By Passively Monitoring Receiver Operation Patents (Class 725/14)
  • Patent number: 11269890
    Abstract: There is provided a system including a memory and a processor configured to stream a media content for playback to a first media device for viewing by a first user, receive, while streaming the media content, an input from the first media device indicating an insertion point in the media content selected by the first user for inserting a contextual message provided by the first user, receive the contextual message from the first media device, stream the media content for playback to a second media device for viewing by a second user, and deliver the contextual message to the second media device for viewing by the second user when streaming the media content to the second media device reaches the insertion point.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 18, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2022
    Assignee: Disney Enterprises, Inc.
    Inventors: Josiah Eatedali, Mark Arana
  • Patent number: 11245961
    Abstract: Methods and supporting systems collect data associated with interactive videos user engagement and dynamically adapt an interactive video application and/or interactive video content and detect anomalous behaviors based on the data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 18, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 8, 2022
    Assignee: JBF Interlude 2009 LTD
    Inventors: Jonathan Bloch, Tal Zubalsky, Yuval Hofshy, Barak Feldman
  • Patent number: 11228804
    Abstract: An apparatus for providing community driven content includes at least one sensor for recording sensor data, a network interface, a memory, and a processor connected to the sensor, the network interface, and the memory. The processor is configured to record usage history for engagement with the apparatus by a first user over a period of time and receive the sensor data from the at least one sensor for actions by the first user over the period of time. The processor determines user preferences for the first user based on the usage history and the sensor data, and determines whether a second user is available for interaction with the first user. The processor then outputs the suggested action, at a predetermined time, to at least one connected display device or audio device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 18, 2022
    Assignee: SONY INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT LLC
    Inventor: Warren Benedetto
  • Patent number: 11223926
    Abstract: Systems and techniques are disclosed for statistically associating mobile devices and non-mobile devices with geographic areas. One of the methods includes for each selected mobile device of a plurality of mobile devices, receiving latitude-longitude pairs for the selected mobile device, the latitude-longitude pairs corresponding to a location of the selected mobile device during a time period. The plurality of latitude-longitude pairs are organized into clusters, with the clusters corresponding to geographic regions visited by the selected mobile device during the time period. A score is calculated for each cluster, the score representing a likelihood that a user of the selected mobile device resides in a household within the cluster. A location of the user's household is identified to be within one of the geographic areas corresponding to the cluster having the highest score. The mobile device is associated with the geographic area having the highest score.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 11, 2022
    Assignee: 4INFO, INC.
    Inventors: Timothy W. Jenkins, Arash Saffarnia, Prashant Chaudhary, Gautham Anil
  • Patent number: 11218555
    Abstract: An example apparatus includes a data parser to extract an identifier and a cookie identifier from a message received at a first server of a first Internet domain from a client device, the cookie identifier associated with the first Internet domain, the identifier identifying at least one of the client device or a user of the client device to a second server in a second Internet domain outside the first Internet domain, a memory to store the identifier in association with the cookie identifier in an identifier-to-cookie map, a processor to associate demographic information corresponding to the identifier with an impression logged at the first server in association with the cookie identifier, the associating based on accessing the memory to identify that the cookie map stores the identifier with the cookie identifier, and a report generator to send the demographic information to the second server.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2022
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventors: Ronan Heffernan, Steven John Splaine, Mark Kalus, Ari Paparo, Kevin Geraghty
  • Patent number: 11218781
    Abstract: Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, receiving a bid request that indicates a television channel associated with a video stream requested by an end user device and that includes ad space information associated with an ad space of the video stream, where the video stream being requested is an Over-The-Top (OTT) streaming service that provides scheduled content. Context information can be accessed according to the television channel and according to a time associated with the ad space, where the context information describes the video stream and is generated by a context server. An auction is performed to obtain bid responses, where the auction provides bidders with context data that is representative of at least a portion of the context information, and where selection of the candidate bid responses enables a determination of a creative for the ad space of the video stream. Other embodiments are disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2022
    Assignee: Xandr Inc.
