Patents Examined by Cai Chen
  • Patent number: 10382818
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems, and articles of manufacture are disclosed to generate synthetic respondent level data. An example method includes generating a first and second synthetic panel corresponding to a first duration of time based on a seed panel and first duration constraints; generating synthetic respondent level data corresponding to a second duration of time by linking synthetic panelists from the first synthetic panel to the second synthetic panel; and generating an output file based on the synthetic respondent level data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 13, 2019
    Assignee: The Nielson Company (US), LLC
    Inventors: Michael Sheppard, Jonathan Sullivan, Michael D. Morgan, Balachander Shankar, Edward Murphy, Frank Downing
  • Patent number: 10205781
    Abstract: Methods and systems to perform methods comprising receiving, at a computer system from a first electronic device a first electronic media work; extracting one or more features therefrom; determining that at least a portion of the first electronic media work corresponds to a first reference media work based on a matching of the extracted features against a database of reference features; receiving, from a second electronic device, a query related to the first electronic media work; linking the query to action information in an action database based upon determining that at least a portion of the first electronic media work corresponds to the first reference media work; generating machine-readable instructions associated with the action to be performed based at least in part on the linking of the query to the action information; transmitting, to the second electronic device, the machine-readable instructions; and logging an event associated with the machine-readable instructions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 16, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2019
    Assignee: Network-1 Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Ingemar J. Cox
  • Patent number: 10153854
    Abstract: A live uplink transmission and broadcasting management system and method for managing a plurality of live uplink transmissions and broadcasting events, the system comprising: (i) a publication portal for publishing transmissions of live events; (ii) a database for storing metadata, system data, broadcast data and user data; (iii) a broadcast manager adapted for receiving and processing in real-time metadata information related to a plurality of live uplink transmission events wherein each live uplink transmission event transmits in a plurality of uplink channels, wherein processed metadata information generate data elements adapted for being used in telecom and datacom real time management applications, said broadcast manager also adapted for updating the publication portal with live event information and (iv) a set of Quality of Service (QOS) management methods to coordinate the usage of Uplink transmissions based on the received metadata and their processing in the broadcast manager.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 11, 2018
    Assignee: LiveU Ltd.
    Inventor: Baruch Yosef Altman
  • Patent number: 10129591
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture for signature retrieval and matching for media monitoring are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a hash table populator to store hash keys of reference signatures included in a reference signature block associated with reference media in entries of a hash table, and store qualifier data in the entry of the hash table, the qualifier data including a timestamp, an offset, and an identifier associated with the reference signature of the hash key. The apparatus further including a block table populator to store a block table key corresponding to the reference signature block in the entry of a block table, the block table key including the timestamp and the identifier, and store the reference signature block, a preceding reference signature block and a subsequent reference signature block in the first entry of the block table.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 13, 2018
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventors: Daniel Nelson, Venugopal Srinivasan, Arun Ramaswamy, Raghuram Ranganathan, Kenneth William McArthur
  • Patent number: 10123077
    Abstract: A method is implemented on a casting device to enable a follow-me mode in which the casting device controls display of media content on an output device coupled to the casting device. The casting device detects a client device associated with the casting device, and determines a proximity of the client device. In accordance with a determination that the client device is within a proximity threshold of the casting device, the casting device receives content information associated with content recently accessed by the client device, obtains the content from a content source in accordance with the content information, and outputs the obtained content to an output device in accordance with the content information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 20, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 6, 2018
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: Adam Glazier, Tomer Shekel
  • Patent number: 10108642
    Abstract: A method including the steps of: receiving, by a computer system including at least one computer, a first electronic media work uploaded from a first electronic device; extracting one or more features from the first electronic media work; linking the first electronic media work with a reference electronic media work identifier associated with a reference electronic media work to generate correlation information relating the first electronic media work with at least an action associated with the reference electronic media work identifier; storing the correlation information; receiving, from a second electronic device, a query related to the first electronic media work; correlating the query with action information related to an action to be performed based at least in part on the correlation information; generating machine-readable instructions based upon the action information; and providing the machine-readable instructions to the second electronic device to be used in performing the action.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 23, 2018
    Assignee: Network-1 Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Ingemar J. Cox
  • Patent number: 10104443
    Abstract: Systems and methods for providing estimates of duration of media content requested by a user are disclosed. The estimates of the duration may be updated as advertisements are identified and/or updated for insertion in media content signals to be provided to a client device of the user. The advertisements may be targeted to the user from an inventory of available advertisements based on a variety of factors. While a session is active to provide the client device with the user requested media content new duration estimates corresponding to updates to advertisements targeted for delivery to the user may be provided to the client device via messages and/or metadata. In some cases, this information may be provided by messages sent responsive to a trick play request form the client device. In other cases, an asynchronous message carrying updated duration information may be sent to the client device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 18, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 16, 2018
    Assignee: Cox Communications, Inc.
