Patents Examined by Nasser Goodarzi
  • Patent number: 9225925
    Abstract: A phone that interacts with a television system. At least one module may be adapted to receive a user input identifying a video selection. At least one module may also be adapted to display video information corresponding to the video selection. At least one module may further be adapted to transmit a control signal adapted to cause the display of video information corresponding to the video selection on the television system. The phone may, for example, be adapted to receive television system setting information and provide for user control of various television system settings. Also for example, the phone may be adapted to receive media guide information, present such information to a user, provide for user selection of a media element, and transmit a control signal adapted to cause delivery of the selected media element from a multimedia source to the television system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 4, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2015
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: James D. Bennett, Jeyhan Kararoguz
  • Patent number: 9226000
    Abstract: A content distribution system and or method can be used to align content stored in a remote source with content stored on a plurality of target units and content stored on a head end. A content distribution module can be utilized to distribute content using set logic. The content can include video, audio, graphic, or other files. Content distribution system and method can be used in an in-flight entertainment system that includes a central repository and a number of in-seat entertainment units.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2015
    Assignee: Rockwell Collins, Inc.
    Inventor: Keith R. Knight
  • Patent number: 9215417
    Abstract: A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a media processor having a controller to categorize media content of a subscriber according to one or more image features, and present at least a portion of the categorized media content in a personal television channel procured by the subscriber from a service provider of a media communication system. Other embodiments are disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 5, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 15, 2015
    Assignee: AT&T INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY I, LP
    Inventors: Scott White, James L. Cansler, Charles Scott
  • Patent number: 9215502
    Abstract: A method for determining user behavior related to media includes receiving a media file containing media, partitioning the media into segments, monitoring user behavior with respect to the media and the segments, logging user behavior with respect to the segments, and identifying a baseline level of user interest with respect to the media. The method may further include comparing logged user behavior with respect to a segment of the media with the baseline level of user interest with respect to the media, responsive to determining that the deviation exceeds a threshold, tagging the media segment to indicate that deviation of the logged user behavior with respect to the segment of the media from the baseline level of user interest with respect to the media, and communicating with a user device regarding tagged segments.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 15, 2015
    Assignee: GOOGLE INC.
    Inventors: Doug Sherrets, Sean Liu, Brett Rolston Lider
  • Patent number: 9208516
    Abstract: Methods and systems for providing audio information based on gaze information are described. In an example, a computing device may be configured to receive gaze information indicative of a wearer-view associated with the computing device. Based on the gaze information, the computing device may be configured to determine content displayed in the wearer-view. Further, the computing device may be configured to determine audio information relating to the content and cause an audio stream associated with the audio information to be played at the computing device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2015
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventor: Eric Teller
  • Patent number: 9210464
    Abstract: A digital broadcast receiver device (100) is provided with: a descrambling unit (504) which uses keys for a plurality of services to decrypt encrypted video data for the plurality of services and generates video data for the plurality of services; and a CAS control unit (503) which, for each of the plurality of services, measures the update period of the key information and the key processing time for generating keys from the key information and determines, from among the plurality of services, which services are to be descrambled, that is, to be decrypted by the descrambling unit (504), selecting services such that the sum of the key processing times of all services to be decrypted is less than each one of the update periods of the services to be decrypted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2015
    Assignee: MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORPORATION
    Inventor: Keiichi Shirasuka
  • Patent number: 9204204
    Abstract: A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a media content processor having a controller adapted to transmit to a web server one or more configurations of said media content processor. The web server can record said one or more configurations to perform one among re-provisioning of the media content processor after it experiences a loss of configuration information and provisioning of another media content processor. Other embodiments are disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 14, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 1, 2015
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, LP
    Inventors: Scott White, James L. Cansler
  • Patent number: 9204183
    Abstract: A vehicle-mounted device includes a first authentication unit for performing first authentication processing in which, when a first device is connected to an output unit, the vehicle-mounted device is authenticated as a source device and the first device is authenticated as a sink device; a second authentication unit for performing second authentication processing in which, when a second device is connected to the input unit while a digital content is being output to the first device from the output unit, the vehicle-mounted device is authenticated as the sink device and the second device is authenticated as the source device; a determination unit; and a third authentication unit for performing third authentication processing in which the vehicle-mounted device is authenticated as a repeater device when a condition for providing the digital content from the second device to the first device is determined to be satisfied by the determination unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 1, 2015
    Assignee: ALPINE ELECTRONICS, INC.