    Inventors: Samuel Marshall, Sebastien Caubet
  • Patent number: 11206456
    Abstract: Systems and methods are described to address deficiencies in conventional biometric devices by dynamically enabling and disabling a biometric device based on the content the user is viewing. The media guidance application may utilize a device enablement rule, which has content criteria. If the content criteria is satisfied, the media guidance application may enable or disable a biometric device in accordance with the device enablement rule.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 21, 2021
    Assignee: ROVI GUIDES, INC.
    Inventors: Angel Merced, Krista Ramirez, Todd Dietz
  • Patent number: 11190839
    Abstract: A communication quality adjusting system includes: an environment information acquiring unit that acquires environment information representing an environment, in which a receiver is placed, and having an effect on a communication state of the receiver; a criterion determining unit that determines a criterion associating a communication state of the receiver and a reception form used when the receiver receives content in accordance with the environment information acquired by the environment information acquiring unit; and a distribution unit that performs control such that the receiver receives video content in the reception form corresponding to the communication state of the receiver on the basis of the criterion determined by the criterion determining unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2021
    Assignees: NTT DOCOMO, INC., INISOFT Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Tatsuro Niina, Eiko Oonuki, Ema Tooriyama, Yunsang Oh, TaeHyun Kim, Joonsang Lee
  • Patent number: 11190842
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are system, method, and computer program product embodiments for a USB-based media device upgrading system. An embodiment operates by receiving a fetch command from a first instance of an application executing locally on a host device physically connected to media device. The fetch command is provided to a media device executing a second instance of the application. At the host device, metadata corresponding to the file that was retrieved by the media device is received. A rendering command is determined from the first instance of the application corresponding to displaying the interface including the fetched file as indicated by the metadata. The rendering command is provided to the media device that is configured to display the interface of the application responsive to executing the rendering command.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2021
    Assignee: ROKU, INC.
    Inventors: Prateek Tandon, Cameron Esfahani, David Stern, Robin Edgell
  • Patent number: 11172210
    Abstract: A method of processing image data at a server is provided. Image data from one or more images is received at a preprocessing network comprising a set of inter-connected learnable weights, the weights being dependent upon one or more display settings of a display device. The image data is processed using the preprocessing network to generate a plurality of output pixel representations corresponding to different display settings of the display device. The plurality of output pixel representations are encoded to generate a plurality of encoded bitstreams. At least one selected bitstream is transmitted from the server to the display device, wherein the at least one encoded bitstream is selected on the basis of the one or more display settings of the display device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 9, 2021
    Assignee: ISIZE LIMITED
    Inventors: Ioannis Andreopoulos, Srdjan Grce
  • Patent number: 11170270
    Abstract: Techniques for content generation are provided. A plurality of discriminative terms is determined based at least in part on a first plurality of documents that are related to a first concept, and a plurality of positive exemplars and a plurality of negative exemplars are identified using the plurality of discriminative terms. A first machine learning (ML) model is trained to classify images into concepts, based on the plurality of positive exemplars and the plurality of negative exemplars. A second concept related to the first concept is then determined, based on the first ML model. A second ML model is trained to generate images based on the second concept, and a first image is generated using the second ML model. The first image is then refined using a style transfer ML model that was trained using a plurality of style images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 9, 2021
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Michele Merler, Mauro Martino, Cicero Nogueira Dos Santos, Alfio Massimiliano Gliozzo, John R. Smith
  • Patent number: 11140449
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems, and articles of manufacture are disclosed to generate synthetic respondent level data. An example apparatus includes: a comparator to compare a target rating to a computed rating to determine a comparison result, the computed rating determined based on a seed panel, the seed panel including monitored panelists associated with return path data; a seed panelist data adjuster to adjust the seed panel based on the comparison result to reduce an error between the target rating and the computed rating; and a household data adjuster to add tuning without viewing data to households of the adjusted seed panel, the tuning without viewing data for a first one of the households to represent monitored data corresponding to a media presentation device of the first one of the households being on while a media output device in communication with the media presentation device is off.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 5, 2021
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventors: Jonathan Sullivan, Michael D. Morgan, Balachander Shankar, Edward Murphy, Michael Sheppard, Frank Downing
  • Patent number: 11115687
    Abstract: Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, communicating with a server via a first type of communication path to obtain permission to provide media content, that is stored locally at a device, to another device; and responsive to obtaining the permission from the server, providing at least some of the media content to the another device, the media content being provided to the another device via a second type of communication path that is different from the first type of communication path. Other embodiments are disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 7, 2021
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Atif Aslam, Jeffrey Mikan
  • Patent number: 11108952
    Abstract: The disclosure provide methods and content consumption devices that enable a scene, for example a 360° scene, that is larger (i.e. has more pixels in at least one dimension) than a display format of the content consumption device to be displayed. Constituent scene views are received individually by the content consumption device, for example as broadcasts, and are combined, for example stitched together, at the content consumption device to output a part of the scene that fits in the display format. The part of the scene (and hence the required constituent streams) to be displayed are determined by a signal, for example a navigational input from a user, enabling the user to navigate in the scene.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 31, 2021
    Assignee: NAGRAVISION S.A.
