Abstract: When a media client is receiving a media stream, the media client determines an upcoming time point at which the media client is to perform a content revision involving insertion (e.g., substitution or overlaying) of new content. The media client further determines an advanced time point when the media client should initiate a process of acquiring the new content, setting the advanced time point sufficiently in advance of the upcoming content-revision time point to enable the media client to obtain at least enough of the new content to be able to start the content revision on time. In an example implementation, the media client could determine the advanced time point by predicting how long the content-acquisition process will take, based on consideration of past instances of content acquisition, possibly correlated with operational factors such as content source, processor load, memory load, network speed, and time of day.

Abstract: Media content presentation methods are operable to control content presentation on a touch-sensitive display of a multi-media table that is communicatively coupled to a media device that is operable to access the media content. An exemplary embodiment receives, at the multi-media table from the media device, a media content event; presents the media content event on a portion of the touch-sensitive display of the multi-media table; detects a gesture-based touch movement made by a user on the touch-sensitive display; determines an intended user command based on the detected gesture-based touch movement; generates a media device command when the intended user command is configured to control presentation of the media content event; and communicates the generated media device command from the multi-media table to the media device, wherein the media device controls the media content event in accordance with the received media device command.

Abstract: The current invention relates to a computer-generated method for optimizing placement of advertising content across multiple different devices. The system permits targeting of advertising content to consumers on TV and mobile devices that can be operated from within a multi-channel video programming distributor's environment. The system is able to use hard and soft constraints to come up with a number of possible targets for an advertising campaign and can then provide tools for optimizing those targets. The system can allocate advertising campaigns and plans to various inventory types based on the probability of accurate consumer matching. Consumer matching can be achieved by generation of look-alike models in a consumer's device graph to predict future consumption behavior. The system includes an interface through which a user can adjust various constraints and optimize a distributor's revenue yield from advertising.

Abstract: Provided is an information processing apparatus, including: a broadcast receiver capable of receiving a broadcast signal; and a controller configured to obtain at least information used to control an operation of an application, the application using a broadcast signal received by the broadcast receiver, and an application information table describing information on an expire date, to determine if the expire date of the obtained application information table is expired or not based on information on the expire date, and to invalidate start of the application based on the application information table if the controller determines that the expire date is expired.

Abstract: A method for crowd-souring a screening by a user of an electronic device is disclosed. The method includes displaying, at a display of the electronic device, a plurality of available content selections received from a first server, and receiving, at the electronic device, a content selection of the plurality of available content selections. The method further includes displaying, at the display, a plurality of available cinema theater selections received from a second server in response to receiving the content selection, and receiving, at the electronic device, a cinema theater selection of the plurality of available cinema theater selections. The method also includes displaying, at the display, a plurality of available date and time selections received from the second server in response to receiving the cinema theater selection, and receiving, at the first electronic device, a date and time selection of the plurality of available date and time selections.

Abstract: The present invention is disclosing a safety accessory for vehicles. Safety accessory comprises a housing mounted on rear side of a trailer of vehicle. Housing comprises an image capturing device configured to capture a view towards rear side of trailer. Housing further comprises a set of safety lights and a set of speakers configured to render visual and audio signals respectively, based on captured view, a global positioning system (GPS) tracker configured to record location of vehicle at continuous time stamps. Housing further comprises a transceiver configured to communicate at least captured view, audio signals, and a location of trailer to one or more remote devices via a wireless communication network.

Abstract: A set of media playback and device settings data from each home appliance of a first set of home appliances is stored on a central server and/or sent to a remote control device upon initiation of a suspend command by a user. The stored media and devices states may be used at a later time to control the first set of home appliances, or a user may, after relocating to a second set of home appliances, initiate a resume state command whereupon media playback and device settings data from the central server and/or remote control device controls each home appliance in the second set of home appliances to bring about the same or substantially similar media and device states as in the first set of home appliances.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a method is provided. The method includes using a processor to receive pre-defined rules related to one or more desired characteristics of available digital content. The pre-defined rules indicate user preferences for receiving the available digital content with a personal computing device. The method further includes using a processor to determine current operating conditions corresponding to the pre-defined rules and to identify the one or more desired characteristics of available digital content based on the pre-defined rules and the current operating conditions. The method also includes using a processor to identify a data channel from one or more data channels. The identified data channel is configured to receive the available digital content from a content delivery system based on the pre-defined rules and the current operating conditions.

Abstract: Two-tuner media device systems and methods are operable to pre-tune a second tuner in anticipation of a channel surfing activity. An exemplary embodiment receives a first content stream associated with a currently presented channel at a first tuner, determines an anticipated channel based upon the currently presented channel and a historical channel surfing pattern, receives a second content stream associated with the anticipated channel at a second tuner, detects an initiation of a channel surfing activity, and presents at least a video portion of the second content stream associated with the anticipated channel in response to detecting the initiation of the channel surfing activity.