    Inventors: Ray Killick, Luke Allen Warren
  • Patent number: 10097885
    Abstract: Techniques for making content available to a DVR are described. Content encoded in any encoding format may be automatically transcoded, on a computer, into an encoding format that a DVR is configured to decode. The transcoded content is automatically sent over a LAN from the computer to the DVR. The DVR receives the transcoded content, stores the transcoded content, and indicates, through a user interface, that the content is available for viewing. A transcoding agent executing on the computer may automatically and periodically transcode, into an encoding format that the DVR is configured to decode, content that is contained in one folder, and move the transcoded content from that folder into another folder. The computer may send, to the DVR, instructions which cause the DVR to request transcoded content that is in the latter folder. The computer sends transcoded content to the DVR in response to such a request.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 9, 2018
    Assignee: TiVo Solutions Inc.
    Inventor: James Barton
  • Patent number: 10073862
    Abstract: Methods and systems to perform methods comprising receiving, at a computer system from a first electronic device a first electronic media work; extracting one or more features therefrom; determining that at least a portion of the first electronic media work corresponds to a first reference media work based on a matching of the extracted features against a database of reference features; receiving, from a second electronic device, a query related to the first electronic media work; linking the query to action information in an action database based upon determining that at least a portion of the first electronic media work corresponds to the first reference media work; generating machine-readable instructions associated with the action to be performed based at least in part on the linking of the query to the action information; transmitting, to the second electronic device, the machine-readable instructions; and logging an event associated with the machine-readable instructions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 16, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2018
    Assignee: Network-1 Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Ingemar J. Cox
  • Patent number: 10075758
    Abstract: Synchronizing an augmented reality video stream with a displayed video stream includes: accessing an augmented reality video stream which corresponds to a displayed video stream and accessing synchronizing metadata associated with the augmented reality video stream for synchronizing the augmented reality video stream to the displayed video stream; the synchronizing metadata includes processed key frames of the displayed video stream. Processed key frames are selected frames from the displayed video stream which have been processed to provide data usable to compare images of frames. The displayed video stream is tracked by capturing and processing a frame of the displayed video stream. The augmented reality video stream is synchronized to the displayed video stream by matching the captured and processed frame of the displayed video stream with a processed key frame of the metadata at a known location in the augmented reality video stream.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 17, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2018
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Ruth K. Ayers, Chris Bean, Kevin C. Brown, Giacomo G. Chiarella, Alexandra E. Wishart, John J. Wood
  • Patent number: 10070176
    Abstract: Systems and methods for implementing a Transport I/O system are described. Network encrypted content may be received by a device. The device may provide the network encrypted content to a secure processor, such as, for example, a smart card. The secure processor obtains a network control word that may be used to decrypt the network encrypted content. The secure processor may decrypt the network encrypted content to produce clear content. In embodiments, the secure processor may then use a local control word to generate locally encrypted content specific to the device. The device may then receive the locally encrypted content from the secure processor and proceed to decrypt the locally encrypted content using a shared local encryption key. The Transport I/O system ensures the protection of the network control word by maintaining the network control word on the secure processor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 4, 2018
    Assignee: NAGRASTAR, LLC
    Inventors: William Michael Beals, Nicolas Fischer, Benjamin Brian Ellis, Gregory Duval
  • Patent number: 10063940
    Abstract: A computer system comprising one or more processors and computer-readable media operatively connected thereto, having stored thereon instructions for carrying out the steps of: maintaining one or more databases comprising first electronic data comprising digitally created reference compact electronic representations for each of a plurality of reference electronic works and second electronic data associated with the reference electronic works and related to action information corresponding thereto; obtaining a first digitally created compact electronic representation comprising one or more extracted feature vectors of a first electronic work; identifying a matching reference electronic work by comparing the first digitally created compact electronic representation of the first electronic work with the first electronic data using a sub-linear search of the first electronic data; determining the action information corresponding to the matching reference electronic work based on the second electronic data; and as
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2018
    Assignee: Network-1 Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Ingemar J. Cox
  • Patent number: 10063936
    Abstract: A method comprising the steps of: receiving, from a user electronic device at a computer system, one or more extracted feature vectors that are compact representations of one or more video frames of a video displayed at the user device; identifying, at the computer system, one or more products related to the one or more video frames based at least in part on an approximate nearest neighbor search of an electronic database of reference feature vectors corresponding to one or more reference works that identifies any match within a threshold of at least one of the reference feature vectors to the one or more extracted feature vectors but does not guarantee to identify the closest match to the one or more extracted feature vectors; providing, by the computer system to the user electronic device, the identified one or more products along with action information associated with the identified one or more products, wherein the action information is related to an action to be performed at the user electronic devic