    Inventor: Bertrand Wendling
  • Patent number: 11100161
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer-readable media are disclosed for generating and managing audio content, such as blogcast episodes. In accordance with one implementation, a computer-implemented method is provided that includes operations performed by at least one processor including retrieving a plurality of stored snippets of media content related to a blogcast episode, the plurality of stored snippets of media content including one or more snippets of user-contributed content. The method also includes receiving snippet metric data associated with one or more snippets of user-contributed content. In addition, the method includes selecting two or more snippets of the plurality of stored snippets of media content including at least one snippet of user-contributed content and generating a blogcast episode comprising the two or more snippets of the plurality of snippets of media content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 10, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 24, 2021
    Assignee: Verizon Media Inc.
    Inventors: Brandon T. Diamond, Alexandra Berke, Ilana Sufrin, Robb Monn
  • Patent number: 11102620
    Abstract: A computer system for activating an event-based interactive device can be configured to receive, through a data input API, a unique device identifier. The unique device identifier may be associated with the event-based interactive device. Additionally, the system can be configured to receive user information associated with a user of the event-based interactive device. The system can classify event-based interactive devices into groups based upon the user information. Further, the system can be configured to transmit a command to at least one group of event-based interactive devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 24, 2021
    Assignee: HURDL INC.
    Inventor: Elizabeth McHugh
  • Patent number: 11102531
    Abstract: Apparatus, systems, articles of manufacture, and methods are disclosed for correcting systematic tuning defects. An example apparatus includes a defect analyzer to identify a suspect time window in tuning volume data of return path data reported by set top boxes. The example apparatus further includes a return path data transformer to identify a first return path data entry indicating a first set top box reported a first transition to an off state at a first time during the suspect time window and to modify the first return path data entry to (1) eliminate the first transition to the off state at the first time and (2) assign the first return path data entry a first duration to remain in an on state after the first time, where the first duration is determined based on monitoring data reported from media device meters monitoring media presentation devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 24, 2021
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventors: Denis Voytenko, Paul Chimenti, Joshua Zinzer, David J. Kurzynski
  • Patent number: 11089367
    Abstract: A method (100) of controlling playout of advertisement content during live video streaming at an end-user terminal comprising steps of: receiving (110) advertisement content from an advertisement server; receiving (112) live streamed video content from a content delivery network and playing out the video content; obtaining (114) at least one of image features and audio features of the video content during playout; calculating (116) a content importance rating of video content to be played out during a prediction time window based on said features; and postponing (118) playout of advertisement content scheduled to be played out during the prediction time window if the calculated content importance rating for the prediction time window is above a threshold value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 10, 2021
    Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ)
    Inventor: Selim Ickin
  • Patent number: 11070780
    Abstract: Among other things, videos and commercials are downloaded to a mobile device for storage on the mobile device and later playout on the mobile device. The downloading includes downloading of metadata associated with the commercials and based on which the mobile device can select commercials for insertion into videos being played back to the user of the mobile device. The commercials to be downloaded are selected based on one or a combination of any two or more of the location of the user, the type of mobile device, and personally-identifiable information about a user of the mobile device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 20, 2021
    Assignee: Penthera Partners, Inc.
