Digital returns

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9727873-B1
Application number	US-201113033378-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Feb 23, 2011
Priority date	Feb 23, 2011
Publication date	Aug 8, 2017
Grant date	Aug 8, 2017

Abstract

When a user receives digital content from a host over a network, such as streaming media, the user typically desires to receive a certain quality of the digital content with few or no interruptions. Techniques may be used to store and monitor a quality of digital content, a quality of the transmission of the digital content that is transmitted to a client device of a user, and/or the quality of rendering of the digital content by the client device. The techniques may provide restitution to the user when the quality of the digital content, transmission, and/or rendering thereof fails to comply with predetermined threshold values.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
under control of one or more computer systems configured with specific computer-executable instructions:
receiving, at a content provider from a client device associated with a user, a request to receive a digital content item in return for a payment;
determining a performance of a network associated with the client device;
generating testing results based at least partly on the performance of the network;
determining, based at least partly on the testing results, that request attributes received from the client device are not likely to cause a reduction in a first quality of an output of the digital content item;
streaming the digital content item from the content provider to the client device at a second quality that varies based at least in part on at least one of network bandwidth or a buffer fill level of the client device;
monitoring, at the content provider, the streaming of the digital content item from a start of the streaming of the digital content item to an end of the streaming of the digital content item;
storing, at the content provider, metrics associated with the second quality of the streaming of the digital content item during the streaming of the digital content item;
comparing, at the content provider, the metrics with one or more threshold values that are associated with an encoding bit rate of the digital content item; and
providing restitution to the user based at least partly on a determination that the metrics indicate that the second quality of the streaming of the digital content item fails to achieve at least one threshold value of the one or more threshold values, wherein the restitution comprises at least one of an extension of a term to receive the digital content item or a refund of at least a portion of the payment from the user for the digital content item.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the request is a first request, and the providing the restitution to the user occurs without receiving a second request from the client device.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the comparing is further based at least in part on a quantity of one or more rebuffer events that occur at a time at which a buffer of the client device is exhausted during the streaming of the digital content item.

4. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the comparing includes determining a length of time that the encoding bit rate is below a respective threshold value.

5. A method comprising:
under control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions:
receiving a request for digital content from a client device associated with a user, wherein the request includes request attributes associated with transmission of a digital content item;
determining a performance of a network associated with the client device;
generating testing results based at least on the performance of the network;
determining, based at least partly on the testing results, that the request attributes received from the client device are not likely to cause a reduction in a first quality of an output of the digital content item;
streaming the digital content item to the client device associated with the user;
monitoring parameters indicative of a user experience associated with the streaming of the digital content item during the streaming of the digital content item;
determining, by the one or more computer systems, during the streaming of the digital content item and based at least in part on the parameters, whether a second quality of the user experience is less than a threshold value;
presenting a message to the user on a presentation interface associated with the client device offering restitution to the user upon determining that the second quality of the user experience is less than the threshold value;
receiving, via a user input associated with the presentation interface, a user input accepting the restitution; and initiating the restitution to the user based at least in part on receipt of the user input.

6. The method as recited in claim 5 , wherein the user experience associated with the streaming of the digital content item is based at least in part on at least one of a third quality of transmission of the digital content item, a fourth quality of the digital content item, or a fifth quality of rendering of the digital content item.

7. The method as recited in claim 5 , wherein
the monitoring the parameters indicative of the user experience comprises determining a number of rebuffer events that occurred on the client device during the streaming of the digital content item;
the threshold value comprises a threshold number of rebuffer events; and
the initiating the restitution occurs at least partly in response to determining that the number of rebuffer events that occurred on the client device is greater than the threshold number of rebuffer events.

8. The method as recited in claim 5 , wherein
the monitoring the parameters indicative of the user experience comprises determining an amount or percentage of time a lower quality level of the digital content item is streamed to the client device as compared to a selected quality of the digital content item that is expected to be received by the client device;
the threshold value comprises a threshold amount or percentage of time; and
the initiating the restitution occurs at least partly in response to determining that the streaming of the digital content item occurs at the lower quality level for an amount or percentage of time that is greater than the threshold amount or percentage of time.

9. The method as recited in claim 5 , wherein:
the monitoring the parameters indicative of the user experience comprises determining an amount or percentage of time a lower frame rate of the digital content item rendered by the client device as compared to an anticipated frame rate of the digital content item that is expected to be rendered by the client device;
the threshold value comprises a threshold amount or percentage of time; and
the initiating the restitution occurs at least partly in response to determining that rendering of the digital content item occurs at the lower frame rate for an amount or percentage of time that is greater than the threshold amount or percentage of time.

10. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising determining, at the content provider, whether a fraud has occurred when the metrics indicate that the second quality of the streaming of the digital content item fails to achieve at least one of the one or more threshold values.

11. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing instructions that when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
receive a request for digital content from a client device associated with a user, wherein the request includes request attributes associated with transmission of a digital content item;
determine a past performance of a network associated with the client device;
determine a hardware configuration of the client device;
determine that the request attributes received from the client device are not likely to cause a reduction in a first quality of an output of the digital content item based at least in part on the past performance of the network and the hardware configuration of the client device;
transmit, in exchange for a payment, the digital content item to the client device associated with the user;
store, at a content provider, metrics associated with transmitting of the digital content item to the client device, the metrics associated with at least one of a second quality of the digital content item, a third quality of

Assignees

• Wood James H
• Davis Wesley Shawn
• Baron Bradley M
• Vora Jinesh U
• Freeman Ii James Marvin
• Amazon Tech Inc

Inventors

• Wood James H
• Davis Wesley Shawn
• Baron Bradley M
• Vora Jinesh U
• Freeman Ii James Marvin

Classifications

• G06Q30/06

  Buying, selling or leasing transactions · CPC title

• G06Q30/02

  Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising · CPC title

• G06Q30/016 Primary

  After-sales · CPC title

• G06Q30/012

  Providing warranty services · CPC title