Initially, all modes associated with a
car may be enabled for recommendation. For example, the modes may
be predetermined by the media guidance application and may include
all possible devices and services that can be used when a user is
in a car. The table of configurations may then serve as a
checklist. For example, one configuration that is linked to visual
devices may ask "is the user driving?" If the attribute indicates
that the user is driving, the media guidance application may
disable, for recommendation, all devices that require the user to
rely on visuals (e.g., to avoid distracting the user from the
road). Another configuration that is linked to an audiobook
streaming service (e.g., Audible) may ask "is the user subscribed
to Audible?" If the attribute indicates that the user is not
subscribed to Audible, the media guidance application may disable,
for recommendation, Audible as a source for playback. Another
configuration may ask "are bandwidth conditions poor?" For example,
the media guidance application may determine the bandwidth
conditions of the user (e.g., 2 Mbps) in the second physical
environment and determine whether the user meets a minimal
bandwidth threshold to access the media asset through the first
plurality of modes. For example, the media guidance application may
refer to the locations database to determine the minimum bandwidth
threshold to access a media asset on Netflix in standard quality
(e.g., 3 Mbps). In response to determining that the bandwidth
condition of the user (e.g., 2 Mbps) is less than the minimum
bandwidth threshold to access a media asset on Netflix in standard
quality, the media guidance application may determine that the user
cannot access a media asset on Netflix and may remove (e.g., not
recommend) the mode from the first plurality of modes. The
remaining modes in the plurality of modes should therefore run
under the bandwidth conditions of the user in the second physical
environment. In response to the media guidance application
comparing all configurations with the attribute, the media guidance
application may determine a plurality of modes that are appropriate
for accessing a media asset, based on the attribute of the second
physical environment. Suppose that the media guidance application
identifies the car's speaker system as a device that is appropriate
for accessing the media asset. The first plurality of modes may
thus only feature services that are compatible with the car's
speaker system (e.g., audio-based services) such as Netflix, Google
Play Video, and Spotify.
[0013] In some embodiments, the media guidance application
searching the database, based on the attribute, to identify the
first plurality of modes of playback associated with the attribute
comprises determining an environment type of the second physical
environment. The environment type (also referred to as type of
environment) may be a general description of the environment and
may be determined based on entries from the locations database. For
example, the locations database may list an environment as the
"Statue of Liberty," and the respective environment type may be
"landmark." Similarly, the environment may be the "Metropolitan
Museum of Art" and the environment type may be "museum." By
generalizing the environment into an environment type, the media
guidance application may be able to infer additional
characteristics of the environment. For example, an environment
type of "museum" may be associated with noise restrictions, which
may affect the mode of playback the media guidance application
identifies.
[0014] The media guidance application may then determine a
plurality of candidate roles associated with the environment type.
For example, the media guidance application may determine that the
user is sitting in a vehicle such as a 2017 Nissan sedan. The
environment type may therefore be a car. The media guidance
application may refer to the locations database to determine that
there are two roles that can be associated with a car, driver and
passenger. The media guidance application may determine a first
role, of the plurality of candidate roles, of the first user, by
determining, based on data from the sensor circuitry, that the
first user is in a first physical space within the second physical
environment. For example, a video sensor may be placed on the deck
of the car, beside the front windshield. The media guidance
application may collect the video stream from the video sensor and
divide the frame of each video into various partitions. For
simplicity, suppose that the media guidance application divides
each frame into three partitions, a top portion focusing on the
area of the backseat, a bottom left portion focusing on the front
passenger seat, and a bottom right portion focusing on the driver
seat. Using computer vision (e.g., facial recognition,
segmentation, edge detection, etc.), the media guidance application
may determine that the user is in the bottom right portion. As a
result, the media guidance application may determine that the user
is in a first physical space, the driver seat.
[0015] The media guidance application may compare the first
physical space to a plurality of physical space templates, wherein
each physical space template is associated with a role of the
plurality of candidate roles. For example, the media guidance
application may refer to a space characteristics database, which
features characteristics (e.g., images, audio clips, names, etc.)
associated with entries of various physical spaces. Each entry may
additionally be classified by a role for users in the area. For
example, the space characteristics database may feature images of
unique driver seats associated with a first role "driver." The
media guidance application may compare the image from the video
sensor with the image in the space characteristics database to
determine that the user is a driver. In response to determining
that the first physical space matches the first physical space
template (e.g., image of a driver seat) corresponding to the first
role (e.g., driver), the media guidance application may identify
the first plurality of modes of playback associated with the first
role. For example, the media guidance application may refer to the
locations database and identify the user as a driver in the
configuration of the second physical environment. As a result, the
plurality of modes determined by the media guidance application
take the first role into account.
[0016] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may
detect that a second user is present at the second physical
environment with the first user. For example, the media guidance
application may collect data from sensor circuitry through a wired
or wireless connection. Suppose that the sensor circuitry is a
video sensor that sends information to the user's mobile device
using a communication radio module (e.g., Xbee radio). The video
sensor may capture an image that is further analyzed by the media
guidance application on the user's mobile device. Using image
processing, the media guidance application may determine that the
second physical environment (e.g., the car) features a second user.
The media guidance application may then determine a second role, of
the plurality of candidate roles, of the second user, wherein the
second role is different from the first role. Using the process
described previously, the media guidance application may determine
that the second user is in the bottom left region of the video
stream of the video sensor (e.g., focused on the passenger seat).
Based on the space characteristics database, the media guidance
application may determine that the second user has a second role
"passenger."
[0017] The media guidance application may identify a second mode of
playback that corresponds to the second role, wherein the second
mode of playback includes playback using an output that is also
used by the first mode and additionally includes an output that is
not used by the first mode. For example, the first mode, which is
associated with the first role "driver" may comprise a music
streaming service (e.g., Spotify) on the car's speaker system. In
contrast, because the second role "passenger" does not require the
second user to focus on the road, the second mode may comprise the
second user's mobile device, along with the car's speaker system.
When generating the presentation of the media asset, the media
guidance application may select the second user's mobile device as
the mode of playback. It should be noted that the media guidance
application may also separately consider the second user's
accessibility to various modes of playback. For example, the second
user may not have access to a music streaming service, such as
Spotify, while the first user may have access. In response, the
media guidance application may still identify Spotify on the car's
speaker system as a mode of playback because at least one of the
users has access to the mode. It should also be noted that the
second user may be accessing a different media asset that the
second user left off at.
[0018] The media guidance application may compare a plurality of
versions of the media asset with the identified first plurality of
modes to identify a first version of the media asset that
corresponds to a first mode. The media guidance application may
then determine the different versions that the media asset is
available in by referring to the Internet. For example, the media
guidance application may determine that "Adventure of a Lifetime by
Coldplay" is available as a music video, a song, and lyrics. Since
the first plurality of modes are services compatible with the car's
speaker system, the media guidance application may determine that
only the song version corresponds to the plurality of modes.
Therefore, the media guidance application may select the song,
which corresponds to the mode "Spotify on the car's speaker
system."
[0019] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may
identify that the second user is a child (e.g., via computer
vision, retrieved user profiles, etc.). In response, the media
guidance application may determine whether parental controls need
to be implemented. For example, at the first physical environment,
the first user may be listening to an explicit song. The first user
may then enter the second physical environment where a second user
(e.g., a child) is present. The media guidance application may
identify the child and retrieve user profiles associated with the
first user and second user to search for parental locks. Suppose
that the first user is the parent of the second user and has
requested parental locks. In response to identifying the second
user as a child that is associated with parental locks, the media
guidance application may recommend only modes of playback that
feature a clean (e.g., non-explicit) version of the song.
[0020] The media guidance application may then generate a
presentation of the media asset at the second physical environment
in the identified first version starting from the identified
playback position. For example, the media guidance application may
retrieve the playback position, 0:02:32, from the viewing history
database. Since the user has connected his/her mobile device to the
car's speaker system through a Bluetooth connection, the media
guidance application may continue playback of "Adventure of a
Lifetime by Coldplay" on the user's mobile device from the playback
position using Spotify.
[0021] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may
retrieve a priority level associated with each of the identified
modes. For example, the media guidance application may refer to the
first user's user profile to determine mode preferences. Suppose
that the first user is a passenger in the car. The media guidance
application may identify two modes that the user can use to access
the media asset. The first mode may be an online video streaming
application (e.g., YouTube) on the user's mobile device. As
previously mentioned, the car's speaker system may also be able to
connect to the Internet directly and retrieve media assets from
audio-based services. The media guidance application may thus
determine the second mode to be a music streaming service (e.g.,
Spotify) on the car's speaker system. The media guidance
application may determine that the first version of the media
asset, the music video "Adventure of a Lifetime by Coldplay,"
corresponds to the first mode and that a second version of the
media asset, the audio-only song, corresponds to the second mode.
The media guidance application may then select the first version as
the identified version in response to determining that a priority
level associated with the first mode is greater than a priority
level associated with the second mode. For example, the user
profile of the first user may indicate rankings of various modes
based on the user's preference. The user may rank video-centric
modes (e.g., video on a display) over audio-centric modes (e.g., no
visuals).
[0022] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may
retrieve a social interaction level associated with each of the
identified modes. For example, the locations database may further
provide information about the modes associated with the
environments, detailing a social interaction level. The social
interaction level represents the amount of people the mode may
engage. For example, the mode consisting of a service being
utilized on a mobile device may engage only a single user in an
environment such as a car. In contrast, the mode of an
audio-centric service on a car's speaker system may engage all
users in the car. The media guidance application may determine that
the first version of the media asset, the music video "Adventure of
a Lifetime by Coldplay," corresponds to the first mode and that a
second version of the media asset, the song, corresponds to the
second mode. The media guidance application may select the second
version as the identified version, in response to determining that
the social interaction level associated with the second mode is
greater than the social interaction level associated with the first
mode. For example, suppose that multiple users are present in the
car. Rather than presenting the media asset on the mobile device as
a music video, the media guidance application may identify, using
sensor circuitry, that multiple users are in the car and may
present the media asset as a song, so that all users can
listen.
[0023] In some embodiments, the first mode presents content using a
single device configured to output audio only, wherein a second
mode of the modes presents content using multiple types of devices
simultaneously, and wherein generating for presentation the media
asset in the second physical environment comprises generating a
display of the media asset on a display device and outputting audio
of the media asset via a separate audio output device. For example,
the first mode may be using Spotify through the car's speaker
system to present an audio only output of "Adventure of a Lifetime
by Coldplay" (e.g., the song). The second mode may be using YouTube
through both the user's mobile device and the car's speaker system.