    Inventors: Ryo Sukegawa, Kentaro Yamamoto
  • Patent number: 9197927
    Abstract: Commercial break content that is viewed during fast-forwarding through a commercial break is provided by embedding one or more frames of commercial break content at various points in time during a commercial break segment. During fast-forwarding, the video stream for at least some of those points in time are displayed by the recording device to the viewer. Accordingly, multiple occurrences of frames that have been embedded are displayed during the fast-forwarding such that the commercial break content expressed by the frames is conveyed to the viewer during the fast-forwarding period.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 1, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2015
    Inventor: Jeramie Jay Keys
  • Patent number: 9197916
    Abstract: Systems and methods for communicating and enforcing viewing and recording limits for media-on-demand are provided. The system may provide a guidance application that allows users to select on-demand media offerings. The delivery of the on-demand media offerings may be managed based on the length of program, the bandwidth required, the available bandwidth, the time of delivery, pricing and other factors. The system may manage the delivery of on-demand offerings by assigning a number of different types of viewing rights to a user when an on-demand offering is selected. The system may warn a user of insufficient rights and enforce selected viewing rights.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2015
    Assignee: Rovi Guides, Inc.
    Inventors: William L. Thomas, Michael D. Ellis, Joseph P. Baumgartner
  • Patent number: 9191722
    Abstract: A system and method for utilizing data stored in an EPG database for modifying advertisement information. In this way, a service provider and/or an advertiser can transmit a single advertisement to all the television stations regardless of their geographic location and other user specific information, and need not re-transmit the advertisement even if there is a change in the show's program description. When the advertisement is displayed, the correct updated information is retrieved from the EPG database and inserted into the advertisement. In one aspect, the present invention describes a method for modifying an advertisement in an EPG comprising the steps of: storing television schedule information in a first database; storing advertisement information in a second database; incorporating a portion of the television schedule information into a portion of the advertisement information to form a modified advertisement; and displaying the modified advertisement on a screen.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 17, 2015
    Assignee: Rovi Guides, Inc.
    Inventors: Ronald Alexander, Stephen Dias, Kenneth S. Hancock, Elsie Y. Leung, Douglas B. Macrae, Arthur Y. Ng, Shawn P. O'Neil, P. Christopher Shoaff, Jonathon Sutton, Thomas E. Ward, Thomas E. Westberg, Henry C. Yuen
  • Patent number: 9191712
    Abstract: A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a server having a controller to receive a call request from a set top box that is remote from the server where the call request identifies a telephone number that is presented from video content presented by the set top box where the telephone number is detected based on a combination of image pattern recognition and speech recognition and where the telephone number is associated with a marketing entity, establish a voice communication with a first telephone device associated with the set top box, and establish the voice communication with a second telephone device associated with the telephone number and the marketing entity if the first telephone device accepts the voice communication. Other embodiments are disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 17, 2015
    Assignee: AT&T INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY I, LP
    Inventors: Haifeng Bi, Xiaolian Bi
  • Patent number: 9191906
    Abstract: Methods and systems for operating a wireless clock system for multimedia datastream transmission and display. Source clock frames are compared with a reference clock frames and the clock difference are transmitted to a wireless clock receiver which also receives the same reference clock frames. Source clock frames are re-constructed using the reference clock frames, clock difference information and the receiver's local clock system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 17, 2015
    Assignee: Sigma Group, Inc.
