Agnostic media delivery system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12225253-B2
Application number	US-202217656610-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 25, 2022
Priority date	Nov 27, 2012
Publication date	Feb 11, 2025
Grant date	Feb 11, 2025

Abstract

Systems and methods for a media content delivery service. A media content provider includes a data store for storing and serving media content to subscribers. The media content provider continually records and or otherwise stores video and audio content from around the world. Stored content will generally correspond to a large number of other media content providers, such as cable television operators, Internet based media content providers, television networks, and so on. Subscribers to the media provider interact with the media content provider via hardware and/or software mechanisms either provided by the media content provider or conforming to specifications of the media content provider. Based on these subscriber's subscriptions to the other content providers, the subscribers will have viewing, listening, or application execution privileges for content maintained in the data store. Content of a subscriber corresponding to multiple video content providers is maintained and served by a single provider.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
at a first electronic device in communication with one or more input devices:
receiving, via the one or more input devices, an indication of interaction with the first electronic device, wherein the indication of interaction is different from a request to access media content; and
in response to receiving the indication of interaction with the first electronic device:
in accordance with a determination that a subscriber authorization setting associated with the first electronic device is enabled, initiating a process to identify a user associated with the indication of interaction with the first electronic device, wherein the first electronic device operates using first one or more settings after initiating the process to identify the user when one or more criteria are satisfied; and
in accordance with a determination that the subscriber authorization setting associated with the first electronic device is not enabled, operating the first electronic device using second one or more settings, different from the first one or more settings; and

after initiating the process to identify the user associated with the indication of interaction with the first electronic device:
in accordance with a determination that the one or more criteria are satisfied, including a first criterion that is satisfied when identification of the user associated with the indication of interaction with the first electronic device is successful and including a second criterion that is satisfied when the user associated with the indication of interaction with the first electronic device is associated with a content subscription, operating the first electronic device using the first one or more settings associated with the content subscription associated with the user; and
in accordance with a determination that the one or more criteria are not satisfied operating the first electronic device using the second one or more settings, different from the first one or more settings that are associated with the content subscription associated with the user.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the process to identify the user associated with the indication of interaction with the first electronic device includes using biometric data associated with the user to identify the user.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the process to identify the user associated with the indication of interaction with the first electronic device includes recognizing a voice of the user.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the process to identify the user associated with the indication of interaction with the first electronic device includes identifying a second electronic device, different from the first electronic device, that is in communication with the first electronic device and is associated with the content subscription associated with the user.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the indication of interaction with the first electronic device is received without receiving an indication of interaction with the second electronic device.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the process to identify the user associated with the indication of interaction with the first electronic device includes initiating a pairing process between the first electronic device and the second electronic device, different from the first electronic device, the method further comprising:
in accordance with a determination that the pairing process is successful and that the subscriber authorization setting associated with the first electronic device is enabled, initiating the process to identify the user associated with the indication of interaction with the first electronic device.

7. The method of claim 4 , wherein the second electronic device is associated with a content subscription provider associated with the content subscription.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first one or more settings includes a setting enabling access to subscription content associated with the content subscription associated with the user.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, via the one or more input devices, a second indication of interaction with the first electronic device; and
in response to receiving the second indication of interaction with the first electronic device, and in accordance with a determination that the subscriber authorization setting associated with the first electronic device is enabled, initiating a process to identify a second user, different from the user, associated with the second indication of interaction with the first electronic device; and
after initiating the process to identify the second user associated with the second indication of interaction with the first electronic device, in accordance with a determination that one or more criteria are satisfied, including a first criterion that is satisfied when identification of the second user associated with the second indication of interaction with the first electronic device is successful and including a second criterion that is satisfied when the second user associated with the second indication of interaction with the first electronic device is associated with a second content subscription, different from the content subscription, operating the first electronic device using third one or more settings, different from the first one or more settings associated with the second content subscription associated with the second user and the content subscription associated with the user.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first one or more settings grant access to the content subscription associated with the user.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the indication of interaction corresponds to launching an application stored on a second electronic device, different from the first electronic device, that is in communication with the first electronic device.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the indication of interaction includes an indication of movement of a second electronic device, different from the first electronic device, that is in communication with the first electronic device.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the indication of interaction includes a voice command directed to the first electronic device.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the indication of interaction includes recognition of a voice of the user providing the voice command.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the indication of interaction includes receiving biometric data from the user.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the biometric data is detected at a second electronic device, different from the first electronic device, that is in communication with the first electronic device, and received by the first electronic device from the second electronic device.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing one or more programs, the one or more programs comprising instructions, which when executed by one or more processors of a first electronic device in communication with one or more input devices, cause the first electronic device to perform a method comprising:
receiving, via the one or more input devices, an indication of interaction with the first electronic device, wherein the indication of interaction is different from a request to access media content; and
in response to receiving the indication of interaction with the first electronic device:
in accordance with a determination that a subscriber authorization setting associated with the first electronic device is enabled, initiating a process to identify a user associated with the indic

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Christie Gregory N
• Sabatelli Alessandro
• Bachman William M
• Chaudhri Imran
• Robbin Jeffrey
• Young Jim
• Howard Joe
• Van Os Marcel
• Coffman Patrick L
• Lemay Stephen O
• Ma Jeffrey
• Kress Lynne

Classifications

• H04N21/8456

  by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments · CPC title

• H04N21/4821

  using a grid, e.g. sorted out by channel and broadcast time · CPC title

• H04N21/232

  Content retrieval operation {locally} within server, e.g. reading video streams from disk arrays {(storage management G06F3/0604; details of querying and searching of video data from a database G06F16/739)} · CPC title

• H04N21/47202

  for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand · CPC title

• H04N21/4668

  for recommending content, e.g. movies · CPC title