In this case, the user may be able to view the music video on the
mobile device display and listen to the audio portion of the music
video through the car's speaker system. The media guidance
application may rely on a wired (e.g., auxiliary audio cable) or
wireless connection (e.g., Bluetooth) to split the video and audio
streams of the media asset amongst the modes. Assuming the car's
speaker system can independently access the Internet, the media
guidance application on both devices may also retrieve the playback
position from the viewing history database and begin playback on
both devices synchronously. In the case where the versions of the
media assets differ, the media guidance application may perform
audio processing to synchronize the playback positions of the media
asset. For example, the audio of the music video version of
"Adventure of a Lifetime by Coldplay" may differ from the audio of
the song version of the "Adventure of a Lifetime by Coldplay."
These differences may include additional sounds, or the addition of
a preamble to the music video. The media guidance application may
process the audio by matching sections with the same frequency and
temporal characteristics. Given that the user was accessing the
music video version in the first physical environment, the media
guidance application may identify a second playback position in the
song version with audio content that matches the frequency and
temporal characteristics of the audio content at the first playback
position (e.g., the playback position stored upon the user's exit
from the first physical environment).
[0024] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may
receive user input classifying the second physical environment. In
the cases where the media guidance application cannot identify the
second physical environment, the media guidance application may
request the user to classify the user's environment. For example,
the media guidance application may identify a device the user is
accessing, such as the user's mobile device, and present the
request on the user's display. Suppose that the user indicates that
he/she is at a library. The media guidance application may identify
a social occasion at the second physical environment, wherein the
social occasion represents an activity that the user is
participating in. For example, the media guidance application may
refer to the user's calendar in the user profile to determine
whether the user is participating in a social occasion. The media
guidance application may also refer to the user's social media to
determine any social occasions associated with the user as
mentioned in messages, comments, events pages, and posts. Suppose
that the media guidance application determines that the user is
reading. In response, the media guidance application may identify a
plurality of devices, associated with the social occasion, that is
available at the second physical environment. For example, the
media guidance application may emit, from the user's device, a
discovery message to identify devices that are in the second
physical environment. The media guidance application may request
device identification (ID) from the devices in a broadcast message
(e.g., via Bluetooth). Upon receiving replies from the devices in
the second physical environment, the media guidance application may
refer to a device database, which may feature device lookup
information, to determine the name (e.g., MacBook), device type
(e.g., laptop computer) and compatible media services/sources
(e.g., Netflix, Spotify, etc.) associated with each device ID. Upon
determining the available devices, the media guidance application
may identify a plurality of devices that are associated with the
social occasion, by determining statuses of the relevant
configurations in the location database (e.g., "is the device
loud?", "is the device compatible with headphones?", etc.). For
example, because the library may have noise restrictions, the media
guidance application may identify a plurality of devices that is
appropriately configured for a quiet environment (e.g., features
devices that are not noisy and/or are compatible with
headphones).
[0025] Suppose that two users are in the second physical
environment and the first user of the two previously accessed the
latest episode of "Game of Thrones" on his set-top box in the first
physical environment. In some embodiments, the media guidance
application may detect a second user in the second physical
environment. For example, the media guidance application may
collect data from sensor circuitry through a wired or wireless
connection. Suppose that the sensor circuitry is a video sensor
that sends information to the user's mobile device using a
communications radio module (e.g., an Xbee radio). The video sensor
may capture an image that is further analyzed by the media guidance
application on the user's mobile device. Using image processing,
the media guidance application may determine that the second
physical environment has two individual users. The media guidance
application may further identify the second user through facial
recognition or voice recognition. The media guidance application
may then access a viewing history of the second user. For example,
the media guidance application may refer to the viewing history
database on the remote server and retrieve the viewing history of
the second user. In response to determining that the second user
has not viewed the media asset based on the viewing history, the
media guidance application may identify a first device that is not
perceptible to the second user. For example, the media guidance
application may determine that the latest episode of "Game of
Thrones" is not in the viewing history of the second user. In order
to prevent spoilers for the second user, the media guidance
application may identify a device in the second physical
environment that is not perceptible to the second user. For
example, the media guidance application may identify the first
user's mobile device as a device that the second user cannot
see/hear and only the first user may access. Furthermore, to ensure
that the second user cannot view the media asset, the media
guidance application may select the first device to be the mobile
device inserted in a virtual reality headset (e.g., Google
Daydream). Identifying a device that is not perceptible
specifically to the second user prevents solely the second user
from viewing the media asset. Therefore, if additional users who
have viewed the media asset and are not affected by spoilers, enter
the physical environment, the additional users are not prevented
from viewing alongside the first user.
[0026] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may
determine, while the media asset is presented on the first device,
that the second user has reached a current playback position in the
media asset. Suppose that the second user begins watching the
latest episode of "Game of Thrones" and the first user does not
continue watching from the playback position. It is possible that
the second user may reach the playback position that the first user
left off at. In response to determining that the second user has
reached the current play position in the media asset being
presented, the media guidance application may identify a second
device that is perceptible to the first user and the second user.
For example, the media guidance application may identify that the
second physical environment features a smart television that the
first and second user can view together. The media guidance
application may then generate the presentation of the media asset
on the second device. In some embodiments, generating the
presentation of the media asset on the second device comprises
changing the identified version from the first version of the media
asset that corresponds to the first mode associated with the first
device (e.g., a virtual reality video on the Google Daydream), to a
second version of the media asset that corresponds to a second mode
associated with the second device (e.g., video on the smart
television).
[0027] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may
refer to the user profile to retrieve a playlist that the user is
accessing, or the user's viewing history. For example, the user may
be watching episodes of a television show, such as Game of Thrones,
continuously. In response to determining that the user has entered
the second physical environment, the media guidance application may
retrieve the playlist of Game of Thrones episodes the user is
watching, and identify a suitable mode of playback that allows the
user to continue accessing the media assets in the playlist. For
example, when identifying the suitable mode of playback, the media
guidance application may either retrieve the playlist the user is
accessing or refer to the user's viewing history to determine the
likelihood (e.g., where viewing times and frequency are used as
functions of probability algorithms) that the user will access the
next episode of Game of Thrones. The media guidance application may
compare the likelihood to a threshold which represents the minimum
probability of the user accessing the next media asset. In response
to determining that the likelihood exceeds the threshold, the media
guidance application may play the next media asset (e.g., next
episode) via a suitable mode of playback in the second physical
environment.
[0028] In summary, the media guidance application may play a media
asset for a user in a first physical environment. Suppose that the
media asset is the music video "Adventure of a Lifetime by
Coldplay" being played on the user's mobile device and the first
physical environment is the user's home. The media guidance
application may then determine that the user has left the first
physical environment and has entered a second physical environment.
For example, the media guidance application may collect network
connection information such as the Wi-fi connection of the mobile
device and sensor data from motion sensors to determine that the
user has exited his/her home and has entered a car. The media
guidance application may also identify a play position of the media
asset that was playing when the user left the first physical
environment. Accordingly, if the user stopped viewing the music
video at the 2-minute mark from when it began, the media guidance
application may store the playback position in a viewing history
database that tracks the media assets the user has viewed and the
positions where the user stopped viewing the respective media
assets.
[0029] In response to determining that the user has entered the
second physical environment, the media guidance application may
then determine attributes of the second physical environment. For
example, the media guidance application may identify attributes
such as the number of people, the size, the user's role, the
devices, network connection capabilities, etc. that are associated
with the second physical environment. Based on the attributes, the
media guidance application may identify a mode of playback
corresponding to the second physical environment. Suppose that the
user is driving a car. As a result, the media guidance application
may select a music streaming service (e.g., Spotify) via the car's
speaker system as a mode of playback. The media guidance
application may then determine whether a version of the media asset
corresponding to the identified mode of playback is available. For
example, the media guidance application may search for a song
version of "Adventure of a Lifetime by Coldplay" on Spotify.
[0030] In response to determining that the version of the media
asset corresponding to the identified mode of playback is
available, the media guidance application may play the version of
the media asset corresponding to the identified mode of playback to
the user starting from the playback position (e.g., the 2-minute
mark from where the user left off the music video).
[0031] It should be noted that the systems, methods, apparatuses,
and/or aspects described above may be applied to, or used in
accordance with, other systems, methods, apparatuses, and/or
aspects described in this disclosure.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0032] 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:
[0033] FIGS. 1 and 2 show illustrative examples of scenarios for
resuming media in different modes of playback based on attributes
of a physical environment where the media is being resumed, in
accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;
[0034] FIGS. 3 and 4 show illustrative examples of display screens
generated by a media guidance application in accordance with some
embodiments of the disclosure;
[0035] FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment
device in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;
[0036] FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in
accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;
[0037] FIG. 7 is a flowchart of an illustrative process for
resuming media across devices based on a viewing environment, in
accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;
[0038] FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process for
resuming media in different modes of playback based on attributes
of a physical environment where the media is being resumed, in
accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;
[0039] FIG. 9 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process for
generating the presentation of the media asset based on the first
role of the first user, in accordance with some embodiments of the
disclosure;
[0040] FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process
for generating the presentation of the media asset based on the
second role of the second user, in accordance with some embodiments
of the disclosure;
[0041] FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process
for selecting the first version as the identified version based on
a priority level of each mode, in accordance with some embodiments
of the disclosure;
[0042] FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process
for identifying a plurality of devices available at the second
physical environment based on a social occasion, in accordance with
some embodiments of the disclosure;
[0043] FIG. 13 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process
for generating the presentation of the media asset on a device
based on the viewing history of a second user, in accordance with
some embodiments of the disclosure; and
[0044] FIG. 14 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process
for selecting a version of the media asset based on the social
interaction level associated with the respective mode, in
accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0045] Systems and methods are described herein for resuming media
in different modes of playback, based on attributes of a physical
environment that a user has moved to. Suppose that the user is
viewing a baseball game on a television that is connected to a
set-top box. The media guidance application may detect, using
motion sensors, that the user is in his/her living room. The media
guidance application may additionally detect that the user is
leaving the living room and entering his/her car. In response, the
media guidance application may determine the playback position of
the baseball game on the set-top box and may identify whether the
user is a passenger or driver using motion sensors. Depending on
what the user is doing in the car, the media guidance application
may identify various modes of playback that the user has access to.
For example, if the user is a driver, the media guidance
application may determine that the car stereo system is an
appropriate mode of playback, as video would distract the driver
and create unsafe driving conditions. If the user is a passenger,
the media guidance application may determine that in addition to
the car stereo system, the user can access a video component of the
baseball game on his/her smartphone. Upon determining a mode of
playback, the media guidance application may select a version of
the media that is compatible with the mode of playback. For
example, the car stereo system may be compatible with audio only.
The media guidance application may then continue playback of the
baseball game, from the playback position that the user left off at
in the living room, in an audio version featuring play-by-play
commentary.
[0046] FIGS. 1 and 2 show illustrative examples of scenarios for
resuming media in different modes of playback based on attributes
of a physical environment where the media is being resumed, in
accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. The media
guidance application may be executed by control circuitry on user
equipment 108, user 202's user equipment 204, or secondary user
equipment 210, on a remote server, or a combination of the two, as
will be described with respect to FIGS. 3-6.
