Patents Assigned to Unicorn Media, Inc.
  • Publication number: 20150207754
    Abstract: Techniques for load balancing in a network of nodes can include a first node receiving and/or generating a request having an identifier, task description, and information regarding an entity originating the request. The first node can either perform the task and report back to the originating entity of the completion of the task, or forward the request to a random one of a plurality of other nodes with which the first node is communicatively connected.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 21, 2014
    Publication date: July 23, 2015
    Applicant: Unicorn Media, Inc.
    Inventor: Matthew A. Johnson
  • Publication number: 20150095511
    Abstract: Timestamps for streams of media that transition from one media source to another (such as from live content to on-demand content, and vice versa) can be rewritten by a server to help ensure error-free streaming by the client. Embodiments can coordinate the creation of a client manifest with the dynamic creation of a requested segment of media (i.e., “chunk”) to determine how to rewrite timestamps of requested chunks such that they are continuous through the transition.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 21, 2013
    Publication date: April 2, 2015
    Applicant: Unicorn Media, Inc.
    Inventors: Albert John McGowan, Nicholas Maultsby, Jared Marshall
  • Publication number: 20150095461
    Abstract: Timestamps for streams of media that transition from one media source to another (such as from live content to on-demand content, and vice versa) can be rewritten by a server to help ensure error-free streaming by the client. Embodiments can coordinate the creation of a client manifest with the dynamic creation of a requested segment of media (i.e., “chunk”) to determine how to rewrite timestamps of requested chunks such that they are continuous through the transition.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 21, 2013
    Publication date: April 2, 2015
    Applicant: UNICORN MEDIA, INC.
    Inventors: Albert John McGowan, Nicholas Maultsby, Jared Marshall
  • Publication number: 20140316899
    Abstract: Techniques described herein provide for a live advertising processing engine service to act as an intermediary between client applications and advertising networks. The live advertising processing engine service can provide an interface with which the client can interact, via an application programming interface (API) or directly through the use of a standardized language, thereby allowing client applications to receive advertisement data without the need to be customized to communicate with specific advertising networks. The live advertising processing engine service can further track where, in playback the live content, a client currently is, to indicate to the client—or other application—when advertisement breaks are and/or provide supplemental advertisement information to enable the client to provide a rich user experience.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 1, 2013
    Publication date: October 23, 2014
    Applicant: UNICORN MEDIA, INC.
    Inventors: Albert John McGowan, Nicholas Maultsby, Niko T.J. Huffman, Christian D. Moosman
  • Publication number: 20140280270
    Abstract: A system, method and apparatus are disclosed which may be used to provide demographic and behavior data of a user of a video service provider. The user demographic information may be obtained by obtaining an image of the user, analyzing the image data, and providing the information about the determined demographic data. Behavior data may be obtained from at least one sensor monitoring user actions and correlating the user actions with video content being provided to the user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Publication date: September 18, 2014
    Applicant: UNICORN MEDIA, INC.
    Inventors: Albert John McGowan, Matthew A. Johnson
  • Publication number: 20140229579
    Abstract: Techniques described herein provide for cloud-based media delivery that accepts or ingests media content, transcodes it according to various media profiles to create a plurality of video files, and provides notification that at least a portion of the video files is ready for delivery. The notification can be provided using a notification Unique Resource Locator (URL), which can be provided in a request to prepare the media content for delivery. Business rules can be used to customize the cloud-based media delivery based on any of a variety of factors, such as requesting party, media type, and the like.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 12, 2013
    Publication date: August 14, 2014
    Applicant: UNICORN MEDIA, INC.
    Inventor: Matthew A. Johnson
  • Publication number: 20140214890
    Abstract: Techniques described herein provide for a shard arbiter to act as an intermediary between querying and/or data-inserting applications and sharded databases. The shard arbiter can provide an interface with which the applications can provide a request (e.g., data insert and/or query) in any of a variety of database languages, and the data is inserted into and/or retrieved from sharded databases without the need for customization or any knowledge of how data is sharded. The shard arbiter can use business rules to determine how data is sharded among databases, and may utilize different types of databases—communicating with each database in its native language.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 31, 2013
    Publication date: July 31, 2014
    Applicant: UNICORN MEDIA, INC.