    Inventors: Adam L. Berger, Joshua Pressnell, Richard David Jackson
  • Patent number: 11050811
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for streaming content, and specifically browser content, across devices in a mesh network. This occurs by receiving, at a first mobile device in mesh network, instructions from a second mobile device in the mesh network, the instructions directing the first mobile device to load content from a website, where the instructions are sent based on the second mobile device loading the content from the website. The first mobile device receives the content from the website, loads/processes the website content, and displays the content. When the first mobile device receives a patch directed to modifications to a Document Object Model (DOM) in the content which occurred on the second mobile device, the first mobile device modifies the content on the first mobile device based on the patch.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 29, 2021
    Assignee: PRESSTO, INC.
    Inventors: Adam Mashaal, Clarence Huang
  • Patent number: 11039207
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed for a window-metric rule for return path data (RPD). In some examples, a media monitor includes a count calculator to determine a first count of a number of devices in a first household that reported RPD for a first day. The example media monitor also includes an RPD selector to compare the first count to a current window-metric, the current window-metric associated with a window of time for the first household, the window of time associated with a content provider and having N number of days. The example RPD selector the RPD from the first household for the first day when the first count does not satisfy the current window-metric. The example media monitor also includes a report generator to generate a media exposure report using the RPD from the first household for the first day when the first count satisfies the current window-metric, independent of if the first household has heartbeat data available.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 15, 2021
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventors: Paul Chimenti, David J. Kurzynski, Denis Voytenko, Joshua Zinzer
  • Patent number: 11030646
    Abstract: A computer program product is provided for predicting ad spend for a specific media program aired or streamed on a specific network at a specific date and time using a database of media program data that includes known ad spend for a subset of media programs, and viewership data for each of the media programs, including total viewership and viewership ratings. Each of the media programs is identified by its respective network, and date and time of airing or streaming. A random forest model is trained to predict ad spend using variables that are identified as being correlated with ad spend. The trained random forest model is then used to predict ad spend for a specific media program that is aired or streamed on a specific network at a specific date and time, and which has an unknown ad spend.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 8, 2021
    Assignee: ALPHONSO INC.
    Inventors: Sartaki Sinha Roy, Susmita Ghose
  • Patent number: 11005911
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention relate to systems and protocols for a media management application to be used by a supervisor to monitor, manage, and control what a subject is watching, listening to, or interacting with on a media delivery device. A media interaction application executes on a media delivery device and is configured to collect media interaction data based on tracked user interactions with media content on the media delivery device. A remote media management application executes on a portable electronic device and is configured to monitor the media interaction data and further configured to issue media management instructions to the media interaction application. A communications broker executes on a first network server and is configured to provide secure communications between the media interaction application and the remote media management application.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 11, 2021
    Assignee: PUBLIC BROADCASTING SERVICE
    Inventors: Chris Bishop, Sam Deng, Sara DeWitt, Karin Jue, Miguel Montanez, Jeremy Roberts
  • Patent number: 11005891
    Abstract: Embodiments described include systems and methods for generating and displaying live objects for network applications. Live objects may be created from applications (apps) that are served from and/or hosted on one or more servers, such as web applications and software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications, and shared with one or more recipients. The objects may be loaded or accessed as if they were normal network applications, and the recipients may see the latest or “live” version of content as shown to the live object creator, including user- or device-specific data of the creator, under full access policy control, without requiring access to credentials of the live object creator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 11, 2021
    Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc.