[0047] First physical environment 100 may be any environment where
a user is initially located. In this case, first physical
environment 100 is user 110's home, in which user 110 is accessing
a media asset. In this scenario, the media guidance application
presents the media asset, an episode of "Game of Thrones," on
display 102 through user equipment 108 (e.g., a set-top box). The
media asset may be an electronically consumable user asset such as
television programming, on-demand programs, Internet content, video
clips, audio, multimedia, etc. The version of the media asset in
this specific scenario may be a video.
[0048] The media guidance application may collect data from sensor
circuitry representing a location of the first user, user 110.
Sensor 104 may be, but is not limited to, video sensors, audio
sensors, motion sensors, three-dimensional scanners, light sensors,
and/or thermographic sensors. In some cases, sensor 104 may be a
device that includes multiple tracking components such as a
smartphone (e.g., includes a camera, a microphone, a gyroscope,
etc.). Accordingly, in some embodiments, sensor 104 may be a cell
phone, a webcam installed on the television, a microphone, a
security camera, a laser tracker, etc. In this scenario, sensor 104
may represent a Microsoft Kinect, which is a motion sensor that
captures video streams and is capable of identifying objects in the
stream. Sensor 104 provides the media guidance application with
information about user 110's location. Sensor 104 may be connected
through a wired (e.g., USB) or wireless (e.g., Wi-fi) connection to
user equipment 108 (e.g., a set-top box). For example, the
Microsoft Kinect may be connected to the set-top box. Both devices
may communicate with each other such that the set-top box sends
requests for video streams to the Microsoft Kinect, and the
Microsoft Kinect responds by sending the requested video streams to
the set-top box. The media guidance application on user equipment
108 may then analyze the video stream to determine whether user 110
is in the first physical environment. The media guidance
application may utilize image processing to identify objects in
each video frame of the video stream. If the media guidance
application classifies an object in a video stream to be user 110,
the media guidance application may determine that user 110 is in
first physical environment 100.
[0049] In some cases, sensor 104 may be an audio sensor that
captures sound information associated with the physical
environment. The media guidance application may analyze the audio
using natural language processing (e.g., voice recognition).
Additionally, the media guidance application may detect other
noises to identify user 110's location. For example, crowd noise
may be associated with a stadium or concert, traffic noise may be
associated with a car, sounds of water flowing may be associated
with the beach, etc. The media guidance application may compare the
audio detected to reference audio clips from the Internet. If the
media guidance application detects user 110's voice from an audio
sensor in first physical environment 100, the media guidance
application may determine that user 110 is in first physical
environment 100.
[0050] The media guidance application may also utilize network
connection information to determine whether user 110 is in first
physical environment 100. For example, the media guidance
application may determine the location of user 110 based on the
Wi-fi connection of user 110's smartphone (e.g., home Wi-fi, office
Wi-fi, public Wi-fi, etc.). Network source 106 may be a router that
user equipment 108 is connected to over a Wi-fi connection. It is
also possible that user 110 owns a mobile device that is connected
to network source 106. The media guidance application may identify
all devices connected to network source 106 as devices located in
first physical environment 100. Therefore, if the devices are being
used by user 110, the media guidance application may determine that
user 110 is in first physical environment 100 as well. Furthermore,
network connection strength may be used by the media guidance
application to estimate user 110's approximate distance from the
network connection source. For example, if user 110's mobile
device's Wi-fi connection strength is poor (e.g., mobile device
receiving only 10% of the signal outputted from network source
106), the media guidance application may estimate that user 110 is
a large distance away from network source 106 (e.g., at least 50
feet away). The media guidance application may refer to a networks
algorithm to approximate the distance of user 110 from network
source 106 as a function of signal strength at the source (e.g.,
router) and destination (e.g., the device user 110 is using to
access the media asset). If user 110 has multiple routers (e.g.,
Wi-fi extenders), the media guidance application may use multiple
signal strength determinations to triangulate the location of user
110.
[0051] In an environment that is indoors, the media guidance
application may also retrieve information from indoor positioning
systems to determine the specific room user 110 is in. This allows
the media guidance application to determine a more suitable
plurality of modes for playback that user 110 can access (e.g., the
modes associated with a bedroom may be different from modes
associated with a living room). In the case of motion sensors, the
media guidance application may count the number of individuals in
an environment based on who enters or leaves. For example, if the
motion sensor is placed in the doorway of a living room, the media
guidance application may increment the number of individuals in the
living room whenever motion is detected of an object entering the
living room. Likewise, the media guidance application may decrement
the number of individuals in the living room whenever motion is
detected of the object moving in the opposite direction (e.g., out
of the living room). In an advanced model, the motion sensors may
be replaced with video sensors that can identify the person
entering and leaving an environment (e.g., via facial recognition),
in addition to incrementing the count of people in a room. Based on
the identity of the person, the media guidance application may
identify a unique plurality of modes for playback.
[0052] The media guidance application may also utilize user profile
information to track events that user 110 is participating in. For
example, the media guidance application may access user 110's
calendar information and detect that user 110 will be at a friend's
house between 2:00 pm and 5:00 pm. The media guidance application
may estimate, using resources such as Google Maps, that user 110
will need to commute to the friend's house for one hour.
Accordingly, the media guidance application may determine that from
1:00 pm to 2:00 pm, user 110's location may be in a car and from
2:00 pm to 5:00 pm, user 110 will be at the friend's house.
Likewise, the media guidance application may access posts, event
descriptions, and messages on social media that are associated with
user 110 to anticipate user 110's location. For example, the user's
Facebook events may indicate that user 110 is attending an event at
the friend's house at 6:00 pm. As a result, the media guidance
application may determine that the location of user 110 will be the
friend's house at 6:00 pm.
[0053] The media guidance application may track the sensors and
network connections in a locations database. The locations database
may list entries of all sensors and network connections associated
with the first user, user 110. For each entry, a corresponding
physical environment may be listed. For example, if sensor 104
(e.g., Microsoft Kinect) is in user 110's living room and sensor
104 detects the first user, user 110, the media guidance
application may determine that sensor 104 corresponds to user 110's
living room; therefore, user 110's first physical environment 100
is the living room.
[0054] The media guidance application may process the collected
data to determine that the location of the first user, user 110,
has changed from first physical environment 100 to a second
physical environment, indicating that the first user, user 110, has
left first physical environment 100 and has entered the second
physical environment. For example, the media guidance application
may use any combination of sensor 104 and network source 106 data
to determine the location of user 110. Suppose that user 110's
mobile device is connected to user 110's "home Wi-fi," which is
outputted by network source 106. Accordingly, the media guidance
application may refer to the locations database and determine that
user 110 is in a first physical environment, home, because "home
Wi-fi" corresponds to home. User 110 may then exit first physical
environment 100 and enter a car, causing user 110's mobile device
to disconnect with "home Wi-fi" (e.g., indicating that user 110 has
left first physical environment 100). Similarly, the media guidance
application may detect that user 110 is no longer detected in first
physical environment 100 based on the video and/or audio data
generated by sensor 104. For example, the media guidance
application may determine, using image processing, that the video
frames captured by sensor 104 no longer include user 110. In either
case, the media guidance application may respond by retrieving
global positioning data associated with the location of user 110's
mobile device. The coordinates of the global positioning data may
allow the media guidance application to identify user 110's new
location.
[0055] Suppose that user 110 requests a taxi (e.g., via an
application such as Uber) using his/her mobile device represented
by user equipment 204. The media guidance application on the mobile
device may detect that user 110 has requested a taxi by analyzing
the content of user 110's screen. The media guidance application
may capture a screenshot of user 110's screen and identify objects
such as the Uber logo and parse any confirmation that user 110 will
participate in an event associated with a second physical
environment (e.g., confirmation that the requested Uber taxi, which
is the second physical environment, will arrive in a given period
of time). Based on the confirmation, the media guidance application
may determine that user 110 has left first physical environment 100
and will enter the second physical environment.
[0056] In response to determining that the location of the first
user, user 110, has changed, the media guidance application may
identify a playback position of the media asset that was generated
for presentation when the first user left first physical
environment 100. Upon determining that the first user has exited
first physical environment 100, the media guidance application may
store the playback position of the media asset in a viewing history
database, which may be stored on a remote server. In some
embodiments, the media guidance application may also track the
playback position of the media asset as user 110 accesses the media
asset, and store the playback position in the viewing history
database in real time. In some embodiments, the media guidance
application may store the playback position in response determining
that user 110 has paused the media asset. Additional features for
storing playback position for resuming a media asset on a second
device are described in greater detail in Katz et al., U.S. Pat.
No. 7,103,906, filed Sep. 29, 2000, and Thomas et al., U.S. Pat.
No. 7,650,621, granted Jan. 19, 2010, the disclosures of which are
hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.
[0057] The viewing history database may include the names of the
media assets that various users have accessed, the devices the
users used to access the media asset, the environments the users
were in during access, and the last positions where the users left
off. For example, if user 110 left first physical environment 100
when the media asset "Game of Thrones" reached the playback
position 0:05:32 (e.g., 5 minutes and 32 seconds from the start of
an episode), the media guidance application may upload the position
0:05:32 onto the remote server and store it in the viewing history
database. In response to user 110 entering the second physical
environment, the media guidance application may refer to the
viewing history database and download the playback position from
the remote server.
[0058] In this case, the remote server can be any device that
provides a service, such as file retrieval, for a client, such as
user 110's local device. Furthermore, the remote server can be
connected to user 110's local area network (LAN) as a remote access
server (RAS), or may be a part of the local area network itself
(e.g., LAN server). For example, the server can be a computer in a
LAN network, a database server that processes database queries, a
cloud server that provides services on demand over the Internet, a
dedicated file server that stores files, or any device that can
provide services to a client device remotely. The media guidance
application first identifies servers that can communicate with the
media guidance application (e.g., transfer files, send delivery
messages etc.). The media guidance application then determines
whether the media asset's playback position associated with user
110 is on the server. If the playback position is in the viewing
history database on the server, the media guidance application may
retrieve the playback position when user 110 enters the second
physical environment and/or wishes to continue accessing the media
asset from where he/she left off.
[0059] In FIG. 2, second physical environment 200 (e.g., inside the
Uber taxi) is the environment that user 202 (previously identified
as user 110) has moved to. User equipment 204 (e.g., smartphone,
tablet, laptop, etc.) represents a device that is associated with
user 202. In order for the media guidance application to determine
whether user 202 is in second physical environment 200, the media
guidance application may rely on sensor 206 and sensor 208, which
both may be video sensors (e.g., security cameras). The media
guidance application may first emit, from user equipment 204, a
discovery message to identify devices and sensors that are in
second physical environment 200. The media guidance application may
request device identification (ID) from the devices and sensors in
a broadcast message (e.g., via Bluetooth). Upon receiving replies
from the devices and sensors in second physical environment 200,
the media guidance application may refer to a device database,
which may feature device lookup information, to determine the name
(e.g., security camera) and device type (e.g., video sensor)
associated with each device ID. Using this discovery message, the
media guidance application may also identify devices that can be
used to access the media asset. For example, the media guidance
application may identify secondary user equipment 210, which may be
the car's speaker system. In response to identifying the sensors
and devices present in second physical environment 200, the media
guidance application on user 202's mobile device may connect to
sensor 206, sensor 208, and secondary user equipment 210.