Abstract: This invention includes a system and method of populating a data-base with known objects. The database can be populated with off-line data augmentation (e. g. a web crawler) or by aligning known objects and metadata clusters with defined content. A viewer can query images from live or offline media. Objects in the viewers query are linked with similar objects or recommended products in the database.

Abstract: An example method includes receiving queries from devices that include respective samples of content from a stream of content rendered by a source, receiving samples of content from a stream of content rendered by an alternative feed of the source, and for each sample of content from the alternative feed of the source, identifying respective matching queries that match to the same content as the sample of content from the alternative feed of the source. The method also includes for each respective matching query, determining a respective relative time difference between a time that the content appears in the sample of content from the alternative feed and a time that the content appears in the respective matching query, accumulating a distribution of the time differences over time, and determining a latency between the source and the alternative feed of the source.

Abstract: A method, system, and computer program product for generating a three-dimensional image from a captured two-dimensional image. The method includes capturing, via a wide-angle camera sensor of an image capturing device, a two-dimensional image of a scene. The method further includes determining depth information of the scene. The method further includes generating, from the depth information, a depth map that depicts a depth of the scene in a third dimension. The method further includes generating a wide-angle three-dimensional image by merging the depth map and the two-dimensional image.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for presenting a media program concurrently with viewer questions and live commentary about the media program is disclosed. As the media program is broadcasted, messages from the first group regarding the media program are accepted. The accepted messages are filtered to identify suitable messages of interest and to present only those messages to a second group for comment. The identified messages from the first group and comments from the second group are added to the broadcast media program concurrently or in real time.

Abstract: Techniques and systems are provided for processing media data. For example, methods, apparatuses, and computer-readable media are described that can include receiving a multicast stream of media content, and dividing the multicast stream of media content into data fragments. In some cases, the multicast stream of media content can be transcoded from a first media format to a second media format. The data fragments can be transmitted, over one or more Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) channels using a web socket protocol, to a browser of the computing device for playback.

Abstract: A method for content insertion during video playback, including: receiving, by a computing terminal including at least one processor, a setting parameter and insertion content, the setting parameter comprising an insertion time period and an insertion region of the insertion content in a video; and importing, by the computing terminal, the insertion content to the insertion region within the insertion time period.

Abstract: To implement advertisement distribution suitable for a user by associating each device even when a user uses a plurality of devices, the information processing apparatus includes: an acquiring unit configured to acquire first identification information at least including an Internet Protocol (IP) address and information regarding a television viewing log, and second identification information at least including an IP address and an advertisement ID (Identifier); and a control unit configured to perform control to identify a combination of the viewing log and the advertisement ID corresponding to the same IP address on the basis of the first identification information and the second identification information.

Abstract: A system includes a computing device programmed to generate an aggregated media item that includes individual media items from a plurality of inputs. The aggregated media item combines one or more of the individual media items for a common display. The computing device is further programmed to send the aggregated media item to a media device and receive commands from the media device. The commands identify data from the aggregated media content item to be included in a media output item. The computing device is further programmed to generate the media output item based on the aggregated media content item and the commands.

Abstract: Embodiments disclosed herein facilitate virtual reality (VR) video playback using handheld controller gestures. More specifically, jog and shuttle gestures are associated with controller rotations that can be tracked once a triggering event is detected (e.g., pressing and holding a controller play button). A corresponding jog or shuttle command can be initialized when the VR controller rotates more than a defined angular threshold in an associated rotational direction (e.g., yaw, pitch, roll). For example, the jog gesture can be associated with changes in controller yaw, and the shuttle gesture can be associated with changes in controller pitch. Subsequent controller rotations can be mapped to playback adjustments for a VR video, such as a frame adjustment for a jog gesture and a playback speed adjustment for the shuttle gesture. Corresponding visualizations of available gestures and progress bars can be generated or otherwise triggered to facilitate efficient VR video playback control.

Abstract: Methods, systems, apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for generating and routing modified multimedia data frames. In one aspect, the method includes maintaining, by a first network node, channel membership data that includes data indicating, for each channel of a plurality of channels, leaf node membership for a plurality of channels, and for each channel of the plurality of channels: determining, based on the channel membership data, the leaf nodes that are subscribed to access the channel, generating, based on the leaf nodes that are subscribed to access the channel, a modified multimedia data frame for the channel that includes (i) a hub node identifier, (ii) data that describes a destination address of each leaf node that is subscribed to access the channel and (iii) a payload, and transmitting, by the first network node, the generated modified multimedia data frame to a second network node.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and media for presenting news items corresponding to media content are provided. In some implementations, the method comprises: determining a channel that is providing a television program; determining whether news content corresponding to the channel exists, wherein the determining further comprises: obtaining news documents, determining keywords associated with the news documents based on frequency, receiving captioning content corresponding to the channel, determining whether at least one of the keywords associated with the news documents is included in the captioning content, selecting a news document in response to determining that keywords associated with the news document are included in the captioning content, and obtaining one or more news items that correspond to the news document; and causing the one or more news items relating to the television program to be presented.