    Inventor: Sai C. Manapragada
  • Patent number: 9191613
    Abstract: Various embodiments are described herein for a universal television receiver that is capable of processing a television channel signal to provide phase-adjusted video information for the desired television channel signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 17, 2015
    Inventors: Larry Silver, Vyacheslav Shyshkin, Edmund Tam, Gary Cheng
  • Patent number: 9185462
    Abstract: The present invention provides a method and system for implementation of an interactive television application. Particularly, the invention provides method and system for designing and implementation of synchronized interactive television applications using quick response (QR) code, wherein the quick response (QR) code is used to tag the broadcasted television content. More particularly, the invention provides method and system for decoding the quick response (QR) code at the receiver side to provide a universal resource locator (URL) which hosts augmented services for the content on the interactive television as well as on the secondary communication device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 10, 2015
    Assignee: TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES LIMITED
    Inventors: Diptesh Das, Avik Ghose, Priyanka Sinha, Provat Biswas
  • Patent number: 9179171
    Abstract: A method includes identifying a unified catalog of content. The unified catalog of content includes digital content available to order and physical content available to order. The method includes identifying a digital content identifier for each asset of the digital content available to order from the unified catalog. The method also includes identifying a physical content identifier for each asset of the physical content available to order from the unified catalog. An indication of user activity from a user device is received. The method further includes determining one or more content recommendations based on the unified catalog and the indication of user activity. The one or more content recommendations are provided to the user device. A content selection based on the one or more content recommendations is received. The method also includes routing an order for the selected content based on an identifier associated with the selected content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 3, 2015
    Assignee: VERIZON PATENT AND LICENSING INC.
    Inventor: Dahai Ren
  • Patent number: 9171318
    Abstract: A device includes a communication interface and one or more processors. The communication interface may receive a playlist that lists segments of a content stream in an order the segments are to be recombined, receive advertisement information that describes an advertisement, receive a breakpoint, and send a revised playlist to a remote server. The one or more processors may generate the revised playlist based on the playlist, the advertisement information, and the breakpoint. The revised playlist may include references to the segments and the advertisements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 27, 2015
    Assignee: VERIZON PATENT AND LICENSING INC.
    Inventors: Enrique Ruiz-Velasco, Binny Asarikuniyil
  • Patent number: 9173004
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is a reproducing device including: a receiving section configured to receive IP-distributed content data and caption data; a content decoding section configured to generate a content video signal; an input section configured to input a user setting adopted to select at least one of a display mode and an edge of a character in relation to a caption; a retaining section configured to retain the input user setting; a caption information analyzing section configured to separate the caption data in time series, and generate intermediate caption information; an updating section configured to overwrite and update the intermediate caption information; a caption video signal generating section configured to generate a caption video signal; and a synthesizing section configured to superimpose and synthesize the caption video signal on the content video signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 9, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 27, 2015
    Assignee: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventor: Kouichi Uchimura
  • Patent number: 9166715
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus and systems for sharing information related to broadcast programs are described. One of the methods includes receiving data identifying at least a portion of a first broadcast of a program, receiving data identifying at least one recipient, and communicating information indicative of the identified at least a portion of the program to the at least one recipient. The method may also include identifying a subsequent broadcast of the program to the at least one recipient, and communicating data indicative of the subsequent broadcast of the program to the at least one recipient. Other aspects include systems, apparatus, and devices for sharing information related to broadcast programs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2015
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Paul E. Jacobs, Jason B. Kenagy
  • Patent number: 9166714
    Abstract: A method of and system for presenting enriched video viewing analytics is presented. A method of presenting enriched statistical and analytical information includes receiving a catalog of a plurality of content items. Each content item has associated metacontent characterizing the content item. The method also includes receiving and storing operations of a user for interacting with one or more of the content items. The method further includes determining use and/or viewing statistics for, for example, the content items, metacontent associated with the content items, the numbers and types of devices viewing the content items, subscriber information, household information, and/or viewer demographic information for past and present time periods. The method also, optionally, includes estimating the likelihood of future user interaction operations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2015
    Assignee: Veveo, Inc.
    Inventors: Rakesh Barve, Ravi Krishna, Murali Aravamudan