[0060] By connecting to sensor 206, sensor 208 and secondary user
equipment 210, the media guidance application on user equipment 204
may be able to determine that the devices and sensors are
associated with second physical environment 200, the Uber taxi, and
therefore user 202 is in the Uber taxi. However, the media guidance
application may further request data from sensor 206 and sensor
208, such as video streams, in order for the media guidance
application to determine whether user 202 is present in second
physical environment 200 (e.g., via facial or voice recognition
analysis on the data collected).
[0061] Upon determining that user 202 is in second physical
environment 200, the media guidance application on user equipment
204 may determine an attribute of second physical environment 200.
The attribute of second physical environment 200 can be a set of
unique configurations that the media guidance application may
detect. These configurations may include, but are not limited to,
the number of individuals in the environment (e.g., group of two
people), the interaction between user 202 and the environment
(e.g., user is a sitting passenger), the type of environment (e.g.,
vehicle), a social occasion (e.g., taxi ride), and the devices in
the environment (e.g., user's mobile device, car's speaker
system).
[0062] The media guidance application may search a database, based
on the attribute, to identify a first plurality of modes of
playback associated with the attribute. The locations database may
include a table for each environment with various configurations.
Each configuration may be associated with a plurality of modes of
playback. The plurality of modes of playback may include devices
(e.g., mobile device, car's speaker system, etc.) and services that
can be used to play back a media asset (e.g., Netflix, Audible,
etc.). Suppose that the locations database has a table dedicated to
configurations associated with second physical environment 200, the
Uber taxi (e.g., a car). The media guidance application may compare
the set of configurations described in the attribute with the
configurations in the table. Initially, all modes associated with a
car may be enabled for recommendation. For example, the modes may
be predetermined by the media guidance application and may include
all possible devices and services that can be used based on the
devices found in the discovery message sent by user equipment 204.
The table of configurations may then serve as a checklist that
query user 202's surroundings, role, occasions, services, and
devices. For example, one configuration that is linked to visual
devices may ask "is user 202 driving?" If the attribute indicates
that user 202 is driving, the media guidance application may
disable, for recommendation, all devices that require user 202 to
rely on visuals (e.g., to avoid distracting user 202 from the
road). In this scenario, the media guidance application may
determine that because user 202 requested an Uber taxi, he/she is
the passenger and will not be driving. There may also be another
configuration that asks, "is user 202 allowed access to an
identified device (e.g., the car's speaker system)?" In this case,
because the only identified device other than user 202's mobile
device is secondary user equipment 210 (e.g., the car's speaker
system), and secondary user equipment 210 is not associated with
user 202, the media guidance application may disable, for
recommendation, secondary user equipment 210 (e.g., unless user 202
is given permission to access secondary equipment 210). Another
configuration that is linked to a media service/source (e.g., media
player on user equipment 204) may ask "does user 202 have access to
a local copy of the media asset?". If the attribute indicates that
user 202 does not have access to a local copy of the media asset
(e.g., on a hard drive), the media guidance application may
disable, for recommendation, the media player and the local copy as
a source for playback. Another configuration may ask "are bandwidth
conditions poor?" For example, the media guidance application may
determine the bandwidth conditions of the user (e.g., 5 Mbps) in
the second physical environment and determine whether the user
meets a minimal bandwidth threshold to access the media asset
through the first plurality of modes. For example, the media
guidance application may refer to the locations database to
determine the minimum bandwidth threshold to access a media asset
on Netflix in standard quality (e.g., 3 Mbps). In response to
determining that the bandwidth condition of the user (e.g., 5 Mbps)
is greater than the minimum bandwidth threshold to access a media
asset on Netflix in standard quality, the media guidance
application may determine that the user can access a media asset on
Netflix and may include Netflix on the user's device as a mode of
the first plurality of modes.
[0063] In response to the media guidance application comparing all
configurations with the attribute, the media guidance application
may determine a plurality of modes that are appropriate for
accessing a media asset, based on the attribute of second physical
environment 200. For example, the media guidance application may
identify media-streaming services such as Netflix and HBO Now on
user 202's mobile device as a mode that is appropriate for
accessing the media asset.
[0064] In some embodiments, searching the database, based on the
attribute, to identify the first plurality of modes of playback
associated with the attribute comprises of the media guidance
application determining an environment type of second physical
environment 200. The environment type (also referred to as type of
environment) is a general description of the environment and may be
determined based on the locations database. For example, the
locations database may list an environment as "the Statue of
Liberty," and the respective environment type may be "landmark."
Similarly, the environment may be "the Metropolitan Museum of Art"
and the environment type may be "museum." By generalizing the
environment into an environment type, the media guidance
application may be able to infer additional characteristics of the
environment. For example, an environment type of "museum" may be
associated with noise restrictions, which may affect the mode of
playback the media guidance application identifies. For example,
the media guidance application may determine that user 202 is
sitting in a vehicle, such as a 2017 Nissan sedan. The environment
type may therefore be "car."
[0065] The media guidance application may then determine a
plurality of candidate roles associated with the environment type.
The media guidance application may refer to the locations database
to determine that the roles that can be associated with a car
include driver, front passenger, back passenger, mechanic, seller,
owner, etc. The media guidance application may determine a first
role, of the plurality of candidate roles, of the first user, by
determining, based on data from the sensor circuitry, that the
first user is in a first physical space within second physical
environment 200. For example, sensor 206 and sensor 208 may be
security cameras placed on the deck of the car, beside the front
windshield and back windshield, respectively. The media guidance
application may collect the video stream from sensor 206 and sensor
208, and divide the frame of each video into various partitions.
For simplicity, suppose that the media guidance application divides
each frame from sensor 206 into three partitions, a top half
portion focusing on the area of the backseat, a bottom left
quadrant focusing on the front passenger seat, and a bottom right
quadrant focusing on the driver seat. On the other hand, the video
frames outputted by sensor 208 may be separated into three portions
as well: upper left quadrant (e.g., driver seat), upper right
quadrant (e.g., front passenger seat), and bottom half (e.g., back
passenger seat). Using computer vision (e.g., facial recognition,
segmentation, edge detection, etc.), the media guidance application
may determine that two people are located in second physical
environment 200 (where the second person is the driver 212). The
media guidance application may identify user 202 through facial
recognition by comparing the face of user 202 in the video frames
to a reference image of user 202's face in user 202 profile. In
this case, the media guidance application may identify user 202 in
portions of the video frames associated with the passenger seat. In
response, the media guidance application may identify user 202 is
in a first physical space of second physical environment 200.
[0066] The media guidance application may compare the first
physical space to a plurality of physical space templates, wherein
each physical space template is associated with a role of the
plurality of candidate roles. For example, the media guidance
application may refer to a space characteristics database, which
features characteristics (e.g., images, audio clips, names, etc.)
associated with entries of various physical spaces. Each entry may
additionally be classified by a role for users in the area. For
example, the space characteristics database may feature images of
unique passenger seats associated with a first role "passenger."
The media guidance application may compare the image from the video
sensor, with the image in the space characteristics database to
determine that user 202 is a passenger. In response to determining
that the first physical space matches the first physical space
template (e.g., image of a passenger seat) corresponding to the
first role (e.g., passenger), the media guidance application may
identify the first plurality of modes of playback associated with
the first role. For example, the media guidance application may
refer to the locations database and identify user 202 as a
passenger in the configuration of second physical environment 200.
As a result, the plurality of modes determined by the media
guidance application take the first role into account.
[0067] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may
detect that a second user, user 212, is present at second physical
environment 200 with the first user, user 202. For example, the
media guidance application on user equipment 204 may collect data
from sensor circuitry (e.g., sensor 206 and/or sensor 208) through
a wired or wireless connection. Using image processing, the media
guidance application may determine that second physical environment
200 features a second user. The media guidance application may then
determine a second role of the plurality of candidate roles, of the
second user, user 212, wherein the second role is different from
the first role. Using the process described previously, the media
guidance application may determine that the second user, user 212,
is in the top right quadrant of the video stream of sensor 206
(e.g., focused on the driver seat). Based on the space
characteristics database, the media guidance application may
determine that the second user, user 212, has a second role,
driver.
[0068] The media guidance application may identify a second mode of
playback that corresponds to the second role, wherein the second
mode of playback includes playback using an output that is also
used by the first mode and additionally includes an output that is
not used by the first mode. For example, the first mode, which is
associated with the first role, passenger, may comprise a streaming
service (e.g., HBO Now) on user equipment 204. In contrast, the
second role, driver, may comprise user 212's own mobile device,
along with the secondary user equipment 210 (e.g., car's speaker
system). When generating the presentation of the media asset, the
media guidance application may select the secondary user equipment
as the mode of playback. It should be noted that the media guidance
application may also separately consider user 212's accessibility
to various modes of playback. For example, user 212 may not have
access to a music streaming service, such as HBO Now, while the
first user may have access. In response, the media guidance
application may still identify HBO Now on the car's speaker system
as a mode of playback because at least one of the users has access
to the mode. It should also be noted that user 212 may choose to
continue accessing a different media asset that user 212 left off
at (e.g., independent from the first user).
[0069] It should be noted that the role of user 212 may affect the
modes that are identified in the plurality of modes by the media
guidance application. For example, if two users are in a physical
environment, the media guidance application may determine that one
of the users is sleeping (e.g., through facial recognition and
classification of video streams of a video camera). Accordingly,
the media guidance application may determine, from the locations
database, that the configurations based on the attribute indicate
modes that feature no audio, but have subtitles or
closed-captioning, or have the audio channeled through an
additional device that is not perceptible to the user who is
sleeping (e.g., headphones). If no mode is available with preset
subtitles, the media guidance application may generate, for
display, closed captioning using voice recognition. Some types of
media assets may also be associated with a no-audio configuration
in the viewing history database (e.g., determined by the content
provider). For example, if the user is accessing a sports game
video stream, the user may not need to hear the audio and can
understand the sport based on visuals. In some cases, such as a
movie, the audio is necessary to accompany the visuals. The media
guidance application may identify modes of playback accordingly.
Suppose that the user is accessing an audiobook and does not have
access to headphones. In this case, audio is a requirement. Because
the user cannot use a mode with no audio, the media guidance
application may select an e-book service on user equipment 204 as a
mode.