    Inventor: Abhishek Chauhan
  • Patent number: 10997512
    Abstract: Systems and methods for inferring user traits based on indirect questions. Indirect questions may be generated based on one or more triggers. The answers to the indirect questions provide cues to a system as to whether a user has one or more attributes associated with a trait. This information may be used to personalize a computing device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 4, 2021
    Inventors: Margaret Novotny, Jacob Miller, William Wagner, Yelisaveta Pesenson, Aryn Shelander, Sheena Stevens, Claudio Russo, Thore Graepel, Andrew D. Gordon, Christopher E. Miles
  • Patent number: 10984477
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method incorporating machine learning (e.g., a support vector machine) for predicting worldwide box office performance of a film prior to its release date, wherein the predicted performance determination is based upon a total audience size relative to a corresponding movie production budget. Total audience size estimate relative to movie production budget is based upon objective likely patterns of competitive dynamics on a particular date, without reliance upon potentially-misleading subjective evaluations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2021
    Inventor: Michael C. Winfield
  • Patent number: 10978128
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and devices for operating a ferroelectric memory cell or cells are described. A cell may be written with a value that is intended to convey a different logic state than may typically be associated with the value. For example, a cell that has stored a charge associated with one logic state for a time period may be re-written to store a different charge, and the re-written cell may still be read to have the originally stored logic state. An indicator may be stored in a latch to indicate whether the logic state currently stored by the cell is the intended logic state of the cell. A cell may, for example, be re-written with an opposite value periodically, based on the occurrence of an event, or based on a determination that the cell has stored one value (or charge) for a certain time period.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 13, 2021
    Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Alessandro Calderoni, Durai Vishak Nirmal Ramaswamy, Kirk Prall, Ferdinando Bedeschi
  • Patent number: 10951933
    Abstract: One embodiment provides a method, including: receiving, at an information handling device, an indication to resume a media stream; determining, using a processor, a stoppage period associated with the media stream; identifying, based at least in part on the stoppage period, a resume point in the media stream; and resuming, based on the identifying, the media stream from the resume point. Other aspects are described and claimed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 2, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 16, 2021
    Assignee: Lenovo (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.
    Inventors: Mark Patrick Delaney, Nathan J. Peterson, Russell Speight VanBlon, John Carl Mese, Arnold S. Weksler
  • Patent number: 10949873
    Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed for enabling incremental reach for an advertising campaign, across multiple screens/channels. In some embodiments, a base TV/media plan is uploaded, and targeted exposed viewers are monitored. Unexposed target viewers are identified. Additional media channels that unexposed viewers use are found. Unexposed viewers are matched with pricing and media avails from one or more media directories. Media avails are then analyzed along with incremental on-target impressions. Targeted avails for unexposed viewers are then determined, based on lowest incremental cost and largest incremental reach are added to a current cross-screen plan. An analysis to find new unexposed viewers is then re-run to determine the next-most cost effective avails. The above steps are repeated or looped until a selected advertisement budget has been allocated. User interface embodiments for these methods are also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 16, 2021
    Assignee: ADOBE INC.
    Inventors: Antoine Barbier, Greg Collison, Albert Lim, Nikhil Belsare, Alexander R. Hood
  • Patent number: 10929898
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method, computer program product, and computing system for receiving a social platform inquiry from a client; analyzing a current responsibility score associated with the client; and recommending one or more social platforms based, at least in part, upon the current responsibility score associated with the client.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 11, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 23, 2021
    Assignee: Givewith LLC
    Inventor: Paul A. Polizzotto
  • Patent number: 10929871
    Abstract: A system and method to analyze the effectiveness of advertisements of presented content. The advertisements include advertisements for which the behavior desired by the advertiser is to drive a viewer to perform a certain action, such as to watch particular television program content. The system determines if an advertisement is effective by correlating exposure to presented advertisements with the subsequent presentation of content that was promoted in the advertisements. To perform the analysis, the system collects tune data from set top boxes, digital video recorders (DVRs), or other component capable of storing tune data related to the content presented on an associated display component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 11, 2013
    Date of Patent: February 23, 2021
    Assignee: Rentrak Corporation
    Inventors: Michael Vinson, Amir Yazdani
  • Patent number: 10929391
