Patents Examined by Mulugeta Mengesha
  • Patent number: 11677711
    Abstract: Systems and methods are herein disclosed for displaying a smart preview of video content. A first claimed embodiment includes receiving video content. A system can then detect an event taking place during the video content having an event time. The system can then receive a request to display a preview of the video content. The system can then display the preview of the video content beginning at the event time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 25, 2022
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2023
    Assignee: SONY INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT LLC
    Inventor: Michael Gross
  • Patent number: 11676584
    Abstract: Systems, devices, and methods are described herein for distributing syndicated content or content with one or more distribution restrictions. In one aspect, a method may include assigning a unique ID to a plurality of content items, where the unique ID of at least one of the content items is associated with one or more property distribution restrictions. The method may further include streaming in a video stream the content items to at least two properties and monitoring the unique IDs of the plurality of content items streamed in the video stream to detect least one content item associated with the one or more property distribution restrictions. The distribution of the least one content item associated with the one or more property distribution restrictions may be blocked from the one or more properties concurrently with streaming the video stream, based on the one or more property distribution restrictions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 12, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2023
    Assignee: Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.
    Inventors: Benjamin Aaron Miller, Jason D. Justman, Lora Clark Bouchard, Michael Ellery Bouchard, Kevin James Cotlove, Mathew Keith Gitchell, Stacia Lynn Haisch, Jonathan David Kersten, Matthew Karl Marchio, Peter Arthur Pulliam, George Allen Smith, Todd Christopher Tibbetts
  • Patent number: 11671664
    Abstract: Systems and methods described herein relate to generation of media collections in a messaging system. The media collection may be created by the user, other users, or an entity. Example embodiments further allow users to set access criteria through privacy settings assigned to one or more media content items themselves, as well as to a media collection, such that some or all of the media collection may only be viewed by users authorized by the user sharing the media content item or media collection (e.g., only to one or more users designated by the user as a “friend”).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 22, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2023
    Assignee: Snap Inc.
    Inventors: Jacob Andreou, Sheldon Chang, Donald Giovannini
  • Patent number: 11665405
    Abstract: A transmission method includes: generating one or more transfer frames that each store one or more streams used for content transfer; and transmitting the one or more generated frames through broadcast, each of the one or more streams storing one or more second transfer units, each of the one or more second transfer units storing one or more first transfer units, and each of the one or more first transfer units storing one or more Internet Protocol (IP) packets. In at least one stream among the one or more streams, each of the first transfer units positioned at a head contains reference clock information indicating time used for reproduction of the content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2022
    Date of Patent: May 30, 2023
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CORPORATION OF AMERICA
    Inventors: Noritaka Iguchi, Tadamasa Toma, Hisaya Katou
  • Patent number: 11641501
    Abstract: Techniques are described for dynamic production of linear media channels for delivery to passenger devices disposed on mobile transport craft while the transport craft are in transit. For example, each transport craft has an on-board media system. In accordance with a linear channel schedule, the on-board media system can generate a dynamically produced linear media (DPLM) channel that can be streamed as a continuous media channel to passengers on-board the transport craft. The linear channel schedule defines a sequence of programming time slots, including multiple broadcast programming time slots and multiple pre-positioned programming time slots.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 2, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 2, 2023
    Assignee: VIASAT, INC.
    Inventors: Christopher J. Demange, Ronald L. Seager
  • Patent number: 11638044
    Abstract: Systems and methods, to efficiently prepare for live and stored file content, implement one or more warm inputs, which actively ingest and demux content, but do not actively decode the content until an input switch is commanded. Each warm input can cache a most recent instantaneous decoder refresh and subsequent reference frames (I-frames and P-frames). Upon an input switch being commanded, the subject input commences decoding of such preserved frames. The formerly-warm input then acts as a hot input (decoding every frame) until the input switch completes. The use of warm inputs, which avoid the decoding stage, reduces computational resource use, allows preparation of all inputs by default, and permits metrics, status reports, and thumbnails to be generated regarding non-active inputs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 1, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2023
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Ryan Hegar, Matthew Rehrer, John Saxton
  • Patent number: 11637914
    Abstract: Methods and systems for routing a user request for a service to a version of the service in a geographical region associated with the user are described herein. The service may be deployed in multiple geographical regions, and the service may have multiple versions in each of the geographical regions. A user device may send a request for a service to a first server in a geographical region. The first server may determine whether the user is associated with the geographical region. Responsive to determining that the user is not associated with the geographical region, the first server may ask one or more servers in other geographical regions whether the user is associated with any of the other geographical regions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 18, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2023
    Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Steven A. Keller, Thomas J. Hammond, Thomas Kludy, Ayush Jain, Ricardo Fernando Feijoo
  • Patent number: 11627372
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are methods and systems to help disambiguate channel identification in a scenario where fingerprint data of media content matches multiple reference fingerprints corresponding respectively with multiple different channels. Upon detecting such a multi-match, a server or other entity will perform disambiguation based on a determination that a segment of the fingerprint data matches a reference fingerprint corresponding with just a single channel, such as a reference fingerprint representing commercial or news programming content specific to just the single channel. The server or other entity will thereby determine the channel on which the media content being rendered by the media presentation device is arriving, so as to facilitate taking channel-specific action.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 18, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 11, 2023
    Assignee: ROKU, INC.