[0070] The media guidance application may then compare a plurality
of versions of the media asset with the identified first plurality
of modes to identify a first version of the media asset that
corresponds to a first mode. For example, the media guidance
application may refer to the Internet to determine the different
versions that the media asset is available in. For example, the
media guidance application may determine that the episode of "Game
of Thrones" accessed by user 202 is available as a video, a book,
an audiobook, and a virtual reality video. Suppose that the
plurality of modes includes various video streaming services, such
as Netflix and HBO Now, that user 202 has access to. Since the
plurality of modes only features video streaming services, the
media guidance application may select the video version of the
episode as the first version. Furthermore, the media guidance
application may determine that the episode of "Game of Thrones" can
only be found on HBO Now.
[0071] The media guidance application may then generate a
presentation of the media asset at second physical environment 200
in the identified first version starting from the identified
playback position. For example, the media guidance application may
retrieve the playback position, 0:05:32, from the viewing history
database and generate, for display, the media asset "Game of
Thrones" on user 202's user equipment 204.
[0072] Suppose that user 202 has access to secondary user equipment
210. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may
retrieve a priority level associated with each of the identified
modes. For example, the media guidance application may refer to
user 202's user profile in storage 508 of user equipment 204 to
determine mode preferences. Suppose the media guidance application
identifies two modes that user 202 can use to access the media
asset. The first mode may be an online video streaming application
(e.g., Netflix) on the user equipment 204. As previously mentioned,
the car's speaker system may also be able to connect to the
Internet directly and retrieve media assets from audio-based
services. The media guidance application may determine the second
mode to be a split in video and audio such that user 202 may access
the video stream of "Game of Thrones" on user equipment 204 and the
audio stream on secondary user equipment 210. The media guidance
application may refer to the user profile in storage 508 of user
equipment 204, which may indicate rankings of various modes based
on the user's preference. User 202 may rank video-centric modes
(e.g., video on a display) over audio-centric modes (e.g., no
visuals) and may rank video and enhanced audio (e.g., surround
sound) above all modes. In response to determining that the second
mode has a greater priority level than the first mode, the media
guidance application may select a version of the media asset that
is associated with the second mode.
[0073] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may
retrieve a social interaction level associated with each of the
identified modes. For example, the locations database may further
provide information about the modes associated with the
environments, detailing a social interaction level. The social
interaction level represents the amount of people the mode may
engage. For example, the mode consisting of a service being
utilized on a mobile device may only engage a single user in an
environment such as a car. In contrast, the mode of an
audio-centric service on a car's speaker system may engage all
users in the car. Accordingly, the media guidance application may
determine that the second mode described previously has a higher
social interaction level than the first mode. In response, the
media guidance application may select a version of the media asset
for playback, which is associated with the second mode (e.g.,
combination of user equipment 204 and secondary user equipment
210).
[0074] It should be noted that the media guidance application may
rely on a wired (e.g., auxiliary audio cable) or wireless
connection (e.g., Bluetooth) to split the video and audio streams
of the media asset amongst the devices. Assuming the car's speaker
system can independently access the Internet, the media guidance
application on both devices may also retrieve the playback position
from the viewing history database and begin playback on both
devices synchronously. In the case where the versions of the media
assets differ, the media guidance application may perform audio
processing to synchronize the playback positions of the media
asset. For example, if user 202 is accessing a music video, the
audio of the music video version of may differ from the audio of
the song version. These differences may include additional sounds,
or the addition of a preamble to the music video. The media
guidance application may process the audio by matching sections
with the same frequency and temporal characteristics. Given that
user 202 was accessing the music video version in the first
physical environment, the media guidance application may identify a
second playback position in the song version with audio content
that matches the frequency and temporal characteristics of the
audio content at the first playback position (e.g., the playback
position stored upon user 202's exit from the first physical
environment).
[0075] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may
receive user input classifying second physical environment 200 on
user equipment 204 (e.g., through a typed input, a voice command, a
gesture, etc.). In the cases where the media guidance application
cannot identify second physical environment 200, the media guidance
application may request user 202 to classify user 202's
environment. For example, the media guidance application may
identify a device user 202 is accessing, such as user 202's mobile
device, and present the request on user 202's display. The media
guidance application may identify a social occasion at second
physical environment 200, wherein the social occasion represents an
activity that user 202 is participating in. For example, the media
guidance application may refer to user 202's calendar in the user
profile to determine whether user 202 is participating in a social
occasion. The media guidance application may also refer to user
202's social media to determine any social occasions associated
with user 202 as mentioned in messages, comments, events pages, and
posts. In this case, the media guidance application may determine
that user 202 is "travelling" based on the Uber taxi request. In
response, the media guidance application may identify a plurality
of devices, associated with the social occasion, that is available
at second physical environment 200. For example, the media guidance
application may emit, from user 202's device, a discovery message
to identify devices that are in second physical environment 200 (as
discussed previously). Upon determining the available devices, the
media guidance application may identify a plurality of devices that
are associated with the social occasion, by determining statuses of
the relevant configurations in the location database (e.g., "is
user 202 driving?", "does user 202 have access to the detected
devices in the car?", etc.). For example, because the car does not
belong to user 202, the media guidance application may identify a
plurality of devices that is appropriately configured for user
202's privacy (e.g., features devices that will not make the media
asset perceptible to the driver).
[0076] Suppose that of the two users, user 202 and user 212, user
202 is accessing the latest episode of "Game of Thrones" on his
set-top box in first physical environment 100. In some embodiments,
the media guidance application may detect a user 212 in second
physical environment 200. For example, the media guidance
application may collect data from sensor circuitry (e.g., sensor
206 and sensor 208) and may further identify the second user (e.g.,
user 212) through facial recognition or voice recognition. The
media guidance application on the secondary user equipment 210
(e.g., associated with user 212) may then access a viewing history
of the second user. For example, the media guidance application on
secondary user equipment 210 may refer to the viewing history
database on the remote server and retrieve the viewing history of
user 212. In response to determining that user 212 has not viewed
the media asset based on the viewing history, the media guidance
application may identify a first device that is not perceptible to
user 212. For example, the media guidance application may determine
that the latest episode of "Game of Thrones" is not in the viewing
history of user 212. In order to prevent spoilers for user 212, the
media guidance application may identify a device in second physical
environment 200 that is not perceptible to user 212. For example,
the media guidance application may identify user equipment 204
(e.g., the first user's mobile device) as a device that user 212
cannot see/hear and only the first user may access. Furthermore, to
ensure that user 212 cannot view the media asset, the media
guidance application may select the first device to be the mobile
device inserted in a virtual reality headset (e.g., Google
Daydream) or accompanied with headphones. Accordingly, the version
of the media asset will be a virtual reality video. The media
guidance application may then generate the presentation of the
media asset on user equipment 204.
[0077] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may
change the speed of playback based on the attributes of second
physical environment 200. For example, the media guidance
application may determine that user 202 wishes to complete playback
of a media asset in certain amount of time. Accordingly, the media
guidance application may increase the speed of playback by
downsampling the media asset (e.g., reducing the number of frames
in a video or temporal components in audio) or decrease the speed
of playback by upsampling the media asset (e.g., duplicating frames
to increase length of time needed to play back all frames). The
speed of playback may also be adjusted using technology such as
QuickModem, which is a feature in TiVo's Bolt product. QuickModem
allows users to view media at a faster speed with pitch-corrected
audio.
[0078] In some embodiments, the media guidance application may
determine, while the media asset is presented on the first device,
that user 212 has reached a current playback position in the media
asset. Suppose that user 212 begins accessing an audio version of
the media asset "Game of Thrones" on his/her mobile device (e.g.,
via headphones). It is possible that user 212 may reach the
playback position that user 202 is currently on if user 212 is
listening on a higher speed than user 202 (e.g., downsampled
version). In response to determining that user 212 has reached the
current play position in the media asset being presented, the media
guidance application may identify a second device that is
perceptible to the first user and user 212 (e.g., secondary user
equipment 210). The media guidance application may then generate
the presentation of the media asset on the second device so that
both users can access the media asset together.
[0079] The process of synchronizing playback positions at any
physical environment provides users with co-viewing experiences as
well. For example, suppose that in the first physical environment,
the media guidance application detects, using sensor circuitry, a
second user that is accessing the first media asset alongside the
first user. In response to determining that the first user has
exited the first physical environment, the media guidance
application may store the playback position at which the first user
stopped accessing the first media asset. The media guidance
application may further track the second user's playback position
in real-time. In response to determining that the first user has
entered a second physical environment, the media guidance
application may select a suitable mode of playback and a first
version of the first media asset, using the methods described
previously.
[0080] When generating for display, the presentation of the first
media asset in the second physical environment, the media guidance
application may retrieve the second user's current playback
position from the remote server, which stores the viewing history
database. As mentioned previously, the media guidance application
may also increase or reduce the speed of playback of a media asset
based on the user's preferences. Accordingly, the media guidance
application may determine the delay between the first user's
identified playback position and the second user's current playback
position. The media guidance application may provide options to the
user such as beginning playback from the first user's identified
playback position, beginning playback from the second user's
current playback position, or beginning playback from the first
user's identified playback position at a higher playback speed/rate
until the media asset reaches a synchronized playback position
wherein both the first and second user share the same playback
position. Likewise, the second user may be provided options to
begin playback from the first user's identified playback position,
reduce the speed/rate of playback to allow the first user to reach
the second user's playback position at the synchronized playback
position, or continue viewing without changing playback position or
playback speed/rate.
[0081] The amount of content available to users in any given
content delivery system can be substantial. Consequently, many
users desire a form of media guidance through an interface that
allows users to efficiently navigate content selections and easily
identify content that they may desire. An application that provides
such guidance is referred to herein as an interactive media
guidance application or, sometimes, a media guidance application or
a guidance application.
[0082] Interactive 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. 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, 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.
[0083] 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 non-volatile 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.
[0084] With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and
high-speed wireless networks, users are accessing media on user
equipment devices on which they traditionally did not. As referred
to herein, the phrase "user equipment device," "user equipment,"
"user device," "electronic device," "electronic equipment," "media
equipment device," or "media device" should be understood to mean
any device for accessing the content described above, such as a
television, a Smart TV, a set-top box, an integrated receiver
decoder (IRD) for handling satellite television, a digital storage
device, a digital media receiver (DMR), a digital media adapter
(DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, a DVD recorder, a
connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, a BLU-RAY
recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tablet
computer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PC
media server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationary
telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone,
a portable video player, a portable music player, a portable gaming
machine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment,
computing equipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the
same. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a
front facing screen and a rear facing screen, multiple front
screens, or multiple angled screens. In some embodiments, the user
equipment device may have a front facing camera and/or a rear
facing camera. On these user equipment devices, users may be able
to navigate among and locate the same content available through a
television. Consequently, media guidance may be available on these
devices, as well. The guidance provided may be for content
available only through a television, for content available only
through one or more of other types of user equipment devices, or
for content available both through a television and one or more of
the other types of user equipment devices. The media guidance
applications may be provided as on-line applications (i.e.,
provided on a web-site), or as stand-alone applications or clients
on user equipment devices. Various devices and platforms that may
implement media guidance applications are described in more detail
below.