    Inventor: Matthew A. Johnson
  • Publication number: 20140177964
    Abstract: Techniques disclosed herein provide for conducting an image search of video frames using a captured image of a display or a screen capture of a media item during playback. Results of the image search may be used to play back a corresponding video from the point in the video at which the captured image was taken, initiate a second-screen user experience, and/or perform other functions. Techniques are also disclosed for building a library of video frames with which image searches may be conducted.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 27, 2014
    Publication date: June 26, 2014
    Applicant: Unicorn Media, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael Edmund Godlewski, Albert John McGowan, Matthew A. Johnson
  • Publication number: 20140157308
    Abstract: Techniques described herein provide for an advertising processing engine service to act as an intermediary between client applications and advertising networks. The advertising processing engine service can provide an interface with which the client can interact, via an application programming interface (API) or directly through the use of a standardized language, thereby allowing client applications to receive advertisement data without the need to be customized to communicate with specific advertising networks. On the other hand, the advertising processing engine service can receive requests from clients and communicate these requests to advertising networks in the corresponding language and/or format they require.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 24, 2013
    Publication date: June 5, 2014
    Applicant: UNICORN MEDIA, INC.
    Inventors: Benjamin Lebrato Ahern, David Morel, Matthew A. Johnson, Albert John McGowan
  • Patent number: 8645504
    Abstract: Systems and methods for dynamically chunking for delivery instances are provided that automatically implement chunking strategies based on one or more chunking considerations related to a request for a media file. These systems and methods may be part of a larger media servicing network that can be used to, among other things, process uploaded media content, provide it for streaming/downloading, and collect metric information regarding the streaming/downloading. The disclosed systems and methods provide for receiving a request having a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and providing an index file to implement chunking strategies based on chunking considerations associated with the request.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2014
    Assignee: Unicorn Media, Inc.
    Inventor: Albert John McGowan
  • Patent number: 8625789
    Abstract: Systems and methods for encrypting a media file for streaming and/or downloading over a network are disclosed. These systems and methods may be part of a larger media servicing network that can be used to, among other things, process uploaded media content, provide it for streaming, and collect metric information regarding the streaming. The disclosed systems and methods provide for receiving requests for a media file or a chunk of a media file and responding to these requests by encrypting the requested chunks dynamically and providing the chunks to the requesting entity. These systems and methods, which can be utilized with a dynamic chunk generation and dynamic index file generation, enable a high degree of flexibility in streaming chunked media files and preclude the need to encrypt the chunks prior to streaming. The systems and methods may also be applied to encrypting files for continuous streaming protocols as well as for progressive download.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2014
    Assignee: Unicorn Media, Inc.
    Inventor: Albert John McGowan
  • Patent number: 8565423
    Abstract: Systems and methods for encrypting a media file for streaming and/or downloading over a network are disclosed. These systems and methods may be part of a larger media servicing network that can be used to, among other things, process uploaded media content, provide it for streaming, and collect metric information regarding the streaming. The disclosed systems and methods provide for receiving requests for a media file or a chunk of a media file and responding to these requests by encrypting the requested chunks dynamically and providing the chunks to the requesting entity. These systems and methods, which can be utilized with a dynamic chunk generation and dynamic index file generation, enable a high degree of flexibility in streaming chunked media files and preclude the need to encrypt the chunks prior to streaming. The systems and methods may also be applied to encrypting files for continuous streaming protocols as well as for progressive download.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 22, 2013
    Assignee: Unicorn Media, Inc.
    Inventor: Albert John McGowan
  • Publication number: 20130254347
    Abstract: Systems and methods for enabling dynamic advertisement insertion into media files without transcoding are disclosed. The techniques disclosed involve retrieving files of the media and advertisement(s) and converting the files to an MPEG-2 transport stream (MPEG-2 TS) format. The MPEG-2 TS streams are then joined to insert the advertisement at a desired point in the media file. The resulting MPEG-2 TS stream is then converted back to a media file, which can be provided for downloading, or optionally reindexed. Because it does not require transcoding, this process can be performed on-the-fly to provide dynamic insertion of advertisements into media files. Other media file manipulation, including the insertion of non-advertisement media, is contemplated.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 19, 2013
    Publication date: September 26, 2013
    Applicant: Unicorn Media, Inc.