    Abstract: A system, computer-readable storage medium storing at least one program, and a computer-implemented method for identifying availability of media items is presented. A search query is received from a client device of a user. Instances of media items that satisfy the search query and that are available on content sources accessible to the client device of the user are identified. Aggregate information for the media items is determined based on the instances of the media items. The aggregate information for the media items is transmitted to the client device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 23, 2021
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: Gregory Allan Funk, Yongsung Kim, Richard Bragg
  • Patent number: 10911828
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture to impute media consumption behavior are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a localized event engine implemented with hardware or at least one processor to, in response to a difference satisfying a first threshold, determine that a first subset of tuning data exhibits local bias, the difference to be between (i) a first percentage of exposure minutes determined from the tuning data, and (ii) a second percentage of exposure minutes determined from viewing data, determine that a second subset of the viewing data represents heavy viewing in response to (1) a first number of households satisfying a second threshold and (2) a third percentage of exposure minutes satisfying a third threshold, and a localized event selector implemented with hardware or the at least one processor to impute the second subset of the viewing data for the first subset of the tuning data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2021
    Assignee: THE NIELSEN COMPANY (US), LLC
    Inventors: David J. Kurzynski, Balachander Shankar, Richard Peters, Jonathan Sullivan, Molly Poppie
  • Patent number: 10902048
    Abstract: Provided are devices, computer-program products, and methods for improved management of system resources in a matching system. For example, examples can increase the efficiency of system resource utilization by managing the duration that data related to video segments are retained based on data that takes into account an identified popularity of a video segment. The identified popularity can be determined by algorithms that take into account numbers of viewers who watched the video segment, ratings of the video segment, metrics derived from remote sources, or any other factor that can indicate likelihood that the video segment will be viewed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 26, 2021
    Assignee: INSCAPE DATA, INC.
    Inventors: Zeev Neumeier, Michael Collette
  • Patent number: 10902075
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a computer-implemented method for serving content. A non-limiting example of the computer-implemented method includes identifying, using a processor, a first user and a second user among a group of users viewing a display. Next, the method includes examining, using the processor, known information about the first user and the second user. The method includes computing a content profile, using the processor, based on the known information about the first user and the second user. The method further includes selecting relevant content, using the processor, to display to the group based on the content profile and presenting, using the processor, the relevant content to the group of users.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 26, 2021
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kyle Gilbertson, Igar Shepelev, Blair Wyman, Jim Coon, Aaron C Evans, Cary Huettner
  • Patent number: 10897651
    Abstract: Aspects described herein describe providing content recommendations such as, for example, recommendations for video content. A content recommendation may be based on when content was previously consumed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 19, 2021
    Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications, LLC
    Inventor: Hans Sayyadi
  • Patent number: 10893318
    Abstract: A vehicle chatroom server includes at least one network interface configured to communicate with passenger terminals, at least one processor connected to communicate through the at least one network interface, and at least one memory storing code that is executed by the at least one processor to perform operations. The operations include obtaining passenger information and characterizing potential passenger discussion interests based on the passenger information. The operations identify a grouping of passengers who satisfy a common interest rule based on the potential passenger discussion interests. The operations then communicate with passengers in the grouping through a computerized chatbot module providing natural-language text and/or computer synthesized speech that is provided to the passengers in the grouping to invite to a discussion-focused chatroom hosted by the chatroom server. Related methods and computer program products are disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 21, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 12, 2021
    Assignee: Thales Avionics, Inc.
    Inventors: Jean-Yves Couleaud, Jerry Thomas
  • Patent number: 10880200
    Abstract: Disclosed are examples of systems, apparatus, devices, computer program products, and methods implementing aspects of a decentralized content fabric for publishing digital content to an overlay network. In some implementations, fabric nodes of the overlay network are implemented in an application layer differentiated from an internet protocol layer. A first fabric node is configured to: obtain a client request to publish a content object part to the overlay network; determine a target partition of the overlay network in which to store the content object part; send a network request to provide the content object part to a second one or more fabric nodes; obtain one or more messages indicating that the second one or more fabric nodes stores the target partition; and publish the content object part to the second one or more fabric nodes for storage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 3, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2020
    Assignee: Eluvio, Inc.