[0085] One of the functions of the media guidance application is to
provide media guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the
phrase "media guidance data" or "guidance data" should be
understood to mean any data related to content or data used in
operating the guidance application. For example, the guidance data
may include program information, guidance application settings,
user preferences, user profile information, media listings,
media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcast
channels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parental
control ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category
information, actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or
providers' logos, etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition,
high definition, 3D, etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites,
and any other type of guidance data that is helpful for a user to
navigate among and locate desired content selections.
[0086] FIGS. 3-4 show illustrative display screens that may be used
to provide media guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS.
3-4 may be implemented on any suitable user equipment device or
platform. While the displays of FIGS. 3-4 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.
[0087] FIG. 3 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display
300 arranged by time and channel that also enables access to
different types of content in a single display. Display 300 may
include grid 302 with: (1) a column of channel/content type
identifiers 304, 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 306, where each
time identifier (which is a cell in the row) identifies a time
block of programming. Grid 302 also includes cells of program
listings, such as program listing 308, 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 310. Information
relating to the program listing selected by highlight region 310
may be provided in program information region 312. Region 312 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.
[0088] 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).
[0089] Grid 302 may provide media guidance data for non-linear
programming including on-demand listing 314, recorded content
listing 316, and Internet content listing 318. 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 300 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 314, 316, and
318 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayed in grid
302 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 302.
Additional media guidance data may be displayed in response to the
user selecting one of the navigational icons 320. (Pressing an
arrow key on a user input device may affect the display in a
similar manner as selecting navigational icons 320.)
[0090] Display 300 may also include video region 322, and options
region 326. Video region 322 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 322 may
correspond to, or be independent from, one of the listings
displayed in grid 302. 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.
[0091] Options region 326 may allow the user to access different
types of content, media guidance application displays, and/or media
guidance application features. Options region 326 may be part of
display 300 (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 326 may concern features
related to program listings in grid 302 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.
[0092] 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.
[0093] 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.Tivo.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. 6. 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.
[0094] Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is
shown in FIG. 4. Video mosaic display 400 includes selectable
options 402 for content information organized based on content
type, genre, and/or other organization criteria. In display 400,
television listings option 404 is selected, thus providing listings
406, 408, 410, and 412 as broadcast program listings. In display
400 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 408 may include more than one
portion, including media portion 414 and text portion 416. Media
portion 414 and/or text portion 416 may be selectable to view
content in full-screen or to view information related to the
content displayed in media portion 414 (e.g., to view listings for
the channel that the video is displayed on).
[0095] The listings in display 400 are of different sizes (i.e.,
listing 406 is larger than listings 408, 410, and 412), 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 Nov. 12, 2009, which is hereby
incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
[0096] 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. 5 shows a generalized
embodiment of illustrative user equipment device 500. More specific
implementations of user equipment devices are discussed below in
connection with FIG. 6. User equipment device 500 may receive
content and data via input/output (hereinafter "I/O") path 502. I/O
path 502 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 504, which includes
processing circuitry 506 and storage 508. Control circuitry 504 may
be used to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable
data using I/O path 502. I/O path 502 may connect control circuitry
504 (and specifically processing circuitry 506) 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. 5 to avoid overcomplicating the
drawing.
[0097] Control circuitry 504 may be based on any suitable
processing circuitry such as processing circuitry 506. 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 504
executes instructions for a media guidance application stored in
memory (i.e., storage 508). Specifically, control circuitry 504 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
504 to generate the media guidance displays. In some
implementations, any action performed by control circuitry 504 may
be based on instructions received from the media guidance
application.
[0098] In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 504
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. 6). 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).
[0099] Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as
storage 508 that is part of control circuitry 504. 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 508 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. 6, may be used to supplement
storage 508 or instead of storage 508.
[0100] Control circuitry 504 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
504 may also include scaler circuitry for upconverting and
downconverting content into the preferred output format of the user
equipment 500. Circuitry 504 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 508 is provided as a separate device from user
equipment 500, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including
multiple tuners) may be associated with storage 508.
[0101] A user may send instructions to control circuitry 504 using
user input interface 510. User input interface 510 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 512 may be provided as a stand-alone device or
integrated with other elements of user equipment device 500. For
example, display 512 may be a touchscreen or touch-sensitive
display. In such circumstances, user input interface 510 may be
integrated with or combined with display 512. Display 512 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 512 may be
HDTV-capable. In some embodiments, display 512 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 512. 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 504. The
video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 504.
Speakers 514 may be provided as integrated with other elements of
user equipment device 500 or may be stand-alone units. The audio
component of videos and other content displayed on display 512 may
be played through speakers 514. In some embodiments, the audio may
be distributed to a receiver (not shown), which processes and
outputs the audio via speakers 514.
[0102] 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 500. In
such an approach, instructions of the application are stored
locally (e.g., in storage 508), 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 504 may retrieve instructions of the application
from storage 508 and process the instructions to generate any of
the displays discussed herein. Based on the processed instructions,
control circuitry 504 may determine what action to perform when
input is received from input interface 510. For example, movement
of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated by the processed
instructions when input interface 510 indicates that an up/down
button was selected.
[0103] 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 500 is retrieved
on-demand by issuing requests to a server remote to the user
equipment device 500. In one example of a client-server based
guidance application, control circuitry 504 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 504) 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
500. This way, the processing of the instructions is performed
remotely by the server while the resulting displays are provided
locally on equipment device 500. Equipment device 500 may receive
inputs from the user via input interface 510 and transmit those
inputs to the remote server for processing and generating the
corresponding displays. For example, equipment device 500 may
transmit a communication to the remote server indicating that an
up/down button was selected via input interface 510. 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 500 for
presentation to the user.
[0104] In some embodiments, the media guidance application is
downloaded and interpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or
virtual machine (run by control circuitry 504). In some
embodiments, the guidance application may be encoded in the ETV
Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received by control circuitry 504
as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by a user agent running
on control circuitry 504. 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 504. 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.
[0105] User equipment device 500 of FIG. 5 can be implemented in
system 600 of FIG. 6 as user television equipment 602, user
computer equipment 604, wireless user communications device 606, 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.
[0106] A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the
system features described above in connection with FIG. 5 may not
be classified solely as user television equipment 602, user
computer equipment 604, or a wireless user communications device
606. For example, user television equipment 602 may, like some user
computer equipment 604, be Internet-enabled allowing for access to
Internet content, while user computer equipment 604 may, like some
television equipment 602, 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 604, 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 606.
[0107] In system 600, there is typically more than one of each type
of user equipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 6 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.
[0108] In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user
television equipment 602, user computer equipment 604, wireless
user communications device 606) 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 device. In some
embodiments, the second screen device provides an interface for
adjusting settings and display preferences of the first 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 device, a different room from the first
device but in the same house or building, or in a different
building from the first device.
[0109] 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.Tivo.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.
[0110] The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications
network 614. Namely, user television equipment 602, user computer
equipment 604, and wireless user communications device 606 are
coupled to communications network 614 via communications paths 608,
610, and 612, respectively. Communications network 614 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 608, 610, and 612 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 612 is drawn
with dotted lines to indicate that in the exemplary embodiment
shown in FIG. 6 it is a wireless path and paths 608 and 610 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. 6 to
avoid overcomplicating the drawing.
[0111] 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 608, 610, and 612, 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 614.
[0112] System 600 includes content source 616 and media guidance
data source 618 coupled to communications network 614 via
communication paths 620 and 622, respectively. Paths 620 and 622
may include any of the communication paths described above in
connection with paths 608, 610, and 612. Communications with the
content source 616 and media guidance data source 618 may be
exchanged over one or more communications paths, but are shown as a
single path in FIG. 6 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. In
addition, there may be more than one of each of content source 616
and media guidance data source 618, but only one of each is shown
in FIG. 6 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The different
types of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired,
content source 616 and media guidance data source 618 may be
integrated as one source device. Although communications between
sources 616 and 618 with user equipment devices 602, 604, and 606
are shown as through communications network 614, in some
embodiments, sources 616 and 618 may communicate directly with user
equipment devices 602, 604, and 606 via communication paths (not
shown) such as those described above in connection with paths 608,
610, and 612.
[0113] Content source 616 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 616 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 616 may
include cable sources, satellite providers, on-demand providers,
Internet providers, over-the-top content providers, or other
providers of content. Content source 616 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.
[0114] Media guidance data source 618 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.
[0115] In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data
source 618 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 618 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 618
may provide user equipment devices 602, 604, and 606 the media
guidance application itself or software updates for the media
guidance application.
[0116] 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 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.
[0117] 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 508,
and executed by control circuitry 504 of a user equipment device
500. 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
504 of user equipment device 500 and partially on a remote server
as a server application (e.g., media guidance data source 618)
running on control circuitry of the remote server. When executed by
control circuitry of the remote server (such as media guidance data
source 618), 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 618 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.
[0118] Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user
equipment devices 602, 604, and 606 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.
[0119] Media guidance system 600 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. 6.
[0120] 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 614. 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
Publication No. 2005/0251827, 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.
[0121] 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.
[0122] 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 616 to access content.
Specifically, within a home, users of user television equipment 602
and user computer equipment 604 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 606 to navigate among
and locate desirable content.
[0123] 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 614. These cloud resources may
include one or more content sources 616 and one or more media
guidance data sources 618. In addition, or in the alternative, the
remote computing sites may include other user equipment devices,
such as user television equipment 602, user computer equipment 604,
and wireless user communications device 606. 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.
[0124] 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.
[0125] 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
604 or wireless user communications device 606 having content
capture feature. Alternatively, the user can first transfer the
content to a user equipment device, such as user computer equipment
604. The user equipment device storing the content uploads the
content to the cloud using a data transmission service on
communications network 614. 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.
[0126] 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.
5.
[0127] As referred herein, the term "in response to" refers to
initiated as a result of. For example, a first action being
performed in response to a second action may include interstitial
steps between the first action and the second action. As referred
herein, the term "directly in response to" refers to caused by. For
example, a first action being performed directly in response to a
second action may not include interstitial steps between the first
action and the second action.
[0128] FIG. 7 is a flowchart of an illustrative process for
resuming media across devices based on a viewing environment, in
accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. 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. 5-6. For example,
process 700 may be executed by control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5) as
instructed by a media guidance application implemented on user
equipment 108 (which may have the functionality of any or all of
user equipment 602, 604, and/or 606 (FIG. 6)). 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., as
described in relation to FIGS. 8-14). Many elements of process 700
have been described above with respect to FIGS. 1 and 2, and those
descriptions have full force and effect with respect to the below
description of process 700, and thus details on previously
described elements are omitted for the sake of brevity.