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2018
    Assignee: Network-1 Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Ingemar J. Cox
  • Patent number: 10057408
    Abstract: A method including the steps of: receiving, by a computer system including at least one computer, a first electronic media work uploaded from a first electronic device; extracting one or more features from the first electronic media work; linking the first electronic media work with a reference electronic media work identifier associated with a reference electronic media work to generate correlation information using an approximate nearest neighbor search; storing the correlation information; receiving, from a second electronic device, a query related to the first electronic media work; correlating the query with action information related to an action to be performed and associated with the reference electronic media work identifier based at least in part on the correlation information; generating machine-readable instructions based upon the action information; and providing to the second electronic device, the machine-readable instructions to be used in performing the action.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 21, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2018
    Assignee: Network-1 Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Ingemar J. Cox
  • Patent number: 10028023
    Abstract: This application discloses a method implemented on a casting device to control display of media content on an output device coupled to the casting device. After it is determines that the output device operates at an inactive state, the casting device detects a client device associated with the casting device, and determines a proximity of the client device, including determining whether the client device is within a proximity threshold from the casting device. In accordance with a determination that the client device is within the proximity threshold from the casting device, the casting device controls the output device to change from the inactive state to an active state, and receives media content from one or more content sources for display on the output device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 20, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2018
    Assignee: GOOGLE LLC
    Inventors: Adam Glazier, Michael Jon Sundermeyer
  • Patent number: 10013077
    Abstract: Systems, devices, and methods for filtering a plurality of data items according to user input are presented. Each of the data items, such as media content files, is identified via a multiple-character identifier. A collection of individual characters is presented to a user for selection. A character sequence is received from the user, wherein the character sequence includes at least one character selection selected from the collection of individual characters. For each character selection in the sequence, more than one character from the collection is associated with the character selection. The data items are then filtered based on the associated characters corresponding to each character selection.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2018
    Assignee: DISH Technologies L.L.C.
    Inventors: Luke VanDuyn, Henry Gregg Martch, Morgan Haden Kirby
  • Patent number: 10015535
    Abstract: Providing content in a content list may include identifying positions within the list where content can be provided. A client agent may automatically play items of content at a first position when determining that the first position is within a displayed region of the content list. The client agent may identify a duration during which the first item is within the displayed region of the list, pause playback of the first item at a point in time when the displayed region of the list is advanced to no longer include the first position, and compare the first duration to a threshold value. The client agent may determine that the displayed region of the list has advanced to a second position and resume playback of the first item near the point in time and at the second position if the duration is less than the threshold value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2018
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: Justin Lewis, Ruxandra Georgiana Davies
  • Patent number: 9998780
    Abstract: A channel programming associated with a channel can be selected. The channel can be associated with a programming broadcasting system. The channel programming can be displayed upon a presentation device. An immediate content from a content delivery entity interrupting the presentation of the channel programming can be received. The channel programming and the immediate content can be simultaneously presented on the presentation device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 9, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 12, 2018
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: David W. Hurd, Tassanee K. Supakkul, Mathews Thomas, Julio Wong
  • Patent number: 9992546
    Abstract: A contextual navigational control for digital television is described. An apparatus, comprises a contextual navigation control interface (CNCI). The CNCI includes a first area that represents a plurality of cable television programs having a first level of relevance. A second area represents a first group of the plurality of programs having a second level of relevance. A third area represents a first subgroup of the first group having a third level of relevance. A fourth area represents a second subgroup of the first group having a fourth level of relevance. There may be additional areas representing additional sub-groups of relevance to the current viewing context.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 16, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2018
    Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications Management, LLC
    Inventors: Samuel Moreau, John Carney
  • Patent number: 9986288
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture to measure exposure to streaming media are disclosed. An example method includes capturing an image of a video presented by a media device. Video metadata is extracted from the image. The video metadata is converted to an ID3 metadata format. The ID3 formatted metadata is transmitted to a central facility.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 21, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 29, 2018
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventor: Jan Besehanic