Personalized content aggregation platform

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9467743-B2
Application number	US-201414486063-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 15, 2014
Priority date	Sep 15, 2014
Publication date	Oct 11, 2016
Grant date	Oct 11, 2016

Abstract

A user device receives, from a network device, a content index of content items available for presentation via a content distribution network. The user device presents a user interface to configure a personalized channel plan and receives, via the user interface, user input to configure the personalized channel plan. The personalized channel plan includes a schedule of selected content items, from the content index, for presentation on a remote viewing device. The user device sends, to a remote viewing device, presentation instructions for the personalized channel plan, wherein the instructions cause the viewing device to present the selected content items to the user.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, by a user device and from a network device, a content index of content items available for presentation;
presenting, by the user device, a user interface to configure a personalized channel plan, wherein the user interface includes a scheduling grid with a linear presentation of time slots for creating the personalized channel plan and a drag-and-drop interface to populate a content item selection from the content index into the scheduling grid;
receiving, by the user device and via the user interface, user input to configure the personalized channel plan, wherein the personalized channel plan includes content item selections from the content index, selected time slots for the content item selections, and a viewing device selection for presentation of selected content items, wherein the viewing device is different than the user device;
sending, by the user device and to an application server, the content item selections, a presentation schedule, and the viewing device selection for the personalized channel plan;
receiving, by the user device and from the application server, content links for the selected content items in the personalized channel plan, wherein at least some of the content links include tuning instructions or a uniform resource locator (URL) for a private managed network that provides guaranteed quality-of-service (QoS) levels for delivering the selected content items to the viewing device; and
sending, by the user device and to the viewing device, instructions for the personalized channel plan, wherein the instructions include the content links and cause the viewing device to obtain the selected content items and present the selected content items to the user at the selected time slots.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
providing, by the viewing device and after the sending the instructions, a license request to retrieve a DRM license for one of the selected content items.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the content links include a uniform resource locator (URL) for a network location to retrieve content formatted for a type of the viewing device.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the selected content items include live linear broadcast content.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the selected content items includes web-based content.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sending further comprises:
discovering the viewing device within a local wireless network; and
sending the instructions via the local wireless network.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the content item selections include alternative content items for one of the time slots, and wherein the user input further includes instructions to selectively present one of the alternative content items.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user input further includes instructions to retrieve an automatically-suggested content item, for presentation during one of the selected time slots, based on a user profile.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the instructions to retrieve the automatically-suggested content item include one or more user-selected criteria for the automatically-suggested content item.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the one or more user-selected criteria for the automatically-suggested content item includes a content source, a duration, a genre, a keyword, or a content rating.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the one or more user-selected criteria for the automatically-suggested content item includes weighted mix of different content categories.

12. A system, comprising:
a user device including:
a network interface to communicate with a network device and a viewing device that is different than the user device;
a memory for storing instructions; and
a processor configured to execute the instructions to:
receive, from the network device, a content index of content items available for presentation via a content distribution network;
present a user interface to configure a personalized channel plan, wherein the user interface includes a scheduling grid with a linear presentation of time slots for creating the personalized channel plan and a drag-and-drop interface to populate a content item selection from the content index into the scheduling grid;
receive, via the user interface, user input to configure the personalized channel plan, wherein the personalized channel plan includes content item selections from the content index, selected time slots for the content item selections, and a viewing device selection for presentation of selected content items;
send, to the network device, the content item selections, a presentation schedule, and the viewing device selection for the personalized channel plan;
receive, from the network device, content links for the selected content items in the personalized channel plan, wherein at least some of the content links include tuning instructions or a uniform resource locator (URL) for a private managed network that provides guaranteed quality-of-service (QoS) levels for delivering the selected content items to the viewing device; and
send, to the viewing device, presentation instructions for the personalized channel plan, wherein the instructions include the content links and cause the viewing device to obtain the selected content items and present the selected content items to the user at the selected time slots.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the viewing device further comprises:
a host application to receive and execute the presentation instructions.

14. The system of claim 12 , wherein the content index includes items from television content, video-on-demand content, and web-based content.

15. The system of claim 12 , wherein, when receiving the user input to schedule the personalized channel plan, the processor is further configured to:
receive user input to drag a title from the content index into the scheduling grid.

16. The system of claim 12 , wherein the selected content items include live linear broadcast content and on-demand content.

17. The system of claim 12 , wherein the viewing device includes one or more of:
a set-top box (STB);
a cable card; or
a smart television.

18. The system of claim 12 , wherein the processor is further configured to execute the instructions to:
store, in the memory, the personalized channel plan.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium, storing instructions executable by one or more processors, the non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising one or more instructions to:
receive, from a network device, a content index of content items available for presentation via a content distribution network;
present a user interface to configure a personalized channel plan, wherein the user interface includes a scheduling grid with a linear presentation of time slots for creating the personalized channel plan and a drag-and-drop interface to populate a content item selection from the content index into the scheduling grid;
receive, via the user interface, user input to schedule the personalized channel plan, wherein the personalized channel plan includes content item selections from the content index, selected time slots for the content item selections, and a viewing device selection for presentation of selected content items, wherein the viewing device is different than the user device; on the viewing device; and
send, to the network device, the content item selections, a presentation schedule, and the viewing device selection for the personalized channe

Assignees

• Verizon Patent & Licensing Inc

Inventors

• Ruffini Michael P
• Trimper John K
• Subramanian Sankar
• Fragale Joseph G
• Fronsdahl Dwight W
• Heitlinger Paul D
• Kher Rahul
• Klings Eric N
• Wang Dongchen

Classifications

• H04N21/4438

  Window management, e.g. event handling following interaction with the user interface · CPC title

• H04N21/4828

  for searching programme descriptors (retrieval of video data G06F16/739) · CPC title

• H04N21/4755 Primary

  for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre (retrieval personalisation and generation of user profiles for the retrieval of video data G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306) · CPC title

• H04N21/41407

  embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop (constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57) · CPC title

• H04N21/4826

  using recommendation lists, e.g. of programmes or channels sorted out according to their score · CPC title