[0129] Process 700 begins at 702, where control circuitry 504 plays
a media asset (e.g., accessed from media content source 616) for a
user in a first physical environment (e.g., which may be displayed
on display 412 of user equipment 108). At step 704, control
circuitry 504 determines whether the user left the first physical
environment and entered a second physical environment. For example,
control circuitry 504 may communicate with sensor circuitry (e.g.,
sensor 104 and network source 106) via communication network 614 to
retrieve data that can be analyzed to determine the user's
location. If control circuitry 504 determines that the user did not
leave the first physical environment, the process returns to step
702 and control circuitry 504 on user equipment 108 continues to
play the media asset for the user in the first physical
environment. If control circuitry 504 determines that the user did
leave the first physical environment and entered a second physical
environment, the process continues to step 706 where control
circuitry 504 identifies a play position of the media asset that
was playing when the user left the first physical environment.
Control circuitry 504 may store the play position in storage 508 of
user equipment 204, or on a remote server (e.g., a viewing history
database) connected to communication network 614.
[0130] At step 708, control circuitry 504 on user equipment 204
determines attributes of the second physical environment. Control
circuitry 504 may determine the attributes of the second physical
environment by analyzing data received from sensor circuitry (e.g.,
sensor 206, sensor 208) and other user equipment (e.g., secondary
user equipment 210) that may be in the second physical environment.
For example, if sensor 206 is a security camera, control circuitry
504 may analyze the video stream from the security camera to detect
the type of environment, the objects in the environment, the number
of users, etc. Control circuitry 504 may also retrieve a user
profile in storage 508 of user equipment 204, or a remote server
connected to user equipment 204 through communication network 614.
Based on the user profile, control circuitry 504 may determine
attributes such as the media services the user has access to, an
event the user is participating in, the calendar of the user,
etc.
[0131] At step 710, control circuitry 504 identifies a mode of
playback corresponding to the second physical environment, based on
the attributes. For example, control circuitry 504 may identify a
device, or a combination of devices (e.g., user equipment 204
and/or secondary user equipment 210) and a service/application
(e.g., video streaming service such as Netflix, local smartphone
media player) that are suitable for use based on the attributes of
the second physical environment. At step 712, control circuitry 504
determines whether a version of the media asset corresponding to
the identified mode of playback is available. For example, if
control circuitry 504 identifies a video streaming service, such as
Netflix, utilized on user equipment 204 as a mode of playback,
control circuitry 504 may search for the media asset in the Netflix
library (e.g., via media guidance data source 518). If control
circuitry 504 determines that a version of the media asset
corresponding to the identified mode of playback is not available,
the process returns to step 710 and control circuitry identifies an
alternate mode of playback. If control circuitry 504 determines
that a version of the media asset corresponding to the identified
mode of playback is available, the process ends at step 714 where
control circuitry 504 plays the version of the media asset
corresponding to the identified mode of playback (e.g., on display
512 of user equipment 204) to the user starting from the playback
position (e.g., retrieved from viewing history database in storage
508 or remote server in communication network 614).
[0132] FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process for
resuming media in different modes of playback based on attributes
of a physical environment where the media is being resumed, in
accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. It should be
noted that process 800 or any step thereof could be performed on,
or provided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 5-6. For example,
process 800 may be executed by control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5) as
instructed by a media guidance application implemented on user
equipment 108 (which may have the functionality of any or all of
user equipment 602, 604, and/or 606 (FIG. 6)). In addition, one or
more steps of process 800 may be incorporated into or combined with
one or more steps of any other process or embodiment (e.g., as
described in relation to FIGS. 7 and 9-14). Many elements of
process 800 have been described above with respect to FIGS. 1 and
2, and those descriptions have full force and effect with respect
to the below description of process 800, and thus details on
previously described elements are omitted for the sake of
brevity.
[0133] Process 800 begins at 802, where control circuitry 504
generates for presentation a media asset (e.g., accessed from media
content source 616) for a first user in a first physical
environment (e.g., which may be displayed on display 412 of user
equipment 108). At step 804, control circuitry 504 collects data
from sensor circuitry representing a location of the first user.
For example, control circuitry 504 may communicate with sensor
circuitry (e.g., sensor 104 and network source 106) via
communication network 614 to retrieve data that can be analyzed to
determine the user's location. At step 806, control circuitry 504
determines whether the user left the first physical environment and
entered a second physical environment. If control circuitry 504
determines that the user did not leave the first physical
environment, the process returns to step 804 and control circuitry
504 on user equipment 108 continues collecting data from sensor
circuitry to determine the location of the user. If control
circuitry 504 determines that the user did leave the first physical
environment and entered a second physical environment, the process
continues to step 808 where control circuitry 504 identifies a
playback position of the media asset that was generated for
presentation when the first user left the first physical
environment. Control circuitry 504 may store the play position in
storage 508 of user equipment 204, or on a remote server (e.g., a
viewing history database) connected to communication network
614.
[0134] At step 810, control circuitry 504 on user equipment 204
determines an attribute of the second physical environment. Control
circuitry 504 may determine the attribute of the second physical
environment by analyzing data received from sensor circuitry (e.g.,
sensor 206, sensor 208) and other user equipment (e.g., secondary
user equipment 210) that may be in the second physical environment.
For example, if sensor 206 is a security camera, control circuitry
504 may analyze the video stream from the security camera to detect
the type of environment, the objects in the environment, the number
of users, etc. Control circuitry 504 may also retrieve a user
profile in storage 508 of user equipment 204, or a remote server
connected to user equipment 204 through communication network 614.
Based on the user profile, control circuitry 504 may determine an
attribute, including the media services the user has access to, an
event the user is participating in, the calendar of the user,
etc.
[0135] At step 812, control circuitry 504 searches a database,
based on the attribute, to identify a first plurality of modes of
playback associated with the attribute. For example, control
circuitry 504 may identify a device, or a combination of devices
(e.g., user equipment 204 and/or secondary user equipment 210) and
a service/application (e.g., video streaming service such as
Netflix, local smartphone media player) that are suitable for use
based on the attribute of the second physical environment. Control
circuitry 504 may use the locations database described previously
to determine modes of playback based on the configuration (e.g.,
indicated by the attribute) of the second physical environment. At
step 814, control circuitry 504 compares a plurality of versions of
the media asset with the identified first plurality of modes to
identify a first version of the media asset that corresponds to a
first mode. For example, if control circuitry 504 identifies a
video streaming service, such as Netflix, utilized on user
equipment 204 as a mode of playback, control circuitry 504 may
search for the media asset in the Netflix library (e.g., via media
guidance data source 518). Control circuitry 504 may compare
various modes and versions, until a first version and a
corresponding first mode are determined (e.g., the movie is found
in the Netflix library, making the movie the first version, and
Netflix on the user's device the first mode). The process ends at
step 816 where control circuitry 504 generates a presentation of
the media asset (e.g., on display 512 of user equipment 204, or on
secondary user equipment 210) at the second physical environment in
the identified first version starting from the identified playback
position (e.g., retrieved from viewing history database in storage
508 or remote server in communication network 614).
[0136] FIG. 9 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process for
generating the presentation of the media asset based on the first
role of the first user, in accordance with some embodiments of the
disclosure. It should be noted that process 900 or any step thereof
could be performed on, or provided by, any of the devices shown in
FIGS. 5-6. For example, process 900 may be executed by control
circuitry 504 (FIG. 5) as instructed by a media guidance
application implemented on user equipment 108 (which may have the
functionality of any or all of user equipment 602, 604, and/or 606
(FIG. 6)). In addition, one or more steps of process 900 may be
incorporated into or combined with one or more steps of any other
process or embodiment (e.g., as described in relation to FIGS. 7-8
and 10-14). Many elements of process 900 have been described above
with respect to FIGS. 1 and 2, and those descriptions have full
force and effect with respect to the below description of process
900, and thus details on previously described elements are omitted
for the sake of brevity.
[0137] Process 900 begins at step 902 where control circuitry 504
determines an environment type of the second physical environment.
For example, if the second physical environment is a car, 2017
Nissan Rogue, the environment type may be a broader classification
(e.g., "car" or "vehicle"). At step 904, control circuitry 504
determines a plurality of candidate roles associated with the
environment type. For example, the candidate roles for the
environment type "car" may be driver, passenger, mechanic, seller,
etc. At step 906, control circuitry 504 determines, based on data
from the sensor circuitry, that the first user is in a first
physical space within the second physical environment. For example,
control circuitry 504 on user equipment 204 may communicate with
sensor 206 (e.g., a security camera) to determine a physical space
inside the second physical environment that the user is in (e.g.,
driver seat, passenger seat, etc.). At step 908, control circuitry
504 compares the first physical space to a plurality of physical
space templates, wherein each physical space template is associated
with a role of the plurality of candidate roles. For example,
control circuitry 504 may compare an image of the user in the first
physical space and classify the first physical space based on a
database of images, wherein each image in the database is
associated with a role (e.g., driver seat may be associated with
driver).
[0138] At step 910, control circuitry 504 determines whether the
first physical space matches a physical space template. For
example, control circuitry 504 may compare the image of the first
physical space with entries in a database of physical space
templates. If control circuitry 504 determines that the first
physical spaces does not match any physical space templates, the
process continues to step 914 where control circuitry 504 requests
the first user to identify a first role. For example, control
circuitry 504 may generate for display, on display 412 of user
equipment 204, a prompt that allows the user to enter his/her role
via I/O Path 502. If control circuitry 504 determines that the
first physical spaces matches at least one of the physical space
templates, the process continues to step 912 where control
circuitry 504 identifies a first role associated with a first
physical space template. At step 916, control circuitry 504
identifies the first plurality of modes of playback associated with
the first role.
[0139] FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process
for generating the presentation of the media asset based on the
second role of the second user, in accordance with some embodiments
of the disclosure. It should be noted that process 1000 or any step
thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any of the devices
shown in FIGS. 5-6. For example, process 1000 may be executed by
control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5) as instructed by a media guidance
application implemented on user equipment 108 (which may have the
functionality of any or all of user equipment 602, 604, and/or 606
(FIG. 6)). In addition, one or more steps of process 1000 may be
incorporated into or combined with one or more steps of any other
process or embodiment (e.g., as described in relation to FIGS. 7-9
and 11-14). Many elements of process 1000 have been described above
with respect to FIGS. 1 and 2, and those descriptions have full
force and effect with respect to the below description of process
1000, and thus details on previously described elements are omitted
for the sake of brevity.