    Inventors: Michelle Munson, Serban Simu
  • Patent number: 10873780
    Abstract: A system and method for effectuating fast channel change in an adaptive streaming environment. A plurality of adjacent channels may be predicted relative to a current streaming channel engaged by a client device. Upon prioritizing the adjacent channels, the client device may be configured to pre-fetch metadata and initialization information for a subset of the prioritized adjacent channels based on bandwidth conditions, video player buffer status, etc. When a channel is changed, the client device is operative to use the pre-fetched data to quickly obtain encoded media content at a select bitrate for rendering.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 22, 2020
    Assignee: ERICSSON AB
    Inventors: Chris Phillips, Charles Hammett Dasher, Mark Robertson, Robert Hammond Forsman, Jennifer Ann Reynolds
  • Patent number: 10862771
    Abstract: An optimization platform system includes a network interface configured to communicate with a plurality user devices and a plurality of servers in a network; a processor communicatively coupled to the network interface; and memory storing instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to obtain network measurements including Quality of Service (QoS) measurements and one of measured Quality of Experience (QoE) measurements and inferred QoE measurements from the QoS measurements for one or more streams in the network, wherein each of the one or more streams has a type selected from a group consisting of a video stream, a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) call, a gaming stream, and an Augmented Reality (AR)/Virtual Reality (VR) stream, and wherein the QoE measurements and the inferred QoE measurements of each of the one or more streams is based on the type of the respective stream, analyze the QoE measurements to determine poor QoE in the network, determine remedial actions in the network to repair the
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2020
    Assignee: Ciena Corporation
    Inventors: Robert Kevin Tomkins, Todd Morris, Romualdas Armolavicius
  • Patent number: 10860175
    Abstract: A method includes determining, by an application executing at a computing device, based at least in part on a respective amount of usage of each settings category from a plurality of settings categories, a respective relevancy score for the corresponding settings category. The method also includes determining, by the application, based on the respective relevancy scores, a respective display position for each settings category within an application settings graphical user interface. The method further includes, responsive to determining a display position of each settings category, generating, by the application, based on the display positions of each settings category, the application settings graphical user interface including a respective representation of at least one settings category in the plurality of settings categories at the corresponding display position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2020
    Assignee: GOOGLE LLC
    Inventors: Malhar Gupta, Karen Vertierra, Roee Livne, Neel Rao, Courtney Caldwell
  • Patent number: 10855836
    Abstract: A content filter setting method includes enabling a user to choose a setting of a filter for a particular application in a user interface of a user device. The setting of the filter is received from the user via the user interface, and a model is applied to determine a plurality of default settings of a plurality of filters of the particular application based on the setting of the filter and the identifying information of the user. The plurality of default settings is displayed in the user interface, and modified settings of the default settings are received via the user interface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 1, 2020
    Assignee: Avast Software s.r.o.
    Inventors: Jinshan Liu, Richard Kmieciak, Juyong Do, Rajarshi Gupta
  • Patent number: 10853828
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are methods and systems for providing multivariate time series clustering for customer segmentation. The system comprises of a model management unit that devices a customer segmentation procedure based on temporal variations of user preferences, using MTS clustering, and utilize the discovered clusters to learn association rules specific to each clusters, and improves campaign targeting. The order of the VAR model is fixed based on the nature of the data and length of the time series.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 1, 2020
    Assignee: FLYTXT B.V
    Inventors: Jobin Wilson, Prateek Kapadia, Vinod Vasudevan, Santanu Chaudhury, Brejesh Lall
  • Patent number: 10838691
    Abstract: Techniques for switching between different playback modes are described herein. The disclosed techniques include detecting a state of playing a content item using Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH); determining whether there is a need of switching between a first playback mode and a second playback mode based on the detected state of playing the content item; determining a segment number of a segment among the plurality of segments currently being played based on a timestamp of the segment in response to determining that there is the need of switching between the first playback mode and the second playback mode; obtaining content of the content item based at least in part on the segment number and a playback mode to be switched to; and playing the content item in a switched playback mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 17, 2020
    Assignee: Shanghai Bilibili Technology Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Zhou Geng, Yiyun Gu
  • Patent number: 10805369