    Inventors: Jaehyung Lee, Chung Won Seo, Youngmoo Kwon
  • Patent number: 11611796
    Abstract: Various arrangements for facilitating smart television content receivers in a local network are provided. A primary television receiver executing a first operating system can receive audio data including human voice from a voice enabled remote control. The primary television receiver can transmit the audio data to a secondary television receiver executing a second operating system and that includes a voice command component. The secondary television receiver can convert the audio data into voice command data and transmit the voice command data to the primary television receiver. The primary television receiver can transmit the voice command data to a voice processing server via the Internet and receive, in response, a command generated based on the voice command data. The primary television receiver can transmit the command to the secondary television receiver. The voice command component can then control an operation of the secondary television receiver based on the command.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2023
    Assignee: DISH Network L.L.C.
    Inventors: Anand Tiwari, David Innes
  • Patent number: 11589121
    Abstract: Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, identifying content consumption data associated with media content consumption at a customer device, and generating a content selection recommendation for the customer device. Some embodiments can include determining a habit-based content selection vector for the customer device. Various embodiments can include determining the habit-based content selection vector based on a habit profile for the customer device. Some embodiments can include adjusting a content selection vector for the customer device based on the habit-based content selection vector for the customer device. Various embodiments can include generating the content selection recommendation for the customer device based on the adjusted content selection vector. Other embodiments are disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2023
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Raif Rustamov, Ann Eileen Skudlark, Christopher Volinsky, Appavu Siva Prakasam
  • Patent number: 11589134
    Abstract: Methods and systems of narrowcasting to a service group having one or more one-way set top boxes are shown and disclosed. The method may include receiving encrypted single program transport streams (SPTSs) from an encryptor, and receiving one or more session control signals for the SPTSs from a switched digital video (SDV) control system. The method may additionally include receiving service information (SI) packet identifiers (PIDs) for the SPTSs from a conditional access (CA) system, and updating the SI PIDs based on the one or more session control signals. The method may further include converting the SPTSs to narrowcast multiprogram transport streams (MPTSs) based on the one or more session control signals, and transmitting the narrowcast MPTSs and the updated SI PIDs to a plurality of edge quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2023
    Assignee: ARRIS Enterprises LLC
    Inventors: Steven J. Moscirella, Robert Mack, Michael Labouliere, Roger Gahman
  • Patent number: 11589092
    Abstract: Propagating a downstream (DS) Out-of-Band (OOB) signal at a frequency receivable by a set of legacy set-top boxes (STBs) while supporting enhanced upstream peak data rates. At an input of an amplifier of a physical device, a portion of the DS-OOB signal is tapped to create a tapped DS-OOB signal, which comprises both the DS-OOB signal and all other downstream signals and channels sent from a head-end to a set of customer premises equipment (CPE) via the physical device. The tapped DS-OOB signal is introduced to a band-pass filter that passes the DS-OOB signal and attenuates all other radio frequency (RF) signals to create a filtered DS-OOB signal. The filtered DS-OOB signal is amplified and coupled to a low-pass side of a high-split diplex filter to propagate onto a transmission medium coupled to the CPE. The physical device may be a high-split RF amplifier or a high-split node.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 18, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2023
    Assignee: Harmonic, Inc.
    Inventor: Adi Bonen
  • Patent number: 11589120
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for deep content tagging. A media device receives one or more first frames of a content item, where the one or more first frames spans a duration of a scene in the content item. The media device detects one or more objects or features in each of the first frames using a neural network model and identifies one or more first genres associated with the first frames based at least in part on the detected objects or features in each of the first frames. The media device further controls playback of the content item based at least in part on the identified first genres.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2023
    Assignee: Synaptics Incorporated
    Inventors: Utkarsh Gaur, Adil Ilyas Jagmag, Gaurav Arora
  • Patent number: 11582530
    Abstract: Systems and processes are provided for receiving a request for an audio video program from a display device, transmitting the request for the audio video program via a bidirectional network, receiving the audio video program via the bidirectional network wherein the audio video program is received at a first data rate, transmitting an alternate request for the audio video program via the bidirectional network wherein the alternate request for the audio video program includes are request for the audio video program to be transmitted via a unidirectional wireless transmission, receiving the audio video program via the unidirectional wireless transmission, and transmitting the audio video program to the display device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2023
    Assignee: DISH Wireless L.L.C.