[0140] Process 1000 begins at step 1002 where control circuitry 504
collects data from sensor circuitry (e.g., sensor 206, sensor 208)
representing a location of the first user. At step 1004, control
circuitry 504 determines whether a second user is present at the
second physical environment with the first user. For example, using
data from sensor circuitry (e.g., video stream from a security
camera) control circuitry 504 on user equipment 204 may determine
whether a second user is present in the video frames (e.g., via
computer vision, image processing, etc.). If control circuitry 504
determines that a second user is not present at the second physical
environment, the process returns to step 1002, as control circuitry
504 continues to collect and analyze data from sensor circuitry. If
control circuitry determines that a second user is present at the
second physical environment, the process advances to step 1006
where control circuitry 504 determines a second role of the
plurality of candidate roles, of the second user, wherein the
second role is different from the first role. For example, control
circuitry 504 may identify a second physical space in the second
physical environment where the second user is and determine a role
based on the physical space templates. This role may be different
from the role of the first user.
[0141] At step 1010, control circuitry 504 identifies a second mode
of playback that corresponds to the second role, wherein the second
mode of playback includes playback using an output that is also
used by the first mode and additionally includes an output that is
not used by the first mode. For example, the first mode of playback
may only use user equipment 204 as an output and the second mode of
playback may include both user equipment 204 and secondary user
equipment 210 as outputs. At step 1012, control circuitry 504
identifies a second version of the media asset that corresponds to
the second mode. For example, control circuitry 504 may identify a
version of the media asset (e.g., movie) that may utilize display
412 of user equipment 204 and/or the audio output of secondary user
equipment 210. At step 1014, control circuitry 504 generates a
presentation of the media asset at the second physical environment
to the second user using the output that is not used by the first
mode (e.g., audio output from secondary user equipment 210) from
the identified playback position.
[0142] FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process
for selecting the first version as the identified version based on
a priority level of each mode, in accordance with some embodiments
of the disclosure. It should be noted that process 1100 or any step
thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any of the devices
shown in FIGS. 5-6. For example, process 1100 may be executed by
control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5) as instructed by a media guidance
application implemented on user equipment 108 (which may have the
functionality of any or all of user equipment 602, 604, and/or 606
(FIG. 6)). In addition, one or more steps of process 1100 may be
incorporated into or combined with one or more steps of any other
process or embodiment (e.g., as described in relation to FIGS. 7-10
and 12-14). Many elements of process 1100 have been described above
with respect to FIGS. 1 and 2, and those descriptions have full
force and effect with respect to the below description of process
1100, and thus details on previously described elements are omitted
for the sake of brevity.
[0143] Process 1100 begins at step 1102 where control circuitry 504
retrieves a priority level associated with each of the identified
modes (e.g., from user profile in storage 508). At step 1104,
control circuitry 504 determines that the first version of the
media asset corresponds to the first mode and that a second version
of the media asset corresponds to a second mode. At step 1106,
control circuitry 504 determines whether the priority level
associated with the first mode is greater than the priority level
associated with the second mode. For example, control circuitry 504
may retrieve rankings of preferred modes from the user profile.
Control circuitry 504 may determine that the ranking of the first
mode is higher than the ranking of the second mode. In response,
the process continues to step 1108 where control circuitry 504
selects the first version as the identified version (e.g., the
version that is associated with the first mode). If control
circuitry 504 determines that the priority level of the second mode
is greater than the priority level of the first mode, then at step
1110, control circuitry 504 selects the second version as the
identified version.
[0144] FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process
for identifying a plurality of devices available at the second
physical environment based on a social occasion, in accordance with
some embodiments of the disclosure. It should be noted that process
1200 or any step thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any
of the devices shown in FIGS. 5-6. For example, process 1200 may be
executed by control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5) as instructed by a media
guidance application implemented on user equipment 108 (which may
have the functionality of any or all of user equipment 602, 604,
and/or 606 (FIG. 6)). In addition, one or more steps of process
1200 may be incorporated into or combined with one or more steps of
any other process or embodiment (e.g., as described in relation to
FIGS. 7-11 and 13-14). Many elements of process 1200 have been
described above with respect to FIGS. 1 and 2, and those
descriptions have full force and effect with respect to the below
description of process 1200, and thus details on previously
described elements are omitted for the sake of brevity.
[0145] Process 1200 begins at step 1202 where control circuitry 504
receives user input classifying the second physical environment
(e.g., via I/O Path 502). For example, control circuitry 504 may
prompt the user on display 412 of user equipment 204 to identify
the second physical environment. At step 1204, control circuitry
504 identifies a social occasion (e.g., based on user profile in
storage 508 or social media) at the second physical environment,
wherein the social occasion represents an activity that the user is
participating in. At step 1206, control circuitry 504 identifies a
plurality of devices, associated with the social occasion, that are
available at the second physical environment. For example, the
social occasion may be a birthday party which several guests are
attending. Accordingly, control circuitry 504 may include the
social occasion in the attribute of the second physical environment
and refer to the locations database to identify device types (may
also be referred to as an output of the mode) that are associated
with the social occasion (e.g., loudspeaker, projector, etc.).
[0146] FIG. 13 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process
for generating the presentation of the media asset on a device
based on the viewing history of a second user, in accordance with
some embodiments of the disclosure. It should be noted that process
1300 or any step thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any
of the devices shown in FIGS. 5-6. For example, process 1300 may be
executed by control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5) as instructed by a media
guidance application implemented on user equipment 108 (which may
have the functionality of any or all of user equipment 602, 604,
and/or 606 (FIG. 6)). In addition, one or more steps of process
1300 may be incorporated into or combined with one or more steps of
any other process or embodiment (e.g., as described in relation to
FIGS. 7-12 and 14). Many elements of process 1300 have been
described above with respect to FIGS. 1 and 2, and those
descriptions have full force and effect with respect to the below
description of process 1300, and thus details on previously
described elements are omitted for the sake of brevity.
[0147] Process 1300 begins at step 1302 where control circuitry 504
detects a second user in the second physical environment. Step 1302
may embody steps 1002 and 1004 of FIG. 10. At step 1304, control
circuitry 504 accesses a viewing history of the second user (e.g.,
from viewing history database on remote server or from a device
associated with the second user connected via communications
network 614). At step 1306, control circuitry 504 determines
whether the second user has viewed the media asset (e.g., based on
viewing history of the second user). In response to determining
that the second user has seen the media asset, the process returns
to step 1004 and continues process 1000. In response to determining
that the second user has not seen the media asset, control
circuitry 504 identifies a first device that is not perceptible to
the second user. For example, if the second user is driver 212,
control circuitry 504 may identify user equipment 204, which is not
perceptible to the driver because user 202, with user equipment
204, is in a different physical space and user equipment 204 is a
handheld personal device. At step 1310, control circuitry 504
generates the presentation of the media asset on the first device
(e.g., user equipment 204).
[0148] At step 1312, control circuitry 504 monitors, while the
media asset is presented on the first device, whether the second
user has reached a current playback position in the media asset.
For example, the first user may stop accessing the media asset.
During this time, the second user may reach the current playback
position in the media asset. When the first user begins watching
the media asset on the first device, control circuitry 504 may
determine that the second user has reached the current playback
position in the media asset. At step 1314, control circuitry 504
determines whether the second user reached the current playback
position in the media asset. If control circuitry 504 determines
that the second user did not reach the current playback position,
the process returns to step 1312 and control circuitry 504
continues to monitor the second user's playback position. If
control circuitry 504 determines that the second user has reached
the current playback position, control circuitry 504 identifies a
second device (e.g., secondary user equipment 210) that is
perceptible to the first user and the second user at step 1316. At
step 1318, control circuitry 504 generates the presentation of the
media asset on the second device.
[0149] FIG. 14 is a flowchart of a detailed illustrative process
for selecting a version of the media asset based on the social
interaction level associated with respective mode, in accordance
with some embodiments of the disclosure. It should be noted that
process 1400 or any step thereof could be performed on, or provided
by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 5-6. For example, process
1400 may be executed by control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5) as
instructed by a media guidance application implemented on user
equipment 108 (which may have the functionality of any or all of
user equipment 602, 604, and/or 606 (FIG. 6)). In addition, one or
more steps of process 1400 may be incorporated into or combined
with one or more steps of any other process or embodiment (e.g., as
described in relation to FIGS. 7-13). Many elements of process 1400
have been described above with respect to FIGS. 1 and 2, and those
descriptions have full force and effect with respect to the below
description of process 1400, and thus details on previously
described elements are omitted for the sake of brevity.
[0150] Process 1400 begins at step 1402 where control circuitry 504
retrieves a social interaction level associated with each of the
identified modes (e.g., from user profile in storage 508, social
media, or the Internet). At step 1404, control circuitry 504
determines that the first version of the media asset corresponds to
the first mode and that a second version of the media asset
corresponds to a second mode. At step 1406, control circuitry 504
determines whether the social interaction level associated with the
first mode is greater than the social interaction level associated
with the second mode. For example, control circuitry 504 may
retrieve rankings of social interaction of modes from the user
profile. Control circuitry 504 may determine that the ranking of
the first mode is higher than the ranking of the second mode. In
response, the process continues to step 1408 where control
circuitry 504 selects the first version as the identified version
(e.g., the version that is associated with the first mode). If
control circuitry 504 determines that the social interaction level
of the second mode is greater than the social interaction level of
the first mode, then at step 1410, control circuitry 504 selects
the second version as the identified version.
[0151] It should be noted that processes 700-1400 or any step
thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any of the devices
shows in FIGS. 1, 2 and 5-6. For example, any of processes 700-1400
may be executed by control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5) as instructed by
control circuitry implemented on user equipment 602, 604, 606 (FIG.
5), and/or a user equipment device for selecting a recommendation.
In addition, one or more steps of processes 700-1400 may be
incorporated into or combined with one or more steps of any other
process or embodiment.
[0152] It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of each of
FIGS. 7-14 may be used with any other embodiment of this
disclosure. In addition, the steps and descriptions described in
relation to FIGS. 7-14 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. 1, 2 and
4-5 could be used to perform one or more of the steps in FIGS.
7-14.
[0153] It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art
that methods involved in the present invention may be embodied in a
computer program product that includes a computer-usable and/or
readable medium. For example, such a computer-usable medium may
consist of a read-only memory device, such as a CD-ROM disk or
conventional ROM device, or a random access memory, such as a hard
drive device or a computer diskette, having a computer-readable
program code stored thereon. It should also be understood that
methods, techniques, and processes involved in the present
disclosure may be executed using processing circuitry.
[0154] The processes discussed above are intended to be
illustrative and not limiting. One skilled in the art would
appreciate that the steps of the processes discussed herein may be
omitted, modified, combined, and/or rearranged, and any additional
steps may be performed without departing from the scope of the
invention. More generally, the above disclosure is meant to be
exemplary and not limiting. Only the claims that follow are meant
to set bounds as to what the present invention includes.
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.
[0155] While some portions of this disclosure may make reference to
"convention," any such reference is merely for the purpose of
providing context to the invention(s) of the instant disclosure,
and does not form any admission as to what constitutes the state of
the art.
* * * * *
References