Patents by Inventor Nicholas Ashton Hall

Nicholas Ashton Hall has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 9883252
    Abstract: A method implementable on a computing device for generating interstitial material for video content includes generating at least one instantiated script by inserting metadata related to the video content into at least one script template, scoring the instantiated scripts according to a predefined set of weights associated with a profile for a viewing audience to produce scored scripts, and selecting from said scored scripts according to at least said scoring for rendering as said interstitial material. Related apparatus and methods are also described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 9, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2018
    Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Nicholas Ashton Hall, Stephen Tallamy, Avraham Poupko
  • Publication number: 20150334458
    Abstract: A method and system for audience segmentation is described, the method and system including preparing a plurality of guidebooks of prior probability distributions for content items and user profile attributes, the prior probabilities and user profile attributes being extractable from within audience measurement data, receiving raw audience measurement data, analyzing, at a processor, the received raw audience measurement data using the prepared plurality of guidebooks, generating a plurality of clusters of data per user household as a result of the analyzing, correlating viewing activity to each cluster within an identified household, predicting a profile of a viewer corresponding to each cluster within the identified household, applying classifier rules in order to assign viewing preference tags to each predicted profile, and assigning each predicted profile viewing preferences based on the viewing preference tags assigned to that profile Related systems, methods, and apparatus are also described.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 1, 2014
    Publication date: November 19, 2015
    Inventors: Prabhakar Srinivasan, Trevor Smith, Nicholas Ashton Hall, Trevor Whinmill
  • Publication number: 20150143413
    Abstract: A method implementable on a computing device for generating interstitial material for video content includes generating at least one instantiated script by inserting metadata related to the video content into at least one script template, scoring the instantiated scripts according to a predefined set of weights associated with a profile for a viewing audience to produce scored scripts, and selecting from said scored scripts according to at least said scoring for rendering as said interstitial material. Related apparatus and methods are also described.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 9, 2013
    Publication date: May 21, 2015
    Inventors: Nicholas Ashton Hall, Stephen Tallamy, Avraham Poupko
  • Patent number: 8370892
    Abstract: An interactive method includes receiving background video including a multiplicity of video frames, at least one of the multiplicity of video frames include a plurality of sub-pictures, each of the plurality of sub-pictures representing an alternative background (1200), and switching between a first sub-picture of the plurality of sub-pictures and a second sub-picture of the plurality of sub-pictures (1210).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 17, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2013
    Assignee: NDS Limited
    Inventors: Ian R. Shelton, Michael B Costello, Ronnie Israel Dan, Nicholas Thexton, Nicholas Ashton Hall, James Geoffrey Walker, Stuart P Ashby, Neil Cormican, Rahul Chakkara
  • Publication number: 20120023543
    Abstract: A system for displaying electronic program guide information about a plurality of video items on a screen, the system including a display module to display a plurality of pages layering into the screen, each of the pages including a plurality of graphical panels associated with the video items, and a user input module to receive a user input to turn at least one of the pages such that the at least one page is peeled away from other ones of the pages in order to bring the graphical panels of the at least one page in or out of view, wherein the display module is operative to show the turning of the at least one page bringing the at least one page in or out of view. Related apparatus and methods are also described.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 27, 2011
    Publication date: January 26, 2012
    Applicant: NDS Limited
    Inventors: Ian Shelton, James Geoffrey Walker, Kevin Murray, Michael Costello, Neil Cormican, Anita Chandra, Nicholas Ashton Hall
  • Patent number: 8069466
    Abstract: A system for displaying electronic program guide information about a plurality of video items on a screen, the system including a display module to display a plurality of pages layering into the screen, each of the pages including a plurality of graphical panels associated with the video items, and a user input module to receive a user input to turn at least one of the pages such that the at least one page is peeled away from other ones of the pages in order to bring the graphical panels of the at least one page in or out of view, wherein the display module is operative to show the turning of the at least one page bringing the at least one page in or out of view. Related apparatus and methods are also described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 3, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 29, 2011
    Assignee: NDS Limited
    Inventors: Ian Shelton, James Geoffrey Walker, Kevin Murray, Michael Costello, Nicholas Ashton Hall
  • Publication number: 20100225742
    Abstract: An interactive method includes receiving background video including a multiplicity of video frames, at least one of the multiplicity of video frames include a plurality of sub-pictures, each of the plurality of sub-pictures representing an alternative background (1200), and switching between a first sub-picture of the plurality of sub-pictures and a second sub-picture of the plurality of sub-pictures (1210).
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 17, 2010
    Publication date: September 9, 2010
    Inventors: Ian R. SHELTON, Michael B. Costello, Ronnie Israel Dan, Nicholas Thexton, Nicholas Ashton Hall, James Geoffrey Walker, Stuart P. Ashby, Neil Cormican, Rahul Chakkara
  • Patent number: 7752648
    Abstract: An interactive method includes receiving, at a display device, background video including a multiplicity of video frames, at least one of the multiplicity of video frames including a plurality of sub-pictures, each of the plurality of sub-pictures representing an alternative background, and switching, at the display device, between a first sub-picture of the plurality of sub-pictures and a second sub-picture of the plurality of sub-pictures. Related apparatus and methods are also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 4, 2004
    Date of Patent: July 6, 2010
    Assignee: NDS Limited
    Inventors: Ian R Shelton, Michael B Costello, Ronnie Dan, Nicholas Thexton, Nicholas Ashton Hall, James Geoffrey Walker, Stuart P Ashby, Neil Cormican, Rahul Chakkara
  • Publication number: 20090300673
    Abstract: A content sharing system, for implementation in a requesting peer, to receive at least a part of a chunk from a serving peer, the chunk being part of a content item, the requesting peer being operationally connected to a plurality of peers including the serving peer via a communications network, the content item being media content originally broadcast in a media stream by a Headend to at least some of the peers, the system including a metadata module to receive chunk metadata identifying the location of the chunk based on an identifier in the media stream originally broadcast by the Headend, a content transfer module to request the at least part of the chunk from the serving peer based on the chunk metadata, and receive the at least part of the chunk from the serving peer. Related apparatus and methods are also described.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 11, 2007
    Publication date: December 3, 2009
    Applicant: NDS Limited
    Inventors: Franck Bachet, Alex Ashley, Trevor Smith, James Geoffrey Walker, Nicholas Ashton Hall, David Poupon, Nigel Smith
  • Publication number: 20090249393
    Abstract: A system for displaying electronic program guide information about a plurality of video items on a screen, the system including a display module to display a plurality of pages layering into the screen, each of the pages including a plurality of graphical panels associated with the video items, and a user input module to receive a user input to turn at least one of the pages such that the at least one page is peeled away from other ones of the pages in order to bring the graphical panels of the at least one page in or out of view, wherein the display module is operative to show the turning of the at least one page bringing the at least one page in or out of view. Related apparatus and methods are also described.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 3, 2006
    Publication date: October 1, 2009
    Applicant: NDS Limited
    Inventors: Ian Shelton, James Geoffrey Walker, Kevin Murray, Michael Costello, Neil Cormican, Anita Chandra, Nicholas Ashton Hall