    Inventors: Marcel Guajardo, Jeffery Romaniuk
  • Patent number: 11575948
    Abstract: A method for automatic selection of video sequences to fill a break in a broadcasted program, including determining an estimated duration of the break (bi) and selecting from a collection of videos, such as advertisements, a sequence of videos to be played out. The sequence has a second duration which is shorter than the estimated duration and the selection depends on broadcast priority criteria associated with at least some of said videos. The method also includes broadcasting the sequence of videos and broadcasting a fill-in video signal until the end of the break.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2023
    Assignee: AD INSERTION PLATFORM SÀRL
    Inventor: Laurent Potesta
  • Patent number: 11570515
    Abstract: Media content items is provided to content consumers for playback by the disclosed system that includes plurality of nodes interacting with each other based on a defined protocol in communication network. A first node associated with a first participant receives a request for playback of a media content from a content consumer. A second node associated with a second participant provides media content rights to the first participant and/or the content consumer. The first node further provides media content metadata to the consumer device for consumption. A plurality of instances of a distributed media rights transaction ledger, associated with respective node, includes a plurality of media content rights transactions which corresponds to an acquisition of the media content rights by the first participant and/or content consumer prior to the consumption of the media content, and are managed by the plurality of nodes in accordance with the defined protocol.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 8, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2023
    Assignee: Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
    Inventors: Nicolas Paul Webb, Nishith Kumar Sinha
  • Patent number: 11564003
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems, and articles of manufacture to improve watermark detection in acoustic environments are disclosed. An example apparatus includes at least one memory, instructions in the apparatus, and processor circuitry to execute and/or instantiate the instructions to encode a first symbol in a media file at a first symbol position on a first encoding layer of a multilayered watermark, and encode a second symbol in the media file at a second symbol position on a second encoding layer of the multilayered watermark, the first encoding layer and the second encoding layer including a plurality of symbol positions, one or more of the plurality of the symbol positions on at least one of the first encoding layer or the second encoding layer to be empty.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2023
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventors: Wendell D. Lynch, Christen V. Nielsen, Alexander Topchy, Khaldun Karazoun, Jeremey M. Davis
  • Patent number: 11563990
    Abstract: A media player system is provided for receiving and processing a media program that uses a time interval interval tD required to decode ND frames of the media program segment. The media system receives the requested media program segment, processes the segment and determines if the throughput of the media program differs from the desired presentation throughput by a tolerance amount. Both decoding and rendering performance are determined and used to determine presentation throughput, and to determine if heavier or lighter variants of the media program should be requested for subsequent media program segments.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2023
    Assignee: ARRIS Enterprises LLC
    Inventors: William S. Watson, Kuang Ming Chen, Nick Baciu
  • Patent number: 11558673
    Abstract: The present technology relates to a transmission device, a reception device, a transmission system, and a transmission method capable of improving transmission efficiency of subdata added to main data. A transmission device includes a frame sequence number setting unit that, on the basis of a frame number indicating an order of a subframe in a main frame, assigns to the subframe a frame sequence number indicating an order of the subframe in a frame sequence including a plurality of the subframes, and a multiplexing unit that arranges a data packet at a predetermined position in the subframe on the basis of the frame sequence number. The present technology can be applied to a CCU, for example.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 3, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 17, 2023
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Mikio Ishii, Tomoyuki Endo, Hideaki Murayama
  • Patent number: 11546674
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture to extend a time range supported by a watermark are disclosed. Example watermark encoding apparatus disclosed herein determine which one of a plurality of timestamp cycles is to be represented by a timestamp of a watermark, the timestamp including a set of timestamp symbols, a first subset of data symbols and a second subset of data symbols. Disclosed example apparatus also modify the first subset of data symbols of the watermark based on a further timestamp symbol not included in the set of timestamp symbols of the timestamp, but not modify the second subset of data symbols based on the further timestamp symbol, the further timestamp symbol to identify the one of the plurality of timestamp cycles to be represented by the timestamp of the watermark. Disclosed example apparatus further embed the watermark in a piece of media.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2023
    Assignee: THE NIELSEN COMPANY (US), LLC
    Inventors: Alexander Topchy, Vladimir Kuznetsov