    Inventor: Albert John McGowan
  • Publication number: 20130254346
    Abstract: Techniques are provided for dynamically creating index files for streaming media based on a determined chunking strategy. The chunking strategy can be determined using historical data of any of a variety of factors, such as Quality of Service (QoS) information. By using historical data in this manner, index files can be generated using chunking strategies that can improve these factors over time.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 8, 2013
    Publication date: September 26, 2013
    Applicant: UNICORN MEDIA, INC.
    Inventor: Albert John McGowan
  • Patent number: 8533296
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and machine-readable media are described for providing output feeds having information associated with at least one file. Embodiments include generating an output feed schema used to determine the content of the output feed using information from at least one data object, where each data object comprises a data structure having information, including a universal resource indicator (URI) regarding the at least one file. The output feed schema and the at least one data object can then be used to generate the output feed, which can then be stored.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2013
    Assignee: Unicorn Media, Inc.
    Inventor: Albert John McGowan
  • Patent number: 8521742
    Abstract: Embodiments of the disclosure provide a method and system used for searching among a plurality of entities on a computer network by a user. A computer server in communication with the computer network can include a database with a storage mechanism, a rule set, and an interaction calculation engine. The user can search for a first entity using a location calculation engine in communication with the computer network. The location calculation engine can locate the first entity and determine and display at least a second portion of the plurality of entities relevant to the first entity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 27, 2013
    Assignee: Unicorn Media, Inc.
    Inventors: Albert John McGowan, Niko Thomas John Huffman, Michael Edmund Godlewski, Matthew A. Johnson
  • Patent number: 8495177
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and machine-readable media are described for retrieving data associated with files using input feeds. Embodiments include generating input feed schemas, which can be used to create data objects from input data of the input feeds. The input data and the corresponding data objects can include information regarding files, such as the universal resource indicator (URI) of a file. The data objects can then be stored.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2013
    Assignee: Unicorn Media, Inc.
    Inventors: Richard L. Carls, Niko Thomas John Huffman
  • Patent number: 8429250
    Abstract: Systems and methods for enabling dynamic advertisement insertion into media files without transcoding are disclosed. The techniques disclosed involve retrieving files of the media and advertisement(s) and converting the files to an MPEG-2 transport stream (MPEG-2 TS) format. The MPEG-2 TS streams are then joined to insert the advertisement at a desired point in the media file. The resulting MPEG-2 TS stream is then converted back to a media file, which can be provided for downloading, or optionally reindexed. Because it does not require transcoding, this process can be performed on-the-fly to provide dynamic insertion of advertisements into media files. Other media file manipulation, including the insertion of non-advertisement media, is contemplated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2011
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2013
    Assignee: Unicorn Media, Inc.
    Inventor: Albert John McGowan
  • Publication number: 20130080579
    Abstract: Systems and methods for dynamically executing syndication services are provided that automatically implement business rules for syndication based on contextual data corresponding to a request for a media file. These systems and methods may be part of a larger media servicing network that can be used to, among other things, process uploaded media content, provide it for streaming/downloading, and collect metric information regarding the streaming/downloading. The disclosed systems and methods provide for receiving a request having a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and providing an index file in accordance with business rules based on contextual data associated with the request. Embodiments further enable media content owners to distribute a single URL corresponding to a particular media file among many media providers, allowing a single media delivery and analytics services to provide comprehensive metric information regarding syndication for the all the media providers.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 29, 2011
    Publication date: March 28, 2013
    Applicant: Unicorn Media, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael M. Gordon, Albert John McGowan
  • Publication number: 20130080772
    Abstract: Systems and methods for encrypting a media file for streaming and/or downloading over a network are disclosed. These systems and methods may be part of a larger media servicing network that can be used to, among other things, process uploaded media content, provide it for streaming, and collect metric information regarding the streaming. The disclosed systems and methods provide for receiving requests for a media file or a chunk of a media file and responding to these requests by encrypting the requested chunks dynamically and providing the chunks to the requesting entity. These systems and methods, which can be utilized with a dynamic chunk generation and dynamic index file generation, enable a high degree of flexibility in streaming chunked media files and preclude the need to encrypt the chunks prior to streaming. The systems and methods may also be applied to encrypting files for continuous streaming protocols as well as for progressive download.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 26, 2011
    Publication date: March 28, 2013
    Applicant: Unicorn Media, Inc.
    Inventor: Albert John McGowan