    Abstract: A system and method for early media buffering using prediction of user behavior. In accordance with an embodiment, a user interface displays a plurality of media options from which particular options can be selected. A click determination logic is configured so that a first event associated with a particular option, such as a click event, is passed singly to a media application without trapping for the possibility of a double-click. The media application interprets the first event as a likely selection by a user of the particular option, and uses information associated with the likely selection to begin buffering a corresponding media content. If a second event associated with the particular option is received within a subsequent time interval, then the second event is treated, like a double-click, as confirmation of the user's selection, and the corresponding media content is streamed from its media content buffer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 18, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 13, 2020
    Assignee: SPOTIFY AB
    Inventor: Mikael Olenfalk
  • Patent number: 10803111
    Abstract: An online system is configured to recommend a live video to a target user by presenting the live video in the target user's newsfeed or other location. The online system receives a plurality of live videos for streaming to its users. To recommend a live video, the online system dynamically identifies a topic of each of the plurality of live videos during the streaming. The online system further selects a group of candidate live videos, each of which has an identified topic matching an interest of the target user. The online system ranks the candidates based on a probability that the target user would positively interact with each candidate live video if the candidate live video is presented to the target user. Then the online system provides a candidate above a threshold level in the ranking for display to the target user, e.g., in a newsfeed of the target user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 13, 2020
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Uzma Hussain Barlaskar, Aditya Palnitkar
  • Patent number: 10776414
    Abstract: According to some aspects, disclosed methods and systems may include determining, by a device and based on historical data associated with a first user, a first user profile comprising one or more content recommendation periods each associated with a time period and a content classification, and in response to detecting a user interaction, selecting a first content recommendation period of the one or more content recommendation periods. The methods and system may also include determining one or more content candidates corresponding to the content classification from a plurality of content assets based on an amount of remaining time in the time period associated with the first content recommendation period and a correlation between the historical data associated with the first user and one or more contextual features associated with the plurality of content assets, and transmitting, to a client device, an indication of the one or more content candidates.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 20, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2020
    Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications, LLC
    Inventors: George Thomas Des Jardins, Erik M. Schwartz
  • Patent number: 10750354
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture to perform audio sensor selection in an audience metering device are disclosed. An example apparatus includes at least two audio sensors to receive audio at an audience metering device and a selection tester to identify a plurality of audio sensor configurations supported by the audience metering device, the plurality of audio sensor configurations identifying respective gain values to be applied to the plurality of audio sensors. The selection tester is further to select one of the first one of the audio sensor configurations or the second one of the audio sensor configurations based on a comparison of a first quality metric and a second quality metric. The example apparatus further includes a media identifier to identify audio received at the audience metering device using the selected one of the audio sensor configurations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 18, 2020
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventors: Christen V. Nielsen, James J. Vitt, Timothy Scott Cooper, Douglas Brent Turnbow
  • Patent number: 10750237
    Abstract: Systems and methods are operable to control operation of a portable media device based on machine readable information of a graphical artifact shown on a display concurrently with presentation of a video portion of a media content event. A portable media device, using a portable media device provisioned with an image capture device, captures at least one image that includes the display that is presenting the graphical artifact and the video portion of the media content event, identifies the graphical artifact in the captured at least one image, determines the machine readable data based on the identified graphical artifact, and operates the portable media device to perform at least one operation based on the determined machine readable data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 18, 2020
    Assignee: Dish Technologies L.L.C.
    Inventors: Swapnil Tilaye, Carlos Garcia Navarro
  • Patent number: 10728712
    Abstract: A method for providing a multimedia broadcast/multicast service (MBMS) to a terminal related to a vehicle by a broadcast and multicast service center (BM-SC) is provided. The method includes identifying at least one candidate service area that the terminal is predicted to pass through, and transmitting, to an MBMS-gateway (MBMS-GW), a request for configuring the radio bearer of the at least one candidate service area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 28, 2020
    Assignees: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Research & Business Foundation Sungkyunkwan University
    Inventors: Ho-Yeon Lee, Min-Young Chung, Hyung-Jin Choi, Sung-Hoon Kim, Jun-Suk Kim, Young-Kyo Baek, Jung-Je Son, Seung-Ri Jin, Han-Jun Kim, Kyung-Hoon Lee